Thabiti Anyabwile preached a message titled “Beauty from Ashes: The Plan of God and the Plight of Man” from Romans 1:13-18. The big idea of the message was this: The plan of God is to send unashamed preachers to unreached peoples to display His unparalleled power and the unearned righteousness that is found in Christ.
God’s plan is the Gospel. The Apostle Paul said, “I am eager to preach the Gospel to you who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.” The Gospel is powerful to save, sanctify, and transform entire nations. The heart-searching questions we should all ask is this: Am I excited about the Gospel? Do I love the Gospel and want others to share in its joy? None of us are eager about things that we are embarrassed about. Paul was eager about preaching the Gospel because he wasn’t embarrassed about it. He knew that the Gospel is the power of God.
God’s plan includes the preaching of the Gospel. One problem in Christianity today is that too many Christians think that Christ can be made known without the use of words. Is strategy necessary? Yes. But strategy never saved anyone. Only the Gospel saves people! You and I must preach the Gospel for people to be saved. Am I playing my part in the plan of God to preach the Gospel to the nations?
God’s plan includes pursuing unreached peoples. Paul was the kind of Christian who labored most where the Gospel was known the least. His aim was to proclaim from the rooftops the message of salvation among people who were in bondage to their sin and had no idea how to be made free.
The plight of man is the eternal wrath of God (Romans 1:18ff). Jim Boice once noted that if you read the New Testament, God’s wrath is a dominant aspect of the preaching of the Gospel. Yet, our temptation is to hide the wrath of God in Gospel preaching. We don’t want to mention it. We certainly don’t want to talk about it with very much detail. But we should remember this: If hell isn’t a reality, Gospel preaching isn’t a necessity. Further, if you minimize God’s wrath, you will mitigate the urgency of missions.
Hell is both real and right. God is right to be wrathful because of the rebellion of man against Him. Sin is an act of treason against an eternally good and holy God. Justice and judgment are proper consequences for rebellion against Him. Remember, God is not ashamed of His wrath. So we shouldn’t be either.
If you really struggle with the doctrine of hell and the reality of God’s wrath, ask yourselves these questions: Is there evil in the world? Should that evil go unpunished? Who will punish the evil, if not God? What would God be like if He did not punish evil?
Thabiti made these strong comments: There are 6,000 people groups around the world who are storing up wrath. They are making daily deposits into the warehouse of God’s wrath. Wrath is being built up like floods behind a dam until the day of judgment. The dam of God’s judgment will burst forth one day and it will be terrible. Forty percent of the world is without Christ. That’s 2.9 billion people. Should you be so in love with your life in this world when 2.9 billion people will lose their lives in the age to come?
Remember, the Gospel is only good news when it gets there in time. The plan of God to save people from their sins is the Gospel. The plight of man apart from the Gospel is wrath. As a Christian and a pastor I want to make it my aim to get the Gospel to as many people as we can. We can do this through loving the Gospel, memorizing the Gospel, preaching the Gospel, praying for Gospel fruit, sending & supporting Gospel missionaries, and joining with them in the Gospel work there. Let’s do all these things for the glory of God and joy of all peoples!!!