In his sermon titled 'The Wrath of God against all Ungodliness and Unholiness,' Jason Dohm discusses the biblical concept of God's wrath as revealed in Romans 1:18 and Matthew 26-27. He emphasizes that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of God's wrath against all sin and rebellion. Dohm explains that God's anger is not an expression of annoyance but is rooted in His holiness. He stresses that all ungodliness and unrighteousness draw forth God's fury, and that humanity suppresses the truth of God's existence, evident in creation. He introduces the idea of 'judicial hardening,' where rejecting God's truth leads to spiritual blindness and darkness. Dohm warns that without faith in Jesus, people remain under God's wrath. The sermon concludes by presenting the choice between accepting Jesus' sacrifice or facing God's wrath personally.

In Romans 1, 18, we read, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Let me go to Matthew 26, I'll get to 27. Let me read where we see the wrath of God poured out for all unrighteousness, where it is revealed. Starting in 26, verse 55, the context here is that a great multitude with swords and clubs, along with Judas, have come to the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus. Verse 55 and 56.

In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple and you did not seize me. But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. Now into the trial in verse 65.

Then the high priest tore his clothes saying, He has spoken blasphemy. What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard his blasphemy. What do you think? They answered and said, he is deserving of death.

Then they spat in his face and beat him. And others struck him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy to us, Christ, who is the one who struck you? And in 27, verse 20, but the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, which of the two do you want me to release to you? They said Barabbas.

Pilate said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said to him, let him be crucified. Verse 26 through 50. Then he released Barabbas to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus to the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around him.

And they stripped Jesus and put a scarlet robe on him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. Then they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. When they had mocked him, they took the robe off him, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified. Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross.

And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, place of a skull, they gave Jesus sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when he had tasted it, he would not drink. Then they crucified him and divided his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Sitting down they kept watch over him there and they put up over his head the accusation written against him, this is Jesus the king of the Jews.

Then Two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, you who destroyed the temple and built it in three days, save yourself. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross." Likewise, the chief priest also mocking with the scribes and elders said, He saved others. Himself he cannot save. If he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him.

He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now if he will have him. For he said, I am the Son of God. Even the robbers who were crucified with him reviled him with the same thing. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land and about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lama Subbacthene.

That is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, this man is calling for Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink. The rest said, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to save him.

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Jesus, It is an amazing work and many of us can be here today knowing the wrath we deserved we will not taste because you took the wrath completely for all our unrighteousness. Every bit of it to the last drop. So God please, as we are taught by Jason in this passage in Romans, give power to his words, give power to our hearing. One, most of all, you'd be glorified and magnified.

Two, we would be humbled. Three, people would be saved. People would be warned. We would be humbly taught by you, oh God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be magnified, be glorified by this time.

Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is The Wrath of God Against Ungodliness and Unrighteousness. Understand that more than anything else in human history, more than the flood which wiped off of the face of the earth every person except for eight people, more than Sodom and Gomorrah which was completely annihilated by fire and brimstone because of their wickedness. The Cross. Suffering and death of Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of God's fury against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of mankind.

It's the cross. More than the flood, more than Sodom and Gomorrah. Because of who God is, He must burn with anger against sin and rebellion. If you want to know how God feels about sin, look at the cross. If you want to know how sinners deserve to be treated because of their rebellion against God, look at the cross.

Look at the sufferings and the death of Jesus Christ. Sinners deserve to be treated that way. It is good when rebels are treated that way. Let's ask God to help us. God, you're perfectly good.

You are light in you as no darkness at all. We like that truth. We don't want to live in a world governed by one who cares nothing about unrighteousness. Hears nothing about unrighteousness. And yet, it threatens our existence as people who haven't thought what we should have thought, or said what we should have said, or done what we should have done.

So I thank you for bringing us face to face in this text with your perfections, what that means for us so that we will abandon hope and false hopes and run to the Lord Jesus Christ who has taken upon Himself your wrath on behalf of anyone who would believe. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well let's subdivide. I want to begin by looking just at verse 18.

