Category: Pondering Extras

Francis Schaeffer said this:

“External rites, whether those of Judaism or of Christendom are meaningless unless there is a circumcision of the heart, unless God has touched the person’s heart and there is a reality to his or her faith…. To live livesthat are a scandal in the sight of nonbelievers, to profess a faith that means nothing in our inward parts, this surely places us under God’s wrath.”

Donald G Barnhouse said this:

“There are those who are attached to form, ceremony, liturgy, religious precepts and practices, and all the attitudes that go with such attachment, and who are yet alien to the grace of God. They have ritual without redemption, works without worship, form of service without the fear of God in its proper sense, and thus they come under the condemnation of God.”

Here are a few quotes from Matthew Henry to think on regarding this passage…

“What method God takes to bring sinners to repentance  He leads them, not drives them like beasts, allures them; and it is goodness that leads, bands of love. The consideration of the goodness of God, His common goodness to all, should be effectual to bring us all to repentance.”

“The wrath of God is not like our wrath, a heat and passion; but it is a righteous judgment, His will to punish sin. This righteous judgment of God is now many times concealed in the prosperity of sinners but shortly it will be manifested before all the world.”

Think on these things!

Here are a few thoughts by Charles Swindoll on this passage…

Tough love is tough on everybody. Good parents don’t enjoy disciplining their children, truth be told, they hate it. And churches must sometimes take a strong stand when a member refuses to stop behavior that is self-destructive, damaging to the family, or clearly dishonoring to God. However, if we genuinely love someone, we cannot remain passive passive while sin destroys the sinner and everyone affected by his or her evil deeds. While we are not responsible for the choices of another, we can refuse to allow destructive behavior in our presence. This is, in fact, the approach the Creator has taken with sinful creation.

Humanity’s complete rejection of God left Him no other choice but to pronounce judgment, which began with His “giving over” humankind to their sin. Theologians call this “judicial abandonment.” Judicial abandonment is not the same as rejection. It is, instead, the first step in God’s plan of redemption.

From a message John MacArthur preached June 7, 1981 on the The Wrath of God…

I believe the greatest demonstration of the wrath of God ever given was given on Calvary’s cross. God hates so deeply sin that He actually allowed His own Son to be put to death. The greatest manifestation of the wrath of God. He poured out His fury on His own beloved Son. He would not hold it back even from His own Son. That’s how He hated sin.

Jeffrey Wilson, the British commentator, writes: “God is no idle spectator of world events, He is dynamically active in human affairs, the conviction of sin is constantly punctuated by divine judgment.”

And the judgment on the cross sums up the world’s history. So, what is the time of the wrath of God? It’s constantly being revealed, all the time, all the time. Every time you turn around you see it. People live and die. Nations rise and fall. God judges sin.

You say to yourself as I said to myself about this point in my study – Now, wait a minute, there are some people who seem to kind of prosper in spite of this, right? There are some wicked people who seem to do so well and you ask yourself the question How can they live and get away with it? I mean, why does God let them live such wretched, dissolute, vile, sinful lives? Well, don’t forget Psalm 9:16 says: “The Lord is known by the judgment which He executed.” It will come. If God lets men prosper for a while in their sin, His bowl of wrath is just all the while filling up. If He lets them sin for a while it’s just that He’s sharpening the sword. The longer God pulls back the bow, the deeper the arrow plunges when He releases it. Judgment will come.

The story goes that the godly farmers in a western community were greatly shocked onesummer Sunday morning when they drove to the little church in the country. They found the man who owned the forty acres across from the church was in the middle of plowing his field, turning thefurrows. And he’ had been doing it all day and ignored the fact that it was the Lord’s Day. The people went on into the church and all the while they were in church they could hear the noise of all of his tractors. And so they were deeply concerned. He had worked all his other fields and purposely chosen to work the one by the church on Sunday to prove a point. He wrote a letter to the editor of a local paper, and pointed out that he had done all this on Sunday and yet he had the highest yield per acre of any farm in the county. And he asked the editor how the Christians could explain this. He didn’t feel God was involved at all.

The editor with great common sense printed the letter and followed it with this simple statement. “God does not settle all His accounts in the month of October.”

Here are a few thoughts from John Piper on this passage. Think on these things!

So the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) is what we preach to unbelievers, and the gospel of grace is what we preach to believers. That is what Paul says in Romans 1:15. “I am eager to preach the gospel to you [believers!] also who are in Rome.” Not to get them saved, but to keep them saved through sanctification. Our faith feeds off the good news of the grace of God. And our obedience feeds off of faith. Therefore, to bring about the obedience of faith, we must hear the gospel of grace again and again.

So here is the sum of the matter: grace came to us absolutely free and unconditional from God when he called us to himself and loved us as his own (1:6-7). This grace makes us debtors to everyone who, like us, needs grace, because not to share the grace we received would imply that we qualified for it and they don’t; and that would nullify grace. And what we share is the gospel of this great free grace. This is how we pay our debt to others: freely we received, freely we give. And one of the ways we share the good news of God’s grace is through spiritual gifts. O, how important is the body life of the church in small groups where people understand that every member is a steward of grace to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of the Name.