Without Exuse

It was a story of himself. One day, while out in the garden of his parents he came upon the part of the garden with Melons or some other plant of that size and shape.

Having a stick in his hand, and being a young boy, he thrust that stick into the plant’s fruit.

Pop was the sound. He then enjoyed the sound so immensely that he began to go through the garden and one by one popped each of the fruits. He was young and didn’t realize the full impact of the crop that was being decimated in the wake of his enjoyment of the sound.

But His father new the impact, and while the young boy was gleefully making destruction, his father appeared on the scene.

Well could all image the anger the father had towards the actions of his son.

The Father also knew that punishment would come, but not while he was angry.

My friend then told me, every time the father brought up the subject, his anger arose and the punishment was diverted.

Needless to say, my college friend never got punished for that action, but his deed was never forgotten.

This morning’s passage is on the response of God towards his creation in their actions.

It’s a subject that is not often talked about because of what could be said, or that we are not willing to confront the real issue covered in Scripture.

We can’t imagine God’s response or we feel like he would be like the father in my friend and couldn’t possible respond in anger, a righteous anger.

My bible added a subtext title for this part of scripture and labelled it God’s wrath on the unrighteous.

Who are the unrighteous and what is the wrath.

pause

Two things we must focus in on when we read these verses.

The First is grappling with the wrath of God and the second who are the unrighteous

You see, Last week we ended off with the passage often quoted in Romans.

Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel of God.

He was clear in what the Gospel was, what it did for us, and who it is about.

The righteous shall live by faith.

In today’s passage, there is a turning of what the Gospel is not.

God’s view of the ungodly and His response to the ungodly.

One person wrote,

Ungodliness means anything in us that fails to glorify God and to worship Him and to make Him supreme in our own lives, and in the lives of others.- David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

So with that in mind, turn with me to the second part of this chapter and let’s read it together.

Romans 1:18–32 ESV

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. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 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. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 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. 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. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Let’s take a moment to pray.

Father God, these are words that we need to hear this morning, They are words that show your character and holiness in the presence of our hearts, mind, and action.

Lord open our hearts to your words written down for us to understand.

Examine our hearts this day as we take a few moments to see your love in action for those who choose to live by their own futility of thought.

Lord help us to be wise, not in our own eyes, but to have the very eyes of God in our lives.

And as we spend time in these scriptures this morning, may you convict us of our own unrighteousness so that we can truly be described as righteous people living by faith.

Amen

The Wrath of God

In today’s world, it is difficult to talk bout the Wrath of God.

It seems cruel, hard, harsh, afterall do we not serve a God of Love.

We love to talk about the God of love, His compassion for all and everything that He has created, but Paul’s words wring out loud this morning and we cannot miss it.

I read this in researching this verses,

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 29: Romans (Chapter Two: First, the Bad News)

The moment we embark on a study of the Roman epistle we are confronted with the statement that the wrath of God is part of the righteousness of God—a concept so unnerving to many and distasteful to others that innumerable attempts have been made to avoid the subject. Even a cursory glance at Paul’s argument, however, will show that any attempt to avoid what he had to say about the wrath of God at the beginning of his presentation of the gospel would be disastrous. The answer to the problem of the “wrath of God” is to be found in understanding it, not avoiding it.

Paul states,

Romans 1:18 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

so to understand this wrath, we need to know what is also important is the link between Paul’s words found in vs 17 and his now new thought in 18.

The two are tied together.

Linked.

First, you need to fully understand the cost of payment Christ has done for us, we must truly understand what we have been saved from.

RC Sproul puts it this way,

People today are not particularly concerned about the gospel because they do not know anything about the law of God, and they are not at all familiar with their hit the revelation of his wrath. If people were sensitive to the manifestation of God's anger towards them, they would be so moved by enlightened self-interest that they would flee as fast as they could to hear the gospel, but their necks have become so hardened, their hearts so calcifies, that they have No Fear of God.- RC Sproul “Romans”

Let me put in terms that apply to me,

If I were to head out on the highway, and saw the speed sign at 120 kmh. If I travel 122KMH. Am I breaking the law?

Yes.

I then pass a police cruiser with radar on my car, it reads that I am going 122Kmh

Does he stop me, pull me over, and do I receive the penalty of my trespass?

Probably not,

Am I still guilty, yes.

Should I pay the penalty, I should. But I have been given grace that moment.

When we say that God’s unconditional love covers all, we can, and in some cases look at the sin in our lives like that of the speeding.

