Revealed in Creation

Good morning.

My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church.

And it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.

A special welcome if you are new or visiting with us.

We're glad that you're here.

And we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats,

but because we're following Jesus together as one community.

And as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced that there's no one so good,

they don't need God's grace, and no one so bad that they can't have it,

which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in his word.

This week we're continuing our series in the book of Romans,

and you'll remember that the book of Romans is a letter written by the Apostle Paul in the 50s AD.

And it is called Romans for a very simple reason,

which is that it is written to the churches in the city of Rome.

Romans is about the gospel.

It's about the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection.

And Paul's hope as he's writing it is that this church would be established in the gospel.

Remember, we looked at that just a couple weeks ago in verse 11 of chapter 1.

And I've been telling you that there are many applications in the book of Romans.

Paul is especially concerned with the mission and the unity of God's church.

And there are many spokes, many different topics we're going to explore.

Those spokes are always constantly coming back to the hub of the gospel.

Last week, Andy Perch finished up for us Paul's introductory remarks.

Really, we could see verses 1 all the way through verse 17 as Paul telling us,

hey, this is my greeting and this is what this letter is going to be about.

Verses 16 and 17 were, in a sense, Paul's thesis statement for the book of Romans.

And so now we are really going to get into the meat of Paul's first argument.

And now if you're like me, sometimes it's tempting when you show up to church,

especially when I was growing up, to think, well, here's another random passage

and some points that are going to be made.

And I hope that's not true for us.

What I hope you see is the overarching arguments that Paul is making as we go through week by week.

And so as we get into the meat of Paul's first argument,

this is going to continue all the way through chapter 3.

From verse 18 of chapter 1 to essentially the end of chapter 3,

Paul is making one point.

And that one point he's going to summarize in chapter 3, verse 23,

when he says,

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

So Paul's making, we're going to spend multiple weeks in this argument,

but he's making essentially one argument,

both Jews and Gentiles,

and by Gentiles he means everyone who's not a Jew,

both Jews and Gentiles deserve God's wrath and punishment.

So I want you to see that there's a larger argument that's happening here.

This morning we're focusing on the Gentile part of the argument.

So Paul's going to wait till later to talk about the Jews.

First he's going to talk about the Gentiles.

And we'll see in this passage,

Paul is pressing to us the witness

that the created world gives to God and his glory.

The ways in which we look around and we see the world that God has made,

and it teaches us that God is the great creator and sustainer.

It's with that that I invite you to turn with me now to the book of Romans.

We're going to start at verse 18.

You can turn in your worship guide.

You can turn on your phone.

You can turn in your Bible.

No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's word.

And God tells us that his word is more precious than gold,

even the finest gold,

and it's sweeter than honey,

even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.

And so that's why we read now Romans 1, starting at 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.

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.

I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.

Our Father in heaven,

we do thank you this morning that you have spoken to us.

We thank you that you've spoken to us in creation

and the world around us that we can see and touch and taste and smell.

And we thank you even more that you've spoken to us,

especially in your word.

We thank you for that in the book of Romans,

and we ask that you would help us this morning,

that you would send your spirit to do what you've promised to do,

which is to open our minds,

that you would give us the spirit

so that we can understand spiritual things.

You'd give us clarity,

and you'd speak to us directly.

We ask most of all that you would show us Jesus,

that we would see him in all his glory and beauty and majesty

and power and holiness and mercy and grace and love.

Use Romans chapter 1 to grow our love and affection for Christ.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

We ask that you'd use it to grow our reverence and our awe for Christ.

We ask that you'd use it to grow our obedience to him.

And we thank you that we don't worry this morning

about whether we've earned or deserved those things.

We know that we haven't,

and so we simply ask for them in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Some of you know that I moved to Colorado Springs in June of 2017,

and when I was first at Cheyenne Mountain,

I was actually only part-time here at the church,

and then I worked part-time at the Vanguard School,

which is a local public charter school,

just a stone's throw away from our church off Southgate,

if you go north,

on 115,

and the first or second week I was teaching in August of 2017.

Some of you may remember this.

It was Monday, August the 21st.

We had here in Colorado Springs

and across much of North America

a total solar eclipse.

Of course, we also had a solar eclipse this year.

As teachers, though, this was, of course, a historic event.

A solar eclipse of this type had not happened for 99 years.

