Where Is the Wrath of God, What the Prosperity Preachers Will Not Mention by Michael Brown — Micheal L. Brown

The Church’s Defective Gospel and the Forgotten Wrath of God

It's on my heart to speak to you about whatever happened to the wrath of God. We've read the scriptures for years and we haven't seen that we were completely missing fundamental truths of the gospel. Realize where we've fallen away from truth.

Why am I saying that? What does that have to do with the wrath of God? Simple. We have preached a defective message in the Church of America for more than one generation and it has produced defective converts, producing a defective church which reproduces more and more defective believers.

The wrath of God is a fundamental truth from the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament. And you'll be shocked in a moment when we start looking through the New Testament and looking at the words of Jesus and we see how central this truth was.

John the Baptist and Jesus Warn About Judgment and Hell

John the Baptist comes, Matthew 3, 7, and he's warning the religious hypocrites, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? He says that in verse 10 of Matthew 3, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

He said that Jesus will come in Matthew 3, 12 and he'll burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then Jesus teaches, Matthew 5, 22, I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.

Anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell. Matthew 5, 29, if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Verse 30, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Jesus is trying to tell us something, friends.

For most of us, these verses are far less significant than the one verse in John 10, when he says, I've come to give you life and life more abundantly. Man, we seize on that, we meditate on it, we memorize it.

But here is verse after verse after verse and I dare say most of us have never memorized these. And most of us don't preach on them. Matthew 7, 19, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

This is Jesus. Matthew 8, 12, the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is just one gospel, friends. Matthew 10, 28, don't be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

He is talking to his disciples. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. You say, well, hang on one second, talking about a hell in the church? It seems that the Bible talks about hell.

See the church? The Sermon on the Mount, I was just quoting from, who is Jesus talking to? His disciples? The ones to whom he said, blessed are the poor in spirit? The same ones? The same ones that he spoke of treasure in heaven?

The same ones that he said, pray our Father in heaven? He warns them about the fire of hell. Are we no better than Jesus? Are we more compassionate than Jesus? Are we wiser than Jesus? Maybe it's that we don't see things the way he does.

We need to come to terms with it and say, God, I read the words on the page, but I don't believe it. It says in Revelation 20, beginning in verse 11, the great white throne judgment. That when the throne of God appears, that heaven and earth just vanish.

There's no place for them. They just roll up like a scroll. Matthew 12, 36, I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment. For every careless word they have spoken, he was consumed with that theme.

Because he came down from the throne of his father. And he knew one day we'd all have to give account at that same throne. He speaks of the judgment again in Matthew 12, 41 and Matthew 12, 42. Matthew 13, 40 is the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire.

So it will be at the end of the age. Verse 42, they'll throw them into the fiery furnace where they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He says it again in verse 50. These are themes over and over. He warns again in Matthew 18, 8, thrown into eternal fire.

He speaks in verse 9 of the fire of hell. He speaks in 22, 13 about being thrown into the outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. There's just one gospel, friends. Matthew 23, 33, to the hypocrites, you snakes, you brood of vipers, how will you escape being condemned to hell?

Matthew 24, 51, he'll cut them to pieces and assign them a place with the hypocrites where they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 25, 30, throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25, 41, then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire. Prepare for the devil and his angels. Friends, those are the words of Jesus. Not some fanatical fundamentalist preacher who's foaming at the mouth.

These are the words of Jesus. These are staggering words, friends. You've got to take responsibility for preaching a defective gospel. For preaching a gospel that does not warn clearly. No concept of judgment, no concept of wrath, no concept of sin, no concept of guilt.

Apostolic Teaching on God’s Wrath

John 3, 36, the wrath of God abides on those who do not believe in the Son of God. God's anger doesn't just flare up in a moment. God's anger is utterly righteous. God's wrath is utterly righteous. In Acts 3, he preaches and warns, if you don't listen to the prophet, you'll be cut off.

And then you have the powerful hand of God. I said the hand of God in the book of Acts. Acts 5, Adonais and Sapphira smitten dead for lying to the Spirit. Acts 12, Herod smitten dead by the angel of the Lord.

New Testament, for taking glory to himself. Acts 13, blindness, a mist coming on Eleus, the sorcerer. Because he opposed the preaching of the gospel. Then you get into Romans, which we're going to come back to in a minute.

And Paul lays out the full statement of the wrath of God in the whole Bible. In his most important epistle, in the first chapter. Telling us where we need to put this teaching. Do we realize that, friends?

Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 6, the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God. Ephesians 5 tells us the wrath of God is coming on the children of disobedience. Colossians 3 tells us the same thing, the wrath of God is coming on the children of disobedience.

Peter and Jude warn us about Sodom and Gomorrah as pictures of the coming wrath. Thessalonians 2 tells us that Jesus is coming and flaming fire. Taking vengeance on them that know not God. Do we preach that as part of our message about the return of Jesus?

Not just the hope for the believer, but the rest of the story. Listen to what Jesus says in Revelation 2. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering and will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely unless they repent of her ways.

I will strike her children dead. Is that the Jesus you know? God's love is so great that even though we deserve wrath and hell, his son shed his blood. And if you don't preach the wrath of God, the love of God becomes a meaningless little jingle.

The Fear of God, Reverence, and the Meaning of the Cross

Because we don't preach on the wrath of God, we have little fear of God in the church. Jesus said, fear him, telling us who can destroy body and soul and hell. That's the God we deal with. It says in Hebrews 12, New Testament, that we should serve God with reverence.

Godly fear because our God is a consuming fire. We don't see that sin is so sinful, that it's so bad, that it's so ugly. When you see the penalty for it, you wake up. And then you understand how great the cross is.

That Jesus suffered the Father's judgment in our place. Because we don't preach the wrath of God, we have superficial conversions. You just go through the book of Revelation and look at the subject of the wrath of God.

You'll see wrath mentioned over and over and over and it comes out. The judgments come right out of the holy place from the throne of God in heaven. And there's wrath because of sin. You can preach hell, but unless you preach the reason there is a hell, you'll still miss the point.

Preaching the Full Gospel Instead of Pleasing People

You've got to take responsibility for preaching a defective gospel. I'm not going to squeeze the word into my theology, squeeze the word into my experience. When I'm confronted with the word, I'm going to change my theology.

I'm going to change my experience. We don't preach it because we want to please people. We don't preach it because we're politicians. When we do not preach the cross because it's going to offend people and they'll leave with their money, we are no better than Judas who betrayed Jesus for money.

Don't ever be a Judas, friend. You preach it with love, with compassion, with sternness, with urgency, and let the chips fall where they may. The lady I always used to say to us, the man who's intimate with God will never be intimidated by man.