The Wrath of God!

Albert Martin

Uncertainty of life and God's wrath toward unbelievers

When I was saved in 2004 I realized that I did not know what I didn't know. Up until that point I had made two fundamental errors in my views of life and God.

1) I thought I was invincible, impervious to disease or accidents, and that I would certainly die of old age. I didn't realize the fragility of life until I received the news of my Grandpa's terminal case of cancer. It then occusrred to me that the few times I had been hit by a car while riding my bike could have resulted in death. I came to grips with the fact that at any moment I could have a stroke or brain aneurism. We are but a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. James 4:14

2) I didn't understand the necessary punishment for my sin in light of God's holiness, and so I did not see my need for a Savior. Because God is Perfect, Righteous, Just, and Holy Holy Holy anything that falls short of His glory cannot be accepted into His presence. And so all who have not had their sins forgiven and Jesus' righteousness imputed to them before they die will be cast into hell, eternal separation from the goodness of God.

Hell is described as an eternal (Matthew 25:46) lake of fire (Revelation 20:15), where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (a.k.a. inconsolable grief and unremitting torment) taking place in complete darkness (Matthew 22:13).

But God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross as a willing sacrifice for the sins of all who would believe. Jesus accomplished what you and I could never do, perfect obedience to God, thus becoming an appeasing sacrifice who took the wrath of God while on the cross in the place of you, if you would but repent and believe unto Jesus for eternal life. Turn from your life of self-service, in essence worshiping yourself, and worship the one true living God of the Bible. If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. Luke 9:23

Behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2

Continual Communion with God

Taken from John Piper's sermon Pray Like This: Hallowed By Your Name

"Prayer is intentionally conveying a message to God. And that message may be asking for something, praising God for something about him, thanking him for some gift, confessing your sins to him, or complaining to him. That is what I want you to do every day, all year long, in 2008. Be a praying people. Convey your heart to God over and over. Let it be the way you begin and end everything. Pray before every email, every TV show, every car ride, ever phone call, every conversation, every shower, every night’s rest, every meal, everything you read. Convey your heart’s longings to God before and after everything you do. Let it be the way you breathe. Be in communion with God continually. My wife complains to me that when I finish a cell phone call, I don’t turn my phone off, and so she can hear me going about my business. I can see why that bothers her. But it is certain that it does not bother God if you never hang up. Just leave it on. And I’ll do my best to help you keep your batteries charged."

Discipleship Part 2

(Continued from part 1)

Therefore a maturing walk with Jesus goes hand in hand with a growing understanding of His word. Now you'll see biblically brilliant Christians who do not have a healthy relationship with Christ, but I seriously doubt you'll meet a healthy God fearing Christian who does not treasure God's word and lead a lifestyle that reflects it.

So we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. J.I. Packer has famously said that head knowledge is the highway to heart knowledge. That is before our hearts are changed our understanding needs to change, and that happens primarily through God's word, the bible. Some might say that prayer changes our hearts, or fellowship, or service. Yes this is all true but you will never learn anything in prayer or fellowship that you cannot also find in Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 ll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Everything we seek to do God's word has sufficiently provided for us.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all we need is the bible. God has given us many gifts for our growth and we would be naive to think we didn't need them. Colossians 3:10 may help drive my point across, put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

This is a process. This is going to take the rest of our lives, but the completion is guaranteed. The final result is promised. We will be made Christlike. So if our transformation is guaranteed and promised why do I need to do anything? The simple answer, because you are commanded to. The truest answer, because God's glory in and through your life is worth it. You are privileged to participate in God's work in your life only because you are saved by the blood of the Lamb. You were once a slave to sin and are now a slave to righteousness because God has graced you with this free gift of salvation from eternal subjection to His wrath because of your sin. Without God's work in your life you could not be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Discipleship Part 1

Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? 35 Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things To Him be the glory forever. Amen. 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

What is a disciple? A disciple is simply a follower of Jesus. That's what Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the rest of the gang were called. They followed Jesus around for three years during his earthly ministry. But so did other people, tens of thousands of people at times. So what separates the Apostles from the other "disciples"? Well we could say that many of the people who came to Jesus were experiential followers, they just want to see miracles and displays of His power. Other were hungry and just wanted to be fed. Some people probably just wanted to see what all the hype was about. But these people went away when Jesus refused to produce signs for them. They went away when He did not feed them and did not take back Israel by force. Others, once they saw what the hype was about, were satisfied and went on their way. And another group, we're told in John 6, departed when Jesus sayings became too difficult. Which leads us to my point. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is being a student of the Christian faith.

