Why I need the Gospel?

We’re going to begin a series of bible studies that center around the God’s glorious work in salvation!

We’ve been in for 8 1/2 months and we just finished v12 and didn’t exaust that verse even.

We’re going to eventually return to but let’s take some time and look to God’s glory in our salvation.

Tonight we are going to ask this question:

Why do I need the gospel?

You’ve heard the old saying, “No news is good news.” right?

Well spiritually speaking no news is bad news.

Without the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the headline over humanity reads nothing but Bad News.

Without Christ, man is without God and, consequently, without any hope in the world.

"At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.” ()

But the good news is: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,” ()

We aren’t really able to appreciate the good news unless we understand the bad news.

The point is that you have to know you’re lost before the panic sets in.

Being lost in sin means eternal damnation.

This is unmistakably the logic used by the most prolific of gospel writers in the New Testament,

and particularly so in the most extensive of his inspired gospel treatises, the book of Romans.

Before Paul says anything about

justification,

reconciliation,

redemption,

adoption,

sanctification,

glorification

or any other aspect of the gospel, he first announces the bad news.

Read .

Let see about what this passage says about human sin.

(1.) It’s Deliberate

"since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. "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. "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.” () "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.” () "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.” ()

Everybody knows that God exists.

Every man has an innate knowledge of God, written within him by God himself.

However stubborn he is, this inward conviction is too clear to escape his notice (1:19).

The creation which surrounds him tells the same message.

The things which God has made declare his godhood.

They have done it since he made them, and they do it still.

They openly testify that there exists an eternal, powerful and majestic unseen person (1:20).

Nobody can plead that he is ignorant of the existence of God.

It can clearly be seen that there is an Unseen (1:20).

Every man possesses the knowledge that God exists (1:28).

Not only so, but it is also written into every conscience that this God will bring all evil into condemning judgement (1:32).

Yet, knowing all this, look at what man does. He unrighteously ‘suppress[es] the truth’ (1:18).

He knows the truth about God, but exchanges this for what he knows to be untrue—

and gives his first and highest allegiance to the things that he can see, and to the things that he himself has made (1:23, 25).

From there he goes from bad to worse.

Not all the sins catalogued in verses 26–27 and 29–32 are practiced by every person on earth.

But they are found in every human heart.

The degrading passions and wickednesses which Paul mentions are a description of man wherever he is found.

He does these things knowing that he should not.

He knows better.

His conscience reminds him of God and of the judgement.

Yet he goes ahead. His sin is deliberate.

(2.) It’s Inexcusable.

"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. "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.” () "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.” ()

Every person on earth knows that God exists. He knows a little of what God is like.

He knows that there is such a thing as absolute right and absolute wrong.

He knows that there will be a judgement.

The depth of man’s sin is seen in the fact that, although he knows such things,

he makes excuses for his actions,

continues in his sins and even enjoys doing them (1:32).

This is the appalling state into which humanity has fallen.

Man has become like this

by refusing to glorify God as God (1:21),

by refusing to recognize him as the Author of all good, who should be thanked (1:21) and

by refusing to retain in his mind any acknowledgement of the true God (1:28).

Man is unrighteous because he is ungodly, and this explains the order of the words in verse 18.

He has walked out on God.

This is how wickedness began, and this is why it continues.

It also explains why it is particularly rampant in the West at the present time.

Man’s morality is proportionate to his acknowledgement of the true and living God.

Results

What are the results of man’s walking out on God?

The main point is that man is a perverted being.

His nature is twisted, and therefore so are his actions.

He is perverted within.

He is wrong on the inside.

This perversion affects all his judgments and affections, and therefore influences his choices.

His actions are consistent with his inward nature.

It is true that every individual does not commit all the sins which are listed in the chapter.

But all men and women have the same nature from which these actual transgressions proceed.

All are guilty of some of these sins. Some are guilty of all.

His heart is darkened. His whole understanding, feeling and choosing are without light.

Truth has gone, so falsehood and foolishness rule instead (1:21).

This does not stop him thinking that he is wise! (1:22).

He thinks what he wanted to think when he ate the forbidden fruit in Eden—that he is like God.

He thinks that nothing is impossible to him, and that there is nothing he cannot discover.

But, in fact, he is incapable of having a true knowledge of anything.

For example, in examining God’s universe, he leaves God entirely out of the reckoning!

And so his whole understanding of it is wrong.

He claims to be wise, but at the same time displays his own folly.

He lives on the earth as a genius who is yet a beast.

Indeed, he has a ‘debased’, or depraved, mind (1:28).

Imagine some metal which is tested for its quality, but which fails the test.

This is what is behind the word which is translated here as ‘debased’ (AV, ‘reprobate’).

Man’s mind is unapproved by God.

It is rejected by him.

It is a mind devoid of godly judgement and incapable of

understanding,

appreciating, or

loving the things of God.

Instead, it is set on the things that displease God.

Such is man’s perversion within.

The idolatry of verses 23 and 25,

the lusts of verse 24, the vile affections of verses 26–27 and the catalogue of evil which fills the rest of the chapter are all represented as the bitter fruits of man’s depraved nature. He was originally created in God’s image, but once he seeks to represent God after his image, his moral decline is inevitable (1:21). He refuses the Author of nature, so he is given up to deviate from the order of nature (1:26–27). His heart is a cesspool of iniquity and his world is a quagmire of filth and putrefaction (1:28–31). Yet he enjoys his sins and enjoys seeing others doing them too (1:32). He continues in them, although he knows full well that they will be judged. This betrays the depth of his ungodliness and unrighteousness and shows how utterly incapable he is of saving himself.

the lusts of verse 24,

the vile affections of verses 26–27 and

the catalogue of evil which fills the rest of the chapter

are all represented as the bitter fruits of man’s depraved nature.

