God's Wrath Against Wickedness
T. G. Horton. Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;… I. THE WORLD'S ABOUNDING WICKEDNESS. 1. Its exhibition. (1) Men have renounced their Creator, receiving His gifts without acknowledging His kindness, and wilfully withholding from Him both homage and thanks. (2) The renunciation of Jehovah soon led to gross and palpable idolatry. Men must worship something; and when they refused to acknowledge God, they were driven to find substitutes for Him. For awhile they were content to adore the works of His hands; but ere long they set up the works of their own. So low did they sink that they worshipped images of themselves. Nothing has been too mean, or too obscene, for man to worship. He has taken and set up for his god that which he should only have shrunk from in disgust or cast away with shame. (3) With idolatry is connected — (a) The most reckless profligacy of manners. (b) Abandonment to every selfish and malignant passion. 2. Its guiltiness. It was wilful. Men had the truth, but stifled it in their unrighteousness; and therefore they were "without excuse." The race began with a sufficiency of Divine knowledge; but it interfered with their bad passions and propensities, and so they resolved to adapt their theology to their base practices. This disposition, started at an early period, was maintained by every succeeding generation. In each age the light diminished; but still in each enough remained to convict the human conscience of wrong. "God left not Himself without witness." Ever since the creation of the world His "eternal power and Divine supremacy" have been displayed in the material universe. Besides which, other means of religious instruction have always been accessible. Once in Judaism, and since in Christianity, God has maintained a testimony for Himself. Hence the wickedness of the world brings with it an infinite culpability. II. GOD'S ANGER REVEALED AGAINST IT. 1. Its mode. This is various. It was declared of old by the prophets. It was displayed in the great crises of the world's history, as the Deluge, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and the downfall of Babylon, etc. Besides, there were the acknowledged miseries of life bewailed by philosophers and poets; could these be pondered by the thoughtful without the conviction that God was "angry with the wicked every day"? Above all there was death. Was it not in His wrath that the Almighty consumed the nations? All these evidences of God's anger, backed by the internal monitions of every man's conscience, were patent to all long before the time of Paul, but they had all been cast into the shade by a still mightier and more convincing demonstration furnished by the gospel of Christ. 2. Its burden. The thing revealed is that He hates sin, and is resolved severely to punish those who practise it. Each individual who persists in his iniquity will die, and after death be judged, condemned, and banished into "the outer darkness," etc. So also there is a day of wrath appointed for the world at large. Conclusion: Let the subject — 1. Convince you of sin. 2. Inspire you with salutary fear. 3. Turn you to the gospel of Christ. (T. G. Horton.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; WEB: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,