Let's take our scriptures and open them to Isaiah chapter 15. If you don't have a copy of a Bible, there should be one in a chair, underneath the chair, right in front of you or behind you somewhere. Sort of in the middle of the Bible, chapter 15, page 579, if you're using one of the house Bibles. Make no mistake about it, the Bible has a lot to say, a lot to say about the judgment of God. That theme is distasteful to many people, and it's denied by some people. who claim that God will universally save all men regardless. But it is a truth of the Bible, nevertheless, that God will bring His judgment to bear upon this world and judge ungodliness and unbelief. And I think if you just added up the passages, just think about this for a moment. If you added up all of the passages in the Bible that either A. prophesied the judgment of God or described the judgment of God or taught about the judgment of God, what would you have? I'd venture to say you'd have a fair percentage of the entirety of the Bible. In fact, this week I sort of mentally thought through every book in the Bible, starting in Genesis, working my way all the way to Revelation. Just in my mind, just thinking through the content of each of the biblical books. And I would say that you can count on one hand the books of the Bible that arguably don't address God's judgment specifically. I mean, it's a theme that permeates the Bible. It's not a theme to shy away from. And if there is to be righteousness and justice and goodness in a broken and fallen world, then there must be judgment, right? In fact, don't our hearts cry out for that? Don't we look at all of the evil and the injustice in the world and something in us says, somebody needs to do something about that. It's a right thing. This doctrine of God's judgment. And we're in the middle of a section here in the book of Isaiah, a 10 chapter section. which is made up of 10 oracles or pronouncements of God's purposes for a number of ancient nations, primarily taken up with pronouncements of the judgment of God upon their ungodliness. And in this section, the Lord has pronounced through Isaiah his oracle, first of all concerning Babylon, that ancient empire, and then concerning Philistia, which we looked at last Lord's Day. And now, when we get to chapter 15, verse number 1, we see a new oracle. An oracle concerning what? Chapter 15, verse 1, here's where we are. An oracle concerning Moab. So let's get the background a little bit on Moab. Moab. The ancient civilization of Moab had its origin in kind of a sordid tale. It's recorded in the Bible in Genesis chapter 19 and it really is an ugly story. Lot, Abraham's nephew, had embedded himself in the town of Sodom, a very wicked city, and God determined that He was going to bring His judgment upon that city for its great wickedness. But in His mercy, He warned Lot and brought Lot out of that city, literally just yanked him out, as it were. Lot and his wife and his two daughters escaped that city where the judgment of God was about to rain down. And Lot, his wife turned around and was left behind, but Lot and his two daughters continued on and they made their way out of the city and they came to a place near a small town called Zoar, a little city named Zoar. And in fact, that city is going to be named in the text that we're going to read here. And it was there that Lot and his daughters made a temporary shelter, and they stayed, that this ugly story plays out. As you know, perhaps from reading the scripture, his eldest daughter got him drunk, and Lot and his daughter committed incest, and out of that relationship came the ancestors of these people, the Moabites. His younger daughter also went in, committed incest with him, and out of that union came their sort of half-brother nation, the Ammonites. So that's the background, and of course Lot himself was related to Abraham, which makes them the Moabites, who this oracle was about, and the Israelites, who are God's people, that makes them kind of cousin nations. We also know that when God called His people out of Egypt, this is now, of course, many, many years later, God calls the nation of Israel out of Egypt in the Exodus to go into a land that He would give them. Deuteronomy 2 says that God commanded Israel that they were not to take any land away from Moab, these people, because God had given to Moab this land. Now, the land that he had given them, we've got a map here to go on the screen, the land that he was to give them, that he gave them, was on the east side of the Jordan River, I mean, the Dead Sea. You can see it there in kind of a pinkish, purplish color. This is the land of Edom. Now, of course, on the west side of that sea is the people of Israel, and specifically the people of Judah, to whom this book, Isaiah, is addressed. But on the east side is the people of Moab. It really is just kind of a tiny sliver in what is today the modern country of Jordan. I was at the Dead Sea many years ago, standing on the west bank of the Dead Sea and looking across the sea over to the mountains of Moab. And you can see them rising quite dramatically up from the sea. And up on top of those mountains, they kind of a plateau out, and there's a large plateau there that is bounded by a