The Theme of the Letter is Chapter 1:16-17.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it {the Gospel} the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith {first to last}; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ ”
We concluded verses 16-17 by reading the dialog from Pilgrims Progress between Christian and Ignorance. You will recall that while Ignorance believed the facts about Jesus and His vicarious death for sinners; that Ignorance could not accept that it was only the personal righteousness of Jesus that God accounted as justifying righteousness. Ignorance would not believe that God did not accept his agreement with the facts about Jesus and his obedience as the ground for his justification!
This is a difficult message to preach. Why do I say that? Because there is no encouragement here for anyone who rejects what God's Word says about these things. But if we are to be faithful messengers of the Word of God we must try to be like Paul who says in Acts 20:27:
" For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."
This morning we will be discussing the Doctrine of the Wrath of God.
Romans 1:16-17 has no meaning if you do not associate the Gospel with the wrath of God.
As we begin this message in our series on the Book of Romans, it is important to make something very clear. We are living in a society that has declared virtually all moral judgements to be inappropriate. "What right have you," they ask, "to impose your moral values on someone else?"
People who say that are declaring that they have the right to impose their lack of moral values on others. So we are expected to accept "gay marriages" and "homosexual ministers," and churches that want to be considered Christian and yet they endorse and encourage the homosexual agenda. Will there be "Christian" churches for child molesters? Why not? Who decides?
The Birmingham Post Herald, Saturday, May 12, 2001 ran a full page article sympathetic to the homosexual agenda.
How do you respond to a friend or to your child who says, "I know someone who is gay. He is one of the the nicest people that I know. Doesn't he have the right to choose his lifestyle? Besides, he says he was born that way. He can't help it if he is "gay?"
Let me recommend an approach to use when you have the opportunity to discuss religion, abortion, homosexuality, or any other sensitive and controversial issue.
Begin by acknowledging that each of us has a belief system. We have a way of deciding right and wrong. Call it your "world-view." We each have an epistemology. That is the theory of knowledge. How do you know what you know? "Well," you say, " I just know it!" But based on what? How do you test what you hear or read? What is the truth? Contradictory ideas cannot both be true!
My belief is that God has given us the Bible which is His Word in written form. I believe that the Bible is fully inspired {plenary}, inerrant {without error}, and infallible {will not lead you to error}. We may differ on how to interpret certain passages of Scripture. Wait until we get to Chapter 11 and verse 26. Who is "all Israel" that will be saved? If we are to have meaningful dialog, we have to agree that the Bible is Truth. "Well," you may say, "The Bible is true but it is out of date. What was true 2000 or 3000 years ago cannot possibly have relevance in these modern times.
That is exactly the thinking that Jesus confronted in the Sermon on the Mount. Cf Matt 5:17-18
The Bible is the word of God and is therefore necessarily true.
That is my epistemology.
Therefore, as we discuss what Romans Chapter One says about ungodliness and unrighteousness, especially homosexuality, I am declaring that what the Bible says is the truth. It is always the truth. You are free to disbelieve what the Bible says. But if you are an honest person you need to honestly question the basis of your belief system.
How do you know what you know? What is your epistemology?
That said, we will look at Chapter One, verses 18-32.
The Wrath of God Upon the Pagan World. {1:18-32}
There are degrees of exposition. We studied the 25 verses of Jude for eight months. Donald Gray Barnhouse preached out of Romans for 10 years.
Just this week I listened to tapes of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones preach 5 sermons on just verse 18.
My objective is to deal with sections and themes and sometimes deal with specific words and how they are translated.
"For ... {Because} .... the wrath of God is revealed...."
This passage presents the doctrine of the Wrath of God or the Doctrine of Condemnation.
God's wrath is His "settled indignation" against sinners.
Paul refers to the wrath of God ten times in the Book of Romans.
Many people reject this attribute of God and say it is incompatible with the love of God.
But let's define our terms. What is an attribute of God?
A distinctive feature that serves to describe God.
It is not correct to say, "God is like ...." God is not "like" anything!
God is ....!
God is: Holy, Solitary, Mercy, Grace, Immutable, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Sovereign, Faithful, Long-suffering, Love, and yes, God is Wrath.
