When you found Romans chapter 1 in the New Testament, out of reverence to God, let's stand for the reading of his word. This morning, we're going to be thinking through verses 19 and 20. However, I'm going to start in verse 14, and I'm going to read to verse 21. And after I read, by word of explanation, maybe perhaps for visitors or guests this morning, I'm going to say, this is the reading of God's word, and not out of religious duty or obligation, but hopefully out of a reverent heart that God, in his mercy, has revealed himself in his word. We would then reply, thanks be to God for his word. And I hope, saying that this morning, in light of what we're going to think about in Romans 1, you will never take for granted that God has revealed himself to you in Christ and his gospel, that this book would never be taken for granted. We don't deserve this. God has revealed himself to all people in creation, which leads to condemnation, but in his wonderful mercy, he has shown and revealed himself to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So let's read from this, Romans 1, beginning in verse 14. The missionary, the Apostle Paul says, I am under obligation, literally I am indebted, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. And in this way, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God's power unto salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, God's righteousness is being revealed from faith unto faith, just as it is written, but the righteous one shall live by faith. For God's wrath is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of mankind, who in, who by their unrighteousness are suppressing the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, I've been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made So they are without excuse For although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened This is the reading of God's Word Please remain standing as we ask for God's assistance and help this morning. Father. We would never seek to manipulate people by inflections of voice and putting on a grave tone, but, oh, Lord, that there would be true spirit-wrought reverence for your Word, inerrant, infallible, sufficient, revealing who the true God is, life-giving to the sheep that they might hear Jesus' voice. And so, Father, we would ask humbly this morning, out of your grace, would you be pleased to show us Christ? Lord, we pray for our children who have maybe not yet put their faith in this one, who have never really come to a place where they realize they are a guilty, condemned sinner, ungodly, and unrighteous, and they've never understood the great need for God's righteousness, which comes only through faith in Christ. And Father, would you give us more and more of Paul's burden for the glory of God in the Son of God as we preach the Word of God to the world? Father, would you help us to so get outside of ourselves and often our trivial problems and to realize there is a condemned world, not only across the sea, but across the street, perhaps even across the dinner table. And so, Father, I ask that we would say with Paul, we are eager to tell others about Christ. For we know something that they might not know, that God's wrath is revealed. And it will be culminated on that day when Jesus Christ returns. And with perfect and righteous judgment, we'll deal with all sinners. And yet, Lord, with love flowing in and through us in the gospel of Christ, we would say, there is hope. The one who is righteous by faith shall live. And so, Father, I just pray, help me now to make your word plain and clear and to speak it with boldness and power as I ought. Oh, Father, please help us in these next minutes. Help us to know not merely your word, but to know you to whom your word puts. Show us Christ this morning, show us our need of him, and grant us the faith, Lord, to trust in him we ask, in his name, Father, amen. Please be seated. So I thought I would begin this morning, children, by asking you a question, and ask this, have you ever wondered why churches support missionaries? Sometimes we can grow up in the church and just assume, well, this is what churches do. They do churchy things, and they have missionary boards, and they have maps with pins on them, and they give money to missionaries, and we get mission reports, and we remember them in the pastoral prayer. But have you ever thought about why do churches, at least why does our church or why do churches in North America, why do we support missions, global missions? Why would we give money to someone like Noah who is translating the word of God into a foreign dialect in the Middle East? Why would we do that? Why would we pray for Keith and Carmen, who are in France? Why would we be praying for Rod when he goes up to the Philippines? Or Stevenson and family when they're in India? Why would we be praying and supporting? Why do we do that? Well, it's not because we're trying to be churchy. It's because of texts like this. It's texts like this that say all people are without excuse. All people without Christ are under God's wrath. And unless they hear the gospel, they remain under God's wrath. Unless they hear the gospel and believe, they are objects of His holy and righteous indignation. For God hates all sin. He hates all that is opposed to what is good and right and true. He hates all that is opposed to Him. And so, I would put before you the reason why we support missionaries is because all people who have not faith in Christ are without excuse. I could have preached verses 