Trumpets

Many times, we tend to view God in two extremes. One is that we see God as angry all the time. We see Him as someone who is just waiting to punish us. And here we are on the Feast of Trumpets. And, you know, Sabbath, I gave the sermon on the outline of the book of Revelation. And I don't know how many people told me afterwards that it was frightening, it made them feel uneasy, they realized how terrible the times are, they're going to happen in the future. And it does. When you read through that and you realize how terrible the times are going to be, it is frightening. And God is angry. Many times, people view life as God is angry with them all the time. God is just waiting to punish them. God wants to punish them. The other extreme is that we look at God and we see His love, we see that God is merciful, we see that God is kind, and we tend to take this approach that it doesn't matter. You know, God loves us, so it doesn't matter what I do. God loves me, so He's going to take care of me no matter what. And we live a lifestyle that actually is against God, in rebellion against God. The Bible reveals Jesus Christ is coming as an expression of God's love. You know, here we have Jesus Christ sitting down with a group of little children, and He says, bring the little children to Me. And He is so gentle and He is so kind. Yet, we see Jesus Christ in another light, in Revelation 19. Let's go to Revelation 19.

I mentioned this Sabbath, but I didn't read it. So let's look at Revelation 19 and starting in verse 11. John says, Now I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse. And he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. Now, Jesus Christ came the first time as a human being. He did not make war. In fact, He told Pilate, if my servants were of this world, they would fight, but they are not going to fight you. Don't worry about it. There is not going to be any interaction against the Roman Empire here. But here He says He is coming back to make war. Now, we look at the two sides of God's nature, and the two sides of God's nature, this is reflected in Jesus Christ, the gentleness, the kindness, the love, the mercy. But we also see the side that demands justice and is angry and sinful humanity. Verse 12 says, His eyes were like a flame of fire. On His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself, and He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. And His name is called the Word of God. Here we have, obviously, Jesus Christ Himself, the Logos, John 1.1, coming to make war. And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, and with it He should strike the nations. These verbs are violent. When Jesus Christ returns, there is violence. Now, we say, okay, how can this be? How can God be loving and kind and merciful? And how could God perpetrate violence? There are people who have struggled with this and actually end up throwing out the Bible. They say, well, how can God kill the children in Sodom and Gomorrah? How can God be loving and come back or send Christ back in this way? So they either give up the Scripture or they find a way of twisting the Scripture so that God never does these kinds of things. But the Scripture says He is. He says in verse 15, in the middle of it, "...and He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winecress of the fiercest and wrath of Almighty God, and He has on His robe and on His thigh a name, King of kings and Lord of lords." Now, the first time Jesus came, He came as Savior.

He comes next time as King of lords and lords, and He is going to tread the winecress of the fiercest and wrath of Almighty God. So how do we understand that? How do we put that together with the nature of God, which is loving and kind? Is God angry with humanity?

I mean, is God angry with you every day? How do we look at this? Do we live in fear all the time of God's anger? Or do we go to the other extreme and say, well, God would never be angry. Now, when we're talking about God's anger, we're not talking about the same kind of anger you and I have, because our anger gets controlled by chemicals. God has no chemicals, okay? So there's a difference to His anger. But it doesn't change the fact that this is fiercest.

The day of the Lord, we are here on the Feast of Trumpets. Trumpets were sounded on this day as a sound of judgment. Even the Jews, the Orthodox Jews who do not understand that this day pictures the return of the Messiah, since they don't recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah, they understand that this day has to do with judgment. That's why between now and Atonement, many of them spend the ten days between trumpets and Atonement in a time of repentance, because God is going to judge.

Sound the trumpet. There is a time of war. There's a time of God's wrath. There is a day of the Lord coming. To better understand this wrath of God, and I'm going to cover a lot of Scriptures today. No, we won't have any slides, so you don't have to worry about that.

Because I want to look at God's wrath in two different ways, two different contexts. One is from the book of Isaiah, where we have Isaiah predicting a day of the Lord that actually happened. Now, there's lots of parts of Isaiah that have yet to happen. But in part, part of Isaiah was fulfilled in the past, because they faced a day of the Lord.

Both Israel and Judah faced the wrath of God being poured out upon them. And there were prophets sent to tell them, a day of the Lord is coming upon you, and there's a day of the Lord in the future. But if you look through all the day of the Lord Scriptures, you'll see that there's always this former latter fulfillment. So let's look at Isaiah's instructions of what he was told to tell those people. And then let's look ahead, and I'm going to look at the New Testament, and what the New Testament says about the wrath of God that is to come.

So we'll get a short overview of an Old Testament teaching, and then we'll look at the New Testament teaching. So let's go to Isaiah 1. Isaiah was sent to Judah and Israel. It was during his—not only them, he was sent to the nations around them. He has lots of prophecies that were given by Isaiah that have to do with nations around throughout the Middle East, both at that time and in the future.

