THESIS: Paul’s continued arguments as to why God’s wrath against man is justified.
INTRO.:
A. Paul is a brilliant lawyer. In his opening remarks in the court of God’s justice (His Word), and specifically in the courtroom called Romans, he continues his arguments as to why God’s wrath against man is justified. (cf. v.18) The scene and the sentence is judicial in nature. (“…God gave them up” v.24,26,28) B. In v.20 he spoke of the inexcusable IGNORANCE of man due to the revelation of God in reason & nature. The he spoke of man’s INGRATITUDE to God in v.21. He now continues God’s indictment against man & reveals more reasons why God’s wrath is justified.
I. GODLESS IMAGINATION: v.21,22
A. Man’s Insolence:
1. When man “knew God” they refused to glorify Him. v.21
a. God’s glory is the sum of all His attributes: who He is. b. To give Him glory is to acknowledge Him and exalt Him in your life. c. We cannot add to His perfection, but by praising His perfection, we glorify Him.
2. When man dethrones God, he enthrones human intellect & reasoning. v.22 💥What is more pathetic than to see puny, finite man trying to out-think & out-reason his own Creator!
QUOTE: Barnhouse: “Will God give man brains to see these things and will man then fail to exercise his will toward that God? The sorrowful answer is that both of these things are true. God will give a man brains to smelt iron & make a hammer head & nails. God will grow a tree & give man strength to cut it down & brains to fashion a hammer handle from its wood. And when man has the hammer & the nails, God will put out His hand & let mean drive nails through it & place Him on a cross in the supreme demonstration than men are without excuse.”
3. Man’s insolence is revealed in his futile speculations about the nature of God and his vain imaginations which proceed from his darkened intellect.
ILLUS.: One evolutionist, more honest than most, declared: “I refuse to believe in God, but what other alternative do I have but evolution?” 💥He gave clear testimony to the fact that it was not evidence for evolution that led him to disbelief in God but rather his disbelief in God that led him to embrace evolution! 💥Evolution, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, philosophy, and accommodating theology all stem from the darkened intellect of fallen & rebellious man. Cf. v.21 “…their foolish heart was darkened” 💥The man who tries to explain himself and the world, without the light of God is a philosopher. The word means “lover of wisdom.” The wisdom, of course, is man’s, not God’s. 💥Someone has said that “an empty mind & soul is like a vacuum. It will not long remain empty but will draw in falsehood and darkness to replace the truth & light it has rejected." 💥When our Savior returns to earth, the sun & moon will be darkened & the stars will fall from the heavens, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken (Mt.24:29). At that moment, when all the natural lights of the universe are extinguished, the dazzling, Divine light of God’s eternal glory in His Son will illumine the entire earth “…and then all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Mt.24:30
II. GRAVEN IMAGES: v.23
A. Man’s Idolatry:
1. Man’s darkened “heart” (reasoning ability) first fashioned gods in the likeness of men, then proceeded downward into the animal kingdom. V.23
ILLUS.: ✨The Hindus have some 330 million gods! ✨They also revere cows & countless other animals & in India where the starving millions live, there are 200,000,000 cattle wandering around competing with man for food and trampling the standing crops!! ✨A 2” long discolored tooth, claimed to have belonged to Buddha is venerated by millions of Buddhists. ✨It is set in a golden lotus blossom surrounded w/rubies & enshrined in the “Temple of the Tooth” in Sri Lanka! ✨In Catholicism the Council at Nice pontificated on the question of image worship and strongly affirmed that image worship was desirable. “Images shall be treated as holy memorials, WORSHIPPED, kissed, only without that particular adoration which is reserved for the Invisible, Incomprehensible God.” ✨They further denounced with anathemas those who call images idols! But God denounced image worshipers And pronounced anathemas on them in the Ten Commandments!
a. There is only one step from atheism to idolatry. b. Man’s foolish system to remove God’s truth & glory leads to idolatry.
