If you wish to follow along,
turn to Romans chapter one again. Romans chapter one. Now before
I read, let me make a couple preliminary comments. This letter
by the apostle Paul thus far, and we've come through it from
chapter one, verses one all the way through verse 17. This letter is flooded with hope
because he keeps talking about the gospel, the gospel, the gospel. In verse 18, Paul now begins
to expose us for what we really are. You hear what I just said? I mean, that first 17 verses,
it's hope, hope, hope. Now, I'm not saying hope dies.
That's not what I'm saying. But it's hope. But now, in chapters
one, verses 18, all the way through chapter three, verse 20, the
apostle Paul exposes us for what we really are. I said exposes
us for what we really are. My title is this. God's wrath
is revealed. And Paul, when you write that
down, you capitalize I-S. God's wrath is revealed. Now I will say this, God's wrath
is revealed against man's ruin in three major ways here by the
Apostle Paul. First of all, man's ruin is revealed
declared to be under God's wrath because man's perversion of the
natural order. That's chapter one, verses 18
through 32. And I will read just a couple
verses, the beginning verses of that. For the wrath of God,
what's that say? Is revealed. Not shall be revealed
one day. Though that is certainly true.
But that's not what Paul says here. He says, for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that
which may be known of God is manifest, what's that say? In
them. In them. For God hath showed
it unto them. And secondly, Secondly, God's
wrath is revealed against man's ruin in this, in man's finger-pointing
and his self-justification. That's in chapter two, verses
one through 29. And we see the heading of that in chapter two,
verse one. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the
same things. You see it? So God's wrath is
revealed against man's finger pointing, and of course he goes
on to talk about self-justification. We'll probably look at that later.
Thirdly, we see that God's wrath is revealed from heaven against
man's universal, full, complete, total corruption. That's chapter
three, verses one through 20. And I will give you just a couple
verses, chapter three, verse nine. What then? Are we better
than they? No, it is the Jew better than
the Gentile. Now the Jew had advantage, but
the Jew was not better. What then, are we better than
they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved, that's in
what we call chapter one and chapter two, we before proved
both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin, as it is written,
and I'm not gonna read it all, there is none righteous, no,
not one. Now I realize, I do realize that
this religious world that calls itself Christian. this religious
world that preaches a man-centered, freewill-centered religion, a
freewill-centered gospel, if you will, which is not a gospel,
but is a perversion of the gospel of Christ, will say, well, in
chapter one, the last part of chapter one, Paul's talking about
some distant act in the past against some rebels. And I will
say, they are right. But those distant rebels are
our ancestors. Those distant rebels are our
great, great, great, great granddaddies and great, great, great, great
grandmas. And the truth of scripture is still true, and I'm gonna
use a word that's probably, an apple don't fall too far from
the tree. And as a matter of fact, there
are those who say, well, God's not doing, what we read in chapter
one, verses 18 through 32, God's not doing that now, God did that
way back yonder somewhere in the past. I will say that is
partially true. But notice the change of past
tense when he gets to verse 32, who knowing, not knew, but knowing the judgment of God
that they which not committed such things, but what? Commit
such things are worthy of death. Not only do, not did, but do
the same, but have not had, do you see what I'm saying? So,
though Paul is speaking of an act of God, and we'll look at
that in a moment, in the past, Paul is not saying it's all done
and over with, because it still can continue today. There are those, of course, who
when you get to chapter two, say, well, Paul's talking about
a bunch of Jews that were in the assembly at Rome. That is
partially true. But whether we're Jews or Gentiles,
we're all guilty of either finger-pointing and or self-justification. And we get to chapter three.
This man-centered works religion says, well, that's the way we
were before we were saved. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That is true. But by nature,
we still sin and come short of the glory of God. What I'm trying
to say is, Paul in chapter one, all the way through, from verse
18, all the way through three and verse 20, is exposing us
for who we are. So then, what is God's wrath?
