00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Romans chapter 1. As we continue
our series through the book of Romans, we've been through the
greeting, the introduction. We spent three weeks in Romans
1, 16 to 17. And by the way, any of those
sermons that you have missed are on our website. You can find
them at ProvidenceCasagrande.com. Click on the Sermons tab, and
you can find a list there, not just of the sermons that have
been preached on Sunday morning, but things that have been taught
on Sunday evening as well. Today we are going to look at
a section that's going to go from verses 18 through 32. We're
going to look at all of this together even though we're going
to spend a few weeks in this section. So today is kind of
going to be an overview of the section and I'll detail that
for you here in just a moment. Found a quote this morning from
William Whitaker, who was a 16th century Protestant theologian.
He said the following, count all things best that give you
desire to wait upon God, as we've sung about this morning, and
account those the worst which estrange you from Christ. So
as we read of the things that we're going to see here in Romans
1, let us desire those things that draw us near to the Lord
and hate those things that would drive us away from him. In honor
of the word of the King, would you please stand? As we read
Romans chapter 1, I'm gonna read from verses 18 through verse
25. Hear the word of the Lord. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 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 that they are without
excuse. 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 exchanged the glory of the 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 worshipped
and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed
forever. Amen. You may be seated as we
pray. Heavenly Father, as we come into
this passage today, I pray that you guide us into all truth,
but especially that we may see what all people should be able
to see. There are some things that have
been stated in this section that we've read so far and even the
verses that follow. that demonstrate a general revelation. What anybody can perceive from
within ourselves and even the world around us, certain truths
that God has made clear to everyone. What are we to learn from this?
How are we to understand what the rest of the world knows about
God? Because God has made it plain to them. And what is it
that the world does not have? That we may go to them with the
message of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that they will turn
to faith in Jesus and be forgiven their sins and have everlasting
life. It is because of our ingratitude
toward God that foolish hearts would be darkened. So Lord, today
fill us with thanksgiving. Help us to be grateful and appreciative
of all that you've done for us in Christ our Savior. And it's
in his name that we pray, amen. Saw an interview recently with
a fellow by the name of Chris Langan. And it turns out that
at one point in time, Chris Langan had the highest IQ of anybody
on the planet. He joined this elite high IQ
club, and this was back in the time when IQ was actually relevant
to people. It's been since about 1990 or
so that it was decided that IQ really isn't a trustworthy test
of someone's brilliance. But at one point, Chris was thought
of as one of the smartest people on the planet. What's interesting
about Chris though is that he never made it big. He didn't
invest his intellect into some sort of business venture or proposition.
He didn't become some great philosopher publishing these great books.
No, on the contrary, Chris just became a rancher. He loved working
with animals. He loved the outdoors. And so
that's what he spent his life doing. There was even a best-selling
author that followed Chris around for a little while and wanted
to know, like, well, what does the guy who was once considered
the smartest man in the world do with his time? And why didn't
he become rich and famous, though he at one point had one of the
highest IQs that anyone has ever had? Well, in this interview
that I recently saw, the person that was interviewing him sat
down with him and said, what would you say that we should
do in the midst of these times? Like whether you could say that
times are good or times are bad. What would you say would be incumbent
upon everybody to invest their time in doing right now? And
Chris said, seek God. But he went on to say, See, every
single one of us has a soul. We're all material people, we're
just made up of cell structures and those things that make us
a part of nature, but that is gonna die. Your body's gonna
die, it's gonna waste away, and it's gonna become as nothing. If you've not united your soul
to God, well then nothing happens for you after that. You've missed
your chance, you've missed your opportunity to be united with
the divine because you squandered that in your life. So seek God
that you may unite your soul to God and essentially live forever. What's lacking in Chris's comment? There's no Christ. So as smart
as this man is, he recognizes every man's need to unite his
soul with the divine. But he doesn't realize the only
way you can do that is by believing in Jesus Christ. What did Chris
demonstrate in that advice that he would give to everybody to
say, seek God? One of the things that he demonstrated
in that council is what we might call general revelation or natural
revelation. There are things that Chris knew,
though he's not a Christian, though he doesn't know Christ,
yet by deductive reasoning, he realized we're more than just
Adams. We're more than just stuff. We're
not just flesh bags with chemical processes happening in our brains
and in our bodies, and we're governed, therefore, by those
processes. There's actually something beyond this. And whatever spiritualness
that we are made up of needs to be united with the great spiritualness,
and that is the God who's created all things and has given us all
life and breath and everything. He recognized that. through natural
revelation, but he lacked the special revelation to know that
it is Jesus Christ who unites us with the Creator, who makes
us right again with God, and indeed gives us eternal life
beyond these material bodies that, indeed, Chris was right,
are wasting away and are eventually going to die. How is it that we get beyond
our death problem? And the answer is the one who
conquered death, and that's Jesus Christ. So I hope that someday,
maybe I'll even write him a letter, but Chris will hear the message
of the gospel so that he will know the only way that we can
find a solution to exactly your proposal is to believe in Jesus. And then we will indeed be united
with our creator forever. What we see here in the section
that we've looked at today, what we've read so far this morning,
we have seen various points where Paul has pointed toward natural
revelation. Let me finish reading the passage.
