Let's pray as we begin. Our holy God, Father, Son, and Spirit, we come before you now under the weight of your word. This word is a word of judgment. It's a word that's intended to awaken us. And so would you humble us under your mighty hand? Would you show us the horror of our pride? And the wonder of your mercy that is found in Jesus the Christ. May your spirit open our eyes.
that we would tremble before your holiness and we would rejoice in the Savior who has your wrath for us, for all who will turn from sin and trust in you. And so would you expose us this morning? And would you bind us up? Would you wound and then mend? Would you do it for our good and for your glory? Use this sermon in far greater ways than I can ask or imagine. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
A.W. Tozer once said, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The book of Isaiah exists to refine what comes into our minds when we think about God. God desires that we would have an accurate picture of him. And our passage this morning has been preserved by God's grace so that we would have an accurate picture of a certain aspect of God. An aspect that, quite frankly, we have a difficult time with. God's anger.
For many of us, the idea of God's anger makes us uncomfortable. Especially in our day and in our culture. when it's easier to speak of God or to think of God as though he is some non-threatening force of affirmation. That God is like the sweet grandfather. Up above. The thought of divine anger, God being angry, seems inappropriate. It seems misplaced. On July 8th, 1741, Jonathan Edwards re-preached a sermon entitled, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
It's to give you an idea of how God's people throughout church history have understood, have even spoken about. The righteous anger of God. This is what Edward says in the sermon. The bow of God's wrath is bent and the arrow is made ready on the string and justice bends the arrow at your heart and it strains the bow. It is nothing but the mere pleasure of God and that of an angry God that keeps the arrow one moment from being drunk with your blood.
Edwards then looks at those in the audience, those who have yet to trust in Christ and says this, all of you who have never passed under a great change of heart. By the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls, all of you that have never been born again and made new creatures and raised from being dead to sin to a state of new light and life. You are in the hands of an angry God. As Edward spoke this, the congregation began to weep.
The weeping became so loud and uncontrollable that he had to stop preaching. And for the rest of the service Edwards found himself going around and just praying in groups of people who had fallen under heavy conviction. of the fact that their sin had rightly earned God's righteous anger. And were it not for a work outside of them, they would become dead because of their sin. That language doesn't cause many of us to weep. I don't hear anybody weeping.
But I think that language does great against some of our... It causes us to maybe become outraged with them. Because we want a God who comforts, not a God who condemns. We want a God who soothes, not a God who scolds. What if the true offense this morning is not that God gets angry? but that we have so dulled our senses that we no longer see why he should. Truth be told, God is the most loving one in the Bible. God is also the most angry one in the Bible.
In fact if God is not angry then God is not loving. If God is not angry then God is not good. It's worth stating the obvious, but God is always unlike us in his holiness and in his righteousness. Which means that you and I, we can have moments where our anger is godly. But God never has a moment when his anger is not godly. Most of our anger is unrighteous anger. Most of our anger is provoked because we don't get the things that we want.
But God's anger is not like ours. God's anger is not moody. God doesn't fly off the handle in a moment. Ray Ortlund stated it this way, God's anger is his resolute, active opposition to all that is evil. God's wrath, his anger is not moody vindictiveness. Rather, it's the solemn determination of a doctor that's cutting away the cancer that's killing his patients. If you were just to think on a worldwide scale throughout history, the horrors of Auschwitz,
to the killing fields of Cambodia, to genocide in Rwanda, to the terrorism of the Taliban and Boko Haram and ISIS. If God is God, then God must be angered. I think none of us would say when injustice runs unchecked, we hope God does not get angry. No, we want God to be angry. But that desire of wanting God to be angry, it cuts in two ways. Because those seed form vitality. that lead to horrific evil in the world, those vices in seed form are within each of us.
It's the rebellion of living at odds with God. The same root of pride. And so every act of rebellion that marks your rejection of God's rightful rule in your life incites his anger. When God has said do this and you think it's better to do that, that's not just a sad decision that you've made. You are inciting the holy and righteous anger of God. You are making the bow bent and the arrow ready because his justice must be upheld.
And it's nothing except the mercy of God this morning that his arrow has not pierced you. So welcome to Sunday morning. We're going to consider God's unrelenting anger. And there's an impulse within every one of us that wants to look away. This makes us uncomfortable. But I would just plead with you on the authority of the word of God. Don't look away. Look straight into.
