ROMANS 1:18-32
This is a very sad portion of Scripture because it shows what happens to man, who knows that there is a Creator God, but he rejects God, he rejects the truth and thus, they are moving away from God. As they do we will see that God will give them over to the passions of their heart, which is not good! Therefore, let’s break these verses down and look at them more closely to see what we can glean from them, what the Lord has for us.
VERSES 18-19
Why is God’s wrath revealed from heaven? Because man has rejected God even though God has shown them that He is real. Therefore, not only are they suppressing the truth, but also they refuse to even look at the truth that is clearly visible for them to see. Now, what is this truth that man refuses to look at, that they are covering up, that they are hiding away, that they are steering their lives away from? Let’s read on and you will see.
VERSES 20
Did you see that? Paul is saying that creation shows that there is a God, even the things you can’t see, the cells, the DNA, and-so-on. Those things that can only be seen with certain microscopes show God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In the Hebrew the word for “created” means that God created something out of nothing. Furthermore, folks, only God can do that. Man can take and assemble things from pre-existing things, but he cannot create something out of nothing, only God can do that!
Let me show you what I mean with this report on The Amazing Cell by Dr. Dudley Eirich. He wrote:
As a microbiologist, the bacterial flagellum has always fascinated me.
The flagellum is a corkscrew-shaped, hair-like appendage attached to the cell surface, which acts like a propeller, allowing the bacterium to swim. The most interesting aspect of the flagellum is that it is attached to—and rotated by—a tiny, electrical motor made of different kinds of protein.
Like an electrical motor, the flagellum contains a rod (drive shaft), a hook (universal joint), L and P ring (bushings/bearings), S and M rings (rotor), and a C ring and stud (stator). The flagellar filament (propeller) is attached to the flagellar motor via the hook. To function completely, the flagellum requires over 40 different proteins. The electrical power for driving the motor is supplied by the voltage difference developed across the cell (plasma) membrane.
In 1996, Dr. Michael J. Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University (and an evolutionist), published a challenging book to classical Darwinian evolution entitled “Darwin’s Black Box.” In this book he uses the flagellum to introduce the concept of “irreducible complexity.” If a structure is so complex that all of its parts must initially be present in a suitably functioning manner, it is said to be irreducibly complex. All the parts of a bacterial flagellum must have been present from the start in order to function at all.
According to evolutionary theory, any component which doesn’t offer an advantage to an organism, i.e. doesn’t function, will be lost or discarded. How such a structure could have evolved in a gradual, step-by-step process as required by classical Darwinian evolution is an insurmountable obstacle to evolutionists. How a flagellum is used, however, adds an additional level of complexity to the picture.
Some bacteria have a single flagellum located at the end of a rod-shaped cell. To move in an opposite direction, a bacterium simply changes the direction of rotation of the flagellum. Other bacteria have a flagellum at both ends of the cell and use one flagellum for going in one direction and the other for going in the opposite direction. A third group of bacteria has many flagella surrounding the cell. These flagella wrap themselves together in a helical bundle at one end of the cell and rotate in unison to move the cell in one direction. If the cell wants to change direction, the flagella unwrap themselves, move to the opposite end of the cell, reform the bundle, and again rotate in a coordinated fashion.
The structural complexity and finely tuned coordination of the bacterial flagellum attests to the work of a master engineer who designed and created the flagellum to function in a wonderfully intricate manner.
- Dr. Dudley Eirich, The Amazing Cell
That is just the tip of the iceberg folks, when you look at creation you have to believe there is a God. Now, please understand that the Bible never tries to prove the existence of God, creation does that! How can that be? Because, like I have said, you can’t have creation without a Creator, you can’t have design without a designer, and thus, God created the heavens and the earth!
Turn to Job chapter 12 for a minute and let’s begin reading in verse 7, where we are told, “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you; Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know. That the hand of the Lord has done this, In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind? Does not the ear test words. And the mouth taste its food?” Job 12:7-11.
In other words, even the dumb animals know that there is a God and yet, man can’t figure it out, he refuses to figure it out! Folks, it is a willful ignorance on man’s part because he refuses to believe what creation is telling him. If you doubt that, then listen to what one brilliant scientist had to say.
