God Gave Them Up
Pr Edi Giudetti
17-02-2019
When my children were very little and beginning to walk, I remember holding their hands up as they would take each step. As a father I did not want my child to fall. There were some times that I would let go purposefully knowing that some falls where good, perhaps a little painful but beneficial.
But when there was a greater risk of serious injury I would be there to hold them up.
Now, this analogy has a limit you see, because as a father I would not have my child in danger even if she or he wanted to get into danger. As a father no matter how much my child would desire for me to let go of her hand at a traffic light, I simply would not.
This is also true with God toward those who are his own.
But those who are not his own, he simply offers his hand, it can be accepted or refused. There are natural consequences to both depending on the situation. Those who will not take the hand clearly offered to them, he gives up to themselves, he gives them over to the natural desires of their hearts.
Always however, his hands are evidently visible, always he is ready for them to take it, if they would.
1. The Rejection of God in the Heart Deforms Our Desires.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Romans 1:26-27
For this cause…For what Cause?
The verse before makes it clear, saying 25“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen”
What we had seen in the portion written before, and expounded upon last week, is that the natural cause of the rejection of our worship of God in the heart leads to a worship of all that is not God;
The passage from verse 20 reminds us that all that we need to know of the reality of God is understood through all that is created by him, “The invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse”
Man is held accountable to know all that needs to be known about God to draw him to worship God.
He is literally “without excuse”.
But when that which is plain to see and understand is rejected, the only thing that can naturally replace what is true is error;
“who changed the truth of God into a lie…” says verse 25.
But what we discover is not a cessation of worship, man does not stop worshipping all together, man simply switches the object of his worship from the creator to that which is created;
And then,
26For this cause; For the cause of our rejection of God in our hearts, God gave them upunto vile affections:
The Rejection of God in the Heart Deforms Our Desires.
To have something deformed is to have it completely changed, distorted is close, but does not go far enough to describe the changed desires in man when God is rejected in the heart.
The Rejection of God in the Heart DEFORMS our desires.
When we have rejected all that is plain to see respecting God,
we then naturally accept all that is opposed to God.
Beloved this is true concerning everything in life;
I work in the construction industry, if I reject the specific methods of good constructionI will naturally accept the infinite ways of building something badly.
If a nurse rejectsthe specific methods of good care, he/she will naturally accept the infinite number of ways poor care might be gotten away with.
If you are an engineer, if you reject the basic laws of engineering, people could die!
Respecting Economists the opposite seems to be true;If you are an engineer and get it WRONG once you lose your job at least, if you are an economist and get it RIGHT once, you are made famous!
Nevertheless, in real life, you cannot reject one without accepting the other.
When man rejects the desire for God in the heart, the natural affections of the heart are deformed.
For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections
The natural affection with which we have been created to have are changed.
When solid ground is rejected, we fall.
God gave them up
The action is passive on Gods part and not active. The active work of God is to restrain sin, to draw us to him, to awaken us, to quicken of bring life to man.
But this is a picture of God simply letting go.This is the Lord removing the spiritual restraint upon man to permit man to go where he desires to go.
It is God himself who removes the limit to Godly affectionand gives man up unto vile affections,
for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
There is no guessing that the vile affections godless man is at risk of being handed over to ends with the most perverse forms of sexual depravity. Homosexuality is the exact opposite of that which was created as natural, in fact our text makes plain that they did change the natural use into that which is against nature.
I could spend several hours demonstrating to you how it is that we, today in the 21stcentury, have been led to believe that, what the Bible plainly states is against nature, is now taught as equal to nature.
I could speak to you and quote for you the many books and writings of those whose purpose it has been to transform society into accepting as natural all that is against nature; The deliberate use of our entertainments, our media, our schools and our politicians.
The effort is evil in every respect, but I would derail you from the purposeof the passage from one of understanding how we got here to one of anger at being here!
The point of the passage is plain,
The Rejection of God in the Heart Deforms the Desires of the heart.
The holy affections toward God is replaced by inordinate, or vile affectionsthat are contrary to the creation of God.
Beloved, the most tragic effect of all this is its end; That last part of the 27thverse simply states;
and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
“The wages of sin is death” this is the recompense of the error of rejecting God in the heart. Those whom God has given up and willingly go down this particular path, are in the most desperate state of all.
