Romans (Session 2) Chapter 1:8-32

[Music] okay well we are in the second session of our review of the epistle to the romans and this first chapter i'm going to call the pagan predicament there are three predicaments that we'll look at before we get into the the guts of the epistle but just by way of review this book paul's letter as we call it the epistle to the romans is the most comprehensive expression of theology in the entire bible that's quite a statement it's the most comprehensive expression of theology in the entire bible the theme if you of the book of the letter paul's letter is the grace of god revealed you know that's a term we use a lot the grace of god but very few people really understand what the grace of god is that's going to be a surprise as we go we're going to on the one hand be confronted with god's righteousness and on the other hand our own iniquity and grace then is his remedy through grace god's remedy through grace and i'm indebted to hal lindsey for many things but one of the many people you always think of him as a as the expert in prophecy and indeed he is but his strongest suit and my personal view having known him for four decades is the book of romans 35-year greek scholar et cetera and one of the things he he treats the word grace as an acronym god's riches at christ's expense we're going to try to understand not only how we benefit by god's grace but how he did actually and we'll get into that as we go now most of you that have studied the book of acts realize the last half of the book of acts from chapter 59 is really all about paul and it ends by him going to rome exercising his citizenship so in that sense the epistle to romans is the natural book to follow the book of acts and that's one reason that way in our bio and so it's the book of romans in a sense in many ways is a continuation of the concepts that were planted in the book of acts but it's the most comprehensive statement of the gospel in the entire bible that term gospel we use so casually and yet it's very specific some call this book the book of romans the epistle to romans the gospel according to paul now the impact of this book of romans on world history is probably not equal by any other specific book of the bible the book of romans altered human history more profoundly probably than any other single book of the bible the years from about 590 a.d to 1517 are known in most college courses and so forth as the dark ages for a number of reasons but one of the reasons it's so dark the grace of god was nearly obscured the early church understood the grace of god the apostles taught it but as the years went by the grasp of that was lost and that led to the dark ages and part of what ended the dark ages was the reformation because the early church understood the grace of god but grace gradually erodes to legalism keeping rules and so it it's the re-emergence of an awareness of grace of god that led to the reformation and it's in that sense the book of romans changed the history of this planet now by the way paul does not write this letter to the church at rome he's writing to the individual believers he did not found any specific church in rome and but he's writing to the believers and it's important as we go it's going to get very complex we need to understand that paul is writing to believers this is not a book written to evangelize an unbeliever to come to faith no it's here to teach and instruct those that have committed themselves to christ there were probably several churches in rome most of these were house churches of course and we're going to find that out when we get to the end of the book because it'll there are 28 individuals that paul will deal with when we get there this letter is addressed to the saints some of these people reading this letter in rome were probably in jerusalem on the day of pentecost when those tongue with tongues of fire came and all that happened in acts 2 when peter preached and so forth now something we should understand paul was not an unlettered fisherman he was probably one of the most brilliant and best educated men on the planet earth at that time he was incredibly well educated in hebrew as a hebrew of the hebrews actually studied under gamaliel himself but he also had the benefit of the best of the greek educ uh education in the in the mar on mars hill he quotes from three of the pagan greek poets but uh so he was well educated in greek culture history religion philosophy poetry science what have you hebrew of the hebrews you probably represent the brightest intellect the most cultured person of the times and so romans the first eight chapters of the book of romans really deal with what you and i might call doctrine the first three chapters are the most complete diagnosis of sin in the bible we use that word a lot bible has a lot to say about sin but the most complete diagnosis of what that's all about is these first three chapters of this letter the next two chapters deal with this issue of salvation we use that term very loosely what is it really all about and the next three chapters are about sanctification a widely misunderstood segment of our growth experience that's the first eight chapters the next three chapters deal with israel interestingly enough israel past is the present israel future it's astonishing to realize that these three chapters hammer away on something that most churches have swept under the carpet most churches have no grasp of israel's role in god's um redemptive plan paul hammers away for three chapters on that whole issue and then the last few chapters are the practical side his personal comments to those uh of his listeners and so so we have romans one is the predicament of the pagan man romans two is the predicament of what the moral man in romans 3 the predicament of the religious man and by the way they're all losers they're all losers we'll say gee we're we're going to be all over the pagan man tonight that's right when we get to the moral man he's in for a surprise too because he ain't quite moral enough then we get to the religious man we'll discover why so many of us speak of jesus christ as the most anti-religious man that ever walked the face of the earth and so that's what we're up to we're going to be tonight in romans 1. so we have doctrine in the first eight chapters dispensationally uh israel the next three 1911 and then the last few chapters the practical side and you could label his faith hope and love in that sense in a very realistic way okay so we're going to be in the this first chunk here and by way of review um last time you may recall we got all the way through to the salutation in verse seven okay so all that was by way of review to all that be in rome beloved of god now notice that's important because we're not talking about unbelievers here beloved of god is a term in the bible always used of believers do all of being rome beloved of god called to be saints grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ and again his salutation like in all his epistles he uses both the greek and the hebrew greeting the greek was karas grace and the hebrew one is shalom shalom so he got both the the greek and the hebrew salutation there and written to believers that's important we don't lose sight of it as we go or we'll get very confused this is for teaching people who are believers he goes on first i thank my god through jesus christ for you all so we