Opening illustration: Video depicting idol worship ~ puts shame to our worship of the living God.
Let us turn to Romans 1 and check out the kind of worship Paul was talking to the Romans about. Apparently this kind of worship was not new, it had gone on for ages and still does. We will also get some insights from God’s Word as to why this is prevalent in the society, even today.
Introduction: The apostle begins to show that all mankind need the salvation of the gospel, because none could obtain the favor of God, or escape his wrath by their own works. For no man can plead that he has fulfilled all his obligations to God and to his neighbor; nor can any truly say that he has fully acted up to the light afforded him. The sinfulness of man is described as ungodliness against the laws of the first table, and unrighteousness against those of the second. The cause of that sinfulness is holding the truth in unrighteousness. All, more or less, do what they know to be wrong, and omit what they know to be right, so that the plea of ignorance cannot be allowed from any. Our Creator’s invisible power and Godhead are so clearly shown in the works he has made, that even idolaters and wicked Gentiles are left without excuse. They foolishly followed idolatry; and rational creatures changed the worship of the glorious Creator, for that of brutes, reptiles, and senseless images. They wandered from God, till all traces of true religion must have been lost, had not the revelation of the gospel prevented it. For whatever may be pretended, as to the sufficiency of man’s reason to discover Divine truth and moral obligation, or to govern the practice aright, facts cannot be denied. And these plainly show that men have dishonored God by the most absurd idolatries and superstitions; and have degraded themselves by the vilest affections and most abominable deeds.
How does worship shift from ‘The Creator’ to the Idol?
1. Rejecting the ‘Truth’ [God] ~ (vs. 18–20)
People’s unrighteousness often leads them to suppress the truth and hold false views of God or the teachings of the Bible because they know that the truth would require that they repent. Why shouldn’t God release His wrath? They have substituted the truth about Him with a fantasy of their own imagination. They have stifled the truth God naturally reveals to all people in order to believe anything that supports their own self-centered life-styles. God cannot tolerate sin because His nature is morally perfect. He cannot ignore or condone such willful rebellion. God wants to remove the sin and restore the sinner – and He is able to, as long as the sinner does not stubbornly distort or reject the truth. But His wrath erupts against those who persist in a sinful lifestyle.
Man is ungodly by nature and by choice. This means that he has no relationship with God. Because He has no relationship with God, his relationship with his fellow man is also destroyed. Man is in open rebellion against the Lord and this is by his own choice! Another sign of man's rebellion is the fact that he knows the truth about God. This will be revealed more clearly in a moment. Even though he knows the truth, he "holds", or "suppresses" the truth. Man willfully suppresses the truth of God so that he may continue in his sins! Mankind is absolutely enslaved to his sin, Ephesians 2:1-3! Beyond that, man stubbornly holds to his sins while he seeks to undermine the truth of God. What is this truth that man suppresses? It is the very revelation of God Himself. You see, God has a strong desire to reveal Himself to men! God wants them to come to know about Him so that they will come to know Him personally. To do this, God manifests Himself to man in millions of ways every day. The purpose is to force man to a moment of decision! God's desire is that every person bow before Him in humble repentance and worship. However, not all will! Therefore, God has given man every conceivable revelation of Himself and has left those who refuse to get right with God without any excuse for their continued state of sin!
Does anyone have an excuse for not believing in Christ? God’s Word has an answer which is an emphatic ‘No.’ God has revealed what He is like in and through His creation. Every person, therefore, either accepts or rejects God. Don’t be fooled. When the day comes for God to judge our responses to Him, no excuses will be accepted. If people suppress God’s truth in order to live their own way, they have no excuse. They know the truth, and they will have to endure the consequences for ignoring it. Begin today to give your devotion and worship to Him.
Application: Make sure you are not pursuing a fantasy rather than the true God. Don’t suppress the truth about Him merely to protect your own life-style.
Illustration: Consequences for rejecting God have always been disastrous. Every time the Israelites rejected God and worshiped other gods, they ended down in a humongous hole. Every nation or community that has rejected their creator doesn’t last long. The crumbling can be heard at a distance. Many nations and civilizations have just disappeared because of this grievous sin. One of the greatest examples we have in God’s Word ~ the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (notes attached).
2. Embracing ‘Worldly Wisdom’ ~ (vs. 21–23)
Paul goes on to insist that men cannot plead ignorance of God. They could have seen what God is like from His handiwork. Their rejection brings upon them the wrath of God, which is the inevitable punishment of sin. In the world we can see God. It is Paul’s argument – and it is completely valid – that if we look at the world ‘suffering follows sin.’ Break the laws of agriculture – the harvest falls. Break the laws of architecture – your building collapses. Break the laws of health – your body suffers. Paul was saying, “Look at the world! See how it is constructed! From a world like that you know what God is like.” The sinner is left without excuse.
But Paul goes a step further. What did the sinner do? How can intelligent people turn to idolatry? Instead of looking out to God, they see themselves as the center of the whole universe. He involved himself in futile speculations and though he was wise, while all the time he was a fool. Why so? He was a fool because he made his ideas, his opinions, his speculations the standard and law of life, instead of the will of God. The sinner’s folly consisted in making “man the master of things.” He found his standards in his own opinions and not in the laws of God, because he looked into himself and not out to God. He lived in a self-centered instead of a God centered universe. Instead of walking looking unto God, he walked looking unto himself, and like any man who does not look where he is going, he fell.