Do you know what the word wrath means? It means to be violent
towards. That's one of the first meanings
of the Greek, to be violent toward, to have abhorrence or hatred
before. When it says that a man or a
woman is under God's wrath, it is saying that God hates them. You hear what I'm saying? That's
what the word wrath means. Hatred, hatred, abhorrence. It means anger. It means indignation. It means to be enraged at someone
or something. You see, God's wrath is as holy
as God is. Do you understand what I'm saying?
God's wrath is as holy as God is, and God's wrath is his holy
hatred against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men
who hold, it says here in the KJV, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. That word hold means to hold
down. or to suppress, and this is exactly what men and women
are still doing today. They're suppressing the truth
of God with their own unrighteousness. Now, I was going to give you
this. I had it all wrote out, but I thought, no, there's no
need to go into the details. But let me just give you a brief
thought here. The word wrath, and one time
it's translated vengeance in this book, in this epistle here.
The word wrath is mentioned far more than the love of God. Think about that just for a moment.
The wrath of God is mentioned far more times than the love
of God. I'm not saying one means more
than the other. I'm just saying the facts are
Paul dealt more with God's wrath than he did with God's love.
Now, Christendom, what do I mean by that? I mean professing Christianity. All denominations and even those
who are non-denominational. You understand today it's the
vogue thing to say, well, I'm not of any denomination. Whoop-dee-doo. If you don't believe the truth
of God, I don't care if you got a title, you're lost. And if you believe the truth
of God, I don't care if you do have a title, you're saved. Christendom,
it's all Christianity, all denominations, all non-denominational sects,
whether it's liberal or conservative, whether it's papal or reformed,
and you can go right on down the list, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. All Christendom use the phrase
God's wrath, but none define it scripturally. At best, it's
usually defined as a final judgment of some sort, am I telling the
truth or not? God's wrath is defined as some final judgment
of some sort to those who do not live right. And I say no,
it's far more than that. Yes, there is a final judgment
coming in which God's wrath shall be poured out upon the inhabitants
of this earth, but it is far more than that. Not living right
may be, now listen to me. Not living right now may be the
revelation of God's wrath on you now. You hear what I just
said? Most people think if I don't
live right now, then God's wrath will be revealed one day on me.
No, if you're not living right now, it may be that God's wrath
is revealed against you right now. Now, how can I say that? Let's look at what Paul actually
wrote. Chapter one, verse 18. For the
wrath of God is. Now, I am not an English scholar,
but you know what that means. It's right now present tense.
Is that not true? For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
This is what God says about the matter. It's not up to me to
try to prove this matter. You say, well, there are people
who are atheists. No, they're not. Because they get so mad
when you question their atheism. You understand what I'm saying?
They don't argue about Santa Claus. They don't argue about
the Easter bunny. They don't go off on those things,
but they go off when you tell them, you really know God exists,
but you're just trying to lie about even that. You see, the
fool has said in his heart, I will have no God over me. Because
all of humanity has at least one God. And you know where that
God is? Right in here. It's right in
here, let's look on. Because that, when they knew
God, and this is my opinion, it's only my opinion. I think
Paul's talking about way back yonder in the beginning. Adam
and Eve trained their children up in the way of the Lord. And
that's evident from Cain. Cain knew what was right, Cain
just refused to do it. You understand? And people were
trained, but men's evil hearts led them into constant rebellion. But look, because that when they
knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened,
professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like into
corruptible, and what's the first thing they did? Man. Man. It wasn't beasts. It wasn't
pieces of rock hewn out like a God. It wasn't pieces of wood
hewn out like a God. Their first worship, true adulterated
worship, was of themselves. Do you see it? They changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like it to
man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and to creeping things,
and because of that. Do you see that? Wherefore, right?
