Continuing our series on Knowing God, Jesus defines eternal life in one place in John 17. He said, This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So Jesus says eternal life is knowing God. Now what we need to understand is in John's Gospel eternal life is not considered primarily a duration, an everlasting life. That's not the emphasis. Literally in the Greek of the New Testament, John's phrase that translated eternal life is life of the age of ages. Life of the age of ages. Now we live in an age now, some theologians call it the church age. But we know this age will end when Jesus returns, and he will set up his kingdom for a thousand years, and that will be the millennial age. But after that, the new heaven and the new earth will descend, and that will be the heaven age or the age of ages. It is the primary and the longest-lasting age. So when John defines eternal life, he is speaking of the life that is characteristic of the Age of Ages life. Heaven life, you might say. So eternal life, for John, is heaven life. Now listen to what he's saying. He says heaven life, life of the quality that we will experience in heaven, is to know God and the One whom He has sent. heaven life, the quality of life that we will have in heaven will be that quality because we will see Him face to face. That's the greatest thing about heaven is being able to see Jesus face to face, to be in His presence, to know Him in ever deeper, greater, richer ways. Now John is saying that you and I don't have to wait until we get to heaven to experience some of that quality of heaven life. We can experience it in this age. How? By knowing God now. The better we know God in this life, the more of heaven life we can experience right now. Do you see that? The more intimately we have a relationship with God, And that comes by knowing Him intimately and personally through His Word, then the greater degree of heaven life we can experience in this life. So I can tell you, the degree to which you will experience heaven on earth is the degree to which you know your God. To which you not know about Him, but actually know Him. And that's why we're having this series on knowing God. Because I want you to experience as much of heaven life now as possible. I don't want you to have to wait until you get to heaven to get in on all of it. I want you to get in on it now. And this is what Jesus is saying. Eternal life, life of the age of ages, is knowing God, the only true God, and Him whom you have sent. And so we've been spending several weeks on this series, Knowing God. We've looked at God's steadfast covenant love. We've looked at God's providential care. We looked at God's wisdom last week. And this week, we shall look at God's wrath. God's wrath. Now, our God is most definitely a God of wrath, of holy anger. Now, this is not a subject that you hear preached on very much. But it is nevertheless a very real and true aspect of the greatness of our God. The Bible clearly and persistently sets forth this truth that God is a God of wrath. In fact, there are more references to God's anger, God's wrath, God's fury in the Bible than there are to God's love and God's tenderness. Our passage today clearly shows the wrath of God. We're in the book of Nahum, chapter 1. Nahum is prophesying against Nineveh. You remember there was another prophet that came to Nineveh and preached. You remember who that was? Jonah, yeah. And this happened about a hundred years earlier. Jonah came, he preached, Nineveh repented, you remember? Well, that repentance only lasted 20 or so years, and then they went back again into debauchery and just very vicious and vile society. The Assyrians were considered the most cruel of all invading armies. The things they would do to those that they had conquered were unmentionable. And so God sends Nahum to prophesy His judgment on them. And in respect for the Word of God, let me ask you to stand as I begin reading in chapter 1, verse 2. A jealous and avenging God is the Lord. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries. and he reserves wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is his way, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers, Basham and Carmel wither, the blossoms of Lebanon wither, Mountains quake because of him, and the hills dissolve. Indeed, the earth is upheaved by his presence, the world and all the inhabitants in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure his burning of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken up by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in Him. But with an overflowing flood, He will make a complete end of its sight and will pursue His enemies into darkness. You may be seated. May God bless the reading of His Word. Our God is most definitely a God of wrath, as this passage so clearly shows us. But you might be thinking, but preacher, that's the Old Testament, and all of us know that the God of the Old Testament is the God of wrath. What about the New Testament? Well, the New Testament is no different, folks, because the same God is the God of the New Testament, as is the God of the Old Testament. The Apostle John preached on the wrath of God in John chapter 3, when he says, He who believes in the Son has eternal life. But he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Now notice the present tense. It doesn't say the wrath of God will abide on him, but the wrath of God abides on him now. To those who do not believe, to those who do not obey the Son of God, God's wrath is presently, currently on them. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, I must tell you that the wrath of holy God is on you today. John the Baptist also preached on God's wrath in Matthew 3. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? The axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. See those symbolisms of God's wrath? An axe cutting a tree down, throwing it into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I. And I'm not fit to remove His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His wintering fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor. And He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. It's that beautiful picture of the wintering fork and being used to separate the wheat from the chaff and its husk and by hitting it and then throwing up into the air and letting the wind blow the chaff and the husk away and the seed falls down and the husk he throws into the fire. A picture of our God's wrath. Paul spoke on God's wrath in Romans chapter 2. He says, but because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you're storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds. To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. The book of Revelation is filled with passages that speak of the wrath of God. One such is Revelation chapter 14. It says, "...he also would drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger." Notice that picture. Unmixed wrath of God in the cup of his anger. And it goes on to say, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night. Those who worship the beast and his image, whoever receives the mark of his name. Here, a clear picture of God's wrath that will be poured out on those who worship the beast. In other words, those whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Again, in Revelation 19, it shows about Christ's return. It says, From His mouth, that is Jesus, comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. Treads the winepress. They would put the grapes down in an invention in the rocks and they would stomp on those grapes and that was the winepress that would smush the grapes and send out the juice. Here's a picture of Jesus. stomping, smashing the winepress of God's wrath as He brings judgment on the nations. So the Bible clearly teaches that our God Almighty has a fierce wrath. He is a God of wrath, the God of 2012. is just as much a God of wrath as a God we read about in the New Testament, for He is unchanging. He is forever the same. Now, over in Nahum chapter 1, we're going to see three things about God's wrath. Why is it that God's wrath is soft-peddled? Why do we try to ignore it? I think because we mistakenly think God's wrath is not consistent with His character as we know Him. We like to think of God as a God of love, as a God of mercy, as a God of kindness. And so we think that His holy anger, His wrath is just not, didn't seem consistent to us with His other attributes, buttes and character. Because we think of wrath, we think of a loss of self-control. We think of someone losing their temper. We think of wrath as being someone who's just in a bad mood all the time. And so we think that doesn't seem consistent with God. Well, what we do mistakenly is we take human anger, human wrath, and we try to place God in that context, and it is not so. God's holy wrath is never capricious. It is never self-indulgent. His wrath is never irrational or impulsive as our human anger often is. Someone has said, anger is the wind that blows out the candle of the mind. We get so mad we don't even think rationally anymore. We just blow up. We just let a barrage of angry words flow from our mouth. God's not that way. His anger is never capricious. His anger is never self-indulgent. His anger is never irrational. It is never impulsive. The first thing we see about God's wrath in our passage is that God's wrath is His holy hatred for all sin. God's wrath is His violent action. to anything or anyone who is unholy, who is unrighteous, who is sinful. God is so holy that anything that is unholy or impure brings a violent, fierce anger, a holy hatred within him. He has such holiness that the least amount of impurity, unholiness, unrighteousness brings an intense anger and hatred within His being. Now God's wrath goes beyond simple displeasure. It is a holy hatred that seeks vengeance and justice for sins. Look at verse 2. A jealous and avenging God is the Lord. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. Now that word wrathful can be translated furious or fierce wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries. He reserves wrath for His enemies. Who are God's adversaries? Those who oppose Him. Those who refuse to surrender to His rule in their lives. His adversaries are those who rebel against Him. And what is sin but rebellion against God? The lack of conformity to the perfect will of God. We are born enemies of God. To refuse God's rule in your life is to be His enemy, and it is to come under His holy wrath. Look in verse 6. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? God's holy hatred for sin, His wrath, is spoken of like fire burning. The same root word that's used here for the wrath of his burning is used in Genesis of Potiphar when his wife told him that Joseph tried to rape her. Now, men, you won't have any trouble imagining the fierce anger you would have if someone assaulted your wife. This heat of anger, this burning anger is God's action, God's violent response to sin and unrighteousness and unholiness. So first thing this passage tells us about God's anger, God's wrath, It's His holy hatred toward all sin, any sin, even the smallest. The second thing we see about God's wrath, it is always a judicial wrath. It's the wrath of a judge administering justice. Verse 3, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power. And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty The wrath of God is not cruel, nor is it immoral. Rather, those who experience the wrath of God are only experiencing what they deserve. They are experiencing what they have brought upon themselves by their rebellion against the Holy God. Those who experience God's wrath are the guilty. Paul says that in that day of God's wrath that He will render to each man according to his deeds. Each one who stands under the wrath of God is guilty and deserves His holy anger, His holy wrath. Jesus taught that God's wrath would be proportioned to what each man deserves. He told a parable about two slaves. He says the first slave knew what his master wanted him to do and he did not do it. The