“ Our Biblical World View”(1) God is the Creator Who is Judging His Creation 09/05/2021

First Baptist Church Leominster

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On my part given him this first Sunday, but be in the fact that he is recovering from the virus and whatnot asthma

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I'm covering for him today Well, this is a first occasion of this new sermon series

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That we are beginning Our biblical worldview and frankly,

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I don't know how long it's going to be that we're going to be dealing with this matter There's not a lot of information available frankly that I find suitable and So we'll just trust the

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Lord to help us through these matters. I Thought of entitling our subject the Christian worldview but you know

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There's world views by people who profess to be Christian that are all over the map And so I thought no, we'll not call it a

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Christian worldview, but rather our biblical Worldview in attempt to narrow our topic, of course

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We certainly understand the biblical worldview should be the Christian worldview. And so that's what we're asserting

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Now in the series that we just completed that we called the unconverted believer dealing with nominal

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Christianity We were assuming that you know, everyone hearing us and reading our notes these

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I send these out now to 308 email addresses every Lord's Day morning

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I Was assuming that you know that professing Christians would be reading those hearing those

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And because we were attempting to deal with nominal Christianity, but with this series, we're beginning at a different starting point.

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I Want to assume that there will be people reading these notes or hearing us who are not professing

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Christians at all in other words people out there in the world who You know have no clue perhaps as to a biblical worldview

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But I want to be able to set forth this worldview in a way that God has revealed in the

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Holy Scriptures, which of course we affirm to be true and right and The way that God has purpose and promise to bless

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That's our desire Now we're of course living in an increasing secular world

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We're no longer in a Christian world Which we were for a number of centuries

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Generally speaking, but we are no longer we're now in a world in which we cannot assume that a part the people we meet that a

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Person we meet with whom we engage Conversation knows or believes anything regarding the

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God of the Bible the father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ We have a different starting point and so we're not like Paul in the synagogue speaking to people he knew

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Understood and believed a number of things. We're like Paul on Mars Hill talking to a pagan world

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Who is clueless about the true real God of the

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Bible? And so we live in a secular world and yet in comparison to the nations of the world

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Amazingly the u .s. Is still quite religious and remains dominantly Christian at least in itself perception amazingly,

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I Have read that only about 3 % of Americans claim to be atheist another reported that as many as 10 %

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Claim to be atheist deny the existence of God about 23 % of Americans are not affiliated with any organized religion and so we might say these people claim to Perhaps believe in God, but their faith has not brought them to any serious or sincere commitment to their faith

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Their faith does not impinge greatly on how they think and live Interestingly about 40 % of Americans classify themselves as very religious

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Actually more claim to be Christian. It's up over 60 % I believe Actually the population of this

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Northeast region the u .s. Is least religious than any other part of the nation That was one of the motivations

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I had for coming here 23 years ago. I wanted to come to a place where There was not a great deal of Christian influence rather than the

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Bible Belt where everybody Claimed to be a Christian a lot of nominal Christianity down south

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But the Northeast is the least religious Region and so here was a statement of regarding this in a

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Gallup poll citizens from across the u .s. Were surveyed to determine whether religion is not important in their lives and say they seldom or never attend religious services from this poll

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Vermont and Maine were considered to be the least religious as More than half of their respective respondents stated that religion was not very important in their lives and then closely following these two far northeastern u .s.

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States is religious indifference or disbelief were New Hampshire Massachusetts Washington Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Colorado and Connecticut All of whom had more than 40 % of their respondents state that religion was not a focal point of their regular lives

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When Mary and I were coming back from Germany I either wanted to come to the Northeast or the Northwest Both both those regions were in mind

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But even among Christians there are a wide range of beliefs about who God is and how he relates and interacts with people in the world

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This is more so today than at any time in history There are those who assert that one significant reason for this is the increased exposure to various religious beliefs of people different philosophies from people in other parts of the world who were formerly localized and Isolated the big change came in 1989 with the fall of the

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Iron Curtain And there was so much interaction between peoples all over the world and so the whole idea of multiculturalism

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Came into play in the 90s and into this century the influence of our modern world has had a dramatic effect especially on the younger generation of people the so -called

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Millennials and those of Generation Z. I don't like those Labels, but they're there

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Who are decidedly more unreligious than our older Americans we older folks seem to retain

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That which is more traditional Our world contains a diverse and disparate number of religions and philosophies

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To which our Lord has called us to proclaim Jesus Christ to be the only Lord and Savior of sinners

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Evangelism in today's world is a different different matter than say 40 years ago 50 years ago.

