Good to have each one of you here tonight. Beautiful day today. And can you imagine this? It's already March the 12th. Wow. All right, we've got a lot to cover tonight and dealing with the restraining spirit removed as a judicial act of God. We are in Romans. We started Romans a couple of weeks ago. And tonight we'll be in Romans chapter one, 24 to 32. And so let's go to the Lord in prayer. And then we'll start. And we've got a lot to do. And so, Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, as we come to you right now in the name of Jesus, we thank you, dear Lord, for mercy and grace. And we thank you, dear Heavenly Father, for this time tonight. We thank you for your word that can teach us so much and reveal so much to us. And I thank you for that. And so now, Father, as we work our way through this tonight, dear God, I pray that we would learn, open our understanding, and we might understand the scriptures. Lord, give everybody in here, young and old alike, understanding tonight. May the seed fall on good ground and multiply. We ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, get your Bibles in your hand. We're gonna look at some introductory stuff before I get started into this. Tonight, in many ways, this is going to be prophetic, and then it's going to be present, and then it's going to be future. We're going to, I'm going to try to take a mass of information and make it to you in one hour, so very, very, very important. All right, I want you to turn in your Bibles, first of all, to 1 Timothy, chapter four. 1 Timothy, chapter four. Now, one of the things we've got to deal with tonight When you look at Romans, what we're gonna be dealing with tonight, I wanna take just a second and put some other stuff together for you so you can see it all together. Okay, 1 Timothy chapter four, verses one to five. Watch this now. Now we're gonna be talking about prophecy and then we're gonna talk about present, okay? Here we go. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. The thing that I want you to get tonight is the fact that the conscience can be seared, all right, with a hot iron. In other words, it has no feeling whatsoever. My wounds on my abdomen were seared at one point, and they have no feeling whatsoever. All right, verse three, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. Verse five, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. All right, so we look at the first couple of verses there and we realize there's gonna be something that's gonna depart from the faith and what they do, their conscience is gonna be seared. In other words, they'll have no conscience about anything they say, anything they do. Now turn over to 2 Timothy chapter three, 2 Timothy chapter three. And watch this now, we're gonna read, Oh, let's read verses 1 to 7, 2 Timothy 3, 1 to 7, then we'll read verses 12 to 14, okay? Now, watch this. This know also that in the last days, here we are again pointing to the last days, right? 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. Now make sure you mark that word natural affection, okay? Make sure you pay attention to that. Without natural affection, truce breakers. False accusers, incompetent, that means out of control. Fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded. Lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. That's some of that biblical separation. 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, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, as James and Jamerys, well, let's just drop down to verse 12 real quick. Ye and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Verse 13, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Verse 14, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned. Wow. Regardless of what they do, you keep on doing this. All right? Ever, ever so important. Now, Romans 1, 24 to 32. Now what we're gonna notice in the first part of this, there's three stages of reprobation. All right, three stages of reprobation. Ever so important, just three stages of reprobation. And I'm gonna give them to you. All right, the first one is gonna be in verse 24. The second one, will be verses 25, 26. The third one will be verse 28. Now, as we look at this tonight, let's look up there at Romans 1, 24. You can write out beside it, from God to man. They're going to move from God to man, okay? And, We're gonna see this, these three parts, if you please. Verse 24, look what they're gonna give up. It's gonna be the heart. The heart, all right? The heart. Let's read the verse, verse 24. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts. to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Now let's learn something here tonight. First of all, each one of these, verse 24, where it says, wherefore God also gave them up. Then in verse 26, for this cause God gave them up. And then in verse 28, God gave them over, okay? In each one of these things, It talks about if you had a prisoner and you took the prisoner down to the jailer and you gave him over to the jailer, all right? And so what you find here, when he says in verse 24, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. What we find here then, God did not add anything to this. He gave them, all right, to the pollutions of their own nature and heart. They dishonored God, so God is going to let them dishonor themselves, okay? And so wherefore, for God also gave them up to uncleanness. He abandoned them. The restraining spirit of God was taken away. And lo and behold, here you find them. This is step number one of the three stages of reprobation. All right, he gave him up to hand him over to the jailer. That word uncleanness, what it means is simply this. They began to live in such a way where they felt no moral obligation to God. All right, they felt no moral obligation to God. Now, what does uncleanness mean? All right, when you look it up and deal with or search it up, it means to rot. Like the corruption, like a corpse in a grave would rot. And so when he says, in this first sense, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. It means he turned them over, he backed off and let them, their own hearts, what was in their own hearts already. You talk about an argument for depravity, you talk about an argument for original sin, Boy, here it is. God, the only thing God had to do was walk off and remove his restraining hand. And that was gonna be a judicial act of God to let that happen. Now watch this. In other words, what God was saying, all right, I'm gonna turn you over. Watch this now. to the jailer the lust of their own hearts. All right? The uncleanness that was in them. He was turning them over to the rotting corruption like a corpse in a grave. That's what he was doing. