We'll begin at verse 16 and read through the end of the chapter. The Apostle Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifested in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. May God add the blessing to the reading of his word. Let's pray. Oh, Father, again, we are needy. We need your spirit to open our hearts to understand your word. And we lift up, Lord, our hearts today. We trust that you will fill them with the truths of your word. Remind us of who you are and guide us as we look at some thoughts from this passage of scripture. Help us to remember who we are, where we came from, and by the grace of God, where we will go. So, Father, encourage our hearts as we are your people waiting to see the coming of Christ and to be able to rejoice together for eternity. And we pray these things in your name. Amen. I just want to share some thoughts with you from this passage of scripture this morning. And I've entitled the sermon, The Trade. The Trade. When I was a little boy in Brazil, As a missionary growing up, of course, we went to all kinds of different schools. Every time our parents moved, we had to go to a different school. But there was one missionary school that had several missionary kids going to it. And we would always take our lunch, eat lunch together. But there was one missionary boy, a friend of mine, he was just, I think, one grade ahead of me or maybe two grades ahead of me. I always look up to him. a wonderful soccer player, everybody loved this boy. One thing that I had that he didn't was every day when he came to school, his mother stopped at a burger place and bought him a store-bought hamburger to bring for lunch. My mother always made us sandwiches to bring to school. He hardly ever had a homemade sandwich. So every time we sat down to eat lunch, he begged me to trade with him. And so I got a store-bought hamburger, which I rarely ever got. And he got a homemade sandwich. We thought that was a pretty good trade. And so just about every day, he'd come and say, what you got, what you got? Well, I knew what he had. And so we traded sandwiches. And that was a mutual trade, beneficial for both. The trade I want to talk to you about this morning is different than that. This is what Romans 1 25 tells us is that mankind took the glory of God and exchanged it for a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator. So I want us to, we're going to just kind of unpack this passage this morning and we'll get toward, uh, the context of the wrath of God toward the end of the sermon. But I just want us to start, and there's three points that I want to make here, if you take notes and you want to keep track. We're going to first look at the revelation of God, and then we're going to look at the rebellion of man, and then we're going to look at the result. And so, if we start in verse 18, it says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Now, I'm not dismissing the wrath of God, because that's the whole context of the verse, but I just want us to take those three words, God is revealed, and then from heaven. God is revealed. God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, when he created us, he created us for a purpose, and that was to bring glory to himself. Mankind, his only purpose in the world is to bring glory to his creator. So God is revealed from heaven to us. He's revealed to us specifically in his word, but he also tells us here that God is manifested in his creation. And so God is revealed from heaven. Everything we need to know about God can be found in his word and in creation. In fact, it says in verse 19, because what may be known of God is manifested unto them. And if you want, you can substitute them for us because Paul is writing generically to all of us in the sense that the word of God is alive and powerful and speaking to our hearts today. But he's speaking, and the whole point of the book of Romans is to show that not only are Jews not right before God, but Gentiles are not either. And so God is revealed from heaven. God is manifested unto them. In fact, he goes on to say for in verse 24, since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen. Now that's almost, you know, how can something invisible be seen? Well, God is an infinite God, His attributes are invisible, holiness, righteousness, mercy, just, but they are seen and God reveals Himself to us in things that are made. And so it says, because what may be known of God is manifested in us, for God has shown it to us. And verse 24, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, how? By being understood by the things that are made. I don't know if you tend to do this or not, but every day we ought to get up and look around us, not only know what God wants for us from his revealed word, but to be able to look around and say, I see God in this creation. I see God in that. Let me give you an illustration. How many of you know what a termite is? You have termites at your house? You ever had to deal with termites? They love to eat wood. That's their whole life. Termites do nothing but eat wood. And they will destroy the foundation of a house if you don't treat them. But here's something interesting about a termite. Did you know a termite cannot digest wood? Why in the world does he eat it if he can't digest it? If you just had a termite with nothing else and he chomped down on a pile of wood, he would die because he can't digest wood. Why in the world would a termite spend his life eating wood if he can't digest it? Well, it's very interesting. In a termite's stomach, God put little microbes. Those microbes are able to break down the enzymes in the wood and turn them into food that is profitable for the termite. It's called a symbiotic relationship. A termite chomps on the wood, he swallows it, but he has these microbes in his stomach and those microbes have to go to work to break down all of that wood into something that is profitable for them and for the termite. And the termite can just go on ad infinitum eating wood because these microbes exist in his stomach that break down the wood. Now, that's interesting