The Person In The Mirror Part 3
Scriptures: James 1:21-24; Romans 1:22-32; 6:1
Introduction
This message is part 3 in my series “The Person In The Mirror.” In part one and two I shared with you what was recorded in James chapter one. He said “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness, and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.” (James 1:21-24)
The key take away from these verses is that when we refuse to be doers of the Word we delude ourselves as if we looked at ourselves in the mirror and walked away forgetting what we looked like. Then we read what Paul wrote in Romans chapter one, verses eighteen through twenty-three. Paul made it clear that we all have a deep seeded knowledge about the existence of God because it was implanted within us from the beginning. He stated that since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes, eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen. If something is clearly seen then it takes an active conscience decision to deny its existence. He stated that which is known about God was evident within them. “That which is known” implies that there is a great deal which may not be known. They were therefore without an excuse, in that they did know God, and from what they knew might easily infer that it was their duty to worship him, and him only. Though some have greater light and means of knowledge than others, yet all have enough to leave them inexcusable.
The being of God may be apprehended (perceived), but cannot be comprehended (mentally understood completely). We cannot by searching find Him out as was recorded in Job 11:7-9 which says, "Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.” Our finite understandings cannot perfectly know an infinite being; but, blessed be God, there is that which we may know which is enough to lead us to our chief end, the glorifying and enjoying of Him. This was the point that Paul was making, we have enough information to know God so anyone denying Him would have to do so with a conscious intention to ignore the facts surrounding them. We also read that mankind professed to be wise and exchanged the incorruptible glory of God for an image in the form of corruptible man and other animals. Man decided that he was better at determining who God was and the image that should represent Him. This is where we ended last week.
This morning we will begin with verse twenty-two and read the rest of the chapter. These verses describe the decision that God made when mankind decided to ignore/suppress the truth about His existence and righteousness with their continued works of ungodliness and unrighteousness. Before we go into the Word, let me share just a little about the daily life of those living in ancient Rome during Jesus’ times. Based on Roman art, literature and inscriptions, “unlimited sexual license” was characteristic of ancient Rome. Prostitution was legal, public and widespread. It was considered natural and unremarkable for men to be sexually attracted to teenaged youth of both sexes. Men were free to have sex with women and other men of inferior status. This mentality and commonality had to be addressed as those living in Rome began to accept Christ. They had to change how they thought even though it went directly against what was acceptable at the time.
As we read these verses, please pay close attention to the fact that there are several things besides the sexual immorality that are listed as unrighteous acts that suppress the truth about God’s righteousness and we must understand that we cannot pick and choose which act is “okay” and which ones we “really” need to pay attention to. Let’s begin with verse twenty-two. “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of 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 over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” Romans 1:22-32
I. God Gave Them Over…
The phrase “God gave them over…” is used three times in these verses. Paul was attacking the flagrant idolatry of most of the Gentile world in which animals were considered gods, sexual perversion was prevalent, and sin in general was rampant. When we read through these verses, it was not just about the sexual immorality, there was more. When people say that we serve a just, righteous, loving and forgiving God they are absolutely correct. And because He is just, righteous, loving and forgiving we must be aware that when He says He will do something, He will absolutely, without fail, do it. God gave them up, in a way of righteous judgment, as the just punishment of their idolatry. He took off the bridle of restraining grace - leaving them to themselves - letting them alone. God’s grace is His own and He is debtor to no man. We need to understand that God may give or withhold His grace at His pleasure and we cannot reasonable expect that we can do whatever we want because God’s grace will get us out of the situation. Paul asks this question in Romans 6:1: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” Of course the answer was a resounding “No!” My point is that we cannot use God’s grace as a security blanket for our sins!
God is not the author of sin, but is infinitely just and holy; the fault “God giving them over” is to be laid upon the sinner's wicked heart. Consider this worldly example: if a patient is obstinate and will not submit to the methods prescribed, but willfully takes and does that which is harmful to him, the physician is not to be blamed if he give him up and all the fatal symptoms that follow are not to be imputed to the physician, but to the disease itself and to the folly and willfulness of the patient. We are seeing more and more physicians dismiss patients from their care when the patients refuse to follow the prescribed treatment regimens of the physician. Well, think of God as the physician and we the patient. When mankind professed to be wise and denied the righteous God in their acts, God gave them over. Why did He do this? Because man professed to be wise and then based on his own wisdom, he fulfilled his idolatry. Man’s outward acts of idolatry were captured when man:
(1) Made images of God (Vs. 23), by which, they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God. Consider what the Children of Israel did when they came out of Egypt. Remember when they made the golden calf to worship? Psalm 106:19-21 says, “They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt.” They ascribed a deity to the most contemptible creatures, and by them represented God. It was the greatest honor that God did for man when He chose to make man in His image; but it was the greatest dishonor what man has done to God when he made God in the image of man. This was what God so strictly warned the Jews against in Deuteronomy 4:15-18, “So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth.” Because man did, and continue to do, exactly what God had instructed him not to do, He gave them over in the lusts of their hearts, to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. Please understand, God did not “make” them do this, He basically took a step back and allowed man to do what He wanted to do.