The unrelenting anger of God. Because as we do, we will begin to see something else. We'll begin to see the depth of our true need this morning. And oh, in sweet wonder of wonders, we will see the unexpected provision of his mercy. Because there is one who would drink the cup of God's righteous anger in the place of undeserving sinners. And so I invite you to open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 9.
Isaiah chapter 9, God's people continue to live in opposition to God. They continue to put their trust and their security and their hope for salvation in others. And again, this isn't just a sad decision that they're making. It's a decision that they're making that's driving them. Into death. Away from the presence of the goodness of God. Our passage this morning is going to remind us of why God's anger is kindled.
And I pray it's going to lead us to a surprising view of his mercy. And so we'll trace three themes, beginning with this first one. God's anger against his people. God's anger against his people. We see this in the passage that Sarah read, Isaiah chapter 9. Beginning in verse 8 all the way through 10 verse 4. We'll look at 10 verse 1 through 4 in a moment. But it's helpful to know that Isaiah 9, 8 through Isaiah 10, verse 4 is almost like a four stanza poem.
emphasizing four realities of why God's anger is kindled. And each of these stanzas ends with this repeated phrase. Maybe you heard it as Sarah was reading. If you look at Isaiah 9, verse 12. Isaiah 9, verse 17. Isaiah 9, 21, and Isaiah 10, 4. Each of those four verses has the same repetition. This stanza that reads, in spite of all of this, his anger does not turn away and his hand is still stretched out.
So there's this picture of God's anger being expressed by his hand being stretched out in opposition to his people. That phrase reminds us, because we see it so many times, that God has infinitely more resources for confronting us in our sin than we have resources to evade him. And so each stanza will highlight a vice that God hates. And we would do well to allow our hearts to be searched this morning. So, the first stanza, verses 8 through 12, highlights human arrogance.
Again, I would just encourage you to look down. It even says that in verse 9. There's a message that has come to the people. The people know it. And yet they assert in pride and in arrogance of heart a message. So God has been active in bringing cities to be destroyed and forests to be laid bare. And he's doing it as an act of his judgment. And what do we find in this first stanza? Verses 8 through 12. We find that the people respond to God's judgment and the disaster that it's caused.
Not with repentance, but with self-reliance. It's like, oh, okay, so the walls have come down. Well, guess what? We're resilient people. We'll just rebuild the wall. The trees have been laid low. That's fine. We'll just plant new trees. The people lack an awareness of what God is doing and who God is. They lack the awareness that behind the circumstances that are unfolding in their lives, God is at work. And friends, is this not the essence of prayer?
Not acknowledging God's hand and his work in our lives. Some have likened pride to spiritual carbon monoxide. You don't see it. In many ways, you're blind to it. And prolonged exposure has a deadly effect. And that's what pride is. Pride is not stopping to consider or to ask, what is God doing here? In the New Testament, James mentions something similar. James chapter 4, verses 13 through 15.
It says, come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we're going to go to such and such city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. And yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, well, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this.
It's the acknowledgement of what God is doing. And these people who looked around and said, there's a lot of devastation. And instead of thinking, let's turn to God, they just doubled down and said, let's be more resilient. Let's have more of us. A lack of the awareness of God arouses God's anger. Why? Not because God is moody, but because God is the most important reality in all the world.
This judgment, which was intended to cause them to lean back into the Lord, exposed their arrogance and their self-reliance. Friends, how often do you do the same? When difficulty comes, do you stop to consider what is God doing? When your bricks fall and your trees are laid down and your plans crumble, do you ignore the one? Do you run away from the one who desires to be your refuge and your strength? If you do, you are inciting the anger of God.
Where in life are you saying, I will rebuild when the declaration should be, I will repent. Leads us to the second stanza in this poem. This second stanza highlights unrepentance. We see this in verses 13 through 17. Look at verse 13. Yet the people do not turn back to him who struck them, nor do they seek the Lord of hosts. They don't turn back to the one who struck them. It's helpful for us to know. They were struck so that they would turn back.
The Lord allowed calamity in their lives so that they would return back to the Lord. But yet they were persistent in their self-will. They were persistent in their pursuit of their own vision of life. Friends, it's helpful for us to remember that repentance is active. Repentance. It's a word that means a change of direction. We are skilled. At taking the concept of repentance and thinking if we just confess our sin, that that equals turning from our sin.
