So beginning in chapter 1 at verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them.

For God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen. being understood by the things that are made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.

Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

Amen. Well, let us pray. Our God and our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is the inspired word of the living and true God.

We ask that you would grant us ears to hear and hearts to receive your truth. And Father, as we survey this chapter, as we survey our modern society and that affection from the living and true God, may we respond with the Apostle Paul, not simply calling upon men and women to modify their behavior or to simply change their ways, but to look on to the Lord Jesus Christ, that Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And may you be pleased to bless the gospel as it is proclaimed throughout this world. May it run swiftly and be glorified.

And may persons from every tribe and tongue and people and nation come to the living and true God through the mediation of the Son in the power and by the majesty of the Holy Spirit. Do forgive us now for all of our sin and transgression. Guide us by your Spirit as we consider Holy Scripture, and we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Introduction

Well, as we look at this particular section from chapter 1 beginning in verse 18 to chapter 3 in verse 20, Paul's emphasis is to underscore, to set forth the universality of sin and condemnation for all men everywhere. Here in verses 18 to 32, In chapter 1, he deals with the guilt of the Gentiles. In chapter 2, the emphasis falls upon the Jews. And then in chapter 3, from about 1 to 20, he summarizes, indicating that all are sinful, all have gone astray, and all are liable to the just condemnation of God Most High.

Again, he starts with the plight of man. He starts with the problem of man. He starts with sin and rebellion and defection. He starts with the issue so that he can then prescribe the remedy.

Very often today we hear sermons that are moralistic in nature. try a little harder, be a little better, do a little bit more. That's not the gospel. The gospel is not about us doing or being or trying. The gospel is about Christ and Him crucified, His life of obedience to the Father, His sacrificial death, and His resurrection again the third day.

So if we understand man's problem, then we ought to preach the proper remedy Namely, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Now, as we survey this particular chapter, we'll look at the guilt of the Gentiles. And there's three things we're going to look at. First, the revelation of God's wrath in verse 18.

Secondly, the reason for God's wrath in verses 19 and following. And then thirdly, the nature of God's judgment. There are three statements in verses 24, 26, and 28 that show us or indicate to us the punitive justice of God that is poured out upon those who rebel against Him. But before that, notice the thesis of the book in verses 16 and 17.

Before he gets to the bad news and then the good news, he gives an overarching description of his aim in the book of Romans. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. So the apostle declares his conviction.

I am not ashamed of the gospel. The apostle shows the demonstration of God's power. For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. and then he sets forth the righteousness of God as it's revealed in the gospel. Now here, the righteousness of God does not refer to that perfection or that attribute by which God is considered as righteous.

When we look at this particular chapter, when we put it into the context, and then when we compare, say, for instance, Philippians 3, we'll see that the righteousness of God, as Paul uses it here, is that righteousness that God demands and the righteousness that God supplies. For in it, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Again, that's just not our appreciation of that perfection of God's righteousness. Rather, it is the righteousness that he both demands and that he supplies.

You can turn to Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three, the apostle Paul tells us concerning his conversion to our Lord. And in Philippians 3 at verse 7, he says, But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." Again, not the attribute, not the perfection, not that that's not true of God in terms of his perfections and attributes.

He is most certainly righteous. But as Paul employs it in these contexts concerning justification, By faith alone, he is speaking about the righteousness that he demands and the righteousness that he supplies. And intriguingly, he has this conviction. He has this understanding.

He recognizes God's power even in light of the fact that man's plight is severe. Man's condition is grave. Man is in a bad state, as Paul declares from Romans 1 18 to Romans 3 20. Man is not in a position to help himself.

So if it isn't the power of God, then man will be forever damned. So Paul's confidence in that gospel comes not to some people that are just a little bit off, but it comes to the filthy, it comes to the wretched, it comes to the morally depraved, sinner that's in rejection or rather rebellion against the living and true God. So his thesis, his conviction, is such that the power of God is able to overcome even the kinds of sins that he's going to describe in Romans 1 to 3.

First Point: Revelation of God's Wrath

Now notice in terms of the guilt of the Gentiles. First, the revelation of God's wrath, verse 18. He says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Hold your finger there and look over at 321. 321, after having concluded this declaration concerning the universality of sin and condemnation, notice he uses the same convention in verse 21, but now, the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed.

So in Romans 1.18, you have the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. After he describes that, he then indicates, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. So again, bad news and then good news. Now with reference to the wrath of God, John Murray describes it as the holy revulsion of God's being against that which is the contradiction of His holiness.

It is technically an improper predication. God does not move from one state to another. But what this improper predication or this speaking in the manner of man or manner of men indicates is God's righteousness, God's justice, God's opposition to that which is opposed to him. And so the apostle says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.

