The Wrath and Judgments of God
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
As we listen to the pulsings of twentieth century thought, we find that God is not only being denied by many, but his wrath against unrighteousness and His judgments against sin are being generally set aside by the ungodly.
A study of the Word of God reveals that God's love and goodness in no sense lessens the severity of His judgment against the ungodly.
Grace does not make justice negligible; it rather makes it more severe. Love does not make sin less sinful, nor does it make sin's punishment less severe. Mercy in no wise lessens wrath.
What grace does, is to make God's love operative by sustaining every legal demand of the Law for righteousness, by the death of a Substitute. Grace transferred wrath from the sinner to the Saviour. Grace not only sustained the Law, but it fully met the righteous judgments of God against the sinner for his sins, by placing stripes due the ungodly upon the God-sent Son.
He who mocks at the righteousness of God's wrath, and the honor of God's judgments, should stop at the Cross and behold the agonies of the Son of God, as He went His weary way around the cycle of His sufferings, the Just dying for the unjust.
He who denies hell, would make Heaven impossible; for Christ's descent into hades only makes the believer's ascent into Heaven possible.
When the world believes that there is no judgment for sin; no punishment for the wicked then sin will run riot on the earth. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."
The wicked have set themselves against faith in any Divine justice ever overtaking them; they have tried to persuade themselves that God doth not know, or that if He does know, He is good and does not punish the guilty; yet these same wicked men have never failed to call down judgment on the heads of those who sin against themselves.
If law, judgment, and punishment is removed from any land, red-handed murder and repine will rule the day.
We will bring out various aspects of God's wrath and of His judgments against sin, which should help students to understand better some things we may not have considered from God's viewpoint.
Hasten, sinner, to be blest!
Stay not for the morrow's sun,
Lest perdition thee arrest,
Ere the morrow is begun.
I. THE FACT OF GOD'S WRATH (Romans 1:18)
The wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men is not a matter of conjecture, and of discussion pro and cons for it is a revealed wrath. This is the statement of our text.
The preceding verse says that the "righteousness" of God is also revealed in the Gospel of Christ. In Romans 1:20 God's eternal power and Godhead is said to be clearly seen, so that also is revealed.
The man who rebels against the revelation of God's wrath as set forth in Romans 1:18, must of necessity, therefore, rebel against God's righteousness, and even against God's eternal power and Godhead.
There is no room for finding fault because God has revealed His wrath. It is fact and not fancy. It is impossible for men to live in ungodliness that is, a wrong relationship with God: and in unrighteousness that is, with wrong relationships toward men, without meriting the wrath of God.
All down through the ages God has manifested His wrath against sin, whether it be sin toward God or sin toward man. In the very beginning God's wrath fell on Adam and he was expelled from the garden. Cain came next under the wrath of God and he cried, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." Soon the whole world became evil and was corrupted before God and it was overthrown with the flood. The Tower of Babel, the mark of man's vaulted pride was cast down; the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown; the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea; the seven nations dwelling in the land of Canaan with the cup of their iniquity full were destroyed, and thus the wrath of God swept on and still it sweeps.
Our theme is correct for God's wrath is a fact and not a fancy. Men cannot live as they list, giving vent to every desire of the flesh, without paying the penalty thereof.
The hand of God is still writing our judgment and condemnation on the wall.
So our deeds are recorded
There's a Hand that's writing now:
Sinner, give your heart to Jesus
To His royal mandate bow;
For the day is approaching
It must come to one and all,
When the sinner's condemnation
Will be written on the wall.
II. THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY ARE INEXCUSABLE (Romans 1:20; Romans 2:1)
The world is full of excuses. Cain was one of the first to excuse his sin by saying, "Am I my brother's keeper?" There is scarcely a sin toward God or man, be it ever so vile, but what man will seek to excuse himself. Our first verse says that men are without excuse. Our second verse says, "Thou art inexcusable, O man."
The wicked may proclaim that their wicked deeds cannot be avoided, but God says, "They are without excuse." One man says that his fiery temper and uncontrollable wrath was inherited from his parents, but God says, "Thou art inexcusable." Another man says that the lusts of the flesh were dominant in his nature and that he could not but yield to their desire, but God says that he is without excuse. Man says that he did not know any better, that his sins are sins of ignorance, but God says that he cannot thus excuse himself.
No matter what power sin may have in the life of any of the ungodly; no matter what sway of the world; no matter what power of Satan; the sinner is without excuse because God has provided a way of escape from all of these.
Why should man continue in sin, or remain a dupe and slave to sin's power, when the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth a Gospel that saves from these very things.
"For the Lion of Judah shall break every chain,
And give us the victory again and again."
