©2000 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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6/11/00
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The Wrath Phase 1
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Romans 1:18-32
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6/11/00 The Wrath Phase 1
This has been a two-talk week.
I wrote one entire set of notes
and then ran them off,
read them,
and threw them away.
They seemed to do everything
I didn't want to do
with the passage we are going to study
today.
If you were here last week
you know where we left off
in our study of the book of Romans.
We left off with Romans 1:18
which says,
Rom. 1:18 ¶ For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness...
It is the introductory statement
used by Paul to begin his description
of what our world looks like
without the Person and work of Jesus
Christ.
The passage begins with this verse
and then continues for the next two chapters,
ending with Romans 2:20.
It was written by Paul
for the purpose of explaining to his world
and to all of us who have come after him
why it was necessary
for Christ to come,
and to die the way He did.
The passage is a masterful statement
of the condition of the human race
apart from Christ.
It is not unlike attempting to write a description
of what our physical world would be like
without the sun.
Both are dark,
depressing,
and filled with death and despair.
Great stuff, huh?
The problem I ran into
in my first attempt,
and the one we will continue to wrestle with
this morning
is the fact that it is impossible for us to
not take this whole wrath-of-God thing
very personally.
Some of you have no doubt come out of religious
backgrounds
in which the wrath of God
was a key motivational tool
in the preacher's attempts to get people
to change their sinful behaviors.
In the end it didn't free you from your sin,
but it had a powerful effect
on shaping your attitudes and assumptions
about God
and how He relates to you.
And even if you weren't spiritually abused in that
way,
there are other factors going on
in every one of our lives,
factors that make a study of the wrath of God
a lot like a group walk through a mine field.
We will very likely not all make it through unhurt.
You see,
even if we have not been mentally beaten up
with abusive teaching on the wrath of God,
still, there are some "givens"
in each of our lives,
"givens" that make us vulnerable
to a tremendous amount of fear
and apprehension.
The three biggest "givens" are these:
1. We are the created beings of a righteous God.
The fact that most of the human race
spends most of its existence
frantically trying to hide from that truth
in no way changes the way things are.
We exist because our righteous,
all-powerful God chose to bring us into being.
2. Every one of us have moral failures in our lives.
And no matter how hard we have tried
to convince ourselves that we really had no
choice,
or that we did what we did in ignorance
or in a desperate attempt to meet our
needs,
still in the end we all know
we have sinned against our God.
And 3, we know there must be some accountability
for our actions.
This, of course, is the stuff of which all man-made
religions are made of.
Some of them offer penance - something we can do
in order to erase the sin.
Some offer a list of good works
with which we can atone for our evil.
But those three factors -
The living reality of a righteous Creator God,
our own moral failures,
and the awareness of our accountability
for our moral failures
all go together to make any serious examination
of the nature of the wrath of God
a potentially terrifying and explosive
topic for us to study,
especially when the passage dealing with this
subject
begins with the statement:
For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the
truth in unrighteousness...
And so,
to help us through this passage
I want to begin by giving you
some sure and solid footing.
I am going to reach ahead in this letter
and give you a glimpse
of where Paul is going to take us in the truth
he is revealing to us.
If it helps,
jot these two statements down
in the front page of your Bible,
or write their references in the margin next to
Romans 1:18
with a little note that says "Read Me First".
I will tell you that they are both from a passage
in which Paul shares with us
a number of birthday presents
given to us by our God
on the day we are born into His
family.
They are irrevocable gifts
given to us by God Himself
completely unrelated in any way
to our behavior,
or our actions,
our conduct as Christians.
They are found in Romans 5:1 and 5:9,
and they say:
Rom. 5:1 Therefore, having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rom. 5:9 Much more then, having now
been justified by His blood, we shall be
saved from the wrath of God through Him.
The first verse proclaims and affirms
our absolute, eternal peace with God
that we have right now
as a result of our faith in Christ's death
as payment for our sins.
The second verse assures us
that those of us who are in Christ
will forever be exempt, excluded,
delivered from any wrath of God
that will ever be poured out on this
world in the future.
Rom. 5:1 Therefore, having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rom. 5:9 Much more then, having now
been justified by His blood, we shall be
saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Now, with that as preparation,
I want us to go ahead and look
at what our world looks like without Christ.
