You Can't Preach About God's Love For Sinners Without Preaching About His Wrath Against Sin

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It's a problem that so many quack preachers love to preach God's love for sinners but not about God's wrath against them because He must punish both the sin and the sinner. Everything from God's love to His wrath is dictated by the fact that He is holy and you are not. The message about God's love for sinners will make no sense if you don't preach about God's wrath against sin first. I remembered listening to "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversion" by Ray Comfort. There was this point where Kirk Cameron talked about what if I sold my property to save someone from a disease. If the person doesn't know anything about the disease then my selling of all my property to pay for the badly needed treatment won't make sense. Another illustration was all about the flight. You have to tell the person that the parachute is not meant to improve the flight but to tell the person that it's for emergency reasons. If you told the person that it's to improve the flight then the person will get mad when something goes wrong and removes the parachute. 

One good reason why so many churches today are so full of false converts is because there's too much preaching of "God loves you." but forgets to preach "God hates sin and will punish it." As I read the book "Hard to Believe" by Dr. John F. MacArthur I really can't get over what the back cover said. It went something like this as a stern warning against false professors who claim that they're Christians when they are but false professors:
Too many people today just want a Madison Avenue Jesus to make them well, to make them happy, and to make them prosperous. But Jesus Christ isn't a personal genie. He is the Savior. He died in agony to satisfy the wrath of a holy God and the forgive the sins of humankind. Faith in Him demands a willingness to make any sacrifice He asks. The hard truth about Christianity is that the cost is high, but the rewards are priceless: abundant and eternal life that comes only from faithfully following Christ.

How many people today think that they are once saved, always saved even if they never repented? A lot of people today are false converts from a repeat after me evangelism. How often do we have people who think that they're saved but their actions show they never have any encounter with God's true holiness. It's a rampant heresy to have people think that one can get saved and still remain the same. Such teaching only focuses on the love of God but not His wrath. They fail to see that you can't have just love or just wrath. Remember that on the cross, Jesus' sacrificial love is what made Him take the wrath of God the Father against sin. It was love that made God the Father sacrifice His Son and what made His Son willingly take the cup of His wrath. It shows how ugly sin is yet many people claim to be saved even if their lifestyles don't match to that one who is eternally secure in Christ. It's all because of false preachers today who preach only love but never about the fiery wrath of God against sin.

If it's not people who think they are saved while reveling in sin then you have people who think they're good enough for Heaven. The Gospel makes no sense to a person who thinks that he or she is right with God. There's the heresy that says man is basically good even when evidence says otherwise. That's why the Law must be preached to people to expose to them how sinful they are before they can understand God's love. They must know about God's wrath against sin before they can truly understand God's love. They must realize that their best is never good enough as their righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). They must realize that their best is never enough and that if good works save regardless of one's religious profession then Christ is dead in vain (Galatians 2:21).

The fact that God's wrath against sin and that the Son took that wrath that the sinner so richly deserves makes so strong an strong impact on any true convert. How often would the sinner saved by grace dread the sin that nailed the Savior to the cross? How often would the sinner saved by grace is now filled with gratitude seeking to serve the Savior as one's Lord (Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 2:11-14, Hebrews 9:11-14)? How often would this sinner saved by grace wish to be free from sin (Romans 7:14-25)? How often would the sinner saved by grace who considered one's self as good enough would want to be truly good by God's standard now that they're saved? How often would the sinner saved by grace desire to do good and return the glory back to God? You can't deny that sinners are saved by grace wish to be free of sin and to serve God perfectly. They don't want to sin anymore. True conversion means growing in good works. Even the most immature believer can no longer live like the rest of the world.

I don't care how unpopular the topic of God's wrath is. It must be preached regardless even if one must be martyred like the old time evangelists, apostles and the prophets before them. People must be told the bad news first before the good news will ever make sense. What matters is the truth and not what is popular. Popularity never changes a truth into a lie or a lie into a truth. Truth will always remain as truth regardless of what people think.

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