The Book Of Romans II, Without Excuse

I can't tell you how encouraged I am by the reports of people who are saying, I'm coming to terms for the first time in my life with God's Word beyond the surface level. By the way, once again, at the end of the service, anyone who wants a devotional Bible study for the next section in Romans, day by day, how many of you used it this last week? Just an idea? Did it keep you kind of in track? I hope it was helpful. And any comments that you have, I'd be happy to receive them. Romans 1, Romans 1, everyone has a gold sheet for tonight's outline, correct? I can't wait for my birthday party, one of my kids said recently. I heard someone say, I can't wait for my vacation. I can't wait for the opportunity I'm going to have to visit with you, I heard someone say over the phone to a friend recently. Can't wait for the next Saturday evening service, someone told me. That same sense of eagerness, I can't wait, in fact, eagerness pushed a little bit further comes down and can be translated as urgency. The sense of eagerness or urgency is written all through these first verses. If you weren't with us last week, we looked carefully at some of the first things that Paul said to this church that he'd never visited, people he'd never been with. Paul didn't have just a natural friendship, and that's so important. You don't have to know someone to love them in Christ. God can give you a supernatural love or burden. Do you have a burden for a particular nation right now? Everyone in our church should have a nation that you've never been to, perhaps, or maybe passed through once, and you're burdened to pray for them. That's the kind of sense of urgency that Paul had for these people, and his urgency wanted to be expressed by preaching the gospel we read last week, where it said in verse 17, 16 and 17, the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. We said last week that Paul loved Jesus so much that he loved what Jesus loved, and that was the church. I said last week, I want to reiterate, you can gauge your love for God somewhat by your love for his church. That's a heavy statement. I love God because he's perfect and never lets me down and fails me. People in the church do. I know you feel that way, but we can demonstrate, we can experience something of our love for God by our love for his church. Paul committed his life to expressing that love by planting churches, loving people in the church, building and equipping the church. It even cost him his life. He said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the very word of God unto salvation, to all who will believe. We said three things happen when the gospel is preached, and this is why I encourage you. Don't miss an opportunity to come and be with God's people and hear the word. Do you have that outline from last week? I think I do. I gave it to Sherry to pass out to you. Three things from last week that believers are, number one, edified. Maybe you have notes from last week. Believers are edified. Got it? Great. Unbelievers are evangelized, and God's character is identified. Three things that happen when the word of God is preached. You get edified, believers are evangelized, and the word of God tells us about the character of our God. But this urgency, dear ones, is better explained by the next verses that we're going to look at tonight and next week. I told the elders when we prayed before this service, I don't know how to transmit how I feel about these verses. I don't know how to get from me to you what I think is the absolute motivation for everything that's happening here, and an awful lot is. I'm afraid tonight, however, that I'm going to frighten some of you. These are difficult verses. It's going to wreak havoc on your presuppositions. Some of you are younger Christians, and it's going to be difficult for you to believe what I'm going to tell you tonight from the word of God. Emotionally, many people here tonight are going to have a difficult time when you leave. The reason why I wanted to praise, as we did for 20 minutes or more, and worship is because we need to be bedded down in the rock of our confidence of the goodness of God before we look at verses like this. The root cause of Paul's eagerness, the reason why he was urgently desiring, as we read last week in verse 15, to come to Rome was this. He was aware that unbelievers everywhere are daily committing a spiritual crime so heinous in the sight of God that his wrath will be poured out on each and every one of them on judgment day, resulting in eternal condemnation in hell for the rest of eternity. It was this thought that if people didn't hear the gospel, they had no choice, really, but to spend eternity separated from God. It was that very thought that so propelled him in his urgency, his desire to be in Rome, and everywhere else he went, preaching the gospel. Now in order to carefully understand why this is so and its implications on us here today in 1989, let's look at these next few verses in a slightly different order. I just kind of rearranged them on your outline a little bit. The first thing I want you to see is recorded in verse 19 and 20, and it's this. God has, and this is on your outline, the first two blanks, revealed himself clearly to all human beings. God has revealed himself clearly to all