We deal with the passage of Scripture in Romans 1 that answers the question to why we need the Good News of Jesus Christ!
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The Letter of Romans_ Part 3: The Wrath of God_ Bevin Elliott
Amen. This morning it's a difficult title and subject I have to address. But this is the beauty of preaching through the Word of God in a systematic fashion as that we get to address the subjects that are not often given much attention. And so our subject this morning is the wrath of God, and we'll conclude our series in Rome next week, and this morning we'll be looking at verses 18 to 32 of chapter 1. So we're still in chapter 1, and we're looking in particular at verses 18 to 32, "When you're there please give me an amen." I'm reading from the New King James translation, Jesus follows. Can I read from verse 16? From verse 16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," this is Paul speaking, "for is the power of God to salvation, for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, that just shall live by faith." This is the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testaments from Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 4, "The just shall live by faith, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God that did not glorify him as God, no were thankful and became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and forefoot animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie. By the way, the ESV translation puts it to exchange the truth about God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who was blessed for ever, amen. For this reason, God gave them to vile passions, for even their woman exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, also men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of the error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God, Indian knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do things which are not fitting. Being full with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil, madness, they are whispers, backbites, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things. All obedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, 21 vile lists of sinful activities and attitudes, verse 32, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, those who practice such things are deserving of death. Not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. God bless to us the reading of his word, amen. Can we pray firmly this morning? Father, we thank you for the truth that you have revealed to us in our hearts, the truth that you always speak to us. Thank you for your word, the entrance of your word brings light. Encourage us, convict us, confront us, change us more into your image, and I pray you with the rest every wandering mind here this morning, in the precious name of Jesus. Amen, and Amen, Hallelujah. So for the last few weeks, we have been working through a series of case studies which deals with the exclusive identity of Christ. In order for us to fully comprehend who God is and what God is about, it requires that we understand and come to accurate conclusions about who Jesus is. The world and often believers and Christians like you and I are misguided in that we don't tend to understand and comprehend who Jesus is in light of the storyline and content of Scripture. And so we see this in Hollywood, we see this sometimes within the church and within Christendom is that we make an attempt to separate the name of Jesus from the storyline of Scripture. And so the series of case studies is a little attempt to lay out the exclusive identity and person of who Christ is, and we are assembling it in a four-piece puzzle, like when you were in Christ. And those big puzzles you had and so long, a couple of weeks ago, the first piece of the puzzle to understanding who Jesus is, is that we need to understand Jesus in light of the triune covenant creator Lord. And that's who he is. The triune creator covenant Lord shapes who Jesus is, Scripture teaches, and the nation creed asserts that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are uncreated, infinite, eternal, self-sufficient and all mighty. And this triune God relates to us through covenant, and not only does he relate to us in covenant like we see in the unfolding of the biblical narrative, but we need to understand that he is Lord, he is sovereign. And he has created the organized universe, and not only is he uncreated, self-sufficient, self-existent, but he is self-attesting and self-justifying. And this is the key to understanding who Christ is, and the second piece passed the Clinton dress last week. Second piece is to understanding the identity of Christ, is understanding that a requirement of a covenant relationship with God is obedience. And since the first Adam who was the federal head and representative of mankind failed to uphold God's word in obedience, it was necessary for Christ to come as the last Adam to be our representative and perfectly uphold the word of God. And so he became the obedient Son of God for our sakes. And the third piece of the puzzle this morning is that we understand who Christ is in light of human sin