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It's a different world Let's first answer the question what is a biblical worldview

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Well one's worldview refers to a comprehensive conception of the world from a specific standpoint a vantage point a worldview how you view the world

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An individual's worldview is his understanding of the overall picture of life and his beliefs about the world

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It is his way of understanding reality Your worldview is the context in which you see reality and make decisions in your day -to -day living

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A biblical worldview then is a comprehensive understanding of the world from the perspective of the Bible God's Word to Christians Here's a couple definitions of Worldview a worldview is a commitment a fundamental

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Orientation of the heart that can be expressed as a story or in a set of propositions presuppositions

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Assumptions which may be true partially true or entirely false which we hold consciously or subconsciously

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Consistently or inconsistently about the basic constitution of reality that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being

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More simple explanation of a worldview is this the term worldview is used to describe a core set of values and principles through which the world is understood a

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Worldview is a compilation of an individual perceptions of the world essentially the way a person understands reality what is real a person's worldview is very important as it impacts virtually every decision in life a

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Specifically Christian worldview then would be viewing the world through a Christian biblical lens a Christian worldview is one in which the

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Bible is formative Would certainly say that should be the case The fact is every rational person has a worldview

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That shapes what he thinks and why he orders his daily life as he does and so This author stated the matter accurately everyone has a worldview whether they are conscious or unconscious

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Of having one and whether their worldview is relatively simple or sophisticated consistent or inconsistent true or false

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Moreover everyone necessarily has a view of themselves and The universe

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God and man right and wrong the beginning the meaning the goal of all things a worldview the issue is what worldview will be held or will we hold the worldview taught in the scriptures and the

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Reformed confessions or one of the line worldviews would suppress and pervert

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God's truth and unrighteousness and call forth his wrath from heaven and So you have a worldview

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I have a worldview we should have a biblical worldview. Hopefully we do a

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Person's worldview therefore is a set of personal convictions About values and principles of living the purpose for living in this world

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One's worldview is how a person understands what's true real and what's valuable If one has a biblical worldview his perceptions and values are shaped by his own understanding of who

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God is That he is a creator and he's the ruler of this world and that it is his responsibility to live in a manner that is in accordance with his

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God's will and that which pleases him pleases God and so that's what a biblical worldview is

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Now we might answer the question do professing Christians have a biblical worldview

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I put Christians in quotations broadly speaking Christian Well the fact just because people call themselves

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Christians doesn't not necessarily mean that they espouse a biblical worldview There have been formal studies about this subject one having been conducted very recently in fact this spring published at the beginning of this summer and It was

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It was conducted by an organization Entitled the Center for biblical worldview

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And I think I left maybe a website where you can find this complete report it conducted a national survey of about a thousand persons and They the survey dealt with perceptions about biblical worldview in its application.

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And so here's a description a summary There were much there was much much more information that I would have liked to have related but you know time is

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Limited in May 2021 Family Research Council Center for biblical worldview

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Commission met a formation Inc Under the direction of George Barna to conduct a nationwide survey regarding aspects of biblical worldview

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The objective was to provide original newsworthy research based Insights about how many people believe they possess a biblical worldview

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If and to what extent they seek to integrate that worldview into every dimension of life what influences have helped them to do so and whether they believe that such integration matters to God and the

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Results of the survey were publicly announced and launched at an event in Washington on May 27th 2021 just a few months ago.

