When God Abandons A Society - Part 1 Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

"Parental Rights Video"; by an LGBTQ Activist"

With Discussion (Note: This is the link to the original video. The video shown during study was cropped for modesty, and an explicative was censored.) https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1708850321110311282?s=42

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. (Psalm 127:3)

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (Ephesians 6:1)

Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. (2 Peter 3:3)

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30–31)

When God Abandons Society

We have moved through Paul’s introduction of his letter to the Church in Rome. Last week, we looked at the Gospel. Paul said in verse 16, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel...” That becomes important as we get into tonight’s message’s content and the next few studies to come.

Paul was writing to the Roman Church because of a significant spiritual malady that had infected Roman society. This is a satanic, demonically-driven malady that infects a society when it abandons the very natural principles of God. What we see today is a worldwide magnification of what Paul was witnessing in his own day. Yet it would be on a level today that that would even leave Paul, a Roman citizen, aghast.

At the time of Paul’s writing to the Roman Church, Christians were outsiders. The Christian ethic would be harshly bashed by the immoral sexualized culture prominent in Rome. In Rome, sexuality was tied to ideas of masculinity, male domination, and the adoption of the Greek pursuit of beauty. “In the Roman mind, the strong took what they wanted to take. It was socially acceptable for a strong Roman male to have intercourse with men or women alike, [and boys] provided he was the aggressor.” (Tim Challies).

The Christian ethic that limited sex between a married man and woman, protected children, and taught that the man was to show love and fidelity was not only an alternative system of morality. Instead, it was condemning the Roman identity. So much so that Romans viewed Christians as traitors and a threat to their society. Today’s sexual revolution, which began in the sixties, pales the immoral ideologies of first-century Rome.

So, before Paul even begins to address what he is witnessing in the culture around him, he has to make sure that the Romans are reading that he is not ashamed of the gospel. He is not ashamed that the Gospel, in its power to save, stands in stark contrast to the depravity of the mind of men and to the spiritual darkness that looms in the heart of every man and society. What Paul will lay out for us, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is the means by which God abandons the depravity of men and, even more so, society.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 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. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 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. 28 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. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 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 1:18–32, ESV)