Rabbi Schneider - God's Divine Order
Only to say this, that Paul began this letter, this epistle by talking about the fact that God's wrath is upon mankind, because mankind is not acknowledging that He is, and they're not living under His lordship. Paul then went on to talk about the effects of this. Last week, we examined that Paul said, "Because mankind is not submitted to His sovereignty and to His lordship, God gave them over to degrading passions". Just for review today, I'm reading verse 26 where I was last week. "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts".
I simply pointed out last week that what is happening today is that the church is falling away from this God-given standard of sexuality. You see, when God created mankind in His own image, the Lord said in the book of Bereshit, the book of Genesis, "God created man in His own image," listen now, "male and female He created He them". So God created male and female, and then together, joined together, they make up God's nature. Men are different than women and women are different than men. Obviously, when we look at simple human anatomy, we can see that women are designed to be with men and men are designed to be with women. This is the natural order of creation. But the Gay Revisionist Movement in the church today, which is sweeping over the world with such strength and such speed, if you realize what was happening, you get knocked off your chair, major denominations are splitting over this.
What is happening today is there is a new theology in the church that is saying that what God meant here in the book of Romans, in the passage of scripture that I just read, is not that it's unnatural for a man to be with a man or a woman to be with a woman. That's not what God was condemning. What gay revisionist theology is teaching is that it's unnatural when a man or a woman is born with heterosexual feelings, but they go against their own feelings to engage in homosexual activity. So what the new theology that's sweeping into the church is teaching is that the natural divine design in creation is not determined by the Creator who created it to be natural, for men to be with women and women to be with men, but the new theology is teaching, no, it's not what's designed by the Creator, it's what is natural to each person.
So they say, for example, that if a man is born with feelings towards other men, that's what's natural to him. And since that's what's natural to him, because that's his earliest childhood memory of same-sex attraction, then there's nothing wrong with that. And they're saying the same thing about homosexuality with women. That if they're naturally drawn to other females, then that's okay because it's not unnatural. So they're defining it by the individual. But Beloved, come on. Let's use common sense here. That's not what the Word of God is teaching. What God is teaching is what He built into creation. Not how we define it, but how He defines it. What He built into creation, the natural harmony between men and women that's to exist has been broken.
So he says once again, in verse 26, "For this reason God gave them over, mankind, to degrading passions". And then he speaks about and identifies this degrading passion manifesting in the realm of homosexual behavior amongst both men and women. So the result then of men having fallen from God, suppressing the truth, being unwilling to submit to His Lordship, and acknowledge Him in all His ways and obey Him, the result of that, Paul is teaching, is that God gave man over to degrading passions.
And again, the degrading passion that He's stipulating here is homosexual activity. Let me simply say, beloved, homosexual behavior is wrong. I totally understand that people because of the brokenness in the world, because of sin, I totally understand that there are people in this world and their earliest memories are same-sex attraction. And that feels out what is natural to them. But Beloved, once again, truth is not defined by the individual. Truth is defined by the Creator. And I'm not wanting to single out homosexual behavior in the sense that I'm standing here self-righteous. I'm just simply proclaiming the Word of God. All of us are broken in some area. And whatever area that we're broken in, God is calling us to turn from that behavior and to repent and follow Him.
Now, I realize that for some that are in this lifestyle, they've tried to repent and just feel that it's something that can't be overcome, and it feels so basic to their nature that they identify that behavior or that tendency as who they are in their identity. But remember, beloved ones, in Christ Jesus, old things can pass away and all things can become new. You see, the Lord loves all of us, you and me, me and you. He loves us right where we're at. Right where we're at. But He loves us too much to leave us where we're at.
And the same message that's true for someone involved in homosexual activity, is true for all of mankind. We must repent. The adult or the person that's involved in all types of sexual activity outside of marriage must repent. The person that's married that's involved in illicit sexual activity must repent. The glutton that's addicted to food must repent. The person that's lying to get along with people must repent. And I could go on and on and on. We're all guilty before God. But because sexuality and the divine union between man and woman is so central to God's design, Paul brings this to the surface to show how broken the world is because of sin. And then Paul tells us, in addition to men's passions, being defiled due to the brokenness of mankind, Paul goes on to tell us next that our minds are defiled.
So in the same way that people's passions are defiled, as is pointed out in verse 26, so too, the result of suppressing the truth, suppressing the Holy Spirit is that mankind's minds have become defiled. So first, Paul addresses humanity's passions as having gone astray. And now he says that our minds have gone astray. So he says here in verse 28, "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind". So we're looking at both passions and the mind. And now Paul goes on to speak about what he's referring to. "...God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed".
I mean, all you have to do... look at commercials today. Look at the way goods, material goods are being sold, the commercials. Doesn't it show mankind's mind being defined with unrighteousness? I mean, the old bait and switch technique of salesmen, you know, they tell you that if you call them or whatever, they're going to show you this. I won't even name a specific industry, but it happens all the time. I don't want to bad-mouth a certain industry. But my wife and I just needed to make a purchase, there was an advertisement from a company about a particular product they were offering. And then we went to the office, their storeroom where they supposedly were offering that product. They said they were all sold out. And then the salesman admitted to us that all that company's offices were sold out of that product, and it was just a bait and switch.
