Exposed: The Great Cover-up

There’s a common tendency that
we see from time to time among criminals, in fact, most of the
time, who, whether their particular crimes or misdeeds were premeditated
or not, there is an attempt to hide or cover up their crimes.
Whether it’s making an excuse to the policeman or whether it
begins with donning a mask even prior to the crime, wiping down
fingerprints after the crime or the unfolding litany of lies
that follows, people want to do evil and get away with it. The whole nefarious tendency
has generated in my lifetime a new vigor to an entire industry
called forensic science, right? Where the whole goal is that
using all manner of high-tech wizardry is to discover the clues
and uncover criminals. It’s one of the encouraging features
of our day. That no matter the lengths to
which people are willing to go to hide their crimes, law enforcement
officials benefit from various means to expose it. And once
exposed, these criminals are swiftly brought to justice. In my own day, perhaps the most
infamous of such cover-ups would be a little incident called Watergate. For those of you who missed it,
if you were born in 1980 or after, It was a politically motivated
group of individuals, in this particular occasion it was the
Republicans, who broke into a hotel to steal information that would
be helpful to them for their re-election efforts. Of course,
eventually the House of Cards collapsed, toppling prominent
politicians all the way to the top, to the presidency. Throughout
history, of course, there have been many crimes, many cover
ups, other similar exposures, many greater even than Waterloo.
But there is an exposure of one cover up that exceeds them all. An attempt at a crime so great
to say that it irritated God himself would be a gross understatement. The crime was an attempt to hide
God, to cover up him and his works, and this crime, once exposed,
brings out the full fury of God’s wrath. If you would, I want to
go back to Romans chapter one and we’ll pick up in Romans chapter
one, beginning in verse 16. Romans chapter one, verse 16.
We’re going to carry it down all the way to verse 32. If you
have the notes there, you have the passage in its entirety.
Paul said in Romans 116, For 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, for in it the righteousness
of God is revealed. from faith to faith, as it is
written, that the righteous man shall live by faith. For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
because that which is known about God is evident within them, for
God made it evident to them. 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. 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.
professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory
of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible
man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore, God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to
impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them, for
they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave
them over to degrading passions, for their women exchanged the
natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same
way, also 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. And just as they did not see
fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved
mind to do those things which are not proper, being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice, They are gossips, slanderers, haters
of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient
to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. 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 they give hearty approval to
those who practice them. That’s the greatest crime in
the history of the world and the greater greatest exposure
of an attempt to cover up the crime of all throughout history. God exposed them. God is the
one that takes action. If you are considering your notes,
you see that there are six places. Don’t get your hopes up. I’ll give them to you this morning,
and essentially I’m giving you the outline of what will certainly
take weeks, if not months to accomplish, coursing down from
Romans 18 or 118 to verse 32, where we have in this. If you’re
if you want to go with my overview of it, this exposure of the great
cover up. The details of a monumental conspiracy,
I would refer to it. We have not only, first of all,
God’s response to the cover up, and it’s interesting that that
stands at the head. God’s response to the cover up
comes first. Then you have the nature of the
cover up, the proof of the cover up, the details of the cover
up, the verdict of the cover up and the consequences of the
cover up. We’ll get there. Just not today. Today, I want to focus just on
a portion of verse 18, which gives to us right at the outset,
as I said, it stands at the very head. God’s response to cover
up. There was a crime, there is an
attempted cover up, and there has been an exposure, and the
first thing that we see is God’s response to it, for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven. And there are many observations
to make just about that statement. What is the connection of the
word for inverse 18, how does this how does verse 18 through
all the way down through verse 32, how does that connect to
the previous and to what? What is wrath? What is the wrath
of God? How does Paul say or what does
Paul mean by the statement the wrath of God is revealed? How
is it revealed? And what is indicated by this?
