From first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, here's Dr. Michael Milton. What about those who have never heard of the Ten Commandments? What about those who have never heard of Moses or Abraham? Paul says the law is written on their hearts. It's on their conscience. Eternity is written on our hearts. In other words, every human being who has ever been born has an internal witness, what John Calvin called the census de Venetatus, the sense of the divine inside, which says there is a God. The very attributes of God can be perceived in the things that have been made. I see the presence and power of God at work in the world. As we look into the stars as we experience love, and these are all external evidences. It says there is a God for we are without excuse. The Bible declares faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. Welcome to Faith for Living with Dr. Michael Milton, the radio outreach ministry of first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga. A ministry with one great passion and belief that faith comes from proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ as found in God's Word. And that faith in Jesus Christ is faith for living. This week Dr. Milton brings to us a message entitled, No Excuse, as we continue our series, A Word from another world, Messages from Romans. In our justice system, a person cannot be declared guilty and punished without first being charged with a crime. The book of Romans presents the critical truth that all people everywhere are guilty before God and subject to his wrath. But many would reply, Why are we guilty? What's a charge? Well, today we see how the Apostle Paul acts as a prosecuting attorney and sets forth the charges by God against mankind. The scripture text for today's broadcast is from Romans 1, verses 18-25. Here again, is Dr. Mike Milton with today's message entitled, No Excuse. John Piper said, If you get Romans, you get Christianity. If you can come to terms with the truths of Paul's epistle to the Romans, you'll come to terms with what it means to be a Christian, a believer in Christ. I believe that so. Paul gave a summary statement in verses 16-17 when he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And he said that it was the power of God and the salvation to all who believed to the Jew first and likewise to the Greek. Why did he say that? Because it was a division between Jew and Greek and the congregation. And then he goes on to say that what the gospel is is justification by faith alone. That our right relationship with God is not through anything other than by faith and what Jesus Christ has done for us. And that is a profound, simple statement that is life-transforming. Well, now, where do you go from there? Well, Paul is going to deal with both Gentile first and then Jew and Paul is going to go from there into three steps to have a happy marriage. Is that where we begin? Christianity is answers your consumeristic needs, your desires. No, the apostle Paul, though we can get there, don't get me wrong. Christianity will teach you how to have a better marriage and how to have a better life and how to enjoy the life that God has given you. But Paul begins with the fact that we're sinners and that the wrath of God is resting upon the world of unbelief. Now, maybe some of you have asked the question, what about those who have never heard? What about those who have never heard of Moses or the Ten Commandments? What about those people? Well, Paul gives the answer and his answer is the title to my sermon. We'll see it in the text. Let's begin with verse 18, chapter 1 of Romans. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that had been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him that they became futile and they're thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. For God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because the exchange, the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed for ever amen. Word of the Lord. As I begin to prepare for this message, I begin to think about a theme and the theme was the theme of shadows. There is an old Perry Cuomo song from the big band era, maybe some of you will remember it, it's called Me and My Shadow. Strolling down the avenue, Me and My Shadow, not another soul to tell my troubles to. There's some theology in that song because life is filled with shadows. David wrote about the shadow of death. Isaiah wrote about shadows when he said, justice is far from us and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light but all is darkness for brightness but we walk in deep shadows. What are the shadows? The dark side of each and every one of us that the Bible calls sin. And in the Bible, the shadows became a metaphor, a sign for that dark part of humanity, the dark part of humanity which witnessed the slaughter of the innocence in Jesus' day, the persecution of Christians under wrong. The holocaust in World War II, the persecutions of Christian people and nations today because of the darkness. But because of the darkness there are also troubles between people. There's distances created by the shadows and families and maybe between man and wife. The Apostle Paul does not go from a summary of the gospel directly to the light of Jesus Christ. He begins with shadows because life is filled with shadows. There's been some art critics who have criticized the artist who is known as the artist of light, Thomas Kincaid. I like Thomas Kincaid, the artist from Carmel by the sea, my wife and son and I toured his studio in Carmel. And I understand why he paints his pictures with so much light coming out because he's a Christian. And that's reflecting his heart. But here's the deal with the art critics, the art critics say and I'll let you decide about what's right and wrong on this. The art critics say there's not enough shadow. One thing is for sure in the Bible it's not just the brilliant light of Jesus. It's the brilliant light of Jesus Christ in contrast to and dispelling the darkness of sin on earth. And so the Apostle Paul begins by talking about shadows. He begins in fact by talking about the wrath of God. Where would you go if you had to launch off into the gospel? Paul begins with saying that the Gentile peoples in Europe and in the world are without excuse. This morning we can see how the Apostle Paul sort of like a theological Perry Mason begins to build a case. And this is what he's doing. He is building a case against the unbelieving peoples of the earth. It is a devastating term of events in this letter. If you are listening and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, my heart is with you because I know that you must feel this to be a blow. And if you are a believer who wants to live on just happy thoughts and kind of skip the