Speaker 1: So we're working through our way through Moses Romans. Not Ramoses. No. Romans. So last week, I believe you did gospel.
Is that right? You started off with the gospel. I think we ended that. And then we're going on this, like, journey through Romans. And so we started off with the gospel, and today, we are in the valley of sin.
Okay? But we will be ascending the side of the mountain to the pinnacle of the mountain, which is hope, and then down the other side. So so this way, I get the, privilege to top out sin. So I was finding this a bit like, oh, no. I've got sin.
You know, I wanted to do hope or salvation or, you know, something like that. But but what I realized is as I was preparing that, that, this is something really, really powerful. I found it really, really powerful just looking at this. Could we tighten this up? No.
Good. Thanks. Before we are ready to receive the good news, we need to face up with the bad news that's going on in the world that's that's happening in the world and happening with ourselves. Like, a patient visiting a doctor, we need to hear the diagnosis before we can receive a cure. Think about the times when you've been to a doctor.
We don't just visit casually. It's usually because something feels off. Maybe we have this persistent pain or a fever or just an overall sense that something isn't right. I remember, a time, way back when I was struggling with this really, really severe pain in my stomach. And, at first, I thought, oh, it's just a bug.
It'll pass. But as the night dragged on with hardly any sleep at all, the discomfort started to grow and be unbearable. And then by morning, after almost no sleep whatsoever and with excruciating pain, I knew I couldn't ignore it any longer. So I phoned the doctor and the doctor said immediately, come in straight away. I need to examine you.
And within moments of seeing the doctor, after examination, he he diagnosed me with appendicitis. And, immediately, he sent me to the hospital. So it wasn't easy hearing that I needed urgent surgery, but that diagnosis saved me from a life threatening infection. I could only receive the right treatment that potentially saved my life because I first acknowledged that was that there was something wrong. So Paul, I wanna start with this verse in in Romans 116.
You'll have heard this last week. It says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first the Jews, then to the Gentiles. Gospel means good news. But before we are ready to receive the good news, we need to face up to the bad news about the world and ourselves. What is it that we need saving from?
What's wrong with the world? And and why do we need the gospel? Paul continues his letter telling us about what the problem is and what we need that what we need saving from, why we need the gospel. So I wanna look I wanna begin by looking at the truth about God. So Paul wrote that God was has revealed his nature through his creation.
And we we started off this morning looking at Psalms and the creation, how he is so mindful of us, out of all that he has done and created. And it's been really lovely to think about that this morning. I wanna look at Romans 1 verse 20. It says, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power, and his divine nature have been clearly seen. Being understood from what has been made so that no man are without excuse.
Imagine standing on the shore, looking out over to the ocean, seeing the waves stretch endlessly. The creatures, the plantation, and the sea goes beyond our imagination. This morning, Mike mentioned about the planets, seeing them planets, and the universe, and all this that God has created. If you ever see nature programs, you get a glimpse of the beauty and magnificence of what goes on deep within. The vastness of the sea is overwhelming, and the power of the water is humbling.
I remember a time when I was going through a really difficult time. And one day, I stood on the pier that stretched out over to the waters and watching the waves crashing and feeling the wind against my face. The sheer size of the ocean reminded me how small I was. But at the same time, it brought me comfort. It was as though the infinite expanse of the sea whispered of a god who was even greater, holding all things, including me in his care.
The ocean is a powerful testimony to God's nature. Its depth speaks of its mystery, its rhythm of his order, and his vastness of his infinite power. When I looked at the endless expanse, I was reminded of his ability to handle the storms in my life. Yeah. That's right.
It's like a signature that an artist puts on their creation, on their masterpiece. I was reminded that this is God. God wanting to show us what he has created. God reveals himself in the beauty and power of creation. The world around us from the waves in the ocean to the stars above the planets in the universe declares his glory and leaves no room for doubt.
All we have to do is look, and we will see his hand in it all. Ain't that beautiful? All of creation speaks of his beauty, creativity, goodness. His nature is revealed if if we just take the time to look at all that he has created, he will speak to us through that. However, we also see the brokenness in our world.
