THE WRATH OF YHVH REVEALED – PART 2

Paul tells us that society pays a very heavy price whenever it changes the true view of YHVH. We see a most ominous phrase repeated here again and again: [Wherefore YHVH also gave them up to uncleanness...] -- Verse 24. See it again in verse 26: [For this cause YHVH gave them up unto vile affection]. Again in verse 28: [And even as they did not like to retain YHVH in their knowledge, YHVH gave them over to a reprobate mind...] In other words, when people or when society changes its view of YHVH and misrepresents the view and Holiness of YHVH, what always happens, says Paul, is this: [YHVH withdraws from society -- common grace -- so that the lusts, passions and depravities of man's heart are all the more poured forth and expressed.] You must understand that we have a word for this; we call it reprobation. Reprobation is the word we give to whenever YHVH gives people over to their own hearts' lusts. This needs a word of explanation. In society YHVH, all the time, is holding sinners in check. He does this in various ways -- some of which are visible and some of which are invisible. One of the ways whereby YHVH holds sin and sinners in check is through fear of punishment. That is why in society there must be righteous punishment and that is why YHVH in the Bible has given capital punishment for murder. He has given that in all ages; He did so in the Old Testament and He do so in the New Testament. When a person commits murder, they forfeit the right to live and they are to be judicially put to death by the act of the State. The reason for that is both because of the justice of it and also as a deterrent for others because if there is one thing sinners do not want to do, it is to die. So, YHVH has imposed that punishment for murder and there are many other punishments -- corporal punishment which YHVH puts upon men and in this way He restrains their depravity. A man may want to strike his neighbour but if he thinks that if he is caught then he will be crushed, then he is restrained. The way it works is obvious. A child at home may want to do something which is forbidden. They may want to use a bad word to their parents or to disobey them but when they know that they are likely to be chastened for it, then they will think again.

That is the way whereby, through common grace as we call it, YHVH restrains sin. In believers, YHVH restrains sin in a different way; in believers, YHVH restrains sin through special grace. That is to say He so inclines our hearts and our affections that we Love what is right and we desire with all our hearts to do what is right; that is much more than common grace. Common grace does not give to anyone a desire to please YHVH and to glorify Him but special saving grace does. But what I am talking about is this common grace and here is what the apostle Paul tells us. When society does not like to know the truth about YHVH - His Glory, His Holiness, His Majesty, His Sovereignty - when society wants to cast off the fear of YHVH, then the punishment that they have to pay from YHVH is this punishment of the withdrawing of common grace from society. You see that illustrated in the days just before the flood - those ominous words that YHVH gives to Noah: [My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh] -- Genesis 6:3. That was a warning that society was becoming very depraved, so corrupt that YHVH was going to withdraw the influence of common grace from them; the Holy Spirit was going to give them over and give them up so they would do these evil things for which the waters of the flood gave them a condign punishment. So, it was in the days of Paul. As the apostle travelled about the Mediterranean countries and Greece, Rome and Asian Minor, he saw evidences everywhere of societies depraved and given over and given up by YHVH to all these terrible lusts which form his list and catalogue here. He explains the reason behind it. It is not an accident when society becomes so depraved - it is a sign that they have so displeased and angered YHVH that He has withdrawn from them all restraint. Just as a man might do with dogs that are wild when he wants to keep them under control, he has a strong chain around their neck and a leash. They are chained and can do no harm. If a man wants to amuse himself with perverseness and enjoy the cruelty of these beasts, he might unleash them all and watch them kill one another. So it is with human society: when YHVH's anger reaches a certain pitch for society's sin he takes away the leash from their necks as it were, and he watches men brutalise and rush at one another. This is precisely what is being depicted here.

For instance, you see it in -- verse 29. What sort of society was it that the apostle Paul lived in? People, he said, were [filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers] -- verse 29 and so on. The last verse of this chapter is the climax: [Who knowing the judgement of YHVH that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them] -- verse 32. That was the way it was. They had their amphitheatres and coliseums and huge grounds, rather like a football stadium today. You can go to many places today and see the ruins of them. They would hold maybe eighty thousand people. What did they do? What did they come to watch? They came to watch spectacles of games. The games consisted of gladiators - one with a sword and the other had a long metal fork and a net. They were trying to kill each other. The crowd would roar with pleasure. They would bring on a few innocent girls and throw them in the middle, getting some wild beasts to kill them or lions to eat them. They would watch the girls running for their lives as the beasts chased them. Later on, believers were thrown in to amuse the crowd. See the beastly character - they knew in their consciences that this was against YHVH and that those who did such things were worthy of death. Not only did they do these things, but they enjoyed watching those who did them. Today, it would be like watching crime on television. Not only do people do the crime, they enjoy watching it. It is terrible! Listen to the news for fifteen minutes and you hear of little girls of ten years old who have disappeared and we all weep and go on our knees with the dreadful thought – [Where are these girls?] A few minutes later they are talking about a play they are going to have on the radio or television which is all about crime. Our society is what it is because it wants to be! People want crime; they love crime; they want murder, lust, drunkenness, drugs and filth. They do so because YHVH has taken away His Spirit and He has left people to be what the human heart longs to be -- depraved in every form.

This today, is the problem with society. This is the problem with man. I need not say this to you because you know and believe the truth, but I must say it again for your hearing and for your comfort; there is no way to cure this disease of sin but through the Gospel: The Blood of Moshiach, the Holy Spirit, the new birth, faith, repentance, regeneration, conversion, uniting our hearts by faith to Moshiach. There is no other solution! Social workers may have their place but they cannot put right what is wrong. The police have their very important function but they cannot put right what is wrong. The House of Commons and the House of Lords, {England} even if they have a will to do so, they cannot put it right. You see how greatly we need YHVH to visit us again. That is what He does every time He pours out His Spirit in fresh reviving of His church. These little Prayer Meetings at your home, church or on social media: they are vital! If ever we stop praying, the heavens will fall upon our society by one means or another. Your prayers are holding back this wrath of YHVH which the apostle Paul speaks about. Do not underestimate the tremendous importance of the Prayer Meetings and of waiting on YHVH in public, in private and in the family. It is our only hope. If ever our society gets to the point when no-one is praying and no-one is calling on YHVH, then, He will give over the whole of society. Thank YHVH for Yeshua Moshiach our Adonai. Thank YHVH for the Blood, death and resurrection of our Saviour. We believe it, we know it, we have tasted it, we have felt the power of it; we have been healed from this terrible evil of sin. Let us therefore, not hesitate to go cheerfully into society and, when YHVH gives us opportunity, to say a word to sinners under the wrath of YHVH. Tell them that the real problem is not political but spiritual. The consequences are not merely temporal but eternal. Moshiach has the key to the human heart. Pray that He would come in the Power of His Grace and pour out fresh anointing upon us all that society may feel its profoundest need of the grace of YHVH. There is no other cure. There is no other hope. We are grateful indeed, beyond all words, that we who live in this crooked, wicked, war-torn, famine, unrighteous and ungodly world, that we have been delivered from the wrath to come. May YHVH help us to see our lives in such a light and to live to His glory.