Sermon Tone Analysis

MBC - 8~/1~/2004 - Pastor Doug Thompson

*/“Given Over, But Not Given Up”/*

Romans 1:24,25

 

ROM 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

ROM 1:19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

ROM 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

ROM 1:21 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.

ROM 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

ROM 1:23 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.

ROM 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

ROM 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen.

I read this quote this week:

 

Ø      “The civilization of the western world, including the particular civilization of the United States of America, is not a civilization in danger of contracting a fatal disease.

That civilization has already contracted a malignant and fatal cancer through its unbelief of the message of God in Christ.

It is now hurrying on with increasing speed to final climactic destruction.

Civilizations do not die because of violence, crime, immorality, and anarchy.

These things are the evidences that death already is at work, a death brought on by /disobedience to the revelation of God.”/

I want you to think about how many decisions you have already made this morning:

 

Ø      All of you obviously decided to come to church this morning, because here you are!

 

Ø      You made decisions about whether to watch the morning news or read the Sunday paper; instant coffee or fresh ground French roast; what to eat for breakfast, and what to wear to church--some of you apparently made that decision in the dark. .

.

But there is a basic overarching decision that each of us has to make, that affects every other decision we make: /“Will we obey or disobey the revelation of God?”/ Will we obey God and do what pleases Him, or reject God and please ourselves?”

There is no middle ground--in every decision, you and I choose one or the other.

We either act in faith and obedience, or we act in unbelief and rebellion.

You might think that you can straddle the fence and partially follow God, but partially do what you want, so that God is kinda happy, and you are kinda happy--but God’s Word says otherwise.

God’s Word says that there are two choices: you are for Him, or you are against Him:

 

Moses laid it out to the Israelites as they were about to enter the Promised land:

 

Ø      DEU 30:19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,

 

Ø      When Elijah was on Mt.

Carmel standing before the wishy-washy Jews who were waiting to see who was going to win the contest between God and Baal, he said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”

I.e., “Get off the fence and choose!”

And of course, to wait and see is to choose against God.

And when we come to the Gospels, Jesus said:

 

Ø      MAT 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

Ø      MAT 7:14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Jesus said that you enter the one right gate, or you enter the wrong gate, and you are either on the way that leads to life or the way that leads to death.

/But this section in Romans is not just about the choice that confronts us, but about the consequences of the choice we make.

/We would love to think that we can choose what we like without having to accept the consequences--right? Haven’t you seen that with your kids--and yourself?

But Scripture tells us, “Don’t be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this also will he reap!”

Ø      /And as Paul builds his case for the gospel, he says that mankind is suffering the disastrous consequences of disobedience to the revelation of God.”/

 

We’ve seen that God’s wrath is being continually revealed from heaven against men who know the truth about God, but they suppress that truth, they refuse to give God the glory He deserves.

As a result, God allows their minds to become darkened, they become fools, they devise stupid theories to explain life apart from God.

As the darkness deepens, they trade the truth for a lie and substitute false gods for the true God.

We saw that all false religion is man running from God and rebelling against God!

This morning we’re going to see that the gravitational pull of sin keeps sucking people further and further down into the sewer of depravity.

And we won’t hit bottom until the end of the chapter.

But can I lighten things up a bit?

Scripture also teaches that when we choose to follow God and believe in the gospel of His Son, there is an /upward/ pull on our lives.

God promises that He will change our hearts and our desires; He wills and works for His good pleasure; He sanctifies every situation in our lives to shape us into the image of His Son--

 

I.e., for the person who seeks to love and obey God, there is a gravitational pull away from this earth, towards heaven--an /upward spiral/:

 

Let me describe what happened in Wales back in 1904.

It’s the opposite of what we read in Romans 1! It happened during a great revival there.

Edwin Orr wrote a book on this revival, and he said this:

 

“Many were the evidences of the Spirit of God working in Wales.

Long standing debts were paid, and stolen goods returned, while striking cases of restitution were made.

IN Maesteg, a tradesman received a live pig in payment of a debt which had been outstanding since 1898.

Other notable instances of open restitution were reported.

“Stocks of Welsh and English Bibles were sold out.

Prayer meetings were held in coal mines, in trains and trams and places of business.

The work managers bore testimony of the change of conduct of their employees.

The magistrates in several places were presented with white gloves, signifying that there were utterly no cases to try.

 

“The police rejoiced in the revival.

One day in Holyhead, in the island county of Anglesey, the solemnity of court proceedings was broken by songs of praise in Welsh.

The police guard outside hurried in, but stayed to add his bass to the jury’s choir of praise over a sinner repenting.

“Cursing and profanity were so diminished that several slowdowns were reported in the coal mines, for so many men gave up using foul language that the pit ponies dragging the coal trucks in the mine tunnels did not understand what was being said to them and stood still, confused!”

Ø      Let me ask each of you a question this morning--and I want you to be thinking hard about this as we look at God’s Word: “Which way are you being pulled this morning?

Toward holiness and sanctification or toward darkness and degradation?

Are you being pulled up toward heaven or down toward hell?”

The answer will be determined by whether you are obeying or disobeying the revelation of God (in this Book).

What happens when a person continually rejects what he knows of God?

He is eventually--

 

*I.

Abandoned by God.*

 

Ø      ROM 1:24 Therefore God /gave them over/ in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

Ø      ROM 1:26 For this reason God /gave them over/ to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,

 

Ø      ROM 1:28 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,

 

Don’t make the mistake of seeing God as passive in this.

He doesn’t just turn and walk away from people who reject Him, He hands them over to their sins to punish them.

He hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

He darkens the minds in v.21.

This is an active, judicial abandonment.

But do you notice that God is giving them over to what they want!

Or at least, what they think they want.

Oscar Wilde, who was put in prison for his homosexuality in Victorian England, said that when the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers--and what Paul says here is that God punishes people by turning them over to their own sinful desires.

They say, “I don’t want Your way, I want my way!”

And God says, “You’ve got it!”

And they run off, thinking that they will be happy, wild, and free, but the opposite happens: they end up miserable and enslaved.

Ø      It’s just like the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son.

The son had the nerve to dishonor his father by asking for his inheritance while he was still alive.

His father gave him what he wanted, and he stuffed the money in a suitcase took off in his new jaguar, cigar in his mouth, blonde at his side, headed for the French Riviera! [paraphrase!]

He didn’t want his father, he wanted his sins, and he got what he wanted, but he also got the consequences of his sins: he ended up broke, working for a pig farmer and eating with the pigs.

But it /was/ all you can eat!

Now think with me here: The fact that it is a /punishment /for fallen unsaved man to get what he wants tells us something about the nature of man: he is not basically good, he is basically evil.

His nature is innately bent toward sin and away from God. “There is none righteous, not even one . . .

there is none who does good, there is not even one . . .

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:10,12,23).

We are born with the bent--it is a /congenital /defect:

 

Ø      PRO 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;