This sermon was preached on Sunday
evening, May 31st, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville,
New Jersey. In our meditation in the Word
of God, we come tonight to the second in a series of studies
which I have entitled, Missing Notes in Contemporary Gospel
Preaching. In our first study, last Lord's
Day evening, We considered from the scriptures the fundamental
truth that the gospel of Christ is the only divinely ordained
remedy for sin-sick humanity. And in the light of that fact,
the scriptures teach us that any distortions, additions, or
subtractions from that gospel are ruinous to the souls of men. And with that biblical framework
conditioning our thinking, we then began an examination of
the first of several of these missing notes in contemporary
gospel preaching, which will be the focal points of our concentration
and concern. That first note, which we began
to consider last Lord's Day evening, is the note of the wrath of God. Now, in our initial study, I
began to set before you Biblical materials under the broad heading
of the prominence of the doctrine of the wrath of God in New Testament
preaching and teaching. And I underscored for you that
we would look at this Biblical reality of the wrath of God in
the beginning exclusively from the New Testament, and that for
two reasons. First of all, because of the
misconception spawned by liberal theology, the misconception that
the God of the Old Testament is a God of narrow tribal concerns,
a God of wrath, a God of angry passion. But the God of the New
Testament, the God revealed in Christ, is the God who is all
love, who is all tenderness, who is all compassion and pity. And in order then to give no
quarter to that argument, I wish to establish the doctrine of
the prominence, and I keep underscoring that word, the prominence of
the wrath of God in New Testament preaching and teaching. And then
I do that for a second reason, and that reason resides in the
biblical concept of progressive revelation. God has revealed
himself in the fullest and complete revelation in the New Testament. And because of this, all that
we can know of God will find its most brilliant display as
we behold the glory of God reflected in the face of Jesus Christ. Well, again, with that perspective
firmly established, we took up our New Testaments and we began
to consider the prominence of the wrath of God in New Testament
preaching and teaching. I directed your attention, first
of all, to the prominence of this theme in the preaching of
that forerunner of the Lord Jesus, John the Baptist, and we noted
that the wrath of God was one of the four dominant notes in
the preaching of John. Then we began to consider, and
time ran out on us, the prominence of the wrath of God in the preaching
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We turn to what many regard as
a lovely little collection of moral axioms, the Sermon on the
Mount, and we noted that on the very threshold of the enforcement
of the law of God, our Lord underscores with prominence the doctrine
of divine wrath. Then we turn to the parables
in Matthew 13 and saw that they were not bland, innocuous little
spiritual ditties that get across a lovely little lesson here or
there, but that those parables are suffused with an emphasis
upon the wrath of God. Well, I want to pick up the teaching
now at that very point, having considered the prominence of
the wrath of God in the preaching of our Lord, as it is found in
the Sermon on the Mount and in the parables. For a few minutes,
let us continue to consider the prominence of this theme in the
teaching of our Lord in what I am calling His general teaching. and I'll be selecting just several
passages and by no means will I attempt to be exhausted. Turn please to the 10th chapter
of Matthew's Gospel. In this particular setting, our
Lord is commissioning the twelve. He is giving to them a specific
task, Having described their task, he is now preparing them
for the opposition they will encounter in the fulfillment
of that task. And he says in Matthew 10.24,
a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple
that he be as his teacher, and the servant as his Lord. If they
have called the master of the house Beelzebub, that's what
they said of our Lord, prince of the powers of darkness, how
much more them of his household? In other words, if I, your master,
have received this kind of treatment, if I have been slandered, if
they have said that I'm in league with the devil, don't you be
surprised if you get a similar treatment. But now what are they
to do when they get this kind of treatment? Well, verse 26
tells us. Do not be afraid of them, therefore, for there is
nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall
not be known. What I tell you in the darkness,
speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, proclaim
upon the housetops. And do not be afraid of them
that kill the body. but are not able to kill the
soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for
a penny, and not one of them shall fall on the ground without
your father? But the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Fear not, therefore. You are
of more value than many sparrows. How do you notice this strange
conjunction of various dimensions of the character of the God whom
our Lord calls in this passage the Father of His disciples?
