Hell on Earth: part 1

1. What man has done: the utter silliness of idolatry—Rom 1:22-23 25

a. The Idiot World—

(1) Wisdom èfoolishness
(a) Worldly Wisdom—Prov 26:12, Is 29:14, Is 47:10, Jer 4:22, Je 8:9, Je 18:18, Eze 28:4, 1 Cor 1:19-20, 1 Cor 2:6, 3:19-20, James 3:15, 2 Cor 1:12
(b) Worldly Folly—Ps 53:1, 74:18, Pr 10:18, 14:9, 15:5, 18:6, 20:3, Mt 7:26, Lk 12:20, Ep 5:15,
(2) Profession of faith in nothing—“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God…”

b. “changed…” incorruption for corruption—They did not change God, nor did they diminish Him, they only condemned and diminished themselves by casting away the real Glory of the real God for the silly and empty things of idolatry.

(1) Glory—The glory of God is the outward manifestation of His attributes, the expression of Himself, in any of several ways that He chooses to reveal Himself.
(a) Creation—Ps 19
(b) Love—John 3:16
(c) Spiritual and Moral purity—Is 6:1ff
(d) Wisdom—Romans 11:36
(e) Power—Job 42:1ff
(f) Wrath—Rom 1:18
(g) It is God’s nature (morphe) to reveal Himself in this way—it was what Christ gave up (the outward expression of the inward reality of His Godhood) when He came to live amongst us—yet even then, glory was revealed through His ministry—John 1:14
(h) These people here gave up glorifying God for his creation, love, purity, truth, wisdom, power, grace, etc., and they changed that worship into something bizarre and evil.

(2) Incorruptible exchanged for the corruptible—how deranged, how crazy, can people be? To see the universe that cries out “There is an almighty God!”, and to say that an idol (a likeness of something less than God) has created all things—this is insane!
(a) These words here (corruptible and incorruptible) are often contrasted, and they are always totally opposite—incorruptible is always absolute, as is corruptible.
(b) 1 Cor 15:53-54, 1 Pet 1:23

(3) The absolute low of spiritual depravity—
(a) First, that a stone or wooden image which man has made himself can do or be anything—Ex 20:3-5—
(i) God often speaks of these things in the most disparaging and sarcastic way—
(ii) there are many such references in the Bible, perhaps none more jolting than the sarcastic examination of idolatry in Is 44:15-20

(b) Then, in the depth of depravity, not only an image of man (God’s highest creation) is made into a “god,” but also images of birds, beasts, and “creeping things!”

“These people had already wilfully deserted God who merely left them to their own self-determination and self-destruction, part of the price of man’s moral freedom….Three times Paul uses paredoôken here (verses 24, 26, 28), not three stages in the giving over, but a repetition of the same withdrawal. The words sound to us like clods on the coffin as God leaves men to work their own wicked will.” (AT Robertson)

c. Changed truth for lies

(1) The Truth is, that an almighty God has created everything and He rules everything, and He is worthy of all of our worship and service.
(2) The Truth is, that we should always and only seek to please Him and glorify Him
(3) The Truth is, that our human wisdom is of no value, and His infinite wisdom and understanding is of infinite value
(4) And the practice of idolatry is one of the chief evidences of this silliness
(5) The thing today is this: many have gone beyond this.
(a) Some, in the “New Age” movement believe that Man is God, and that each human being is God.
(b) Mormonism teaches that “god” was once a man, and men and women can be “gods”
(c) And in the supreme grip of insanity, many educated people deny that there is a God, which shows that in these matters, they don’t even know where to start—Prov 1:7
(6) Remember, there are only three “evangelistic” religions in the world (religions that seek actively to gain converts) —Biblical Christianity, Islam, and Atheism. For us in the US, atheism has gained a following that is small in number but huge in influence, and they have taken over and banned discussion of matters of religion in many schools and most universities.

d. Worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator—The bottom line again. God is worthy of all worship and He is due our service—whenever we worship and serve anyone else or anything else, we are committing idolatry.

2. What God Did—1:24, 26, 28

a. These are not three stages in decline, they are three different expressions of the same judgment of god against the unrighteousness and ungodliness of man—this IS the wrath of God revealed (1:18), to allow man’s own consequences to come home to roost

b. The same word is used as the key word in all three verses.

(1) First, the word “gave them over,” is a common word, used over 100 times in the New Testament, which means “handed over to an authority.”
(2) The word is an aorist, indicating a snapshot—God gave them over, period. It was a judgment of His at a point in time.

c. Gave them over to what? Impurity (uncleanness), vile passions, and a debased mind.

3. The judgment of God and its effects

a. Uncleanness, dishonoring the body (1:24)
(1) The sins that God gave them over to are the result, first of all, of this.
(2) We were created in God’s image, and He had assigned an honor, a glory, to all things human, before we ruined this arrangement by our sins—
(a) 1 Th 4:3-4
(b) Heb 13:4
(3) Dishonoring the body through sin degrades us and our society and our entire race (the human race)

b. Vile passions 1:26-27

(1) These are sin, period
(2) These are part of dishonoring God’s creation
(3) These are part of God’s judgment
(4) The Positive Teaching on human sexuality:. Gen 1:27-8, Gen 2:18-25, Mat 19:4-6, Eph 522-33—Every teaching on sexual union in the Bible—EVERY SINGLE TEACHING—reinforces the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, and of heterosexual marriage ONLY! Every Biblical reference to homosexuality is negative
(5) The negative teaching on sexuality—Any sexual activity of any kind outside the bounds of heterosexual marriage is immoral and sinful (1 Cor 6:12-20).
(a) Fornication—Sex where neither partner is married, including pre-marital sex, is a sin, on the same level as homosexuality. 1 Tim 1:9-10.
(b) Adultery, or sex where one or both of the partners is married to somebody else, is likewise sinful (Heb 13:4).
(c) Homosexuality of any kind is also forbidden. (Lev 18:22, 20:13, Deut 23:17).
(d) The good kings of Judah banished homosexuals from the land (1 Kings 14:24, 15:12, 22:46, 2 Ki 23:7).
(e) What does the New Testament say? The New Testament agrees totally with the Old! Rom 1:18-32, 1 Cor 6:9-11
(f) The Bottom line--Homosexuality is a sin. It was a sin in the OT, it is a sin in the NT, it is a sin now, and it will always be a sin. The homosexuality issue is becoming a leading issue in the churches. Homosexuals have money, education, and influence, and they are determined to force their way and to punish any preacher or church who insists on Biblical standards.