The Wrath of GOD
Introduction: If you take a look at a coin you can see what we call the heads and the tails. on one side you see the head of one of our founding fathers (depending on the coin) and on the other you see a different picture, maybe an eagle or the capital etc. Regardless, of the two different pictures it is the same coin. Like that coin, we can see that our God is a God of love and compassion, rich in mercy and full of loving kindness and great forgiveness, but if we dare to look upon the other side of him we will see a jealous God, that wont share you with idols, and we know that he is a God of justice, and he is a GOD OF WRATH.
The word teaches us that God will not be mocked and at first glance, it seems that God has overlooked his word, when we witness firsthand how he is so brazenly mocked and hated today but I will show you today that judgment always comes on those who rebel and when judgment comes, it comes in a way that may surprise you. I can only speak for myself but I assume that I am not the only one who feels the way I do; I am tired. I am frusterated with the promotion of sin arrogantly shoved down our throats and paraded around as a virtue. This is mocking God, and as I said, he will not be mocked. I pray for justice for all the saints who have had to endure the filth and corruption that has permeated through our culture and in the highest levels of leadership both in the governement and in the church. I want justice for all those good Christian men and women that have been slandered, alienated, and persecuted. I can sympathize with Asaph who saw the corrupt prosperity of the wicked and it angered him. You can almost hear him whispering "O God, can you see that these people hate you. They disobey your commands and mock you all day long and yet they live in great health and luxury." Asaph envied them, that is until God showed him their final destruction. Let's not forget who dressed in fine linen and lived in luxury every day. Sometimes God will allow certain people to ripen before he plucks them into the basket of hell. Asaph realizes this and it saddened him.
How can a loving God place anyone there? My question to you is why do you call him 'loving' you must have read in the gospel of his endless love, but you have only seen one side of the God coin. We know that John 3:16 is a revelation of the love of God. Jesus is God's love personified. Jesus dying on the cross for our sin is a revelation of the love of God. To see our children suffer, makes us suffer, to see them sad makes us sad, to see them tormented, torments us. There was one way for men to be saved, only one. One way to be saved from the corruption of sin and it was for Jehovah to give up his own son to be tortured and tormented as a sacrifice for your sins and mine, because of this we may all live again. That is a revelation of God's love. However the apostle writes in Romans 1:18 about a different revelation:
"the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven..." He is not speaking of grace here, is he? He is speaking of wrath.
He continues on to whom God's wrath is against: "...against all the godlessness and wickedness of men..."
I want to share with you four characteristics of the godless and wicked man who has earned God's wrath and then end our message with what God's judgment is. (which may surprise some of you) First note that:
The Godless man suppresses the truth
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." v. 18
A Godly man loves the truth, endorses the truth, promotes the truth, and defends the truth. When we look around our nation and see the horrible condition of things, we see perversions of all kinds, we see thgings that used to make even wicked men blush, we witness malice everywhere, we see sin being not only practiced but vigorously promoted with no regard for any sense of decency. Just as the devout Christian is sickened by the lack of morality today, I can assure you as God's servant that there are at least 3 times as many people that are just as sickened by the little morality that remains. When violence and crime is our country's entertainment, America is undoubtedly the mirror image of the old Roman Empire. Mighty and strong and spread out all over the place but today Rome is just a tourist attraction, some remnants of the great architecture still remain but for the most part it is a small insignificant city that would be forgotten if it weren't for the vatican and it's mark on history.
It was never defeated by any army or natural disaster, it was simply brought down from the inside, it was corroded from within thanks to the godlessness and wickedness that abounded. Seem familiar?
Godless men suppress the truth. They will not let it work on their hearts; they will not allow it to operate in their minds. So they make excuses for their sins. There are many people in hell who were convicted by the truth, but they suppressed it. What a sad state, to end up in a place that you denied existed so that you could go on in sin. What you suppressed in your mind for years is now your fate for all of eternity. Some resist the truth like someone wrestling a wild animal by the ears, and holding it down for fear it will bite him. C.S. Lewis once said that he considered the damned to be successful in at least one way, they were successful in denying and suppressing the truth to the very end, they lock hells doors from the inside. Like a child who tries to comfort himself by hiding under a blanket when he is afraid, the godless man comforts himself by covering himself up with with those who are just as delusional as delusional as he is.
There is always someone out there who thinks they are the exception to the rule that we either trust in Jesus or we do not. A person like that says "I really don't care whether there is a God or not; I am an agnostic." Charles Spurgeon once told an agnostic, that the word 'agnostic' was a greek word... and then said "The equivalent Latin word is 'Ignoramus'." For some reason, he didn't like the Latin nearly as much as the Greek.
