Can Man Live Without God? Part II Romans 1:2125

A sermon preached at Hebron Baptist Church, Denham Springs, Louisiana on August 16, 2009 by Pastor Joe Alain

Scripture Reading: Romans 1:21-25 (Pew Bible, 757)

Last week we looked at the truth that man needs God because . . .
I. There Is Moral Order in the World (1:18-25)
This moral order is seen in the testimony of God’s creation and in human conscience. Because we suppress this truth about God; that is, the truth about His moral order revealed in creation and in our conscience, a vacuum is created. And as we know, nature abhors a vacuum! This leaves us with the problem that we are spiritual beings without a God to worship. What do we do? We exchange the glory of the true God for images – God substitutes (vv.23, 25).

Man needs God . . .
II. Because of Man’s Fatal Attraction to God Substitutes
Apart from God’s grace, we possess a fatal attraction to God substitutes. This is why Paul deals with this exchange, this inclination that we have to substitute the real God for idols. God wants us to know the truth because it is God’s truth that sets us free. He wants us to flee from this fatal attraction to God substitutes and to help others escape this dead end that will never produce life!

Even though people had this general revelation of God through the testimony of creation (from without) and through the testimony of conscience (from within), they “neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (v.21).
Paul says that two things immediately result when a person suppresses the knowledge of God.
1. People Fail to Glorify God as God
What does this mean? Even though they had the knowledge of God, they did not honor Him and value Him as God. This is really the fundamental problem with the human race. People do not honor God by first acknowledging Him, and second, by valuing Him
as God.
2. People Fail to Give Thanks to God
People who fail to glorify God, who do not honor Him are ingrates. The great sin of living apart from God is that you buy into the big lie that you are the center of the universe, the creator of all that is good in your life, the master of your destiny. This delusional state we call human pride. God says of human pride that shuts Him out, “I hate pride and arrogance” (Prov. 8:13). There is a kind of pride that will cause a person to care about himself or herself and his or her surroundings. A kind of pride that gives a person a sense of what they ought to do. But there is a worldly pride that deludes man into thinking that He is the center of the universe. All things revolve around him. All good things happen because of him.

As it was in Paul’s day, so it is still true in our day. The twin sins of our day our man’s refusal to glorify His creator and to give thanks to God, acting as if God does not even exist. Question: Are you living a God-centered life? Seeking to please God in every area of your life? Are you living with a grateful heart to God? Gratitude to God is evidence that you know Him and are seeking to glorify Him. This shouldn’t be surprising as the words “grace” and “gratitude” are related in Scripture. Gratitude is the outflow of a heart that knows grace.

The Basic Problem: A Failure to Honor God (1:21)
Because people are in this condition, there are several things that Paul says occur. Here is the natural devolution of the person who will not glorify God or consequently be thankful.
This fatal attraction to God substitutes leads to . . .
1. Empty Speculation (v.21)
“Their thinking became futile.” Futile means empty, vain, useless. God created us with the ability to reason, to imagine, to speculate. He did so that we might use our mind to know Him, to glorify Him, to build a world that will honor Him. But when we use our mind apart from God, our plans and dreams are empty because we ourselves are empty. Paul is saying that their thinking process became “dialogismos,” speculation without perception, empty reasoning. Speculation that does not acknowledge God leads to God substitutes.

This fatal attraction leads to . . .
2. Living in the Dark (v.21)
“Their foolish hearts were darkened.” People who leave God out are destined to live in the dark because they lack spiritual understanding (1 Cor. 2:14). Why is the heart darkened when people exchange the glory of God for other things? The answer is that the only light in the universe that can fill the heart with light is the glory of God – the light of God Himself.

There is no light-producing element in the heart. All light comes from outside, namely, from the glory of God. Jesus is the spiritual light of the world (Jn. 14:6) because “he is the glory as of the only begotten from the Father” (Jn. 1:14). This is why Paul prayed that the “eyes of your heart may be enlightened” because only the prayer-hearing God can enlighten the heart (Eph. 1:19).

And in 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” The only light in the universe that can bring light to the heart is the glory of God. If we exchange it for other things, we will live in darkness, no matter how brilliant we are or how many fires we may build or candles we may light.

This fatal attraction to God substitutes leads to . . .
3. False Wisdom (v.22)
“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” People who leave God out of life live foolishly although they are perfectly content with the thought that they are very wise. Foolishness in the Bible has to do with moral deficiency rather than intellectual ability. Many intelligent people are parading around as wise people, but are living foolishly. Why do people without God think they are so wise? To the natural person, nothing seems more normal than devising a system of living on your own. What could be more natural to a person than to create their own god?

This temptation to be your own god is powerful and it has been a temptation from the very beginning. What did the serpent promise Eve in the garden? “You will be like God!” (Gen. 3:5-6). This desire to be your own God is so powerful because we are convinced it is the way of wisdom. But in reality it is a false wisdom, a devilish wisdom, a wisdom that condemns men rather than liberates them.

Where does this path lead a person (v.23)?
This fatal attraction to God substitutes leads to . . .
4. Exchanging the True God for a god (1:23-25)
Having rejected the sovereign creator who has made the heavens and the earth, man without God decides he is smarter than God, so he worships a poor substitute for God that is not God. The folly of idolatry is that you exchange the glorious for the inglorious, the mighty for the weak. The living for the dead. The immortal for the mortal. The eternal for the temporal. Accepting God substitutes is insanity. There is a downward progression to idolatry that we see in verse 23. Here we see how infinite the difference there is between the true God and a god.

Paul shows that this exchange is foolish by emphasizing the infinite difference in value between what you trade away and what you get in its place. Literally, verse 23 states: “They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for a likeness of an image of corruptible man” (v.23). Notice how Paul highlights the tremendous difference in this poor exchange that we make when we fail to glorify God. According to Genesis 1:26-27, man is created in the “image of God” and not God. But that is not what the exchange of God gets. Rather, it is for an image of man and not even that, it is for “a likeness of an image of man” who himself is an image. Paul is basically saying, “You sell the original masterpiece for a copy of a copy of a copy!” We might say, “Why settle for Xerox copy of a copy when you can possess the real document?”

Instead of believing the lie, worshiping the creation rather than the creator, making poor exchanges for God, let’s determine that we will glorify Him and give Him thanks! When we do that, we will live lives filled with meaning instead of empty speculation. We will live in the light instead of the darkness. We will be following the path of true wisdom rather than the path of error. We will be honoring the true God rather than a poor substitute that can never be God.

John Piper relates the story of Secretary of State William Seward. He states, “let’s be like Secretary of State William Seward in 1867 who helped America buy Alaska from the Russians for $7,200,000. Some people ridiculed William Seward and they called this transaction, ‘Seward’s Folly,’ exchanging seven million dollars for ice! Well we know that in the last 140 plus years Alaska has yielded billions upon billions of dollars in resources to the United States. Things are not always what they seem. Do not exchange God for anything. Instead, exchange everything for Him.” Only then will we find our lives full of purpose and meaning.

For His Glory!
Pastor Joe