The wrath of God

Romans 1:18–20 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.

The days in which we live seem to be growing increasingly evil and wicked. As the innocent lives of unborn babies are discarded, the nations rages over politics and and people are marginalized as lesser or more valuable based on outward conditions of everything from skin color, sexual gender, to social and economic classes.

People are trying with all their might and full of hate, to redefine everything that the Lord our God has created and told us is truth. We live in a world where what has always been known as wrong is now considered right and what was once thought of as bad is celebrated as good.

Isaiah 5:20 ESV

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Are we not living in these days? Do we not see this coming to pass more and more in these current times we live in? The scriptures declare WOE to them who are taken by these false teachings.

What should we make of this WOE?

While we can clearly see that we are certainly living in dark days, we are also living in a time when the church has forsaken the gospel and preached false doctrines that are devoid of real power to save. We have traded in faithful gospel preachers for charlatans who want only to tell the love of God without making mention of his divine wrath.

“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.” ― H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America

Why do we tend to like these kind of preachers in America? Is it because we are adversed to suffering? Is it because we like to be the good guys and not the bad guys? Is it because we like to be in control of the narrative? Is it because we have become biblically illiterate that do not know what to do with the wrath of God? Is it because we have traded the rich history of the church preserved by the blood of martyrs for a preferred historical narrative of a nation of heroes with Judeo Christian values?

Can it be that our holding on to any identity outside of our identity in Christ will eventually erode away truth and cause us to wander from the truths found in scriptures, because they become increasingly difficult to explain within the modern church.

What am I saying? We do not like to talk about the wrath of God, because it makes us uncomfortable and even more so because it causes others to be uncomfortable, or should I say offended.

Some have delusions that God’s wrath is not compatible with his goodness, and Love and mercy. so they try to get rid of it altogether. As if the wrath of God is a blemish on his otherwise perfect record. Or like it diminishes his divine nature and reduces him to an angry old man with a vindictive streak.

Yet this is not so, and barely even a weak understanding of God. Where weak preacher try to conceal this attribute, God through His Holy Word; makes no effort to conceal this divine attribute of our Father in heaven. Read through the bible and see that God is not ashamed of his wrath, as if it makes him less loving. Instead he makes it known that vengeance belongs to him.

Deuteronomy 32:39–41 ESV

39 “ ‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. 40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever, 41 if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me.

Our God is strong and mighty and makes no apologies for his own wrath and vengeance. In fact there are more references in the scriptures to God’s anger, fury and wrath, than there is to his love and tenderness.

As we heard last week from pastor Tait, God is holy and we are to be holy as he is holy. Yet Because God is Holy he hates all sin. Because he hates all sin, his anger burns against the sinner as well. But this is not a blemish on his divine attributes, rather the opposite is true.

There would be a defect in God’s character if wrath was absent from his attributes. Why? Because that would mean God is indifferent to sin. As if it doesn’t bother him when his creation disobeys him. How could God delight only in whatever is pure and lovely and not also hate whatever is impure and evil? The absence of wrath from God’s nature would make him less perfect, and that is impossible.

So what is the wrath of God?

“The wrath of God is his Holiness stirred into activity against sin” A.W. Pink

When we say the wrath of God, we mean the holiness of God in his perfection being active in working against sin. And since he is solitary and in a class of his own, it may be difficult to understand how God deals with sin. Yet because he is supreme, sin is not greater than his power, and because he is sovereign sin is not a surprise to his plan, and because he is holy sin demands his justice be enacted against it.

God is angry against sin because it is rebellion against his authority. So his wrath is being revealed from heaven, it said in our opening text, because what is known about God is made plain to us in creation around us, so everyone is without excuse. And yet God’s anger is not malicious retaliation inflicting injury because he was first hurt by us. Pink said, “God will vindicate his dominion as the Governor of the universe, yet he will not be vindictive.”

God is not mean for the sake of being mean, he is not angry because he is grumpy, and he is not wrathful because he is petty in his desires against his tiny creation. God is Holy and so he has declared his wrath for those who oppose his Majestic reign and powerful ruling over all things.

There is no inconsistency in a loving God being a wrathful God at the same time. Yet let’s remember the question I said we should ask ourselves all summer as we hear of the attributes, “Are our thoughts of God too human?” And yet in Psalm 50:21 God declares that our problem is when we think God is like us. He is not, and there is no contradiction in his attributes.

But is this how God has revealed himself to us?

Exodus 34:6–8 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.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

Clearly God has no problem letting us know he is loving and wrathful. God has never hid the fact that his wrath will come upon those who oppose him in all of scripture. Think about it.

