The reading for this morning is Romans 1 verses 18 to 25.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
! who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
So they are without excuse.
For although they know God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him,
but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creepy things.
Creeping.
Therefore God gave them up in their lusts of their hearts to impurity,
to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature
rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.
Amen.
A couple weeks ago in Romans chapter 1, 16 and 17,
we read how the gospel is the power and revealed righteousness of God.
And a very important question that we didn't answer last week,
but that follows Romans chapter 1, 16 and 17, is this.
Why does humanity need God to show his power and righteousness to us?
The answer to that question can be a source of great discomfort, even offense.
For our text this week, Romans 1, 18 to 25,
will tell us that humanity needs the gospel of God to save us from the wrath of God.
The wrath, as we'll find out, is directed at all of humanity for their moral and social corruption,
and that no one is exempt.
And such a God in 21st century Ottawa, 2026,
it seems such a God is aggressive and unrelenting and maybe even vindictive.
Where is the love?
Where is the grace?
Where is the acceptance?
Where is gentle Jesus, meek and mild?
It's a very uncomfortable question to wrestle with about God's wrath.
And yet, it's a question that the church has wrestled with for centuries.
In fact, one of the earliest issues that arose in the church,
one of the earliest controversies,
came in the second century with a man named Marcion.
And he decided to do something about this wrathful and angry God that he found in the Bible.
And what he ended up doing was taking the Bible and chopping it up,
bringing a giant pair of scissors to it,
cutting out the entire Old Testament,
cutting out large portions of the New Testament,
so that all that was left was this benevolent and loving God.
Any hint of wrath, any hint of anger was gone.
And it's been like this throughout the centuries,
throughout the history of the church.
The wrath of God is a very uncomfortable thing that Christians wrestle with.
But as we're going to see in the text today,
the wrath of God is actually a key aspect of who God is.
It's not to say that you can just remove or downplay the wrath of God
and lift up or elevate, rather, his love.
But the wrath of God is a key aspect of who he is.
In fact, it is in keeping with his righteousness.
For both his righteousness and his wrath are introduced by Paul in the exact same way.
Two weeks ago, when we were in Romans 1, 16 and 17,
Paul says in verse 17 that the righteousness of God is being revealed.
And here in verse 18, he'll talk about the wrath of God that is being revealed.
Paul speaks of both righteous, God's righteousness and his wrath,
introducing it in the same type of way.
So we're going to look at what the wrath of God is
and why it is rightly directed at sinful and corrupted humanity.
And we'll see that God's wrath is rightly directed
at those who suppress the truth,
those who steal God's honor,
and those who misplace their worship to other things and other people
beside the one true God.
We have a lot of ground to cover.
So if you want to turn to page 8 of your scripture journal
or Romans 1, verse 18 in your Bible,
we'll jump right into it.
So we'll look at God's wrath that is directed and revealed
to those who suppress the truth,
verses 18 to 20.
And this is what it says.
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them
because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes,
namely his eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly perceived
ever since the creation of the world
in the things that have been made
so they are without excuse.
So a really important first point to make
is that the wrath of God here
isn't this kind of symbolic way
to speak of the consequences of evil.
There's a great temptation to, like Marcion,
save God from his wrath.
That we need to do some reputation therapy for the Lord
so that he does not come across as a wrathful God.
So wrath could be potentially understood
as more of like a euphemism of something else
except that right off the bat in verses 18,
we see that the wrath of God is actually a personal wrath.
It's manifested by God himself.
It is not this idea of something,
of the just consequences of evil,
but rather it is wrath from God himself
as if wrath would come from me or from you.
This is what it means when the apostle says
that the wrath is being revealed from heaven
for that is God's dwelling place.
It's an important observation
because God's personal wrath implies
that the offense that provokes it
for all the consequences and the collateral damage
that comes about from such evil
is first and foremost against God.
The offense that provokes God's wrath
is an evil rebellion
against his person,
against who he is and what he has done.
It denies God as the eternal king,
as creator and as Lord.
