Reasons for the Wrath of God, Part 3

You know what glorifies God when you believe Him? That's right, when you believe Him. When you believe His Word.

When you believe what He says. Unbelievers don't believe the Scriptures. They don't believe God's trustworthy. They will not place their life in His care. They will not trust Him for their destiny. They will not glorify Him. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Most people probably have a very narrow idea of what evil is. To them, evil is limited to the most heinous crimes and war atrocities. The shocking stuff that everyone agrees is wicked. Well, the lesson you're about to hear on Grace to You may surprise a lot of people, maybe even you. John MacArthur is going to help broaden your definition of evil.

And I'll say this much now, the definition includes much more than the things people do. You'll also see why God's wrath toward sinners is justified, as John continues his study from Romans chapter 1 called Wicked World, Angry God. Now follow along in your Bible if you're able, as John begins today's message. Romans chapter 1.

We're looking at verses 18 really through 23. Paul introduces the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with a direct statement about the wrath of God. That's where the good news has to begin.

It has to begin with the bad news first. This is how Paul begins the message of the good news of Jesus Christ. The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness. Our Lord had more to say about judgment, more to say about destruction, more to say about damnation, and more to say about hell than anybody else recorded in Scripture. And if you think it unusual that this great epistle on the doctrine of salvation opens with this statement about judgment, it's because you really haven't thought very long about how the whole New Testament opens. Because as you enter the New Testament, you enter first at the gospel of Matthew.

And I want you to turn there for a moment. I want to introduce our thoughts by a rapid tour through Matthew's gospel. And I want you to see a repeated focus that our Lord gives in this gospel. And remember, this is the introduction, this is the opening of the New Testament. Chapter 5, verse 22. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry, and the Lord is speaking now, with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother Rachah shall be in danger of the counsel, but whosoever shall say, Thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Verse 29, If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Chapter 7, verse 22, Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out demons, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Chapter 10, verse 15, Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

Verse 28, And fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Chapter 12, verse 36, The Lord continues to speak, But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account of it in the day of judgment. Verse 41, The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it for she came from the farthest parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

Behold, a greater than Solomon is here and of course in that passage the Lord is speaking of a comparable judgment. In chapter 13, verse 40, As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the age. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them who do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Verse 49, So shall it be at the end of the age the angels shall come forth and separate the wicked from among the righteous and cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Chapter 16, verse 26, For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Chapter 18, verse 34, And his Lord was angry and delivered him to the inquisitors, actually the Greek word for inquisitor is the word torturer, till he should pay all that was due unto him. Picture of judgment. Chapter 22, you have in chapter 22 in the parable of the marriage feast, verse 7, the king hearing, being angry, and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Verse 13, The king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And God is seen as the king in judgment. Chapter 23, verse 33, Our Lord says, Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom he slew between the temple and the altar.

Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. Chapter 24, verse 50, The Lord of that servant, again parabolically representing God, shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Finally, chapter 25, verse 26, And again in parable the Lord answers and said, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not spread. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with interest. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him who hath ten talents. For every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath, and cast that unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now that's about enough to get the message, isn't it? Now what point am I trying to make?

Now listen carefully. I want you to understand that there is no guile in the heart of our Lord as the message of the New Testament is given. It is clear from the very beginning that God is a God of judgment, that God is a God of wrath, that God is a God who punishes sin, and predominantly that message is uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so we are not surprised as we approach the epistle to the Romans to find the Apostle Paul beginning his gospel presentation with a statement warning men about God's wrath. It begins right here in verse 18 where he begins to delineate his message, the first 17 verses being introductory, and he opens up with a statement of the wrath of God. Now we've already begun to study this and we have asked ourself that oft-asked question, Is God just?

Is He fair in such judgment? Does He have a right to such wrath and such acts of vengeance? And the answer comes in verses 19 through 23, and consequently it is a very crucial passage because people very often criticize the God of the Bible by saying that He's unfair, He's overbearing, He's judgmental, He's condemning, how could a God of love send people to hell, and so forth. And at the very outset, Paul speaks of His wrath and then defends God's right to act in that manner. Now we're looking then in verses 19 to 23 at reasons for the wrath of God, a sequence of reasons given by Paul that also parallel the decline and fall of man. Now from the beginning I mentioned there are four basic reasons why God's wrath is vindicated, is justified, is right, and these also chronicle the decline of man.

Number one, we title the word revelation. And in verses 19 and 20 we learn that God has a right to be angry because that which may be known of God is manifest in men for God has shown it unto them from the invisible things of His nature, which men could never see. There is still accountability because God has revealed Himself in His created world.

And that's what verse 20 is saying. By the things that are made, God is manifest so that men are without excuse. So the first reason that God can act in judgment against man is because men have been given the truth of God. And as we showed, if they had lived up to the light that God had given them, He would have given them more light. God has been revealed in His creation.

