Episode Transcript
<cite>Lance Lambert:</cite>
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<p>Zephaniah chapter one: The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly. That day is a day of wrath. That day is a day of wrath. This evening, we are going to consider, perhaps, an aspect of the end, that perhaps we do not usually emphasize, and that is the day of the wrath of God. It is not fashionable in our days to speak of the wrath of God, far less to speak about the Day of the Wrath of God. We are continually exhorted to make much of the love of God, how loving he is, how full of loving kindness the Lord is, how tender he is, how full of grace and mercy the Lord is, how wonderfully steadfast the love of God is. But you know, the word of God from its very beginning, right through to its very end speaks also in somber and solemn tones of the wrath of God. You will notice that this is something which is found throughout the Scripture, and not only in the Old Testament. Many people have a mistaken idea that the wrath of God is mentioned again and again in the Old Testament, and then at the end of the Old Testament, is forgotten, it is buried. But the wrath of God is spoken of much in the New Testament. You will remember how the Lord Jesus spoke to those that came to him, particularly the Pharisees and scribes and said, "Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" And in another place, the Lord Jesus himself said that he that does not believe on him, the wrath of God abideth on him. Remember that Paul spoke in his letter to the Romans, of the wrath of God revealed against unrighteous men, and he goes on to speak about being saved from the wrath of God. When Paul writes again to the company of the Lord's people, Christians at Ephesus, he speaks of our being at one time children of wrath. And in another place, he says that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. And again, he repeats that in Colossians, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. When he writes to the folk at Thessolonica again, he speaks of our being saved from the wrath of God, which is to come, he speaks also in another place of wrath to the uttermost. And then, of course, in the prophecies at the end of the Bible, again, and again, you get this word, the wrath of God, the day of the wrath of God. And this cry, which was a truly prophetic cry, Nahum spoke of it, Zephaniah spoke of it, Jeremiah spoke of it, Malachi spoke of it, and John also mouths it. "Who shall stand in the day of his wrath?" Now we may not be able to associate wrath with God, it may be that we have been taught to associate only love with God, that God is a very loving God, he's not ever angry. He has no such thing as wrath that's something which is old fashioned, but in actual fact, the word of God for every time that it speaks of the love of God also speaks of the wrath of God and the anger of God. And you will note, another thing that not only is this question the wrath of God, a definitely scriptural thing, but there is a particular day which is called the day of his wrath. And whilst the Lord often says, "In a little wrath, I hid my face from thee." And again, he speaks of being angry with us. Yet all the way through the Bible, there is one particular point of time, which is called The Day of God's Wrath. Indeed, in one place, it says that God is, as it were treasuring up wrath for that day, he is as it were showing much forbearance and patience, and long suffering, at present. But oh, his anger and his wrath is slowly but surely being put off, stored against a particular point in human history, which the Bible calls the day of his wrath. And we also find that not only is it a day, but that this day is inevitable. The Word of God clearly tells us that there is nothing which can in any way alter the decree of God, that day of his wrath is inevitable, absolutely inevitable. It is something which is slowly but surely coming to pass, it is coming nearer. It is something to which the whole of humanity is moving, it does not necessarily and only mean those of us who are alive or shall be alive at the very end, but it speaks also of all those that have died. There is a day of God's wrath in which every single man and woman is going to be judged out of a certain book. And according to a certain standard, that standard being God's own son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that day, then is inevitable. God's wrath is something which, as it were, is at present particularly bound up with a point in human history to which at present, everything is moving. Everything is moving. Slowly, inexorably, it is moving toward that day of God's wrath. It is inevitable. And you will also note that it is not only inevitable, but it is utterly final. Perhaps the most terrifying accounts in the whole of the Word of God are about the day of God's wrath. When it speaks of the heavens, being on fire, and everything melting with fervent heat, and the world and the works that are being burned up in fire, everything being brought to an end, the small, the great, the rich, the poor, the bond man, the