Consider God’s Anger

Presented to:

Bethel Chapel Pentecostal Church

Auditorium Sunday School Class

Granite City, IL

4 March 2018

Updated: March 4, 2018

By:

Boyce Belt

Consider God’s Anger

Opening:

• (Slide) “It i not possible to say too much about Christ. But it is quite possible to say too little about hell.”  — J. C. Ryle^[1]
• Chorus: Holy, Holy, Holy Is The Lord
• Prayer
• God is Love

Text:

Jeremiah 23:20-32 (KJV) The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. 21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23 Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? 24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; 27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. 28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. 29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. 32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.

Jeremiah 30:24 (KJV) The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

Introduction:

Wrath, anger, and indignation are integral to the biblical proclamation of the living God in His opposition to sin.^[2]

Biblical descriptions of God’s wrath include “Your wrath,” “My wrath,” “wrath of the Lamb,” “day of God’s wrath,” “fierce” wrath, “wrath of the Lord,” and “wrath of the Almighty.”^[3]  Norman Geisler writes in Sytematic Theology:

Gods’s wrath gets hot, can kindle, can flare, burns, is living and burning, consumes is great, can reach the point of no remedy, has fury, can swallow them up, can rebuke us, pours out on evil men, can be completed, can be kept forever, and can come on unbelievers to the uttermost.  A great day of wrath is coming, Babylon will brink of the wine of the wrath of her formication, God will have bowls of wrath to pour out on the earth, His wrath can loom over cities.

Further, God can be provoked to wrath over taking a census (to count human power rather than trust God’s), over rebellion, because of companies about His provision, for helping the wicked, for hating the Lord, for trespass, for not keeping the word of the Lord, for burning incense to other gods, for mocking God’s messengers, against those who forsake God, for not doing God’s commands, for having pagan wives, for profaning the Sabbath, and for not obeying the truth.^[4]

1. The Basis of God’s Anger^[5] — Wrath, while rooted in God’s essential nature as just, is not an attribute, but an act that flows from His unchanging righteousness.^[6]  Wrath is the effect of human sin: mercy is not the effect of human goodness, but is inherent in the character of God.^[7]

1. Flows From God’s Holiness — The wrath of God is not so much an emotion or and angry frame of mind as it is the settled opposition of His holiness to evil.^[8]

1. Romans 1:18 (KJV) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
2. Habakkuk 1:13 (KJV) Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

2. Flows From God’s Righteousness (Justice) — Romans 2:5 (KJV) But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
3. Flows From God’s Jealousy

1. Exodus 34:14 (KJV) For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God
2. Ezekiel 39:25 (KJV) Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;
3. Deuteronomy 29:20 (KJV) The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.

4. Any protest against God’s wrath is equally an objection agains His holiness and justice from which it flows.^[9]

2. The Nature of God’s Anger — In the 1700s there was a great revival in the colonies.  This revival has been dubbed by history as the “First Great Awakening.”  It was this return to God and Biblical principals that birthed the United States of America.  One of the leading preachers of this awakening was Jonathan Edwards.  On July 8, 1741 he preached an oft cited sermon entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” at Enfield, Connecticut.  It is said that men gripped the pews in fear that the earth would open up and drop them into hell as he preached.  In this message Edwards points out some things concerning God’s anger:^[10]

1. The Wicked are always Exposed to destruction.  At any moment God may call one into eternity.
2. God’s Judgment is often Sudden and Unexpected — Psalms 73:18 (KJV) Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
3. The Wicked are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground.
4. God’s Appointed Time has not Come
5. The Wicked are Condemned Already — John 3:18 (KJV) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
6. God’s Wrath is Everlasting

3. The Assuaging of God’s Anger — The way of escape from the wrath of the Almighty is abundantly presented in both testaments.^[11]

1. The Cross

1. On the cross Christ did not apply salvation to everyone but simply purchased it.  All persons were made savable, but not all persons were automatically saved.^[12]
2. Romans 5:9-10 (KJV) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

2. God’s Mercy

1. Wrath and mercy are not incompatible, since they are exercised toward different objects.  God is consistently and unchangeably angry with sin and consistently and unchangeably delighted with righteousness.^[13]
2. 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (KJV) For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
3. 2 Peter 3:9 (KJV) The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

3. You Must Choose — Romans 5:8 (KJV) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1. Recommends
2. Offers

Conclusion:

The most poignant word about God’s punishment is that it is the wrath the Lamb who took for himself and bore the sins of world.^[14]

To quote from Edwards again,

“Almost every natural man that hears of Hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it….  He flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do.  Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation….  Each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done.  He does not intend to come to that place of torment….”^[15]

“Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and tased from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God.  However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your family and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting damnation.”^[16]

Next Week: Consider Your Ways

Prayer