Romans 1:24-32
The Wrath of God upon the unrighteousness of Man
Scripture reading –
Gal. 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Gal. 6:8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
Pray
Intro
√ Thanks for your prayers for me and my family.
√ In our last study together we looked at Paul’s line of argument that proved that the entire human race stands guilty before God because we have…
Suppressed the Truth about God (vs. 18)
Ignored God’s revelation of Himself through His Creation (vs. 19-20)
Perverted God’s glory through the worship of idols made to look like His Creation (vs. 21-23)
Therefore, God is justified in His condemnation of the entire human race and His judgement is long overdue!
√ As we continue through the 1st chapter of Romans Paul now turns his attention to the result of Mankind’s rebellion against God.
That is, as our opening scripture declared…
“God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption”
What people involved in sin chose to ignore, and what Satan never tells those he tempts, is that the end result of sin is always the same…
Corruption = “decay, destroy, perish”
That is, in the spiritual sense – having turned from God the process of corruption (entropy) begins…
Disease
Death
Ultimately eternal destruction in the Lake of Fire.
One cannot escape the consequence of sin without the power of Jesus Christ!
√ As we go through our study note the behavior that characterizes corruption – this is a list that describes people – men and women – who do not know God.
Ap. Should serve as a wakeup call to Christians today.
1) Because we see the corruption which Paul describes as prevalent in our own community. That means we live in a Godless society!
2) These things should not be found in the life of a person who claims to be a Christian. If you find that you are practicing any of this corruption you need to heed Paul’s warning and get right with the Lord.
Because if you’re comfortable with these things in your life it is a strong indication that you are not really a Christian!
Gave them up to their own desires (vs. 24-25)
Rom. 1:24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
Rom. 1:25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
√ “Therefore”
Best understood to mean….
“Because Man gave up God – God gave up Man!”
(See handout of Phillips translation)
That is to say, that God gave Man what Man wanted.
Listen, there are things that you do not want to be given! No matter how much you think you want them!!!!
Ex. San Filipe
The frightening thing that Paul declares here is that because Man has rejected God, God has given Mankind up to the things they want that He knows are not good for them.
What did God give them up to? What is it that Mankind wanted?
1) God gave them up to uncleanness
Uncleanness = impurity, either physically of morally
The idea is that “clean” is good, “unclean” is bad.
Ex. What kind of hands do you want preparing your food?
Whether people will be honest enough to acknowledge it or not, God declares that there is clean moral behavior, and unclean moral behavior.
In a moment we’ll look at the kind of behavior that God declares to be morally unclean.
2) God gave them up to the lust of their hearts
Or, as the Phillips translation says it…
“to be the playthings of their own foul desires”
What is lust?
“Intense or unrestrained craving. An overwhelming desire or craving. To have an intense or obsessive desire, especially one that is sexual.”
Most basically lust
is cancer of the soul.
How’s that?
Cancer of the body is a good cell gone bad. It’s a cell that begins to grow unrestrained - replicating itself until it takes over and chokes out the life of that body.
Lust takes something that is good – something that God has given man for his enjoyment – and perverts it so that good thing becomes the overall focus of one’s life to the destruction of that life!
Ex. Eating is good – it is given by God for the nourishment and pleasure of Man.
Unrestrained eating is called gluttony. Gluttony is the lust to eat, where a person no longer eats to live, but lives to eat.
Eating becomes the focus of that life eventually destroying that life.
Ap. Paul tells us that because Man gave up God, God has given up Man to be consumed by his own lust.
√ They exchanged the Truth for the lie!
Look at vs. 25 again and note that Paul is very specific regarding the root problem of Man.
“who exchanged the truth of God for the lie”
Notice that he doesn’t say “a lie”, or “the lies”, but “the lie”
What is “the lie”? Turn
with me to Genesis 3
Gen. 3:4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
Gen. 3:5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
“The lie” is the first lie ever told in the history of human beings. It was the lie that Satan told Eve in the Garden…
“you will be like God”
The Devil told our great grand parents that if they would eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil that they would become like God!
That’s what God Satan thrown out of heaven! (Isa. 14) - the desire (the lust) to be like God.
The end result of Man’s believing the lie is that we have created false god’s made in our own image!
Ex. The ultimate end of that sad tradition is found in the Great Tribulation where we find the whole earth worshipping a man who claims to be God – the Antichrist!
Ap. Our problem ever since has been that we don’t want God to tell us what to do. We want to be the Captain of our own destiny – sailing wherever our lust would lead us – ignoring the pleas of our heavenly Father Who’s only desire is to bring us back to His Ways where there is safe harbor.
Gave them up to perversion (vs. 26-27)
Rom. 1:26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
Rom. 1:27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Lest we miss the specific behavior which Paul is speaking of let’s look at Phillip’s translation of this text…
Rom. 1:26 God therefore handed them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged the normal practices of sexual intercourse for something which is abnormal and unnatural.
Rom. 1:27 Similarly the men, turning from natural intercourse with women, were swept into lustful passions for one another. Men with men performed these shameful horrors, receiving in their own personalities the consequences of their perversity.
