(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now the reason that I started off with the book of Romans is not necessarily that I wanted to get into the reprobate doctrine. That's not necessarily what my main push was, but Romans is just packed with foundational doctrines. And I don't think it's a coincidence that reprobates are one of the first things that's mentioned in the book of Romans. And so the foundations of the Bible, I think, if you get a good grasp on the book of Romans, it's going to really help your Bible doctrine. It's going to really help you understand all the aspects of the Bible. And so there's a lot of just foundational things as far as salvation, this doctrine right here of the children of God versus the children of the devil, and just all these different things. Zionism is destroyed in this. Just a lot of different things in the book of Romans. And so if we get a good grasp, I think this is a good foundational book that will really help us to understand all the doctrines in the Bible. And so let's start off, though, before we get into the meat of that chapter. Each epistle usually has a greeting. It has something basically who they're talking to, who they're appealing to. And so if you go to the book of Galatians, he's talking to the churches at Galatia, and he's got something he's trying to get across at the very beginning, and who he's talking to specifically. And then there's other epistles where he's talking to single, individual people. And then there's general epistles that are just kind of talking to people in general, like the Hebrews or the general epistle of James that's just talking to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. But in Romans here, it should be like, you should know who it's written to, but he's writing to the Romans. He's writing to Rome. He's writing to them that are at Rome. There's a lot of things that are in here at the very beginning of this chapter that's interesting. In verse three, or at the beginning here, it says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised the four biased prophets and the holy scriptures. The one thing to remember is that the gospel was promised from the foundation of the world. And so throughout the Old Testament, the gospel was talked about, the gospel was promised to come. The gospel was always the promise from the beginning. If you think of Genesis chapter one, or Genesis chapter three, where you had the fall of man, and basically God made a promise that he was going to put enmity between her seed and thy seed, which was the serpent, and that he'll bruise his heel, and of course her seed was going to bruise Satan's head. So that prophecy is from the very beginning of the gospel, which is the seed, which was to come, which obviously went through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the way down to David. And it says that he is concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh. That David, throughout the Old Testament, is talked about how David was going to come and sit on his throne, and not talking about physical David, but talking about his seed that was going to come, which is Christ. And so what this really shows, these two verses, verse three and verse four, is showing the humanity of Christ, but then also the deity of Christ. So we see, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. So according to the flesh, he was born of David, right? But then it says, and declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. You know when he raised from the dead, that was the ultimate proof that he was the son of God, that he was God in the flesh. And so we know Jesus is the son of God, but we also know that he's the man Christ Jesus, right? He is the son of man. He called himself the son of man a lot in the Bible, and that's very important. We don't want to diminish that. You know, a lot of times we're really trying to push the deity of Christ, and it's warranted because a lot of people don't believe it, but we need to remember that Jesus was a man, and he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. And so that was a very important part because he is our propitiation. He is our redeemer, and it says it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a high priest and a merciful and faithful high priest to reconcile us. And so this really just kind of shows that two part of Christ there, that he's the son of man and he's the son of God. He is born of David. He's the seed of David physically, but he's also, he had no father, therefore he is the son of God. He had no beginning, right? And so a lot packed in here, I don't want to dwell on that too much because that's a whole sermon in itself, but it says by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. Notice right here it says the obedience to the faith. Now this is something at the very end of the book, it talks about the obedience of faith as well. And so sometimes you'll see in the Bible where it says he is the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. You know, it says that in Hebrews chapter 5. And so, you know, when you look at that, if you just looked at that verse by itself, then you'd be like, okay, obey him, do I need to keep his commandments to have eternal salvation? But when you understand that obey, look up the word obey in the New Testament. See what it's talking about. You know, it says, for they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report. So when obedience is actually most of the time in the Bible talking about faith, obedience to the faith, obedience meaning that you've put your faith on Christ, you've obeyed the gospel because you've believed the