---

I. WHO ARE THE "WICKED" IN THE SCRIPTURE SENSE OF THE TERM? The Bible divides all the human race into two classes only — the righteous and the wicked. Those are righteous who have true faith in Christ, whose spirit is consecrated to God, who live a heavenly life on earth, and who have been renewed by the Holy Ghost. Their original selfishness is subdued and slain, and they live a new life through the ever-present grace of Christ Jesus. Right over against them in character are the wicked, who have not been renewed in heart; who live in selfishness, under the dominion of appetite in some of its forms, — and it matters not in which, out of all possible forms, it may be, but self is the great and only ultimate end of their life.

II. GOD IS ANGRY WITH THE WICKED. This is the testimony of God Himself This truth is also taught by reason. If God were not opposed to the wicked, He would be wicked Himself for not opposing them. Sinners know that God is angry with them, and ought to be. Else, why are they afraid to die?

III. THE NATURE OF THIS ANGER.

1. It is not a malicious anger. God never has a disposition to do any wrong in any way to any being.

2. His anger is not passion in the sense in which men are wont to exhibit passion in anger. Reason for the time is displaced, and passion reigns.

3. God's anger cannot, be in any sense a selfish anger; for God is not selfish in the least degree. Positively, His anger against the wicked implies —

(1) An entire disapprobation of their conduct and character. He loathes the wicked with infinite loathing.

(2) He feels the strongest opposition of will to their character, as opposed to His own character.

(3) Strong opposition of feeling against sinners. In our attempts to conceive of the mental faculties of the Divine mind, we are under a sort of necessity of reasoning analogically from our own minds. As we have intellect, sensibility, and will, so has God. From our own minds we infer not only what the faculties of the Divine mind are, but also the laws under which they act.

(4) God is not angry merely against the sin abstracted from the sinner, but against the sinner himself The sin has no moral character apart from the sinner. It grieves and displeases God that a rational moral agent, under His government, should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe.

(5) The anger of God against the wicked implies all that properly belongs to anger when it exists with good reason.

IV. THE REASONS OF GOD'S ANGER. Causeless anger is always sinful. God never Himself violates His own laws — founded as they are in infinite right and justice.

1. Wicked men are entirely unreasonable. God has given them intelligence and conscience; but they act in opposition to both. God has given them a pure and good law, yet this they recklessly violate. We know that, by a fixed law of our being, nothing can be a greater temptation to anger than to see persons act unreasonably. So when God looks at the unreasonable conduct of sinners, He feels the strongest indignation and displeasure.

2. The course of the wicked is utterly ruinous. No thanks to the sinner if his influence does not ruin the whole world. By the very laws of mind, the sin of any one man tends to influence other men to sin, and they spread far and wide the dreadful contagion of his example. What influence can be more potent than that of example?

3. God is so good and sinners are so wicked, He cannot help being angry at them. Since, in His wisdom and knowledge, He knows more fully than they do the great evil of sin, by so much the more is lie under obligation to be displeased with sin and angry at the sinner.

V. THE DEGREE OF GOD'S ANGER AGAINST SIN. It ought to be equal to the degree of their wickedness, and must be if God is what He should be. We judge of men's guilt by their light, and by their capacity for governing themselves by light and reason. God's anger against sin is in proportion to the sinner's guilt, estimated in view of the light he enjoys and sins against.

VI. THE DURATION OF GOD'S ANGER. It must continue as long as the wickedness itself continues. If they turn not, there can be no abatement, no cessation of His anger.

VII. THE TERRIBLE CONDITION OF THE SINNER AGAINST WHOM GOD IS ANGRY. Look at the attributes of God. Think of the case of the sinner's exposing himself to the indignation of the great and dreadful God. Look at His natural attributes. Power. Omniscience. Look at His holiness, and His mercy. Such is His nature, and such His character, that you have nothing to hope, but everything to fear. His dreadful anger against you must be expressed. Remarks:

1. God is much more opposed to sinners than Satan is.

2. If God were not angry, with sinners, He would not be worthy of confidence.

3. God's anger with sinners is not inconsistent with His happiness.

4. God's opposition to sinners is His glory.

5. Saints love God for His opposition to sinners, not excepting even His opposition to their own sins. This text is to be understood as it reads. Some have supposed that God is not really angry with sinners, but uses this language in accommodation to our understandings. This is an unwarrantable latitude of interpretation. In God there is a fixed eternal displeasure and opposition against all sinners because of their great guilt.

7. God's anger against the sinner does not exclude love — real compassionate love, the love of well-wishing and good-willing.

8. It is plain that sinners do not realise God's anger, though they know it. If they do both know and realise it, they manifest a degree of hardihood in iniquity which is dreadful. But the fact is, they keep the thought of God's anger from their minds.

( C. G. Finney.)

---

---

KJV: God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

WEB: God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day.