It seeks to destroy or corrupt or malign
God's good design
and properly ordered creation.
Because we do not have the power to do so,
we instead attempt to suppress the truth.
So it's as if we say to God,
you are not worthy to be God,
you are not worthy to sit on your throne,
we will be the ones who will take over
and yet we do not have the power to do so.
So we go on a bit of a smear campaign.
We suppress the truth.
We deny that God exists.
And because we can deny that God exists,
it frees us from his supposed tyrannical rule.
And Paul describes such behavior
as ungodliness and unrighteousness.
It's an evil first against God
and then it's an evil then
that leads us to denigrate
and to downplay the integrity of fellow people.
We suppress the truth.
And this is something that all humans,
Paul says, are guilty of.
Every person has knowledge that there is a God
and yet every person in some way or another
suppresses the truth.
It's an audacious claim that Paul makes here.
Every human heart understands
that there is a divine creator.
It's a bit of a difficult thing to wrestle with
because many of us know people that are atheists.
Maybe we ourselves are good churchgoers,
but if we are oppressed,
maybe we have atheistic tendencies
or atheistic thoughts, atheistic beliefs.
And yet Paul says,
every human heart understands
that there is a divine creator.
He is, verse 20,
eternally powerful and divine,
meaning that he is not some mortal super being
or a figment of one's imagination,
that he is eternal and divine.
And this is something that God has revealed
in the created world for all of humanity to see.
So theologians throughout the centuries
have called this God's natural revelation,
that the invisible and unknowable God
has made himself visible and knowable to humanity.
And he's done this in at least three different ways.
The first is through creation.
The world we live in is vast and complex.
It's capable of supporting life
and not just supporting life,
but seeing life flourish.
Everything is perfectly calibrated and intertwined.
consider the cosmos
and the sheer size of the universe we inhabit.
To think that all of this is a result of chance and time
is to be blind to a designer,
an intelligent designer,
God as designer.
Sir Isaac Newton,
he speaks of God's intelligent design this way.
He says,
in the absence of any proof,
the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence.
The second way,
and I'm going a bit quickly through
these examples of God's natural revelation,
the second way that God has made himself noble
is through beauty.
That there is something that can be observed
objectively as beautiful,
and that this is proof that life isn't merely about survival,
but that it is about enjoyment
and an elevation of the spirit.
This is key to our existence.
Good music and good song
and good poetry and good art.
All of it,
it is the means by which beauty is conveyed
and it seems that it is not just
something that is peripheral,
but is rather integral.
It is something that we need to see.
A life devoid of beauty
is a life devoid of goodness,
a life devoid of enjoyment,
and ultimately it points to a source of beauty.
And then finally,
God has revealed himself
in the universality of morality,
of ethics,
meaning that whenever there is injustice felt,
wherever there is theft or murder or deception or abuse,
and the like,
it is identified as not good.
Conversely,
benevolence and joy and love
in its purest forms,
it is recognized and it is heralded as good.
And these things
mean that we can know
what is right and wrong objectively,
and it isn't merely a social construct
or socially conditioned.
All such knowledge and creation
and beauty and morality,
they are means by which God makes himself known to all
and reveals our need to be connected
and reconciled with him.
Whether we can articulate it
in a biblical way or not,
God has left
proof of his existence
and has put within us
a yearning to
touch
the transcendent
to in
some way
connect with
the divine.
However,
this is where we bump up
against the limits
of natural revelation.
For although it reveals
our need to be connected to God,
our desire to be connected to him,
it doesn't offer salvation.
Or put another way,
natural revelation
shows us our need for salvation,
our need to
be reconciled with God,
but it cannot be our means
of salvation.
Yet Paul says
that all this
was denied
and suppressed.
There is no God,
or if
the God of the scripture
is not that God,
then his lordship
has no claim upon us.
functionally,
we
function,
rather,
as people
that are in open rebellion
to God,
denying his existence
or at the very least
denying his lordship.
And unfortunately for us,
suppressing the truth
has dire consequences.
