Theological term
Wrath of God
40 sermons · All terms
The Morning Prayer of the Messiah
Psalm 5 is the morning prayer of the Messiah — not merely a psalm David wrote, but a prophetic window into the prayer life of the incarnate Son of God as he faced bloodthirsty and deceitful enemies throughout his earthly ministry. The sermon works through four movements: Christ's appeal to the hearing God, his comfort in the divine perfections of holiness, justice, and mercy, his petitions for the guidance of the godly and the condemnation of the godless, and his confidence in the protecting God. Because the righteousness that qualifies the pray-er is Christ's own imputed righteousness received by faith alone, Psalm 5 becomes the possession of every believer in the new covenant, a daily call to pray dependently, joyfully, and with full confidence in the God who hears.
The Reign of the Son of the Most High
Psalm 2 sets the fallen world's rebellion against God and His Anointed within a framework of divine sovereignty, showing that the rage of nations and rulers against Yahweh and His Christ is both futile and answerable. The psalm unfolds in four movements: the insurrection of mankind against God, the installation of the Son as King on Zion, the revelation of the eternal decree establishing the Son's universal inheritance, and the exhortation to kiss the Son in saving faith. Christ is identified as the eternal, only-begotten Son of the Father whose resurrection vindicates His divine Sonship, and whose worldwide reign is not yet complete but is advancing through the gospel mission entrusted to the church. The psalm closes with both a warning to the impenitent and a promise of blessedness to all who trust in Him.
CLIP: An Urgent Plea With Unbelievers
Isaiah 55 issues an urgent, time-sensitive call to unbelievers: the window of grace will close, and those who die outside of Christ will face the wrath of a thrice-holy God. The sermon confronts common self-excuses for delaying repentance — including the notion that one's sins are too great — and answers them with the inexhaustible pardoning grace of God. Every sinner is summoned to seek the Lord while he may be found, flee to Christ immediately, and rest in the abundance of his mercy.
The Vindication of the Aaronic Priesthood
Numbers 16:41–17 records the immediate aftermath of Korah's rebellion: Israel accuses Moses and Aaron of murder, God's wrath breaks out in a plague, and Aaron runs into the congregation with a censer to make atonement, standing between the dead and the living until the plague stops. Chapter 17 then confirms the Aaronic priesthood definitively when Aaron's rod alone buds, blossoms, and produces ripe almonds, functioning as a perpetual sign against any future usurper of the priestly office. The typological weight of Aaron's intercession in verse 48 points forward to Christ, who stands between dead sinners and the wrath of God, propitating that wrath by his blood. The sermon calls hearers to recognize both the sinfulness of Israel's hasty accusation and the glory of the priestly atonement that alone grants the unholy access to a holy God.
Salvation, Not Judgement
Luke 9:51–56 presents Christ setting his face toward Jerusalem with the cross and his ascension before him, while James and John, shaped by the contentious spirit of their day, demand fire from heaven on a Samaritan village that had refused to receive him. The sermon expounds why Christ rebuked them: his ministry is one of salvation and life, not judgment and destruction, and the spirit that calls for condemnation of the ungodly misunderstands the nature of his mission. Believers are therefore called to imitate Christ's patience and mercy toward those who reject the gospel — going to another village rather than returning contempt for contempt.
The Context of John 3:16, Part 2
John 3:14–16 is set against the backdrop of Numbers 21, where God appointed a single, unlikely remedy for snake-bitten rebels in the wilderness — a bronze serpent lifted on a pole. The sermon argues that humanity's condition before God is morally terminal, that God alone has planned the only rescue in His Son, and that this rescue is as unlikely in human reckoning as a bronze snake healing the dying. Saving faith is a gift from God, its sole object is Jesus Christ the only begotten Son, and the imputed righteousness He secured is the believer's standing before God — sufficient ground for perseverance and the rejection of every false remedy.
