So again, our title for today's message is God in the Hands of Angry Sinners. Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, exactly 275 years ago on July 8th, 1741 to a congregation in Enfield, Connecticut. And this sermon was a lightning rod to the continent and was part of the spiritual fabric of the great awakening in America. Him and George Whitefield were going up and down the eastern seaboard preaching the gospel and America was on fire. In our passage that we're going to see this morning, we're gonna see the opposite truth. Instead of sinners in the hands of an angry God, we're gonna see God in the hands of angry sinners. So just to recap where we've been, Jesus began chapter eight by delivering his second I am statement. I am the light of the world. Jesus Christ is to our souls what the sun is to this planet. Without the sun, we would perish in a frozen coffin of misery. And without Christ, we are born blind. We are cut off from God, unable to find forgiveness, and destined to be forever ruined. That's what Jesus' point is at the beginning of this chapter, and as he unpacks this truth, his opponents become more and more incensed, more and more enraged. And then Jesus ends this chapter with the clearest, most plain-spoken declaration that He is God in all of the Gospels. Verse 58. Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." Now Jesus could have said, before Abraham was, I was. And that would have been audacious enough of a claim for Jesus, because He would have claimed free existence. But instead, he spoke the very words that God spoke to Moses. You remember, when God instructed Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses asked God, who should I tell the Israelites sent me when they ask? And this is what God said, Exodus chapter three, verse 14. God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am. has sent me to you. So when Jesus took these words upon his lips, I am, ego, I me in the Greek, Jesus spoke words about himself that were only appropriate for God. Jesus is claiming that He is Yahweh, that He is the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, that He is greater than Abraham, the father of Israel. Why? Because He made Abraham. He's the one who said, Abraham, come out of Babylon. He's the one who caused all of those plagues in Egypt. That's what Jesus is saying in this passage. I am God. He is the Lord God from whom all nations were given birth and to whom all nations must one day bow and give homage. What a glorious day that will be when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The Jews knew that Jesus was claiming this, which is why they picked up stones. And I gotta say, this is not in my notes, but the Jews' position here is actually more respectable than modern-day Arianism, which you'd find in Mormonism or Jehovah's Witness, because at least the Jews had the decency to believe what Jesus said about himself. Jesus said he was God. That's why they picked up rocks. They were so overcome with anger that they were ready to kill him. And so that's how chapter eight ends. God in the hands of angry sinners. And so let's look to what our doctrine is. We have a doctrine here that governs our sermons. It's the main theme, it's the big idea. So if you get lost, it's right there on the top of your notes. This is what I believe the text is saying. Sinners are angry at God because he claims all the glory for himself. Now I haven't proven that yet in my introductory comments, but I'm gonna show that as we proceed, and especially in our application. So one more time. Sinners are angry at God because he claims all the glory for himself. And I see this passage broken in two particular parts, and I'm gonna approach it more thematically this week. The first part is the anger of sinners at a glory-seeking God. And we're gonna be looking at the dialogue of these Jews in that first part. The anger of sinners at a glory-seeking God. And then secondly, the glory-seeking God who calls to angry sinners. the glory-seeking God who calls to angry sinners. And there we're gonna be looking at the dialogue of Jesus. So let's go to our text. First, the anger of sinners at a glory-seeking God. So verse 48 follows on the heels of verse 47, which is the last verse that we looked at last time we were together. And this is what Jesus said. Whoever is of God, hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. I hope it was clear last week that what Jesus is aiming at is leveling all human pride. And if it wasn't clear last week, I hope it's clear this week. Jesus is interested in taking away all human boast in our relationship with him. Well, the Jews can no longer argue against Jesus's reasoning, and so what do they do, children? They employ a logical fallacy. This is an ad hominem attack in verse 48. They go right to defaming Jesus's character. Verse 48. They say, are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Now, the demon part of this insult is pretty clear, but the Samaritan part may not be so clear. The Jews hated the Samaritans. The Jews viewed the Samaritans as half-breeds. They were part of the northern tribe of Israel who were intermarrying with Gentiles because of the Assyrian captivity in 722 BC. And so this was a racial slur. This was racism. This is extremely relevant because of the events that happened this past week. Dear congregation, racism is alive and well in America. It's alive and well in this room. Alton Sterling, a black man shot by police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Philando Castile, also a black