Will you join me to pray as we ask God to help us as we consider his word? Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, that we have your word. We thank you that we have the understanding that this is your revelation and that you have given it to us to lead us, to help us in worship, to help us understand your will. And we thank you, Lord, that you have given us also the Holy Spirit, that give us understanding of your word, that help us to understand spiritual truth. Help us, Lord, as we meditate in this word. Help us to learn from you what you want us to learn. Help us to understand the gospel. Help us to be encouraged by the gospel. Help us to be moved by the gospel. And we pray, Lord, for those that I still don't know you, that you will also work in their hearts through your word, through the power of the gospel. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Growing up in Colombia, one thing that I remember seeing often around me was that most of the cars that were around there, especially in Barranquilla, my home city, have in the rear windshield, the back window of the car, a sticker that says, Dios es amor. God is love. God is love. And I think this was not a sticker that Christians or Catholics put in the window of the car, but these cars were purchased from the dealers and they were coming with the sticker already. God is love. So you might think, wow, that's wonderful. It means that the whole city believe that there is a God and that this God is love. And there is a good thing about having the name of God out there proclaiming a truth about God, which is that God is love. But there was a problem with this, and it's that there was a theology behind this sticker. The theology is that God is love, and he is not so concerned about what you do. He just loves you. He is pure love. and he love you and he will never discipline you, he will never call your attention for the things that you are doing that are dishonoring him, because he is just love. Then in that case, you will say that a right sticker should have been, God is love, but he's also consuming fire. Right? Because one theologian says, one, if your concept of God doesn't match the God that is revealed in the scripture, you are not worshiping God, but you are worshiping an idol. And basically they were misrepresenting God when they were teaching that God did not take offense in any of the things that they were doing that were offensive to God because God is holy. Now the same thing happens when we think about the gospel. We cannot talk about the gospel without talking about the wrath of God. because both things are connected. The gospel is a response, the good news is a response to the wrath of God. And this is why you see that in Paul's letters to the Romans, which is a letter that, as you have heard from previous sermons, the main theme is the gospel right in the first chapter. After declaring the gospel, the first thing that Paul does is to talk about the wrath of God. And that is a very important topic that we, Christians, should consider and the world in general should consider. And this is why we are staying in this test. So last week, Jarek was here and he was preaching on the same passage. Actually, he was covering verses 18 through 25. And Jared's had three points was God's wrath is equitable, God's wrath is just, and God's wrath is being revealed on earth right now. So today what I'm going to do is to focus in Jared's last point. God's wrath is being revealed on earth right now. And the reason why I asked Josiah to read from verse 21 through 32 rather than 24 through 32, which is what we have printed in our bulletins, is because in these verses, verses 21 through 32, you will find three sections that are clear based on the language that Paul is using repeated in each section. And these three sections are responding to questions. These two questions are basically the two points of this message. Is why is the wrath of God being revealed? And how is the wrath of God revealed? Why is the wrath of God being revealed? And how is the wrath of God revealed? And again, Paul is answering these two same questions in these three sections, which are verses 21 through 24, which is the first section. Then another one, which is verses 25 through 27, and verses 28 through 32. And let me repeat this again because as I was having lunch with one of our co-workers here, Joel Park, and I was sharing with him the structure of the passage, he said, you may have to repeat that twice. because I didn't get it the first time. So we have three sections, verses 21 through 24, verses 25 through 27, and verses 28 through 32, and they are answering, all of them, the same two questions. Why is the wrath of God being revealed? And how is it revealed? And the only thing that Paul does is that he expands in each one of these three sections a little bit more of that. Then at the end, what I like to do is to look what is the common theme in each one of these sections. And for the end, we'll like to talk about the good news, the gospel. So let's look at the first section. Paul says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. He is speaking up here in verse 24 where he left in verse 21 when he says, they are without excuse. Who are they? The human race. And the human race is without excuse because God revealed himself In creation, His eternal power and divine nature were clearly perceived by everyone who was created. But men and women suppressed the truth. And what's that truth? It's the eternal power and divine nature of God. Therefore, they are without excuse. And this is why Paul says in verse 21, for although they knew God, What did they do when they knew God? They did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. Here I think is something important about the general revelation, which is that God is not only revealing that He is God through everything that is created, but also He's revealing what should be our response to who He is. Because if they saw that he's divine, that he has eternal power, the natural response would have been that