Romans 1:18 (#4.2024.11.24)

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:02

Hi. If you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the bible to discover rock solid truth for life and living from the God of the bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go to the show notes and download the blank insight sheet. Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on how you're listening to this, there will be a link to the episode website at beholdingbibletruth.com, and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode.

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:47

So summers at the ocean, sure, were part of our growing up. So every not every summer, but, regularly, we'd go over there. I can remember at first, the ocean was just a salty water, you know, and you were kinda, you know, excited and and and afraid at the same time going in into the ocean. You know? And then as you got it, you know, you you started to love it even more. And then we learned about in Jersey, riptides. Riptides are scary because you can they can literally, pull you out. And, so you learned the power of the ocean at the same time. And the more time goes on, the more I'm intrigued by the ocean only to find that the ocean is not just salty water.

Scott Keffer [: 00:01:35

It's not only around land, but literally, it's 36 1,000 miles at its deepest part. And there's all sorts of different lay you know, critters and and life forms and stuff going on in the light and in the darkness as well. And it reminds me of God in his word. You know, scripture says at first, I've written unto you young children because you know that you are that your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. That's all you know. The water is salty, and it's right there. And it comes in, and it's wet, and it's gold. Right? And as you go, you realize there are depths to God's word because God's word is revealing his character.

Scott Keffer [: 00:02:22

And I think the hardest part in looking at on a regular basis the, the righteousness of God, the glory of God, the nature of God, all that he is that we come with a sense of, oh, I know the ocean. I know what the ocean is. You know? Salty. It's cold. It's steep. There's some tides. I kinda get that. So the hardest part is we go through the scripture is each time to set aside, oh, I know everything about this.

Scott Keffer [: 00:02:50

Because as we go there, you think, oh, I know this. I know what the answers are. And to set them aside and to see it afresh. And that's what we're gonna do today as we, as we look at God's word. We're gonna look at one verse today. Stand with me if you will. We'll read this together. Romans 118.

Scott Keffer [: 00:03:15

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. The word of the Lord. Thank god. I know what you're doing right now. You're calculating if we go one verse at a time through Romans. The 2 can't live till age 319. Hopefully, that's not the case, but I think there's enough depth here. Because the introduction to this is this sense that that the spirit of God to the apostle Paul is saying, here's the gospel.

Scott Keffer [: 00:03:54

And the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. The gospel I know the gospel. We talked about it last time. I know the gospel, right, or spiritual laws. Right? And the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. And he's saying in order to understand the righteousness of God, we need to go deeper, and we're gonna look at an unpopular subject, and that is the wrath of god. The wrath of god. So write down what you believe is the wrath of god.

Scott Keffer [: 00:04:24

Define it. What is god's wrath? Define what is God's wrath to you. Dang. How come he couldn't use multiple choice? So, normally, in a group kinda setting, you would ask people, so share some answers. No offense to you, but when it comes to God, your opinion, my opinion is not what's important. And that's oftentimes where we get off track is understanding what's someone's opinion versus someone else's opinion. It's to go to god's word and kinda clarify. Here's another question for you to answer in your head.

Scott Keffer [: 00:05:04

Is god's wrath a good thing or a bad thing? You know, think about it. You might say depending. You might say depending. Depending. God's wrath. God's wrath. Literally, the Greek word means violent passion. Violent passion.

Scott Keffer [: 00:05:27

Justifiable abhorrence, by implication, punishment. That's righteous anger and judgment against sin. Jayapacker said, god's wrath is never the capricious, self indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. See, this is the problem. I always say, what's the difference between who where I am, who I am, how I think, and where god is. Right? Scripture tells us very clearly my favorite illustration of god's ruler. Right? Here we are. Here's how I think.

Scott Keffer [: 00:06:05

Here's the lord god appear. Scripture says there's a difference here. And then they use one of those things, right, to do an algorithmic scale because we couldn't put it on here. He said the difference between here and here is as high as the heavens or above the earth. So far, I think, they're saying, Chris, about 90,000,000,000 light years.

Speaker B [: 00:06:28

Yeah.

Scott Keffer [: 00:06:28

Yeah. About 90,000,000,000, something like that. The distance that a ray of light would travel in 90,000,000,000 years. Let's see. If you turned on a light switch, how far would light travel in one second? You'd have to get in the car, drive 60 miles an hour for about 4 and a half months with never stopping. That's how far light travels in one second. 90,000,000,000 light years. How far is that? I don't know.

Speaker C [: 00:07:06

90,000,000. A

Scott Keffer [: 00:07:07

lot. He says that's the difference between how you think and how god thinks, god's ways. So all we normally do is say the wrath of god, we start here and say, oh, it must be more of what I am or different than what I am, but we always start here, don't we? But scripture says, you have to start here. I always say it's the old Irish joke. You know? You're out in the middle of Ireland, and they asked the farmer, how do you how do you get how do you get across Ireland? What's the capital of Ireland? Dublin. Dublin. How do you get to Dublin? He says, well, if I were going to Dublin, I wouldn't start here. Right? It's and in the mall, right, you have that little dot that says, you are here because otherwise, the map's irrelevant.