The purposed desires of the heart have been deformed.
2. Rejection of God in the Mind Deforms Our Discernment
28And even as they did not like to retain God intheirknowledge, God gave them overto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Turn to Jeremiah 17:9
Last week during our Getting Deeper studies we considered the natural state of man and desired to know what the truth is concerning the natural state of the heart of man that most people seem to follow these days.
Jeremiah and other passages corrects the wrong perception most people have respecting the heart of man.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Proverbs 14:12 says; There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof arethe ways of death.
Job reminds us that the natural state of man is one that “drinketh in iniquity like water”
As we go on in our reading of the Bible we discover that the heart of mancannot be reformed.
There is no possibility of the reformation of the heart, Ezekiel makes it plain that the heart cannot be ‘reformed’ but must be ‘replaced’. A “change of heart” cannot occur until the heart itself is changed.
What is most interesting about our passage in Jeremiah however is the description of the heart;
He says The heart is deceitful above all things
The natural state of the heart of man says it is ‘deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it’.
A deceiver deceives. This is its work. That which is deceitful, deceives.
Now, I am not saying that the physical heart of man, the pump in our chests that pumps the blood throughout the body, is a cognitive organ, please understand the Bible seems to indicate that when it refers to the heart of man it refers to that inner being, or soul of man. The natural essence of man that I don’t quite understand.
What I do know is that what Jeremiah says concerning the heart is not what the world believes respecting it. They believe it can be trusted, it must be followed, obeyed. They believe that all people should be ‘led by the heart’.
This is completely contradictory to the Bibleand should not surprise us living in a world that is completely contradictory of God.
Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful;
Question: What does the heart deceive?
28And even as they did not like to retain God intheirknowledge, God gave them overto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
The rejection of God first occurs in the heart, it is the heart that deceives the mindand the passage here makes clear of a dramatic change to the functioning manner of the mind naturally following the rejection of God in the heart.
Psalm 14:1 says “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God”
That is where it begins, and immediately the mind is deceived.
NOW
The Rejection of God in the Mind Deforms Our Discernment
God gave them overto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
A reprobate mind is one that no longer functions normally. It no longer has the ability to consider things with wisdom nor understanding, it is unprincipled, has no standard from which to base what is right or wrong, what is true or false.
Incredibly, Reprobate is the perfect wordthat describes the world we live in todaywhere truth is believed to no longer exist, where there is believed to be no such thing as right and wrong. We live in what is popularly called the PostModern Age.
Everything is relative. If it’s true for you, then it is true.
Alan Bloom is his monumental book ‘The Closing of the American Mind’mourns the death of truth in the classrooms of America. The late Francis Schaefer referred to True Truthand its almost complete demise in the universities. It is the extinction of the idea that any particular thing can be known for sure and it begins through indoctrination in the School System.
Francis Beckwith and Greg Koukl in their book, “Relativism, Feet firmly planted in mid air” page 23 writes;
“And we are in trouble. A security camera in Britain records to young boys calmly leading a toddler away and later bludgeoning him to death. A mother in South Carolina fastens her own two children snugly into their safety belts and then sinks the car in the river so she can restore a romantic interest with a man who doesn’t want her kids. The leader of a national Animal rights organization states that animals are the moral equivalent of humans… The America College of Emergency Physicians estimates that seventy thousand elderly Americans were abandoned by family members in one year, a practice called “granny Dumping” and the list goes on.”
This is just one small example of the state of a reprobate mind.
It is an unprincipled mind, has no basis, no standard from which to discern truth any longer.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
LAZER LEVEL, SPIRIT LEVEL.
When God is rejected in the heart, the mind no longer has a way of discerning that which is true.
As a Christian, who believes God, the Bible is our Spirit Level. We too would have no ability at all to discern what is true and what is false without it.
We believed God, and it counted for us as righteousness, saved by grace through faith, born again and now possessing eternal life, but that is just the beginning of our transformation.
and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove whatisthat good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:2
YOU TOO will NOT be able to even know if the thoughts of your own minds are true WITHOUT THIS SPIRIT LEVEL to measure it by!