free man, whether they be people in prison or people in freedom, they're all going to stand before God. It is a day that the Scripture speaks of everything being moved out of its place, something happening to the sun, something happening to the moon, something happened to the stars, the mountains being displaced, all kinds of unnatural things happening, the day of Gods wrath, a final thing. Once that day has come and once that day has passed, sin will have been forever ever dealt with, there will be no more sin. There will be no more crying, there will be no more pain, there will be no more mourning. All those things have passed away with the day of God's wrath. It may be a terrible point of time. It may be a terrible period of time, but it is the great purifying and purging time of human history. When everything in world history from the beginning to the end, if finally and utterly dealt with. The sheep and the goats are parted, the goats into everlasting damnation and the sheep into an everlasting kingdom of blessedness and peace. It's a day when everything was worketh an abomination is cast into a lake of fire. It is a day when everything which makeeth a lie is forever ended, a day when everything which is the very root and source, the spring of all unhappiness of all evil, the thing that we call sin is once and for all and eternally plucked up and destroyed. That is called the day of God's wrath. You will not only notice that it is an utterly final thing, there is no quarter given. That is a day when opportunity is past, the decision has been made. That's all over and finished with. It's a point where there is absolutely no second chance. It is at that time that everything is finally, and utterly judged by God. But you also note that the wrath of God is utterly right. There is absolutely nothing unjust about the wrath of God. The wrath of God is something which is utterly good, utterly right. There are one or two things we can point out. First of all, you do realize that God is sovereign. If we are told to be very careful about getting angry with one another, or being wrathful with one another, there is one person in the whole universe who has the absolute right to be wrathful, and that is the one who created everything. God is absolutely sovereign. He is not bound to your conceptions of God. Maybe you don't feel that God could be angry. But that doesn't alter the fact that God can be angry and will be angry. You may not be able to conceive that there is such a thing as the wrath of God. But in actual fact, that doesn't alter the fact that God will one day have a day of his wrath, a day when he gives vent to his wrath. God is utterly sovereign in this matter, and the wrath of God is bound up with the sovereignty of God. He will do exactly what he sees to be right with his own creation. No man will be able to gainsay him, no man will be able to contradict him, no man will be able to argue with him. They won't be able to band together then, they won't be able to, as it were, do anything about God's decree in that day. They will stand before God utterly naked. There will be nothing, no sham, nothing they can hide behind, no believer, no facade, nothing at all. They will stand before God in utter nakedness. His eyes will see right through them. They will not be able to argue with him or contradict him in that day. You also note the rightness of God's wrath because of man's wickedness and cruelty. How often people say this, "Why doesn't God do something?" When you see the long, terrible history of humanity and all the terrible things that man has done to man, people have said again and again, "Why doesn't God break in? Why doesn't he stop this? Why doesn't he come down on this with a heavy hand? Why doesn't he destroy these evil and wicked men? But God doesn't. It would seem as if God has stood by in human history and allowed many many things to happen. We have seen in our day unspeakable cruelties practiced upon other people, even today, there are unspeakable cruelties being practiced in some parts of the earth. It may interest you to know that there have been 20 million Chinese have been exterminated since 1950. There are many other cases that we could quote to you, apart from the fact that in the last war 1/3 of the Jewish people were gassed. Oh, the unspeakable cruelties that men have have worked upon one another. And this is not just modern. You have only to go back into history to come to the days of Nero or beyond that to the other days of men like Genghis Khan and others, who had mutilated people, destroyed people, wiped out nations. The whole history of humanity is a history of wickedness. When God said that man's imagination is evil from his youth up, he knew what he was saying. It is true. And not only has man's wickedness been seen so utterly clearly on an international and a general scale, but, oh the cruelty of people personally to one another. The stories we come up against all the time of people who had been literally almost driven to their death. You're coming up shortly in your circle with people upon whom others have had given vent to