Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This is the third installment in our series called What’s God Really Like? So far, we’ve learned that God is supreme. And then last week we explored God’s omniscience and omnipresence. The fact that God knows everything and is everywhere.

In our third session today we’re going to talk about one of God’s characteristics that we often try to leave out of the mix. There are some sides of God that we enjoy talking about…love, forgiveness, etc. It’s good to talk about those things because those are definitely a big part of God’s nature. But there are some characteristics of God that aren’t so pleasant. They’re not as much fun to talk about, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. This week we’re talking about one of those traits.

Today we learn that God is a wrathful God. He is a God of wrath.

That’s not a word that you use everyday. Wrath. It sounds like the name of a heavy metal band. “Dude, I saw the Wrath in concert. They rocked!”

Like our last session where we needed to define omniscience and omnipresence, we need to define this characteristic of God as well. What does it mean to say that God is a God of wrath?

A simple definition of wrath is “an expression of anger and judgment.”

God as an angry, judging God doesn’t jive with a lot of folks. This side of God absolutely goes against their views and beliefs.

Think about the pictures of Jesus that we’ve all seen. How is He portrayed? He is gentle. Smiling. Hair flowing in the breeze. A lot of times He’s holding a child or a little lamb. Don’t get me wrong…Some of those depictions accurately display some of Jesus’ character traits. He was gentle at times. He loved kids. But overall, when you consider all the pictures of Jesus you’ve seen, it’s easy to come away with the idea that He was a wimp.

The people of Jesus’ time didn’t look at Him as a wimp. The guy was a blue-collar carpenter. Moving heavy beams all day probably meant that Jesus was ripped. Carpenters weren’t wimps.

And what about the time that Jesus practically tore the temple apart? He walked in and saw the people using God’s temple as nothing more than a marketplace, and He went ballistic. He flung the tables over and chased them all out of the temple. One guy chased out an entire crowd. You think the people Jesus chased out of the temple thought he was some long haired, pacifist, gentle hippie? I doubt it. They received a taste of the anger and judgment of a wrathful God.

Check out these Scriptures. “He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility—a band of destroying angels.” (Psalm 78:49, NIV)

Look at the key words used to describe God’s wrath—hot anger, indignation, hostility. It also says that God released “a band of destroying angels.” Wait a minute…I thought angels were beautiful creatures that flew around on silky wings, played harps, and sang when the baby Jesus was born on Christmas Day? Definitely a different picture here, huh? God unleashed his angels in wrath; they are warrior angels; destroying angels. We’re definitely knocking down some of our preconceived ideas today.

Look at the way Jeremiah describes God…“The Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.” (Jeremiah 10:10, NIV)

There is nothing like God when He is angry. The most violent earthquakes, powerful hurricanes, and devastating tsunamis cannot compare.

One more Scripture. This picture is one of the most graphic and vivid descriptions of God’s wrath in the Bible. It’s from the book of Deuteronomy.

“There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. I lift my hand to heaven and declare:

As surely as I live forever, when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.

I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders." (Deuteronomy 32:39-42, NIV)

I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t exactly make me want to gather around a campfire, hold hands, and sing “Kumbaya.” This is not a huggy, snuggly, comforting side of God.

Look at how God is depicted in this Scripture. He has a “flashing sword that he grasps in judgment.” He will “take vengeance on his adversaries” and “repay those who hate” him.

There will be so much carnage that his arrows will become “drunk with blood” while his sword “devours flesh.” That’s descriptive.

What is the overall picture of God here? He is a warrior. He has an arsenal of weapons and he’s gearing up for battle.

This is not a side of God that we talk about very often. And for some of you, it’s challenging and stretching your view of God. You expect to come here and learn about God’s love and gentleness and grace. And so you show up and you hear about a God who unleashes hot anger, who has a bunch of destroying angels, who causes the whole earth to tremble, who is a warrior with an arsenal full of weapons. For a lot of us, this is not the God that we’re familiar with. It’s not the God that we’re comfortable with. But for us to discover what God is really like, we have to talk about this. God’s anger and wrath are part of His nature. It’s a part of who He is.

