When God Gives us Over

Welcome to the broadcast ministry of Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews, where we seek to glorify God by making Him known and guiding others towards their true purpose in life.

No one is here by chance. God put us here for a reason. And the most important thing we can do is discover His plan for us and commit ourselves to it.

Keep listening as we learn from the Bible how to live wisely in God's world, which is the first step towards finding your purpose. Today's message is entitled When God Gives Us Over. We're going to be looking at Romans Chapter 1, verses 18 through 32. Now today I want to share with you some specifics about the Gospel. And the reason I want to do this is because most people really can't define what the Gospel is.

And I'm talking about real Christians. So what is the Gospel? Well, we learn specifically what the Gospel is in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 1 through 5, where Paul says that according to the Scriptures, Jesus died and that He was buried and that according to the Scriptures, He was raised again on the third day. And then it says He appeared to the disciples and later He appeared to 500 eyewitnesses. Now, I want to give you some other aspects, some important aspects about the Gospel.

But you need to understand this before I begin. John 3, 36 says, Now, when it says God's wrath remains on Him, what does that imply? It implies that God's wrath was already there and it was there from the very beginning. Because David says in Psalm 51, 5, that He was sinful from the moment of conception. You see, we're born sinful. We're born with a sin nature and we're born God's enemies, according to Romans 5, 10. And therefore God's wrath remains on us. And so here's the first aspect you need to understand about the Gospel. A man can only be saved from God's wrath by the Gospel.

When we by faith call on the name of Jesus and surrender our lives to Him, that He rescues us from the coming wrath. 1 Thessalonians 1, 10 says, Secondly, we learned that we are all born sinful. That's what I just explained to you from Psalm 51, 5.

From the moment of conception, we are born with a sinful nature. Therefore, because we're sinful and we're not holy, we cannot come into God's presence because He's holy and righteous. Therefore, to come into God's presence, we first must be made righteous by God. Third, here's what happens when God sees when He sees genuine faith in the heart of a man like the thief on the cross, He declares that man righteous.

And again, this is what it means to be justified. Fourth, this declaration by God, when a man is justified, that is, when he's declared righteous, it changes the legal status of that man forever. You see, once before God, he was guilty.

He was a guilty law breaker, deserving death. Romans 6 23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But now, once a man has been saved by God, he has been forgiven and he's been granted eternal life.

So how does all this happen? Well, in a nutshell, it happens by faith. We're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, according to scripture alone. Romans 10 13 says, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And then John 3 16 says, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. This is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. And you must not only understand the gospel, but you must believe it. You see, the gospel is the good news from God. We are saved again by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But listen, to really understand and appreciate this good news, we have to first understand the bad news. So today, from Romans 1 18 through 32, I want to show you, I want you to see the downward spiral of mankind in His wickedness. It puts God in a position where He has no choice but to give us over to our sinful desires.

In other words, God is forced to let us go our own way. In essence, He says, Thy will be done. Now, this is going to be a hard-hitting message.

So I want you to fasten your seat belts. What I'm going to share with you, which is the hard truth, and we all need to hear it, particularly in light of the world in which we live. We need to hear the unadulterated truth of God's word.

So here's what we're going to learn. First, we're going to see how man responds to God's revelation of himself. And second, we're then going to see how God responds to man's rebellion against this revelation. So how does a man respond to God's revelation of himself?

First, he suppresses the truth. That is, he rejects the truth and the process he turns away from God. Look at verses 18 through 20.

Listen to what Paul writes. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. But since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. The late great theologian R.C. Sproul, who was one of the greatest minds in the Christian world, he said this. Everybody out there, despite their claims to the contrary, knows perfectly well that God exists. So let me ask you a question. Do you think he's correct?

I do. I believe this is in essence what Paul is saying. So how has God revealed himself to the world? Well, first, he reveals himself through creation. David writes in Psalm 19, verses one through four. The heavens declare the glory of God.

The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night, they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. What he's talking about here is general revelation, general revelation or universe revelation, as it's sometimes called. It's simply this. God has revealed himself to every person who has ever lived, no matter when they lived, through his creation.

