WORSHIP—WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL

Romans 1:16-23
September 25, 1994
Bob Bonner

How big a deal is it to you personally that you worship God? Is it really important to you? Or is it a token of importance? If you think it is important, could an impartial observer determine the degree of priority that worship plays in your life?

How important is it to God that we worship the true God versus worshipping only a partial understanding of His nature or attributes? Could a continued ongoing worshipping of God with only a partial understanding of Who He is and His plan for our lives result in any serious problems? Do we really need to understand Who God is to genuinely worship Him and in turn receive all that is good that He wants us to enjoy?

There are some of the questions that our lesson for this morning will answer for us. We will begin to see how important worshipping and honoring God is to God. And furthermore, we will begin to see the implications for our lives, even as believers if we do not worship Him in spirit and in truth.

As we look at verses 16-23 this morning, we want to focus upon two acts of God, both of which stem from His character begin that of a loving and just God.

As we continue our study of the first 17 verses of Romans 1, we will see the far reaching act of a loving God for all mankind. Let’s pick up our study by reading Romans 1:16. The Apostle Paul writes, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

As we look at these verses this morning, Paul will use several terms that are important for us to understand if we are going to understand the implication these verses have for our lives. For instance: Paul says that he is not ashamed of the “gospel”. As many of you know, the term gospel means good news or ever better, it means a fabulous announcement. The announcement that this term stands for refers to much more than how one can be forgiven for one’s sin and reach heaven. It is used in the New Testament as a much broader term. It refers to how God wants to relate to us now as well as forever more. It refers to all that God has done for us that we might even be capable of having a personal relationship with Him now, should we want one.

It is of this great announcement, that Paul says that he is not ashamed. Why would Paul feel it necessary to state that he isn’t ashamed of the gospel? The idea of shame here is that of an embarrassing situation. For one thing, the gospel was identified with a poor Jewish carpenter who was crucified and therefore of little or no significance to the celebrity seeking world of Paul’s day. Just like today, it was not what you knew but who you knew that really counted in Rome. Most Romans had no special fondness toward Jews. So Paul had to state right up front, that he wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed in any way to be identified with a crucified Jewish carpenter.

Furthermore, Paul wasn’t ashamed of the Gospel because he was absolutely certain that what he had committed his life to was absolutely true. As we learned last week, Paul knew that the good news about Jesus was true because Jesus had been promised from the Scriptures that He would come in the way He did. He knew that Jesus was indeed the God-Man because of His miracles and His power to resurrect Himself form the dead.

But in this verse, Paul adds two other reasons why he is not embarrassed to proclaim the good news about Jesus. Like many Americans, the Romans appreciated power. Power was an important concept to them, whether it is political, economic or military power, or pure brute strength. The power of the gospel that so impressed Paul was not that it, enabled someone to be saved, but a person who has Jesus living in him or her has God’s very power within them to live changed lives.

Again, like Americans are learning, the Romans learned that they were powerless to change the stubborn, hostile, selfish, hateful hearts of people. Laws don’t change people. If you are going to change people, you must change their hearts. The gospel, when fully understood, is so powerful that it can take someone from the kingdom of darkness and place them into the kingdom of light. It can turn a life that has been lived in chaos into a life of order and sense. It can take one who has been struggling with a discontented, hopeless life and turn that life into one of hope and contentment.

The gospel is good news in that it totally transforms or saves a person’s life. In fact, that is what this next very important word “salvation” actually refers to. This term “salvation” is a broad concept that includes forgiveness of sins, but involves much more. Its basic meaning refers to “wholeness and complete restoration” of all that sin has marred or destroyed. And it is this whole process of restoration that Paul wants us to understand from this book. Specifically, Paul wants us to understand how we can return to living the life that God intended before the Fall of mankind and even a much better life than that indeed. But the reality of the gospel coming true in a person’s life depends, as Paul tells us here, upon the individual person’s willingness “to believe” the complete message of the gospel and by faith put their trust in it.