Dr. Wald, the foremost biologist in this country said, "Spontaneous generation was totally disproved 100 years ago by Louis Pasture . . . That leaves us only one possible conclusion. That life arose as a super natural creative work of God. I cannot accept that philosophically, because I don't want to believe in God. I choose to believe that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution."
If it is "scientifically impossible" then why are we holding on to it? It is as Dr. Wald has said, because they want to deny the existence of God and because of that, they have moved away from science and towards their own religious belief called evolution. "Matthew's, a British biologist and evolutionist, in his introduction to a 1971 publication of Darwin's Origin of Species says: `The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an unproved theory is it then a science or faith? Belief in the theory of evolution is thus exactly parallel to a belief in special creation both are concepts which believers know to be true but neither, up to the present, has been capable of proof.'"
We will deal more with this issue of creation and evolution over the next few weeks, but what I want you to see here, what I want you to understand is that they are suppressing the truth because they don’t want to believe in God. Folks, that is not science, that is religion on their part, and it is just plain foolishness! There is no excuse for them because creation itself shows the power of God to not only create life but to sustain life!
Some years ago Carl Sagan, who now has passed away, was receiving a lot of money from the government for his S.E.T.I. (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) project, which used radio telescopes to listen for patterns in radio waves coming from outer space to try and determine if there was intelligent life out there trying to communicate with us. I wonder if there is intelligent life here on earth when we reject God!
Now the main criterion was that the radio waves had to have order or a pattern to them to prove intelligent life was trying to communicate to us. They searched for years and found nothing.
One day Dr. A.E. Wilder-Smith, a Christian and brilliant man with several earned P.H.D.’s said to Sagan, “Carl, get rid of your radio telescope and come with me into the laboratory and look through the electron microscope, and I’ll show you a digital code on the helix of DNA that is ordered and proves that there is outside intelligence.”
Carl Sagan refused to look into the microscope. Why did he refuse? Because once again it would show that there is a Creator, a Designer, there is a God and thus, he refused to look. Tragically, he now knows there is a God, but it is too late for Carl Sagan!
What happens to people who suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness? Let’s read on and see what happens.
VERSES 21-22
When man willfully rejects God even though creation clearly shows that there is a God, then there is a downward progression in his life. He wants to reject God, he is saying no to God, and thus, God will allow him to move away into the darkness of his sin!
The first thing that happens is they “became futile in their thoughts.” In other words, their thoughts are empty, they are foolish, they are useless, they are vain, and they amount to absolutely nothing! I realize that is hard for some to swallow, but what wisdom is there in rejecting God knowing that there is a God!
And the second point that Paul is speaking of here is that “their foolish hearts were darkened.” In other words, they rejected God and thus, God gave them what they wanted. His light begins to go out in their lives and they are in a downward spiral away from God. You might call this devolution! You see, light rejected is light denied! If you don’t want to see you will lose the capacity to see God!
And man, apart from God, sees himself as wise, but God looks at man who rejects Him as a fool. And don’t miss the point. The word “fools” comes from a Greek word in which we get our English word “moron” from! Folks, wisdom is the application of knowledge, of truth and if you reject creation, if you don’t apply the truths of God found in the Word of God, if you don’t believe there is a Creator God, then you are a MORON! Hey, don’t get mad at me, the Holy Spirit said that through Paul! And what do fools, what do morons do? Look closely at the next verse.
VERSE 23
Instead of worshiping God, they worship the creation instead! Man, when he was created was good, he was not a cave man! He was perfect, but then, as Adam sinned, the second law of thermodynamics came into play and thus, things are winding down, they are moving from order to disorder. I just look at my body and it is moving from order to disorder. I am growing hair in places that I shouldn’t grow hair and I am losing hair in places that I should not be losing hair! You see, we are in a process of devolving you might say!
Thus, if man rejects to worship God, in whom we were created to worship, then he will worship all kinds of foolish things, all kinds of moronic things! He will worship himself and we call that humanism. He will worship pleasure and we call that hedonism.
