Transcription
You ready for the word today? >> Come on, grab your Bibles. If you don't have your Bibles, you can grab your phone. Um, grab something to write with, some notes, pens, something like that, your phone. Um, this is going to be the last message in our series on the attributes of God. I know I was waiting for an all, but some of you are excited. I I'm kind of bummed. I've had a good time looking at the Lord through his attributes. I don't know about you, but I've learned a lot. Has anybody learned anything about the Lord, about his attributes? Man, I've just learned so much. And this is going to be the last week we talk about the attributes of God. We'll be closing out our kind of two-part series on the love and the wrath of God. If you've missed that message, you can go back last week and and listen to the love and the wrath of God. It it was a it was a great time at looking at the Lord.
This is the last um message because next Sunday, November 30th, starts our journey through the Advent season. Come on, Christmas is coming. >> Can you believe that 2025 is like almost over? It's insane. I feel like the years are just like cut in half. They're going so fast recently. It's insane. Um but man, we're just so excited to get into this Advent season to celebrate with you all. It's going to be an incredible time. But I want to say this. Next Sunday, we'll have next week we'll we'll have available on our podcast every single message I've preached on the attributes of God all the way back through January. So, if you've missed anything, if you have any questions or just need some refresher, you can go back to our podcast um and listen to all that. At the beginning of the year as well, I'm going to have um some sort of printed I'll just like print out my notes for us. And so, if you want my notes, you can have those as well. It's going to be a great time.
But as we close this series, it's been interesting to see the difference between the different attributes of God, right? All the all the different angles that we look at the Lord. And there are some attributes. There's a handful of attributes that the Lord has invited us into. He's invited us to partake and emulate these attributes. Others we're not supposed to necessarily emulate. We're supposed to appreciate. We're supposed to behold. And so I want to kind of talk about the difference between these two for a second. The attributes that God invites us into are called communicable attributes. Everybody write that down. Communicable attributes. These are the attributes that the Lord invites us to share in with him. Think of the love of God. God is love. First John tells us that. But God also invites us to share in this attribute of love. What he asks us to do is to become the love that we receive from the Lord. So these are communicable attributes. Think of his holiness. What does the Bible say? The Bible says, "Be holy for I am holy." What is God doing? He's inviting you into this attribute that he has.
There are other attributes that are in incommunicable sorry incommunicable attributes. These are attributes that God alone possesses. Let me tell you something. God is not asking you to be omnisient because he is omnisient. He's not inviting you to be all powerful or omniresent. There are attributes that are unique to God that are his alone. And these attributes aren't designed for us to emulate as much as they are on display for us to appreciate and to worship. There are attributes. Every single one of God's attributes are like this. But the incommunicable ones are attributes that we behold. We look at God and our our finite puny minds are blown when we try to comprehend how God is everywhere at one time. Our hearts and our minds should be overwhelmed when we think about this God who knows everything. His knowledge is complete. It is full. There are components about who God is that we are not necessarily invited into.
And as we close out our time looking at the love and the wrath of God, I would like to submit to you that his wrath is not one of the attributes that we are welcomed into. Not only are we not encouraged to walk in his wrath, but we are actually discouraged to do so. We are encouraged to walk in love. So why don't you do this? Bow your heads. Close your eyes. Let me pray for us as we get into the final part of this series. Lord, we come to you and we thank you for all of the incredible attributes that we even just barely scratched the surface of this year. Lord, if we wanted to, we could spend and we will spend an eternity looking at you, beholding you, learning and loving what we've seen. And Holy Spirit, I ask that in this moment, in this time, that you would fill our hearts and our minds with the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that as we see you, as we know you, our hearts are changed by what we see, Lord, that we would become more like you, that we would love you deeper. Holy Spirit, help me to love Jesus better. Lead me in the paths of righteousness. Holy Spirit, I pray that every single one of us as we leave this place will leave different. In your name, I pray. Everyone said Cowboys play at 3:25, right? So, I'll get you out by three. We're good. You know, Paul preached all night and killed somebody. That is crazy. Yeah. Some of y'all didn't know that. You're like, "What are you saying?" Go look it up. I'm not gonna say anymore. Just go look it up. He preached all night and somebody died. So you you're okay. You're sitting on comfy chairs. You're fine. He resurrected him. I should finish the story. He brought him back to life after. It was a win-win. No, I'm excited to share this um word with you. Um let's let's jump right in here. I'm going to give you some some thoughts around wrath. I'm going to give you some thoughts around why we're not necessarily invited into it and I'm going to give you some scripture and we're going to work through it together today.
