Our Hideous Exchange

Discribe our Bibles. Describe our Bibles in turn to Romans Chapter one. Romans

Chapter one, we're gonna get in verses eighteen through thirty two. That's eighteen

through the end of the chapter. We're passing out bibles right now, So

if you need a Bible, you'll need a Bible with you as we work

through this passage, So raise your hand if you don't have one with you

right now. And also if you need a bulletin, there's going to be

sermon notes on the back of that, so that's going to be super helpful

too, So raise your hand for a Bible or a bulletin. And while

we're getting all sorted there, I am going to issue a warning regarding this

message. Two warnings. Actually one warning is this, this is a message

for mature audiences. We're gonna be talking about all all manner of sexual perversion

this morning. And if that's not a parenting conversation that you're ready to have

with say you're six year old, like we weren't actually ready for that,

that's coming. But if if that's not what you're ready to talk about in

your parenting, then this would be a good time to check them into kids

ministry for the rest of our worship service. Just warning you. Sorry that

that warning is coming a little late, but you still have time. Just

run on down the hall. The second warning is that it's long. It's

long. I did my best to streamline things, but at the end of

the day, we just ended up like dropping a song this morning because it's

long, and that's just what it is. And so I appreciate that encouragement

wherever it came from. Over in that direction, you're my favorite. Now.

So Romans Chapter one Versus eighteen through thirty two, and I'm just going

to ask our sister to come on up here and read our sermon text for

us, and then we're just going to jump right on in. And by

the way, if you think of something that I could have cut, don't

tell me. Our sermon text this morning is Roman's one eighteen through thirty two.

For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness

of men who by their unrighteousness suppressed the truth. For what can be known

about God is clean to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have

been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, and the things that

have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God,

they did not honor him as God or give things to him. But

they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming

to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of their immortal God

for images resembling mortal man, and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore,

God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to

the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God

for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,

who was blessed forever a men. For this reason, God gave them up

to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to

nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed

with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in

themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit

to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what

ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness,

evil, covetousness, malice. They're full of envy, murder, strife,

deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent,

haughty, boastful, inventors of disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless,

heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such

things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to

those who practice them. This is God's word. Thanks be to God.

I want you to imagine that you're you're married, and in this scenario,

you're everything that a spouse should be. You are devoted and loving and kind

and giving. But your husband or your wife rejects your devotion, and instead

of desiring your devotion, they give themselves instead to drugs and alcohol. And

they're gone for days at a time, and they walk through your door essentially

just to eat out of your refrigerator, collapse into your bed, stuff their

pockets full of your money, and put on enough cologne or perfumed to go

back out and party instead. Of embracing your affections and your love, their

love is given to other boyfriends and girlfriends again out for days at a time.

You can weep and seethe as you track their phone moving from hook up

to hook up again, only coming back through your door two change outfits,

cash back up, and be back out. And eventually what you would do

is you would be broken hearted, and you would be angry, and rightfully

so you wouldn't just be sad. You'd be ticked, and you'd be right

to be ticked. This is all messed up. It's not the way it

should be. And you would lock the door and change the locks, and

eventually you would say, I love you and I want you home, but

I want you home for real if your devotion is to partying and your affection

is for others, and the only thing that I can do is give you

up to that, I hope you hit rock bottom hop because I really do

want you home, but only for real. Right you would be rightfully angry.

Last time we were in Romans, I said that this time we would

talk about the wrath of God, something that people often want to hear explain

from the Bible. And so here is what Romans one says about the wrath

of God, the anger of God. Here's the argument boiled down. It

goes like this, because of our hideous exchange, our rejection of God and

his ways, our betrayal of him in so many ways, God gives us

up, hands us over to our progressive distortion. That's it. That's it.

Actually, that's eighteen through thirty two. That's eighteen through the end of

the chapter. But we're going to get to this part this morning because this

is where the letter is headed, right. The chapter ends right there,

but the letter goes on and so we're going to explain this also. But

God offers his own exchange, right, So let's let's jump into it.

We're gonna walk through this argument segment by segment like this, starting here.

