When God Let s Go Romans 1:18 32

CORNERSTONE BIBLE CHURCH Fall 2015 Romans 1:18 32 [read] When God Let s Go Romans 1:18 32 MAIN THEME: WE SHOULD NEVER UNDERESTIMATE WHERE THE REJECTION OF GOD S TRUTH WILL LEAD US! Vs. 18 God s wrath is currently being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men... who suppress the truth. When we reject the truth of God, it leads us further and further away from Him and His ways. In fact, the person who suppresses God s truth begins to hate His truth and His ways. Vs. 19 20 The truth that is rejected is specifically that He is the Creator. He is clearly seen in what has been made so that everyone is without excuse. The reason they are held without excuse is that even though they know God through creation, they do not seek Him or give thanks to Him. They would rather worship themselves than Him. This is what we find in... Vs. 21 23 This rejection of His truth doesn t lead man to more wisdom, but to real stupidity. Paul describes it as they become futile in their thinking, leading to hearts that are darkened. When people choose to ignore God and come up with their own version of reality, their misguided minds lead toward further darkness. Paul says that they think they are wise, but in reality they are fools. The word he uses is the root word for moron, so you get how serious he is about this. This helps to explain why some people do really dumb things that just don t make sense. They think it makes sense, but it is illogical. This rejection of God s truth finds itself fully engaged in idolatry. Paul says in vs. 23 that they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man. Think of the lunacy. Instead of worshipping a God who is immortal, they worship that which is mortal. Immortal means imperishable, meaning... eternal. It s a reference to God being the self-existent One. He exists outside of creation. Conversely, mortal means perishable. It s a reference to that which is in creation; that which is temporary. 1

So instead of worshipping God, who is outside of creation and is eternal, the one who rejects God s truth decides to worship that which is in creation, that which is temporary. Instead of worshipping God, they worship man. Now, as we go through this, I m sure this seems rather ridiculous. We know in our mind how stupid it sounds to worship man instead of God. But, let s just be honest, how easy it is to find ourselves here worshipping mankind. Remember what we said at the beginning? Let s be very careful making this all about those people out there. When we only look out the window without ever looking in the mirror, we begin that slow fade of losing our own sinconsciousness and find ourselves on the precipice of rejecting the truth God has given us. I only say that because do you think that it could be possible for those inside the church; those who have given themselves to Jesus; those who have prayed a prayer and show up at church every Sunday; those who lead Bible studied and pray before every meal... do you think it is possible for them to fall into the trap of living vs. 23; exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man? Of course. Want some examples? Do some want to worship a president, which seems ridiculous to us right now. But is it? What if it is the perfect guy who does everything right? Is there any chance that he might be the savior for our nation? Or what about the worship of a sports hero. Is there any doubt that Lebron is worshipped? How about a spouse, do you think there is any chance that the perfect husband or wife is worshipped? Or the idea of the perfect husband or wife? And what about kids? Or even a pastor? I know that seems crazy, but if we respond to a pastor as our mediator and we need him to help us get to God (instead of Jesus Christ), we are again on that precipice of rejecting God s truth. Or maybe for some, they should just translate it in this way... Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling little babies who goo and gaa and grow up playing your favorite sport and take the bulk of your time and energy. The reality is that those who reject God s truth don t even just worship that which is the highest of creation. The folly of the man who rejects God s truth even moves down the creation order and worships animals. Do you remember the people of God when they came out of Egypt and 2

