There is an unseen line that you really don't want to cross. "God gave them up!' You don't want to be in that situation - please decide early to do it God's way instead of your own.

Romans one sounds like Paul is talking about our day huh. See Rom. 1:28  "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or consider Him worth knowing as their Creator, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do things which are improper and repulsive," amp

There is an unseen line. God sees it.  

(I honestly feel pity inside cuz it's so tragic! A depraved mind means the mind doesn't function even near right. That's when a kind of insanity prevails over the person. We've been seein' more and more of this lately, which is demonstrated clearly in the fact that many leaders of Nations could give a flip about protecting their own citizens, and we're not allowed to say a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That there is insanity; that is a depraved mind. The abortions continue on men are competing against women and we can't seem to keep them out of their restrooms. Man, this society will be totally fine with you if you choose 45 personal pronouns, or say that any rock or stick on the ground is a God worth worshipping. They'll even think that's vogue and cool. But if you say the Bible is authoritative and Jesus is deity -- God the Fathers only way in for you and me, there's immediate mocking, scoffing, or heated opposition).

...verse 16 "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.

17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.

20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

21Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.

25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.

27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.

29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.

30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.

31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.

32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too."

THE CROSS AT CALVARY IS PROOF OF BOTH THE IMMENSE LOVE OF GOD FOR PEOPLE OF EVERY BACKGROUND, AND OF THE PROFOUND WICKEDNESS OF SIN.

The Apostle Paul could have been describing the moral fog of our own generation when he wrote these sobering words in Epistle to the Romans 1:28:

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or consider Him worth knowing as their Creator, God gave them over to a depraved mind…” (AMP)

A depraved mind is not merely a misguided mind—it is a mind that no longer functions rightly because it has deliberately rejected the truth of God. The tragedy of sin is not only that it corrupts behavior; it distorts perception. When humanity suppresses truth long enough, confusion begins to masquerade as wisdom. Darkness starts calling itself enlightenment.

Paul’s words are painfully relevant today. We live in a culture that often celebrates moral rebellion while scorning biblical truth. Society may applaud endless self-expression, endorse spiritual confusion, and tolerate almost any ideology or lifestyle imaginable—but when someone lovingly declares that Jesus Christ is Lord, that truth is objective, that God created mankind male and female, or that the Bible carries divine authority, ridicule and hostility often follow.

Yet none of this should surprise believers. Scripture warned us this would happen.

In Epistle to the Romans 1:18–32, Paul carefully traces humanity’s downward spiral away from God. It is not merely a political problem, educational problem, or social problem. At its root, it is a worship problem.

Humanity did not begin in ignorance and slowly evolve upward into wisdom. According to Scripture, mankind began with clear revelation from God through creation and conscience:

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen…” (Romans 1:20)

The heavens preach daily. The complexity of life testifies to divine intelligence. Conscience whispers that right and wrong are real. Every sunrise, every star-filled sky, every human soul bears witness to a Creator.

But fallen humanity suppresses that truth.

First comes indifference toward God. Then ingratitude. Then vain reasoning. Finally, moral collapse.

Paul says:

“Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful…” (Romans 1:21)

That verse explains more about modern culture than countless sociological studies.

When gratitude toward God disappears, people do not become spiritually neutral; they become spiritually disoriented. A vacuum is created, and idols rush in to fill the empty throne of the heart. Humanity will always worship something—if not the Creator, then creation itself: pleasure, politics, sexuality, power, identity, money, celebrities, technology, or self.

As the Scottish preacher Thomas Chalmers famously observed:

“The heart is not so constituted as to have all its love extinguished by a mere process of extraction.”

People do not stop worshiping; they merely change objects of worship.

Paul describes this exchange with piercing clarity:

“They exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” (Romans 1:25)

That is the essence of sin: replacing God with self.

And when truth is persistently rejected, judgment eventually comes—not only in eternity, but even within history itself. Three chilling times in Romans 1 we read the phrase: “God gave them over.”