The Apostles followed Jesus around listening to and learning from His teachings. They saw Jesus practice what He preached. They tried to grasp His explanation of the Old Testament law and the coming judgement. Then they were expected to implement these teachings into their lives and to teach other to do the same. We commonly read the great commission in Matthew 28 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." and we often hear only the first part, go and make disciples, and often neglect the ending, teaching them, and many people don't grasp what Jesus is commanding us to do because we don't have a firm understanding of what it is to be a disciple of Jesus.

So a disciple is one who is not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Before we look at what it is to be transformed by the renewing of our mind let us first establish what conforming to the world is. We could spend a lot of time talking about fads and trends but basically one who conforms to the world is one who does not continue in their growth as a Christian. This is seen by flipping Romans 12:2 around and making it say the opposite of what it is saying. For example instead of saying do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, read it be conformed to this world by not being transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is the antithesis of what it is to be a Christian. We're called to be the salt and the light of the world. We're called not to love the world or look like the world, but to bear fruit and to stand out. We have already been set apart (sanctified) for this work.

A Holy Determination

Psalm 101 David's Resolutions

Determination - firmness of purpose. This was the same attitude displayed by our Lord in Luke 9:51 When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem.

1) David was determined to sing God's praises - Psalm 101:1 I will sing of lovingkindness and justice, to You, O LORD, I will sing praises.

Singing can be equated to meditating on God and to praise Him is to find joy in Him and His attributes.

2) David was committed to live a sincere and blameless life - Psalm 101:2 I will give heed to the blameless way. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.

To live blamelessly and with integrity is to think, speak, and act with care and thoughtfulness so as to build an honoring life, even when no one is around.

3) David was resolved to deal radically with sin - Psalm 101:4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil.

Just as Paul exhorted, Romans 8:13 For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

John Owen wrote, "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you." Sin is not to be met with apathy, downplayed, or ignored.

Psalm 101: 1 I will sing of lovingkindness and justice, to You, O LORD, I will sing praises. 2 I will give heed to the blameless way. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. 3 I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten its grip on me. 4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil. 5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; no one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure. 6 My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me. 7 He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house; he who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me. 8 Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, so as to cut off from the city of the LORD all those who do iniquity.

Determining to Grow in the New Year

Seven words of exhortation for the new year:

1) Commit yourself to daily intake of God's word.

Read - Nehemiah 8:18 He read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day.

Meditate - Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

Memorize - Psalm 119:52 I have remembered Your ordinances from of old, O LORD, and comfort myself.

2) Commit yourself to the meeting of the church.

Hebrews 10:24 Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some.

When you regularly attend your local fellowship, submit yourself to leadership, and commit to using your spiritual gifts you open yourself up to more opportunities to corporate worship, accountability with sins, transformation by the preaching of the word culminating in a lifestyle that is increasingly obedient to God's will for your life.

3) Commit yourself to mortifying sins.

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

James 4:7 also says Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Prayer and communion with God is key to our battle against the flesh. We are never nearer to God than when we are kneeling at the cross. Sin will drive a wedge between you and the Lord and cause callousness in different areas of your life. The longer you go without waging war with your sin the more difficult it is to hear the Lord speaking in your life.

4) Commit yourself to hospitality.

1 Peter 4:9 Be hospitable to one another without complaint.

Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Without qualification the bible calls us to show Christ's love to the world by being hospitable to all by giving of our gifts and talents. We've been bought with a price therefore everything we have is a gift from God and should be freely surrendered for His glory.

5) Commit yourself to dealing with unnecessary distractions.

1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

1 Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

We've been given the freedom to watch hours of T.V., eat junk food, drink alcohol, stay up al night, get tattoos, befriend all types of people, wear all kinds of clothing, but not all things profit our walk with the Lord. I encourage you to examine distractions that do not directly point you to the character of God. Consider cutting out one or two of these things so that you'll be found focusing on your relationship with the Lord a little more this year.

6) Commit yourself to study.

Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

When each of us began our Christian walk we were given the basics of Christianity. This was all that we could handle for a time but now we should press on to understand the more difficult yet glorious truths of the bible. Consider reading a biography of one of the heros of the faith (Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Spurgen) or an over view of church history. Ask a friend to recommend a book about the attributes of God or one of the central doctrines of the bible such as R.C. Sproul's The Holiness of God, A.W. Pink's The Attributes of God, or D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Studies on the Sermon on the Mount. Or read a book on how we got the bible.

7) Enjoy the rich benefits of a sanctified Lord's day.

In creation God set aside one day in seven to rest as a pattern for us to follow. Our bodies need rest as do our souls and it is a beautiful thing to spend one day a week resting and enjoying our relationship with the Lord by attending a worship service and having rich fellowship with our congregation. The temptation is to be busy, or busy doing nothing, but I encourage you to spend time with your family, discuss the sermon over lunch, embark on a small service project, or have some unfamiliar friends over for dinner.