The Wrath and Judgement of God - Leland Zehr

Good morning. I want to greet you in Jesus name and welcome each one

here, visitors that are not here with us normally, David Conkle, welcome

back, and others of you here. I wasn't able to be in most

of the Sunday school so I feel a little bit out out of touch maybe

of what I was said there. And I don't necessarily apologize, but I

didn't do this on purpose. My message this morning is maybe going is going

to come into Jude but I hope that that can just be a springboard maybe

for next Sunday schools lesson and not interfere I didn't intend to do that,

but there's been a subject on my mind for some time, and it's just

the timing that has come worked out this way. The subject that I planned

to talk about this morning is not a pleasant subject. It's not really a

subject that's fun to talk about or necessarily listen about. In fact, some

people in religious people would would teach against this reality. A while back,

I was reading through the Book of Revelation and there was a phrase describing Jesus

that caught my attention, and I've thought of it since. I've kind of

came back to that, and eventually I thought, well, maybe that I

should talk about that. It's not a name for Jesus, but it's a

description for Jesus. And of course there are many names in the Bible for

Jesus. We're coming up about a month from Christmas, and I'm sure you'll

see and hear a lot of names through songs. A few of them Emanuel,

Lamb of God, Alpha and Omega, Redeemer, Savior, Bread of

Life, King of Kings, good Shepherd, Truvine, bright morning Star,

Prince of Peace, counselor, and many more that are all tend to be

pleasant, and they're true. They're very much an attribute of God. This

name has found in Revelation six sixteen. It isn't my text, but it's

what led me to this. And Revelation six sixteen says and seventeen and said

to the mountains and rocks, this is one under the sixth seal that was

opened, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and

hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from

the wrath of the Lamb. And that is the phrase that stood out to

me. The wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath

has come, and who shall be able to stand? So I want to

talk this morning about the wrath and judgment of God. And the purpose for

this I is not to unsettle anyone, is not to to make make anyone

second guess if they're at peace with God, or even to create an unrealistic

negative picture of God. You know, like I said, to warn of

this kind of thing about the wrath and the judgment of God is and the

realities and the consequences of people's lives is not something that I would enjoy doing,

but it's just something that I think we need to you to hear about.

And I'll get to some of that in a little bit. We know

and teach, and we hear a lot. There's a lot of books and

a lot of teaching on and we just came through Third John and first and

second third John. And I appreciate that God is love. God is a

loving God. He's forgiving, he's long suffering, he's patient, he's gracious,

and he's slow to anger, but he does get angry. The Bible

teaches that God is a god of anger, He's a God of wrath,

He's a God of justice, And so how can this be? After all

we heard about God is love and we must love that, a loving,

merciful God that sent his own son to earth to die, to suffer,

to be an example, also be a God of wrath. And I can't,

I probably cannot fully explain that, but I think I think that part

of that we can understand through the reality that God is holy. God's love

is holy. It's a holy love, and man's love tends to be selfish,

self motivated. What I can get out of it, it's just this

start bent. God's wrath and judgment is a holy wrath, whereas the wrath,

it is wrath towards evil, It is wrath towards sin, It is

wrath towards satan. It is a wrath for towards the allurements of his competition

for the precious souls of man. God is God is jealous. He's a

jealous God for the for the pure bride of you and I and the church

at large. And if we could see clearly, if we could just if

we could just see through the eyes of God, which we can't clearly,

but if we could try to see eternity and the effects and the poison and

the pain and the hurt and the death behind the glamorous allurements of sin and

the temptations of sin. If we could see the hook under the glittery power

bait and what it actually does and what it means and what it leads to,

then I think we could come closer to and understanding God's wrath towards sin,

both in the short term and in the long term for eternity. If

we can understand the holy love of God that He has for us, then

we can understand why God is wrathful towards sin and that there's going to be

judgment to come. And I think that often we would struggle on people in

the streets, just this this last year up in Portland. It's talking to

a man and that was one of his things. He just was sneering about

kind of this concept of Christianity in the church, trying to use fear to

motivate people. Yeah, you know, the judgment of God and stand before

God and no fear, no fear of God, and all isn't interested in

it. But the reason that I think we have a hard time again understanding

and accepting even and opening ourselves up to that God is a god of wrath

is because we the wrath of man is what we're used to, and the

wrath of man, James once says, the wrath of man worketh not the

right righteousness of God. And you and I know that, whether we've exercised

it or received it, almost always man's wrath is laced with selfish indignation,

selfish unholy motives. Man's wrath is often to try to control and manipulate people.