Friends, confession is the first part of repentance. It doesn't complete it. It's not enough to acknowledge, I know I shouldn't go in this direction, and yet continue to go in that direction. In what areas of your life are you unrepentant? I'm not asking you in what areas of your life are you aware that you're doing stuff you shouldn't be doing or you're not doing the things that you should be. I'm not asking you about awareness. I'm asking about change of direction.
In fact, James, James chapter 4 verse 17 puts it this way. To the one who knows the right thing to do and doesn't do it, to him it is sin. And it's an act of judgment of the people walking out. Not walking out in repentance. What do we find in this stanza? We find that the Lord cuts off their leaders. The Lord says, I removed your head and your tail.
These leaders were leading the people into wickedness and yet those who followed them were complicit in the wickedness. They were walking in wickedness. They were not turning from wickedness. The text even says something that's pretty startling. Everyone. There was no mercy on anyone because everyone is godless and an evildoer. God intended that in following him, his people would become more like him. And yet, the people in Isaiah's day, Judah, they were living in opposition to him.
The great tragedy wasn't that there was pain that they were enduring, but it's that the pain was being wasted. So friends, I'm wondering this morning, Are you minimizing your sin as just something that God is going to overlook? When you walk in sin, in active, willful rebellion from God's good rule, and you continue... That lack of repentance incites God's anger. Where is God calling you to return to him right now?
Leads us to the third stanza. We see in verses 18 through 21. This stanza highlights self-seeking. Self-seeking. And verse 18 tells us that wickedness burns like a fire. It consumes briars and thorns. And you think, yeah, that's what briars and thorns, they're meant to be burned up, but keep reading. It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame. And they roll upward in a column of smoke. The picture is that wickedness is a raging fire.
When you begin to willfully walk down the path of wickedness, the consequences are beyond your control. Many people believe that they can tame or manage their sin. But when it comes to sin, things burn that you never intended to set apart. Their appetites control them.
I mean, look at verse 20. They slice off what's on the right hand, but they're still hungry. They eat what's on the left, but they're not satisfied. Each of them, they eat. And this idea is that God's people, the north and the south. They're kind of fighting against each other. Verse 21 makes that clear. They're devouring one another. It's this picture that their appetites are controlling them. Their appetites are even turning themselves onto one another and against one another.
This is relentless self-seeking. This is when we are ruled by our appetites. This is when we think that others exist to serve us. What about your life? Where in your life is there self-seeking? I would encourage you just by way of contemplative reflection, just take time. Think about various areas of your life. Think about your profession. Think about your friendships. Think about your bank account. Think about your pursuit of pleasure. Think about your pursuit of rest and comfort.
What are you in it for? Do all the roads lead back to self-seeking? The great paradox of the Christian faith is that the more that you will deny yourself and not seek yourself, the more that God will fill you up. You see, I get it. If you are not receiving and being filled up by God, then it is a threat for you to give. Because if you give, who's got you? Who's going to look out for you?
But church, we of all people know, if we have received from God, there's nothing anyone else can give us that would better look out for us than what he has done. And so now we're free to give. We don't have to insist on self-seeking. We don't have to insist that everything serves us. We're actually free because we've received from him to now give of ourselves. Sin will keep us from this kind of orientation. Sin dominates us and demands that life be about what we get, never about what we need.
And so just rest assured, self-seeking will always lead to self-destruction. So what in your life are you treating? Like a small thing rather than the devastating fire that it truly is. making you stay longer than you wanted to stay, making you go further than you wanted to go, making you pay more than you ever thought you would pay. brings us to our last stanza. This fourth stanza highlights injustice. And justice arouses the anger of God.
Listen to the word of God beginning in Isaiah chapter 10 verses 1 through 4. Woe to those who enact evil statutes and to those who constantly record unjust decisions. so as to deprive the needy of justice and rob the poor of my people of their rights, so that widows may be their spoil and that they may plunder the orphans. Now, what will you do in the day of punishment? And in the devastation which will come from afar, to whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your wealth?
Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives or to fall among the slain. In spite of all of this, his anger does not turn away and his hand is stretched, is still stretched out. We hope for fairness and justice. But imagine a world where laws are made to oppress. where the innocent are crushed, where the marginalized are pushed further to the periphery, where the orphans have their stuff plundered.