He was originally created in God’s image,

but once he seeks to represent God after his image, his moral decline is inevitable (1:21).

He refuses the Author of nature, so he is given up to deviate from the order of nature (1:26–27).

His heart is a cesspool of iniquity and his world is a swamp of filth and putrefaction (1:28–31).

Yet he enjoys his sins and enjoys seeing others doing them too (1:32).

He continues in them, although he knows full well that they will be judged.

This betrays the depth of his ungodliness and unrighteousness and shows how utterly incapable he is of saving himself.

The Wrath of God

But this passage is not only about human sin.

It also contains solemn teaching concerning the wrath of God.

It plainly declares that God is angry.

Verse 18 deserves special attention.

Our situation is grave, and the anger of God proves it.

He is angry, not only with some sin, but with all sin.

This anger is directed not just towards the sins themselves,

but towards the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men which produce them.

God is not indifferent to sin.

It calls forth his holy abhorrence. He hates it.

There is an outflow of fury upon the sinner from the righteous God.

He responds to sin personally and intensely, and yet

without any of those unworthy human emotions that we experience when we are angry.

His is a holy anger.

It is neither malicious nor spiteful.

Yet God is adamantly livid. He is a consuming fire, and it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands.

Verse 18 does not simply say that this anger will be revealed at some time in the future.

Paul writes in the present tense. God is angry now!

He is no idle spectator of world events. This is brought out in verses 24, 26 and 28, which all speak of God giving people up.

Look at verses 23–24.

Men prefer to honour the things that they have made rather than to worship God.

God gives them over to their desires. He actively abandons them.

They become enslaved to their own ungodly desires, and reap the consequences.

The things which they have chosen have evil effects, and so they themselves become revoltingly degraded.

Verse 25 shows that men love what God has forbidden.

Their desires mean more to them than the truth.

They love what they have made more than they love their Maker.

They prefer the degraded to the glorious.

Because of this, God gives them over to unrestrained affection for sin (1:26–27).

Sexual perversions, and the ensuing personal consequences, are the result.

A nation filled with sexual perversions is a nation already under judgement—and

ripe for worse, as the Old Testament history of Sodom and Gomorrah testifies.

Men simply do not want God in their thoughts (1:28).

So God gives them over to the mind that they do want—a mind without divine restraint.

If men cry out against the light, God judges them by taking it away.

All that is left is the pitch darkness which they have chosen, and to which he consigns them.

All moral decline is caused by spiritual rebellion.

There is no answer except a return to God.

There is no way of returning, except that which is revealed in the gospel.

God warned man from the start that the penalty of sin would be death ().

Along with all the other miseries earned by sin (), death entered the world—

immediate spiritual death,

immediate spiritual death,

inevitable physical death, and eventual eternal death.

inevitable physical death, and

eventual eternal death.

To be spiritually dead and morally corrupt is to be under divine wrath and condemnation ().

To be under that divine wrath is to be inexcusable at the judgment ().

The Bible makes it unmistakably clear that God’s judgment is “according to truth” ()

and that He will infallibly and impartially “render to every man according to his deeds” (, ).

There is hardly a more fearful and sobering thought than to receive from God on that Day of Judgment what we deserve.

What the sinner deserves and what he will certainly receive is “anger and wrath, affliction, distress, and anguish” ().

Outside of Christ, the sinner’s only prospect is the "but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.” ()

A fiery indignation.

After that judgment, condemned sinners, having been sentenced “according to their works”,

are cast—body and soul—into the everlasting lake of fire, designated as the second death ().

Eternal death is the certain end of spiritual death.

The prophet’s questions should haunt every sinner:"Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before him.” ()

Reflecting on the horrors of sin’s punishment, however,

should be an incentive for sinners to seek the Lord while He may be found and

for saints to rejoice that Christ has delivered us from the wrath to come () and that we therefore will never see hell.

David summed it up well, "Many pains come to the wicked, but the one who trusts in the Lord will have faithful love surrounding him.” ()

Spiritual life is the only answer to spiritual death.

God by His grace gives undeserving, condemned sinners that life in union with His Son.

So for those who’ve recieved this grace, I want to exhort you to do a few things...

ONE. Let’s bless and praise God for the least degree of spiritual illumination.

"Light is sweet, and it is pleasing for the eyes to see the sun.” ()

But O how sweet is spiritual light! and what a pleasant thing to behold the Sun of Righteousness!

Those whom God has brought out of darkness are blessed by being brought into His marvelous light.

It must be marvelous indeed, when you consider how many wise and intelligent are actually under the power of darkness.

So as we begin to consider all that we have in Christ and

what it means to be saved,

let us with the inspired apostle “thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” because

He has delivered us from the body of this death ().

Amazing grace—I once was lost, but now I’m found.

TWO. Labor and work to get a clearer sight of spiritual things every day.

Spiritual light is increasing light: "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.” ()

This is a good contrast of the Christian’s path of light with the dark and dangerous path of the wicked.

This is not the feeble light of a candle, nor the momentary blaze of the meteor,

but the grand illumination of heaven.

And what a beautiful sight it is to see the Christian rise out of darkness!

God’s wisdom is a multi-faceted wisdom (). The best of us only see but a little of it.

So we labor to know spiritual things more extensively and more experimentally

"More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ” ()"My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,” ()

THIRD. Walk as those whose eyes have been opened. "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light—” ()

If you abuse the grace given, abusing it before the world, imagine the mischievous effects of abusing the light upon the blind world around you!

How evil it is for us to abuse the most precious light that shines in the world?