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The Glory of God in WRATH
“as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed” – 2 Peter 2:12
“My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure” – Isaiah 46:10 |
Professing Christians all over this world, of all denominations and creeds, and men of all other religions outside of that which is claimed under the name “Christianity”, do make much of the love and mercy of God. It seems that there is a universal and natural conviction deep within the heart and conscience of every man, with few excluded, that God is GOOD. Yea, this is true, but they, “being evil,” cannot understand what God’s goodness is! As it is written, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things” (Matt. 12:34)?
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“But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves” – Jude 1:10
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Men, blind to righteousness, “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:4), do have no sight of the GOODNESS of God’s justice, so that they falsely justify themselves, and finally, they presume that the pleasures of sin will not lead to an eternity where God has pleasure in their displeasure, even in their pain and teeth-gnashing torments. In one sense, God has “no pleasure” in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11), but in another sense we can understand that, from creation, men were “formed” (Rom. 9:20), “fitted” (Rom. 9:22), and created as “vessels of wrath” (Rom. 9:22), which means that they were created for the purpose of God’s glory in WRATH – glory I say, to display breathtaking wrath and destruction for His own praise and honor, so that, the sovereign “pleasure” (Isa. 46:10) of this counsel is that they are “as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed” (2 Peter 2:12).
This is the glory of God! If saints shout eternal Hallelujahs in heaven, then the devil’s family roars eternal horrors in hell. Not only the love of God, but the torments of hell, are “greater far than any tongue or pen can ever tell” (The Love of God)! God has predestined glory for Himself in the mercy of salvation, in reconciliation, but likewise in castaway destruction; not only love and redemption but also hatred and damnation. Hope and hopelessness, peace and anxiousness, ecstasy and agony, mercy and wrath, love and hate - eternity will never tell the end of the story of God’s glory in these two veins! And which elect vessel are you? So many men want to and do sing of their various pleasures, and nearly all religious men sing of mercy, but the inspired writers and psalmists ALSO sang of God’s wrath, even that it was the glory of God that fear seizes men unto unspeakable pains. Oh! How the world needs to be forewarned of God’s glorious wrath, lest they meet with it in eternity because they never worshipped Him for it, on earth. Will you stop for a while and consider an honest question? Will you, my reader, join with those trillions of souls who are burning in hell underneath your feet? For just a moment of your time here on earth, I plead with you, please, will you think about what the souls in hell are forced to think about? Will you seek God for a deep understanding of the glory of God in hell, in eternal wrath, and not just in heaven and grace?
This is the glory of God! If saints shout eternal Hallelujahs in heaven, then the devil’s family roars eternal horrors in hell. Not only the love of God, but the torments of hell, are “greater far than any tongue or pen can ever tell” (The Love of God)! God has predestined glory for Himself in the mercy of salvation, in reconciliation, but likewise in castaway destruction; not only love and redemption but also hatred and damnation. Hope and hopelessness, peace and anxiousness, ecstasy and agony, mercy and wrath, love and hate - eternity will never tell the end of the story of God’s glory in these two veins! And which elect vessel are you? So many men want to and do sing of their various pleasures, and nearly all religious men sing of mercy, but the inspired writers and psalmists ALSO sang of God’s wrath, even that it was the glory of God that fear seizes men unto unspeakable pains. Oh! How the world needs to be forewarned of God’s glorious wrath, lest they meet with it in eternity because they never worshipped Him for it, on earth. Will you stop for a while and consider an honest question? Will you, my reader, join with those trillions of souls who are burning in hell underneath your feet? For just a moment of your time here on earth, I plead with you, please, will you think about what the souls in hell are forced to think about? Will you seek God for a deep understanding of the glory of God in hell, in eternal wrath, and not just in heaven and grace?
