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Voddie Baucham - The Eighth Plague_ Locusts · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: If you have your bibles with you, you open them
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Speaker 1: to Exodus chapter ten, Exodus chapter ten, so they will
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Speaker 1: look at the first twenty verses in Exodus chapter ten,
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Speaker 1: which brings us to the eighth plague. The eighth plague,
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Speaker 1: it is the penultimate plague in the final series of plagues.
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Speaker 1: We know there are three series of three plagues each,
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Speaker 1: and this is the final series of three plagues before
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Speaker 1: we get to plague number ten, which stands alone, Plague
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Speaker 1: number ten, which was the plague that was promised before
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Speaker 1: the plagues started, and so this is the middle plague
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Speaker 1: in that last series of three plagues. We know that
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Speaker 1: there is a pattern. The pattern is on the first
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Speaker 1: plague in each of the series of three that Moses
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Speaker 1: goes and he speaks to Pharaoh in the morning, probably
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Speaker 1: during these morning rituals at the Nile. We know that
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Speaker 1: in the middle plague, Moses and Aaron go and speak
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Speaker 1: to Pharaoh, probably in his official capacity and in his
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Speaker 1: official place as Pharaoh. And then on the third plague.
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Speaker 1: In each of these series of three plagues, there is
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Speaker 1: no announcement, merely a plague that comes. And so as
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Speaker 1: we would expect, we find Moses and Aaron here going
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Speaker 1: to Pharaoh in his official capacity before this plague comes.
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Speaker 1: After a while, it would seem that all these plagues
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Speaker 1: would just run together for a while. It would seem
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Speaker 1: that there is only so much that you could see
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Speaker 1: or say about the plague. But if there's anything that
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Speaker 1: we've learned as we have walked through these plagues, we
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Speaker 1: have learned that everyone is unique, every one of them,
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Speaker 1: and this one is no exception. As in this one
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Speaker 1: we see a shocking reminder, and the key word there
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Speaker 1: is reminder. You know, there are some events that just
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Speaker 1: stand out in the life of an individual, or the
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Speaker 1: life of a family, or in the life of a country,
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Speaker 1: sometimes in the life of the world. If I say
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Speaker 1: July fourth, seventeen seventy six, Americans chests swell with a
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Speaker 1: bit of pride because we know that that is our
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Speaker 1: day of independence. I never forget my family and I
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Speaker 1: were living in England at the time, and we were
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Speaker 1: there during Independence Day, and I asked some of my
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Speaker 1: English friends said, dumb, so you know, what do you
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Speaker 1: guys do on the fourth of July, to which he
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Speaker 1: responded absolutely nothing. It's like, oh, okay, I guess not.
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Speaker 1: Probably a bad day for y'all. Huh, Yeah, it's all
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Speaker 1: about perspective. October twenty ninth, nineteen twenty nine, ten, twenty nine,
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Speaker 1: twenty nine, the day the stock market crashed, the day
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Speaker 1: we tumbled into the Great Depression. We know that day.
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Speaker 1: December seventh, nineteen forty one, a day that will live
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Speaker 1: in infamy. We know that day. The day that Pearl
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Speaker 1: Harbor was attacked. September eleventh, two thousand and one. You
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Speaker 1: don't even have to say that date. You just say
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Speaker 1: nine to eleven, and all of us knows what that
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Speaker 1: day means and what it stands for. And then, depending
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Speaker 1: on your perspective and what you value most in life.
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Speaker 1: October eighteenth, twenty fourteen, Yesterday, Alabama fifty nine, Texas A
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Speaker 1: and M nothing again, depending on what you value most
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Speaker 1: in life. There's some people who couldn't make it to
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Speaker 1: church today because of what happened to the Aggies on yesterday. Okay,
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Speaker 1: days that we remember like this tend to be days
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Speaker 1: of great tragedy or great triumph. These are also the
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Speaker 1: days whose meaning and significance we tend to pass on
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Speaker 1: to our children and to our grandchildren because of their
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Speaker 1: great significance. But what happens when it's not a day
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Speaker 1: but a series of days. But what happens when it's
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Speaker 1: not a great tragedy or a great triumph, but it's
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Speaker 1: a great tragedy that results in great triumph. What happens then, Well,
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Speaker 1: what happens then is you remember, and you remember, and
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Speaker 1: you remember and you remember. And if there's one thing
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Speaker 1: that marks our text today, it is this idea of remembering.
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Speaker 1: You see, this plague reminds us that the plagues in
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Speaker 1: general are a shocking reminder of a number of things.
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Speaker 1: This text is unique in that, first of all, we
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Speaker 1: see that the children of Israel are reminded of the
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Speaker 1: God of their fathers, that the plagues are used for
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Speaker 1: that purpose, to remind the children of Israel of the
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Speaker 1: God of their fathers. And as I read this text,
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Speaker 1: see if, especially in the first half, you can't grasp
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Speaker 1: that reality. Chapter ten, verse one, then the Lord said
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Speaker 1: to Moses, go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his
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Speaker 1: heart and the heart of his servants, that I may
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Speaker 1: show these signs of mine among them, and that you
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Speaker 1: may tell in the hearing of your son and your grandson,
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Speaker 1: how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians, And what
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Speaker 1: signs I have done among them that you may know
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Speaker 1: that I am the Lord. So Moses and Aaron went
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Speaker 1: in to Pharaoh and said to him, thus says the Lord,
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Speaker 1: the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse
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Speaker 1: to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that
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Speaker 1: they may serve me. For if you refuse to let
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Speaker 1: my people go, behold, tomorrow, I will bring locusts into
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Speaker 1: your country, and they shall cover the face of the land,
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Speaker 1: so that no one can see the land. And they
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Speaker 1: shall eat what is left to you after the hail,
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Speaker 1: And they shall eat every tree of yours that grows
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Speaker 1: in the field. And they shall fill your houses and
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Speaker 1: the houses of all your servants, and of all the Egyptians,
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Speaker 1: as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen from
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Speaker 1: the day they came on earth to this day. Then
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Speaker 1: he turned went out from Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh Pharaoh's servants
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Speaker 1: said to him, how long shall this man be a
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Speaker 1: snare to us? Let the men go that they may
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Speaker 1: serve the Lord their god. Do you not yet understand
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Speaker 1: that Egypt is ruined? So Moses and Aaron were brought
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Speaker 1: back in to Pharaoh and he said to them, go
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Speaker 1: serve the Lord, your god. But which ones are to go?
