SERMON OUTLINE:
• (1). Initial remarks regarding God's wrath.
• (2). Explanation of God's wrath.
• (3). Three truths about God's wrath.
• #1: God's wrath is just.
• #2: God's wrath is to be feared.
• #3: God's wrath is satisfied in Christ.
SERMON BODY:
Ill:
• A man made an appointment to see his doctor.
• "Doctor," he complained, "everywhere I touch seems to hurt lately.
• Am I getting old or just senile?
• If I push on my knees here, I hurt.
• I push on my stomach and I hurt!
• I press on my head right here by my temple and that hurts too!
• What's going on?"
• The doctor called for a full body X-ray.
• An hour passed and after evaluating the X-rays carefully,
• The doctor returned.
• Stroking his chin, the doctor slowly began,
• "I think I've found the reason why everything you touch hurts."
• The anxious man replied.
• "Well, tell me!"
• The doctor pointed to the X-ray.
• "Your body is fine, but your finger is broken."
• TRANSITION: We live in a world that is broken!
• All you have to do is pick up a newspaper or turn on the news;
• And the headlines will show us a world that is broken and fragmented!
• And you don’t need me to tell you the reason for a broken and fragmented world;
• The problem is ‘mankind’, you and me!
• The Bible teaches we are ‘sinners’ by nature;
• And sinners by practice.
• Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin
Quote: Romans chapter 5 verse 12:
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned”
Ill:
• While grandad was asleep in his favourite chair;
• The grandchildren decided to play a trick on him.
• They went to the fridge and found the smelliest type of cheese;
• They then went back in to the room where grandad was sleeping,
• And very carefully rubbed a slither of the cheese on grandads moustache.
• Then they ran away and hid behind the curtains.
• It only took a few minutes before grandad reacted!
• He woke up and said out loud, “Phew, this room stinks”
• So he got up and walked into the kitchen;
• Breathed in and said out loud, “Phew, this kitchen stinks”
• So he then walked out into the garden;
• Breathed in and said out loud, “Phew, this garden stinks”;
• “In fact this whole world stinks!”
• TRANSITION: You and I know of course that he was the problem!
• And the Bible makes it very clear that this world is in a mess,
• Because we are the problem!
(1). Initial Remarks Regarding God's Wrath.
• Earlier on in this letter to the Romans the apostle Paul said (chapter 1 verse 18):
• “He is not ashamed of the gospel”;
• That is the good news, the message of Jesus Christ.
• There is nothing to be ashamed of;
• It is a sacrificial message, it is a courageous message, it meets our deepest needs;
• The apostle goes on to say; “it is the power of God”;
• It is a life changing message;
• That brings “salvation” to mankind.
ill:
• Years ago in these type of Churches;
• It was certainly true where I was saved in the Midlands.
• There would be an older brother in each assembly;
• Who would shake your hand and ask you, “Are you saved?”
• Today if it happened, he would probably say, “Are you a Christian?”
• But those words, “Are you saved?” have more depth to them;
• I think they are more insightful and more demanding;
• They cause us to reflect on the question; “Saved from what?”
• And in the selected verse tonight (Romans chapter 2 verse 5) ;
• Which I have been asked to speak on,
• They tell exactly what we have been saved from!
“But because 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.”
• The apostle Paul wanted these Christians in Rome;
• To understand what the Gospel message was all about.
• But he also wanted them to know why such a message was even necessary.
• The gospel of Jesus Christ is never an optional extra;
• It is an essential!
Ill:
• If our greatest need had been information,
• God would have sent us an educator.
• If your greatest need had been technology,
• God would have sent us a scientist.
• If our greatest need had been money,
• God would have sent us an economist.
• If our greatest need had been pleasure,
• God would have sent us an entertainer.
• But our greatest need was forgiveness,
• So God sent us a Saviour.
• TRANSITION: We need a saviour, a rescuer, a helper;
• One who can rescue us from the judgement to come.
Ill:
• The media may well portray God as an old bearded grandfather type figure in the sky;
• Who merely winks at the flaws in mankind and possesses no other emotion but love.
• But the Bible does not!