Have you ever been ashamed of your faith? Have you ever been afraid to speak up for what you believe to be true? I have, I am ashamed to admit. I use to be ashamed of the gospel for several reasons. One was, believing in Jesus made me different than other family members and friends. As soon as I became a Christian, I discovered that I was peculiar or treated as odd. Friends turned away from me; some family members laughed. Nobody likes to be considered different, especially when you want others approval. So for some time, even though I knew that the gospel was true, I was embarrassed to tell anybody else, whose opinion I valued, that I believed in Jesus.

But there was an even more important reason I was ashamed of the gospel and didn’t stand up for my faith. I lacked the conviction that Jesus could really change a person’s life today. Oh, He had changed my life, I think. But could He really change a person’s life who I thought was more messed up than mine? Could He change a person’s hateful and bitter heart into one of compassion and love? I knew what he meant to me, and some of the areas of my life that he changed, but I use to secretly doubt, “Could Jesus really transform a person filled with rage into a person who was a model of peace and grace?” I would see people trapped in various forms of addiction and wonder silently, “God, can Jesus really make a difference in that person’s life?” I mean, I knew intellectually that Jesus could forgive sin, but do something miraculous like setting free once and for all a person from the bondage of homosexuality? Of that I wasn’t sure. So, I was embarrassed and lacked confidence to speak up for my faith, even as a young pastor. Not any more. I’ve seen what Jesus can do in a person’s life. I now understand the power of the truth of the gospel. It is real and it’s for everybody, Jew and non-Jew! Do you have that confidence?

If you don’t, I’m sure you aren’t alone. Probably many of the believers in Rome feel just like you. And that’s why Paul is writing this letter, to help his readers understand the true power of the gospel or the good news about Jesus and the difference He makes in one’s life.

Besides the power of the gospel to transform people’s lives, there’s another reason Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. He tells us in verse 17, “For in it [in the message of the gospel] {the} righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith;…”

The righteousness of God is revealed in a threefold fashion: First, we see in the gospel the very righteous character of God Himself. He is fair, just, loving and wise and hence, really deserves our worship.

Secondly, the righteousness of God is revealed in the message of the gospel in that it tells us how people who are sinners can be made righteous before God, and therefore renews our relationship with Him that was lost at the Fall. According to the message of the gospel, God gives His very own righteous nature to all who put their trust in Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord. It’s God’s desire to make us right or whole again, so He changes us from the inside out.

Third, because of Jesus dying on the cross for our sin, God’s personal righteousness has been vindicated in the very act of declaring us right. When He says, “You are forgiven and made right”. God is saying that He has made it possible for His anger to be appeased due to His very person having been slammed or insulted by all mankind. In the end, all of creation will proclaim that God is righteous.

But notice, this is “revealed from faith to faith”. Understanding the entire message of the gospel and its implications takes time to fully grasp. Paul knew that the Christians at the church in Rome were saved, but they still need to grow in their understanding of what the gospel is all about. They needed to fully understand what has happened to them and what is true of them, now that Jesus is their savior and Lord. For it is only as we grow in our understanding, that we fully appreciate and grab hold of the riches which are rightfully ours in Jesus Christ. As one believes one bit by faith, and discovers it to be true, then God feeds the individual more as he or she is able to take it in. Once a person is born again, growth becomes a process. Just as no one is born an adult, no one is born instantly mature in Christ.

And the proof or evidence that someone has understood this message of the gospel, and is indeed saved and growing in spiritual maturity, Paul tells us in the rest of verse 17. He says, “But the righteous {man} shall live by faith.” That statement Paul will develop later in this letter. Briefly explained, the more we grow up in Christ, the less we will depend upon what this letter will describe as the flesh and the more we will depend upon the riches we have in Christ who literally lives within every believer. It is this statement that Paul uses chapters 8-16 to more fully explain and develop, and Lord willing, we will get to it.

With the end of verse 17, we come to the close of Paul’s introduction to the book of Romans. Beginning with verses 1:18-3:20, the scene changes. To best understand what Paul is doing in these next two to three chapters, one must imagine that the Apostle Paul is standing in a court room as a prosecuting attorney who is about to present his case before the jury. In this situation, we, the readers, of these verses are the jury. Paul stands up at the table and opens this huge file filled with evidence to prove his case convincingly to us.

