God's holy wrath is a divine attribute that arises from His perfect holiness and justice when encountering sin. The sermon argues against the common notion that God hates sin but loves the sinner, asserting that Scripture shows God's hatred extends to all workers of iniquity. This wrath is not archaic or barbaric but a fundamental aspect of God's character, essential for understanding His love and mercy. The passage in Romans 3:19-26 is central, explaining that all have sinned and deserve God's wrath, but Christ's redemptive work on the cross appeases this wrath, demonstrating God's righteousness and making Him both just and the justifier of believers.
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I invite you to turn to Romans chapter three this morning. Romans chapter three. Let us look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in the precious name of thy dear son, as we examine this portion of the word of God and the great subject of thy holy justice, thy holy wrath, we pray that we may have a new and a deeper insight of who thou art. and what our blessed Savior did on our behalf at the cross in Calvary. Speak to each heart today. Deliver us from anything that would detract.
And may our thoughts and our minds be occupied with a person of thy dear son, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Three Lord days ago we examined part one of this subject of God's holy wrath. And we examined Nehemiah chapter one the last time. Now today we're continuing that subject of God's holy wrath. The last time we were together we saw from God's word that God is the true and the living God. He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Moses, the God of Joshua, the God of John the Baptist.
Your God and my God is often marked throughout history by holiness and by wrath and by anger. The modernist today and modern religion is marked many times by being ashamed of that particular aspect of the God we worship. But God isn't ashamed of. God declares that he is known by the justice which he executes. And so we read in the ninth psalm. The scriptures connect God's wrath and anger against sin with God's holiness and with God's justice.
We gave a definition for wrath a few weeks ago. And that definition is simple. It is our sin when it is encountered with God's wrath. In other words, God's wrath is the result of sin encountered by divine holiness. This is really the third message on the subject of God's holiness. And we need to gird up the loins of our minds in order that we remember what has gone before. Whenever anybody in that word of God came into contact, whether it was Isaiah, Job, or John, whenever they came in contact with the holiness of God and with a person of God, they melted in his presence.
They were awed by a sense of their own sinfulness, and they were awed by the fact they are filled with moral filth. And this is true of everybody, not only Isaiah, Job, and John, and others, or even Peter. It is true of everybody who really comes under conviction of sin, who comes to the Lord for salvation. It is God who saves sinners. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Now when we examine the holiness of God, we learn that God is not only a God of love, but he is first and foremost a God of holiness, and holiness demands that justice against sin and the sinner be executed.
One of the problems of our religious society in which we live today is we have a lot of cliches. And we need to examine cliches that are used by many, by preachers and others, in the light of the Word of God. Did you ever hear this statement? God hates sin, but he loves a sinner. Ever hear that statement? That doesn't stand the test of all Scripture. You see, in the fifth psalm and the third verse, If he said of God, thou hateest all workers of iniquity.
The workers of iniquity are sinners. And they are sinners under the wrath of a holy God. And we've overlooked that in our day. We have a tendency to look at, to wink at sin and to downplay the holiness of God. And the reason for it, there are many in our day who consider God's wrath against sin archaic. And there are many who even think it's barbaric. And then many today, in sophisticated society, someone will say, well, my God isn't that way.
The God I worship is a God of love. Well, how do we answer that? We answer that by simply saying that person is ignorant of the Word of God for a number of reasons. A person who says, my God isn't like that, that person is really saying that there are a lot of little gods running around and you choose whichever one suits your personality. That's not the truth of the Word of God. We do not pick and choose.
Our God is the only God. Our God, as our brother read from the scripture this morning, is a creator. And he's going to bring all into judgment. For we must all appear, the scripture says, before the judgment bar of God. You see, these people don't believe that wrath and anger and love and mercy can be present in one being at the same time. If you think it's true for a moment, you realize that that just simply can't be. It isn't true of human beings, and it isn't true of God.
For human beings can be merciful and loving at the same time. We love our children, but that doesn't mean we don't discipline them. And God loves his creation. He made it. And he's going to deal with his creation. If you choose to reject God's justice in favor of God's mercy, if you choose to forget about the fact that God is holy, and you want to only think of the love of God, I need to ask you a question this morning that I want you to think through. Where do you learn about the love of God?
Where did you learn about it? Did you learn about it going through the cancer ward of a hospital? Did you learn about the love of God vacationing in Nigeria or Bangladesh? Did you learn about the love of God studying the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg and Spangler's Spring and Gettysburg, where the Union armies and the Confederate armies met for water. It was the only water available. And it was a place where there was a truth. And relatives met there. They talked one with another.
And then they went back to fighting. Is that where you learned about the love of God? Or did you learn about the love of God by examining city life in the midst of a ghetto? You see, none of the great cultures of the past, whether Greek, Roman, or Chinese, ever considered God to be a God of love. So I ask the question, why do you? And that's a question we must ask. And you can't get away from it. You say, but I got the idea of the God of love from the Bible. First John chapter four.