human beings. What may be known about God is plain to everyone. Now look what it says down here. It's plain to them. Who is the them? Verse 19. Who is the them? Let's get our pronouns down. Now who is the them he's talking to in verse 19? It's everybody who is on the face of the earth, every unbeliever. It's the them that you work with. It's the them that you are on the team with. It's the them that you live beside. It's the them that you see on the cover of Life magazine. It's the them that are in the Virgin Islands picking up from the hurricane. It's the them that's in China tonight. Them are the people around the world who don't know who God is. The Bible says that he's revealed himself to every one of these persons. Look at that. I'm not putting these words in there. Verse 19. What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, verse 20, have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that men are, let's say it, without excuse. Wasn't today a spectacular day? For those of us who were in for eight or ten hours, I kind of put my nose against the window and just wished I could be out, just to get out this evening and get in the park a little bit and run a little bit. That's one of six days like that we have here in Pittsburgh this year. It was gorgeous. You know, it was almost a perfect day. The Bible's saying in all of that, you see plainly that there is a God. And unbelievers all around the world have that same recognition, every single one of them. That's the way they know, because God has put a little something in them that says to them, that ticks off them and says, I did that. I created that. The Bible uses this term. It's called general revelation. Just write that down. It's a general revelation is the knowledge of God that's implanted in everyone because of the creation. That's a little term that theologians might use. God declares, as Scott said, I'm amazed that you said that phrase, Scott, because it's in my notes for tonight. The most staggering statistic I have ever heard in my life is that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on the earth. You just don't pick up a handful of sand and try to count those buggers. Now what kind of accident could produce something of that vastness? The planets that travel on course, the predictability of them, you know when we had the eclipse a few weeks ago and they told you exactly what it was going to start because it's all divinely ordered and people can study the order. The arrangement of leaves around a stem. The way that a bird knows how to build a nest in my drain pipe. I mean, perfectly, you know, they know where to put the things and make them work together. The balance of power in nature, you know the huge power of a hurricane and yet the same way in which God will just allow all these things to work themselves out and dear ones, there's no doubt in anyone's mind that there is a God. Creation gives evidence. God declares it. Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the earth shows forth His firmament. You can't walk in this planet and not know. That's what it's saying. You can't be a member of this global village and not know. Interestingly, through the years, through the centuries, through all of history, man has been aware of that. John Calvin quoted one of the great ancient Greeks, Plutarch, who said this, you may find cities without walls or literature or kings or houses or wealth or money without gymnasia or theaters, but no one has ever seen a city without temples and gods. Interesting. Similarly, in our culture, do you know that the most recent polls say that 95% of Americans believe there's a God? Despite all the technology and all the stuff that we have, 95% profess to know that there's a God. Why is that? Because God put it in them. God put that thing in them that just bears witness that He's there. Human beings are smart enough to put two and two together. Take a look at your left wrist right now. What's on there for most of you? You look at that watch and you say, it just happened, didn't it? I mean, there was some accident somewhere and this is what came out of it. No, you don't say that at all. What do you say? Someone designed this thing? Probably not in this country. Somebody put it together and they fashioned it and they thought through it and they put the pieces together. Well, creation is like that. People look out there and they realize that something other than just forces at work did this. People know it because God said, I made them to know it. I made it clear to them. And more than that, look what it says down here, verse 20. The creation lets the people know what His invisible qualities are. In other words, by seeing things out there, they know what He's really like. It says here, His eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen. In other words, the things in creation tell you what God is like in person. This summer when we were in Colorado, we were traveling through the mountains from, I think it was Silverton down to Durango, which is a beautiful drive. It's called the million, $10 million, $5 million road or something. It's just an enormously beautiful area. We traveled it a couple of times. On the way back, I remember asking my kids, well, what does all this tell you about God? They said, yeah, Dad, we're back in church again. Here