We are going to move through this quickly,
but we must see it
in order to fully appreciate
why there was and is no other hope for
mankind other than Jesus Christ.
There are two major sections
in this first part of the book.
The first of those two sections
covers 1:18-2:11
and we are going to call it, "Life under the
Moral Law of God".
(By the way, as I continue to study Romans
I am revising some of the details of the outline I
passed out several weeks ago.
As I revise
I am posting the revised edition on our web site.
So if you want the revised edition
you can find it there.)
And the description of life under the moral law of
God begins
with a statement of the way things are.
Rom. 1:18 ¶ For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness,...
We will see in just a few verses
that there are actually two distinct phases to the
wrath of God,
one that is active right now in the world,
and a second that is yet to come.
But the one thing we want to notice especially in this
opening statement
is the reason why
our world now lives under the wrath of God.
It is because we as a human race
are determined to suppress the truth in
unrighteousness.
And the truth we are suppressing
is the simple truth of life -
God IS,
He created all that is,
and should rightfully be the central focus of
our existence.
And as we continue to talk about these things,
I do hope you have a growing awareness
of the absolute absurdity
of the way our world currently operates.
Most human beings on this earth today
woke up and began their day
with no conscious awareness of God
or submission to Him.
Here we are,
created beings
living in a physical world
created by God for us,
and most of us live our entire lives
as if our Creator didn't even exist.
Then Paul goes on to explain
how absolutely absurd this is.
Rom. 1:19 because that which is known
about God is evident within them; for God
made it evident to them.
Rom. 1:20 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.
These two verses, of course,
should be a ten week series,
but let me just say that in these verses
Paul is forcing us to face
the absurdity of our thinking.
We stand in front of a new home
and look at the design,
and the construction,
and the landscaping,
and we know with unquestioned certainty
that this house did not just happen
in some random act of natural forces.
To even suggest such a thing
drops us into the intellectual realm of the potato.
And yet,
the tiny blade of grass
that we are crushing under our feet
as we stand looking at that house
is infinitely more complex in its design and make
up,
with not just life
and the ability to grow,
but the ability to perfectly reproduce itself
again and again.
And we say, "It just happened by chance,
as the result of random forces
over millions of years.²
Why would any logical mind
make such an idiotic statement?
Paul goes on to explain why:
Rom. 1:21 For even though they knew
God, they did not honor Him as God or
give thanks, but they became futile in their
speculations, and their foolish heart was
darkened.
Rom. 1:22 Professing to be wise, they
became fools,...
It was because of the God-thing, of course.
You see, to acknowledge the obvious necessity
of an intelligent Creator God behind the blade of
grass,
would be to also acknowledge
the obvious necessity of bowing before
Him as our Creator.
And that we will not do.
And so we do the absolute unthinkable -
we collectively close our eyes
to the creative genius that screams
from every drop
and every ounce
and every blade of all of the
physical world,
and pretend it all just happened.
And how do we do it?
Rom. 1:23 (we) 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.
We glory in the creation
rather than the Creator.
And it makes no difference
whether we worship a chunk of the created
world
in the form of a carved wood or stone
image,
or whether we prefer our god
in a more modern form,
all shiny and painted,
it's still the same -
our hearts and our allegiance
and our source of purpose,
and our hope of security
all grows out of that god.
And then, in verses 1:24-32
Paul explains God's response to our rebellion
as he reveals to us
the first of the two-phases of the wrath
of God poured out on the world.
Rom. 1:24 ¶ Therefore God gave them
over in the lusts of their hearts to
impurity, so that their bodies would be
dishonored among them.
Rom. 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of
God for a lie, and worshiped and served
the creature rather than the Creator, who is
blessed forever. Amen.
Rom. 1:26 ¶ For this reason God gave
them over to degrading passions; for their
women exchanged the natural function for
that which is unnatural,
Rom. 1:27 and in the same way also the
men abandoned the natural function of the
woman and burned in their desire toward
one another, men with men committing
indecent acts and receiving in their own
persons the due penalty of their error.
