John Hagee - The Wrath of God
Listen to the Bible's description of the wrath of God in the book of Nahum 1, quote, "The Lord is a jealous God. The Lord is full of wrath. The Lord taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves his wrath for his enemies. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can abide the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, the rocks are broken because of him. The Lord is good... But he will pursue his enemies into the darkness of eternity," end of quote. My friend, that's tough stuff. Paul describes the wrath of God in 2 Thessalonians 1. The Lord will one day appear in blazing fire and will punish those who do not know God. Who? Those who do not know God or do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will be punished with an everlasting destruction. That would also be called hell.
Hear me. There are two groups of people in this audience and two groups of people listening across America and around the world, those who have obeyed the Lord and are subject to receiving his blessing, his mercy, and his grace. And those of you who have rejected the Lord of your own freewill and volition, I assure you the wrath of God is in your future. It's just that simple. Choices have consequences. And today, I'm going to give you the chance to make the choice of what you want your future to be. Let's read Romans 1:18 together. Ready? "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them: for God has shown it to them".
Father God, we thank you today for the Word of God. We thank you because it is the light that leads us in paths of righteousness. Let us, as a church, light the Gospel torch that our nation stumbling in darkness may see it and recognize the glory and the majesty of God, our father, and Jesus Christ, his son. In the authority of his name, we pray and ask it. And all of God's children said, amen.
You may be seated. What is the wrath of God? Dr. J.I. Packard states that "Wrath" is an old English word defined as a deep, intense anger and indignation. Most people totally misunderstand God's wrath. Most see God's wrath as a loss of self-control, an outburst of God's temper out of control. That's wrong, wrong, wrong! Fact: a holy God will never tolerate sin. When Jesus Christ, his son, was on the cross, the Bible says, "It pleased God the Father to bruise him". Why? Because he took your sin, and your sin, and your sin, and my sin. And when he said, "It is finished," the blood of Jesus Christ made it possible for us to be sons and daughters of the Most High God. Give the Lord praise for Calvary.
God has a zero tolerance for sin, as evidenced in the crucifixion of his son. The Bible says, "The soul that sinneth shall surely die". The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death". And I assure you there's a payday some day. Romans 1:18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness". All of this you see going on in Washington with its deception and those who seem to be getting away with absolute corruption and murder, I assure you there's coming a day when they're going to stand before a righteous judge, God Almighty, and they will answer for every word, for every deed, and for every act. Bank on it! The fact: if God did not judge sin, God would be lying. His word would be a farce, and the cross would be nothing more than a cruel hoax.
Paul writes in Romans 2, "The day of God's wrath, when his righteousness judgment will be revealed, God will give to every man according to what he has done". Every word you speak, everything you do, the Bible says is being recorded in heaven. And some day, you will answer to God for every word, for every thought, and for every deed. Listen to this Bible verse. "For by your words, you will be justified or condemned". Two words, "Justified" or "Condemned:" there's nothing in the middle. You're going to be totally right or totally wrong. You cannot be sort of saved any more than you can be sort of pregnant. You either are or you're not. God's wrath is your choice. If you choose to obey God, you qualify for mercy, grace, abundance, and love. If you rebel against God, he promised you his wrath. It's your choice, and choices have consequences.
Romans 1:32 states, "Knowing the judgment of God, they which commit such things", things like what? Sin. "They who commit such things are worthy of death". Point: God's wrath is not anger out of control. It's not a divine temper tantrum. God's wrath is an expression of his justice. It is the fruit of your choices. And there is a payday some day for every person in this audience and for every person watching this television program in your home, across the nations of the world. Let the Bible record speak concerning the history of man's choice and God's wrath. In Genesis 2, Adam and Eve was commanded by God, "Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For the day that you do, you will surely die".
Isn't that simple? Don't you get the idea you should leave that alone? Eve started having a chat with the snake that was in the tree. Be careful when you start talking to snakes in your garden. The snake said, "If you do this, you will be like God," you will be his equal. And so they did it. They violated the law of God. They didn't get kicked out of heaven because they sinned. They got kicked out of heaven because they didn't confess their sin. When God came to them and asked them, "Why did you do this," Adam looked at God, and said, "This woman you gave me". And there are a lot of men that do that often. Ladies? Eve said, "It was the snake," that sneaking snake started talking to me. And the snake was cursed. The woman was cursed. The man was cursed. The ground that you could raise anything in accidentally became cursed. That's why you can grow grass in the middle of that asphalt parking lot and wheat will die in the middle of a plowed field. Adam did it. I can't wait to get to heaven, because I'm going to kick him in the shins until he hurts all over. Can I get an "Amen"? Good.