Because of our hideous exchange. What do I mean by that? What does

the Bible mean by that? Let's look at it. Verse eighteen starts this

way for the wrath of God. Again, this is one of the New

Testament's main text on God's anger. The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

So this is. This is central to the expression of human sinfulness. Truth

suppression. Truth suppression. God God has put on display his power and nature

in creation, through its majesty and through its intricacy. And what we see

is that tells us about who God is. We take and push down.

We don't want another. God has put on display through our conscience, our

basic moral guidance system right and wrong. And what we say when we when

we see see that or sense that is we push it down. We say,

I don't really want another. And the fundamental action that marks the sinful

human heart is that we pushed down the truth in order to embrace the lies

we love. It's our hideous exchange. How does it work Verse nineteen and

twenty. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God

has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal

power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the

world in the things that have been made so they are without excuse. God

is saying this, I have shown you in creation enough of who I am

for you to have a core response to me. He's not saying that this

is his full expression of all that he has to communicate. That's not at

all. He's just saying, creation is a full enough display of My power

for mankind. Every single one of us to show our true colors in response,

and every single one of us, our true colors look like this.

God, I'm just not that into you. Nobody has an excuse. He

has shown you enough of who he is for you to show who you are

and who we are are. Those who love the hideous exchange trading the Creator

for the creation. We love it. Loving to trade the truth for a

lie, we love it. Look at verse twenty one and following he says,

for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or

give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their

foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and

they exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds

and animals and creeping things. Mankind, individually and as a culture, doesn't

really want God. Honoring him is foreign, giving thanks to him is an

afterthought at best. Then, one of the examples that Paul holds out of

this kind of foolish is idol worship. And I'm sure he has Isaiah forty

four in mind. Right, as Isaiah says, this doesn't make any sense,

Like why would you chop down a tree, cook with half of this

block of wood and with the other half of the block of wood carbon idol,

and bound down to it as if it can do anything for you.

You just burned up half of it. Don't you have enough sense to say

this is a lie? It doesn't make any sense. And when we trade

God it makes no sense. But it's an exchange our hearts love to make

right. And this is not just about like typical pagan idol worship, right,

like Paul's using that as an example, but he's talking about something much

more universal. Look at verse twenty five, because they exchange the truth about

God for a lie and worshiped and serve the creature rather than the Creator.

Like I can't, I can't really think of something that's more obviously true about

us. We both individually and as a society, we worship and serve the

creation, the creature, right, we worship and serve the human body.

I mean, just spend a little bit of time on TikTok, right,

just just spend a little bit of time researching the porn industry or the fitness

and diet industry for that matter. We worship and serve food. I mean,

I don't want to step on any toes, and I like cheese cake

factory too, But like, don't you get the impression when you walk in

there, like this is a temple. This is a temple to sugar,

fat, and salt. Even do the same thing at the mall. We

worship and serve material things. You're just walking to them all with the lenses

of perceiving what is being worshiped by this society and realize this is a temple.

And we take our treasured stuff home. And then we end up having

to rent a little shrines called storage facilities, storage units where we go and

put our treasure in there to be I don't know, treasured, certainly not

taken back out. You can light a match, you'd never miss it.

And instead of rightfully enjoying creation, Right, there's a right way to do

that, right that it should roll upward into thanks and honor and love and

praise to God, who is our highest enjoyment. But instead of that,

we make this exchange and we say, forget God, forget his ways,

forget his honor, forget his glory, forget his order. I want what

I want according to my order. I've decided what's glorious, and it's not

really him, it's these things. Now, do you see it in yourself?

That's the key question for right now. Do you see it in yourself?

Do you see it in you? And do you see it in society?

Because if you're blind to it, that's a symptom that the disease has

quite advanced. There are only two paths from this, continuance and repentance.

And if you don't see it, if you're blind to this exchange, then

continuance is the only option. And here's the scary part. In his broken

hearted love and anger, God will let you have continuance. He will let

you go your own way. It goes like this. Because of our hideous

exchange, God gives us up verse twenty four. Therefore, God gave them

up in the lusts of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of

their bodies among themselves, because they exchange the truth about God for a lie.

