WWUTT 1168 A Debased Mind? (Romans 1:28-32)

Once again, there are some mature things we're going to be talking about in our lesson today. You may want to screen this episode first before you let your young children listen to it.

But it is an important lesson that pertains to today, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We're in the Book of Romans, and we'll finish up our study of Chapter 1 today.

I'm going to come back again to verse 24, and we'll read through to the end of the chapter. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the

Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason

God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.

Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

This whole section that we've been reading here began back in verse 18 with the statement, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

And then we continue on to read why God's wrath is revealed from heaven and what is the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

There are several other places in Paul's letters where he will list sins, and I even cited one yesterday out of Colossians 3, 5, but none are quite as thorough as what we're reading here in Romans 1.

This is not only the reason why God's wrath is revealed from heaven, it's also a demonstration of the wrath of God that is revealed from heaven.

For God's restraining grace has been removed from man, and they fall into deeper and deeper sins, worse and worse depravity.

And the first sign that we see of a culture turned over to their own sin is the sexual immorality that will be rampant in that culture, and that was back in verse 24.

Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

The second sign that we will see of God turning a people over to their own sin, to destroy themselves in their own depravity, is in verse 26, and that was the dishonorable passions.

For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, lesbianism, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.

Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. So as you're seeing a culture that is descending into worse and worse sin, and we've looked here at sexual immorality, and then you get homosexuality, you might be tempted to ask, well, where's the trans movement in this?

Because that would be like the next step down on the ladder, right? But Paul isn't describing here men who claim to be women or women who claim to be men.

Well, that would fall into the category of exchanging natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

A woman cannot become a man that is contrary to nature. But the fact that we do have in our culture today, women claiming to be men or men claiming to be women, or even you have some just horribly abusive parents who will convince their children that they're actually a different sex than what they are.

All of this falls under that category of exchanging natural relations for those that are unnatural.

It is not possible for a woman to become a man, but you'll see in the headlines, a woman who said she's a man and then says she's pregnant.

And the way it'll come out in the headline is, man is pregnant. No, no, no man has ever been pregnant.

She is a woman who is pretending to be a man, but she is doing what is contrary to nature.

So the Lord is even turning them over to what is described here in verse 28 as a debased mind.

And that is the third sign here that we come to understand God having removed from a culture his restraining grace.

Verse 28, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, we're still going back to what was being explained in verses 28 through 23.

Though they know God, they do not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but their foolish hearts are darkened.

They became futile in their thinking, their foolish hearts are darkened. And so they're descending into worse and worse sins.

What we saw in verses 24 through 25 is really kind of more individualistic. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.

Then you get to verse 26 and now they're burning with passion for one another even more deeply.

They give up what is natural and good for what is unnatural and wicked.

In Galatians chapter five, Paul contrasts the work of the flesh with the fruit of the spirit and in verse 16 he says,

I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are evident.

They are obvious. We know this is wicked. We know that what is unnatural is the wicked thing to do.

But again, back in Romans one 18 by their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth.

But the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By the way, orgies, also homosexuality, also trading what is natural for what is unnatural.

I mean, it's even obvious to us that we are not meant for group sex, that it is meant to be a man and a woman united together in one flesh for life.

And what God has joined together, let man not separate. And this union, the intimacy between a husband and a wife in the marriage bed, is fruitful in that it produces children.

This is the natural function that God has created a husband and a wife for.

And sexuality that is treated any other way but in the marriage bed between a husband and a wife is unnatural and it is sexually immoral.

It is contrary to what God created sex to be. So even orgies in that sense fall under the category of homosexuality and trading what is natural for what is unnatural.

And the world is going to hate us for this because we pursue the natural thing in holiness, doing it unto thanks and unto praise to God with a grateful heart to God for the gifts that he has given us.

The world is going to hate us for that kind of approach to living. Consider what

Peter says in 1 Peter 4, verse 3, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the

Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

So coming back again to the fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentions in Galatians chapter 5, he says the fruit of the

Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

Against such things there is no law and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another, because then we no longer have that grateful heart to God.

