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Chapter 7: Interceding Against Wrath1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
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1 Peter 4:17-18
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? |
Wrath Pursuing Sinners
Simultaneous wills in God do animate a shocking Person for men to know, and tracing His terrible workings through the centuries will show the wisdom in the psalmist saying: “How terrible art Thou in Thy works! Through the greatness of Thy power Thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee… Come and see the works of God: He is terrible in His doing toward the children of men” (Ps. 66:3, 5). As for the mischievous and all wicked men, “God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded… and all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of His doing” (Ps. 64:7, 9). There has, and always will be, until the consummation of these Covenants, a present and continuous Divine struggle between the saving goodness of God and all men’s wrath-inciting waywardness. Consider first the workings of God toward sinners; they who are without Covenant and promise, ever dwelling in the vanity of their mind.
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“Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4)
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The godly Rolfe Barnard well understood this principle of God. He preached a sermon called The God of the Bible Kills People. This sermon, alongside another called Watching Men Die, well represents this fierce attribute of God’s just and wrathful will to kill sinners. To be hunted by the arrows of God’s justice, to know that the bow of His wrath is bent, that He hath made ready and aimed His arrows to be drunken with your blood – this is a biblical trauma many don’t know! If sinners do not turn from their sin, what will God do?
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“…God is angry with the wicked every day. If he [the sinner] turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow, and made it ready. He hath prepared for him the instruments of death; He ordaineth His arrows against the persecutors” (Psalm 7:11-13).
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What will God do? God has already bent His bow! He has already prepared the instruments of death! Oh, this generation is nearly mindless that this world is a world of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Would to God this sermon, by Jonathan Edwards, would cause the consciences of America to quake again. Within time, there is a humbling tension within the heart of an Omniscient, Omni-benevolent God, a tension between the love (Ezek. 33:11, John 3:16) and hatred of God (Psalm 5:5) that is beyond the spectrum of our comprehension. What would it mean for a sinner when, at present, “the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36)? That is what is written: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). That is to say, the wrath of God dwells upon, continues upon, or rests upon the sinner…an active will of God, in just anger, held from its final satisfaction by the Sovereign mercy of God at tension. The potential of death is near, hovering overhead, ready to fall, and easily released. The wrath of God abiding upon a sinner is as a bow bent and ready, pointed at you [a sinner], and any moment the love of God could lose grip against it and release the justice of God that is aiming for your death. Life, righteousness, well-being, and the universe, for the glory of God, will be sustained and satisfied by the death of sinners. Yet until they all die, God’s will to kill men is illustrative through Hosea 11:7-9: “My repentings are kindled together.”
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“And My people are bent to backsliding from Me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt Him. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.” (Hosea 11:7-9)
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Admah and Zeboim are neighboring cities to Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed in their destruction of fiery brimstone. God can, at present, be overtaken with the wrestling of “repentings.” This is a wrestling of contradicting desires to save or to kill within the heart of God. God warns of the possibility of sudden destruction surprising the wicked. “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” (Proverbs 29:1) Oh sinner, above you are the eyes of God’s glory beholding your thoughts, words, and deeds, and I plead with you to understand the weight of His watchings.
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“And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15-21)
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A sinner would never say within himself, “take thine ease,” if he knew that the wrath of God was hovering over his head like a bent and strung bow, that death is so nigh and every decision is vitally careful, lest you decide against your eternal good and release the everlasting wrath of God upon your helpless and wretched soul. These are the words of the hell-bound man, “take thine ease!” He didn’t know that he had less than 24 hours left in his life before God would require his soul. God said, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”
Think of this nation in the celebration on New Year’s Eve. In it, the people celebrate a false sense of liberty, new-year promises, and hopes of a prosperous next year. For this to be the time that their death sentence is executed is certainly a message from God. It reminds me of the rebellious partying: “let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor. 15:32). God is interrupting the very time of their futuristic hoping, boasting, and partying, and this is just what God did to the hopeful man in Luke 12:16-21. Are not these words the epitome of New Year’s celebrations? “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Verses 19-20)
Think of this nation in the celebration on New Year’s Eve. In it, the people celebrate a false sense of liberty, new-year promises, and hopes of a prosperous next year. For this to be the time that their death sentence is executed is certainly a message from God. It reminds me of the rebellious partying: “let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor. 15:32). God is interrupting the very time of their futuristic hoping, boasting, and partying, and this is just what God did to the hopeful man in Luke 12:16-21. Are not these words the epitome of New Year’s celebrations? “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Verses 19-20)
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“Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.” (Isaiah 5:14)
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Are you hunted by hell? Are you hunted by the very mouth of hell, to be swallowed up into the hole of God’s justice? If you are swallowed up, you will remain there until you are cast into the Lake of Fire as an object of God’s fierce hatred, eternally living that you might everlastingly die? “The sinners in Zion are afraid,” scripture declares, and “fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings” (Isa. 33:14)? Will you be vomited out by the good will of God (Rev. 3:15-16), spewed out from the promising love of your Creator (Lev. 18:26-30), only to reside under the emotional distress and torturing experience of what you are in God’s sight? The wicked are in hell because God is there, for He alone is the sustainer, creator, and maintainer of justice. The jubilee of everlasting life redounds to the glory of God, truly, but for what cause and triumph? It is an eternity without wickedness; an eternity beginning with the exclamation that wickedness has ceased to taint God’s good creation and habitable palaces. That God, throughout all His good creation, or wherever the sole of His foot would walk, there is only righteousness, purity, peace, and God-centered charity. Finally, 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:” (Revelation 14:10)
Don’t be carried away in the dream of sinners. Remember God, remember judgment, and remember righteousness! Don’t let the illusion of happiness, the monotony of daily obligations, or pleasures steal your attention away from the cries of your conscience pointing you to your Creator! Before your soul is required and “your spirit shall return unto God Who gave it,” remember HIM! Before suffering and evil come upon you, while it is yet day and there is still time to repent, remember your God. “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7)
Don’t be carried away in the dream of sinners. Remember God, remember judgment, and remember righteousness! Don’t let the illusion of happiness, the monotony of daily obligations, or pleasures steal your attention away from the cries of your conscience pointing you to your Creator! Before your soul is required and “your spirit shall return unto God Who gave it,” remember HIM! Before suffering and evil come upon you, while it is yet day and there is still time to repent, remember your God. “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7)