man shot by a police officer in St. Paul, Minnesota. And then that black sniper who killed those multiple police officers in Dallas, Texas. I don't know all the facts of the case, but I don't have to know all the facts of the case to know that A, there was racism, and B, there was wrong killings in both of those events. Racism is alive and well in America. And the reason why that is the case is because Americans are humans. We are natural born children of the devil. That's what we saw last week in verse 44. Jesus says, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. And so when the Jews, here in verse 48, when they resort to racial slurs, why are they doing that? because they're doing exactly what their father does. The devil hates all races, and so do his children. But what's important for us to see here is that racism not only comes because we are children of the devil, it comes because racism is a natural fruit of the self-righteous heart. In Luke 18, nine, Jesus told a parable, and Luke comments on it before Jesus told it, and he says this, that those who trust in themselves, that they are righteous, treat others with contempt. You wanna know where contempt for other human beings come from? It comes from self-righteousness. So racism basically comes from thinking that you are a pretty good person. But wait a minute, the whole world thinks that they are pretty good people. That's why the whole world is swallowing racism wholesale. That's why. It comes from thinking that you're a pretty good person. It's only when we see ourselves as vile sinners in the sight of a holy God, in desperate and constant need of the blood of Jesus Christ, that the root of racism can begin to be eradicated. And even then, Christians struggle with this. Why? Because we're still self-righteous. This is huge. The Jews were racists in this text mainly because they rejected the claims of Jesus Christ. Mainly. And so they respond with this racial slur. And add double the insult by saying that he is demon possessed. So how does Jesus respond? What Jesus responds in verses 49 through 51, and we're gonna come back to that in our second section, but first let's just see how the Jews respond after Jesus says, truly, truly, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. How do Jews respond to that? Verse 52 and 53. The Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets. Yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be? Now, in this passage, it's clear that the Jews were stubbornly interpreting Jesus to mean mere physical death. And so their reasoning was something like this. Jesus, Abraham and the prophets couldn't stop themselves from dying, so how are you able to claim that those who keep your word will never die? You clearly are demon-possessed. That's what crazy people say. Why were they so angry? Why? Do we normally get angry at crazy people? They heard Jesus claiming to have a greater glory than every major significant figure in their entire history. That's why they were angry. It's connected to something. Jesus is saying, in effect, by everything that he just said, All that you believe, Jews, is entirely insufficient. Your law keeping, your Abraham honoring, your sin hating, your circumcising, your scripture preserving, all of it is utterly defective and completely worthless without me. Jesus was stripping them naked of any thought of their being pretty good people. See, the claims of Jesus actually present us with a really hard choice. Submitting to Christ means that we have to admit that we have no goodness in ourselves. Submitting to Christ means that we have to admit that we don't have any goodness in ourselves back then, right now, or any time in the future. That's the hardest thing for any human being to do. And it's the hardest thing for you and I to do. Let's test ourselves for a moment, shall we? What if I were to calmly say to you, not viciously, and neither sarcastically, what if I were to very calmly and seriously say to you, Steve, you are a Pharisee. How would you respond to that? How would I respond to that? Well, most likely I would respond in outrage and scream, no, what are you talking about? I'm better than those Pharisees. You see, I'm good. I have more righteousness than those Pharisees. I'm claiming something good for myself. If you take a look at the issues in the New Testament, you'll find saints acting like Pharisees all the time. Christians are the best Pharisees. That's what most of the correction in the New Testament is aimed at. Brothers and sisters, listen. In Corinth, Paul, in his very first opening verses, he addresses Pharisees in the church at Corinth. He says, some of you, there's divisions among you. Some say I am of Corinth, or some say I am of Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas. What's that? That's Phariseeism, that's party spirit. I'm of this party, and therefore, yes, I'm pretty good. Phariseeism was addressed in Antioch, in Galatians chapter two, verses 14, Peter and his compadres separated themselves from the Gentile Christians. And Paul said, but I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel. Jesus' own disciples were Pharisees when they were on mission with them. Luke 9, 46, an argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. This is who we are. Our natural default mode in thinking is that we are pretty good people. Even after we're saved, even if we believe in the doctrines of grace, even if we say out of one side of our mouth, I am a vile sinner, there's still that sneaking little voice, I'm a pretty good person. And