Romans 1:18-32
The Wrath of God and His Restraints



We are going to be talking about 2 subjects from the text that are very hard to hear. I mean hard to hear as in they aren’t talked about very much at all, and especially in the western church, they are avoided all together.

This portion of scripture deals with the sinfulness of the gentiles. If you guys didn’t realize this already gentile means anybody outside of ethnic Israel. Paul talks about our condition apart from the gospel and apart from His saving grace. The text is going to point out 2 things predominantly here. That is:

1. Our idolatry
- We know that there is a God, but we refuse to acknowledge Him.
Even though He has made Himself evident to everybody.

2. The state and condition that sin holds in our lives
- Which i sthe result of our idolatry. That being, not honoring God
and His commands. Just filling our own desires of what we want
apart from Him

This portion of the text may seem very bleak and dark, but it goes to show our
true condition. Not what we think we are, but what we actually are and the power of God to make us who He wants us to be in Him through Christ.


Read Romans 1:18
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

· There are 2 things that Paul establishes in this verse.

1) The wrath of God reveals how much He hates sin. God is absolutely repulsed by evil and sin. Which happens to be what we are.

2) God’s judgment isn’t this far off thing that happens later. His wrath can strike at any place and time as He sees fit, because we are nothing but filled with sin.

· One observation I have here is how Paul words this verse. “Ungodliness and Unrighteousness.” Maybe, this is kind of an order in which things happen. Meaning, when we refuse to be “godly” that leads to our natural act of unrighteousness.

· The other observation I have here is how Paul says we suppress the truth. That would seem to indicate us lying to ourselves about what we know about ourselves.


Illustration
Have you ever been asked a question that you knew the answer to but you refused to speak the truth because it got you or someone else in trouble? I think we have something in us that refuses to tell the truth to ourselves in regards to how horribly filled with unrighteousness we actually are.

· What Paul is pointing out here is we cannot, under any circumstance, claim ignorance. We can’t go in front of God and say, ”You can’t send me to hell God, I had no clue about you or your commands.”

Read Romans 1:19-20
19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For 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.

· So here, Paul goes into more detail. Everybody has a sense that there is a God through the expanse and sheer awesomeness of creation. The invisible God is seen in the visible creation. There have been numerous studies that have shown this world and the things of it did not just appear by accident. Someone had to put it together.

Example
Think of our bodies. We know evolution is a crock. As a matter of fact a story just came out that said two of those men on the timeline of evolution, that were suppose to be millions of year apart, were just found together. This is just one of many stories that scientists are concluding that something had to create us. Also, what I never understood about evolution. Who created the monkey we evolved from in the first place? Who created the water that splashed against the rocks to create everything we see now? You cannot get or make something from nothing.

Read Genesis 1:26-27
26Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

· God created us in His own image. Creation and everything in this world point to a mighty and powerful God. With all the advancement in medicine. We are able to do transplants and make prosthetics. I am sure we could instruct an entire human body. But there is no way we could give it life. This does nothing but point to a mighty, majestic Creator.

Note
I have heard this question asked before. “If we need Jesus Christ to go to heaven, what about the tribes in the middle of Africa that never hear the name of Christ? Do they not even get a chance to go to heaven?”

· Paul is showing here that even they know enough of God to be held accountable. There are stories of people finding these indigenous tribes and they actually have a God that is worshipped by people and they offer things to it to glorify him, as well as go to him for forgiveness of sins. Why do they do that? So they won’t feel the wrath from a God that, they perceive, has the power to give them eternal damnation. Isn’t that interesting? This thing is just pre packaged and built in us.

Read Romans 1:21-23
21For 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. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

· So Paul states here again that humanity has a general sense of God. Humanity’s sin is refusing to acknowledge God even though they know enough of Him to be true. The consequence of not honoring Him and giving Him thanks leads the heart and mind to go dark.

· We also see here how idolatry is so ever present. We think we know what is good for us, by not acknowledging and honoring God, but we are actually worse off and stupid for worshipping the things that are created, and more specifically the things that God created for us to have dominion over.

Illustration
This is us worshipping the created things over the creator. This is like someone telling me “Hey, nice tattoos.” Why are they in awe of my tattoos when all I did was get them? I wasn’t responsible for putting them on there. The tattoo artist, or creator of the tattoo, should be the one getting the praise.



