[BBC List] Christian, though thou mayest feel the rod, thou shalt never feel the bloody axe.

Tue Nov 7 09:41:11 EASST 2006

The Wrath of God
     by Thomas Watson

What does every sin deserve? 

    God's wrath and curse, both in this life, and in that which is to come. 

    'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.' Matt 25: 4I. Man
having sinned, is like a favourite turned out of the king's favour, and
deserves the wrath and curse of God. He deserves God's curse. Gal 3: 10. As
when Christ cursed the fig-tree, it withered; so, when God curses any, he
withers in his soul. Matt 21: 19. God's curse blasts wherever it comes. He
deserves also God's wrath, which is nothing else but the execution of his
curse. 

What is this wrath? 

I. It is privative; that is, deprives of
the smiles of God's face.

    It is hell enough to be excluded his presence: in whose 'presence is
fulness of joy.' Psa 16: 11. His smiling face has that splendour and beauty
in it that ravishes the angels with delight. This is the diamond in the ring
of glory. If it were such a misery for Absalom, that he might not see the
King's face, what will it be for the wicked to be shut out from beholding
God's pleasant face! Privatio Divinae visionis omnium suppliciorum summum
[To be deprived of the sight of God is the greatest of all punishments]. 

II. This wrath has something in it positive.

    It is 'wrath come upon them to the uttermost.' I Thess 2: 16.     [I]
God's wrath is irresistible. 'Who knoweth the power of thine anger?' Psa 90:
2: Sinners may oppose God's ways, but not his wrath. Shall the briers
contend with the fire? Shall finite contend with infinite? 'Hast thou an arm
like God?' Job 40: 9. 

    [2] God's wrath is terrible. The Spanish proverb is, The lion is not so
fierce as he is painted. We are apt to have slight thoughts of God's wrath;
but it is very tremendous and dismal, as if scalding lead should be dropped
into one's eyes. The Hebrew word for wrath signifies heat. To show that the
wrath of God is hot, therefore it is compared to fire in the text. Fire,
when in its rage, is dreadful. So the wrath of God is like fire, it is the
terrible of terrible. Other fire is but painted to this. If when God's wrath
is kindled but a little, and a spark of it flies into a wicked man's
conscience in this life, it is so terrible, what will it be when God shall
'stir up all his wrath'? Psa 78: 38. How sad is it with a soul in desertion!
God then dips his pen in gall, and 'writes bitter things;' his poisoned
arrows stick fast into the heart. 'While I suffer thy terrors, I am
distracted; thy fierce wrath goes over me.' Psa 88: 15, 16. Luther, in
desertion, was in such horror of mind, that nec calor, nec sanguis
superesset [no warmth or blood remained]; he had no blood seen in his face,
but he lay as one dead. Now, if God's wrath be such towards those whom he
loves, what will it be towards those whom he hates? If they who sip of the
cup find it so bitter, what will they do who drink its dregs? Psal 75:8.
Solomon says, 'The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion.' Prov 19: 12.
What then is God's wrath? When God musters up all his forces, and sets
himself in battalia against a sinner, how can his heart endure? Ezek 22: 14.
Who is able to lie under mountains of wrath? God is the sweetest friend but
the sorest enemy. 

(1) The wrath of God shall seize upon every part of a sinner. Upon the body.
The body, which was so tender that it could not bear heat or cold, shall be
tormented in the wine press of God's wrath. Those eyes which before could
behold amorous objects, shall be tormented with the sight of devils. The
ears, which before were delighted with music, shall be tormented with the
hideous shrieks of the damned. The wrath of God shall seize upon the soul of
a reprobate. Ordinary fire cannot touch the soul. When the martyrs' bodies
were consuming, their souls triumphed in the flames; but God's wrath burns
the soul. The memory will be tormented to remember what means of grace have
been abused. The conscience will be tormented with self-accusations. The
sinner will accuse himself for presumptuous sins, for misspending his
precious hours, and for resisting the Holy Ghost. 

(2) The wrath of God is without intermission. Hell is an abiding place, but
no resting place; there is not a minute's rest. Outward pain has some
abatement. If it be the stone or colic, the patient has sometimes ease; but
the torments of the damned have no intermission; he who feels God's wrath
never says, 'I have ease.' 

