Without Excuse

Children’s Bible Page 1223

Introduction:

You don’t truly understand how good good news is unless you first understand how bad the bad news is.

You don’t cherish and treasure good news as you ought to unless you understand the bad news.

If you were to share with me the news today that I am cancer free, I mean, that’s good news to me, but I’m not going to cry tears of joy or throw a big celebration, because I’ve never had cancer.

I’ve always been cancer free.

But if you were to give that same news to a person who had suffered with cancer, and treatments, surgeries and all the rest, that news would be so good, so welcome, so treasured, and so cherished.

I mean, imagine if you walked into your house and your family was on the last scene of a movie.

And as you look around, you notice they are all crying happy tears of joy.

And to you, I mean, the last scene of the movie looked like it had a happy ending, but it doesn’t hit you like it does them.

Why?

Because you did know and experience all the hardships and difficulties throughout the movie that led to such a happy ending.

You see, the more dark, dreadful, and hopeless a situation becomes, the greater the impact when the situation turns out good.

Or if you have ever gone to a movie during the day, and you walk out of the dark movie theater into the bright sun, it’s like the sun is blinding,

But, if there is a guy standing next to you who had been out in the sun all day, he doesn’t even seem to notice the brightness.

This is also true of the good news of the gospel.

Until you see and understand the severity of the bad news, you will never see the brightness and cherish the treasure of the good news as you ought.

And this is important to understand as we spend these next few weeks walking through Romans 1:18-3:20 where Paul lays out to us the bad news of our sin and separation from God.

Last week, we looked at Romans 1:16-17, which I told you are the two theme verses on which Paul will flesh out throughout the rest of the letter.

And they are all about the good news of the gospel having the power of salvation for all who believe, as God gifts His righteousness to those who place there faith in Him and walk by faith.

Yet, now, as Paul begins to explore and explain this great good news of the gospel, he is going to begin with the bad news.

You see, the reason why many people take no interest in the gospel, and the reason why some people are very cold toward the good news, is because they do not understand, accept, or believe the bad news of who we all are as sinners in light of a Holy God.

So, as we walk through the passage today, we are going to look at three pieces of bad news about ourselves that makes the good news of the gospel shine all the clearer.

Romans 1:18–25

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.

1. The Wrath Of God Is Revealed Against All Who Suppress The Truth

Paul connects the first phrase of our passage today with a phrase from verse 17 from last week.

Look at it, verse 17 reads “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.”

Then, verse 18 shows us something else that is revealed about God that makes the good news of the righteousness of God by faith shine all the brighter.

Just as the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

The wrath of God is God’s anger, rage, and fury against sin and evil.

And while everything possible is being done in the world, and even in some places the church, to downplay or get rid of the idea of God having wrath, the truth is: if God had no wrath, He would have no love.

Because when you truly love, you have anger and opposition toward anything that would destroy who or what you love.

No one wants a judge who has no anger or displeasure toward evil.

Yet, when you picture God’s wrath, don’t picture God throwing a temper tantrum or blowing his fuse.

Instead, picture God’s faithful steady and continuous resolve against evil and sin that destroys and separates from His great holiness and goodness.

And Paul says this wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

It’s interesting because a lot of times we think of God’s wrath only being revealed sometime in the future during the great Day of the Lord to come.

And while God’s wrath is spoken of many places in the New Testament that way, here, Paul is using present language to say that just as God’s righteousness is being revealed right now by those who have faith,

God’s wrath is being revealed right now against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Now, it’s not being revealed to its full extent like it will be at the Day of the Lord, but it is absolutely being revealed.

Just check the news headlines. See what’s happening all around us.

You see, we get so used to living around the consequences of sin all over the place, that we don’t always recognize that the hurt, confusion, violence, broken families, addictions, dissatisfactions of daily life, and death itself are God’s wrath being revealed as the results of sin play themselves out.

This wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, which is a way for Paul to speak of the entirety of human sinfulness.

For man’s ungodliness speaks to His hostile relationship to God and man’s unrighteousness speaks to the hostile and adversarial relationship sinful mankind has with one another.

And this ungodliness and unrighteousness of men points to one great sin of all humanity: and that sin is that we suppress the truth.

Which is an incredible statement because most oftentimes we think about people who don’t have a religious background, or people who live in parts of the world without a gospel witness, as people who have no concept of any truth about God at all.

But Paul is telling us that’s not the case.

Paul is saying that all mankind has been given an innate portion of a knowledge of God, but in ungodliness and unrighteousness all mankind suppress the truth about God that they innately have.

Our dog’s name is Honeybun.

And Robin and I don’t let Honeybun sleep with the kids because we know she will keep the kids from sleeping and they will bother her too, and let’s be honest, I want Honeybun to sleep with me.

But, some nights, when I’m tucking the girls into bed, I will notice that they are holding onto their blanket extra tight and they are laying super still hoping I won’t notice that they have Honeybun under the covers.