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So this is recent Well aside from the very broad way in which this study defined who is a

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Christian and Even though the questions regarding the Christian worldview were very weak in my opinion and very sketchy

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Here are some of their their overall conclusions across America approximately two out of every three adults describes themselves as Christians You know, that's 66 for two out of two out of three

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However based on the American worldview inventory conducted annually by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University Just 6 %

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Adults and just 9 % of those who call themselves Christian possess a biblical worldview 9 % of professing

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Christians and again in my opinion their Understanding or biblical definition of a biblical worldview is very weak and sketchy

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But even that they say only 9 % who call themselves Christian 81 % who attend an evangelical church claim.

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They have a biblical worldview 21 % actually have one 73 % of adults who attend a

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Pentecostal or charismatic Church claim. They have a biblical worldview 16 % actually have one 69 % of adults who attend a mainline

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Protestant Church claim. They have a biblical worldview 8 % actually have one 57 % of adults who attend a

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Catholic Church claim. They have a biblical worldview 1 % actually have one

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Two -thirds of the people 68 % who consider themselves to be Christian claim to have a worldview

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Yet the American worldview inventory indicates that only 9 % do So this is an issue

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And so what this study reveals is that relatively few professing Christians in America actually affirm a biblical worldview

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That was set before them through this survey It's all important that we understand the

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Word of God what it reveals to us about Who God is and how he relates and involves himself in the world?

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What we think about God will have a direct effect on how we live in this world Whereas as a man thinks in his heart, so is he?

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How people think about God will impinge how they will live in God's world And so let's get our attention now to a passage

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Which addresses the need and importance to have a biblical worldview and the severe Consequences if you fail to have and order your life accordingly and that may be seen in Romans 1.

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I Trust is a familiar passage to most of us Verses 18 through 32 here.

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We have God's revelation of himself in his creation And I might just say at the outset what this passage tells us in Romans 1 that God is not only the creator

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But he is involved actively in all aspects of history as it unfolds

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God is not distant out there and unattached and only intervenes that once in a while God is the creator and he is also the governor of history

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And So the Holy Scriptures which are the written Word of God reveals to us that God is the creator of all that exists and that he's actively watching and judging all people through history and So God not only exists, but he is working in all that transpires in his world

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I was reminded of Francis Schaeffer's book published by inner bar cities along well a generation ago

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He expressed it in his title the God who is there The Apostle Paul's message to the church at Rome both presumes and proclaims this truth

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God is there And here in Romans 1 we read of the great importance for people everywhere to hold and live according to this worldview

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That God is the creator who is actively governing and superintending his world And so Paul wrote these words to Christians in the church located in the city of Rome the seat of the world empire of the first century and They are very pointed and direct words

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That just you know slap a whirling in the face when you read them in in today in today's world

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Paul wrote the Holy Spirit wrote through Paul for the wrath of God is revealed is being revealed

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From heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness

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Because what they what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them

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For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen Being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead So that they are without excuse

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Because although they knew God they did not glorify him as God nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened professing to be wise they became fools and Changed the glory of the incorruptible

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God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four -footed animals and creeping things

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Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts To dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and Worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

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Amen For this reason God gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature

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Likewise also the man leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another

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Men with men committing what is shameful receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due and Even as they did not like to retain

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God and their knowledge God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting

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Being filled with all unrighteousness sexual immorality wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murder strife deceit

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Evil -mindedness, they are whispers back biters haters of God violent proud boasters inventors of evil things disobedient to parents

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Undiscerning untrustworthy unloving unforgiving unmerciful who knowing the righteous judgment of God That those who practice such things are deserving of death not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them

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A Very direct hard -hitting passage Especially in this present day, of course

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For this passage is one of the clearest declarations in the Word of God, of course against the sin of homosexuality

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Though it's included that sin is included with quite an extensive list of other sins against God This is one of the number of sit of vice lists that we have in the scriptures that we mentioned last week

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The scriptures depict the sin of homosexuality to be unnatural and shameful It's not a source of pride according to the

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Word of God, but it should be a source of shame It's the manifestation of the descent of mankind into decadence that is a result of God's judgment for having turned away from him

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And again, it's probably the most offensive and objectionable passages of scriptures to the world in which we're living at the first quarter in the first quarter of the 21st century