As he is arming them for the task which he has laid upon them
in the previous verses, he tells them they are not to be afraid
of those who can harm their bodies, but they are to have a wholesome
fear of the God who can destroy soul and body in hell. In other words, A present recognition
of the wrath of God which comes upon men and finds expression
in the lake of fire is to be a present consciousness in the
minds of the twelve as they go forth to preach. Not primarily
in this context with regard to preaching to others to flee the
wrath to come. but as an incentive to remain
true to their commission in the face of opposition. Don't be
afraid of those who, in pursuit of your obedience to my word,
seize upon you and can commit you to prison and torture and
even to death. Don't be afraid of those who
kill the body. Fear the one who can take your
soul and body and cast you into hell. who in the exercise of
his holy fury can take the whole man and cast him into hell. And then with a master stroke
he turns immediately and says in verse 29, Are not two sparrows
sold for a penny? And not one of them shall fall
to the ground without your father. Do you see that smart contrast? The God of awesome fury, who
cast into hell, is the Father of tender compassion, who, as
it were, guides a little sparrow that falls to the ground, and
it does not fall without your Father. The Father so intimately
concerned with every detail in the lives of His children that
even the hairs of their head are numbed. Now who is the true
and living God? Is He the sensitive, loving Father
concerned with all His works, even the inconsequential little
sparrows? Is He that God? Or is He this
God of terror and fury who cast His creatures into hell? Which
God is He? Well, my friend, you are not
free to make a choice. You are not free. to make a choice
which sets upon one alternative or the other. The God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ is at one and the same time the God
of tender, fatherly concern and compassion, and the God of frightening
fury and of anger. And a God who is only one or
the other is an idol and is not the God of the Bible. Then we turn to Matthew 18 as
we continue. Again, I repeat, not an exhaustive
but only a suggestive consideration of some of the teaching of our
Lord on this great theme of the wrath of God. Matthew chapter
18, verse 1. In that hour came the disciples
unto Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of
heaven? Now notice and try to read between
the lines what this must have meant in its initial fulfillment.
And he called to him a little child and set him in the midst
of them. Now, generally speaking, Little
children are very skittish, around, austere, magisterial people. And I can just picture the Lord
Jesus, who was very much at home with children, and with whom
children were very much at home, perhaps getting down on one knee,
and I'll not do it here because I'll get out of sight, and fixing
his eyes upon a little lad or a little girl, it just says a
child, set him, so it probably was a
male, little boy, and beckoning to the little boy, saying, Sonny,
can you come here for a minute? I want you to do something for
me. And one can just picture the little child feeling utterly
disarmed by the gentleness, by the graciousness, by the winsomeness
of our Lord, running over and perching on his knee, and the
Lord Jesus putting his arm on the shoulder. Now, the text doesn't
say this, but this could well have happened. And saying, now,
I want to teach a lesson to some of these grown-ups. You know,
they're kind of stupid and thick at times. And I want to use you
to help get a lesson across to them. So will you help me? And
I can just picture the little fellow looking up and saying,
why? Jesus, I'd be glad to do anything you want me to do. What
do you want me to do? Well, Sonny, I want you to go
right over here and just stand up nice and straight like you're
giving your little poem at your Sunday school recital time. And
you just stand there and you don't need to say a thing. You
just stand there nice and still. All right. Well, sure, Jesus,
I'd be glad to do that. And I can picture the little
fellow running over right in the circle of the crowd. And then
the Lord Jesus turning around with burning eye and looking
upon these people who are discussing the great theme of who will be
the greatest in the kingdom. And then he says, verse three,
Truly, I say unto you, except you turn and become as little
children, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Did you see those characteristics operative in that little child
when I called him and set him in your midst? And I'll not pause
to underscore what they are, for that's not the purpose of
our study tonight. But our Lord says that unless
you become as that little child, you'll not enter the kingdom.
Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child.
The same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoso shall receive
one such little child, that is, not just a little child in age,
but one who has become like him in principle, a true son or daughter
of the kingdom, whoso shall receive one such little child in my name
receives me." Now up to this point many would say, ah, I feel
so at home with that Jesus. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
who looks upon the little child. That's my Jesus. The Jesus who
is the epitome of all gentleness and all tenderness and winsomeness,
so that little children, at His word, feel free to come and run
and sit up upon His knee and stand and make a spectacle of
themselves in the midst of a large crowd of people, these adults. And yet that same Jesus goes
on immediately. And here's the thing that has
struck me in my preparation, the immediate contrast. It's
like thunderbolts dropping out of a clear blue sky at noonday. And whoso shall receive one such
little child in my name receiveth me, but whoso shall cause one
of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, It is profitable
for him that a great millstone, not the little millstone, but
the great millstone, the one that it took a big ox to turn,
it were profitable that a great millstone should be hanged about
his neck, and he should be sunk into the depths of the sea. That
immediately brings to my mind gangland slayings, mafia style. when they take concrete blocks
and tie people to the block and dump them out of a boat. Is this
the same Jesus who a few moments before, in all of His glorious
and gracious winsomeness, entices a little lad to sit upon His
knee? to stand before adults? Can this
be the Jesus who talks about millstones tied about the neck
and drowned in a brutal way in the sea? But He does not stop
there. He then goes on to use the strong
language of verse 7, "...woe unto the world, because of occasions
of stumbling." For it must needs be that occasions come, but woe
to that man through whom the occasion cometh. And now the
language that we saw in the Sermon on the Mount, if thy hand or
thy foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and cast it from you. It is good for you to enter into
life maimed or halt, rather than having two hands or two feet
to be cast into the eternal fire. And if thine eye causes you to
stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is good for you
to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to
be cast into the hell of fire. He moves from his gentle, gracious,
winsome dealings with a child to speak of millstones tied about
the neck and drowned in the depths of the sea, cutting off right
hands, plucking out right eyes, lest they be cast into hell. And there's no indication that
he didn't speak all those words in the presence of that same
little lad. This notion that, well, with children we just teach
the love of God. We just teach the tenderness
of Jesus. We just teach the meekness of
Jesus. We don't want to upset their tender, fragile little
psyches by speaking of hell and of judgment. Don't you be wiser
than the Son of God! Don't you be wiser than the Son
of God! There is no indication in the
context but what that little lad heard, these words that are
R-rated in terms of their external brutality, but they come from
the very lips of the one who said, Sonny, won't you come and
do a favor for Jesus? And then you see him move right
back into that dimension of his compassionate gentleness as in
the subsequent context. You have the Good Shepherd who
goes out after the one lost sheep and brings it back rejoicing
and speaks of the protectors of the people and children who
watch over them in the providence of God. Now do you see again
that in the mind of our Lord there was no contradiction between
reflecting in His person, in His bearing, in His doings, as
well as in His words this full-orbed picture of His heavenly Father,
the God who is the God of gentleness, but the God of frightening fury. And our Lord Jesus gave prominence
Not a passing illusion here or there, not an oblique reference
occasionally, but whole blocks of his teaching speak in the
most explicit terminology of the reality of the wrath of God. Now I ask you again, which Jesus
is the Jesus of your life? Is he a Jesus who is only gentle
and a friend of children? And I do not despise that to
me. One of my greatest joys as a
pastor is my hugging and kissing time with all the kids every
Sunday. Nothing thrills me more or few things than to have them
lined up at that back door as they are every Sunday morning
and Sunday night waiting for their weekly smooch. Few things
fill me with greater pastoral delight than to know that I'm
the friend of so many of these precious children. And they know
I'm their friend. You say, how can that be? You
stand up there and you're hollering, you're thundering, you're frowning,
you're scowling. They still know I love them.
And I know they love me. Do you see any contradiction
between those two things? I'll let you in on a little secret.
