Stand Strong in the Word
Stand Strong in the Word is a weekly bible study that teaches through the Bible verse by verse in chronological order. For more information, visit www.standstrongministries.org.
Stand Strong in the Word
#317 “The Applause of Evil” (Romans 1:28-32)
Have we reached a point where we actually cheer for what’s evil? Romans 1:28-32 is a serious warning about what happens when truth is pushed aside. Today, we’re digging into this hard but necessary passage—and how we can stay grounded in a world that’s losing its way.
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Have we reached a point where we actually cheer for what's evil? Romans, chapter 1, verses 28 through 32, is a serious warning about what happens when truth is pushed aside. Today we're digging into this hard but necessary passage and how we can stand grounded in a world that's losing its way. Turn to Romans, chapter 1, and let's stand strong in the word together. Well, hey there, my friends, welcome to Stand Strong in the Word podcast. Jason Jimenez, with you as always.
Speaker 1:Blessed to be with you guys as we continue our study in the book of Romans, particularly chapter one, and we're gonna be finishing this chapter and I'm sure many of you guys are cheering and you're excited that we are coming to an end. I know, definitely. I was even actually a few weeks ago looking over some of my notes and even this particular passage in verses 28 through 32, I was like let's break these things apart and just look at what a debased mind looks like and then just work our way through that. But I figured let's close this chapter out. It will dive into chapter two, but I appreciate many of you guys who are listening. In fact, I was just traveling recently and I had several just gracious, very sweet, kindhearted people. They listened to this podcast as a family a pastor who says I want to teach now in Romans listening to the podcast so that's such an amazing thing, and what it reminds me, guys, is just that we're studying God's word together and it's so, so neat. And so, as we now kind of end this chapter, I do want us to kind of go back a ways, because there's particular things that Paul brings up again before he transitions into chapter two, and so we want to be able to get the language right in some of these areas. And so let me just read this particular passage.
Speaker 1:The title for today's episode is the applause of Evil and, as I asked in the opening, are we at a point and I would say yes, now I live in America, but I'm sure many of you guys who are listening to this podcast in different countries that you will say the same is true probably there where people are cheering on things that are evil, where people are cheering on things that are evil. Now, as I'm recording this, we lost a dear brother in Christ. In fact, he was assassinated In cold blood. His life was taken in front of thousands of people that were there in person in Utah, and millions upon millions of people watched as they saw a sniper, a 22-year year old kid. Take the life of Charlie Kirk and let me just tell you, as I'm even actually, when I'm done recording this, I'm going to be working on a script where I'm going to be doing on my YouTube channel. So I encourage you guys you can go to YouTube and stand strong with Jason Minnis is my YouTube channel and just encourage you guys to follow, subscribe and catch the videos there. But I'm going to be making the case.
Speaker 1:Why I believe Christian martyr that is Charlie Kirk is, in fact, that that he was martyred for his faith and he was a man who loved God's word. He was young, god's word, he was young, god's anointing was in his life and even though a lot of people would say, oh, he was a political activist, no, he was a follower of Jesus Christ who spoke God's truth into politics. It wasn't the other way around, and let's just make that clear. And I had the joy and the privilege to meet him probably I think it was about two years into him starting TPUSA and have gotten to know some of the people who work there and, of course, many other people who have had him in his church, etc. And so we mourned his loss, and so I just wanted to acknowledge that, as all you listeners out there, whether you knew him or not, if you followed him or not, he was a lover of God's word and all of you who listen to this podcast are lovers of God's word that you want to stand in his word, right, you want to grow in his word, and so let's just remember to pray for Erica, the girls, as they're very young, and Erica.
Speaker 1:Let me just say this and we'll get into the scriptures but when she, when her first thing that she shared in his office where he, you know his studio, where he did a show, she, to the you know the nation really addressed is about 20 minutes long, if I remember. The you know the nation really addressed is about 20 minutes long, if I remember, and she does such a phenomenal job, so proud of her and her poise and just her love for her husband. But as we do pray for her. But she said, you know, when they're one of their daughters said where's daddy? And she said, you know how do you talk to a three-year-old, right? She says daddy, daddy is with Jesus, he's doing some work for Jesus. And you know, as time goes on, as they get older, you know they're going to have to, you know process that, that their dad is gone.