I'm gonna pick up in verse 26 and go to the end, and then I'm
gonna tell you how this is gonna break down and what we're gonna
be looking at specifically this morning. In verse 26, Paul goes
on to say, for this reason, because they rejected and denied God
who has made himself known, 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 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. Verse 32, though they know God's
righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve
to die, they not only do them, but give hearty approval to those
who practice them. We have from verse 18 to 32,
five places where Paul has said, every person knows these things
about God. You've probably encountered some
agnostic that has said, well, God is so above and beyond us.
I mean, there's no way to know whether he exists or not. It's
always gonna be a mystery. You have atheists that are absolutely
certain there is no God, and they will testify, you cannot
give me any proof that there is existence of God. Well, Paul
has stated in five places here in this particular section that
there are things everybody knows about God. They have suppressed
the truth with unrighteousness, but God has revealed himself
naturally in these five ways. Number one, the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven. We had that said in verse 18.
Number two, he is both divine and eternal. That's said in verses
19 and 20. Number three, he has revealed
what is natural and what is unnatural. Everyone knows that, according
to verses 21 to 27. Number four, everyone can know,
and it has been revealed in nature, that the wages of sin is death. That's verses 28 to 32. And then
finally, number five, it has even been revealed naturally
to people that God's word is true. Now, we're gonna spend several
weeks basically looking at each one of those points. We will
go week by week looking at a few verses at a time. This message
today is doing an overview of this section, verses 18 to 32,
and we're gonna look at each one of those five points that
Paul draws out and also do some application at the end. What
do we do then with this information in knowing that God has revealed
these things to all people? But let's come back first to
verse 18 where Paul says that the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Hold on to that thought.
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 that they are without excuse." So first of
all, what is the first revelation that has been given here in this
passage. Verse 18 says that the wrath
of God has been revealed from heaven. Essentially, we know
by looking at everything that it's all in decay. It is all
coming to waste. We know that these bodies are
not going to last forever. In fact, you probably had a reminder
of that when you got out of bed this morning. Some joint creaked
or caused pain when you swung it out of bed and touched the
floor. Amen. I got bad news for you. You're going to be in these bodies
a really, really long time. Good news though is God is going
to transform it into a new body. So for those of us who believe
in Christ, we will have a change in this body that will not be
susceptible any longer to the curse that has been placed upon
creation because of man's rebellion against God. We know just by feeling it in
our bodies that things are gradually coming into decline. And the wrath of God in this
way is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. There are consequences for our
behavior. There are results that come from
the things that we do. And if you behave in an upright
and a moral way, good things will come to you. People will
praise you. You will be at peace with others.