Up to this point, Paul has talked to us about the act of love God performed toward all mankind as is revealed through the Gospel. So far, Paul has not directly pointed to the sin of mankind or our unrighteousness, but it has been implied. When Paul says that the people need saving and that the Gospel reveals the righteousness of God, he is also implying that mankind doesn’t inherently have righteousness—Which draws our attention to a fact of life: until a person sees their need for a savior or sees their own sinful state, that person will never appreciate, understand or see a need to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior and Lord. Until we understand our horrible condition without Jesus Christ, we will not accept the good news of the gospel.

Hence, Paul sets out in these next few chapters to drive home his point. This morning, in verses 18-23, Paul will speak generally to our serious problem. From there through chapter 3, Paul will become so specific to the need of every human being for a savior, that not an intelligent thinking person can miss the gravity of a person’s position apart from knowing Jesus Christ as one’s savior.

As we begin with verse 18, I want you to notice the stark contrast between the act of God’s love, revealing His righteousness through the gospel, and the act of God’s wrath toward mankind, which also reveals something very true about God’s nature. Paul says in the first half of verse 18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…” Paul deliberately uses the same term “revealed” in this verse as he did in verse 17 that spoke of His loving righteousness. 

Here is an important point about God that many people either flat out deny or have been deceived into believing otherwise. Some years ago, an article in the London Times reported that fourteen church study groups in Woodford looked at the Old Testament psalms and concluded that 84 of them were “not fit for Christians to sing”. [“Psalms Chosen From the New Testament” {23 August 1962}, sec.1, p. 10]. They reasoned that the wrath and vengeance reflected in those psalms was not compatible with the Christian gospel of love and grace.

But Scripture makes very clear that justice, wrath and judgment are as much divine attributes of God as are love, mercy and grace. 

People who teach that God is love without teaching that God is also one who hates sin, have in reality another god than the God of the Bible. They believe in a god who Donald Grey Barnhouse says is “Satan with a mask on.” God’s attributes are balanced by His perfection. He is perfectly love, but He is also perfectly holy and just. It is perfectly and gloriously true that God is love. It is also gloriously true that God is hate. Anyone who has not taken into account the hatred or the ability for God to totally reject sinners has failed to comprehend one of the most important truths of the universe.

Just think about the verse that is probably better known by Christians than any other verse of the Bible, John 3:16. In that verse alone, one sees both the love of God and the justice that God demands because His is also wrathful. It says that because God was so loving, but also because He knew that sin had to be paid for and His own anger appeased, this loving and just God demanded a sacrifice that would once and for all solve the problem of sin. So, He gave His son to die a torturous death to meet His standard for justice and to appease his wrath.

Now, before we go any further, let’s get a grip on this term wrath, so we don’t have any misunderstanding at this point. When Paul uses this term “wrath”, he does not imply that God is some capricious being filled with uncontrolled anger.

There are two terms for anger or wrath that are used in the original language. One, is the word from which we get our word, “thermometer”, it is the word “thumos”. This word refers to the hot, vehement surge of anger that quickly overcomes people when they lose control and smack somebody. It is impulsive and passionate and explosive. This is not the word used in our text for God’s wrath.

The word used here is the word “ogre” which refers to a slowly rising indignation. The original meaning is connected with plants and fruits that slowly swell with juice until they finally burst. It is more of a settled condition than an explosion. It is a controlled wrath. When God becomes wrathful, He has legitimate reason. Hence, God’s wrath is a perfectly controlled and a settled anger purposely directed. Now the target of God’s wrath is very specific. This wrath, as our verse tells us, is directed at the “ungodliness and unrighteousness” of people. However, the “wrath of God” does not portray a deity who flies off the handle and indiscriminately thumps anybody who happens to be at hand.

To better understand this target of God’s wrath, let’s understand the two terms, “ungodliness and unrighteousness”. “Ungodliness” is an attitude of living as though God doesn’t exist. It is a total disregard for God. It is what we mean by a secular point of view. It is an attitude that doesn’t expect God to be active. This “ungodliness” originates in the heart of a person. It is this attitude that gets God’s wrathful juices pumping.