When man turns on the Lord, and closes his eyes to the truth of God, he really thinks he is wise! His perception of himself is that he has all the angels figured out and all the bases covered. In reality, God says that while they think they are so smart, they are nothing but fools! You see, man says "No!" to God, then he turns around and invents things to worship! Talk about foolish! What the Lord is telling us is that man is a religious creature. If he doesn't worship God, he will manufacture a god to worship. If that doesn't scratch his itch, he will find another man to give his worship to. If that doesn't fit the bill, then he will ultimately set himself up as his own little god and will live his life only to worship and glorify himself. Even he may choose to become an atheist, theist, monotheist, multi-theist or whatever by faith.
In fact what was the result of this? Idolatry! The glory of God was exchanged for images of human and animal forms. What is the root sin of idolatry? Selfishness! A man makes an idol. He brings it offerings and addresses prayers to it. Why? So that his own schemes, dreams and objectives may be achieved. His whole worship is for his own sake and not to please God’s.
In this passage we are face to face with the fact that the very essence and basis of sin is to put self in the place of God. Sin is when man worships himself or someone in his own likeness instead of God. That is what worldly wisdom is all about ~ to make you happy (because it is all about self) not holy (it is about God)!
Application: Idolaters worship the things God made rather than God Himself. Is there anything you feel you cannot live without? Is there any priority greater than God? Do you have a dream you would sacrifice everything to realize? Does God take first place? Do you worship God or idols of your own making?
Illustration: How many people, talk-show hosts, churches and happy-dandy institutions are out there to make you feel good and happy but not holy? Be careful not to get lured by their sweet-talk as they induce worldly wisdom into biblical wisdom to make sound just right which will be easily acceptable to the world. Besides godly/biblical wisdom nothing can stand and it stands out before any humanly concocted wise words.
3. Slavery to ‘Sin’ ~ (vs. 24–25)
These people chose to reject God, and God allowed them to do it. God does not usually stop us from making choices that are against His will. He lets us declare our supposed independence from Him, even though He knows that in time we will become slaves to our own rebellious choices – we will lose our freedom not to sin. A man thinks that sin is for his happiness but in the end it brings ruin, which is apparently very far from holiness, which God desires of each one of us. Does life without God look like freedom to you? Look more closely. There is no worse slavery than slavery to sin (Romans 6).
Notice that God gave them up. He didn’t cause them to sin but He did deliver them over to their sin. It gives the impression that God took His hand of common grace off of their lives to some extent. He let them go their own way. Whenever Paul says God gave them up he is pointing to the results of idolatry, the refusal to make God the center. Practically, the creature is exalted over the Creator. So there is a way in which you can say that all sin ultimately comes from a failure to prize and praise God as the giver of every good thing. So as we give ourselves over to sin, it is clear that God also gives us over to that sin.
It is very interesting to see where this turning away from God immediately goes … to sex (verses from 26-32 depict just that). This is not surprising! Much of the idol worship in the Old Testament was associated with sexual immorality and clearly when we give up the worship of God we will seek to go to the place where we think we can find the next greatest and highest life, within sexuality. This is why pornography and affairs and romance novels and all the titillating TV shows and movies are so popular. They are promising something great. They are promising something worthy of worship. Our sexualized culture holds out to us the promise of wonder and mystery and beauty and blessing but it is a hollow promise because it is divorced from the giver of beauty and blessing and sexuality, the Lord. So people are hurt, lives are ruined, relationships are broken and the whole thing sits before us in shambles, as a memorial to our God-hating idolatry. There is something about sex that is supposed to be honoring. When we step outside of God’s design through lust or through acting on some sexual temptation, we dishonor our bodies and we are further down the road of darkness. And this is the great example of idolatry.
Therefore Paul is pointing to this self-worship through sex as the great lie. We turn for life to one another physically and sexually rather than turning our spirits to God and in so doing we serve the creature rather than the Creator. What could be such a wonderful gift in the right context has become incredibly corrupted through our idolatry. I just don’t see how biology alone could explain the massive sexual dysfunction in our world. Only the kind of description we see in Romans 1 is truly accurate.
Application: People tend to believe lies that reinforce their own selfish personal beliefs. Today, more than ever, we need to be careful about the input we allow to form our beliefs. With TV, music, movies and the rest of the media often presenting sinful life-styles and unwholesome values, we find ourselves constantly bombarded by attitudes and beliefs that are totally opposed to God’s Word. Be careful about what you allow to form your opinions. The Bible is the only standard of truth. Evaluate all other opinions in the light of its teachings.
Illustration: Men who trap animals in Africa for zoos in America say that one of the hardest animals to catch is the ring-tailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it’s simple. They’ve been catching this agile little animal with ease for years. The method the Zulus use is based on knowledge of the animal. Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine. The seeds of this melon are a favorite of the monkey. Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach the seeds inside. The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he can, then start to withdraw it. This he cannot do. His fist is now larger than the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours. But he can’t get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him. (Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity)
Application: Though there is no mention of fire and brimstone at this point in Romans, there is a process underway that is not altogether distinct from hell. If people really want their sinful lifestyles, then the awesome reality is God will give them over to it. As C. S. Lewis as aptly remarked, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in hell chose it.” The point is that although Paul is not talking about hell here, and indeed there is still hope for these people, there is nonetheless a continuum between their present existence and their future plight. If a person really wants God out of their thoughts, as these people most definitely do, love has decided to provide a place in the end where they can choose to go and never have to think about him again.
Rejecting God, embracing the worldly ways and wisdom and living a life-style of sin has assisted man in shifting his worship from God to His creatures. If we are one of them, the end result is evident from past analogies. We just hope that we learn a good lesson from them and continue to worship only and alone our Creator, our Father in heaven in Jesus name, Amen!
