Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia. located at 1102 Eager Drive,
Albany, Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's Holy Word. And now, the message. Welcome to our broadcast today. If you
want to follow along in your Bibles for this message, I'll
be reading from the book of Romans, chapter 1. I'll be starting with
verse 18, and the title of today's message is, The Wrath of God
Revealed. Now, you know, the wrath of God
is not a very popular subject, and most people don't really
understand the reality or the nature of God's wrath. Most people,
when they think of the wrath of God, they restrict it to things
like natural disasters, such as hurricanes or earthquakes. Some people even dishonor God
by thinking about His wrath as if God's throwing a temper tantrum
or something like that. But what we need to understand
is the wrath of God, number one, it is real. Number two, it is
deserved. And number three, the wrath of
God is an extension of God's justice against sin. And I can
assure you, according to the Scriptures, that the wrath of
God is not upon any person who does not deserve that wrath.
Now, here in the book of Romans, chapter 1, we have two revelations. The first one we read about last
week in Romans, chapter 1, verses 16 through 18, where the apostle
wrote, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth,
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." So here he's talking
about the gospel, the good news of eternal salvation, freedom
from the wrath of God, God's wrath removed, that's what salvation
involves, God's wrath removed, and God's favor gained. So he's
talking about the good news of how God's wrath is removed, salvation,
and he says in verse 17, for therein, in the gospel, is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just, or the justified, shall live by faith. Now here
we see the revelation of the righteousness of God, and that
is God's way of saving sinners. those who are by nature under
the wrath of God. God's way of saving such people
by His free and sovereign grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The righteousness of God there is the work of Christ in His
obedience to the law and His death on the cross, shedding
His blood unto death. You see, He took the wrath of
God upon Himself for His people, His church, His sheep, and he
drank damnation dry, he satisfied law and justice, obeying the
law perfectly, and paying the penalty for the sins of his people,
and the wrath of God fell upon him. The justice of God fell
upon him. So that's the revelation of the
good news, the righteousness of God. That's how God saves
sinners, not by our works, not by our efforts, but totally based
upon the works of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's salvation
by grace. So, in order for sinners to be
saved, the wrath of God must be removed. And in order for
sinners to be saved, we need, therefore, a righteousness we
cannot produce, but one which God provides through His Son.
Well, why do we need the righteousness of God? Somebody says, well,
I know I'm not perfect, but what have I ever done to deserve the
wrath of God? Well, the Apostle Paul, beginning
at verse 18 of Romans 1, begins to bring in evidence against
the whole human race as to why we deserve the wrath of God,
why we need salvation based on the righteousness of another,
the Lord Jesus Christ, by God's grace. and in the first and the
last part of chapter one here, he begins with the Gentile world. You know the Bible sometimes
divides the world up into two classes of people, Jew and Gentile. Well here he brings in the Gentile
world and then in chapter two, the Jewish world. So let's read
these verses in chapter one, beginning at verse 18. The apostle
writes, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness." Now, here's what he's telling us. God's wrath,
God's just sentence, God's just condemnation is revealed from
heaven against what? Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. So we see right
off that God's wrath here is not some arbitrary choice of
God that one day He just ducks and says, well, I'm going to
punish this one and I'm going to let this one go. It's not
God throwing a temper tantrum, but it is God's holiness. It
is God's justice against sin. God's wrath will never abide
upon anyone who does not deserve it. And He tells us that here.
