Good morning, I do hope you have a copy of God's Word with you this day, and that you will join me in Romans chapter 1.
We're doing it, and we're in Romans today.
Now, two weeks ago, we began our study of these six verses, Romans 1, 18-23.
But time prevented us from finishing, so I'm eager to progress through them with you this morning.
I really don't like it when our studies get disjointed like they have been over these past months.
But, I trust and hope that you trust in God's providential reign over even the smallest details of our church's life.
So, here we are. Let's begin by reading our text, and then I'll try to remind you what we have learned so far before we proceed together.
So, Romans chapter 1, verse 18-23.
Before I read it, let me remind you, beloved, that this is God's Word to us.
It was written for His glory and our good.
So, we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and to obey its commands.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
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.
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.
So, in verses 16 and 17 of this chapter,
Paul states that the gospel is the power of God for salvation.
For in it, the righteousness of God,
so the righteousness that comes from God,
is revealed from faith for faith.
As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
These two verses, I have told you repeatedly,
are the thesis for the entirety of this letter.
Paul tells us the specific case that he is going to make,
and then in verse 18,
he zooms back and begins his explanation.
In verse 18, he tells us why anyone would care that the gospel is the power of God.
Why does it matter that it's the power of God for salvation?
He begins telling us why we need the righteousness of God that comes through faith.
And the reason he tells us is,
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
He's going to spend a bunch of time making the case that every single person has been ungodly and unrighteous.
And therefore, apart from the power of God for salvation,
we will experience now and forever the wrath of God.
We thought some together about the wrath of God two weeks ago
from texts like Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse 20,
where Jeremiah records,
Thus says the Lord God,
Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place upon man and beast,
upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground.
It will burn and not be quenched.
And in the New Testament,
Colossians chapter 3, verse 5 and 6,
Paul says there,
Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you,
sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,
which is idolatry.
So he says in verse 5,
Put away the ungodliness and unrighteousness.
And then in verse 6, he says of Colossians 3,
On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.
God's wrath is a settled reality against sin.
He is a just God,
and he justly does and will punish sin.
We thought a bit about how we want this to be true.
We want the world to be set right.
We noted that God's wrath does not discriminate
as it is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
I told you that these two words,
ungodliness and unrighteousness,
are very similar in the Greek language.
They're almost synonyms.
The first stresses a severed relationship with God.
The second focuses on the activity that proceeds
from that severed relationship.
So both who we are in our sin
and then what happens out of who we are.
The one on whom God's wrath is revealed
is not living as an image bearer of God,
but in contradiction to that created purpose.
And in so doing, suppresses the truth.
Lives in contradiction to the truth.
We then considered verse 19,
which says,
for what can be known about God is plain to them
because God has shown it to them.
The four here is referring to the suppression of the truth.
This truth of who God is.
Sinful man denies or rejects the truth
that God has revealed to them.
And this is why, verse 20 says,
they are without excuse.
This is not an issue of what cannot be known,
but rather one of what will not be known.
Truth right there for the taking
that is refused to be taken up and understood.
Verse 20 says,
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 two weeks ago,
with a long quotation from a commentary,
we considered the two things
that can be clearly observed in the natural world.
First, that there is a creator God.
And secondly, that he is eternally powerful.
And so, mankind is without excuse.
This suppressed knowledge is enough to damn a person.
But it is not enough to save them.
They are without excuse.
But this is not saving knowledge.
This is why Paul is so eager to preach the gospel.
This is why he wants his original audience
and you and I to understand
that salvation comes by grace alone,
through faith alone,
in the personal work of Jesus Christ alone.
This is why he is 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.
Right?
It's a gospel that can save.
It's powerful to save.
Because mankind,
in our fallen state,
suppresses the truth.
The gospel is the powerful thing
that's employed by the Spirit
to break through our darkened hearts,
our foolish minds,
and bring us back to God.
It is why he will press at the church
in chapter 10,
where he says,
How then will they call on Him
in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in Him
of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear
without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach
unless they are sent,
as it is written,
how beautiful are the feet
of those who preach the good news?
And let me tell you, beloved,
that the preaching he's talking about here
includes what we do
on Sunday mornings from the stage.
It includes that,
but it is not only that,
it is also your gospel proclamation
in the world in which you live
and where you go
as you share the good news.
Now, I think this sufficiently brings us
to the last three verses of this text.
That felt real fast.
But I will read them one more time
to get our minds moving toward
the truth contained therein.
Verse 21 and following.
Four, 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.
There is in our text today
a lesson concerning the thinking of mankind,
the thinking faculty of man.
We've seen knowledge, language throughout it.
Look back up in verse 18,
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
And verse 19,
for what can be known about God
is plain to them.
And then in verse 20,
having been clearly perceived.
And now, verse 21,
they knew God.
