Video Transcript: God's Wrath Revealed

Once upon a time, there was a land where people saw God, almost everywhere they looked,  when they looked at the sun and the moon and the stars they saw God, when they looked at  the mountains and at the trees and at the flowers, they saw God, when they looked at the  events of history, they saw God's hand, when good things happen to them, they saw God's  hand, and they thanked God. These people believed that they ought to worship God, they  gathered in places of prayer to worship Him, they sent their children to schools where God  was prayed to, and where God's word was taught. And then at some point, the people of this  land got a little less interested, and a little less grateful. And where they had once praised and honored the Creator, they stopped praising. And they started paying more attention to what  they called the laws of nature. And even as they prospered, they stopped giving thanks so  often. And they started talking about how if you really work hard, you earn your way. And as  they stopped thanking, and praising, there was a deadly chain reaction. They started cooking  up theories, that there was no God at all, and that it all just happened. And as they cooked up  these theories, it became not just a theory, but required teaching in their schools. No longer  would anybody pray to this God under the official schools of that land. No longer would they  speak of the Creator in the schools of that land. And as the deadly Chain Reaction continued,  they not only neglected the Creator, but they also decided that they had the right to do  whatever felt good. And they thought it a very strange thing that an activity as fun as sex  ought to be limited to married people. Why not singles? Why shouldn't they be able to enjoy  one of the funnest activities of life? And why if you weren't enjoying the, the current person  you were married to? Why should you be stuck with such a person find another. And so there  was a sexual revolution in which a divorce became far more common, promiscuity and sex  outside of marriage became more common. And then the chain reaction continued. And  males were no longer male. Females were no longer females, and men could have sex with  men and women with women. It used to be considered abnormal and wrong, to be involved in such same sex coupling, but then it became abnormal and wrong, to consider it wrong. And  then the chain reaction continued. And the people of that land were people who became more and more divided. They went to court over nearly everything and sued people at the drop of a hat. They lied a lot, you couldn't trust anybody's word. Even when you had a written contract,  you really couldn't count on it all that much. Children became more and more rebellious  against parents, parents were willing to destroy their own children, the government officials  became more and more corrupt. And one social problem after another arose, violence  increased, people hated God. And they even celebrated these things. They had parades, in  honor of some of their sins. They exalted the positions of leadership, some of the most  corrupt and vile among them, and considered it to be just normal and good. Now, if I were  simply to tell this story as something that follows the latest headlines and developments in  our own nation, it would be a very accurate characterization of the recent history of the  United States of America. But I didn't come up with this sequence of events by looking at  what's happened in the United States, I just read it in Romans. And since we're in a series on  Romans, we'll look at that passage next Romans 1:18-32. The scary thing about the sequence I've just described, is that Romans 1:18-32 says these are the symptoms of a people who are  under the wrath of God. That's what it says, if you see these things happening, it is evidence  of God's wrath. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness  and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be  known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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 men are without excuse. 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. Although they claimed to be  wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images made to  look like mortal man, and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in  the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity. For the degrading of their bodies with one  another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things  rather than the Creator who is forever praised Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to  shameful lust. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same 

way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women, and were inflamed with lust for  one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the  due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain  the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be  done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They  are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God haters,  insolent, arrogant and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil, they disobey their parents.  They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree  that those who do such things deserve death. They not only continue to do these various  things, but also approve of those who practice them since the reading of God's word, and God always blesses His Word, to those who listen. The wrath of God is being revealed from  heaven. What is God's wrath? Well, when we think of wrath or anger, we tend to think of it as  an undesirable trait. We're not very fond of people who fly off the handle, who lose their  temper, who go around in a chronically grumpy mood, and are just sour all the time. Is that  what the wrath of God is, is that he's a grumpy God, who just goes off at a moment's notice,  well, the Bible says God is slow to anger. The Bible shows that God is not someone who is just  set off, or is easily triggered, or is irrational in his rages. The wrath of God is a holy God's  reaction to every thing out of line with the way it ought to be. The wrath of God is God's anger at what destroys the good creation, and the creatures that he made good. God doesn't get  angry just at this or that God gets angry at sin. It's the only thing that makes him angry. And it is the thing that always makes him angry. That's what God's wrath is. God is light in him.  