28-05-26 - ‘Let’s Get Serious: Sin and Wrath‘

Continuing the Let’s Get Serious series, Reverend Tim Gutmann delivers a sobering message on sin, holiness, grace, and the reality of God’s wrath. Challenging modern attitudes that minimise sin or abuse grace, Tim reminds believers that salvation is not a licence to live in deliberate disobedience.

Drawing from Galatians, Hebrews, Colossians, Exodus, and Ephesians, the sermon calls Christians to reverence, repentance, and obedience, while also proclaiming the hope and mercy found through Jesus Christ. The message emphasises that God is both loving and holy, and that true grace empowers believers to turn from sin and follow Christ faithfully.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Right, I'm gonna I'm gonna spend the next 10 minutes or so we're gonna be talking let's call let's get serious but I'm gonna specifically talk about sin and wrath. Of course, you know some people don't like to preach this. I once remember when I went to Bible college, this was a way, way, way back now, we're talking nearly 20 years ago, and one of the lecturers said this I will not use the word sin and I won't talk about sin from the pulpit because it was one of these seeker sense, you know, like trying to attract people to his church and thinking you can't say this to offend that person or offend that person. And it kind of like drove me crazy because we have to actually we give an account as preachers, as teachers, for what we preach and teach. And the Bible says a lot about sin and about the wrath of God, and the wrath of God is a very real thing, and people don't want to hear it in this culture because I tell you what, as well, that the church can do, they can they can think that grace can be abused almost like grace is a free ticket to heaven, and it's not because grace is the empowerment to say no to sin, yeah, it's an empowerment to say yes to Jesus, that's what grace is. But people think it's a free ticket to heaven, yeah. And I've heard people as well say it's all I've bought my ticket, I'm there, and then they live as they want, and yet they carry on living as they want, they're not interested in following Yeshua, obeying Yeshua, they're not interested in uh serving Yeshua, they just want to live life as they want, and they say it's all right, I've got my ticket. But actually, the Bible is very, very, very clear. Let's start with Galatians chapter 6, verses 7 and 8. In the ESV it says, Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, he will reap the one who sows to his own flesh. From that flesh he will reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. Now the flesh and the spirit, they're at, you know, that they're they're completely at war. They're completely there's this tension. Your flesh wants you to live by the flesh that and obey those those desires of sin and darkness, but the spirit is life, the spirit is the spirit of God, and God wants us to live in his presence and live so much higher than we often do. We live sometimes. We live so low into when I say low, it like into what God's called us to, considering small, considering he's died on the cross and made a public spectacle of sin. Because you know, Jesus said, look, just like the serpent was lifted up in the the days of Moses, so the Son of Man will be lifted up, lifted up from the earth, and that is like putting sin on the cross, it's putting death on the cross, it's putting that serpent on the cross, and it's them being judged, and Jesus taking the sin on himself. But the Bible is clear the wages of sin is that's right, but the gift of God is everlasting life. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 26 says, if we go on sinning deliberately, here this believers, church, Christians, we cannot mock God. If we keep sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. And it's sad that we live in a day and an age where people hear what the itching ears want to hear. People will put up with terrible theology if it tells them, listen, if you give to this ministry, you'll get blessed. Health, wealth, prosperity, or there's even another extreme where people want to hear it's okay to live as you want, in whatever sexual way you want to live, or whatever you want to believe, and and it's okay, like we'll change what the Bible says to suit you because you're the center of the universe. Eronia so there's only Jesus. I don't know why I walled my eyes up.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

I like it. I thought it was very good.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