There are some things that we need to understand about God’s anger and wrath. God’s wrath is always justified. It is always right. It’s not an out-of-control temper tantrum or fit of rage. God’s wrath is right and justified.

John MacArthur said, “God’s attributes are balanced in His divine perfection. And they are perfectly balanced. If God did not have wrath and God did not have anger then He would not be God. God is perfect in love, on the one hand, and He is equally perfect in hate, on the other hand. Just as totally as He loves, so totally does He hate.”

Again, we’re allowing God to bust out of the box that we’ve put him in. For a lot of us, hate is not part of our God paradigm. Hate and God would seem to be opposite in every way.

But the Bible says differently. This verse in Hebrews is talking about Jesus. And it says that, Jesus, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness…” (Hebrews 1:9, NIV)

See the perfect balance there. God is the perfect balance of love and hate. And what he hates stirs up his wrath.

There is only one thing that God hates. One thing can trigger God’s wrath…sin. God’s wrath is always and only a response to sin.

Most the verses we’ve used so far about God’s wrath have come from the Old Testament. And there seems to be this prevailing thought that God was this mean, grumpy old codger in the Old Testament. But he went through an anger management course, took some Prozac, and mellowed out in the New Testament.

God has always had a perfect balance in his nature. His grace was evident in the Old Testament. His wrath is evident in the New Testament. Look at this New Testament verse.

The Bible says in Romans, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…” (Romans 1:18, NASB)

The wrath of God is revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness. In other words, sin.

Sin is what God hates, sin is what stirs his anger, and sin is what unleashes his wrath. God’s wrath is his justified response to sin.

And because his wrath is a justified measure against sin, then God makes no apologies for his wrath. All you have to do is scan the Bible. There are more Biblical references to God’s anger, fury, and wrath than there are about his tenderness, kindness, and love. God is not ashamed about this part of his nature. He makes no apologies for his wrath. And we don’t need to apologize for it, either.

It almost seems like, as God’s people, we feel some need to soften God’s wrath. As a general rule, we don’t sing about it in worship. We don’t preach and teach about it. We don’t talk about it in conversation. And when the wrath passages from the Bible do come up, we try to explain it away. We make some kind of apology for it. We wish it wasn’t there.

But we don’t need to defend God or apologize for God about this. It’s part of who he is. It’s part of the perfect balance of character.

We talked earlier about how Jesus cleared the temple in a rage. Did you know that this was his first public act in Jerusalem? His ministry in this great city hadn’t even begun, and so what is the first thing he does to gain a following? The first thing he does to start his crusade? Makes a whip, throws over tables, shouting and threatening people, sending them running for cover. In our minds, this is not the way you make friends and influence people. But Jesus didn’t care. He was furious because of the people’s irreverence, their dishonesty and extortion… in other words, their sin.

This is one reason why Jesus would make a lousy politician today. He didn’t issue a letter of apology after this incident. He didn’t post a statement of regret on his website. Had he offended people? Sure. Did he care? Nope. Because his wrath was a justified response to sin. It’s a part of the just and right nature of God.

So how does this play out in our lives? How is God’s wrath carried out? There are three displays of God’s wrath we’re going to explore, each increasing in intensity.

First of all, God’s wrath is displayed in this world’s imperfections.

To some degree, we experience God’s wrath on a daily basis. It is the result of living in an imperfect world. A world that has been marred by the presence of sin.

The Bible tells us that, “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse.” (Romans 8:20, NLT)

Everyday we live in a world that is filled with imperfections. It’s because we live in a world that is under the curse of God’s wrath. This can come in the form of little annoyances, kind of like the week I’ve had this week. On Monday, a opossum family decided to move into our electrical transformer box here at church. The end result was the fuses blew on the pole that feeds our property and our power was knocked out. I’ll spare you all the details, but long story short, this week was filled with frustrations all because some stupid opossums decided our transformer box looked like a nice place to set up housekeeping. After the week I’ve had, I can’t wait until the next time I get a chance to run over a opossum with my car. I’ll probably put it in reverse just so I can hit it again!

