The Sin Behind Our Sinning
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Before we consider our text in Rom 1, turn to Gen 1
Satan is a liar
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
One of the chief ways he lies: Satan likes to blur things together, erase boundaries, confuse things that should remain separate
God loves distinctions. Can’t even get 1 ch into the Bible without understanding this
Creation Gen 1, 2
Genesis 1:4 (ESV)
And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:6 (ESV)
And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
Genesis 1:9 (ESV)
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.
Genesis 1:11 (ESV)
And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.
Genesis 1:12 (ESV)
The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:14 (ESV)
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,
Genesis 1:21 (ESV)
So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:24 (ESV)
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.
Then a great distinction:
Genesis 1:26 (ESV)
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.”
Separated humans from every other creature. Even within that distinction, there’s a distinction. Next v
Genesis 1:27 (ESV)
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
The story of God’s creation is the story of God making distinctions
Blurring distinctions is Satan’s domain. Myth of evolution blurs all the creation distinctions: all the categories of created things; man, birds, animals, creeping things—all can be traced back to one thing, not distinct creations
Look at the destruction of faith in God’s word unleashed by story of evolution—and it’s about blurring distinctions. All creatures came from one kind of creature. Man? Just another creature
Male and female? That’s one thing, too. Just look at the chaos confusion destruction unleashed when our culture lost the ability to distinguish between male and female
Greatest distinction: v 1:
Genesis 1:1 (ESV)
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
creator/creature
Turn to Rom 1
When we lose the ability to observe distinctions, moral chaos follows. At most fundamental level, if we confuse creator/creature distinction, we are ruined
Read
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 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 worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Paul get to all manner of sins. Begin w/ homosexuality (vv 26-27), on to whole litany (vv 28–32)
But it all begins here, w/ root sin, proto-sin
As you read 26–32, you’re going to recognize the society you live in
If you want to understand why your society is the way it is, have to start here
Sin’s Roadmap
Sin’s Roadmap
Last week: every functioning human being ever lived knows God exists, powerful, eternal
Every functioning human being ever lived suppresses that knowledge in his unrighteousness
What happens to a person who knows God exists, refuses to honor/thank?
Know God (vv 18–20)
Refuse to glorify God (21)
Futile thinking, darkened hearts (21)
“futile” = worthless “thinking” = process of reasoning
“heart” = "center and source of the whole inner life, w. its thinking, feeling, and volition"
darkened = deprived of light, moral darkness
4. Call the above “wisdom” (22)
5. Make a trade: glory of God for glory of Creature (23)
6. God hands him over (v 24-25)
Purpose: dishonoring (insult) of bodies
Means: dishonorable (insulting) passions
Reason:
exchanged truth for lie
worshiped creature rather than creator
Got the picture? Know God, refuse to worship Him, instead worship something else
In other words, the root of sin, the sin behind our sinning, is idolatry
What Is Idolatry?
What Is Idolatry?
Idolatry in the Old Testament
Idolatry in the Old Testament
Helpful way to understand is to look at how and why God prohibits
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
At root, that’s the issue: Idolatry = having some other God before God. But continue
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Exodus 20:5 (ESV)
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…
Here we get a more in-depth look at idolatry. What does it mean to have a god before God? Worship something besides him. Exactly what Paul says in v. 25, they worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator
What is worship? Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia:
The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia Worship
The purpose of worship is to establish or to give expression to a relationship between creature and deity. Worship is practiced by paying religious reverence and homage to God (or a god) in thought, feeling, or act, with or without the aid of symbols and rites.
Important: attitude of the heart, may or may not involve any specific activities. Simpler def from Tyndale Bible Dictionary:
Tyndale Bible Dictionary Worship
WORSHIP Expression of reverence and adoration of God.
Anything you revere or adore above God is an idol
Know if read OT people worship just about anything
Only one thing you never find: people not worshiping
Ever notice that?
Read through your OT and see: find people worshiping everything—Seth down to Melchizedek worshiping true God, everyone else baals, Chemosh, Ashtoreth, Dagon, Marduk. Frogs, beetles, serpents, fish, birds. Idols of stone, idols of wood.
Children of Abraham never came across a tribe of atheists. “We don’t worship anybody. We’re materialists.”
No, everybody worshipped
Hold that thought
Idolatry Today
Idolatry Today
Do people still worship idols/false gods? Absolutely
2.4B Christians in the world. Quibble, but how they identify
1.9B Muslims—worship a false God, Allah, they think is the God of Abraham
1.2B Hindus, who worship lots of different false gods
.5B Buddhists, don’t worship a god, because they worship everything
and on and on it goes
But we do have something pretty much new in human history: those who worship no god at all
“I don’t believe in God or supernatural. Material universe is all there is.”
That’s not idolatry, is it? Not worshiping ba’al, Thor, anything. Just don’t worship. No worship, no idolatry
Right? Wrong
Read or listen to the most ardent atheist and eventually you’ll discover the truth: they’re worshipers. He may worship the universe itself. May just worship himself. But worship is reverence and adoration, and everybody reveres and adores something
Look at America: who’s our chief idol?
