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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.”
“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”
“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
Romans 1:21-27
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Every single person has a choice to make in life and the way their life will go completely hinges on the decision. This is why it is the most important and critical determination anyone will undertake.
Simply put, it’s a matter of either accepting or rejecting God, the God who has made Himself evident to everyone as we saw in our message yesterday. No one can say that God isn’t real, doesn’t exist, or hasn’t revealed Himself.
Given this, it’s easy to see how it would be absolute foolishness to not acknowledge or accept God into one’s life. And yet, millions upon millions do. They know God but they neither glorify nor give thanks to Him. Many who fall into this category see themselves as wise, at least in their own eyes. They revel in their futile thinking and allow their foolish hearts to be darkened because they refuse to receive the light of the Lord. They exchange the immortal God for the ways of the world and in Paul’s day, fashioned images of human beings, birds, animals, and reptiles. They placed more of their worship on created things instead of the Creator.
So what did God do?
Well, He didn’t force them to believe in Him, that’s for sure. Since they willingly chose to snub Him, He let them have their way and “gave them over” to “the sinful desires of their hearts”. One of the results of this was that the ungodly turned “to sexual impurity” and “the degrading of their bodies with one another” all because “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie”.
What did that sinful immorality look like?
God’s word tells us in verses 26 and 27.
“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
This is a snapshot of what we refer to as homosexuality today. The Bible, God’s holy and divine Word, makes it totally clear that this kind of sexual immortality is nothing but shameful lust, wicked behavior that totally violates intimacy within personal relationships the way God designed it. He created man and woman with the intent that they would join together as one flesh, sharing sexual relations as a consummation of their marital commitment to one another. Further, a married couple was given the privilege and blessing to procreate and produce offspring for the God who gave them the ability to do so.
This was God’s will for His people.
But as we have seen after the fall in the Garden of Eden, sin has entered into the picture and changed everything. Ever since Adam and Eve made the fateful decision to follow their own desire and eat the forbidden fruit, men and women have followed their lead and violated God’s commands and demands. The matter of sexual immortality isn’t a 21st century phenomenon. It’s obvious that people were engaging in homosexual behavior back in New Testament times, especially in Rome since this is where the letter is sent.
Women “exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones” which means they engaged in sex with one another. The scriptures tell us that “men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another, committing “shameful acts with other men”.
Neither behavior would find any favor with God but rather place the sexually immoral perpetrators in the crosshairs of God’s wrath and judgment which was “the due penalty for their error.”
Did I mention that it was foolish to reject God?
Well, sexual immortality wasn’t the only possible negative outcome for choosing to ignore God in life. Tomorrow, we’ll look at a wide variety of other resultant transgressions.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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