Stand Strong in the Word
Stand Strong in the Word is a weekly bible study that teaches through the Bible verse by verse in chronological order. For more information, visit www.standstrongministries.org.
Stand Strong in the Word
#315 “The Consequences of God’s Withdrawal” (Romans 1:24-25)
What happens when people keep rejecting God? Romans 1:24-25 says, “God gave them up”—a frightening moment when He lets go. We’ll discuss what it means when God hands sinful people over to their lusts and impurities, and how sin causes real, lasting damage.
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What happens when people reject God. In Romans, chapter 1, verse 24 and 25, it says that God gave them up. This is a terrifying moment when God lets go. We'll talk about what that means when God does give over to sinful people, their lusts and impurities, and how sin brings real, lasting damage. Turn to Romans, chapter 1, and let's stand strong in the word together. Well, hey there, my friends, welcome to Stand Strong in the Word podcast. Jason Jimenez with you as always. Blessed to be with you.
Speaker 1:Guys as we continue our study here in the book of Romans. We're going to be looking at verses 24 and 25 today and you're thinking, yes, jason, you're actually doing two verses instead of one. Yes, I know, but we are definitely just working through this chapter. There's so much with this particular passage that I don't want us to miss out and, of course, even as I was looking back at some previous episodes and looking at some of my notes, there were some other things that I did add later, but that's the way it goes, right, when you're studying the infallible word of God, there's always something there that you learn that you didn't see before. That's what we love about God's word, and so I welcome you guys as we talk now about the consequences of God's withdrawal. Now, before we dive in, as always, encourage you guys to continue to pray for the people who listen to this podcast and also, if you want to be a Stand Strong supporter, you can go to our website, standstrongministriesorg. Click on the word donate, and we would love to be a part of what God is doing, even in your life. So if there's something we can do to pray for you, to answer maybe a biblical question that you have, you can contact us by emailing us at info at stanstrongministriesorg, and take advantage of all the additional resources that we've made available to help you guys stand strong in your faith with wise thinking and bold living. So let's now look back at where we were at in previous podcasts to get the context.
Speaker 1:So, as you know, when we're talking about God's wrath on the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men that we saw in verse 18, and the unrighteousness of men that we saw in verse 18. And we saw in verse 23 that when you suppress God's truth, when you don't give thanks to him, you become futile in your thinking, you become foolish in your hearts and they become darkened. And that's important because we're gonna see in verse 24 now, the lusts of their hearts. So their foolish hearts were darkened. And verse 22 then says claiming to be wise, they became fools. So they're living foolish lives, they're not thinking straight and because of that, this is the first of many exchanges. Primarily, there's three. They exchange the glory of the immortal god for the images that were resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. So I want you to picture not just the idols that people worship in their particular religion, but even the idols that we build in our own lives.
Speaker 1:If you are listening to this podcast and you primarily grew up in the West, oftentimes especially if you didn't grow up in, like, in a Buddhist, hinduistic home you're not used to having, you know, these type of symbols or idols or having altars that you bowed every day to that represented the deity that you worship. Now, clearly, we saw how the Israelites built a golden calf. We saw what the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah had to say about the foolishness of worshiping something that you created. But that's what happens when you have futility in your thinking when your heart is darkened, you think that you've got it all together, but in fact you don't. And so this exchange remember this is basically a transferring of one thing for something else. So, just like we do that every day of our lives, when you're exchanging something for something else, that's what they did. They were exchanging God for false symbols of worship, and this goes back to Adam and Eve. They had a perfect relationship with the Lord, and yet they exchanged their identity, they exchanged the relationship they had with God for something that was God-like but false because it led to depravity. And so when he's talking about the exchange, the glory of the immortal God, that's, his radiance, his splendor, his majesty, and so that when you think about that, it really points to where someone is at with the Lord.
Speaker 1:And so now what happens? What happens, my friends, when somebody has done that for images that are again that represent idols, this is not a believer, remember. He's dealing specifically with the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men who, again, they suppress the truth. They know it's true, which is why they suppress it. They don't want it. They want to claim that they're wise in their own way of living. So when you have somebody who identifies in their sexuality, this is who God, and they put the label God made me and they say God is queer. That is exactly what verse 22 and 23 here in Romans 1 is talking about.
