Could a sermon on the wrath of God start anywhere but in the year 1741 in the small town of Enfield, Massachusetts (later Connecticut)? Asmall-framed preacher stood and opened his Scriptures to Deuteronomy 32:35 and read, “Their foot shall slide in due time.” That day, July 8, will forever be remembered in history as the day God attended a sermon with remarkable impressions upon many of the hearers. It has gone down in history as Jonathan Edwards’most famous sermon.
God saw fit to use “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to aid the Great Awakening. In that sermon, Edwards used the image of a spider dangling by a web over a hot fire to describe the human predicament. His point was that at any moment our hold on life could break and we’d be plunged into fires of eternal damnation. God would release the full fury of His anger, justice and punishment upon the sinner who is apart from Christ.
The wrath of God is not a common subject for sermons in evangelical churches. Sure, some Baptist churches are famous for preaching “fire and brimstone.” Many well-intentioned preachers have come and gone with “hell sermons,” hoping to scare people into the kingdom or wishing to duplicate the response of Edwards. But, the pulpits of the majority of churches have not heard a sermon on this attribute of God.
A quick scan of books on the attributes of God clearly shows that it is not commonly listed among those pages. Some fleeting reference to God’s justice or eternal domination is always included some-where, but a chapter dedicated to God’s wrath is often missing. A.W. Pink is an exception to this generalization.
One common objection to a sermon on the wrath of God stems from the modern notion that God is a God of love; and, since the coming of Jesus Christ, He no longer portrays Himself as vengeful, angry at sin, and wrath filled. When one views the holiness of God rightly, i.e. an eternal state of God in perfection, we quickly see that sin strikes at the holiness of God, spits at it, and desires to stain it with the filth of death and rancid corruption.
God’s holiness, justice and righteousness demands that the sin be dealt with. Here enters His wrath! Since there is still sin in this world, and dare I say in our very lives, the wrath of God is still very much active in this New Testament era.
The thought of anger in God is repulsive to many. We may be able to agree that sin is wrong, and even deserving of punishment, hell being the full expression. But, what we seem unable to agree upon is that sin is so wrong that God responds to it with vile hate, fury and rage.
Now the word “wrath” certainly does not make one feel as if they are curled up in front of a cozy winter fire reading a good book and sipping Starbucks coffee. Quite the opposite. The word “wrath” conjures up ideas of pain and suffering. The Oxford English Dictionary defines wrath with expressions like “vehement or violent anger,” “deep indignation,” and “fury by way of reckoning punishment.” The word has attachments such as: rage, storm, death, penalty, and ferocious ire.
Scripture is no different in the words that it uses to describe the terror of God’s judgment, wrath. Words like “bloody anger” and “righteous indignation,” even terms like “full punishment,” tell us something of what the wrath of God is like.
Many good sermons have focused upon this very notion from Romans chapter one. Demonstrating from verse 18 how the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. That is the source of wrath, the reason why wrath is part of who God is. It is the sin of mankind that brings out the demonstration of God’s justice.
When the holiness of God is attacked, when the law of God is violated, when men trust in themselves, they insult the perfect nature of God. God cannot allow that. God’s justice and righteousness cries out with a deafening yell that the imperfection must be judged. Therefore, He pours out His wrath upon that imperfection and punishes it, ultimately in the fiery prison of the eternal hell.
But His wrath is not just waiting for hell to be unleashed. Indeed, God is still bringing people to justice by way of misery in this life, degradation of human behavior and ultimately human death. His wrath is revealed in these ways every day, yes every day His wrath is on display. We will not spend our time in the book of Romans; therefore, I must now draw your attention to our text today.
John 3:36 is a verse that certainly speaks of the wrath of God: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” It is amazing that this verse comes on the heels of the famous John 3:16. The universal text of God’s love is quickly followed by a verse on wrath, punishment, judgment.
The first thing that we notice about God’s wrath from this text is how to avoid it. We avoid the wrath of God by believing, trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. When God unleashed His anger toward sin upon His only, beloved, eternal Son, that made it possible for Him to demonstrate love toward us, as Romans 5:8-11 mentions: “But God demonstratesHis own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
We don’t merely avoid God’s wrath when we trust in the work of the Son on our behalf, it is much better than that. God does not simply decide we are free from wrath; He gives us life, life eternal, and we are reconciled. We were once objects of wrath, children of disobedience, but now we are objects of God’s electing love and the recipients of grace—eternal, enduring, matchless grace.
God made this all possible because of the work of Jesus Christ. We did not somehow remove the wrath of God by ourselves, or in some way took the wrath like a man. No, God removed the wrath from us and placed that wrath upon His Son. As Isaiah 53 says, “He was smitten by God and afflicted.”
Henry Smith, the noted Puritan, once said, “God hides our unrighteousness with Christ’s righteousness, He covers our disobedience with His obedience, He shadows our death with His death, so that the wrath of God cannot find us.”
Hebrews 9:11-15 says: “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”
Jesus has given us eternal life. Now what is this eternal life? Everyone, whether they are saved or unsaved, will live forever. We are born immortal. Our soul never dies; the body does, but that part of us that is made in the image of God continues. In fact, God has promised that the righteous and the wicked will both be raised again, united to new bodies that will never again die. When God uses this term of eternal life, He is telling us something different than that we will exist forever. It is a particular type of existence He has in mind:
It is a glorious existence.
It is a holy existence.
It is a satisfying existence.
It is a beautiful existence.
It is an existence in the presence of God. The next thing we notice from John 3:36 is the terrifying position of someone who does not trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. That person has no part in eternal life. There is no heaven for that person.
