This morning we will pick up in Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one. Paul is speaking about sin. And the plight of fallen men and women who are under the curse and wrath of God. Paul is laying out in this section for all of us to see the universal effect of sin and the degradation from bad to worse as men suppress the truth about God in their sinfulness. My heart and my mind are heavy this morning. Acutely aware. Let me say acutely aware of the need. For each one of you here. For forgiveness of sin. And my heart is perhaps even more acutely aware of my own need for forgiveness of sin. This section of scripture is one that we may never feel that we have considered enough. I mean, when can we say sin. When can we truly say that we have come to grips with sin, with my sin, with our own sin, to the degree that we should. So we could spend much time in these verses, and on the one hand I'm tempted to spend a lot more time here, but but I don't want us to get bogged down in the condemnation of sin. Let me pause. Somebody maybe just heard, let's ignore the condemnation of sin. Somebody maybe just heard, let's go light on the condemnation of sin. That is not at all, or you can't even read the text that we're about to read and think that we can go light on sin. But if we spend all our time in the condemnation of sin in Romans, we will never get to the forgiveness of sin and the grace of God. So, this morning we will once again read verses 18 through 32. Romans chapter one, beginning in verse 18. Hear now the word of the living God, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, verse 21, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations. and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Verse 24, therefore God gave them over in the lust of their heart to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever, amen. Verse 26, for this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions. For their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way also, the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another. Men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. Verse 28, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. God, we ask this morning, that by your spirit you would work to fill up what is lacking in us. We pray that you would use this feeble preacher. As a tool in your hand. Where my words fail? where my speech is inadequate and falls flat. God, we pray that you would let your spirit speak in the hearts of your children to make us thankful worshipers. We pray that you would speak to lost sinners to call them to Christ. Shine the light of your word, oh God, on our false piety, our self-righteousness, our fleshly sorrow, which leads to death. And we pray this morning that you would grant true repentance, which leads unto life. Hive this preacher. Show us your law. Bring to bear on our souls the condemnation and the curse of the law to the point that we can almost not bear it. And then, God, show us Christ. Show us your grace. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. We have seen as we study up to this point that God has revealed himself. God has revealed himself. If God had not revealed himself, then we would never know him. We know God only because of his self-revelation. And we have said that God has revealed himself in two books. In the book of nature and in the book of scripture. And in the book of nature we see God Evidently, this text tells us that other texts, the Psalms, the heavens declare the glory of God. We see God revealed in nature plainly, but insufficiently for salvation. We see God declared in the book of nature sufficiently for condemnation so that we are as sinful men and women without excuse. but insufficient in nature because we don't look to nature and see Jesus Christ. We don't look to nature and see the cross of Calvary. We don't look to nature and see grace and salvation by grace through faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ and forgiveness of sin. Those things are not revealed in nature. Those things are revealed in the book of Scripture. And here in our text, Paul speaks about God's threefold self-revelation, three ways in which God has revealed himself. We see in verse 17, the righteousness of God is revealed. God has revealed his righteousness. In verse 18, we see the wrath of God. is revealed. And then the third, this threefold self-revelation, the third one does not use the word reveal or revelation, but it says, verses 19 and 20, that God made it evident. And what does that mean when God makes it evident other than he has revealed himself? And we see this revelation of his attributes. The text says that which can be known about God. Let's just take a moment. and say there are things that can be known about God. Should that cause some of us to pause and give thanks? There are things that can be known about God. And so we see this threefold self-revelation, His righteousness in verse 17, His wrath in verse 18, and then verse 19 and 20, His attributes, that which can be known about Him is revealed, his invisible attributes clearly seen. That which would otherwise be unseen, unknown, because of God's self-revelation, seen, known, and known clearly, seen clearly. And this revelation of God, revelation of himself to mankind, And that is the conclusion in verse 20, men are without excuse. Today we focus in on verse 21 through the end of the chapter and we see in these verses what I'm calling a spiral staircase. Now I wanna tell you, we see what I would refer to as a spiral staircase, sometimes in the writing of John. the writing of the apostle John, where he covers the same, and I think we also see this in Peter from time to time, where he covers the same territory, but it's not just that we're walking in a circle through John and through Peter. As we cover the same territory, there is an ascension to a higher plane, to a higher level. Think about how we