God’s Abandoning Judgment

About this sermon

Introduction: One of the ways that God judges sinful men is by giving them TO their sin. As men abandon God, as they abandon the light of God’s self-revelation, as they SUPPRESS the truth and SUBSTITUTE for the truth, as they abandon God by embracing idols, God judges men by abandoning them. By leaving them to their sin. By allowing them to descend further and further into the darkness of their own desires. That’s what we see in this next section. Here are some fundamental truths we must never forget. God restrains evil in this world. God restrains evil by working through the means that He has ordained to restrain sinful behaviors in mankind (like government), and He works directly, in the hearts of men, to restrain evil. -He restrains evil through the consciences of people. -He restrains evil through parental training. -He restrains evil through governmental authorities. God’s restraining work limits the MANIFESTATION of man’s potential for sinning. Man’s depravity is more profound than he manifests. So that one of the ways that God judges mankind IN THE TEMPORAL REALM is by allowing man to go his own way. God judges sinful men by abandoning them to their sins, or we could say, to the desires of their own darkened hearts. He gives them to their own sinful passions, lusts, desires. Three times in verses 24-32 we find a most sobering and horrifying description. “God gave them over.” (vs.24, 26, 28) And each of those statements concerning God’s choice to give men to their sins follows a description of how man suppresses truth. The description that Paul gives in these verses, of the downward trajectory of the world that rejects God’s revelation, can be expressed in three ways. The life of idolatry, the life of darkness that increases with every step away from the light of God’s revelation, is a life that progressively reveals rebellion against God’s standards. It is a life that argues against the perfectly sound wisdom of God, and by considering itself wise, it leads to a self-consuming impurity that destroys the object of its love. It loves itself and destroys itself in the process. ABANDONED TO A SEXUAL REVOLUTION (vs.24-25) The first expression of that rebellion is a life that has been abandoned to sexual revolution. The word “impurity” is ἀκαθαρσία. It is a word that can speak, in general, of anything that is filthy or dirty. It is used of the contents of graves, that which would cause ceremonial impurity. But it is a word used many times in the New Testament to speak especially of sexual sins. It refers to a state of moral corruption, immorality, sexual vileness. That’s what Paul is referring to here. God “gave them over” in the lusts of their hearts (that is, turning them over in the realm of their own desires) to this sexual impurity. The reason why I say “sexual impurity” is because he specifies that what he has in mind involves the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, or we could say “with each other.” Note: SEXUAL SIN IS A REALITY (And those sins are defiling sins) We are living in a time when sexual sin is no longer treated like sin. People SCOFF at those who think that a sexual relationship outside of marriage is something to be ashamed of. But God’s Word makes clear that any sexual relationship outside of the marriage of one man with one woman is a violation of God’s will. There IS such a thing as sexual sin. SIN IN THE SEXUAL REALM HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED BY GOD The Bible doesn’t just address this topic vaguely. The Bible uses words that describe the sin. FORNICATION ADULTERY HOMOSEXUALITY INCEST And anything else that doesn’t accord with God’s plan for sexuality. 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Topics

• Hell & Judgment