Speaker 1:And then it gets into specifics now. Now we start seeing the consequences here in verse 24. We have, therefore, god gave them up, in the lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because, notice, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever, amen. So, paul, now what he's going to do is he's going to describe God's judicial response to mankind's sinfulness. He's going to respond to man's disobedience and remember, this is stemming from their false idol worship. Their affections were taken away from God. That should be rightly, not just pointing to him, but honoring him. And so what God's going to do? Because of that exchange that took place, and notice that they did it so God's like okay, you decided not to repent. I've been long suffering. Remember, it's God's kindness that Paul's going to talk about in Romans 2 that leads us to repentance. You don't want any of that.
Speaker 1:So, when he gave them up this is a legal term in Greek that refers to handing over a prisoner to receive their sentencing so God's like okay, you're going to be sentenced. Now, this is your doing. This is the mess that you've made. Now God is not giving up mankind over to their sin because he doesn't care for them. He's not giving up on them, nor is he giving permission for them to sin. Let's be very careful. Let's understand who God is. He's holy. He can't look upon sin. And so what Paul's saying?
Speaker 1:When he gave them up, it's a legal term, just like a judge, the judge is not at fault for the crimes of the perp, what they did. He's allowing them to face the natural consequences of them willingly choosing to remember verse 18, suppress the truth. That's their downfall. And then in verse 21, they don't honor him, they don't give thanks to him and therefore, in verse 23, they exchange his glory for something else. So if you have that in someone's, if you have someone in your life who you see that process, they're suppressing the truth, and I'm not just saying they're a conspiracy theorist, but they're definitely involved in so much of the lie. And that you're adamant about the gospel is a lie, and they think the God of the Bible is despicable, and yet you see, there's idol worship in their life. That's exactly what this context is talking about, primarily in in more personally to those type of individuals, is directing it towards those type of people that we have in our life.
Speaker 1:And perhaps, if you're listening to this podcast and you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you're intrigued by the word, I welcome you. But notice what the scripture is saying about your state of where you're at without Christ. This word gave them up over again. In Greek it's paradokian oitois oiteos. So again, he's handing them over to be sentenced and the sentencing as you see in verse 24 and verse 26 and verse 28, is wickedness and rebellion.
Speaker 1:We're going to see in the next podcast that there is going to be dishonorable passions. So what happens with the lust of their hearts and impurity when they dishonor their bodies? There's dishonorable passions. So when they're exchanging God for idols, they're now going to exchange who they are, who they're meant to be, for something that run contrary to who they ought to be, who they've been called or designed to be, because sinful man, when they willfully abandon God, he's leaving himself vulnerable and open to sin and there's not going to be anything to intervene to protect in a way.
Speaker 1:And so when you say, well, why would God allow this? Well, god can't force you, just as a parent, if any parent or grandparent or anybody who has somebody that you take care of, you're guarding over someone. It is our responsibility to care and love and provide for for our children or grandkids, et cetera. But you know that you can't step in and evade everything to prevent any harm from happening in their life. That's impossible and that's not real love. From happening in their life. That's impossible and that's not real love. There is responsibility that we have to take. You raise people to be responsible, and so that's what we're seeing here with the Lord is we're not robotic. He doesn't put this, you know fake, you know spiritual foam around us to guard us from the physical harm that potentially awaits us every single day when we wake up. So god can't always intervene, but just because he's not intervening and somebody's dealing with the consequences is because they've been sentenced. You can't keep threatening somebody, but if you do it again, this will happen. Then they do it and you say, okay, well, the next time you do it. That's not a just god.
Speaker 1:One thing we're going to see in going into Romans, chapter two, is that God doesn't show any partiality in. What's true about God's judgment is that he's a God of truth and he's impartial when it comes to executing that judgment. This is, in part, what we're seeing here god's wrath that is being revealed from heaven, meaning until he returns and passes judgment and all the world in the great white throne happens. When everyone then, past, present, future, you know now there will be no more future. But all those who have lived they are either going to be in the Lamb's book of life or they're going to be cast into the lake of fire. So until that time comes, right now, as you and I are living, there are consequences to our sins and many of us recognize that, even as we're listening to this podcast and looking at scripture.
