Alright, turn within your Bibles
to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. And what you'll see tonight is
that we are moving beyond the prologue and moving into the
actual teaching of the first argument. You might say, well,
what do you mean by argument? Paul expresses things and teaches
things and makes some statements in the beginning of his letters.
And then as all the apostles, then they begin to set up what's
what we call an argument to prove. And so Paul has outlined these
things that are true. Now he's going to illustrate
them through argument. And that's why in verse 18, when
you see the first word in your text, it should say four. Four, F-O-R. If your Bible does
not have the word for, it just starts out with the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven. It is missing one of the most
important aspects of the narrative of scripture, and that is causation
and continuation. So what we see here then is because
of all of these other things. See verse 16? Look what it says
there. For I am not ashamed. So in order for us to understand
what Paul's talking about, we've got to look up a little bit more.
What is it that he's not ashamed of? He's not ashamed of the gospel.
Why? For it is the power of God. So
see that? Why is he not ashamed? For. So
for I'm not ashamed. What does he mean? I'm not ashamed
because I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you to preach,
for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to
everyone who believes, to the Jew, for in it the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written,
the righteous shall live by faith. So, because the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith for faith, The righteous shall
live by faith, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness
suppress the truth. Let's keep reading there, verse
19. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because
God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes,
namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
perceived. That means they can be seen.
Ever since the creation of the world. How? In the things that
have been made. So, therefore now they are without
excuse. For although they knew God, they
were without excuse for, 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. Claiming
to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the
immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals
and creeping things. Then verse 24, look there, therefore.
So you see how these fors and therefores and sos are important. They develop in the conversation
in the language, the argument that Paul is trying to argue
for. And here in this particular argument tonight, we will look
at the wrath of God, the wrath of God. Now, the doctrine of
God's wrath, and what do I mean by doctrine? Doctrine means teaching.
So the teaching of God's wrath establishes a picture of who
God is. Not completely, because God is
not just wrath, is He? God is also love, God is also
justice, God is also righteousness, God is also holiness. God, by
His attributes, is Father, because of His name, He's provider, He's
caretaker. We see shepherd, we see savior,
we see redeemer. We see a lot of things that the
Bible teaches about who God is. God is the High One, Elohim,
God. God is divine, God is omnipotent,
God is omnipresent, God is immutable, God is all these things. We know,
so that we need to recognize as we learn about the wrath of
God, it is not mutually exclusive with other attributes. For example,
God's wrath is not in conflict with God's mercy. You might think,
well, that seems conflicting to me. Well, it seems conflicting
to us because as finite beings, we are either vengeful or we
are merciful. We can't be both. Because if
we're merciful, how in the world can we be vengeful? Or we put
on our happy hats, and we put on our angry hats, or we put
on our kind hats, or we put on our evil hats, and when we are
afflicted by the emotions that we hold, we are disemboweled
of our unity. Let me explain that. That means
that the whole of my being is not wrapped up even in my kindness. The whole of my being is not
wrapped up in my ability to speak. The whole of my person is not
attributed or visible through the attribution of my hair color
or my height or whatever. But yet, none of the attributes
that I hold, for example, if I say that I'm a kind person,
has anything to do with how tall I am. But when it comes to God
who is spirit, all of the attributes of God are mutually intertwined
So that he is never without any of his attributes actively. What
does that mean? That means that God is always
loving. No matter what. And that in God's love, God will
be vengeful. Because in God's vengeance, he
is righteous. And so God is lovingly, righteously
vengeful in his wrath. You see the point? See how ineffable
God is? The word ineffable means that
He is extremely unknowable and complete in the fullness because
He's so deep and He's so mysterious. And so if we think about the
wrath of God, I want you to think about what you think when you
hear about the wrath of God. I mean, if you were someone who
had never thought about God at all, and you read the words of
Paul in Romans 1.18, it says, For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven. I mean, what would you think?
I tell you what most people think. Maybe you don't think this way,
but most people think there's an angry dad and he's coming
to punish those who have done wrong. And then he's coming down
from heaven and he's going to bring recompense. Recompense
is to be repaid, to suffer the consequences of something that
someone has done. Not natural consequences, like if I stick
my hand in a fire, I'm going to burn myself, but actual personal
consequences. And so God's wrath, sometimes
we think about that way, will relate God to fatherly figures,
or grandfatherly figures, or judges, or generals, or leaders,
or presidents, or tyrants even. And sometimes people think that
God, when they hear about the wrath of God, that God is this
maniacal judge who can't be appeased, and so He must punish and torment
people because it makes Him happy to see people tormented. You
may think, well, that's not the God that I know. I hope it's
not, because that's not the God of the Bible. But oftentimes
when we think of wrath, we think of that. We think of some aspect
that seems to be in contradiction with the other gentleness and
the kindness and the long-suffering of God. However, it is not. What
we need to understand about the wrath of God is that God's wrath
is necessary. Why is it necessary? Because,
if you look there, it says, So what is that for pointing to?