You might even have a longer life. But if you do evil and
wicked things to other people, what's the result of that? You
might be in trouble with the law. will be penalties and consequences
because of the wickedness that you've done towards somebody
else. People won't like you as much. And it could even be that
you submit yourself and make yourself susceptible to substance
abuse or destructive behavior that would otherwise result in
a much shorter life. And so the very fact that we
have an understanding of good and bad and of positive consequences
and negative consequences reveals to us in the very things that
have been made that the wrath of God has come against all the
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. We're going to see how
this connects also with the fifth point of knowing that God's word
is true when we get to verse 32. So verse 18 and 32 kind of
have a bookend with one another on this particular section. We
read last week that in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith and for faith. As it is written,
the righteous shall live by faith. And now we have this sort of
contrast here in verse 18 that the wrath of God is revealed
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Those who know Christ
will live in uprightness and those who reject Christ will
live in a manner that will make them susceptible to the judgment
of God in the end. Because there are laws that govern
our universe, then we can know that there is ultimately a law
giver who has given those laws and who will likewise judge us
by those laws. In Psalm 1, the very way that
the Psalms themselves begin, We have the contrast between
those who do righteously and those who do unrighteously. Psalm
1 beginning in verse 1. Blessed is the man who walks
not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law
of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree that is planted
by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and
its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are
like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will
not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of
the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of
the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Now there is natural revelation
in the sense that we know that there are consequences for bad
behavior. There is special revelation in the sense that we know that
it is God who governs over all of this and he is the one who
will reward the good and will punish the evil. To know God,
to actually be in fellowship with God, to know what his word
says and be able to keep it and follow it takes the special revelation
of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ in the gospel that has been proclaimed
to us. But anybody can look at the world and see that everything
has been subjected to futility. And in this way, the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven. Has been revealed from heaven
even against nature because of the ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men that wicked men do in opposition to God, in rebellion
against God. And so, as will be said later
on in Romans chapter eight, all things have been subjected to
futility. All of the universe has been subjected to this curse,
this state of decay, this chaos that everything is in because
man sinned against God. And my friends, sin is very serious. It's the very fact that we see
that in the world and even in the universe all around us that
should scream to us how serious sin is. Because man rebelled
against God, it caused the entire universe to go into upheaval. Sin is the very reason we die. And it's a concept that we're
going to come back to again here in a moment. So first of all,
it can be known amongst natural people, naturally-minded people,
that the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. There are consequences
for our actions just as we see the world in a general state
of decay. But people choose not to see
what God has revealed because of the next statement that's
said there in verse 18, because of their unrighteousness, they
suppress the truth. They don't want to acknowledge.
that there are consequences for bad behavior. Surely you have
known somebody in your life that keeps repeating these bad habits
that are incredibly destructive, and they destroy themselves and
their lives, and they're destroying the relationships of the people
that are around them as well, a relationship they may have
with you, a relationship with their friends or with the rest
of the family, yet they continue to go back to the thing that
is destroying themselves and the people around them. Why do
they do that? The answer is there. because
they love their sin. And by their unrighteousness,
they suppress the truth, even if it means their very destruction. We've seen story after story
of movie star and rock star that take all of the fame and fortune
that they have collected and gathered and blow it all on sex,
drugs, and rock and roll. And they live incredibly short
lives as a result. Many of these musicians, strangely
enough, there seems to be this phenomenon of dying at the age
of 27. There's a number of them that
have died at exactly that age. They live young, fast, and die
young. And it's because they love their
sin that they suppress the truth to go after that which would
even destroy themselves. Verses 19 and 20 go on to say,
Now this brings us to our second one. So first of all, the wrath
of God has been revealed from heaven. But secondly, it has
also been shown to all people. And this can be naturally perceived. This can be perceived in nature.
that God is both divine and eternal. That's said in verse 20, His
invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine
nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the
world in all that has been made. Now, this verse and that statement
is often used to say that The proof of the existence
of God is in everything that is all around us. And that's
true, certainly. I mean, we should be able to
walk out the door of this church and look at the mountain across
the street and go, somebody put that there. It didn't just pop
up in there by accident. Just like this building that
we're sitting in right now, we did not, nobody in their right
mind would believe that this just grew up out of the ground
right here, that it came about by accident. Or that there was
even a tornado that blew through this area and assembled a building
in its wake. Nobody would believe such a thing. I came from Kansas,
so tornado, not many tornadoes around here, but it was all over
the place in Kansas. So the tornado in a junkyard
metaphor is one that we liked a lot. Tornado doesn't blow through
a junkyard and assemble a 747. Tornadoes destroy, they don't
create things. And it's absurd to think that
at some point in the distant past, millions and millions and
billions of years ago, that non-life spontaneously became life and
became the complexity of the cell that we're made up of now. It's an absurd conclusion. But these are the absurdities
that man would go to to explain our own existence just so we
don't have to give glory to God. So oftentimes, verse 20 is used
to say that the proof of God's existence is in all that has
been made. And we only go as far as existence. That's true.
