I want to raise a question. Number
one, I should say questions. Are you really grateful for the
grace of God that has come into your heart and life? Question number two, as you study
the scriptures and as you are exposed to the teaching and preaching
of God's Word, Do you have a greater appreciation
for that grace that has saved you? Does this grace become more beautiful
to you as you study and as you grow in knowledge of the Lord? The answer is the affirmative
to all of these questions in the life of one who knows the
Lord, whom to know is life eternal. I'd like to turn it around and
ask you this question. Does sin become more reprehensible
to you the more you learn about the things of the Lord? If not,
if not, you don't have grace. You just think you have grace.
As grace becomes more beautiful to the child of God, sin becomes
more reprehensible to him in the light of the knowledge of
that grace. Now, there's a very simple outline
found in three verses, 24, 26, and 28. God gave them up to themselves,
first of all, self-love. Self-love. There are too many
people who have a form of piety today, who attend church occasionally,
give their money, but yet they love themselves
more than they love God. Proof of it is not what one says,
but in the way one lives. The day has come we need to see
more practical Christian living, and we don't see it. We do not
see it. Secondly, when you look at verse
26, God gave them up to sensuality. When God gives a person up, first
of all, to self-love, that always results
in what? A life of sensuality. And thirdly, verse 28, God gave
them up to a worthless mind. A reprobate mind means one void
of judgment. That's the meaning of the word,
the Greek word, that we'll discuss more later. Or a void, a mind
void of sound, sensible judgment. So a worthless mind, Now, such
a mind may be worth a lot in the eyes of the world. It may
be worth a lot in the sphere of politics. It may be worth
a lot in the sphere of education. But from the standpoint of judgment
about spiritual matters, important matters, the most important matters,
it's worthless. It's worthless. I like what Dr. Macbeth Sad. Some of you have
his book. By the way, I went through this
passage of Scripture without any commentaries. When I got
through studying the Greek words, I didn't need anybody's commentary.
In fact, I was a little disappointed when I started reading commentaries.
So the greatest commentary on the Word of God is the meaning
of the words that God used in giving us His mind. Now some
commentators have given some helpful things. But Dr. Macbeth
said, we have in this passage, he was thinking primarily of
the three verses, 24, 26, and 28. We have wrong loving, wrong
living, and wrong thinking. How true. But I like this outline. God
gave them up to themselves or to self-love. He gave them up
to a sensual life. He didn't restrain them. He didn't
impel them to live a sensuous life. He just simply took his
hand of restraint off of them. And we'll get into the meaning
of that this morning. And he gave them up to a worthless mind. Worthless mind. Now, when you
go back and study verses 18 through 23, we have Paul's own description,
not of special revelation, not of the revelation of God
in Scripture, but the revelation of God in nature, which is called
general revelation. And it was because that they
turned their backs, not on special revelation, the revelation of
God in scripture, but they turned their backs on general revelation,
and there is enough evidence in general revelation to make
every individual inexcusable before God, according to the
context. So don't read something into
this that should not be there. It is true that today there are
many who are turning their backs not only against general revelation,
the revelation of God in nature, but they're also turning their
backs against the revelation of God in Holy Scripture. And
the tragic thing about it, a great host of people who call themselves,
quote, Christians, end of quote, are doing that very thing. Thus you can see when Paul gets
to the 24th verse, there has been the rejection of God's general
revelation. Because of that fact, what does
Paul say? Now we'll begin our study. Point
number one, God gave them up to uncleanness. He gave them
up to self-love. So we look first of all at the
phrase, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through
the lust of their own hearts. Let's stop right there. Let's take some of the words
that are most important. We can't take all of them. The
first word, wherefore. The Greek word that is used here
And that's not D-I-A, but D-I-O. Omicron, not Omega. And what
does it mean? Wherefore, on this account, on
this account, and what has he been talking about? They turned
their backs on the general revelation of God. Go back for a moment.
When they knew God, verse 21, That does not mean when they
knew God in the forgiveness of sin, but when they knew God as
the result of the general revelation of God. What did they do? They glorified Him not as God,
were not thankful, became vain in their imaginations, Their
foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into
an image made like to corruptible man, birds, four-footed beasts,
and creeping things. On this account, because of this
fact, God gave them up. God gave them up. So it can be translated not only
wherefore, but therefore, are on this account. So wherefore
gives the reason why God gave them up. Now let's look at the
words gave them up. We have one word in the Greek. What does it mean? I'll try to
stay away from going into the Greek words themselves. I mean
by giving the Greek words. Of course, will not mean a great
deal to nearly all of you, so that is not necessary. But I
can explain without having to do that. So the one Greek word
that is used here means what? To give over into one's power
or use. To give over, hand over, deliver
over. Now, I would like to give two
or three references. I have many references. In fact,
what I have done in getting this information together is to give
all the places where that particular word is used. But that would
take too long, so listen to this. I'll give just two or three references
to illustrate the point, and that's all that's necessary.