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. He gave them up to rottenness, like a corpse in a grave. And he was going to let their own hearts do this to them. It said there, through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. That's the first stage of reprobation. is the fact when they leave God or godliness, anything like that, and focus on man. It's a judicial act of God that says, I'm gonna back off. and I'm gonna let your own rotting heart control you. I'm going to put you in the jail house of your own filthy, corrupted heart. And so then we find this in verse 25. It said, who changed the truth of God into a lie. So now what we've got, you got a truth and a lie. and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. So now what we have is we start to move toward the second stage of reprobation. This never ceases. We find that all through the Bible and other places, God gave them up. Think about this. If you want to, you can turn to Acts chapter 7, verses 40 to 43. Acts chapter 7, verses 40 to 43. He says, saying unto Aaron, make us gods to go before us. So what happens? As for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we won't not what has become of him. And they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice and to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God, watch this now, then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets. Oh, ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of 40 years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Molech, and the star of your God, Rimfan, figures which you made to worship them, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon." You see, back then, when those people turned from God to man, God turned and gave them up. You see that? And all God has to do is to walk away from you. And without the restraining hand of God in your life, there's just no depth to the bottom of human depravity. None whatsoever. And so we find here then in our text, Romans 125, who changed the truth of God into a lie. We live in a day where boy, the society that we live in, the one thing they want to do is to turn the truth of God into a lie. Oh, in so many ways, it is a miraculous prophetic time that we live in. And so now watch what happens. Now because of verse 25, he states verse 26. Now this is the second stage of reprobation. He says, for this cause, for what cause? Verse 25. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. Now, what's happened, see the first stage was simply this, they left God and focused on man. The second stage of reprobation is that now they've totally given over to it. Man to man, woman to woman, all right? Gross homosexuality. Now we find this. For this cause God gave them up. It's the same situation here, ladies and gentlemen. God gave them up. In other words, he turned them over to the prison house of their own depravity. All right? Now, watch this. If you would, you can turn to Ephesians chapter four, Verses 17 to 24, Ephesians 4, 17 to 24. I'm gonna read this to you now. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened. Now, I printed that in red for you. The understanding is darkened. In other words, they don't know what they're doing. All right? The only thing they know is they're satisfying their own flesh. That's it. They have no idea of the consequence of their action. The only thing they know is in the present they're satisfying their flesh. You see, when the understanding is darkened, you can talk to somebody, young or old, all you want to. You can use every argument there is. You can relegate faith to evidence. I think I better explain that. A lot of times, preachers will take a miraculous thing and turn it into something that's not miraculous. Let me give you an idea. You know, by faith, we accept the fact that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, lived for three days in the whale's belly, right? Well, what happens then, a preacher will go to the pulpit and say, I read about it in a guy in England that was followed by a huge shark or something and a couple days later they cut the shark open and the guy was still alive. What he has done at that point, he has said, don't you believe this about Jonah because you're supposed to take that by faith. You believe it because I gave you some evidence of it. We don't live off evidence, we live by faith. And preachers make a terrible mistake when they want to give evidence to support your faith. Because then people start having faith in evidence rather than faith in God. And our focus is faith in God, not the evidence. We can talk about things, scientific things that are amazing. Like hell, for instance. I got this. information at home, it talks about how hot the earth is at one mile down, six miles down, 10 miles down. And as you go down like that, man, the heat just exponentially builds. And you get down close to the center of the earth and you're looking at something that's over 6,000 degrees, hot enough to melt rocks. And so that's pretty hot, isn't it? Well, that fella that said, oh, I'm tormented in these flames, I reckon if he's close to that spot, he's tormented, isn't he? You see? So it's very important, if you have the understanding darkened, it doesn't make any difference. A person with darkened understanding, they're in a bad way. Let's start at verse 18, Ephesians 4, 18. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. In other words, you try to talk to some people, their understanding's darkened, they're living in ignorance, and their heart is blinded. So you're gonna get, the response you're gonna get from them would be the same response you'd get if you went back there and talked to that door. Nothing. Verse 19, who being past feeling, there that word is again, see that? Who being past feeling. Now look down just right at the bottom of that, there's 1 Timothy 4.2, see it? It says, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. You know what that is? That is past feeling, isn't it? Past feeling. They can't feel anything. They're numb. Man, they have no conscience. Watch this now. Verse 19, Ephesians 4, 19, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. What a combination. Let me fulfill my lust and hang on to my money. Wow. You see, what we find here then, but they have no feeling about that. They have no conscience about that. I want you to know something. Truly born again people, the one thing that manifests that you are truly born again is the fact that you have a conscience. You've got a conscience. And it'll sting you and burn you at times. And man, it'll wake you up and it'll mess with you. Now watch this. These people don't have a co-being past feeling. Look what they did. They gave themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. In other words, they have no feeling about it. They're no conscious about it. They're just focused on their self. But ye have not so learned Christ. If so, be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him. How do you like that? You heard him and then you was taught by him. As the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation, that's the old manner of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Look at the difference between the two. One has no conscience. The other has a conscience and a new mind. He's a new creation in God. See the difference? I could spend a lot of time on this, but it says, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. That's the marks of somebody that's truly born again. You see, the people that's not truly born again, they don't have those marks. They don't have a conscience about things. They live for themselves. The only thing they want to do is feed themselves. They've got an excuse for everything. And as one man put it, they have a childish mentality because You take a child to the grocery store, and what's the child? I want that, and I want that, and I want that, and I want that, and I want that. That's the marks of an unsaved person. You see, the truly born again, their contentment is not found in the world. As saved people, we have a job and we use that to bring glory and honor to God. We make money and we give that back to God. Our focus is not the world, it's God. And that's where our contentment comes in. All right, let's go back over now to Romans 1. And we're talking about the three stages of reprobation. The first one was there in verse 24, all right? And so God gave them up to this uncleanness, which means there's no moral obligation to God. They've left God and focused on man. And just think about this. When our culture began to focus on man and move away from God, what happened? Look at the gross immorality that's come to America. You see, why is it like that? It's because, ladies and gentlemen, you're living in a prophetic time. Right now. I told you we'd start off prophetic, move into the present, and you might not recognize it, but you should recognize it. Right now, you're living under the judgment of God in this country. And so, why is that? You can tell we are. When I was a kid, you think, They'd have took these people out and tarred and feathered them. And they'd have been no conscience about that at all. And that's the lost people doing that. And the other thing is this, they'd have made sure they stayed in the closet. And they'd have tried to put the closet in the closet. To do that. And having men in girls' sports? No way. You see, what you're doing, I want you to realize, you're living in a judicial time. You're living in the judicial act of God upon this nation. Right now, you're living it, in this day, right now. And so the first stage of reprobation is they move from God to man. The second stage is that now all their total focus is man there in verse 26 and 27. Now watch this. When I read those to you out of Timothy, I said, when it talked about nature, I said, watch that. Now let's read verse 26 and 27 together. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. See, so now verse 24 was the heart, And now down here, the body, the body, the heart, the body, the heart, the body. You see that? And the third point is going to be the mind. But now we got the heart and now the body. Verse 26. Now watch this. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was met. Well, Galatians 6, 7, so whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And so what you have here, now just think of the insanity of this. I heard one of these moral perverts was being interviewed, and it was a guy, and he looked right into the camera and said, there's not one verse in the Bible that condemns us. Don't know what Bible, turning the truth into a lie. You see, playing off the ignorance of people And so God gave them up. The second thing, that to their vile affections, they moved from God to man, and then they lusted after man to man, woman to woman. God gave them up, which means he handed them over to the jailer of vile affections. And so with that being said, we've taken care of the heart and now we take care of the body. God gave them over, but now you're gonna have to spend some time with me as we look at the third one, because the third one is the final one. Now, let me show you two things and you can make note, you can make a note on your notes. In verse 28, Write down this to the side of it. A rejection of God's truth, verse 28. Rejection of God's truth, okay, in verse 28. Then I want you to look down at verse 32 and out to the side of that right there. Rejection of God's truth, okay? Now let's begin to take our time and work our way over this. Now we find Israel was constantly doing this. Boy, moving away from God. Let me read