The Difficulty of Disbelief
Romans 1:18-23
August 19, 2007
This morning we started talking about the wrath of God.
In most circles today, you would think that God no longer has wrath. He is painted as super-tolerant and unconcerned about the wickedness of mankind.
“God is Love” is the banner which is proudly touted over gay parades and throughout the halls of the wicked.
Such beliefs revealing that people obviously have no true concept of love.
1 Corinthians 13:6 [Love] “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;”
But certainly Biblical truth and accuracy of interpretation is the least of their concerns.
And so people continue in their sin boisterously shoving it in the face of the righteous claiming that God doesn’t care and loves them anyway.
WHAT A TRAGEDY
As we learned this morning, the wrath of God has not disappeared, God’s wrath is still a reality, and you can see it manifested even in our world today.
Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,”
God is presently (just as always) revealing His wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
And as we noted this morning, the reason He is so angry is not because man is ignorant, but because man is defiant.
It is not as though man does not know the truth,
It is however because man suppresses the truth.
And this evening, I want to show you how hard they work at suppressing the truth.
WE HAVE OFTEN SAID THAT BELIEVING IN JESUS IS NOT EASY.
That is true, but not because it doesn’t make sense, or because it is not obvious.
Believing in Jesus is difficult because it costs you so much to do so.
And in that sense, it is a difficult decision to turn your back on yourself and take up a cross and follow Jesus.
BUT TONIGHT I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT UNBELIEF IS JUST AS DIFFICULT.
It is not difficult from a cost standpoint. At least in this life, it won’t cost you anything not to believe in Jesus.
In fact, if you reject Jesus (at least for a while) you can hold on to the riches of this world. That is until you die and enter eternity.
But the reason disbelief is so difficult is because the truth is so obvious.
And if a person chooses to not believe in Jesus,
They must literally suppress that truth.
They must “hold it down” as we learned this morning.
That means non-believers, those who are under the wrath of God, must work hard to not believe.
And tonight I want to show you how hard they must work.
I want to show you all that they must suppress.
And in doing so, perhaps you will see again why God is so angry that they don’t believe.
But there are three main points I want to make in our text tonight.
Three things that all non-believers must do if they are to stay in disbelief.
#1 DISREGARD GOD
Romans 1:19-20
Paul ended verse 18 revealing why God was angry by saying, “who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”
He builds on that statement here by saying, “because that which is known about God is evident within them,”
Now that is a very enlightening statement about non-believers.
It is crystal clear from that verse that non-believers are not ignorant, they are defiant.
They know about God. It is “evident within them.”
“evident” translates
PHANEROS
(fan-er-os)
“shining, apparent; manifest”
To give you an idea, here are couple of other places that word is used.
John 7:10 “But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret.”
Mark 1:45 “But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.”
That word “publicly” carries the idea of something is universally known. It is public knowledge. Everyone is aware of it.
And that is what Paul is saying here.
The knowledge of God is not limited to a select few who have spent countless hours in Vacation Bible School.
The knowledge of God is public knowledge.
And the only way for men not to be aware of it is if they have disregarded, or ignored it.
And Paul even gets more specific here to tell us what they have ignored.
They are ignoring two very basic, yet very informative forms of testimony.
1) THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE
“that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them.”
Paul says, inside man, God has placed knowledge of Himself.
And this is true.
Paul will later mention Gentiles who know of God.
Romans 2:14-16 “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
And if you need more of an illustration.
Take for a moment the book of Job.
Most scholars think Job is the oldest book in the Bible. They think Job lived before Abraham. Certainly the book was before the Mosaic Law.
Yet throughout the book of Job, not only do we learn that Job was righteous, but also that his friends knew of the importance of righteousness.
Zophar said:
Job 11:13-15 “If you would direct your heart right And spread out your hand to Him, If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, And do not let wickedness dwell in your tents; “Then, indeed, you could lift up your face without moral defect, And you would be steadfast and not fear.”
Elihu said:
Job 34:21-27 “For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps. “There is no darkness or deep shadow Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. “For He does not need to consider a man further, That he should go before God in judgment. “He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, And sets others in their place. “Therefore He knows their works, And He overthrows them in the night, And they are crushed. “He strikes them like the wicked In a public place, Because they turned aside from following Him, And had no regard for any of His ways;”
The point is that there is something inside of man that speaks of righteousness.
God has given a testimony to man within him.
It is the testimony of conscience, and if you are going to refuse to believe God, you must first SEIR YOUR CONSCIENCE.
Which many have done.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,”
In order to not believe you must disregard God’s testimony of conscience.
2) THE TESTIMONY OF CREATION
(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.”
Now this one is really fascinating to me.
Suppose a man is able to sear his own conscience (and many have), then there is still another huge testimony he must somehow disregard.
That is the testimony of creation.
Paul says that God’s creation gives testimony to three things about God.
1) His invisible attributes
2) His eternal power
3) His divine nature
Paul says all of these have “clearly seen, being understood through what has been made”
And let me show you.
“His invisible attributes”
(Mercy, Grace, Love, Righteousness, Faithfulness) to name a few.
Psalms 8:3-8 “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.”
When David looked at the heavens and all that God had made, he was then overcome by the mercy of God.
“What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?”
David couldn’t imagine why God would care for him, when He had all of creation to take care of.
When David contemplated his own glory and supremacy on the earth, he was overwhelmed by the grace of God.
“Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!”
David was definitely getting something he didn’t deserve, he learned of grace.
He then looked at how God had allowed man to rule this earth, even over animals, and was overwhelmed by the love of God.