If you go back up to verse 16 and 17, what is it talking about?
The gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the what? Power of God. For
what? Salvation. So the gospel, the
proclamation of what God has done through Jesus Christ, what
Christ has accomplished, is exactly necessary. Why? For the wrath
of God is coming. You see that? The gospel, which
is the power of God unto salvation, is necessary for faith, from
faith, because for the wrath of God is coming from heaven. You see? That's the argument
that Paul's making. So as we read, we need to pay
close attention to this causation, to the pointing of one sentence
to another. What is it that this particular
theme is? Is Paul now just going in changing gears and just saying,
let me teach this about God. And now let me teach this about
God. And now let me teach this about God. No, he is eloquently,
whether he would admit it or not, as he says in 1 Corinthians,
eloquently establishing exactly who God is and the necessity
of the gospel. The gospel, then, when we think
of God's wrath, should be the first thing that pops to mind.
Why? Because when we see it in Scripture, when we see the wrath
of God that's coming, it is necessary that the gospel comes because
the wrath of God is surely coming, you see. So how then is God maniacal? We won't even go to His holiness
yet and His righteousness. How would God be mean and maniacal
and awful to bring wrath when He actually also brings the gospel? Well, I'll tell you that God
is not under any obligation to bring the gospel. Let's look
at that aspect of God for a moment. Let's just say supposedly that
God revealed himself as he is in his righteousness and his
love. And it all we ever had from the scripture was that the
wrath of God is going to be revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men. Do you know by definition, by
the defining of his essence, by the being of God, he is just
in that. And by the being of God, He is
right in that. And by the being of God, He is
loving in that. Because it is loving, beloved.
It is loving to bring recompense upon evil. It is good to punish
that which is wrong. It is perfect and sweet and awesome
and majestic and glorious for God's wrath to be poured out
from heaven. But see, we don't want to think
about that, do we? And it should show us very clearly, as we start
to see this argument, we may not get into all this tonight,
but that God is not only just in bringing His wrath because
of the sinfulness of man and the unrighteousness and ungodliness
of men, but He's just in doing so because of His holiness. He's
just in doing so because as we see later, which we'll talk about
next week, is that all humanity are without excuse for we know
what is right and we know what is wrong and there is no excuse. Beloved, we cannot stand before
God and say, you don't understand God how hard my life was. You
don't understand how hard my childhood was. You don't understand
how difficult that was. You don't understand I'm addicted. You
don't understand that I was tempted. You don't understand. When the
Bible says in Hebrews chapter, what is it, 4? That He was tempted
in every way that we were tempted in. So that Jesus Christ in His
humanity, God of heaven, who became a man, knows every aspect
of every temptation known to the human flesh, but yet sinned
not and suffered under the temptation. The gospel is necessary. For
the wrath of God is coming. The gospel is necessary. because man deserves the wrath
of God. The gospel is necessary because
God is righteous. The gospel is not only necessary
because the wrath of God is coming. Think about this too. For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven. So the gospel is necessary
and the gospel is also powerful to save, you see. For the wrath
of God is coming in good and right judgment. God's wrath is
not being poured out capriciously. God's not just going, I'm so
sick of this, like a hot water cauldron, just pouring wrath
out to see who it will burn. God specifically, and particularly,
pours His wrath out on sinful human beings, of which we all
are equally guilty under the law of God. Equally guilty in
front of God's eyes. Equally worthy of His wrath.
But the gospel is power to escape the wrath of God. See, the gospel
is necessary for the wrath of God. The gospel is the power
of God. This is what we spent an hour
on last week. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. Therefore, we are not cowering,
beloved. We're not hiding. We're not running.