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Speaker 1: By the way Moses has already answered this question before.
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Speaker 1: Moses said, we will go with our young and our old.
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Speaker 1: We will go with our sons and our daughters, and
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Speaker 1: with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a
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Speaker 1: feast to the Lord. But he said to them, the
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Speaker 1: Lord be with you if ever I let you and
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Speaker 1: your little ones go. Look you have some evil purpose
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Speaker 1: in mind. No go the men among you and serve
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Speaker 1: the Lord, for that is what you are asking. And
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Speaker 1: they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. We'll stop there,
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Speaker 1: but I want you to notice something again. Remember the
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Speaker 1: idea here that this is to be a reminder to
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Speaker 1: the children of the Israelites, a reminder of the faithfulness
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Speaker 1: of the God of their fathers. Notice what you see
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Speaker 1: in the text. I don't know if you picked it up,
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Speaker 1: but in verse two, your sons and your grandsons. In
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Speaker 1: verse nine's our young and are old. In verse nine
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Speaker 1: again our sons and our daughters. In verse ten, you
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Speaker 1: and your little ones. And then there is a contrast
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Speaker 1: in verse six. These are the verses that make it
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Speaker 1: clear that this is for Israel. And it's not just
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Speaker 1: for Israel today, but it's for Israel tomorrow. It's for
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Speaker 1: our son, our daughters, our grandsons, our little ones, it's
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Speaker 1: for everyone. This is about remembrance. But then this is
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Speaker 1: contrasted because God says I'm going to send a plague.
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Speaker 1: But when he says that He's going to send a plague,
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Speaker 1: the reference is not to the Egyptians and their sons
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Speaker 1: and their daughters future. But in verse six, as neither
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Speaker 1: your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen past, this is ominous.
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Speaker 1: First of all, you see the contrast that for Israel,
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Speaker 1: there is something that is happening here that will impact
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Speaker 1: and affect and be passed on to their children and
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Speaker 1: to their grandchildren for generations to come. But for Egypt,
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Speaker 1: there is something here that they're not going to pass on,
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Speaker 1: they're not going to want to pass on. In fact,
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Speaker 1: one of the arguments against the exodus is the sort
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Speaker 1: of lack of evidence of it in Egyptian records. The
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Speaker 1: only people who make those arguments are the people who
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Speaker 1: either don't understand or are not honest about ancient history. Folks,
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Speaker 1: in ancient history, you don't write about your losses. Amen.
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Speaker 1: Especially when you're defeated by the god of a bunch
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Speaker 1: of slaves, that's not what you write about. Especially when
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Speaker 1: your culture is decimated, that's not what you write about. However,
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Speaker 1: we do have writings about the Hebrews coming out of Egypt,
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Speaker 1: and we have writings about them in the desert and
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Speaker 1: the way that people feared them when they were in
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Speaker 1: the desert. So we do have these records, which makes
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Speaker 1: it all the more convincing that this is actually what
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Speaker 1: took place, and that it was an embarrassment for the
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Speaker 1: most powerful nation on the face of the earth. But
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Speaker 1: notice that there are going to be modes of communication here,
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Speaker 1: and that one mode of communication is communication and through
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Speaker 1: the family. This is how the children of the Israelites
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Speaker 1: will be reminded of the God of their fathers. Listen
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Speaker 1: to this from Calvin. Had they been redeemed by any
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Speaker 1: ordinary method, the praise due to God would soon have
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Speaker 1: been forgotten. It was proper then, that their posterity should
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Speaker 1: be thus instructed by their fathers, that they might have
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Speaker 1: no doubts as to the author of so illustrious a work.
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Speaker 1: But it is here required of the fathers, who had
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Speaker 1: been eyewitnesses of the signs that they should be diligent
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Speaker 1: and assiduous in teaching their children, and on these also
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Speaker 1: care and attention in learning is enjoined. That the recollection
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Speaker 1: of God's mercies should flourish throughout all ages, so within
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Speaker 1: the family, and will see this when we get to
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Speaker 1: the final plague. We'll see this when we get to
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Speaker 1: the passover. The family rituals that are instituted at the Passover,
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Speaker 1: so that God's people will remind their children and their
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Speaker 1: grandchildren of the faithfulness of God. The idea here that
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Speaker 1: God is communicating in this particular plague, and the way
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Speaker 1: that this particular plague is set up, is that He's
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Speaker 1: doing something that will not only deliver Israel, but he's
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Speaker 1: doing something that will define Israel, and it will define
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Speaker 1: Israel first and foremost, and that they will communicate what
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Speaker 1: God has done to their children and to their grandchildren. Folks.
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Speaker 1: This is the way that the faith is passed on.
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Speaker 1: This is the way that the faith has always been
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Speaker 1: passed on. The overwhelming majority of people who have come
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Speaker 1: to faith in Jesus Christ have done so because of
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Speaker 1: family influence. The overwhelming majority of people. There are people
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Speaker 1: in the world who are first generation Christians. There are
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Speaker 1: places where the Gospel goes and the Gospel penetrates and
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Speaker 1: you find, excuse me, first generation Christians. But that is rare,
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Speaker 1: and it is especially rare today. What is more common,
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Speaker 1: what is more likely, is that people will have family members, parents,
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Speaker 1: who are a Christian who will raise them in the
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Speaker 1: discipline and instruction of the Lord, and they will come
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Speaker 1: to faith, even if they don't come to faith immediately,
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Speaker 1: even if it's later on in life. Generally people will
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Speaker 1: tell you, even people, especially in the United States, who
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Speaker 1: will say I'm a first generation Christian. What you find
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Speaker 1: out is that there were people in their family or
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Speaker 1: their extended family who were Christians. They're not first generation
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Speaker 1: Christians in the sense of the person who lives in
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Speaker 1: some remote village somewhere that doesn't have the Bible translated
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Speaker 1: into their language. Some missionaries fly in, learn their language,
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Speaker 1: translate the Bible, say the name of Jesus for these
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Speaker 1: people for the first time time ever in their language,
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Speaker 1: they hear the Gospel, receive the Gospel, and say, see,
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Speaker 1: that's a first generation Christian. Amen. In the United States,
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Speaker 1: you may have people where you know there are a
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Speaker 1: couple of generations where people haven't been faithful. There's a
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Speaker 1: couple of generations where people went and practice something else.
