God Gave Them Up! Romans 1:24-32
Romans Series (Part 4)
Sermon by Don Emmitte, Grace Restoration Ministries
Take any day and go to any news source and you are likely to read headlines that are at best disturbing. Without playing the part of the doomsday prophet, it is not far off the mark for me to say America is in trouble. And though it is tempting to make this a political issue, the candidates certainly have been doing so, it is not politically based. The condition of America does not hinge on the party in power. Our issues rest in our spiritual condition. America is in trouble because we have a very disturbing spiritual climate that prevails in America today. This is the reason I have subtitled today’s message as Has God Abandoned America?
As we face unprecedented difficulties in so many areas of life, it is natural to ask this question. Francis Schaeffer believes the answer to this question is the key to understanding what is happening in the Western world. In his book, Death in the City, he writes:
There is only one perspective we can have of the post-Christian world of our generation: an understanding that our culture and our country is under the wrath of God. America is under the wrath of God. We no longer enjoy the favored status of protection from God. He has given us up to our own devices and base desires.
The basis for such a harsh conclusion is based in his interpretation of our text for today. In this paragraph the Apostle Paul sets forth the terrible consequences of a man who refuses God. God’s judgment upon this man is He abandons man. It is the most severe of any judgment possible. Paul saw the same political and economic situations developing in his day as we do in ours. It prompts him to declare God gave them up! Listen to the severity of his declaration. One writer says this phrase sounds “like clods of dirt falling on top of a coffin lowered into a grave.” There is a sound of finality, judgment, and death in them. Our question today must be has God really abandoned America?
Take Your Bibles Please…
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:24-32 ESV).
There are three principles for us to see in these verses in this regard…
First, When God Abandons Man, He Gives Them Up to a Domination of Desire (vv. 24-25).
The word “uncleanness” indicates a moral and spiritual uncleanness. It ought to be understood as immoral and violent behavior. It is behavior that brings dishonor to the human body. All of this happens in the “desires of their hearts,: which indicates that these things are the thoughts and desires of their life.
They have not merely fallen into the trap of immorality; they have pursued it since they have wanted it. God has placed within all of us certain basic desires. These desires were given to us for our basic good. Nothing God has created within man is inherently bad. But, these desires have now come to rule man. They have brought man to his ruin. They were never intended to be the center of man’s life; however, a result of God giving man up is that these desires come to dominate their life. One man might be dominated by the desire for food; another, the desire for alcohol or drugs; another, the desire for sex; another, the desire for popularity or position; and yet another, the desire for money or possessions. These desires become the master of their lives.
Has God abandoned America? If we are to answer that question objectively, we ought to think about another question first: What dominates the people of America? Does God or the desires of their hearts for pleasure at any price dominate them? Well, it’s an easy answer to come to. We are a nation drowning in our desire for pleasure at any cost. In fact, even though we are literally dying from these practices, we are searching desperately for more. The insatiable desire of America is for more and more.
I still have an article in my files from Time magazine, dated December 13, 1971, in which four mainline churches announced their “new” perspective of sex outside of marriage. They concluded after careful analysis that the commandment “Thou shalt not commit adultery” really meant “maybe,” and that sex was intended to be enjoyed by two lovers who could have a “meaningful relationship. This, they further declared, would free man from the sexual bondage. We’ve seen how that has turned out! Forty years later we are reeling under an epidemic of thirty-eight sexually transmitted diseases, with devastating consequences. Cervical cancer has soared in young women to unprecedented rates. Millions of girls, under the age of seventeen, are having babies every year, with almost two million others opting for abortions rather than give birth. The family has been deeply wounded with restoration seeming further away than ever before in our nation’s history. We are dominated by our desires.
Second, When God Abandons Man, He Gives Them Over to Corruption of Sexual Practices (vv. 26-27).
The ESV uses the words “dishonorable practices.” They describe affections, desires, or passions which cause persons to degrade or dishonor themselves. The Roman culture was familiar with Paul’s imagery and vocabulary. These types of sexual perversions were widely practiced and accepted in the Roman world. According to the Apostle Paul, such practice indicates that the society is under the judgment of God.
