Sermon: Romans Part 6 (Pastor Brian Fuller - Romans 1:19-20)

Hi, and welcome to the Sermon Podcast of First Baptist Church Woodlawn in Woodlawn,

Illinois. I'm Senior Pastor Brian Fuller, and it is our desire to

impact the world with the Gospel of Jesus. We do so through small group

ministry, personal testimony, as well as corporate gatherings. You can find us

on Facebook, YouTube, and our website FBC Woodlawn dot org. Join us

now as we hear from God's word. I remember I said a number of

months ago, I think it was sometime last year, maybe a couple of

years ago, that baptism without repentance is just a bath, right. I

mean, there's gotta be a purpose behind it. If there's no repentance,

then then all of that is just to get wet and so, but there

is a tremendous there's a deep purpose in getting in those baptism waters and showing

others that there has been a change in my life. And this is the

evidence. This is the proof that I want you all to see, and

it is it is a powerful witness. We are still in the first chapter

of Romans, and if you have your Bibles, turn to Romans chapter one,

and these verses we actually even alluded to last last week, but they

needed much more more attention. And so this morning we're going to look at

verses nineteen and twenty of Romans one, and I've entitled today's message the evidence

of God and the music this morning. I love when the music and the

message are a great marriage. And so Matt, thank you for your sensitivity

and praise team. I heard of base solo this morning. I was back

there the change and I miss I missed the base solo. So the evidence

of God. And again I love the faithfulness of God and his timing that

I get to talk about this in light of His glory and majesty that will

be on display tomorrow in the form of a total eclipse. And we'll talk

about that a little more as we go along. So in your Bibles,

Romans Chapter one, verses nineteen and twenty, 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 and heavenly Father, as we spend this time

together in your word. I pray that you might reveal to me your heart,

and you would speak through me your very words, so that our lives

will be changed because of the word of God. Thank you Lord in Jesus

name. Amen. Abraham Lincoln once said, I can see how it might

be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist,

but I cannot conceive how he might look up into the heavens and say

there is no God. That is a great quote from President Lincoln. Mankind

has by nature lived a godless life, and has always existed in selfish societies

right all down through the ages. You can see that societies have been selfless

and man centered. And looking down upon that existence of man, would one

could make the assumption that there is no God. However, turned that point

of view from looking down at man's existence to the gazing into the heavens,

and you simply cannot deny the existence and the handiwork of God, Almighty Amen.

And during the French Revolution, a French soldier said to an enemy prisoner,

He said, we are going to pull down all that reminds you of

God, and to which the prisoner replied, you'll have to pull the stars

down then, as Psalm nineteen one says, the heavens declare the glory of

God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. These are scriptures that I

that I've made mention of over the last few weeks, and you can't deny

them. You can't just mention them once and then go forward without them.

And there will be more scriptures today and probably going forward that I have mentioned

in this series, and you just you can't. You can't deny them,

and you can't leave them out because there is there is no one, there

is no one who has ever lived on the earth that is excused from seeing

and knowing the existence of God, because that's what scripture says. Because Paul

says, what can be known about God is plain to them, because God

has shown it to them. I know this raises a lot of questions with

a lot of people. All people from all nations, for all time have

descended from one original family. In Acts seventeen, Paul Is is addressing the

men of Athens in the public arena, and in verses twenty six and twenty

seven he says, he says this, and he God made from one man,

every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,

having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should

seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet He

is actually not far from each of us. And in Genesis chapter ten,

after the flood, all the generations of man are named, and they're all

traced back to Noah. In Genesis ten thirty two, it says these are

the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies in their nations,

and from these nations spread abroad all the earth after the flood. In

scholars scholars can try race back to the earliest origins of man and awareness of

God and a need to atone for sin through sacrifice, and that all through

the ages, in various cultures, there has existed a common assumption for a

creator and the revelation of a creator. I think that's just instilled in man

to understand that there is there is a creator. But as you know,

mankind has fallen prey to man made religions and fallen prey to the Satanic deception

that there are many gods, not one true God, who created the heavens

and the earth, Satan has twisted it the truth. He has blinded man.

He has convinced man that there is no evidence of an almighty creator.

Even today, just the stupidity of mankind is forever magnified through social media.

Amen, so many people today when asked about the existence of God, so

many will say, I just don't see any evidence of a God or that

the universe was created by a being. They're they're they're blinded. They've been

deceived because to us, it's it's obvious, right, right, it is

obvious. But that deceptive foolishness excuses no one. There's no excuse from the

biblical truth and the creative evidence of God's existence and his eternal glory. There's

no excuse, not for anyone, because it's on display as scriptures, as

it's on display for all to see. I like that word all because that's

what it means. It means all, and that's all it means all people

from all times, all cultures and regions of the world come from the same

origin. All of us come from the same origin. It doesn't matter if

you're from woodlawn or from Uganda. So all people from all times, all

cultures, all regions of the world are without excuse, because what can be

known about God is plain to them because He has shown it to them.