Will you turn with me, first of all, to Ephesians 4, 19? I'll
take two or three of the outstanding verses to illustrate the point
giving up. Ephesians 4, verse 19. give you time to turn, give
you time to make some references, make a chain of references. In
other words, you can take advantage in an hour of what it took me
many hours to do. Verse 19, who being past feeling,
do you mean a person can come to the place in his life that
he's past feeling? We'll get into that. Yes, and
have his conscience seared. Who being past feeling, have
given themselves over unto lasciviousness, giving themselves over to lasciviousness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness. We're seeing a lot
of greed being manifested today. If you don't believe it, just
get in line waiting for some gasoline. And you'll see greed. You're
going to see greed all the way from the oil company to the consumer.
and the government in between. Greed, greed, greed. Greediness!
But I'm not on that subject this morning. Being past feeling have
given themselves over, over, over unto what? Unto lasciviousness. I'm talking about giving up and
giving over. Let me look at another passage.
Turn, if you will, please, to John 6, 64. You may wonder about
this one, but I think you'll see the connection. John chapter
6, verse 64. But there are some of you that
believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. The word betray is the same word
which means the Lord Jesus knew they would give him up. And because
they gave him up, it was because they gave him up that he in turn
gave them up. You get the point? In 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle
Paul gave that man up to Satan, who was guilty of fornication,
in order that, what? For the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Now, I could give you many others, but I think that will suffice.
So, giving up. God gave up. Gave over. To what? Uncleanness. Self-love. Now, we won't explain that a
little more. Now, we need some interpretation of that. I've
given you the verses. Now, let's interpret it. This
does not mean God impelled them to do evil. It just simply means
He left them without any restraint of providence to go on their
evil and wicked way. I'll illustrate that further
in a moment. It does not mean mere permission. It does not mean mere permission.
God was not passive in this. This was a positive withdrawal
of providential restraint on the part of Jehovah God. And
notice I said positive withdrawal. So it was not a mere permission,
and don't let anybody tell you it was. I'd like to explain that a little
bit. You know, I look back into the early days of my life, raised
in a small country town, and I'm grateful for it as I look
back. I was not deprived of anything
that would have been worth anything to me. Are you with me? There is not a Christian here
this morning who does not look back into his or her life and
thank God for all the providential restraint I'm thankful for it. Every once
in a while I meet someone and he says, I was deprived of so
much when I was a child. My parents were so strict and
I could not do this. I could not do that. And now
I'm going to make up for what I was deprived of by the strictness
of my parents or by where I was raised. I don't feel that way. I did enough dastardly things
with all the restraint that I had. And what would I have done if
it had not been for the providential restraint of God? The point I'm
making is this. Every Christian thanks God for
providential restraint. And don't be smug this morning
and say that, well, I would not have done thus and so You don't
know what you would have done. And to make that statement is
ignorance of what? Of your own heart. It is ignorance of the meaning
of depravity. When I say to you this morning,
the potential is in the heart of every person to be a whoremonger,
to be a lesbian, to be a prostitute, to be a what? A homosexual, male
or female, go on and name it. The potential is there. I said the potential is there.
But now what does it mean to give up? To give over? I said it doesn't mean that God
impelled them to do evil. It is not mere permission, but
it is a positive withdrawal of providential hindrance or what? It's a withdrawal of His providence,
providential restraint. Let's go a little further into
that. When men give up the general revelation of God, then God will
give them up. You'd better thank God that you
never did give up the general revelation of God. Even before
the grace of God came into your heart, you didn't give up the
general revelation of God. You recognized there was a Supreme
Being, for God is revealed in nature. But when men give up the general
revelation of God, go back to the preceding verses, then God gives them up. And what
does it mean for God to give up? I'll explain it with a very
simple illustration. It means that God will cease
to hold the boat as it is dragged downstream by the rushing waters
of a mighty raging river. In other words, God no longer
holds the boat against the stream, the raging stream, the downward
pull. That's what it means. And God
positively withdrew His providential restraint. And God is doing it
today. Let's go even a little further
into this. There is a difference between God permitting something
and positively withdrawing His providential restraint. There is a Greek word, E-A-O.