you something. I'm gonna read to you Psalm 81, Psalm 81, verses 10 to 12. Psalm 81, Verses 10 to 12. It says, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust. But now look what I've got underlined for you there. And they walked in their own counsels. They walked in their own counsels. You see, once God leaves somebody alone, once God does this judicial act, of leaving you to yourself, like he said, I gave them up. Once God gives you up like that, I want you to know, it says there, and they walked in their own counsels. In other words, the way they view morality is right to them. The way they view everything is gonna be right to them. I had a guy come up to me one time, he said, tell me, just tell me anything, just don't tell me the truth. And you see, they walked in their own councils. And so these reprobated people, they counsel their selves, and they counsel amongst themselves. Why? Because misery loves company? No, not at all. That's not the purpose of that. The purpose of that is acceptance. You see, they're not going to accept God's counsel because God's counsel's not going to accept them. And so they find people that will give counsel that they can live with. So they'll counsel them and them will counsel them. They keep their counsel amongst themselves and they walked in their own counsels. You cannot counsel a person like that. All right, here we go now. Let's deal with the third one. So we find number one, all right, the heart. All right, up here in verse 24. The second stage of reprobation is the body, verse 26. The third stage of reprobation, which is complete, is the mind. The mind, look at verse 28. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. In other words, they had this about God laying in the background of their mind, but man, they hated every second of it. Why? Because they were constantly rejecting God's truth. And so they do everything they can, all right? They didn't want to retain God's knowledge. They were rejecting God's truth. And so with that, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Gave them over to a reprobate mind. Now, I want you to make sure you hear what I'm about to say to you, because I think it'll give some of you answers. All right? I've heard people say, how can they, how can the politicians vote like that? How can they do that? And so I'm fixing to give you an answer for that tonight. Okay? So here we go now. So God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Now, verse 29 says, being filled with all unrighteousness. See that? Now, that being filled, it means to a complete degree of involvement, okay? Being filled, right there, means to a complete degree of involvement. All righty? Now, I want to stop right there just for a second. Now look at verse 31, please. It says, without understanding. See that? I've got it in red for you there in the notes. Verse 31. Now, without understanding, that means they're senseless, foolish action. Senseless, foolish action. In other words, you that are saved will look at them and say, that don't make sense. That's totally foolish to make that decision. that without understanding, in other words, they have no understanding of the consequences of their actions. All right, now, let's talk about something. Let's go ahead and read verse 32, please, if you would. Who knowing the judgment of God, see, there it is again. Verse 28, they didn't want to retain God in their conscience. Now down to verse 32, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death. That means there's, the Bible says there's no fear of God before their eyes. There's no fear of God before their eyes. Have you ever tried to talk about God's judgment to somebody that had no fear of God before their eyes? You might as well be talking to a stump. All right. "...which commit such sayings, are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Now, so we looked at three stages. The first one, verse 24 there, the heart, then The second stage, verse 25 and 26, they turn the truth into a lie, and we talk about the body. Now the third stage, verse 28, they turned them over to a reprobate mind. Now listen, how does a reprobate mind work? Okay? Now this word here for reprobate in the old English, means a failed, rejected mind, a worthless mind. A failed, rejected mind, okay? Now how does that work? In other words, it's like this. What you're learning here tonight is this. Some of the politicians in Washington, they wouldn't think about becoming a homosexual. They wouldn't think about becoming a lesbian. All right? But they will do this. They'll help you to be that. And it will not bother their conscience at all. See, but have pleasure in them that do them. They'll not do it themselves, but they'll help you do it. and they'll have pleasure in helping you do it. They'll have pleasure in helping you to be a moral pervert. Doesn't bother them none. So how is it that these people can do that? It's because they have a reprobate mind. You see? In other words, a failed mind, a rejected mind, a worthless mind. You see, they have some morality themselves, but they approve of those that do not. With all of their counsel. Well, God loves everybody. Well, everybody regardless of of this or that should have a right, and so on and so forth. They can do that. Why? Because they have a reprobate mind. Now why is this so important to you people that's sitting here tonight? Why? Because number one is recognition. You need to recognize for yourself and for those around you, I'm here as a pastor. I want you to be able to recognize the fact that you're living in a culture. Just think about this. The anti-culture of the 60s has become the culture of today. All right? And we can see it. And so what we have then here, these people know fear of God before their eyes. You must realize this, folks. You must realize this. When you're around that type of person, regardless, you must never forget, God has given them up to uncleanness. All right? through the lust of their own hearts. When you get around those people, know this, God has given them up to that, okay? And then you must realize this, when it comes to