Chapter 7, verse 11, God judges the righteous, and
God is angry with the wicked every day. If He turned not God said, He hath wet his sword,
he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared
for him the instruments of death. He ordaineth his arrows against
the persecutors. Now, I want to talk about God's
wrath this evening. And next week, this will be the
next to last attribute I'll deal with. Next week, I'm going to
deal with the blessing and the cursing God. The blessing and the cursing
God. But here we have where it says, God is angry with the wicked
every day. Now, there's nothing about God,
nothing about God, nothing about His character, nothing about
His attributes or His works that we should ever apologize for.
We should never apologize for God and His dealings with men
and women in this world, with His dealings with us, or any
attributes of His. You see, it's impossible for
God to be wrong. It's impossible for Him to do
wrong. When it's said in Genesis 18, 25, it says, "...shall not
the judge of all the earth do right?" And that's what Abraham
said. And it's more than God doing
what is right. It is right because He does it.
Me and you every once in a while, we'll do something right. Or
we'll do something that'll come out right. But it's right because
God does it. Whatever He does is right. And
some are under the delusion that God somehow, some way, overlooks
sin and figures out some way to save a man, even while he's
drawing his very last breath. Even though he has lived without
God, took his name in vain, He was a liar, he was a cheater,
he was a thief, and he presumed on God Almighty. And people ask,
how can he be good and have wrath? How could he not have wrath if
he is good? And we hear much about God's
love, and I rejoice in God's love. I rejoice in it. But there's
also the other side of it, God's wrath. And we rejoice in God's
love and God's grace that's given us in Christ. But God's love
and His grace wasn't exercised at the expense of His justice
and His righteousness. And I'll tell you that God Almighty
is more than just love. He's got a multitude of attributes,
and all that makes up God. Look at all the attributes. We
have love, we have anger, we have pity, we have compassion,
we have affections, we have understanding, we have patience, we have long-suffering. If we have all these things,
God's got them to perfection. And if you and I get angry, why
wouldn't God be allowed to have anger or wrath? And God himself
sets forth his wrath, and he's not ashamed to declare that vengeance
is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord. That's what he said.
Now look with me over here in Deuteronomy, chapter 32. And it says there that he hates
the workers of iniquity. And people try to apologize for
God, and they'll say things like, well, God hates the sinner, but
he hates the sin. It can't be that way. Sin is what you are. Sin is what you are. He never
saved His elect without their sins being paid for, without
the wrath of God being poured out on them for their sin. But
look here at Deuteronomy 32 and verse 39. See now that I, even I, am He,
and there is no God with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound
and I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven,
and say, I live forever. If I wet my glittering sword,
and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine
enemies, and will reward them that hate me." Oh, my! It sounds like, you know, I wouldn't
want to be his enemy. And I said this before, and I
wrote it down one time, that God will be a man's best friend
or his worst enemy. And that's what he just said
there. He says, you know, I swear by myself. I swear by myself. And God only swore twice in the
Scriptures. He swore by his own name because he had no greater
than one to swear by when he made a covenant with Abraham.