and how God responds to sin. All of creation through Adam's disobedience was under a dead sentence and under condemnation. And God in his perfect holiness must judge sin because if he loves perfectly, he must judge sin perfectly because he is morally perfect and pure. And since he is a good righteous and loving God, there was a tension created in the biblical narrative of a God who needed to punish sin for his righteous sake and a God who needed to save man for love's sake. And so Christ steps into this point of tension. And Christ both expiates Towson and propitiates Towson. In other words, Christ offers his life for the forgiveness of our sins and to stay and satisfy the wrath and justice of God. And so God's justice is fully satisfied in what Christ did for us. And God's forgiveness and love is perfectly demonstrated in Christ dying for us. And so Christ became the junction of God's perfect demonstration of love and justice. And he became the bridge between heaven and amen. And our Bible topic this morning before we get into our sermon is quite simple. And many of you who have been studying your Bibles for a while will be familiar with the concepts. But before we get into our sermon, I want to address the topic of general revelation and special revelation. Okay, everybody say general revelation. Say special revelation. Now turn to the person next to you if they are your wife or spouse and say you're special. You're not general. Okay, let's deal with general revelation. Okay, general revelation refers to God witnessing of himself through the creation of his creatures. Another form of general revelation which complements how God speaks through creation is how God speaks through conscience. And so God speaks through conscience and God speaks through creation and these form parts and are placing the category of God's general revelation. Creation works together with the innate knowing and understanding and sense of discerning we have about God. God has placed that within us. And so God attests and affirms his power, his beauty and his majesty and his wisdom as a creator. And then God gives us a sense of right and wrong, a sense of knowing which is called conscience. And ultimately creation and conscience works together and brings us to a place of accountability to God. With the concept of general revelation God's power, righteousness is revealed but it is not just limited to what is observed by us. Creation can be observed through creatures but the ultimate goal of general revelation is not to give us an understanding in detail about who God is because general revelation cannot save us. It can just bring us to a place where we can have a sense of who God is and gives us a sense that there is a creator who is all powerful. And so God deemed necessary to provide us with special revelation. Special revelation is God using means and his son to provide us with more specific and more comprehensive understanding about who he is and what it requires from us. And so when we speak of special revelation God speaks through direct acts and miracles and signs and wonders and dreams and visions and he speaks to scripture. Those all form part of what's called special revelation but the most perfect demonstration and manifestation of special revelation is the person and incarnation of Christ. Christ becomes the ultimate expression and manifestation of God's special revelation to his creatures and we see this in Hebrews chapter 1. God who had various times and in various ways spoke in times passed to the fathers by the prophets but in these last days has spoken to us by his son. And that leaves us with no excuse to understanding who he is. And when we get into Romans chapter 1, I want you to follow with me because we're going to cover quite a large passage of scripture. Romans chapter 1 from verse 18 to 32 can be divided into three parts. Three parts. Your first part is verse 18 verse 18 provides us with the dominant theme that covers verse 19 of chapter 1 to chapter 3 in a few chapters later verse 20. So from verse 19 of chapter 1 all the way to chapter 3 verse 20 verse 18 is the key that holds it together and the thread that holds it together. The second part is from verse 19 to 21 verse 19 to 21 is a general statement about the disobedience of Gentiles to God's natural law, the law of conscience and the law of creation. And then from verses 22 to 32 Paul now gives us a detailed analysis of the disobedience of men to God and then he also includes the Jews into this because he makes no special reference to the Gentiles in particular. And so when we come into verse 19, remember 19 gives us the theme. Verse 19 answers the question as to why we need the gospel. Because 18 gives us the answer to why we need to be born again and why we need to be justified by faith in Christ Jesus. And so what Paul is telling us is that there is a thread that faces the human race and the greatest thread that faces the human race is not climate change. It's not the possibility of nuclear war, it's not the growing water crisis, it's not the rapid spread of infectious diseases, the greatest threat to face the human race is the wrath of God. So when somebody asks you, brother what are you safe