Robert Woodyard
Without Excuse
Scripture Texts: Romans 1:18-23
I have a distinct memory from high school back in Wichita, KS. I was a relative new Christian, at a gathering of high school friends, standing in a driveway. A girl was pressing me with questions about Christianity. “If Christianity is the only way then what about those innocent people in Africa who have never heard.”
Never mind that the great dark continent of Africa is one of the most Christian continents, it’s the favorite go to place for picking on Christians and suppressing the truth. It’s one of most common objections, and usually not a sincere question, more of a smokescreen, a dodge to avoid thinking about their own soul’s relationship to God.
I fumbled along as best as my young faith could, trying to defend God and His honor and integrity. I wish I had just known my Bible better and especially Romans 1. I could have explained the revelation of God to our world and the rebellious rejection of God by the world.
That’s the outline of our text. Revelation and rejection, proclamation and response.
Having talked about the revelation of God’s wrath last week the rest of our text this morning answers why God pours out His wrath in two parts, the revelation of Himself and the response to that revelation which is suppression and rejection.
Revelation. What can be known about God?
Notice how clearly Paul states five things about God’s revelation.
Honor Your Father and Your Mother, II
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 39
Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1-4
Some of you may have been enjoying the college basketball March Madness as they whittled 64 teams down to two. Tomorrow night University of Connecticut and San Diego State University will play for the national championship.
One of the things that make these kinds of competitions enjoyable and fun to watch is something that is almost unseen, but assumed and foundational to all sport. Rules and referees. The athletes can go after it as hard and strong and fast as they can, but they have to do what they do within all kinds of limits and boundaries. There are rules about when you start, what you can and can’t do, and what happens if you break a rule, step out of bounds, foul someone, take too many steps, etc.
If you are going to have any kind of order and structure and stability in human society you have to have rules and laws. And to have rules and laws you have to have those who have authority to carry out and enforce and keep those laws. Without rules and rulers you have anarchy, lawlessness, disorder and chaos. “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Along with the Ten Commandments God gave an entire system of laws to Israel so that Israel could be a viable nation and a stable community able to live peaceable and orderly lives in the Promised Land.
The Fifth Commandment is the law about those who have authority to enforce those laws. The seriousness of this commandment for the people of Israel is seen in the very next chapter of Exodus.
The Wrath of God
Passage: Romans 1:18-23
Think about hearing this letter read for the very first time. Paul has told them how much he thanks God for their faith, he tells them how much he longs to come to them and how eager he is to preach the Gospel to them. Then he tells them about this Gospel and how the righteousness of God has been revealed and the best news of all, the righteous shall live by faith.
What are we expecting to hear next? More about this good news? Maybe Paul will flatter us with more gracious words. Maybe Paul will tell us how great we are doing in such a hard city to live in. Maybe he will tell us more about this good news of the Gospel, how much God loves us, how much God has done for us and how the Gospel will make us and our lives better and how God has a wonderful plan for our lives.
That’s how we think evangelism should be, right. Let me tell you all about Jesus and how wonderful He is and what He has done for us and how He can make our life better. All we want to hear about is dessert.
With vs. 18 we come to the body of the letter, the meat of Paul’s teaching. In order for the good news to be good news we have to know the bad news first, and not just the bad news, but how bad the bad news really is. Until we understand this, our view of the Gospel and of Jesus and God is going to be, well, like it is in much of America and in much of the American Evangelical Church. Weak, anemic, watered down, lukewarm, truth without power.
Paul will have none of that. Paul hasn’t suffered beatings, flogging, imprisonment, torture, shipwrecks, hunger and thirst, hatred and animosity, mocking and humiliation for a sweet, nice, precious Gospel. No one would suffer and be willing to die for that kind of Gospel.
Starting with verse 18 and for the next 64 verses Paul is going to humble us with our sin, our unrighteousness and ungodliness, our rebelliousness and the utter foolishness of our hearts and darkened minds. He is going to show that all men are in sin and under the just wrath of God. We have no righteousness of our own and if we are going to be saved it will have to be by a righteousness provided by God through faith in Jesus and His righteousness.