Speaker 1:So our hearts are mournful but we're not in despair. Hearts are mournful but we're not in despair, and I want you guys to know that we, as Christians, we need to prepare especially for any of you listening in America that before Christ returns, the increase of persecution is coming, and I think we just witnessed and we need to stand strong together as the church bodies, the body of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to go as the disciples, as the apostles did and many of the patristic fathers did, even into the times of Willing Tyndale and John Huss, that you're willing to lay down your life for the gospel. And we are now seeing, as we saw, a modern Christian martyr on campus in Utah be assassinated for his faith. Really, he was just proclaiming and sharing the gospel when he got there on campus, and so we have to just pray and I pray. God uses you guys, so I appreciate you just letting me share that. So now, here in Romans, chapter one, as I transition, now shed a tear. So now, here in Romans, chapter one, as I transition, now shed a tear.
Speaker 1:This is what's sad, because what we did see, as we're talking about the applause of evil, we see people who are cheering over the death of Charlie Cook, rejoicing over his death, mocking, in fact, the person and I can't even mention his name the one who took his life, cold blood, first degree murder, premeditated murder, even afterwards and he's on these group chats. He's making fun of the whole thing, what he just did. And so we, we, right now, as I look at this text, it's just on the heels of what we just are seeing, as we're now going to go enter into seeing people remember the life of Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated, who died at 31 years old. God used him in so many ways, and that's what the word of God can do, my friends, in your life, if you let it. But there are people in this world, and we are living in a time, where people are applauding evil behavior.
Speaker 1:And so notice now, in verse 28, it says and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, god gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossip slanders, haters of god, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know god's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. So Paul's concluding from here in verse 28 to verse 32, his opening remarks, if you go back to the beginning of the chapter where, if you remember, he's laying out God's final judgment of three on the ungodly. Now I want to point something out here, and then I want to jump all the way back to verse 18.
Speaker 1:Okay, this phrase did not see fit to what to acknowledge. Here's what's interesting, my friends. The Greek term here is Edo Kimasian, from Doico and Mazzo, and it literally means to not think it worthwhile or they didn't see fit. So, stephen Cole, he explains that this verb suggests a deliberate testing or approval process, meaning humanity tested God. They tested God and judged him. Catch this.
Speaker 1:This is the language is used here, when he says right, here, when we're looking at, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, so they, they literally tested God. Okay, we examine God. Okay, so this is the creator of the heavens and the earth. This is the, the, the, the mighty, the almighty Lord, the earth. This is the, the, the, the mighty, the almighty Lord and savior, and they judge him unworthy of acknowledgement. But we don't want him. And not only that, but it also indicates an active rejection, not just overlooking, not saying you know, not, not this time around, just didn't really do it for me. Like you know, you drive in a car, or you know you, you go to a restaurant and some, I'm not feeling that tonight. No, this is based on the idea that you've examined something and literally, the concept here is is like, like a craftsman, they're examining something that needs to be repaired, let's say, for example, or somebody is examining metal and they find it unfit. Like, this is not going to work. We can't use this piece to fashion something, to make this into a sword. And so they're literally saying God is not worthy. Isn't that interesting? So, with that being said, when we understand this word acknowledgement, let's now go back.
Speaker 1:Since we're ending this chapter, I think it's fitting to go back to this language. When we were talking about the wrath of God and you go back to verse 18, notice he was talking about the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men. So Paul from the beginning. He's saying that this wrath that is justified by God, that reflects his holy character, that's upholding to his righteous standards. This is a deliberate response to the sinfulness of man. Because of their sin, when you have the word ungodly is pointing out there. Remember they're irreverent and rebellious lifestyles. This unrighteousness is that you're violating God's laws and you're creating your own. And they do this because they suppress the truth.
Speaker 1:Remember when we looked at that terminology that is literally to hold down with force. There's a conviction there, but they don't want to be convicted. There's an answer there to be redeemed, to be delivered, but they don't want to be convicted. There's an answer there to be redeemed, to be delivered, but they don't want to. So whether they try to silence, they try to hinder, they try to block, they are actively catch this. They're actively in the futility, in the vanity, in the worthlessness of their mind, they go after the Lord to suppress him, to silence him.
Speaker 1:But then we go a little bit deeper in verse 19, where we looked at the term that Paul used here when he says for what can be known about God is plain to them. So when we're talking about, they didn't see fit to acknowledge God. Let's understand the language. The word plain remember is ephanesaren, see fit to acknowledge God. Let's understand the language. The word playing remember is ephon esaren, and it's in the eros active tense and it's pointing to there's God's purposeful revelation that God has visibly been clear to mankind, and it is taken from the verbal adjective of gnosko. So they have this prior knowledge, they have this experience, the same term that Paul uses when he says I've counted all things lost through the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Okay, so it's transformed, I've experienced Christ. It has this terminology of being a parent.
