Join us as we navigate through ancient scriptural insights and their pressing relevance in today’s world. Discover the contrast between ancient man’s guilt and modern man’s search for meaning in a world devoid of divine acknowledgment. The episode highlights the crucial aspect of worship, revealing how humanity’s inherent nature to worship is misdirected through idolatry in the absence of God. As we conclude, a call to return to faith through Jesus Christ is presented as the path to regaining lost purpose and divine connection.
So we’re considering this passage where Paul speaks about humanity suppressing God, holding him down, pushing him away out of our lives. And this is a purposeful and willful passage. suppression, it’s a willful unbelief, because he says what may be known about God is revealed in creation, and it is very evident to everyone in humanity, and so humanity is without excuse. We don’t condemn one another for this. We simply acknowledge the reality that we have done something dreadful to ourselves that is actually against our own best interests. So Paul then tells us how it is against our best interests. And that’s verse 21. Because although they knew God… you get that, although they knew God instinctively deep down, that is, within the human psyche and the human heart, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thinking, their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Boy, that’s quite a statement. That’s Romans chapter 1 verse 21. Let’s look at it a little more closely. Although they knew God, so humanity in Adam, first off, knew God, and thereafter all humanity knew God, They could see him, they were aware of him in creation, the intelligent and beautiful design, the purposeful and beautiful intention of the Creator to give mankind all his needs through what was made. They knew that God, yet they had suppressed him, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. Now notice it doesn’t say they didn’t obey him. No, they didn’t glorify him, which is the first response to faith. When faith trusts in God and knows him, it is grateful. It is full of gratitude. It praises God and therefore gives glory to God. All who praise God glorify him. We refuse that. I remember Many decades ago, when I, out of shortage of money, I worked at Domino’s Pizza for a while, I met the manager, we got to know each other quite a bit, and we were visiting one day outside, discussing scripture, and it was towards sunset. It was a beautiful evening, and the sun was about to set over the mountains, over the hills, I should say, in that state.
SPEAKER 01 :
And I said, isn’t this beautiful? And he said, yes, it is.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I said, who do you have to thank? And he just could not understand me. He said, what do you mean? Who do I thank? You see, that is where the heart devoid of God is nonplussed. It just cannot comprehend that. It sees the beauty. It experiences the pain of beauty because there’s no one to give glory to, no one to thank. It’s just beauty hanging there. But we Christians know that as we put faith in God for our salvation, we begin to realize he’s our wonderful creator. We realize he’s made all this for our joy and for our worship of him. And we thank him. We give him glory. But the world doesn’t know that. It doesn’t give him glory. And look what it says, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful. So we lose the ability to have gratitude. It’s one of the most sad experiences of being a human being to lose the capacity for gratitude because we don’t know the source of all the goodness or we have suppressed the source of all goodness that is from God. And so, you see, you can see how mankind is working against itself. Because what happens when we fail to thank God, when we lose the capacity for gratitude? Well, here it is, coming up. This is what it says. because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts.
SPEAKER 01 :
Futile, empty, purposeless. The modern word for it would be meaninglessness.
SPEAKER 02 :
Ancient man struggled with guilt. Modern man struggles with meaninglessness. If all this came about by chance, if it all clumped together in organization purely out of chance, who do we have to thank for it? No one. And therefore we are adrift in the void. We see no purpose in it all. We have moved in towards meaninglessness. This is what I call the dark mind. The dark mind is devoid of God, you see. Their foolish hearts were darkened. So, they became futile in their thoughts, empty, purposeless, meaningless thinking, and their foolish hearts, their emotions, were distorted and darkened. Slowly, mankind slipped into perverted emotions of the heart. Now, this is tremendously revealing, tremendously cogent. It means… that once we suppress God, the lights go out in our mind. If you read these verses carefully, you get one of the best psychological, spiritual interpretations of your humanity that you will ever find anywhere. We now at last can understand why do we feel void. Why do we feel empty? Why do we feel depressed and lonely and isolated? Why doesn’t life make sense? Because we’ve suppressed the very author of our lives, the one who cares for us, who created us in his image, to know him, to enjoy him, to worship him. And thus, we’ve lost our meaning. And yet it says this in verse 22, professing to be wise, they became fools. And so, you see, the mind is now purposeless, futile, empty. The emotions are darkened and distorted. And so we go into what psychologists call a reaction formation. we try to present ourselves in the very opposite light from what the reality really is. We are empty inside, we have lost purpose and meaning, and yet we profess to be wise. And thus, so much atheism professes to be brilliant, professes to be intelligent, professes to be scientifically originated. As if atheism had a corner on science and we believers do not.