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Speaker 1: But generally there is a history and a heritage to
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Speaker 1: which we are connected, and that is generally the way
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Speaker 1: people come to faith. Because once the Gospel comes, for example,
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Speaker 1: to these people who are literally first generation Christians, what
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Speaker 1: happens in the next generation. Well, the Gospel came to
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Speaker 1: our people, the scriptures came to our people, and now
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Speaker 1: I'm born into a culture that has the scriptures in
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Speaker 1: our language, and it's passed on to me because of
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Speaker 1: the family to which I belong. Now, granted, there are
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Speaker 1: instances where there is great apostasy, but normally this is
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Speaker 1: the way that the faith has passed on. This is
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Speaker 1: why it was so important important to the Israelites to
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Speaker 1: pass these things on within the family, to have traditions
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Speaker 1: wherein these things are passed on within the family. And
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Speaker 1: this is why throughout the history of the Covenant community
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Speaker 1: of faith of the people of God, under the Old
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Speaker 1: Covenant and under the New Covenant, it has been important
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Speaker 1: to pass on these truths to our children. Ephesians chapter six, Echoes,
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Speaker 1: Deuteronomy chapter six, Children of your parents and the Lord
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Speaker 1: for this is right. Honor your father and your mother,
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Speaker 1: which is the first commandment, with the promise that's Deuteronomy five,
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Speaker 1: that it may go well with you and you may
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Speaker 1: live long in the land. Fathers, to not provoke your
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Speaker 1: children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline
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Speaker 1: and instruction of the Lord. That's Deuteronomy six. And so
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Speaker 1: here we have this idea that is an old covenant
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Speaker 1: idea and a new Covenant idea, the idea that those
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Speaker 1: who know God are responsible for passing on that knowledge
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Speaker 1: of God to their children and their children's children. Folks,
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Speaker 1: what sense does it make for me to have my
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Speaker 1: life arrested by the Gospel of Grace and not tell
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Speaker 1: my children about the one who saved me. On what
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Speaker 1: planet does that make sense? That's absolutely ridiculous. This is
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Speaker 1: why children have been catechised in their families for generations
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Speaker 1: up until recent generations. It's only in recent generations that
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Speaker 1: we've moved away from this in the church. And the
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Speaker 1: reason we've moved away from this in the church is
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Speaker 1: because we moved away from this in the culture. Interestingly enough,
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Speaker 1: our culture has abandoned the idea of learning in this way.
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Speaker 1: You know, elementary school hasn't always been called elementary school.
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Speaker 1: It used to be called grammar school. Why grammar school
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Speaker 1: because in classical education there are three phases, grammar phase,
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Speaker 1: the logic phase, and the rhetoric phase. In the grammar phase,
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Speaker 1: you learn things through rope memorization. And so in traditional
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Speaker 1: classical grammar school education, you go to school and you
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Speaker 1: sit down and you recyite together with your class all
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Speaker 1: of these pieces of information that you don't understand, and
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Speaker 1: you have no idea why you have to memorize this stuff.
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Speaker 1: That's traditional classical education. You just memorize things. You cram
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Speaker 1: it in there. Number one because at that age that's
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Speaker 1: how your brain works. You can memorize stuff then like
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Speaker 1: never again in your entire life. Right. And number two
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Speaker 1: because when you get to the logic phase, you're going
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Speaker 1: to need this stuff to be able to use it. Right.
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Speaker 1: You don't just sit down and start doing you know,
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Speaker 1: long division. You don't just sit down and start multiplying
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Speaker 1: three digit numbers. You start with two times wise two
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Speaker 1: two times two is four, two times three is six,
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Speaker 1: two times four. That's what you start with. And you
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Speaker 1: do this over and over and over again, and you
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Speaker 1: get it in there through rope rope memorization. And then
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Speaker 1: in the next phase, when you start using these things,
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Speaker 1: you don't have to sit there and go right because
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Speaker 1: you've memorized these Now you can move on to something else. Well,
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Speaker 1: we don't want that anymore, and so we don't use
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Speaker 1: rope memorization anymore. We don't do grammar school anymore. Guess
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Speaker 1: what catechism is. It's learning through rope memorization. And now
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Speaker 1: you hear Christian parents say things like, well, I don't
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Speaker 1: want to categorize my children because that's just rope memorization,
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Speaker 1: and I want them to have a genuine, loving relationship
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Speaker 1: with God, not just one based on rope memorization. Or really,
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Speaker 1: do you want them to love math? Well yeah, And
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Speaker 1: why do you make them memorize the timestables? You want
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Speaker 1: them to love reading? Well, yeah, why do you make
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Speaker 1: them memorize the alphabet? Because in the first phase of learning, wrote,
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Speaker 1: memorization is all you've got. So when we abandon this idea,
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Speaker 1: we also abandon catechises. We don't catechize our children anymore,
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Speaker 1: we don't make them remember things anymore. But this was
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Speaker 1: a huge part of Hebrew culture. Tell these things to
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Speaker 1: your children, Secondly, in the church, you know the practical
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Speaker 1: effect of this doctrine is seen in things like Psalm
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Speaker 1: forty four. Look at Psalm forty four, and you have
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Speaker 1: to remember that the Psalms, I mean, this is the
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Speaker 1: hymn book for Israel. Right when they got together and
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Speaker 1: they worshiped, these were their hymns. These were the songs
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Speaker 1: that they sang. Look at Psalm forty four. Oh God,
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Speaker 1: we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told
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Speaker 1: us what deeds you performed in their days, in the
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Speaker 1: days of old. You with your own hand drove out
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Speaker 1: the nations, but them you planted, You afflicted the people's
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Speaker 1: but them you set free. What is this a reference to?
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Speaker 1: This is a reference to redemptive history. This is learning
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Speaker 1: through a song what God has done in redemptive history.
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Speaker 1: And so we've understood historically that in church, this is
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Speaker 1: what we do. We've talked about this definition of worship.
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Speaker 1: What do we do when we worship? True worship happens
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Speaker 1: when we set our mind's attention and heart's affection on
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Speaker 1: the Lord and praise him for who he is and
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Speaker 1: what he's done. This is what we do. This is
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Speaker 1: what you know. We see that in Psalm ninety five,
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Speaker 1: and repeat it again and again and again. Who he is,
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Speaker 1: what He's done, Who he is, what he's done, Who
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Speaker 1: he is, what He's done. And so we come together
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Speaker 1: and we remind ourselves. This is why it is so
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Speaker 1: sad that modern worship is rife with experientialism. Genuine worship
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Speaker 1: of God is not about reflecting on those doctrines of
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Speaker 1: old and those truths of old. It's about closing your
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Speaker 1: eyes and raising your hands and having an experience about
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Speaker 1: what you're doing here and now. It's about me, It's
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Speaker 1: about here, It's about now what God says. Wait a minute,
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Speaker 1: you're not the first people to know God. You're not
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Speaker 1: the first ones He's saved. Gather together and remind one
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Speaker 1: another of what God has done. This is what is
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Speaker 1: world did, and oftentimes what happened. They forgot their God.
