The Wrath of God | Romans 1:18–32

The Apostle Paul writes in chapter one of Romans verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness, ungodliness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

This morning we talk about a subject matter, the wrath of God, which is often ignored, oftentimes intentionally, by the majority of those in the world, and I would even add to that, sometimes even by those who are God's people who make up his church.

We don't like to talk about these negative thing called the wrath of God.

In fact, some would have it that God has no wrath, and there's nothing like that to God.

I would suggest to you, though, that that completely contradicts the teaching of Paul that we'll look at this morning.

But maybe it is a little different than we often think of it.

And so we'll take a little time and investigate this further together this morning from Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

One of the most important teachings that we find is this idea when we reject God's love and predetermined plan for us, there is this looming alternative that we should be aware of and that we should be thoughtful of because it has a way of prompting us to be a little bit more thoughtful about who we should be than we might have before.

I would suggest to you that when love just doesn't seem to do what it's supposed to do with our relationship to God, fear can.

And Paul is upfront about that, helping us to understand that a little bit further.

That there are alternatives in our choices.

Which one shall we make?

So I invite you to turn with me there to Romans, and we'll begin there in just a second.

And while you're getting settled in, good to see everybody here this morning.

Appreciate all those who are leading this morning.

Very good.

Uh helping us to worship God more effectively.

And uh now our study time together.

And if you're a guest with us today, we sure are thankful that you're here, want you to be here.

And we love it when you come and join us, God's family and worship to our Almighty God.

We'll talk a little bit, see that a little bit more uh this morning as well.

It's great to see everybody here this morning.

So here in our text, we read of God's wrath of, as I wrote down on the overhead presentation here, God's wrath of abandonment.

That is to say, and let me just define that just briefly, that is to say, God letting sin take its natural course in people's lives if that is what they want.

Letting sin take its natural course results in abandonment of God.

It happened with Samson, you might not know this, might not think of it this way, I should say, but it happened with Samson.

So we see it even in the old covenant, this concept that God remains the same now as he was then with regard to some of these issues.

This is one of those.

In chapter 16 of Judges, in verse 18 of that text, the the uh lords of the Philistines came to Samson's girlfriend and they bring money in their hands.

The text goes on to say that she made Samson fall asleep on her knees, and she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of Samson's head.

You might remember that was a covenant promise with God.

And it seems a weird deal, but God set up a system with Samson where if that hair was ever cut, his immense strength that was given by God would also be depleted.

And we see that happening here.

Verse 20, and she said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson, and he awoke from his sleep and he said, I'll go out as other times, I'll shake them off.

What does the text say after that if you're turned there, or maybe you remember it?

But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

God abandoned Samson.

That's not the own that's not the only time we see such things.

There are actually quite a few like this.

Judges kind of sums that up for us in chapter 10 of Judges.

Let me go back one more there.

Judges chapter 10, uh, I'm sorry, chapter um, yeah, chapter 10 and verse 13.

Judges 10 · chapter mention

I think I missed uh miscited it.

Well, no, it's at the top, isn't it?

I started early.

Okay.

So chapter chapter 10, verse 13 of Judges, God tells the people, You've forsaken me and have served other gods.

Therefore, what does he say?

I will save you no more.

Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen.

Notice that, that is such an important context.

Let them save you in the time of your distress.

Okay, now to Proverbs chapter 1, looking there at verse 24.

Proverbs 1 · chapter mention

Because I have called and you refuse to listen, I have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded.

Because you have ignored all my counsel at verse 27, when terror strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call upon me, but I will not answer.

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

Because they have hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, and would have none of my counsel, despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and have their fill in their own devices.

It's what Jesus means when he said to the people of his day about the leaders, the religious leaders of Jerusalem, let them alone, they are blind guides, and blind guides will have blind followers, and both will fall into the ditch.

Continued, persistent, sinful choices without repentance will result in God's abandonment, his turning away, and letting rejection have its natural and final course.

That is a difficult teaching.

And it's founded in places like we could use here for these examples that we've looked at, but more so in our text this morning from the Apostle Paul.

I would just mention to you before we get into this section of the text that we refresh ourselves very briefly at verse 17 of chapter 1, where we learn about the gospel, the good news that comes from God.

Paul reminds us the gospel is the power of God for what?

Salvation.

That's the purpose of it.

And it has the power to produce salvation in the life of people who are willing to accept it.

In it, we learn about God's righteousness in verse 17, Paul says.

In it, we learn God never does the wrong thing towards us, no matter what situation we are in, whether apart from him or currently with him and on his side.

God just never does what is wrong, which we should think about sometimes when we get to condemning how God treats this person or that person, or how God does this thing or that thing.

