Whenever a nation is brought low during a prolonged crisis, it is always good to look up. To look up and humbly inquire, God, what are you trying to teach us here? It is also good to look in the mirror. God of personal holiness, perfect perfections, Are these trials judgments? Are you trying to wake me up? Am I living my life outside of your holy will? Have I been walking in unrepentant sin? It's especially appropriate during a season such as this for us to ask these questions. both collectively and individually. Let's bow in a word of prayer. This Lord's Day, we ask, search me, O God, and see if there be any unclean thing in me. Lord, you know all and you see all, and our futile attempts to hide anything from you are foolish and misguided at best. In view of this, we ask that you would wash us through the water of the word, that we might be pure and acceptable in your sight, so that we can worship you properly and passionately, and so that you will continue to receive our earnest pleas and our fervent prayers, including this one that we offer to you only through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. Having preached a overview sermon on the book of Ruth a month ago, we have been retracing our steps in order to hone in on the many riches that are buried beneath the surface. Having considered the troubling parallels between ancient Israel and contemporary America, we ended last week's message on a positive note. I reminded you that this love story in Ruth encourages true believers to never lose hope. For even in the darkest of nights, God is mightily at work. Romans 8 28 was true then and remains true now. Our message this morning highlights another timely lesson. One that is not easy to hear or preach but one that is desperately needed, nonetheless. And that is this. Sin and judgment go hand in hand. Sin and judgment go hand in hand. Galatians 6, verse 7 warns us not to be deceived. As many deceivers today tell people that you can live however you want, with no fear and no regrets. The Bible says, don't be deceived. For God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. See, a bad friend is someone who tells us you have nothing to worry about when you really do. It's also a mark of a false teacher. There were many false prophets during the season of judgment that took place in Israel who were telling the people, peace, peace, everything is okay, everything will be okay, when there was no peace. Romans 2 clearly states, The divine punishment awaits those who do not obey the truth. It goes on to say in Romans 2 that there will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil. And then this very important statement, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. If God punished unrepentant Israel throughout its history, and he has, Only a fool would think that a lawless Gentile nation has nothing to fear, be it China, Iran, or America. We can look back in history and see what happened to Egypt, Rome, Babylon, Nazi Germany. Nations rise and nations fall. I sometimes wonder, honestly, who do we think we are? And who do we think that God is? The God of marvelous mercy, amazing grace, and steadfast love is equally a just God of holy wrath. When Yahweh graciously entered into a formal covenant with Israel, He said that He would bless them beyond measure if they'd but trust and obey. For example, in Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 12, God promised Israel to open for you my good storehouse, the heaven, to water your land and to bless all the work of your hand. Deuteronomy chapter 28 includes many of the blessings that God promised, covenantal blessings for covenantal obedience. Specifically there he's reminding us that rain is God's sprinkler system He has the power and the authority to turn it on and to turn it off The temporal and spiritual blessings in Canaan Anticipate what life will be like in the new heaven and earth a Land that flows with milk and honey God watering the earth filling the storehouses with food, blessing the people physically and spiritually. A preview of the best of what Israel experienced in the promised land points to that greater reality of a new heaven and new earth spoken of regularly in scripture in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. You can see Isaiah 65 and Isaiah 66, as well as Revelation 21 and 22. So God said, if you follow me and obey me and trust me, you will be blessed. In stark contrast, he also warned that if the people grew complacent and began to compromise and manifested hard hearts, that he would punish them. So there are not only covenantal blessings found in the scriptures, but also to Israel, covenantal curses. These are listed, you can read it for yourself later in Deuteronomy chapter 28 from verse 15 all the way to verse 68. Now as we seek to understand what's taking place in ancient Israel in the time of Ruth and then trying to draw contemporary parallels to what is happening in America today, I want us to reconsider the context and to remember that God said that if you disobey me, if you go