Romans Lesson 3

Introduction

A very pleasant good day to you, and welcome to Let the Bible Speak. I’d like to encourage you to get your New Testaments and be opening to the book of Romans and Romans chapter 1. Today we’re going to be talking about three of the saddest statements that are found in the Bible. In Romans chapter 1, verse 24, again in verse 26, and then in verse 28. Three different times the Bible says that God gave them up. God gave up on men. What does that really mean? It is indeed a sad thought to think that there are people who have been given up by God. Well, actually, if we study the text and really tying with our last lesson, you may recall that we’ve been showing how that as the apostle opens this letter in Romans 1 verses 16 and 17, he emphasizes that the gospel is God’s power to salvation.

To everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek. For he said, Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. But after introducing that so uh very important theme that the gospel is God’s power, he then begins to illustrate why man needs the gospel. You ever raise the question why should people obey the gospel? There are indeed there many people today who do not feel any urgency about obeying the gospel. They’re rather indifferent and apathetic about it. It is available. The Bible is certainly easy for men to get it to hold up in this country and to read and understand. But there are many people who are just unconcerned. They may know the gospel is uh uh is available, but why obey it?

Why be in bar with it? Why is there a sense of urgency about it? Indeed, this is not new to our own time. In fact, as we read these last few verses in the book of Romans, one might uh be amazed at how up to date this description of the sinful nature of man has become. Nearly two thousand years ago in the Roman Empire, men had turned their backs on God. Men were unconcerned about God. But the point of this text is that man was without excuse for that. Man was in sin and he’s lost because of sin, not just because he rejects Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus as the Son of God is the lifeline that God has thrown to man. But man is lost because of sin.

1. Without Excuse: They First Gave God Up

Jesus is the means by which man may have forgiveness of sin, and if he does not reach unto the Lord and accept him as indeed as the Savior by obeying him, then he’ll die eternally because of his sin. And so therefore in this text he’s trying to show why it is and the condition that man has come to by his rejection of God. You see, God gave them up indeed. Why? Well, in passages that we read even in our last study, in verses nineteen and twenty, for example, the scripture says, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

Significantly, the scripture says men’s without excuse. You see, what happens is first they refuse God. It isn’t that God gave them up because he was unconcerned. God loves all men. God wants all men to be saved. But this teaches us that man first refused God in his own knowledge. It is significant that parents, even may set a course for the rest of their generations to follow. Such an insignificant thing one might say is, well, we’re not going to worship God, and we’re not really all that interested. If our children won’t be, that’ll be fine, but we’re not. But children often follow the very pathway that their parents have laid out for them. And perhaps even like a snowball that at the top of the mountain begins rather small, but as it rolls down the mountain it gathers and grows in mass until finally it crushes everything below it.

So it is that there are parents who may be setting out for the generations to follow in their family. Of course that will mean that they’ve left God. Here, as the as the apostle is described in the condition of man, he says that first they left God. And then what happens generation after generation? There are people on the face of this earth who are without excuse, though they do not know God, had their parents been teaching them, even from the time of Adam, from the time of Noah and other periods of time in history, there have been men who’ve known about God, and yet they did not glorify him as God. They did not give thanks unto Him as God. In fact, the next two verses says in verses twenty and twenty-one, for the invisible things of Him, from the creation the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead is so that they are without excuse because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man, and the birds and four footed beasts and creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lust of their own hearts, who dishonor their own bodies between themselves. And you notice the the flow of this text simply says that while God gave them up, it is because they first gave God up. In fact, it says they exchanged his glory. It says they changed the glory, literally, they exchanged it. They substituted the glory and the honor and the praise that should have been given to God. They changed it and gave it to idols that they had made. You see, when man does not really want to honor God, what do you think man will do? Well, the next step is that he’s going to deny the very existence of God. And so it is that men who profess themselves to become to be wise, they really become fools because they say there is no God.