man to man, woman to woman, as you look at right here in this second stage of reprobation, They think that's perfectly okay. How is it that a judge could say it's right for these queers to be married? Well, the judge has a reprobate mind. You see, when you know the word of God and learned the word of God, then you have answers to why. Why would a judge do that? Why would he rule on that? Well, you're looking at it right here. You see that? Once somebody has a reprobate mind, they're gone. Because even though they don't do some of that themselves, they will help others do that. And how can they do that? It's because they've rejected God's word. Now just think about this. Verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. That's a rejection of God's truth, isn't it? And so what you have up here, just think they changed, verse 25, they changed the truth of God into a lie. And when they done that, then these people in verse 28 didn't want to retain God at all. And then down in verse 32, who knowing the judgment of God, and even though they know the judgment of God, they have no fear of God. You see their mind is so far gone at this point. that even though they know the judgment of God, they still want to do this. Now, the conflict we live in with this culture is this. The conflict is between the godly contented person and those of the discontented culture. What do you find? I find all kinds of people today. And guess what? They say they're Christian, but they're totally discontent. Now, a discontented Christian, that's an oxymoron. More like a moron. Why? Because as we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, we love the Lord with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul. And in that, and knowing that I'm saved and on my way to heaven, guess what? My contentment, is in Christ. My contentment is in God. My contentment is in the providence of God. As I go through life, the providential things that happens and stuff, I can find myself content in that. But I live in a culture that is so discontent They strive for money as their God. They strive for selfish reasons in so many ways. And you find that it's so rampant, it gets down to the point they want to do this, verse 32, I mean verse 31, pardon me, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection. And now you read that while ago. Implacable, unmerciful. You find these people that are absolutely discontent. You see, and what does that cause? There's a conflict then between the godly contented person and those of this discontent culture. Why, they always want more. So when we look at these three stages of reprobation, it starts off, God turns them over to the heart, with their own heart, the pollutions of their own nature. And then God gave them up to their own bodies. They focus on their own bodies. That's it, nothing outside of that. And they have no shame, do they? No shame. I can remember when they were shamed so much that they stayed in the closet. Wouldn't dare come out. You see? But now there's no shame. How can that be? Well, listen, when God, go to verse 29 now, I'm working on the end of this thing. Being filled with all unrighteousness. That word filled means to a complete degree of involvement, okay? Now just think about this. When God turns somebody over to a reprobate mind, they have no shame about what they're doing. None. They want you to accept their insanity, their immorality, because they have no shame. And the reason they get that way is because they've rejected the truth. We find right here, man, they changed the truth to a lie, then they reject the truth. You see that? Have you ever tried witnessing to one of those people? You see, they don't want to hear it. Why? Because it's condemning. Okay? And so, with the reprobate mind, now just think about this, with that reprobate mind, remember now, Okay, the reprobate mind. It's a failed, rejected mind. It's a reprobate mind. It has no conscience, all right, about things. Their conscience is seared with a hot iron. They have no conscience. They can wear a suit and look good and be as grossly immoral and wicked as can be. All right? Now, I want to take you through the 22 characteristics of a reprobated culture. All right? 22 things, 22 characteristics of a reprobated culture that's listed right here in your face. Okay? Let's look at these things and let's see, and let's talk about it just a little bit. Okay, start in verse 29. Being filled with all unrighteousness. The first thing he's listed here is fornication. All right, but now remember it's unrighteousness, fornication. Now what's fornication? That's sex between two unmarried persons. We call it shacking up. All right, now listen to me. Listen, listen real close. Sister Fowler was witnessing just the other day to a waitress, and she said, oh, I'm Baptist. And so when she got to talking to her about where you go to church, she said, Friendship. And she talked to her a little bit more. And she said, yeah, me and my boyfriend, we've been living together now for the past year. So there she is shacking up with her boyfriend and going to Friendship Baptist Church, thinks it's just great. That's fornication. Guess what that is? That's a mark. Remember now, that's a characteristic of a reprobated culture. Wickedness. Now wickedness, this wickedness here is just general wickedness. Right? Turn on the radio and what do you hear? Man, all around this town and over there, across the river, man, there's killings, shootings going on every day. I mean, my goodness. I mean, it's got down to the point now every time I listen to something, it's up there in cold rain, cold rain, cold rain, cold rain, cold rain. And I'm thinking, wow. Covishness, that means greedy. Greedy, greedy, greedy people. Okay? Covishness. Now that's listed as one of the characteristics of a reprobated culture. One of the hardest things anymore, listen, is to get sage people, that's members of a church, to tithe. They just won't do it. They have no faith in God. Actually, they shouldn't be a member. Because if they don't have enough trust in God to tithe, they don't have no trust in God at