And then notice the specific order against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. I do not think that's accidental. I don't think that's haphazard. I think it is specific in terms of trajectory.

Our ungodliness precedes our unrighteousness. In other words, what we think about God, for good or ill, affects the way that we live for God. And when Paul comes to deal with the specific sin of the Gentile, the accent falls upon their idolatry. They have certain truths about God, they know that God exists, but they reject that, they resist that, and they turn to the creature, they turn to idols.

And it's from that vantage point that the vice list then proceeds. So the specific order is that what we think about God, for good or ill, affects the way that we live for God, for good or ill. You'll see this in the prophets. When the prophets come to upbraid the nation of Israel, typically the first charge is theological in nature.

They had forgotten God. They had rejected God. They had resisted God. And then the prophets detail the specific social vices of the nation of Israel.

As a result of your violation of the first two commandments, then the second table of the law is in jeopardy as well. When a man does not honor the living and true God, he doesn't typically honor his fellow man. When a man does not worship the living and true God, he doesn't typically respond well to his fellows. In other words, if we sin against God, we can mark it that we will sin against others as well.

So the order is particular here. It's against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. And then notice the particular offense that he mentions in verse 18. Who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

We'll see what he means in more detail in just a moment. But he says they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. The idea is clear in what follows. God has made himself clear through the created order.

We know the Creator through the creature. We know the cause through the effect. And that's what the Apostle is going to indicate here. And so men, Gentile men, those apart from the oracles of God, look at chapter 2 for a moment, verse 17 specifically indeed.

You are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. There he's speaking to Jews, those who had the Old Testament. What he's speaking to in chapter 1 are the Gentiles. They don't have the Old Testament.

They don't have the oracles of God. They haven't been benefited with that special revelation. But what he goes on to say is that general revelation is enough to make man culpable. They are responsible based on the revelation of God in the created order.

Notice in chapter 3 at verse 1, what advantage then has the Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. You see what he's doing?

He moves from the Gentiles, and then he directs his argument against the Jews. You're no better. You have the oracles, you have the special revelation, you have the Old Testament, and you haven't lived in light of that. You're as bad off as are the Gentiles, And that's why in chapter 3, at verse 19, he can say, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So going back to chapter 1 and verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. The psalmist refers to these kinds of people. Psalm 10, verse 4, the wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God.

God is in none of his thoughts. Drop down to verse 28 in chapter 1. Notice, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, who do we think we are? Who does the creature think that He is?

We have the knowledge of the true and the living God, and we don't want that. We don't want to keep it. We want to eradicate it. We want to suppress that truth and unrighteousness.

This echoes what we see in the prophet Jeremiah. you can turn to chapter 32. Jeremiah chapter 32. God is rehearsing new covenant blessing. But before he gets to new covenant blessing, he gives the current state of the nation of Judah.

They are in Babylon or they're heading to Babylon because of their sin and depravity. Notice for about verse 31 of Jeremiah 32. For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and my fury from the day that they built it, even to this day. So I will remove it from before my face because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger.

They, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Now notice verse 33, very similar to what Paul says. Much of the condemnation of Paul against the Gentiles has its taproots in the prophets against Israel. Notice in verse 33, they have turned to me the back and not the face, though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. They turn to me the back?

You turn your back on the living and true God? You don't like to retain God in your knowledge? Now drop down to verse 36. Now, therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, it shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

Very much similar to Romans 1, 24, 26, and 28. For this cause, God gave them up. Punitive justice upon the heads of those who do not like to retain God in their knowledge. Punitive justice on those who say, you know what?

I'm going to turn to God the back and not the face. You know what? I'm going to take all of this data provided to me by God in general revelation, and I'm going to suppress it in unrighteousness. I'm going to dig a hole.

I'm going to bury it in there. I'm going to cover it, and then I'm going to stamp it down, and I'm never going to think about it again. That's the mindset of the Gentile, of the pagan. This is the mindset of neo-paganism today.

What Paul is writing in Romans chapter one is not far afield from what we're witnessing in Canadian culture. Now, back to Romans chapter 1. So there is this revelation of God's wrath.

Second Point: Reason for God's Wrath

Notice, secondly, the reason for God's wrath. Verses 19 and following. Notice in the first place, and it does attach to what he says at the end of verse 18, "...who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." He's going to explain this. He is going to bring the receipts.

He is going to indict. He is going to rebuke. He's going to evidence and demonstrate how it is that the Gentile pagan is refusing God Most High. And he appeals to what we call general revelation.

Special revelation is God's speaking to us in His Word. It's the way we have special revelation. Of course, dreams and visions and the prophetic word and all those sorts of things that we find throughout the Bible, the sign gifts, the tongues, the prophesying in the New Testament is all special revelation. But on this side of the closed canon, we don't look for that.