Scott Keffer [: 00:07:57

Right? So where are you starting? God says start here. So we tend to start with human wrath and make our thought of, oh, god's wrath must be kind of like mine. No. It's not. It's the necessary the right necessary reaction to objective moral evil. So human wrath, we need to define it. That's next. Human wrath.

Scott Keffer [: 00:08:19

Well, what is human wrath? Human wrath is forceful, often vindictive anger, punishment or vengeance as a manifestation of anger. I'll get them. Alright. Thus, we think of wrath. I'm gonna carry out my wrath against someone. Hell has no fury as a woman's Scorn. Scorn or wrath. Right? Depending on who taught you the phrase.

Scott Keffer [: 00:08:55

Right? That's that idea that's out of it's out of this. Right? So scripture says never take your own revenge. So here, scripture defines how we would confuse wrath. We would tend to think of wrath as revenge Because he says, never take your own revenge. Instead, what do we do? Leave room. Leave room for the wrath of god. So he tells us, this is how humans would perceive the wrath of god. I'm gonna get revenge.

Scott Keffer [: 00:09:31

I'm gonna carry out my own justice. I'm gonna make that person pay for what they've done. Right? That's how we think of wrath. It's important. Your sense of wrath, even if you're a Christian, is gonna be, well, wrath is something to do like revenge. Get them back. Make them pay. Right? So you really understand this is human wrath.

Scott Keffer [: 00:09:55

And what's striking about God's wrath so I would say I I would when when I'm taking people through the Bible, so when you think of the word wrath, think of justice. Think of justice. Right? The carrying out of justice. Right? So if a judge did not carry out a just verdict, what could you call that judge? Unjust. And you would say, what? I would expect a judge to be just. Right? Of course. But if you go through here, it's even more because god's wrath is emotion and action against sin and rebellion. It is both emotion and action.

Scott Keffer [: 00:10:42

Well, that's even scarier because I know my emotions when I want revenge. What what are my emotions? They ain't good. Right? What is it? What are the emotions?

Speaker D [: 00:10:57

Patriot. Hatred,

Scott Keffer [: 00:11:03

seeding kind of. Right? So emotion and emotions are, at least in me, they're out of control sometimes. Right? So this is gonna be the picture as we go through here. You're gonna think it's gone out of control, is he? Right? So let's look at some scripture to do in the old testament. Yet, they tempted, underline that, and Rebel. Rebel. K? So here's the initiating action. They tempted and rebelled against the most high god, and they did not keep his testimonies.

Scott Keffer [: 00:11:42

For they provoked, underlined all of herbs, how'd they provoke him? High places, one of those.

Speaker C [: 00:11:50

All for

Scott Keffer [: 00:11:51

Idols. Yeah. Worship idols and aroused

Speaker B [: 00:11:54

Jealousy.

Scott Keffer [: 00:11:55

This jealousy with their graven images. So when god heard, he was filled with wrath, and he greatly abhorred Israel, his loved nation. So help us, lord, as we go through here. Let's look at some of the words that are translated wrath. The first word is literally the word for nose. Interesting. Nose. So the anger of the lord, that would be nose.

Scott Keffer [: 00:12:37

The nose of the lord burned against them. The nose of the lord burned against them. Of First, we know the lord doesn't have a nose. No. He's a nose. What's it? No. No. No.

Scott Keffer [: 00:12:50

No. No. No. No. No. Sorry about that. That's right. It's a noun.

Scott Keffer [: 00:12:55

Yeah. Nose. Sorry about that. Right? Nose. Isn't that interesting? So we know he does it. So at times, he will use, right, or use the arm of the Lord. Right? Alright. The eye of the Lord, the ear of the Lord.

Scott Keffer [: 00:13:10

He, of course, he doesn't have any of those. Right? Scripture says that he is the blessed and only sovereign. That he alone possesses immortality and he dwells in unapproachable light. No man has seen god at any time. If they would behold god, you would Die. Die. Right? He's he dwells in a consuming light. It'd be like you know, as I said, you you can only get within 4,000,000 miles of the actual sun now because the sun would with its energy and light and power would consume any vessel we could send up there.

Scott Keffer [: 00:13:49

So you think about that. Right? That's a picture of god dwelling in unapproachable life. So the nose of the lord, anger or wrath burned, and he departed. Another word used is the word which literally means heat. It means heat. The intense burning aspect of god's wrath. Pour out your heat on the nations that do not know you. The next is to be enraged or angry.

Scott Keffer [: 00:14:32

To be enraged or angry. Odd word, isn't it? Because, generally, if I'm enraged, I'm out of control. But I have to set that aside and say that's me, but god is enraged. He's enraged with a righteous enragement. Right? He's not out of control. He is in control. It's his response to rebellion and indignation indignation or rage. Again, that's intense anger against sin.

