Romans 1:18-32
Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 47 viewsNotes
Transcript
The Dark Exchange
The Dark Exchange
Intro
Intro
Romans is often referred to as the greatest letter ever written
It is a very dense and theologically rich passage of scripture
By the time we are done with this study you will be on your way to becoming bible scholars
Last week we talked about God’s righteousness revealed through the Gospel of Christ and our faith in that gospel
Most of you know the gospel
In fact if I was to ask most Christians in America today what is the gospel they would probably say the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ came to earth as God to save us from our sins and if we believe in Him we can have everlasting life
But why...
Why did Jesus need to come to earth?
If you were to ask those same people if they thought they were a good or bad person they would say they are good people
So why did Jesus need to come to earth to save good people.
The answer He did because there are no good people
Even Jesus Himself tells us He is here for the sick
And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
So tonight we are going to address a crucial part of the Gospel
Why Jesus needed to come to Earth to save us from our sins
This week we are going to learn about the Total Depravity of our unrighteousness and how God has saved us.
Read Romans 1:25
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.
PRAY
PRAY
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,
So directly after Paul talks about God’s righteousness being revealed in the saving act of the cross of Christ in verse 16-17 He turns His attention to God’s wrath
In verse 17 He says For in it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.
And one verse later He tells us that the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
This is what this means
God’s righteousness is revealed in the message of the gospel and our faith in that message
God’s wrath is revealed when people reject that gospel and seek to glorify themselves.
Between the verses 18-22 Paul lays out that God has revealed Himself to every man woman and child on Earth across all time through His creation.
This is called general revelation
General revelation is that God is revealing Himself to humanity through His creation
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.
So that they are without excuse
No one will stand before God on the judgement day and tell God I never had the opportunity to know you.
Many people ask the question “what happens to someone who has never heard the Gospel of Jesus when they die, will they go to heaven or hell”
No one will stand before God and say I never had the opportunity to know you.
Romans tells us ever since the creation of the world God has revealed Himself through His creation.
Even then, simply knowing about who God is does not mean you will be saved
The OT is filled with stories of God’s people, the Israelites, (who had the presence of God dwelling in their midst) it is filled with stories of the Israelites rejecting God for other idols
In fact the Israelites not only rejected God, they killed crucified Him on a cross and killed Him
How many people in America have grown up in church hearing the Gospel week after week, learning about who God is Sunday after Sunday and then they reject God when they get to college.
The problem is not that people don’t have a knowledge of God, BUT they seek to glorify themselves.
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,
Claiming to be wise they became fools
What is this false wisdom being talked about?
The thinking that we can be like God.
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Satan tells Eve if you eat of the fruit you will be like God
And then Eve looks the tree and desires to become wise through the tree.
“and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise”
They are looking to creation as a thing to be worshipped and not the creator.
Adam and Eve exchanged the Glory of God for the desire that a tree that God created would make them wise as God is wise.
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,
This passage in Romans is not JUST talking about the sins of Adam and Eve but the sins of our hearts.
We have exchanged the Glory of the immortal God, for images resembling mortal man, not only man but birds, animals, and bugs
We have exchanged it for garbage
I have $100 here
If I gave you $100 and then offered to exchange that $100 for a pile of garbage would you trade it?
NO! Paul here is telling us that we have traded much more than 100$. The Glory of the Immortal God! For a pile of garbage!
In the next few verses Paul begins explaining the root cause of our sin
I want to point out a really interesting pattern that occurs in these next few verses.
Here is the pattern that I want you to see
Mankind exchanges God for something else
Paul tells us the item that we exchanged God for
God gives them up to that item
The result of the exchange
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,
1. Exchanged the glory of the immortal God
2. For images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
3. God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity
4. 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.
Exchanged the truth about God
For a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator
God gave them up to dishonorable passions
Women exchanged natural relations for those that were contrary to nature
And Men giving up natural relations with women for one another (homosexuality)
We will talk more about this in a minute I promise
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.
Did not see fit to acknowledge God (They exchanged God)
Themselves (They decided they did not want to worship or acknowledge God but rather wanted to do what was right in their eyes)
God gave them up to a debased mind (a low quality) to do what shouldn’t be done
they were filled with all manner of sin.