But verse 20 says more than that. Verse 20 says that his invisible
attributes, even his eternal power and divine nature, are
clearly seen in all that has been made. So it's more than
just proof of the existence of God. Like this is creation, so
it must have a creator. But it even goes as far as declaring
that we can know, even in all that has been made around us,
invisible attributes about God, specifically His eternal power
and His divine nature. So coming back again to the understanding
that everything is in decay and everything is falling apart and
everything's gradually coming into a non-existence. We can
perceive by the fact that we live in a linear timeline with
a definite beginning and a definite end. We can perceive that there
must be something outside of time that has caused all of this. Something exists that is not
bound to the laws of time. And so, even in observing all
that has been made, we can perceive that there is an eternal power
that is beyond this. And to prove it, all you have
to do is listen to an atheist. Because you will hear in their
philosophy and their explanation of the existence of the universe,
you hear eternal concepts come into their explanations. Lawrence
Krauss, one of such atheists that has said that we live in
an infinite number of universes. So this is one universe that
we live in, but there may be any number of universes. If you've
watched Marvel movies, you've seen the multiverse. And it's
OK if we kill this character off, because we can just draw
him from another universe and bring him into ours. There are
no real stakes in this movie universe that has been created,
because no one really dies. We'll just find the guy that
exists in the other universe and bring him into ours. But
it's science fiction. It's not reality. And we know
that. We know that there's no such
thing as infinite universes, but these people who do not want
to acknowledge God, they do not want to worship God, so they
won't attribute eternality to Him. They want another explanation
for the eternal. So, we're going to say that there
are eternal universes. There's an eternal number of
universes. Or you might hear from somebody like Richard Dawkins
who says, matter is eternal. So the stuff that we're made
of has always existed, it just eventually at some point coalesced
into the stardust that we're made up of now. So you hear in
their very explanations these concepts of eternity, though
they don't want to acknowledge that God is the eternal one,
not the stuff that we're made of, not these other universes
that it's impossible to perceive of anyway, even if they did exist.
So how is it that they keep going to the eternal? Well, the book
of Ecclesiastes tells us that God has placed eternity in the
hearts of man. So that even atheists who want
to deny the existence of God can't escape the reality of eternity. because it's been placed in our
hearts. They clearly perceive that there is something eternal
outside of the realm in which we exist, but they don't want
to acknowledge that it's God who is the eternal one. So, even
His eternal power can be clearly perceived in the things that
have been made. What is the other one that's listed there? His
eternal power and the second aspect or second attribute is
His divine nature. The very fact that he's God. We are limited, finite people. We can't live beyond our bodies. We can't do more than we are
capable of. We are not all-powerful. We are not all-present. We are
not all-knowing. But the very fact that we make
such statements like that also puts into our heads the contrast
that there is a being that exists who is all-powerful. He is always
present and he is always knowing. So the fact that we know these
things about us puts into our minds an understanding that there
is a being that exists that is eternal when we are not. So we
can know his eternal power and we can even know his divine nature.
in the things that have been made. They are clearly perceived
ever since the creation of the world in the things that have
been made. And then this statement at the end of verse 20, so that
they are without excuse. No one will be able to stand
before God and say, I didn't know you existed. Yes, you did. the atheist Bertrand Russell
of the 20th century, he was asked, if God does exist, okay, hear
me out now. If God does exist and you appear
before him one day, what question are you going to ask him? And
Bertrand Russell said, why did you take such great pains to
remain so hidden? But Bertrand Russell actually
knows in his heart how foolish a question that actually is. He knows that God does exist
and more than that, that he is eternally powerful and he is
by his nature divine God when we are not. Russell knows that. But he suppresses the truth with
his unrighteousness. He would rather have his sin
than have God. And that's why he continues in
the foolishness, or continued in the foolishness. He's come
to stand before God, and I can tell you that every atheist who
stands before God doesn't say a word. There is no argument
with God. There is no, finally we get to
have this big debate. They are shut up. and tremble
before the holy, mighty creator of the universe. Verse 21 goes
on to elaborate. 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 exchanged the
glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man
and birds and animals and creeping things." Isn't it interesting
how many civilizations that exist in the world that are worshipping
something. No matter how primitive, no matter
how advanced, you will find a people who are worshipping. Herman Bavinck
said, all creatures, all human beings, by nature, recognize
the supernatural. Naturalism, like atheism, is