And if we are not grateful to God, we are given over to our own selfish, fleshly desires and passions.

As God gives a culture, an ungrateful culture over to a debased mind, we see a culture doing what ought not to be done,

Romans 1, 28. And we see this whole list of sins then, this all manner of unrighteousness, verse 29, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, desiring those things that did not belong to them.

And again, this flows from an ungrateful heart. As I had said previously in our study in Romans 1, all sin comes from ingratitude.

All sin is from an ungrateful heart toward God. We are not grateful to God for what

He has given us. And so therefore, we think we need to have this thing in order to be satisfied.

We need to do this. And hey, that is a fulfilling life for me. God, what you have given to me is not enough.

I'm not satisfied in God. I'm not satisfied in Christ. I have to have this other thing. And whatever you think you need in order to be satisfied, you have made

God. It doesn't matter that 99 % of your life is consumed with God.

But I need this other one thing, this 1 % thing in order to truly be satisfied, in order to truly be content, that thing has become your

Savior. That thing is your God. Because if God was only filling up 99 % of the space,

He really wasn't saving you. He really wasn't giving you everything that you needed. You had to have this other thing.

So that one little thing that you need in order to find true satisfaction, that's the thing that you've raised up as an idol.

That's the thing that you've made God. And Paul says in Colossians 3 .5 that covetousness is idolatry.

So when we're coveting those things that we do not have, thinking we need this in order to be happy, to have a fulfilling life, to truly be satisfied, to feel like we've made it, to be convinced that God has truly blessed me.

As long as I have this thing, then I'll know that God has blessed me. But God, you've really not given me everything

I want until I get this. Whatever that is, whatever you're focusing on, whatever that thing is you're coveting, that's what you've made

God. That is your idol. And that again flows from an ungrateful heart.

You're ungrateful to God. You cannot say with the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4 .13,

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Because there, Paul is saying that whether I am in want or I have plenty,

I can do all things through Christ. It doesn't matter whether times are really, really good or times are really, really bad.

I am sustained through the good and the bad in Christ. Hey, even when things are real, real good, you can fall away from God because you think, hey,

I don't need God for anything. I have everything that I have. So we are even prone to fall away from God when things are good.

And Paul is saying, even in times of plenty, I am sustained through Christ who strengthens me, who strengthens my spirit to rely on God and not on my stuff.

But then when things are real bad, when I'm not having all my needs met, when I don't feel like I'm materially blessed,

I'm sustained even in these dire circumstances through Christ who strengthens me.

When you are fully satisfied in God, when you are thankful to him for everything, then you truly understand that statement in Philippians 4, 13.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You're not wanting anything else.

You're satisfied in Christ. And consider that those words in Philippians 4 that Paul wrote, he wrote from prison.

He had been preaching the gospel. He had been thrown in jail for preaching the gospel. And yet it was in jail that he was writing to the

Philippians, Philippians 4, 4, and saying, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Folks we're dealing with a lot of panic going on in society and in the culture right now with this pandemic scare.

But can you say, along with the apostle Paul, I will rejoice in the Lord always.

I will let my reasonableness be known to everyone for I know that God is sovereign.

He is in control. He is on his throne. The Lord is at hand.

When we are thankful to God and satisfied in all things, we desire to walk by the spirit and not gratify the passions of the flesh.

Those who are still trying to gratify the flesh are filled with all manner of unrighteousness.

It's not just one, two, or three things. It's a dozen, two dozen, three dozen evil practices that a person demonstrates in their life filled with all manner of unrighteousness, covetousness, malice, hatred toward others because they've got something that I don't have.

That's like the whole MO of critical race theory and intersectionality.

I'm oppressed. I'm not getting as much as Whitey over here. I'm going to tout my oppression that's entirely based on my skin color or my orientation.

My personal identity is this heightened victim status that I have.

The culture society owes me more because I am more oppressed than this guy over here.

That whole thing is based on malice. I hate this person. I hate their skin color. I hate all the privilege that I think that they get.

