Our scripture text for this morning's sermon comes from Romans chapter 1, verses 18 through 32. Turn with me then, Romans chapter 1. Fairly long section in front of us here, but that's the way Paul wrote it. We'll look at Romans chapter 1, verses 18 and following. God's Word. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images, resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men. and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 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. God's holy word. Well, this is the second in a series of sermons seeking to go through Romans 1 through 3, thereabouts. And in the first sermon, just as a reminder, last month, We looked especially at the beginning and the ending of the letter to the Romans and emphasized how it is indeed a genuine letter written to address the particular circumstances that Paul faced at that time and that the Romans faced at that time. And so Romans is not a letter filled with general boilerplate material, as it were. It is, in fact, a very situation-specific and personal letter. It seeks to do several things. It seeks to introduce Paul to the Romans, whom he's not met before. It seeks to defend his message against some known criticisms. It seeks to unify the Romans internally with each other over some disagreements, particularly over matters of Jew and Gentile. And then it seeks also to unite them with Paul in a mission to go to Spain, that they would support him in that. Last time we also looked briefly at verses 16 and 17 of chapter 1, the way Paul begins the letter, and that's particularly important for us here this morning, because there we see that Paul enters into the body of the letter, the main content of the letter, in a particular way, including with an emphasis on how God has revealed himself in particular ways and particular places, particularly that he's revealed his righteousness in the gospel. That means, we'll see later, especially in the cross of Jesus Christ. He's revealed his righteousness in the cross of Jesus Christ, and he's revealed that righteousness in a particular way. from faith to faith. Now, Paul will unpack all of that over time as we go here. But before he says more about how God has revealed His righteousness in the cross, Paul will first say many other things about how God has revealed other attributes of His own elsewhere. In our passage this morning, he talks about two of those. The first, mentioned in v. 18, is that God has revealed His wrath Second, particularly mentioned in verses 19 through 20, about how God has revealed his eternal power and his divine nature in creation. Those two things are really, especially the first of them actually, the revelation of his wrath, what take up the entirety of this passage, as I hope to show you as we go along. So what we're going to see this morning then, the central message of this passage is this. God's wrath can already be seen in significant ways in the world right now by the effects that it produces in some who reject Him. God's wrath can already be seen in significant ways, not fully and completely yet, that will come on the day of Christ's return, but can be seen in significant ways already in some as God hands them over to their sin. The fact that this passage is about the revelation of God's wrath is not in itself very hard to tell because Paul says that directly in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. But what exactly does this mean? That part has been a bit more challenging at times for interpreters and perhaps also for you, and so we want to unpack this a bit with some observations. One of the first observations that should stand out to you as you read this passage is how Paul repeats himself three times in almost exactly the same words. Anytime anybody in scripture does that, you should stand up, take note, you can stand up if you want, but step back and take note, because surely they're telling you something that's central to the message at the time, right? We see this, the same words repeated in exactly the same order, In verses 24, 26, and 28 of the passage, verse 24, therefore God gave them up to impurity. Verse 26, for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Verse 28, God gave them up to a debased mind. Each time in each of those verses, the main clause in the verse is the same. God gave them up to some kind of sin or impairment, some negative thing, clearly. And if anything, this is even more noticeable in the Greek, I would say, than the English. Quite important, then, to see what's going on here. Now once you notice verse 24, 26, and 28 repeat themselves three times, then you can also begin to build some other observations around that. Namely that before each of those statements, the same kind of thing is said each time. preceding each of those statements about God's handing people over, every time comes also statements about something else, namely these people whom God hands over rejecting the truth about Him. We see that in a very long way in verses 21 through 23. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking. problem in their minds, right? And their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. All of that is what leads up to verse 24 where it says God handed them over. We need to be clear too that this truth that they both know and reject is the truth described in verses 19 to 20. The truth that God reveals to all mankind at all times in all places everywhere since the creation of the world. In other words, the truth that you can see as you look out upon the creation around us, theologically we call this general revelation, distinguished from special revelation. Special revelation is essentially what we have in Scripture. There's more to it than that, but that's the main thing in special revelation. Things God has specially revealed at certain times and certain places as He spoke. through the prophets and through Christ, et cetera. But general revelation is something that's always around at all times, in all places, even before Abraham, even before Noah. From the moment of creation, God has revealed his eternal power and his divinity. In other words, the fact that he exists and the fact that he is powerful, those facts, those attributes of his, are always everywhere, clearly seen and known by all his creatures. But of course, it's that truth as well that the people described here deny, suppress, as verse 18 says, and act contrary to. So verses 21 through 23 then lead up to the handing over in 24. Verse 25 does something similar. Again, it describes the rejection of truth. These, verse 25, exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. This second statement about rejecting the truth precedes the second handing over. And then in verse 28, more briefly, And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, or perhaps more literally, since they did not see fit to have God in mind, to keep him in mind, God gave them up. The third handing over preceded by the third rejection of the truth. You might notice as well that each time these statements about the rejection of truth get shorter. The first one is three verses. The second one is one verse. The third one is just part of a verse. Along with that, we can also notice a third thing. Not only does each of, we start three times with rejection of truth that leads to handing over by God three times, but every one of those instances where God hands people over are then also followed by the same thing. which is an increase, a proliferation of sin. People committing more and more sins, and more and more severe sins. Verse 24, God gave them up to impurity. to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Then it gets a bit longer, verses 26 and 27. God gave them up to dishonorable passions. And then a longer description. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, likewise the men also, etc. In verses 28 through 31, here we really see, as it were, the damn break. And just a pouring forth of sin. God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They're gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. It just flows out in this great avalanche. more and more kinds of sin, more and more severe sin. You may notice there that each of those descriptions gets longer, one after the other. The first is quite short, the second is medium-sized, and the third quite long. We take all this together, what do we see? What we see is three very carefully crafted, very carefully composed cycles. Again and again and again. These people reject the truth that they know about God through creation. God hands them over to their sin. And as a result, they commit increasingly severe and greater number of sins. Verse 29 emphasizes that while these people started out with a less severe state, you might say, of course quite bad, but a mental problem of rejecting the truth about God, they end up in verse 29 full of unrighteousness. That's the change, that's the progression that comes about in this passage. In other words, they started out dishonoring and rejecting God in their minds and they end up with an outpouring of sinfulness in their whole person, inwardly in their hearts and minds, outwardly with their bodies. It's clear for all to see. That's the point. What started out within is now plain as day before all. What was once largely, you could say, an internal problem of rejecting the truth about God is now a more severe inward and outward problem. God has handed them over in His wrath, and as a result of that, it leads to a full display of sinful self-destruction. And all of this helps us understand then why verse 18 says what it says at the beginning. wrath of God is revealed. It's seen. It's shown. How? Right here. in the resulting condition that comes about from being handed over in God's anger to sin due to rebellion. This passage is not just about how God is angry with sin in general. Some have thought that. That's true as well. The Bible teaches that. But it's really about something somewhat more specific. It's not just about how God is angry with all sin, but it's how, in certain circumstances, God actually reveals or shows, displays His anger. in the world now for all to see. These obvious, these observable and tragic results in a society described by all these vices. People pursue sin throughout this passage, all the more wholeheartedly, all the more without restraint, in increasingly severe and destructive ways. They're ruthless in their pursuit of sin. And so verse 32 at the end summarizes the net result of all of this, that although people know God's decree that those who do all the things just described deserve to die, they know it deserves death, and yet they not only do it, but they praise those who do it. As if this is a good thing. Here we see the illogical nature of being enslaved and entrapped in sin. We think it makes sense when we're in the midst of temptation, but it doesn't. It's a hopeless fool's errand. So easy to see in others at times, so much more difficult to perceive in ourselves. Though these people know that their sin deserves death, Because God has handed them over to their sin, they still rush headlong into it. And they celebrate it. They advocate for it. This is what we want, right? Sin that leads to hurt and injury and guilt and destruction of relationships and disorder in society and in our own lives. Pain and fracture. Well done! Progress! Sinister, isn't it? Chilling picture. Paul says, verse 18, that in all of this, we see a partial, not a complete, but a partial display of God's destructive wrath now. A down payment, as it were, upon the future when the fullness of his wrath comes upon Christ's return. when God no longer restrains people but actually gives them over to the sin that they choose. Looking back over the passage then, verse 18 announces that God's wrath is revealed now on those who suppress the truth. Verse 19 and 20 describe the truth that they know through general revelation. 