from? What did God save you from? God saved me from himself. I am saved by God for God from God. And that's the greatest threat that faces an individual. Not death, but the wrath of God. And that's why scripture declares that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a loving God, for our God is a consuming fire. We like to quote the scripture if God is for us who can be against us. But ponder for a moment that if God is against you, who can stand up for you? We give the devil too much credit. Jesus said, don't fear him who can destroy the body. But fear him who can destroy the body and the soul in hell. The greatest threats and peril facing you and I is the wrath of God. Verse 18 tells us that the wrath of God falls on the law breakers, those who break the law of God, those who commit ungodliness and wickedness. The Gentiles who disobeyed God's natural law and the Jews in chapter 2 that he condemns for breaking the Torah. So no one is without excuse. And verse 18 tells us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, but the preceding verse verse 16 tells us that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. Paul said in verse 16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to all who believe first the Jews, then the Gentiles, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. For as written the just shall live by faith." And so in the gospel we have the righteousness of God revealed. In verse 17 the righteousness of God is revealed through the gospel and in verse 18 the wrath of God is revealed from the heavens. And so we need to understand two concepts here. We need to understand what is the righteousness of God and we need to understand what is the wrath of God. The righteousness of God is a critical crucial theme in the book of Romans. If you must this concept you will not understand and comprehend what the gospel is. The term righteousness is referenced 33, 33 times in the letter to the Romans. The phrase righteousness of God is found eight times in this epistle. What is the righteousness of God? What is Paul talking about when he speaks about righteousness and the righteousness of God? Paul is telling us if we look very closely that the righteousness of God is a concept that has two understandings to it. Now for you and I and for the Greeks in antiquity the righteousness of God was mainly understood in its ethical sense. In its moral sense in other words you are righteous because you behave right. Because you are an upstanding citizen in your community because you don't swear, you don't curse, you don't drink, you don't behave like a moron. You teach your wife, you cross all your teas and dock all your eyes. But that is not the first and foremost understanding of righteousness that the Hebrews had. Because when we refer to Deuteronomy 25 we can gather an idea that the Hebrews understood righteousness to first be a declaration of innocence. And what we see in Deuteronomy 25 is that the concept of righteousness is rooted in a judicial declaration of innocence. And so when you were considered innocent you were considered righteous. When you were considered wicked you were considered unrighteous. In other words even if you were guilty of the sin and you were declared by some chance or gap in the legal system you were considered righteous. And so the first understanding we need to have about the righteousness of God is that you and I according to the gospel are guilty. None of us in any ethical moral sense outside of Christ are perfect. Every one of us are deserving of punishment. And I know you've heard the narrative over the pulpit that we are inherently good. And I see you ladies, for the last two months, the ladies, the feminists, the movement, the grammar, we are enough, we are good. God dwells within. The Bible does not teach that we are inherently good. We are inherently sinners deserving of death. And so when you understand this concept of righteousness first and foremost is from the legal declaration that was rooted in the judicial system of the Hebrews then you understand the power of what it means to be justified by faith. And once God justifies us by faith, He legally declares us innocent and righteous, even though we guilty. But He does it for Christ's sake, not your righteousness, but for Christ's righteousness because Christ had perfectly obeyed the law. And when we are born again and come into the kingdom of heaven, His righteousness is imputed to us. So He treats us as though the life we love is the life Christ loved. And once we are justified, the Holy Spirit now lives inside of our hearts to renew our minds, to change our hearts, to give us new values. So the things we used to do, we do no more. So the things we used to love, we love no more, and it changes our desires and our passion, and it turns them towards God. And now when you used to get bored in church singing those boring hymns, now you are blazed with fire. When you tried reading the Bible and nothing could sink in now the Bible is on fire because He's turned your fictions towards Him and He's working in your heart, a moral and ethical value and perfection. And now He's making you righteous. The second concept we need to fully comprehend