to me. But let me ask you this, if evolution happened, and it took millions and millions of years for termites to actually come around, which came first, the termites or the microbes in their stomach? And the answer is they both had to come along at the exact same time, right? Which means that somebody, some great designer had to create not only the termite that eats the wood, but he had to put the enzymes and the microbes in his stomach so that he could survive when he began to chomp down on wood. It's impossible for these things to have happened on their own. So somebody had to create them. So again, the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Let me give you another example. How many of you know what a Pileated woodpecker is? You ever seen these big woodpeckers fly around, they grab ahold of the side of the tree and they go pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. They start quacking the tree with their beak. Well their beak is about yay long. Now once he pounds a hole in a tree because he's got really good hearing and he hears the bugs in the tree maybe they're termites even he's looking for. That'd be nice when he gets to eat the termites and the microbes. But he pounds this hole in the tree He hears these bugs crawling around in there. Now he's got a hole that's deep enough for him to stick his beak in, but his beak doesn't grab the bugs. He's got a tongue that comes out and goes in the hole and gets the bugs and brings them back to his mouth so he can eat. Now it's only logical, no, that if his beak is this long, in order for him to stick his tongue out, it has to be longer than his beak. Well, a pileated woodpecker has a tongue that's twice as long as his beak. Now, just picture with me. Here's a woodpecker on the side of a tree with this beak this long, but a tongue this long. Where is that tongue? Is it hanging outside of his mouth while he's trying to pound on the tree? No. You know what God did? If you take the skin off of the head of a peliated woodpecker, you will find a groove in his skull that goes from his nostril up around under the skin and back around this way. And while he's banging his head on the tree, he takes his long tongue and he sticks it up his nose in that groove in his skull all the way around. And it sort of just, peeks out his nose like that. So it's hidden under his scalp, against his skull, so that it's perfectly safe while he's banging his head against the tree. Now, here's another interesting fact about a peeled woodpecker. He's, a lot of times he's banging on something round. And if you've ever tried to hit something round, most of the time, unless you hit it dead on, it's gonna go off to one side or the other. Did you know that a Pileated Woodpecker, if he hit something with his beak hard enough and he missed and it glanced off, he hits it so hard it would literally torque the top of his skull off. That's how hard he hits the tree. But he never misses. He never misses. Every time. Dead on. And so he has a reinforced skull to keep his brain in place. He's got a groove in his skull to keep his tongue in place. And he's got a fortified beak with muscles in his back and his tail so that he can hang onto that tree and just bang away. When he finds a hole, he finds the bugs, that tongue comes out and in there it goes and it feeds him. Now, I don't know about you, but to me, that's amazing. Which came first, the long tongue or the groove in his skull? Which came first, the regular bird or a reinforced skull? It had to come all at once at the same time together in unison. Who did that? God. Now, I could honestly spend all day here with you telling you story after story after story of wonderful things like, for example, the bombardier beetle. You ever heard of a bombardier beetle? He's a beetle about that long and he has inside of him two chemicals that when you mix them they explode and he's crawling along the ground and all of a sudden this lizard or something comes along and he grabs him and as soon as he grabs him or a bird might grab him God has given him the ability to excrete two of these chemicals that upon contact leaving him Explode and send this nauseous hot fire gas into the face of the bird and it drops him and leaves him alone now Can you imagine this poor animal over millions of years trying to figure out? Which chemical and how he could put them together without blowing himself up? well I could again go all day long, but it's just a beauty of God and his creation. And the Bible tells us that the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. And if you can, if you can get past the nauseating evolution on the National Geographic channel, watch it and just insert God Every time they say well this took minutes a bit don't believe them just listen to what they say and it's a beautiful thing Because God has created this world and he has revealed himself in the things that have been made all the way from space and all the stars and and the planets revolving around one another and our earth and and how it stays in its cycle and it spins and we have days and nights and seasons. That's all by the hand of God. So he has revealed himself unto man. So the revelation is that God is revealed from heaven. He's manifested himself in us. The invisible things of him are clearly seen and they are understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. God is powerful. God is wonderful. And please don't stop at nature, but start at nature and look around and see the wonderful visible manifestations of the hand of God in everything that he has created. And the Bible goes on to say, even his eternal power and Godhead. We can see that only God could have created this universe. Only God could have created the heavens and the earth. Only God could have separated the lands from the waters. Only God could have put all of these various creatures into place. There are creatures we haven't even seen yet at the bottom of the ocean. Things that when they're able to bring them up, it's just they marvel. They don't know how they exist in such pressure. And yet all of that, God has