In the following two verses 19, 20 (read) we read that God's own creation proves his existence. Even professed athiests can look around and see the beauty of God's creation, they stand in awe at the stars and the moon. They are impressed with the ocean views and flock to live near them. They love the peace they feel when they see a rainbow and enjoy the serenity from a flowing waterfall near a scenic creek. God's creation alone gives them a reason to believe in God. And he makes it clear that if that alone is enough evidence to believe, then it is also enough evidence to condemn, those who deny the obvious - that this world was created. Jesus said "I am the way and the TRUTH and the life" When you deny Jesus you deny the TRUTH!
Transition: Next, we actually see two characteristics of the godless man that I want to combine together
The Godless man is irreverant and ungrateful
"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." v. 21
They knew of God, they knew about God, they knew enough to know that they should honor God and even worship and glorify God, but they refused to do what they knew they should. You can see how each of these verses stack like perfect bricks on each other. The godless and wicked man suppressed the truth and therefore shows how irreverant he is toward the Most high and Most Holy. When the creator of all things is providing (by grace) a way of salvation and a person continues to resist the truth of that salvation? Is this not the greatest example of disrespect and ungratefulness possible?
In fact in verse 28 we read that "they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God,.." They didn't have time for God. They didn't want to think about God. And they neither glorified him as God. They knew in the back of their minds that there is a God but they refused to do anything to glorify him or as the next part of the verse says they would not give him thanks.
One of the signs of the last days is that people will be ungrateful. (2 Tim. 3:2) Today people think they are entitled to have whatever they desire. They believe they shouldn't have to pay for it. God forbid they actually have to go out and work for it. There was a woman who called 911 because she didn't get french fries with her order at McDonalds. The godless are ungrateful, they do not appreciate anything, they only value others as far as they can serve themselves. Ungratefulness is selfishness. In their selfishness they don't appreciate anything that anyone does for them, they just expect it to be done. Ironically if it is not done for them, they tend to call those who don't do for them- selfish. A selfless man won't see selfishness in others because he is too busy caring for them to see it.
God has graciously allowed for us to have so many things to be grateful for. We have our children, and for some grandchildren and even great grand children, he has provided food daily, no one here is starving, he has sheltered us, both physically and spiritually and protected us, and blessed us in one way or another and yet the godless man, while he may openly say he is grateful to God, he will never go to God in secret and thank him. He will not spend the time thanking him for his grace, his mercy, his blessing, or the multiple things we should be thankful to God for.
Transition: The godless man is irreverant and ungrateful, and in the next verse we read what he pretends to be.
The Godless man claims to be wise
"Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools" v. 22
The word 'Philo' means liking or love of something or someone. the word 'sophi' means wisdom. The word Philsophy can be translated the liking of wisdom. Philosophers have fancied themsleves as wiser than the rest of us. They pride themselves in their degrees and in their volumnous education and in their arrogance they act as if thier plans will always succeed simply because they and their fellow philosphers have theorized upon them in the teachers lounge at Columbia or Harvard. They believe that merely hearing a culmination of a diversity of ideas makes them superior in wisdom to the rest of us.
You can know a million and half things, you can win at 'Jeopardy' for 70 weeks in a row, you can quote from the greatest poets, you can recite from memory lengthy statistics, but if you don't know Jesus you don't know the truth. Godless men pretend to be wise, but wise men admit they are fools. Who isn't a fool in comparison to the all knowing God? When a man prays for wisdom, he essentially admits he doesn't have any, which evidences that he really does, because it took wisdom to admit the obvious that we are nothing in comparison to the all knowing omniscient God. To be a humble man is to be a wise man.
Godless men are not humble, instead they are proud, they are proud of their knowledge. A godless society never progresses in the knowledge of God, if they did, they would have a better society. Through out the Bible we see society getting worse and worse without God, not better and better as these godless men would have us believe. And through this they prove themselves fools. As Solomon said "The fool says in his heart that there is no God." A very well said truth. Athiests are fools by God's definition.
Transition: The last characteristic of the godless man is in the next verse.
The Godless man is idolatrous
"and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." v.23
We see here that those who pretend to be wise are the same people who practise idolatry. Someone who once thought he was making a profoundly wise statement once said "we (mankind) are the plague on the earth." what an absurd thing to say. I wonder what percentage of people today are more concerned with animals and the environment than they are their fellow man and and their God? Whether they know it or not they make the environment and the earth their god. In verse 25 we read that they "worshipped... the creation rather than the creator."
I once heard a comedian say "The earth has survived tornadoes, floods, wind storms, hail storms, solar storms, ice storms, lightning storms, volcanoes, constant wars fought upon it, deadly fumes from within the earth, devestating earthquakes, meteor showers, severe droughts leading to great famines, harsh blizzards, wild fires, tsunamis and 3 ice ages . . . . . and yet you are telling me if I do not recycle I am destroying the earth?"