The Greek verb, E-A-O. E-A-O. E-A-O. And what does it mean? It means
to allow. It means to permit. Let me show
you how this word is used in the Scriptures, and then we'll
show you that giving up does not mean the same. It's not a
mere permission. If you'll turn in your Bibles
to Acts 16 and verse 7, we'll look at only three verses of
Scripture to illustrate this point. E-I-O, suffered. It is
translated in your King James Version by the word suffered. So in Acts 16 and verse 7, After
they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia.
But the spirit suffered, there it is, there is the word E-I-O,
but the spirit suffered them not. The Spirit suffered them
not. In other words, He permitted
them not to do it. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 10,
13. Here's a familiar verse of Scripture to all of us. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who
will not suffer, or permit, or allow, you to be tempted, or
tried, above that ye are able, but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. I'd
like to give one other verse. It's Revelation 2.20, the church
of Thyatira. The Lord suffered that woman
Jezebel. Remember? In other words, He
allowed, He permitted that woman Jezebel. So, E-A-O, translated
suffer, means to allow or to permit. In Acts 14 and verse 16, God
suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways. suffered all
nations to walk in, or he permitted them, he allowed them to walk
in their own ways. Now this word is not as strong
as that used by Paul in Romans 1, 24, 26, and 28. So the verb
that is used here What does it mean? It means that
God gave them up. He withdrew all providential
restraint. And it was positively done by
Him. Now I want you to look at Ephesians
4.19 and compare it with Romans 1.24. When Paul said, and Paul
is the author of both verses, of course by the Holy Spirit
working through him, who being past feeling, have given themselves
over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness,
or to use the New American Standard Bible, and they having become
callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice
of every kind of impurity with greediness. Now, when it is said
in Ephesians 4.19 that they did it, notice now in Romans 1.24,
26 and 28, it is said to be the work of God. In other words, God withdrew
His restraint. So there are two sides to God. God is love. On the other side
of that coin, God is holy. God is just. God is a God of
wrath. God is a God of judgment. Now
we have looked at the first part of verse 24. Wherefore, on this
account, God gave them up to uncleanness. To uncleanness. And this uncleanness is through
the lusts of their own hearts. Let's look at that for a moment.
To uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts. The word
uncleanness means uncleanness in a moral sense. Now, the Greek
word translated uncleanness is used a number of times in the
New Testament, and it is used three different ways. All I can
do is just relate to you that it's used three different ways.
You can see that each one of these points would be a message
within itself. It's used in a moral sense here. It is used in a physical
sense in only one verse, and that happens to be Matthew 23,
27. It is used in the sense of unclean motives, and used only
one time in that sense in 1 Thessalonians 2, 3. In every other place, This
word translated uncleanness refers to moral uncleanness. And it's used in that sense in
Romans 1. This too is interesting. You'll
notice in the study of scripture that uncleanness is often used
in connection with the word fornication. Fornication and uncleanness. So fornication and moral uncleanness
go together. In fact, fornication is moral
uncleanness. When anyone says, I can commit
fornication, I'm a Christian, and continue to talk like that,
you put it down, he's as lost as a Rocky Mountain billy goat. And no person can be soft on
that. Keep in mind, such were some
of you fornicators, but you're cleansed, you're sanctified,
you're justified in the name or on the authority of Jesus
Christ. You're no longer fornicators. Then let us look at the word
lust, uncleanness through the lust of your own heart. The word
lust, It comes from a Greek word which means desire, craving,
longing for that which is forbidden. So it is desire for that which
is forbidden. It's craving for that which is
forbidden. It's longing for that which is forbidden. Don't you
get amused at young people today and not only young people but
adults as well? You tell them, now, you can't do this, you're
not supposed to do that. They want to do the very thing they're
forbidden to do. It just stirs up that old lust
within them, and they are more determined to do it. The Greek word is epithumia. And notice it is the lust of
a heart, the lust of their hearts. Do you know the difference between
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the heart? We'll get
into a little study for a moment now. They're not the same. You see, the lust of the heart
will continue after the lust of the flesh has been destroyed
in death. Do you follow that? The lust
of the flesh will continue as long as one is in the flesh.
