Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
In our last study of Romans we finished the introduction, which runs from verse 1-17. Verses 16-17 give us the theme of Romans:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." Romans 1:16-17 NASB
Paul was not disappointed in the Good News, because it is the power of God bringing salvation to all who believe, both Jews and Greeks. In the Good News the righteousness of God is being revealed. We interpreted this to mean God's covenant faithfulness from God's faithfulness to human faith. Then he quotes from Habakkah, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."
The next section runs from 1:18-3:20; the common reading of this passage is to say that all human beings are sinful. But what we must see is that this passage is tied in to the revelation of the covenant faithfulness of God. The covenant was always the means of dealing with evil. So Romans 1:18-3:20 is all about God's righteousness.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, Romans 1:18 NASB
Notice the "for" here, which is the Greek gar. When Paul says "for" he is explaining what has just gone before. This "for" points back to "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH" of verse 17. Let's look at how Paul explains this quote from Habakkuk with verse 18 talking about the wrath of God.
Paul in quoting Habakkuk is saying: God will be faithful to His covenant with Israel, His judgment of the nations and salvation of Israel will come. They must live by faith that God will be faithful to His covenant.
Let's take a closer look at Habakkuk so we can understand why Paul quotes him. A little background will be helpful. Habakkuk prophesied at the end of the 7th century B.C., which makes him a contemporary of Jeremiah and Zephaniah. He probably wrote this around 608 B.C.. He prophesied during the reign of Jehoiakim, who reigned in Judah from 609-598 B.C.:
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. 2 Kings 23:36-37 NASB
Jehoiakim oppressed the people through forced labor (Jer. 22:13) and murder (Jer. 22:17; 2 Kings 24:4) and persecuted those prophets who opposed him (Jer. 26:20-24). Let's look at Habakkuk. Go to Matthew and take a left five books back--Malachi, Zechariah, Haggai, Zephaniah and Habakkuk. In Habakkuk chapter 1 and 2 we have a dialogue between Habakkuk and God. In the first chapter Habakkuk is concerned about the wickedness of His people Israel:
The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet You do not save. Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises. Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted. "Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days-- You would not believe if you were told. Habakkuk 1:1-5 NASB
What was it that God wanted from Israel? He tells us in:
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. Isaiah 5:7 NASB
God was looking for justice and righteousness, but it was not to be found, so He would judge His people Israel:
But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment, And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness. Isaiah 5:16 NASB
God would show Himself holy in covenant faithfulness.
So in our text Habakkuk questions why God has not intervened to deal with the evil, violence, and injustice that is rampant in Judah. He is bothered because God's failure to act is inconsistent with His covenant faithfulness. He is in effect saying to God, "How long are you going to let this go on, Lord?" The answer that comes in verses 5-11 surprises Habakkuk. God says that He is going to chasten His people by using the Chaldeans:
"For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs. "They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and authority originate with themselves. Habakkuk 1:6-7 NASB
It only appears from Habakkuk's limited perspective that God is ignoring the wickedness in Judah. God is in the process of raising up the Chaldeans to take care of the problem of the evil in Judah. This upsets Habakkuk, he can't understand this. This would be like us praying about the wickedness in America, and God answers saying, "I've heard your cries, so I'm sending Iran to destroy America!" What would we say to God--How would we respond?
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they? Habakkuk 1:13 NASB
He is asking, "How can you use the wicked Chaldeans to chasten Israel, they're worse than us?" Habakkuk waits for God to answer him:
I will stand on my guard post And station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may reply when I am reproved. Habakkuk 2:1 NASB
God speaks:
Then the LORD answered me and said, "Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. "For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. "Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:2-4 NASB
Habakkuk receives a second answer from God to show him that YHWH knows the pride of this evil nation of Babylon, and that He will punish it, but that the just will live by His faith. The righteous will live by faith trusting in the message of the prophet that God will judge Israel's oppressors:
"For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14 NASB
This same phrase is found in:
They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:9 NASB
It is speaking of the eschatological fall of the nations and the redemption of Israel.
Luke tells us in Acts 13:41 that Paul quotes the serious warning of Habakkuk 1:5 at the end of his preaching in the synagogue in Antioch:
"Take heed therefore, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: 41 'BEHOLD, YOU SCOFFERS, AND MARVEL, AND PERISH; FOR I AM ACCOMPLISHING A WORK IN YOUR DAYS, A WORK WHICH YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE, THOUGH SOMEONE SHOULD DESCRIBE IT TO YOU.'" Acts 13:38-41 NASB
To those who do not respond to Paul's Gospel message through the obedience of faith, Paul issues a stern warning. He tells them to remember the words of Habakkuk the prophet:
"Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days-- You would not believe if you were told. (Habakkuk 1:5 NASB)
The context of Habakkuk's words, as we have seen, was the approach of invaders. Habakkuk warned Judah of the impending judgment that God would bring on them through the Chaldeans because of their unrepentant hearts. The implication is: Just as God surely carried out that judgment, so He will bring destruction on you if you scoff at His gracious promise of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Habakkuk speaks of the coming of an event (verse 2 & --"wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay"), but the author of Hebrews personalizes it when he quotes from Habakkuk:
FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. Hebrews 10:37-38 NASB
This prophecy was fulfilled at the Second Coming of Christ in A.D. 70 when God came in judgment on the enemies of His people, the Jews, and vindicated His people, Christians, forever.
