The Wrath of God

                                                                     The Wrath of God 

                                 God is Holy, Righteous, Perfect in all His actions and deeds 

                                                             

Be assured, the evil person will not go unpunished, But the descendants of the righteous will be rescued. (Proverbs 11:21 NASB)

Ah God is a God of love....unconditional love...some preachers tell us. Not conditioned on anything we do. Simply by His grace. That is truth but what people forget is that those who are disobedient by continuing in sin without any fear of God's retribution are sorely deceiving themselves. The verse from the Apostle Paul comes to my mind 2 Cor. 13:2  Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Paul has in mind the living faith of the believer who faithfully walks in the footsteps of the Lord and communes with Him in prayer. Do you know that Jesus Christ is within you? Paul asks: If they know that the Lord lives and dwells within their hearts, they consequently want to do His will and forsake evil. Unless perhaps they fail the test: He knows they are able to pass it. Yet he wants them to contemplate the consequences of failure. Failure leads to hardening of the heart, and the hardnening of the heart to spiritual death. (Simon J. Kistemaker) 

                                                  

Once saved always saved? No matter what you do in your life  theology. A cheap grace so to speak. Maybe the person who revels in his freedom to sin, and God will forgive no matter what,  never was born again in the first place. . Paul addresses that in Romans six:  "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" He said a prayer of contrition without being regenerated by God the Holy Spirit. It was but a said faith not a true born from above revelation.  

 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.  (Jude 1: 5)                                                                                                     

God considered Israel a special people. In Deut 7:6-8 God explains to Israel " you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.  The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;  but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers," God heard their cries while they were enslaved in Egypt. They were delivered and God was revealed through the 10 miracles God used to set them free from the tryanny of Pharaoh.                                                                                      

Yet Jude reminds the readers that all the people whom  were delivered from slavery over 20 years of age and older, but did not believe God, died in the desert. These people refused to trust in God's visible leadership. And by rejecting God's guidance He had offered to them, they experienced God's wrath. God's  anger expressed through severe punishments. Many Israelites perished in the desert and were forsaken by God. We should acknowledge this as a stern warning, not to think lightly of God's judgement. For God is not a man that He should lie. As the apostle Paul told the church, " As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. (Col. 2: 6-7) And take heed to God's Word who said of Jesus Christ,  "He is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!                                                                   

Paul, though did not believe that of the Corinthian believers. And they were some of those who practiced all sorts of idol worship, sexual perversion, and disparged these fellow believers. As he wrote to them in 1 Cor. 6:9-11: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. But he then added these words....And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."   It was what they were and not what they are or should be.                                                                                                                          

                                                                                 

As Jesus said to those he healed and warned with these words, "Go and sin no more."  A Christian should not have a lifestyle of sinful practice. He should not be persuing the sin that he exercised before God called Him and gave him new life. It doesn't mean we won't sin. John  the apostle made that clear in his first epistle when he said, " If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." A Christian can and will still sin but John comforts us with these reassuring words, " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."                                                                                                        I 

A born again, born from above, regenerated by God believer still inhabits a body of sin.  And one can still be tempted  and even commit grievious sin. For we are still in these fallen, corrupted, tainted bodies. We still struggle with the world, the flesh and the devil. Paul understood this in Romans chapter 7 where he wrote, " For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.  For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.  If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.  But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.  Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.  For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

                                        

We must be on our guard. Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Clothed with the whole armour of God.(Eph. 6:10-18)  For the flesh wars against  the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And they are in conflict with one another. Yet The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor 10:3-6)  So walk in the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.   

Nahum 1:2-6 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

                                                    

Scripture reveals that God is a consuming fire. His very nature makes it impossible for him to tolerate sin. It's Gods eternal nature. And God can not change. Yet before mankind was created and since God knows all things past, present and future God knew mankind would believe the lie of satan, and fall into the rebellious state we remain in today. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And God promised one who would bruise of the head of the serpent. A redeemer, One to rescue the fallen human race from their hopeless perdictament. That is the  Messiah. Eightheenth Century English Baptist pastor, biblical scholar, and theologian wrote "the eminent seed of the woman, should bruise the head of the old serpent the devil, that is, destroy him and all his principalities and powers, break and confound all his schemes, and ruin all his works, crush his whole empire, strip him of his authority and sovereignty, and particularly of his power over death, and his tyranny over the bodies and souls of men; all which was done by Christ, when he became incarnate and suffered and died.   

