Seeing God As He Really Is #3: What the Wrath of God Really Means

Seeing God as He really is means letting Scripture, not popular opinion, define the words we use about Him, and in this third message the word is wrath. The pastor teaches that the Hebrew idea behind wrath is a river overflowing its banks: God going beyond the boundaries He set for Himself, not to vent anger, but to protect people and to bring justice and mercy into balance.

This message continues from Seeing God as He Really Is #2: The Love That Flows Both Ways, a second teaching on the love of God. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps for this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was posted on March 26, 2026, as part three of the series Seeing God As He Really Is at NTC Ministries. It runs about 63 minutes. The pastor had planned to move from love to wrath sooner, but because attendance was small the week before, he taught a second message on love first. Here he briefly recaps that teaching and then takes on what he calls one of the most misunderstood words in the Bible.

He closes with an invitation to repent, receive God’s love and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Why Definitions Matter: Love That Is Returned

The pastor opens with a simple observation: the meanings of words change in people’s minds, and when people do not have the right definition, they get way off. He returns to an example he has used before. Ignorant means you do not have the right information. Stupid means you have it and refuse to apply it. Most people think they mean the same thing, and Christianity, he says, has many words wrong, especially when it comes to God.

To recap the love messages, he compares two verses. John 3:16 says God so loved the world. John 21:20 speaks of the disciple whom Jesus loved, who was following. The pastor teaches that in the language Jesus spoke these are two different words. The first, which he gives as chav, is love offered to someone. The second, raham, is an exchange of love, love that is returned.

That difference matters. Many people assume that because God loves everyone, it does not matter what they do. He does love them, the pastor says, but power comes when the love is returned. He compares it to telling someone you love them and hearing “I love you, too.” He also uses an electric light: one line to the bulb is not enough; a return line to the source must complete the circuit before anything lights up.

When love is exchanged, God rejoices over you with gladness and singing (Zephaniah 3:17), and His potential power becomes kinetic power. Jesus defined loving Him in John 14:21–24: he who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me, and I will manifest Myself to him. That is why a person who is truly born again finds the blues bluer and the greens greener.

1 John 3:14–18 adds that we know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. The pastor notes that some who call themselves Christians have tried to destroy him, his family and the ministry, and Jesus warned that some would kill believers and think they were serving God (John 16:2). Yet love does not mean giving people whatever they want. Paul said that if he still pleased men, he would not be a servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10).

Seeing God as He Really Is in Both Testaments

Some believers, the pastor says, think the Old Testament is about God’s anger and the New Testament about His love, so they want to set the Old aside. But the two say the same thing. In hermeneutics, he explains, the New is in the Old concealed and the Old is in the New revealed. Seeing God as He really is means reading both together.

He reads Zephaniah 1:18: neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath. When people refuse the love God offers and decide to live on their own, there will one day be a reckoning. Because they misunderstand God’s love, some now teach there is no hell. You cannot deny God and have truth, he says; minds become darkened, and oppression, depression and self-pity follow.

To show how one-sided pictures form, he describes aircraft carriers sent to help after a tsunami and after a hurricane. People mocked the decision because they only associated warships with war. Yet, quoting an engineer, he lists what a carrier offers: hospitals on board, emergency electrical power, cafeterias able to feed thousands three meals a day, fresh water made from the sea and helicopters to carry the injured. He mentions a hospital ship with a thousand beds that treats huge numbers of civilians each year.

Many Christians, he says, look at God the same way, as a war machine waiting to strike them with lightning. Yet God’s love and mercy are mentioned far more in the Old Testament than His wrath. A tornado that destroys a trailer park is not an act of God. If you continue in His word, you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8:31–32).

He links this to cognitive dissonance, a thought lodged in the mind that blocks truth. Someone hears the church mention giving and decides all it wants is money, when this small church is building churches, schools, daycares and clinics in 37 nations. That is why Scripture says to incline your ear to His sayings (Proverbs 4:20). Pushing a wheelbarrow across a gym floor is easy, but an incline takes effort. When you feel like tuning out, tell the devil to be quiet and keep listening.

What the Word Wrath Really Means

The center of the message is a definition. The pastor teaches that the Hebrew word for wrath is avar, the same word used for passing over at the Passover. Its origin, he says, is the picture of a river overflowing its banks and going where it was not supposed to go. The idea of wrath, then, is going beyond the boundaries.

