In the Word Wednesday, BSF Lesson 2

This may seem like 'Part 2' of my last post. But this is definitely the better side of it :)
Today was ten times better - Here are some notes from the lecture last night. I apologize that this is so late in the day - I was a little more lax today ;)

As I mentioned previously, this week's lecture was on God's wrath. There wasn't a mini outline to guide us this time, so this may be a little scatterbrained.

"Without the bad news, there is no need for the good news (the Gospel, in this case)."
The aim of the Gospel is to bring about obedience in the hearts of His children - more specifically, obedience to faith.
Wrath is described as holy revulsion of God against sin. Settled, determined indignation. This wrath is not like a firecracker, impulsive and quick, uncontrolled.
His wrath is kindled because of the suppression of the Truth.
He has revealed His Truth to us through General revelation (His creation primarily), and through Special revelation (His Word and His Spirit).

He created us to know Him. He is a God of order, creativity, and power. We would have to be blind not to see this.
He created us with consciences. We have a sense of what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, there is no excuse for man & yet he still suppresses the Truth. Man would rather serve and obey a god of his own design, not the True God.
In 1:21, Paul said that they knew God but they did not acknowledge Him as God. As a result of that, the were cast into:
futile thinking - a wasted mind, worthless, fruitless, ineffective.
Their hearts were darkened - possessing a directionless will, purpose of life is derived from ignorance, wanderers.
idolatry - always the outcome of rejecting God. *If our honor does not go to Him, it has to go to something.
**Failure to worship the True God, always results in idolatry.
Idolatry is anything that is put in God's rightful place.

Because they rejected Him, He 'gave them over' to their sin. This is such a scary thought. I think that I would rather be in the hands of an angry God than out of His hands. He turns them out to their sin, gives them permission to suffer the natural consequences of their actions. Again, it is important to see that the reason of God's wrath is because these are the ones who knew God and yet did not acknowledge Him. When man is left to himself, all kinds of evil-doings spring forth. I won't go into great detail, but the key sins in this passage are unnatural sexual sins, fornications, and perversions. Especially unnatural lusts are sickening to God because they obliterate the beautiful design in man and woman.

The lecture was grave, but ended with us relieved in the fact that He is our only hope and Savior (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
*I can't wait till next week - saving grace to come, stay tuned. . . and thank the Lord for His goodness & forgiveness!