Speaker 1:Okay, so when we look at God's wrath being revealed from heaven in verse 18, and people who, in their sinfulness and in their indulgence of lustful desires, that's what they want, that corruption is going to continue to lead to even more self-destructive behavior. Paul says in Ephesians 4, he calls it ever-increasing wickedness. So your flesh can never get enough, and the moment that it does this is when people OD, if they're doing drugs, or again when we talk about substance abuse. Notice, that's what the lust of the heart is here in verse 24. That's what these impurities are. You are now looking to something that is actually destroying you in the process.
Speaker 1:Now the new Bible commentary says this quote Paul thinks, apparently of a judicial act. So think about this gave them up over, they're handed them over. It's a judicial act in which God confirms people in the decision they have made and turns them over to the consequences of it. End quote. So, in essence, what we're seeing here when God gave them up or gave them over, or handed them over, god's judgment involves removing divine restraints so that this person's conscience becomes seared.
Speaker 1:This is where we start getting into language of dishonorable passions. Okay, so it's very graphic. So their conscience is seared and the results are their sinful actions. They're not overlooked by God, okay, but again, god can't force you to worship him. So the result here, the natural outcome, if you will, is that you fall under a different power than being under the power of God. It's now the power of sin, so that foothold becomes a stronghold and becomes a stranglehold. So, in fact, you were worshiping or turning your affections, your lusts, so we don't lust after God. See, so notice the moment you start lusting after something. You're, you and I are using our desires. Our will is being bent towards the flesh, and the alternative to that, okay, is obviously freedom in christ, but if you're choosing to worship the desires of our flesh, it's sin and death. And this is the progression that we actually see in this context.
Speaker 1:That God, actually, what does it say? That when he handed them over? What you actually see is, when he handed them over, he handed them over to the growing wickedness and impurity. So you're going down this path. You suppress the truth, you don't honor him, you don't give thanks to him, and then you start exchanging for something else and God's like okay, just like if you were, you were an exchange, something with somebody. And they say and you take it back. Remember when I grew up in the eighties? We call you Indian giver, which is very insulting if you think about it, but it's. It's saying you promised me something, and then you take it back again, but it's not yours anymore, you don't it, you don't, it doesn't belong to you because you gave it to me. So when you're giving this exchange, you're saying to the Lord I don't want this. So okay then. But notice, he's only handing you over to what you handed over in the first place, handing you over to what you handed over in the first place.
Speaker 1:If you want an idol that you believe, if you want to fulfill these lusts and you believe that this is best for you you can even consciously know it's wrong, but you have forbade God and you're not listening to him Then that's going to those consequences. That is, which we see in verse 24 and 25, is about lewdness. It's going to lead to disorder, and disorder is not good, because now you start going to the realm of unnatural desires, you start heading to an area of sin, if you will. That is so wicked and the consequences are going to be abusive. That is so wicked and the consequences are going to be abusive. And what we see later in this progression, when he hands them over to the growing wickedness and to disorder and unnatural desires and the consequences of that and they're being abused they're basically abusing themselves by abusing all of this stuff. They have a debased mind in verse 28.
Speaker 1:So let's look at what the lust of the heart to impurity actually means. Because here's what we have to understand when you and I look at how they're being misled, it's not that God is at fault or God should have done more. No, they became misled the moment they chose not to honor God as their creator. The ungodly become like what they worship. The ungodly become what they worship. Their choice was not to worship him and as a result of it, they're enslaved by their own depravity. Because when you think of this phrase lust of the heart this, my friend, speaks to the passionate cravings. Literally, in Jewish language, it's the department of being okay, the department of being. They want to dishonor their bodies. They become even more impure and unclean because God handed them over to the sin and the sin has run its course in their lives. It's the consequence, meaning so remember, they were past judgment. This is the sentencing.
