In today’s episode, we peer into the open door of a subject mostly unspoken in our churches, the Wrath of God. It’s not a comfortable subject for sure. In Scripture, wrath is God’s stop sign showing His strong and vigorous opposition to everything that smacks of evil. Knowing that there are over 580 references to the wrath of God in the Old Testament alone, why is it that this subject is primarily unknown in our grace-filled churches? Concerning wrath, one gentleman said that when we speak of God’s wrath, we point to a kind of anger that results from a settled and consistent disposition, and not to a loss of one’s temper. God’s wrath is like that, rather than like human anger on a grand scale. With us, wrath always has elements of passion, lack of self-control, and irrationality. The wrath of God does not. ¹ In other words, God’s wrath is not sudden explosive anger. It is clear that when we think of the word “wrath” as applicable to God, it must be divested of everything that is like human passion, especially the passion of revenge. [God’s wrath] is the opposition of the divine character against sin; and the determination of the divine mind to express that opposition in a proper way, by excluding the offender from the favors which He bestows on the righteous. We admire the character of a father who is opposed to disorder, vice, and disobedience in his family and expresses his opposition properly. We admire the character of a ruler who is opposed to all crime in the community, and who expresses those feelings in the law. Why shall we not be equally pleased with God, who is opposed to all crime in all parts of the universe, and who determines to express His opposition in the proper way for the sake of preserving order and promoting peace?[2, Albert Bones, Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002)] Why It’s Important to Realize that the Wrath of God Will Balance Everything, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

The Wrath of God is not to be feared if you are in Christ because we are delivered from the wrath to come. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need some understanding of what’s getting ready to happen on Planet Earth.

Join the Conversation

Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: How is the subject of the Wrath of God defined in your thinking? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of First Thessalonians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. #S10-025: How the Word of God Is Remarkably at Work in You [Podcast]
2. #S10-024: How a Spiritual Dad Can Demonstrate the Love Walk towards His Children [Podcast]
3. #S10-023:What’s Our Responsibility to Those Newly Come to Faith in God [Podcast]
4. #S10-022: Why the Second Coming of Jesus is the Expectation of All Believers [Podcast]
5. #S10-021: Why Modeling the Jesus Life Is Such a Powerful Witness [Podcast]
6. #S10-20: Why Turning from Idols Is A Super Exceptional Move of God [Podcast]
7. #S10-019: Why It’s Vital that Jesus Followers Pray for One Another [Podcast]
8. #S10-018:How to Start a Power-Packed Effective Church: Lessons from Thessaloniki [Podcast]
9. #S10-017: How the Breath of God Inspired the Writing of First Thessalonians [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 45 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

The Wrath of God: A Mostly Unknown Concept

1 Thessalonians 2:14–16 (ESV) — 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

• The wrath of God is not a popular subject in this day and hour.
• When was the last time you heard any teaching on this in our grace-filled churches?
• And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

The wrath of God is often ridiculed and mocked. Outlandish statements and pictures depict God as an old man with a gray beard flinging thunderbolts at so-called sinners. Be assured: the wrath of God is nothing to poke fun at; it will be the execution of justice, the straightening out of all the injustices ever committed by men. It will be payday, the day when every man will receive exactly what he deserves, nothing more and nothing less. A little Scottish boy wouldn’t eat his prunes, so his mother sent him off to bed saying, “God is angry at you.”Soon after the boy went to his room a violent storm broke out. Amidst flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, the mother looked into the boy’s room, worried that he would be terrified. When she opened the door she found him looking out the window muttering, “My, such a fuss to make over a few prunes.” The wrath of God does not concern little boys who have an aversion to prunes. God stores up His wrath for those who curse His name; who lie, steal, cheat, and kill; who reject and rebel against Him—all who insist on living ungodly and unrighteous lives.²

• Again, it’s not a popular subject.
• In church, we emphasize the love of God and, so we should.
• No doubt, the local church you attend promotes the Doctrine of Grace, and, rightfully so.
• We also talk about God’s forgiveness in our local assemblies.
• And, we do it in light of Jesus’ parable on the unforgiving servant in Matthew eighteen.
• I mean this man was forgiven for a ginormous debt.
• We take comfort in that level of forgiveness coming from our Heavenly Father.
• Then of course, how can we forget the ‘hesed’ mercy of God?
• Our ears should ring with these words in the Psalms.