your own way, If you choose to do what's right in your own eyes, some of the potential curses included sickness, infertility, military losses, foreign invasions, economic hardships, and famines. Suffice it to say, the account of Elimelech and Naomi should be read against the backdrop of Deuteronomy 28, specifically verses 23 and 24, and the entire book of Judges. The prospect of God withholding rain for so long that the ground becomes hard like concrete is directly related to divine judgment. Many times God withheld rain, which brought about famine. Not simply in the time of Ruth, but also later we see in Jeremiah chapter 14, another example in Jeremiah 14 verses 13 through 18. So some famines are specific expressions of God's displeasure with the world or specifically with his people Israel. And this goes back to the overarching point of this morning's sermon, which is sin and judgment go hand in hand. I want us to circle back with that by way of introduction at the opening five verses of the wonderful story of Ruth. Ruth chapter 1 verse 1 reads as follows. Now it came about in the days when the judges governed. Here it is, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man, verse 2, was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi. And the name of his two sons were Mahalon and Shileon, Ephrathites of Bethlehem and Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. And they took for themselves Moabite women as wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there in Moab about ten years. Then both Malon and Gilion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. during this dark and disturbing time period, the generation that make up the grandchildren of the Exodus generation reject the faith of their parents. You go from all the bright light of hope and blessing in the book of Joshua to the time period that follows that of Judges. And most of those grandchildren from the Exodus generation do not walk in the footsteps of their parents. There are only a few exceptions to this. Complacency and compromise grease the slide for idolatry and apostasy. Things get so dark and so bad in Israel that the Jews living during the dark days of the judges have been labeled by many, generation degeneration. Now understanding the historical context of this or any other biblical book is vitally important. I've alluded to some of these things in previous sermons, but I want us to pay more attention to it in future messages, including this morning. Notice here in the opening five verses of Ruth what we read about. And remember what we saw in Deuteronomy, chapter 28, about the covenantal curses that God prophesied would happen if God's people hardened their heart against him and walked in sin and rebellion and lawlessness and apostasy and Sensuality and immorality the things that so characterized the generation here in America today We read in the first five verses of Ruth notice verse one. We read about famine Secondly we read about some Jews willfully leaving the Holy Land the promised land of God, the land of Canaan, the eternal inheritance that God had given to his people during the time of Joshua. In other words, we have a reverse exodus. They were slaves in exodus and God delivered them, he redeemed them, and he delivered them and sent them on their way through the wilderness into the promised land. And here we see a reverse exodus. They're leaving, Elisha, Limelech, his wife and his two sons make the decision to leave. Later, thirdly, we encounter three premature funerals. And fourthly, we encounter infertility, barrenness. Now this is all significant because there is no such thing as bad luck. There's a pair of timeless truths that are illustrated in Ruth. that are repeated over and over again in the Word of God. The first I've already told you, that is this. It is a message that is timeless, which means it is relevant for this day and age in which we live and minister and serve as well, and that is this. Sin and judgment go hand in hand. The second is closely related. God often judges to bring our sin into the light that we might repent. God often judges to bring our sin into the light, as painful and shameful as that is, so that we can repent. Now, if you need some biblical examples that illustrate these twin truths, I would encourage you to study the account of David. King David, Israel's greatest ruler, who fell when he lusted after a woman that was already married and committed the sin of adultery, Bathsheba, and then in order to cover up his sin and the pregnancy that happened, this quote-unquote unwanted, unplanned pregnancy, he then murders Bathsheba's husband, Uriah. And God, in his grace, put his heavy hand upon David that he would find forgiveness through repentance. We read of that when he finally does repent in Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. I would encourage you to study the account of the mighty Nebuchadnezzar, this global emperor over a world superpower who was so full of himself, he was arrogant at another level, so much so that God reduced him to