Rejecting
God
Steve W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A. A
coin has two sides which we refer to as “heads” and “tails.” We even have an
expression that there are “two sides to a
coin.”
B. Romans
1 presents us with two sides of God’s nature.
1. On the one side we read of God’s grace
by which Paul was made an apostle to
carry the gospel to the Gentiles (vs.
5). It is this grace that prompted Him to send
Jesus into the world so that every human
might have the opportunity to have
their sins forgiven. It is by God’s love
that the Gospel is the power unto salvation
that reveals the righteousness of God
(vss. 16-17).
2. There is, however, another side to this
coin. God is not only a God of love and
grace. He is a God of wrath.
a. We do not hear about the wrath of God
as much as precious generations did.
b. One of the most famous sermons
preached in America was delivered by
a Puritan preacher, Jonathan
Edwards, on July 8, 1744 in Enfield, Connecticut.
The title was, “Sinner In the Hands
of an Angry God.”
c. We might scoff at such a title but there
is a profound connection between the
love
and wrath of God.
1.) In our congregation are many precious young
mothers with their sweet
babies. If you want to see
a picture of love watch them as they care for
their children. If you want
to see wrath imagine what one of those mothers
would do to anything or
anyone who threatened to harm those babies.
2.) God loves us so much that
His wrath is released on anything or anyone
who would seek to harm us.
C. We
may not like to hear about God’s wrath, but we need to hear about it. Our text
is
Romans 1:18-32.
I. THE “WHO” OF GOD’S WRATH.
A. Paul wrote, (vs. 18), “For the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness.”
1. God’s wrath is directed against those
who are ungodly. These are people who do
not honor God and respect Him.
2. God’s wrath is directed against those
who are unrighteous and who suppress the
truth.
B. The Bible speaks of several types of wrath.
1. Wrath of final judgment. In Matthew
25:41 Jesus spoke of the unrighteous at
judgment, “Then He will also say to
those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed
ones, into the eternal fire which
has been prepared for the devil and his angels.”
2. Consequential wrath. God gives each
of us the freedom to made decisions. We
do not, however, have freedom to
choose the consequences of our action.
3.
Wrath of abandonment. This is where a person has forsaken God to the point
that God removes His Spirit from
them.
a. A familiar example is Samson in
Judges 16. Though Samson’s parents had
dedicated him as one who was set
apart (Nazarite) Samson’s reckless, lustful
behavior violated the Nazarite
vow. After telling Delilah how cutting his hair
would make him like any other
man, the Philistines cut the seven locks of his
hair as he slept. When he heard,
“The Philistines are upon you,” he work.”
Notice verse 20, “I will go out
as at other times and shake myself free.” But he
did not know that the Lord had
departed from him.
b. It is the wrath of God’s
abandonment which Paul referred to in this text. I
believe it is particularly
relevant today for I fear that we are witnessing the
same thing in our nation.
II. THE “WHY” OF GOD’S WRATH.
A. A little boy was sent to bed because he
didn’t obey his parents and eat all of his
vegetables at supper. His parents said,
“You know God commands you to obey
your parents.” Later that night there
was a furious storm with wind, rain and
thunder. The mother went to the boy’s room
to find him standing at the window
saying, “This sure is a big fuss over a
few bites of squash and green beans.”
B. Paul explained the reason for God’s wrath
in verses 19-20.
1. “Because that which is known about
God is evident within them; for God made it
evident to them. 20 For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His
eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made, so that they
are without excuse.”
2. Notice the words, “they are without
excuse.”
3. One of the early Christian writers,
Augustine, wrote, “We were made for You, O
Lord, and our hearts are restless
until they rest in you.”
4. The French philosopher and scientist
Blaise Pascal (1823-1662), wrote that
rejecting God created an infinite
abyss that, “can be filled only with an infinite and
immutable object; in other words by
God himself.” -
Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII(425)
5. God has made his presence known to
every individual who has had a
reasonable mind by the things he has
made – whether it be the stars in the sky,
the beauty of the earth or the intricacies
of the human body.
B. The world in which the Romans lived had
rejected God.