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But although this passage is rejected by today's world we embrace and proclaim without apology

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What God's Word teaches us regarding these matters? And so even though we expose ourselves to ridicule and hostility in the community

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Even as this message has been going out You know on YouTube and sermon audio and local access television stations will not apologize for God's Word or Diminish or obscure its clarity or in any way soft pedal its implications

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Of course we stress that much more than homosexual sin is condemned in this passage

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But further we should understand that this pronouncement of God's judgment against sin is necessary and preparatory for bringing

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God's mercy and grace and salvation for sinners such as the ones described before us and this was this was

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Paul's intention of dealing with this he had to lay this groundwork before people would

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Even be see their need for a Savior That he presents later on in the book of Romans And so as we approach this passage of Holy Scripture, it's important that we understand its role in the

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Apostles teaching To the church at Rome Paul gave his formal introduction to this epistle in the two verses just before the passage we read verses 16 and 17

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In which Paul declared for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation

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Everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it that is in the gospel

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The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it's written.

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The righteous shall live by faith and So the gospel that Paul was proclaiming or would present to his readers

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Concerned the righteousness of God to save sinners through faith This gospel was the same for all people everywhere both

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Jew and Gentile It's a worldwide gospel but the people the first century would not have readily embraced this message for there was a great difference in opinion about the need of salvation and the way of Salvation from the perspective of both

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Jews and Gentiles. The Gentiles were ignorant. The Jews were self -righteous

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And Paul would show that all the world was in need of this gospel in order to commend it fully to his readers

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So bit Paul began to lay out a case that both Gentiles and Jewish people were sinners

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Who were under the wrath of God who are all in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ and so beginning with verse 18

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Paul argued the whole world is under sin and All the Jews would have of course affirmed this as they heard and read this

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He was talking about the Gentiles principally In which he showed forth the whole world under sin and need of salvation

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Which only comes through Jesus Christ alone one once described Paul's effort every person is without excuse because every person whether a first century pagan or a 20th century materialist has been given a knowledge of God and has spurned that knowledge in favor of idolatry

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In all its varied Manifestations and idolatry is the chief sin set forth here in Romans 1 all these other sins are manifestations of idolatry

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All therefore stand under the awful reality of the wrath of God and all are in desperate need of the justified power of the gospel

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Of Christ we will never come to grips with the importance of the gospel or be Motivated as we should be to proclaim it until this sad truth has been fully integrated into our worldview

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So this is a good beginning point. There is a God and he is there and he's active in history judging sinful people

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Paul began his argument with the passage that we read he continues his argument through Romans 2 all of Romans 2 and well into Romans 3

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Concluding this aspect of his teaching with Romans 3 9 and 10 and verses 19 and 20

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What then are we Jews any better off than Gentiles? No, not at all for we have already charged at all both

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Jews and Greeks are under sin as it's written None is righteous. No, not one.

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No one understands. No one seeks for God. No one and Then now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law and all people outside of Christ are under the law as a covenant

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Before their Creator so that every mouth may be stopped the whole world may be held accountable to God For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in its sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin

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Keeping the commandments of God saves nobody it damns everybody and so between Romans 1 18 and Romans 3 20 the

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Apostle set forth before his readers the guilt of all the world and He declared the need for sinners to experience the grace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ For it alone is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes

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Now let's begin to work through these verses and see what Paul is declaring Again it's a an indictment against all idolaters.

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We read in verse 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness

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Suppressed the truth Now we read in verse 17 where Paul declared that the righteousness of God is being revealed and He stated basically the righteousness of God was being revealed in the gospel and Now he's declaring in verse 17 that the righteousness of God is being revealed or rather verse 18

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That the wrath of God reveals the righteousness of God the gospel reveals the righteousness of God But also the wrath of God reveals the righteousness of God The righteousness is real the wrath of God is revealed both of these statements speak of the present ongoing work of God in history in judging people of this world

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That's what's taking place right now in the world God is exercising his righteous judgment in history

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He's revealing righteousness through the gospel. He's revealing righteousness through his wrath as well Many people who are at least theists in their belief system and that they believe

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God exists Do not believe that God is actively involved in this world and many professing

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Christians think that too Many professing

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Christians pray for God to intervene to manifest his presence and power in this world as though he were outside Of the world and not really involved.

