Text: Romans 1:20-23

Title:No Excuse

Truth:God has made Himself known, but man has rejected and replaced God.

Date/Location: Sunday Morning February 10, 2013 at FBC

Introduction

We learned last time that the gospel has a necessary context in which it exists, and that context includes the wrath of God that is revealed against all wickedness of men. We noted that God’s anger against sin extends not only to the sin, but also to the sinner in his suppression of the truth of God. This is the case, verse 19 says, because God’s truth is clearly available among all mankind. It is, as we will see, inside of us as well as outside of us.

What we will learn in the passage for our study today is that mankind’s suppression of the truth is coupled with a perversion of the truth, and as a result, mankind is without any excuse. There is no excuse for their sinful behavior, for their suppression of the truth of God, and ultimately there will be no excuse when each person stands before God at judgment.

I. The Revelation of God in Creation

A. In a somewhat paradoxical statement, Paul says that two invisible things about God are clearly seen. That is, the invisible is made visible! These two things are understood, by thinking or reason, from the things that have been created. That is to say, God in His creation left some obvious fingerprints that demonstrate some of His invisible attributes.

1. Illustrations of invisible things you can see: The wind. Christian salvation. Do you remember the statement in the book of James 2 to the one who objects to faith inevitably leading to works? James challenges him to show his faith without works, and James will show his faith by his works. Well, it is going to be tough job for the objector to show his faith without works, for with what else can he show his faith? Faith is invisible, as far as it goes. James can show his faith by something concrete—his faithful works.

2. In a similar way, God has shown some invisible attributes by tangible things that He has made. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1-2, Exodus 20:11). His fingerprints are certain signs that, when interpreted correctly, demonstrate something about God. But those same things can be incorrectly interpreted as if they demonstrate evolution by random chance.

3. Remember that creation is everything that exists out there. Besides the Voyager spacecraft and a few others that are now at the very edge of our solar system, there is nothing man made “out there.” And even those spacecraft are fashioned from pre-existing materials that God made for us on this earth. Everything on earth that we see is similar—God made it, or designed it, or we took some of His things and fashioned it into some more complicated thing.

B. What Are the Invisible Things Made Visible?

1. Eternal Power. The creation shows that God has to be powerful to not only have designed, but also created and controlled such a massive, complex, and detailed creation. God is omnipotent.

2. Divine Nature. ThisGreek word is a broad term that refers to characteristics that pertain to deity. That is, not only is the One who made the world very powerful, but He has other characteristics that we associate with God. These are not spelled out. In other texts, we can glean a few things. We can see God’s wisdom in creation, and especially His goodness (Acts 14:17, Matthew 5:45).

3. We should note that the only way to know about God is to find out about Him through what He discloses about Himself (1 Cor. 2:9-10).

Note on Theology:The Big Picture of General Revelation

A. General revelation means there is no obligation on God. An important implication of this Bible passage is that no one can say that God owed them anything more than they already were graciously given. A rejection of the generally available revelation about God is sufficient grounds for condemnation.No further information from God can be expected after a rejection of what He first provided. Just because someone has not heard the gospel message does not give them an excuse, because they rejected the message from God they already had. God is not therefore obligated to send the gospel to every person who has rejected Him already. If they don’t listen to one form of God’s revelation, there is obviously no surprise that they will ignore more of the same, particularly when it calls them to repent of sin.

B.General revelation offers limited information. It is also important to note that the kind of information available in general revelation is very limited. In Romans 1:20, it is limited to two things: God’s power and His deity. We can additionally find in the conscience a revelation of moral right and wrong. We cannot see the gospel of Jesus Christ in the stars, contra Kennedy’s The Real Meaning of the Zodiac or the similar views by Henry Morris (The Long War Against God) or Joseph Seiss (The Gospel in the Stars). This view is incorrect and should not captivate our attention. Don’t go out and buy those books!

C. General revelation is limited by man’s darkened mind. Another problem with this avenue of divine disclosure is that it is clouded by mankind’s sinfulness. That means that even though the revelation is there, mankind has twisted it and cannot infallibly extract it or understand it. As believers we can appreciate it more than any unbeliever can. The bottom line is that we need special revelation, the Bible, to interpret general revelation for us so we can understand what is really there.