We’ve all had them. Rotten days. Bad weeks. Nothing huge has happened. Just enough to really be annoying. The ultimate reason for this is the world we live in is imperfect. It was originally created in total perfection, but once sin entered the scene in the Garden of Eden, God placed a curse on our world. Our world lost its perfection.

Sometimes this shows up in small, petty annoyances. Other times, it shows up when life deals us a blow that knocks the legs right out from under us. I went to the chiropractor this week for my annual tune up on my lower back. As he was twisting me into a pretzel, cracking every joint in my whole body, he told me that his receptionist is out of the office because her daughter had a baby. This little one was born with cerebral palsy, along with multiple other problems. They’re not sure the baby will even survive. He said that he just didn’t know what to say to her. I said, “I don’t either.”

I don’t know what to say in these situations. Maybe you think that pastors always have the right words, the right answers. We don’t. This is a terrible consequence of living in a world that is under the curse of God’s wrath.

Now, let’s step up the intensity a little more. God’s wrath is displayed in physical death. Death is a result of the wrath of God’s curse on our world.

Again in Romans, the Bible says, “For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many.” (Romans 5:15, NLT)

Again we see that sin brings about God’s wrath. This time, when Adam sinned in the beginning of human history, God introduced death into the equation for all mankind. It is a universal application of the wrath of God that none of us will escape if Jesus’ coming is delayed.

But these two expressions of God’s wrath, the imperfection of our world and physical death, pale in comparison to God’s ultimate expression of wrath.

God’s wrath is ultimately displayed in hell.

This is one of the most essentially true, and yet often ignored teachings in the Bible. We don’t like to talk about it. I myself am probably guilty of not preaching about it enough. It’s just so uncomfortable that we’d rather ignore it.

But ignoring the truth doesn’t change the truth. And the truth is that there is a real place called hell. Hell is not a state of mind. It is a real place where the terror of God’s wrath is unleashed in its full fury.

In the book of Revelation, the apostle John is given a glimpse into what’s going to happen at the end of time. Here’s what John reports about hell in Revelation 20.

He writes, “The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:14b-15, NIV)

The phrase “lake of fire” is a pretty descriptive picture of hell. Hell is the second death. We’ve already said that physical death is an expression of God’s wrath. But this second death, this place called hell, is where God’s wrath is fully unleashed is beyond comparison.

And as God’s people, we’ve got to reclaim this part of God’s message. We’ve ignored it far too long.

Brian Jones said, “Too often we want to appear more moral than God. Too often in outreach-focused churches we feel the need to acquiesce to the avalanche of pluralistic pressure to back off of this key doctrine [of hell]. However, I believe that if you really love people, at some point you’ll compassionately tell them the truth, even if you risk having them walk out your church doors.”

I wish I didn’t have to talk about God’s wrath. I wish I didn’t have to talk about the reality of hell. But I can’t change the truth. The truth is that God’s wrath is evident and that hell is real. I love you too much to lie to you. I love God too much to change his truth.

I know this has been some crazy heavy stuff today. A lot of deep theology. A lot of unpleasant thoughts and feelings. Not a lot of fun in this message. But as we buckle down and try to internalize this idea of a wrathful God, we need to see some practical application in our lives. How does this impact our lives? I want to explore a few impact points where the truths that we’re learning impact us where we live.

First of all, God’s wrath should change my view of God. There is an attitude in our culture today that believes in God, but doesn’t respect or revere God. We already explored this at length in our message on God’s supremacy, but you can’t talk about God’s wrath without talking about a reverent fear of God.

A few years ago there was a t-shirt fad that had this logo and the slogan, “Jesus is my homeboy.” I didn’t think these shirts were evil or bad. In fact, I like that they portrayed Jesus as a friend, because He is our friend. But my fear is that a lot of people who wore these shirts, and a lot of people today don’t understand that there is another side to Jesus. There is another side to God. That side is His wrathful side.

Our view of God should change when we learn about His wrath. We should have an attitude of respect for God. We should have a reverent fear of God.

The Bible tells us that, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…” (Psalm 111:10a, NIV)

You can’t begin to have wisdom, you can’t begin to have understanding, you can’t begin to see life clearly if you don’t reverently fear God.

