Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

No one starts doing heroine with the illusion that it is good for them.

Instead, pain drives a person to a dangerous substance and the addict thinks the risk is manageable.

The trade off is “worth it”.

Even though there are “warning signs” every where.

Even though their own bodies show signs of poisoning—a heroine addict falls deeper and deeper into the darkness.

Eventually life without heroine is not a possibility—and the use and practice of heroine defines life for them.

Their thinking, their logic, their world is greatly influecned by the use of and the justification of the drug.

It is not without great intervention that a person escapes from heroine.

The “pleasure” of heroine leads to deeper and deeper use and so the person addicted becomes more and more a product of their abuse.

Even if you’ve never done a drug in your life—you are familiar with this slide into degradation.

You are familiar with loving the very thing that is killing and destroying you.

You are familiar with a mind and a heart that becomes transformed by a harmful “substance”.

Karl Marx famously said that “Religion is the opiate of the masses” But Marx got it wrong.

Truly, sin is the opiate of the masses.

Like a child born into addiction we are born into sin—with a taste and craving for it.

And as we grow in this world we become indoctrinated by it and transformed by it.

We become a product of sin—we celebrate sin—we define our lives by it.

Our text this morning is Romans 1:18-32.

And the main point of our passage is that sin incurs the wrath of God and has terrible consequences.

In our text we see I. The War of Sin (18-20), II.

The Essence of Sin (21-23), and III.

The Consequences of Sin (24-32)

I.

The War of Sin (18-20)

Romans 1:18 sets the tone for the rest of the passage.

Paul says,

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

God is not indifferent to sin.

Last week, we talked about why our salvation required the death of a perfect substitute—our salvation required that Jesus die for us because we deserved to die.

God in his righteousness would not simply excuse our sin—but he paid for it.

In the cross we see that God lavishes love on the undeserving.

And in our text this morning we see that the wrath of God is revealed against “ungodliness” and “unrighteousness”.

In short, the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against human sin.

Our culture really doesn’t like the idea of God at all—but if people are going to have a “deity” then he should be an all loving, all accepting God who has no standards of morality.

God should be more akin to a “life coach” who approves of all that you do—at the very worst he or she or them—I don’t know his pronouns—at the very worst God chuckles at your mistakes and helps you along.

If you are going to have a God, then this is the God that is acceptable to culture.

What is absolutely unacceptable is a righteous God—a God that has standards of morality—a God who is angry—a God who punishes and judges.

In our culture these are the highest offenses.

This Bible passage is offensive to the world because it reveals that God is not indifferent to how we live our lives.

God is as opposite from “indifferent” that you can be.

God is revealing his wrath against sinful humanity.

And notice, that this is not past wrath or future wrath—but this is present tense wrath—God is currently revealing his wrath against sinful humanity.

Remember that the book of Romans is a big, in depth, treatise on the gospel—on the good news of Jesus Christ.

And there is no good news of the gospel without the bad news of the gospel.

You don’t get excited and desperate for a savior until you realize that you desperately need to be saved.

And here in verse 18 we see why human sin incurs the wrath of God.

Look with me at the second part of Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

Sin, rebellion against God, rejection of God’s good rule—”suppresses the truth”.

The truth of what?

Of God.

That there is a God—that He exists—that He should be searched out—that He should be worshipped.

Verses 19-20 give us the truth about the picture of God in the world.

Romans 1:19-20 “For what CAN be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

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.”

God says that creation proclaims that there is a God.

His eternal power and his divine nature are clearly perceived—ever since the creation of the world.

And this is true—ever since the beginning of man we have been looking at creation and the conclusion has been that there must be a God or gods.

There must be some other force and power that created all of this—and us.

And God says that this leaves man without “excuse”.

Creation makes plain what can be known about God.

Now creation doesn’t give a salvific knowledge of God.

It gives us a general revelation of God: Namely that He exists.

No one looks at the mountains, a sunset, or studies the intricacy of an ecosystem and comes to trust Jesus as their savior.

Salvation comes through the specific and special revelation of the gospel.

But knowledge of God comes through what has been made.

But Paul’s point is that no one is without excuse to live as if there isn’t a God because the very world that we live in proclaims that there is a God—and that this God is powerful and is divine, is other—than the world He created.

Humanity should look around and search for God—and those that are looking to know Him find Him.

But human sin from the very beginning obscures the image of God and suppresses the truth of God—that there is a God in Heaven.

And when the special revelation is shared—when the gospel is proclaimed it is the unrighteousness and ungodliness of people that discredit the message—that say, “What a fantasy this is.

What a ridiculous idea you have!”

The spread of sin and the frequency of sin supresses the truth by creating a new normal—even if that normal is broken.

This is how culture works.

If everyone is covered in filth and you are the only clean one in the group—guess what—you are the outlier—you can talk about the benefits of good hygiene, to fight disease, to smell better, to feel better—but you are the outsider.

“If being clean is right then how come we are all dirty?!” —> If everyone is doing it ,it must be right.

And friends, God is not indifferent to this suppression of His truth.

He is not indifferent because by suppressing the truth we lead people to Hell.

We lead people away from the grace of God.

And God takes this very seriously.

On the day of judgment many people will stand before God and be condemned for their own sin and for suppressing the truth—for leading others in the way of destruction.

Transition: Human sin supresses the truth and for this reason the wrath of God is being revealed against humanity.

Let’s continue our passage and we’ll see...

II.

The Essence of Sin (21-23)

Sin looks a lot of ways.

There are countless expressions of sin within human culture.

But they all have the exact same essence—at it’s root all sin equals the same fundamental problem.

Romans 1:21-23 “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.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

The root of all sin is misplaced worship—it is the worship of idols.

There is a reason that God when He gives his holy law through Moses first says, “You shall have no other gods except me.”

There is a reason that Israel would constantly repeat, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD, your God is one.”

There is a reason that Jesus when he is asked what the greatest commandment is in God’s law starts with “Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love God with all of you—with all of your worship—give it to the one, true God.

This is such a prevalent message from God because all of human sin is fundamentally, at its core the worship of idols.

The worship of things that are not God.

Humanity’s most prevalent mistake is not the disbelief of God but the worship of false gods.

We were created with hearts of worship.

God created us to share in his glory.