The Rumbling of Vesuvius

It appears again in 1 Corinthians 15 in reference to the resurrection body of the believer that is exempt from spoil. It is exempt from decay.

It is exempt from sinful corruption. So the glorified body of the believer is that which we long for because then we will no longer be surrounded by this corrupt flesh. And you who have repented, you who live with this sense of brokenness about your corruption long for the immortality of the glorified body.

Pompeii was a city of wealth, indulgence and immorality. People lived for pleasure, ignoring the warning signs rumbling beneath them until it was too late. In today's message, Stephen will show you how Paul warns the moral person in Romans 2 that judgment is coming. Many think they're safe because they lived good lives, but God sees the heart.

Could you be ignoring the warning signs? Don't miss this sobering reminder of what happens when we overlook the coming judgment of God. Here's Stephen with the message called, The Rumbling of Vesuvius. Shortly after the death of the Apostle Paul, that volcano named Vesuvius exploded like an atomic bomb. It erupted for more than 40 hours and it flooded the city with molten lava. The poisonous gases and the ash had already killed the inhabitants before they could escape and rolled over them and sealed them as it were in a gigantic tomb of rock. For hundreds of years, the city remained buried under 20 feet of hardened lava.

Modern excavations have revealed to us a perfectly preserved Roman city. One author wrote, This Roman city was frozen in time, caught in the act of being itself. That city was Pompeii. This city would have been one of the recipients of the letter of Paul to the Romans. We have discovered already it is a letter of the gospel, which included in the good news is the bad news that warns humanity of coming judgment.

That city was a city that if they had heard and had read the letter, it evidently made little difference. We learned in our last discussion in verse four of Romans two that God is holding back the full venting of his wrath and his anger. He has in his forbearance called a temporary truce of arms and his kindness is drawing people of repentance.

It's important to remember his audience. You remember in Romans one, it is the immoral man who does revel in his sin and we're given the list. If you said to the immoral man, you're a liar and a thief and an adulterer and a sinner in general and judgment is coming, that man would probably say to you, so what?

Let it come. Let me live the way I want to live. But in Romans chapter two, the audience has shifted now not to the immoral man, but the moral unbelieving man. You tell the moral man you're a liar and a thief and an adulterer and he'll say, now hold on a second. Who do you think you are? I may not be perfect, but I'm not that bad. I've done a few little things on the side. I'm sure everyone has.

I've told a white lie here or there and I've borrowed a few things in my life, but you should see the good things I have done. And if you haven't noticed I'm in church. Why should I fear? He would say the molten lava of God's judgment to that person. Paul has written in chapter two verse three, do you actually suppose, oh man, that you, the latter part of the verse, will escape the judgment of God or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? Why does the moral man think lightly of God's kindness?

Because he doesn't think he needs it. Why does the moral man think lightly of God's patience? Because he doesn't think he needs the patience of God. God needs to be patient to the murderers. God needs to be patient to the adulterers.

God needs to be patient to the sinners who find themselves in Romans chapter one, but he doesn't need to be patient with me. You see, the moral man doesn't see himself like one of those little kids at the grocery store that I saw recently, screaming at the top of his cart, his frazzled poor mother. He's there in the checkout lane and with his mother and she won't give him that candy bar that the store with all other sorts of candy, just low enough to reach from his cart, is all strategically located right there to push mothers to the point of insanity.

And he is kicking his feet against the cart and he is, he was screaming, I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it. The moral man says, that's not me. I have never been a problem child to God. Paul says, have you forgotten? Kindness of God leads you to what? The latter part of verse four, repentance. You know what repentance is?

The Greek word literally means a change, a change of mind. You change your mind about yourself. You change your mind about your sin.