So Paul using this quote from Habakkuk in Romans 1 is saying God will be faithful to His covenant, which involves judgment of the covenant breakers--those who reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God is faithful to the covenant and part of that involves wrath against the covenant breakers. So from the quote in Habakkuk, Paul launches right into the wrath of God:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, Romans 1:18 NASB
I want to park here this morning and spend the rest of our time talking about the wrath of God. The Bible teaches that God is a God of wrath.
If you ask the average Christian to tell you about God, what is the first thing they will tell you? God is love! Is that true? Yes, it is absolutely the truth:
The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8 NASB
To say that God is love is the truth, but is it the whole truth? No! Love is one attribute of God, but He has many others: holiness, mercy, grace, justice, omniscience, immutability, sovereignty, and on and on we could go.
God's attributes are His characteristics, excellencies, or qualities exercised visibly in His work of creation, providence, and redemption. We call them attributes, not because we add them to the essence of God, but rather because they inhere in Him. They were and ever will be His. They tell us something about God's substance, His invisible essence.
Apart from an objective standard, we can make God to be anything we want. What is our objective standard? The Bible! The Bible is the self revelation of God. If we are going to know God, we must learn of Him from the Scriptures. The problem is that most everyone believes in a "god" of their own invention. They have made up a "god" that they are comfortable with--a "god" who is only love. He loves everybody and puts up with everything. He's just a nice gentle old man! This is not the God of the Bible!
A.W.Tozer wrote:
Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and her moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.
Is it right for us to pick out one attribute that we like about God and reduce Him to that attribute only? No, when we do this we have created a God of our own liking. This is idiolatry! Believing the wrong thing about God is idolatry. When we think of idolatry, we think of somebody in a mud hut with a little god on his table that he bows down to. Or we think of a pagan temple, very elaborate and ornate with a lot of people burning incense. But idolatry is much broader than that. Idolatry is simply thinking something about God that is untrue of Him. It is postulating anything about God that is not right. In its fullest stage, it is creating a god. In its secondary stage, it is making the God who is into something that He isn't. And maybe in its third level, which even Christians are guilty of, is thinking thoughts about God that are untrue of Him.
"These things you have done, and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you, and state the case in order before your eyes. 22 "Now consider this, you who forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Psalms 50:21-22 NASB
Are you like Israel in this passage--do you think God is like you? Do you think of God as an errand boy, a cosmic, doting old Grandpa; a gentleman who wouldn't hurt a flea. Does your God dismiss sin? Is your God at the mercy of man or nature? Is your God too small?
People, God is not like us. He is holy:
And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." Isaiah 6:3 NASB
To be holy is to be distinct, separate, in a class by oneself. This means that the One who is holy is uniquely holy, with no rivals or competition. When the Bible calls God "holy," it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us. To be holy is to be "other," to be different in a special way.
The God of the Bible does as He pleases, He accomplishes what He sets out to do, no plan of His is thwarted by the whims and decisions of mankind. He is wrathful against our rebellion, yet loving beyond our imagination. In one of the most concise and profound statements ever written on the subject of God, A W. Pink said:
The "god" of this twentieth century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun. The "god" who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible conferences, is the figment of human imagination, an invention of maudlin sentimentality. The heathen outside of the pale of Christendom form "gods" out of wood and stone, while the millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a "god" out of their own carnal mind. In reality, they are but atheists, for there is no other possible alternative between an absolutely supreme God, and no God at all. A "god" whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits naught but contempt." (Attributes of God)
God's holiness is linked to His righteousness and justice. The righteousness and justice of God is that aspect of God's holiness manifested in His treatment of His creatures.
Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Psalms 97:2 NASB
God is holy and just, and He must punish sin. Even the slightest sin defies the authority of God, insults His majesty, and challenges His justice. Because of our sin, we all deserve God's WRATH. As a matter of fact, the only thing we deserve is wrath; the only thing God owes us is wrath. If we really understood the depth of our sin and the holiness of God, we would thank God every day that He hasn't killed us.
Churcheanity is so lopsided on the issue of love that we have decided that God must love everybody! And if He doesn't love everybody, then He can't be our God. I think that most of churcheanity believes that they are worthy of God's love and goodness. People actually think that God owes them. In this twisted view, God is the debtor, and man is the creditor.
