Dale Partridge - Romans 1_28-32： The Tragic Ending for Every Atheist

00:00:00.000 In this episode of Real Christianity, I close out the final verses of Romans chapter one,

00:00:04.300 which as you know, has been confronting the sin of atheism. But more than that,

00:00:08.540 we've learned how God distances himself from those who reject him, leading these people

00:00:13.100 toward a tragic, dark and sinful life ending in eternal punishment. This text will help

00:00:18.960 Christians understand the wrath and justice of God. But more than that, it'll drive you 1.00

00:00:23.400 to a place of concern for the lost. So stay tuned on how Christians should respond to 1.00

00:00:27.860 these important truths. All that and more coming up right now. Welcome to Real Christianity. My

00:00:50.880 name is Dale Partridge. Today's episode is titled Romans 1, 28-32, The Tragic Ending

00:00:56.120 for every atheist. Now, as you know, this show is an audio and video ministry of relearn.org.

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00:01:21.700 there are not many Christians in the public eye committed to biblical truth, but we are. So we'd

00:01:26.440 love to have you on the journey. Now, in light of Romans 1, which is so heavily focused on sexual

00:01:31.600 immorality, I thought it was important to remind you that if you're struggling with the sin of

00:01:35.520 pornography, we have put together a short, powerful, affordable, gospel-centered program for Christians

00:01:41.380 to break free from the bondage of pornography. The program has helped already thousands of men

00:01:46.020 and women just like you, you can enroll right now at standinvictory.org. Again, that's standinvictory.org.

00:01:55.100 All right, guys, we're going to go ahead and jump in to Romans 1, 28 through 32. You're going to be

00:02:00.220 able to read it on the screen. And it says, and starting in 28, and I'm going to be reading to

00:02:05.840 you guys in the ESV. It says, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up

00:02:12.280 to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of

00:02:18.340 unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,

00:02:24.000 maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, 0.99

00:02:29.260 inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 1.00

00:02:35.560 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, 1.00

00:02:41.380 They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

00:02:46.460 All right, so today's sermon is really on the final verses of Romans chapter one.

00:02:51.100 It's the tragic and ultimate result of the cascading self-afflicted consequences of downward spiral atheism.

00:03:01.420 And in other words, really the verses are the ultimate disastrous outcome of a person who rejects God

00:03:08.620 and God actually pulling away from that individual.

00:03:12.000 These are men and women, again, who are experiencing that distancing,

00:03:15.860 that downward spiral towards self-worship and idolatry.

00:03:20.920 Now, they've been identified in the scriptures as five ways.

00:03:24.240 So I want to list those five ways because we've got to make sure

00:03:26.540 that we look at our context of today's passage

00:03:28.700 in the greater context of Romans chapter 1.

00:03:32.020 And so if you've been following along with us from Romans chapter 1 verses 18

00:03:36.320 all the way here to 32 is really this one big block having this conversation about the downward

00:03:42.060 spiral of those who have rejected God, who have turned to idolatry, who have turned to self-worship.

00:03:47.220 And those individuals are experiencing the distancing and withdrawing of God in five

00:03:54.520 specific ways. And I'm going to list those off right now. Number one, they are people who have

00:03:58.860 rejected the evidence of God clearly seen in creation. This is kind of Romans 1, 18 through

00:04:05.560 23, that portion there, they've rejected God, the evidence of God in creation. They don't see God

00:04:11.680 just in the things that are made. Number two, these are people who've exchanged the glory of

00:04:16.440 the immortal God and worshiped idols instead. Some of your translations will say they've exchanged

00:04:21.780 the truth of God for a lie. That's another mark of these individuals. Number three is these are

00:04:28.620 people who have been, as a result, given over to the lusts of their hearts to impurity so that

00:04:34.020 they would dishonor their bodies. And this is individuals, this is starting to have a judgment

00:04:38.860 of God for the rejection of him. Number four, these are people who have been given over to the

00:04:44.480 dishonorable passions of homosexuality as a way to physically manifest the perversion of their 0.97

00:04:51.280 worship and experience the fullness of their self-worship in physical relationship form. 0.77

00:04:56.980 That was last week's message on homosexuality. If you haven't taken a listen to that,

00:05:01.740 go ahead and listen to that because it'll give you context for what we're talking about today.

