Proclaiming God's Wrath

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Where we'll be at tonight in our regular scripture memorization for evangelism, I'm going to kind of pick up on the topic that Keith ended last week, and I know that the wrath of God is not a popular subject, nor is it a polite subject, and it is a very difficult subject, but it is a subject that the Bible speaks extensively about, and we're going to have to talk about it.
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The Bible makes no ambiguity or no confusion about why God is angry.
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God's very angry with the sinner, and the scripture is very clear that God hates sinners.
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You can write this passage down if you would like, it's Psalm 55, and some of your passages may say, depending on what translation you have, says that God hates all workers of iniquity.
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Well, what's a worker of iniquity? It's a sinner.
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Every once in a scripture says that God hates the sin, although God does hate the very action.
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His wrath is not directed towards the act, it's directed toward the individual.
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Understand? Well, let's turn over to Romans chapter 2, and you have it on your sheet there.
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It says in the ESV, but because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
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In the New American Standard, it says, not much different, but because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
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And in the King James Version, it says, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, you treasurest up to thyself wrath, against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
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Am I Greek is not nearly as good as Keith, so I will not take the, even try to do that.
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Would you like to say that for us, Keith? Kata de ten skle rateta, sukai ametanoetan, and that's ametanoetan, if you've heard me use the term metanoia, as metanoia is repentance, ah, putting the ah in the front is making it the negative, so it's unrepentant, is that term.
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Kardion, the sore, ah, zeis, and that is treasure, where we get the word thesaurus, suto orgain in amera orgeis kai apocalupseus, dikai o trisios tu theu.
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When we look at the subject of God's wrath, it begins, um, right in the very first book, um, we can start in, ah, genesis six, when the flood came.
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We look at that and we go, wow, what a absolute display of God's, one, his raw power, being able to cause the earth to actually bust from beneath, the earth to, then the sky begin to fall with water, and we go, wow, what a horrible thing, and is that consistent with God's nature? Scripture is very clear that it is consistent with God's nature.
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We go on and we have other passages where the same type thing happens.
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We have Sodom, where God destroys a whole other civilization because of sin.
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We have at, ah, Sinai, after the golden calf, Moses and Joshua come down, and God tells Moses, take your sword, and I want you to go in and out of each gate and kill the companion and the man's companion, and it was God's wrath being poured out because of their idolatry.
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Then we have Nadab and Abihu.
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We have the tabernacle being put up.
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They were supposed to do things exactly the way God said do it.
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They did not, and what happened to Nadab and Abihu? Does anybody remember? Fire came out from the tabernacle and consumed them.
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It incinerated them in their tunic, is what the scripture actually says.
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It left them with, there was basically nothing.
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Eleazar and Abathar were told to take them outside the camp, empty their tunics, and come back in and put on those very same garments.
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We also have Korah's rebellion, where God opens up the earth for men going against the prophet, and he swallows up people.
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When we think of those passages, and I don't know about y'all, when you read that, I go, yikes, but that is consistent with God's nature.
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What should surprise us is when God doesn't act that way.
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That should surprise us, because you understand that everybody in this room deserves for the ground to be opened up and swallowed.
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Everybody in this room deserves to have fire come down from heaven and consume us, and we need to know why.
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When we proclaim that to the lost, we need to make sure, if we can come to that conversation, then why is it that God is so angry? Keith hit on it last week.
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One, for God is impeccable holiness.
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He is infinite.
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When we think about the sins that we commit against God, we're not just sinning against a sinner.
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We're sinning against impeccable holiness, the God of all creation.
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He is the creator.
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We are the creature, and we are his subjects.
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Whatever he demands, we're to give no lip.
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We're to obey him.
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When we backtalk scripture, backtalk how in our actions were indeed, God should consume us, but he doesn't.
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Why doesn't he? We'll get to that.
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When we look at God's impeccable holiness and his infinite majesty, I want you to think about if I was continuing to teach, and a dog or a cat was to come in this room, and it rubbed up against my leg, and I continued to talk, and I just reached down, popped its neck, threw it away.
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How many people in here would be offended that I did that? Probably would be pretty offended.
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What if there was a fly buzzing in front of me? Popped it.
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Would anybody be offended? Why? Because it irritated all of us.
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Well, the cat or dog was irritating to me.
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But why isn't? Because there's dignity.
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To me, and maybe somebody else in here, there might not be any difference between the fly and the dog that's irritating.
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But to a lot of you, if I was to pick up a dog or a cat or whatever, pop its neck, throw it away, and say, Rob, help me get that after we finish, there would be a lot of people offended because of the dignity that's in the dog.
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But let's say I continue to teach on.
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He started snoring over there and goes to sleep on me.
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I take off my Bible.
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I take this blunt object.
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I crack him over the head a few times.
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Okay? I kill him.