And also Romans three twenty three four, all have sin and fall short of

the glory of God. When Moses was on the mountain to receive the ten

Commandments from God, and my only vision of that is Charlton Heston, and

I have to ask God to forgive me because that is my only perception of

Moses. And I just don't think Moses was that, you know, but

that was fifties cinematic drama for you, but still in a great movie.

And he was on the mountain to receive the ten commandments. The people,

they complained, they were murmuring, they were complaining that he was delayed and

coming down from the mountain, he was taking a long time. What did

the people do well? They commanded Aaron to make for them gods of gold,

that these gods would go before them. And in Exodus thirty two,

verses seven through ten says and the Lord said to Moses, go down,

for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt,

have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I

have commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf, and have

worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, these are your gods,

oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And

the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold it

is a stiff necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath

may burn hot against them, and I may consume them. They have turned

aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them, And they have made

for themselves a golden calf, and has worshiped it and sacrificed to it,

and saying, these are your God's what we create with our hands. How

quickly and how easily we are blinded and deceived from the truth, and how

quickly we are to follow evil and deny God. Yet the truth remains that

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

has revealed his eternal power and his divine nature. And when Paul says he

reveals his divine nature, that means the Godhead, It's Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit, the divine nature of God. He is revealed

in the things that have been made, and all people everywhere are without excuse.

And here's a bold statement that, yes, even those who have not

heard the Gospel message are without excuse because God has been revealed to them in

his creation. A little little deeper in that here a little bit. And

since God's wrath will be poured out against all ungodliness, all unrighteousness of men,

we talked about. That was a scripture that we used last week.

God's wrath will be poured out against all ungodliness, all unrighteousness of men.

And since all of sin and fall short of the glory of God, then

all people everywhere, in all cultures, through all time are guilty and are

responsible for sin. That's just plain and simple. That's not what we want

to hear. That's not what we want to believe. And since the creation

of the universe, His qualities have been on display for us to see and

to beholes his eternal power and his divine nature. Again, the word all

mankind, for all history has been exposed to the witness of his creation.

And many things. Man has corrupted many things, right, sinful nature has

corrupted many things. But the witness of God's creation and the glory of God

revealed in the heavens, cannot be corrupted by man. His glory is constantly

on display, uncorrupted by human hands. Or rather than make sinful nature of

God, his creation speaks of his glory and his divine nature day and night

a man Psalm nineteen one. The heavens declare the glory of the God.

Day by day they pour forth speech, night by night they expose knowledge.

The stars in the sky. The heavens speak of God day and night.

The witness of God, the evidence of God is on display for all to

see. And if tomorrow's eclipse is a sign to us about the end times,

is it? Some radicals would say yes. Genesis one fourteen says this,

And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens,

to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs

and for seasons, and for days and years. So I can stand before

you in my wealth of knowledge, in the in the arena of astronomy and

astrophysics and end time or revelation, I can say I do not know,

And if you do know, if you say I know, then I would

ask you to remain quiet because you do not know. It might be it

might be of some amazing biblical cosmic significance, and it might not be.

I did check out NASA's website, and according to NASA, that's a pretty

good resource. Right. According to NASA, there are four or five eclipses

every year, not here, but around the globe throughout the year, there

are four or five and they are a spectacle. They are something to behold,

you know. But they're not uncommon, you know. I mean,

there's not going to be another one here for how many years, thirty some

years or something after that it's like like three hundred years, I don't know.

So around here, you know, they're not going to be so so

common for a while. And you know, the world, the world certainly

sits up and takes notice, right, I mean, it's it's it's a

big money Got your glasses, you know, I've heard there's some fake one

going around too. You know, seriously, if you've bought them somewhere,

they're not not proper. You know, you might end up being blinded by

it. So make sure you got the right kind of glasses to look through.

But the world, the world takes notice of what's going on. Hebrews

one three says he Jesus. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God.

He is the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe

by the word of his power. Jesus the Son, the one who,

through the Holy Spirit spoke be a universe into existence. He is the one

who upholds and he causes with precision, the planets and the cosmos to work

in however it is that they work. He upholds it, He controls it,

he ordains it, He sets them into place. So for the Christian

who believes that God created the cosmos, for those of us who believe so,

and that and that it aligns in the way that He ordains, we

are quick to say, behold the glory and the majesty of God Almighty.