There are several important principles at this point in our discussion. Scripture is very clear concerning our sexual practices. Anything other than intimacy between a husband and his wife is outside of the desire and command of God. It is shameful and sinful. While this is true, we must be careful to treat all those who have lived this lifestyle, or are now living it within the bounds of God’s love and grace. Our response to all people who are living in sin, whatever that sin may be, ought to be redemptive. We must take great care not to make application of God’s wrath to those sins we find both most distasteful to us and least tempting to us. We cannot say, “God gave them up, but not me.” We are all sinners with the same need of redemption.
Third, When God Abandons Men, he Gives Them Up to the Corruption of Their Thought Life (vv. 28-32).
The apostle makes a very important play on words in these verses. “Did not see fit to acknowledge God” is the concept of rejection after putting something to the test. The sense of the verse is that men have put God to the test and have judged him unfit. It is as if they had many philosophies and belief systems lined up before them and were given the responsibility to judge their fitness or worthiness. They saw God and His way of life and rejected it as defective. It was not worth keeping. They did not consider God worthy to retain in their lives.
In response to this rejection, God gave them over to “a debased mind.” It is the same root word for rejection. Literally it means because they rejected God, he rejected them. This rejected status results in a corrupted life. J. B. Phillips translation captures the idea very well:
Moreover, since they considered themselves too high and mighty to acknowledge God, he allowed them to become the slaves of their degenerate minds, and to perform unmentionable deeds. They became filled with wickedness, rottenness, greed and malice; their minds became steeped in envy, murder, quarrelsomeness, deceitfulness and spite. They became whisperers-behind-doors, stabbers-in-the-back, God-haters; they overflowed with insolent pride and boastfulness, and their minds teemed with diabolical invention. They scoffed at duty to parents, they mocked at learning, recognized no obligations of honor, lost all natural affection, and had no use for mercy. More than this—being well aware of God’s pronouncement that all who do these things deserve to die, they not only continued their own practices, but did not hesitate to give their thorough approval to others who did the same. (Romans 1:28-32 Phillips).
We need to understand the reason why these things became a part of their lives was not from some moral slip, but from a rejected mind. They practiced wrong because they thought wrong. They did these things because they thought they were the right things to do. The depth of their error can be seen in the subsequent verses. Paul says they know about the coming judgment and still they will not turn from the path of their wickedness. They have come to the place in their lives that to do good is evil and to do evil is good.
Some time ago there was a red brick prison still standing in Germany known as Spandau. It held one man. It was the Nazi war criminal Rudolph Hess. He was sentenced eighty-three years ago to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life. The aged Nazi wandered the halls and gardens of Spandau prison waiting for his death. In the summer of 1988 he hung himself allowing the prison to be torn down. If there is anything that Rudolph Hess might be remembered for, it is that, as far as anyone knows, he never repented. Guilty of the most horrible crimes in history, he never once expressed any remorse or sorrow. Until the day he died he thought of himself as the deputy fuhrer of the Nazi Party. His last public statement during the Nuremburg trials is shocking:
I was allowed for many years of my life to work under the greatest son my people have produced in their 1,000 year history. Even if I could, I would not want to erase this. I am happy to know I have done my duty to my people, as a loyal follower of my fuhrer. I regret nothing. If I were to begin again I would act just as I have acted, even if I knew that in the end I would meet a fiery death at the stake. No matter what men may do to me, some day I shall stand before the judgment seat of the eternal. I shall stand before Him and I know He will judge me innocent.
Hess serves as a stark example of those who know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
As we come to our response to this clear warning today we must examine our own hearts and determine our response to the call of God. Each of us should respond with a sincere knowledge of our personal sin before God. This is not a time for pointing fingers at others. That part of us clinging to pride and self-righteousness ought to be placed at the feet of Jesus. It must die on the Cross!
Additionally, our call today is not to become prophets of doom, but proclaimers of life. The good news today and forever is that Jesus Christ has died for us regardless of our sin. The Gospel announces that it is not too late for us as individuals or aas a nation. God is ready to rescue us from our sinfulness. All that remains is for us to acknowledge our need of his work of grace in our lives. The truth of Ezra is just as true today as it was in his day:
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV).
