Last week I gave you a brief overview of Romans1:18-32. This week I will deal with verses 18-23. There will be another post that follows dealing with the remaining verses.
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.
The Wrath of God:
Wrath is God’s anger directed toward sin. It is determined holy indignation, not emotional or uncontrolled. God is perfect in His wrath just as He is perfect in His love. God’s wrath is an expression of His holy love. If God is not a God of wrath, His love is no more than frail, worthless sentimentality; the concept of mercy is meaningless; and the Cross was a cruel and unnecessary experience for His Son. Wrath is essential. When this is realized, we understand that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31), that He has the power to save and destroy (James 4:12), and He is to be feared, because He has the power to destroy both body and soul in hell (Luke 12:4 and Matthew10:28). He perfectly hates evil, and He perfectly loves righteousness. In evangelicalism today, this is forgotten. After all, what are we saved from? God’s love? No, we are saved from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9). The Puritan Thomas Watson said, “Is God so infinitely holy? Then how unlike to God sin is…No wonder, therefore, that God hates sin, being so unlike to Him, nay, so contrary to Him; it strikes at His holiness.” Wrath is the only logical response that a holy God could have toward sin and evil.
Hebrews 10:26-27 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
God’s wrath is being revealed because we do not honor Him as God, we do not give Him thanks, and we have exchanged the glory that belongs to Him and are giving it to idolatry. What Calvin observed long ago is still true today: the human heart, is an idol factory. Ken Sande wrote, “An idol is not simply a statue of wood, stone or metal; it is anything we love and pursue in place of God, and can be referred to as a ‘false god’ or a ‘functional god.’ In biblical terms, an idol is something other than God that we set our hearts on (Luke 12:29; 1 Cor 10:6), that motivates us (1Cor 4:5), that masters or rules us (Ps119:133), or that we serve (Matt. 6:24)”. A.W. Tozer said, “Idolatry begins in the mind when we pervert or exchange the idea of God for something other than what He really is” Have you replaced God with something or someone else? Is your idol health, wealth, pleasure, prestige, sports, education, success, power, YOU?
Hopefully you are giving consideration to how this works in your life. There is a lot of application that we could get into here. I trust the Holy Spirit will convict.
I want to briefly touch on how this applies to worship. Does your worship honor God, give Him thanks and give Him glory, or is your worship centered on you? The self esteem gospel made popular by Robert Schuller is going strong in many churches today. Worship has been reduced to whatever can be done in order for people to feel good about themselves. The result of this kind of worship can be found in the seeker sensitive, emergent, and liberal church movements today. Hymns have been replaced with music that has little or no theological substance. Preaching has been reduced to topical sermons about things that are important to the “Community”. Missions have been reduced to digging water wells in Guatemala and building restaurants in the Sudan. The gospel message is non-existent and replaced with old, new age philosophies. Glory, honor and thanks to God have been given over to glory, honor and thanks to self. We get what we want and we certainly will get what we deserve.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism states, “The chief end of man is to glorify God (Lev 10:3, 1 Chron 16:24-29; Psalms 148; Romans 15:5-6), and for him to fail to give God glory is the ultimate offence.
Is there any hope? The hope is found in verses 16-17. "The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." Our only hope is that the righteousness God demands from us would be freely given to us, namely, God's own righteousness, to be received by faith. You may have this now because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, who paid the debt so that everyone who believes in him might be saved.
References:
English Standard Version Study Bible
New American Standard Bible
Logos
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Kittle and Freidrich)
Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament (Rienecker and Rogers)
Calvin’s Commentaries Volume XIX
McArthur New Testament Commentary Romans 1-8
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Romans 1:18-32 God's wrath on unrighteousness
I plan for this to be a multi-part posting. This is the first installment and others will follow as I can get them written.
This past week I've heard a number people talk about how bad things are and how they are only going to get worse. People speculate that America as we know it will never be the same. Others talk about selling everything they own and moving to another country. These, like so many others, felt that the person elected to be president would make or break this country. One was called the messiah by some and the other a maverick, both promising changes. Who we elect for president will NOT fundamentally change the problems we experience in this country or this world. I point you to Romans 1:18-32.
Here we can read the indictment, the judgment, and the result of that judgment. Man has failed to give glory, honor and thanks to God, indictment. Therefore He has "given us up", judgment. The result of that judgment is man's wickedness to the extreme, a problem that cannot be fixed by a president. This is why politics and so many other things must be much less a priority and replaced with the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, the problem we have is a sin problem which can only be solved by repentance of our sins and putting our trust in Jesus Christ. This is no longer a nation that trusts God. It’s a nation that has turned away from God and has put their trust in man. In effect, what we have done is create an idol, a god to suit ourselves, and turned away from the God of the bible. If you are putting your trust and faith in President elect Obama you will be sadly disappointed. The same is true to those who thought that Senator McCain would do any better. As long as our dependence is on someone other than God we will continue in the direction we are heading and things will only get worse. Our dependence needs to be on the One who gave us life and continues to do so.
Indictment
Judgment
Result of the judgment
God's Wrath on Unrighteousness – Romans 1:18-32 (ESV)
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.
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.
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.
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 decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Lord willing, the next posts will expound further on the text above. Potential titles:
The wrath of God
The Indictment
God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity
God gave them up to dishonorable passions
God gave them up to a debased mind
Now for the good news
This past week I've heard a number people talk about how bad things are and how they are only going to get worse. People speculate that America as we know it will never be the same. Others talk about selling everything they own and moving to another country. These, like so many others, felt that the person elected to be president would make or break this country. One was called the messiah by some and the other a maverick, both promising changes. Who we elect for president will NOT fundamentally change the problems we experience in this country or this world. I point you to Romans 1:18-32.
Here we can read the indictment, the judgment, and the result of that judgment. Man has failed to give glory, honor and thanks to God, indictment. Therefore He has "given us up", judgment. The result of that judgment is man's wickedness to the extreme, a problem that cannot be fixed by a president. This is why politics and so many other things must be much less a priority and replaced with the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, the problem we have is a sin problem which can only be solved by repentance of our sins and putting our trust in Jesus Christ. This is no longer a nation that trusts God. It’s a nation that has turned away from God and has put their trust in man. In effect, what we have done is create an idol, a god to suit ourselves, and turned away from the God of the bible. If you are putting your trust and faith in President elect Obama you will be sadly disappointed. The same is true to those who thought that Senator McCain would do any better. As long as our dependence is on someone other than God we will continue in the direction we are heading and things will only get worse. Our dependence needs to be on the One who gave us life and continues to do so.
Indictment
Judgment
Result of the judgment
God's Wrath on Unrighteousness – Romans 1:18-32 (ESV)
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.
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.
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.
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 decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Lord willing, the next posts will expound further on the text above. Potential titles:
The wrath of God
The Indictment
God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity
God gave them up to dishonorable passions
God gave them up to a debased mind
Now for the good news
Thursday, November 06, 2008
The Day After the Elections of 2008 - James White
Psalm 2
1Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves,and the rulers take counsel together,against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apartand cast away their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my Kingon Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will tell of the decree:The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of ironand dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” 10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;be warned, O rulers of the earth.11 Serve the Lord with fear,and rejoice with trembling.12 Kiss the Son,lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
From Alpha and Omega Ministries
1Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves,and the rulers take counsel together,against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apartand cast away their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my Kingon Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will tell of the decree:The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of ironand dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” 10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;be warned, O rulers of the earth.11 Serve the Lord with fear,and rejoice with trembling.12 Kiss the Son,lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
From Alpha and Omega Ministries
Sunday, November 02, 2008
John Piper's Heart in the 2008 Election
Psalm 93
The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The LORD has clothed and girded Himself with strength;
Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved.
Your throne is established from of old;
You are from Everlasting.
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