is the wrath of God. And there's two things we need to address this morning around our understanding of the wrath of God. First of all, don't compare God's wrath to human wrath. For those of you who are married, you have a better understanding of what wrath is. When the messes, flies off the handle, flips the script, blows the gaskets. Give me some more, help your poet, grimble. And pots and pans start flying. When hobby is angry and he starts punching through doors, I'm not looking in any direction yet. You know, we have a tendency when we become extremely angry, we have these outbursts of wrath. And it's actually viewed as being uncontrollable. You know? God's wrath carries a different idea and truth to it. God's wrath is not reckless. Number one, God's wrath is not vindictive. And God's wrath is not hysterical. God's wrath must not be understood as an out of control burst of anger. But God's wrath is His divine displeasure of sin. And what he put it this way, is that God's wrath is His holy revulsion against the contradiction of His holiness. God's wrath signifies both His attitude and His action towards sin. And Frame gives us a more clear understanding when he compares God's wrath to God's jealousy and God's hatred. Frame stated that God's jealousy is focused in Scripture on the specific son of idolatry. And God's wrath is opposed to sin in general. And God's jealousy and hatred are the motives behind, the driving forces behind His wrath. A better way to understand wrath in layman's terms is that God's wrath is the execution of His punishment on sin. And sooner. And I want you to keep that in mind this morning, is that when we speak of the wrath of God, we speak about the execution of His justice. The second thing we need to correct about our understanding of God's wrath, okay? Number one, God's wrath and human wrath is not the same thing. The second thing about God's wrath is God's love and God's wrath are not at odds. God's wrath and God's love are not at odds. We have a habit and tendency to downplay God's anger and God's wrath in an attempt to rescue the idea of God's love. And so we'll downplay His wrath and His anger in an attempt to just look at Him and perceive Him as His perfect loving God because we cannot reconcile in our minds and theology that God can be perfectly loving and perfectly wrathful towards Him. And so how does God's love relate to His wrath? How can God love a sinner and still execute His wrath against the sinner? The word righteousness is the attributes of God that joins both His love and His wrath. And we see that in Romans 3, 26, where Paul states a couple chapters later, you see that Christ's death on the cross was a demonstration of God's righteousness. His love and His wrath are bound together by His righteousness. That means His love must be right. His love must be perfectly justified. And it means His wrath must be perfectly justified. So we often confuse God's love and God's wrath when we attempt to define it separately in isolation. And when we don't consider God's wrath and God's love in the context of His righteousness. And so each concept must be understood in the context of God being a morally excellent and holy being. He must love right and He cannot compromise His Holiness. As passionate as He is about loving you, that's the degree of passion He has towards His righteousness. So He's perfectly loving, He's perfectly right and wrathful. His Holiness and His moral perfection dictates how He executes His justice on the disobedience. His wrath, like I said, is the execution of His judgments. And oftentimes we find Him delaying His wrath for the sake of love. But He will never compromise His Holiness. He will never compromise His righteousness. And He will never compromise His glory. Jesus dying on the cross is not founded and rooted in the idea that He only loves you. Jesus dying on the cross has everything to do about God's glory. When we minimize the wrath of God and our understanding of the wrath of God, we undermine the cross. And ultimately we undermine what love is. If you make the cross and God's judgment on Jesus and how we felt about sin and how we felt about unrighteousness and how we felt about these rebels and about His Holiness, if you make it any less than what it is, you dial down the love of God. Because we don't understand what is really meant for Christ to come into the earth and sacrifice His life for us. We dial down the love of God. So when we minimize the wrath of God, we minimize the love of God. And so the cross, the cross of Jesus Christ becomes the perfect focal point in the history of the world where God could perfectly demonstrate His love and perfectly satisfy His wrath and justice. And it does us by showcasing that He is our righteous God. The cross demonstrates God's hatred for sin. The cross demonstrates God's love for man. The cross demonstrates God's righteousness. And in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, God not only demonstrates His righteousness and His love and His rod but His showcase His infinite wisdom. Because He solved the complex problem that we were not able to solve. God in His infinite wisdom made a way for the love of God to satisfy the wrath