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Every time I sin, beloved, I challenge and defy God's right to reign over his creation. God's right to impose obligations to me as a creature made in his image. Who am I to tell God that He has no right to restrain my behavior?
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Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, the human race has declared independence from God. And because of that, God's wrath is set against sinful man. Today on Renewing youg Mind, RC Sproul begins a brief series focusing on the early chapters of Romans. And as we'll see, the Gospel must begin with bad news, very bad news.
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We turn our attention again to Paul's letter to the Church at Rome and begin at chapter one, verse 22, and read to the end of the chapter. Professing 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 creeping 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 worshiped 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 for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust 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 those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud boasters, inventors of evil things disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. Ladies and gentlemen, this is dreadful, dreadful stuff. Because when God judges people according to the standard of his righteousness, he has declared that he will not strive with mankind forever. There is a time, as the Old Testament repeatedly reports, particularly in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, that God stops being gracious to people and he gives them over to their sin, the worst thing that can ever happen to A sinner is to be allowed to go on sinning without any divine restraints placed upon him. Again, at the end of the New Testament, in the Book of Revelation, when the description of the Last Judgment is set forth to us, we hear that God will say on that day of judgment, for those who are wicked, let them be wicked still. He's giving them over to what they want. He's abandoning them to their own sinful impulses. He's removing his restraints and said, if you want to sin, go ahead and sin. This is what we call in theology judicial abandonment. When in God's dispensing of his just judgment, he abandons the impenitent sinner forever. Can you imagine being exposed to the unbridled assault of Satan with no protection from God, to be placed in that kind of vulnerable position? The worst expression of exposure to that kind of satanic seduction came to our Savior in the Judean wilderness, where after 40 days of solitude and of hunger, he was for a season abandoned and exposed to the hostility of Satan. And yet our Lord withstood everything that Satan could throw at him. And after the 40 days, and Satan left him for a season, the Scriptures tell us that the angels came and and ministered to Christ. And then when Christ began his public ministry, called his disciples to himself. And they came to him on one occasion and said, lord, teach us how to pray. He gave them the model prayer of the Lord's Prayer. And in the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, he said, when you pray, say this. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. That's a bad translation, by the way, because it's a parallelism. And the word for evil there is in the masculine, not in the neuter gender. And the proper translation would be lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And what Jesus is saying, pray that you may never be placed in the arena where you are tested, where you are not protected from Satan. Jesus is saying, pray that the Father will never give you over to sin. Because the worst thing that could happen to any person in this world is to experience judicial abandonment so that we become slaves to the very things that we want to do. Now, again, Paul is not satisfied to speak here in generalities, but he gives a detailed description of how those sinful passions are manifest in concrete human behavior. Let's look at verse 26 for this reason. That is, for exchanging the truth of God for a lie. God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, Also the men leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due here Paul is saying is that when men and women engage in this kind of behavior that there are necessary, divinely appointed consequences. There's a price to be paid when we go this far to defy the law of God that He's established, they received in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. What God is saying here is that when people so act against his law and the law of nature that he visits upon them their just deserts, he gives them what is their due. Now, if you're sitting here thinking about, oh, those terrible homosexuals, am I glad I'm not one of them, Fasten your seatbelts, because this is just one sin that Paul describes here. And if you can make it through the whole list without feeling any pangs of conscience, you're a psychopath. So let's go beyond this. And Paul says, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, a debased mind, a mind that does not focus attention on whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are just. But a debased mind is a mind where the thoughts are filled with impurities, with the desires of the flesh, with lust, with jealousy, with hatred against people, with a mind that is in love with the lie and flees from the truth. Because your basic nature as a fallen human being. My basic nature as a fallen human being is I don't want to receive the knowledge of God in the first place. And when it does penetrate into my mind, the last thing I want to do is keep it there. I don't want to retain it. And so God again uses judicial abandonment in if you don't want me in your thoughts, if you want a mind fixed on debauchery, you can have it. I'm giving you over to the mind of the reprobate who has no time for the things of God in his thinking. If you have a desire to learn the things of God, then something has happened to plant that desire in your heart. Because at one time in your life you had the mind of a reprobate and you didn't want a knowledge of God to be kept in your head. Because they didn't want to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Is that an understatement being filled with all unrighteousness. Now notice this. It's people who he says are filled with unrighteousness. That's how he describes us in our natural condition. Again, not merely mildly affected by error or bad habits or mistakes, but filled saturated with unrighteousness. Would you describe yourself that way? That in your natural condition you're saturated with unrighteousness? Well, again, unrighteousness is a general term and he wants to get more specific here. So he begins to elaborate the kind of unrighteousness that fills us as fallen creatures. First of all, sexual immorality. Elsewhere the apostle writes to the church, let not fornication ever once be named among you as befitting saints. I say, wordy, aren't you a little old fashioned? Haven't you lived through the 60s? Haven't you? Aren't you know you were on the other side of the sexual revolution? And so we have parents giving their daughters, Christian parents giving their daughters birth control pills. And what's the message you're giving there? That sexual immorality is