(2) Gave divine honor to the creature they created. The second act of idolatry was carried out when man gave divine honor to the creature they created. Verse twenty-five states “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” So again, Paul is stating a fact that man chose to do exactly what God had commanded them not to do. Man wanted to serve God and other deities with Him. What they did in effect was disown God by the worship they paid to the creature for God will be all or none. Or, as many of us do today, we place “others” above the Creator, paying more devout respect to our inferior deities, stars, heroes, and demons, thinking the supreme God inaccessible or above our worship. Again referring back to what I mention last week that man needed an image to see in order to be able to worship. It was difficult to worship an invisible God. The sin itself was their worshipping the creature at all; but this is mentioned as an aggravation of the sin, that they worshipped the creature more than the Creator. This general wickedness became twisted in with their laws and government to the point that wise men who knew and recognized the one true God and were convinced of the nonsense and absurdity of their polytheism and idolatry, yet did as everyone else did so as to fit in with their society. Sounds familiar? So what happened after God gave them over to their lusts and they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature?
He gave them over to degrading passions; to uncleanness and vile affections? Verses twenty four, twenty-six and twenty-seven says “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them…For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” (Vss. 24, 26-27) As you read this you will be able to see the relationship between cause and effect. Man makes a decision and God steps back and allows man to fulfill it to its fullest extent while understanding that there will be a day of reckoning. Those who dishonored God were given up to be able dishonor themselves. A man cannot be delivered up to a greater slavery than to be given up to his own lusts. In these verses God giving them up to the lusts of their hearts and to their degrading passion were fulfilled in their sexual activity. Lesbian and homosexual activities are condemned in these verses. Whether we like it or not, God approved of monogamous, heterosexual relationships in marriage, condemning adultery before marriage and within marriage. Remember, the crying iniquity of Sodom and Gomorrah, for which God rained hell from heaven upon them, became not only commonly practiced, but avowed, in the pagan nations as it is within the world today. Let’s continue with verse twenty-eight.
“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” (Vss. 28-32) Finally, after they continued to refuse to acknowledge God, He gave them over to depraved minds. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. They did not retain God in their knowledge because they did not like it. They would neither know nor do anything but just what pleased themselves. This is the way of life for anyone with a carnal heart; the pleasing of themselves is their highest end. There are many that have God in their knowledge, they cannot help it, the light shines so fully in their faces; but they do not retain him there. They say to the Almighty, “Depart from me Lord” and they therefore do not retain God in their knowledge because it hinders and contradicts their lusts and they do not like it. There is a difference between the knowledge and the acknowledgement of God; the pagans knew God, but did not, would not, acknowledge Him. To acknowledge something is to accept or not deny the truth or the existence of. To acknowledge God is to say that He is the one and only God! When God gave them over to willfulness in the grossest sins, here called a reprobate mind, He gave them over to a mind void of all sense and judgment to discern things that differ so that they could not distinguish their right hand from their left in spiritual things. There is no wickedness so heinous, so contrary to the light of nature, to the laws of nations, and to all the interests of mankind, that a reprobate mind will comply with it. By the histories of those times, especially the accounts we have written of the prevailing practices of the Romans during that time, when the ancient virtue of that commonwealth was so degenerated, it appears that these sins here mentioned were national sins.
I mentioned a few minutes ago about how God gave them over to depraved passions allowing them to engaged in homosexual acts, but let me close this morning with what “else” Paul mentioned as sins of one who has a depraved. This list might surprise some of you as we often gravitate to those sins that we do not do and call those out versus the ones we are also participating in. We need to understand that if we choose to walk in and stay in sin, God will release us to that type of mind to fully fulfill those desires of our hearts. Here are the examples that Paul gave of a depraved mind and the things this person would do: wickedness; greed; evil; full of envy; murder; strife; deceit; malice; gossips; slanderers; haters of God; insolent; arrogant; boastful; inventors of evil; disobedient to parents; without understanding; untrustworthy; unloving; unmerciful.
What is very concerning is Paul’s last statement where he says, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” That statement was to Christians who know God; who knows the sins that those around them are doing; and are not only doing the same, the actually approve of those who are doing them. How do we often show approval? By not speaking up against whatever it is. If you do not speak out against something it is believed by default that you are in approval of it! To be pleased with other people's sins is to love sin for sin's sake. We do not only commit sin, but we defend and justify it, and encourage others to do the like, especially when we make statements like “No one is perfect!” or “Everyone sins!”. Our own sins are much aggravated by our concurrence with, and complacency in, the sins of others. Now lay all this together and then say whether our world, lying under so much guilt and corruption, could be justified before God by any works of their own.
When you look in the mirror this week, will you see a person who sometimes fulfill the lusts of their own hearts; sometimes exercise degrading passions; and/or sometimes thinks with a depraved/reprobate mind? The key word here is “sometimes” and I stress that word because if you are “sometimes” doing these things you are opening the door to a slippery slope to it becoming a way of life. What are you seeing when you look in the mirror?
As I close this morning I want to remind all of you that we have all sinned. Some of our sins have been in the public eye where others have looked upon us and decided that we are no more than the sin that we committed before which God has cleansed us from. Regardless of what we see in the mirror ourselves, they only see what we were when we sinned. We know that changes that have taken place within us when God forgave us, but others may not. Do not allow others to determine who you are within Christ. You are not the sum of your sins, but who God has determined you to be. When you look in the mirror, see that person, not the person others would make you out to be!
I will continue next week. “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