We have special revelation in Genesis 2 revelation. But then there's what's called general revelation. God manifests himself through the created order. As I said, we can know the Creator based on His creature.

We can know the cause based on the effects. Belgian Confession, Article 2, asks the question, by what means God is made known unto us? We know him by two means. First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, which is before our eyes as a most beautiful book, wherein all creatures, great and small, are as so many characters leading us to contemplate the invisible things of God, namely His power and divinity. as the Apostle Paul says, Romans 1.20, all things which are sufficient to convince men and leave them without excuse.

Secondly, he makes himself more clearly fully known to us by his holy and divine word. That is to say, as far as is necessary for us to know in this life to his glory and our salvation. So the accent falls here on general revelation. And we see by a survey of this passage or this chapter that general revelation is enough to render men inexcusable before a thrice holy God.

General revelation does not provide the contents of blood atonement at Calvary, but it does manifest the glory and the power and the majesty of God such that man is responsible to worship that God based on the light of nature He has received. Notice, the Apostle says, His invisible attributes are clearly seen. Verse 19, Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen.

So verse 19, he says, you can't tell me that you don't know. You can't tell me that you're an atheist. You can't tell me that you just aren't aware. No, God has so structured the created order.

God has so created man in his image that everything we see resonates God. And yet man suppresses that truth and unrighteousness. So verse 19, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. And then the specifics.

For since the creation of the world is in invisible attributes, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. So when we look at the things that are made, we are led to a consideration of the maker of the things. Now, something happens, obviously, because of our sin and our propensity to suppress that truth and unrighteousness. But if we weren't sinning, if we weren't using our minds in rebellion against God, it would be the case.

We'd look at Mount Shem and it would lead us to a consideration of the God who made Mount Shem. We would look at the oceans and it would lead us to a consideration of the God who made the oceans. Now, of course, we see that depravity manifest in atheism, or a professed or espoused atheism, or in agnosticism. But if you understand Paul's words in verse 19, you'll have to conclude there's no such thing as a true atheist.

There are those who profess atheism. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God, Psalm 14.1. But he can't escape it. He can't run from it.

He can't ultimately fly from the knowledge of God Most High. That's what Paul says. When someone says, well, I'm an atheist, there's just not enough evidence to support the belief in God. Paul says, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

The problem isn't a lack of evidence. The problem is the interpreter of the evidence. The problem is sin, and that's why Paul is addressing it, and that's why Paul is establishing this reality before he gets to Romans 3.21. But now, the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed.

Notice, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, and specifically his eternal power. Verse 20. It says, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, the glory of God Most High, is seen in the created order. This isn't confined to Paul in Romans chapter 1.

Psalm 19, the heavens do what? They declare the righteousness, the glory, the majesty of God Almighty. Spurgeon makes the observation that if a man looks up, in fact, I'll read it because I think it is germane to our understanding here, especially living in neo-paganism when people profess to be atheists. Psalm 19.1, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork.

Spurgeon says, he who looks unto the firmament and then writes himself down an atheist, brands himself at the same moment as an idiot or a liar. He brands himself at the same moment as an idiot or a liar. That's what Paul's point is in verses 19 and 20. So his eternal power and his Godhead, those are indicated clearly in verse 20.

But before we leave this point, notice verse 32. There's something else that the pagan, that the heathen, that the Gentile, apart from the oracles of God, know about God. They know that God is righteous. They know that God is just.

They know that God must ultimately punish all rebellion and transgression and sin. Look at verse 32, "...who, knowing the righteous judgment of God..." He's not changed subjects. He's not moved on into the Jews at this point. He's still dealing with the Gentiles.

He's still dealing with the heathen. He's still dealing with those upon whom the wrath of God is revealed against their ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. So in the sinner's heart of hearts, when he gets alone, as John Owen says, when he sees tempests and he hears thunderings and he sees lightnings and all those sorts of things, it's not so much the phenomena in nature.

Now that can cause a bit of a fear, but the reality that God is nigh and that he's a consuming fire. You see, we can't underestimate Romans 1 in apologetics and in evangelism. The sinner to whom we speak knows that God is. Now, he suppresses that truth and unrighteousness, and he busies himself with argumentation to try and satisfy himself and others that he's legitimate in his espousal of no-God-ism.

But the reality is, is that Paul tells us that man does know that God exists. Now notice in verse 21, we see the response by man to the general revelation that he has received from God. So God has made it manifest in them. So what does man do?

According to verses 21 to 23, we see what he does. In the first place, verse 21,

Man's Failure to Glorify God

because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Think about what the apostle says there. Man's problem, yes, is homosexuality. Man's problem is, yes, reviling.

