The Justice & Wrath of God

Nahum 1:2-3, John 3: 13-21, 31-36 November 15, 2020 preached by Pastor Doug Cooper Download Time of Reflection Quotations “A god who is all love, all grace, all mercy, no sovereignty, no justice, no holiness, and no wrath is an idol.” ~ R. C. Sproul (1939-2017), theologian and pastor “One of the appeals of idolatry […]

Nahum 1:2-3, John 3: 13-21, 31-36

November 15, 2020

preached by Pastor Doug Cooper

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“A god who is all love, all grace, all mercy, no sovereignty, no justice, no holiness, and no wrath is an idol.”

~ R. C. Sproul (1939-2017), theologian and pastor

“One of the appeals of idolatry is that with it, creating our own version of god means we can tame it. A created thing can only do what we allow it to do unlike the true God who isn’t manageable. He can’t be put on a shelf or told to hush. We want to worship what we can control.”

~ Jackie Hill Perry (1989-present), American poet, writer, and hip hop artist

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), novelist and famed Soviet dissident

“Both God’s love and God’s wrath are ratcheted up in the move from the old covenant to the new, from the Old Testament to the New. These themes barrel along through redemptive history, unresolved, until they come to a resounding climax – in the cross.”

~ D.A. Carson (1946-present), Emeritus Professor of New Testament and author

“If we have deep-seated fears that God does not really love us (as many Christians have), we can only go so far in growing nearer to God. There will come a point at which we will fear to trust Him any further because we cannot be sure of His love. When we look at ourselves, or our own faith, or our circumstances we will never be free from those lurking fears. Satan will see to that. But when we lift up our eyes and look on the cross we find the final persuasion that God is gracious towards us. How can he be against us when all His wrath against us fell upon Christ? How can He fail to care for us when He gave the only Son He had for our sake? How can we doubt Him when He has given us evidence of His love sufficient to banish all doubts?”

~ Sinclair Ferguson (1948-present), Scotish minister, professor and author

“At the cross, God accepted his own unbreakable terms of justice.”

~ Philip Yancey, American author

Sermon Passage

Nahum 1:2-3, John 3: 13-21, 31-36 (NIV)

Nahum 1

² A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and wrathful.  The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies.  ³ The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.  In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

John 3

¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

³¹ “…The one who comes from heaven is above all. ³² He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. ³³ Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. ³⁴ For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. ³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”