He sees a world corrupted by sin, where people choose to live as they see fit. When I was young, I loved to play team sports. I played I used to play, in a team netball team, and I loved playing football, and I even dabbled a bit with volleyball. Been in almost every competitive spot, there is a referee. The referee ensures that the players follow the rules.
If a player breaks the rules, the referee has the authority to penalize them, either sending them off the pitch or giving the ball to somebody else. Without a referee, there would be chaos on the pitch. Players might hurt one another, taking advantage of the absence of a referee to try and win the game, to score a goal at any cost. We don't have to look far in this world to see the chaos around us. The pain and the suffering that people experience from injustices in this world and the destruction of our environment.
We all suffer from the consequences of chaos in this world. God looks at the brokenness in his creation, and his heart breaks. He sees sin in the world and knows he must intervene. We need his judgment. We need it.
Paul says in Romans 1 verse 18, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. God's wrath isn't about thunderbolts and lightning to punish people. It's his response to seeing the destruction, the pain of brokenness, the result from a world in chaos. People doing whatever they want to whoever they want, however they want. The concept of god's wrath can be misunderstood.
You know, people sometimes ask, how can a god who's god who's supposed to be a god of love be so angry? But in but Paul in Romans 118 presents a deeper truth. God's wrath is not a loss of control, of anger, or that he's losing his temper, but a reflection of his perfect love and justice. As creator, he designed the world to reflect his goodness, his beauty, and harmony. And when we exploit creation, hurt one another, or rebel against him, it's like vandalizing a masterpiece.
His wrath is a response to the damage that we do to the world, to others, and to ourselves. In some way, we might understand this kind of passion. You may remember a story a couple of years ago about a under a 50 year old sycamore tree. Do you remember that story? A tree in Northumberland National Park.
It was illegally cut down. Photographers used to love taking pictures of it, and it it even featured in the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It was a very famous tree that people loved to go. We we have heard stories of people being proposed under there, and all kinds of romantic gestures happened there. So this story was in the news for weeks.
People were outraged by the vandalism, and their anger was a sign of their love for the environment. So we can understand what it means some people. When we see the destruction in our world, it does cause anger. God's wrath is not a contradiction of his love. It's proof of it.
A god who doesn't care about, didn't care wouldn't get angry. But a God who loves deeply cannot ignore the destruction of what he has made. His wrath is an expression of his love, his pure love towards all that he has created. And that's the truth about God. So now let's look at the truth about sin.
I'm gonna look at Romans 1 verse 21 to 23. For although they knew God, they they neither glorified him as God or gave thanks to him. And this is something we did this morning. We spent time worshiping him and glorifying him and giving thanks for all that he has done and all that he is doing. But their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Paul is now writing about the problem that that needs a cure. What is the problem? The problem is sin. Paul defines sin as idolatry, exchanging the glory of God for images and worshiping created things rather than the creator.
The heart of sin is worshiping something, and that something is not God. We are part of God's beautiful creation. He created us in his image to be like him in purity, righteousness, and justice. All of humanity is created to worship and give thanks to him, glorify him. We are hardwired to worship something that gives us significance and worth.
Sin is idolatry, where we reject God and fill our lives with something else, replacing God and earth, even turning our back on him as if we don't need him. We may have in our minds when we think of idolatry as worshiping statues and and that sets itself up as god. And many of us could easily say, well, I don't bow down to statues or have images that I worship. But today, for many of us, idolatry can look different. So what's it look like today in our culture?
It could look like education, career, money, job, a relationship. Maybe for some, it could be simply following a team of your favorite sport. You know, there are there are people who are more dedicated to their team than some Christians are dedicated to Jesus. Or even more dedicated to turning up to football matches than than some Christians are to turning up to church. They have their season ticket and make sacrifices that they can that they so that they can turn up to every game.
They buy the kit, get really excited when their team are winning and cheering them on, chanting their names and singing the songs as as they're watching the match. I've seen people cry or feel really, really sad when and their mood is really affected when their team has lost. Yet they remain faithful to the team and hope that next time they will win. People reject God when they replace worshiping God with something else. Exchange God for other dreams, goals, and and that promise to fulfill and give a sense of freedom.
But these things, they don't fulfill all give true freedom. Whatever we replace God with is idolatry. The things we place God with are not necessarily bad things in and of themselves. I mean, football isn't really a bad thing until it takes priority in our lives over God. It becomes it becomes idolatry.
