Kind of a depressing title of a blog entry, huh? I guess we think very little about God's wrath especially if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. That is one of the incredible benefits and blessings of knowing the Lord -- we escape having to face His wrath. Monday while showering (we have one of those modern inventions of the water resistent radios) I was listening to John MacArthur's National Day of Prayer message on "Has God Abandoned America?" The message looked at the wrath of God. Dr. Mac explained that there are different types of God's wrath. There is catalystic wrath that comes from naturual disasters while living in a fallen world. Then there is eternal damnation wrath that is experienced by those who die and do not know Christ. There is eschatological wrath that comes during the end times. There is "sowing and reaping" wrath that occurs when we willfully sin against the Lord and experience his judgement and discipline. But there is another type of God's wrath and that is when God abandons us.
In Romans 1 Paul describes this kind of wrath.....notice the higlighted phrases...
Romans 1:18-32
18For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21For even though they knew God,
they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23and
exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24Therefore
God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
25For they
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26For this reason
God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
27and in
the same way also the
men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer,
God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
29being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
32and
although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
NASB95
Wow! How do you like that...? Paul tells us that there is a wrath of God that occurs when "God gives us over to ourselves" -- we want a certain lifestyle, we want to indulge in a certain sin, we want to be involved with a certain obsession and God stops fighting and lets us have what we want! That is America Mac said on monday. I believe it. We are experience all kinds of terrible consequences in our land and it started decades ago when we forsaked God and a godly lifestyle and took a swan dive into the cesspool of sin. Because of that wanton sinfulness, God said fine. I won't do anything to you in regards to judgement, discipline or calamity. I am going to "turn you over to your will" and when we took control of our lives the trouble just started.
So what do we do? Our hope remains in one thing -- THE GOSPEL. We must preach it; live it and point people to it. Politics will never save America, only Jesus can. We don't need a "pro-life; anti-gay; antri-gambling; anti-same sex marriage" agenda. We need those who do abortions and those who have had abortions to repent and cry out to God. We need those living a homosexual lifestyle to repent and turn away from their sion and walk into the arms of a forgiving Savior and Lord; we need those who dabble in the lottery and gambling to drop their money at the feet of Christ and repent. Politics can never get God back into America -- from what Romans 1 says, He abandoned us over to our own devices. Our only hope is complete an d utter repenetance to the gospel.