Chapter, beginning at verse 7. The Lord God is speaking, and He's speaking to His people in a time of distress, trial, spiritual trouble. For a small moment, have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.

For this is as the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed. But my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

Now our text speaks of little wrath and of great wrath. It speaks of the little wrath of divine chastisement and of the great wrath of divine judgment. So the title of my message tonight is just that, Little Wrath and Great Wrath. I want, by the help of God the Holy Spirit, to help you and myself to make sense of and to understand the trials, adversities, and difficulties we experience in this world as the sons and daughters of God Almighty. The fact is, God's saints in this world are very often greatly tried and deflected by the hand of prophetess. Trials, afflictions, and heartaches are certainly no indication at all that a person is not a child of God, but just the reverse, if anything.

Turn to James chapter one, James, the first chapter. And I want you to look at some scripture with me, because that's the only way we're going to understand what goes on in our lives and goes on in this world, is if we look at the scripture and see what God says. Here in James chapter one and verse two, James says, my brethren, Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations.

Now that word temptations is not the word temptation to evil. The word really is test or trial. It is counted all joy when you fall into different trials. Knowing this that the trying or the proving of your faith worketh patience. In verse 12, he says, blessed is the man that endureth temptation. For when he is tried, having been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. Now, the indication of the verse is two things.

First, as long as you live in this world, you're going to be tried. As long as you live here, This world is proving ground. And when your life is ended and you've endured the trial and you persevered to the end in faith, then having been proved at the end of your days, he'll give you the crown of life and everlasting glory.

Turn to first Peter chapter one. First Peter chapter one. After speaking about God's electing grace and sanctifying grace and keeping grace and the inheritance that is laid up for us, he says in verse six, wherein you greatly rejoice in God's free grace. We've looked at that this morning. We greatly rejoice in God's grace. Though now for a season, if need be. Now you can underscore those words, if need be.

There is a needs be for every trial. God does not afflict willingly. God does not chasten his children for no reason. There is a needs be for every affliction and for every trial. So if now for a season it needs be, ye are in great heaviness through manifold temptations. Trials, if they're really trials, cause you heaviness, great heaviness. They're not They're not little insignificant things. They're not little trivial things. But trials bring heaviness.

That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes. Not just your faith is more precious, but the trial is more precious than gold that perishes. Though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So whatever your trial is, whatever it is, children of God, whatever your trials are, in the end, they will be found unto praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ. That ought to help you to bear up. Whatever you are caught on here now to endure for Christ's sake, suffer it as a Christian and it will read down to the praise, honor, and glory of Jesus Christ the Lord.

All right, now turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. If you want to go back at your leisure and read the entire chapter, the Apostle Paul is giving us a summary of his life of trouble. From the day God saved him to the day God took him to glory, it was one trouble on top of another. He was persecuted, he was stoned, he was left for dead, he was betrayed, he was slandered, he was maligned, he was imprisoned, he was beaten, all those things happened to this man.

And then this is how he wraps it all up. After all these years of trouble, he says in verse 17, our light affliction. And we murmur about hangnails. Our light affliction. Oh God, teach me to look at things in this world in the light of eternity and understand that whatever I suffer here is but a featherweight trouble. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, just a little while, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Nothing in this world can be seen aright in its fullness while we live in this world.

Wait until the reckoning day, and you'll find out that everything that you've experienced here, every heartache, every trouble, every tear, will bring praise, honor, and glory to Christ, and will bring honor to you as the child of God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Savior. Now then, understand this. It is not at all uncommon for believers to have in this life a far greater amount of sorrow, adversity, inward as well as outward trouble and turmoil. It is not at all uncommon for the believer to experience far more of these things than for the unbeliever, the ungodly and the wicked.

You read the 73rd Psalm, David, looked out over his life and he compared his life with his neighbor. And he said, over there is a fellow who hates God, never has a thought toward God, never seeks the honor of God, never worships God, never brings sacrifice to the house of God. A fellow who's just an absolute self-centered, self-serving, reprobate, ungodly pagan. And there sit all his sons and daughters around his table. His eyes bug out with fatness. Everything's prosperity for him. Everything's peace for him. Everything is delightful for him.

And here I am. I've been trying to serve God. I've been trying to honor him. I've been trying to seek his glory and do his will. And my sons betray me. My sons would attempt to destroy me. my wife curses me, my familiar friend betrays me. And he said, I almost slipped. He said, I just, I almost slipped.