created. And so I take the God revealed out of the context of the wrath here in Romans just for a moment, just to show us that God has revealed himself. And then at the end of verse 20, he says, so they are without excuse. There is absolutely no reason for man not to worship the creator by the things that are manifested as he has revealed himself to us. And so this trade starts with the revelation of God. God has revealed himself. Now let's look secondly at the rebellion. Verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, They were not thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. They did not glorify God. And of course, we know where that started. That started in the Garden of Eden, when God gave man everything that he could possibly need. And he said, of that one tree, don't eat, because in the day you eat thereof, you're gonna die. Well, what happened? They did. They died. And as a result, as Romans tells us later on, Paul tells us, for as by one man sinned into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all have sinned. And it's as a result of that blackened, darkened heart that man is continually rebelling against God. They didn't give him thanks. They became vain and foolish in their hearts. Their hearts were darkened. And in fact, when you get to verse 23, here it is. And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man. There's the trade. It wasn't a hamburger for a homemade sandwich. It was trading the truth and the glory and the splendor of God for the very things that God told them to look at to see his glory. They began to worship. In fact, it goes on to tell us they changed that to corruptible man, to birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. If you've ever traveled outside the United States, to third world countries, you will see idols and statues of everything under the sun, because man is choosing to worship the creature more than the creator. So they made a trade. And in fact, in verse 25, it says, they changed the truth of God, of his revealing himself, they changed the truth of God into a what? A lie. All you have to do is listen to people who refuse to believe the Word of God today, and you will see that everything that comes out of their mouth is a lie against the truth of God, of who God is. Mankind will not worship God. They say, like the Old Testament Israelites, we will not have this God to rule over us. And so they worshiped and served the creature more than the creator. Now, if you go back just a few years and look around, how many of you have watched the Antique Roadshow? You ever seen that? People bring things in and other people look at it and the experts say, well, that's worth this or that or the other. Many years ago, a man went to a yard sale. and he bought a wooden box full of glass negatives. Now you guys are probably all old enough to know what a negative is. And remember when the pictures in your camera, you had a roll of film that was in a little canister and you had to put it in there and you had to pull it through and wrap it around and close it because if you exposed it to the light, it would go. So every picture was exposed by the clicking of the lens and you were able to get a picture of it and way before they came up with the the film plastic film they put the negatives on pieces of glass and so there were these glass and and the scenery on these glasses these glass plates was of Yosemite Park back way in the early 1900s back just when films to our pictures started coming out And he saw this box full of these little glass plates, and he asked the man in New York, he said, how much you want? He said, oh, $50, I don't know, something like that. So this man bought this box of glass negative plates. And he took them and began to ask around what they were worth. And do you know what he sold them for? $200 million. From $50 to $200 million, that's what they're worth. Because this famous photographer had taken these pictures of a never seen before Yosemite Park, probably even before it was a park. And now they're worth $200 million. You think the guy that made the trade thought he did a good trade? I doubt it. He's probably crying to this day because $50 when he could have had 200 million. Well, that's nothing compared to what mankind did with their creator. They exchanged the truth about God, the absolute sovereign of the universe, for something that's worth absolutely nothing. In fact, one of the gospel writers quotes Jesus as saying, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, not just those glass plates worth 200 million, but everything in the world and loses his soul? I think that's the point Paul's making here. They rebelled against God. When they knew God, they didn't glorify him. They didn't give him thanks. They were vain and foolish in their hearts. They changed, they traded the glory of God of an infinite, invisible deity who created them and all things. They traded it for the images of the things he created. And so verse 28 tells us, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, it wasn't just that they made a bad trade. Their heart was so darkened. Our hearts are so darkened that we don't even care about the trade that's been made. The unregenerate world doesn't really care. that the infinite, awesome, mighty sovereign of the universe who created all things, they don't really care about it. In fact, they want to play with their little mud pies. That's where they want to put their value. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. And as a result of that, verse 28 and 29 tells us that even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Have you ever had, and I don't know if this is an experience in your family or not, but a rebellious child who just wants their way so bad, they kick and scream, and I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, and you finally just say, okay, Go ahead. We didn't do that, but our oldest, our older son, when he was just a baby, back when they had these round walkers, you drop your baby in the middle, it's got a metal ring around the bottom and a seat in the top, and they can walk all over the place without falling over. Well, he happened to find his mother's, what's that called? a sewing wheel, just a little, looked like a little spur, cowboy spur on a plastic handle. And you could roll it on the cloth as you were marking out the patterns. He had that playing with it. And we had told him, I don't know how many times, don't touch the outlets, don't get near the outlets. And all we said to him was, it'll hurt the baby. It will hurt the baby. We didn't purposely allow him to do this, but one day he got behind the chair when we weren't looking, and the lamp cord was plugged in, but not all the way. And he was able to get that marking wheel behind that plug to cross those two prongs, and fortunately it had a plastic handle on it. But when he shorted that light, it just, you know, and sparks flew everywhere. And he came out of there just as hard as he could going, hurt the baby, hurt the baby, hurt the baby. Sometimes we have to let kids learn lessons that are hard for us. This is God saying, okay, you wanna rebel against me? You wanna worship the creature more than the creator who's blessed forever? I turn you over. And God has turned our world over. to vile affections. And we won't take the time, we read it this morning, but you see the epitome of what is a vile affection in the eyes of God. It's what he created as beautiful, perfect, holy, and good between a man and a woman in holy matrimony, and they have completely perverted it. He says they left the natural use of the woman. They left what God created as beautiful and perverted that they turned everything upside down and they worship the creature more than the creator. That's the result. What was the result? God turned them over to vile affections. And so I come back to the fact that the context is the wrath of God. God has revealed himself, but he revealed himself in mercy and graciousness and compassion But Paul says God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. I just want to take us back just for a moment to verse five and make an application here. It says, They didn't worship God, but they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Even as believers, we often do this. We look at things around us. We say, if I just, if I could just have this, or if I could just have that, it would make me happy. And you find out the older you get that nothing in this world will satisfy except the love and the knowledge of God the Creator. And so God says they've made a bad trade. They have exchanged what was glorious, eternal, marvelous for that which is temporary and useless. I like the fact that Paul says in the beginning of this section as we read it and this. is the conclusion he comes to. He says in verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. This is what he starts with. Before he begins to talk, unpack the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against unrighteousness, ungodliness, and they traded the truth for a lie. He says, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. He gives us the answer before he actually gives us the test. That's what a lot of kids would wish their teachers would do, give you the answer before you have to take the test. Well, he gives us the answer in verse 16 before he speaks of the wrath of God, because I think he understands that this is such a horrible mental picture of what man is who has rebelled against God. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. or the good news of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God, the God who reveals his wrath from heaven, it's the power of God unto salvation, to those that believe. And so salvation is God's preemptory solution to the rebellion of man. For man is going to exchange and has exchanged and will continue to exchange the glory of God for the creature that the God created. So what do we do in our lives? Are we constantly looking for ways to point our attention back to the Creator? or are we making trades in our lives? I'd rather this creaturely comfort as opposed to doing what God asked me to do. God has revealed himself. He has told us exactly who he is. Are we going to worship the creator who is blessed forever? That's not a negotiable thing. Just because man trades The wonderful creator for creature and creature comforts and things of lesser value doesn't change who he is. That's why Paul says who is blessed forever and so be it. God is the one we look to. God has revealed himself. He's revealed himself in compassion, in love, in sending Christ. to die on the cross that we might have eternal life. And so remember, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. God has revealed himself. What do we do with God? Are we trading him for temporal things? That's not to say that everything we trade God for is bad. It's just wrong. Because, I mean, I remember when I was growing up as a teenager, especially, I said, because I was taught, Jesus, come back at any moment. And you know what I always said? Jesus, please come, but wait till after I get married. or wait till, wait till after I've experienced or this, no, no. We need to worship God, the creator, who is blessed forever above any creature comfort, against anything that would take away his glory. And may we be reminded today to worship the creator in everything we do and everything we see, because he is blessed forever. Amen. Could we pray together? Father, again, we just rejoice that you are so loving and patient and kind with us. And we recognize that as long as we're in the sinful flesh, that we will have that tendency to worship creaturely comforts and creature things more than the Creator. Forgive us, Father, where we have done that, and help us to focus our hearts and lives upon eternal things. Help us, as the same author has said, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, because you've died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ, who is our life, will appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. And Father, may it be so. We praise you again in all that you are and all that you do, in Christ's name, amen.