bad news of the gospel of the good news, then I'm sorry. But this is where Paul will begin and we must go there. Two words that I want to frame this message around. The first word is ungodliness and the second word is unrighteousness. Looking in the Bible is in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Now from that one passage and with those two words ungodliness and unrighteousness we can see the case that the Apostle Paul is building against the unbelieving world. Remember his congregation is made up of both Jew and Gentile. He's going to be talking later about what it means to have the law, to have the covenants, to have the benefit of knowing God and yet not following God. So his devastating blow is equal. It's going to go against the Jewish members of the congregation but he's going to begin with the Gentile members. And he begins to say that the Gentile world and their moral behavior has so offended God that they are without excuse and they are inexcusable before God because of first ungodliness. Now I want you to note in your scripture that ungodliness precedes unrighteousness. And this order is not without purpose because without God to have a godless life is to lead to an unrighteous life. To get rid of God is to usher in every sort of evil and every sort of despicable thing into your life both petty and perverse. And so the Apostle Paul begins with his case against the Gentile world by saying that you are inexcusable because of your ungodliness. Now there are two ways that Paul is saying that you are ungodly. First of all, you are ungodly in your rejection of the internal witness of God and man. You are inexcusable. It's inexcusable because there's been an internal witness of God inside of you. Paul says in fact here they knew God and did not honor God. If you look further in Romans and look with me in chapter 2 and verse 15, Paul writing about the Gentile said they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. So what about those who have never heard of the Ten Commandments? What about those who have never heard of Moses or Abraham? Paul says the law is written on their hearts. It's on their conscience. If you were to look in Ecclesiastes 3-11, you would find that Solomon there declares that eternity is in their hearts. Eternity is written on our hearts. In other words, every human being who has ever been born has an internal witness, what John Calvin called the census de Venetatus, the sense of the divine inside. It says there is a God. Paul is simply saying that they have suppressed that internal witness in order to sin. Much like a fellow I knew who told me about his wicked past and part of his wicked past involved a going to a hotel and immorality there. He said there was a Bible on the nightstand and having grown up in a church and having his conscience pricked by what he was doing and by that Bible, he took the Bible and put it in the dress or drawer. So he said, if I get rid of the Bible, if I get rid of God looking at me, I can do whatever I want. Well, can you? Can you get rid of the witness and say, well, if I suppress it, then it's not there, right? Paul says no. Paul says that you are with that excuse because there is an internal witness given to every man. Paul is also saying there is an ungodliness that comes from a rejection of the external witness by God to man. If you look in the passage, you see that Paul says that verse 19, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature. Do you get that? His eternal power and divine nature, the very attributes of God can be perceived. How? Clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse. And so it's not only an internal witness, but there is an external witness of God. And we all know that this morning as I looked into the eyes of these children and these families. I see the presence and power of God at work in the world as we look into the stars and the heavens and see the stars as we experience love and experience things that are hard to explain. These are all external evidences. It says, there is a God. There is a bestseller out right now. It is called God is not great. How religion poisons everything. And it's written by one of my favorite essayists, Christopher Hitchens, Bryant, who is an unbeliever. The Bible says that to reject God in your heart is to be a fool. But in it he goes to show how all of the cults and all of the fanatical groups that have ever existed proved that religion is just nothing but harmful. And so there is no God. But it's interesting to me that atheists and agnostics and others who rail against God rail against Him. They are always dealing with Him. It reminds one of Shakespeare and he thinks the lady does protest too much. There is someone there. It's God. The Bible says Christopher Hitchens knows it and he suppresses it in order to sin. If it's been in your life that you compartmentalize God away, despite the evidences of his presence in your life today is the day to repent and to turn to Him to the one who loves you. And it doesn't want to be in the drawer. It doesn't want to be separate. It wants to be in every area of your life. Let the light of Jesus Christ shine into the darkness that may be in your intellectual life or your vocational life for we are without excuse. Paul says man is inexcusable not only because of ungodliness but because of unrighteousness. So the shadow of ungodliness now extends so far that it creates another shadow of unrighteousness, wickedness. Paul mentions to one the unrighteousness of religion where Paul says that in doing what they did in denying God they begin to worship God's pseudo gods that look like humans. They begin to worship animals. They begin to worship a birds and reptiles. My son and I coming back from Albania stopped to see our missionaries in Rome and had the opportunity to just about run through the museum of the Vatican to see Raphael and to see Michelangelo and what a tremendous privilege that was. But you know what else we saw? We saw pre-Christian art in Europe. And guess what we saw? Poseidon, Zeus, we saw figures of men who had been worshipped. And you know what else we saw? I'll never forget because I just went back from it, a God that had a head like a dog and a body like a man. And I begin to think what an amazing transformation happened through the preaching of the gospel. But you know we can have idols today also and you know that. And I wonder if 300 years from now there was a museum here in North America and in what we were calling increasingly post-Christian North America, what kind of hall of idols would there be there? And you think of any? There is a condemnation here that human beings took the sense of the divine within them and suppressed the knowledge of God and began to use the sense of the divine to worship things other than the