they honor him and give thanks to him. I think that this is natural for each one of us. If somebody is very good to you and give you things, your natural response is that you will be thankful. And if you see somebody who is honorable, you will give honor to that person. But remember, they knew that. They knew the divine nature and the eternal power. They suppressed the truth, and they did not honor him, but became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And claiming to be wise, they became fools. How many times I have had conversations with people who reject the very truth that there is a God. And when they do that, they think that they are wise by doing that. And they look down and those who are saying there is a God, look at creation, look at everything, look at the Word of God, look at Jesus. But they became fools claiming to be wise. Now here, there is something as well. It is that when you reject God, and when you don't honor him and give thanks to him, you end doing something else. And this is what you have here in verse 23. And it's changed the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men, birds, and animals, and creeping things. I think you remember last week Jared quoted these words from Calvin that there is a factory of idols in every human heart. And the reason why is because we were created to worship. That's the nature of every human being. Therefore if you suppress the truth, if you suppress that God is God, you will end worshipping an idol. There is no way around, you will not remain neutral, saying, I don't believe in God, I don't worship God, therefore I worship nothing, nor is part of our nature to worship. Therefore, humans exchanged the glory of God, did not give glory to God, but glorified images resembling mortal men, birds, and animals, and creeping things. So here you have the first answer to the first question in the first section. Why is the wrath of God being revealed right now? Because men knew God and did not honor God and did not give thanks to God, but instead glorify created things. Then how Is it the God of God revealed, the wrath of God revealed? You see that in verse 24. Therefore, because of this, because they did not honor God and give thanks to God and exchange his glory, God gave them up in the loss of their hearts to impurity. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven when God let man do what man wants to do. It was the loss of their hearts that was already in human hearts. Therefore God gave them up to that, let them do what they wanted to do, and he says to dishonorable to dishonoring their bodies among themselves. And I like to speak about that, but later when we look at the second section, because there is something similar in what happens here in the first section, verse 24. to what Paul would say in verses 26 and 27, but there is a little difference between these two parts. Now you would think that maybe verse 25 is directly connected with verse 24 that you are reading, therefore God gave them up in their loss of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God But in reality what happens here in verse 25 is that Paul is starting a new train of thoughts that is repeating similar language of what he has said in verses 21 through 24. Bear with me and you will see that. Second section, remember the question, why is the wrath of God being revealed? Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. and worship and serve creatures rather than the creator. There is another exchange happening here. The first exchange was the glory of God, the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men, birds, animals, and creeping things. And here what is exchanged is the truth about God for a lie. Now you can ask, what is the truth about God? Well, it's what Paul said in verse 21. His eternal power and his divine nature. The truth about God is that God is God. And what did they do? They exchanged that truth for a lie. And what is that lie? That if God is no God, then creatures are God. This is why they ain't doing two things. worshiping and serving creatures than the Creator. Paul makes church to live clear. What is that true? When he says, who is blessed forever? Amen. The truth is that God is the one who is blessed forever. Amen. But man has changed the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve creatures. Here is why the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven. It is because of this change of the truth of God for a lie. Now, how is it revealed? You see that in verse 26. It says, for this reason, because of this, again, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, to dishonorable passions. It looks like the language that Paul is using here is very similar to what he said in verse 24 when he says, in the loss of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring their bodies among themselves, certainly both things are referring to immorality. And to be more specific about sexual immorality. But the difference between what you hear here and what you heard before in verse 24 is that there is something about unnatural and natural explained here. He says in verse 26, for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their womens has changed natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed by passions for one another, men committing shameless acts with men. You could say that the difference between what you read in verse 24 and verses 26 and 27 is that one is natural immorality and the other one is unnatural immorality. It means that both things are sin, both things are immorality, offending God, but Paul is describing here something that is unnatural, which is lesbianism and homosexuality. In fact, if you continue to read the rest of verse 27, the consequences are greater in this situation. You see, receiving in themselves, they do penalty for their error. And there are all kind of speculations what is the meaning of that. But I could say, and you could see, that there is a difference in how God is treating this unnatural immorality. The natural immorality might refer to