And Away We Go
Romans 1:24-32
Today I am going to preach a message that has gotten me in trouble before. In fact, once it caused me to lose my job. I know these things will not be easy to hear. I also know that my words may be misunderstood or taken out of context or may be used to draw conclusions different from the ones I am drawing. Nevertheless I am compelled to deliver this message because I believe it is God’s message for us today. It is a continuation of last week’s message on the wrath of God.
This passage has for its theme the judgment of God upon a world gone mad with sin. When we read it, we come face to face with “our true condition” and any of us would rather not think about that.
Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse called this the most terrible passage in the whole Bible.
When God Abandons Man
When we turn to consider the text, the first feature that attracts our attention is a certain phrase that is repeated three times.
Verse 24 — “God gave them over”
Verse 26 — “God gave them over”
Verse 28 — “He gave them over”
The word in Greek is paredoken.
The King James translates it as “God gave them up.”
Barclay renders it “God abandoned them.”
J. B. Phillips says, “They gave up God. So God gave them up.”
It is a very strong word, meaning that act of God whereby he hands over the human race for judgment because of their sins. He hands them over to the ramifications, the consequences, the wages of their sin.
It’s as if God has said, “All right. If you want to turn away from me, Go for it! I won’t try to stop you. But you’ll have to face the consequences of your own actions.”
This passage, then, describes the downward descent of the human race as it steadily moves away from God. Each step takes man further away from God and deeper into moral depravity.
Stage 1 is bad, Stage 2 worse, Stage 3 worse still. In the end society has turned all moral values upside down.
What is the judgment of God when men turn away from him?
God “gives them up” to their own devices. He lets them follow their own desires.
He doesn’t try to stop their meteoric descent into the abyss of evil.
God “abandons” the human race by letting men reap what they sow.
Why?
There is a redemptive purpose that stands behind the abandonment of God. By letting mankind go its own way, he is not only punishing them. He is also allowing them to see the emptiness of life without him.
It is only when a man comes to the end of himself that he is ready to think about Jesus Christ. But when that moment of emptiness comes, when he finally faces the “God-shaped vacuum” inside, when he discovers that disobedience only leads to pain, when he reaps the bitter harvest of his own sin, then and only then has he become a candidate for the grace of God!
In addiction treatment they use a term, “bottom.”
The bottom is that point to which a person must come before they can desire or receive help.
Bottom is the depth to which they must sink before they “come to themselves”… are ready to admit their addiction and accept help.
Sometimes, the treatment calls for “allowing them to hit bottom.” That means stopping the co-dependent behavior… like “rescuing” them from the consequences of their actions.
Allow them to lose their job… to lose their home… to go to jail… etc
You abandon them to allow them to hit bottom, in the hopes that they will make the turn… get help and make a comeback.
That is what this passage of scripture says God does to His children when they turn away from him in their heart and mind… he allows them to hit “bottom” so they can be redeemed.
Unfortunately, some people never figure it out in time. They die without realizing the folly of their own behavior.
But others come to the end and finally, after many mistakes, they begin to look up. When they do, they find that God is there waiting for them.
To say that is to rush ahead to the end of our story. Right now, we are at the other end, looking at the three stages of God’s judgment on the human race. Each one takes mankind farther away from God.
Step # 1: Sexual Immorality
Last week we covered the first steps away from God—
They neutered and castrated God by rejecting His Word, choosing to follow their own skewed reasoning, and making idols they could worship.
This week we will look at the other steps away from God and deeper into evil.
“Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.”
Note the process… Idolatry always leads to immorality.
That’s why the worship of Baal in the Old Testament was accompanied by temple prostitution.
That is why the Israelites worship of the golden calf included sexual immorality.
Once men invent gods of their own making, these gods are nothing but an extension of themselves.
Their god accepts what they accept.
Now since their god is putty in their hands for them to form… they can then rewrite the rules of human conduct.
You can live however you like. Things like the Ten Commandments no longer apply.
