Wrath of God

In second service, my parents are gonna be here, because we're dedicating my granddaughter. And if you're to stick around and meet my parents, you'd love them.

You'd say, Chad, they're the nicest people in the world, and they are, and I love them. But there's another side to them. They set very clear rules, and if you violate those rules, verse 18 of chapter one happens. The wrath of Pete and Lana Harvey is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Some of y'all are wondering, sometimes it takes a little while to sit down.

That's because 43 years ago, I went swimming with some buddies, after they told me not to go swimming with some buddies, and I'm still having a hard time sitting down. And so, I love my parents, but they got two sides. I love my Heavenly Father. But there's a side to his character that sometimes we don't like to talk about. First John four says, he is a God of love.

You believe that? But he's also a God of wrath. And so, I want you to go, if you would, to Romans chapter one, and let me just read, I'm gonna read the passage real quickly to you, then we can kind of pick it apart. Look at Romans chapter one, verse 18. We've been going through the book of Romans. We're now at verse 18.

Like I told you a couple weeks ago, I've calculated, and we'll be finishing this up about 400 years into the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest to them, for God has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen, Paul says. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lusts for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. And even as they did not, look at this, like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.

We'll just kind of stop right there, maybe go a little bit further here in a few moments. Would you look at verse 18? Paul says something very interesting. He says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Now, the NIV is a perfectly fine translation, I'm not bashing, how many of y'all have the NIV?

Okay. If you look at the NIV, the word for is not there. The NIV, something about their translation philosophy, they don't like conjunctions, so they just ignore conjunctions. If you have the New Living Translation, it starts with the word but, I don't understand why that's there, because that's not in the Greek.

The word is for in Greek, gar, for. Now, what's the significance of that? Remember last week, verses 16 and 17, we talked about the beautiful, wonderful gospel.

You can't earn it, you don't deserve it, it is a gift that we receive by faith. Y'all remember that last week? We talked about how great the gospel is. That was last week, verses 16 and 17.

Verse 18, Paul starts his statement about the wrath of God, he begins it with the word for. That conjunction links the beautiful gospel with the wrath of God. In other words, why do we need the gospel?

Why? Because we're all under God's righteous wrath, that's why. Well, Chad, I thought the gospel made me feel good. Well, the gospel does make you feel good, but that's not the main purpose of the gospel. But, Chad, I thought the purpose of the gospel is God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life.

God does love you. He does have a wonderful plan for your life, but that's not the primary purpose of the gospel. The purpose of the gospel is I'm under God's righteous wrath. I have violated the laws of the God of the universe, and I am subject to his wrath. And God says, because you are under my wrath, verse 18, verses 16 and 17, I offer you amnesty and escape through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there's been some bad sermon illustrations about this whole thing.

I've used them before, and the Spirit of God corrected me over the years. Here's one. Okay, we're like an egg. You put an egg on a table. God, God the Father, his wrath is like this hammer.

And the hammer's about to come down on the egg, and yet this metal bowl covers the egg, and the metal bowl takes the blunt force of the hammer, and the egg is protected. And so God's wrath was coming down on us, and Jesus stood between us and God. That makes Jesus good cop and the Father bad cop. It's like Jesus is saying, Father, calm down. Don't be so emotional. I'll take the wrath.

That's not how this thing goes. The God who was violated, the God who was offended, that very God says, yes, you have violated my laws. You have offended me, but I myself am gonna provide a way for escape for you.

Are y'all with me on that? See, that's key to understanding the good news of Jesus Christ, that we're under God's wrath. In fact, Francis Schaeffer says this, quote, there is no real preaching of the Christian gospel except in the light of the fact that man is under the wrath of God. In other words, he's saying is, if you've not preached the wrath of God, you've not preached the gospel. And that word wrath, and two words for wrath in Greek, one is thumas, that's this red, hot, violent reaction.

Somebody cuts you off in traffic, you get mad, that's thumas. That's not the word that's used here, okay? It's not like God is saying, you wanna see crazy?

I'll show you crazy, and he gets a cosmic baseball back and starts smashing everything up. That's not the word that's used here. The second word is orgeh. Orgeh is a slow, methodical progression. This anger slowly builds up. Somebody says it's like a dam, and the water is building up, building up, building up, and one day the dam bursts, but that's orgeh. It is a controlled, slow burn.