God is never wrong, Paul is teaching.

In fact, his desire is to draw everybody out of the grasp of sin and cause them to come to a growing and flourishing state alive with him rather than in darkness.

The last of verse 17 teaches that as well.

However, not everybody desires to be free from sin, and for the time being, they just don't care about the consequences.

And that's what we're reading about here in the text this morning.

For that kind of person, God's wrath of abandonment is imminent in their life.

It is imminent.

We can go along in sin for some time, but it is imminent that God will abandon at some point.

Reading along with me there, then, starting in Romans chapter 1, verse 18.

Romans 1:18

Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 18.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Let's all read together.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the create the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen.

Although sin may start off attractive, it always turns into something that is dark and filled with sorrow, leading to broken hearts and broken lives.

And that is always the case.

It's 100% true every time.

A person may feel, I've gotten away with this.

I'm living, and look, nothing is happening to me because of this.

But it is true that 100% of the time it will lead to destruction, if not here, then in the life to come.

But it will always lead to destruction and heartbreak.

And for those who are obstinate in sin, they're often conformed to a life of depravity, which simply becomes shocking to those who have been trained in truth.

Maybe you also know of the account of a young man who started off admirably.

The best of school, the best advantages in life, but was radicalized over time to become, well, almost like a terrorist.

We might even call him a terrorist.

But you know, I'm not actually speaking of the modern day Islamic terrorist.

I'm speaking of the apostle Paul, who previously was called Saul, who says of himself in a number of places, one of the most graphic is that in Galatians chapter 3, or chapter 1 and in verse 13, Galatians chapter 1 and in verse 13, where Paul says, I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention Galatians 1 · chapter mention

I would say to you, brothers and sisters, that if anyone, if anyone could tell us something about the shocking spiral of sin and what that can lead to in its deception in their life, it would be the Apostle Paul.

It's not gotten better since his day, actually.

It seems to have only gotten worse.

Where we still see in today's news scandals and corruption and betrayal and lies, hypocrisy, moral decay, lawlessness has become an everyday story anytime we turn on the news.

So it's no new thing, is it?

In fact, it is age old.

Genesis chapter 6 and in verse 5, the events of ancient time provoked God's wrath, we read there.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

In fact, to the point that he says, I will blot out everything living save Noah and his family.

I want you to notice in verse 18 of our text how it is that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.

What do you think of when you think of that word wrath?

Every one of us, when I say that word, somebody is being wrathful or or or I just mentioned the word wrath, and there's something that pops into your mind, some preconceived idea doesn't make it wrong or right.

I'm just asking you, what comes to your mind?

What do you think of with this word?

For me, I typically think of rage.

Maybe you're the same way.

It's beyond just anger, it's doing something about the anger.

And in fact, I think of anger that it goes uncontrolled.

We've all been wrathful in our life at some time where we absolutely lost control, either verbal or physical.

The Bible says, do not let the sun go down on your wrath.

Maybe you think of a marriage where a husband or wife shows wrath, they absolutely become abusive, losing control either of their speech or their physical well-being.

They lose control.

Maybe you think of a parent who has abused their child.

They lost control.

In their anger, they lost control.

And that's why the Bible says what it does.

And in fact, the Greeks had a word for this kind of uncontrolled emotional upheaval.

And you see that that word there on your screen.

Thumos.

It just simply means passion-driven in a negative sense.

It is used to indicate the unleashing of a wrathful anger.

And we would say, is that what God is doing here in this text?

The wrath of God is revealed.

I just want you to understand the word in its context here.

If you've not already taken a look at that, the proper word in the context is the word orgave.

Now, that is a different kind of wrath than what we've just described.

One is man's wrath, and the other is a wrath that comes from God.

And the reason this is, is because God never does the wrong thing.

He is controlled, calculative in his anger.

Controlled wrath, leading to the response of an appropriate discipline.

Paul teaches us that the wrath of God is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

That word unrighteous is kind of a religious word, isn't it?

It's a biblical word.

So when you hear the word righteous, if you're not familiar with that word or unrighteous, think of the word right or unright, because that's exactly what it means, right?

And I say right one more time.

Yeah, so it's that which is not right before God.

The word suppress, verse 19.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

Many may suppress the plain truth.

It means to hold down, to restrain, to stifle, to choke off.

Paul is saying people have held down, restrained, choked the truth of God so that it is not effective in their lives or others' lives, even to the point of rejecting his existence.

Now you may think that's a jump.

It's not really a jump.

Think about it.

The fact of the matter is, if you want to do away with a message, who should you or what should you do away with first?

I would try to do away with the messenger.

That way I don't have to hear the message, wouldn't you?

So they choose to try to do away with God so that the effective message will be choked away, choked off.

