Transcript
Introduction
Last week, we started a series through the Book of Romans. We're titling it All About God because we notice how the Book of Romans speaks to us powerfully and pointedly about who God is and how he wants to work in our lives.
Last week, we ended with verses 16 and 17, which is really one of the more majestic summit peaks of scripture. It just sort of lifts us up and gives us a very high view of who God is and what he wants to do in our lives. So though we're really going to begin our study this morning looking at verse 18, I want to take a look at verses 16 and 17 because that's where we ended last week. Let me read it to you. Paul writes and he says:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
Well, we could just spend a few weeks talking about verses 16 and 17 and our hearts would be really full with it. It's very rich food. Paul's not ashamed of the good news. God has good news for the human race and that good news is the power of God. It doesn't contain the power of God. It doesn't talk about the power of God. It is the power of God for salvation.
And Paul was so excited about that message, he wanted to get it across to everybody, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. And that message was so spectacular because it reveals to us the righteousness of God. Not in the sense that here's the standard and you don't measure up to it, but it reveals to us the righteousness of God in the sense that it brings to us the righteousness of God. It's communicated to us by faith. And I don't know if you can tell by the way I'm talking about it, it's exciting, it's thrilling.
The Music Turns Dark
And then comes verse 18, because Paul totally shifts gears. It's as if verses 16 and 17 are like an overture. They set the stage for what's going to be the symphony throughout the rest of the Book of Romans. But now the music gets very dark. It's in a minor chord beginning at verse 18.
Because after declaring the great salvation, the good news of salvation that's extended to all who believe, and the just shall live by faith, after explaining that, now Paul wants to tell us how we need this salvation. Most people don't feel like they need to be saved. We think of the preacher who's calling out for people, and they need to repent, they need to be saved. Most people don't sense any great need to be saved. We think, man, that's great, and I hope that transient on skid row hears that message because that man needs to be saved. But we look at ourselves and we have a comfortable middle-class life, and we're not rich but we're not poor either, and the family's doing okay, got problems just like everybody else does, but things are alright. We think, what do I really need to be saved from?
Paul will tell us. Fasten your seatbelts.
Now let me tell you what I hope the effect will be from this, what I want God to do in your life through this. I want, through this morning study, and really the same theme is going to be carried on the next couple of weeks because Paul's going to talk about this through the middle of chapter 3, at the end of it all, I want you to love Jesus more. And I really think you will. You know why? Because Jesus stated a principle that's very powerful and very relevant. He said, he who's forgiven much, loves much.
Jesus wasn't giving any revolutionary principle when he said that. We all understand that. If I owe somebody $10 and I owe another person $1,000, and they both forgive me the debt, I'm going to feel gratitude towards the person who I owe $10 to. I'm going to be absolutely in love with the person who forgave me the $1,000 debt. We know sometimes our love for Jesus is cold because we just don't really understand how much he's forgiven us. And every one of us, even the best among us here this morning, he's forgiven us far more than we ever understand.
So here we go, we fasten our seatbelts. I'm going to read from verse 18 all the way to the end of the chapter because I want you to catch the flow. I want you to catch the impact of this. Imagine yourself in the first century and you're in the church in Rome, and, well, we just got a letter from the Apostle Paul and the pastor's going to read it to us on Sunday morning. Well, here we are.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 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. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but 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 beasts, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness and the lusts of their heart, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do the things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Lord God, make your word known to us this morning.
The God We'd Prefer
In verse 18 it's as if Paul pulls back a curtain and shows us God in a way that maybe we didn't want to see him. We'd prefer to think of God as nothing but nice, the kind grandfather in heaven, in the rocking chair, not on a throne, who just smiles on everything down in the earth. We almost wish God's motto was not "holiness unto the Lord," but "que sera sera," whatever will be will be. Everybody makes mistakes, so go ahead, do whatever you please. But that isn't the God of the Bible. Sometimes we wish it would be, but all of our wishing won't make it so.
Instead, as Paul says in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The idea is simple, but it's sobering. It's not that we have a hard time understanding, we just have a hard time comprehending, and the message is simply this: that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the human race, and we deserve it.
Sometimes we object to the idea of the wrath of God because we make it equivalent to human anger. Think about our anger. Our anger is almost always sinful. I know, we like to talk about righteous anger. Come on now, how often is our anger righteous anger? Sometimes we say it is, but it's so rarely righteous anger. Our anger is almost always motivated by selfish personal reasons. It's almost always motivated by desire for revenge. But never is that the case with God. In him, his wrath is completely righteous in character. It's not passionless, but it's righteous. God has never been angry at anybody without just and good reason, and without exhausting his patience, without exhausting his mercy. Friends, simply put, the anger of God is not like human anger.