And so, of course, we had all the glasses that you use for these things.

We handed them out to the kids.

There was a break in class when we knew that it would appear,

and everyone went outside.

We're out on the sidewalk with kids and teachers

getting to see this glorious event.

USA Today that summer published two articles

about what an emotionally overwhelming experience

the eclipse was for many people across our nation.

David Wysa of Beaverton, Oregon said this,

Short of the birth of my kids,

it was the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life.

Carrie White from Santa Cruz, California,

we're told she choked up and wiped away tears

after a group hug with family and friends.

In the midst of it, I teared up, White said.

It was just a glorious feeling.

And then we learned that this man, actually a woman,

Kev Brock in Oregon said,

One of the most incredible things I've ever seen.

It made me cry, and my children cheered.

Now, that same summer, I had learned from a couple of folks

in this congregation

about a podcast called The Briefing

where Al Mohler breaks down world events

from a Christian worldview.

And in his podcast that week, he said,

Look, of course,

this sort of overwhelming emotional response makes sense.

Why is it that people are weeping

at the sight of a solar eclipse?

Well, it's what we've already read,

what John read for us

in Psalm 19,

that the heavens declare the glory of God.

That there is something incredibly powerful

that we experience and learn

as we look at God's creation.

Of course, we don't have to think merely of a,

or simply, or only of a solar eclipse.

You can think about the same thing that happens

every time you're in Colorado Springs

and you drive west.

What do you see?

The glory of Pikes Peak, right?

And there's something overwhelming about that.

There's something majestic about it.

When we had our generosity initiative last year,

we had a man named Joe Brand

who was helping us with that,

and he would come out and visit Colorado Springs,

and he was overwhelmed by the sight of Pikes Peak.

And so at one point, he said to me,

You know, I wonder if I lived here

if I would get used to that,

if it would ever become boring to me.

And then he said,

If it did,

that would say something about me and my heart.

That wouldn't be a problem with the mountains.

That would show that I had lost this sense

of God's greatness and his glory.

As we've looked at the book of Romans,

we've seen that already there's this connection

between the Old Testament and the New Testament,

and we've seen that in our worship service this morning.

Psalm 19 and Romans 1, verses 19 and 20

Romans 1:19

are saying the same thing.

And so look with me now at verses 19 and 20.

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.

And so Paul and the psalmist are making a very simple point for us.

God reveals himself in nature.

God reveals himself in nature.

I joke sometimes that it's great that we have this setup in our sanctuary

that you can look out and you can see the mountains.

You can see Cheyenne Mountains specifically.

It's especially helpful if you get to a point

where the sermon's very boring for you.

You can pretend that you're so wrapped in attention, right?

As you slowly look over the preacher's shoulder.

What Paul is telling us, though, is if you do that,

you are still learning something about God.

You can't help but learn something about God.

In his book, Nature's Case for God,

John Frame lays out nine different ways.

There's nine chapters,

all the different ways that creation teaches us about God.

Now, one of the tensions of the book of Romans

that we've already discussed a little bit

is how slow or fast do we go through the book?

There's a sense in which we could unpack

just verses 19 and 20 in one entire sermon.

I say that to say,

I'm not going to give you all nine reasons this morning.

I'm going to give you a quick sampler.

Not all of them, but two of them.

And that's, again, that's the challenge, right?

How fast do we move?

Because there's reasons that people spend years

working through the book of Romans

because it's so rich and deep when it comes to theology.

One of the first reasons,

in fact, the first reason he gives us

is the greatness of creation.

Frame reminds us that there is the great size of it all

that should teach us something about God.

I've told you all before about the time in 2016

when I visited the Grand Canyon,

and my main response was simply to feel extremely small.

If you are struggling with pride and ego,

and if you think you're all that,

I recommend a trip to the Grand Canyon for you.

A helpful, right, could solve it.

It also might not solve it.

Paul tells us that we suppress the truth.

There are some people who go to the Grand Canyon,

and they see the greatness of it.

They're reminded of God's glory and his power.

And there are other people who show up

and only take a selfie.

I'm not saying selfies are bad.

I'm saying they only do that, right?

They're saying, look at me.

Look at this experience that I had.

And of course, they missed the point, right?

Look at God.

Look at this great thing that he has made.

It's sad that we are disconnected in many ways

from the stars when we live in big cities

like Colorado Springs because of light pollution.