21 through 31 then walk through these three cycles that show exactly how God's wrath is, in fact, expressed and revealed, and verse 32 summarizes the final outcome. Visible display of God's wrath, even now in history, in this sinful self-destruction. You wanna see a bit about what God's wrath is like? You see it here, but you'll probably want to veil your eyes. People made in God's image, harming and degrading others and themselves, and calling it good. One of the natural questions, I think, as we read a passage like this is, who are these people? Who's being described here? Maybe even the question, is this me? The first thing I think we need to say when we talk about who's being described here is that this passage is not describing every person in the world, and it's actually not even describing every unbeliever. That might be a little bit more difficult to see now, it'll become increasingly clearer as we go ahead into Romans 2, but let me just comment briefly on that. In the past, many have thought that the passage does give a general description of all mankind in their sin, But, as we read along in Paul's argument, we'll see that what he's going to do is he's going to describe some people in chapter 1, and then he's going to switch fields and describe some other people in chapter 2. Now, at the end of chapter 1, in verse 32, he says that the people he just described in our passage both commit sin and praise it. And when you switch over into chapter 2, verse 1, you get a bit of a difference. Somebody who commits sin, but judges it. So the person that Paul will engage beginning in chapter 2 verse 1 isn't a part of this first group. That's why I say the person in chapter 2 is not a Christian, but he's also not a part of this group. So we need to see that this passage describes some unbelievers. in their sin, whom God has handed over in his wrath to their sin in a more fulsome and a more aggravated way than others. Some are out there, unbelievers, to whom God continues to have great patience. Not so in chapter one. See more fully how they are given over in this repeated way. Chapter 2, 4-5 describes the patience of God there, that the judge, the one who judges people, is experiencing. He's experiencing God's patience, he just doesn't know it. There's that problem. It's a different problem, though. Chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, and 26 and 27, also describe various fairly righteous people, again, contrasted with those in Chapter 1. So, I think it's important, all things told, to say that Chapter 1 doesn't describe every single person, or even every single unbeliever. It describes some portion of humanity, unbelievers, with whom God is not continuing to be patient at this time. but is giving them over more fully to their sin, not restraining it. But when we go beyond that, and we say this is some portion of humanity in their unbelief that God gives over to a particular expression of His wrath now, when we go beyond that, I think we need to be very careful what more we do or don't say. In fact, Paul himself does not get very specific about who he's talking about. He doesn't name names. He doesn't say, well, these are the Scythians or the Parthians or the Greeks. He gives a very general description that many people of a variety of backgrounds could fit into. He doesn't point fingers, and that's not really the point of the passage. We need to take note of that. I think there can be an unhelpful tendency when we read a passage like this, to try to discover particular people that fit this category. You know, I think God has handed that person over to their sin. In fact, Romans 2 is going to say quite a lot about that. Caution us about how we handle this information and what do we think about ourselves in relation to those people. Do we think we're superior to them in some way in ourselves? looked at apart from Christ, we would all be in the same situation as those in Romans 1. God were not merciful to us in ways that we don't deserve. But the point of Romans 1 is not to send us on a fact-finding mission to point the finger to peer into our neighbor's lives and squint and try to really interpret and say, you know, I think they really are handed over to their sin. The point of Romans 1 is about something so obvious that even the people in Romans 1 don't really object to it. They say it with their mouths. We support sin. Not in those words, of course, but that's what they advocate for. The point of the passage isn't to give us special insight into individual neighbors around us or into individual people's lives. The point of the passage is instead to say what it is that actually lies behind this very obvious state of affairs. The state of affairs in these people's lives is obvious. That's the point because it is an expression of something otherwise invisible to us. which is God's wrath. You can't see God's wrath all the time. But when it becomes manifest in this way, then you see a portion of it reflected in this very clear and obvious, wholehearted, sinful rebellion with thoughts and hearts and words and actions. The whole picture fits all together. Point, then, isn't so much