okay, but this is right at the top of the list to describe the degree of our corruption. Sex is a beautiful thing, divine creation given to God's people. But he gives a context for it and he's jealous that it be reserved for that context. And he goes on. Wickedness, still general covetousness. Covetousness is the sign of a person who doesn't want God in his thinking. As I've said to you on Sunday morning, when you covet somebody else's property or prestige or job, you are saying God is not just in giving that person that benefit and not giving it to me. See, God's not in your thinking. The minute you're envious and jealous and covetous of another person, you've banished God from your mind. The reason why God takes sin so seriously is not because he's a bully or because he's a killjoy and he doesn't want his creatures to have any fun. But God knows how destructive sin is to this world, to your relationships, to your friends, to your family, to your marriages. And God has a better idea for what humans are to experience. And his ultimate plan of redemption will banish sin from his world altogether. Covetousness, maliciousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, liars, evil mindedness. They are whisperers. They whisper their plans because they can't speak out loud. Because even in a fallen world, their plans are so evil that the world will reject them. So we Whisper that you hear. Backbiters. Anybody ever bite you in the back? Anybody ever talk about you behind your back? Anybody ever slander you? Why shouldn't they? Think of how many people you've bitten in their back. How many people you've slandered. How many people you've talked about behind their back and said things that weren't very nice. You see, this is not a problem for pagans only. This is our humanity. We are given to this sort of behavior. Look at the next one. Haters of God. Who will admit to that, that they actually hate God. Violent, proud boasters. Here's one. Inventors of evil things. As if there weren't enough temptations and sins to arouse our vile passions, we like to think up new ways to sin. Disobedient to parents. Young people, listen to that. When you're disobedient to your parents, you're revealing that this is your natural condition. Undiscerning. Now notice all these negative terms. Undiscerning. Untrustworthy. Unloving. Unforgiving. Unmerciful. Now, you know the scary part about this list? It's only partial. It's merely representative of our corruption. That should be enough to stop every mouth, to convict every conscience. Because surely there's something in that list that you recognize as a part of your own experience. And if you want to have an interesting experiment, go home and write down this list. And then tomorrow morning, open up your newspaper and see how many of these things are featured prominently in the news of the day as we continue to find ways to destroy each other as people. But the worst indictment in the entire chapter is not found in this list of heinous crimes against God. But in the conclusion of the chapter where Paul says, who that is these people who practice all of these things, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death. Listen to what he says. That we as fallen human beings, not only do we do these things, but we know if we've never read the Bible, if we've never read the Old Testament, and we'll see this later on, probably next week, God willing. But God has planted in the mind of every creature made in his image a conscience that can discern the difference between good and evil. A person whose normal behavior is the abnormality of sin knows that those who do these things are worthy of death. Young people, when you disobey your parents, do you really think that God would be just in taking your life for doing that? I do. Because God commands you to honor Your parents. And if you dishonor your parents, you don't just dishonor your parents. You disobey God. God commands me not to covet. And if I covet, I am worthy of execution because I've committed an act of cosmic treason. Every time I sin, beloved, I challenge and defy God's right to reign over his creation. God's right to impose obligations to me. And as a creature made in his image, who am I to tell God that he has no right to restrain my behavior? But you see, we've declared our independence. And because we declared our independence, God has abandoned us by nature to judicial abandonment. And we thought that was God's setting us free. But we still know the sinfulness of sin. It gets worse. Not only do those who do such things and practice things know the righteous judgment of God, that they deserve death for it. But not only do they do it, but listen to this. But they also approve of those who practice these things. There's honor among thieves, folks. Misery loves company. If I have a guilty conscience rather than repenting, if I can entice you to join me in my sin and get enough people to join me in my sin, we can get rid of the taboos. We can then have a whole new ethic. If you don't think that this is really describing how human beings. I challenge you to watch television for the next three months and listen to the rhetoric going on about that person who's been nominated to be the next Supreme Court justice. Listen to the people. Listen to television. The other night, there was this lady there for one of the organizations favoring abortion. This justice is going to take away our right to. For our own reproduction, our right to kill our offspring, our right to be involved sexually and not be concerned about the consequences. We demand our rights. We'll get the law to ensure that we have the right to. To sin when and where we please. The very word right has been redefined in our culture to mean that everybody has a right to do what they want to do with impunity. God doesn't give you that kind of right. But when we act against him in defiance, we marshal all of the support we can get in the culture to lessen our guilt and gain allies in our revolt against heaven. That's the word of God about our estate. And again, thanks be to God. Romans doesn't end at the end of chapter one. The gospel's coming. The good news is coming. And people who don't care about the good news perhaps will care if they digest the bad news first and realize what it is that our Savior has done, what he has saved us from, what he has saved us for, and what he has saved us unto. To be conformed to his image, to love the things that he loves and to hate the things that he hates.
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Amen. You know, we really can't understand and fully appreciate what Christ did on the cross until we understand that we are sinners, justly deserving God's wrath. I'm glad you've joined us for this Sunday edition of Renewing youg Mind. And we have just begun a brief series with R.C. sproul in Romans, chapters one and two. If you would like to study all of Romans, I would encourage you to request Dr. Sproul's expositional commentary on Paul's letter. It's yours when you give a donation@renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight. Your support fuels the reach of this daily program, and you'll be serving as a theological lifeline to so many. So thank you. There's only one way to escape the righteous judgment of God. Discover how next Sunday here on Renewing youg Mind.
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Sam.