And he has to fight that, the lust of the flesh. 1 John 2,
16. But the lust of the heart continues
throughout eternity. That's why we find in Revelation
22, 11, let him that is filthy be filthy still. Let him that
is unclean be unclean still. What are you saying? I'll put
it in this framework. The person who dies outside of
Jesus Christ will live throughout eternity. And that's a long time. Desiring... Desiring what? That which can
never be realized. Craving for that which you can
never enjoy. and longing without ever having
any attainment. So those lusts of the heart continue
and increase without attainment, without enjoyment. I want you
to know that's punishment enough when you think about it. That's
punishment enough. But there's a difference between
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the heart. This is the
lust of the heart. And so the lust of the heart
continues after the lust of the flesh has been destroyed in death. The consequences of being abandoned
by God, and that's the meaning of giving up. They abandon God,
God abandons them. And the consequences of being
abandoned by God are no fear, Shame or remorse? I want to prove that. Gay pride,
no shame. Are you listening? Gay pride,
no shame. The prostitute, she's not a shame. You can't even turn on the news
today and look at anything without seeing what? Someone who says
she's a hooker or something else. And they advertise it. It's everywhere.
No shame is what I'm saying. And we'll get to that in a minute.
We'll get to that. I want you to see this passage
of Scripture as it is. No remorse. These are the consequences
of abandonment by God. The homosexual is proud that
he's a homosexual. Look at all the gay rights movements.
Look at all of their parades. The other morning, it's been
a few weeks ago, I was looking at a program on Channel 2 while
we're eating our breakfast, and this woman was on with her son
who was a homosexual, and this was on NBC. There he sat as smug,
he was proud of it, and his dear old mother, she said it was difficult
for her at first, but she finally just came to the point that she
had to realize it's just another way of life. And I wouldn't doubt
it, she's not a big worker in somebody's church. Proud! No remarks! But I'll tell you something,
Don't sit there like bumps on a log. Institutional religion
today has already become soft on all of these issues. And if you're not careful, you'll
become soft too, if you don't know the mind of God and seek
to put it into practice. The uncleanness, moral defilement,
is further explained now when we come to verse 26. But we're
going to wait a little bit. We're going to look at verse
25 for a few minutes. Now let's look at verse 24 again. Let's
read it. Wherefore on this account God gave them up, withdrew all
restraint of providence, through the lusts of their own hearts,
to dishonor their own bodies. And notice it's dishonoring their
bodies. their bodies between themselves. Now verse 25, "...who exchanged the truth of
God for a lie, and worshiped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."
Now verse 25 is a repetition of the declaration made in verse
23. and the reason that God gave them up. They exchange the truth
of general revelation for a lie. In the exchange, the creature
is honored instead of the creator, the sovereign Lord. I got this statement from someone
who gave an exposition of verse 25 and I liked it. I didn't find
this in the study of the Greek words, but I like this. He said,
and I quote, the number of the gods of the abandoned is a lie
against the Godhead, that is, the divinity. Their corporal
nature is a lie against God's invisibility. See, the creature,
God is invisible. Their limited operation is a
lie against God's omnipotence. Their follies are a lie against
God's omniscience. Their uncleanness is a lie against
God's purity." I like that, end of quote. That's a good interpretation. Good interpretation. So it is
not the creation you'll notice, but it's the creature. They don't
worship the creation. It's the creature. Creature.
And man is a creature. So self-love. Thus, you see, human religion,
I said human religion, and human religion possesses a sensual
impurity. If you don't believe it, think
about Jim Jones and all the Filth. I'm talking about uncleanness
that went on there. So human religion is filled with
what? Sensuality. Now we come to verse
26. In verse 26, we may have time
to cover most of this verse. Then we'll continue tonight.
For this cause, or for this reason, God gave them up, or He gave
them over, unto vile affections, or He gave them over to degrading
passions. Degrading passions. There are
so many words that need to be discussed in this, so we'll just
have to take some of the more important ones. We've already
investigated God giving them up, so we know what that means.
But let us look now at vile affections. are, as the New American Standard
Bible renders it, degrading passions, and that's good. There are two Greek words used
here, pathos, adimios, and it means passions of what? Dishonor. Passions of dishonor. not honorable passions, but dishonorable
passions. The word pathos means evil affections
of the mind, passionate desire, and the word is used only here
and in Colossians 3.5 and 1 Thessalonians 4.5. It means dishonor, ignominy,
disgrace. And this is used, if you'll notice,
in connection with females. Females. And the word is thalus,
and that's the word for female and not the word for woman. Now
why, why did Paul use that term? I found two or three men who
alluded to it. But there's a reason why. They
have been degraded and they have degraded themselves and given
themselves up to such vile affections that Paul does not even dress
them as women. And they don't deserve to be
addressed as women. Just females, like you talk about
female cows. are female horses, are female
dogs. You say, I don't like that language.