gospel. And so right here we can see that obedience of faith, so we can see in the Bible that obedience a lot of times, it says what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God. You know, it says judgment must first begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God, and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? So obeying the gospel is just believing the gospel. And if you want a reference to that, just look at Romans 10, Romans 10, 16, where it says, for they have not obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report. So because, you know, when it says for, it's because they have not believed. They have not obeyed because they have not believed, right? So anybody tries to tell you, well, you need to obey Christ because it says unto all them that obey him, well, right here, here's a great text for that, Romans 10 is another great text to that to show that obedience is talking about what are you putting your faith in. And so, again, there's a lot of stuff in this beginning part, this greeting part that's just some really good doctrinal stuff, really good pieces that you can use to kind of use definition of, or find definitions of terms. So let's keep going here. And so we have obedience to faith, to all that be in Rome. Now if you don't mind, you know, underlining anything, put all, to all that be in Rome, okay? Because one thing I want you to realize here is that he's talking to believers. He's writing specifically to believers in Rome. But as we go down here, he kind of talks about how he's longing to see them. And it says that their faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. So one thing about the people that he's writing to is that they're obviously doing a good job what they're doing. So he's not necessarily writing to rebuke them about anything. He's starting off here saying, your faith is, that your faith is manifest throughout the whole world. You know, like this is something that everybody is speaking of, it's spoken of throughout the whole world. It's something that you're not hiding under a bushel, so to speak. You know, everybody's seeing it. And so he's praising them for that. But then he goes on and basically he's giving them, kind of not an excuse, but he's basically saying I've been wanting to come see you, but I was let hitherto. And so, and this is another Bible study in itself, is what the word let can mean sometimes. Now let there be light. You know, the first mention, you know, of let in the Bible is to allow something, right? When we use the word let, a lot of times we're meaning like to allow something to happen. Let this happen, right? Well, sometimes in the Bible, let can mean actually the opposite. There's a, it's very small use. If you really want to go down deep with this, there's an intransient form of the verb, let. When it's used in the intransient form like this, it means hinder, okay? So if you want to go down deep on grammar. So when it says only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way, it's actually talking about hindering. But if you know how you're using that verb, you can, you can understand that. So in this case, let, it says he was let hitherto, meaning that he was hindered from going there, right? And so that's just a little thing to remember sometimes. And this is very small use of the word let. There's a place in the Old Testament where it says the Lord will do a work and who shall let it, okay? And so it's talking about who's going to hinder what God's going to do, right? God's going to do something. It's going to happen. You can't hinder that. So anyway, that's, that's, that's another nugget for another time because it doesn't really, it's not a big deal right here. You know, if you're reading this, you're going to understand what he's saying that he was trying to get there, but he couldn't make it. So, but notice what it says in verse 13 because this is what I kind of want you to really see before we get into the meat of the chapter because this really applies to chapter two. I want you to kind of keep this in the back of your mind when we get into chapter two. Verse 13 says, now I would not have you ignorant brethren that oftentimes I was purposed to come unto you, but I was led hitherto that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. So what he's saying is that I want to come unto you because I want to have fruit among you as well. And he kind of explains what he means by that. He says, I am dead or both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Now what he's saying is that I want to come to you so I can preach the gospel and get more people saved. I want to have more fruit among you. And he said, I want to preach the gospel unto you to whoever it is, right? He's deader to the unwise, to the wise, to the barbarians, the Greeks, everybody. He wants to see everybody get saved, and so he wants to win people to Christ in Rome. What's interesting about this, because he goes straight into that he's not ashamed of the gospel, is in chapter two there's a lot of confusion of what chapter two is talking about, who is it talking about. And so I want you to know that in chapter two it's almost like he's talking about a certain person, not necessarily a person he's writing to, but a person in general, a Jew that is justified by the law. And so he's kind of preaching to them the gospel. So we'll go back to that when we get into chapter two. One of the most famous verses in the Bible, in verse 16 there, it says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jews first and also to the Greek. So obviously this should be our moniker in life, is that we're not ashamed of the