Even the heathen, who have never known of the Gospel are without excuse, because they have not lived according to the light which they possess. When they knew God they glorified Him not as God neither were thankful. The very ignorance in which they now dwell is due to the fact that when they professed themselves to be wise, they became fools. When they changed His glory into an image made like corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. When they had the truth of God, they changed it into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.
The world cannot plead that it did not know that the wrath of God was revealed against sin, ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, because the wreckage of God's judgment has covered the world with its debris.
There is no excuse that men can bring in honor because God has dealt fairly and squarely and above board with all sin and iniquity.
Look unto Me, and be ye saved!
Look, men of nations all;
Look, rich and poor; look, old and young;
Look sinners, great and small!
Look unto Him, and be ye saved!
O weary, troubled soul,
Oh, look to Jesus while you may;
One look will make thee whole!
III. THE WICKED ARE WORTHY OF DEATH (Romans 1:32)
We have just been noticing the fact that man is inexcusable for his sin. We are now to consider that man is worthy of the judgment which God places upon him. If man had the least excuse for sinning just to that extent God's judgment would not be just. The opposite is also true. If the wicked are worthy of death, they are necessarily without excuse in their sins.
The Bible teaches that death is the wages of sin. A man is reaping no more than what he has sown. According to this, the sinner so to speak, is the author of his own destruction. He, himself, gathers the fuel to feed the fire which shall for ever torment his soul. He sows the seed of the maddened brain; he plants the germ that develops the woes and the miseries, the gnashing of teeth and the wailing of hopeless despair.
The wicked are worthy of death. They are receiving no more than their due. They are only being paid for their deeds. God does not have any pleasure in the death of the wicked. He would that all men everywhere should repent. He is not a tyrant who with ruthless rage casts the just to the tormentors. He, even goes so far as to open the door of hope in the valley of Achor. He offers salvation by the way of the Cross to the vilest of the vile.
Man is worthy of death because man has rejected proffers of mercy. He has spurned the opportunity of righteousness. He has given a deaf ear to the call of the Gospel.
Instead of heeding what he hears, he has given himself over to unrighteousness, being filled with fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Men who live in these things are worthy of death.
IV. GOD'S JUDGMENTS CANNOT BE ESCAPED (Romans 2:3)
The argument as God has given it to us is steadily mounting up. The net is being more tightly drawn, and the sinner is being more surely entangled in his unrighteousness. Sometimes the sinner will recognize that he is inexcusable, he will even concede that he is worthy of death, and yet he will seek to escape his just punishment.
There are criminals all over the land who have evaded justice. There are men everywhere who are trying to hide their sins. Men need, however, to know that they cannot deceive God.
Where can the sinner go, that God will not find him? God has said, "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down." All things which a man doeth, and all things which a man is in his heart, are naked and open unto Him with whom we have to do.
Our Lord looks down from Heaven and all things are before His eye. He knows our downsitting and our uprising. He understands our thoughts afar off. Our God is acquainted with all our ways. There is not a word in our tongue but what He knows it altogether. How can men hide from God? for He has beset them behind and before. Where may men fly from His Spirit? or where may they hide from His presence? Listen to the Word of God, "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee: but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb" (Psalms 139:8-13).
It is useless to evade the issue. The wicked must stand before the Great White Throne and face the records of their lives. They cannot escape meeting God.
Where will you spend Eternity
Those years that have no end?
Will it be where you are debarred
Ever to know and see the Lord?
Ever to have His great reward?
V. THERE IS A SET DAY OF WRATH (Romans 2:5; Romans 2:16)
In the fifth verse we read that man is treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. In the sixteenth verse we read that there is a day when God shall judge the secrets of men.
1. This is the day of grace. We are convinced that God frequently judges unrighteousness now, and sends terrific manifestations of wrath, but these are no more than suggestive of the great sorrow and travail which awaits the wicked.
In this age for the most part, God is allowing men to reap no more than the wreckage which his own sin now involves. God is now calling men to repentance. God is now proffering grace. Heralders of the Gospel are being commanded to go to the ends of the world and to preach to every creature the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Songs of salvation are being sung. Altar calls are being made, the Holy Spirit is striving with men. We can still say, "Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation."
When Christ entered Nazareth, He said in the Temple, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor." He was reading from the Prophet Isaiah and He read on through the most gracious of words until He came to the expression "and the day of vengeance of our God." Before He read these latter words, He suddenly stopped, and said, of the words which He had just spoken, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." He did not read the statement concerning the day of vengeance because He knew that that day of vengeance had not yet come.
2. The day of vengeance and of judgment is a set day. The angel of God's grace who has hastened before giving proffers of mercy and of salvation must soon step aside, that the angel of His wrath may unsheath his sword.
