Wall Paper

The Wake-up Call

By Chris Walls

Romans 1:18-32

Intro.

I have spent many waking hours thinking about what I would say to you this morning. I have heard others talk about the tragedy and ask all the questions. The major question of the week, "Where was God when those planes hit the WTC, The Pentagon, and crashed outside Somerset?" I have heard news commentators talk about why people would do things like this?

First let me say that there's nothing man won't do. Romans 3 says, "His feet are swift to shed blood." The first crime in the Bible, Cain kills Abel. Ask yourself how could Hitler do what he did? How could Stalin massacre 50 million people? Fifty million people is way beyond what this thing is. Hitler: the genocide of the Jewish people was his goal-six million Jews. How could he do that?

But let us bring it even closer to home, how can a mother drown five of her kids? How can millions of babies be aborted? You're talking about the wretchedness of the human heart. It isn't postpartum anything. It isn't attention-deficit syndrome that causes a mass murder. It's the wickedness of the human heart. The heart of man is desperately wicked. In His infinite wisdom God had to create government and He had to create the fear of death to keep man from killing each other. So I think when we see events like this, we are seeing man at his worst. And then when you get him under an influence which teaches that if you die in a holy war, and these men believed it to be a holy war, then you automatically enter paradise. You really heighten the motivation to do what those guys did on Tuesday.

I heard people say that we should not be angry. I disagree! Anger is a natural emotion and our emotions come from God. I am angry for biblical reasons. I am angry because people were murdered. God has commanded us not to murder and we are to hate the things God hates and love the things God loves. God judges those who murder. Just like I am angry over people who murder in other ways. The thing that we have to guard against is letting our anger turn into personal vengeance. The bible tells us "Vengeance is mine."

Another emotion is that of fear. Now we really have no reason to fear the kind of thing that happened in New York City. Tyrone, PA is not a strategic site for terrorist. But fear is something that can come as a result of what happened. The thing that everyone must realize and come to grips with is that we are all going to die. The bible tells us that it is appointed a time for all to die. I nearly died this week trying to help two men that fell from a roof. I was walking toward our front door looking out the screen door and there were some guys on the roof across the street and their jack gave way and two of them fell. I went through the door and started across the street to help and here came a car down the street, I stopped at the curb. It was not my time. The two guys across the street are alive because it was not their time. The people in the WTC, the Pentagon and those planes, it was their time to die.

So how do we live without fear of death? The only way to not fear is to have placed your trust in Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and because of that when you die, you will be with Christ in Heaven. That is our hope and future.

Those are some of the emotions, but the question is why? If God is sovereign then why do these things happen? I will tell you what I perceive from this attack. God is saying Wake-up Christians!!! For whatever reason the US for centuries has been protected from an attack like this. Alexander De Tourquville said it best, "America is great because America is good and when America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great."

I have a copy this prayer that was actually prayed before the Kansas State Legislature, which has circulated around e-mail for a while. I checked it out to make sure it was legitimate. When minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual politically-correct generalities, but what they heard instead was a stirring prayer, passionately calling our country to repentance and righteousness.

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In six short weeks, the Central Christian Church had logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of the prayer from India, Africa and Korea.

Commentator PAUL HARVEY aired the prayer on The Rest of the Story on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired!

Here is the prayer:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe on those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that: we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multi-culturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn children and called it a choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. W have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

I want to read from Romans 1 and show you how the Bible describes it when He takes His hand of protection from people. If you don't believe it can happen to us then you are living in your own little world.

I. God's Wrath (18-25)

The idea being revealed in verse 18 is that his wrath is continually being revealed. God reveals his wrath at all times. It is not a one-time event in history, which it can be, but His wrath does occur continually. God is constantly uncovering his wrath on sinful people.

A. How does He reveal His wrath.

1. Indirectly through the natural consequences of violating His universal and moral law. The violation of God's universal moral law is called sin. With sin, come natural consequences or punishment for disobedience that is already set in place. Examples of this are all around us of people that have to pay the consequence for those actions. It is precisely what Christ presented with the idea that you, "Reap what you sow." When people sow sinful things they reap the consequences of that sin.

2. Directly through his personal intervention. God also intervenes personal for the sinfulness of man. The OT is full of examples of God's wrath on people. We see the direct wrath of God in the lives of Adam and Eve. We can see it in the worldwide flood. It is seen in the judgment placed on Sodom and Gomorah. The most visible acts of God's wrath against sin was when he poured out his divine judgment on His Son, on the cross.

3. The Various kinds of wrath.
   1. Eternal Wrath---which is Hell
   2. Eschatological wrath---which is the final Day of the Lord
   3. Cataclysmic wrath---like the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah
   4. Consequential wrath---the principle of sowing and reaping
   5. The wrath of abandonment---we will look at this in more detail in a minute.

B. The reason for God's wrath

1. The reason for God's wrath is because he has revealed himself through what is called natural revelation. Look at verse 20. The creation gives an unmistakable revelation of God. It is shows His power to create and sustain such an incredible place. God holds all people responsible for their refusal to acknowledge what He has shown them of Himself in His creation. Even those who have never been presented with the gospel have received God's witness about His existence and power. If a person will respond to the revelation he has, even if it solely natural revelation, God will provide some means for that person to hear the Gospel.

2. The second reason for God's wrath is that God has given evidence of His existence, power, and divine nature through what is called general revelation. This is the idea that God has revealed himself in things like history, the physical universe, and the make-up of human nature. God reveals himself in human nature in ways like, the physical structure and mental make-up of human beings. All human beings have a sense of morality. It may be buried deep inside, but it is there. We see it when people's hearts goes out to the less fortunate. We have seen it already with the events of this past week and the outpouring of gifts and help.