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Oh Lord come and intervene and do a work so often said They believe

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God is absent uninvolved But Paul has assured his readers that God is not only revealing his righteousness and bringing salvation

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He declares that God is also actively revealing his wrath upon sin and the unfolding of history

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What we're seeing in the world today is a revealing of the righteousness of God's wrath on a fallen world

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You hear many professing Christians Well, if we don't turn, you know, God is going to judge us.

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God is judging us This is he's this is how he's always worked through history.

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And that's what Paul is declaring For the wrath of God is revealed is being revealed present tense from heaven against all ungodliness and righteousness of men

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What is God's wrath? Arthur Pink described it the wrath of God is his eternal detestation of all unrighteousness

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It is the displeasure and indignation of divine equity against evil It is the holiness of God stirred and activity against sin

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It's the moving cause of that just sentence which he passes upon evil doers

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God is angry against sin because it's a rebelling against his authority a wrong done to his inviolable sovereignty

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Insurrectionists against God's government shall be made to know that God is Lord They should be made to feel how great that majesty is which they despise and how dreadful is that threatened wrath

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Which they so little regarded not that God's anger is a malignant malicious retaliation

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Inflicting injury for the sake of it or in return for injury received No, while God will vindicate his dominion as the governor of the universe.

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He will not be vindictive That's an important point to make I'm gonna pass over John Gil's description of the wrath of God and drop down to J.

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I Packers comment will pass over Some more statements by pink, but I would urge you to read it a later time

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Packer wrote about the relative little attention given to the wrath of God and in the church's proclamation of the world today

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The modern habit throughout the Christian Church is to play the subject down Those who still believe in the wrath of God not all do say little about it

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Perhaps they do not think much about it to an age which has Unashamedly sold itself to the gods of greed pride sex and self -will the church mumbles on about God's kindness

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But says virtually nothing about his judgment How often during the past year did you hear or if you were a minister?

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Did you preach a sermon on the wrath of God? How long is it? I wonder since a Christian spoke straight on this subject on radio or television or in one of those half -column sermonettes that appear in some national dailies and magazines and if one did so how long would it be before he would be asked to speak or wrote again

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A .W. Tozer, you know at the end of his life said I preached myself out of about every pulpit in America We may well ask whether this is as it should be for the

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Bible behaves very differently One cannot imagine that talk of divine judgment was ever very popular and yet the biblical writers engage in it

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Constantly one of the most striking things about the Bible is the vigor with which both

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Testaments emphasize the reality and terror of God's wrath a study of the concordance will show that there are more

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References in Scripture to the anger fury and wrath of God than there are to his love and tenderness

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We ought to be able to look out at the world today and in our society our culture in our lives and we should see the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men

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God is at work The Wrath of God is dynamically effectively operative in the world of men and it's proceeding from heaven the throne of God That is thus active.

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There is a positive outgoing of the divine Displeasure a biblical worldview sees the wrath of God as being manifest to a great degree through his world

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And this is why I thought it important to start with this subject God is revealing himself in history

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God's wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men there may be a distinction between There is a distinction between these two

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Forms of sin the first ungodliness is the sin within the realm of one's duty before God.

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It's religious in nature ungodliness And Paul shows the manifestation of the sin of ungodliness is in the sin of idolatry and then second

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Unrighteousness is in the realm of morality ungodliness and unrighteousness Morality Paul shows that the manifestation of unrighteousness is immorality

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God is actively judicially administering justice manifesting his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and so God is just in the administration of his wrath for the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men is conducted even as they suppress the truth

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In other words, these people aren't innocent They have an understanding of what they're doing now.