gospel. We know that it is the power of God and salvation. You know, when we go out soul winning, we need to remember that the gospel is the most important thing we're trying to get across. When we go to an atheist or we go to any other religion, here's how you simplify your life when it comes to soul winning. Give the gospel to whoever. When you go up to a Hindu, you know what you do? You give them the gospel. When you go up to a Muslim, what do you do? You give them the gospel. People say, well, let me talk about your five pillars of faith in Islam or your eightfold path in Buddhism or all your weird gods in Hinduism. You know, you don't try to bust that stuff out unless they literally are trying to, you know, like it's a stumbling block for them, right? Try to always get back to the gospel. You know, when I'm talking to a Muslim and they're trying to tell me all this other stuff about the religion, I'm constantly trying to get back just to the gospel. And even when you're dealing with an atheist or someone that believes in evolution that's hung up on that stuff, really just try to get back to the gospel. The power is in the gospel. And you know, you can spend hours and hours convincing somebody that the big bang is stupid and that creation makes more sense, but it's not going to get you anywhere. You know, you can spend all day going into the facts and going into the science of how creation makes more sense and that evolution doesn't make sense at all. And it's just not going to be profitable compared to giving them the gospel. The gospel is going to tear down all those walls, but the power of God is in the gospel. Salvation in the gospel is what we need to be focusing on when we go soul winning. So try not to get hung up on that type of stuff. I know it's easy to do, you know, where they're challenging you with that and trying to say that we're dumb because we believe in creation and we know that it's actually scientific and that it's easy to prove this evolution stuff wrong. But sometimes we've got to put away the pride and just say, you know what, let me give you the gospel. And I know it's hard to do sometimes, but you just need to be like, listen, let me give you the gospel. And if I have to answer some questions in order for you to give me the gospel, okay. But always try to get back to that because that is the power of God, you know, unto salvation is the gospel of Christ. And so just remember that when you're giving the gospels, emphasize the gospel and don't worry about all this other, you know, secular stuff. Even if you have the answer, really try to get back to the scriptures and the gospel. Now notice what it says in verse 17. It says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now what's interesting is if you don't mind underlining or if you're taking notes, underline or take notes revealed from faith to faith. Now what this means right here, what I believe this means is talking about salvation is from one believer to another. Only another believer can get another believer saved, okay. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit and a good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit. But here's the thing, a tree has to bring forth some kind of fruit. A Christian doesn't just pop out of nowhere, right. And so this is something that a lot of people are lost in when it comes to like they hand out a track and they think that that's going to get someone saved and, you know, I'm not saying it never happens because it is someone that wrote down an explanation, right. And I think people have gotten saved listening to stuff online too, you know, but obviously someone's explaining it. And so someone has to bring forth that fruit and it has to be a believer. Some false teacher's not going to bring forth that fruit because they're not in the faith, right. And so if you look at examples of this, if you look at Ethiopian eunuch when you go to Acts chapter 8, he was reading Isaiah. And a lot of people think, well, you know, get him the Bible and have him read the Bible. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, right. An unsafe person reading the Bible, even if they're reading gospel verses, unless someone is teaching them that, they're not going to get it. And so the Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah 53, which is the passage on the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection, right. And so that's where it says, you know, who has believed our report and that's talking about the gospel. And so the Ethiopian eunuch said, or Philip said, understandest thou what thou readest. And Philip said, it said, how can I except some man should guide me? And Cornelius was the same way. Cornelius didn't get saved from the angel. Peter had to go to him and preach him the gospel to be saved. He had to hear the words in which that he needed to be saved by, right, which was the words of God, but he needed someone to explain it to him. So there's a lot of cases like this where someone had to hear it and says, how shall I hear without a preacher? So there is a progression, you know, but it's faith to faith. It's a good tree bringing forth good fruit. And so we need to remember that and show, and that really shows our importance, out soul winning, excuse me. So out soul winning, that's how important it is because they're not going to get saved without us. We are the ambassadors for Christ and we have the ministry of reconciliation. So now we're going to get into the meat. So I tried to get through that as fast as I could. As far as, I really want to get into what the Bible teaches about reprobates because that is the meat of this chapter here because