• Romans 1:18

Romans 1:18

Sermon preached on November 22, 2009 by Laurence W. Veinott. © Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Other sermons can be found at http://www.cantonnewlife.org/.

Unless otherwise noted, quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.


On July 8, 1741 Jonathan Edward's preached his famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". He preached it in Enfield, Connecticut, a village that was thus far unaffected by the great revival that was taking place in New England. The sermon had an immediate and dramatic effect. An eyewitness said that the people were so moved by the sermon that some moaned, shrieked and cried out for salvation. Edwards had to stop and ask for quiet. The commotion only increased with cries and wails that were very uncommon. Finally, Edwards had to end his sermon because he could not be heard above the tumult.

A sermon with a title like that would not politically correct today. People don't like to hear about God's anger.
The world doesn't like doctrines such as hell or God's anger. But what is surprising is that they're held in disrepute in many Christian circles. In the popular book, "The Shack", Mac says to God, (The Shack, p. 118-120)

"Are there any [people] that you are not especially fond of?"

"Nope, I haven't been able to find any. Guess that jes' the way I is."

"but that anger… is an expression of love all the same. I love the ones I am angry with just as much as those I'm not."

"But if you are God, aren't you the one spilling out great bowls of wrath and throwing people into a burning lake of fire."

"I am not what you think I am, Mackenzie. I don't need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring from the inside. It's not my purpose to punish it; it's my joy to cure it"

"My Father, if it is possible,
may this cup be taken from me."

—there would have been an alternative. "The Shack" seriously downplays God's anger against sin.

But it's just one example of the how the whole idea of God having anger is anathema to people today. They know the verses about God being loving and merciful and they minimize the concept of God's anger.

It is certainly true that God is love. We must never forget that or minimize it. But we must also not make a false antithesis between the divine love and the divine wrath. All of God's attributes co-exist in perfect harmony. They are all perfect. We must not emphasize one to the detriment of the other. There is much truth in Cardinal Newman's statement that every heresy was actually a Christian truth pushed too far and to the exclusion of other truths.

The fact that God is love does not mean that God's justice can be compromised. The fact that God is love does not mean that God cannot be angry with sinners. We need to exercise care that we don't take one of the attributes of God that we are attracted to, like love, and just focus on that, and minimize some attributes that we are not attracted to.

Even learned theologians reject the idea of God's wrath. N. Bendyaev writes, (Quoted from Morris, (The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, Leon Morris, 1976, p. 208)

"Anger in every shape and form is foreign to God, Whose mercy is infinite."

"in the long run we cannot think with full consistency of God in terms of the highest ideals of personality and yet attribute to Him the irrational passion of anger…”

"The wrath of God
is being revealed from heaven
against all the godlessness
and wickedness of men
who suppress the truth
by their wickedness,"

But what exactly is God's wrath?

We need to be clear on this. I think the reason that many people don't like the concept of God's wrath (besides the fact that we're sinners and subject to his wrath) is because anger has totally negative connotations today.

People today even categorize different types of anger. There's chronic anger, where a person seems angry all the time. There's verbal anger, passive anger, volatile anger, retaliatory anger, behavioral anger etc. etc. Specific examples of anger are road rage, spousal abuse, child abuse. Some of you may have seen the YouTube video of a female soccer player from a university in New Mexico exhibiting outrageous behavior towards opposing players. The video showed her kicking, punching and even throwing an opposing girl to the ground by her ponytail.

We have Anger Management Courses for people who have problems with anger. As Leon Morris says, (p. 208)

"our anger is such a selfish passion, usually involving a large element of irrationality together with a lack of self-control."

"we must look not to the lower, irrational kind of human anger, but to the higher kind, the indignation against injustice, cruelty and corruption, which is an essential element of goodness and love in a world in which moral evil is present…”

"even the very highest and purest human wrath can at the best afford but a distorted and twisted reflection on the wrath of God, since the wrath of men (our Lord alone excepted) is always more or less compromised by the presence of sin in the one who is wroth…”

"Look down from heaven
and see from your lofty throne,
holy and glorious."

As such the phrase 'from heaven' could very well denote God's justice and righteousness. God's anger is pure, righteous and good. It is not tainted by sin. It is not unnecessary. It is not irrational.

Indeed, what our text tells us is that

God's wrath is revealed from heaven against 'all the godlessness and wickedness of men'.

Cranfield says, (p. 111)

"The wrath which is being revealed is no nightmare of an indiscriminate, uncontrolled, irrational fury, but the wrath of the holy and merciful God called forth by, and directed against, men's [ungodliness and wickedness]".