Saved from God Himself
And so when Paul says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, we take it seriously. It's the flip side of what he spoke of in verses 16 and 17. In Romans 1:16-17, he laid out the glorious plan of salvation. Now he shows us the need of salvation. And what do we need to be saved from? More than anything, we must be saved from the wrath of God.
I know Jesus came, he came to save us from our own sins. That's one of the promises made to Mary. The angel Gabriel said of Jesus, that you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And we need to be saved from our sins, don't we? And we need to be saved from this corrupt world. All this world is corrupt, we need to be saved from it, we need to be rescued from a corrupt world, and Jesus does that as well. And we need to be saved from the power of the devil, don't we? We've got a spiritual adversary out there who would love to crush us, and we need to be saved and delivered from his power.
But friends, more than we need to be saved from our own sin, more than we need to be saved from the world, more than we need to be saved from the devil himself, we need to be saved from God. That might startle some of you. Think of it this way, though: Jesus is the best friend you could ever have. You can never have a greater friend than God himself. But if you set yourself in opposition to God, you can never have a worse enemy than God. So when we set ourselves against God, the wrath of God is rightly revealed from heaven against us. We need to be saved from the righteous wrath of God that we deserve.
And before I go on, let me just say that that's what Jesus came to do. He hung on the cross and took the punishment that we deserved. He took the wrath of God upon himself, the righteous wrath of God. I deserved it, but it was laid on him. And he suffered the agony that I should have been suffering. And that's how we find forgiveness. Friends, I needed to be rescued from that wrath, and so do all of us.
See, the wrath of God is why we need salvation. Unless there's something that we need to be saved from, there's no point in talking about salvation. So Paul, in this section, which lasts through the middle of chapter 3, he's not so much talking about the good news. We're kind of going to walk across the Mojave Desert together over the next several weeks. We're going to go down deeper into the depths of depraved humanity than we ever really wanted to go. You need to put on your hazardous material gear when you come to church. This is going to be ugly. It's going to be smelly. But friends, it's necessary, because we need to be real about our condition.
The fallen human condition is like a man or a woman who is full of cancer and goes to the doctor, and the doctor just tells him, "Boy, you're looking great. You're losing a few pounds. Man, you look better than ever before." No. But God is the faithful doctor, and he comes, and he gives us a diagnosis, and he says, "Your body is wracked with cancer, and you need to be rescued."
Ungodliness and Unrighteousness
Now why? Why is the human race guilty before God? He says in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. If you like to mark in your Bible, underline those two words, ungodliness and unrighteousness, because everything else in the rest of this chapter is just an explanation of that.
Ungodliness refers to our sin against God. Unrighteousness refers to our sins against other people. And that's how we sin, isn't it? We sin against God, we sin against other people. Jesus boiled down the whole law, every commandment of God into two commands. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and when we fail to do that, that's ungodliness. And then he also said, and here's the second commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. When we fail to do that, that's unrighteousness. Ungodliness and unrighteousness.
Well, how is it expressed? First he's going to focus on the ungodliness part. Verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
God Has Shown Himself
In other words, God has shown them. God has revealed himself to humanity. Isn't that amazing? Many people don't think that. They think that God is hiding himself, that he's invisible, that God is like the wizard in the Wizard of Oz, he's behind the curtain and never shows himself to anybody. My friends, no. God has revealed himself. He's revealed himself majestically. You can't miss it. As a matter of fact, he's revealed himself to every human heart that has ever walked this earth.
You say, well, where? How? Look at it right here, verse 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. As I've shown you all about me, God says, look outside in creation, or look at the starry sky at night. You see, there is a God so big and so majestic that he made the heavens. You look at the tiny spider's web and you see how it's ordered and how it's all a geometric pattern, and you wonder, how could that spider ever do it? There's a God of detail and precision and design who made that spider.
If you are sophisticated enough and can get the electron microscopes out and do all the studies and testing, you look at the DNA profile, you see that God is so smart and so amazing in the specificity of his design and his ability to create things that we're just absolutely amazed. At one time, scientists talked about things such as simple cells. They found out now there's no such thing. Even the so-called simplest cell is an extremely complex machine that works with amazing precision. And God designed it all.
You look at the cheetah as it runs through the wilderness, you go, oh, an amazing God made something that fast. And then you look at the creativity of God, there's the elephant and there's the giraffe. Not only is God creative, he's got a sense of humor as you look at those things.