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I know we're laughing about homicide here, but I'm trying to get you to understand what we're doing here.
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Although, I come back here and I continue to preach.
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How many people would be offended if I killed our pastor? Everybody.
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Why is that? Because there's dignity.
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Okay? There's dignity.
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But let me ask you this.
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Would I be, if they found out that he was a judge, would I be in more trouble for killing Keith, the gospel preacher, or would I be in more trouble for killing Keith, the judge? Society says that would be an aggravated crime because I did it to a person in high esteem.
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All right? What if they found out that he was a president? What would happen? I'd be in big trouble.
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I'd probably take my life for sure, wouldn't I? It'd be an act of terrorism.
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Well, what do you think a crime against God looks like? Worse than ever.
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And why is that? Because he is impeccable holiness.
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And never at one time does a wrong thought, word, action, or deed ever cease to be an offense against God, apart from Christ.
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I want you to understand, apart from Christ.
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A sin will always be a sin.
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And it will always be an offense against God.
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Jeremiah Burroughs in 16, I think it was 1652 or 1654, he's a Puritan, he wrote a book called The Evil of Evils.
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And inside that book he said, such is the evil of sin that if God, that if being so opposed to God's nature, that if God ceases to hate sin as much as he does, he would cease to be God.
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And why is that? Because God is absolute perfection.
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Absolute perfection.
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That is the God whom we sin against.
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So every time we take a breath to give from God, every time we take that breath, we blink our eye, we breathe his air, we eat his food, we drink his water, and we don't bow our knee to King Jesus, we're storing up wrath for the day of wrath, when the righteous judgment of God will be revealed.
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Imagine a man standing in front of the Hoover Dam.
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How many of y'all been to the Hoover Dam? Anybody? It's huge, isn't it? What if that thing broke? A lot of people.
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A man would just completely go away, never seen again.
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And that's only a picture, but that's what it's doing.
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Every time you take a breath, you're storing up wrath for the day of wrath.
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And it's just piling up and it's piling up and it's piling up.
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And why is it? Because we've spurned the mercy of God.
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God is merciful.
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He's patient.
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He's kind.
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Who provided you for the job to put the gas in your car that brought you here today? It was God that did that.
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I know by and large, we're speaking mostly believers that are here, but understand that that is the magnitude in which we're talking about when we sin against God.
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The unbeliever puts his key in his car and he does that on his own volition, by his own will.
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He thinks, look what I can do.
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Look at the job that I go to work and I provide work for food with money that I have earned.
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Do you understand that that is storing up wrath? Storing up wrath, not acknowledging who provided him the very breath.
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Not acknowledging who provided him the very knowledge to have that job.
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And that is what it's doing.
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That is the loving kindness of God.
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That's why when we're fixing to read the whole context of it is the very fact that God is so patient.
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He is so kind.
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He is so forbearance that sinners would repent.
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And it should lead the sinner to that.
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But why does it not? Because their heart is stubborn.
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And we know that unless God intervenes, just the very loving kindness and the gifts and the blessings of God will never actually regenerate the heart.
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But understand that it is enough of God's blessing and love to them to condemn them.
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Just like general revelation in nature is not enough to save, but it's enough to condemn.
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Y'all do understand that.
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A general revelation that you go out there and you can look at creation and see that there is a God.
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That is not enough to save you, but that is enough to condemn you eternally to hell forever and ever.
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Let's read.
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We'll back up in Romans 1.16.
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I'm reading from the New King James.
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The reason being is this is what I've always said.
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Sorry, guys.
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For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.
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For the Jew first, also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed.
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From faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
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For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness.
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Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
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For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
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Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful.
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But became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
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Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things.
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Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.
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Amen.
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For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions.
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For even their women exchanged the natural use of what is against nature, and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman, and burned in their lust for one another.
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Men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which is due.
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And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do the things which are not fitting.
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But being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetous, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whispers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.
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Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, and not only do the same, but also approve of them who practice those.
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Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man.
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Whoever you are who judge, for whenever you judge another, you condemn yourself.
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For you who judge practice the very same things.
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But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
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O, do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? O, do you despise the riches in His goodness, His forbearance, His patience, His long-suffering, not knowing that that goodness of God is to lead you to repentance, but in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourselves wrath and the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
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And He will render to each one according to his deeds eternal life to those who patiently and continuance in doing good seek for glory and honor and mortality, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also the Greek.
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But glory, honor and peace to everyone who works what is good and to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God.
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Beginning in verse 16, it says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God and the salvation.
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Understand that Paul says in the beginning, the gospel does not begin with I have a wonderful plan for your life.
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It does not begin with Jesus loves you and He wants to be your friend.
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You know what it begins with? The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.
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Our gospel proclamation should never begin with Jesus' love.
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Nowhere in scripture, nowhere will you find it there.
