THE WRATH OF GOD
Romans 1:18-23
Today we are addressing one of those “sore spots” for Christians.
The scripture boldly declares… not defends… boldly declares the WRATH OF GOD.
Most churches and most Christian run away from it or try to defend it, or explain it away.
But if you are going to understand scripture you MUST understand the wrath of God…. What it is, why it is, and what it means to us.
Here in chapter 1…Paul is writing one of his greatest books, Romans, and has just finished telling the Christians at Rome how much he loves them and then, in verse 14 he kicks off to what matters most to him… THE GOSPEL.
He declares, “I am not ashamed of the gospel.”
Now if you and I were going to talk about the gospel, we might start at Calvary and tell people how much God loves them.
Not Paul, because he understands before you can get to the glory of Calvary, you have to travel through the wasteland of SIN.
After all, if you want to tell someone they must be saved… you must tell them FROM WHAT they must be saved
We know that what we must be saved from is THE WRATH OF GOD.
If you run away from and cover up the wrath of God… you have no basis for salvation or the Gospel.
But, some would whimper, if you bring it out in the open you expose a dirty thing that is not politically correct.
We act like the wrath of God is some dirty little secret that we need to keep hidden because it is offensive or wrong
Kind of like people in the dark ages dealt with mental illness in the family… keep them locked away in some back room.
They say wrath of God is old testament, archaic, old-fashioned, passé, obsolete and out-of-date and out of touch with the modern, educated, enlightened, savvy, modern day mindset and worldview.
We think it turns unchurched people off, and it even makes believer’s uncomfortable because we don’t understand it either.
We decide we will just not even deal with God’s wrath by focusing on God’s love.
Too many churches today are AFRAID to deal with Sin and the wrath of God.
This is perhaps best exemplified by one of the biggest churches in the world… the Crystal Cathedral
It was a mammoth all glass building that seats 3000 people. The preacher was Robert Schuller, a heretic that called himself a Christian minister.
He did not believe in sin, or hell. He said he would NEVER use the term sin in his pulpit.
In a 10/5/84 letter to Christianity Today, Schuller wrote, "I don't think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and hence counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition"
The wrath of God fell on Robert Schuller and that church. In 2010 they filed for bankruptcy and in Feb of this year the building was sold to become a Catholic church.
If you want to preach the Gospel of salvation and grace… you have to start at the WRATH OF GOD
Proverbs 9:10 proclaims, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
This verse says you cannot possibly understand spiritual things… be wise… until you learn lesson 1… The Fear of the Lord
What are we to fear? GOD”S WRATH!!!
Let’s get to the scripture and see what GOD says about the wrath of God
Verse 18 declares the WRATH OF GOD IS REAL… and terrible… and something we should REALLY fear
But before we get there I want to look at verses 19-23 which lays the foundation for understanding the wrath of God
Whenever you start a discussion about the wrath of God, one of the first objections is “What about the innocent native in Africa… or Borneo… or the rain forest… or the outback?”
Well, let’s just blow that objections completely away… now listen closely… this is not good grammar… but it is good theology…
THEY AIN’T NO INNOCENT NATIVES NOWHERE!!!
Did you get that… should I repeat it? THEY AIN’T NO INNOCENT NATIVES NOWHERE!!!
Mrs. Strother, Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Beatty just rolled over in their proverbial graves.
It’s terrible English grammar… but R.A. Torrey, Billy Graham, Dwight Moody, John Bunyan and Jonathan Edwards just gave a collective “AMEN, HALLELUJAH”
The bible is clear on this point “FOR ALL HAVE SINNED…
THERE IS NONE THAT IS RIGHTEOUS NO, NOT ONE
There are no INNOCENT natives anywhere
You may mean “What about the IGNORANT natives in Africa.”
There are those who are ignorant, don’t know about the gospel
Our scripture today deals with that.
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
This verse makes it very clear… God has revealed Himself to EVERYONE in two ways
INTERNALLY--- In the conscience and spirit
EXTERNALLY--- In nature/ creation
NOTE: Theologians tells us there are two types of Divine Revelation:
GENERAL: Things that are revealed through natural things like nature, reason and art
SPECIAL: Things that cannot be learned through natural means and require God to send special or specific Word
V. 19 says “What can be known of God” that is general revelation
God has placed inside EVERY person ever born an instinctive knowledge of Himself and a desire to know Him
There is no person who can say, “I didn’t know”
“so that people are without excuse”
Maybe they did not know the SPECIAL REVELATION stuff
The cross, Jesus, salvation
But they knew the GENERAL REVELATION stuff
There is a God… higher power/creator
That God is orderly, good, loving
And if they would just respond to the general revelation of God… he would lead them in their search for SPECIAL revelation
Listen: Maybe in Paul’s day there were people groups in different parts of the world who could not find anyone who could give them the special revelation about Jesus and salvation
BUT NOT TODAY
Our technological world has put the special revelation of the gospel well within reach of EVERY people group on the face of the earth
Even in Africa and Borneo and the outback… they have IPhones and internet and technology so they can know the truth.