You change your mind about God. Suddenly there is a brokenness that true repentance brings. You're broken over the fact that you are a liar and because you are a liar, you tell lies. You're broken over the fact that in your heart, you're an adulterer and because of that, you lust. You're broken over the fact that you're a thief at heart and because of that, you cheat and steal. You're broken over the fact that you're covetous at heart and because of that, you live discontented, greedy lives. You're broken over the fact that in your heart, you're an idolater and because of that, you live for yourself first. You see Paul is trying to show that the unbelieving immoral man and the unbelieving moral man are the same in this point.

Neither one of them ever come to the point of brokenness. The immoral man at least might admit he's a sinner. The moral man never will. Paul is expecting the moral man to defend himself and say I am basically a good person. God will see everything that I've done and yeah there's some bad stuff but I'm sure the good stuff will outweigh the bad stuff and I'll have no problem to making it into heaven. I can stand up to the scrutiny of God's judgment. You wait and see.

Paul has him exactly where he wants him. Good he says in effect. You want to be judged by the deeds in your life? That's exactly what God will one day do. So let's look at the deeds of your life now and allow them to either vindicate or condemn you and what are the deeds of a moral man's life. He says in verse 5, but because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds.

Now what Paul does here first of all is reveal the true character of moral man. The first key word in your text is the word stubbornness. Your translation may read hardness. It's the Greek word sclerotes which gives us our English medical term sclerosis.

We use the word in the same way. We refer to arteriosclerosis as the hardening of the arteries and it's life-threatening. So Paul here says that the moral man has a life-threatening condition that is far worse if it is never cured.

It is the hardening of the heart, the sclerosis of the heart. He goes on further in this verse to describe the heart of moral man by saying he has an unrepentant heart. The word unrepentant is the same word from verse 4 where we read God leads you to repentance. Same word here in verse 5 except it begins with that little Greek word alpha which simply reverses the entire meaning. Verse 4 there's brokenness over sin. Verse 5 there is no brokenness over sin. Verse 4 there is a change of mind about God. Verse 5 there is no change of mind about God. There is no change of heart, no change of will, no repentance. The only time that adjective is found in the entire Greek New Testament is here.

A.T. Robertson the old Greek scholar translated it an unreconstructed heart. You see Paul's inspired strategy here. He deals differently in chapter 2 than he did in chapter 1. On the outside the moral man looks good. He doesn't seem to be reveling in the wicked sins of chapter 1. He isn't the town drunk. He doesn't run around painting the town red.

He isn't sitting on death row. No, he's a member of the church. He is a volunteer teacher of underprivileged children. He volunteers in the community.

He has an upstanding reputation in his business. So what Paul does with that man is show him an x-ray of his heart. What God alone can see. The Greek word used here for a heart in verse 5 is the word cardion or cardios which gives us our word cardiologist, our doctor.

Cardiology. The cardios of the unbeliever here in verse 5 he tells us is in the process of growing harder and harder. That's why it's easier in human terms to speak in human terms for a moment for a child to come to faith in Christ than an older person.

Why? Because the older you get the more stubborn your heart, the more able you are to defend your sin, the more you resist the thought that you have to do an absolute about face. The easier it is to say look at all the good I've done. A good search sometime for you to pick up in your personal study of the word would be to track through the Bible the different conditions of the heart. The Bible talks about a stony heart, a rebellious heart, an uplifted heart, deceived heart. Here he talks about the hardened heart. Moral man looks good and healthy on the outside but under the x-ray of God's holy gaze he discovers that he has a fatal heart problem and the divine x-ray reveals Mr. Moral Man you look good but you need a heart transplant and only the divine physician can give you one.

You are in need of admitting your terminal and in need of divine surgery. Paul tells us in verse 5 because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself. One author wrote hardening the arteries may take you to the grave but hardening of the heart will take you to hell. It's an interesting word here the word translated storing up. It means to stockpile little by little and the word has a nuance of a greedy person who carefully meticulously stores things away, hides them in corners and cubby holes and closets and under the mattress and and all that while at the same time attempting to look generous, attempting to look like a giving person.