Speaker 1:It's evident Phaneros, phaneros this is from the West Word Studies, from the Greek's evident Phaneros this is from the West Word Studies, from the Greek New Testament, phaneros. And then in them is in atios, it's in their hearts. So it's apparent to them in their hearts. What does that mean? It's inherent in them, it's visible, it's manifested, because God is what he is shown. That word, because remember is diotai. It's explaining the reason God's wrath is on them, why? Because they actually knew God and they rejected Him. They had this inherent, apparent, evident manifestation of God's revelation in them. Remember, it's on their hearts and this is very important for us to understand. And so when we're talking about this eternal power and divine nature he says in verse 20, that have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.
Speaker 1:My friends, people are without an excuse. The Greek word is katharotai. It comes from the verb kathairo, to acknowledge with a sense of reflection and understanding. So again, if you take the combination to where we're at now, in verse 28, they didn't see fit to acknowledge God. It was plain to them, it's in them, it's in their heart, it's manifested. There you had the word gnosko, where there's experiential knowledge that Paul even used when he was transformed by the grace and the saving power of Jesus Christ Clearly perceived. This is the term that means to acknowledge with a sense of reflection. So they've been able to reflect on God's revelation in their life through natural revelation, through special revelation. There's an understanding. There they're able to intellectually apprehend what God is communicating to them. So they have an awareness. God's attributes are not hidden, they're clearly visible in creation. Remember john stott said god's self-revelation in nature is not obscure but clear. That's what paul is saying.
Speaker 1:So then we look at verse 21, says for although they knew God, what did they decide to do? They didn't want to know him. And if you've been with us, my friends, when we were talking about although they knew him. We're talking about the gonosso, we're talking about this personal experience, we're talking about this perception of God. So when, just like, they suppress the truth, they have to actively push it down, knowing exactly what they're trying to silence or push out of their life. And here what we see is, although they knew God, so they've had reflection, it's manifested in their hearts. They've suppressed that. They want to be convicted. They know God, they know that he's real, but they either pretend, they make up a false story, and the further you go into, sin is. We're now going to be learning about this debased mind.
Speaker 1:This is when it becomes very dark for many people, because, over and over and over and over and over and over again, when you tell yourself I don't want God, I don't believe in God, he will then hand you over, and that's what we call the great exchange. There's three of them here and what we've been learning about in romans, chapter one, and not only that, but this phrase in the greek, when you look at to know god, although they knew god, to know god, it's a phrase that's capable of many degrees of meaning, meaning there's rational certainty that he is who he is and also this intimacy that he has known that you can have communion and fellowship. And they didn't want that. They did not Remember. That's an absolute negative. They absolutely deliberately, with deliberate intent, rejected decisively God as God, not as what they thought about God, but as he is truly who he is. So they rejected the I am that I am, and that isn't that sad.
Speaker 1:And as a result of it remember, we were told, they became futile in their thinking. The NLT translated they became thinking upon foolishness, ideas of God. And then we see in verse 22, they're claiming to be wise, fosco is again pretending there's a sense of boastfulness. But they're fools. They became stupid, they became futile in their thinking. And so then we see in verse 23 that they exchange now God's glory I don't want it and they start creating idols for themselves the eternal, immutable, indestructible, absolute, perfect and beautiful God they don't want. Isn't that amazing? It's so sad.
Speaker 1:And so instead they start again, like these, these counterfeits. They're resembling mortal man they're, they're making idols that basically look like them, that feed their lusts, that support their every, every desire. And so in verse 24 we're told that god gave them up in the lust of their heart and notice he's already saying the wrath of God has been, appears to the ungodly and unrighteous. So God gives them over to the hearts, to impurity. So we know their minds already been futile. Their hearts are darkened. They have these impurity motives that they're dishonoring of their bodies among themselves that God gave them over. This is a judicial act. It results because they're defiant. They willingly abandoned God and God, who's a holy God, will judge divinely, remember. And this is Him removing some of those divine restraints. And we talked about what that looks like in our own lives.