about which exact people are being described. The point is about who our God is. The God of mercy, we know that. But he is also the God of wrath. Wrath is not something to trifle with. Wrath is gruesome in some way. involves the destructive power of sin and death coming to their unhindered expression. So that people who are made in God's image are so marred and so damaged to harm others and harm themselves and yet remain defiantly independent in their own minds. Defiantly self-destructive. This is the sobering reality here. There are places in the world where sin is no longer restrained as it once was. And what results is an outpouring of senseless dishonoring of self and neighbor. And all of it provides a small picture, a foretaste, of what will one day come in even greater measure upon Christ's return. And so as we see this, we ask ourselves, what is the significance of this? What are we supposed to do? What are we supposed to think here? And the first and general point to take away from this is that the passage as a whole teaches us that both creation as a whole and human beings in particular are created to display God's attributes for all to see. You are created for this, and I am created for this. All mankind and the world are created for this. One of the idols of our modern generations for centuries now, really, is to think of the world here below as this self-contained realm that only operates on the basis of natural causes, as if the world that we see around us can be fully explained by science and natural causation, which then makes us, of course, the masters of our own fate. If this world is a self-contained realm that operates only by natural causation, not by supernatural causation, then we may well feel ourselves quite distanced from the Lord, independent, on our own, able to go our own way. In the modern mind, the world is like a finely tuned clock that runs on the basis of its own internal gears and wheels and mechanisms. And any outside invasion by supernatural causes would only mess up the clock. Like sticking a screwdriver in there where it doesn't belong. Clock's gonna break, right? And so modern thought relegates God to another realm. It doesn't work in this outward world that we see here. Maybe he's up there somewhere, we don't know. Easier to just deny that he is there at all. But it all starts by positing our independence. And this naturalistic and oftentimes materialistic way of thinking goes directly against our passage. Our passage teaches us quite plainly that the world in general, and human beings in particular, already display God's power. And some of them already display wrath in their lives. Other passages of scripture we can think of as well, Psalm 19 would be one of them, Romans 9, 22 through 23, would each of them in their own ways describe how God's glory and God's patience and God's mercy, other attributes of God, either are already seen in the world and in people or will be in the future. There is no realm where we are left to ourselves And our God is already at work in this world, even sometimes in ways that we can ourselves see. The Bible takes a very personal and religious view of the world. Not an impersonal one. Or a merely physical one. Or an anti-supernatural one. And not one in which the spiritual and the religious are put off somewhere else. As if they are not directly and always impinging upon us. here where we live. This created realm, within this created realm, man is never viewed as a free and independent individual, the master of his own fate through knowledge, through ingenuity and rationality and science and whatever else may be at our disposal. No, man is always viewed everywhere in Scripture as the handiwork of God, the vessel that he has made in and through which to display his attributes. We always live before his face. And there's no part of this life that is neutral or separated off from God's presence and power. However it may seem to you on a day-to-day basis, this passage tells us otherwise. We stand and we live and we walk and we act and we think before the presence of an all-knowing God who sees everything that we do. and who works and acts in this world now. Not in all of the ways that he one day will, he one day will do much greater things here in this world, but still, it is his world, it displays his character, and he is at work in it, even in our own lives. Sometimes, in ways that we can see, and in this passage, in ways that we can see that are very chilling. The passage calls us to recognize who we are as creatures of the living God and to fear and to honor him as we contemplate the awful effects of his wrath. And of course, this is a sobering reality as we consider those around us in the world, some of whom no doubt greatly resemble what we just read about. What can our response be other than to pause before the Lord to honor Him for the purity of His judgment? To pray that He would yet have mercy. Surely, Romans 1 does describe our own culture here in America even more and more by the year. We are already seeing the effects of God's wrath, are we not? Yet in the midst of tragedy like that, we also need to remember this, that this fearsome display of sin is not brought about by some impersonal force. It's not brought about by culture or economics or other things that we can't understand or influence, as it were, it is, in fact, brought about by our God. And what that means is that what you see in the world around you is not out of control. It's out of your control, but it's not out of God's control. It's something that He is producing. by his own inscrutable and infallible decision. And that also means that it's something that he and he alone can reverse. Don't look