know that christ was that we know that paul was a southerner right because he always says grace and peace to you all right i think most of you know that he we know he's a southerner but not a texan did you know that we know he's not a texan because in his philippian letter he says i've learned in whatever state i find myself there and to be content so he can't be a texan right there's no telling what you learn in these bible studies anyway i thank for my thank my god through jesus christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world wow is your faith spoken of throughout the known world that's quite a statement quite a statement he always opens his letter with a word of thanks to god and a specific prayer and a personal message to his recipients and this really i don't want to gloss over this too lightly he rejoiced that news of their faith had spread over the known world now we're dealing here with a world that's less than we know the world but at the same time the known world the roman empire and it's interesting he did that without any benefit of airlines communication networks radio broadcasts no no on foot city by city their faith was spoken of throughout the entire known world that's quite a quite a statement and done without modern travel or communications then he goes on for god is my witness whom i serve with my spirit and the gospel of the son that without ceasing i make mention of you always in my prayers boy don't you wish paul was saying that of us have a guy like that pray for us that'd be powerful his service was not soulish because the word is not psychos it's uh pneumaticos spirit spiritual we know that things are spiritually discerned right the natural man knows not the things of god notice too though this isn't soulless it's spiritual he did not depend upon music didn't depend on architecture didn't have a fancy auditorium with lights and acoustics and whatever nor was he an orator he just dealt with the word of god simply the truth of the word and the results of the spirit wow making a request if by any means now at length i might have a prosperous journey by the will of god to come to you he really passionately wanted to visit and he wrote this letter from corinth but obviously he ultimately will be going to rome under quite different you know he he went on he went there under government expense right and uh but uh so his constant intercession for them had a new note of petition for his projected visit and we'll see that echoed later in the letter too and uh this was a heart desire of his and it was finally was definitely on his agenda and we'll see more of that in the end of this chapter end of the book for i long to see you that i may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end ye may be established now i want as we go on this first opening chapter is very personal as the whole letter will be ultimately but i don't want us to lose sight of the personal aspect here because we're going to quickly get enmeshed in subsequent chapters especially into deep theological discussions let's not let the complexity the depth of all that disengages from the personal interaction that paul intends with his readers and we want to be if you want to be truly benefited by this we need to stay connected to what he's communicating and and just as paul taught timothy to teach exhort charge command rebuke to be urgent in season of out of season that was the urging that he gave his letters to timothy as protege second timothy 4 especially and that should be the same tone that we see here so we too must exhort command rebuke etc because this is intended to be an instruction to the believers he continues that is that i may be confound comforted together with you by the mutual faith of both you and me you know it's exciting when you do encounter a believer when dan and i travel whether we're in israel or in europe or whatever in an airport wherever we connect with one of the members of the institute there is a thrill there's a company never face-to-face met them because of the internet or whatever but suddenly there's a bond and it's amazing the comfort that you exchange with one another because of the mutual faith and uh and when we were in uh in israel just getting ready to leave there was in fact it was the farewell banquet the night when in fact man and i were literally going to be heading from that banquet to the airport to catch our plane a little early and k arthur drops in she was arriving for a month for her reasons she found out we were there so she had the driver bring them to our hotel and she dropped into just to have exchange hugs and fellows there's nothing that can communicate how dear it is when two people who love the lord meet under conditions like that be comforted together by the mutual faith so paul is looking for a mutually beneficial visit this isn't going to just benefit the romans it's going to benefit him too the visit would be mutually benefit especially he desired to minister for three reasons one is to strengthen the romans the believers there to impart some spiritual gift means to him either exercise his own spiritual gift on their behalf or to spir to bestow on them spiritual favors or blessings that's the significance of verse 11. he's also going to say to see some spiritual fruit or harvest if you will among them second reason and then thirdly to be strengthened by them one of the things that may surprise you when nana and i go and travel and we visit some fellowship in some town and so forth and we do our thing whatever it's doing but most people don't realize we're the ones that get ministered too there's something just incredibly uh energizing by the the assembly of people of faith and uh so on the one hand you're ministering to them on the other hand you can't be ministering them without being ministered to to it's a it's a real it's a mutual transaction and so so uh so in that sense uh paul's ministry at rome would be the same as in other centers of the empire as he travels of course getting to verse 13 we're making great progress tonight right now i would not have you ignorant brethren and whenever i read this verse or one's like several like it i always stumble because i remember vividly there were a group of us sitting around a luncheon table at one of the conferences gail irwin who's quite a humorist was sitting there and chuck smith cowboy chapel costa mesa was sitting there and a couple of others and gail irwin says you know there are no commas in the greek and what he's really saying is that now i would not have you ignorant brethren and not to be uh yeah yeah took him in it didn't yeah chuck smith not to be outdone says yeah we are butt flesh and now that that's on a recording chuck probably never will i'll take reference to the fact that chuck has forgiven me far more than those kind of cracks but we're going anyway let's see if we can do it straight after all that now i would not have you ignorant brethren that oftentimes i purpose to come unto you but was hindered there too the word let is in the old english sense here there's probably six or seven words you've got to learn if you're going to be in the king james they're not hard but let means hinder it's the old english the other word you want to be on your guard the conversation in the old days meant behavior we use it a little differently today but there's like there's three or four not many of these half a dozen