were waiting for Moses who was up on the Mountain receiving the Law from God? What did they do? They make a golden calf. Psalm 106:19 20 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. But this doesn t happen today, does it? Could I just suggest one example: Cecil the Lion. I m not trying to make a joke about the seriousness of killing an animal for sport, specifically luring an animal the way Cecil apparently was in order to be killed. But does anyone else find it extremely ironic that this happened just about the time that the Planned Parenthood videos were released? Here we saw first hand the lunacy of our society. While there has been about 725,000 babies aborted this year in America alone already, the outcry of our culture is that a lion is killed! A LION! An Alpha Male Predator, who in the open may or may not have ripped that man apart himself. It just doesn t make any sense, does it? Unless you realize that this is the inevitable movement of a society that has rejected the truth of God. Maybe this is part of the wrath that is being poured out: foolishness! Ignorance! Lunacy! The loss of the God-given mind to think with any sort of logical reasoning! They think they are wise, when in reality, they are fools. They are illogical. Before we move onto the next section, I wanted to take a few minutes and talk a little more practically about this suppression of God s truth. Again, its easy to think of it as those people out there when in reality, there s always the temptation that it is this person in here. How do we know if we are actually doing it or starting down the path of suppressing the truth of God as described in vs. 18? Let me suggest SEVERAL WAYS WE MAY SUPPRESS GOD S TRUTH? 1. OUTRIGHT REJECTION THAT GOD EXISTS Obviously, we have been talking about this. This is the most direct in this context of Romans 1. But I wonder if for some people, it doesn t even start there. How many people do you know have been in the faith and have abandoned it? And they may even today be at a place where they question whether God even exists. Let s not forget that vs. 18 says it is by their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth. Never underestimate the vicious cycle that happens 3

when we fail to walk in obedience to Jesus Christ. We live a life that is ungodly and then we begin to despise His truth that tells us that we are sinners. We love our sin more than Him and His ways. And eventually, we get to the point as we continually suppress that truth in our life that we don t even believe what we always thought we believed. Our ungodly life leads to outright rejection that He even exists. 2. IGNORING THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT This happens all the time. Someone teaches something; we read something in the Word; a song comes on the radio (it can happen in a variety of ways) and we sense the inner man being convicted by the Spirit of God. We know something we are doing is contrary to His truth and ways and we know that we need to repent and make it right. And we suppress it. In that moment, as we press down the truth of God in our life, we start the slow journey down the road to searing our conscious to the things of God. Suppressing the Truth. Another way we may say this is when we put off till tomorrow to make things right with God. I really believe one of the strongest tools of the enemy of God is not to have us reject God, but to have us worship Him tomorrow. He knows that tomorrow never comes. When we continually put off till tomorrow when today is the day of salvation, we are suppressing God s truth. 3. BELIEVING THE TRUTH APPLIES TO OTHERS This is a quick one. When we live in a world where the Word of God preached applies for others and not ourselves, we are suppressing His truth in our life. When we walk through a list of Fruits of Pride and our mind is on someone else instead of our life, we are walking down the wrong road. When we read the Word of God and share the nuggets of truth we learn with our spouse so they can apply it to their life, we are suppressing God s truth in our life. 4. LIVE IN A WORLD OF GENERALITIES This is one that bothers me often as a pastor. I can t tell you how many times when I find myself in a moment of confrontation with someone and their sin that they respond, Well everyone is a sinner. Such a true statement! Everyone is a sinner. Unfortunately, when we live in a world of generalities instead of focusing on our own sin; when we tend to deflect instead of own, we are suppressing God s truth in our life. 4

Our unrighteousness leads to suppressing His truth, which leads us to the folly of idolatry. It s a horrific slap in the face to our Lord. As one commentator has said, The more you reflect upon the infinite glory and majesty of the eternal God, the more hideous will the unspeakable insult to Him of any kind of idolatry appear to you. 1 As people don t understand how hideous it is to Him, they continue to walk in idolatry, spitting in His face and that is when He gives them what they want and we see Him letting go. Vs. 24 This is God s response to people s rejection of His truth. God now removes His gracious restraints and gives them what they desire and man sinks deeper and deeper into the lusts of his heart. Paradidomi means to give up or to hand over. It may do us well to dig a litter deeper into the concept of this word. Now, let me just say at the beginning that this does not mean that God causes people to sin. We know that James says Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one (1:13). In His giving them up, He is not causing them to sin. We can note in this text that it says He gives them over in the lusts of their hearts. They already have these lusts in their heart... God just gives them over to themselves. Some take this verb to mean that God simply just withdraws His influence over the idolaters. This is where I was before I really began studying this text. I had the idea that when it says God gives them over, He simply removes any shade of gracious restraint He may have had on them and gives them what they truly want. You may have heard the C.S. Lewis quote before where he said, In the end, there are only two kinds of people those who say to God, Thy will be done and those to whom God says in the end thy will be done. Well, if I understand Romans 1 correctly, maybe this is not something that is only held at the end. Maybe it is God saying You won t submit to My will and you are rejecting My ways and My truth to live in your world of immorality... then your will be done; You can have what your heart really wants. After studying this text, it seems that its not enough to simply say that this is just a passive response by God. I say that because the verb used is not in the passive voice. It is an active verb, giving God a bit more of an active role in this giving them up. Here s the best way I can think 1 Newell, William R. Romans, Verse by Verse. (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1994), 31. 5