Most people do not want to think of God's wrath at all, preferring to think and speak only of God's love. Those who do believe God is a God of wrath as well as a God of love prefer to think of His wrath in the past tense. Many seem to believe God's wrath is an Old Covenant truth, and that with the coming of Christ, we are now safe to think only in terms of God's love. This is wrong thinking about God.
A. W. Pink observes:
It is sad to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or at least they wish there were no such thing. While some would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the Divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight; they like not to think about it, and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it. Even with those who are more sober in their judgment, not a few seem to imagine that there is a severity about the Divine wrath which is too terrifying to form a theme for profitable contemplation. Others harbor the delusion that God's wrath is not consistent with His goodness, and so seek to banish it from their thoughts.
Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God's wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the Divine character, or some blot upon the Divine government. But what saith the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of His wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong unto Him. A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God (Swengel Pa.: Reiner Publications, 1968 [Reprint]), p. 75).
The wrath of God is a prominent truth in the Scriptures. A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness.
If we are going to discuss the wrath of God, we must first define it. What is God's wrath? First, we must understand that God's wrath is not like ours. Wrath to us may suggest a loss of self-control, an outburst that is partly, if not wholly, irrational. God's wrath in the Bible is never capricious, self-indulgent, or irritable. God's wrath in the Bible is always judicial. It is the wrath of a judge administering justice. Each person gets exactly what he deserves.
Wrath denotes God's resolute action in punishing sin. It is the active manifestation of His hatred of irreligion and moral evil. God is Holy, and His holiness demands that He not tolerate unholiness.
The Wrath of God in the First Testament
Dr Leon Morris says of the First Testament in his The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross: "There are more than 20 words used to express the wrath conception as it applies to Jehovah" and "these are used so frequently that there are over 580 occurrences to be taken into consideration" [p 131]. He adds that this conception "cannot be eradicated from the Old Testament without irreparable loss" [p 156]. So the First Testament is full of the concept of the wrath of God.
The First Testament not only speaks of God's wrath as one of His attributes, it speaks of His wrath as a part of God's glory. God's glory is intrinsic--we don't give it to Him. It is His by virtue of who He is. If neither men nor angels were ever created, God would still be a God of glory. God's intrinsic glory is the manifestation of His attributes. When we see His attributes, it causes us to give Him glory--praise and adoration.
God's wrath brings Him glory. It is not an embarrassment to Him. He need never be ashamed, like men, for losing His temper. God's wrath is inseparably linked with His glory. God brings glory to Himself when He exercises His wrath.
God's wrath is provoked when men rebel against His Word. After God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He gave them His laws to guide and govern their conduct, so they might be a holy people in whose midst He would dwell. In Deuteronomy 28:1-14, God described the blessings that would result from obedience to the covenant He made with them at Mount Sinai. Verses 15-68 provide a much more extensive and graphic description of His judgment as a consequence of breaking this covenant. In the context of Deuteronomy 28, it is clear that Israel will not keep His covenant. and that they will be judged. God will not tolerate sin among His people any more than He will tolerate it in others. The Israelites were destined to drink deeply from the cup of God's wrath.
Numerous instances can be seen in the First Testament where God's wrath is demonstrated. I don't know how anyone can read the Hebrew Scriptures and not see the wrath of God. The past couple of weeks I have been reading Ezekiel for my "yearly through the Bible" reading. Reading Ezekiel at times will take your breath away as you see God's wrath. He speaks against Jerusalem in chapter 22:
"Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads," declares the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 22:31 NASB
Then in chapter 23 we see this:
The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, "Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother; and they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and there their virgin bosom was handled. "Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah. "Oholah played the harlot while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians, her neighbors, Ezekiel 23:1-5 NASB
The Mother is the 12 tribe nation of Israel. The two daughters are the southern kingdom, Oholibah, and the northern kingdom, Oholah. These two kingdoms came out of Israel as a result of the two wives and two marriages of Jacob. The capital city of Judah was Jerusalem, and the capital of Israel was Samaria.
Notice what God says to Oholibah, which is Judah:
"Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold I will arouse your lovers against you, from whom you were alienated, and I will bring them against you from every side: Ezekiel 23:22 NASB
Then God lists the different nations that He will bring against her and He says, "They will come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons, and with a company of peoples."
'I will set My jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in wrath. They will remove your nose and your ears; and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and your survivors will be consumed by the fire. Ezekiel 23:25 NASB
God goes on to say:
"For thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I will give you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom you were alienated. Ezekiel 23:28 NASB
Notice that it is God who uses the nations to punish Israel.