In his book One Home At a Time, Dennis Rainey says, “God is not feared today. In fact, He is mocked by our immorality, our treatment of unborn human life, our broken commitments, and the selfish, ‘me-first’ attitude that characterizes so much of what we do. Even in the Christian community, we are strangely silent about the fear of God. There is little teaching on judgment for sin, and the place of eternal torment called hell. We haven’t rejected God. But we have conveniently recreated Him in our image. We have reduced the Almighty to our level.”

God’s wrath should change my view of God.

Secondly, God’s wrath should change my view of sin. We learned earlier that sin is the only thing that can trigger God’s wrath. We need to apply that truth in our lives.

Bob Lepine writes, “Today there is such an emphasis on God’s great love for us that we have forgotten what it means to fear him. We don’t see him as a consuming fire, but as a kindly grandfather who chides us when we are mischievous, but always with a twinkle in his eye and only a faint sternness in his voice.”

Don McCullough writes "We prefer to imagine a deity who happily lets bygones be bygones, who winks at failures and pats us on the back to build our self-esteem."

As God’s people, we can’t just take a wink, wink, nudge, nudge approach to sin. That’s not the way God sees it. Sin stirs his wrath. But a lot of us have cheapened it. Since we know we’ll be forgiven for our sin, we just don’t think that sin is that big of a deal anymore.

Look at what Paul wrote in Romans: “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not!” (Romans 6:1-2a, NLT)

The word that is translated “of course not” is the strongest negative imperative in the New Testament. In other words, it’s the strongest possible language that Paul can use.

When you understand that sin triggers God’s wrath, you see that it is something that He takes very seriously. It needs to be something that we take very seriously, too. We won’t be perfect, but we need to be sure that we have the right attitude about sin. We need to come to see it as God sees it. We need to hate it as God hates it. God’s wrath should change my view of sin.

And, God’s wrath should change my view of lost people.

You have friends who are not Christians. You spend time with people everyday who will spend their eternity in hell unless something changes. When we see this full expression of God’s wrath, and we also understand that there is a way for our friends to avoid that wrath, that should motivate us.

When is the last time you said to your friend, “Hey, why don’t you come to my church with me? Just come check it out.”

Are you intentionally modeling Jesus in front of your friends and your family and your co-workers?

Are you looking for opportunities to bring God into the conversation?

Jude 23 commands us to “snatch others from the fire and save them.” (NIV) When you understand God’s wrath and you understand the reality of hell, it should change your view of evangelism. There is an urgency in this verse. There is an urgency to share the good news of Jesus with people who are in danger of hell. When is the last time that you viewed this as an urgent priority in your life?

We need to change our view of these people. Look at them through God’s eyes. See them as lost people who need to be saved.

And finally, God’s wrath should change my view of the cross.

Earlier, we talked about how there is a perfect balance in God’s nature. The cross is that balance on full display. In the cross, you have the full brunt of God’s wrath and the full extent of his love. God’s justice and wrath demand that sin must be punished. There is no way around it. There’s no escaping it. Sin must be punished.

And yet, in the greatest act of love and grace of all time, Jesus took that punishment for us. He died, taking the punishment of our sin, so we didn’t have to. He endured the full force of God’s wrath so that we might be spared that same fate.

Which means it all comes down to this. “All who believe in God’s Son have eternal life. Those who don’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life, but the wrath of God remains upon them.” (John 3:36, NLT)

You have a choice. You can choose God’s love and grace or God’s anger and wrath. Jesus chose to take the punishment for you. And he’s pitched the ball into your court. You get to choose the grace gift of Jesus or the wrath of God.

A couple of Scriptures to complete the contrast. Hebrews 10 says, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31, NASB)

1 Thessalonians 5 reminds us, “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9, NIV)

Because of the cross, we get to choose. We get to choose which one of these verses will describe our lives and our eternities. We invite you to choose grace. We invite you to choose salvation. We invite you to choose Jesus.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: eternity, evangelism, God's judgment, God's nature, God's wrath, hell, sin, What's God Really Like,