The Wrath of God
1 Thessalonians 5:1–3 (ESV)
1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
1 Thessalonians 5:4–5 (ESV)
4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
1 Thessalonians 5:9–11 (ESV)
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Paul connects the rapture and the wrath as sequential events. Rapture then Wrath
Pre-wrath Rapture
What is the Wrath of God?
Wrath is defined as “the emotional response to perceived wrong and injustice”
Part of virtue is to love righteousness and hate evil
God perfectly loves righteousness and perfectly hates evil
If one does not hate evil then they do not love righteousness
God's hatred of evil is HIS wrath - Norm Wise
SUMMARY – REVELATION 6 – the 7 Seals
Revelation 6:15–17 (ESV)
15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
A time of Tribulation – 7 year period (70th week of Daniel), the world is headed into.
CHART – 70th Week
CHART – 2nd Half OF TRIBULATION
CHART – DAY OF THE LORD/SECOND COMING – not a single event, but series of connected events/period of time
What is Wrath and how is it different than discipline of the Lord?
Hebrews 3:7–11 (ESV)
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
God had done miracles (10 plagues, part Red Sea, manna) – “
11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
A.W. TOZER: God’s wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother hates the diphtheria or polio that would destroy the life of her child.[1]
Genesis 6:5–8 (ESV)
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Evil corrupts, like a disease – cancer, the cancer spreads until it chokes out the life of the individual.
the biblical notion of divine wrath is closely associated with God’s holiness, judgment, and compassion (e.g., Num 14:18).[2]
God’s wrath is the twin of God’s mercy. Mercy without correction is mere permission, and mere permission never has the best interests of the person in mind. God’s wrath, then, is God’s mercy. And God’s mercy is, because of the nature of God’s love, sometimes made known in God’s punishment of wrongdoing and wrongdoers.[3] - Lexham Theological Wordbook
Wrath intended to instruct, correct, warn
1 Corinthians 10:1–6 (ESV)
1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
Disciplines those He loves
Hebrews 12:5–6 (NLT)
5 And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. 6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
Proverbs 13:24 (NLT)
24 Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. Those who love their children care enough to discipline them.
Discipline for the righteous.
Wrath for the rebellious.
2 Peter 3:3–9 (NLT)
3 Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” 5 They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. 7 And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed. 8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
2 Peter 3:9 (NLT)
9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
Often people think God is angry in the OT and loving in the NT. - Same God.
NT Wrath
Romans 1:18 (ESV)
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
JESUS -
John 2:14–17 (ESV)
14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
John 3:16–18 (ESV)
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God
John 3:36 (ESV)
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
JESUS GETS MAD
Matthew 23:1–3 (ESV)
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.
Matthew 23:13, 15 (ESV)
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in… 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
“Woe” – horror, disaster, pain and suffering
“What sorrow awaits you” – NLT
“You’re hopeless” – MESSAGE
“Great sorrow awaits you…” – TPT
WE OFTEN EQUATE ANGER AND WRATH with human expressions of it
James 1:20 (NLT)
20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.
THEN SENDS TRUMPET JUDGMENTS – REV. 8-9
After the trumpets –
Revelation 9:20–21 (CSB)
20 The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. 21And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
Regarding King Josiah when found a copy of the law
2 Chronicles 34:24–28 (CSB)
24 ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, fulfilling all the curses written in the book that they read in the presence of the king of Judah, 25 because they have abandoned me and burned incense to other gods so as to anger me with all the works of their hands. My wrath will be poured out on this place, and it will not be quenched.’ 26 Say this to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord: ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: As for the words that you heard, 27 because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before me, and you tore your clothes and wept before me, I myself have heard’—this is the Lord’s declaration. 28 ‘I will indeed gather you to your ancestors, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place and on its inhabitants.’ ” Then they reported to the king.
Proverbs 15:1 (ESV)
1 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Habakkuk 3:2
“O Lord … in wrath remember mercy”
What about Hell?
Matthew 25:41 (ESV)
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Revelation 19:20 (ESV)
20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
Revelation 20:10 (CSB)
10 The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
TORMENT – levels
Luke 10:10–14 (ESV)
10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. 13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
Revelation 20:11–15 (ESV)
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Understanding Hell – how could a loving God send people to hell?
Why eternal suffering? How is that fair?
HELL IS NOT ABOUT PAYING GOD BACK FOR YOUR SIN. It is about compatibility.
God is holy by nature – holy, set apart, pure, when people see Him, they are overwhelmed, can’t handle it (Woe is me for I’m undone – Isaiah)
Illustrations – Fire by nature is hot. Fire doesn’t make itself hot, it is hot.
Stick your hand in and you’ll get burned
When we come to Christ – our nature is changed, become “saints” – being made holy. So we can come into his presence. We worship Him (set ourselves aside)
If don’t surrender to Christ, want to do it your way. No forced love, but the consequence is without God.
Describe a place without God who is love, without the joy and peace of the Lord – that’s hell.
space man, lying to brother vs lying to God,
Why does hell endure forever?
Based on the teaching of the Lord Jesus this is due to the reality that no one in hell repents. They sin daily in hell and therefore add to their punishment daily in hell because they keep sinning in hell (Luke 16, Rich man and Lazarus)
Can you trust the LORD Jesus to do what is fair and just on judgement day for each person?
GOSPEL – we have a sin issue – trying to be good won’t solve it.
We have a virus – throughout our body, the remedy is Jesus.
Ezekiel 33:11 (ESV)
11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Romans 5:8–9 (ESV)
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
[1] A. W. Tozer and Anita M. Bailey, Man: The Dwelling Place of God (Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread, 1997), 122.
[2] Jim West, “Divine Wrath,” in Lexham Theological Wordbook, ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).
[3] Jim West, “Divine Wrath,” in Lexham Theological Wordbook, ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).