Prepositional phrase from heaven is the orientation point of God’s
wrath. We’ll get to most of that this
morning. First of all, I want to open
by consideration of what how do we connect this? How do we
tie this in? How do we tie in this statement
in verse 18 and following with what proceeds? What is the function
to what does this little word attach versus 18 and following? There are a number of options. To begin with. This verse has
to be connected to somewhere. It doesn’t just stand on its
own. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We have to attach it to something.
Paul is reasoning. That’s why he uses that word
for he is providing an explanation. That is the function of that
word. And our challenge is to find out what the connection
is. And it isn’t easy. The first
option. One way to explain the connection
of these verses, verse 18 and following, is to go all the way
back to verse 15. And to say, as Paul said, I am
eager to preach the gospel to you who are at Rome for the wrath
of God is revealed. That would make verse 18 and
following a parallel, if you will, to verses 16. So, in other
words, Paul would say, I am eager to preach the gospel because
I’m not ashamed of the gospel, because the wrath of God is revealed
in the gospel. If that is the case, then Paul’s
this is providing Paul’s second motive for preaching the gospel.
The gospel that bears the power of God as it reveals the righteousness
of God and the second reason would be the wrath of God, the
fact that God is already pouring out his righteous indignation
on sinful humanity and we’ve got to get busy. Paul could see
it so clearly for him to preach the timeless now, and I like
this. I like this one. I really like this one. But there
are other options, option two. Option number two. Is to connect
it to verse 16, a. The beginning of verse 16, which
would read, I am not ashamed of the gospel for the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven, and that has some merit. It’s
not bad, I think there’s a better connection. There’s a third option. The third
option is to connect it to verse 16B, which would say that it,
that is the gospel, is the power of God to salvation for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven. And that one makes almost no
sense at all. In fact, one said the wrath of
God is not revealed in the gospel in which the saving righteousness
of God is revealed, but in the facts of human history. As one
said, the history of the world is the judgment of the world.
That’s where we see the wrath of God revealed, and there’s
a fourth option. The fourth option. Is that there is a distinct possibility
to attach. This statement, verse 18 and
following to verse 17. The words of God revealed are
an echo of verse 17. We already have that verbal tie
in. But the righteousness of God
revealed in. In verse 17 is met with the wrath
of God revealed in verse 18, and all of that is very plainly
evident. It’s the meaning, what what does
Paul mean by that? It would read like this. In it,
the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven. Even if we have a verbal tie
in, we still haven’t really figured out what it is that Paul is saying. So let’s pause. Verse four, rather
option four, is the one that we’re looking at, the one that
ties verse 18 and following to verse 17, and you have good men
with great arguments. that argued for this particular
time, the apostles object here, as one said, is to prove the
doctrine of the preaching that righteousness is by faith. What
Paul had said in verse 18 is that righteousness comes by faith,
what he says in 18 and following is you can’t possibly look to
humanity, sinful humanity. Because the wrath of God is already
being poured out on sinful humanity. Don’t look to them for righteousness.
It’s a good argument. Goes on to say it was necessary
to show that men in themselves are exposed to condemnation,
destitute of any righteousness which can satisfy the demands
of God. Another said it this way, more
simply. Verse 18 constitutes an argument
in favor of the statement that nowhere except in the gospel
is the righteousness of God revealed for the justification of sinners.
There is a revelation of righteousness by the gospel. Because there
is a revelation of wrath. resting on the whole world. Now,
as I said, we can fairly easily throw out options two and three.
Options one and four are the real possibilities. And I really
like option one. That for Paul, the very wrath
of God was his second great motivator to get out there and preach the
gospel. But the more I considered, the
more comfortable I became with the more conventional model.