The heart is deceitful, once the mind is deceived, our discernment is deformed. It can happen to Christians also!
Please, please I beg of you, please read this book each and every day. Without it, you will not be able to have the thoughts of your own mind corrected by the truth. You will have no light to shine on the path of your life, you will walk in darkness and be even more troubled than those who LIVE in darkness having eyes accustomed to it.
READ YOUR BIBLES DAILY!
The Replaced Desires Of The Heart Are Opposed To God
29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
The opposite of truth is error, the opposite of good is bad, the opposite of righteousness is unrighteousness and all that goes with it.
When the heart is turned from God it is turned to all that is opposed to God!
Romans chapters 1 to 3, you will hear me repeat, speaks of the RUIN of man. Romans 1 is the general state of the heart and nature of all mankind that has rejected God in the heart.
The first half of Romans 2 deals with the Gentile, the latter half deals with the Jew. Chapter 3 deals with the consequence of the rejection of the word of God by all. These chapters provide to us the perfect explanation of what has occurred to mankind and why.
This passage at the end of Chapter 1 speaks specifically of the world that knows not the Lord nor his commandments.
The education of man today tells them that they are nothing more than animals who have evolved to higher life forms, but I put it to you that the descriptions given to us in this chapter tells us that man degenerates into conditions that are worse than animals.
Being filledwith all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding,covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
That is the manner of all who knew God but glorified him not as God, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.
When man rejects that which is plain to the understanding, he is GIVEN UP by God untovile affections, he is GIVEN OVER by God to a reprobate mind and to do those things which are not convenient!
Paul explains this for the understanding of those who know God, showing to us how “dead in sins” the CONGREGATION of the worldis that rejects God, even how you and I were before we knew God.Each one of us had the potential to fall into this same level of depravity.
We might find ourselves somewhat taken aback that Paul speaks of a time yet future to his writing, of the state of another CONGREGATIONin a time yet future.
Turn to 2 Tim 3:1-5
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
A comparison of this passage with that in Romans 1 leaves us to consider very little distinction between them, yet strangely Paul speaks about this as being a time yet future;This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come…when shall it come? in the last days!
Yet Romans 1 tells us that it is the natural state of man now; how can this be unless he is referring to two distinct people groups?
Remember the context of his writings beloved, Paul writes to Timothy, the Pastor of the Church in Ephesus to encourage him in the Church, and to warn of the future state of the Church.
The passage in 2 Timothy 3 refers to the state of THE CHURCH in the last days.
What has turned the church away?
Without the transforming power of the word of God in our lives, we will simply become like the world again.
The only way we can be transformed is by the renewing of our minds. That passage in Romans 12 tells clearly “be not conformed to this world. There is an active element in the world that seems to call out our flesh nature to conform it, press it, into its own Godless shape.
This is what occurs to the church in the last days, and we can see it today. What is the one single thing missing from the Church today?
Not only do most of the Church not have a true bible, but those that do, particularly in the WEST, rarely read it. but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds”
How is the mind to be renewed to the truth without any knowledge of the truth?
I am going to make this as plain as I can so please take heed and listen very carefully to ensure you do not misunderstand.
If you will not set aside a good amount of time every day to read the Bible you will never grow as a Christian.
If you are happy to spend more time being entertained by the trash this world has to offer you, than in the Bible, you will NEVER know the comfort of Christ.
If you are getting what you think you know about the Bible only from sermons and you tube, and not spend an equal amount of time reading the Book of Books for yourself, you will never be able to discern the truth
Without the knowledge and comfort of that BOOK, you will eventually have one, many or all of the Characteristics of 2 Tim 3 attributed to you or you will influence others to that end.
Please brethren, please, perilous times are coming and what will it do if it catches you unawares? How will you stand? How will you find the answers to the questions you need to answer?
MEN, if you are not leading your wives in your love and knowledge of the Lord, know that you are held to account before him!
The Church will be like that described in 2 Tim 3, not too distinct from the state of the world, will you be one who adds to that number?
When we turn away from the things of the Lord, know that The Replaced Desires Of The Heart are Opposed To everything God is.
The Replaced Discernment of the Mind Is Opposed To Ourselves
32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Everyone knows right from wrong, our conscience bears witness to us. When we indulged the things in the world and justified them to ourselves, we gathered around us people with similar lusts and behaviors.