the beginning part is really just, he's kind of giving this greeting to the book and he's giving a greeting to these people he's talking to and he's kind of giving his desire what he wants to do once he gets there, but now he's kind of getting into the meat of what he's wanting to say, that he's not ashamed of the gospel and that it's faith to faith and the just shall live by faith, which is in Habakkuk, by the way, if you want to reference Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4, the just shall live by his faith, which goes back to our Calvinism argument, right? Whose faith is that? It's his faith. It's the person that's putting their faith in him, right? And so, but anyway, this is where it switches. You know when I first started reading Romans and you'd read, you'd hear about the reprobate doctrine and you're like, where in the world, how did he switch gears so quickly, right? He's kind of praising them on, you know, the fact that their faith is spoken of throughout the whole world and then they're kind of going into the gospel and how he wants to have fruit there and all of a sudden we're getting into reprobates, right? And so where does that switch? That happens right in verse 18. So what you have is this dichotomy of the children of God, those that are believers, and then you have the children of the devil. That's reprobates. And so are there other people besides those two groups? Yeah, they're just unsaved people which are the children of disobedience, the children of wrath, those that have not put their faith in him. Not all unbelievers are children of the devil and not all believers are reprobate. And that's what a lot of people try to teach with this passage is that this is just talking about unsaved people in general, but it's not. There is a difference between just an unsaved children of disobedience, remember we talked about what does obedience talk about a lot of times in the Bible? Not believing. What does the children of wrath mean? Well, it says, he that believeth not the sun shall not see light, but the wrath of God abideth on them. So anybody that's unsaved has the wrath of God abideth on them and they're in disobedience because they're not putting their faith in Christ. But the children of the devil, listen, if you're a child of somebody, you're always the child of that person. And just as much as you're the child of God, by putting your faith in Christ, once you become a child of the devil, that's forever too, you know? I don't believe you can be unborn from being a child of the devil. That's another sermon for another day, the children of Belial, but this is really where it splits. So we went 17 to 18, children of God, and now we're getting into what's going on here. Notice what it says in verse 18. Verse 18, it says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, now here's the key at the end of that, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. So this isn't all people that are ungodly and all the people that are unrighteous. This is talking about those that are unrighteous and ungodly who hold the truth in unrighteousness. So this is a subset of all people, right? We were all ungodly, we were all unrighteous, right? But there are certain people that are holding the truth in unrighteousness. So the wrath of God is revealed from heaven unto them. So what we're seeing here is that Romans 1 from here on out is showing God's wrath on a certain group of people, and we're going to see what that turns into, what that entails when it comes to what we would call, what the Bible calls reprobate. And so we already read the passage, but I just want to go through the verses on reprobate. I'm going to go through all the different verses on what a reprobate, when it's mentioned, what the Bible defines it as, and what the dictionary defines it as, okay? I'm not against dictionaries, but go to Jeremiah chapter 6, Jeremiah chapter 6. This is the first mention of reprobate. And so in verse 28 of Romans 1, we see that they're given over to a reprobate mind. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. So we see this is one mention of reprobate, but you may ask, what does that mean? What does it mean to be given over to a reprobate mind, or what does the word reprobate mean? Now this is a word that we don't use that often. I don't believe most people use it that often, but I believe they used it back in the 50s and stuff like that, what reprobate and stuff like that. If you watch older movies sometimes, you'll hear it. I remember I was watching an old John Wayne movie, and there was a guy that called this Chinese guy, he called him a Cantonese reprobate. It was hilarious. I don't know why, but it was just hilarious just to hear that word. No one uses that word, it seems like, anymore, but we'll see what that word means in the Bible. In Jeremiah 6, Jeremiah 6 in verse 30, and I'm not telling you to go watch John Wayne movies or anything like that, but what I'm saying is that it wasn't that long ago that people actually knew what that word meant. It wasn't like this is some archaic word here. It's just something that we don't use that often in our modern vernacular. Now Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 30, so at the end of the chapter there, notice what the Bible says. It says, reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them. So if you don't mind underlining, reprobate, and then reject it. So it defines what it is in that verse. Now reprobate silver, what is that talking about? Well, he's giving an analogy of who these people are. And Ezekiel 22, I preached on that when I was at a temple Baptist, it talked about the dross of silver