Speaker 1:And you see what happens throughout the Bible when you see idolatry, inevitably here, in verse 23,. You see immorality, verse 24. They're linked. They're linked 24, they're linked. They're linked because what you devote your heart to you become. In ephesians 5, verse 5, it says for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of christ and god. And colossians 3, verse 5, it says put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you sexual morality, impurity, passion, evil, desire in covetousness notice which is idolatry. So If you've grown up in the West and you didn't grow up in a house where there's an altar and there's an idol, notice if there's sexual morality, if there's been a form of impurity or passionate desires or evil desires or covetousness, paul says, according to Scripture, that that's idolatry. You're an idol, or I should say those are an idol to you, so you're an idol. Or the earth, I should say those are an idol to you, so you're an idolater.
Speaker 1:And he's going to get into specifics about more about what these lusts and impurities look like. When you look at verse 26 and 27, talking about homosexuality and other sexual sins, but when you look at this phrase dishon, dishonoring their bodies among themselves. This is very interesting language, and what it really looks like in the Greek is that when you dishonor your body, what you're doing is you're turning away from God and in that process, your body changes because you're turning from its maker. So that's like what Adam and Eve did when they chose not to worship the Lord and felt like, if I listen to the serpent and not listen to God, in some strange way I'm going to be more like God even though I'm not listening to God, and so this worship becomes very hedonistic in its passions because it goes contrary to God's moral standards.
Speaker 1:The word pictures in the New Testament says, quote the natural result was immorality of the vilest kind. I can't tell you, through the years as a pastor, how many times I've talked to somebody and they will tell me in full confidence that they did not know that their sin was going to get this out of control. And one thing that I want to remind all of us as Paul does in first Thessalonians, chapter four, verse four and five. It says that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor. There is a responsibility that we are to be honorable in our desires, that we are to know how to control our body.
Speaker 1:So if there is a weakness, if you know that you have a propensity or you come out of an alcoholic background and you have given yourself over to some of that stuff that you know like, I'm sensitive to that, I recognize that and I'm devoting my life to holiness and to honor the Lord in the way I live. Because he says in verse 5, not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles and notice who do not know God, the Gentiles and notice who do not know God. But for us who know God, who know Christ as our Lord and Savior, we need to choose to live a life for God and to properly in our bodies to honor Him. Just like, as a married man, I honor my wife in how I live. Okay, now we look at verse 25, my wife and how I live. Okay, now we look at verse 25 and says because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and serve the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever, amen.
Speaker 1:So when you think about all the other religions that are out there, they are on different paths. Okay, that meaning they. They say this is what reality is, this is what truth is, this is what redemption is, this is soul finding, this is what it looks like, and they have different ways in which you find your path of reasoning, but they're false. They may share their view about God, jehovah's Witness, mormonism, islam, but they're not the real living God and they'll lead you astray. So when the phrase here says exchange the truth about God for a lie, remember they suppress the truth and so inevitably, when you're suppressing the truth, you're going to exchange it. This is the word metalasso. It means to change out one thing and replace it with another.
Speaker 1:So if you go back to verse 19 and 20, what we see there, let me just read it for you, for those who don't remember exactly it says for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power in divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. So there, paul argued that ever since God created the world, he has revealed himself to his people. And not only that, but his eternal power and his divine nature have been clearly perceived. So you have known and perceived. And yet the ungodly, what do they do? They exchange God's revealed truth for a counterfeit, for idol worship.
Speaker 1:The Expository's Bible commentary says they exchange the truth of God for a lie. This literally means the lie. This is a lie above all others the contention that something or someone is to be venerated in place of the true God. According to Paul elsewhere, history will repeat itself and that when the man of lawlessness is revealed and demands to be worshiped, people will follow him and reap ruin because they have refused the truth and have believed the lie. That's in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3-12. There too, god gives them over to strong delusion.