He first revealed his wrath in a sentence of death for rebelling in the garden. From that point his beloved creation that he walked with in the cool of the day was driven out of the garden as the earth was then cursed. After that he flooded the earth in the days of Noah, and then destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah as he rained fire down from heaven on them. But not only that, the wrath of God is proclaimed in the curse of the law on every transgression and was shown in the institution of the sacrificial system under the mosaic law. Without the shedding of blood there was no forgiveness of sin.

And if you read on into the NT and come to Romans 8, Paul calls attention to the fact that all of creation has become subject to vanity, and groans with travail in pain. Think about that, the same creation that declares that there is a God, and shows his glory, also proves that he is the enemy of sin and the avenger of crimes of men.

But beyond all of that, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven when Jesus became the incarnate God man and showed his divine character. The wrath of God was displayed when he suffered and died, in a manner that was far worse than any other way that God had shown is displeasure against sin.

What Am I saying?

The wrath of God is best seen in the death of Christ on the cross

Why? Because we can somehow understand how an enemy of God would deserve his wrath. We get it when in the OT people would come against God’s people, when Pharoah beat the Israelite slaves, we know he deserves God’s wrath. When we read Esther, we almost want Haman to suffer for coming against Mordecai. When Goliath defies the living God of Israel, we know that David has to exact revenge on such an uncircumcised Philistine. Any and every enemy of God rightfully deserves the wrath of God.

But that is a low view of the wrath of God because it makes sense. Yet because God is Holy, sin must be judged. So even when he himself comes as God the Son, the beloved of the Father, begotten not created, perfectly sinless and the only one who could ever actually be Holy as God is Holy, we can hardly seem to understand how the wrath of God can be turned on him. The idea of Jesus being beaten and tortured, having his flesh ripped from his body while his creation spits on him and hurls insults at him, and then hangs on the cross slowly suffocating and crying out to the father, and yet wrath is poured out on him… This is hard to look at.

The epitome of our good news message contains the most brutal public death that has ever happened. This picture encapsulates the understanding of the wrath of God, because he had to judge sin on the cross, even when it was his son who never sinned himself, but because he was willing to trade his perfect record for our sinful records. it pleased God to crush his son because of his wrath that will not allow sin to go unpunished. So Jesus was no longer a sinless person hanging in that state, he was taking our sin on him which meant he had to stand underneath the wrath of God, and so be crushed by it for us not to be crushed by it. But I think I’m getting ahead of myself.

the problem I believe we have today is that we do not like to think about the wrath of God. And in A. W Pink’s book on the Attributes of God he makes 3 points as to why we should frequently meditate on the wrath of God.

We should meditate on the wrath of God - to be reminded how detestable sin is to God

We are too easy on ourselves and like to gloss over the seriousness of our sin before a Holy God. Prone to regard sin too lightly, and fail to see its hideous nature, and even worse make excuse for it. We love to blame others for what we rightfully are guilty of. And we someone justify ourselves b y looking at others who we think are worse than us. but we forget that we have all sinned and all sin will be judged by God.

This is an important component of understanding the Gospel. We like to say we are “saved” when referring to Christians. But saved from what? We are saved from the wrath of God, that rightly judges all sin. And in case you think you haven’t sinned, I would remind you of the scriptures...

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

And not only do we need to be reminded that all have sinned, but primarily that we have sinned. this isn’t a message for someone else, it is for us to hear. We need to meditate on the wrath of God because we have and will continue to sin.

The more we study how much God abhors sin and will have vengeance on it, the more likely we are to realize how ugly it is, and how bad we need to keep ourselves from it. It is only when we don’t think that it is all that bad that we become soft on sin and so become entrapped in the ugliness of this world, and that is exactly what Jesus died to free us from. We need to remember that sin is ugly and not believe it is beautiful.

The second reason we should meditate on the wrath of God...

We should meditate on the wrath of God - to fear God in true reverence

It seems as though there is little reverence left for the great God Jehovah of Scripture. We have too often been told our sin is not that bad, and that we shouldn’t fear God, because God is love. And while it is true that he is Love, we cannot forget that his love is not separate from his wrath. In fact his love is only more glorious in contrast to his wrath.

That the most wrathful fearsome God could somehow love a sinner like me, that should cause me to revere him and desire to worship him rightly. To be reminded of this should help me when I want to assert my constitutional rights over the biblical imperatives, of submitting to governing authorities (Romans 13) and loving my neighbor well (Mark 12:31) … Not to mention the Romans 14 call to show preference to others and not become a stumbling block to them, or Eph. 4 which commands us to protect the unity in the church.

What is our motivation for holding biblical imperatives above the tension of our society in these days? The wrath of a Holy God that takes his word serious. We do not fear God as we should with true reverence. We may need a reminder from his word...