Speaker 1:And so, as their lust in their heart is bent towards these passionate cravings and turning their lives and worship to dishonorable things, corruptible things of images that reflect themselves, that's not doing the will of God. Turning away from God and choosing to worship yourself will lead to hedonistic passions that go against God's moral standards. And because they exchanged God's truth, the truth about God, for a lie, notice they started to worship. So their heart. And didn't Jesus say this in Matthew 6, that where your heart is, your treasure is also. And you can't serve two masters, you can't serve two gods. There's only one true God. And so they exchange his truth for a lie. So everything they say, that they stand for, that they're devoted to and remember this, worshiped and served the creature. This is liturgical veneration. So, god, who's made us to worship? We use it and we abuse it. Instead of honoring the blessed one forever, we worship Worship ourselves.
Speaker 1:And so, in the last podcast now, when we saw in verse 26 and 27,. What's the result? Well, for this reason, again, god gave them up to dishonorable passions. Well before when we saw that. It says, therefore, in verse 24, god gave them up, in the lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, and he gave them up to dishonorable passions. And then we saw that women are exchanging natural relations and we talked about what that actually is, about the practicing of homosexuality. Again, that's what unrighteous behavior is. I am living, I am worshiping, I am choosing to live how I want to live and I'm not accountable to anything in my life. I am my own God.
Speaker 1:That's really at the heart of what we're seeing here, and the Bible is very clear that when you burn with lustful passion and you suppress God's truth and you don't honor Him for who he is, notice this very, very powerful terminology that stands out among the rest when it talks about receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. This is recompense, this is a punishment that's keeping with the offense. So people can go full-fledged into what they believe is not sin and that god is not their judge and they're not going to be accountable god and there's no heaven and there's no how. Whatever they may say, but notice their dishonorable behavior, they will receive at some point in their life the due penalty for their error. And that's now when we say in verse 28, when he says I should say Paul says they did not see fit to acknowledge God Edochemossian, if I'm saying that correctly.
Speaker 1:They did not think it worthwhile. They didn't see it fit. They didn't see the importance They've evaluated God. They didn't see it fit. They didn't see the importance They've evaluated God. This word acknowledge now this term is pygnosian. So when it says that and if you look at it in context, it says and since they did not see fit to have knowledge of God, but as also a compound word meaning full knowledge, that's where we get the word acknowledgement.
Speaker 1:It goes beyond intellectual awareness of gnosis and what it's implying here is a relational recognition and submission to God as creator, which what Going back to verse 18, humanity suppresses. They suppress not just the intellectual awareness but the relational recognition and submission, and this is our final. God gave them up. Now, notice, to a debased mind. This is a reprobate mind. Now, remember, we have to understand something when it says that God gave them up over, he hands them over to their choices and there's consequences to their wickedness, to their rebellion.
Speaker 1:Again, as I was giving you guys an overview, verse 24, verse 26, verse 28. So God withdraws his restraining grace from the ungodly because they refuse to submit their lives to him. They are neither innocent nor unaware of their sins and also God's righteous judgment, which is why many times people get afraid and they get into attack mode and they're angry towards God. But when you start dealing with a reprobate, worthless mind, so we saw the futility of their thinking. But it gets even worse. And so I've seen this, my friends, I've been in ministry long enough, I've lived long enough when I see people go down this path of Romans 1, and they've exchanged God for a lie their life. Now, either they idolize their own life and the success of their life or whatever the case may be, but eventually, when they're handed over to this. They have this debase, reprobate, worthless mind.
Speaker 1:And what Paul here? What he remember, what he's already addressed, is that that that tragic exchange in which the ungodly abandoned God's truth for a lie in verse 25 and subsequently allowed themselves to be captured by corrupt desires that twisted God's original plan. And if you look back earlier in Paul's argument, he discussed how the ungodly turned to corrupt worship, which then what did it? Lead them to Irregular passions they're not normal which now distorts even the deepest levels of human thought and rationality. Basically put, they go into a phase of insanity.
Speaker 1:And this degenerate mind is not just an intellectual failure catch this but a moral collapse, a conscience so twisted that what should be unthinkable is not only acceptable but also celebrated. That's what we're seeing in our culture today the applause of evil, to cheer and to record yourself and put it out there because I'm celebrating the death of someone. We're seeing this or men coming out saying I am a, the guy could be in his 50s, 40s, 30s, whatever, but he identifies as a nine-year-old girl or that I identify because I'm fluid, my gender and a grown man can strip and go into a locker room with minors who are girls and says I should have access here because I identify like them. And you actually have people, judges, city councilmen and women who are fighting for such perverted rights. My friends, that is a distortion to the deepest levels of human thought.