Let the Bible record speak concerning that choice. Their disobedience demanded the wrath of God. Get that in your mind. Choices have consequences. Your disobedience demands the judgment of God. Don't ever get the idea that when you watch fake news at night and all of this corruption seems to be going unattended and unattached, there's a God in heaven who has angels writing all of it down. And there is a payday some day. The citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah chose to live a Godless lifestyle, and God poured out his wrath upon that society. Some of you here and some of you watching by television have chosen to reject Jesus Christ. You have chosen to ignore the Word of God. Listen to what the Bible says about you. It says, "Fools make a mock of sin". That's in this book. "Fools make a mock of sin".
Do you know what the penalty for calling someone "A fool" is in the book of Matthew? The one who calls his brother "A fool" without justification is in danger of hell fire. That's a very powerful word. Yet, God himself says, "You are a fool for rejecting the Word of God". People say, "Well preacher, you know I just don't believe in hell". That's too bad. It's still there and you're still going. God doesn't really care what you think. You don't get a vote. What you believe has no bearing on reality. The world is round whether you believe it or not. Fire burns whether you believe it or not. Poison kills whether you believe it or not. Hell is a real place whether you believe it or not. Why you are going there? God didn't send you there. Your choices are going to send you there. When you reject the Word of God, when you reject the will of God, when you reject the Son of God, that's proof positive you have rejected the way of truth. The purpose of the wrath of God is to demonstrate his hatred for sin. God hates sin, and he will judge every sinner. Every liar is going to answer for every lie. Hello congress, are you listening?
Postscript, the Book of Revelation, "All liars are going to have their part in the lake of fire that burns forever". That's in the book. I think I'm going to enjoy Judgment Day in a way. Every rapist is going to give an account to God. Every gossip and every talebearer will answer for every word. You cannot destroy another person's life and reputation, and expect God to give you his blessing. Every thief will answer for every crime. Every pagan will bow before him. Every abortionist is going to answer for every child lost in an abortion mill. "Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father". You will bow today or you will bow later, but sooner or later, you are going to bow before Jesus Christ.
The second reason for the wrath of God is for believers to fear the Lord. Hebrews 12:28 says, "Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably and with reverence". We serve how? "Acceptably and with reverence, and with godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire". He's not a doting grandfather sitting benignly in the heaven applauding your ridiculous behavior. He's a consuming fire. He's not your cosmic bellhop who goes to fetch what you want. He's a consuming fire. He's not a cosmic buffoon. He has all authority in heaven and in earth. He is a consuming fire. The third reason for the wrath of God is to produce praise to Jesus Christ for having delivered us from the wrath that is to come. On Judgment Day, when angels drive the ungodly into the lake of fire, you're going to dance for joy the day that you were saved and you received Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. That's going to be the day that there are going to be people who will come and hug my neck, and say, "Thank you, you red-neck, Bible-preaching".
The question: is America obedient to God as a nation? Absolutely not. We've kicked God out of our colleges and schools. We are now going into socialism. Socialism makes the government God. Our leaders are calling America "The post-Christian generation". I've got news for you. In Texas, we haven't given up God. He's still the Lord of all. Consider the curse upon our cities. Moses wrote, "Cursed shall you be in your cities," Deuteronomy 28:16. How is it in the cities of America? Gangs rule the streets with guns. In our stupidity, we have fired our policemen. We need to rehire our policemen, give them a race, and express our appreciation to them. Our cities are being burned down by anarchists. Our jails are flooded with murderers, pedoPhiles, and rapists. But they have been released from America's prisons like packs of wolves searching for victims of prey in our cities. That's where we are. We live in homes with burglar bars over the doors. We have burglar alarms. We have guns cocked and loaded. Amber alerts are a social horror, as sex traffickers are snatching young girls off the streets of America, forcing them into drugs and prostitution. I believe, personally, out of my tender-hearted self, that we ought to execute sex traffickers. The Bible says, "All nations that forget God are turned into hell". I suggest to you and submit that the cities of America have become hell on earth.
The second sign a nation is under the wrath of God is the curse upon our economy. Deuteronomy 28:17 says, "Cursed shall be your basket and store". That refers to the economy. A brilliant economist has written, "We are racing, as a nation, toward bankruptcy that will place our children and grandchildren into economic collapse". America, if it keeps this up, is headed toward being a Venezuela. For you young people, who have forgotten history, do you know how Hitler came to power in Germany? He came to power because hyperinflation of the economy destroyed the economy, and he promised to rebuild it and give everybody a job. No nation in history of western civilization has America's debt ratio and has escaped economic collapse. We are in that kind of trouble.
