THEREFORE GOD GAVE THEM OVER: Dio paredoken (3SAAI) autous o theos: (Judges 10:13; 2Chr 15:2; 24:20; Ps 81:11,12; Hos 4:17,18; Mt 15:14; Acts 7:42; 14:16; 17:29,30; Eph 4:18; 2Th 2:10-12) (See also Torrey's Topic Forsaking God) (Barclay God abandoned them)

"Therefore" (1352) (dio) means  for which, wherefore, therefore and is a term of conclusion, which in the present context explains that because they gave God up and exchanged His glory for a dumb idol, God gave them up. Note the close connection between idolatry (verse 23) and immorality (verse 24).

Listen to a similar refrain from Psalm 81

10 I, the LORD, am your God, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
11 But My people did not listen to My voice; And Israel did not obey Me.
12 "So I gave them (Israel) over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices.
13 "Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!
14 "I would quickly subdue their enemies, And turn My hand against their adversaries.

Psalm 115 records the folly of idolatry. Observe the dramatic contrasts between the living God and those things that are no gods at all...

1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us,
   But to Your name give glory
   Because of Your lovingkindness,
   because of Your truth.
2 Why should the nations say,
   "Where, now, is their God?"
3 But our God is in the heavens;
   He does whatever He pleases.

4 Their idols are silver and gold,
   The work of man's hands.
5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
   They have eyes, but they cannot see;
6 They have ears, but they cannot hear;
   They have noses, but they cannot smell;
7 They have hands, but they cannot feel;
   They have feet, but they cannot walk;
   They cannot make a sound with their throat.
8 Those who make them will become like them,
   Everyone who trusts in them.

Luke records a similar pattern...

"God turned away and delivered (paradidomi) them (Israel) up to serve the host of heaven" (Acts 7:42)

"And in the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways" (Acts 14:16)

God delivered us over to the power of our own lusts to impurity so that we might became "prisoners" that had to obey our own lusts. God "abandoning" of men on one hand reflects His righteous wrath in allowing them to follow their own desires but on the other hand so that they will see what life is like without God! In that sense, there is a redemptive purpose that stands behind the wrath of God. By letting mankind go its own way, God is not only punishing them. He is also allowing them to see the emptiness of life without Him. And what an awful picture this presents.

Moule writes that...

It is a dire thought; but the inmost conscience, once awake, affirms the righteousness of the thing. From one point of view it is just the working out of a natural process, in which sin is at once exposed and punished by its proper results, without the slightest injection, so to speak, of any force beyond its own terrible gravitation towards the sinner’s misery. But from another point it is the personally allotted, and personally inflicted, retribution of Him who hates iniquity with the antagonism of infinite Personality. He has so constituted natural process that wrong gravitates to wretchedness; and He is in that process, and above it, always and forever.  (Moule, C. G. Handley: The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans)

Explaining the idea of "God gave them over" Godet writes that...

The word...does not signify that God impelled them to evil, to punish the evil which they had already committed. The holiness of God is opposed to such a sense, and to give over is not to impel. On the other hand, it is impossible to stop short at the idea of a simple permission: “God let them give themselves over to evil.” God was not purely passive in the terrible development of Gentile corruption. Wherein did His action consist? He positively withdrew His hand; He ceased to hold the boat as it was dragged by the current of the river. This is the meaning of the term used by the apostle, Acts 14:16: “He suffered the Gentiles to walk in their own ways,” by not doing for them what He never ceased to do for His own people. It is not a case of simple abstention, it is the positive withdrawal of a force. Such also is the meaning of the saying, Gen. 6:3: “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” As Meyer says: “The law of history, in virtue of which the forsaking of God is followed among men by a parallel growth of immorality, is not a purely natural order of things; the power of God is active in the execution of this law.” If it is asked how such a mode of action harmonizes with the moral perfection of God, the answer undoubtedly is, that when man has reached a certain degree of corruption, he can only be cured by the very excess of his own corruption; it is the only means left of producing what all preceding appeals and punishments failed to effect, the salutary action of repentance. So it is that at a given moment the father of the prodigal son lets him go, giving him even his share of goods. The monstrous and unnatural character of the excesses about to be described confirms this view.  (Godet, F: The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans)

Pritchard adds

"It is only when a man comes to the end of himself that he is ready to think about Jesus Christ. But when that moment of emptiness comes, when he finally faces the "God-shaped vacuum" inside, when he discovers that disobedience only leads to pain, when he reaps the bitter harvest of his own sin, then and only then has he become a candidate for the grace of God! Unfortunately, some people never figure it out in time. They die without realizing the folly of their own behavior. But others come to the end and finally, after many mistakes, they begin to look up. When they do, they find that God is there waiting for them."

Interestingly paradidomi was a judicial term used for handing over a prisoner to his sentence! When men forsake the one true God, He will abandon them (Jud 10:13; 2Ch 15:2; 24:20; Ps 81:11-12). He accomplishes this by removing His restraint and allowing their innate totally depraved sin nature to run its inevitable course of degradation & destruction. The result is that man so abandoned the truth that he became like a beast in his thinking and in his living.

