Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Okay, guys, so let's remember, what book are we studying now?
Romans. That's right. So you can go to Romans.
Do you guys know where we left off last week? Who was here last week? And say, well, yeah, we've gotten through chapter one, verse 17.
Okay. And we're doing an inductive Bible study, which means.
That's a good way to put it, using the Bible to study the Bible.
Study the Bible from the inside out. We start with what the Bible tells us immediately, and we extend it to what the whole Bible says, because even Exodus can help us understand Romans, even though they're very far apart in your Bible, we need to remember, because we talk all the time about there being 66 books in the Bible. We also have one book. It is a. It is a book of unity. And so even though there are different authors and time periods and genres and whatnot, they are writing one unified testament to God, a witness of what God has done through Jesus christ. So there's a unity there. So that means we can and we have to take what the whole Bible says, and that helps us interpret the Bible. Sometimes interpreting is easy. You read, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. That's not too complicated of a sentence. Sometimes we read other things that are a little bit more difficult to understand, and the rest of the Bible can help us understand those. So hopefully we're getting some ideas, some tools of how to do this. When you read the Bible every day, because it's important that you can read the Bible every day, or at least regularly, so that you can understand what God might be telling you through His Word.
And so sometimes, often we need to do that on our own. It's good that we have churches, we have parents or we have disciplers, we have pastors or small group leaders or whoever else. We have people that can help us understand, and we need those people. We also need to be able to read on our own somewhat.
So that's what we're doing when we're doing an inductive Bible study.
What.
What have I been saying? Romans is. What is Romans doing?
Yeah, it's giving a summary of the gospel.
From whom? Who wrote it?
Paul. Paul the Apostle who witnessed the resurrected Christ and was commissioned by him for ministry. He's particularly called by God to be an apostle to Gentiles, which we've talked about. What are Gentiles?
What, not Jews. Not Jews we see in here a lot of times, at least in the esv, which a lot of us use. Those are the ones I have at the Back of the room, you might see the word Greeks.
That was kind of. It's the same word for Greeks and Gentiles. So just understand typically, not always, but typically, when you read the word Greek, you might also be reading the word Gentile.
So he's going to these people. Rome was probably mostly Gentile. There were probably some Jews, but they're mostly Gentile. He wants to give them a summary of the gospel. Why does he want to give them a summary of the gospel in the form of a letter? He's never been there.
Does anyone remember?
Is he locked up at this point?
You know, I don't know that he's locked up at this. At this time.
But we know he has been trying to get there right.
So there are multiple right answers to this. One is he's trying to get there right. He said in.
Verse 10, he's trying by God's will that he may now at last succeed in coming to you, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. So he has been trying to get there. He also has general Christian love.
He loves people that he's never met because they have Jesus christ in common, which we see in the New Testament is the most important commonality. It brings together all sorts of people. You know, even in this room, when you guys are all within like six years of age, maybe seven.
And yet people are so different. We have so many different personalities in here. And this is a very small demographic that comes to this church every week. And what unites families that are so different together? Well, it's the gospel.
It is the best glue. And so that's a common thing we see. And so Paul loves them. He wants to see them, but he's been hindered so often he decides to just write this letter, summarize the gospel for them.
So last week we Talked about verses 16 and 17.
Says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So he is unashamed. He wants to boldly proclaim this gospel because it is actually powerful to bring salvation to people.
Now, this gospel was revealed first to Jews, but now it is being revealed to Greeks and Gentiles. This gospel is for the whole world. And so we too seek to proclaim it to the whole world. In fact, we are part of the world.
You know, I don't think any of. Maybe someone in. Very few people here have Jewish heritage. We are part of the world. We're the recipients of that great promise in verse 16.
And then he explains, in this gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, and the righteousness of God is revealed in that the righteous shall live by faith. And so the righteous were declared righteous before God through faith, and we live by faith.
And so we're not legalistic because we can only be righteous through faith. And we don't live without any regard for the law of Christ because that's not living by faith, that's living by disobedience.
So we kind of are kept from falling off either of those cliffs. That's what we talked about last week. And now we get to verse 18, verse 18.
And we're going to go today through verse 23. That's my goal anyway. So let's read those verses and we'll kind of go through them like usual.
So Paul continues saying, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress 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, have 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.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
So verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed. Remember we talked about this last week? What does this word for four do?
What does it do?
