Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1661

November 17, 2024

Romans 1.18-32             Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“The Wrath of God”

 

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰For 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 they are without excuse. ²¹For 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. ²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. ²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. ²⁶For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. ²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³²Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

 

• Revealed in the Gospel

 

Verse 18 may not be a pleasant opening line for this section. The wrath of God is not normally a pleasant topic, certainly not for non-believers and sometimes not for believers who worry that God may be angry with them for some reason. This phrase, “the wrath of God”, is not a new thought to begin this section of the letter to Rome, but is a continuation of the previous verses about the gospel of God. It is particularly a part of what has been revealed by the gospel. Let us refresh our memories, Paul writes, “¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it [the gospel] is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” ¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

What we see are the themes revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ: the power of God for salvation, the righteousness of God, living by faith, and in verse 18 – the wrath of God revealed from heaven against the ungodly. It follows that if the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, the unrighteousness of men would also be revealed and thus the wrath of God against that unrighteousness. The consequences of ungodliness and the suppression of the truth is defined in Proverbs 1.28-33 ²⁸Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. ²⁹Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, ³⁰would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, ³¹therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. ³²For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; ³³but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”

There is no excuse for not calling on the Lord, no excuse for hating knowledge and not choosing to fear God. Paul expounds on these thoughts in Proverbs in the verses we have read and heard this morning, beginning at verse 19 and following. In Proverbs, as in Paul’s thinking, those who know God exists, even those who say He does not, they know deep down somewhere in the recesses of their hard hearts that something or someone higher is real. The gospel reveals all of this. It exposes sin and rebellion and God’s anger toward those things. The gospel reveals God’s power and salvation to those who believe. The gospel is the core of our faith and our discipleship. It is the main thing for us to keep as the main thing.

The liberal/progressive church does not want to acknowledge the wrath of God. They want to soften the gospel at the expense of God’s wrath. I remember one particular hymn that was once rejected from consideration for a new hymnal because the hymn dared to mention the wrath of God in one verse. Liberal/progressive preachers will not go here because they fear that it may turn some people away from the gospel, but that is a mistake. We cannot shy away from this topic. We may not necessarily bring it to the old fashioned fire and brimstone preaching, but we also cannot dismiss it totally from the pulpit. People need to know! God is a God of love, yes, but God also reveals wrath against those who reject Him and turn from His Word for life. They are without excuse.

 

• Without Excuse

 

Paul shows that everything has been revealed to the degree that there is no excuse for not seeing God and no excuse for not believing in God. What can be known about God is plain and simple. It is right before us. It is seen in creation itself which reveals God’s invisible attributes, that is, His power, and divine nature. The visible reveals the invisible. The visible reveals the power of God’s Word to create something from nothing, for God calls into existence that which does not exist (Romans 4.17). The visible reveals the divine nature of God in that He sustains His creation and provides for all His creatures. Psalm 104.27-28, “These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. ²⁸When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.” All of creation knows what some would deny, that God created all things and sustains all things. Jesus reminds us of God’s general blessing on all of creation in Matthew 5.45b, “...For [God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

We wonder how people can go about their lives without any thought on theses things – that God is real, that there has to be some higher power who has created all we see and know in the visible world, and that there must be more to life than work and entertainment and sports and whatever else occupies the mind. Romans makes it clear that there is more and all who refuse to see it or accept it are without excuse.

 

 

• God Gave Them Up

 

There is a very sad and painful reality for those who refuse God’s way of life; God gives people up to their own passions. This too is not a new thought from Paul because the Psalms know this reality as well.

Psalm 81.11-13, ¹¹“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. ¹²So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. ¹³Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!” Some Jewish commentators speak of the Egyptian Pharaoh in this way as well, that the meaning of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart was simply God giving Pharaoh over to his already hardened heart. God strengthened Pharaoh’s resolve to resist Moses’ request to let God’s people go.

So here Paul tells us three times that God may give people up to their ungodly passions. He gives them over to their wickedness.

 

1) ²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

 

2) ²⁶For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

 

3) ²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

 

This has to be one of the most painful realities of humanity, for God to give some people up to their own cruelty and sin and corrupt mindset.

 

• From Bad to Worse

 

At the end of the reading for today, things go from bad to worse for those who have failed to acknowledge God. Not only do they practice that which is against God’s Word and contrary to nature, but they approve such things in others. This is not only a look back at the history of Israel’s sinfulness, but a complete indictment of our society and culture today where these things are happening. It is an indictment against the woke worldview that is contrary to nature and to all things godly. It is an indictment against those who seek to suppress the truth of God’s created order, against God’s commandments, against the gospel of Christ, and against what has been revealed in creation itself and in the gospel of God. It is an indictment against those who fail to acknowledge God today and it also appears that God may have given them up to their corrupted minds. It reminds me of those Psalms that pray for people to fall into their own traps they have set for others.

Psalm 141.8-10, ⁸But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless! ⁹Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and from the snares of evildoers! ¹⁰Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by safely.

 

It reminds me of people who accuse others of the very things they are doing themselves. I read somewhere that we should “pay close attention to a narcissist’s accusations. They are confessions. This is called projection. They accuse you of the very things they are doing.”

 

This list of sins that Paul reveals have been around since the fall of man. We see it in one form or another: malice, gossips, haters of God. There is plenty of foolishness and faithlessness and heartless people. The sad truth is that they are in danger all the time of what Paul is revealing, that God may give them over to their own evil and their approval of those who also practice evil.

 

There is good news though! Always good news in the gospel. Those who believe the good news of the gospel are saved from the wrath of God, Romans 5.9, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” But this does not mean that we dismiss the wrath of God totally out of our purview. The wrath of God is part of God’s character and nature. It is that which partly drives us to the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1.7). The wrath of God is a righteous anger against all that opposes God and His Word. The wrath of God needs to be in our perspective of who God is and how God responds to unrepentant sin. Paul writes again in 1 Thessalonians about this same theme:

⁹For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Be encouraged today that all who believe and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are not destined for wrath, but that through the cross of Christ we have life and life eternal. May those in the path of God’s wrath come to see the good news and know the grace of God that they may come to believe. All to the glory of God. Amen.