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  (ROMANS) THE WRATH OF GOD
  by Brian Brodersen
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Summary: Brian Brodersen's sermon explores the biblical doctrine of
God's wrath, emphasizing its relevance and necessity in understanding
the gospel and sin's consequences.

Duration: 48:05 Topics: "Gods Wrath", "Gospel Message"
Scripture References: Genesis 3, Exodus 12:1-13, Matthew 25:31-46, Mark 9:42-48, Luke 13:1-5, Romans 1:18, Romans 3:23

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DESCRIPTION
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In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of suppressing the
truth in unrighteousness and how it leads to rebellion against God. He
emphasizes that everyone, throughout history, has engaged in this
behavior. As a result, all people have come under God's wrath. However,
the preacher also highlights the good news of the gospel, which offers a
way to escape judgment by being covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
The sermon concludes by emphasizing the importance of sharing this
message with compassion and love, as God's judgment in the present time
is indirect, allowing people to experience the consequences of their
actions.

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CONTENT
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Let's turn tonight to Romans 1. I'm going to pick up in verse 18 or
actually be studying verse 18 tonight, but we'll read through verses
from 16 through 18. In verse 16, Paul had said, For I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to
everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it,
in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

And then as we move on, verse 18, he says, For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So, so Paul says, he says
he's not ashamed of the gospel because in the gospel is this message of
this righteousness that God provides for us, this righteousness that he
provides for us, this righteousness that he will accept, this
righteousness that gives us a standing before him. And Paul now goes on
to show the absolute necessity of the gospel, because the only other
alternative to the gospel is the wrath of God being poured out upon all
ungodliness and all unrighteousness.

And that basically puts everyone in the human race in the same sinking
boat of judgment. And so tonight we want to talk a little bit about this
whole subject of the wrath of God. This certainly is not a popular
subject and you don't hear much about it today.

And I think one of the reasons why the church is so, you know, quite
frankly, filled with sin today is because we've left off this vital
topic of the fact that God hates sin and he judges sin and he has
displayed his wrath in the past and he will display it in a big way in
the future. And he's even displaying it in a variety of ways currently.
And we will look at all of that.

Were it not for Christ, all of us would have to suffer the wrath of God
against sin. One of Paul's motives for preaching the gospel was his
knowledge of God's impending judgment of sinners. In writing to the
Corinthians in the second epistle, the fifth chapter, the 11th verse, he
said this, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

So part of what motivated Paul to get the gospel to people was his
understanding of judgment that was coming. Now, I suppose that there is
nothing about the Christian message that is more objected to than this
doctrine of the wrath of God against sin. Now, people are, you know,
even if they're sort of agnostic or even maybe all the way over in the
atheistic camp, you know, they will still sometimes have a bit of
allowance or tolerance for, you know, a God of love.

But boy, when you start talking about judgment, you start talking about
the wrath of God, this is something that just gets their ire up. This is
something that just gets people so angry, so upset. I think it's
particularly important in our day that we understand what the Bible has
to say on this subject.

And that's really that's the issue right there. I want you guys to lay
hold of that. And I know that many of you already understand that.

But but we need to it's what the Bible says is really the main issue.
And unfortunately, today, people are making the mistake of looking in
the wrong places and going to the wrong sources for answers to these
kinds of questions. We've got to go back to the Bible.

What does the Bible say? Don't go to the philosophers and ask them about
this. Don't even go to the church necessarily, because you can find many
in the church that will deny the whole idea of the wrath of God. We have
to go back to the Bible itself.

What does the Bible say? You know, one of the things that you can find
in the church today, believe it or not, in denying this idea of the
wrath of God, what they will say, some people in the church world today,
they will say, well, you know, this idea of wrath, this was something
that was sort of imposed upon the Christian religion by Paul. And and
they will even, you know, paint Paul in a very negative light. And they
will try to sort of juxtapose Paul over against Jesus.

And quite often what they will do is they will say, well, you know, all
that wrath and judgment and all that that was Paul brought that in
because of his rabbinical background. And basically, these guys loathe
Paul. They hate him.

