Romans 1:16-32; The Problem the Gospel Solves

Jason Sterling January 25, 2026 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting Up Romans And The Big Question
• 2:44 Reading The Text And Framing The Stakes
• 6:54 Is God’s Wrath Arbitrary Or Loving?
• 10:03 The Truth We Suppress
• 16:33 From Suppression To Substitution
• 21:33 Idols Collapse Under Our Worship
• 25:53 How Wrath Works: God Gives Us Over
• 30:33 No Hierarchy Of Sins, Shared Need
• 34:43 Invitation, Hope, And A New Identity
• 37:23 Prayer And Call To Receive Christ

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

If you have a copy of God's word, turn with me this morning, Romans chapter one. If you've been visiting with us, we just started last week a series in the book of Romans. We just marched through at our church books of the Bible, and we normally try to rotate between Old Testament and New Testament. Last uh in the spring or the fall, we were in the Old Testament, so we're going to look at Romans uh this spring and into the summer. Last week we saw that God provides a righteousness for us that we could never provide for ourselves. A righteousness from God that is received by faith alone. And that leads to the obvious question: okay, well, why must we receive a righteousness? Why can't that righteousness be achieved? Or let me say it another way, why can't we earn our way to heaven? Why can't we earn a right standing before God? Paul will spend the next few chapters in the next few weeks. He's going to do it this morning, answering that question. And what's interesting is that, man, verses, chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, if you were here last week, I mean, it's amazing. And it's just such a clear picture of the gospel, an explanation of the gospel. And so you would think, like, here goes Paul. He's going to just start talking about how wonderful the gospel is and celebrating the gospel's power, but he pivots almost on a dime in verse 18. And he shows us something that we'd rather not look at. Look at verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed. The word for tells us that Paul's working something out, that he's explaining something. He is showing us why we need chapter 1, 16 and 17, why we need the gospel so desperately. Because until we understand the depth of our problem, we will never appreciate the gospel. Jesus will never be beautiful to us. We will never appreciate why it is called the good news. This passage is not easy, but it's necessary. Paul will get eyeball to eyeball with us. Not only this week, but also next week. But please hear this. If we skip this, we miss Jesus. If we skip this, we miss the goodness of the gospel. So with that in mind, follow along with me. We're going to start in verse 16 so you can get a context and see the connection. Chapter 1, 1, 16 through the end of the chapter. This is the word of God. It'll be in your bulletin, also on the screen behind me. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteousness shall live by faith. 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 he that have been made. So they are without excuse. 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 foolishness, 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 men and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity and to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped 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 and evil and covetousness and malice. They are full of envy and murder and strife, deceit, and maliciousness. They are gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteousness, righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die. They did not only do them, but give approval to those who practiced them. I told you it was a strong passage. So let's pray and let's ask for the Spirit to come, be with the preaching, but also the hearing of the word this morning. Let's pray together. Father, do what I can't do. Give me tenderness, but boldness. We admit that we want to, I admit I want to skip passages like this, but you've given us every word for our good. And part of preaching through the Bible is it forces you to deal with passages like Romans 1. And so we're here, and this is the passage before us. And so I'm asking that you would do what you do, that you would take the words and that you would apply them to each heart, convict and challenge and change and encourage and show us the truth and beauty and all the things this morning. May we all encounter Jesus through his spirit. Your word is living and active. And I pray that you would pierce our hearts with it. In Jesus' name. Amen. My daughter, Eva, is an eighth grader and she plays basketball, and she had a game recently, and her team was up 25 points. And the other, so and there, we're like in the fourth quarter. And that's a lot to overcome in an eighth-grade girls' basketball game. And the coach of the other team calls timeout and pulls one of the players aside. So the other part of the team's in the huddle, and this one player is off to the side. And the coach continued to berate her for the entire timeout in front of the whole gym. Never mind, the girl had just scored. And he was berating her because she was in the wrong place when the play was developing. And we're all watching this, and it is a scene. And we're thinking, you're down 25 points, and she's an eighth grader. What possible reason is there for that kind of wrath? What possible good we're thinking could this actually accomplish? And the answer is none. Because random and arbitrary anger accomplishes nothing. And that is exactly what we fear when we read a passage like Romans chapter one. The wrath of God's being revealed. People are being given over to the consequences of their sin. What possible reason? What possible good? Here's the difference. The coach's anger was arbitrary and accomplished nothing. What about God's anger? It's not random, it's