We use it when we have unmet desires. I want something, I

want it to go a certain way, and it's not going my way,

and I'm upset and I'm impatient. It's very unholy wrath that is not the

wrath of God. And so I think we need to kind of reset our

minds in that that God's wrath is holy. Man's wrath does not work righteousness.

So why I talk about a subject like this might be a question Why

stir this up? Why be so negative? God is be positive? And

I struggle with that I could and I don't think this should be a full

diet of what we hear, as there's always condemnation and judgment of God,

and that we're running around like some people say that they view God as God

with a stick that's ready to hurt us, and God is not that God,

And that's not the picture I want to paint, But I do want

to I don't want to paint a picture number one. I just want to

try to preach what the Bible says. And the Bible says a lot about

the judgment and wrath to come of God, and I think that that needs

to be a part of the Christians understanding and diet. All love, all

mercy, all forgiveness, all long suffering is not an accurate picture of God

either, and so we need to try to hold these things in balance as

the attributes of God. And I'll answer that question why talk about that here

in a little bit. Now, I really struggle many references here, and

I'm just going to try to as I go decide how many to read.

But if you want to try to follow along, I'm gonna move along.

I'll give you the references and you can either write them down or keep up

if you can. But for the sake of time, I'm just I'm gonna

jump through some of these. I'm gonna start in second Peter, and then

I'm gonna I'm gonna end up in Jude and read some other ones. But

we're thinking about the wrath and the judgment of God, and we're thinking about

the past and the present and the future. First Second Peter here the last

book of Peter's writings, and he seems like he has a burden for the

people. He's about ready to die. I think he died soon after he

wrote this letter, within a year or two. And he even says that

in chapter one that he's going to be putting off this tabernacle. So it's

like he knew his time was short. And what was the message that he

gave when when his time was short? Well, it wasn't. It wasn't

a first and second third John message. It was a message of warning.

And he said two times in the book that I to stir you up.

So Second Peter one thirteen, I'll read out of my notes here and then

I'm going to jump to Second Peter two. Yeah, I think it meet

as long as I'm in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you

in remembrance. And Second Peter two, verse four four. If God spared

not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered

them into chains of darkness to be reserved onto judgment, and spared not the

old world, but saved. Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness,

bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning the cities

of Sodom and Gomorah into ashes. Condemn them with an overthrow, making them

an example unto those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just lot vexed

with the filthy conversation of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them

and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their lawful

deeds. And the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation,

and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished, But

chiefly meant them that walk after the flesh and the lusts of uncleanness and despise

governments. Presumptuous are they self, will they are not afraid to speak evil

of dignities. I'll jump to tewod Peter three read some verses from there the

second epistle Beloved, I write unto you in both which I stir up your

pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words

which were spoken before by the Holy prophets, and of the commandments of us,

the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that there

shall come in the last day's scoffers walking after their own loss, and saying,

where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,

all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this

they willingly are ignorant of, that, by the word of God, the

heavens were of old, and the earth's standing out of the water and in

the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished.

But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word,

are kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and tradition

of ungodly men. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,

that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand

years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as

some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us. Were not willing

that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the

day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which

the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt

with a fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall

be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. What

manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godlyness, Yes,

looking for and hastening under the coming of the Day of God, where

in the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall

melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look

for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, Beloved,

seeing ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be

found in Him of Him, in peace, without spot and blameless. And

then I'll jump to Jude, and Jude says a lot of the same things

a second Peter. They're two different authors, but they have the same warnings.