Option four. And I have to admit that it was
partly because I felt like the voice of one crying in the wilderness
holding to this position. I liked option one, but not a
lot of other commentators took that position. Me and one other
cowboy riding the lonely, dusty plains. And that always makes
me nervous. Skilled men explained it much
differently. Others ignored the discussion
altogether, and I was led back to consider option four. And
that’s where I settled. That in explaining the righteousness
of God, Paul says, look, there’s one option. For heaven, there’s
one option for securing peace with God, and that is the righteousness
of God, because if you look to humanity, you are utterly bankrupt. Nevertheless, if you part ways
with me on this one, I’ll understand we can still have coffee. But,
you know, once you begin the discussion of verse 18, it won’t
much matter exactly where you hang and attach verse 18 and
following. The truth is ultimately the same.
God’s wrath is still revealed. Sinners are still sinners. God’s
judgment is still being poured out. Mankind is still utterly
destitute of a righteousness of their own. Their only hope
is the righteousness of God. And that is a powerful motive
to preach the gospel. Either way you take it, option
one or option four, when it’s all said and done, men have no
righteousness of their own. They’re thoroughgoing sinners
and desperate for the righteousness which God alone can supply. And
that truth alone is motivation to preach the gospel. As one
said, God’s wrath should motivate us to evangelism and should also
cause us to be thankful that God finally will punish all wrongdoing
and will reign over the new heaven and the new earth in which there
will be no unrighteousness. It’s good news. Another said it similarly. Paul
is not ashamed of the gospel. He will speak out if need be
in Caesar’s own presence, for there is a pressing and awful
need. The very conditions in human
life which occasion an instinctive tendency to be reticent of the
gospel are facts of dreadful urgency and peril. You know what
he says as you begin to get into the gospel. Remember, Paul said,
I am not ashamed as you begin to get into the gospel. One of
the first things you must face is the wrath of God. And that’s
one thing that we recoil. That’s one thing that we’re reticent
to talk about. Certainly not the way that we
start our gospel presentation. But what he says here is that
if you pause and consider the facts. If you even let those
words roll around on your tongue, the wrath of God, what a powerful
motivation we have. To go out. to the world and to
proclaim the only hope that there is. And so we have our connection,
that was easy, right? Verse 18 and following are an
explanation, really, an elucidation on verse 17. We are absolutely
desperate for the righteousness of God because to look to humanity
itself is utterly hopeless. It is brought nothing but the
wrath of God, what is wrath? The word translated here as wrath
or gay, the basic meaning of the word speaks of somebody’s
impulse or their propensity, you might even call it their
tendency, their inclination, their disposition. But of those
particular and various inclinations, it is primarily used to speak
of anger, one who is inclined to anger. Originally, it meant
any impulse, any desire. But ultimately, it came to signify
anger as being one of the strongest passions that kind of took over
the word. Throughout scripture, it’s variously
translated anger, indignation, vengeance. Wrath. It’s interesting, the root word,
as one pointed out, means to grow ripe for something. It shows
a building tendency, wrath that has been building slowly over
a long period of time. That does a good job to paint
the picture of the use of this word. In the verb form, orgizo
means to provoke to anger, to be angry. Another form of the word speaks
of one who is constantly inclined to anger, and it’s interesting
that in this particular case, It’s used to somebody is prone
to anger who sits kind of on the edge of their seat, ready
to go off at a moment’s notice. And it says that that qualification
for an elder. Yeah, can’t have that quick tempered
one who is quick tempered. So the word is interesting when
you begin to apply it to God. To say the least. It is crucial
to note that our word here wrath. used only five times in the Gospels. Outside of the Book of Romans,
Paul only uses it a few additional times, fewer than ten times.
