Romans 1:18-32
This past Friday, we had the annual celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America.
The men who founded this country believed in personal liberty and rejected a monarchy and demanded individual freedom.
This nation was built on the ideal of personal independence.
However, those same men did not believe that such independence relieved a person from his responsibilities to his Creator.
In fact, the Creator is invoked in many of our founding documents, not the least of which is the Declaration of Independence itself.
QUOTE: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
One could say they consented to the divide between church and state.
But they never conceived of a division between God and government.
George Washington “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable.”
Just in case we wonder what religion Washington was invoking, he is also believed to have said, “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
John Adams “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
In fact, Adams also said that the 4th of July “ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
These men fought and bled for independence from the British, but not independence from God.
The problem is that here, over 200 years later, we have reached a point in this nation wherein people are essentially demanding their independence from God.
As a result, we have seen an entire generation which is actively engaging in a level of moral depravity which would have been beyond anything our founding fathers could have envisioned, and would have been unthinkable even one generation ago.
Who would have believed a generation ago that a person could be forced by law to undergo mental reeducation (called “sensitivity training”) for choosing to not bake a cake for a homosexual couple who wanted to be married in a state wherein it is not even legal for same-sex couples to be married?
Who would have believed a generation ago that schools would be forced to allow boys to use girls locker rooms because they “identify” as girls, and vice-versa?
Who would have believed a generation ago that a film would be made that not only was meant to soften the reality of abortion, but would essentially turn it into a joke?
Now, I want to be clear that I am not saying things were perfect a generation ago - we have always been rebellious sinners, and all human history is marked by rebellion.
But there is obviously, as Al Mohler has described, a “massive moral revolution” happening in our nation.
What once was lauded as virtuous is now considered heinous.
What once was considered heinous is now lauded as virtuous.
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
If that verse does not describe the current state of our nation, then what does it describe?
We have a president who goes before the leaders of Planned Parenthood, one of the most murderous groups in human history, and has the audacity to say, “Thank You and God bless you.”
We have a media which will spend weeks glorifying an athlete who “comes out” while with the same mouth vilify one who chooses to openly display his Christian faith.
The pronouncement of “Woe” is the pronouncement of judgment… and judgment is here.
We are seeing what some theologians and Christian commentators have noted is the downward progression which is detailed in Romans 1.
What happens when a people reject God and turn to idols?
They are given over to their own desires for moral depravity.
So, today I want us to study this passage of Romans 1 and discuss the progression of the text and demonstrate how it also follows almost in lock-step with the progressive downward spiral of our nation.
AS WE BEGIN OUR STUDY, ALLOW ME TO FIRST ADDRESS THE CONTEXT: Paul is introducing his “Magnum Opus” which we call the letter to the Romans.
In this letter, Paul is laying out the closest thing in the Bible that we have to a systematic presentation of Christian Theology.
Following his introductions wherein he defines himself and his audience, and makes his initial greeting, he makes an important proclamation which establishes the theme of the entire book:
Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
This passage was the one which actually sparked the fire which burned within Martin Luther, the great reformer, as it encouraged him to understand the biblical doctrine of Sola Fide, which is that man is justified by faith alone in Christ alone.
This is the “Article upon which the church stands or falls” said Luther.
After making this important statement about God’s righteousness, Paul then shifts his attention to the area which will have his attention for the next two chapters: God’s wrath.
In particular, he will be stressing the sin of humanity which deserves God’s wrath.
He will be demonstrating that all people are indeed sinners, and that all people are deserving of God’s wrath.
Remember, Paul’s concern is preaching The Gospel (v.15)
The Gospel means “Good News”, but no one can understand the Good News of the Gospel until they are first exposed to the “Bad News” of their own sinful condition and alienation from God.
QUOTE: RC Sproul “Until we understand the prior revelation of the wrath of God, we will never get excited about the revelation of the Grace of God”
Illustration: “Jesus Died for Your Sins is Ridiculous…” If you go up to someone and say, “Jesus died for your sins” and they don’t know that they are sinners, and they don’t know that they deserve God’s wrath because of sin, then that statement will make no sense to them.
It would be like saying to a person, “You need this medicine” when they do not know they are sick; or saying, “You need this life preserver” when they do not realize they are drowning.
Telling someone they need Jesus before they know that they are desperate sinners is skipping a vital step in the proclamation of the Gospel.
You might ask, “Don’t all people know they are sinners and under God’s wrath?”
Paul’s answer is “Yes, they do. But they SUPPRESS that reality in their unrighteousness.”
