A Man of Faith and A God Of Wrath

Q: What does the Bible say about God's wrath?

The Bible teaches that God's wrath is a response to sin and injustice, as seen in His judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:27). The concept of God's wrath is an important biblical doctrine that indicates His justice and holiness in response to sin. In Genesis, we see God revealing His intention to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah due to their grievous sins. This demonstrates that God's wrath is not arbitrary but is rooted in His perfect justice. God's righteousness necessitates that He must punish sin, as affirmed in scriptures like Romans 1:18, which states that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Q: How do we know that God saves His elect?

Scripture assures us that all of God's elect will be saved, as He has chosen them for salvation from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). The assurance of salvation for God's elect is deeply embedded in Reformed theology, highlighting God's sovereign choice in salvation. Ephesians 1:4 reveals that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. This predestination is an act of God's grace, ensuring that every individual He has chosen will come to faith and ultimately be saved. Additionally, Romans 8:28-30 outlines this golden chain of redemption, affirming that those whom God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Thus, the certainty of salvation rests upon God's sovereign will and not on human effort.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to understand God's justice?

Understanding God's justice is crucial for Christians as it reveals the seriousness of sin and the necessity of salvation through Christ. God's justice serves as a foundation for understanding the gospel and the seriousness of sin. In the sermon, it's emphasized that sin is an affront to God's holiness and justice, deserving eternal punishment. By recognizing God's unwavering justice, believers gain a deeper appreciation for grace, as we understand that forgiveness comes at the costly price of Christ's sacrifice. This backdrop reveals that mercy does not negate justice; rather, it magnifies it by showing how God justly punishes sin in Christ, allowing sinners to be saved. Christians are called to communicate this truth to others, emphasizing the sobering reality of judgment alongside the hope found in the gospel.

Q: What is the relationship between faith and salvation?

Faith is the means by which we receive salvation, as Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly states that we are saved by grace through faith. Faith is a central theme in the doctrine of salvation in Reformed theology. Ephesians 2:8-9 encapsulates this relationship, illustrating that salvation is a gift of God's grace that we access through faith. This means it is not our works or merits that contribute to our salvation, but solely our trust in Christ’s redemptive work. In the sermon, it is reiterated that true faith encompasses reliance on Christ’s righteousness rather than our own, as believers recognize their total depravity and need for grace. Thus, understanding faith as the means of salvation encourages Christians to rely wholly on God's mercy and the finished work of Christ.

Q: Why should Christians worry about their eternal destiny?

Christians should be aware of their eternal destiny to ensure they are truly trusting in Christ and not relying on false assurances. The concern for one's eternal destiny is a significant aspect of the Christian faith. It aligns with the biblical warning against presumption regarding salvation, as illustrated in 1 Corinthians 9:27, where Paul expresses the fear of being a castaway despite preaching the gospel. This serves to remind believers of the necessity of vigilance in their faith. The sermon addresses the danger of complacency, urging listeners to examine their trust in Christ rather than depending on their own righteousness or religious works. Assurance of salvation is found only in genuine faith and reliance on Christ, prompting a sober self-evaluation and commitment to live according to the gospel's truth.

