Dec 2, 2012
M Kelly
Romans 1:18-25
God's wrath is man's problem. He needs perfect righteousness but has none. Therefore he needs the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Man is unrightious because he has not righteousness and his attempts to be righteous are unrighteous
The wrath of God is a reality but man tries to suppress it. He thinks his belief makes it untrue. Man makes his own believing power to be the determiner of reality. But truth supersedes it all.
v24 God gives men up to themselves, v26 and 28 also say this. Sobering! Man's sins only take him into further darkness and foolishness yet they profess themselves to wise!
The world is the way it is because of the wrath of God. Man is irrational.
Judges 17
Pro 12:
Pro 21:2
Ps 81:11-12
Hosea 4:17
Judges 10:13-14
2 Chron 24:20-21
This is not a popular truth even in the church today.
James 1:14
Prov 19:3
Only God tells us the truth. He does not flatter men.
Paul preaches not to get man to move toward God, because he won't but that God would move through the preaching of the Word of God.
Lessons
1. All men have made an exchange.
Men knows there is a God worthy of our honor and worship and service. Man is active in disobedience and rejection of God. V.23 they changed the glory of God... V 25 they changed the truth of God into a lie
It's an active exchange. They do it on purpose.
v. 25 worship is the inward posture and service is our outward action. Men's actions are according to worship. The word means worth...what is worth our life and energy? What motivates us to action? Worship is not confined to the walls of the church. Show me a man in any action or thought and he will be a man in worship of something! Man is made to worship! He does these things all day long and it shows in his actions and what he does.
The Fall is about man worshipping the creature instead of the creator. Eve decided she was worth being like God. She worshipped herself!
We would be wise to say this: Right now I am worshipping and serving. Who am I worshipping and serving?
In and through the preaching of the Gospel, God acts. Men won't act, God acts on them through the preaching of His Word.
2. As Christians our great battle is worshipping and serving ourselves.
Even our most worthy acts are tainted with sin. Isa 54:6 our righteousness is as filthy rags. No man's righteousness is good enough! All of our actions are stained with worshipping and serving ourselves.
How do we worship and serve ourselves?
"Practical Atheism" Charknock
~When we see ourselves as our aim for acting as we do. In the garden we see the biggest fears is that God is opposed to our liberty which we believe is the only way to our enjoyment.
The Word of God does battle with our self worship. His Word is cutting.
What keeps us from the Word of God? We don't want it doing battle with our liberty and our lusts.
~Many love to study theology, to be heard by others, to write a book and have your name on it. Many want lots of likes on their facebook page....we often do these things because we desire praise. Often we seek to mortify certain sins because we want to avoid embarrassment rather than because of our desire to glorify God.
Read the list of sins in Romans 1....every one of them are self centered. Every Christian is a nominal Christian in comparison to what God requires...love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul. How many of us have really done that?
A private sin is a battle with God over who will be the ruler. Why isn't their private sin done in public? Because of their reputation..
We are impatient with God in His providence. He needs to act quicker. If we were in charge things would be different. This is just to dethrone God. We want God to serve us to our liking.
God calls us to a life of self denial. We must understand who we are if we are to do this.
What causes us to be reserved in our whole hearted devotion to God? It's that we are afraid He will be opposed to our liberties. We want to do it our way.
When you decide to do battle with a particular sin you will feel the strength of it. It is like trying to sail up river and feeling the power of currents against you.
Gal 1:9-10 false Gospel
When we are more concerned what men think of you realize that God sees you!
3. The glory of the grace of God is the focus of our salvation. Growing in grace is a downward growth where we see our selves more realistically and what God requires from us. It magnifies God's grace!
God lavished his grace on us! We need to see how much we have been forgiven. When we see our own depravity then we can see the magnitude of God's grace! If our sins were more powerful than God's grace we would be in big trouble! God's grace is bigger! See how much you have been forgiven! Do we praise God for His grace or do we continually try to find reasons why we can't be a Christian?
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🎁Marsha🎄
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She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21 ESV)
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