Prayer Service 10-11-23

The Wrath of God

5 solas?

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Wrath)

The wrath of God is not a popular concept in the liberal West. It is widely ignored, denied, or radically reinterpreted. Yet it is a prominent doctrine in the Bible.

Over 580 references in the OT alone!

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Wrath)

In many instances God’s wrath is portrayed in dramatically personal terms, as in Nahum 1:2–11

Nahum 1:2–8 (ESV)

2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers.

5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.

6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Wrath)

It is important not to equate God’s anger with often-sinful human anger: God does not have mood swings and does not “fly off the handle.”

God’s love is also anthropopathic; we must not fall into the error of equating the divine love with human love in all its imperfection and distortion

Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Wrath)

So what is God’s wrath? It is his indignation at sin, his revulsion to evil and all that opposes him, his displeasure at it and the venting of that displeasure.

It is his passionate resistance to every will that is set against him.

Romans 1:18–29 (ESV)

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

20 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.

21 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.

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

25 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.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

27 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.

28 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.

29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil...

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Wrath)

God’s wrath should be seen not as opposed to his love but as an outworking of that love. The opposite to wrath is not love but indifference.

Paul’s injunction in Romans 12:9 that love be “sincere” is followed by the command to hate what is evil.

Romans 12:9 (ESV)

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Wrath)

A husband who loved his wife would feel jealous anger at her infidelity. Failure to hate evil implies a deficiency in love.

A “God” who did not detest evil would not be worthy of our worship, and indeed would not be loving in the sense that the Bible portrays his love

The Comfort of Certainty:

Romans 12:19 (ESV)

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Now, to some degree:

Romans 13:1–4 (ESV)

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God...

3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad...

4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

Ultimately and Finally, eventually:

Revelation 14:14–15:4 (ESV)

14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.

15 And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”

16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”

19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.

2 And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.

3 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!

4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Prayer of Adoration

Supplications

Thanksgiving for Hazel and Pozy!

Those affected by the wars in Israel and Ukraine

The Husmillo and Lakey Families in their bereavement.

Safety for Sawyers as they return to Kenya

Health and Salvation for Hugh Webster (Layce’s dad).

Andrew Herrington and Family

Health needs in the bulletin