The Seventh Plague Hail Pt. 1

If you have your Bibles with you, open to Exodus, Exodus chapter nine. We're looking today at verses thirteen through twenty one Exodus chapter nine, and here we see that God's wrath reveals. God's wrath reveals. It doesn't just punish. God's wrath also reveals, and there are a number of things that are revealed by in and through God's wrath in this text, and the Egyptians actually respond to the revelation of God's wrath. Here in our text this week, beginning at verse thirteen, we read, then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh, and say to him. Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants, and on your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off, cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth, you are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold about this time tomorrow, I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now. Therefore, send get your livestock, all that you have in the field into safe shelter. For every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die with the hail when the hail falls on them. Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses. But whoever didn't not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. God's wrath reveals you know, as we examine the text and think about this portion, it's important for us to be reminded of a number of things. First, that this is the last in this series of plagues. What I mean by that is, as we've seen, the plagues are divided into three parts, and then there is a final plague. There are three sets of three plagues, and then a final plague. In each of these three sets of plagues. We've seen that the first of the three plagues happens in the morning, probably when Pharaoh is at the Nile worship purposes. The second of the three plagues happened to Pharaoh in his official capacity, where Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh in his official capacity, perhaps in his chamber. And in the final plague in each of the series of three plagues happens without warning. Pharaoh's not told about the last plague in each of these series of three plagues. In this plague we see that then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him. So we're beginning the last series of three plagues. We saw in the middle series of three plagues that God was setting apart his people Israel. God was redeeming his people Israel. He was making a distinction between the Israelis and the Egyptians. He was making a distinction between those who were his and those who were not. In the last series of plagues, the plagues would come on Egypt, but they would not touch Goshen, for example, and God would say that he was making a distinction, that he was setting apart that he was redeeming his people even in the midst of Egypt. And in this last set of plagues, God highlights a growing sense of belief in Egypt. Starting even with this first plague, we see we will see a response of belief. Now, growing belief is not necessarily growing faith. Let me say that again. Growing belief is not necessarily growing faith. The key here is the contrast between Pharaoh and the other Egyptians. You see the difference, if nothing else. You see the difference between a person with a hard heart and the person whose heart is at least inclined to believe what he sees and respond appropriately. You see the difference between a person who ought to know better by now but doesn't or at least doesn't act on it because his heart is so hard, and individuals who were beginning to come to a place where at least they recognize that what God says is going to take place and they had better at least respond. This demonstrates what it looks like and what it means for a heart to be hardened. He's not even rational enough to respond in fear. We see the other Egyptians who are responding at least in fear, if not faith. They may not believe that God is God, that Yahweh is God, that the Lord is God. They may not believe that their gods are not God's. They may not believe that the Nihile is not divine or that Pharaoh is not divine. But they at least believe that when Moses says something is about to happen, it's going to happen. And when he says it's going to happen tomorrow, it's going to happen tomorrow. James says, of faith, you believe, and that's good. But even the demons believe, and he adds this line and shudder. The difference between you and the demons, and between you and Pharaoh is not that you believe and they don't. The demons believe. They actually believe in a way more than you believe. Number one, because they live in a realm that you don't live in. They've been around longer than you've been around, and they are well aware that God is who God says he is, and that God does what he says he's going to do. They believe, and they shudder. However, their hearts are hardened. Trust me when I tell you Pharaoh believed this, but his heart was hardened. The next day he woke up and he was looking for Hale. He believed it. In the Last plague, when God said, it's not going to touch the animals in Goshen, what did Pharaoh do? He sent someone to Goshin believes and trust me. By now Pharaoh shudders. He is terrified of God. Has every human being ought to be and would be under such circumstances. However, when your heart is hard believing that God is going to do something and being afraid of what God is going to do is not enough. It's not enough when you were committed either to your cause or just committed to not bending the knee. But haven't we seen this? Sometimes we celebrate this. There's a movie coming out now about a I believe it's a World War two tank division where they're just a few guys left, you know, and this tank division and they're fighting against insurmountable odds, you know, kind of like another three hundred, you know, this idea of