I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles 36. 2 Chronicles 36. We began the Chronicles with the first chapter. We'll end the Chronicles with the last chapter though. Two books in our English Bibles, probably originally one book written on two scrolls. As we come to the end of Chronicles, we continue to look for Jesus. To look for Jesus in the Old Testament because he tells us that he's there. And so we believe him and we look for him. And we consider that he may be there in types and themes. We consider that he may be there in promises and the progress of redemption. We consider that he may be there in comparisons and contrasts. As we look for Christ here in 2 Chronicles 36, we're faced with the wrath of God. So let me ask a question. Have you ever had someone really angry with you? Particularly for something wrong that you did. And you know that their anger is deserved. What did you do? What can we do? As we come to the end of the Chronicles, we find God's just wrath poured out on Judah, poured out on them for their sin. Yet the Chronicler does not end with wrath, but with mercy. And so hear the word of God, and then we will consider it together. 2 Chronicles chapter 36. The people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's place in Jerusalem. Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he began to reign and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. Then the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and laid on the land a tribute of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold. And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Necho took Jehoahaz his brother and carried him to Egypt. Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also carried part of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and the abominations that he did, and what was found against them, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin, his son, reigned in his place. Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and 10 days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. In the spring of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations, and they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers because he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people until there was no remedy. Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their young men with a sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand, and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of God, of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and all his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels. He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up. This is the very word of God. Having heard from him, let us seek him in prayer. Our Father in heaven, would you open our eyes that we would behold wonderful things out of your word? Would you teach us and would you show us Christ? Even as we consider that in wrath, would you consider mercy? Hear us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Obviously, this account of the word of God is about Judah's sin and about why Judah deserved God's wrath. And we need to understand that, but we can't stop there. We, too, must acknowledge reasons we deserve God's wrath. Acknowledge reasons that we deserve God's wrath. We see that in Judah, but we see that in us. We do evil in his sight. Listen to the account as we would scroll through the book of 2 Chronicles. Chapter 12, Rehoboam did what was evil because he did not determine in his heart to seek the Lord. In chapter 21, Jehoram walked in the ways of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done. For Ahab, Ahab's daughter was his wife. He did what was evil in the Lord's sight. Chapter 22, so Ahaziah did what was evil in the Lord's sight. Like the house of Ahab, for they were his advisors after the death of his father, to his destruction. Chapter 33, Manasseh did what was evil in the Lord's sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. Later that same chapter, Ammon did what was evil in the Lord's sight, just as his father Manasseh had done. Ammon sacrificed to all the carved images that his father Manasseh had made, and he served them. And then as we read in verse 5, Jehoiakim, did what was evil in the sight of his God. Verse 9, Jehoiachin did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Verse 11, Zedekiah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. These kings led the people in sin. But as you read in verse 14, the people, it seems, willingly followed them. They pursued the sinful ways of the nations around them. And often in election time we pray for leaders because we know that the leaders of a nation influence the nation in many ways. Judah did evil along with their evil kings in God's sight and so do we. From the time that we are conceived, we are sinners. We have newborn children in our congregation. Cortland and Warren, at least, they're not sinners, are they? Yes, they are. They're just not yet very good at sinning. but they're gonna get better at sinning, and we get better and better at sinning. And we don't like to admit it, but for a person to become a Christian, one of the first things they have to do is admit that they sin and that they break God's law. We know of Jesus' account of the tax collector and the Pharisee. The Pharisee thanked God that he wasn't like other sinners, and the tax collector would not even lift his eyes to heaven. But he beat his breast, and he said, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. And that's what it takes to acknowledge that we do evil in the sight of God. And even after we become Christians, we sin, and we do evil, and we don't like to admit it. But the most freeing thing I'm convinced that can be experienced by Christians is to confess our sin, to repent of it, to be forgiven by each other, but most particularly by God himself. We do evil in God's sight, so we deserve his wrath. Second reason that I think we see in the text here is we despise his word and we scoff at his messengers. See again verse 16. They kept mocking. And Jeremiah speaks of this. Jeremiah 25. Verses three through seven, for 23 years from the 13th year of Josiah the son of Ammon, king of Judah, to this day the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken persistently to you but you have not listened. You've neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, saying, Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given you and your fathers from of old and forever. Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. then I will do you no harm. Yet you have not listened to me, declares the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. We face temptation to provoke the Lord. Please remember that that temptation, that following that temptation will be to your own harm. It's the lie of the devil to make temptation look sweet and attractive. But there is a danger of despising the word of God and scoffing at his messengers. Persistently, persistently, persistently, we're told, I wonder how many of you children have to be told more than once to obey? How many of your children, how many of you children have to be told again and again and again? How many of us adults have to be told again and again and again? And Jesus had the same response. If you're looking for a letter, I use the letter C, a comparison. As he says to Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together. As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. The Jews despised God's word and scoffed at his messenger, but we at least are tempted to do that too. I know the Bible says, and you can fill in the blank, but it doesn't work. Or I don't like it and I'm not gonna do it. Or things have changed and the Bible writers didn't understand our times. I've heard those objections. Not from you, as far as I know. but we're tempted in that way. Or the preacher is a sinner too, so I'm just gonna ignore what he says. When he goes from preaching to meddling, when I can't say amen and I have to say ouch, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna ignore it. But the New Testament is full of warnings of those who don't listen to the Word of God. We read one in our New Testament reading, how much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who's trampled on the Son of God, who is regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? It seems to be a warning to genuine believers. Peter writes, it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commands delivered to them. The right response for the Christian is, I'm gonna receive this, not as the word of men, but as the word of God. So Paul writes to the Thessalonians, he said, we constantly thank God because you received the word of God from us and you welcomed it, not as a human message, but as it is truly the word of God. And so we can say, in Jesus, I am going to hear his words and act on them. I will be, because of Christ in me, the wise man who builds his house on the rock, so that the rains come and the floods rise, my house is not destroyed. Because the danger, as Jesus told in that very familiar account, is that if you don't respond to the words that you hear from him, both of them heard the words of God, one responded. One didn't and built his house on the sand and it was destroyed. To their own harm, his house was destroyed. To despise the word of God, to scoff at his messengers is to invite destruction. The third reason that we can acknowledge for which we deserve God's wrath from the text here is that we disobey his commands. The particular account that we're given here of Judah, and this was by far not their only sin, so don't single that out and think that's the only thing they did wrong, is they neglected the Sabbath year that God said every seven years the land should lay fallow and should enjoy its Sabbath rest even as the people enjoyed their Sabbath rest week by week. And so God said he would send them into exile for 70 years, apparently to restore the land for some 490 years in which the people had not celebrated God's Sabbaths. 70 years was prophesied by Jeremiah. Some wonder how do we get that 70 years from the time of this destruction to the time of Cyrus's declaration is not 70 years. But in about 605 BC, as we read in Daniel 1, Daniel and other young men were among the first of the captives of Judah to be taken to Babylon. And from that year to the year of Cyrus's declaration is just at 70 years. Others count it from the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in about 586, to the destruction of the temple to the rebuilding of the temple in 516. Whatever way it comes, God is pointing out that his people are disobeying his commands, and we do that too. We pray, I send daily God in thought, word, and deed. That is in the things that I do and think and say. But when we say that or when someone else prays that, do we just kind of gloss over? Are we reminded of particular things that we have said and done and thought that are sinful to God? Judah deserved God's wrath. and received it, though not in full measure, and as we'll consider in a minute, the Chronicles doesn't end with God's wrath. But we deserve God's wrath too. Even as believers, we may invoke his fatherly displeasure, and we may receive his loving discipline, which is painful, but brings fruitful righteousness. Because if we are in Christ, we do not receive the full measure of God's wrath. So acknowledge reasons that we deserve God's wrath and understand reasons that we deserve God's mercy. And there's three points there in the outline if you're following along, each of them one word. It's just one statement. We do not. Reasons we deserve God's mercy. We do not. Not. It's too easy for us to forget that we deserve God's wrath and instead decide that we deserve God's mercy. So many people think, well, hell is for really bad people. In my growing up days, it was Hitler. I don't know who it is. Hitler's far enough away in time that young people growing up probably don't think of Hitler. It's probably the president that they don't like. Hell's reserved for people like him, they might say. I often ask in conversations with unbelievers, whether door-to-door and other conversations, why should God let you into his heaven? And people often say, well, I've been pretty good. He should let me in, because I've been pretty good, or he should let me in because I've had a hard life and I deserve a rest. Why should God let you in his heaven? He shouldn't, because I'm a sinner. I've sinned, I've fallen short of the glory of God. And even as Christians, we can begin to think, I'm pretty good. God owes me a good life. But if mercy is deserved, then it's not mercy, it's wages. And the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. So if we deserve God's wrath and we don't deserve God's mercy, what do we do? Plead. Lord, in wrath, remember mercy. Plead, Lord, in wrath, remember mercy. And do that with confidence because the Lord God is merciful in character and in action. We read from Habakkuk, in your wrath, Lord, remember mercy. God speaks to the prophet Isaiah in a surge of anger. I hid my face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting love. Says Yahweh, your Redeemer. Even as he prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem and its palaces and its temple, he speaks later through the prophet Isaiah, foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you, although I struck you in my wrath, yet I will