"When men lose God, they always lose themselves."

It’s as if God has said,

"All right. If you want to turn away from me, I’ll let you go. I won’t try to stop you. But you’ll have to face the consequences of your own actions."

Hosea 4:17 expresses the judgmental aspects of God "giving us up," leaving us to our own sin:

"Ephraim is joined to idols; Let him alone"  

We err when we think that it is God’s mercy or kindness that allows man to continue in sin; it is actually His wrath which allows us to go on destroying ourselves with sin.

ILLUSTRATION: Dress up a pig, clean him up for the county fair, but the moment you "give him up" and let him go, he will go right back to the mud hole. As to its nature the pig loves uncleanness. Men love their sin as Jesus explained in John 3 declaring that...

"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil (their deeds speak of what they love). For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed (shown to be wrong, rebuked, corrected - they don't want to be corrected)." (John 3:19-20)

When men choose an evil manner of life, they also choose the consequences such a manner of life brings.

As A T Robertson says

"These people had already willfully deserted God Who merely left them to their own self-determination & self-destruction, part of the price of man’s moral freedom. Paul refers to this stage and state of man in Acts17:30 by “overlooked” (huperidon). The withdrawal of God’s restraint sent men deeper down. Three times Paul uses paredoken (the parsed form of paradidomi) here (v24, 26, 28), not three stages in the giving over, but a repetition of the same withdrawal. The words sound to us like clods on the coffin as God leaves men to work their own wicked will."

Notice the progression: First men reject the truth about God, then they turn away from God, then they turn to immorality. And the shocking truth is that this goes on all the time. Every baby born into this world comes in with a disposition that turns him away from the truth. Each man, each woman, the educated and the illiterate alike, all by nature suppress the truth about God. Left to our own devices, we will always turn to wickedness. That’s how you can have mass murderers who used to attend Sunday School and prostitutes who once sang in the church choir.

Vine makes a sad but true observation regarding so called "civilized men" (in contrast to the "heathen") --

"Civilization provides no remedy for, or safeguard against, the evil. The more civilized men became, the more vicious became their idolatry. (Parenthetically, the civilized Greeks & Romans had a veritable plethora of "gods") The knowledge of God is the ONLY means of leading man to purity of heart. The sanctity of the body is implied in the teaching of this verse."

Wuest:

"Since men chose to give up God and worship the creature, God could do nothing but give men into the control of the sinful things they preferred to God. In other words, God would not violate man’s will and force him to do something he did not want to do. When men persisted in following their totally depraved natures, God allowed them free rein. The natural result was immorality of the vilest kind. Alford, says of God’s act of delivering mankind over into the control of utter human depravity, “not merely permissive, but judicial, God delivered them over. As sin begets sin, and darkness of mind, deeper darkness, grace gives place to judgment, and the divine wrath hardens men, and hurries them on to more fearful degrees of depravity.” God delivered man to uncleanness."  

Vine notes that

"The same word (paradidomi) is used in reference to the death of Christ at Ro4:25 and at Romans 8:32 (see also Romans 6:17). In this passage the reference is to the divine retribution following upon the sin of exchanging God for an idol. To abandon God is to open a way for complete moral degradation. This retributive dealing is not the outcome of mere despotism on the part of God; for the acknowledgment and worship of the Creator are the means of human happiness. Atheism and polytheism tend inevitably to moral disease. Our moral nature is governed by laws which God has Himself put therein as part of our very constitution. God works in and by these laws in human experience. In acting against them man sins against God as his Creator and sins against himself as the creature. He therefore lays himself open to the divine retribution expressed in this verse. The process described is not that of mere natural law, it is designed by God and the issue is reached under His control. It must be remembered that in the solemn description given in this passage, of the consequences of idolatry, the apostle is not presenting what is necessarily an irretrievable condition, for the gospel proves to be the power of God unto salvation even from such degradation. Indeed the whole description is a dark background to the revelation of the grace of God in and through the gospel."

Ray Pritchard

"There are some messages that pastors would rather not preach. This sermon definitely falls into that category....Some years ago Pastor Walter Luthi of Berne, Switzerland, was preaching to his congregation on Romans 1:24-32. He began his message this way: "In the words that we have just read we are told the whole truth about our condition. There may well be people among us who cannot bear to hear the truth, and would like to creep quietly away out of the church. Let them do so if they wish." There is much justification for Pastor Luthi's words, for these verses by the Apostle Paul are exceedingly difficult to contemplate. There is not a ray of light among them. All is dark, somber, black as midnight, filled with the roll of thunder and the sharp, jagged flash of lightning. This passage has for its theme the judgment of God upon a world gone mad with sin. When we read it, we come face to face with "our true condition." Many of us would rather not think about that. I cannot blame those who would prefer to be somewhere else this morning. Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse called this the most terrible passage in all the Bible."

IN THE LUSTS OF THEIR HEARTS TO IMPURITY: en tais epithumiais ton kardion auton eis akatharsian:

Note "in" gives the picture of their being literally entrapped IN their lusts, virtually immersed IN them. Godet comparing the preposition "in" (en) and the subsequent preposition (eis) writes that...