And this is going on 24 seven. The heavens are declaring the glory of God 24 seven. Here's what David is saying. He said that everyone who has ever been born can see the hand of God in creation.

I looked this up. I want to see what the most powerful telescope was, and I've discovered it's the James Webb Space Telescope, which I'd never heard of. It's located almost one million miles from the earth, and it gives astronomers a view of the vast universe beyond. When these astronomers gazed at the design of the vast universe that they're witnessing, they realized that they're looking at a divine designer. Whether or not they acknowledge this to be true, they can see that there's order in the universe. Now, when ophthalmologists examine the design of the human eye, they're also witnessing the hand of God. Yet in spite of this evidence, many astronomers and many doctors suppress this truth and deny the existence of God. Second, God reveals himself to us through his word, the Bible.

This is known as particular or specific revelation. Yet many people reject the Bible. It's God's infallible and inerrant word.

They treat the Bible as if they are going down a buffet line. I'll accept this is truth, but I don't believe that they can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say. So God reveals himself to us through his creation. That's universal or general revelation. He reveals himself to his word, the written word.

That's particular or specific revelation. And then thirdly, when God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ, he revealed himself to the world, God in human flesh. So God has revealed himself to us through the written word. And he's also revealed himself to us through the living word, his son. Now, let me ask you a question. Did the world accept Jesus?

No. The world rejected him as the son of God. The world suppressed the truth and evidence of his many miracles by executing him on a Roman cross. Did you know that when Lazarus was raised from the dead, that the same religious leaders who ended up putting Jesus to death on a cross plotted to kill Lazarus?

You know why? Because they wanted to get rid of the evidence. They wanted to suppress the truth. That's what people do when they hear something they don't want to believe.

They just suppress it. So these are just a few of the many ways mankind suppresses the truth of God's revelation of himself. But let me ask you this. Have we done this in America? Yes, we have.

Let me give you just one example. In 1963, I believe I was in the second or third grade, the Supreme Court ruled in an eight to one vote that government sponsored reading of the Bible in public schools was unconstitutional. You see, up to that point, the Bible had been read in public schools. Our founding forefathers started the practice. So our government ended a practice that had been going on for nearly 200 years.

Why? To suppress the truth of God's word and just look at what has happened in our public school system ever since. You see, when you remove God from a society, that society begins to collapse. But not only does mankind suppress God's truth, but number two, as he suppresses the truth, his mind becomes darkened. Look at verse 21. Again, Romans chapter one, verse 21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. God has given us two forms of light that we might be delivered from darkness.

Who or what are these two sources? Well, first, Jesus, who I just said is the living word in the Bible, which is the written word. But what does man do?

He turns away from both sources of light. He rejects the truth of God and he turns to the wisdom of man, which is really no wisdom at all. First Corinthians one, verse 18 through 21 says this about the wisdom of man.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. And then he goes on to write, Where's the wise man? Where's the scholar?

Where's the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him. So God was pleased to the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. You see, the world in its wisdom rejects God, suppresses the truth. So God takes what the world sees as foolishness in our preaching to save those who believe.

Do you understand what I'm saying? See, the world sees preachers like me as fools. In John 3 19, Jesus says something that's so convicting. But this is the verdict.

Again, this is God's verdict. Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Do you know why so many men and women refuse to come into the light of God's word? It's not because of any intellectual reason.

It's because of moral reasons. They can understand what the Bible says, but they don't want to trust in what the Bible says, because then they would have to obey it because they want to continue to sin, to live immoral lives. And that's why they remain in darkness. When we reject the wisdom of God, we turn away from the only source of true light and we embrace darkness. And in that darkened condition, third, man turns away from God to idolatry. So he suppresses the truth, and in that suppressed state, his heart becomes darkened. And then he turns to idolatry. Look at verses 22 and 23.

Although they claim to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men and birds and animals and reptiles. When a man worships an idol, he is breaking the first and second commandments, which says you shall have no other gods before me and you shall make for yourself no idol in the form of anything in heaven above, on earth below. You see, an idol is anything or any object that you value more than the God who created you.