Want to sleep around? Go ahead. Want to have an orgy? Go ahead. Want to legalize prostitution? Go ahead. You can indulge your wildest fantasies once YOU begin making the rules.
NOTE: The way you conduct yourself sexually is a good barometer of what’s going on in your heart.
It is as if God is pulling back the covers in order to show us how empty our hearts are without him. By turning to illicit sex, instead of fulfilling our dreams we only expose the emptiness within.
It never works out like we hope it will. Immorality never satisfies because it always involves deception. We lie to each other, we lie to ourselves, and ultimately we lie to God.
Verse 25 explains what happens: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the created things instead of the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”
When men and women turn away from God, they “exchange” the truth of God for “a lie.”
What is the TRUTH? that living without God isn’t the good life.
What is the lie? The lie that you can ignore God and still find fulfillment in this life.
The lie that you can break God’s laws and still be happy.
The lie that you can live the “good life” without God.
God allows this whole process of widespread, unchecked sexual immorality to pervade a culture as a means of showing how empty and barren life is without him.
When people think they can find fulfillment in sex, God says, “Look, it won’t work. But you won’t believe that until you find out for yourself.”
So God “abandons” people to sexual immorality. He lets them indulge their fantasies. He stands back while they rush headlong off the cliff of unbridled lust to be broken on the jagged rocks of disobedience.
Why? He does it because he knows that in the end they will be more unhappy than they were in the beginning. Only then will they begin to see their need for God.
That’s Stage # 1 in the long march away from God: Sexual Immorality.
Step One is bad… but step two is worse!
Step # 2: Open Homosexuality
Stuart Briscoe puts the issue of homosexuality in its proper biblical perspective:
The logic of Paul’s argument should not be missed. In short, confusion about God breeds confusion about man, which breeds confusion about sexuality which produces sexual confusion and chaos. (Romans, The Communicator’s Commentary, pp. 50-51. Italics mine.)
It shouldn’t surprise us that immorality leads on to homosexuality.
By itself, sex can never satisfy man. You never get enough to satiate your lusts, your mind can always imagine new and different perversions, you keep pushing the limit to see how far you can go.
But there is a law of diminishing returns. You have to do more and more to satisfy your sexual thirst.
Eventually the desire crosses the line into homosexuality.
The fact that they were involved in homosexuality just proves they were a long way down the road of sexual immorality…. FAR FROM GOD.
But this should not surprise us. Whenever men turn away from God, terrible things begin to happen in society.
Long-held standards disappear.
Things once considered incredible now become commonplace.
Evil no longer seems evil.
The basic distinctions between right and wrong are obliterated.
No one knows the difference between right and wrong.
In such an atmosphere, homosexuality is first tolerated, then accepted, then praised, and finally enshrined as the ultimate freedom.
In thinking about this issue from a biblical perspective, three facts come into very clear focus:
1. Homosexuality is a willful choice, not a biological imperative.
Everything the Bible has to say about homosexuality begins with this fact. It is a choice, a learned behavior, a chosen path, a personal lifestyle decision.
Notice how Paul puts it, the words he uses (all of them involve CHOICE): “God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”
I have underlined the key words to highlight the main point.
Homosexuality is a deliberate “exchange” of the natural for the unnatural.
It is a willful “abandonment” of what is right in favor of what is wrong.
But that’s not all. Not only is homosexuality a willful choice, it is one that completely reverses the natural order of creation.
It is thoroughly “unnatural,” literally it is “against nature.”
We can take the matter even further. Look at the strong, precise words Paul uses to describe this sin: It involves “shameful lust;” it leads to “indecent acts;” it is “perversion” which leads to a “due penalty” from God.
These are not small issues. No one can argue that Paul is unclear about his meaning.
Homosexuality is a terrible sin, degrading, indecent, perverted, evil and wrong.
But let’s not lose the main point. More than anything else, homosexuality is a willful choice.
No one can say, “I was born that way.” No one is born homosexual. No one.
Anyone who argues otherwise is either ignorant of the Bible or has deliberately perverted its teaching.