But, inevitably, Honey start moving around under there betraying the truth they are trying to suppress.

They are trying to suppress the truth that Honeybun is under the covers.

And in the same way, God says we all naturally suppress the truth that we know about God by continually pressing it down, keeping it under the covers, acting like it’s not really there, but in this case, we are trying to keep the truth from ourselves, we are trying to leave it back far in our subconscious, rationalize it away, put up a defense against it.

Because no one wants to be accountable to an eternally powerful God to whom we know we have fallen far short.

But what are these truths about God that we all innately know yet try to suppress?

2. Creation Reveals Enough About God To Leave Us All Without Excuse

Romans 1:19–20

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.

If you are someone like me to whom faith does not always come easily to, then maybe you have wrestled with questions like I have like:

If God wants to be known and wants to be believed in, why doesn’t He show himself in clearer ways to people?

Yet, God’s word tells us in verse 19 that God has revealed somethings about himself very clearly and plainly in ways that He shows absolutely everyone!

Well, what has he shown so plainly and clearly to everyone?

Verse 20, 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.

In other words, God has provided the clearest most simple way for all of humanity to see and perceive that there is a God of eternal power and a divine nature, and that way is to simply perceive what is all around you in creation.

It’s what theologians call “natural revelation,” the truth God reveals about himself through nature itself.

Now, natural revelation does not reveal everything we need to know about God, we need the special revelation of God’s word for that, but it does reveal enough to convince a sane person that there is a God of eternal power who created.

You see, apart from our sinfulness and spiritual blindness that we have in our very nature due to the sin of Adam that has spread to all off humanity,

We would all look around at the light and the dark, the water and the land, the plants and the animals, our own bodies and the bodies of other humans, and we would all clearly perceive,

Someone had to have done this,

Whoever it was has eternal power,

And must be outside of Creation itself.

They must be divine.

Just take one example of the human body.

You don’t have to be a biologist to recognize that there are a lot of amazingly and intricately designed systems at play to make a human body sustain life for seventy, eighty, ninety, sometimes over one hundred years without the human themselves being the direct cause for that life.

I don’t make my heart beat. I didn’t flip a switch and turn that on.

No, when a human body is shown to me, apart from my sin and foolishness, that we will get to in a minute, I would be able to clearly perceive as I look at this human body,

Someone designed this, and that someone must have eternal power and a divine nature.

I could not have done this, and this certainly could not have been an accident.

Consider the beauty of the Grand Canyon, the vastness of the ocean, the mind boggling realities of space.

So, why doesn’t God show himself to us in clearer ways? Paul says He had shown us very plainly a lot about himself.

Another tough question I wonder if you have thought about has to do with people who have never heard the gospel.

I mean, aren’t those people going to be innocent, and invited into Heaven?

They can’t be held responsible and be punished for something they didn’t know!

But the truth is: all of humanity is under the wrath of God not because they have not heard the gospel.

All of humanity is under the wrath of God because they have suppressed that truth of God that HAS been clearly revealed to them.

What about all those innocent people in Africa or Asia who have never heard the gospel?

There are no innocent people in Africa or Asia, there are only sinners who have rejected and suppressed the clear truth God has revealed to them, and they are rightfully condemned.

Paul makes that point plain as he says at the end of verse 20, so they are without excuse.

This is why we must take God’s command seriously to go and make disciples of all nations, because all are condemned sinners under the righteous wrath of God, and they must hear the special revelation of the gospel in order to experience the power of God for salvation through faith.

For no one is without excuse for their sin and rejection of God, and the gospel message is their only hope for salvation!

Would you be a part of taking that message to them? Will you pray, will you give, will you go?

The rest of our passage shows us how humanity should have responded to the clear truths about God, but how we have responded instead and why God’s wrath is on us apart from believing the gospel.

3. We Have Given Glory To Creation That Should Only Go To The Creator

Romans 1:21–23

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.

When Paul writes here that all humanity knew God, he does not use a word that means that all humanity has an intimate relationship of knowing God.

Instead, he uses a word that means they knew enough facts about God from what can be perceived in creation.

Everyone knows that there is a God because of the things he has clearly revealed about himself through creation.

Yet, although we knew these facts about God, we did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.

Which is wild to think about right?

Psalm 19:1–3

1 The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

2 Day to day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard.

Which is the same thing Paul is saying.

The great expanse of the heavens, with sun, moon, and stars, the creation all around us, all proclaim a gloriously eternal and creative God.

And as creatures, we should immediately look around and say, “Whoever this God is is glorious and creative and must have a good plan that I need to figure out and live in light of and it must start with me giving thanks to Him for who he is.”

Yet, none of us has done that, in the insanity of our sin, we see all this and say, “I want what I want. I want to choose right and wrong for myself. I will blaze my own trail and define my own purposes. I will bring glory to myself and build my kingdom. I will be wise and impressive and glory in what I have done.”