Hebrews and James, twice each. The Book of Revelation, half
a dozen times. But here in the Book of Romans,
twelve times. And for that reason, Romans has
from time to time been referred to as the Epistle of Wrath. Paul wants to talk a lot about
the wrath of God. He wants to tell us and inform
us, because nowhere else do we have such a complete treatment
of this delicate subject of the wrath, the wrath of God. What is the wrath of God? Can we really be ashamed of him? If God gets angry, can we really
be truly ashamed of him? If God gets angry. Because the very fact that. Anger
is spoken of as. Being a quality of the deity
has caused the church consternation throughout the centuries and
from time to time, we’ve recoiled and tried to explain it away
and tried to downplay it and and even ignore it altogether. John Gill, predecessor of Charles
Spurgeon’s pulpit, said this, The fact that anger belongs to
God is denied by some philosophers. So the philosophers would come
along and say you can’t possibly pin anger on God because it’s
a passion. They allow grace, goodwill and
benevolence to God and to men, but not anger. They suppose it
to be a weakness and even a sort of madness. And what is unbecoming
a wise and good man is much more unbecoming a deity. If you won’t
let an elder be an angry man, why would you let your God? And it’s funny that the thinking
of many modern Christians. They’re almost embarrassed to
even speak of the wrath of God. There’s something that can’t
possibly be said of God, it’s unworthy of him. To think of God as being vindictive
and cruel, that’s how it’s painted by those who do not know him.
J.I. Packer said it this way, to some,
wrath suggests a loss of self-control, an outburst, which is partly,
if not wholly, irrational. To others, it suggests a rage
of conscious impotence or wounded pride or just plain bad temper. To others, the thought of God’s
wrath suggests cruelty. A God who would inflict punishment
must be a fierce and cruel monster. And you’ve heard it all, haven’t
you? You’ve heard it all. One pastor writing in the 1940s, made this observation of the
pulpits of his day. At the present time, there is
a deep and almost ubiquitous tendency to ignore the revelation
of the wrath of God. And people, it’s only gotten
worse since 1940. Now we don’t even say the word. A deep and almost ubiquitous
tendency to ignore the revelation of the wrath of God. The tendency
of the pulpit and of the exposition is to say practically that there
is nothing in God to be afraid of. The words hope and love are
enough to neutralize the most awful murmurs of conscience and
to cancel the plainest warnings of the Lord himself. So we downplay this. idea of
the wrath of God, we explain it away, we hide it. We certainly
don’t start our gospel presentations with it. More current pastors said it
this way about the pulpits of our day, the modern habit throughout
the Christian church is to play this subject down. Those who
still believe in the wrath of God say little about it. To an
age which has unashamedly sold itself to the gods of greed,
pride, sex, and self-will, the church mumbles on about God’s
kindness, but says virtually nothing about His judgment. The fact is that the subject
of divine wrath has become taboo in our modern society, and Christians
by and large have accepted the taboo and have conditioned themselves
never to raise the matter. Isn’t that sad? Isn’t that sad
that we are ashamed of a character quality of God himself? Because either we have to claim
that God has sinned in his anger or that we are sinfully ashamed
of one of God’s perfections. Even if we allow God a little
leeway, right, since he is God, we can allow him a little leeway
with his temper. It’s understandable that he would
fly off the handle from time to time. Aren’t there better
qualities that we should focus upon? Do you know that if you
begin to look at the average concordance, there are more references
in the Bible to anger, fury, wrath of God than they are to
love and. All of those warm fuzzies that
we look for in our modern day. Wayne Grudem. Our theology professors
said it this way, if God loves all that is right and good and
all that conforms to his moral character, then it should not
be surprising that he would hate everything that is opposed to
his moral character. That’s what makes God God. The Bible constantly speaks of
God’s anger, his righteous indignation. And it speaks of it as being
kindled against Persons, individuals and entire groups, including
the nation of Israel, Psalm 7. God is a righteous judge and
a God who has indignation every day. Start your gospel presentation
tomorrow with that. Proverbs 21, for haughty eyes
and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked is sin. God misses
no words. Proverbs 21, 27, the sacrifice
of the wicked is an abomination. God hates it. He utterly hates
it. Deuteronomy 29. It shall be when
he hears the words of this curse that he will boast, saying, I
have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart
in order to destroy the watered land with the dry. The Lord shall
never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord
and his jealousy will burn against that man and every curse which
is written in his book. I will rest on him. The Lord
will blot out his name from under heaven. I’d say somebody irritated God. And you say, well, OK, then.