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They suppress it Convince themselves otherwise But this

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Statement suggests there's full culpability on their part The wrath of God has revealed the people who sin but who know that they are sinning against God the fact

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They may not seem to understand or be aware of God's judicial dealings among them is because they actively and energetically suppress the truth

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And the world increasingly is doing that Paul Then explains what he meant by this idea

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They're suppressing the truth verse 19 for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them

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Paul declares God had revealed knowledge about himself to these Who were on the receiving end of his wrath?

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They knew better their guilt is Great God's wrath upon them is just people know

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Intuitively that there is a God and they are accountable to him. I reference a book by Francis Schaeffer the

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God who is there and Basically, that was his assertion that people of the world know there is a God there, but they suppress it

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People are not born atheists. You got to educate somebody to become an atheist Everywhere in the world people are religious unless they're taught.

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Otherwise There's an intuitive sense about us As one declared once in every human being there's a

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God -shaped vacuum that only God can fill rightly They suppress the truth

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Their guilt is great What was it that God had shown these people indeed to all people everywhere verse 20 records for his invisible attributes?

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Namely as eternal power divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made

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So that they are without excuse and so God has revealed to creation that he exists

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How can you draw any other conclusion? At some point we'll probably have to talk about the philosophy of materialism, you know the evolutionists

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We claim that God is infinite and eternal there never a time God did not exist

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He's infinite in every way. They claim there was never a time There wasn't something material physical that it is eternal.

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It is infinite and we would say that's ludicrous They are infusing in physical things what we

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Understand and affirm to our God They're making a God out of creation

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They're idolaters And it's nonsensical When you when you carry it out to its to its conclusion they're the ones who don't make any sense if you push upon them and you see some videos on YouTube where where you find a

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Christian who's pretty sharp at these matters and and He levels it against some of these evolutionists and these scientists and so -called philosophers and they're just rendered silent

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Because they don't have a legitimate response. They cannot respond because their philosophy is bankrupt

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There's no solid foundation if you carry it through well,

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I Suppose we'll have to hit that at some point God has shown them that there are invisible attributes of him a power divine nature.

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It's there Psalm 19 we won't read it, but it declared the heavens declare

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It's the heavens are our witness. It's like they're witnessing every day and every night

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This is God. This is who God is. This is what he's like and So Pete all people everywhere all over the world

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They're having this witness of God being proclaimed to them through what is seen invisible attributes of his eternal power and divine nature and So Paul states in verse 21 for although they knew

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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

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See the worldview that most people embrace is that which is taught by the evolutionists and the materialist

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They understand history to record the gradual development of primitive man into a more sophisticated and thinking person whose religions also underwent gradual development from primitive man

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Primitive ideas to hire a more complex system as the millennia unfolded, but the scriptures declare mankind is not

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Improving but he's in decline There was a time when all mankind knew about the

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God who had created them more clearly and fully than they do now By their suppression of the truth.

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It resulted in a decayed departure of their former privilege and knowledge and And this historical

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Degradation is suggested by Paul's words for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him

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When Paul wrote although they knew God he's not saying they knew God itself in a saving way

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In a personal saving relationship, but they knew of God's existence and they knew in a measure what he's like But they failed to respond in a manner that that knowledge should have led them

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And so the two great sins that unbelievers commit in their disregard of God is failing to honor

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God they fail to give glory to God and Secondly in their failure to render thanksgiving to God For who he is and for all that he has done and so people refuse to glorify

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God as God They're in this way failing in the major purpose for which God had created them to glorify

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God and to enjoy him forever When People live a disregard of God when they do not respond to God in a right manner

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They experience degradation in their reasoning and in their moral standards Those who fail or refuse to glorify

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God or thank God for who he is and what he's done experience a judicial Diminishment in their capacity and their ability to understand spiritual matters rightly and clearly

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People become futile in their thinking they're foolish That doesn't mean they're ignorant

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But you know the fool in the Word of God describes a person who fails to order his life according to God's ways

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It's a fool's errand to live in God's world as though God doesn't exist And then in verses 22 and 23

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Paul shows The level to which these people fall because of their willful rejection of God and failure to worship him claiming to be wise they became fools and Exchanged the glory of the immortal

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God for images resembling mortal men birds and animals and creeping things in other words, they became

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Idolaters if you're not a God worshiper, you will be a creature worshiper of some form

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Idolatry is One of the major sins of fallen mankind What is idolatry right in the middle of page 8?