3. The third way God reveals his wrath is through special revelation. Specifically scripture. Natural Revelation and General Revelation help present a very narrow view of God and his power. They are only elementary understandings of God and His nature. The word revelation in both the Greek and the Hebrew, mean to reveal. God has revealed Himself in a special or particular way through scripture. This is God's special revelation. It shows who he is and how he acts with precise description.

God pours out his wrath on those who knew of him but do not glorify Him, according to verse 21. These people are unthankful for what God had done. They are futile in their search for meaning and purpose in life. Their hearts are darkened because they reject the truth of God revealed and fall into spiritual falsehood.

Man's sinfulness turns into foolishness when they believe their own philosophies about God, the universe, and himself. According to verse 23 man tries to make God into an image, which becomes a substitute for the worship of the true God. God pours out His wrath on people because he is a jealous God.

- Ezekiel 39:25 says, "I shall be jealous for my Holy name."

- Exodus 34:14 says, "You shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."

- Deut. 4:24 says, "The Lord your God is a consuming fire a jealous God."

God is jealous for his glory, and to disgrace His honor in any way--by worshiping a false god, or disobeying the true God, or simply failing to love Him with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength--is to incite the jealousy of God and incur His holy wrath. Simply because of who He is, God is perfectly righteous to be jealous of His glory and to be angry with those who denigrate or defame Him in anyway.

God is a vengeful God. We have already looked at that idea. He has the exclusive right to judge evildoers, execute vengeance, and pour out his wrath against sin. Those are the prerogatives of God and God alone. Jesus forbade us to have a vengeful spirit, in Matt. 5:38-44. But again, God--precisely because He is God--has every right to unleash His vengeance against the wicked. In fact it is in His righteousness to do so. In fact the reason we are not to seek our own vengeance is that judgment and condemnation are divine rights. Romans 12:19 says, "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'vengeance is mine, I will repay' says the Lord."

So with all that, what exactly is the Wrath of abandonment? How does God give up on people that turn away from His revelation?

II. God Gives Up (24-32)

Verses 24-32 give a vivid description be the downward spiral of the wrath of abandonment, in the life of a person when God abandons them. Paul shows the essence, the expression and the extent of man's sinfulness.

A. The Essence (v. 24,25)

When people consistently abandon God, He will abandon them. He accomplishes this in one of three ways.

1. Indirectly and immediately, by removing His hand of restraint and allowing sinfulness to run its course.

2. Directly and eventually, by specific acts of divine judgment and punishment. The word that the NIV translates here as "sinful desires" has a much more powerful meaning than this. It is a general term often used for "decaying matter." It is used for things like a decaying body in the grave or for the decaying body of someone with leprosy. It speaks here of sexual immorality that starts in the mind and then moves to the shame of the body.

3. Another essence of God giving people up is seen in verse 25. This is the denial of God's existence and His divine right to be obeyed and glorified. People start placing the creation above the creator. Is this seen in our world today? People are constantly worshiping the creation of God and not the God of creation. Now, do not misunderstand me. I love God's creation and want to see it preserved. But when people start placing the importance of the creation over the creator they have turned the tables of what should be worshipped.

B. The Expression (v.26,27)

We see the expression of God giving people over to their sinfulness in verses 26 and 27. He gave them over to shameful lusts. In these verses are described the sin of homosexuality. Which is thoroughly condemned in Scripture. (Gen. 19; Lev. 18:22; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; cf. Gal. 5:19-21; Eph.5:3-5; 1 tim. 1:9, 10; Jude 7).

Women are mentioned first to show the extent of debauchery under the wrath of abandonment, because in most cultures women are the last to be affected by moral collapse.

Paul mentions men second and says they, "Received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."

Gal. 6:7,8 says it best, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."

C. The Extent (v.28-32)

The question comes, how far will God let people go into sin. We see it here in verses 28-32. Paul writes that God gave these people over to a depraved mind. That is a word in Greek that translates "not passing the test." It is used of a metal that does not pass the test and is discarded as scrap, because it contained to many impurities. The test that God gives is the test of righteousness. God test people's minds and found them worthless and impure. They have shunned God's revelation of himself to the world and turned to the foolishness of their own mind and have become debunked of any moral code. Sinners often presume on the mercies of God because of some of His Holy attributes. They take God's goodness and mercy for granted and mistake it for some kind of weakness. They feel his kindness gives them to right to live how they please. No one should ever think of God's love as the antidote for God's wrath. They are one in the same. He is wrathful, because He loves. God's goodness should not be comfort to those living in a sinful life. Romans 2:4 says, "Or do you sow contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance."

The only reason God does not unleash his total anger is because He still wants to bring sinners to repentance and the acceptance of His son. That is exactly why God holds back his wrath. He wants to bring blatant sinners to repentance and belief in Jesus Christ. I think one of many reasons for what happened Tuesday is God giving us a warning and saying return to me, or much more will happen and it will be a lot worse.

I think what happened on Sept 11 is a wake-up call for all Christians. It is time that we quit sitting on the sidelines allowing a pagan world to overrun us and start doing what God has called us to do as Christians. If we are going to see things change the only way that will happen is when we start sharing the gospel with those around us and change hearts one at a time. We can look around us a see the depravity of the human heart. We don't need to crawl into some hole and hide we need to be bold with the gospel. Government can't change peoples heart, only Jesus can. Wake up church to the world that is around us that Paul describes in Romans 1 and start doing what God has called you to do.