tonight we turn in our bibles to the book of romans if you're visiting with us we're working through the book of romans at night and we come to the very challenging section in chapter one tonight we look at verses 24 through 32 i will back up to verse 18 and we'll read to the end of the chapter romans 1 verse 18 and again not forgetting the big picture here this is all taking us somewhere to move us to something so glorious by the time we get to chapter 3. Tonight we have to consider very seriously what the Lord has told us of why that is so needed. Romans 1, beginning at verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. 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. 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. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. And now our text. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women and exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. 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. 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. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. Well, I was reminded a few years back of a book that was called The Lucifer Effect. I don't know if any of you ever came in contact with that book, but it was The Lucifer Effect, understanding how good people turn evil. And so this was based on a Stanford prison experiment that took place years ago. And it took 24 normal college guys who either took the role of guard or prisoner and put them in prison. And they found that in just six days of being in this environment, the boys turned chaotic. They turned evil. The ones playing the role of guards began to crush those playing the role of prisoner. many had a mental breakdown and the author was quick to begin to define things in saying, he asked this question, what makes people go wrong? And his answer was, it's not just a few bad apples causing evil, but a bad barrel. He says, the system itself created the cauldron for evil to grow and be nourished. That's your world's definition of the problem. That's how the world defines it. It's a corrupt system. There are problems in the system. It's a bad barrel. We're just victims of the environment. That's an age-old error when it comes to how we define sin and the problem of sin. I raise this tonight because this approach in society has undermined every way God's revelation of what the problem is. It was James Boyce who said, if you scratch the surface and you penetrate beneath the veneer of human culture and respectability, you know what you do? You lift the lid of hell. He's saying human nature is so corrupt that when we just get past the superficiality of it all, we get past the outward appearances of it all, You begin to look at, when you begin to do that, you begin, it's like lifting up a lid right over hell. And that is the human heart. The issue tonight is not only coming to grips with how bad the problem is, but coming to grips with how God has responded to the problem. It's two different things. How God has responded to this problem. And we open up Romans 1 and we're having things, and that's why this is so important for us. It's hard to hear, I know. But what it's doing for us is way more important than any of us realize. It is clarifying for us reality. It's clarifying us things as God sees them. The text tonight presents to us one great truth. And if you understand this, you understand what the Apostle Paul is doing here. You understand what He's impressing upon them and He's impressing upon us. And amazingly, in God's providence, it's the very same truth of the Heidelberg Catechism. God is angry with the sin we're born with as well as the sin we commit. And that's being revealed. That is being revealed. And remember, that's why there's urgency to what we do. That's why there's urgency to the good news. As we as Christians relish in the joy of the good news, we remember that there is a world out there right now perishing. And Christ left us with a mission, a great commission, didn't He? Preached the Gospel to the ends of the earth. This is what Paul was saying. This is why I want to come to Rome. I want to come to preach the Gospel because it's announcing to everyone a righteousness that is made available to us by faith. I want to come and do that. This is something God has answered this problem with. This is what God has done. Well, now He transitioned, as we looked at last week, into why we need that. There's a real punch behind that. And He transitioned right after He announced the point of the book, the thesis of the book, He transferred right into the great subject of God's wrath. Last time we looked at this, And he was unpacking for us the course of humanity. The Gentiles, those without God and without hope in the world. And Paul looks at the Gentile world and he's looking into that world and he sees the whole world in rebellion against God and he begins to explain the reasons for that. He says, first off here, that they, remember last week, they suppress, they push down the truth in unrighteousness. They hold it down. They don't want God. They want Him to go away. And so they suppress that truth of what is even revealed in creation and the conscience. And then secondly, you noticed in verse 21 that they refused to glorify God and worship Him as God. Remember what they did? They began to worship the creatures and they began to look at creation and they began to exalt the creation and exchange the glory of God in worshiping the creation rather than the Creator Tor, who is forever blessed. Amen. And then he said something that we kind of brushed over quickly last time. But he said, nor were they thankful. And you know that thanksgiving is the greatest expression to God that we can give to Him in prayer of thanking Him for what He's done for us. Expressing that. Leading a thankful life. So now Paul describes what God has done because of that. Because of that problem. Because of what man has chosen to do. God responded to that. And what we have is a summary of how God has responded to this in the world. And the summary is, God has removed His restraint upon the sinful actions and He has let people