In this sermon, the preacher discusses the neglected topic of the wrath of God. He emphasizes the relevance and necessity of understanding God's wrath in a fallen and sinful world. The preacher challenges the notion of avoiding this subject and encourages Christians to face the difficult issues surrounding the wrath of God. He emphasizes the importance of not apologizing for God and urges believers to have something to say to those who question or struggle with the concept of God's wrath.

Starting at verse 18, to the end of the chapter. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, and God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. And because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and to creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanliness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is forever blessed. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat. And even as they did not like to retain the knowledge of God, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. May God bless the reading of his word. You may be seated. This morning my subject is, as you've made of notice on the bulletin, the wrath of God. The wrath of God. And there's never been a subject so neglected, so woefully neglected, as this has been in these recent years. And why is that, exactly? Why? Is it because that this subject has never been more unloved by men? We would prefer to forget about it entirely, wouldn't we? But is there a subject more relevant and necessary than the wrath of God in a fallen and sinful world? For a subject to be discussed, shouldn't the wrath of God be high on the list in a sinful and fallen world? Is it because men are unable to bear the truth, or just unwilling to talk about it, that they just take the easy way out and ignore it altogether to their own injury? So, what was your reaction when I announced that the subject this morning would be the wrath of God? What was your reaction in your gut? Did you say, oh, Eli, typical. Did you say, why did you pick that topic? What should our reaction be as Christians to the wrath of God, to the subject of the wrath of God? Should we, like the world, run from it and cower from it, pretending it doesn't exist, and go to more pleasant subjects, which we think are more profitable for men? Or shouldn't we, of all people, the people of God, stand and face the difficult issues, so that we can have something to say to the world about the wrath of God? So we can have something to say to the blaspheming atheist, or to the soul who is guilty before God and knows it, and doesn't know what to do about it. Shouldn't we, of all people, the people of God, face these issues? And if we, the God's people, don't face the issue of the wrath of God, then who will? Who will? So, what are we going to do? There's one thing that we are not permitted to do, as God's people. We are not permitted to apologize for God. We're not permitted to apologize for God. The reality of God's wrath is found everywhere, and God is not ashamed of his wrath. God is not a man, or like a man, that he should do something, and then afterwards blush about it. So he does something, and I'm embarrassed about what I did, and I blush about it. And God does not blush about his wrath, so should we blush about it? Should we blush for him? Should we blush for God? Should you blush for God? And many Christians are ashamed of the wrath of God, and they think it's like a blot on his character. And every time the subject comes up, we kind of, well, you know, try to explain it away, or get around it, or make it seem less than it really is. We come up with these little theological ways to skip around it, because we think it's some blot on his character, but the opposite is true. If God were not a God of wrath, then there would be a blot on his character. If God were not a God of wrath, then there would be a blot on his character. And so the one who thinks such a thought is the one who should be ashamed. We should be ashamed of our blushing over God and who he is, because the wrath of God is as much a divine perfection as his love. God is perfect in every way. Everything that he does and all that he is, he's perfect. And the wrath of God is not excluded from his divine perfection. God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of his wrath in his holy word. God has made no attempt to conceal it. The Bible is saturated with the wrath of God. It's saturated with it. From the very beginning all the way to the very end. We'll just take a brief journey through Scripture. We look in the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, and we could talk much about the wrath of God there, but there's two remarkable incidents of God's wrath in the book of Genesis that God wants us to know about. The first, obviously, is the flood. Very soon in the narration of Scripture, God sends a flood upon the earth and destroys 99.9% of the population of the earth, except for one family. Just think about that for a moment. This is like chapter 6. And God is not ashamed to have it recorded in Scripture. A flood, a universal flood, is something that we can hardly even comprehend now in our day. As we read the Scripture, we can only marvel that something so catastrophic would happen. We all were horrified on September 11 when a plane flew into the Twin Towers and killed thousands of people, and it was a catastrophe. But consider in comparison a thousand people perishing in a moment to how many were on the earth in that time. I can't give you a figure, but we can use our imagination. The second remarkable event in Genesis is Sodom and Gomorrah, where God destroyed 99.9% of all the citizens of those cities, except for one family, minus Lot's wife. And it says in the book of Jude, Jude reminds us that these things were done as an example. We should learn from them. So two remarkable instances of God's wrath. When God hurled flaming rocks out of heaven and destroyed all the people in Sodom and Gomorrah, and turned that place into a barren wasteland that even to this day does not grow anything. You've heard of the Dead Sea, a sea of salt. It's a result of Sodom being destroyed. God is not ashamed of His wrath. In fact, on the contrary, He wants us to know what He does. He wants us to know by His wrath that we too might fear Him. That we too might learn to fear Him. We turn over to the end of the Bible, to the book of Revelation. Those of you who are familiar with the book of Revelation know that you have 22 chapters replete with the wrath of God. True? There are those who argue that our understanding of God changes over time. That the Bible is just a man-made book, and men understood God in the beginning to be a God of wrath, and later they evolved their understanding to understand Him to be a God of love and a God of grace. No longer a wrathful God. You find just the opposite is true in Scripture. It seems that as Scripture goes on from Genesis and it ascends to Revelation, the more and more and more we learn about the wrath of God. Until we hit the book of Revelation, where we hear of men crying out that mountains and rocks would fall upon them to save them from the wrath of the Lamb. It would be better for a mountain to fall on me than for me to face the wrath of God. A few weeks ago we had a car accident here in Valley Church. And those of you who remember, this car just came plummeting down a hill out of nowhere. And we were all very thankful no one was there to get hit by it. But it would be better to be hit by that car than to be facing the wrath of Almighty God. We learn in Revelation that when Christ returns, it says He will tread the winepress. That's the imagery that the Bible uses. He will tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Not a pleasant picture if you're familiar with what a winepress is. Men in those days would stamp upon grapes and the juice of the grapes would be flying everywhere. And they'd get all red all over with the blood of the grapes. And this is the imagery God chooses to use. That when Christ returns, He will tread the winepress of God's wrath. It's a violent stamping. And also, in the book of Revelation, we see into the future, prophetically, that billions of people will be thrown into the lake of fire. This isn't just something that we read. We should not just read this and close the book without trembling. When God speaks prophetically, it's as sure as when He speaks about history. That's going to happen. We're seeing it before it happens. That's an event that will happen, and we're seeing it. Billions and billions of people are thrown into the lake of fire. God does that because God is a God of wrath. God has never changed. The wrath of God is as much a part of our present day and our present age as it has ever been in ages past and in the ages to come. When we look at the Gospels and the Epistles, well, some say, okay, well, that's in the past and that's in the future, but right now we live in an age of grace, and the wrath of God is not really an issue right now. It'll be an issue later. The wrath of God is as much a part and an issue now as ever. For those who are familiar with the Scripture, they'll find the wrath of God just as saturated in the New Testament and the Gospels and the Epistles as anywhere else. You open the New Testament, and you begin with the genealogy of Jesus Christ. And the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the very beginning of the New Testament in Matthew begins and speaks of the wrath of God. Did you know? There's mention of God's wrath. There's mention of the Babylonian captivity in the genealogy of Jesus. That is not ignored. It's not swept under the rug. It's right there at the forefront of Matthew. The Babylonian captivity is not when men attacked Jerusalem and destroyed it. And God makes that very clear in Scripture. It's when I went against Jerusalem. I was the one who destroyed Jerusalem. It was when God came against his own people because of their sins, destroying that city, millions perishing, mothers doing things that are not even fit to be mentioned from the pulpit, all a judgment from God, from God, not a random chance happening because of the Babylonians and their imperialism, but because of God mentioned there in Matthew. All the Gospels, immediately we come upon, as we read them, the ministry of John the Baptist crying out for people, flee from the wrath to come. In the very early chapters of all the Gospels, John the Baptist, we see his preaching. John the Baptist says that Jesus is coming, and he has a winnowing fork in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. We move to the ministry of Jesus. We learn that Jesus speaks more about hell than anyone else in the Bible put together. He gives us explanation. He gives us definition. He gives us light on what was hidden in the Old Testament, what was alluded to in the Old Testament. Jesus opens that up for us. Jesus speaks more about hell than anyone else in the Bible put together. In his parables, just think of some of his parables that Jesus gave, and how much imagery of hell and the wrath of God is in all the parables of Jesus, or most of the parables of Jesus. Think of the wheat and the tares. The wheat will be gathered into...