The Great Day Of God's Wrath # 5

 The Great Day Of God's Wrath # 5

"Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow - so great is their wickedness! Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!" (Joel 3:13-14).

So in Revelation 14:15 the angels are appointed to reap down the earth. "Take the sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe!" Oh, let everyone who hears or reads these sayings, let them hear and fear, and tremble at them! for this will be a day of great destruction to the wicked and ungodly.

Sixthly, and lastly, this will be a GREAT day of wrath, as it is said in the words of my text. "For the great day of His wrath has come!" Who may abide the day of His coming? Who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire. Oh, beloved! this is not the day of man's wrath. Men have had their day of reigning and raging, and despising God - but that is over and gone, and now God's day has come! This is the day of His wrath -and woe to the wicked, and woe to the whore of Babylon, for the hour of her judgment has come.

Oh, beloved! God's GREAT wrath will be very terrible to the wicked!

1. God's great wrath will tear them in pieces like a lion! "I will be like a lion to Israel, like a strong young lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces! I will carry them off, and no one will be left to rescue them!" (Hosea 5:14). Consider this, all you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with none to rescue you!" (Psalm 50:22).

2. God's great wrath will consume them like fire! "The Lord Almighty says - The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed - roots, branches, and all." (Malahi 4:1). "I will pour out My wrath upon you and breathe out my fiery anger against you!" (Ezekiel 21:31).

3. God's great wrath will swallow up all His enemies! "You will capture all your enemies. Your strong right hand will seize all who hate You. You will throw them in a fiery furnace when You appear. In His wrath the Lord will swallow them up, and His fire will consume them!" (Psalm 21:8-9).

Oh! the wrath of the Almighty is that which tears like a lion, consumes like a fire, and swallows up like a dragon; and therefore it is called in the Scripture "the fierceness of His great wrath!" (2 Kings 23:26). "The fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation!" (Psalm 78:49).

"The fury of His wrath!" (Revelation 16:19).

Thus, beloved, I have shown you the nature and property of this great day, spoken of in my text:

1. A day of astonishment.

2. A day of terror.

3. A day of distress.

4. A day of contempt.

5. A day of destruction.

6. A day of wrath.

~William Dyer~

(continued with # 6)