to the book of Genesis. Open your Bibles first to the
18th chapter of Genesis. God, in his justice and in his grace,
determined to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroy
them for their sin, destroy them in judgment To destroy them lest
their pernicious ways should engulf others. To destroy them
lest those little ones in the land should grow to be like their
parents and perish under the wrath of God. And Abraham was the friend of
God. Abraham being God's friend, God determined not to hide from
Abraham what he was about to do. And so he sent messengers
to Abraham to tell him that he was going to destroy the land
of Sodom. In Genesis 18 and verse 17, the
Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do,
seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation,
and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For
I know him, that he will command his children and his household
after him. And they shall keep the way of
the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon
Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because
the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin
is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have
done all together according to the cry of the edge which is
coming to me. And if not, I will know. and
the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom. But Abraham stood yet before
the Lord." Immediately Abraham thought of his nephew, his friend
Lot. His heart was moved with compassion
as he thought of Lot and his family, for they dwelt in Sodom.
and God told them that Sodom must be destroyed. I'm sure he
hoped for the best. As he heard this report from
the Lord God, he must have thought within himself, perhaps Lot has
taught his family the fear of the Lord. It may be that even
in Sodom, there are a few to whom Lot has been an effectual
witness. Perhaps, perhaps there are some
in Sodom who are among God's elect, chosen elect of God and
precious. And with those thoughts in mind,
Abraham turned to God. In earnest, intense, reverent,
importunate prayer, he begged God to spare the city. You have
it beginning in verse 23. Abraham drew near and said, wilt
thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? Well, of course not.
God never has and never will destroy the righteous with the
wicked. God is long-suffering to us, not willing that any should
perish, but that all his own should come to repentance and
the knowledge of the truth. So Abraham begins to reason with
God and to plead with him on the basis of God's justice. He
said, wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure,
there be 50 righteous within the city. Wilt thou destroy and
not spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein? that
be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous
with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked,
that be far from thee. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? And the Lord said to Abraham,
If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will
spare all the place for their sakes. And then Abraham must
have thought to himself, 50 is an awful lot of people in such
a place as that. And so he goes back to God and
he doesn't presume to demand anything of God, but he goes
before God as a humble servant, realizing that God is sovereign
in heaven and he's a worm upon the earth. He says in verse 27,
Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to
speak unto the Lord. Now that's a good attitude in
prayer. I, a man, have taken it upon me to speak to God, to
reason with God and to plead with God, a man which am but
dust and ashes. Peradventure there shall lack
five of the fifty righteous. Wilt thou destroy the city for
the lack of five? And the Lord answered and said
to Abraham, If I find there forty and five, I'll not destroy And
again he spake unto him, and said, Peradventure there shall
be forty found there. And God said, I'll not do it
for the forty sake. And then Abraham said unto him,
O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Peradventure
there shall be thirty found there. And the Lord said, I'll not do
it for if I find thirty there. And he said, Behold now, I have
taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Peradventure there shall
be twenty found there. And the Lord said, I will not
destroy it for twenty's sake. And he said, O, let not the Lord
be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. Peradventure ten
shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy
it for the ten's sake. And Abraham thought to himself,
well, there's and his wife and his two daughters, his other
daughters who were married and their husbands and perhaps some
children. Maybe there's ten there. Maybe out of this household I
have wrestled with God and pleaded with God and now God will spare
the city for Lot's sake and for the sake of his family. And the
Lord went his way as soon as he had left commuting with Abraham. And Abraham returned unto his
place. But on the next day, Abraham
came to the very place where he had wrestled with God. He
came to this same spot. He had been praying, wrestling
with God in the late evening. And he went home and went to