“You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet…”
He knew God loved him because his status on the earth.
Right there David looked at creation and the natural order in this world and reasoned that God was merciful, gracious, and loving.
He would later explain the righteousness of God.
Psalms 97:6 “The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples have seen His glory.”
Psalms 36:5-6 “Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.”
There David looked at creation and saw God’s faithfulness and judgments.
The point is the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen in creation. Even creation testifies that God is merciful, gracious, loving, faithful, and righteous.
But Paul also said you can learn more of God.
“His eternal power” is also seen in creation.
Psalms 19:1-6 “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.”
Sometime watch a lightning storm, and be surprised by a boom of thunder.
Sometime witness a tornado, or fly tonight to Jamaica and witness Hurricane Dean. Feel the force of an earthquake and stand outside in one of dust storms.
But Paul said it also reveals
“His divine nature”
It reveals that whoever made all this must be more than man. Only a powerful and wise God could have created such a thing.
We don’t have time to dive into all the scientific marvels that prove the wisdom and power of God in creation, but to the honest observer, it is obvious man did not make this.
It is also obvious that it did not just appear out of nowhere.
In order to believe a heresy like evolution, you must close your eyes to the truth around you.
You must suppress the truth.
And this was Paul’s point.
In fact, Paul even used creation as a means of testimony in his preaching.
Acts 14:15-17 “and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM. “In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
Acts 17:24-31 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
The point is creation is proof as well as the conscience and all men have both of those testimonies.
In order for men to remain in unbelief they must completely suppress those truths.
They must ignore them, they must disregard God.
And they do.
Disbelief is difficult, you must completely disregard God’s testimony.
#2 DESPISE GOD
Romans 1:21
Now Paul already stated that the knowledge of God was placed within every man.
And so this next statement makes more sense to us.
“For even though they knew God”
And by the way
“knew” translates GINOSKO
(ghin-oce-ko)
It is the same word Paul used when he said, “I want to know Christ”
So the knowledge here is pretty deep.
Thanks to the testimonies, men “know” God.
BUT
“they did not honor Him as God or give thanks”
So now, in order not to believe, not only must you sear your conscience and explain away creation, but you must also determine why God is not worthy of glory or gratitude.
And this is exactly what men have done.
They have refused glory and gratitude to God.
This was seen clearest in Jesus.
John 3:19 “”This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”
Matthew 21:37-39 “But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ “They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.”
And because of this, men are under God’s wrath
Psalms 2:1-3, 10-12 “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!..Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
Luke 19:26-27 “I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. “But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.”
And you see the point.
These men had to work hard not to honor God.
They had to remain willful and obstinate.
Not only do they not “honor Him as God” but they also fail to “give thanks”
WAS THIS NOT SEEN BY THE WONDERERS IN THE WILDERNESS?
They continually grumbled against God. Nothing was good enough, they were constantly angry about something.
Their lack of gratitude prompted Paul to write:
1 Corinthians 10:1-11 “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
And when you read about them, you can see that they had to work hard not to believe.
Unbelief does not come natural,
It is achieved through persistence in suppression.
And instead of honoring God has He deserves, Paul said:
“but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
The word “speculations” can also be rendered “imaginations”.
In other words, because they didn’t like the truth of God, they just imagined their own truth.
They questioned things they should not have questioned and just formed their own belief system.
And then in order to seal the deal, they darkened their heart.
They closed their heart off to the truth, and forced themselves to believe the lie they concocted.
THIS IS AT THE HEART OF EVERY FALSE RELIGION
(always some dream, some vision, some special revelation)
They are nothing more than man’s imagination, and they lead men to unbelief.
And the outcome is blindness.
In other words, they couldn’t see because they wouldn’t see.
This is what Paul spoke of in regard to non-believers.
Ephesians 4:17-19 “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”
It is a willful disregard of God, and a willful despising of God.
Unbelief didn’t come natural,
they had to sear their conscience,
overlook creation,
revolt against God,
and harden their heart in order not to believe.
Disregard God, Despise God
#3 DEVALUE GOD
Romans 1:22-23
Paul here says, that their great wisdom (i.e. worldly education) actually led them to become fools.
Which is what God said would happen.
1 Corinthians 1:20-25 “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
And if you want to see the height of their ignorance, it came in the way they tried to explain (or explain away) God.
DON’T YOU LOVE IT WHEN A NON-BELIEVER TRIES TO GIVE YOU INFORMATION ABOUT GOD
They never get it right, and that is what Paul says here.
In their extreme foolishness, they devalued God.
(23) “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.”
All they managed to do was dumb God down.
They reinvented God to be something they could comprehend.
Because that made Him easier to cast aside.
And oh the danger of trying to explain God through human logic.
Deuteronomy 4:10-20 “Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ “You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom. “Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form — only a voice. “So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. “The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it. “So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. “And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. “But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as today.”
Isaiah 40:18-20, 25-26 “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter… To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.”
But that is exactly what men do.
They pretend that God is like them, or even better, they pretend He is like an animal (something they can control).
The point is they devalue God to a point that they don’t have to believe in Him.
And once they devalue Him, unbelief is easy.
But here is the point.
If you are going to refuse to believe in God, here is what you must do.
1) Sear your own conscience to disregard God’s inner law
2) Explain away the testimony of creation
3) Revolt against God
4) Harden your heart to remain in unbelief
5) Dumb God down to a level that is easy to cast aside
DON’T BE IN UNBELIEF
Psalms 2:10-12 “Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