maybe at most that if you if you pick up on those there's you you grease through right the rest of it is pretty easy i first come to you but was hindered there too hitherto that i might have some fruit among you also even as among other gentiles so he really wanted to come visit them and he will echo this the last chap last chapter two of the book of romans will deal with these personal uh underscores as we go but paul continues i am a debtor both to the greeks and to the barbarians to the wise and to the unwise now i should explain quickly here the word barbarian technically is used in the greek to mean someone who doesn't speak greek we'd use the word barbarian in a different sense in a much more behavioral sense but that's actually what the word originally meant was a non-greeking speak not greek speaking tribe of some kind but i want you to notice how paul feels this passionate commitment to his ministry and i'll give you a contrast to that in a minute but anyway i am debtor both to greeks into barbarians both to wise and to the unwise all kinds in other words and it's interesting as a result of his apostleship to the gentiles paul's passion would have been to visit to be the minister to the jews but clearly god made it clear to him and he reluctantly acknowledged that his call was to the gentiles peter despite the fact that the door to the gentiles was opened at cornelius in acts 10 and all that he was called to be to the jews and paul envied that that's really what he wanted to do but anyway his apostleship to the gentiles but he felt obligated he says a debtor to the entire human race to proclaim god's good news i want to contrast this so i don't want to take paul for granted and i'm not here to disparage moses don't misunderstand me but i want to contrast paul's attitude of this commitment to moses attitude and this is one of those times i wish i had john leffler's gift for dialects some people have a gift of rendering dialects of different kinds and i don't have that gift i wish i did especially for this passage i wish i could read it with a good new york jewish accent here so try to visualize moses he's talking to god moses said unto the lord wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant and wherefore have i not found favor in thy sight that thou layest the burden of all these people upon me you see the reluctance that's here have i conceived all these people have i begotten them that thou should have said to me carry them in thy bosom as the nursing father beareth the sucking child unto the land which thou swearst into their fathers when should i have flesh to give unto all these people for they weep unto me saying give us flesh that we may eat i am not able to bear all this people alone because it is too heavy for me this is moses complaining right and he's talking to god he says if thou deal thus with me kill me i pray thee out of hand if i have found favor in thy sight let me not see my wretchedness he wants out this wasn't my idea you gave me these people you know and there's a number of these things and you can't help but smile on the one hand on the other hand you also recognize the intimacy he felt to be able to talk to god like that you know they were they were buddies so to speak that's not i shouldn't use that term that way but but god is still god don't miss anything but at the same time moses felt he laid it on the line didn't tiptoe around and you'll notice that in the scripture that's often the case hezekiah in the tower laying down the demands the contract that was confronted with he laid it in front of god what are we gonna do about this and so on so paul considered himself a debtor to do what to proclaim god's good news it was not a burden it was his oblig it was his commitment his commitment and uh and he was to the jew and to paul the whole world was divided into two to two jews of greeks in other contexts he's going to divide it in three parts jew g and j and a church jewish gentile and the church but here in terms of population demographics the whole world is divided into jews and greeks the religious prerogative being the dividing line between the two now within the gentile works the to the greeks and romans the world was divided into two groups greeks and barbarians that is greeks and non-greeks people who didn't speak greek and civilization thus being the criterion there the distinction and in colossians 3 11 in fact it speaks of barbarians in fact even scythians scythian was a term of the ultimate barbarian just to get a feeling for that extreme extreme savageness parallel to this is the world is either foolish or wise foolish or wise which is the significance of the uncultured so that's what he's dealing with so as much in me is i am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in rome also so he's taken all comers and he's prepared to come to rome and preach there too so he had a sense of debt to the gentile world and he's that produced an eagerness to evangelizing including the capital of the world can you imagine a jew wanting to go to rome you know what i mean you understand how the jews felt about the roman empire imagine the guts it took for a guy like paul to go to rome and rome shook the entire world it was the center of everything in those days and paul went there with nothing except the gospel and the spirit of god we're going to encounter four fours four number four numeral four four fours here in the next few verses the core of the whole book people often people when they take on a book they like to pick what's the core verse well we're going to encounter the core verse in the book of romans in the minds of many at least in verses 16 and 17 especially of chapter one it's the summary text of the entire epistle what is it all about the gospel it's universal power uh saving power and the secret is the revelation of god's righteousness on the principle of faith that's the secret to this book the revelation of god's righteousness on the principle of faith and it's accord in the old testament and the whole key to this book will be a book a verse in the old testament called habakkuk 2 4. but the core of the book from from epistle point of view is romans 1 16 17-18 and what does that say for i am and when the word for here is like because okay for i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the jew first and also to the greek that's the theme of the entire letter right there you can remember that it unravels everything else in the book and paul gladly proclaimed it as god's panacea for man's spiritual need he identifies it as the infinite resources of god what a fancy phrase that is what does that mean the infinite resources of god applied to the goal of salvation in the life of everyone who believes regardless of his racial background and we're going to talk more about how broad that is here in a minute you see his his eagerness his passion his commitment sprang from his estimate of the message of the gospel he recently so excited about it he understood the power of the gospel and that'll be defined in first corinthians 15 first four verses we'll encounter that several times throughout the study but you might want to jot that down paul would probably argue the most important chapter in the bible is first corinthians 15 without it we have nothing and yet the gospel that word we use so loosely is defined in first corinthians 15. and this is the fourth of five times that