They reject everything that he has written, but they do so by saying,
no, we just, you know, we want to hear what Jesus had to say. And we're
going to put our stock in the words of the Lord Jesus. And we're not
going to pay any attention to what Paul has to say.

You know, giving the impression that Jesus, of course, talked only about
love and Jesus was tolerant of all kinds of things and turn the other
cheek and love one another and all of that. And of course, Jesus did say
that. But I don't know if you realize this or not, but the reality is
Jesus spoke more of judgment than any other person in the scripture.

Jesus was the one who painted the vivid pictures of wrath and hellfire.
And Jesus was the one who talked about the flames that were never
quenched and about the the outer darkness where there's weeping of
gnashing and gnashing of teeth. That's all comes from Jesus himself.

Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 25. He said, when the son
of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will
sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before
him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats.

Then he will say to those on the left hand, depart from me. You cursed
into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, and
these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into
eternal life. Those are pretty straightforward and pretty harsh words,
but they come directly from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can read similar things in Mark chapter nine, verses 42 to 38, Luke
chapter 13, verses one through five. You have coming directly from the
Lord Jesus warnings about judgment. Now, the interesting thing about
verse 18.

Paul says for the wrath of God is revealed and literally the wrath of
God is being revealed currently, presently now, as we look at the
revelation of the wrath of God, there is a past revelation, there's a
present revelation, and there's a future revelation of the wrath of God,
and that's what we want to talk about. For a moment in the past, as we
look into the past, where do we see God's wrath revealed? Well, it all
begins back in the very beginning. It begins in the garden as man breaks
God's commandment.

You notice that God doesn't simply overlook the transgression. He
doesn't say, oh, you know, you guys, I told I told you not to do that.
Now, look, let's try it again.

You know, he doesn't do that. Why doesn't he do that? Because God is
just. He's perfectly just and he's righteous and his word stands sure.

And he gave Adam a clear warning and instructions that were, you know,
there was no ambiguity in the instructions that God gave. He said in the
day that you eat this fruit, you will die. And that, of course, is what
happened.

And so we see God's wrath began to be revealed immediately upon sins and
entrance into the world as judgment comes upon Adam and Eve, as the
curse of sin falls upon them and upon their posterity and upon the very
planet itself that we live on. And you remember they were driven out of
the garden and no longer allowed to live in the garden and also, in a
sense, banished from God's presence, although God would still meet with
them. But then time passes and men multiply on the earth, and we find
that the next demonstration of God's judgment comes at the time of Noah,
where God destroys the whole world.

He destroys the entire population of man and beast upon the earth. And,
of course, we all know the story of Noah there recorded in Genesis six
through nine and how that judgment took place after Noah comes forth
from the ark and the earth is repopulated and people are gathering and
assembling together. Once again, you remember they attempt to build a
tower that will reach to the heavens.

And in this attempt to, again, sort of overthrow God or replace God, God
brings the judgment of this dispersion. He judges the world by
confounding their languages and scattering them all over the planet.
That was a judgment at the Tower of Babel.

We find that there is a judgment recorded further on in Genesis, a
judgment upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. You remember the story
there, perhaps in Genesis 18 and 19, as the men of Sodom have given
themselves over to homosexuality and all kinds of vileness. And Ezekiel,
the prophet, tells us about Sodom that there was fullness of bread and
there was idleness of hands.

And it was basically a culture that was just sort of living entirely and
completely to indulge the flesh. And then we know the story of what
happened, how the Lord sent the angels and the fire and brimstone
raining down upon Sodom. And the next great demonstration of God's wrath
is poured out upon the Egyptians.

We read about that in the book of Exodus, as God brings down His
judgment upon Pharaoh and upon the land of Egypt. And in doing so, He
liberates the children of Israel. And then we find that God brings a
judgment upon the Canaanites.

And Joshua is God's instrument of judgment. What the flood was to the
people in that generation, Joshua becomes God's instrument of judgment
upon those Canaanites. And then we see that Israel, even after they've
come into the land and received all the promises of God, as they've
rebelled against God, then of course they experienced God's judgment
with the Assyrian captivity, the Babylonian captivity, and many of the
other things that followed after.

And ultimately, the final manifestation of God's judgment in the past
was the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. That was the final
manifestation of God's direct judgment upon people. Each one of the
judgments that I just mentioned were a direct judgment by God.