They say it just a little bit different, but they refer to some

past judgments that are very similar. Jude three. I'll jump in at verse

three, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the

common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you

that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

For there certain men crept in unawares, who before of ordained to this

condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying

the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you

in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having

saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed

not, and the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left

their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the

judgment of the Great Day. Even as Sodom and gomorran cities about them in

like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are

set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise, also

these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despised dominions and speak evil of dignities.

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the

body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said

the Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know

not. But what they know naturally is brute beasts. In those things they

corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of

Cain, and ran greedily after the air of Balem for reward, and perished

in the gainsaying of Corah twenty verse twenty one. Keep yourselves in the love

of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And of some have compassion making a difference, and others save with fear

pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

So why talk about this, well, Peter said, and Jude said,

it's to remind us. It's to remind us, it's to stir us

up that although we live in a day of grace like maybe never before,

and that there's much emphasis on the goodness and love of God, that there

is also this other reality that God is, and was and will be.

It's to warn us to help cultivate what I would call a healthy fear and

respect of God and his view of sin. Not an unhealthy fear of God,

which we view him as a mean and a cruel person that enjoys the

punishment of mankind. Not at all. God is not that way, but

fear and respect, a fear and respect that causes us to think seriously that

there are consequences for my actions and choices in life. It is a reality

check and are and something to think about. What is my standing for God

today? What is it? It is a cult to holiness and righteousness.

And it says in Jude, some say with fear, the fear of God's

wrath and judgment is not a good basis for a Christian's relationship with God.

But I would say that there is a sobriety and a seriousness that can awaken

a sinner out of the slumber of sin to think about the severity of God.

And I think that is okay. That has its place. Jude would

say that that is not a basis for the Christian to live his life,

to always be doing everything so he doesn't go to Hell or have the punishment

of God upon his life. But that is something we must reckon with.

That is a reality that is in the background. And when that gets removed

from the Christian diety and life and the fear of God disappears, holiness disappears

with it generally. So I'm seventy eleven says God judgeth the righteous, and

God is angry with the wicked every day. So this morning what I'd like

to do, and I'll just see how time allows. But I want to

look back on at least three, maybe four very brief stories that Jude and

two Peter give there. I kind of read them both because they didn't have

them quite both of themselves, past examples of God's wrath and judgment upon man.

And we know these stories, but I want you to I want you

to try to not glaze over because you know them so well. And children,

you can understand these stories. This is something that is very simple stories

of in the past. And Rude and Peter both said, these things are

given so that you will remember, don't forget this is this is God,

this is a God that we serve today. They're true stories they're not they're

not parables, they're not just making a point. But they actually happened.

The people were as real as me and you sitting here today, and that's

hard to imagine sometimes to put ourselves in the shoes of these people and to

try to think how that actually was, and to think that that could happen

in any way to me. We have this subconscious thing in our mind that

protects us from the realities of that kind of thing ever happening to me.

It might happen to others, and it did happen and might but I think

we need to peel that back and to realize that it can happen to anyone,

and it will happen. The first story I want to look at here

is found in Out of Jude. Here I'm pulling these verse five, and

it's the Unbelieving Children of Israel. And you can find this story in numbers

fourteen. And I'm not going to turn back there, but if you would

want to look at that, that'd be fine. And I'm going to just

go very briefly through these stories. Hopefully they can make sense. But God

had led we know the story of coming out of the chill, out of

Egypt, and they had come into the wilderness, and God had created provided

all these miracles, the ten plagues. They crossed the Red Sea, the

Egyptians got covered by the river, and the children of Israel moved on,

just one miraculous thing after the next. He fed them in the wilderness all

the way. He brought them to the edge of Canaan, to the Promised

Land, and that is where that story is. They sent in ten twelve

spies to spy out the land of Canaan, and the report came back.

Two of them said it's They all said, it's amazing land. It's plenty,

yes, it's there's it's just abundant. But there's big giants, there's

fortified cities. Two said we can do it. They thought about all that

God had brought them through, and they said, God will help us conquer

this land. Ten said we can't do it. Yes, it's a wonderful

land, but there's giants. There's no way we can conquer these guys.