river valley, a kind of a deep chasm, really, up on the north, and then another river valley on the south. And between those two rivers, the Arnon River Valley to the north, and the Brook Zered to the south, lies the land of Edom. You could say it goes from A to Z, from the Ared to the Zered, the Arnon to the Zered. And between those two, these people made their home. These two rivers cut deep channels through that flat table land, forming kind of natural boundaries. In fact, the Arnon River makes a pretty steep gorge that a lot of people even visit today that's sometimes called the Grand Canyon of Jordan. The capital of Moab in those days also marked on this map is the city of Daibon, there in that little green star. Daibon was somewhere in the north near the Arnon, probably on the north side of that river. And that northern area up above the Arnon was actually a pretty contested area altogether. Moab claimed it as its own territory, but so did the Ammonites, their half-brother nation. along with the Amorites, the Amorites, who were a more ancient people there in the land before them, a kind of Canaanite people. And then also that land was given by God to the tribe of Reuben as their allotment when the land of Israel was apportioned. And so that land was a constant point of tension. That northern part of that land, especially above the river Arnon, was a point of tension for those people. However, when the people of Israel were making their way out of Egypt, up the east side of the Jordan, getting ready to cross the Jordan and go into the Promised Land to possess it as God's heritage to them, God told them not to go through or not to take land from the people of Edom, but they did request that they could go through. There was a well-traveled pathway through, even today it's a major highway called the King's Highway, and the people of Israel requested permission to travel through the land of Edom on that pathway to get up to where they would cross the river and go into the Promised Land. but Edom flatly refused. Israel ended up going all the way around, out into the desert around Moab, and it is quite deserty, and then up across into where they could cross the Jordan. When they did that, though, by the time they got all the way around Edom and got up to where they were encamped by the Jordan River, ready to cross into the Promised Land, the story is recorded, the account is recorded in Numbers 22-24, and they were there, and the king of Moab began to see how great a people this had become by this time, the people of Israel. They were just a vast number and began to be quite nervous that they would, in fact, encroach upon their territory. And so the king of Moab decided to hire a prophet from the far, far east. And so he brought this prophet in to come and pronounce a curse upon the people of Israel. And that prophet's name was, anybody know? It starts with a B, yeah, Balaam. Well-known, famous figure in biblical history. This man was hired to curse the people of Israel. And of course, the Bible tells us that he came up to try to do that, and he was unable to curse them. In fact, only pronounced a blessing upon them in the sovereignty of God. But the very next chapter, Numbers chapter 25, tells us that he came up with a plan B. And in that, he encouraged the king of Moab to incite the Moabite young women to go and to tempt the men of Israel to come and to be with them and to intermarry with them and to have relations with them and to worship their God. Their primary god was a god that they called Chemosh. They worshipped their god and all of the gods of the Canaanites. And folks, that's exactly what they did. At that time, they called their gods the Baals. This was a particular god called Baal-peor. And they worshipped Baal-peor in a way that really brought God's judgment upon the people of Israel. And the truth is, of course, that what Satan can't often accomplish by direct attack, often he will try to accomplish by using the opposite sex, right? And that sort of draw into or away from the true faith. Well, from then on, the people of Moab were a thorn in Israel's side, and there was on and off again antagonism between Israel and Edom. And so, in Deuteronomy chapter 23, the Lord, God of Israel, barred any Moabite from entering into the assembly of Israel for up to the 10th generation because they had set themselves against the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt, and they attempted them to worship false gods who were no gods, and turn their hearts away from the one true and living God. And so finally, then by Isaiah's day, they had reached a place, Moab had reached a place where God's judgment upon that ancient people was imminent. You can see that if you look at the end of this section. Let's go all the way to the end, chapter 16 and verse number 13, before we look at the content of this section. Chapter 16 and verse 13, the very last verse, or second to last verse, this is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past. which probably refers to the entirety of that oracle, those two chapters. God had been giving that kind of revelation to Moab of His judgment, but without any time reference up to this point. But, verse 14, but now the Lord has spoken and