Posted on 07/30/2018 4:32:48 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness…” (Romans 1:18)
The Gospel doesn’t begin with man and his need for salvation, it begins with God, His Glory and His wrath against sin.
The apostle tells us that the wrath of God; that is His ceaseless, active and fierce opposition to everything that is wrong, evil, perverse or false, is being revealed from heaven against man every single day.
The way God’s wrath is daily being revealed is in the steady degeneration of society, the “giving over”of society to ever grosser and more degrading forms of sin.The moral and social self-destruction that we are seeing today is an ominous manifestation of the Wrath of God. Abortion, homosexuality, the culture of death, and Nihilism are what God has given our generation over to, by allowing the natural restraints to these, to be removed.
God’s wrath is directed specifically against two categories of evil; the unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.
Unrighteousness refers to the sin of those who won’t live according to God’s holy standards for man.The Ten Commandments tell us what is right, “Righteous” as far as our relationship to God and man.
Ungodliness refers to those who have no reverence for God whatsoever. The ungodly are those who have ignored God entirely and live Life as though there were no God.
Romans 1:18-31 is a divine analysis of the psychology of the godless. It outlines the way the Divine Wrath works its way out in the degeneration of ungodly societies.This is an amazingly relevant chapter to our modern situation.
The ungodly are not ignorant of God. Wrath is being revealed against them because they suppress truth that they do know, refusing to accept their accountability to God.This is what makes the ungodly culpable.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.Romans 1:20
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient…(Romans 1:28)
God has shown every person enough knowledge of Himself to make them inexcusable in the day of judgment. The things of God are “manifested in them”, no matter who they are.Final judgment will be on the basis of light spurned.
What is the truth that the ungodly suppress in unrighteousness, thus exposing them to judgment? There are at least three aspects of truth discussed here,
*The Truth that we are created beings, made and sustained by a personal God. Everyone knows they were created, and not self made, we are manifestly dependant creatures.
And by that knowledge ,people deeply know that there is something special about man. Although they may not grasp the teaching about Man made in the Image of God- all men know that man is not mere animal. Animals do not hold funerals.
But acknowledging our creation has implications. If I was created by a personal being,higher and greater than I, than I owe that being an accountability, I have a duty to worship Him, I am not autonomous, I owe my next breath to such a Creator.
* They suppress the truth that we have all broken a moral code. Everybody knows there is such a thing as sin, there is a right and a wrong, and furthermore they know that they themselves have done wrong. The conscience , though often misinformed, is a universal witness to this fact.
Even a person who decries any belief in sin or commandments of any God, knows when wrong is done to them, and resents it. All men have moral motions, they judge right and wrong of themselves and others all day long. They appeal to conscience, and to intangibles such as Justice, Equity and so forth.
The universal idea of a right and wrong implies a fixed standard. Ungodly man doesn’t want to admit what He knows in his heart, that ours is a moral universe, and furthermore all know that they fail even to live up to their own ideals.
* Finally the truth that there will be some kind of a final judgment, is deeply imbedded in every man’s heart, though he attempts to suppress it in various ways. Final judgment actually dignifies man, because it implies that the choices we make in this life are of eternal significance.
Paul cries out to a society similar to our own, denying self-evident truth, festering under the wrath of God,rotting in the corruption that God had given them over to,
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.(Romans 1:29-31)
The sinner knows or has known something of God. They resist the knowledge of at least three things; that there is a God who is the Creator of all things, and that there is a moral code that they have failed to live up to, and finally that they are liable to a judgment, an accountability to God, at some point at the end of their life.
The reason these are universally held beliefs is because they are the general revelation of the God who made all men.It is the suppression of these “self-evident” truths, that has and will bring further wrath and Judgment from God. In other words, it’s not what we don’t know that is a problem, it’s what man does know and refuses to accept , that will be the problem.
always good to see Pastor Bill. What do you make of Romans 8:1 same book same author , different message. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Once you accept Jesus as the Son of god, John 3:16-18 clearly absolve us of judgment, condemnation, sin , as a gift by imputed righteousness, Pastor bill, Why do you make it so hard on yourself?
Behind it all, is a satanic racket. The notion, that was mysteriously taken by humanity in unison with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, of being able to “be like God, knowing good and evil” is one that can never be fulfilled (because good and evil are larger than humanity), but can be fantasized.
