WHEREFORE GOD ALSO GAVE THEM UP TO UNCLEANESS THROUGH THE LUSTS OF THEIR OWN HEARTS TO DISHONOR THEIR BODIES BETWEEN THEMSELVES (Romans 1:24) 

FOR THIS CAUSE GOD GAVE THEM UP UNTO VILE AFFECTIONS: FOR EVEN THEIR WOMEN EXCHANGE THE NATURAL USE INTO THAT WHICH IS AGAINST NATURE (Romans 1:26) 

AND EVEN AS THEY DID NOT LIKE TO RETAIN GOD IN THEIR KNOWLEDGE, GOD GAVE THEM UP TO A REPROBATE MIND, TO DO THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT CONVENIENT (Romans 1:28).

INTRODUCTION

In the first Chapter of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Church of Rome, three times God's Word uses the terminology “God gave them up". After telling the Church at Rome that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”, Paul declares what is the judgment of God. The manifestation of God's wrath is that God gives over the objects of wrath to “uncleanness", “vile affections", and a "reprobate mind". In other words God “gives them up”!

The first thing we notice in this portion of God's Holy Word is that the wrath of God is already revealed. It is revealed against “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”. This is not a “threat" of some “future" action; it is a declarative statement that God's wrath is revealed! There is a long list of sinful actions in the indictment that follows from verse 18 to the end of verse 32. It is striking that when you read these verses, you see the indictment against those who do not like to keep God in their knowledge. Those who have made gods of men, birds, four-footed beasts and creeping things. It includes sexual promiscuity of all kinds, and particularly homosexuality. The indictment also includes, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters-of-God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors-of-evil, and disobedient to parents. What a list! As we will look at below, it violates ALL of God’s commandments.

As you read the indictment, it doesn't take long to realize that our nation is in the process of violating them all! We have murdered an estimated 60 million babies since 1973, in what is supposed to be the safest place in the world-their mother's womb. We have made legal same-sex marriage, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. We have people in authority over us who are       God-haters. We have people in authority over us who are inventors-of-evil. We are even extolling the virtues of being disobedient to parents. When you read the 5th Chapter of the Book of Isaiah, you see more things that have occurred in this nation just as they occurred in Israel of old. We are calling “good evil and evil good”. We are calling “black white and white black”. We have “cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts” and “despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel”. Is there any hope for America? The only hope for America lies in “Jesus’ blood and righteousness”. In the Book of Jeremiah, in Chapter 23, God's Word says, “In His days [of Jesus] Juda shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Jeremiah 23:6) Jesus “became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. It is only the righteousness of God which permits any sinner to escape the wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. (Deuteronomy 6:4 – 9 and; Romans 8:1-4; Matthew 24:37-38; and Genesis 6:5 and 11).

• GOD’S ETERNAL LAW

The Lord God gave His eternal law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The historical account is set out in Exodus Chapter 20 and Deuteronomy Chapter 5, The Ten Commandments, the law that God gave to Moses is as follows:

    And God spake all these words, saying,

I Am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in the six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

• THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW

The purpose of the law is eternal….”By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His (God’s) sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20) “Wherefore the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24) As some have said, the law shows a saved person – one who is justified by faith – how to live!

• WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH THE TEN COMMANDMENTS?

God tells us in Deuteronomy Chapter 6:

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

The short answer is to hide them on our heart and teach them diligently to our children. Are we doing that?

• COMPARISON OF GOD’S ETERNAL LAW AND ROMANS 1:18-32

God's Holy law begins with the declaration that He is God! As you can see set out above, the Ten Commandments are not ten suggestions, but they are declarations by the Lord God to His people. They are eternal. They are not dependent upon the whims of the culture. They are true always and as we see in the 19th Psalm, “the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul". That is its purpose, to be our schoolmaster, to lead us to Christ. As you can see from the indictment set forth in verses 18 through 32 of Romans Chapter one, those who are ungodly and unrighteous and suppress the truth in unrighteousness have broken all of God's Commandments. Of course, Jesus said to His disciples that if you have broken one of my Commandments, you have broken them all. In this case, however, you see them clearly set forth. The ungodly and unrighteous and those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness have broken them all. Additionally, of course, now we have political parties setting forth an agenda which violates all of God's law. Indeed, one party seems to have almost made its platform as “anti-God". Briefly, a synopsis of that which is set forth in verses 18 through 32 of Romans Chapter one is as follows:

1) They don't honor God; 2) they hate God; 3) they worshiped and served creatures and four-footed beasts rather than the living God; 4) they have taken God's name in vain and failed to glorify God as God; 5) they have failed to keep the Sabbath day holy; 6) they have failed to honor their parents and are disobedient to parents; 7) they commit murder; indeed, we have murdered an estimated 55 to 60 million babies alone in what should be the safest place in the world- their mothers womb;8) they have committed adultery, fornication, homosexuality, and all sorts of sexual perversions; 9) they steal, they envy, they deceive others, and they are inventors of evil; 10) they have changed God's truth into a lie and bear false witness to such an extent that we can see that truth has fallen in the streets; indeed, they SUPPRESS the truth in all ungodliness and unrighteousness; 11) they covet; and 12) what seems to be the most grievous is that, although they know the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do they do them, but they have pleasure in them that do them. In other words, they approve of those who do these things!

• THE RESULTS TO EXPECT

Not only does God give them over to a reprobate mind and just simply give them up! but we see in numerous places their ultimate destination. For example, First Corinthians Chapter 6 beginning in verse 9 says the following:

“Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God."

This, obviously, includes all of those set forth in Romans 1:18 through 32. Thus, it clearly is not a loving thing to tolerate, much less encourage, those who do and practice such things. We need – indeed we MUST – tell them the truth of God. God's truth gives them hope! For, in verse 11 of first Corinthians Chapter 6 Paul says, “and such were some of you, but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God”. This is a living hope!

• JEHOVAH TSIDKENU

From Jeremiah Chapter 23 verse 6 we see that Jehovah Tsidkenu is our hope. That is His name, Jehovah Tsidkenu. – The Lord our righteousness". In Paul's second letter to the Church at Corinth in the 5th chapter, we also see that [Jesus] who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM".

That, of course, is what everyone needs, whether they know it are not. They need the righteousness of God. In Romans Chapter one verse 17, we see that it is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that "the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “the just shall live by faith". Contrast this hope of eternal glory, which we can receive in the Lord Jesus Christ, with that which is set out in Romans Chapter one v. 18 through 32. God “gives them up – gives them up – gives them over”. What an awful indictment.

• HOW IS THE HOPE OF GOD REALIZED?

We realize the hope of God – Christ in us the hope of glory – in only one way. We must receive the provision that God has given for all of His people who will receive it. “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17) We receive the Lord Jesus Christ. How, one might ask, do we receive him? We hear the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you do not know it or if you think one of your friends or relatives does not know it, read the 15th chapter of First Corinthians verse 1-11 for a summary, or synopsis, provided by God's Word itself through the Apostle Paul. Then repent of all of your known sins. That involves surrendering your will to the Lord's will. Place your trust in Christ alone for your salvation. Place no trust or confidence in the flesh, but only in Jesus's blood and righteousness. He is our righteousness. He has paid all of the price for your sin. In Him is light and there is no darkness at all. No fable; no fairy tale, and no myth. This is real. Surrender your will to the Lord Jesus Christ if you've never done that, place your trust in Him alone for your salvation. Or if you have done that, tell your friends who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ or believe that when they die everything just ends. Be zealous! Tell them of Jesus, who is mighty to save, and is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him.

• THE REST OF THE STORY

At one time there was a popular newscaster in Chicago by the name of Paul Harvey. He had a segment that became popular on radio where he would introduce a vignette and then he would give his listeners “the rest of the story". Well, salvation is the beginning of the story but it is not the end. The “rest of the story" is to live as becomes the Gospel of Christ. Find a local church where the truth of God's Holy Word is being preached and the glorious Gospel of Jesus the Lord Jesus Christ is preached regularly. Diligently study God's Word that you might show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing or understanding the Word of God. Seek to get into a Bible study or discipleship group where you can grow. And determine by God's grace to be a fruit-bearer to introduce others to Jesus and to help your friends and relatives grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

If you get to this point and you're not sure what to do you may contact me by email at [email protected] and I will help you.

• CONCLUSION

Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, the glory and majesty dominion and power both now and forever. Amen