now He gives a time reference. In three years, He says, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt in spite of all his great multitude and those who remain in Moab will be very few and feeble." God will take this once proud people and turn them from glory into contempt. His judgment was going to fall upon them. And that really is kind of a big theme of this section that God, friends, God resists the What? The proud. But I want to tell you this, that the same God who resists the proud also is so gracious to the humble, to those who put themselves at His feet. He is not vindictive, amen? He is gracious. But the Lord resists the proud, and He would do so with Moab. Now, how this judgment will unfold is spelled out in the course of these two chapters. And from it, we can learn some really important things about God and about His judgment. So let's go back now to the beginning of the section, chapter 15, verse 1. Would you look at it with me? Look at the text. Isaiah 15, verse 1. And I wanna read chapter 15 first, making just a few comments along the way. And as I read, here's what to listen for. Look for and listen for what seems to predominate this section. What's being emphasized here? What gets repeated again and again? Look for those things and see if you can figure out what the points of this sermon should be, okay? So chapter 15 in verse one. an oracle concerning Moab. And he's going to begin with two of the prominent cities of Moab. Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone. Because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone. He has gone up to the temple and to Dibon, the capital, to the high places, to weep over Nebo and over Medeba, two of the northern cities. Moab wails. On every head is baldness, every beard is shorn. In the streets they wear sackcloth, on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears. Heshbon and Eliala in the extreme far north, really the hinterlands of Moab's reach. These cities cry out. Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz, which is like 20 miles away. All of the weeping and wailing coming up from these cities when God brings His judgment. Therefore, verse four, the armed men of Moab cry out. His soul trembles. Verse five, my heart cries out for Moab. And then he goes on to describe this sort of river of refugees fleeing, streaming south ahead of this invading army that would come. And all of these place names in this section really are towards the southern part of Moab now. Verse five, her fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-Shelishiah, for at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping. On the road to Onorim they raise a cry of destruction. The waters of Nimrim are a desolation. The grass is withered. The vegetation fails. The greenery is no more." You can just see in these words this image of this destruction of war and of the trampling of the invading armies as they come in and of the fleeing refugees. Verse 7, therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up, all of the things these people have saved up for all of their lives, they carry away over the brook of the willows. And you can just really picture this because of what we see on the news every single night right now. We see images, we're witnessing this very thing that's being described here with words play out on our television sets. This is an image of Ukrainian refugees trying to cross the Irpin River near Kiev earlier this spring. And you can just, you know, watching that, you can just sort of imagine. This sort of thing is nothing new. This has been going on for century after century after century as invading armies come in and streams of refugees are fleeing with what they can manage to carry on their backs. And the young men are off trying to fight, but all of these poor women and children and elderly people just trying to flee for their lives, trying to save what they can. This is what the Lord predicted for the people of Moab. In verse 8, He goes on and says, "...for a cry has gone around the whole land of Moab. Her wailing reaches Eglaim, her wailing reaches Be'er Elim, For the waters of Dibon are full of blood. The Arnon River near Dibon, right at the cliffs of that canyon, I'm sure was just running red at that time. For I will bring upon Dibon even more a lion for those of Moab who escape the remnant of the land. So what stands out in this section? I think two things, really. First, the extent of God's judgment. Would you say that stands out here? The extent of God's judgment. And I think it stands out because, as I count them, there are 16 different place names that Isaiah specifically identifies. 