live from faith to faith. Well, you're covering the same territory, but at a higher level, at a growing level. Here in Romans 1, we see a spiral staircase, but this time, descending. going down, going to lower and lower levels. And I say this because it becomes clear, it becomes clear as we see a pattern that is repeated through this text. When you walk on a spiral staircase, you are covering the same, you're covering the same space in one plane. But in this text, just a lower and lower level. So we cover the same ground, but we dig deeper, we get deeper. And there are four levels presented here. We begin on the level in verse 18 through 20. And we're not gonna say everything that can be said about these verses. Some of the things that can be said about these verses and read the text, and the Holy Spirit would have plenty to work in your heart and in your mind. But we have this beginning level, verse 18 through 20, God made himself known, but men suppressed the truth. God made himself known, but men suppressed the truth. Now, we're gonna see this evidence of God, this showing forth of God, and then the suppression of truth. Sometimes I write a sermon and I think this is gonna be short, so I add something. So that's what we're gonna do. That usually winds up being a long sermon, so just bear with me. What we see here in Romans, I want to refer back to. Let's first go back to the text that Pastor Brent read earlier in our hearing. That great scene on the mountain where God descended..." What a scene! Words escape the clouds, the lightning, the thunder, the presence of God, the glory and majesty of God so clear! And in the camp, Do you think that was outside their hearing? Do you think that was outside their sight? No. But they ignored it. We can say they suppressed it. They suppressed the glory of God in unrighteousness. go back to the Garden of Eden, what could be, just imagine for a moment, some of you can appreciate the beauty of the earth that God has made. Isn't it wonderful to see beautiful things, to see a rose, to see, I think about my grandmother's flowers, to see the Grand Canyon, to see the mountains, to see the rivers, to see the beauty that God has created, now remember, none of us have ever seen the world as God made it. We see it fallen. We see it corrupted by sin. We see it in a, we don't see it as it was to Adam and Eve in the garden where God, everything was fresh. created and His glory is on display as it had never been. His glory now is on display in the Garden of Eden in an amazing way. And it is right there before the eyes of Adam and Eve. The smell of the garden is right there, fresh in their nostrils. The birds singing, the breeze blowing. It's right there for them to observe and to take in. And what do they do but suppress the glory, suppress the truth, and sin. We see it in the garden, we see it on the mountain with God and the people of Israel and their sin. And we see it here. Now, some people think that this text in Romans is only speaking of the garden. And you do see amazing parallels between Genesis and Rome. There are many amazing parallels. And some people say, well, this is just speaking about that. But it seems that this is speaking of a much broader sinfulness that is common among all men, all women, all of mankind. So we see, verse 18 to 20, that God has made himself but we're gonna see that same pattern of God's glory, God's truth being suppressed and traded in, traded in for a life, traded in for sin, trading life for death. 18 to 20, God made himself known, but men suppress the truth of God. And then we descend to a lower level. Verse 21 to 24, there's more suppression of the truth, the truth about God, which he has made known. There's more suppression. And then verse 24, God gave them over. This phrase appears three times in this text. God gave them over and it marks for us on our spiral staircase, our downward spiral. It marks for us descent into another level. God gave them over. Verses 25 to 27, men exchanged the truth for a lie. What is that other than the glory and the truth of God being suppressed, being traded in, being exchanged for a life? And God gave them over and we descend to another level. Verses 28 to 31, men no longer acknowledge God. And again, he gave them over. This giving over. Three times, God gave him over, God gave him over, God gave him over. These statements show us that God does not force men to worship him unwillingly. I carefully crafted that statement because we know that God is sovereign and that God is sovereign in salvation. We know that God is the initiator, God is the first in the salvation of men, we know that he gets glory for everything in our salvation, but in saving men, God changes our will. I heard someone say, those Calvinists, they believe that God's just knocking people in the head and dragging them into the kingdom of heaven, kicking and screaming. That is a, absolute, and I believe intentional, misrepresentation of our doctrine and absurd. God saves men, changing their will so that they believe in Jesus Christ, they follow Him, they obey Him, and they do so most willingly. They do so most willingly. Some of you will recognize that that's the language of our confession, that men come into Christ most willingly. God does not knock people in the head and drag them into the kingdom of God. Our text seems clear that as men reject God, as they suppress the truth, as they refuse the truth, as they exchange the truth for a lie, God does not prevent their sinfulness. He does not prevent their sinful rejection of him and of his truth. He rather gives them over to the very thing they go after, to the very thing they desire, to the very thing they want. And when men without Christ get what they want, It leads to more and more sin. What are the results, the effects, the wages of sin, where we know the wages of sin is death, the judgment of God. But another thing that's very clear in scripture, especially