When God Gives Up: Romans Series #6

We need a sweeping, weeping, and reaping revival! Sooner or later every nation will reap what its people have sown over decades of time. Today millions of people have convinced themselves that free sex and free love are acceptable. Marriage is seen as a dying institution. Divorce is no longer wrong. Fornication is no longer a sin. Homosexuality is seen by many as an alternate lifestyle. Now there are those who wish to debate how many genders there really are beyond male and female.

The apostle Paul continues to build his case in God’s courtroom of justice and morality. The wording in Romans 1:18-32 is some of the strongest in all of the New Testament.

No matter how wealthy a nation may be, its wealth cannot buy life or time. The wages of sin is death. The apostle Paul, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, issued three indictments against this world—three indictments that God brought to pass in the courtroom of His justice. Here is what God’s Word has said.

The World’s Blindness is Inexcusable (Romans 1:18-20)

It is inexcusable, because we have chosen to Ignore Our Conscience – Paul says in Romans 1:19, “Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them” (NASB1995). Regardless of who you are, God has put into the heart of every person a conscience. It is there to help us discern between what is right and wrong. Yet America has chosen to sear the conscience.

One can determine where he or she stands with God by asking these two questions: What makes one laugh, and what makes one weep? Answering these two questions will enable one to know where the conscience stands in relationship to God. Many in our country have seared their conscience—they no longer can tell what is right or wrong. We live in a day when the unsaved refuse to blush and the Church no longer knows how to weep over the sins of mankind. The sins that used to slink down back alleys now strut down Main Street. The sins that used to embarrass us now entertains us!

We Have Chosen to Ignore Creation – The Bible says in verses 19 and 20, “Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being made, so that they are without excuse” (NASB1995).

Regardless of what language we speak, everything in this universe bears this stamp—“Made by God.” Yet many have chosen to ignore God, to make sure He has no place in our public school systems or our government. He is made fun of on television and in the movies. He is lampooned, ridiculed, cursed, and blamed for all the economical and physical disasters of life. It is easier to get a Bible into the atheistic schools in Albania than to get them into the schools of the United States of America.

We Have Chosen to Ignore Christ – What did the Bible say in verse 18? “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” The word “suppress” means to “smother,” to “stifle.” We have chosen to smother, to stifle, and to suppress the truth. It is not that we have never received the truth; we have chosen to press it down.

Jesus Christ is the truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). As a nation we ignore, smother, and stifle His message. But we have chosen no longer to base our standards on what the Bible has to say; often we base our standards on what the experts have to say. We have chosen to ignore Christ. Our blindness is absolutely inexcusable.

A woman once shared with her pastor about her broken heart that was caused by her husband. With tears she told how her husband drank, cursed, gambled, and ran around on her. But she concluded by saying that her husband had a good heart. However, the pastor told her that the heart of the problem is the problem of his heart. Until man’s heart is changed, his life will never be changed. Never forget it; the reason for our condition is because the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. America is inexcusable in sin!

Hear what the Bible has to say about man. Isaiah said man’s head is sick. Mark said his eyes are evil. David said his mouth is deceitful. Isaiah said his lips are unclean. James said his tongue is unruly. Paul said his throat is an open sepulcher. Jeremiah said his neck is stiff. Matthew said his eyes are dull. Isaiah said his hands are full of blood. Solomon said his feet are swift to mischief. Job said his bones are full of sin. Mark said his heart is exceedingly wicked.

Regardless of how fancy his car, how expensive his clothes, how wealthy he is, or how powerful he becomes, the Bible says that man is a sinner. It is possible to put a new suit on a man but only God can put a new man in a new suit!

The World’s Beliefs Are irrational (Romans 1:21-22)

I have been afforded the opportunity to travel by airlines a lot over the last forty years. There are times when the pilot says, “Buckle your seatbelts, because the ride is going to be rough.” For the next few moments, I want you to understand that this message is going to be rougher than most of the messages I write. How did our nation become “America In Deep Sin?”

First, indifference. God Word says in the first part of verse 21, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (NASB1995). God has given us this earth on which to live, fresh air to breathe, and bountiful blessings on every side. To ignore God is the essence of selfishness. Our beliefs are irrational because we have become indifferent to God. We need a fresh, reverential fear of God. We need to fear God more than men. We need to fear some things, like snakes in the woods and drunk drivers, but we had better fear God.

Second, due to America’s imagination. We read at the end of verse 21, “But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” When a person refuses to put his mind on the things of Christ, his mind will become a garden of weeds. We imaginatively create our sin. Man’s mind has become full of the weeds of sin, of apathy, and indifference. Our culture has taken its creativity to create evil and has delivered it to the world!

America’s beliefs are filled with ignorance. When a person refuses to believe the truth, he will then believe the ultimate lie. One’s mind cannot live in a vacuum. When an individual denies the truth, he will then distort the truth. He will become a practicing idolater.