out there in the world and wring your hands and say, wow, what are we to do? As if we are just in despair, the world's spinning out of control. It's very much not spinning out of control. It's very much expressing the wrath of God. Which means it very much can express, if God so chooses, the mercy and patience of God. And so we look to Him. in these moments. The only one who can stem the tide of sin and redeem a culture and individual people through Christ. And as we see this in the world around us, the wreckage that results from sinfulness, increasing aggravated sin, being handed over to sin, Is this not also a cautionary tale to us here in this room? We see rebellion described here, claiming to be wise. Do we not see the same impulse to resist the Lord in our own hearts? Surely we do. passage is meant in part to help us take heed and cling to the Lord. Young people, I think of you in particular as you Begin to navigate your own lives for yourselves. Begin to try to establish your own identity, not just through your parents and family, but charting your own course. And you see this, or you need to see this. You probably, perhaps, don't see this, but you need to. This description in Romans 1 is where not following the Lord eventually leads, sooner or later. And people don't usually read this and see the destructiveness and the pain and the guilt and say, yeah, that's what I want, I wanna be like that. But we have to remember here that the passage begins with much smaller things. The passage begins with thinking of ourselves as wise, seeking independence, grabbing a hold of and preferring the pleasures of creation over the holy and just will of God in our lives. In other words, the passage begins in our everyday experience, and it ends in destruction. So, it urges us not to go down that path. for all of us of any age. It's so tempting for us to think, perhaps especially when we're young, but at any age, it's so tempting for us to think that the consequences of our sin are surely far off. I've got time. I'll live the way I want to now, and I'll repent later. Good plan. No. The passage says that whether or not Christ will return and judge all things soon, or in many centuries, we don't know. But there may still be a day of wrath for you or for me earlier than that, just described here, if we turn our backs on the Lord. Surely we think to ourselves we can flirt with and enjoy some sins now and then fix it later, but the passage says no. However far away Christ's return may be or not, an earlier day of wrath overtakes some people by God's choosing. See how gruesome it is. Don't toy with sin. Don't be glib. Don't be smug. Feel yourself beyond the reach of God. Or feel like you necessarily have lots and lots of time. You don't know that. I don't know that. We see people's lives ravaged by sin's effects, and yet they continue to hold their heads high in arrogance like they've achieved something great. We see how irrational, we see how self-deceived rebellion against God actually is. We should cry out and say, Lord, save me from that. Don't give me over to what I would choose in my sin, please. Don't let me be stubborn against you. I know I have that tendency. I see it in myself. I do that. Lord, deliver me. Don't let me be caught up in these desires. Don't leave me to myself. In myself, this is where I'm headed. Renew my mind, I pray to you, Lord. Don't let me be overtaken by bitterness and by lust or anger or covetousness or vanity or any other of these blind things. Here, brothers and sisters, is the good news. Amidst of all this, that the God who does at times hand people over to their sin in His anger, is also the God who can and does save and who holds out his arms to the world through the gospel and the preaching of the message of Jesus Christ to say that all who believe can be saved by the power of the gospel. Romans 1 16 that we talked about last time. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. And Romans 8, chapter 8, verse 32 says that the same God who at times hands people over in wrath to their sin and self-destruction also handed over his own son, Jesus Christ, to death on a cross to save. He who did not spare his own son, but what? Gave him up for us all. The same word in Greek. God gave them up. God gave them up. God gave them up to their sin. But God also gave his son up. Death on cross. So as we cling to him, as we trust in him, as we look to him in humble confession, reliance, No, God of wrath is also a God of mercy. God who, due to his own patience, can still be called out to for salvation. The passage shows us the awful and glorious truth of both. Our lives hang or fall upon a relationship to God, a God who will not always be patient, but a God who does call out to you and to me and to the world around us. And leave, be saved. Believe this as we read. Thank the Lord that he tells us. flee from our sin, pray for those around us in a lost world, and seek His mercy together. Our God, it is a fearsome thing to fall into your hands. If it be for judgment, none of us will stand. But we thank you that in this passage, you have chosen to tell us all of that ahead of time, in black and white, and to make it very plain. In rejecting you is wrath and destruction, and yet in calling out to you for mercy, there is salvation. We pray that you would minister this truth to our hearts. We pray that you would quicken us from our sin, that we would not be dull to this, that we would not consider it unimportant or irrelevant or something to think about later only, but that we would see ourselves every hour of every day before you, and that because of Christ, this would be a thing of great joy and peace. Pray this in Christ's name, amen.