So we've recited it together already this morning. Follow along as I reread Romans chapter 1 verse 18. And then try to develop the truths that are there. Paul writes, For The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. In verse 18, Paul says before us, God's anger against all that contradicts his perfect nature.

If you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, contradicts, fills in the blank. God's anger against All that contradicts His perfect nature. You have to understand that the wrath of God is rooted in His holiness. God's anger isn't an expression of His annoyance. Often our anger is just an expression that we're annoyed.

No, no, no. God's not annoyed. He's holy. He's perfect from eternity past through eternity future. Our expressions of sin and rebellion against God are a contradiction of all that He is, all that He loves.

It's an expression of all that He hates. He's not annoyed, He's perfect. And so, He must burn with anger against our sin and our rebellion. We have a comparison here in verse 17. Paul says that in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.

It's not our righteousness, it is the righteousness of God given as a gift to people who will trust in His Son. It is a righteousness that is only by faith. So good person theology dies with the gospel. There are no good people. If you believe the Bible, you believe that, that you're not good.

And that your one hope for righteousness is that you can receive it from the outside because it doesn't exist on the inside. You're so full of pride and self-sufficiency and cravings for things that God hates and arrogant and self-sufficient that even your good things are corrupted by these internal motivations that aren't right in the sight of God. So your one hope for righteousness is that you get it from the outside, that Jesus has been righteous, is righteous, and will give you his righteousness if you trust in his person and in his work. So that's verse 17. Now verse 18 is not the righteousness of God revealed, but the wrath of God revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

Paul here is embarking on a long section of argumentation that all people deserve the good condemnation of God. So from our text today through chapter 3 verse 20 is going to be an extended argument. He's just introducing the argument here that God's condemnation of me, His guilty verdict and condemnation of me in my life is good. So Paul is going to labor with me, wrestle with me, to try to convince me that God is not only right, but good to condemn me because of what I've been like and continue to be like. So that, why is he making this long argument?

So that I'll abandon false hopes and run to Christ for mercy. So this argument begins here with, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And it ends in chapter 3 verse 20. Actually, in chapter 19 it says, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. So those are the bookends of the argument.

This week, the wrath of God revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And then we're going to be multiple weeks to get through, get to the end of this argument where every mouth is stopped, meaning no one complains as if God was unjust in our condemnation, that all the world stands guilty before God. Look at the phrase in verse 18, all ungodliness and unrighteousness. So banish the thought of really bad things that the really bad people do no no no Not the really bad things that the really bad people do. All ungodliness and all unrighteousness brings forth, draws out the fury of God against it.

So for me, it's not your ungodliness and unrighteousness in view, or the ungodliness and unrighteousness of all the really bad people who do the really bad things. It's my ungodliness and my unrighteousness, all of it. All of my ungodliness and all of my unrighteousness draws forth the fury of God. We don't think that way, but the Bible declares it to be true. God hates my selfishness.

God hates my pride. God hates my cravings for things that are ungodly. God hates my anger. And I'm saying this of all these internal things that can be true of me and are true of me even though I present a respectable front. So you can be very respectable with your family, and your friends, and your co-workers, and All of these things be true of you.

You are selfish. You are proud. You crave things that God hates. You are angry, but nobody knows. But you know, and God knows.

All of these things draw forth the fury of God. Ungodliness is irreverence towards God. It's the things in our heart that are anti-God. Ungodly. God ought to have the place of honor in our hearts, but we want to disperse that honor that he deserves to all sorts of other things.

It is irreligious. It is anti-God. It is irreverent. Unrighteousness is anything characterized by falsehood and evil. God is all truth and all good.

So anything that is contrary to that, anything that is false or anything that is evil falls under this banner of unrighteousness. I do think there is an order here. Ungodliness and unrighteousness. Godliness shows itself in unrighteousness. Our irreverence towards God, these things that are anti-God in our heart, work their way out in falsehood and evil.