The two prepositions, en and eis differ from one another as the current which bears the bark along, once it has been detached from the shore, differs from the abyss into which it is about to be precipitated. Lusts exist in the heart; God abandons (the heart) to their power, and then begins that fall which must end in the most degrading impurities.  (Godet, F: The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans)

Lusts (1939) (epithumia from the verb epithumeo = to set one's heart upon in turn from epi = upon, toward or used to intensify meaning of following word + thumos = passion) (Click in depth word study) describes an internal drive or passion directed at an object (epi = toward). It describes that inner passion which greatly desires or longs to do or have something. Although epithumia can occasionally describe a good drive, most N.T. uses describe depraved cravings and inner vile unrestrained desires emanating from our fallen Sin nature inherited from Adam. This word describes to a degree an out-of-control craving.  The result of these inner cravings is to drive men to open excesses. Compare epithumia to the even more intense craving described in the word orexis (lust) in (Romans 1:27).

Hearts (2588) (kardia) (Click for in depth word study) does not refer to the physical organ but is always used figuratively in Scripture to refer to the seat and center of human life. The heart is the center of the personality, and it controls the intellect, emotions, and will.  No outward obedience is of the slightest value unless the heart turns to God. While kardia does represent the inner person, the seat of motives and attitudes, the center of personality, in Scripture it represents much more than emotion, feelings. It also includes the thinking process and particularly the will.

Jeremiah said "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick" (Jeremiah 17:9) And thus the heart of man's problem is our unregenerate heart. The "lusts of their hearts" are those wicked desires that originate from their evil hearts or which their hearts produced.

"While we often relate heart to the emotions (e.g., “He has a broken heart”), the Bible relates it primarily to the intellect (e.g., “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders,” Matt 15:19). That’s why you must “watch over your heart with all diligence” (Proverbs 4:23). In a secondary way, however, heart relates to the will and emotions because they are influenced by the intellect. If you are committed to something, it will affect your will, which in turn will affect your emotions." (Drawing Near. Crossway Books) MacArthur adds that "In most modern cultures, the heart is thought of as the seat of emotions and feelings. But most ancients—Hebrews, Greeks, and many others—considered the heart to be the center of knowledge, understanding, thinking, and wisdom. The New Testament also uses it in that way. The heart was considered to be the seat of the mind and will, and it could be taught what the brain could never know. Emotions and feelings were associated with the intestines, or bowels." (Ephesians. Page 44. Chicago: Moody Press)

Impurity (167) (akatharsia from a = without + kathaíro = cleanse <> from katharos = pure, clean, without stain or spot) (Click for in depth word study) is a broad term referring to moral uncleanness in thought, word, and deed. It means a state of moral impurity, especially sexual sin, immorality, filthiness, state of moral impurity. The term akatharsia refers to filth or refuse and thus describes a filthiness of heart and mind that makes the person defiled. The unclean person sees dirt in everything. The word akatharsia suggests especially that it defiles its participants, making them unusable for sacred purposes. While akatharsia includes sexual sin, it comes from a wider Septuagint (LXX) usage where “unclean” could refer to anything that made a person unfit to go to the temple and appear before God.

In a medical sense Hippocrates used akatharsia to describe an infected, oozing wound with pus and crusty impurities that gather around the sore or wound. What is “impure” is filthy and repulsive, especially to God. Akatharsia was a general term often used of decaying matter, like the contents of a grave (see Mt23:27 cf Nu19:13) In short akatharsia describes any excessive behavior or lack of restraint and speaks more of an internal disposition. An immoral filthiness on the inside whereas the lawless acts of ''immorality'' are on the outside.

Paul uses akatharsia in his description of the Gentiles in his letter to the Ephesians writing that the saints were to...

"...walk (speaks of one's lifestyle or conduct) no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility (emptiness, vanity) of their mind, being darkened in their understanding (cf "futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened." in Ro 1:21), excluded (entirely alienated or estranged) from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness (porosis comes from poros = stone harder than marble and came to mean loss of all power of sensation; having become so hardened that there was no longer power to feel at all which always the terror of sin) of their heart; and they, having become callous (past feeling, unable to feel pain or grief), have given themselves over (paradidomi - same verb Paul uses of God's giving over) to sensuality (uninhibited sexual indulgence without shame and w/o concern for what others think), for the practice of every kind of impurity (akatharsia ) with greediness." (see exposition of Ephesians 4:17-19)

Akatharsia in the present context speaks of sexual immorality, which begins in the mind that rejects the Truth, then taking root in the heart and finally working itself out in the various effects that bring shame to the body (bodies dishonored). And we must not be deceived -  Impurity or uncleanness always generates more uncleanness.

What is the "danger" of being given over in the the lusts of one's heart? Jesus explained that

"out of the heart come (present tense  = continually) evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man..." (see also Ge6:5; 8:21; Pr4:23; 6:14; 22:15;Jer17:9; Mk7:21-23; Ro3:10-19; 7:18; 8:7,8; Gal5:19-21; Ep2:1-3; Titu3:2-6)

Moule writes that...

There is a dark sequence in the logic of facts, between unw