It will limit our ability
to know what truly
makes us human
and what our purpose is
because all that makes
humanity truly human,
it has to be connected
to God
for he is the one
who made us,
he designed us,
he has breathed life
into us.
We are made in his image
and his likeness
and most importantly
for his glory and purposes.
It means that our
our existence
has
a true
end,
a true telos
and it is found
in union
with God himself.
But in a pluralistic
society,
especially one we live in,
all of this
can be easily denied.
I mean,
again,
you know atheists,
your friends,
family members,
again,
maybe you yourself,
you're wrestling with it
and a lot of these
people live very good
and moral
and upright lives.
The God of the Bible
or any other God
for that matter
can be denied
and life seems
to continue to flourish,
progress continues
unabated,
but is that really
the case?
This leads to our
second point
that the wrath
of God
is revealed
against those
who steal his honor.
Look with me
at verses 21
and 22.
For although
they knew God,
they did not honor
him as God
or give thanks to him,
but they became futile
in their thinking
and their foolish hearts
were darkened.
Claiming to be wise,
they became fools.
Paul is doing
something subtle
but unmistakable.
He is universalizing
this open rebellion
against God
by linking it
not to culture,
not to an era,
not to a specific
social or ethnic group,
but to the very first
parents of all
of humanity
because this is
a very subtle
but unmistakable link
to the opening chapters
of Genesis.
So what Paul is doing
here in this section
but really in all
of verses 18
to 32,
he is rehearsing
the fall of man
that we can read about
in Genesis chapter 3.
When sin entered
the world,
when mankind
became corrupted
and bent,
such suppression
of the truth
has been happening
since the very beginning
in every place
and among every people
ever since.
It always culminates
in idolatry,
idolatry being
the worship of any,
sorry,
the worshiping of
and sacrificing
to something
or someone
other than God.
In this case,
mankind tries to
claim creation
apart from God,
feeling justified
in being more
than just a steward
of God's good creation
and a worshiper
of God.
Instead,
we assume
the role
of creator,
claiming with
such bravado
that we can truly
enjoy life
apart from
the one true God.
We say to ourselves
that we are
the change makers.
We are the
beauty creators.
We are the
benevolent ones.
We are the ones
worthy to be glorified
and honored.
There's no honor
directed to God,
no thanksgiving
for his gift of life,
no recognition
of his goodness
and provision
of grace,
understanding
that the entire
cosmos,
all of creation,
was designed
by him
intelligently
and lovingly
for our benefits.
I've likened it
in some ways
to stolen valor,
if you've seen it
on the news
around Remembrance Day
or Veterans Day
in the States,
people that have
never served
will dress up
in military dress
and take part
in a ceremony
as if they served,
as if they sacrificed
and it is incredibly
offensive
to steal
the honor
of those
that have served,
veterans
or active
duty members
of the armed forces
and it's very
similar
to what we are
doing
only on a very,
very more
grand scale.
We try to steal
God's honor
and his valor.
We do not
thank him
for who he is
and ironically,
we do not produce
this new
or better creation
or even build
and approve
upon the existing one
but only distort
and corrupt
God's good
and godly design.
I watched a movie
so I was sick
all week.
I watched way
too much
Netflix and Prime
but I ended up
watching a movie
that highlighted
a type of
architecture
called brutalism
and it was
an alright story.
We talk about
the movie after
but the one thing
about architecture,
brutalist architecture
is that it is
devoid of beauty
and you could say
well listen,
there's meaning
behind it,
there's,
you know,
okay,
I'm not convinced
personally
that brutalism
could ever be beautiful
and I think
in some ways
when we engage
in creation
that does not
look to the Lord,
does not recognize
who he is,
does not bring honor
to him,
then we end up
building something
that does not
seem beautiful
or good
or doesn't bring
our eyes up
to the divine
to transcend
this world
but instead
it leaves us
kind of feeling
cold
and it feels
ugly
and I think
it's very clear
that this is
the outworking
of Adam's
rebellion.
Here's the thing,
such stolen honor
and the suppression
of the truth
causes a great deal
of delusion.