paul uses the word gospel here in this book the power of god unto salvation how good that is the gospel is not unto reformation the gospel did not come to make bad men good the gospel did not come to make bad men good it's not for education it's not to make dumb people smart it's not for progress it's not for development the gospel isn't to fan some inherent flame in mankind no not none of those things it's the power of god under salvation it is for men who are lost no other purpose christ did not come to make bad men good he came to let dead men live it's lost it's for lost man no other men are either involved in salvation or it's opposite what's the opposite of salvation perdition heavy stuff here heavy stuff here he acknowledged over a priority for the jew by the word first chronologically chronologically and this has sufficient textual support both here and it's unquestioned in in chapter two we'll see it come up next time next session because j why because jews are god's chosen people they were the custodians of god's revelation it's there but we we have a jewish bible and we worship in a church that was founded by jewish believers and it's astonishing how many christians have no grasp of christ jewishness god it's the jew first because they're god's chosen people they were the custodians of his revelation and they were the the people through whom the messiah came he's jewish always will be he's the king of the jews he's also king of israel the national king the jews also have a pr uh preference of privilege expressed historically chronologically chronologically and jesus said that the woman is in the well remember salvation she was wondering she was samaritan and she wanted to understand some of their traditions you know salvations of the jews he straightened that out right there in chapter four john it's interesting that in paul's ministry he always sought out the jews first whenever he hit town he'd start in a synagogue wouldn't last long but that's what he would do and three times at least he responded to the rejection of his message by turning to the gentiles but he went to the jews first that was his pattern and we need to remember that today's evangelism must include the jews but the chronological part of the jews has already been fulfilled in paul and elsewhere and if you haven't heard about rabbi yitzhak kaduri you want to understand what that's all about because about a year ago the most venerated rabbi in the ultra-orthodox community in israel was a god name of yitzhak kaduri he died at the venerable age of 108 a year ago before a few months before he died he left a message to be sealed for one year after his death that was just unveiled a week or two ago and in that message he says the name of the messiah is yeshua he also his disciples left on their website in hebrew is that isaiah 53 refers to the messiah that the meshiach the two messiahs are one and something christianity has maintained all along that isaiah 53 and zechariah 12 10 refer to the messiah this whole thing has been incredibly unsettling to the ultra-orthodox community in israel it's interesting to discover and it's getting to be more frequent that some of the deepest rabbis will acknowledge that christ is the messiah that's that's exciting from a prophetic point of view because paul indicates that ezra will be blinded until the fullness of the gentiles become in the fullness of gentiles must be getting close okay so we'll move on here now there is no distinction between jew and greek either in the fact of sin or the availability of salvation and that's going to come up in chapter three when we get there and plus other places let's continue with these four for therein is the righteousness of god revealed from faith to faith as written the just shall live by faith here is that verse the just shall live by faith that's a quote from habakkuk 2 4. and the righteousness from god is revealed and it's it says for there is the righteousness of god revealed from the greek preposition is actually eck it's out of from and it's a subjective genitive that's of god which identifies this as the righteousness that god provides for people on the basis of and in response to faith in the gospel that's really what it's talking about here and so god declares men righteous not by faith as the procuring cause for the blood of christ was that that's what procured it for us not by faith is putting forth of a certain faculty and ate man no not at all much less the keeping of a divine commands however justin holy but out of reliance upon his own word as true in that alone that's a very fundamental thing to think through jot your notes and embrace god declares men righteous not by faith as a procuring cause because the blood of christ was that he's what procured it for us not by faith is putting forth some faculty that's inherent in man there's that little you know no no it's nor by keeping any kind of commands no it's out of reliance of his own word is true that's the key so uh we're especially in romans 8 we're going to deal with this in response to faith in god's righteousness is imputed to us in justification imparted progressively in regeneration sanctification and culminating in glorification when standing and when the standing in the state become identical and we'll talk about that in subsequent chapters the word righteousness and justify are not seemingly related in the english but they're very closely related in the greek same roots and so forth and paul used them now many times in his epistles 26 times in romans and the greek 15 and used the greek 15 times okay to justify a person is to declare him forensically that is legally righteous that's what justification is it's a standing a positional kind of thing there's also linkage here with two other epistles in this trilogy habakkuk 2 4. habakkuk 2 4 is a very interesting interesting verse it was the foundation it led to the reformation and today the just shall live by faith that sounds simple who are the just who are they that's what the book of romans is going to deal with justification and it's quoted here in romans 1 27 the just shall live how how shall they live that's what the epistle to the galatians will deal with and in galatians 3 11 this verse is quoted as the cornerstone the just shall live by faith what does that mean that's what the book of hebrews is going to hammer away in hebrews 10 39 we find he habakkuk 2 4 quoted just before that famous chapter hebrews 11 the great hall of faith and so it's interesting that these three epistles romans galatians and hebrews are a trilogy on habakkuk 2 4. and that's one of the reasons we hold the view that paul wrote hebrews even though he didn't sign it that way and there are some experts that feel that he was written by somebody else and if that's true it's even a bigger miracle because the fingerprints of the holy spirit are on all three epistles in any case god's righteousness revealed and this chapter is about revealing it against pagan humanity we always get confronted well what about the savages never heard about christ okay to the first step in in revealing the righteousness that god provides for people by faith is to set forth their need for it you won't appreciate the answer unless you know what the question is why do they need it because they are under god's judgment we are born with a genetic defect our problem is that we're hiv positive our problem is that we're