The Sovereignty of Yahweh of Israel
Psalm 29 is a polemic against the Canaanite storm god Baal, written by David to demonstrate that Yahweh alone is Creator and sovereign King over all powers—heavenly and earthly. The seven-fold repetition of 'the voice of the Lord' traces a storm from the Mediterranean through Lebanon, the supposed abode of Baal, into the wilderness of Kadesh, showing at each point that Baal is no rival but a fleeing creature before the Creator. The same sovereignty that sent Baal running and that enthroned God over Noah's flood is the ground of the church's peace amid the spiritual and geopolitical chaos of the present age. Those outside Christ are warned that a greater storm—the wrath of God—is coming, and the only shelter is repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Messiah, The Baptist, And The Kingdom
Matthew 11:2–15 presents three interlocking questions: who is Jesus the Messiah, who is John the Baptist, and what is the nature of the kingdom of heaven? The sermon works through John's imprisoned inquiry — not as rank unbelief but as a struggle with the shape of the messianic agenda — and Christ's answer, which grounds assurance in fulfilled Old Testament prophecy rather than in political deliverance. John is then assessed by Christ himself as more than a prophet, the very subject of Malachi's covenant-messenger prophecy, a man of unflinching courage who stands as a model for preachers and all believers. The enigmatic kingdom-violence saying of verse 12 is read as a positive-negative pairing: the kingdom forcefully advances through proclamation and regeneration, but violent men persist in opposing and plundering it until Christ's enemies are made his footstool.
Genesis 19:12-29
Genesis 19:12–29 recounts the deliverance of Lot from Sodom and the destruction of the cities of the plain, and this study expounds both events as windows into the character of God and the weakness of the righteous. Lot's spiritual sluggishness — his lingering, his misplaced requests, and his compromised family — traces back to the wrong choice recorded in Genesis 13, illustrating how an unscriptural settlement among the worldly dims spiritual discernment over time. Yet the text twice identifies God's mercy, not Lot's righteousness, as the ground of his deliverance, and verse 29 explicitly connects that deliverance to God's covenant with Abraham. The practical call is to think biblically about residence, vocation, and marriage, and to rest in the imputed righteousness of Christ while pursuing practical godliness.
The Judgment of God upon Idolaters
Romans 1:18–32 expounds Paul's indictment of Gentile idolatry as the root of all human unrighteousness, demonstrating that ungodliness — the rejection of the true and living God — inevitably produces the full range of moral disorder catalogued in verses 29–31. General revelation renders every person without excuse before God, yet it is insufficient to save; only the special revelation of the gospel, culminating in the propitiation of Romans 3:21–26, provides the antidote to mankind's idolatrous condition. The sermon traces the descent from suppressed knowledge of God through exchanged glory, divine abandonment, and catalogued vice, and closes by calling hearers to identify their own idols — theological, material, and self-oriented — and to look to Christ alone for justification.
The Supreme God
First Samuel 5 narrates a comedic yet deadly serious confrontation between Yahweh and the Philistine god Dagon, exposing the utter powerlessness of idols and the supreme sovereignty of the living God. When the Philistines place the ark of the Lord beside Dagon, Dagon twice falls prostrate before it — losing his head and hands — while Yahweh's hand falls with devastating judgment on city after city across Philistia. The passage teaches both that all false gods are helpless before Yahweh and that idolatry remains the deepest disease of the human heart, whether expressed in carved images or in the good things we elevate above God. The call of the sermon is to turn from every idol — visible or conjured — to the one divine Warrior who conquered sin and death, and in whom alone there is everlasting life.
2 Kings 1:1-18
2 Kings 1 records the idolatry, judgment, and death of Ahaziah, king of Israel — a man who, when facing death, turned not to Yahweh but to Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron. The chapter exposes the nature of idolatry as a practical confession that the living God is incompetent to meet one's needs, and it establishes the certainty of God's word against any king or army that would silence it. God's protection of Elijah through consuming fire is neither divine caprice nor Old Testament barbarism, but the settled, holy justice of a God who will brook no rival and whose jealousy for his own glory is inseparable from his mercy toward sinners. The passage calls hearers to examine what their instinctive cry in trial reveals about the true object of their allegiance.
