AN UGLY REVELATION, ROMANS 1:18-32

AN UGLY REVELATION,  ROMANS 1:18-32

Introduction:   
A recap to our start in Romans and to Romans 1.
Notice verse 17.  “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed. “
Notice the direct opposite in verse 18 where we begin tonight in our Bible Study.   “The wrath of God is being revealed.” 
There are four things that I want us to study in this passage tonight.
We are without excuse.
We are without excuse because the light has been revealed.
The problem is that the light has been rejected.
So ultimately as a result of the light being rejected the wrath of God is revealed.

I.    Without excuse,  Verse 21 “So that men are without excuse.

A.    All mankind is without excuse.
We are men and women of excuses.
We love to, we always make excuses.
It wasn’t my fault.
Adam and Eve had their excuses.
We often hesitate to excuse others. But we like to excuse ourselves.
God is the searcher of the hearts.
He makes no mistakes.
Those who have seen the light have no excuse.
Matthew 22:8-14
Go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.
One came without his wedding garments on.
Was he excused? 
No the king said, tie him up hand and feet and throw him out.
No, he had no excuse.

B.    One thing that stands out to me here.
We often times ask about those who have never heard about Jesus.
Will they be saved? 
Will we see them in heaven?
They may not have heard a message about Jesus.
But verse 20 tells us that they have seen and heard enough about the power and the nature of God to not have an excuse.

C.    No one will ever be able to stand before God and say I didn’t know.
What does verse 20 mean?
That doesn’t mean that they will be saved and in heaven.
That does mean that they can not say God I didn’t know.
We know that if not all most of the time man does not think right and ends us worshiping the created and not the creator.  
That puts him inline for wrath and not for life.

II.    The light revealed

A.    For since the creation of the world.
God’s invisible qualities have been seen. 
Those invisible qualities are
His eternal power
His divine nature
They have been clearly seen.
They have been clearly understood.

B.    It is possible to have a clear knowledge of God from His handy work.
Behind the sun, the moon, the starts, and the sea is a mighty power.
The order of the season did not just happen.

C.    We have seen that light and more.
We have God’s word in our hands and our heart.
We certainly have no excuse.

III.    The light rejected

A.    For although they knew God, they neither glorified him and God….
Their thinking became futile.   Their foolish hearts were darkened.   Verses 20-21.
Verse 28 says that they did not think it was wise to retain the knowledge of God.
Nations reject the light.
The Jewish nation rejected the revelation that God gave to them.
Many other nations did the same.
Are we doing the same thing?
Men reject the light.
King Saul rejected the light that was given to him and God rejected him from being king.
Belshazzar had much light revealed to him by Daniel and the three Hebrew children.    Daniel 5:20-31  He rejected the light and was found wanting.

B.    They exchanged the glory of God for images made to look like mortal man and birds, and animals.
Paul talks about God giving them over to their own sinful desires in verse 24.
Verse 28 says he gave them over to a depraved mind.
In verse 25 he says that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator.
Because of this God said just go ahead and do what you want to do.
Men and women are doing just that.
They are now filled with every kind of wickedness.

C.    They do those things and approve of them being done.
Verse 32 

IV.    The wrath of God revealed,  verse18

A.    Paul tells us in Galatians that what ever a man sows that will he also reap.
Suffering comes when we disregard what we know to be right.
Fire will burn
Water will drown
Bad air will poison
We could go on.
So if we defile the moral laws what else can we expect.

B.    Commentary
This does not mean that the wrath of God can be confined only to the past (cf. S. Porter 1994: 39), but it does suggest that the moral desolation of human society from the beginning of the world (v. 20) and continuing up to the present day is a manifestation of God’s wrath. The coming of the gospel reveals that the moral deterioration of human society is a result of God’s judgment. For those who do not repent this wrath will culminate ―in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God‖ (2:5). God’s judgments in history, then, anticipate the culmination of his wrath on the day of judgment.
    Thomas R. Schreiner, vol. 6, Romans, Baker exegetical commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1998),

C.    Footnote from Full life study Bible

Conclusion:     What will you take away from tonight’s study?