Psalm 136:1 (KJV 1900): — 1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever.

• The Hebrew word for mercy here is ‘hesed’ or covenantal faithfulness and steadfast love.

Psalm 51:1 (ESV) — 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

• This is how we know God — this is how we know church: love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness.
• It’s wonderful isn’t it — that God thinks so highly of us because of Jesus?
• So yes, for us as Jesus followers we don’t think much in terms of the wrath of God.
• We don’t need to — We’re not on that end.

The Wrath of God: Why We’re Delivered

1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 (ESV) — 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

• The Greek word ‘wrath’ is the word we want to look at and, with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
• The word ‘wrath’ used here means strong indignation directed at wrongdoing, with a focus on retribution.³
• The word delivers — ‘delivers us from the wrath to come’ means to rescue from danger, to save, rescue, deliver, or preserve.
• You as a Jesus follower have been saved from strong indignation directed at wrongdoing.
• You’ve been rescued from that danger — you’ve been saved, rescued, and preserved from the wrath of God.
• God’s wrath is not coming against you because of the Blood of Jesus that He shed for you.
• You are His child.
• The Father loves you and, as a father or rather as the Ultimate Father, He protects His kids.

1 Thessalonians 5:9–10 (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.

• The word salvation used here is the word ‘soteria’ and it means deliverance or preservation.
• In secular Greek, the word ‘soteria’ or salvation means to deliver when there is a particularly perilous situation or mortal danger.⁴
• It was also used in the medical field and has a positive meaning there, referring to good health or being well.⁵
• Now when the Bible writers carry this word over into the scriptures, it has all the same meanings as in secular Greek: deliverance, protection, healing, health, happiness, and prosperity.
• Let’s pack this all together now by looking at the Hebrew verb for salvation which is yāša.
• Originally, it had the nuance of meaning to “be spacious, have plenty of room, and be comfortable.”⁶
• So God wants you to be saved, that is be delivered and preserved.
• Delivered from what though? — perilous situations and danger all the while being healthy, happy, and prosperous.
• And to have that deliverance by a wide margin, a margin that allows you to be spacious, have plenty of room and comfortability.
• What that means is that where your deliverance and preservation are concerned and all the other adjectives that we used – it’s not a rake by, scrap by kind of thing — there’s plenty of margin or room.

A Bible Example of Deliverance from Wrath with Plenty of Margin

Daniel 3:1–6 (ESV) — 1 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 4 And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

• Three of the Hebrews refused to bow.
• The king was furious.

Daniel 3:20–27 (ESV) — 20 And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21 Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace.

• Now, watch God’s deliverance, preservation, and safety with more than enough room.

23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. 24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” 26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 27 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.

• Get it now — they were thrown in the fire bound but they weren’t bound, they were free.
• How did they get free?
• The fourth man freed them.
• God either sent an angel or came personally Himself.
• They were bound but now, they were walking in the fire unhindered.
• The fire was scourging hot but, they didn’t break a sweat.
• What are you talking about?
• I’m talking about more than enough deliverance and preservation — deliverance with room to spare.
• The fire was furious and consuming but it never touched these god-fearing men who took a stand for right.
• It never even singed one hair on them — totally awesome is all you can say for this work of God.
• They couldn’t even tell that they had ever been in the fire — there was no smell of smoke on them.
• I’m talking about God’s ability to deliver from wrath — here the wrath of the king.

Nahum 1:2 (ESV) — 2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

Wrath: God Delivers His Kids

• So, wrath is coming but, not for you.
• You’re delivered from wrath — it’s reserved for God’s enemies.
• Wrath is coming on the unbeliever.
• That’s a Bible fact — the books will balance.
• Order will be restored to the universe.
• The junk you’re seeing will be washed away.
• It will be purified.
• We’ve been delivered from it.
• The books will balance — but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some seeming imbalance.
• I mean for a brief minute it wasn’t looking too good for these three Hebrews.
• I’m not saying that you won’t feel something — feel some tension in the pit of your stomach.
• I am not saying you won’t be put to the test.

