The Apostle Paul says there is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation. Christ came into the world to die for sinners. And we who are Christians, this saying means everything to us. It's the foundation of who we are. Our zeal, our comfort, our hope, our shining light. If you were to strip everything away in our lives, everything we believe, everything that moves us, it is this saying which defines us. Christ came into the world to die for sinners. And yet if we're honest, Too often we don't have the fervour of that truth in our lives. Ask yourselves this morning when you awoke, were you amazed at the salvation that is in you? Were you amazed and marvelled the good news that you're a saved sinner? Or was it simply in the back of your mind? You got up, showered, changed, had your breakfast, and came to church. You see, too often we lose the fervor. But this evening, I want Christ as Savior to be very, very immediate before us. So that we who will partake of the Lord's Supper next week, we will have no doubts whatsoever what is our longing for Christ. That He is our Saviour. And this evening I want to do that by looking at the last clause in verse 10. Jesus was delivered us from the wrath to come. Now, I don't want to focus on the delivering part, though we will, of course, mention it. Next Lord's Day, we have the action sermon, where the entire sermon is on the atonement. But this evening, it is on the bad news. It is only when the bad news is truly understood will the grace of God shine like a diamond on black velvet. My dear friends, we need to know what we are saved from. Then we will appreciate from the depths of our soul the good news. of Jesus Christ. So let us consider Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. What is this wrath? This wrath is the anger of Almighty God. It is the settled indignation of God against sin. You see, we may think of God's wrath and think he's capricious. Capricious means given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior. Very much like us. We're emotional beings. And whenever we see something where we're offended or a sense of injustice, an emotion is inside us that builds and rages and produces anger. And it's something that can control us and manipulate us and use us. This is what happens when you get upset about something, and you're angry towards it, and you can't control it, and you say things you otherwise wouldn't say, and you do things you otherwise wouldn't do, but it's an emotion building in you. This isn't God. God is impassable. He is above any of this weakness or imperfection. He is not controlled by emotions where his mood is changed and altered as if he's just some capricious God, no. His wrath is in control and proportionate to his being. Because this wrath is the exercise of his holiness and justice. What is God's holiness? His holiness is that He is separate from all sin. He is moral purity. And God is light. And in Him, there is no darkness at all. And because He loves good, He hates that which is evil. Righteousness. is God's moral perfection. And all that is righteous he loves, and therefore all that is unrighteous he hates. Now apply this to something as clear and simple as murder. What is God's view of murder? Well, His holiness says it's separate from Him. His righteousness says it's unrighteous and morally wrong. And therefore, how does He respond to murder? He executes and exercises His holiness and justice in what we call wrath and anger. And that's exactly what wrath is and is revealed in the Bible. Whenever there is sin and unrighteousness, God's response is wrath. Ephesians 5.5, No whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ. Let no man deceive you with vain words, because of these things, these sins, cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Or take Romans 1, verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness. So wrath is not per se an attribute of God. but it's actually the action of two attributes, His holiness and His righteousness against wickedness and sin. And God in the Bible reveals Himself as a God of wrath. It might not be a popular message. It might not be a popular truth. But we don't worship an idol. We don't worship a God who has basically created an image from our mind so he likes us and gives us a wee pat on the back because he's impressed with us. God says, I'm a wrathful God. We read from Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 2. And again, it's revenge against wickedness. God is jealous. And the Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. and therefore he executes his wrath in punishing sinners. Exodus 32 10, now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them. What is the response to such a holy and wrathful being. Fear. Fear. Psalm 76 verse 7, We are to fear because no sinner is able to stand in the sight of God. Nehemiah 1, 6 again, who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him. And Jesus says we're to fear him. Jesus Christ, the Savior, the loving one, the gentle one, the meek one, he speaks to Christians in Luke 12. And he's saying, obey your God. Don't compromise. Don't fail to do your duty because other men and women will say things against you. Because they'll hate you, they'll revile you, they'll persecute you. Do not compromise. But he says, fear him. Why? I will forewarn you, Jesus says, whom ye shall fear. Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Jesus Christ says fear him because he has such omnipotent power. He will cast you into hell and he will uphold you in torments for eternity. This is the true God. Is this your God? Is this my God? If you claim to be a Christian, I ask you, is this the God you know? If it's not the God you know, then as we've read the Bible, you worship not the God of the Bible. Who's Paul writing to here? Christians. born again, regenerate, loving, faithful, holy Christians. And Paul was saying, remember who you were. Sinners, idolaters. And outside of Christ, outside of grace, the wrath of God was upon you. Why? Because you're sinners. And what is God's response to sin and unrighteousness? Wrath. My friends, we are all sinners. Christians, you are sinners. I may be a pastor, but I am a sinner. Our very being is sinful before God. We're united to Adam. And do you remember Adam? When he was in that garden, how he fell, how he rebelled against God, how he disobeyed Him, how he broke His covenant, and what was God's response? Wrath. Cast him out of Eden and place the cherubim with the flaming swords of justice. Are you all united to Adam? in original sin, you're condemned with Him. And you are personally sinful, Jeremiah 17, 9. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Oh, my friends, may your sins come before your very eyes, the thoughts, the lusts, your own rage against others, the mockery of others, the scorning of others, the idolatry, loving the things of the world more than God, your Sabbath breaking, your failure to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, your failure to love your neighbour as yourself, your perversity, your iniquity, That's me, that's me outside of grace. And my dear friend, that's you outside of grace. Your covetousness, your rank disobedience, your discontentment here, your covetousness there, never happy, always complaining, that's me, that's you. And therefore God says in Psalm 7, he is angry at the wicked every day, because on this planet are people, men, women, and children who sin. Which means God is angry with man. And when you see the Bible, you see the consuming fire of God. Nadab and Abihu were godly men. Nadab and Abihu were taken on the Mount of Sinai and commended by God himself as faithful men. One day Nadab and Abihu wanted to worship the true God. Is that not a wonderful thing? But they wanted to worship God with fire. He did not command. Oh, but they're believers. But God's holy and he devoured them. Uzzah, he was a man of God. He loved the things of God. He touched the ark. God killed him dead at once. Ananias and Sapphira, they sold their possessions. Isn't that a wonderful thing? They gave part of their possessions to the church. Isn't that a wonderful thing? But they had promised to give everything. And they lied against God. And therefore God struck them down in an instant in wrath. Herod. He comes to Caesarea, he's in his royal regalia, and he comes and speaks to the people, and the people are amazed at his oratory skill. They say, this is not the voice of a man, this is the voice of a God. And the angel of the Lord came and smote him because he did not give glory to God. Do we see the wrath and anger and the fury of God? I'm a sinner. You're sinners. Let's not think sin is some naughtiness, some thing that's just bad and some grandfather in the sky just says, oh, oh, you know, boys will be boys, girls will be girls, human beings will be human beings. Asked away as no. He is wrathful and angry. And here he promises the wrath to come. the wrath to come. Now this does not discount that the wrath is now. The Bible's clear. Outside of Christ, the wrath of God is present and immediate. John 3, 36, Romans 1, 18, the wrath of God is presently being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. But God's wrath here is an alloy. It's mangled. God's good to the wicked here in the South. God's good by sending rain and sunshine and gifts and health and families and children and wonderful things to enjoy. The wicked can get up early in the morning and go to some seaside and see the beauty of the sunrise and say, isn't that amazing? The wicked can go in the high, high mountains and just see wonderful things. God is good to the wicked here on earth. He even sends the gospel to them. Maybe it's your mother, maybe it's your father, maybe it's your child, maybe it's a work colleague, maybe it's a friend. And he says, here's Christ, here's the good news. Turn and believe in me and have all your sins forgiven. He is wrathful. But it's an alloyed wrath mixed with pity and goodness now. But here it's a wrath to come. When is it to come? Well, it tells us here, who wait for his son from heaven. the return of Jesus Christ. Why? Because when Christ returns, it's the end of the age. Christ returns, and he returns to judge. And when he comes, he will send his holy angels, and they will gather all people But in our context here right now, the wicked. Matthew 13, 41, And so when we stand before Christ outside of Christ, outside of grace, Christ himself will judge us. The law summarized in the Ten Commandments will go before us, and we must keep that law absolutely perfectly. Not even a breath can be breathed except it's perfectly for the glory of God. That's what it takes to be righteous. And of course, I cannot keep that law. You cannot keep that law. Therefore, Christ will execute wrath. The Old Testament saints knew this. They called it the day of judgment. The day of the Lord. And they said in that day when he comes, it's a day of wrath. The prophecy of Zephaniah chapter one, verse 15. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. This is why Paul refers to Judgment Day as the terror of the Lord. Then all who are wicked outside of grace shall be cast into hell. What is hell? Hell is a physical, local place created by God to demonstrate his glory in the eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Hell is not man's reasoning, imagination, or storytelling. Hell is a place that's taught in the Bible. And there is one person in the Bible who teaches more on hell than anyone else. His name is the person Jesus Christ. You read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and anytime Jesus mentions heaven, have a wee tick. Anytime that Jesus mentions wrath, judgment, or hell, put another tick. And after you've read all four Gospels, you will have much more ticks after hell than heaven. Why would Jesus teach more about hell than heaven? To teach us how real, sincere, and immediate the wrath of God is. Because when he comes, there are no second chances. You're either in heaven, by God's grace, or hell, outside of God's grace. There is no third, fourth, fifth, or sixth option. Very, very clear. A lying in the sand, heaven, by God's grace, hell, outside of God's grace. What happens in hell? Well, before I describe this, Though I may use words, though at times I may be passionate, but please, please, please, I hope the tenderness and care of my heart comes through. It is a fearful thing to speak of the eternal, infinite wrath of God. There was a godly friends who were all ministers of the gospel, and they met very regularly together to encourage and build one another up. And they met one day on a Monday. And a man called Robert Murray McShane turned to his friend, Andrew Bowen, and he said, what did you preach on yesterday? I preached on the Psalm, Psalm 9, that he shall turn the wicked into hell. And McShane responded, did you preach it with tenderness? And I hope as I describe the eternal wrath and torments of God, that whatever comes out of my mouth, my harsh desire is tenderness for the lambs, for the sheep, and for the saints. But I want the absolute terror of the Lord to strike through anyone who's outside of Christ. Hell is a place where there's only God's wrathful presence. There's a text in 2 Thessalonians that says we'll be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. And some people can twist that and think, see, the Lord's not in hell. He's a God of love. He's a God of mercy. He's not in hell. That's not what that verse is saying. It is saying God's mercy and gracious presence is nowhere to be found in hell. It is His justice, His holiness, and His fury only. And my dear friends, when God's fury only is present with you, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Christ taught hell. First of all, he said it's a place of fire. Hell fire. Everlasting fire. Unquenchable fire. Fire in the Bible is the symbol of God's almighty wrath. In Deuteronomy 32, verse 22, it speaks of the fire of my anger. This is saying God's wrath is going to be present and is going to punish all the wicked in hell. And fire is a destructive thing. Think of the great fire of Chicago. a fire that destroyed over 100,000 homes. And in the 19th century, it wasn't a large, large city like it was today in terms of millions. It was large. And it came about by a cow knocking over a wee lamp, a lantern in a barn, that's all. What's a wee flame? Knocked down, destruction. God's not limited to some fire, or some fire that consumes a city but be contained eventually. He is infinite, eternal, limitless, inexhaustive in His power, and He is able to uphold every wicked man, woman, and child, and eternally justly punish them. Matthew 13 verse 42 describes hell as a furnace of fire. Do you remember Nebuchadnezzar when he was angry? He turned up the fire seven times to consume There is nothing compared to the flames of fire of God's wrath, whereby he will eternally consume the wicked in hell, and they will feel the torments. It will be the most inexpressible pain and agony, because that's what torments means. Pain and agony. Thomas Crookbrook says, if all the pains, sorrows, miseries, and calamities that have been inflicted upon the sons of men should meet together and center in one man, they would not so much as amount to one of the least of the pains of hell. And how will he pour out torments? They are unimaginable. Christopher Love, if all the land were paper, and all the water in the sea was ink, as many pens as grass on the ground, and as many writers and sands on the seashore, all would be too little to set forth the torments of hell. Just as heaven cannot be exhausted for the beauties, joys, and glories indescribable to the saints, hell's torments are just as indescribable for their pain, agony, and suffering. But Christ says, because of the torments of fire, it will be a place of wailing, Wailing means screaming. Screaming. Terror. Have you ever experienced pain that you can't just wince at? You can't just man up. You can't just dig deep. You must utter wailing because of the