I hope those are the words that come out of your mind, because that

should be that should be our response. And as God expects us to learn

who he is from his creation. He is, He's made it so obvious

that no one can miss it. His power and his divine nature. Who

he is, God, the Father, God, the Son, God,

the Holy Spirit, who he is, His his divine nature are on display,

hopefully that we would see it, and that we would be drawn to

worship him, right, drawn to lead in to him, to recognize that

he is, that he is God, the creator his glory. We talked

about God's glory last week. The definition is the manifestation of his divine attributes,

the manifestation of his divine attributes, the glory of God. And it

doesn't happen nearly often enough, but I love it on a clear country night

away from the lights of town. I'm sure you've experienced this. The stars

they just explode in their brilliance in the nice sky, and you can't see

that in town, the light pollution and the light that hinders from seeing the

glory of God. It's so easy to look up and say it, just

say wow, God, because the sky speaks of the majesty and the glory

of God in his creation. So we have established that man is without excuse

when it comes to knowing about God. Because Romans one nineteen, what can

be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to

them without excuse. So here is the big However, of the message.

I almost said here's the big butt, but that wouldn't really go over too

well. But here is the big however I may, if I may put

it that way. Nature reveals the majesty and the divine nature of God.

Right however, his creation, and I want you to hear this. I

want you to hear this. His creation cannot redeem anybody. Creation points man

to God. Creation reveals the eternal power of God. Creation reveals God's omniscience

and his omnipresence, meaning that he's all knowing, meaning that he's everywhere at

all times. But man is still fallen and sinful and acknowledging God as creator

will not save anyone. There are heathens that will acknowledge the presence of a

creative being doesn't mean that they're redeemed. It doesn't mean that they're born again.

So we still need a redeemer. And the one who says I can

worship God in nature, so I don't need the church is just as misguided

as the one who says there is no God pastor what do you mean?

God's creation says there is a God who created all things. Nature points to

the seasons, points to the stars and the planets in the cosmos and how

they interact within the precision that God intends. But nature cannot satisfy man's need

for redemption. Nature of itself knows nothing of forgiveness. Nature of itself teaches

us no moral lessons. Nature speaks of the glory and the majesty of God,

as Psalm one nineteen says, it is declared the glory of the Lord,

but it cannot, of itself offer a salvation for mankind's greatest need,

which is forgiveness of sin. So we cannot say that God's creation is all

that we need because his creation falls short. It's hard to say that,

but God's creation falls short because it does not offer a solution for salvation.

Biblical scholar and author John Phillips says creation reveals the infinite power and glory of

God, but it doesn't reveal his heart. Calvary alone unveils his heart.

The Cross, where Jesus gave his life to pay for our sins, reveals

the heart for all mankind, the heart of God for all mankind. Without

the cross. Without the Cross, we behold the majesty in God, the

majesty of God in creation, but we miss the heart of God for people,

And there have been people all through the ages that witnessed the glory of

God in creation but still rejected the evidence of his existence. And despite the

unmistakable witness of God's existence and his power and his divine nature, there are

some people that have chosen not to believe. Just like today, but two

thousand years ago, the heart of God took center stage. The love of

God for man expressed in the crucifixion of his only son, revealed not only

a God of power and of glory, but a heart of compassion for the

sinner, and he put in place the only solution to rid the sinner of

his sin. First John three, verse sixteen. By this we know love

that he laid down his life for us. He sent his son to the

cross. I deserve the punishment for my sin. You deserve the punishment for

your sin. But God said no, that's mercy. He said, I

will provide the way for you to be made right in my sight. And

he says, that's not through my creation. It's only through the death,

burial, and resurrection of my only son Jesus Romans five eight. While we

were still sinners, Christ died for us. God's eternal power and his divine

nature has been has been plainly evident in His creation, in his vast creation

and man all mankind, for all times and all cultures, is without excuse

in recognizing the existence of God. But the creation and in all its glory

and and and evidence of God creation falls short and revealing the heart of God.

That all people repent of sin, calling on the name of Jesus in

humility to receive the free gift of eternal life that comes only through Jesus Christ.

It's God's provision of salvation that is available to everyone, and Scripture even

says it calls everyone everyone. Now. I think it's also the Book of

Hebrews that in in days past, in Old Testament days, we relied on

the prophets to tell us what God says. But in these days he speaks.

God speaks through his son, through the finished work of the Cross,

his shed blood. So I encourage you today to yes, look at the

heavens and see the glory of God, the majesty of God, the power

of God on display. But that's not enough. I hope today, if

you have not recognized your sin, that you will, and you will say,

my God, I didn't realize had failed you. I hadn't realized that

my sin has separated me from You. So Lord, would you save me?

Would you forgive me to set my feet on the path of righteousness.

Let's pray. Thank you for tuning in to today's broadcast. We hope you

are encouraged and challenged by the preaching of God's word. You can reach us

by phone at six one eight three nine zero ten forty six, contact us

via Facebook or our website FBC Woodlawn dot org. It's our prayer that you

answered the call of God on your life to follow hello Him and share your

faith story with others. Goodbye for now, and God bless you.