We're not worried about the wrath of God. Why? For the gospel is
the power of God and the salvation. So we have been saved from the
wrath of God through the power of God, which is Jesus Christ. The gospel is necessary for the
wrath of God is coming. The gospel is power to escape
the wrath of God that is coming. Think about this too as introduction. The gospel is effectual unto
life, for the wrath of God is coming on the dead. You see,
if we are not brought to life by the gospel, by the power of
grace, we cannot escape the wrath of God. So if we remain in our
sins, we remain in death. See, this causal display shows
a necessity, a contingency. One thing is required because
another exists. A contingency. Because God is
righteous, His wrath must come. And because His wrath must come,
it must have an object. Because sin is in humanity, because
men are sinful, human beings are sinful, God's wrath must
come because God is righteous. The gospel must come because
of the wrath of God. Do not, do not put your salvation
in your hand. Do not put your salvation in
your morality. Do not put your salvation in
your acts of goodness, or your forgiveness, or your piety, or
your lack of sin, or your lack of hopelessness, or your lack
of doubt. Do not put your salvation in
anything that comes from you. Place your faith in Jesus Christ,
who is the righteousness of God. The gospel is necessary. Some
people say, well, why is the gospel necessary? Why did Christ
have to come? Why couldn't God just forgive
everyone? Because if God forgave us without
payment, God is just as evil as we and deserving of His own
judgment. Wow. If God would just say, it's
alright James, just get away with it, you little sinner. You
little liar. Just a little lie. It's just
a little murder. It's just a little rape. It's
just a little child molestation. It's just a little homicide.
It's just a little hatred. It's just a little unbelief.
It's okay. It's alright. Kill some more. Steal some more.
Rape some more. Do it all. It's okay. I'll just
let it go. What kind of judge is that? That's
a wicked judge. The gospel is necessary because God cannot
just forgive, because He's righteous, He's holy, He must bring wrath,
He must punish sin. And the punishment of sin is
eternal death, eternal consequence. Some people would ask then, well,
why does God get to decide? Who is God? I mean, have you
ever had anybody ask that question? Why does God get to decide? Why does this invisible man behind
the curtain of heaven get to decide what's right and what's
wrong? Because he is, by essence, right. All that he does is right. You
know what makes something right? Because God said it was. You
know what displays something right? Because God did it. When
Jesus said to the Pharisees when they came and they rebuked him
and his disciples for tearing out the wheat on Saturday. And they said, what are you doing?
You're violating the Sabbath. What are you doing? You're working
on the Sabbath. And Jesus said to them, I am
the Lord of the Sabbath. So just because you think I'm
violating the Sabbath, if I'm doing it on the Sabbath, it's
true. It's righteous. It's the way it is. So when we
think something different than what God's Word says, we are
the moronic wrong ones, you see. I remember being in high school
when people would say something really stupid. We'd go, dumb,
de-dumb, dumb, you know. And I'd do it again, dum de dum
dum. And one of my buddies would go stupid and point to him, you
know, that's how we got along in high school with our friends.
It's not just dumb or stupid to reject the truth of the righteousness
of God. It's damning. And beloved, nobody's
smart enough to see it. Nobody's alive enough to see
it. Nobody's smart. Nobody's wise enough. Nobody
has the intelligence. Nobody has the willpower. Nobody
has the cognitive ability to reach out and to see God and
to hold His righteousness and say, yes, I choose that. That's great. I'm going that
way. Because the wrath of God is due
us. The gospel of God is His power to take us away from His
wrath. God gets to decide because God,
by essence, is righteous. Why are we subject then to the
law of God? What if we follow all the rules? Do it! Go ahead! Follow all the rules! I bet you,
in the earliest opportunity of comprehension, imagine yourself
at three or four with full understanding of obedience to the law of God
and the very first commandment that says, do not love anyone
but God. And with all your heart, love
God. And with all your soul, love
God. And with all your strength, love God. You will do all that
you can to love God in that way to save your own behind. which
is selfishness, which is a violation of the first commandment to start
with, because you love yourself and your liberty and your eternity
more than you love God and his glory. You see, you cannot obey
the law of God. God's law is not for us to find
perfection. It is for us to see sin. It is for us to see the penalty. It is for us to be able to see
his righteousness. Some people have asked me, why
don't why doesn't God just get rid of all evil? Because there'd
be an empty building. It'd be an empty town and an
empty county and an empty state and an empty nation and an empty
continent. And then parting the waters that
separate this land, every stitch of dirt, every valley, every
tree, every cave, every house would be empty. For there is
not a child at the age of one, there is not a man at the age
of 100 who is worthy to stand before God and say, I'm righteous. So if God got rid of evil, beloved,
there'd be nothing to talk about. Some people then argue, well,
God's not like that because God is loving. Remember when he started
