The God Who Avenges Psalms 18:46-50 Psalms 94:1-2 Deuteronomy 32:35 Deuteronomy 33:43 Romans 12:17-19 Hebrews 10:30-31 Nahum 1:2-3 1 Peter 4:15-18 2 Peter 3:8-10 Revelation 6:9-11 08.23.19

THE GOD WHO AVENGES

BREAD

⁴⁶ The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior! ⁴⁷ He is the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, ⁴⁸ who saves me from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from violent men you rescued me. ⁴⁹ Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD; I will sing praises to your name. ⁵⁰ He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.   Psalm 18:46-50 (NIV)

¹ O LORD, the God who avenges, O God who avenges, shine forth. ² Rise up, O Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve.   Psalm 94:1-2 (NIV)

³⁵ “It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.” Deuteronomy 32:35 (NIV)  

⁴³ Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people.  Deuteronomy 32:43 (NIV)

¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
¹⁸ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  Romans 12:17-19 (NIV)

³⁰ For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  ³¹ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  Hebrews 10:30-31 (NIV)

² The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. ³ The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet. Nahum 1:2-3 (NIV)

¹⁵  If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. ¹⁶  However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. ¹⁷  For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸  And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”  1 Peter 4:15-18 (NIV)

⁸ But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.  2 Peter 3:8-10 (NIV)

⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰ They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” ¹¹ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.  Revelation 6:9-11 (NIV)

BUTTER

“Whether the offenses against us are titanic or trifling, God’s judgment frees us to exchange bitterness for patience, retribution for mercy. The very word judgment brings to mind our own offenses against God, offenses that cried out for our blood until Jesus shed his own. It reminds us that our offender, if outside of Christ, deserves our pity and, if inside Christ, needs our brotherly love. It removes all self-righteousness from our mouths and replaces it with the Christlike plea of ‘Lord, forgive them.’ It beckons us to release our ‘right’ to get even, and to hand over our cause to him who judges justly.”  Scott Hubbard

“Every sermon, every Bible lesson, every word of testimony, and every verse of Scripture is a warning, calling us to repentance and revival.  Our God is a consuming fire, and a day of judgment is coming.  We must not neglect the warning, and today’s church must not forget that our message includes the ministry of warning.”   Robert J. Morgan

“Nothing has contributed more powerfully to wean me from all that held me down to earth than the thought….of death and the last judgment.”   Augustine

“When Jesus started to cry out [on the cross], he didn’t say, ‘My friends, my friends’ ‘My head, my head!’ ‘My hands, my hands!’ He said, ‘My God, my God.’ On the cross, Jesus was forsaken by God.  He said, ‘My God’. That’s the language of intimacy… Jesus the Maker of the world was being unmade. Why? Jesus was experiencing our judgment day. ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ It wasn’t a rhetorical question. And the answer is: For you, for me, for us. Jesus was forsaken by God the Father so that we would never have to be. The judgment that should have fallen on us fell instead on Jesus.”  Dr. Tim Keller

“The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to bring us to Christ; but the final victory is effected by loving-kindness.  The prodigal set out to his father’s house from a sense of need.  However, his father saw him a great way off and ran to meet him, so that the last steps he took towards his father’s house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek and the welcome still musical in his ears…What Moses with the tablets of stone could never do, Christ does with His pierced hand.  Such is the doctrine of effectual calling.  Do I understand it experimentally?  Can I say, ‘He drew me, and I followed on, glad to confess the voice divine?’  If so, may He continue to draw me, until at last I shall sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.”   Charles H. Spurgeon

“God is relentless in His hatred of evil.  We may think He tolerates it awfully well to let the world go on as it has for century upon century.  But He hates it.  He has demonstrated at every turn His opposition to anything that conflicts with His character and corrupts His work.  His judgments are certain.  God and evil will not forever co-exist.”   Chris Tiegreen

“Just as there are always blessings to obedience, conversely there will always be consequences to sin.  Every sin carries with it a death sentence – death to trust, death to relationship, death to freedom, etc. etc.  We do not sin merely as unto ourselves either, sin’s tentacles are far reaching and devastating – like a ripple in the water when you cast in a stone.  We get to choose to sin or not but God chooses the consequence.  Just read about what happened to King David after his encounter with Bathsheba and how it affected the rest of his life.  God is severe in His judgments because He knows what sin does to a life and the lives of others.  This is not a winking, joking matter with Him.  It cost Him the life of His Son.  He doesn’t want us to go there (to say the least) – He has far greater, pleasing and perfect plans for us than that.  Also, it is all too important to note, that while a believer in Jesus is forgiven for sin that does not mean there will not be consequences.  Just saying….”  BHY

“The vicissitudes of life are a part of God's constant care, yet from a human perspective discipline is always ‘hard.’  In 1Peter 4:15-18, Peter is not teaching that salvation is earned through personal trials or works, but simply that those who are saved are not exempt from temporal disciplinary judgments which are the natural consequences of sin.”  The Bible Knowledge Commentary

“The fundamental problem in the evangelical world is not inadequate technique, insufficient organization or antiquated music, and those who want to squander the Church’s resources bandaging these scratches will do nothing to stanch the flow of blood spilling from its true wounds. The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the Church.  His truth is too distant, His grace is too ordinary, His judgment is too benign, His Gospel is too easy and His Christ is too common.”  David Wells

“He (Paul) must confront men with the truth about God – Creator, Provider, Lord of history, Judge of all – and His command to repent.  He must confront them with the truth about man, and his moral bankruptcy in the sight of God.  And above all he must confront them with Jesus Christ in His resurrection power, His authority to execute judgment, and His redeeming love by which He delivers men and women from their estrangement and rebellion, and creates them anew in the knowledge of their creator.”  F. F. Bruce

“Revenge is the most worthless weapon in the world.”   David Augsburger

HEART SAVOR

·         It is God’s to avenge, He will repay.

·         Revenge is worthless.

·         There will come a day when God will right all wrongs.