So that created a problem. There was a stir, there was unrest.

The people started talking in the congregation trying to decide what to do. Some

said this, Some said that they became agitated they started to complain. The

congregation cried and wept, and then they started to murmur, and they started

to murmur against Moses and Aaron and said we should have just stayed in Egypt

to die. They murmured against God. They said to God himself, God,

you brought us out here. Now, we got all our wives and

our children, and you brought us out here to just be pray in the

wilderness. So they came up with a plan. They said, we're going

to get ourselves a new captain. We're going to get ourselves a new leader,

one that will do what we want. And what we want is to

go back to Egypt. Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb tried to

reason with them, told them not to rebel against God. God is faithful.

God will help us through this battle. But the thing heated up,

and the congregation decided the only thing to do is to stone these guys.

They're standing in their way, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb.

So they were going to stone them. But God, but it says the

glory of the Lord appeared, and I wonder what that would have been like.

They were on the verge of just taking things into their own hand.

They had a plan, They're going to deal with the people. But it

says, the glory of the Lord appeared, and I don't know what that

looked like, but somehow he made himself known. And God said, and

it seems like he's talking to Moses and the leaders there more than directly to

the people. He says, how long will this people provoke me? How

long will it be before they believe me for the signs which I have showed

them? And he told Moses and them, he said, I'm going to

smite these people with the plague, disinherit them, start over with you faithful

men. And there was a lot of people there then, just mass destruction

like the flood. I'm just going to destroy it. And Moses intercedes down

before God. He says, what will the Egyptians think? What will the

other evil nations think? You have brought us all out into this wilderness,

and now you just kill us all. It's going to be a terrible testimony

to these nations. They'll they'll make the best of that. So Moses pleaded

for the long suffering of God for these rebellious people that had stones ready to

stone Moses and I'm always amazed at Moses that he's taking the brunt of the

heat, and yet he's the one interceding for these people. God would just

like to just start over, but Moses is begging God not to. So

God said in verse twenty, he said, in the response to moses plea,

he says, and the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your

word, and as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled

with the glory of The Lord held back his wrath his judgment on these people

for Moses's sake, but he didn't completely hold it back in a way.

I don't know which would have been better for them. But he said,

I'm going to you all are going to wander around in the wilderness for forty

years, and every one of you congregations that are twenty years old and older

are going to die. None of you are going to go into this promised

land. And then the ten spies that gave the bad report were killed with

the plague. They were dealt with right away. And I'll just say this

while I'm thinking about it. Peter Jude Revelation, different ones of them.

There's a very serious word for false teachers, false influencers, and you'll see

that pattern. And God is harder on people that lead other people into the

wrong path. And it's a sobering thing for anyone in any kind of spiritual

influence. So the ten Spies died of the plague Numbers thirty two thirteen says,

and the Lord's angle was kindled against Israel, and he made them to

wander in the wilderness forty years until all the generation that had done evil in

the side of the Lord was consumed. And just a little note here,

just to try to give you a perspective. We don't know exactly how many

people died, but if you look back in Exodus twelve thirty seven, it

says there was there was six hundred thousand foot men. You think about that.

I was looking at this in numbers. It isn't my own just my

own thinking. But if you take six hundred men twenty years and older,

and if half of them had wives, and that doesn't count the levites men

and wives, you could easily have had a million people, probably on the

conservative side of a number, maybe more that needed to die in those forty

years. And if you take forty years and you divide it by a million

people, you come up with around sixty eight sixty nine people on the average

dying every day for forty years. That is like this half of the congregation

dying today and this half of the congregation dying tomorrow. And that doesn't stop

for forty years. And I know there was days when more of them died,

and maybe there was some days where none of them died, but there

was carcasses scattered all over that wilderness, a daily reminder of God's severity and

judgment. And you know when God got to year five, he didn't say,

well, I'll just put you all on probation now I feel really bad

about this, or year ten or year twenty. He's stuck with it till

every person twenty years in older was dead. It was just the way it

was. It's harsh from our way of thinking. Second story, judgment of

Sodom and Gomorrah. It's in verse seven of Jude and that one is in

Genesis nineteen Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible refers to that different places, and

