Romans 1:18-32 "Why We Must Be Saved"

1:28The captain of the boat turned on. The emergency lights, but no one saw them. The team leader of the rescue operation said it was a challenging rescue, but none of the party goes even noticed the extra blue light in the disco. I watch a lot of Downton. Last week we covered Romans 1:16 and 17, which serves as a kind of thesis statement for the book of Romans. Paul said, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

2:10The gospel, as we talked at length about last week, is the good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection on our behalf for our sins, so that through faith in him we might be reconciled to God and receive everlasting life. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. Friends, we need to be saved. But just like the people on the party boat in London, many people don't realize they're in danger. They don't even realize that they do need to be saved.

2:45And maybe this morning that's you. Perhaps you don't realize the danger that you're in, that you need to be saved. We're going to answer a couple of questions this morning, two very important questions in the text. What do we need to be saved from? And how are we going to be saved? What do we need to be saved from? And how are we going to be saved? Now, listen, you might have grown up in church. You may know about Jesus. You may know the story of his death and resurrection, but you've never thought, really considered those two questions or the answers to those two questions.

3:26You might be brand new to Christianity. You might be a new Christian, or you might just be here this morning because you wanted to see what this whole thing was about. Well, either way, I'm really glad you're here because the Apostle Paul masterfully answers both of these questions in our text today. So let's start with that first question. What do we need to be saved from? Look again at verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

4:04So right off the bat here, we see that we need to be saved from God's wrath. But that word, that concept, the wrath of God, it makes lots of modern people very uncomfortable. What is wrath? Wrath is strong anger or indignation. Strong anger or indignation. Now, you might say, isn't it? That's sinful? Isn't anger sinful? How could God be angry? Well, friends, our anger is often sinful because we're usually angry about the wrong things, or we're angry about the right things in the wrong way.

4:48That's why James says this in James chapter 1. Take a look. Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. So our problem is that we are often slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to become angry. We get angry about the wrong things, or we get angry about the right things in the wrong way. And so our anger is often sinful.

5:22But it does not have to be. Look at Ephesians 4. Paul says, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. So it is possible to be angry and not sin, as Paul says right here. We just have to be angry about the right things in the right way. But you see, that is always true of God. He is always angry about the right things in the right way. His wrath, his strong anger or indignation, is never sinful.

6:01It is never irrational or out of control or vain or vengeful. God's anger is never any of those things. So what is God angry about? Go back to verse 18. 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.

6:54So from these verses, we see that God is angry. His wrath is revealed first because we have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. We've suppressed the truth in our unrighteousness. See, our unrighteousness stems from our ungodliness, that other word that's mentioned here. And ungodliness is this desire to live as though God does not exist, so that we can do as we please. So in our unrighteousness, we suppress the truth of God's existence. We tell ourselves that God does not exist. We tell other people that God does not exist.

7:37But of course, we know better. We know better. And that is because, as Paul says, what can be known about God is plain. His eternal power and divine nature are on display through what he has made. Look at Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day today pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard.

8:14Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. This is what theologians call general revelation. God reveals his existence and some things about his nature through what he has made. Human beings have been studying creation for as long as we have been around, and everything points back to the creator. We study the sun and the moon and the stars, the design of the universe, the impossibility of life beginning on its own, the makeup of the human eye and the human cell. God's eternal power and divine nature are on display. In all of these things, and millions more besides.

9:04The heavens declare God's glory. That is why you find people on every continent, among every ethnicity of the human race, worshiping someone or something. Human beings do not start off as atheists. We start off as theists, rightly concluding from what we can see around us in the world, that God must exist. Creation speaks to our hearts and minds, saying, There must be a creator. I wonder what he's like. So we are without excuse. No one on earth can claim ignorance, saying, I didn't know that God existed.

9:49Now, you can't know much about God from creation. That's why Paul says in verse 19, for what can be known about God is plain to them. What can be known. Creation does not tell us enough to save us. But creation does tell us enough to condemn us. Nobody can say that they didn't know that God exists because his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen through what he has made. We know. But what have we done? If you go back to verse 18, we have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. We've told ourselves that God does not exist because in our ungodliness and unrighteousness, we do not want him to exist. We understand intuitively that if God exists, we are accountable to him. If he exists, we must worship him. We must serve him. We must obey him.