we are. One of them said, you know, it tells me He's awfully big. These mountains, you know, 14,000 feet high. Another one said, He's really powerful because something had to push these things up out of the ground. Then I heard, He's really colorful. Some of those mountains are like purple. That's where the song, Purple Mountain Majesties. One of them said, He's awful old. He's been around a long time. You see, even children can associate creation with God. What His attributes are like. I read just this last week that genetic scientists now tell us, in a further study on DNA, that there have never been two DNA. That's the thing that determines what we come out like. Kind of scary, huh? That there's never been two alike in any human being. That there's never been two alike in any human being. And there never will be. I love that thought, you know. People wonder, how can God know my name? Because He knows what your little DNA looks like. And you have your name tag on your DNA. That's the kind of God that we serve. And see, His invisible attributes are known by what we see. Now, many of you have traveled. How many of you have been to the Grand Canyon? Remember the very first time you peered over that thing? And it was quiet, and you could hear, I mean, it was like real still, and you said, oh, God. And you said, this is marvelous. That's what our God is like. And all these wonderful things are evidence to us that He's there and that He is real and that He can be known. He's like, you know, He's telling people, look, here I am. It's like He's hanging out this big sign and saying, look, dummy, it's me. So the first thing we see is that God has clearly revealed Himself to everyone so that every human being is without excuse. No one will ever be able to say on the judgment day, when they stand before God, they'll never be able to say, I didn't know there was a God. There weren't, you know, there weren't enough clues. I didn't know you were out there. No one will ever be able to say that. Hey, you know, you left me kind of hanging. I didn't know. That will never come out of someone's lips. Every person in the world, everyone, every person in India, every person in China and Asia, every African, every Eskimo, every Steeler fan, everybody, no matter what they are, they're going to have to say, I know that there's a God. I know there's a God. Number two, suppressing the truth, suppressing the truth of the revelation of God is the crime of the unbeliever. Let's look back at 18, second half of the verse, wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Verse 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. Verse 22, although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. You see, every human being knows there's a God, that he's powerfully eternal and worthy of their worship. But unbelievers do the unthinkable thing. Rather than responding with integrity to the abundant evidence of God, instead of bowing down and worshiping him as the God of the universe, instead of doing the truthful thing, they suppress it. They withhold their worship and they refuse to say thank you. They speculate and fabricate and theorize. They spurn God and spout out nonsense and declare all these theories that they say explains how we got here and what we're doing. They wax eloquent with their falsehoods and pretend to be wise. And they intentionally exchange the glory of God for false gods that they have created. Paul says, this is a crime against a holy God. And that's what I want to get through to us tonight. It's not just some were a little better than others or some tried harder or some did nicer things, dear ones. Some have committed crimes against a holy God. To know the truth about God and push it down, to suppress it, to stick God in the back burner of life, is a crime against him. The word to suppress is an interesting word. In classical Greek it was used of a helmsman who would hold on to his ship or his boat through the storm. In other words, to suppress meant that you launched on a course and you held it so firmly that even a storm would pull you off. Now, when I think of the word suppress, a better application for me or a better analogy, this summer I was up with one of my boys, we were swimming and someone threw some balls in the pool. I'm sure you've all done this. And the ball was big enough that I could get my hands around it and push it down into the water. And so he and I started playing this little game about, you know, knock me off the ball. And so we'd push it down there. Well, I could hold it down with my legs, but it had enough buoyancy that when he got on it, you know, he went back over and did a back flip. And you see, when I pushed down on that ball, I suppressed it. And then when I took my pressure off, it popped back up again. And you see, that's the picture that's here. You see, God's clearly revealed himself and people know that he's out there, but they work at holding him down. They work. Unbelievers know that if the truth rises to the surface, they'll be reminded of their condition before God. Now follow this, because it will make a difference in how you relate to people who don't know him. They don't want to know, you see. After a while, if they suppress it long enough, then that gives them time to create other explanations for what's out there. And