of God in order so that we could become children of God. Amen. The cross became the point where the tension in the biblical narrative could be resolved. God demonstrated this through His wisdom. And that's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians that Christ crucified is not only the power of God but the wisdom of God. God demonstrated His infinite profound wisdom in the crucifixion of Jesus. And so verse 18 tells us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. The wrath of God in other words is revealed or is being revealed. Don't miss me here, Church. Don't miss me on this point. The amount puts it this way is that the verb revealed in the Greek present tense indicates that God's wrath is being presently revealed and demonstrated in the earth at this very point. Don't put the wrath of God or for an eschatological future. It is present right now and may even be present in this room. So Paul, far from declaring that God's wrath against the sinner's reserve for future event, describing details for us in the book of the apocalypse, in the book of Revelation. Paul is saying that God's wrath is present to this very day. So good question to ask at this point is how is the wrath of God being revealed and demonstrated today in our present time? Verses 24 to 32 describes for us how God's wrath is operative today. And it is summed up in three gloomy, obvious statements found in verse 24, 26 and 28. You can get your crayon out and just underline it or highlight it or whatever you want to do. God's wrath is operative in the world today in this statement. God gave them up. Verse 24, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts. Verse 26, God gave them up to dishonorable pleasures. Verse 28, God gave them up to a debased mind. I like the way the king James was, God handed them over. Mount states that there is a judicial tone in the phrase God gave them up. And the NIV study Bible notes on verse 24 puts it this way and said, God allows them to run its course as an act of judgment and execution of his rod. That's a different way to understand in God's rod. God's rod mentioned in Romans 1 is not this active direct response of God on what you are doing. And God raining down fire and brimstone. And God coming down to shambok you. God's rod in Romans 1 is demonstrated by the removal of his restraint. God's rod is shown in that he removes his restraint on you that was previously holding you back from enjoying sin the way you really wanted to enjoy sin. God puts it this way and says, God ceased to hold the boat as it was dragged by the current of the river. He was holding and restraining you back while the tide was trying to pull you in. And then God's judgment and act of rod was, I'm letting go. And he swept the way by the current. It's staggering to think that God doesn't need to hand you over to the devil. He hands you over to yourself. He hands you over to your son. Friends, we are not just simply punished for our sins. We punish by our sins. God just needs to hand you over to yourself. You are your worst enemy. And never forget the power of sin. Sin was what destroyed Lucifer. And so he don't need to hand you over to the devil. He just need to hand you over to yourself. You want to be misindependent. You want to be Mr. always right. Okay, do what you want to do? You know, you parents know what I'm talking about with your children, your teenagers. The day you say, ah, I'm not getting involved is the day that your child regrets it for the rest of your life. Moral degradation and ethical degradation and sinful behavior is a consequence of his wrath. Not the reason for it. Sin inevitably creates his own penalty, his own punishment. And the psalmist declared in Psalm 81 verses 11 to 12, "My people would not listen to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own desires." James 1, 13 to 15 puts it this way. "Let no one say when he is tempted I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, for he tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. And when that desire is fully conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully grown, it brings forth death. The fact that God merely needs to hand us over to our own inclinations and our own desires as a means of executing his judgment really illustrates how dependent we are on him. It really illustrates our need for him. It really illustrates our need for his grace, for his wisdom, for his governance, and for his love, because without him we become monsters." Still on verse 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by the unrighteousness suppress the truth and hodge put it this way." It is the terms ungodliness and unrighteousness refers to how we relate to God and how we relate to man. Ungodliness refers to our irreverence towards God, our lack of fear for God, our lack of love and pursuit of God. And our unrighteousness and the weakness refers to our injustice towards our neighbor and humanity. And so there is no way there can be a contradiction between the two. There is no way you can be lovey-dovey with God and angry with your neighbor. Men have violated two great commands here. The command to love the Lord with all the odds and the command to