Time is gliding swiftly by,
Death and judgment draweth nigh,
To the arms of Jesus fly:
Be in time!
Oh, I pray you count the cost,
Ere the fatal line be crossed,
And your soul in hell be lost:
Be in time!
Sinner, heed the warning voice,
Make the Lord your final choice,
Then all heaven will rejoice:
Be in time!
Come from darkness into light;
Come, let Jesus make you right;
Come, and start for Heaven tonight,
Be in time!
VI. WRATH IS INCREASED BY KNOWLEDGE (Romans 1:19; Romans 1:21; Romans 1:32)
It was because that, when men knew God, yet glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, that God gave them up. If man had been ignorant and had not known God it would have been different. However, man not only knew God but He also knew the judgment of God.
If no ray of light, revealing God both in grace and in judgment, had ever come to man, sin had not been reckoned against him.
That which makes sin exceedingly sinful is its willfulness; its stubborn refusal to accept the right.
It is because men love darkness rather than light that their darkness is made the darker; it is because men refuse righteousness that God gives them up to iniquity. He who knew not his master's will and did it not was beaten with few stripes. While he who knew his master's will and did it not was beaten with many stripes.
In the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for Chorazin and Bethsaida for, "if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."
In the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for Capernaum, not but that Sodom was morally more vile, but that Capernaum had been exalted unto Heaven by the presence, the words, and the miracle working of the Son of God, which Sodom had never known. Christ said to Capernaum, "If the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been in Sodom, it would have remained until this day."
Sinners who live in this day of grace with the blazing light of the glory of God's grace bursting full around them should beware lest they by their refusal are treasuring up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath. In the silent midnight watches,
List thy bosom's door!
How it knocketh, knocketh, knocketh,
Knocketh evermore!
Say not 'tis thy pulse is beating
'Tis thy heart of sin;
'Tis thy Saviour knocks, and crieth,
"Rise, and let Me in!"
Death comes down with reckless footsteps
To the hall and hut;
Think you death will tarry knocking
When the door is shut?
Jesus waiteth, waiteth, waiteth;
But the door is fast:
Grieved, away thy Saviour goeth,
Death breaks in at last.
Then 'tis time to stand entreating
Christ to let thee in;
At the gate of Heaven beating,
Wailing for thy sin!
Nay! alas, thou guilty creature.
Hast thou then forgot?
Jesus waited long to know thee,
Now He knows thee not!
VII. THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD ARE RIGHTEOUS ALTOGETHER (Romans 2:2; Romans 2:5)
The day of wrath of which we have just heard will bring forth the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. God's judgments will be according to truth.
At the Great White Throne no sinner will be able to say that he got more than his dues, nor will he receive less. Those who are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness will receive indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. Mark the word, this will befall every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile.
All the wicked, all unbelievers, all the fearful and the abominable and murderers will have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and yet all shall receive according to the sins done in the body.
When the dead small and great stand before God, the Books which carry the records of their earth deeds will be opened, and every man will be judged out of those things which were written in the Book according to their works.
When death and hell are cast into the lake of fire, and God's judgments are completed, there will be no room for disputes and no reasons for an appeal to a higher court. God's judgments are not only final but they are eternally just.
AN ILLUSTRATION
IN A RING OF FIRE
An ungodly European was once trying to convince a convert in India that his religion was of no use, and that he never would be any the better for it. "What, after all," said the scoffer, "has your Jesus done for you?"
"He has saved me!" said the native, with great animation: "He has saved me!"
"And what is that?" said the European.
"Step with me to the door," was the reply, "and I will show you." So saying, he took him outside of the house, picked up a quantity of dry leaves and straw (of which there were plenty close at hand), and made a large circle of them. He then sought for a worm; and, having found one, he placed it in the center of the ring. Forthwith he applied a lighted match to the material that surrounded it, the scoffer looking on all the time with no little astonishment. As the heat of the fire approached the poor worm, it began to writhe and show symptoms of distress, but could not get out of the burning ring. The man darted his hand through the smoke, plucked the worm out of its dangerous position, and placed it on the green grass, out of reach of all danger.
"There," said he, "that is what the blessed Jesus has done for me: I was exposed to the flames of hell there was no possibility of escape; I was condemned and ready to perish, and He rescued me by dying for my sins, thus snatching me as a brand from the burning; and He has given me, a poor dying worm, a place near His heart,"
Can you thus speak of yourself as saved fay the death of Jesus? Are you able to say, like the poor native, "He has saved me"? It not, we entreat you to come now, as a sinner, to Jesus, who is at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and He will give you rest. Take shelter in His blood, and you will be cleansed from sin, and delivered from the wrath to come.
"When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6).
"Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom" (Job 33:24).
"Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back" (Isaiah 38:17).