But I want to really center in today on what he was telling them, what this would have meant to those people right then who were receiving this message. Because he was telling them that God was going to punish them. During Isaiah's ministry, Israel was destroyed. So he kept preaching to Judah. And they didn't repent either. Long after Isaiah's death, Judah was destroyed. The things that he predicted would happen to them happened to them. But let's look at what God says here, because in Isaiah 1, what we have are words of God Himself. That's what's interesting here about this first chapter, and even a lot of the book of Isaiah, he's recording what God told him.

So these are the words of God. Let's pick this up in verse 2. Now, think of yourself. Imagine yourself. You live in Jerusalem at a time of great prosperity.

You live in Jerusalem at a time when your nation is very powerful on the earth. You live in Jerusalem at a time when, yes, Israel and Judah were split into two nations, but they were both powerful nations. And you live at a time when things seem good. Now, there's lots of political intrigue going on that Judah was playing a game, a political game, with the powers of the world around them. That's why some of the prophets say you commit fornication with the world around you, with the nations around you.

They played a political game that eventually trapped them. They eventually made enough enemies that God let Babylonians come in and destroy them. Now, let's look at what God Himself tells these people.

Here, O heavens, I give ear, O earth. For the Lord has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. Now, He's talking to people that He had come directly into their lives. They had a whole history of God working with them, working with them through Abraham and Moses and David. And yet, after all these centuries, these people lived in rebellion against God. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not consider. My people do not know. My people do not consider.

Alas, a sinful nation, a people lain with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors, they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. Now, God states a right to these people that He has. He is their God. He is the one who chose them out of the world. He is the one who gave them the law. He is the one who gave them chosen leaders that He picked.

He is the one who has done all these things, done great miracles throughout their history. And He says, and yet they live lifestyles against Him. They don't worship Him in the right way.

They don't treat each other right. And they have absolute disregard for His law. Now, these were people who went to the temple. Solomon's temple still existed in Jerusalem. So, these were people who went to the temple. These were people who still kept the Sabbath in a sort of a way, as we'll see. These were people who still had a semblance of worship in Yahweh. If you asked at this time someone both in Israel or Judah who was their primary God, they would have said, Yahweh!

What is your primary way that you live? Oh, by the Torah. But it really wasn't what was going on. Verse 5, Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. For the soul of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have been closed up or bound, or they have not been closed up or bound, were soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate.

Your cities are burned with fires. Strangers devour your land and your presence, and it is desolate and overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in the garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a small remnant, we would have become like Sodom and we would become like Gomorrah. He says, I am about to pour out on Israel. And he did at this point. Israel was destroyed. You are nothing. You are destroyed because you would not turn back to God. He goes on and tells them in verse 10 and 11 and 12 and 13. He says how He hates their Sabbath. He says, I got to the place I hated your Sabbath worship. I hated your Holy Days because they weren't worship of God. They mixed paganism in it.

Plus, the way that they lived, the lifestyles that they lived, was against God. Now, as we read through this, it is easy for us to start looking at this and say, you know, this applies to our country. It can even apply to our church. And we can give a whole sermon on Isaiah and how it applies to our country and it applies to our church. But I want you to go back and think of these people to understand God's wrath.

And it is good, we think, to supply us to our country and it applies to our church. Unless we become victims of the wrath of God. So it is a very sobering passage. But what is very interesting is verse 16. And also the book of Isaiah, you will see this over and over again. God says, in this case, He has actually told Israel, you are destroyed. Judah had not destroyed you. He says, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil from your doings, from before your eyes.

He's to do evil. At the core of God's wrath is an understanding of the difference between good and evil. God is goodness. Now, I've had this discussion many times with people. I've wrestled with it. You know, we all say, why does God allow this? Why does God allow that? Is God doing evil? At some point, we have to come to grips with God is absolute good. God never thinks or does evil. And evil is repugnant to Him.

You think about the times in the Scripture where He talks about, they sacrificed their children the idols. He says, I couldn't even imagine that. Think of God today saying, they abort their children by the millions. I couldn't even imagine that. I couldn't even have made up that they would do that. I couldn't even have thought of that. How many times He says things are an abomination to Him? He sees them as things that actually they're sickening. And it's easy for us to look at the like when He says homosexuality is an abomination. We say, yeah, that's an abomination. It's a little harder when we get to those who so discord among brethren. Well, that's not the same abomination as another abomination. Yes, it is.

So we have to realize how serious God is that evil and good cannot exist together.

We live in a world that we're a mixture of what? Good and evil. For takers of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of good and evil. And we're a mixture of that. God is not.

