In the sermon 'Without Excuse' by Scott Brown, the speaker explores Romans 1:19-23, focusing on how God's attributes are revealed through creation, leaving humanity 'without excuse' for not acknowledging Him. The sermon outlines three exchanges of God's truth for lies: the exchange of God's glory for idols, the truth of God for a lie, and God's design for human sexuality for corrupt human designs. It emphasizes the concept of 'general revelation'—God revealing Himself through nature and creation, which is evident to all people internally and externally. The sermon argues that despite claims of atheism, everyone has an inherent knowledge of God, which they suppress. The consequences of rejecting God include futile thinking, darkened hearts, and idolatry. The speaker calls for compassion towards those living in darkness and emphasizes the church's role in bringing people to the light of the Gospel.

Open your Bibles to Romans 1 and find verse 19, Romans 1 19. This is the inerrant, all sufficient sweeter than honey word of God Romans 1 19 Because what may be known of God is manifest in them For God has shown it to them, 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. 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 God into an image like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and Creeping things would you pray with me? Father we thank you for this revealing Declaration of your truth. We thank you that you've revealed your truth.

We thank you that you have shown your glory to every human being in the world. Lord we pray that you would use all these things to mature us, to equip the Saints, to soften any hearts that are hard to save, any who are lost, to bless your people, oh Lord. Amen. Amen. Please be seated.

As we continue our studies here in the book of Romans, we're walking our way through chapter one and the apostle Paul is explaining why he's not ashamed of the gospel, why he can't wait to get to Rome to preach the gospel. And he's giving various reasons for why he's not ashamed And he's already, he's already said that the right, he's not ashamed because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness, man is in a terrible, position. And, and then here he's now answering the question about those who've never heard of the living god people in various tongues and tribes and nations do not have a proclaimer of the gospel. So he's now answering that question. And you'll find as we go through Romans, Paul does this over and over again.

He'll propose a truth, but then all kinds of things come to your mind. Like the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Well, what about those who've never been heard, never heard? So he's now, he's answering that question. So he's already told us that he's not ashamed because the righteousness of God is revealed, that man can actually receive the righteousness of God.

And then he speaks of the wrath of God being revealed. And it's revealed because men suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They trivialize the truth. They trivialize God. And so after after making these points, he continues to explain to us why he's not ashamed of the gospel.

And that's because the reality of God is revealed. Not only is the righteousness of God revealed, not only is the wrath of God revealed, also the reality of God is revealed by what has been made. And he's talking about the tragedy that overcomes unrepentant man. It's the tragedy of exchanging. And there are three exchanges here in this passage.

The first exchange is exchanging God for worthless idols, for image, for images, for things that just have to do with you. And that's verse 23, and changed or exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man. And then the second exchange, we'll get to this next week, is in verse 25, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie. And then the third exchange is in verse 26. And this is the exchange of the natural use of male and female, particularly homosexuality.

For this reason, God gave them over to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use, which is against nature. So you have these three exchanges. The first is the exchange of God for worthless things, for idols, that's what we're focusing on here this morning. And then secondly, exchanging the truth of God for the lie. And then thirdly, exchanging God's design for sexuality for man's own corrupt design.

So that's where the apostle's going. And he's saying for all of this, no one can be excused. And so first of all, you see here that God makes himself known. The reality of God is revealed. If you have an outline, you can see exactly where I'm going in Paul's argument here.

But here the reality of God is revealed, verse 19. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them. 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." So Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, he can't wait to get to Rome, because the wrath of God is being revealed upon people who have no excuse. And the reason that they have no excuse is because, and this might sound odd, but he's saying that everybody knows there are no atheists. You got that?

There are no atheists. When you go and witness to someone and they say they're an atheist, it's a lot, they're lying. It's not true. They've suppressed the truth and unrighteousness. They might think they're atheists, but when they get in a jam, they're crying out to somebody.

And you cannot deny the majesty of God by just looking around every day. So what the apostle is saying is something contrary to what so many people say, there are no atheists. And this is the truth of God. So, but this should comfort you too, because whenever you are speaking to an unbeliever, you know that that person has received a witness from God already. And it's actually, it's an unsuppressable witness in terms of it being completely suppressed.

It keeps coming up. Remember the illustration men suppress the truth and unrighteousness. The problem with this kind of suppression, it's like pushing a beach ball down in the water. It keeps popping up. And that's what the apostle is saying.

God has given us nature to show that there's a divine creator, an omnipotent creator, a good creator, and a fallen man, what he does is he takes what he sees and he distorts it, and He twists the truth of God. And fallen man ultimately makes an idol of himself. This is all of our tendencies. The idol that he's talking about is the idol of self and the idol of creatures and things that God has made. We all can relate with that.