But these things are so interrelated, ungodliness and unrighteousness are so interrelated that I'm reluctant to make too much out of the distinction, but I do think that Paul uses this to create the structure of what follows. Everything after verse 18 in our text today, so 19-23, is going to be about ungodliness. These anti-god things in the heart of man, these irreligious things in the heart of man, this irreverence in the heart of man. Everything in our text from next week, verses 24 through the end of the chapter, 24 through 32, are going to be about unrighteousness, the outworkings of this anti-God disposition in our hearts. Consider Psalm 7 verse 11.

Here's Psalm 7 verse 11. God is a just judge, and Judge. And God is angry with the wicked every day. That doesn't sound like God. God's nice.

Okay. God is kind. God is merciful. All that's true, but understand that's not the sum total of what the Bible teaches about God. So we can thank God that these things are true, that He is kind and merciful, patient, long-suffering.

That is all true. We embrace that is true. But we say, as Bible-loving people, Bible-believing people, that's not the sum total of all that scripture says. Psalm 7 verse 11 is in there. God is a just judge.

He's all knowing so He doesn't just observe the things that are external for me. He knows every motivation, he knows all of what I am thinking, he knows every word I have ever whispered. God is angry with the wicked every day. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. What a perilous thing it is to be outside of Christ.

To not be joined with Christ so that all that he did on the cross is applied to you and settles the score with God for you. Listen to what John the Baptist says in John 3.36. John 3.36, He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. The anger of God clings to you unless you trust His Son.

Because that is the only thing that will deal with your sin. We read Psalm 711, God is angry with the wicked every day, and we think, good thing I'm not wicked. This is not believing the Bible's testimony about ourselves. John the Baptist comes with this clarifying statement that if you do not believe in the sun, you are wicked. If you do not believe in the sun, you won't see life, but the wrath of God abides on you, clings to you.

God's fury clings to you. Because your sins stand between you and God. Oh, you mean silly little things like pride and self-sufficiency? You know, God doesn't think those are silly little things. God thinks that is rebellion against Him.

God's right, we're wrong. God's sense of things is the one that matters. When we see in Psalm 711 that God is angry with the wicked every day, it just means those whose sins have not been cleansed by His Son, His fury against their sins, and everyone has them, clings to them. And it's every day. Imagine the thought of that, that the things that you've done in sin and rebellion against God, all the ungodliness and unrighteousness that has characterized you all your life long that God is not awaiting to be angry against those things.

He is angry against them every day. That's what the Bible teaches. The final phrase of verse 18 before we move on, who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. Let's consult Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones.

He's in my lifetime, but just barely. I think he died in 1973, but he was a great preacher in London in the last century, and he says this, Men are restraining the truth, which implies that they know it. You cannot be restraining something you do not know anything about. So at once, Paul has suggested that the truth was known to mankind and that they have deliberately been holding it down or restraining it. Paul is saying that.

Paul is saying here that mankind has been deliberately holding the truth down. They knew it, but they're deliberately holding it down or restraining it. Now why would you do that? Why in the world would you deliberately hold down the truth? Jesus speaks about this.

Turn to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Jesus really is speaking about the same things that are in our text in John chapter 3. Start in the most famous verse in the Bible, John chapter 3, 16, and I'll read through 20. John 3 beginning in verse 16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in Him, in Jesus, is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." So here's where we are so far. We're in Romans chapter 1 verse 17. In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Now verse 19 to 20.

And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. Why in the world would anyone suppress the truth? That's why. Because who they are will not survive the inspection of light.

So they love darkness. The unbelieving person is blind and deaf, but Jesus says this is the nature of the blindness. And this is the nature of the deafness. I can't hear you God. I can't hear what you're saying about my sin.

I can't see what you're showing about my sin. Let's apply this as we go. If you do not have the righteousness of God which is only by faith from first to last, God is angry with you every day. There is a righteousness of God which has been revealed in the gospel. It is by faith from first to last.

It is only by faith. If you have it, peace has been made between you and God. If you don't have it, your sins are clinging to you and God is angry with you every day. No matter what you have believed about God, that is true according to Scripture. The truth of Scripture will not bend to our feelings on this matter.