He said, I said in my heart, I would have spoken it, but I didn't want to offend the children of God. I've washed my hands in innocence. He said, Lindsay, What's it profit me to serve God? And then he realized what he was thinking. His heart spoke to him. He said, I went into the house of God and I saw their end. And I saw that God sent them in slippery places and that God is fattening them as an ox for the slaughter. And he said, oh God, I was as a beast.

I was thinking only of here and now. I was looking at things only in the light of time and sense, not in the light of eternity, only in the light of my pleasure, not in the light of your glory and your purpose. God forgive me. Whom have I in heaven but they? There is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee.

Job was a perfect man. That means he was a mature man. That means he was a man of mature grace. He was made perfect in the sight of God by the imputed righteousness of Christ. And he was given a new heart and a new nature by the imparted righteousness of Jesus Christ. God said Job was a perfect, upright man. One that fears God and eschews evil. If you read the first chapter of the book of Job, turn back there if you want to for just a minute.

This man, Job, was one that when Satan came before the Lord and give a report, I don't know what all that implies, but it certainly implies that the devil is God's devil. And the issue of Job did not come up at Satan's insistence, it came up at God's insistence. God said to Satan, the Lord said to Satan in verse 8, hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in all the earth? perfect man, an upright man, one that fears God and hates evil. And Job said, well, yeah. Does Job fear God for nothing? You put a fence around him, I can't get at him. That's the reason Job fears you. And the Lord said, all right, it's in your hand. It can't touch him. But you just do whatever you want to him and we'll see if Job serves me.

And one day, Job's oldest boy had a birthday. and the whole family threw a party. And while they were throwing the party, while they were just having a good time, Job went off for sacrifice because he feared that his sons and daughters may have sinned against the Lord, and he went to worship God. But while he was worshiping God, and his family was throwing a party for his eldest son, the oxen and the asses were plowing and feeding in the field, and the Sabaeans came and fell on them. And one of Job's servants said, I saw it, and I only escaped to life to come tell you about it. And while he was standing there talking to him about what the Sabaeans did, another servant came and he said, the fire of God fell out of heaven.

There was a tornado that came with a thunderstorm and lightning, and it killed all your sheep and all your cattle and all your servants over here in this field. And I alone escaped to come tell you about it. And while he was yet speaking, another servant came in verse 17 and he said, the Chaldeans came on us with three bands and they fell on the camels and carried them away and they killed all your servants and I alone am escaped to tell you about it. Would have been a blessing if they hadn't escaped. Just let me hear about it a little at a time. But while he's yet speaking, another servant came and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating in the house of the oldest boy.

In verse 19, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men. They're all dead, and I alone am escaped to tell thee. And then in verse 20, Job stood up and rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell on the ground and worshiped God. What a man.

It's not unusual for believers, the children of God in this world, to suffer trial and adversity, inward and outward turmoil in their lives, far more than the unbeliever and the wicked. That's not unusual. You see, that which we suffer, we suffer by the hand of God our Father. And that which we suffer in this world, is as much a part of our heritage and a proof of our adoption as our faith in Jesus Christ. Do you remember what Paul wrote to the Philippians? He said, unto you it is given in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

Now, our comfort in the midst of our trials, our comfort in the midst of what we suffer, is the fact that they do not arise. And I want to stress this. I'm going to keep hammering away at this tonight in this message. Our trials do not arise from God's penal wrath and justice, but rather from his loving heart. Turn to Hebrews 12, Hebrews chapter 12. Now listen to me.

We have a terrible, terrible tendency. God forgive us, but we have a terrible, terrible tendency to judge God's favor by our circumstances. We have a terrible tendency to judge God's goodness by our experiences of His goodness. And when things are going well, we think, boy, the Lord's being so good to us. And when things are not going the way we want them to and things turn around and just seems that everything's going wrong and everything's falling apart, we begin to think that God's dealing with us in wrath rather than in mercy. I want to tell you something. If we were smart, if we were smart spiritually, we'd be scared to death and everything going well. Scared to death and everything going well. I'm going to tell you something.

For God's people in this world, everything doesn't go well for very long as far as feeling and experience is concerned. It is well in God's purpose and it does well in its ultimate accomplishment But God deals with His sons and daughters in this world as His sons and daughters in love and mercy.

And if He does, Bob, that means that He corrects us and He chastens us. Because He's not going to let us leave them. He's not going to do it. He's not going to let us have our way when our way is bad. He's not going to let us have what we want when what we want isn't good for us. He's not going to do it.