one true God. That is the condemnation. Second, there is the unrighteousness of relations. And Paul gets into this very wicked business that we read in verse 24, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who was blessed forever amen. I've got a question for you. Is it practical? Does it have anything to do with life? Does faith have anything to do with life? Paul is saying because of unbelief, unbelief led to wickedness in their relationships among one another. And he's talking about things which modesty requires that I go no further than Scripture. To deny God as we also see in Genesis 6 where they denied God and began to marry the women, they wanted to marry rather than the women God wanted to marry, that is believers, that led to God's judgment and the destruction of the world. Unbelief leads to impurity. Why? Because the devil is filthy. Wherever I go and I see the overwhelming power of the devil, I see filth whether it's moral, sewage or whether it's literal filth. Unbelief leads to unrighteousness of relations. And of course all of this, the inexcusable we see here leads to the inescapable judgment of God. God gave them over. Paul Barth wrote about this that the confusion of ungodly man and his sin abinges itself and becomes its own punishment. The forgetting of the true God is already itself, the breaking loose of his wrath against those who forget him. My beloved, I want to plead with you this morning in Jesus Christ a fall of the Lord and to open your heart and to find out if there's any area of unbelief in your life and to turn to him less the shadow of sin leads to a life of pain. I would appeal to you as one who is like a brand-plot from the burning to come out of the sensuality of the world and come to the clean, pure Jesus. Keep your bodies pure before the Lord by keeping your hearts pure and your minds pure before him in the gospel. Come now says the Lord and let us reason together, though your sins be a scarlet, he can wash them as white as snow. So this is the case that Paul builds on godliness, unrighteousness leading to judgment. No excuse. As I presented a paper in Albania to university professors and to students afterwards said Muslim professor, culturally Muslim, not radical Muslim, came up to me as a professor of French at the military academy. He came up to me and he said, let me ask you a question. When a man receives Jesus Christ, what happens to his life? Anything? I said, oh, sure. I told him what you would probably say becomes a better husband or a better wife. He treats his children better. They're practical outworkings to faith. He said, well, I've seen this happen with Muslims. I've seen this happen with other religions. What's the difference? I said, well, the difference in Christianity is this. We really don't begin the gospel by telling you how to have a great life. We begin by telling you that you're a sinner and in need of a Savior. And he had said some very kind remarks to me, but I said, sir, I need to tell you that you are looking at what I consider the chief of sinners, the most unqualified man ever to be called to the ministry of the gospel. A filthy sinner saved by grace, and that's all I am. And he said, not even we don't say that about other people, much less someone saying about himself. I said, but this is the gospel. But there's darkness and shadows in my life and that I need the light of Jesus Christ. And he smiled and he said, okay, that's different. That's different.
You know, the song really isn't me and my shadow anymore for those who have received Jesus Christ. It's the words of the hymnist who wrote Jesus, I am resting, resting. Listen to this. Ever lift thy face upon me as I work and wait for thee, resting me, thy smile, Lord Jesus, earth's dark shadows flee. I want to ask you if you're going to step out of the shadows today and receive the gift of light because today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of God's favor. Will you receive Jesus Christ into your life? I want to ask you, believer, will you open up every part of your life today to the light of Jesus Christ that he can shine? Because the truth of the gospel is that there are shadows but in Christ the shadows are fleeing at his presence. Yes, we are told here that no one is excused, but we are also told no one is excluded who comes. Although we cannot see God, it doesn't excuse anyone from submitting to him because he has clearly revealed his eternal power and divine nature in the world. Will Mike Milton joins us in the studio right now? Dr. Milton, there's always controversy when someone questions a fate of those who have never heard the preaching of Christ. Do you feel that this question is answered in Romans chapter 1? The Bible says that all stand guilty before God. That's part of the message of Romans chapter 1 that all stand guilty or not without excuse before God. I believe that the question leads away from a common question and a good question but I think the question often leads away from the central issue which is here. We've got to leave the individuals eternal destiny to God and God alone. Our mandate is about what we know, not about what we don't know. What we do know is that we're all by nature centers and we need a Savior and a Savior's Jesus Christ. So what Scripture gives us which says that men without God or without excuse. So if those who have never heard the gospel or somehow exempt and don't need the gospel the best means of evangelism is just make sure that we don't tell anyone. That way everyone's safe, they've never heard. But in fact the case in Romans 1 is just the opposite. They are without excuse and this of course compels us to go and to tell them. Well thank you Dr. Milton. If you like an audio copy of today's teaching be sure to call or write and ask the message entitled no excuse. Call 423-648-7914. That's 423-648-7914. You can also hear today's teaching on our website at faithforliving.net. This program is now available for downloading onto your iPod through iTunes.com. Faith for Living with Mike Milton is an outreach ministry of first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga. To learn more about the ministry visit us on the web at faithforliving.net. Your generous gift sent to Faith for Living would be of great encouragement and would help us to get the broadcast out to more people. You're invited to send your gift of support to Faith for Living. 554 McColley Avenue, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37402. Now until next time on behalf of Mike Milton and first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, may you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ with a living faith and a faith for living. I'm Dan Parker and this has been a presentation of first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga.