The Revelation of Creation

HBI - We are all under the wrath of God which is revealed through God’s revelation of himself to the whole world. We know God and do not honor Him.

Humanity stands guilty before God because they knowingly Reject Him.

We stand guilty before God when we knowingly reject him.

Intro

Have you ever done anything that you know was wrong and got in trouble for it?

I used to own a 1994 mercury couger massive 2 door car. White car with a green leather interior. They came in a v8 but the one I had was a v6. of course one of te first things i did was put true dual exhaust on it with glass pack mufflers. The car was a lot of fun to drive. Well I was young and stupid in my early 20’s and potentially may have been testing te governer in it. I was late for an event with some people in the back seat and dcided it was a good idea to drive there with my foot to the floor. well the speed it was governed at and the speed in which your car is impounded if you get caught is the same. well I was almost to the event I was going to and the red and blue lights started flashing behind me and oh was I scared. I messed up and I knew it. i knew better, I knew I was breaking the law and I deserved whatever the cop threw at me. Thankfully she clocked me slightly under the impound speed and gave a me a ticket that cost enough to never want to do that again.

That is the problem with breaking the law like that, we know the law, we know we are guilty and deserve the punish,ent that we get because of it. We learned last week of the power of the gospel and the joy we have in it and how it can bring us together. But there si another side to it, that we are all guilty of disobeying god and we know it.

Like I knew I broke the law and deserved punishment, the bible tells us we are guilty of breaking the law of God and we know it.

Maybe you are living in sin and you know in your heart what you are doing is wrong but you do not know what to do about it

Maybe you are on the other side, knowing Jesus has saved you how do you reach out to those that are still lost? you to are under the mercy of God.

But what we do know, what we wil learn is Humanity stands guilty before God because they knowingly Reject Him. but we are not lost there, we where never meant to be. This is what we are going to see as we move further into the book of Romans.

vv. 18–20 The Revelation of Creation

we started out learning of the gospel and how it reveals the righteoussness of God that is available for us, for all who believe by faith. What we have next is a warning. There are two sides to the gospel. The joy of salvation and a warning of the wrath of God. What we are going to learn is not always fun to hear, but it is truth. It is a warning to the idolator, who would try and explain away god or put other things in place of God.

Romans 1:18 CSB

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

a couple of concewpts we need to understand. The wrath of God against sin.

We are told God loves the sinner but hates the sin. We fail to grasp sometimes what hate is according to God. We are sinners after all. The bible is clear that God hates sin. That is His wrath is going to be poured out on those who refuse to repent and turn to Him. So God also in that sense hates the sinner as well. Think of it this way. God has loved the world and loved the sinner holding out mercy and grace in one hand while at the same time His justice and wrath stand ready against those who refuse it.

revealed against all ungodliness

The unrighteouss and ungodly is what the wrath of God is revealed against, those who do not have a right standing before God.

They suppres the truth.

They had to supress the truth which means they had the truth. They saw it and didn’t like it. Clearly seen, understood and known but they did not honor God. God made it known to them

Romans 1:19–20 CSB

19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

This is a concept theologians call general revelation.

General revelation - We see here that we can know God through the world around us. Wecan see enough about God to know he is there and we are guilty of breaking His law.

It is enough to condemn but not enough to save. God in his love does make himself known but he does it throughdifferent means.

God has revealed Himself to us through His created world

you may wonder how this is the case. well take a look at these examples That are ancient examples of how this could look in the world around us.

there are five ways that we can see this. something else must have initiated the motion of everything. So, then, it stands to reason that the first mover is God. There is a chain of causes and effects in this world, and because of that, there must be an uncaused first cause. we depend on something else to exist, and we could just as easily not have existed at all. – At some point the chain has to stop. There must be something that doesn’t depend on anything else. that necessary being must then be God. Because there are degrees of perfection among beings,t a perfect being (God) must exist. we can see this is how nature acts with an end in mind – as if there was a designer in charge – a designer who is God

How can you take a look at the created world and not see God, the bible speaks of this all the time.

unbeliever - Take hope because when you bear witness to them, they know deep down that there is a God. God gives them revelation of Himself and of moral right and wrong.