19 through 23 in one sermon, but I'm not going to do that. But there is a hinge between this morning's message and next. And let your eyes see it. It's in verse 20. And Paul kind of sneaks it in there, sort of like the sandwich, right in the center of this section. Paul says, so they are without excuse. And so what he's trying to do, he's laboring to do, as he's writing to the Romans, is to explain and prove and show and validate why Gentiles who have never heard the gospel are nevertheless without excuse. We saw last week that God's wrath is being revealed. And Paul's going to explain this morning and next why. Why is God's wrath upon people who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, there's two reasons. One, because they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And we're going to see that this morning. And then next week is because they exchange the truth. about God for a lie. So this is what is happening all around the world, and we're informing ourselves with good theology. People know that there is a God, and God is wrathful because they are suppressing that truth in their unrighteousness, and they're exchanging that truth for a lie. And we're going to look at idolatry more next week. But this week, my burden is simply to explain why. Why is God angry? Because they are suppressing the truth. And then we're going to see in verses 19 and 20, how are they suppressing the truth? I was listening to a sermon a couple weeks ago, and the preacher said, good preaching gets people off, or puts people on the hook. Sorry, I mixed that up. Right, we're always trying to get ourselves off the hook. and good preaching, or you would say good evangelism, is putting them back on the hook. And that's what Romans 1, 2, and 3 is all about, right? I want you to see how practical this is. I don't want you just to hear a sermon, but I want you, with a Bible, whether in your hands or if it's even on your phone, to be able to show someone, you're sharing the gospel, this is not my opinion. What Paul is doing here is he's showing why he's so desperate not only to go to Rome, but to go to Spain. So I asked, why do churches support missions? Because people need to hear about Christ. Because if they don't, they will perish everlastingly. in their sin, and God is righteous to do so. God's righteousness is being revealed in his wrath. Therefore, we must see to it that his righteousness is revealed in the gospel. Okay, so the reason we support missions is the same reason why Paul is writing Romans. And we saw that many months ago, that Paul is writing this letter, because he says in Romans 15, I want to go to you, and then through you to Spain. Why would he want to go to Spain? Does he like their food, their cuisine? Want to play with, you know, the bulls? But why does he want to go to Spain? Because Paul is utterly convinced of what he is writing, and he wants the Romans to catch that bird and send me to Spain. Why? Because sinners are perishing there. They're on the hook. Or if I were to entitle this message, we would say they are without excuse. Now, the burden of Paul will also put the Jewish people on the hook in Romans 2, but he's focusing now of putting the Gentiles on the hook. So last week, let's just review this. We saw Paul's thesis statement of Romans 1, 16 and 17 is that people need God's power to be saved. Saved from what? From his wrath. What kind of wrath? His righteous wrath. The gospel reveals God's power to save. Creation reveals God's power to judge. And so he's moving here from what they need to why they need it. You need the gospel. Why? You're under wrath. You need God's power to be saved. Why? Because God's power of judgment is upon you. Do you see Paul's logic? And it's being revealed, as we saw last week, against all men. in their ungodliness and their unrighteousness. The reason why they live the way they live is because they believe how they believe. They believe in false gods. They suppress the truth about God. They exchange the truth about God, which is why they live so ungodly, and which is why they do such unrighteous things. And God is all-seeing. We saw that. He is judging from heaven. So the very end of verse 18, we see that all people, whether Jew or Gentile, they are suppressing, they're hindering, they're holding back, trying to hide the truth. To which you should have asked, well, what is the truth? Like calculus, like the law of gravity, what's the truth? Well, Paul's going to explain what they're suppressing in verse 18, in verse 19. Right? He says they're suppressing something in verse 18, and notice how verse 19 begins. Again, it's good to slow down. Notice the conjunction for, or there should be the word for in your Bible. If not, write it in there, because the Greek says for or because. Right? What Paul is saying is that people try to say, God shouldn't judge me. I have a reason. I don't know. I don't have enough of the truth. And Paul says, no, putting you back on the hook. You do know. You can't suppress something, you can't hold something back unless it's there. Does that make sense? And so let's look at verse 19 as it unpacks what it looks like or how all people, Jew and Gentile, are suppressing the truth. Gentiles here, who have never heard the gospel, still know something. Do you see that in verse 19? They're suppressing a knowledge about God. Now, please understand, they're not suppressing a full knowledge. That comes through this. The reason why they need the revelation of the gospel is because it shows us what God has done for us in