Trading the Amazing
October 15, 2023
Romans 1:24-32
1. Some Trade the Amazing
:
a. For The
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God.”
b. For
Jeremiah 10:14-15, “Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast images are a lie; there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work to be mocked. At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.”
c. For
Psalm 81:11-12, “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel did not obey me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own plans.”
Acts 7:41-42, “They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made. God turned away and gave them up to worship the stars of heaven…”
2. Some Trade The Natural for Unnatural
and
. (Vs. 26, Gen 1:27-28, Lev 18:22, 1 Cor 6:9-10)
Genesis 1:27-28a, “So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.”
Leviticus 18:22, “You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman; it is detestable.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males…will inherit God’s kingdom.”
3. Some Trade God’s Wisdom for Base Thinking Which Brings: (Vs. 28
a. General
Mark 7:20-23, “And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
Everett F. Harrison writes, “If the knowledge of his power and deity (v. 20) was sufficient to obligate men to worship God with gratitude for his benefits, the knowledge of his righteousness, innate in their very humanity, was sufficient to remind them that the price of disobedience would be death. Yet men were not deterred from their sinful ways by this realization. In fact, they were guilty of the crowning offense of applauding those who practiced wickedness in its various manifestations.”
Titus 1:15-16, “To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled. They claim to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.”
b. Internal
Ephesians 4:17-19, “Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.”
c. Societal
Matthew 18:6-7, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses. For offenses will inevitably come, but woe to that person by whom the offense comes.”
Romans 6:21-23, “So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”