There is no darkness at all. His eyes are too pure to look upon sin. Those are the statements  from the Bible. That's exactly why he gets angry when there's something wrong. The Bible  sometimes speaks of God is a jealous God. Again, we don't admire jealousy. Except what  would you think of a husband who didn't mind if his wife was sleeping around eight different  people? Would you say boy, that's an admirable husband want to fine man, slow to anger. So  wise? You say what kind of? Yeah, you know, doesn't he love his wife? What's the matter with  that guy? Or what would you think of a judge? Who has somebody who comes into court has  committed multiple crimes? And the judge says, No prob, you know, I'm a mellow. Take it easy kind of guy have a nice day. What kind of judge would that be? A good judge is opposed to  what is wrong. A good spouse is jealous for the one whom they love. And a good God is angry  at what pulls people away from him, and what makes them harm others and destroy  themselves. So what provokes God's wrath? Sin does every time. How is God's wrath  revealed? Well, there are a number of different ways. Romans in the latter part of it mentions  one way that God's wrath is revealed. It says that government is a minister of God's wrath or  an agent of God's wrath against those who do wrong. So one way God's wrath is revealed, is  when people get punished for doing crimes, you do the crime, you do the time. That's, you  know, that's one way that punishment is revealed, but not the only one. Another thing that  the Bible talks about, and the apostle Paul and all the other Bible writers, they talk about the  wrath to come a future wrath, a future unleashing of God's anger against all that is wrong  that's never been repented of, in which he punishes wrongdoing, with hell with eternal  punishment for those who will not repent and remain opposed to him. There is the wrath to  come. And then there's the kind of wrath that's described here. The wrath of God is being  revealed, how it's being revealed by God saying, Have it your way. You want to sin. You want  to be on your own without me. Have at it. Three times there is that dreadful statement  repeated, God gave them over. God gave them over. God gave them over. He did not send  lightning from heaven to blast them away. He doesn't do all the other things and say, Oh, I am so furious at you, though he communicate some of that in his word. But his wrath is revealed  simply by saying you want a life, and a society without me. Here it is. How do you like it? And  we look at certain things and we say, Boy, God's gonna punish us for that. No, Paul, and the  Word of God says, This is God's wrath being revealed. When you get to this point, you're  already experiencing the wrath. It's not that you're just storing up wrath for the future, you  are experiencing it already, because you're being handed over to this mess that life becomes  without God. And it goes in stages. And we've looked at them briefly, we'll look at them in a  little more detail now as they're described in Romans 1. The first stage is godlessness. The 

wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of  men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, although they knew God, they neither  glorified Him as God nor gave him thanks, this is the root of it all. And those words even come in, in the right order godlessness, and wickedness. But the godlessness is first. Without God,  and then without righteousness, that sometimes the the wording of the translator doesn't  quite capture it. Wickedness is actually just unrighteousness. Because remember, Romans is  talking about how God reveals His righteousness, and how he gives his righteousness in  Christ. And why do you need that righteousness? Well, because you're unrighteousness,  provokes the wrath of God. And that unrighteousness comes from the godlessness of thinking  you can do without him. And notice the core sin. It's not this or that sensational crime or  sordid affair. They didn't glorify Him. They didn't thank him. That's where it all started. They  knew him. And they took him for granted, and then ignored him. They wanted their own life  without him even though they knew he was there. They didn't want to worship Him. They  didn't want to thank him. They just wanted his goodies without him. And that is godlessness.  Nowadays, there are what are called the New Atheists, you know, guys who write books and  say, there is no God and I have 14 proofs that there is no God. The universe looks designed,  but I'll give you 400 pages explaining why it really isn't. And you know, they'll go on and on  telling you how there is no God. And I remember GK Chesterton saying you can't be too  careful about what books you read when I wasn't a believer, I read these books by Atheists.  And by the time I was done, I was a believer. You know that their arguments rang so hollow  that he couldn't believe a word they said. But what I want to say here is, it's not the problem  of intellectual atheism. But the problem of practical atheism that is most widespread, and  most serious, the professors who write the fat books and why you shouldn't believe in God,  that's one kind of atheism. The person who says, I believe in God, and then acts and behaves  and has attitudes as though God is a non factor that is practical atheism. And that is deadly.  