“Unrighteousness”, on the other hand, is an action that originates out of an attitude of “ungodliness”. It is the selfish, hurtful acts of men and women toward each other and toward God’s creation. These actions also add to increasing God’s anger. Notice the order in which Paul mentions these two terms, “ungodliness and unrighteousness”. It is “ungodliness” first that leads to “unrighteousness”. The order is never reversed. It reflects the principle that how we treat others reveals what kind of vertical relationship we have with God. In contrast to this, as we will see when we get to chapter 15, godliness is revealed in true love shown to others.

There is an important truth that needs to be recognized is we are going to see change take place in our world. The truth is this: If the heart of an ungodly individual is not changed, then the unrighteous acts towards other will not change. Making new laws or producing more educational programs on ethics or morality will never change mankind’s unrighteous behavior. What must be changed is the heart of a person. And that is why Jesus came. He came to give us a new heart that we might be born again and live in a right relationship with God.

Now Paul says here that the wrath of God is “revealed from heaven” against this ungodliness and unrighteousness. This phrase refers to the invisible heavenly forces that are at work everywhere around us to confront us with our ungodliness. The signs of our ungodliness are absolutely inescapable. We all suffer from ungodliness. The universal problem that we all suffer from ungodliness explains why tragedy is so close to the surface of all our lives.

But that raises a question: How are we displaying our ungodliness and unrighteousness? Couldn’t we be doing wrong things simply out of our ignorance? Paul is about to answer that question with a “No!”. It is not a matter of our ignorance but a matter of our arrogance.

In the rest of these verses, Paul will point generally to two things that mankind is guilty of doing that have rightfully brought about God’s wrath toward all mankind. The first is mentioned at the end of verse 18 and further explained in verses 19-20. Paul says, that those who are without Christ are guilty of “suppressing the truth” about God in unrighteous behavior.

Suppression of truth is not something that is passive, but deliberate. The term suggests a deliberate, aggressive and continual holding down of what we instinctively know as being true about God and how He has called us to live. All who are without Christ are in the constant process of holding down the truth and are subject to God’s anger. This is true in the darkest of jungles as well as in our concrete forests. We deliberately deny the truth, we ignore it, we water it down and we turn our backs on it. What happens to a world that is deprived of truth is spelled out for us in verses 24-32, which we will look at later.

In verses 19-20, Paul explains the nature of the truth that is continually being suppressed. He says, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them”. This term “evident” means something that is not a secret or covert, but obvious. It is something that He has put within them in their conscience and it is something that they cannot miss through deductive reasoning. Why does Paul say that? He tells us in verse 20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

The truth is that those individuals without Christ must make a concerted act of their will to deny the truth about God which He has made evident to them; specifically, they must work at denying that God or Jesus exists. They must work hard at denying that it is through His power that this world has been created and is still maintained. They are without excuse. If they wanted to know Him better, they could by seeking Him out. But they have avoided Him instead. It is not a matter of ignorance, but arrogance.

There is a conspiracy amongst our non-Christian friends, family, leaders and educators to not mention God. Rather than talk about God, they use some sort of euphemism to refer to Him or His workings. They use such terms as: nature, fate, karma, the force, destiny, etc. Any way they can to avoid recognizing and honoring God for who He is and giving Him credit for what He has done, they will. This has resulted over time, which is resulting in God’s wrath being revealed against the unbelievers.

There is a second thing building up in humanity which has lead God to reveal his wrath against all ungodliness. It is spelled out in verses 21-23. Without Christ, we have not only suppressed the truth, but the very truth we know about God, we have deliberately perverted. That truth which was so obvious to all mankind that God exists and is worthy of our worship, truth that is difficult to suppress, we change or pervert it. These verses say, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” Mankind knows there is a supreme power or supreme being. But instead of worshipping Him for who He is, we choose to reduce Him to our own level through idolatry.

Did you notice the three steps involved in our perverting the truth? There is one in each verse.

In verse 21, mankind is guilty of ignoring God. We simply refuse to glorify God or give Him thanks. People apart from Christ will do all they can to push God away, rather than worship Him. Hence, the political legislation to ban public prayer or to prevent Christmas carols being sung in school or putting up nativity scenes.