This is what Paul's talking about. That mankind is filled with unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. I mean, gosh. I mean, I could go through each one of those things individually. We're not going to take the time on every single one. But simply to say that mankind is right in his own eyes. We justify ourselves in our own eyes by comparing ourselves to the culture. But as far as God is concerned, man is corrupt.
Think about the prophet Isaiah. I mean, he was a pillar in the earth in terms of his righteous compared to other human beings. I'm talking about the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. But when Isaiah saw God, when God revealed Himself to Isaiah in Isaiah 6, Isaiah fell on his face and he said, "Woe is me, for I am unclean and I live amongst an unclean people". He looked great when compared to the rest of humanity. But when he was compared to the purity of the Holy Spirit and the clear Holy Spirit's power, he saw how corrupt and evil not only he was, but the entire population. Full of wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife. I mean, dissension and the strife and the ends justify the means mentality that governs our society today, the way we malign one another, malice, the way we go on talking about people, gossips, the way we slander people.
I mean, I'm just reading from the Word right here. Strive, deceit, malice. I mean, all we have to do is watch television. We can't even trust the news anymore. We just get a spin on almost everything we hear. We don't even know what's truth anymore. Just one side maligning the other side, twisting truth, twisting the facts, twisting the information, gossiping about each other, taking a snapshot of somebody's life, and creating a whole storyline about it to fulfill our own purposes. Slanderers, haters of God. You know, I got a text from somebody not long ago, and they were talking about the importance of protecting the animals. I said, "Yes, praise God. But we need to protect the unborn children too". But I don't think they wanted to hear that. I mean, "Let's protect the animals. Let's give a woman the right to abort the child".
And I'm not trying to put any guilt on anybody here that has gone through that. But let's face it, beloved. I mean, that's not right. That's a no-brainer, right? But that's what's going on in our society. Murderers, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil. We've got companies being started and the whole purpose of the company is to manipulate people for money. Disobedient to parents. We have so much rebellion in society now between children and parents. And it's not all the children's fault. It comes from the brokenness of mankind, broken homes, the brokenness of humanity. Insolent-just kind of smug, resistant. Arrogant. Everybody today, walking around, you know, trying to be somebody they're not to show their best face. Boastful, inventors of evil. I mean, I could go on. Without understanding, untrustworthy. How many trustworthy people do we know? How many people can you really trust? It's not something that is highly valued in our culture anymore. It's like, no, the ends justify the means.
So tell a little white lie. Do what you have to do to make money. Say what you have to say to survive. Unloving, unmerciful. And he continues on verse 32. This is just a description of humanity. Listen, beloved, Paul began his description of the gospel in chapter 1 by saying, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth". He said, "The power of God unto salvation to those that believe". And then he told us what we need to be saved from. We need to be saved from the wrath of God because of the unrighteousness of man. This is where the gospel starts. Do you understand what I'm saying? The Gospel starts with us being delivered and cleanse and forgiven from sin and evil. But as I've been teaching, beloved, the gospel that's being taught today is oftentimes saying very much about sin, about our souls, your soul and my soul that needs to be cleansed from evil.
The way we think, the way we perceive the world, the way we perceive ourselves, our selfishness, all these things. "...the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men that are suppressing the truth". This is how the gospel begins. Paul just got done with this long list of characteristics of evil at work within men's life. And I'm wanting to make the point, that Paul said, as I've said in earlier episodes, if somebody comes to us preaching a different gospel, we should reject him. The gospel that Paul preached, beloved, is not that we're going to have our best life in this world. Rather, Paul said we should be prepared to suffer in this world for the sake of godliness.
Paul's desire was to know Jesus in the book of Philippians. In the power of His resurrection, listen now, and the fellowship of His sufferings. I mean, think about the apostles' lives. They were all martyred. The message that they gave is that we should deny worldly lust and live righteously because Jesus is coming back for you soon, and He's going to reward every man according to what he has done. So you see, beloved, Paul's Gospel was a different gospel than the gospel that many of you are hearing today. And Paul told us if any man comes and preaches a different gospel other than this, let him be cursed.
So take stock of your life-what you're hearing, what you're listening to, what you're receiving into your soul. Study the Word of God for yourself. And then Paul goes on to say that those that practice this unrighteousness that he just described are deserving of death. And not only is it shameful that people are arrogantly living these ungodly lifestyles denying there's a God, partying, you know, as if this life is all there is. He said, what's even worse is so many of the people that live this way, godless, they approve and encourage other people to live the same way. the church. Let me just pray for you, beloved. First of all, I want to pray for those that may be struggling with homosexuality today. I want you to know God loves you.
Father, I pray for Your deliverance of every soul, every dear beloved one that's reaching out to You right now that wants deliverance. Jesus, Your arm is mighty to save. You said, he that puts their hope in You will not be disappointed. Jesus, I proclaim your Lordship in the church. We declare, according to Your Word, that You are able to save to the uttermost. So I pray that you will pour forth Your grace and Your power and Your mercy on these that are struggling today. And I pray for all of us today, Father, that we will be delivered from all sin, to stand before You holy and righteous for all time. In Jesus' name.