standing a against insurmountable odds and fighting no matter what. And usually in cases like this, people aren't saying, hey, we can actually beat them. There's a lot more of them than there are of us, but just because of the sheer magnitude of our personalities, we can whip them. That's not what people are saying. That's not what happened at Thermopoli. That's not what happened in this particular battle as well. The idea here is we know that that's an overwhelming force, and that we can't defeat this overwhelming force. But sometimes you don't stand against an overwhelming force to defeat it. You stand against an overwhelming force to say we will not bow to you. And when it happens for our side, we build memorials to them, we celebrate them, we have days of commemoration for them when it happens for our side, because we think that's honorable. But when it happens against God folks, that's another thing altogether, And that's where Pharaoh is now. I know you can do what you say you're going to do. I know you can kill my livestock. I know you can bloody denial. I know you can send fire. I know you can send frogs and lice and everything else. I know you can. But I am not going to let these people go because I'm Pharaoh and I have to continue to be Pharaoh. That's what a hard heart does. You see, and you know, and you still won't respond, You still won't bow. This is what a hard heart looks like. You see. People don't stand this way in opposition to God because they don't believe. Everyone believes. We just suppress the truth in our unrighteousness. Paul tells us in Romans chapter one, there is no such thing as an atheist. Folks, anyone who tells you they're an atheist, the first thing that you know is that they're a liar. Amen, somebody, I'm an atheist? Really? Is that why you fight so hard against the God in whom you do not believe? You ever noticed that? I mean, atheists write books against the God and whom they do not believe. Why because they believe, just like Pharaoh believes. But his heart is hardened. The wrath of God reveals. And yet his heart is hard He is the epitome of the leader who will condemn him his people to die rather than acknowledge the truth that he knows. This is a picture of a hard heart, And folks, this is the picture of your heart. Apart from Christ, this is the picture of some people in this room today. And here's the irony some people in this room today, because you're more like Pharaoh a couple of plagues ago, where he says to Moses, Oh okay, fine, they can go ahead and worship here. Oh okay, fine, you can go. Just don't go as far as you want to go. Oh okay, fine, I'll do you see some of us because we say no, I will not bother me. I'm going to church. I'll take my kids to church. I'll do some spiritual things every now and again. But I am going to live and lead and govern my own life. I am I'm not going to believe that the world is the way you say that it is. I'm not going to believe that right is what you say is right, and wrong is what you say is wrong. I'm going to live in accordance to my own desires and design, and I'll give you something, but I won't give you what you demand. That's a hard heart as well. That's a hard heart as well. There are hard hearts in the church and hard hearts outside. That's why we cannot say that these people are necessarily responding in faith, although they are definitely responding according to their belief. But what does God's wrath reveal. God's wrath, believe it or not, reveals his mercy. I know that sounds ironic, However it's true. God's wrath reveals his mercy. When we we see God pour out his wrath, we are reminded of God's mercy. How is that so? Look at verse fifteen, For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. In other words, God says, oh, by the way, all these things are coming upon you, and this is horrific. However, it's not as bad as it could be. And we see the mercy of God whenever he pours out his wrath. Whenever, whenever God raises up and does something like this, we are always be reminded that it is not as bad as it could have been, that God has showed mercy and restraint. Anything God does sort of wiping out the entire universe is merciful. So when we see God's wrath, remember that God in his wrath is actually revealing his mercy. This is the Seventh plague, folks, This is the seventh plague. Do you know what that says? God has restrained himself six other times? Because if God had not restrained himself six other times, there would have been nothing and no one upon whom to bring another plague. You follow, Except for God's mercy, There's nothing to be plagued again for a seventh time. It is only because of God's mercy that there is something and someone left upon whom he can inflict another plague. This is some one O three six to fourteen. We heard this in our call to worship, but listen to it again. This is why it was part of our call to worship. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding and steadfast love. He will not always child, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. God is compassion and merciful, and his wrath reminds us of that, especially for those of us who are His, for those of us who are children of God, and recognize that we sin, those of us whose hearts are pricked and consciences are pricked when we sin. Every time we see the wrath of God, we are reminded that that is what I deserved for what I've done, and that is what has been poured out on Christ, on my behalf. Every time we see the wrath of God, we ought to remember his mercy. There was no series of plagues for Noah. Do you remember that the flood was not part of a series. It just came. It just came. There was no series of plagues for Sodom and Gomorrah. Fire and brimstone came down and consume those cities without warning. The only warning was the lot get out. There were no