Sermon Tone Analysis

We come upon a man hammering pieces of timber together.

We ask “What are you doing?”

And he replies, “I’m making a ladder to reach to the moon.”

We’d think him mad for obviously no one can build a literal ladder to the moon.

In the same way we cannot build a ladder of good works that will take us to heaven.

Many believe if they live a good life, God will let them into heaven.

But a large segment of the book of Romans refutes this.

Romans is the Bible’s most systematic presentation of God’s plan of salvation.

Many reading this book have been saved.

We know of the Roman Road, which is worth learning:

Before we can know how to be saved, we must have some sense of our sinfulness, some idea of the holiness and wrath of God, and some understanding of our total inability to save ourselves.

Often I have conversations about end of life.

As Christians we are saved through Jesus Christ and to die is gain - but to die without Him means there is no hope.

No hope at all.

Scripture says:

From no hopers now we are those who have a bright future no matter how things turn out in this life.

And the first few chapters of Romans drive this home and overcome a fallacy that most people believe: that somehow, on balance, we are good and will get to heaven.

Muslims believe this, and so do many other others in a forlorn hope.

But Romans tells us that we can never go to heaven on the basis of good works.

We’re all in moral and spiritual darkness.

If we read the first three chapters of Romans we find out that the Lord tells us there is no chance for the Gentiles, no chance for the Jews, actually, no chance for anyone.

It is important for us to get to grips with this for

1) We need to make sure we are saved and

2) We need to make this Gospel known to others.

First, there is “No chance” for the masses of people among the Gentiles, for ourselves and our society as a whole.

Second, there is “No chance” for the moral people of our society, for those individuals who think they’re in pretty good shape morally and spiritually.

In the passage we read Paul gives a brilliant description of the way a culture collapses.

There are five downward stages that always occur when a society begins to erode morally.

So, let us see where we are in all this.

(1) The first stage of these is the Rejection of Creationism (vv.

18–20).

The wrath of God will be revealed from heaven against any society that refuses to acknowledge the obvious fact that God is the Creator of the universe.

He specifically made the vast, endless ocean of stars, the splendours of the solar system, the burning sun, the glowing moon, and the beautiful earth to show us His invisible power and divine nature.

When we refuse to acknowledge that, we’ve taken the first step in a downward slide that leads to utter ruin.

It truly is a shame that people do not see that God created this world.

When we watch nature programmes about the wonder of how all things fit together we think it stupid that the presenters do not see it or are unwilling to.

Here is one such story:

Forty miles south of London is a village named Piltdown.

One day in 1908, a lawyer named Charles Dawson, a member of the British Geological Society, claimed to have discovered an ancient skull.

Suddenly the world had “proof” of Darwin’s theory of evolution—Piltdown Man.

The scientific literature about Piltdown Man is enormous, with over five hundred doctoral dissertations written about the discovery.

School children were shown “pictures” of how Piltdown Man fit into the evolutionary chain.

Sir Arthur Keith, one of the world’s greatest anatomists, wrote more about Piltdown Man than anyone else.

He based a lifetime of thinking on his fascination with Piltdown Man.

Sir Arthur was a frail eighty-six years old when two scientists paid a visit to his home.

They were breaking the news that after a half-century of study, Piltdown Man was a hoax—an old human skull, the jawbone of an orangutan, and a dog’s tooth.

“Keith was a rationalist and a pronounced opponent of the Christian faith,” wrote Marvin L. Lubenow in Bones of Contention.

“Yet in his autobiography he tells of attending evangelistic meetings in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, seeing students make a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and often feeling ‘on the verge of conversion.’

He rejected the gospel, because he felt that the Genesis account of Creation was just a myth and that the Bible was merely a human book.

It causes profound sadness to know that this great man rejected Jesus Christ, whose resurrection validated everything He said and did, only to put his faith in what proved to be a phony fossil.”

(2) The second stage is Idolatry (vv.

21–23).

When we reject the true Creator, we begin making our own gods.

Today our gods aren’t typically images of birds, animals, and reptiles unless you live in India or Japan.

We’re a more sophisticated society; our idols are pleasure, ambition, and materialism.

I was listening to Radio 4 on a programme called a ‘disease called ‘fame’’.

The greatest achievement you can achieve is to become famous is the philosophy of so many people.

It started in Hollywood with certain groups of people trying to get in movies.

Few called even fewer chosen.

Then there were the music bands.

The materialism grew at this time because getting the latest thing could make you happy, and then, the commercials changed to ‘because you are worth it’.

This just led to commercialisation of people and so we started manufacturing stars.

Reality TV.

Instant fame.

Big brother.

Talent shows: Top model, singer, chef, businessman.

But what has it left society with?

We are crueller, voyeuristic in that we want to know everything about someone’s live and more self-obsessed.

Celebrities are in the news with plastic surgeries of different kinds and with their lives’ problems on show for all.

And it is all drunk in and all want their five minutes of fame.

But if all are famous who is there to watch?

We are our own gods and we make gods of others.

(3) The third stage is Immorality (vv.

24–25).

When we erect our own gods, we can write our own rules, and such a society increasingly becomes immoral and sexually permissive.

Well you know how it is…if it feels good do it.

There was a a song in the pop charts 5 years ago called ‘Happy’.

This song says ‘clap your hands if you feel like happiness is the truth’.

It has a catchy tune but ridiculous words.

Happiness is now the test of whether it is good and true and this just opens the doors to all sorts of things – you might be happy to do something but someone on the end of it might not be – then where are you?

No, the only standard for truth is Jesus and His Word.

We are not necessarily happy with God’s verdict and can choose to ignore it but if we want to be happy in Jesus it is best to trust and obey.

(4) The fourth stage is Homosexuality (vv.

26–27).

The fourth step involves the homosexualisation of society.

It increasingly becomes a seedbed for homosexual activity and acceptance.

This goes without saying since homosexual marriage came into force and nearly every programme and film and especially on BBC TV and radio is filled with homosexual relationships - there is simply no escape from it in the so-called entertainment business.

There is a new openness to depravity.

(5) The last and fifth stage is Total Moral Collapse (vv.

28–32).

The remainder of the chapter describes a society that is unravelling at the seams.

It is moral meltdown.

Let me reread what it says in Romans:

This five-stage pattern is as true for today’s UK & America as it was for ancient Sodom, Greece, and Rome.

It reveals how far we have drifted from God for homosexuality and its acceptance is only the second to last step of complete anarchy - now we accept transgender men running in women’s races and allowing boys and men who think they are girls and women into women’s locker rooms and toilets.

We have gone ridiculously mad.

Society in the UK and most of the Western World have lost all moorings in the Scripture.

And nothing but a pure revival is going to change that for we recognise already in these verses that we are already there as a Nation.

B. The Moral People (2:1–16).

Yes, yes, we may say.

This society is going to the dogs.

It’s terrible what these people do.

There’s no excuse for it.

But keep reading!

Paul isn’t just referring to the masses of immoral people; he’s also talking about the individuals within that society who think they are morally upright.