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Romans 1:24-32 (Inductive Bible Study) · Arrow Heights Students

• 0:00
  Speaker A: What book are we about to open up to? We're open to Romans. So go to Romans. Do you guys know what chapter we're in? That's right. We're still in Romans 1. Hopefully we can finish today. I think we should if we keep moving. So Romans 1. And we're doing an inductive Bible study. What is an inductive Bible study? Yeah, using the Bible to learn about the Bible. That's a good way to understand it. Is an inductive Bible study something that you do here, or is it something you can do at home?
• 0:35
  Speaker B: Both.
• 0:36
  Speaker A: Both. That's right. So hopefully this method can help you. You can kind of see some of the things we do to understand the meaning. Because when you're at home or somewhere else and you're reading on your own, you want to be able to understand the meaning of the passage. And the most helpful thing to help us understand the meaning is the Bible. The Bible itself teaches us how to read it. How the apostles read the Old Testament teaches us how we too can read the Bible. And so many other aspects of Scripture give us little clues on what we should do to understand it. So that's what we're doing, an inductive Bible study. What is Romans? You know, what's the point of it?
• 1:22
  Speaker B: It's Paul writing letters to Rome.
• 1:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, he's writing. Yeah, he's writing a letter to Rome. He's not been able to get to Rome. That's right. So he's. Whatever he's been wanting to say, he writes it down, he sent it to them. What's kind of the purpose? What's he trying to do with it? Oh, I see your hand. Yeah. Or summarize the gospel. Probably more so. Summarizing the message of Jesus christ to them, what that means for them as a church. And so that's a good way to describe it. Summary of the gospel today, we're starting in verse 24 of chapter one, and we're going to see kind of a bit of a cycle, a cyclical pattern. In the last, the remaining verses of this chapter, we see a certain phrase, and we'll talk about that when we get there. But let's just start reading. Let's read. We'll start by reading through verse 27, and then we'll pick up and read the rest when we get to there. So 24:27 first says, 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 worshiped 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. So we'll start with verse 24. We see, therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. So first we want to observe. When we do inductive Bible studies, we observe what it's saying. Saying, we try to interpret what it means and we try to see how it applies to our lives. So first we're observing the Word. What's the first word in verse 24? Yeah, therefore. Therefore. I think it's probably therefore in most translations. Therefore. The quintessential question is, what is the therefore? Therefore, what's its role? What's its function? I didn't make that up. What's it there for? What's it telling us? I think it's saying, like, consequently, consequently. Yes. So it's like referring back to what
• 4:14
  Speaker B: he's already said to make an argument for what he's going to say.
• 4:18
  Speaker A: Yes, that's a good elaboration of what Ezra said. Yeah, because of what I've said. The consequence of that is this. It's indicating the purpose of what he has said before. So what has he been saying before? Do you guys remember what we talked about last week? We talked about the wrath of God, right? Being revealed against ungodliness. Verse 16 really starts this section. He's not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God. In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. And we see that the righteous, those who are declared righteous by God, they live by faith, they receive the accreditation of righteousness, and then they also live both by faith, but contrary to those who live by faith are those who are under the wrath of God. So I think we. Actually, I'm getting my wires crossed. I think on Wednesday we talked about those being under grace, under wrath, in Christ, not in Christ having received him, not received him. Paul has a similar theme here that John is bringing out in his gospel. And so he's got the faithful who are righteous and the unfaithful who are unrighteous. We learn that God revealed himself in creation. And therefore no one has an excuse to say, I didn't know any better. I didn't know God. I didn't think he was there. He didn't reveal himself to me. And so the way I live should be excused. There's no excuse is what Paul is saying. And so he's describing how they have been living under God's wrath. He says in verse 22, claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. What was this? What sin is this? We talked about this last week. Do you have the answer from verse 23? What sin is that? Describing
• 6:36
  Speaker B: idols.