They became futile in their thinking.
And then verse 22,
claiming to be wise,
faculty of the mind,
they became fools.
There's a lot of thinking language
in this text.
Now, remember,
Paul is zooming back
and telling us why we ought to care
that the gospel is the power of God for salvation.
So, don't miss this.
Paul is talking about mankind in this text.
He is speaking in past tense
about a problem that began in the garden.
It is a problem that began with Adam and Eve
rejecting the truth,
acting on a lie,
and learning things that they could not unlearn.
Paul is referring to the state of mankind
ever since,
of which we are numbered apart
from God's intervening grace in our lives.
Paul is teaching that without God's intervention,
the way of man is a digression
away from the truth,
and sound reasoning not toward it.
Now, mankind is not altogether left
without the power to reason.
God in His common grace to mankind
has allowed us, mankind,
to think,
to order our societies,
and discover truth in creation.
And don't we as a people
do this with mixed success?
Sometimes we are improving upon our societies
and discovering amazing things,
and sometimes we move in the opposite direction.
Part of our image-bearing quality as humans
is our ability to reason,
albeit imperfectly.
So we still carry around the ability
to, in some measure,
be image-bearers of God.
Now, the study of how we reason
is called epistemology.
That may be your one big word for the day.
And represented in this room right now
is a mix of epistemological standpoints.
So, we have amongst us,
and probably embedded in all of us,
a little bit of the modernist.
Modernism is where we get,
comes out of the Enlightenment,
where we get things like
the scientific method,
measurable stuff.
We want to be able to have an idea
and test to see if it's true
or if it's not.
This, of course, has some strengths
and it has some weaknesses.
Beyond the modernists,
or the very cleverly called
post-modernists,
most defines my generation.
We think of things,
phrases like,
well, you have your truth
and I have my truth.
This is a post-modern way of thinking.
You can imagine an example for a moment.
Some of us were standing on a sidewalk
and having a conversation
and a car accident happened
just out on the street.
We would all have a different experience
of that car accident.
Some of us may have been facing it
and seen what happened.
Some of us might have been
particularly attuned to the noise
that it made as it wasn't in our sight.
Some might have really smelled the accident,
the screeching of tires,
things like this.
And we'd all have something to share
of our experience.
Yet, objectively,
there was a car accident
and something real happened
in that accident.
The post-modernist tends
to take up that truth
and make it the truth.
What I saw in that car accident
was the thing that absolutely happened
and becomes dismissive
of other experiences.
And now, even more cleverly,
we find ourselves,
and really,
they're going to rename these
at some point, I'm sure,
the epistemological standpoint
of many particularly young people,
but we are not,
as older people,
immune to this,
is called,
ready for it,
post-post-modernism.
It's got to stop at some point.
We can't have post-post-post-modernism,
I don't think.
Many people today
do not believe
that the truth
can be arrived at.
Just pick an issue
and get on the internet.
There's a lot of swirling facts out there.
It's difficult to arrive at the truth.
And because
this is so unsettling,
and really is a result
of post-modernity,
so unsettling,
people who are functioning
in this post-post-modern way
will define the truth
by their feelings.
If it makes me feel good,
it must be good.
If it makes me feel bad,
then it must be bad.
As I said,
we are all a mix
of these epistemological viewpoints.
And we must be careful
because their ultimate end,
although they have some value,
their ultimate end
is a digression
from the saving truth
of the gospel.
Their ultimate end
of any of these ways of thinking
moves away from God
and not toward Him.
We must recognize
that we will not
reason our way
to heaven.
It will not happen.
We need
the revelation of God
to be saved.
We need Him
to speak the truth
to us.
We will not arrive at it
on our own.
We need the intervening grace of God
worked in us
by the power of the Spirit
in the illumination
of His Word.
Now in Romans 12,
beginning of verse 2,
as Paul turns his letter
to practical application,
he says,
Do not be conformed
to this world,
but be transformed
by the renewal
of your mind.
So if we have been saved
by the intervening grace of God,
then we are categorically different
than the description
being given here.
We are not those
who the wrath of God
is being revealed to,
but we are yet
to be fully
sanctified.
We are not arriving.
We don't have
perfect reasoning
yet.
This side of glory,
we still carry around
the baggage
of the curse.
Last Sunday,
I was sick.
I tried to push through.
I actually came to the building
at 8 o'clock.
I could just barely lift my arms.
And so,
I went home.
I still have this body
of death.
I'm still carrying
the burden
of sin.
And it doesn't just affect
my body,
it also affects
my mind.
Which is why
Paul says in Romans 12,
to be transformed
by the renewal
of your mind.
A thing that must be
pursued
to reason
properly
as God
reveals Himself
to us
in His Word.
But what does this
renewing work
look like?