Do not imagine that the attributes of God are in conflict.
God's love and His wrath are based on His justice and holiness.
God's wrath is personal, though never emotional.
God's wrath is not uncontrolled rage as we think of man's wrath.
God's wrath is His settled indignation against sin!
It is popular to say, "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner."
I suspect the intent of that saying is to "protect" God.
How could a loving God hate anyone?
The problem with that slogan is that you can't separate the sin from the sinner! Sin is not an abstract idea disassociated from man. Dogs do not sin because dogs were not created in the image of God. Dogs do not have moral accountability. But men do.
You and I will give an account to God for every thought and every deed.
Does it trouble you to hear me say, "God hates individuals"? Why?
Do not assign this message to other people.
Every one of us either has been or now is an object of the wrath of God!
You will have to wait until Chapter Nine for more exposition of how God hates individuals.
Vs 18 For the wrath of God has been revealed...
If you will not accept the revelation of the wrath of God in vs 18, you cannot be consistent and accept the revelation of the righteousness of God in vs 17.
You can't believe vs 17 without believing vs 18.
You can't just go through the Bible and choose what you agree with and reject other parts. You may think you can, but you will learn too late that God will not allow you to challenge His truth.
Paul's argument is that because all people are under the wrath of God, therefore all need the Gospel. As we develop our exposition, we will see that Paul is saying:
the Gentiles {the pagan world} are under the wrath of God {1:18-32};
the wrath of God is upon the Jews {2:1 -3:8};
indeed the wrath of God is upon the whole world {3:9-20}.
The Gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel deals with the righteousness of God as it is revealed in the Scripture. But the Gospel is pointless to the person who does not understand that he is by nature ungodly, and that all of his deeds are unrighteous, and that he is personally an object of the wrath of God!
A person may accept a proposition, as did Ignorance, but the Gospel is not "Good News" unless you know you are justly condemned by a holy God!
This passage tells us:
Sin is deliberate: {19-21; 28} Everyone knows that there is God, a divine nature.
The atheist? vs 20 But we do what we know is wrong anyway.
Sin is inexcusable: {32} We know that God is; we know right from wrong; we know there is judgement; and we are without excuse.
We are perverted within. In our affections, all of us don't do everything listed here. But some of us do some of all of them. Or, at the least we endorse the unrighteousness of others. We enjoy sit-coms that promote the homosexual agenda, soap operas where we have vicarious adulterous sex; movies, etc. And I said "WE!"
We are perverted without. Because our thoughts are wrong, our actions are wrong.
Compare what is revealed in vs 17 and vs 18.
This is awesome! Revelation!
Remember what Ignorance said to Hopeful in Pilgrim's Progress:
Hope. Ask him if ever he had Christ revealed to him from Heaven?
Ignor. What! You are a man for Revelations!{Ignorance jangles with them.}
I believe that what both you and all the rest of you say about that matter, is but the fruit of distracted brains.Hope. Why man! Christ is so hid in God from the natural apprehensions of all Flesh that he cannot by any man be savingly known unless God the
Father reveals him to them.
Ignor. That is your Faith, but not mine; yet {He speaks reproachfully of
mine, I doubt not, is as good as yours, though I what he knows not.}
have not in my head so many Whimsies as you.
We should mention that there are here, in these two verses, two kinds of revelation.
There is the general revelation of the truth of the divine nature in creation.
This revelation of God is not for salvation, but it is sufficient to make all men without excuse.
Then there is the special revelation of the Gospel unto salvation.
Matthew 11:25-30
Wrath is being revealed, present tense, on-going; vs 24-32 show how wrath is revealed.
The sinner is given over to his vices and misery.
Wrath is revealed in the conscience. All of us have an innate sense of right and wrong {Ch 2}.
We learn to deal with our conscience. We harden our hearts as did Pharaoh. Our conscience becomes seared through repeated acts of unrighteousness.
Wrath is revealed in nature: thorns and thistles, the fear of man in animals.
The proof of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden is when a dog barks at a man.
Wrath is revealed in God's allowing men and women to live in rebellion against Him.
Unless God shows them mercy, they will reap the harvest of their rebellion.
