Sermon Tone Analysis

*Title: God is Love … but that’s not all: Living in Light of His Wrath and Love*

Preached by Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church, 1~/28~/2007

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

In the beginning of John MacArthur’s book (Our Awesome God, p. 7), he gives the illustration of … / an old fable about six men blind from birth who lived in India.

One day they decided to visit a nearby palace.

When they arrived, there was an elephant standing in the courtyard.

The first blind man touched the side of the elephant and said, “An elephant is like a wall.”

The second blind man touched the trunk and said, “An elephant is like a snake.”

The third blind man touched the tusk and said, “An elephant is like a spear.”

The fourth blind man touched the leg and said, “An elephant is like a tree.”

The fifth blind man touched the ear and said, “An elephant is like a fan.”

The sixth blind man touched the tail and said, “An elephant is like a rope.”

Because each blind man touched only one part of the elephant, none of them could agree on what an elephant is really like./

/Bringing that analogy into the spiritual realm, many people have misconceptions about what God is really like /[and if we only touch or know a part of God, like just his love but not all his attributes, we will have a wrong picture of who He really is]/.

Believing the wrong thing about God is a serious matter because it is idolatry … idolatry is more than bowing down to a small figure or worshiping in a pagan temple.

According to the Bible, it is thinking anything about God that isn’t true or attempting to transform Him into something He isn’t.

/

!!! God Himself pointed out the fallacy of idolatry, saying of man, “You thought that I was just like you” (Ps.

50:21).

We must be careful not to think of God in our terms or entertain thoughts that are unworthy of Him.

It is perilously easy to do both.

!!!  

Today I want to draw our attention to perhaps the most famous attribute of all, God’s love, but I want to come at it from a little different angle and perspective than you might expect.

Virtually every nonbeliever knows something about God’s love, but just because it is so well known, doesn’t mean it is correctly understood.

In fact, I could argue that this attribute of God is one of the most misunderstood and misused of all.

Ex: I John 4:8 “God is love” -> I would venture to say it’s hard if not impossible to find any person in America who has never heard that God is love.

“There are many ways to /misunderstand/ John’s meaning.

In fact, 1 John 4:8 seems a particular favorite of cultists.

All kinds of false sects from Christian Science to the Children of God have misapplied this verse to support wildly heretical notions—the former using it to portray “God as divine Principle, Love, rather than personality”; and the latter using it to justify sexual promiscuity.2”

[MacArthur, /God Who Loves, /27]

A more common misuse of this verse is that people say because God is love, I don’t believe in the existence of hell.

The fatal error is taking one part of one verse “God is love” and ignoring the rest of the Bible.

The serious error is concluding love is God’s only attribute or the only thing He’s capable of, and that He can’t do anything different than how we define love.

But the same Bible that tells us God is love, also tells us God is holy and hates sin.

His love has a limit, and those who reject His love and salvation in Christ will have their sins judged for all eternity by the Righteous Judge, no matter what we think.

We need to talk about wrath, too.

Hell is not a comfortable subject, it’s not recommended by church growth experts to teach what I’m going to teach today.

But our cues do not come from what’s popular or politically correct – we must be biblically true.

Today I am going to talk about what it means that God is love, but that’s not where I want to start.

The next verse we’re going to look at is not John 3:16 it’s Psalm 7. 

We need to spend some time on the wrath and holiness of God to get a right perspective on God’s love.

Like a diamond that may not be as impressive by itself, we need to see the black velvet backdrop and put it in the light of God’s Word in order to see the multifaceted brilliance and beauty of God’s love.

"/God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day.

//If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.

//He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts/."

(Psalm 7:11-13, NASB95)

 

Steve Lawson writes: “Only after we see the depths of His righteous wrath can we appreciate the heights of His unmerited love.

If, however, we were to rearrange the sequence of thought and speak first of God’s love, with no understanding of His holiness, we would minimize His love and not treasure it as we should … Whenever we elevate God’s love to a preeminent place in our thinking without first considering His holiness, sovereignty, and wrath, we distort the true picture of God.

We reduce His love to syrupy, sentimental mush and turn Him into a user-friendly god who pats us on the head instead of delivering us from condemnation.”

(/Made in our Image, /125).

*OTHER KEY TEXTS ON GOD’S WRATH:*

"‘/Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, In due time their foot will slip; For the day of their calamity is near, And the impending things are hastening upon them./’”

…

 

"‘/See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life.

I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.//

//‘Indeed, I lift up My hand to heaven, And say, as I live forever, //If I sharpen My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold on justice, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me. //‘I will make My arrows drunk with blood, And My sword will devour flesh, With the blood of the slain and the captives, From the long-haired leaders of the enemy.’

//“Rejoice, O nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will render vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people.”"/

(Deuteronomy 32:35; 39-43, NASB95)

 

" /And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.

//His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.

//He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

//And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.

//From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty./"

(Revelation 19:11-15, NASB95)

 

This message is not isolated, it is found in beginning, middle, and end of Bible, and every genre (epistles, prophets, etc.)

 

God’s wrath is prominent in NT as well, not just OT (no wrath vs. love dichotomy)

 

" /For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, //but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

//Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

//How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

//For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.”

And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

//It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God."/ (Hebrews 10:26-31, NASB95)

 

 

| Dr. Ray Pritchard has written some helpful remarks on this subject (taken from calvarymemorial.com).

"The fact is that the subject of divine wrath has become taboo in modern society, and Christians by and large have accepted the taboo and conditioned themselves never to raise the matter" (quoting Packer, /Knowing God/, p. 149).

True though these words may be, two facts stare us in the face: \\ \\ The Bible says more about wrath than about love.

\\ Jesus spoke more about hell than about heaven.

\\ We may speculate as to the reasons behind those two facts, but no amount of reasoning can change the truth.

The Bible is filled with warnings about God’s wrath and about eternal judgment.

I would not be a faithful pastor if I did not deal with this topic.

God has made no secret of his wrath, and neither should we.

|

| *The Meaning of God’s Wrath * |

| Let’s begin with a simple definition of wrath as one of God’s attributes.

It’s important to get a proper definition because when we use the word wrath we tend to think of uncontrolled anger.

While that may be human wrath, it is far from the truth about God’s wrath.

Here’s a working definition: God’s wrath is his settled hostility toward sin in all its various manifestations.

To say it is "settled" hostility means that God’s holiness cannot and will not coexist with sin in any form whatsoever. God’s wrath is his holy hatred of all that is unholy.

It is his righteous indignation at everything that is unrighteous.

\\ \\ Please note these distinctions.

God’s wrath is not … \\ Uncontrollable rage.

\\ Vindictive bitterness.

\\ God losing his temper.

\\ \\ In fact, the Bible says in more than one place that God is "slow to anger" (Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 103:8).

God never "loses his temper" the way we do.

Wrath is God’s "natural" response to sin in the universe.

He cannot overlook it, he cannot wink at it, he cannot pretend it is not there.

\\ \\ Wrath is what happens when holiness meets sin! \\ Wrath is what happens when justice meets rebellion!

\\ Wrath is what happens when righteousness meets unrighteousness!

\\ Wrath is what happens when perfect good meets pure evil! \\ As long as God is God, he cannot overlook sin.

As long as God is God, he cannot stand by indifferently while his creation is destroyed.

As long as God is God, he cannot dismiss lightly those who trample his holy will.

As long as God is God, he cannot wink when men mock his name.

|

 

"/A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; The Lord is avenging and wrathful.

The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies.

//The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.