We all struggle with various levels of idolatry. We are our best and greatest and most pampered idol. And we love all kinds of things in this world. And they can become idols. They can be uses for good.

They can also become idols. Every good thing can become an idol. Of course, John Calvin said, the human heart is a factory of idols. And This is Batman's problem. It says here that it is evident that that what is known is evident It's it it is shown it can be seen it is revealed by the way this word reveal it's the same word we encountered in the book of Revelation, apokalopsis.

It's being revealed. The righteousness of God is being revealed. The wrath of God is being revealed. The reality of God is being revealed. Apokalopsis, shown, made to be seen.

And so that's his argument. Now notice, the apostle tells us exactly what has been revealed. What does man know? And there are three things, do you see them there in the text? His invisible attributes are clearly seen.

You know, we just read a Psalm, Psalm 36, where the mountains were correlated to moral categories. That there are things in the world that actually remind you of moral categories. His invisible attributes are clearly seen. That's the first thing that every single person on the face of the planet has always seen. The second is his eternal power, his eternal power, and Godhead.

You know, you think about the manifestations of the power of God that are demonstrated in the world today. You know, every person in the world doesn't know what we know today. You know, the earth that you're standing on right now is spinning at 1, 000 miles an hour. And the Earth is making its circuit around the sun at 66, 000 miles per hour. We face a vast universe.

There are stars, there are planets that you can actually see with telescopes that are so massive like like Beetlejuice. You can fit, it's so massive you can fit one quadrillion Earths inside of it. This is a massive universe. No one has looked at the stars and not marveled. And that's what he's saying here.

There are these three things. His invisible attributes are clearly seen in the way that nature works. God feeds, God brings rain, he brings sun, he brings blessing, those are his invisible attributes. God is good. You woke up this morning to a beautiful morning.

God is good, he was declaring his glory. And then his eternal power. The power is invested in the natural world of tornadoes and hurricanes and typhoons and tsunamis. His power is made known in the earth so that people would look to heaven and his Godhead that he actually is God. So these three things are the things that every man knows.

This is what you have on your side when you witness to someone, even though they might not acknowledge it or might not look like they care about it at all. These things have been seen, clearly seen by what has been made. So this just helps us to understand the world that we live in and also help us to understand the psychological and moral condition of all people that we engage with. So there is, theologians call this general revelation. There are two ways that God reveals himself.

General revelation, and this has to do with the heavens, and the natural world, and then there is special revelation that has to do with the word of God, and the specific knowledge of salvation that is in Jesus Christ. And by these things, they are without excuse. Now notice, you have two voices. You have an internal and an external voice. It's very interesting.

God gives mankind fair warning and there are two things that God does in every person. He does something internally and he also does something externally. God reveals it, do you see this, in them and to them? Do you see that in the text? He has revealed it in them, that's an internal subjective witness, and he's revealed it to them.

That's the external witness of the natural world. You know I am so grateful for so many in this church who are teaching their children the beauties of the natural world and I see it all the time. And you know, some of you write curriculum about it and you do it every day, it's pretty neat. But this is the knowledge of God, in this case, in them. This is the voice of conscience.

Conscience. God has given every person a conscience. John Calvin said, nature itself permits no one to forget, although many strive with every nerve to forget. They can't forget. One theologian said that God did this to prevent anyone from taking refuge in the pretense of ignorance.

God himself has implanted in all men a certain understanding of his divine majesty. This is the truth about the world. Every person you see, whether you think or they think it or not, deep down inside, there's a gnawing reality that they're suppressing the truth in unrighteousness and in ungodliness. So you have the inward testimony of the conscience and the suppression of the conscience. Paul is not gonna quit talking about this, by the way.

If you get to chapter two, you don't need to turn there, into chapter 14 through 16, we learn that there's, in every person, there's a law written in every person's heart. That's why in almost every society in the world, it's not a good thing to murder someone, okay? Because everybody knows that's wrong. In most societies, manifestations of the Ten Commandments are honored. Because this is the law written in man's heart.

And the apostle says that God shows the work of the law written in their hearts, in their conscience, also bearing witness between themselves, their thoughts accusing or else excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. So there there is this internal witness of the conscience, thoughts that either accuse you or they excuse you. This is what's happening. So in them and to them. And this has to do with his invisible attributes which are clearly seen.

The objective evidence of nature, the world, the cosmos. This is general revelation. You know, philosophers speak of the cosmological argument which, you know, means that the existence of God can be inferred from nature, the teleological argument which means there must be a designer. You can't have this without a designer. This is the whole proposition of natural theology.