Man's problem is gossip. Man's problem is blotting. Man's problem is lying. Man's problem is theft.

But in the first place, man's problem is ungodliness. who, although they knew God, did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful." So they're living in this tension. On the one hand, they know that there's a God, and on the other hand, they don't glorify Him. They don't honor Him. They don't bow to Him, the face.

They turn to Him, the back. They don't treasure the knowledge of this God in their heart of hearts. Rather, according to verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they exclude the thought of God because of their sin and their perversion and their rebellion against the living and true God. Now brethren, obviously, I'm not just picking on people out there.

We were all right there. We were all in this boat. We all lived in this particular manner. If you were raised in a Christian home, you had a bit of Romans 1 and a bit of Romans 2.

Not a Jew, but you certainly had reception of the oracles of God. For those of us not raised in Christian homes, we had general revelation, but what did we do with it? We suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. We knew that God was, but instead of glorifying Him as God or being thankful to that God, we became futile in our thoughts and our foolish hearts became darkened.

That's the trajectory. When a man rejects the living and true God, when a man does not live consistent with the knowledge that he possesses, good things don't follow. In other words, Peter's right, grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The more we know God, the more we understand God, the more our conduct should be consistent with that information and data.

But for the pagan, the heathen, the Gentile, he doesn't want to retain the knowledge of God. He knows that God is, but rather he does not glorify God as God, nor is he thankful. John Murray says to glorify God as God is not to augment God's glory or to add to it. It means simply to ascribe to God the glory that belongs to Him in virtue of the perfections which the visible creation itself makes known.

Live in light of the data that is available instead of suppressing that truth in unrighteousness. Now

Profession of Wisdom, Practice of Folly

notice the profession and the reality of verse 22. Professing to be wise. That's what we do, don't we? We reject God, and we have 15 reasons why we're right.

Why the infinite God of heaven and earth, the Creator, Governor, and Redeemer, is somehow subject to our sort of pontification that He's not there, that He doesn't exist. Notice, professing to be wise, They became fools. That's the transition. That's the trajectory.

That's what happens when a man does not receive the truth of God and act upon it. Notice then he turns to idols, according to verse 23. And he changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. So when a man rejects the true God, that does not divest himself of religiosity.

God made us in His image. God made us with a sense of divinity. God made us with a sense of the divine. If we don't worship the true and living God, We will direct that energy elsewhere, and that's specifically what the apostle addresses here in verse 23.

So they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things." Again, backdrop. Psalm 106, the indictment of Israel. They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped the molded image. Thus they exchanged their glory into the image of an ox that eats grass.

Well, there may be a difference in terms of the reception of God's revelation. The Gentiles, via general. The Jews, via special. The endgame is the same when we reject it.

When we reject that, verse 23 is the reality. That's precisely Psalm 106. Thus they exchanged their glory into an image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt.

Well, the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 2, the prophet takes great pains to upbraid Israel and to show them their sin so that in chapter 3, he can five times say to those people, yet return to me, says Yahweh. Yet return to me, says Yahweh. Yet return to me, says Yahweh. See a pattern?

Tell people the bad news so that you can then give them the good news. If we don't tell people the bad news, they'll never see their need for the good news. When we simply preach Jesus as a happier life, when we simply preach Jesus as a better way to go, we're not doing justice to the evangel. We need to tell men their plight in order to provide to them the remedy and thus make sense.

Jeremiah 2.11, has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods, but my people have changed their glory for what does not profit. Same thing that the Gentiles do in their rejection of the God of general revelation. Douglas Moon, his commentary says on verse 23, this tragic process of human God-making continues apace in our own day. And Paul's words have as much relevance for people who have made money or sex or famed their gods as for those who carved idols out of wood and stone.

Thus, as verses 24 to 31 show, the whole dreadful range of sins that plague humanity has its roots in the soil of this idolatry. Here's the connection. The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness, verses 21 to 23, and unrighteousness of man. When we exchange the glory of the incorruptible God and direct our worship and attention to corruptible creature, that's our theological commitment.

That is our embrace of idolatry. That is our rejection of the living and true God. And it's from that vantage point that all of the wickedness and all of the vices and all of the evils that we engage in flow. That's why it's not enough to just tell the fornicator, stop fornicating.

It's not enough to tell the thief to stop stealing. You see that in Paul's epistles to believers, but the primary emphasis that we bring to the fornicator, the primary emphasis that we bring to the thief, the primary emphasis that we bring to the sinner is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Not behavior modification, but blood atonement. When we understand the bad news, we will point sinners to the good news.

Man's Practice: Sexual Immorality

Now notice in terms of the response of man, his practice. He has his theological commitments according to verses 21 to 23. Now notice his practice in verses 24 to 32. He engages in sexual immorality.