(3) The wrath of God is eternal. So says the text. 'Everlasting fire.' No
tears can quench the flame of God's anger; no, though we could shed rivers
of tears. In all pains of this life men hope for cessation - the suffering
will not continue long; either the tormentor dies or the tormented; but the
wrath of God is always feeding upon the sinner. The terror of natural fire
is, that it consumes what it burns; but what makes the fire of God's wrath
terrible is, that it does not consume what it burns. Sic morientur damnati
ut semper vivunt [Those that are lost will so die as to remain always
alive]. Bernard. The sinner will ever be in the furnace. After innumerable
millions of years the wrath of God is as far from ending as it was at the
beginning. If all the earth and sea were sand, and every thousand years a
bird should come and take away a grain, it would be a long while ere that
vast heap of sand were emptied; but if, after all that time, the damned
might come out of hell, there would be some hope; but this word 'Ever'
breaks the heart. 

    How does it consist with God's justice to punish sin, which perhaps was
committed in a moment, with eternal fire? 

    On account of the heinous nature of sin. Consider the Person offended;
it is Crimen laesae majestatis [a charge of the highest treason]. Sin is
committed against an infinite majesty, therefore it is infinite, and the
punishment must be infinite. Because the nature of man is but finite, and a
sinner cannot at once bear infinite wrath, therefore he must be satisfying
in enmity what he cannot satisfy at once. 

(4) While the wicked lie scorching in the flames of wrath, they have none to
commiserate them. It is some ease of grief to have some to condole with us;
but the wicked have wrath and no pity shown them. Who will pity them? God
will not. They derided his Spirit, and he will now laugh at their calamity.
Prov 1: 26. The saints will not pity them. They persecuted them upon earth,
therefore they will rejoice to see God's justice executed on them. 'The
righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance.' Psa 58: 10. 

(5) The sinner under wrath has no one to speak a good word for him. If an
elect person sins, he has one to intercede for him. 'We have an advocate,
Jesus Christ the righteous.' I John 2: 1. Christ will say, 'It is one of my
friends, one for whom I have shed my blood; Father, pardon him.' But the
wicked who die in sin have none to solicit for them; they have an accuser,
but no advocate; Christ's blood will not plead for them; they slighted
Christ and refused to come under his government, therefore Christ's blood
cries against them. 

    [3] God's wrath is just. The Greek word for vengeance signifies justice.
The wicked shall drink a sea of wrath, but not one drop of injustice, It is
just that God's honour be repaired, and how can that be but by punishing
offenders? He who infringes the king's laws deserves the penalty. Mercy goes
by favour, punishment by desert. 'To us belongeth confusion of face.' Dan 9:
8. Wrath is that which belongs to us as we are simmers; it is due to us as
any wages that are paid. 

    Use one. For information. (1) God is justified in condemning sinners at
the last day. They deserve wrath, and it is no injustice to give them that
which they deserve. If a malefactor deserves death, the judge does him no
wrong in condemning him. 

    (2) See what a great evil sin is, which exposes a person to God's wrath
for ever. You may know the lion by his paw; and you may know what an evil
sin is by the wrath and curse it brings. When you see a man drawn upon a
hurdle to execution, you conclude he is guilty of some capital crime that
brings such a punishment; so when a man lies under the torrid zone of God's
wrath, and roars out in flames, you must say, 'How horrid an evil sin is!'
They who now see no evil in swearing, or Sabbath breaking, will see it looks
black in the glass of hell-torments. 

    (3) See here a handwriting upon the wall; that which may check a
sinner's mirth. He is now brisk and frolicsome, he chants to the sound of
the viol, and invents instruments of music (Amos 6: 5); he drinks 'stolen
waters,' and says, 'they are sweet;' but let him remember that the wrath and
curse of God hang over him, which will shortly, if he repent not, be
executed on him. Dionysus thought, as he sat at table, that he saw a naked
sword hang over his head; but the sword of God's justice hangs over a
sinner, and when the slender thread of life is cut asunder it falls upon
him. 'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in
the days of thy youth... but know thou, that for all these things God will
bring thee into judgement.' Eccl 11: 9. For a drop of pleasure thou must
drink a sea of wrath. Your pleasure cannot be so sweet as wrath is bitter.
The delights of the flesh cannot countervail the horror of conscience.
Better want the devil's honey than be stung with the wrath of God. The
garden of Eden, which signifies pleasure, had a flaming sword placed at the
east end of it. Gen 3: 24. The garden of carnal and sinful delight is
surrounded with the flaming sword of God's wrath. 

    Use two. For reproof. The stupidity of sinners is reproved who are no
more affected with the curse and wrath of God which is due to them. 'None
considereth in his heart.' Isa 44: IS. If they were in debt and the sergeant
was about to arrest them, they would be affected with that; but though the
fierce wrath of God is ready to arrest them, they remember it not. Though a
beast has no shame, he has fear: he is afraid of fire; but sinners are worse
than brutish, for they fear not the 'fire of hell' till they are in it. Most
have their consciences asleep, or seared; but when they shall see the vials
of God's wrath dropping, they will cry out as Dives, 'Oh! I am tormented in
this flame!' Luke 16: 24. 