Paul says Mr. Moral Man you think you're getting away with looking good? No, you are all the while storing up evil deeds not good deeds that will one day outweigh the evil deeds. What you are actually doing is storing up in the cubby holes of your life the wrath of God which will one day be unleashed in all of its terror because of your stubborn and unrepentant heart.

One author pictured it this way this text illustrates a miser who was unwilling to comprehend that he is collecting the eggs of serpents bringing them into his warm room where they will someday hatch all at once and destroy him. In other words Vesuvius is still rumbling and every day you live every hour you refuse to repent is one more deposit into that terrible treasure. In fact the word store up can be translated treasure. It's used in the previous verse translated riches. You have the treasure of God's kindness. Here now in this next verse you have the treasure of God's wrath and on that day of judgment the mountain of God's wrath will pour out against you. There will be according to these few words an eternal reckoning of God's judgment.

Read it again in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds. The world despises the thought of a God who judges. Tell me about a God who loves. Don't tell me about a God who judges. But if he is indeed a perfect God then he will be a perfect judge.

J.I. Packer wrote in his book Knowing God these provocative words. Listen, would a God who did not care about the difference between right and wrong be a good God? Would a God who put no distinction between the beasts of history, the Hitler's and Stalin's if we dare use names and his own children be morally praiseworthy and perfect? Moral indifference would be an imperfection and to not judge the world would be to show moral indifference.

Now listen to this carefully. The final proof that God is a perfect being is the fact that he has committed himself to judge the world. He must judge the world. Now that Paul has shown the moral man the condition of his heart he shows him the true condition of his character. Look down at verse 8 where he describes him. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey righteousness wrath and indignation.

Now this is interesting because you would look at that list and say that's nowhere near as bad as chapter 1. But yet in the mind of Paul and in the mind of God sin is sin and this is the description of the one who looks good but is secretly ambitious. You could summarize the deeds of the moral man with three phrases. He stubbornly persists in these three things. Number one selfish ambition that is he lives for himself. Second of all disobedience to the truth.

Why? Because he considers his opinion higher than God's. Third obedience to sins short-term gain. In other words he seems to say my life is working out all right I'll just ignore the rumbling of that nearby mountain. My friend do you hear it today? Do you hear the rumbling of God's judgment? Will you run to the cross and place your faith in the lamb for it was at that moment that the wrath of God bore down on the Son of God and he was able to pay that mountain pile of guilt in your life at a moment.

You run to him. You are safe in him because the wrath of God has already poured out against him. You refuse him and you stand before him one day naked and exposed before his wrath.

Now Paul isn't finished with his diagnosis. Look back again at verse 5. Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing a breath for yourself.

In other words it's just growing little by little and there is no hope no cure it isn't a scale where you will somehow outweigh the good. You will not be able to. Maybe you say well okay I know the judgment of God is coming and if I die it is that appointed day. Perhaps though I can wait a little longer I give you the words of an old rabbi named Deliezer who is quoted in my Jewish commentary on the New Testament. He used to say to his students repent one day before you die and his students would respond how can we do that who knows on what day you will die. He says that is my point exactly all the more reason to repent today. Now I want you to notice the character of the believer whose life stands in contrast to the unbeliever.

Back up in verse 7. By the way the world should be able to tell the difference between those who truly know him and have repented and those who have not. They should see not necessarily simply know what you believe but see how you behave. Frankly let me say this they don't care would you believe it. They don't care that you can quote the Apostles Creed. They don't care that you can quote the Lord's Prayer. They listen to your vocabulary at work that's what they listen to. They watch your life.

They hear you communicate values and how you rub shoulders with them. Now stop again for another moment as I interrupt my interruption. Some would say well this paragraph seems to imply that a person is going to go to heaven because of good works. Verse 7 just as the moral man is going to hell because of his works.

Verse 8 we need to remember something as students of the word the context of the text often gives the meaning of the text. Paul in Romans 2 is not defining the basis of salvation. He's not even talking about salvation yet.