16 different places from the top of that country all the way down to the bottom, from the north to the south, and that seems to be where the threat is coming from as the way the prophecy unfolds. These people are streaming south and bringing in front of the path of this great destruction that's coming upon them. But the extent is universal, right? Verse 8 says that a cry has gone all around the land of Moab. And even the land itself is left in ruins. Isaiah wants us to understand the extent of God's judgment. And remember, please remember this, that these prophecies of judgment aren't just here for our historical fascination, right? So we can get a little bit of a history lesson together. Each one of these examples of his judgment is a kind of preview, a local preview of his great judgment that the Lord will bring upon all of the earth. The passage itself is telling us that. For example, back in chapter 14 and verse number 26, he says, in summarizing this entire set of oracles, in prefacing this entire set of oracles, he says, this is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth. And in fact, by the time we get done with the 10th of these oracles, you know what the very next chapter is, chapter 24? It is a chapter that addresses the whole world, the whole earth, and about God's judgment. In other words, all of these judgments, friends, are to teach us something, to warn us about what it looks like in microcosm, what it looks like when God, the judge of all the earth, will be seated on his throne and will be openly visible to this world, and every man and woman and boy and girl and every person on the face of the globe, every person who's ever lived on this earth will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. This is to help us to think about that, to prepare for that day. And when that happens, what will it be like? Well, we're told that the extent of that judgment is universal. I mean, it's going to reach into every nook and cranny. God's judgment will sweep into every corner, just like it swept into every corner of Moab. No one escapes. We must all appear before the Lord. No one is excused. No one's exempt. No one will find a place to hide or avoid the searching gaze of the Almighty when the great and final judgment day comes on this world. And it is coming. No city is too strong to withstand His judgment and no place is too obscure for His hand not to reach. The extent of His judgment is all-encompassing. And secondly, I think you see in this section, the effect of God's judgment. And again, I think this is another thing that's really emphasized in this text by virtue of being repeated again and again and again. What do we find in this text? We find that Moab does what? She wails and weeps and cries. She's bald and shorn and in sackcloth. She trembles and is undone. 16 references in these eight verses to the anguish that would come upon those people because of their sin and their pride and their rebellion against God. And all of that is to show us what it will be like in the great day of God's judgment. There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, right, the Bible says. No one in that day will be smug or self-sufficient or who thinks he stands now will have any kind of confidence in the day of the Lord. As verse 4 says, when God brought judgment upon Moab, even the armed men, I mean even the hardened battle, hardened soldiers, were crying out of fear of what God was doing upon their land. Those who are blithe and unconcerned in this life about the judgment of God will wail in the sudden realization that everything is too late, that it is entirely too late, that the judgment of God is upon them, that there isn't any place to go or any place to hide. This is literally Friends, hear me now. This is literally going to be the fate of so much of the population of the world. And you are here today, right now, listening to this sermon as a means, if it may be so, a means of your being prepared to stand in that day to endure the judgment of God when it comes upon this world. So how can that be? How can someone endure the day of God's wrath? What sinner can stand before the Almighty when he brings his righteous justice to bear upon this world? Where is salvation to be found from the judgment of God? And in chapter 16, you have an unnamed voice speaking. Take a look at the beginning of 16. You have a kind of an unnamed voice speaking, kind of a voice crying in the wilderness. a prophetic voice giving counsel, counsel to Moab. Look at this counsel, chapter 16, verse 1. What is Moab to do in light of the judgment that God will bring? Here's the counsel. Send a what? Send a lamb to the ruler of the land. Now what land is that? Well, it's not Moab. which you might think just naturally. Continue reading. Send the lamb from Sila way down south, way far south, really almost outside of the boundary of Moab. This is where everybody's getting pushed, right, by this advancing army. They're all fleeing south. He says, send a lamb from Sila to where? To the mount of the daughter of what? Of Zion. Send your lamb to Jerusalem. And this recalls 2 Kings 3. which indicates that for apparently a long time, probably really going back to the time of David, who first brought the Moabites under tribute, that the Moabites had been paying tribute. In this case it says it was a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams, probably an annual tribute, that Moab was making to Israel, to Judah, to Jerusalem, to the king, to the Davidic king on the throne of David. And that was going on for some period of time, but 2 Kings 3 says that several generations after David, King Mesha of Moab decided that he wasn't going to submit to the Davidic king anymore, and he wasn't going to be paying this tribute any longer. And now the counsel comes when Moab is under the judgment of God. The counsel comes. What are we to do? Where is there help? And the counsel is, bring your offering again to Jerusalem. Pay tribute to the Davidic king on the throne of David. And this is God's will for all of the nations, that the people come and present themselves to Christ as a living sacrifice. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry. Pay homage to Him. Submit to the Messianic King, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is who all of this is pointing to. Render to Him, not your animals, but present yourselves to Him in tribute as His servants. He would have the nations of the world streaming into heavenly Mount Zion, bowing before the King, the Lord Jesus Christ on His throne, paying tribute to Him, honoring Him, trusting Him, loving Him, laying down their lives in His service, giving themselves a living sacrifice to Him. This is what the Lord would have. And it goes on and says in verse 2, like fleeing birds, here's again the council, like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon. And you can just kind of remember that photo from earlier in those. those poor people crossing that little bridge that had been blown out, and there were planks laid across the river, and here are the people from the major population centers in the north, especially in Daibon, and trying to make their way across the Arnon river gorge and all of the men are out there fighting and there are these women and children trying to make their way across with what they can carry. And he says, remember that the situation is so desperate, so send your envoy to Jerusalem and beg the favor of the God of Israel. Pay homage to the king that God has chosen. And verse 3, beg Him to give counsel to you, to grant justice, to make... beg Him, beg Him, say to the king, make your shade be like night at the height of noon. You know, when the hot noon sun is just burning you up, you should go to the king of Jerusalem and say, be shade for us. Shelter our outcasts. Do not reveal the fugitive. Let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you, Israel, Judah, and be a shelter to them from the destroyer." This is the way that the prophet responds to Moab's plight by counseling them to appeal to Zion's king, for deliverance, for salvation, for shelter in the time of God's judgment, right? This is what's going on. Isn't that what this is? This is a prophetic voice counseling Moab to appeal to Zion and to her king for deliverance and salvation and shelter in the day of the judgment of God. And that is exactly, friends, what I am called to do with you this morning, to counsel you. That you would go and appeal to heaven, to the Davidic King, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, to shelter you and to protect you and to deliver you in the day when God brings His judgment on the world. And friends, He will. He is able and He's willing because He has taken that judgment upon Himself. All of the judgment, listen, all the judgment that His people deserve for all of their many sins against the God of heaven, this King has taken upon Himself. He bore our sins upon the cross. He was wounded for our iniquities. He was crushed because of our sins. He was killed. He was suffering the wrath of the Almighty God for all of your wickedness. If you would run to Him, you would be sheltered and protected and delivered in the day of God's wrath. This is the message that echoes now from this ancient setting all through the ages of history, down to you sitting here in the pew this morning. In the middle of verse 4 now, The middle of the verse 4, he says, now when the oppressor is no more and destruction has ceased and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land, then a throne will be established in steadfast love and on it will sit in faithfulness. in the tent of David, one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness." What a blessing! Can you imagine that? If you will run to this king, you could be delivered, sheltered, protected in the day of God's wrath, and there would be a king over you. whose reign would be right and good and just and holy. And he holds out hope to these people of living under the rule of this perfectly righteous King. And I just want to tell you that living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ is no slavery. I mean, it is joy to live under a King who is the King of faithfulness. It is hope. to live under the king who is the king of justice. In all of the weariness that we face, in all of the wickedness that's out there, there is hope and joy in that kingdom. I want to ask you, what in the world is it that would keep you back from abandoning your own pretense at self-rule and submitting to that kind of king? really bowing before Him and coming into this kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy. Oh, it would be foolish pride indeed to keep somebody from such a blessed place. And I just wonder what kind of hope there might have been for the Moab of that day if they had heeded this entreaty. But sadly, in verses 6 to 8 now, we have a song about Moab's rejection of that council. We have a kind of song recounting Moab's rejection of that council. Verse 6. We have heard of the pride of