series of plagues for Sodom and Gomorrah. God simply wiped them out. And not even this seventh plague is the final one. There are more plagues to come, which means that God will even be merciful in this plague, as hard as that is for us to wrap our heads around. But the only way that you can understand God being merciful in the midst of plagues is to understand what our sins deserve. That's why the Psalmist says that He does not deal with us according to our sins, or as some translations say, he does not deal with us in accordance with what our sin deserves. God doesn't give us what our sins deserve. He never gives us what our sins deserves. Make no mistake about it. There is finality that comes, and the finality that comes for those who are outside of Christ means that they will ultimately get what their sins deserve. But for those of us who are followers of Christ, that will never be the case. And for those of us who are not followers of Christ, as long as there is breath in your body and you have not experienced that final judgment, you have still not been dealt with in accordance with what your sins deserve. God is merciful even to his enemies and his adversaries. The fact that there are people who hate God and are given breath in their lungs to scream out their hate against God is evidence of the fact that God is merciful. The fact that the atheist or the so called atheist gets to write his book and publish it and make money off it is evidence of the mercy of God. The fact that there is a Church of Satan today is evidence of the mercy of God. God does not deal with us in accordance with what our sin deserves. This is true for the believer and the unbeliever alike. The only difference is for the unbeliever it is God has not yet dealt with you according to what your sins deserve, but there is a day coming when he will. The mere story and history of God's wrath is also a merciful warning to the wicked. You know, for example, we don't have to experience these plagues, we get to read about them. Amen, that's merciful. We don't have to experience the flood, we get to read about it. Praise the Lord. God is merciful. These things are recorded so that we can know this is merciful. Plagues used to turn us toward God, turn us towards science. The Bubonic plague. Over a five year period from thirteen forty seven to thirteen fifty two, twenty five million people died. In five years. From one third to one half of the European population was wiped out by the bubonic plague. It was indeed a plague of biblical proportions. It so affected the lives of the people that even children had their entire perspective on life changed because of the bubonic plague. Ringing around the roses, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down. That's a nursery rhyme about the bubonic plague. Children growing up surrounded by death everywhere they look, And there's a song that basically says, we try to treat them with this, we try to treat him with that, but eventually we all fall down. There's nothing we can do. There's nothing we can do. What do you do when that happens, Well, if your heart is not hard, you turn to God. Amen. This doesn't mean that we don't trust in medicine or practice medicine. That's not the point. The point is we don't adopt a worldview that says that this is just all about science and it's all about medicine. It's not polio. In the United States in nineteen sixteen, polio killed six thous about six thousand people and left thousands more paralyzed. AIDS has killed millions, and we absolutely refuse to even have a conversation about what that disease means. And today there's ebola, little over four thousand cases confirmed in West Africa, let alone of the thirty five hundred deaths. And now we have Ebola in Dallas and maybe in Hawaii and who knows where else. But here's the point. These plagues come in Egypt, and we say, why don't the Egyptians fall on their faces and believe that there is a god who is in control the bubonic plague, polio, AIDS, Ebola. Why don't we fall on our faces and believe that there is a god who is in control. Why aren't we reminded in moments like these that there are things that are beyond us, that this world is not as simple as we think it is, and that these are consequences of the fact that we live in a fallen world and we need to be redeemed. We don't think like that. We're too advanced for that. We're too advanced to call for public prayer and repentance in the face of an almighty God, because that's just not the way the world works. We're more intelligent now, and so what we do is we look to scienceists and we say, come on, find a cure, fix this, because the answer to our problems is you've given us another pill we can take. Newsflash, folks, Polio's gone from our shores, and people still die every day from something else when these things happen. Here's what we need to think. When you see a rash of deaths somewhere, here's what ought to come to your mind. Because of sin. That's what the world ought to be like everywhere every day. But it's not. And it's only by the mercy of God that the world's not like that everywhere every day. Because what our sin deserves is bubonic plague everywhere every day. What our sin deserves its aids and polio and ebola everywhere every day. That's what the sinfulness of mankind deserves everywhere every day. Turn on the television and look at what we celebrate. That's what we deserve everywhere every day. But it doesn't happen everywhere every day. The fact is, most places don't have plagues right now. Why Because God is merciful. And sometimes it's only when we see a plague somewhere that we are reminded that God is merciful, because it's not like that everywhere every day. God's wrath not only reveals his mercy, it also reveals his glory. It reveals his glory Verses fourteen, fifteen, I mean fourteen and