an invention of philosophy, but has no support in human nature. Human beings are, by their nature,
more than natural. But there's even a clamoring
for the supernatural. Millard Erickson, who is a theologian,
lives in Minnesota. He says the following, in all
cultures at all times and places, humans have believed in the existence
of a higher reality than themselves, a universal tendency toward worship
of the holy. Even in these primitive cultures,
the gods that they worship, they will regard those gods, those
entities, the demigods or whatever else, they will consider them
as holy. They are set apart. They are other than. There is
an understanding even within human nature of the existence
of a holy one. But because we are ungrateful
toward God, because man in his natural disposition doesn't give
glory to God, we become futile in our thinking and man's foolish
heart is darkened. He claims to be wise, but he
becomes a fool and exchanges the glory of the immortal God
for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and
creeping things. It's probably absurd to see somebody bow down
to an image of a snake. Is that absurd? It is absurd. You know why? Because sin makes
us do stupid things. And instead of wanting to give
glory to God and worship him, In the futility of our minds,
man debases himself by worshiping creatures rather than the Creator. So far we have an understanding
that the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven and that
he is both eternal and divine. Thirdly, it has been shown to
everybody what is natural and what is unnatural. Look at verses
24 and 25. Therefore God gave them up to
the lust 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 is blessed forever, amen. Going on, 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. There was a talk show that Kirk
Cameron was on a few years ago in which he drew a lot of heat
because the host had asked him about his thoughts regarding
gay marriage and homosexuality. And Kirk Cameron said very simply,
it's unnatural. Why is it that so many people
got mad when Cameron said that? Because he was exposing the sin
that they loved so much, but exposing it in a way that everybody
was already aware of this. Everybody knows what is natural
and what is unnatural. If we were to walk outside the
church today and we were to go out of the parking lot and there
are pigs out there in the parking lot and the pigs are standing
around having a conversation in English, what would we think
about that? That's unnatural. We would know
right away. This isn't how nature works. These are things that we write
about in children's storybooks and we put in cartoons. Nobody
actually expects to see animals talk because animals by their
nature cannot speak human languages. They don't have souls. They cannot
communicate with people. They don't love you like they
think you do, or like you think they do, right? That's the way
to put it. Your cat does not love you. You are your cat's
employee, not your cat's friend. Sorry
to crush some of you in that. There was a video I saw recently
of a man who's standing in a pond and he's got an alligator. He's
holding an alligator, a full grown alligator that can bite
his head off in a moment if that alligator wanted to. And as he's
holding the alligator, he's like, now you see me holding this gator
and you might be thinking, oh, that's so sweet. That's his pet
gator. And look at the way he nuzzles
up to his face. That gator loves him. And he
even put his cheek down and right to the nose of the gator. And
the man looks in the camera and he says, no, this alligator does
not love me. This alligator would snap my
hand off in an instant. Let me show you. and he reaches
his finger around and just grazes the side of his mouth like really
quickly. And in just as fast as he touched
the gator, that gator's mouth went wide open and snapped at
the guy's hand, but he had pulled it out of the way too quick before
the gator could get it. He said, see, see how fast that was? So
how is it that the gator is not biting off my hand? Because I
know how to handle the animal. And even though I can make it
look like he's nuzzling up to my cheek and you might think,
oh, that gator loves you. No, he's an apex predator and
he wants to eat me. I just know how to handle the
animal in a proper way. We know what is natural and we
know what is unnatural. And people pursue unnatural things
because they're wicked. When you will hear political
activists make statements about how animals are people. So you
shouldn't be eating chickens. They are every bit as much valuable,
a valued life as you are, you know, PETA and their whole thing.
I don't know if you've seen the billboard where they've got like
a bunch of animals on the billboard and it's got, you know, horses
and dogs and animals that you love on one side and on the other
side. There's cows and chickens and everything else. And the
caption to the billboard is, where do you draw the line? Somebody
took that billboard and put it online and they drew a line.
It's like right there. You can eat these and these ones
are your pets. That's where you draw the line.
But we know it's absurd whenever those animal activists will make
those statements about how this animal's life is every bit as
much valuable as yours. We know that's absurd. that there
is something about human life that is much more valuable than
the life of an animal. Naturally, we understand that.
And for a person to make a statement like an animal has more value
or equal value to a person is to suppress the truth of unrighteousness.
It's because they hate God and they love their sin and really
hate people as well. So we can know, everybody knows
The difference between what is natural and what is unnatural.
