The Trial Process
Notes
Transcript
Handout
The Wrath of God
Series: The Case Against Us (Week 2)
Romans 1:18–32
BIG IDEA
God’s wrath is presently revealed against all ungodliness as people suppress the truth, exchange His glory, and experience the consequences of rejecting Him.
INTERROGATIVE QUESTION (CIT)
If God is revealing His wrath right now, what does that say about the way we are responding to Him?
OPENING
Last week, we stood in awe of the gospel.
We said:
The gospel is the power of God for salvation.
But before you can understand why the gospel is powerful…
You have to ask a harder, more uncomfortable question:
What are we being saved from?
Because if you don’t believe you are in danger…
You will never run toward being rescue.
Before we even read the text… I want you to feel something.
Not hypothetically.
Not philosophically.
Real life.
Right now, in our country, millions of people are living with sexually transmitted infections. Not just discomfort—lifelong disease, infertility, and in some cases death.
We don’t talk about it much, but it’s there. Quiet. Widespread. Growing.
At the same time, millions of children are being raised without a father in the home. And when you track the data, those children are significantly more likely to experience poverty, incarceration, addiction, and instability.
We’re not talking about isolated issues.
We’re talking about patterns.
These are Systems.
Outcomes that keep repeating themselves generation after generation.
Now here’s the question—and I want you to really think about it:
What if those outcomes are not random?
What if they are not just social issues… But spiritual ones?
Because if you take just those two areas:
Sexual brokenness…
Family breakdown…
And you trace them back far enough…
You don’t just find bad decisions.
You find a rejection of God’s design.
If God designed sexuality to be expressed within covenant marriage…
And we reject that…
There are consequences.
If God designed the family to be formed and led with intentional, present fathers…
And we reject that…
There are consequences.
And we could keep going.
You can look at addiction.
You can look at violence.
You can look at identity confusion.
And underneath all of it, you begin to see a pattern.
This is not just behavior.
This is direction.
This is not just culture drifting.
This is humanity deciding:
“I don’t want God at the center.”
And here’s what Romans 1 is going to show us:
When you remove God’s design… You don’t get neutrality.
You get unraveling. It is not immediately, not always obviously, but consistently.
And that’s where Paul takes us.
This passage is not just explaining what’s wrong with society.
It’s explaining why.
And that is exactly where Romans confronts us.
Let me ask you something:
How does God actually feel about sin?
Not what culture says.
Not what you hope.
Not what you’ve assumed.
But what God has revealed.
Because many people today believe:
God is loving—but not holy
God is patient—but not just
God is kind—but not wrathful
But Paul says something that cuts through all of that:
“The wrath of God is revealed…”
Not will be revealed.
Is revealed.
Right now.
And if we misunderstand God’s wrath…
We will misunderstand the gospel.
Because you cannot appreciate rescue…
If you do not understand the danger.
TRANSITION TO TEXT
Let’s walk through Romans 1:18–32
Paul is building a case.
And he’s going to show us three movements:
Truth rejected
Glory exchanged
Life degraded
This is not just a description of culture.
This is a diagnosis of the human heart.
DIVISION 1
The suppression of evidence (Romans 1:18–20
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.
EXPLANATION
Paul begins “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven…”
The word “wrath” (orgē) refers to God’s settled, consistent, righteous opposition to sin.
Never impulsive, It is calculated
And notice the tense:
“Is revealed.”
Present. Not only future judgment. Not only final judgment.
It is a current reality.
God’s wrath is not just something coming.
It is something being expressed.
Right now.
And who is it against?
“Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…”
That means:
Every form of rebellion
Every distortion of truth
Every misalignment with God
And why is His wrath on them?
“…[Because they] suppress the truth…”
That word “suppress” (katechō) means:
To hold down
To restrain
To push away
It is not out of ignorance, but resistance.
Paul is not describing people who lack access to truth.
He is describing people who actively resist the truth they already have.
Then he says:
“For what can be known about God is plain to them…”
How?
“Because God has shown it to them…”
Where?
“In the things that have been made…”
Creation itself is a witness.
God’s power.
God’s order.
God’s design.
All seen in creation and it all points to Him.
So that:
“They are without excuse.”
What Paul is showing us here is where the entire downward spiral begins.
It is not with behavior—but with the heart.
This is the root level of sin:
Not that people don’t know God…
But that they suppress what they know to be true.
And once truth is rejected at the heart level…
It never stays contained.
It starts the process.
THEOLOGICAL DEPTH
This is where we see depravity manifest.
Depravity does not mean, people are as bad as they could be.
It means:
Every part of us is affected by sin.
Including our thinking.
Including our response to truth.
It means
We don’t naturally move toward God.
We resist Him.
ILLUSTRATION
It’s like trying to hold a those balls from a ball pit under water.
In the same way:
Truth keeps rising in your life.
People keep trying to supress the truth but the truth keeps rising to the surface
ARGUMENTATION
We often ask:
“What about people who have never heard of God?”
But Paul flips the question:
“What about the truth you already know—and resist?”
This is not a lack of evidence.
This is a rejection of evidence.
We don’t lack truth, we suppress it.
And here’s the weight:
If God has made Himself known…
Then our rejection is not neutral.
And therefore we are accountable.
APPLICATION
Believers:
Where are you resisting what God has already made clear?
Where are you:
Delaying obedience
Minimizing conviction
Justifying compromise
You are not lacking clarity, You are avoiding surrender.
Unbelievers:
You are not spiritually neutral. Listen to me, right now, in this moment:
You are either receiving truth… or you’re resisting it.
