Summary Is there a missing dimension in our understanding of Godly love? Download Link Right click and "Save as..." to Download

 

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 As everyone already knows, this is the final Sabbath leading up to the beginning of the fall holy day season. Three days from now we will be in the midst of observing the Feast of Trumpets, that annual reminder of the next phase of God's plan of salvation, the return of Jesus Christ, the establishment of God's Kingdom on this earth; and that's always, for all of us, a very special and exciting time. Those of us who speak know that we really need to talk about things that relate to that. Obviously, Mr. Smith did that this morning, and I'm certainly going to now, and I'm sure Mr. McClain will this afternoon as well...at least, if he isn't planning on that, he will be planning now.

But, nonetheless, I'm sure that all of us are excited about this time, and there are so many subjects we can talk about. This time of the year is just so rich with ideas and various aspects of the way that God is working out His plan for all mankind. And there are all kinds of things to talk about. We realize that the religious world as a whole doesn't really understand most of the aspects of God's plan. There is still, even now, certainly more discussion than there used to be about the return of Jesus Christ. We could look back just a few decades ago and we'd find that most religions really had little to say about it. I know as I was preparing this message, I was curious the other day, so I did a little Google search on "second coming." There were nearly 25 million hits from that particular phrase. Now, admittedly, some of those have to do with musical groups called "Second Coming," or the second coming of the Bangles, which everybody keeps promising; and the term is used in a lot of different ways, but we all recognize the term "second coming," one way or another at least, traces its fundamental concept back to the second coming of Jesus Christ. People seem to be a lot more interested in that today.

Mr. Armstrong's voice a few decades back was almost unique in proclaiming that message, and probably he caused a lot of people to begin looking at prophecy in a different way. If you come from a religious background and you go back a number of decades, you probably found that in your local church, whatever it may have been, whatever your background—Roman Catholic, Protestant, whatever it may have been—you probably heard very little about prophecy and about the coming of Jesus Christ. It's become a lot more popular nowadays, although probably the main thing that people talk about is the "rapture." And there's a lot about that. I think there were over 15 million hits when I checked that one, about the rapture.

The term comes from a Latin translation of I Thessalonians 4 and verse 17, where it talks about people being caught up to meet Christ in the air. The Latin term for caught up israptus, so the term comes from that; and, interestingly, when you trace the history of the teaching of the rapture back, you find that it really pretty much began with the Jesuits. It hasn't been a popular teaching until the last 150 years. It wasn't a part of church history for thousands of years; but, nonetheless, it has become more interesting to people now. Yet, even there, when we hear about that or someone talks about it, it seems there's very little understanding about what takes place after that. Many of the commentaries see the rapture as, simply, you rise up to meet Christ in the air, but that's kind of like a staging area so you can go on to heaven from there. They don't really understand what happens after that. The rapture seems to be about all they're concerned about.

Now that may sound like I'm being critical, but, frankly, I think when we look in our own history, sometimes there are some parallels we can begin to draw because we're human, too, and we sometimes make our mistakes on what we emphasize here and there. Among the many accusations that the accuser of the brethren hurled at Mr. Armstrong and the church was that we were a church that was based upon fear religion, that when we wanted the people to respond, we tried to manipulate people by giving them fearful things, proclaiming fearsome things that would come. People cited sometimes the drawings of Basil Wolverton or some of the very powerful messages based upon the prophets that Mr. Armstrong gave on the radio, and they accused us of manipulating people through the use of fear. Now, I don't think most of us would agree with those accusations; but we, perhaps, would reluctantly have to admit that, as a matter of fact, through the years, we did tend to focus a little differently on some of those things at times in our past. We tended to look at those frightening but true prophecies a little bit more at certain times than we have in recent days. There was a time when we seemed to be a lot more focused on making it to some place of safety, which is legitimately prophesied in the book of Revelation. But it seemed to take on kind of an exaggerated importance. It was almost like, "Well, if I can make it to the place of safety, that is my guaranteed admission to the Kingdom of God." And, therefore, making it to the place of safety became the priority; and we had to recognize that, no, that's not exactly the approach that we should have. Sometimes we put too much emphasis on that and not enough on what it means to live a Christian life.

As the years went by, especially 1972 and then 1975 came and went, our message began to have a little bit different emphasis to it. We focused, perhaps, a bit more on things like evolution, challenges in the world around us, the family, Christian living, the positive prophecies about what will take place after Jesus Christ returns. Those are all still true. There's nothing wrong with that message. I'm not criticizing that. I'm just simply saying the emphasis tended to change a little bit. We seemed to shift away, edge away, slowly, from those frightening scenarios that had been a part of our thinking for so long. We still talked about the coming together of the beast power in Europe, but often it seemed that we put that in almost geopolitical terms instead of personal terms of what it would mean to an individual.

All around us the religious world has embraced a gospel which has as its central tenet, "God loves you." You could go out tomorrow if you wanted to hear that gospel, and you would find thousands of churches that teach "God loves you" is the gospel. You and I would disagree with that because at the very core of our belief, the central tenet for us is a gospel message that proclaims both the certainty and the necessity of the establishing of the Kingdom of God. That is vital to us. We believe that with all of our being. These annual holy days, particularly the fall holy days, bring us back to our roots; and they powerfully remind us that ALL of God's prophecies—the positive, the exciting, the wonderful, as well as the frightening and difficult—all of those prophecies are true.

As we approach the Feast of Trumpets, it's a good time to remind ourselves that the end-time prophecies don't begin with the return of Jesus Christ. The most difficult, challenging time in all of human history precedes those days, the days that we're about to celebrate as we come to the Feast of Trumpets and beyond. The Feast of Trumpets points to a seventh trumpet; but we must never forget that there are, in fact, six other trumpets before that, that sound out a very powerful and frightening message, so that by the time that seventh trumpet sounds, all mankind will tremble. We can't forget that in our celebration of what the seventh trumpet will mean for us.

God has certainly powerfully proven His love for mankind. But how do the end-time prophecies leading up to Jesus Christ's return fit within that love? Why doesn't Jesus simply return, announce that He wants to set up His Kingdom, open peoples' minds, cast out Satan, and let's go on from there? Why do we have to have all of those prophecies of destruction and horrible things that are yet to happen? How can a loving God pour out His wrath on mankind? And, most important of all, what does that mean to me and the way that I'm supposed to be living my life today? Could it be that there is a missing dimension in our understanding of Godly love? Could there be that we have a missing dimension there? Now, yes, for those of you who are old timers, I am kind of hitch-hiking on top of a wonderful idea, a phrase that Mr. Armstrong used to use quite often. That phrase, "missing dimension," rings a bell for some of you. Some of you who are younger are, perhaps, saying, "Well, I don't get it." That's all right. Don't worry. It is a cheap attempt on my part to ride Mr. Armstrong's coattails at that point. But, yes, that concept of a missing dimension is important. Could it be that there is, in fact, in our understanding of Godly love, a missing dimension? We don't have time to do an extensive study today about all of the end-time prophecies, but let's begin by reminding ourselves of some of the prophecies that describe the days that lead up to Jesus Christ's return.

What does prophecy reveal about world conditions just before Jesus' return? The overall outline of those events is contained in several passages of scripture. If we just want to look at an outline, we could look at Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21—all of those are parallel synoptic accounts that tell us about the events that come together. I'd like to look at a slightly different one. I'd like to look at a passage that begins in Revelation, chapter 6, which gives us, in a sense, an explanation of those events, of that outline, in a similar way.

Now, let me ask you this while you're turning back to Revelation 6: Does your mind ever wander during a sermon? Mine does. And I want to encourage you, at this point, to let your mind wander. No, I mean that. I truly do. A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Levy gave a very fine message about faith, and he used the example of Abraham; and as I listened to some of the scriptures that he read, once in awhile my mind wandered—not in a bad way, not away from his subject, but he would read a passage and I would think, "Hmm. I hadn't really thought about this." And it may not have been something he said, maybe it was...and it really doesn't matter, because we're in the process of learning and being guided, and I'm sure all of us have had the experience of coming to services and hearing a message that was just what I needed to hear, even though it wasn't what the minister particularly intended to present. But, for whatever reason, God works in our minds to help us see, "Oh, you need to look at this." So I'm going to encourage you to let your minds wander, in a sense, as we read through this—not wander away, not wander off and think about dinner or going to Israel or any of those things—but I'd like you to let your mind wander beyond the words that we read and let those words bring to your mind an image. Let them bring to your mind what happens as we read through these words.

Now, I want to read this passage to you, not from the one that you have before you, probably, the New King James, or some of you, the old King James, but I'd like to read it to you from the New International. I'm not establishing doctrine so I don't mind doing that right now, and I think it captures the picture well. So let me just go through the first eight verses of Revelation 6 here, reading it from that passage. John is writing, and he says:

Rev:6:1-8[1]And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.[2]And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.[3]And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.[4]And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.[5]And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.[6]And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.[7]And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.[8]And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. — I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come." I looked, and there before me was a white horse. Its rider held a bow and he was given a crown and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come," and then another horse came out, a fiery red one. The rider was given power to take peace from the earth, to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword. When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come." I looked and there before me was a black horse. Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures say, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and don't damage the oil and the wine." When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come." I looked and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death and Hades, and the grave was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Now, again, we could tie all of these in and make the point that this means this, this refers to this, and so on; but it's relatively clear. The first one may be unclear in some peoples' minds, but we understand it talks about the influence of a false approach to religion. It has to do with that impact upon the earth, a religion which goes out bent on conquest. So we see certain things in that way.

We read a passage like this and we understand that these words include a great deal of symbolism. We read about horses of different colors, riders, swords, scales. And we recognize that those words describe very real conditions that are going to come upon mankind. Famine is not simply a word. It's an unending, gnawing hunger that ends in a slow, lingering death. Plague is not a clinical description of a medical condition. It's a frightening time when diseases that are caused by invisible pathogens sweep through families and communities, indiscriminately striking down young and old, rich and poor, strong and weak, with seemingly inescapable and capricious certainty. No way to escape. You never know who it's going to be. It describes a time like that.

Jesus Christ told us that He was describing days that would be a time of trouble unparalleled in all of human history. When we consider what we know of the events of history, it's difficult to wrap our minds around that idea and imagine what these days could be like that would truly be worse than anything that's ever happened before. We see today the scenes of destruction from hurricanes or earthquakes or other natural disasters, or the heartrending images that come from areas where there is famine and disease and warfare, and we wonder how much worse can the destruction get? This recent hurricane came through the Houston area. When my wife and I moved there in 1983, within just a few days a category three hurricane came through the area; and we went through that, experienced it, got some ideas about it. The hurricane that just came through there was a category three, so I figured it would be pretty much the same. But when you look at the pictures, it was very different. The storm surge was much higher and it is catastrophic. When you see what has taken place in those areas, it is amazing. You see those things and you think, "But what He says is going to happen is worse than all of that! It's worse than anything in all of history. How do I comprehend that?"

We could go through passage after passage and probably spend days looking at the passages that describe the times that are to come. Now I'd like to just turn, basically, to one today. It's back in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28. We don't often read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, kind of parallel chapters that talk about the covenant that God established; and as he begins each of those chapters, he talks about the very wonderful blessings that were part of the covenant God makes, blessings of abundance and all the things that you can ever desire—peace, completeness, I think, as Mr. Meeker talked about last week in the afternoon. He talked about the Hebrew word that's often used and we translate simply aspeace, the word shalom, but basically it means completeness. It means everything that goes into making up a life that's complete and happy and all that you need to be at peace. It describes all of that in the first few verses of each of those chapters; but in the covenant that the covenant-making God makes, He also says that if the terms that He sets are violated, if man chooses to live a different way, He also covenants about what would come about as a result of that wrong choice. So I'd like to pick it up here in verse 15 of chapter 28. And again, I invite your mind to wander as we go through this.

Deut. 28:15-24 – But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you...It's an interesting description. It's like you're running from something and you can't run fast enough. It's going to get you no matter what you do, no matter how fast you run, no matter how much you think, "I can avoid this. I can go get somewhere where all this won't touch me." No. It will catch you. It will catch up with you. It will come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

Those are painful words. But the covenant-making God covenanted with Israel, and He said, "This is what will happen if you turn away from My way." Has Israel turned away from God's way? What's going to happen? In the next verse, it says:

Deut. 28:25 – The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies...

We often put that in the terms of warfare, but warfare is a lot different nowadays than it was before. You can fall before your enemies without ever leaving your home. Drop down toverse 32.

Deut. 28:32 – Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. You won't be able to do anything about it. Verse 34, So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see.

What would it do to you to have your children taken away and you don't know where they are, what their condition is? Are they alive or dead, are they suffering or what? And He describes a time like that.

Drop down to verses 47-48 – Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

Drop down further, verses 62-67 – You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And it shall be, that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess. Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. In the morning you shall say, "Oh, that it were evening!" And at evening you shall say, "Oh, that it were morning!" because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.

Now, those words are frightening words. There can be no doubt that they are frightening words.

It's not given so that we may say, "Oh, boy, I'd better get busy. I don't want to do that. I'd better find a way to get to a place of safety." God is simply saying, "Look, this is what happens to those who choose not to be faithful to the covenant that God has made." And they're true. They're as true as all the wonderful prophecies about the plowman and the harvester and all of those things. These prophecies are just as true. And in all of our great joy of focusing on the Feast of Tabernacles, the millennial reign of Christ and all of those things, which, obviously, we're supposed to focus on, we can't leave out these words. We can't set these aside as if, "Oh well, don't worry about that. Let's just talk about all these nice things." This is a part of God's word, too. And lest anyone think that the problems are going to occur somewhere else, God inspired the prophet Amos to write some very sobering words. At the beginning of the fifth chapter of Amos, and beginning in verse 1, he says:

Amos:5:1-3[1]Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.[2]The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.[3]For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. – Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel: The virgin of Israel has fallen; she will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land; there is no one to raise her up. For thus says the Lord God: "The city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which goes out by a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel."

If we understand those words correctly, those words are telling us that by the time all of this comes about, by the time that seventh trumpet sounds, nine out of every ten people will be dead. How do you wrap your mind around that? Which nine out of every ten will it be? Will it be the nine most unrighteous? Will it be the nine most evil out of every ten, and the one most righteous out of every ten will survive? That's not the way it describes it. That's not what it says.

Few of us, thankfully, have ever had to go through combat; but those who have remark about the totally capricious nature of death in the combat situation. The people who die very often are not the ones who are poor soldiers. They're not the ones who are doing something wrong. They're not the ones who are least righteous or least likable or any of those things. The person that dies is the person who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact, many times those veterans who come back from combat suffer from what we call post traumatic stress disorder. If you've been watching the news, you'll find that a great number of those coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan right now are suffering from that; and much of it has to do with saying, "Why am I alive? Why did I survive when the person who was sitting right beside me is dead? How do I cope with that? Why do these things happen?" And they struggle very deeply.

It's very similar when natural disasters take place. It's not the evil people who die. It's the person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's how it comes about. We have a different term for that, generally—although PTSD does apply there—we often call it survivor syndrome. "Why did I survive when someone else didn't?"

When we come to this time, we're coming to a time when this world is filled with people who have seen nine out of every ten people they know die; and they're thinking, "Why? Why did I survive? Why am I here and they're gone?" We're going to be addressing that.

As I read through the scriptures and look at the prophecies that we could turn to, I find so many that are deeply moving. I think of all the prophets that I would love to meet. I have great admiration for Jeremiah because Jeremiah is a man of deep passion. Jeremiah is the one who tells us about the change of heart that takes place when the new covenant is written in our hearts and minds. Jeremiah is the one who says, "I tried not to speak this message, but it just blazed up inside of me and I couldn't control it." Jeremiah's the one who says, "My eyes run down with tears for the daughter of my people."

The days that lie ahead are going to be tragic and painful and almost beyond description. Maybe I should take out the word "almost" beyond description. We could spend hours reading the graphic and painful descriptions of what those final days of man's self rule are going to be like. We may be able to understand some of those terrible things—the famines, the wars, the diseases—they may be the result of man's own selfish way of living, without regard for God and His instructions. But some of those events really can't be explained in those terms alone. How does man cause an earthquake or a hurricane? The principle of cause and effect alone cannot fully explain, at least in the physical realm, what God says is going to take place, so why does it take place? Why does God allow these terrible things to happen to mankind when He says He loves man? Why will all of this destruction take place?

God's message has always included both the bright promises of the future for His faithful servants, and the clear promise of punishment for those who disobey. Notice the words of Isaiah. Isaiah, chapter 61, as he begins this chapter, we find this pattern, both the promises of the good and the warning of the result when we make the wrong choices.

Isa:61:1-2[1]The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;[2]To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; – The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound... Those are familiar words. Those are the words Jesus Christ spoke in Nazareth in the synagogue, the first recorded sermon that we have of Him giving in that area. Those are the words He spoke, and He applied them to Himself, and those are wonderful words. I like those words! I like the idea of healing the brokenhearted and proclaiming liberty to the captives. That's a wonderful message. I'm glad we're given the opportunity to bring that; but it doesn't stop there. ...To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord... Yes, there is a time of salvation for all, ...and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn...

Part of the proclamation message that Jesus Christ said He had and that we, in turn have, the message given through Isaiah, part of it is a message of wonderful hope; part of it is the proclamation of the day of God's vengeance. This.

To be true to His own word, God cannot simply overlook evil. And the history of mankind is an unbroken string of 6,000 years of evil and disobedience. In Paul's day, there were those who said, "Oh, no. No, that can't be what those words mean." Probably there were those, as there are in our world today, who said, "Oh, well, those were just prophecies for ancient Israel. They don't have anything to do with us today. God wouldn't do that. God loves us. God would not do that." So the apostle Paul had to address that. It's interesting. He does it several times in the book of Romans. Romans, chapter 3. We're breaking into a discussion that's slightly different than this, but I think we'll get the point very quickly as we look here in verse 5.

Rom:3:5-6[5]But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)[6]God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? – But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? No, we simply prove how righteous God is by the way that we come short. But note the rest of this: Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? He said, (I speak as a man.) You know, I'm just looking physically.Is God unjust who brings wrath? Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?

How could God be a fair and honest judge if He gives blessing to those who are obedient, and He really does nothing to those who aren't? God could not be a fair judge in that way. That would not be a fair and equitable way to do things. And to say that God is unjust when He brings wrath is to say, "Well, you know, God shouldn't punish those who are doing wrong." Well, that's not logical. That's not reasonable. Now, I admit some people have trouble...as I was preparing the message, I found that some people—I'm not talking about within the church; I'm talking primarily in the religious community—some people have trouble applying the word "wrath" to God because the word "wrath" often conjures up this image of somebody who's out of control, somebody who's reached their breaking point and they lash out in anger. That's certainly not what applies to God. That's not it at all. It's not an emotional uncontrolled outburst from God. As a matter of fact, we read all the way back there in Deuteronomy, and we could have read it much earlier, that wrath is a part of the covenant, that God has promised that if you disobey, He will not take it lightly.

Earlier in this same book...let's just go back to chapter 1 here, and notice verse 18. Paul talks about this. He wants us to understand that we can never assume that God's patience and mercy mean that He isn't going to act justly.

Rom:1:18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness... He says, "I don't take this lightly. This is not a small thing to Me." The wrath of God will be vented in this way.

Chapter 2, let's pick it up in verse 5.

Rom:2:5But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; – But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God...

There is coming a day—it just precedes the return of Jesus Christ—in which God's righteous judgment will be made known to all of mankind; and there will be no question for anyone. Let's go on, verse 6:

Verses 6-11 – ...who will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

Nobody gets special treatment. God is just with all of those He deals with. God has patiently withheld His wrath over sin throughout the ages, but one of the last things God revealed to His servants, through the apostle John in the book of Revelation is that God will act in righteous anger to recompense man's evil.

Now, I don't like to use a whole lot of scriptures; but I think in this case I want to throw a few at you from the book of Revelation that we can just go one to another to another, because I simply want to establish the fact that God is clear on this matter. Revelation, chapter 6, we already read the first part of it. Let's pick up verse 16. It talks about this terrible time coming, and it says:

Rev:6:16-17[16]And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:[17]For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? – ...and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

We are told that day will come. That's a part of the end-time prophecies, too.

Rev:14:9-10[9]And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,[10]The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: – Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation." Let's go to verses 19-20:  So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.

Those are painful words to read. It would be nice not to have to read those words, but they're there, and they're true, and they will be fulfilled. God is going to vent this wrath and show mankind sin cannot be taken lightly.

Drop to chapter 15, verse 1:

Rev:15:1And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. – Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete. Drop down to verse 7 of this same chapter: Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.

And, finally, one last passage here, the first verse of the next chapter, verse 1 of chapter 16:

Rev:16:1And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. – Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth."

And we could read through each one, but the point is simply there, that this wrath that is to come upon mankind at the very end is God's. Man does many things that will lead him to the brink of his own collapse. Man does many things that will bring upon him as a natural consequence much of the suffering that will be; but we're also shown that when we get to the very end, what takes place is not natural. It's supernatural. It comes from God Himself.

How could all this wrath and destruction be consistent with a God who so loved the world—probably the most popular scripture in Protestantism in the world, and I'm not putting it down. It's God's word—but how do you fit all this wrath with a God who so loved the world?

Many people feel that love and hate are opposites, and there is some validity to that concept. After all, Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 3 that there is a time to love and a time to hate. But there's another perspective, I think, that can be helpful here as well.

A number of years ago there was a minister who was discussing emotions with a group of young people at summer camp, and he asked them, "OK, what's the opposite of love?" And, of course, young people are always interested, and "Ah"...always in love...so what's the opposite of love? And, of course, the typical answer was hate. One young lady had the most perceptive comment. She said, "No. The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is apathy. The opposite of caring is not caring." That's profound. And there is truth in that in helping us understand what God is doing. God's love for us prohibits Him from being apathetic about sin. Many people have assumed that God's patience and mercy concerning sin is an indication that it's no big deal with Him, that He's kind of apathetic about it. And nothing could be further from the truth. We find in that a very important principle for our own lives. Godly love does not tolerate evil. Godly love does not tolerate evil!

Now, many of you have children. I don't, so I've got to go on your experience, but let me ask you a rhetorical question: Why do parents correct their children? Is it because it's so much fun? No. I don't think anybody would say that. Correcting your children is probably one of the hardest things you do. That's why a lot of the people that we see in our world around us really don't correct them much at all. It's hard to do. It's unpleasant. You don't like doing that. So why do you do it? Well, if you really love your children, you know that you must correct behaviors that are going to harm them. Even then it's unpleasant, even when you don't like to do it, you have to correct them because you know it's going to harm them if you let them go on.

You've probably found yourself at times saying the same thing your parents said. You didn't understand it when you were a child; but as you became an adult, you understand, "This hurts me more than it does you." And every good child thinks, "Hey, don't hurt yourself." But you understand the principle that, as a matter of fact, I have to correct my children even though it's unpleasant because I love my children. The correction is an aspect of loving. You cannot tolerate evil in the way that they live, or you harm them. Would we really expect God to deal with His children any differently? "But surely God wouldn't vent His anger on His children." And I agree. What we read about is not God's emotional outburst of anger, but is it ever helpful for a child to know that his or her behavior provokes anger? Is that harmful for a child to know that? We have often said, correctly, you should never correct your children in anger. I remember saying that years ago in one of the congregations I pastored in Pennsylvania. I remember getting up and saying, "You should never correct your children in anger," and I had a man who walked up to me after services and he said, "You are absolutely right. I do not disagree in any way. You should never correct your children in anger. Do you have any idea how hard that is? Because our children really can do things that get us very upset." OK, is it wrong for them to know that?

I remember years ago in a family relations class Mr. McCullough was teaching to us, he approached that subject; and he said, "You know, you have to be in control of your emotions as a parent. You can't correct a child in anger. You can't lash out because you're angry. That's wrong. But it's good for your child to know that something they've done has made you angry. And when you have the emotional control that's appropriate, you give them the appropriate correction. In the process, they're learning something. They're learning that if I make certain choices, I can provoke anger in other people. Now it's really good to know, it's really good to learn that lesson when the person you provoke loves you! Because if you don't learn it there, you're going to provoke somebody who really doesn't care squat for you, and then the response is probably not going to be very nice. So it's OK to learn that some behaviors produce anger, that they're not acceptable. That doesn't mean you correct them in anger or you lash out. Certainly not that. But it's good for us to understand that sin angers God. He is not apathetic about sin, even though He is amazingly patient about sin.

Ephesians, chapter 5, a couple of passages. Colossians has a very similar passage, that describes the way people were living in kind of a general way, and the behaviors that were unacceptable and then it makes this statement. I'll pick it up in here in Ephesians 5 andverse 6:

Eph:5:5-7[5]For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[6]Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.[7]Be not ye therefore partakers with them. – For this you know... Oh, excuse me, that's verse 5. Well, let's go ahead and read verse 5. That's fine. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.

The phrase "sons of disobedience" is a very graphic phrase. It's one of those expressions that you find in scripture. It doesn't necessarily mean an individual who is the direct genetic offspring of someone, but it means someone who's characterized by something. The sons of disobedience are those people whose lives are characterized by being disobedient. So in this sense, Paul says, "Those whose lives are characterized by disobeying God are the ones upon whom the wrath of God is going to come." And, of course, if you come across someone who thinks you don't really need to obey God, it kind of puts them in a bad spot, doesn't it? It makes it pretty clear here that God expects obedience.

What does this tell me about the proper kind of Godly love in my life? What does it tell me about the way I'm supposed to be thinking and living? For one thing, it tells me that Godly love, the kind of love that Romans 5, verse 5, says is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that kind of Godly love is more than just warm feelings of affection for one another. Godly love, expressed both toward God and toward my brothers and sisters, will also involve a willingness to confront evil and a genuine hatred for what is contrary to God's way.

I want to again turn back to the book of Psalms and quickly go through just a few to remind us of what David was inspired to tell us, David and the other writers of the Psalms, were inspired to tell us. Let's go back to Psalm 26. Let's just begin there. Psalm 26, and notice what it tells me about the way I'm supposed to think. Psalm 26, and I just want to note hereverse 5. David writes:

Ps. 26:5 – I have hated the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked.

David says, "There's something for me to hate." Remember Solomon said that there's a time to hate. "There's something for me to hate. I hate a gathering together of people who are doing evil. I don't want to be there. I don't want to be in the midst of that. I don't want to be a part of it. I have no desire to sit in a group of people who are trying to do evil." Now, again, I think we could think of many different examples where that would fit for us. "I don't belong there. I don't belong in this environment."

Let's go up to Psalm 97, and again, just one verse, Psalm 97, verse 10:

Ps. 97:10 – You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

If you love God...do you? Do you love God? You who love God, HATE evil! Not tolerate it, not kind of look away. Hate is an active thing. Hate involves an attitude, an approach toward that which is evil. It isn't neutrality toward evil. It isn't love God and be neutral about evil. It is HATE that which is evil. Now, we're not talking about hating evil people. We're not talking about people that are to be hated. Don't misunderstand me in that. I'm not talking about that at all.

Now, how would you apply that? One example that I think of...and again, it's my own script. It's not yours, so if you don't come from that background, all right. My wife reminds me she didn't come from that background, so sometimes it isn't saying the same thing for her, and that's fine. I'm not criticizing that in any way. We come from different backgrounds. I came to the truth from a background of attending a little church every Sunday. The family was there. We did things. My dad was a deacon and all of those things, and we came to the truth from that, OK. When I began to understand the truth, I began to see things a little differently, and my approach toward what I had been taught changed. Now, let me go to Psalm 119 here and tie in three quick verses in this psalm that help to explain what I'm talking about to illustrate.

Ps. 119:104 – Through Your precepts I get understanding...we would all agree with that. We've come to understand a lot about God and the way to live life through God's precepts. And then it says, therefore, as a result of that, as a result of realizing that it's God's precepts that teach me how to live, I hate every false way. Every way that's false, I'm not neutral about, I'm not tolerant about. I hate it. I actively hate it.

Verse 128 – Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right; I hate every false way.

One more, verse 163 – I hate and abhor lying, but I love Your law.

It says, "I hate every false way. I hate those things that are wrong. I hate those things that are lies."

When I came to the truth, I had to recognize that what I had been taught about God, about Jesus Christ, about what it means to be a Christian, were lies. They were not true; they were lies. And I understood that God was telling me, "You can't be neutral about these things. That false way, you should hate." Not the people. There were some very fine genuine people who expressed a great deal of concern for our family when we quit going to that little Sunday morning thing. And I certainly never felt badly toward any of them. I didn't hate a one of them. That's not anything to do with what we're talking about. But the way that was taught is a lie. It has deceived millions upon millions, billions upon billions of people down through the ages; and we must hate that lie. And I think that's one reason why, when a few years back we found some of those things, some of those ideas starting to be introduced back again, that for many of us it wasn't just simply a matter of, "Oh, I respectfully disagree." Uh uh. We said, "I will not go back to that. I will not." And we should feel that way.

Solomon summarized this succinctly in one verse of Proverbs. Proverbs 8 and verse 13. He says:

Pr. 8:13 – The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

Can we do any less? Can we feel any less about those things? We live in a society that promotes or prides itself in what is called multiculturalism. Multiculturalism says that each person's beliefs are of equal value. No one's beliefs are any better or more valid than anyone else's. Now, I think this has been on my mind, not only because of this message, but also we started ABC classes again, we picked up the Former Prophets class, and that covers the history of Israel from the time they crossed the Jordan as a nation until the time they were carried away in captivity by the Babylonians, and one of the things I see there is that one of the great causes for Israel's collapse was multiculturalism. They thought, "I can worship God and I can give equal credence to the religions around me. I can do all of this. I can tolerate those things. I can adjust to them. I can worship God, but I can do these other things as well."

I was discussing this with my wife the other day, and I said, "You know, one of the real problems of multiculturalism is that it requires you to view everyone's religion as equal." And she said to me, "That's not really the problem. The problem is it requires you to view everyone's God as equal." You know, that's true. That's exactly what it is. We're in a world that discourages us from hating evil. "You're not supposed to hate. Oh no, don't be that way. Don't hate evil." We're told we need to be more tolerant, more understanding. And that's a lie. If we're to think like God, then we must hate what God hates in the way God hates it.

We've heard a number of messages about loving God and loving one another, and that's as it should be. I'm not critical of that whatsoever. I'm not trying to in any way imply something wrong there. But in this message, quite frankly, I want to encourage you to hate. I want you to hate as God hates, what God hates. Paul very powerfully makes the connection between Godly love and hating evil in one passage in Romans, chapter 12. I think it's profound. We have a tendency when we read Romans 12 to view it as a group of aphorisms, as if each portion, each clause is almost a little bumper stick that we could print up and stick on our car. But it's a unit. It goes together, and I think it's fascinating to see what Paul says here as you look in Romans 12, verse 9. He says:

Rom. 12:9-10 – Let love be without hypocrisy. That's a great statement. I mean, that could stand all by itself, and you could talk for a long time about that. But, you know what? Paul didn't stop writing there. Paul went on to describe, what does love that is not hypocritical look like. What's it like? How is genuine Godly love that is not hypocritical, how does it manifest itself? The very next words are, Abhor what is evil. "Abhor" is a very strong word. It means to find something repugnant, repulsive, and he says, "If love is to not be hypocritical, it must include as a component an absolute revulsion of that which is evil. Cling to what is good.That's a part of genuine love that's not hypocritical. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love...Yes, that's a part of unhypocritical Godly love as well...in honor giving preference, or as some of the translations put it, "taking the lead" for one another, not waiting for somebody else to show respect for you, but taking the lead and showing respect.

Yes, love must be without hypocrisy. Godly love is without hypocrisy. We all know that the ultimate model of Godly love is Jesus Christ. We also know that we're instructed to have the mind of Jesus Christ in us, that we are to learn to think as Jesus Himself thinks. The prophesies that describe the days leading up to the return of Jesus Christ show us that Jesus Christ will be God's special emissary in carrying out God's wrath against the evil of man's world.

Revelation 19 and verse 15. We all know that Revelation 19 describes that time of Jesus Christ's coming in power. And we pick it up here in verse 15:

Rev:19:15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. – Now out of His mouth, referring to Jesus Christ, goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. This is an intensive form of the way the Greek is written. It's not just "He will rule them with a rod of iron." It's "HeHimself, He personally will rule them with a road of iron," and He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Jesus Christ is the emissary. We are to have the mind of Jesus Christ, and He will tread out the winepress of the wrath of Almighty God.

In describing the role of Jesus Christ for all eternity, the writer of the book of Hebrews was inspired to quote one of the great Messianic psalms. Rather than read it from Hebrews, let's go back, as a final scripture, to that one in Psalm 45 and read what it says about this One who is to return with the seventh trumpet and reign and rule on this earth, establishing the Kingdom of God. Psalm 45 and verse 6.

Ps. 45:6-7 – Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions. You're anointed. You're to be the Messiah. You're to rule, because You love righteousness and You hate wickedness.

The Father says He has entrusted His Kingdom, His entire plan, to Jesus Christ, specifically because Jesus loves righteousness and hates wickedness. What do we hear of Godly love? There must never be a missing dimension for us. If we want to have the mind of Jesus Christ in us, we, too, must make sure that we love what is right and good and hate what is evil. Anything less fails to come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. As we approach the fall holy days and their glorious promises, let's remember that there must also be some very painful days ahead so that all mankind can learn once and for all that true Godly love will never tolerate that which is evil.