Many a time I've seen when visitors have come amongst us and they've
had little or no exposure to our total life here as a congregation. They've sat under the word and
if God has been pleased to bring that word with some authority
and searching penetration, I've caught them out of the corner
of my eye standing there with their jaw down when they see
me at the door hugging the kids and they see the kids lined up
for their kisses. Why you preach like that and
you'll drive kids away! You'll scare the liver out of
them! That's not true. It was not true of our blessed
Lord. And to the extent that His image is stamped upon us,
His servants, it will not be true of us either. You see, Jesus
is not only the gentle friend of children, but He is the thundering
denunciator of all who cause occasions of stumbling. But the
reverse is also true. And some of you, in your reaction
against a saccharine, soft-handed Jesus, who is all pity and gentleness
and compassion, your tendency is to give the impression that
He is a Jesus who only speaks woe. who only speaks words of
thundering denunciation. No, no. The Jesus of the Bible
is that beautiful, balanced portrayal of the living God who He is and
whom He has come to exegete. And then there is one final passage
in the teaching of our Lord, His general teaching to which
I direct your attention, Matthew chapter 25. Remember, what we're
attempting to do now is to establish the prominence of this note of
the wrath of God in New Testament preaching and teaching. And we
come now to the final passage in the teaching of our Lord,
Matthew 25. And beginning with verse 31, our Lord gives this
graphic description of the final day, the great day of judgment,
when all men will be gathered before His own throne. Now notice what our Lord says
with respect to that day. But when the Son of Man shall
come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall He
sit on the throne of His glory. Before him shall be gathered
all the nations, and he shall separate them one from another,
as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." Our Lord
is very careful to emphasize that this great and final separation
will be brought to pass by Himself. Notice it does not say, when
the Son of Man shall come, then shall all men be gathered and
the sheep be separated. The emphasis very clearly falls
upon His own activity. He will be the great separator. He will separate sheep and goats. then it will be his great privilege
as the Messiah, the administrator of the Messianic kingdom, to
say to those sheep on his right hand, then shall the king say
to them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, enter
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And here is our Lord using the
words blessedness. He speaks of His Father, the
Father who in grace and mercy from the foundation of the world
has prepared a kingdom for His own, who in His compassion to
men whom He knew would rebel against Him, who in Adam would
defect from Him nonetheless, marked out of that great defected
race, a great multitude whom no man can number of every kindred,
tribe, and tongue, and nation. And they were made His deposit,
and they were given to Him. He became their surety and representative
and died for them. And in due time the Spirit drew
them to the knowledge of themselves and of the salvation procured
for them in Christ. And now, in that day, our Lord
says, blessedness will be their portion, entering the kingdom
prepared by this loving Father, who in electing grace, who in
the grace of redemption so loved the world as to send His only
begotten Son, and who by the Spirit drew them to Himself.
You see, our Lord must have delighted in speaking those words. But
it isn't long before we find him saying these words in the
same setting, verse 41, Then shall he say also unto them on
the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal
fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. How do you see how closely our
Lord brings these things together? Sitting upon his throne, he shall
say, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom. But the
same King, King of grace, King of mercy, King of pity, will
say to those on his left hand, Depart. Not only depart, but
depart ye cursed. not only depart ye cursed, but
depart ye cursed into, and not only into the lake of fire, but
in companionship with the devil and his angels, the horror of
the company of doomed evil spirits and the arch-evil spirit himself. And our Lord is not using figures
of speech. He is speaking of frightening
realities And then he climaxes the statement with verse 46,
and thee shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous
into eternal life. Do you see why I have asserted
that if the note of the wrath of God is not prominent in gospel
preaching, it is sub-biblical preaching at best? and a frightening
distortion and omission and oftentimes a damning delusion at worst,
our Lord brings them, as it were, into a delicate equipoise and
balance, the righteous into everlasting life. the unrighteous sin to