10:50But our sin has made us godless and unrighteous. It has led us to say, I will not worship or serve or obey God. I will determine for myself what is true, what is right, and what is best. And so God is angry. His wrath is revealed because we have suppressed the truth and unrighteousness. Let's look at the second reason now that God is angry. Look at verse 21. 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. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. And worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

12:10Now, many modern people, including some professing Christians today, seem to think that idolatry is a thing of the past. That because in places like America, most people are not bowing down to statues, that we are no longer idolaters. But idols aren't just statues made of wood or metal or stone. What does Paul teach us here in Romans 1? He teaches us that an idol is what you make when you exchange the glory of the immortal God for images of any kind.

12:53Idolatry is worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator. Here's what Tim Keller said: What is an idol? It's anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you, what only God can give. Now, in our text, you notice the word exchange. That word appears three times in this text today. And it is a very important word. In our modern world, we know all about exchanges, don't we? We spend half our life exchanging stuff from Amazon or Walmart or wherever.

13:43So, with most retailers, you can buy a product and then you can keep it, you can exchange it, or you can return it. If you decide you don't want it anymore and you just want your money back, you can return it and that's fine. But when it comes to worship, that is not how it works. There are no returns, just exchanges. You can worship the creator, or you can worship the creature, but those are your choices. There are no returns, just exchanges.

14:27But we've seen people suppress the truth in unrighteousness, right? We pretend that we can worship nothing at all. We act like atheism is a valid option, but it's not. You can worship God or you can worship idols, but you will worship something. That is guaranteed. As Keller says, an idol is anything that you seek to give you what only. Only God can give. That is what an idol is. And so, with that definition, human beings have made idols out of everything. Think about the course of human history. We have worshipped the sun, the moon, and the stars. We've worshipped the ocean and the earth. We have worshipped gods of our own making.

15:25We've worshipped people, strong and powerful people like emperors and queens, and regular everyday people, like husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, sons and daughters. We have worshipped money and what money can buy. We've worshipped pleasure and leisure and the elusive life of luxury that we are sold every day through advertising. And here is the reality. Look at what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6. No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You can serve God, or you can serve idols. You can exchange one for the other, but you will serve one, and you cannot serve both.

16:28So God is angry. His wrath is revealed because we have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness and because we have become idolaters. We need to be saved from God's wrath. But what else do we need to be saved from? Verses 24 through 31, we'll see that we don't just need to be saved from God's wrath, we need to be saved from the consequences of our idolatry. Let's pick up again in verse 24. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

18:21Three times in this long section, you encounter the same phrase. Verse 24, God gave them up. Verse 26, God gave them up. Verse 28, God gave them up. We have exchanged the truth about God for a lie. We have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images, and God has allowed it. We refuse to say, your will be done, and so God said to us, your will be done. God is a perfect father. And at some point, every loving father has to look their child in the eye and say, you can make that choice. But if you make that choice, I'm going to allow you to experience the consequences.

19:19That is what God did. He gave us up to the consequences of our idolatry. And we see three of them in this passage. You can just write down the words. Want, think, and do. Want, think, and do. The three consequences of our idolatry are that we want what we shouldn't want, we think what we shouldn't think, and we do what we shouldn't do. First, we want what we shouldn't want. Look again at verse 24. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. Go down to verse 26. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

20:10The lusts of their hearts. Dishonorable passions. In the modern world, we have made our desires infallible. You ever heard that word before, infallible? We usually talk about the Bible as inerrant and infallible. They are not synonyms, they mean different things. Inerrant means it doesn't have any errors. Infallible means it cannot err. That's a different thing. And so, what we've done in the modern world is we have made our desires infallible. It means that our desires are just not just not wrong, they're not able to be wrong. We've said our desires are infallible.