Read Romans 1:24-25
24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

· That word “Therefore” insists, almost always in the scriptures, as an action that follows some sort of instruction or teaching. Here, because we are idolaters, God removes His divine restraint on both our sinful actions as well as the consequences of those actions.

Read Romans 1:26-27
26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and 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.

· I want to point out a couple things here.

• Homosexuality is a sin and there is no questioning that. How you deal with that and people in that lifestyle is a whole different message all together. This is just something that you need to strike the balance between truth & love in dealing with.
  
• Paul is using this as another example of how depraved, sinful and backwards our thinking is. We exchange what is right, natural and of God and we pervert it to do what is best for us. Completely removing God all together and yet again refusing to acknowledge Him and His commands. Again, here we see God’s hand removed and He gives us over to ourselves and we pervert and sin and that leads to more consequence.
  
  

Read Romans 1:28-32
28And 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. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such thing deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

· Sin brings a hate for what is known to be truth and risks abandonment by God.

· What we see here is our refusal to acknowledge God causes:

1. God to remove His hand and give us over to ourselves, which in turn affects our relationship to Him. (v. 18)
   
2. It causes a warped vision of us and the things of Him. (vs. 21-25)
   
3. We are given over to what we desire most apart from God, which is sin and unrighteousness (vs. 26-32)
   
   · We are so filled to the brim and rooted with sin and idolatry that we can’t help but think that it is right and encourage other people in their sin as well.
   
   Illustration
   Have you guys ever done something you know was bad and you tried to convince someone else to do it with you just so you didn’t feel like you were the only one? It makes you feel like what you did couldn’t be that bad if others were doing it too.
   

· This is what I believe Paul is talking about here. Just being around sin causes more sin. We take such a nosedive in our sin that we even encourage sin in others to make it “not so bad.”


The wrath of God is a scary, scary thing. We see just a glimpse of how horrible and horrendous it can be when God removes all the restraints on us to do what we desire to do and are left to suffer the consequences of those things, and God actually has divine restraints on those consequences as well.

The best part about learning about the wrath of God and how sinful, idolatrous and unrighteous we are is it also shows God’s redemptive power.

It is such a wonderful thing. God, in His love, mercy and grace sent His son Jesus Christ to live what is not possible for us to live, that is a perfect and righteous life. He was a man and He was tempted and He experienced all that we experience, and yet still remained unblemished. God’s wrath was poured out on Christ on the cross at Calvary.

We hear so many times about becoming “saved”. Have you ever thought about what we are saved from? Is it Satan? Hell? What is it? We are saved from God and His wrath and nothing else. To think anything else gives no reverence to God and His power. A couple weeks ago, Pastor Mike did a 2 part series titled Un-punishable. By repenting and asking God into your life you to can become a Christ follower and be on the opposite side of God’s wrath.

That doesn’t mean you won’t ever hurt or suffer or experience pain. God loves us so He disciplines us for our own good. But we will not experience the wrath of God that we should experience and that Christ stepped in and took for us.

I can’t help but preach Jesus Christ to you after we hear a message about God’s wrath and our sinful state.

Romans 1:1-17
The Romans Revolution and the Power of the Gospel



Martin Luther said this about the book of Romans:

“This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.”

This book has a lot of hard concepts to deal with. But you know what? I’ve learned that when you hear something in scripture that seems hard to deal with, or seems to go against anything that you or I think. The bible isn’t wrong. It’s my head! Scripture is God breathed(2 Tim 3:16-17) and there is nothing wrong or contradictory to it. When I come across difficult sayings or concepts I dig deeper and study harder. Those are the times where God shows Himself to be even greater, even more loving, even more almighty and gracious.

Romans is a book that I consistently go back to for understanding and clarification on so many things. It deals with all the main components of the Christian faith: Law, Sin, Grace, Faith, Justice, Flesh, Spirit, and so on.

Paul does 3 things in this section of the text.