love their neighbor. And so God's wrath is rained down from heaven for these two violations. Means ungodliness and means wickedness towards their neighbor. And so verse 19 tells us what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. And so verse 19 is giving us the reason and rationale behind God's wrath being revealed on ungodly. This is the reason because God has shown man the truth. It's plain to them. And verses 19 to 21 begins to speak to us about the means that God speaks and makes things plain to us. And we see in verses 20 if you can look with me. Verse 20 states that since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes were clearly seen. Being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God is so that they are without excuse. And if we look at verse 19 the previous verses is because what may be known of God is manifest in them. This is a reference to our conscience. And this is reinforced by Romans chapter 2 verses 14 to 16 where Paul states that when the Gentiles did not have the law, when they did not have the Torah and did not by nature do what the law required, they were a law of to themselves because of conscience, even though they did not have the Torah. And their conscience would bear witness accusing them or excusing them to regard with judge the secrets of their heart. And so man is judged by creation and is judged by his conscience. Man is judged by a subjective witness, an internal witness, and he is judged by an objective witness at launch, which is creation. And so the argument from verses 19 to 32 mostly is a judgment and indictment upon the Gentiles who did not have the law and the Torah. And so when we look at verse 19 with the reference to conscience you must understand that the conscience that met that God has put in each and every single one of us is a voice of God to us. And so when Paul speaks of this knowledge of God being manifested to the sinner, he is referring to the knowledge that conscience supplies. The sensible understanding, when your heart speaks to you and says don't do that, that's wrong. You have that gut feeling, you ladies like to call it intuition, babe I don't know what it is about her, but she just don't look right to me and she looks fine man, she did nothing wrong, she did nothing, babe it's just something about her. We cannot ignore the voice of conscience, the part inside of us that helps us discern life from love. Brooks describes conscience as the domestic chaplain in our hearts that tells us that day is a God. John Owen describes conscience as being the witness inside of us that creates the highest aggravation of sin. Our conscience is God's officer, his deputy, his vice-regions that speaks in his name. And so Calvin stated that within each and every single one of us, there is a natural instinct and awareness of the divine and awareness that there is a creator. And to prevent anyone, the reason why conscience dwells with the inside of us in God pulley is to prevent any one of us from taking refuge in the pretense of ignorance. And so God himself has planted conscience within each and every single one of us to have a drawing and a sense and a knowing for the divine. And verse 20 tells us that not only is there a voice of conscience but there is a voice of creation. And creation is speaking to us and creation is testifying that there is a God. And Paul's language here in verse 20 is reminiscent of Psalm 19 verses 1 to 4 where the psalmist declares the heavens declare the glory of God and the feminine shows his heavy work. Day unto day unto speech, night unto night reveals his knowledge. There is no speech, no language where their voice has not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the ends of the earth. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun. Calvin described creation as God's theater for his glory. His majesty and his power and his wisdom is on display with beauty and order in the natural world. World testify that God exists and he is glorious. The whole of creation shows the beauty of God, the beauty of God, the beauty of creation communicates to us the beauty of God. The beauty of God in creation is a symphony of diverse and harmonious masterpieces that he has put together in his perfection and creativity. And we can see that not only in the grandeur of the mountains but not only in the expanse of the oceans but right down to the delicate details of a flower petal and the intricate patterns of a snowflake. Even in the gentle whisper of a breeze there is a sense of the divine. In every facet of creation, from the majesty of the galaxies to the complexity of a single cell God's beauty shines forth as a testimony of his glory and the beauty of his creation invites us and calls us into experience the marvel of his handiwork. To contemplate the depths of his wisdom and his love that he should put us in such a complex beautiful ordered universe. Watson said that the natural world alongside the book of scripture is the book of nature which testifies about the glory of God and it's a large volume and God's works abound up in it. So even Solomon when he's looking to convey the truths of God he could even turn to an end and say consider the end loud