and how God rejected that. It's like the tin, you know, it's like stuff that you don't want, right? It's the stuff that you refuse. We would use the word refuse, right? To me that's harder to say than reprobate, refuse. And so, you know, that's refuse, that's stuff that you don't want, that's stuff that you get rid of, right? And so reprobate is like that, it's the stuff that you're just trying to get rid of and you're rejecting it, right? And so reprobate, according to the first mention here, is in particular, it's people that God rejects, okay? And so important to realize here that God does reject people. Now we preached, I preached a whole sermon against Calvinism. So hopefully no one is trying to say that I believe God rejects people from the womb, right? So what we're teaching here, and there's a lot of straw men that they make with this doctrine when we talk about how we believe in the reprobate doctrine, as far as, well, we believe God, you know, is like we're Calvinist or I'll give you some other straw man arguments that they use with this doctrine, but dictionary.com, okay? Dictionary.com gives you two, you have the number one definition, number two, right? And so dictionary.com, this isn't like the 1828 Noah's dictionary here. This is just dictionary.com, this is like probably the most common, you know, what people would think when they hear a word. The first definition is a depraved, unprincipled, or wicked person. Well that pretty much explains it, you know, we've read the chapter, right? We already know what these people are, but this next one, it says, a person rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation. That's dictionary.com, and it's funny how fundamental Baptists, you know, like all these preachers can't, they just deny this, right, and it's like dictionary.com got it, and I guarantee the people that wrote that probably weren't saved, you know, they're not Bible believing King James only Baptists, but the second definition is exactly what the Bible teaches on this subject, right? Rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation. So you don't have to go to the dictionary, we saw it just in Jeremiah 6.30. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3. So I want to show you the passages that reprobates use, and honestly I believe these passages just completely define it, and these are the only places, there's 2 Timothy 2 chapter 3, Titus 1, and then 2 Corinthians will go too as well, but these passages, I don't think you're going to be wondering what this word means, or who these people are after we go through these passages. So it's 2 Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter 3, I'm going to turn there with you, and if you know this passage, this is almost like we're reading Romans 1 again. So it's the same type of people, it's the same group of people that we're talking about, and so it makes sense that the word reprobate would be in there. We'll just start at the very beginning of the chapter there. So 2 Timothy chapter 3, it says, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, sound familiar than what we were reading in Romans 1? Verse 4 there it says, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away, for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so did these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. So who are these people? Well it sounds exactly like Romans 1, but notice what it says, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Sounds kind of like dictionary.com, beyond the hope of salvation, right? But why will they never be saved? Is it because of their sin? No, it's because they won't believe, right? Believing is the only condition, and this is a huge straw man that they make on this reprobate doctrine, is that we believe that homosexuality, or being a queer or a fag, is what sends someone to hell, or that's why we believe that they won't go to heaven. No, we believe that it's because they won't put their faith in Christ, because they're reprobate concerning the faith. They're ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And something else they try to tell you is that you can't know who a reprobate is. Well notice what it says right after that verse. In verse 9 it says, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as there also was. So according to that verse, you're going to know who these people are, right? Now not everybody, right? It's like Christians, you don't always know who a Christian is by their outward appearance, but here's the thing. These people are doing things that are unnatural, things that we would vomit thinking about. Even in the flesh, right? Their vile affections and all this stuff. But a lot of people try to say, well you can't know that someone's a reprobate. Well I can know if they're a pedophile. I can know if they're a sodomite, if they're a queer, if they're a fag. I can know if they're a serial killer, right? And what's interesting is, do you know most serial killers are homosexuals? Jeffrey Dahmer, you know all the Green River killer, you know all these people and people are just like, oh that's weird. Yeah, most of the people that they killed and ate, you know not to get graphic, but these people eat each other, you know they're animals. And so these people were queers. I watched, I was doing this leadership mon thing and one of the days that we were in was a forensic day where we went to the forensics house and WVU has one of the top forensics. It's like number one in the US, which is kind of crazy that WVU had the number one forensic school in the nation. So anyway, all I have to say is that they had all this stuff on Jeffrey Dahmer, which