Lesson 3c
Romans 1:19-23 · Mike Doyle · Mar 11, 2018
Romans (2018-21), No. 09
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492619945097

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So, as I'm spending time in these verses, I'm finding it's very interesting if you sort of paid attention to what's going on with what Paul's telling us through the Lord. I'm going to read nine verses or ten verses to you, and then we'll start in on the questions, but I also have several questions I didn't put in there.

Starting in verse 21, this is the New King James, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creepy things.

Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use of what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their desires for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do things which are not fitting.

Being filled with all ungodliness, all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, They are worshippers, back biters, haters of God, violent, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, understanding, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death. Not only do they do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

So, the first question I ask is, what does it mean that God gave them over? Over to what? What did he give them over to? Themselves. Yeah. He gave them over to themselves, but now think about it. Do you think that these folks have an excuse? No. They don't have an excuse. So we hear all this song and dance about the ignorant heathen. What's an ignorant heathen? Sounds like all of us. So if you're ignorant of God, then it's not a misfortune.

How can you be responsible? Isn't that true? They're not ignorant. So who's responsible for their sinfulness? They are. Because their ignorance is willful. That's what these verses say. It's willful. So it's really kind of an interesting indictment on the human race because the world would tell you Well, how can you blame them? They've never been in a position. They should be able to escape because they're weaker or they're uninformed.

These verses say exactly the opposite. They know. And so what works out to be in the evidence is that they are willful sinners because there's evidence of God everywhere. What happens when the soul abandons the truth of God? Okay, so here's one of the questions that is not in the... What's the big deal? What's the sin that really is here? What sin is it? God has made it clear to mankind.

And they say, we don't care about you, we don't need you. He said, OK, I'm going to let you just go down your road here. And you basically are a hater of God. So go for it. Verse 21, they didn't honor him. They didn't honor him. Yeah. So think of, yeah. I was just thinking about what Courtney said last week about the Holy Spirit and how He's always talking to you even if you're not a believer. And so they're just choosing to ignore Him. Why is ignoring Him such a big deal? It's a bad decision. That's a bad deal. Think about this.

God's a creator and man's a creature, right? And as that scenario lines up, if he's the creator and I'm a creature, then I have responsibility to him as a creature, don't I? What's my responsibility? Courtney just said it. But the mindset is, I should never get away from the idea that I am a creature.

I was thinking this week, Lucifer must have had a mirror. And he looked in the mirror, and he saw himself, and he thought, I can do this. I can do what the Creator wants me to do, and I don't need Him to do it. I can do it myself. Look at me. I'm the greatest creature that God ever created, right? I can do this. So when he gets Eve, That's what he's telling Eve. He's telling her, well, you can do this.

You don't need God to do this. That's what's happening here. There's something about the sin nature of man that the underlying sin is, I don't need God. I just don't need Him. I can be holy. I can do this salvation thing. I can work my way into his favor. I don't need him. I think that's the sin. And you know what? It's exactly the same sin that believers have. Because when you walk in the flesh, that's how you're thinking.

We talked a lot last week about reformed theology. Reformed theology forces you to go to the law rather than God and say to God, Oh, I got the rules. I can do this thing. I don't need you. That's the subtlety of reformed theology. So if I'm Lucifer and I'm selling a program to mankind, especially the religious mankind, what am I selling them? Legalism. Why? Because legalism tells a man, I know what to do, and I can do it.

I got it. I got this. That's the sin. And it's really interesting that it's not just a subtle sort of change of direction. It's built in. The whole core of the sin nature is, I got this. I can do this. It's really just the difference between self-focused and Christ-focused. All of those things are self-focused. I can do it, I can do it. If you look at all these, these are all self-focused. After, you know, the first verses say that God is evident in all creation everywhere. But they look at themselves. Everything is self-focused. So it's not God-focused or God-centered. It's self.

All those things they list out, it's all about self and satisfying self. So I think it's just the focus that is here. If you look at all those things, it's all satisfying me. And my focus is on how I can get these pleasures, everything that I... Interesting, I met with her.

I think part of it too is not only do I see what you want and I can do it myself, but maybe I don't even want that. I want to do what I want to do. I don't care what you want me to do. Life without salvation, I don't need salvation. Yeah, why do I need this? Yeah, I just want to do what I want to do.

Donna and I went to a Bible study when we were really young believers, and the guy teaching it one day, somebody asked him, he said, what's the secret to a marriage? You know what his answer was? I just do what she tells me. Right? So I'm having lunch this week with a guy whose marriage is in trouble. Now listen to this. He says, I'm tired. I can't do this anymore. She's not in compliance. And he lists all of this wonderful stuff that he's doing. She's not responding. What's the problem with that? He says, I got this. She doesn't got it.