If you look at
verse 21,
the first part of it
says,
for although
they knew God,
they did not honor Him
as God
or give
thanks
to Him.
So,
Paul here states
in the negative
that a renewing mind
will honor God
and will give
thanks
to Him.
The person who has
been saved
by Christ
will
not live the way
these people live,
will give thanks
to Him.
Do you find in yourself
a mind
that is bent
toward
the praise of God
as He has revealed Himself
in the Bible?
Do you thank Him
in all circumstances,
trusting Him
in joy
and in sorrow?
Beloved,
we ought to be
growing in these matters,
these matters of
honor
and
thanksgiving.
It ought to be
an increasing reality
in our lives
if we find ourselves
in Christ.
I think
that the Westminster
Larger Catechism
will help us
at this point.
I certainly
hope that it will.
I always,
with some trepidation,
read long things,
so I hope this will
serve us well
this morning.
Certainly,
we find in our text,
particularly in verse 23,
a breaking of the
Second Commandment.
But I want to draw
our attention this morning
to the First
Commandment.
In the Westminster
Larger Catechism
in the form of
Catechesis,
question 103 says,
what is the First
Commandment?
And the answer is,
the First Commandment is,
Thou shalt have
no other gods
before me.
This is Exodus
chapter 20.
Thou shalt have
no other gods
before me.
So think in these terms
as Paul here is talking
about.
In the negative,
he's saying,
if people are
redeemed by Christ,
we will
honor
God.
And we will
give thanks
to
God.
So the
Westminster
Larger Catechism
follows question
103 with
question 104,
which says,
what are the duties
required in the
First Commandment?
So just listen to
these carefully
and think,
is this
the
bent?
Is this the way
my heart
tends
toward?
The answer,
the Westminster
Divines wrote,
the duties required
in the First
Commandment are
the knowing
and acknowledging
of God to be
the only true
God and our
God and to
worship and
glorify Him
accordingly by
thinking,
meditating,
remembering,
highly esteeming,
honoring,
adoring,
choosing,
loving,
desiring,
fearing,
believing,
trusting,
hoping,
delighting,
rejoicing in
Him,
being zealous
for Him,
calling upon
Him,
giving all
praise and
thanks,
and yielding
all obedience
and submission
to Him,
with the whole
man,
being careful
in all things
to please Him,
and sorrowful
when in anything
He has offended,
and walking
humbly
with Him.
And I know
that you can't
see it,
but there's a
footnote for
every single
one of those
words where
they have
seen this
in the
Scripture.
These are the
duties required
in the first
commandment,
right?
To have no
other God
before God.
God,
if you do not
find in
yourself a
mind that
is bent
in this
way,
then it is
possible that
you may be
counted among
those who
are futile in
their thinking
and have
foolish,
darkened
hearts.
Westminster
Larger
Catechism,
question 105.
What are the
sins forbidden
in the first
commandment?
The answer,
the sins
forbidden in
the first
commandment
are atheism
in denying
or not having
a God,
idolatry in
having or
worshipping
more gods
than one,
or instead
of the true
God,
the not
having and
vouching Him
for God
and our
God,
the omission
or neglect
of anything
due to Him,
required in
His commandment,
ignorance,
forgetfulness,
misapprehensions,
false opinions,
unworthy and
wicked thoughts
of Him,
bold and
curious searching
into His
secrets,
all profaneness,
hatred of
God,
self-love,
self-seeking,
and all other
inordinate and
immoderate setting
of our mind,
will,
or affections
upon other
things and
taking them
off from Him
in whole or
in part,
vain credulity,
unbelief,
heresy,
misbelief,
distrust,
despair,
incorrigibleness,
and insensibleness
under judgments,
hardness of heart,
pride,
presumption,
carnal security,
tempting of God,
using unlawful means
and trusting in lawful,
sorry,
using of unlawful means
and trusting in lawful means,
carnal delights and joys,
corrupt,
blind,
and indiscreet zeal,
lukewarmness and deadness
in the things of God,
estranging ourselves
and apostatizing from God,
praying or giving any
religious worship
to saints,
angels,
or any other creatures,
all compacts
and consulting with the devil
and hearkening
to his suggestions,
making men the lords
of our faith and conscience,
sliding and despising
God and his commands,
resisting and grieving
of a spirit,
discontent and impatience
at his dispensations,
charging him foolishly
for the evil he inflicts on us,
and ascribing the praise
of any good we either are,
have,
or can do
to fortune,
idols,
ourselves,
or any other creature.
Again,
a scripture reference
for every single one
of those phrases
or words.
Did you know
there was so much
packed into that
first commandment?
You see,
if you find
that you are
a transgressor
of the first commandment,
my plea with you
this day
is that you would repent
of your unrighteousness,
an unrighteousness
that suppresses the truth,
an unrighteousness
on which the wrath
of God
is being revealed,
and that you would
throw yourself
on the mercy
of intervening grace.
