Romans 18-32

Why man must be justified by faith: the guilt of the human race in general.

-We all stand guilty before an almighty and sovereign God

And so The greatest peril facing the human race: the wrath of God.

-It’s not climate change

-It’s not Russia or China

-It’s not asteroids from space, and even Elon Musk thinks we got to get off of earth because we will go extinct if we stay here!

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

- “But God shows his anger (wrath) from heaven”, The idea is simple but sobering – God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against the human race, and the human race deserves the wrath of God.

-”His anger”, or wrath; We sometimes object to the idea of the wrath of God because we equate it with human anger, which is motivated by selfish personal reasons or by a desire for revenge. We must not forget that the wrath of God is completely righteous in character.

-God’s wrath has been described as God’s revulsion against the thing that is in direct opposition of his holiness.

-Humanity was given the power to create by God. That is why we are inherently creative

-Sin is not a creation of God it is the creation of rebellion against God

-Only what God created will last for eternity. Only what is inside the kingdom will last forever, everything else will come under wrath

-In Romans 1:16, Paul spoke of salvation – but what are we saved from? 

-First and foremost we are saved from the wrath of God that we righteously deserve.

-Unless there is something to be saved from, there is no point in talking about salvation.

- In this portion of the letter (Romans 1:18-3:20), Paul’s goal is not to proclaim the good news, but to demonstrate the absolute necessity of the good news of salvation from God’s righteous wrath.

-Listen folks we’re gonna be here for a minute.

-We are going to be here until we understand our sin, and our need for redemption.

-We will come out the other side with a new understanding.

-18Who suppress the truth by their wickedness: Mankind does in fact suppress the truth of God. Every truth revealed to man by God has been fought against, disregarded, and deliberately obscured.

19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.

-It’s obvious to most people through creation alone that there is a creator

20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

- They can clearly see his invisible qualities: God shows us something of His eternal power and divine nature through Through everything God made. He has given a general revelation that is obvious both in creation and within the mind and heart of man.

- They can clearly see: The universal character of this revelation and the clarity of it leave man So they have no excuse for rejecting it. “Men cannot charge God with hiding himself from them and excuse their lack of faith and their immorality.” (Lenski)

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

-- Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God: The problem is not that man did not know God, but that he did know Him – yet refused to worship Him as God.

- Or even give him thanks: Man’s simple ingratitude against God is shocking.

-I wonder what would happen if we went through life with a spirit of thankfulness

22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

 -Claiming to be wise, they became fools: Our rejection of God’s general revelation does not make us smarter or better. Instead, it makes mankind futile in their thoughts, and makes our foolish hearts darkened – and we become fools.

-Do we not see this very thing today? The wisdom of this world is complete insanity!

 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

-Instead of glorifying God we transformed our idea of Him into forms and images more comfortable to our corrupt and darkened hearts.

- We can’t seem to resist the temptation to create God into our own corrupt image, or even in an image beneath us. Tragically, we inescapably become like the god we serve.

-And so we bow, and bow, before our idols until god finally gives us what we deserve

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.

-Did you see the heart in that verse? Follow your Heart.......?

 -So God abandoned them: In His righteous wrath and judgment, God gives man up to the sin our evil hearts desire, allowing us to experience the self-destructive result of sin.

-We make a mistake when we think that it is God’s mercy or kindness that allows man to continue in sin. It is actually His wrath that allows us to go on destroying ourselves with sin.

25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

-They traded the truth about God for a lie: In every rebellion and disobedience against God we exchange the truth of God for the lie of our own choosing, and set the creature before the Creator.

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-This next verse; This begins a passage where Paul describes the sin and corruption of the pagan world with an amazing directness – so direct that Spurgeon thought this passage unfit for public reading. “This first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is a dreadful portion of the Word of God. I should hardly like to read it all through aloud; it is not intended to be so used. Read it at home, and be startled at the awful vices of the Gentile world.” (Spurgeon)

26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.]

27And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

-Before I address this, I have dear friends in this lifestyle.

-The struggle is real

-I believe people to a certain extent were born this way.

-The bible does condemn homosexuality?!

-That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires: Paul wrote this from the city of Corinth, where every sort of sexual immorality and ritualistic prostitution was practiced freely. The terminology of Romans 1:24 refers to this combination of sexual immorality and idolatrous worship.

-Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex-E: Paul uses homosexuality – both in the female and the male expressions – as an example of God giving mankind over to uncleanness and lust.

-Paul doesn’t even use the normal words for men and women here; he uses the words for male and female, using categories that describe sexuality outside of human terms, because the type of sexual sin he describes is outside of human dignity.

-Paul categorizes the whole section under the idea of vile passions – unhealthy, unholy. Nevertheless, Paul lived in a culture that openly approved of homosexuality. Paul didn’t write this to a culture that agreed with him.

-Paul wrote to a culture where homosexuality was accepted as a part of life for both men and women. For some 200 years, the men who ruled the Roman Empire openly practiced homosexuality often with young boys.

- At times the Roman Empire specifically taxed approved homosexual prostitution and gave boy prostitutes a legal holiday. Legal marriage between same gender couples was recognized, and even some of the emperors married other men. At the very time Paul wrote, Nero was emperor. He took a boy named Sporus and had him castrated, then married him (with a full ceremony), brought him to the palace with a great procession, and made the boy his “wife.” Later, Nero lived with another man, and Nero was the “wife.”

-they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved: Paul speaks of a penalty for homosexual conduct; homosexuality has within itself a penalty. This speaks of the generally self-destructive nature of sin; it often carries within itself its own penalty.

-What is the penalty? It could be the penalty of disease, which is the consequence of violating nature’s order. It could be the penalty of rebellion, resulting in spiritual emptiness and all its ramifications. But sin has consequences. Violation of God’s order caries a penalty.

-Again, this “freedom” to disobey should be seen as God’s judgment, not His kindness; those who engage in such acts, suffer within themselves the penalty they deserved.

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.

-This is the third time Paul has said Got abandoned them; this telling us the severity of being abandoned by God.

-As further judgment, God, abandoned them to their foolish thinking; or, over to a debased mind, so that things that are disgraceful and sickening are readily accepted and approved.

-A debased mind: Our rebellion against God is not only displayed in our actions, but in our thinking. We are genuinely “spiritually insane” in our rebellion against God.

-The list in Romans 1:29-31 gives concrete examples of the kind of  things that should never be done.

-29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.

-30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.

- they disobey their parents;

 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.

-They refuse to understand;

-Notice how “socially acceptable” sins (such as covetousness, envy and pride) are included right along with “socially unacceptable” sins (such as murder and being unloving).

32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

-Those who either practice or approve of these things are worthy of death; they are the worthy targets of the wrath of God.

-Where does all this violence, immorality, cruelty and degradation come from? It happens when men abandon the true knowledge of God, and the state of society reflects God’s judgment upon them for this.