about illustrating this that has helped me understand what this means. Hang on as I try to paint this picture for you. Imagine a raging river that is so quickly moving that anyone in it will be swept away. This is the depravity of mankind. Sinfulness. The worst things you can imagine in regards to morality. Things that would shock all of us. Now imagine a boat sitting in the middle of that river, but it is not moving. It is not flowing down the river because God is standing in the river holding the boat. He is protecting the boat from flowing down the river of moral collapse. You are the boat, well, your life is the boat. Imagine yourself in the boat dipping your foot in the water from time to time. For the most part, you think you want to stay in the safety of the boat, but the water feels really nice. After all, it is sometimes uncomfortable in the boat and the river looks so inviting. Now, over time, as you begin to enjoy the contents of this river more and more, you begin to question the commands of God. You begin to despise them. Why should I stay in the boat? It makes no sense. And eventually you begin to question whether He really even exists. Or maybe you wonder if it even matters if you do believe He exists or not. Who cares, you think. Just pause for a second to examine the folly of looking behind you as you sit still in this boat on a raging river questioning the existence on God, who is there holding you in His grace. At some point, I don t know when it is, but at some point in His sovereign will, He says enough is enough and He gives you up to what you really desire. He let s Go! As I said, the fact that this is an active verb instead of passive means that God does not just let go of the boat, but probably gives a gentle push down the river where it is already headed. He gives the person who rejects His truth what they want... life without Him, life without morals, life lived in the worship of self. He removes His restraining grace and gives the person (or even society) what they want. And honestly, maybe the wrath being revealed here from vs. 18 is in fact giving someone what they want. The spiral towards moral degradation is the consequence of God s wrath, not the reason for His wrath. Psalm 81:11 12 But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. What kid doesn t want their independence? What adult doesn t want freedom? But let s be very careful for what we ask. Nobody can turn 6

their backs on God without consequences. The giving them up seems to be directly tied to sexual ethics. He gives them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. This is a word that means uncleanness, vileness. It is the state of moral impurity, especially in relationship to sexual sin. He gives them up to all sorts of sexual deviances. It is further defined by saying these lusts of the heart lead to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Dishonoring is the idea of degrading. We were meant for so much more. Our bodies are meant for so much more. And yet this sin invades and when a person rejects God s truth, He gives them to all sorts of dishonoring the vessel that He created for them. The more they seek to glorify the body, the more the inevitable happens. The body becomes dishonored. No society in history has given more attention to caring for the body than has the modern Western world. Yet no society has caused more degradation of the body. The more human life is exalted for its own sake, the more it is debased. In tragic irony, the same society that glorifies the body has no regard for the body, the same society that exalts man incessantly degrades him. The world echoes with demands for men s rights; yet books, movies, and television often portray brutality and murder as all but normal, and sexual promiscuity and perversion are constantly glamorized. 2 Paul is going to be more specific in a minute at what this degrading is he s referring to. But for now, let s just not miss the point that rejecting God s truth leads to horrific situations in our mind and with our bodies. WE SHOULD NEVER UNDERESTIMATE WHERE THE REJECTION OF GOD S TRUTH WILL LEAD US! Now, at this point, most people see vs. 25 to be the flow from vs. 24 explaining why God let them go. But I don t think so. I think it s looking forward to vs. 26 27. Here is what I mean. The entire argument has been that rejecting God s truth moves God to give man what he wants. This is mentioned in vs. 21 23. Man s rejection and decision to serve the creature rather than the creator is the foundation for God letting go in vs. 24. Now in vs. 25, we are again told about the rejection of God s truth. We ve already been told that, so maybe this points towards why vs. 26 says God gives them over again. It is once again the foundation for why God gives them over. By the way, the third time we are told that God 2 MacArthur, John. Romans 1 8. (Chicago, IL: Moody, 1991), 102. 7

