Real God 4: Righteous, Wrath, Mercy
- Shares & Unshared attributes
- YOU: Made to Mirror
- Moral outrage = appealing to a 1. External 2. Universal standard
- How do we know what that standard is? God is righteous. We have rights.
God is Righteous
God does not conform to a standard of right and wrong, but right and wrong flow from Him as He alone is perfectly morally pure.
2 Chronicles 12:6 the princes…and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.”
Psalm 7:9,11 O righteous God!..God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
Psalm 71:19 Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?
Isaiah 5:16 the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
Daniel 9:7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame…because of the treachery that they have committed against you.
2 Corinthians 9:9 ”…his righteousness endures forever.”
- We don’t judge God by a standard. God is the standard.
- God is always right
- To think or act differently than God is unrighteousness (not right/wrong)
The Scriptures and Jesus Christ Perfectly Reveal God’s Righteousness
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…
Matthew 5:17-18 “Do not think that I [Jesus] have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
John 8:46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
Acts 22:14 ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One…
- God’s Word is always right
- There is a fixed unchanging standard of right & wrong
- When the line is moved, the church collapses into the world
We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s righteousness
Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?
Matthew 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Romans 1:26-32 God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men….And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Romans 3:10 None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
Created for – Desire Righteousness. 1. Religious Works Righteous
-Buddhism – save self by ceasing all desire
-Confucianism -save self education, reflection, self-cultivation, moral living
-Hinduism -save self detaching from separated ego & living in unity w/divine life force
-Islam -save self living a life of good deeds according to the Koran
-Orthodox Judaism -save repentance, prayer, & working hard obey OT Law
Paul Php. 3:6 “as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
-New Age -save self living part of divine oneness in harmony w/rest of creation
-Taoism -save self aligning with Tao to have peace and harmony in and around
2. Secular Righteous/ “social justice”
- Political – candidates, parties, & slogans
- Sexual – gender, sexual, etc.
- Causes – endless parade of issues
Works Righteousness is the Worst Unrighteousness
Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…
God is Wrath hard at
God’s wrath is His perfectly just anger punishing unrighteousness.
Deuteronomy 29:24 All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?” And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord…They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore the Lord’s anger burned…In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them…”
Romans 1:18 the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Colossians 3:5-6 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Romans 2:4-5 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- Passive wrath – Rom 2:5 “storing up wrath (eg damn)
- Active wrath – flood, Sodom Gomorrah, drought Elijah, DAY DIE HELL
- Christians are saved from God (not low self esteem, unfulfilled potential, etc.)
God is Mercy shard at
God does not give some people what they deserve, because He is kind, loving, gracious, compassionate, and forgiving to the ill deserving.
Exodus 34:6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness
Deuteronomy 4:31 the Lord your God is a merciful God.
Psalm 25:6–7 Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
Psalm 116:5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.
Daniel 9:9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him
James 5:11 the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
Hebrews 2:17 Therefore he [Jesus] had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God…
1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…
Jesus’ emotion mentioned most often in the Gospels is “compassion”.
Demons did the same as us, & 0 get mercy from Jesus Christ!
Jesus took our wrath and gave His mercy
Romans 1:16-17 I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 …you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Philippians 3:9 be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…
Titus 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit…
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Cross
Band up
Who will drink your cup?
Your name on it
Rom 2:5 “storing up wrath for the day of wrath”
Revelation 14:9-11 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night… LAMB=MERCY
Matthew 26:39 he [Jesus Christ] fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
