No Excuse Series

1:18

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven…”

This is the God we love to cover up. A God of wrath? Is He not love? Yes, but His love is a holy love. His wrath is the heart of the surgeon who must get rid of the disease so that the body can live. His wrath is the heart of the gardener who mercilessly tears out the weeds so that the garden can produce. His wrath is akin to the soldier who will destroy all in his pathway who come against his homeland. A Divine hatred goes hand in hand with Divine love. You can’t have one without the other. Examine your love of God. Is it filled equally with hatred for sin, disgust with immorality around us, despising of lies?

We are somehow ashamed and embarrassed of a Jesus who cleanses a temple with a whip in His hand. But we know from reading the entire Bible that our God cannot tolerate unholiness.

This is the God who destroyed all but eight people in a worldwide flood. Who melted all the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, allowing only one family out. Pharaoh’s entire army was drowned in the Red Sea. Pagan kings Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar were all visited with the wrath of God.

God’s wrath is not some Divine temper tantrum, like we have when we get overly angry for usually the wrong reasons. Let us not judge God by our own lack of self- control. His wrath is settled, determined, controlled, directed, timed. His hatred is perfect according to Psalm 45:7.

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You say, hold on, most of that stuff you are talking about is the Old Testament God. Things are different now. Jesus was all about love, even if He lost it now and then. This is how people think. They see John 3:16 and see only a nice loving God who wants to save everyone in the world. But that’s only half the picture. Take a long look farther down the page in John 3, and go to verse 36.

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; [that’s the same as verse 16] and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Notice the word “abides”. Not “visits”, not suddenly attacks. Abides. Lives. Stays. Doesn’t move. What am I saying? I’m saying what Scripture says: this world, all of it, is under a huge curse. That curse goes all the way back to Adam. Every man has inherited the disease that Adam and Eve had. Sin is the curse that eventually brings the wrath of God on all except the ones Jesus died to save. What was it the angel Gabriel said about Jesus’ name?

“He shall save the world from their sins,” right? No, He shall save His people from their sins. A condemned world, out of which comes a community of saved sinners. John 3:18 says the same as John 3:36.

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already…”

Pretty clear. Jesus did not come into the world “to condemn the world,” verse 17. Sounds nice. See, Jesus is for love. Yes, love. But read on in verse 18, “the world is condemned already”. Jesus came to seek and to save that lost sheep here, that wandering soul there. So that the wrath of God will not fall on at least a few of the condemned.

Question. If Jesus bore all that wrath for us by dying on the cross, why do we still see wrath being poured out here and there on the planet now? Do you really believe that Satan acts on his own when there are mass killings, a 9-1-1, a natural disaster? Can’t you see the beginnings of the wrath of God about to poured out in full measure? Yes, the wrath is visible already.

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The Bible talks of a time when more evils will be poured out on the earth. Remember, Calvary has already taken place. But in that great Tribulation, we see bowls of wrath being poured out. Where are God’s people? I know how some of you answer that question, but even you agree that there are some holy, holy people still here on the earth. Surely if God calls them holy, these so-called “Tribulation” saints, they are covered by the blood of Jesus. What happens to them? Not the wrath of God, but the persecution promised to all His people. Martyrdom. Which is not a threat, but a dear promise given to only the finest of the people of God.

Who are the uncounted multitude John sees after the 144,000 are dealt with? “These are they who have come out of Great Tribulation.” Not victims of God’s wrath, but court favorites who gave their lives for the Master in the midst of Earth’s worst hour.