God Gave Them Up to Uncleanness

Minister:	Rev. Ronald Van Overloop
Date:	4/8/2018 PM
Text:	Romans 1:24,25
Psalters:	13, 165, 146, 182

Man’s sin.
1. Who are the objects of God’s work in our text? Those who are already dead in sin.
  1. They are the ungodly and unrighteous “who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (18).
  2. Believing their own lies, they changed the truth of God into a lie, fastening their desires on creatures rather than the Creator.
2. Our text describes their fall into immoral sins: “uncleanness” is the condition of the mind which delights in sexual filth.
  1. The result of this uncleanness is that they “dishonor their own bodies between themselves,” i.e., homosexual actions.
  2. History records this happening at various times in the specific location of individual cities (Sodom and Gomorrah).
Sin leads to sin because “God also gave them up” (text, 26) and “over” (28).
1. Scripture uses this word for casting one into jail (Matt. 4:12; Acts 8:3) and is translated “betray” (40 times).
2. The context speaks of the activity of God’s wrath on sin (18).
  1. God’s wrath is revealed from the beginning when man held the truth in unrighteousness (18).
  2. This shows what is the essence and the consequences of sin: man falls below beasts with homosexuality.
3. While God gives man up to more sin, the cause is always “the lusts of their own hearts.”
  1. It is so powerful that they “burned” (27): an insatiable lust after the unlawful even as it destroys self.
  2. Thus God leads man to the destruction which they rightly deserve (32).
The result of this activity of God is that He is “blessed forever.”
1. Man’s dishonoring of God does not detract from His unchangeable and intrinsic blessedness.
2. Specifically God’s blessedness is evidenced in the world when He justly responds to man’s sin by punishing it.
3. That not every sinner is judged and condemned is the gospel – God’s grace works in some to will and to do His pleasure, not ours.
4. Then we say “Amen” to God’s blessedness.