Revelation 21:7 (KJV 1900) — 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

An Example of Deliverance

• I don’t know about you but that’s music to my ears.
• Sharon and I have been living in the house for five years now.
• There was a flood that came 1/2 mile or so from our house.
• My neighbors on all three sides of us were sandbagging.
• We didn’t sandbag— I knew the flood waters would not come to our door.
• God gave us that house — that’s the most asinine thing in the world — to think that God would give you a blessing and move you into a new home and then one year later wipe you out with a flood.
• So, while everyone sandbagged — we hired painters to paint the house.
• You know what? it didn’t flood — there was plenty of room to spare.
• Now, that didn’t mean I didn’t have to fight the feelings — the flood did come within 1/2 mile.
• But God delivered us from the wrath of the flood waters.

The Wrath of God: Reserved for His Enemies

• Just because you have been delivered from God’s Wrath doesn’t mean that you won’t experience persecution.
• Just remember, God keeps good books and He believes in them balancing.

2 Thessalonians 1:5–8 (ESV — 5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— 6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

• God considers it a righteous thing to heap wrath on those who trouble you.
• I’ve told this story a few times, about the church we pastored.
• A young man and I use that term generically because I really don’t know how old he was, broke into our church and stole sound equipment that took quite a while for us to purchase.
• Two weeks later, this same individual, was standing in an apartment complex and was killed in a drive-by shooting.
• I am not saying that every person who steals from a church is going to meet this same end.
• This person had to have been doing some other wrong things to people to bring this kind of wrath down upon themselves.
• The point though is still valid — bad things happen to bad people.

Galatians 6:7–8 (ESV) — 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

• I know of a story of a son who financially abused his mother, took all her money, and stuck her down in a basement so he could collect her money.
• It happens all over the country.
• The woman was also a widow.
• That should put up a red flag – God watches out for widows.

Psalm 68:5 (ESV) — 5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

• God is a fearless protector of widows and orphans — You better know it.

Deuteronomy 10:18 (ESV) — 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

• Widows are not just women — that’s male and female widows.
• Anyway, in this case, a little over two years went by with this abuse situation and the son who was taking advantage of his mother fell down a flight of stairs and broke his neck.
• Ten months later he was dead.
• Why did two years go by?
• Because the Lord is merciful.

Nahum 1:1–3 (ESV) — 1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. 2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

• Are you hearing this description of God?
• Man if you are sinning, you need to stand up and take notice here.
• God does not play.
• You mess with him, He will snatch your breath.
• He is jealous, avenging, and wrathful.
• The LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.
• But at the same time, He is not hot-headed or full of sudden rage.
• He is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.
• You may get by but, you won’t get away.

Nahum 1:4–11 (ESV) —4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. 5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. 6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. 7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 9 What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. 10 For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried. 11 From you came one who plotted evil against the LORD, a worthless counselor.

• If I was wrong — I would get right today because God is no play toy.
• We will close with this illustration.

I recall meeting a young and articulate French West African when I was studying in Germany more than twenty years ago. We were both working diligently to improve our German, but once a week or so we had had enough, so we went out for a meal together and retreated to French, a language we both knew well. In the course of those meals we got to know each other. I learned that his wife was in London training to be a medical doctor. He himself was an engineer who needed fluency in German in order to pursue doctoral studies in engineering in Germany. Pretty soon I discovered that once or twice a week he disappeared into the red light district of town. Obviously he went to pay his money and have his woman. Eventually I got to know him well enough that I asked him what he would do if he discovered that his wife were doing something similar in London. “Oh,” he said, “I’d kill her.” “That’s a bit of a double standard, isn’t it?” I replied. “You don’t understand. Where I come from in Africa, the husband has the right to sleep with many women, but if a wife does it, she must be killed.” “But you told me that you were raised in a mission school. You know that the God of the Bible does not have double standards like that.” He gave me a bright smile and replied, Ah, God is good; he’s bound to forgive us; that’s his job.”

• God is good and He does forgive but there is another side to this story as I am sure you saw in this podcast.

Now Father God, in the precious Name of Jesus, help us. We repent of sin and wrong doing. We thank you for cleansing us from all unrighteousness. We don’t want, on any level, to get mixed up with this wrath business. We thank you for Jesus who has delivered us from all of this — He has set us free the wrath to come. Thank you for your great mercy in Jesus Name, Amen.

• Why It’s Important to Realize that the Wrath of God Will Balance Everything.
• You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

How God Miraculously Brought Me through A Brain Aneurysm

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