Here's the first point I want you to know. Wrath is never prescribed to us by Jesus. As we read the word, there's two different realities that exist in the word word. There are things that are prescribed, things that the Lord tells us this is what you should do and there are things that are described, things that happened. So there are often times we see things that are described that aren't necessarily the format for the way we should live our life. I think about this. I think of the Bible's description of Solomon having 700 wives and 300 concubines. How many know that that is not a prescription on how to have a successful marriage? That is a description of something that happened. And oftentimes you hear this in society. You hear people bring up the point, well, the Bible blah blah blah blah blah. No, no, no. The Bible isn't always affirming or prescribing every single detail. Oftentimes, the Bible is unfolding the reality of the situation. And so, when we look at God's wrath, it's actually never prescribed to us by Jesus. In fact, when when he speaks of the worst offenders in our lives, he does not tell us to take a step into wrath. What does he tell us? He actually invites us to love our enemies. And so, even in the worstc case scenario, the prescription given to us, God's people, is not wrath, it's love. Write this down in Matthew 5:43. Jesus says this. You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." 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."
I know our thoughts go straight away to Jesus. But Jesus, that's hypocritical because you flipped tables. You made a whip out of out of cords and you drove out the money changers. You obviously and clearly stepped into and operated in the wrath of God. Let me give you a bombshell revelation this morning. Okay, you ready for this? Hold on to your seats. You are not Jesus. You're not the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am not the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And although church, you and I are called to become like him, we are not him. Meaning this, there are things that we behold about the Lord in the word that we will never walk into. I know that might seem disappointing, but here's the reality of the situation. I will never die on the cross for your sins. That is something that I will never do. Jesus is yes. Is he man? Yes. Is is he our blueprint? Is he our way? Is he Is he the the goal, the north star, the target? Yes. All those things are true. But he's also God in the flesh. And you and I have there. We are distinctly different. He is the perfect spotless lamb of God. And I lost my cool on my dog this week. I'm serious. You can ask my wife. It was bad. He Let me explain what he did because you will agree with me. He got into the trash can and he ate Sorry for all the queasy people in here. He ate one of my son's diapers. And this wasn't a clean diaper. It wasn't even just like, you know, the runny the runny kind. It was runny and chunky and ate it. It was disgusting. And I lost my cool on my dog. What am I saying? I'm saying this that you and I are riddled with this thing called flesh. We are sinful creatures. And the reason that the son, the spotless lamb of God, could walk and enter the wrath of God is because he's not walking in the wrath with his flesh, with sin. He is able to operate pure and holy and just. You and I are not. Oftent times our wrath is tainted by our sin. It's marred by our sin. And it's not just. It's not pure. It's not holy. His sinlessness allows him to step into the wrath of God in a just and holy way. My sinful nature perverts my anger. Let me tell you this church. I cannot trust what comes from my anger. I can almost guarantee it's never pure. It's never holy. And it's never just. This is why God tells us this in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Write this down. God says these three words, "Vengeance is mine." He's not inviting us to partake in vengeance. He actually declares that this is off limits to us and vengeance belongs to the Lord.
In Romans 12, Paul, he quotes this verse in verse 19. He says this, "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath." We'll break that down in a second. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Verse 20 says this, "Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." That scripture verse, it says, "Give place to wrath." And I want you to know Paul's not talking about for you. He's not saying don't repay just be mad. He's not telling you that you can give place to wrath. What he's saying, this is how at Robertson puts it in his commentary. He says give room for wrath of give room for the wrath of God instead of taking vengeance in your own hands. When people persecute us, spitefully use us, abuse us, we do not give space in our heart for wrath. Rather, we give them over to the righteous judge. We know that I don't have to avenge myself. That one day each and every one of us will stand before the father and be accountable for our own works. He alone is the righteous judge. Even this idea of heaping coals on their head, this is not a passive aggressive way to get back at people. when we're called to love people and by loving we heap coals of fire on them. This isn't like we're trying to be nice and then like kill them still. That's not the the that's not the description. That's not the prescription here. The idea is this that that heaping coals on their head is not a passive aggressive way to get back at them. It actually speaks to a refining and repentant process. Because listen church, love alone has the power to burn through cold hards and touch the hurts and wounds of people. Heaping coals of fire on people is not your way of getting back at them. It's our way of breaking through their hurt and their pain and allowing the Lord to heal their heart. So, as we look at God's wrath and we if we look at wrath and we as we look at love, these are things that we are to walk in. We're not to walk in the wrath of God. We're to step into his love. Wrath is never prescribed by Jesus, only love.