Now you can't miss it unless you're trying to. That's the point. Oh, it's out there, it's written everywhere. You can't miss it unless you're trying to. But the tragedy of fallen man is that we try to. We work very hard at it. Because ever since the fall, we want to hide from God. That's what happened to Adam and Eve, right? When they became aware of their own sinful state, they hid from God. They didn't used to do that before. It used to be that when God appeared to them in the midst of the garden, they couldn't wait to get together with God. But then, when they became aware of their own sinfulness, they wanted to hide from God. They wanted to keep him at a distance. They hid from him.
And we're the same way today. I'm looking out on an audience full of sons of Adam and daughters of Eve who are fallen. And in our fallenness, we want to push God away.
Pushing God Away
Can I just digress for a moment and make an application right here to this congregation? Maybe some of you have been pushing God away, and you did it just in the last 45 minutes. During worship, instead of yielding your heart to God and entering in with your heart and with your voice to the Lord, you essentially did this to God. You said, "Stay away. Stay away from me, God. Not too far, but keep a distance. I don't want to be too close to you. It makes me uncomfortable. I don't know what you might do with me, God. I don't know if I can trust you enough to be so close to me."
Don't you see how God wants us to put all of that away and abandon ourselves to him and say, "Lord, I can't be too close to you. You love me so much, I trust you so much, I can come so close to you that I don't need to push you away at all." But there's something in this instinct that we have as fallen men and fallen women, that we have the knowledge of God. That's not the problem. Our problem isn't ignorance. Our problem is that we've been suppressing the truth.
Look at it there, verse 18, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, because God has shown it to them. Friends, because of creation, we all know God. That's not the problem.
Look at it in verse 21. Here's the problem: because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. The problem is not that man didn't know God, but that he did know him and refused to glorify him as God. Therefore mankind is without excuse.
Look at those last two words of verse 20. Aren't those terrifying words? Without excuse. Oh, we're good at excuses, aren't we? Man, I know I am. Sometimes that's when I'm at my creative best, when it's at making excuses. Look at that, and it's like a cold splash of water in the face: without excuse.
See friends, we didn't glorify God. We transformed our conception of him into forms and images that were more comfortable to our corrupt and darkened hearts. We knew God, but we didn't glorify him, we didn't thank him, we didn't honor him as we should.
Knowledge Without Holy Practice
Friends, please notice this: that this text clearly tells us that your knowledge of God is of no use if it doesn't lead to holy practice. So you know something about God, you have some of the facts straight about God, you know what the Bible says about God. If it does not lead to holy practice, it does you no good whatsoever. Well, there's the professor of theology over there, and oh, he knows it all, he can split the theological hairs over doctrines, but it doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what you know, unless it leads you to glorify God and to be thankful. As a matter of fact, such knowledge increases your judgment before God if it does not lead you to glorify him and to be more thankful.
Now look at what it says there, verse 22, 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 beasts and creeping things.
God's given us this information all about him. He's put it all around us in creation and in our conscience. He's spread it all about us. He says, "Here I am." He says, "No Lord, I don't want to see it, I don't want it, I push it away, God." And then, not content to push God away, we bring in a replacement.
A Replacement God That Looks Like Us
The replacement God that we put in, he looks surprisingly like us, doesn't he? Look what it says right there in verse 23, changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man. And so we start chipping away at a statue of God and it looks a lot like us. There it is, chip, chip, chip, the nose, the face, it's just like us.
And then it even gets perverted into other things. You see in verse 23, and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. You think of the idolatry among ancient pagan cultures, and they would worship the snake, they would worship the lion, they would worship the eagle, and there it is, the bowing down worship, and Paul's just shaking his head and he goes, I can't believe how it's degenerated. They don't even worship man, who's at least made in the image of God. Now they're worshiping snakes and they're worshiping animals.
Of course, we're way more sophisticated today. We worship bank accounts and cars and celebrities. You'd be better off worshiping snakes than the celebrity worship that's around our culture today. It's the same instinct, it's the same fallen corrupt heart that's in us. Paul is speaking to us just as much today as he was thousands of years ago, and that describes us: professing to be wise, they became fools. The fact is that once a man rejects the truth of God and Jesus Christ, he'll fall for anything foolish, and he'll put his trust in far more feeble and fanciful systems than in what he rejects from God.
God Gave Them Up
Now God had a response to this. Verse 24, therefore God, okay, God saw what man did. God saw that man received the knowledge of God, but then pushed it away, and then put in a replacement God, and then God did something in response. What did God do? Verse 24, therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness and the lust of their heart, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.