We live in a time when men want to enthrone human reasoning and dethrone divine revelation. Look at verse 22, “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” The word here for “wise” means a “learned man,” a “cultured man.” The word for “fools” is the Greek word “moros,” from which we get the English word today, “moron.” Do you know what God says? “Man thinks he is wise, but I say he is a fool.” When one starts with the wrong premise, he will end up with the wrong conclusion every time.

We live in a society filled with intellectual barbarians and sophisticated morons. America believes education will solve all of her problems. We are educating ourselves further and further away from God. Please do not misunderstand me. I tell young men and women everywhere I go to get the best education they can. I’ve had my fair share of sitting at a desk in the classrooms of education.

I had the privilege of going four years to a Bible college, then earning two master’s degrees while attending seminary for three and a half years, and earning a doctorate within the next seven years. So I am not against education. But a lot of people think that education holds the answer to all of our problems. Every time there is a crisis, we lift up the banner of education and say that education will help us out of our problems, whether the problems are AIDS, illegitimate births, drugs, or alcoholism.

The world says we need more education, but we need more salvation. The world says we need more culture, but we need more of Calvary. The world says we need to turn over a new leaf, but we need to get a new life in Jesus Christ. Education is good, but education alone will not solve our problems. We do not want to deal with the issues. We want to feel good about sin, to make it more sophisticated. While man professes he is wise, God says he is a fool. He is a fool because he has chosen to ignore what’s right.

Indifference, imagination, and ignorance lead to idolatry. We may not bow down and worship sticks or stones, but our idols sometimes come in chrome and fiberglass. Sometimes they roll down the highway, float on a lake, or even fly in the air. Sometimes they may come in the form of checkbooks, CDs, or mutual funds. Any time we worship something man has made, God calls it idolatry. Notice what God says about humankind and their idols.

1) The Person Creates the Idol – The Bible tells us in verse 23 that man creates his idol, “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” (NASB1995). An idol is a projection of the worst in mankind. Man makes a god out of his vices, anger, fears, greed, and hatred. Man’s vices then become his virtues. Have you ever noticed how idols are disfigured and grotesque? That is because they represent what is deep in man’s heart. Man first of all creates his idol, and then he is consumed by it.

2 The Person Is Consumed By the Idol – The Bible says in verse 24, “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them” (NASB1995). First, man molds his idol, then his idol molds him. We become what we worship, what we love. Nothing is too good for man’s idols. The Bible says that “God gave them up.”

Three times in Romans chapter 1 that phrase is used, “God gave them up…God gave them up…God gave them up.” It is a terrible thing for man to give up on God, but it is a far more terrible thing for God to give up on man. When man pushes God too far, there comes a time when God literally gives up on him.

Giving up means God turns one over for sentencing or execution. He lets man go and do what he chooses, but man will suffer the consequences. God gives him up to uncleanness. Uncleanness means impurity, and literally represents the contents of a grave. God gives him up to rot and to decay. God gives him up to the decay and rottenness that lies in man’s hearts. Man spews out the uncleanness from deep within his heart.

It is like the foul smell from a broken sewer line. God gives him up to his uncleanness and lust. The word “lust” deals with a man’s wrong desires and illicit cravings. When a man is abandoned by God, he no longer lives by logic, but by lust. He lives whatever pleases him, not what pleases God. God gives him up to uncleanness, to lust, and to dishonor.

To dishonor his own body means to treat his body shamefully and disrespectfully. God gives man up to dishonor his own body through sexual perversion. Some think it is amusing to beat, mutilate, hurt, and kill. Some find child abuse acceptable. Others degrade themselves by displaying themselves in films and in person. The body thus becomes an extension of man’s lust and abuse.

3) The Person Is Corrupted by the Idol – Man is corrupted by what he worships. When a person is seduced by his idol, then he will spiritually serve his idol. If one’s idol is lying, he will deceive; if it is hate, he will kill; if it is money, he will steal; if it is lust, he will fornicate and commit adultery.

Our behavior, our beliefs are irrational. There is no logic and there is no common sense about them. We no longer base our beliefs on what is right. We base our beliefs on what pleases self. Many years ago, Cal Thomas wrote:

We have been kidding ourselves that the sexual promiscuity of the last thirty years was without cost. Free love turned out not to be free at all, but expensive in the extreme. Open marriages, swingers, no-fault divorce, adultery, condoms in the school, all these regularly discussed on tabloid TV turned out to have a big price tag. We know the consequences of violating the physical laws of the universe, but we thought we could escape the consequences of violating its sexual, moral laws.

In addition, sex of this kind has its own set of emotional, relational and spiritual costs unrelated to the physical consequences. The only safe sex is that practiced within a marital bond in which both partners are committed to each other. Truly safe sex means remaining chaste until marriage. The role models should not be the rock star Madonna—it should be the original Madonna. “Avoid sexual looseness like the plague.‟ Each other sin that a man commits is done outside of his own body, but this is an offense against his own body. That’s from the Bible, America’s most banned Book.