Christ. Creation doesn't do that, but creation is a revealer. Perhaps you've heard people preach, there's different books by which God speaks, but only one of them is saving. There's the book of creation. There's the book of conscience, and then there's this book, which is all about Christ. Those alliterations should help. And I say that because you should be explaining this to your co-workers. You know there's a God. I don't even need to prove it to you. You're trying to hold that book close in your unrighteousness, but there is a book that God has written on their heart. When they look at creation, When they feel wronged, when something bad happens, especially to them, they're indignant. Why? Because books are speaking. God has given all humans two books. But to be saved, they need the third one. Does that make sense? This is why we do missions. The first two books reveal that there is a God who is creator and Lord and judge, that he is holy, that he will judge sin. But only this book shows us that this God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Which is why Paul wants to go to Spain, because he knows they have two books. It's sort of like a trilogy. I'm not gonna speak too much about the Lord of the Rings, but you don't wanna watch the first two, you need the third one too. The return of the king. And so here it says here, the suppression of the truth looks like people holding back or restraining things God has revealed about himself. Well, what has God revealed to all people? Right, even if they don't have smartphones, right, they don't have data plans, he's revealed himself in creation. Now, we're going to see next probably month in Romans 2 that he's revealed himself in their conscience, but first we're gonna think about You see that in verse 19? For, because, right? He's explaining how they're suppressing the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them. That God, in a sense, is not hiding himself. He's made it very clear to them. And so you don't need to be smart, but when you're sharing the gospel with people, it's plain. Do you see the sun? Do you understand intricacy of a human eye? Do you understand how God works not only in creation, but also providence and history? That he's speaking to us in the things that have been made. It's an interesting Greek word. It's poiema, and it's used also in Ephesians chapter 2, ladies, as you're studying, for we are his workmanship. and it speaks of order, and design, and intentionality. And so when we look at the things created, or literally, tapoi malata, right, when we're seeing it, it sounds like the word poem. And a poem is something that comes from a mind, right? Letters come together and they form words, which form sentences, and then those sentences usually rhyme and have order, and structure, and meaning, and direction. And Paul is saying, creation is God speaking a poem. Now, the gospel is the zenith of that and explains, you know, that the poem points beyond God the Creator to God the Savior. But do you understand that everybody, whether like poetry or not, when I was in science, I hated arts. We always marked all the art students, artsy-fartsy students. But everybody understands poetry. And God's creation is his revelational poiema to all people. Whether they like poems or not, God has spoken of order and intentionality and design and purpose. We're not just, in the words of a suppressor of the truth, just random molecules bouncing around. We're not just brain fizz. People who say that are suppressing the truth. They know, those scientists who look in a microscope, they know when they look through a telescope, they know. And Paul is saying here, these Gentiles are not off the hook. Paul's constantly doing that in Romans, and that's what we should constantly be doing when we're sharing the gospel with our children, with neighbors, with strangers, is having these dialogues, conversing with them, asking questions, answering questions, and that's what Paul's doing. Because constantly, Gentile and Jew are saying things like this, it's not fair. To which Paul says, it is entirely fair. You don't get off the hook, because you don't feel it's fair. He's going to do that repeatedly in Romans, and he's doing it here. I want to go and preach the gospel. I am a debtor to these barbarians. Why? Because they are under the wrath of God. They need a revelation, not of creation, they need a revelation of redemption. And that comes only in the gospel, which is why Paul wants to preach the gospel. For what can be known about God? So people have a knowledge of God. Okay, it's not a full, salvational knowledge of God, but they know certain things. This is why no matter where you go, people are incurably religious. Everywhere you go, there are pillars and shrines. People, in the words of Paul in Athens, are superstitious. Why? Because of Romans 1. They don't choose to be. They're made in the image of God. And this goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 1, that we were made for him. But we became foolish, and we exchanged, and we suppressed, and we turned away from God. But it's like that balloon. When you're watching the little kid in the water at the beach trying to push it down, you can put it underwater, but eventually it pops back up. And that's what people are doing. Paul's saying the Gentiles are doing it. There is a beach ball. You might not see it here and there in sort of the zenith of atheism. Thankfully, it's died. But it still doesn't remove this knowledge of God. We think, yes, the atheists