sluggled. The voice of creation gives us what's known in philosophy as the teleological argument. In other words, intelligence precedes order and beauty. And from the teleological argument we can establish two major propositions. Firstly number one, that the universe exhibits and shows us intricate design and purpose. Second proposition is that the design and purpose of creation in the universe must be a result of an intelligent causation. An intelligent cause and intelligent design and so the conclusion of the teleological argument is that the complexity and order in the universe can only be best explained by an intelligent designer. Just as the watch implies that he's a watchmaker and just as a house implies there's a building the universe implies that there is a creator. And on this premise alone all of us are judged. Paul says without failing to recognize that God is creator he will leave us with no excuse. We will have no defense against the indictments that come from God. Now we come to our last section verses 22 to 33. Paul now provides us with a detailed analysis of the disobedience of the Gentiles towards God. But this also incorporates and includes the Jews who disobeyed the Torah which he'll deal with in chapter 2 which we'll discuss next week. And the disobedience of the Gentiles are detailed in three exchanges, three dark exchanges, the first dark exchanges found in verse 23. That men have exchanged the glory of the mortal God for images. We call it idolatry. When Paul reaches to describe the depths of man's sinful condition and fallenness under the wrath of God he does not jump on to tell us first about sexual sins. He does not go on to tell us about murder and bad biting and gossip and all of these other sins that are listed in the 21 lists of sins. The first thing he addresses, the first thing that we exchange is the glory of God for images. The first problem it deals with is a fundamental problem is the problem of idolatry. And don't think for a moment that because we are bowing down to any image or carry images in our pockets that we are not guilty of this. And from gathering the truth that's contained in this passage we can simply define idolatry as elevating creation above the Creator. Elevating creation and that includes us the creature. Elevating creation above the Creator. What are we elevating above him? What created thing are we elevating above him? It's the elevation of created things that belittles and insults the glory of God. And so the question this morning I want to ask is what do you make of the glory of God? Do we magnify the glory of God in the pursuit of God above any other created thing? Or do we belittle the glory of God by preferring other things opposed to him? What do we exchange in respect to his glory? Each exchange of the Gentiles develops progressively. And don't assume for a moment that you and I are not guilty of idolatry because idolatry is when we put anything else before him. We put ourselves, our needs, our concerns, our preferences, our pursuits, our values above his glory. And so we see this development and progress in these exchanges. And in verse 25 we see that now men begin to exchange the truth about God for a lie. And Osborne states that Paul has now moved from the idea of idolatry being the root cause. And he now shows us how men revel in their idolatry. In that they choose to believe false things about God. They choose the lie over the truth about God. They prefer the lies about God over the truth. Does the sound familiar? Genesis chapter 3, the serpent comes to Eve. Did God really say? Do you know that if you, God knows that if you eat from this fruit your eyes are going to be open and you will be like God. Knowing good from evil and God doesn't want you to be like him. And she believed the lie about God. And the serpent painted God in a bad light and Eve believed the lie about God and how often do we allow Satan to tempt us in this way. Come on, look at me like that when the storms of life are bombarding you. And they're taking long to get back to you and say you got the job. Or when you go through the toughest time in your life, God you don't care about me. You only care about past the plans. You only care about centuries in the back. You don't care about me. You believe in a lie about God. He loves you. It's an evening question. In fact, when the Bible speaks about his love, it speaks about it in past tense. He loves God so loved. You know why? Because the perfect expression of his love towards you was the cross. He needs not prove anything else. He doesn't even need to give you a dream husband. The dream woman. He has proved it over 2000 years ago. Satan loves to whisper in our ears in our most vulnerable moments, telling us that God is not concerned about us. That God doesn't care about us. Or even that God doesn't exist. Or maybe that the God of the Christians and the God of Islam Allah is one and the same. Don't buy into that lie. They are not one and the same. But this also begs the question, why do men choose to prefer the lie over the truth? It was argues that humans have an inherent love for sin. We love the darkness over the light. We love to reject the truth and embrace the lie. By