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“PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD” – Amos 4:12
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Holy angels underwent a difficult war with devils on earth, and at times they were restrained or hindered from accomplishing God’s good purposes (Daniel). This is the scenery on earth below, but there is a different sight above – the scenery of God’s unveiled glories! What think ye, thou devilish dominions and principalities, in the hour when God does look upon you? The darkest and most fierce host of the devil arrayed before the Almighty will then live out their lamentations which they did speak on earth: “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time” (Matt. 8:29)? Arrayed in earthly and angelic might, they all, with the renowned antichrist, shall be delivered over to the exhale of God. “The breath of the LORD like a stream of brimstone” (Isa. 30:33) “shall consume with the spirit of His mouth” (2 Thess. 2:8). The eyes of God, which are “a flame of fire” – even they shall look upon the “sons of pride” and bring them low. The eternal hatred of God contained within the Almighty shall be let loose by a fiery, Leviathan-like exhale, and that fire that shall begin will become an eternal lake which God will keep lit by His sustaining Presence. God shall encircle and compass them for a timeless eternity, taking upon Himself the task to be their Terror and Tormentor. They wish they could but die; yet at His feet their spirits shall live to forever die, eternally cast down as flaming, wailing carcasses, catching glimpses of His burning feet of brilliant, glowing brass as He walks about their midst. Locked under the eternality of His hatred to be condemned under the infinite power of God, His limitless intellect has created an eternal dungeon of death which is the anti-art of the Garden of Eden – for, here, every creation is the instrumentality of an excruciating execution.
The Garden of Eden did prosper as a life-abounding paradise, because God kept it. As “the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed,” likewise God planted a Lake of Fire in which to put wicked men whom He has “fitted for destruction” (Rom. 9). The Garden of Eden was called “the garden of the LORD” (Gen. 13:10) and “the garden of God” (Ezek. 31:9), a place of “joy and gladness,” “thanksgiving and the voice of melody” (Isa. 51:3); likewise there is a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12). Eden was the place where the Presence of God was “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8), yet when devilish men and angels are “in the presence of the Lamb,” there shall be a very different picture. The wicked “shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb” (Rev. 14:10). The presence of the Lamb was executing a very different purpose than that of Eden. The harmless Lamb has become a Lion upon His prey, seeking hurt, pain, and destruction upon everything that did hurt and taint God’s good creation. Eden was a place of blessing, as was told in the sayings of God, “I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day” (Isa 27:3). “A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end” (Deut. 11:12). Likewise, God will keep the Lake of Fire lit with His eyes so that nothing will ever interrupt His enemies’ hurt, and “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night” (Rev. 14:11).
The Garden of Eden did prosper as a life-abounding paradise, because God kept it. As “the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed,” likewise God planted a Lake of Fire in which to put wicked men whom He has “fitted for destruction” (Rom. 9). The Garden of Eden was called “the garden of the LORD” (Gen. 13:10) and “the garden of God” (Ezek. 31:9), a place of “joy and gladness,” “thanksgiving and the voice of melody” (Isa. 51:3); likewise there is a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12). Eden was the place where the Presence of God was “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8), yet when devilish men and angels are “in the presence of the Lamb,” there shall be a very different picture. The wicked “shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb” (Rev. 14:10). The presence of the Lamb was executing a very different purpose than that of Eden. The harmless Lamb has become a Lion upon His prey, seeking hurt, pain, and destruction upon everything that did hurt and taint God’s good creation. Eden was a place of blessing, as was told in the sayings of God, “I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day” (Isa 27:3). “A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end” (Deut. 11:12). Likewise, God will keep the Lake of Fire lit with His eyes so that nothing will ever interrupt His enemies’ hurt, and “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night” (Rev. 14:11).
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“He crouched, He lay down as a Lion, and as a Great Lion: who shall stir Him up” (Num. 24:9)?
"The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul." (Proverbs 20:2) |
It is the end, an eternal end, and now these pitiless criminals who are so vile in existence – these men and women who are the horror of heaven – now and forever they will suffer under the merciless rage of God.
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When God emerges from silence, it will be with incomparable violence,
Like a Lion upon its prey, He will be the victor on Judgment Day. It is a crime to have compassion when the Most Just massacres men. Families will be seized with teeth-gnashing cries; mothers, brothers, and sisters will look on with no earthly ties, This Lion-like God will ignore all their cries, and every heavenly dignity will shout Alleluia as every malefactor dies. The passion of Christ the world thought was nice; they neglected it for pleasure, and now they pay the price. |
Eden was Eden because God walked in the midst of it in the cool of the day, but the Lake of Fire is the Lake of Fire because God walks in the midst of it in the heat of His fiery wrath. Behold the goodness and the severity of God – to them in Eden there was goodness, while they continued in His goodness – but who can endure the severity of the Lake of Fire? Behold God’s goodness and severity, Eden and the Lake of Fire, and under the tent of time in this low earth, every generation did learn of His twofold purposes for all men – “the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy” and the power of His wrath assailing upon “vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” (Rom. 9:22-23), that through all ages and throughout time, these purposes alone would make up the two-piece garment of His glory.