bed. And the next morning he got up early to see how his prayers
went with God. He expected to see something.
He expected to hear something, to find some evidence of how
he had fared with the Lord. In verse 27 of chapter 19, Abraham
got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before
the Lord, and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward
all the land of the plain, and beheld and lo, The smoke of the
country went up as the smoke of a furnace. Abraham had done all he could
do. I can almost, I believe, enter
into what his feelings, his thoughts must have been on that terrible
morning. There were people in Sodom that
he people in Sodom that he cared for, people in Sodom that were
the objects of his most tender feelings and emotions. But God
had poured out his wrath upon them. And as he stood before the Lord,
he watched the smoldering heats of the burning bodies of those
damned men and women ascend as smoke of a furnace up into heaven
before God. I've had the terrible experience of being there. I've had the
terrible experience of watching men slip off into hell, an experience I hope never ever
to see again. I have seen men as their souls
are being torn from their bodies and dragged off to judgment. And I've had certain feelings
and emotions go through my own heart and mind as Abraham had. And I am standing before you,
and some of you are slipping off into hell. It appears that
you have made a league with death and your feet are set in slippery
places and you're determined to perish. And as I minister
to you, as I speak to you and plead with you and preach the
gospel of God's grace to you, there are certain feelings and
emotions I believe much like what Abraham must have felt and
experienced here. Abraham had done all he could
He had been faithful. He taught lots, both by precept
and by example. He treated Lot most generously
and graciously. He had earnestly prayed for Lot
and his family. But as he looked toward Sodom,
he saw the judgment of God fall upon all the inhabitants of those
two large cities. Abraham knew, I am certain, that
God's elect had been saved. He had already argued with God
on this basis, God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked.
And he was confident that if there were any one in that city
who had been made righteous by God, anyone in that city who
was chosen and redeemed of God, that one was delivered from the
judgment of God. But he also knew that the men,
women, and children of Sodom and Gomorrah had been swept away
in the wrath of God. Well, I stand before you tonight,
but as I do, I stand before God, and I plead with God on your
behalf. I plead with you in the name of God. I plead with you
and warn you of God's wrath and His justice. I preach the gospel
to you as clearly, as plainly, as faithfully as I know how.
I tell you of redeeming love, saving grace, and pardoning mercy.
And I beseech you in God's stead to trust his son. But for all
of that, some of your loss. Oh, what a word. Without Christ, dead and died, cursed, condemned, marked for
judgment. I shudder to think of it, I tremble
as I think of it, but you're going to hell. You're going to
hell as fast as your feet will carry you. Oh, you hear me talk about it,
you hear others talk about it, but you don't know Well, what should be our thoughts, our feelings, as we see that? I have a friend, well, he's your
friend too, Brother Scott Richardson. I heard him say recently in a
message he preached, I don't remember where we were, one of
the ladies in his church, her father died. just a week or so
beforehand. And as she stood in the funeral
home and the coffin, open coffin, was there, folks passed by. And you know how folks are. They lose all sense when they
come to experience such things. And everybody come by and they
said, well, he's better off now. His sufferings are over. She
was standing at the coffin. Her dad was religious. But he
didn't believe the gospel of God's grace. He didn't know God. He didn't know Christ. And she
heard someone say, he's better off now. And she looked up, Merle,
and she said, he's in hell. Do you mean he's better off? She had some understanding, some
feeling. For her father, yes. and for
truth and for the glory of Christ. Now I'm going to speak plain
with you. I'm concerned for your soul and I don't have time for
pretty words and nice phrases. I want lost and perishing sinners
to know you're lost and perishing under the wrath of God. And I
want you to understand this. Will you hear me? You hear me
well. If anybody under the sound of
my voice tonight Anybody, anybody in this place, if anybody here
perishes forever in hell, you get exactly what you deserve. Exactly what you deserve. Exactly. Is that right? Exactly
what you deserve. Now, I stand where Abraham stood,
and I want you to do the same. Picture in your mind's eye the
misery and the torments of the damned. Look into the darkness
of hell's eternal furnace, and behold the smoke of the torments
of the damned." I wonder whether we really believe that unbelieving
souls are slipping off into hell. I doubt it, buddy. I just doubt
it. I just doubt it. But I assure
you that hell is real. I don't know what it is. I don't