eternal punishment. Come ye blessed, depart ye cursed,
so that anyone listening to our Lord would know that the God
whom he had come to manifest was not a God of unprincipled
and undiluted love, nothing but love, nothing but pity, nothing
but compassion. They would know that He was,
at one and the same time, the God of infinite pure and holy
love, unfathomable, immense, boundless love that would take
the fallen sons of Adam and prepare them to dwell with the Father
of light and that forever, but that He was also a God of unspeakable
and frightening fury. the God who will not have any
compunctions about taking His own creatures, and through the
messianic work of His own Son as the King and Judge of the
universe, consign them to eternal punishment, not extinction. Eternal
punishment! I say the teaching of our Lord
is permeated with this note of the wrath of God. I have made
no allusions to Luke 16, Matthew 23, Mark 9, a host of other passages,
but I trust this presentation of these passages has convinced
everyone within the sound of my voice that the note of the
wrath of God was a prominent note in the teaching of our Lord. Now then, let me hasten on. Fasten
your seatbelts as we make a quick survey through some pivotal passages
in the apostolic teaching. As we read in our consecutive
reading through the New Testament this morning, to the apostles
was given a unique function in the Church of Christ. They, by
their teaching, were laying the foundation stones for the living
temple of God, Ephesians 2 and verse 20. so that in forming
the doctrinal concepts of the young churches, the emphases
of their letters were of paramount importance in shaping and molding
what the young churches understood of God, of His truth, and of
His ways. When we turn to the first of
those epistles, Paul's letter to the Romans, we note that the
matter of the wrath of God holds a very prominent place. In fact,
I did something that shocked me, and I hope you'll do it,
and you'll feel the same shock that I did. If you have a Young's
or a Strong's concordance, look up the use of the word orgy,
which is the classic word for wrath, and there are several
times in the New Testament where it refers to wrath in man as
a sinful passion. The works of the flesh are wrath,
only a couple of times, about three or four. But the predominant
use is with respect to this pure and righteous anger of God against
his enemies, against sinners. And the word Orge in the Book
of Romans is used a dozen times, and in each case it has some
reference to the wrath of God either directly administered
or indirectly through human government. Twelve references to divine Orge,
divine wrath. Now, in that great epistle that
unfolds as no other epistle, the heart of the gospel of the
grace of God, how often do you think the word love is found?
The love of God, that is. God's love to sinners. Either
in the noun form, love, or to love in the verb form. Well,
it may shock you to know that you'll only find ten such references
in the Book of Romans. Now, do you feel something of
the imbalance of contemporary gospel preaching? There are more
explicit references to the wrath of God in Romans than to the
love of God. And I didn't write it. One of the great themes of that
book is opened up or underscored in the opening chapter, verses
16 and 17. I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed
a righteousness of God from faith unto faith, as it is written,
But the righteous shall live by faith. The apostle had no
reason to be ashamed to blush concerning the gospel, for he
knew the gospel to be the power of God, that gospel in which
God has revealed a way of righteousness from himself and received by
faith. And then he begins to open up
in what is the closest thing to a systematic treatise of the
gospel and whatever other pastoral concerns dictate the structure
and emphases of the letter. Surely it is evident that we
have something that is a logical presentation of the gospel. And
as Paul would open up the gospel, do you notice where he starts?
After his summary or thematic statement in verses sixteen and
seventeen, notice his first words, verse eighteen, for not the love
of God is revealed, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. And the theme of divine wrath
becomes now not only a dominant note, but it becomes a predominant
note as he seeks to demonstrate the universal need of this gospel
of Jesus Christ, a gospel which is the revelation of righteousness. He knows that that gospel will
either be totally misunderstood or completely despised. unless
men and women have an understanding of this reality, the wrath of
God. And so he begins in verse 18,
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Chapter 2 and verse
5, But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up
for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the
righteous judgment of God. Verse 8, But unto them that are
factious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall
be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of
man that worketh evil to the Jew first and also to the Greek."