It's controlled, it's measured. And that's the wrath of God, not an emotional explosion. It is a calm, controlled, growing hatred of sin.

You with me on that? And so that's the importance of verse 18. Here's the question, why is God angry?

Why is this God of the universe angry? Paul answers that in verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Men, women, suppress the truth of God. And how do we suppress, hold down the truth of who God really is?

We do it in two ways. Number one, we do it by dismissing God. There is no God. And the second way we do it is by distorting God. We take the truth of God and we distort it. We dismiss God and we distort God. That's how we suppress the truth. But let me give you, let's talk about dismissing God for just a second, this whole idea that there is no God. You find it as interesting as I do, the more we find out about science, the more atheists we see out there, isn't that crazy? But we dismiss God.

Let me give you three ways, three examples of dismissing God. Everybody know what this thing is right here? What, Lego.

How many parents in this place have stepped on these things and gashed their foot and said some no-no words? These are Legos. And you can make some incredible things.

I got this illustration incidentally from Pastor Skip Heidzik. You make some incredible things with this Lego. In fact, Jamie, pull up a picture of that Lego dinosaur.

All right, so I researched this dinosaur. It's amazing, I can't remember how many feet tall this is. This is like at the Lego Land, whatever.

This thing is absolutely incredible. It's totally made out of Legos. Do you know how that thing was created? You did a little research. What they did is they got this giant bag and they just poured a bunch of Legos in there and they shook that bag and they shook it up and when they got through, this thing had come together and isn't that amazing how that happened?

Y'all believe that? That's what the evolutionists would tell you, that we take some amino acids and some proteins and we shake them up for a couple million years and a complex cell comes out. In fact, this isn't even a great analogy because the complexity of a living cell is exponentially more complex than even that.

There's a guy named Michael Behe from Lehigh University, wrote a book called Darwin's Black Box that talks about irreducible complexity. So I've used this illustration. That even doesn't do it justice.

The evolutionists would tell you that we have taken amino acids, proteins, shaken them up and something more complex than that just came out. That's suppressing God. That is dismissing God.

Let me give you a second example. Look at this fellow right here. His name is Sir Fred Hoyle. Sir Fred Hoyle was an influential British astrophysicist, an astronomer, he died in 2001. He was one of the most influential scientists that came out of England. Sir Frederick Hoyle, one of the biggest things he's known for is he said that the probability of cellular life, a living cell, arising from non-living matter, which is what the evolutionists would tell you, it's called ibogenesis, the chances of a living cell arising out of non-living matter, here's what he says, is about one in 10 with 40,000 zeros behind it. And here's what he said.

This is what this man said. He said, let me give you an example of the comparison. He said one in 10 with 40,000 zeros behind it. He said that would be equivalent to a tornado hitting a junkyard, swirling all these pieces together, and a fully functional 747 be produced. Now, that's amazing.

But can I tell you what's even more amazing than that? That man was an atheist. He said, I don't believe in God. He's just told us that the probability of life just springing up like the evolutionists would tell us is one in 10 with 40,000 zeros behind it.

He says the chances of that happening are the same as a tornado hitting a junkyard and producing a 747, but he says, I still don't believe in God. That's suppressing the truth. That's dismissing God. That's what Paul's talking about. Another, let me give you a third-grade example of dismissing God.

There was a great movie that came out years ago with Ben Stein, it was called Expelled. And Ben Stein is talking to the most brilliant atheist of our generation, Richard Dawkins. And he starts sharing all this stuff with Dawkins, and he said, so how do you explain life on Earth if this is the chance of something happening, how do you explain that without God?

Dawkins basically said, well, I believe aliens from outer space came and seeded life on planet Earth. I would rather believe in aliens coming down from a spaceship than saying that there is a God. That's what Paul's talking about. God is angry, his wrath is being poured out because we are suppressing the truth of God by dismissing God. And here's the question, why do atheists do that? Have you ever wondered that? Why do atheists do that?

Why are they so absolute against there being a God that would rather go with the concept of an alien than God? Paul answers the question in verse 18. He says they suppress the truth.

Do you see this? In unrighteousness. It's a great book. Jot this down, you need to read this book.