lets go in vs. 28, what is the reason given? It is because they did not see fit to acknowledge God. Same thing. And so, because I believe that the rejection of the truth is the foundation, I would see vs. 25 going with vs. 26 27. This then means, and I think this is important to point out. I m not sure I believe there are three different points in time when God lets go of the boat (or gives it a little push down the river). I tend to believe there is one, but I could be wrong. These three times where Paul says God gives them is simply a literary device to show the significance of this event as well as showing in what ways God gives them over. In vs. 24, He gives them over to the lusts of their heart. In vs. 26, He gives them over to dishonorable passions. In vs. 28, He gives them over to a debased mind. I don t believe that God let s go of the boat in vs. 24 and then after some time when they don t repent, He let s go again in vs. 26, and then after some more time of not acknowledging Him, He gives them over again in vs. 28. But if you want to argue that, we can. And if we must see it as a progression, I suppose it would be that the signs God has given a society over as Romans 1 represents is that they are given over to immorality; then to homosexuality; then to a debased mind. This is where we are. But now we are getting ahead of ourselves again. Let s look back at... Vs. 25 27 I suppose if it happens to be progressive, maybe the giving to immorality doesn t teach them a lesson. They continue to exchange the truth of God for a lie. What s the truth? That God is the glorious, infinite, eternal Creator of all that is. It is His revelation of Himself. Then what s the lie? That man is worthy to be worshipped instead of God. It s the same thing as vs. 23, exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man. They reject the One who made the creature in order to worship and serve the creature. By the way, the gospel is the reverse of this. The gospel reverses this process. This is what we learn from the church at Thessalonica... 1 Thessalonians 1:9 10 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. 8

Obviously, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator leads to all sorts of worship of the body. This is what we learn in vs. 26. God gives them up to dishonorable passions. This could be interpreted as shameful sexual acts. What are they? Well, his argument of shameful sexual acts is a description of homosexuality. Make no mistake about it. The verbiage Paul uses in vs. 26 & 27 is serious. There are some who try to explain it away, but I don t know how you can do that with taking the text seriously. He describes this sin as shameful, unnatural, indecent, and a perversion. And listen, this is written in a day and age when homosexuality was accepted and promoted. The Romans promoted homosexuality. In fact, it is noted that 14 out of the first 15 Roman Emperors were known as homosexuals. And so these words would not have been received with joy by the average Roman pagan of their day. It would have been offensive, in the same way as it is received as offensive in our day. But honestly, Romans 1 is the clearest teaching in the NT on this topic. But it s not like the rest of the Bible doesn t talk about it. In Leviticus 18:22, God says, You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. Those in the LGBT movement want to discount this as they say things like, How can we trust something (referring to the OT) that tells us not to eat shellfish. This is simply a scapegoat to get away from this text. In fact, the immediate context argues against those who say we shouldn t accept the OT. Here s the context. Leviticus 18:20 23 20 And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor s wife and so make yourself unclean with her. 21 You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23 And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion. Let me ask you a few things. Do you think that most people would still say that to lie sexually with your neighbor s wife (adultery) is still wrong (vs. 20)? Most people do, if not, then the Ashley Madison leak wouldn t have been a big deal. Do you think that most people would say that to offer your children as a sacrifice to some god would be considered wrong (vs. 21)? Of course. Do you think that most people would say that to lie with an animal would be a perversion (vs. 23)? Without a doubt. Then why do we think that vs. 22 shouldn t be 9