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Speaker 1: They forgot their God. So we see this. This is
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Speaker 1: why children are always included in the worship of the
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Speaker 1: Covenant community until recent days. Deuteronomy thirty one twelve. Assemble
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Speaker 1: the people, men, women and little ones, and the sojourner
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Speaker 1: within your towns, that they may hear and learn to
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Speaker 1: fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do
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Speaker 1: all the words of this law. Ezra ten one. While
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Speaker 1: Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down
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Speaker 1: before the House of God, a very great assembly of men,
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Speaker 1: women and children gathered to him out of Israel. For
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Speaker 1: the people wept bitterly, men, women, children, And here Pharaoh says,
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Speaker 1: just take the men to go worship. No, no, no, no,
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Speaker 1: no no. You don't understand. This is not just We're
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Speaker 1: not just gathering to hang out for men to do
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Speaker 1: man stuff. That's cool, to gather and hang out for
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Speaker 1: men to do man stuff. That's not what this is.
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Speaker 1: This is corporate worship. And in corporate worship, you don't
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Speaker 1: leave the women and children. Amen. We learn this here
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Speaker 1: in this plague, and then not only in the family
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Speaker 1: and in the church, but also in the nation, in
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Speaker 1: the nation of Israel, for example, the Passover. The Passover
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Speaker 1: is something that's observed among the nation, the other feasts
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Speaker 1: of Israel, national days of remembrance. These things are important.
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Speaker 1: These things are significant. You know, there's this picture, this
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Speaker 1: kind of Norman Rockwell picture of Americana, and I didn't
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Speaker 1: understand it. I didn't understand it until I became a father,
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Speaker 1: And you know, I got some of this gray and
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Speaker 1: I didn't get it. I didn't get the significance or
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Speaker 1: even you know, the beauty of the idea of the
25:20
Speaker 1: small town where the Fourth of July comes and there's
25:24
Speaker 1: bunting up everywhere and flags flying everywhere, and there's a
25:29
Speaker 1: parade that comes through the neighborhood, and you know, the
25:33
Speaker 1: barbecue that happens and all this stuff that happens in
25:35
Speaker 1: the you know, and you think, yeah, that's just that's
25:38
Speaker 1: small town nostalgia, that small town America. No, that is
25:42
Speaker 1: a nation saying we want our children and our children's
25:46
Speaker 1: children to remember that. This is why we are who
25:50
Speaker 1: we are. This is why if we don't remember our independence,
26:00
Speaker 1: if we don't remember our veterans, if we don't remember
26:05
Speaker 1: our presidents, if we don't remember see, if we don't
26:07
Speaker 1: remember these things, all of a sudden, we're not a
26:09
Speaker 1: we anymore. We're just a collection of individuals and constituency groups.
26:18
Speaker 1: And that's where we are as a culture. We're not
26:22
Speaker 1: Americans anymore. We're African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, whatever,
26:36
Speaker 1: hyphenated Americans. It is no longer about our shared identity
26:43
Speaker 1: as a people. Well yeah, but I mean, you know,
26:48
Speaker 1: this is not about the covenant community, and this is
26:51
Speaker 1: not about no no, no no, I understand. This is an
26:54
Speaker 1: important picture in all three of these spheres. This is
26:57
Speaker 1: an important picture because when we say that we're going
26:59
Speaker 1: to be a family together, as a family, it's important
27:03
Speaker 1: that we transmit to our children those things that are
27:05
Speaker 1: important to us who we are as a family, why
27:08
Speaker 1: we are who we are as a family. But guess what,
27:12
Speaker 1: as a family, we're also members of this civil society,
27:15
Speaker 1: are we not? And and and and as a and
27:20
Speaker 1: as a civil society. There are some things that make
27:25
Speaker 1: us this civil society, are there not? And these things
27:30
Speaker 1: are important. But it's also important that when we do this,
27:35
Speaker 1: this is not our attitude. We don't have the attitude
27:38
Speaker 1: that says fourth of July Independence Day. This is all
27:43
Speaker 1: about bombs and bullets and running off the British and
27:49
Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with worship. That's wrong. Why
27:58
Speaker 1: because it's part of God's prime evidence and how God,
28:02
Speaker 1: in his providence brought us to this place. How God
28:06
Speaker 1: in his providence made us free to proclaim the gospel
28:10
Speaker 1: the way we proclaim the gospel. It's important that when
28:16
Speaker 1: we do these things and have these times of national remembrance,
28:19
Speaker 1: we realize that we're not like Israel, and that we're
28:22
Speaker 1: not a theocracy that sort of blends all of these
28:25
Speaker 1: things into one. Yet, regardless of where we find ourselves,
28:32
Speaker 1: we are here because of God's faithfulness to us as
28:36
Speaker 1: his people. By the way, there's also precedent for this.
28:39
Speaker 1: Turn with me to the right and look in Jeremiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
28:50
Speaker 1: Jeremiah twenty nine. We love Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven,
28:53
Speaker 1: and y'all know my take on that. But here's what
28:59
Speaker 1: we don't Again, these people are being taken into exile.
29:03
Speaker 1: And we've said on a number of occasions, you know,
29:06
Speaker 1: we're in the US. The US is not the Promised Land. Amen, somebody,
29:11
Speaker 1: this is not the Promised Land. This is not the
29:13
Speaker 1: New Jerusalem. Although as Texans, that's really hard for us
29:19
Speaker 1: to say, you know, it just seems like it ought
29:22
Speaker 1: to be set up, you know, somewhere around I don't know,
29:27
Speaker 1: not Austin. Yeah, but look at verse eight, for that
29:38
Speaker 1: says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel. Sorry,
29:43
Speaker 1: that's the wrong place. I didn't want to go there.
29:45
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to verse six, got a four
29:48
Speaker 1: back at the four that says the Lord of Host,
29:50
Speaker 1: the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I
29:54
Speaker 1: have sent into exile, from Jerusalem to Babylon. By the way,
30:00
Speaker 1: you know this is us. We're in exile. We haven't
30:06
Speaker 1: been to our Jerusalem yet though. Amen. We're waiting on
30:09
Speaker 1: our Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem. In the meantime, we're in Babylon. Okay,
30:15
Speaker 1: the United States is not Jerusalem. It's Babylon, all right.