SPEAKER 01 :
It is so much nonsense. Now look, what do you think God does with all this?
SPEAKER 02 :
Remember our God is love. Everything he does is motivated by love. He loves us with all his heart. He saves us with every intent of his being.
SPEAKER 01 :
He is not going to leave us to wander. And yet, it says that, wait a minute, I’ve missed a point.
SPEAKER 02 :
And it’s verse 23. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of God for the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Now here is another reason why we say there is no such thing as an atheist. Because people do not reject God they exchange him, verse 23, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. And so, you see, humanity cannot stand the void. Humanity cannot stand the vacuum that their suppression of God has made. You see, this verse reveals to us that human beings are born to worship. They were created to worship. Worship is one of the most beautiful, it is the most beautiful high thing that we can know. To lean all our weight of need and joy and thankfulness and gratitude upon God, to worship him, he who is higher than ourselves, he who made us, we are owned by him, we love that, that is in our unfallen state, we loved it, we loved to be owned by God. Once rejection came, psychological disaster ensued. We were void. We were empty. We were futile, purposeless, meaningless, perverted, distorted. We couldn’t understand our meaning anymore. And so what did we do? We sought for alternative gods. This is idolatry. This is what’s revealed in verse 21. Changed the glory of the incorruptible God. into an image made like corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. And so what we find is that there is no such thing as an atheist. An atheist simply changes the object of worship. Worship is to adore, to depend, to have joy in our Master. If we have suppressed our true Master and Lord and Saviour, then we will adore something else. We will depend on something else. Atheists tell us we don’t believe in God, we don’t have to be dependent like those Christians. Oh my goodness, what are you talking about? You are dependent more than ever when you reject God. You lose your dignity, you lose your free will, you lose your ability to function rationally and intelligently, and you therefore…
SPEAKER 01 :
Pour all your heart out to the objects of lust. Idolatry seeks to find God, the eternal qualities of the Godhead, in finite objects and things and emotions.
SPEAKER 02 :
Think of your addictions. What is an addiction? You may say it’s a drug, or it’s alcohol, or it’s sex, or it’s food. Those are merely the objects of choice. What we’re looking for in those objects of choice is qualities of the divine, qualities that give us nirvana, that lift us out of this mundane state we’re all in, lift us into an elevated state of being. Psychedelic drugs try to attempt to do that, and for a moment they seem to, until we realize they’re destroying our body and mind. So you see then that the disaster that human beings have moved into is absolutely catastrophic. Believing in God or not is not an option. To trust in God is the only way. Without Him, there is death facing us. Well, I kind of ran out of time there, didn’t I? Colin Cook here and how it happens. I know this is pretty tough talk that I’m sharing with you, but realize it helps you to understand yourself and why you need Jesus Christ, why you need bringing back to the Father through the Son. And I hope it will appeal to you and make sense to you so that you say, of course, of course I need Jesus. That’s what this is all about. Thank you for listening. You can send a donation if you like by mail by the website faithquestradio.com. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
Join us as we navigate through ancient scriptural insights and their pressing relevance in today’s world. Discover the contrast between ancient man’s guilt and modern man’s search for meaning in a world devoid of divine acknowledgment. The episode highlights the crucial aspect of worship, revealing how humanity’s inherent nature to worship is misdirected through idolatry in the absence of God. As we conclude, a call to return to faith through Jesus Christ is presented as the path to regaining lost purpose and divine connection.