The third evidence a nation is under the wrath of God is incurable plagues. "The Lord shall make pestilence", pestilence in the Bible is an incurable disease, "To cleave unto you and you cannot be healed". Covid-19 was a pestilence. And I think covid-19 was a practice run.
The fourth evidence that a nation is under the wrath of God is weak enemies that shall defeat us. Deuteronomy 28:25 says, "The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before your enemies. You shall go out against them one way, and seven ways before them". Israel lost the war with tiny, insignificant AI, because there was sin in the life of one man in that nation of a million and a half. Get that ratio, one man. The fact: America has a sin factor that's running off the charts. America lost in Vietnam. The picture of our ambassador running for his helicopter with the U.S. flag folded under his arm, running from a nation the size of Vermont, defeated and humiliated, says it all. America owes an apology to every soldier we sent to Vietnam for sending them to a battle where victory was not our goal!
General Douglas MacArthur said it well. "There is no substitute for victory". In the Bible, when Israel went to war, God's formula was this: "Go and ask for peace. And if they don't give you peace, go to war with everything you've got and make them your servants". That's God's battle plan. It's not, go and fight eleven years and get nothing. Weak enemies have defeated America. America's greatest humiliation in history happened in Afghanistan. America's disgraceful retreat left U.S. citizens behind to face a merciless enemy. We left billions of dollars worth of military equipment behind that is now in the hands of radical Islam that will be used to attack Israel in the future. China has, now, access to our equipment to reverse engineer it to receive top secret data from America. Don't blame the Chinese communists. Give the responsibility to the stupidity of our leaders that let this happen. Our soldiers in Afghanistan were brave and courageous to the last hour of this humiliation. This tragedy must be laid at the feet of the president Joe Biden. America deserves better than Joe Biden.
Let me give you a prophetic snapshot from here to eternity. The next earth-shaking event about to happen on planet earth is the rapture of the church. And I assure you, everything the Bible said must happen has already happened. Israel has been reborn, 1948. Jerusalem was reunited to the Israeli state, 1967: because the four blood moons have appeared on schedule. Every nation that is going to come to form the Gog/Magog war invasion, for the first time in 2.000 years, is in perfect place. Ladies and gentlemen, the next feature prophetically is the trump of God when the dead in Christ shall rise, and we which are alive shall remain and meet the Lord in the air. The king is coming! The king is coming! Give him praise in the house of glory!
Revelation 6 says, "The martyrs are buried under the altar". What does that mean? Here's what it means: let's say that you're sitting in this auditorium right now, and you decide not to receive Jesus. You don't know Jesus, but not now. You're having so much fun doing nothing that that's what you want to do. And the trumpet sounds, and suddenly we're gone. Oops. You come to this church and it's going to be full of people wishing they had a shot at praying a sinner's prayer and going to heaven. What do you do? You take that little chip in your right hand or forehead and lose your soul. That's what happens. Or you can have your head cut off.
If you let your head be cut off for the witness of Jesus, God takes your body and places it, in the Book of Revelation, in that altar where the souls are hidden, and they are preserved until the second coming of Jesus Christ in the City of Jerusalem. You will be resurrected from the dead and be a part of that community. Those who reject the Lord in the near future, the last few weeks and months of the tribulation, their bodies will be covered with boils. The seas will be turned to blood. Oh, God wouldn't do that. Let me tell you: he's already done it. He did it in Egypt just to show you that he could. And he's going to do that again. Life on this earth is going to be hell on earth. So what's your point? The point is it's just so much easier to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and go to heaven, than to go through all of that in the future.
Stand to your feet. Ask yourself this one question: am I absolutely sure I'm ready to meet Jesus Christ in the rapture of the church? But if there is hidden sin in your soul, you're not ready. "If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". And all it takes is one prayer, and angels start writing your name in the lamb's book of life. You're in this room right now, and you say, pastor, there's a doubt in my mind about whether I'm ready. There are things in my life which I need to ask God to forgive me, and for the angels to write my name in the lamb's book of life today. If that describes you, would you slip your hand up and say, "Today, I want to make sure that I'm following Jesus"? Lift your hand. God bless you and God bless you. God bless you. Lift your hands and pray this prayer with me:
Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I ask you to forgive me of all of my sin. Cleanse me from all unrighteousness. With your precious blood, make me whiter than snow. From this day forward, I will follow you, I will read and honor your word, I will be your servant, and you will be my Lord and Savior. From this day forward, I am saved, reborn, a child of God. Heaven is my home. Amen.