go in their consequences. Now when He lets people go, it's not He lets them kind of float. When God lets them go, where do you go? Straight down. And that's what He describes for us tonight. What you have in verses 24 to the end of the chapter are three progressions in a downward spiral to hell. They are progressions. And we'll begin with the first one tonight in verse 24. First one here, verse 24, Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. So here we have a direct response on God's part against their rebellion against Him. So it says God gave them up. What does that mean? Remember, at some point, only known to God, We can never get into that secret decree. We can't get into that. We don't know when. But at some point to him, he turns the sinner over after a period of long-suffering. And this is all throughout Scripture. You can look at the days of Noah. You can look at the pattern of Scripture. He gives them over. He turns them over into the sin that they want. So, it's a very sobering section of Scripture. And now he describes what are the full consequences of that giving over of the sin that they have willfully chosen. So that's what's described here. You know, if our Lord did not keep in check the sin of fallen humanity, the world would utterly crumble right now. It would just be over. We would totally end it by just destroying ourselves. But at some point, and that's why we talk about societies and the growth of evil in societies and the cycle of iniquity, at some point God reveals His wrath in people's lives by letting them go. Doing what they want and the painful outworkings of whatever comes with that sin that they chose. I remember years ago preaching through Jonah and I was always amazed. There was something that amazed me in the book of Jonah. that after God had given the command to Jonah and Jonah departed from the Lord, you had a downward spiral that was described throughout the whole book of Jonah. And about four times it says Jonah went down. He went down. He went down. And by the end of that whole departure from the Lord, he ended up in the farthest place, humanly speaking from God, at the bottom of the ocean in the belly of a fish to which he likened as the bars of Sheol. Down, down, down, down. And that's exactly what the Scripture here in Romans 1 is describing. It's a downward spiral. When the Lord turns them over, they keep going down, down, and down. So notice verse 24. God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to sexual immorality to dishonor their bodies among themselves. And isn't it interesting that he connects so carefully here the therefore God did this and this was in response to what we studied last time, idolatry. Professing to be wise, they became fools and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. So if you notice carefully what he just did, he linked together the problem of idolatry and sexual immorality. And the Scriptures constantly do that. Idolatry and sexual immorality go hand in hand. Colossians will say this, Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, very word used in Romans 1, passion, evil desire, covetousness, and he lumps it all together and says, which is idolatry? So God's response to the idolatry described in these previous verses and following is that He gives them over to sexual immorality in the lust of their hearts. In other words, it begins to swell up within them. Now, doesn't this just make sense that He would address this? Think about it. Isn't this just the great problem that has led to the whole downfall of our own society? You know, Paul's looking into Rome. Rome was a mess with this kind of stuff. The Roman Empire was full of all kinds of sexual deviance and perversion. Everyone knows about the Roman baths to this day. It was total perversity. And here he's talking. He's raising this issue. Now, let me just preface this before we go forward with this. I know pastorally you have to say today that there are many brothers struggling against sin. We can't be ignorant against that sexual sin. It's a real problem today. And if you have given in to those temptations, most likely you have at times, you've given in to it, and if you are a true believer tonight, you are really troubled about it. you're grieved over that. You hate that. You don't want to do that. And so the Christian today is in a fight against this kind of stuff. He's in a fight to put off the deeds of the body. This is what Romans is telling us. The Scriptures are always telling us, especially to the young men, put off this stuff. Don't do this stuff. Romans 1 is not talking about the sensitive Christian in his struggle. really important. The New Testament is constantly instructing Christians in how to deal with this struggle. There is a crucial difference between struggling against the sin and fighting against it and repenting and looking to the Lord for grace and living in it and practicing it. Crucial. Absolutely crucial. In fact, in verse 32, that's what he says. That they're practicing these things. They're living in these things. And the shocking thing about it is they don't care. They don't care. They don't care at all. So that's important to say pastorally. What we're looking at here are people down the path, hardened in it, who don't care, and their conscience has become seared. You know, this is exactly what the Lord criticized Israel for when they went down the path of apostasy. Remember what was happening in Israel? Israel was saying, and the Lord addressed it through Isaiah in chapter 5, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Who put darkness for light and light for darkness. Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. There's no distinction anymore. They've completely obliterated the distinctions and they've come to the point of a totally seared conscience where years ago they may have confessed it was wrong, now they don't care, they're going forward in it, and they have completely obliterated what Paul's going to talk about, the works of the law written on the heart. We'll come to that. This is our concern in our culture today. We live in a culture today that tells us that casual pleasure in terms of fornication is the ideal. And we are told to let people live a little. We are told to let people go ahead and do it. We give away contraceptives and birth controls in colleges like candy. It's awful. It's a sexual revolution we're in. And fornication and adultery and pornography are all the things that come with it. And it was steeped in a culture today that has headlong fallen into it. And Paul is saying to us tonight, you know what that is? It's a revelation of God's wrath. It's a revelation of God's wrath. Now this is just the tip of the iceberg. You know, I talk about progression here. You ever thought how the line of morality just keeps going farther and farther and farther and farther back? You know, hey, years ago, what was the line of morality? You ask the older brothers and sisters here, what was the line of morality? Well, it would have been, right, if you got pregnant out of wedlock, that would have been a line that society did not accept. Okay? What was it a few years later? Adultery. You know, how many marriages are ending with that today? And now, who would have ever thought that our society would come to the point of saying homosexuality is okay. And we're legalizing it in how many states around our country. So where is the line today? Farther and farther and farther back. And what do you think is coming? Well, Rome got to the point. Where would be the line today where society says you can't do that? Pedophilia. That would probably be our line today, right? Farther, farther, farther, farther. Paul is talking about this progression. I wish we didn't have to preach this stuff. Sad, isn't it? But it's so important to understand. This progression is happening and he says from basic sexual immorality, it's going somewhere. And so in verse 27, he takes us down a notch. A big notch. Notice the chain. For this reason, he gave them up to vile passions. Shameful sexual passions. And he now puts it in terms of what is against nature. So, likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the women, burned in lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their heir, which was due. So, it's bad enough that God gives people over to sexual immorality, but now, notice in the progression, He's turning them over to vile passions. It's going further. So, the first sins were a set of what's natural. The second giving over section here is that which is against nature. And that's really important tonight. we are dealing here with something further down the line. It's what we call homosexuality. It's what Scripture calls sodomy. And it came right out of Sodom and Gomorrah. Notice the language. Men inflamed, being on fire for one another. Accomplishing that which is shameful. Now, this is in our day, you know. this is a huge thing to preach against. The Bible, boys and girls, is very clear about this. You'll have discussions about this, I'm sure, in school. Don't let anyone ever tell you. We have to remain strong. The Bible is clear. This is a sin. This is wrong. And Paul is not pulling any punches here as to the heinous nature of the sin. We live in a day where this sin is being treated as normal. And I mentioned the states, but I do believe that we will come to a time what I'm doing here tonight will be condemned and have to give an account in this country for that. I believe that. In Canada, they're already facing that kind of threat. Sure, we have in the church at times singled this out as the great unpardonable sin. And I have heard angry preaching against this that seems to condemn this and make the feeling that we're righteous. I understand that. I understand that concern. That's a real concern. But you can't miss, even in that, what the Lord is telling us here tonight. The Lord is telling us that this is escalation in sin and it's not just evidence of His wrath, it's evidence that people are further down the path of that wrath in that kind of sin. And that's why it's serious. It's against nature. I was listening to a radio program not too long ago and it was a call-in program and somebody called in to this Christian talk show host and she was very angry about his position on homosexuality. She challenged him and he said, listen, do I need to talk about what goes on? Do we need to start telling people what they do? It's that perverse. And it really had the weight saying that this is a very serious sin. And we have been so pressured now today to remain silent about it that we really need to remember Romans 1 that what the Scripture says here is that men are committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the due penalty the heir, the due penalty of that heir. You say, how low can this go? It's not it. It's not it. Verse 28 takes us lower. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. That's the end of the road. He lists a whole slew of vices and says they're in it. That's a sad, tragic end. Persistent hatred of God. Persistent knowledge. Rejecting the knowledge they receive from creation and conscience. They continue to suppress it so that God turns their minds over to it. And you'll notice here this list. unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boasers, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Then it says, to capstone it all, they not only do it, but they support everyone else in it. And they say it's okay. There's the path of humanity. That's the path. I know some of you tonight maybe know people or have brothers and sisters maybe in this. Maybe a child. And you know, how do we approach this tonight? Do we say, well, that's it for them? Is that what the Lord is telling us to do here? Why is the Lord showing us this tonight? You've always got to ask that. I could have spent a lot more time on this. I trust you see how awful this path is. Why is the Lord setting this in front of us tonight in this way? I believe the tendency is, on my part, to give up on people like this. And to say they're so far gone, they're so vile, they're so evil, and we stop praying for them. That's not what Romans 1 is telling us. that's not at all what Romans 1 is telling us Paul is saying he's rehearsing all of this he's saying yes