Is God Angry?

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 31st of January, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  This was an abbreviated service due to constraints put in place from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Is God angry at me?”  “Have I finally done something bad enough to make Him really mad?”  “My whole world is falling apart so He must be punishing me, right?”  I’ve known some folks to ask that and follow it up with the excuse, “But I see other people doing the same thing all the time, and they’re making out just fine.”  So they are judging the actions of others while doing the same thing and then wondering if God is angry.

Well, the Apostle Paul has something to say about this.  Please listen and follow along to the message Paul sent to the church in Rome in chapter 2 of his letter to the Romans, verses 1 through 11, and I’ll be reading this from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible…

1 Some of you accuse others of doing wrong. But there is no excuse for what you do. When you judge others, you condemn yourselves, because you are guilty of doing the very same things. 2 We know that God is right to judge everyone who behaves in this way. 3 Do you really think God won’t punish you, when you behave exactly like the people you accuse? 4 You surely don’t think much of God’s wonderful goodness or of His patience and willingness to put up with you. Don’t you know that the reason God is good to you is because He wants you to turn to Him?

5 But you are stubborn and refuse to turn to God. So you are making things even worse for yourselves on that day when He will show how angry He is and will judge the world with fairness. 6 God will reward each of us for what we have done. 7 He will give eternal life to everyone who has patiently done what is good in the hope of receiving glory, honor, and life that lasts forever. 8 But He will show how angry and furious He can be with every selfish person who rejects the truth and wants to do evil. 9 All who are wicked will be punished with trouble and suffering. It doesn’t matter if they are Jews or Gentiles. 10 But all who do right will be rewarded with glory, honor, and peace, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. 11 God doesn’t have any favorites!

--Romans 2:1-11 (CEV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for being so patient with us, for putting up with all our foolishness for as long as You have.  We know that someday the world will experience Your full wrath again, when You show Your full anger to all who reject the truth, who reject Your Son Jesus and do evil.  Please help us turn from our disobedient ways so we can avoid Your anger.  Help us be more obedient to Your commands.  And Father, please shield us from Satan and those who do his bidding.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and purpose in our love and worship, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Help us remain ever faithful and true to You and Jesus.  This we pray in the blessed name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

One of the authors for the Reader's Digest magazine once wrote how he had studied the Amish people in preparation for an article on them.  In his observation at an Amish school yard, he noted that the children never screamed or yelled.  This amazed him, so he spoke to the schoolmaster.  He remarked how he had not once heard an Amish child yell, and asked why the schoolmaster thought that was so.  The schoolmaster replied, "Well, have you ever heard an Amish adult yell?"

Most of us would say that we’re not teachers.  Yet we constantly teach those around us, especially the young.  We teach by the example we set, by how we do things, by how we react to given situations.  When we believe an injustice has been done, do we react with shouts of indignation and acts of violence?  Then we teach the children to scream and be violent.  When we are tolerant and forgiving of others and their flaws and their ways of doing things, we teach the children to be tolerant and forgiving.

If we want to change the world, we need to change how we ourselves react to it.

Paul says a lot in those few verses this morning.  Jesus said that we should not judge other people because we will be judged by the same measure.  Paul confirms that and adds that we actually condemn ourselves if we judge others for the wrongs they do because we do wrongs ourselves!  And if we are so stubborn we continue to keep on doing wrong, keep on disobeying God and not turning from our sinful ways, then we’re just making it worse for ourselves when that final judgment comes.

Because here’s the thing: God will judge the entire world with fairness.  He will be impartial.  He will show no favoritism.  Last week we saw how judgment includes punishment, and that God's punishment is consistent and fair.  Well, His judgment is also consistent and fair, with fair meaning impartial and just.

If we have done wrong we will be punished, and if we have done good we will be rewarded.  If we truly accept Jesus as our Lord, obeying His commands and following His path, then we will be spared the ultimate punishment, the second death.  But then again, if we do fully accept and obey Jesus, we won’t be doing wicked things in the first place, we won’t be selfish people who reject the truth and want to do evil.  Those people will be punished severely, with trouble and suffering, as Paul puts it.  But all who do right will be rewarded with glory and honor and peace when this age ends.

God is impartial.  Jew or Gentile, good at heart or bad, it doesn’t matter – if we do wrong, we will be punished.  And that punishment will certainly come in the next life, but sometimes we see it in this life, too.  Sometimes we see bad people being punished, but it seems good people are suffering right along with them.

Why?  Because the sun shines and the rain falls on all people, both good and bad.  One of those things we’re supposed to do as followers of Christ Jesus is to love all others, including our enemies.  The Apostle Matthew recorded an explanation by Jesus of why we should do so, in the 5th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 44 through 46…

44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?"

--Matthew 5:44-46 (NKJV)

God created all of us, and He is impartial in His treatment of all of us.  Good or bad, we all receive His gifts of sunshine and rain, His blessings in our lives.  And He wants us to be impartial, too, to treat everyone with love and respect.  He wants us to not judge others, especially if we’re doing the same sort of things we’re accusing them of.  He wants us to love all others, not just those who love us or look like us or think like us.

So God is impartial in His judgment and punishment, but He is also impartial in His resurrections.  At the last, God will raise both the just and the unjust back to life, as attested by Paul to Felix, the governor, when Paul was defending himself against charges brought by the Jews.  The Apostle Luke recorded this defense in his Book of the Acts of the Apostles, in chapter 24, verse 15, when Paul proclaimed…

15 "I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust."

--Acts 24:15 (NKJV)

There will be a resurrection of the dead, both those who were just in this life, and the unjust, the good and the bad.  We will all be resurrected, impartially.  We will all be judged, impartially.  And God’s punishment will be consistent and fair.

We need to make sure we are among the just, the good, and not be stubborn and reject the truth by rejecting Jesus.  We may say we believe in Jesus, but if we do not follow His commands, if we fail to do what He tells us to do, then we are, in effect, rejecting Him by rejecting His authority over us.  That is a no-no that will be severely punished.

Getting back to that question, “Is God angry?”  Are we seeing God’s anger and wrath right now, in our nation, in the world around us?  I think yes, we are.  I think we have thumbed our nose at God and given only lip-service to Jesus long enough now and God is punishing us.  Just like He often punished the Jews, His chosen people, even to the extent of allowing them to be conquered and carried off into slavery.  And I think He is punishing us for the same reason as He did them: to humble us and bring us back to Himself.

As a people, we need to get down on our knees and humble ourselves before God Almighty.  We need to stop just saying we believe in Jesus and start actually acting like it.  We need to turn from our sinful, disobedient ways and turn back to God.  Maybe then His anger will dissipate and we will again see His smile in our lives and feel the warmth of His love.

Let us love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind, and love all others, even our enemies.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the one true Son of God, the Truth.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for being so patient with us, for giving us so many opportunities to turn back to You and stop being so  disobedient.  We can read in our Bible of time after time when You displayed Your anger, even toward Your chosen people, because of wickedness and evil ways.  Thank You, Father, for giving us every chance to do good.  We know You are impartial and we want to be on Your good side.  Father, please help us be more just.  Help us be more righteous in Your sight.  Help us be less judgmental and more loving to all.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, we say we believe in You, but we don’t always act like it.  Too often we fail to do as You have commanded us, not truly accepting You as our Master.  Please, Lord, help us follow Your voice, follow the path You set for us.  Help us love as You would have us love.  Help us show the world that our Father in heaven is angry with us so that they might see the truth and turn back to God.  And Jesus, please help us keep our focus on the needs of others rather than on anything this life has to offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.