It's a very easy book, it's only like 100 something pages. It's called The Making of an Atheist by James Spiegel. He's an academic from Taylor University. And he says, if you study atheists, atheists are not atheists because they have studied all the facts and made a logical decision. He said, atheists are atheists for two reasons. He said, number one, he said, my colleagues who are in academia who are atheists, he said, number one, and this is exactly what Paul says, there was some kind of sin in their life.

Could have been abortion, infidelity, bitterness, hatred. He said, the atheists I know, their atheism didn't begin with a logical examination of the facts. No, they got involved in some kind of sin. And he says something very interesting. He says, sin deadens their ability to recognize God. Atheism is the cognitive consequence of immorality.

That's interesting, isn't it? That's exactly what Paul's saying right here. And then he said, there's a second reason you see a lot of atheists. He said, if you look at the lives of many atheists, they had horrible relationships with their father. And if God is our cosmic father, they have projected upon the concept of God this horrible relationship they had with their fathers. He said, atheism really boils down to two things. Either you have lived in sin and that sin has deadened your ability to recognize God, or you had a horrible relationship with your father.

It's kind of interesting. And then Paul goes a step further. Look what he says here in verse 19 and 20. He says, because what may be known about God is manifest. It's very clear in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood, look at this, by the things that are made. Here's what Paul said. It's called the teleological argument. Paul says, you do a close examination of the things that God made, and you see that design, you come away with a realization.

There has to be a designer. Richard Swenson is a Christian eye surgeon, and in his book, More Than Meets the Eye, listen to this. This blew me away. He said, to simulate what goes on in less than one one-thousandth of a second in one cell of your retina.

So you got it? We're talking about one one-thousandth of a second in just one of the cells in your retina. To replicate that would require 500 advanced math calculations being worked out 100 times in that one one-thousandth of a second. And there are 10 million of these cells calculating with other cells in complex ways. To simulate what goes on in your eye every second would take 100 years on a super computer. And you tell me there is no God? You tell me there is no designer? And it takes 500 advanced math calculations in one one-thousandth of a second in one cell in your eye?

I'm sorry, you're an idiot. This is so clear. And Paul says the same thing. He says, you wonder why God's so angry? Because God has made his reality, his presence, so clear. Forget the Bible for a second.

He says in the things that he has made. So why is God angry? Well, number one, we suppress the truth of God by dismissing him, and then secondly, we suppress the truth of God by distorting him. Look at verse 21. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image, now look at this. They made God into an image of corruptible man.

Watch this. Instead of pursuing the true and living God, the God of the Bible, they created their own gods. You say, well, that's pagan societies. I'm in America, I am urbane, I wouldn't do some kind of pagan man's looking idol kind of thing.

You do it all the time. When you say to me, the God I serve, he wouldn't punish sin. Congratulations, you've just created your own God. That's not the God of the Bible. When you tell me, well, the God I serve says, love is love, and you can sleep with whoever you want as long as you love him. Congratulations, you've just created a God in your own image.

You may not have done that. You may not look at the world like that, but you have created a God in your own image. When you say, well, now, if I were God, I'd have a thousand different ways to salvation. I don't think there's one way to salvation.

I think there are multiple ways of salvation. Congratulations, you've just created your own God. That's not the God of the Bible. And that's what the apostle Paul says. We distort God by trying to make God like us.

You hear me on that? When you start out your phrase with me, well, the God I serve, I tune you out automatically. I don't care about the God you have created. I wanna know about the God of that Bible right there. We create, we distort him by making him like us. And then notice this as well. We distort him, verse 23, by confusing God with his creation.

Do you see that? Paul says we take the created things, the things created by the creator, and we take those created things and we elevate that to the status of God. Now, again, you're saying, well, the pagans in third world countries do that. We don't do that in America. Yes, we do. Look, I believe in taking care of the environment. I believe in taking care of creation. I'm big on conservation.

If you're into the outdoors, you love creations. I'm all for that stuff, okay? But here's what we've done in America. We've taken creation and we've elevated that into a religion called radical environmentalism.

And we don't have time to do this today, but you do a deep dive in radical environmentalism, what have they done? The exact thing Paul is talking about there. Taken the creation and elevated that to the status of God.

See, you weigh me on this. Why is God angry? Well, we've suppressed the truth about God. How have we done it? We've done that in two ways. We did that, number one, by dismissing the idea of God altogether and then number two, distorting the very idea of God. And so if God is angry, how does he pour out his wrath?

