Leaving God out and living as though He does not exist...

This week, we are continuing to address “Does worship really matter?” Yesterday, we looked at a section of a letter in the Old Testament in the Bible called the book of Isaiah where the Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, is addressing the arrogance of King Sennacherib, which is reflective of human pride and its desire to be the object of worship instead of worshipping the Lord as Creator.

However, the issue of human pride and its desire to be the object of worship instead of worshipping the Lord as Creator is not simply an issue that is addressed in the letters that make up the Old Testament. We see the issue of human pride and its desire to be the object of worship instead of worshipping the Lord as Creator addressed in a section of a letter in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Romans.

The point of the book of Romans can be summarized in one simple statement. And that statement would be that the message of the gospel reveals the reality that God is right. In Romans 1:1-17, Paul proclaimed that God is right. God always has been right; God always will be right. And the extent that we are right when it comes to our relationship with God is directly related to the extent that our heads, hearts, and hands line up with what God believes is right, because God is right.

Paul then stated that the fact that God is right is revealed to all humanity through the message of the gospel. The message that reveals that God responded to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity by sending His Son Jesus, God in a bod, who entered into humanity and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. The message that provides the opportunity for all humanity to receive the forgiveness of sin and enter into the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

Then in Romans 1:18, the apostle Paul then shifts from proclaiming that fact that God is right to providing the evidence that reveals the reality that God is right. And it is in the evidence that Paul provides to prove that God is right that we discover another reason why worship really matters. So let’s discover that reason together beginning in Romans 1:18:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

Now to fully understand what the Apostle Paul is communicating here, we first need to wrap our minds around some of the 50 cent church mumbo jumbo talk words that Paul uses here. When Paul uses the word wrath, this word refers to God’s right and just response to selfish rebellion and sin. This is God’s holy attitude in action to address the actions of selfishness and rebellion that hurt Him and others. Now it is important to understand that God’s wrath is not a selfish passionate emotional response. This is not God blowing a head gasket, so to speak. Instead, it is God’s perfect justice resulting in a rightful response to the wrongdoing and injustice of others.

When Paul uses the word revealed, he is revealing for us the reality that the message of the gospel makes fully known God’s just and right response to selfish rebellion and sin. For God to allow selfish rebellion and injustice to go unpunished would make Him unjust. God’s very nature dictates a response to rebellion and injustice.

And God’s justice is revealed in the gospel against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Ungodliness, simply put, is leaving God out. Ungodliness is a failure to acknowledge God and thus dishonoring God by leaving God out. Ungodliness is not just horrible acts of rebellion and sin; it is ignoring God. The word unrighteous, simply put, is not being right with God or the truth about God.

Unrighteousness involves being at odds with God and the truth about God that results in acts of selfishness, rebellion, and sin. When Paul uses the word suppress here, this word, in the language this letter was originally written in, means to hold down or ignore something. Paul’s here is charging humanity of being guilty of holding back, pushing back, and ignoring God and the truth of God in a way that results in humanity having the problem of not being right with God.

Paul’s point here is that we are guilty of having a problem with God when we leave God out and live as though He does not exist. Paul’s point here is that God justly and rightly responds to humanities failure to acknowledge God and being at odds with God by living our lives as though He does not exist.

Now a natural question that may arise here is “well Dave, how do I suppress the truth about God? I mean to suppress or ignore something requires evidence of that something. So what evidence is there that there is a God that I am ignoring and living like He does not exist? That is a great question.

And as Paul continues, we see Paul provide the answer to those questions by providing two pieces of evidence to prove that humanity is guilty of leaving God out and living as though He does not exist. We see Paul reveal first piece of evidence to us in Romans 1:19:

because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Here we see Paul reveal for us the reality that we are guilty because we ignore the evidence within us when it comes to creation. In these verses, we discover two reasons why we are guilty because we ignore the evidence within us when it comes to creation. First, Paul explains that the evidence of God’s existence through creation clearly provokes within us an awareness and understanding of a Creator. When Paul uses the phrase known about God is evident, this phrase refers to something that is intelligible and capable of being known as it can be clearly and plainly seen.

Paul’s point here is that God clearly reveals the truth about His existence to all humanity through His creative activity in the universe in a way that is understandable and can be clearly seen. But notice where Paul reveals the truth about His existence; the clear and plain truth of God’s existence is within us. You see, in the core of every human being is an intuitive sense that there is something out there bigger and beyond us. Something within in us provokes a clear and plain concept of a Creator.

Paul then unpacks this further in verse 20 by explaining that since the creation of the universe, God’s character, power, and nature have plainly and clearly been on display. God’s wisdom, God’s might, God’s greatness, God’s goodness, and God’s creativity is evidenced in the universe around us. When Paul uses the words seen and understood here, he is explaining that God’s existence has been noticed and perceived in a way that has been grasped and comprehended by humanity throughout history as a result of His activity of creating the universe.

Across cultures and continents, across calendars and centuries, humanity has been provoked to worship something that they clearly comprehended as their creator. And because of this intuitive perception that all humanity experiences regarding the reality of the existence of something bigger and beyond us, called God, all of humanity is without excuse. In other words, no human being can say that they did not know that God exists, because the evidence that God exists is overwhelming through the creation.

However, in verses 21-23 Paul explains that the evidence of God’s existence through creation is rejected as humanity instead chose the path of foolishness. Paul explains that even though God’s existence has been noticed and perceived in a way that has been grasped and comprehended by humanity throughout history through His creation, they did not honor Him as God or gave thanks.

The word honor here literally means to influence one’s opinion so as to enhance another’s reputation. Paul’s point here is that humanity foolishly chose to refuse to live their lives in a way that enhanced God’s reputation; instead they chose to ignore Him. Instead of expressing appreciation for all the blessings and benefits that God gave humanity within the creation, humanity foolishly chose to ignore Him.

Now in the Bible, a fool is a person who knows something is true, yet proceeds to live life as though it is not true. A fool is a person who says “I know the law of gravity is true” then proceeds to step off a ten story building. The word that Paul uses for fool in verse 23 is the word that we translate in English as moron. The phrase they became futile in their expectations literally means that their reasoning became worthless. In other words, while all of humanity was able to clearly perceive and understand that God exists and created the universe, yet all of humanity worthlessly rejected that truth and proceeded to live life as though God does not exist.

Paul then unpacks exactly how all of humanity became worthless when it came to their reasoning and response about God in verse 23. Paul explains that while all humanity professed to be wise in that they could state with confidence what they believed about God, they were actually morons who exchanged “the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

In other words, instead of responding to the clear and plain evidence of God’s existence that has been perceived and comprehended through His creation by worshipping God, all of humanity has foolishly chosen to worship the creation. Whether it is in the image of an animal, the image of position, the image of possession, or the image that we seen in the mirror, all of humanity chooses to worship something other than God than God, which is called idolatry.

Paul here is revealing for us the timeless reality that we are guilty of leaving God out and living life as though He does not exist when we ignore the evidence within us when it comes to creation. But not only are we guilty because we ignore the evidence within us when it comes to creation. Paul also provides a second piece of evidence to prove that humanity is guilty of leaving God out and living as though He does not exist. We see Paul reveal this piece of evidence to us in Romans 1:24-25.

We will look at that piece of evidence on Friday…