The Quandary of Unrepentance

Outline

Big Idea:

Introduction

Body

Last time we presented this big idea:

Big Idea: When a heart is bent on its own worship, the wrath of God will be insufficient to break its allegiance.

Today, I want to come back and answer two questions.

Why is wrath not enough?

Why don’t men repent?

Why is Wrath Not Enough

That’s a profound and necessary question—Why is divine wrath alone insufficient to bring about repentance? Your aim to explore this in a message is not only timely, but deeply theological. Scripture is clear: wrath exposes guilt, but grace grants repentance.

Let’s work this out biblically and theologically so your message stands on solid exegetical ground.

🔥 1. Wrath Exposes Sin but Cannot Change the Heart

Wrath is external—it acts upon the sinner from the outside.

“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…” (Romans 1:18)

But wrath does not regenerate. It exposes guilt, inflicts judgment, and warns of coming destruction, but it does not have power to transform the will or grant spiritual life. That belongs solely to the work of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5–8; Titus 3:5).

Just like the Law:

“By works of the Law no flesh will be justified… for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” (Rom. 3:20)

So it is with wrath—it convicts, but it does not convert.

⚖️ 2. Wrath Without Grace Only Hardens

Scripture shows repeatedly that wrath, apart from grace, leads not to repentance—but to hardening.

“Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath…” (Rom. 2:5)

This is the pattern in Pharaoh, the Canaanites, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, and the unrepentant in Revelation 9 and 16. They experience wrath but grow more rebellious, not less.

“They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.” (Rev. 16:11)

Why? Because the heart is not neutral. It is dead in sin (Eph. 2:1), hostile to God (Rom. 8:7), and enslaved to darkness (John 3:19). Wrath stirs terror but not spiritual affection. The unregenerate heart only recoils in fear, not faith.

💔 3. Fear of Punishment Is Not the Same as Repentance

This is key: Wrath may produce fear, but fear is not repentance.

Many fear hell. The demons do (James 2:19). Pharaoh feared God’s plagues (Ex. 10:16–17), but he never repented. Judas regretted betraying Christ, but he did not repent unto life (Matt. 27:3–5).

True repentance is not just terror at consequences; it is a change of mind toward sin, a brokenness before God, and a turning to Him in faith.

“Godly sorrow produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly sorrow produces death.” (2 Cor. 7:10)

Wrath may produce worldly sorrow, but only the Holy Spirit produces godly sorrow and repentance.

🕊️ 4. Repentance Is a Gift of Sovereign Grace

This cannot be overstated: man does not have the natural capacity to repent. Repentance is not self-generated; it is granted by God.

“God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 2:25)

“To the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11:18)

Apart from God’s initiative, man remains unmoved by mercy and unmoved by wrath. Only sovereign grace can awaken the dead heart.

🛐 5. The Kindness of God Leads to Repentance

One of the most stunning statements in Romans:

“Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4)

Here’s the shock: not wrath, but kindness—His patient, undeserved mercy—leads to repentance. Not because wrath is unjust, but because grace alone melts the heart.

🧠 For Your Message: Possible Structure

Here’s a sample outline for your message:

Title: “When Wrath Is Not Enough” – Why Judgment Alone Cannot Produce Repentance

I. The Purpose of Divine Wrath

Exposes guilt (Rom. 1:18; Rom. 3:20)

Reveals God’s justice (Rev. 15:4; Rom. 9:22)

II. The Limitation of Wrath

Cannot change the heart (Jer. 13:23)

Cannot produce spiritual life (Eph. 2:1)

III. The Effect of Wrath on the Unregenerate

Produces fear without faith (Ex. 10:16–20)

Results in further hardening (Rom. 2:5; Rev. 16:11)

IV. The Necessity of Grace

Repentance is a gift (2 Tim. 2:25; Acts 11:18)

New birth is required (John 3:3–8)

Grace alone breaks the will (Titus 3:5)

V. The Power of God’s Kindness

Leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4)

Displays the gospel (Rom. 5:8)

Melts the heart of stone (Ezek. 36:26)

Conclusion:

Wrath alone will never bring a man to saving repentance. It can terrify him, silence him, even restrain him—but only grace can convert him. It is the kindness of God in Christ, seen most fully at the cross, that draws the sinner to genuine repentance and saving faith.