The road to heaven is paved only with the blood of Christ. If you do not approach God covered by the work of Jesus Christ there is no blessing of heaven awaiting you. You can call Christianity exclusive and narrow in how one is saved, but the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is so deep, wide, broad and eternal that it can save the worst of sinners. But, someone is only saved by the name of Jesus Christ.
I remember a professor one time telling me that all religions are really the same. They are just describing different parts of the same thing. He actually described religion as an elephant. One religion describes the trunk, another the tail, another the ear, and so on. But, really, they are all talking about the same thing. My heart sank. This is what he was teaching at a Roman Catholic University. I replied that an elephant does not have the strength to carry even the smallest of children into the realm of heaven. It takes the meek and mild Jesus Christ to carry anyone.
Instead of enjoying eternity, the person without Christ has the wrath of God abiding on him. I cannot begin to reason or consider what this must mean. Of course we understand the words that the fury of the Almighty will be placed upon a person and abide, dwell and remain on them, but can we really grasp that? It is perhaps the most bone chilling of all thoughts.
As enjoyable and pleasant as heaven will be, the exact opposite experience will be had in hell. It is a place not glorious, but vile; it is not holy, but sinful; it is not satisfying, but a dry and burning place; it is not beautiful, but most ugly. And, it is a place where God forever and ever will keep His burning anger alive and placed upon the person of those who do not call upon Christ as their Savior.
There are two uses I would like to make your aware of, two ways in which you can view this text rightly in your own heart. First, if you know nothing of trusting upon Christ, then you will take the wrath of God upon yourself. God has demonstrated time and time again that He will judge sin. Look at Adam and Eve. God unleashed His wrath upon all of mankind. Look at those who lived in the days of Noah. What about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? Then you have the likes of Achan and the sons of Eli. The list goes even into the New Testament with the pharisees, Judas and Ananias and Sapphira. Even Moses and David felt the sting of God’s wrath upon their sin. Imagine eternal wrath, unending pain and punishment. Do you think that you can somehow avoid or endure the
wrath of God on your own?
You can avoid it and there is yet time. This moment is given to you. “Today is the day of salvation.”
“If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord,” and “repent and be baptized and you shall be saved, you and your household.” That is the promise of God. There is no time to wait and decide later, no promise of a future moment to consider your eternity. The future that awaits the person who does not hide in Christ is terrible and dreadful. You may think you are strong and can endure anything He sends your way, you may think that His grace and love will automatically just save you; but, that is foolish thinking. Your heart will weep and your body will fall apart at the sound of the footsteps of the Judge of judges coming. When you hear the thunder of His judgment mallet landing, and it pierces your ear like the shrill of a thousand nightmares, your heart will faint, knowing that for eternity you will not rest. No sleep will come to you, no time out will be given, no break, no comfort, no respite from the wrath of God.
You will not stand on that day of the Lamb’s wrath. Revelation 6:15-17 says, “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 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: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
The pain and agony of the Holy God Jehovah unleashing the full fury and indignation of His anger toward your sin is too much to bear, my friend. Wait no longer, and flee to Christ. Lay hold of His promises to save you from the wrath to come. It is coming, the day and hour you do not know, but it is closer to you than it was a half hour ago. He is a good Father to His children, He is merciful and forgiving, but you must come through Jesus Christ, believing He can save you from your sins.
Secondly, You may be well secure in your knowledge that Christ is your wrath bearer. You may have been convinced of that truth for years and years. From the outside, your life reflects that Jesus is your Prophet, Priest, and King.
Yet, for all the activities you pursue and all the “works” that you accomplish in the name of our Wrath Bearer, Jesus Christ, your heart is not moved by the thoughts of God’s wrath. You may pay passing homage to the thought of Jesus bearing your sins, and the awful anger of God poured out upon that innocent and quiet Lamb, and you are grateful; but, you don’t think of it often. Perhaps only Easter and the celebration of the Lord’s Table makes you
think this way.
I know you are very busy with life and thinking upon the wrath of God is not a priority. If you have time to think, you would rather consider the love of God, His tenderness and future promises of grace.
But, my brothers and sisters in Christ, do you not know that it is the wrath of God poured out upon that perfect man Jesus Christ that makes the love, tenderness and future promises of grace possible? Does that gratefulness for Christ taking your place move you? Does it inspire you to worship our Holy God? Are you moved to love others? Are you driven to forsake your secret sins? Your pride? Your backbiting? Your divisions? Your laziness? Are you driven to serve Christ and His church and no longer give excuses?
“For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together for Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9,10). How are you living for Christ now? This very moment, what shows that you are living for Him? Are you serving Him? Are you loving His people? Are you willing to give of your time for others in the church and server as elders and deacons? If we truly appreciated the wrath of God upon the shoulders of Christ on the cross, we would be willing to serve others, love others, minister to others.
Oh, if we would only look more often to the Risen Savior, still with His wounds visible, how we would live differently. Husbands would be more loving, wives more respectful, children more obedient, and all of us more forgiving. How much more peace we would have in trials! How much more love we would have, more comfort, more assurance, more joy, more longing to be with Him! Can you fathom what a church would look like if we were all gripped by the greatness of our salvation in Jesus Christ? The world, the flesh, the Devil, and the gates of Hell itself could not stop us from the victorious work of God’s kingdom! And this can be yours and mine. Just consider the words of Isaac Watts:
Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain
Could give the guilty conscience peace
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.
My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine,
While, like a penitent, I stand,
And there confess my sin.
My soul looks back to see
The burdens Thou didst bear
When hanging on the cursed tree,
And hopes her guilt was there.
Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse remove;
We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
And sing His bleeding love.
— Isaac Watts