"his punitive justice".

"The word wrath means the vengeance of God, for when God punishes, He has, according to our way of thinking, the appearance of anger. The word, therefore, implies no emotion in God…”

"Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong."

In Psalm 11:5 we read,

"The LORD examines the righteous,
but the wicked
and those who love violence
his soul hates."

Isn't that good? What would it be like if it were otherwise? Hating sin is a virtue. If someone is not outraged by sin, if he is not angered by it—that is most wrong and evil. That means that they either delight in evil or are not troubled by it. God is not like that. He is outraged by sin, by evil, by wickedness. Sin is most vile. It is evil. It is the enemy of everything good. It is right and good that God is angry with ungodliness and wickedness. God is righteous in being angry with sin and sinners.

There is a great lesson for Christians here. It is this:

You should be praising God for His attribute of wrath and anger.

It's absolutely amazing that we're so insensitive to evil that we don't usually even think in terms of praising God for the fact that He reacts against evil with indignation. Perhaps it's also because we're sinners and we don't want wrath against our sins.

Yet should praise God for the fact that He reacts against evil with indignation. It is so right that He hates evil. It is an affront to His justice. It is an affront to all that is good. We should praise God for his wrath and anger against sin. This could be the meaning of Psalm 76:10, which, in the NIV, reads,

"Surely your wrath against men
brings you praise,
and the survivors of your wrath
are restrained."

But even if that's not the meaning, (it's only one possible meaning and other translations render it differently) the principle still holds true. We have an example of it in Psalm 96:11–13 which says,

"Let the heavens rejoice,
let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound,
and all that is in it;
let the fields be jubilant,
and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest
will sing for joy;
they will sing before the Lord,"

Why?

"for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his truth."

Because God was coming to judge the earth the heavens could rejoice and the earth be glad. Everything that loves righteousness, goodness and holiness should resound in praise to God because of His righteousness. As Psalm 7:11 says,

"God is a righteous judge,
a God who expresses his wrath every day."

We see the principle in Psalm 97:1–2 as well. It reads,

"The Lord reigns,
let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice."

Why?

"Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
righteousness and justice
are the foundation of his throne."

We should be praising God for the fact that He hates evil. How wonderful and good it is that He is a righteous God who will not let evil triumph.

Satan doesn't hate evil. Can you imagine for a moment what things would be like if he were running things? There would be no good at all. Evil would be totally unrestrained. Everything would be like hell.

Do you praise God for His wrath? It is one of His glorious perfections. Lift His name high and praise Him for it.

At the same time be asking Him to purify you. God hates sin. Your sin is an affront to Him. Jesus died to deliver you from sin.

At the same time be thanking Him for Jesus who will save you from the coming wrath. What a treasure you have in Jesus! Where would you be without Him?

At the same time ask Him to save other sinners. God's wrath is not a comfortable doctrine. But it is a reality. We cannot imagine what it would be like to face it forever and ever. We need to be praying that God would be merciful and that He would save more and more people.



The next thing we see in our text is that

God's wrath is being revealed.

What does that mean?

It is easy to suppose that Paul is referring to the 'frustrations, futilities and disasters' (Cranfield) which result from human ungodliness and wickedness. There's no doubt that that's part of the meaning.

Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and volcanoes are a result of God's anger against our sin. So, too, are wars. So is famine, economic distress and governmental oppression. So, too, are sickness, accidents and all such things. We read about these things in the book of Revelation and see that they are clearly part of God's wrath against sin and sinners. Many of them are part of the opening of the scrolls in Revelation 6f. They are all part of God's wrath against sin.

There's an important lesson for us here.

Christians, this shows us that this world is not your home.

We live in a fallen world. God's judgment affects us too. Yes, we are safe in the ultimate sense. God loves us and He is leading us to glory.

But it is also true that the righteous often suffer along with the ungodly. If Lot had stayed in Sodom, he, too, would have been destroyed. Even though he escaped from Sodom, he had to flee quickly. Not only that but he lost his wife because she looked back. God spared the city of Zoar because Lot wanted to flee there. But after the other cities were destroyed Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar. He had to flee to the mountains and live in a cave. Lot greatly suffered because of the sin of the people around him.

That's the way it often is in this world. The prophet Habakkuk and other righteous people in Judah suffered when the Babylonians come up and destroyed Judah and Jerusalem. They suffered along with all the ungodly.

It was the same way with King Josiah. What a great king he was. In 2 Kings 23:24f we read about him.

