God Gave Them Up to Vile Passions

23and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. 24Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; 25who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. 27Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. 28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, 30backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

God was angry with the ungodly and the unrighteous, who knew him and yet did evil and rejected him. When he created all things, God made his living presence plain through everything he had made; no one, then, can plead the excuse that they did not know God. Even so, people go on sinning: they worship idols and keep God at a distance.

Habakkuk says that the Lord has purer eyes than to see evil. The holy God now leaves this fallen world as it is because there are still souls to be saved; he is being patient. The sign that God has given up the fallen world is that he does not discipline people when they sin; he simply leaves them as they are. Those who do evil are not the ones he embraces in love; God is holding back for the sake of those who will come to Christ. While he gives us this chance, we must receive the gospel and turn back from the evil way. But because it rejects the light, a heart darkened by sin can only go further down the path of evil. Psalm 14:1 says that the fool says in his heart that there is no God; because he thinks so, his conduct can only grow more corrupt, and he is so abominable that even if he wanted to do good, he could not.

The evidence that God exists is overwhelmingly clear, but people with darkened hearts are afraid to come into the light. So they insist that there is no light at all, and they have made idols to take its place. Calvin said, “God keeps letting fresh drops of water fall into our hearts so that our knowledge of him may always be new.” Because God works ceaselessly so that people will know him, people cannot help but know him by instinct.

Luke 12:46-48

46then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn’t expecting him, and in an hour that he doesn’t know, and will cut him in two, and place his portion with the unfaithful. 47That servant, who knew his lord’s will, and didn’t prepare, nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes, 48but he who didn’t know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.

Those of God’s people who know his covenant and his plan and yet do not act on them will hear God’s rebuke. Because your hope is in heaven, you know well what God wants. So you must prepare yourself spiritually more than those who care nothing for salvation, live a morally upright life, and set an example. Those with no knowledge of God are not even rebuked. It is not that those without knowledge are better off. It is that they are not worth protecting, and so the Lord tells you, who know your master’s will, not to be idle. An athlete is not the same as an ordinary person. Athletes who must win a medal know well the purpose of the sport they train in. In the same way, you are different from the people of the world. You know rightly why you serve Jesus Christ, and that is why your life is different. So it must be unmistakably set apart from the world.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

9Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom.

Paul wanted to show that the world, keeping God at a distance by its very nature, cannot escape God’s judgment. Human history shows us nations that received Jesus Christ and prospered, only to be destroyed under God’s wrath through the pleasures of the flesh. Even people blessed by God through faith forget their gratitude as the years pass and slowly begin to serve idols, because the one they love has changed. When people leave God, their sense of sin disappears and only the lust of the flesh remains, so they sink into the world of evil and lose everything. Sodom and Gomorrah were judged as the result of forsaking God; had they feared God the Creator, they would never have fallen into sexual corruption. I keep repeating this because the point matters so much. In the age we live in now, a culture of pleasure has turned sex into a commodity to be bought and sold, and the holy personhood God created is being destroyed. In a world this corrupt, God’s people are those who must live lives set apart from it.

In Corinth, in Rome, and in every region where the early church was planted, it was taken for granted that a man would keep a concubine, and those who kept themselves pure were mocked. Even today, some call living together before marriage wise and even praise a quick divorce as a decisive judgment. Since sexual relations before marriage are thought ordinary, society cannot help sliding into sexual corruption, and many problems follow from it. If someone says that times have changed and all young people think this way now, we may as well say Satan has already won this world. These days, when babies lose their lives at the hands of their own parents, it shows that those parents cannot take responsibility even for their own lives. A baby born as the fruit of fleshly desire goes unprotected, lives an unhappy life, and comes to death. The parents are sent to prison for killing the child, but by then it is already too late. If families and society, as they raise children, gave them sound sex education, built responsibility in them, and taught them the good will of God, who loves life, people would not wander down evil paths. We ought to teach them the truth rightly and in this way make them able to overcome sin by the word of God and to guard their families and every life with love. But a fallen world tramples on one another’s dignity and brings ruin to body and mind. How is our modern society any different from Sodom and Gomorrah in their sexual corruption, or from the days of Noah, when people rejected God? Today’s parents fear that the internet will tear down their children’s inner world. Yet if it cannot be stopped, parents can teach how important and useful the internet is and keep up good conversations with their children; then the standard by which those children view the world will change.