cruelty, inconsideration. Oh, the wickedness of people upon each other, with each other. And you know, it's not only in deed, that is terrible, but what about words? The things that people can say to each other, and say about each other and do to each other in attitude, and so on. These are the things that kill people. Our hospitals and mental homes and other places are filled with people that are the results of cruel childhoods and many other unhappy experiences. You see the wrath of God, why you might sometimes stand back and say, "Oh, but God is a God of love," but I say when God who sees far more than you and I. When he sees the whole history of man with all the hidden things, before him, don't you understand something of the wrath of God? Oh how God is treasuring up that wrath for a day when he will give vent to him. When his wrath will burn up this wickedness, and destroy those that have been so cruel, will plunge those into the pit which they themselves have dug. Oh, yes, God's wrath is an utterly right thing. I don't believe for a moment that the dictators of the world, and the many others who have done such unspeakable things are now beyond God's scope. My word, they've got the worst to come, they've got the worst to come. Their life, their death was nothing to what's going to be in the day of God's wrath. And that comes right down to you and to me, and to our sin. We may not look upon ourselves in any way, with blood upon our hands as others perhaps that we have mentioned, but oh, no one ever escapes. Be ye not decieved whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. Your sin always finds you out. When you have sown the wind, you reap the whirlwind. And it is, as we have often said, a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? You can get everything and lose that which is, after all the thing about life. So you will see that really God's wrath is an utterly right thing. It is something which is utterly righteous in its spring, in its original source. And you also, I think note too that man has been consistent in his rebellion. It is not as if God has taken issue with man and is out to destroy man. But that again and again, God has given man an opportunity from the beginning, he has sought to save man. He has sought to bring back, he has sought to reconcile man, but man has consistently rebelled against God. They will not have God. Today you've got just that in a situation that is abroad, internationally. You have all the nations gathered together, but God is not allowed within the confines of their conference. His name must not be mentioned, he may not be allowed. He's not allowed to be brought into any of the considerations of their coming together. God is shut out completely. And that is why we shall have no peace, why everything is slowly but surely moving toward that day of God's wrath. Man will not have God. When God sought to break in again and again, man would not have him. They rebelled against Him. He went his own way. When God sent his only begotten son into the world they crucified him. He came unto his own and they that were his own recieved him not. They rejected him out of hand. God has shown again and again his forebearance in holding back, holding back, patiently waiting for any small possibility in humanity. Oh, the arrogance of man, when you get puny, little, small man, talking airily about there being no God, commanding us to bring evidence to him or to her that there is a God. Telling us that they will not believe unless someone brings evidence of God, unless God appears to them in front of them. The arrogance of man, his stiff neck, his pride [is] something which calls for the wrath of God and upon which the wrath of God abides. Therefore you see that the wrath of God is something which is utterly right. But you know, behind even the wrath of God is the love of God. The love of God is the thing that gives rise to the wrath of God, perhaps you have never understood that. But it is so. We have often been told that love is very akin to hate. And it is true that if you really passionately love something, and that something turns away, your love turns to hate. And the wrath of God is something which has come because His love has been rejected by men out of hand, arrogantly. And that's why the wrath of God is upon humanity, because God has so loved humanity. Oh, you have no conception of God's love for humanity. God's love for humanity is something that you God has allowed men to crucify his only begotten son. You and I cannot understand. It is beyond our comprehension. Perhaps it seems very distant to you, but God loves humanity in a way that we just cannot explain or put into human words. All we know is all the way through the Scripture it is God's cry. You know what happened the day man fell? God came into the garden and called, "Adam, where art thou?" It was a cry out of God's heart. It was a cry that came out of a heart that loved man, absolutely and utterly loved man. And all the way through the history of humanity, what have you seen? You've seen a God of love. Oh, how he does love humanity. How easily could have destroyed humanity