30:20
Speaker 1: But watch this. Build houses and live in them, plant
30:25
Speaker 1: gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons
30:29
Speaker 1: and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your
30:32
Speaker 1: daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters.
30:37
Speaker 1: Multiply there, and do not decrease, but seek the welfare
30:41
Speaker 1: of the city where I have sent you into exile,
30:44
Speaker 1: and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in
30:48
Speaker 1: its welfare you will find your welfare there. It is there.
30:56
Speaker 1: It is as we remember God's goodness to us as families,
31:03
Speaker 1: as we remember God's goodness to us as a covenant community.
31:08
Speaker 1: Let us not neglect that last phase, and remember God's
31:11
Speaker 1: goodness to us as citizens in this country where we
31:16
Speaker 1: find ourselves, and how God has used that in order
31:21
Speaker 1: to bring us to where we are in our walk
31:24
Speaker 1: with God and our experience of faith, and in all
31:29
Speaker 1: of these things. They are important. Again in Israel, they
31:32
Speaker 1: all sort of ran together. You know, who we are
31:35
Speaker 1: as a family. We're Jews ethnically, that's who we are.
31:39
Speaker 1: Who we are as a people of God. We're Jews
31:43
Speaker 1: because religiously that's who we are. Who we are as
31:46
Speaker 1: a civil society, we're Jews because that's who we are.
31:49
Speaker 1: All these things ran together in the New Covenant. We
31:52
Speaker 1: don't have that reality. These things don't all run together.
31:58
Speaker 1: So who we are as a family is very different,
32:01
Speaker 1: and that's okay. We don't all have to be the same.
32:06
Speaker 1: Who we are as a church, that's where we united
32:10
Speaker 1: because that's what the New Covenant does and brings us
32:13
Speaker 1: all together. Who we are as citizens, that's really not
32:20
Speaker 1: all that significant either, because you can go from here
32:23
Speaker 1: to another part of the world where you don't even
32:25
Speaker 1: speak the language, but you find brothers and sisters in
32:28
Speaker 1: Christ and your home. Amen. But Christians are also reminded
32:37
Speaker 1: of the faithfulness of Jehovah. So for Jews, they had
32:41
Speaker 1: this reminder, and generationally they have this reminder and it's great,
32:44
Speaker 1: But as Christians, as believers, there's also a reminder in
32:47
Speaker 1: this for us because as you look at this in
32:50
Speaker 1: this first part, notice what it says. Go back here
32:54
Speaker 1: to the beginning of verse one in chapter ten. Then
32:58
Speaker 1: the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh, for I
33:03
Speaker 1: have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants,
33:07
Speaker 1: that I may show these signs of mine among them,
33:11
Speaker 1: and that you may tell in the hearing of your
33:14
Speaker 1: son and your grandson, how I have dealt harshly with
33:19
Speaker 1: the Egyptians, and what signs I have done among them,
33:23
Speaker 1: that you may know that I am the Lord. Don't
33:26
Speaker 1: miss this point. All the way through this, God is
33:30
Speaker 1: telling Moses you need to record this. Why do we
33:36
Speaker 1: have Exodus, why do we have the Pentituch? Who's the
33:40
Speaker 1: author of the penteituke Moses? And here is one of
33:43
Speaker 1: those examples of why it is that Moses recorded these things.
33:48
Speaker 1: He recorded these things because God said, this stuff's important,
33:53
Speaker 1: and you need it for your children and for your grandchildren,
33:56
Speaker 1: which by definition means since you're not going to live
33:59
Speaker 1: for it, you've got to write this down. Folks. This
34:04
Speaker 1: is why we have the Bible. This is why we
34:08
Speaker 1: have the Old Testament and the New Testament. Listen to
34:12
Speaker 1: this from John Durham and his commentary on Exodus. At
34:17
Speaker 1: its simplest level, this assertion lies at the root of
34:22
Speaker 1: the tradition connecting Moses with the narrative of the Book
34:26
Speaker 1: of Exodus. At a far more profound level, it is
34:29
Speaker 1: an assertion encapsulating the process of oral transmission that is
34:35
Speaker 1: at the foundation of the entire Bible, one of a
34:39
Speaker 1: series of important glimpses at the generation of the testimony
34:43
Speaker 1: of faith through reporting and the accumulation of eyewitness accounts.
34:54
Speaker 1: Why don't we choose to believe the Bible because this
34:57
Speaker 1: is a reliable collection of historical documents and by eyewitnesses
35:01
Speaker 1: during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events
35:05
Speaker 1: that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies, and claim
35:08
Speaker 1: that their writings are divine rather than human in origin.
35:11
Speaker 1: These plagues are supernatural events that took place in fulfillment
35:14
Speaker 1: of specific prophecies. This is the word of God and
35:22
Speaker 1: it's recorded for us. This is about the authenticity of
35:26
Speaker 1: the Old Testament. What is the author of Hebrews saying
35:30
Speaker 1: one Verses one and two. Long ago, at many times
35:33
Speaker 1: and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by
35:35
Speaker 1: the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken
35:38
Speaker 1: to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir
35:41
Speaker 1: of all things, through whom also he created the world.
35:46
Speaker 1: God spoke to us in many ways through the prophets.
35:50
Speaker 1: This is one of them. The authenticity of redemptive history.
35:55
Speaker 1: Luke in his prologue Verses one through four, In as
35:58
Speaker 1: much as many have undertaken to narrative of the things
36:01
Speaker 1: that have been accomplished among us, just as those who
36:05
Speaker 1: were from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word,
36:08
Speaker 1: have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me, also,
36:11
Speaker 1: having followed all things closely for some time past, to
36:15
Speaker 1: write and orderly account for you. Most excellent theophilis that
36:18
Speaker 1: you might have blind faith in God, no, that you
36:23
Speaker 1: might have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught.
36:29
Speaker 1: The authenticity of the Gospel. We see this in First John,
36:34
Speaker 1: that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
36:37
Speaker 1: which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
36:39
Speaker 1: looked upon and have touched with our hands. Concerning the world,
36:42
Speaker 1: the Word of life, the life was made manifest. We
36:45
Speaker 1: have seen it and testified to it, and proclaimed to
36:48
Speaker 1: you the eternal life which was with the Father and
36:50
Speaker 1: was made manifest to us. That which we have seen
36:53
Speaker 1: and heard, we proclaim to you also, so that you
36:56
Speaker 1: too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship
37:00
Speaker 1: is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ.