• 6:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, worshiping idols. Idolatry. Because of their idolatry. We could read. So because of their idolatry, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. Verse 24. That's what the. Therefore, it's doing a lot of work. It's saying because of this, God gave them up because people know God and yet choose to reject Him. God has given them up. So what does it mean that God has given them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity? What does that mean? I was thinking about this phrase, and I was thinking about maybe certain times in my household where maybe my kids are in a bad mood. They've had to miss naps, so they're misbehaving or it's chaotic. There might be toys everywhere. There might be a lot of crying. And sometimes I find myself at a certain point, sometimes it doesn't get that bad frequently. But every once in a while I find myself at this point where I'm like, well, the noise is just there. The toys are just going to be there until they go to sleep and it can be reset. And I give up. Basically. I give them up to the chaos. You know, I make sure they're okay. I give them up to the chaos. Is it like that? It's not quite like that. God's not giving up like I am giving up in that circumstance. But he is letting the chaos, letting the sin continue to take them away. So mine is laziness, giving up. I don't really let my kids be harmed by it. But his is a judgment. The giving up is God's judgment against the ungodly. So they're not the same. Even if I might use similar terminology for the two, I think Genesis 6:5 is helpful. So Genesis 6:5, this is before the Flood, which is a great mark of judgment from God. Genesis 6. 5 says, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil Continually. So all people at this time, after the fall of man, in Genesis 3, before the flood, all people were just sinning constantly. And then after the flood, God promises this. This is Genesis 9, 11. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. And never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. So here's why I'm saying this is helpful. If sin naturally progresses and gets worse and worse. So much so that God had to destroy the human race except for Noah's family. And he did it so early in history, right? The fall is Genesis 3. The flood starts after that passage in Genesis 6. So early in history, he judges the whole earth. Then how have we made it this far without another flood being necessary for God to keep this promise, to not judge the earth, destroy it via flood. He has chosen to restrain our sin, to hold it back. Not completely, right. We still all sin, but enough to let the earth and society continue so that Christ could come and redeem a people. I think this is clear. When sin is rampant in the people, it very quickly gets to a point where the thoughts and intentions of man's heart is only evil continually. That's what Genesis 6. 5 says. And so the only explanation to be here, it's not that God is just relaxed. That's not what he's promising to Noah in Genesis 9. He's not just relaxing his standard. He's restraining us from being as wicked as the people were before the flood. And yet we still sin without Christ, we are in danger of devolving further and further into sin. And when that happens, that is when God has given you up. The reason that God can give you up to the lusts of your heart is because he is restraining you from fully pursuing them as it is. And so it is a grace that God gives us any restraint that he holds anything back. And then it is judgment when he gives you up to what you truly desire. So that's what is happening here. God decides to no longer hold someone back from sinning and let you dive headfirst into hell. It is a judgment, and it's like a prejudgment. It's before your death, an eternal punishment. It is an in this life punishment. Now, God could still rescue someone that seems to have been given up if they turn to Christ. But that's what he's saying here. This is what happens when our impurity builds and builds and builds. He continues to say in verse 24 to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. And then verse 25 he continues explaining this because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. So again, Paul is pointing out there is an exchange. They've exchanged something we talked last week about. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling man and beasts. Idols. The truth about God is knowable, and yet people choose to believe lies. He continues and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. What sin is being described here again? Idols. Idolatry. Idolatry we see here is a foundational sin. Because once we choose to sin, in essence, what we've done is we've chosen to reject God's authority. And when we reject God's authority, we have also chosen to place something else in God's place. Something else is put in his throne. This is also the essence of idolatry. So we see how idolatry is really kind of the foundational level of sin. So remember last week I had you write down some idols that you're tempted towards. I want you to think of those again. Just take a second. Remember maybe what you wrote or what you would write if you weren't here or you don't remember. And I want to remind us that we all do this in some capacity. We serve the creature rather than the creator. And just to be clear what I mean when I say we serve the creature rather than the creator, what is a creature? How would you define creature? You would define it as an animal? Yeah.
• 14:22
  Speaker B: Something that was created.
• 14:23
  Speaker A: Something that was created. Do you have a different answer? Like a bug? Yeah. So when I think the word creature, this. Usually we use it, I think animal or an insect or a bug of some sort. And, you know, that's how we use it. The technical way to understand it is anything that's created. That's what we mean when we're talking. Talking about what? That's what Paul is intending. Anything that has been created is a creature. You can see it in the word creature. Something that has been created. So it's more than just animals. Even the list earlier, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. So man people is included. So it includes anything created. So that's what a creature is. Not just an animal. Anything made of physical matter. All things physical, even you, have been created and are therefore creatures. In fact, even physical things like angels are created. They're creatures. This is what Paul is talking about. Anything that's not God. That's the distinction the Bible gives us. There Is God the creator? And there is everything else, from angels to mosquitoes. Everything in between is a creature. Then verse 26, he continues. He says, for this reason. So because of this idolatry, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Is anybody starting to notice the cyclical pattern? What's the repetition? What's repeated? Gave them up. That's right. He gave them up. There are actually three times in this passage where God gives them up. Each are describing different ways. The awful effects of sin plague your mind and your heart. So that's the pattern. Noticing repetition can be helpful as you do your own inductive Bible studies. So we see this pattern that God gave them up. That kind of gives us the main thrust of this passage. Now, what is a dishonorable passion? So we're now in verse 26. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. A bad habit. Yeah, that could be included. Sin. Malachi, did you say that too? Oh, you said something. You said something. Yeah. Do you have a different, like, loving
• 17:01
  Speaker B: anything that's not honorable?
