Romans

Lesson 7 & 8

TEXT:  Rom 1:24-32  

I. INTRODUCTION  

A. Vs. 18 begins one of the most relevant and important sections of the NT  

1. It is the beginning of the greatest treatise ever written on the Righteousness of God

2. It explains the righteousness of the wrath of God***

3. It explains for us the reason heathens are heathens

4. It warns our society of the coming judgment of God upon our own moral corruption and perversion  

B. Previous lessons we learned why God is angry and why His wrath is revealed from heaven  

1. Because of ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth of God and His revelation of Himself to man

2. Because men who knew God, chose not to glorify Him as God, but to worship His creation

3. Because men became unthankful toward God Who had supplied them every need

4. God’s wrath is justified and He is angry because He put it in man to know better than this

II. GOD GAVE THEM UP—THE ULTIMATE JUDGMENT – Vs. 24, 26, 28  

A. What an awful thing to think about God giving you up?!  How wicked must you be for God to give up on you?  God Who is longsuffering and full of mercy!  

B. Get the picture straight  

1. God made man to glorify Himself – Rev 4:11

2. Man rejected the true and living God and preferred instead to worship idols made by his own hands

3. They changed a Perfect and Holy God into an imperfect and unholy image like man

4. Vs. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up…

a. Interesting that the word “also” is in there

b. God did not give them up first

c. It was only after a series of rejections that God finally gave them up

d. Some would say that this is awful that God would ever give up on someone

(1) No, this is justice from a Holy God

(a) Isa 59:1-2 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

(b) Ps 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.  

C. God is not giving them up for judgment; He IS judging them by giving them up  

1. There is no worse judgment for a man on this earth than for God to give him what he wants

a. If you were unsaved and for the last 10 years God had allowed you to follow all fleshly desires you had, where would you be right now?

b. They will end up destroying themselves with their own desires (we’ll see this in vs. 27)

III. WHAT GOD GAVE THEM UP TO – Vs. 24-28  

Note:  It is interesting that three times it says that God gave them up and that man is a three-part being.  This shows that God completely gave them up.  

A.  Vs. 24 – To pursue the lusts of their hearts  

1. God allowed them to follow their on hearts

a. This is the advice of people all the time, “follow your heart”

b. This is terrible advice

c. Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?  

2. When God gave them up to the desires of their own hearts he sealed their doom

a. The desire of man’s heart is not to do good

b. Man does not tend toward goodness

c. In the Millennial Kingdom there will be no influence of the devil and man will still rebel against God because his heart is wicked  

B. Vs. 26 – To vile affections  

1. Man who has rejected God does maintain a moral lifestyle

2. Vile simply means wicked or unnatural

3. Vs. 26-27 refer to homosexuality

a. Notice that these verses do not even speak of sexual sins like adultery and prostitution—it seems that God places homosexuality into a category of it’s own

b. It’s something that is completely unnatural

4. Just like the woman was the first to sin; woman is the first mentioned here

5. Homosexuality is not a problem with people’s genes; people are not powerless against homosexual desires as the media would have you believe

6. Homosexuality is something that happens when God turns a person over to it

7. There is a choice involved and a person makes the decision himself

8. The end of vs. 27 shows that these people will receive in themselves the payment for their sin

a. This is where STDs come into play  

C. Vs. 28 – To a reprobate mind  

1. A reprobate mind is a mind full of wickedness bent on it’s own destruction

2. It is a mind that has been completely rejected of God

3. This is a mind that no longer receives the knock of Rev 3:20

4. The reprobate mind leads man to do things which are not convenient

a. Vs. 29-31 lists what a reprobate mind leads to

b. These things are what the mind that is not filled with God will come up with

c. This is why our world is in the shape it is; our country too

d. Notice vs. 30 says …haters of God…

(1) This whole things started off with people who knew God but decided not to give Him praise and were unthankful; now look where they are

5. Not only do they destroy themselves but they want others to go with them

a. They have pleasure in the sins of others

b. This is like the “statement of faith” for the homosexual movement

V. CONCLUSION  

A. But for the grace of God this passage would have referred to us

B. Do not forget where these people started

1. They had knowledge of God but they choose not to give Him praise and they were unthankful

2. It led to being given up by God; wicked thoughts and acts; and even hating the very God that gave them life