He applies it to us first. When you fly off the handle or do something you know you should not have done, the Holy Spirit tells you that you went beyond the boundaries, even if it was not in anger. God’s wrath, he says, is any time God goes beyond the boundaries He set for Himself. It does not have to mean rage. It often means He was forced to do something He did not want to do.

His illustration is a police officer. Most officers never draw their gun on duty, and fewer ever fire it. When one must, it is beyond what he wants to do, done not in rage but to keep others from harm, perhaps in fear and with tears. The pastor calls that a hero. The same is true of a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save his platoon. That, he says, is the word wrath: going beyond normal life to protect others.

When love is defined by God’s word instead of human reason, he says, it expresses God’s passion for saving those who accept His love. God’s thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1–2). God wants to protect and save lives, not hurt them.

Justice and Mercy Belong Together

From there the pastor teaches that you must have both mercy and justice. Mercy without justice removes all boundaries, and lawlessness grows. Justice without mercy rules with an iron fist, and everyone suffers except a few. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not; they are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22–23).

He contrasts two ways of serving God. Some live for Him so they will not get “chopped down at the knees,” which, he says, leaves no love or relationship. Others obey because they know He extends His mercy, goodness and power, and that is love in the heart. It is what lets us show compassion to a neighbor and do good to those who mistreat us (Matthew 5:44).

He defines mercy carefully. Mercy is not overlooking fault or wrong; God does not overlook any wrong. Mercy is continuing to be kind and respectful to those who do not deserve it. When definitions are distorted, he says, a generation grows up thinking it can get away with anything, and evil is called good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20–21).

He wrote a line above Exodus 21:23–25 in his Bible: “God’s wrath only overflows when doing so brings about a proper balance of justice and mercy.” An eye for an eye, he explains, is not about vengeance. It is a civil command so that the punishment fits the crime, which deters crime and keeps people from being oppressed by endless rules. The Pharisees had added over a thousand laws, and Jesus said they strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel (Matthew 23:24).

For theft, Proverbs 6:30–31 says people do not despise a hungry thief, yet when found he must restore sevenfold. That is why Jesus told us to give to those who ask (Matthew 5:42), so mercy goes first. All of it hangs on the two great commandments in Matthew 22:36–40: love God and love your neighbor. Justice, he says, brings people to think about loving others instead of taking advantage of them.

The table below sets out the balance as he teaches it.

The Cross: Wrath Poured Out as Love

Nowhere, the pastor says, do we see God’s love for mankind more deeply than at the cross, where the wrath of God came upon Jesus Christ. It had to be, because mercy and justice must go together. Isaiah 54:8 says, “With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you.”

Romans 5:9–10 says that, having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. In effect, the pastor says, God chose not to pour out His wrath on the people but on one Person, so He sent His Son. God did not pour out anger on Jesus; His wrath went beyond the bounds He had set so that we would not have to go through it. The act of wrath was an act of love.

He returns to John, the disciple Jesus loved, who followed and did what Jesus said. The pastor recounts the tradition that John lived past a hundred and survived attempts on his life, and was sent to the prison island of Patmos. There, in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, he turned and saw Jesus with eyes like a flame of fire (Revelation 1:9–15). That returned love, he says, brought power to fulfill anything God asked.

The same was true of Jesus in the garden: not My will, but Yours, be done, and an angel strengthened Him (Luke 22:42–43). He fulfilled salvation as the wrath of God was poured out on Him. So 1 Thessalonians 5:9–11 says, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Therefore comfort and edify one another.

Pharaoh, Rahab and the Choice to Receive

To tie two series together, the pastor turns to Romans 9:17–24. Exodus says both that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and that Pharaoh hardened his own. The pastor teaches that God does not want anyone to have a hard heart; it is His will that all be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). But He knows when something in a heart will keep someone from listening, and that heart grows harder. The same word is a stumbling stone to some and a stepping stone to others (1 Peter 2:8).

We have free choice, he says, including how we deal with offense. Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble (Psalm 119:165). When anger or disobedience rises, say, forgive me, Lord. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us (1 John 1:9). Romans 9 also says God endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath; Egypt, the pastor says, could have been saved just as Israel was.

