 Well, today we're going to be looking at a very cheery subject. Those of you who have been reading ahead, which I'd encourage you to read ahead. We're in chapter one here. We'll know that this is a very strong portion of Scripture. I chose to entitle this particular portion of our study in the book of Romans. God gave them up. And so we'll be looking at that in some detail in just a moment as we begin our study. So let's read beginning in Romans chapter one, verse 24. And I'll read to verse 32, the end of the chapter. Romans chapter one, beginning at verse 24, reading to verse 32. Paul writes, therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiter, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. In other words, they're junior hires who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death. Not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. So we have a cheery, cheery section of scripture that we're going to be spending some time in today. Paul has been developing in Romans chapter 1 since verse 18, man's moral guilt before God. What he does in chapter 1 is he lists or outlines the sins of the Gentile nations. When we get into chapter 2, he's going to list the sins of Israel. And then in chapter 3, he's going to condemn both Jew and Gentile to be guilty before God under law, because both Jew and Gentile are not faithful to God. That's basically what he's doing. He's going to show that humanity, Jew and Gentile combined, is in rebellion against God. We'll be seeing that as we go through the conclusion of chapter 1 into chapter 2, and then when we move into chapter 3. You see, what Paul is developing is what we today call a systematic theology. A systematic theology is just a systematized way of putting information concerning things of God into understandable form. And so it basically gives to us insights concerning who God is and how God works amongst men. Systematic theology. And what he's doing here is developing that for us by starting out with man being corrupt before God. You know, in a time when people today even are saying, how come bad things happen to good people? Paul would be making the case that in reality there's no such thing as a truly good person. There's only been one who is truly good, and that's Jesus Christ. All the rest of sin falls short of the glory of God. And so he's pointing that out by developing his theology, first pointing to the fact that man is sinful. And that God actually reserves wrath for those who reject him. So Paul has been making it clear that man has made a determined effort to reject God. He showed us in verse 19 that God had given to man a conscience. A conscience speaks of an innate knowledge of good and bad behavior. And so he says, man internally has an ability to know that he has done wrong. And then he went on and he spoke concerning creation in verse 20. And he pointed out that the beauty and mystery of creation is intended to provide proof that there is a creator. As a matter of fact, when you read verse 20, let me show you this. In verse 20 it says, since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Clearly seen being understood. So he's saying we have visible evidence, things that we physically witness that is internally processed, something that we mentally can perceive. So he's saying, seeing people do not see and though perceiving they still do not perceive. They don't know that they've done wrong and they see creation but reject the evidence. Well, they know they did wrong but it doesn't matter. They see creation and reject the evidence. And so in doing so what happens is they end up living in vanity which is the final result of rejecting God. Vanity, when you see it in the book of Ecclesiastes, it says vanity of vanity all is vanity. The word vanity is used multiple times through the twelve chapters of the book of Ecclesiastes. The writer Solomon who has tried everything is basically saying without God everything is futile. Everything is worthless. Everything has no real value. There's no real purpose without God. He said in Ecclesiastes 1.14, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun and indeed all is vanity and grasping for the wind. So his point is if you reject God and the evidence of God, if you reject that you end up living in futility. So Paul is saying that humanity has had enough evidence to show that there's a God. There's the reality of God but instead of giving God glory and the honor that is due to him, instead man he says has become idolaters. In verse 21 he makes it very clear that their thoughts became futile and as a result man created gods in order to worship. When he says that their thoughts became futile, that word futile speaks of that which is filled with evil. Which hearkens all the way back to Genesis chapter 6.5 where it says, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And so the point he's making is man in rejecting God has given man himself over to basically just seeking pleasure. As a result verse 22 is they have pride. They have developed pride. They have prided themselves on their wisdom but in reality he said man has become a fool. In rejecting God and becoming self-sufficient they reap the consequences. Jonah in chapter 2 verse 8 said this, Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. In other words in leaving the God who is the fountain of mercy they abandoned the measure of mercy that God had treasured up for them. And that's what happened when you regard worthless idols. So God's wisdom is far above the wisdom that's found in the world. And those who reject his wisdom do not end up living an exciting life but a tasteless one. Because they're constantly looking and we can speak and say amen to that. They are constantly looking. We have been that way. And trying to find pleasure in life through relationships or through