sixteen. At the end of verse fourteen, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth sixteen. But for this purpose, I have raised you up to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth, in all the earth, in all the earth, in all the earth, in all the earth. That God's glory might fill the earth. That is the purpose for which man was created, and that is the purpose for which man is redeemed, that his glory might fill the earth, that God's glory might fill the earth, that everyone everywhere might know God and give God the worship that God deserves. That is our purpose for existing. God is not just love. Amen. It's interesting. I saw a photograph and I looked up this photograph and I couldn't find much information about the photograph, but I knew it. It is a picture from the Vietnam War, and it's a picture of I believe it's a marine who is carrying and running with two small Vietnamese children, and he is running towards his radio man, and his radio man is crouching down taking cover and obviously calling in for a support of some kind. And this guy has his head ducks, he's got a kid in each arm, and he's running to get behind that same cover. And you see this picture. And the reason that this picture is so moving from my perspective is, here is a warrior. He is obviously a warrior. There's no doubt. He's wearing the uniform of a warrior, he has the weapon of a warrior. He is in the midst of a war. But even in the midst of that war, warrior is not all he is. It's not all he is. And this is true about God, is it not. And this is the problem that we have in our culture. This is the problem that we have with people who don't have a proper worldview, because people with a proper worldview look at something like this, or they look at plagues that are happening around the world and they say, how could this happen? If God is a loving God, how could this possibly happen? Because we can understand how a marine could at the same time be a marine and a warrior and the type of man who would carry children out of the way so that they don't get hurt. We can understand this about a marine, but we can't understand this about God. Because God is supposed to be one thing and one thing only. How can God be more than one thing at the same time? How could God be loving and merciful and just and wrathful? How? How? And we think that disproves God. All it disproves is your simplistic notions of God. It doesn't prove that there's no God. The fact that these plagues happen, the fact that these horrible things are happening in Egypt, does not prove that there's no God. And it also doesn't prove that God is good. It merely magnifies God's glory because he's pouring his wrath out on the wicked. You see, here's our problem. We don't believe people are wicked. This is why it bothers us because we really don't believe people are wicked. Oh but they are. They are. God's wrath tells us as much about him as his love. In fact, if you don't understand God as a god of wrath, then it doesn't mean anything for God to love you. We try to illustrate that young man walks into a room and as he walks into the room, he is captivated by a beautiful young woman, and his attention turns to the beautiful young woman, and she's looking back at him, and as young men are prone to do when beautiful young women look back at them, he smiles, and then she smiles, and as she smiles, she doesn't avert her gaze. So he approaches her and begins to speak to her, and she looks at him, and she bats her eyes and she smiles at his every word. She flips her hair. I mean whole nine yards. The young man gets up and he goes and he picks up the phone and he calls his mama and he says, Mama, Mama, I think I found her. Just then, another man walks into the room and she looks at him the exact same way, smiles at him. The exact same way, bats her eyes at him the exact same way, flips her hair at him the exact same way, And when that young man runs off to call his mama, another young man walks into the room, and she smiles at him the exact same way, and bats her eyes at him at the exact same way, and flips her head at him the exact same way, at which moment the young man's mother is on the phone saying tell me more, tell me more, tell me more, and he says, sorry, mom, nothing to see here. Hang it up. Why Because if that's all she is, and she's that way with everyone, then it doesn't mean anything when she's that way with you, folks. If all God is is mushy, squishy, syrupy, sweet, loving kindness, and that's all he is with everyone, no matter what, then it doesn't mean anything for him to be that way with you. The only way you have a meaningful comprehension of the love of God is if you unders stand that he is righteous and that he is wrathful. It is only in that moment that you recognize that he doesn't smile at everyone, that he's not warm and welcoming with everyone. It is only then that you understand the glory of God that is revealed by his wrath. The wrath of God is praiseworthy. This is why we sing songs about the wrath of God. And we're uncomfortable with that. We're uncomfortable praising God for his love. We can do that, we can get all over that. But praising God for his wrath we have a problem with. And again, why do we have a problem with praising God for his wrath? Because we do not understand the sinfulness of man and that that's what sin deserves. But when you believe that that's what sin deserves, it changes things. This scene is referenced in Romans chapter nine. What shall we say, then? Is there injustice on God's part by no means? For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on him, not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whoever he wills, and he hardens whoever he wills. You will