God is not a mixture of good and evil. He says, verse 17, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. He says, I'll take you back.

Even after He says, I'm pouring out my wrath, He says, but I'll take you back.

Now we start to see and understand the wrath of God, God's justice and God's love.

There is no maliciousness to God's anger. There's no hatred mixed in with God's anger. That's where you and I have trouble. We get angry, we mix hatred in with it, or maliciousness.

We want to get the person just because we want them to hurt. God does not punish people because He wants them to hurt.

Think about how many times you're angry at somebody. You just wanted to pay a price, right? That they know how much they hurt you. You don't see that in God. He punishes people. His wrath is finally poured out because He refuses to exist. He cannot. God cannot exist with evil.

He can for the period that He is now. And you talk about, you look, it says it grieves Him.

He is grieved. God feels incredible sadness and grief over the evil that He has to experience all the time because of us and because of Satan.

And there reaches a point, He says, I will not live with this.

But I'll take you back if you'll just stop it.

Verse 18, one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible, Come and let us reason together. Here's the Creator of the universe, the Almighty God. Anybody says, can we just sit down and talk? Now, this is the very being in this passage who says, I'm going to, I'm destroying your nation. I'm going to kill your people.

And then He says, but, you know, we don't have to do this if you'll just sit down and talk with me.

We began to see why we can love God, why we can trust God. This is a consistency. These are two opposites. There's a great consistency between God's nature that demands justice and God's nature that wants to love. Verse 18, come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

If, if you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land, but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And what would happen, of course, to these people is the destruction of their nation.

All through the book of Isaiah, Isaiah pleads with them, and God pleads with them. Remember, these are the words of God that he wrote down. You don't have to end up this way, but you will, because I refuse, God says, to live with evil forever. Now, you think about if he was willing to do that. This is actually a great aspect of God's character. If he was willing to live with evil forever, evil would win. If he was willing to live with evil forever, evil would win.

He is not willing, because he is not willing for evil to win. Good must win, and God will cause it to win. And when it reaches a point where he must cause it to win, he says, I am angry, and I will win, because good must win. He hates evil that much. He hates the destructiveness of it. He hates what it does to us. He grieves over it. A being who has never known evil grieves when he sees others experience evil. That's why his first reaction is, if you'll turn to me, I will forgive you. That hurts so badly. Just repent that I will forgive you. But if you become evil, and you refuse to repent, there will reach a point. God says, I refuse to live with you.

These are the two aspects of God's nature. This day tells us about those two aspects of God's nature. In Isaiah 5, God actually says it's his right, basically. Let's look at Isaiah 5. I was not going to read this, but touch upon part of it here. I want to get into the last part of Isaiah 5. The first part, he talks about in verses 1-7, he says, you know, if a man owned a vineyard, and he planted the vineyard, and he watered the vineyard, and he pruned it, and he took care of it, and he spent his time and his sweat taking care of this vineyard, and then no grapes grew, would we not say it's that man's right to tear up the plants and put in new ones?

Well, of course! But at the end, he says, well, do I not have the right to tear up plants after I planted them, I watered them, I nurtured them, I took care of them, and he says, and this is the premise that we must understand, God's premise is I own everything, and I am good.

And when what I own decides to be evil, God says, I have the right to pull it up, throw it in the fire, and plant another plant. That is His right. Any right you and I have as human beings is given to us by God. That's what is amazing about the law of God. Thou shalt not steal means you have property rights given to you by God, and nobody else can take them.

We have rights given to us by God. If He does not give us rights, we have no rights.

I see we say, oh no, I have rights. Where did they come from?

Well, I just have them because of me. What if your neighbor decides he has different rights? What if he decides he has a right to your car? Then you have a right to shooting for taking your car, and then his brother has the right to burn your house down for shooting his brother, right? That's where human rights go in our thinking. All of our rights are given to us by God because He knows what's good. You don't have the right to steal. We don't have the right to commit adultery. When we commit adultery, God punishes us. We don't have the right to worship idols. We worship idols, and it cuts us off from God. We don't have the right to do these things. We think we do.

We have the right to commit an abortion. We have a right to homosexuality. We have a right to hate my neighbor. No, we don't. We have a right not to pay ties. No, we don't. Every right is given to us by God because He knows what's good. We either trust that and believe that or we don't. The more you believe God is good, the more amazed you are at God. And the less you are trying to protect your rights. Well, we're protecting our rights all the time. What we're doing when we do that is we're forgetting who gave us the rights. You know, I always say, nobody can take something away from me unless God gives them permission, so why worry about it? It is God who gives me the right.

So, we don't have to defend our rights all the time, even though other people will tread on those rights. Other people mistreat us or hurt us or abuse us. We don't have to defend ourselves all the time. It is God who gives us the rights and it is God who will deal with those who tread upon us.