revealing. It's not out of control. It's not disproportionate. It's actually diagnostic. And get this: when we start to understand it, the wrath of God, you start to understand the heart of God, and why the gospel is such desperately good news for people like us. Let's jump in. Paul shows us three realities in this passage: the truth we suppress, the exchange we make, the judgment we experience. The truth we suppress, the exchange we make, the judgment we experience. Let's look at our first heading. The truth we suppress. It is this is a very strong passage. It starts with a bombshell in verse 18. For the wrath of God's being revealed, the unrighteousness who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Let me point out two things here. God's wrath is not something in the future. It is, but notice this is present. God's wrath is being revealed right now in the present. What is the reason for the wrath? Well, people are suppressing the truth. Paul is saying that he isn't saying that we don't know anything about God, we're ignorant of God. What he is getting at is that we actively push the truth down that we already know. And whenever we're faced with God's wrath and for something that we ought to know, the first objection normally is, well, I didn't know, or they didn't know. Or how can you expect people to know something that they uh to know everything that they should know about God? We can't expect that. That is not fair. Paul doesn't accept that defense in this passage. Look at it. Again, we're just walking through the scriptures, verse 19. What can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. Wait, how has God made it plain to them? I mean, you might think everybody didn't grow up in a church, people don't have Bibles, maybe they've never read the Bible. How can Paul say such a thing? How has God made himself known? Keep reading, verse 20. We have the answer for his invisible attributes, eternal power and nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that he has made, so they are without excuse. It's a stunning claim. Every human being has access to knowledge about God. That's what Paul is saying through the creation itself. It's what theologians call general revelation. Now, can we know everything about God from looking at the creation and the stars? Well, we can't deduce his love, his mercy, and the gospel. That requires what's called special revelation. That requires the scriptures, the Bible. But what we can know from creation is that there is a creator who has immense power and is all glorious and to whom we are accountable. And so then the question is so well, why do we suppress the truth? Why don't we acknowledge this creator if he has made himself known? And people often will ask the question why is God hiding? God is not hiding, we are. Creation is shouting the existence of God this very moment. We suppress the truth because acknowledging that there is a God means that we're no longer in control. Think about the garden and the sin in the garden. We wanted power and we wanted control. Why do we suppress the truth? Because it means that we would have to bow the knee and we would have to submit. And so we persist in believing that we're autonomous, even though the evidence against us is surrounding us every single day. And Paul's verdict without excuse. Friends, this is not people immediately want to go to the people that have never heard the gospel. No, this is about us. This is about all of us who know deep down and know that there is a God, but we choose to acknowledge Him. And we choose to cover our ears and to look away. Maybe this morning you're here and you're you're not sure what you believe about God. In fact, you would say, I don't think I believe in Him at all. Thanks for being here. But can I be honest with you? The the question is not, is there enough evidence? The real question is, are you willing to submit to the implications if it is true? Because there is a creator and we're accountable to him. And if there is a creator and we're accountable to him, I know that is very uncomfortable. But what if the discomfort you feel isn't proof that God doesn't exist, but proof that God does? What if the restlessness that you feel inside your soul at 2 a.m. in the middle of the night is actually the fact that you are denying what creation is declaring? That there is a creator. And he exists and he made you and you're accountable to him. What if you're a Christian this morning? You might be thinking, well, I've got I'm good. I mean, I don't suppress the truth about God's existence. I believe in him and I worship him. Well, suppression does not end at conversion. You can love God and serve him faithfully, and you can still suppress his authority in whatever area of your life that you want to stay in control of. And so, where are you doing that this morning? Maybe it's the area of your finances. You got you, God calls you to be generous, but you're afraid. Or maybe it's a relationship you know is unhealthy, but you don't want to be alone. And so you do nothing about it. You hold it down. You know what God's calling you to do. Or maybe your career, you know, God calls you to have integrity and to rest, but you just keep chasing success. What would have to change if you fully acknowledge God's authority in those areas of your life? What would you have to give up? What control would you have to surrender? Secondly, the exchange we make, it actually gets stronger because then Paul tells us what happens when we suppress the truth. Look at verse 21. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as such, nor give thanks to him. Notice that giving thanks and growing in gratitude, did you know that's one of the signs that you're actually spiritually alive and actually growing spiritually when you start to more and more see all of life as a gift? Although they knew God did not honor him nor give thanks, they became futile in their thinking, their foolish hearts were darkened. Notice the progression. They knew God, they didn't honor him, their thinking became futile, they were ungrateful, their hearts became darkened. It's progressive, it leads somewhere. Suppression leads to substitution. Look at verse 23. Notice the word exchanged. It's crucial. Paul is not saying that we stop worshiping when we reject God, it's just that we worship something else. We redirect our worship. And there's the summary statement in verse 25 that exchange the truth of God for a lie. And this is again critical, worshiped and served. The creature rather than the creator. So this is not just about wrong beliefs, it's about what captures our deepest hopes, commands our allegiance. It's about the thing that we look at and say, if I had that, life would finally work for me. As a human being, created in the image of God, you were made and built to worship. In a sense, you could say your heart is a throne, and something or someone has to sit on it. It's not a matter of uh there's some people worshiping, some people don't know. As a human being, everybody worships something. God's either ruling your heart or something else is. There's only two options worship creature, created things, or worship the creator. Something has to be ultimate in your life. And it's critical. To understand that the problem is not just that we desire bad things, it's that we turn good things into God's. Verse 24: the word lust means overdesire, craving. So think about career or family or romance or success, not bad things. God made them, gave them to you as a gift, but when we make them ultimate things and we can't imagine life without them, we make them gods and they end up turning on us and destroying us. Here's an illustration. It's absurd, but that's the point. Think about the chair you're sitting in, building a house on that chair, or parking your car on top of that chair. What would happen to the chair? It would collapse. Not because the chair is bad, but because chairs are not designed to hold that kind of weight. And that's exactly what happens when we take good things and make them ultimate things. We're asking them to bear the weight and load of our worship that they were never designed to carry, and they collapse and they take us down and destroy us in the process. Family, good thing. But when your identity depends on your kids succeeding, they feel the unbearable pressure of being your salvation. Career, good gift. But when it defines you, you can never rest because your value is always on the line. Dating, a relationship, romance, good thing. When you make it an ultimate thing, you bring into that relationship desperation. And what does it do to the relationship? It kills it, it suffocates it. And the relationship crumbles under the weight. Created things were never meant to bear the weight of our worship. Only God, the infinite God, can bear the weight of our worship. And instead, we substitute finite things that destroy us and the good things that God has given us. Diagnostic question. What good gifts have you turned into gods? Into ultimate things? How do you know? How do you know something's an idol? Well, you can't imagine being okay without it. Losing it would devastate you. It dictates your emotions and your decisions and your sense of self-worth. Look at all the places in your life or the place where you're undone, trace that all the way back, and there you will find your idol. Lastly, the judgment we experience. Before we jump into the judgment, I want to set a little bit of the context here because I do think it's important. Paul is writing to a church in Rome, Christian Jews, Christian Gentiles. And so this part here is specifically geared towards the Gentiles. And so the Jews would be hearing this and be like, yes, go get those filthy Gentiles. Go get them, Paul. Preach it. Don't fall for it. It's a trap. Paul is setting a trap here, and he's about to spring the trap, and we'll see it next week in verse 1 of chapter 2 when he says, You therefore are without excuse, and the same judgment falls on you. Both groups desperately need the same gospel. Let's watch how Paul sets this up. He shows us, first of all, how wrath works, and it's just and it's terrifying. Did you notice three times Paul uses the phrase God gave them up or gave them over 24, 26, 28? That is at the heart of how God's wrath is being revealed right now. God's judgment is to hand people over to experience the full and devastating consequences of their sin and idolatry. Friends, one of the worst things is for God to give us what we want. You do not want that because that is judgment on you. To what our heart really desires. God's wrath isn't arbitrary anger. It is actually Him removing the restraints, his restraining hand and showing you where your sin actually leads. He doesn't force you to worship him, but he also won't shield you forever from the consequences of your sin and your idolatry. And if you look, you see God's love there. Because God is warning us, he is showing us, please don't do this. Because this is where it is going to lead. And look at the progression. Verse 24. Therefore, he gave them up to their lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. And then he gives the first example, 26 and 27, very specific example. For their women exchanged natural relations that are contrary to nature, and men likewise gave themselves up and consumed passion for one another, committing shameless acts with other men. Paul identifies same-sex practice as the consequence of idolatry, of one manifestation of this exchange that he's been talking about. He's working out his argument and he calls it dishonorable passions, shameful overdesires, contrary to nature, meaning that it violates the created design of God established in the garden, the complementary union of a man and a woman at the beginning of time in creation. But also understand