say, then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump, one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use. What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory, for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand, for glory even us, whom he has called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. As indeed he says in Hoseah, those who are not my people, I will call my people, And her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the Living God. The wrath of God is to be celebrated because it reveals God's glory. The wrath of God is also central to the Gospel. You cannot understand the Gospel if you don't understand the wrath of God. You cannot understand why Jesus had to die on the cross. Unless you understand the wrath of God and the doctrine of propitiation, where God has his righteous wrath satisfied by the death of Christ, you cannot comprehend the mercy of being saved by God from God for God unless and until you understand his wrath that is poured out on his son, on behalf of those who have faith in Him. Only then, only then do you understand the Gospel. Finally, the same wrath that hardens some works to soften others. We can't forget that. It would be easy to forget as you look at the plagues. We would think that God brings us wrath only to harden people. But the fact of the matter is not everyone responds this way. Beginning of verse eighteen, Behold about this time tomorrow, I will cause very heavy hal to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now. Therefore, send get your live stock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter. For every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hale falls on them. Then, whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, But whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his live stock in the field. This doesn't mean that some of these people will say, although evidence is that some of them were, it wasn't just Hebrews that left Egypt in the Exodus, some believing Egyptians as well. However, this is to say that there are individuals who did not respond the way Pharaoh did, and we don't have to know whether or not they were born again for us to know that it was better than the alternative. I've said this before, but it was probably months ago. Let me say it again. We have a tendency in America, and especially here in the Bible Belt. We have a tendency to say, you know, I'd almost rather just live around people who are honest in their unbelief. No, you wouldn't. That's not better. That's not better. It was not better for the slaves who were left out in the field or the animals that were left out in the field because of the people who said, my heart is hard toward God, than it was for the ones who said, you know what, I don't necessarily believe in Moses is God, but let's bring everything in. Our culture has been marked by Biblical Christianity, and that's a good thing. Our culture is the most decent civilization on the face of the earth because of the Gospel, and that's a good thing. Granted, there are many people who are just paying lip service. There are many people who are not saved, and they're just doing things because it's an American thing to do. But it's better to be a part of that cultulture than it is to be a part of a culture that does not even pay lip service to the things of God. Don't believe me. Ask the tens of thousands of Californians who are moving to Texas every year in large part because of the godlessness of the government in that state. It's hard to live like that. Amen, we got Californians in here. It's hard to live like that. It's hard to live always turning on the television and picking up the newspaper to see what your radical leftist government is going to do next to make your life harder. And in fact, here's the other thing about that. For those of us who have the privilege of living where there's Christian consciousness exists, if you have a problem with that, you've got a problem with God. Because Paul says that we need to pray for kings and those in authority, why so that we can live quiet, peaceful lives. Amen Better to have people who listen to the word of God and fear the word of God than people who don't. Better to have a government where people think, you know what, this tink commandments thing, that's good stuff, let's start there and build. Better to have that than to have a government where people don't even pay lip service to that. As you know, in our trip, we didn't just go to Zambia, but we also went to Kenya, and we also spent some time in South Africa. Things are difficult in South Africa right now. Culturally things have been difficult in South Africa for a long time. Apartheid's not in South Africa anymore, but apartheid has been replaced with Marxism, and we went to a monument there and looked at these ten pillars upon which the new South African society is built. And as we're walking around reading these ten pillars, I'm looking around and I'm going half of these. I called our group together. I said, listen, half of these come directly from the Communist manifesto. I mean, they're barely changed from the Communist Manifesto. They come directly out of the Communist Manifesto. This doesn't give freedom. It stifles freedom. It strangles freedom. So I'm saying here, on the one hand, we don't know that these people have become believers. But on the other hand, here's what I'm saying. It is better for people to obey God than to not obey God, even if they're obeying for the wrong reason. It is better for you to live by neighbors who believe that they shouldn't steal from you for the wrong reason than it is to live by neighbors who believe that it's no problem to steal from you. Please tell me you can see that, Christian, it is better to live in a society where people believe that there's something to this biblical stuff than it is to live in a society that hates it and wants to replace it