In light of the Uvalde, TX school shooting, I found this quote from Voddie Baucham in a past sermon VERY interesting. He was referencing the previous horrible school shooting in Newtown CT, but it still applies, just replace Connecticut with Uvalde.

“In the midst of this picture of the wrath of God, I think it is important to look at it in light of recent events in our own culture. Recently, all eyes have been turned to Connecticut. To the slaying of 28 people, 20 of whom were kindergarten aged children. And I am always fascinated at times like this, because in general we live in a culture that does NOT believe in the judgment of God or the wrath of God. In general, we live in a culture that rejects God BECAUSE of the idea of a wrathful God. We reject God, because we reject the idea of a God who judges sinners. But ALL OF A SUDDEN when something like this happens, we believe in evil again, and we believe in JUDGMENT again. Not because of that we believe what God has said, but because we find our own sensibilities violated. This is NOT because we value life (in this culture), but because these are CHILDREN who barely got a chance to get started in life. This is NOT because we have a sense of righteousness, but because it was a school where people ought to have felt safe. We live in a deadly, bloody, callous culture THAT DOES NOT VALUE LIFE. And does NOT believe in the wrath of God to come. And it is only out of CONVENIENCE and our own personal sense of anger, that we are calling out for any justice whatsoever. And interestingly enough, we ALWAYS call for justice just on the other side of the door. What do I mean by that? What I mean is you think the wrath of God and the justice of God is deserved by those only who are just a little more sinful than I am. Those who would do things that I NEVER would do, deserve the wrath of God. ‘Now me? I don’t deserve the wrath of God, those whom I know, those whom I love, those whom I respect they neither do deserve God’s wrath’. Only those who would violate MY sensibilities deserve the wrath of God. The reason we believe that is because ultimately we believe we ARE God, I set the standard, I draw the line. By the way, that is reason most people can make it through. Because the moment we realize the reality of God’s standard of guilt is, if I understand to what it means to be deserving of the wrath of God, if I understand that I thought and said and did things yesterday for which I deserve EVERY OUNCE OF THE WRATH OF GOD, what that ultimately leads me to is the question, WHO? Who can stand? And Scripture answers this question, and the answer is not “those who haven’t killed children”, the answer is not “people who have never committed adultery”, his answer is not “those who have never cheated on their taxes”, his answer does NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE HUMAN STANDARD OF BEHAVIOR. His answer has EVERTHING to do with the ultimate sovereignty of the Almighty God!” (end of quote)

So the answer to my question “who deserves the wrath of God?” is EVERYONE! If you reject this as Voddie explains, you will never understand the need for a Savior, Jesus Christ. You will continue to subjectively look at God and salvation as “I am deserving of His mercy” when absolutely NO ONE including that precious 1 year old baby deserves His mercy. We are sinners, black marks in His sight. God is not tolerant of sin, His wrath did not go away on sin.

To understand this more, what was the most loving and most wrathful thing God ever did? He put His Son Jesus Christ to death for you! You see, some get the loving part right, but neglect the WRATH God poured out on His Son to save His children from His wrath! It was OUR SIN which caused this wrath! And if you fail to believe this, well you fail to believe that Judgment has come, that you are GUILTY and the only way out of the mess is to place your faith in the one Savior, Jesus Christ, to save you. By this failure, the wrath of God remains on you!