Rom. 1:28 ¶ And just as they did not see
fit to acknowledge God any longer, God
gave them over to a depraved mind, to do
those things which are not proper,
Rom. 1:29 being filled with all
unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil;
full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice;
they are gossips,
Rom. 1:30 slanderers, haters of God,
insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of
evil, disobedient to parents,
Rom. 1:31 without understanding,
untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
Now, if you are following along in the notes,
you notice that I underlined one phrase
that is repeated 3 times in those verses.
It is the phrase, "God gave them over...".
And what I want us to see here
is that this active choice of God
to give the human race over to our sins
is the first phase of His wrath.
Now, he starts his list
by talking about some of the twisted
abnormalities
that have entered into human sexuality,
but then he goes on to include
virtually every form of sinful
behavior human beings have entered into.
So what does it mean for God to "give us over" to
our sin?
Well, before I answer that,
let me preface it by saying
that because we are created in the moral
image of God,
any time we act in a way that is
inconsistent with God,
we are also acting in a way
that is inconsistent with our own basic
design.
That is a rather theological way of saying
that every sin we commit
is not only a sin against God,
it is also a sin against ourselves.
For example, if I allow bitterness to consume me,
and seek to get even with another person
for wrongs they have committed against me,
in the process I am destroying my own life as well
because my bitterness dominates my mind,
causes me stress and no end of resulting
physical problems,
and it robs me of huge blocks of my life
that I could have otherwise enjoyed
and invested in good.
All sin is that way.
If we can ever be honest about it,
we will look at it and say,
"My life would have been better
had this never entered my life."
Now, when God tells us
that the first phase of His wrath
poured out on the world
is His "giving us over" to our sin,
I believe He is talking about
His placing within all human sinful behavior
an addictive element
that quickly causes us to become
hooked on our sin.
Jesus said it so very simply:
John 8:34 "Truly, truly, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is the slave of
sin."
One of the most amazing things
about human sinful behavior
is that once we enter into it,
even when we finally fully realize
the tremendous destructive force it is in our
lives,
we don't let go of it.
And we don't because we can't
because the sin has become our master
and we have become its slave.
And that is what Paul is talking about
when he tells us that God actively
gave the human race over to its sin.
Once we have given ourselves over to some sin,
even when we see the tremendously destructive
power it has in our life,
we cannot walk away from it.
And with each repeated act
we are subject once again
to the wrath of God
in the form of the destructive
consequences that sin
brings into our lives
and our relationships with others.
Q. Now why would God do that?
Why would He intensify the consequences of our
sin?
Why would He give us over to our sin
in the way He has?
Because He loves us,
and even here, in the expression of His wrath
poured out on our sin,
His deep compassion,
and His determination to call us back to
Himself is evident.
With most of us here this morning
one of the most crucial ingredients
in our submission to Christ,
and our entrance into His love,
His forgiveness,
and His life,
one of the key factors
that motivated us to reach out to Him
was being faced with the consequences of
our own sinful behavior.
Our pain drove us back to our God.
You see,
God has carefully structured
the impact of His wrath on the human race
so that the whole first phase of that wrath
is designed to motivate us to reach out to Him
by confronting us with the pain-filled,
self-destructive consequences of our
rebellion against Him.
Then Paul concludes his description of this first
phase of the wrath of God
by describing where we end up in our thinking if
we continue in our rebellion.
Rom. 1:32 and although they know the
ordinance of God, that those who practice
such things are worthy of death, they not
only do the same, but also give hearty
approval to those who practice them.
Faced with our own slavery,
and with our inability to break free,
we collectively redefine "freedom"
so that rather than it being
the ability to do what is good,
it means we all have the right to do whatever we
want.
We give hearty approval to other people's sin
addictions
because it makes us feel better about our own.
Then, beginning with 2:1
Paul moves on to the second phase of God's
wrath.
We'll pick up the dreary picture there next week.
But I cannot close without reminding us once again
of God's commitment to us through Christ
to free us from all aspects of His wrath.
A few minutes ago
I quoted Christ Himself
talking about this addictive aspect of sinful
behavior.
He said,
John 8:34 "Truly, truly, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is the slave of
sin."
Now let me read for you what He says immediately
following that statement:
John 8:36 "So if the Son makes you free,
you will be free indeed."
Breaking the power and consequences of sin in our
lives
is one of the things God does best.
More on that in the weeks ahead.