Ignorance is bliss or so they say. The problem with ignorance is that issues we are unfamiliar with and would rather ignore don’t just go away. Poor grades, health issues, economic crises, and personal relationships often deteriorate because of lack of knowledge, inattention, or ignoring the problems all together.
People will often claim ignorance when some problem comes to a head and sometimes it is a valid excuse. Regardless, the problem still exists and needs to be dealt with. There is one issue the world cannot claim ignorance and that’s the coming judgment. Some people will explain it away, drink it away, medicate it, rationalize it away, and scoff it away because the world ignores God’s coming wrath.
Romans 1:18-20 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
God in His divine mercy has been warning the world throughout the centuries that His judgment and wrath is coming.
Why does God’s wrath and judgment fall? It falls on individuals and nations as a result of sin. God is holy and sin is an affront to His perfect nature. Therefore judgment often comes after repeated warnings. This pattern of long periods of mercy, patience, and holding back judgment by the Lord is evidence of His love found throughout the Bible and that pattern remains right up to where we are today.
In centuries past many people have lived by faith and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus because of a realization that wrath and judgment were coming. Those centuries were also marked by paganism, hedonism, and rebellious people. Although many found salvation in the Lord, many chose to ignore Him.
Now we live in an enlightened age of incredible advances in medicine, technology and travel. We are far removed from the humanistic pride and selfishness of those days and surely a majority of people will repent and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus because we are smarter people now—right?
Wrong; because it seems that even with all of our accumulated knowledge, many are still ignoring the clear warning of the wrath to come. If anything, it seems as though our dependence on technology, abundance of luxury goods and the plentiful trappings of leisure have blinded many to the fact that the wrath and judgment of God will soon fall on this world.
There’s nothing wrong with recreation, enjoying hobbies, and having things, provided that these things don’t consume us and become idols. In our day, these things and diversions have largely become idols because many people focus on everything else but God.
Moreover, this modern “enlightened” mindset, our preoccupation with things, and selfishness has squelched the conscience of Man. Now many people are calling good evil and evil is called good. What was once considered filth is called “entertainment” now. Lifestyles that were largely considered “deviant” just a few decades ago are considered “normal.” Tolerance is the buzz word today.
People seem to have tolerance for anything and everything, unless it is Christianity or Christians.
Matthew 24:37-39 “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
For the most part, people in previous centuries who weren’t followers of God were “mostly” content with sinning “under the radar” and living sinful lives in private. Here’s what I mean: Although these non-Christians of generations past were indeed worldly, they still exhibited a sense of knowing right from wrong (as a civil society would define it).
While not 100 percent, the case their poor, sinful, evil behavior, habits, and lifestyle were largely considered to be counterculture and abnormal.
Even in our previous century, back in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, if a guy wanted to look at a naked person for pleasure or view anything pornographic, he would have to go to the sleazy part of town, go incognito, and cover his tracks.
Moreover, this blatant deviant behavior was largely frowned upon by a much more decent society by comparison. It’s not that people were any less evil back then, it’s just that deviant behavior was frowned upon for what it was and still is—a destructive element to society.
Now we are in a day when pornographic sites account for almost one third of all Internet searches. This influx of blatant evil is undeniable. Revenue in the pornography industry has reached the hundreds of millions annually. I could go on and on citing the sad statistics about porn and its evil impact on our society.
I’m mentioning pornography because people chuckle about it; television personalities joke about it, and I’ve seen some males brag about how much porn they watch. Our day is marked by something different:
Our day is marked by the widespread acceptance and even support of evil practices that were considered “deviant” just one generation ago.
In just the past few years, governments are redefining what has been considered “traditional marriage” for thousands of years. During the same previous thousands of years, men knew where to go the bathroom and women knew the same. These boundaries are natural and God given because men and women are made uniquely different..
States are deciding how to enact rules about public restrooms and now transgender use of bathrooms is an idea that is gaining momentum in our state houses and in some corporate policies.
I personally find it unbelievable and very troubling that our society is sinking so low. America, Europe, and much of the West have become a cesspool of evil. This generation claims to be enlightened, but while the people claim enlightenment, they are groveling around in darkness and moral decay.
Romans 1:21-26 “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.”
In the centuries past, some people have laughed, mocked, and scoffed at the notion of coming wrath and God’s judgment. But our day seems marked by a prideful arrogance against God’s wrath to a degree never witnessed before.
God’s Word attests to the fact that judgment does come. There comes a time after repeated warnings that judgment and wrath fall on the unrepentant. Here are just a few examples the Bible gives of God’s judgment and wrath falling:
1. Decade after decade had past when righteous Noah built the ark. God and repentance was what people needed to embrace. Instead they laughed at Noah and perished in the flood.
2. God’s servant Abraham intercedes and pleads for the city of Sodom and the Lord temporarily holds back judgment. Shortly thereafter, evil reached its peak and the Lord sent angels to warn Lot. Just before the city was destroyed, Lot warned his sons-in-law who laughed at him and ultimately perished in the fiery judgment to follow. Lot and his daughters heeded God’s warning and escaped Sodom in time.
3. After the death of David and Solomon, the nation of Israel went through a series of kings. Some of the rulers followed the Lord but others didn’t and the nation fell further into spiritual darkness and idolatry.
God sent prophets to plead with the people and warn them that judgment and wrath were coming if they didn’t turn from their ways and repent. The northern kingdom fell and ultimately the whole nation fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Lord used the armies of Nebuchadnezzar to bring His wrath and judgment to an unrepentant people.
Here is my question to the proud, arrogant, haughty people of our day: Do you think you are exempt from God’s judgment and wrath to come?
How you answer the question ultimately determines where you will spend eternity. If you don’t think you need salvation from the wrath to come, you will not see your desperate need for Jesus. He is the only One who can save you from God’s fierce judgment that will be poured out on an unrepentant world.
If God didn’t spare the ancient world prior to the flood, if He didn’t spare Sodom and Gomorrah, and He didn’t spare Jerusalem. How can you think He will wink like an old grandpa or a favorite uncle at this world full of sin and darkness?
He won’t wink at our sins or at the world ignoring His Son’s gift of salvation. He will be patient, wait, show mercy, until the cup of His wrath is filled…then judgment will fall. I believe when we look at the events going on today in the world, they are pointing to coming judgment, wrath, and Jesus’ return. Here’s what the Bible says about the coming judgment and God’s wrath:
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 “…and how 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 delivers us from the wrath to come.”
Proverbs 11:4 “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”
John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
2 Peter 3:7 “But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”
John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
Revelation 16:1-2 “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.’ So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.”
The Bible is full of warnings about the judgment and wrath to come. In God’s patience and mercy, He waits—for more people to come to repentance and make Jesus the Lord of their lives.
People in our day may ask mockingly: “How can a ‘loving God’ pour out His wrath and judgment?” The answer is plain for all to see if they really want to know the truth. The answer is that He is holy, sin must be accounted for, and unrepentant sinners must be punished.
This loving God sent His Son to die for us on the cross to pay for every sin we ever committed or will ever commit. Think about it, God sent Jesus to take the penalty for our sin; that is ultimate love. God’s wrath and judgment will fall on a Christ rejecting unrepentant world. That message is what people need to hear.
Spreading the gospel message is urgent because this world continues to ignore God’s coming wrath.
(All emboldened Scripture is added by the author for emphasis.)
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