Well, he does it in two ways. Number one, there's gonna be a final wrath. The Bible calls that the wrath that is to come. Remember I told you, this Greek word for wrath, orge, is like a dam. Have you ever asked yourself this question, how can God let this mess keep going?

All this bad stuff keep going. Look, the wrath of God is being stored up like beyond that dam, behind that dam, but the Bible makes it very clear the day is gonna come when the dam is going to break, the wrath of God will be poured out on planet Earth. That day is coming. The Bible calls it again, the wrath that is to come. That's one manifestation of God's wrath. But there's a second manifestation of God's wrath and that's the wrath of abandonment. Where God, did you know this?

Sometimes God says, here's what I'm gonna judge you. Thy will be done. You don't want me? I'll just step back. Have at it. That's the wrath of abandonment. And I can show you many times in the Bible where God finally says, you want it your way?

Have at it. I can, multiple times in the Bible. And we see this in verse 24, 26, and 28.

Do you see this? Where it says, God gave them up. God handed them over. He gave them up. The Greek word is paradidami.

It's the word that is used sometimes to describe a prisoner being handed over for execution. God says, you don't want me? Fine, I'll just back up. Have it your way. And sometimes the most intense, painful wrath of God is God saying, I'm giving you up. Have it your way.

And when that happens, life gets miserable. See, some of y'all are still mad at me because I'm not waving the flag and eating the apple pie and saluting the bald eagle because I say, America's under the wrath of God. You can't convince me otherwise. Because I want you to see what it looks like when God hands people or a nation over. Step one, when God says, have it your way, I'm giving you up. Step one, verse 24, therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves.

That's the first step. When God says, have it your way, I'm leaving you on your own. There is unbridled lust.

The society is driven by lust. I had, not gonna tell this show because I don't wanna get some Christians mad at me, but I had some Christians say, hey, have you watched such and such series lately? I said, no. Well, you need to watch it. The lead guy is a Christian. He gives his testimony.

I said, oh, oh, okay. And I watch it. And I see a, quote, unquote, Christian actor getting naked into a shower with a woman that's not his wife. He's not a Christian. That's not a Christian show. But the fact that you would recommend that to your pastor tells me we have gotten so numb to the reality of sin and flesh.

I'll just share that and the pastor can either fast forward through it or just watch. That's what happens in a sex-saturated society. Step two, verses 26 and 27. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due.

What's he saying? First step is unbridled lust. The society is driven by lust.

And the thrill and the goose bump and just regular old sex doesn't work. So now we gotta go one step further and that's into homosexual relationships. When a society is saturated by homosexuality from the Supreme Court and White House and it's normal, that's the second step in this progression. Interestingly, the Holy Spirit talks about women and lesbianism first.

Do you notice that in those verses? Doesn't start with the male homosexuals. It starts with women and lesbians first.

Why? The Holy Spirit refers to the degradation of women first because they are usually the last to be affected by moral decay. They have a natural, God-given inclination toward a husband and nurturing their children. But when women lead the parade of immorality, you know that God has removed his restraint. In other words, when hundreds of thousands of women descend upon Washington, D.C. wearing pink vagina hats, you know the nation is now under God's wrath. Step one, unbridled lust.

Step two, homosexuality permeates every part of the society. And in the third step in the judgment of God is in verse 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Look at that word, debased. The King James version, old King James says, a reprobate mind.

Debased or reprobate, here's what it means. It's a non-functioning mind. It's a mind that just don't make sense anymore. Collectively, when God finally says to a society, have it your way.

You don't want me, do it on your own. The third step in this progression is the collective mind of the society starts to break down. They believe things that just don't make sense. That's a reprobate mind, that's a depraved mind.

That's what Paul's talking about. When a society says that men can have babies and menstruates, so let's put tampons in the men's bathroom, that's a society that has a non-functioning reprobate mind. When you see a sonogram with something that has a heartbeat, nose, eyes, hands, feet, toes, and is sucking its thumb, and you say that's not a human, let's kill it, that's a sign of a reprobate non-functioning mind.

Used to be politicians used to have to kiss babies to get votes, now they gotta kill babies to get votes. When a person says, I want you to call me, we, them, and they, and we as a society go along with their silly little game and play along, society's been given a reprobate non-functioning mind. When we as a society castrate our 15-year-old boys because they tell us they're girls, and cut off the breasts of our 16-year-old girls because they tell us they're boys, in the name of gender-affirming care, that's a reprobate non-functioning mind.

