SINS OF THE HEART PART II - FRANCES SWAGGART

ROMANS 1:29

We will now address the sins of Romans 1:29, giving you the Greek word for each sin listed plus the explanation:

1.  Unrighteousness: the Greek word is adikia, which means “unjust, injustice, what is not comfortable with justice, what ought not to be, that which is wrong, every vice contrary to justice and righteousness.” When men reject the righteousness of God, there is an automatic unrighteousness which comes to them.
2. Fornication: the Greek word is porneia or ponerica, which means “unlawful sex sins of single and married people.” This is a sin of the flesh.
3. Wickedness: the Greek word is ponerica or athemos,which means “depravity, inquity, wicked, acting of an evil nature, criminal.” For instance, the homosexuals of Sodom and Gomorrah are called “athesmoi” in II Peter 2:7.
4. Covetousness: the Greek word pleonaekthes or pleonexria, which means “avaricious, intense lust for gain, greedy or gain.”
5. Maliciousness: the Greek word is kakias or kakia, which means “vicious disposition and desires, rather than their not only being evil but doing evil.”
6. Full of envy: the Greek word is phthonos, which means “to pine away, the pain felt and malignity conceived at the sight of the blessings of another,” or the Greek word zelou, which means “a jealousy which makes war upon the good it sees in another.”
7. Murder: the Greek word is phonoe or phoneus, which means “one who commits homicide, slaughter and also hating one another.” You can have hate in your heart against another person so strong that your heart wants to hurt them. You can murder their reputation as well as kill the body by your vicious gossip, slander, or telling of lies. It is a federal crime to murder someone by taking their life. However, the Christian can, through a vicious attack on someone’s character, commit murder even though they do not harm the physical body. They, in effect, in God’s eyes, have killed that person.
8. Debate: the Greek word is eridos or eris, which means “strife; to cause strife and discord.” It is not the same as debating for truth as is found in Acts. It means contention or wrangling.
9. Deceit: the Greek word is apatao or dolos, meaning “lying, falsity, to bait, craft, subtly, to deceive or seduce into error.”
10. Malignity: the Greek word is kakoetheia, meaning “taking everything with an evil connotation and giving malicious interpretation to the actions of others, a nature which is evil and makes one suspect evil in others.” A disposition producing evil habits. It means malignity of the mind which leads its victim to put the worst construction on every action, ascribing to the best deeds the worst motives.
11. Whisperers: the Greek word is psithuristes or psithuristeas, meaning “a secret slanderer, an accuser, a backbiter, calumniators, secret detractors, those who pretend secrecy, and carry out accusations against men, whether true or false, blasting their reputation by clandestine gossip, meaning held in or conducted with secrecy.” I will never forget as I was reading Romans 1:29-31, when I got to the word whisperers, I was not sure of its meaning. When I looked it up, I was shocked when I read it means to “carry out accusations against men, whether true or false.” Realizing that this even included repeating something that might be true against someone in order to spread gossip and hurt that person is sin. The following verse, verse 32, says, “they which commit such things are worthy of death,” and alarmingly, I realized that the whole church could fit into this category.
12. Backbiters: the Greek is katalalia, which means “evil speakers, slanderers of absent men, false accuser, evil speaking, railing, defamation, accusation.”
13. Haters of God: the Greek word is theostuges or echthra, which means “enmity, hatred, hostility, defamation, active malice, atheists, hateful to God, condemners of sacred things, despisers of providence, scorners of good.”
14. Despiteful: the Greek word is hubristes, which means “insolent, stormy, boisterous; abusing the characters and persons of others, scornful, hateful to use reproachfully, to treat with despite.”
15. Proud: the Greek word is huperephanos or alazoneia, which means “to indulge in pride or selfgratification, be exalted, elated, glory in self, display or strut self before others, undue sense of superiority, unnatural self-esteem, arrogance, ostentatious, boasting.”
16. Boasters: the Greek word is alazon, which means “vaunting in those things one does not possess, vain, and arrogant braggarts.”
17. Inventors of evil things: the Greek word is epheuretes, meaning “to invent, to find, to devise, originators of wicked, immoral, and sinful customs, rites, and fashions; beginners of abominable religious orgies of Bacchus, the horrors of the arena, the debasing cruelties of cockpit, the degrading shows of the theatre, the gambling tables, etc.”
18. Disobedient to parents: the Greek word is anupotaktos, which means “disobedient to authority, disorderly, indifferent to parents, to rule and order, irreverent.”
19. Without natural understanding: the Greek word is agnoeo, which means “not to recognize or know, to be ignorant, unacquainted with, destitute of capacity for spiritual things.”
20. Covenant-breakers: the Greek word is ausunthetos, which means “faithless, treacherous, a breaker of a covenant or agreement, not morally bound to any agreement.”
21. Without natural affection: the Greek word is astorgos, which means “without family love, filled with desire for unnatural affection experiences with husband or wife or same sex partners in the homosexual and other sex sins.”
22. Implacable: the Greek word is aspondos, which means “the absolutely irresponsible person who, being at war, refuses to lay aside enmity or to listen to terms of reconciliation, showing the highest pitch of an unforgiving spirit, he who cannot be placated, appeased, or pacified by God.”
23.  Unmerciful: the Greek word is aneleemon, which means “without compassion, without mercy, cruel, unappeasable, unforgiving, unyielding, destitute of all benevolence to the needy.”