Paul here is laying out the argument that it wasn’t God who initiated this exchange it was man
It was man that rejected God’s glory
It was me and you that exchanged God in order to worship idols that we created.
And it was God who told us that if we sinned, if we abandoned Him and a relationship with Him it would bring sin and death.
Paul explains this to the Romans by using a couple of well known cultural examples they would be able to understand and recognize
Paul is addressing some cultural experiences the Roman Christians were living around at the time
Romans worshipped hundreds of God and they all had little images in their houses of their Gods
Homosexuality was also very common in the Roman world at this time.
Some have argued that Paul is not talking about homosexuality here but rather the idea of older men having relationships with younger children or the idea of an abusive homosexual relationship but in fact if we look at the greek understanding of Paul’s argument we see Paul is clearly talking about the same kind of homosexuality that we see today.
There are a bunch of TikTok theologians out there that have tried to twist Paul’s words and redefine them so that people can continue living in a life full of sin.
Paul is very clearly talking about homosexuality and he is very clearly addressing it as sin.
Remember Paul’s main point here
We have exchanged the Glory of the Immortal God for something that is made in the image of ourselves
Paul is using homosexuality to highlight his point here.
Men and women, as a result of the world’s rejection of God (not specific individuals) now struggle with the feelings of attraction to the same sex.
They struggle with the truth that God makes us male and female and He has designed us to be attracted to the opposite sex.
They struggle with attraction to the same sex NOT because they are intentionally desiring to sin but because we live in a world that is filled with sin.
I know that you by yourself can’t stop the desire that you have towards the same sex.
Just like me by myself cannot stop the desire to sin in any number of ways.
I used to struggle heavily with porn.
I used to just tell myself to stop desiring to watch porn (it didn’t work)
why because on our own power we cannot overcome the sin in our life.
It is the result of the exchange of the glory of God for our own desires.
On our own we cannot overcome our sin, it is impossible.
Paul at the end of Romans 1 lists 21 other sins that are a result of our exchange
21 other sins that we cannot conquer on our own
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.
Since they did not acknowledge God, God gave them up to do what should not be done
Envy, murder, lies, gossip, boasting, disobedience to parents, homosexuality, etc. etc.
All of these are a result of sin
All of these are because humanity as a whole has exchanged the Glory of the Immortal God for mortal images of ourselves.
So if you are in this room and you struggle with homosexuality then join the club of sinners in need of a savior!
You’re not special in your sin, AND you’re not more righteous than someone else just because you don’t struggle with what they struggle with.
So don’t sit here tonight and look at others sin without taking a deep look at your own
Literally in the next verse Paul tells us that we are all without excuse
1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
Paul is saying do you think you are special by sitting there and passing judgement on others, you practice the very same thing.
Paul here is telling us that you are not special in your sin but we are all desperately lost.
We have all traded the glory of God for garbage!
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
NO ONE!!!
All have turned aside, no one does good.
Everyone of us has traded the Immortal Glory of God for the garbage of self glorification
This is where God finds us before we are saved.
Dead in our sins, unable to save ourselves
Total depravity
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We had exchanged God’s glory for our own garbage
God tells us if we do this we will die
He gives us over to our sin and to our death.
And if this is the last thing that God ever did He would still be God
He would still be good
He would still be Holy
He told us in order to be holy we must be sinless and if we traded our holiness for sin we would die
We traded our holiness for sin
therefore God’s righteousness demands punishment for the sins that we commited.
BUT
BUT
The end of Romans 6:23 tells us that God did not stop there
God did not leave us abandoned in our sin
He made a way for us to be rescued from the death and the punishment that was for our sins.
The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There are two exchanges that happen in history
The first one is that we have exchanged God’s immortal glory for the garbage of our own sin
The second was when Jesus died on the cross for our sin He traded the garbage of our sin for His righteousness.
The penalty that we deserved for our sin was placed on Jesus on the cross and in exchange we have recieved His righteousness.
No longer are we dead in our sins but we are alive in Christ Jesus
We are considered righteous before God because of Jesus sacrifice on the Cross
He did what we could not, paid the price of our sins and saved us from death.
And in order to receive this salvation all you have to do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus raised Him from the dead
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.