Romans 3 Man Innocent or Guilty
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Man… innocent or guilty Romans 1:18-32
Man… innocent or guilty Romans 1:18-32
Intro
There are 5 divisions on this book
Sin - it answers the question, Why do I need to be saved? What do I need to do to be a Christian?
Salvation - It’s about How can I be saved?
Sanctification - What happens after I am saved? How do I grow as a Christian after I have become a believer?
Sovereignty of God - Why does God save us? It discusses the relationship between Christians and Israel, and how God chooses us.
Service - How we can serve God.
Begin with sin. It’s kind of like the old adage… do you want the good news or the bad news first? Paul gives us the bad news first. This section is about our desperate need.
ILL - Jeweler lays out a black piece of cloth to show beautiful stones… The stones look gorgeous on the black back drop. That’s what Paul does. He is going to present good news… like the diamonds, but first he must lay the black backdrop… our sin and need for salvation.
We appreciate salvation more when we understand where we’ve got to come from.
Imagine a courtroom scene. That’s kind of how Paul lays this section out. The case of this courtroom scene is man's guilt or innocence before God. The charge is that man has deliberately rejected God. The prosecutor is Paul, the accused is all of humanity, the defense is that we are without excuse (v. 21), the evidence is what we're going to look at tonight. Paul builds a case. The verdict is in v. 32 -- capital punishment, that's what we deserve.
Paul is building a case against humanity step by step.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
Paul starts right off with the Wrath of God. He’s not talking about thunder and lightening… He is talking present tense… Let’s look at the Wrath of God
I. The Wrath of God
I. The Wrath of God
What is it?
What is it?
Not violent temper…
Greek words for anger -
Thermos - blast of anger… sudden temper
Orge - controlled anger
What is it? It’s Controlled Anger.
What is it? It’s Controlled Anger.
God gets angry but he never looses control.
God gets angry at sin.
ILL - if someone kidnapped your child, would you get angry… of course.
God become angry when he sees people sin… doing things that are wrong.
Why does God get angry with sin?
Why does God get angry with sin?
Why does God get angry with sin? It destroys lives.
Why does God get angry with sin? It destroys lives.
He gets angry at sin because it destroys people’s lives and relationships. It damages what he made and twits our purpose. God made the world perfect, but sin has brought on hatred, violence, wars, prejudice, injustice…
If God didn’t get angry at all of this, he would not be worth worshipping.
There are two objects of God’s Wrath.
There are two objects of God’s Wrath.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
1. God’s wrath is revealed against godlessness.
1. God’s wrath is revealed against godlessness.
Godlessness simply means living as if there is no God. It doesn’t mean you don’t believe there is a God, you just don’t act as if there is a God. You don’t think He makes a difference and many believe there are no consequences for bad behavior - sin.
2. God’s wrath is revealed against Wickedness
2. God’s wrath is revealed against Wickedness
Wickedness is living with out any rules. You are your own judge. You don’t answer to anyone but yourself. If you believe it’s ok, then it’s ok. You live without rules.
Godlessness is sin against God. Wickedness is sin against mankind.
18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
Vs. 18 is a summary of everything else we are going to look at.
Godlessness - vs 19-23 & Wickedness vs 24-32
Paul is in court and he says… People are guilty. He says people are guilty of
Paul charges humanity with 3 counts of godlessness and 3 counts of wickedness
Paul charges humanity with 3 counts of godlessness and 3 counts of wickedness
Godlessness comes before wickedness because if your vertical relationship with God is not right, your horizontal relationships with each other will not be right. If you are not right with God, you will treat people wrongly…
II. People are guilty of Godlessness (Romans 1:19-23)
II. People are guilty of Godlessness (Romans 1:19-23)
People are guilty of living as though God does not exist. However God has revealed himself to us.
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
Paul says God has revealed himself to mankind and it’s...
1. It’s unmistakable.
1. It’s unmistakable.
IOW it’s plain to see. Look at the stars… at any of creation.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Many people feel so close to God when they are out in nature. That’s because he reveals himself in nature. It’s unmistakable.
ILL A Russian cosmonaut circled the earth and said, "I searched for God all over the heavens and I didn't see him. Therefore there is no God." Three weeks later John Glenn went up and circled the earth three times. John Glenn is a Christian. The first thing he said when he came back down, "I saw God everywhere. I saw His glory. I felt His presence, His closeness. I saw His majesty." God is revealed in nature.