The world at the time of Romans was divided into two groups of people, Jews and Greeks, or Jews and Gentiles or pagans.
Paul starts with the Gentiles/Greeks. The rest of chapter one will focus on the spiritual condition of the Gentile world, the pagans, and their relationship with God, without the Gospel and saving grace.
Then chapter 2 to 3:8 will focus on the Jewish world without the Gospel. In a sense that is us Christians, the religious folks, the people who think we have Jesus, and we are all good, like the Jews having the Law.
Then 3:9-20 will give a summary universal application, the universal sinfulness and guilt and rebellion against God in every human heart.
He will destroy our pride, our independence, our autonomy all the way to Romans 3:21, until we cry “uncle,” until we submit and cry for mercy, until we see that we are all without excuse and hope except in Jesus.
Finally in 3:21 64 verses from here, Paul will return to the theme of the greatness of the gift of the Gospel in the righteousness of God freely given through faith in Jesus to all who believe.
Before we get there we have to face the reality of the seriousness of sin in our world and in our own hearts. Some might wish we skip over this or go over it quickly. Let me encourage us to persevere for three reasons.
Honor Your Father and Your Mother, I
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 39
Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:12
This evening we cross over to the second tablet of the Ten Commandments. The two tablets of the law follow the same pattern of the two summary commandments Jesus gives.
Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The first four commandments focus on loving God, on God and worship, on our vertical relationship.
The second six commandments focus on our human relationships, on the horizontal, and horizontal religion begins at home.
If we take the first commandment to heart, the next three will follow. Do not reduce Him to images or take His name in vain or profane His day of rest.
If we take the fifth commandment to heart, the next five will follow. With due honor and respect for others we will not murder, cheat, steal, lie or covet.
This is the hinge commandment. Learning at home to love and obey the authority of our parents, leads us to loving and obeying the authority of God. And we honor God when we honor them.
Parents are our first personal, tangible encounter with authority and God’s rule over us.
This is a commandment about authority. As the first commandment in the first four, so the first commandment in the second six, deals with authority. Authority in each realm, spiritual and temporal, heaven and earth.
God is the only absolute authority, all authority on earth comes under His authority. Learning to love and obey God begins at home. And learning to love, respect and submit to all earthly authority begins at home. Proper regard for God and for those He has placed over us will lead to a well ordered, blessed and good life. In other words, it will go well for us.
Two parts to this, a command and a promise.
Righteous of God
Passage: Romans 1:16-17
Every single commentator on the book of Romans calls verses 16-17 the heart of the entire book. Here Paul announces his grand theme that will occupy his attention for the rest of Romans. Romans is Paul’s clearest exposition of the Gospel of God, and these two verses give the heart of Paul’s ministry as an apostle. This is Romans in a nutshell, and the summary of the Bible.
I am not ashamed of the Gospel.
Why does Paul start off saying he is not ashamed of the Gospel? Because there are plenty of reason to be ashamed of the Gospel. The Gospel is a scandal of weakness and folly.
The founder was killed as a criminal on a Roman cross, cursed.
God was so weak and powerless He couldn’t keep His Son from being killed.
The message of the Gospel is too simple, nothing especially intellectual.
It doesn’t rise to the level of the great philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.
Calling people sinners certainly isn’t popular, that gets downplayed in our day.
God’s method of salvation is crazy, insane. No one would ever dream up that plan.
A resurrection, are you kidding me, everyone knows no one comes back from the dead.
The followers of the Gospel were lowly, fishermen, shepherds, not the noble and elite.
The Gospel was regarded with contempt by the educated, the sophisticated.
Today the Gospel is unacceptable because it flies in the face of our independence, our self-reliance. The Gospel strips us of our pride, our boasting, our wisdom. No other religion stirs up the shame and guilt of our sinfulness. No other religion is as offensive to man’s pride.
For all these reasons the Gospel was ridiculed, mocked and spoken against everywhere it went.