It just don't make any sense. When a man can get undressed in front of a woman at Planet Fitness because he says he's a woman, that's a non-functioning mind, that's a reprobate mind. When a male Olympic boxer says, I'm a woman, is allowed to get into a boxing ring and beat the crap out of a woman on national and international TV, that's a reprobate mind, you see what I'm saying?

That's our society. When a member of the highest court in the land, ostensibly one of the most intelligent people in America, is asked at her confirmation, what is a woman, and she says, I don't know, I'm not a biologist. That's a reprobate non-functioning mind. Professor Trabb, Professor Trabb, haven't you heard, Trump won.

Okay, but evidently 49% of our population believes what I've just read to you. So maybe it's a little early to break out the shofar and call ourselves a theocracy. We're in trouble, church. We're a society that has a reprobate mind. And so in verse 29 through 31, we won't read all this, but Paul gives us the various fruit of that non-functioning mind. Unrighteousness, they're sexually immoral, they're wicked, they're envious, they're murderous, they're violent, they're proud, they're disobedient to parent, they're unloving, they're unforgiving. Those are all the manifestations of that reprobate mind in those following verses.

All right, so let's back up. Verse 32, Paul brings us back to where we started. Why do we need the gospel, the glorious, beautiful gospel, verses 16 and 17?

Why? Because verse 18, we are under the wrath of God. And again, Paul brings us right back to where we start.

He said, verse 32, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, they not only do the same, but they approve of those who practice them. Paul brings us right back to the final wrath. There's a day of judgment coming. You don't like to hear that?

I got a bunch of family coming in that service, and I really wanted to do a happy thing, because I don't want to do this kind of stuff in front of my family and say some of these words I've said in front of my mom, I'm sitting right there, so I get it. But church, I would be guilty of spiritual malpractice if I did not tell you judgment is coming. And as one person has said, on that day, there will be a prosecutor but no defense. There will be a judge but no jury. There will be a sentence but no appeal. There will be a punishment but no parole. There will be imprisonment but no escape.

The Bible calls it the wrath that is to come. Evangelist Ray Comfort asks a very uncomfortable question. He says, why is it that in America we have all these evangelistic things going on, we've got all these crusades going on, we do all these big evangelistic things, and you get all these people coming forward. And then he says, but you do follow up, very few people stick with the decision they made. Does it make sense? I mean, you do the post, I'm not, let's keep doing evangelistic, let's keep doing it.

Let's do all of it. But he does ask a good question. We have saturated our nation with crusades and evangelistic events, and yet we're the most wicked country on the face of the earth, and they don't stick with it.

They come forward and they sign their name on the card and then you never see them in church. So he asks the question, what is it about what we're doing that's not working? And then Ray Comfort says, could it be that we're getting the message wrong? Could it be that we're preaching a defective gospel? Could it be that we're implying, hey, follow Jesus. Life's gonna get better, your addictions will be broken, everybody's gonna like you, it's gonna be great, follow Jesus. And they give their life to Jesus, and instead of life getting easier, it actually gets a little bit harder.

Have y'all noticed that before? Sometimes you get serious about Jesus, things get worse rather than better. And so what happens is all these people say, well, you lied to me. I signed this commitment card thinking my life would get better, everybody would like me, and actually I lost my job because I'm standing for Jesus. I lost some Facebook friends, they're laughing at me because I'm standing for Jesus.

You lied to me, and then they bailed. Maybe we need to go back to preaching the biblical gospel. And it's that, that's, wrath is coming, and there's one way of escape, and his name is Jesus.

And then he gives us great analogy that I've used here before. He said, if I were a flight attendant, and I see you coming on the plane, and I say, hey, put this parachute on, why? Ooh, it's gonna make your ride so much more comfortable. You'll find it so relaxing to have this big parachute on your back, and everybody on the plane's gonna think you're so cool, and they'll really like you if you wear the parachute. Okay, well, I put the parachute on, I get on the plane, and instead of being more comfortable, makes my back hurt, I can't sit back, it hurts. And instead of everybody thinking I'm the coolest guy in the world, they're all kinda pointing at me, snickering and laughing at me. Do you know what I wanna do about five minutes into that flight? I'm taking that thing off, because it's uncomfortable, and people are laughing at me.