Moab, how proud she is, he is, of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence. In his idle boasting, he is not right. Therefore, let Moab wail for Moab. Let everyone wail, mourn, utterly stricken for the raisin cakes of Kir Haraseth. For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibma, and lords of the nations have struck down its branches, which reached into Jazer, and strayed to the desert, its shoots spread abroad, and passed over the sea. how proud Moab is. It's hard to really miss the repetition here either, right? What do you have? You have the word, I just highlight. This is a great way to see what the Bible is trying to get you to recognize. Look for one thing, what's repeated again and again. And here we have the words pride, proud, arrogance, pride, insolence, boasting. Moab's response in a word to this counsel to appeal to Jerusalem. Their response in a word was pride. This is what keeps men from salvation that could be theirs. Pride. Wicked, ugly, sinful pride. And I'm not talking about the kind of thing where we mostly think about pride as somebody who talks about themselves all the time. I'm not talking about that. I mean belief in your own self-sufficiency. An unwillingness to submit to Christ. Trusting yourself instead of trusting the God-man. Being not willing to leave aside your sin and submit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not believing how sweet His reign can be. Unwilling to let go of your selfish ways and submit to Him who is good and right and holy. Not realizing that holding on to your sin is just leading to your own destruction. Friends, the Bible tells us again, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Humble yourself before the Almighty. Admit your sin, confess your need. Tell him freely and openly how much you are in need of his deliverance, and he will be gracious. But Moab resisted and persisted in her pride. He would not seek the help of Yahweh, but instead relied, Moab did, on its false god, Chemosh. But verse 12, if you drop down to verse 12 for a minute, let's look at the end of it again. Verse 12, chapter 16, verse 12, again, when he says this, that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on his high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray to Chemosh, he will not prevail. The Lord will not deliver him. And so verse 14, in three years, he says, this nation would be laid low by this overwhelming northern invasion. And in fact, friends, history tells us that's exactly what happened. And in the year 715, the armies of Assyria marched from north to south across the land of Moab, bringing death and destruction in their wake, and humbling this once proud people. This is the judgment of God, friends, and it is a reality, not just for an ancient nation a long time ago, but for the entirety of the world. There is one last thing that I think we can learn about the judgment of God from these verses that we jumped over here just a minute ago. Verses 9 to 11 now. Verses 9 to 11. One last thing to learn about the judgment of God. Look at these verses carefully. Verse 9, therefore, what are the next two words? Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibma. I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Eliala, for over your summer fruit and your harvest the joyous shout of their harvest is going to cease, and the joy and the gladness are taken away from the fruitful land, and in the vineyard no songs will be sung, no cheers are raised, no treaders No treader treads out wine in the presses. I have put an end to the shouting. Verse 11 now, Therefore my inner parts moan like a liar for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir Haraseth. Now let me ask you, in verses 9 to 11, who is speaking? Well, that's a question, isn't it? And I'll tell you that most Reformed commentators say something like, well, that must be the voice of Isaiah speaking for the Moabites. After all, they were wailing and weeping before. Here they are wailing and weeping again. I want you to look at it for a moment. Look again at verse 11. And it sure sounds from that verse like this person is someone other than Moab who says, my inner parts moan for Moab, not Moab moaning, someone moaning for Moab. And I want you to look at verse 10 now. Who is speaking in verse 10? Who is the one who says, I have put an end to their shouting in the harvest times, their joyous shouts. Who is bringing destruction upon their land? Who is ending their peace and security? Who has brought this judgment upon them? And the answer must clearly be whom? It's the Lord, for sure, who is the eye of verse 10. My question is, how is the eye of verse 10 a different eye from verse 9? Calvin recognizes that it's God in verse 10, and yet he inexplicably denies that it's God in verse 9. And this is actually something that we saw earlier. I sort of read over it, but back in chapter 15. Look at chapter 15 and verse 5. And we read about the weeping and the wailing, the weeping and the wailing and the crying out of the Moabites, and then we read verse five, and my heart cries out for Moab, right? And it's the same I who's in chapter 15 verse 9, take a look at verse 9 again of chapter 15, who says, I will bring upon Dibon even