Verse 8, He says, let's look at verse... All through Isaiah 5, we won't read all of it. It's an amazing chapter because there's six woes. There's six times He says to these people, look out! This is what's wrong with your society and this is why God is going to punish them.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may... Well, let's start at verse 8 here.

Woe to those who join house to house and add field to field, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land. He says, woe are those who just keep building cities. You know, all you have to do is look at the history of inner cities and know that that doesn't work very well. Right? You cram too many people together. I have a book that holds the history of cities. Fascinating book. Cities don't work very well. It's because you cram all these people together and there's an increase in crime and disease and all kinds of things. And what happens is, in their society, by cramming people in the cities, that means you were taking them away from their inheritance, the land that God had given to them. He says in verse 11, woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night to wine and flames them, the harp and the strings, the tamparene and the flute, then wine and their feast, but they do not regard the work of the Lord or consider the operation of His hands. People who just party, who love to party. Now, do you find some semblance of this in the society you and I live in?

Yes, you do. But He's talking to these people. He's talking to us too. But remember who this was originally written to? These people experienced the Day of the Lord. I mean, the Babylonians came in and slaughtered them and took them into captivity and took them out of the land and destroyed Jerusalem. And God said, I'm using them to carry out my wrath. He said, I'm going to let them come out. I'm not going to protect you from them, and they are going to carry out my wrath upon you. It's also interesting. He tells the Babylonians, you went way beyond what I wanted you to do, so I'm going to destroy you someday. You know, I wanted them punished. I didn't want that you'd have done to them what you did. Verse 18, Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin with a cart rope. That's interesting. Now, you've got a whole wagon load of sin, and you're just hauling this. You've got a rope around this cart, and you're pulling a wagon load of sin behind you all the time. But what's interesting is the next part of this concept recents, because it's all part of one sentence, and they say, let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it, and let the counsel behold, that when Israel is all near and come, that we may know it. So they're pulling a whole wagon load of sin, and at the same time saying, well, come on, God, you're supposed to be involved in our lives. Come on, show us your way.

We're following you. We're your people. Just don't pay any attention to what I'm dragging behind me. Verse 20.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. And this is the world you and I live in.

Evil is good, and good is evil, and it's only going to get worse.

As we tumble into secular humanism, that is what's going to happen.

Evil is going to be good, and good is going to be evil.

As any concept of biblical morality is thrown out. I read something this week. No, I heard it on the radio. Someone was reading a commentary that they had read, a letter to the editor, and a letter to the editor said, we have a real problem. Remember this Mr. Sandusky who abused all these little kids? And the argument was, the problem is he should not be punished, but the system should be punished. Because homosexuality between men and young men, all through Western civilization, has been a norm. It's only the Judeo-Christians that changed it.

They were right. All through Greek and Roman history, homosexuality between an older man and a teenager was considered good. It wasn't considered immoral. So the letter was basically what we need to do is throw out Judeo-Christian morality, and then instead of punishing people like this, the little boys or the boys, the young boys won't be traumatized so much because they'll consider it good. And now we have no problem. We've solved everything. Psychologically, everybody's all right, and good has come upon our society, and that was said is what is goodness. Evil was the idea that it was wrong. Interesting, isn't it?

We're not far from that becoming somewhat of a norm in this country. It's just where it goes. Once you accept what was taught in the 1960s, that sex outside of marriage was good, and that became part of where we went, every step beyond that is predictable.

There comes a point where, in the 70s, abortion is acceptable. In the 80s and 90s, homosexuality becomes acceptable. The next step is that homosexuality between men and boys is acceptable.

It's where it goes. It's where we are.

These people were doing the same thing. Verse 21, Woe to those who were wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.

There's a great sense of morality among the Jews and the Israelites at that time.

Great sense of morality. They were good. They were God's people. There was a great sense of self-righteous. It feels good to be self-righteous because you know what you do when you're self-righteous? All you do is look at other people and say, oh, they're wrong. And I don't mean they're wrong by God's standards. You have your own standards that you judge them by.

And we should say someone's wrong by God's standards.

But self-righteous is you're always saying somebody's wrong by your standard.

So we set up our standards and we judge everybody by our standards.

So we judge everybody by, that's not how I would keep the Sabbath, or that's not how I would raise my child, or that's not how I would do this. That's how I would do that. We make these rules and we judge everybody by rules that are not in the Bible. Now, there's breaking the Sabbath is breaking the Sabbath, isn't it? There's rules in the Bible about breaking the Sabbath. But whose rules are they? They're God's rules. It's God's rules that we judge each other by, not by our own rules. Self-righteousness feels very good. Verse 22, woe to the men, the men mighty at drinking wine.