sin positive we have a genetic defect adam was a direct creation of god you and i are not we if we're sons of adam we are not sons of god we're sons of adam and john chapter 1 verse 10 and 11 says he came unto his own his own received him not but to them that received him to them gave he the power to become what the sons of god direct creation of god the human race stands condemned before god and is helpless and hopeless apart from god's grace that's a heavy thing but that's what this is all about this next section is going to look at the human race prior to the call of abraham or abraham this persists in the pagan world of the gentiles as distinct from the jews it persists as sardis if you will that condition is everywhere a name to live but while we're yet we're dead it's interesting how in the seven churches most protestant commentators have a field day with ayatira because it seems to portray the vatican and all of that well if that's the case the next one is sardis which is the reformation it's one of the two letters that has nothing good said about it it's the one that's a name you have a name that you live but you're dead and as iniquity abounds the love of many professing christians is waxing cold and i think it was my wife that first pointed out to me how prophetic that was the iniquity of the the the the love of many shall go cold the word love there is agape it's a it's it's it's manifest today god never condemns without cause he has three bases that are going to explain for his judgment of the pagan world how can you judge the pagan world for three reasons for suppressing god's truth that'll be verse 18 for ignoring god's revelation verses 19 to 20 and for perverting god's glory in verses 21 to 23 it's astonishing to me how many people read the last part of chapter one and fail to really understand what god is saying so let's read it very carefully from verses 18 on okay verse for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness this verse is sort of the topic sentence for the entire section that we're going to go the next week's verses and it's going to be in contrast to the previous verse verse 17. for the wrath of god is revealed that turns out to be in the present tense which means it should be it's a continuing revelation is being revealed not it's not once and for all it's continuing to happen the wrath of god is being revealed it's an expression of personal righteousness which is also being revealed from verse 17 and is in opposition to human sinfulness it's a contrast going on here god hates sin and judges it but he loves sinners and desires of salvation god hates the sin but loves the sinner we get that backwards we tend to love the sin and hate the sinner don't shake your head no be careful you know if you want to understand how spiritually you are how much do you hate sin when you hate sin like god hits sin you're growing but that doesn't mean he doesn't love the sinner that's why he went to this extreme of his plan of redemption people need the continuing revelation of his righteousness from god that he provides god's wrath is directed against all godlessness of men not against men as such he's against the godlessness of men and his wrath is also going to be revealed in the future and we're going to see that in the next chapter for sure the more you discover yourself to be a common sinner the more you will realize god's uncommon grace see our whole challenge here is to understand the gulf the righteousness of god on one hand and the depths of depravity of man on the other is that gap that he has breached by sending his son fair to give god is due inevitably results in failure to treat people created by god's image the right way if you don't treat god in the right way you won't be training people the right way and boy do that's why we need to have people that are god-fearing in our families in our communities in our leadership god-fearing people the suppression of truth is paul's first reason for god's condemnation of the pagan world when you live in a culture where it's against the law to use the word of god in schools you've got a problem when you've got in a culture that denies the existence of truth you know they'll never find it now these verses indicate that knowledge concerning god is available to all in the created world it's accessible to the entire human race that's a strange idea to get across the knowledge concerning god is available to the entire created world really the first step of wisdom is to listen to the worst that god has to say about us we were born into this lost race and paul continues in his letter here because that which may be known of god is manifest in them for god hath showed it unto them that's paul's assertion is that true the word manifest means visible clear showed it unto them that's a verb related to the noun some scholars translate this phrase to them as in them insisting that verse 19 is speaking of the knowledge of god as being inherent in man through conscious or religious consciousness that's not what this is saying a preferable understanding is that verse 19 refers to the fact of revelation and verse 20 the next verse is going to explain the process by which that revelation takes place verse 20 this is the gateway to a shock the next few verses may shock many of you even though you may have read them many times romans 1 20 and following for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power in godhead so they are without excuse what on earth is that saying how can invisible things of him be clearly seen it sounds like double talk doesn't it let's think this through for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world clearly seen now paul may have been doing a play on words here because the noun translate invisible things and the verb translated clearly seen share a common greek root so within the greek there's some word play going on here nevertheless it goes on here the verb clearly seen and the participle being understood are in the present tense that means they're continuing it isn't once for all it's a continuing process paul connects all of creation which people see as revealing god's character the all-powerful deity you can get a taste of that looking through a telescope at the heavens you're gonna taste that looking through a microscope and seeing the intricacies of the natural world we find ourselves in the old testament is peril of these verses in psalm 19 let's take a quick look at psalm 19 you remember it the heavens declare the glory of god and the firmament shows his handiwork day in the day at earth speech and night and tonight showeth knowledge there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard their line has gone throughout all the earth their words to the end of the world in them have you set a tabernacle for the sun i want you to notice something here before we go on my my technical background is the information sciences and it fascinates me to discover that's the frontier of all sciences today in microbiology the frontier is coding code's the coding theory and so on notice the information terms here the heavens declare the glory of god the firmament showeth his handiwork day and day uttereth speech and night and night showeth knowledge there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard they're lying their voice their line has gone throughout all the earth their words to the end of the world information all