• TRANSITION: Now while most of us would rather hear a sermon about;
• God’s love and God’s mercy and God’s grace.
• If we are people of the book – the whole book;
• Then we must preach the whole gospel.
• And that of course involves both good news and bad.
Ill:
• John chapter 3 verse 16:
• What many call the most best known verse of the Bible;
• Others have described as the gospel in a nutshell.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
• The good news is “if we believe” we “have life”
• The bad news is if we do not believe we “perish”
• TRANSITION: I know that to speak about the wrath of God;
• Makes us appear narrow-minded, judgmental,
• But we have no need to apologize or give that impression;
• IF…. it is balanced out with the good news of the gospel.
• And spoken from a broken and loving heart!
(2). Explanation of God's Wrath:
• Question: What do we mean by ‘God’s Wrath’?
• Wrath is defined as “the emotional response to perceived wrong and injustice,”
• Often translated as “anger,” “indignation,” “vexation,” or “irritation.”
Ill:
• When we use the word wrath we tend to think of uncontrolled anger.
• i.e. we get so angry that we just want to kick the cat (only joking!)
• We want to vent our wrath, our anger, our rage;
• But so often we can vent it against the wrong person!
• i.e. Someone upsets us at work and we go home and take our anger out on the family!
• TRANSITION: While that may be human wrath,
• It is far from the truth about God’s wrath.
• Wrath is one of God’s attributes, it is one of his characteristics;
• Just as love is an attribute, a characteristic of God,
• So is wrath!
Now both humans and God express wrath.
• But there is vast difference between the wrath of God and the wrath of man.
• God’s wrath is holy and always justified;
• Man’s is rarely holy and rarely justified.
• Please don’t forget that distinction:
• God’s wrath is holy and always justified;
• To summarise: ‘What do we mean by God’s wrath’:
• “The emotional response of a holy God to sinfulness and injustice,”
• Now in our time left together;
• I want to give you five truths about the wrath of God
• Three biblical truths about the wrath of God:
(1). God’s Wrath is Just.
Ill:
• Lloyd Douglas was the author of ‘The Robe’,
• (A film recently remade and showing at a cinema near you.)
• When Lloyd Douglas attended college, he lived in a boarding house.
• A retired, wheelchair-bound music professor lived on the first floor.
• Each morning Douglas would stick his head in the door of the teacher’s apartment;
• And ask the same question, "Well, what’s the good news?"
• The old man would pick up his tuning fork,
• Tap it on the side of his wheelchair and say,
• "That’s middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow;
• It will be middle C a thousand years from now.
• The piano across the hall is out of tune.
• The tenor upstairs sings flat. But, my friend, that is middle C."
• TRANSITION: We all need a middle C.
• Life changes. Health changes. Relationships change.
• But God never changes.
• He always has been righteous and holy and just;
• And he always will be.
We see in the Bible that God’s wrath is never:
• Uncontrollable rage.
• Vindictive bitterness.
• Or even God losing his temper.
• The Bible makes it very clear that God is “slow to anger”
• (Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 103:8).
• God is patient.
• God never “loses his temper” the way we do.
• His anger is controlled.
• God never misdirects his anger as we do;
• His anger is focussed, it is targeted.
• We may overlook an injustice;
• But God will not!
• One day that injustice will receive its proper reward.
Ill:
• Knowing the editor of a local paper was a Christian.
• An atheist farmer wrote to the editor and said;
• “In defiance of your God I ploughed my fields this year on Sunday,
• I disked and fertilized them on Sunday, I planted them on a Sunday,
• I cultivated them on Sunday, and I reaped them on Sunday.
• This October I had the biggest crop I have ever had. How do you explain that?"
• The Christian editor replied:
• “God does not always settle his accounts in October.”
• That is one of the themes of this Bible;
• God will judge those who reject him and are rebellious towards him.
Quote: J.I. Packer writes in his book ‘Knowing God’.
“God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil”
(2). God’s Wrath is to be Feared.
Ill:
• There is a great bit in the book, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.
• You don’t have to be an expert to realise that the book is full of symbolism.
