A LINE IN THE SAND |
The other night I watched a television news magazine report on
the works of the famous painter Michaelangelo. They described
the beauty and power of his religious paintings, especially the
one that seemed to be deteriorating the most, the picture of The
Last Supper. It was most interesting to see the extensive
and exquisite work that was being meticulously done to restore
and preserve it for generations to come. However, they seemed
to forget one other famous painting of Michaelangelo, one that
brought more stirring that any he ever painted.
History reveals that after Michaelangelo painted his now famous
The Last Judgment, all Europe was stirred. In this particular
painting the action of the picture centers on Jesus Christ as
He raises His arm in a gesture of fury and damnation. Although
some elements of the picture are unbiblical, it still conveyed
to the viewer the message that God is a holy God who will deal
with sin. In the painting, Michaelangelo depicted Hell releasing
its captives, as the Judge of Heaven and earth reviews their works.
History reports that when this painting was publicly unveiled,
a storm of conviction fell upon all the viewers. Quickly word
was spread. All over Europe people trembled at the freshly told
story of the power of "The Last Judgment" as this painting
traveled from city to city. Yes, Michaelangelo was able to awaken
in men's souls the reality of a judgment day, that is coming for
all men.
It's almost uncommon today to hear or read about divine wrath.
In fact it's a subject that is strangely missing from many pulpits
of the land. However, the Bible says that unless men hear of this,
few will ever come to the place of being spared from its life
destroying power. In fact, I believe we are coming to the place
where through defective Biblical teaching, and I'm not talking
about the circles of liberalism, but defective teaching in the
evangelical - fundamental world of Christianity, God's truth about
Himself and our future is terribly corrupted. Today our religious
bookstores and TV programs are filled with a new message from
God that says He is mainly concerned that "we love ourselves
and fulfill ourselves."
Yes, I submit to you a dangerous and false philosophy has anesthetized
believers and non-believers alike into the thinking that God is
too loving to make eternity unpleasant for anyone except Hitler
and his kind. In addition, the pulpits of the land ring forth
with the popular messages that God's greatest desire for mankind
is to make us happy and satisfied with ourselves. With such preaching,
the ears of all who listen are "tickled," and we are
made to feel good about God, ourselves and everyone else. But
my friend, such teaching is unbiblical and disastrous as it lulls
us into a stupor of sinful sleep that one day will cause us to
awaken under the most fierce storm of peril any human being could
ever experience.
Yes, a faulty concept of who God is, and what He has promised
to do, is I believe the Devil's trick to lead millions of souls
to an eternal damnation under the fierce judgment of God's fiery
wrath and punishment for all eternity. I submit to you, God has
drawn a "line in the sand" between God's favor and His
fury, and unless we find it and are able to stand upon it - we
are all doomed to suffer God's wrath and fury that will one day
come as Michaelangelo tried to depict in his painting, The Last
Judgment.
Let's look now at what the Bible has to say about who God is,
and where we stand in His presence. Now admittedly, this is difficult
because humanity today has no stomach for the concept of judgment.
Just recently in Australia, a man went berserk and killed more
than 34 men, women and children in a tourist area. He was captured
and is being readied to be tried for the brutal murders. Authorities
have had to whisk away the prisoner to a maximum security area
for a multitude of death threats have been received against this
criminal. However, Australia years ago in the faulty wisdom of
human reasoning passed a national law forbidding the death penalty
for any crimes. Here though even the public outcry demands that
true justice be done, and that obviously entails the exercise
of capital punishment for such a heinous crime as this. Yes when
individuals experience the terrible crimes of serial and mass
killers such as this Australian gunman, or the Oklahoma bombers
- all reason cries out for justice, a life for a life. Yet, this
is precisely why God's Word reveals God is a just and holy God
who will by no means clear the guilty. The Bible says
Habakkuk 1:13 (NIV) "Your eyes are too pure to look
on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong…"
Even our deep inner nature cries out for justice when evil has
been committed against us. In fact, when we think of Heaven, we
can only tolerate such thoughts in light of God's description
of it. For the Bible says Heaven or God's eternal home is a place
of perfection where there is no sin, no evil, corruption, wrong,
no hurt nor harm. And in its place there is only goodness, perfection,
purity, absolute love, care, and joy. Yet these things can only
be so, as long as God is a perfectly just judge. Can you imagine
Heaven being a place where all the mass killers, rapists and megalomaniacs
of the ages could live on there, basking in the pleasures of God
with immunity? Would or could Heaven be paradise if God allowed
such people to come there unpunished and unrepentant of their
crimes? Perish the thought!
So you can see even our own sense of right and wrong, justice
and due cries out for the necessity of judgment against wrong
doing and sin. But this is where God is not silent. The Bible
tells us God is a loving God, a God who care for His creation,
a God whose love is upon all men. But with the same breath it
says that is just one side of God, for God to truly be loving,
and caring, He must also hate and judge all wrong. In theology
we find this is revealed to us in what is called the Wrath of
God. This teaching is very necessary, as it warns us God will
by no means clear the guilty. The Bible reveals this early in
its pages of revelation. We read in,
Nahum 1:2-3 (NIV) "The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet."