And he swore, swore that he'd bring vengeance on them that
hate him. Now that's the thing that he does. And because God
is holy, because He is infinitely, eternally holy, He hates all
sin. All sin. He does not excuse any
sin. And that's why the Lord Jesus
says, He that believeth on the Son of God hath life. He that
believeth not the Son of God, the wrath of God abides upon
him. And now let me tell you some
things about the wrath of God. The wrath of God is as much a
perfection of the Lord as His faithfulness, of His power, of
His mercy, of His love, of His grace, of His pity, of His patience,
and there is no blemish, not the slightest defect in the character
of God. And I know this, and this is
something that We are human beings and it's
awful. But indifference to sin, indifference
to sin is a moral blemish. And you and I may be indifferent
to sin at times, but God is never indifferent to sin because He
has no blemish in His character. Let me show you what I mean by
that. Let me look in 1 Samuel with me, just a minute. 1 Samuel
chapter 2. We'll even sometimes, you know, excuse our sin by blaming it
on somebody else. We'll sometimes let people say
and do things in our presence that we normally wouldn't let
them say or do. And in difference, the sin is a moral blemish. And
you know, me and you have moral blemishes, but God doesn't have
one. And look what it says here in 1 Samuel 2.22. Now, Eli, he's
the priest. He's the high priest. And Eli
was very old and heard all that his sons did unto Israel. Now
watch this. And how they lay with the women
that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Now this one he had, he had two sons. And these fellas stayed
at the door of the tabernacle congregation, supposed to take
sacrifice and everything. But what did they do? They laid
with whorish women right at the door of the tabernacle of God
himself. That's how lowlife these men
were. Now watch this, and he said unto them, Why do ye such
things? For I hear of your evil dealings
by this people. Now watch this, Nay, my sons,
for it is no good report that I hear. Ye make the Lord's people
to transgress. Now what he should have done,
being the daddy, being the father, being the one responsible, being
the high priest, he should have had them two boys taken out and
stoned. That would have been the right
thing to have done. Take them out of the priesthood, get rid
of them. But no, what did he say? He says, If one man sin
against another, the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against
the Lord, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they hearken
not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them. You hear what I said? I said
the Lord would slay them. Now look down here at verse 29. Wherefore, keep ye at my sacrifice,
and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and
honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the
cheapest of all the offerings of Israel my people." He says,
why are you doing that? You put your sons above me? You
put your sons above my holiness, above my righteousness, above
my word, above my law? Wherefore the Lord God of Israel
said, I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father
should walk before me forever, but now the Lord saith, bid far
from me. For them that honour me I will
honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
Behold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm
of thy father's house, that thou shalt not be an old man in thine
house." He said, I'm going to cut off You and all your descendants,
it ain't going to be your name going to be cut off off the face
of the earth. That's what he's saying. And thou shalt see an enemy in
my habitation, and all the wealth which God shall give Israel.
And there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever.
And the man of thine whom I shall not cut off from thine altar
shall be to consume thine eyes and to grieve thine heart. And
all the increase of thine house shall die in the fire of their
anger. And this shall be a sign unto thee, shall come upon thee,
thy two sons Hophni and Phileas, and one day they both of them
shall die." That's what... Indifference, you know, Eli was
indifference to moral sin, indifference to his son. He honored his sons
above his fathers. Just let them get by with their
sin. God cut him off and killed both his boys at one time. You
say, boy, that's tough. Well, that's why we don't fool
with God. That's why we don't presume on
Him. Can God Almighty look upon virtue and vice the same way? Can God Almighty look upon wisdom
and a fool the same way? Can He disregard sin, who is
infinitely holy, if He wants to make His power known? And
he endures with great longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, and endures with them instead of just destroying.
And beloved, the nature of God makes hell as real a necessity
as does heaven. I mean, if a man don't want to
be in His presence, don't want to own Him, don't want to bow
to Him, don't want to submit to Him, don't want to believe
Him, Where is he going to do with him? Where is he going to
put him? He surely can't take him into his bosom. Would you
pick up a batch of rattlesnakes and take them into your bosom?
Well, that's what God would be doing if He took every rebel
back. Instead of having a place for them. And I tell you, beloved,
there's no imperfection in God. There's no perfection in Him
that's less perfect than another. Let me tell you something else
about God's wrath. Not only is it just another perfectionist,
it's all of His other attributes. But God's wrath is His eternal
detesting of all unrighteousness, and eternal detesting of it.