We fashion ourselves
as being more clever
than we are,
we reimagine the world
in our own image
and with our own
ideals
and in doing so
what we do
is we cut ourselves
from the source
of wisdom
and knowledge
and beauty
and goodness
so that in thinking
we are wise
we become utterly foolish.
This is what the apostle
is getting at
in verses 21 and 22.
Verse 22,
claiming to be wise
they have become fools.
By the way,
this is a reflection
of our intellect.
The modern materialistic
atheistic mind
has created
incredible technologies,
has deciphered
many mysteries
but its end
is always
in self-congratulation
and self-aggrandizement.
Never for the glory
of God.
Never thanking him
or honoring him.
Never helping
other people
look up
and turn their gaze
upward.
Therefore our minds
never truly ascend
or become enlightened.
They only become
more clouded
and darkened.
And now we begin
to understand
how the wrath of God
is revealed here
because we see
that God leaves us
to reap what we sow.
As we shed his good
and godly lordship
we find that we
are no longer connected
to this source
and substance
of life
because God
doesn't simply
create the world
but he sustains
the world
by his power
in Hebrews chapter 1
verse 3.
So we have no hope
of supplanting him,
of kicking him
off the throne
and doing a better job
than him.
We are powerless
to do what only
he can do.
We can't create a world
and we certainly
can't sustain it.
And in God's
just wrath
what does he do?
He allows us
to feel the futility
of our thinking
and the outworking
of our actions
to know the darkness
of our foolish hearts.
We'll see this
in the next section
as we see
the utter futility
of misplaced worship.
Read with me
verses 22
to 25.
Claiming to be wise
they became fools
and exchanged
the glory
of the immortal God
for images
resembling mortal man
and birds
and animals
and creeping things.
Therefore God
gave them up
in the lusts
of their hearts
to impurity
to the dishonoring
of their bodies
among themselves
because they exchanged
the truth about God
for a lie
and worshipped
and served the creature
rather than the creator
who is forever blessed.
Amen.
The knowledge of God
should lead us
to worship him.
It should begin
the pursuit
of knowing him
in deeper ways
engaging with him
and transcending
this life
to enter
into the divine life
with the transcendent God
or at least
die trying.
That's what it should
lead to.
However as we have seen
the suppression
of the truth
of God
and the subsequent
theft of his glory
and honor
render such a pursuit
impossible.
You cannot worship
one you deny.
You cannot worship
one whom you steal
glory from.
But friends
that doesn't mean
we're not worshipers.
Our worship
is merely
redirected from God
to something else.
So throughout the Bible
the understanding
is not
if humans worship
but what do they worship
or who do they worship.
The Bible takes for granted
that human beings worship.
We are worshipping beings.
It's the way God
has created us.
And the who
and most often
here in Ottawa
it's the what
we worship.
the what we worship
will dictate
how we live.
And in every case
misplaced worship
away from
the one
true triune God
and towards
other things
it will always
result
in some form
of immorality.
And this is what
Paul is referring to
here in verse 24.
Verse 24
he says
therefore God
gave them up.
By the way
we'll see this
next week
when we
look at
verses 22
to the end
of 32
that God
that the
Apostle Paul
will say
that God
gave them up
three different
times.
It's the way
in which God
reveals his
justice.
He gives us
over
lets us
reap what we
sow
but that God
gave us
up
to
the lusts
of our
flesh
literally
our
desires
but our
over desires
our desires
without
limits
without
any kind
of checks
such
over desires
of the
heart
lead to
impurity
to the
dishonoring
of our
bodies
among
ourselves.
So next
week we're
going to
look at
how such
giving over
to these
over desires
will touch
every aspect
of who we
are including
our sexuality
but even
here in
verses 24
and 25
we begin
to see
how God
gives us
up to
feel the
full extent
of our
misplaced
worship
as our
desires
are unrestrained
as they
are over
desires.
So let me
give a few
examples.
If we
over desire
success
above all
what will we
do to get
that success?