Nahum 1:6 (NIV) "Who can withstand his indignation?
Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like
fire; the rocks are shattered before him."
From the Old Testament to the New Testament, God reveals both
sides of His holy and perfect character and attributes. The holiness
of God ensures all of us that God judges sin and wrong doing and
nothing will get by His all seeing eye. Paul the great apostle
of the Lord drove this theme home when he stood on Mars Hill at
the great hall of the philosophers of his time when he thundered,
Acts 17:26-31 (NIV) "From one man he made every nation
of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined
the times set for them and the exact places where they should
live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach
out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of
us… 29 ""Therefore since we are God's offspring,
we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver
or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. 30 In the past
God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people
everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge
the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given
proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.""
Jesus Himself the very manifestation of God, revealed God's wrath
against sin when he pointedly said,
Matthew 3:12 (NIV) "His winnowing fork is in his hand,
and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into
the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.""
Yes, the Bible speak of God in terms our sinful humanity does
not want to hear these days, that God is a God of fury and wrath
that is burning against all sin and sinners, one day to be released
against them in final judgment. Now the Bible is the full and
final revelation of God's holy and pure character. From cover
to cover we are warned to flee the wrath of God that is coming.
Listen to these words from God,
Romans 2:5 (NIV) "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed."
Revelation 19:15 (NIV) "Out of his mouth comes a sharp
sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule
them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the
fury of the wrath of God Almighty."
This is really a very serious matter that every human being needs to understand -- God is a just , holy and pure God who cannot look upon sin, and will not tolerate its presence in His holy abode called Heaven. Therefore anything that approaches and stands against His holiness experiences God cleansing power called the fury of fiery wrath that burns and consumes all evil.
Yet today we have soft-pedaled this in the church, and fearing
the wrath of man's displeasure about such a subject in relationship
to every day man, foolish preachers and church leaders have removed
such teaching from their pulpits. Friend how is it with you? `Have
you understood this two sided aspect of God's very essence? The
Bible portrays God accurately as One who loves sinners, but hates
and will not tolerate sin, any sin. Because God is holy and just
His anger burns against all sin. The Bible declares,
Romans 1:18 (NIV) "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,"
Ephesians 5:6 (NIV) "Let no one deceive you with empty
words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who
are disobedient."
If you refuse to believe this aspect of God's holy character,
you have no right to accept the balanced other side - His enduring
love and mercy. God cannot love unless He hates that which is
the opposite of His love. And, those who refuse to believe in
the wrath of God as millions have been taught to do, must of necessity
pass by God's love, for the only "line in the sand"
between God's wrath and fury and His love and mercy is His offer
of grace through Jesus Christ.
Many years ago a most famous sermon was preached. It was the year
1741, on a hot July evening, Jonathan Edwards stood up in a pulpit
and read the words God had given him for his message to the people.
It was entitled: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
When the sermon was over, the entire church was in pandemonium,
crying out for God to save them. History reports that those who
heard about God's coming wrath, were overcome by the reality of
it and felt as if they were slipping into the fires of Hell. No
other sermon Edward's ever preached had such a far reaching effect
to change lives. Yes, it was the reality of God's wrath and fury
readying itself to fall on all sin in the universe and all sinners
who have not taken a stand on the line in the sand drawn between
God wrath and His love through Christ.
Herein is the story of God's true love that can only be preached
in the light of His justice. The Bible teaches unequivocally that
God's wrath abides upon all humanity, young and old, good and
bad, and all of us are sinners against God. Which one of us can
say we have never broken one of God's Ten Commandments. Which
one of us can say we are as holy and righteous as God Himself?
Which one of us can say we are worthy of Heaven because of our
perfection and sinlessness? The Bible says there is none, no not
one. Yet, since we are sinners by nature and by deed, the Scripture
declares the righteousness of God's justice must deal punishment
for our sins. Jesus Christ summed it up when He said,
John 3:36 (NIV) "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal
life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's
wrath remains on him.""
Now this word wrath in the Hebrew and Greek language is found
in various word descriptions. Their meaning is very significant.
In the Old Testament, the words used for God's wrath tell us that
God's anger "burns hotly against all sin" (Num 25:3).
Another term is found in Ex.32:12 that tells us God's anger against
all sin is a "fierce and fiery force." All these things
are summed up in the words of the Psalmist who declared,
Psalms 7:11 (NKJV) "God is a just judge, And God is
angry with the wicked every day."
Here we see that although the skies of God's judgment are clear
today, it is only because God is holding back His fury, His wrath
and judgment against all sin for but a time. The Bible says this
time or interlude, or period of amnesty and grace is that "line
in the sand" found in the cross of Jesus Christ. God's love
found a way to reach out to those steeped in sin, the whole human
race. God's love reached out through this line in the sand, and
sent forth Jesus Christ. We are told that Christ was actually
God who manifested Himself in human form, so that He could offer
Himself up as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Since
God is just, He can never just forget the sins of the guilty,
their debt must be paid for God to be righteous. So God's loving
plan was to pay for sin, but to free the sinner from His fury
and wrath to come. Jesus summed it up when He declared,
John 3:36 (NIV) "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal
life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's
wrath remains on him.""