Here's the second thing I want you to notice. Notice that wrath is not a fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5. Did you notice that? Did you notice? Let's go there. Galatians 5 22 Paul lists the fruit of the spirit and he says this. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If the spirit isn't producing it in my life, it won't bear good fruit. If it doesn't, if it's not birthed from the spirit of God, it's not good. I want you to hear this. The the Bible tells us there's nothing good in me. So everything that Dominic produces by myself is bad fruit. The things that the Holy Spirit produces in me is good fruit. My anger toward my kids has never produced anything good. But listen, my love, my joy, my peace, my patience, when it's on display for my kids and those around me, it always produces good fruit. But pastor, the Bible says I can be angry and not sin. You're right. It does say that. Let's take a look at in Ephesians chapter 4. Here we go. You ready? Ephesians chapter 4 26. The Bible says this, "Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Now listen to this. If if walking in God's wrath and anger was prescribed for the Christian, notice how different this verse is from every other verse we see. Notice the Bible does not say love and do not sin. Notice the Bible does not say be joyful and do not sin. Why? Because the natural path of the fruit of the spirit is life. The path of these fruit will not lead you towards sin. It will lead you toward righteousness in Christ. But this is why he then said, "Do not let the sun go down on our anger because the path of anger and wrath leads to death. It is an open door to the devil." That's what he says here in verse 27. Do not give place to the devil. He's warning us. Yes, there are going to be moments and times where we experience wrath and we experience anger. That in and of itself is not sinful. But don't walk down that road. Don't journey too far down there. Why? Because you'll find that that road leads you to the heart of the enemy.
I've heard this said as well oftentimes. It's okay to let wrath fuel your fight against injustice. Pastor, we should be angry and filled with rage at all the bad things that are happening in this world. I want to show you what James says in James chapter 1 verse 19. James says this. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Why? Verse 20. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. I think of even what Martin Luther King said as he fought against civil injustice in this city. What did he say? He says, "Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that." I'm so honored and privileged to be a part of a house that has embodied this reality for so many years. I even think about in the last handful of years all the work Pastor Scott's done in the city of Abene to make the city of Abalene a sanctuary city for the unborn. And I'm telling you this, if you have any questions, if you have any thoughts about if I can walk against and fight injustice while being fueled and filled with love, you need to talk to this man sitting on this front row. Why? Because he's the best example I've ever seen of it. He fought injustice in this city, not fueled by hatred or rage, but because the love of God, the compassion for the unborn in the womb drove him to fight for injustice. This is the reality, church. You don't need anger as fuel. You don't need to allow your anger, your wrath, your your fury to drive you to righteousness. Because let me tell you something, the end never justifies the means. In the kingdom of God, the end does not justify the means. Well, we got the job done. That doesn't matter. What matters is who we are along the way. Jesus tells us that many are going to stand up and say, "Lord, Lord, look at all that I've done for you." And he his response is going to be, "I don't know who you are." Why? Because the ends doesn't justify the person and the people that we become. You and I have an ability to be overcome by the love of God and to fight injustice and fight the enemy. Not fueled by hate, but fueled by love. Church, even think of Jesus. Jesus was not compelled to come and die on a cross because of his great hatred toward the devil. The Bible does not tell us that for God hated the devil so much that he sent his only son. That's not what the word of God teaches us. But the word of God teaches us that it was love that compelled God to send his son to die on a cross that whosoever should believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Church, I'm trying to communicate to you today that if you would lay down your anger and your wrath, you'd be more effective and efficient for the kingdom of God.
Here's the next thing I want you to know. Love. Conversely, we are commanded to love those around us just as he has loved us. And so as we look at the wrath of God, hopefully by now you understand that you and I are not invited into the wrath of God. But on the other hand, we are invited in every scenario to step into the great love that God has for us and to take that love and to share it with everyone around us. We are commanded to love those around us just as he has loved us. This is a shameless plug here, but I want you to go back if you haven't listened to this message. I preached a message on this topic last Wednesday. It went it was a we went in depth in in First John. It's on our our podcast. You can go listen to it. But in the in the message, I talked about this reality that love is clearly defined [snorts] in scripture. Let me tell you something. Love is not ambiguous. Love is not an opinion. It's not an emotion. It's not a thought. It's not an intention. Love is very specifically and clearly displayed in scripture. Love is the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross. That is how the Bible defines love. Self-sacrifice, laying yourself down for those around you. Jesus says this that no greater love can any man have than if he gave his life up for his friend. This is the calling that we are called to walk into. This is the attribute we are called to emulate. And Pastor David, I don't know if you were Paul, come up. Come up and help me out.