that Paul is not ranking sins by severity. This is important. He is exposing their source. Whether it's sexual immorality or gossip, look at the list, murder, envy, all of it flows from the same source. And that is our rebellion. We are rebels. And we have exchanged the worship of the Creator, and instead we have worshiped created things. And watch what Paul does. He keeps going. And if you've heard the list, me reading it, verse 28 through 31, you're like, stop. Stop with the list, Paul. And he goes on and on. Then notice in that list, Paul just moved from sexual immorality to gossip, from shameless acts to disobeying your parents. And that's intentional. He is deliberately mixing these so-called what we call big sins with respectable sins. And he lists them here with no hierarchy, with no distinction, as equal evidence that we've all, all of us have exchanged the creator for the creation. And verse 32, look at the final stage. We don't just commit these privately, we actually celebrate them in our culture. That's what happens. We build entire cultures that normalize our idolatry. And we give permission, other people permission to keep destroying themselves. Here's the point. Starting with me. Every single person is on this list somewhere. The person struggling with sexual sin and the person enslaved in gossip are in the exact same position before God. Equally guilty, equally without excuse, equally desperate for the same gospel. I want to speak and pause here and speak pastorally for a second. Because the church has had this tendency to characterize certain sins above others. I want to speak to those this morning, and in a church our size, there are many that struggle with same-sex attraction. And you're wondering, because of the church's tendency to categorize this certain sins above others, you're wondering, perhaps, is there a place for you in this church? And the answer, let me be very clear, is yes. There is. Every single person in this room that has worshiped created things instead of the creator. We are all equally in need of a savior. Let me also say the gospel offers you freedom from the lie that your desires define you. The gospel also offers you freedom from the lie that God cannot satisfy your deepest longings. Did you know the gospel offers you Jesus? And Jesus is far better than anything we've created in worship outside of Him. Better than any relationship, any success, any idol that has captured our hearts. The gospel also offers you power to repent and grace to repent and to fight and to change, not just from sexual sin, but from all the sins in this list, whatever you're worshiping. That same gospel forgives, but it also frees us from the tyranny of our idols. Repentance is not easy. It is often slow. The fight isn't over in a day, but the gospel gives you what you need: a new identity, a new hope, a new savior, a new power through the Holy Spirit. And you have a Jesus who knows you and empathizes with your weakness. And so if you're thinking here this morning and you're thinking this is me, and I struggle with this, please hear my heart. Please do not hear this as condemnation. This is invitation. Come first to Jesus. But will you run towards the church? You don't have to walk through this alone. Come talk to me. Come talk to one of our pastors, one of our elders. You are welcomed here. And we want to walk with you towards Christ. If you're a parent whose child is wrestling, please come and talk to us. Again, same thing. Jesus and his church. Listen, this church, this passage I know has been uncomfortable because this is all of us. We all experience either suppressing the truth, exchanging the truth for a lie, or we've experienced the breakdown that our idols bring into our lives, and we are without excuse. But please do not soften what Paul is saying. We have to feel the weight of this, or we'll never understand verses 16 and 17. And as we're going to see in a couple weeks, starting in chapter 3, the good news of the gospel, there is a righteousness, a righteousness from God. And it is not our own righteousness, it is the righteousness of Jesus. And so you might be saying, Is there any hope? Yes, there is hope, but not in yourself. This is a, we cannot manufacture this righteousness. It has to be received. Verse 16 and 17, not achieved. It is given to you. It's provided to you by faith alone. I heard a story recently about a man named Mez McConnell. He's from Ireland. He was addicted to drugs. He sold drugs. He is involved in tons of violence in the street just to protect himself. And then he read the book of Romans, and it got a hold of him. And Mez McConnell says this when the gospel began to get through to me, I had to face this. Mez, you are a sinner and you are going to hell. You have lived a rebellious life, and you can claim innocence, but secretly you know you are responsible. I couldn't find a way out because I knew deep down in my soul it was true. I felt this overwhelming sense of impending doom, and I didn't know what to say, so I said this, and here it is. I just simply said this. God, I am a sinner. I am going to hell. I need Jesus. Please help me. That is where Paul is trying to bring us to in this passage. To the point that we say, I need Jesus. I am a sinner. God, please help me. That is an invitation. Will you come to Jesus and receive his goodness and his grace? Let's pray. Father, thank you for loving us enough to tell us the truth. These are hard passages, but I pray that you would help us to see the joy, even as we celebrate the Lord's Supper. I pray that we would rejoice in the goodness of the gospel. If there is someone here that doesn't know you, would you give them faith? Give them eyes to see and to be able to say, I need Jesus. Help me. That is a prayer that you long and love to answer. And would you answer it for those this morning that need to know you? Help us now as we come to the table. In Jesus' name, amen.