all. So I know one church, I've known several over the years, that if you didn't tithe, they'd vote you out. They'd come talk to you about it and say, listen, this is God's work and this is how it's supposed to be, blah, blah, blah. And if you can't trust God with that, we don't need you here. Maliciousness. Have you ever been around somebody that's just malicious? Man, they're just conniving, sneaky, lying people, full of envy. Oh my goodness, does that ever describe our culture today? Everybody, man, everybody's envious of somebody else. Well, you know, he's got a bigger car, a bigger house, a bigger debt, right? Murder. Well, all you have to do is just listen to the news about that around here. Debate, want to argue with you about everything. We live in a culture today that people want to argue with you. Debate. Deceit. Malignity. Those are just rotten. Whispers. Backbiters. Haters of God. Despiteful. Proud. Boy, we live in that. You see, these 22 things are the characteristics of a reprobated culture. Boasters. Well, as one fellow said, if you took the boasting out of most of the TV programs, you wouldn't have any TV. with all the things they wanna do is brag about stuff. Inventors of evil things. Are we living in a time where there's inventors of evil things? I mean, you name it, it's there, isn't it? I mean, every wicked, nasty thing you could think of. I mean, it's so, You turn on the radio, you can't listen to the radio for five minutes without them advertising some type of sex help. All right? You know what? It's inventors of evil things. They want to take holy things and make it common. Disobedient to parents. Do we live in a time like that? Now listen, it's not so much that the parents allow that the child is disobedient. It's this, it's that the parents allow the disobedience. You see that? And when it says disobedient to parents, that's what the children are going to do because the parents allow it. And so, in other words, the parents are rejecting the word of God. You see that? Without understanding. Without understanding. They don't understand what they're doing. Without understanding, it's senseless, foolish action. They don't understand what they're doing. Covenant breakers. Boy. When I was a kid, if two men shook hands on something, one of them would have to die before they broke what they said they'd do. I mean, that's all there is to it. And now they can shake hands, put it on paper, hire lawyers, take pictures, everything else, and they'd still break the covenants. That's why marriage is so temporary. This is without natural affection. Implacable, unmerciful. Those are the characteristics of a reprobated culture. Being filled with all unrighteousness. In other words, now look at that verse 29, being filled with all unrighteous, being filled In other words, they're filled to a complete degree of involvement. In other words, when you look at this reprobated culture, you look at those 22 things, you'll realize that these people are filled to the point to where there's complete involvement in this. Some one thing, some another. And it all falls at the feet of simply this. There's no fear of God before their eyes. None. And so what we find then, in closing tonight, you've got the three stages of reprobation. God turned them over to their own hearts, and then they go after their own bodies, and then God turns them over to a reprobate mind. Now notice this, and I'm done. Verse 28, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things, which are not convenient, it's not right, to do. To do. You see that? To do. To do. In other words, they are going to do these things. And so, do we live in a reprobated culture? We do, don't we? According to the Word of God, we are living in a reprobated culture. Not only do we see those 22 things right there, but those 22 things end with those two dots, don't they? And then it throws us into verse 32. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, There's no fear of God before Him. Not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. So now look at this. Do, down to the bottom there, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. See that? Do. Do. That's why you have up in verse 28, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do. See that? So when God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do, you that are saved, all that you have to do is watch and see what they do. Because what they do, will manifest. Has God given them over to a reprobate mind? Look at what they do. Now I end with this. The way you recognize that is this. They have no conscience about what they do. They have no shame. Just like that girl that said she was a member over at Friendship. They are shacking up, been shacking up for a year. They're thinking about getting married next year. But these people, I mean, her and I have multitudes of people we've talked to, not married. Shacking up. but they have no shame. You see? Why is that? Because we live in a culture and God has given them over to a reprobate mind to do. You see that? And you're living, you are presently living under the judicial act of God. as he's given these people over, he's handed them over, like we might take somebody to the jail and turn them over to the jailer, right? God has taken them to their own lust, their own desires, and he's turned them over to that. And then down here at the bottom, look what he did. He turned them over to a reprobate mind, a worthless mind. So when you leave here tonight, don't you ever forget that. Those people are not your friends. All right? These people at their core are as wicked as the devil himself. They're as immoral as the devil himself. There's nothing good about them. Nothing. They're rotten. Like it says, I told you all ago in verse 24, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. That means, remember now, that means to rot. That means corruption. All right? Like a corpse in a grave. God has given them over. to rot, to rottenness, to corruption. Don't ever forget it. And so with that, know these things. In the last days, perilous times will come. Gather around, let's pray.