Sound The Trumpet : Two Things That are Beyond Human Comprehension

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“Two Things That are Beyond Human Comprehension”
by Art Sadlier
January 21st, 2020

God hates sin. The extent of God’s hatred for sin is beyond our capacity to understand or comprehend. We can gain some insight into the extent of God’s hatred for sin as we contemplate the eternal fires of hell. The unrepentant sinner will be tormented in the flames forever.

The scriptures are full of the revelation that God hates sin. Jesus said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

In the book of Numbers they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. Moses asked the Lord what to do with him and the answer came back stone him to death. The man was just gathering a few sticks for a fire, but he had disobeyed God, disobedience is sin. The Lord is letting Israel know that He hates sin with an infinite hatred.

We have graphic and dramatic demonstrations of God’s anger against sin recorded in scripture. We read that Achan sinned by disobeying God and hiding a wedge of gold and some silver along with a garment in his tent. The scripture says, “The anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.” It wasn’t until Achan and all of his family were dead and buried under a heap of stones that we read, “So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger.”

The scripture says, “...God is angry with the wicked every day.”

We read in Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” In John 3:36 we read, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Paul describes God as a "...Flaming fire taking vengeance on those that know not God, and obey not the gospel our Lord Jesus Christ."

We have two great demonstrations of the wrath of God against sin revealed in the fire and brimstone that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. The second was the great flood that destroyed all the inhabitants of the earth with exception of Noah and his family.

God hates sin! He hates sin in my life and He hates sin in your life. We rejoice that as believers we have a great High Priest who, "....ever liveth to make intercession for us."

It is only by the mercy and grace of God that the unbeliever is not consumed for his sin. It is the underserved mercy of God that allows time and opportunity to consider His offer of salvation. The problem is that the very mercy of God upon us tends to dull our senses to the severity of God toward our sin. Paul said, "Behold the goodness and severity of God."

Our world has largely espoused a God of their own imagination; their God does not hate sin. Their God is a God who will tolerate their sin. They believe a lie, the lie that God is only a loving God who will not condemn them for sin. They reject a God that infinitely hates sin; they reject a God who will punish the sinner in hell forever. That is the worst deception that can ever happen to a man or woman. Men must choose between the God revealed in scripture and the God of their own imagination. The choice will not change the reality of who God is, nor will it change the attributes of God.

We are to tell the world about their sin by our holy lives, by our actions and attitudes. We are to be salt and light in a dark world. The testimony of life and lip must go together. The Lord said to His people, “Ye shall be holy; for I am holy:” To be holy means to be entirely separated from sin.

God loves man. The extent of God’s love is also beyond the possibility of human comprehension. We gain some insight into the depths of God’s love as we contemplate Christ dying on the cross, bearing the wrath of God for our sins. We see the breadth of God’s love as we realize that He died for the sins of the whole world.

Much of the scripture is devoted to revealing the magnitude of God’s love. We are left with realization that the love of God is far beyond our comprehension. Those who know Christ are left to rejoice and revel in that unfathomable love.

We as believers are called to reflect to all around us the love of God. We are to reflect it in our lives, in our attitudes and by our actions. It’s a love that we cannot produce ourselves; it is produced in us as we allow the Holy Spirit to control our holy lives. The Holy Spirit cannot produce the love of Christ in an unholy life. We are reminded of that in Joshua 7:13, “O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.” Victory was conditioned upon holiness. Holiness seems to be a word lost from our vocabulary today, just as the love of Christ seems to lost from our lives.

The unbeliever will be arrested by the love of God as it flows through us. We are also to verbalize to the world the love of God for them. That verbalization will be without meaning or power unless it comes out of heart that is burning with the love of Christ for the lost. He or she will respond to it or react against it, but we will have been used of God to speak to them.

The essential mark of genuine salvation is evidenced in the love of the Christian for his fellow believer. "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" (1 Peter 1:22). "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).

To express one of these attributes of God to the exclusion of the other is to lie about the very nature of God. It creates a distortion of the character of God and surely must grieve the Holy Spirit.

On the cross we see these two attributes of God perfectly displayed. We see the infinite love of God for mankind and we see the infinite anger of God against sin. We see all the sins of the world placed upon Christ as He bore them in love for a lost world, and we see the anger of God against sin poured out upon His own beloved Son.

God’s servants sometimes tend to emphasize one of these attributes to the exclusion of the other. As we preach and witness about the horrors of hell we must weep in our hearts with compassion for the lost. The love of Christ must flow through us, and when it does the lost will be very aware of it. Does your heart go out in love for those you seek to win to Christ? The love of Christ must flow out to the world through us; it is Christ loving the world of men through us. Christ loved the world of men on the cross, now He wants to love the world of men through the believer.

Paul expressed that in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know him...and the fellowship of his sufferings...” Christ suffered on the cross, in love for lost sinners for whom He died. I believe that Christ is still grieved over men and women who are rejecting His provision for their sin. He is still not willing that any should perish. Paul is entering into those sufferings of Christ for lost men and women. We see the love of Christ in the life of Paul as he pours out his life to see the lost saved. We see in Romans 10:1 the love of Christ in the heart of Paul for the lost, as he cries out, “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” We see anguish in Paul’s heart over his lost brethren.

To preach only the wrath of God against sin will distort the gospel and rob it of its power to draw. The gospel also involves the love of God. The fear of God and the love of God are both involved in the message of the gospel. The fear of God convicts while the love of God draws men to Christ.

To preach only the love of God will also distort the gospel, there will be no conviction of sin and it will result in easy-believe-ism which does not save.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13