we all know that story very well as well. But I want you to

try to think again about the reality of that time, that day, that

what happened there. I don't know Sodom and Gomorrah was worse than the cities

of today or not. Maybe in some ways and maybe not, I'm not

sure. But it was very evil. There was lots of immorality, as

Jude would allude to here, but I have to believe that it was also

probably very normal, a lot of normal life going on that wasn't just all

brawls and fighting and murdering and fornication everywhere. I think there was there,

and I I'll the reason I say this, I'll read these verses later Jesus

referred to it. But I think there was a lot of normal life,

young guys starting businesses, young guys getting married, families being formed, children

around, maybe schools, birthday parties, potlucks, just a normal life society

in the city. Yes, they were godless, but they were probably nice.

They were probably friendly. They're probably civil, fun and funny. You

had to have a good time. But somewhere over the years the fear of

God and God consciousness had just left. Wasn't there no fear of God?

And God said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorah is great, and

because their sin is very grievous, I will go down, and he sent

two angels down to investigate what was going on. And I don't know the

exact order of all this, but he said he determined he was going to

completely destroy it. And one other thing I'll just inject here that you'll notice

in different of these stories is that often godly men, good men involved,

seemed to be more merciful than God himself. And I know that's backwards.

Sometimes it's the other way around. We men are more harsh, but often

good men, I'll maybe say it this way. Maybe sometimes wicked men are

more hearsh and want more hurt done than God. But often godly men tend

to be almost more long suffering and compassionate and second chance and work with the

situation more than God himself. And I don't think that's all bad, but

I think it's probably a lack of clarity. Maybe sometimes like God has with

his X ray vision of the situation and sin and all the facts that are

involved, we as humans don't. We time needs to be revealed. But

you see that here Moses. We see that with Moses pleading with the children

of Israel interceding for God, and we see Abraham pleading with God. That

will you Sparasodom if we can find fifty people, twenty people, ten people.

And God worked with him and said, all right, if you can

find him, sure, I'll spare them. And we know how it all

ended up. There wasn't enough. So the story where and Lot, if

we get into the story, oh see lies a Lot was the same way

he was. He was trying to bargain with the ungodly man outside his house,

even trying to give them his daughters. It appears, it just seems

crazy. And then he was trying to talk with his son in laws to

get them out of the city. He had a heart of love for these

people. But God sees sin clearly, and we don't as clearly. We

try to, but we don't. And God, I think, sees that

sometimes if we don't flee, destroy remove sin out of our life, it

will destroy us. And so there's a decision that needs to be made at

some point. And I think that is what was happening with Lot and Sodom

and Gomorah. And Lot was trying to reason with them and trying to get

them to come. And it says about his son in laws, but but

he seemed as one that mocked, mocked, under his unto his son in

laws, the lot you just what have you been thinking and dreaming? Finally,

a Lot was just so intent on helping these people get out of the

city that the angels physically grab law, grabbed his wife and his two daughters,

and it appears like they just led him out of that city. And

the Bible says that the Lord rained down brimstone and fire upon that city.

And I don't think we can understand the power, the magnitude, the sound,

and the smell of the judgment of God upon that city. The next

morning, I'd say, it's just, you know, there's a lot of

fighting going on in the world, super world, superpowers, they pale in

comparison to the judgment of God. Nothing like anywhere close to the atomic bombs

of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan. Those were probably some of the worst human

events on a city. But there was a lot left and a lot standing

when that was done. It says when Abraham got up the next morning and

he looked out over that plane, all he seen and I can just imagine

it was a cool morning and there was just a smoke rising up out of

that city. It's like these hay sheds that burn and there's just a smoke

for days drifting up. All that was left was ashes and smoke. The

judgment of God. And I'll just say here, I know Jude specifically mentions

here, and there's a lot of other sins inside them and go on,

but it talks about their fornication, and I would just say here that it's

still a problem today, maybe worse than ever, with the communication, the

abilities that we have, the immoral state of the world, and with that

comes a tendency for a dulling effect. With the exposure of that, we

can become numb to that. Yeah, we fail, we feel bad,

we get involved in that. We can be involved in things yesterday and sit

on the pews and sleep the next day. That's a dangerous place to be.