Here the good news and the bad is given plainly to all men. The
New Testament clearly tells us what God did. We learn that on
the cross Jesus offered Himself up as a substitutionary sacrifice
for all sinners. Since Christ was God, His life was more than
singular as is ours. His life was eternal, the originator of all
life, so His offering could be made for the sins of the whole
world. There on the cross when Jesus was found worthy of no death
by sin, His guiltless perfect humanity was offered in death for
our lives to be spared.
We are told that while Christ hung there dying on that cross a
transaction in Heaven was occurring. God accepted Christ's death
on behalf of all sinners and their sin, and there God the Father's
wrath that is boiling over awaiting all sin was poured out in
all fury against the soul and spirit of Jesus Christ. This is
why He cried out in His humanity representing us, "My God,
My God why hast Thou forsaken me?" We can't understand the
depth of this punishment, but all Hell in eternity was hurled
against the body, soul and spirit of the God Man. There on Calvary's
Cross, Jesus died for you and for me. There God's wrath was meted
out in justice against all sin. In fact, Jesus' last words there
were "It is finished," or better translated "the
debt is paid!" The apostolic writers captured the essence
of this transaction when they declared,
Romans 3:22-25 (NIV) "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--"
1 Peter 3:18 (NIV) "For Christ died for sins once for
all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He
was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,"
Yes, God's wrath is ready to be poured out against all sin. There
is indeed coming a day when God will judge the world in righteousness.
This final judgment is described for us in the Book of Revelation,
chapter twenty, verses 11-15. We read,
Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV) "Then I saw a great white
throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his
presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead,
great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were
judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades
gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged
according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown
into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15
If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he
was thrown into the lake of fire."
Friend, the day is coming and maybe sooner than any of us would
like to think, when God will close this age of grace, this time
of amnesty and begin His righteous judgment. Upon sentencing the
lost, the unrepentant, the unrighteous of all humanity - God will
turn His back of love, mercy and grace now extended freely to
all, and His boiling, vengeful, hatred for sin will be poured
out upon all sin and sinners for all eternity. Now there are those
today who believe that God one day will annihilate sinners, but
this cannot be so. Since God is eternal, and He has created His
highest creatures, angels and men in His image, our existence
can never end. Therefore God's wrath and fury will be upon unrepentant
sinners forever and ever. This is why Jesus warned, and God pleads
with men,
Ezekiel 18:31-32 (NIV) "Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!"
Matthew 11:28 (KJV) "Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
You and I friend, we are living in an unbelievable extended time
period of God's amnesty. All things are quiet. It seems God is
silent and distant, but the Bible says its only because God is
waiting, waiting for sinners to come and have their sins forgiven
before God's wrath falls for all eternity on us. To show us proof
that it will come again. God tells us of Adam and Eve, as they
were expelled from the Garden. It gives us the story of the world-wide
catastrophic flood of Noah's day where God wiped out the entire
world save that which was in the ark. The Bible warns us by telling
us that because of the gross sin of homosexuality, God destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah and everyone in them. And, my friend God has
promised He will again judge the world, this time by the man Jesus
Christ who now offers us pardon from our sins and freedom from
God's coming wrath.
Have you received Him? Today Jesus still offers to save all of
us who deserve punishment. We can be freed from our sins, and
Christ's death offered as payment, but only if you put your trust
and faith in Jesus Christ alone. When we crown Him the king of
our lives, when we repent of our sins before God, and we say "amen,"
to His righteousness and wrath against sin as just and right -
we enter that "line in the sand" between God' wrath
and God's love.
Say friend on which side do you stand, for without that line of
the Cross of Calvary, there is no hope for anyone anywhere ever
and for all eternity. So with the prophets of old I say to you
today --flee the wrath to come, enter that "line in the sand"
through Jesus Christ the Lord.
If you are a Christian, you do not need to fear God's wrath. It was all poured out against you in the Person of Jesus Christ. He bore our sin on that tree in His body for all eternity. However, although God's eternal wrath against sin has ceased for you and me, we still stand accountable to God for our life and actions. Sin in the life of a believer is dealt with too. God brings temporal judgments, and promises loss of rewards and favor in heaven itself. But if you are unsaved today, if you are merely religious as I was for almost thirty years of my life - should your breath stop, should you meet the death angel - you will be instantly cast into the fury of God's wrath in a place called Hell, only to await the final judgment or sentencing where the full force of His hatred for sin will be your portion of God forever and ever. May it not be so, may you flee the wrath to come by taking Christ now, today this moment as your Savior and Lord.
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The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures.A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request.These weekly radio commentaries can be heard in selected areas around the nation. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for 16 years, and serves as General Director. These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of all messages is available upon request also.
For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics,
please write to our speaker, Dennis L. Finnan(wwyfin@sparc.isl.net),
or visit our webpage at [ http://www.isl.net/wwyweb.html ].