we can make the same mistake these Jews made. We can lean on the righteousness of our own spiritual heritage. That's what they were doing. They were leaning on their heritage and so can we. We can say, Jesus, are you greater than our father Calvin? Who died? And the Puritans died? Who do you make yourself out to be? Our righteousness doesn't come from great church fathers or what flavor of a Christian that we are. Now I would argue that it matters what we believe because it says something about the glory of God. But if you think that you're better than another Christian because of what you believe, you are a raging Pharisee. I'm saying that in the mirror. We are not truly reformed unless we see ourselves naked and undone without Jesus Christ. The Jews were angry because this message was coming through loud and clear. At the end of our passage, so this is the last dialogue that the Jews are going to say now. At the end of our passage, in verse 56, Jesus says, your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. So he's picking up, yes, I'm greater than Abraham, your father, because your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. Now, it's not clear to me. what specific occasion that Jesus was referring to here about Abraham seeing his day. But that's not the point of this text at all. Jesus' point was that the Jews were constantly pitting Abraham against Jesus. And Jesus returns by saying, look, Abraham's greatest joy was seeing my day. Abraham knew through the promises of the covenant that the coming Christ was the only hope for mankind. He heard this loud and clear. Genesis 22, 18, God said to Abraham, in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. In Galatians, Paul interprets that, which Abraham knew. In your offspring, meaning one, that is Christ. Abraham knew that and he rejoiced at it. But the Jews again stubbornly interpret Jesus from a merely physical point of view. Verse 57, so the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham? Abraham lived 2,000 years ago. How could you possibly have ever seen him? Instead of correcting then Jesus takes that opportunity to demolish any remaining questions about his identity. Verse 58, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Truly, truly, or most certainly, I am God. Not only does Jesus claim that He existed before Abraham, but that He was very God, the Yahweh, who delivered Israel out of Egypt. What did the Jews do when they heard this? Verse 59, they picked up stones to throw at Him. Do you normally pick up stones to throw at people when they say crazy things like, I am God? No, we don't. We have a category for those people. Those people belong in a special institution, an asylum. Why did the Jews do that here? Why were they so enraged here? Well, the main explanation for them trying to kill Jesus was because they felt the threat of being dethroned. And I don't just mean from their political power. They were being dethroned as righteous in themselves. We often look at the New Testament and we see this power play between the Pharisees and Jesus. And we say, yes, they were scared of losing their political power. That's true. But even more dear to their hearts was letting go of their self-righteousness. That was their whole identity. Jesus' claim here threatened their lordship over their lives. And we're gonna see this more in our application section. Let me just summarize this first section real quick. We see three things that those who reject the gospel do in this passage. First of all, number one, they hold others in contempt. The Jews racially slurred Jesus. Sorry about that. Number two, Those who reject the gospel refuse to admit that they have no good in themselves. The Jews saw their allegiance to Abraham and the prophets, that was all that was necessary for them to be saved. And then number three, those who reject the gospel are willing to kill God, Himself, if He challenges this notion. And... Just open your eyes to the news. This last point is all over the place. Whenever the gospel or freedom is expressed in the public square, what does the institutions of this age, the spirit of this age try to do? Repress it, stamp it out, make it erased. What is that? Killing the message of Jesus. So now let's turn to the glory-seeking God who calls to angry sinners. We can't miss how many times glory is mentioned in this text. If we did, we would not be good interpreters. The Jews' underlining accusation against Jesus in this passage is that he is seeking his own glory. That's why Jesus responds the way that he does. Look at verse 49 and 50. I do not have a demon, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it and he is the judge. And then again in verse 54, Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me. These are strong statements by Jesus. I thought Jesus was a God who was seeking glory. Well, he is. So what does he mean here? Well, he means that when he came into the world that his primary mission was not to bring glory to himself privately. Jesus was not after self-promotion as an end to itself. Hebrews 5.5 says, so also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest. Jesus's mission was not a private self-glorifying mission as the Jews thought, but his mission was to glorify the Father. Verse 49, but I honor my father. I honor my father. Dear congregation, verse 49 is why Christians don't go to hell. Verse 49 is why Christians don't go to hell. Listen, it's very easy to adopt a halfway gospel, that thinking that Jesus dying on the cross is all that we need to go to heaven. That's