God's Truth Revealed: The Call to Acknowledge Him

"so what is Paul's response to this he responds in four logical steps and we could either go forward from the bottom premise up to the conclusion or we could go backwards from the conclusion following his argument step by step down to the bottom and as I thought thought about which way should I go in this sermon I said well let's do it both ways let's start at the top and work our way down and then conclude with a kind of summary fashion starting at the bottom and working our way up and maybe the argument then coming at it from both sides will be clear and we'll be able to take it home and repeat it so let's start with the conclusion and then work back to the premises and follow this argument okay so we'll call the conclusion step number four and then we'll go to 3 2 1 and then we'll go the other way here's the conclusion the conclusion is found at the end of verse 20 so that they are without excuse so his final answer to the objection is no I don't buy it nobody will have an excuse to legitimately protest against God's Wrath coming against them because they suppress the truth that's the conclusion of his argument nobody is without excuse now the question is okay if that's your conclusion that's a big conclusion that everybody in the world is experiencing Verse 18 in one way or another because they're suppressing the truth and his conclusion is they don't have any objection to raise there's no excuse that can be raised here okay you say that defend it so we drop down to step number three in the argument and it's found at the end of verse 21 they did not honor him as God or give him thanks so conclusion they're without excuse nobody in the world honors God the way they should nobody in the world thanks God that is is aware of the full dimension of their dependence and Carries that dependence on God through in a life of gratitude nobody does that the way a righteous Soul would so all men are guilty and without excuse they don't do these two fundamental things glorify God as God and thank him as they ought well that assumes something doesn't it so we need another step in this argument that assumes in their failure to glorify him as God and thank him that they know that he's there that he's God that he's a beneficent God that he's a powerful God and that they owe him glory and that they owe him gratitude but do they know that and so step number two in the argument between four and three or at the bottom of four and three is found three places he States this one three times it's found at the beginning of verse 19 the beginning of verse 20 and the beginning of verse 21 let me read them to you verse 19 a right at the beginning that which is known about God is evident within them or among them probably better translation evident to them verse 20 at the beginning since the creation of the world his invisible attribut namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen there it is again third statement of it the beginning of verse 21 for even though they knew God so there you have it in three forms first what can be known about God is evident to them second his Divine attributes namely power and deity is clearly seen third they know God so here the here the the three concluding steps of the argument since they know God that he has eternal power that he is deity that he's creator that therefore they are totally dependent on him as part of the creation that's step two therefore step three they are they ought to and they don't glorify him with that or thank him and conclusion when they suppress that truth they are without excuse now there's a bottom level to this argument and it's probably the most important when you consider everything else and it's found in two places at the end of verse 19 and then the explanation of it in the middle of verse 20 at the end of verse 19 it says for God made it evident to them you see the first half of the verse says what can be known is evident or manifest to them and then strangely interestingly powerfully he says because God made it evident to them how did he do it and that's the explanation in the middle of verse 20 in the little phrase being understood through what has been made you hear the passive voice implying an act door behind that somebody made something that's what verse 19 at the end is talking about you see the knowledge of God doesn't just get stumbled upon so that we know him coincidentally and God says oh look they found out about me verse 19 at the end says this is no accident nobody stumbles onto God it says God made it manifest to them God did something he acted like a Potter Acts or a sculptor Acts or a poet acts only out of nothing and in acting he WR WR his signature broad across creation you know what the the word is behind the little phrase in the middle of verse 20 what has been made there's one Greek word behind that and you all know the word you all know this Greek word and I'll give it to you in Greek and then you're going to give it to me in English which are almost the same all right so it's a test the the Greek word is POA what's the English word poem it's from we get poem it's used one other time in the New Testament we are his workmanship POA created in Christ Jesus what's the point of that word there what can be known about God is Manifest to them in the PO what's the point of using that word if the wind blows on a beach and the sand is dry it just might make an l and if you saw an L in the sand you might say probably just the wind but if you found a poem in the sand nobody would say it's just the wind unless you could conceive of a wind ruler who could turn the wind into a pencil in other words the point of the word POA is design purpose intelligent intentionality that's what Paul means to grasp with this word po God has written God across the galaxies and across the molecules with a POA so that anybody who looks reads a POA and either Sees God or suppresses God those are the only two options because Paul says everybody sees it everybody sees it now two weeks ago I said this is an incredibly relevant book politically today it is an incredibly relevant book scientifically naturalistic evolution is a given today in our culture it is a given you read National Geographic or Ranger Rick or your standard curriculum in high school it's not a theory it's just a given this is the way it is however when you look at what's happening in the scientific world today it's really remarkable it's starting to feel to a lot of Sciences that the darwinian conception of the emergence of the human cell for example or any other cell for that matter is incomprehensibly inadequate in its explanatory power to to conceive of matter wherever that came from and chance and then a long long long time however long it takes to get this that's becoming really incomprehensible to a lot of scientists the better they get