Now, we have a judgment that's occurring presently, but it's not a
direct judgment. It's an indirect judgment, and that's basically what
Paul more or less lays out in the remainder of this first chapter. You
see, presently, God is not directly judging like He did in the examples
that I just gave you.

God's judgment today is indirect by allowing men to live as they will,
and then also allowing them to reap the consequences of their behavior.
And that's pretty much what the remainder of chapter 1 talks about. How
men did not like to retain God in their knowledge, so God gave them over
to a debased mind to do those things that are not fitting, being filled
with all unrighteousness, and all of this kind of stuff that does go on
and has gone on.

So that's what's happening presently. Now, there's a future judgment
that's coming where God will once again directly judge the world. Now,
this is something that I think is important for us to know and to have a
grip on these days, especially since we've been having these
catastrophic kinds of things going on as of late.

And, you know, one of the most common questions that people are asking
is the question, Is this a judgment from God? Now, that's a, you know,
it's a tough question to answer. A lot of times people, you know, jump
real quickly with an answer. Oh, yes, of course.

What else could it be? And then there are others, you know, that would
just deny it completely. No, no way. But I think as you look at the
Scripture and as you look at the history, I think that what we would
have to say is that we cannot make an absolute statement that any of
these things are actually a judgment from God.

There would be all kinds of things that you would have to also answer,
you know, to draw that final conclusion. Things like, well, why would
God judge this place versus, you know, judging that place? I mean, I can
think of numerous places. I know we hear the stories now of what a
wicked place New Orleans was.

But I myself, I think I could find a few places more wicked. So if God
judged them, why hasn't he judged these others? So, you see, it starts
getting into this thing where it really comes down to how can we make a
final call on this? And I think the best way to look at it is to see
that these are not necessarily a judgment from God, but they're
certainly things that God is allowing to occur in the world for the
purpose of getting people's attention. And that's exactly what's
happening, isn't it? People are waking up to the, just to how tenuous
life is.

You know, life, the brevity of life, just how quickly your whole life
can be taken away from you. And people are starting to ask questions. I
got a phone message on the way over.

I had a, you know, my little envelope was there, and I thought, oh, I'll
check and see who called me. And a friend of mine just landed in
Mississippi this morning, and he told me the moment they got out of
their vehicle, they were greeted by a group of people who began to tell
them all about, you know, the tragedy that they had experienced. And
they, in turn, began to share the gospel with him, ended up praying for
him.

He said they were totally open. And him and I were in New York City
after 9-11, and he said to me, he said it's the same kind of atmosphere
as there was in New York after 9-11, meaning that there's a tremendous
openness on the part of people to listen to the gospel right now. So
although I think we would be wrong in saying that this is a direct
judgment from God, I think we would be absolutely right in saying that
God is allowing these things to happen, and he's using it to wake people
up to their need for a relationship with him.

Now, why do I say that you can't really call this a judgment from God? I
say that because Paul said this in writing to the Corinthians. In the
second epistle, the fifth chapter, he there said this, that God is not
imputing men's sins to them, but instead he is offering them
reconciliation. You see, we're living in the age of grace.

That's probably a good way to look at the age that we're living in. It's
the age of grace. It's the age where God is not imputing men's
trespasses to them, but he's offering them the free gift of salvation.

Not imputing, not charging them with their sin. In other words, to say
that, well, the tsunami that took place, you know, and hit the coast of
Thailand and wiped out those people there, well, you know, that was
because they had all kinds of child pornography and all kinds of, you
know, sin that was going on there. Well, God's not imputing men's sin to
them right now.

And we have to realize that in all of these disasters, all these
catastrophes, Christians have died as well. So, that's another dilemma.
Now, how do you explain that one? If this is a judgment from God against
wicked people, how come Christians are dying in the process of it? So,
you see, it makes it difficult to be dogmatic about it.

But when we go back to looking at the scripture, that this age of grace
is a time when God is not imputing men's trespasses to them, but rather,
he's offering them reconciliation, we realize that that has been going
on throughout the gospel age. That's what God's been doing. Now, the age
of grace will come to a close.