degrees or through jobs or finances or whatever. And in rejecting God who gives to us an abundance of life and joy that's unimaginable and peace and hope and all of the things that we truly desire and would like to have we end up living a tasteless life. Everything is just a shade of gray and people think well if I buy this car or I get this house or I attain this degree or have this relationship most certainly then I'll be satisfied. But once we grab hold of that like Ecclesiastes said it's grasping the wind. It is temporary and it's not something you can hold on to. And so in leaving the Lord in his mercy we embrace idols and that's the point he's making. Now God's wisdom has been made manifest through the message of the Gospel. Now as already seen he made this very clear in verses 16 and 17. The Gospel is a message declaring the way of salvation to all who believe. But in spite of all the efforts that God has Paul would be making this case. In spite of all the efforts God has made towards saving us. Mankind habitually voluntarily rejects his invitation to them. It reminds me of Matthew 2337 where Jesus said, Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you were not willing. You were not willing. And so they reject creation. They reject conscience. They reject the message of the Gospel. And as a result they're left to their own pursuits and they turn to idolatry. The result of rejecting God is idolatry. It's the worship not stewardship of creation. We today have a movement that we're very familiar with. That is at its heart really giving a lot of honor to creation itself. And we have this tendency of doing so. We look at nature as being our mother nature. Many people refer to mother nature as if the earth birthed humanity. And there is this sense of animal life being equal to human life. And what happens is we've gotten to the point where we actually give more honor to creation than we do to the creator. And as a result of that it's just a simple form of idolatry. And I see that. I find it interesting how people put so much value on animals. I'll give you an example. If you're going to be building a dam we'll say and you discover that there's a darter fish in the way. There are some small endangered species. In spite of the fact that there are thousands upon thousands of people who need water because you have a fish inside of this small stream there will be no way that you're going to be able to build a dam because of a darter fish. People care more about whales than they do about human beings. There are more people who are rabid supporters of saving whales than there are those who are supporters of saving children. They are pro-animal life but anti-human life. And you see that all the time. And a lot of people have started looking at animals as being as important to them as human life. Oh, here I go. I told for a service I wouldn't say this second but I'm going to. I still have a third service that I won't say it in. That'll go over the air. I don't know how to put this. I say it first service and I clumsily said what I was thinking. So second service I will clumsily say the same thing. I revert to my hippie language so I'll say it like this. I trip out on how we do value animal life. I understand that dogs and cats are cute. I mean dogs especially cats. Well, anyway, I understand the dogs and all of that. I still am amazed as I see somebody walking their dog and that dog's got a sweater and booties on. I mean there is something wrong here. I don't get it. I don't get it. But I see it all the time. And people walking into the store carrying that dog like it's their baby and they have their little carriers and a whole nine yards. And I trip on that. I say my goodness these people have really got a need. I understand I like animals myself. Especially steaks, dead ones that are cooked just right. I like animals. I'm an animal lover for sure. Some salt and salsa man, you can't beat those animals. They're great. Pigs, chickens, cows, they're all good. But it just kind of shows where we as a society have gone is we value certain things and overvalue certain things and all. It's just a way of... And I'm not saying everybody who loves their animal. See this is where I have to be careful. I'm not saying everybody who loves their animal and shows special attention to that animal is necessarily worship and creation. What I'm saying is there's a general tenor towards the value of the animal that is on par with human beings. Which is why you can see a commercial where they have this music in the background and something about whatever. I'm in pain and nobody loves me. And then they have a picture of a dog just looking into the camera, like the camera is saying please feed me. And the dog is just saying help me. And then people send their money to the SVCA or whatever. It's the same mentality where you see this woman feeding a cat food in crystal. Or where they say you've got to buy this special kind of food for your dog because you want the dog to eat the very best. And I'm saying those are the same animals that drink out of toilets. Are you kidding me? And yet that's what we do. That's what we do. We are enhancing in society's eyes the value of animals but we have undermined the value of children. Do you see that? I see that. And I say what an odd way of thinking. What happens when you... That's a logical thing that happens when you don't honor God and man who is created in the image of God. All things at that time become pretty much equal. And so if I think cats are better than babies then so be it. If I think whales are better than babies then so be it. That's my opinion. And who's going to argue with me about it? Well Paul would argue and he would say that man was created in the image of God. And that man has been given stewardship. We have the responsibility of stewarding