are on the decline. Paganism replaces it. When I was young, all the four horsemen, the atheists, you Christians are stupid and stupid and stupid. That's gone. You're rarely going to run into atheists on the street. That's all I ran into when I was in university and college. But now you're still gonna run into people, whether atheist or pagan, they know there's a God. Okay, so nose back in the book. For what can be known about God is what? Plain to them, evident to them, clear to them, manifest. It's obvious, I would translate it. You don't need to give them a microscope. You need to tell them to open their eyes. and God is speaking in this book. Now, I do wanna take us to a couple places in scripture. The first is actually in Psalm 19, and the reason why I'm having you turn there is one, it sort of changes gears of the sermon, and if you're getting sleepy, sometimes turning Bible pages can wake you up again. But it's two, I want to familiarize you with your own Bible, so that when you're talking to people, you say, well, where's Paul getting this from? He's getting it from Psalm 19. And interestingly enough, Paul doesn't quote Psalm 19 in Romans 1, he quotes it in Romans 10, which we'll look at after. So here's David. David loved to reflect upon creation because it pointed to the Creator. Now, David, by grace, knew the Creator was Yahweh. He wasn't the unknown God in Athens. He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And for us, we would say that He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He has revealed Himself in creation and in conscience. But supremely so, He has spoken to us in His Son. who is the heir of all things, who having made propitiation for our sins is now seated at the right hand of the Most High. But listen to David. The heavens declare. That's what you call a participle, and so you put an ing on it. The heavens are declaring. Let me tell you how I would translate it. The heavens are reciting the glory of God. The Hebrew word is sefer, which means a scribe. Remember Ezra, good old Ezra? He was a scribe. A sefer, sefers. A scribe, scribes. A prophet writes. And so what David is saying, almost, is like the heavens are writing a poem. They're sefering, they're recounting, they're telling of. ESV says declare, but the heavens are telling of, they're reciting, they're writing. It's like when you're doing family devotions, you're reading something a scribe has written. And the heavens are doing that. God, as it were, with his invisible hand, has written. He's made the heavens so made with his fingers. And the heavens are declaring, reciting, telling forth, proclaiming, preaching God's glory. the sky above proclaiming his handiwork. Here's the book. Day to day is pouring out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. When you look at the stars, you understand that that's not random or accidental. We have revelation. We know who has put Orion and Pleiades in there. We know that that's God. We know what Job says, we know what Isaiah says, but even the nations, though they don't know his name, they know what God has done that. Which is why, when you read the Old Testament, they're always so fearful of the stars and the demonic realm. Now, we know that God has made those stars. He has named them and put them all in place. Listen to verse three, there is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the world, in the heavens, he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. The setting of the sun, the rising of the sun, the fact that it happens day by day by day by day, is God revealing himself. His eternal power and divine nature, his deity, is being revealed in creation. This poem God has written without words, says David, and yet we can read it in the book of creation. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them, and there is what? Nothing hidden from its heat. Meaning what? God's revelation in creation reaches all. Nothing's hidden. Now, I'm going to stop there, but if you were a good Bible student, you would look at this either if I bore you to death this afternoon or this afternoon when you go home and realize that David moves from what you call general revelation in verses 1 to 6 to special revelation in verses 7 to 14, where God has spoken in creation and yet it's not enough. We need God's Torah, we need His instruction to revive and give life to our soul, to convict us of specific sins, to know that in the law there is propitiation for our sin, there's covering for sin, that there's a gracious God who condescends. The Son doesn't declare that, nor do the stars. We just know there's a mighty Creator, and He's all-wise, and He is running all things. We know that. And that's general revelation, but oh, how we need special revelation in the word, right? The law of the Lord is perfect. It revives the soul. I just said I'm not gonna read it, so I'll stop there. But David rejoices, yes, in this general revelation, but oh, how he needs, oh, how we need, oh, how the world needs special revelation, the word. They need the gospel of Jesus Christ. So this is, I think, what Paul's alluding to when he says that there's no excuse. Why? Because the sun is not hidden from anyone. Its beams, as it were, they reach all the ends of the earth. All people everywhere at all times know from the created order that there is a God and he is powerful. This idea also is not just in creation, but other men, like Barnhouse and Murray, they would say we see God not only in the book of creation, but within it there might be, say, subchapters