You see, brethren, we think this is a sign, not we personally or we specifically, but we generically, generally, in society today, especially in North America, the Western world, we think that sexual profligacy is the sign of independence. We think that it's the sign of freedom. We think that it's the sign of good things. Well, believers who come to this particular passage of scripture ought to fear and tremble when we consider the modern situation and God's wrath revealed against it.

Notice the practice of sexual immorality, verses 24 to 27. Therefore, God also gave them up. to uncleanness. And again, this is punitive justice. This giving them up is akin to God giving up Jerusalem and the nation of Judah to Babylon in the captivity in the 7th century BC.

What we have is God's justice manifested. God, as it were, says to the sinner, you don't want me? You're not going to get me. In fact, I'm going to deliver you up to the uncleanness that you crave.

So verse 24, therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever, amen. See, that is man in sin, will exchange the glory of God most high for that which does not satisfy. Turn to the prophet Isaiah. He takes this tack when he's preaching the gospel to the nation of Israel.

In Isaiah chapter 55, he says, ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, verse one, and you have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance.

Incline your ear and come to me, here in your soul shall live. Notice, four times in the space of three verses, God through the prophet says, come. God through the prophet upbraids them. He chides them.

He reproves them. He rebukes them. Why do you spend your money for what does not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance.

This is the nature of depravity. It is the nature of sin. It causes us to judge the glory of God negatively. And it causes us to look upon the sinfulness of man positively.

You see why Paul can say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel? For it is the power of God unto salvation. If it isn't God involved in the saving of sinners, no sinner will ever be saved. Because sinners take the knowledge of God and they suppress that truth and unrighteousness.

Though God has clearly manifested Himself to them, they nevertheless put that information away and they live in light of their own lusts and their own idols. So they turned to that which is wicked. Verses 26 and 27. Again, the sexual sin component.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

If you understand Paul here, and you look at our modern situation in terms of sexual ethics, you ought to fear and tremble. Again, this is not a good sign when we openly violate and transgress the law of God Most High. When we take Deuteronomy 518, the seventh commandment, and we pretend like it's not even there. Or worse, we understand that it's there, and we in our pride and arrogance and hubris just go out and do the exact opposite?

When governments legislate immorality? I remember that as a young believer, hearing people complain, well, the government can't legislate morality. So what have we done? We've adopted a posture.

We've adopted a policy of legislating immorality. That's the way we want to go as civil society. What are we doing? We are invoking God's wrath.

We are invoking God's judgment. We are calling upon him to destroy us. It really is a collision course that we are on in the Western world relative to sexual ethics. So we've got their sexual immorality.

We've already covered verse 28, their rejection of God. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. And then

The Vice List and Its Solidarity

notice the transgression of God's law. We won't go through every vice. This is a vice list. Paul the apostle gives vice lists in various epistles to underscore and demonstrate and to evidence and manifest the sinfulness of man.

Again, why does Paul do that? Is he consumed with sin? No, he's consumed with Christ. And he knows that unless the sinner understands his sin, he'll never look unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

These two are inextricably connected. The preaching of God's law must go hand in hand with the preaching of God's gospel. Without the law, there's no gospel. Again, it's typically relegated to a happier life.

I remember several years ago, many years ago, our brother Steve saw a church sign that likened Jesus to Coca-Cola. Things go better with Jesus. Remember the old Coca-Cola campaign? Things go better with Coke?

I mean, that's arguable in itself. But to liken Jesus to a refreshing beverage? It may work well in Western civilization, but it does complete injustice to the glory of the gospel. to the beauty of the Savior, to the altogether lovely and chief among ten thousand. To relegate Jesus to a refreshing beverage is to take Him from His throne and to put Him into service of carnal men.

That is not gospel preaching. Gospel preaching comes on the heels of declaring to people their sin, their depravity, and their rebellion against the living and true God. Notice, verses 29 and following, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, Now, think about this vice list, because you may not be given to homosexuality. You may not be given to an actual exchanging of the glory of God for a four-footed beast that you bow down to in your backyard.

But this vice list finds us all out, even little children among us. being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things." Notice that next clause, disobedient to parents. You mean God has a concern about disobedience to parents? Absolutely, positively.

A rejection of parental authority is a rejection of divine authority. A rejection of mommy and daddy is a rejection of the living and true God who gave you mommy and daddy and a specific commandment for you to honor mommy and daddy. So that is a horrific sin that finds its way into this vice list that is descriptive of paganism. Notice, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.

And then verse 32 not only underscores that they know it's righteous with God to judge rebel sinners, but as well it points to the solidarity of sinfulness or solidarity rather of sinners. It was kind of nice today. This morning I mentioned that a lot of pastors throughout Canada agreed that we would preach a sermon on biblical sexual ethics. There was some solidarity shown this morning.