In addition, Paul says that people’s hearts become darkened, which is just another way of saying they become deceived by Satan. Their “hearts” or their mental faculties, their ability to reason, use moral judgment has suffered. Notice what Paul says are the immediate effects of ignoring God. He says that people’s thinking becomes futile. Their clever ideas, procedures, programs and governmental legislation to save our society---things like rehabilitation programs in prisons, stopping starvation programs, etc, apart from honoring God fall apart and in the end come to nothing.

All of this leads us to acting stupidly and doing things foolishly in our homes, government…you name it. Which leads us to verse 22 and the second step in perverting the truth.

People apart from those in Christ, pridefully profess themselves to be wise. They don’t need God to get along. They have all the answers. They know what’s better for themselves. “Marriage is a trap. Have multiple sexual partners. Who needs to wait or save sex until one is married?” Just like their deceiver, Satan, mankind more and more thinks that we can be as powerful and all intelligent as God. That like is what is behind the New Age movement. But in the end, what does Paul say about these people? They become fools.

There is a lady in this town, married to a professional, who herself is a very intelligent lady. But because she has deliberately ignored God, turned her back on the gospel and gone after New Age teaching, she is literally now mentally unstable and her husband doesn’t have a clue about what to do with her. Because even in her foolishness, she refuses to abandon her beliefs and take hold of what others consider to be just plain common sense. Professing to be wise, she has become a fool.

The third step or device that people who turn from God use to pervert the truth is given in verse 23. They become idolatrous. We start worshipping the creation rather than the creator. In this verse we see the negative progressive degeneration that idolatry brings. First, when people turn from worshipping God for who He really is, they turn to worshipping mankind. This is why mythology first became such a big deal. Out of man’s insistent need to recognize some power in the universe greater than himself, but not too great, like God, they worshipped godlike men. Then they worshipped just their peers. Now people worship beautiful, youthful bodies, sexual passions, people with power, prestige or position. We turn to preferring mankind’s praise more than God’s. Then we turn to worshipping birds, then quadrupeds, and ultimately reptiles or crawling things, things that are quite common in third world countries.

Now put yourself in the almighty, holy, creator God’s place for a moment. Here you have created people out of love and given them everything. You have even given them yourself to have a relationship with you. Then they ignore you and blatantly disobey you, so you send your son to die for their stupidity and rebellion, and they still ignore you rather than worship you. They deliberately suppress the truth or that which they can’t suppress they pervert. What would you do with these people? Would you be angry? Sure you would! Would you blow them off the face of the earth? Maybe. If you knew they were going to do this to you, would you die for them? Probably not.

Later we will see more specifically what God’s wrath does. But for now, let’s understand that God loves us and still wants us to have a relationship with Him. It is important to Him that we worship Him in light of who He is and what He has done. And that alone is incredible considering what we have done to Him. He is under no obligation to save one man or woman or child that has ever been created. He could still be totally loving and just if He smoked the entire human race, because we are the ones who have turned our backs on Him. And once we have there is no power on earth that can force Him to come after us. Quite frankly, I don’t know why He has, but I for one, am grateful for the privilege of getting to know Him and call Him Father.

Verse 21, I believe, tells us what is at the root of God’s anger. It says that we have refused to honor Him as God. We have been ungrateful, rebellious people. All along, God created us to serve Him and to worship Him. To make Him number one. But do we? This past week someone said that most men honor their razors more than God. We have time to get up in the morning to shave, but not to meet alone with Him. We are so willing to get on the phone and talk or listen to others, but how often, ladies, do you sit quietly with your Bible and listen to God.

How can we as believers, expect to call our world to worship and follow Jesus Christ if we don’t do it ourselves? My friends, have we been deceived into believing that daily ongoing worship is not important to God or something we need? Then it’s best that we confess that we have been wrong, and that God we need you. We renounce the lie that we can live apart from making worship of you the primary act of our lives. Let’s do that today, corporately. Men, as leaders of your homes, this community and fellowship, will you join me in prayer.

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