A Romans 1 World Pt. 17 Pretentious boasters and evil inventions

Pretentious Boasters

Romans 1:30-32  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31) Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32)  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. 

We continue to work through this extraordinary description of a Romans 1 world. It is quite apparent that America is rightfully called a "post Christian" nation today. The amount of depravity and sin that has taken over most of our culture is closely aligned with how Paul described it. 

In our last post we covered the despiteful and proud elements of a culture wallowing in moral decay. Today we look at boasters, inventers of evil things and those who disobey their parents.

"Boasters." This word literally means an empty pretender. This word is only used two times in the New Testament and the other text is 2 Timothy 3 where Paul is also speaking of perilous times that correlates with a Romans 1 culture. 

In this case we will look at two words that will help us understand what a "boaster" is. Webster's 1828 dictionary tells us that a boaster is someone who vaunts himself up or shamelessly self promotes with the idea of showing off. 

Another word is the word "pretentious." Pretense is saying something that is deliberately false to others in order to place yourself in a good light. Pretense is concealing what is real by deception. A pretentious person is pretending something is true when it is not. 

Matthew 23:14  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.  

Jesus Christ condemned the conservative religious leaders of His day because they took poor widow's to court in order to take away their property, which violates God's provision for the widows and orphans. Then, they piously prayed very long prayers in order to appear righteous in the eyes of those at the synagogue.

King Solomon warned about pretentious boasters.

Proverbs 26:23-26  Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross. 24) He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him; 25) When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart. 26) Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation. 

King Solomon describes the pretentious boaster for us. He has burning lips which is the idea of telling lies and spreading deception to cover up his inner reality. Solomon compared this to taking a worthless piece of broken pottery called a potsherd and covering it with a silver coating. Why would someone do this? In order to pretend it was a real lump of pure silver when he sold it to an unsuspecting victim. 

The pretentious boaster dissembles with his lips which means he disguised the truth when he spoke to others. The King warns us not to believe this man when you hear him say things that sound really attractive. It reminds us of the saying "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." The pretentious boaster hides behind lies and deception.

Proverbs 26:28  A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. 

People who lie often have animosity toward those who are victims of their lies. The pretentious boaster flatters with his lips, presenting himself as having things that he does not possess (connections, skills, abilities, knowledge) but the end results of his pretention is ruin. 

A prime example of this pretentious boaster is found in the workplace today. One study discovered that 85% of job applicants lied on their resumé. That is pretentious boasting. 

Another example of pretentious boasting is from a study by Stanford University which found that 86% of all American High School students admitted to cheating on exams. 

Inventors of evil things.

Genesis 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 

When Noah was alive the entire civilization was given over to excessive wickedness. The word translated "imagination" refers to your worldview, how you think about life. Men in that time had a perverted intellectual framework that corrupted all their thoughts and planning. Evil thoughts occupied their focus so that all of their words and actions were motivated by malignant schemes. 

Proverbs 15:28  The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.

King Solomon placed the righteous man into contrast with the wicked man. Evil things always pour out evil things. Noah and his family stood out in contrast to a civilization dedicated to pursuing every evil, perverse thing that they could think of. 

Matthew 12:33-35  Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 34) O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35)  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 

Jesus frequently confronted the hyper conservative religious hypocrites known as the Pharisees. Christ called them a generation of vipers because they rejected the call to repentant faith. They believed they could earn God's favor with their external works. Evil men have evil hearts and can only do evil things. 

A list all the evil things invented in the last generation would be extensive. Take the internet for example. It was conceived to be a global network of computers that allowed scientists, academia, researchers and think tanks to access data rapidly in hopes of spurring breakthroughs in technology, medicine and problem solving.

It certainly has done all of these things and more but there is a dark side to this technology. Pornography addictions, sexual perversion and sex trafficking is facilitated by the internet. Cyber crimes will cost the world economies a whopping $10.5 trillion dollars annually by 2025.   Identity theft ruins countless peoples lives. Cyber bullying is a growing crime. Nation states engage in cyber attacks threatening our security. These are a few of the evil things that have been spawned by the internet. 

Thoughts to Ponder...

It is very clear that we are living in a Romans 1 world. Pretentious boasters are an affliction in any society. People pretend to have education credentials, vocational skills or technical expertise that they do not have as they seek a high paying career. Pretentious boasters certainly are a curse in the arena of modern politics. 

Spiritually, there are pretentious boasters in the church. Some may be in leadership roles. Some are people who profess to be born again but who have no fruit and no evidence of a changed life. Still others are self righteous and believe that they have done enough good works to earn their way to heaven.

We know that we live in an era of unprecedented evil men who produce evil things. Our study of End Times makes it very clear what kind of nefarious plots and evil machinations are already at work around the world. 

Romans 1:16-17  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17) For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 

Our mission is to glorify God by how we choose to live and to continue growing in our faith until He calls us home. Our mission is also to evangelize the lost by sharing the gospel of Christ to those who are enslaved by sin and smothered by the world's darkness. 

Pray that we are counted worthy as laborers to go into the harvest and sow the seed of the Word by being ready witnesses for our Lord.

Bob