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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want you to take your Bible and turn to the Book of Matthew, the Book of Matthew. So we’re just going to do a little study in Iran a subject that I believe is very important. Jonathan Edwards, I believe it was, had a sermon he called, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. But in Matthew chapter three, John the Baptist is on the scene, four runner of Jesus Christ and he’s talking to the people who came to the baptism that believed on him on Jesus Christ and they were baptized.

they were baptized not to be saved, they believed the promise that he said a concern in Jesus Christ that the Messiah is coming and they were to believe on him. And so other people came to the baptism, see what was going on. So he says in verse 7, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers who have warned you to, and here’s the topic that I want to talk about this morning, flee from the wrath to come.

Well, whatever it is, you should flee from the wrath to come. Now, just dying isn’t that much of a wrath. I mean, people die every day. People you know and love, everybody dies. But to flee from the wrath to come, Didn’t you look down here in verse 12 talking about Jesus Christ who’s going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire? Those who believe on Christ are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Those who do not believe on Christ are baptized with fire.

And that’s not the Holy Ghost. That’s a literal fire, the lake of fire. There’s a lot of people talking about you, you got to get the baptism of fire. You can have it. So I don’t want it. So you look there in verse 12, whose fan is in his hand and he will 30 purge his floor, gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. He’s explaining what he’s talking about. So there’s a wrath to flee, flee from the wrath to come.

Look there in the book of Revelation chapter 6, Revelation and chapter 6 and looking verse 16. So here in the book of Revelation in chapter 6 he’s talking about something that’s coming down the road. It doesn’t look like it’s a very pleasant thing. So he says in verse 16 and said to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that said it on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand.

So the Bible says in Matthew, flee from the wrath to come and then God is pouring out his wrath upon the earth. Now this wrath that God’s talking about, what does he really mean by that and what is going to happen? And we’re told to flee from the wrath to come. So you’re right there in Revelation, so look in Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. And you’ll notice that when Jesus comes back to the earth in power and great glory in every eye will see Him.

He tells us something else here in the book of Revelation chapter 19. He says here in verse 15, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that withered he should smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treaded the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God. What happened to this God of love? What happened to this little sweet little Jesus boy born in a manger? He wouldn’t hurt a fly.

And yet the Bible calls it the wrath. Now this lamb is growing up and Jesus is coming back and he has the wrath of God to be poured out upon this earth. Now there’s a few things that we need to always keep in mind about this anger and the wrath of God. It’s like having a cup or a bowl. The Bible talks about the cup of his indignation talks about the bowls or the wrath of God that he’s going to pour out upon the earth.

the earth. But take your Bible and look there with me in the book of Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. God doesn’t do everything right away. God is a very patient God. He was talking to Abraham. He was telling them about some things that were going to take place with the nation of Israel. Going to be down into a country that’s going to be there for 400 years. and then God’s going to bring them out. But He makes this statement here in verse 13.

And He said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. So God’s telling Abraham this. Moses wrote it after it all doesn’t happen. But Abraham knew it. it would be down there for 400 years in Egypt. And then He says in verse 14, and also that nation whom they shall serve, will I judge. And afterwards shall they come out with assistance.

And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. And so He died about 175 years old. I’d say that’s pretty fair. But then He says, but in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again. For the iniquity of the emirides is not yet full.” God says he’s going to bring judgment upon those in the land of Canaan. But you see, God’s wrath is not yet full. It’s not to the point where God is ready to destroy, to wipe them out.

God is patient. The Bible talks about when the cup is full, when the bowl is full. Now, you and I need to understand there’s God is a patient God, a loving God, a wonderful God. But God, because he is God, hates sin. Because he hates sin, he judges sin. And the Bible says that he is going to pour out his wrath because of sin. So when you think about it, what is wrath? Wrath is God’s holy anger towards sin.

Wrath is God’s holy anger towards sin. Now the question comes down is this. Does God pour out his wrath upon God’s children? Because as many verses it talks about the wrath of God. And so some people believe that God is going to pour out his wrath even upon his children. And when you stand at the judgment seat of Christ and you’re going to be judged by God and you’re going to have to give an account of things done in the body, whether good or bad, you’re going to have to suffer the consequences.

God’s going to pour out his wrath. God’s really going to be angry at get some of his children on the day that we have to stand at the judgments, he to Christ. So is that true? I don’t believe God pours out his wrath upon his children. I don’t believe God does that. So God’s righteous anger is used over 20 different ways explained in Hebrew words in the Old Testament. And so some of those words, he uses this as like a consuming fire and he talks about it been burning and he talks about it in various ways of kindled fears, we’ve already seen, talks about the fury, indignation.

All these are terms that are used to show God’s anger towards sin. Now in the New Testament there’s two words that are used. One is Oregon, the yellow one is thymos. One is used 36 times. The other one, thymos, is used 18 times. One word refers to anger as a slow burn. And then there’s another word, thymos, that uses anger as a… Boom. Immediate, a burst. Now, have you ever seen people who have the slow burn and those are explosive?