He will worship nature and we call that naturalism. He will worship many different gods and we call that polytheism! Man will worship something because he was created to do that and if it is not the true and living God, then it will be these foolish, these moronic things!
Folks, we were created to bring glory to God, and rebellious man doesn’t want to do that and thus, he runs to and fro trying to find happiness, trying to find satisfaction in life but he will never be satisfied until he does what he was created for, to worship God, bring Him glory! In Revelation 4:11, in the KJV we are told this very thing, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” It is as the Westminster Shorter Catechism declares, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” I like that, and it is true! Is there anything wrong with that? Of course not! But man runs to and fro trying to find that satisfaction, worshiping all kinds of foolish things instead of the God who created them as I have said.
Now the rest of the chapter deals with this downward spiral of man, what he is doing, what is manifested in his life, in the life of someone who has rejected the Creator God. Furthermore, there are three main areas that Paul is speaking on here that sum up what man is doing, where he is going. The first is the SENSUAL DIMENSION that is found in Romans 1:24-27. Then there is the MENTAL DIMENSION that is found in Romans 1:28-31. And lastly, there is the ULTIMATE DIMENSION that is found in Romans 1:32. Therefore, let’s look at these, and I think, as we study this section, you will understand why man does what he does, the depravity of man apart from God!
VERSES 24-27
First we see God give unrighteous man over to sensual perversion and here it is speaking of homosexuality. Yes, it does not say “homosexuality” but Paul explains it very clearly. Men lying with men committing sexual sin and women with women doing the same! If you don’t get that it is because you don’t want to! It is unnatural and it is a sin! It is not that they are born that way but God gave them over to this perversion because they rejected Him, He gave them over to do what was in their hearts, evil!
Back in Paul’s day, especially in Rome, homosexuality was rampant; many of the emperors were homosexuals! And folks, it is no different today, homosexuality is being promoted as the norm, when it is not, it is a sin. In fact, in the Greek culture, they felt that homosexuality was the perfect and highest form of love! How depraved that line of thinking is! Thus, this is not a gift of God but a curse from God; it is His wrath being poured out as He gave man over to what was in his heart, this sexual perversion as well as many others! If it was good, if it was not a sin then why are they going to receive the penalty for their error? You see, they rejected God, and God gave them over to this sensual sin as well as others as I have said and God is going to judge them for this!
There is one more point here, and we will deal with this more in a few weeks, but that is what Paul said in Romans 1:25 about” the lie.” There are many lies out there including but not limited to evolution. However, I don’t believe that is what Paul is speaking of here. I believe “the lie” is that we are gods; it was the lie from the Garden of Eden given by Satan to Eve, and it continues on today and it is growing even in the churches! However, we will look at this more closely in a few weeks because I believe it is tied to the end times, the last days!
VERSES 28-31
Once again, God gave them over, those who have rejected the Creator God, and here it deals with the mental dimension, as Paul speaks of the “debased mind.” The Greek word for “debased” means “not passing the test.” It was used of coins that were substandard and therefore, rejected. God set the standard for us to live by, and it is found in His Word, the Bible, but man has rejected it and God gave them over to things that will not stand the test, they will fall short of His standard, far short. It speaks of not only wickedness towards God but also towards man, as these things will affect those around us!
Paul lists some 23 things that are manifested in the life of a person who rejects God, the true and living God. This is a result of what happens when you turn from God; it is a downward spiral, not upward. Now, as you read the news, listen to the news or witness these things for yourself, man is like an animal today. People can do the most heinous crimes without blinking an eye. They act just like animals!
