The Wrathful God

It should not be a surprise to anyone who has read the Bible that God judges. After all, the historical record of God’s dealings with the descendants of Abraham reveals frequent judgments against wickedness.

Even today there is something deep within us that cries out for judgment against evil – unchecked racism drives the #BLM movement; hurt cries out for justice with #metoo and #churchtoo; and even in sports fan yell out “where’s the flag?” or “blow the whistle, ref”.

Yet Christians are accused of being too judgmental. We live in a world where we crave justice, yet we recoil when justice is demanded of us. People want Christians to pursue justice, just don’t judge me. People want a stern judge for wrongs done against them, but a kindly grandfather God who evaluates my behaviors.

In previous sessions we have seen God who is merciful, loves, forgive, transforms and other beneficial attributes. But a complete view of God cannot ignore His justice, His righteous anger and His wrath against all that is unholy.

People who have never read the Bible have many different notions about God. But anyone who has read the Book knows that God’s Holiness demands that He discipline his children and that those who do deeds of wickedness remain under wrath.

A word of explanation about types of Literature: The Bible contains several types of literature: stories (Narrative), letters (epistles), poems (flowery language), oracles (speeches from God), and apocalyptic (future) literature. In my experience, poetry and apocalyptic are the hardest to interpret and apply, so don’t be offended if the images in today’s text are hard to understand.

Sometimes a meal is just a meal, water is just a drink, and wheat is just a grain that is harvested for bread. Other times food, water, wheat and grapes become symbols for deeper truth that God intends the reader to understand.

Transition: Using language consistent with this type of literature, today’s texts begins with…

3 Announcements of Coming Judgment (Rev. 4:6-13)

A Message for All on the Earth (vv.6-7)

Revelation 4:6–7 ESV:2016

6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.

1. A Universal message for all who dwell on Earth in unbelief.

2. The coming consummate establishment of God’s sovereignty over evil is good news [for believers].[i]

3. How can news of impending judgement be “good news” [for unbelievers]? Because the announcement is paired with a call to turn to God in Worship. The call to turn will be expanded in vv. 12-13.

If a physician tells you, “We found a mass and we won’t know what it is until we do more tests” it is NOT good news. If the same surgeon says, “The mass that you have is totally treatable and we expect a full recovery” then the same mass just became “good news”.

4. Commentators see a link between this “gospel” and the warning that Daniel gave to Nebuchadnezzar in Dan. 4.

5. Some don’t respond well to warnings. They say, “It is better to love someone into Heaven than to scare them out of Hell.”

6. But often a stern reminder of the consequences is essential to bring about change. In similar way, when this angel says “Fear God and give Him glory” people tend to reply “ho hum” so he adds “because judgement is beginning”

A Message for Babylon (v.8)

Revelation 14:8 ESV:2016

8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”

1. An intense message for those who fall to the claims of false religion.

2. Babylon – Babylon as an empire was used by God to bring about the destruction of the southern kingdom of Judah. As Daniel and his 3 friends and the rest of the Jewish people were taken into captivity, they were forced to give up their identity as God’s people. Their Temple was destroyed, their names were changed, and their culture was decimated. Over time Babylon became a code word or a cipher for any power who set itself against God. What Babylon did to Judah, Rome was doing to Christians as John records the Revelation.

3. Early Jews often used Babylon as a code name for Rome, as did early Christians (1 Peter 5:13). Such allusions made sense; as Israel once experienced exile under the evil empire Babylon, now they are experiencing the captivity of a new evil empire in Rome. Both Babylon and Rome destroyed the temple.[ii]

Today an equivalent would be any voice that promotes “freedom from religion” to undermine Biblical truth.

4. Immoralities/Adulteries (NIV) – Whenever Israel wandered from her faithfulness to God, it is described by the prophets as adultery. The danger of worldly powers that oppose God is that it chokes out the potential that Jesus described in the parable of the sower when the good seed falls among the weeds and thorns.

Illustration

A Message for the Beast and Accomplices (vv.9-11)

Revelation 14:9–11 ESV:2016

9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

1. This 3rd messenger gives the most detailed message for those who trust the world system (Media/Entertainment/Economics/ Government/Power) to do/be what God is supposed to be.

2. Verses 9–11 form a counter-proclamation to that of the image in chapter 13. There it was decreed that those who would not worship the image should be killed and that those without the mark of the beast should be able neither to buy nor to sell (13:15, 17). Now the third angel of chapter 14 pronounces a much worse fate for those who do worship the beast and bear his mark.[iii]

About a year ago I walked into Clark’s hardware for the first time. I needed a plumbing piece that was only $3 or $4. But I didn’t have any cash on me and when I tried to pay with my debit card I was told that I couldn’t trade with them unless I had cash or an established account.

NO! I am not equating the hardware store with the Beast. I don’t have the Clark mark, but I’ve since made sure I always have cash when doing business with them.

3. Aligning with the Beast permits certain temporary benefits, but the long-term consequences are devastating!

4. Full strength - What does that mean?

5. In the ancient world when wine was produced, it comes out about 30 proof, that is, about 15 percent alcohol. Since it is fermented, not distilled, there was some variance.

Yesterday I performed a wedding in the Tallgrass Praire preserve for a couple from Kansas City. During the ceremony I mentioned that it was a wedding where Jesus did his first miracle. This miracle causes a certain problem for our prohibitionist friends, because Jesus did not turn the water into grape juice.