Even if we allow God a little leeway, if God’s anger is like
ours, isn’t it a sinful thing? In the first place, God’s wrath
is not like our own, primarily because God is not like us. God is holy. We are not holy. James Boyce, whose little presentation
on. Theology is such an excellent
tool, said this simple statement about God’s wrath, God’s wrath
is not arbitrary. God is unchanging, and if God
is unchanging, what irritated him in times past still irritates
him. I love it. I love the way some
people try to change the rules throughout the course of history
that what was OK then is is now taboo or what was. Not OK, then
somehow has magically become OK in our day. God’s wrath is not arbitrary,
as if for some Minor matter or capriciously, God turns against
those whom he formerly loved and favored. On the contrary,
wrath is God’s consistent and unyielding resistance to sin
and evil. What Boyce says is, look, you
know, we tend to treat God’s wrath. We tend to think of it
in our terms. That maybe God ate something
that upset his stomach and that, you know, he’s become irritated.
Maybe he needs a nap. That’s how we think of one another
in our wrath and anger. And we think of God in the same
terms. God’s not. His anger isn’t arbitrary. God
isn’t capricious. When God responds to sin, he
does it the same with the same intensity every time. Any of
us who are parents. understand what voice is saying
here, or if you have spouses or if you have friends or if
you have co-workers or if you have acquaintances. OK, everybody
will understand this. We know what arbitrary and capricious
wrath is, right? It’s called a bad mood. It’s called I didn’t have my
coffee yet. It’s called inconsistency, it’s
called flying off the handle, erupting, losing it on and on
and on. And none of those things. For
an instant, describe God and his wrath. One said it this way, God’s wrath
in the Bible is never capricious, never self-indulgent, irritable,
morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is instead
a right and necessary reaction. to objective moral evil. God is only angry where anger
is called for. Even among men, there is such
a thing as righteous indignation. But all God’s indignation is
righteous. What truth? Instead, God’s wrath is something
that is unleashed following a great development born out of his long
suffering. There’s a buildup to God’s wrath,
and when it is released and it is outpoured, it is devastating. As I said earlier, the word there
depicting God’s wrath depicts that building, intensifying opposition
to sin. That once it’s unleashed. One of my favorite documentaries
is of a story of a little lake that became a hangout for wealthy
elite. And they paid little attention
to the fact that there was around this lake and earthen dam, a
weak earthen dam that constantly needed attention and called for
expensive repairs. But to pour the money into this. Earthen dam was beneath them. And so they let it go and they
continued to sail their boats and have their tea and build
their cabins all around this lake. And one day the rain began
to fall. And the rain filled up the lake
to its very brim. And then the lake began to weaken
the dam until the dam gave way. And that flood became what is
known now as the Johnstown Flood. And it wiped out thousands of
people in the town below. That’s an image. That’s a picture
of the wrath of God being poured forth, that there is a building
to it and that once it bursts forth, there is no stopping it. And it is righteous and it is
good. Hebrews 1028 says it like this. Anyone who is set aside the law
of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three
witnesses, how much severe punishment. Do you think he will deserve
who has trampled underfoot the son of God? And has regarded
unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and
insulted the spirit of grace. Do you think that you can ignore
the call to repentance and to place your faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ with impunity? Hebrews goes on. To say, for
we know him For we know him who said, Vengeance
is mine. I will repay. And again, the
Lord will judge his people. And then this final statement,
it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. God’s wrath is not capricious. It is not unjust. The anger of God is nothing else
than. A complete dissatisfaction with
sin and sinners because of it. Anybody who tells you that God
hates the sin and loves the sinner unconditionally is telling you
a lie. That’s not what Scripture says. Often in Scripture. It is recorded
that such and such thing displeased him. It was evil. It was not
right in his sight that he hated it. Numbers 11, verse one, the
people became like those who complain of adversity in the
hearing of the Lord, when the Lord heard it. His anger was
kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed
some of them on the outskirts of the camp. So God hated the
sin and loved the sinner. Second, Samuel 1127, when the
time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her into the
house that she became his wife. Then she bore him a son. But
the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the
Lord. And God punished him severely for it. All sin is displeasing to God.