And because of that, God also gave them up to uncleanness. This, my brothers and sisters,
is God's wrath revealed from heaven now. Do you see it? Wherefore, God also gave them
up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed, actually
it means to exchange, rather than having the truth, they grabbed
something else, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and
looked and worshiped and served the creature. Even more. Is it more than the
Creator? See, it is seen to worship anything
other than God. But man thinks, well, I'll worship
God, but God will not be supreme. That's what he's talking about
here. who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped
and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed
forever, so be it, Paul says. That's just, this is the way
it is, we don't debate this, we don't argue this, this is
the way it is. Listen, for this cause. God gave
them up into vile affections for even their women, did change
the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their
lusts, one toward another. What's he talking about? Homosexuality. But the problem wasn't initially
homosexuality. The problem initially was they
worshiped themselves. They worshiped and served the
creature more than the creator. And God poured his wrath upon
them and turned them over unto everything that's down in here.
And then they fall into the most basest, basest acts of humanity. You see it? For this cause God
gave them up into vile affections, the women and the men, to do
what? And likewise also the men, leaving
the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one toward
another, with men working that which is unseemly and receiving
in themselves the recompense of their error, which was meat.
God's wrath was poured out. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, there's your atheist. He don't
like, she don't like retaining God in their knowledge, but it's
there. And they can't help it, and they
fight against it, and fight against it, and fight against it. We'll
fight on. Because it may be, and I say
it may be, because God saves sinners. God saves idolaters. God saves men and women who worship
themselves rather than God. God saves homosexuals. But God
can turn you over to it. God cannot give up on you. That's
not what it says. Give you up unto these things,
right? Even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over, over to a
reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. And
then Paul gives a list. Now think about it. You don't
have to do it right now. You can check me later, but there
are 22 particulars after he mentions the first phrase, being filled
with all unrighteousness. Do you see that? Now let's read
it. Being filled, and that is in the what? Present tense. You see it? Now listen to me.
Never isolate this wrath of God to rank idolatry or sexual perversion. Because this list that he begins
to give us here exposes us all. Do you hear what I'm saying?
I'm saying, I'm making it as clear as I can, I'm saying that
by nature, my heart, the real me by nature, the real me by
the fall is no better than the worst sexual child molester that
ever walked on the face of the earth. Being filled with all
unrighteousness and then he gives us 22 things. Fornication, what's
this mean? It means the whore and whoremonger.
and you can't have one without the other. Can you? You can't, can you? The whore
and the whoremonger, adultery, adultery. Wickedness, you know
what that means? Depravity. Degeneracy. Covetousness, what's
that? That's avarice. Greediness. Anybody been exposed yet? Well,
I ain't like them idolaters. I ain't never worshiped a rock.
I ain't never worshiped the stump. I ain't never did any acts of
homosexuality. What about this? Being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness. Wait
a minute, we're not done yet. We've only scratched the surface.
Maliciousness, depraved worthlessness. Do you see that? Anybody need
a mediator yet? Anybody need somebody else's
righteousness to stand in rather than your own deeds? Huh, come
on now. Well, that's not me. Well, then
God ain't opened your eyes yet. God ain't opened your, wait a
minute, we're not done. Envy, you know what that means? Ill
will. Spiteful. Anybody need a savior yet? Huh? Come on now and think about it.
These 22 things after the first initial filled with all unrighteousness
is only a scratch of the surface. Read Paul's other epistles. He
names a lot of other things. I could spend hours going through
the list. Well, wait a minute, let's not
stop. Murderer, you know what that is, one who kills someone
else. Debate, quarrelsome, quarrelsome. Anybody need a redeemer yet?
Anybody need someone else to stand in the gap for? What about
deceit? It means to bait a trap, to set
somebody up. What about malignity? It means
down deep mischievousness. Down deep mischievous whisperers,
that means to falsely accuse someone to smear them. Back biters, to talk against
someone else. Anybody here ever guilty of that?
Now think, God has the right, if that's what you are, to turn
you over. to a reprobate mind because he
has some folks. For they went into the most basest
idolatry and sexual perversion that can ever be thought of by
the human race. Do you understand now what Paul
said? He ain't just down in idolatry and homosexuality, he is exposing
us for what we really are. God don't owe us grace. He has
the right to turn us over to a reprobate mind. And you think
you're bad now? You'd be a Jeffrey Dahmer if
he just lifts his restraint for a moment. Saved or lost. Do you hear what I'm saying?