fornication and adultery and all different kinds of sexual immorality, but what we are seeing here is addressing the scene of homosexuality. What is important here is that we remember that what is happening here is that Paul is answering the question, how is the wrath of God revealed? It's revealed because God gave them up, human beings, to dishonorable passions, to things that were already in their hearts. Remember, it is in the loss of their hearts that they acted in this way. Third section, verse 28 through 32. And since they did not fit to acknowledge God, then here we start with the fact that men assessed God and decided and concluded that he is no God, that they do not recognize him as God. That is why the wrath of God is being revealed because men did not fit to acknowledge God. And how it was revealed? God gave them up. To what? To a device or to a worthless mind to do what ought not to be done. And here we have a list of 21 sins. It's not limited to that, but includes all the sins that men and women practice in humanity. God gave them up. God let them do what they wanted to do, what it was already in their hearts because of their sinful nature. And he says, verse 32, which make it even worse, he says that, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. In other words, they became promoters of these sins. They became multipliers of these sins. And we see that a lot in society. Not only people practice some sins, but they support and encourage those sins. Now, if you wanna see what's common in all these three sections, let me give you four things. First, man knew God. Humans knew God. Verse 21, for although they knew God, verse 25, they exchanged the truth about God. Verse 32, although they know God's righteous decree, God revealed himself in creation. Man suppressed the truth. Therefore they are, and we are, humanities without excuse before God. Second, which is common in all of them, man did not honor, thank, worship, serve, and acknowledge God. You could see that the things that men did not do were the things that men were supposed to do. God revealed himself, his eternal power and divine nature, and therefore men should have honor, thank, worship, serve, and acknowledge God. Verse 21, they did not honor and thank God. Verse 25, they did not worship and serve God. Verse 28, they did not acknowledge God. Third, man worship created things. Verse 23, they exchanged the glory of God for images of mortal creatures. Verse 25, they exchanged the true about God for a lie and worship and served creatures. When men suppress the truth and did not give honor, thank, worship, serve, and acknowledge men to God, men will not remain neutral. It will always land in idolatry. And finally, what is common in all of them is that God gave them up. Verse 24, God gave them up to the loss of their hearts, to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Verses 26 and 27, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, exchanging the nature, the natural for unnatural things. Verses 28 through 32, God gave them up to the devised mind, to do what ought not to be done. And there you have the list of 21 sins. that are behaviors, that are the result of a heart that is depraved. Now, the question, brothers and sisters. You guys came here to hear good news, right? We have heard only bad news, right? Well, the good news, the good news is that if you read, if you go with me, and you read Romans 1, you stay there in Romans 1, but you read verse 17, there is a revelation there. And it's go back to back with the revelation of the wrath of God. This is for in it, what is it? The gospel. the good news. In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. In the gospel. So as the wrath of God is revealed in humanity because of sin, because of the fall, in the good news, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. And that means that our Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfill what you and I were not able to fulfill. That when Christ went to the cross, he received the wrath of God, the punishment that you and I deserve to receive, and therefore we have received salvation. We receive the love of God, we receive mercy. You remember Ephesians 2. We were children of wrath. All of us, each one of us, were described in what we just read about the wrath of God. But because of the righteousness of God was revealed, because Christ came to the world and gave his life on the cross, the righteousness of God was counted as a righteousness. And he says that it's from faith to faith. It's from faith at the beginning until the end. It's by faith alone. It is not based on your works. The good news, brothers and sisters, is that we were here as members of this group of people who were called children of wrath, and today you are here before God because of the righteousness of God was revealed from heaven, standing as a child of God. That's the good news for you and me if you are a believer. Now how about you, if you are not yet a Christian, and you are hearing this message, and you may have heard this message before, or you are hearing it online, there is good news for you as well. Because you are right now where we were before, those who are believers. And the only thing that makes the difference is that we trusted in Jesus as our savior and the righteousness of Christ was counted as a righteousness. It is important that we consider the wrath of God because we were saved from the wrath of God. Because Christ himself bear the wrath of God on the cross. to save us by grace, by his mercy. So as the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you has been gracious and merciful with people like us who were children of wrath. that we have seen your grace in Jesus, who gave his life for us, for our salvation. Lord, we pray for those, Lord, that still don't know you, that you will open the eyes of their hearts so they could see the truth of the gospel, so they could experience that grace. so they could experience being righteous before you through our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.