eating grass like a wild beast. He brought him low that he would look up, that he would repent, that he would find grace. You see this theme. We think of one of Israel's kings, Uzziah. Sins against God and God struck him with what? Leprosy. God often judges to bring our sin into the light so we can repent. Now as I say these things, I need to make sure that we all understand this. This does not mean that every time someone suffers that they must be walking in unrepentant rebellion against God. This is one of the reasons why the account of Job is in the Bible. This is a We cannot say that this is always the case, that when a nation is suffering and struggling, or when a human is going through a time of pain, especially a Christian, we don't want to necessarily draw the conclusion that this means that they are walking in unrepentant rebellion against God. Jesus himself talks about that dangerous Wrong reality in the life of a man born blind in john chapter 9 It is to say however This is the message for the moment in our nation That god's forbearance fuse has its limits And that a perfectly righteous being According to his nature hates sin with a holy passion It would be on godlike for God not to despise that which is wicked and godless and immoral He is the complete composite of all of his sovereign divine attributes and including his righteous anger and his holy wrath. And the psalmist praises God for these things and calls on the people of God to manifest some of these attributes you see in passages such as Psalm chapter five, verse 15, or Proverbs chapter eight, verse 13. So we're dealing with in the period of Ruth and the story of Naomi and Elimelech, which make up the wondrous first chapter of this book. These are dark and disturbing days. We know what life was like in the not so holy land during the period of the judges because God has given us an entire book of the Bible of that history. And as I noted last week, the repeated cycle during the time period that Elimelech and Naomi lived was disobedience, discipline, deliverance, the three Ds. Cycles of disobedience. You can read about the different sins that were committed all throughout the region. And God finally said, enough is enough. And he would discipline them. And then life would get difficult, hard, challenging, painful. Eventually the people would at least express the right words of repentance and God in His grace then delivered them through these human judges. So we have then what I believe to be, because of the dark period that we're historically told is the period in which Ruth lived, one of the covenantal curses specifically is mentioned in Deuteronomy 28 as famine. And there was a famine in Bethlehem. And in Israel. Bethlehem, of course, we said, means the house of bread. And the irony was in the place where the land was to be most fertile, there was no bread to be had. Certainly not enough for people to be sustained and to prosper. And so, Elimelech makes the decision for his household to leave the promised land and to go to neighboring Moab, this enemy of Israel. We'll talk more about them in forthcoming sermons. How long did this difficult period last? We're not sure, but at some point at the end of about 10 years, according to verse four, God in his mercy send forth rain and conditions in Israel began to improve. And this is not just some artificial, arbitrary thing that happened. God is always at work in his universe. His plan and his purpose will always come to pass exactly as he desires it to. And God lifts the conditions. He changes the circumstances there in his grace and his mercy. We know that specifically because of what is stated directly in verse six. After about 10 years in Moab, Ruth arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard, why she wanted to go back to Israel, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and giving them food. So it is likely, in view of what we read of during the book of Judges, which is the time period in which Naomi and Ruth lived, that the people must have came to their senses, humbled their hearts before God. They viewed prayer as essential, not non-essential. And God in His grace began to give His people food. The famine conditions were lifted. This is what everyone, Democrat, Republican, Christian, non-Christian, want in America for our circumstances to change. Now, some of you are wondering, am I suggesting that the coronavirus pandemic is an act of divine judgment upon our lawless nation? Of this, I cannot be absolutely certain. But what we do know for certain is that God disciplines us to bring our sin into the light so that we can confess our sin and be forgiven. And our nation has a laundry list of sins that parallel more of Israel during the time of judges than many of us would care to admit. In order for The best way for God's blessing to be returned to the life of an individual or even collectively of a nation is for the people to come together, humble their hearts before God, quit making excuses, quit blaming others, own up for all the ways in which we have