second slave, out of ignorance, did not do what his master wanted. Jesus says when that master returns, the one who knew what he was to do and did not do it will receive many lashes, the other one only a few lashes. And so this tells me that God's wrath is poured out in proportion to what each person deserves. But His wrath is not an impulsive act, but it is a calculated judicial act as a judge administering justice. God's justice, God's righteousness demand His wrath. If God were not wrathful, He could not be just. He could not be righteous. For sin must be punished. So first we see God's wrath is His holy hatred toward all sin. Secondly, God's wrath is a judicial wrath. Those who are experiencing it only are experiencing what they deserve. The third truth. God's wrath is something men choose for themselves. Verse 7, The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in Him. You see, those who take refuge in Him, who have chosen to come to God in faith, He knows those. And they will not experience His wrath. He knows those who believe in Him, but those who have chosen to reject Him to be His enemies will experience His holy wrath. As Paul says in Romans 1, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. God has made it evident to every person that there is a God. Helen Keller, at the age of 18 months, contracted a sickness that left her blind, deaf, and unable to speak. When she finally learned words, she said she had always known there was a God. She just did not know the word for Him. God has placed within us a sense that there is someone else. Not only that, but Paul says God has given ample evidence in creation that all are without excuse He goes on to say, verse 20, for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. God says there's enough evidence in nature for people to know there has to be a creator. There has to be a master designer. These things could not have simply come about by chance as evolutionists teach. Folks, it takes more faith to believe evolution than it does to believe creation, to believe that stuff could just happen. The odds are astronomical. Someone has described the odds as the same as an explosion in a bookstore resulting in a perfectly alphabetized, unabridged dictionary. That's the probability that all the things would go together to create life in humans as we know it by chance. But the Scripture says, verse 21, for even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. If they had sought God, He would have revealed Himself to them in a saving way. He would have made sure that they heard the gospel truth. But because they have rejected Him, because they have not chosen to receive the truth, to receive God, and chosen to reject Him, they are experiencing His wrath. The Bible throughout faces mankind with a need to make a decision, to make a choice. Joshua said to the people of Israel, choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. The prophet Elijah stood before the nation of Israel on Mount Carmel and he said, stop straddling the fence. If God be God, worship God. If Baal be God, then worship Baal. But get off the middle of the fence. Men are faced with a choice. Jesus said, come unto me all you who are weak and heavy laden and I'll give you rest. He who seeks His life shall lose it. Throughout the Scriptures we are faced with a choice. Jesus said in John 3, He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment. The light has come into the world and men love the darkness, rather than the light, for their deeds were evil." Those who experience the wrath of God have chosen to do so. That brings us to a question. Preacher, you said God's holy hatred, His wrath is His Action toward all and any unrighteousness, unholiness, impurity. At the same time, the Bible says we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. At the same time, the Bible says for none is righteous, no, not one. Well, that leaves you and I in a pretty hard place, doesn't it? Left to ourselves, we are undone. Left to ourselves, we are standing under the holy wrath of God. And God must be a God of wrath. How could God be perfect and not hate unholiness as much as He loves righteousness? How could God be morally perfect and be indifferent to sin and wickedness and evil? Because God is perfect, His nature must hate evil as much as He loves righteousness. If He could look on virtue and vow with the same feeling, what kind of God would He be? If He could look at unrighteousness and righteousness the same way. So His nature demands it, and yet we find ourselves under it because the Bible says He will render to everyone according to his deeds. And when you look at my deeds, let me tell you, I'm bound for hell. And I know you are too. Because you know how many sins it takes to go to hell. And that's just in thought. You don't have to even do it. It's just in thought. Just the sin of omission, something you don't do you're supposed to do. Is there any hope? Well, you know it is. That's the good news. Over in Romans chapter 5, we see the good news is that we can be saved from the wrath of God through the blood of Jesus. Look at what it says in Romans 5, 9. Much more than having been justified by His blood. Now this word justified is a legal term. It means to be acquitted. It means to be declared not guilty. You see, you and I hadn't been pardoned. Excuse me, we hadn't been paroled. We'd been pardoned. You know the difference? When you're paroled, you're out, but you still got that offense. on your name, right? But when you are pardoned, the books are cleaned. Passed away. You and I have been acquitted. We've been declared not guilty. How? By the blood of Jesus. So we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. How did that come about? Because God is holy and just, He will punish sin. His holiness demands His wrath on sin. But what happened was Jesus took our sin upon Himself. God turned that wrath that I deserve onto my substitute, the Lord Jesus. My surety, the Lord Jesus. And on Calvary, Jesus experienced hell for me. He experienced a full, undiluted, fierce wrath of Almighty God over my sins on Himself. He experienced the eternity of God's wrath that I deserve over all my sins and that all His people deserve over all their sins for eternity in 180 minutes. We cannot fathom What our Lord went through is He endured the holy wrath of Almighty God for an eternity compressed in three hours. But He did. And therefore I am saved from God's wrath. Jesus bore it for me. And the wrath of God burned itself out in the heart of Jesus. So there's no wrath anymore over my sin. It's been satisfied. For if while we were enemies, We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. And reconciliation means to remove the barrier. When people need to be reconciled, it's because there's a barrier that separates them. And our barrier was our sin, but Jesus took it out of the way. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. So Jesus accepted and received the full, undiluted, fierce, holy anger of God over my sins and the sins of His elect. Well, how do you get justified, preacher? Jesus did that, but how can I know that I'm in there? Verse 1 tells us in Romans 5. Therefore, having been justified by how? Faith. We have peace. with our God through the Lord Jesus Christ, justified by faith and faith alone, not works, not coming to church, not being baptized, but by faith. We place our complete confidence, that's what faith is, we place our complete trust on what Jesus accomplished through His perfect life Never sinned, so He could die for my sins. His death, not only that, but His resurrection from the dead. God accepted the sacrifice. The wages of sin is death. And if God had not accepted full payment, then death would have held Jesus. But because God accepted full payment, death could not hold Him. He was resurrected. Now He has ascended into heaven. He's seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. And I placed my complete trust in what He did. And when I placed my faith in Him, God says, you're righteous. You are acquitted. You are not guilty. You are in right standing with Me. Just if I'd never sinned. Justified. Hallelujah. Amen. You can praise God for that. Amen. That's the God we have. That's the God we serve. Amen. So what does the wrath of God say to you and I who are Christians? First, our hearts must be greatly impressed with God's hatred of sin. You remember Sodom and Gomorrah? God destroyed them because of their wickedness. You remember the flood of Noah's day? God destroyed the whole world except for Noah and his family because of their wickedness. Just because we don't see as many expressions of God's wrath as we might think. He doesn't hate sin any less than He did in the days of the flood. He doesn't hate sin any less than He did in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. You and I need to hate sin like God hates sin. We tend to make excuses for it. We need to meditate on God's holy hatred for sin that we might hate its ugliness ourselves. Secondly, it should bring a true fear in our lives and awe and reverence for God. Our God is a consuming fire, the scripture says. We need to fall down in reverence and awe before Him. Serve Him in reverential fear. Walk before Him. in fear and awe. Thirdly, we ought to shout praises to Jesus for delivering us from God's wrath. Hallelujah. That He was willing to take it on Himself so I would not have to experience it. We ought to break out in praises and singing. Hallelujah. And then thirdly, it should thrust us out into the world to proclaim the good news and to warn people of the wrath to come. And they must flee from that wrath and the only place to flee is to Jesus, the blood of Christ. As we sung today, what can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. My hope and my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus. You and I get to heaven, we need to get there and proclaim the blood of Jesus. God were to say, why should I let you into my heaven? I'd say, God, no reason except the blood of Jesus has secured heaven for me. You have punished him for my sin. Have you come to Christ? If you have not come to Christ, I want you to know today you are on and under the wrath of God. It's on you right now. But it can be removed if you will come to Jesus in simple faith and surrender to Him as your Savior and Lord. Surrender all you are to all that He is. Say, I don't want to live one more second under the holy hatred of God. I want to have Him as my Savior. I want to be at peace with God. You can do that today. You must make a choice. But if you end up under the wrath of God for eternity, know that you have chosen to do so. Don't blame God. Blame yourself. He is just. He is righteous. Choose this day whom you will serve. Tomorrow as we're at work, as we're at school, as we go about our daily activities, think about the wrath of God. That person sitting at the desk next to you, are they under God's wrath? Maybe we need to be praying and sharing the gospel love with them. Let's pray. We do welcome you and I'm glad that you have taken the opportunity to listen to a sermon on our internet. And I want you just to know that everybody in the church is not like me. I have these fellows up here, our leadership team. This is Filiberto Medina, who is our Hispanic pastor. And our Hispanic congregation meets every Sunday evening at 6.30. This is Paul Kumar. He is our Minister of Community Connections. And to my left is Mark Baker, who heads up our Reformers Unanimous Ministry, which is a Christian addiction recovery program that meets every Friday night at 7 o'clock. So if you live in the Mableton area, and it doesn't matter what race you're from, it doesn't matter your cultural background, I want you to know you are welcomed at Westside Church. This is where everybody is somebody and Jesus is Lord. Hope you'll join us soon. Thank you for being with us for this message. Each week, Dr. Stewart gives practical applications and ways to live out the Word of God. If you would like more information, please take a moment to view our website at wbcfamily.org. That's wbcfamily.org.