Truth is truth. Either you accept the Bible, believe the Bible, or you don't make a choice. Continuing in our text, I'm now going to reread verses 19 and 20, and then stop and talk about it. Romans 1, 19 and 20. Because what may be known of God is manifest in 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. In these two verses, Paul says before us, evidence sufficient to render us without excuse. Paul is arguing that God has given mankind, all of mankind, evidence that is enough to sweep away from us any excuse that we might make for our ungodliness and unrighteousness. The line of thought is simply this, the creation demonstrates some things about the creator so clearly that no one has a genuine excuse. That what has been made demonstrates some things about the Maker of all that so clearly that no one will be able to say I have a genuine excuse.

Psalm 19. Psalm 19 I'll be reading verses 1-6. To the chief musician, a Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utter speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end and there is nothing hidden from its heat. Here David is saying that the heavens are making a declaration that is understood regardless of your language.

Every language on the face of the earth hears the declaration of the handiwork of God. Paul is drawing on this and developing it. Paul says that God's eternal power and divine nature, in our text that says Godhead, divine nature is a much better rendering of it or translation. I would even offer an alternate one, godness. God's eternal power and godness are clearly seen by the things that are made.

Clearly seen, that's the words of our text. So, psalm 19 and Romans 1 are saying the same thing these things are clearly seen. There's not a language where you say what? This sermon wasn't preached in my language I Didn't have a Bible, so I didn't know These are things that are clearly seen to people who will never even know that there is a Bible. The handiwork of God says a lot about God.

Now the rest of Psalm 19 talks about the special revelation of God, things that you can't know by looking at the handiwork. So the things that you need to be saved are in the special revelation of God. There are places where you can live and die and never hear about Jesus. But the things that convince you of your condemnation are available to anyone at any time in human history on any place on earth. Listen to what Matthew Henry says.

Matthew Henry says. How they knew it by the things that are made, which could not make themselves, are we tracking with Matthew Henry? The things that are made could not make themselves, nor fall into such an exact order and harmony by any casual hits." By casual hits he means random chance. The exact order and the harmony of things can't be the result of random chance." He continues, "...and therefore must have been produced by some first cause or intelligent agent." Which first cause could be no other than an eternal, powerful God? Only an eternal, powerful God could do what we see around us.

The workman is known by his work. The variety, multitude, order, beauty, harmony, different nature, and excellent contrivance or excellent design of the things that are made. The direction of them to certain ends and the concurrence of all the parts to the good and beauty of the whole, do abundantly prove a Creator and His eternal power in Godhead." What is Matthew Henry saying? That's a lot of words. A lot of them we don't tend to use.

He's saying, look at the beauty of all of these complex things that are part of complex systems that all work together in harmony. There must be an eternal powerful God who did that. There must be. Here's a note from the ESV study Bible. No one should complain that God has left insufficient evidence of His existence and character.

The fault is with those who reject the evidence. It's not an evidence problem. Don't think that you'll have an excuse with God in the end when it was you who rejected the evidence that was sufficient. Now let's apply. Consider these two apologetics.

What's an apologetic? An apologetic is a way to argue for the truth of something. So Christian apologetics is a way to argue for the truth of Christianity. It's what we do with people who don't believe. We want them to believe, so we argue for the truth of what's in this book.

There are a couple of ways to go about this. Two of those ways are evidential and presuppositional. Here's an example of evidential apologetics of arguing for the truth of Christianity or the truth of Scripture by using evidence. Ken Ham's great at this. Do you love Ken Ham?

I can't do this in an Australian accent, but I'll do my best Ken Ham says over and over and over again if there had been a global flood What would be the evidence? Billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water, all over the earth. What do we find? Billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water, all over the earth. We find exactly what you would expect to find if there was a global flood.

What about an example of presuppositional apologetics, or arguing for the truth of Christianity or Bible truths based on presuppositions. This section of Romans 1 is an example of presuppositional is an example of presuppositional apologetics. Because we presuppose, we just take it as true that the Bible is the Word of God and therefore true, we can take the truths which the Bible reveals about mankind, for instance, and argue based on what the Bible has said. So We don't try to prove it, we take it as true and then say, because this is true, that explains why we see what's around us. Years ago, Taylor and a few others dragged me to the reason rally.