know what the fire of hell is like, I hope never to know. I
don't know what the torments of hell are like, I hope never
to know. But hell is a real place of unutterable woe, both for
body and for soul. And hell, whatever it is, that
dark chamber of torment is eternal. As I look upon the torments of
the damned in hell, there are certain emotions which arise
in my heart. I want to share those emotions
with you. I've preached to some of you
hundreds of times, and yet you remain firm in unbelief. As I look into your faces, I
know that some of you will soon perish. I know that some of you
will soon perish. You'll be swept out into eternity.
Divine justice will demand your eternal torment in hell, and
the torments of the infinite God will seize your soul. Now,
I'm not a man of stone. My heart breaks for you. And
as I think about the torments of the damned, the torments of
your own soul, There are five emotions that constantly stir
in my soul. As I endeavor to preach to you
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Tuesday night, as I endeavor
to minister the word of the gospel to you, as I write articles to
put in the bulletins and hymns, these five emotions just keep
stirring up in my soul. They just keep stirring. They
keep constantly agitating my soul to one way or another. First
of all, I look upon you with great sorrow."
Turn over to Matthew chapter 23. When David received report of his son Absalom
and his death, he fell on his face and he cried, Absalom, my son, my son, would
to God I had died for thee." Our Lord Jesus Christ, here in
Matthew 27, looks out over the city of Jerusalem. Their destruction
is marked. They've rejected Him. They've
despised the counsel of God. They've turned their backs upon
the grace of God. But our Lord Jesus Christ is
a real man, and He had compassion for men. And he said, O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them
which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her
wings? And you would not. And now because
you would not. because you would not believe,
because you would not bow, because you would not trust, because
you would not repent, your house is left desolate. Judgment has
fallen. Irreversible, endless judgment. Yet though I weep, I look upon the torments of the
damned, with submission to the will of
God. Do you remember how that Eli
spoke when the word of God's judgment came to him concerning
his sons off the Infinius? Eli said, It is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Turn over to Leviticus chapter
10. I want you to see this. I know that God is righteous
and just. The judge of all the earth must
and will do right. God has never cast a single soul
into hell who didn't justly deserve eternal wrath. I know that every
soul in hell has earned his place there by willful, deliberate
unbelief and disobedience. Now listen to me. Listen carefully
to me. God commands that you repent
and believe his Son. God commands that you do so.
God commands you to bow to Christ. God commands you to trust His
Son. You understand the plain message
of the Word. There's not a man or woman here
who doesn't understand the plain message of this Word. I know
you understand. God demands that you believe. And you sit smugly
in your benches and you say, no, no, no, no, I will not believe. My friend, The just desert of
such unbelief is eternal ruin. Is that right, Lindsay? It's
eternal. Doesn't matter whether it's you or me, your wife or
mine, your children or mine. The just result of unbelief is
eternal damnation. Now that's just right. That's
just right. The Son of God is worthy of your
faith. He's worthy of your submission. And if you refuse to submit,
you're going to perish. And in the end, you're going
to say, just like David, you're clear when you speak and just
when you judge. You're going to agree with what
I'm saying in that day. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. But this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light. He that believeth is not condemned,
because he believes on the begotten Son of God. And he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he believes not. The wages of
sin is death. And if you die in unbelief, your
eternal damnation will be a just and righteous thing. Now, I do not expect that if
I should have to bury one of my friends, anyone dear to me,
anyone that I love, I should have to bury one tomorrow who
died in rebellion to God. I do not expect that I would
take it lightly. I know the sorrow, the pain,
the difficulties. I know something about standing
beside the coffin of one that you love and realizing they're
gone forever. But as I stand in that place,
I'll not charge God with falling. I'll not charge God with power.
He's done what is right, what's right. And then the eternal day,
in that day when time shall be no more, and my heart no longer
beats with passion as a man, but in perfect love, in harmony
with the heart of God himself, there will be no sorrow for the
damned. None. None whatever. God will take away all fears
and cries. I weep for you now. I plead with God for you now.
I call your names before God Almighty. My heart breaks as
I do. But the day is coming when nobody
