A CLEAN SWEEP

THE GOOD NEWS BULLETIN

GOD IS ANGRY WITH THE WICKED

By Bill Gibbons

‘God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day” PS. 7: 11.

“There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked” IS. 57: 21”.

I have heard for many years, the unwashed rabble: that is the unredeemed, proclaim that God is a God of love and He would never do some of the things that He is accused of doing in the Old Testament. Let us see what the Master had to say while He was here on earth; and who should know better then Jesus Christ the mind and ways of God:

“And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to Him for to shew Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you. There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” MT. 24: 1, 2.

Here the Masters as He speaks to the Jews about their future, which agrees with what we have just read above:

MT. 23:33 "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of Hell? 34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: (here is the bad news) 35 “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation”

This prophesy was fulfilled by Titus, the Roman General, in 70 AD. God was already angry with the Jews for turning away from Him and all His laws, which they were supposed to live by. But, looking ahead the Master could see that they were going to crucify Him and persecute His beloved Church. For these reason, this awful doom was pronounced upon that generation that was alive in 70 AD. “God is angry with the wicked every day” Yet, and as bad as it was, it was unlike the judgment in Noah’s day, there were many survivors of this latest judgment. In Noah’s day God was really angry with the wicked; and there were only eight survivors.

Let us go back to the beginning in Genesis, where the Lord God laid down the rule for Adam and Eve:

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest eat freely: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die? GE. 2: 16, 17.

Now to the average mind that sounds like a very harsh thing for God to do; but God had laid down a rule and Adam and Eve broke that rule and they must be punished so that they will learn to obey God, no matter what He says. When God tells us to do something, we can be sure that it is for our own good. God is a just God and would never tell us to do something that was not good for us. So God had a right to be angry. A parent that is a good parent will punish his own children, short of murder, to teach them to obey their parents and do what is right, “God is angry with the wicked every day”

In the days of Noah, God got angry, because:

“And God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually: GE. 6: 5.

Please read that again and see what God saw: “And God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually: GE. 6: 5. That is the worst judgment that God has ever or ever will lay upon this evil world. Only eight people survive that judgment, while in the Revelation, many will survive the great tribulation. It might be said: that death by drowning is quick compared to being crucified on the tree as many Jews were in 70 AD. Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century, said, “Every tree in Israel that would hold a person had a Jew crucified on the tree.” The suffering will be great during the awful tribulation that is yet to come: “‘God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” Is God unrighteous in punishing people for their sins? GOD FORBID that anyone would think so.

There is one awful sin that men commit, that few people ever think about. That is the sin of leading their children into the fires of Hell. All these men and women that have been judged by God are guilty of this sin. ; And God has a right to judge them for committing this sin. To deny that Jesus Christ is God is the sin that leads all men to Hell. When we teach children that Jesus Christ is not God, that leads them to Hell. For that reason, “God is angry with the wicked every day”.

The people living in the land of Canaan were evil people that were unfit to live in the eyes of God; and He pronounced their doom four hundred years before He destroyed most of them”

“But in the fourth generation they” (that is the children of Israel) “shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” GE. 15: 16.

God had already decided to destroy the people of Canaan, but, in His mercy, gave them another four hundred years to fill up the wrath of God against them. The Jews failed to destroy every man woman and child in the country, as God had directed, and suffered for that mistake as long as they were in the land. It is always best to obey God. In the Book of Ester, Haman, the man that would destroy all Jews, was a descendent of the Canaanites and tried to completely destroy Israel.

I could go on and on to prove that God has the power to destroy any person, tribe, or nation anytime He desires to do so, but I think you get my point, that, “God is angry with the wicked every day”.

We see, in our day, that man is approaching the same condition that we saw in the days of Noah, where, “And God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. We have not reached that point in our lives as yet, but it is safe to say that we are headed in that direction at warp speed, and, unless we see a genuine awakening in this evil world we are headed for much misery in the days ahead.

We know, and have known for 2000 years, that God will eventually pour out His wrath upon a sinful world, and there is nothing we can do about it. In fact we are urged in the Lord’s Prayer to pray “that thy kingdom come”. I can think of two good reasons why we should pray this prayer: First, that God will come and restore His laws upon the land and stamp out, for one thousand years, all crimes against Him. Next: we should pray for the kingdom to come, because the longer the Lord tarries, the more people will be born, grow up and go to Hell for their sins, and no redeemed person wants to see anyone go to Hell. God, Himself, “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Now, as we said, the tribulation is going to come and there is nothing we can do about that. But, and this is very important, we might be able to pray down a genuine awakening where many souls would be saved before this happens. God, I am sure, would like to do this, but He cannot as long as we refuse to repent ourselves and do things His way. We know, of course, that God’s way is always the best way.

During the evil reign of Judah’s King Manasseh, the prophet said that the nation was doomed and was going into captivity (2 K. 21:11-14). Now that prophesy was set in stone and there was nothing that anyone could do about it. But, God was merciful to His people and raised up King Josiah. The king saw what was to happen, repented himself of his sins and led his nation in the greatest awakening recorded in the Old Testament (See 2 Kings chapter 22-23 for his story; and you will be blessed).

In the days of Jonah, Jonah told the people of Nineveh: that the city was doomed unless they repented of their sins. The people repented and the city was spared. This shows us, that God will spare the people that truly repent. This gives us hope, that God might be merciful and spare this generation the evil that is fast approaching this nation.

Some time back, I sent you my message on Second Chronicles 7:14, where we saw that there is a sure way to bring about a revival of religion: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins, and heal their land.” Now then, God NEVER makes a promise that He will not keep. If we truly want to see a revival of true religion we must follow His instructions, for there is no other way.

You political writers can write all the good messages you want to write, but they will not have any effect on the mind of God. The only way to have any influence with God is for man to have a change of heart. The tribulation is coming and cannot be delayed, but we could, if we really desired, pray down a revival for our day and see many souls saved. If we do not do this, and soon, we can be sure that there will be persecution ahead for this country and the entire world. Unless God steps in and intervenes, we will soon all be slaves on a global plantation, or many of us will be slaughtered. And, God will not intervene unless we repent of our evil ways and turn to Jesus Christ with all our hearts.