• 17:04
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. These are all right. These are all right. It's a little hard to pinpoint an exact definition. I think we're getting the sense of the term in this context. I think he's returning or referring to things that our hearts yearn for, which can be sin. It's something that we love. The things we yearn for are dishonorable. When our hearts are passionate for something that is sinful, we have dishonorable passions. So here's his example. He gives an example. It's a quintessential example. He says, first, this is still verse 26. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. What sin is this referring to? Seems a little veiled, but I think we can know it. Yeah, I think he's referring to homosexuality. I think that's right. This dishonorable passion is when women exchange the natural sexual relations for sexual relations that are not natural. So what is natural is given up. What is unnatural is accepted and celebrated. Well, what is natural? That's actually a good question. Sometimes we think, okay, yeah, you know, you're raised a Christian, and so you just are taught this is what natural is. But what makes something natural or not? What is natural? Natural is male and female marriage. Well, how is this natural? I want us to see that this is reasonable. We don't just say it's natural because the Bible says so, even though that's totally true. But why is it natural? Is there a way to understand this? By reason, I think there is. What is natural is that which nature shows us. Does that sound like confusing? Is that a clear definition? What nature shows us is natural. And nature shows us that humanity exists because of the procreation of children. Why? Well, what happens if there's no procreation of children? There's no humanity. Human race dies. It is not a. As I guess you know, modern scientists say it's not a fit species. It dies. No procreation, no humanity. Humanity dies. Therefore, to exchange what is natural, which would be heterosexuality, the whole, the logical end is the end of the human race. So it can't be natural. It can't be by reasonable definition. That's just reason and logic. It is unsustainable because no one exists or ever will exist without natural relations. Even the people giving up the natural relations were brought about by the natural relations. Everyone has a mother and a father. Even if by some consequence of sin, we don't know them. Everybody has a mother and a father. But this sin is not reserved only for women. Of course, this is how he begins. But verse 27, he completes the thought and says, and the men likewise. So we see likewise is telling us this is of the same nature. Likewise gave up natural relations with women. And we're consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for the error. So it's the exact same issue. He even gives a little more detail that kind of helps us know that we're talking about the right sin. Homosexuality logically leads to the elimination of the human race. It is fundamentally unnatural. It is unnatural. Even if someone is born with such feelings. Having a feeling doesn't make something natural if we extend that to its logical conclusions. People have all sorts of objectively wicked feelings and inclinations, so that's not a good definition. These feelings result from sin and brokenness, so they can be there. Serial killers often say their desire to kill has always been there. And yet nobody says that that is natural for them to do. Nobody thinks that. Now, how is this related to idolatry? So now we're talking about homosexuality a lot. It's 9:42am Good morning. But how is this related to idolatry? I hope we haven't forgotten that's actually the subject we're talking about because that's the foundational sin Paul is talking about. He's giving a very good and strong example of idolatry, homosexuality. I think this is what Paul is showing us is a significant form, maybe like the ultimate form of idolatry. Now, idolatry is always evil. We don't want to, like, rank it. I don't think that's the right thing we want to do. I don't think that's his intent. It's always evil. Don't take comfort that your idolatry isn't this one. That's not a comfort. It is still sin to idolize. Idolatry is worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. When we give our full love and devotion to a creature, we commit idolatry. That's what we do when we give our full love and devotion to a creature. Well, what happens with homosexuality is that not just any creature is appealing, not just any creature that is appealing, but the creature that resembles you becomes appealing to you the same as you becomes what you love most so much that you pursue with the ultimate form of love that creature that resembles you. That is why it's the prime example that Paul brings up. It is pride. One becomes so in love with himself that he becomes aroused by his own image, the image of man. The same goes for a woman who loves her own form so much that she becomes aroused by her own image, the image of a woman. I don't think the point is to dissect all of these details, but I'm trying to show why Paul is using this example specifically. And I think it is related to idolatry. This is a significant form of idolatry. It is unnatural and to be avoided because to embrace it is to embrace destruction. So the foundation of sin is idolatry. And this final form of idolatry is logically the destruction of the human race. So where does idolatry lead? Complete and utter death. That's the connection, yes. Sin is that death serious. It can take us down the road that leads to utter death. In fact, it does if we don't repent of it. But there is still more that God has given sinners up to. This is not Paul's only argument. So in verse 28, we continue. We'll just take these verse by verse. Even though we didn't read these at the start, he says, 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. So I want you to think for a second, have you ever sinned and then just stopped and thought, what have I done? How could I have done this? You kind of have this dissonance where