37:02
Speaker 1: Through what through the transmission of the Word of God.
37:10
Speaker 1: This is how we have a record of who God
37:14
Speaker 1: is and what God has done. So even in this
37:17
Speaker 1: plague and the way that this plague is set up,
37:20
Speaker 1: and the way that you know again when you see
37:21
Speaker 1: things repeated like that again and again and again and again.
37:24
Speaker 1: This whole idea, this multigenerational idea. God's saying something here.
37:29
Speaker 1: What's he saying. He's saying, On the one hand, you
37:32
Speaker 1: transmit this multigenerationally, he sang. On the other hand, you
37:38
Speaker 1: need to record the Bible. You need to record what
37:42
Speaker 1: I say. And because of that we have the scriptures.
37:47
Speaker 1: That's why we sing as we do in our hymn
37:49
Speaker 1: of the month this month. Holy words of our faith
37:53
Speaker 1: handed down to this age came to us through sacrifice,
37:57
Speaker 1: Oh Heed, the faithful words of christly worlds, long preserved
38:01
Speaker 1: for our walk in this world. They resound with God's
38:04
Speaker 1: on heart. Oh, let the ancient words impart. These are
38:08
Speaker 1: the ancient words. This is the word of God. People,
38:13
Speaker 1: This is the word of God, and he tells Moses
38:17
Speaker 1: to record it. This is why we have the pentituke.
38:22
Speaker 1: This also goes to the assurance of our salvation. This
38:28
Speaker 1: reminder of what God is doing here in Egypt. What
38:32
Speaker 1: does this have to do with the assurance of my salvation.
38:35
Speaker 1: This shows us the links to which God will go
38:37
Speaker 1: to save Israel. But why does he go to these
38:44
Speaker 1: links to save Israel. By the way, some of the
38:46
Speaker 1: people who God saved from Egypt he didn't save from hell.
38:53
Speaker 1: Let me say that again. I want to make sure
38:55
Speaker 1: that you get this. Some of the people whom God
38:58
Speaker 1: saved from Egypt, he didn't save from hell. Being an
39:03
Speaker 1: Egyptian is not the I mean, being an Israelite is
39:06
Speaker 1: not the same as being saved. We are saved by
39:10
Speaker 1: grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, to the
39:13
Speaker 1: glory of God alone. And we read, for example in
39:18
Speaker 1: Romans that you know not all Jews are truly Jews,
39:25
Speaker 1: but only those who are descendants of Abraham by faith.
39:27
Speaker 1: Those are the ones. Those are the ones who are
39:31
Speaker 1: truly the children of God. We are his children by faith.
39:36
Speaker 1: God only has children by faith. So there are people
39:39
Speaker 1: who were part of this civil society, who were not
39:43
Speaker 1: necessarily part of the covenant community, not necessarily part of
39:47
Speaker 1: the saved. And we see this as some of them
39:50
Speaker 1: are wiped out by God himself after they erect the
39:53
Speaker 1: Golden calf. So if God will go to these links
40:02
Speaker 1: to save people, some of whom are not even among
40:09
Speaker 1: his spiritual offspring, how much more can we trust him
40:17
Speaker 1: to save those of us who are in Christ. Amen.
40:24
Speaker 1: This is where our assurance comes from the sovereignty of
40:27
Speaker 1: God and the providence of God. That's what assures us
40:32
Speaker 1: of our salvation. Folks, you don't look to yourself for
40:36
Speaker 1: assurance of your salvation. You don't look to yourself for
40:41
Speaker 1: assurance of how much God loves you. You look to
40:44
Speaker 1: the cross. Finally, there's a picture that come in judgment.
40:49
Speaker 1: And so now we see that there's a shocking reminder,
40:51
Speaker 1: but there's a reminder to the wicked, are reminder of
40:55
Speaker 1: their guilt and of the judgment to come. This is
41:00
Speaker 1: a picture of God's holiness. These plagues are a picture
41:05
Speaker 1: of God's holiness and how a holy God deals with sin.
41:12
Speaker 1: It's a picture of God's power. And there are several
41:16
Speaker 1: of these pictures of God's power and the Old Testament
41:18
Speaker 1: there are the Big Three. There's the flood. This shows
41:22
Speaker 1: his power on a worldwide scale. And the flood is important.
41:27
Speaker 1: It's part of the create It's part of this whole
41:28
Speaker 1: creation narrative in these first eleven chapters of Genesis about
41:32
Speaker 1: God creating the world right. And so the God who
41:34
Speaker 1: creates the world deluges the whole world with a flood,
41:38
Speaker 1: and he purges the world with a flood. Well, then
41:40
Speaker 1: we come down to Sodom and Gomorrah. And in Sodom
41:44
Speaker 1: and Gomorrah we see this picture of God exercising his
41:47
Speaker 1: power by destroying these sinful cities. But in the Exodus
41:52
Speaker 1: we see a picture not only of God dealing with sinners,
41:56
Speaker 1: but of God protecting and preserving his elect as we
42:04
Speaker 1: do in all In the flood there's an arc and
42:12
Speaker 1: Sodom and Gomorah, there's lots of escape, and in Exodus
42:19
Speaker 1: there is the nation of Israel that comes out. This
42:23
Speaker 1: is a picture of the holiness of God, as he
42:26
Speaker 1: sets apart of people for himself, and by his power
42:31
Speaker 1: sets apart his people, and by his power pours out
42:34
Speaker 1: his punishment on sin. This is a picture of the
42:39
Speaker 1: holiness of God. We cannot take sin lightly. When we
42:43
Speaker 1: see this picture of the holiness of God. It is
42:47
Speaker 1: also a foreshadowing of the judgment to come. It is amazing.