He Gives a greeting (vs. 1-7)

Paul gives an introduction and intention (vs. 8-15)

Paul gives the theme of the entire book (vs. 16-17)



Paul’s Greeting

Read Romans 1:1-2
1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

Usually all letters during this time were started out with some sort of greeting in this style. Paul, here, has a very extensive greeting where he introduces himself by:
- Name: Paul
- Identity: (servant) Someone who is under total control of his or her master.
- Job (apostle) An official messenger of the gospel.
- Purpose (set apart for the gospel) God is the source of the message he brings

In verse 2 Paul is explaining that this isn’t something that he created himself, but the gospel was revealed in the Old Testament through prophets, which were God’s voice to the people.

Read Romans 1:3-6
3concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

Paul is pointing out the dual nature of Christ. He was “ man” (descended from David) or “flesh”. As well being declared the Son of God, or “divine”.

He was made flesh to share our weaknesses (cf. Heb 4:15-16)

15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

He was divine and declared fully the Son of God (cf 2 Cor 13:4)

4For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

• Paul also shows that through his obedience of faith, God appointed him to bring the gospel message to the World (gentiles)

Read Romans 1:7
7To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a very gospel soaked greeting and only sets the stage for the things to come in the rest of this letter.

Paul’s Introduction and Intention

Read Romans 1:8-12
8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

· First, Paul is giving an encouragement. The church at Rome has been an example to other churches that have heard of the things they were doing.

· Second, Paul is telling them how excited he is for them and the foundation they have laid as a new Christian church. As well as how much he labors in prayer for them.

· Third, he shows his desire to visit them for 2 reasons:
1. “to impart to you a spiritual gift”
This is not a spiritual gift like tongues or prophecy, but of encouragement through
what I believe is the gospel message

2. “that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith,”
This message of the gospel not only encourages Paul’s hearers, but Paul as well.
Note:
I just want to point this out to you guys. Us, as Christ followers should be built up and take encouragement from the gospel message. So many times we sit here and look for things to make us happy: music, boyfriends/girlfriends, ipods, looks, etc, etc. we need to not take satisfaction in the gifts we think we need, but in the gift giver. Christ is our gift! We shouldn’t be looking for the next thing that will make us feel happy and worthwhile. We need to be built up, and encouraged in Christ as our ultimate gift!

Illustration:
This would be like if someone gave you a million dollars and sent you the check in the mail and all you did was hug and thank and kiss the mailman who simply handed you an envelope. Was the mailman responsible for that million dollars? NO! In the same way, we don’t need to look for God where he isn’t. We need to be satisfied and infatuated with the giver and creator of all, not the created things.

Paul’s theme to the book of Romans

Read Romans 1:16-17
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

· WOW! How awesome are these two verses? There is nothing more powerful than the gospel message. Paul is stating here that the work Christ did had such a power that it actually transcends all barriers. It is not something that is exclusive but is for anybody and everybody through faith in Him and His son.

· The faith we have is giving to us by a mighty and powerful God. God reveals this in the Old Testament:

Habakkuk 2:4
4"Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

God’s righteousness is shown in the righteousness of Christ, which is imparted to, or considered by God to belong to the one who believes. This is the how we are justified or saved. This has nothing to do with our merits or the things that we try and do to save us or please ourselves. It is purely from God, through Christ by faith. This is what Paul means by from faith to faith.

· Paul also points out that “the righteous shall live by faith” meaning; life is a continuing fellowship with God. It’s trusting and depending on Him from the moment we are regenerated till the end.

The revolution starts now. I don’t want to oversimplify anything or try and tell God what to do. But we see in the bible how big things start and huge moves of God begin with prayer and God’s word. Do you guys read your bibles? Don’t you want to know what’s on the mind of God? Don’t you want to know what it is like to be satisfied in Him and nothing else? This is it. I have been praying and will continue to labor in prayer for God to revolutionize your hearts. I pray that you do the same.

Pray that God shows you truly who you are and also, that He then reveals the new person He wants you to be in Him.

Welcome!

Well, I have started a place to post my thoughts, teachings and anything else I want to throw out their that, I hope, will benefit any and all readers of this things. This will be the main place I post all of my notes on the book studies that I am going trhough right now.

The story about the name. It is a reference from Nehemiah 4:16-18

16From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, 17who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. 18And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me.

I want to appeal and encourage both you and I to continue to work( the trowel) and defend( the sword) that which God has called us to build. That could be marriage, business, family, relationships, ministry, or anything!

Please leave me comments and encouragements and if this helps you, feel free to use it and pass this site onto your friends.

TIM