Do you see the emphasis of the apostle? He does not come appealing
to felt psychological needs, saying, Oh, that you would come
and trust my Jesus. that all your hang-ups would
be resolved, and all of your frustrations wonderfully resolved,
and all of your unmet ambitions wonderfully fulfilled. He does
not come appealing to felt psychological needs. He points them to a great
objective reality. Whether they feel it or not,
they are under the wrath of God. And He takes upon Himself to
instruct them, those who have never had the written revelation,
who have held down in unrighteousness general revelation as given in
the creation. He deals with that in the opening
verses. Then he turns to those who have
more light, at least on what we would call ethical and moral
standards. Then he turns to the Jews who
have the book of God. And the note of wrath comes through
again in chapter 3 and verse 5. But if our unrighteousness
commends the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God
unrighteous who visits with wrath? You see the emphasis climaxing
then in chapter 3 and verse 19. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be brought. Notice now, not under a felt
psychological need for greater fulfillment by an experience
with Jesus. That is not the gospel. that
all the world may be brought under the judgment of God, an
objective reality, a judgment that will flow out of His fury
and His anger against sinners who hold down the truth in unrighteousness,
sinners who treasure up wrath by despising His goodness, Sinners
who, like the Jews of that day, had the Scriptures in their hands
but rejected its message and cleverly maneuvered themselves
into an externalistic, religious kind of activity that sabbed
their own consciences. The apostle comes with this note
of the wrath of God and he brings that note to bear upon each of
these large segments of society and then he corrals them all
and says, the word of God indicts the whole bunch of us and brings
us under divine judgment. You see, the wrath of God, again,
was not an oblique reference now and then. It was not something
that he was rather embarrassed about, and so occasionally, to
salve his own conscience, makes a passing reference. No, no.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Therein is revealed
a righteousness of God, but a righteousness set against a backdrop of what? Objective reality. the objective
reality of the wrath of Almighty God. And my friend, until you
see yourself standing under that objective reality, a wrath that
burns against you for what you are in Adam, a wrath that burns
against you for what you are by nature, a wrath that burns
against you for what you have done in your practice, the gospel
will not be good news to you. Now I hasten on from the Book
of Romans, though we could look at many other references, and
very quickly direct your attention to Ephesians, that wonderful
epistle that we are presently reading, Lord's Day Mornings. When the Apostle sets out to
give this before and after picture of the people of God in chapter
2, We'll notice that the climactic statement that he gives with
respect to all men in their natural state draws our attention to
this great theme. Verse one, you did he make alive
when you were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein
you once walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that now
works in the sons of disobedience. among whom we all once lived
in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature." Now notice the climactic statement
before he begins to draw the picture of what grace has done. Just before the statement, but
God rich in mercy, is this word, we were by nature. children of
wrath, even as the rest. We were those whose rightful
inheritance in this state as the dupes and slaves of the devil,
living by the impulses of depraved nature, doing the desires of
the flesh and of the mind. What were we? We were children
again, I emphasize. Yes, unmet psychological needs
because of sin. All kinds of fractured human
relationships because of sin. Yes, all those things are true. But the great reality with which
we must come to grips is this. We were children of wrath, even
as the rest. We were those justly and righteously
exposed to the orgy of God, the burning anger and fury of the
Almighty. We who were made to do His will
have sold ourselves to the devil. We who were made to plant our
feet in the pathway laid out by divine precept with a heart
that runs in the way of His commandments. What have we done? We have walked
according to this passage in a path dictated by a fallen world,
a path dictated by our own depraved passions and appetites, and in
that condition Don't believe what the bumper sticker says
to you. Smile, God loves you. My friend, you better believe
the Word of God which says, tremble, Almighty God is angry. Smile,
God loves you. Bumper sticker religion is indeed
the opiate of the people, the opiate of a brazen generation
that defies Almighty God on every front. and yet is lulled to sleep
by bumper sticker religion. Things go better with Jesus.