You know, most primitive tribes have some knowledge of a God or a creator, because it has been revealed in them and it has been revealed to them. By what? By what has been made, by what has been made. That's a really interesting word that the apostle uses, made. You know this word.

It's the word poema. It's where we get our word poem. In the things that God has poema made. You know, when you hear of poetry, most people think of beautiful and flowery language that describes such deep and beautiful things. Not everybody thinks of poetry that way, but the creation is God's poetry.

It is beautiful, it's complex. Some of it is so remarkable, it's hard to understand, you know, like some poetry. But this is a word that he uses. And by the way, it's the same word that the Apostle Paul uses when he's talking to the Ephesian church and he says, You were created for good poema, good works, good works. This is connected directly to the creation narrative in Genesis.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. The Lord made. Same word, poema. It's found in different places using the same connection with nature. You know, his invisible attributes are clearly seen.

There are so many places in the Bible where you see this. You know, one of the most vivid is in Psalm 19. Where you have, Psalm 19 is actually broken up with general revelation, the first part of it, and then special revelation, the second part of it. In Psalm 19, it begins, the heavens declare the glory of God. And the firmament shows his handiwork.

Day and today utter speech. Night unto night reveals knowledge. And here's the kicker. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard their line has gone out through all the earth and their voice to the end of the world. And then he turns to special revelation where he turns to the law of God.

The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. There you have you have these two manifestations of God's glory in the world. Another Psalm, there's so many Psalms. Well, Psalm 36 is one of them, right? We already went through that.

But Psalm 104, open up to Psalm 104. This is remarkable. You might not be able to keep up with me, but Psalm 104. Make a mark on Psalm 104, because what you see here is one manifestation after another of the goodness of God in nature, how God shows how Good a provider he is as a result of what he's made. I'm just gonna bounce through it.

This is really a picture of God's rulership over nature. Verse five, You who laid the foundations of the earth so that it should not be moved forever. This is God's eternal fixed reality. You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains.

Bounce down to verse 10. He sends springs into the valleys. They flow among the hills. This is God's ethical glory. They give drink to every beast of the field.

The wild donkeys quench their thirst. God is good. He causes springs to come out of nowhere and they cause drink for animals. Verse 12, by them the birds of the heavens have their home. They sing among the branches just like the church.

He waters the hills from his upper chambers the earth is Satisfied with the fruit of your works. This is God's goodness. This is God's bounty He's abundant in kindness and he covers the earth with good things verse 14 he causes the grass to grow for the cattle I like that one and vegetation for the service of man you who have gardens that he may bring forth food from the earth verse 16 the trees of the Lord are full of sap the cedars of Lebanon which he planted, where the birds make their nests, the stork has her home in the fir trees, the high hills for the wild goats, the cliffs are a Refuge for the rock badgers. I mean you have provision you have refuge you have feeding you have blessing This this is the ethical character of God Demonstrated his eternal his eternal attributes And his power are demonstrated Well verse 24 Oh Lord how manifold are your works in wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions.

This great and wide sea in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. There the ships sail about, there is that Leviath in which you have made to play there. These all wait for you that you may give them their food in due season." Well we could go on and on but this is about the glory of God manifested by the provision of God through the creation of God. What a blessing God is. Well verse 33, I can't help but read this.

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. How about that? Let's do that. Praise God for the rest of your life.

But the unbeliever is not thankful. We'll get to that later. So the idea here is that God has man living in a very well-ordered world. It's a beautiful world. It's your Father's world.

It is your home for now. And you have a heavenly home awaiting. So general revelation is enough to condemn every man in the world. That's what this is saying. Maybe someone doesn't think that's fair, but this is what the Bible actually teaches.

It's not only fair, but it's good and it's right. So then there are the results of rejecting God, rejecting the witness of God, and this is the tragedy of fallen man. The results are explained in graphic detail. I've listed them here in your outline. This is the tragic result of this great exchange.

And all of this happens because of suppressing the truth. Do you notice the word because there in verse 21? Because, why? Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. This is the first tragic result of not believing the revelation that God has given in nature.

They did not glorify God. Well, So what's so tragic about that? What's so tragic about that is that a man or a woman or a boy or a girl would miss the actual meaning of life, to glorify God. God created man to glorify him. That's why God put us in the world.

Not for our own glory, but for his glory. Well, you know the catechism. What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. To miss the meaning of life, to miss the reason that you were created is such a terrible tragedy.