There's something good about that. There's something nice about that. It's good to have a body of people that you can connect to. Well, sinners have their solidarity as well.

And notice what the apostle says. He says, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. This solidarity is seen in persons not only engaging in damnable practices, but urging and encouraging others to participate likewise, to finding solidarity among rebel sinners as they resist Yahweh and His Christ. John Calvin calls this the summit of evil, when we rejoice in the wickedness that others engage that is similar to our own.

John Murray says, to put it bluntly, we're not only bent on damning ourselves, but we congratulate others in the doing of those things that we know have their issue in damnation. So this is a bleak picture that Paul paints in terms of Gentile disobedience to the true and living God. We've seen the revelation of God's wrath, verse 18, the reason for God's wrath in verses 19 to 32.

Third Point: Nature of God's Judgment

Now notice the nature of God's wrath or judgment in verses 24, 26, and 28. Verse 24, therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. Verse 26, for this reason God gave them up to vile passions. Verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind.

Have you ever heard a person say, do you think God's going to judge our generation? There is every evidence and every descriptor and every manifestation that we are presently under that judgment. When this kind of sexual sin is rampant, when this kind of perversion is vaunted, when the government actually sanctions those who would challenge that prevailing wickedness, we are in a difficult place. We need to pray to God Most High with the prophet Habakkuk.

He says, in wrath, remember mercy. We know that God is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 711. We know that we live in a world that is filled with wickedness.

We ought to be intercessors. We ought to be evangelists. We ought to be pointers to our Lord Jesus Christ. Understanding the plight of man, realizing the power of God, let us proclaim the remedy of blood atonement through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The people exchanged the truth for idols, God gave them up. The people exchanged the truth for a lie, God gave them up. The people exchanged the natural use for the unnatural, God gave them up. Again, Psalm 106, verses 40 and 41.

Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people, so that He abhorred His own inheritance, and He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles, and those who hated them ruled over them. When we see civic unrighteousness at these levels, we have to properly conclude there are big problems facing us in Canada today. I'm not talking about supply lines. I'm not talking about inflation.

I mean, those are symptomatic, to be sure, but the wrath and fury of God Most High is evident in the giving up of sinners onto uncleanness, onto a reprobate mind, onto this place where they do those things which are not fitting.

Application

Well, in conclusion, just a few thoughts and then we'll go.

The Effect of Idolatry

First, the effect of idolatry. Idolatry doesn't promote good things. Steve read the psalm at the outset of worship, Psalm 115. It's a mockery of the idols of the heathen nations.

They have mouths, but they don't speak. They have ears, but they don't hear. The psalmist is mocking. The psalmist is holding them in contempt.

The psalmist is comparing our God, who is in heaven, who does whatever he pleases, to the idols of men that can't function. They're dumb. They have no wherewithal. Sort of like Dagon when he falls over in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant.

Those Philistines have to go in the next morning and they have to pick him up and prop him back up. That is not a good God to serve. But with reference to the effect of idolatry in Psalm 115 at verse 8, it tells us that those who make them, those who trust in them, will be like them. G.K.

Beal has a book on idolatry, and the thesis of that book is, what you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or restoration. What you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or restoration. You follow idols, that's ruinous. You follow the living and true God, that's restorative.

You see that in the history of Israel. The effect upon the Israelites, say for instance, in Exodus chapter 32, verses 7 to 10. had turned aside from the worship of the true and the living God. What do they do? They bow down to the calf idols that Aaron constructed and predicated of them that this is your God who led you out of the land of bondage.

Romans 3.12, the apostle says, they have all turned aside. When we look at Israel, you'll see that the prophets upbraid the Israelites for being stiff-necked, for being rebels. They are like what they worship. Calves are stiff neck.

You need to put a yoke on them. You need to break them. You need to subdue them so that they follow and do what you say. Consider that statement in Psalm 115.

They have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear. They have mouths, but they don't speak. How many times do the prophets indict Israel?

Having ears, you do not hear. Having eyes you do not see. Why is that? Because they resemble their idols for ruin.

You see this, not just in Exodus 32. I've already alluded to Psalm 106, as I think Paul the Apostle does. Certainly the idol makers become like idols in Psalm 115. The Israelites in Jeremiah 2.11, I mentioned that.

Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? but my people have changed their glory for what does not profit. And in 2.5, it says, they have gone far from me, have followed vanity, and have become vanity. They followed the idols, which are vain things. So what happens to them?

Do they get restored? Are they conformed under the image of their blessed God? No, they have become vanity. You see it in Hosea 4 at verses 16 and 17, and then the Israelites in Isaiah 6, 9 to 10.