But it's because of a love for sin that a person would continue
to pursue those unnatural things. What is a fourth thing that God
has naturally revealed or has revealed in nature about himself
and about us? Number four, we see in verses
28 to 32 that the wages of sin is death. Look again at verse 28, 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. Now we have this list
of vices that happen here. We're going to focus on those
in a later sermon. Let me just focus mainly on verses
28 and 32. So they don't acknowledge God.
God gives them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to
be done. What do we have in verse 32? Though they know God's righteous
decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they
not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice
them. So people know that the wages
of sin, we can perceive and understand naturally that the wages of our
sin is death. Once again, by destructive behavior
and by the way that we treat other people, if we are evil
toward others, there are going to be consequences for that.
And the result of the evil that we do is going to eventually
be our demise. Even a people who do not acknowledge
God's law, can see that a good consequence for murder would
be to kill the person who murdered. Capital punishment. Life for
a life. Let's do that. There are civilizations
on planet Earth that are not Christian civilizations, that
don't use God's moral law or the Ten Commandments to determine
their laws, and yet they can just even by their nature recognize
if a person kills somebody, well, then he deserves to have his
life taken too. We know that by nature. Life for a life, just
scales, equal weights and measures. We can come to that conclusion
even without the law of God. And so, therefore, to shift the
balance in the scales, to go beyond justice, to do that which
is unjust, what is deserving of a person who would do injustice
in a society and in a culture. What he's deserving of is death.
He should be removed from that society because he's disrupting
everything. So we can perceive even naturally
in the things that have been made that the wages of sin, that
the consequence for evil is even death itself. And that a person
who lives their lives destructively will eventually meet that end
earlier than most. Number five, the fifth thing
that God has revealed, and we see this also in verse 32, it
is known by every person, though the truth is suppressed with
unrighteousness, that God's word is true. Every single person
can know and come to this conclusion, that God has made a righteous
decree that those who practice such evil things deserve to die.
They know God's righteous decree that those who practice such
things deserve to die. But they not only do them, they
give approval to those who practice them. And there's our bookend
verses again, because that goes right back to verse 18, that
by their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth. Though they
know this, they continue to pursue those things that will result
in death. Why? Because they love their sin.
And they suppress the truth with their unrighteousness. They know
God's righteous decree. Now this is not to say, Romans
1.32 is not to say that a person knows the Bible is God's word and therefore they ignore what
the Bible says because they love their sin and so they're not
gonna listen to the Bible. It's not saying that by nature
we know that the Bible is God's word. What it is saying is that
by nature we know that God's Word is true. So all these other
statements that have been said here about understanding the
existence of God, namely verse 20, that His eternal power and
divine nature have clearly been are clearly perceived in all
that has been made. So if everybody knows of the
existence of God, if He is divine, if He is eternal, if He sits
above everything, He is outside of the time and space in which
we live. We decay, we die, but He does not. He remains the same
yesterday, today, and forever. Then whatever He has decreed,
whatever He has said, must be true. And it governs everything
else. and they know his word is righteous. His word is right and ours is
not. They know his righteous decree
that those who practice such things deserve to die. So a person
may not be willing to acknowledge that the Bible is God's word,
but it still can be naturally perceived by even a wicked person
that God has spoken and wherever he's spoken and whatever it is
that he said, that word is true. Now, how do you get a person
to understand that it's God's Word, the Bible, that is the
Word that He has spoken and therefore is the Word that is authoritative
over every one of us and governs our lives and will be the Word
by which we will be judged whether you acknowledge it's God's Word
or not? So we've looked at these five things. Let's do some application
of that sense. We've looked at how the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven, that he is both divine and eternal.
We understand what is natural and unnatural in what has been
made. We understand that the wages of sin is death. And number
five, we understand that God has spoken and that his word
is true. So now, how do you do some application with regards
to this? Well, let me tell you one thing that you don't do.
When you go out and you evangelize to somebody who says that they
don't believe in God, don't go, yeah, you do. That's not going
to get anywhere. It's perfectly fine to make arguments
and help them to see that God really does exist. But you can
do this with confidence, knowing, according to what God's Word
says, that naturally they can perceive this. even when they
are unwilling to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God who died on the cross, who rose again from the dead,
and whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal
life. They're not even ready to acknowledge that yet, but
you can help them to see those things that are natural and those
things that are unnatural. You can help them to see that
God really does exist. R.C. Sproul, by the way, does
this incredibly well and has some great books on this, on
how you can help somebody see or prove the existence of God.