Why did they have to drag me? Because it was an evangelism event, and evangelism had always been a source of ongoing disobedience disobedience in my life because of the fear of man. But I was a pastor and I thought if All I'm good for is preaching to the choir, preaching to people who already believe that the Bible is true and already believe in Jesus, but I'm not willing to share my faith with people who are unbelievers. I need to find a new business. So I let them drag me.

The Reason Rally was in Washington DC, it was billed as the largest gathering of atheists ever. There were a lot of atheists, there might have been. And the night before, the Christian organization that was sponsoring what we were being a part of, brought us together to train us in presuppositional apologetics out of Romans chapter 1. Here's what they said in our training. Instead of arguing rock layers with these atheists, say to them, may I tell you what the Bible says is really happening here?

The Bible says, right here, right here in Romans 1, the Bible says that you're not really an atheist. It's not me. Here's the claim of the Bible. What's happening here isn't what seems to be happening. You say you're an atheist, the Bible says you're not.

The Bible says you're suppressing truth. You are deliberately holding down truth about God because you don't want to be governed by God. God. And if that's true, then your sins are separating you from this God, and that's the real issue, and that's what I'm here to talk about, not rock layers. There is a time and a place and a use for talking about rock layers.

But with committed atheists, the punches won't land. Either they'll know less about rock layers than you know, but because it's not the real issue, they'll just shift the ground. You'll win the battle of rock layers, but you won't win the war because that's not what's really happening. Or you'll know less than rock layers than them and they'll stump you. And then where will you be?

We evangelized atheists all day, and most of them would allow us to shift the ground based on Romans 1 From arguing about rock layers to what the Bible actually says is happening in that kind of an interaction. This is really about you and not wanting to be governed by the God who gave you your life. That's what's really happening here. As an aside, at the very beginning of the day, because we knew we were going to be at it all day long, I went to the row of port-a-potties they had set up for this event at the very beginning of the day. And just to have all that taken care of.

And so the day would be free to interact with atheists at the reason rally. So I was actually there near the stage for the kickoff of the event. The kickoff of the event was a band singing a song about when the zombie Jew returns. When the zombie Jew returns. Guess who the zombie Jew is?

It's Jesus. It's a mockery of the second coming. Does that sound like the reason rally to you? No, that sounds like the, I don't want to be governed by God, rally to me. It became really clear, really fast, that it wasn't a gathering of the smartest people on earth to reason things out.

But it was to suppress the truth in unrighteousness, just like Romans 1 said. They proved the point. I didn't prove the point, they proved the point. By starting the day off with a song about when the zombie Jew returns. Ha ha ha.

So here's the application. So here's the application. Understand that what Paul is saying is true about human beings. And let that inform how you think and how you interact and how you speak. So often what people say is going on isn't really what's going on.

But if you understand these things, and how it drives people, this is what is driving people, you'll actually understand what's really going on. And you can interact with them according to what's really going on, not according to what they'd like you to think is going on. And get to the heart of the matter. The whole point is this allows us to get to the heart of the matter. These other objections aren't the real objections.

It's that we don't want to be governed by God. And they actually know enough about the eternal power and godness of God based on just what you can see in the beauty of a cool spring night to actually get to the heart of the man. Finally, verses 21 through 23. Paul writes, Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful. That 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. In this section, Paul tells us what happens when we don't act appropriately on this evidence If you're taking notes on the handout act and evidence fill in the two blanks Paul tells us what happens when we don't act Appropriately on the evidence evidence Paul puts his finger right on the real problem. The real problem isn't that we didn't know, the real problem is that we didn't know but wouldn't act appropriately on what we knew. What is an appropriate response to the eternal power and divine nature on display in creation? Honoring God.

You are God. Only you could do this. You ought to receive the praise for it. And being thankful. God, thank you for all this good.

Now let me ask you a question. When it's put in those terms, Paul's terms, What about that is unreasonable? What about God's expectation that people who see the majesty of all that He's made, acknowledging him as God and praising him for it and being thankful for all the good that he's given to them. Sounds reasonable to me. Paul tells us what happens when a person will not honor God or be thankful to God.

