The Mind of Worship - Mission
The Mind and Heart of Worship • Sermon • Submitted
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The fact of God’s wrath
The fact of God’s wrath
Having seen how the mind is renewed in the mercies of God so as to prepare the heart for love and to prepare the whole body for service towards brothers and sisters in the church, we come now to consider how the mind is prepared for loving service in the world. And this service, too, is an all-of-life occupation that forms part of our true and proper worship.
In considering the preparation of the mind for ministry, we observed the ‘fors’ of verses 3 and 4, which grounded our thinking in the mercies and grace of God.
In Romans 12:19, we have another ‘for’ which, once again, grounds our thinking in the word of God and in the mercies of God. For it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
I want us to consider verses 19 and 20 as the preparation of the mind for mission. I pray that God would renew our minds in the mercies of God to which these verses testify, as we consider them together just now, that we might have Christ-like love for our enemies and those who persecute us.
The first thing I want us to consider is the fact of God’s wrath. God says, I will repay. His wrath is real and it is coming. God has made a rock-solid commitment to punish all sin, to bring vengeance on it. And that commitment flows out of his essential nature; it’s a consequence of his righteousness.
The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.
Friends, what do we understand by the phrase ‘the wrath of God’? When did we last speak of it or consider it? Is it a subject we avoid thinking about? I suggest that to neglect it would be detrimental to our transformation and to our life of worship. It’s a huge subject, of course, but let’s just impress upon our minds the fearfulness of God’s wrath by reading a few Scriptures together.
For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might
A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
What a dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God!
Now, how does our appreciation of the wrath of God renew the mind and prepare the soul for service in the world? I want to point out three things, which appeal to me from our passage:
1. Vengeance is mine
1. Vengeance is mine
First, an understanding of the holy wrath of God brings with it a realisation that vengenace belongs to him. Vengeance is mine. Vengeance is a divine prerogative. It is his right and his alone.
As such, to take revenge, to mete out our own justice, even to bear a grudge or to withhold forgiveness, is to usurp God’s throne!
That’s precisely the sense Joseph had of it when his brothers come to him, fearing pay back, and begging his forgiveness:
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
A consideration of the wrath of God means that we don’t take revenge for wrongs done to us; we avoid taking God’s place. Why? Firstly because being assured of the certainty of God’s vengenace means we can lay our grudges down. We can rest, because justice will be served.
Secondly, because we understand what wrath is, namely God’s settled anger in response to sin, we understand that we too are by nature deserving of God’s vengeance. Indeed, Paul has argued strongly in the opening chapters of this letter that all (Jew and Gentile alike) are under sin (Rom 3:9), that is under the power of sin, enslaved by it. And, if under sin, then under wrath - vessels of wrath (Rom 9:22) and, by nature, children of wrath (Eph 2:3). Why would we ever pass judgment on another, since at whatever point we pass judgment we condemn ourselves?
We are now no longer under sin but under grace and our standing in grace has been obtained by faith alone.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
2. I will repay
2. I will repay
The second way in which contemplation of God’s wrath prepares the mind for mission, is that we recognise that vengeance is future. I will repay. It’s certainly coming, but it’s not yet. And that points us to the patience of God.
When we take revenge, repaying evil for evil, we show contempt for the patience of God, which is designed to bring men to repentance.
Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
Friends, as though who have experienced the patience of God leading to our own repentance, may we never treat his patience for others with contempt!
Our contemplation of the patience of God’s wrath, then, is our resource for enduring insult, persecution, and affliction patiently, remembering that God is at work in bringing others to the same repentance that we, by his mercy, have known.
Indeed, our own patient response to affliction may be the very means by which God brings some to repentance.
That, I think, explains the rather obscure reference to burning coals in Proverbs 25:21-22 (which is quoted in Rom 12:20). There’s a heaping up, a storing up of wrath against the evil-doer, which may only be revealed in its fulness on the day of God’s wrath when his righteous judgment is revealed (Rom 2:5). But it’s brought to bear upon the head, that is upon the mind of the evil-doer now, when Christians who have been wronged do not pursue revenge but instead show mercy.
There’s a sense in which we’re pointing to judgment that’s coming. I think that’s what it means to leave room for God’s wrath. It’s not just that we leave vengeance to God, but that we make space for his justice. We prepare the way for it. We point to it.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
How is the wrath of God being revealed from heaven? The answer is in verse 17.
For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
God’s wrath flows out from his essential righteousness and that righteousness is being revealed in the gospel. So we make room for God’s wrath by pointing to it, by revealing it in the gospel!
Our understanding of the patience of God constrains us to make unbelievers aware of his wrath. And that is precisely what we do when we share the gospel by word and by deed - in particular, when we patiently endure injustice and seek to respond with mercy.
3. If your enemy is hungry
3. If your enemy is hungry
The third way we’re affected by our contemplation of God’s wrath is by considering how God deals with his enemies, even as they treat his patience with contempt.
If your enemy is hungry, feed him. The basis for this kind of mercy is the mercy of God, because this is precisely how God deals with his enemies. This is the Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
The New International Version Chapter 5
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous
It’s the nature of our heavenly Father to show kindness to the ungrateful and the wicked and that is precisely how he acted towards us when we were still enemies. So, when we are supernaturally enabled to show similar kindness to our enemies, we show ourselves to be children of God.
How can we expect credit for loving those who love us - even sinners do that! But when our mind is renewed in the mercies of God, we’re transformed into people who can love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us and pray for those who mistreat us. Then, the mercy of God will be flowing through us!
You see, we can only point to God’s wrath, but we’re expected to image his mercy.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
So, we’ve come full circle in Romans 12. The chapter started with mercy and it ends with mercy. The point is that the mercy which has so renewed our mind and transformed our heart is now flowing through and out of us.
We are imaging God’s mercy. And to what end? Paul gives the answer in chapter 15: that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy (Rom 15:9). That’s the purpose of all true and proper worship - God is glorified!