You may not agree with me, but I see it like this. Man who is in fellowship with God has the Spirit of God dwelling in Him. He is not controlled by the lusts of his flesh but by the Spirit of God. Man who has rejected God, turned from God, is just like the animals that roam this earth, they don’t have the Spirit of God in them, and they live to satisfy the flesh! Thus, when you turn on the news and see these atrocities being done by man, understand that he is acting just like a wild animal apart from God! Now, let's quickly go through this list and again, this is man apart from God. Furthermore, please understand that it says that he is “filled” with these things, it is not an occasional stumble into them. He is trained in sins, which are not fitting for a human being. Here is that list:
Unrighteousness (injustice);
sexual immorality (fornication, adultery, and other forms of illicit sex);
wickedness (active evil);
covetousness (greed, the incessant desire for more);
maliciousness (the desire for harm on others; venomous hatred);
full of envy (jealousy of others);
full of murder (premeditated and unlawful killing of another, either in anger or in the commission of some other crime);
full of strife (wrangling, quarreling, contentiousness);
full of deceit (trickery, treachery, intrigue);
full of evil-mindedness (ill-will, spite, hostility, bitterness);
whisperers (secret slanderers, gossips);
backbiters (open slanderers, those who bad-mouth others);
haters of God (or hateful to God);
violent (despiteful, insulting);
proud (haughty, arrogant);
boasters (braggarts, self-paraders);
inventors of evil things (devisers of mischief and new forms of wickedness);
disobedient to parents (rebellious to parental authority);
undiscerning (lacking moral and spiritual discernment, without conscience);
untrustworthy (breaking promises, treaties, agreements, and contracts whenever it serves their purposes);
unloving (acting in total disregard of natural ties and the obligations that go with them);
unforgiving (irreconcilable or implacable);
unmerciful (cruel, vindictive, without pity).
Once again, apart from knowing God and having the Spirit of God indwelling us, we are no different than the animals! If you doubt that after all we have seen so far, then listen to what Ann Landers had to say.
A fellow wrote to Ann Landers and said:
“Dear Ann, please help me, I am confused. I’m having an affair with two different
women at the same time. And I want to get married, but I don’t know which one to
marry. Please advise me but don’t give me any of that morality stuff.”
She wrote back, “Dear two-timer, you say that you don’t want any of that morality stuff, but that’s the only thing that separates man from the animal kingdom.
Therefore, I advise you to write to a veterinarian for advice.”
I think you get the picture and man, apart from God is guilty because he has rejected the Creator God, whose creation testifies that there is a God!
VERSE 32
Furthermore, lastly, Paul speaks of the ultimate dimension or what happens to those who partake of these things; those God has given over to these things. And, interestingly enough, as we have read, it is not just those that are practicing them, but those who approve of those who are doing these things are just as guilty! You see, the end result of this is that the unrighteous heathen is condemned by creation and thus, they are found guilty before God as their righteousness is like filthy rags before a holy and righteous God!
However, it is not only those who do these things, as I have said, but it is also those who approve of these things that are just as guilty. Thus, either way the unrighteous heathen is guilty before God. Now, in saying that, we are not like that are we? Listen to part of this article from Agape Press titled: Desperate Nation – What Disney/ABC’s Big TV Hit Reveals About Our Culture. This is from March 21, 2005 and the story is by Ed Vitagliano. We are told:
. . . The new comedy/drama Desperate housewives, which airs Sunday nights on Disney-owned ABC, attracts almost 23 million viewers a week – making it the second most popular show on network TV behind CSI (CBS). At this year’s Golden Globes, Desperate Housewives won the award for best TV comedy – after just its first half season.
According to a cover story by Newsweek’s Marc Peyser and David J. Jefferson, it is “the juiciest show to hit TV in years.” It has, they noted, hit the top five in television ratings faster than any new drama since NBC’s ER debuted in 1994.
And in true Hollywood style, one television executive told Newsweek that viewers can expect an “attack of the clones,” as copycat dramas are already being circulated in an attempt to mimic the success of Desperate Housewives . . .
. . . Wisteria Lane is the fictional suburban setting for the ABC hit, and the series focuses on five housewives and the various family members, friends and neighbors in their lives.
Marc Cherry, the show’s openly homosexual creator, writer and executive producer, told Newsweek, “All these women have made some kind of choice in their lives and are in various stages of regretting it. That’s where the desperation comes from.”
There is certainly plenty of desperation on Wisteria Lane. One of the five housewives, Mary Alice, commits suicide in the first episode and becomes the narrator who periodically frames the story lines.