And because, in our sin, we have not perceived the wonder and Lordship of God to the point of honoring, glorifying, and being thankful to him,

In our foolishness, and the futility of our thinking, we have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

You see, at the most foundational level, we humans are all worshippers.

We were all created to worship God, but just because we have naturally rejected God does not mean we do not worship.

A worshipper is who we are so we are all always worshipping.

The question becomes who or what are we worshipping?

The word for the word glory includes this idea of weight and weightiness.

So, we are ascribing glory to whatever is the most weighty thing in our hearts.

And Paul is saying that we were created for the truth of God to be the most weighty thing in our hearts, leading us to honor Him, be thankful to Him, and live according to His plan.

But, we have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Notice, first, Paul calls God the immortal God, pointing to the fact that He never dies, yet we have turned to worship men and animals that will die, and this turn has brought death to us as well.

You may say, well Pastor Jason, how have I given glory to images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things?

We have all done it every time something is more weighty in our hearts than God is.

When gaining approval and glory from other people is the weightiest thing in my heart,

Or possessions or financial security,

Or success and accomplishments,

Or a desire for food and drink,

Or your own image of a perfect family, a perfect body, perfect health,

Or the image in your mind of what your version of the good life is,

When you day dream more about the life you want then the life you have,

Of course, we read giving glory to birds and animals and creeping things, and we think, that’s silly, I’ve never done that,

But, if I’m honest with myself, I have at times allowed my heart to get way to worship-like about my sports team whose mascot is a bird, animal, or creeping thing.

Essentially, we have exchanged the glory of God for idols.

And always remember that idols are not just immoral things, though they certainly can be.

Idols can also be good things, even really good things, that only become bad when we put them in the place of God.

When we want them so badly that we are willing to sin against God’s will in order to obtain them and when we suffer pain and disappointment when we don’t obtain them.

Since we have all made this exchange, Paul goes on

Romans 1:24–25

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.

You see, the wrath of God being revealed right now in the present is God allowing humanity to dive full bore into their lusts and desires for created things instead of the Creator God.

And since that is not what we were made to do, our hearts become impure, and we are dishonoring our own bodies.

When you have kids, you find out what happens when things that were made for one purpose are used for a totally different purpose.

Hey, why’s the yard stick broken in half?

Oh, me and my friend were sword fighting the other day, so we used it as a sword.

But, the yardstick was not made to be used as a sword, and since you dishonored the yardstick’s purpose, you broke it.

We were made for the purpose of God’s glory, so when we give ourselves to the desires of idols, our hearts become impure as we dishonor our bodies and what we were made for.

And the greatest tragedy of this whole situation shown to us at the end of the passage in verse 25 where it says, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Does anyone else find it a little odd that Paul did not end the sentence by simply saying, “served the creature rather than the Creator (period).”

Why make mention that the Creator is blessed forever! Amen?

Because in making mention that the Creator is blessed forever! Amen. Paul is pointing out just one more way humanity’s rejection of God is utter insanity.

The word for blessed he uses doesn’t just mean that He is in a good state of being.

Instead, God being blessed forever means that God is totally, utterly, and completely happy and satisfied in himself.

And the happiness and deep soul satisfaction that we are all longing for and chasing after and always falling short of as we pursue all these idols that will never truly satisfy us,

That happiness and deep soul satisfaction has its very source in the very one we have rejects in order to run after all that.

For that happiness and deep soul satisfaction is found in God himself.

Psalm 16:11

11 You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

You see, in our sinfulness, we think that following hard after God would be a drag.

We think knowing and following God would keep us from doing what we really want to do.

We think being a person of faith is boring, annoying, and prudish.

Yet, that’s all a lie from the pit of hell because living in line with who God created you to be and what God created you to do is the most happy and soul satisfying life possible.

Yet, many times the people who don’t believe that are the same people who haven’t tried it.

And a lot of people think they have tried it because they tried to get religion and follow a bunch of rules, but living by faith is not about getting religion and following and bunch of rules.

Living by faith is about being forgiven and set free from your life of sin and idolatry in order to live out the very life and purpose you were created for!

It’s about responding to a God who loves you so much who sent His son to save you.

And for the joy of saving you set before him, Jesus Christ endured the suffering of the cross in order to die in your place for the death you deserved due your sin and idolatry.

And Jesus rose to claim his victory over all created things, and to make all who place their faith in Him a new creation who will love and worship God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and who will love their neighbor even greater than themselves.

Consider what Paul said about the Christians in Thessalonica.

1 Thessalonians 1:9–10

9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Have you turned from idols to the true and living God or are you still suppressing the truth of God that has been made plain all around you?

If not, you can place your faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection in your place for your sin right now, and God will save you.

Fellow believer, are you convinced that all humanity is without excuse when it comes to the truth of God?

Have you found it your joy to be used of God to help take the gospel, the power of God for salvation, to all who so desperately need it?

In what ways do you still give way to much glory to images and created things that you need to repent of and offer the full weight of your heart back to the Creator and Savior God?

Let’s pray.