Grace will cover it. God will overlook it. It’s not that Bad.

We begin to loose sight of God’s wrath because of his Holiness.

How fast can I go, before I am guilty of speeding?

How fast can I go before I break the law?

How Fast can I go before I get stopped?

How fast can I go before I get a ticket and not a warning?

Now if you are thinking through this logically, and your answer has changed for each question, you have either tried this and have been caught or you miss the point.

Speeding is going over the posted sign, period.

You have broken the Law.

Paul will show us later in his letter that

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

You see,

we fall short of the glory of God and will experience the wrath of God, unless we come to experience the power of salvation,

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The wage or payment of the sin in our life, is the cost of the wrath of God. An eternity without the power of God.

The beauty is that the Free Gift of God, paid in full by Christ’s work on the cross, has taken the wrath of God off of us.

When we turn to him.

A second point about this verse is the way these verses speak to time.

So often we look at these verses and look at this verse in an eschatological event.

An event that will happen in the future and not that of the present.

One thing you must understand that Paul is bringing to the forefront a present working of righteousness and unrighteousness and God’s response to both in the present.

Paul uses the same greek word in both verses to describe a public revealing of things that were once hidden, but now are not.

Both Righteousness and unrighteousness is being revealed and God is the one that is doing the revealing.

You must also notice that this Righteousness of God and Wrath of God are only relieved because of the actions of his creations.

The parallel in both the righteous and unrighteous is there handling of the truth.

The truth revealed by God for us.

Were do you seek truth?

Lately as my wife and I have been watching different shows that depict a moment in history, we find ourselves in the middle of the movie, checking the accuracy of the story. Did it really happen, if so, what are the detail.

We turn to the “truth” found quickly on the internet.

But where do we go for truth in regards to righteousness or unrighteous living.

Are you an avid reader and enjoy a good book, especially a best seller.

There are many books on the market that appear to shed light on the truth and we gravitate to those books to gain insight from them, but are they the real truth?

Many popular books do contain some real truths, and even some known Christian authors can present truth, but then quickly move off the mark of God’s Truth.

Paul describes anyone who God deems unrighteous is a person who suppresses God’s revealed truth.

Do you notice that Paul points out in this text only one thing that angers a righteous God.

If we all have sin, and are need of repentance of that sin, Paul could have listed multiple ways that we sin,

But not in this verse.

He points to one sin

Even in the term “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”

He is talking of one sin.

He is pointing to one sin.

What is that sin in this case, this verse,

Suppressing the truth.

The greek word used by Paul is Katacain

to hold fast to to restrain.

This is common to all of us.

How many times has this happened to you. You are given the truth and you bury it away hoping it will go away.

In my readings this week, it was described this way.

It is like a giant coiled spring that we press down hoping to keep it compressed only to find it spring forth.

Truth when pressed, restrained, will come back to it’s original form.

Paul tells the people in this letter that the sin of the ungodly and unrighteous is the suppression of the truth of God.

Truth

What has been reveled?

Romans 1:19 ESV

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

God’s truth has been reviled.

It is not some secret code, God has made it clear for all.

But mankind has done its best to hide, or suppress it.

Sometimes we label people in their thinking and we hear them call themselves Athiest or Agnostic.

I’ve heard it said before that

An athiest would boldly declare that there is no God

An Agnostic would declare that there is not enough information given to make a decision on the matter.

Where is God’s truth

Where is it seen

How then is the truth of God shown,

Read along

Romans 1:20 ESV

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.

We, mankind, everyone in this room is without excuse for the exsistance of God.

What are the results

Paul tells us that God has no excuse for man and His Holiness needs to be upheld.

But they do not do that.

Paul moves on in verse 21 claim even though they Knew God, they completely put Him aside.

People know the truth but put that truth aside.

I often see those funny videos of child covered in chocolate all around their face, and the parent asked. Who go into the chocolate.

The child’s normal response is, I don’t now or pointing to the sibling who is completely clean.

Man’s Rejection of God

When one is at this stage of the game, they are in complete rejection of God.

We become futile in our thinking,

We become fools,

Let me read this to you.

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 29: Romans Man’s Rejection of God

Nature, as we know, abhors a vacuum, and the same thing can be said of the human spirit. Man’s unwillingness to glorify and thank God in the way that he was created to function has left in his innermost being a great void which cannot stay empty. Into this void has poured all manner of spiritual disease, and men and women “became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:21, 22). Thought life became controlled by futility, aspirations and desires were shrouded in the darkness of egotism, folly conquered wisdom, and man didn’t even seem to know what was happening.