That’s what the psalmist said in Psalm 14 and verse 1. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. Well, man innately worships something. And so you look at the course and the history of mankind through the through the years, and what has man done? If he does not want to obey the Lord, the next step is, well, he’ll make a God of His own. Really, what this says is they changed the glory that should belong to the Lord of heaven. And they began to make images or idols, and they fashion it after their own hand. There are people who do not want to serve God as revealed in the Bible. They don’t want to worship him, even like the Bible would say. And so what do we do?

Well, man begins to follow his own path. What he wants. What is an idol? You stop and think about it. It is something that man has formed from his own mind. He shaped it with his own hands, whether it’s made out of gold or silver or even out of wood. Or for that matter, false religion is a is a form of idolatry, where man has made worship like man wants. Rather than saying, Lord, what wilt thou do? What will thou have me to do? Man says, I like it, therefore God ought to like it. And what this whole text is really saying about man who’s turned his back on God, he exchanged the glory that should have been given to God, and looking to himself, he made a sense of worship that he liked, and that he wanted.

Really, what this text is saying, man fell. Why did man fall? He’s like the man who did not look where he was going, and he falls. And what this text says is when man begins to look to himself, he likewise falls. The prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 10 in verse 23 said, Oh Lord, the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps. What happens when man begins to direct his own steps and exchanges the glory of God? The three sad statements in this text, God gave them up. And really what it’s saying is is more than just that God uh uh withdrew a hand that was uh restraining them from sin. That’s not really what it’s saying.

It is saying that God allowed man to reap what he was sowing. You sow to the wind and you’ll reap the whirlwind. You sow to the flesh and you’re going to reap corruption. You you exchange God’s glory and put it on man. Today we have a a religion called humanism, and it it has affected us in so many ways, not only in in our school systems where it is certainly uh promoted, but you find men in every avenue and walk of life, thinking that man is his own standard. Man sets his own way. What’s right, what’s wrong? Humanists have said, take the words ought and should out of your vocabulary. You know, this concept of situation ethics that really says man sets the moral standard. Well, if man sets the moral standard, how do we determine right and wrong?

How do you know it is wrong to murder? If the majority thinks that it’s all right. Well that may be an extreme, we would say, yes, we surely everybody instinctively ought to know it’s wrong to murder, shouldn’t they? But but take it on a maybe another basis of morality. A husband and a wife are having mar having marriage problems, and so they come to a counselor and and the the wife has one set of standards, the husband has a different set. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? How can you determine the way of reconciliation for this couple? Unless we have the standard given by God, if man is setting his own standard, then we really have no compass for life. God has given us a compass. He has given us a blueprint, he’s given us the way of happiness through following his will.

2. God Gave Them Up to Uncleanness

But when we exchange the glory of God, what happens? Verse 24 says God gave him up to uncleanness. Now that’s an interesting word. Every time the word uncleanness is found really in the New Testament, it’s usually with a category of immorality, sexual immorality. Passages like Colossians 3 and verse 5, and also Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 3, where in verse 3 it said fornication and all uncleanness of our covetousness, let it not once be named among you as becometh saints. With with fornication and all uncleanness is what is stated here. What happens here is when man turns his back on God and he looks at himself, the downward spiral begins. And man thinks about sex, about fleshly lust and fulfilling the fleshly lust more than anything else.

And he says, even here in the statement is through the lust of their own hearts, they begin to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Or as verse 5 says, they change the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. So as man began to serve himself more than God. You see, Romans 1 24 and 25 really describes what happens when men worship themselves. But that isn’t the end of the text. In our own country today, what has happened is that there is so much perversion and immorality that the honor of a man and a wife who live together for many years.