00:05:05.920 Number five is these are people who have been given over to a debased mind or to a depraved

00:05:12.860 mind and have become slaves of all types of wicked behaviors that lead to misery, fruitlessness,

00:05:20.920 and ultimately hell. That is where we're at in this passage and why Romans 1 is such an important

00:05:27.860 passage of scripture, it really exudes the wrath and justice of God. So we're going to start off

00:05:34.460 here in verses 28. And the passage opens with a causal clause. And I want you guys to always

00:05:42.780 catch the grammar, right? I'm teaching you guys how to catch grammar, how to be on top of your

00:05:47.220 interpretation process. It says in verse 28, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,

00:05:55.420 God gave them up to a debased mind.

00:05:58.980 Now, when it says, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God did this.

00:06:05.300 Essentially, this is a cause and effect situation.

00:06:07.480 That word since can really be replaced with the word because.

00:06:11.620 It could be saying, and because they did not see God, see fit to acknowledge God, God gave

00:06:17.020 them over.

00:06:17.400 Again, it's this cause and effect.

00:06:19.480 They didn't do this.

00:06:20.520 And as a result, this happened.

00:06:22.100 And so this is a causal clause.

00:06:23.480 we want to see that relationship in the grammar. This is the third and final divine delivery that

00:06:31.440 we've seen since verses 18 to 32. It's a constant God delivering them over to certain things or

00:06:39.040 handing them over to certain things. The first was emotional lusts and passions. The second was

00:06:45.620 to do dishonorable and vile acts with their body. The third one here is now to a debased mind. So

00:06:52.800 essentially what we're seeing here is this is a reality of the totality of God's judgment upon a

00:06:58.780 person where the wrath of God is really being played out in a person's life. He purposefully

00:07:05.740 withdraws from the life of an atheist, permitting them to really degenerate their entire being, 0.92

00:07:11.820 from their emotions to their physical bodies, and now to their mind. And so this is just, again,

00:07:16.740 representing and demonstrating the totality of God's wrath upon a person that denies the existence

00:07:23.880 of God and worships idols as a result. Second Thessalonians 2, 10 through 12 says, quote,

00:07:30.340 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth

00:07:36.720 and so be saved. Verse 11, therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that, that's a purpose

00:07:44.480 clause, so that they may believe what is false, in order that, another purpose clause or a result

00:07:50.300 clause, that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

00:07:56.820 So when a person rejects God, God does not remain neutral in this person's life.

00:08:04.340 God actually responds by sending them judgments and strong delusion. I mean, we're seeing this

00:08:10.920 again, with the emotional withdrawing for their passions to impurity, the withdrawing to the

00:08:18.400 physical debaucheries done with the body, and now to another withdraw to the mind, leading them to

00:08:25.100 all types of improper thoughts and thinking. So the next phrase, it says, now out of the result

00:08:35.860 of this really, is that God's handing them over to a debased mind that they would do what? It says

00:08:41.760 that they would do what ought not to be done. Okay, the phrase becomes a banner over the next

00:08:49.620 following four verses, identifying the things that ought not to be done. And so we're going to

00:08:56.220 read those right now. It's Romans 1, 29 through 31. You can follow along. Again, I'm in the ESV.

00:09:02.280 It says, quote, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

00:09:09.040 They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. 0.99

00:09:12.120 They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 1.00

00:09:22.660 Okay, now this is speaking to the concept and principle of occupation. 1.00

00:09:27.980 These are the attributes that are manifesting or occupying the heart and minds of these

00:09:34.180 individuals who have rejected the existence of God, God's withdrawal from their life.

00:09:39.300 And now as a result, their minds and hearts are saturated with wickedness.

00:09:44.780 And the lesson here is that humanity is always filled with something.

00:09:48.820 There is no neutral ground.

00:09:50.820 You are either consumed and ruled by light or you are either ruled and consumed by darkness.

00:09:57.000 Again, there is no moral neutral ground here.

00:10:01.320 In fact, even those who, when you're looking upon the world, perform, you know, what we

00:10:06.640 would call in the world morally righteous deeds, giving to the poor, helping a neighbor.

