Today we're continuing in Romans 1. Let me get my stuff together. Romans 1, we're going to be looking at verses 19 through possibly 23. Probably not quite get that far. In Romans chapter one, I titled this message today, The Judicial Case for the Wrath of God. We saw last week, we saw that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. It comes from God. And the week before, or several weeks before that, we looked at the righteousness of God is also revealed from heaven. Both righteousness and wrath come from God. But how many of you have ever heard this from maybe a parent or a boss? You need to do something because I told you so. Right? Just do it. Gil, go mobile on. And he says no. And I say because I told you so. That would be a proper thing to do. God, in his mercy, in his grace, always gives reasons for why he does the things he does. Out of all beings, out of all people in the world, God doesn't need a reason to do anything whatsoever. But he gives reason for his justice and wrath. And he gives, fortunately, for everybody in the whole, whole world, he gives the one way to alleviate that wrath that one deserves. And that is through the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ. So let's go to Romans 1. How long have we been in Romans 1? It's not that bad, is it? Romans chapter one, well, we'll start with verse number 18. Well, the whole thing is based on verse number 14 and 15 about Paul's obligation to bring the gospel to those who are in Rome and those to the Greek and those to the Jew. So verse number 19 says, because, Well, because verse 18 is because the wrath being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. In other words, the truth is suppressed. They hold it down. They know the truth, but can't tolerate the truth. Sounds like an old movie. You can't handle the truth. Right, but the truth is displayed by God, from God. Verse number 19, because I'm gonna read through verse 23. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shown it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because that, When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and to four-footed beasts and creeping things. And Lord, we just pray that you would add your blessing to your word this morning. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So verse number 19 talks about the visible attributes of God. That which may be known of God is manifest in them. It's made clear. Manifest is being made known, the proof of the pudding. When I was in shipping and receiving, every truck had a manifest destiny on board that showed what was on that truck, which it was legally carrying. So if something is manifest to somebody, it's made clear. It's evident to them what is being shown. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them." What has God showed to them? To those who are under the wrath of God? He showed them His wonderful creation. He showed them... I remember I've never visited the Grand Canyon in person. I've only flown over it, and I was amazed by that. Seeing that, how could people not believe in a God, in a creator, who paints such a wonderful panorama in the earth? You ever done this? Have you ever looked at the sky at night and seen a beautiful sunset or a sunrise and thought to yourself, man, what a painter God is. He paints things better than Rembrandt or Van Gogh, doesn't he? It's made, he's made, the visible things have made his presence known. And we can add your own things that are made manifest in the world. And even the fact that once upon a time, back when I was a child, they would just start in technology with the electron microscope. Right, before then, things were much more of a mystery. Now the electron microscope has opened up a whole new world of things that are not seen by the naked eye, but they are seen and manifest, and what happens most of the time with those people that wield the electron microscope, they still don't believe. They can see DNA strands. They could see RNA, DNA, mRNA, all these other things all put together in an orderly fashion and know that each individual thing in the world has its own separate building block, its own separate creation, and they'll still disprove God or try to hold him down. Oh, wait a minute, I missed a page here, here we go. So we have the visible attributes of creation. The world itself and its wonders is a testimony to God himself. You ever looked at pictures of the earth from space? And what you see is this blue ball, just suspended. What's holding that up? What keeps the universe in going in the order that it's going? It's God himself that is. But science would say, we don't know. It was just a big bang and it's just swirling around in outer space. But yet there are actually planets that circle in the opposite direction of the other planets. Only God, an individual, a creator could do that. Verse 19, it's manifest in them for God hath shown it unto them. Verse 20, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Turn with me for a second to John chapter three. John chapter three. Let's just look at verse eight for our example here of the invisible things. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen the wind? No, you never have. You've only seen the visible things that the wind moves. You haven't seen electricity. Well, you might have seen sparks that are generated by that electricity, but electricity is invisible. Right now, if I had some kind of Superman glasses on or something like that, I could see wavelengths of waves and waves of data going by throughout the Earth. But we only see the effect of that, we see when our cell phone works, and we see when our Wi-Fi works, and our radios and our car works, but all those things are invisible to us. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Verse number 27, talking about Moses. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. How did Moses see the invisible God? By faith. We know who God is, but he's created visible and invisible. We know those attributes of God by faith. But it's not just faith. We have his written testimony to us of who he is and what he's done throughout history. Let's go over to Colossians chapter number one. Colossians or Colossians, whatever way you wanna say it. Colossians chapter one, verse number 16. For by him, by Jesus Christ, For by him were all things created. How many things were created? All things. He created the chairs that you sit on, the pews. He didn't fashion them as pews, man made them, but God made the wood. God made the invisible things that contributed to the wood. He made the subatomic particles that went into the wood for those pews. He created all things. All things have their origination with God in his creation. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth. Heaven, earth. All things in both were created by him. That's such a simple concept to those of us that believe, isn't it? What's so hard to believe about that? I think we would agree that we needed some sort of human technique and technology to create those pews, but it was God that did it. God put the pieces, made the pieces available. It's amazing how many people believe in evolution. If they'd have looked at a bat, the term blind is a bat, but they have an incredible sonar that they have. Did that happen accidentally? The person who doesn't believe in God would say yes. That was just a freak of nature. That was through mutation and through, I can't even think of the words I want to use. Natural selection. It was all done in that way. God didn't do it. You take a, and I've seen this situation or this example used all the time of an intricate watch. Does anybody have like a expensive watch All right, I just want to take it apart. I just want to take all the pieces out and put them on a table and say, okay, put it back together again. It's impossible. That watch needed a creator, a designer, right? The designer of those components, the materials that went into it was by God, but it needed a creator to make that watch. It doesn't just happen, as the evolutionists would say. It says, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are at earth visible and invisible. Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, both visible and invisible, were created by God and for him, by him and for him. He's the ruler. of everything in the heavens and everything in the earth. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. Amen. Think if there weren't something called gravity. What would happen? God. Yeah, we'd be off there, we'd be off spinning off into space like the evolutionist thing happened with creation. But he holds it all together. Verse 18, I'll end here. And he is the head of the body of the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. I always like that song. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Yeah, I can't think of the rest. I can only think of the name Jesus. He keeps it all together and He keeps me singing as I go. Amen. Let me get back to Romans. Oh, you could... You could, if we were to individually and say, what kind of things could you add into the list of things visible and invisible? We could come up with a whole wall full of things that we could think of that were created by God, both visible and invisible. But we won't do that today. Just for time's sake, we'll do it some other day. So we have the visible attributes of God and the invisible of creation and the invisible attributes of creation. I love science. Anybody else love science? I hate those stupid signs that say trust the science. Scientists have no clue with what happened at the creation of the world. Because real science tests what they find. They have an assumption and they test that with things that can be accurately reproduced in a laboratory or in nature. That's the only thing science can do. I like the science of hermeneutics. I like seeing what's in Scripture and seeing what the context of it is and seeing what it literally means. It's what we ought to be doing. Real science is not afraid of God. There are those who are Science, 1 Timothy chapter six, talks about the opposition of science, falsely so-called, that's knowledge. Human knowledge that goes against God is, as we'll see in a couple verses, is foolishness. Only things that scientifically can be tested are those things that can be verified. What verse was I going on now? Verse 21, so the invisible things are clearly seen by the visible things so that they are without excuse. But people still make excuses that God doesn't exist. Verse number 21, because that when they knew God, wait a minute, aren't we describing atheists here? Those that don't, Believe in God? It says they knew God? Everybody in the world knows God. Sounds like a bold statement, but it's a true statement. They're looking right at God, if you could see Him, and they say, I see nothing. There is no God. They have their own imaginations and their own blinders on that keep them from believing. They suppress the truth. They hold the truth in unrighteousness, as it says in verse 18. It says, because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful. I see that as one of the top things still going on. It's people aren't thankful. In general, people are not thankful for what they have. Why? Because they're looking in a mirror and saying, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. It's all about me. I'm the king of my life. I'm the king of my soul. I'm the boss. I'm not accountable to anyone at all. I hope nobody makes a clip of that and puts it online. That's the attitude that's in the earth. For us believers, that's what we would call humanistic thinking or philosophy. It's amazing how much humanistic thinking and philosophy tries, through human agency, to say there is no God. I think I may have said that before, back when my brother-in-law Paul, I think when he would turn, I can't remember if it was 40 or 50 or 60, one of those birthdays, he used to always, because when he was in college, they learned Nietzsche, whose greatest claim to fame was declaring that God is dead, right? That was Nietzsche. So somebody bought him a T-shirt that says, Nietzsche is dead, sign God. That was such a great, I wonder if he still has it, I might try to take that from him, I don't know. But Nietzsche is dead. All those