And when it comes to a close, God will then actively begin to judge the
world again. So, there is a current judgment going on, but it's an
indirect one. It's from God allowing men to suffer the consequences of
their deeds, their actions.

But in the future, God will once again, like he did in the flood, like
he did in Sodom, Egypt, Jerusalem, he will once again actively step in
and begin to judge the world. We call that the great tribulation period.
Isaiah chapter 13, if you have your Bible, flip back to Isaiah for a
moment with me.

Isaiah chapter 13 gives us a clear picture of that direct judgment of
God that will come upon the world. Verse 9, Behold, the day of the Lord
comes, cruel with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate,
and he will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and
their constellations will not give their light.

The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause
its light to shine. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked
for their iniquity. I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and I will
lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, and a man more than the
golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth
will move out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in
the day of his fierce anger. That's Isaiah's picture of what we commonly
call the great tribulation.

Turn over to Revelation chapter 6 for a moment. Give you another picture
of God's direct judgment. Revelation chapter 6, verse 15.

And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders,
the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the
caves and in the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains
and 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 his wrath
has come, and who is able to stand. So, wrath has been poured out.

It is presently being poured out, but in an indirect fashion. It will,
once again in the future, be directly meted out by God upon the earth.
So in the present time, as we see these things escalating, as, you know,
who knows what else is going to happen.

But there have been quite a few things that have happened in the past
year or so. Catastrophic kinds of things. Who knows how this will
continue to go on, but you can look throughout all of history and find
similar kinds of things.

You know, we talk about pestilence. And we've often heard, of course,
that AIDS is in the category of a pestilence. And perhaps it is, but
nothing like some of the pestilence that have already struck the earth.

You know, back in the medieval period in Europe when the Black Plague
struck. And literally thousands and thousands of people dying daily. You
know, we in our generation have not known anything like that.

But again, as you look back over all of those things, those things would
not, you couldn't really find absolute biblical support for a judgment
from God again, because quite often believers are swept up into all of
that as well. But I want to point out one other thing to you regarding
the wrath of God. You think about the things we mentioned, like the
flood, like Egypt, like Israel, Jerusalem.

You think of men suffering, you know, consequences of their sin. You
think of the future tribulation that's coming. But you know, the
greatest display of God's wrath was not in any of those things.

The greatest display of God's wrath was in the cross of Jesus Christ.
See, that's what was happening when Jesus was crucified. He was
suffering the wrath of God.

Have you ever wondered why Christ was so brutally treated? He was
brutalized. He was, you know, he wasn't merely put to death. He was
brutalized in the process.

He was beaten beyond recognition. I'm sure many of you saw the passion
of the Christ. And I'll tell you what, as gory as that was, it wasn't as
brutal as the real event.

Because Isaiah tells us that Jesus was beaten beyond recognition. Now,
even as brutal as it was in the film, you still could recognize him. But
remember, Isaiah's word was that his visage was marred more than any
man.

So he was unrecognizable as he went through that beating. And then, of
course, the anguish of crucifixion. You know, crucifixion is to date
rated as the most torturous and cruel execution imaginable.

The agony of it is, it's unthinkable. You know, the word excruciating is
derived from crucifixion. Excruciate means taken out of the cross.

And when something is extremely agonizing, we use that terminology.
Well, it's excruciating pain. That's the kind of pain that Jesus
experienced upon the cross.

But not only the physical suffering, but of course, beyond that, there
was that spiritual suffering. Where Jesus would cry out, my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? Because at that moment, in some mysterious
way, the father and the son were disconnected from one another. Because
Christ was bearing the sin of the world.

And God could not remain in fellowship with him as he was bearing that
sin. And so the wrath of God was poured out. You know, back in the Old
Testament, you remember the whole sacrificial system there.

And they had the lambs and they were to take the lambs and slay them.
And they were to utterly obliterate these creatures. They were to be
totally consumed in the fire.

All of that was a visual image that God was seeking to communicate to
the people of Israel about the price that must be paid for sin. This
innocent animal was taken and was slain and then was just completely
obliterated in the flames of judgment. This was to be a lesson.