it's bad it's really bad it's that bad and God is revealing his wrath and guess what that's why we preach the gospel that's why there is a power that is still in 2012 at this late hour made available to those who repent and believe. Pull them out. It is a power to break sinners. To break that bondage in sinners. And now you understand why Romans 1 again is so wonderful. I'm not ashamed of what we do. I'm not ashamed of preaching the cross. Why? Because God is using that very foolish means to shatter this dominion over people. He's shattering it. You know? People who have walked this path and they've stood and they've looked over the cliff of hell. About ready to pull off and jump in. And they've been pulled out. And so you learn here how serious sin is tonight. And how serious the consequences of sin is. And that's why parents are concerned for young people. That's why parents want to tell young people, they say, listen, don't start down the path. It is. Listen, it's not you tell your children, don't touch the stove, you'll get burned. You start touching this, you will get burned. Sin is way too powerful for us. It will grab you, it will hold you, and it will take you down. And now you understand when the Lord is coming constantly and He is saying, repent and believe. Sometimes I think we preach repentance as if it's an angry statement of repent instead of repent. Turn from this. Do you see where it's going to take you? Don't go there. Come. There's freedom in Christ. Come to me, says Jesus. I'll break that bondage. I leave you with a story tonight. I think it's effective. I want to use it. You've heard it. But you probably haven't heard it in a long time. And it was the account of Ted Bundy. And in 1989, you know what happened to Ted Bundy. Maybe the children don't know about Ted Bundy. But the crowd stood out and they chanted, Burn, baby, burn! With their signs. Bundy committed some of the worst sins we've ever seen a man commit. In an interview with Dobson, Dobson wanted to try to get in his mind. And so he gave an interview. And Dobson wanted to see what had happened. At 13 years old, he had discovered pornography. He became engulfed in it. the behavior drove him to lure young women into his car and commit crimes I'll never speak of here. He confessed to killing 28 women. 28 women. Dobson says it's 2.30 in the afternoon. You're scheduled to be executed tomorrow at 7 a.m. if you don't receive another stay. What's going through your mind? You were raised in what you consider to be a healthy home. You were not physically assaulted, sexually, emotionally abused. Ted said, nope. And that's the tragedy of the whole situation. I grew up in a wonderful home with two dedicated and loving parents. As one of five brothers and sisters, we as children were the focus of my parents' lives. We regularly attended church. We didn't drink, smoke, gamble. There was no physical abuse or fighting in the home. Dobson asked, what was going on in your mind at that time? Bundy spoke of his addiction to pornography. He said, I was a normal person. I had good friends. I led a normal life. Except for this one small, very potent and destructive segment that I kept very secret and close to myself. Like an addiction, you just keep craving something which is harder and gives you a taste of a sense of excitement until you reach the point where it only goes so far, that jumping off point where you begin to think that maybe actually doing it will give you that which is just beyond reading about it and looking at it. Do you remember what pushed you over the edge? It's a difficult thing to describe. The sensation of reaching that point where I knew I couldn't control it anymore. The barriers I had learned as a child were not enough to hold me back from seeking out and harming somebody. See the downward spiral? He's describing it. There are those loose in their towns and communities like me whose dangerous impulses are being fueled day in and day out by violence in the media in various forms, sexualized violence. Dobson asked, do you deserve the punishment the state is about to inflict upon you? I deserve certainly the most extreme punishment society has. Was he passing the buck? Now, I don't know what happened in the last moment. Dobson says that he confessed Christ and asked for forgiveness. Only the Lord knows. But here's the fact. The power of Christ's Gospel is powerful enough to forgive Him. Amazing thing. This is why we do what we do. And I want you to see how serious. I read that tonight because you got into a mind of a man who described where it can go. And aren't you thankful tonight for the grace of the Lord as He spoke to you this morning as friends. And He says, I won't let you go. No one can pluck you out of My hands. When you come to Him and you trust Him, He gives grace. So there's two ends of the road. There's the end of the road that lands in hell. And there's the end of the road of the path of sin that Christ can break. And that's what He does. Washed, whiter than snow. That's an amazing message of God's grace to us. How wonderful is the love of Christ to deliver us from all of our sins. May we as His people be a people who are repenting and turning to Him daily for grace and longing to see this message of forgiveness go out to the ends of the earth because this sad world needs that. Amen. O Lord our God, we thank You for Your grace tonight. And we have all flirted with this path. And if You would have turned us over, oh Lord, it would be awful. Where we would go, who we could be, we could be the ones that some church is talking about tonight on the news having done these kind of things. We stand in awe of Your grace. And we ask for strength and help for any who might be struggling with these paths of sin that You would break that bondage and help them. And that You would wash us and cleanse us. And Lord, that this church and all of those who are so touched by this message would be about seeing that it gets out to the ends of the earth. Let us be witnesses of the grace that we've received and how the power and dominion of sin is shattered through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.