Woe to the men by and for mixing intoxicating drinks. Goes on and talks about this party attitude again. Verse 25 says, therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against his people. He stretched out his hand against them and stricken them. And the hills trembled and the carcasses were as refuge in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Four other times in the book of Isaiah, God says to them, my hand of judgment is still out against you. In other words, he was accusing them. My judgment is still against you and my judgment is still upon you and therefore my punishment is still upon you. And they still wouldn't repent and they still wouldn't repent. And during the life of Isaiah, neither country repented. Neither country repented. He spent his whole life and he lived to be an old man till at least what we think, what we know by tradition, it doesn't say in the Bible. He was martyred. He was killed. They tied him to two sets of horses and slapped the rumps.

And one ran one way and one ran the other way.

And all he did was spend his whole life telling people, turn to God and you don't have to be punished. Receive God's love and you don't have to receive God's wrath.

But there is another passage, one last passage I want to read in Isaiah that I want to go to the New Testament. This is Isaiah 65.

Remember, about a month or so ago, maybe two months ago, I went to one of the Bible studies and just went through all the places in Isaiah where the gospel is taught. The entire gospel message is contained in Isaiah. Isaiah 65 verse 1.

Once again, the words of God Himself. I was sought by those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, Here I am, here I am, to a nation that was not called by my name. I have stretched out my hands all day long to rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good according to their own thoughts, a people who provoke me to anger continually to my face, who sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense on alders of brick, who sit among the graves and spend the night in the tombs. Yesterday we had a sermonette about astrology and about basically just this paganism that permeates our society. They were doing the same thing!

Wasn't he different? You know, astrology is an interesting concept.

There's something that appeared in ancient times that reappeared in the early days of Christianity. Origen believed this, who was one of the founders of the Catholic Church, that the stars were actually people who had died and gone to heaven. That's why you studied the stars and you prayed to them because they were actual beings. There were Christians who believed that in the second century because that's what it was taught. He goes on, "...who eat swine's flesh, and the broth of the abominable things of their vessels, who say, Keep to yourself, and do not come to me, for I am holier than you. These are smoke in my nostrils of fire that burns all the day." He says, you know, here's the people that see themselves as holier than everybody else, and yet they're really no different than anybody else. Now, that's an indictment against us. We need to make sure.

We walk around saying, well, you're holier, you know, I'm holier than you. Well, are we? We need to make sure we are right with God. But what I find interesting in this passage is I have stretched out my hands all day long to rebellious people. In Hebrew, that's a different phrase. You know, I said there's five places, one we read, four other places, where God has stretched out His hand in judgment still. This one in Hebrew, it is, His hands are stretched out like this, like He wants to hug them. So five times we see, my hand is stretched out to punish you. And then this place where He says, no, I'm standing here like this to the same people. If you'll just come, I will fix you, I will heal you, I will forgive you, and I will not be angry with you. You don't find any place where God's wrath is not also mentioned in the same context of His love. There's always this desire to say, I don't want to do this, but I will because I will not live with evil.

We need to understand that God's wrath is a good thing, because if not, evil would win.

Evil would win. So let's look at now some places in the New Testament that talks about God's wrath.

There's lots of places in the Old Testament. There's places in Psalms that are very interesting, where David writes about God's wrath. Let's go to the New Testament, because I want to look at a few places here in the time that we have left. Let's start in Romans 1. Romans 1. Like I said, we're going through a lot of Scriptures today, but I really want to start. This is sort of a take-off of what we covered last Sabbath. We showed how humanity is going to destroy itself or be on the brink of destroying itself. Then God steps in in the day of the Lord, and He punishes humanity. And, you know, oh wow, this is so terrible. But, yes, God is going to punish. There's a reason He's going to punish. It isn't because God throws a temper tantrum.

It's because God says, I will not bear with evil when it gets to the place that it's going to destroy everything. Remember, if God does not intervene, what will happen? Humanity will destroy itself. How long does God bear with evil before He steps in? If that's the point that we would destroy ourselves, then He steps in. That's a patient God. He grieves all the time. How long will He grieve? We talk about long suffering. How long has God suffered with humanity? Well, since He kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. That's a long time.

That's a long time before He finally says, it is enough. Generation after generation.

And when we get to the place where our own evil, under Satan's direction, would destroy us, before that happens, He says, I've had enough. You want to fight?

Okay. We don't understand how overmatched we are. We don't understand who we're deciding to fight against here. You and I fight against God all the time. Let's look at how God felt about Roman society. Here's how the Apostle Paul describes Roman society. Verse 18 of Romans chapter 1.

This is a different message than what Isaiah gave to ancient Israel, ancient Judah, what they experienced the day of the Lord.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. He says, God's wrath is on all of humanity.

Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shot it to them. That's what He says. Humanity should be able to look at themselves. They should be able to look at creation and know that there's a God.

For since the creation of the world has invisible attributes or is clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Creation itself makes human beings without excuse.

How frustrated must God be with atheists? And yet God does not respond to that.

How frustrated He must be with people who worship.

Think of Hinduism. If you've ever been involved in Hinduism, it is so, it's just the pure worship of demons. How frustrated must God be with that? How much must that hurt Him?

And yet He does not stop it yet, does it? Does He?

Only when it gets to the point that the evil will win that they stop it. Now, He knew it would get to that point. He told us it'll get to that point. This isn't something that's got God by surprise. He says, this evil will get to the point, I'll stop it. And when it is, you'll know it. You'll see it.

He says, for Fethin to be wise, well, in verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God. Nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. He saw the idolatry that was throughout the Roman world. He said, people should know better than this. God is shown through creation.

They should know better than this. But they don't. He understood it. It's in Ephesians that he said that Satan was the God of this world. He understood who had him deceived. But he's talking here about the wrath of God. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their heart, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who was blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another. Men with men, committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, though there was gossips, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.

Though wonder God's angry. When He looked down on the world, this is what He sees.

I tell you what He also sees, though He sees good. He sees people do good things to each other.

Remember what Abraham said to God? Well, you would destroy Sodom if it had this many people that are good. There might be a thousand people there, but what if there's 50 that do good? And God said, I will destroy the thousand if there's just 50. Well, what if there's this many? He got down, lower, lower. God kept saying, if I can find that many good people, I won't destroy it. Tell us something about God's love and God's wrath.

If I can find just a handful of people, who did He find? Lot. One.

Lot couldn't even get his wife to go. He said, there's not enough here. But He didn't destroy Lot, did He? He took Lot out. God said, I will not have the good suffer my wrath.

This is important for us to know.

He says, I will not have the good suffer my wrath. And so He took Lot out.

There's a little warning here in verse 32 to us, though, the church, though. Here He talks about Roman society. And then He says in verse 32, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only who do, but also those who approve of those who practice them.

That's a scary thought. Verse 32 bothers me a lot. I go back to verse 32 many times in my life, because how many times have I approved of sin vicariously but not done it?

How many movies and television shows have we watched where we've crossed some line and didn't recognize it? It's hard, isn't it, with the entertainment that we have.

How many times have we crossed and approved of something? But we really didn't do it ourselves, did we? Something to remember and think about. So we say, okay, we understand that God's wrath is coming. It's coming on this entire society. We read it in Revelation 19. So we live in this sphere. But remember, God promises to protect us from the wrath of God. God is not going to punish those who are His children when He punishes the world. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5. It's amazing how much Paul does talk about prophetic messages. We think of prophecy generally as something John writes. Paul writes a lot of prophecy. 1 Thessalonians 5.

Verse 1, By concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as the thief of the night. Remember, Sabbath, we talked about here we are in the middle of the seven trumpets, actually towards the end of the seventh trumpet, right before the return of Jesus Christ.

And there's this little verse in there that says, you know, watch out because you're going to be surprised by this. It's going to come as a thief in the night. Even in the midst of all that, there will be people who have lost track of what God's doing.

As I hear Paul says, remember, if you're not ready, this will catch you by surprise.

Verse 3, For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. He said, you won't be surprised by this when it happens. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. He says, just be careful. Be, know what God's doing in your life. Watch what's going on in the world. Stay close to God.

Understand the role Jesus Christ plays in your life. Be part of the congregation that you're part of. Serve each other. Love each other. Stay unspotted from the world.

He says, For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

Then let us who are of the day be sober, sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and a love and a helmet and the hope of salvation. Faith and agape and the hope of salvation.

Those things have been given to you, so you do not have to live in fear of the wrath of God.

You have faith. You've been called. Now, you can lose your faith, and then we get in trouble.

God has given you agape. He opened your mind and gave you His Spirit.

Now, if you do not develop agape, you could be in trouble. He has given you the hope of salvation.

You have that. God has already promised to give you salvation unless you turn against Him.

It's a promise. Unless you forget that.

As long as we have faith and as long as we have agape and long as we have the hope of salvation, you will not have the wrath of God poured out on you.

He says, verse 9 is very important, For God did not appoint us to wrath. God did not call you to be a recipient of His anger, His judgment. How does that work? But to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, the sleep here is different. He's using it differently than He did earlier. He talked about death. Whether we're awake, it is coming, or we're dead, we should live together with Him. He says, Remember, Jesus Christ died for you so that you could escape the wrath. See how I said over and over again, all the holy days are tied together? No matter which holy day you're talking about, you will find a meaning from different holy days.