Look here in Hebrews chapter 12. And verse five, he says, you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked to him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons. That is, you profess to have what you don't have. You don't have a heavenly father. Furthermore, we've all had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?

For they, that is our earthly parents, barely for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure to satisfy their own anger, to vent their own anger. But God never chastens us to satisfy his anger. He never chastens us to satisfy his justice. But he, for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. I want you to understand that there is no anger No judicial punishment involved in divine chastisement. The Lord Jesus Christ, as our penal substitute, has borne and satisfied all the fury of God's wrath and his justice for us.

That's what Isaiah 53 is all about. In fact, the division between Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 54 is an unfortunate chapter and verse division. Because Isaiah 53 lays the foundation for all that's said in chapter 54. Isaiah 53 tells us how that Christ has borne the punishment for our sins and now God calls on us to rejoice.

Isaiah 53 tells us how that Christ has borne the vindictive justice of God Almighty and fully satisfied it and now He calls on us never to fear that we should bear it. Now remember, the words of this text here in Isaiah 54 are addressed to believers.

They are not addressed to believers and their children, but to believers and to their children if they too are believers. If you're not a believer, if you're yet without Christ, you be assured that the wrath of God is indeed upon you. Your trials here, your sorrows in this world are but a very small foretaste of the fury of God's wrath that await you in everlasting destruction. I call on you. I urge you, I urge you, if you're without faith in Christ, if you're yet under the wrath of God, flee to Jesus Christ.

Plunge into that fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and this day be washed and made white as snow. How dare you? How dare you? face the prospect of eternal judgment without a substitute. Oh, he is a fool, indeed a fool, who imagines that he can stand before God without a substitute. Trust the Son of God. Will you hear me? You're not too young, you're not too old. Trust the Son of God right now. But having said that, I want you to look at this passage here in Isaiah 53 for just a minute and let me wrap this up.

Our text is an affirmation of God's grace and mercy to his people when their experiences indicate nothing but wrath and displeasure. It is an affirmation of God's grace and mercy to us when our experiences indicate nothing but his wrath and displeasure.

Let me make two statements, and I'll wrap this up, but I want you to get these two things. Number one, our holy Lord God here speaks of the little wrath of divine chastisement, which every believer must experience in this world. For a small moment have I forsaken thee. but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. Now notice how the Lord speaks of our earthly woes. Our trials here and our troubles here come to us as a result of what God calls a little wrath.

Their duration, he says, is but for a small moment at that. Now, there are several important lessons to be grasped from those words. Number one, understand this. We don't see things the way God does. We never do see things the way God does. The Lord said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And yet he hides his face from us and withdraws from us the sense of his presence and that to a sensitive heart. is a heavy, heavy trial.

You read Lamentations chapter three. Jeremiah said, Lord, you've marked me with an arrow for destruction. You've pulled your bow and you've taken aim at me. He said, you've filled me with wormwood and gall. My bread is as gravel stones in my teeth. I cry unto God, but the heavens are brass. He said, God, what can I do? What can I do? And then he said, this I recall to my mind. It is the Lord's mercies that were not conserved. Oh, God is faithful. Great is my faithful. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul.

Therefore will I hope in him, even in the midst of the wormwood, the gall, and the affliction. Now, when God hides his face from us, he does it with good reason. He does it to teach us our need of him and to teach us to trust him. Not our feelings, not our experiences, not our emotions, Not even our faith, but Him. I wonder if we'll ever learn to trust Him. I mean, really trust Him.

The Lord God says, He says with regard to Don Fortner, I'm going to make this thing real personal. You can just jump in wherever you want to. But with regard to Don Fortner, God says, I blotted out your sins. It's a thick cloud. Your sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. I'll not impute to you sin. That's what God says. That's what God says. I believe his son and that's what God says concerning a sinner who believes his son.

But sometimes I feel so sinful and my sins stare me in the face. And when I cried at God, it seems that the heavens are glass. And I read his word, and his word is as a sealed book to me. And frankly, it seems as if it is just a dead letter and not a living word at all. Now, what do I conclude from this? Well, the Lord's forsaken me. The Lord's not going to forgive my sin. I'm not indeed a child of God. Oh, no, no, no. I conclude God's as good as his word.

And when I can't hear him, he still speaks. And when I can't see him, he's still there. And when I can't sense his presence, he'll not forsake me. That's what I conclude. I must conclude such. if I believe Him. Otherwise, I'm resting my confidence and my comfort and my hope, not on what God says, but on what I feel and what I experience.