We see how God dealt with that. This third story sto of Cora,

Dathan and a Byrum. I'm not about have to skip some of this

because I don't have a lot of time here, but there again, to

come back to number sixteen, I'll just mention a little bit about this,

this amazing story. They were in the wilderness wandering around, waiting to die,

and these three men, Cora Dathan and Abiram, three ambitious men that

led a rebellion. And it's mentioned here in Jude and verse eleven Cora,

and that's what it's referring to this story. It says they with two hundred

and fifty other men, famous and renowned men, gifted men. They weren't

just troublemakers, but good influential men over others. And they gathered themselves against

Moses and against Aaron. And it said that you take too much upon you.

And so then they were proposing that they would become the leaders. And

here again we see Moses. Bless his heart. He said, he fell

on his face before God. God, and God, I guess, gave

him direction. And he told Klora to gather as men. He said,

get your censors, fill them with incense, and I'll meet you tomorrow.

You come back up here and we'll meet and we'll let God I got sort

this out. Well. Dathan and Abium wouldn't come up. They stayed in

their tent. Moses sent for them men. He said, come up,

I want to talk to you all, and they wouldn't come. So Moses

went down to their tent the next day, it appears, and he told

all the people, He said, get away from these men. God is

going to work here. If these men die of natural death, then we'll

know that. I forget what the wording, but if they don't, you'll

know that it's the judgment of God. So God called them out. When

Dathan and Abiram and their families stepped out of their tent and came over by,

I guess Klora was there, and Moses told the people to get away.

The earth just cracked open, and those men fill down all their families

screaming and yelling, and the earth shut. There was silence. People started

to run scared, of course, and fire came down on those other two

hundred and fifty men with the censers burned them. And God told Eliezer,

go get those two hundred and fifty brazen sensors, dig them out of the

ashes, beat them into plates, and cover the altar with them for a

reminder to the people. And that's what they did. The story doesn't even

end there. It's amazing. The next morning people got up after all of

that that happened, the ground opening up, the fire coming down, and

they and tomorrow the congregation Verse forty one of sixteen congregation. The children of

Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, you killed these people of the

Lord. They were still sticking up for those men that had been judged by

God. And so then God was angry, and God spoke to Moses,

and he said, get up from among this congregation, that I may consume

them in a moment. He was just going to do another Sodom and Gomorrah.

But Moses and God sent the plague, and the plague started moving among

the people, and people just started dying, and Moses told Aaron, get

your censor, I don't know what it was fire, get in among the

people and intercede for them. And it says that Aaron went quickly into those

people, and whatever he did, his intercession, his type of prayer,

you might say. Finally the plague stopped, and there was fourteen thousand,

seven hundred I think that had died before the plague got stopped, just the

tip of God's judgment that was just getting released. And we can get numb

by these numbers. They don't mean much. Fourteen seven hundred, but a

lot of people in a very short order. The last story I want to

refer to as the flood Genesis six. This is the story of the flood,

and very common story in almost every child's book. But again, this

one horse came first. I've got this backwards here, but that's all right.

The flood was the first one, and God's seen that that was wicking

us all over the earth. As you know, Moses, Noah built an

arc, spent around one hundred years building this, looking like a foolish man

out there pounding around and getting lumber and dragon boards across the dried desert plain

and building this big boat on dry land. And life went on. People

went on making their living and getting ahead in life, and probably building their

houses and becoming whatever they wanted to become. But I have to think about

Noah jumping ahead after he got the arc built, put up with all being

on the butt end of all the jokes, and gets inside God leads the

animals in his family, goes in and the door is shut, and out

of all those hundred years, I have to wonder if some of the most

trying hours of Noah's faith weren't in those last days. In those last hours,

imagine being in an art the door is shut. I don't know if

they could even have got out at that point. The animals are making their

noise. They need fed every morning and every evening. And day one goes

by and they're just in there, feeding the animals and eating and waiting.