Here's what I want you to know about love. I'm going to give you a few quick tips about love. You ready? Here we go. First one is this. Not only are we encouraged to love, we are commanded to love even our enemies. I want you to hear this as clear as you can. Love and your requirement to love others is not a suggestion. It is not a good idea. It's not a good way to invest in yourself or invest in your Christianity. Let me tell you something as clear as I can. I love being your pastor, but and I don't want to like sugarcoat anything. I want you [music] to hear this as clear as I can possibly say it. That if you and I do not embrace and pick up this mandate to love others around us, the word of God teaches us that we [music] don't even know God. It's not a suggestion. We are compelled by scripture, compelled by what he did for us to follow in his footsteps [music] and to love others. John says it this way in 1 John 4:20. [music] He says this, "If someone says, "I love God," and he hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, [music] how can he love God whom he has not seen. What does it mean to love? It means to lay down your life. How do I love my family? I think of my family before I think of me. How do I love my co-workers? I think of them before I think of me. How do I love the Lord? I think of him before I think of me. How do I love people around us? It's about thinking on them before we consider ourselves. Well, pastor, I can't give. I can't do this. I can't serve because I'm not going to have. I won't. I won't have enough. This is what Jesus teaches us. If [music] you live your life trying to hoard on what you have and store it up and protect it, you'll look around and you'll find out that you've lost everything. But as a Christian, if you live your life not trying to guard and protect your own self-interest, but you live your life with hands open and arms open, giving generously, serving people, loving people, self-sacrificing to the point where you're giving others, giving to others, that's when you'll actually begin to find you've come alive. You found your life. You found what it means to walk in the footsteps [music] of Jesus. Why are we [music] rec Why are we required to love? Because it is the gospel message. You're required to love. Because it is the very centerpiece of [music] the gospel. But pastor, they don't deserve it. I know it's not easy to love them. I know, but it doesn't negate the fact that [music] it's our job. It's our responsibility. The word of God teaches us that you and I were enemies with God [music] and he loved us. Thank the Lord God didn't wait for you to get your act together and be deserving of love to come down and die on that cross for you. This is our example. This is our model. Well, I'll love my wife when she starts doing X, Y, and Z. That is a demonic love. It's not love. Well, I I'll love my husband when he blah blah blah. No, that's not the model. I'll love my friends when they stop doing X, Y, and Z. I'll love the community. I'll love I I'll give and be generous once I have enough for myself. This is not the model. This is a selfc centered focus and that's not love. You're jumping through a religious hoop. You're not truly loving. Love always costs. It's always sacrifice. And so, yeah, you shouldn't wait until your wife or your husband apologizes to extend love. You need to be the first. I said this Wednesday night and I'm going to say it again because I want you to all hear it. What if as [music] the body of Christ, we enabled and enacted and walked in this reality of first to sacrifice? Could you imagine living in a community that wasn't protecting our own interests, but we [music] raced each other to be the first ones to lay down our life? No. I want to lay down my life before you do. I want to sacrifice before you sacrifice for me. I want to love you first. Could you imagine living in in a community where we raced one another to lay our life down?
Here's the next idea. Not only is love a [music] fruit of the spirit, but it is the fulfillment of the law. It's the fulfillment of God's law that we would love. In Romans [music] 13:10, it says, "Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. And as we look at Jesus, that's why we can say that Jesus didn't come to abolish the law. He didn't come to write it off or to change it. He was the fulfillment. Why? Because he's the fullest expression of love. Love, his love on the cross [music] fulfilled God's righteous requirement. That's why we get to like the moon reflects the sun. We reflect this love that we've been given and we share it with the world. Jesus tells us and teaches us that this is actually how the world will know that he is God by how we love one another. This is the qualifier, church, that if if there is a Christian, the qualifier is that they be in Christ. There's a Christian. If there's a Christian, then I am called to love my brother and sister. And the [music] world the world will know who Jesus is not because of your Facebook post. The world doesn't know who Jesus is because you're anointed or you're gifted. The world knows who the son of God is because you've loved your neighbor. Well, love is our greatest evangelistic [music] outreach tool.