And that is what's going on here. When you know, there is a Creator, and you don't worship  Him, you don't thank him. You just figure he's a factor out there. And I'm doing my thing. That  is the core sin of godlessness. And it is the thing that sets in motion all the other things. After  that, of course, the mind begins to follow what the heart has already chosen. If you don't want God, eventually, you'll have some smart people who will figure out some ways to explain  them away for you. If that's what you want, that's what you'll get. You'll get the fat books that  deny what you can see with your own two eyes. Go ahead have at it. You want that says God,  their thinking became futile. their foolish hearts were darkened. They claimed to be wise and  became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immorta God for images made to look like  mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. We look at those verses and say, Yeah, you  know, Paul's talking about those knuckleheaded Greeks and Romans, who would, you know,  worship this or that strange god or goddess or some of these other pagans, you know they  worship alligators? They worship the sun, moon and stars? How stupid can you be? We are the Enlightened we worship molecules and big bangs. We say these are the ultimate reality, I'll  take the alligators and alligator's greater than a molecule or a bang. So you know who's the  knucklehead here? Well, we all are. But people will invent something to worship, and it will be  something unworthy of God. But the sad part is we're made in God's image. And we worship  things that are less than we are the atoms and the molecules are less than we are. And you  have the atheist trying to explain it all of your loves, and your conscience, your sense of right  and wrong, you're yearning for God, it's all molecules. Like I said, I'll take the alligators  there's, there's at least something alive about them. But But whenever you make an idol, it's  something less than you are. The Bible says you know they made worthless gods, and they  became worthless. That's what happens. You come up with a stupid theory about what is not  God. And then you become like that you say, people came from slime, do not be shocked if  they treat each other like slime. Theories do have consequences. Therefore, God gave them  over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies  with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served  created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised Amen. You'll read the Bible,  you'll find that when people worship false gods, oftentimes they really liked the gods who had orgies as part of their worship. People love gods of sex and prosperity they always have, 

always will. You want to pack a church full, preach a prosperity gospel, and then throw in a  little bit of sexual licentiousness on the side, and you have got a great homebrew, for a  successful religion. It's always worked. You'll have the pews packed with people who are doing whatever they want sexually. And who are chasing the almighty dollar and like to show up for  an hour in church on Sunday to hear that it's fine. Well, it's not okay. That's the short version.  It's not, it is yet another stage in heading south, heading away from God into the far country.  And that sexual revolution that involves just sleeping around we saw these stages is worked  out right in the in the 60s, in our own culture, those of us who are old enough, you know, to  just see a little bit of longer history. You saw the stages. And at first was this and, again,  what's going on behind it? It's rebellion against the creators design. What is the creators  designed for sex? Well, let's ask the Creator Himself Jesus said at the beginning, the Creator  made them male and female and said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother  and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two but  one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate. So, what's the  Creator say? He says, male and female. He says, For life. Is there anything unclear about  that? It will take. But again, you can find the 500 page volumes. And if they get really carried  away the 1000 page volumes that will explain a way for sentences that are as clear as crystal  God's intent for sex and for marriage. People have said, Well, Jesus never said anything about  homosexuality. Oh, what did I just read. In the beginning, the Creator made them male and  female, and said that male and female are meant to be one flesh. But again, once you have  ignored the Creator, it's not just some people who run off and get their divorces so they can  chase somebody else or sleep around before marriage. Then there's another stage where  normal male female desire is, is denied. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful  lust. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the  men also abandoned natural relations with women, and were inflamed with lust for one  another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due  penalty for their perversion. These are now the most unpopular verses in the Bible. They are  verses of the Bible that can get you fined or imprisoned in some countries, and of course, are  getting closer and closer to that in our own country. Because this revelation from God is flatly  denied. Again, it's a few sentences. God doesn't take that long to say what he wants to say.  My daughter's in a paralegal program, she came home with some statute books from Illinois,  there were two volumes each 2500 pages long in micro print. How about the 10  commandments? We like the micro print with fat volumes, because somewhere, you know,  you can get all confused in the middle of that. You know, just a straightforward statement.  Again, you need your 500 page books and your authors to prove that this does not mean  exactly what it sure sounds like what it sounded like for 2000 years, basically. And it says  there are natural, what is natural, natural is according to the creator's design, unnatural is  contrary to the creator's design natural is not whatever feels natural to you. It is what is  according to the creator's design. And so we must, in our time, again, understand that this is  a stage, and just one more stage, in a society that's under God's wrath. This does not mean  that you write off a homosexual person anymore than you write off a person who's hooked on  pornography anymore than you write off somebody who's eager to ditch their spouse  anymore than you write off somebody who's a gossip. But you do say this, it's all a symptom  of godlessness, and of something being badly amiss with us, and we shouldn't pretend  otherwise. And we shouldn't say otherwise. No matter how much the world decides to change  its standards. God doesn't change his standards, based on a memo from the US Supreme  Court. Further, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave  them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. And then Paul goes on for  just a quick list of 21 things that aren't very nice. They have become filled with every kind of  wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice.  Just a moment, I don't like that list. Stuck greed right in there with murder. You know what?  What's that about? They're gossips. Oh, man a livin. Did you have to talk about the gossips as a stage beyond the homosexuals? That was rude. I was just talking to somebody yesterday.  slanderers God haters, you know, right in the middle of gossip God, hater murder. We like  some of the sins on this list and say, Uh, yeah, boy, I think yeah, that is bad. And then there's 