Catch this carefully. What did God do in response to the way that man pushed him away, to the way that man put in a replacement God? In God's righteous wrath and judgment, he gave us up to the sin that our evil hearts desired. He allowed us to experience the self-destructive result of sin. This phrase, God gave them up, it's so important that Paul repeats it three times in this passage. The idea is, God says, well, if that's the course you want to go, I'll let you go that course, and this is my judgment unto you.
It's like the child: "Oh mommy, I want to play out in the street, let me play out in the street, let me play out in the street," and there's cars whizzing by at 50 miles an hour on the street. It would only be the judgment of the mother that would permit the child to do that. See friends, there's a strange dynamic here. We make a mistake when we think that it's God's mercy or kindness that allows man to continue in sin. It's actually his wrath, it's actually his chastisement upon it.
Haven't you ever wished, haven't you ever prayed this prayer, "God, don't let me sin in that way anymore, just stop me." Now, sometimes he does. I could tell you some entertaining stories from my own life, embarrassing but entertaining. You want to sin and God won't let you. I bet all of you have a story like that to share, you wanted to sin but God wouldn't let you. But that's just the grace of God at work there, isn't it? God just giving us what we deserve, he'll let us go that terrible way, he'll let us go and receive what our sin deserves. And when it says God gave them up, that's an example of judgment, friends.
And then in response to that, if you look at what we do, verse 25, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. In all of our rebellion, we let go of the truth and we take hold of a lie. And actually it's the lie that in any way the creature is greater or better than the creator.
Sin's Own Penalty
But then he goes on and he describes the vile things that God gives us up over to as a race. Let me read it again here, verse 26:
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Paul's telling us that sin has a consequence, that when you follow the course of sin, there's a consequence to be paid, and in this case he's using homosexuality, both female and male, as an example of God giving them up to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves.
And this is one of the clearest passages of scripture in the entire Bible that speaks to the sin of homosexuality. It's a very controversial issue in our culture today, isn't it? It's an issue where we understand that there are many activists and leaders in our present day culture that are absolutely committed to making society not only accept homosexuality, but approve of it. And so it's a difficult thing. It's a difficult thing when you see what they do in schools, where in some school districts in our nation, they have weeks and programs and courses of study where, again, it's not a matter of teaching tolerance or acceptance of somebody, but approval of what they do.
So might I say that anybody who believes the Bible must understand that homosexual sin is sin. And Paul uses it as such a clear example of this, of God giving them over, and the tragedy of it is such a clear example of where you receive in yourself the penalty of your own error. Paul speaks of a penalty for homosexual conduct that has within itself a penalty, like all sin has a self-destructive aspect to it. It carries within itself its own penalty. Sometimes it's the penalty of disease, which is the consequence of violating nature's order, but sometimes it's just the penalty of rebellion, resulting in the spiritual emptiness that fallen man knows too well, and all of its ramifications.
I don't like using the term "gay" to refer to homosexuals, because I think it's a loaded term. It's wishful thinking. It sends the message that there's something essentially happy and carefree about the homosexual lifestyle when there is not. It receives in itself the penalty that's due.
However, I stand before you as your pastor, and I must take pains to say as well that I am also grieved and burdened at the way that much of the Christian community responds to homosexuals and to those who have an agenda to advance the acceptance and the approval of homosexuality in our culture. Friends, we recognize it as being sin, but sir, your adultery is sin as well. Ma'am, your immorality is sin just as much, and God doesn't look through the whole catalog of sin and say, "Well, these people are the sinners that we really need to be concerned about and pass laws against, and these sinners aren't the ones."
When I think of or speak to somebody who's steeped in the sin of homosexuality, what fills my heart is the great awareness, I'm a sinner too. I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, let's come to Jesus and find victory over our sin. And maybe the things that you're tempted by aren't the same things that I'm tempted by, the things I'm tempted by aren't the same things that you're tempted by, but we're all tempted, we're all attracted to sin, every one of us. It's because we're sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. So I want to hold forth the shining light of love and hope and grace. But at the same time, I won't personally bow to any movement in our culture that says that churches or anybody else must approve of any kind of sinful lifestyle. If they passed a law that said that I'd be thrown in jail if I spoke out against the sin of adultery in our community, or the sin of greed, or the sin of covetousness, I'd just preach what the Bible says and let the chips fall where they may. The same holds true with any sin that the Bible mentions.
A Sinner Too
But I want you to listen to this list. Verse 28:
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.
We're all in that list somewhere, folks. The point of Romans 1 isn't to single out any group of people and to say they're sinners. It's to look at each one of us and to say, you're a sinner. You need salvation in Jesus Christ. You need to be rescued from the righteous wrath of God against you. You deserve it. If God were to pour out his wrath upon fallen man and send him directly to hell, he'd be giving him just what he deserves. That would be justice. God loves us so much that he gave the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to save us from what we deserve.