called providence and history. All things, whether it's the laws of gravity or how God is ruling over nations. We know that. We see that there is a God ruling over all. So why are the Gentiles put back onto the hook? Because what can be known about God is plain to them. Well, what is this knowledge of God? Literally, you could translate it in verse 19, for the knowledge of God is plain to them. Everyone has a knowledge of God. The question is, is it a saving knowledge of God? Creation gives us a knowledge of His power. that he's going to judge the righteousness of God in being creator and Lord, but only the gospel shows us the righteousness of God as Savior. Does that make sense? So there's this knowledge of God that is plain, clear, evident, manifest, I would translate that, because God has shown it to them. Some translations will say has shown it in them. Is it to them or in them? It's both. John Murray helped me with this. And he says that because God shows it to them, and they see it with their eye, then it is internalized. Now, he's not saying you can reason your way to God. You can't, we're fallen. General revelation is only enough to condemn. But when they see God's revelation out there, he shows it to them, it is then, as it were, revealed in them, and in their conscience. Has anyone ever heard of a man named John Calvin? Daryl's gonna like this, because anytime I bring Latin up, his ears perk up. I think I've heard Charles use this. And in Calvin's Institutes, he talks about what's called the sensus divinitatis. Said, I never heard of that. Sensus, oh, the Latin homeschoolers know. There's a sense of divinity. And what Calvin is saying is that all people everywhere and all time know, one, that there's a God, two, that he's a judge. Three, that their sins will be judged. They know that. Why are people superstitious? Why was Ryan superstitious growing up as an unbeliever? Because I had this census divinitatis. Why are people incurably religious? Because they know there's a God. They know there's a judgment. And so they're trying to appease this God, perhaps, in his anger. They know he's powerful and just. And it's only in the gospel that we see that Christ alone can satisfy this just God's wrath for our sin. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to and in them. And you know this. You have it in their back pocket. I don't care what Richard Dawkins or whoever the latest atheist is. He knows this. And when he says there's no God, he's lying. He's betraying himself. It's in him. And what Paul's trying to show here is actually how wicked sin is. It's plain, it's obvious, it's evident, it's manifest. Were it not for our bent and hatred of God, we would see him as glorious and thank him and give thanks to him. How insidious and wretched is sin. We can look at the sunset while we're sinning. We can go to the Grand Canyon and have lustful thoughts. Right? We can see the marvel of childbirth and then abort babies. That's how wicked sin is. We're on the hook. It's shown to us and in us. This is the truth being suppressed. Verse 20 continues on. For his invisible attributes. And so I could go through all the scriptures, but God is spirit. Right? You can't see him. He says this to Moses. He says it in the Psalms. He's invisible. And yet, as it were, creation makes the invisible God visible in his poem, in his poiema. And so the commentators I read said this is a bit of an irony. The unseen God is seen. or at least attributes of him are seen. You can't see his power, but in creation you can. You can't see his divinity, but in creation you can. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, here it is, have been clearly seen. I would translate it that way. There's a play in words in the Greek. The unseen God is clearly seen by all people everywhere. What do they see? They see two things. As Donald Gray Barnhill says, they don't see all things, but they see two things, and that's enough to condemn them. These two things are enough evidence for them to know there's a God. Does that make sense? This is a great starting point when you're sharing the gospel, right? You get to that level playing ground. There is a God. He's created all things. He's appointed a day for judgment. His wrath is being revealed as we saw last week. in government and in futility and in death. We can start here and show them that they're on the hook, that they have no excuse. They are culpable for their ungodliness and unrighteousness. They know there's a God and they live ungodly. We saw that last week. They can't say there's no God because God says, I have revealed myself clearly, no excuse. You can't unsee what God has shown you. So his eternal power and his divine nature have been clearly seen ever since the creation of the world in the poiema, in the things that have been made. And so it's not like we're smarter, and so now we know there's a God. No, going all the way back to Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, they've known there's a God. And I agree with the commentators who say that Paul's actually showing us just how wretched history is working through the book of Genesis. He's showing what has happened as people strayed further and further from God. With Cain and Abel, and then moving to Lamech, and then Nimrod, and then moving to the Tower of Babel. It doesn't take long. These people who know there's a God. You can read their genealogies in Genesis 5, and it doesn't trace far back to Adam and Eve. And you work through, and by the time you get to Genesis 6, people are filled to overflowing with ungodliness and unrighteousness. All they can think about is wickedness and betraying God. And then tracing it through as they stray further and further, and God scatters them in judgment at the Babel. And then how they concoct gods for themselves, and then God, in his mercy, reveals himself in the gospel to reclaim those nations to himself. I want to take us to two other places, just to show you how important this is. Go to Romans, go to Acts chapter 14. I alluded to it last week, and it's easy to remember. 