they fill up their minds with their falsehoods and their theories and their religions and all the things that they do. And Paul says they even exchange the glory of God for images of birds and animals and reptiles. And what would you add to that list? Stuff. Just stuff, you know. All kinds of stuff. Why would they do this? Why would a person do this? Why do they go to all that work to push down the truth about God? How many of you know the answer to that question? How many of you ever did that? Let's be honest, my beloved. Didn't we all do that at some point? Didn't we all push it down? Here's why. You see, the fear, the anxiety, the trauma of a personal sin being exposed before a holy God, that thought to somebody, the thought that their sin might be brought out and exposed before God, the trauma of unbelievers losing their autonomy and finding that their freedom to do their own thing being jeopardized, the fear of eternal destiny being held in the balance, that trauma is so great that unbelievers say, I'm going to push it down. I don't want to face that. It's easier to live with a lie than deal with the truth. It's easier to live with a lie than to deal with the truth and the trauma that it might produce in your life. And I have to say to you, no matter who you are tonight, truth many times produces trauma in our hearts. Isn't that true? When we look at the truth of who we really are, what our condition really is, how many of us sometimes we'd rather just push that away from us than look at it? Jesus said it this way, and you might want to turn there. It's probably, well, let me just read it for you and jot down the reference on your outline, look at it later. John 3, verse 19, this is the verdict, listen, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God enfleshed in man, brought his own presence into the world to light up the world with his light, to bring men into truth, not only just to tell them about the truth, he was the truth embodied. So here is truth in all of its holiness and fullness and glory, he comes into the world, and to the amazement of God, people preferred the darkness. Why does an addict go back to his needle? Why does an adulterer look on for the next opportunity? Why does a perjurer tell his next lie? Because men prefer darkness. They prefer to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin, the Bible says, rather than face the truth about themselves. You know, many times through the course of the last 15 years, I've had to talk to terminally ill people about their condition, or several times I should say, not many, but several. And it was not uncommon, and it still really isn't totally eliminated, but it wasn't uncommon 15 years ago that a terminally ill patient was not told of their condition for some time. It was the determined consensus of physicians at that point that it was better for the patient just to live comfortably and not be told of really what was happening to them. Nowadays that's changed quite a bit. And I always wondered, well, wouldn't, you know, I would really want to know what's happening with me. And the Bible tells us here that sinners have a vested interest in suppressing the truth. If they don't, it's going to come back, stare them in the face again and again, and remind them of their condition. It's going to probe inside and press in on their hearts and tell them, this is what's inside of you. Look at yourself. And so they push down the truth of God or they coat it over with a religion or some stuff and they just suppress it. And they go on as long as they can suppressing it. You see, unbelievers, and we have a little two-pronged outline here, unbelievers have to do one of two things. They have to either confess their sinfulness or suppress the knowledge of God. Something's got to give. Or what would happen is they would continually live facing the trauma of the truth. The truth. This is the truth. And none of us like to live in trauma for long. Amen? We don't want to live in trauma. We don't like it. Neither do unbelievers. Truth stalks, pursues, hounds the people until they must look at it or push it down. This past Saturday at 10.30, I'd finished my preparation for Saturday evening service. I was feeling kind of excited about that, getting home on time. I walked in and sat right back there where Glenn Hendrasek's sitting now, and there was about a dozen young men ranging in age from 18 probably to 30. Some of them were real big guys. Some of them were kind of frail guys. They were all here as part of some work release program that the courts had provided for them. To do some kind of penance, as it were, for their drug-related crimes. We sat there and talked, and I marveled at Joyce Erdner's ability just to get underneath a little bit with some of these guys. It was fascinating to watch their responses as we talked. A couple of them were very interested and had no idea that the kinds of things we talked about in terms of relationship really existed. Some of them, I could tell, every once in a while, they'd glance at each other. I've got to sit through this because it's part of my torture for my crime. We were there a good 45 minutes or so, and I remember feeling in my heart. At first, I have enough flesh in me that I get angry at that attitude, but then God just showed me. He said, you need to realize