And the widows being ransacked, taken for everything that they have. That's the result of living in opposition to God. It's a world where justice and that which is right and righteous is flipped upside down. And that's the world in which Isaiah is speaking to. He's speaking here to those in positions of power who've been entrusted to protect, but rather they exploit. And he says, woe to you. Like God's judgment upon you.
And what's interesting is he looks and he says, you are living for everything you can acclaim or you can claim and amass today. You're living to just pad your pockets. And you're taking from whoever would serve, whatever is going to give you better in life, you're willing to do anything. And Isaiah says, you're living for this day. But there's coming a day where you're going to be judged. And where will you hide on that day? What are you going to do with all of your...
Filthy gained. Where's your money going? What's going to be your hope in that day? Friends, we would be... we would be remiss to not ask the same question. On a day of judgment that is coming, when we each stand before the Lord and give an account, what's your cover? What are you going to do for whatever you have to show what you've been living for when it's set ablaze and there's nothing left? God's anger is a righteous anger.
God's anger just doesn't go away. He doesn't just get over it because his anger is driven by justice. Everywhere that there's injustice. If he's going to make it right, then there has to be justice in the place of every injustice. It's not that at some point he just begins to say, hey, we'll just kind of act like none of that happened and we'll get serious starting today.
If you would think, yeah, my life is full of injustice. My life is full of that which has incited God's anger. Well, the hope for you is not just to say, well, today is a day of new beginning. No, what about everything else that you're guilty of? What's going to be your covering? What's your hope? Well, that brings us to our second theme. The theme of God's anger against his instruments. God's anger against his instruments.
And so for the rest of chapter 9, the beginning of chapter 10 through the first four verses, God has been showing why he is angered with his people. But if we look at verse 5, we see that the object of his anger now switches. Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, and the staff in whose hands my indignation. And really from verse 5 to verse 19, the Lord is just making clear. that Assyria was used by him, but that Assyria is also guilty before him.
The Assyrians were a tool, a rod of his judgment against his own people. And listen to verse 6. I send this rod, I send this people, Assyria, against a godless nation. He's speaking about his own people. And commission it against the people of my fury. To capture booty and to seize plunder and to trample them down like the mud in the street.
And verse 7 is interesting. Verse 7 says, verses 5 and 6, the Lord is saying, I'm using this godless people to accomplish my purposes. Verse 7 makes it clear that Assyria has no clue they're being used by God. Verse 7, but it doesn't intend so, nor does it plan so in its heart, but rather its purpose, it being Assyria, this rod is to destroy and to cut off many nations. Assyria had no clue that they were being used by a God who is sovereign over all things.
Assyria was just doing what they wanted to do. And for a time, they were unstoppable. Verses 8 and 9, it's this poetic description of all of these places going from north to south. And Assyria is just saying, listen, we're just destroying. We went through here, here, here, here, here. In verse 13, Jerusalem is in their sights. As horrible as all of this was. We see God is sovereign over it all. Israel's northern kingdom would be wiped out. And God even said,
That though they have been used, Assyria has been used by him. Verse 15. Is the ax to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club wielding those who lift it. Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood. Therefore, the Lord, the God of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors. and under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.
And the light of Israel will become a fire and his holy one a flame. And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day. And he will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body. And it will be... as when a sick man wastes away and the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number that a child could write them down. So the Lord is saying, I am using this people
I'm using this people who think they're doing evil and I am bringing about my purposes in and through their act. And then verses 15 through 19, he says, but let's just be clear. Because I've used them. They were the axe that I used to chop at my vine. They were the saw that I used to saw down my tree. but their time of judgment is coming too. Who's ever heard of a tool thinking that it had power over its use? And because God used a tool doesn't mean that he approved of the tool.
He uses Assyria, yet Assyria was responsible for what they did. Their motive was conquest and fame and power. God's motive was justice and righteousness. I think this is one of the more important passages in the scriptures about God's sovereignty. About his right to rule and control all things. It's in his purview. It's in his power. God uses people who aren't aware that they're being used by God.