in this text, the result, God gave them over and they descended further. I shouldn't even say they. I mean, the text says they, but all of us born in a lost condition can say we. I mean, this is an us text. He gives them over to the very thing that they want, and that leads to more and more sin. It leads to deeper and deeper degradation, a degrading, a sliding down. It's that spiral staircase going down into the depths of depravity. Let's take a quick look at some of the things listed here. Verse 21 is very clear, they knew God. It's this verse and this section of scripture that causes many preachers and today I join the ranks to say there's no such thing as an atheist, as a true, as a real atheist. Most atheists have this philosophy, there is no God and I hate him. That's the philosophy of most atheists. And I mentioned last time that someone said, when a person says, I have an intellectual problem with Christianity, or I have an intellectual problem with God, most of the time you can say, what's her name? Because it's sin that stands in the way. There's no such thing as a true atheist. They knew God. Now you can say, but wait a minute. What you just did right there, but wait a minute. is you said, I'm gonna deny what the scripture says, and I'm gonna insert my own reason. Does it say they knew God? Is this God's word? They knew God. They may suppress the truth. They may lie not only to you, they may lie to their own self. They suppress the truth. They exchange the truth of God for a lie. But this knowing is, is real, and it is also, we should say this, knowing God, I mean, how many of us talk about knowing God? We mean by that a salvific knowledge of God, knowing God savingly. That is not what is spoken of here. This is not a saving knowledge, this is a knowledge about God. But even knowing God, it says they did not acknowledge him as God. Now that's different, to know God, to know about God and to acknowledge, or some texts say, some translations say, honor Him as God. That's two different things. I know, but then I'm not gonna give you the honor, the glory, the praise. I'm going to refuse to ascribe to God the glory and honor that is owed Him. And when suppressing the truth, they refuse to honor God, the text tells us they become futile in their speculation. That is to say, in their thoughts, in their, the King James's word, imaginations, they become vain, empty, vacuous. Some of us have talked about recently that when people reject God, they wind up with thinking that is absurd. You think about the smart people. The smart people who are presented to us in all our media outlets as the intellectuals start listening. And I'm not going to say you'll hear 100% foolishness. 100% lie is a terrible lie. Do you recognize that? Nobody believes 100% lie. you might believe 20% lie and 80% truth. Start listening to some of these intellectual evolutionists, physicists, scientists, and you will hear some absurdity. Just as an example, recently, within the last few years, a few top world-class scientists have given serious thought to the odds that the universe was created by an evolutionary process. Now, some of you have seen the YouTube video that I forwarded. If you want to see it, I'd be glad to forward it to you. It's not scientists who are Christians. By the way, there are many scientists who are Christians. who believe in scripture, but these men that I'm talking about are not Christians. They are just thinking men who have calculated the odds of evolution, and they've done this scholarly work, and they've come to the conclusion that evolution is impossible. Let me tell you this. If you believe evolution, you should buy 10 lottery tickets every week. Because you have a much greater chance of winning the big bucks than seeing that everything that is created came here by chance. One of the scientists was asked, are you saying that evolution is improbable or impossible? And he said something like, What's the difference? It's so improbable that it's impossible. It is mathematically impossible. These scientists are not Christians, and here's my point. This interview that I saw with these scientists, there's three men, three men, and they are top scholars, well-known in their fields, but there's three who stand in the backdrop of a multitude who are presenting absurdity. Absurdity. Legitimate, degreed men who call themselves scientists and say that they hold to the scientific method. Say, with a straight face, aliens came and planted the embryos of things that turned this world into what you see today. That's the best of the best. Because when you suppress the truth, God gives you over to absurdity. I gotta find a way back to here. Verse 22. Okay, look at that verse. They professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. We hear the professing to be wise. We hear it. We need to remember what God said. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Verse 22 goes on to speak of this spiral staircase descending and trading the glory of God for the image and the form of birds and man and birds and animals. And we see that all around us where people will not, they refuse to acknowledge God as God, but they will speak of the universe. They will speak of the environment. They will speak of saving their favorite animal. or sea creature. They trade in one God for another. Because folks, that's not science, that's religion. That's religion. They refuse the glory of God and they replace him in their hearts with the things that God has made. And this downgrade into sin continues in verse 26. God gives them over to degrading passions. And we have here presented for us in no uncertain terms, the sin and the evil of homosexuality. That is very clear. If you didn't catch it, then go back and read these verses again. That is very clear of what is being spoken. And for some of us in our minds, we read these verses and we say, now we have before us the most horrendous, the most unspeakable