more judgment. So again, I ask you, who is the I here? And exegetically, I don't think there's anyone around it. Now, I believe that the commentators say what they say about chapter 16, verse 9 being someone other than God. I believe the reason that they say that is not for exegetical reasons, not for reasons having to do with this text, but for theological reasons. because of their system of understanding of the scripture. And friends, we should do that. We should interpret every text we come to in light of the whole context of what God has revealed. There's nothing wrong with that. That's a right thing to do. But at the same time, listen, we should not let our theological concerns blunt the force of the text itself. And I think this text helps to add texture to our understanding of God's judgment. Let me give you an illustration. I love the Grand Canyon. It's a beautiful place. I love pictures of the Grand Canyon. When I was a kid, I had this picture of the Grand Canyon on my wall in my bedroom for a period of time. How many have been to the Grand Canyon? Let me see your hands. Oh, good lot of us. All right. How many have seen pictures of the Grand Canyon? All right, surely everyone, right? Almost everyone has seen a picture of the Grand Canyon. Now, for those of you who've been there and seen pictures, would you not agree with me that a picture of the Grand Canyon, the best photograph you can get of the Grand Canyon, cannot do justice to what you see when you're there? I mean, to look at something that vast and huge and deep and ever-changing on a two-dimensional flat surface, it's just not the same, right? It's just not the same. And so, other people have tried to fill in our thinking about the Grand Canyon through other mediums. like the medium of music. And one such attempt has been the sort of modern classical masterpiece called Grand Canyon Suite by Ferdinand Groffet. And this is a piece that I endured when I was in elementary school, and not to my musical appreciation, I did endure it. but having listened to it many times in the years since, have grown much deeper in my appreciation, because what Grofe does is to capture really the emotion of being there, the pathos of it. And through a musical palette, he kind of paints stunning pictures of a canyon sunrise with birdsong and the majestic sweeping vistas of the canyon as they unfold at every turn and with every new aspect. He paints pictures of violent thunderstorms raging over the canyon and the ever-changing patterns of light and shadows as they play in different ways throughout the day. And finally, the brilliant explosion of a canyon sunset at the end of the day. all of this in this really wonderful piece of music. And it takes really something of both the flat image of the canyon and the music inspired by the canyon to really ever begin to communicate something of that place to someone who hasn't actually been there, right? To get a little bit of the fullness of what Grand Canyon is. The photograph might capture the details more precisely, but the music conveys the mood more powerfully. And I think that's a little like it is with God, that it takes these sort of emotional descriptions to even begin to help us get a fuller sense of who He is. So for example, to just draw this out a little more, we know that God is sovereign, right? We believe that, we affirm that. God is the King upon His throne who does all that He wishes. He does all His holy will. God does whatever He, what? Whatever He pleases, He does. And in one sense, friends, He is pleased in all that He does, including the destruction of the wicked. This is a part of His decree, and it is good and right and holy, and in it He is pleased. Sovereignty also implies that God is impassable. impassable, that means that God is without passions. When we say passions, we tend to think of our emotional life, and passions and emotions are not exactly the same, though we might think of them as synonyms. Passions are reactions to external stimuli, and most of our human emotions are passions. Passions imply, of course, being acted upon by an independent source outside yourself. And, of course, with God, there is no independent source outside himself. All is dependent upon him. So, in the strictest sense, God always acts. God never, what? Reacts, yeah. Nevertheless, he does act in relation to changeable creatures. And so from the perspective of the person who changes, it appears that God has changed, that God responds to things as we experience them unfolding in time and space. And God does accommodate his language to take into account our changeability. and thereby to communicate to us something actually true about himself. So, for example, we read in the Bible some places that God repented or God changed his mind, right? Is that true in the strictest, most precise sense? Not exactly in the way that we would think about it by any means. God does what he pleases and what he pleases he does. And yet the Bible can communicate something true about God by saying that he changed his mind, or he was angry, or he was grieved, or for him to say to Abraham, now I know that you trust me. Of course he knew it all along. We have a similar sort of thing when we talk about the hand of God