As of 3Q last year, American consumers were in debt $17.3T
Federal gov almost $35T
Entire system of gov enslaved to buying things we can’t afford
Voted for by people who devote lives to buying things we can’t afford
Know what called when you want something you can’t afford? Bible: covetousness
Not too extreme to say, entire civilization is built on covetousness
What’s that have to do w/ idolatry?
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
If covetousness is idolatry, you may be living in the most idolatrous civilization in history
We look back on those in the past, bowing down to their stone idols, and think we’re so much better
Which is worse: worshiping something God made, or something we made?
We look at little statues in a museum and think, “We’re so far beyond that. We don’t worship idols”
Of course we do. We devote our whole lives to our idols—we just call it the American dream of a nice house and nice cars and cool toys. We sacrifice children to our idols on a scale the Canaanites and Aztecs couldn’t possibly compete with—we just call it women’s reproductive freedom
Human beings are created to worship. We cannot help but worship.
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans People Will Either Worship God or an Idol
If man does not give his highest respect to the God that made him, there will be something else that has the possession of it. Men will either worship the true God, or some idol.
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans People Will Either Worship God or an Idol
It is impossible it should be otherwise; something will have the heart of man. And that which a man gives his heart to may be called his god.
The Downward Spiral of Idolatry
The Downward Spiral of Idolatry
Go back to the cycle:
America knows God exists, refuse to honor/give thanks, and so we can’t reason correctly, and our whole moral framework is engulfed in darkness
We dare to call it progress. We say we’re wiser than our forefathers and mothers. We’ve exchanged the glory of God for the glory of the creature, Professing to be wise, we become fools
How does God respond? By revealing His wrath against us from heaven
Look again at v 24 & 25
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 worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Again, reason is in v 25:
exchanged truth for lie
worshiped creature rather than creator
Idolatry. In response to our idolatry, God gives us up/hands us over. Used in legal sense to speak of hading custody of someone to the jailer or executioner
Point out 2 things about this handing over:
God is the agent. He’s doing the handing over. This is not just the natural consequence of sin—God is active here. God’s will is decisive. God’s wrath is being revealed. God does it
Look at what he hands us over to: God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. We are at fault. It’s the lusts of our hearts that bring about the sin in the following vv. God is the active agent, yet He remains blameless—all the blame is on us
And notice again God’s purpose in handing us over: to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves
“Dishonoring” = insulting. Degrading. The wrath of God, handing us over to the lusts of our hearts, will result in degrading our bodies
What are the means through which our bodies will be dishonored, insulted, degraded?
Romans 1:24 (ESV)
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity
“Impurity” = filthy
Terrifying picture: handing the idolater over to lusts of our hearts to filth
Since about 25 yrs after resurrection, the church has had Rom 1. Not every local church has lived through Rom 1
You are living through it. You are watching this downward spiral play out right before your eyes
You have witnessed a nation that had the light, not just of general revelation, but of special revelation. There wasn’t a person involved in the founding of this nation that hadn’t heard the gospel of Jesus Christ
And what has our nation done w/ knowledge of God? Did not honor Him as God, nor give thanks
Instead, we chose to worship the creature rather than the creator. We believed the lie that the universe was self-creating; that time and matter—created things—were ultimate. We exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things, and we traded even further down, not just worshiping man, but worshiping the things man created
Professing that we were the wisest people who ever lived, transcended all the superstitions of ages past, we became fools
And what happened? Wrath of God happened. God has handed us over
Why is a central priority of current regime the butchery of healthy human bodies? Why does our culture do surgeries on people so grotesque can’t show pictures, call gender-affirming care?
Bc God gave us up in the lusts of our hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of our bodies among ourselves
Why do conservatives accept Bruce Jenner as Caitlin, and pretend that’s conservative? Bc of our idolatry
Why do conservative news outlets celebrate when one of their own, a man, “marries” another man and then buys a child by renting a woman’s womb? Bc of our idolatry
What’s the way out?
Once you understand problem, you understand the solution
Our fundamental problem is we knew God but did not honor Him as God, nor give thanks for His incredible blessings
So what’s the solution? Our whole nation must honor God as God, and give thanks
The bumper sticker has it backwards: The solution isn’t “God bless America.” It’s “America: bless God!”
You say, that’s impossible. Never going to get a nation this rebellious to turn from its rebellion, admit it’s been suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, and honor God
I say, you’re right. You just figured out v. 16:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
To the Jew first, and even to the American
We are living under the wrath of God. Only solution to the wrath of God is God’s power to save. And that power is found in the gospel. And God has entrusted that gospel to us
Pray
Invitation
If you would be right with God, you must know:
You are a sinner (Rom 3:23), and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23)
But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23)
Today is the day of salvation (Heb 4:6–7)
If you don't know Jesus as your Savior, don't leave today without talking to one of us about how you can be made right with God through Christ