What God's wrath is, it's His displeasure and indignation against
evil. It's His holiness stirred into
activity against sin. And you go all the way through
the Scriptures, and we'll deal with it in a minute. But oh my,
His holiness is stirred up into activity against sin. And all
you've got to do is look at the cross and see that. But His wrath,
His wrath is the moving cause of the just sentence which He
passes upon men. His wrath is just the moving
cause. of the just sentence which he
passes upon men when he declares, this is it, you went as far as
you're going to go and you ain't going no further. You see, beloved,
and that's why we're so concerned about our kids. Bruce Cranfield
and I was talking about this today. Children that don't obey their
parents and talk back to their parents and speak ill of their
parents, they just as well speak ill of God and cuss God and rail
against God. Because you're there in God's
place to raise children. And a wife that stands up and
cusses and stands up against her husband, what she's doing
is she's standing up against the place, the person that God
put in that place of authority. And so we got these things, and
then men, they do these things, and then they think that they're
justified in doing it. But God's got an order, God's
got a way, and sin is a rebellion against His authority, whether
it's in your heart, whether it's in your home, whether it's in
your children. And that's why we pray so for our children,
because we see that they're rebels. They may not be a rebel against
us, but they're a rebel against God, and if they ever rebel against
us, that's certainly evidence. that they rebel against God.
They rebel against His authority. They make fun of His sovereignty. There's insurrection against
His government. And all who contend against His
will will one day, one day, feel the wrath of God. And let me
tell you something about the wrath of God. God, when we get
angry, we can feel it. But when God gets angry, he don't
feel it. This is the mysterious thing
about God. He don't have anger and emotions
like you and I do. When we get angry, we have some
maliciousness in it, or some malignancy in it, or some realitation
in it, or we want to inflict suffering for some reason. But
God's wrath is not that way. It's one of His attributes where
when He's angry, or he has wrath and it's manifested. He does
it without showing any emotion, without there being any malignancy
in it, without any maliciousness in it, without any retaliation
in it. And He don't just inflict suffering just for suffering's
sake. He don't go tip for tap the way human beings does. He
said, you done me wrong, I do you wrong. Tip for tap, that's
not the way. I mean, God told us in His Word, this is what
you must do, this is what you must believe, this is the way
you have to come. Man says, I'm not going to do
it. Now, why shouldn't God deal with him on that basis? And I tell you, beloved, God
will vindicate Himself As the governor of this universe, and
this is what's going to be so glorious about it, God Himself,
God Himself will vindicate Himself. He's the moral governor of this
universe. He's got the right to rule and
reign over every human being and demand from them obedience
to Him. And ignorance will be no excuse. And yet he will vindicate himself
when he stands and men stand in judgment, and he brings their
lies before them, and his wrath and his justice fall on them.
They'll say, everyone will have to admit that that's right, that's
right, that's just, that's true. But though he'll vindicate himself,
he will not be vindictive himself. He'll not be vindictive. Look
over in Romans 1.18 with me just a minute. Yeah, he'll vindicate himself,
but he won't be vindictive. And oh, and God's wrath is expressly
declared in His Word. It says here in verse 18, For
the wrath of God, the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel,
But the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
And where was God's wrath? It says it's revealed from heaven.
Well, it was revealed when the sentence of death was executed
upon Adam, and God drove him from the garden. It was revealed When God says,
oh, the imagination of man's heart is only evil continually,
and He told Noah, He says, Noah, prepare you an ark, because I'm
going to send a flood, and I'm going to destroy every living
thing on the face of the earth. His wrath was revealed from heaven
in the flood. It was revealed in the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah, and it is revealed right now, every
single day, of every minute, of every day, of every second,
of every day, of every week, of every month, of every year,
until the Lord comes back. And that is that death reigns
in this world right now. That's the wrath of God. Death reigns right now. I mean,
it has no respective person. It comes and gets the wicked.
God said, I told you. I told you I had appointed day
for you. I told you that I had my bow ready. I told you that
I had my sword sharpened. I told you that I had a place
of day appointed for you. And I told you that I was going
to come and wreak vengeance on you. And you think what a man
goes through the moment he closes his eyes and draws his last breath,
and he's never, ever said anything good about God or the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now what should God do with a
man like that? You know, we think, what should
he do with us? I get so disgusted with my own
self. I told a dear preacher friend yesterday,
I said, I don't know how... I've never been as so sick of the way I am As a believer
and a preacher, in a long time the way I've been the last few
weeks, I just feel cold and lifeless and seem like I'm playing. And
yet, beloved, if we God puts it in our hearts to want Him,
to need Him, and examine ourselves, and cry out to Him, and save
us. And I know I want to be saved.