Do you see that? You see what I'm talking about? If I make you a promise, if I make you a commitment, and I tell you I'm going to be something or do something for you or I'm going to go here and do that, I make a commitment. If you don't hear from me between the time that I make the commitment and the time that it's time to have the commitment accomplished, if you don't hear from me in between time, I fully expect you to believe I'm going to do what I said I'd do.

Doesn't matter whether you hear from me in the meantime or not. I said I'd be there. You can bank on it. I'll be there unless something happens to prevent it. Because I'm an honest man. And I'm going to do what I've committed myself to do. God helping me, I'm going to. God Almighty made a commitment. And you're going to stick by it.

Rex, if he never speaks to you again, so that you can hear him. If He never causes you to see the smile of His face again, if He never comes again and visits you with the sweet manifestation of His grace and mercy overflowing and abundant in Jesus Christ, the commitment is just as good as God Himself. Now that's it. He gives us trials to teach us to trust Him and not our experiences. He does it. He hides His face from us. to draw out our hearts to him in love.

I can't think of a better place to reinforce what I'm saying than the Song of Solomon, chapter five. Song of Solomon, chapter five. Verse two. I sleep. But my heart wake. There's hope. Somewhere down in here there's some life. My heart waketh because it is the voice of my beloved. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying open to me, my sister, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with the dew and my locks with the drops of night. And I respond, I put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed my feet. How shall I defile them? Oh, how we take for granted the son of God. But he won't leave us there.

My beloved, he stuck his hand in at the hole of the door. He knows how to get hold of your heart. He stuck his hand in at the hole of the door. Belongs to him, he may as well. And my bowels were moved for him. I rose to open to my beloved. That's the reason he put his hand in. My hands dropped with the myrrh. And my fingers with the sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock, I opened to my beloved. But my beloved had withdrawn himself. and was gone. And you read the rest of the chapter and you'll see what happened. She was compelled to confess her love for him and the reason for her love for him. And finally, when she thought he was altogether gone, he made himself known to her again.

Our view of our trials then and God's view of our trials is very different. The Lord tells us here that our trials will not last long, they're just momentary, for a small moment. What is that compared with eternal love and everlasting bliss? Just for a little, just for a small moment now, I forsake you, just for a small moment.

And the recompense of our momentary trials is very great. He says, with everlasting mercies will I draw thee, will I gather thee. Everlasting kindness and everlasting mercies and great mercies. When I come to you now, I'll just keep up mercies on you. I'll just, oh, you'll not be able to take it all in. I'll just keep up mercies on you.

And the wrath that we have to endure, he says, is a little wrath. Just a little wrath. Oh, how tenderly Jehovah speaks, even when he speaks of the rod of correction. A little wrath. I'll tell you what a little wrath is. A little wrath is the wrath of a tenderhearted father who's upset with his child, not so much offended as grieved, and not so much angry as concerned, a little wrath, a little wrath.

We take our children, if we love them, and we're chasing them, we correct them. And we do so with a stern hand, a stern hand. Because we want them to understand this is intended to hurt. And this is intended to get your attention. But we do so with a loving embrace. Because we want them to understand this is not something that pleases me. This is for you. This is for you. I'm doing this for your good. This little wrath is the wrath of a loving husband. of a gracious Redeemer, a wrath that is occasioned by genuine love.

Now, try to remember this. I know we believe it. We got it up here. I know every one of us believes it. But, buddy, try to remember it. Try to remember this. The rod of correction is not contrary to, but altogether consistent with true and genuine love. Can you remember that?

Turn to Proverbs chapter 3. Chastisement is the evidence of love. Proverbs 3, verse 11, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Look in chapter 13. Chapter 13. He that spareth the rod, hateth his son. Verse 24, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. That's another sermon in itself, but that means mamas and daddies who love their children make them mine. That's exactly what it means.

And if you don't make them mine, it's because you love yourself and not them. If you don't correct them, it's because you're more interested in what they think of you than you are in doing them good. There's no getting around it. I don't care about the philosophy of the age. I don't care what people say today.

I'm telling you, loving parents correct their children and make them mine. It's the proof of their love. The fellow who spares the rotto, I love him too much to paddle him. I couldn't do that to little old Jimmy. I can't stand to see him cry like that. That parent, in reality, demonstrates not love, but hatred. That's what God says in his word. Those aren't my words, those are God's words, I just read them to you.