Let me ask you another question. Do you think we worship idols in America? Well, let me just name a few. Money, pleasure, sports, success, houses, boats, cars, popularity, work, exercise, and even religious traditions.

And the list goes on and on. We are a nation that are full of idolaters. Someone once says that the heart is an idol factory. In other words, the heart just keeps on manufacturing idols. In 2 Timothy 3, listen to what Paul writes.

But mark this. There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness. That's what I call religiosity or churchianity. Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

This is a picture of America. We have so many churches that really are just teaching religiosity. In other words, just live according to the golden rule. Give some money to the church.

Show up regularly. And that makes you a Christian. But the Holy Spirit is conspicuously absent. And so they have a form of godliness.

In other words, outwardly, they may look godwardly, but there's no power. And you see, God doesn't look at the outward appearance of a man. He looks at what?

He looks at the man's heart or the woman's heart. I could say more than this, but time does not allow. So now let's turn to God and see how he responds when we reject his truth and we reject him. And so we're going to see that three times God gives us over to our sinful desires. In other words, this is how God responds when we reject him.

He just lets us go our own way. And the first thing he gives us over to is to natural sin. Look at verses 24 and 25. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. And then it goes on. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator who is forever praised.

Amen. The seeds for the sexual revolution actually happened during the 1960s and 70s in our country. But the seeds, in other words, the sexual revolution took place in the 1960s and 70s. However, the seeds for that sexual revolution were planted in the 1940s and 50s.

Did you know the first issue of Playboy Magazine hit the stands in 1953, and it featured a famous nude photo of Marilyn Monroe as its centerfold? And of course, as you know, the magazines over the course of time just got worse and worse, more perverted. The 1960s were known by the phrase free love, which referred to the rejection of traditional moral standards, particularly regarding sex and marriage. We as a nation began to reject the moral guidelines concerning sex and marriage that are put forth in scripture. And we turned to sexual sin.

This is back in the 1960s and 70s. However, at that point in time, it was natural sin. But as I'm sure you know, it did not stop there. As our nation continued to turn away from God and reject His word, He gave us over a second time. But this time, He gave us over to unnatural sin.

Look at verses 26 and 27. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lust. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men.

Did you hear that? Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. I want you to know that these are not my words. These are God's words. I'm just reading what's in the Bible. And unlike a lot of pastors, I'm not going to skip over those sections, which make us uncomfortable. But I find it interesting that Paul does not actually use the term homosexuality here. I think the reason is that if he had just said God turned us over to homosexuality, we would have defined this term in a way different than the way God intended. Instead, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul describes what homosexuals and lesbians actually do and how God feels about their activities. Now, let me just say this. Does God hate homosexuals?

Absolutely not. Just think about the woman caught in the act of adultery and position and put in her place a homosexual. Remember what Jesus said to the woman caught in the act of adultery? He said, Let him who is without sin cast the first stone, and they all begin to leave one by one.

And then he looked at that woman. He said, Where are all your condemners? And then he said this, Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more. And that's the part the modern church leaves out.

In fact, they don't really talk about this anymore. They don't bring up homosexuality in any way except to endorse it. But see, the Bible says that truth sets us free. And that's what God desires for men and women who are caught up in this egregious sin.

God loves homosexuals, but he hates what they do. Do you know why? Because it leads to their death, both spiritually and sometimes physically. Remember the AIDS epidemic? Now, according to scripture, what they do is very offensive to God.

Do you know why? Well, because what they do goes against the God ordained design of marriage and it destroys the family. By having sinful sexual, homosexual relations, they pervert the natural order of God's design that is meant to bring new life into the world and create a wholesome environment where children can grow up and be nurtured by God-fearing parents. God says these sexual relations are, he uses four words, shameful, unnatural, indecent, and perverted. Again, these are not my words.

These are God's words. And these evil relationships, which is what they are, destroy the family. And when the family is destroyed, society collapses.