our sin for fallen natures, we are rebels against God's truth and God's ways. We prefer sin because it's pleasurable and it's easiest. It provides us with shortcuts. And sometimes we look upon God's ways as being hard. And you see that when you witness to someone and you tell, and you tell someone about Jesus, the first thing they default to is the idols. Brother, you mean I have to give up my black label. You mean I have to give up my two, three women on the side, we have to give up my corrupt business. We are rebels by nature. Our cases may not be that severe, but we have our Gods. The same depravity that led the Gentiles to prefer the created things over the Creator and to exchange the truth about God for a lie also shows us that men have preferred a degraded form of sexual activity over God's intended expression for sex. Teenagers, this is your time to make promises. I'm just kidding. You need to hear this. Verse 26 to 27, we now see that there's another exchange, an exchange of the natural relations for those that are country to nature, and this we call homosexuality. Verse 26 reads, for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions for the woman exchange, natural relations for those that are country to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passions for another man. The men committing shameless acts with men, receiving in themselves the due penalty of their era. Paul now moves from the idea of sexual impurity in verse 24, and he now shows us how this becomes shameful, dishonorable lusts in verse 26. Paul is not simply saying here that homosexual practices are against the natural sexual functions of the human body. He's saying more than that. He's saying that homosexuality is against God's created order. It's a defiance against his order, and homosexuality in context here is not simply a moral issue, it's a worship issue, it's a theological issue, it's a matter of worship. That we prefer to worship the creature over the Creator, and God allows men and society to gravitate towards this way as a result of the idolatry and the suppression of the truth. Because men have suppressed the truth, they were given over to the futility of their minds, and that's not to say that God cannot save a lesbian, that God cannot save a homosexual, God is busy saving them today, and all over the world. There is nothing too difficult, no one too far out of reach for God. Paul reminded us of that in verse 16 he believed in the power of the gospel, and the power of the gospel can even transform the life of a homosexual. Three dark exchanges, an inconclusion. There's a lot to draw out from this passage, especially when Paul draws for us a vise-less of 21 cents, but I'm going to bring this to a close and to a final point. And on the cross, Jesus not only suffered physical pain and death for us, but he suffered the very wrath of God. He drank the cup of divine judgments, he was afflicted on the cross as though he had broken all of God's laws, yet he broke not one. He was stricken by the father as though he was the greatest sin on earth. He who knew no sin became sensitive, we might become the righteousness of God. Why? Jesus went to the cross for you and I so that we would never have to ever experience the wrath of God, so that we would never ever have to contemplate. Coming into judgment and being without excuse. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God. And a preacher once put it this way and said, "If you were to stand before God in your sin without the righteousness of Christ, if you were to stand before God in your sin, you would cry out for hell." So Jesus would experience the wrath of God so that we would never know what it's like to be handed over by God. Morgan tells the story of a father and daughter was walking through an open, large open field of grass in a Canadian park. And in the distance the father looks and he sees a huge field fire raging fiercely. The father looked and saw this field fire and eventually realized that the fire would engulf him. There was no way to run. The father knew that there was only one escape. So what the father did was he ran quickly, caught a flame of fire. And right where he was, where him and his daughter were, they decided to start burning a large patch of grass. And so he ignited the grass where they were standing. And a fire had burned a whole section around him, a huge section around him. And when that fierce father's fire had approached, he could not harm them or approached him. Even though the girl was terrified. The flames could not reach them because they were standing where the fire had been. When you place your life in Christ, you are standing where the fire had been. Where the wrath of God had already been, you standing on safe grounds from the wrath of God. And the whole of humanity is on a collision course with the wrath of God. And you saw this with the Olympic opening. Society is a fast moving towards judgments, exchanging the truth for the life. And the world is on a collision course with the wrath of God. But we are safe when we are standing on him, amen. Amen. Him that said on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Amen. Can we stand this morning? [MUSIC PLAYING]