They take on the characteristic of the God that they worship. They have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear. They become like that which they worship.

I think Beal is right. What you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or restoration.

The Types of Idolatry

Secondly, the types of idolatry. And we need to be on guard for this. In 1 John 5, verse 21, a letter to Christians, a letter to believers, the last thing that John says is, my little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

It's the last thing he says in a letter that describes the truth-loving nature of believers, the righteousness-practicing nature of believers, the obedience that they manifest. There is this tendency, there is this proneness to wander and a proneness to leave the God that we love. Turn to Psalm 119. Very often, if we are not cautious, we will find ourselves compromised because we didn't pay attention to Scripture.

Psalm 119, if I asked you to give me a short statement, concerning the content of Psalm 119, you'd probably say something like, it's about the word of God. It is a celebration of God's law, God's commandments, God's statutes. It is a celebration of God's blessedness as it's revealed chiefly in the word of the living and true God. I mean, here's a man who knows his Bible.

Here's a man who relishes his Bible. Here's a man who loves his Bible. Here's a man who loves the God of his Bible. Look at how the psalm ends, verse 175.

Let my soul live and it shall praise you and let your judgments help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant for I do not forget your commandments. There is this recognition, and he does this in Psalm 19 as well, another psalm that extols both the general revelation and special revelation of God.

And he underscores the reality that the hymn writer was right. There is a proneness to wander. and a proneness to leave the God that we love. There is theological rebellion, the breaking of the first commandment, worshipping another God. Most likely, that's what Paul is indicting the Gentiles for in this particular chapter.

Worshippers of Mother Earth, worshippers of environmentalism, worshipping that which is created rather than that which has created them. There is theological innovation, worshiping the true God in a false manner. This is a breach of the second commandment. Those two go hand in hand.

The first describes the object of worship. The second describes the manner of worship. We're not left to improvise. We're not left to innovate.

We're left rather to be obedient to what God says. And then there is theological utilitarianism. Worshipping a god in order to secure specific privilege. You can see Ahaz do this in 2 Chronicles chapter 28.

You can see that at the fall of the Northern Kingdom when the Assyrians repopulate that Northern Kingdom. When God sicks lions on them for their gross idolatry, they cry out to a priest of Bethel and say, how do we get these lions to stop? That's theological utilitarianism. I'm going to use God insofar as he does me a solid.

I'm going to serve God insofar as he gives me what I want. That's not Christianity. That's not biblical religion. That is not what we are to aspire after.

We are to serve God because God is good.

The Believer's Response

And then finally, the response by the believer. In order to separate ourselves from this kind of a depiction, we need to know our God. We need to understand what the Bible says concerning the true and living God, our great triune God, who is from everlasting to everlasting, the Father unbegotten, the Son begotten by the Father, and the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. Secondly, we need to exercise caution.

Again, 1 John 5, 21. My little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. That's a tremendous statement, brethren, in the context.

You've got to consider the reality that we have a propensity in us to wander and to leave the God that we love. In terms of this exercise of caution, we need to recognize the idol of false religion. And false religion can take place even in the professing church. Not just Jehovah's Witnesses, not just Mormons, not just the various cultists, but it can happen within professing Christianity, when we deny the truth as it is in Jesus, when we deny the truth about God Most High, when we deny who Jesus Christ is.

John the Apostle, in the first and second epistles, deals with what he calls Antichrist. John, I don't think, is talking about Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong. He's not talking about Joseph Stalin. He's not talking about somebody that's in our future.

Antichrist was a present heresy at the time of the Apostle John. He says there are many antichrists. They denied cardinal truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. So you can have a man professing to be a Christian, but if he denies cardinal truth about the Lord Jesus, he is an idolater.

There is the idol of Mammon. You're all familiar with the text in Matthew chapter six and verse 24. You can't serve God and Mammon. Jesus doesn't mean divest yourself of all your money, put an orange robe on and bang a tambourine down at the airport.

That's not what he means. He does not indicate whatsoever that it's necessarily evil to have money. But it is a tendency to be drawn away in the pursuit of money. C.S.

Lewis has this observation. I'm just going to paraphrase it. He says, you know, oftentimes a young man says he's making his way in the world. He doesn't realize that it's actually the world making its way in his own heart.

Solomon or Edgar provides for us a happy medium. Give me neither poverty nor riches. If I'm poor, I may go out and steal and dishonor my God. If I'm rich, then I may have the tendency to forget God.

Now again, that doesn't mean to vest yourself of everything. Take your kids out and live on the street corner. Better yet, under the stairwell here at Free Grace Baptist Church. That's not what I mean.