God doesn’t wink. God doesn’t take any pleasure
upon it. God doesn’t look on it with any
kind of pleasure or delight because it is completely contrary. It’s
over against his nature. It is displeasing. It is repugnant
to him. He has nothing but aversion to
sin. The wrath of God, said one, is
God’s eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the
displeasure and indignation of divine equity against evil. It
is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. It
is the moving cause of that just sentence which he passes on evildoers. God is angry against sin because
it is a rebelling against his authority. Simpler, much simpler
statements are said of it. Single lines. God’s wrath means
that God intensely hates all sin. Another one, God’s wrath is his
settled indignation. God doesn’t have to be talked
into it or convinced. God simply looks at it, sees
it for what it is, and his wrath is kindled and unleashed. It
is punitive justice, as another said. Isaiah 30. Verse 30, the Lord will cause
the voice of his authority to be heard that descending his
arm to be seen in fierce anger in the flame of fire, a consuming
fire and cloudburst downpour and hailstones. That’s going to respond to when
he does. There’s no stopping it. There’s no stopping it. The wrath of God is spoken about
and we’ll revisit it time and again in the book of Romans.
The wrath of God is spoken about over and over again in the book
of Romans and throughout the New Testament, throughout the
whole of Scripture. Hundreds and hundreds of references
in the Old Testament, dozens again in the New. It’s not as
if God suddenly went to sleep. At the sacrifice of Christ on
the cross, God’s wrath and indignation is still alive and well, and
we sense it and see it every day. And so one of the conclusions
you have to begin to draw is that a misunderstanding. About
God’s wrath indicates a faulty knowledge of him, if you don’t
understand God, you’re certainly not going to understand wrath,
and if you’ve got a quirky view of God’s wrath, if you pin some
unbiblical human emotion to God’s wrath, you don’t understand God. One pastor said it this way,
we obviously cannot adequately know God as judge until we know
something of our obligation to him as a creator. Nor can we
know him as a redeemer until we are aware of how dreadfully
we have sinned against him. And how we thereby have fallen
under the shadow of his judicial wrath. We must study the wrath
of God before we can properly appreciate the doctrine of redemption. Remember, years ago, J.I. Packer
said that a lot of times people have themselves saved before
they even know they need a savior. So weak is the gospel presentation. God doesn’t arbitrarily vent
his wrath to any who just happen to be in his way. Instead, as
one said, we bring it down on our own heads. We ask for it.
If you experience the wrath of God, it’s because you asked for
it, not because God had a bad day. Listen. As one said, because
the sin which calls forth the wrath of God is essentially turning
away from or rejecting him, just as we saw in Hebrews, wrath is
something that human beings choose for themselves. The wrath of
God is that perfection of divine nature into which we throw ourselves
by our rebellion. If we would not have God’s love
and grace, we will have God’s wrath. So what does it mean? What could it possibly mean that
God’s wrath is revealed? The word is a simple word. It just means to uncover, to
bring to light, well, certainly we’ve seen God’s wrath before,
we’ve seen it in the Old Testament, we’ve seen it We know that it’s
coming. We know that there’s going to
be a day of wrath. We know that at the end of the world, things
are all going to come apart. We saw it when we studied the Gospel
of Luke. We know that wrath is coming. So what does it mean
that it’s revealed? Certainly, the New Testament
writers often speak of the wrath to come. The revelation of God’s wrath
also pertains to right now, to the present. From the. The moment there were
men and women upon the earth, God’s wrath began to manifest
itself. And there’s been a continuing
uncovering and disclosure of God’s wrath against evil, against
all wickedness ever since. As we talked about several weeks
ago, In the response to the same in the garden, Adam and Eve,
right from that point forward, we have seen God’s wrath in measure. Certainly not the full outpouring
of God’s wrath, and you say, well, Christians, we don’t experience
God’s wrath. Oh, really? I would say that conviction of
sin is a is a sense of God’s wrath. Sickness, disease, death