If I don't know You, I want to know You now. And if I ain't
never been saved, save me now. I don't want to face Your wrath. I don't want You to be angry
with me. I don't want You to be displeased with me. And I
don't want You, please, O Lord, don't leave me to myself. And if that's what the cry of
a heart is of a child of God, and God has mercy on us, what
does He do to those who do nothing but raise their fist in His face
and say, oh, I don't want you, don't need you, and I can face
life without you. I read an article today of a
man who said he was raised in a Christian home, and he said,
I didn't want to believe in God, still don't want to believe in
God. He said, I don't believe in him,
I still don't want to believe in him, and if I end up in hell
for that, he said, I'll be there with a lot of my favorite people. Now that's what he said. He was writing about why most
Christians are conservative. And I tell you, that's just...
But he says, if I go to hell, I'll be there with a lot of my
favorite people. Why in the world? What should
God do with a man like that? What should God do when a man
dies with those kind of thoughts on his mind? With those kind
of words in his lips? That's what I'm saying. This
is what you know about God. That's why we're not playing.
We're not playing church. We can't play church. We can't
play with the gospel. We can't play with the things
of God. We can't play with our children. And oh, beloved, it's
revealed, this wrath of God's revealed from heaven by the reign
of death in this world right now. And it was revealed by the
curse of the law on every transgression. And the scripture says the whole
creation groans waiting for the manifestation of the sons of
God. The same creation that declares
that there is a God, that declares His glory because it groans also
proves that He's the enemy of sin and avenges the crimes of
men. And oh, beloved, and I'll tell
you where the wrath of God is revealed more than any place
else on the face of this earth. When His blessed Son hung on
that cross, when He got down in the Garden of Gethsemane,
And he prayed until his sweat became, as it were, drops of
blood and says, Father, oh Father, if there's any other way, any
other way to save your people, any other way to satisfy your
justice, any other way for sin to be put away, any other way
for your wrath to be spended, any other way for your holiness
to be manifested, any other way Let this cup pass from me. But
he says, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. And it
was such an awful thing that when Christ hung on that cross
in the wrath of God, to wake old sword against my fellow.
God had his sword wedded. He said, awake old sword against
my fellow and smite the shepherd. And God himself thought it was
such an awful sin that he pulled the lights of heaven and shut
them down so men couldn't see the unmitigated wrath. He tread
the fierceness of the winepress of the wrath of God by himself. Oh my, his beloved son was made
to be sinned and he felt the fierceness of God's wrath. And
oh, And that's why, beloved, that's why we'll never, ever
have to bear the wrath of God, never have to bear it. I feel God's displeasure sometimes,
and I have a great fear of God, but I'll never, ever have to,
I'll never face, God's wrath will never be on me. He may chastise
me. He may withdraw His Spirit from
me. He may send a great affliction and great trials. He may send
bad health. He may make my lot miserable
in this world. But I know one thing, it won't
have one ounce of wrath in it. Because Christ has done more
than all. Two revelations given from heaven,
one's wrath and the other's grace. And both of them was given to
us in Christ and manifested in Christ on the cross. Bless His
holy name. Look at Psalm 95-11 with me just
a moment. Psalm 95-11. Here's God swearing in His wrath.
It says Psalm 95-11. Look what it says in verse 8.