That's what's happening in America. But what if I'm a flight attendant, and I tell you, put on this parachute? Because I got good word that at about 10,000 feet, this thing is breaking apart.

And this airline is starting to taxi down the runway. I says, it's too late, we're taking off. But at 10,000 feet, this thing is blowing up, and you have one way of escape, and that's that parachute, put it on. You think I'm gonna take that thing off?

No, I'm gonna cling to that thing, and you can laugh at me all you want, and it might be a little bit uncomfortable, it might hurt a little bit, but I'm not taking that parachute off, because I know this thing is breaking apart, and I have one hope, and that's this parachute that I'm wearing. And I say to you, follow Jesus Christ, yeah, life is wonderful, yeah, it's great, yeah, I love following Jesus, all that stuff is true, but understand, I cling to Jesus Christ, because wrath is coming, judgment is coming, the day of judgment is coming, and I'm clinging to Jesus Christ, because he is my only hope. Laugh at me if you want, yeah, life can be uncomfortable, but I'm clinging to Jesus Christ. Now, would you stand with me right now?

It's not good cop, bad cop. God, the Father's the bad cop, Jesus is the good cop. God the Father, with tears in his eyes, says, I am who I am, I've gotta punish sin, I've gotta punish sin, but I love you so much, I do not wanna pour my wrath out on you, that's why I sent my own son Jesus 2,000 years ago, and he is willing to take your wrath. If you'll turn from your sins and turn to Jesus, you'll be saved from the wrath that is to come. If you're not certain that you have eternal life, that you're going to heaven when you die, if you've never received Jesus Christ as God's perfect sacrifice to make you right with him, I want you to bow with me right now.

I've said this a million times, I'm gonna keep saying it. Repeating words don't save you, mantras doesn't save you, Jesus saves you. But I want you to do this, for the next few moments, forget about everybody else in this room, including me. Right now, it's just you and Jesus. And if this captures what's going on in your heart, I want you to say this to Jesus, and I want you to mean it with all your heart. Jesus, I am a sinner, I deserve to be punished. Jesus, I'm sitting under the wrath of God. Say this to him, but Lord, I believe you died on the cross for my sins. You took the wrath of God in my place. The wrath should have been poured out on me, but it was poured out on you.

Say that to him. Lord, I believe you were buried. And I believe three days later, you came back to life.

You're alive right now, Jesus. Say this to him, Lord, I turn away from my sin, and I turn to you. Please forgive me of all my sins. Please forgive me of all my sins. Come and take control of my life. Take me to heaven when I die.

Again, Chad, is that it? All who simply call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. I'll tell you something. If you don't like to hear about the wrath of God, can I tell you what the wrath of God this teaching does for me? The more I understand just how much I violated the God of the universe, when I understand just how much wrath was coming my way, and Jesus took it, I don't know about you, it makes me love Jesus that much more. It's all about Jesus.

So can you lift your hands and lift your voices? And I'm serious, you can sing these words, or you can sing your own words, but for the next few moments, can we just praise Jesus? Bless the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Bless him right now.

Team lead us if you would. The name it is, the name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a powerful name it is, nothing can stand against. What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus.

And you have no rival, you have no equal. Now and forever God, you reign. Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory. Yours is the name above all names. What a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a powerful name it is, nothing can stand against. What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. There's a beautiful, powerful verse in the book of Proverbs.

You ever read this before? It says, the righteous are as bold as a lion, but the wicked flee when nobody's even chasing them. In other words, when I understand I'm a messed up person, I'm a sinner, but I now have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. When God looks at me, he doesn't see my sin, he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

I don't know, it gives me boldness and confidence. I can leave out here knowing God is with me, God's for me. If God's for me, who can be against me? So I want you to leave here if you're a believer in Jesus Christ with lion-like boldness, knowing who you are and whose you are. Receive this old Hebrew blessing from the Lord. Hezah ve'amatz, alta eroth ve'archet, hi emecha adonai elehecha be'ol ashetelach, which means, church, be bold, be strong. You ought to be afraid, and you don't be terrified of anything.

Why? Because the Lord your God is going to be with you this week, everywhere you go, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray, Amen and Amen. God bless you, beloved. Go change this world for Jesus Christ.