Right? I said, well, you know, Ephesians 5 says you're to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. How are you doing with that? Well, I guess I'm not doing so well with that one. The point is this. A marriage has to be centered in Christ. If it isn't, both people think they got this. I don't need God. Do you see that?

Every circumstance we run into in our life, initially we think, oh, I can do this. Or, even better, God's going to help me do it. Is He really? Is he really? Is he going to help the self accomplish a self's goal? No, he's not. Why not? Why wouldn't he? I'm jumping five chapters ahead. But why won't he help yourself? Why won't he help you do anything? Because we can't do anything. Because Christ doesn't treat us.

Yeah, but how did you get there? Sin from ages past is Christ in you being positioned. So does God help the new man accomplish stuff? Come on, does he or doesn't he? No. Why not? Because it's not us that does it. What's that? It's not us that does it.

So, all the way to Romans 6 we find out that we were crucified with Christ, right? So if I'm crucified and separated from the old man, why would God even consider helping the old man? What's his viewpoint of the old man? I'm dead to him. So why would he even venture? So here's the thing. God makes pronouncements. He's very careful and very thorough. Like right here, putting man in the place that he needs to understand. that you're the creature and I'm the creator and as a creature you have to depend on me as a creature and if you get away from that if you decide that well you know I can do this holiness thing myself you know and I can do it maybe with your help so what does God say?

It's interesting if you look at Hosea 4.17 Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone. Isn't that interesting? Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.

So, if the first commandment in the Jewish law is I am the Lord thy God and I won't have false gods before me, who is the false god? I am in Adam. I'm the false God. So from the get-go, God says, you know who you are in your sin nature, man? In your identity with Adam? I won't have you before me. Why not? What's the mindset of Adam?

I got this. I don't need you. You see that? I got this. So it's really subtle here how the consequences that he starts to lay out because we in essence said to God, I got this. So actually it's not that God gave us up, but we gave him up. That's exactly what happened. He just let us go. We said to him, look, I prefer me over you. Now you can help me if you want, but I prefer me over you. And what's his answer?

OK. You get you. Yeah? I have a lot of unbelieving friends who are very, very bright people. Oh yeah. And I think, as you start off by saying, I really do love every one of them. But what I've been discussing on Facebook and stuff and private messages about Jesus and stuff, is basically, if you were to compare righteousness to the height of people, And you line people up and there's a 6'3", a 4' guy, a 5'7", you just lined up 10 guys. And you say, this guy's taller, this guy's shorter. And to say it's sinful, how high you are, this guy's a lot bigger sinner than him. But if you're riding an airplane looking down at those guys, you're up in heaven.

Compared to Jeffrey Dahmer, I'm an awesome guy. He's not. I'm not. What we do is we look at a guy like Jeffrey Dahmer in the sense that he committed. We think that's a lot worse than looking at God and saying, I don't need you. The distance between us and that person is very, very narrow. But the distance between that gap and the cross is immense. Well, think about it.

You're not going to see Jeffrey Dahmer's sins in Romans chapter 1, are you? Are you? No, you're not going to see any of the great sinners of humanity in Romans chapter 1. What you're going to see is a man looking at God and saying, I can do this without you. which we're all guilty of, right?

We're all guilty of. So what does it tell us when we're in this environment? We're dealing with believers who are operating out of themselves with God's help. You've got to wait until they get to a point where they say, I can't do this anymore. I can't do this. And that's a good thing. When that happens, that's a really good thing. And I think the Lord is very careful to teach a believer, a growing believer, that he cannot live the Christian life. And until he gets to that point, how can you talk to him? He's got it. Now here's the problem.

If you don't honor God as God, and you're not thankful, and you don't believe him, and you don't function as a creature, and he says, okay, I'm polite, you can have you. What these verses show is what you get when you get you. When you don't have the Creator managing your life, what happens? You start to reap the benefits of refusal to place your dependence on God. Lots of good benefits right here. You get more and more evil. You're showing yourself in the ways which at one time you were probably ashamed of, And what they turn out to be is destructive to you. See that? They're destructive.

You have to get to the point and say, I can't help myself. I was reading something this morning, I shared this with Donna. I have little booklets and stuff all over my house, so if I'm at someplace I can read. So I'm reading this thing about full assurance this morning, right?