There's instructions for the rich in 1 Timothy chapter 6 that help to counterbalance the tendency or propensity to be led astray. And then the final idol that I think we need to exercise caution over is the idol of self. The idol of self. Genesis chapter 3.

What was the enticement? Ye shall be as gods. It's all about you. 2 Timothy 3, men will be lovers of themselves. Look at one of the designs behind the crosswork of our Lord Jesus in 2 Corinthians 5.

Excuse me, 2 Corinthians 5. A caution concerning the idol of self. 2 Corinthians 5.12. For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.

Or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all that Those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. It's easy to see the pagan bowing down to his stick or bowing down to his stone and upbraiding him for his idolatry.

Oh, look at that wretched heathen worshiping his rock. Look at that man worshiping his stacks of money. Look at that man fabricating a doctrine of God that has no track with what Scripture says. It's very easy to see that and not see the overindulgence upon ourselves.

Now brethren, there's a place where there is self-love. Love your neighbor as yourself. You don't walk in front of trucks or trains. You don't ingest arsenic.

You don't drink hemlock. You do things to preserve yourself. Some degree of self-love is absolutely assumed by the scripture. But there's a threshold, and this devotion to self, this reality of a 2 Timothy 3.2, that men will be lovers of themselves.

Listen to David Wells commenting on this idol of self. He says much of the church today, especially that part of it which is evangelical, is in captivity to this idolatry of the self. This is a form of corruption far more profound than the list of infractions that typically pop into our minds when we hear the word sin. We are trying to hold at bay the gnats of small sins while swallowing the camel of self.

It is idolatry as pervasive and as spiritually debilitating as were many of the entanglements with pagan religions recounted for us in the Old Testament. that this devotion to the self seems not to be like that older devotion to a pagan god blinds the church to its own unfaithfulness. The end result, however, is no less devastating because the self is no less demanding. It is as powerful an organizing center as any god or goddess on the market. The contemporary church is whoring after this God as assiduously as the Israelites in their darker days.

It is baptizing as faith the pride that leads us to think much about ourselves and much of ourselves. My little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. That's what John says.

There are religious idols, there are monetary idols, there's pleasure idols, there's certainly the sticks and the stones of the heathen, but there is that idol of self. That desire for ourself, that devotion for ourself. Again, there's a biblical self-love, but boy, we really, really extend that to the outer reaches, and we need to guard our hearts and minds. So a bleak picture that the Apostle presents in Romans 1.

He's going to do the same thing in Romans 2 when he says to the Jews, you're no better. And in some sense, you're even worse, because you had the oracles, you had the special revelation. You not only had the manifestation of God in creation, You're not only created in His image, such that you're hardwired to think His thoughts after Him, but you've had the prophets, you've had Moses, you've had all of this data, and instead of serving and glorifying that God, you've rebelled against Him, you've transgressed against Him, and you've rejected Him. That's the basis upon which the apostle begins his gospel presentation.

He doesn't start with, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. No, he starts with God is angry with you, and if you don't believe the gospel of his son, you will be cut off and damned to hell eternally. So he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, the righteousness that he demands and the righteousness that he provides.

And this is not an innovation. This isn't new with the apostle. Habakkuk 2, the just shall live by faith. When the apostle declares the doctrine of justification by faith in Romans 4, who does he point to?

Abraham and David. This isn't a new thing. This isn't a brand new way. This is how it's always been.

Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Closing Prayer

Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you not only tell us the good news, but you tell us the bad news. And God help us as the church to imitate this pattern, to imitate this way. I ask and pray, Father in heaven, that you would bless my brothers and sisters here, that we'd all have a good understanding of the problem that faces mankind. so that we could see the power of God in response to that and that remedy through the blood atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one you made who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

We thank you for this Lord's Day. We thank you for the privilege of gathering together and worshiping you corporately. We pray now that you would go with us and keep us and watch over us and may your face shine upon us each and every day. And we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.

We'll close with a brief time of meditation.

Scripture References

• Genesis 3
• Exodus 32:7-10
• Deuteronomy 5:18
• 2 Chronicles 28
• Psalms 7:11; 10:4; 14:1; 19:1; 106; 106:40-41; 115; 115:8; 119; 119:175
• Isaiah 6:9-10; 55:1
• Jeremiah 2:5; 2:11; 3; 32:31; 32:33; 32:36
• Hosea 4:16-17
• Habakkuk 2
• Matthew 6:24
• Romans 1:16; 1:17; 1:18-32; 1:19; 1:20; 1:21-23; 1:24-27; 1:28; 1:29; 1:32; 2; 2:17; 3:1-20; 3:12; 3:19; 3:20; 3:21
• 2 Corinthians 5:12
• Philippians 3:7
• 1 Timothy 6
• 2 Timothy 3:2
• 1 John 5:21