show mercy to you in my favor. God is merciful in his character and in his action. And so when Moses said, Lord, show me your glory, and God hid Moses and passed by him and declared to him, Yahweh, Yahweh, is a compassionate and a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth and maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity and rebellion and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished. bringing the consequences of the father's iniquity on the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. God will punish evildoers. And often, evildoers beget evildoers. And yet notice even there that contrast between the wrath and the mercy of God. Three or four generations. That's your great-great-grandfather. down to you, that's who receive the consequences of their sin if they're unrepentant. And yet 1,000 generations, 1,000 generations of his faithful love to those who respond in faith and in obedience. That's 40,000 years. of goodness and mercy following generation after generation. And some of you in this room have seen that kindness and mercy of God in your generations. I suspect there are some here who at least can go three or four generations, if not more. Speaking of the mercy and the compassion of God. It's not just God by himself. We read in Ephesians these familiar words. In chapter one, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. And then we read these familiar words in chapter two. We once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. God is compassionate. He's merciful in character and action. And God has promised mercy in Christ. For Judah, who received not the full measure, but a significant measure of the just wrath of God upon them for their sin, they were promised mercy in Cyrus. A mercy that wouldn't come for 70 years, many of them would be dead by then. But a mercy nevertheless. But for us it's even better because we are promised mercy in Christ. And so Paul writes to the Thessalonians that we wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. God did not appoint us to wrath, he says again to the Thessalonians, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Cyrus was appointed to bring the Jewish captives back. Jesus was anointed to take God's just wrath for all who believe in him, for you and for me. And so Christ, before going to the cross, as he prayed, alone in that garden, because his disciples could not even stay awake to pray with him for an hour, he fell face down, Matthew writes, and he prayed, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. He knew why he was going to the cross. He was going to drink to the full the cup of the wrath of God that his people deserved. And so he pled with his father, if it's possible, take this cup of your wrath from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done. And one in writing on that verse says this, Jesus, because Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath for his own, believers do not drink the wrath they deserve. In and through Christ's suffering, they have already undergone judgment. Thanks be to God. God has promised mercy in Christ. And he's made us justified. He's declared us legally not guilty. And he's continuing to change us more and more to be like Christ, even if he disciplines us as a loving father disciplines his children. He does that to make us more like Christ. God has promised mercy in Christ. And sometimes we have trouble accepting that. We looked a few weeks ago in the second hour class as Mr. Ortland quoted from John Bunyan, gave a little bit of a paraphrase and some instruction about his book, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ. And he paints this fictitious, but I think biblically accurate, sort of conversation. No, wait, we say, cautiously approaching Jesus, you don't understand. I've really messed up in all kinds of ways. I know, he responds. You know most of it, sure, certainly more than what others see, but there's brokenness down inside me that's hidden from everyone. I know it all. Well, the thing is, it isn't just my past, it's my present, too. I understand. But I don't know if I can break free of this anytime soon. That's the only kind of person I'm here to help. The burden is heavier and heavier all the time. Then let me carry it. It's too much to bear, not for me. You don't get it. My mistakes aren't directed toward others, they're against you. Then I'm the one most suited to forgive. But the more of the ugliness in me you discover, the sooner you'll get fed up with me. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. Case closed. We cannot present a reason for Jesus Christ to close up his heart to his own sheep. No such reason exists. Every human friend has a limit. If we hurt them enough, we're cast out and the walls go up. With Christ though, Orland goes on to say, our sins and our weaknesses are the very tickets that qualify us to approach him. Nothing but coming to him is required. First a conversion and 10,000 times throughout our lives until we're with him in heaven. And note that the only thing required to enjoy such love has come to him. He does not say whoever comes to me and feels badly for their sin. He doesn't say whoever comes to me and promises to do better next time. He simply says whoever comes to me I will never cast out. God has promised mercy in Christ. Now, as I already said, it requires an acknowledgment of guilt, an acknowledgment that you deserve the wrath of God, but then to hold on to that mercy in Christ. And so really, Cyrus's benediction, if you will, to the Jews is also God's good word to us. May the Lord be your God and be with you. Cyrus said to the people in this prophetic, this 70 year later proclamation, if you are his people, then the Lord is your God. And for us, if Jesus is your Lord, your master, your savior, then God will be with you in mercy. You deserve, I deserve God's wrath. But if Jesus is your savior, then God is and will be with you in mercy forever. Amen. Please pray with me. Lord God, in your wrath, remember mercy. May it not be that there's anyone in this room who would try to say, Lord, I deserve your mercy, but instead would admit Lord, I do evil in your sight. Lord, I despise your word and I scoff at your messengers. Lord, I disobey your commands. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. And for we who are in Christ, we who by your mercy have come to receive your mercy, have come to repent and believe the gospel, have come to Jesus. Knowing that whoever comes will never be cast out, Lord, we rejoice in that mercy and pray that we would live in that mercy and would proclaim that mercy to a lost world around us. Continue the work that you've begun, and we thank you that you are our God, in Jesus' name.