2. It’s Universal.
2. It’s Universal.
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
The evidence is overwhelming. All of creation points to the fact that there is a God. Whether you're in Europe, Africa, Asia, America... everybody can look up and see the same stars, the world around them. Whether you're educated or under educated it's obvious, unmistakable, universal.
What does creation teach us about God?
A. He is eternal
A. He is eternal
His eternal power…
When you look at creation… Someone designed this. It just didn’t happen by accident.
Saying there was no intelligent design is like putting a bunch of plastic and metal in a bag, shaking it up and pulling out an Apple Watch - it doesn't happen.
B. He is Powerful
B. He is Powerful
He created everything… that’s pretty powerful.
C. He is Organized
C. He is Organized
His eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen...
33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
3. It’s undeniable.
3. It’s undeniable.
Men are without excuse...
We are defenseless.
20 There are things about him that people cannot see—his eternal power and all the things that make him God. But since the beginning of the world those things have been easy to understand by what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do.
People ask, “What about people who have never heard about Jesus?” Paul is saying that everyone is without excuse because of creation. We have a complex creation that demand we believe in a creator. They may not know much about God, but they know He exists.
Archaeoligists have never found a civilization of atheists. Although the religion may be distorted and way off from the truth, archaeologists say they can find cities without walls, buildings, public areas. But you never find cities without some kind of temple or worship area. It may be way off base but there is a natural desire in man to worship. Because God made us that way.
God has revealed himself
God has revealed himself
We don’t want to admit that because it makes us accountable to Him.
Look at what man has done with revelation
How have people responded to God’s Revelation?
How have people responded to God’s Revelation?
Paul is building his case against humanity...
He says we have done two things with God’s revelation of himself.
1. Man represses the truth about God.
1. Man represses the truth about God.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
Greek word - to hold down or restrain it.
We try to ignore or bury the truth of God. Paul is saying that we are intellectually dishonest. We try to bury and hide the truth.
ILL - Remember Watergate? Watergate wasn’t about wha they did wrong, it was about the cover up.
People don’t want others to know the truth so they try to repress it and cover it up. They don’t want people to know about God.
ILL - Do you think that the average educator likes to put the creation story in the text book? Of course not. They suppress the truth. Evolution and other theories are literally theoretically! They can't be proven any more than creation can be proven. You have to accept evolution or creation by faith. Neither of them can be proven because nobody was there.
ILL - In public school they celebrate Christmas, they get Christmas vacation and they can sing Christmas songs as long as they don't mention Jesus. Men suppress the truth.
ILL - One lady complained about the nativity scene in the mall: "There goes those Christians again! Always butting into our holidays!" Men suppress the truth.
2. Man rejects the truth about God.
2. Man rejects the truth about God.
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
When someone refuses to admit they know someone, they reject them.
We reject God when we refuse to give God His glory.
We reject God when we refuse to give God His glory.
We think we are self sufficient… that’s what evolution is all about. It’s an attempt to take the glory ofr the creation of the world away from God. People would rather say we are all an accident instead of giving God his glory.
Never accept someone’s philosophy without getting to know the person.
When you study Nihilism, study who Nietzsche really was. He was the philosopher for Hitler who was one of the first to say God is dead. He was dying of an STD when he committed suicide.
When you study Existentialism, study who Kierkeguard really was.
Psy - Read who Freud was. Incestuous relationship with his mother.
Carl Marx went crazy from an STD. communism.
A person’s lifestyle determines their philosophy. When people are living a certain way, they will develop a system of beliefs to justify their actions. Look at people’s philosophy and determine value of what they are saying by the results of their lives.
We reject God when we refuse to give thanks.
We reject God when we refuse to give thanks.
3. Man replaces the truth of God.
3. Man replaces the truth of God.
This is an inevitable consequence. There is a natural sequence here. First you repress it, then you reject it and finally you replace it.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
When we replace God with something else in our lives it's called idolatry. There is a God shaped hole in each one of us & when we remove God from our lives, something will try to fill that hole. When it’s anything but God, it’s idolatry.
We don’t have idols like some primitive cultures do, bu we make idols out of cars, houses, sports teams, hobbies, ...
God has warned against this for along time...
3 “You must not have any other god but me. 4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.
So Paul gives us the bad news first. Man is Guilty.
The results can be seen in
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
If you reject the light, you end up in darkness. They were educated fools.