20:54So, we talk often about the Enlightenment and the profound effect that it's had on the modern world. Rightfully so. We're going to come back to that in just a minute. But I think if you've lived in this modern world long enough and you understand these terms and what they mean, you know that romanticism has affected us at least as much, if not more, than the Enlightenment. Just watch our movies. Read our books. Listen to our music. Romanticism is everywhere. If we feel something, if we want something, it must be true and good. Follow your heart. Be true to your heart. Your heart will never lead you astray. It's every Disney song that's ever been written. And it comes out of romanticism. Questioning our desires or leaving them unfulfilled, we have been convinced that is wrong and unsafe.

21:53And that's because God has given up, given us up to the lusts of our hearts and to dishonorable passions. Because we want what we shouldn't want, verse 24, we dishonor our bodies with each other. We want to commit adultery with our boyfriends and girlfriends, with other people's husbands and wives, with random strangers that we just met on the internet. Because we want what we shouldn't want, verse 26. We exchange natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. We want physical intimacy with members of the same sex. More than that, look what he says. We are consumed with passion for one another.

22:47We want to use our bodies in ways God never intended and God did not design them to be used. And friends, all of this is the result of our idolatry. This passage is not really about heterosexual sin or homosexual sin. That's in there, and it's a big part of it. This passage is about idolatry. And it's about what happens when we exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship the creature rather than the creator. This is what happens. This is all a result of our idolatry. So whether it's with members of the opposite sex or with members of the same sex, God has given us up to the lusts of our hearts, to impurity, and to dishonorable passions. In other words, we want what we shouldn't want.

23:36Second, we think what we shouldn't think. Go down to verse 28. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind. You see, our problem is not just that we want what we shouldn't want, it's not just our dishonorable passions. Passions, it's our minds. We think what we shouldn't think. Our hearts are fallen, yes, but so are our minds. They're also affected by sin, just like our hearts. So, going back to the Enlightenment, we have been told for almost 200 years now that we are purely rational beings.

24:25That we objectively and dispassionately weigh the evidence and then make choices about what to think and how to live. But our minds are fallen, just like our hearts. So, what happens is that we feel these dishonorable passions in our hearts, and then our debased minds rationalize why those feelings are not just okay, but good. That it's not just acceptable to feel that way, but it's actually right to feel that way. This is why you have shelves full of books and entire websites dedicated to defending the Holocaust, to defending euthanasia, or abortion, or pornography, or homosexual behavior, or transgenderism, or open relationships, or no-fault divorce.

25:31Our debased minds rationalize our dishonorable passions. Our God has given us up to these dishonorable passions and to these debased minds. We want what we shouldn't want and we think what we shouldn't think. And so, third, that leads us to do what we shouldn't do. Verse 28 again. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And we do a lot, don't we? Look at verse 29. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

26:23It is such a bleak picture. This is a comprehensive list of attitudes, actions, postures, motivations. These are sins we commit against God and against others, and yes, even against ourselves. Nobody can read this list and say, I can't find myself here. We are all guilty, every single one of us. We feel what we shouldn't feel, we think what we shouldn't think, and so we do what we shouldn't do, and it's all because of idolatry. It's all because we've exchanged the church. Truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.

27:06So, friends, three of the consequences of our idolatry are these things: wanting what we shouldn't want, thinking what we shouldn't think, and doing what we shouldn't do. But in verse 32, you see the fourth and final consequence. Look at verse 32. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. I just want to point out here in verse 32, you see what Paul says: those who practice such things deserve to die. If you're in the room today and you are tempted with same-sex attraction, I do not want you to hear from Paul or from me this morning that your temptation is sin. Your temptation is not sin. Your temptation is not any more sin than anyone else's temptation to sin against God in the ways the Bible describes.

28:05To succumb to temptation, to practice these things is sin. And to be a Christian is to be a repentant sinner. So we all stand at the foot of the cross, every one of us, in need of repentance, in need of turning away from our sin, whatever our unique temptations are. And so just hear that this morning. This passage is about idolatry. Idolatry is the ultimate sin. Every other sin comes from us worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. And the ultimate sin comes at the ultimate price: death. We will die for our idolatry. Look at what God told Adam back in Genesis 2.

28:50And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Israel was exiled for her sins, as you know, if you've read the Bible before. And one of those chief sins was idolatry. Look what the prophet Ezekiel said during the exile. God says through him, Behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the Father as well as the soul of the Son is mine. The soul who sins shall die.