14, 17, and I'll explain the 17 after, because we're going to go to Acts 17 next. So Acts 14, 17. So Paul is preaching the gospel. Chapter 13, he's preaching the gospel in Pisidi in Antioch. He's chased away by jealous and zealous Jews. And in 1351, it says, they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. You can look that up on your map after. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. So they're persecuted. Interestingly enough, they're filled with joy because they're preaching the gospel. As Paul's habit, he always went to the synagogue. They chased him out. And so in verse eight, we see that Paul moves out of the synagogue and he starts preaching to others, right? They continued preaching the gospel. Here he is in Lystra, and he's later in Derbe. And it says here, now at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. Remember, they've never heard about Jesus here in Lystra. He listened to Paul speaking, he's preaching the gospel, and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying in Laconian, praise be to the God of Abraham and Jacob. Praise be to the Lord for giving... What did they do? They worship their gods because they know here's something powerful that has happened. Something has happened and they attribute it not to the true and the living God because all they have is books one and two. They have conscience and creation. And yet that's not enough. They lifted up their voices saying, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. We're going to see this next week. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker and the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you and we bring you the gospel. We bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God. Here it is. He is the one who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. So they know there's a creator and Paul is going to now tell them who this creator is and why they need to repent because his wrath is upon them. Look in verse 16. In past generations, he allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. But something radical has happened with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet he did not leave himself without witness. Here it is. Does that sound like Romans 1? Right? 1417. You're at the bus stop, and you're talking with a Sikh who's moved to Canada. He's never heard of Jesus Christ. But you know something. You know he knows there's a creator. And he's maybe suppressed that truth in his unrighteousness, or he's exchanged that truth for the plethora of idols they worship. But you know that, and you can start there, and you can now explain to him who the true creator is. And not only that, you can get to his heart and show him what this true creator has done for sin in his son. The gospel of God, Romans 1-2, becomes the gospel of his son in Romans 1-4, which becomes the gospel of his righteousness in Romans 1-17. That's the kind of evolution I like. Yet God did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons." The fact that rain, right? Study the hydrological cycle. That's amazing, but you don't even need to know that. Intuitively, you know from the changing of seasons, from the rain, from the harvest, from all that happens, there's a God. And he is faithful, as we sang, changing from one season to the next, from spring to summer, to fall to winter, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Yet even with these words, they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifice. Paul goes on to get stoned by them, and I'm not talking about hallucinogenic drugs, but actually being almost killed by people throwing stones at him. Verse 21, when they had preached the gospel. So Paul says, I know you've got books one and two, but let me give you the trilogy. Let me tell you the good news. I put you on the hook, and now let me tell you how you can be saved. And many disciples are converted. That's Paul in Derbe and Lystra. Turn a couple pages over to chapter 17. Right, so we know chapter 14, verse 17, and that 17 now brings us over to the book, or to the city, I should say, of Athens. Paul's by himself, he's left two of the brothers behind in Berea, where they had some wonderful Bible studies. What is Paul doing in Athens? He's checking it out. He's not looking at the local restaurants or seeing, you know, what's going on, who's playing, you know, football or hockey that evening, but rather he's surveying Athens, this intellectual center of the world. All these philosophers with all of their books and letters and learning, And he knows something they don't. They're incurably religious, incurably superstitious. They cannot help but worship. So he's provoked. It's in the imperfect tense. He's increasingly provoked because rather than giving thanks and glory to their creator and Lord, they are suppressing the truth and exchanging it. And they are culpable. So he's reasoning with the Jews in the synagogue, but he's also talking with the philosophers, the Epicureans and Stoics. They're