And day two goes by and they're still just in the arc. It's dry,

and maybe they could look out and people were talking and yelling through the

walls. I don't know. If day three goes by, day four goes

by, day five goes by, day six goes by, you'd have to

wonder in a few days, if this is something went wrong, what am

I doing in this boat? But on day seven it says that the rain

started to come, the pitter patter of rain, and I imagine it increased

to just a roar. And it says the fountains of the deep broke up,

and I can't imagine what that looked like. But for forty days and

forty nights, it just poured rain and water. The rivers filled up,

mud slides, people's houses. All that they worked for those hundred years while

they laughed at Moses was gone in very short order. They ran for high

ground, but they couldn't. They ran out of high ground. Of course,

it's an awful scene, awful thing to think about. And and I

keep saying Moses, Noah was the man that God saved. He was the

righteous man, the only one, the one that had looked foolish for all

these years. Genesis six says, my spirit as he was talking about this

event, God said, my spirit will not always strive with man. And

God saw the wickedness of man, that it was great on the earth,

and that every imagination and thought of his heart was only evil continually, and

it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it

grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy whom

I have created from the face of the earth. But Noah found grace in

the eyes of God. Today we live in a day of grace. As

I said, it's it's hard to even comprehend that there's a real judgment.

Life is so good, it is so comfortable, it is pleasant, there's

good food. If we get uncomfortable, we try to remedy that as quick

as possible. And I don't think that's wrong. That's a human tendency to

to eat when we're hungry, and sleep when we're tired, and be comfortable.

But as the days of Noah. God is God is long suffering.

It isn't that there isn't wrath there. It isn't that there isn't judgment to

come. But it is because he is not willing that any should perish.

He has given time. It is his love and his mercy that is holding

back the wrath of God like a big damn. But someday he says,

that's going to all break loose and there's going to be judgment. And Jesus

said, maybe we think those stories are all Old Testament, that now we're

in the New Testament and it's all love and grace. Well, Jesus said,

and Jesus went about doing good, healing and ministering. But some of

the words that Jesus said, it is true. In the day of Jesus,

he was not there to judge. And John twelve forty seven it says,

and if any man hear my words and believe not I judge him not,

for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

That was Jesus purpose when he came. But he also says, going

on into Luke seventeen, this is Jesus' words again for us. It was

in the days of Noah. So shall it be also in the days of

the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives,

they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the

ark and the flood claim came and destroyed them all. Likewise, also it

was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they

bought, they sould, they planted, they builded. But the same day

that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and

destroyed them all. Thus, even thus shall it be in the day when

the Son of Man is revealed. That's the words of Jesus saying, remember

we're living in peace, But remember Noah, remember Sodom. There's going to

be another day coming. Matthew twenty five. Jesus talks about the separation of

the goats and the sheep. There's a lot of other verses I could read

about the wrath of God, who the wrath is reserved for he that believeth

on the Sun hath everlasting life. He that believeth not on the Sun shall

not see life, But the wrath of God abideth on him. Romans one

eighteen. For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all and godly

and unrighteousness of man who hold the truth in unrritpelciousness. And in Ephesians it

talks about a list of sins that the wrath of God is upon. I

want to read a little bit out of Revelation Revelation nineteen. I'll start at

verse eighteen, and this is about Jesus himself. And just remember this.

You know, our world likes to talk about Jesus, the baby Jesus that

went about doing good, and he is and I'm thankful for that, and

that's a huge part of the whole salvation plan. But there's a picture of

Jesus. The next time that any of us will see him, it'll look

like this Revelation nineteen eleven. And I saw heaven open and behold a white

horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and

in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame

of fire, and his head. On his head were many crowns. And

he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he

was clothed with a vestor dipped in blood. And his name is called the

word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white

horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his

mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations,

and he should rule them with a rot of iron. And he treadeth the

wine press of the fierceness and wrath of God. And he hath on his

vesture and on his thigh a name written King of kings and Lord of lords.