00:10:10.900 But if these individuals are not saved and they're doing this from a place of self-righteousness,

00:10:16.220 which they are, they're not doing it to the glory of Christ.

00:10:19.080 They're doing it to the glory of themselves.

00:10:21.600 This is why the Old Testament says, even our good works are filthy rags to God, because

00:10:25.560 if it's not done to the glory of God, it's not actually good. And we know that because Romans

00:10:30.680 14, 23 says, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. So even our good works,

00:10:36.800 if you're not saved, are actually sinful. And that's why, again, even your good works are

00:10:41.320 filthy rags to God, because if they're not done to the glory of Christ, they're done to the glory

00:10:44.200 of self. And this is vital information for us to understand, because even though somebody does

00:10:48.580 something good, if they're not saved and they're not doing it to the glory of Christ, it's not

00:10:51.880 actually good. It is a moral act, but it's not actually done from the heart of praising and

00:10:58.760 honoring and revering the Lord. This is why Jesus would often call the Pharisees whitewashed tombs 0.67

00:11:04.460 because on the outside, they look beautiful, but on the inside, they're dead and full of bones. 0.90

00:11:08.820 Or he'd call them, you know, the cup that's clean on the outside, but filthy on the inside,

00:11:13.760 because it's not just about what we do on the outside. It's about the heart in which those

00:11:18.420 things proceed from. That is vital Christian doctrine. But what Paul is saying here is that

00:11:25.060 the absence of righteousness dwelling in a person will result in a person who is indwelt with

00:11:32.500 unrighteousness. They are filled and full of unrighteousness. And then Paul goes on really to

00:11:39.480 name the descriptions of these manifestations of those unrighteous, evil, covetous,

00:11:47.820 and malice, the fullness of those things. And so he offers 12 appearances or manifestations

00:11:56.340 of these things that ought not to be done, that are driven from unrighteousness and covetousness

00:12:03.700 and malice and evil. And they are gossips. They are slanderers, haters of God. Insolent means to

00:12:11.960 be disrespectful, haughty, which is another word or an older word for arrogant, boastful, 0.70

00:12:19.180 inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. This is obviously interesting because this is speaking

00:12:26.680 to a youth inside of this audience here because we often think that this letter is just written

00:12:35.300 to the adults, but no, the scriptures often actually include children as if children were

00:12:40.780 in the listening audience of the letter to be read. And so we see this in Ephesians chapter 6.

00:12:46.680 Paul does that, talking, telling the kids to obey their parents, you know, as it's fitting in the

00:12:51.220 Lord. And we're seeing it again here. There is an assumption that children are in the congregation

00:12:57.620 of the church. And because while we're called to obey our parents while we're children, we're not

00:13:04.020 called to obey our parents when we're older. We're called to honor them, but not obey them.

00:13:08.860 And this is actually calling out those individuals that are disobedient to parents. 0.99

00:13:13.140 It continues, it says, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 0.99

00:13:18.500 So these, again, are people who are ruled by wicked emotions, wicked bodies, and wicked 1.00

00:13:23.680 minds.

00:13:24.440 I'm not going to go through and break down all of those individual characteristics because

00:13:28.560 I think we understand what those generally mean.

00:13:31.680 But these individuals are ruled by these things and they don't even know it because self-love

00:13:36.380 is blinding.

00:13:37.240 That is a true characteristic of the lost. Paul continues by saying in Romans 1.32,

00:13:44.560 he says, quote, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things

00:13:49.500 deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

00:13:55.920 So a few thoughts here that are, I think, important. First, I want you to catch, again, 0.97

00:14:00.500 the grammar here, right? This is a concessive clause. A concessive clause is whenever something

00:14:06.300 is introduced into the sentence that's shocking. Uh, for example, you, you think about, uh, Romans

00:14:11.620 where it says, um, although they were sinners, Christ died for them. It's a shocking statement.

00:14:17.960 It's like saying, uh, although they were rich, they lived on the streets. It's like, wait, what

00:14:22.340 they're rich and they live on the streets or they were, they were sinners and yet still Christ died

00:14:26.180 for them. And this is saying the same thing. It says, though they know God's righteous decree

00:14:30.700 that those who practice things, such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but give 0.89

00:14:35.660 approval to those who practice them. It's an emphatic indication of grammar. And so we're

00:14:42.960 looking at this through the lens of a right hermeneutic to go, oh, wow, Paul is recognizing

00:14:48.860 that this is a shocking thing. They know, yet they still don't do. And it's a fascinating thing.