"It doesn’t matter what we flawed human beings think is sin! It     matters what God thinks is sin. His standard is total and complete holiness, and we all fall short of this standard in one way or another. Perhaps we are now beginning to see this."

WORTHY OF DEATH

In Romans 1:32, the phrase, “who knowing the judgment of God,” means that they traveled their path with eyes wide open. In other

Do not die in Sin

words, they thumbed their nose at the judgment of God, and, in essence, said, “Do your worst, and it will not stop us.” Also in Verse 32, the phrase, “that they which commit such things are worthy of death,” means that they knew what God had said about such sins but went into them despite that knowledge, in effect, daring God to kill them, etc. It should be understood that divine judgment is implied. Many people prefer to make up their own moral code and their own definition of what is right and what is wrong (even people in the church). This keeps even many church-goers from truly surrendering their hearts and lives to Christ; they have pet sins they want to hold onto while failing to realize God puts those things in the same category as something like murder! Either sin, in God’s eyes, is enough to constitute eternal punishment and separation from Him. It doesn’t matter what we flawed human beings think is sin! It matters what God thinks is sin. His standard is total and complete holiness, and we all fall short of this standard in one way or another. Perhaps we are now beginning to see this.

LIFESTYLES OF UNREPENTANT SIN

It’s sad to say we have Christians not only committing an occasional isolated sin every now and then, but also living lifestyles of unrepentant sin due to sins of the heart. Sure, we may not be drunk on alcohol every night, but are we drunk on something else? Are we drunk on jealousy? Are we drunk on cruelty and creating

The only sin God can't forgive is the unrepented sin

factions within the body? Are we drunk on pride? Shouldn’t we be drunk instead on the new wine of the Holy Spirit? Isn’t that the lifestyle — containing the true fruit of the Spirit and the love of Christ — we want to live as believers? We can go around flaunting our gifts of the Spirit all day long, but where is our fruit? The thing is, gifts or no gifts, we cannot inherit the kingdom of God if we choose to live a lifestyle of sin. If we are unremorseful and unashamed of these sins, we’ve got to come to the place of agreeing with God about them and repent! Paul constantly denotes in a general and comprehensive sense, the penal consequences of unatoned sin due to divine laws. The wages of sin is death, and as such, the guarantee is that ultimately the sentence will be carried out. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:23).

God bless you brethren as you take in the word of God this morning. I pray that your life will be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. This message is not a message of condemnation but a reminder of the situation we are in as Christians so we can change for the better. The Church need to rise up in glory in these latter days but these hidden dirt and little stains are drawing us back from experiencing the true power of God. Be a responsible and a loving Christian so that God can use you in the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. BE BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE.

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                  ECOM! We are Family; We are One