We are to preach and evangelize because of the wrath of God

Romans 1:18–23 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 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, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are 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.

Main Proposition:

“We are to preach and evangelize because of the wrath of God”

Intro:

Statement of proposition:

As we said last week, All believers have the knowledge of Christ on the cross, we know that only through Christs’ righteousness we are saved. All believers have experience, we have the experience of once being in darkness and because of Christ we are in the light. With all of that we know what happens to those who do not come to learn of Christ on the cross and our sovereign Lord. We know the wrath of God and what happens if someone does not come to him as Lord. This is the motive that drives Paul. This Apostle is interested in man’s relationship with God, in their eternal destiny face to face with God. This is why he preaches and evangelizes and by doing so he is glorifying God.

Other texts that support

Colossians 3:6

6 On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming [a]upon the sons of disobedience,

Ephesians 5:6

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

2 Corinthians 5: 13-16

13 For if we [a]are out of our mind, it is for God, or if we are of right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. 15 And He died for all, so that they who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one [b]according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ [c]according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.

Why does this matter?

As men we aren’t going to be the ones that change people’s hearts. God can use us as vessels to deliver his message (i.e. preach and teach proper scripture) and as Paul stated in verse 16: “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation.” It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that someone’s heart can be regenerated.

Paul understands that and his response is preach, preach and preach some more. But it is not just about preaching it is about preaching the gospel accurately.

Main Point #1:

“We have to accept both the righteousness of God as well as the Wrath of God”

Statement:

- Some people just want to accept the good things from God; compassion, love, grace, but one thing that people tend to avoid is God’s wrath.

- In verses 16 and 17 we talked about the power of God for salvation and the righteousness of God

Prove

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth [a]in unrighteousness,

What is meant by “wrath”?

Human wrath is when someone has this uncontrolled rage, anger.

God’s wrath is a hatred against sin. God hates sin.

But nothing that God does is out of control or uncontrollable.

It is always justified and perfect

We are told here “that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

Unbelievers are going to deny both God’s righteousness and wrath

They are going to chalk it up to their own work or luck

It is at the cross that we see the wrath of God revealed.

It shows the attitude of God towards sin

God can’t pretend to not see it or know its there

He can’t say “I won't punish you”,

God’s attitude to sin demanded the death of His only begotten son. God’s hatred of sin. He was determined to punish it.

His righteous demand upon it was that Christ had to come to this world, not to tell us that “God is love”

Against what is the wrath of God revealed? It is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth of unrighteousness.

2 Timothy 3:5: We see that certain people talk about God and seem to have an interest in God. They pray to God, but their lives are denying it and therefore it is not real. There is no such thing as godliness without righteousness.

People look for religion because it gives a sense of morality. They aren’t looking to glorify God.

Morality doesn’t save

In that case it is righteousness without godliness

You can like corporate worship, you can enjoy going to a church service without actually knowing God

If the true God is not your religion then your religion is useless and the world today is demonstrating this particular point.

Mankind cannot plead ignorance in the matter of ungodliness or in the matter of unrighteousness.

“Suppress” means to hold down or restrain the truth

Meaning men are restraining the truth which means men know it.

You cannot restrain something if you do not know anything about it.

So Paul is suggesting that the truth is known to mankind and that they have deliberately been holding it down or restraining it.

Meaning general truth about God, not salvation

Flowers in texts

Matthew 26:39

39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”

Cup meaning the divine wrath against sin in the OT

“The next day Christ would bear the sins of many” Hebrews 9:28

The fullness of divine wrath would fall on Him.

Matthew 27:46

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

You can see God’s wrath being poured out on Jesus on the cross.

Christ at that moment would experience abandonment and despair that resulted from the outpouring of divine wrath on Him as a sin-bearer.

Illustrations

What is the first thing that comes to your mind about wrath? I think of Indiana Basketball Coach Bobby Knight and his uncontrolled anger and wrath.

Man’s wrath is sin, our anger is sin

God never sins. Everything that he does is perfect and justified.

Apply or Confront

Over the next week when you are praying and doing your daily bible reading. I want these two verses to be in the back of your mind. This is the pinnacle of God’s wrath being poured out on Jesus Christ.

The world will NEVER under any circumstances admit or talk about God’s wrath. Believers need to realize that with God’s righteousness also comes wrath.

Main Point #2: “Non-believers WILL NOT see God’s righteousness”

Statement

We are always surrounded by God’s righteousness whether we realize it or not from the rain, sunshine, mountains, life, but even believers are not going to always look at it as God’s righteousness.