agony. That's what Jesus says the torments of hell were like, wailing. He says it's a place of darkness. It means not that you're frightened, not that you're scared, but that you're absolutely terrified. so terrified that you're absolutely sick to the pit of your stomach because you're being trodden under the winepress of God's wrath. It's a place where the worm dieth not. The worm represents The gnawing conscience. The conscience is a very sensitive thing. You know if you have a real sense of guilt and shame, that it can just eat you up. You know when your conscience is aflame, you just can't sleep at night. You're tossing to and fro. You can be sick when your conscience isn't settled and at peace. The worry and the anxiety and the sorrow. Well, the conscience will be gnawed at. The shame and contempt of your guilt and sin and iniquity. The times when you heard the gospel and you did not repent and believe. The times when you knew you shouldn't have been on that website, but your lust enjoyed it all. The times when you knew you shouldn't say that, but you did it anyway. The times you went places and did things, but you enjoyed every minute of it. The guilt, the shame, the contempt will gnaw at your conscience and any sort of tossing or turning or feeling sick in this world will pay into the comparison of hell. He'll be turned inside out. And I could go on and on and on about more things about Jesus and his teaching on hell. But notice a few things in these teachings. They all happen at once. You see, in this life, I can have a very sore leg but my lungs and my breathing are okay. Sometimes I can have the most indescribable, painful headaches, but other parts of my body are feeling okay. I and my soul can be in such depths of sorrow and depression, but physically I'm very fit. In hell, it's not just one or two things, it's all things at once. The unquenchable fire, the one that dieth not, the torments, all at the same time. And you suffer in every single part of your being. In your body. You have sinned with your eyes. You have sinned with your hands. You have sinned with your tongues. You have sinned with your body. Every physical part in your body will scream in agony. In your soul. You have sinned with every faculty of your soul, your mind, your heart, your love, your will. And so God will punish to the extremity every single faculty of the soul together all at once. There is no relief in hell. I was born with a bowel disability. It doesn't happen often, but once every two years or so it flares up. I'm in deep agony in my stomach, great discomfort, and I literally cannot sleep at night. But usually what happens is though I'm up all night, generally around about eight in the morning there's relief. And because I'm so exhausted I can sleep. You may have experienced the same thing where you have experienced pain and agony for a certain time and then it went away. Medication, help. There's no relief in hell. There's no ceasing, there's no stopping. It says the torments, there is no rest, Revelation 19, 20. And in Revelation 14 it says, there is no rest day and night. There is no pity in hell. Ezekiel 8, verse 18, Jonathan Edwards, that God will execute the fierceness of his anger implies that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the inevitable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportionate to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom, he will have no pity upon you. He will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand. There shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind. He will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much. And this doesn't last for a few years, or a decade, or a millennium. It is forever and ever and ever. That's God's wrath. that the fierceness of his anger dwell in your heart. May you know outside of grace what awaits us all. Now we've got the blackness, now the shining light, the grace. What is grace? Grace is undeserved goodness. Grace is the free gift of God. Grace is the opposite to works. The Bible says in Romans and in Ephesians that if anyone tries to work, it contradicts grace. Grace is a free gift and here's the free gift in our text, Jesus, which delivered us, rescued us from the wrath to come. This is God's free gift to the undeserving. to the deserving of only wrath, hell, and torment, God comes in grace and says, Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come. And notice who sent Jesus. Sometimes we have this view as if God is only angry, but Jesus is not angry ever. And he sort of steps in the way to protect us from God. God the Father sent Jesus. But Jesus came to be the propitiation for our sin. You see, God says in Nehemiah chapter one, I'll by no means clear the guilty. I can't simply pardon you. I can't give a wave of the hand and say, I forgive you. I must have justice. But the justice is in Christ. Because all who believe in Jesus, there's a blessed transfer. When you believe in Jesus Christ, all of your sin, your guilt, your wickedness that deserves wrath, it's transferred to Jesus' account. It's not on you anymore, it's gone. This is in Romans 3 and 4. And what happened? He who knew no sin, Jesus. For He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5.21. And now Jesus has all His people sin, and He comes to Gethsemane, and there's a cup before Jesus. What's in that