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Jc. Ryle provided this definition Idolatry is a worship in which the honor due to God and Trinity and to him only is given to some of his creatures or To some invention of his creatures.

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That's what idolatry is And so we tend to think of idolatry maybe in primitive lands among animistic people

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Uneducated who carve a god from a tree bowed down to serve it No idolatry is present present whenever the true

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God is not worshipped or is not worshipped rightly All of us are idolaters to a certain degree

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God created man as a worshiping creature man will devote himself to something When he devotes himself to honor

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God and be appreciative to God throughout his existence and his relationship Everything about him may be enjoyed in its proper role in God's in God's world and in his purposes

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And so the true worshiper the true God the Creator will be truly in harmony with God and all that he has made

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That he's given to richly enjoy But the one who refuses to honor God as God and thank

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God as God These ones described in Romans 1 will twist and abuse The things that God made for man's use and pleasure and make them into idols.

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They become the focal point of life the meaning of life and So those things become snares to him and troublers of his soul

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The idolatry gives his time his talent and treasure to these matters and we can make an idol of anything can't wait

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JC Ryle again wrote let us mark this Well, it's high time to dismiss from our minds those loose ideas of idolatry which are common in this day

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We must not think as many do that There are only two sorts of idolatry the spiritual idolatry of the man who loves his wife or child or money

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More than God and the open gross Idolatry of the man who bows down to an image of wood metal stone because he knows no better We may rest assured that idolatry is a sin which occupies a far wider field than this is

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It's not merely a thing in Hindostan that we may hear and a pity they have over 300 million gods in India Erected on every block.

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It's amazing Nor is it a thing confined in our hearts that we may confess before the mercy seat upon our knees

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It's a pestilence that walks in the Church of Christ to a much greater extent that many suppose

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It's an evil that like the man of sin sits in the temple of God It's a sin that we all need to watch and pray against continually.

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It creeps into our religious worship Insensibly and is upon us before we are aware.

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I Would venture to say as Christians that you're probably one of your biggest struggles in life not to become

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Idolatrous to take something and make it more important to you than God himself

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It seems to me, you know, we all have to repress that Have to keep things in proper perspective and in order

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Football season's coming. I'm gonna keep that in proper perspective in order Hunting season is coming up.

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All right, I can't you know, you these things are fine in and of themselves Unless you make them and you know

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The center of your life more important to you and give your attention your emotions your affections your will your time

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To these things to the neglect of God of Jesus Christ and his will his people

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That's when it becomes idolatry And so there's there different things in every one of our lives that you know

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That encroach upon your thinking and your emotions that elevate themselves and squeeze out

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The things of God and so we're always dealing addressing this matter of idolatry

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John the last verse in in in first John little children keep yourselves from idols

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Well in Romans 1 24 to 31 the Apostle then

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Spoke about idolaters and the result of that God gave them over to all kinds of sin.

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We won't go into detail all kinds of ungodliness unrighteousness of men and So the

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Lord manifests his wrath upon people and that he gives them up the lust of their hearts and purity And we talked about the judgment of God the wrath of God on the final day of judgment and we should but his wrath is being revealed now and one of the

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Ways God judges sinners is he turns them over to their sin Sin itself is a punishment for previous sin

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Sin leads to more sin unless it stopped and arrested through repentance and faith and It'll ultimately result in death and damnation apart from Jesus Christ And so he turns them over to Impurity to dishonorable passions a debased mind to do what ought not to be done

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He three times Paul says God turns them over gives them over in these three different ways

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God gave them up to impurity. God gave them up to dishonorable passions. God gave them up to a debased mind

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The Word of God clearly identifies and condemns homosexual sin as a result of dishonorable passions desires

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Of Course in our society great effort is made to normalize and dignify

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Homosexual behavior our culture is now at the place where no one can speak out against Homosexual practice without being dismissed or disregarded as the worst kind of bigot

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You can imagine you know how people would think of what we're saying today and of our church because I'm saying it here

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It's got a only Increase in this direction move in this direction further

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Homosexual supporters have waged a very effective campaign to change people's opinions about their behavior.