00:14:55.540 So first, even though they've been handed over in emotions, in body, and in mind, there was still,

00:15:03.280 according to this passage, a remnant of the knowledge of righteousness remaining in them.

00:15:08.580 What a fascinating concept. God's law is written on our hearts, every human being. We know this

00:15:15.620 because again, in Romans 2, 14 through 16, it tells us, quote, for when Gentiles who do not 1.00

00:15:21.620 have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do

00:15:27.920 not have the law. That is the written law. They show that the work of the law is written on their

00:15:34.160 hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even

00:15:40.460 excuse them, end quote. So now, just we'll kind of move on from there. And this last phrase

00:15:47.660 that Paul says about doing evil, but, you know, basically not just doing evil,

00:15:54.100 They're actually approving evil, and it's written there to demonstrate the depth of

00:15:59.080 their commitment to their practice of evil.

00:16:01.440 It's showing that they don't just do these things, they actually encourage others to

00:16:05.120 do that.

00:16:05.680 That's a whole different level of commitment there.

00:16:08.600 Affirmation implies more than simply allowing some sort of evil, but actually encouraging

00:16:14.120 others to commit those same evil acts.

00:16:16.860 This is likely a jab at those who are in position in the government or those who are influential

00:16:23.260 in their local communities.

00:16:24.800 We can think about this today.

00:16:26.040 The executives at Disney are not just evil themselves,

00:16:29.680 but they actually give approval through their work

00:16:32.620 for others to do evil.

00:16:34.300 They actually encourage other people to do that.

00:16:37.180 And think about the companies

00:16:38.180 that are all out there for Pride Month

00:16:40.400 that are putting rainbow flags

00:16:43.020 and different things on their logos.

00:16:44.360 They offer approval for this wickedness.

00:16:47.980 Why?

00:16:48.280 Why are they doing that? 0.97

00:16:49.260 So that they can continue to fuel their greed 0.99

00:16:52.040 at the bottom line.

00:16:53.260 they're not there to serve God. They're there to serve their own bellies, which is, again,

00:16:57.780 something we see constantly in scripture. Essentially, people who do evil affirm evil

00:17:02.880 as a way to pacify their conscience. I want you guys to grasp that. People affirm evil who do evil

00:17:09.680 as a way to pacify their conscience. It's a way to justify what they're doing because if enough

00:17:15.640 people are doing this, then maybe what I'm doing isn't actually as evil as my conscience says it

00:17:21.820 is. And so now this is, again, the wrap up of what's happening here in Romans chapter one.

00:17:30.080 But before I move forward, I want to make sure that you're seeing a couple things. One, I want

00:17:34.480 to make sure that you're seeing that God's presence in a person's life becomes the determining factor

00:17:40.160 in their moral state. So the distance that God has placed between a person and another person,

00:17:47.100 between himself and an individual is really the determining factor of their state of holiness or

00:17:53.380 their state of light or their state of morality. So the degree of depravity is directly connected

00:17:57.900 to the distance between God and another person. And so when we look upon the world and we see

00:18:04.220 all the brokenness, the people who campaign to murder babies or to pervert gender or who partake

00:18:10.200 homosexuality or are trying to legalize pedophilia or prostitution or taking people to children's

00:18:18.120 or children's going to drag queen shows, all this stuff that's going on in the world.

00:18:23.180 We have to understand the connection between the pursuit of these behaviors and their distance

00:18:30.180 from God. There's a relationship there that we need to understand. And this is important

00:18:34.820 because in a sense, we're all sinners from birth, right? We're all sinners from birth

00:18:39.100 needing to be born again, needing the gospel to regenerate our hearts so that we can be redeemed

00:18:43.300 in right relationship with God. But this also teaches that God's closeness is varied among

00:18:49.420 humanity, right? He is close to his people, the church. We know that. Scripture talks about that

00:18:55.460 all the time. But he's distant from the lost. And so he's not equally distant from those lost people.

