"Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?" Luke 3:7
"Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath." 1 Th. 1:10
1. The coming wrath is the greatest wrath. It is the greatest
evil which can befall a soul. "Who knows the power of Your wrath?"
Psalm 19:11. The coming wrath is such wrath as no unsaved man
can either avoid or abide. And yet such is most men's stupidity,
that they will not believe it until they feel it!
As God is a great God—so His wrath is a great wrath. If the
wrath of an earthly king is so terrible—oh how dreadful must
the wrath of the King of kings then be!
The greater the evil is, the more cause we have to flee from
it. Now the coming wrath is the greatest evil, and therefore
the more it concerns us to flee from it!
2. The coming wrath is treasured-up wrath. Sinners are still
"a-treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath," Romans 2:5.
While wicked men are following their own lusts, they think that
they are still adding to their own happiness. But alas, they do
but add wrath to wrath! They do but heap up judgment upon
judgment, and punishment upon punishment! Look! as men
are daily adding to their treasure more and more, so impenitent
sinners are daily increasing the treasury of wrath against their
own souls.
3. The coming wrath is pure wrath. It is "judgment without
mercy." The cup of wrath which God will put into sinners' hands
at last, will be a cup of pure wrath—all wrath—nothing but wrath.
"They must drink the wine of God's wrath. It is poured out
undiluted into God's cup of wrath. And they will be tormented
with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels
and the Lamb." Revelation 14:10.
Look! as there is nothing but the pure glory of God—which can
make a man perfectly and fully happy; just so, there is nothing
but the pure wrath of God—which can make a man fully and
perfectly miserable. Reprobates shall not only sip of the top of
God's cup—but they shall drink the dregs of His cup! They shall
not have one drop of mercy, nor one crumb of comfort! They
have filled up their lifetime with sin—and God will fill up their
eternity with torments!
4. The coming wrath is everlasting wrath. "And the smoke
of their torment ascends up forever and ever!" Rev. 14:11.
"They shall have . . .
punishment without pity,
misery without mercy,
sorrow without support,
crying without comfort,
mischief without measure,
torment without ease—
where the worm dies not, and the fire is never quenched."
The torments of the damned shall continue as many eternities
—as there are stars in the skies, as there are grains of sand on
the sea-shore, and as there are drops of water found in the sea!
When the present worlds are ended, the pains and torments of
hell shall not cease—but begin afresh, and thus this wheel shall
turn round and round, without end.
Oh the folly and vanity, the madness and baseness of poor
wretched sinners—who expose themselves to everlasting
torments—for a few fleshly momentary pleasures!
O sirs! "Who can stand before His fierce anger? Who can survive
His burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains
crumble to dust in His presence!" Nahum 1:6.
How should these things work poor sinners to flee to Christ,
who alone is able to save them from the coming wrath.
1 Thessalonians 1:10
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Thomas Brooks (1608 - 1680)
Much of what is known about Thomas Brooks has been ascertained from his writings. Born, likely to well-to-do parents, in 1608, Brooks entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1625, where he was preceded by such men as Thomas Hooker, John Cotton, and Thomas Shepard. He was licensed as a preacher of the Gospel by 1640. Before that date, he appears to have spent a number of years at sea, probably as a chaplain with the fleet.After the conclusion of the First English Civil War, Thomas Brooks became minister at Thomas Apostle's, London, and was sufficiently renowned to be chosen as preacher before the House of Commons on December 26, 1648. His sermon was afterwards published under the title, 'God's Delight in the Progress of the Upright', the text being Psalm 44:18: 'Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy way'. Three or four years afterwards, he transferred to St. Margaret's, Fish-street Hill, London. In 1662, he fell victim to the notorious Act of Uniformity, but he appears to have remained in his parish and to have preached as opportunity arose. Treatises continued to flow from his pen.[3]
Thomas Brooks was a nonconformist preacher. Born into a Puritan family, he was sent to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He soon became an advocate of the Congregational way and served as a chaplain in the Civil War. In 1648 he accepted the rectory of St. Margaret's, New Fish Street, London, but only after making his Congregational principles clear to the vestry.
On several occasions he preached before Parliament. He was ejected in 1660 and remained in London as a Nonconformist preacher. Government spies reported that he preached at Tower Wharf and in Moorfields. During the Great Plague and Great Fire he worked in London, and in 1672 was granted a license to preach in Lime Street. He wrote over a dozen books, most of which are devotional in character. He was buried in Bunhill Fields.