How is that possible? Many young couples marry without without any kind of assurance that their marriage is going to last. In fact, they often enter it by saying, Well, if this doesn’t work out, we can divorce and get another. And some are living together without marriage. Why? Because the standard of morality from God has been taken away from them by humanism. They’ve exchanged the glory of God. And they’ve they’ve really worshiped and served the creature, man, more than God himself. Yes, God gave them up to uncleanness, sexual immorality, and they dishonor their own bodies. And they bring upon themselves hurt and sorrow and pain. What God gave them up to is they’ll suffer the consequences of sin and ruin. We want to pause for a moment.

When we come back, we’re going to look at two more statements that says God gave them up, and you see that it doesn’t end with just sexual immorality or adultery and fornication, but you see how it even goes into homosexuality and other forms of where man even just loses all sense of knowing what’s right from what is wrong. You stay with us, we’ll be back in just one moment and discuss those things. We’ve been studying in Romans chapter one three of the saddest statements found in the Bible. Three different times in this text, the scripture says God gave him up. First of all, we’ve been discussing from verses twenty-four and twenty-five, where the scripture says, Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worship and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. What this really is saying is that when God has left out a man’s plans, man declines. God gave him up does not mean that he just simply withdrew a restraining hand and just let them go their own way, although that did happen, for God made man in his own image, that is a creature of choice, and God does not force man to obey him nor to disobey him. Man has choice. But when man chooses to exchange the glory that ought to be given to God, when man refuses to glorify God and to give thanks unto God, then he gave man up. And what that really says is that he allowed man to reap what he was sowing. The consequences of sin are not only eternal, but they also even reap ruin in this life.

3. God Gave Them Up Unto Vile Affections

And I think that what this text is really showing you is that even in this life, in the flesh of life, God gives man up to dishonor his own body, as this text says. He’s given up to uncleanness, sexual immorality. And then as we see a progression in this text, he is never satisfied. In verses twenty-six and twenty-seven, the scripture says, For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And 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 that recompense of their error which was meet. Now the first time, in verse 24 that God gave them up, it uses the word uncleanness, sexual immorality.

In this text, verse 26, it says, and the vile affections or vile passions. What that really says is sin is never satisfied. Oh, for a period of time one may be satisfied and lifted up or excited by what is going on, but he soon becomes bored with that particular stage, and then he goes to a different stage and to a different stage. And so it is what this says, even to homosexuality. That’s what’s being described in this text. The vile or ungodly passions, evil emotions that are stirred, he says, the women, he says, did change the natural use into that which is against nature. That’s an interesting point. What is the natural use? God gave us some normal sexual drives. And they’re pure and they’re holy, even from the beginning of time, in order that they may be the procreation, and that is the regeneration of life from generation to generation.

There’s some normal drives that God gave into us, but he also gave the place where it’s lawful and normal to satisfaction. In Hebrews thirteen and verse four, marriage is honorable in all and the dead and defiled, but homemongers and adulterers, God will judge. They will be condemned. Also in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 1 through 5, it teaches about the relationship of man of man with his wife and with woman with her husband. That each should not defraud the other. Their body is not their own. There’s a normal place for sex, the natural use. But this passage speaks about that which is. In fact, in verse 27, when the men leave the natural use of a woman, they burn their lust one toward another. Men with men working that which is unseemly, that which is ungodly, which is sinful in its nature, inappropriate in its nature.

Today we hear some say, oh, you know, the homosexual, many are just born that way, and the alternate lifestyle ought to be accepted as as though it’s just a natural thing for some. Well, such is really a way of just soft peddling sin. It’s Satan’s way of trying to get us to say, hey, we need to tolerate and accept whatever man wants to do. Man who leaves God’s way, uh, indeed tries to create a different way, and he makes his own idol, he makes his own form of religion. But the Bible clearly points out that this is against that which is natural, that which is sinful, which is against God. In fact, you know the Bible says that that homosexuality has been condemned both old and new testament times, even before the law of Moses, by the story in Genesis chapter 19 of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The very word Sodomy comes from the name of that city. And God burned that city, destroyed it with fire because of the homosexuality, the sodomy that was being practiced in that awful city. In fact, in Jude verse 7, the scripture even referred to that Old Testament story as though it’s a reality, and says that it is serves as our example in Jude verse 7, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Indeed, Sodom and Gomorrah serves an example. But in the Old Testament, in fact, in Leviticus chapter 20 and in verse 13, the scripture shows that even under the law of Moses, those who committed homosexuality were worthy of death.