2. What is more tragic than for the creature to degrade the Creator by making created things into his own Creator?!?!
QUOTE: Lovett: “For someone who claims to be wise, to make an idol and then say it made him, is about as foolish as a man can get.” A Roman poet, Horace, of the 1st century wrote: “I was a tree trunk, a useless log, The workman wavered, ‘Shall I make a stool or a god?’ He chose to make a god, and thus a god I am.”
1. Moral perversion is another step away for God’s light. “…dishonor their own bodies” 2. Mental perversion turns into moral perversion: when the light becomes darkness man begins a downward spiral into amorality.
ILLUS.: Biblically the heart is more than the seat of the emotions, it is more closely identified with the mind of man; it is the genesis of sinful thoughts. Jesus said…
Matthew 15:19-20 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
💥The most powerful sexual organ in the body is the brain! 💥All impure acts originate there. 💥All sexual stimulus begins there. 💥Therein lies the power of pornography. 👉It stimulates the brain, which in turn stimulates the body. 💥Sexual impurity is self-avenging. The more a man has, the more he wants and the less power it has to satisfy him. 💥Why? Because man is the image of the infinity God and thus has infinite appetites. Prov.27:20 says: “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.” 💥Man was designed to be satisfied by the infinite God alone. Nothing less will do. Thus man punishes himself by seeking more of that which cannot satisfy. 💥Hell appears to be a place where there is infinite hunger and not a drop of satisfaction anywhere. 💥Man creates part of his own hell when he turns his back on God. a. Debased human character. “…uncleanness” b. Debased human conduct. “…dishonor their own bodies” c. Debased human companionships. “…between themselves”
ILLUS.: The word “wherefore” in v.24 and the words “for this cause…” in v.26 - spell out a cause & effect relationship between what men did (v.25) and what they became (v.26,27). 🖤The Holy Spirit (& Paul) do NOT use the normal words for men & women here, which would denote respect for their gender, but rather the common word denoting gender alone, i.e., male & female. 🖤The common Greek terms for men & women imply a certain dignity which Paul refused to use to those who practice homosexuality. 🖤The sin of sodomy is the lowest on the list and is called an “abomination” in Scripture. This is a term reserved for only the most heinous sins of mankind. 🖤🖤🖤Sodomy is not a victimless crime as many claim. 🖤Perverts must recruit. 🖤The national organization NAMBLA (National American Man Boy Love Assn.) openly admits their goal of molesting young boys and inducting them into sodomy. 🖤🖤🖤This sinful lifestyle is also related to crimes of brutality and physical abuse. The NYC forensic expert, 👉Dr. Milton Helpern, who is not a Christian & avoids making moral judgments about homosexuality, and who has performed thousands of autopsies, warns those who choose a homosexual lifestyle to be prepared for its consequences. “When we see…brutal multiple wound cases in a single victim…we just automatically assume that we’re dealing with a homosexual victim & a homosexual attacker. 🖤🖤🖤The pent-up charges & energy of the homosexual relationship simply cannot be contained. When the explosive point is reached, the result is brutally violent…but this is the ‘normal’ pattern of these homosexual attacks, the multiple stabbings, the multiple senseless beatings that obviously must continue long after the victim dies.” 🖤🖤🖤A San Francisco coroner estimated that 10 per cent of his city’s homicides were probably related to sado-masochistic sex among homosexuals. 🖤Also, many serial killers are homosexuals.
B. God’s Intransigence: (refusal to compromise or come to an agreement) v.24a, 26a, 28B “…God gave them up!”)
1. Now we get to the “wherefore...” the effect of man’s sentence of choosing sin over God. 2. Here is the wrath of God justified.
a. God says that darkness has its own punishments. b. God says that rejecting Him carries its own penalties. c. God says that turning away from Him leads to turning to deep sin and its consequences.
ILLUS.: “God gave them up to uncleanness…vile affections…a reprobate mind…” His sentence is clear. His wrath is justified. His penalty is commensurate with the sin of man.
CONCL.: While“THE TRIAL RESUMES” & “GOD’S CASE AGAINST HUMANITY” issetforth, 🔹Paul is not quite finished with his opening arguments. 🔹Before he is finished every mouth will be stopped. 🔹No one will be left with an excuse. 🔹He will conclude with the indictment “…all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”