Prove

19 because that which is known about God is evident [b]within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Verse 19: In what ways has God made this knowledge known? Paul says that God has revealed it “within them”:

A universal fact that there is a sense of God in mankind.

Our Conscience

The invisible things of the world from the creation of the world are clearly seen, so it is obvious Paul is not talking about salvation.

In creation, providence, history there is not enough knowledge to save us. You will not find the love, grace, mercy or compassion of God in those aspects. This is general revelation.

This general revelation which God has given and which remains, is not enough to save man, but it is enough to render man inexcusable for his godlessness and for his sinfulness.

Special Revelation that comes in the Person of Jesus Christ, the four gospels, with his life, teaching, death, resurrection, sending of the Holy Spirit and the story of the church.

This is the Apostle’s method of evangelism:

He brings home the case: “the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. They have had knowledge, well, what have they done with that knowledge?

What renders them more inexcusable is due to this: “hold the truth in unrighteousness.”

“Suppress”; restrain, hold back, hold down,

They have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness

They are unrighteousness therefore they are deliberately trying to suppress, dismiss, push it aside (CASE FOR UNBELIEVERS)

Flowers in texts

1 Corinthians 2:14

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The unconverted man, Through the word the Holy Spirit provides His saints the capacity to discern divine truth, which the spiritually dead are unable to comprehend.

Illustrations

Apply or Confront

Main Point #3: “Pride is the root cause of all sin”

Statement

In verses 18-20 we have seen that man in sin is without excuse, because he has restrained, resisted and suppressed the truth. We have seen why he has done this. It is because of his pride and unrighteousness.

We have seen what makes man in sin act as he does, we must go on to consider how man has done that.

Prove

21 For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the likeness of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Verse 21: Paul means that instead of accepting the revelation which was there,they began to substitute their own ideas, thoughts and reasonings.

Instead of accepting revelation they became Philosophers, men who claim that he starts by being skeptical of everything.

Their foolish heart was darkened:

This is the consequence, it starts with pride and because of pride you put revelation on the side and move your ideas forward and it leads to your heart becoming darkened.

As the result of the life that this person lived:

He becomes completely incapable of having insight into divine truth.

When the Son of God stands before him, he does not recognize Him, but only sees a carpenter.

Man in sin does not live to glorify God. God made man for His own glory and in order that man might glorify Him.

Paul doesn’t stop there he goes on saying that “or gave thanks”.

We’ve all been there. We take a lot of things for granted, God’s mercy, goodness, sunshine, etc and we get annoyed when we don’t get it.

Verse 22: Pride and Intellect

Fall of Adam and Eve was pride

Why is it that at this point does man deny the revelation of God in his conscience, Why deny recognizing God in creation, providence?  They go “No, I would rather be a philosopher that boasts about my brain, mind and understanding and says “There is no God, and I believe everything happens as the result of energy or force.”

His reaction is like this because man is wicked, he does not like God, because if he were to admit that God is holy and would recognize God, he would have a sense of guilt and condemnation so he says: “There is no God.”

Man does not like to be wrong and man does not want to think that they are guilty of being sinful.

They do not believe that there is a great god deciding man’s fate and determining everything, but they believe the stars do it. Is that wisdom?

They think it's degrading to worship the God of Heaven, but at the same time will worship a human leader.

Verse 23: What does this mean?

They change, they reject the glory of the uncorruptible God.

They make gods for themselves.

They change the glory of God into an image made like a corruptible man.

We’ve seen how disgusting and hideous these images are. We see them everyday on the news and social media. They’re like “golden calves”

Birds, Cows, Sheep. Owls

Flowers in texts

1 Corinthians 1:26

26 For [a]consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to [b]the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

God chooses to save the lowly, He does not call to salvation many that the world would call wise, might and noble.

God considers human wisdom unworthy

1 Corinthians 2:8

8 which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

The crucifixion is proof that the rulers/jewish leaders lacked wisdom

Illustrations

We have a tendency almost to deify certain great men. We see it when a certain sports star, movie star, political person dies (Crying, mourning)

Kobe Bryant or Michael Jackson

Apply or Confront

As believers we cannot put these superstars, movie stars,

*Confront culture of False Teaching

The world today is going to try and make it seem that our savior is right here on Earth. They are going to direct your thoughts, needs inward and towards worldly fixes.

Whether that is yourself, political leaders, sports stars etc.

Application Points:

Pray for fear of the Lord

Be humble in knowing that you had nothing to do with your salvation.

Always point people back to Christ: In good or bad times.

*Close better*