Hard not your heart, as in the provocation. And that means that
they contended with God, provoked God. As in the day of temptation
in the wilderness. Who's tempting who? They've tempted
God. Your Father's tempted me and
proved me and saw my work. Forty long years was I agreed
with this generation, said it is a people. that do err in their
heart, and they have not known my ways, unto whom I swear in
my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest." God swore,
looking at a bunch of people, and told them to their face through
Moses, I swear you're not coming into my rest. You're not coming
into my rest. Why? Because you argued with
me, you tempted me, you contended with me, you cursed Moses, you
cursed me, you were dissatisfied with everything I've done for
you. And, O Beloved, two times when God made promises, He made
it to Abraham, and blessed and all bless you, and in pronouncing
judgment. And why should we even consider
the wrath of God? I know I've turned it up, but
let me show you another one. Hebrews 12. Let me show you why
we should consider the wrath of God. Why should we even consider
it? Hebrews 12, 28. Why should we even think about
the wrath of God and deal with the wrath of God? It says in
verse 28, ìWherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved.î I mean, we have a kingdom that
we cannot be moved. What did our priest say Sunday
morning? God said, ìShe shall not be moved.î At River City,
He said, ìShe shall not be moved.î Let us have grace. whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Why? Because our God is a consuming
fire. You know, when they put that
sacrifice on the altar and the fire came down and destroyed
it, that was the sin offering. God's fire consumed the sin offering.
And that's typical of His wrath, emblematic of His wrath. And
man don't want fire. That's why it says to go to the
place where the fire is never quenched and the worm don't die. What fire is it? It's not a little
fire. It's the wrath of God continually burning, burning, burning. And oh, we consider the wrath
of God that we may fear Him. And that we may fear and detest
sin, be scared to death of sin. We should never, ever regard
it lightly or make excuses for it. And secondly, to cause our
hearts to be thankful and praise Him for saving us from the wrath
to come. I'll show you this, and I've
got a couple looking for Thessalonians. You'll be blessed by this. To
cause our hearts to be thankful for saving us from the wrath
to come. Look in 1 Thessalonians 1.10. And one of these days, we're
going to rejoice at the judgment of God upon these enemies. Old
Barnard's got a message he preached, and you can find it probably
on Sermon Audio now, because Alan Smith put them all up there
and digitized them. But he had one on there that
I've heard several times. It says, When the saints shout
hallelujah, while God sends men to hell. And that's what Revelation
19's about. The saints shout hallelujah.
Well, God sends men down because it's the right thing to do. And
look over here in 1 Thessalonians 1.10, And to wait for his Son
from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, watch it
now, which delivered us from the wrath to come. It's coming. Look over here in chapter 5,
verse 9. I love this verse of Scripture.
This has been a comfort to me many times over the years. For
God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we
wake or sleep, we will live together with Him. Oh, beloved, remember. Remember
the awful, awful sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ as He bore
our sins, as He wretched took the cup of God's wrath out of
His hand and drunk it all the way dry, even to the dregs. So
God help us to never, ever take sin lightly or apologize for
God's wrath and hatred for sin. May we never, never do that.
And I'm going to read something for you, and then when I'm done. And the kings of the earth, and
the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the
mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves
in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to
the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face
of him that set it on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able
to stand?" God's wrath comes upon men for
three reasons. First of all, man sinned against
the light of nature. Sinned against the light of nature.
Their own nature tells them that they do something wrong unless
God just reprobates them. And secondly, his wrath comes
upon men because they sin against his holy law. And thirdly, it
comes down upon men because they refuse the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. When he's made such a wondrous,
glorious, blessed, free way of free grace and full salvation,
accomplished it and provided it all, and a man not take what's
free and full, God gives you this great salvation. You don't need it. I do. I do. Our Father, O our gracious God,
in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you. Oh, thank you for your mercies.
Thank you for your grace. Lord, it's part of your character,
part of your nature, part of your attributes. So, Lord, we
deal with these things. I pray honestly, compassionately,
with a heart that hurts over it. Don't want to see anybody,
the wrath of God come on them. Not on my children. Not on my
grandchildren. Not on any soul in this building.
Not on those we love. But Lord, we know that whatever
you do, it's right. It's right. And we'll kiss your
hand and we'll bow at your feet. And what you do with our families
and with us and with those we love, we'll just bow before you
and say, it's the Lord. Let him do what seems good. We
bless you in Christ's name. Amen.