There's only Jesus who's at the centre of the universe. Man can't. Sometimes we think we're at the centre of the universe and we're not. Yeshua, this is his universe, his story, and he brings us into his family, the family of God on earth. What a what a gift, a privilege, and an honor, but we cannot keep deliberately sinning. Uh, there is an amazing story when Moses he he he gets the call, he went to the I mean this is what I was reading this morning as well. He went to the burning bush, and God says, I want you to bring my people out because I've heard this suffering, and I want you to go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Well, he doesn't actually say that, but to let release the people to come and worship me in the wilderness. And God says, I know he won't listen, and I know he's got a hard heart. And Moses is like, Yeah, but I'm of you know, I've uncircumcised lips. He says, I'm I'm not very good at like doing all of that. But God says, Who made man's mouth? If you've seen the Prince of Egypt cartoon, it's such a great scene, isn't it? Who gave the mute, the lying, the ease, and the anyway? I can't remember the words. But God says, I made your mouth, I will give you the strength, I will give you the words, I'm with you. When God says he's with you, nothing is impossible. Yeah, he means you plus God is the majority. That's a little sidetracked there. When the Lord says, I am beside you, when you're facing an enemy, and there could be millions of them, look to your right, and there's uh Almighty Yahweh, there's Yeshua, you've already won. It's already, it's already a given. It's like when Elisha says to a servant, Lord, will you open his eyes so he can see actually? We don't need to fear these people. Amazing, amazing. But anyway, I digress. So Moses, Moses is on his way to Egypt, and it says this incredibly, Exodus chapter 4, 24 to 26. It says at a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Wow, that's like one of those wow moments, isn't it? Wow. Then Saporah took a flint, thank you, Malaya. Then Saporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet. She said, Surely you are a bridegroom of blood. So God let him alone. It was then she said, Bridegroom of blood because of circumcision. It's incredible. It's like when Aeneas and Sapphira, if you think that God had, you know, that was the Old Testament God, he's very different. You don't know your Bible and you don't know the nature of our awesome God, is not to be mocked, he's mighty. This gives you a greater fear and a love and just a gratefulness for the salvation and the grace and the mercy that is at the heart of our awesome God. But make no mistake, God will not be mocked. Why was he meeting Moses? I tell you why, because Moses, a child of Abraham, from the dis from the line of Abraham, God said to Abraham, This is the covenant, you guys will be circumcised. That is a symbol of your separation unto Yahweh, as you are my people, uh, your separation unto me, said God. And Moses was circumcised, but he didn't circumcise his son, and that's interesting. Didn't circumcise his son. He was living out there with his Midianite wife. Midian, Midian, by the way, was also a descendant of Abraham. But anyway, he's living out there with his Midianite wife. Jeffro, his father-in-law, was some kind of priest leader of a Midianite tribe, probably the Kenites, the Kenites were very loyal to Israel in their history. So the Kenites were a good tribe, but Midianites generally were enemies of Israel and they tried to attack Israel. But uh, so Moses has got his wife, and she probably, when Moses talked about circumcision, she was like, nah, it's not happening. And you could see she wasn't happy when she had to do it because she's like, You are bridegroom of blood, which by the way is a wonderful prophecy of Yeshua, bridegroom of blood. The blood is what is our circumcision of the heart. The blood is our salvation, it is our holiness. But anyway, so God is awesome and mighty, He is uh He is to be feared, revered, loved, and obeyed. John 3 36 says, Whoever believes in Yeshua has eternal life, but if you do not obey, you see that word obey? People don't like that in this generation. When I say that, people just think we are our own bosses, we are our own gods, we don't want to obey anyone. But if you don't obey the God, you will not you do not obey the sun, you will not see life, and the wrath of God remains. The wrath of God, it's fearful to stand before God on the day of judgment. It's fearful to stand before the great white throne for Yeshua to say, I never knew you, depart from me. For them to open the book of life if your name is not there. That is the most fearful thing. In fact, Jesus says, You shouldn't fear man, you should fear he who could throw your body and your soul in hell.

