Humanity's Fall and Hope in Christ's Redemption

The passage that I’ve just read to you is one of the most grim passages that we find anywhere in sacred Scripture. And yet for reasons I find somewhat strange when people look at the first chapter of Romans say tend to regard these verses that I read tonight almost as a postscript to the main body of the text and move over these verses rather quickly and somewhat superficially. [00:04:13]

And we are told that the fundamental sin of fallen humanity is to refuse to honor God as God nor to be grateful. And then Paul went on to talk about this dreadful exchange, this swapping that we do as fallen creatures, that we trade the glory of Almighty God, the sweetness of his excellence, and exchange that truth for a lie that we prefer. [00:06:30]

And three times we read here in Romans 1 about God’s giving human beings over to their vile passions, to the lust of the flesh, to their reprobate minds. And we have to pause and look at this because, 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 for ever. [00:08:23]

There is a time, as the Old Testament repeatedly reports particularly in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, that God stops being gracious that 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. [00:10:09]

Now, let me just talk a little bit about how people who experience in biblical history a sense of being abandoned by God and what it does to them in provoking the most horrific darkness in their souls. I think of Job for example in the Old Testament, who was not fully and finally abandoned by God at all. [00:12:00]

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. [00:15:53]

To be excommunicated from the body of Christ is... the only thing worse than that is to be sent to hell in the final judgment. To be cut off from the body of Christ in this world is the worst thing that could happen to you in this world. And yet there’s only one sin for which a person is ever excommunicated, cut off from the body of Christ and the means of grace, and that sin is what? Impenitence. [00:16:47]

Now here’s a thought that maybe you haven’t thought of too often, but one you need to be cognizant of, and that is that sometimes, in fact many times, if not most times, our sin that we commit is a punishment for sin. Let me say again. Most of the time when we sin, we are working out God’s punishment for our sin. [00:20:49]

But notice the second thing, that when he introduces the sin of homosexual behavior, he first mentions it with respect to females, rather than males. I find that somewhat interesting, and I have to ask upfront why do you suppose the apostle does it, when he says, even the women become involved in this sort of thing. [00:23:53]

And 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 desserts. 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 seat belts, because this is just one sin that Paul describes here. [00:28:59]

And 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 desserts. 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 seat belts, because this is just one sin that Paul describes here. [00:28:59]

And 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 desserts. 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 seat belts, because this is just one sin that Paul describes here. [00:28:59]

And 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 desserts. 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 seat belts, because this is just one sin that Paul describes here. [00:28:59]