                                                             

  Jesus Christ, God's One and Only Son, the 2nd person of the Triune Godhead, took upon Himself, human flesh, blood and bones. Became a living, breathing, man, to fullfill the law and the prophets that no mere mortal man could do. He became Theanthropos--the God/Man.....as Paul explains in his letter to the Phillipians chapter 2:5-11  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,  but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

                                                            

God knows all things and before time began or human kind or anything existed in this physical realm God's plan for redemption was formulated to provide, to give His One and Only Eternal Son as a go between, an intermediary, that would pay our sin debt that every human being must pay, that our sin would be wiped clean. Unredeemed mankind cannot inherit the kingdom of God. As scripture reveals,  "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36)  One Way, One Truth, One Life No One comes to the Father except through him. (John 14:6) Jesus Christ is the One Mediator between God and man.(1 Tim. 2:5)  Jesus dual nature as both fully God and Fully man enables Him to bridge the gap caused by sin, allowing all humans to be accepted as righteous through the only name under heaven by which anyone can be saved. From the wrath of God to come.  

God's wrath  as scripture reveals it:

Isaiah 26:21 For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.

Deuteronomy 9:7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.

Psalm 7:11 God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

Romans 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness....

Romans 2:5  But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

2 Peter 2:9  then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:9  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Revelation 19:15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

Colossians 3:5-7 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the  wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,  in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 

Romans 5:8-9 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

                                            

If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the death you will be saved. Your citizenship is in heaven. And you eagerly await the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. 

He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

                                  

Romans 10:9-10; Phil. 3:20-21; Rev. 21:1-4 

Everyone Has A story

                                                                     

August 24 1990 has been chiseled, etched, engraved into my mind, body and soul as the day that God brought me from darkness to light and from death to life. Many interesting hints had been shown me before that fateful day. I even remember responding to a colleague "something is happening to me." I was not looking for God, but God was looking for and finally called me out of the dreggs of my past into new life. And no one was more surprised by my deliverance than me. One Translation says, "He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son of His love. In whom we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."  Another says he has delivered us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness....The word meaning exactly that. God reaches down out of heaven and draws us to Himself....to his Son...That is the mercy of Almighty God. Mercy is receiving what we don't deserve.  

                                                               

                                                        

I wanted to tell everyone where I worked of what had occurred, but I forgot one thing. I was the one that was changed, not them. For many  I was shunned like the plague. One person was said to have said to another, "he better stay away from me."  People are opposed to the good news. For them it's not good news.  It conflicts with their lives. It reveals the deep, hidden and ugly aspects of the human condition. They don't believe because they can't believe. If God is not working in a persons heart to accept His truth. For people by their very nature are at odds with God. Sin is all they know and all they want to know. They don't want to have to change. They are slaves to sin. And they desire to remain that way. Thinking they are indeed free.    

                                                 

                                                                                                 

There are those who say you must keep certain aspects of the ceremonial law of God.  Certain foods are taboo. Certain Old Testament days must be observed. To these groups it is not an option. It is essential to whether  one has salvation or not. But Jesus condemned the Jews  for staying strict rather to the commands of men. Jesus disciples were criticized for not washing  their hands in a certain way. Jesus told the the Jews not washing your hands does not defile a person.  And that the other traditions of men including washing of cups, pitchers, and copper vessels does not defile a man. Jesus went on to explain, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,  thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”   But not to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man. Regarding the day of worship, (see Col. 2:17-17; Rom. 14:5-6)   I have observed the day in certain groups  takes precedence over who we are to worship. The Day (a saturday sabbath)  not the person of Christ Jesus is elevated to a savior when Jesus is Himself the Lord of the sabbath. We are to worship the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. Not a day that is representative of the rest we have in Christ.  Hebrews 4 of the New Testament is the definitive passage for this doctrine.                                                                

I also remember early in my faith a fellow at church saying, "people hate Jesus." Which is absolutely correct.  They hate the Jesus of scripture.  People don't like to be told they are living an ungodly lifestyle. Jesus said to the man he just healed "Go and sin no more. Or else something worse will happen to you..."  And to the woman caught in adultery He said, "Go and Sin no more."  Scripture reveals people are  dead in their trespasses and sins, blinded by the god of this age. Sin isn't even given a second thought. For there is a way that seems right to a person but its end is death.  And unless God regenerates a persons heart,  (the inward part of a person, their soul/spirit) they remain at enmity (hatred) of God. (Romans 8:6-8) It is God who pursues those he choses. And  opens a cold dead heart to believe by grace through faith and not of ourselves. It is a gift of God. Grace being that which no one deserves.     