I mean, this is one of the ways that Scripture talks about God's

anger, right, it's not always like calamity and hell fire or even just

about a last day. When Romans talks about here is giving us up,

which is like what's gonna stop the slide? Scary. And the first example

that Paul uses is the dishonoring of our bodies. He's talking about sexual sin,

which is which is a prime example, because we're talking about taking the

image of God in which we were created and distorting that image and distorting the

sexuality that has been given to us, which has been meant to be an

expression of love and union and covenant and actually an expression of God's love for

his people, and instead it's dragged down into the mud and deformed into an

expression of selfishness, an expression of using other people, even expression of abusing

people. It's just such a clear expression of our exchange worshiping and serving the

creature, first having the lie and loving the lie, and then being given

up to the lie, and our twisting becomes even more obvious. In the

Apostle's next example, he says in verse twenty six, for this reason,

God gave them up again two dishonorable passions for their women exchange natural relations for

those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations

with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts

with men and receiving in themselves the Doe penalty for their error. So paul

Is is making his point now with homosexuality, probably because it's the best illustration

of what is unnat troll in the sexual sphere. In other words, in

exchanging the truth about God to worship and serve the creature, we turn God's

order upside down, and as God hands us over to that exchange, we

keep turning things upside down, even so much as to trade natural sexual relationships

with the opposite sex to unnatural sexual relationships with the same sex. And the

penalty which is fitting for this continued twisting is even more twisting and perversion in

ourselves and in society. It's like taking a towel and twisting it so far

that it begins to twist in on itself. So let's talk about homosexuality,

because the text raises it here, and because it's such a hot issue for

our time. I won't elaborate much, but I want to point out four

things. Number One, homosexuality is sin. That's clear in this passage,

and it's clear in every passage that the Bible talks about it. And because

the Bible is clear about it, we need to be clear about it.

Hand. We need to be clear about it because there are there are other

people who want to make the Bible say that homosexuality isn't sin, and they're

willing to do all kinds of Bible origami to try to make the Bible say

something it doesn't say. But the Bible is actually clear, and we should

be Two Number two is this homosexuality in this passage is just a heightened example

of sexual center, just a heightened example of sexual sin. All sexual sin

is an exchange of the truth of God for a life. All sin is

an exchange of the truth of God for a life. And although homosexuality sort

of demonstrates that sort of plain on its face, like that is upside down,

it's just as true in any other kind of sexual sin. And you

could take a straight person who's who's looking at pornography, a pornographic image or

video, and of that God would say, this is abhorrent to me,

this is abhorrent to me. She is not meant for that, And you

are not meant for this, and all that's taking place, both in this

film and in the watching of it is abhorrent to me. And God says

this is the truth. This is abhorrent, And the lie we say is

no, that's a turn on, it's a lie. Right number three,

You need to understand this. Paul means to level the field. Paul means

to level the field. Here's what I mean. Paul is specifically using these

examples of pagan idol worship and homosexuality in order that those who are self righteous

would get started saying, yeah, that's right, that's wrong. And once

he's got our finger wagon good. This is where he's taking us. Next

verse chapter two, Verse one. Therefore, you have no excuse, oh

man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another,

you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

That's where Paul is going. If you find yourself saying yeah, that's right,

because that's wrong, Paul has you exactly where he wants you. He

wants you to know you are exactly the same. You have made the same

exchange. And for forever, forever, people have been taking sin and dividing

sin into two categories, unrespectable and respectable. The Bible doesn't do that.

The Bible takes sin and divides it into two categories, unrepentant and repentant.

That's it leads me to number four. We are called to be a welcoming

community of repentant sinners. We are called to be a welcoming community of repentant

sinners. That's who we are. The community of faith is nothing but repentant

sinners, and all repentant sinners should be welcomed in the community of faith.