something, son, that those people, they're in the clutches of the enemy, and they're driving down the truth. They don't want to face it, because if it comes up and looks at them, they're going to have to deal with it, and they don't want to change. They'd rather enjoy the pleasures of sin for a while than to face the truth about a holy God. Next week, Lord willing, we're going to look at the next verses through the end of the chapter and see what happens when personal lives continue to suppress the truth. I have to warn you in advance that next week, we're going to also look at what happens to a nation that suppresses the truth. It's going to be a very eye-opening message, I think, as we look to the Lord to show us what we can do about that. Here's the third point, let me review. Number one, God's revealed Himself clearly to all. Number two, suppressing the truth is the criminal act of the unbeliever, because he is seeking to avoid exposing his sin and losing his autonomy. He wants to avoid the truth, the trauma, the trauma rather the truth would produce. And Roman numeral three then, suppressing the revelation of God brings the wrath of God. Number three in your outline, suppressing the revelation of God brings the wrath of God. Let's turn to verse 18a, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. You see, God directs His wrath, the Bible clearly says, toward those who choose to keep pushing down, pushing down the truth, keep ignoring it, keep driving it away. God directs His wrath. And I have to say something to you here. It's the righteousness of God that requires His wrath. Now people get real uncomfortable when you talk about the wrath of God. And my brothers and sisters, may I say to you, too little is said about the wrath of God. We talk a lot about the love of God and rightly we should because His love, His mercy, His grace is free and available. But understand something, God will not be mocked. And His word tells us that the wrath that rightly resides in His character, He would be a wimp, He'd be a fake, He'd be, He'd have no integrity if He didn't have wrath against that which would be counter to His character and to His life. You see, this God not only revealed Himself in creation, but what then did He do to further the revelation? He sent His Son. He sent His Son and said, in Him is the fullness of God. And those who have seen the Son as the fullness of God have received what's called special revelation. General is in the creation, special revelation is that which you, when you come to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. God says, my righteousness requires that I bring judgment upon those who choose to lie about my existence. Each unbeliever will stand before God without excuse and give witness to the fact, listen now, that they didn't have a knowledge problem. When they stand before God, they're not going to say, I didn't know, they're going to say this, I didn't bow, I didn't bow down, I chose to stand my ground and lift my head, I did it my way. Do you see the difference? I'm not just talking about the people that you may know who are arrogant and proud, I'm talking about people all around the world. It's not an issue of evidence, dear ones, it's an issue of integrity. God's wrath will be unleashed on suppressors and truth exchangers for their crimes against Him and they will suffer in hell forever. His righteousness requires it. What else can a righteous God do with a liar but separate Him forever? Do you understand? Really, hell is just separation from God. What else can a righteous God do from a deceiver but separate Him? He has no choice to protect His integrity rather than just to separate Himself from that which would blemish His character. Now listen to me tonight, church. On judgment day, the cry of the unbeliever is not going to be, I didn't know. The cry of the unbeliever is going to be, I wouldn't bow down. The Bible says that their sorrow from that moment on will be immeasurable. The Bible says that in hell they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth and I know this is not the kind of message you want to go and pat someone on the back and say, gee, this is fun, isn't it? Do you know what gnashing of teeth is about? I gnash my teeth when there's a parking spot and someone gets there first, you know? But the image in the original language is much more intense than that. It's the image of somebody who is filled with regret because of an opportunity lost. Let me say it again. Someone who is filled with regret because of an opportunity lost. I can't help but see the image, you know, of like a football player who's a wide receiver who's standing alone in the end zone and the quarterback zips him the ball 45 yards and hits him on the shoulder pad and drops on him. Oh, an opportunity lost and gnashes his teeth. The unbeliever is going to say, I knew God existed. I knew he was real. I knew those people had something that was right, but I wouldn't bow. God said there are clues everywhere. There's evidence everywhere you look, bow down, bow down or you'll stand without excuse. Dear ones, let me say to you, don't be intimidated by the flowery, sophisticated, pseudo-intellectual arguments of the truth exchangers. When you pick up Newsweek or you pick up, you walk into your college classroom and somebody lays