His sovereignty and his control over the universe are so complete that he uses the wicked and what they do even to do his own bidding. The king of Assyria has no clue that he is a tool of judgment in the hand of God. And then after being used for that purpose, he will be judged for their... Friends, the sovereignty of God is a massively hopeful and worshipful doctrine. It means that God is fully in control. I heard the testimony of a former country music singer.
who tragically lost his son at the age of three or four. And he stood up and he was telling just the story of everything that had happened. The wrestling with God that occurred in the days after. And he said, I found. that the only thing more concerning to me than the question of, like, God, why did you allow this to happen? Why did you allow this to happen? was the thought that there was a God who was not in control, who had no clue that it was even going to happen.
The sovereignty of God is meant to fill us with hope. It's meant to lead us to worship. Because he is in control and you and I are freed up from having to be. How much of your anger comes down to the fact that you simply lack control? God says, I am in control of everything. So you don't have to be anxious. You don't have to be frustrated. You don't have to worry or to be mad or to be concerned or to be irritated. Trust in me.
God uses evil to accomplish good. Where else do we see that? Where else is it unmistakable that while evil is happening, God is using that to accomplish good? I think the clearest place is the cross of Jesus Christ. Whose plan was the cross? Was it Pilate? Was it the people? Was it Herod? Was it the Jews? They were the ones who nailed him. They acted according to their evil desires. But the Bible makes clear that God set that into motion.
Friends, we have a God who rules over all of history and he can use all that happens in your life, even the evil and the hard, the tragic. He can use it to accomplish his purpose. Just to be clear, when we get to Isaiah chapter 37, after Isaiah 37, this superpower Assyria, they wane. They're gone. God's battle axe was indeed cut down. Do you trust that God is fully in control of every part of your life? Are you convinced that every inkling of pride in your life will be met with God's judgment?
Are you tempted to boast or to take comfort in things? Your looks, your ministry, your accomplishments, your accounts? We know what God thinks about our pride, and everything within us should desire to break from it. God humbles all who exalt themselves. And he exalts all who humble themselves. That leads us to our last theme. God's mercy seen in the rim. The last few weeks, we've talked about this remnant.
This idea that among God's people, there's going to be a small subset of people who don't just go through the motions, who don't... say, yes, we are God's people and yet live putting their hope and security in other things, they're going to be a people who really do live by faith, who take God at his word. And God is after his people trusting him. This is how it begins in verse 20.
Now in that day, the remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped will never again rely on the one who struck them. but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return. And so God is clear there will be a small remnant who returns.
And if that's the end goal, that all of this judgment was brought about so that there would be a remnant who would return, we begin to understand why God even allowed the judgment. John Calvin said it helpfully. The reason why God inflicts punishment is to bring back the wanderers to himself. He humbles them in order that they would return to him. Friends, God's anger is a means of getting our attention.
God's anger is a means of bringing us back. His anger has a purpose. His anger is not random. And what is that purpose? Look at verse 24 and 25. Therefore says the Lord God of hosts, O my people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod. For in a very little while, my indignation against you will be spent and my anger will be directed towards their destruction. So what's the purpose?
Yes, the Assyrians are going to come against you, but God says, I'm telling you how the story is going to end. Will you have faith even when you're silent? Can't see it. Will you have faith when you can't perceive? How in the world could that come about? That's what the Lord wanted. He wanted his people to live by faith. Not to say all the circumstances are perfect for you to believe.
But to say, no, put your belief, regardless of the circumstances, in the God who's over them. In the God who's in them. In the God who has made promises to you. Will you trust him? Beginning in verse 27, it makes clear. And it just walks through how the Lord is going to then execute and bring his judgment against Assyria. But there's this. This call, verses 25 and 26. Do not fear others. Trust in me.
Do not fear others. Trust in me. God is asking them to live by what he has said, not by what they can see in their circumstance. God's calling them to not be afraid. And really, has God not done the same thing for us? He's told us how the story is going to end. He's told us what is coming. Thus, the circumstances of your life are not the defining reality for you.
When the circumstances of your life seem to be leading one way, but the promise of God leads another way, regardless of how real that circumstance seems, it is not as real. It is not as lasting. It is not as effective as the promise of God. And the book of Isaiah is just, will you believe? Will you trust? Will you defer to his way and to his reign and to his rule? The people in Isaiah's day lived at one point in history and we live in another. We don't live with the threat of Assyria.
But God throughout this passage has made clear his hand is still stretched out. Like his anger isn't just going away. Well, and then you get to chapter 10 and there's this part that says my anger will go away. Okay, so if his anger doesn't go away, but there's coming a time where his anger will go away, what are these two realities? They seem to, at some point, they're going to collide and both can't be true.