42:53
Speaker 1: It was amazing to us, and you know, we knew
42:56
Speaker 1: it before we started preaching through revelation. You know, you
43:01
Speaker 1: study revelation, You look at revelation and it's clear. You
43:04
Speaker 1: do all the academic work and it's like, yes, and
43:07
Speaker 1: revelation you basically have, you know, a recapitulation of a
43:10
Speaker 1: lot of the things that you find in the profits
43:12
Speaker 1: and a lot of the things you find in Daniel
43:14
Speaker 1: and Isaiah. Yeah, there's also a lot of stuff there
43:16
Speaker 1: from the Exodus and Da da da dah. But you
43:19
Speaker 1: start preaching through revelation like we preach through revelation, and
43:23
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's not just this academic exercise
43:26
Speaker 1: where you've been told, yes, revelation contains a lot of
43:29
Speaker 1: this and a lot of that. You start preaching through
43:31
Speaker 1: it and it's like, whoa, this is Exodus. Right here,
43:37
Speaker 1: this is Exodus. We're seeing the plagues here just like
43:43
Speaker 1: we saw an exodus. So ultimately what you see is
43:46
Speaker 1: these sort of bookends. And on the one end you
43:49
Speaker 1: see this picture of the Exodus and the plagues that
43:51
Speaker 1: God brings in the Exodus against the Egyptians. And on
43:55
Speaker 1: the other end you see at the end of redemptive history,
43:58
Speaker 1: these plagues that God brings on Babylon, which again symbolizes
44:03
Speaker 1: the city of this world, which symbolizes the kingdom of
44:06
Speaker 1: this world that is judged by God. And all of
44:09
Speaker 1: a sudden you get the picture that what God is
44:12
Speaker 1: doing in Exodus is showing his power and reminding all
44:16
Speaker 1: of those with hard hearts, this is what you have
44:19
Speaker 1: to look forward to lest you repent. And what does
44:29
Speaker 1: that look like? Now, let's look at those last several verses,
44:34
Speaker 1: verse twelve. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out
44:38
Speaker 1: your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts,
44:44
Speaker 1: so that they may come upon the land of Egypt
44:48
Speaker 1: and eat every plant of the land. You know what
44:51
Speaker 1: I love about this too, that God and all these
44:55
Speaker 1: places he's telling Moses stretch out to your hand. God
44:58
Speaker 1: doesn't need Moses to stretch out his and in order
45:02
Speaker 1: to do this. God doesn't need Moses to say anything
45:07
Speaker 1: to Pharaoh in order to do this, but God needs
45:13
Speaker 1: a reference point and a representative if these things are
45:21
Speaker 1: to be explained. Egypt experiences all this bad stuff and
45:30
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, Israel walks out. People could
45:35
Speaker 1: say anything, well, yeah, actually, you know what happened was
45:39
Speaker 1: it was actually the Egyptian gods. You know, they made
45:41
Speaker 1: their gods mad, and then these people went out and
45:44
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. Or they could say it
45:45
Speaker 1: was just some sort of randomness or that and the other.
45:48
Speaker 1: But when God sends a man as his representative and
45:53
Speaker 1: then has the man act after the man speaks, then
45:59
Speaker 1: God makes it clear to the entire world, past, present,
46:04
Speaker 1: and future, I did this. So he's not pointing to
46:10
Speaker 1: the significance of Moses by having Moses stretch out his hand.
46:15
Speaker 1: He's pointing to Moses as his representative, so that we
46:19
Speaker 1: know that Moses is telling the truth about the God
46:23
Speaker 1: who is bringing these things to pass. Next verse fourteen,
46:30
Speaker 1: So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt,
46:35
Speaker 1: and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land
46:39
Speaker 1: all the day and all the night again. Don't miss
46:43
Speaker 1: that all day and all night there's an east wind coming,
46:48
Speaker 1: bringing the locusts. When it was morning, the east wind
46:55
Speaker 1: had brought the locust The locusts came up over all
46:59
Speaker 1: the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country
47:02
Speaker 1: of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had
47:06
Speaker 1: never been before, nor ever will be again. They covered
47:10
Speaker 1: the face of the whole land, so that the land
47:13
Speaker 1: was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land,
47:17
Speaker 1: and all the fruit of the trees that the hail
47:20
Speaker 1: had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor
47:25
Speaker 1: plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
47:28
Speaker 1: Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, I
47:34
Speaker 1: have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now. Therefore,
47:39
Speaker 1: forgive my sin, please only this once, and plead with
47:44
Speaker 1: the Lord your God, only to remove this death from me.
47:48
Speaker 1: That's not real repentance, although it sounds real good. Judgment
47:57
Speaker 1: doesn't come on those who don't say the right words.
48:02
Speaker 1: Judgment comes on those who don't have the right heart.
48:10
Speaker 1: Pharaoh said the right words, and he is still as
48:14
Speaker 1: lost as the day is long. The judgment of God
48:19
Speaker 1: comes upon those who are not repentant. The judgment of
48:24
Speaker 1: God comes upon those whose repentance is not authentic and
48:28
Speaker 1: not genuine. This is a man who is afraid. This
48:33
Speaker 1: is a man who is overwhelmed, and in his fear
48:39
Speaker 1: and in his being overwhelmed, he cries out and does
48:42
Speaker 1: the only thing that he knows. Moses can make this stop. Moses,
48:47
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I've sinned against you. I've sinned against God.
48:50
Speaker 1: Forgive me, make it stop. And some of you did
48:53
Speaker 1: that one time too. Your life got real hard, your
48:58
Speaker 1: life got real desperate, and there were plagues raining down
49:01
Speaker 1: on you, and all you knew was that somebody told
49:04
Speaker 1: you one time, there's a God. You didn't understand the gospel,
49:09
Speaker 1: but you had this faulty understanding that, Okay, there is
49:12
Speaker 1: a God. I have offended God. I'm gonna do what
49:15
Speaker 1: they told me to do and see if this will
49:16
Speaker 1: make it stop. That is not repentance. The judgment of
49:26
Speaker 1: God still comes when you were just afraid, when you
49:32
Speaker 1: just wanted to make it stop, that's not salvation. If
49:37
Speaker 1: that's you, you're a false convert. And there are some
49:41
Speaker 1: under the side of my voice. And right now all
49:44
Speaker 1: you can ever point to is a moment when you
49:46
Speaker 1: were overwhelmed and a moment when you were afraid, and
49:48
Speaker 1: you cried out because you were overwhelmed and because you
49:51
Speaker 1: were afraid. We are not saved by being afraid of God.
49:57
Speaker 1: We are saved to repentance and faith. We are saved
50:01
Speaker 1: when we know and we acknowledge that we are sinners,
50:04
Speaker 1: that we are ruined before a holy God, and there
50:07
Speaker 1: is nothing we can do. Not even be sorry enough.
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Speaker 1: You can't be sorry enough for God to save you.
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Speaker 1: You can't be afraid enough for God to save you.
