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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click
here. Joseph
Slife, lay speaker May
15, 2011 Wrath
of God? Wait a minute. I
thought the cross was
all about love. "For God
so loved the
world…" (John
3:16) "Husbands,
love your wives, just as
Christ loved the church
and gave himself up for
her..." (Ephesians
5:25). "God
is love" (1 John
4:16). Doesn't
the songwriter have it
wrong? This line about
the wrath of God and the
cross? No. No he
doesn't. God's
wrath — as well as
his love — was
fully on display when
Jesus hung on the cross.
It's important that we
understand that —
that we
understand: Let's
pray. "Wrath"
is a word we sort of
understand, but not
really. It's not a word
we use very much in
everyday life –
although I did see it
the other day in a news
story about Mississippi
River flooding. "The
wrath of the mighty
Mississippi." You
occasionally see it in a
film or video-game
title. I
suspect a lot of us have
an idea that wrath is
when somebody just loses
it. They blow up into
fierce anger and start
throwing things –
or worse. Or
maybe we think of it as
more cold-blooded
vindictive thing. "I'll
get you if it's the last
thing I do." And
obviously the word can
be used in those ways
– but none of that
is what the Bible means
when it speaks of "the
wrath of God." And it
speaks of that wrath
quite a bit. Let
me give you a few
examples. In
Romans 1, Scripture says
that "the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of
men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress
the truth" (Romans
1:18). Romans
2:5 says:
"[B]ecause of
your stubbornness and
your unrepentant heart,
you are storing up wrath
against yourself for the
day of God's wrath, when
his righteous judgment
will be
revealed." Indeed,
the Bible says that "by
nature" we — that
is, human beings —
are "objects of wrath"
(Ephesians 2:3). In
other words, wrath is
what we "have coming to
us." It is what we
deserve. It is what we
will get — unless
there is some way to
stop it. Just
what is this wrath that
all of humanity has
coming? I
said a moment ago that
we often think of wrath
as something that
happens all of a sudden,
when someone flies off
the handle. But listen
to this definition from
a Bible dictionary about
the wrath of
God: Wrath
is: The
reality of the situation
is that God is angry at
sin and evil. This is a
permanent attitude. He
is always angry at sin.
He is never reconciled
to sin. There
are several reasons for
that, but here are two:
God knows sin destroys
people's lives and that
sin separates people
from him. What
does God want? God wants
us to have fullness of
life, God wants us to be
in relationship with
him. Sin is the killer,
sin is the barrier. And
that sin angers
God. In
our culture, we tend to
not even think in these
terms. We think so
little about sin and
about God's righteous
anger. We consign that
sort of thinking to
earlier, more
unenlightened times
— or to
unsophisticated people
in other parts of the
world. Indeed,
let give you a quote
from Scott Kisker,
author of the book,
Mainline or
Methodist? Scott a
professor at Wesley
Seminary in Washington,
D.C. He
writes this about our
lack of sensibility to
this matter of God's
wrath: Even
when people recognize
they are not living
as they should, the
offer of God’s
forgiveness and
acceptance has very
little impact. People
are more likely to
think, "Why wouldn't
God forgive me? My
sins deserve
forgiveness as much
as the next person's.
Of course God loves
me. I'm
loveable." That's
a bit humorous, but it
is also a lot dangerous.
I have come to the
conclusion that we will
never value the cure
until we understand how
deadly the sickness is.
We will never be glad
for the rescue until we
understand the level of
danger we
face. If
you have studied
Methodist history at
all, you may remember
that the only
requirement to become
part of a Methodist
society in the early
days was "a desire to
flee from the wrath to
come." There
were deeper requirements
for the smaller groups
of Methodist classes and
bands, but to get in the
door of the larger
group, you had at least
to be serious about
wanting to avoid God's
wrath. Here
is the reality: All of
us — you, me, the
entire human race —
are by nature objects of
wrath. And
God is angry at sin
— the sin we all
have, the sin we have
all participated in. The
thing that destroys us,
that destroys families,
that destroys nations
— the thing that
puts us at enmity with
God. And
when the time comes,
God's wrath will be
poured out. And there is
only one place to flee,
one place to hide, one
answer to the prophet
Habbakuk's great prayer
in Habbakuk chapter 3
when he prayed,
"LORD…in wrath
remember
mercy." Friends,
I have good news. I have
a gospel. And it says
this — in 1
Thessalonians 5:9: "For
God did not appoint us
to suffer wrath but to
receive salvation
through our Lord Jesus
Christ." Romans
5:9 puts it this way:
"Since we have now been
justified by
[Jesus'] blood
[shed on the
cross], how much
more shall we be saved
from God's wrath through
him!" Here
is what God has done. He
has taken his wrath
— that permanent
and personal quality of
his righteous character
that is angry at sin and
evil and poured it out
on his own Son on the
cross. Isaiah
53: The
wrath of God and the
love of God are
intimately and
inextricably connected.
Without an understanding
of the wrath of God, we
cannot understand the
depth of the love of
God. The
love of God: "For God
did not appoint us to
suffer wrath but to
receive salvation
through our Lord Jesus
Christ."