This guy says, Satan does two things. He convinces the non-believer that he's saved. That he can do it by going to church and doing good works. but he tries to convince the believer that he has no assurance. It's pretty subtle. When you think about it, if I'm Satan and I want to keep you from coming to Christ, what am I going to do? I'm going to convince you you're okay. Dress you up, march you off to church on Sunday, everything's cool. Wouldn't you do that? I mean, that's really pretty smart. And then once you become a believer, then I'm going to attack you and say, There can't be any assurance in this. You were much better off doing it yourself. Pretty subtle.

So if you don't rely on the Creator, or how do you say this, you refuse to retain the knowledge of God, which is what the verse says, what happens? Down you go. You get you. And it isn't, like Mike says, it isn't that God just said, lined everybody up and said, I reject all of you. But I've always viewed him as being polite. If you want you instead of me, you get you. You can have you.

So what happens? The first thing that happens is your mind gets darkened and your reasonings go to pot. And you can't think. Your will gets bent. You end up in folly. You willfully don't understand. Because you have rejected God, you think, well, I can't accept anything from Him. All of the things that I think and do are colored by darkness. The very reasoning that I think I'm wise, I am really a fool. Sounds like Washington, D.C. to me. And you don't realize that you're a fool.

But question number two, if you were a historian and you were writing about your own moral or the society's history, what would you put in there? How would you write it? Would you not write what they would consider the greatness of the culture? You ever read the Greek history? Roman history? You ever see book after book about what failures they were? No. The golden age of Grecian literature?

Those of you who studied liberal arts in college, that's what you studied. How great these societies were. And you studied their literature. The Roman letters. The philosophy. of Socrates and Plato, Aristotle, and you find that they're remarkable men. But the problem is they were all sleazebags. The whole society was.

So those societies, if they really printed, wrote and printed what was really going on, nobody would ever read it. The real history of the culture of men starting with the empires that we read about, you know, Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Greece, all of them. If you really saw, or they really wrote about what they were really about, you couldn't read, you couldn't recommend that anybody read them. They'd be so awful, you know.

We were talking about crucifixion a few weeks ago. The Romans crucified 500 people a day. a day. The things that are listed in Romans chapter 1 are exactly the hallmarks of all of these cultures. They did all of these things and thought that they were being okay.

Most men I think think that they are kind of in neutral. I had a good friend, one of the guys who led me to the Lord, he said most men think they live on the yellow line. and that if they move over to the right they're probably moving towards heaven and if they move over to the left they're probably moving towards hell and his answer was this is the best hell's ever going to be we don't live on a yellow line we either live here or here and all men are lost all cultures are lost they're here there is no yellow line there is no neutral there is no Well, I get to decide whether God is telling me the truth or not.

No, you don't get to do that. So, if the testimony of God is true, then neutrality is an utter impossibility. Understand what I'm saying there? If God's truth is true, what he's telling us, then you can't be neutral. If a non-believer is presented with the gospel, they can't be neutral about it. They either have to accept it or reject it. There is no neutral. And who is that king or whoever it was that was in Caesarea with Paul? He said, Paul, you almost convinced me. Was he neutral?

No. You know, you give it the Scarlett O'Hara number. I can't think about that today. You're not neutral. You've already decided. And that's one of the cool things about God's Word. You can't be neutral about it. And as believers, when we enter into the growth truths and start into studying the Word of God, you can't be neutral about it. It forces you to decide, don't you think? You're either on God's side about this stuff or you're not.

Do you think a believer... Right here we would not disagree that men are aggressively turning down the truth of God, repressing it, right? You think believers do that? What do you think? Sure they do. If you're operating out of the old man, just because you're a Christian doesn't mean your old man got cleaned up a little bit.

He's the same old rat he always was. Let's see, this neutrality thing is interesting to me because You may be silent about the truth, but really you're rejecting the truth of God and you're dealing with it as though God's truth was a lie. A lot of believers, that's one of the problems, that they really do deal with God's truth as though it was a lie. So man may with the utmost pride and complacency, but if he does not worship the Creator, then he does in some way or other worship the creature. See that? Really interesting. I'm fascinated by these verses because they expose the old man for who he really is. Now, any questions so far? I have a light bulb come on. It's a huge light bulb.

And what it is, if I think about Romans 8-1, it says, there is now no condemnation to those who are in capital N Christ. So, my salvation has absolutely nothing to do with my conduct. The word conduct is really If I really have put my faith in Christ and I'm in Christ, my position is that I'm going to heaven, absolutely, for sure. My position is in Christ. That is my eternal position.

And so if I read all these things about all these people, these evil things aren't going to get to heaven, Romans 8.1 says, has already saved him and that grace comes before peace. If you understand grace and you're in Christ, you're positioned in Him and you're saved forever. I know what you mean. I've always loved Romans 8.

