Transcript:

Hello this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

You know the expression: Be careful what you ask for? Well, this is certainly true spiritually speaking. Sometimes what you want is the very opposite of what you need. Indeed, what you want can often destroy you.

One of the clearest Bible passages on God’s judgment is found in Romans 1.

The section begins with the statement: “The wrath of God (i.e. the righteous judgment of God) is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18).

Now, we learn from this that God is judging the world right now and that He’s directing that judgment at us, especially when we hide from and twist the truth to fit our own desires—what we want.

Later in the argument Paul explains how exactly God executes this judgment. Does God do it by keeping us from what we want? No, quite the opposite. He does it by giving us what we want. Three times Paul uses some version of the expression, “Therefore God gave them over to the desires of their heart” (1:24, 26, 28). God’s judgment is most furiously just when He gives us what we are asking for.

Now, certainly, this tells us that sin is its own judgment. Every time we take a step toward sin, we are moving toward our own demise. The end goal of sin is our death, eternally and otherwise (Romans 6:23; James 1:14-15). So, if God wants to condemn us, all He need do is let us sink deeper into ourselves and our own foolish desires.

So, my friends, be careful what you ask for.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them."

~Romans 1:18-32 (ESV)