but not worshiping creation. Man is God's crowning creation. He created all things with the spoken word but man he breathed his life into his soul. He created fashion man with his hands. So we have a deeper relationship with our creator than the spoken creation of let there be and then there was you see. Because when God created Adam the Bible says he formed him from the dust of the earth which is another way of saying that he showed personal interest into an actual crafting of the human being and then he breathed into him the breath of life. And when you look into that there are those rabbis as well as Christian conservative scholars who would say that word breath speaking of an intimacy can even be rephrased as kissed life into man which showed the relationship God had with man from creation and you don't see that in anything else. But man instead of stewarding creation changes to worshiping creation and that's what Paul is speaking about. And so man has chosen to become idolatrous. They've exchanged according to verse 23 changed or exchanged literally the glory of the incorruptible God for man, for birds, animals and for snakes. So what is God's response verse 24 therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. God gave them up. That word gave gave them up that phrase speaks of abandoned. God abandoned them. This phrase is repeated with slight variation three times. It's mentioned here in verse 24, mentioned again in verse 26 and mentioned again in verse 28. It speaks of abandoning. What he's saying is when men persistently abandon God God will abandon them to their sin and the consequences of their sin. It's like Genesis chapter 6 verse 3 where it says the Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever for he is indeed flesh yet his days will be 120 years. God gave them up and brought judgment. Psalm 81 verses 11 and 12 but my people would not listen to me. Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. So God gave them up. What did he give them up to? Well verse 24 says God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their heart. So the fruit of the rejection of God and idolatry is uncleanness. That word uncleanness speaks of lustful living. It speaks of impurity. He's saying man's rejection of God inevitably leads to a pursuit of personal pleasure. He speaks of the lust of their hearts. The heart has been referred to as the throne of sin in Matthew 15, 19 and 20. Jesus said out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. The lust of the heart. The heart is the throne of sin. What did they do? Well verse 25 says who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Rejecting the truth that God has made known has serious consequences. Rejecting God's revelation. He's saying leads to idolatry which results in sexual sin. So in context, Paul would be speaking of the ritual prostitution rampant at his time but it was said that the physical experience was said to produce a mystical experience within one's own body. So the result of rejecting God is the dishonoring of their bodies amongst themselves. Man has mocked the honor of God by deifying the bodies of creatures and has built unto himself idols. God therefore abandons man to passions which dishonor his own body is what he's saying here. Their form of honor given to idols was expressed in sexual promiscuity and in rejecting God they believe the lie. When he says they have believed the lie it's the lie that there are other gods and other paths to salvation. Instead of giving God honor that is his due they give honor to idols. Idolatry in the Old Testament is the lie because it produces a false hope. In Jeremiah 10, 14 it reads everyone is dull-hearted without knowledge. Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image for his molded image is falsehood. There is no breath in them. So rather than worshiping the Creator who is God he's saying instead of doing that and yielding to God because God has given his witness through creation and conscience and has expressed it specifically through the message though they knew that there's a God they didn't retain God in their knowledge they basically tried God found him to be insufficient to meet their needs and thus turned to idols and idols in idolatry found its greatest expression in the mystical experience of having sexual intimacy. They believed the lie and as a result they began to worship physical expression sexual intimacy because that form of honor given to idols is expressed in sexual promiscuity. That included all forms of sexual expression experienced outside of the marriage covenant. So when I say sexual expression outside of the marriage covenant there are obviously those who would argue for a moment and say or maybe for the rest of their life and say well what is wrong with experiencing sexual pleasure and not being married? Well the first thing is that God intends sexual satisfaction to be experienced within the covenant of marriage. God's design is found very clearly in scripture. There's sexual purity before marriage and there's faithfulness within marriage. But somebody argues and says well why not live with someone to find out if we are compatible instead of marrying? I mean what happens if we get married and discover that we're not compatible why not give us an opportunity to discover that? There are those who are having relationships now living together that they liken to taking a test drive of a car before you buy it and so they basically look at relationships as being a trial, a test. It's not that relationships aren't a trial and it's not that marriages aren't a trial marriage can be a real trial but they're speaking in terms of a test drive if you will and so they argue that they see living together as a trial period. Well Rutgers professor David Pope no co-author to study on the result of