is a response to the garden by God’s wrath. All of the difficulties,
pain in childbirth, the difficulty that we have, the fact that there
are no leaves on the tree right now is all due to the wrath of
God. God’s wrath, said one, is revealed
in the Scriptures. We see it revealed there. It’s
revealed in every history. It’s revealed by every prophet,
by every psalmist. It is revealed in that inalienable
conscience. By which is more truly a part
of man than even his five senses. You want to know the wrath of
God? Listen to your conscience, he
says. Conscience sees that there is an eternal pardon me, there
is an eternal difference between right and wrong and feels in
the dark that relation of that difference to law, a lawgiver
and the doom that follows. We sense the wrath of God. Even
in our consciences, he says. The condemnation of Adam and
Eve. Was a revelation of God’s wrath, the flood that followed
that wiped out the sinful earth was a revelation of God’s wrath,
the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. As Haldane, the great
commentator, said, the wrath of God has been revealed from
the very start. It was revealed when the sentence
of death was first pronounced to Adam and Eve, the curse, the
man driven out of the earthly paradise afterwards by punishment
of the deluge, the flood. The destruction of the planes,
the cities on the plane, rather from fires of heaven, and I take
that to mean Sodom and Gomorrah. But especially in the reign of
death throughout the world, the fact that people die every day
is due to the wrath of God. It was proclaimed in the curse
of the law, it was intimated in the institution of the sacrifice
in chapter eight of Romans, the apostle calls the attention of
believers to the fact that the whole creation has become subject
to vanity and groans and travails together in pain under the wrath
of God. The whole purpose, it was revealed. But above all. Beyond even the
flood, beyond the cursing in the garden, beyond the plagues
that the children of Israel witnessed on the nation of Egypt, children
of Israel, Israel experienced themselves. Beyond all of those. He goes on to point out, above
all, the wrath was revealed from heaven when the Son of God came
down. To manifest the divine character, when that wrath was
displayed in his sufferings and death in a manner more awful
than by all the tokens of God had given of his displeasure
against sin. In other words, Christ Jesus
bore the full brunt of God’s wrath. The full brunt. Another said it this way, there
is no greater instance of an outpouring of God’s wrath or
what more fully demonstrates it than what our Lord Jesus suffered
and endured as the sacrifice for his people. In their room
and their stead, when their sins being imputed to him were found
on him, he was stricken for them, the vindictive wrath of God was
poured forth on him. How inconceivably great must
his wrath be against sin. to pour forth on his own son.
Paul said it this way in Romans eight. He who did not spare his
own son. But delivered him over for us
all. And we can can we stand back from the wrath of God and
call it capricious and arbitrary. The fruit of just a mean old
man. Paul says the wrath of God is
already been revealed. It is being revealed daily. I love the imagery that John
Piper. Provides for the rescue from
God’s wrath, and it is only in Jesus Christ and it is only in
the righteousness that we already talked about last week. The imagery
that Piper uses is of a hurricane. And to be in Christ is to be
in the eye of that hurricane when all around you, swirling
all about you, is the wrath of God. And when you step out and
step into sin, you step into the wrath of God. But to be in
Christ is to be in a place of peace and comfort. To be in a place of righteousness
and safety and security. Let’s thank God that we are rescued
from his wrath and that in Christ we are in peace. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we humble
ourselves in your almighty presence. We humbly thank you that because
of your outpoured wrath on your own precious son, who took on
our sin, Father, we are returned not only the righteousness of
God, but because of that, we are rescued from the wrath of
God, from the effects of sin. Grant us grace, Father, to enjoy
this fully. If there are any in our midst
who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, make
them to seek out a believer here in our midst so that they may know the rescue
from sin. Lord God, we thank you and praise
you in Jesus’ name. Amen. God Bless.