in the universe will give a flip of a nickel that you perished.
Nobody. For you perished in rebellion
to the king. and you're perishing, it is right.
It's right. Now look here in Leviticus 10,
verse 1. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of
Alam, took either of them, his censer, and put fire therein
and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the
Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out a fire from
the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.
Then Moses said to Aaron, This is it that the Lord hath spoken,
saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and
before all the people will I be glorified. And Aaron held his
peace. He held his peace. Now these
are Aaron's sons that God just destroyed, and Aaron did not
charge God with falling. He held his peace. What I'm saying
is this, as I look upon men and women perishing under the wrath
of God while my heart breaks before God for them, while my
heart breaks with pain as I watch men slipping off into hell, I
do so with submission. to the will of God. More than
that, when I think of the torments of the damned, my heart is filled
with tremendous gratitude. In the wee hours of the morning,
while I was writing this message out, I thought to myself, have you been spared? You see, I'm fully aware, I am
fully aware, that I not only deserve to be where you are,
sitting in lifelessness, I deserve, right now, the deepest dark hole of eternal
Now I'm not just preaching, Oscar, I'm telling you the truth. I
know that's what I deserve. I did everything within my power
to secure my place among the damned. Everything within my power. I
would not hear, I would not hear reproof. I would not hear instruction. I would not bow to Christ. I
would not submit to the authority of his word. I would not believe
the gospel. I would not trust the Son of
God. I would not acknowledge and own my utter depravity and
my need of mercy. I would not. I lived all my life long with
my fist shoved in God's face. Just like you. Just like you.
Who is rich in mercy. For his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. God stepped in my way. I was
rushing madly into eternal ruin and God stepped in my way. And
he said, hitherto shalt thou go and no further and snatched
me as brands of the burning. God Almighty came and gave life to my dead
heart. God Almighty came and revealed
Christ. Oh, what a difference. I had heard about him with the
hearing of the ear. and I'd heard about my sin, and
I'd heard about judgment, and I'd heard about wrath, and I'd
heard about substitution. But one day, God calls the Word
to open with light from heaven. And I saw it! Then I saw my sin. Then I saw
injustice. Then I saw substitution. Then I saw his love and I could
not resist. And if God would do for you what
I can't do for you, if God would cause you to see his Son, if God would cause you to have
eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to believe, you would
see. And I stand before God I stand before you and I stand
consciously aware of my just ruin and I say thanks be unto
God. I say by the grace of God I am
what I am. As I look into the torments of
the damned, there is a deep sense. I hope I can say that with honesty. I'm a brand plucked from the
burning. And I want to tell you something. You might not like
it. I don't like it, but I know it's so. Vod Pons of these sodomites
that God destroyed, they didn't have one thing over you in wickedness,
and they didn't have one thing over me. They were men exactly
like us, exactly like us. Only difference, only difference. You say, but Don, those fellows
were perverts and those fellows were queers. They were vile,
wretched men. Yes, I know that. The only difference
between those men and Wes Roseboom, the only difference is God let
them be what they are and He's never let you be what you are
by nature. Never completely remove the restraints. We are cut from
the same bolt of cloth, dug from the same rotten pit. We have
the same corrupt evil hearts. The same. Not any different. Except this. Our guilt was worse. Yeah, our
guilt was worse. You see, those men sinned against
the light of nature. We sinned against the light of
the gospel. They sinned against nature. We sinned against grace. And looking upon the damned in
hell, the fear that arises in my heart. Turn over to 1 Corinthians
9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. I do have a fear. I fear lest, after all, I too should come to that horrible
place of torment. I fear presumption about my soul. I know that there are multitudes
in hell today who have seen more, felt more,
done more, and experienced more than I have. I don't have any question about
it. They were deceived with religion,
deceived with religious profession, deceived with religious works,
deceived with religious experience, and they perished thinking all
was well when nothing was well. Our Lord spoke of them, didn't
In the last day, they will say, but Lord, have we not prophesied
in your name? Have we not done many wonderful
works in your name? Have we not cast out demons in
your name? And he will say to them, depart
ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew
you. I fear the deception of religion
without Christ. I fear hypocrisy. I fear self-righteousness. I
fear having a form of godliness, but not having Christ. I fear
missing Him. Now I do, I'm just, I'm telling
you the flat honest truth. I fear missing Christ. Let me
miss anything, but not Him, not Him. The Apostle Paul said in
verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 9, I keep under my body And I bring
it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached
to others, I myself should be a castaway." Forgive your words,
you're right into your margin somewhere. The word castaway
doesn't mean, it doesn't mean what you've heard all your life
it means. Paul said, I'm afraid that God might put me on the
shelf of uselessness, might put me on the shelf of do nothing.
No, that's not what it means. That's the word reprobate. That's
what it is. I fear, Paul said, lest when
I have preached to others, lest when I have told you the way
of life and I pointed you to the Savior, that I, in the end,
should be reprobate, passed off forever. Now, with that fear fixed in me, I want to tell you
what I do. I did it this morning early before
I went to bed, and I did it when I got up, and I did it when I
sat there waiting to preach, and I'm doing it right now, right
now, right now. I go again to the cross of Christ
just as though I had never been there before, and I fall flat
down on the merits of Christ. I just fall flat down on the
merits of Christ. A guilty, weak, and helpless
worm on Christ's kind arms I fall. Be thou my strength and righteousness,
my Jesus and my all. I come before the Lord Jesus
Christ tonight with a greater awareness, with
a greater consciousness of my sin than I have ever come before. I'm more convinced tonight than
ever of my sin, and I'm more convinced tonight than ever of
the sufficiency of his righteousness in his blood. And all over again,
continually, I come as a sinner trusting the substitute. That's
all. That's all. Now that's the way
to come. That's the way to come. But what
about all you've read and seen and heard and done? What about
all your experiences? And what about all the times
that you've had communion and fellowship with God? And what
about all your preaching and all your sacrifice and all you're
doing? It's nothing. Nothing. Less than nothing. It merits
nothing. It earns nothing. It gains nothing. It's nothing. I trust you. And don't look at me. Can you
do that? Huh? Can you do that? Can you
put down your own righteousness and recognize that your righteousness,
your righteousness before God, listen to me, listen to me, your
Bible reading, your prayers, your Sunday school attendance,
your doing anything amounts to God no more than the homosexuality
of these Sodomites. It's still too rash. It's still
too rash. Is that too strong? That's the
way it is. That's the way it is. Nothing
do you have. Nothing to win God's favor. Nothing
to earn God's grace. You come as a helpless, bankrupt,
stinking, wretched, ruined, damned sinner. He is all in Christ. And I'm here to tell you, I guarantee
you, without reservation, if you will, He'll have mercy on
you. He'll save your wretched soul.
Well those are the emotions and the feelings some of them which
flooded Abraham's heart and some of those that flood
my own heart as I and then there are certain facts
which grip my heart as well there are a lot of things in the word
of God I don't understand They're mysteries to me. I was telling
Brother Roseboom this afternoon, the more I read this book, the
bigger it gets. I study it, and just by the time you think you've
learned something, you find out you just kind of scratched the
surface, and there's an infinite well of revelation beneath the
surface that you haven't even gotten to. But there are some
things about which I'm sure. They're unquestionable facts.
And these facts grip my heart. As I see men perishing, and as I realize, unless God intervenes, this is a fact, sin is an infinite
sin. You deserve God's eternal judgment. That's just, that's just fact.
That's just fact. Man goes out here and commits
murder. Our society's beginning to act like it's got some sense
again. And we see the fellow get off
and slap him on the wrist, or judge throws him out of, throws
the trial out of court because of some silly technicality. And the whole community rises
up in arms. No, it's not right! That's not
right! There's no justice in that! Let
me tell you something. Your sin and mine is an attack upon the throne
of God. The enmity of our hearts against
him by nature is an attempt to shove God off his throne and
make ourselves God. Now, it doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter in the least degree. It does not matter in the least
degree whether your sin happens to be drunkenness, adultery,
and murder, or whether your sin happens to be self-righteous
morality. It doesn't matter in the least
degree. Your sin is an affront against
God. It's an attempt to shove God
off. It's an attempt to make yourself God. That's what it
is. It's enmity against God. and it deserves eternal ruin. It deserves it. And this is a
fact as well. The Lord our God is an infinitely