For his invisible attributes, it says in verse 20, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived or observed.

Take notice for how long this has been the case, ever since the creation of the world.

How?

In the things that have been made.

Paul says, in order for anyone to be justified in their disbelief of God or what he says, they've got to go through the exercise of trying to cause the sun, the moon, and the stars to no longer exist because every one of those and more preach and teach God.

And therefore a message from God.

Psalms 19, verse 1.

Psalms 19:1

The skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Look at this.

Day after day they pour forth speech.

Night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

Their voices go out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.

From the beginning of the world even until now, they've continued preaching and teaching.

For the skeptic's benefit, let's ask the question Do you think everything you see proclaims a creator?

There's this whole argument made in a book about the watchmaker.

And I'll just use that for a second, my watch for a moment.

Do you think it just appeared on my arm?

Ah, this is just a ridiculous question.

We all know that in order to have a watch, you're gonna have to have a designer, you're gonna have to have a machinist, you're gonna have to have a watchmaker that puts it all together in order for it to do what it does, what it's created for by who?

Somebody created it.

What about a building?

We're here in this building.

Did it take an architect?

Did it take a builder?

Did it take some laborers to erect it, to put it up?

How about a baby?

Who made that?

Person says, Well, I made that, no.

No, the fact that you were able to have a part in it does not make you the maker.

It's more complicated than what we have the ability to do on our own.

Everything that is has a creator, you name it.

If it's in this world, it was created by someone.

Any honest watchmaker, builder, doctor, scientist, any honest person who does not suppress the obvious will affirm it all proclaims a creator.

Paul says of God, look at the things that you had nothing to do with and recognize that took a brain, that took someone with power, that took a creator to put it together and make it work the way that it works.

And so, if the answer is yes, you believe everything that you see proclaims a creator, and you find yourself not living the way that creator of the good news teaches that you should, then I reference you back to 18.

Verse 18 the wrath of God is revealed, it's told to us from heaven, from God against such a one.

Paul's recommendation is that we don't choose to start offering excuses when we hear this message.

This undeniable message should not be given excuses about why I'm not gonna bow, why I won't bend, why I won't reverence this one who has created all this that we've that we can look around and see.

Because here's the thing about making excuses to such an obvious argument we make ourselves a fool.

No excuse, according to verse 20, is good enough for why we One would know the first part of this verse and not conclude the second, resulting in faith and obedience.

So there is good news of God to someone who's willing to change.

And in fact, that's the best news actually that we could ever hear, because it proclaims God's desire to have a relationship with the one who's willing to come to Him.

His desire is to save, even the one who may feel like there's no salvation for me.

That is simply not true because one who creates all the things we see can take away any sin.

That is no problem for him.

But it is admittedly bad news, I suppose, for someone who will suppress the truth from having an effect in their life, who will close their eyes and their ears to what is clearly known around them.

And one who refuses the way of God, according to verse 20.

That's verses 18, 19, and 20, if you follow that argument.

That person is destined to repeat history.

Paul says they go from knowing and honoring God in their life to dishonoring God.

That's a terrible place to find oneself.

Look there in verse 21.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, nor give uh nor give thanks to him.

I'll just say to you as we pass by that, is it possible, brothers and sisters, we should seriously think about this.

Is it possible without thanks that one cannot honor God and praise him and worship him?

Seems to me that thanks is the core of reverence.

Without that, you can't have the others.

But instead, like those of old, they become futile in their thinking, Paul goes on to say, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

That's the first step to a fall.

A person who follows this same path today is going to arrive at the same destination.

The quickest way to go from saved to lost is to become unthankful and then begin to deny what we know is a truthful thing.

The word feudal there simply means vain or worthless.

And as a result, he says their foolish hearts, their worthless hearts, vain hearts were darkened.

They made a choice, didn't they?

In Romans chapter 1, there, looking at verse 22, we see step two.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Claiming to be wise, they became fools.

And what does that lead to?

Verse 23, the third step, the exchange uh the exchange of glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Isaiah 43, by the way, deals with that in such a way that it it is anybody who reads that comes to the conclusion.

That sounds really dumb.

Because he talks about training up a tree, growing a tree, planting it and growing it, making, taking care of it, making sure it's all nice and beautiful.

And then when the time comes, you cut the tree down, you burn half of it and eat off of that stuff, and then the other half you form into an image and you bow down before it like it has some kind of power behind it.

And a person who reads that just goes, that is foolish.

And that is exactly what Paul's talking about here.

Those who would who would take God out of the picture, but then there's a void, there's an emptiness.

What do you do with the emptiness?

Well, you have to replace it with something.

So they replaced it in this day and time.

He's talking about ancient times.