The death spiral. What's a death spiral? It's a downward spiral where one bad thing leads to another bad thing, which leads to another bad thing, which leads to another bad thing, in an endless descent from bad to worse. When you resist light, you get darkness. When you suppress truth, your thoughts become futile.

A futile literally means empty or senseless. Your thoughts become empty. They become without value and senseless. Your mind and your heart go dark. When you deliberately hold down truth that God has made clear to you, things that are clearly seen, you deliberately hold them down, God says, fine, have darkness.

Your mind and your heart go dark. Jesus says it this way, Jesus says the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" That's Matthew 6, 22 and 23. Jesus is speaking figuratively.

He's not speaking about a physical eye, but about spiritual perception. This is about what you perceive and what you do with what you perceive. When you love darkness because of what you are like And that what you are like won't survive the inspection of God's light. So you love darkness, your eye is bad, and you get darkness. What does Jesus say?

How great is that darkness? Theologians sometimes call this judicial hardening or judicial blindness. Meaning that it's actually the judgment On you taking something that's clearly seen and that you know in your heart of hearts is true But holding it down suppressing it in unrighteousness God's response to that is is giving you what you are aiming for and It is your own destruction. He gives you your own destruction. You said, I don't want light because of what light says about me, what light reveals about me.

God says have darkness. Judicial hardening. A judgment is the hardening. A judgment is the blinding. Paul takes us farther down the death spiral.

Having gone dark in mind and heart, I claim to be wise when in reality I have become a fool. I have become totally unable to truly understand spiritual realities. And in that state I make a devastating exchange. I exchange the worship of the creator for worshiping the creation. I exchanged the glory of the immortal, perfectly pure God in order to glorify mortal, finite, corrupted creations.

Friends, that's what idolatry is in all its form. That's what it means to worship idols. Worshipping the golden calf in Exodus 32 was this exchange. We don't want this scary God. We want this God that we can see and manipulate and control and we'll say he's the one who set us free from Egypt But that's also what humanism is Putting human existence as the center of all things is exactly the same thing but in a different form.

That's what materialism is. It's exactly the same thing just in a different form. That's what idolizing a relationship is. It's exactly the same thing just taking a different form. What's the point?

You will worship. You will worship. Your affections will be drawn to something. You will give your affections to something. And if it's not God, you will experience this judicial hardening, this judicial blinding that will Set your affections free to pursue your idol into destruction.

That's the end of the death spiral. Now let's apply. I beg you to face the danger of these verses head on. You think later will be fine? I have time.

But what will happen in that time, even if God gives it to you? Don't you understand judicial hardening, judicial blindness, what the passage of time will mean. If you say, I will not glorify God as God, I will not be thankful now, I'll do it later. Later, You'll have no appetite to glorify God as God or be thankful. Do you think you're immune from these effects?

In conclusion, God must be angered by ungodliness and unrighteousness. His eternal character demands it. His eternal character demands it. He's not annoyed, he's holy. This brings us at the end, where we started at the beginning, the cross.

The ultimate expression of God's anger being poured out on all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Not the bad, really bad things that the really bad people do, but all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men, no matter how respectable it might be to your neighbors and your family, it draws forth His wrath. There will be a reckoning for all ungodliness and all unrighteousness. There is one way of escape and it is believing in the person of Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ. The only alternative is paying your own debt.

Those are your choices, A or B, 1 or 2. You pay your own debt, or Jesus stands in your place to take upon Himself God's fury for my sins. God, we know we have many weeks ahead where this is going to be further developed, but I'm so thankful that you've brought us here to strip away false hopes. And I do pray that they would be stripped away, week by week, false hope by false hope. That everything that we thought might be sufficient so that things could be right between us, but aren't sufficient, would be exposed.

And we would be left with one true hope that Jesus has come to live and die for sinners. Thank you that the righteousness of God has been revealed in the gospel from faith to faith from first to last, all of faith. Pray in Jesus name, Amen.