Ask yourself why condoms are now distributed in the public schools but the Bible, and the principles it contains are banned, and you will have a clue as to why our cultural fabric is unraveling. Its truths now ring with a new clarity in the age of AIDS. Since the sixties, we’ve treated sex like a recreational sport in which high scores took on a totally different meaning. “We’ve stripped sex of its intimacy. Like so much else in our culture, focused on the gloss, the veneer, and the external. Sex is more than a physical act. It is thoughtfulness, tenderness, courtesy, gentleness, kindness, selflessness and commitment. It is caring, sharing, learning about another, giving of oneself fully to another and knowing the person in the deepest possible way.

Promiscuous sex is the opposite. It is the ultimate in human degradation, disappointment and delusion. It is in fact dehumanizing. Anyone who watches someone die with AIDS must conclude that this disease is absolutely, and above all, anti-human. We should realize that it’s time to come to our senses and to turn from our wicked ways and to consider where this three-decade journey is leading. It is leading us into the direction of destruction.

The World’s Behavior Is Immoral (Romans 1:26-32)

I did not say amoral—amoral means no morals. We’ve got morals, but they are immoral. Depraved beliefs lead to disgusting behavior. Once a person has fashioned his god, he must bow down and worship it. I want you to see the way people worship their idols.

First, they worship them: Perversely – The Bible says in verse 26, “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 towards one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error” (NASB1995).

God gave them up to vile affections, which means a passion for perversion or degrading desires. What is the ultimate expression of man’s defilement against God? It is homosexuality. Homosexuality is the most dishonoring, disgusting, disgraceful, debasing, and degrading sin of all. It is a sin that is against nature.

He said in verse 27 that they “burned in their desire towards one another.” Then he says, “And receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” God says, “Okay, you can have it your way, but you will suffer the consequences.” He said that they will receive within themselves the recompense of their error.

Do you know what God is saying through the apostle Paul? You get what you get because you did what you did. I know that’s not popular, but it sure is found in the Bible. You get what you get because you did what you did. You went against God, and in ultimate defilement you broke God’s supreme moral law.

Homosexuality is the picture of man making love to his idol. It brought the judgment of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah. It is a perversion against the order of nature. Isn’t it interesting that man will do things that animals will not do?

Publicly – Paul gives us a list of the qualities of man when he disobeys God. Did you notice what the Bible said in verse 28? “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” (NASB1995). A reprobate mind is a worthless mind. It cannot tell the difference between right and wrong anymore. Many have been given over to a worthless mind. That’s why we have debased human expressions, entanglements, human ethics, and endeavors. It is because man has a worthless mind and has perverted himself to the lust of his own heart. God gave them up.

Persuasively – It’s one thing to worship yourself perversely and publicly, but to do it persuasively is the bottom of the pit. Did you notice what the Bible said in verse 32? “Although they know the ordnance 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” (NASB1995). You see, man is not content to keep his perversion to himself. He wants to pervert other people as well. He wants others to live as he does. Many lift up homosexuality as a valid alternate lifestyle. Fornication has become accepted among this generation. Adultery is an old cliché. People applaud sinful behaviors in order to persuade others to accept it because they know there is power in numbers.

Conclusion

There is a cure. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of Almighty God. He is still the answer—the only answer. He is the answer for those suffering with the problems of drugs, alcohol, broken homes, and broken hearts. Jesus Christ is still the answer. If we will lift Him up, He will all draw men and women unto Himself.

Many years ago in Belfast, Ireland, an evangelist named Hyman Appleman came to town preaching the Gospel. A young man who traveled with him was a trumpeter who ministered with his instrument each evening of the crusade. But God laid a burden on his heart to be an evangelist as well. He didn’t have any meetings scheduled, but he began to pray.

One Wednesday afternoon while in Belfast, the telephone rang in his room. A pastor from the other side of the city invited him to come and hold special services in his church. Immediately the young man said he would be there Sunday morning. As the days passed, the young man continued to pray that God would move in a special way. He called the pastor on Friday afternoon to ask how the promotions were going and if there was anything he could do to help.

The pastor said to the young man, “Let me be honest with you, son. My people don’t even know you are coming. Not only that, they’ve never seen what you call an invitation and they are not going to respond when you give one. My people don’t like Yankee preachers and so they probably won’t accept you either. My church seats about 400 people. I’ve been here thirteen years and it’s never been full. In the last twelve months, we have not seen one person find Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

The young man answered, “Okay, but can we have a prayer meeting on Saturday night? Can you get at least a few people together? We’ll meet at the church about seven and pray that God will bless our efforts.”

The pastor agreed, and at seven a few people began to pray. One hour turned into two, then three, and four. In fact, the group literally prayed all night until the breaking of a new day. By church time, the sanctuary was filled. After preaching his message, the young man gave an invitation and eight adults went to the altar for prayer and accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Then, ten adults from the standing-room-only crowd on Sunday night responded.

Before that seven-week revival meeting ended, hundreds of people found Jesus Christ as their personal Savior in Belfast, Ireland.

The secret for us is to call the people of God back to prayer. It is time for us to pray until God touches our hearts and our communities with the convicting presence of the Holy Spirit. What God has done in the past, He can do again. What He has done for others, He can do for us. Jesus did not come to change the world, but to save the world.