Title Forsaken / Romans 1:24-27
People live with a sensitive reaction to blessings and curses. Because they believe that blessings are good and curses are bad, they live their lives hoping that only good things will be given to them somehow. The same goes for believers. Do you not want God to pick out all the bad things in your life and give you only the good ones? Of course, God will lead us toward the blessing, not the curse. It cannot be a God who leads his people into a curse. However, the problem is that even though God leads us to blessings, the people who are being led do not recognize them as blessings. Since there is a separate blessing that humans want, it is not recognized as a blessing unless it is the one that I want. The foolishness of not being able to distinguish between blessings and curses is that those who claim to be God's people live with envy of Gentiles who have nothing to do with God. It can be said that this is the greatest foolishness of a believer.
As believers, to envy non-believers for doing well is to envy their curse. Strangers are people under the curse, regardless of whether they succeeded in the world and made a lot of money or became powerful, and they are going to hell. However, believers are those who will go to heaven because of their faith, regardless of whether they have failed in the world and have fallen into a lowly life. However, if you say you know this but are envious of the successes of the Gentiles, can you really say that you are a believer? Are you happy to make money and be successful? Then, as long as you make a lot of money and be successful, you are in the compound, regardless of whether you are a foreigner or a believer? This is nonsense.
In this way, even though they say they are believers, they cannot distinguish between what is a blessing and what is a curse, so they show the foolishness of envying the Gentiles. Therefore, today, you must realize what is true blessing and what is curse, wish to live in true blessing, and become believers who rejoice and give thanks with true blessing.
First, verse 18 says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” If you follow these words, it means that God's wrath has already appeared on this earth from heaven. In other words, the world is already under the wrath of God. Then look around your world. Can you really see the wrath of God? If God's wrath has already been revealed to the world, it must be shown to you. If you don't see it, you have to say it's because you don't know what blessings and curses are.
Some people even refer to God's wrath against the world as 'AIDS'. It is said that because people are so sexually promiscuous, God was angry and gave him a disease called 'AIDS'. Or, disasters such as floods and earthquakes are said to be the wrath of God. So, are those who do not have AIDS out of wrath? Are the areas that were not subjected to floods or earthquakes excluded from the wrath? We should not think of God's wrath as a visible disease or natural disaster. God's wrath has no regional or individual distinction. Wrath is given to all equally. Because all human beings live in ungodliness and unrighteousness toward God.
So what is wrath? The wrath of God is as it is said in verse 24, "Therefore God gave them over to uncleanness according to the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies to one another." In other words, he left people to live as they please. This is wrath. In verse 26 it says, 'You have left me,' and in verse 28 it says, 'You have left me.' What happens when you leave them alone is that they dishonor each other's bodies (24), worship and serve the creation more than the Creator (25), and deviate from the law of creation, and women take women and men take men ( 26,27), wickedness of fire, greed, evil time, murder, conflict, fraud, vicious slander, hate, insult, pride, pride, disobedience to parents (29-31)
If these are phenomena that appear as a result of human beings who were abandoned by God's wrath and lived according to their own will, then who would have escaped from God's wrath? To be abandoned means to be independent of God. In other words, he has become a person who moves everything according to his own thoughts, plans, and wills, without God's interference and control. All human thoughts, plans, and wills are built around one's own desires. Ultimately, it means that God has left people to live according to his own desires. This is the state of man under the wrath of God.
So, how do those under God's wrath live? Everyone lives their own way. Based on God's Word, we examine whether it is true or wrong, and we diligently move toward the direction of our own desires, rather than moving the direction of our lives accordingly. He doesn't like anyone's interference, and he lives only to fulfill his desires. With this, they say that God has abandoned it. And it speaks of this under the wrath of God.
Then, when you look at the world from this point of view, who are you living with the wrath of God? In a word, he is a person who lives his own way. Not only those who don't go to church, but even if they do go to church, if they live according to their own greed and thoughts, they too are under wrath.
At the end of verse 27, it says, 'He received a due recompense for their wrongdoing.' This does not mean, as mentioned above, that you have 'AIDS' as a reward for having a homosexual relationship. If you think that way, people who are not in a homosexual relationship can have a proud heart. What we are talking about here is how humans really live when God has left the aliens behind to our shameful lusts. It is living according to one's own heart, greed, and emotions. In the end, the wrath of man against sin is to let go, and by letting go, man will receive the reward of living according to his will.
Perhaps you will say that it is retribution and wrath for what sin. But look at what the end is when you leave the humans as they are. The last is destruction. This is retribution for sin. Therefore, the very fact that the people of the world are working hard for their own greed in their own way is that they have already received the wrath of God and are living.
Now let's think about ourselves. Today's message is not to teach us, 'You shouldn't do that.' We, too, are sinners just like the rest of the world, and because we are descendants of Adam who were born with the same nature, we are no different from them. If so, then we too are beings who have no choice but to live our lives as we want, led by our own greed, and show all kinds of filthiness. Can't we just say we shouldn't do that? Impossible.
What God asks of us is whether we also have an appearance that only appears in those who have been abandoned by God. As I said before, it means living my own life. I live in the world according to my thoughts and desires. I ask if there is such a thing as living according to my lusts, rather than acting while being directed and governed by God's Word.