Have you ever dealt with somebody who severely failed before you, and they've made a mess of things? And the tendency is to say, you made your bed, now lie in it, it's your mess, now swim in it. God sure could have said that to us, didn't he? But he didn't. God could have come to us and God did come to us, I should say, and he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die on our behalf.
Friends, we're all on this list, and my greatest fear this morning is that you would hear it this morning, and in your mind, you're thinking, "Oh, I am so glad my husband is here because he needs to hear this." And you're thinking, "Man, I'm getting that tape. My co-workers, oh boy, they need to hear that one." It's you. It's me. I wish I could just have this as a one-on-one conversation with each one of you. Everybody else is gone, there's no tapes, there's nobody else beside you. It's just you and me and the Word of God. This is me, and this is you, and we need Jesus.
The Police and the Ambulance
As we come to the end of chapter 1, you know what it looks like to me? It looks like a big car wreck. Looks like a 20-car pileup on the I-5. It's just a mess. Now whenever there's a traffic collision, certain people come out to the collision, don't they? The police always roll out, they're there. And then the paramedics, the ambulance comes, doesn't it? But there's a difference, they're out there to do two entirely different things, aren't they?
The police are there, and the police have the job, who's right and who's wrong. "All right, you're wrong, and you're so wrong, we're going to take you to jail. You're wrong, and we're going to hold you to account for it. You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong." That's what the police are there for.
Then you've got the paramedics, or the guys in the ambulance. They come along, they don't care who's right, they don't care who's wrong, they're there to pick up the fallen, hurt bodies, and to take them, and to bring healing. Now, then again, you've got the lawyers who come afterwards, and I don't know where they fit into this whole illustration.
But I know this: I know that the law is like the police. Oh, it'll come, and it'll tell you who's right and who's wrong. "Yes, officer, yes, officer, yes." That's all you can say. But I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is like the ambulance. The ambulance needs to deal with people who are hurting and know they're hurting. Here's the guy with the severed arm, and the blood spurting out of the severed arm, and the ambulance guy comes up, "I've got to take you to the hospital, let's get this thing." "No, I'm fine, fine, I'll go home." That man won't find any help until he sees and submits himself to the care of that ambulance. The ambulance is there to bring help.
I'm so thankful that God brought the ambulance for us. Maybe some of you need to get into that ambulance here this morning. And might I say, too, that I want the ministry of this church to be the ministry of an ambulance, not the police. When we encounter hurting, broken lives, we're there to bring restoration and healing, we're there to show them the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's a lot of other people out there being the police, let them do that job. Let's be the ambulance. Let's receive it from the Lord together this morning.
Closing Appeal
Well, I wish I could tell you that next week it gets prettier, but it doesn't. I don't say that to push you away from coming back next week, but you know what? You're going to love God more because you're going to see how much you've been forgiven. And I guarantee it, it'll make you love God more.
But I can't leave it without thinking this morning that maybe there's some here who need to get it right with Jesus Christ for the first time. Maybe you just don't know if you're really saved. You just don't know if you've been rescued from this wrath that you deserve. If you don't know, you need to get it set straight this morning. Don't go another day. I don't want to sound overdramatic about this, but you don't know how many more days you have. The transition from this world to eternity comes at very unexpected times for some. Today is the day for you to make certain that you're rescued from this wrath that we all deserve. And so you can make a commitment to Jesus Christ right now and put your trust in him.
Let's pray together.
Father, that's what we want. Lord, we feel like we're just strewn about in the wreckage of this big pileup. And Jesus, won't you come and heal us? And won't you come and bring your salvation to us? And I pray especially, God, for those this morning who don't have an assurance that they're rescued from this wrath that we deserve. Lord, I pray that you would either confirm to them that they are rescued or, Lord, drive them to trust in you right now and to pray a simple prayer of surrender and trust in Jesus.
You can pray it like this: Lord Jesus, I trust that you took the punishment that I deserved on the cross, and you gave your life for me on the cross, and so I give my life to you now. I do this, Lord, not just to get a debt paid, but to start a new life with you. Breathe your new life into me, God, and rescue me. Bring me your salvation in Jesus.
If you pray that prayer, God will save you. God will restore your life and bring great, great things into your life. So Lord, give us assurance, give us peace, and send us out of this room as an ambulance corps. Lord, we get angry, we get frustrated when the agenda of sinful things and sinful people seems pushed all around us, but Lord, raise us up as shining lights to change individual lives. Use us for that, Lord. Use us by your power, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.