And I only remind you of two very essential comparative passages, the first being in the 14th chapter of Acts in verse 15 where Paul says, We are men of like passions. We preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities, that is from false gods, to serve the living God who made heaven and earth and sea and the things that are in them. He has not left Himself, Paul says, without witness in that He did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

In other words, the God of creation has manifested His nature and that nature is visible in His created world. And then in the 17th chapter of Acts, an equally essential passage, in verse 23, Paul passes by a particular inscription on an idol to the unknown God and he decides that he ought to tell him who that is. And he says that is the true God, the real God. Verse 24, the Lord of heaven and earth. And then in verse 27, he says, If you seek Him, you'll find Him because He's not far from every one of us.

For in Him we live and move and have our being. And so the New Testament tells us that God is revealed in His creation. In fact, it even goes further in John 1-9 to say, Christ is the light coming into the world to light every man. God has disclosed Himself in His created order to everyone. Therefore, man is responsible for the revelation of God's truth. Now if men, and I want you to understand this, if men will accept the light they have, affirm that light, believe that light, then I believe God will give them more light to bring them to the knowledge of Christ.

And it's important at this juncture to say this. Nobody is ever saved short of faith in Jesus Christ. No one can be saved apart from Christ. Neither is there salvation in what?

Any other. Only in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must reach people with the name of Christ.

You say, well what about those people who are off in some remote place? If they live up to the light they have, I believe God will allow them to hear the message to be saved. And He does that, of course, by His sovereign, sovereign predetermined predestined grace as He reaches out to redeem men. And He will bring, if you will, the elect to Himself.

And He will give them the privilege of hearing. You see, the Great Commission tells us to go and preach and go and make disciples of every nation, go and preach the gospel to every creature, and that assumes that they must hear the gospel of Christ. Men are judged and sent to hell not because they didn't live up to the light they had, but because they rejected Christ. That's John 16. The Spirit has come into the world to convict the world because they have not believed in Jesus Christ.

That is the cardinal sin. And so they must hear of Christ. But I believe if they live up to the light they have in God's wonderful, sovereign grace, He'll bring them the message of Christ. Through a missionary, through a book, people who always wonder about the heathen must find their answer in the character and the nature and the power of God.

He's not limited. He is just and He is merciful and God is sovereign. And whoever He draws and whoever He calls, He will allow to hear the message. But may I hasten to add, don't think that if people aren't saved, God isn't just because none of us deserve it. So we're not looking at the goodness of man as if that were the issue.

We're looking at the mercy of God. So I believe that there's enough light for every man. And if men live up to that light, God will get them the message by His sovereign power. So that all that the Father gives to Me, said Jesus, shall what? Shall come to Me.

And I've lost none of them. So we see then that in verses 19 and 20, the first reason for judgment being justified is that men have the revelation. Second reason, rejection. Men have turned away from that revelation. And verse 21 says it, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.

They turned away from it. When they knew God, how did they know God? Well, based on verses 19 and 20. They knew God because of His creating the world and all that is in it and thus disclosing His nature in His creation. They were without excuse and yet they turned.

And what was the key? They glorified Him not as God. That is the cardinal definition of man's rejection. They will not glorify God.

And that's the issue. Men don't respond to God. We shouldn't be so surprised when Christ came into the world, God in human flesh, that they didn't respond to Him either. And they refused to glorify Christ because that's how it is with fallen men. He refuses to glorify God.

And really it's an ego trip. He seeks rather to glorify Himself. Now, we went into some detail last time talking about God's effort to get men to glorify Him.

And I thought to myself, you know, there may be some question in the minds of some people as to what it means to glorify God, to give Him honor and so forth and so on. But practically, let's assume that we're Christians and we say, no, we glorify God. We're not like those people in Romans 1. We are contrasted. We are set to glorify God.

Truly we desire to do that. What is it that we do in doing that? If we know what it is to glorify God, we can know what it is not to glorify God, right?

By contrast. So what does it mean to glorify God? Now hang on to your seat. I'm going to give this to you fast. I've covered this in a series some years ago, but it is utterly important material, maybe the most important I've ever preached.

And I'm going to run it by real fast. How do men glorify God? How do you and I glorify God? Number one, by confessing Jesus as Lord. That's where it all begins. In Philippians 2 9, God has highly exalted Him, given Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth. And every tongue should confess...listen...that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. To begin with, we glorify God by confessing Christ as Lord.

That's where it all starts. And that is precisely what the world will not do. They will not acknowledge the lordship of Christ any more than they would acknowledge the lordship of sovereign God in the Old Testament era. They refuse to do that, be it God in the Old Testament, be it Christ in the New. There's a second way we glorify God. We glorify God by living for that purpose.

In other words, our entire life goal is set in that direction. That is precisely the meaning of 1 Corinthians 10 31. Whether you eat or drink, and he picks out the two most mundane, routine, elemental aspects of life, eating and drinking, which are just very neutral, sort of non-religious things. But he says, even that or whatever else you do, do all to the what? Glory of God.