I don't have time to go into all of those arguments, but you
can find some really good arguments out there. Francis Schaeffer
used to refer to this as taking the roof off of a person. What
does that mean? Well, they built this house up
around themselves in which their ideology and their ideas live. and they're convinced that their
ideas are true. Even when they say foolish things
like, there is no such thing as truth. Is that statement true? Then there's such a thing as
truth. But they've built this house for themselves in which
their foolish, ridiculous ideologies can't exist. And Schaefer said,
you need to ask them questions or say certain things to them
to such a degree that you take the roof off of this house that
they've built. And suddenly they're looking
up and realizing there's a whole other world out there that I've
been refusing to acknowledge in the wicked ideologies that
I've propped up for myself. Voddie Bauckham is a great apologist
and he has talked about how it's good to have these conversations
and discussions with a person who wants to deny God's existence.
You can give these proofs, you can give certain truths and help
them to see that God really exists. But in their heart of hearts,
they know he exists. So don't wait around in those
waters for too long. Get to the gospel. Vodie gives
this particular illustration. You as a Christian are going
to do combat with an unbeliever and you're going to bring with
you the Word of God, the Bible, Scripture, which Hebrews describes
as being sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces through the
bone and marrow of the person to their very heart. We have
the most powerful weapon that could ever be given to us and
that's the Word of God itself. Now they're going to come with
weapons of their own, all of their philosophies and ideas,
maybe even false religions that they believe. And so you line
up with your sword and that person lines up with their sword. And
if you start quoting scripture and they say, I don't believe
in thine sword, now what do you do with it? Bodhi says, well,
you have one of two options. You can go, oh, I'm sorry, but
you don't believe in my sword and you sheathe it and now you've
disarmed yourself and made yourself susceptible to their ideology
and foolish arguments. Or you can take your sword and
you can cut them with it. Now, there are occasions in which
I've had disputes with atheists in which the atheist will say
to me, I know the Bible better than you do. So you better stop
quoting it to me. I'm like, oh, okay. So I'll continue
quoting it and just not giving the references. And he won't
even realize that's what it is that I'm saying because he doesn't
actually know the Bible as much as he says that he does. But
we need to come armed with this word. whenever we have conversations
with people and want to lead them to the saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ. Because it's only the word of
God that will bring them to saving faith. Later on, we get to Romans
10, 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
through the word of Christ. You have to share the word. And
it will be the word of God that will ultimately tear down The
foolish arguments and ideas that they have built up around themselves,
believing that they have a house made of rock and not realizing
that their house is made of straw. And it will burn up in the judgment
when God returns, if they continue in the foolish ideologies that
they are in. We understand these things about people so that we
can help them to see the truth, and they will turn from their
sin to Jesus Christ. and it is only by Christ that
they can be saved. It is not enough to believe as
Chris Langan believes, that we have a soul and God is an eternal
being and I need to seek God to try to unite my soul with
his. That's not enough. Because the only way to be united
again with God is to believe in Jesus Christ. And though the
world can naturally perceive these things about God, even
His eternal power and divine nature that are clearly perceived
in all that has been made, if we just let them remain in that
idea, they're still going to go to hell because they don't
know Jesus Christ. It is not enough for us to be
spiritual, whatever that even means. We have to believe in Jesus.
We have to know the gospel. We have to follow Christ. And
it's only when we acknowledge him and worship God through his
son that we have come into communion with the divine. An actual relationship
with God that delivers us from our sin and delivers us into
eternal life. From this passage that we've
looked at today, there are things that we can know naturally about
God. In his book on Reform Systematic
Theology, Joel Beakey said the following, that this is the universal
knowledge that is granted through general revelation. And through
these five things, there are even six more things that we
can understand regarding this. Number one, God exists and he
created all things. Number two, atheism is folly.
Number three, God has a unique nature as God. Number four, idolatry
is wicked. Number five, God holds man accountable
to his moral law. And number six, sinners are under
God's wrath and without excuse. And it's for that reason, my
friends, that we have to be out there with the gospel, sharing
it with people so that they may come to faith in Christ and believe
and live and escape the wrath of God that has been revealed
from heaven against all the unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who, by
their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. As we sing today, holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning, my song
shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. And God has brought us into fellowship
with him in that. through the person and work of
Jesus Christ. We remember the work that Christ
accomplished on the cross
Five Things Everyone Knows About God
Series Romans
| Sermon ID | 1525154506529 |
| Duration | 53:36 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.