The chastened child is the beloved child. The child with special relationship. You children who have grown up here, I have occasionally had some of you under my care. Now, I insist that kids mind me. I insist on it. If I take care of them, they're going to mind me. I'm not going to have them around. They don't mind. But the chastening of the children is not my responsibility.

I take you home and say to your daddy, now, so-and-so did this. It's up to you what you do with it, but it's what they did. And I'll leave it to dad to do the chastening, because I don't have that special relationship between somebody else's children that I have with my own.

And I'm telling you that the special relationship that exists between God and his elect is a relationship that necessarily involves chastisement. Once more, I want you to see that the little wrath we suffer in our chastisements doesn't change our relationship to the Lord in the least. You read this 54th chapter of Isaiah again. He's still our God, and we're still his people. He's still our Redeemer, and we're still redeemed. He's still our husband, and we're still his wife. He's still the Holy One of Israel, and we're still his saints. I'll tell you something I've learned. I've discovered it in experience. more often than not.

I have found that the darkness of sorrow, the darkness seems to overwhelm, the darkness of sorrow has been nothing less than the shadow of God's wing as he came near to bless. I have not yet, I've not yet I'm not that old, but I've not yet in these 43 years, nearly 44, I have not yet had a trouble or a trial or a heartache for which I am not right now thankful to God. Not one. And I don't expect ever to have a trouble. for which I shall not be thankful to God when he gives me wisdom to see what the trouble has produced. Someone said we can't have the fertilizing showers on the earth without a clouded heaven above. And so it is with our souls. If you get to refreshing rain, you got to have the clouds. It's got to happen. Now, one last thing.

The great wrath of divine punishment, which no believer can experience in this world or in the world to come, we will never experience. The little wrath of chastening, yes. The great wrath of punishment, never, never. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.

Listen to what God says, verse 9. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me. For I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth. So have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. for the mountains shall depart, the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

You see, the penal wrath of God for the punishment of sin cannot be visited on God's elect. It cannot be visited on us. The Lord Jesus Christ bore all the wrath of the Holy God for us. He poured out his soul unto death, satisfied divine justice, swallowed up the sword of justice so that God cannot in justice pour out his wrath on us again. He's forgiven our sins. He's blotted them out. He'll not impute them to us.

God will never be wroth with his people. Oh, what a word of grace. God says, I'll never be angry with you. I'd never be angry with you. Isn't that something? I'll never be angry with you. No. He was angry with our substitute. He poured out the fury of his wrath upon our substitute. But there's no fury in him for us. No. More than that, the Lord God says, I'm not even bring the issue up. I'm not even rebuke you. Not even bring it up.

I hear preachers talking. They misquote scripture or misapply and interpret scripture. Galatians chapter five, Paul says, whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. He's talking about sowing of our material goods to the flesh and of the flesh reaping corruption or sowing of our material goods to the ministry of the gospel and of the ministry of the gospel reaping life everlasting.

He is not saying your chickens are going to come home to roost. Watch out. God's going to get you. That's not what he's saying. God Almighty will never visit us with our iniquities. God Almighty will never be angry with us. He will never rebuke us, not here and not hereafter.

He is gracious with us and only gracious. These words of grace are spoken to us by the Lord that hath mercy on thee. And it is the height of wickedness for us to doubt his faithfulness. We have his word, we have his oath, we have his covenant. He said, I'll not be wrong with thee, nor rebuke thee. The security of the believer is therefore a matter beyond all dispute. But just what will God put up with in his people? I'll tell you what God put up with. He'll put up with just about as much in Don Fortner as he will in Mark Henson. Just about the same thing. Just about the same thing as he will in Merle Hart or in Ron Wood. Just about the same thing.

You see, when God purposed to be gracious to us, and when he brought his grace to us, all the evil that was in us, and all the evil he knew would come from us did not hinder him in the least. He knew what we'd be. He knew ahead of time what we'd do. He knew what weak, falling, faltering, stumbling, bumbling, sinful, corrupt creatures we were and we are. He knew all that, and yet he was gracious to us.

I therefore conclude that nothing he now sees in me will cause him to withdraw his grace. You read it just a little while ago. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. He will never withdraw his grace. How glorious then is the kindness of God to us sinners in his unrelenting forgiveness and grace. How careful then we should be to glorify him in all things, especially when for our good He seems to forsake us in a little wrath for a moment, a small moment, to draw out our hearts to Him in love and in faith, teaching us to trust Him, to trust Him alone. For His great mercies, He will never withdraw from us. I hope that's beneficial.