is up in Ohio, right? He's dead now. But he killed a bunch of people and he actually ate them and did all this other stuff, right? I won't get that far into it, there's children here, but here's the thing. One thing that they mentioned, they said most of them, they were all men because he would go to the queer bars and pick them up, drug them, and kill them. And so everybody was just kind of, they're like, oh that's strange. I'm like, yeah that is, no that's actually not strange because the Bible taught us that. That's something that if you just read your Bible, you would know who these people are and you would know that that's what they're going to turn into eventually. So reprobate, go to Titus chapter one, and at the very end of the chapter there. So what do we know? What do we know about reprobates? Well, they're rejected by God. They're ever learning and never able to come into the knowledge of truth. And notice what it says here, and when we read it in there it says they have a form of godliness but they deny the power thereof. Does this sound familiar? Who hold the truth in unrighteousness. So there's a lot of things that are very similar to this, but in Titus chapter one verse fifteen it says unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. Now if you don't mind underlining or you're taking notes, underline the fact that there's defiled used there twice. It says unto them that are defiled and unbelieving. So we're not just talking about unbelievers, we're talking about those that are defiled and unbelieving. And it says that they, that even their mind and conscience is defiled, right, without natural affection and all this stuff, right? So the defiled part is what you need to remember there. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny, and being abominable and disobedient unto every good work, reprobate. Every good work, right? And so remember we were talking about total depravity? That's who fits this bill, okay? Now when people are born in this world we're not totally depraved that we can't believe and that we can't do anything good, right? But you know who I believe is? The reprobates, because it says unto every good work, reprobate, right? And so I believe the Bible, and so that's what it says. And so reprobate, silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them, they're ever learning, never able to come unto the knowledge of the truth. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. It says that in Titus it says that they profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him. So these are people that profess that they're Christians. These are people that are professing that they're godly people. That's why we gotta guard our children because where are they gonna come? They always try to come where the children are at. They always try to come where churches are at, where God's people are at, because God's people a lot of times are trusting of people, and they try to creep in, they're wolves in sheep's clothing. We don't have time to go to all the passages of this, or you can go to Jude, 2 Peter, and we'll definitely get to those chapters when we're dealing with false prophets, but reprobates and false prophets are one and the same. And those are why you see in the Catholic church, you see all these priests molesting children, why you see it happening in Baptist churches, where you find these molestation stuff, and that's why we do not have a nursery. That's why we don't have a nursery because what we believe is that the children should be with their parents because the parents are gonna be the best people to take care of their children, and I don't trust a hireling with my children. And why is that? Do I believe that there's a reprobate in here tonight? No, I don't believe that, but I don't take a chance either. There could be. You better believe that there's probably gonna be one that creeps in, and as soon as I find out they're gonna be booted out that door, and if not, through the window. And so I have no patience for homosexuals. I have no patience for the sodomites. They're already coming after us, even though I hadn't even preached, well, maybe I did preach against them on Sunday morning, but they're already plastering our Facebook page with disgusting pictures because these people are just vile and wicked, and they just want us to see these vile images. They're sending me messages on threats. Before I even started this church, they sent threats about my family, what they're gonna do to me, what they're gonna do to my children. But here's the thing, they're cowards, and those same people, if they were standing in front of me, would quiver underneath that car over there, if they were standing right here. And so I'm not afraid of them, but they're not gonna be near my children, and they're not gonna be near any of your children if I have anything to do with it, and they're not gonna be near any of you guys. So why do we have a no-queers-allowed policy in this church? Well, Romans chapter one, because first of all, why would we cater to people that can't believe that God has rejected? And that's what I want you to see tonight, is that people are like, well, God doesn't give up on anybody. Well, I just read twice where it says He gave up on these people, right? But I wanna get on here. So He gives up on them twice. He gives them over to a reprobate mind. And so, but going on here, it says, because that which may be known of God is manifested in them, for God has showed it unto them, in verse 19. And what I noticed here is that these verses, there's like two verses and it's a sentence. So a lot of times you wanna keep your sentences together. That'll