"Furthermore, Josiah got rid of
the mediums and spiritists,
the household gods,
the idols and all the other detestable things
seen in Judah and Jerusalem.
This he did to fulfill the requirements
of the law written in the book
that Hilkiah the priest had discovered
in the temple of the Lord.
Neither before nor after Josiah
was there a king like him
who turned to the Lord as he did—
with all his heart and with all his soul
and with all his strength,
in accordance with all the Law of Moses."

What it says next is telling. We read,

"Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away
from the heat of his fierce anger,
which burned against Judah
because of all that Manasseh
had done to provoke him to anger.
So the Lord said,
'I will remove Judah also from my presence
as I removed Israel,
and I will reject Jerusalem,
the city I chose, and this temple,
about which I said,
'There shall my Name be.'"

Josiah was killed by the Egyptians when he was only 39 years old. This righteous king was cut off in the prime of his life because God had determined to punish Judah for her sins.

Christians, don't set your heart and happiness on this world. This world is not your home. You are only a stranger and pilgrim here. You live in a fallen world which is subject to judgment, upon which the wrath of God is being revealed.

So often we forget this. We look upon this world as if it's our home and we have our treasures here. Thus we are so disappointed when tragedy and suffering come. Our faith in God get shattered at such times.

Such should not be. This world is not our home. We are not to seek our happiness here. This is a fallen world that is subject to the wrath of God. While we are here we are not to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth, where they did not last and are quickly lost. While we are here we are to seek God's kingdom and it's righteousness.

But there is more to God's wrath being revealed than the frustrations, futilities and disasters that people experience in their lives. The second way in which the wrath of God is being revealed is in the fact that

God gives people over to their sin.

That's what the following verses set forth. In verses 21 and 22 Paul tells how although people knew God, they didn't glorify Him as God. They exchanged the glory of God for images. Verse 24 then says,

"Therefore God gave them over
in the sinful desires of their hearts
to sexual impurity for the degrading
of their bodies with one another."

God gave them over to their sin. We see this over and over in the verses that follow. Verse 25 describes how they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Verse 26 then says,

"Because of this,
God gave them over to shameful lusts."

Verse 27 tells how men abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. In verse 28 Paul wrote,

"Furthermore, since they did not
think it worthwhile to retain
the knowledge of God,
he gave them over to a depraved mind,
to do what ought not to be done."

An aspect of God's wrath being revealed is moral collapse. Donald Macleod writes, (Behold Your God, p. 101)

"Paul is not teaching that one day God will punish Roman civilization for its vice and decadence. On the contrary, the vice and decadence are themselves God's punishment."

"Then the kings of the earth,
the princes, the generals,
the rich, the mighty,
and every slave and every free man
hid in caves
and among the rocks of the mountains.
They called to the mountains and the rocks,
'Fall on us and hide us
from the face of him who sits on the throne
and from the wrath of the Lamb!
For the great day of their wrath has come,
and who can stand?"

What a horrific day that will be for anyone not in Jesus. In 2 Thessalonians 1:6–10 we read,

"God is just:
He will pay back trouble
to those who trouble you
and give relief to you who are troubled,
and to us as well.
This will happen when the Lord Jesus
is revealed from heaven in blazing fire
with his powerful angels.
He will punish those
who do not know God
and do not obey
the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
They will be punished
with everlasting destruction
and shut out from the presence of the Lord
and from the majesty of his power
on the day he comes
to be glorified in his holy people
and to be marveled at
among all those who have believed."

Those of you who aren't Christians—don't let that happen to you. You need to go to Jesus now.



But there's a third way we should understand the wrath of God being revealed. The parallelism in language and structure between verses 17 and 18 indicate that just as the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, so too the wrath of God is revealed in the gospel. The wrath of God is revealed, (Cranfield, p. 109-110)

"in the on-going proclamation of the gospel, and to recognize that behind, and basic to, this revelation of the wrath of God in the preaching, is the prior revelation of the wrath of God in the gospel events."

"The preaching of Christ crucified, risen, ascended and coming again, is at the same time both the offer to men of a status of righteousness before God and the revelation of God's wrath against their sin. In the gospel the divine mercy and the divine judgment are inseparable from each other: the forgiveness offered to us is forgiveness without condoning. And this is so because in the gospel events themselves there was wrought for men no cheap or superficial forgiveness, but God's costly forgiveness."

"we do not see the full meaning of the wrath of God in the disasters befalling sinful men in the course of history: the reality of the wrath of God is only truly known when it is seen in its revelation in Gethsemane and on Golgotha."