Isaiah 54:9

For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me

The Lord no more wroth with His people

I. WHAT MEN HAVE MOST TO FEAR. All men who are unsaved ought, with fear and trembling, to dread the wrath of God--the wrath present, and the wrath to come. The text speaks of the Lord’s being wroth, as of an evil to be feared. Man has cause to be afraid of “the rebuke of God”--that stern rebuke of the Holy One which is the prelude to the lifting-up of His unsheathed sword, and the destruction of His adversaries.

1. Gods wrath is matter for fear, because to be in union with God is necessary to the happiness of the creature.

2. This wrath of God is to be feared all the more because there is no escaping from it. A man who is under the wrath of a monarch can escape to another kingdom; a man who has incurred the anger of the most mighty enemy can find, somewhere in this great world, a nook wherein he can conceal himself from his relentless pursuer. But he that has exposed himself to the wrath of God cannot save himself from the Almighty hand.

3. There is this also to be dreaded in the wrath of God, that there is no cure for it. Nothing can possibly give a man ease or safety when the rebuke of God has gone forth against him. He may be surrounded with temporal comforts, but his riches will only mock his inner poverty. Friends may utter words of cheer, but miserable comforters shall they all be. Instead of the mercies of this life becoming any comfort to him, when a man has the wrath of God resting upon him, it is written, “I will curse all your blessings.”

4. The rebuke of God, if we live and die impenitent, is one against which we cannot harden ourselves. We cannot gather strength to endure when God strikes at the heart and dries up the spirit.

5. Remember the overwhelming fact that the wrath of God does not end with death.

II. WHAT THE SAINTS NEED NEVER FEAR. Dreadful as it is, and more than sufficient to overwhelm the spirit with dismay, a fear of the wrath of God need never disturb the believer’s heart. God has sworn that He will never be wroth with His people. He does not say that He will never be so angry with their sins as to chasten them sharply; for anger with our sins is love to us. He does not say that He will not be so angry as to punish us; although there would be great mercy even in that; but He goes much further, and says that He will never be so wroth with His people as even to rebuke them. “What! say you, “then doth not God rebuke His people?” Ah, verily, that He doth, and chasten them too! but those rebukes and those chastisements-are in love, and not in wrath. The text before us is to be read thus: “I will not be wroth with thee so as to rebuke thee in indignation.” There shall never be so much as a word of wrath from the lips of God, touching any one of His servants whose righteousness is of Him.

1. This, to make us sure of it, is first of all confirmed by an oath. We ought to believe God’s bare word: we are bound to accept His promise as certainty itself; but who will dare to doubt the oath of the Eternal?

2. As if further to illustrate the certainty of this, He is pleased to draw a parallel between His present covenant oath and that which He made in the days of Noah with the second great father of the human race.

(1) The covenant made with Noah was a covenant of pure grace. This covenant is paralleled by the covenant in your ease.

(2) The first covenant with Noah was made after a sacrifice. The same reason so works with God that He will not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you.

(3) That covenant which God made with Noah was openly propounded in the ears of the whole race. Noah and his sons heard it, and we have all heard it. Now, when a man makes a promise, if it is in private he is bound by it, and his honour is engaged thereto; but when his solemn promise becomes public, he stakes his character among men upon the fulfilment of his word. Now, since the Lord has made public this gracious word--“I will not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee, does He not intend to do as He has said?

(4) God never has broken the covenant which He made with Noah. If the Lord be so faithful to one covenant, why should we imagine, even in our worst moments, that He will be unfaithful to His other word which He has spoken concerning our souls?

3. If this be the ease, that God will not be wroth with us, nor rebuke us, then the greatest fear that can ever fall upon us is gone, and it is time that all our lesser fears were gone with it. For instance, there is

(1) the fear of man. When we clearly understand that God is not wroth with us, we feel raised above the rage of mortals.

(2) So, too, we need not fear the devil. If God will not be wroth with me, nor rebuke me, why should I fear though all hell’s legions should march against, me? If God will never be wroth with us, nor rebuke us, we need not fear any of the chastisements which His may lay upon us. There is a vast difference between a blow that is given in anger and a pat that is given in love.

(4) How this alters the look of death. If death be a punishment to a believer, then death wears gloomy colours; but if death itself has changed its character, Show delightful is this!

(5) After death shall come the judgment, and in that last great day the Lord will not be wroth with His people; if the reading out of all His people’s sins before an assembled world must imply a rebuke, then it shall not be done, for He will not rebuke them. So then, what should we fear? What indeed? The Lord grant us to be afraid of being afraid!

Conclusion: If it be so, that God has sworn that He will not be wroth with us, then--

(1) Believe it.

(2) Rejoice.

(3) Be resigned.

(4) Impart. If you have learned this love in your own heart, then tell it out to others. (C. H. Spurgeon.)