Believers – We are given eyes to see creation as the display of the power, wisdom and beauty of God. We can see the maker behind what He has made. We to can turn away from God by Ignoring, negligence and practicing of sin and then become negligent. You have to have a warm relationship with the Lord to benefit from what He has given you.

if we do not do this, then the opposite of the love of God will be made known as well.

vv. 21–23 Humanity knowingly rejects Him

we go from the wrath of God revealed to the unrighteouss for knowingly rejecting Him by supressing the truth. They try there hardest to supress the truth of God.

Romans 1:21–23 CSB

21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless 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, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

the idolater this is a message for you. People have tried again and again to hide the truth of God. How do we see they actually know God? they know there must be a way to explain the way the world was formed but nothing they do comes close to having an explanation for how the world came about.

Take for example the story of Paul in Athens in the book of Acts.

He went to the city and found the people worshipping all sorts of idols and gods, even having an idol to the unknown god in case they forgot one. They knew there was a God, someone or something that created the world and everything in it. In their egerness to see what was behind it all God gave them the gospel to hear how it all came about, then they turned to Him.

In Acts 10:1-2, Cornelius is described as a God-fearing man who prayed regularly and gave generously to the poor, acting on the light of conscience and creation available to all people

His prayers and charitable deeds ascended as a memorial offering before God, showing that God notices those who respond uprightly to general truth.

But some people do not respond and replace the glory of God with foolishness.

Put your glory in God

¨ People have seen a glimpse of the glory of God and therefore they are without excuse. Glory – your greatest treasure on display for the world to see.

¨ If glory is the greatest treasure on display for all to see then what do we glory in?

¨ Our glory has faded due to the sin of man

vv. 24–32 God gives them over

We are all under guilt for breaking the law of God, we all seek unrighteouss instead of the righteoussness of God. mankind is intent on worshipping the created rather then the creator, anything to not have to give up everything to the Lord God who created them. and because of this we learn that the Lord God gives them over to their lusts and gives them the choice to turn to Him.

Romans 1:24–25 CSB

24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

Humans are bent on creating their own glory. Right now, it is a self-made glory. It is a lie that we build our lives on that is if it is not on Jesus.

Romans 1:26–27 CSB

26 For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.

sin is what they where given up to, This is what it looks like to trade the glory of God for manmade idolatry.

Romans 1:28–32 CSB

28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

28 – God gave them up to a mind that does not stand the test.

You can not get much farther from the glory of God then this. People think they will die anyways so they might as well make the best of life they can since there is nothing else. The commitment to make the best of a life that is going to end.

We have seen that God has made himself known, but humanity suppresses that truth in unrighteousness. We are not innocent. We are not without knowledge. We are without excuse. That is why the gospel is necessary. Romans does not begin with wrath because Paul is trying to be harsh; it begins with wrath because only condemned sinners need saving.

We need to Turn to the righteoussness offered in Christ

But the same God whose wrath is revealed against sin has revealed his righteousness in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So do not suppress the truth. Do not excuse sin. Turn to Christ, honor God as God, and receive the righteousness that only the gospel can give.

the wrath of God does not have to be the end, what it should do, what the revelation of God in the world should cause you to do is to turn to him and cry out to him in faith. if we do that He is faitfhul and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all our unrighteoussness.

so the warning of the wrath of God should cause us to turn to the righteoussness of Jesus.

so what we need to do then is to stop suppressing the truth and turn to Christ.

our need for the gospel.

            Sinners – warning to the idolater who turn to themselves. all them to repent, worship, and live honestly before God. I will also apply it to non-Christians by showing that creation gives true knowledge of God, so unbelief is not morally neutral. The hope is not self-justification, but the gospel of Christ, where God reveals the righteousness sinners need. You can not get much farther from the glory of God then this. People think they will die anyways so they might as well make the best of life they can since there is nothing else. But there is more, there is glory awaiting you much greater then anything else you will find here on earth.

            Christian – there but for the grace of God go I.

Apart from Jesus we are all under the wrath of God but with Jesus we are saved and recieve the glory of God. Though all stand guilty before God, Christ bore God's wrath so that all who trust Him may be justified.

God Graciously justifies all who turn to Jesus in Faith. so what do you glory in