6. However, it was very common to “cut” the wine with water, somewhere between one part in ten (one part of wine to ten parts of water) and one part in three. Most table wines that people drank in the ancient world were cut… [The difference between table wine and full strength was like the difference between beer and hard liquor] Now God’s wrath is poured out full strength.”[iv]

7. 10b-11a describe drastic, unrelenting, constant and eternal punishment for those who align with the world’s solution, rather than put their trust in God.

Warning: Prepare Now! (vv.12-13)

Revelation 14:12–13 ESV:2016

12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

1. Trust and Obey – keep the commandments…and…faith in Jesus.

2. Remember, John was living about 30 years after the crucifixion as he is recording things yet to happen that are being revealed to him in a vision. V.12 is a real-time reminder to those who would shortly receive his letter and were living under the Roman persecution of 1 & 2 Peter.

3. Blessed Rest – the hardships of this life will eventually be rewarded.

4. V.13 is a message from Heaven that there is a coming rest that will make all the current painful endurance worthwhile.

Transition: After these 3 messages regarding unbelievers, false religion, and the eco-political world system, John presents…

2 Descriptions of Coming Judgment (Rev 14:14-20)

Harvest of Wheat (& Tares) (vv.14-16)

Revelation 14:14–16 ESV:2016

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.

In Matthew 13 Jesus told a story that illustrates the time in which we are living. God’s kingdom is made up of those in whom the good seed has yielded fruit and we are growing until a future day of harvest. The enemy of the Church has sown weeds (spiritual imposters) amidst our plants. Some of the servants asked the master if they should go through the fields removing the weeds. Jesus replied, “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.” (Mt 13:29)

1. Jesus prophesied that during our age there would be imposters among us. But he also instructed that at the time of harvest the weeds will be gathered for a very different outcome than the wheat.

Matthew 13:30 (ESV) — “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

2. I have heard men warn, “Do not confuse my kindness with weakness.” And those who flaunt their sin before God must not confuse His patience with acceptance.”

3. Once the sickle has struck your root, it will be too late to change your allegiance.

Harvest and Pressing of Grapes (vv.17-20)

Revelation 14:17–20 ESV:2016

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. Verses 18-19 give us the picture of the grape harvest and the second part of v.19 moves immediately to the processing in the winepress.

2. The winepress at this time was made of large stone vats hollowed out with channels to separate the juice from the pulp from the seeds, rind and stems.

3. The whole cluster was placed into the press for a process of extreme pressure and separation.

4. The separation of weeds from wheat led to burning. The process of separating the worshippers of God from the worshippers of the Beast yields blood as deep as a horse’s bridle over a span of about 200 miles.

Transition: God’s coming judgment on sin will be extreme and it will be sure, but we must NEVER view it as a reason for glee.

4 Observations about God’s Wrath

Hell most often was mentioned by Jesus (Matt 10:28)

1. No other person in the New Testament spoke of hell more frequently than Jesus.

2. Jesus warned of the reality and atrocity of hell in places like the story of the rich man and Lazarus, or in…

Matthew 10:28 (ESV) — And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Judgment is no small matter (Rev. 14:10-11)

1. How long is their torment in v.11?

2. Ezekiel 18:4 & 20 mentions that a soul who sins shall die. People reason that death means “cease to exist” and they have developed a doctrine called annihilationism. They claim that hell is forever, but the punishment of those who take the mark is a torment of fire and sulfur where the smoke of their torment is everlasting.

Judgment offers no second chance (Heb 9:27)

Hebrews 9:27 (ESV) — And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

1. Nowhere in the 66 books of our Bible do we get a hint that there is some sort of reprieve or second chance after death.

2. With all due respect to our Mormon friends who get baptized in the name of the dead in an attempt to get them into Paradise or our Roman friends who appeal to saints or the blessed Mother to pray the souls of our loved ones into Heaven, verses 12 and 13 of today’s text indicate to me that decisions in this life determine one’s final rest.

3. This is why it is absolutely essential that you decide today because today is the day of salvations.

2 Corinthians 6:2 (ESV) —…Behold, now is the day of salvation.

Judgment provides no joy (Eph 2:1-5)

1. It may be a well-worn cliché, but it bears repeating that we Christians will be the first to acknowledge that we are all by nature children of wrath. If we have come to experience the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with the living God, it is only because of the grace of the gospel.

2. We are never more than poor beggars telling others where there is bread;

We have a morbid curiosity about destruction. Drivers who are too preoccupied with gawking at an accident have caused way too many rubber-necker secondary collisions.

Have you ever been passed by an ambulance or fire truck and something inside you wanted to follow them to the scene? Could I suggest that when you hear a siren or see the lights that we condition ourselves to pray for both the first responder to have skill and wisdom necessary at the scene and the victim to encounter God in the circumstance?

Conclusion:

If you are seated here this morning and you are still under God’s wrath, meaning you have never surrendered your heart to God and said “I believe that Jesus died for my sin. I repent of my sin and confess you as Lord”, Today can be your day of salvation. Your day to move from wrath to rest.

For the majority of us gathered this morning, we have already made that declaration. The message today stands as a reminder that people we love stand condemned and judged already until we lovingly tell them the Gospel.

Romans 10:14 (ESV) — How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Song of Response #299 vv. 1 & 2.... “Rescue the Perishing”

Benediction: Psalm 121:7–8 (ESV:2016) — The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

[i] G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle, Cumbria: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 1999), 750.

[ii] Craig S. Keener, Revelation, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 373.

[iii] Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 272.

[iv] D. A. Carson, The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2010), 206–207.