Having a good job with prospects is not a bad thing until it takes priority over God in our lives, then it becomes idolatry. Wanting to have money for good reasons is not a bad thing. Until it takes priority in our lives, then it becomes idolatry. So in Romans 1 21 to 22, it says this. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God.
I gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. Idolatry is really, really harmful. It has this negative effect on us. Paul says that without God being the center of all that we do, we become futile in our thinking, which means incapable of producing anything useful, pointless.
Our hearts become darkened. David Foster Wallace says this. When we worship idols, we become enslaved by their dark side. Worship money, and you will live in fear of never having enough. Worship body image or beauty and you will feel ugly and inadequate by comparison.
Worship intellect and being smart and you will always feel like a fraud on the verge of being found out. In short, apart from living apart from the living god, pretty much everything else will eat you alive. When we don't follow god, our die desires become distorted, and we are broken by them. God's anger against idolatry is motivated by his love for us, by his love for humanity and his creation. He hates to see us destroy ourselves, but he also doesn't override our decisions.
Instead, he gives us over to the consequences of our choices in the hope that his kindness will lead us to repentance. In Romans 2 verse 4, it says this, or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that god's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? He shows us his kindness towards us and keeps the way open for us to turn away from sin and turn towards him. That's what repentance is, to fix to turn and fix our eyes on Jesus and and say, lord, you are everything. Jesus, have mercy on me.
And when we do that, he restores our soul, gives us a promise of true freedom, and he reveals to us our purpose, our value, our worth. We're no longer futile, but our lives are fruitful. And that's the truth about sin. So now let's look at the truth about us. Let's turn to Romans 2 verse 1 to 3.
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else. For whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who have passed judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Paul here is addressing something with the Jewish people.
He's aware that, that as he's addressing idolatry with the Gentiles, because the Gentiles had statues and images, and they were worshiping other gods. But the Jewish people were thinking like, well, I'm glad I'm not like that, those foolish, godless gentiles. We can be so quick to pass judgment on other people. Can you believe what they did? The life choices that they they have made are disgusting and shameful.
I really don't like that person because I never do that. I'd never do what they did. That's so bad. How could they do that? I'm sure we can all think of times when we have passed judgment on other people.
And I wonder if at times we've passed judgments on people to find that we are guilty of the very same thing, and I'm not without excuse. What I love about Paul, it is what he's doing here is that he is trying to help us to be real. He's trying to cultivate a culture of honesty. But what we seem to struggle with in our culture is the willingness to admit personal guilt or to consider the darker realities that's going on within us. Because of the rise of the therapeutic culture whose aim is to raise self esteem, the language of sin is being neglected, and it is increasingly becoming a word that we no longer use to describe the choices that we are making.
We are encouraged more and more to do what feels right to us. But there's nothing wrong to do what feels good to us. And so our focus becomes on ourselves and what we desire. When God is not the center of our choices, we become the center of our own lives. We are told to believe that the only way to improve the world and ourselves, we just need better education, great social equality, More therapy.
Plenty of positive thinking. It's hard to get our head around this, but something happens when we own the fact that we are flawed. Guilty. It's really hard to admit these things, and we put up these defenses, but something really powerful and significant happens. God reassures us.
He comforts us. He reveals himself to us. It feels honest. One of the first steps of recovery is always admitting that there is a problem. People who go to rehab for drug abuse or alcohol abuse, addictions, first have to admit that there is a problem before they can get the treatment that they need so that their problem can be helped.
If we can't admit that we are essentially flawed, we can end up trying harder, blaming society, playing the victim, judging others, and trying to make sense of of what it is that we that we're about, we won't see the darker side that's in us or in the world around us. And this can be stressful and exhausting, trying to be something or do something that that we were never meant to do or be. Living a life that we please, without the creator. The author of our lives and the world is the center. This only leads to death if we don't put him in the center.
It leads to feelings of insecurity crushed by expectations that were never meant for you. Sometimes expectations of others can be such a burden, such a weight. It is so psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually freeing to be honest about ourselves. Paul says something that emphasizes how ridiculous it is to judge others when we really are all the same. It says in Romans 3 2223, the righteousness is given through faith in Jesus.
Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all has sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We're all saying there's something unifying about that. Something about that that brings us together and puts us in the same boat as one another.
Jesus says this in Matthew about judging others in Matthew 7 verse 1 to 5. Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, let me take a speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite. First, take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Jesus is challenging us to be honest about what is going on in ourselves. When we judge other people, we are making ourselves, above them.
We are we are saying we are better than you. We we are we're all together. We're sorted like like we're like God in in some ways, making ourselves superior. But Paul and Jesus is saying we are all the same. Talking about sin is offensive to people because it can feel as though you are judging them.
When you if you say you know, if you point out sin in someone's life, it feel really hard and really difficult to receive that. Talking about sin is always about acknowledging the problem, seeing what is going on in our own lives. It's about acknowledging the rejection of god is the problem here, bringing chaos, destroying creation, and everything in it for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Paul not only challenges the Jews for being judgmental, he also challenges the gentiles. He will not let the gentiles claim ignorance because they have not had the scriptures like the Jews have.
They've been taught for generations and generations, and and they've got, got scriptures to help them and to guide them. He tells them that they are without excuse because all of creation has proved God's divine nature. We none of us have any excuse. The thing is none of us have been able to measure up, and all of us need God's mercy. It's only because of God's love for us that we are able to ascend the mountain.
We can't rescue ourselves. We all need a savior. And the good news is that the father sends his son to rescue us. Sin is killing God's beautiful creation, and it needs a cure. And the cure is Jesus.
That's right. Jesus is God's mercy revealed. God hasn't got 2 personalities, a father who is wrathful and vengeful and always hang angry and Jesus full of kindness and love, they are the same. Yeah. The father sent Jesus because of his love for the world.
Jesus, who is God, came to us with gentleness and kindness to pull us out of that valley of sin, to rescue us from the wrath and the judgment of God. And once we face up to the problem, we can see that we need Jesus. This is the cure to our problem. Yes. If there is anybody here today that, you know, that needs prayer, I am sure there's people here that can pray with you.
We'd love to pray with you, to help you and encourage you. And if there's anyone who's never received Jesus for themselves, we would love to talk to you about that. But today, we as we looked at Romans, this Romans is all about this part that I've talked about today is about diagnosing what is wrong. So I don't I don't know if you're doing you're doing part of preaching series next week. You got your bringing Cher.
You're still doing that? Not next week. You'll be But the week after. So in a couple of weeks, you'll you'll carry on looking at this, and and you'll go on to the cure and the the what's next? There are a couple of things that you can do this week.
Will you take time out recognizing the creator through creation? Consider what you can learn about the nature of God is kindness, creativity, and care by maybe going outdoors, maybe spending some time just allowing the holy spirit to just show you to reveal who God is. Will you consider where there might be potential idols in your life, which are in danger of taking the place of God? You might find it helpful to consider, what do I spend most of my time thinking about? What do I invest in most with my time, energy, or money?
What most distracts me from my devotion to God? And what do I fear of losing? You'll consider these things of this coming week. So I just wanna end now just to pray for us. So thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, lord, that you that, lord, are we without realizing that we have a problem, lord, we don't realize there is a cure for that. Thank you, lord god, that you are merciful and forgiving to us. And even though we have rebelled to against you at times, that you continue to be merciful to us. Even at times we have turned away from you to try and rule over our own lives, you've been merciful to us. I thank you, Jesus, that that, lord god, that where we try to be the judge of our own lives and rule over others, that you have made a way for us to come to you.
You forgive us. Thank you, lord, that that in you that we do have hope. Thank you, lord, that that your love and forgiveness is here to heal us and to restore us. Forgive us, Lord, and guide us in all that we think, say, and do for the rest of today and over the next week, and help us, Lord, to live in ways that honor you. And, lord god, I just pray that you would just pour out your holy spirit afresh on every single person in this room.
That, lord god, as we go into creation, as we we see the things that you have created, as we consider all the works of your hands, we realize your love and your your passion towards us for all that you have created. That, lord god, we would just draw closer and closer to you. That, lord god, our lives will be full of thankfulness and worship towards you, lord Jesus. Thank you, lord god. Jesus, we give you praise.
Amen. Hello. We bless you all.