And more than anything else, the wrath of God is revealed in the
death of the Son of God.
Verse 18 ...ungodliness and unrighteousness...
"Ungodliness" is irreverence, impiety, perversity of a religious nature.
"Unrighteousness" is lack of a right attitude and right conduct. Wicked thoughts and deeds.
The order here is very important. Ungodliness is the cause and unrighteousness is the effect.
Much of what is called evangelism today fails because they treat the symtom instead of the disease. They deal with unrighteousness and do not address the cause, which is ungodliness.
If I can persuade a man or woman, especially very young people, to "Accept Jesus as their personal Savior," and the Holy Spirit has not convinced them of their ungodliness, they may be deluded into a false profession of faith. Without Holy Spirit conviction of guilt and condemnation there is no real sense of the need for a Savior. Where is repentance?
Unless you are convinced of your ungodliness, you will not see your need for the righteousness of Jesus.
The ungodly "Suppress" or "hold down" the truth by wicked lives, they resist, hinder, stifle, repress and thwart the truth, especially that which may be known of God, vs 25.
Notice that they know the truth of God. This is not the Truth as we commonly use the term to refer to the Gospel. But this is the knowledge of deity. And men hold that truth down!
Verses 19-23 The grounds for the wrath of God.
The wrath of God is right and just, even against those who will never hear the Gospel. How is this so? God reveals Himself to all men, vs 19-20; and man rejects that revelation, 21-23.
The pagan world is not condemned for failure to live up to a revelation that they do not have, i.e., the Gospel; but they fail in receiving the revelation that they do have!
They reject that which is known.
Vs 20 Inexcusable ignorance; God has always revealed His existance and power. "Godhead" is not the best translation because that term refers to the Trinity. The better translation is "divine nature."
The evolutionist, e.g., rejects all the evidence of design in creation and believes in chance.
There is no evidence for evolution, all the evidence in nature points to intelligent design, yet the evolutionist holds down the truth. He suppresses {holds down} the truth that may be known in unrighteousness.
Anyone who believes in evolution is an intellectual fool, and is without excuse!
Vs 21-23 The downward regression, due to ingratitude, refusing to worship their Creator.
Insolence: claiming to be wise without God, they become fools instead.
Idolatry: they exchange the glory of God for idols fashioned to look like men, birds, animals, and snakes.
"Modern man" no longer worship wood and stone images. They worship themselves. They put self and comfort before God.
Vs 24-32 The execution of God's wrath.
v 24, God gave them up...
v 26, God gave them up...
v 28, God gave them over...
"Sounds like clods of earth falling on a coffin."
vs 24-25God withdraws all restraint:
Lesbianism and homosexuality.
Abandoned to uncleanness; lust after and desire the forbidden; impurity; sexual aberration.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
The final stage in man's downward spiral into moral decay is to rebel against his very own nature.
Can a lesbian or homosexual be saved? Of course, but they must agree with the Word of God and repent of their wicked lifestyle.
vs 26-27 Abandoned to passions of dishonor; given over to vile passions; similar to 24-25, but worse. Such unutterable impurity brings its own punishment. AIDS is a terrible disease. But it could be virtually eliminated by a change in behavior.
vs 28-31 Incorrigibility.
They embrace wickedness.
Abandoned to a reprobate mind.
A mind incapable of making moral distinctions.
This list of iniquities is terrible to read.
vs 32 They endorse wickedness.
They publish newspapers that endorse the "gay" agenda.
"Who....," i.e., those of such nature are justly condemned.
Do you find it difficult to condemn the homosexual lifestyle?
Do you agree it is genetic and not a deliberate choice?
I began by saying that this is a difficult message to preach because there is no encouragement here for someone who rejects what God's Word says about these things. But if we are to be faithful messengers of the Word of God we must try to be like Paul who says in Acts 20:27: " For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."
The encouragement is that God is merciful and He is revealing
the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.
Do you need the righteousness God?
Cry out for it, "What must I do to be saved?"
Repent and believe the Gospel.
Are you convicted of ungodliness and unrighteousness?
Do you want the righteousness of God?
Do you want to trust Jesus Christ?
Amen