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Yeah. It can have multiple functions, but the why or the purpose of it, it's. It's connecting clauses and arguments. So we know there's a subtitle here. Paul didn't write this subtitle. That doesn't mean it's unhelpful. But he. We can kind of see through these conjunctions that the he is going. He. These are all connected themes. So we need to remember what's come.
So it connects this. Now, how is this sentence, verse 18, related to what came before? The righteous shall live by faith, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. How is this connected?
Yeah, I think it can be a little difficult, especially when you have a week in between reading the passages.
Paul is going to show why those who are righteous and they're righteous through what faith? He's going to show how those who are righteous through faith must also live by faith. We talked about that. That's why he says in verse 17, righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.
So those who are righteous through faith must also live by faith.
So he's going to show how we do that and how we don't do that, starting in verse 18. Now, what is God's wrath? We need to understand that too. What does that refer to?
What does wrath in general mean?
Yeah,
[00:10:14] Speaker B: violent.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we could say like a violent, intense anger. Huh?
Like judgment punishment.
Yeah, judgment punishment. Wrath to me tends to have like that anger, but it also works.
It's in an action.
So anger and fury turn into wrath when they're acted upon for a person.
Now, to understand God's wrath, we also have to understand that all the attributes of God are different in him than in us.
Ours are all tainted with sin. None of God's have a measure of sin. So it's probably best understood as the natural response of God against sin. It is punishment.
God is wrathful, yes, but he's not wrathful in himself before creation.
God's wrath, something that we perceive because he is holy and we're sinful.
So God's wrath is really connected to his holiness. And his holiness comes into contact, so to speak, with our sin. And we perceive wrath.
But at his core, it is actually love and holiness that is beginning what we know as wrath for sin.
Now, sometimes wrath, you know, I'm saying it's like punishment sometimes it refers to eternal judgment in hell in the Bible. In this case, I think it is a punishment, a judgment against people. Even now, people now, because of sin, experience a measure of God's wrath. All people.
Where does this wrath come from?
What does it say?
It tells us from heaven. Right. So this makes it even more clear that the wrath is God's. It's not an intermediary or someone else. It is God's wrath that's coming from heaven. It is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
So this wrath, this punishment, this judgment is against what?
It's against people, men and women.
The ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
So this is the opposite of the righteous living by faith. That's how this is connected. It's the opposite. You can live by faith or you're under God's wrath.
So we have transitioned to see how the unrighteous live under wrath. The unrighteous live by wrath. Could be the Parallel statement to the righteous shall live by faith, the unrighteous live by wrath. This is an important biblical distinction. It's super important. You probably know it intuitively, but I just want to put words to it so we understand.
This is a biblical distinction. You're either under grace or under wrath.
You're under grace under wrath.
Sometimes we feel like we're in between, especially in this world, because we might believe in Christ, we might experience bad things. Sometimes we feel like I did last week, carrying both my daughters across the parking lot with a broken umbrella while it rained. There's a big hole in the umbrella. But in reality, we either are under the grace umbrella or the wrath umbrella.
The wrath umbrella really lets all the wrath through. It's completely broken. The grace umbrella lets nothing through. God protects us from judgment that we deserve because of what Christ has done for us.
So that's important.
You are under grace or you are under wrath.
You are. Now, it doesn't have to be a mystery.
Do you believe in Christ?
If you do, you're under grace.
It's simple.
But if you don't believe in Christ, if. If you are not righteous and living by faith, then you're under wrath.
That's why it's important to remember.
I might say I'm a Christian, but am I living by Faith?
Remember verse 17.
That's kind of the litmus test. Do you live by faith? It's not just something you say, but it's how you live. You live by faith. It doesn't mean perfection, but it means living by faith, living a life of repentance and loving Christ.
And if that's you, that is a genuine faith. That means you're under grace and you can have hope and comfort, confidence in God there.
But if you are not, then you are under wrath. And this is Paul describing who's under wrath and what are the fruits of God's wrath on people?
And so he starts to explain, still in the same verse, who.
So who are the who?
Who are the who? It's the last who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. Who are the who?
The unrighteous. That's right. And they, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. What does that mean to by your unrighteousness, suppress the truth?
Kind of ignore.
Yeah. Ignore what?
The truth. But, you know, what is this truth? What's the truth?
I think it's referring to the truth of the gospel. This is what Paul's been talking about, the gospel.
And they are suppressing the gospel. They're also suppressing the reality of God in general.
But the following verses explain this part further. So if we're confused, he's going to continue to explain. Look at verse 19 now, for what can be known about God is plain to them. Again, talking about the unrighteous, which is, in a sense everyone. But mostly in this context, he's talking about those who are not in Christ.