help you kinda understand what's happening. What they're doing, what's happening in Romans one here, is He's explaining the same thing over and over again. It's not like necessarily He's going down this like spiral, like where you're just getting deeper and deeper. It's more so He's just explaining it over and over again in different ways of saying it. Does that make sense? And so He's just stating it in a different way and kind of giving a little more information in each time, right? So here it says they hold the truth in unrighteousness. So here's someone that knows the truth, rejects it obviously, because they don't get saved. And so this is where you have a lot of people that are coming up in independent fundamental Baptist churches that don't get saved and then they become a queer. They become a reprobate. Because they knew the truth. They've heard it over and over and over again. They reject it and then eventually God gives them over to this reprobate mind. Now it says, so it explains why that they hold the truth and it explains in each one of these passages. So in verse 20 here, it says, for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, be understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead so that they were without excuse, without excuse, because, because, notice this, because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Why did they become a reprobate? Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Why did they become a reprobate? Because they held the truth in unrighteousness. So it's giving you a lot of examples of why they became this way, right? Because of holding the truth in unrighteousness, because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. And so another thing to notice here is that God's, the creation is a great way to understand that there is a God. And most people you run out to, I've run into people that don't even really necessarily believe, you know, like they're like, I believe there's a God because look around us, how did this happen? And these are people that are unbelievers. So a lot of, the creation is a great reminder to people as far as that there is a God, there is a creator, and it says that it's the eternal power in Godhead. It says that they're clearly seen in the creation. Remember how I was talking about the Trinity? And you may have zoned out when I was talking about like atoms, protons, neutrons, and electrons, and like the universe is made of time, space, and matter. Well, the Godhead, what's the Godhead? Is it a head with like pieces on it? Well, it's not, okay? Now when I first read that, that's what I think of. I think of the Godhead. I think of like a head with like three pieces to it, right? The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Head in this sense, when you have this suffix of head, it's a middle to old English way of saying hood. So we would normally say like childhood, right? My daughters are in their childhood or infancy in the one, but you know, with childhood, what does that mean? The state of being a child. The being of a child, right? Well, what is Godhead? You can kind of say Godhood, which would mean the state of being God, God's being, okay? So a little nugget there. You can do the etymology of that if you want to in your own free time, but I just know personally when I read Godhead, I'm like, I'm thinking of a head, okay? I'm thinking of like God's head, you know, like, anyway, so you may think that I'm stupid for thinking that, but anyway, but if you look it up, it means the state of being God. So God's being is seen clearly in creation. So when you look at the universe is made of time, space, and matter, right? Those three make up the universe and they're not, each piece is not each other, right? They're separate things that make up the universe. Well, space is made up of three dimensions. Time is made up of liquid solid gas, and time is made up of past, present, and future. Trinity's within Trinity's, neutrons, protons, electrons within an atom, and we can go on and on and on about just different elements in the world that have three pieces to them. And so I deal with three dimensions all the time in engineering, right? You got to think of all those three dimensions, you got to think of all those, and so there's always threes that are being thrown at me that I always have to look at things, right? And so you can see the Trinity, you can see God's being, you can see the Godhead in the universe, and these people deny it, right? And so you can see the atheists being in here, you can see the people that are doing the big bang theory and the evolutionists. It says in verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And isn't that the world we live in today? And so these people want to profess that they're wise, you have all these people on these Hollywood shows and all these talk shows and they want to act like they're all wise and that Christians are dumb and the Bible's dumb, but the wisdom of men is nothing compared to the wisdom of God. The wisdom of men is, God's foolishness is greater than the wisdom of God, or the wisdom of men, right? And so it's just laughable when these Richard Dawkins and all these different people, who's the guy that's in the wheelchair, Stephen Hawkins, right? You would think that guy would want salvation, right? He's like this troll-looking guy in a chair. And the reason I make fun of him, because he's a God-hating reprobate that is leading people to hell, and so I'll make fun of him all day I want because he's a little monster that's trying to lead people to hell, because he's a reprobate, because he hates God. And so these people that hate God, they