the way through it's a communication which is a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices a strong man to run a races going forth is from the end of heaven speaking of the sun here this going forth is from the end of the heaven and the circuit and to the ends of it there's nothing hid from the heat thereof and i can remember as a kid in science class in high school getting harassed by a unitarian son of a unitarian minister saying that see this is an error in the bible everybody knows the sun doesn't go rise and fall where the days of copernicus right and no the sun doesn't rise and set we turn right but the sun is every 27 thousand years making a cycle within the galaxy so they do go literally from one end of heaven to the other now i don't know how david knew that but it's very it happens to be astronomically accurate anyway how can something that's invisible testify to something that's clearly seen you know what the key word is design and the reason you know that's the key word is because it's now against the law to teach that to your kids in school intelligent design no no no what a nonsense you know what how can something that's and be invisible testify to something that is clearly seen well one way to do that is with it is with the dna you can't see the dna but we now understand and here is a design that is so elegant we haven't even unraveled it yet and this all happened by accident can you imagine it's astonishing how you can have the carl sagan's teach our kids that they're really the result of a cosmic accident and then we wonder why we have columbine high school or virginia tech we tell the kids they're just they have no there's no destiny or just a cosmic accident and we wonder why they have no sense of destiny we aren't we stupid the dna is an example of how invisible things from creation of the world are clearly seen and what we now know it's not a three out of four error correcting digital code it's a digital code people overlook that that means it was designed it can't happen by accident it was designed and most of theirs and probably one engineer and a thousand that knows how to design an error correcting code an error detecting code yes an error correcting code no some do but here we have the most elegant ones in human existence and so see complex systems such as like our bodies are have to have subsystems that communicate on an intimate level if a system consists of subsystems and the survival of the system depends on those subsystems they can't evolve they've got to be coordinated very carefully and all this evidence is skillful design and implementation everywhere in the universe there's evidence of design and god holds them accountable to understand that at whatever level of understanding they might have and all men are without excuse that's what basically paul is saying you know there are all kinds of systems an open loop system is pretty simple you have some source of energy some mechanism results some result that's a simple open loop system a more complicated one is where you have a system that measures like a thermometer like a thermostat on the house you have a datum the temperature you want you have a sensor that compares the ambient to what you want of the difference it sets up a mechanism to make the correction that's a closed loop system much more complicated and and so then you can even have closed loop systems which are adaptive that learn by having another system overlaid on top of that and so on and that's so you have open loop systems the next complication is closed loop next complication is adaptive systems next complications are systems that modify themselves and then you have systems that are intelligent intelligence systems is that possible absolutely there's self-modifying systems we have self-programming systems we have self-diagnostic systems we can conceive of self-repairing systems that's getting a little more complicated and you have self-reproducing systems we're not there yet nature is but we haven't caught up yet and so see we need to understand there's a basic understanding i want to get across if i can squeeze this in here there are opposites there's disorder and order anybody's looked at a school locked or your guest closet know what i'm talking about right okay there's noise and signals engineers talk about signal and noise ratio you want signals what you want noise is what you don't want right cacophony or music now in today's you can't tell much between that okay and the greeks had chaos and cosmos right okay the word cosmos in the greek means to bring to to bring order out of chaos it's the route from which we get the word cosmetic by the way i thought i'd work that in right the concept i want to get across to you is the randomness and design are opposites and that's not an arbitrary definition let me demonstrate to you see what i've got on the left is entropy randomness what i have on the right is information they're opposites entropy is the absence of information information is order signal design what have you they're opposites in fact the flow is always to the left you can organize your guest closet in a couple of weeks it's back to where it was or your school locker or whatever okay now so at the randomness most most of us have been taught about deterministic equations two plus 2 equals 4 always not just most of the time always it's deterministic right most of the formulas you had in school are deterministic there's another kind of world the real world isn't deterministic it's stochastic there are random variables because the thing isn't two inches it's two point it's it's it you've measured it to some degree of precision but how accurate is it and so you get into the fact that you know two plus two might be 5.1 under certain conditions that kind of thing so there's what they call stochastic processes it turns out when you're in that world you suddenly need you have a need for random numbers it turns out you can't find any if you really know what you're talking about you can't find a random number you can go to a computer and get a random number but it's technically a pseudo-random number it's a number that tries to be random and ain't greely random numbers are hard to find years ago i was part of a think tank called the rand corporation it was the granddaddy of the think things and they published a book in 1955 called a million random digits it was a book i said i have a copy you know a million random digits with a hundred thousand normal deviants you open that book that's a bunch of random numbers now the average person i did that's ridiculous it's just a book full of random numbers no they spent a lot of money making sure they were random what do you mean well this is not as trivial as it sounds what they did they were at the frontier of the computer industry in those days and they took these numbers and made sure there was no periodicity there's no repeating sequences there was no predictability from one let word to from one number to another they were how did they make sure they were random what is its defining characteristic they made sure there was no design randomness true randomness requires a total absence of design now with that background the most absurd thing i can imagine is sending our kids to school where they're taught that all design came from randomness that's a contradiction terms it's it's the definition of absurdity that's a non-sequitur