these other sins is that was that that one's mine. I don't think that's all that serious. insolent,  arrogant. boastful, I go around pounding my chest and try to make myself look good. And  you're saying I'm as bad as a murderer. Or a god hater. Or a homosexual. Oh, come on. they  disobey their parents. Is that bad? They're senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. So 21  things. And we have our pet, we say I think about 17 of those things are really bad. And those four that are mine, not so bad. Well, God has a different estimation of all that. They really did.  The final stage is when you have the parades, and you start applauding evil, although they  know God's righteous decree, that those who do such things deserve death. They not only  continue to do these various things, but also approve of those who practice them. God reveals His reality from heaven, in all the splendors that he's made, and all the wonders of human  personality that he's put in us, by creating us in His image, he's revealed himself. He's also  revealed what he thinks of sin, wrath. Put those two things together, there is a great and holy  and splendid and marvelous God and Creator, and he hates sin. And we know both of those  facts. our consciences tell us something is wrong. The creation tells us somebody is there.  And we are not on the same page as he is. We are in trouble. And yeah, we know these  things. And everybody knows them, even the ones who write the long books, they know it.  And they're just trying to talk themselves out of what they know, they know it. But they  continue to do those things and approve of those who do them. One of the great tragedies of  our time, which I have found absolutely hard to understand, except in light of these verses, is  what did happen. In terms of the gay liberation movement. I am old enough to remember  when a certain disease was called Grid, Gay Related Immune Deficiency, It later became  known as AIDS, because that earlier label was not considered a very nice one. In the early  days, people were dying by the 1000s, young male homosexuals. And it was exactly in the  midst of all that death. That it gained, and gained and gained in approval. That is a fact that  the more people were perishing, the more widely it became promoted, and praised. You  explain it to me. I can't I have no explanation for it except this one. And I could talk about  other things too, and I will. We're in a society that approves of those who practice these  things. If you are an investor, some of your most lucrative investments will be in casinos, and  entertainment enterprises, and strip joints. You will find that corporations like General Motors  are some of the largest purveyors of pornography. They make cars, but they also are a  holding company for other kinds of enterprises. Don't even turn on cable TV, turn it off. I  mean, pick pick the things that some Christians watch. On cable. They not only approve of  these things, they feed themselves on it every day. While fat cats get richer. These are not  sordid things that the evil merchants of organized crime are doing. This is what the great  corporations of our country are doing with the support of their investors and their many  Christian viewers. So we are reduced to a situation in which we don't even have to pretend  anymore, hypocrisy is not necessary. For many in our culture. You only need to pretend when  there is a standard when all standards are decimated. You don't even need to pretend  anymore. You just applaud the wickedness. And you say boy, he's sure on a ramp today.  People I don't write the mail, I deliver it. Okay, I didn't say this. Alright, just get that really  straight. I am not a guy who likes to just get in people's faces real blah, blah, blah, blah, bad.  I'm simply telling you what God says in the greatest epistle in the Bible. And you decide  whether It fits our current situation or not. And then it goes on just in case, we were still  feeling pretty good and saying, Yeah, I'm sure glad he tore into that stuff. The next verse is  you therefore, have no excuse you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever  point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do  the same thing. And then Paul launches into a whole section about nice, moral people who  have high standards, and Isn't it nice to have high standards that we can break. And then he  goes on, and he talks about people who not only have high standards, and they have their  morals. But then in the latter part of chapter two, and into chapter three, he talks about  people who have the word of God itself, and whose religion is twisted. So in the in the section  we've been looking at, you've got these rebels without restraint. It's just one thing after  another after another, that he talks about people who got their moralism, without morality,  they got their standards, and they constantly are breaking them. And then the people who  have the word of God, in particular, the Jewish people, at that time, you know, had God's 