1. In verse 21 Paul wrote, “For even
though they knew God, they did not honor Him
as God or give thanks, but they
became futile in their speculations, and their
foolish heart was darkened.”
2. When Paul came to Athens he saw “the
city full of idols” in Acts 17:16. When he
went to Corinth he walked past the
massive columns of the temple to Apollo (still
standing today) or look to the mountain
just outside the city and see the temple
to Aphrodite where temple
prostitutes had engaged in immoral rites. When he
went to Ephesus he saw the temple to
Artemis or Diana. They rejected God and
sought to replace Him with products
of their own wisdom. In the process they
became fools.
C. You and I are living in a culture and
country where the same thing is happening.
We are replacing God with our own idols
of wealth, fame, power and popularity. We
are ignoring the overwhelming evidence
of God’s creation and claiming that our
world and everything it is is the result
of astronomical accident. We are removing
God and His standards from any public
venue and replacing him with secular
humanism. If we think God does not
notice we are mistaken.
III. THE “WHAT” OF GOD’S WRATH.
A. What happens when God’s wrath is
directed towards a person or a nation?
1. God gives them up to their desires.
a. Verse 24 – “Therefore God gave
them over in the lusts of their hearts to
impurity.”
b. Verse 26 – “For this reason God
gave them over to degrading passions.”
c. Verse 28 – “God gave them over to
a depraved mind,”
d. C.S. Lewis said that ultimately
there are only two types of people. The people
who look to God and say, “Thy will be
done,” and the people to whom God
looks and says, “Thy will be
done.” In this text Paul describes what
happens
when people reject God and what
happens when God rejects people because
of their wickedness.
2.
When God gives people over to fulfill their own desires everything about life
becomes distorted.
a. A distorted view of God; “For they exchanged the truth of God for a
lie, and
worshiped and served the creature
rather than the Creator” (vs. 25). The
Roman world was filled with
idolatry as people rejected the knowledge and
instruction of Jehovah and
worshipped images of false gods.
b. A distortion of sexuality.
Beginning in verse 26, Paul described how those who
rejected God were characterized
by “degrading passions; for their women
exchanged the natural function
for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same
way also the men abandoned the
natural function of the woman and burned in
their desire toward one another,
men with men committing indecent acts and
receiving in their own persons
the due penalty of their error (vss 26-27).
1.) Sexuality is the first
characteristic of humanity you read about after the
creation (Genesis 1:27).
The creation of male and female was a priority for
God.
2.) Satan loves to destroy the beauty of God’s creation in any way. He
does
this sexually with all
types of immoral behavior. He flaunts it in the media.
He saturates the internet
with it. He does everything in his demonic power
to make the immoral appear
moral.
B. When God gives people over to their
wickedness the results are horrific. Beginning
in verse 29 Paul wrote, “being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed,
evil; full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers,
haters of God, insolent, arrogant,
boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 without
understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and
although they
know the ordinance of God, that those
who practice such things are worthy of
death, they not only do the same, but
also give hearty approval to those who
practice
them.”
IV. THE “WHERE” OF GOD’S WRATH
A. If you know a storm is coming what do
you do?
1. You prepare.
2. You seek shelter.
B. The Bible makes it clear that a day of
wrath is coming.
1. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 – “When the
Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with
His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing
out retribution to those who do not
know God and to those who do not
obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These
will pay the penalty of eternal
destruction, away from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power.”
2. John 3:36 – “He who believes in the
Son has eternal life; but he who does not
obey the So n will not see life, but
the wrath of God abides on him.”
C. Where is the shelter from the storm of
the wrath of God? It’s in the presence of
Jesus Christ in the shadow of the blood
stained cross.
CONCLUSION:
A. Have
your parents ever warned you to refrain from doing certain things? If you did
those things you might offer an excuse. One
excuse you could not offer is, “I didn’t
know.”
Paul said that the people who were experiencing the wrath of God’s
abandonment could not say, “I didn’t know.”
Neither can you.
B. The
call our world needs to hear; The call America needs to hear; The call the
church
needs to hear; The call you and I must hear
is the call to repentance. We must turn
away from the sin-sick culture that is
devouring our faith, family and freedom and put
our trust in Jesus Christ.