Today the internet has advanced so far that anything is within easy reach and children easily lose their innocence, which makes preaching the gospel harder still. Holding on to the faith in such a world is very hard for us, so we must always train ourselves to work through every problem in life with Jesus Christ at the center. Scripture says the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom. With that in mind, I hope you will ask yourselves how many of the people alive today can inherit the Kingdom of God.

Because the apostle Paul knew how sexually loose the pagans were, he urged the church to set God at the center of its life. Just as the church had formed one community in goodness, the pagans had naturally formed a community of evil. The saints must tell good from evil. The pagans were sinning through the evils practiced in their temples: sexual immorality, adultery, and lust. The temple in Corinth had several hundred priestesses or more. They were sacred prostitutes, and their income went to the upkeep of the temple. According to the Greeks, the man who first introduced public prostitution to Athens and built its brothels was Solon. With the money the priestesses earned from prostitution, he built a temple to Aphrodite [Venus], the goddess of love. That they saw nothing wrong in building a temple with such income tells us how far they had fallen. The wicked, filthy deeds of these idol worshipers show by contrast what a fine virtue it is for Christians to keep themselves pure.

These days we hear news that parents who beat their adopted baby to death were churchgoers, and that a pastor sexually assaulted a member of the congregation. Can such people really be called God’s people? It is said that of the first fifteen Roman emperors, fourteen were homosexual. An emperor had the power to keep a thousand wives and concubines, as Solomon did, yet they indulged in unnatural sexual acts and even committed the sin of lying with animals. Demosthenes, the renowned statesman and orator of ancient Athens, said that courtesans are needed for pleasure, mistresses for the desires of the body, and a wife — a faithful one — for bearing children. When they lost all fear of God and fell into corruption, their sexual license did not stay between men and women; they sought out their own sex for pleasure. God’s will is for a man and a woman to marry, share a married life together, bear children, and multiply, yet even women pursued sexual pleasure with women. Such homosexuality exists only for the pleasure of the flesh; it therefore goes against the natural order God established. Here is what Paul says about this in Scripture.

Romans 1:24

24Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves;

Romans 1:26

26For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.

In Rome, it is said, homosexuality spread like a fashion from the nobility all the way down to the slaves. As for the wrath God poured out on them, Romans 1:28 says that because they refused to have God in their knowledge and committed these wicked deeds as a result, God gave them up to a reprobate mind. God gave them up to their corruption and made them do those things which are not fitting. In other words, the work of the Holy Spirit, who helps people repent and turn back, was absent from them. You must understand how terrible a punishment it is when God does not discipline people so that they recognize their sin and turn back, but simply leaves them to it. Today nations seem to compete with one another in granting homosexual couples marriage certificates and the benefits that ordinary married couples enjoy. In many countries, church general assemblies are passing measures that allow homosexuals to be ordained as pastors. If you do not know the word, you will stand by as the world drifts on, and even the church could fill up with homosexuals. With same-sex dating and marriage now so common, even you may think it is simply the way things are going, but that is standing by, and it is sin. Perhaps before long it will be hard even to preach a sermon like this one; it may break the law, and a preacher could be fined or sent to prison. Why can the world not overcome evil when those who live by the natural order are far more numerous? Because people have no interest at all in life after death and go along with a world that seeks only present pleasure, they feel no shame in sinning. The greater reason is that God has left them as they are; they are not restored.

In Noah’s day the population was over six billion, yet people would not board the ark, and only eight were saved. Did Noah and his three sons really build such a huge ark by themselves? There must have been people helping them. Then why did those people not get on? Noah threw the door of the ark wide open, but those who had left God went on marrying and giving in marriage, and they would have mocked Noah instead. Though Noah knew the destruction of the world was coming, he could not bring them onto the ark, because they loved the world. Having chosen a world as black as night, they were not afraid. The world is sexually loose because, though people indulged in pleasure and worshiped idols, God did not discipline them at once. When Jesus said he had come not to judge the world but to save it, he meant that the world is already a place under judgment, but that he came to give it another chance at salvation. Those who have received this word of the gospel have been given that chance.

Rather than judging people the instant they sin and so making them turn back, God gives no spirit of repentance to those who roll about in a world like a mud pit, and so he does not save them. His children he makes turn back through hardship and the rod, but the wicked have no God in their hearts, so sin piles upon sin until they fall into death. Take those who did not board the ark: God did not cause them to die; he simply left them to their own decision. God had already said that it would rain for forty days. From God’s point of view, then, the world had already been judged by the flood. That the rain had not yet fallen did not mean the world had escaped judgment. And since Jesus has clearly said that he will come again, only by boarding the ark that is Jesus Christ can we live. If people still will not believe, the responsibility is wholly their own.