And verse eight says, God is law. Oh, that's wonderful, isn't it? How come to learn of the love of God we appeal to the word of God? But when it comes to the teaching of God from the same word of God on the subject of his wrath and the subject of his holiness, we don't want to accept it. You see how important the holiness of God is That same Bible that tells us that God is wrong, tells us that God is holy, and it explains to us his almighty wrath against sin.
As plain as possible, as plain as a nose in your face, the Bible declares that God is a God of love, but it also declares that God is a God of holiness and justice. and that he will by no means clear the guilty. Until you understand the holiness and justice of God, you will never appreciate the love of God. The great hymns that are sung were written by men who knew the holiness of God, and they had a deep appreciation for the love of God.
And until you understand the holiness and justice of God, you will not understand the love of God. God is holy and just, friends. He is opposed to sin. But God is also merciful and loving. These two dimensions of God's character are not contradictory. Now they may seem so at times, but in the person of God, and in the revelation of God, we find perfect consistency in all God's acts. Nowhere is this perfect consistency seen more.
than in the redemption that God has provided for sinners. And therefore we're going to read now from the third chapter of Romans. Romans chapter three, and we want to begin our reading of verse nineteen. Apart from this revelation in Romans chapter three, here we have the great explanation of God's love, God's wrath, God's holiness as revealed at Calvary. Verse nineteen, where we read, Now we know that what thingsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in these sights, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God verse twenty three declares that all men are sinners that all are under sin and all deserve the wrath of a holy God.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse twenty four, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The apostle now, having declared in verse twenty three that all are under sin, and that all, no matter who it is, deserves the just, holy wrath of God. Even grandma deserves the just, holy wrath of God. But now when we come to verse twenty-four, notice that word, being justified.
freely by His grace in verse twenty four being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus the apostle now calls our attention to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus how can that be if sin deserves judgment and God is a God of justice and holy wrath how can God redeem anybody and be a leopard to answer that we have the glory of redemption and we have the glory of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ it is a glory that the Apostle Paul experienced when he wrote Galatians six fourteen but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world so you see In this passage, you'll notice verse twenty-five, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the
forbearance of God. It was God's mercy, my friend, that caused God to exercise his forbearance in not sending the man to hell the moment that he sinned. the forbearance of God. Notice that word propitiation in that verse, verse twenty-five. Propitiation, what does it mean? That word means to appease God's wrath. The word assumes that God is angry. God's wrath must be propitiated. In other words, when it says through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be an appeaser of wrath.
It is the redemption in Christ Jesus that has appeased the wrath of God. The work of Christ appeases God's anger by paying the penalty for our sin. Notice verse twenty-six. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just that God might exercise divine justice and divine holiness and also be the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. God is both just and the justifier.
In other words, there is a declaration to declare his righteousness. There is a declaration or a demonstration. A lot. His love? No, His righteousness. Don't forget that. His righteousness. What God does, He does in righteousness. It is there declared. Now, it's very obvious that the cross is a demonstration of God's love. Greater love hath no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. But this text, in explaining what the cross really does on behalf of those who are under sin.
It says it demonstrates his righteousness. You see, his love and his justice and that he is both just and the justifier. All are demonstrated at the cross of Calvary God punishes sin. Nowhere In the universe, has sin ever been demonstrated in all its ugliness as it has been at the cross? Can you imagine what man did at the cross? For two and a half years, our Lord had been out meeting the public.
He continuously blessed men, but he never cursed them. When he met a leper, he cleansed him. When he met a blind man, he gave him sight. When he met a deaf man, he opened his ears. When he met a dead man, he raised him to life. But what's the heart of man like? We don't want him. We will not have this man to reign over us. That is a demonstration of the heart of man. That's what Romans three, twenty-three means. for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God gave man in the person of Christ the greatest opportunity to do good that man ever had.
He could have loved the person of God's dear son for all his loveliness, but instead man manifested his love of sin. and his rebellion against God. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the people in the first century were no different than Philip. And they're no different than you. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But you see, here's the greatest demonstration of God's righteousness. God did something at the cross. God made Christ, his only beloved son, to be sinned for us.
After man had done his worst, God, the Father, that unseen hand, comes down to Calvary's cross, the cup of divine wrath, the cup our Lord Jesus prayed about in Gethsemane, where he says, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. That unseen hand reaches down. And our blessed Lord drinks that cup. We sing occasionally at the Lord's Supper. Death and the curse were in that cup. Oh, Christ was full for thee. But thou hast drained the last dark drop. Tis empty now for thee. That bitter cup of love drank it up.
Left but the love for thee. God is just. And God maintained his justice. His wrath against sin was poured out at the cross on Calvary's Hill, not against those who murdered the Son of God, but against the one who was murdered, his own beloved Son. And we sing from the heart at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. Not the labors of my hand can fulfill my law's demands. You can't come to God with full hands.