The other four wives also have problems of their own. Lynette is a one-time business-world wiz-kid turned homemaker stuck in the house with wild, out-of-control sons; Gabrielle is cheating on her wealthy husband, having an affair with the high school boy who mows their lawn; Susan is raising her teenage daughter alone, after her husband Carl divorced her for a younger woman; and Bree is a perfectionist who deceives herself into thinking her marriage to her husband Rex is going well . . .
. . . What many critics of the show will probably point to, however, is the amount of sex. Furthermore, make no mistake, there is plenty of that. Beyond the fact that all of the housewives are attractive, as author Myrna Blyth, former editor of Ladies Home Journal, points out, “[A]t least once an episode one of the housewives manages to turn up in Victoria’s Secret underwear.”
There is the seemingly required club scene, complete with gyrating, minimally-clad dancers; wives seducing their husbands; a prostitute who services a straying husband, Rex, who has a fancy for bondage; the fornication between Susan and handsome, single neighbor Mike; and the adultery between Gabrielle and John. All of this sex makes Desperate Housewives a steamy hour of television.
It is precisely the show’s sex quotient that has piqued [irritated] the interest of some culture critics, who see a bit of irony here. As they see it, the big fans of Desperate Housewives – and shows like it – apparently include many of the voters in the “red states” that re-elected president George Bush. That is, the so-called “values voters.”
A couple of weeks after the election, for example, New York Times media reporter Bill Carter wrote a column following his interviews with TV executives, and basically charged values voters with hypocrisy: “Many who voted for ‘values’ still like their television sin,” he said in the title of his piece.
Carter wrote: “So if it is true that the public’s electoral choices are a cry for more morally driven programming, . . . Why are so many people, even in the markets surrounding the Bush bastions of Atlanta and Salt Lake City, watching a sex-drenched television drama [like Desperate Housewives]?”
Why so many, indeed? Blyth, who admitted that she was “hooked” on the show, praised its entertainment value for women. “Now weekends are more frantic than ever, especially for families with kids,” she wrote in National Review. “After two days of ferrying children to soccer games and ice-skating lessons, attending church, cooking Sunday dinner for grandparents, and overseeing the homework that never gets done until just before bed on Sunday night, moms all over the country are collapsing on the couch, grateful for a fix of gloriously entertaining chick-TV.” (Emphasis added.)
Could it be true, as Blyth asserts, churchgoing women across America are watching Desperate Housewives? Doesn’t she think it strange that Christian women would spend their Sunday nights watching a series in which illicit sex, betrayal and murder are simple entertainment?
As Carter explained, “The divide between what people accept as proper in public, and what they choose to enjoy in their private lives is, unsurprisingly, nothing new in the history of the world or this country.” Or, perhaps, in the church . . .
- Agape Press, Ed Vitagliano, March 21, 2005
Not only that, but listen to this article that deals with a Wisconsin High School that is giving their students an in-depth homosexual indoctrination. Furthermore, yes, I said a Wisconsin High School. We are told:
ELKHORN, Wisconsin, January 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an effort to combat "homophobia," a Wisconsin public school teacher implemented a 38-day regimen explicitly designed to change the minds of students who did not view homosexuality as equal to heterosexuality.
11-th grade English teacher Sarah Arnold says she was inspired to create the curriculum, entitled "Exposing Hidden Homophobia," when she heard an "anti-gay undertone" in students' conversations, which included making fun of "anything that defied gender stereotype," according to an article printed in the pro-homosexual publication by the Southern Poverty Law Center "Teaching Tolerance."
"Some people would say we don't have a wide demographic variety here," Arnold said of the mostly white Elkhorn Area High School. "It's more accurate to say that we have demographics that isn't acknowledged."
The program Arnold developed included "in-depth exploration of depictions" of homosexuality i mass media; several homosexual-theme films, documentaries, books and novels; Internet research on "the nature of homophobia"; and a "homophobia questionnaire" coupled with a "heterosexual questionnaire" designed to take questions "commonly asked of homosexuals and ask them of heterosexuals" - e.g., "When did you decide to become heterosexual?'"
Although students were reluctant and parents "balked," particularly Christian parents, Arnold would argue that the project supported "higher-order thinking skills" because students were asked to perform such tasks as assembling and presenting portfolios of their research into homosexual culture and media.