It's against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness. That's
sin. And here is a very important
truth. You need to underscore this in
your Bible. It shows us a very important
principle that the true essence of sin is not in what men and
women by nature judge to be immorality. Now, notice I didn't say that
immorality was not sin. It is. But the very heart and
essence of sin resides in this phrase right here, who hold the
truth in unrighteousness. Well, what truth? Anybody who
does not believe the truth about God, who He is, His holiness,
His justice, as well as His mercy and His love and His grace. Anyone
who does not believe God, and specifically the truth of the
gospel, the good news of salvation, based on the grace of God through
the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. My
friend, if you do not believe God's gospel, that God saves
sinners by His free and sovereign grace, not based on what sinners
do for God, not based upon anything in or by the sinner, but totally
based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His finished work,
if you do not believe God's gospel, that truth, then right now the
wrath of God abides upon you. That's what the scripture teaches,
John chapter 3 and verse 36. Christ said, herein is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness and
hated the light. So anyone who holds the truth
in unrighteousness, now they may be religious, they may be
moral as the world judges morality, But if they're not in good with
God through the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're not in Christ, then
everything you do is wicked and evil in the sight of God and
you're under his wrath. Well, why is God's justice so
strict? Well, look at verse 19 of Romans
1. He says, "...because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them." In other
words, God has given every man enough light in this world to
hold every man responsible. And here he's going to talk about
the light of nature and the light of conscience. There's enough
revealed about God in this natural world that men and women are
held responsible for not walking in the light of nature, the light
of creation. Because, you see, that light
shows us some things about God. And then there's enough light
given in the natural man, as we're born into this world, in
our conscience that we know something of right and wrong. Now, we don't
know the gospel by nature. By nature, we walk in ignorance
of God's way of salvation. But there is enough light of
God's law given in the conscience to hold men responsible. I've
often had people ask me this question. They ask me this. They say, what about the innocent
person? who never hears about Christ,
who never hears the gospel, who's never read a Bible. And you know
what my answer to that question is? Well my friend, the innocent
person has nothing to fear from God. Now you can mark that down. If you can find an innocent person,
now to be innocent means to be not guilty. To be innocent in
God's sight means to be perfect. In other words, if you find an
innocent person, Romans 1.18 does not describe them. They're
not under the wrath of God. God's wrath abides upon those
who are ungodly and unrighteous, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, it can be the truth of creation,
it can be the truth of conscience, and especially the truth of the
gospel. Here's the point, and this is what we need to see.
Among men and women born of Adam, born into this world, there are
none innocent. The Bible says there's none righteous,
no not one. The Bible says for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That's what this word teaches.
There are no innocent people. Now you may look at them and
you may think they are, but they are not in God's sight. All men
and women by nature are under the wrath of God because, as
we read in verse 19, that which may be known of God in the light
of creation and in the light of conscience is manifest in
them or to them for God has showed it to them. Now, here's the next
thing. What do we by nature do with
that light that God gives us? And here's the point. There's
not a man or woman who's been born since the fall of Adam who's
ever walked perfectly by the light that he's been given, the
light of creation, the light of conscience. We all, by nature,
have sinned against God. That's why we need salvation.
You see, that's what I'm saying. If you're innocent, you don't
need salvation. You don't need Christ. You're
okay. The wrath of God is not on you. If you're not that way,
you see, all men and women by now, we're all sinners. None
of us. You say, well, I've never read
a Bible. Well, that's okay. You still have never walked by
the light of creation. You still have not walked perfectly,
consistently with your conscience. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Our only hope is to find out
the truth in the scriptures about Christ and how God saves sinners.
So what did we do? What do we by nature do with
the light of creation and the light of conscience? Well, look
at verse 20 of Romans 1. He says, For the invisible things
of him from the creation, the invisible things of God from
the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power, his Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. In other words, there's enough
truth in creation itself, how this world is created, all the
glory of it, the majesty of it, the order of it, to understand
that there is a Creator, there is a God, and He's powerful,
and He's wise, and He's good, and He's omnipotent, He's sovereign. And there's enough light in that
creation to which, that God holds men and women responsible to
seek after Him, to bow to Him, to worship Him, and serve Him,
and seek more knowledge of Him. Now listen to me, and don't get
me wrong. The light of creation. Men and
women cannot be saved from their sins by looking to and believing
in the light of creation. But, the only way we're going
to be saved is look to Christ. Look to His blood and His righteousness. all that he accomplished in his
finished work in the gospel. That's the revelation of the
righteousness of God. But the fact that men and women
do not follow, none of us follow perfectly the truth revealed
in creation is enough to say that we're without excuse. In
other words, we deserve the wrath of God against our sins. Well,
look at verse 21. He goes on. He elaborates. He
says, because that when they knew God, knew God in creation,
in their conscience. They glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful. In other words, they didn't worship
God and seek after Him, and they weren't thankful to God for all
that they had. But look what happened. But became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. In other words, men by nature,
and we can see this in the history of mankind since the fall of
Adam, Rather than seeking the true and living God and seeking
more knowledge of him, rather than worshiping him and bowing
to him, rather than serving him and being thankful to him, men
by nature rejected that knowledge and lifted up themselves, became
vain in their imaginations, in their thoughts concerning God
and deity and salvation. And they became proud. That's
what we are by nature. We're sinners, you see. And our
foolish heart was darkened. In verse 22 it says, professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. Man began to depend upon
his own human wisdom and reject the wisdom of God. They didn't
fear God. They didn't reverence and respect
Him, honor Him, and worship Him. but they profess themselves to
be wise. They look for God inside themselves
rather than God above. And then verse 23 even goes further. What we're going to see here
is a progression of how man became worse and worse and worse till
we see man at his worst estate. It says in verse 23, it says
they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image
made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things." Now you think about this. What
happened was, is rejecting the light of knowledge that God gives
in creation, and in the conscience, man, rather than thinking of
God as who he is, as he reveals himself, his wisdom, his power,
his sovereignty, his holiness, all these things, man began to
think of God like himself. Now that's us by nature. The
Bible says that we've created a God who is likened to ourselves. We worship ourselves. You see,
self becomes the center of our thoughts. Self becomes the center
of our worship. Self becomes our goal, our be-all
and our end-all. And that's what's happened here.