Now that simply means that in all of the activities of life, we do what we do to honor God. Is that how people live in our world? Is that their focus?

Oh no. Oh, they are not anxious to do that at all. They are not even interested in what glorifies God. But that is to be the focus of our life.

In other words, we aim at that at any price. In fact, the Lord even said to Peter, you're going to die, and the writer John says, this spoke he signifying by what death he should glorify God. John 21. So glorifying God for Peter was dying, being willing to pay the supreme price of his own life in order to give God glory. How do we glorify God? First, confessing Jesus as Lord.

Secondly, aiming our life at that goal no matter what it costs us. Thirdly, we glorify God by confessing our sin. In Joshua 7, 19, Joshua approached Achan who had stolen things from Jericho and been told not to do that.

God had said that was forbidden, but he had stolen those things. And Joshua says to him, get this, give glory to the God of Israel and confess your sin. Confession of sin glorifies God. You say, how so?

Now listen carefully. Because when you sin, God will react in a holy manner. And when you sin, there's chastening. But if you admit the sin, you affirm the fact that you deserve the chastening so when God chastens you, you're not going to accuse him of being unjust. You see, when you deny your sin, then you'll also deny that God has a right to chasten you and then you'll impugn his character by saying he's unfair.

So Joshua said to Achan, you confess your sin because you're just about to die. And when you die and everybody who is implicated with you, we want it to be known that you're dying justly because you have violently and willfully sinned against God. We then glorify God by admitting our sin and that is something the world will not do. 1 John 1 says that it is characteristic of men to say we have no sin and make God a what?

A liar. So the world will not confess Jesus as Lord. They will not aim their life at the glory of God. They will not confess their sin and that is expressed in the statement, they glorified him not as God.

They're not interested in life on God's terms. Fourthly, we glorify God by trusting in him. In the fourth chapter of Romans, in the 20th verse, it says, He staggered not, speaking of Abraham, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. When God said you're going to have a baby and he was 100 and Sarah was 90, it would have been easy to doubt.

But he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith which gave glory to God. You know what glorifies God when you believe him? That's right, when you believe him. When you believe his word.

When you believe what he says. Unbelievers don't believe that. They're not interested in what God says. They don't believe the scriptures. They don't believe God's trustworthy. They will not place their life in his care. They will not trust him for their destiny.

They will not glorify him. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. He's also the Bible teacher here on Grace to You and his current study from Romans chapter one is called Wicked World Angry God. Well, John, when you talk about God's judging people because they don't give him glory, a question often comes up, you know, what about the remote tribe in Africa or South America? How can God be angry with people? How can he judge people who may go their entire lives and never even hear the name of Jesus Christ, never hear any of the gospel?

Well, first of all, God is God, and God decides what is right. And scripture tells us God is angry with the wicked every day, that God is angry with sinners, that God judges sinners, that God sends sinners to hell. It is also true that throughout the world in every generation, there are people who do not know anything about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, in most of human history, up until perhaps today with mass media, most people in the world would have died without a real understanding of the gospel. So because someone doesn't hear doesn't remove the responsibility of their sin before God. Because they do hear and reject doesn't remove that responsibility either.

But there is another element to this. You know, in the scriptures, we are told that someone cannot be saved unless they believe the gospel, but that the natural man on his own, even when he hears the gospel, can't believe because he's spiritually dead, spiritually blind, living in ignorance and emptiness. And the only way anybody can believe, the only way any sinner can come to faith in Christ, is by the sovereign power of God. And so we understand that by the decree of God in eternity past, before time began, God determined who he would save, wrote down their names in the Lamb's Book of Life, and through history has drawn them to himself.

It is also true that he has chosen them from every tongue and tribe and people and nation across the world, and they are the products of faithful missionaries who go to the ends of the earth to gather them together from every nation. Thank you, John. And friend, the Great Commission applies to every believer.

That's why Grace To You is here, to equip people like you with biblical truth that you need as you proclaim Christ. To stand with us in this global ministry, contact us today. You can express your support when you call 800-55-GRACE, and our staff is here Monday through Friday from 730 to 4 o'clock Pacific time. And also you can send a tax-deductible donation by mail if you prefer, right to Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Thanks also for mentioning this station's call letters whenever you write.

It's more important than you may realize. Our address again, Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. And when you give to Grace To You, know that you're helping take God's word through radio, television, and the internet directly into homes and cars and offices of people who need the Bible's life-changing truth. To help connect God's people with verse-by-verse teaching, express your support by calling us at 800-55-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. And while you're at gty.org, take advantage of the variety of free resources there, including the transcripts and MP3s of more than 3,500 of John's sermons, all free to download.

Again, go to gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Be back tomorrow to learn how to respond to people who say they aren't bad enough to deserve the wrath of God. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.