The man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and adulterer shall surely be put to death. But in verse 13, if a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.

So it is, even in the New Testament, that homosexuality says condemned. In first Corinthians chapter 6, in verses 9 and 10, the scripture says, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of of themselves with mankind. One translation says homosexuals. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. Indeed, the Bible says it’s wrong. Oh, there may be some that it said, Well, they’re born that way. I do not deny that there may be some who are tempted, who who in their natural way may have a weakness in that direction. But you know, we all have different weaknesses, and different things tempt different people.

We don’t all have the same temptations. Maybe there are some even who have a greater temptation to adultery than others. Some may have a temptation to lie more so than others. Some may have a temptation to steal more so than others. Some may have a temptation to drink and become drunk more than others. But that does not excuse. God who gave us choice also gave us ability to be in self-control. And we’re just born that way. Or or the uh or the the thief and say, Well, he’s just born that way. What we would say to the liar or the thief, you can resist the temptation. You can be in control of your lusts and of your desires. But the fact is, what happens with man is that evil man’s worse and worse.

Second Timothy 3 and verse 13. Sin is never satisfied. And if we don’t learn self-control, then matters only get worse. What this scripture also says, they receive in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. We’ve been making the statement that God gave them up. Ruin even in this life. It is a sad fact. You go down into the gutters of various cities throughout this country, and you find people who’ve given themselves over to uncleanness and devout passions, and you see a sick and a sorrowing people. Not only is there going to be eternal ruin, but even in this life they begin to suffer pain and sorrow and ruin. People who wish they could die and cannot die, who have disease, who have poverty, who have various physical afflictions.

4. God Gave Them Over to a Reprobate Mind

I think of a statement in Revelation chapter six after the fifth angel sounded and darkness came out, that is showing the wickedness of sin. It says, In those days shall men seek death and shall not find it, shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. What a pity. But you know, we we must lie in the beds that we make for ourselves. God gave them up. What it says is, here is the ruin, not only eternal ruin, but even in this life they will suffer consequences of sin. But there’s one other statement found in this text, and it is in verses 28 through 32. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all uncleanness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, maledignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, coveted, natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, 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.

What a catalog of sins. The first statement God gave them up to uncleanness. Secondly, God gave them up into vile passions. But thirdly, God into a reprobate mind. Literally, a reprobate mind is a mind that cannot distinguish right from wrong. People who lead God out of their hearts. Finally get to a state where they do not know really right from wrong. As we were saying earlier in our program, there are those today who really have no moral standard. And you believe that there are some who have no value for human who would steal if they can get away with it. What’s happening in our country today is because there is no fear of God in the hearts of men. We may talk about building more prisons and think, well, that’ll solve our problem, we’ll just have more prisons.

That’s just like a band wound is men have lost a sense of moral right and wrong. They’re filled with a reprobate mind. And really, if all these statements, and we will not have time in this program to go through and define every one of these, but literally what it is talking about is men who are selfish, filled with all unrighteousness, verse 29, and it’s sort of a general word that pretty well describes the rest of these. They get to the point where they are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, whisperers, slandering, even hating God.

Well, hate God.

They know, as verse 18 says, that the wrath of God is going to be the kind of lifestyle they’re living. I mean, people who don’t even know the Bible know that there’s got to be some kind of punishment for the wrongs that they’re committing on others. But they not only know these things, they encourage others to join with them. They not only hate themselves, they really hate others. That here is a story where man sends himself into infidelity with God.