disobeyed the law of God, not done what he's told us to do, and done what he has told us not to do, call sin, sin, return to places of worship, keep the Sabbath, love the Lord our God, love our neighbor, we need a revival. We need to confess our sins if we're to be forgiven. If you're a believer, God promises you that if you're walking in disobedience, he eventually will bring about corrective discipline. That he cares about your holiness so much that he will do what he needs to do as a loving father would do for his own child. Read Hebrews chapter 12. But listen to me. Scripture also teaches that if God brings us low and we continue to walk in disobedience, we should be afraid. We should be afraid of greater judgment to come. On this point, the Bible is clear. For unbelievers, there will be hell to pay. Jesus Christ, the light of the world, who came to save the world, for all who would receive Him on His terms, spoke more often about future judgment than He spoke of heaven. Read any of the four Gospels, and you will find the greatest Gospel preacher, the Son of God, declaring these points, that sin and judgment go hand in hand. and that God often disciplines us to bring our sin into the light, trying to humble us so that we will confess and be forgiven. Hebrews 9.27 says, for every single human being who is living on borrowed time, because life ultimately, physical life, comes from the life source, the Lord himself, as we've been seeing in our study of Gospel of John. that we will give an account for our life, and that for unbelievers, it says that there is appointed a time to die, and after this comes judgment. Why is there death in this world? Why is it universal? Because all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It is a consequence for sin. John 3.36, Jesus says that those who do not believe, that those who do not obey him, that the wrath of God is over them, like a storm cloud. And that the future wrath and the future judgment is nothing. Or I should say that what we're experiencing in this present age is nothing in comparison to that which is spoken of. The final day of the Lord and judgment. Isaiah 59 verse 2 tells us over and over again that we are to consider our ways to stop trying to be our own moral compass and determine what we believe is right in our own eyes, which is the defining statement of the generation, degeneration during the time of Judges, which is when Naomi and Elimelech and Ruth lived. We need to look to the Bible, return to the Bible, to find out clearly what God would desire from us, how we can be saved, and how we can please Him with our lives. Surprisingly, a recent poll found that 44% of Americans, this was surprising to me, I would not have predicted this high of a number, 44% of Americans see God as God. the global pandemic and economic meltdown as a wake-up call for us to turn to God and as warning signs of greater judgment to come. Almost half the country says this is the way that they're viewing this current economic recession, government shutdown, coronavirus pandemic. God is trying to get our attention, for we like sheep have gone astray as a nation. And far too many churches and far too many believers have compromised in order to fit in, in order to acquire more of the things of this world. We have become distracted with things that may be in their proper place and proportion would be acceptable, entertainment, sports, leisure, and these things have become obsessions, priorities. 44% of Americans say this is how they view what's happening. And you would think that for a pastor that that poll would actually be encouraging. But ironically, it's not. It's had the exact opposite impact on my heart. This is what concerns me the most. Despite this trial, America is not changing her ways. Israel experienced famine. There was people dying. There was foreign oppression. All these things were grave, grave concerns during the period in which Naomi lived. Ten years later, God lifted the famine conditions. We see that cycle of disobedience, discipline, repentance, deliverance. God promises that He will abandon a people that turns away from Him. Instead of worshiping the Creator as God, giving God credit for what He's done, turning to idols, Romans chapter one. It's like reading the newspaper, Romans 1, 18 to 32. Then when people give themselves from a general, at least a general in God we trust worldview to agnosticism and atheism and just rank worldliness, Romans 1 goes on to say that the nation then begins to give themselves to sexual sin, not even simple things like fornication and adultery, but homosexuality, lesbianism, mentioned specifically in Romans 1. And it says that when a people are so far removed and hardened in their heart and non-belief against God that they not only have larger quantities of individuals practicing such things, but they give hearty approval to those who do them. Awards will be given out to those heroes of sin. The warning in Romans 1 is that a nation that does this, God would abandon he would withdraw himself. So here are some recent