Paul is coming to preach the Gospel and he wants to prepare the Romans for the reproach they will receive for believing the Gospel, for lifting up the cross of Jesus. A crucified Savior was a stumbling block to Jews and utter nonsense to the Greeks.
Paul knows all about the ridicule and mocking, all the ways the ungodly oppose the Gospel. Paul was willing to be shamed for the Gospel because he was not ashamed of the Gospel.
Eager to Preach the Gospel in Rome II
Passage: Romans 1:8-15
Romans is the only letter Paul wrote to people he had never met, to a church he had not started, in a city he had never visited. But he had certainly heard about them and their faith.
And that in its own right is remarkable. Why would we say their faith is remarkable? There are Christians in the capital of the Roman empire, right under the nose of Caesar. Are you kidding? Faith in Rome, the greatest city in the world, the proudest, most advanced city, the most educated, the most powerful, most decadent city in the world.
Think NYC, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Paris, London. Cities are not humble places, they are hustling, bustling centers of commerce, skyscrapers, rich, famous, powerful people.
When I was at Wheaton College and friends would visit, I would take them into Chicago, up the world’s tallest building, Sears Tower, Chicago Art Museum. If a girl was visiting, I would take her up Michigan Avenue to the Magnificent Mile, one of the most famous shopping areas in the world, Nordstroms, Saks Fifth Avenue, I Magnum, Marshalls, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus.
Cities are proud places, not humble places, cities are secular places, not known for faith.
This little church in Rome was letting their light shine, not for their glory, but for the glory of the Father. The church in Rome was small, but not insignificant. So how did their faith become spoken of all over the Roman Empire?
Under the Emperor Claudius there was a great persecution of the Jewish people and he exiled all Jews from Rome. This included Jewish Christians, brothers and sisters from this church, who were scattered. They shared their faith wherever they went. Among them were Priscilla and Aquila, a Jewish couple who fled to Corinth, Greece (see Acts 18:1-4). When Paul arrived there he stayed with them a year and a half. It was then Paul wrote this letter and shared his heart’s desire to come to the Romans.
Eager to Preach the Gospel in Rome
Passage: Romans 1:8-15
We are working our way through Paul’s introduction to his letter. We will be another week on this passage which will lead us to verses 16-17 which are the grand theme or heart of the letter.
After an opening greeting almost all of Paul’s letter open with a personal expression of love, gratitude and prayer.
Whatever you might think about this great towering figure of an apostle, don’t leave out he was a shepherd with a heart of tender affection for God and tender compassion for the sheep. He was no hireling, he was a true shepherd willing to lay down his life for the sheep and he did. He suffered for those he didn’t know and in a way that includes us.
We have before us a personal glimpse into the spiritual life of the apostle Paul, and his prayer life, how he prays and what he prays for.
The Name Above All Names
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 36, Q&A 99-100.
Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:7; Philippians 2:9-11
All the gods of history and religion have been named by men. Only the one true living God has revealed His true name to us and told us what it is, what He is to be called.
Last week I mentioned that God’s OT name is Yahweh, sometimes shown in our Bibles as LORD. Yahweh is God’s personal name. “I am, or I am who I am” (Ex. 3:14; John 8:58).
God gave us His name as an act of grace. By giving us His name, God wants us to use it. He wants us to call on His name and to invite Him into our presence through prayer. He wants us to lift up His name in worship and to have personal fellowship with Him. He wants us to call on Him when things are good and when we are in great need.
Psalm 50:15 Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
All the gods of history and religion have been named by men. Only the one true living God has revealed His true name to us and told us what it is, what He is to be called.
Last week I mentioned that God’s OT name is Yahweh, sometimes shown in our Bibles as LORD. Yahweh is God’s personal name. “I am, or I am who I am” (Ex. 3:14; John 8:58).
God gave us His name as an act of grace. By giving us His name, God wants us to use it. He wants us to call on His name and to invite Him into our presence through prayer. He wants us to lift up His name in worship and to have personal fellowship with Him. He wants us to call on Him when things are good and when we are in great need.