But it was also true in his day, and it's also still true today, by the way, where people will carve something out and act like it has something special.

And they'll replace that that has no knowledge, no understanding, no anything, and act like it's God.

And by the way, I know you've already made the application, we can do that with anything that we idolize and prioritize over God.

The fool for the Hebrew person hearing this would be somebody who says in their heart, there is no God.

That's a fool.

Only the Hebrew would think of it probably that way.

For the Greeks or the Gentiles, they had several words to describe a fool, the worst of which was their word moros, and you can hear our word moron in there, meaning worthless in heart or character, willfully contrary in knowledge.

Here's the one I think fits at the very best.

Voluntarily in denial of truth.

Voluntarily in denial.

This person doesn't merely distract others from seeking their creator, but they bring doom on themselves, twisting themselves and others into something that is utterly and fully rejected by God, abandoned by God.

When people reject God, it doesn't stop there.

There's some substitution has got to be made.

Something or someone has to take the place of that.

Sometimes it's one's own self, sometimes it's possessions, or sometimes it's a religion that is just simply gratifying to one's own self, but yet contrary to truth.

Describe the emergence of idolatry then.

Verses 26 and 27, describe growing immorality.

Verses 28 through 32 describe the result of absolute and utter depravity.

There are steps that Paul is outlining for us to see.

So we too do not become victims.

Unleashing of all inhibition, the destruction of every foundation of family is described.

Every foundation that makes up good family is being destroyed in this context.

The propagation of the human race is being taken out of the equation, resulting in the twisting of true love, which God has shown them.

And instead, they replace it with self-love, which comes through sin.

In fact, Paul would specifically mention men and women giving up heterosexual relationships of a husband and a wife in the context of a marriage and procreation for homosexual relations like that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is a way of self-destruction.

In fact, the outcome of all sin results in self-destruction.

The word of verse 24 stick in my mind.

You see it several times in this context.

Did you notice it?

If not, you should underline it there so you do next time you read it.

Therefore, God gave them up to immorality because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Three times he does this in the context.

He gave them up.

God gave them up in the lust of their heart.

God gave them up to dishonor, dishonorable passions.

God gave them up to a debase mind, to do what ought not to be done.

Ladies and gentlemen and brothers and sisters, the good news is there just isn't much that God won't do to try to gain our love and save our soul without forcing us to choose what he wants us to choose.

He'll create the world, Paul says here in this text, so that we look at these things, you know, the spacecraft that went around the moon just recently.

You've seen some of those shots of God's awesome creation, his abundant and just glorious nature.

And even if we don't get to go in an aircraft or we don't get to see pictures, we can look into the sky and we can say, God, that's an awesome God to create all of this.

For who?

For us.

It testifies of him.

It causes us to search for him, to seek for him, to knock.

And he provides the path of truth that we have in Scripture here.

Even in addition to that.

And it all leads to Him.

Just consider the effort our God has gone to to gain our attention and to lead us in a right way in order not to become items of wrath.

He sent His Son to give Himself for us.

Romans chapter 5 and in verse 9, through Christ's blood we shall be saved by Him.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Look at that.

From the wrath of God.

But in all of that, He'll never take away our choice.

He does all of that, but will not take away choice.

That's where He stops short in directing us.

Make a choice is what God demands.

And in that choice, stick with what you know and do not choke out the truth in your life.

Let me ask you something this morning.

Does it seem plain to you of why it is there are bad things that happen in this world?

Does it seem plain?

Is it because God does those things?

Is it because God created the earth that way and all the things that are in it?

Is his desire to do evil toward humanity when he's been the creator of humanity?

Or is it because man chooses to ignore God's goodness?

Man chooses to choke out the truth and become unthankful, turning to embrace impurity, dishonorable passions, and to start doing what ought not to be done.

The good news is this.

This doesn't have to be the permanent existence of anybody.

I mean, not one person needs to exist in that place.

Not one has to go on living that way.

Not one.

God will He will pull us, you and me, from the wrath that is to come from Him.

Good lives and future assurance come from turning to God, not from turning away.

Maybe it's time to make some changes in your life this morning.

I urge you to open up to God through Christ.

Respond to the things that Paul's teaching here.

If you're already a child of God, it should drive you deeper into your faith.

But maybe it should be driving you to faith if you're not a child of God.

If you're already willing to start that walk and you know right now what you need to do, that's great.

If you need to talk to us more, you want to study more on this subject matter of salvation through Christ, we're available to you for that.

Just get one of us afterward.

We'd love to do that.

If you know what you need to do right now, though, and you want to take care of that before God and among this assembly this morning who love you and love God, that's what this invitation is for.

If you'll respond to his call now while together we stand and sing.