Understanding Divine Mercy Amid Wrath — Tim Conway

God's Wrath Answered by the Sacrifice of His Son

How can God love a guilty people against whom His wrath burns? How can that happen? One answer. God in His mighty power. God in His wisdom. God. He had an answer for His own wrath. That's it. His very Son came into the world to enter that blast furnace of God's holy vengeance in our place.

What did Christ do? He loved us. And He laid down His life for us. That's what you find. Listen, folks, Christianity is based on facts. They're based on the facts of what this person did. God sending His Son into the world 2 ,000 years ago.

Christ's Death and Resurrection Establish the Gospel

It's based on that. That Christ, He came and He was melted under the wrath of God on that cross. My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? But you realize He didn't stay dead. He's not on some crucifix on a wall.

He came out of that grave. And that grave says God is satisfied and our sins are paid. God's broken law demanded. God's insulted glory demanded that the wrath of God fall on our heads. And here it was coming.

And Christ stepped in our way. You know who will enter that narrow way? We sang about it. A hiding place. I can see some of you out there, you have no hiding place and the wrath of God is coming. You've tried to hide in your own goodness.

The Only Hiding Place from Divine Wrath

You've tried to hide in religion. You've tried to hide in different things. But you have no hiding place and the wrath of God is coming. And God offered that hiding place. He offered one... I would just say this, He came for the sick.

Take your disease to Him. Confess it. He knows it already. You haven't hidden anything from Him. Just lay it all out there. It doesn't matter, folks, it doesn't matter how many questions you have the answers to.

Do you have the answer to the great question? To the most important question of all? Are you ready to die? Are you ready to face God? Your days are few. Come to the Savior. I mean, run to Him! Right in your mind, call upon Him.

Confession, Repentance, and God's Mercy

Lord, I'm guilty! I'm guilty! If those things are true, I've lied. My sins number up to the heavens. If I'm honest, I haven't been good. Cry out to Him. Catch yourself at His feet. You know what you'll find?

You can find... Jesus could look at a woman and all of her adultery and all of her sin and say, I don't condemn you. What a kindness there is in God. He didn't spare His own son. Oh, we heard about it.

The Father's Welcome for the Repentant

The robes of salvation. He comes. Do you recognize Jesus? Tell us what your Father's like. Okay, I'll tell you. It's like this guy who goes and he goes off with harlots, he goes off with prostitutes, he goes off and he lives wild and he just blows all his money and he gets to the place where he's eating husks.

He wishes he could eat the husks that are being given to the pigs. Okay, tell us about the Father. He describes the Father this way. There's a Father who's out there standing and watching and looking.

And as the sun comes down that road up over the hilltop and He sees Him, and that Father takes off running. And He throws the best robe on Him and puts shoes on His feet and kill the fatted calf and He puts a ring on His finger.

And the sun's trying to say, I've sinned against you and against Heaven. It's like He doesn't hardly let the words out of His mouth. God is looking for that repentant sinner and He will run to you. That's the picture that Jesus describes.

The Bad News Before the Good News

What a picture! What a God we have after how we've offended Him. Brethren, we have some good news for the world. But you recognize this, before Paul ever gets to telling about the good news, he takes us through three chapters of the bad news.

Because until people recognize the bad news, they'll never recognize how really good the good news is. You can go to Psalm 45 now and in light of this black backdrop of our depravity, wretchedness, fallenness, and you just recognize, oh, He who is so handsome, He is so glorious, that He would actually give His own life.

This excerpt was taken from part one of Tim's series on sin.