Which is why it is necessary that we share the bad news of sin, so that our words will bear witness with their consciences and they will sit convicted both from the outside and the inside.
So, Paul stresses in the first three chapters of Romans the sinfulness of man, and the consequences of that sin, which is the wrath of God.
In Romans 1:18-32, Paul deals with a very specific type of wrath.
There are multiple kinds of wrath that God enacts.
Eternal Wrath - Which is experienced by those who die without Christ.
Consequential Wrath - In that we reap what we sow.
But the wrath which is in view here in Romans 1 is what John Macarthur called, “The Wrath of Abandonment.”
This is the wrath which God expresses when He holds back His restraint on a people, and abandons them to their own moral depravity.
The consequences of this type of wrath are outlined by Paul in this passage.
I want to break the passage down into three major sections:
The Universal Knowledge of God
The Natural Idolatry of Man
The Consequences of God’s Abandonment
I. The Universal Knowledge of God
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.
The word “revealed” is from the Greek word aÓpokalu/ptw, which is where we get the english word “apocalypse”.
There are two different ways which we understand God’s revelation of Himself.
General Revelation - That which comes to all men through nature and their conscience.
Special Revelation - That which comes from a direct intervention of God, such as the Scriptures.
God’s wrath is revealed to all men generally, in that He has placed in our hearts a natural understanding of RIGHT & WRONG.
Romans 2:14-16 “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”
Laws are generally based on the most basic of human moral principles, such as do not murder, lie or steal.
But where do these “morals” come from?
They are not an evolutionary by-product; they are a part of the general revelation of God.
He has placed within all of us His Moral Law, and when we violate that Law, we naturally experience guilt because we know we DESERVE judgment.
Instead of allowing that guilt to conform us to the Law, we SUPPRESS the truth within us in unrighteousness.
The word “Suppress” means to hold back something which is under pressure.
The truth is within us, and it is pressing upward.
But men suppress this truth by doing the very things this truth demands we reject.
This is the reason why alcohol and drugs are so prevalent among teenagers and young adults.
It is at this time when our consciences are becoming very aware of our own rebellion against the Law within us, and the drugs and alcohol help to suppress the truth within us.
What do we say those things do? They release our inhibitions.
What is an inhibition? It is a natural restriction.
And we want to suppress that restriction.
People suppress the truth in unrighteousness, but that doesn’t mean the truth is not there….
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 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.
The universe itself is testimony of the existence of God.
When we look at our world, with the form and function therein, we are confronted with the reality that God does exist.
Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
Likewise, the conscience also bears witness to this reality.
As a result, no man has an excuse when he faces God on judgment day.
We all have been given the truth, and the whole world testifies to the truth, but yet men suppress the truth because they love their sin.
QUOTE: Man is not universally ignorant of God; He is universally rebellious against God.
II. The Natural Idolatry of Man
21 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. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
The natural response of knowing that God exists, but not wanting to be obedient to God, is to replace God with something else.
QUOTE: Man is incurably religious, but also incurably rebellious. As a result, he focuses his religious affection on anything and everything EXCEPT the God who deserves it.
This, in turn, affects every part of his being.
(1) His heart becomes darkened.
(2) His wisdom becomes foolishness.
Because of Adam’s sin, we are all made sinful.
Because of our sinful nature, we have been affected both morally and intellectually.
We don’t think correctly.
This is what theologians describe as the “NOETIC EFFECT” of the Fall of Man.
“Noetic” means “mental” or “pertaining to the mind”.
Sinful man is capable of thinking very deep and serious thoughts.
But so long as these thoughts are clouded by his sin nature, they will be obscured by humanistic presuppositions.
- This is why brilliant scholars can read the obvious truths of Scripture and ignore them.
- This is why scientists can see the obvious design features in nature and reject them.
Man rejects the knowledge which is inherent and replaces what should be allegiance to God with an allegiance to gods of his own making.
Sometimes it is obvious, in that he literally carves his gods from wood or stones, or worships animals or some other part of creation.
But other times, it is not so obvious.
Some people covertly worship their own wealth.
Some quietly worship other people.
Some worship in secret their own lusts, seeking to fulfill them in any way possible.
There is this natural desire for worship - and they fulfill that desire with anything they can except God.
I want to make an important point: All sin is in some way idolatry.
Its an attempt to replace God - or obedience to God - with something else.
When a man steals, he is exchanging what should be a desire for God with a desire for something material.
When a man lusts, he is exchanging what should be a desire for God with a desire for physical pleasure.
