Book of Romans Series, Session 2 - Audio
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Then in this unit, Chapter 2, we have what we might call the Pius Center, who actually is no better than the depraved center, because he himself is guilty of many of the things that he deplores in the people to whom he addresses his critique. Now in the process of addressing the self-righteous pagan moralist in the first unit of Chapter 2, the apostle comes to a section where he is dealing with the future judgment of God, and let's pick up again in verse 4. Or do you despise the riches of his goodness for barrens and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Now notice that whereas in Chapter 1, we had talked about the wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness. Now we say to the moralist, now the apostle says to the moralist, don't you realize, you hypocrite, you who criticize other people for doing wicked things and you do the same things yourself, don't you realize that the process in which you are engaged is a process in which you are treasuring up wrath, you are storing up wrath for yourself, which will be manifested in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. I would like to suggest to you that the title that he gives to this time period, which we have written right at the top of the overhead here, the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, is functionally equivalent to the eschatological term that we meet elsewhere in the Bible and which we call the day of the Lord. As we look in the following verses, we shall see that Paul is not only concerned with what we might call the final judgment and the final destiny of the unsafe person, he is also very explicitly warning that there will be tribulation, anguish, distress and wrath stored up for the future. Now, based on the scriptures that deal with the day of the Lord, I think it is correct to say, particularly in the light of 2 Peter chapter 3, that the day of the Lord begins with the rapture of the church right here. And therefore the day of the Lord includes all of the judgments of God that are poured out upon mankind during the seven-year period, which we know as Daniel seventieth week or which we sometimes call the great tribulation. Then of course at the end of this period, the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, defeats the armies of the beast and the false prophet, sets up his kingdom, but this is not the end of human rebellion. And as we learn from Revelation chapter 20, after being imprisoned in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, the devil is released one more time and he is able even after a thousand years of our Lord's reign on earth to accumulate a large army, which is willing to follow him in rebellion against God and with an attempt to overthrow the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And of course this effort is entirely futile and the invading armies are crushed by fire and brimstone that comes down from God out of heaven. And there follows immediately the last judgment, the judgment that is described in Revelation 20 as the judgment of the great white throne. By this time of course, all believers who have lived in all past ages as well as in our own day and time have been resurrected, transformed, and they are in the presence of God. But the great white throne at the end of the millennium is the point at which the destiny of the unsaved will be determined judicially as it were in a court of law. And what we observe in Revelation 20 is that first of all, when the unsaved data are raised to stand before the judgment seat, there are books opened in which all of the deeds of
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The day of wrath & revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The totality of God's judgments as they will fall upon the unsaved world. This will begin with the rapture of the church.