And you see a progression, you might say a digression downward
from corruptible man to birds, to four-footed beasts, to creeping
things. Bring God all the way down. In
other words, by nature, here's what we're going to do. We're
going to lift ourselves up and we're going to bring God down.
And that's been the state of man, the thought of man, the
religion of man from the fall. That's why we need salvation.
That's who we are by nature. Now, it says in verse 24, it
says, wherefore. Now, that means for this reason.
God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own
hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Now
we see it getting worse. In other words, the history of
man is not a history of progress, man getting better and better
and better. It's a history of man getting
worse and worse and worse. You know, people recognize something
of that, but they won't admit it in themselves. You see, I
am a sinner in need of salvation by God's grace. I cannot be saved
based upon my own works. I need God's righteousness in
Christ. That's the only way I'm going
to be saved, because I'm a sinner. Now, you may look at some of
these things and you say, well, I haven't done this and I haven't
done that. But you're still a sinner. We're going to talk about that
next week with the Jews. But look here what he says. God
gave them up. This is mankind by nature. He
gave them up to the uncleanness through the lust of their own
hearts, unlawful desires of their own hearts. And then verse 25
kind of summarizes the whole problem. He says, "...who changed
the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever." Amen. In other words, the problem that
man has by nature. This is why the wrath of God
is upon us by nature, how we're born naturally. We change the
truth of God into a lie. Let's start it in Adam, the representative
of the whole human race. You know, when the Bible teaches
that God gives this whole human race through two men, Adam, the
representative of the whole human race, and Christ, the representative
of the whole election of grace. In other words, everyone who
fell into sin and condemnation under the wrath of God fell in
Adam. For by one man's disobedience,
many were accounted sinners, were made sinners. So somebody
said, well, how many did Adam represent? How many fell? All
who sin and come short of the glory of God, that's who Adam
represented. That's who Adam fell. You say,
well, I wasn't there when Adam fell. You were in Adam. You weren't there personally,
but you were there in a representative. You say, well, I don't like that.
Well, that's too bad. That's the way God who created
this world set it up. My friend, let me tell you something. If we did not fall in a representative,
then there's no possibility that we can be saved in a representative.
The Bible speaks of the non-elect angels, how they fell on their
own. You know there's no hope of salvation
for them. The only hope that we have is
salvation through a representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. By the
obedience of one, many were made righteous. So Adam represented
the whole human race. The Lord Jesus Christ, in his
obedience unto death on the cross, he represented the whole election
of grace, all whom God the Father gave to him. and who will be
saved. So man in Adam changed the truth
of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more
than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Now from verse
26 here in chapter 1 he gives us a list of the sins and the
sinfulness and how far the Gentile world went in their sins. Let's read some of these. He
says in verse 26, for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change
the natural use into that which is against nature." Even women,
women with women, you see, and he's going to talk about homosexuality. He says in verse 27, and likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their
lust one toward another. Men with men, working that which
is unseemly that which is vile and inappropriate and sinful
and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which
was meek which was just appropriate for what they were doing and
he said what he's talking he's talking about homosexuality now
homosexuality is sinful it's against god's law it's against
nature that's the light of creation it's against conscious men and
women by nature know better They might not, and we're going to
see that in just a moment. They know better, and it's against
God's law. Now, homosexuality is sinful. It's not the unpardonable sin.