God was teaching the people his hatred for sin and the absolute
necessity of punishing sin. And then, of course, these were all just a
type or a picture of what would happen to Jesus Christ and what did
happen to him. Jesus was being punished in our place.

That's why he suffered so brutally. Now, I think that we just have a
tendency as human beings to underestimate our sinfulness. You know, some
maybe get close.

You really have realized that you are a wretch. But, you know, for many,
that reality never sinks in totally. And, of course, for multitudes,
there's not even an acknowledgment of that at all.

Many people today, of course, would deny that they're sinners. And even
those that would admit they're sinners would not see themselves as
worthy of any kind of destruction or being obliterated or any kind of
punishment. Anywhere like what we're talking about here.

But that's because people have no concept of the holiness of God. When
people will ask me, you know, how do you explain a God who would punish
people forever? And, you know, there's a movement among evangelicals
today to deny the eternal nature of hell. There are some good
evangelical men, at least they have been good historically up until this
point, who are now coming out boldly and denying that hell is an eternal
kind of a punishment.

And, basically, what they're saying is that God could not punish people
eternally. Now, they say, I just don't understand how God could do that.
I can't philosophically get my head around that.

So, they're basically denying that that's what the Bible teaches. And
they're saying, well, you know, the Bible talks about perishing and
something that perishes, you know, it goes out of existence. But their
arguments are, they're weak arguments.

Jesus, we read it tonight, Jesus said it here. He spoke of, you
remember, those who will go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into everlasting life. So, a couple of things to think about.

Because what they say is, well, the punishment is not eternal. Well, if
the punishment isn't eternal, then life isn't eternal either, because
the same word is used for both things. But the other thing is this, and
what they teach, this is a doctrine that actually is known as
annihilationism.

They teach that after a period of punishment, the human soul will be
annihilated. It will go out of existence. But here's the dilemma.

Jesus said that the punishment would be eternal. Can something that
doesn't exist be punished? No, of course not. If it no longer exists,
you cannot apply the word punishment to us.

Once it goes out of existence, there's no punishing. You know, if a guy
is in prison awaiting the electric chair, but before you can get him to
the electric chair, he dies of a heart attack, what do they do? Do they
drag him out and stick him on the electric chair anyway? No, he's dead
already. The law has exacted its ultimate punishment on him.

There's nothing else to do. So, if somebody goes out of existence, then
you can't really, they can't experience punishment. Jesus said the
punishment is everlasting.

The implication is that the person lives on forever. Now, when people
present this to me, I'll just share with you guys what I share with
them, and I think it really is the answer. Although people would say,
well, that's too simple of an answer.

I think it really is the answer. The answer is this. I can't understand
that for two reasons.

Reason number one is I do not have a clue, really, even though I'm a
believer, I really do not understand the holiness of God. You know, I
know that He is holy, studied about it, taught about it. I have an idea
of what it is, but in actuality, I don't know what that means.

We get some glimpses in Scripture. Of course, He dwells in the light
that no man can approach. But, you see, this is the problem.

I do not understand the holiness of God on the one hand, neither do I
understand the depth of my own depravity. You see, I think that I'm not
all that bad. But, you know, the Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah
that the heart of man, all men, every man, the heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked.

Those are strong words. Desperately wicked. And then ask this question,
who can know it? The implication is no one can know.

You can't even know the depth of your own depravity. If God for one
second would show you how evil you truly are, probably scare you to
death. You'd probably die of a heart attack right on the spot.

That's the reality. Who can know it? We don't know the depth of our own
depravity. We think that I'm not that bad.

I'm not as bad as that guy. But, believe it or not, under the right
circumstances, you could be just as bad or even worse. So that's really
the dilemma that we're in.

We do not really comprehend the holiness of God. If we for one instant
got a picture, and of course you have many examples in the Scripture,
whenever anybody got a real glimpse of God, you know where they went?
They went straight to their face. On the ground.

Woe is me, I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips. That's Isaiah the
prophet. He's a prophet.

Up until that point, he's pronouncing woe and judgment on everybody
around. Suddenly he says, I saw the Lord. And I said, woe is me.

And he fell on his face before God. And that is the posture that each
person takes who gets the slightest glimpse of the greatness of God, the
glory of God. God is holy.