When people have their priorities misplaced it is easy to lose common sense and fall into idolatry
But the most common idol is ourselves. We worship ourselves and we do it to the exclusion of everyone else. Being lovers of pleasure we indulge the self through alcohol, drugs, and food. Those in affluent countries have unlimited access to alcohol, drugs (prescription drug use is at an all-time high, even among children), and food. "eat drink and be merry" is their motto. The self-control we so desperately need is rejected for our insatiable desire to eat, drink, and medicate ourselves to death. We resist any discipline in controling our appetites, and we are determined to make ourselves the god of our lives.
All idolatry of self has three lusts found in I Jn. 2:16: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” We will never find happiness focusing on ourselves. Our hearts and minds must be centered on God and on others. This is why when asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37.) When we love the Lord and others with everything that is in us, there will be no room in our hearts for idolatry.
Transition: Finally we see what becomes of this truth suppressing, self loving, irreverant, ungrateful, arrogant, idolatrous man.
God gives his judgment on the Godless
"Therefore God gave them over in their sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another." v.24
The worst judgment there is, is to be given up on by God. Chuck Missler calls it the "Abandonment Wrath" and also calls it the worst wrath there is. Matthew Henry agrees: "leaving them to themselves- letting them alone; for his grace is his own, he is debtor to no man, he may give or withold his grace at pleasure." When Balshazzar took the sacred instruments of the temple of God and defiled them by getting drunk with the golden goblets and worshipped idols at the same time. A hand appeared and wrote "MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN" The prophet Daniel was called in to interpret this mysterious writing and the most notable part of the interpretation meant "you have been weighed in the scales and found wanting" Daniel reminds Belshazzar that even though Belshazzar knew all that God had done for his father Nebachadnessar, Belshazzar himself never humbled his heart as his father did, to accept God and that very night his kingdom and his life was taken away from him. "But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified. Dan. 5:23 Belshazzar had known the truth and had been familiar with the truth and yet he never glorified the one he knew was God.
[read v.26-27]
We often refer to Homosexuality as a sin, or as an abomination, which it most certainly is. But it is also a judgment. Notice in Romans 1:26 "Because of this," because of their idolatry, they were given over to their shameful lusts. In Colossians 3:5,6 we read "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the WRATH OF GOD IS COMING." They were punished by letting them have their wickedness that they deperately desired.
I knew of many parents who got a phone call late into the night and heard the cracking voice of their son or daughter saying they were in jail. But instead of getting them out of jail which they had warned would happen if they kept up their disobedience, they let them stay there.
Imagine God saying "I tried to rescue you, I offered to save you, I pleaded with you through my ministers and your Christian friends and acquaintinces to come to me and you pushed my love away so that you can chase after your own lusts. Ok then if that is what you want, then you can have it even though you you've been warned that to have it means to be damned.
God will give us what we desire. If we desire to sin, he won't stop us from indulging in whatever sin we want to indulge oursleves in. But at the end of it we realize there is no satisfaction anymore in it. It becomes a vice instead of a pleasure. We crave to feed ourselves with every possible pleasure imaginable and it does not bring us any sense of peace or hope or joy. But if we desire to be saved, if we desire to be loved, if we desire to be forgiven, if we desire to repent, then all these things that we were meant to enjoy from the very beginning will be ours in abundance: Hope, Love, Peace, Joy, and sweet fellowship with our brethren and our creator.
Conclusion:
This is what Rome look like before it collapsed from the inside. [read Romans 1:28-32]
Now let's look at what the apostle says people will be like when the Lord returns [read 2 Timothy 3:1-5] Notice a similarity?
We read that children will be disobedient, rebellious, we also read that just like in Rome they will be lovers of themselves and conceited (2 Timothy 3:2 & 4) Just as Rome had God-haters, Paul says that there will be those who are not lovers of the good, rather than loving God they love pleasure. Pleasure replaces Jesus for their God.
We may question the soveriegnty of God when we look around at the debauchery and blasphey on full display in our time and wonder if our God and our Bible are still relevant. we are in a state of seething unrest - there are flood, hurricanes, tornadoes, riots, protests, wars, terrorism, bigotry, and there is an alarming increase in the occult and Satanism and an increase in gross materialism. We cry out with our inner screams "GOD where are you?!" Sometimes we may wonder if God has lost control of things.
Max Lucado had wrote a great prediction about the presidential race. He mentions that when November 9th comes there will be a lot of disappointed people in America. There will be a lot of anger and sadness, because no matter who you support someone has to lose. He then made a profound statement: No matter who wins the election, come November 9th I predict that God himself ........ is STILL on the THRONE!!
AMEN
