04-11-10 The Wrath Phase 1

The passage we have before us for our time together this morning

will lead us into a topic

that is talked about more

and yet understood less

than nearly any other topic in the world of religion.

We are going to talk about the wrath of God.

And as soon as I say that

there are some of you who are wondering

if there is any way you can still conveniently make your escape.

Perhaps you can slip back to the doughnut table

and then just sort of disappear out the door

rather than returning to your seat.

I understand those impulses.

I think that in some situations

they can be an expression of the protective mechanism

that God’s Spirit has built within us

to help us avoid having to process lies that are destructive to our discovery of His love.

I can remember times when our daughter Joni was a baby,

times when Sandee and I found ourselves in church services

in which we violently objected to what we heard being said by the guy up front.

I remember using my daughter as our ticket to freedom.

We had a great system...

We would wait for Joni to make some little noise

and then I, as the caring, compassionate father, would quickly stand and carry her out of the meeting,

(so as not to disturb the other people),

and then, when I did not return, a few minutes later Sandee would slip out to see how I was doing,

and as soon as we’d both cleared the main room we’d head to the car.

Of course I’m really hoping that what I say during the next few minutes

will not cause those reactions in any of you,

and if the topic I just announced causes you to feel that way,

I hope you’ll stay with me long enough

so that you can hear the truth.

But I do understand what can happen within us

when they guy up front announces that he’s going to spend the next 30 minutes

talking about the wrath of God.

If you were here two weeks ago

you know we left our study of the book of Romans

with Romans 1:18 where Paul 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

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 we run into whenever we study a passage like this

is 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.

There are three major ‟givens” that came to mind to me immediately.

First, 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.

And because we are created beings

we all live with a mental backdrop

of some sort of our accountability to this God who created us.

Second, 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,

or that we are at least as good as and probably a whole lot better than most others in the world,

still in the end we all know

we have sinned against our God.

And third, we know there must be some accountability, some consequences for our actions.

This, of course, is the stuff of which all man-made religions are made.

Some of them offer us some form of 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,

or 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..., and

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 either now or in the future.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ... Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

And if, at any time during the rest of our study

you find your spirit being gripped with fear or with anxiety,

come back to these statements,

these words spoken by God Himself directly to each of His children,

and read them over and over again until you can hear them and trust them.

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”.

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 most basic truth of life -

God IS,

He created all that is,

and should rightfully be the central focus of our existence.

Do you remember that conversation Moses had with God

as he stood before the burning bush in the wilderness?

Do you remember what God said

in response to Moses’ question

when He asked God what he should answer

if the Israelites asked who sent him?

Do you remember the name God gave to Himself?

Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Exo 3:13-14

I AM! I am what?

Just I AM!

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

as the result of 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 foot

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.”

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) exchange 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 grow 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 and emotional 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,

‟I would have been so much better off

if this had 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,

on our own we cannot walk away from it.

And with each repeated act

we are subjected once again

to the wrath of God

in the form of the destructive consequences that sin

brings into our lives

and into our relationships with others.

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 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.