What does Psalm 19 say?

The heavens declare the glory of God.

There is something overwhelming

about being in the great sand dunes

and being able to look and see

actually how great and majestic our solar system is.

I've told you before that there is a irony

when it comes to climbing 14ers.

And don't hear what I'm not saying.

Climbing 14ers is great.

But it doesn't make you great.

Which is greater, to climb a 14er

or to create a 14er?

The greatness of the mountains

is not in those who climb them.

The greatness is in the God who made them.

The size of creation teaches us something about God.

Frame also mentions for us the goodness of creation.

Remember, Paul is the author of the letter

to the churches in Rome.

We meet Paul also in the book of Acts,

which tells us about the early church.

And in Acts chapter 14,

Acts 14 · chapter mention

Paul is talking to these men at Lystra

and talking about God.

He says, look, you knew about God

even though you didn't have his special revelation.

He says this,

yet he did not leave himself without witness,

for he did good by giving you rains from heaven

and fruitful seasons,

satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

We learn something about God

because nature is good and nurturing and life-giving.

Why are you here this morning?

There are many reasons you're here this morning.

One of them is this,

God has provided food for you

and each of your ancestors.

God has created the world

to be a good and nurturing and beautiful place.

In fact, he provides the glory of the mountains,

the beauty of the Grand Canyon,

whether you believe in him or not.

Remember, our Lord Jesus teaches the same thing.

Matthew chapter five, verses 44 and 45,

he says, look,

the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.

God's goodness, it's all around us.

It's everywhere to be seen and known.

This hints at a third reason that Frame gives

that I'll mention briefly,

which he calls the oneness of God,

which is to say there must be one God

to hold together the complexity of the universe.

For something as complex and detailed as this world,

it would not make sense for nothing to hold it together,

and it wouldn't make sense for many different gods

to be competing to hold it together.

No, this universe is so complicated

and beautiful and detailed,

it must be one God and one God only.

Now, Paul tells us here,

not that creation or nature reveals everything about God,

but that it reveals specific things about God.

Look with me in verse 20.

It shows his invisible attributes,

namely his eternal power and divine nature.

So we know two things.

We know that God is a God.

We know that he's a really powerful God.

We still need,

this is called general revelation,

what we learn about God from creation.

We still need special revelation, right?

We do not learn from the mountains and the trees

and the rivers that Jesus Christ is God's only son

who's come to die for sinners.

And so that might raise a question for us.

In what sense can God condemn people

for not knowing him

if creation is the only witness that they have?

Well, verse 21 gives us the answer.

For although they knew God,

they did not honor him as God

or give thanks to him.

In other words,

even if we didn't know about Jesus,

we know enough to know

there's a God that we should be praising.

We know enough to know he's one God.

And so you'll look with me

on page seven of your worship guide

and says this,

the truth is,

it takes a concerted act of the will

to deny that a vastly powerful God

made and sustains the creation.

If one is not at least searching after God,

he or she is suppressing the truth.

And so you might say,

oh, I didn't know about Jesus.

This passage raises a question though.

Well, okay, you didn't know about Jesus.

Who were you praising?

Were you praising the creator

or were you praising the creation?

That leads us to Paul's next point.

The very beginning, this is verse 18.

He tells us,

the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness

and unrighteousness of men

who by their unrighteousness

unrighteousness suppress the truth.

In other words,

these truths about God

should be incredibly obvious.

We should receive them

with burning clarity.

He goes even further, verse 20,

for although they knew God.

He's not just saying it's clear

and it's suppressed.

No, he's saying everyone in this world

ultimately knows God.

And if they're not worshiping him,

they're stiff-arming him.

They're pushing him away.

It's a bit of a shocking statement.

Paul says it's true.

The creation gives us

everything we need to know

that there's a God,

that he's good,

that he's great,

that we should thank him,

we should honor him.

I've mentioned before,

in 2022,

I herniated one of my discs,

so I had a very painful journey

going to see a physical therapist

and a chiropractor.

And both my chiropractor

and my physical therapist,

when they found out I was a pastor,

wanted to talk about spiritual things,

which I thought was great.

And so I've talked to my physical therapist

a lot about these things,

and she would tell me

that she was unsure

of what exactly it was

that she believed

about the world

and who was in charge.

And so I pointed out to her one day,

I said,

you know,

you use creator language a lot.