Paul set forth homosexuality as evidence of human ungodliness and unrighteousness because it brings disorder into every area of life. Even so, God is patient, waiting for more people to come to Christ. Scripture says that God stores up wrath against those who stubbornly refuse to repent, in order to bring judgment on them. It follows that to remain in sin without being disciplined is no blessing.

1 Thessalonians 5:3

3For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape.

A pregnant woman knows she is pregnant. She knows the baby is growing, and she knows that when the time comes it will be born. In the same way, those who sin know that they must turn from the place of sin, and they know that one day that sin will push them into the valley of destruction. When people sense that they are doing wrong, they say things like, “Am I going to get it from God for this?” They know better than anyone that they are sinning. God says he has given people what can be known of him, and the very thought of being scolded by someone shows that that person’s conscience knows God. Whenever the desire to sin comes over you, resist it hard. To do that, you must know Christ through the word. God knew we could not overcome Satan, because Satan has power far beyond anything we can imagine. So he has given you the presence of the Holy Spirit. He did this so that, by relying on the Holy Spirit, you can have all the strength you need to resist Satan’s temptation. People know that Christ will return, and yet they think that if they have wealth and power, life in this world is peaceful and secure. But as birth pains come on a pregnant woman without warning, destruction comes suddenly, so let us be ready for his return.

2 Corinthians 5:17

17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

When someone receives the gospel wholeheartedly, they are born again. Yet Satan keeps making them doubt that they have become children of God in Christ. Satan works harder than God’s people do, and they cannot stand against him on their own, so they must call on the Holy Spirit, who dwells with them, for help. In other words, we must yield ourselves completely within God’s grace and mercy and become true saints who die with Jesus Christ and live with Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:29-32

29being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, 30backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

Because those who have left God are given no chance to repent, they have no way to leave the place of sin. The evil deeds of those who refuse to keep God in mind may well be regarded as the very punishment they receive from God. A wicked person can do all these things without a qualm, but in the end every one of them is a sin worthy of death. By doing them they are storing up sin for themselves, and for that they will suffer eternal punishment.

Without God at the center of our lives, we do evil. Someone who speaks harshly will surely commit sins that come with violence, because God is not at the center of their heart. Those who cannot control their temper, and those who seek revenge, stop only when they have taken the other person’s life; so from the outset we need to train ourselves to govern our feelings by the word if we are not to sin. Wicked sin brings a host of other deeds along with it, so let us always be on guard. If someone told you they curse a lot and get violent now and then, but that they are full of love and very generous, could you trust their words? Our words, our deeds, and our lives must be one. I am not talking about the kind of goodness the world approves. Even someone who lives a decent life, if they refuse to keep God in their heart, is in the end a slave of Satan, and their spirit, having refused the light of Christ, will remain shut up in darkness. To put it simply, among those who did not board the ark there must have been some kind-hearted people too. That is why we must know God’s law to tell good from evil.

Romans 1:32

32who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

When people leave God, they are left without justice and take on a wicked, base nature, so they do not see themselves heading down the road to death. Even when they know their deeds ultimately deserve death, they are not content to sin alone; they draw others in. They lure others into the den of sin, do evil together, and delight in watching the once innocent fall and sin. Is it really because human beings are weak that they sin? Not at all, for once we make a decision of faith, the Holy Spirit helps us use the power of God as if it were our own. We call this a miracle, because we experience God helping us do what human strength cannot. So the best way to stay faithful is to try living by the word, since only Jesus Christ can make us new people.

Friends, do not judge yourselves by the world; learn to see yourselves as people born again by the truth and made faithful saints. Then, even if Satan points to your sins and accuses you, God will embrace you, for you have repented and been born again. Even so, to be honest, because we still live in the flesh, we cannot escape Satan’s temptations. But God gives you new grace every day so that you may be filled, keeps you from the rough road, and helps you so that the evil one and evil spirits cannot attack you. There is no need to be afraid.

Look at the world and at people, and you are bound to fall. But look at Jesus Christ, and you will see how worthless the world is. So may you keep far from sins worthy of death, keep your eyes on Jesus Christ alone, and live out a splendid life as one of his saints.