You can have medical and psychological studies stacked to the sky, you can trot out Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Oprah, and 10,000 medical experts. You can pass laws that say it is natural and genetic.
Because I have the Word of God on my side and that makes all of those other things LIES.
You can talk all you want about genetics, the size of the hypothalamus, about absentee fathers, over-protective mothers, about early sexual confusion, and even about sexual abuse. Some of those things may indeed create a predisposition to this particular sin.
But the fact remains: Every act of homosexuality—whether in word or deed or in lustful thought—every single act is a personal moral choice.
Let me just show you this
I double dog dare any person to show me one… just one time in the bible where God’s Word calls a sin any action a sin… when it does not involve CHOICE
Lying, cheating, cursing, lusting, stealing, killing, gossiping, raping… all of these types of things are called sins… and every one of them is a choice.
Other things are not a choice and they are not called sins… being a slave… being male or female… how you are born… the color of your skin…
EVERY SINGLE SIN SINGLED OUT IN THE WORD INVOLVES CHOICE…AND HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN BECAUSE IT IS A CHOICE!!!!
Some may say, “I can’t help it I am tempted by persons of my own sex. I was born that way.”
Number one--- you were not born that way. You were not born with any sexual temptations. That did not happen for about a decade… during which you made choices, were exposed to things all of which oriented you to certain sexual temptations.
Number two--- Heterosexuals can’t help being tempted by the opposite sex either… but if I have sex with a woman other than Donna… that is sin.
And when a homosexual has homosexual sex it is a choice and a sin.
That’s a moral choice for which God will hold you 100% accountable. You can’t blame your choices on your hypothalamus! You can’t even blame your father for his failure to be there when you needed him.
2. Widespread homosexuality is a specific sign of a godless society.
This is undoubtedly Paul’s main point. As a society moves away from God, one mark of its drift into judgment is widespread homosexuality.
The tragic fact is that this is exactly where America is today. On every front we are told that homosexuality is good and right and normal and should be celebrated.
Those who oppose it are called homophobic. All across the country gays and lesbians are coming out of the closet—not to the criticism they deserve but to the cheers of the crowd, even the approval of many people in the mainstream.
It’s good, they say, to come to grips with who you really are. It’s time to get rid of the strictures of the past which treated homosexuality as a sin. It’s time we all accepted gays and lesbians as decent, upright, law-abiding, God-fearing, moral people.
What’s worse, the churches of America have largely caved in on this issue. Not a week passes that I don’t hear about another church that is ordaining gays and lesbians to the ministry. The situation is so bad that the mainline denominations no longer know what they believe on this issue.
It is more dangerous to speak out than to “come out.”
What’s more tragic is that the Bible-believers are afraid to speak up for Jesus.
Where are the churches and the pastors who will stand up and proclaim the truth of God on this issue?
Why are so many pastors ready to preach the love of God and slow to preach the judgment of God? Are they afraid of losing their jobs? Are they afraid the gays and lesbians won’t like them? Or are they so committed to compromise that they no longer know the difference between right and wrong?
For too long the churches have been silent on this issue. We’ve held our peace while the militant gays have taken the battle to the streets. And they’ve been winning in city after city.
It is time for the Word of God to be heard.
It’s time for the people of God to fight back against evil.
America has bowed down to the false god of diversity and the idol of pluralism. Is it any wonder that evil flows unabated in our midst?
What’s worse, some of us are co-conspirators in this catastrophe by our silence. By not speaking up against evil we have aided and abetted the enemy.
The homosexuality in our midst is part of that judgment. We said, “We want to be free and open and tolerant and diverse.” We said, “We want to be free of that narrow-minded attitude that condemns homosexuality.” And God said, “All right. You can be free of it. But you’ll have to face the consequences of your own decision.” That’s exactly what’s happening in America.
Now the Bills Come Due
Did you notice the little phrase at the end of verse 27? Paul says that homosexuals receive in themselves “the due penalty for their perversion.” That means that homosexuality is a self-punishing sin. It punishes those who practice it.