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Speaker 1: You can't be dedicated or devoted enough for God to
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Speaker 1: save you. The wrath of God comes on all who
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Speaker 1: are not genuinely and authentically repentant before God. Search your heart,
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Speaker 1: try yourself, test yourself to see if you're in the faith.
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Speaker 1: Are you genuinely repentant before God? Or are you just
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Speaker 1: sorry you got caught? Are you genuinely repentant before God?
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Speaker 1: Do you hate and despise your sin or do you
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Speaker 1: just want it to stop? Whatever it was that you
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Speaker 1: couldn't take anymore. Have you come to a place where
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Speaker 1: your heart has been changed or are you at a
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Speaker 1: place where your heart is still hardened toward God, and
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Speaker 1: you're just going through the motions because you believe it's
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Speaker 1: the right thing to do, and you're hoping that it'll
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Speaker 1: pay off in the end. Oh beloved, please flee from that,
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Speaker 1: Flee from false repentance. Run to Christ. Run to Christ.
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Speaker 1: Not because you're afraid, run to Christ because you delight
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Speaker 1: in him. There's a picture of two different people. Both
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Speaker 1: people are running toward a policeman. One is a young
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Speaker 1: woman who's running toward a policeman and on her face
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Speaker 1: is a picture of anguish and sheer terror. If you
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Speaker 1: were to be able to widen out the shot, you
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Speaker 1: would see that. Over on the other end is a
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Speaker 1: man running away who has just assaulted her, and she
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Speaker 1: is running to the policeman because she desperately wants someone
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Speaker 1: to help her and to rescue her from her circumstances.
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Speaker 1: In the other frame, there is a young woman running
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Speaker 1: to a policeman and there is a smile on her
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Speaker 1: face and she's just about to leap into his arms.
52:44
Speaker 1: There's a caption under this picture that says, Daddy, both
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Speaker 1: young women are running too a cop. One of them
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Speaker 1: is his child, the other one is not. Pharaoh's run
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Speaker 1: into a cop He's just running from locusts. He is
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Speaker 1: not running to God. He is running from what God
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Speaker 1: has brought into his life. Salvation does not come to
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Speaker 1: those who run to God in hopes that he will
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Speaker 1: end their pain and their suffering. But salvation comes to
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Speaker 1: those who run to God because they recognize that their
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Speaker 1: pain and their suffering are exactly what they deserve and
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Speaker 1: the only thing that they can hope for unless and
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Speaker 1: until they are found in God as his children. So
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Speaker 1: he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord.
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Speaker 1: And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong
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Speaker 1: west wind, and lifted the locusts and drove them into
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Speaker 1: the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in
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Speaker 1: all the country of Egypt. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart,
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Speaker 1: and he did not let the people go. I know
54:49
Speaker 1: I say this like every week, but I still get
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Speaker 1: this sort of surprised feeling when I read that last line.
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Speaker 1: After every plague. I'm just going, really, I mean, I
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Speaker 1: know it's coming, and still I cook really, But here's
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Speaker 1: what you learn. Every time you read that last line.
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Speaker 1: What you learn is Pharaoh has a spiritual problem. It's
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Speaker 1: not a logical problem. It's a spiritual problem. He's got
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Speaker 1: a soul problem. Sin makes you irrational. And so there
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Speaker 1: is a reminder here to the children of Israel, and
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Speaker 1: that's good. That's good news. That there is a reminder
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Speaker 1: that we remember God and his goodness, and that through
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Speaker 1: our families, our church, we pass these truths on and
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Speaker 1: even the truths about what God has done through our
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Speaker 1: civil society to make us who we are and to
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Speaker 1: bring us where we are. There's also a reminder to
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Speaker 1: the children of God in the New Covenant that this
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Speaker 1: is a picture of our redemption too. What God is
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Speaker 1: doing to Israel is so that He can save Israel
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Speaker 1: and through them bring the Messiah, who is the savior
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Speaker 1: of all God's elect So this is the story of
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Speaker 1: our redemptive history as well, and we get to join in.
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Speaker 1: But don't forget that this is also a reminder to
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Speaker 1: the wicked. And the reminder to the wicked is God
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Speaker 1: is holy, he is just, He will punish sin, and
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Speaker 1: that lest you come and repentance and faith, this is
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Speaker 1: what you deserve and this is what you will receive. Finally,
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Speaker 1: there is a reminder to you Christian, and the reminder
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Speaker 1: is this. The reminder is that Christ died for sin.
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Speaker 1: When you hear that phrase, don't just think of a
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Speaker 1: man laying in his bed closing his eyes for the
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Speaker 1: last time, but think of Christ, overwhelmed as he takes
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Speaker 1: upon himself in his flesh the very wrath of God.
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Speaker 1: These plagues are only a semi and a foretaste of
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Speaker 1: the wrath of God that your sins and my sins deserve.
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Speaker 1: So when you think about Christ dying for sin, think
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Speaker 1: about the fact that in his death he took upon
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Speaker 1: himself the entirety of the wrath of a holy and
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Speaker 1: righteous God, and that the depth of your forgiveness is
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Speaker 1: born from the depth of his suffering. Whenever you see
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Speaker 1: the wrath of God in any way, shape, form, or
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Speaker 1: fashion in the Bible, be reminded that these are the
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Speaker 1: links to which Christ went to redeem his elect Think
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Speaker 1: on these things. Let's pray, Oh God, how we praise
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Speaker 1: you for your kindness and your mercy. It is so
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Speaker 1: ironic yet so true that we can look at a
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Speaker 1: picture of your wrath and walk away with appreciation for
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Speaker 1: your mercy. Grant by your grace that this might be
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Speaker 1: true of us today, because in your wrath you do
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Speaker 1: show mercy. In your wrath, you do show kindness. None
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Speaker 1: of us has received that which he is or her
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Speaker 1: sins deserves. Every last one of us has been dealt
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Speaker 1: with in accordance with your kindness. Yes, this is true
1:00:02
Speaker 1: of those who are found in Christ as well as
1:00:05
Speaker 1: those who are not. But for those who are not
1:00:10
Speaker 1: found in Christ, what awaits them is the full weight
1:00:15
Speaker 1: of your wrath. Grant by your grace that they might
1:00:18
Speaker 1: see this today and flee from the wrath to come,
1:00:23
Speaker 1: that Christ might indeed have the fullness of the reward
1:00:27
Speaker 1: for which he died. Grant this we pray in Christ's
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Speaker 1: name and for his sake. Amen.