Introduction
This morning I want us to look at our message entitled “The Wrath of God.” Looking at Romans 1:18 we will see God’s wrath is real.
People want to believe that God’s wrath does not exist or that it will not affect them.
However, nothing could be further from the truth.
C.S. Lewis once said; "God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from.
He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies.
Some talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun.
They need to think again.
They are still only playing with religion.
Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger--according the way you react to it.
And we have reacted the wrong way."
God’s wrath is against all ungodliness!
Ungodliness is seeking the satisfaction of the world, only concerned about self, and denying the importance of God.
These are but a few of the things that leads to ungodliness.
God has, instructed us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, Titus 2:12 (HCSB)
God’s wrath is against all unrighteousness!
This is how God responds to unrighteousness, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you’re from. Get away from Me, all you workers of unrighteousness!’ Luke 13:27 (HCSB)
God never hates people!
He only hates the sin that controls an individual.
People ask, how can someone like Hitler or Jeffery Dahmer go to heaven?
If a person repents, then that person is forgiven!
God hates sin, but He loves people.
Join me this morning by honoring God’s written Word and stand as we read from Romans 1:18, then turn to 2 Chronicles 33:1-11 and hold you place there we will be referring to this portion of scripture.
Scripture
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Romans 1:18 (KJV)
Prayer
1. God’s Wrath is Not Revenge
For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, Romans 1:18 (HCSB)
This is what makes “The Wrath of God” fair.
What does it mean to an individual? First one must be born again, a child of God. Then makes sense Romans 5:9.
Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. Romans 5:9 (HCSB)
He is not getting even.
He is punishing sin.
Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath. For it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord. Romans 12:19 (HCSB)
The Bible is full of warnings.
If I said, “I put a bunch of snakes outside the front door, and they are really stirred up. Don’t go that way.
Instead use the back door.”
Is it unfair of me if you go out the front anyway and be bitten?
God has warned us and He has clearly said that anyone who rejects Christ must pay for his own sins.
That means they must experience God’s wrath.
Do not say the God is unfair!
He has warned us, it is not God’s fault when we are bitten by sins deadly viper. KJV
2. God’s Wrath Has a Purpose
Have you ever thought that “God’s Wrath has a Purpose?”
God gives us warnings all through the Bible on what to do and not to do.
Someone has said that the Bible is a book full of do’s and don’ts.
But if you do all the do’s you won’t have time to do the don’ts.
2 Chronicles 33:1-11 gives us an example of God’s wrath:
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem:
2But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
3For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
4Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.
5And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
6And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also, he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
7And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
8 Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.
9 So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. 11Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
If all that we do is focus on the do’s and don’ts in the Bible, we miss the whole point of God’s Word.
It seems that some people only focus on the don’ts in the Bible and forget that the Bible has do’s also.
Remember, if you do all the do’s you won’t have time to do the don’ts.
Manasseh was more interested in doing the don’ts than the do’s and he was about to experience the Wrath of God.
3. God’s Purpose in Wrath
2 Chronicles 33:12-16 gives us an example of God’s purpose in wrath:
a). To bring sinners to repentance
12 And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
13 And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.
God has no joy in bringing wrath upon us.
He just doesn’t want us to be bit by the snakes that lay waiting just through the door we are about to enter.
God wants us to follow him and not try to go the way we want to God.
You see life if full of doors and we must continuously decide which door to go through.
Years ago, there was a television game show “Let’s make a Deal” with Monty Hall.
There were always doors that you had to choose.
Door number 1, door number 2, or door number 3, if you chose the wrong door you got a worthless gift.
If you chose the right door, you got great prizes.
God just wants to make sure that you chose the right door.
Guess what he knows what is behind all the doors of life.
b). To bring glory to God
14Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah.
15And he took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.
16And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.
On the game show “Let’s make a Deal” when the contestant chooses the right door, there was great excitement and the contestant was overjoyed.
God want us to make the right decision and choose the right door in life.
Choosing the right door in life brings glory to God and brings fulfillment to us.
Not only does making the right choose effect your life, but also it affects all of those around you.
Just like Manasseh turned around and started choosing the right doors in life, effected others, your life could do the same.
4. God’s Wrath is Coming
Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and One like the Son of Man was seated on the cloud, with a gold crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. Revelation 14:14 (HCSB)
The Battle of Armageddon will take place in the Valley of Megiddo in Israel. The valley will be filled with blood from the slaughter.
So, the angel swung his sickle toward earth and gathered the grapes from earth’s vineyard, and he threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. Revelation 14:19 (HCSB)
The enemies of God will be dealt with at the Battle of Armageddon.
My King the Lord of Lord’s will ride in front of all the saints and He and He alone will ignite “The Wrath of God” upon all the world.
Then I heard a loud voice from the sanctuary saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.” Revelation 16:1 (HCSB)
The prayers of the saints will be poured out upon all those that reject My King.
A sharp sword came from His mouth, so that He might strike the nations with it. He will shepherd them with an iron scepter.
He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty.
Then I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and against His army.
But the beast was taken prisoner, and along with him the false prophet, who had performed the signs in his presence. He deceived those who accepted the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image with these signs. Revelation 19:19-20 (HCSB)
Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. Revelation 19:15 (HCSB)
What a conclusion!
• Two world leaders
• One political, the other religious;
• One posing as God, the other promoting him
• Now discover that their charade is over.
They are cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone—the final abode of all God haters and Christ rejecters for time and eternity.
Satan joins them (Revelation 20:10), they are still suffering torment day and night.
Oh, who is foolish enough to preach immediate disintegration or annihilation in the light of such plain texts?
It is coming don’t be left behind.
Invitation
Have you ever had things go wrong and you didn’t know why?
Have you ever felt that God doesn’t care for you?
Have you ever thought that your prayer time was a was, that maybe God didn’t hear you?
Maybe you have been choosing the wrong doors and not the right one.
Have you been choosing the right doors in life?
Why don’t you start now, by letting God help you on your next decision?