at the beginning. How easily he could have wiped it off the face of the earth. But no, you find that God is continually standing over humanity that aches for humanity, yearns for humanity. You have no idea how God loves you. No idea. We've spoken about the wrath of God tonight. Do not forget the behind that wrath there is a love that cannot be remember the life of our Lord Jesus? What a wonderful story it described. Oh, how God has set his love upon you. How much he knows of you personally. He knows you. He understands you. He knows all about you, before ever you were born, everything about you. He's written it, as it were, in his book, he knows it all. God's love is something which cannot be measured in human language. Oh, the love of God for you. The love of God for humanity and creation, the love of God in his forebearance. Why do you think God has held back through all these long bloody years of human history? Why do you think that God would not break in and destroy these evil things and evil people? Because God so loves you. He knows that the day of his wrath is a day when [the] opportunity is gone. And he knows that the day of his wrath is a day when you cannot be saved. You cannot be saved. And he will hold back if there's a possibility of one coming because of his love for every one of us. God is not out to destroy humanity. God is out to save humanity, and he will save every single human being that he can save. But understand this, is, of love. We often speak about the Lord that the love of God is revealed at Calvary more fully than anywhere else in the world. Do you know that God came himself and died on a cross? Do you know that God allowed himself to be nailed by his own creatures to [unintelligible]? Have you ever recognized the love of God in allowing his own creation to take him and mangle him on a tree? [to] tear his body, rend his body? If I have spoken about the cruelty of man to man, remember the cruelty of man to God. that He turned away. Have you ever thought of that? Indeed, so compassionate was our Lord, so full of love, for a dying, broken humanity, that the only ways he could get rest was by getting out of their sight so that they could not see him. He went up it says at one time because of the crowd into a mountain place, and they followed him, and from dawn to sunset he healed the sick. He was so tired, he got away to that mountain place to get away from it so that he wouldn't have to turn away from the. He knew he would have to give himself, but no, they followed him. And then you know the story, he went to get away from them, he went by boat across the sea. But they followed him around and found him on the other side. And so through his life, his whole life was a story of love. He could not turn away from broken human life, he couldn't, not help. He had to come in. He had to answer. He had to heal. He had to save. That was the love of God. People you know, so often when they were healed didn't come back. Do you remember the ten that were healed? Nine went away and never came back. Only one came back and thanked him. But the Lord gave himself. That was God. That was the love of God, giving himself. How many times the Lord Jesus broke down. Twice at least it is recorded that over the city of Jerusalem when he got there, he suddenly broke down and wept. Sometimes I think we spoil the whole story by thinking of it as a dramatic thing. He got down and suddenly sobbed, as if it was a stage play or something, but no, what do you think it was? Why do you think that God should cry? Why do you think that God could no longer hold his emotions? Why do you think that he broke down of all people and wept when he saw the city at distance? That was the love of God. Never speak about wrath of God, if you don't understand something, of the love of God. Oh, how God sorrowed over humanity, how he yearned over humanity, how he longed to gather them as a hen does its chicks, but they would not. And the cross was, after all, only the climax of a life of love. When the Lord allowed himself to be nailed to a cross, he was only, in the end, fulfilling the Lord's love wasn't he? How easily he could have called legions of angels. How easily if he'd wanted to. The whole of humanity and this world, oh, it could have been destroyed in a single minute, a single second. When those foolish people gathered around the cross, taunted him with, "You said that you were the Son of God, if you're the Son of God, come down, come down!" How easily that would have gotten us if we had hung upon the cross, and had been as powerful as the Lord. But no, he allowed them to taunt him, he allowed them to scorn. His was a life of love. So you see that in every single point, God's love lies behind the wrath of God. If you are ever involved, in the wrath of God, it will never be because God decreed it. It is because you chose it. God has set in motion, every energy in heaven, every single power that he has to save every single man and woman in this humanity who will be saved. All heaven is bent on the salvation of this humanity. We don't believe in a tiny little group of people that have