Smile, God loves you. Try Jesus. Children of wrath
is the language of the Word of God. That's the emphasis. And when he describes men who
have yet to embrace the offers of mercy in Christ, notice how
he describes them in chapter 5. And again, you see this conjunction
of love and wrath. And that's why I take the time
to read the context. He begins in chapter five. Be
ye therefore imitators of God as beloved children and walk
in love. If we, the people of God, are
to be like God, we must be like the God who is love. And so he
says, be imitators of God. and walk in love, and where is
God's love supremely revealed? Even as Christ also loved you
and gave Himself up for you, an offering and a sacrifice to
God for an odor of a sweet smell, but fornication and all uncleanness
or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as become
it saints, nor filthiness, nor foolish talking or jesting which
are not befitting, but rather giving of thanks for this know.
For this know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person,
nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ. And God let no man deceive you
with empty words, for because, now notice, these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." Now wait a
minute, Paul. You tell me to imitate God who
is loved, and now in a few breaths later, a few strokes of the pen
later, you tell me the wrath of God is coming upon man. Now notice, not just because
they reject Christ. Look at the text. For because
of these things, When God sees people fornicating, He is angry,
not simply because they reject His Son, but because they defy
His law in their fornicating. And when he sees covetousness
grasping after things, and when he sees idolatry and uncleanness
and these other sins because of these things, and the picture
is of the wrath of God already gathering momentum like a mighty
tidal wave, and in his own due time it will break upon the head
of sinners for their wickedness committed against their maker.
You see, the Apostle Paul, in rightly reflecting the God of
the Bible, found no contradiction in calling God's people the imitators
of God. Walk in love, in that love manifested
supremely in the self-giving of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
yet, he says, because of these things comes the wrath of God
upon the sons of disobedience. And then to that church that
so endeared itself to him, the Thessalonian church, notice again
the note of divine wrath woven through the fabric of those two
epistles. In chapter one, As he's giving this testimony about
wherever he went, he'd start to open his mouth and say, hey,
did you hear what happened at Thessalonica? He says, before
I can open my mouth, they're already telling me what happened.
They themselves report of us what manner of entering in we
had unto you. How that you turned to God from
idols, verse nine, to serve the living and true God and to wait
for his Son from heaven. Now notice. whom he raised from
the dead, even Jesus. And when he mentions the name
of Jesus, his mind is immediately drawn to all of the redemptive
privileges that are his in Christ. And he puts himself in the same
category with the Thessalonians, and he says, it is Jesus who
delivers us from the wrath to come. You see, Paul could never
forget that he deserved to be the object of divine wrath. He
can never forget. He can never become insensitive
to the fact that he deserved wrath. And it was Jesus who,
in the love of God, sent out of the heart of God, who is love,
who coming Himself in love and laying down His life for His
sheep, giving Himself for His church, thereby delivers us from
the wrath to come. You see, in the mind of the apostle
and he's seeking to implant it in the minds of the Thessalonians,
they must never divorce their saving relationship to Christ
from a remembrance of that wrath from which he delivered. And
then further on in this very epistle, chapter 2 and verse
16, speaking of that impenitent generation, forbidding us to
speak to the Gentiles, speaking in that context of the Jews,
forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved
to fill up their sins always, but The wrath is come upon them
too, the uttermost. Chapter 5 and verse 9, God appointed
us not unto wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through
our Lord Jesus Christ. You see the antithesis? It is
between salvation through Christ and wrath, and there is no other
alternative. And if we do not know the salvation
of God in Christ, we are yet under the divine wrath. Now time
will not permit me to go into the general epistles, references
in Peter, references in Hebrews. I had hoped to go through some
five or six key references in the book of the Revelation. Let
me just give you the references. Chapter 6, 12 to 17. Chapter
11, 15 to 18. Chapter 14, 9 to 12. Chapter 16, 19. Chapter 19,
11 through 16. But there is one phrase that
I want to underscore that occurs two or three times in the book
of the Revelation, and it is this phrase, the fierceness of
the wrath of God the Almighty. The fierceness of the wrath of
God the Almighty. And it is that particular contribution