national headlines, just to give you a flavor for what lifelike is in contemporary America. This is recent, like in the last week or two. Disney introduces gay dads in a reboot of a popular kids cartoon show, DuckTales. So we have this non-stop promotion of homosexuality, lesbianism, bringing it into cartoon programs. Here's another recent headline from this week, an article posted by Harvard Law, one of America's most prestigious institutions. Homeschooling is labeled as dangerous. because it removes students from mainstream culture and, quote, community and social values. They're saying, and the article went on to say there's only about less than 5% of people who are homeschooling. The numbers have certainly increased, but this professor can't handle anyone doing it. They're isolating themselves. They don't wanna be part of what we're trying to indoctrinate them with, what they call community and social values. What values is she thinking of? Well, what is part of public school curriculum these days? Gay and queer pride. We've got a teacher in the Milwaukee Public School District. This isn't just stuff you read about in the newspaper being exaggerated by conservatives, by those who embrace Judeo-Christian values. This is what's happening. And increasing all the more. So these are the values, the social values, the cultural values that she says that homeschoolers are not wanting their kids to be exposed to. And this is a problem, she's saying. So much so where she's saying that right should be taken away from the vast majority of individuals. She's thinking of gay and queer pride, critical race theory, intersectionality, Darwinism, common core, globalism, sex education, and all things pro-abortion. This professor wants to eliminate school choice because After all, liberals know best how to raise our children. And she's right, of course, if the goal is turning our kids into twice the sons and daughters of hell. Jesus said to false teachers, it'd be better for millstone to be tied around your neck and be thrown into the lake than you to lead any of these precious ones astray, for me and my word. It's one thing to promote things with adults. It's another thing to do that, to confuse the morals of the most susceptible. Here's another example. Recently, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell He came to the White House, he had turned his factory into making masks and stuff in order to help out with the pandemic. He said, I'm gonna stop making as large of my profits right now. Now is the time for everybody to come in together, to pitch in and to help as a nation. Mike Lindell encouraged Americans to use their downtime to get back into the Bible. And he said, you have more free time, spend it with your family. Because life obviously has gotten so busy, sometimes we lose our schedules in the midst of it all. So take advantage of the opportunity. Let's get back to God. Let's get back to family. Let's get back to the things that matter most. After this brief White House press conference went viral, Lindell was immediately mocked and vilified. An editor from the Atlantic called Lindell, quote, an awful human being. while others said he was a disgrace and that his comments were something out of a bad comedy routine on Saturday Night Live. Here's this Bible talk bringing God into everything. Here's another event taking place right now in our country. I just want to remind you of how dark things have become. Of course I am aware of the strong probability that when things begin to turn downwards economically and otherwise, that this could be God seeking to judge us for our hard-heartedness and our unbelief as a nation. This happened time after time after time with Israel. Assyria, 722, Babylon, 586. the time of the Greeks, the time of the Romans, Holocaust. Again, if the Bible says that God will not only judge the Jews, he will also judge the Gentiles. That's why I began reading from Romans chapter two. God is just. He is fair. He is impartial. Here's a story that makes us grieve. An increasing number of New Yorkers opposed the humanitarian aid provided by Franklin Graham's organization, Samaritan's Purse. As many of you know, this Christian organization graciously provided a 68-bed field hospital, as New York obviously has been the state most impacted, by the coronavirus pandemic. Why did some people oppose a charity coming in and offering what they said we need more of and need most? Because, quote, this Christian charity promotes homophobic and anti-transgender dogma. They require their ministry volunteers to sign a statement of values and faith. And so many want Samaritan's Purse to be run out of town. The mayor, Bill de Blasio, was asked what he thinks. He called the views of Samaritan's Purse quite troubling, unquote. and promise to monitor their humanitarian work carefully. Big Brother will be watching you. God forbid that an organization like Chick-fil-A that is so generous in the communities in which they go would be closed on Sunday. And that any of their founders could have personal views