D.General revelation is notsufficient to evangelize a person. Another important point is that you simply cannot start with general revelation, absent special revelation, and build up a logical case to get an unbeliever from ground zero to God. This is impossible because of the limitations of general revelation and the sinfulness of man. We cannot appeal to the mind of man as if it is neutral ground that needs simply some information or reasoning to fix it. We have to recognize that as we evangelize people, evangelism is a severe uphill battle, a hill so high we cannot climb it. The mind of the unsaved man is hostile toward God.A miracle of God is needed to overcome that hurdle.

II. The Rejection of God

No one responds positively to general revelation apart from the work of God’s Spirit in regeneration, because of indwelling sin and depravity (1 Cor. 2:14). Therefore, because general revelation is always rejected, on its own always leads to condemnation. It leaves mankind with no excuse.

A. Leaves Mankind Devoid of Excuse.

1. The meaning of without excuse is without an apologetic which is the same as without a defense. An apologist is not one who says he is sorry all the time; a Christian apologist is one who defends and confirms the Christian faith, sound doctrine, the existence of God, etc. He defends Christianity against false charges.

2. The unbeliever presently stands and will in the future stand before God and have no good reason for their conduct, and they will be inexcusable. There will be no reason God can find to excuse them from their just desserts.Please note that unbelievers are not condemned for not believing revelation that they do not have. Rather, they are condemned for rejecting revelation they do have. And every unbeliever has done so.

B. Deliberate Rejection.

Why are people without excuse? Verses 21-23 give the reason: because.

1. They knew God. God manifested Himself clearly, and His attributes were evident.

2. But they did not glorify Him as God. They did not honor God as they should. They knew what they should do, and did not do it. That is sin (James 4:17).

C. Degrading Rejection.

The results of mankind’s rejection of God are devastating. Here are some:

1. They were not thankful. Thanklessness is a mark of unbelief (2 Timothy 3:2).

2. They became futile in their thoughts. Their thinking is wickedly skewed away from God and they cannot think straight. They are certain that they are thinking straight, but they are not.

3. Their foolish hearts were darkened. They are without understanding. Since people are made in God’s image, they have a certain capability and appreciation for logic and reason, but it is twisted out of shape when God is pushed out of the equation.

4. They are so deceived as to think that they are wise when actually they are fools. Have you had a “where is that thing I’m looking for?” kind of moment, only to realize it is right in front of you? You thought you knew what you were looking at, but you actually didn’t. The obvious was before you, but you missed it. So those who reject God believe in the illusion they are “seeing,” but it is only a mirage, not reality.

III. The Replacement of God with Idols, v. 23

A. They exchanged God for idols – made in the likeness of men, women, birds, animals and bugs. Mankind has replaced the real God they know from creation into a god likea creation. But self-created gods are no gods at all.

B. In their pursuit of their foolish wisdom, people create their own religions and gods which fall far short of the true God. Notice that unbelief not only rejects God, but replaces God. People somehow know this, but they continue on living in an act of sheer inconsistency (Acts 17:26-30).

C. The religions that men create when in this mode of thinking are not preparatory for real Christian faith. They are rather hostile to real faith.

Conclusion

Humanity has fallen into the deepest of perversions. This includes idolatry. Suppression of the truth (v. 18) came through perversion of the truth. People replaced the truth with something they deemed wiser. People turned away from the truth to something deemed more glorious, or more practical, or more liberating, less restrictive, more fun.

I think I have used the word “they” a lot. But we need to recognize that all of us who are now Christians – WE – were caught up in this at one time or another. God delivered us by teaching us of Christ our Savior. Let us be thankful to Him.

If you are still in the “they” camp, then today the door is open for you to have your mind fixed by Jesus, to stop the rejection and replacement of God and to respond in faith to your Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ. Read the book of Romans! Study it with us and you will be sure to find out all the details you need to know to be delivered from the darkness of mind that blinds those that do not believe (2 Corinthians 4:4).

MAP

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