humanistic philosophers are dead and buried. These people that tried to change the world through modernistic and post-modernistic thinking. by rejecting God, have only met the Lord. But they met Him at a time when it's too late. They're under that wrath of God. That's shown here in Romans chapter number one. How about us? What do we do in this age of humanistic thinking, rationalistic thinking? Got just the place, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I was gonna go to one verse, but I think I'll probably go to more than one verse. See, verse three is where I was gonna start, but it starts with four. So again, Romans chapter one and two are all full of for and because. Verse number one says, now I, Paul, myself beseech you, how? By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence and base among you, but being absent and bold toward you. I always think if Paul had text messaging, text would be in all caps. But I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with you with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. That was the main detractors in Corinth were those that were super spiritual and they believed that Paul was walking in the flesh, that he was the wrong one. Verse number three, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. Right, we're walking in this flesh, this flesh is falling apart day by day, that's not our battle in the flesh, our war, we do not war in the flesh. Verse number four, For the weapons, I like this is in parentheses, because he has to remind people, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now, I'm gonna go off in a little small tangent. There's so many people say, what's your stronghold? You have a stronghold of infidelity, a stronghold of debt, a stronghold of not having any friends. No, the stronghold is placed in the context in verse 5. Casting down imaginations. Just went to Disney. Imagination. You know, it's healthy imagination. But this imagination is the same thing as found in Romans chapter one. Rejecting God and having imaginations and placing anything except for Jesus Christ at the forefront, right, is the answer. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. So whatever is saying that God is not sufficient, or the gospel is not sufficient, those things are to be cast down. We're in a world that wants to take us off of Christ and put us on to thinking. Worldly thinking. Mindfulness, don't think about anything, just, and just, you'll eventually get some kind of movement or feeling. That's to be cast down. The greatest thing we can do as believers is what? Is to believe the gospel, grow in the gospel. Just like the song said, we started by grace, we go through life with grace, we finish in grace, right? The Lord Jesus Christ, the knowledge of the real Jesus Christ. Sadly today, if they had the show What's My Line, and they would have, will the real Jesus Christ please step forward, nobody would recognize him. Because Jesus Christ today is just the catch-all thing, the catch-all person to do whatever your heart and imagination desires. But the main thing that he came to do is to take away sin. to take that sin, that punishment on Himself. The cross. Casting down imaginations in every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Try that for a change. This is truly where I could say, what would Jesus say? What would his will be done in any situation that comes up that would take you away from him? We get so allured by things of this earth, it's easy to get captivated or taken incaptive to anything outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. The obedience here is the believing Once you believe, you keep believing. I know that sounds hard to do with all the assault on our lives, but keep on believing. Almost sounds like a journey song, but I won't go there with that. Right, but it's true. Don't stop believing. Because when you do, when you take your mind off of those things which are above, where Christ sits and put them on anything in the earth, guess what? You start going in that direction. Amen? Keep your eyes focused on Christ. Let's go back to Romans. Back to Romans chapter number one. Because now when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. I went ahead, neither were thankful. What does a person who rejects God, rejects the knowledge of God, what would they be thankful for? I could tell them easily if they would just simply trust the gospel and trust who God is, they would be thankful for his gift of salvation. They'd be thankful for all the things. Paul even said to be thankful in all things. And he was in a jail at the time, I believe, when he wrote that. Be thankful in all things. And through all things as well. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. You know, vanity is something that floats away, kind of like steam from a tea kettle. Does anybody know what a tea kettle is, by the way? That's one of those lost things nowadays. On Saturday, I was off, of course, but we had a gentleman retire in our office a while back, so they promoted a person to a regular carrier. Yay! And we've always had a tradition that that person that's being promoted to regular brings in donuts for the whole office. And I was thinking today, or yesterday, actually Friday, I was thinking, it's like, boy, back when I brought doughnuts into the office, it cost more, less for a dozen doughnuts than it costs for one doughnut today. It's a difference. It was like a buck and a half for a dozen doughnuts back 40 years ago. Now it's a buck and a half to buy a doughnut, and sometimes more. And we're talking little Dunkin' Donuts hockey pucks. It's crazy. Why did I say that? It was something to being thankful. I tried to tie that together, but we'll leave it at that. Being thankful. I think it was just a good aside to just talk about something about age and way back when things that we don't remember, vanity, that's where it was, I brought it back. The vanity of things, the things that change that we set our affection upon rather than the unchangeableness. Verse number 22 now, right? Oh wait, I gotta finish 21. Their foolish heart was darkened. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse number 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. The greatest thing that's ever happened in history is the gospel, the cross of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Those wisest men that have ever lived on earth without Jesus Christ are come to nothing. That's why philosophies come and go. Every decade or so has a new philosophy. We're just getting over post-modernism. It's kind of dying a slow death, but there'll be something to take its place. But what will stick is that foolishness of the cross. That is the power of God for us. Where is the wise? Verse number 20. Oh, wait a minute, no. Verse number 19. Oh yeah, I read that already. Verse 20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the despioner of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? The ways of this world come and go. The grace of God. The cross lasts forever. Verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Romans 1. We go right back full circle. In its wisdom, they didn't know God. So how wise was that wisdom? It was foolishness. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that belief. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks. Foolishness. Remember, I didn't have it written down, but in Myra's Hill, Paul was speaking to those philosophers up there. He says, God is easy to find, even in the dark. If you just grope for him, you can feel for God. A blind man could recognize God. If you just feel for him. If you just understand that he is the creator, he is available. But no, their foolish hearts are darkened. So they became wise and just put on the blinders. I will not know that. I cannot understand that. But, verse 24, but unto them which are called, that's not a Calvinist place either, Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Let's go for a second to the book of Isaiah. This kind of goes back with the invisible things of God. Isaiah chapter 29. And I know this is a prophetic chapter addressed to the nation of Israel, and they're being brought back again. Verse number 13. Says, wherefore the Lord said, for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. They were very religious, but not right with God. If we know the history of Israel, And as we close up here in Romans chapter one, we'll see what they did. Idolatry. Instead of the invisible God, they made themselves gods of men, corruptible men and beasts and birds. Verse 14, therefore behold, "'I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, "'even a marvelous work and a wonder, "'for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, "'and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. "'Woe unto them that seek deep "'to hide their counsel from the Lord.'" That's why I enjoyed hearing that song about 139, about Psalm 139. people will try to hide from the Lord. So I like to change the words of that song, hiding in thee, to hiding from thee. That's what people are trying to do by suppressing the truth. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, who seeth us, and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay. For shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding? The creator can do what he wants. He's gonna have his way with his people because his gifts and callings are without repentance. He would take Israel and he would start over from scratch. Basically bring them into judgment and also rebuild them. He was the one who tore and wounded, but he will once again bring people back to themselves. Ever since the beginning of mankind, the beginning of the world, mankind has been searching for their own truth about themselves, neglecting or treating as foolishness the very creator who made them. It's sad. I think you'll run into a, I don't say I think, I know you'll run into a majority of people you know that have that same thought. No, thank you. I have my own way. No, thank you. I don't believe in God, even though he's manifest in every which way. Let's go back to Romans 1 and we'll close up here. We'll get to the end next time together. professing them, it's verse 22 again, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and to four-footed beasts and creeping things. Idolatry, idolatry, idolatry. I happened to Google creeping things. And creeping things here can be, usually in modern language, it's talking about a snake. But the book of James uses the same word that's translated as sea creatures. Think of all the different things. And here's where I'm gonna leave it, right here. Think of all the things that are around that fit this description that are in the world today that people worship. I think of Hinduism, I think of elephants with baby's faces, Baba Ganesh or whatever. All these different religions that have replaced God with one of these things. And I have the definitions for each of those things, but I don't think we need to go there. All we have to do is look around. You can understand how deep the kymshi is with people who don't believe the gospel. They've created a god out of anything. I remember several years ago, I had an interaction with a gentleman. He said he went someplace and they told him just to believe anything is a God. God could be anything you want. You need to set your affection on that and that's the way you go. He says, I substituted God for Mickey Mouse. He said it kind of joking, but he was serious. There's only one God. is one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. And Him, and I'll segue into this, Him, we celebrate what He did by going to the cross, dying for our sins. There's no other way. And I'll just ask you as we leave, look at verse 23 and 24. I was gonna open it up to everybody and say, think of all the creeping things and corruptible men and different things that you see that are used for worship around the world. It's amazing how much there is, or how much is venerated outside of even religion, those symbols and everything that we have, amen? Well, that's where I'm going to leave it. I know a hard ending, not a smooth landing here, but we're going to partake in the Lord's table and then pick it up with verse 24 next week.