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Turn it upside down, bring it backwards, forwards, however you want to look at it, nowhere does the gospel begin with God's love for you.
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If you look at the cross, we have a tendency to say that, for God so loved the world that He sent His Son, and we immediately equate that with Jesus dying on the cross.
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And that is true in the sense that God did love this world that He sent His Son into the world.
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But when you look at the cross, that is a divine exposition of the depths of our sin.
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That was not God displaying love on His Son there, was it? No, it was unbridled, white, hot justice.
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Look, Jesus poured that in His own body and soul.
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He, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God.
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That's what He did for us.
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That is what we should proclaim.
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There had to be a substitution.
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Jesus had to come and absorb the wrath that we deserved so that we could be acquitted of our sins and declared righteous, which is justification.
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Look, without propitiation, big words, I know that, but they're biblical words and we need to know what they mean.
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We need reconciliation, we need propitiation, and we need justification.
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Without the propitiation, there can be no reconciliation.
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And that propitiation is the appeasement of God's wrath towards the sinner.
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Man, that is a harsh word, but that's what the Bible uses.
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That's what the Bible uses.
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It's not like God was up here, He's very angry with sinners, and Jesus says, well, check this out, God, I'll go there and I'll do the best that I can and try to placate the anger of God.
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I know Jesus willingly, in the covenant of redemption, before time ever began, before the world was ever created, He said, I will be that substitutionary atonement for your people.
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You put whoever you want in Me, I will die for them, and I will shield them from the anger and the wrath that is to come.
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Now, when we think of the wrath to come, we're not talking about consequences of sin.
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I pull out a gun and I shoot somebody, I go to prison.
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Is that God's wrath? That's not God's wrath.
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That is a consequence of my sin.
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Understand that the wrath of God in the Old Testament, we at times saw God act in a way, Scripture does say, the wrath of God was being poured out in the Old Testament, but it always was pointing to a bigger day.
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Take the prophets.
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Actually, the pre-exilic prophets, we could say, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk, they saw, when God says, I'm fixing to pour out my wrath, on the day of wrath.
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They all saw the day of wrath as the day of destruction of Jerusalem, but pointing to more.
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And we can look at that, if you want, just real quick.
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Or you can just write this down.
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Read Zephaniah.
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I think it's in the first chapter.
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It actually, you hear about the changing of the moon, the darkening of the clouds, the darkness, the earth shaking, okay, all of those things speaking to a great day of wrath.
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And even in Jeremiah, he talks where God says, look, I'm going to pour out my wrath for that great day of wrath.
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I think that's in Jeremiah 7-11.
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So understand that when someone commits an act of sin, and he has the repercussions of that sin, that's not God's wrath.
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God says, you know what, man, I know I'm sinning.
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I'm in hell now, and God's pouring out his wrath on me, because look at what my bad decisions have done to me.
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That's not God's wrath.
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If a guy's living on the streets because of drugs and alcohol, or he has lost everything he has because he's committed adultery, look, that's a consequence of your sin.
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But we make sure that he knows that that, or whomever we're speaking to, make sure that they know that that is not the wrath of God.
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The wrath of God is coming when God pours out his judgment on you, as we read last week, when he opens the books, and whoever's name is not written in the Lamb's book of life, the man is judged according to his works.
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Why are they judged according to their works? Anybody know? Right, but what's the purpose of being judged according to their works? Specifically, though, for God's justice.
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Look, God's not going to punish me for, well, we're safe, but God's not going to punish me for what someone else did.
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So, is God going to punish a child that blatantly rejects the gospel the same way he's punishing Hitler? No.
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That makes God unjust.
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It's not one-size-fits-all.
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The book of Matthew talks about the worthless servant who was worth more stripes.
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I don't remember the actual parable.
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I will find it when we get done.
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Somebody wants me to find it for them.
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But he got more stripes.
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Why? Because he was less.
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He was more worthless.
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He was less faithful and was found for more punishment.
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Now, is that child that blatantly rejects the gospel any less offensive or any less an enemy of God than a person that walked in here and put a gun in someone's mouth and pulled the trigger? No, it's not less offensive.
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A child, a grown-up, is born an enemy of God, deserving of wrath.
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Look, when we come home from the hospital, we don't need balloons in the red carpet put out there in the driveway.
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We deserve God's judgment.
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But it's his loving kindness that's to lead us to repentance.
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It's his loving kindness.
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We need that propitiation, that appeasement, that turning away of God's wrath.
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And that's only found in Christ, in Christ alone.
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There's no other name under heaven by which men must be saved other than that of Jesus Christ.
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Romans 5, 9 says that he saves us.
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And also 1 Thessalonians 1.10, that through his blood we have been redeemed and has saved us from the wrath to come.
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That day is coming, just as sure as we're standing here today.
