Peter Barnes | Romans 1:24-25, 28-32
SERMON NOTES
ABANDONED TO WICKEDNESS
(Romans 1:24-25, 28-32)
– some textual variants but there are something like 21 vices listed in verses 29-31. Paul is not saying that all Gentiles did all these things all the time, but this is where idolatry heads.
1. God can withdraw His common grace.
– 1:24, 26, 28; ‘God gives them over’
– see Rom.9:29; Gen.15:16; 20:11; read the book of Judges
2. Corrupt theology leads to corrupt morals.
– we suppress the truth (1:18) which leads to corrupt theology (1:21), corrupt worship (1:22-23), and corrupt morals (1:24-32)
– vice lists in Mark 7:21-22; Gal.5:19-21
– ‘without natural affection’ (1:31, KJV; ‘heartless’ in NIV); people become unnaturally selfish, coarse, and violent
– infanticide is common in idolatrous cultures.
3. It is sin to approve of sin.
– 1:32; Prov.2:14
– Calvin: ‘A man who feels shame may still be healed; but when such a lack of shame has been acquired through the practice of sin, that vice and not virtue, pleases us and has our approval, there is no more any hope of amendment.’