Would you like a cross-reference sheet or slide outline for this message? I’d be glad to put one together.

Why Don’t Men Repent?

Total Depravity Binds

Romans 3:10-12

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

None are neutral to God. All are either friendly or hostile.

Romans 8:7

Romans 8:7 ESV

7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Sinful man’s will is in bondage to sin and at enmnity with God.

Jeremiah 17:9

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Man’s heart is wicked and bent AGAINST GOD through its natural inclinations.

Even under wrath, man will NOT seek God unless God sovereignly intervenes.

John 6:44

John 6:44 ESV

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Men are rebellious in their sin and spiritually unable without divine intervention.

2 Timothy 2:25

2 Timothy 2:25 ESV

25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,

Even repentance is a gift given and granted by God.

Divine Hardening

There is a very sobering reality revealed to us in scripture that God sometimes brings a hardening of man’s heart as a form of judgement against their sin and rebellion.

MIND YOU…He NEVER does this without first giving man ample opportunity to turn from their sin and rebellion and embrace Him.

God ALWAYS gives truth, extends invitation, and provides man the opportunity to repent BUT when they continually reject it, there are times that God sends judgement through the form hardened hearts.

Pharaoh - Exodus 4-14

Exodus 7:13, 22; 8:15, 32; 9:12, 35; 10:1; 14:8; Rom. 9:17, 18; [Deut. 2:30; Josh. 11:20; Isa. 63:17]

Ten times Pharaoh hardens his own heart

Ten times God is said to do it

Romans 9:17-18 is sobering indeed

Romans 9:17–18 ESV

17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

God hardened Pharaoh’s heart only after Pharaoh had consistently hardened his own heart towards God.

It was judgment.

The Canaanites

Joshua 11:19–20 ESV

19 There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle. 20 For it was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

God hardened their hearts so that they would not repent and so that they would go into battle, lose, and be defeated.

Understand, this is not mercy and grace being without from the repentant…

This is judgement falling on those whose wickedness was full, was complete.

They had had their opportunity to repent. They rejected it. So God brings judgement.

Israel

Isaiah 6:9–10 ESV

9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

When God called Isaiah to go and prophecy, he was told that his ministry would harden the hearts of Israel, not soften it.

This is a terribly discouraging to hear when you are being called and tasked for ministry. No one wants to hear that your work will result in man turning away from God more than turning towards him.

This passage is quoted 6 times in the NT. This makes it one of the most cited OT passages.

It also shows that this hardening of Israel was still active during the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Romans 11:7-8 tells us further…

Romans 11:7–8 ESV

7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that God Himself hardened Israel’s heart after their own repeated failures to repent and embrace Him. It is divine judgement.

Parables

Matthew 13:10–15 ESV

10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “ ‘ “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” 15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

Jesus said, I speak in parables to keep the truth from those who SHOULD KNOW IT.

The religious leaders had been entrusted with much. They had been given truth, the truth, to preach, teach, and help lead Israel and the Gentiles, to God.

They rejected it. Over and over again.

As judgement, God chose to now hide it from them. Keeping it out of their grasp, lest they repent. It was judgment for their continued failure to repent.

Given Up

Due to man’s rebellion and sin, their pride and selfishness, their ignorance and foolishness, God gives some people over to their sin.

This giving over is ACTIVE judgment. JUST judgement.

Romans 1:24-28

Romans 1:24–28 ESV

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and 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. 28 And 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 giving them up to their sin means that they lets them have what their sinful and rebellious minds want. He lets them have it.

Being given over to sin means that they are handed to its enslaving passions. It means that they surrender themselves to it.

AND along with that…

They are given over to all the diving judgement and consequences that come with it.