29:31And Paul says, everybody knows this. It is literally hardwired into our system. We know God exists. We know we're supposed to honor him and give thanks to him. We know God's decree that when we sin, we deserve to die. As Paul will say later in the letter, the wages of sin is death. But even though we know that we deserve to die for these things, we not only keep on doing them, we give approval to those who practice them. Them because as they say, misery loves company, and there is no greater misery in the world than being trapped in the cycle of sin.

30:14Friends, we need to be saved. We need to be saved from God's wrath, and we need to be saved from the consequences of our idolatry. But the question is: how? How will we be saved? We saw today three times in this passage the phrase, God gave them up. He gave us up to want what we shouldn't want, and think what we shouldn't think, and do what we shouldn't do. God gave us up to these things, which might lead you to believe that God has given up on us, that he was completely done with the human race, the people that he created in his own image and likeness. And who could blame him?

31:04But God is not like us. His thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways are not our ways. He is a perfect and loving father. Look what Proverbs 3 says. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father, the son, in whom he delights. You see, as a perfect and loving Father, God was willing to give us up to the consequences of our idolatry as a form of discipline, as a severe mercy that would lead us back to Him, that we would cry out to Him for salvation, knowing that if we were going to be saved from His wrath and the consequences of our idolatry, God would have to save us Himself.

31:57And here is the good news: God gave us up to the consequences of our sins, but He did not give up on us. Look at John chapter 3. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. You see, friends, God gave us up to the earthly consequences of our sins, but instead of giving up on us, He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, so that through faith in His life and death and resurrection, we would not experience any eternal consequences for our sin.

32:48Because we have sinned and because we still sin, we still have to face the earthly consequences, including physical death. But thanks be to God, He gave us His only Son. So, we will never face any eternal consequences for our sin. As we saw last week, the gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Every one of our sins was laid on him. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Praise God.

33:22So, if you're not a Christian, I haven't told you anything you don't already know this morning. You know God exists, you know, you should honor and give thanks to Him. You know that you deserve to die for your sin. You already know the bad news. But this morning, I want you to know the good news. I want you to know that God has not given up on you, that He gave up His only begotten Son for you. He lived for you, died for you, and rose again for you.

33:59And so, I implore you, we implore you, be reconciled to God. Receive Jesus by faith this morning so that it could be said of you what Paul said of the Thessalonians. Look at this verse: How you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus. Who delivers us from the wrath to come? Oh friend, turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God. If you're here today and you don't know whether you're a Christian or not, come and talk to one of us. Or go pick up this book, How Can I Be Sure That I'm Saved? Do not leave the building today without getting that question answered.

34:55If you feel like, you know, today I'm going to start following Jesus, or if you're like, I just started following Jesus, there's a book called What Should I Do Now That I'm a Christian. Pick this up on the way out. Come talk to one of us. But receive Christ, friends. Be saved by the power of God displayed in the gospel this morning through faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. God, we are so grateful that you are a perfect Heavenly Father who tells us what we don't want to hear, who delivers bad news to us.

36:00So that we can understand and appreciate and embrace the good news of the gospel. God, we recognize that we deserve your wrath. We have suppressed the truth and unrighteousness. We've become idolaters. We need to be saved from the consequences of our own sin and idolatry. So I pray this morning, Lord, for every Christian here who has been tempted, just like the people that Paul wrote to over and over in the Bible, who are tempted to go back to their idols, to go back to those boyfriends or girlfriends, to go back to making a God out of a career, making a God out of leisure and pleasure and a life of travel and luxury, making a God out of the American dream.

37:09God, would you help us to turn from those things, to turn back to our first love, Jesus, because we cannot worship you and anything else. And Lord, we certainly pray for those here today who are not yet Christians. We pray you are. Revealing yourself to them, not just in a general way as you do every day through your creation, but especially through the good news of the gospel laid out here in your word to us. We pray that many would receive Christ by faith today, that many would take the next step to follow Jesus, be baptized, and begin walking after him as disciples.

37:56We pray for a miraculous work of the Spirit, because only you can bring us from death to life. And so we pray for that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.