And because he's holy, he must punish sin. And it comes down to this. We
either allow Christ to pay for our sins on the cross, or we pay for them
ourselves in hell.

Those are the only two options. Either Christ pay for my sins on the
cross, or I pay for them myself. But the problem with that, of course,
is that I can never pay the price.

It is beyond my ability. It's beyond my reach. So what happens then? I
have to suffer eternally.

Now notice, finally here in the 18th verse, that the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
All ungodliness and all unrighteousness. What are those two things?
Ungodliness is any failure to live according to God's requirement in
regard to our relationship with him.

Unrighteousness is any failure to live according to God's requirement in
our relationship to our fellow men. So any failure whatsoever. If I fail
to live up to God's requirement for me in my relationship with him,
which is what? The main one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Any failure to do that, or any lack of desire to do that constitutes
ungodliness. I'm in trouble.

Any failure to love my neighbor as myself, or any disinterest in doing
that constitutes unrighteousness. I'm in big trouble. You see, that's
the whole point.

That's why Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. That's why Paul
says, I'm a debtor. Because he said, I understand that no man has any
hope whatsoever.

There's not even the remotest possibility that anybody's going to make
it into heaven apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because everyone
is ungodly, and everyone is unrighteous. And not only that, everyone has
suppressed the truth in unrighteousness.

To suppress the truth means to push it down, to try to keep it down. And
no, I don't want to hear that. And no, I want to do my own thing.

That's what we do. Now, maybe you've come to a place in life, or you did
before you came to know Christ, where sinning was like breathing. You
never even thought about it.

It was just second nature. But you know, it wasn't always that way. If
you think back far enough, you'll remember a time when it was hard to
sin.

I remember as a young, as a boy, you know, as I began to embark on my
career of sin, I remember it was difficult to take those first steps
into sin. Oh, the temptation would come, and I would sort of be drawn
that way. Oh no, that, and all of the fear, you know, of what that might
result in.

But what happens? You suppress it. You push it down. You listen to the
crowd.

And pretty soon you find yourself doing that thing. You finally did it.
And the next time the temptation comes along, there's still a fight, but
it's not quite as intense as it was the first time.

And then the next time it comes along, the fight becomes less and less
intense, and pretty soon you're doing this thing freely. You're not
thinking about it anymore. It's not bothering your conscience.

Man, you're just, it's second nature. But it all starts with that
suppressing of the truth. That's what everybody does.

Everybody does this. In the whole world, for all time, in every
generation, this is what man does. He suppresses the truth in
unrighteousness.

And it's because of this persistent rebellion against God that we have
all come under his wrath. But the gospel, of course, is the good news.
The good news that somebody else has paid the price.

Jesus Christ has paid the price for my sin. And all I have to do is come
under the covering of his sacrifice, just like those ancient Israelites.
You remember how God warned them that he was going to bring a judgment
upon Egypt.

He was going to slay all the firstborn in the land. And he said to
Moses, he said, this is what you do. You take a lamb, you slaughter it,
and you put the blood over the doorpost of the home.

And when I pass through the land, when I see the blood, I will pass over
you. I will not judge that house or those people in the house where I
see the blood. The judgment of God is sure.

You know, we live in a world today. I don't have to really tell you this
probably, but I'll just remind you. We live in a world today where
people scoff at the idea of a judgment.

They mock that idea. They think that is so absurd. But you can bet your
life, as sure as you're sitting here breathing tonight, there's a
judgment that's coming.

And there's only one way to escape. It's by being covered by the blood
of the lamb. Because that Passover lamb that shed its blood back in
those days was, of course, a picture of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ,
who would take away the sin of the world.

And when we come under the covering of his blood, that's when the
judgment passes over us. And that is the gospel. That's the good news.

And that's the message that we have to bring to other people. Now, you
know, I believe firmly in our witness to other people that we ought to
follow Jude's order. Jude said this.

He said, Save some with compassion. And I think that our first approach
to people in seeking to share Christ with them should always be the
compassionate approach, the loving approach. We seek to appeal to them
by the love and the grace of God.

But when a person resists that, Jude went on to say, Save others with
fear, hating even the garment that's spotted by the flesh. You know,
there comes a point when you need to look at somebody right square in
the eye and say, Pal, you're going to hell. That's the reality.