I'm going to promote my skin color believing that it is going to be the very thing that helps me to ascend through the things that I'm not getting, the things that I believe that all you owe me.

That whole selfish elevation is malice because you have to diminish others in order to elevate yourself.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

They are gossips. That's the rest of verse 29. So they're full of envy. Obviously, if they're coveting, they are envious of what another person has, not satisfied with what they have.

And it doesn't even matter how much they have. They have to have the thing that someone else has. Taylor Swift, you know

Taylor Swift, right? The big pop star. She has talked about how if she were a man, she would have gotten more than she's already received as the pop star that she is.

But she thinks that because she's a woman, she's not gotten as much as she could have been getting. She's like one of the most successful artists of all time, but she's not even satisfied with that.

She complains about her circumstances, says that men in her profession are more privileged than she is.

How many people in the world are more privileged than Taylor Swift? But this is a demonstration of the envy that even the wealthy can have.

They're not satisfied with their millions. They have to have millions more. And so full of envy.

They're even full of murder, that hatred in their heart that they have for other for others.

They will murder to get what they want. Strife, constant conflict with others, obviously, because their hearts are filled with envy and murder, deceit, deceiving others to get what they want or presenting themselves as someone that they're not maliciousness, the hatred they have for toward others.

And they are gossips. If they have no respect or value for other people, then they're going to spread lies about people to diminish them in order to make themselves look look better or more important.

So they're gossips, slanderers, lying about others, spreading deceit. They are haters of God.

When you hate other people, you hate God. And because you hate God, you hate other people.

You hate those people who are made in the image of God. First, John 420, if anyone says I love

God and hates his brother, he is a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love

God whom he has not seen. And that next word goes right along with this.

So they're slanderers, haters of God, insolent, which means they just have an arrogance and a general lack of respect for people.

They are haughty, full of themselves, self -promotional, always trying to put their good deeds in front of people.

Look at how righteous a person I am. Look at how look at how good I am. All this good stuff that I've done, folks, that's pharisaical.

That's exactly what the Pharisees did. Dustin Benj recently said something on Twitter. He said in the in the midst of this pandemic and this panic that's going on, if you start promoting online on social media, all the good things that you're doing for other people so that you could be seen and acknowledged by men, you're no different than the

Pharisees. That's exactly what the Pharisees did. They showed all their good deeds so they could get all the congratulations that they wanted from men.

And Jesus said, I tell you, they've received their reward in full. But give to the father in secret and the father will reward you.

Give to others in secret and the father will reward you not to be rewarded by men, but to have an audience of one.

I am doing this for the Lord only to please God and not to please men. But instead, you've got these people who are full of themselves, boastful.

They are inventors of evil. It's like I can't even I don't even come up with enough evil things to do. So they come up with new kinds of evil.

It's almost like I mean, you see this in our culture because it's like you feel like you've seen everything. And then suddenly tomorrow, there's some other level of bad news of sinful depravity happening in our culture.

And you're you're going, man, how many evil things can people come up with to do? They have to rebel against God so hard and so fast and so far away.

They're going to come up with new things to rebel against God over. So they're inventors of evil.

They are disobedient to parents. That's one of the signs of a depraved culture.

When you see the younger generation disrespecting the older generation, this whole thing that you've got going on right now of referring to an older generation as boomers, as as an insult, that's being disobedient to parents.

You have these spoiled brats out there that are expecting their parents to give them everything that are disrespectful to authority because their parents treated them like they were special, unique, wonderful little snowflakes.

And so now they get out into the culture and find out that things are hard. And so they expect society to give them everything. Well, that that even comes from an attitude that is disobedient, that is dishonoring of their parents.

And that was a very serious sin in the Old Testament. In the law of Moses that had been given to Israel, a person who was disobedient to their parents could be put to death.

They're disobedient to parents. They are foolish. They are faithless. They are heartless.

They are ruthless, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die.