You know why? Because I'm a realtor. You know what the most important thing to a realtor is? Location. Three of them. Location, location, and location. Being in Christ is a location. I'm in Him. And you're right about what you're saying. Location is everything. What you do is not as important as location. Where am I? And once you're in that location, God can work in through you. Well, that's what He does. From that location. You know, from there.

So, if you don't make it to heaven, Whose responsibility is it? If you don't make it to heaven, whose fault is it? Huh? As a believer, if you don't make it to heaven, whose fault is it? It's God's fault. So if a guy comes to me and says, oh, my marriage is going in the dumper as a Christian, I say, well, if your marriage doesn't succeed, whose fault is it? Whose fault is it?

Come on, you cowards, answer. The Lord has made every provision for a marriage to be designed and function the way it's supposed to be. And if you trust Him, it will be that way. But if you get out of that trust and start using your own thinking, guess what? You're already at a disadvantage because you have a darkened mind. You can't figure this out. And the other thing that's interesting, if you're going to live out of your old man, it's always about me, isn't it?

Isn't it? I remember how Molloy did an experiment one time. He had two women who were suffering from depression and anxiety, and their symptoms were almost exactly the same. So he reasoned Well, if I put the two of them together, maybe they'll help each other, right? You know what happened?

This one thought her situation was much worse than this one, and this one thought her situation was much worse than this one. Isn't that great? It's always about me, isn't it? And the thing is about being in Christ Jesus, By being in that position, it becomes about the Creator and God and not you. That's the really cool thing. Now, more indictments. Question three.

What does the desires of their heart really tell us? What does it tell us in this verse when it says, the desires of their hearts? Notice it didn't say the desires of their mind. So why is the desires of their heart an appropriate verse? Or the desires of the flesh. It didn't say that either. It said the desires of the heart.

Why that term? It's a much greater indictment. Why? Yeah, Joe? Does the heart tend to be more impulsive? Say that again. Impulsive. Impulsive. Reactive without truth, without knowledge in some cases. Okay. It's a matter of will. It's a matter of will? The heart is where your desire is, where the will. I willingly do this. Yeah. Your mind is not the facts or the... I mean, your mind's your facts and this, but the decision is your heart. Yeah. At the very core of who I am. At the core of who you are. And the only thing we have is the will. Yeah. To either choose or not to choose. Here's what Newell says.

This is deeper than the desires of the flesh. Flesh has natural desires which may or may not be yielded to. The desires of the heart continues after the flesh is dissolved. And even when in the tormented bodies of the damned the desires of the flesh cannot be conscious or controlling, the desires of the heart will forever exist. So all of those that in the end end up in the lake of fire, the desires of their heart will still be active. Can you imagine, one of the really cool privileges we're going to have, which I sort of view it as a sad one too, when the great white throne judgment happens, we're going to be judging angels. We're going to be there.

And every one of these human beings that fit under this category of they stayed in Adam are going to come before Christ. and they are going to be judged and then they are going to go to the lake of fire. You think any of them are going to have to push him through the door kicking and screaming? The answer is no. Why? Because the desires of their heart are against him. And given the choice of the lake of fire or being with the Lord Jesus for all eternity, every single one of them will pick the lake of fire. Every one of them will. Because the desires of the heart are really, really powerful. And for all eternity, they'll still have this desire going on.

It shows you, I think what unfolds in these verses is that the natural man, the Adamic man, has nothing redeemable in him at all, and never will. Not one of those people are going to say to God, you know, you didn't give me a chance, or I didn't have enough of a chance, Or if you give me a second chance, I'll pick right. Nah, nah, nah. Not with the desires of the heart in play. Interesting, huh? So... Well, it's interesting, too, that that darkened mind rationalizes and justifies the desires of the heart. It does.

Yeah, whenever you sit down and talk to somebody who's got a problem, it's always somebody else who has the problem. And they're imposing their whatever on me, and I'm fine. The devil made me do it. So, given that, you put the desires of the heart in place, then you find out that man is delivered from divine restraint. The desires of his heart plunge him into ever deeper sinfulness. Now watch what he talks about, body uncleanness and body violence. That's where he goes. So question four, when one turns from the proper object for the creature, what does he turn to? It's very interesting here. Let's see if you can pick it up.

Verse 24 says, Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the desires of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. Where is the first place they go? That's the cause, but what's the result? What's the first step down? I'll read it again. Pay attention this time.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the desires of their hearts, here's the first thing, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. Isn't it interesting that that's the first thing? Why the bodies? Because they worship the creature rather than the body. So what's the first consequence? They begin to dishonor themselves and themselves as their bodies.