or the eyes of God. God has no hand. He has no eyes. He is spirit, pure spirit. As the old confessions say, He is without body, parts, or passions. But you have emotional language like this in the scripture. And though this kind of language is an accommodation to our creatureliness, it is given to us nonetheless as a divine revelation to teach us something true, truly true about... Let me approach it from this direction. It's possible to think about, for example, the theological concept of God's sovereignty in the abstract, just as a theological concept, this idea of God's sovereignty, and to isolate that from everything else about God. and really end up by doing that with a kind of skewed understanding of God, like looking only at a two-dimensional image of something that's as majestic and mysterious as Grand Canyon. God's decree, His sovereign decree, must never be taken in isolation from His moral will. His revealed moral will of desire that all men everywhere should repent and so be saved. Now on the one hand, God's sovereignty says that his plan is never thwarted, right? It's never obstructed somehow by the omnipotent will of man that he has to somehow submit to. No, the Bible has none of that. God will show mercy on what? On whom he will show mercy. No purpose of his can be thwarted, John 42.2. His sovereignty means that God is never surprised, God is never sorry, and God is never frustrated. But on the other hand, these revelations of his moral will, couched, in this case, in terms of human emotions, must tell us something true about the heart of God, even when he is meting out his judgment. I'll give you just a really imperfect illustration. Judges all across this land from time to time have the responsibility of meting out death sentences upon certain kinds of crimes. It's become a much more rare thing in our day, but it still happens. And that judge, when he meets out that sentence of death for some heinous crime, he does so with a sense of approval, even a kind of joy, we might call it, that justice is being done. That's a good thing. That's a right thing. That's something he delights in, in a sense, and yet I have I can hardly imagine a judge who, in doing so, says, yes, I get to kill another one today. No. In fact, you might even imagine a judge pronouncing a sentence of death upon that person, even with great anguish in his heart. And I think that this is the way this kind of language works, because biblical language is an accommodation to our creatureliness. We must say, paradoxically but truly, that God delights to do even what He grieves over. When He judges the wicked, He can say, I weep for them, my heart cries for them, my inner parts moan for them. Just as maybe Jesus, this is a parallel in Matthew chapter 23, and again a passage where he's pronouncing a judgment on the people of Jerusalem, and yet he weeps over this city, right? He says, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you together like a mother hen shelters her little chicks from this great judgment that's to come. I would have sheltered you just like he says the king would do. in Isaiah, but you would not come." Right? This is the heart of God. And this is what's being revealed here, again, about the judgment of God in this passage. And I think all of this, friends, means that it is right and good for us to weep over the lost. The Bible encourages us in that. Belief in God's sovereignty should never make us hard to their plight. There is something in our emotions for people facing destruction that echoes the heart of God. Even if it is just an echo, it echoes the heart of God. Especially since God intends to save some of them and truly loves them in the deepest sense. We ought never, friends, to cease to urge sinners to come to Christ with great compassion and love and pleadings for their souls. It is true, and the book of Revelation bears this out, that though we can, in some cases, hardly imagine it, we will praise God. for his eternal judgment of the wicked. We will bless and worship him and take joy in that because it's right, it's good, it's holy, it's just. Against those who are committed to evil and resist him all their lives. But at the same time, we should weep over those who are going astray. And while there is still time, love them and plead with them and warn them, even with tears, yea, even with tears, warn them to flee from the wrath to come. And if I am not mistaken, this is the picture of God that we are to keep in front of us at all times. If we're to take the entirety of what the Bible says, Now let me end with any here who may be outside of Christ. If you have eyes to see, I pray you can see the heart of God for you. The loving heart of God. His desire that you would come to repentance and you would be saved from his wrath. I hope you will turn to this loving heart, that you will humble yourself and come to Zion and submit to Christ and pay tribute to the King of heaven before it's too late, for his judgment will come, and it will come. May you and I all, friends, be ready for that day. Would you bow in prayer with me? O Lord, please bring this good work to bear into our lives by the Word that You've given. Let it have its good effect in us. Now we pray it in Jesus' name.