Somebody says, well, that's the worst sin. Let me tell you something.
The reason that God's Word points out homosexuality so much as
such a vile sin is, number one, It is evidence of what the Bible
calls a reprobate mind. We're going to look at that in
just a moment. That's a mind void of judgment, without conscience. In other words, what they knew
in their conscience, they squashed it so much that they don't retain
it. Secondly, it's so vile because
it is a perfect picture of false religion. There's the act of
love, but no fruit. So this is what he's talking
about. Look at verse 28. It says, And even as they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge, they didn't like the
truth of God retained in their conscience, he says, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind, a mind without a conscience,
a mind void of judgment, to do those things which are not convenient. In other words, they came to
the point where they called good evil and evil good. In other
words, that sense of morality that they were born with by the
light of conscience and the light of creation, they didn't like
to think about that. They don't like to retain that.
They want to get rid of that, you see, because they want to
think good about themselves. He says in verse 29, he says,
being filled with all unrighteousness, and then he lists all these sins,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness or hatred, full
of envy. murder, debate, deceit, malignity,
whisperers or slanderers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud,
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without
understanding, covenant breakers, not people of their word, without
natural affection. Natural affection is a man loving
a woman and a woman loving a man. implacable. In other words, they're
hard-hearted. You can't move them. Unmerciful. Now, all those lists of sins
just shows how bad it can be if God removes his sovereign,
providential hand of restraint off of the sinner and lets that
sinner go the full way into sin. Now, that's what Paul's saying
here about the wrath of God. Is there any doubt in anybody's
mind that such people deserve the wrath of God? Now, again,
you may be sitting there thinking, well, I haven't done some of
those things. Now, listen to me. The potential to do these
things is right in every one of us. And that potential is
sin. Think about it. Let me read verse
32. It says, these who knowing the judgment of God, they know
better. They have the light of creation. They have the light
of conscience, and they know that better, who, knowing the
judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy
of death. People who commit such things
are worthy of death. Well, we're all sinners in ourselves. We're all worthy of death. If
you look at these verses here, you say, well, I know people
who have gone that far, but not me, and therefore I don't deserve
the wrath of God. You've missed the boat. You've
missed it all together. By nature, this is all of us. Even though we may not have enacted
some of these things in our doing, but we still deserve God's wrath.
And he's going to prove that. This is man at his worst. Well,
next week we're going to talk about man at his best. And he's
still deserving of the wrath of God and in need of salvation
by the sovereign grace of God based on the righteousness of
Christ. So he says, who knowing the judgment of God, that they
which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do
the same, but have pleasure in them that do." In other words,
they know better. They know that such things are
worthy of death, that they do the same thing and they have
pleasure in them that do. Well, this is the wrath of God
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, you know,
As we look at the human race, as we look at different cultures,
and we look at different people, one person say, well, this one's
better than this one, or I'm better than that one, or I'm
worse off than that one. There may be a million excuses,
a million ways that people can justify themselves. But here's
the reality. One sin against God, you may
say, well, is it a big sin or is it a little sin? One sin against
God is enough. to bring the wrath of God down
upon a person. Adam proved that in the garden.
How many sins did Adam have to commit to bring the whole human
race under the wrath of God? One sin. Because, you see, the
Bible, in the book of James, tells us to commit one sin is
to be guilty of all. You know why? Because when you
sin, you sin against God, who is the author of the whole law.
You see, where sin is charged, the wrath of God must be the
result, because God is a just God. God is a holy God. So here's
where we need to be. We need to come to the point
where we see that I'm a sinner, and my only hope, I'm under the
wrath of God by nature. I'm condemned and guilty and
deservedly so. I deserve nothing but God's wrath.
And even my best efforts to obey the law will not save me. Even
they're deserving of the wrath of God. So my only hope is the
grace of God in the person and in the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against my sin. And my only hope is the righteousness
of God revealed in His grace through Christ. Well, if you'd
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week for another message from God's Word. We're glad you could join us
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about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Alderney, Georgia. You can call us at 229-432-6969,
or visit our Reign of Grace website at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you,
and may the Lord be with you.