In First Testament times, God not only displayed His wrath toward rebellious Israelites, He also demonstrated His wrath against wicked pagans. He destroyed the inhabited earth by means of the flood (Genesis 6-9). He also destroyed the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). And after the exodus, He employed the nation Israel to destroy the wicked Canaanites for their sin, just as He had indicated earlier to Abraham (Genesis 15:12-16):
therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "I will also stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off man and beast from it. And I will lay it waste; from Teman even to Dedan they will fall by the sword. "I will lay My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel. Therefore, they will act in Edom according to My anger and according to My wrath; thus they will know My vengeance," declares the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 25:13-14 NASB
God says to Ammon:
'I will pour out My indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and I will give you into the hand of brutal men, skilled in destruction. Ezekiel 21:31 NASB
The Israelites were to be the instrument of God's wrath toward the wicked nations.
The Wrath of God in the New Testament
Those willing to accept that God is a God of wrath are sometimes eager for the wrath of God to be viewed as primarily a First Testament matter that is no longer a threat for those who live today. They like to think that with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the subject of wrath is largely a matter of past history. But this is simply not the case:
"For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. Malachi 3:6 NASB
Since John the Baptist was the last of the Old Covenant prophets, we almost expect him to speak of divine wrath. But when John spoke of the wrath to come, he did so in relationship to the coming of the Christ. According to John's teaching, divine wrath was related to the coming of Messiah in two ways. First, he spoke of Messiah coming to experience the wrath of God. Second, John spoke of Messiah as the One who would execute the wrath of God.
When John the Baptist first saw Jesus and recognized Him as the Messiah, He spoke of Him as the Sin-bearer who was to experience God's wrath as the "Lamb of God":
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 NASB
The expression, "the Lamb of God," to which John referred, has a rich First Testament background. There was the "Passover lamb," sacrificed at the time of Israel's exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12), which was a type of our Lord (see 1 Corinthians 5:7). The "Lamb of God" described by Isaiah in chapter 53 is clearly a reference to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. This prophecy speaks of the suffering of the Messiah as the Sin-bearer, the One on whom the sins of the world are laid and thus on whom the wrath of God is poured out.
Our Lord's greatest suffering came because He was the object of the Father's wrath. The great agony of our Lord is seen in these words recorded in the Messianic prophecy of Psalm 22 and then spoken by our Lord as He hung upon the cross:
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Psalms 22:1 NASB
The Good News of the Gospel is that those who have placed their trust in the Lord Jesus as the "Lamb of God" are no longer under the sentence of divine wrath:
For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thessalonians 5:9 NASB
John the Baptist was the last Old Covenant prophet and the one privileged to introduce Jesus as Israel's Messiah. When John spoke of the coming Messiah, he spoke of His coming as the One who would not only experience divine wrath, but also execute divine wrath:
"And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 "And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matthew 3:5-12 NASB
At the end of verse 11, John refers to the Christ event--it begins with Pentecost and ends with the destruction of Jerusalem. "He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire" --this speaks of wrath.
Does God have a right to display His wrath? Does He have a right to display His Justice? Yes! wrath and justice are as much a part of His character as are mercy, grace and love. Many people have difficulty imagining God finding any glory in His wrath, but He does. He is pleased with His wrath. It is just as much an attribute of God as is His love.
In his book, Almighty Over All, R.C. Sproul Jr. writes this excellent statement: "We cannot imagine God looking at His wrath like unwanted pounds He wants to lose, if only He had the power. No, God is as delighted with His wrath as He is with all of His attributes. Suppose He says, 'What I'll do is create something worthy of my wrath, something on which I can exhibit the glory of my wrath. And on top of that I'll manifest my mercy by showering grace on some of these creatures deserving my wrath.'"
"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:24 NASB
Divine wrath is not just a phenomenon of the Old Covenant; it is a certainty for all who reject the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believers, listen carefully, we all deserve God's wrath! But because of God's mercy, we will not get what we deserve, because God's wrath toward us has been born by the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers, we have this confidence:
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. Romans 5:9 NASB
The wrath of God is a reminder of the holiness of God and a measure of God's hatred of sin. God's wrath is proportionate to the unrighteousness that provokes it. The immensity of God's wrath toward sin is an indication of His holy hatred of sin. We should hate it as well.
The wrath of God should make us uncomfortable with sin. In addition, we should never forget that our sin resulted in the suffering and agony of our Savior on whom God's wrath was poured out. To think lightly of sin is to take Christ's suffering lightly.
The doctrine of the wrath of God instructs us not to fret over the wicked. While they may appear to be getting away with evil, they will come under the wrath of God.
Let us take the doctrine of God's wrath seriously. We should neither neglect nor conceal it. Let us regard it as a part of the goodness and glory of God. May the doctrine of God's wrath be an incentive to evangelism and the proclamation of the Gospel of grace. To the glory of God and our own good, may this doctrine be the basis for a grateful life demonstrated by holy living.
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