Romana 1 - Part 2

Romans 1:18-23 – Wicked Dishonoring God

To understand why we need God and His gospel we need to understand His wrath against our sins.  God is angry because some people have chosen to be wicked.  God cannot tolerate sin.  In these verses Paul explains in detail the sinfulness of man.  He is saying that people have sinfully rejected God.  We see His creation, but still reject Him.  We see His wrath through His creation.  We see floods, earthquakes, famine and disease.  There is immorality everywhere which brings on STD’s and Aids.  We see drug addictions, wars and terrorism.  We saw His wrath when He destroyed the world by flood and when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.  We even saw it when Jesus had to die on the cross for our sins, which shows that God cannot ignore our sin.

Why do people reject God and His truth?  We want to be in control of our own lives so we dislike God’s sovereignty.  We want to be free to do what we want so we reject God’s holiness.  We want to hide from God because He is intrusive and knows everything we do so we dislike His omniscience.  God is immutable and is unchanging so we dislike Him because He does not bow to our demand.

What sin are you hoping God will ignore?

God has revealed Himself through His creation.  We see His power and divine nature through His invisible qualities.  We see Him throughout our world – the sky, moon, stars, sun, oceans, and all through nature.  Because of all this, Paul says men are without excuse.  Sinners can’t plead ignorance at judgment as an excuse.

Paul says that they knew God, but didn’t glorify Him as God or gave Him thanks.  They think they are wise, but their foolish hearts were darkened.  They worshiped man made images instead of God.

Principle: God reveals Himself through His creation and through His wrath against sin.

Romans 1:24-32 – Wicked Man Abandoned

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather that the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.” – Rom. 1:24-25.

When people reject God and do not worship Him, He gives them over to their sin and its consequences.  “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.  Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” – Rom. 1:26-27. 

I didn’t say this, God did!  He’s talking about homosexuality here.  Are you listening?  Homosexuality goes against God’s intention in creation.

Some say homosexual are born that way, but there is no evidence to support that claim.  Even if that were so, it is still sin to practice it just as it is for heterosexual lust or drug addiction.  We are responsible before God if we yield to any sin. 

God has a plan for marriage and sex.  Here are some verses on this subject:

Gen. 2:21, 24

Malachi 2:14-15

Matt. 5:28; 19:4-6

Mark 10:6-9

Rom. 7:2

1 Cor. 6:9, 15, 18; 7:39

Eph. 5:3, 31, 33

Gal. 5:19

Heb. 13:4

1 Thess. 4:1-8 

The root of sin is the rejection of the truth of God and the worship of self instead of God.  He gave them over to a depraved mind which is expressed in all sorts of destructive sins.  They dishonored God and never gave Him thanks so their foolish hearts were darkened.

“The truth of God” refers to the truth He has revealed about Himself which is centered in Jesus Christ His Son.  He reveals Himself through His creation and His wrath against sin.  Sinners exchange this truth of God for the lie, which is idolatry.  They worship things other than God.  They think they don’t need God.  They think they are self-sufficient. 

God created everything by speaking it into existence.  He has sovereignty over all people and all things.  Therefore, we need to depend on Him and should be subject to Him.  He is the One True God.

We don’t have to worship and pray to actual statues.  There are many forms of idols.  We can rely on family, investments, and even church in place of God.  Anything we put our hope in other than God is idolatry.  Many things dominate our lives and can become idols.

What idols do you worship?

How will you make God the only One you worship?

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” – Rom. 1:28.

Paul says 3 times, “God gave them over”.  He gave them over to impurity, degrading passions (homosexuality), and depraved minds.  This doesn’t mean God causes people to sin.  They abandoned God so God abandoned them.  He took His hands off their lives and let sin takes its course.  We as a society are no longer shocked at this sin.  We have become desensitized.  Adam and Eve rebelled against God and sin entered the world.   Their actions screamed “leave me alone and let me live my own life”.  So God does.

Paul lists several kinds of wickedness – evil, greed, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, God-hater, insolent, arrogant, boastful, disobey parents, senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless.  Paul is not talking only about sexual sin, but all sin.  “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” – Rom. 1:32.  Did you see that?  Even those who approve of those who practice them deserve death.  People have actually come to approve of evil.  Good is evil and evil is good.

When have you gossiped?

Have you ever been envious of someone?

Are you jealous of someone?

Do you hold a grudge?

When have you pursued your own desires with disregard of how it affects others?

I think we can all identify with some of these sins, because we are human and certainly not perfect.  The good news is Jesus came to deliver us from those sins.  “And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” – 1 Cor. 6:11.

THANK YOU JESUS!

These verses are almost too horrible to think about, but they make us aware of sin’s horror and then we can really appreciate the gospel.  These verses should cause us to examine our hearts to see if we are truly living for God.  The only solution is the gospel.  It can change our hearts.  We all deserve God’s judgment.  These verses also lead us to the good news that God has provided what we need – Jesus Christ.  His gift is not given if we try really hard, but to those who trust in Him.  We will hear more about this good news in chapter 2.

Have you trusted in Jesus to save you?

Are you applying God’s Word to you daily life so you can overcome sin?

Next time we will study Romans 2.  Have a blessed day and thanks for visiting my site.  Hope to see you here again.  -- I encourage you to trust in Jesus.

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