Not only did we turn ourselves to the things of the world, but we took pleasure in them that do the same.
Man has a natural tendency to spend time with people like him or herself morally rather than those holding to a higher standard, why? Generally it makes them feel good about themselves.
I was not the brightest person in School and I liked to hang out with people who liked the things I liked and who had similar standards to my own. I was not one of the bad kids but I also was not really a good kid. It was just as easy for me to lead people as it was for me to be led.
When my friends began to smoke, I rejected it. Until I was encouraged to try it. Why was I encouraged to try it? Because it made those who did smoke feel more justified doing it.
They, ‘not only did the same but had pleasure in them that did them’.
Those in the greatest depths of depravity, sexual or otherwise, desire more and more people to try the filth they have addicted themselves to, knowing it is evil, yet feeling more and more justified in it as long as many others partake and agree that it is good.
The minority of people today who suffer from a range of diverse forms of psychosis are encouraging the world to accept it as normal. The more that do, the more will become psychotic, until madness becomes the new normal!
32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
But who does it affect in the end?
The Replaced Discernment of the Mind Is Opposed To Ourselves
Consider Chapter two of Romans
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. 2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. 3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? 4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: 8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.
That which they justify in their own minds that is wrong, they justify to their own destruction.
They dig a pit for others that they themselves fall into.
They lay a snare for others, but they themselves are caught up into it.
Like Hamannwho built a gallows for Mordechai fifty cubits high in Esther chapter five, he himself was hung on by chapter seven.
Like the presidents and princeswho sought occasion against Daniel that had him committed to be fed to lions, they themselves and not Daniel met their end there, with their families. (Dan 6)
The hatred man has toward God will see him separated from God for all eternity. He will be committed to hell with the fullness of his sin and covetous lusts still intact, but never able to be fulfilled.
Those who today who “hunger and thirst after righteousness”, who the Lord says “will be filled” will be free from the temptation of sin forever, the desire for sin will no longer be a part of our existence and for ever will we be with the Lord in that wonderful freedom;
BUT, those cast into hell who preferred the sin of the flesh over righteousness of God, these will never be freed from their lusts….. but also never able to fulfill them.
Like the mythical legend of Tantalus(Where we get the word Tantalize) who was banished to an island where the cool fresh and clean waters about him fled from him every time he went down to drink of them, and when the branches of fruit that hung by his head was constantly blown out of reach each time he tried to take a bite of them, so too will the unbridled lusting desiresof the sinner, in hell for all eternity, never be fulfilled.
What they do, they will do against themselves, The Replaced Discernment of the Mind Is Opposed To Ourselves.
CLOSE
As a Christian you must understand that, though you have no risk of damnation, your life in the world will never be content without the transformation of your minds through the changed desires of your heart.
If you are born again, know that you are born again by the word of God.
Turn to 1 Peter 1:22
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren,see that yelove one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
If you are changed from death to life by the word of God, then it will be the word of God that continues to transform you into his image.
I will never stop beating this same drum, YOU MUST BE READING YOUR BIBLE EVERY DAY!
Shame on you if you are not. And I don’t care if you hate me for saying it again and again, but if you are not spending time in that book, you will NEVER BE CONTENT IN THIS WORLD and you will never grow in the hope and joy and comfort and peace of the Lordnor will you have the resource to be a help to others when it is needed.
If you are not transformed, the Lord simply leaves you to yourself, he gives you up and over to your own fleshly desires. Restraints against sin are loosened.
I can’t tell you how often I have cried to the Lord that he might take full control of my life that I do not sin against him. And yet the Bible again gave me the answer simply saying in Galatians 5:16
ThisI say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
As a father, the last thing I want to see is my children fall. My hands are always there for them, ready to bear them up lest they dash their foot against a stone. But as adults now, if they reject my love and my care, I have no choice but to let them go.
The Father does not desire that any person falls. As they walk their own weight works against them, sin, like gravity, encourages their fall, but when they reach out to the Lord he takes them by the hand and will not give them up.
But many do not want the hand of the Father, they simply want to be let go. No matter how often he reaches for them to help them stand, they reject him, and he gives them up.
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