unknown 8:29

Big time.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

But we're not going to finish there. There is good news. Uh but Colossians 3, 5-28, and this is for the church, this is how we should live. We should not be mocking God with sin, thinking we can do what we want. We've got our ticket to heaven. He's to be revered, feared. He's Yahweh Savior, Yahweh, the Lord of heavenly armies. He is Yahweh Shemar, he's here, he's Yahweh Rafa, the healer, he's Yahweh Yahweh, the provider, he's all of these things, but he is awesome. He's El Shaddai. Put to death what is earthly, the sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, covetedness, which is idolatry. Because of this, the wrath of God is coming. We're living in those end times. I really do believe this, and there is judgment coming, and the wrath of God is coming. If you are not in Christ and you are living like this, or if you are call yourself a believer and you still live like this. Because of these two, you once walked, but now you must put them all away, including anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. This is important. A lot of Christians are like, they're so quick to judge others. Oh, so and so, did you know they had a divorce, or so and so, they do this, or they do that, but they're happy to gossip, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Or slander, yeah, or to accuse or deceive, or to deceive. I was only a little lie, it was an act of omission, but really it's deception.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Deception.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Honest, dishonest weight.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

So here's the good news: sin. It is God will judge sin in the wrath of God. But and it's like Paul writes in in the book of Romans, amazing six, seven, he says, Who how can we deal with this body of sin? This flesh. Sometimes I do what I don't want to do. And then he ends this conversation. He says, Well, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is the good news: God takes us from that darkness, he takes off us the wrath, he fulfills, he satisfies the wages of sin, he pays that price, death on the cross. Psalm 31 to 3 says, I will praise you, O Yahweh. You've drawn me up. You didn't let my enemies rejoice. My God, I cry to you for help, and you healed me, you brought up my soul from Shea. Yo, praise the Lord. Hell is not our destiny, our destiny, our eternity is with our God, our mighty God, in the new Jerusalem in heaven. You restored me to life from those from among those who went to the pit. And finally, Ephesians 2, 4 to 7. This is a great scripture to finish on. But God, who is rich in mercy, wow, I love this. Because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sin, he made us alive together with Christ, because by grace you have been saved, and he raised us up with him, seated with him in the heavenly places. That should blow your minds. We're seated with Christ in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches. What a word!

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Immeasurable riches.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. And I love it as well in Ephesians, it says he's able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or expect or imagine. Isn't our God incredible? Now, I'm just, I don't know, all of you guys, all your stories who are watching, but I'm sure some of you, you might be listening to this thinking, oh no, am I in trouble? Am I gonna go to hell? You know, I sinned, I made this mistake, I got angry. It's not like that. That's not the whole point of this. Because the whole point of this is not to be arrogant before our mighty God. It's not to live like we want and disrespect and just dishonor the cross. But actually, the point of this as well is so that you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He takes your sin. If you've never, or if you need to come back to Jesus, if you need to lay some stuff down at the cross and say, Jesus, I'm done with these sins, with this way of thinking, this way of living. I want to lay it at the cross. Just pray this with me right now. Father, I thank you that you love me so much you gave the gift of Jesus. Jesus, I pray that you will help me defeat sin because you defeat sin. You have won the victory on the cross, you triumphed, the word of God says, on the cross. You made a public spectacle of principalities and powers and sin, death and hell and Satan, and you rose far above them all. Jesus, I'm gonna obey you, I'm gonna follow you. You are the King of kings, the Lord of Lords. And here's the good news for you God loves you, He's with you, He'll never leave nor forsake you. Jesus says, My sheep, they know my voice, and no one can snatch them out of my hands. You are safe in Jesus' hands. So don't doubt your salvation. This is about having that love, that revere, and that respect for God.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Amazing. I love that. Thank you so much. I just I love what you said. A couple of things that really just kind of jumped out on me. I love what you said about that you plus God is the majority, and it's actually taking that seriously, my love. You know, the fact that actually he is so mighty and so amazing, and he is deserving of our full trust where we do obey and we do keep within the boundaries that he's set for the life that he wants us to lead.