We will
sacrifice our
integrity
our commitments
to family
our ethics
may go out
the window
they may
no longer
seem like a
strength but a
liability
we will do
whatever we
can to
be successful
and ironically
the true
form of
success isn't
the accumulation
of things
or titles
but is to
have well
ordered
loving
relationships.
So a
well
sorry
for
over desire
for success
will not
result in
success in
the end
but will
instead result
in a life
that is
broken.
If we
over desire
belonging or
respect above
all we will
compromise our
convictions
we'll take
offense easily
we will not
offer forgiveness
liberally
it's a recipe
for loneliness
it is not a
recipe for
respect or
belonging
and you could
fill in some
more I'll give
one final
example if we
over desire
pleasure
we can see
people not
as worthy
of integrity
but as
objects to
use lust
will be
justified
as necessary
maybe even
integral
to who we
are self
control
will go out
the window
will be
downplayed
we will
never know
real pleasure
only the
painful pursuit
of chasing
after something
we can never
attain.
This is
what the
apostle Paul
is saying
that the
wrath of
God is
being
revealed
how?
By God
giving us
up to
our own
over desires
to reap
what we
sow.
We begin
to see this
full picture
of God's
revealed
wrath
it is
giving us
what our
truth
suppressing
valor
stealing
misplaced
worshiping
hearts
overly
desire
God no
longer
shields us
from ourselves
so that we
experience
rather the
fullness
of our
futility
not the
fullness
of his
goodness
friends
such a
life will
not lead
to godliness
or righteousness
but to
again we
see this
in verses
18 and
19
ungodliness
and unrighteousness
and this is
always a
lesser life
it is always
a subpar
existence
this is the
core of
idolatry
we sacrifice
and sacrifice
for a promise
that will never
deliver
psalm 115
says that
those that
sacrifice to
idols become
like them
which is to
say less
human
broken and
frail
but praise
be to god
there is a
better way
see unlike the
false gods that
we find ourselves
worshiping and
sacrificing to
the triune god
does not demand
our sacrifice
for appeasement
and satisfaction
of his wrath
for he knows
we are incapable
of such a
sacrifice
instead
god the son
of god
comes to us
taking upon
himself human
flesh
becoming fully
human and
offering himself
as a sacrifice
for us
in order that
we
putting our
trust in him
are no longer
subject to the
just wrath
of god
why
how
for we
begin
by faith
to come
under his
good and
godly rule
we recognize
that the
righteousness
and the
power we
need are
not found
within but
our gifts
from without
to be received
by faith
and as we
learn to live
according to
his ways
trusting in
his word
our lives
become fashioned
according to
his will
and by his
power we
begin to
flourish as
he intended
us to
flourish
and that
doesn't mean
by the way
that we
will live
materially
better lives
but that we
will have a
satisfaction
and a joy
we will know
a love
that will
transcend this
life into
the life to
come
we will know
our telos
we will know
our purpose
we will know
our end
our lives
will become
rightly ordered
we can
then learn
to live
not by lies
learn to
give glory
and honor
and thanksgiving
to god
we will learn
to rightly
worship him
as the only
one worthy
of all
honor and
praise
and then we
begin to
enjoy life
for what
it is
a gift
and if you
were here
through ecclesiastes
this is really
a huge message
of ecclesiastes
the joy
of a rightly
ordered life
if your life
is not rightly
ordered this
morning
and I'm sure
there are
parts of
your life
that are
certainly
not rightly
ordered
where you
have over
desires
and they
are wreaking
havoc
maybe you're
good at
suppressing
them
in some
kind of
way
to do
a bit
of crisis
management
but if
you're
honest
you have
a problem
with suppressing
the truth
you have a
problem
with not
giving god
the honor
and glory
and thanksgiving
he deserves
you have a
problem with
worshiping
other things
and not
the one
true god
who is
eternally
blessed
forever
amen
then look
to him
call out
to him
confess
your sin
to him
confess
your need
for him
and watch
what he
will do
ask him
to rightly
order your
lives
and friends
by god's
good
grace
and kindness
he will
help you
will you
embrace
the gospel
by faith
this morning