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.
fool = moron
Paul says if you don’t believe in God, you are a MORON
III. Man is Guilty of Wickedness (Rom 1:24-32)
III. Man is Guilty of Wickedness (Rom 1:24-32)
When you repress, reject, replace God it automatically causes all kinds of problems in our lives. When your vertical relationship is not right your horizontal relationship is not right. Godlessness leads to wickedness. Godlessness is the root, wickedness is the fruit. If I try to live like there's no God, it's going to cause all kinds of problems in my life.
There is an important phrase Paul uses … God gave them over...
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
Paul says that God handed them over. It doesn’t mean he quit loving them, or that there is no hope for them or that they cannon turn back to the Lord.
ILL - Son who is addicted… causing all sorts of chaos in your home. He is living an immoral lifestyle and disrupting your home. You tell him that he the age of an adult and that he can either leave or change, so he leaves. Sadly, you give him over to the lifestyle he chooses. You did not want to, but you gave him over.
This is what the Prodigal son was about. He wants his inheritance and heads out to party and finds himself in a pig pen. He hits bottom and comes to his senses. I will go home and ask to be one of my dad’s workers. He goes home and his father welcomes him back. God will do the same. God doesn’t force us to stay… he will let us choose.
What does it mean when God gives someone over?
What does it mean when God gives someone over?
What does it mean when God gives someone over? He allows people to reap the results of their own choices.
What does it mean when God gives someone over? He allows people to reap the results of their own choices.
God will let you have what you think you want. You asked for it, you got it. You can make a mess of your life and God will not stop you. You are given free reign to ruin your life… you choose your lifestyle. But you cannot choose the results of your lifestyle.
That’s what the Wrath of God in vs. 18 is about.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
God allows people to do their own thing and when they reap the results of that, that is the wrath of God in their life. We can see the wrath of God everywhere. Broken homes, child abuse, VD, all kinds of promises. That's the wrath of God. When we get ourselves in a mess, God doesn't bail us out. We reap what we sow. God doesn't have to send fire and brimstone on most of us, because the effects of living without God brings its own problems and destruction. God punishes sin with sin. That is His wrath.
When people say they can live anyway they want to… they don’t have to answer to anyone… It’s like a guy that jumps off of One Shell Square. On the way down he passes a window cleaner who asks, hows it going… so far so good the jumper says. He just hasn’t hit bottom yet, but he will.
You may know people like this. They keep making bad choices and messing up their lives but they haven’t hit bottom yet. We bring this on ourselves.
God gave them over to three kids of wickedness.
God gave them over to three kids of wickedness.
1. God gave them over to immoral passions
1. God gave them over to immoral passions
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
Our culture has gone crazy. We have lost the ability to be embarrassed, and we should be embarrassed they way people act. Some people want to go out and sow their wild oats and pray for a crop failure.
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
What’s the lie? It’s the original lie Satan gave Adam and Eve.
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The original temptation was to be like God.
The lies is two things: 1- you can sin and get away with it. 2- you can be your own god.
The lies is two things: 1- you can sin and get away with it. 2- you can be your own god.
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Paul says Amen because it’s appropriate to say amen anytime something good about God is said. It means so be it.
2. God gave them over to indecent perversions.
2. God gave them over to indecent perversions.
26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.
The Romans did not need any explanation. They were a corrupt society like ours. Paul said their next step was their un-natural perversions in life.
It is obvious that male and female bodies are created for each other. Their perversion was unnatural and they received the due penalty in themselves. It’s self inflicted. There is despair, loss of identity. The term Gay is ironic since most homosexual people I have ever met are not happy. It’s not natural and frustrating.
14 of the first 15 Caesars were homosexual. The DSM used to say homosexuallity was an illness, but it’s really a choice people make. It’s a learned behavior and it can be un-learned and has been by many.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
inflamed - burned out… Paul says they burned out with lust for each other. When you live a life of any perversion you will not be satisfied and you will burn out.
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by brimstone and fire. In their place today is the Dead Sea.
Paul says God allows people to be involved in immoral passions and indecent perversions in which they receive in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Sometimes it's a hell on earth. They don't worry about a hell in the future; it's hell on earth because of the guilt and the problems. Immoral passions, indecent perversions and irrational practices
3. God gave them over to Irrational Practices.
3. God gave them over to Irrational Practices.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
When you have a corrupted mind, you do things that do not make sense at all. Paul gives 21 different types of sins here.
It all begins with the mind.
They way you think affects the way you act.
They way you think affects the way you act.
