Tuesday, April 19, 2011

"Wrath's Coming"

It seems in my travels that I come upon more and more people that do not believe in God's punishment! If you listen closely they too reveal they don't believe in punishment of any kind. Let's not punish those criminals but they do want them removed from 'normal' society. 
One thing that God makes clear to mankind: His wrath is against ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness men (Rom. 1:18). When we speak of the wrath of God, it's not like we think of a person that is out of control, picking up every thing they can lay their hands on to use as a weapon toward another. God's wrath is a wrath of justice and righteousness. The Lord Jesus was sent to our world on a death mission, to save people from their own sinful behavior and yet man rebels and ignores God's gift. What is God to do?
The only one's that will escape the punishment and wrath of God are those who are tied to Jesus. The Thessalonian's were encouraged as they had turned from idols to serve the living God, to "wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come." (I Thes. 1:10) Placed before our eyes is the coming wrath of God. Placed before our eyes is our rescue from the wrath to come. 
Those justified (declared right and all charges against us dropped) by the blood of Jesus will be saved from the wrath of God. It is Jesus and Jesus alone and His atoning blood that will rescue us from God's wrath (Rom. 5:9). Why is God so wrathful? Because sin is a work and power of the devil and sin destroys everything God is! From God's perfect creation in the beginning, to man's evil practices in destroying one another to killing His Son, sin reached out and destroyed. We live in a world filled with wrongs, pains and sufferings due to sin. God wants sin to end and so His wrath is kindled against all sin. His Son was sent as our substitute and paid the price we earned with our sins. The result? His cleansing blood will rescue us from God's wrath as God punished Jesus in our place! What a relief!
The world does not want to believe in punishment. Whether one accepts it or not, the wrath of God is coming! Just as the people were warned in the days of Noah that a flood of doom was coming on the world, nearly everyone sneered and developed their own thinking in regard to God. Eight people were saved! That is incredible that out of an entire world, eight people trusted in God's word. The message is sent out again: the wrath of God is coming and only in Christ Jesus and His cleansing blood will anyone escape. What are you doing in regard to the blood of Christ?

1 comment:

Pardee Butler said...

I have a hard time coming to the realization that I deserve to go to hell. I "know" it intellectually and I know I sin a lot, but it is hard for me to admit in my heart that I deserve eternal damnation. I know I don't deserve heaven, but I tend to think of hell for Hitler and the like - not average joes like me. I've been praying about it and I'm sure that when I'm before the judgement seat I'll KNOW that I deserve damnation