of the book of the Revelation that sets before us that graphic
imagery of the final judgment of God upon impenitent men and
systems and nations. And it is described as the fierceness
of the wrath of God the Almighty. In other words, you have holy
wrath joined to omnipotence. And the omnipotence will, as
it were, carry the wrath to its ultimate expression in those
who are its objects. Now, what do we say in the face
of these things, in the light of what we have seen in this,
albeit brief, survey of the predominance of the wrath of God in New Testament
teaching and preaching? And I underscore it again. What
does this say to us? Well, I hope it will say at least
three things to us, and this is my closing word. Number one,
I hope for some it will constitute a word of sober warning. My friend,
if you are not in Christ, you are under wrath. John 3 and verse
36 says, He that believeth on the Lord Jesus hath right now
everlasting life. and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. I'm quoting now from John
5, 24. But the last words of John 3, 36, the great chapter
of divine love, listen to those words. But the wrath of God is
abiding on him that believeth not. And the wrath abides not
only because of the sin of unbelief, But all the other sins, the wrath
of God burns against the sinner in his sins, in the totality
of his sins. And the only way to find a covering
for any one of them is the way you find a covering for all of
them, and that's to flee to the Lord Jesus. And if you are not
in union with Christ by a living faith, if you are not in Christ,
you are under wrath. And, my friend, that's a frightening
That's a frightening thing to be under the wrath of Almighty
God. You're under it now, right now,
sitting in this building, sitting in your homes, hearing my voice,
sitting in your car as surely as your living room roof is above
you, as sure as the roof of this church building is above us.
Divine wrath, like a gathering cloud, weighted down with the
fury of the Almighty, is about to burst upon your heads. No
wonder John said, Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to
come? Then there is a second thing
that I trust this survey will bring home to us, not only a
word of sober warning, but a word of sincere invitation. You see,
the Lord Jesus could move so easily, as Pastor Nichols underscored
so powerfully to our minds and hearts a few weeks ago, He could
underscore the reality of divine wrath, as it were, in one breath,
Matthew 11, and beginning with verse 20, he began to upbraid
the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done. Woe unto
you, Chorazin! Woe unto you, Bethsaida! Woe, woe, woe! But he no sooner
sucks a lungful of breath But what he says in verse 28, come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Thank God that
the Jesus of the Bible is not a Jesus who alone is true to
the message of divine wrath, who not only properly reflects
his father's heart as a heart of infinitely pure and holy anger
against sinners in their sin, but it is a heart of infinite
compassion. You see, it is not that the God
of wrath has become the God of love. The truth is that the God
of wrath is the God of love. And it is this God who in Jesus
Christ invites you, who urges, who commands you to leave your
sins and to flee to Him for pardon and for escape from divine wrath. And then finally, I trust that
our study will not only be a word of sober warning, a word of sincere
invitation, but a word of convincing instruction to any one of us
who would in any situation communicate the gospel. What gospel are we
to communicate? A gospel, my friend, that does
not downplay or omit the note of divine wrath. If we would
be true to the souls of men, we must not only tell them that
God is love and that God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but
have everlasting life. We must tell, and particularly
tell our generation, lulled to sleep with bumper sticker religion,
that the fury of the Almighty is stirred, and it is being stirred
with increasing agitation as the sins of this wicked generation
rise up to heaven and cry out for judgment. Oh, may we, with
fearful and broken hearts, warn our generation to flee from the
wrath And may God raise up not only preachers who will preach
with compassion and holy passion on this theme, but moms who will
weep over their children and dads who will weep over their
children and weep as they plead with them to take seriously the
realities of divine wrath. May God grant that this note
that has not been sounded as it ought May in some measure,
as a result of our meditations, be sounded with compassion and
power in our generation. And may God make it effectual
to the bringing of multitudes to their spiritual senses and
cause them to flee the wrath to come. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
the scriptures. And we pray that the Holy Spirit
will write them upon our hearts and enable us ever to keep in
proper perspective and balance all that you've revealed of yourself. Hear our prayer. Seal your word
to our hearts. Make it effectual to the salvation
of some who are yet under wrath. We plead in Jesus' name, amen.