God gave them over to impurity.

God gave them over to dishonorable passions.

God gave them over to a depraved mind.

Divine judgment is sometimes God letting to pray people have exactly what they want .. it's sometimes him allowing people to pursue the very rebellion they insist upon.

The late A. W. Tozer wrote:

“The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.”

And Billy Graham warned:

“When we come to the end of ourselves, we come to the beginning of God.”

The frightening reality is that a society can become so intoxicated with sin that it not only practices evil, but celebrates it, markets it, legislates it, and pressures others to affirm it. Paul closes Romans 1 by saying people eventually “approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:32). Evil no longer hides in shame; it demands applause.

Yet the darkest backdrop makes the Gospel shine brightest.

Right before Paul describes humanity’s collapse, he triumphantly declares:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16)

That is the great hope of Christianity. The Gospel is not weak advice for self-improvement; it is the supernatural power of God to rescue sinners from slavery to sin.

The same chapter that exposes humanity’s ruin also announces heaven’s remedy.

Jesus Christ—the eternal Son of God—entered human history, died for sinners, and rose again in power. Paul emphasizes both Christ’s humanity and deity: He was descended from David according to the flesh, yet declared to be the Son of God with power through the resurrection.

The Gospel is not man reaching up to God through religion. It is God reaching down to man through grace.

Salvation does not come through moral reform, political activism, intellectual achievement, or religious ritual. It comes through faith in Christ alone.

“The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

This was the blazing truth that ignited the Reformation and transformed countless lives.

Charles Spurgeon once said:

“Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”

That is especially needed today, because modern culture often packages rebellion as compassion and confusion as progress.

Still, Christians must speak truth with tears, not arrogance. Paul’s words should not make believers smug; they should make us grieved, prayerful, and evangelistic. Apart from the grace of God, every one of us would still be enslaved to sin and spiritual blindness.

The Gospel humbles us before it exalts us.

Even in a morally collapsing culture, believers are called to stand firm without shame. Rome in Paul’s day was filled with sexual immorality, idolatry, political corruption, violence, and moral confusion—yet the Gospel spread like wildfire there. The light of Christ shines brightest in dark places.

According to research from , biblical literacy and church engagement have declined significantly in many Western nations over recent decades, especially among younger generations. Yet history repeatedly shows that spiritual awakenings often arise during seasons of deep cultural decline.

God has not lost control. HE'S STILL ON THE THRONE! HASN'T FALLEN OFF, and won't ever.

The answer to a depraved culture is not panic, bitterness, or retreat. It is bold truth wrapped in Christlike love. It is the church living distinctly holy lives. It is Christians refusing both compromise and cruelty. It is believers proclaiming Christ crucified and risen again.

As John Stott wisely said:

“We must never separate what God has joined together—Christian conviction and Christian compassion.”

And as the beloved hymn declares:

“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

The world changes. Moral trends rise and fall. Nations shake. Philosophies collapse. But the Word of God remains unshaken.

The same Gospel that transformed pagan Rome still transforms hearts today.There is...

Still mercy for the repentant.

Still cleansing for the guilty.

Still freedom for the bound.

Still hope for the broken.

Still power in the cross.

And there is 

Still only one Savior, only one way into God's holy Heaven -- through Jesus Christ. KnowGod.org

You don't want to be in that situation so decide early. 

God gave them up! This described above is the revelation of the wrath of God (v. 18). The sins listed here are too vile to define or discuss, yet they are practiced today around the world with the approval of society. People know that sin will be judged, yet they take pleasure in it anyway. Were it not for the Gospel of Christ, we would be in this slavery to sin ourselves. “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15).

What's good about pride and sinful rebellion against God's word? Nothing!

"All who fear the LORD will hate evil. Therefore I hate PRIDE and arrogance, corruption, and perverse speech." Prov. 8:13

"They wear pride like a jeweled necklace
and clothe themselves with cruelty." Ps. 73:6 knowGod.org