Rahab shows the other side. When Israel’s spies came to Jericho, she wanted the goodness she had seen God show Israel, not just escape. She tied the scarlet cord in her window and her household was saved (Joshua 2:18–21). The pastor notes that she became an ancestor of King David, which is why a Gentile woman is in the bloodline of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). God is not against people; it depends on who will accept His love.

The wrath of God, he concludes, is an act of love for people who would otherwise be destroyed by those set against Him. Read the Old Testament again through the eyes of truth, because the Scriptures testify of Jesus (John 5:39). Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed (Acts 10:38), yet He drove the money changers from the temple because they were harming innocent worshippers.

Living It Out This Week

The pastor reminds listeners that we have not been appointed to wrath, so there is no reason to choose it. He urges repentance, noting that when parents openly repent at home they bring humility into the household. Here are the practical steps drawn from the message:

• Return His love. Love that is received and returned completes the circuit; keep His commandments as your answer to His love.
• Check your definitions. When a word about God troubles you, ask how Scripture defines it before you decide what He is like.
• Lean into the incline. When you want to stop listening, tell the enemy to be quiet and keep hearing the Word.
• Practice real mercy. Stay kind and respectful to someone who does not deserve it, without pretending wrong is right.
• Repent quickly. When you go beyond the boundaries, say “forgive me, Lord” and receive His cleansing.
• Read the Old Testament again. Look for Jesus and for God’s mercy in its pages, as the pastor encourages.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Words and their definitions
• 2:27 Recap: John 3:16 and John 21:20
• 4:55 Love as an exchange
• 6:10 John 14: he who loves Me
• 8:26 1 John 3: love the brethren
• 10:57 Old and New Testaments agree
• 13:13 The aircraft carrier illustration
• 18:52 Is God a war machine?
• 20:06 Cognitive dissonance and inclining the ear
• 22:39 Avar: the river overflowing its banks
• 24:00 The police officer and the hero
• 27:05 Jeremiah 29:11 and Psalm 91
• 28:26 Mercy and justice: Lamentations 3
• 32:47 What mercy is and is not
• 37:25 Exodus 21: the punishment fits the crime
• 41:14 Proverbs 6: restoring sevenfold
• 42:42 The two great commandments
• 44:03 The cross: Isaiah 54 and Romans 5
• 45:32 John on Patmos
• 48:01 1 Thessalonians 5: not appointed to wrath
• 50:46 Pharaoh’s hardened heart: Romans 9
• 55:10 Rahab and the scarlet cord
• 59:46 You can make a stand
• 1:01:17 Repentance and closing prayer

Seeing God As He Really Is Series

This message is part of a teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: Seeing God As He Really Is #1 — Completing the Love of God
• Previous: Seeing God as He Really Is #2: The Love That Flows Both Ways
• You are here: Seeing God As He Really Is #3: What the Wrath of God Really Means
• Next: Seeing God As He Really Is #4: Chastening Is Correction, Not Punishment

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this teaching mean God never judges anyone?

No. The pastor rejects the idea that God’s grace means He punishes no one, saying “not so, my friend.” He reads Zephaniah 1:18 and teaches that a reckoning is coming for those who keep refusing the goodness and love of God. The difference is motive: God’s wrath is not a temper but love acting to protect, and no one has to face it, because believers are not appointed to wrath.

Is “an eye for an eye” about revenge?

The pastor says it has nothing to do with vengeance. He teaches that Exodus 21 is a civil command meant to bring order to a community, so that the punishment fits the crime. That deters wrongdoing and also keeps people from being oppressed by piled-up rules, which is what happened when the religious leaders added their own laws to God’s.

How can God harden Pharaoh’s heart and still want all to be saved?

The pastor points out that Exodus also says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. God is not wanting anyone to have a hard heart, he teaches, but He knows when something in a person will keep them from listening, and that heart grows harder as they resist. God bore Pharaoh with great patience, and Egypt could have been saved just as Israel was.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Exodus 21:23–25 — the punishment fits the crime
• Romans 5:9–10 — saved from wrath through Him
• Romans 9:17–24 — Pharaoh and the vessels of mercy
• Isaiah 54:8 — a little wrath, everlasting kindness
• 1 Thessalonians 5:9–11 — not appointed to wrath
• Lamentations 3:22–23 — new every morning
• John 14:21–24 — he who loves Me
• Matthew 22:36–40 — the two great commandments
• Zephaniah 1:18 — the day of the Lord’s wrath

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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