“The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth His handywork” (Ps. 19:1), so the atmospheric art of erupting clouds of smoke do surround the servants of the devil. These thick clouds are God’s glorious curse upon sinners, suppressing any hope of light, or so much as a single breath of relief, while under the endless glory of God’s wrath in fire. The collision of God and sinners results in the black clouds of punishing misery and lifeless suffocation. Nay, the faithful and sweet welcome of the morning sunshine of God’s warm love to all creatures – the ever-faithful rays that pierced through the night and arose upon all darkness bringing life, hope, and a future – all these days on earth have been sinned away. They spent away all their days on earth discounting the firmament of brilliant colors and marvelous, artistic mixtures in their earthly sky, until the mist of their life evaporated into the volcanic atmosphere of God’s handiwork in horror, maximized under smoking suffocation and clouds of torment.
“The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth His handywork” (Ps. 19:1), so the atmospheric art of erupting clouds of smoke do surround the servants of the devil. These thick clouds are God’s glorious curse upon sinners, suppressing any hope of light, or so much as a single breath of relief, while under the endless glory of God’s wrath in fire. The collision of God and sinners results in the black clouds of punishing misery and lifeless suffocation. Nay, the faithful and sweet welcome of the morning sunshine of God’s warm love to all creatures – the ever-faithful rays that pierced through the night and arose upon all darkness bringing life, hope, and a future – all these days on earth have been sinned away. They spent away all their days on earth discounting the firmament of brilliant colors and marvelous, artistic mixtures in their earthly sky, until the mist of their life evaporated into the volcanic atmosphere of God’s handiwork in horror, maximized under smoking suffocation and clouds of torment.
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The love of God evaporates! Eternity arrives and all sinners exasperate!
Creatures arrive before the judgment seat with nowhere to flee, Angels and men, those who were wicked in sin, all are forced now to bow the knee. Their heart yearns in some hopeful plea, their heart writhes the cry, “Pity me!” Approaching the Sovereign He hears their heart cry, But they left off to be urgent until it was time to die. They tried to repent while upon their death bed, They tried to find mercy as they had planned and always said. But they died without grace because they lived a life that provoked God to the face! They rejected Him all their days. Even though He spoke, they followed their own ways. A life with pleasure and full of sin, this was their choice time and time again, And on their death bed they presumed they would have the grace to choose God instead of all their sin. Can sinners outwit God? Can they get all of their pleasure and be saved by a death bed nod before the God they have defied, even though He cried, wept, and died? Now they feel death’s untimely touch, even the hand of God’s justice which grips their sinful soul, And now they desire to come to God Who ever pled to make them whole. But it’s too late because sin has taken a toll, Most men and women can’t repent because they are lost and out of control. "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of My counsel: they despised all My reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." (Proverbs 1:22-33) A wrath-bearing Body did bear the weight of wrath, This is the Gateway for the righteous & narrow path, But if His suffering you do shamefully neglect, If His mercy you do not cherish and accept, The wrath that fell on Him will fall upon you. God made the Savior cry on a tree! Sinner, will He do anything different to you and me? If we neglect His caring calls, choose to love the Adamic lusts borne from the fall, Make a mock at mercy, and for sin-soaked years of pleasure expect eternity to stall, Will you think God is not meditating on your crying and tortured agony in hell? Will you go on thinking, as you always have, that you are ok and all is well? If God made the Savior cry on a tree, will He do anything different to me? If Jesus bled for me there, under God’s wrath, what will wrath do to me if I choose the wicked path? What happened in time, 2000 years ago, will happen outside of time for an eternity of years, even so… God will make men bleed like the hanging Savior was left in need, God forsook Him and He will forsake you, God bruised Him and He will break you, He that made you will overtake you, You will wish He never did create you, With wrath He will overwhelm and hate you, He slaughtered the sin-bearing Innocent, and will turn upon the guilty in vengeance, And as He did ignore His cries, He will ignore your cries as you everlastingly die. That forsaken Man on a tree, You wonder now at His agony, What it felt like when He cried, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” But such a vision you will soon see, because from His wrath you did never flee! “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him” (Eccl. 3:14). |