You'll have to take it up with the Lord. This is the language
of God. This is the language of God.
And I'll tell you what, people have been too soft, too long
on these issues. And then notice, Even their females. The Greek word te is used which
means even. Even their females. So look at
verse 26. For this cause God gave them
up unto vile affections for even their females. That's the literal
rendering. Even their females did change
the natural use into that which is against nature. Into that
which is against nature. I'd like to illustrate that.
Even their females. The sex that is naturally most
shame-faced now has become what? Look at it. Look at it. The very persons in whom there
is no shame. I'd like you to turn with me
to 1 Timothy 2.9. The Greek word that is used here,
eidos, for shame-faced, it's used here and it's also used,
it's used in 1 Timothy 2.9, so turn to that passage, a familiar
passage to you, and it's translated in Hebrews 12.28 by the word
reverence. But I Timothy 2.9 is the passage
I want us to look at, and we'll see what many women have done
and are doing today. Paul said, "...in like manner
also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness,"
there it is, "...and sobriety, not with broaded hair, gold,
or pearls, or costly array, but which becometh women professing
godliness with good works, with good works. So here, even their
females, the sex that is naturally the most shame-faced, is in Romans 1 26 the most shameless. the most shameless, even their
females. Get it? Let me ask a question. What has the so-called woman's
liberation movement done for women? It answers itself. I've never
had anything to do with it. I'll not have anything to do
with it. I'll always condemn it. because it has done more
to downgrade woman than any one single solitary thing. And yet,
religionists today are upholding that movement. Or I look at it again, for even
their women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature. are to use the American Standard
Bible, for their women exchanged the natural function for that
which is unnatural. What is the natural function
of a woman? She's to be the help me to the
man, and that's why she's man's completion. You say, well, preacher, you're
too puritanical for me. No, I'm biblical. and you're
heretical if you have the opposite view. Let's look at the word, thalus,
female. Now, it is not the word which
means something belonging to the woman. This is interesting.
It is not something belonging to the woman, but it is the woman
herself. And that's important. So it is
the evil passion of the female with another female. And that
is lesbianism. It is female homosexuality. You say, can you prove this?
Well, sure. Verse 26 proves it. But verse 27 also proves it. Just to give you the point, likewise,
there it is, there it is, likewise also the men leaving the natural
use of the woman, men with men, that's males with females, males
with males, doing that which is unseemly. So likewise, so
you have what? Lesbianism in verse 26. Or female lesbianism. Well, it
would be, that's it, isn't it? Or female homosexuality. And
you have male homosexuality in verse 27. So this sin is found among all
classes of people. Another thing that amuses me
today is if people could just be educated, I want you to know
we've got educators who are lesbians. We got educators who are male
homosexuals. We got lawyers who are homosexuals. And we could go on and on and
on. Now let's look at something else.
That which is against nature. Will you look at that? Will you
accept what it says? All right, let's read the entire
626 verse again. For this cause God gave them
up unto vile affections. For even their women, that is
their females, or did the females, change the natural use into that
which is against nature. I'd like for us to look at two
words here. The two words in the Greek are paraphusen. Paraphusen. What does it mean?
Against nature. Let's look at the first word
para para means against our Contrary to Fucin which comes from the word
fucis that which is against nature's laws Against nature itself Where
is the place for the woman in the home? In the home under the authority of her husband,
and I don't mean that in the home. under the authority of her husband,
and I don't mean that in a domineering sense at all, you know how I
mean that, in the light of Ephesians 5, to bear children if she can. The home is her domain. It's unnatural if she gives up
those functions of taking care of the home and bearing children
and rearing children. It's unnatural. That is her natural
function. And if she gives that up and
goes after other women with vile affections, she's given up that
which is natural. The natural function of the woman.
And when the man leaves the natural function of the woman and goes
after another man, what has he done? What is he doing? He's
leaving the natural function of a man. Parafusen, against nature. And in the light of the context,
do you wonder about what this, to what this refers? It refers
to sex, perverted sex. Now, there's nothing wrong with
sacks in its place. Hebrews 13, 4, I said in its
place. Well, I don't think we'll start
with verse 27. We'll just take up right here tonight with verse
27 and continue our study because we want to finish this and then
look at 1 Corinthians 6 and also 2 Timothy Chapter 3, verses 1
through 5. This is an awful picture, but
it surely is a vivid description of the day in which we live. Every Christian ought to want
to know what the Bible really has to say about this subject. That's why we're spending as
much time as we are on it. Let's stand.