The word “fool,” which is so common in Scripture, needs to be carefully studied. In modern language, a fool may be an uninhibited person who is the life and soul of the party, an unfortunate person who is deficient in intelligence, or someone given to unwise actions. But the fool in Scripture is a person who willfully makes moral decisions contrary to God’s instructions—a person who has adopted a stance in opposition to God’s position, one who has said in his heart, “There is no God” (Ps. 14:1).

Romans 1:22 ESV

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

Gordon Fee writes,

Lack of gratitude is the first step to idolatry (Rom 1:21). Thanksgiving is an explicit acknowledgment humanity and dependence, a recognition that everything comes as gift, the verbalization before God of his goodness and generosity.

Gordon Fee

Folks, have you noticed something in these passages.

It not a gradual scale of from Good to kinda Good, to kinda Bad to bad.

Paul speaks about righteous and unrighteous.

One or the other.

As you read through this passage you can come away thinking that moving from righteousness to unrighteousness with a sense of a slippery slope.

You fail to notice God, then you deny, they you replace God like what

Romans 1:23 ESV

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

It’s not a slippery slope, but a one or the other.

Look back at vs 17, for everyone who believes or exchange the glory of the immortal God

God’s Response to the Rejection

In the next few verses are descriptions of God’s handing them over to there own human nature and not the glory of God’s Image.

There are several references of handing them over.

God’s handing them over, is not to spite man or an action of a vengeful God, rather it punishment.

This is not a new thing, but started in the Garden when the first man and women say what could be, that they could be like God.

It’s always a reminder to be careful for what you wish for if it is not God’s desire.

God has given man a free will to choose to come to Him

But sadly some choose their own way, what seems right in their own eyes.

Sometimes in our Christian world we have come to adopt some sins greater than the rest.

We, like going over the posted speed limit sign feel there is leniency in some sins while others need to be identified.

We need to be reminded by the words I read in one commentary,

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 29: Romans Chapter Two: First, the Bad News

The challenge comes to mankind through the realization that the rightness of human action must be determined not by the fluctuating moral standards of a volatile society but by the unchanging revelation of an eternal God.

How are we to respond

Folks these are heavy passages, filled with description of people who for one reason or another have turned away from God.

Paul states they have no excuse,

Folks if we take our eyes of of God and suppress his truth, we have no excuse.

As I reflected on these words this week, I began to realize that my focus should not be on the unrighteous but a Holy God and what incredible grace He has given to me.

That in my futility of thinking, while I was lost, God came and died for me.

He chose to leave the Glory of heaven to receive the due wrath of God in my place.

My sin, when I take my eyes off of the saviour, and I begin to trust in my own thoughts and mind, can be in the same camp as those described in these passages.

I too in those moments have become unrighteous, but it can change.

But praise be to God that I have a redeemer.

I believe in the power of the Gospel,

As Sproul states,

Paul outlined to dreadful consequences that fall on a race of people who live by refusing to acknowledge what they know to be true about the character of God. The result is a futile mind, a blackened heart, and a life of radical corruption.

People are exposed to God's displeasure so that their only hope is in the gospel of his dear son this portion of Paul's letters preparatory; it is groundwork.

If he had stopped here, we would be without hope, lost forever in our guilt and sin.

When we take our eyes off of God’s truth, or worse suppress the truth, God describes us as unrighteous,

The Good news is that we know the truth and it will set us free

In Summary

As the worship team comes forward to lead us in a response to worship, how will you respond today?

Have you come to the throne of grace. Given up your desire to rule your life.

Are you sitting in the camp of what the Bible describes as a fool.

You have heard God’s voice and you need to come to Him. To accept this free gift of Grace,

May I encourage you to come as we sing, Come forward to receive God’s grace in your life.

If you are a follower of Christ, and like me, have times that your foolish thinking have lead you to place God second in your life. Come to the alter of forgiveness.

Or maybe you are in need of prayer this morning. It’s been a tough week and you, this morning through the songs, prayers and God’s written Word have heard God speak to you and you would like prayer, come.

The front is always open or the prayer room is open, come and lay your requests at the one who is Mighty.

Come so that Paul’s words are the words we echo

Romans 1:16 (ESV)

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes....

We have no excuse because as we sing in response. We know how Deep the father’s love is for us

Let’s respond in Worship.

Response to Worship

Benediction

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