And we could go on into Revelation twenty, where talks about and I

saw the dead small and great, standing before God, that great white throne,

and the books were open, the Book of Life. The dead were

judged out of those things, and so on. And I won't read all

them verses Verse twenty, Revelation twenty one seven. I'll read a couple more.

There. He that overcometh show inherit all things. And I will be

his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful and unbelieving

and abominable, and murders and hormooners, and sources and adulaters and liars shall

have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is

the second Death, and one more verse out of Revelation twenty seven. And

there shall be in no wise enter in it anything that defileth, neither whomsoever

worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they of which are written in the

Lamb's Book of Life. God will be a righteous judge. I'm convinced.

And if he isn't, there's nothing we can do about it, because he

is the judge. But I believe he'll be fair. I believe he'll be

right. He knows all things. We don't have to worry about going being

damned unknowingly. I think God will be faithful to show us sins in our

lives, don't. I don't think we should just have this vague fear with

nothing. I don't want to put that upon you, But I think we

need to consider am I living in sin? And if I am, it's

a serious thing, and we're just a step away from death. We never

know. We feel so surefooted. It feels like we're invincible. Young guys,

middle age, we got this. The Psalms talks about evil man walking

on slippery places, and if you can think about that on a sheet of

ice, on the edge of a cliff or wet rocks and a river doesn't

really matter. How healthy are you, know, you are very vulnerable.

You can slip in a moment and you're out of control. And that is

how God describes the wicked, that we are not so surefooted, we are

not so in control. We can go down in an instant, And so

all that we can do is try to be ready and to try to live

in a way that so when we go down, we'll be at peace with

Him, the dead, small and great, wise, unwise, rich,

poor, young, old. We'll all stand before God. And I don't

know what brings you security this morning outside of true faith mustter God. Maybe

it's this suit coat. Maybe it's your dress. Maybe it's your our conservative

way. Maybe it's being part of a church. Maybe it's a lot of

things. All of that's just gonna be stripped away. There'll be nothing there,

just the bare facts of who we are. And I think sometimes we,

subconsciously, I'm with you, lean on a lot of these props that

really will do no good for us as we stand before God. Yes they

may be good things, but they are not our One thing. I would

just say, on one hand, it feels so harsh and so like,

surely God, you could be more reasonable, Surely you'd let us sin.

I mean, you know that I'm a sinner, but his love will outweigh

the judgment. Well, think about this, What if you're the one inside

those gates, do you want all this filth coming in? We don't want

that. If it's a free for all, it's just going to be a

hell on earth there anyways. That's why God has to cut out sin so

that it can be a holy place, and it can be a place of

bliss and comfort and joy and peace. So you can't have the love,

the godly holy love, without the godly holy judgment to separate. Otherwise it's

a mix of a sodoment of Demorah. God's love is pure, his love

is holy, his wrath is holy. He wants a pure bride. He

doesn't want us out flirting around with the devil. There'll be many people who's

saying the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Oh a plan to

a will. I'll be right with God, not right now, but I

will be. The day of death comes as lightning. Jesus talks about two

will be working, one will be taken, One will be left. Families

will be divided, a terrible thought. That is probably something that would frighten

us as much as anything, as ourselves going there, as our loved ones

being divided, and some being there in some not. And I think that

is why God puts position, like I said, of influence and leadership and

father and mothers and people of any kind of influence rebels in account, because

because we can influence, we will not only look after our own selves,

but we can influence people. We have pleasure one of those verses of their

pleasure not only in doing unrighteousness, but pleasure and having other people do on

righteousness. So on conclusion, the wrath of God is given to warn us,

to stir us up, to remind us that God is holy and not

tolerant of sin, to remind us of the reality that we will stand before

God with no props. He is the judge of the earth. He will

be just. Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, Saith

the Lord, and touch not the unclaim thing. And I will receive you,

and I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my

sons and daughters. Saith the Lord Almighty, that is God's desire for each

one of us, as have a closing song Church Hymnal number forty five