√ Let’s talk about homosexuality
Disclaimer: so that you understand my perspective - I’m not a “homophobic”
“Homophobia” is defined as the…
“fear, or hatred of homosexuals”
That doesn’t describe me or most people who believe that homosexuality is immoral, physiologically destructive, and psychologically deviant.
Unfortunately the homosexual community and the popular media have used that term to refer to anyone who opposes the goals and objectives of the homosexual movement.
It’s a smoke screen to discredit intelligent discussion regarding the merit (or lack of) of the homosexual life style.
Ap. I have buried friends who’s life’s were cut short because they involved themselves in this life style. So, I speak with passion because while I hate the sin – I do not hate the sinner.
1) First, note that inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul plainly and clearly describes homosexual expression as the result of Mankind’s rejection of God.
Therefore, homosexuality exists because God has given up Man to the unrestrained lust of their hearts.
It is the perversion of that good gift which God gave Man to share with his wife at the beginning of Creation.
Gen. 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Which Paul tells us is symbol of Christ’s love for His Bride the Church.
Eph. 5:31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
Eph. 5:32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
It is important to recognize that homosexual expression is described by God as sinful. That it is contrary to God’s plan for us, and that it defiles the symbol of Christ’s love for the Church.
2) Note that Paul’s description of homosexual sin is out of step with much of secular society today, and unfortunately much of the modern “Church” as he describes homosexual behavior as…
Vile
Abnormal
Unnatural
Shameful
Perverse
Disgraceful
It is not “gay” – which at one time meant to be cheerful, lighthearted, merry, bright, or lively.
None of which truly describes the homosexual life style.
It’s simply one more
attempt to make sin sound good!
Let’s be honest and call it what it is – sin.
√ The interesting thing is that Paul’s description of the homosexual lifestyle matches the vast majority of practitioners in the medical and mental health profession.
We just don’t hear about it because the homosexual community has done such a great job controlling what the public hears.
Ex. Lies we’ve been told
1) 10% of the population is gay
The Washington Times 11/19/91
“10% of American men are homosexual and 5% of women are lesbian”
Based on the flawed conclusions of the 1948 study by William Kinsey.
He interviewed 5,300 people and asked if they had ever had a homosexual encounter.
Problem; 1 out of 4 (1325) of those interviewed were prisoners in long term confinement!
Hardly representative of the general population.
More recent studies conducted in Oxford England in 1984 & 1987, and again by the University of Chicago in 1990 found that less than 1% of the population is homosexual!
2) Homosexuality is normal human behavior
Based on the American Psychiatric Association’s decision in 1973 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.
What The media didn’t tell us is that that vote came after 3 years of militant action by homosexual activist who used threats of physical violence and used forged identification to gain access to APA meetings and then shut down the meeting by shouting down the researchers.
When the final vote of the APA was cast only a quarter of the 25,000 members responded to the referendum to reclassify homosexuality.
A more recent poll – this time done randomly so as to protect those responding from retribution – 70% of the APA said that homosexuality is not normal human behavior! And, that homosexual are…
Less happy than heterosexuals
Less capable of mature loving relationships
So much for “gay”.
3) Born that way
We have been bombarded with news stories telling us that homosexuals are “born that way”. That it is genetic.
That’s just false.
Dr. Robert Kronemeyer writes in his book “Overcoming Homosexuality”….
“With rare exceptions, homosexuality is neither inherited nor the result of some glandular disturbance or the scrambling of genes or chromosomes. Homosexuals are made, not born ‘that way’. From my 25 years’ experience as a clinical psychologist, I firmly believe that homosexuality is a learned response to early painful experiences and that it can be unlearned.”
Here’s the clincher…
“For those homosexuals who are unhappy with their life and find effective therapy, it is ‘curable.’”
√ Homosexuality is just like any other sinful behavior – it is changed when a person is willing to surrender their will to Jesus Christ and ask Him to change their sinful desire (lust) to His desire.
Ex. Brad
Gave them over to wrong thinking & destructive behavior (vs. 28-32)
Rom. 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
√ The final step in God’s condemnation of those who reject Him and believe the lie is that He gives them over to a…
…debased (or degenerate) mind.
That means that they can no longer think properly and therefore do things that are ungodly and self-destructive.
Note the list of ungodly behavior…
Rom. 1:29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,
Rom. 1:30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Rom. 1:31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
Rom. 1:32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
All of these activities describe the person who is divorced from God.
We know that to be true because each of these behaviors is contrary to the character and nature of God.
Ex. Un-club
Un-godly behavior Godly
behavior
Unrighteousness Righteousness!
Undiscerning Discerning
Untrustworthy Trustworthy
Unloving Loving
Unforgiving Forgiving
Unmerciful Merciful
√ If these things are wrong how come I don’t feel guitlty!?
Debased mind
Ex. First time you try a cigerette your body rejects it. The more you do it the less your body fights. Same with sin, the first time you feel the prick of your conscience – the more you do it the less you feel.
You feel fine – but you’re dying!
√ Why is it important to call it “sin”?
Because it’s the loving thing to do!
Ex. Your doctor tells you to quit smoking because they care for you!