00:19:02.580 He's actually very distant from some people in history, as we can see if we just look down the

00:19:08.300 corridors of war or the corridors of some of the world's most evil people. But what you have to see

00:19:15.820 here also is just the justice of God. Okay, God doesn't just allow sin to go unpunished. But the

00:19:22.780 thing is, is that he will afflict sinners, not just in eternal consequences, but he will afflict

00:19:28.480 sinners even now. And so this is not just true of sinners. I would even say that he will allow

00:19:34.860 Christians to experience the, not the fullness, but in part, the consequences of a sinful lifestyle. 0.85

00:19:43.940 And he will distance himself in a degree so that we can understand how terrible it is to walk in

00:19:50.820 sin and return to our master in his ways. And so he afflicts these individuals with his absence.

00:19:58.240 He removes light from their life. He removes the conviction of the conscience. He removes the

00:20:02.540 common grace that he has laid out on the world. He removes his righteous instruction. He leaves

00:20:08.460 them to a life of utter misery, hopelessness, and pain. That's what happens to these individuals

00:20:14.380 who reject God and turn to worship. They redirect their intuition and their intuitive desire to

00:20:21.180 worship toward idolatry, toward themselves. And as a result, he backs away. So again,

00:20:27.340 when you look upon a person who fits the description of the following state that we've,

00:20:31.360 or the previous state that we've talked about, a person who you can see clearly is on a path of

00:20:36.300 this downward self-afflicting spiral of distancing themselves from God. You have to realize that

00:20:42.920 redemption can't be achieved through just a logical conversation or a religious conversation

00:20:47.900 or behavior modification or legislation. That's not going to help. We have to see that these people

00:20:53.620 don't need better information. They don't need better psychology. What they need is the only

00:20:58.200 thing that can save them and save their souls and regenerate their hearts is the gospel of Jesus

00:21:02.600 Christ. And so what I mean by all of that is that they're not unsalvageable. Nobody is unsalvageable

00:21:11.460 in that sense. We have to remember what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1.15. He says,

00:21:17.600 the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world

00:21:23.960 to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. What a posture to have. What a posture to have as the

00:21:31.620 apostle to go, Christ came into the world to save sinners, and there are some wicked people in the

00:21:38.280 world. And Paul says, I'm the greatest. I'm the greatest of them all. And so when you, like Paul,

00:21:47.000 can see that you can truly actually be just as wicked had God not come and mercifully rescued

00:21:56.640 you, when you can see that you could be just as wicked and evil and malicious and vile as anybody

00:22:04.220 else in this world, and you realize that God has brought you to life and given you a conscience

00:22:09.480 and given you the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you can start to comprehend the weight of His grace

00:22:14.740 and mercy upon your life. That is essential here. Paul is wanting us to understand that

00:22:22.160 this is a picture of the world and the lost, but as we're going to see as we turn to chapter two,

00:22:31.980 this is actually a picture of who you once were. So let's pray, and then we'll close out.

00:22:39.700 Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word.

00:22:42.220 We thank you for a reminder of what happens when we reject you.

00:22:45.860 We thank you, Father, for also the truth.

00:22:48.440 And we ask, Lord, that you would save these people that have rejected you.

00:22:53.040 Lord, that you would continue to make your enemies your friends.

00:22:56.880 And Father, that you would save these sinners from their ways.

00:23:00.360 And Lord, that you would remind us of the grace and mercy that's been extended to us

00:23:03.720 through your son, Jesus Christ.

00:23:05.740 Amen.

00:23:06.020 Amen. Well, guys, thank you for listening to this episode of Real Christianity. What a blessing it

00:23:13.080 is to preach through Romans. I hope that you guys stay with me for the entire journey. If you haven't

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00:23:32.960 follow us on social media. We're just about everywhere. We even are on TikTok at this point,

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00:24:20.740 just go to relearn.org forward slash donate. Again, that's relearn.org forward slash donate.

00:24:26.280 On that note, thank you for listening to this episode of Real Christianity. My name is Dale

00:24:30.540 Partridge and I'll see you next week.

Dale Partridge - June 14, 2022

Romans 1_28-32： The Tragic Ending for Every Atheist

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