out this little nifty theory of the, you know, the beginning of the universe where God just kind of shut up. Just sit back a little bit and think for a second. Why would they do that? Normally, it's because they're pushing down. Your Bible tells you clearly tonight, they know there's a God and they've just chosen to find some way to suppress it rather than face the truth of it. I pray tonight, we just, we put our intimidations aside and the people who say, well, I found some way to coat over the truth, that you'd help them to realize something, that their heart will never be at peace until such time as they face the truth. We told these young men that were seated right over here, we said to them, why don't you give it a try? Why don't you investigate the truth, deal with it for what it is, and then you can dismiss it if it's not right. Maybe you understand a little bit more now why Paul was so eager to go to Rome and to preach the gospel. Maybe you know why he burned to be able to preach it, because he knew that if he didn't, if that gospel wasn't preached, people everywhere, vast numbers of them, would be going to hell. Maybe you know some people tonight like this, truth suppressors, friends, family members, neighbors, and I have to say to you, if there's one reason, and believe me, I guess I ought to say this tonight, it's the right time to say, it's hard to describe how much our lives and the staff have changed because of this Saturday night service. It isn't just like another meeting, we don't show up at five minutes to six and what are we going to do tonight? I think what God is doing is he's preparing our whole church, I believe this because of what I've been shown in the spirit as I've prayed and shared with our elders, I believe that God is saying, it's time for us to be able to take the gospel and all of its power out to those who've suppressed the truth and let the amazing power of God in the gospel unto salvation be unleashed on the people, because it's their only hope, it's their only hope. You say perhaps tonight, what do I do with this? Number one, do this, if you're taking the application, number one, forever and ever and ever, always give God praise that you received that revelation, would you? I mean, when you walk in here, don't make Pastor Scott or Susie or someone try to generate some praise in your life, but start by saying, God, I've received the revelation, I thank you that I'm going to spend eternity with you. Number two, when you see people out there realize that if they don't know Christ, it's not an optional destiny, they're going to die without it. I can't tell you how much that's changed my attitude toward people that make me feel uncomfortable. When someone cuts me off in traffic or makes me wait an extra 45 seconds for a hamburger, it doesn't matter so much when I think that they're an eternal being, that maybe they just don't know God and I have an opportunity to respond in kindness, I'm thankful for that. At my age, I can still see people and value them because of what they are in God's eyes, maybe it can work for you. Number three, anyone here tonight asking the question, what about the people in some Indonesia or Micronesia, what about the people out there who maybe have seen the general revelation in creation and they say, yeah, this is God and they bow down and worship the God that somehow they see but they've never heard of Christ, anyone ever ask that question? What about the pygmies in Africa who've never heard the gospel, what about them? What do you think is going to happen to them? Well, let me rest my case on this, I believe you can trust in the goodness and the fairness of God to never ever once be accused of judging someone unfairly. Not one person will ever live separated from God because he capriciously or unjustly sentenced them. Everyone will stand separated from God who chooses to suppress the truth and here's what I've discovered and I haven't traveled much, many of you have traveled a great deal more but when I've traveled, I'm going to be going to India now in six or seven weeks, I'm sure I'm going to find what I found when I was in Mexico with Lisa, when I was in Europe some years ago, all around the world, I found that people everywhere are truth suppressors. There may be some who've bowed the knee but basically, dear ones, man has fallen far from God and so when we leave tonight, I guess that's the reason why I want to say to you, we have a mission, we have a mission here. The reason why this staff's working as hard as they are, the reason why we're praying here every morning, there were 12 people here today at morning prayer, I don't want to put a guilt trip on you, I just want you to know, people are going to come, they're not going to come and bow down to God until the scales are lifted, until praying people like you say, I can lose an hour's sleep, I can come and call out with others and seek God and the good news is that the balance of the book of Romans is God's solution to man's problem and that's what we'll see in the weeks ahead. Let's stand, shall we? Close up your Bibles. Ashers, if you can begin right now, I'd like you to begin passing out the outlines to those who want them and I want us to sing this chorus in conclusion tonight, all we like sheep have gone astray, and here's what I want to say,