holding to biblical values. Some people say, we don't want them in our state. They can't build, they don't have right for an equal bid to come into our sports stadiums. This is the state of America in 2020. And even during a time of crisis and difficulty, things are not improving nationally. Friend, I sincerely wish that things were different. But most Americans are not changing their sinful, self-righteous ways. Like Pharaoh, many Americans fear the plagues, but not God. We want relief, we just don't want God. And this is even more troubling seeing that 44% of Americans believe that this pandemic and recession is God's attempt to get our nation's attention. What will it take? Friend, I would encourage you to read the Old Testament. History is a gift from God. And those who don't learn the lessons from history are doomed to repeat the errors and experience the same consequences. Do you believe that this global pandemic is, I'm not talking about an apocalyptic judgment. No one knows the day of Christ's return and when all those things are gonna take place. I'm not gonna try to sit here and tell you that I can know for certain any more than any other fallible human being can. We know what we know in the New Testament. We know what's to come. We don't know the exact day and time that God has designed it that way. So what is your view as you study the book of Ruth and see what happened there, famine and infertility and leaving the promised land and funerals? Well, in view of our nation's love of sin and our habitual hard-heartedness, I concur with the following pastoral commentary. Quote, to label the pandemic a possible judgment is not to slip into fatalism or hopelessness. Quite the opposite. Christians want God to assert himself as righteous judge. Every time we sing the Psalms, we voice our hope that he will set all things right. We see this in Psalm chapter two. We see this in Psalm 73. Sometimes God does so temporarily in the order of ordering the affairs of men before the next major event of redemption history. We know ultimately he will set all things right when Messiah returns, establishes an everlasting kingdom. He goes on to say, we voice our hope that God will set things right and we rejoice at the prospect. that when Christ returns to earth that he will judge the unbelieving world and will reward the faithful. This is one of the things that God showed to the last living Apostle John when he was suffering as a prisoner on the island of Patmos as the church was suffering persecution. He gives him that series of visions of future things and he gives him the picture of the millennial kingdom and the eternal state when God will make all things new. He will right every wrong. Justice will prevail. Light will triumph over the darkness. This we know, this we're confident, this we find our hope. Revelation 19, 20, 20, 21, 22. Now all of this brings us back to the main point of this morning's sermon. Of this we all must agree because it is biblically true. Seasons of discipline are intended to remind us that sin and judgment go hand in hand. Temporal judgment is intended to bring our sin into the light so we can repent. And we have a lot collectively as a nation to repent of. but it doesn't seem like most Americans. We had an election post-pandemic here in Wisconsin. We had a Supreme Court justice who supported family values, biblical values, and one who did not. And we overwhelmingly elected the pro-abortion, pro-everything justice. And it is not popular to preach the message of the Bible. during dark seasons of sin and unbelief. We admire the prophets, but none of us would want to have been a prophet because the prophets were told oftentimes to tell the people of Israel, the judgment is coming, repent, you must repent, you must repent. And most of them were killed, if not completely ignored. There were other false prophets who came and said, everything's okay, life is great, don't listen to those guys. But it is the role of faithful New Testament preachers to follow the footsteps of those faithful Old Testament prophets, to call on godly nations to faith and repentance. And this was exactly what John the Baptist, a forerunner of Jesus, did. Read Matthew chapter 3. This is not just something of the Old Testament, this is also a message in the New Testament under the New Covenant. We cannot say everything is good when it's not. We can't say peace, peace when the prospect of even greater calamity is standing above us. But there's hope. As long as we have heartbeat and breath, there's hope. Because God is a gracious God. He is a merciful God. He is a compassionate God. And he is a patient God. The reason our nation is still exist with such wealth and prosperity and power just testifies more to the patience of God than to the faithfulness of this current generation. And here is perhaps the most famous prophecy The most famous Old Testament prophecy promise, you hear it all the time, 2 Chronicles 7.14. 2 Chronicles 7.14 says this, if my people, there's an if and then a then. If my people who are called by my name, this is obviously a speaking of Israel here. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. What do we need to do? What's the message that the church needs to proclaim to the world? Starting with our own city and state. If we would humble ourselves and pray and seek his face and turn from our wicked ways, then God said, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. The reason why Jesus Christ hasn't returned to establish His kingdom is He is wanting to give more time for more sinners to get right with God and to repent, 2 Peter chapter 3. But if we refuse to repent, beware. God will not be mocked forever. And 2 Peter 3 also declares and warns the unbelieving world that one day God will demolish this wicked world before creating a new heaven and a new earth. The title of this morning's message is Sin and Judgment and Loving Kindness and Mercy. Now let's return to the story of Ruth. We go back to the ancient past. We then ask God to give us grace to travel across the bridge to the contemporary present. This is what we do in expository preaching. Most of the time we spend more time back in the text, in ancient past, learning the lessons. But this is a time for this message and for me to be pastoral. As pastoral and prophetic as I can possibly be. to say what does God think of what's happening and what might God be seeking to teach us? But I remind you in the wonderful story of Ruth, the only non-Jew that an Old Testament book is named after, that God in his grace saved a pagan Moabitess from future wrath and used her for his glory. Naomi is distraught and discouraged. We spent a lot of time the last few weeks talking about this and God in his grace gives her this friend, this new convert who has hope in God, more hope than even in this moment Naomi did. The reason why this book, it could be called Naomi, but it's named after Ruth because there's a sense in what she is to heroine. God and his grace through this human instrument. And why does that so important that we remind ourselves of what happened in the wonderful life of Ruth? Because if God saved a pagan Moabitess Ruth and used her for his glory, he can save us. He can save you from this perverse generation. That's what Peter's told the masses in Acts chapter two, verse 40, repent, believe and be saved. The way sinners can avoid final judgment and can experience the loving kindness and mercies of God rather than His judgment and wrath is clearly stated in Psalm chapter two. Turn with me, if you would, to Psalm two. We'll end with this final passage. Sin and judgment and loving kindness and mercy, but we're all sinful. Yes, but are you repentant? Are you believing? Humble yourself. Pray. Seek God's face. Turn from your evil ways. If, if, if, then, then. How do our sinners, saved, avoiding ultimate and final judgment and wrath? The Bible is so clear from Genesis to Revelation, but this is the gospel grace according to Psalm chapter 2 same message preaching John chapter 3 Psalm 2 now therefore O Kings show discernment If I could this is what I would say to the governors and senators and beyond I would declare not my word for what do I have to say that's worth anything and Declare a word from God. Now, therefore, O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. And then the John 3, 16 of the Old Testament, verse 12. Do homage to the Son. Some translations say kiss the Son. Prostrate yourself before the Lord. King of kings. Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way. Sin and judgment go hand in hand, but there is grace and mercy in the heart of God as well. You don't have to experience that. His wrath may soon be kindled. How? Verse 12, end of the verse. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. We're coming together through livestream, trusting him, seeking to continue to understand what his word is, that we might obey his ways. And we're finding our solace and peace and refuge in the great rock of ages, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the clarity of your prophetic word. And Lord, what happened in the past continues to take place, different characters, different nations, but really repeat of former things. Lord, most in this world choose to harden their heart, to walk in unbelief, to do what is right in their own eyes. And Lord, as Americans, we realize that Surely, if you choose to judge us in any way, that this is not, this is totally fair and totally just. This is long overdue, we might even say. But Lord, for the sake of the remnant, and for those who have yet to come, we pray that you would be patient. Lord, we know we have nothing to fear ultimately in life or death because Christ is our hope. He's our Lord, our Redeemer, our Rock, our Savior, our friend. Thank you for that peace that we have even during troubling times. We trust today and tomorrow and whatever may come in the hands of a always on time, never late, perfectly good and sovereign God. Thank you for this word from you today. Grant us ears to hear and grace to obey. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.