There are NO INNOCENT natives... nor any who can use IGNORANCE as an excuse
There is no reason for IGNORANT natives because the scripture is available in almost every single language and ALL have access …IF THEY WILL JUST RESPOND TO THE GENERAL REVELATION
HOWEVER…WE DON’T WANT THE TRUTH!!
[ You can’t handle the truth ]
That is right, we can’t handle the truth… the truth is hard and we don’t want it
Listen to God’s charge in the last part of v. 18 “who suppress the truth by their wickedness,”
Listen to v. 21- 21 “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him…”
They did not glorify God, did not praise Him, did not give Him the place He deserves… #1, boss, Lord
And they suppressed the truth of who he was.
WHY?
Because we don’t want God to be God.
We want Him to be Santa Claus and give us things.
We want Him to be a rescuer when we get in trouble
We want Him to be Grandfather when we mess us
But we do not want God to be God because…
WE WANT TO BE GOD
We suppress the truth because it is UNCOMFORTABLE
HARD TO LIVE UP TO
REQUIRES SACRIFICE
We do not want God to be God BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE GOD
Just like EVE… “You will be like God”
But what happens when we suppress truth?
It is like erasing some information in a sentence… we suppress it
Now what do we do?
We FILL IN THE BLANKS
Example Psalm 99:9
We make up answers that we like
God reveals what He is like
We suppress it
Now we make up what “Our God” is like ((LIKE US))
God reveals what He wants
We suppress it ((too hard))
Now we make up how to please God (( easier))
Listen to the whole verse 21
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Pendleton translation: Because they suppress the truth they had, and did not obey God, they came up with stinkin thinkin, their plans were futile and could not please God, and their minds became increasingly ungodly and humanistic”
They suppressed the truth
Without truth they made up their own truth
Then their reasoning became skewed
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
They thought they were so wise, so erudite, so brainy, so intellectual
They were so smart that they did not need God, they were smarter than God
Of course they were… they had castrated God, stripped Him of His Glory and His thanksgiving
What they had left was a powerless, ignorant, unloving diety that they could scoff at and ignore
And what would you do with a powerless, ignorant unloving diety?
Get rid of it and get a better one.
Listen to verse 23: 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
They created IDOLS… manmade Gods that THEY COULD CONTROL
I was sitting in the Camp meeting, listening to Dr. LeBorg on Wednesday night and he said The USA is mentioned in prophecy… right here in Romans 1
Nowhere in all of scripture is the one single passage that more precisely speaks to America. This verse is us… to a T.
Infact there is not now and never has been before a nation on the face of the earth… which these verses more perfectly fit.
America has REJECTED GOD
America has been more blessed than any other nation in the history or the world when it comes to revelation
GENERAL REVELATION
The beauty that God has placed around us is unsurpassed by any nation in the world
God has blessed us far beyond what He has any other nation ever with freedoms, and medical advances, educational opportunities, etc
WE HAVE SEEN THE GOODNESS AND POWER OF GOD
SPECIAL REVELATION
No nation ever had more preachers, more churches, more radio programs, more religious freedom, a stronger faith foundation than the US
We have been THE Christian nation in the world, THE leader in proclaiming the Gospel, THE leader in missions
There is not one single person in all of the USA that can honestly say I don’t know about Jesus
But WE have suppressed the truth… we have rejected the truth of the Word of God, we have tried to legislate God right out of every area of life
We have perverted the truth of God’s word and have replaced it with stinkin thinkin and man-made gods.
We have tried to remake God in our own image
We have proclaimed ourselves educated, modernized, sophisticated, wise beyond any other nation and BEYOND GOD
And we have made idols of riches, power, fame, stuff
THEY MAKE POOR GODS
They have no power, no help, no directions
>>>>>They are like puppets
All they have is what you give them, they are just an extension of you
They are only as powerful as you
They can’t be there when you come to the end of you
When you come to the end of you… you come to the end of them
And you are without help and without hope
What we need is to turn back to the one true God who has revealed Himself
That is the God of power, of love, of hope, of help
Some of you… if the truth were known… and it is to you and God… have already cast aside your castrated, emasculated, weakened and impoverished god.
You suppressed the truth of scripture about God, you did not worship Him, did not praise Him and you cut away His deity by refusing to believe in his perfection and his majesty
You replaced His Word with what your friends said, what the world believed, what was easy, what would cost you nothing
And you found our god to be a weak pathetic god who could not stand up to doubts and questions
So you left your God and made your own gods
Now you are standing in the middle of trouble and confusion and find that your god is about as helpful as a wet sock
And some of you, are what Paul referred to in 2 Tim 3…
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Those Christians had “a form of godliness”… it was just façade… just a front
It had no substance, no power, no life
Some of you have been just as guilty of neutering God by unbelief and disobedience
You are only a little better than those who have completely abandoned the faith in favor of idols
Your God is just as impotent and useless… and you are just before casting him away
What you need to do is get out of that pew and run to the front of this church… fall on your knees and cry out to God to help you
Some of you have suppressed the truth of the scriptures and have changed Gods word to fit your needs
You need to run to the altar and confess it to God and ask Him to renew a right spirit in you