The Exalted Servant
Philippians 2:5–11 presents the humiliation and exaltation of Christ as both the ground and pattern of Christian humility. Working through Paul's 'Christ hymn,' this sermon expounds the pre-incarnate glory of the Son, his kenotic condescension in taking the form of a bondservant, his obedient death on the cross under the wrath of God, and his subsequent exaltation to the name above every name. The christological argument is anchored in the Chalcedonian distinction of two natures in one person, guarding against any suggestion that the incarnation required Christ to surrender divine attributes. The congregation is called to cultivate the mind of Christ — not as a means of earning salvation, but as the fitting response of those who have been saved by sovereign grace.
The Preeminence of Christ
John 3:22–30 records John the Baptist's final official testimony concerning Christ, and in it the preeminent greatness of a man whose greatness lay entirely in his humility. Confronted by disciples troubled that Jesus was drawing larger crowds, John offers four responses grounded in God's sovereignty: the origin of his ministry was from heaven, its purpose was always to announce the Messiah, his joy was fulfilled precisely when the bridegroom's voice was heard, and Christ must increase while he must decrease. The sermon applies this pattern to every believer, arguing that humility is not directly cultivated but is the byproduct of being increasingly occupied with Christ, and that the cross is the only path to that self-forgetful life.
The Parable of the Wedding Feast
Matthew 22:1–14 presents the parable of the wedding feast as a sobering account of divine invitation, human rebellion, and eschatological judgment. The parable unfolds three responses to God's sovereign call — unwillingness, indifference, and violent opposition — each met by the king's patient re-invitation and, ultimately, his righteous wrath. The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 is identified as a visible, covenantal judgment prefiguring the final day when every mouth will be stopped before God. The sermon closes by pressing the imputed righteousness of Christ as the only wedding garment that makes a sinner fit for the feast, and by urging the church to pursue gospel mission with urgency.
The Darkness and the Derelict
Mark 15:33–34 presents two interlocked realities at Calvary: the supernatural darkness over the land and the cry of dereliction from the lips of the Son of God. The darkness is both a portent of coming judgment upon the generation that rejected the Lord of glory and a sign of the terrible deprivation the suffering servant endured as God withdrew from Him. The cry — 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' — is examined under four questions: who is crying, why He cries, what He has done, and for whom, establishing that Christ was made the derelict so that all who believe in Him might never themselves be forsaken by God. The sermon closes with exhortations to fear the judgment if you reject Christ, to rest in the assurance that God will never forsake His people, and to never neglect the ordinances — especially the Lord's Supper — through which that assurance is sealed.
The Vision of the Unrivaled Majesty, Part 1
Isaiah 6:1–7 presents a vision of the pre-incarnate Son of God seated on a throne, high and lifted up, attended by seraphim whose sixfold wings signal both the unapproachable holiness of God and the modesty proper to creatures before their Creator. The sermon works through three headings — the vision of the unrivaled majesty, the appropriate response of the son of Amoz, and (deferred to the evening service) the blessed atonement from the altar — arguing that God's holiness is not merely ethical sinlessness but the awful ontological contrast between the divine being and all created existence. The congregation is exhorted to come before God in worship with the sobriety and reverence that such a vision demands, and the unconverted are called to flee to Christ before that same glory becomes the ground of their condemnation.
The Persistent Problem of Idolatry
Romans 1:18–32 sets the universal guilt of mankind before any presentation of the gospel, and this exposition argues that the root of all social and moral disorder is not first a behavioral problem but a theological one: the suppression of God's self-revelation and the exchange of His glory for creature-worship. Paul's descent from ungodliness to unrighteousness maps directly onto contemporary culture, and the three divine abandonments of verse 24, 26, and 28 are read not as future threat but as present judicial reality. Believers are called to recognize idolatry as a persistent personal danger — of theology, innovation, utilitarianism, Mammon, and self — and to find the only antidote in the cross of Christ.