So what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.
How can Paul say that the knowledge of God is plain to everyone?
I mean, are there not people that deny God's existence?
How can Paul say this?
It's confusing right now. At the time, what we understand is atheism was not a thing.
So that can play partly into the context.
In fact, the Romans accused Christians of being atheists because they denied all of the Roman gods.
But now atheism has a different meaning. It means they don't believe in any God. But I think that's exactly what the last verse is talking about.
They are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. It doesn't mean they're like plotting in the room and saying, okay, I know God's real, but I'm going to tell everyone he's not.
No, they are totally in shackles to their sin and they are deluded to think that there is no God.
It is a complete and utter delusion. By their own sin and so by unrighteousness, they are willingly or unwillingly suppressing the truth.
And Paul can say that the knowledge of God is plain to everyone, even if it's denied by the majority of the world or part of the world, because his fingerprints, God's fingerprints are all over the world.
Atheism is a delusion.
This is why no one was an atheist until very recently in history.
It made no sense.
It still doesn't make sense.
That's exactly why it is a new phenomenon to not believe in any God. It is very new in world history.
And that's because God's fingerprints are all over the world. People didn't need ChatGPT and whatever else to know that there was a God. They were born in a remote tribe in Southeast Asia and they knew there was someone that put them there.
They got it wrong. They didn't know who it was and they're searching. This is why the gospel must be proclaimed to them, so they know who is the God that put them there.
But it's been obvious.
You don't have to be a genius.
The next verse then explains how God has shown who he is to all people. So verse 20. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. And the things that have been made so his eternal power, his divine nature, have been clearly perceived in creation.
What are some ways that we can clearly perceive evidence of God in creation?
Yeah, the creation itself. Yeah. Okay, that's true. What are some specifics?
The sunset just in it happening and even in its beauty.
Mm.
Say the idea that we all adhere to some sort of moral law.
Yes. People believe that right and wrong are a thing.
Even if they say they don't.
If you threaten their life, they don't think that's right.
Yeah.
Were you gonna say that?
[00:20:09] Speaker B: No, I was gonna say, like, looking at babies, looking.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
How does that happen?
[00:20:17] Speaker B: How does that happen?
And even just, like, doing that, like, how did that grow?
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: Obviously didn't do it.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
How about the laws of physics? You know, Newton's laws? I can't list them out. Maybe someone is good at that and knows those.
Those make no sense if there's not a divine order and intelligence to the creation.
The same with math.
Math doesn't work.
It's the same with music. Music doesn't work.
Melodies work. Because God created an order. He made things beautiful to us.
So there, there, and there are many more. We just. Anywhere you look, you can see God's fingerprints.
It really is clear then, as he says in verse 20, they are without excuse.
Now, what does this teach us about those who never hear of the Lord Jesus if they're without excuse?
You know, some people, I think this is a common Roman Catholic belief, even, you know, if someone earnestly seeks God, even if they never know Christ, they would say that they are saved anyway. This is called inclusivism.
What is the main problem with inclusivism?
If someone doesn't hear of Christ, if they were pursuing whatever they thought of as God as good as they could, that they're saved. That's inclusivism. What might be the problem with that view?
Biblically?
Yeah, I agree to put words to it. I think what it does is it makes the gospel, which is the good news, and it makes it bad news.
It's bad news.
Someone could live in total ignorance, just doing their thing the best they can.
But if you bring the gospel to them now, they have to make a choice. And if they make wrong, they're going to hell. But if you wouldn't have come to them, they may have gone to heaven out of their ignorance.
It makes the good news bad. News.
And the New Testament doesn't talk about the gospel like bad news. It'd be much better if that were the case to not share the gospel just because everybody's going to try to some extent to honor what they believe in.
And so it'd be better to not share it with anyone. But the New Testament doesn't talk that way because Christ is, as we'll see later this year in John, he is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through him. John 14:6.
So inclusivism cannot be right, even if it is horrifically tragic that people are dying every day not hearing the gospel.
That's why we must not be ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation.
It must be brought to them.
So can someone come to saving knowledge of God through creation?
No, they cannot.
They cannot come to saving faith through creation alone.
Creation revealing God is enough to condemn, but it is not enough to save.
It merely shows us our need for Christ.
And this is why God has commissioned the church to take the gospel to the people. Say, the God that you're searching for, his name is Jesus, and if you trust in him, you he'll save you from your sins.
That's what our job is to do.
Verse 21 continues to explain the unrighteous. For although they knew God, so, as we said, they have a general knowledge of God. They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.
What are some ways that we should honor God?
One is to give thanks.
We should seek to love him and obey Him.
Now, do the unrighteous do any of these? No, they do not. They don't do anything. They don't do good works for the Lord. They don't give him thanks. Even when they do good deeds. They're not done for the Lord, and they do not honor him because they're not done in faith.
So continuing, he says, they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were dark, darkened.
What does this mean? They became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Can anyone explain that?
It is describing the downward spiral of the sinner and the conscience and our ability to do good.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: People,
[00:25:10] Speaker A: when you sin, when you ignore your conscience and you pursue unrighteousness and something is telling you this is wrong and you ignore it and you do it anyway and you do it again and again and again and again, you smooth out your conscience, it erodes until you do awful, awful things. We can see it at a society wide level, a society that once had for better or for worse. I'm not advocating necessarily for this. Laws against sports on Sundays.
And now we kill 70 million babies a year.
I mean, and it's celebrated in the worst of places.
And so much more like, how does that happen? This becoming futile in your thinking, Foolish hearts being darkened. And it happens in personal lives too.
We continue down the same path and gets easier and easier until we don't think anything of it.
That is what's happening. It's the erosion of the conscience led by unrighteousness. We need Christ to renew our hearts and our minds and he can do that. Miraculously, only he can do that.
And so verse 22 continues. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Is not this true At a society wide level? The wisest people with all of the letters after their name, all of the degrees seem to be the most debased. They cannot explain why certain things are right or wrong.
They just can't.
All it is, is people do what? Just do whatever you want.
It does not matter.
That is the stupidest political or moral argument you can make. People just do what they want. That has never worked in human history. And yet the most intelligent people do this. Claiming to be wise, we become fools too.
We can think we're wise and yet we're continuing on the path of sin.
So there are modern examples of this.
The general treatment of religion by scientists is a modern example of this claiming to be wise and yet being foolish.
So modern science would have people say, no. The way you really read the Bible until you believe is that, well, you got to read and say, obviously miracles don't happen, so therefore this part's not true, so the whole thing's not true. But there are miracles in there. That's literally the whole argument. That's a stupid argument. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
People say there's no evidence for God, but we'll build our whole discipline on the assumption that the earth began with some mysterious big bang, that we don't know where that came from. It's ridiculous. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
So who are the fools? It's those who spend all their intellectual abilities to disprove God and yet fail at every turn.
Those are the modern day fools. And yet when we pursue unrighteousness ourselves, we become those fools as well.
So even the religious might seem to be wise and yet be fools if they don't accept Christ. We need his transforming power.
Verse 23 then. And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping Things.
What does this refer to?
Idols. Idolatry.
So what is the issue with images of men and animals? Well, they're all less than God.
Animals are even less than men.
And we're worshiping something that God created.
I mean, that's ridiculous. Like, if you bake a cake, are you going to worship it? You've made it like you had power over it. And so why would we worship something that did not make itself or make all things?
They worship what cannot exist on its own. That is foolish.
If we can really turn anything into an idol that steals our devotion and time. I want you to think and write something down.
What is something that you treat as an idol?
Write down where that idol falls short of the glory of the immortal God. Whatever it is for you.
How does the glory of God surpass that idol? Like, what are you seeking from whatever that may be? And how does God actually fill that?
Can your idol die? Can it solve problems? Can it give you hope? Can it cure your anxiety? Can it give you purpose? Can it make you prosperous? It can do none of those things, not in a true sense.
So why should you avoid idols because God is greater? How can you avoid idols? Love the Lord. Throw them in the trash. Pursue Christ with all your heart. And remember, what do you get with Jesus?
You get righteousness, his righteousness. Through faith. You get life.
Life. By faith, you get true wisdom rather than your own foolishness.
So I do challenge you guys to think about, you know, the idol that you're thinking about or wrote down.
See what you can do to kill it. Remember that Jesus is better. And remember, we're not throwing things away. If it's your phone, it's not logging down your phone just so you feel better about yourself, but it's genuinely an exercise to help you love the Lord more.
Because if you love him more, the idols will get flushed out as your heart is filled with his love.
Okay, we'll pick up from there next week. Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for your word and for the Lord Jesus christ. God, we understand that all are under wrath or under grace. God, we pray that by your work we might all be brought under grace, as I'm sure many of us already are. And Lord, we thank you for the hope and the confidence that comes with that.
Lord, help us to kill idols and to love you. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen.