Look at First Corinthians, verse six. Sorry, First Corinthians, Chapter six,

Versus nine through eleven. I'll read it for you, Paul says this,

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherent the Kingdom of

God. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters,

nor are adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the

greeting, nor drunkards, nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were

sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and

by the spirit of God. In other words, it's absolutely normal for the

community of faith to be made up of sinners who are repenting from all kinds

of sexual sinner. It's that's just first century Christianity. Such were some of

you that I was listening to or sorry Butterfield's testimony last night and tearing up

as she was talking about her conversion and how as a lesbian she was was

lovingly embraced by those who would teach her the gospel and call her to repentance,

and she did. But here's the thing, as she said, conversion

is instantaneous, but it's also messy, and and those those patterns and those

those ways of thinking, and the things that sin does to our body and

our communities and our and our in our minds. It doesn't just change overnight.

God then grows us out of it. So even though conversion is instantaneous,

it's also messy, and it's more obviously messy when our sin patterns are

more obvious. And we're called in all of that, we're called to be

a welcoming community of repentant sinners because there are people and such were some of

you and such maybe some of you sitting here this morning that are in the

fearful place of being given up to their own ways. That process is actually

right now, right now, being documented ferociously by psychologists who are studying pornographic

progression, and psychologists who who don't know God's word are nevertheless saying, young

people are being exposed to pornography, and they are moving along in the progression

of the graphic nature and the disturbing images that are needed for stimulation. It's

just it's just going like that. And there are algorithms that know exactly how

to set the drag, and there are there are men who it's an epidemic.

Actually, porn induced erectile dysfunction is an epidemic, and it's not slowing

down. In other words, there are there are men, and there I'm

sure there are some here this morning. My heart breaks. My heart breaks

from most of the conversations I've had about pieed have been after worship services,

so given up that only the most graphic and artificial is now attractive to their

bodies, and the loving and the gentle and the natural and the covenantal is

not. It's a fearful thing for God to say, do you really want

to trade me for your own ways, because I'm going to give you to

your own ways. And also culturally, I mean culturally that the headlong,

heartbreaking sexual insanity that is the transgender ideology have shocked many people. It shouldn't

shock anyone familiar with romans. One just shouldn't. This is old. It's

not new, it's old. But the I'll say, the religious conviction that

sex and gender are separate things, and that gender is a fluid element that

is utterly determined by our own ideations. Right. This is this is a

conviction held by the ideology that's that that is the next twist in the tower,

right, and it's what it's causing is the castration of young boys and

the hormonal sterilization of young girls and the distortions of their bodies. It is,

it is a it is a demonic display. And there are a lot

of people who are shocked by this, people who aren't even ready to consider

that God is the only way out. They're just panicked by the slide from

you know, the shift from moral slide to moral free fall. And they're

like, we gotta get out of this is anity. And here's the thing,

I'm not certain that we can if God has given us up, then

his rescue will be his prerogative. It won't be a self rescue. And

the question for those who would say, like, let's skip the God stuff

and just bid ourselves back to sanity, the question would be, what if

being enamored with ourselves and what we can do and what we think is how

we got here? What if the only way out is by the hand of

a power greater than ourselves, would you humble yourself and pray? Because apart

from his rescue, it only gets worse. And here's what I mean.

Because of our hideous exchange. God gives us up to our progressive distortion,

right, like, how will we think up a way to fix our own

insanity? Insanity if our mind is just as debased, how's that going to

work? And and it is verse twenty eight. And since they did not

see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to

do what ought not to be done. In other words, they thought God

unfit to keep in mind. So God gave them up to an unfit mind.

So you have this progressive and pervasive giving up you love the creature instead

of me, I will give you to your loves. You don't want to

keep me in mind, I will give you to your mind without me.

And here's what it looks like Verse twenty nine following. They were filled with

all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of

envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers,

haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil,

disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. And at the

heart of everything in this list is an exchange of how we would think with

God in mind, with God the center of our thinking, how we would

think. It's been exchanged for the way we think with God out of mind,

right like covetousness, covetousness with God in mind, with God in mind.