Well, the Passover is about the coming and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Well, so is Trumpets. What's about His second coming? That's right. But you don't have to fear the wrath of God of His second coming because why? Well, he tells us this is in the context of the Day of the Lord, because Christ died for you, was resurrected for you, and God is in your life now. But if you submit to that, God will take care of you. I don't fear the Day of the Lord. I fear what happens before the Day of the Lord. Because the Day of the Lord, God's going to somehow take care of me, because He's not going to let His wrath come upon me if I'm right with Him. If I'm not right with Him, that's a scary time. It's a scary time. But if we're right with God, that time, whatever happens, whatever happens, God will not pour out His wrath on us. Other people may hate us. Other people may pour their wrath out on you. But God will not. God will not. We don't have to live in fear of the Day of the Lord, as long as we have faith and agape and the hope of salvation.

It's interesting, in Ephesians 5, He tells the church—well, let's just turn there. Ephesians 5, verse 1. I want all of us to be sober about the coming wrath of God.

All of us should fear what that means to humanity. All of us should want to make sure that we are in a state where the wrath of God comes upon us. But I also want to encourage you that if you are right with God, it will not. If you're right with God, it will not, because Jesus Christ died for you so that you don't have to go through that.

So that we don't have to go through the wrath of God. Ephesians 5, verse 1. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Before an occasion and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as fitting for saints.

Neither feltingness nor foolish talking nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks for you know this, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

He says He will not allow evil to come into the kingdom. Now, that doesn't mean we have it all partaken of those sins.

But remember, He says He died for us as a sacrifice. It means we can't receive forgiveness. When you are forgiven by God, His anger goes away. Because remember, His anger isn't the kind of anger we have. It is against evil. And when your evil is repented of and He forgives you, He is... there is no anger. It's like we read in Isaiah 65, it's like all these rebellious people are just standing here saying, come here to me. Let's reason together, as it says in Isaiah 2. Sit down and talk. I can make you clean, God says. You don't have to go through wrath.

All you have to do is give of evil. That's all we have to do.

Notice verse 6. He says to the church here, Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. I try in most of my sermons to talk about God's mercy and love, because that's what is emphasized in the Scripture. But we can't ignore this verse either.

We can never get to the place where we take God's mercy and love and use it as a license to believe that God will not punish evil when it's not repented of, because it says here, let no one deceive you with empty words. It's empty words to say God loves you, so don't worry about it. That's an empty word.

Because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Verse 7, now it's to the church, Therefore, do not be partakers with them, and we cannot let ourselves become... it's going to get harder and harder as time goes on.

Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will wax cold.

That prophecy in Matthew 24 is about the church. We cannot slowly become like the world so that all we are are people who meet on Saturdays.

We just become people who meet on Saturdays. The rest of our lives are like the world. If we become like that, we'll be just like what Isaiah 2 said, what he wrote to the Israelites and the Jews, I hate your Sabbath. They weren't even his Sabbath anymore.

We can escape that wrath, but we can't do it by pretending. It's done by real Christianity. It's done by Christ living in us. It's done by becoming like Jesus Christ.

And we'll say, but I'm still flawed. I still have sin.

You and I are going to have some sin in us right up to the time we're changed.

That's not what seems to bother God. It's like, I keep working with you. God says, I'll work with you. I'll work with you. But the time to change is gone. Okay? He gets rid of it then. It's what we do right now and then. We can't be trying to carry it with us. Remember, we can't have this cart, you know, I guess in Isaiah, we have a rope around the cart. We're just dragging our sins with us. We have to cut the cart. We'll have a few when we still get there, but we will have grown to the point that when God changes us, it will be gone.

So we can't use the fact that I'm still a sinner as an excuse either. In fact, that should humble us to realize, I have to keep at this. But it shouldn't discourage us from God going to throw me away because I'm still a sinner. No, He's not. Not if we're still headed in the right direction. When we're on our knees and we're trying and we're humbled before God and we're loving Him with all of our might and all of our soul, when we're loving our neighbor as ourself, when we're doing what we can and we're always on our knees saying, I'm sorry when I fail.

When you're living that kind of life, God's going to keep you from His wrath.

That's when we just say, we justify your sins. We justify who we are, or we don't care. Or we say, oh God, I give up anyways. I don't have any chance. When we say I give up because I'm too bad for you to clean up, we're telling God, you're not that great after all, are you? You've met somebody greater than you. When you tell God He can't change you, you're telling God you're greater than Him. And then you wonder why He's going to be angry with you. You've gone before the throne of God and told Him you're bigger than He is. Think about it. That's what we do, isn't it?