Speaker 1:So the prophet isaiah, he, he, he spoke on something that was very eerie and very insightful in the practice and the foolishness of idolatry. He says they know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see in their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is their knowledge or discernment, to say, half of it I burned in the fire. I also bake bread, bread on its coals. I roasted meat and have eaten, and I shall make the rest of it an abomination. Should I fall down before a block of wood? He feeds on ashes. A deluded heart has led him astray and he cannot deliver himself or say is there not a lie in my right hand? That's Isaiah, chapter 44, verses 18 through 20.
Speaker 1:So notice they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. So you see the foolishness. But that goes back to the futility of their minds, and their hearts have been darkened. And what paul now does here is he speaks to, not them, abandoning the worshipfulness, because what he's actually pointing out here is they are devoted to sin and the and the way in which he talks about this word worshiped and served. So he just doesn't you say they worshiped the creature rather than creator. About this word worshiped and served. So he just doesn't say they worshiped the creature rather than creator. He says they worshiped and served. He's using a form of liturgical veneration.
Speaker 1:The word worship here is sabat zamai. To honor and serve is latreo. It means to pay homage. So humans can't help themselves to pay homage, so humans can't help themselves. What they do is because they're created to worship and they exchange the creator for creation. They worship the creation, they worship something they just created, because we're created to worship God, but yet in our creation we create something other than God. That's the irony, the sinfulness. So here are the ungodly. They refuse to worship the true and living God, showing they don't feel the need to have them in their lives. And since they don't feel they have the need for God, they still can't fill the void of the need to worship something, and so they have a substitute and it's an idol, whatever it may be. So notice here what Paul's talking about is, when you live out your dishonorable passions less of your flesh, you become inward. So instead of creation worshiping its creator, it's worshiping itself.
Speaker 1:And remember what Stephen said in Acts 7, verse 41,. It says when he was preaching against you know the idolatry that was rampant in that time with the religious leaders. And he reminds them of israel's idolatrous heart. He says and they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. Well, what did isaiah 44 just say? Is there not a lie in my right hand, like how do you think this thing that you created can somehow protect you in creation? You made it and oftentimes a sad reality of a form of evangelicalism notice, I said, not based off the gospel, but evangelicalism, particularly in America. They can, they can make an image of what they believe to be Jesus according to scripture or the gospel, and it's what we call a bobblehead Jesus. It's just a figurehead that represents what you think Jesus is, when that's not the second person in the Trinity. So we have to be very careful.
Speaker 1:This misguided worship of idols, this leads people to live a misguided life and that misguided life even though they think they're on the path of spirituality, they think they know the one true God and they don't Like it's Allah. You have all these people who are fully devoted in serving the creature rather than the creator, but that life gives them real no purpose. There's not a real purpose, there's not redemption, there's not peace, and what Paul's concluding here is you will receive the due penalty for your error. That's what he says in verse 27. And notice what he says in acknowledging the sad realities that people exchange the truth for lie. They exchange god for a create, for a created thing, he says, who is blessed forever. Let's acknowledge, let's speak to the high favor that we have for the one and only true god, the creator of the heavens and the earth, that he is worthy to be praised.
Speaker 1:So, as I close, one thing that I want to just share with you guys is when I encounter somebody who, basically, is doing what Romans is talking about here.
Speaker 1:They're ungodly, they've exchanged the truth for a lie, they've exchanged the creative for creation, they're living in less of their flesh and their hearts are darkened.
Speaker 1:In those moments I will still say God, I acknowledge you, I know who you are and, god, I just pray that you have mercy on this soul, that they would realize their lostness and depravity and reach to you, but you are honored and glorified, even in this midst, as they're facing their consequences and I don't want to bring judgment on them where I don't care for them, but rather I want to extend your grace and your holiness that they may not just get a glimpse of it, but it may convict their stubborn heart.
Speaker 1:So I encourage you, guys, as you live your life and you're looking around and you're seeing the consequences of people's sins, even your own, know this God loves you and when he does withdraw himself from people who have refused to worship him, it's not going to be good and I just pray that you and I will have a ministry to those type of people, that we will extend the heart of God to them. So thank you, guys, for listening. Until next time, keep standing strong in the heart of God to them. So thank you, guys for listening. Until next time, keep standing strong in the word of God.