The offer
of the gospel
is made
to you
this day.
Having already
found yourself
in Christ,
praise be to God,
we are counted
as righteous
before him,
justified before him,
and now being sanctified,
we get to repent
and believe afresh
again
and again
and again.
The righteous
shall live
by faith.
Renewing our faith,
renewing our faith,
renewing our faith.
Finding yourself
this day
outside the grace
of God?
The gospel
is powerful
to save.
The gospel
can save you
if you would
just believe
that it will.
So we see
this digression
of mankind,
a digression
that we have all
once been
or possibly
are this morning
guilty of.
Verse 22 says,
claiming to be wise,
they became
fools.
God's declaration
in this inspired text
written by Paul
is that the people
who think they're wise
in this world
are fools.
Paul writes
in 1 Corinthians 1
and verse 18,
for the word
of the cross
is folly
to those
who are perishing.
But to us
who are being saved,
it is the power
of God.
And in Philippians 3,
verse 18
and following,
for many of whom
I have often told you
and now tell you
even with tears
walk as enemies
of the cross
of Christ.
Their end
is destruction,
their God
is their belly,
and they glory
in their shame
with minds
set on earthly things.
But our citizenship
is in heaven
and from it
we await
a Savior,
the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Claiming to be wise,
right,
glorying in their
shame,
they become fools.
words.
In this past week,
I feel like I was
just bombarded
with the foolishness
of the world
trying to be
framed as
wisdom.
we do a program
on Fridays
with some boys
from our church
and in partnership
with Grace Community Church.
We call it
Corum Deo,
which is Latin for
before the face of God.
And we've got
10 11-13 year olds
and when we begin
the morning
we ask if they have
any prayer requests.
And I will tell you
that young boys
ask for prayer
the way many
old men do
because they have
twisted ankles
and people they know
who are sick.
And I often try
to add
something
of
more eternal
substance
to
our praying.
And this past Friday
I just couldn't
open my mouth
because everything
that was going to
come out of it
was going to be
terribly depressing
to 11-13 year olds.
And so as we prayed
with them
and for them
for toes
and ankles
and parents
with sniffles
I said
come Lord Jesus
this world
is just
falling apart.
And Paul here
is not teaching us
that there's this
progression
that we're experiencing
that progression
but that it has
been this way
since
the fall.
Adam and Eve
in the garden
verse 22
claiming to be wise
they acted
and they became
fools
and all of
mankind
ever since.
Verse 23
says
and exchange
the glory
of the
immortal God
for
images
resembling
mortal man
and birds
and animals
and creeping
things.
Turned from
the praise of God
to idolatry.
and we will
talk at length
about this
in the text
that will conclude
chapter 1
Lord willing
next week.
Beloved
we ought not
to be surprised
when the world
rejects the ways
of our God.
I see so many
Christians
so shocked
when the world
acts in contradiction
to our God.
This text
makes it clear
why they do.
Their ungodliness
and unrighteousness
suppress the truth.
It is the natural
way of the
fallen man
to bend
away from
God
and his ways.
Now it is
good for us
to reason
in the marketplace
so don't
hear me
asking you
to disengage
from the world
in which we live.
By all
means
reason
with people.
By common
grace
the world
has reasoning
faculty.
We want to
labor for
an equitable
society.
But
what this
world needs
most
is the
intervening
grace of
God
found in
the powerful
gospel
of Jesus
Christ.
Paul doesn't
go on his
missionary journeys
into cities
and have
political
dialogue
with people
in that city.
What does he
do?
He goes to
the synagogue
a place
where people
would have
come for
the worship
of God
and he
reasons
with them
from the
scripture
that Jesus
is the
Christ.
This should
be the
primary
thrust
of what
we do.
Knowing
that
we cannot
reason
people
politically
into heaven.
It's not
going to
happen.
God is
going to
make this
world new
one day
and we
as the
church
are meant
to be
about
making
disciples
of the
Lord
Jesus
Christ.
It ought
to be
the
central
thing
that
we
do
in
everything
that
we
do.
So I
pray that
as the
world
assails
us
with its
warped
thinking
we will
respond
with the
truth
that we
were once
like
them.
That we
have been
saved by
a loving
kind
God
and that
we will
extend
the
saving
offer
of the
gospel
to them.
And I
pray that
we would
not just
be
theological
heads
but
transformed
people.
So in
closing let
me just
read the
entirety of
Romans 12
2 for
our benefit.
Do not
be conformed
to this
world but
be transformed
by the
renewal of
your mind
that by
testing you
may discern
what is the
will of
God what
is good
and acceptable
and perfect.
Let's pray
together.
Let's pray
together.
here.