Be Imitators of God
Ephesians 5:1–21 confronts believers with a single pressing question: what is truly honorable and acceptable in the sight of God rather than in the sight of men? Working through three consecutive imperatives — walk in love, walk in light, and walk in wisdom — the sermon grounds each in the indicative of redemption: because the Father has predestined, adopted, and redeemed a people through Christ's perfect and acceptable sacrifice, they must imitate God as dear children. The practical implications range from the mortification of sexual sin and covetousness to the filling of the Spirit expressed in mutual speech, psalmody, thanksgiving, and submission, all of which flow from what Christ alone accomplished as the only sweet-smelling offering acceptable to the Father.
1 Samuel 5
1 Samuel 5 records the Ark of the Covenant's journey through Philistia after its capture at Ebenezer, where the God of Israel systematically humiliates Dagon and devastates every city that receives the Ark. The chapter is structured as a deliberate polemic against idolatry: Dagon is twice found prostrate before Yahweh, then stripped of head and hands, while Yahweh's 'heavy hand' of judgment moves from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron. The passage calls for reverent, humorous recognition that idols must be propped up by their worshippers, whereas the living God carries His people. The sermon draws out the perennial relevance of this account by connecting it to Isaiah 44, Isaiah 46, Psalm 106, and Romans 1, arguing that modern idolatry — whether of self, money, sexuality, or ideology — is the root disease for which the gospel of Christ is the only cure.
Samson's Marriage in Timnah
Judges 14 presents Samson's marriage to a Philistine woman not merely as a personal failing but as the sovereign orchestration of Yahweh to open conflict between Israel and the Philistines. The distinction between God's decretive will and His preceptive will is central: God overrules sinful choices to accomplish His purposes, yet this never licenses disobedience to His revealed commands. Samson's Spirit-empowered exploits anticipate a greater Deliverer, and the chapter closes with a direct call to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom alone everlasting life is found.
From Alienation to Reconciliation
Colossians 1:21–22 sets the alienation and enmity of sinners against the sovereign, monergistic reconciliation God effects through the incarnate death of His Son. The sermon moves through three aspects of the Colossian believers' transformation: their previous state as those alienated from God, hostile in mind, and outwardly manifesting wicked works; their present status as those God has reconciled through the physical, substitutionary death of Christ; and their future blessedness as those being presented holy, blameless, and above reproach — a goal that is the consequence of reconciliation, never its cause. Communion is the occasion for this exposition, pressing believers to remember the depth of the grace that drew them out of enmity and into fellowship with God.
Judges 2
Judges 2:7–3:6 exposes the root, description, and divine response to Israel's apostasy in a pattern that drives the entire book. The generation that arose after Joshua had only cognitive knowledge of Yahweh — not saving, experiential knowledge — and that deficiency produced the idolatry, covenant-breaking, and moral devolution that follows. Yet the dominant note of the passage is the unmerited grace of God, who raised up deliverers for a people whose groaning was not repentance but merely the pain of consequence. Each earthly judge is a type pointing forward to the one decisive Deliverer, and the church neglects the book of Judges at the cost of losing fresh reasons to sing of amazing grace.
The Priestly Office of Christ
Hebrews 2:16–18 introduces the high priestly office of Christ, which the author of Hebrews will develop through chapters 5 to 10. This exposition works through three interlocking truths: Christ's role as covenant mediator — taking on the seed of Abraham rather than the nature of angels — establishes the ground of His representation; His incarnational identification with His brethren qualifies Him to serve as a merciful and faithful High Priest; and His function of propitiation reveals that He exhausted the wrath of God on behalf of a particular people given to Him by the Father, making definite atonement the only coherent conclusion. Believers are called to cry out to their interceding High Priest in every temptation, since He who withstood the full weight of temptation without sin is able to aid those who are tempted.