evil that could be. But I want to challenge you. And I'm not going to say that homosexuality is not a sin. It's very clear in scripture that it is. I'm not going to say that it's not a grievous sin. It's very clear that it is. But I wanna challenge our thinking as we allow the scripture to speak to us, verses 29 through 31. Being filled with all unrighteousness, okay. This really is the worst of the worst of sins, right? Wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, they're gossips. All right, man, as we read this list, there are some of these things that still sound pretty evil. They sound pretty bad. But then there are other things on the list that to my ears, they don't sound that bad. I mean, like gossip. I mean, let's be honest. Some of us here in this very room can enjoy a bit of gossip. Let's hear deceit. But I mean, let's just be honest. What is it that little boy said? The Bible tells us that a lie is an abomination before the Lord and a very present help in time of trouble. I'm going to say it again so you can hear it. A lie is an abomination before the Lord and a very present help in time of trouble. How many of us don't know that a little deceit can be very useful? I mean, as I read this list, there are some things that are horrible that I'm just like, this is horrible sin. But sometimes some of these things, I'm almost okay with them. Let's continue, verse 30, slanderers, haters of God. Now we're back on track. Now we've got evil, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And though they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death. Listen, they not only do it, but they give hearty approval to those who practice. Do you see how sinners celebrate the sin of others? Not only do I celebrate and enjoy my own sin, but I want to celebrate your sin. It may not be the same flavor as mine, but I want to celebrate your sin. Do you see in our world, listen to the political talk of our day. What are people saying? I want you to celebrate my sin. Let's all celebrate sin. And this is what is spoken of right here. But how is it that this list includes these horrendous haters of God, inventors of evil, all of this terrible sinfulness, and it includes gossip, deceit, and disobedience to parents in the same list. Could it be that the reason I'm almost okay with some of these things, could it be that we are so callous to sin, especially our own sin. Listen, I have no problem condemning your sin. I hate your sin. But could I be so callous to my own sin or to the sin of those whom I love? When my son or my daughter or my brother or my sister, when I see them, could I be so callous to sin? Could I be so callous to sin like Disobedient children. Could I be so callous that I'm comfortable? Could it be that because I don't think that sin of disobedience to children is all that bad that I've become lax in my parenting and now I'm raising my children so that they are comfortable with disobedience? And what other sins? Are we comfortable with sin and are we raising our children comfortable with sin? We need to be challenged further by this text. We look at this list and we pick out these most grievous sins, homosexuality and murder, haters of God. But have you noticed in this text that I skipped over something? Some of you I know pay attention. And some of you I know, look at verse 21. Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. Ingratitude. Failing to be thankful. Now, if we're gonna sit down and we're gonna rank sin from bad to worse, ungratefulness. Where does that fall? It probably would be counted as a pretty light offense on most of our lists. But it seems here in this text that ungratefulness, failing to be thankful, holds a very important place. It seems to be the starting point for many, if not all, these other sins. So we need to talk about thankfulness very quickly. First of all, let's just acknowledge the absurdity of thankfulness without an object. How many stupid people say, I want to be a thankful person and they are thankful to no one. I just want to be in general. I just want to be a thankful person. I just want to have a thankful heart. And who are you thankful to? Well, no one. I'm just thankful. That's absurd. That is absurd. That's like acknowledging that a debt is owed, but stopping short of paying it. And we also need to acknowledge thankfulness to second causes. Now, if you don't know what that means, let me explain very quickly. There are first, there's, sorry to say first causes. There's the first cause. else as a second cause. I think about this as an illustration. When we sit down, most of us when we give thanks, most often it's at our dinner table. And sometimes we pray things like this as we thank God for the food. We say, and the hands which prepared it. If you're like me and you think about giving thanks for the hands which prepared it, what do you think about? You think about mom or wife or somebody in the kitchen who made, prepared that meal and brought it out and set it before you think there. But wait a minute, before mom could prepare that meal, before she could warm up those green beans, somebody had to stock that on the shelf at the grocery store. Before it got stocked on the shelf in the grocery store, it had to be trucked to the grocery store. Before it was trucked to the grocery store, it had to be boxed up and it had to be canned or bagged or packaged in some sort of a facility, and before there, it had to be harvested, and there had to be people, either many people or a few people running machines, but there had to be people involved to harvest. Before the harvest, there had to be somebody to plant. There had to be a farmer or a rancher. Before the farmer, could get to the day of harvest, he's counting on what? Sunshine and rain. You can't have a harvest without sunshine and rain. And who's behind the sunshine and rain? The God of glory. You see what I mean by second causes? Well, I wanna thank Mama. I wanna