Speaker 1:That is a degenerate, reprobate mind, it is a worthless mind, and it's not just a conscience that is so twisted to do unthinkable things. But when you start accepting it and forcing other people to celebrate it, that is demonic. God abandoned these people to their corrupt thinking because they refused to honor him through their actions. And the tragedy isn't just about what people desire, how they should worship. It's not about how they think. This is the key thing that we have to understand that Paul concludes here. It's their refusal to acknowledge God that leaves them with this mind that is now completely seeing things in a way in which they were never intended to see it.
Speaker 1:What's up is down, what's down is up Isaiah 5, 20,. What is right is wrong and up is down. What's down is up Isaiah 5, 20,. What is right is wrong and wrong is right. It leaves it degraded, distorted, lacking moral clarity, leaving a debased mind as unapproved or, quite literally, having failed the test. That's what it is you live a life that you failed to live the way that God intended you to live. You took what God gave you, you rejected him and you want to live how you wanted to live.
Speaker 1:So what does Paul? How does he close? He closes this section by then pointing out so when you and I see the degree of this malice, when he says they're filled with all manner of unrighteousness, this is when demonization just is let loose this word that he says they're filled with all manner, this Greek term, it carries, it's in the perfect passive participle from Plero and it indicates a completed state of being saturated or crammed, full, emphasizing totality and permanence in vice. Let me stress that again. So when you see this phrase, when it says they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness and evil and covetousness and malice, and then it has this language they are full of envy and murder and strife and deceit and maliciousness. And then he defines them by using these adjectives they are gossips, they are slanderers, they are haters of God. Notice they're not disbelievers, they're haters of God and insolent, haughty and boastful, and they're inventors of evil. They're disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless the word here fulfilled. And they're full of envy is in a perfect passive participle. Let me see if I could pronounce this Pep-ler-o-me-ne-os From again from the perfect passive participle from Plero, it's indicating a completed state of being saturated or crammed full, and what it emphasizes, what paul is emphasizing here, is the totality and the permanence in vice, which is why when he first says the manner of unrighteousness and he has evil, covetousness and malice right so you think of those at the top and as a result of it, because these people are filled in this manner of evil, of evil malice, they're full of this envy.
Speaker 1:And when you see murder and strife and so those are their gods, if you will is to live unrighteously, to live evil lives, to, to, to covet your own passions and desires. David Guzik refers to Paul's list of vices as the catalog of human evil. The list covers injustice, wickedness, idolatry of insatiable desires, corrupt character, bitterness, resentment, hatred, contention, treachery, speaking falsehoods and other forms of malice. So it's kind of like these layers where you have them at the top, and then the acts that they commit, and then who they are, what they become as a result. They're identified, they're inventors of this and they're in cooperation with Satan and his hierarchy and notice what he says.
Speaker 1:At the very end, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice us things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. So not only does the ungodly know God exists and that what they are doing is morally wrong in his sight, but they also go further to approve of it. That's what this word here in Greek is. They approve of it, meaning they consent to doing evil and even praise their debauchery. They even praise it. My friends, that is the life we find ourselves in, the culture, the fallenness. Even when I started in the late 90s in youth ministry in Arizona, very rarely did people bring up issues of LGBT stuff when struggling with same sex. And within the last almost 30 years, massive change.
Speaker 1:But it reminds me as I close, in Proverbs 20, verse four, it says those who forsake instruction praise the wicked, but those who heed it resist them. That's what it's about, my friends. We have to heed the instruction, which is God's word. So there you have it, my friends. That was about 33 pages in my notes since.
Speaker 1:Romans, chapter one, verse one that we've covered, and I just pray that as we looked.
Speaker 1:Romans, chapter one, verse one that we've covered, and I just pray that, as we looked at chapter one, I know it certainly has convicted me and really taught me a lot things that I thought I knew and I clearly didn't, and love just exploring this and praying through this and being able to teach and share this with you guys.
Speaker 1:So if you have any biblical questions, anything regarding apologetics or things that happen in your life and you'd like for me to be able to send you some answers, you can contact us by emailing us at info at stanstrongministriesorg. Check out the website stanstrongministriesorg and if you love this ministry and it's a blessing your heart, please leave us a review, share it with your friends, be inspired that many of you guys can be standing strong in the word together and also consider becoming a Stand Strong supporter by going to the website standstrongministriesorg. We are a nonprofit, meaning we are a tax-exempt status 501c3. So we have a secure online giving and we encourage you guys to fund and support the work that we're doing all over the world. Until next time, keep standing strong in the word of God.