in the streets, and they mock him. He's a seed picker, literally, because he's preaching Jesus and the resurrection. They say, hey, we like to talk about things. We like to learn about new things. It would have been just perfect for the internet age where everyone's got an opinion and everybody's got to vote on someone and everyone's got to comment on something. The Epicureans and Stoics would have loved Facebook and YouTube. And so they said, please, come to what they call the Areopagus or Mars Hill and give us a gospel presentation. And I want us to see how Paul gives a gospel presentation to these people who've never heard of Jesus or the resurrection. They heard the Greek word anastasis, which is the Greek word for resurrection. They're so pagan that they thought there was a God named Anastasis. Tell us more about Anastasis. Who is this God Anastasis? And Paul's saying, no, the real God raised Jesus. Okay, so how do we talk with people who've never heard Jesus? Paul's a wonderful example. In Sunday school, we want to study how he prays. Well, here we can study how he preaches, even to those who have never heard. Listen to Paul. I know it's a little bit long, but sometimes it's good to slow down and say, Paul, how do you get this? Well, this is Romans 1, is it not? He says, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious, you are very superstitious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. They know there's a God, but he's unknown. And so we make known the unknown God through the gospel. Creation says there's an unknown God. We see His eternal power and divinity. But the gospel says who He is and what His name is. Therefore, you worship as unknown. This I proclaim to you, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth." So they know there's a God who made, and we know he's a sovereign Lord. But he does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. They're suppressing the truth. They're exchanging it. They don't want God to be this sovereign. They want this God to be served by us as though he needed something, therefore making us God. But we'll see that next week. We know that he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. Here it is, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place. We see God in Providence, that they should seek God. But they don't. They suppress and exchange instead of seek. No one seeks God, Paul says in Romans 3. He says that God has shown himself in creation and in conscience. They should, the goal of seeking and perhaps feeling their way toward him and find him. Yet he's actually not far off from each of us. Quoting one of their poets, for in him we live and move and have our being. For indeed, we are his offspring, his seed. Verse 29, being then God's offspring, we ought not to think, here it is, of the divine being. That's what Paul's saying in Romans 1. We know this divine being, his deity, but he's not like gold or silver or stone. He's not an image formed by us or our imaginations, by our reasonings. Why does Paul want to go to Rome? Because he wants to go to Spain. Why does he want to go to Spain? Because Spain is without excuse, even though they've never heard the gospel. How do you know that, Ryan? Verse 30, the times of ignorance God overlooked. Now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Meaning what? No one gets off the hook. All are culpable. All are without excuse. He doesn't just command the Jews to repent because they've got the third book. He commands all people everywhere to repent. He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness. This is what Paul is saying in Romans 1. His wrath is righteous, and He's going to come, and He's going to judge the world in righteousness. So you need God's righteousness in the gospel. Does that make sense? Just nod, and I'll finish. by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." But you don't know that by looking at the sun, or the stars, or a waterfall. You don't know that Christ rose from the dead. You only know that when the good news is preached. Faith doesn't come by observing creation. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing what? Not conscience. Not providence. Not history, not even creation. Faith comes by hearing the gospel, the word of God, the message about Christ. And some were gloriously saved. Let's close in Romans 10. I said earlier, when we looked at Psalm 19, that it was not quoted in Romans 1, it was merely alluded to. But here's Paul quoting Psalm 19 in Romans 10. And so children, when I asked, why do churches support Missionaries, it's because of Romans 1 and because of Romans 10. So here's Paul now explaining. Let's start in verse 9. Paul says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Creation says there's a Lord. The gospel says it is Jesus who God raised from the dead. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Remember Romans 116? The gospel is the power of God for salvation. Salvation from what? From God's wrath, which is on Spain and Africa and Lethbridge. For with the heart one believes the gospel, and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For what says, verse 11, for what says? For the scripture, not the clouds, not the moons. Not even scientists, the law of thermodynamics does not say this. Only the scriptures, only God's revelation says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, and his name is Jesus. The pagans know there is a God, there is a Lord, but you must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord if you are to be saved, and you can only know Jesus Christ as Lord through the gospel. We'll get there. Bestowing his riches on all who call on him, whether Gentile or Jew, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Here's Paul's reasoning. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, again in divine revelation, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. Spain has not obeyed the gospel. And yet Paul is the apostle who's been given grace to preach the gospel to the Gentiles to bring about their obedience of faith. The people in Spain have not obeyed the gospel, and they're culpable. We support missionaries in the Middle East because they are not giving the obedience of faith. They're not calling on Jesus as Lord, and they're culpable. They're without excuse. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? Verse 17. So faith comes from hearing, but not hearing creation or conscience. Faith comes from hearing through the word of Christ. This is the gospel. But I ask, have they not heard? Do they not get off the hook? Indeed, they have. And if you have a Bible with references, you'll see that Paul is citing Psalm 19 here. Their voice, whose voice? Creation's voice has gone out to all the earth in their words to the end of the world. And so Paul is saying that they know there's a God. They've heard the word of creation and it's condemned them. It's made them culpable. It's put them on the hook. So send me, send me to Spain that I might preach the gospel. I'm indebted to them. They're under the wrath of God's righteous indignation against sin, his settled opposition to all sin, pagan or religious. So send me. So they might hear, they might be saved, that they might give thanks to God and glorify his name. They are without excuse. Everyone is without excuse. I'll close with this and we'll pray. Paul says that he is doing all that he's doing in Romans 1, 2, and 3, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world held accountable to God. The whole world's accountable to God, whether we like it or not. You can scream, that's unfair. You can say the potter has not been fair, but in the words of the angel to Abraham, who wondered if God was being fair and pouring down his wrath upon Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, will not the just judge of the earth do what is right? You might not think it's right, but you don't get a vote on Judgment Day. He is going to do what is absolutely right. He's going to do what is right because he is righteous. His wrath will be righteous. And if you are saved in Christ, it is because he is righteous. And so all I want as a takeaway from this is that God would give us a greater burden for the lost because we understand the predicament they're in. They're on the hook. And they need to hear from the third book. They've got creation in conscience, but oh how they need Christ. And it only comes by preaching the gospel, which is God's power to get them off the hook, which is God's power to save them, which is God's power to impute Christ's righteousness, which is God's power to cover and forgive our sins. This is good news. And I pray that we'll preach it to all creation that God puts in our path. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful that you have in your mercy given us a revelation of yourself in the gospel about your son. That the prophets looked forward to it, the Holy Scriptures foretold of it. But in the fullness of time, this good news tabernacled with us. He came in and he revealed your righteousness. not only against sin, but your righteousness to save as you promised of old. And Father, we thank you for this revelation of your love for us in the table, your hatred of all that is ungodly and unrighteous. For this table reminds us that our sins were not swept under some kind of cosmic carpet, They are not appeased by works of our hands, whether in doing or making idols. No, Lord, your wrath was only appeased in the Son whom you lifted up. And so, Lord, we just ask that as we take a moment to reflect on your goodness to us in Christ, that we would ask forgive us of our sin. And as we remember the broken body and shed blood, may it remind us to be thankful that we would glorify you in all that we say and do. Father, we're thankful for the bread and the cup, which remind us Lord, that judgment is not the last word for your people, that we can say in Habakkuk, in wrath, remember mercy, and we would say that Christ is the yes and the amen to that. Lord, your wrath has been revealed, but thank you in the gospel for revealing your love and righteousness to us in Christ. So help us, Lord, to celebrate this feast with grateful hearts, with true thankfulness, And Father, as the plate passes before perhaps those who have never called upon the name of the Lord, would the passing of that plate remind them that they are not right with you? that until they confess Jesus Christ as Lord, until they humble themselves under your mighty hand and cry out to be saved, that they are on the hook and without excuse. And if Jesus were to return this evening, they'd be condemned justly and righteously forever. And the only thing holding them back is their suppression of the truth and their exchange of it for a lie. O Holy Spirit of truth, show us the truth as it is in Jesus, and may unbelievers exchange the lie for the truth, and be so saved. Lord, we love you and we thank you. Be honoured as we celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His glory. As Lord and as Saviour, we ask, Father, in His name. Amen.