This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday. Welcome to our daily drive-time devotions through the book of Romans. We're looking at how this book has history-changing power in our lives. You might remember back in the introduction we talked very briefly about five specific ways that this book of Romans talks about changing history. History changes when we understand and begin to live out God's truth in our lives. And a quick outline of the book of Romans helps us to see God's truth. Chapter 1 through about the middle of chapter 3 talks about understanding the truth about sin. Chapter 3 through chapter 5 talks about understanding the truth about salvation. Romans 6 to 8 talks about the truth about sanctification, our growth in Christ. Romans 9 to 11 talks about the truth of God's sovereignty. And Romans chapter 12 through chapter 16 talks about the truth about God's service. Sin, salvation, sanctification, sovereignty, and service, those are five world-changing, history-changing truths. And Romans chapter 1 talks about the truth of sin. Romans 1, 18 to 23. Let me read those verses. "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them. Because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. " J. B. Phillips has said, "Few chapters in the Bible deal so devastatingly with the subject of sin as the opening chapters of the book of Romans. " And Max Lucado said, "We have to see the mess that we're in before we can appreciate the God that we have. " And verse 18 of Romans starts with this phrase, "the wrath of God. " That is a phrase that makes some of us very uncomfortable. That's a phrase that other people just laugh about, the wrath of God, and they sort of echo it out. What does this phrase mean? The wrath of God means that God reacts personally to sin. God reacts personally when our hearts are turned from Him. And you see, most of us want to understand God's love, not God's wrath. But we will never understand the passion and the depth of God's love without understanding His wrath. If someone were attacking one of your children with the intention to violate that child, you would see the passion of your love in the immediate reaction of wrath that you had. The truth of sin is this. Sin rapes God's children. So, of course, God reacts with wrath. Love is always going to be angry at evil. And when God sees the evil of sin and what it does, and He sees it more clearly than any of us ever have or will, of course He reacts in wrath. I would just encourage you, do not let anything, do not let anyone depersonalize God's response to sin. God hates sin because He hates what it does to His children. He hates what it does to our hearts. Sometimes you hear people ask a question like, "How could a loving God be angry at sin? " The question is, "How could a loving God not be angry at sin? " Now, the shocking truth is, when we talk about sin, we're not talking about someone else. We've all sinned. I've sinned. You've sinned. We've all sinned. And in Romans 1, 18, Paul says, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. " Our wickedness suppresses the truth. This idea that there is some brand of sin that hurts only you, it is not found in the Bible. Sin suppresses the truth. It suppresses the truth for others. Whenever anybody sins, they are less passionate about the truth when it is in regard to their sin. Let's sort of let that one slide because, you know, they know it's something they're struggling with. Well, that hurts others more than you and I realize. Our wickedness suppresses the truth for others. But there's another idea here in this verse. It also suppresses the truth in our own lives. We try to hide from the truth by piling wickedness on top of the truth. Now, I know most of us would say that the sins that we have aren't really wicked sins. They're just like little sins or kind of sins. But remember how God sees it. God sees that our sin, however we might brand it, keeps us from him. And so the wrath of God is revealed against sin. As we walk through Romans chapters one through three, we're going to see Paul talk again and again about the fact that everyone has sinned. The immoral have sinned, he talks about at the end of chapter one. The judgmental have sinned, he talks about in chapter two, the first half. The second half of chapter two into chapter three, he says, even those who think they are moral have sinned. Those who are pleasure seekers have sinned, but those also who think that they're trying to live for the right but are doing it for selfish means and by selfish means and for selfish motives, Paul says that's also sin. To read through these verses, Romans chapter one, verses 18 to 23, it just sort of clearly says the facts. God's made it plain that there is a God. You can see it in creation and so none of us have an excuse. None of us can say, "I didn't know, I didn't understand. " Oh, we can say it, but God sees our hearts. He knows. Everyone you meet knows there's a God because God's made it plain in everything that he's made. I didn't say that, God said that. These verses just plainly state the facts. Although we knew God, we didn't glorify him as God. We knew, but we chose not to glorify him as God. We chose to do something different. Down in verse 22, we claim to be wise, but we became foolish. We'd all like to think that we know it all, but in our claims to be wise, we become foolish. And so the Bible says in verse 23 that we end up exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images, just things. We exchange God's glory for things, for stuff. It is so easy to surround yourself with things, thinking that somehow they'll bring comfort or meaning or significance to our lives. Every one of us knows that they don't. It's in God's love. It's in God's glory that we find meaning and significance for life. You know, as I read these verses about sin, about my sin, your sin, they lead me to think about two great tragedies of our time. The first great tragedy is some who live moral lives, even though they don't know Jesus. They know the truth of the Bible enough to know the right way to live, to try to live a moral life when it comes to how they handle their finances or the way that they treat their kids or their wife. They know the morality of the Bible. They just don't know the Jesus of the Bible, not personally. That's a tragedy. Jesus expresses that tragedy when he says that if we just live for doing the right thing in life, we're going to get to heaven and say, "Jesus, I did all kinds of good things. " And he'll look at us and say, "But I never knew you. " Morality without a relationship with Jesus Christ in its end, this may be shocking to hear, in its end is selfishness because it is self-centered morality, thinking, "I can do it on my own. God did not make me. He did not make you to live life on our own strength and power. " And if you're trying to do that, God calls that kind of morality selfishness. It's a tragedy, but there's a second great tragedy, not just those who try to live moral lives even though they don't know Jesus. The other, and I think greater tragedy is those who live immoral lives even though they do know Jesus Christ. There's all kinds of excuses that we might have for doing that. It might be the excuse of knowing that we're already forgiven. It might be that we think, "Well, God will certainly understand. " It might be the excuse of some pain that's come into our lives or the excuse that other Christians act that way. But the truth of the matter is the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. When I, as a follower of Jesus Christ, decide to live life selfishly and for myself and then let that become the characteristic quality of my life, I'm not only suffering because I feel the loss of fellowship with Jesus, but also others are suffering. They don't have the difference to see in me, the difference that Jesus Christ is with all of his power working to make through his Spirit in my life. If you are trying to live a moral life without the power of Jesus Christ, you don't have to do that anymore. Let me invite you as we pray together just to pray a very simple prayer. Just say, "Jesus Christ, I realize right here, right now, I don't have to do this on my own strength and power. Thank you that you came into this world to offer me the strength to live the kind of life that you want me to live. I'm tired of trying to do it on my own and I realize now I wasn't made to try to do it on my own. And so Jesus, I accept you, your strength, your power, your forgiveness, your leadership, your lordship into my life. You might need to pray a different prayer and simply pray, "Jesus Christ, I am sorry for those times when I've taken sin for granted and acted as if it's no big deal. I realize as I hear these verses from Romans, the depth of pain, God, that you have over the sin that hurts your children. So right now I tell you, I'm sorry. I thank you for the forgiveness that comes in Jesus Christ and as I pray this prayer of confession, I pray it with gratefulness because God, I don't have to live with the burden of this sin. Jesus has lifted it. When I read about the wrath of God in Romans, I also remember the love of God in Jesus Christ and I am thankful for your love. In Jesus' name, Amen. Tomorrow we're going to look together at Romans chapter 1 verses 24 to 32.