out the sermon tonight about Love of God, not being mutually
exclusive from the wrath of God, keep that in mind. Some people say, well, don't
my actions just bring consequences? Isn't that the way God punishes
me? That's part of the way things happen. If I put my hand in a
fire, it burns. The fire doesn't decide, okay,
there's a hand in here, burn it and get on it. It just burns
it. by rob a bank, then I suffer
the consequences of prison and the judicial system." And people
say, well, that's the wrath of God. Like people would say, oh,
you know, we're so selfish and we turn from God, and so God's
wrath was poured out on America at 9-11. If God can't muster
more wrath than that, He is weak. Because I believe when He poured
out wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah, there was nobody to tell about it except
the salty man and a couple of folks. Why was he salty? Because his wife turned to salt
because she turned around. And they told the story of what
God did to Sodom and Gomorrah. Nobody was left but the ones
whom God sent his angels of mercy to go get. Or the days of Noah
when he built for a hundred years an ark, a boat in the middle
of nowhere, sand where it hardly ever rained. And they laughed and they mocked
and they laughed and they mocked. Then they just ignored him and forgot he
was there. He was just some weirdo that talked to telephone poles
on the street. He was talking to nobody. And then the door was shut by
the Lord and then the rains came and the earth opened up and all
of the water of the world just swallowed it. And the screams
and the agony ceased as they drowned. That's what God's wrath looks
like. It's not a partial little pop
on the hand. It's not a time out. It's not
a spiritual or temporal waiting game. It's not a checks and balances
or a weighted scale. It is a full and eternal recompense. People would say, well, if I'm
good, I'm okay. No, you're not because you violate the law by
the very breath that walks into your body. You violate the law
of God by the very thoughts that flow through the cerebral tissue.
We violate the law of God and His holiness at the very way
we gaze upon each other, the very time we gaze on things that
are not pure and not holy, the very time we put things into
our ears that offend the righteousness of His majesty. Every time we touch something,
Every time we go someplace, every time we eat something, every
time we drink something that is not pleasing to Him, we violate
His law. Every time we do not give Him
thanks for who He is, we violate Him and His righteousness. We are not okay with God. And because of that, it is necessary
for His wrath to come. And because of that, it is necessary
for his gospel to save. You see, there is the introduction
to the argument of verse 18. That's what he means. Four, four,
four. You know how long it took me
to get that? About 30 minutes. Reading and reading and reading
and you see it. You don't go to school to learn
that. You don't read commentaries to learn that. Read the Bible
and it's like, wow! That's what that four is there
for. We pack it up, and we come together as a church, and we
get to hear it, and we get to see it, and we get to behold
the majesty of God's glory, and we go, wow, what a mighty God,
who's righteous and holy, and worthy of all praise. And if
He condemned me this day, it would be good. But in His mercy,
in His loving kindness toward me, He gave me eternal life through
Jesus Christ. Because who gets the praise for
that? Who gets the praise for following
after the law? I do. I did good, God. Who gets the praise for snatching
us out of darkness? God does. And see, here's something
that people forget, is that God gets the praise for bringing
wrath on wickedness, and God gets the praise for snatching
wicked out of darkness. And that's enough on God's wrath.
We'll get to it in Romans 3. Let's look at the next part of
this. For the wrath of God. Notice it doesn't say for wrath.
The devil is not going to punish anybody. He's going to be with
everybody. Angels aren't going to be punishing
anybody. It's going to be Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Revelation,
The picture, remember, reading through Revelation, we spent
27 weeks reading through Revelation. Now we're going to spend a bajillion
weeks reading through Romans. Jesus Christ will tread the fury
of the winepress of the wrath of God. This wrath is God's. It's not consequential, automatic
wrath. It's coming down from heaven. Because that's where God is,
in a sense. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere.
But that's the mindset. That's how relationally we get
to see God. Spatially. The wrath of God is
coming down from heaven. It's going to be revealed. It's
coming from God. It's coming by God. And lo and
behold, it's coming for God. God's not doing that for anybody
else. God's not bringing wrath so that some other person or
some other being. He's not vindicating some other
subsect of angels. He's vindicating His own name.
He's bringing righteousness down. Because in wrath, righteousness
prevails. It's justice. Jesus says this
very same thing in John 3.36. Whoever believes in the Son is
eternal life. But whoever does not obey the Son shall not see
laugh, but the wrath of God, what? Remains upon him. What does Jesus say earlier in
that section of Scripture? For God loved the world this
way, that He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him
would not perish, but have eternal life. Whoever believes not in
Him, what does He say? Is condemned already. The wrath
of God is coming. Ephesians chapter 5, Paul says,
let no one deceive you with empty words. Listen carefully, church.
Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things,
and if you know, excuse me, in verses 1 through 5 of Ephesians
5, Paul has got a whole laundry list of wicked stuff. Covetousness,
sexual immorality, greed, hatred, all these things. Lying, drunkenness,
haughtiness, disobedient to parents. Because of these things, the
wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. So the wrath
of God is coming down from heaven. And you know what, beloved? I
do not fear it. And you should not fear it. Why? For the gospel is the power of
God unto salvation. You see, John understood this
very clearly. We don't get his thoughts much
in this narrative, but oh, in his epistles do we see them.
We see John, and we see the expression that he talks about when he says
that there is no fear at the coming of the Lord. There is
no fear at judgment. There is no fear in the day of
Christ. For perfect love drives out fear,
you see. We don't hide. When we sin, we
don't run. We don't climb onto the podium
and hope God doesn't see. He sees. He knows. He knows all
things. He knows our hearts this very moment. He knows that some
of us would rather be someplace else. He knows that others of
us are so consumed with the burdens of life that we can't even focus
on Him. He is a good and mighty Father.
And He ministers to us in our time of need. The Scripture says, Paul would
say to the Thessalonians in the first epistle, chapter 1, verse
10, what does he say there? He says, And wait for His Son from
heaven, who He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us
from the wrath to come. So the wrath of God coming out
of heaven is something we need to take careful consideration to not ignore. especially though
we do not fear it, we know that we deserve it. Though we do not
fear it, we know that God is merciful in giving us an escape. That's why Paul would argue so
passionately to the outcome of the end of the gospel and the
power of God in Ephesians chapter one, twice he says, to the praise
of his glorious grace in the beloved. See, the Lord is worshipped
and praised because we recognize His justice. Friends, don't ever
forget from what you have been saved. Don't ever forget to what
end you have been saved. You have been saved for the wrath
of God that is coming. You have been saved unto the
praise of His glorious grace, which saved you out of His wrath.
You might say, well, how is that? What is it that has got God so
wound up that He had to send Jesus Christ to live as a human,
to obey as a man, and to die for sins He did not commit? Because
God is offended by sin. Why? Why is God offended by sin? I don't know, ask these children
in the room why God would be offended by their disobedience.
Well, they probably can't answer that. But I know that they understand
that we as parents are offended by their disobedience. The irony
behind that is when my children do things that they should not
do, it makes me angry. But oftentimes in my anger, I
find myself in sin. Because I personally take offense
at their sin against me when they're really sinning against
God. And then when I take personally their offense against me, I'm
sinning against God. And so the whole matter of trying
to teach children obedience and the consequence of sin in the
gospel of Jesus, we all just commit a bunch of sin. Praise
God for His grace. God is personally... You want
to see what it really means for God to be revealing His wrath
from heaven? Remember we talked about that
cauldron of boiling water? He's not going to capriciously
just pour wrath out on some people? Hope to get all people? God is
particularly and personally offended by our personal and particular
sin. God is offended by our haughty
eyes. God is offended by our pride. God is offended with every
lie, with every sigh of disgust, with every roll of a teenager's
eyes to and fro. And he pours his anger out on
sinners. But as he does that, remember
how I started this message? I said what? We talked about
how God's love and mercy is not in contrast with His righteousness
and His wrath. Because God is loving and righteous
in His anger against sin because it is right. Now you might say, well, God's
not really angry with everybody. He's just angry with humanity
as a whole. Really. Why would you believe that? Because it's easier in our culture
to just hide with the crowd. It's easier to be invisible when
you're just amongst a bunch of folks. Friends, none of us are going
to stand hiding behind another in the judgment. The scripture gives the example
that every one of us alone in front of the entire of creation,
listen to this, in front of the entirety of creation, stands
and gives an account for our sin before God. Every sin. Now ask yourself this question.
Does it scare you more to have to give an account in front of
us or in front of God? I'm going to let you off the hook.