                                                 
                                                                                                                                                

Many years ago  there was one I remember, a colleague,  who at the time was a TV host as well as a talk show host,  on Orlando radio, who in fact paved the way  for those who had been kept from certain on air positions in TV news. I would produce various work that this individual needed to complete.  One day this person took the time to communicate to me  that they had believed and put their trust and faith  in Jesus. Under their breath and not too loud they proclaimed to be a Christian.  I believe they felt comfortable to reveal such a thing  in the solitude of a sound proof studio. It was a total surprise to me and I admired the fact that this person took the time to confide in me about their belief. It did not appear this person wanted it published, so to speak.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                

In the work environment we were surrounded by, it could have been a negative attribute that may have hindered this persons  position. This person knew what I believed, for I was not shy about it,  and  felt comfortable enough to trust me  to keep what appeared to be a secret.  I felt honored by the honesty in which they confided in me such a personal fact.                                                                                                                                                                   

The majority of the human race is indifferent, and more,  including hostile toward God and His people. Sin infiltrates every essence of our being. King David understood this when in Psalm 51:5 he proclaimed "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, (wickedness), And in sin my mother conceived me. (this cannot design any sinfulness then infused into David by his Maker, seeing God cannot be the author of sin; but of original sin and corruption, {aquired through the disobedience of God's first created man and woman} derived to him by natural generation: and the sense is, that as soon as ever the mass of human nature was shaped and quickened, or as soon as soul and body were united together, sin was in him, and he was in sin, or became a sinful creature;  (John Gill)                                                                                                                                                 

 Job 5:7 says “For man is born for trouble, As naturally as sparks fly upward. This is rather obvious. Just watch the news on TV, or on the internet and you will find all kinds of viciousness that springs from the heart of mankind.                                                                                                                           

                                                         

A fountain of pollution, gross immorality, diseases of the body, all distresses and anguish of mind, and death in every sense, corporeal, (of the flesh)  spiritual, and eternal; the labor and mischief of sin abounds, wickedness and moral evil enslaves its victims, for people sin most freely, human kind is a voluntary slave to it; serving various lusts and pleasures.(portions taken from John Gill)  Simply put "we sin because we like it." That last statement courtesy  of Bible Teacher Steve Brown, of Key life. In a phone conversation I had with him many years ago. Simple yet profound. And unreservedly true.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Jeremiah's question in his book chapter 13 verse 23 asks "Can an Ethiopian change his skin  or a leopard its spots?" (NO they can not...they were born that way and in this way they shall remain) And Jeremiah continues with the words,  "can you do good  who are accustomed to doing evil." (Eph. 2:1-5)                                                               

                                                                                                                   

I have come to the conclusion, examining my own life, and observing the reports that flash before us everyday,  that the condition of humankind is more prevalent and much more damaging (damning)   than a majority of the human race perceives, discerns or comprehends.  It seems many believe they're OK and God (if they  believe there is a God)  would realize having them in His kingdom would be a  beneficial plus to God because they are such wonderful people. Based upon what they do, rather than what they are. Born again by grace through faith  by the one mediator between God and mankind, Jesus Christ.    

                                                             

                                                     

Isaiah 64:6 explains: But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; ( imperfect, not fit to appear before God, and by which they cannot be justified in his sight;)  We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, (wickedness)  like the wind, have taken us away. Away from that by which anyone can be washed, sanctified and justified. Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World. The One who washes us clean by His blood shed on the cross  and presents us acceptable in the sight of almighty God. He is the fulfillment of all those animal sacrifices which were offered to God in observance to His command as a sweet smelling aroma in worshipful obedience. For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Heb. 9:22)                                                                                                             

                                                                                       

Sin is a ferocious beast within the heart of mankind just waiting for the opportunity to break its chains and devour, devastate, and shatter ones connection to and with God.  Evil and wickedness, of which the god of this age conjoles, seduces  and entices all fallen mankind. It being the axiom refuted by the fallen race of mankind and declared by the world to be archaic, obsolete, old fashioned, and antiquated. When it comes to physical pursuits that God deems  lustful, immoral, unholy, and violate God's commands. The Alfred E Newman idiom (What me worry)  that turns a blind eye to the reality of what is truth.                                                                                                                  

Yet even when One is born again, born from above, regenerated into new life in Christ and brought into God's favor and aspire  to walk worthy of the call we have received though Jesus Christ.  The flesh still continues to buffet, attack, batter us with temptations and desires we no longer want to entertain. In other words the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. As The apostle Paul proclaimed. Plus the world tempts as it bombards us with approval of abhorrent lifestyles or actions that are offensive to a holy and righteous God. Actions that ruin and condemn the soul of sinful man. And the devil is in the details, in the cheering section egging you on, whispering that it's just a little sin and God won't mine. But we know better.       

                                                                     

                                                                                            

For as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Son of God and Son of man proclaimed, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness."  For man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. For as the Psalmist expressed in homage to God, "Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You."  And James responded, "Do not listen to the word and so decieve yourself. Do what it says." For God's Word is the Way, the Truth and the Life.                                                                           

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord  [recognizing His power, authority, and majesty as God],  and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.  For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”   (Romans 10:9-13)

We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For He says:

“In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation._    (2 Cor. 6:1-2)