Hallelujah. So
now I have talked about
what wrath of God is
— and why it is an
essential aspect of
God's character. Now,
let me go to the third
thing: how then should
we live in light of the
reality of the wrath of
God. Here,
as well, I am going to
mention three things
— three
implications. The
first one is very
obvious and it is this:
If you have never asked
God to protect you from
his wrath by hiding you
in Jesus Christ —
in the church we
sometimes call that
"being saved" — you
are in great and grave
danger. Only
Jesus Christ offers
protection from God's
wrath, because he has
already borne God's
wrath. If you are in
Christ, you are
protected, if you are
not in Christ, you are
not
protected. The
second implication of
the wrath of God. For
those of us here who are
already in Christ, let
me ask: do we really
believe what I just said
about how those who are
not in Christ are in
danger? If we don't
believe that, we will
never be motivated to
tell other people about
Jesus. Following
Jesus is not just a
lifestyle choice, not
just something to try
out, then move on to
something else. Jesus is
the way of salvation,
the way of rescue, from
the wrath of God. Do we
believe that? The
third implication —
and I'll give you this
one by way of an
illustration. A few days
ago, I had to run an
errand — and as I
was driving down Highway
17, I saw several state
prisoners mowing the
grass and trimming the
weeds. There were eight
of them, I think. And
there was one
guard. Eight
prisoners, out along the
highway. One
guard. What
keeps them from
overpowering that guard
and escaping? Fear. The
guard has a gun. And the
prisoners don't want to
get shot. And they also
know that if the try to
escape and aren't
successful, they are
going to be prisoners
even longer. They
are held in check by
fear. And
as I rode by, it
occurred to me that
being held in check by
fear is the exact
opposite of what it is
like to be a follower of
Jesus Christ. We
should rightly fear the
wrath of God, but once
we are in Christ, that
wrath has been dealt
with for us. "Since we
have now been justified
by [Jesus']
blood, how much more
shall we be saved from
God's wrath through
him!" We
now serve not out of
fear, but out of love.
"Perfect love casts out
fear," the Bible says
— and it is
specifically talking
there about the fear of
punishment. (1 John
4:18) So
we serve God out of a
profound and deep love.
But that love should
produce in us another
kind of fear that is
appropriate for a
believer — a loving
fear, a fear that we
might do something to
wound the heart of
God. The
late Adrian Rogers, a
Baptist brother who was
an excellent preacher of
the gospel, told a story
about a teenage girl
whose friends were
asking her to go
somewhere and do
something that was
morally
questionable. And
the girl said, "I just
can't – because of
my dad." One of her
friends asked, "Are you
afraid that if he finds
out he'll hurt you?" And
the girl replied, "No, I
am afraid that if I do
this, it will hurt
him." She
loved her dad, and that
love motivated her to
say, "No" to things that
would bring him
grief. So
here's the third
implication of God's
wrath, God's anger at
sin. Are you and I
living in a relationship
of love with God? Do we
love him so much —
because he has loved us
and protected us in
Jesus Christ from his
wrath — that we are
motivated to turn from
sin and walk in
holiness? One
of my favorite verses
the Bible is Romans
6:14, which says this:
"[S]in shall not
have dominion over you."
On the one hand, that is
a command. But is it
also a
promise. God
has made a way, in Jesus
Christ, for sin to no
longer have dominion
over us. Remember, it is
sin that angers God. And
so in Christ, God has
not only dealt with the
penalty of sin, he has
made provision to break
the power of sin in the
lives of those who give
themselves over to
Christ. Jesus
said this in John 14:
"Whoever has my commands
and obeys them, he is
the one who loves me."
(John 14:21) Methodist
co-founder John Wesley
wrote this: There
is a great old hymn some
of you may know called
"Rock of Ages." If you
don't know that song,
it's a good one to
learn. It's
a prayer to Jesus –
who is the Rock of Ages.
And here is part of that
prayer: There's
that idea of protection
from God's wrath. And
then the song
says: On
the cross, Jesus acted
to save us from wrath,
by taking God's wrath on
himself. But he
also acted to
make us pure. He was not
only put to death
for us, but
as us, so that
— as Paul puts it
in 2nd Corinthians 5
— "so that in
Christ we might be made
good with the goodness
of God" (2 Cor.
5:21 Phillips). He
did all this, because he
loves us and does not
want us to be destroyed
because of
sin. The
wrath of God —
God's permanent attitude
of righteous anger
toward sin and
evil. Because
of the cross, because of
Jesus' blood poured out
for you, you can be
saved from that wrath.
And as if that were not
already enough, because
of the cross, because of
God's great mercy in
Jesus Christ, God has
made provision for you
and me to walk in
newness of
life. Let
me go back to one verse
I mentioned at the
beginning: "God is love"
— from 1 John 4.
There's more to that.
Let me read it to
you: And
as we live in God,
our love grows more
perfect. So we will
not be afraid on the
day of judgment, but
we can face him with
confidence because we
live like Jesus here
in this world. (1
John
4:16-17) Do
you believe it? Will you
receive it? Will you
— by the power of
the Holy Spirit —
live it? |
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