to know the subatomic this and the molecular this so for example leading the way in the newest kinds of assault on the philosophical Prejudice called naturalistic Evolution not scientific conclusion is Philip Johnson with his book Darwin on trial and defea in Darwinism through opening Minds then following him comes Michael beeh the biochemist from Lehigh University who wrote The Black Box who talks about irreducible complexity in the human cell or other cells meaning by that that when you look microscopically at what it takes for a cell to be and to run and to perform what it performs there are so many parts to it and they interrelate in so many complex ways such that if any one of them is missing the whole thing shuts down meaning that it could never have emerged incrementally because no increment will work like the cell works he wrote a whole book to say that sentence you have what he calls irreducible complexity we he says contemporary efforts by darwinian materialistic naturalistic evolutionary means can't explain it it just doesn't scientifically hold let me read you one of the most interesting paragraphs about the little flagellum of the bacterium this is a little this is a little motor that lets the little little bacterium get around the flagellum is a whip-like rotary motor that enables a bacterium to navigate through its environment the flagellum includes an acid powerered rotary engine a stator O-rings bushings and a drive shaft the intricate Machinery of this molecular motor requires approximately 50 proteins yet the absence of any one of these proteins results in the complete loss of motor function the irreducible complexity of such a biochemical system cannot be explained by the darwinian mechanism nor indeed by any naturalistic mechanism proposed to date and the more they penetrate to the reality of This Thing Called Life the more hard it becomes to hold fast to the prejudices of naturalism that implicitly rule God out as designer which I say is simply a parable and an outworking of Romans 1:18 they suppress the truth they read the POA off of the molecule or the cell or the galaxies or the solar system or the trees or the seasons or the eyeball they read the POA of the handiwork of God and they constantly remind themselves this cannot be a PO it cannot be a PO otherwise I would stand face to face before my maker and have to glorify him as God and give him thanks for my whole life and everything in it and live a life of humble gratitude for which he gets all the glory not me and the human heart is radically in Rebellion against that life orientation until the holy spirit moves and that's what we should pray and God is doing it God is doing it let me draw this to a close by doing what I said I was going to do namely work from the bottom up by way of summary and so let's let's come to our conclusion by going backward or maybe this is forward in the argument from the bottom up step one in Paul's argument is at the end of verse 19 God acted God made it evident to them God wrote a POA God did some designing God has communicated in Philip's neighborhood God did something there every single human being there is created by God and Des designed by God so that you'll never meet a human being there who has not been created by God you too being a creation of God and that is an awesome thought if you think God made them they're a poem there's a meaning there's a communication flowing to Kenny and from Kenny and to us and from us there is something of God to read here then it gets big starts to take your breath away what we're about in the city that's step one step two is all the men and all the women and all the young people in the urban center of Minneapolis know God that's what verse 21 at the beginning says though they knew God you'll never meet a person there who doesn't know God yes he is suppressed yes in the suppression is distorted yes it can even become so darkened as we'll see next week in idolatry that those very people will say there is no such being as a poem writer yes yes they can say that all they want and you can either believe them or you can believe the Bible I vote Bible nobody in this world has won my confidence like the authors of the Bible have won my confidence over years and years of reflection meditation and study so if somebody says to me I don't think there's a God and I don't think I'm a creature of God and I'm no poem I will simply say that's a mistake because God says he made you and he wrote you and you got to meaning and I'm here to help you discover it the third step in the argument is that everybody suppresses the truth and therefore doesn't glorify God or or thinking God means for the human race to glorify him as God isn't that an interesting phrase they did not glorify him as God God there are ways they do glorify him just being is a glory to God but he means to be glorified consciously as a living personal God by them and how by mainly thanking him and thanking him and then turning that thanks into the future tense with trust and obedience and the last step in the argument is there for they are without excuse they are without excuse now if step three in the argument should make us jealous for the glory of God step four in the argument should make us compassionate for lost Sinners because what we're saying at this stage is not only has the wrath of God already begun to be poured out that's what we see in our city wrath addictions are wrath homelessness is wrath sicknesses are wrath death is wrath and the futilities and Corruptions and decays and sins and bondages of the world are The Echoes of the Judgment of God already Landing upon the world and what we're hearing in this last step is nobody has as an excuse the main deep problem in the city is that people suppress the truth don't glorify God live thankless lives are without excuse and are Hellbound that's the problem in Minneapolis at the bottom and we doe to nothing in ourselves know the remedy and the Escape namely there is a righteousness that God demands from us verse 17 which he will reveal and give to us freely for the trusting like a little child which anybody could do trusting and God will say all right you may have my righteousness and my wrath will be averted from you and I will begin to heal you and ultimately I will bring you home safe to Glory that's the problem we're dealing with in this city mainly and when that righteousness lands it lands with a healing and a transforming and a humbling beautifying liberating power on families and individuals like nothing else this is light and Truth God's centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and treasure him truly I'm your host Dan Kover thank you for listening on our next episode John Piper continues our series Our Gospel need with a sermon titled our great Mutiny I hope you'll join us for more resources visit Desiring god. work" [00:02:06]