You have to come with empty hands. God will accept nothing from you. In payment for sin, only Christ can satisfy no one else. And there at the cross and Calvary's Hill, God remains just, yet he is the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. It means, friends, that Christ Jesus the Lord was forsaken by God at Calvary, that you and I might be able to say, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
God's holy wrath. We're going to read a hymn from our hymn book, Three hundred fifteen. I invite you to turn to it and we'll read it together. Augustus, top lady who wrote this hymn, it's a familiar hymn that everybody knows. He knew what it meant that God is just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Since he's one of the greatest hymns in the hymn book, friends. Every line of it is important. Rock of ages, cleft for somebody else. No, friends, I was saved the day that I believe it was cleft for me.
For you, friends, Christ endured the wrath of God. Rack of ages left for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy ribbon side which flows. Be of sin, the double cure, saved from wrath, saved from going down to the pit, but made pure in this life for God saved these people from their sins. And we can tell that a person he saved Just say goodbye to sin. Saved from wrath and made me pure.
Notice verse two. Could my tears forever flow? You see, a person isn't saved by shedding a lot of tears. Now, you may shed tears when you come in contact with a holy God and you realize how sinful you are. But the tears don't save anybody. Could my tears forever flow? could my zeal no respite know this for sin could not atone thou must save and thou alone in my hand no price I bring simply to thy cross I claim the third stanza is omitted in our book the third stanza of this great hymn says nothing In my hand I bring, simply, to thy cross I cling, naked, come to thee for dress, helpless, lift to thee for grace, far alike to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die.
Now the third stanza that we have here, when I draw my final dress, When mine eyes shall close in death. When I rise to worlds unknown and behold thee on my throne, there is no one ever misses God. For the word of God says it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this a judgment. When I rise to worlds unknown and behold thee on thy throne, there is one thing that will endure. Rock of ages. Calvary friends. The wrath of God against sin. And not in the person of Christ.
Christ died for our sin according to the scriptures. Rock of ages clip for me. Let me hide myself in the air. Let me ask you a question. Are you in Christ? See, God's wrath, God's holiness is very real. And we won't have an appreciation for his love until we know something of his holiness and justice. The problem with Christianity today is we don't know what we're saved from.
And the reason we don't know what we're saved from is because we have lost sight of who God really is. And because we don't know what we're saved from, we don't know what we're saved unto. And we're living our lives on such a low plane instead of rejoicing in the greatness of what our Lord has done. I directed a youth congress at Greenwood Hills a number of years for college students and senior high school students. One year there's a girl came, but she was in my class.
We had a lot of workshops every morning and classes, and I was teaching a class and she was in my class. Her name was Kathy Schaefer. That class that morning, I happened to mention the fact that my wife was from Somerset. I don't know why, except Divine Providence. And after the class, she said, I live in Somerset, but I'm working as a nurse, an RN, in a hospital in Pittsburgh. And she said, and she told me who she came. I knew another RN from Pittsburgh who brought her to the Youth Congress. And she said, I wish you'd visit my mother sometime when you go out to Somerset.
I said, I'll be out there in three weeks. We plan on making a visit to my wife's home. I went to see Mrs. Schaefer, and boy, she invited me in. We talked about an hour, and her daughter was there, and then she told me to come back that night. Come back at ten o'clock. She said, we'll all be here. I came back at ten, but they weren't all there. They came around midnight. About two that morning, we talked till about two o'clock. I realized something. Mrs. Schaefer was very religious. She was in church every time the doors opened.
She went to even to a church that washed feet. They washed one another's feet. That doesn't make you any better or any worse. might make you a little cleaner I don't know but she went to a church where they washed tea and she thought she was everything was all right I realized that this woman is religious at all I asked her she had a blank piece of paper on that piece of paper I wrote the words I Philip Tomberger deserve I looked at her I said Mrs. Schaefer what do you think I deserve from God And boy, she made a whole list of things that she thought I deserve from God.
She must have really liked me. And then I said, let me finish the sentence. I, Philip Thumburger, deserve to go to hell. And then I signed my name to it. I said, now will you write the same thing and sign your name to it? I handed her that paper. It shocked her to no end. Weeks later, I kept telling myself, you should know better than staying in someone's home till two in the morning and keeping them out of bed.
But then I got a letter. She said, no one ever shocked me like you did with that letter. For the first time in my life, I saw. what I really was before God and what I truly deserved. And it caused me to run for salvation to the person of Christ. My friend, you're under sin by nature. Your heart is rebellious against God. And if you've never believed to the saving of your soul, you need to run to Calvary.
For there God is just, and there God becomes the justifier of all who believe in Christ. And I tell you something, if you believe in Christ, he'll save you with an eternal salvation. For he has promised him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast off. Why not come? come to him he alone is a savior there isn't any other god's justice god's wrath is real and calvary is accrued believe on the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved let's pray together our father in the name of thy dear son We thank you afresh for the gospel of saving grace.
We thank you that we have a gospel to proclaim. It's real. It's genuine. And the resurrection of our Lord from the dead is a proof that what he did at Calvary is acceptable with thee. And now our Father, we commend this company to thee and to the word of your grace. which is able to build everyone who truly believes in these, is able to build them up and give them an inheritance among all that are sanctified through Jesus Christ the Lord.