cohabiting before marriage and found that those who live together before marriage are 48% more likely to divorce later Popano writes living together is not a good way to prepare for marriage or to avoid divorce. Cohabitants tend not to be as committed as married couples to the continuation of the relationship. The domestic violence rate for a woman who lives with a man outside of marriage is twice that of a married woman and so it's not a good idea to do that. Now concerning sexual purity God's word is abundantly clear concerning His will for us we're to present our bodies to the Lord for service and wait until we're married and it doesn't matter if you call the person your fiance God calls it fornication and God forbids it. In 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 13 Paul said the body is not meant for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. When Paul was writing to the Thessalonians in 1st Thessalonians 4 3 through 5 he said this God's will that you should be sanctified that you should avoid fornication that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God. And so marriage is the proper place to express sexuality but they are bent on experiencing sex outside of it which he says is a form of idolatry. In verse 26 he says for this reason God gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due and they and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Degrading passions that's what he's speaking of when he speaks of vile passions that speaks of the most disgraceful and repulsive of all passions and it's interesting that he's referring to lesbianism there and homosexuality. Notice in verse 26 how he says for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature in this phrase natural use that's something that is produced by nature that which is inborn and agreeable to nature when he speaks of that which is against nature that's in opposition to the nature of things or which is natural the order of nature and what he's saying is homosexuality and lesbianism is against nature and natural instincts so he speaks of lesbianism in verse 27 he speaks of homosexuality the men leaving the natural use of burning in lust for one another this burning in lust speaks of an insatiable perverted lust and he says their commit what is shameful and receiving themselves a penalty of their error that word shameful has to be defined today it's been said that we now exist in a society that has forgotten how to blush and that's pretty true we live in a society that has forgotten what shame is because there are so many people who parade their sin openly that it has become pretty much welcome and accepted and even normal in the society that we live in and so people come out of the closet for a variety of perversions and things that are so shamefully wrong but they don't even know what the word shame means anymore many people don't even know what shameful speaks of or what the word shame means the word shame is a word that speaks of a painful feeling of humiliation caused by an awareness of wrong or foolish behavior and there are a lot of people who do not have that there is no shame they have no sense of I've done something wrong well in rejecting the lord in his mercies towards him they reap the eternal consequences by not repenting they never are going to be delivered from their burning lust nor find peace in Galatians 6 7 and 8 it says be not deceived God is not mock for whatever a man sows that shall he also reap for he who sows his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he who sows to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting you see today these two sins that he actually began with lesbianism and homosexuality are presented as normal orientation it is presented as being a natural condition that somebody is born with but that simply is not verifiable through any unbiased scientific studies the young people going through school today here in the United States are being taught pretty much from the beginning from as early as kindergarten into first grade second grade that homosexuality lesbianism homosexuality is natural and inborn they are being taught that in one form or another those of you who have kids in school may very well be able to to say that that's true because that comes through in a variety of classes that begins very early to orient the kids and basically part of the reason was originally was because the teachers didn't want the students to be bullying other students and all but it's become pretty much the norm so that young people when you speak to young people today and some of you have when you speak to somebody 18, 19, 20 years old who came out of the educational system that we have here in California throughout the states lesbian or homosexual we're born that way they will tell you that they will argue that and they'll even go so far as to say that it's an inborn disposition but the fact is there is no way that you can prove that there is no such thing as a gay gene as far back as 1990 1995 Dr. Dean Hamer of the National Institutes of Health released the results of a two-year study Hamer a homosexual rights activist claimed that he had discovered a genetic component to homosexuality the media broadcast the study as proof of a gay gene the scientific community criticized the study for being flawed Hamer is reported to have said in a meeting of parents and friends of lesbians and gays if you tell the press what to write about a scientific study they will write it Dr. Alan Sanders of the NIH replicated Hamer's study in order to verify his conclusions Sanders could find no evidence to validate either Hamer's findings or his theory in 1948 Alfred C. Kinsey published a work stating that 10% of the U.S. population was homosexual experts have debunked his claim by pointing out that his data is flawed in that