Both anger. One is controlled because they’re probably trying to count to 10. And then you don’t know what they’re going to do. So you’re trying to have that slow burn. And sometimes you just sit there and you can see like a teapot, you know, the steam starts coming out. And you don’t know is it going to explode? Now you know if you’re wise the Bible says, no thy wife. That means you should know what causes them to explode and then do it.

And avoid it. A sign of wisdom is knowing what tees off. Sets that slow burn or that explosion. And men have it too, don’t you? So everybody experiences anger. God has anger. But remember, God cannot have anger and wrath when there is no sin. Wrath is not an attribute of God as part of his attributes like God is love. But that’s something he’s always had. That is part of his character. Anger, wrath is part because sin came to be.

And because of sin, then God has anger because of anger, God has wrath. So wrath has not always been around. God has wrath and God can demonstrate his wrath, but God did not always have wrath because there was not always sin. Now, let me just read this to you. Wrath against sin cannot be an eternal attribute of God’s character because there can be no wrath towards sin when no sin existed. I kind of like the old school for reference Bible.

You’ll hear people talk about it and knock it and all this other stuff. That’s fine. Go ahead. I’ve been using it for 55 years. I love the book. I love most of the notes. The notes are not inspired of God. But this is what C.I. Schofield said, A Christian cannot be a subject of divine wrath. Whether that wrath be poured out on earth or reserved to the lake of fire, the child of God needs to understand. Jesus Christ took God’s wrath against all my sins on the cross.

He took my wrath. Therefore I do not believe God pours out his wrath upon his children. Now when we talk about chasening or discipline, it’s always because of love to restore us, to get us back to the Lord. Wrath once delivered is not for the purpose of restoration. It’s God’s judgment that falls and it’s too late. Once the judgment falls, there’s judgment. And it’s because of God’s anger and he pours out his wrath. Now, if you, for example, have never trusted Christ as your Savior, the Bible says, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.

But he says also that the wrath of God abideth on him, that does not believe. The wrath has not yet fell, but if you do not accept Christ as your Savior, the wrath of God will fall. And you will be in a literal fire burning hell for all eternity. That is why he says, flee from the wrath to come. In every person’s life, every person’s going to die. Now the wrath of God will never touch me. because somebody accepted it for me.

But if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, the wrath of God is going to fall. It’s just like the righteousness of God is unto all, but it’s only upon those that believe. So when you believe on Christ, you have eternal life. He goes on to say this, even if it were a matter of inference and mere argumentation, one might ask why divine wrath should be poured out upon the bride of the Son of God. Can you picture Christ is going to take and marry this beautiful bride right after he beats the tar out of her and give her many stripes?

I don’t think so. I don’t think a Christian is going to be beaten with many or few, any stripes. We may not have all the honor that we could have had, or all the dressed in the righteous acts of all the saint that we ought to have had and could have had, but I don’t believe that the Judgement of Christ is to be something that we are afraid of happening and afraid to stand. We may be ashamed, but we not to fear a punishment by God upon any of His children.

Otherwise, all of God’s children be scared to death for the Lord to come back and take us to the Judgement Seat of Christ. I believe it is a blessed hope and not a place of terror. Anyway, he goes on to say, every sin of every member of that body was laid on Jesus’ Christ. And if some ingenuity of sophistry, which is nothing more than exercise and logic, people trying to use logic to explain everything, should seem to offer such explanation of so inconceivable a thing as that God should visit the second time wrath upon those for whom his son has born wrath.

It would still remain to answer the obvious fact that no part of the biblical record mentions a church or a Christian as an object of God’s wrath. Don’t that make you breathe a little bit better? All of your sins have been paid for. You will not be punished because of sin. In the world, you may commit sins and there will be crimes that you will commit and government will say that it It will take out upon you the wrath of government and you can suffer great consequences.

But don’t blame that on God. You did that. A man by the name of J. E. Strombak in a book he wrote called So Great Salvation. He said this, the say person is unalterably the object of the love of God and God deals with him on that basis alone. Let no one think that God ever becomes angry with one who has been sa- You did that.

been saved, there is no wrath of God at any time upon those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. You see, what if I do something wrong? He still deals with you on the basis of love, and you’re his child, and he will come after you. He will seek you. He may put a hedge of thorns about you, but it’s all because he loves you, and he does it because he wants to restore you to where you ought to be.

He wants you to walk with him because he cares about you. He wants you to abide in Him. But what God does in the Christian’s life is not the wrath of God where God is, he may take you home and he can allow that to take place. But now a man by the name of Tom’s, Stigles, he said this and I kind of agree with him so I want to share with you. He wrote God hated. hated our sins so much that He poured out His wrath on our substitute.

Look at it, God hated our sins so much that God poured out His wrath on our substitute, which was Christ. Then He wrote, God loved us so much that He poured out His wrath upon our substitute. He loved us so much, he hated sin so much, that he poured out his wrath upon our substitute. And he loved us so much that he poured out his wrath upon our substitute. So we have a substitute that took and became sin for us, paid our sin debt for us, so that he doesn’t have to pour out his wrath upon his children.