included? Why should this one command out of many others be considered outdated and out of touch? And then we see the same thing in Leviticus 20; check it out sometime. Add to this that texts like 1 Corinthians 6 which says that those who practice homosexuality will not inherit the kingdom of God. Because of this, it is difficult to see why many inside the church are caving on this issue. This is not something that we view as an alternative lifestyle still acceptable to God. In fact, Paul argues the very clearly opposite of that. He begins by saying that God gives them over to these lifestyles in vs. 26 by talking about women and then in vs. 27, the men. His argument with both genders is an argument from nature. Women exchange natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. For some, this may seem unclear because he never defines what is natural. But it s not unclear in vs. 27 in talking about the men. He says they gave up natural relations with women for relationships with other men. In the context, we have to say that if the natural relationship for a man is a woman, then the natural relationship for a woman is a man. This is the argument from creation. When this word nature or natural is used, it usually is meant, to describe the way things are by reason of their intrinsic state or birth. 3 What was God s creative intent for a sexual ethic? How was it meant to be from the beginning? I hope you see why the suppression of the truth of God being Creator leads to this. If God didn t create and we are all here by chance, then of course there is no natural sexual ethic. Although, one wonders, and I hope I m not just trying to be sarcastic here, but even if a person does suppress the truth and deny God as Creator, could they arrive at a natural sexual ethic of homosexuality. I say that simply because of how reproduction happens. It doesn t happen male-to-male or female-tofemale. Even if you believe in natural selection, the higher order couldn t be same-sex relationships that trump all over relationships through the generations, because there wouldn t be future generations. A woman and a woman cannot produce a next generation without the help of a man; and a man and a man cannot produce a next generation without the help of a woman. It just can t happen! When the Supreme Court rules that it is now illegal to prevent samesex couples from getting married, they made a direct attack on that which is natural in the continuation of our culture. The folly of 3 Moo, 114. 10

homosexuality is proclaimed in its inability to reproduce the human species in keeping with the divine commandment (Gen 1:28). 4 Meaning it is impossible for the person engaging in a homosexual relationship to be able to fulfill the Creation mandate to fill the earth and subdue it. One interesting thing in the language used here is that Paul doesn t use the words women or men. He uses the Greek words for female and male. It is like he doesn t even want to use the word men or women for the situation when people aren t acting like men or women. They are acting like beasts without a thought of their Creator as they engage in these acts he calls shameless. At the end of vs. 27, we are told that they receive in themselves the due penalty for their error. One commentator explained it in this way... When men commit indecent acts with other men, they receive back the due penalty for their perversion (Rom 1:27). Once again we see the necessary relationship between sin and its consequences. To put it in terms of Newton s third law of motion, every sin calls for an equal and opposite response. The inevitable recompense for homosexuality is to receive back the regular consequence of that practice. Since we live in a moral universe, moral failure must of necessity carry a penalty. Homosexuality, as a perversion of God s intended relationship between man and woman, carries its own destructive penalty. 5 Over time, this due penalty has been interpreted in many different ways. As I mentioned last week, many in the 80s said that AIDS and the HIV Virus is the due penalty for the error of homosexuality. It could be that eternal punishment is the due penalty, as we see in 1 Corinthians 6. Or maybe it is simply that this sexual perversion itself is the penalty. They are judged by the self-destructiveness of their own sin. The appalling physical consequences of homosexuality are visible evidence of God s righteous condemnation. Unnatural vice brings its own perverted reward. 6 I think its clear after walking through Romans 1 that one of the outcomes from suppressing the truth of God in life is the worship of self. When people pursue life without Him, at some point, He gives 4 Harrison, 25. 5 Mounce, R. H. Vol. 27: Romans. The New American Commentary. (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 83 4. 6 MacArthur, 107. 11

them what they want and they fall headlong in full pursuit of all kinds of immorality and shameless acts that go against all natural instinct. But before we go on too far and finish, let me pause for a minute to answer the question, what should we do if someone we love feels drawn to someone of the same gender? What do we do if someone has same-sex feelings? How should we respond as a church and as Christians who believe Romans 1 says what Romans 1 says? All people are born in sin, and individuals have varying tendencies and temptations toward certain sins. But no one is born a homosexual, any more than anyone is born a thief or a murderer. A person who becomes a habitual and unrepentant thief, murderer, adulterer, or homosexual does so of his own choice. 7 7 MacArthur, 107. 12