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:20

Or the other is this overflowing anger or his fury. That's the right word in Caleb. Like, god's fury. Outpouring of his justice, his wrath, his righteous indignation against standing. So if you look at those words that we would translate in the English wrath, What do you see? Write down.

Speaker D [: 00:15:51

What do

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:51

you see?

Speaker B [: 00:15:52

It's overwhelming power.

Scott Keffer [: 00:15:56

Immense. Overwhelming power.

Speaker D [: 00:16:00

Great

Speaker C [: 00:16:02

disfavor.

Scott Keffer [: 00:16:03

Great disfavor. Passion. Passion. Hatred. Observe. Discipline. Discipline?

Speaker D [: 00:16:23

That has something I don't wanna be here. There's no warning. I wanna avoid it.

Scott Keffer [: 00:16:32

I don't want that. Right.

Speaker D [: 00:16:34

I don't want that.

Scott Keffer [: 00:16:35

I don't want that. No. Control. Yeah. Too bad because lots of these words seemingly, if I apply these to me, would be out of control. Isn't that interesting? We applied these to me, they would appear like he's out of control.

Speaker C [: 00:16:56

It was credible. Can't even come up with, well, you know, English terms to describe all of that encompassed together.

Scott Keffer [: 00:17:07

Yes. Indescribable. Yes. Because, of course, he is other. And this is the fundamental understanding of God is he is other. He's not like this more, like this different. He's not like this. He is other.

Scott Keffer [: 00:17:23

Right? So in some ways, like him, he is indescribable. He is he is he is, you know, not only uncontainable, but it it it's impossible to describe him, and he's unlike any other. That's why he says, to whom then will you like in me that I should be as equal, unlike any other?

Speaker D [: 00:17:46

I I have a strong reaction.

Scott Keffer [: 00:17:49

Strong reaction.

Speaker D [: 00:17:51

It's a the anger is a reaction. It's not initiating action. You have to start with anger. Strong it's a strong reaction to human failing. That's what it's.

Scott Keffer [: 00:18:03

To sin and to yes. To strong and these are strong words, aren't they? Like, they just they are very strong words. Power under control. Mhmm. Rory said it is unnecessary, and it weakens the biblical concept of the wrath of God to deprive it of its emotional and effective character. In other words, we tend to think about the wrath and the justice of God as unemotional. Right? Just it's justice. Just like strict justice.

Scott Keffer [: 00:18:45

But he's saying if you separate it from the fact that there is emotion in god around this Right? There's emotion to construe god's wrath as simply in his purpose to punish sin or to secure the connection between sin and misery is to equate wrath with it with its effects wrath as a movement within the mind of god. The heart of god and the mind of god has a reaction to sin. Wrath is the holy revulsion. Wrath is the holy revulsion. Holy revulsion. Yes.

Speaker C [: 00:19:33

Just trying to struggle a little bit with this, the first nose, how that how that fits in there, commonly transmitted as anger, wrath. You're talking about physical nose? Mhmm. Nose. And so to me, what does a new nose do? It smells.

Speaker D [: 00:19:52

Mhmm.

Speaker C [: 00:19:52

So maybe that would be that he can sense he can sense the, scent. No matter how how deep or how hidden we think it is in us, he can sense it and has this reaction, and then the realist is justice on it. I I I'm confused within those things.

Scott Keffer [: 00:20:13

Well, you think about, obedience, let's say, is a sweet smelling aroma. Right? Oftentimes, it'll say, not as if god is smelling it, but that sacrifice is a sweet smelling aroma. Right? The indicative of the fact that there is a scent to disobedience. Right?

Speaker C [: 00:20:30

Yes. Notes.

Speaker D [: 00:20:32

Sends

Scott Keffer [: 00:20:32

Yes. Yes. And it's also right in the face of God that that, you know, look at somebody's face. It should show your your countenance. Right? Your countenance, whether it's up or it's down. Right? The anger of the Lord is literally in its face, combination of both.

Speaker B [: 00:20:49

Yeah. Scott, I was thinking along with it, but what's the knowledge

Scott Keffer [: 00:20:53

of it?

Speaker B [: 00:20:53

And I I think of, like, the bull when it's enraged, it, you know, it snorts. It it it comes like that. Wrath comes throughout to its nose, so to speak. And I wonder if that's wrapped up in some of this too that, it's wrapped. It's like an animal's rage almost.

Scott Keffer [: 00:21:17

Yeah. That's a good picture. Have you ever been on the woods the first time you hear deer, snort, a buck snort? That'll scare you right out of your hoots. I had one, like, right behind me. It's like, well, when they snort, right, it's a it's a reaction. You think,

Speaker D [: 00:21:31

oh,

Scott Keffer [: 00:21:32

why? So that's, yeah, that is a good picture. Right? So wrath is the holy revulsion of god's being. I like that. When Mary said it's god's god's nature is responding to sin.