Love Jesus - the Key to Heaven!
Love Jesus - the Key to Heaven!
Hear the Cry for Revival - Awaken the Church to Save the World!
Hear the Cry for Revival - Awaken the Church to Save the World!
Is God Angry With You?
Is God Angry With You?
Are your sins piling up to Heaven?
Are your sins piling up to Heaven?
THE REALITY OF GOD’S WRATH
‘God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day’ (Psalm 7:11).
God is angry with the wicked. The wicked are those who do sinful things and have not repented of them. Anyone can be transformed so that they are no longer classified as being wicked, but until they have a cleansed heart they remain wicked and do not have eternal life in them. Anyone who continues in sin is of the devil (1 John 3:7-10). The great guilt of lost sinners is frightening!
The unbeliever, the ungodly, the liar, the thief, the unconverted and the backslidden, etc, are not dwelling safely in God’s love. They are provoking God to anger. The sin of offending God needs to be realized so that people will repent and be saved. Only then can they rest in the arms of God’s love.
THE DANGER OF LIVING IN SIN
Unbelievers have no idea of their danger. If they understood their lost condition in its true light they would immediately become serious about their salvation. While people are dying in their sins and going to Hell every day, we have to think about what we are doing with our lives. We will all have our day in court; the court room of God. We need to be ready right at this very moment for the Day of Judgment.
Many judgments of the Lord are yet to come upon the earth before the final Day. Refusing to acknowledge these judgments is one of the reasons why there is a lack of repentance. If people don’t believe that God is judging them or is angry with them when He is, they have ignored one of the signs and urgent calls to repent.
The gospel declares that there will be wrath and anger for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil (Romans 2:8-9,16). We have to believe this, for it is unwise to ignore God’s anger against sin.
“To deny the wrath of God is just as bad as to deny the love of God.”
What I find as a missionary and evangelist, is that in third world countries I can preach freely about God as our Righteous Judge, the reality of Hell, God’s anger, the evil of sexual sin, etc, and people will repent and give their lives to Christ. But in the Western world, as I seek to uphold these truths, there is much argument and refusal to believe.
This is because people in the Western world have compromised and committed more sin than those in the poorer nations. Many Westerners have hardened their hearts and are more inclined to make God their enemy. Whether people repent or not will largely be due to what they believe. A clear trumpet call of warning, balanced warning, needs to be sounded!
WHAT GOD’S ANGER IS NOT
1) It is not a malicious anger. God never has any desire to do any wrong in any way. His anger is never corrupted or out of place.
2) His anger is not passion in the sense in which men can become angry and lash out because reason is displaced by uncontrolled emotion. Careless anger is always sinful.
3) It is not a selfish anger; for God is not selfish at all, but infinitely the opposite of that due to His perfect love. His anger against the wicked is entirely free of selfishness.
WHAT GOD’S ANGER IS
1) An infinite loathing and intense disapproval of the heart and life of the person who is wicked. It is a feeling of the strongest opposition to the will and character of the person who is opposed to His own character of perfect love, righteousness and holiness.
2) God cannot behold sin without feelings of anger towards it. His anger is an intense hated of evil. It is hatred of all wrong doing.
3) God is not angry merely against the sin apart from the sinner, but against the sinner himself. There is an absurd view that is willing to acknowledge that God is angry with sin but not with the sinner. He hates theft but is pleased with the thief; hates adultery but is all loving towards the adulterer, etc. God's love towards sinners is a call to repent and be saved; not an excuse to continue in sin.
The sinner himself is the person who offends God and it is the sinner himself who will be sent to Hell. It is the sinner himself, not the sin, that is ultimately punished. The sinner is punished because of his sin, but it is the lost person who bears the wrath of God. Sin has no moral character apart from the sinner.
4) The anger of God against the wicked implies all that properly belongs to anger when it exists with good reason. We should note that God’s anger is perfect, just as God is perfect.
“If God were not opposed to the wicked, He would be wicked Himself for not opposing them.” – Charles Finney
People who don’t understand the goodness and perfection of God are inclined to speak against God, not realizing that their every word is in fact condemning them more and more. Their ultimate condemnation will only vindicate the goodness of God in comparison to the extent of their own evil. Man’s sin must be seen in light of God’s perfection, so that man’s excuses are thoroughly swept away from them.
Proclaiming the righteous reasons for the eternal punishment of unbelievers, the necessity of salvation, the true nature and extent of mankind’s sin, how people are under the devil’s influence as they resist the Holy Spirit, etc, are truths that need to be well known.
Once a person feels the depths of these truths and then receives the love of God in Christ for the salvation of their soul, they will understand the depths of God’s love all the more. But this cannot be done by hiding the truth of God’s wrath or shunning the warnings of God’s judgments. People need to fear God so that they will repent of the sins.
ARE YOU PROUD OF YOUR SIN?
How can people be proud of their wickedness? How can people long for the weekend so they can get drunk? How can political leaders advocate prostitution and homosexuality? These sins make a nation evil and wicked in the sight of Almighty God? (Leviticus 19:29). The Bible tells us why:
‘They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more’ (Ephesians 4:18-19).
‘Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God’ (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
Those who tolerate these sins are deceived and will not inherit the kingdom of God. Why? Because God is holy and righteous! They have denied the holiness of God by refusing to repent and cry out for mercy. Therefore, on the Day of Judgment they will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10-15).
Warning people to be saved from the judgments of God is an obvious truth of the Bible. I am therefore always saddened by the way that people so easily resist this aspect of God's Word. Yet in truth and righteousness, I have to continue to warn people of God’s burning anger.
Preachers who ignore the reality of God’s wrath, His fierce judgments, His strong hand of discipline over the nations, the eternal fate of those who die in sin, etc, are doing a disservice to the people. They are refusing to blow the trumpet and sound the alarm so that people will actually believe the seriousness of their lost condition. To be saved you need to realize the wrath of God against your sin and against you personally if you remain an unbeliever.
“Jesus, have mercy on me. I have been a wicked sinner, but now I repent and put my faith in You. Save me, Lord Jesus, and make me into a true Christian.”