thank the guy that stocks the grocery. To thank everybody in the road of second causes and to stop short? of thankfulness to God Almighty, who not only brings the sunshine and the rain, but gives the health and the strength to every person in the chain. To stop short of thankfulness to God is sin. You're not 99% thankful when you thank 99, but leave out God. No, that is sin. So we acknowledge that thankfulness needs an object and not just a second cause object. This thankfulness must be directed toward God. They did not acknowledge God as God or honor him as God, neither were they thankful. Now I want you to go back to the last time you sinned. And I want you to evaluate in that moment your Thankfulness. When you're drunk, are you thankful? Are you thankful to God for the circumstance that you're in? Or are you trying to escape the circumstance that God has you in at that moment? And ungratefully, When you commit adultery, whether that's physically committing adultery, committing adultery through pornography, that's what it is, or committing adultery only in your mind, because it's still committing adultery. When you commit adultery, are you thankful? Or are you saying in that moment, God, I am not satisfied with what you have provided who are satisfied with what God gives are thankful. Thank you, God. People who commit adultery are not thankful. And when you're discontented with life, when you're discontented and complaining and grumbling and murmuring, are you thankful? You see, Neither did they give thanks is the beginning. This goes back to what I've said. Unthankfulness is the entrance to these other sins. And I have said this in the past. Sin does not come in a single. Sin comes in six packs. Sin comes in cases. Sin comes in truckloads. Sin comes in warehouses. but sin does not come in a one pack. Sin, with every sin we commit, we are truly breaking the whole of God's law. In that moment, there is another God and he is me. In that moment, there is something I'm worshiping more than and instead of God. In that moment I don't even want to think about the name of God. In that moment the day of the Lord has nothing in my mind. In that moment I don't care about my neighbor. I don't care about anything but satisfying. In every sin that we commit we break the whole law of God. Now We need to do this, I know the hour is late. Aren't y'all glad that lunch is just right down the road? We need to recognize here that we are in this section, but Paul is not just, this doesn't close here. This is a larger book that goes on and on, and Paul is making a greater argument in this entire epistle, and I can't make that whole argument every time, but this section, This is not all we need. Some of you have been thinking, I wanna hear Romans 1. I wanna hear Romans 1. Can I tell you something? We don't need Romans 1 all by itself. How depressing. Romans 1, how condemning. How horrible would it be if we had Romans 1 and then dismissed and went home? That's terrible. We need We need God's law. That's what this section is. This is the law of God bringing conviction and condemnation to us for our sin. And we need this. But what do we do with it? If all we have here is Romans 1, then some of us might think, well, okay, it says that ungratefulness is a sin, so I need to be more thankful. I'll just fix that. I'll just do better. It says here that lying and deceit, okay, I'll just stop. I'm gonna stop that. It says here gossiping is okay, so I'll do better in that area. I'll start obeying my parents. I'll stop murder in my heart. I'll stop hatred and malice. If all we have is the law, then what our tendency is gonna be is let's take the law and fix the problem. That's never what the law was intended for. God gives us the law to show us the sinfulness and the condemnation of sin, but not to fix the problem. Paul will go on and explain that the law is the condemnation and sin is the problem, but the law is not the tool for repair. The law does not fix anything. So some of us are so focused on doing better. I just wanna do better. And maybe that's a problem. When our preaching only focuses on the law, we think, well, let's do better. Can I pause? Okay, somebody, maybe you need to do better. But doing better is not gonna solve your issue. Some of you are so focused on doing better, you can't see anything else. The problem is that even in your doing better, your best doing, is sin. John Bunyan said, my best five minutes of prayer. If you don't know Bunyan, what a Christian. What a guy. His best five minutes of prayer in his life, he said, has enough sin to condemn me to hell for eternity. That's the best. Do better. Do better. You can't do better. You can't do better to get you where you need to be. So we have to get out of the mindset of do better and we have to see salvation doesn't come from me doing better or you doing better. Salvation comes to those who believe in Jesus. That is to say to those who trust that it's Jesus It's Him doing that gives us righteousness. It's Jesus doing and dying on the cross where our sins are paid for. So sinner, stop striving to do better. Stop saying, I'm gonna turn over a new leaf. Listen, that leaf is rotten on both sides. Turn it over as many times as you'd like. It's still sin. Stop striving and turn to Jesus. It's His doable. It's His done. Because He's not continuing to do. It is finished, he said. It is done. As we allow Romans 1 to bring upon us the weight of sin, don't try to do better. Turn to Christ. Believe in him. Receive from him the victory over sin. For those who will believe in Jesus Christ, we are freed from the penalty and curse of sin. Praise God. As we consider this text of scripture, we pray that you would work in us. We pray that you would, by your word and your spirit, bring conviction. And we pray that by your grace, you would save sinners. You would remind your children that we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we are called.