First there is the emotional penalty of confusion, self-hatred and sexual uncertainty.
Then there is the physical penalty of Sexually-Transmitted Diseases, especially AIDS. These diseases are a reminder that God will not be mocked. Those who break his laws will eventually pay a high price.
3. Homosexuality is a sin, but it is a sin that can be forgiven.
Paul spells it out very plainly in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolators nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Paul specifically says that homosexuals will not go to heaven. That’s what “inherit the kingdom of God” means.
Those who persist in choosing that lifestyle will eventually end up in Hell.
But that is true for idolators, adulterers, prostitutes, and all other UNREPENTANT, UNREDEEMED, sinners.
Homosexuals can be cured and changed. Paul says, “Such were some of you.”
Now listen to this… this is a great dagger in the heart of those who believe homosexuality is genetic and natural.
Paul tells us that homosexuals can be changed, cured, redeemed and delivered.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Paul means some of you were homosexuals.
The tense is crucial. “You were,” not “You are.”
The entire difference between Heaven and Hell is found in the difference between “were” and “are.”
What happened to those former homosexuals? They were “washed” in the blood of Jesus. They were “justified” by the grace of God. They were “sanctified” by the Holy Spirit. Jesus forgave them, God declared them righteous and the Holy Spirit changed them from the inside out.
That’s what the gospel can do. It can take a man or a woman mired in homosexuality, forgive them, change them, redirect their desires, give them a new heart, a new mind and a new disposition. It can take a person bent on sin and replace that desire for sin with a new desire to please God in everything.
Having said that, we must not miss the main thrust of this passage. As any society turns away from God, it first displays widespread sexual immorality followed by open homosexuality. From there it is only a short step to the final stage of social decay.
Stage # 3: Unlimited and Unrestrained Evil
These verses describe a world that has left God far behind. It is a society with all the restraints removed, a culture that has lost all sense of right and wrong, a place where literally every man does what is right in his own eyes.
Here we have gone beyond deliberate iniquity to something much more frightening. At this stage man has lost the desire and the ability to think clearly.
Where does society end up when it turns away from God? What does the world look like in the end? Romans 1:32 gives us the answer.
This verse is very striking: “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
Paul outlines the three things that happen when men have completely and decisively turned away from God:
They know what they are doing is wrong.
They do wrong anyway.
They praise other wrongdoers.
We have now reached the bottom, and it is not a nice place to be.
The bottom is where you are when evil becomes good and good becomes evil.
The bottom is where you are when the wrongdoers are publicly praised while defenders of morality are reviled.
The bottom is where you are when truth is on the scaffold and wrong is on the throne.
The Living Bible has a striking translation of the first part of this verse: “They were fully aware of God’s death penalty for these crimes, yet they went right ahead and did them anyway.”
That, my friends, is the bottom—When evil is celebrated publicly!
At this point you have the total reversal of values in society. I do not think it unfair to say that we have essentially reached this point in America.
The wrongdoers have nearly taken control of two key areas of modern society—education and the media.
They have gone farther… they have gained legal status for their iniquity.
“What a telling application this has on our media-captivated society. Millions sit in their living rooms watching debauchery, violence, deceit and many other vices—and applaud what they see! It makes little difference whether the vices are real or portrayed, the effect is much the same—an increasingly depraved mind on the part of the viewer. Approving another’s sin is a sign that life has reached its lowest dimension.” (Romans: Righteousness From Heaven, pp. 46-47)
I confess that I find those words troubling, and deeply convicting. It’s very easy for me to preach boldly about the sin “out there.” It’s much more difficult to face what comes into my own living room.
We must be extra careful about what we watch and read. Each night we allow images (shades of Romans 1:23) into our living room that portray events diametrically opposed to our Christian faith. But because we are “just watching,” we think it doesn’t matter. But it matters!