Wait a minute, we're not done yet. Haters of God. You know what
that means? Someone who doesn't worship God
for who he is. Now I said, not just don't worship,
everybody worships some God. even if the God's down in here.
But it's someone who doesn't worship God for who he is, despiteful. You know what that means? To
be insulting. You ever insulted anybody? God
could turn you over to a reprobate mind. Now I've told you all this
before. Years ago, I began to read this
in my home, and God had evidently opened my eyes, Jack knows. And
I thought, oh, my lands. I fit so many of those things.
Hmm? Maybe God's turned me over to
a reprobate mind. My corruption was exposed to
me. I didn't even know who Christ
really was then, but God brought me in. Did anybody need a savior
yet? Hmm? Let's go on. Proud. You know what proud? Self-righteousness. Boasters. You know what that
means, don't you? You ever bragged about yourself?
God could turn you over to a reprobate mind. Do you see that? Inventors
of evil things. It means to contrive things to
hurt others. Disobedient to parents. Obstinate
rebellion to authority. Anybody need a redeemer yet?
Anybody starting to fear God yet? Well, but God owes, no,
all God owes us is wrath, condemnation, and judgment because we're all
exposed here. There's not a person in this
building or a person who will ever hear me that is not under
these pronouncements, even if it's just one. Even, and I don't,
Ellen, I don't think I can say just nobody. There's anybody
that just has one. Anything been exposed about you
yet? Well, let's go on. Without understanding. What do
you mean having no prudence? Is there some people, they just
got no understanding. Do what makes you feel good,
right? Do what makes you feel, covenant
breakers. This means treacherous. They cannot be trusted. Cannot
be trusted. Without natural affection, oh
me. Hard hearted toward kinfolk.
Anybody need a savior yet? Anybody want to stand before
God in your own works yet? We're not done yet, we got a
couple more. Implacable, you know what that
means? You can't be reasoned with. You ever had your spell,
I don't care if it's one spell, you ever had that spell where
no matter what argument someone told you, you just were not going
to listen? Anybody ever been there, hmm? Anybody need someone else to
stand before God for him yet? One more unmerciful. No compassion. No compassion. Let me tell you
something, folks. God exposes me in every one of
these things. This, if God ever opens your
eyes, will lay you in the dirt and you'll have nowhere else
to flee but to Jesus Christ. Listen to what Thomas Brooks
wrote. That wrath, That great wrath,
that fierce wrath, that pure wrath, that infinite wrath, that
matchless wrath of an angry God that was so terribly impressed
upon the soul of Christ quickly spent his natural strength and
turned his, that's Christ's, moisture into the drought of
summer. And that's what the book says,
Psalms 32 verse four. All this wrath he patiently underwent
that sinners might be saved and that he might bring many sons
unto glory, Hebrews 2 and verse 10. Oh, the wonder of God's love
right in the midst of his pouring out his wrath upon his son. Do we understand now? Look at
what Christ suffered for. He bore our sins, these things,
in his own body on the tree, and God the Father turned his
back on him. Why? So he would not have to
turn his back on us. I got one more to give you. Bear
with me just a moment. Let me find it. Christ, our righteousness. This
is by Horatius Bonner. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, Romans 10, four.
In another's righteousness we stand, and by another's righteousness
we are justified. All accusations against us founded
upon our unrighteousness we answer by pointing to the perfection
of the righteousness which covers us from head to foot, in virtue
of which we are unassailable by law as well as shielded from
wrath. Thy work alone, O Christ, can
cease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,
can give me peace within. Thy love to me, O God, not mine,
O Lord, to thee, can rid me of this dark unrest and set my spirit
free. That's the only place God ever
shows yourself, ever reveals yourself right there in that
passage. That's the only place you'll ever find hope. The only
place you'll ever find hope. Bless us in that truth. Comfort
us, strengthen us. Convert us where necessary. Lord,
if regeneration be necessary, pour that upon some soul and
convert them by your gospel. I give you praise in Christ's
name, amen.