it's hard to reconcile what you've done to what you would define as your actual character, who you really are. If someone saw you do that, you'd want them to know that that's not me. I'm not like that. Even though you did do that. I've felt that countless times in my life. And apart from Christ, the sinner is given up to a debased, a baseless mind. As in the base has no virtue to it. The mind completely serves itself. And this in turn leads to greater and greater. Or we could also say dumber and dumber sins. Recently, actually, a worship pastor was convicted of murdering his wife. This was not his first sin. It wasn't. That was not his first sin at all. He began with an emotional affair which led to a physical one, which then led to plotting and then executing the murder of his wife. I mean, it's horrific. I'm sorry to bring that up. It's horrific. But the murder was not his first sin. There were many before it. He was given up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And one sin, comparatively to the final one that seemed maybe smaller, grew and grew and grew until nothing worse could be done. So stop and think for a second. Where could your sin lead you? We can't read this passage without thinking about this. Where could your sin lead you? It is this serious. It can lead us down these roads. If you're in Christ, I don't believe he will give you up. But if we continue to choose sin, it brings to question whether or not we have really chosen Christ. And if we haven't chosen Christ and we're choosing sin, you can go down this road. You can be rescued from it, to be sure, you can be taken from it, preserved. He can restrain this. He can keep you from going too far down the road. By his grace. We need to soberly ask, where could my sin lead? Even if we trust Christ will prevent us from doing that, we still want to know, what's the conclusion of this? I do this again, what do I continue to do? And then whatever those are, we have to run from them. We have to flee from these sins. Because the language used by Paul to describe they and them in this passage is really quite strong. So we should flee them. The message of Romans is that through faith you can be delivered from that fate. But you have to trust in the power of the gospel to save the lost. But Paul continues. He continues with this list, I'll read verses 29, 31. 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. I read these together because I think they should be read together. A lot of times maybe when you're doing your own at home inductive study, it's tempting to kind of dissect each word and how they're all different. I think a lot of times they're put together to be read as a whole because some of these are kind of near synonyms. And he wants to show us the effect of all of these vices. It's called a vice list. All of them together. The effect of reading this is, wow, sin is so pervasive in life. It is everywhere in so many forms. But now listen again or look again through this. If any have stuck out to you as particularly convicting, I'd encourage you to take that to the Lord to seek repentance in that area. It's not that we should ignore the individuals, and so I would encourage you to do that if any did stick out to note it. But the effect is that sin is pervasive. We need God's grace for these sins. Paul uses vice lists like this often. Sometimes they refer to sins that that church struggled with, but more often I think he wants to show how prevalent sin is. And in fact, this list is more poetic than it is a literal roll call of the Roman sins. It's hard maybe for us to see some of the poetry in there because of the translation. So we have unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. These are all participles. That's a form of speech. You've probably heard the word participle, even if you can't remember what it means in Greek it means that they're all ending in the same few letters. Basically, they rhyme those first four words. Then we get full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. These four vices are all described as being spread fully throughout the person. So there's full of. And it's not just full of envy, it's full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They're all connected together via the language and they all begin with the letter A or alpha. So again we kind of see this poetic connecting of these vices. He continues, he says, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless, these 12 vices all describe the pronoun them and the last four flow. They all begin with an A and they end with an us or an as. That's kind of how the words end. So again, there's this rhyme. So this is poetic. Collection of horrific sense, which is a little interesting, but I think he's trying to show just in this big monologue of sins. These are everywhere. They're bad. They are pervasive. Paul poetically overwhelms us with the reality of sin. If you're not overwhelmed with sin, then you're in the wrong. You will see in this book what God's judgment is. This is overwhelming. It doesn't mean we crumble in defeat, but we can acknowledge that this is overwhelming. This is difficult to understand. God has revealed his wrath on all of unrighteousness. And this is the form it takes. And this leads us to our ultimate death. Well, we remember that the gospel is the power of God. So he's not going to leave us here. We're going to spend, you know, chapter two deals with God's judgment further, but he's not going to end it there. The book, that's not the last word. The sin. God gets the last word. Jesus christ and the gospel of Jesus christ get the last word in the book. That's important to remember even as we read these kind of dark and difficult passages. And then we get to verse 32, the last verse. It starts by saying, though they know God's righteous decree. So again, they know they have no excuse, but what do they do? What is a righteous decree? What would you think? What's a decree? We can start there. It's like a rule. Yeah, it can be used that way for sure. I think in this context there's a little bit more to it, but that's not wrong.