cup? Hell. God's wrath against the sin of His people. Will he drink the cup or not? If Christ does not drink that cup, there's no salvation for man. But if he drinks that cup and takes hell, then all the wrath is averted and sinners can be freely forgiven in Christ. He takes that cup of hell and he drinks it to the dregs. So that after Gethsemane, all that happens, he spared not his own son. He punishes his son. It pleases the Lord to bruise his son, Isaiah 53 10. And Christ receives the whippings and the scornings and the spittings and the mockings. But most of all, he experiences the wrath of God. Darkness, three hours, God the Father piercing the soul of Christ with the just wrath. The cry of dereliction at the end, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And then just before he dies, to demonstrate to the world all of God's justice is satisfied, that sinners can be freely forgiven as a free gift, it is finished. And then he dies. Three days later, he's raised from the dead. God the Father saying, my son never committed any sin. He was righteous, but he was a substitute. And now Jesus Christ at the right hand of God most high, we have an advocate with the Father. So the good news of Jesus Christ comes to all wicked, evil sinners. Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come. And now the good news is freely offered in the preaching of the gospel. And it's a gift. And it's a wonderful gift. If you turn from your sins and trust in Christ, remember what I said about the transfer. The believer's sins are transferred to Christ and he deals with it. They're forgiven, washed away. You receive a free gift. His perfect righteousness is now in your account. And therefore Paul says in Romans 4, we're justified in the eyes of God. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. He is forgiven. And therefore Romans 5 says we have no fear of death. No fear of judgment day, why? Because when we were enemies, enemies, what did God do for his enemies? He sent Christ out of love to reconcile us. What will he now do with his friends? No, no, no, no. What will he now do with his children on judgment day? Declare them righteous in Christ. forgiven all their sins, assured, confident of heaven. There's only two religions, biblical Christianity and every other religion. Every other religion, it's faith and works. Mr. Muslim, how will you enter heaven if I believe in the truth and I do good works, if I do the Hajj and I do this? Ask every religion you can think of. Think of pseudo-Christianity, false Christianity, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholicism. Ask them all, how do I get into heaven if I believe in Christ and the truth and do good works? No, my friends, any man who stands on the day of judgment and says, I believe in Jesus, and I believe that I did good works to be justified, God will say, depart from me, ye worker of iniquity. By grace is salvation through faith. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Yes, there'll be a changed life. Yes, there'll be sanctification. Yes, there will be good works. but not for justification. My dear friends, there is a wrath to come and the only way we do not receive that wrath is Christ. Unbeliever, trusting in your own righteousness, thinking that God's a God of mercy and love and surely he will show forgiveness. No, he will not. Absolutely not. I will by no means clear the guilty. He will demonstrate His wrath for you because your standard of righteousness does not meet His, and He will cast you into hell. But here's good news. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, not Jesus as me, not Jesus in my baptism, not Jesus in my membership, not Jesus in my good works. Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come. You can stand up and walk away delivered, rescued, your conscience and your guilt gone, and the freedom of joy and salvation. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. No more wrath. Trust in nothing but Christ alone, and you shall be saved from the wrath to come. Christian, who are partaking of the Lord's Supper next week, Do not just turn up and say, well, I'm a Christian, of course we're saved. No, no, no, no, no. Remember what you've been saved from. You deserve this hell. I deserve this torment. I deserve this all. And here's the amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. Jesus came and delivered me from the wrath to come. And why? Why did God do this? There's nothing good in me. I'm undeserving. But God commendeth his love, his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I don't comprehend that. I never will comprehend that, but I will spend eternity in heaven apprehending and even more apprehending as my faculties increase. And what shall we respond with but praise? Praise be to the glory of his grace. Let us pray. Our God, We are unprofitable servants, undeserving, hell-meriting sinners. But thou didst so love the world, thou didst give thy only begotten Son, and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Lord, hearing hell is a most terrible and difficult experience, but it is truth. And Lord, when we see the shining forth of grace, it increases our faith and makes us eternally thankful for Jesus Christ as Savior. Bless him to every one of our souls, from the very youngest of children to the oldest among us. In his name we pray, amen.