So what are they bringing us to? I think both of these realities point us to the doctrine of hell. And lead us to the cross of Christ. The doctrine of hell and the cross of Christ. God's anger is not going to be withdrawn for all who live at odds with him. The Bible makes clear that that is true. And that there's a place, even on the other side, of when people breathe, take their last breath, there is a place that literally is reserved for those who have lived at odds with God.
who have gone to their grave in their sin, a literal place of hell. God's anger just doesn't go away. It's a righteous and just anger. There's a moral reason for the existence of hell. Hell does not exist. Because God is moody. It exists because he's just and he's righteous. And evil will not be tolerated. And evil will not win the day. The reason many in our day have shied away from a belief in hell is because we do not think God is really just.
That God is going to be kind of like how we want one another to be. Whatever's good for you is good. And whatever's bad for you is bad. And that can contradict where I'm at and what I believe. But you just do you. We'll let God do God. And we'll just trust at the end of the day that there's goodwill to go around. And God's just going to kind of wink at bad and evil. Friends, the Bible makes clear that God will not wink at you. In fact, there's a place, a place of physical torment.
Unending desire that is never quenched. Not just void of God, void of the goodness of God, but it's experiencing his righteous hatred against evil and sin for all of eternity. And so when we read the hand of the Lord stretched out. It's not going away just when we die. For those who are unrepentant in their sin. they will experience that wrath and anger forever.
Well, how then does some of his wrath go away? Well, the good news is this also points us to the cross. That there is a way for God's anger to be turned away from us. To have that justice bow and arrow that's pointed at us. to be fired and yet not hit us because there's a substitute that would stand before us who would absorb the wrath of God on our behalf. That's the good news of the Christian faith is that the cross of Jesus Christ, God's anger is removed for all who trust in him.
God hates sin. God hates evil and wickedness, which doesn't just exist out there in the world. It exists here inside me and inside you. And because it finds its home in us, our life bears the punishment for us. We don't get a pass because of grandma's faith. We don't get a pass because of our hours of community service. We don't get a pass because we've cried a lot over the bad that we've done. No, his hand will not turn away from you unless he makes a provision for you. And praise be to God.
He's allowed his righteous anger to not fall on you, but to fall on a substitute for you. one who had to be God to endure the full fury of the wrath of God, and one who had to be man like us who could pay a real penalty. for sin. Not sin that he committed, but the sin that we committed. Jesus earned what we could not earn. He died bearing the weight of God's holy wrath against sin.
That wasn't his, but was ours on the cross. He is absorbing the wrath of God as a shield for all who would take shelter in him. Therefore, what's he doing? He's delivering us from hell. Through the cross, the Holy Judge becomes our loving Father. As Jesus bears our wrath, he does so so that we might become sons and daughters of God. And that work was validated three days later when he rose from the dead. Victory in victorious. triumph over sin and death.
He then ascended into heaven and he will return for his people. And so if you're not a Christian this morning, I just want you to know this passage makes very clear that God's anger will pour out on you because of your sin. Don't wait to be chopped down by his justice, but rather flee to Christ. And if you will turn from your sin and you will trust in the work of Jesus on your behalf, you will not find the burning wrath of this text. You will find the loving embrace of a father.
who has forgiven you because he loves you. If you're not a Christian, turn from your sin and trust in him. And if I could just say a quick word to Christian brothers and sisters. After we become Christians and we sin and does God still punish us for our sin? God's punishment for sin on that side of the cross is a dissonance. Punishment is retributive.
forming us into goodness and righteousness. God's anger is no longer directed at you in punishment, but it's meant to grow you up in holiness. I would encourage you to read Hebrews chapter 12, verses five through 11. And so, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, don't despise the hard, but trust the hand who holds the rod. Bow low under his mercy and one day you will say with joy what the psalmist says in Psalm 119, 71. It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn his statute.
And so, Christian, you're walking through the hard. The hard is not evidence that he's somehow punishing you. Jesus absorbed that punishment. The hard may be his discipline because he... And so lift your drooping heads. Strengthen your weak knees. Because God's disposition towards you is he wounds you to heal. He strikes you but never to destroy you. And he will stop at nothing to make you like his son. So cling to Christ and endure.
Is this what you think about when you think about God? Because what comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Let's pray.