We'll do that in chapter 3. The basis for salvation described in the book of Romans is faith in Christ alone independently of any good work. But the basis for judgment is works for both the believer and the unbeliever. The believer will one day stand at the bema seat of God's judgment in 2nd Corinthians 5 and his works will be judged not to see if he'll get into heaven but to see how he lived in the light of heaven. Paul speaks in general terms about the ultimate judgment of the unbeliever given to us specifically in Revelation chapter 20 where the unbeliever stands at the great white throne of God not to see if he is going to hell but to understand why he is. What Paul is doing in these few verses is now just showing the contrast between the lifestyles of those who are going to heaven and those who are going to hell. And let me add this if you are living like someone going to hell you have no assurance that you are going to heaven.

It is not my responsibility to give you hope if you live like someone going to hell but to challenge you to examine your faith to see if you are indeed truly one of his. It's one thing to practice and pursue righteous living and fail that's the description of the believer in Romans chapter 7 but it's another thing not to care at all about God's standard of righteousness to snub your nose at the truth the holiness of God the church it's another thing entirely to say you know him but live as if you do not know him and care not to live as if you know him. True faith in Christ brings salvation apart from works but true faith reveals itself in good works. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus that is salvation for good works that's after salvation in other words good works are not the condition for salvation they are the consequence of salvation. You say well what about the person that says well I prayed when I was a kid or I prayed when I was a teen or an adult and and I I walked the aisle and I signed the card or whatever and and now I don't really care about the church I don't really care about the Lord and yeah but I'm going to heaven because I prayed that prayer.

What do you do about them? The Apostle John had that same question asked him those who had abandoned the faith in the early church and rebelled against the Lord openly even though they had one point had been part of the church and seemingly related to Christ. Let me read you his answer. They went out from us but they were really not of us for if they had been of us they would have remained with us but they went out in order that it might be shown that they were not of us. What is the lifestyle of true faith? Paul wrote in Titus 2 that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession zealous for good works. In other words true faith produces a zeal for good works that means that the utter lack of zeal for good works means there is perhaps the utter lack of true faith. So what are the righteous deeds that will be evident in the life of the believer? Verse 7 those who by perseverance those who consistently pursue that means you at times can fail but those who persevere in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality and eternal life.

His point is not to tell us how to get to heaven here in this context his point is to tell us how we're to live as an evidence that we are on our way to heaven. Let me summarize that verse with three characteristics of the believer who though not perfectly persistently perseveres. This is where the theologian this passage comes up with the phrase the perseverance of the saint.

In number one seeking the glory of God involved in that is a sense of personal glory not in pride but that glorious moment when we shall be in glory with him. Secondly in pursuing honor with passion third living for eternity's long-term reward not sins short-term reward but God's long-term eternity's long-term reward. Now the text says among other things that we seek for immortality we pursue immortality. The word immortality here in verse 7 simply means incorruption. It appears again in 1st Corinthians 15 in reference to the resurrection body of the believer that is exempt from spoil it is exempt from decay it is exempt from sinful corruption so the glorified body of the believer is that which we long for because then we will no longer be surrounded by this corrupt flesh and you who have repented you live with this sense of brokenness about your corruption long for the immortality of the glorified body do you not? Can the person who has escaped the wrath of God and enjoys forgiveness and the promise of heaven do anything other than live the truth of Romans chapter 2 verse 7? As believers living our lives in such a way that from our lips and from our character and from our repentant broken hearts we live in the way that says to our Savior, thank you, thank you, you saved my life you saved my life, thank you.

Vesuvius rumbled but the people of Pompeii ignored the warning signs. Are you ignoring God's warning today? His patience is great but his judgment is coming.

That was Stephen Davey and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Today's message was called The Rumbling of Vesuvius. We'd love to hear from you. Has our teaching ministry made a difference in your life? Maybe one of our daily messages helped you understand a passage of Scripture in a new way or perhaps Stephen's teaching has encouraged you during a difficult season. If so, we'd love to hear your story. Your experiences not only encourage us but also help others see how God is using this ministry to impact lives.

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