been selected out of it, who are going to be saved and the rest damned. We believe in a God who yearns over humanity and has given himself for humanity and will redeem it every man and woman and child that he can out of this humanity. But when He has redeemed every man and woman and child that will be redeemed then the wrath of God was fall like and avalanche upon this world and the whole thing will go up and will end. It will roll up like a scroll, it will be the finish of it forever. Well, that may seem to you to be rather hard, but I thank God for it. Because it's going to usher in a new heaven and new earth werein dwelleth righteousness. God's satisfaction, and I might remind you, that God has never found satisfaction, down through the long years of humanity. Do you remember one day they came to the Lord, and they said about his healing a man on the Sabbath day, they told him he had broken the law, they taunted him, they tried to trip him up, and he turned around upon them, and he said, "My father worked hitherto, and I will work." What did he mean? What did he mean by saying my father worketh hitherto? As if he were saying, "My father hasn't kept the Sabbath from the foundation of the world." Why? Because he was saying, "My father can't rest, my father can't rest. He's not satisfied. Oh, this humanity, this humanity, what its done to him." But there's coming a day when a new heaven and a new earth will be ushered in. And when that is ushered in, then God's wonderful rest will come into being. The rest that he's found in his son, the rest that he's finding in his church, will then be spread out to the far ends of the universe, and God will rest in it. So, you see that the day of God's wrath is something that we have got to reckon with. It is not something medieval. It is not something old fashioned. It is something absolutely rational and logical. Then let us in closing ask ourselves, what cannot save us from the day of wrath? There are quite a number of things that cannot save us from the day of wrath, the God of wrath. One is simply any kind of education and culture. There are some people who believe that you've only got to be educated or cultured to a certain degree and that won't happen, it may happen to the crude types, "That type of person may be reserved for the wrath of God, but educated and cultured people won't be". But that is not so. For you remember that the word of God speaks again and again of kings and princes and rulers of the earth hiding in the caves and holes of the Earth, because they're so afraid of the day of God's wrath. And then again, another thing that cannot save us from the day of God's wrath is any social standing, or any description. It cannot save us. And another thing that cannot save us is any family background. We may have got forebearers that are Christians, we may have great-grandfather's that are Christians, and then grandfathers that are Christians, and fathers that are Christians, but that won't save me, it won't save you from the day of God's wrath. You stand therefore on your own feet. And another thing that will not save us from the day of God's wrath is natural goodness. Oh, what a mistake we make over this when we think that it's natural goodness that can save us. We say, "Oh, but I've not done anything wrong." The whole point is this: what have you done with God's Christ? Everything centres upon God's Christ. What have you done with him? What is your attitude to him? That's the thing upon which we're going to be judged. And then again, we must not deceive ourselves that religion can save us from the day of God's rule. There'll be many, many religious people that will be involved in the wrath of God and may be involved far more deeply than irreligious people. Religion cannot save anyone from the day of God's wrath. You see, if you are children of wrath, then wrath for you is inevitable. What then can save you from the day of God's wrath? One thing only, and that is to be born again as children of God. You cannot be saved in any other way than to be born anew. If you're born again, you don't belong to this age, you don't belong to this humanity. You don't belong to this world. You don't belong to the wrath of God. You are forever in the acceptance and pleasure and joy of God. You have got to be saved. That's the only way that you can be saved from the day of God's wrath. You know, the Scripture says, again and again that we should flee from the wrath to come. Something that is coming from which we should flee. We are wise if we flee from the wrath of God. You are a wise person if you make sure that your relationship to God is right. Are you a child of God? If you are a child of God, you are not involved in the day of God's wrath. But if you are not, your end is in the wrath of God. The wrath of God, even now, abideth upon you. Oh, take seriously these words, and this night, see to it that you are not abiding under the wrath of God, but open your heart to God's son, the Lord Jesus. Ask him to save you and to make you a member of his family by blood and you will find that God is utterly faithful and true to his own word.</p>
