Sermon Tone Analysis
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*The Other Side of the Gospel*
*Romans 1:18-32 August 5, 2001*
* *
*Scripture Reading: *"Who Am I?" by Neil Anderson in Victory Over the Darkness.
*Introduction:*
Why did we read this list about who we are?
It is because we tend to forget the truth about who were are – about who God intends for us to be.
You might have thought you were O.K., but unless you believe what we just read, you might not be O.K.
So maybe you need to know why you might not be O.K.
What is it that you need?
Paul would tell us that it is the gospel – a righteousness from God.
/Introduce Romans 1:1-17 -------/
Now there are two sides to every story or issue.
/Johnny and Suzie - fighting:/
We cannot truly understand the whole story or issue until we hear all sides.
Most issues are not so simple – like the gospel.
Like if I said you need righteousness from God, you might not be convinced because you don't know why.
You haven't seen the need.
You thought everything was O.K.
But there is another side to the story.
The gospel is the "good news."
But the good news means nothing if there is not "bad news."
We understand much better by knowing that there are opposites and comparisons.
The picture of the human race after the "fall" is not a pretty one.
We must know our need for the good news.
We are often not even aware of how bad our condition is – how bad the news is about us.
/Illus.:
The bed chart of the sin sick human condition./
/Illus.: Focus on the Family Newsletter, July, 2001:/
Like Paul, Dr. Dobson does not want to be sensationalistic, but we need to understand the bad news if we are ever to do anything about it.
We are reminded about the world situation in the "days of Noah."
5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
6 ¶ The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth— men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air— for I am grieved that I have made them."
8 ¶ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
(Genesis 6:5-8 NIVUS)
The picture Paul paints here is an ugly one.
I confess that there are some neighborhoods that I dislike driving through, and I avoid them if I can.
My avoiding them does not change them or eliminate them.
God’s description of sinners is not a pretty one, but we cannot avoid it.
This section does not teach evolution (that man started low and climbed high), but /de-evolution:/ he started high and, because of sin, sank lower than the beasts.
Four stages mark man’s tragic de-evolution.
*Big Question:*
/What is the truth about man's condition that reveals his greatest need? /
*I.
Cycle One*
* A.
Narrative (vv.
18-20) - Ignorance*
1.
It is a simple ignoring of the evidence, a self-induced blindness.
2. God has made the truth plain enough, and He has made Himself evident.
We will find that ignorance is no defense.
3. That’s how sin starts—ignoring reality.
“God?
What God?”
Human history began with man knowing God.
Human history is not the story of a beast that worshiped idols, and then evolved into a man worshiping one God.
Human history is just the opposite: man began knowing God, but turned from the truth and rejected God.
God revealed Himself to man through creation, the things that He made.
From the world around him, man knew that there was a God who had the wisdom to plan and the power to create.
Man realized too that this Creator was eternal . . .
“His eternal power and divine nature or the Godhead” (Rom.
1:20), since God could not be created if He is the Creator.
These facts about God are not hidden in creation; they are “clearly seen” (Rom.
1:20).
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth His handiwork” (Ps.
19:1).
Men knew the truth about God, but they suppressed it and did not allow this truth to work in their lives.
They suppressed it in order that they might live their own lives and not be convicted by God’s truth.
The result, of course, was refusing the truth (Rom.
1:21-22), and then turning the truth into a lie (Rom.
1:25).
Finally, man so abandoned the truth that he became like a beast in his thinking and in his living.
* B.
Implication*
Man's greatest need is righteousness from God because he has lost this true knowledge of God through willful ignorance.
* C.
Illustration*
* D.
Application*
*II.
Cycle Two*
* A.
Narrative (vv.
21-23) - Idolatry*
1.
It is failing to glorify or to give thanks to the Creator.
2. It is bowing before created things.
Man knew God; this is clear.
But man did not /want/ to know God or honor Him as God.
Instead of being thankful for all that God had given him, man refused to thank God or give Him the glory He deserves.
Man was willing to use God’s gifts, but he was not willing to worship and praise God for His gifts.
The result was an empty mind and a darkened heart.
Man the worshiper became man the philosopher, but his empty wisdom only revealed his foolishness.
Paul summarized all of Greek history in one dramatic statement: “the times of this ignorance” (Acts 17:30).
/1Corinthians 1:18-31 is worth reading at this point./
Having held down God’s truth and refusing to acknowledge God’s glory, man was left without a god; and man is so constituted that he must worship something.
If he will not worship the true God, he will worship a false god, /even/ /if/ /he/ /has/ /to/ /manufacture/ /it/ /himself/!
This fact about man accounts for his propensity to idolatry.
Man exchanged the glory of the true God for substitute gods that he himself made.
He exchanged glory for shame, incorruption for corruption, truth for lies.
Note that first on the list of false gods is /man/.
This fulfilled Satan’s purpose when he told Eve, “You shall be as God!” (Gen.
3:5) “Glory to man in the highest!” Satan encouraged man to say.
Instead of man being made in God’s image, man made gods in his own image—and then descended so low as to worship birds, beasts, and bugs!
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