You know, a few of us went down yesterday to the pride parade in Raleigh, and it was, again, you know, such a heartbreaking experience. You know, I mean, you have... Well, of course, obviously, you have people just openly boasting of their sinful choices. Of course, we went down there to say that there was salvation in Jesus Christ, that there was forgiveness in the Son of God. That's why we went.

You know, I went to the first one many years ago, and it's changed dramatically. The crowd is 10, 20, 30 times bigger than the first time. And the crowd actually had kind of changed. You know, this was back right after, or right around the time, 2015 in Obergefell. And you know, the movement was, you know, really gained acceleration, you know, during that time.

But what was so remarkable, you know, you, you, you, you, there's mentioning of becoming like animals here, there were so many people, maybe thousands of people dressed like animals. They, They were making themselves up like animals everywhere. Painted like foxes and bears and dogs. It's right out of this book here. The garish, the beauty of apparel had left the area and just ugliness.

In the first one you didn't see much of this, but this time there were many, many young parents with young children all dressed the way you might expect of a child being taught that they're not the gender they were born with. It was just so heartbreaking to see, you know, young fathers with their little children. I've never, I don't recall seeing so many excessively obese people in my life at that place. It was so remarkable. There was nothing to be proud about.

You know, I've read an article where there are some teachers in the United Kingdom that were being warned not to ridicule school kids for identifying as animals. This is called furries. And the government is telling teachers that children dressing up as animals should be made to quote feel comfortable expressing themselves. I mean, this is exactly what we're reading about here in Romans. It was true in Rome, it was true in Greece, It's true in the UK and it's true in the United States.

This is just the generic trajectory. Now, you know, what should this do? Hey, you know what? This, this should stir our hearts to compassion. Because for this, the wrath of God, because they did not glorify God.

They did not find the purpose for which they were created. They were living a twisted and distorted purpose. And when something is out of its purpose, it doesn't work well. The second result, they were not thankful. They weren't thankful, dissatisfied with God.

This was actually the beginning of sin with Eve in the garden. I mean, of course, the chief thing to man is to enjoy him forever, to be thankful to God, and to miss the enjoyment, to miss the thankful, to miss a spirit of thankfulness for all things that God has given. You remember the parable of the talents, the one who hid his talent in the ground? He couldn't be thankful for God. Because when he was asked why he did that, he was given resources and he just hid it.

And he says to God, I knew that you were a hard man. He didn't think well of God. He didn't think God was good. And this should just stir our hearts to compassion for the position that the unbeliever is in. We pass them by.

I pass them by all the time. I think this passage is here to stir our hearts to compassion and to praise God that he is. The third result is that they become feudal in their thoughts. They become unprofitable in their thinking. God, you know, God gives a mind so that man can think thoughts and be helped by those thoughts.

That's why God gave you your mind, to dwell on things that are good. Whatever is true, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, let your mind dwell on these things, because God wants to bless you through the operations of your mind. What you spend your mind on is what you will become. And so, but your thoughts can become futile. Now this has to do with the entertainment of empty and vain and useless and unworkable and stupid thoughts.

Speculations. Just creating your own universe, your own world. One of the young men that I talked to yesterday, I asked him what he knew about Jesus. He said, I know the Jesus I would like to know. You know, I think I heard many, many different manifestations of that same idea.

The Jesus I want to know. It's making God in your own image. And they actually believe a lie. In Isaiah 44, there's this remarkable, it's actually very humorous, humorous disclosure of the idolater. He makes an idol for himself.

He makes it, you know, and it's just, it's actually Isaiah, I think he was smiling when he said this. But he says, he holds in his own hand a lie. It's a lie. These delusions, these lies, these unprofitable thoughts. People running around today talking about birthing persons.

People running around talking about being trapped in the wrong body. People talking about chest feeders. Somebody said they saw somebody walking around yesterday with an open mastectomy to boast about that. The strong delusions are so heartbreaking. Live your truth.

Be true to your authentic self. Get gender affirming surgery. Get gender affirming surgery. These are just horrific delusions. This is what he's talking about in this verse.

They became futile in their thoughts, a devoid of the truth. Futile, but what does futile mean? It means it doesn't work. It means no work ye. That's what it means.

Feudal thoughts that don't work. I mean, God's ways are pleasant ways. All of his paths are peace. But the ways of the natural man don't work. They're futile.

Thoughts that create a futile life is what he's talking about. And all of this really should just stir us to compassion. The fourth result is that the heart is darkened. Their foolish hearts were darkened. This is such a tragic loss because the heart determines everything.

Out of the heart proceeds everything in your life. You know, the meditations of your heart create actually who you are. But their foolish hearts were darkened. Jeremiah 10, 14. Everyone is dull-hearted without knowledge.