and yet that's what we're dealing with in our culture it's actually come full circle but getting back to uh psalm i came across german werner getz paraphrase of psalm 148 i had to sort of throw in here and it's his paraphrase of somebody praise the lord all you galaxies appearing like mere dust motes on photographic plates praise the lord sirius and your companions arcturus aldebaran ontarios praise the lord all you meteorites all you comets and planets in your elliptical orbits praise the lord atmosphere and stratosphere x-rays and radio waves praise the lord all you atoms and molecules protons electrons protozoa and red area praise the lord all you birds and dragonflies rushing by in the sky praise the lord all you microscopic hexagonal snow crystals all you illustrious blue prisms of copper sulfate praise the lord all you phosphorescent algae anurida maritima and ligia exotica floating like sparkling diamonds on the surf praise the lord topic of cancer arctic circle all you storms sweeping across the atlantic ocean and along the hum dot current praise the lord dark force of the amazon all you tropical islands and your volcanoes and you all moon shining on the swaying palms surrounding the lagoon praise the lord all you public servants all you students all you young maidens praise them let them praise the name of the lord for his name alone is exalted as splendors above the earth in the heavens he has raised the fortunes of his people and taken israel to his heart praise the lord that was verner gets paraphrased 148 you've got a little physicist going in there but that's okay the witness of god is so clear and so constant that ignoring it is indefensible the condemnation is not based on the rejecting christ of whom they've not heard but sinning against the light they do have second corinthians 8 12 except according to men half not according to what he has not and we can look at pharaoh and the philistines and the king of nineveh all these were sinning against the limited light they had in exodus 10 the pharaoh called moses and aaron and hastened said i have sinned against the lord your god and against you what an insight now therefore forgive i pray thee my sin only this once and treat the lord your god that he may take away from me this death only for samuel 4 the felicity just one of three examples the philistines were afraid for they said god is coming to the camp they said woe unto us for there have not been such a thing here before they had insights enough to be judged by it jonah 3 7 this is the king of nineveh he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout the end of it by the greed of the king and his noble saying let neither man or beast nor heard nor flock taste anything let them not feed nor drink water the head of the world within those 40 40 days they were going to be destroyed he on speculation repented he had enough light to respond to it let man be covered with sackcloth and cry mighty unto god and let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands this is the words of the king of nineveh what light did he have how did he know all this see we all have knowledge of god enough to condemn us enough to condemn us so first is ignoring god's revelation revelation the society militantly insists upon teaching young people bad science to perpetuate the myth of spontaneous biogenesis first there was nothing and then it exploded that makes sense thank goodness that we've got some physicists saying that the very concept of a singularity implies a dimension behind that no kidding which is the basis of our philosophy our psychology our political theories and our entire culture there are three books you want to be aware of michael denton in 1986 published a book evolution ethereum crisis this is not a christian book it's an evolutionist it points out that evolution is no longer viable as an explanation of what we think we know in science landmark in 1986 philip johnson wrote about darwin on trial and third book michael behe darwin's black box these these three books have shattered the thinking world because they're not christians but they're thinkers michael b points introduces the concept of irreducible complexity which devastates the concept of biogenesis is just being untenable and they're they're very fundamental books some other ones roger penrose the road to reality here's one of the great worlds physicists who raises some real serious questions frank tipler wrote the physics of immortality where he concluded strictly from physics that all life is destined for a resurrection how interesting and that the god of the judeo-christian god is god he did that from physics he just recently published i haven't had time to read i got a land on my desk today the physics of christianity by the same author frank j tipler and gonzalez and richard did a book called the privileged planet it's a must read as a dvd out that's it's breathtaking anyway let's move on and wrap this up because that when they knew god they glorified them not as god neither were they thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened so when they reject god then things start to happen and i want you to notice what happens here the reason for god's condem the condemnation of the pagan is based on the preceding verse and that verse is based on the previous one here's the same greek connective diorti which is the beginning of verses 19 in other words because once be because of this because this because again the link is here people suppression of the truth is seen and rejecting clearly visible evidence of god as the sovereign creator unable to free their conscience they turned their pervas perversion of that knowledge into idolatry the clause although although they knew god that refers to the original experiential knowledge of god such as adam and eve had before and after the fall one would suppose that to know god would be to honor him that's what you think of it when truth is rejected in time the ability to recognize and receive truth is impaired if you get some truth and you use it properly you get more truth if you get some truth and don't use it you lose what you got professing to themselves to be wise they became fools you know it's interesting how people say well i'm an agnostic that's using the greek word why don't you use the latin root i'm an ignoramus it does it doesn't work so well in a cocktail party does it same word now progressively they became fools became stupid in other words and that describes our current culture until man knows the state of a sin he wants to he wants no grace you don't want grace until you understand you need it and in the evidence of guilt is insufficient or inconclusive there's no apparent need for pardon we need to understand that you've got to start there change the glory of an incorruptible god into an image made like corruptable man to birds four-footed beasts and creeping things and so that the foolishness is represented by idol worship the ultimate irony in humanity's refusal to glorify the true god is the insanity or stupidity of idolatry the worship of gods who are not and the demons who are that's idolatry the more you reflect on the infinite glory and majesty of eternal god the more hideous and unspeakable insult it is to him any kind of idolatry you understand who god really is adultery is insulting man's refusal to acknowledge and glorify god leads to a downward path what happens then first