Bible and turn to the book of James in chapter 1. James chapter 1, James chapter 1, and look in verse 19. You’ll notice where he says in verse 19, Wherefore might be levered brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to burn. Slow to wrath, but the word means slow to burn. Have you ever heard of the being long suffering? See some people are short fused. You light them and there’s no time between the time you lift the fuse and the time they explode.

God talks about being long suffering, long fused. So that it can build and you have time to get control so that you don’t say or do something that you shouldn’t say. Isn’t it a shame that sometimes you explode and then later on you wish you hadn’t done it? Isn’t the words I was wrong? I’m sorry. So difficult to say. It’s supposed to be so painful that you never want to have to do it again. And that’s why slow to anger, slow to wrath, so that you don’t do that on somebody else.

So, as you read it, you kind of get maybe just a little bit of an idea about this anger that we can have. Can Christians have anger? Yes. But your anger is not to lead you to have wrath. And there’s a reason why, because of the consequences. your Bible in turn to Psalms 78, Psalms 78. It is right after Psalms 77. Psalms 78 and look in verse 38. In verse 38 says, but He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, destroyed them not.

Yet many a time turned He His anger away and did not stir all his wrath. See, God had wrath and God has anger because of what people do and it brings upon them a judgment. Now, he talks about this down through here about how many times he bent over backwards for the nation of Israel. You would think they would have learned their lesson but have you ever had children that you could spank them and then they turn around and do it again.

It’s like it didn’t make any difference. Of course today we don’t chase in our children like that because they’re not that bad. But the Bible does say about this chasting business. But those that are God’s children, God chases. It’s not spoken of so much as like God is going to pour out His wrath upon you. No, He poured out the wrath of my sent upon Jesus Christ. Now in Jonah chapter 4 and verse 2, I want you to see that.

I think that’s an important verse. Jonah chapter 4 and verse 2. And you’ll notice there in verse 2. He makes a statement, Jonah chapter 4 verse 2, and he prayed unto the Lord and said, Oh, I pray the, Oh Lord, was this not my saying? Isn’t this what I told you? Lord, I told you so. I told I knew this is where you’d be. A Lord was not this my sin when I was yet in my country. Therefore I fled before unditarsious.

For I knew that thou art a gracious God. Merciful, slow to anger, slow to anger, and of great kindness and repenting of the evil. See, God was gonna judge them, but the people did what God wanted them to do. They believed on them. And so the Bible tells us that God has this anger, there’s this slow burn that God is patient but also God, see has a bowl or the cup of his indignation and God is very slow to anger but it builds and builds and builds and when the cup gets full, it’s gonna overflow.

when it gets full, and I don’t know what it would take in everybody’s life, when God says, that’s enough. Now God may do the same thing when it comes to our disobedience. God’s children, not walking with the Lord as we ought to. God can’t chase us, but isn’t God patient with his children gracious with his children? Does God give you a little leeway so that you can make some decisions on your own. Doesn’t he make the will of God wide enough that you can do all the right you want to or then that framework?

But no, it’s not good enough for most children. They wanna go on the other side. Regalves of all the right you can do. Regalves of all the fruit you could eat in that garden. No, you had to do that one little thing that he says not to do. Regalves of how much of the will of God we can have and we can rejoice in. No, we want to do that thing. He says, I can’t do. And just to show you that I can do it and get away with it, I’ll just do it real quick and get back.

But the only thing is, is people don’t understand. You ever heard the story about the tar baby? You get stuck. Sin is a trap, and that’s what it does to most of God’s children. Now, go to your Bible to the book of Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14. just know that the Bible says that it’s coming. The wrath of God is coming. If you haven’t trusted Christ as your Savior, the very moment your heart stops and there’s nobody there to revive it, it’s over.

This is Revelation chapter 14 and look there in verse 10. Get what he the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture. That means is no dilution with mercy. In other words God’s going to pour it out and there’s no mercy, which is poured out without mixer into the cup of his ancient nation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

Do you like the definition of the wrath of God. This is what happens when the wrath of God falls. The person that does not know the Lord, the wrath of God isn’t going to be perdy and there will be no mercy. See, there’s mercy until the cup is full, until the bowl is full. But once it’s poured out, there is no forgiveness, there There is no backing up. It’s being poured. Judgment is being received. And people are not going to like the consequences.

You see, if this wasn’t true, then we didn’t need anyone to come into the world and down the cross and pay for our sins because there’d be no consequences. But there is an angry God, and he pours out his wrath, and it’s final. And this is what he’s going to do. Another verse I want you to look at is Revelation chapter 16. Revelation chapter 16, and look in verse 19. Verse 19, where he says, and the great city was divided into three parts.

And the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God. To give unto her the cup of the wind, the fierceness of his wrath. God is patient, He’s long suffering. But we often say, if God did what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah, don’t you think that God must judge that same sin today? They may enjoy what they’re doing today and get all the laws passed. It says it’s okay. They’re married now. That doesn’t alter the wrath of God.

It’s still the wrath of God. And just because man makes a law, if it breaks God’s law, it’s not a justifiable law. And they can force anything they want upon us. But that doesn’t make it right. Are you a new listener to Bible Eye? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones.

This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4081 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Hada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.