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Do we call sinners to repentance? Do they hear the sincerity of the danger of not repenting in our voice? Do they hear the love and concern that they could step off into eternity without Christ? I think my brother back here, I'm not sure of his name, but he said last week, we as believers, we go, wow, the wrath of God is terrifying.
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But a sinner cannot understand it in the way that we do.
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Why? Because we know God differently.
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God has revealed himself to us in such a way that there is a fear of God within us.
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I'm not saying we cower at him or that we walk around thinking that God's going to smash us like a bug.
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But there should be a fear of God within you in the sense that he is the creator.
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And we are the creature and we are his subjects.
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To where, according to Romans, what does the unregenerate man have? No fear of God.
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No fear of God.
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So when we're proclaiming the wrath of God, we're saying it to them, and we need to proclaim it clearly so that it may strike fear within them.
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Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.11, he said, We persuade men by the terror of the Lord.
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Why are we going to do that? Is it by telling them we have a wonderful plan for their life? Is it telling them that God's come to send Jesus into the world, that we would be happy and full and healthy? It's not coming from that.
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It's coming from warning them of the danger of falling off the cliff of condemnation in which they could never come back.
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Like he said last week, or he read it, if we saw someone coming up to a cliff that was about to fall, what would you do? What would you do? I wouldn't tell them.
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I would try to grab them and pull them away.
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That's why it says in the scripture we are to pluck them as an iron out of the fire.
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That is our job in proclaiming the gospel, is knowing that it all depends on God what happens, but that we proclaim His wrath and His goodness and His forbearance and His kindness and His mercy clearly.
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Look, all men are under, right now, are under God's grace.
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Would you all agree with that? God's grace.
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God's grace is extended to all men right now.
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But there is coming a time and there is coming a day when God's grace will cease to extend to all men.
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And that is the great day of wrath.
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And in that day, men will be judged according to their works, and some will be thrown into the lake of fire, and then others will be judged according to the gospel in which they repented and believed, all an act of God, and they will enter into everlasting life.
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But it is our responsibility as a believer to make sure that we do not dilute the message.
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If you do not warn of the wrath to come, you have not proclaimed the gospel.
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You have not.
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You have not.
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Let me read this little statement.
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This is by C.H.
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Spurgeon.
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And I guess when I sent it over to you, it forgot to put one word in there.
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You see it? It says, The doctrine of the judgment to come is the power by which, it's supposed to say, men are aroused.
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There is another life.
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The Lord will come a second time.
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Judgment will arrive.
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The wrath of God will be revealed.
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Where this is not preached, I am bold to say, the gospel has not been preached.
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And I agree with that 100%.
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Not based on Charles Spurgeon, but based on the Apostle Paul, and where he begins two and a half chapters speaking about the depravity of man and speaking about the wrath of God, and before he ever once talks about there being atonement made or a propitiatory substitute made, at the end of chapter 3, he has pointed out that God is very angry.
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He is very angry.
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Every revival, Great Awakening 1 and Great Awakening 2, here in the States, came from preaching the wrath to come.
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Preaching the wrath to come.
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All right, let's pray.
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God, thank you for this opportunity to stand before your people and open your word and proclaim your truth by your power.
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Father God, I pray that it was edifying.
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I pray that, Father, we leave here stirred up to good works, encouraged, that, Father, we have everything necessary to proclaim your gospel with clarity.
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Father, not only that, but, God, you've given us your word, and it gives us everything pertaining to life and godliness in Christ Jesus.
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Father, I thank you for this church.
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I thank you for bringing me here, putting me under sound doctrine, putting me under godly leadership, Lord, to watch over me and my family.
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God, I would pray that as we leave this place that we would not pass up on those times that you place in our path every day to proclaim that you are coming, and there is coming a day when you will judge the world in righteousness by that man, Jesus Christ.
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Father God, we are your servants, and we are your slaves.
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Do with us as you see fit the rest of this week.
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Amen.
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Yes, sir.
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I don't know if I missed it, but did you give us the blanks? No, I did not give you the blanks.
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Can you give that to everyone? The sinner's view of God's wrath is distorted because of God's longsuffering and forbearance.
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His longsuffering and forbearance, and they are different.
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Patience is the longsuffering.
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The forbearance is withholding what you deserve.
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It's making God very tolerant.
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God is very tolerant.
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We fail to remember that it's his kindness that makes him forbearance.
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The second one is we must proclaim the wrath of God to demonstrate his justice.
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God demonstrated his justice in appeasing his wrath at Calvary for the believer.
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God's justice will never be appeased to the sinner in hell, ever.
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It will take all of eternity to burn one sin off.
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And three, God's wrath is satisfied only in Jesus Christ.
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There is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved.
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Not can, must be saved.
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There is no other way.
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Thank you, Pete.
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Thank you, Billy.
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I sure appreciate you.
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Thank you for joining us tonight.