5.2.42 9.13.2020 When Grace Comes to TownGod’s Wrath Addresses Sin Romans 1.18-32
Notes
Transcript
“Wait till your father gets home!”
“Wait till your father gets home!”
Entice: We’ve all heard it.
What if the greater punishment to be feared is not the presence of the Father, but his absence? What if punishment was handled without reference to a higher, more just, and possibly more benevolent figure? What if, instead of a Father filled with both correction and compassion it was left only to the victors and the victims to search for vengeance. That is the scenario in Romans 1.18ff. God’s wrath is imagined as a pure expression of the divine will executed, not in His presence but through His absence. Rather than intervening in fallen human culture-He ignores it. Rather than pronouncing a doom we deserve He allows a catastrophe equally earned.
Is there any possible wrath worse than the withdrawal of the Creator from His creation?
Is there any possible wrath worse than the withdrawal of the Creator from His creation?
Sometimes those who have chosen to exalt their surroundings, deify their fellow creatures and exile the Creator find that there is no greater punishment than being given what you want-to suffer the deepening consequences of your behavior.
Engage: Our wold wrestles with this text because it exposes to the root what fallenness entails. The exchange of our birthright as children of the creator for the worship of creature. The exaltation of Self. The enthronement of bent desire. The celebration of ego. The removal of boundaries. Bowing at the alter of unbridled, unfettered, unrestrained personal liberty. It all stinks of dragon breath and is tainted by the first temptation..."you. will. be. GOD!"
Expand: Some exegetes summarize this text as an expression of God's response to human
Idolatries,
Idolatries,
Immoralities,
Immoralities,
Injustices.
Injustices.
And it is. For me the real exploration comes from understanding what it is that He has done and how He enacts this wrath: By allowing us the rope with which we all; the whole fallen, pagan, humanistic culture-hangs ourself.
Excite: In understanding the situation...we will properly understand the solution.
Explore:
When Grace comes to town it exposes sin so completely that our only hope is the Gospel.
When Grace comes to town it exposes sin so completely that our only hope is the Gospel.
Explain: Paul surveys the shambles and describes the debris of our disordered Culture...
One pile of debris is our...
1. Darkened Thinking.
1. Darkened Thinking.
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.
Darkened thinking means...
1.1 Suppressing the truth...
1.1 Suppressing the truth...
1.2 Ignoring the obvious...
1.2 Ignoring the obvious...
(futile thinking, fooling themselves.)
1.3 Elevating the creature.
1.3 Elevating the creature.
Another pile of debris is...
2. Disordered Desire.
2. Disordered Desire.
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.
2.1 Denying the truth about ourselves.
2.1 Denying the truth about ourselves.
(human nature)
2.2 Denying the truth about God.
2.2 Denying the truth about God.
(divine nature)
A third pile of cultural debris is....
3. Dishonorable Passions.
3. Dishonorable Passions.
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.
3.1 Unnatural.
3.1 Unnatural.
3.2 Unrestrained.
3.2 Unrestrained.
The final pile of debris is our collective...
4. Debased Mind.
4. Debased Mind.
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.
4.1 Filled with:
4.1 Filled with:
Unrighteousness, Evil, Covetousness, Malice
Unrighteousness, Evil, Covetousness, Malice
4.2 Full of:
4.2 Full of:
Envy, Murder, Strife, Deceit, Maliciousness,
Envy, Murder, Strife, Deceit, Maliciousness,
4.3 We are:
4.3 We are:
Gossips, Slanderers, Haters of God, Insolent, Haughty, Boastful, Inventors of Evil, Disobedient to parents Foolish, Faithless, Heartless, Ruthless.
Gossips, Slanderers, Haters of God, Insolent, Haughty, Boastful, Inventors of Evil, Disobedient to parents Foolish, Faithless, Heartless, Ruthless.
4.4 Unrepentant & unrestrained.
4.4 Unrepentant & unrestrained.
You're gonna get it.
You're gonna get it.
It is easy to tattle on others. Oh how we love to draw attention to the sins of others-particularly when we are un-tempted by what allures others.
"I’m gonna tell!”
"I’m gonna tell!”
You're gonna get it.
To our shame we ignore what the text so clearly says. In rushing to judge others I ignore my own guilt. Don’t blame it on sociology, psychology, anthropology, sexology, politics or economics. It is Sin. It is the dust from Eden’s rebellion adhered to our hands and feet and tongues.
God's wrath is revealed,
Not because of what He hates
Not because of what He hates
but because of WHO HE IS.
but because of WHO HE IS.
not by what does; but in what He does not.
When grace comes to town...God ACTS! Sending His very own Son He seeks to end our destructive, self-centered isolation in sinfulness, deploying that power to save...to any and all of us who are believing.
Where is your mind? Where are your passions? Where are your desires? Where is your thinking? When we live by our own wits, in our own fallenness, in our own exile from God-The dark gets darker, the water deeper, the road worse...Jesus gave it all so that you and I can turn it all over to Him...His grace. His lovingkindness. His redemption. When grace comes to town...He opens the curtains and lets in God's redeeming light.