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They began to change the terminology You know 50 years ago when you when?

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Christians referred to homosexual behavior they referred to it as sodomy and sodomize

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You know that grates upon your ears even to hear it today But now that you know, they're what they're referred to as gay

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Is it they've taken away biblical language and sanitized it and again?

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They take that which the Bible says should be a source and cause of shame that now they're elevated to a place of pride and This is dishonorable

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Dishonorable passions. It's a lie and So promoters and apologists of this sin of convinced society

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For example that what to consenting adults do in private is their business doesn't affect anyone but them.

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That's a lie. That's not true All sin has influence and effect on others about us

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I'm not you know advocating You know Developing a government like the

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Taliban and you know coming to encouraging society or anything like that But the idea that somehow what two people do in private doesn't have ramifications

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I Remember a man out in California, this is this 40 years ago probably who was held forth as this great peregrine of Virtue because he came out of the closet as a practicing homosexual alright, and he had contracted

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HIV in the early days in the early 80s and he was held out as a kind of a hero and They didn't talk about his his wife and his five kids

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Whom he abandoned and his wife to whom he gave the HIV virus.

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I mean, you know, it's like you it's it's horrendous as to what is being promoted in and Argued as something to be proud of when the

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Bible says it's a it's a cause of shame And on the Day of Judgment it

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Everybody will see it as that Dishonorable passions God gave them up to a debased mind to do not to do what ought not to be done

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He gave them up and so God is active

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And he even states at the last verse of Romans 1 It's not just the people who do these things

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But the people who approve of those things who do these things are also worthy of the same judgment of God This is serious business again, when we talk about having a biblical worldview, we want to see the world as God sees it and embrace his values of righteousness and what he declares to be sin and We're not saying that you know, those people are

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You know more deserving of God's wrath than we know not at all

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Again Paul's whole argument here in the first part of Romans It's a whole world is guilty.

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You and I are as equal of eternal damnation before God as any other sinner in this world

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Maybe in different ways to different degrees but the only escape that God has allowed or brought about is through the gospel of Jesus Christ and So as we declare these things we do not do so, you know with a self -righteous attitude

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Condemning others while justifying ourselves not in any way at all But rather we want to hold forth the great danger that there stand in unless they turn to Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation in God's world and He alone can save because he alone lived a life of righteousness perfect conformity to the law of God and He died on the cross as a sacrifice as a substitute for sinners

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Fully satisfying the justice of God so God can be just even as he forgives sinners

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Who turn from their sin and believe on him and that's the gospel what we want to proclaim clearly and widely and You can expect we can anticipate reaction and sometimes the

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Lord, you know the ones that the Lord purposes to save will Immediately and at first react to us the strongest and most vehemently.

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I was the most outspoken belligerent anti -christian person that I knew in my community of friends and acquaintances in my hometown

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Lord passed by them But he saved me and the Lord's in the business of saving sinners

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And he gets great glory and saving great sinners, doesn't he and Paul could tell the

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Corinthians about these same, you know The Corinthian behaviors that was going on in Corinth, but such were some of you, but you're washed you're justified

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Through Jesus Christ, we are offering hope and peace and joy and forgiveness and righteousness and a right and Blessed relationship with the

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God of the Bible. May the Lord help us to crystallize and hold this biblical worldview in our minds and Help us to order our own lives

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Accordingly and help us our God to bear faithful witness to his world To his world in his ways in the world in which he's placed us.

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Amen. Let's pray Thank you father for your word. We thank you for the clarity of it our

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God There is no question about what is stated It's quite clear help us our

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Lord to understand it believe it and proclaim it Take away our

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God any fear of man But help us our Lord to fear you most

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That we desire to make you known and we pray our God that you would do a wonderful work of salvation

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And saving great sinners Because we know you receive great glory in doing so for we do pray our father these things in Jesus name