The Descent into Idolatry
Romans 1:18–32 presents the universal condemnation of mankind, tracing the descent from the suppression of general revelation into full-blown idolatry and its attendant vices. The wrath of God is not an incidental doctrine but the necessary backdrop to the gospel: ungodliness precedes unrighteousness, and when God is rejected, judicial abandonment follows — God gives men over to the very sin they have chosen. Idolatry is not merely an ancient phenomenon but the root of every vice list Paul enumerates, and contemporary idols of false religion, mammon, and self demand the same vigilance the Apostle John commands: 'Little children, keep yourselves from idols.' The only antidote to idolatry is the gospel, in which the righteousness God demands is also the righteousness He supplies through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
The Narrow Way
Matthew 7:13–14 confronts every hearer with a binary reality: there are only two ways, and every person is already on one of them. The broad way is the default condition of fallen humanity — wide, well-populated, and apparently pleasant — but it ends in conscious, eternal destruction from the presence of God. The narrow way, by contrast, is the life of Christian discipleship entered by grace through faith alone, marked by difficulty and tribulation, yet terminating in everlasting life and the immediate presence of Christ. The sermon presses this text as both an ethical directive to professing believers to walk in decisive discipleship and an evangelistic summons to the unconverted to flee to the Savior, while insisting that the Sermon on the Mount rightly read exposes every hearer's need for an alien righteousness found only in Christ.
The Baptisms of Jesus Christ
The baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3 and his self-description of an impending 'baptism' in Matthew 20 are not merely biographical episodes — together they map directly onto the two elements every sinner requires for justification before God. Christ's water baptism inaugurates his active obedience, his public commitment to fulfill all righteousness in the place of his people; his baptism unto death at Calvary discharges the passive obedience that satisfies the wrath of God due to sinners. The sermon shows that the believer's baptism is therefore a means of grace that proclaims both the imputed righteousness of Christ and his substitutionary curse-bearing, and concludes with a direct call to trust the only Savior who is sufficient for real sinners.
The Finished Work of Christ
When Jesus declared 'It is finished' (John 19:30), he was not announcing defeat but uttering a triumphant cry of completion — the single Greek verb teleo carrying the force of a paid-in-full receipt. This sermon expounds the finished work of Christ under three headings: its fulfillment of all prior Scripture and typology, the glory it reveals in the Son's perfect filial obedience to the Father, and the comfort it secures for the church. That comfort is fourfold and concrete: the forgiveness of sins through Christ's blood, the imputation of his active obedience as the believer's righteousness, peace with God through justification by faith alone, and the purchased inheritance of eternal life — leaving the believer with no ground for despair and every ground for worship.
Idolatry and Its Effects, Part 1
Romans 1:18–32 presents the universal guilt of mankind not merely as a catalogue of vices but as the inevitable fruit of idolatry — the willful exchange of the glory of the incorruptible God for creaturely substitutes. The sermon traces four observations: the revelation of God's wrath against all ungodliness, the descent into idolatry, the unrighteous practices that flow from it, and the judicial giving-over of sinners by God himself. General revelation leaves every person without excuse, while only the special revelation of the gospel — the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith — supplies the redemption that natural knowledge cannot.
Christ Our Propitiation
Romans 3:25–26 stands at what Martin Luther called 'the chief point of the whole Bible,' and this sermon expounds why: the cross is not only a display of divine love but a vindication of divine righteousness. Two theological words — redemption and propitiation — carry the weight of the exposition: redemption addresses humanity's bondage; propitiation addresses humanity's liability to the wrath of God, which Christ exhausted in himself on behalf of his people. The sermon argues that God's justice and God's justifying mercy are not in tension but cohere perfectly at Calvary, and calls every hearer to rest that case not on moral performance but on faith alone in Christ alone.