with man made Marxism. It's better, it's better. So enough already with this idea that you'd rather have some honest atheists than some hypocritical people who are just believing because it's what they've had passed down to Listen, bring me more people who are acting in accordance with God's truth found in His word that they don't necessarily believe as Christians. I'll take them all day, every day, and twice on Sunday, I'll take them. Do I want believers, Absolutely, I do. I want believers, But as a Christian, I am also grateful to God, and the more I visit the rest of the world, the more grateful I become to God for the fingerprints of the Protestant Reformation that are still all over our culture. And the rest of the world wishes they had what we have, even the ones that don't understand it, even the ones that don't understand it. Please remember that Saints, as we move into an election season, please remember that again, this is not the automatic application of this text, but based on where we are culturally, what we're experiencing right now, and where we're headed It's an important application of this text because for the livestock that was brought into the house, and for the servants that were brought into the house and that didn't die in the hall, trust me, it didn't matter whether it was genuine belief or just outward obedience that brought about the kindness and that brought about their rescue. They were just grateful to be rescued. Now. Is that enough? No, it's not enough. That's why we continue to preach the Gospel, Amen, because the Gospel is our only hope. Even obedience apart from the Gospel is a blessing to us, but the Gospel is our only hope. It remains our only hope. So if you're here today and you don't know Christ, I have two things to say to you. Number One, you need Jesus. Amen, turn to Jesus. Recognize that what you deserve is the plagues all day, every day. That's what you deserve. And worse than that, you deserve death and hell and the grave. But in the meantime, as you are still coming to Jesus, my prayer for you is that you be obedient instead of not obedient, because it's better for you and it's better for everyone else around you as well. But you don't even have to worry about that anymore. Why because you're here and the gospel is for you, and the gospel is for now the day you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. I don't want you to leave here and be an unbeliever who's just a little bit more obedient to the things that you find in the Word of God. I want you to leave here having placed your faith in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Don't test the theory as to whether or not your life will be better by just being obedient whether or not you believe the gospel. Believe the gospel. Amen, believe the gospel. That theory is for people who are out there who are not listening today, that's not for you. If you're here today, turn from your sin, turn from trusting and relying in yourself, and trust in Christ alone as your only hope of salvation, because that's precisely what he is. Let's pray, Oh God, we are grateful to you. We're grateful to you for your wrath that reveals so much to us, your wrath that reveals your mercy, your wrath that reveals your glory, Your wrath that reveal heels, your patience and kindness, Your wrath that reveals your love for us because it was poured out on Christ. Your wrath that reveals your justice, because you are both just and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus. Your wrath that reveals what our sins deserve. And we are grateful that you do not deal with us according to what our sins deserve, but that you are kind, that you're patient, that you are lung suffering, that you continue to be kind and patient and lung suffering with us. Grant by your grace that we would be ever mindful of this. Father, I pray for the one here under the sound of my voice who has not come to you and repentance and faith, has not trusted Jesus as the Lord, savior and master of their life. And I plead that you, by the presence and power of your spirit, would awaken them and grant them life, that they might come to repentance and faith, that Christ might have the fullness of the reward for which he died. Father, we also would be remiss not to tell you how grateful we are to live in this land where we live to enjoy the freedoms that we enjoy. Thank you for those who opened their Bibles and tried to live and form a society in accordance with what they read. Thank You for those even those who didn't necessarily believe it as Christians, but understood it and walked in accordance with it. Nonetheless, thank you for the quiet and peaceful lives that we have been able to lead up to this point because of people who just believed what they were told about You, Grant, by your grace, that we would not succumb to the mythology that says that that's not how we were founded, because that mythology robs you of your glory and robs us of our blessing. Thank you and grant as right now, people all over the world, and people even just to the north of us in Dallas, are wrestling and struggling and fearing the latest plague that we don't understand. Grace, not only that you would bring healing and wholeness to those who are sick, safety and protection to those who are not, but will you also use this to remind us that something like ebola, something like AIDS, something like the black death, something like polio, something like any of another thousand plagues that have hit humanity since the beginning. Something like that is actually more in keeping with what our sins deserve. And so may we turn not to fear but to faith, and may we rejoice in the goodness that we receive from your hand, even in terms of our health and safety. Father, we thank you for all of these things, and pray this in Christ name, Amen mm hm