BUT part of this being given over is that they are hardened against repentance as a form of judgement for their own wilful rejection of the creator.

The Great Delusion

The judgements we are seeing in Revelation, during the tribulation are not just aimed at repentance.

For sure, some WILL repent. Some DO.

But for the rest, God’s wrath is aimed at judgement, not merely repentance.

The judgment and wrath we see are confirmation of man’s rebellion and refusal.

The judgment acts as an additional hardening of the heart

2 Thessalonians 2:11

2 Thessalonians 2:11 ESV

11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,

This is hardening. It is a divine judgment. GOD sends the delusion SO THAT they will believe it.

And not repent

Judgement for their continued willful rebellion why had opportunity to repent.

At some point, God will remove the opportunity for repentance.

When truth is rejected, it becomes further darkened and moves further from God.

Summary

God’s hardening is never without mercy and opportunity first.

It is never done callously.

But when man continues to reject Him and truth, sometimes, it becomes a form of divine judgment, of just judgment for their rebellion.

This is why God says in Hebrews 3:7-19

Hebrews 3:7–19 ESV

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

This is the warning that God is giving to Israel, to us.

Be warned. Do not harden your heart to God.

There may come a day that He hardens it further, not allowing you to repent…as just and holy judgement.

Humble yourself before God and come while opportunity still stands.

Love of Sin

John 3:16-21

John 3:16–21 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

This text beautifully lays out this entire truth.

God sent Jesus to SAVE the world, NOT to condemn it.

HOWEVER, men love darkness more light because their deeds are evil.

THEY LOVE THEIR SIN

Their refusal to repent is because they prefer the pleasures of their sin.

AND WHEN man consistently and continually choose their sin OVER God, at some point God brings that hardening and judgment we spoke of.

BUT one of the reasons why men do not repent in the face of God’s wrath is simply, they love their sin.

They love their darkness.

Consider Romans 1 again…

Romans 1:18-32

Romans 1:18–32 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 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. 21 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. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and 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. 28 And 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. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though 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.

They not only practice these things…

But give HEARTY approval to those who do.

THEY LOVE THEIR SIN

more than they love the Creator

They reject Him in favor of their sin.

Why don’t men repent?

They don’t want to.

It is a plain and simple as that.

Satan Blinds Their Minds

2 Corinthians 4:4

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV

4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Sometimes men do not repent because the Adversary as blinded their minds to the truth.

Sin and the adversary have deceived them and they have chosen to accept it.

This is the thing we need to understand…

When we are deceived, we have chosen to be so.

Eve, in the garden CHOSE to be deceived.

She COULD HAVE gone to the Lord and inquired…the serpent said this…is it true?

She could have sought for truth. She could have verified the veracity of the serpents statements.

She CHOSE not to because what the serpent said appealed to her. She WANTED to believe it. She was willfully deceived.

The truth is, that is true for us all. God has given us access to the truth. It is not hidden from us. If we really want it, we can find it. So when we choose NOT to go looking or when we choose to reject the truth, that is one us.

But Satan, our Adversary is working hard to blind our minds, to deceive with error and because men want it, they willingly accept it with little argument or contestation.

Summary

Men refuse to repent because

They are totally depraved. Man is unable to repent with God’s inward working

When man rejects God’s inward working, God may harden their hearts as judgment against their refusal

Man loves their sin and prefers it over God

They are blind, spiritually blind to the truth.

Conclusion

What is important for us to understand is this…

Sometimes we assume that God’s wrath and judgments are meant for man’s repentance.

And while that is sometimes, it is not always or neccessarily true. Sometimes God’s wrath is meant for judgment in the face of man’s unrepentance and rebellion.

Revelation’s judgements are leading to FINAL judgment over man’s longstanding rebellion.

The wrath of Revelation is not entirely meant for revival.

YES, for sure God intends to redeem and save Israel by the end and the judgements ARE meant to save some.

But for those who refuse it, it is meant as judgement for their rebellion.

Application