much of his work was done through interviewing sex offenders pimps, male prostitutes and those incarcerated in prison the midlife development in the United States study sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation found that only 2.5% of the 3032 American surveyed were either homosexual or bisexual and so all of this that you hear with people are saying that they were born that way and homosexuals are born that way lesbians are born that way is not verifiable by any evidence whatsoever the Bible presents homosexuality as a chosen lifestyle that results in judgment if not repented of rejecting God and God giving them over to the depravity of their desire the Bible presents it as a chosen lifestyle deserving of God's judgment Leviticus 1822 says you shall not lie with a male as with a woman it's an abomination though it is a sin and it is found to be sinful both in old and New Testament it is also forgivable and that's something we need to say in 1 Corinthians 6 9-11 it says do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God you should not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God and such were some of you but you were washed but you were sanctified but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God but God will forgive those who repent the way that he has forgiven us of the sins that we have been committing and asked for his mercy and yet when Paul is speaking here he says listen God has given a message God has given witnesses an internal witness called the conscience an external witness called creation but man voluntarily rejects these witnesses rejects the gospel and thus God gives them over his message they've rejected he has given them over to a debased mind and what they have ended up doing is they've ended up worshiping creation rather than the creator who is God and blessed above all things the result of this is that their lifestyle demonstrates the rejection of God notice how he says in verse 28 even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a debased mind to do the things which is not fitting and he begins to tell us what all unrighteousness is sexual immorality wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness full of envy, murder strife, deceit evil mindedness their whisperers, backbiter haters of God violent, proud, boasters inventors of evil things disobedient to parents undiscerning untrustworthy, unloving unforgiving unmerciful who knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them when he speaks of debased that's a word used of metals that were rejected because of impurities these metals were worthless and he says it has resulted in being filled with unrighteousness they're aware that there are such a thing as a judgment that's being preached that they don't care they even approve of those who do those things and that's the truth isn't it we usually give them Oscars or Grammys they become talk show hosts they're placed into positions of power we definitely not only approve of those things or practice them but we want them there because as a society because they simply reflect what we are ourselves that's how it works this is our mission field the gospel rightly preached has a power of transformation when the word of God is proclaimed and people receive in faith they can be forgiven that's why Paul said I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ it is the power of God that's why he said that even though the world that we're living in is rejecting God they reject His word they reject their conscience they reject creation they give themselves over to things that they shouldn't do with no shame it doesn't mean that we should not be preaching the gospel because if I were to take a survey in this church and say how many in here have been guilty of the sins that were just read yes I've done that yes I've been there and yet look what the Lord has done through the gospel He's transformed our lives and so we should not allow ourselves to be argued by the world into a corner and feel that we are powerless because we of all people know the grace and mercy of God we at one time did those things ourselves therefore we're not the judge of this world there's only one judge what we are are ministers we are messengers of a gospel of transformation but Paul is making it very clear he is saying when you don't have a relationship with God this will be your life and you know that you are worthy of judgment so all Gentiles without God those who do not know God are entering into a time when they will be judged by God but what we do is we take a message of salvation and we proclaim it to people even if they don't want to hear I mean Noah was a preacher of righteousness his heart was touched by what was going on around him he proclaimed a message of coming judgment to the ridicule to his own ridicule and yet when the judgment came he his household were saved and that's what we're going to do we continue to take the word out even if people don't want to hear it we will speak it with confidence and courage because it's the truth and we will watch what God can do in people's life to embrace it that's what we've been called to do and God has a way of taking people and making them brand new so regardless of whether or not this was part of what their lifestyle was like that message of the gospel ultimately will reach and save people and that's why we preach the gospel but we are not Pollyanna's we don't look at our society saying it's a great society no our society is getting worse and worse it is a shameless society but the more shame and darkness that they have the more hope and light we should be giving to them may we live for Jesus Christ you can be set free by Jesus Christ He can transform your life if you embrace Him and He does change life isn't that the truth that is the truth He changes life