I am grateful for his blessings, and I recognize his wisdom in giving

me what he's given me and giving you what he's given you, and he

is wise to do so. And I am grateful for his blessings and his

wisdom. But if, but if God is irrelevant, then I just want

what I want. I just want what I want, And the way I

even know what I want is usually what you have disobedient to parents. Right

with God in mind, I recognize God has designed authority in my life,

and by his common grace he's putting He's put love in the heart of parents

for their children to some degree. But if it's forget God, then it's

forget God's design. I hate authority. I don't want anybody to tell me

what to do in the family already place else. This is the unfitness of

mind that progresses when we don't see fit to keep God in mind. And

here's how the apostle concludes, though they know God's righteous decree that those who

practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give

approval to those who practice them. In other words, the conscience has a

sense of God's condemnation that we get more and more expert at pushing that down,

and despite whatever God or conscience says, we get to the place of

saying to ourselves and to others to keep going, keep on twisting. Well,

how do we respond to this diagnosis of the Holy Spirit? I think

in part the response is to wake up right. It's it's like it's like

being in a car where the gas pedal is like stuck to the floorboard and

everybody's asleep, and just like going further into the distortion of all things that

God has designed about our bodies and our minds, and our community and our

relationships. And it calls for this kind of prayer, like open my eyes.

But waking up is only part of what's needed. In a car full

of sleeping passengers, to be awake while you're going over a cliff just means

that you're the only one appropriately terrified. So it calls for a double prayer,

open my eyes and rescue me from myself. What's truly needed is rescue,

and this is God's plan of rescue. He offers his own exchange,

this good news. It is you see where the scriptures begin, this whole

discussion back up in verse sixteen, right, just bounce all the way back

kind of to the middle of the chapter. Verse sixteen says this for it,

the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

Right. In other words, this whole disaster of a situation our exchange and

God giving us up to progressive distortion. God offers a rescue to this and

it is an exchange of its own kind. That in Christ, you can

exchange the distortion that you've made of your body and your ways and your life,

and you can exchange that for the image of the immortal God in Jesus

Christ, and that can be restored to you in full in God's eyes,

And as you live, become more and more like Jesus, more and more

like the image of God perfected in Christ. You can exchange your disobedience and

your dishonor for Christ's obedience. And not only can you have Christ's obedience for

yourself and the eyes of God. Then God, to his Holy Spirit,

will work in you the greater and greater steps of obedience to be like him.

You can exchange your unrighteous truth suppression. I don't want to know,

I don't really want to know what God thinks about this. You can exchange

that for Christ's righteous truth embodiment. He is the truth, and you can

come to love the truth, and you can come to walk in the truth.

So the author of Christ is this, How would you like to trade

what you've done and the way you've handled God for what I've done in my

faithfulness? How would you like that credited to you? How would you like

to trade what you deserve to be given up for what I deserve to be

taken in? And if you would just open your eyelids a sliver, you

would take that exchange. Don't be fooled into thinking that you're you're too far

gone, that your sexual sin is too entrenched, that your your lifestyle is

to to to poured in concrete, that your your selfish habits are just too

much like That's just the way I am. If you're awake enough to see

this offer for what it is, you're awake enough to ask for it.

And don't be fooled into thinking you're not far enough gone, that your sins

are respectable enough, or that you know what you're doing, or that you

you just want your sin to go just for a little bit more, just

just just as your distortion progresses, you might never be awake enough again to

ask for this right. So how do you take it? How do you

take this exchange? That's actually what so much of this letter is all about.

The trade is made by faith. It's literally a free gift. It

means trading your life, but it will cost you nothing for the opportunity to

do so. By faith, this exchange is something given to you. It

can't earn it. And your cry of faith maybe a simple prayer. There's

no magic words. It's an expression of the heart. But let me be

clear, we're talking about trading your life for the life of God. We're

talking about trading your ways for the ways of God, trading your loves for

the things that God loves. Right, there have been many people who have

said, God, rescue me from the consequences of going my own way and

stayed in bed with their ways right, just saved the phone number of their

old ways in their phone, just in case they wanted to hook up.

That's not what faith looks like. You're looking to be faithful to God now,

But a prayer faith might sound like this. God, I know I'm

a sinner. I know I've run out on you so much. I know

that I have traded your ways for my own ways. But I am trusting

Christ. I am trusting that his work is what the Bible says it is,

which is a way to come home. And I want to come home.

You said that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,

and I'm calling and I tell you based on the authority of God's Word

that in Christ, God has made a way for you to come home.

He wants you home, but he wants you home for real.