They not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice them. So even if you were looking through this list and you were going, well,

I'm you know, I'm not homosexual. I don't I don't go look at porn or anything like that. But you approve of it.

You let other people do it and you'll even applaud it. You are just as wicked as they are who do it.

There are plenty of people who aren't homosexual, but they will encourage the whole LGBTQ movement.

They're just as guilty as those who practice homosexuality. There is a like in the pro abortion movement.

There are plenty of people who have not had abortions, but they will vote for it. They'll encourage it.

They'll applaud it. They're just as guilty as those who practice it. There's another way this is manifested as well.

And this one isn't talked about as much. But let me give you an illustration based on something that happened this past weekend.

So heading into the weekend, President Donald Trump called for a national day of prayer That would have been

March 15th. And Donald Trump said that he was praying for our nation. But what Trump did not mention in his praying for our nation is that he was calling on a nation to repent.

See, if we're just asking God to relieve this nation of a pandemic that's coming upon us, but we're not willing to repent of our sins, the sexual immorality that this culture has steeped itself into, the murder, the blood that's on our hands, abortion as a result of that sexual immorality, the legalization of gay marriage and pushing the

LGBTQ agenda. If our nation is not willing to repent of this wickedness in the in the eyes of God, but we're asking

God to exercise his mercy upon us and take away this pandemic that we don't think we need to repent of anything, then all we're asking

God to do is approve of this nation for its sinfulness. Please give your approval of its wickedness and take away this disease.

But let us continue in our wickedness. This is the same as what we're seeing here in verse 32, though they know

God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

If we're not willing to ask for forgiveness from God, repenting of our sin, we're not going to walk in this wickedness anymore.

We're going to pursue the righteousness of Christ. If that's not going to be the attitude of our nation when we call on a national day of prayer, then we're asking for God to approve of our sin.

And unfortunately, my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, was just as bad about this.

There was this statement that was released a day of prayer for the coronavirus COVID -19 global pandemic

Southern Baptist Convention, Sunday, March 15th, 2020. And there were four things that pastors were encouraged to pray for or lead their church in praying for this past Sunday.

And none of those four things were repentance. Not one of those four things was lead your congregation in asking

God to grant repentance to this nation. I mean, seriously, are we just totally numb to how wicked the

United States of America really is? Do we desire her delicacies so much that we don't mourn over the sin that's going on all around us and we would ask

God not to do justice? Jeremiah 13, 22, if you say in your heart, why have these things come upon me?

It is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence. We read in Malachi 2, 17, you have wearied the

Lord with your words, but you say, how have we wearied him by saying everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the

Lord and he delights in them or by asking, where is the God of justice?

In Psalm 66, 18, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

Consider finally 1 John 1, beginning in verse 8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. That is the argument that Paul is making here in Romans 1.

So let us turn from our sins and our wickedness to the God of justice before his justice falls.

Ask God's forgiveness and preach the good news to a world that is falling under the wrath of God that is revealed from heaven before they perish in that wrath.

When it comes down, hold out the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.

Tell them of their sin so that they may know their need for a savior and then tell them of that savior, the good news of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Would you withhold that message from a culture? Then you not only do the things that they do, you give approval to them who practice it.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the conviction that is in our hearts by the

Holy Spirit of God that we would see our wickedness and desire repentance.

It is a gift of God that that conviction exists. So let us not walk in any sinful way anymore.

Give us the desire in our heart for the righteousness of Christ. And let the desire be in our hearts for your glory so much that we would look at people who are walking in wickedness and we would warn them about the destruction that they're heading towards so they would turn from their sin and they would give glory to God so that God would be greatly extolled among the people.

Help us to endure even in a time of struggle, a time of uncertainty, a time of pandemic.

We would still even give glory to God in the midst of times like this. For we know that though all of these things may come upon creation and we will experience trouble in this world, we do not lose heart.

For the promise of eternal life is bound up in Christ and there is a kingdom that awaits us where all the former things will have passed away and sin and death will be no more.

Help our longing be for those days, for that kingdom and we are fully satisfied in Christ.