Me too. Me too. I'd much rather God know
what I've done than you know what I've done. Let's just be
honest about it. Why? Because I see you and I
know what you're thinking. I wish I could catch Him in something
evil so I'd feel better about myself. You don't have to catch
me, God's already done it. I'm not saying, you know, we
all sin. But friends, there's something
really wrong with that mindset, isn't there? Something really
wrong when we'd rather grandma not look at us from heaven and
see us in that dirty deed than God see it. Does it care more
about grandma's thoughts against us? You know what grandma's saying
if she's watching us live in unbelief? God, when are you going
to bring wrath upon them? Now, I'm just supposing that. That's a possibility. It's an
idea. It's not a theological truth. When I teach what's in
Scripture, I'll say, this is what the Bible says. When I'm
just making conversation, it's about worth a nickel. But I bet you if we understood
the fullness of what Scripture teaches us about the wrath of
God, And we see that the peace that surpasses all understanding,
the calmness, that the focus and the reverence in heaven,
while all of the reprobate, listen to me, while all unbelievers
are being cast into the lake of fire, the scripture gives
the picture of absolute peace and worship. So I can then rightly
say, if I were with the Lord and looking at the wickedness
of the earth, I would then want what the Lord wants, which is
justice. but what are we to be doing today?
And here's the other side of this coin. Because I teach this
kind of stuff and a lot of times, a lot of times it's easy for
us to go, man, I'm thankful I'm saved. Good, be great. I'm thankful
God's merciful to me. Praise the Lord. We'll sing that
song in a minute. Be merciful to me. But then when we see our neighbor
in sin, we feel like, what a loser or I'm glad I'm not like that.
Or I'm not as bad as they are. When God has saved us with absolute
mercy, we need to be very merciful in our thoughts and views with
others. And not hold each other's sin
to such a place, especially the world. Yes, the world is evil. But, beloved, if it weren't for
God's grace, we'd still be in it and be blind to it. So our heart should be the same
as Jesus' heart. That it is humanity. The very
men that wrongly accused Him. The very men that wrongly took
Him into custody. The very men that beat Him until
He could not be recognized as a human being. You remember that? The very man that ripped the
skullcap of his head off by pushing thorns into it. The very man
that stripped him naked with everything that he was born with,
walking down the street being whipped and spat upon. The very
man that yanked out his beard by the fist. The very man that
nailed his arms and his legs to a cross and shoved them into
a seven foot hole and poked fun at him and spat upon him and
mocked him. and put a sign that says, the
King of the Jews, over his head. The very man that did all those
things, he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. So what should our position be?
Not the position of the saints in heaven. We don't really know
what they are. Not the position of the Old Testament prophets.
Not even the position of God, the Father. Our position should
be against unbelievers, the position of Christ on the cross. Father,
would you save them? Lord, would you give them grace?
Father, would you forgive them? Because we know how it works. We know what God has done to
secure salvation. And I think part of remembering that the
wrath of God is coming down from heaven, why would Paul write
this? Why would Paul send this strong message here in Romans
chapter 1 to these incredibly new and baby Christians in Rome? Because He wanted them to remember.
He wanted them to remember that God's righteousness requires
that His wrath is personal. That God would not just bring
His wrath against Rome. God would bring His wrath against
every Roman who died in unbelief. God would not bring His wrath
against America. God would bring His wrath against any American
who dies in unbelief. God will bring His wrath against
any person who dies in unbelief. But right now, beloved, God's
wrath is forbeared. And before the cross, God's wrath
was forbeared. And the Bible would teach us
in just a few chapters that God's wrath was poured out on Jesus
Christ because He had forbeared all of His judgment against all
the saints of old. And then he satisfied it on Jesus
and all the saints from then to the day of judgment. Beloved,
your sins were put on Jesus Christ and God satisfied his justice
against you on the body of Jesus. Listen. That is the power of
God unto salvation. That is so that when we hear
that the point of man's walk in existence in life is ungodliness
and unrighteousness, and that we are worthy of justice. We
have escaped it, not narrowly, not possibly, but certainly because
of God's grace in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, how glorious your gospel,
how beautiful Your mercy. God, I pray. As we leave with
that rapid illustration of that short half sentence, father,
that we would not be confounded, but Lord, that we'd be delighted.
That we would come to the table of mercy as worshipers. Knowing we have escaped judgment.
Because Jesus Christ paid it all. And we worship you for that.
Lord, help us not to keep it in us, but to take it and share
it out there. What a grand design you have
purposed that the goodness of your mercy to be shared by those
who have received it. I don't know about all the people
in the world, Father, But I know you have saved me with an everlasting
mercy and an everlasting love through Jesus, the eternal son. Lord, might I share it and share
it and share it in Jesus name. Amen.