2 Thess 2, What Is the Wrath of God and When Is It Coming?Suday August 6, 2023
The South Fork Dam broke on May 31 1889 and the huge reservoir that it was holding in place for the fishing and boating pleasure of the elite members of the Southfork Fishing and Hunting Club (Carnegie) sallied down the valley towards Johnstown. A wall of water and debris about 40 feet high, traveling between 15-40 mph, headed where geography and gravity could only take it. About 2,000 died, approximately 1 out of ten. The flood was indiscriminate. It killed horses, cows, pigs, cats, dogs, old men and women, middle aged, and the young.
This flood was famous all over the US and the world. For weeks afterwards, many sermons on Sunday were highlighted by the depiction of the flood as the wrath of God upon a decadent nation. If you lived in Johnstown and survived it, that message would have rung true. But is this the wrath of God? The stupidity of people building dams without drain pipes? The neglect of the wealthy? Or does it fall under the category of stuff happens.
Today we begin to study the time known as the “wrath to come” otherwise known as the Great Tribulation. It is necessary that we understand what is the wrath of God and upon whom or what it breaks upon.
We also find in the Scripture the threat of the wrath of God. Why does God warn us about its coming?
The devastation of the Johnstown flood was amazing. This stone bridge, which held, served as a dam for all the debris (the dead and the living as well) and it caught fire and burned all night.
What is further applicable to our study today is that before the flood, it was known that adults would try to frighten misbehaving kids with the threat that the dam would break. It became a thing to say in Johnstown. “You better be good or the dam will break and the water sweep you away.” Imagine tucked into bed at night, imagining that 70 foot mound of dirt and rock looming in the dark, up the valley fifteen miles, 400 feet or so above you, and the thought that God knew what bad things you had done.
The Bible warns the whole world about the wrath of God to come. I find it fascinating that the ones who know the most about it are the ones who are not going to experience it. It is no mistake that it is this way. God had decreed all things. He knows this and has known it. There are a number of reasons that the warning to us who will not live through the Tribulation is so important.
*** Theme: The wrath of God is coming upon the earth and mankind during a seven-year period known as the Tribulation. Its main purpose centers upon the nation of Israel.
2Th 2:1-4 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
Paul wants to be sure to reveal to them that it had not and why. There are signs that the day of the Lord has come that are unmistakable. At the least, the day of the Lord includes the Tribulation period and the judgments at the second coming of Christ.
The event in view that is regarded in terms of having come or not is the day of the Lord.
Dispensation chart.
Isa 2:12 For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning Against everyone who is proud and lofty And against everyone who is lifted up, That he may be abased.
It is against all the proud. The Lord told us that none would escape it. The day of the Lord is not the flood of Johnstown in 1889 or any other isolated incident in our age.
Isa 13:6-13 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man's heart will melt. 8 They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame. 9 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light. 11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. 12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the Lord of hosts In the day of His burning anger.
Postribulation rapture position: the church is “caught up” at the second coming of Christ and accompanies Him to earth.
The posttribulation rapturist has to conflate the tribulations of this age with the unique and unprecedented period of the Tribulation which shall come upon the earth.
Are they the same? No. Our tribulations in the age of the church are for our spiritual growth and building endurance. God comforts us in our tribulations. The Tribulation is the wrath of God and it is for the purpose of preparing Israel for the kingdom of God.
The church is not appointed to wrath.
1Th 5:9-11 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
“The tribulation period will witness the wrath of Satan in his animosity against Israel (Rev 12:12-17 and of Satan’s puppet, the Beast, in his animosity against the saints (Rev 13:7). Yet even this manifestation of wrath does not begin to exhaust the outpouring of wrath of that day. Scripture abounds in assertions that this period is not the wrath of men, nor even the wrath of Satan, but the time of the wrath of God.” [Pentecost, Things to Come, p. 235-236]
Rev 14:8 So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
*** Application: We are all sinners. When we attempt to comprehend the pure holiness of God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and our Lord and Savior, God the Son, in light of that infinite purity, our own sin becomes like millions of little stains on a white shirt.
We cannot judge others. Legalism is out of line. Antinomianism is a wrong and sinful definition of grace.
Why do we resist sin, even as sinners? The wrath of God is solely against sin (Isa 13:9, 11).
Ponder it well and you will find yourself less attracted to sin.
And what has sin done for you over the years? Has it made you better? Has it really rewarded you? Has it instilled unmovable joy in your heart? Are these not all things that God promises to even the sinners who are stained with their errors? Who follow Him. Who pick up their own crosses, meaning their death in Christ, and follow Him, denying themselves daily and loving Him above all else and all others.
When we love Him we will try very hard to live pure in His eyes, and we will find that we seem to only keep adding to the number of little spots staining our white shirts. God has planned His lesson in this way. By trying so very hard we discover just how strong sin is and we discover how truly sinful we really are.
Psa 37:5-6 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday.
“It is the change from being confident about our own efforts to the state in which we despair of doing anything for ourselves and leave it to God.” [C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity]
*** Communion:
Concerning the Johnstown Flood, there is a great story of a baby in his crib who floated along the torrent and was fished out later without a scratch. His mother who also survived was later united with him. I would have renamed that little guy Moses.
Even when the dam breaks and the wrath of God is finally released upon the earth, there will be many saved to eternal life. Why? The cross of Christ is a light in any and all situations, from the good to the darkest hour.
Mat 24:7 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Mat 26:26-35 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."
30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
31 Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE SCATTERED.' 32 "But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." 33 But Peter said to Him, "Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away." 34 Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." 35 Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You." All the disciples said the same thing too.
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