And then we say, well, why are you angry with me? It's like a two-year-old walking up and telling the parents, no, we're going to do it my way because I'm smarter than you are. We're here celebrating the Feast of Trumpets. It pictures the Day of the Lord. It is a time of wrath. So, yes, today we should be sobered in one way and rejoicing in another. When we walk out of here this afternoon, we should rejoice together. When we come back here for the second service, we should be encouraged. We will hear music and we will sing praises to God. We'll hear special music. We'll hear a sermonette and a sermon that should inspire us to move forward. This is a day of feasting. It is, you know, isn't it strange that God says, no, I want you to feast and have a wonderful time on a day that tells you about my anger. The reason why is because if we understand and live this way, we're looking at this and realize, I can escape that anger.

I can escape it. God can take care of me as His child because I hate evil and I must learn to hate evil as much as He does. You want to really pray a prayer that will change your life? Go to God and ask Him to help you hate evil in yourself the way He does. That's a tough one. Help me to see myself as you do, but please pray that He does it in mercy. Please pray that God does not let you see yourself in anger. Say, God, in your love and your mercy, let me see myself as you do. You may even find there's parts about you God loves. That's what we're not prepared for.

When we go and ask for that, we're always prepared for the bad. And sometimes, God says, well, you know, you do this right. You might be bad at algebra, but you're really good at English.

You might be bad at language, but you're really, really good at history.

God sometimes looks at us, we're not prepared for the fact that there's actually things about it. He says, and why does He like them? Because He says, that's just like my son. You're just like Christ in this area. You've done some good. Now, let me tell you what you haven't done well. You always tack that on. God will never let you be complacent when you pray that prayer.

It's like, you know, the best coaches sit down after a win. What do they do?

Here's what we did right. Now, we're going to look at all the film of what we did wrong.

The best coaches always do that. Now, I always tell you what you did right, and then they start telling you what you did wrong. That's what God does.

We have to listen to what He says. Here's what you're doing right. Don't stop that. Now, here's what you have to work on, because we've got to win this game.

What is His goal? It is for you to be His child forever. It is not God's goal to pour out His wrath upon you. That is not His purpose for you.

2 Timothy 4, verse 8.

2 Timothy 4, verse 8, our last scripture. I can just encourage you today to fear His wrath and to accept giving your life to Him so much that you won't have to face that wrath. 2 Timothy 4, 8.

Paul says, he's looking at His life. In verse 7, he says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.

He says, I've worked at this. I've run. I've stumbled. I've fallen. I've sinned. I mean, you read Romans chapter 7. He says, oh, I'm a miserable man, struggling with this sin. Now, towards the end of his life, he says, I've run this race.

God's almost got me there. So verse 8 says, finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge. At this point, he was looking at Christ's return and not saying, oh, when the wrath of God comes, why or why be? At this point, he was looking at, oh, when the wrath of God comes, I won't be a recipient of it.

He still sees Him as the judge. We always forget that a judge can make good judgments, too.

When you appeared before God at baptism, what was His judgment? Not guilty. Well, first, He said you're guilty, worthy of death, right? Then you repented. The blood of Jesus Christ was poured out for you. And then He said, not guilty. You've already had a positive judgment made by God for you where you would not be allowed to have His Spirit. You would not be allowed to go before His throne. You would not be allowed to have a relationship with Him. He's already made a good judgment upon you. The final judgment that's coming doesn't have to be bad. Paul says, I'm waiting for that judgment. I'm waiting for it, anticipating it. That's where we have to go.

We're right with God. I'm anticipating that return so I can be changed, so I can be part of His family. He's finally, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, the day of the Lord. Not only to me, Paul says, but also to all those who have loved His appearing. Do you love His appearing? You know, if we have a right relationship with God, and we're looking towards that day of wrath, we are saddened by what will happen to the world, but we love His appearing. Let's just get it over with. You know, I feel that way sometimes. Let's just get this tribulation over with. Let's just get the day of wrath over with, so we can stand before God, so we can see Jesus Christ as He is, so that we can fall down in worship without sin. I want someday to be without sin.

Do we want that? Because here the Apostle Paul says, I look forward to that, and I say, good! I want that day, and I know what will be given to me on that day.

Do we? Do we know what can be given to us on that day? What will be given to us as long as we stay bright with God? We'll fall, we'll stumble, but He'll pick us up.

Do we have faith on Gopé and the joy of salvation?

On this day they blow the shofar. It is the announcement of the time of war. It is the announcement of the judgment of God. It is the announcement of the return of Jesus Christ.

It is the announcement of the resurrection of the saints, changed into the glorious children of God. How you approach this time depends on whether you're living under the wrath of God by being evil, or whether you're allowing God to change you so you'll be part of the resurrected saints and be the children of God. So it's fitting that on this day that I end the sermon with a few blasts of the shofar.