That's the first thing they do. There are few of us who think that this is a gross and absolute sin and fewer still think so concerning their ignoring of God. But the ignoring of God is the very source of evil And the former, the sphere of my first responsibility to him is my body, isn't it? My first responsibility.

So what happens? The proper care of my body is a peculiar personal trust given to us by God for which I must give account. True or not true? Yeah. It's the very first thing. Look around in our society today and the former generation, the former generation, the former generation. It all has to do with somehow modifying your body and dishonoring your body to comply with all these other people that are dishonoring their bodies. Your body is a responsibility that God gave you, isn't it? I think it is.

So he mentions it as the first thing, that you begin right away to dishonor their bodies among themselves. It's really interesting that the Word of God starts with that. He doesn't start with some other awful sin. He's going to get into quite a few of them here, but the body is the first thing. So verse 24, the first thing he gave up was their bodies would be dishonored among them. And what's the cause? The cause is the strong desire of the heart. Your body becomes the first victim, maybe is the way to say it.

So when we look at human history, and we look at the advancement of technology, and we've got all this wonderful stuff going on. You know what man has never advanced in? Taking care of their bodies. When you read history, that's what you see. That's what you see. I find it interesting that God did it, that He put this in verse 24. This was the first thing.

When my heart as a non-believer is, the desires of my heart are nothing but evil, the first victim is my body. Isn't that interesting? I may neglect it, or I may over-exercise it, but for something I'm going to do, that's going to be dishonoring to it. You alright with that?

If our attitude is that we're making progress, you need to go back and read these verses. But we're living longer, right? We were talking about that yesterday. All these 125 years ago, if you made it to 48 years old, you were considered an old man. Everybody in this room is older than 48. Well, most of you. So you get to be 75, right? And is your life any better? Seriously, is it? After two knee replacements? I need one. So it's important to look at man as if he's not developing positively because of the desires of his heart. His body is the first victim.

So what did man lie about regarding the truth of God? What was the lie? Verse 25. What did he lie about? He changed the truth of God into a lie and he worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. There is the sin. What did he do? He purposely exchanged God's purpose. God wants to be worshipped. He purposely changed that So that man would worship the creature rather than the creator. Right? Give me evidence of that. Tell me, give me evidence that man worships the creator, or the creature, rather than the creator.

I would say, out of things I've seen, or heard my friends say, this isn't Mother Nature. Oh, Mother Nature. That's a biblical term, right? Mother Nature? That's the way of creeping around with God. Sure. Give me another example. Global warming. Okay. Okay. How about I... Go ahead, Mike. Your karma. Karma. There's a good one.

How about I got my rights? How about that one? I got my rights. So when we all get to glory, who's got all the rights? Who's got them all? So does he have them now? Yeah, he does. You don't have any rights. What do you have a right to do? What do you have a right? Give me a right. Tell me a right. Become children of God. Become a servant of God? Children. I have a right? That's what it says. You have the right to become a believer in God. If I am one. But how do I do that? Believing. That's it. On who he is. And so you know what's interesting about faith? We went through the whole faith class. What's the one coolest thing about faith? It's the coolest thing ever about it.

Unmeritorious. It's not meritorious. Faith is an unmeritorious act. You can't go to God and say you owe me because I believed. Right? What's the value? Where is the value in believing? It's in what you believe and who you believe in. It's not in the fact that you believe.

See that? Who gets the glory? God does. God does. So faith automatically, by its very nature, eliminates this idea of worshipping the creature more than the Creator. because it gives all the value and all the praise to the Creator. See that? It's perfect.

It's the one thing a man can do he can't take credit for. Everything else you can take credit for. You can't take credit for your faith. But it's the one thing you have to have. If I'm God and I come up with a system where I want man to do this, and I'm going to make it a requirement that they do it. What does it do? It honors me. If you operate by faith, the glory redounds to me, and that's what I want. Because I'm the creator, and you're the creature. It doesn't. It goes away from grace. Yeah. It's the only thing that works under grace.

Another big lie, I see all these friends that are sick on Facebook and everything else, and let's say 80% of the people say, I'm sending good vibes, love and light. Your way, how about this one, I'm thinking good thoughts for you. Well, I look in Romans chapter 1 and I don't want any of your thoughts. Did the second bell go off? Alright, well we'll pick up at 7 next week. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace. We thank you that you knew all about this beforehand, and that you loved us in spite of the desires of our heart, and you saved us. And we thank you, Father. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.