Tag: wrath of God

November 11th 2024: Ian Middlemist

Published on by Penuel Baptist RochLeave a comment

November 10th 2024: Ian Middlemist

1 John 4:7-21
God is love (v.8, 16). Two great statements that changed the world. Our world needs a change, communities need change, I need a change. It is estimated that more than 100,000000 love songs have been recorded. It is the predominant topic of the music and art world. Most pop music is on a sexual relationship. Between 1960 and 2010, 67.3 lyrics from the top 40 songs refer to relationships and love, including sexual relationships. Love has become a very confusing subject. Our society has a very poor understanding of love.

God is the great definition of love. God is love. It is very profound. These 3 little words ought to fill your heart with fresh hope today. We need to start here if we are to experience anything of real love and how to do it. It must begin with God. ‘God is love’ does not mean ‘love is God.’

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (v.7-8). God’s love is personal. In John’s great letter, he writes in a wonderful and purposeful way about the love of God. It is a love letter. The mission is love. God is the one who is loved and worshipped. It is the appropriate response to His love. We love Him the more and more we get to know Him. Our hearts get bigger and fuller with a love for Him. We also love Him the more and more He is denied and the more false teaching that is given out. We respond with a holy anger, for example to false teaching in the media, with ‘I love you because you are being so hated.’

It is a false teaching that God is everything. He is not the air that we breathe, this light bulb, this church. He is everywhere, ever present, but He is not the universe. This influences many religions. He is not an object. It is a denial of God and the love of God. The world is full of 3D rich colour. You can see and touch it. God is not some moving object, collection of atoms, some blob. He is not 2D or 3D. He is love. He is glorious. We should be filled with colour. We can know God. He is love, a person who loves.

God love is not just for the masses, for y’all! He loves you and cares about you because His love is personal. He communicates to you, He calls you to Himself. He cares about you. He knows your every need.

God’s love is unique. It is the standard, the pinnacle, the number one. It is where we should go. Other statements in the New Testament tell us of God. God is love is a statement. It tells us something but not everything. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman God is a Spirit. In 1 John 1:5 we read God is light. Light portrays He is a God of knowledge and wisdom, of undiluted beauty and purity. God is holy. He is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).

God is a God of wrath. Love and wrath are not contrary, they are not opposing. Love and holiness are not contradictory. He loves what is defiled. There is no tension in God. God is love. All He does is love. God’s love is a holy love. It is not blind, blind to the sin. Nor is God’s love indulgent. His love acts perfectly. Our love does not. God’s holiness and justice is loving when He punishes sin.

God love is unique in that it is eternal. His love was fixed before the foundation of the world on sinners like you. Before we were looked upon, God loved. He loved you. His love is eternal.

God’s love is free. He loves you because He wants to. He sent His Son to suffer, bleed and die, to experience the wrath of God. That is unique. We tend to love or not love on a whim. That’s not the case with God’s love. God’s love is unique. God’s love is free. It is not dependent on how He is feeling. God’s love is unique in that it is unchangeable. It does not grow through time. It is new for us as we delve into this vast ocean of His love. God’s love is unique. God’s love is personal.

Go to love is central. It is necessary, central for us, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (v 9-10). God’s love for us has been manifested through the life and death of Jesus. Love can be seen as a verb; it requires action. God is love – that is who He is. God is going to continue loving.

Love must be demonstrated through behaviour. You need to show it. That is where we need a lot of work. We need to preach the gospel – not watering it down, not watering down the wrath of God. Jesus helps people. The gospel is the love of God. It saves sinners from the wrath of God. Don’t just talk about love and compassion. We need to demonstrate it.

Sending Jesus into the world to take upon God’s wrath for all our sin, which would otherwise condemn us to hell, was not a spontaneous decision. It wasn’t a random act of kindness. Jesus’s death wasn’t the result of Jewish hatred. It was the result of a loving God. Jesus chose the nails to demonstrate His love. We need Jesus to save us from the judgement. Our loving God has done that.

John is not speaking of natural love, of marriage. It does not take long before a married couple realise their love has limits. John says there is more. We need to draw from the fountain of divine love and then we can love others as God intends.

Let us turn to the cross of Jesus again. Firstly, we need to love Him. Then we love others. Sin turns us in on ourselves, makes us selfish. But the cross turns us out of ourselves to think about others. It is possible to attend church, prayer meetings and read our bibles but not know the love of God. God loves us. We are nothing but sinners. The beauty of the gospel is His love is personal, unique, pervading, proven. May the Lord direct your heart to His love.

July 9th 2017: Ian Middlemist

Published on by Penuel Baptist RochLeave a comment

ian-dec-2016Romans 1:18-20

What has been done?
What is expected?
No excuses!

What has been done?
What has God done to render no excuses from man? ‘For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.’ (Romans 1:19). Some people are glad to hide at the back of a room because of their shyness, others are glad to be conspicuous and wear their heart on their sleeve. God has been pleased to allow Himself to be known to all. He has revealed Himself to mankind and through creation. He is a powerful God. He knows how much men and women need Him. He reveals Himself through creation. We all experience this. ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.’ (Psalm 19:1).

Romans 1-20

This is enough for men, women and children to know Him. When you think about your relationship with unbelieving friends, you have a connection with them, you have all seen creation. The external testimony of creation. God has given man a conscience in which he can understand creation. Children play on beaches, holding the sand in their hands – creation is in their hands. It’s for all. We are His creatures, we must worship Him. Some refuse to act on this knowledge, they do not want to turn to God, they hate Him.

What is expected of us, having been given this knowledge?
God has given creation, knowledge and conscience. We are all under the same judgement. We see the big sin, ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.’ (Romans 1:18). Ungodliness is a religious sin. Unrighteousness is a moral sin. The two go hand in hand. Some may have more of one than the other; some attempt to live good lives but with no repentance to God. Others claim to worship God but live immoral lives. Unrighteousness and godliness is seen in one thing – suppressing the truth. ‘Suppress’ means to put in detention, to lock up. Whilst men and women force the truth of Jesus into the subconscious, all awhile it is there. People push it aside. No-one can destroy what God has done. We need to allow the truth of God to dominate – sing to God new songs of worship. Repent of sins, acknowledge the truth. There is not enough knowledge in creation to save. We need the Holy Spirit, it is God’s work alone. As He comes to us we can repent of our sins.

No excuses!
When we become a Christian all our excuses are nothing but an embarrassment. It’s an embarrassing thing to see someone pleading their innocence when everyone knows they’re guilty. Our desire is everyone comes to humble repentance. There are no excuses we can bring on that last day. The gospel begins with the wrath of God but ends with the mercy of God. You cannot have a gospel without the wrath. Many people are not interested in the gospel, they don’t realise the wrath of God. ‘Wrath’ has to do with a passion. God isn’t simply annoyed with sin, it’s a personal matter. God is passionate in His wrath, it means something to Him. He is passionately filled with holy indignation.

The wrath of God is a fearful thing. A judge sums up a case, sometimes using very emotive language in response to evil. It’s a pointed anger against sin. Everyone is condemned – but there is wonderful news! Jesus Christ was sent to die for us, He gave His life for us. How can we begin to thank God, to thank Jesus, when we have so not deserved His love? Praise Him!