Just look at our world. In the 1980s and 90s, America began to witness the first homosexual characters on network TV. You had shows like Will and Grace and you had an actress by the name of Ellen DeGeneres.

So that was back then and you may be too young to remember them. But look how far downward we have come. Now on Netflix, one can watch homosexual activity performed for all the world to see. And here's the sad news. Mankind's downward spiral does not end there. It just keeps getting worse and God is forced to give us over a third time.

And here's what he does a third time. He gives us over to total depravity. Look at verses 28 through 32. 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. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. That's a pretty bad list. But listen to this.

It just gets worse. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death. You see, they know that in their hearts that this is going against God's moral law.

But listen to this. They not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them. Now, what does it mean to have a depraved mind? It means that a man or a nation can no longer distinguish between good and evil, no longer distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.

But guess what? In reality, it gets even worse. Not only can we no longer distinguish between right and wrong, we actually call evil good and good evil.

And sadly, it gets even more worse. Not only do people whose minds are depraved call evil good and good evil, but they are so depraved that they celebrate what is evil. They parade evil right in front of you. And they not only demand that you tolerate it, but now you must approve it and even support it.

And if you don't support it, they will call you names like intolerant, homophobic and bigot. Many years ago, I heard a man say, and I can't remember his name, but this was like 40 years ago. He said, we have sacrificed truth on the altar of tolerance.

Did you hear that? We have sacrificed truth on the altar of tolerance. But now they don't just demand tolerance.

They demand that you accept it and approve it and support it. I personally believe that in the very near future, perhaps with the next administration, preaching through Romans 1 like I've just done will be considered hate speech and punishable by either a fine or even imprisonment. This has already happened up in Canada. One final evil that shows how depraved our nation is in the eyes of God, and I'm talking about America now, is abortion, which is really murder. Did you know that we as a nation have aborted about 65 million babies? Do you know that's the population of France?

65 million. Not only are we missing these 65 million aborted human beings, but all the families they would have created. We have to understand that God views abortion as murder. In scripture, God says several times, I hate the shedding of innocent blood.

Did you hear that? I hate, God says, the shedding of innocent blood. Is there anyone more innocent than a developing baby in what is supposed to be the safest place in the world, a mother's womb? And listen, when a political party parks a mobile abortion truck in front of its national convention and offers free abortions, that party has become evil. And their platform, I can tell you, is evil.

And I think you know which platform I'm talking about. So when you go to the voting booth in just a few weeks, you need to think about this. Are you going to support a platform that supports unadulterated murder?

And the other one's not a whole lot better, but it is better. You have a choice between the lesser of two evils. So think about this when you vote.

Let me ask you this. How do you think God feels about abortion? Remember, a baby is created from the moment of conception in the image of God. See, I personally believe that God's patience with our nation has run out and that we're already on his judgment, which I personally believe will get worse unless our nation repents. Do you know why I believe our nation is where it is today? I place the blame primarily with the church because preachers no longer preach the whole counsel of God's word. When is the last time you heard a preacher take a stand against either homosexuality or abortion? Moreover, we as a nation no longer fear God.

And that's the real problem. In fact, we mock God in our rebellion. And God says, I will not be mocked. When a nation loses its fear of God, then all hell breaks loose. In Romans 3, 15 through 18, Paul writes, their feet are swift as shed blood, ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Listen, this is the reality of where we are. We live in a very dark age. However, we have one of the greatest opportunities in the history of the world to be used by God to lead our loved ones and our friends into the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus says you are the light of the world, like a city on a hill. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. In other words, go out and take the light of the gospel with you and share it with your family, your close friends, and the people you work with. If you don't share the gospel with them, they may never hear it. And be praying that God will have mercy on our nation.

Habakkuk 3, 2 says, in your wrath, remember mercy. And that's what we need to pray for our nation. God bless you. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews. This broadcast is made possible because of the prayers and financial gifts of listeners like you. If you want to learn more about our ministry or support us as we reach others with God-centered Bible teaching, please visit us at findingpurpose.net. ... ...