Fantasies, however, cannot last. They, like this world itself, are fragile.
Even if the lost cannot perceive God, they can perceive a need for a God.
I want to be careful about including elements like the Ten Commandments in a view of mankind that extended to well before the law of Moses was given. At least not, unless we ponder well on what it means to love God and love neighbor as self, which has many more details than we might think. And also ponder well on what a sabbath means, which was a ritual for the Hebrew people that is not at least currently binding on Gentile Christians, and which the book of Hebrews tells us has been subsumed for believers in Christ into a constant attitude of resting upon God. Leaning on anachronisms means we have a flaw in our theology that can result in a stumble later. Pointing out things that all know are wrong is sufficient to illuminate sin.
I think in the effort to get all thunderous about sin, we might get far more grandiose than we need to get. That can bring up people’s defensiveness, when a meeker voice could remind people of where they are “falling short of the glory of God” — with respect to a glory that they understand already. Start with the witness that people already have. It isn’t enough to say “I haven’t harmed a fly” if you can’t say “I have gladly helped my neighbor.”
You project your attitude. I will project mine ,which is intolerant of false teaching.
I am trying to take a godly attitude. What’s this “you project your attitude” claim? Please elucidate and also explain how I am not also “intolerant of false teaching” except in a meeker manner.
unless we ponder well on what it means to love God and love neighbor as self, which has many more details than we might think. And also ponder well on what a sabbath means, which was a ritual for the Hebrew people that is not at least currently binding on Gentile Christians, and which the book of Hebrews tells us has been subsumed for believers in Christ into a constant attitude of resting upon God.
“I will project mine, which is intolerant of false teaching.”
You found some “false teaching” here? Where?
What I read is rightly-divided, expository preaching, straight from the Word of God.
“I will project mine, which is intolerant of false teaching.”
You found some “false teaching” here? Where?
What I read is rightly-divided, expository preaching, straight from the Word of God.
Resting on God is, too.
God had to even “force” me into it, by providing it as the only escape from a vicious attack of Satan. I yielded and took on the mind of Christ. Which is something that believers can get sloppy at. Yes, it’s easy for believers to get sloppy and act fleshly. I’ve done it. Which God can overlook for a while, but sooner or later the battle intensifies to where such backsliding from one’s first love no longer makes any sense.
Bible quoting might not mean “straight from the word of God” as Jesus knew in the desert. We have to look at how it’s used.
Glad to see you back. I missed your insight.
“Bible quoting might not mean ‘straight from the word of God’ as Jesus knew in the desert. We have to look at how it’s used.”
I think I am looking at how it is being used, and I think this message does as well.
It is part of series which is correcting some specific false doctrines using the expository teaching of scripture.
Certainly, the topic of God’s wrath is not, by itself, the “whole counsel of God” but it is also certainly a part of that whole counsel. And it woefully lacking in a lot of modern theology.
For people who already know and accept the reality of God’s wrath upon sinful man, the message of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and redemption makes sense. For those who deny God’s holiness and wrath against sin, they can also not comprehend the truth of the salvation message.
The Law is necessary to show fallen man that he is a sinner in need of salvation. That salvation does not come by trying to start fulfilling the Law. The Law brings the knowledge of sin and of God’s wrath. Once a sinner understands his plight and is able to accept that God’s pronouncement of judgment on sin is a righteous judgment on God’s part, then he can appreciate the message of mercy.
Fortunately, God does not require us to fix ourselves in order to come to Him for mercy. He accepts as we are. But He also does not leave us as we are. We must come to Him in humility and brokenness over our sin.
There is no contradiction between Romans 1 and Romans 8. It is all a seemless argument, a continuum of argument bringing all of the world ,gentile and Jew under condemnation before God that they might see the need to accept the gift of the Righteousness of Jesus Christ. What do you mean when you say I am hard on myself?
Romans 6.
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
I see massive contradiction or worse. ERROR. How do you reconcile Matthew 1 and Luke 3:23? I thought God was the father of Jesus, didn’t you”? ( since , if you DON’t , no eternal life, right? )! Tell us?
The Ten Commandments is a big clue to an anachronism... but that might just be me.
You can say that again.
Romans 6
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
“but under grace.” What do you think grace is?
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