• 32:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, declaration. Almost like the government issuing some statement about something.
• 33:05
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I think it is a declaration. I like the word declaration because it also entails action. You know, like declaring bankruptcy is not just pronouncing something, you know, like the office example. I've used this before in teaching, but there's an action that comes with it. A decree is something that God has ordained is another word. It means chosen beforehand. And since God is righteous and holy, his decrees are righteous. He has decreed that people ought not to do these things. And specifically he decrees that those who practice such things deserve to die. That's the next line. His righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die. So we've already talked about how Death is the end of all of this. Just like Adam and Eve sinned and received death, so too we all deserve death because we inherit that same sin. It's imputed to us under our great, great, great grandfather Adam, and it stays with us until righteousness is imputed to us from Jesus christ. So we're either again, another distinction under Adam or we're under Christ. We have one that's called a federal head, the representative. We're either under Adam or under Christ. So to make matters worse for people, the people that Paul is talking about, we further read, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. That's the last phrase. They not only do the wicked things, but they give approval to those who practice the wicked things. What are ways that people today approve of the sinful practices of others? Yeah, like donate to maybe unrighteous causes is what you're saying. Okay, yeah, that's an example.
• 35:19
  Speaker B: By joining them in that same sin.
• 35:21
  Speaker A: Joining in the same sin, exactly.
• 35:26
  Speaker B: Yeah, like a push to be affirming.
• 35:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, we want to be affirming and tolerant of people, especially people that we consider friends. So there's, like, peer pressure with that. And even with joining people in their sin might be easier to just join than to be the odd person out. But Paul is giving. He's including people that give approval with the people that actually do the sins. So I think we should take it pretty seriously. So, you know, we have, like, LGBT affirmation. We have, you know, encouragements to just do what makes you happy to do you. Very common phrases. Maybe refusing to judge other Christians in your church and hold them accountable for sins. Refusing to love someone enough to point out an obvious sin, you know, in a loving way. Making sure we have examined ourselves first. But that can be giving kind of an implicit approval. Listening and participating in gossip is probably one of the most common ways that we all do this. It's so easy to just begin to gossip, and yet it is so damaging and hurtful and an easy way for us to approve of sin. Not standing up for those who are bullied can be a way that we approve of someone's sin, even if that might be difficult. There are many more examples. Those are just a few I thought of. So students, obviously don't do the sins that have been listed. Don't commit idolatry. Keep yourselves from idols. As the last verse of one John tells us, keep yourselves from idols, but also don't approve of them. Don't approve of the sins. God is calling us to be unlike the world. Now, I'm going to be the last to say you should completely avoid the world and have nothing to do with people in the world and hide in your home 24, 7. But God is calling us to be different. We can go to community events, concerts, dance halls, public school in all of these places and more. You can be a great Christian everywhere. But you in some way need to retain your otherness. Your otherness. You don't have to be weird, a social pariah. Those are not synonymous. But there will be times when we don't quite fit in, when we might have to make a difficult decision among our peers. And if you're not in Christ, then the other thing we have to take away from this is that you're without excuse. Paul's kind of shown you're without excuse. And your list of vices will reward you with judgment. But as we'll see, as we continue to see the summary of the gospel unpacked by Paul, God is merciful to forgive you all your sins, all of them. So no matter what might convict us today, remember God's grace is greater than all of your sins. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the grace of Christ, Lord. Lord, we pray that you would rescue us from your wrath through your son, Jesus christ. Lord, give faith to those who need it. Lord, help us to see sin in our lives. Help us to flee from sin and idols, and give us the boldness to not give approval of the sins of our friends. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.