Hebrews 12:28–29 ESV

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

We need to remember that whatever is happening in this world, his kingdom cannot be shaken, and we should then in reverence and awe, worship him… Why? Because our God is a consuming fire.

This is the Bible verse that changed my heart from a cold sinful state to new believer. I was saved when I heard a man proclaim Heb. 12:29 - for our God is a consuming fire… I cannot tell much about the sermon but I remember hearing that God is Holy, he is a consuming fire, and I am a sinner who should be very afraid to meet him because my sin has placed directly opposed to him and I am his enemy. He is a consuming fire, and yet he poured his fire out on Christ on the cross who suffered and died in place for my sin.

Pink said - we cannot serve him “acceptably” unless there is due “reverence” for his awful Majesty and “godly fear” of his righteous anger; and these are best promoted by frequently calling to mind that “our God is a consuming fire”.

I think we desperately in these days meditate on the wrath of God. But finally the third reason we should is…

We should meditate on the wrath of God - to remind us to praise God because we have been delievered from his wrath

Sometimes we like to think about heaven as a place where we simply enjoy God forever, but we fail to think of it as an escape from the wrath of God.

If you remember a couple weeks ago we talked about the immutability of God, meaning he never changes. That means his wrath is never done away with… There is a hell that will eternally judge the wicked. We are saved from that place in Christ and we are eternally joined to Christ in the presence of God. But that is not because we deserve it, but only because of the Grace of God on our lives in Christ. But to speak of this grace without first acknowledging the wrath of God is an incomplete picture of the glory of God and the Love of God. You see this attribute makes much of all the other attributes of God.

we need healthy reminders of this divine truth… we are saved from hell and the lake of fire where the wicked will burn forever. The way we are saved is through Jesus. He delivers us from the wrath of God that is coming

1 Thessalonians 1:10 ESV

10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

We are not to think that wrath is not coming on this earth. On the contrary, we should be ever mindful that the wrath of God is coming. Even John the Baptist worked in order to warn people to flee from the wrath to come. Matthew 3:7

And the very nature of the reality of the wrath of God and having a fear for God, was the very reason why the apostles worked so hard to get the Gospel message out.

2 Corinthians 5:11a ESV

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

So the same fear of the wrath of God that would cause us to reverence God and worship him rightly, should also be the motivation for us to share the gospel with others.

Why have we lost the sense of urgency to tell people that if they die without being found in Christ they are heading to hell?

Is it because we don’t like to call sin sin? We call sin mistakes and make it less abhorrent to ourselves. Yet the scriptures are clear that we have all sinned and all sin will be judged… So what is sin?

“What is sin? It is the glory of God not honored. The holiness of God not reverenced. The greatness of God not admired. The power of God not praised. The truth of God not sought. The wisdom of God not esteemed. The beauty of God not treasured. The goodness of God not savored. The faithfulness of God not trusted. The commandments of God not obeyed. The justice of God not respected. The wrath of God not feared. The grace of God not cherished. The presence of God not prized. The person of God not loved. That is sin.”

John Piper

And we are all guilty of it. No one will escape the judgement that will come and the wrath of God that will destroy the sinful people who dare to stand before a holy God. There are only two kinds of people who will stand before God those who stand under guilt and those who stand under grace!

Will you stand under guilt or Grace? If you cannot answer that question, you have much reason to shudder in fear. If you have not run to Christ and confessed your sin and asked God to forgive you… You need not wait another moment. You have no guarantee that you will have another moment to do that.

I want to leave us today with a quote from a man named William Gurnall.

“When I consider how the goodness of God is abused by the greatest part of mankind, I cannot but be of his mind that said, The greatest miracle in the world is God’s patience and bounty to an ungrateful world. If a prince has an enemy that gets into on of his towns, he does not send them in provision, but lays seige to that place, and does what he can to starve them. But the great God, that could wink all his enemies into destruction, bears with them, and is at daily cost to maintain them. Well may He command us to bless them that curse us, who Himself does good to the evil and unthankful. But think not, sinners, that you shall escape him; God’s mill goes slow, but grinds small; the more admirable his patience and bounty is now, the more dreadful and unstoppable will that fury be which arises out of His abused goodness. Nothing smoother than the sea, yet when stirred into tempest, nothing rageth more. Nothing so sweet as the patience and goodness of God, and nothing so terrible as His wrath when it takes fire.”

May we never forget the wrath of God which we are saved from in Christ! Let us repent today from all sins that would entangle us as his people and ask for Holy Spirit filled boldness to share the full gospel message that includes sin and wrath as much as love and grace, with a lost and dying world.

That we would stand before him someday under grace rathe than under guilt.