When a man lies, he is exchanging what should be a desire for God’s truth with a desire to to deceive.
Sin is a willingness to put something else before our obedience to God, which is the very definition of idolatry.
TRANSITIONAL STATEMENT:
When a people run towards idolatry, there will come a time when God may choose to give them over to that rebellion, which is where Paul goes in the text…
III. The Consequences of God’s Abandonment
Rom. 1:24 “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
What caused God to “give them up”?
Because they “exchanged” the truth He has revealed with the lies of this world.
They turned against their natural revelation, and they replaced it with their own foolish wisdom.
Therefore, God gave them up.
NOTE: People often say that rampant immorality is the cause of the judgment of God.
The truth is that rampant immorality is the result of the judgment of God.
When God removes His hand of restraint, the result is that people run headlong into the worst kinds of moral depravity.
Paul describes this depravity as beginning in the area of idolatry, but quickly moving to the area of sexual revolution and deviation…
Rom. 1:26 “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
This section of Romans 1 has come under a lot of scrutiny recently because of its obvious reference to the sin of homosexuality.
There is an entire movement which is trying to teach that “Gay Christianity” is a legitimate expression of proper behavior.
And since this verse is so obviously related to that issue, it has been turned on its head.
The argument typically goes as follows:
Paul is not addressing committed, same-sex couples, but rather is addressing the sinful and rebellious acts of those like the Emperor Caligula who was known for his extravagance and sexual perversity. Committed, same-sex partnerships were not common in the ancient world and would not have been in Paul’s purview.
I want to offer three thoughts in response to this assertion:
(1) Paul addresses the lust of a man for another man as the giving up of that which is “natural”, and thus it is opposed to God’s created order in any form.
(2) To say the authors of Scripture were ignorant of such a thing as committed same-sex relationships is to essentially say that the Bible is not divinely inspired, because you are saying that the Holy Spirit is ignorant.
(3) The Bible is a heterosexual book from beginning to end. It does not simply condemn homosexuality in one or two passages. It promotes the relationship between man and women throughout its pages. It is only in the heterosexual union of a man and woman that we can possibly fulfill the mandate of creation to “be fruitful and multiply”.
Sexual perversion is an attempt of men to thwart the very reason for which they were created.
Men were created to be fruitful and multiply.
Instead, they abort their babies and burn in lust for a relationship which is impossible to produce an offspring.
So, God has made himself plain in nature and in our consciences… instead of worshipping him, man turns to idols… he is given over to his lusts… and the result is a society which lives in constant rebellion against God…
Rom. 1:28 “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
This is a dark reality, but who could argue that this describes the decadence of our current culture.
Our culture celebrates depravity on television.
Our culture rejoices in covetousness in advertising.
Our culture hungers for gossip and slander in the media.
Our culture exalts the prideful and wicked as virtuous.
What’s worse is that the ones who do evil are not only allowed to continue, but they are given a hearty approval by the masses.
32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
This is Paul’s way of reiterating what was said by Isaiah.
Woe to them who call evil good.
To do such a thing is an obvious demonstration that the wrath of God has come upon you.
God has given a people over to a debased mind who can look at obviously evil, and exalt it as righteous; and to look at good, and call it evil.
CONCLUSION: Beloved, this is where we are.
I hear people say, “If America doesn’t change, God will judge us”
Beloved, the judgment of God is here.
Its not coming, we are experiencing it.
We see the Wrath of Abandonment all around us.
And the only thing which keeps this nation from being utterly consumed into absolute chaos is the precious elect within its walls.
The very people hated by the culture are the ones who keep it from falling into the same destruction as Sodom and Gomorra.
So, what are we to do?
What should the elect be doing in the midst of all of this cultural depravity?
Do we give up, run to the monasteries or the wilderness and bury our heads in the sand?
Or do we stand for truth in the midst of this cultural shift?
The answer is obvious.
We are called to be salt and light… we are called to be the ones who make changes… we are called to be ones who influence the culture for Christ.
The church has a mandate to preach the truth…
Even when it is unpopular.
Even when it is dangerous.
Even when it is illegal.
We are to preach the truth no matter the cost.
So beloved, I implore you to pray for our nation.
Pray that men of God will preach the truth, and revival will spread throughout the land.
Pray that God will grant repentance to the hearts of men from the top down, and that we will abandon the destructive culture which we are now in.
You should pray, “God bless America”
But never pray such without adding the words, “with repentance”.
For without repentance, we cannot and should not anticipate any blessings from God.