word, they have the Old Testament. Now, it applies more widely to many of us who have the  Bible, they've got religion, yeah, without relationship. And then Paul concludes the whole  devastating section, we'll look at some of that in more detail in other messages. But here's  the conclusion, what shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all, there is no one  who does good, not even one. So if you listen to a sermon like this, and enjoy it, boy, I'm sorry about that you missed the boat somewhere. Because the point he makes at the end of this  whole section is there is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who does good, No  one who seeks after God, they have become together become worthless. And he goes on and  on and on, with just quotes from the Old Testament part of the Bible about the condition of  humanity, in rebellion against God. So there are three kinds of sinners, the ones who just let  her fly, the hypocrites who got their high moral standards, which they're constantly violating.  And then those who have certain forms of religion, but it's really not transforming them or  saving them. And we want to deal with this. What do we see the horrid election campaign that we are winding down now, and the kind of slander and the kinds of true charges that are  made in it. And we consider the condition of a nation that selects such candidates as their two finest. We say boy we need to clean up the politics, we need to drain the swamp. Well, be  careful what swamp you drain, you might find yourself looking like an alligator. Because the  fact of the matter is, politics is just a symptom. Okay, it's the symptom of a society that's  under God's wrath. Or you might say, well, you know what? Things started heading south  when they got God out of the schools. Let's get him back in the schools. Let's make sure they  get prayer back in the schools, maybe a Bible reading or two here and there that do a lot of  good. Yeah, it might. Probably not. Because that's not the base problem. Man, we got to turn  back the clock of that sexual revolution if if only it worked for the gay rights people, America  would still be a fine, wholesome land or if it hadn't been for that sexual revolution, all those  young people sleeping around and screaming make love not war, we'd be a good country.  Dream on, if you could fix this thing or that thing. It would not address the core problem.  Remember what the core problem is the godlessness and wickedness the practical atheism of  people who don't thank God and glorify Him and live their whole lives to His glory. When I look at that situation, there's various things, you know, we could improve the education system,  we could pray for revival in the churches that would sure be worth doing. We could seek to  improve conditions in our city, so there's not so much gun violence and strife, and all of these  things are worth doing, just as band aids are worth putting on a scratch. But if your problem is godlessness, and your big problem is God's wrath against it, do you really want to face the  wrath of God on the day of judgment and sport a bandaid? If you have a gunshot wound and  you are bleeding profusely? Do you ask for a bandaid? If you have been discovered to have  serious cancer? Do you say, Doc, please give me a bandaid on my pinky and give it a kiss  please and I'll feel so much better my owie will be healed. terrible problems, demand mighty  solutions. And that is why the Apostle Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Not this, that or the other thing  to fix this or that symptom, we need the power of God for salvation, so that we will have  righteousness instead of unrighteousness. So that we will be reconciled to God, instead of  stewing in godlessness, and we then we need to recognize God, we're under your wrath what? What can take away your round? What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of  Jesus? What can make me whole again, Nothing but the blood of Jesus. I reminded you many  times of the bumper sticker if Jesus is the answer, what's the question? The question is, how  shall we be delivered from God's revealed wrath? The answer is by God Himself, revealing His  righteousness in Christ to everyone who believe, so that his righteousness is credited to us  apart from anything we've done, and we receive that gift by faith. And then his righteousness  is poured into us by the Holy Spirit in our lives, though not completely changed right away  begin to change, to be more like our Creator. We need more than a bandaid. We need the Son  of God Himself. If our problem is the wrath of God, nothing can save us but the love of God. If  our problem is our sin, nothing can save us except what takes away our sin, Nothing but the  blood of Jesus. We pray Father, that you will help us to rejoice in the glory and your gospel in  The Amazing Grace that does what nothing else can do. And so Lord, deliver us from fooling  ourselves into thinking we're not so bad. Deliver us from thinking that we can be helped and 

saved by anything less than your own divine power revealed in the Gospel of Jesus and  accomplished through his blood. Help us Father to love you. And to love others we confess as  we hear these sins that some of them we're tempted to sneer at and despise because they're  not our particular problem. And others we want to make excuses for and so we ask  forgiveness even for our self deception and our rebellion against you, even when we're  considering chapters like this, fooling ourselves into thinking we're better and superior to  someone whose sin is different than our own. So Father, we pray for ourselves as believers  that we may always know that our salvation is entirely of God and not of ourselves. We pray  for those of us who may be unbelievers who are shaken by this message of God's wrath, that  we may indeed have your Holy Spirit convicting us and drawing us to you that we may be  saved from the wrath as it's currently unfolding, in the wickedness of society, but also be  saved from the wrath to come. We pray too Lord for those who are troubled or disturbed by  the message of your reality and your wrath, but hate it, just try to dismiss it. We pray for your  work and their hearts to open their their eyes and soften their hearts that they may know you  and yet realize that you are God, and that they need to be made right with you. So we pray  for ourselves for our churches for our land, and ask for your help. for Jesus sake. Amen.