The article claims that, thanks to the program, students began to adopt a more favorable view of homosexuality, as evidenced by portfolio essays and an increased membership in the school's Gay-Straight Alliance.
Colleen Rafter, principal of Raritan High School in Hazlet, N.J., said she convinced the English department in her school to adopt a homosexuality program similar to Arnold's, according to the article.
"We really want to make a change in how people think and act," Rafter said. "I will try to be more brave on these issues myself."
The article then provides resources and lesson plans for other public school teachers to use, including shortened versions of Arnold's "Hidden Homophobia Unit."
Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute said she was "speechless" when she learned of the curriculum.
"Wisconsin public schools are permitting radical ideologues to use public money to promote their subversive, unproven moral conclusions and political goals about homosexuality," said Higgins in an IFI article. "These propagandists, who should be teaching history or literature or writing, are instead pursuing their illegitimate goals of transforming the views of other people's children on the contentious issue of homosexuality."
Higgins lamented the fact that English teachers in particular are given leeway, based on their ability to choose topics, to advance their personal beliefs through their choice of curriculum.
"Arnold, like countless other English teachers, bases her text selections on whether the ideas conform to and advance her socio-political goals and her particular moral convictions," said Higgins. "And she's doing this with public money."
- Kathleen Gilbert, Wisconsin High School Features In-Depth Homosexual Indoctrination
Thus, are we as a state, as a nation, approving of a lifestyle that God says is a sin? Absolutely, and you wonder why we are found being weighed in the balances of God and are coming up short! Now that is kind of a hard place to close this study, not too encouraging. Therefore, let me share with you on this portion of Scripture, Romans 1:24-32 looking at it from a positive perspective. R. Kent Hughes put it like this as he turned the tables on what Paul wrote, and he put it in the perspective of what a lover of God is like. He wrote::
Therefore, God gave them over in their hearts to self-control and purity, that their bodies might be honored among them. For they kept and cherished the truth of God and worshiped and served the Creator, who is blessed forever, rather than the creature. Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to pure and wholesome lives, lived with carefree ease even in the most intimate relations so that all received in their own persons the due reward of their fidelity.
And just as they saw fit to acknowledge God in all things, God gave them over to a sound mind, to do those things which are proper, being filled with all righteousness, goodness, generosity, kindness; full of selflessness, life, healing, openness, kindliness; they are gentle in speech, always building others up, lovers of God, respectful, humble, self-effacing, inventors of good, obedient to parents, understanding, trustworthy, loving, merciful and as they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are possessors of life, they do the same, and give hearty approval to those who do, likewise.
- R. Kent Hughes, Romans, p. 41
Folks, that can only happen as you give yourself over to the Creator God, to Jesus and what a beautiful life it is as opposed to what we have read from Paul and what man who rejects God is like. You see, their sin is in direct contradiction to the revealed will of God, to His Word! It is easy to be conformed to this world, but it is far better to be transformed by the Word of God as we read and apply these things to our lives.
Let me leave you with these words from Paul as He said, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9. Let these things fill your life and overflow into your actions instead of the ugliness of this world! Be transformed and let others catch what you have – Jesus!
I like the observation that Donald Grey Barnhouse makes regarding using the mind that God has given to us to see He is the Creator God, to be wise instead of foolish. He said, “Will God give man brains to see these things and will man then fail to exercise his will toward that God? The sorrowful answer is that both of these things are true. God will give a man brains to smelt iron and make a hammerhead and nails. God will grow a tree and give man strength to cut it down and brains to fashion a hammer handle from its wood. And when man has the hammer and the nails, God will put out His hand and let man drive nails through it and place Him on a cross in the supreme demonstration that men are without excuse.” What more can you add to that, it is powerful. Don’t be a fool, be wise and receive the Creator God into your life, receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and see how the righteousness of God is revealed from heaven instead of the wrath of God!
Here are some excellant links to help further your studies on evolution-vs-creation!
Romans 1:18-19
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
Romans 1:21-22
because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools,
Romans 1:23
and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
Romans 1:24-27
Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Romans 1:28-31
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
Romans 1:32
who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.