There are people who are evil, greedy, malice, gossips, slanderers, insolent, arrogant, senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. In Rome, when Paul wrote this, if a man didn't like something that his slave did he could kill him on the spot. It was the owners right.
In Rome, babies were of no value so they could be put out on the street. secular historians state that 30-40 babies per day would be out out on the street to die. We do the same thing today - abortion. In LA it is 8973 babies thrown out of the 64,497 births or 12%.
Child Abuse, spousal abuse is on the increase…
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Misery loves company. We think if we can get more people doing something with us, we will feel better about what we are doing and people will accept it. Paul states that people approved of the evil things others were doing. Instead of being ashamed of some of the behavior that has become all to common, we applaud it.
No one would have thought we would have the games or the movies or the TV shows we have today that promote violence, immorality and out right perversion. Instead of being ashamed, we give Academy Awards for such.
Paul has not pulled any punches. He paints a bleak picture… one that is opposite of evolution. Evolution says order is coming out of chaos. Paul is showing that Chaos is coming out of order that was originally created by God. When god put Adam and Eve in the Garden, it was perfect, but since then it’s been down hill.
Is there any hope?
Is there any hope?
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
Paul gives us this negative outlook in order to say this, that we don’t have to suffer the penalty of all of this because we can be saved.
There may be some of you who are struggling with a habit in your life, an area of sin you don't know how to get rid of, a lifestyle that you don't like but keep falling into the same sin.
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
The church is not for perfect people. It's for sinners. It is a hospital for sinners. How would you like to be a member of the Corinthian Church with all these people in it? You don’t know who is sitting next to you… And that is what some of you were.
Gave them over simply means they reap what they sowed from their own sin. When you hit bottom you often realize that was not the way to live, and you turn to Jesus. We have a lot of you who could give a testimony to that.
So
How can we be a Christian in an Un-Godly Culture?
How can we be a Christian in an Un-Godly Culture?
Ungodliness is all around us. Porn, murder, rape, robbery, child abuse, child molestation, outburst of anger, in-civility, bomb threats, threats of violence, terrorism ...
Listen, when the bad news gets worse the good news gets better. The Gospel is more powerful than bad news, bad people and the devil all combined.
Paul switches from prosecutor to defense attorney.
He starts showing what we have in Christ, how we are not the judges, how we can be forgiven, how we can start over, and how we can be given a clean slate. How do you do that?
How do you continue to live for Christ in an ungodly world?
1. We don’t imitate the world.
1. We don’t imitate the world.
We don’t give in and live the way the world wants us to live.
2. We don’t isolate from the world.
2. We don’t isolate from the world.
God doesn’t want us to get into a group of Christians and never associate with non-Christians. Jesus says we are to be in the world but not of the world.
3. We insulate ourselves while living in the world.
3. We insulate ourselves while living in the world.
God can insulate you to be pure in an impure world and still live in it.
If you catch a sea bass in the ocean -- one that has lived in the ocean its entire life and the ocean is salty. The salt water will cause you to throw up if you drink it. But you cook the fish and before you eat it, you have to put salt on it. Why? It's insulated.
If God can put a fish in a salty ocean and keep it pure all of its life, he can put a human being in a world where people are making their own choices and keep us on target.
Conclusion
The Bible says where sin abounds, grace did much more abound, and that’s good news! There is hope for every person. Maybe a relative, maybe your own life is caught in a habitual area that you don't know how to break.
God loves you, God loves every person in this world. Sometimes it takes a desperate situation to make us change our ways. The good news is "and such were some of you."
God says I don't care how much of a mess you've made of your life, let's start over, let's begin again, have a new creation, wipe the slate clean; let's be born again.
That's good news. Thank God for that. Would you just do that? Say
"Thank You for letting me start over! God, thank You for wiping the slate clean." Maybe you weren't involved in some of these grosser things but all of us have areas we know aren't right. Let's express our gratitude to God. If you've never opened your heart to Christ, right now you might say, "Jesus Christ come in and cleanse my life. Change me and help me to start over."
Make that decision in your heart. He will come in and He will help you.
Lord, Thank You. Thank You that even though we've looked at something that's really depressing that the darker the night the brighter the stars shine. Lord, help us to shine as light as Paul says in Philippians in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. Thank You for Your grace. Thank You that all of us have made our mistakes and fallen and yet You've loved us enough to send Jesus Christ to die for us. You forgive us and help us to change. Thank You. In Jesus' name. Amen