God's Wrath

Introduction

In today’s society. there is this well formed cancel culture. By which men and women are trying their best to cancel the word of God, his Son, His very being, his laws, his morals, and his ways of justice and righteousness.

Having established his right to (1:1) and reason for (1:14) speaking, and having announced that the gospel concerns “the righteousness of God” (1:16–17), Paul now exposes the unrighteousness of human beings. In a grand indictment of both gentile (Rom 1) and Jew (Rom 2), Paul upholds the righteousness of God and condemns the wickedness of humanity. Romans 1:18 begins Paul’s narration of the human problem and its solution by pointing to unrighteous people who “suppress the truth.” The problem narrative extends through chapter 3, describing the sinfulness of both gentiles and Jews in order to establish their need for the gospel.

Reading of Scripture

Text of Scripture

Prayer

Prayer for God’s guidance and edification

Point 1, God’s Wrath Revealed

supporting points and explanation

Just as God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel, God’s wrath is revealed in his treatment of sinners. In this pericope, Paul describes God’s wrath (judgment) in action against those who know God from God’s self-disclosure in nature but reject what they know. His Jewish audience would have recognized a typical denunciation of gentile immorality.

Point 2, Gentiles Without Excuse

supporting points and explanation

Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament Gentiles without Excuse (1:18–23)

Paul argues that gentiles should know something about God from nature, but they fail to acknowledge God, turning to idols instead.

1:18 God’s wrath is revealed in the present against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of pagans, who know the truth but suppress it; they bind or restrain God’s truth so that it cannot have its proper effect in their lives.

1:19 Pagans are culpable because God has revealed to them what can be known about God.

1:20 Pagans are without excuse because God’s invisible deity and power have been revealed in creation clearly enough to be understood.

1:21 Despite their awareness of God, pagans failed to honor God or acknowledge their dependence on God. They turned away from the source of truth and as a result became unreasoning and senseless.

1:22 What pagans regarded as wisdom (independence from God) was really foolishness.

1:23 Pagans exchanged the glory of the invisible, immortal God for images of mortal human beings and animals. Paul here employs the typical polemic of the Hebrew prophets on the foolishness of worshiping something that one creates with one’s own hands.

Explain ungodliness

Explain unrighteousness

Explain Pagan: Pagans are non- christian gentiles

Point 3, God Gave Them Up (1:24–32)

Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament (God Gave Them up (1:24–32))

Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament (God Gave Them up (1:24–32))

...Because the gentiles have rejected the truth that was available to them...

... God has given them over to experience the consequences of that rejection: debasement and estrangement from God.

Paul is not saying here that these sinners will experience God’s wrath in the future, but that God’s wrath is expressed in the present in releasing the offenders to experience the consequences of their attitudes and actions.

Three times Paul says that God has given them up (or handed them over).

1:24 First, as a result of their refusal to acknowledge God, God gave gentiles what they wanted, turning them over to their own disordered desires and lusts. They indulged their lusts in sexual immorality (“uncleanness” or impurity), in which they dishonored their bodies with one another.

Why did the happen?

1:25 This is the natural result of gentiles’ rejection of God’s truth and their worshiping created things rather than the Creator.

1:26 Second, God handed gentiles over to dishonorable passions,

Unnatural Acts that we do to our temple… such that women exchanged their natural (sexual) function for an unnatural one—i.e., unnatural as seen from God’s perspective, remembering that human beings are God’s creation.

But, its not just women…! God’s says the same of men

1:27 Similarly, men left the natural (sexual) function of women and were inflamed with lust for one another. They committed shameful acts with other men and experienced the consequences (literally, “received their due”) in their own bodies.

I’m reminded of Jesus coming to the temple, and then cleansing the temple, turn over table, chasing out the thieves and robbers of God. Jn 2:13 - 22 Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise

So my friends, God’s love is still chastens after You. Always willing to separate the sin from the sinner...

How do you know this. Gen 3:15

So again, don’t be like those this speaks of THEY KNEW GOD, THEY GLORIFIED HIM NOT AS GOD…!

...You KNOW that JESUS is the SON of GOD...

…You KNOW the JESUS is the WAY, the TRUTH, THE LIFE...

How do I Know… I glad you asked… Let John the Baptist remind us…!

Matthew 3:17 KJV 1900

And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

1:28 Third, because gentiles failed to acknowledge God, God handed them over to a debased mind and to things that are not fitting. Paul makes a play on words between their rejection of God’s truth (they “did not approve” of keeping God in mind) and its consequences (God giving them up to their own “unapproved” minds).

We hear it in the streets today, we hear it in the music, we hear it and see it by those in power… we even hear it being feed to our children without shame or slowness...

We may even hear in our church… Whatever you want YOU can have it

I even heard and saw Christians that now call themselves God… That some how threw salvation and sanctification that THEY are now gods… capable of having anything there minds desire…

Way too much naming and claiming....

I don’t know about you... but

I’m still breathing God’s air…I

I’m still drinking God’s water…!

I’m still living on God’s earth…!

I’m still depending on God for my everything…!

So how can you be a god?

1:29–31 Verses 29–31 form a vice list, a conventional list of sins and sinners that Paul uses to express the moral devastation that follows from idolatry. The list is illustrative but probably not exhaustive. Paul sums it up with four strong adjectives in parallel form. The NRSV renders these well as “foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless,”

King James Version Chapter 1

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, iwickedness, covetousness, jmaliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, pproud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, swithout natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

1:32 Those who sin in these ways are responsible, Paul argues, because they know these attitudes and actions are evil but they still practice them and encourage others to do so.

Conclusion

supporting points to restate topic and focus of God’s teaching today

Personal application to our lives

Alter Call

Call for new converts to Christ

Call for prayer

Benediction