You say things like,

your body was made to,

your body was designed to,

right?

Your body is set up

to function in such a way,

and that's language

that implies there's someone

who created the body, right?

There's a designer.

And she said,

yeah, that's interesting.

I do use that kind of language.

Verse 18,

the wrath of God

is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness

and unrighteousness of men

who by their unrighteousness

suppress the truth.

My physical therapist knew God.

And despite what she might say

she believed,

her stated beliefs,

she couldn't escape the fact

that the witness of the human body

was that it had a designer

and a creator, right?

There's a suppression of the truth.

In fact,

people use this sort of language

all the time.

It's hard to escape.

Even when you're talking to people

who say they don't believe in a God,

they'll talk about

what something was designed to do,

how things are created, right?

Because it's hard to escape that.

As you look at the world around us,

we could say,

verse 19,

what can be known about God

is plain to us

because God has shown it to us.

For his invisible attributes,

namely his eternal power

and divine nature,

have been clearly perceived

ever since the creation

of the world.

Paul's making a challenging statement here.

No matter where you are

in your spiritual journey,

no matter what you claim to believe,

you deep down know

God created the world.

He deserves to be worshipped

and praised.

And at the end of the day,

you will have no excuse.

God, as creator and sustainer

of this earth,

is clear for anyone

who's willing to see.

The problem, of course,

is that often we don't.

And that's the point

Paul goes on to make

in verse 23.

There's this tragic exchange

that's happening.

Verse 22,

we'll start there.

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.

There's a tragic exchange.

There's a trade.

Paul's saying

what we've talked about before,

what Bob Dylan says,

you have to serve somebody.

Humans are worshipping creatures.

We will worship

someone or something.

We will either

worship the true God

or we will worship

something created.

There's a variety of ways

this plays out in our world.

Some people actually,

in a very explicit way,

worship nature and the earth.

You'll see bumper stickers

around Colorado Springs

that say,

love your mother.

And they have a little sign

of the earth, right?

Which is to say,

our source and our origin,

it's not from God,

it's from the earth,

it's from the created things.

Now, don't hear what I'm not saying.

We are stewards of God's earth.

We should be taking care

of the creation

he's given us.

We want to be good stewards.

C.S. Lewis writes

this essay, though,

where he says,

we don't have a mother earth,

we have a sister earth.

And it's a sister earth

because the earth is created,

you are created.

Worship the creator,

not the created things.

Some people worship the creation

when they put all their hope

into a political figure.

It is not uncommon

for a politician,

especially a presidential candidate,

to show up on the scene.

And suddenly,

the language

that surrounds this man

is messianic language.

The imagery that's used

to depict him

depicts him as the savior

of the world or the earth.

And this is not something

that's true of only Republicans

or only Democrats.

We can pick figures

throughout the 20

and the 21st century

who have been treated

in this way

both sides of the aisle.

Why?

Because there's this desire

right within the human heart

for someone

to come and save us.

And if it's not going to be God,

we'll find a man.

There's many other things

we can worship

that God has created.

We can worship experiences

in nature.

We can worship sex.

We can worship money.

We can worship power.

But as we've already talked about

in the book of Romans,

it is in God's glory

that we discover

our good.

It is worshiping God

that actually leads us

to life

and flourishing.

And so that's why I say

it's a tragic exchange.

It's changing the glory

of God

for images resembling

mortal man

and birds

and animals

and creeping things.

we're jumping around

in this passage

a little bit,

but that helps us

understand now

the very first verse,

verse 18,

for the wrath of God

is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness

and unrighteousness

of men.

In other words,

since we have refused

to worship God,

since mankind

has worshipped

the creation

rather than the creator,

God's justice

and wrath

is being poured out

on the earth.

Now this is a challenging doctrine

for many people.

They say,

why is God

a God of wrath?

Shouldn't he be

a God of goodness

and love, right?

I want to serve

a good and loving God.

I can't believe

in a wrathful God.

The problem

with all of that

is this,

a loving God

must be

a wrathful God

because if he is

a loving God,

he wants all evil

cast out of his universe.

Sometimes people will say,

why has God not

solved this problem

or that problem?

Why has he not dealt

with evil

once and for all?

And the problem

with that question

is this,

you are part

of the problem.

The problem

is that you're

part of the problem.

Remember,

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

said,

the line between

good and evil

cuts through

every human heart.

