20240714 Romans 1:24-32 - Abandoned by God
The Book of Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Welcome to Vertical Church San Jose
42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
Our vision is to be a multicultural church for all ages
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
Our desire is to make disciples of all nations, to full fill the Great commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment: to love God with all our heart soul, mind, and strength
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Sharing our faith with a lost world
Praying with boldness
While God is sovereign over creation and over redemption, he has given the church the responsibility of preaching the gospel so the lost might hear the gospel and receive a new heart, a new soul, a new will, and the ability to believe by faith that Christ is their Savior
Loving God and showing the world that we are Christ’s disciples by loving one another
The authority of the Bible - Scripture alone is the written and complete revelation of God, written through holy men who were inspired, and superintended by the Holy Spirit
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The attempted assassination of former president Trump
1 Timothy 2:1–4
LSB
1 First of all, then, I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings, be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.
It is so easy in our culture to be political. In this passage the apostle Paul recognizes the authority that government has within our culture and in the lives of Christians.
And yet, the apostle Paul does not call us to be political, not at all meaning that we do not exercise our civil and constitutional rights. Instead of being political the apostle Paul under the guidance of the Holy Spirit reminds us that we are to be prayerful. He emphatically states that “first of all” those in Christ be people of prayer. And in addition to praying for all men he specifically mentions that we are to pray for all who are in authority.
2 Corinthians 6:14–15
LSB
14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
When we place the political above the prayerful in our conversations and in our mindset, we not only disobey the Lord in neglecting the place of prayer, we dishonor the Lord by neglecting the power of prayer. And the result is that we end up imitating the world and the way unbelievers deal with problems instead of trusting the Lord who asked us to remind ourselves in prayer that “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
While it is not wrong to be politically minded, we are commanded in scripture to always be heavenly minded, knowing that unless we are heavenly minded we will never be of any earthly good.
As the Jesus said,
John 18:36
LSB
36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be delivered over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not from here.”
Instead of fighting may we choose instead to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness in our hearts, in our lives, and in our conversations. May be a church of prayer, a church that acts with justice, a church shares the gospel.
Let’s pray for our government.
Call to Worship - Psalm 144
Psalm 144 (LSB)
Of David. 1 Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, My fingers for battle; 2 My lovingkindness and my fortress, My stronghold and my deliverer, My shield and He in whom I take refuge, Who subdues my people under me. 3 O Yahweh, what is man, that You know him? Or the son of man, that You think of him? 4 Man is like a breath; His days are like a passing shadow. 5 O Yahweh, bow Your heavens, and come down; Touch the mountains, that they may smoke.
6 Flash forth lightning and scatter them; Send out Your arrows and confuse them. 7 Send forth Your hand from on high; Set me free and deliver me out of many waters, Out of the hand of foreigners 8 Whose mouth speaks worthlessness, And whose right hand is a right hand of lying. 9 O God, I will sing a new song to You; Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You, 10 Who gives salvation to kings, Who sets David His servant free from the evil sword.
11 Set me free and deliver me out of the hand of the sons of a foreigner, Whose mouth speaks worthlessness And whose right hand is a right hand of lying. 12 That our sons would be as grown-up plants in their youth, And our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace; 13 That our granaries would be full, furnishing every kind of produce, And our flocks would bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields outside; 14 That our cattle would bear Without mishap and without loss, And without outcry in our streets! 15 How blessed are the people for whom this is so; How blessed are the people for whom God is Yahweh!
Scripture Reading - Romans 1:24-32
Romans 1:24–32 (LSB)
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 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.
26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions; for their females exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the males abandoned the natural function of the female and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
32 and although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Let’s pray
Romans 1:24-32 - Abandoned by God
Introduction:
There are many stories and parables in the Bible that have become children’s songs… the story of Zaccheus, The parable of the wise man
But when we look at the parable of the wise and foolish builders we need to move beyond the children’s song and see the Lord’s condemnation of those who are foolish.
The bible does not regard foolishness as silliness. While wisdom is contrasted with foolishness, in the Hebrew literature, the term fool does not describe a person who lacks intelligence. To be foolish to the Jew is to be irreligious and godless. The fool is the person who has no reverence for God, and when you have no reverence for God, inevitably your life will show it.
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 “And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and fell against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 “And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them, may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 “And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
The fool is the person who has no reverence for God, and when you have no reverence for God, inevitably your life will show it.
1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And the expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
1 The wicked fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They act corruptly, they commit abominable deeds; There is no one who does good.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the likeness of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
The result is that
Romans Without Excuse
“People are everywhere but at church, because nothing is more displeasing to them than to worship God. They do not want to hear about God. That knowledge is suppressed. It is pushed down, and they have no desire to have God in their minds.”
In Romans 1 we see
The glorious gospel - the proclaiming of the life, ministry, and work of Jesus Christ. The proclaiming the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.This is the gospel.
But we also see the suppression of the Gospel. We see why we need the Gospel
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Romans: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Chapter 9: Abandoned by God
As Paul illustrates in these verses, and develops theologically through the end of chapter 4, man is not basically good but evil. His nature is innately bent toward sin. “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).
After reading these final verses of Romans 1 we have to ask our selves, when did this take place.
It’s very easy to say that we are seeing a description of our times and our culture and our country
While what we read is certainly applicable to our times, we need to see these verses as a description of all time, from the fall of Adam and Eve all the way to today.
The fall of Adam and Eve results in the foolishness of all men and women, it results in the suppression of truth by all people, it resulted in the misdirected worship and idolatry of all people, it resulted in the open and ungodly anti God and anti gospel mindest of all people.
And this is why we now see the result of all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men: God has abandoned the unrighteous. And in Romans 1:14-32 we see three ways in which God has abandoned the wicked.
(1) Abandoned to the lusts of their hearts - the radical corruption of our desires
The totality of our wickedness - Romans 4 will go deeper into this but in 24-25 Paul says this:
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 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.
God gave them over…
From Adam to today, this is the spiritual condition of the unregenerate
When we talk about free will, we have to understand that we have a free will - but our spiritual condition forces us to always choose what we desire - and we have no desire for God in our hearts
(2) Abandoned to dishonorable passions - the radical corruption of our actions
They would not honor God
26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions; for their females exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the males abandoned the natural function of the female and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
A hint of Genesis 3:16
16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain and conception, In pain you will bear children; Your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”
The natural function of woman as the helpmate, the ezer kinegdo, the helper who supports and the opposer who corrects.
But we also see see a direct statement against a distorted sexuality.
(3) Abandoned to an unfit mind - the radical corruption of our thinking
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Total depravity is not utter depravity - we can be kind, we can do good things.
But when we look at Romans 1 we have see that every part of our being has been corrupted, radically corrupted.
We suppress the truth, we are foolish in our thinking,
we are darkened in our understanding, our desires, our lifestyle choices, and our thinking
As Paul will say later in Romans, who can rescue me from this body of death
Romans 7:24–25 (LSB)
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, in all your darkness and troubles, remember what you are and have. You’ve been loved with an everlasting love, you are supported by everlasting arms, you are recipients of everlasting life, and heirs of an everlasting kingdom all sealed and made sure by the blood of an everlasting covenant. Amen.