    Use three. For exhortation. (1) Let us adore God's patience, who has not
brought this wrath and curse upon us all this while. We have deserved wrath,
yet God has not given us our desert. We may all subscribe to Psa 103: 8,
'The Lord is slow to anger;' and to ver 10, 'He has not rewarded us
according to our iniquities.' God has deferred his wrath, and given us space
to repent. Rev 2: 21. He is not like a hasty creditor, who requires the
debt, and gives no time for payment; he shoots off his warning-piece, that
he may not shoot off his murdering-piece. 'The Lord is long suffering to
usward, not willing that any perish.' 2 Pet 3: 9. God adjourns the assizes,
to see if sinners will turn; he keeps off the storm of his wrath: but if men
will not be warned, let them know that long forbearance is no forgiveness. 

    (2) Let us labour to prevent the wrath we have deserved. How careful are
men to prevent poverty or disgrace! O labour to prevent God's eternal wrath,
that it may not only be deferred, but removed. 

What shall we do to prevent and escape the wrath to come? 

    [1] By getting an interest in Jesus Christ. Christ is the only screen to
stand betwixt us and the wrath of God; he felt God's wrath that they who
believe in him should never feel it. 'Jesus which delivered us from the
wrath to come.' I Thess 1: 10. Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace was a type of
God's wrath, and that furnace did not singe the garments of the three
children, nor had 'the smell of fire passed upon them.' Dan 3: 27. Jesus
Christ went into the furnace of his Father's wrath; and the smell of the
fire of hell shall never pass upon those that believe in him. 

    [2] If we would prevent the wrath of God, let us take heed of those sins
which will provoke it. Edmund, successor of Anselm, had a saying, 'I had
rather leap into a furnace of fire, than willingly commit a sin against
God.' There are several fiery sins we must take heed of, which will provoke
the fire of God's wrath. The fire of rash anger. Some who profess religion
cannot bridle their tongue; they care not what they say in their anger; they
will even curse their passions. James says, 'The tongue is set on fire of
hell;' chap 3: 6. Oh! take heed of a 'fiery tongue,' lest it bring thee to
'fiery torment.' Dives begged a drop of water to cool his tongue. Cyprian
says he had offended most in his tongue, and now that was most set on fire.
Take heed of the fire of malice. Malice is a malignant humour, whereby we
wish evil to others; it is a vermin that lives on blood; it studies revenge.
Caligula had a chest where he kept deadly poisons for those against whom he
had malice. The fire of malice brings men to the fiery furnace of God's
wrath. Take heed of the sin of uncleanness. 'Whoremongers and adulterers God
will judge.' Heb 13: 4. Such as burn in uncleanness are in great danger to
burn one day in hell. Let one fire put out another; let the fire of God's
wrath put out the fire of lust. 

    (3) To you who have a well-grounded hope that you shall not feel this
wrath, which you have deserved, let me exhort you to be very thankful to
God, who has given his Son to save you from this tremendous wrath. Jesus has
delivered you from wrath to come. The Lamb of God was scorched in the fire
of God's wrath for you. Christ felt the wrath which he did not deserve, that
you might escape the wrath which you have deserved. Pliny observes, that
there is nothing better to quench fire than blood. Christ's blood has
quenched the fire of God's wrath for you. 'Upon me be thy curse,' said
Rebekah to Jacob. Gen 27: 13. So said Christ to God's justice, 'Upon me be
the curse, that my elect may inherit the blessing.' Be patient under all the
afflictions which you endure. Affliction is sharp, but it is not wrath, it
is not hell. who would not willingly drink in the cup of affliction that
knows he shall never drink in the cup of damnation? Who would not be willing
to bear the wrath of man that knows he shall never feel the wrath of God? 

    Christian, though thou mayest feel the rod, thou shalt never feel the
bloody axe. Augustine once said, 'Strike, Lord, where thou wilt, if sin be
pardoned.' So say, 'Afflict me, Lord, as thou wilt in this life, seeing I
shall escape the wrath to come.' 

Chapter XVIII <http://members.aol.com/twarren19/faith.html>   (Faith)

Thanks.

Charis,

Mike Abendroth

 <http://www.bbcchurch.org> www.bbcchurch.org

2 Tim 1:2b  "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord."

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bbcchurch.org/pipermail/bbc_list/attachments/20061107/cb3743c0/attachment.htm