• In one scene, the author has two girls, Susan and Lucy,
• Getting ready to meet Aslan the lion,
• Aslan would be a metaphor/allegory for Jesus Christ.
• Two talking animals, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver,
• Prepare the children for the encounter.
• And this conversation takes place.
• "Ooh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man.
• Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
• "That you will, dearie." said Mrs. Beaver.
• "And make no mistake, if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knee's knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
• "Then isn't he safe?" said Lucy.
• "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver.
• "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you!"
• TRANSITION: Almighty God is to be feared;
• But praise God we know that he is also so good!
• Fear serves as an important alarm system,
• Warning or preparing us for impending danger.
• Yet fear can also paralyze us, causing us to freeze when we should fight or flee.
• There are 2 categories of fear;
• Beneficial and harmful. In other words, fear can be friend or foe!
• i.e. Harmful:
• If you go into the presence of someone you really distrust you may be afraid.
• If you play with electricity you may be killed!
• i.e. Beneficial:
• Walking along a cliff path fear will tell you to stay away from the edge.
• If you fear the consequences you will resist committing the crime!
TRANSITION: Why should we fear the Lord?
Answer: This letter to the Church at Rome tells us so clearly.
i.e.
• God’s wrath is to be feared;
• Because Romans chapter 3 verse 23 tells us.
• “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”
• You and I are declared guilty before a righteous judge;
• And the outcome is not good, because we are all guilty!
• ill: Missed the mark!
Question: What is the sentence?
Answer:
• Romans chapter 6verse 23
• “For the wages of sin is death”
• Our sin separates us from God, the creator and sustainer of life.
• ill: Barrier.
Now all that is bad news;
• And the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news.
• And that is what the apostle Paul is teaching in this letter.
i.e.
• Romans chapter 3 verse 23 tells us.
• “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”
• But goes on to say (vs 24):
“…and all are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
i.e.
• Romans chapter 6verse 23 goes on to say:
“For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That leads nicely into our third and final point:
• (1). God’s wrath is just.
• (2). God’s wrath is to be feared.
(3). God’s Wrath is Satisfied in Christ.
• Here we have the ultimate good news:
• (Romans chapter 5 verse 9).
“Since we have now been justified by His blood,
how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him!”
• Because of the death, the sacrifice, the offering of Jesus Christ,
• God can rightly call sinful people justified.
• As the old saying goes; “Just as if we had not sinned”
• God has done what we could not do,
• And he has done what we didn’t deserve.
Ill:
• An email received from the Kejave Medical Centre staff in Kenya.
• Contained the following amazing story.
• Eight-year-old Monica broke her leg as she fell into a pit.
• An older woman, Mama Njeri, happened along;
• And climbed into the pit to help get Monica out.
• In the process, a dangerous black Mamba snake bit both Mama Njeri;
• And Monica.
• Monica was taken to Kejave Medical Centre and admitted.
• Mama Njeri went home, but never awoke from her sleep.
• The next day a perceptive missionary nurse explained Mama Njeri's death to Monica,
• Telling her that the snake had bitten both of them,
• But all of the snake's poison was expended on Mama Njeri;
• None was given to Monica.
• The nurse then explained that Jesus had taken the poison of Monica's sin;
• So that she could have new life.
• It was an easy choice for Monica. She became a Christian.
• TRANSITION: Through his death on the cross;
• Jesus had taken the poison, the wrath of God that we deserved!
• So that you and I can be justified, so that you and I fear no condemnation!
Note:
• He was rejected,
• That we might be accepted.
• He was condemned,
• That we might be forgiven.
• He was punished,
• That we might be pardoned.
• He was hated,
• That we might be loved.
• He was crucified,
• That we might be justified.
• He died,
• That we might live.
• Because when he rose,
• He conquered sin, death & the grave.
• That we might,
• Be found blameless,
The good news of the gospel is this;
• You may have entered this building tonight.
• Guilty, condemned and facing the judgement of God!
• But you can leave this evening, forgiven, justified and in fellowship with God;
• IF you come humbly and admit your need;
• And take Jesus Christ as your Lord & Saviour!”
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=bYpZaVWFI9JuYSwGOwamPAtl67dNv2cz