worthless thinking next moral insensitivity and then religious stupidity as seen in idol worship you know it's amazing you find some intellect intellectual that rejects the bible okay a few months later you visit them have you ever noticed what they take up then it's astonishing that they'll reject the bible god's truth and take up the most bizarre nonsense in exchange it's amazing now the real problem is we become god like the gods we worship psalm 115 and psalm 135 make that illusion we become like the gods we worship what does that mean you see remember egypt she once ruled the world and uh she adopted the worship of death and the scarab beetle of all the different things they worshipped the scarab beetle was at the top of the heap pun intended you see when animal feces hit the dirt suddenly out of nowhere these strange little creatures come these little scare beetles they seem to come from no nowhere and that's why the egyptians worship them as emblematic of the creation that was the top of all the things they worshipped the little see people have the little scarab beetle as a piece of jewelry do they understand that's a dung beetle we were driving from carriero we were at the calgary museum which is really worth seeing it's incredible but it's all about death mummies and whatever we're driving up to luxor we were driving along these villages you know out of town and if you went along these edges you saw the tr you saw the white revetments with sort of grayish water in them and first you think it looks like a like a channel you realize no it's it's trash it when you get closer you realize it's just trash on both sides and the water is gray sewage and you realize that these people were not a third world country they ruled the world at one time they were one of the great empires but they worshipped the dung beetle and now they live in the garbage in the feces in the sewage you come like the gods they worship idols of stone are cold and unresponsive and impersonal right so if you worship idols of stone that are cold unresponsive and personal you too will become cold unresponsive impersonal is the world materialistic is the world harsh and unforgiving if you worship the world you too will become materialistic harsh and unforgiving that's one of the reasons you want to worship christ because if you worship christ you will ultimately become like him you'll become like the gods you worship now there's a real shocker here coming that many people read romans 1 as the chapter closes miss a key point did you realize there is a specific judgment of god for denying him as a creator we as new testament christians we tend to focus on god as the redeemer yes that's great i'm not not but it's interesting to me when i did the genesis country i started to realize how throughout the bible the primary focus of god's attention is his role as creator people who deny him as creator there is a specific judgment that's going to be mentioned on them catch this now wherefore god also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of god into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever amen who gave them over to that god did if you fail to recognize him as creator god gave them up to what he's going to describe here in a minute for this cause god gave them up there's that term again for this cause god gave them up to what unto vile affections for even their women did change their natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also the men having the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was me uh what are we talking about here females and females with females males with males what are we talking about here homosexuality you know i've always looked at homosexuality as a sin it's a choice someone says well i was born with it oh no kidding so was i i was born to be a adulterer a murderer that's all my nature you've got your nature i've got mine man could i kill easily it wasn't for god i have anger i have lust i could be a thief i have all that my nature you say you've got homosexuality nature i don't really buy the research that's intentionally that's nonsense but let's see let's not make that a point whatever it is something we're supposed to rise above i always thought homosexuality was a sin at the individual level of course it is but there's something bigger here it's a judgment of god on a culture that denies him as creator he's going to do what he's they're going to be taking over so that's that's the first fall of the empire roman empire and of course the empire of debt that we're involved in even as they did not like to retain god in their knowledge god gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient and what's a reprobate mind that's a mind void of judgment they call i'm gay nothing gay about that lifestyle it's life shortening god gave them over to that god gave them over that why because they denied him as a creator boy that's a different perspective being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murder debate deceit malignantly whisperers backbiters haters of god despiteful proud boasters inventors of evil things disobedient to parents sounds like the news broadcast without understanding covenant breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful who knowing the judgment of god that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them to do them oh that pinches not only the ones that do them but those that have pleasure in them to do them oh boy the judgment of god homosexuality the judgment of god that really startled me to really understand as that came through okay that we wraps it up for tonight we this time we had the predicament of mortal of uh pagan man chapter one the predicament of the pagan man next time we're gonna take the moral guy where does he stand be ready for some surprises let's stand for a closing word of prayer heavy stuff the truth of god heavenly father we just thank you for who you are and we stagger as we begin to apprehend just who you are the ultimate designer the creator of us all and we recognize that we are without excuse that you are visible wherever we look whether it's through a telescope to the heavens or a microscope we behold you are there the evidence of your handiwork is awesome in the true sense of that term we thank you father for who you are and we thank you father you have loved us so much as to go to such extremes to bridge the gulf between us that nothing less than the gift of your son availed to make possible our forgiveness just as socrates says i it's maybe possible for the deity to forgive sins but i don't see how he understood the gulf and yet father we thank you for your grace your riches and glory at christ's expense we thank you father that you have loved us to go to these extremes father we would pray that you would reignite in each of us a new passion a new hunger for your word that we each might grow in grace and in the understanding of who you are and what you've done on our behalf and that through all this father we might become more fruitful stewards of the opportunities that remain in front of us we just ask you father to receive each of us that your purpose would be accomplished in each of our lives as we commit ourselves without any reservation into your hands indeed in the name of yeshua our lord and savior jesus christ amen [Music] you

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Published: Thu Oct 15 2020