Here's the last thing. Choosing to love people puts to death the will of the flesh, but anger [music] and wrath feeds our flesh. Let me show you this. In Ecclesiastes [music] chapter 7 verse 9, it says this. Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger, listen, anger rests in the bosom of fools. I think I can just leave that one right there. I don't know anyone who is striving to be more foolish in their life. If you're holding on to anger, you are. That's the outcome [music] is that you become a fool. In other words, anger feeds the worst parts of who we are, not the best parts of who we are in Christ. Choosing to love [music] puts to death that foolish part in our life. Come on. Do you want to grow in wisdom and understanding? Walking in God's divine love is the prescription. So, as we close today, I want to encourage you to walk in his love. How do I do [music] that? Do Dominic, it's really easy. This is why we're doing the attributes because our goal, our intention is to [music] look at him. I can't stand over [music] your shoulder and tell you what to do in every single scenario. I'd probably steer you wrong anyways. But the greatest treasure that you have [music] is the very spirit and presence of the Lord on the inside of you. and the Holy Spirit will lead you. The Bible says, Jesus tells us in John 16 that the spirit of God will lead us in all truth. So, if you don't know how to love, how have you been loved by him? We'll do that. How has God loved you? Well, man, he's he's blessed me. He's taken care of me financially. We'll do that for [music] somebody else. How has God loved me? He's forgiven me of all of my sins. We'll do that. Forgive somebody. How has God loved me? He came for me before before I even realized it. Well, go do that for somebody. But they won't talk to me. Keep loving them. But they reject me. Keep loving them. Keep pursuing them. Why? Because that's what he did for me. He is our blueprint. He is our way. He's our path. He's everything, church. [music] And if you're unsure or don't know what to do, man, thank the Lord that he's spoken to us in this book. And he's showed us clearly who he is. Pick it up and read it. understand, begin to learn who Jesus is so that you know where and what to do. And then also, church, walk in his love.
But I'm going to encourage you to behold and meditate on his wrath. Well, pastor, I don't want to do that. That's that's depressing. [music] It is depressing. When you begin to realize who you are and what you are without Christ, you should be very depressed. [music] And that's precisely why I want all of us to dwell and meditate on his wrath. It seems crazy, but church, listen. When we allow our heart to meditate on God's wrath and his judgment, it generates in our hearts a deeper level of gratitude for what Jesus has saved us from. Let me tell you something. As a church culture in the west, we have stopped preaching on hell and sin [music] and judgment. And the idea is that we would be a church that is is more welcoming and inclusive for people all over [music] the nation. And that's fine. That's good. But what we've we what we've done unexpectedly is what we've done is we've stripped the value away from the cross because we're fail to remind people of what he saved you from. We fail to remind people that without Jesus dying on the cross, we're destined for an eternity separated from [music] God. And because we've stripped wrath and sin and judgment away from God, we've stripped the value of the cross. And as we return to it as a church, as we realize just what it means when the Bible says, "The wages of your sin is death, when we realize what that means, we have a deeper love and appreciation for Jesus [music] coming in, stepping in, and saying, "I'll take the punishment. I'll put it on [music] me. I'll take it." If you want to love Jesus better, meditate on the wrath of God. Let's do this. If you would put your hand on your heart, let me pray with you. Jesus, we thank you so much. We thank you, Father, for sending your son. We thank you, Jesus, for coming down and clearly displaying, that's what the word of God says, that you've clearly displayed the love of God for us. You couldn't have done it any planer, Jesus. You've put it on full display for us when you hung on that cross. And we ask, God, right now that you would help us, Holy Spirit, help us. Help us. Come on, just ask him. Say, "Help me, Holy Spirit. Help me, Holy Spirit, to walk in the love of God, to reflect this glorious attribute of who you are to all those in this [music] earth. Help me to embody to the best of my ability the love that God has shown me. Holy Spirit, would you deliver me from anger and wrath? Help me not to walk in the way of the devil. will help me to come out of anger and wrath and leave vengeance alone as it belongs [music] to only you even my enemies. Lord, help me to love them. And Jesus, I pray that as we meditate on all of your glorious attributes, God, as you've displayed yourself and declared yourself to us, as we've seen you, Lord, I pray just as Isaiah prayed and saw the vision in Isaiah 6, as we've seen you high [music] and lifted up. As we've seen your glorious temple, your glory that has filled the temple that we've [music] said and declared and will declare every day, "Woe is me. I am undone. And as the angel took the coals from [music] the altar and purified Isaiah's mouth, Jesus, I pray that the blood of Jesus would purify and cleanse us. Make us more like Jesus. It's in your precious name I pray. Come on everybody said amen and amen.