REPROBATE MIND PT4

4 [L For] Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. The Scriptures give us •patience [endurance] and encouragement so that we can have hope. Romans 15:4 (EXB)
11 The things that happened to those people are examples. They were written down to •teach [instruct; warn] us •who live in the final days of this age [L for whom the end/climax/culmination of the ages has come]. 1 Corinthians 10:11 (EXB)

It is important to understand that the God of the Bible is not just our creator and maker, but our Father. He introduced Himself as such and Jesus in teaching His followers how to pray, addressed God as a Father. If you are a father or are blessed to have a good father, you will not struggle to understand who God is as a father.
No father will give instruction and expect his children to go against the instruction so that he will punish them; fathers do not set rules as a trap for their children to fall into them and be injured. Instead fathers expect their children to keep rules and this is not different from God’s expectation of us. He sets the rules to be obeyed and not to be violated.
All through the scripture are examples for us to follow and also experiences were recorded for us to learn from and avoid making certain errors or mistakes. It is only fools that learn only from their own experiences, the wise learn from examples or the experiences of others.
The things written are written for our example; the experience of Sodom was written for the learning of our generation so we could avoid their mistakes and errors and then punishment meted to them. But what then was the offense of the people of Sodom? 2 Peter 2:6 -

And God also •destroyed [condemned] the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them until they were ashes [Gen. 19; Jude 7]. He made those cities an example •of what will happen to [or for future generations of] •those who are against God [L the ungodly; Jude 7].

The people did evil and became an evil city and what was the evil of Sodom? Jude 1:7 -

Also remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah [C destroyed by God for their evil; Gen. 19; 2 Pet. 2:6] and the other towns around them. In the same way they were full of sexual sin and people who •desired sexual relations that God does not allow [pursued sexual perversion; L departed after different flesh]. They suffer the punishment of eternal fire, as an •example [warning] for all to see.

Their evil was that they were involved in sexual sin and sexual relations that God does not allow. Romans 1:24-28 has it on record that they earned themselves a reprobate (debased, deprived, corrupted) mind by this very act.
A relationship that God does not allow, what can that be? – Genesis 19: 4-5

4 Before •bedtime [L they lay down], men both young and old and from every part of Sodom surrounded Lot’s house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the two men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can •have sexual relations with [L know] them”.

And God till today has not allowed sexual orientation towards same sex which was the Sodom’s act that God said is evil.
We must be careful in approving what God said is evil, what God said is evil must remain so else we are heading for a great disaster for His standard has not changed and will never changes. Same punishment awaits both the people that involve in the act and those that approve those engaging in the act – Romans 1:32 32

They know God’s •law says [righteous decree; just requirement] that those who live like this should die. But they themselves not only continue to do these evil things, they •applaud [approve of; encourage] others who do them.

Our responsibility is to help these people recover from such an abnormality and not to approve and explain their abnormal behavior.