righteous and just God. His holiness is inflexible. His justice is unbending. Because
God is holy, just, and true, he must punish sin. Now, God has God has to punish
sin. Somebody said, well, a good God
wouldn't send anybody to hell. A good God has to send folks
to hell. Has to. He said, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. And either he's going to be as
good as his word or the universe is going to be chaos. The Lord
God says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Now, my friend,
mark it down. Mark it down. You're going to suffer the infinite
wrath of God. You're going to, I'm going to. Your children are mine now. That's
the way it is. God will, he must punish sin. He's got to. He'll either punish
sin in a substitute, an all-sufficient, satisfactory substitute for the
Lord Jesus Christ, or he's going to punish sin in you forever Well, thank God he punished my sin. He took my sin and laid it on
his son and made my sin to be his son's and he killed Don Fortner in
his son I mean he poured out the whole of his wrath upon me
in his son so that he has no more wrath against me because
this sinner trusts his son that's all the hope I have I trust him and if you can if you will Trust the Son of God. Trust His
righteousness for all your righteousness, and His blood for the pardon
of your sins. If you'll trust Him, if you'll
trust Him, God punished your sins in His own face. Isn't that
amazing? Isn't that grand? If you trust
Him. The wrath of God now abides upon
you. Irreversibly, irretrievably. God is gracious. He delighted in our sin. The Lord, our God, is willing
to save sinners for Christ's sake. God's more willing to forgive
sin than we are to commit sin, much less confess God's more
willing to save sinners than sinners are willing to be saved.
He's willing to save. He says, oh, why would you die?
Why would you die? There is no reason for you to
perish. No reason. No reason. Except
your own willful unbelief. And if you perish in unbelief,
you must forever suffer the wrath of God. But if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, you must be saved. God cannot, did you hear me? Now there's not much I say God
can't do. God can do anything He wants to do. But God absolutely
cannot, he cannot send a man to hell who trusts
his son. He can't do it. He can't do it because he said
he wouldn't do it. He said he wouldn't do it. Here's another fact. one thing gives my heart great
comfort, consolation. I know this, though multitudes shall be damned
forever, all of God's elect, all of them,
will be saved. I want to tell you something,
this may sound hard to you. I hope not. It's
not hard. The older I get, the more I read
this book, the more satisfied I am with that. I'm satisfied
with that. Oh, not perfectly so. It is not
right that I should be perfectly so here. I'm a man. But I'm I really am in my inmost being
for God to do what God does. God has chosen a people, and
his Son has redeemed those people by the sacrifice of himself,
and not one of them will perish. Not one of them will perish. Now, as I think about the torments
of the there are certain constraints
placed upon my heart as well. Knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, I'm constrained to persuade you
to lay down your arms of rebellion and be reconciled. I must give
myself wholly to the work of my God, men of Surely the least I can do is
preach the gospel to them in this day. Surely that's the least
I can do. I must at least point them to
Christ. Neither time, nor strength, nor
labor can be spared, for the time is short. And I now come before you once again as
God's ambassador. You've lived long enough for
yourself. You've lived too long for God.
You've lived too long in rebellion to God. You've lived too long
despising the gospel. You've lived too long trifling
with the gospel of God's free grace. Now I'm telling you, I'm
telling you, while you hear my voice, surrender to Christ. And the love of Christ, the blood
of Christ, the grace of Christ that I've experienced, constrains me and I hope it constrains
you to consecrate myself Here, Lord, I give myself away, all of myself, myself, my wife, my daughter,
my home, my possessions, whatever I have. Here it is! It's yours. Take it, oh God, take me and
do whatever you will for the glory I hope, I hope, well I hope I'm
not being hypocritical. I want that morning in this world. To consecrate my being. God help you to do that.

A Man of Faith and A God Of Wrath

What does the Bible say about God's wrath?

How do we know that God saves His elect?

Why is it important for Christians to understand God's justice?

What is the relationship between faith and salvation?

Why should Christians worry about their eternal destiny?

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A Man of Faith and A God Of Wrath

What does the Bible say about God's wrath?

How do we know that God saves His elect?

Why is it important for Christians to understand God's justice?

What is the relationship between faith and salvation?

Why should Christians worry about their eternal destiny?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

Comments

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