They are futile, a work of errors. In the time of their punishment, they shall perish. The fool in his heart says, there is no God. That's what he's talking about here. The fifth result, they claim to be wise, they claim to be wise, but they're actually fools.

Professing to be wise, they became fools, verse 22. Now, one commentator that I read said, this is a form of ridicule. He's talking about people who think they're so sophisticated. They think they're so modern and wise. They think they're so good, but they're not.

They're foolish. A person who takes pride in his intellect he professes to be wise but problem that the Emperor has no clothes you can you know it's not wisdom because he's torn up as a result of it. When beauty leaves the territory, you know that people are professing to be wise and they become fools. You know, and this, this doesn't have anything to do with intellect. Unbelievers, you know, can be brilliant.

They can speak and think and act and talk and do absolutely astonishing things beyond anything any of us in this room would ever do. And they can be brilliant, they can grasp great sets of facts. They can be great at thinking, but very bad at life. Professing to be wise, they became fools. And of course, you know, the only way to turn back darkness is with the light.

Jesus says, I am the light of the world. The glory of Jesus Christ is the only remedy, seeking the glory of God. You know, if a church were to be known for something, the most compelling thing is if it would be known that that church glorifies God, that church is a lamp of God in the world. You know, when I came home yesterday, I couldn't wait to come here to be with a family, to be with people who are being restored, where there is beauty everywhere. True beauty.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only light that can enlighten the darkened heart. The sixth result, They changed the glory. They exchanged the glory. Verse 23, and change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man. That's narcissism.

That's all about you. It's about yourself as the great idol. Made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. This is how you know paganism is overcoming your culture. When people want to dress themselves up like animals and they want to destroy the light of the world.

But this tendency is in all of us. We have this tendency to exalt ourselves. We want to be our own best self. We want to create our own image. You know, the whole fashion industry, particularly with women, is trying to help women figure out their look, their designer look.

And so you have your designer life with your designer clothes with your designer glasses and you have your designer houses and It's the image of coolness in the world. I was leaving my office last week, the end of the day, and I was driving down the street in downtown Wake Forest. And there was one girl over here taking a selfie of herself over on the other. It was just I thought This is the selfie universe This is this is making an eye to love yourself I don't think it's sinful necessarily to take selfies, but there are actual reasons people do it. Most of it is to exalt themselves.

I think you can take a picture of yourself, it's okay. But this is exchanging the glory of God for images. And this really, This is the underbelly of all of our problems. We're exchanging the glory of God for things that don't work. Your marriage problems, it has to do with glory.

Whose glory are you seeking? When you open your mouth, The problems you cause with the words that you use, a lot of it has to do with whose glory are you seeking. But you are so unique, you just need to find yourself. That's the worst advice you can give anyone. You are not going to find the glory inside of yourself.

You find it in God. Well here's the final judgment of the whole matter. They are without excuse. That means that there's nothing, they have nothing to say. They have no defense.

It's not lack of knowledge, it's inexcusable. The people who reject God know there's a God because what has been clearly seen, what has been revealed in them, and what has been revealed to them. And so that's why Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. He says, because it's the power of God and the salvation, because in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith and the just shall live by faith. He's not ashamed of the gospel because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

He's not ashamed of the gospel because everyone knows. He's not ashamed of the gospel and neither should we. I just want to remind us of the tragic result. They do not glorify God. They're not thankful.

They have worthless thoughts. Their heart is darkened. They claim to be wise but are fools, and they exchange the glory of God for images of themselves and of creatures, animals, and created things. That's the tragedy of fallen man. And that's why, and God put the church in the world to create a community where people are redeemed and changed.

Just like the church in Corinth where Paul says, some of you were idolaters and adulterers and homosexuals, but you're not anymore. You've been washed, you've been cleansed, you've been rescued by God. That's what the Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth for. So I'm here to try to stir up our compassion, my compassion as well, and to have understanding about the people that we're talking to in the world, and to seek and save the loss like Jesus Christ told us to do, and to be way more outwardly focused in our daily lives. Do you see how important this is for people?

How God appoints his church to actually rescue from harm. What a blessing. You know later on in Romans, the apostle will say in Romans 5-8, for God demonstrates his own love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Praise the Lord. Would you pray with me?

Father, we thank you for revealing yourself. We thank you for the brilliant beauties of nature to tell us that you are good and you are all-powerful. I thank you Lord for the redeemed. I praise you for the way you're bringing many sons to glory. But there are many more Lord we know to be brought to glory put us on that task Amen