Psalm 50:15 Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
Proverbs 18:10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
the righteous man runs into it and is safe.
Psalm 20:1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
“God gave them His name in order that they might use it boldly and freely, regularly and reverently” (Ronald Wallace, The Ten Commandments, p. 53).
Taking God’s Name Seriously
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 36, Q&A 99-100.
Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:7; Exodus 3:13-15
“Excuse my French.” You know the phrase, you have heard it often and you know what it means. It’s our cute little cover up for letting slip some expletive or profanity. Of course everyone knows very well that the swear word is in perfectly understandable English.
We live in an increasingly foul, coarse, crude, rude, expletive-filled world. You hear it at the mall, on the ski slopes, in the hallways at school, in the cubicles at the office and out in the shop at work. It fills the airways, the computer screens, social media and the printed page.
Swearing is becoming more and more common place. More adults, more women, more kids and even children. Children are growing up with it more and more in the home and in life.
Sometimes we let loose a word to appear cool, or hip or worldly-wise or secular than thou. Often such words are used more for effect than for meaning.
The air in our culture is getting bluer and bluer. TV and movies push the limits. But one word is no longer particularly concerning. It is rather telling about the time we live in that TV and movie ratings don’t give serious consideration in their rating when God’s name is taken in vain.
And yet Scripture teaches us that, “the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” And “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 24:16).
The first two commandments claim for God exclusive worship. True worship must be given to no other god, and to no man-made object or substitute for God. The first two commandments establish true religion in our hearts, that our hearts are not divided, we love only the one true God and we love Him and worship Him with our heart and not objects or images or idols.
Scripture teaches, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).
The Third Commandment addresses our mouth. What comes out of our mouths reflects what is in our hearts. Our words are to reflect our worship and what we worship.
We turn now from honoring God with our actions, with our head and heart, to honoring God with our lips. Now we come to the commandment which prohibits any misuse of the name of God. The Third Commandment separates God and God’s name out from the rest of our speech.
While we may not take our speech seriously or may dismiss our words as meaning nothing, God takes His name very seriously and He takes promises and oaths very seriously.
To understand this commandment we first need to take it a part and make sure we understand the meaning of the words. To misunderstand the words may lead to misusing them and misapplying them.
Paul, Slave of Jesus Christ
Passage: Romans 1:1-2
Last week I read from Philippians 3 where Paul tells us the credentials he used to introduce himself before his dramatic conversion/transformation.
I am a Hebrew of Hebrews, belonging to the people of Israel, to the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Pharisee. I am righteous under the law, blameless. I am more zealous than my peers.
Paul could have introduced himself to the Romans saying, I am the greatest apostle, the first great missionary, who has suffered more than all the other apostles, planter of many churches, doing great works and miracles for God, author of more books in the NT than anyone else.
Paul begins this letter with three phrases that are his new set of credentials, the new letters after his name. This is Paul’s view of himself. Notice how different these credentials are to the ones he gave in Philippians 3. What a transformation.
A slave of Christ Jesus.
Called to be an apostle.
Set apart for the Gospel of God.
Paul, the Unexpected Apostle
Passage: Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:13-16
Today is Cadet Sunday and in the providence of God, I planned to preach on the first word of Romans today, Paul. He is a great example and teacher to our Cadets, and to all men, and to all Christians.
If we are going to study the most important letter this man wrote, and as we heard last week, perhaps the most important letter ever written, we should know something about the man who wrote it. Paul’s letters are personal, they all bear the stamp of his personality and background.
Rom. 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.
Someone in the first century reading this for the first time, might be shocked. “Wait a minute, you mean Paul as in Saul of Tarsus? You mean that arrogant, zealous, murderer and persecutor of Christians, hater of the church of Jesus Christ? The Paul who has more in common with a Taliban terrorist than an apostle?”
How in the world did he become the author of the greatest letter in history? What is this amazing thing the Lord has done? What does Scripture tell us know about this man called Paul? What do we learn about Paul, and what do we learn from Paul?