Yes,

God could deal

with evil

once and for all

right now.

If he did,

what would happen

to you?

That's what we

talked about

many years ago now

when we were

in 2 Peter 3.

Peter,

the apostle Peter

addresses this question,

why is God delaying?

Why has he not

purged the world?

And Peter gives

this very simple answer.

God has delayed

his judgment

so that you would

have time to repent.

Imagine that God

had fully and finally

purged the world

in 1950.

What would that

mean for you?

Some of you

would be fine.

Many of us

would not have

been born,

right?

God's forbearance,

his patience

is holding back

his judgment.

God is so good

that he will

eliminate all evil

from his world.

The problem is,

Paul's going to

go on to say this,

all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory

of God.

Everyone deserves

God's wrath

and his judgment.

You'll see this

on page 8

of your worship guide.

God is planning

a perfect world

in which there

will be only good

and no evil

and there will be

no place

in that perfect world

for people

who are unwilling

to repent.

Yes,

God is going to

deal with all evil,

and have a perfect world.

Will you

be there?

Paul goes on

to provide a clear answer

for us about

who will be there

and who won't.

What are we supposed

to do with the fact

that all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God?

In other words,

everyone is part

of the problem

of evil

that needs to be solved.

Well,

that's why we have

Paul's discussion.

Remember,

at the very beginning,

he says he's a servant

of Jesus Christ,

that the hope

for us to be part

of God's good

and perfect world

is not in our behavior

or our performance

because we fall so short.

No,

our hope

and our only hope

is in our Lord

and Savior,

Jesus Christ.

our hope

and our only hope

is that Jesus came

and took

God's wrath,

the wrath of God

that's revealed from heaven.

That as he died

on the cross,

he took the punishment

that we deserve

and as he lived

his life on this earth,

he lived the perfect life

that we should have lived.

And so,

for everyone

who has faith

and trust

and follows

after Jesus Christ,

your hope

is that you will be

in God's perfect world

when he comes

and makes

all things

right.

If you do not

have faith

and trust

and follow

after Jesus,

verse 18

is a sober warning.

For the wrath

of God

is revealed

from heaven

against all

ungodliness

and unrighteousness

of men

who by their

unrighteousness

suppress the truth.

Yes,

God is patient

for a time.

He will not

be patient

forever.

And so,

the time

to have faith

in Christ

is now.

The time

to stop

exchanging

the glory

of the immortal God

for created things

is now.

Mary Oliver

is a famous

American poet,

Pulitzer Prize winner

who died

in 2019

and it's widely

known that Oliver

survived a very

challenging

and difficult

childhood

and one of the ways

that she survived

that childhood

is by spending

an enormous amount

of time in nature.

In fact,

that went on

to become

one of the major

themes

of her poetry.

It's not clear

whether or not

Oliver ended up

coming to explicit

assured faith

in Jesus Christ.

There are reasons

to believe

that she didn't

although ultimately

that's probably

not something

that we're going

to know.

It is clear

from her poems

that she was

very familiar

with scripture.

She was familiar

with stories

about Jesus,

about the reality

of the world

and I would go

on to say

she was probably

familiar with

Psalm 19

and Romans

Romans 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1.

And she,

regardless of what

she believed

ultimately about Jesus,

knew that the

created world

reveals God.

She writes clearly

about this

in her poem.

This is on the back

of your worship guide

called

I Wake

Close to Morning.

Why do people

keep asking

to see God's

identity papers

when the darkness

opening into

morning

is more

than enough?

Certainly,

any God

might turn

away

in disgust.

In other words,

God's not interested

in you asking

him to prove

himself to you.

He already has.

Think of Sheba

approaching the

kingdom of Solomon.

Do you think

she had to ask,

is this

the place?

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.

Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven,

we do

thank you

and praise you

that you

uphold

this world

by the word

of your power,

that in all

its complexity,

all its detail,

all its beauty,

you,

one God,

hold it together.

We ask that you

would show us

your glory

more and more.

You'd lead us

to trust you

that we would

choose

the glory

of the immortal God

and we would

turn away

from the images

of men

and animals

and creeping things.

We thank you

for the grace

and mercy

of your Son

and our Savior,

our Lord Jesus.

We ask that you

would lead us

to trust him

more and more

and we ask

these things

in the mighty name

of Jesus Christ.

Amen.