have no love in my heart. And so Titus chapter 1, we looked at that, 2 Corinthians chapter 13. And so 2 Corinthians chapter 13 is interesting because it's not really giving you a definition of like a reprobate or like the attributes of a reprobate necessarily, it's actually talking about reprobates as in like people. It's basically stating, are you a reprobate? Do you think we're reprobates? So 2 Corinthians is kind of interesting in that, but I just want to go through all the places. So this is the last place where reprobate's mentioned, that word anyway. And so in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5 there, 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 5, it says examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not that your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? So what's he saying? He's basically, he's asking them, you know, you need to prove yourself whether you're even saved. And if you're not saved, you're probably a reprobate, because you got to understand who is he talking to? He's talking to people that are in the church, people that are professing to know God, right? And so he believes in a lot of these epistles that there's people in there that are infiltrators, that are false prophets, that should be accursed, right? You think of Galatians, where they're preaching a false gospel and he says, let them be accursed. And he says, and Galatians, you know, I'm afraid of you lest I have bestowed labor upon vain. But he's basically saying, I would, those that trouble you would be cut off, right? So he knows that there's someone in there that's teaching a false gospel in Galatians. And so he's saying to these people, he's like, listen, you need to examine yourselves and make sure that you're, you're even saved unless you're a reprobate, right? And so he goes on though, it says in verse six, but I trust that you shall know that we are not reprobates. So he's basically saying, listen, we're not reprobates, we're not these false apostles, you know, like it talks about in the Bible, we're not these false prophets that are creeping in the churches, you know, we're the real deal. And then it goes on in verse seven, it says, Now I pray to God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. Now a lot of people have contested what this is talking about, because he's saying, you know, though we be as reprobate. So Paul is saying, you know, and Timothy and all those that are that are taught, you know, that are writing this epistle, you know, he's saying, though we be as reprobates. Now the one way to look at this is that they're, they think they're kind of treating them as if they're reprobates, right? And so do those things which are honest, though we be as reprobates in your sight, remember, he's like, you know, they're, they're kind of putting false accusations on him, you know, like he's weak, he's, you know, all this stuff, you know, if you're if he just got done rebuking them for all that stuff in early in the chapters there. But I think it's kind of saying something different here. It says in verse eight, it says, for we can do nothing against the truth before the truth. That's a strong statement. And for a lot of times in the Bible just means because. So why are they as reprobates for for we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. Now this goes back to the fact that as Christians were born of God, right? Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin, for to seed remaineth enemy cannot sin because he is born of God, right? Now, that doesn't mean that we're never sinned because we still have our flesh, right? But it's talking about our soul, our spirit, I believe a reprobate is is completely opposite of that. We're, we're going to get through that list of they're full of all unrighteousness, right? They're full of all this stuff, so they can do nothing for the truth. And every good work reprobate, right? But as a Christian, your soul, your spirit can do nothing against the truth. Because you're saved, you have the blood of Christ on you, you're righteous. You have Jesus Christ's righteousness imputed unto you, right? So I personally believe that when he says, though we be as reprobates, he's using it on the other side. We're rejected in the fact that we're rejected from the world, from sin and all that stuff, meaning that as as we're walking in the spirit, we can do nothing against the truth. Because that's a strong statement to make. The only way that I believe that that statement can be true for we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth is if he's talking about spiritually. As a spiritual Christian, meaning if you're walking in the flesh. That's why it says, he that abideth in him, sinneth not. It says in First John chapter three. So if you're abiding in him, if you're walking in the spirit, you're not sinning, right? And if you're sinning, you're not abiding in him. Doesn't mean you're not saved. It just means that you're not walking in the spirit. So I don't mean to get too deep with that, okay, but what I'm saying is that what are we talking about with reprobates? We're talking about an extreme example here. We're talking about a reprobate is someone that's completely rejected by God and someone that's completely against the truth. Someone that, under every good work, reprobate. And so that's what a reprobate means in these passages, you know, and this is, that's the only mention. I showed you them all, right? And we already read Romans one, but those are the only mentions of the word reprobate in the Bible. So what do you think it means? It's not just an unbeliever. It's someone that's rejected by God.