You're going to eternal damnation. And as much as people scoff at that
today and mock it and all of that, you know, God's word has a way of
piercing through people's hearts. And you still hear testimonies today
of people that it was that sort of a thing that caused them to begin to
quake in their boots and eventually brought them around to receiving
Christ, the reality of the fact that there is a judgment that's coming.

This message, although I don't, you know, I'm not advocating we go to a
strictly hellfire and brimstone approach to things, this is a message
that needs to be brought back into the church because this is part of
the message. There are so many today who don't want to say anything
negative. You know, and you've got these guys on TV and they've got the
tens of thousands of people sitting out in the audience and they've got
these, you know, people viewing them all over the country and sometimes
around the world.

And they're actually saying, when you ask them, when you really get down
to it, they're saying, well, you know, we don't want to say anything
negative. We want to have a positive message. Well, you can do that, I
guess, but you're going to have to give an account for it someday
because our message is a double-edged sword.

It is a positive message, but there's a negative side to it as well. God
loves people, sure, and He demonstrated His love by Christ dying for us.
But if we refuse that love, then the only other alternative is the
judgment that Jesus bore for us has to be poured out upon us because we
haven't received what He did on our behalf.

The greatest sin, Hebrews chapter 10 tells us, the greatest sin is to
trample underfoot the Son of God. That's the height of sin as far as God
is concerned. It's more serious than anything that anybody could ever
do.

To take the precious blood of Christ and to count it as an unholy thing,
to say, that blood means nothing. God said that is an insult to Him.
Insulting God, that's not anything anybody wants to do, at least anybody
in their right mind.

But, of course, we have received God's grace, and that's really what
this whole epistle is about. It's about the grace of God. But before
Paul gets to the grace part, he first of all shows us the need for
grace.

You know, I don't appreciate God's grace unless I realize how wretched I
really am. You remember the great hymn, Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. You know, the guy who wrote that, he
was a wretched guy, truly.

He was a wicked man. Not only was he a slave trader, but he was a vile,
corrupt, wicked individual, and Christ had mercy upon him and saved him.
John Newton rescued him from the pit, put him into the ministry.

He wrote that song, and it's been sung by successive generations since
he wrote it in the 1700s. But he hit the nail on the head. Amazing
Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

That's what we have to see in order to really appreciate the grace of
God. I've got to see my own state. If I think that I'm not too bad, you
know, I'm doing all right.

You know, I guess I need a little bit of help from God to get there,
but, you know, I haven't been that bad. Then I don't appreciate the
grace of God. But once I understand the depth of my own depravity or
even get just a little glimpse of it, I'm singing right there with John
Newton, Amazing Grace, that God would save me.

What an amazing thing. And that's what he does. And that is why Paul
said, that I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

It's the power of God to salvation. That's why Paul said, with
everything in me, I want to preach the gospel to you because he knew
that this is the remedy to man's great dilemma, the dilemma and the
disease of sin. And so we'll leave it at that and we'll pick up next
week and we'll look at this case that he builds here in the remainder of
the first chapter showing the total and complete condemnation of the
human race beginning with the obviously wicked but going right through
the moral, upright kind of a person at least from the human standpoint
and even to the religious man showing ultimately as we move along that
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Lord, we thank you for your grace and it is, Lord, nothing less than
amazing that you saved us, Lord. That you, the holy righteous God who
cannot look upon sin and ever approve it. Lord, that you made a way to
retain your righteousness and to still forgive us.

That you sent your son, Jesus, to die in our place, to bear our
punishment, to endure your wrath so we could be saved. And Lord, I pray
for myself and I pray for each of us that the reality of that, the
wonder of that, the glory of that, Lord, that somehow by your spirit
that would be impressed upon our hearts. Lord, that we would find
ourselves walking around in amazement truly that you saved wretches like
us.

Thank you for doing that, Lord. And Lord, use us as we understand the
reality of your wrath. Use us, Lord, to speak to others that they might
come out from under the judgment and be saved through the blood of
Christ.

In his name we pray, amen.

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Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/11/SID11307.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/brian-brodersen/romans-the-wrath-of-god/
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