What we watch becomes a part of us. If we see it enough times, it doesn’t seem so bad. Once it seems not so bad, it soon looks pretty good. In the end, we tacitly approve of evil we once condemned … which is exactly what Paul was talking about in Romans 1:32.
These words are for us! They perfectly describe the world in which we live. Romans 1 is the story of our country, our city, our town, our street and our neighborhood. It is also the story of a culture on the skids.
The great tragedy is that we can’t seem to find a stopping place nowadays. No one seems to be able to stand up and say, “This far and no farther.” There seems to be no limit on sensuality, no limit on immorality, no limit on pornography, no limit on any of the sins mentioned in this passage. Each year we push the line a little farther.
LISTEN: The reason God “gives up” on us is not because he hates mankind. Far from it. God “gives up” because he loves the sinning men and women who have chosen to turn away from him.
Like a weeping father, God lets the human race go deep into sin because he knows that is the only hope of curing the desire for sin.
Behind the wrath of God stands the love of God. Behind His frown is a smile and a tear and a message to mankind: “I love you enough to let you go.” God loves you enough to let you go so far in sin that you will one day wake up and say, “This is awful. I need the Lord.”
When that day comes, you’ll discover that he’s been standing at the door of your heart all along, waiting for you to let him in.
Against the deepening darkness of our time, God has broken through in the person of Jesus Christ. Here is the amazing truth: God has poured his wrath on his own Son.
Ponder that for a moment. All the wrath of God came down on Jesus when he hung on the cross. That includes every bit of the wrath of God mentioned in this passage.
The penalty for man’s headlong plunge into sin was poured out on the strong shoulders of Jesus Christ. He paid for it all: the idolatry, the hatred, the immorality, the cheap sex, the one-night stands, yes thank God, even for all the homosexuality, and for all those terrible sins Paul mentioned, even the penalty for the public celebration of evil. He paid for it all!
He drank the bitter dregs of sin for the human race. The evil of evil, the full force of Hell itself, came down on him, and he took it all, that day at Golgotha.
Nothing more needs to be done. Nothing more can be done. Jesus paid it all.
That leads me to a familiar verse: “I came that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Romans 1 is the most terrible passage in the bible… John 10:10 is the most hopeful passage in all the Bible.
If you have eaten at Satan’s trough long enough, then in the name of Jesus Christ, I invite you to the banquet that will never end.
If you are tired of watching our nation, once proudly Christian, taking a nose-dive into iniquity, immorality, wickedness, decadence, depravity and perversion…I plead with you to come to the altar and pray for our nation.
Don’t be discouraged by today’s message… . Let the church lift up its head. Let us not be fearful in the face of brazen sinners. Let us not shrink back from the battle before us.
The darkness of our world is indeed black. The degree of perversion and wickedness is horrifying.
BUT…The truth of God marches on. The gospel of God shines like a beacon in the blackness of this hour.
There is hope for our society because God is still on the throne!
Because Greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world.
Because Not one of God’s promises will fail and He has promised that we will overcome… that right will win out… that God’s will - will be done and God will be praised for eternity.
There is hope for this sick society because there is a balm in Gilead… Jesus is the cure for the sin-sick world.
There is hope because Jesus has not come on the clouds and Gabriel has not blown his trumpet… the Christians are still here and we are the slat and light in the decaying darkness of society.
There is hope because even though God has given this society over to reap the evil seeds they have sown… In His mercy He has withheld His hand of Judgment… there is still time for humanity to turn from their wicked ways and turn to life in Jesus.
What can we do, Christians?
PRAY… beg, plead and beseech God to send revival
SHINE… Be the light in the darkness… tell them about Jesus who died for them and can deliver them from their sin
Benediction
Let us go from this place firm in our conviction that the only hope of the world is Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let us march out in the darkness, turn on the light of the gospel, and let it shine right here in Union.
When we do, we will see broken people crawling out of the darkness toward the healing light of Jesus Christ. Have no fear of what might happen. Out there in the darkness, hurting people are waiting for the light.
If you let it shine, they will come.