There is no middle ground.
STICKY STATEMENT
We don’t lack truth—we suppress it.
TRANSITION
Suppression of the truth never stays contained.
You don’t just remove truth and stay neutral.
When truth is pushed down…Something else rises up.
DIVISION 2
The Fraudulent Exchange (Romans 1:21–25
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.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
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.
EXPLANATION
Paul continues: “For although they knew God…”
That is a devastating phrase.
They knew.
Not fully.
But enough to know better.
And yet:
“They did not honor Him as God or give thanks…”
So what happens?
“Their thinking became futile…”
That word means:
Empty
Aimless
Without substance
And:
“Their foolish hearts were darkened…”
This is what sin does.
It doesn’t just affect behavior.
It distorts conscience.
Then Paul says:
“Claiming to be wise, they became fools…”
And here is the turning point:
“They exchanged the glory of the immortal God…”
That word “exchanged” (ēllaxan) means:
Traded
Swapped
Replaced
For what?
Images. Created things. Idols.
GREEK INTEGRATION
This exchange is central.
And this is where that process begins to take shape.
What starts as root sin in the heart
Now becomes a pattern in life.
When truth is exchanged…
Worship is misplaced…
And our desires begin to form around what has replaced God.
This is no longer just rejection—
This is reorientation of the entire life.
THEOLOGICAL DEPTH
This is the heart of sin.
Not just wrongdoing.
Misplaced worship.
You were created to reflect God’s glory.
But instead…
You replace Him.
ILLUSTRATION
Its like the kid that really, really, really, NEEDS that one toy for Christmas and within a few weeks its seems to have no value at all.
What once was valued has now been considered worthless in their heart.
ARGUMENTATION
Our culture says:
“Follow your heart.”
“Be true to yourself.”
“Do what fulfills you.”
But what if your heart is misaligned?
What if your desires are crooked?
What if what feels right… Is actually leading you away from life?
Paul is saying:
When God is removed from the center…
Everything else collapses.
Because nothing else can carry the weight of your life.
APPLICATION
Believers:
What has quietly replaced God in your life?
Success?
Comfort?
Control?
Approval?
Where has gratitude been replaced with entitlement?
Where has worship been replaced with distraction?
Unbelievers:
You are already worshiping something. But it cannot sustain you.
It cannot save you.
It cannot satisfy you.
It will only grow further away from God unless you repent.
STICKY STATEMENT
When we replace God, we ruin everything.
TRANSITION
And here is where the passage becomes even more sobering.
Sometimes…
He gives you what you insist on.
DIVISION 3
The Sentence Handed over (Romans 1:26–32
This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
The males in the same way also left natural relations with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.
And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong.
They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
Although they know full well God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die —they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.
EXPLANATION
Three times Paul says:
“God gave them up…”
This is the final stage of the process Paul has been building:
What began as root rejection
Became patterns of misaligned desires
And now it results in visible consequences in life and our society.
This list is not random.
It is the outcome of a life—and even a culture—
That has been handed over.
This is one of the clearest expressions of present wrath in Scripture.
God’s wrath is not only seen in what He does to those who reject Him.
It is also seen in what He allows.
“God gave them up…”
That means:
He releases them.
He hands them over.
He lets them follow their chosen path.
And what follows is disordered desires, broken relationships, distorted thinking, moral confusion, and ultimately:
“They not only do them but give approval…”
Sin is no longer resisted.
It is celebrated, Normalized and them promoted.
GREEK INSIGHT
That phrase “gave them up” reflects judicial language.
God is handing them over to the consequences of their choices.
God is not passively ignoring their sin
He is actively judging their choices.
THEOLOGICAL DEPTH
This shows us: God’s sovereignty. Even in judgment, God is not absent.
He is actively allowing consequences to unfold and it shows us depravity fully expressed.
“Left to ourselves…”
We do not move toward righteousness.
We spiral.
ILLUSTRATION
It’s like a parent who has warned their child again and again.
Finally, the parent says:
“If you insist on going this way… I will let you.”
Not because they don’t care.
But because consequences teach what warnings won’t.
That is what is happening here.
ARGUMENTATION
Our culture calls this freedom, but Paul calls it judgment.
When you remove God’s design, you don’t find freedom. You find yourself fractured.
The most dangerous place to be is not struggling with sin. It is being comfortable in it.
Once conviction fades, sin feels normal, then it becomes celebrated…
You are not progressing.
You are being handed over.
APPLICATION
Believers:
Where have you grown numb?
Where have you:
Redefined sin
Excused behavior
Lowered your standards?
What you need to do is to return to conviction.
Return to truth.
Return to God.
Unbelievers:
Sin promises control, but it produces slavery.
What feels like freedom now… Will not end in freedom.
STICKY STATEMENT
When we reject God, we don’t become free—we become enslaved.
CONCLUSION [Worship Team]
Here is the full trial process Paul lays out:
It starts with a heart that rejects God and suppresses truth
It moves into patterns that reshape desires and thinking
And it ends in consequences that break people and distort society
This is not behavior modification.
This is a complete unraveling of the human condition apart from God.
FINAL PASTORAL APPEAL
So let me ask you:
Where are you in this passage?
Are you suppressing truth?
Are you replacing God?
Are you living in the consequences?
Look within.
Because this is not just the case against the world.
This is the case against us.
INVITATION
And if you feel the weight of this today…
That is not God rejecting you.
That is God awakening you.
Because before God rescues you…
He reveals your need.
The wrath of God is not meant to drive you to despair—it is meant to drive you to the only place you can be saved.
