The Sad Exchange
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18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 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 they are without excuse.
21 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.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Introduction
Introduction
Every parent at some point has to have ‘The Talk’ with their children. I am not talking about the birds and the bees talk I am speaking of the what it is like in the ‘real world’ talk. What it will be like when leave the comfort of home to go into this fallen world. You won’t be liked by everybody, you won’t have the same protection out there that you have in here, you will run into people who have impure motives, etc.
As we continue in our series in Prep For Action, where we have already talked about - By Grace are you Saved, The Great Commission, the Power to Witness, and about Dressing for War. We need to have the talk about who we are witnessing to. To be purposeful about witnessing we need to realize where those we want to share the Gospel with are, we should have a heart and a care about those who have not accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to know who we are going to, so that Jesus can rescue them.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Wrath of God - All have to deal with this wrath of God in their life. None is exempt. Ephesians 2:1-3
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Holy God - Completely Other than His Creation and Completely Righteous and Just in all His dealings, He has to address evil, and the ultimate of all evil is against Him.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
Wrath is Revealed - Present Tense, while there is a future wrath coming for those who are not in Christ, there is a wrath revealed from heaven now
Against All - Ungodliness and unrighteousness. Horizontal and Vertical Brokenness, Brokenness with God and with people.
The truth is suppressed, actively held the truth down. Like a spring that it being held down not allowed to expand
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
God Reveals Himself
God Makes Plain what someone can be known about Him
God is not hiding who He is, from anyone
20 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 they are without excuse.
Invisible Attributes made clearly perceived in creation
Natural Revelation - Allows us to know that God exists, This is how God has shown His power and His Deity
Special Revelation - Jesus and Scripture lead to salvation
Power in that He is the one who create the vastness of the universe and place us at the exact place within this universe where we can live
Divine Nature in His providence and His carrying out of His will, to do what He wants how He wants to do it
Fine Tuning of the Universe - Force of Gravity off by 10 to the 40 (10^40) (ten-thousand billlion billion billion billion) life would not be sustainable
Orderly Nature - Natural laws are organized and processes and phenomenon that are repeatable - freezing point and boiling point of water, change of seasons, physics necessary for planes to fly
Beauty - Produces a feeling a longing to experience this beauty again and again, whether Andy Mineo video Clarity, or the Starry Night Paining by Van Gogh, or a sunset/sunrise, the Cats-eye Nebula. These things point to a God who provides and appetite and longing for such things and a fulfillment in Him of ultimate beauty
With all that God has done they are without excuse
We are responsible for our response to the revelation
Saying that I did not know is not enough
Two types of people in eternity - Those who said to God ‘Thy Will be Done’ and Those to whom God said ‘Thy Will be Done’.
21 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.
They knew - They knew all this time that there is a God
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
The correct response would be to
Honor, extol, praise - speak well of the God who created the awesomeness that is the universe and them
Thanks - thank the God for creation and for creating them
Instead of Seeking and Acting on this knowledge
They reasoned God away, they leaned on science or mysticism or other landed on complete denial or unknowability
Hearts were darkened - the seat of their emotions was hardened or darkened, where their will, volition and emotions are turned from the light to darkness.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
Wise - Fools - The Wisdom they think they have apart from God, is foolishness in God’s economy
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Foolishness is evident in the exchange
The radiance, brilliance, splendor of the never perishing, never diminishing, never dying God.
The God with the power to create the universe and everything in it, including you
The God with the sovereignty to carry out His own will
This God is exchanged, traded for, substituted for
An image resembling mortal man - you think you can be God? We are patterned after God, God is the prototype, God is the original
We are supposed to have dominion over the birds and animals and creeping things, but we exchanged them.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.
11 Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
Idolatry - We may not have exchanged the Glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men in today’s terms, but maybe for money, fame, sex, gadgets, shoes, purse, trappings, nations.
Conclusion
Conclusion
This is who we are going after, this is not to look down on anyone or to have an air about ourselves, rather to remind us of the state that those who are without Christ are in. They are lost, their reasoning if futile (useless), their hearts are darkened. Their only hope, as was ours is the Gospel of Jesus. The only light that can penetrate that darkened heart is the light of Christ. I am glad that we had this talk about The Sad Exchange.
I want to leave us with a quote.
“All therefore stand under the awful reality of the wrath of God, and all are in desperate need of the justifying power of the gospel of Christ. We will never come to grips with the importance of the gospel, or be motivated as we should be to proclaim it, until this sad truth has been fully integrated into our worldview.”
Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to the Romans, ed. Ned B. Stonehouse et al., Second Edition., The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018), 110.
We are ready, Let’s Go!!!!