not all that we need. If all that Jesus did was die on the cross for you, and that's all that you're trusting in, you're not gonna go to heaven. Jesus had to earn a righteousness for us. Jesus had to be a substitute for sinners, not only in death, but also in life. He had to obey from his human nature the life that God demands from us. What does God demand from us? That we would honor the Father in everything that we do. Do we do that? No. That's why Jesus is constantly saying, I'm honoring the father, I'm glorifying the father. This is what all his talk about him not seeking his own glory, but the glory of the father means. As our substitute, Jesus needed to honor the father, not himself. But Jesus is quick to point out in this passage that the father seeks his glory. Verse 50. There is one who seeks it, namely my glory, and he is the judge. Verse 54, it is my Father who glorifies me. So Jesus does want us to know that the Father is seeking Christ's glory. And so we might ask, how exactly was the Father glorifying the Son? That's an important question. How would you answer that? How was the Father glorifying the Son? The main way that Father glorified the Son was by punishing Him on the cross for sinners. The cross of Jesus Christ is the greatest display of the glory of Jesus that has ever been seen or ever will be seen. God showed two seemingly irreconcilable truths. That He is mad as hell at sin and that He loves sinners. God showed that He is a holy God and that He will never allow sin to go unpunished. And so what does He do? He pours out His wrath on Christ. So much so that the son says, Father, Father, why have you forsaken me? And God showed that He is a loving and compassionate God who loves to save poor, ruined sinners. No higher display of Christ's glory could ever be conceived. In one act, Jesus swallowed hell and earned heaven for us on the cross. That's how the Father glorifies the Son. Now in spite of everything that the Jews have said to Jesus in this passage, calling Him a Samaritan, calling Him demon-possessed, what does Jesus do? He continues to declare open pardon for any who would come to him. Look at verse 51. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. All of us are acutely aware of death. And we fear it. Hebrews 2.15 says that the human race, who through fear of death, were subject to a lifelong slavery. The fear of death makes us slaves. There was a Pulitzer Prize winning book in 1973 called The Denial of Death, and I don't think the guy was a Christian who wrote it, but this was his main theses of the book. Quote, the main theses of this book is that the fear of death haunts the human animal like nothing else. It is the mainspring of human activity. So think about a mainspring. A mainspring is like in a clock. It's that biggest wheel in a clock. When you wind it, it gives energy to the clock. He's saying that the fear of death is the main reason why human activity takes place. So he says, quote, activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying it in some way that is the final destiny for all men. You know what the largest business in the state of Idaho is? St. Luke's Hospital. Why is that? Because we fear death. Business is controlled by the fear of death. Pharmaceutical companies, gym memberships, diet foods, all of those things are run by a fear of death. The fear of death haunts the human animal, as this author said, or as Hebrews says, through the fear of death, we were subject to lifelong slavery. The fear of death is a slave master. And so what Jesus says here is relevant to every minute that we live in our lives. However, when he says that if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death, we have to ask, is it physical death that Jesus is talking about? The answer is no, it's not. Jesus is talking about real death. Jesus is speaking about another death that is far worse. You see, brothers and sisters, when people die physically, The spirit leaves the body alive. Everybody that has ever lived from Adam and Eve that have perished in the grave are still alive today. None of them are dead. Only their bodies are dead. Their conscience, they are aware. In fact, I would argue they are more aware than we are. The real death is the second death. And that's what Jesus is talking about in this verse. Revelation 20, verses 14 through 15. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. That's the death that Jesus is speaking of. He's saying, if you keep my word, you will escape that death. That's the only condition that Jesus gives, if you keep my word. What is Jesus's word? It's a word of absolute dependence. This is the only word that Jesus has been giving throughout this gospel. Not depend upon your own works, but depend upon Me. John 5.24, truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. John 6.35, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger. And whoever believes in me shall never thirst. John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. All of these gospel words are words that Jesus is saying depend on me utterly and completely without reserve and nothing else. Picture it this way. Much has been said about the welfare state of America. That America has turned into a welfare state. America has made a great number of its citizens dependent upon the government. For healthcare, for education, for food, for housing, for all of these things. And if the government stopped giving these benefits out to its recipients, then these citizens would be ruined, many to their deaths. And that's the message of the gospel. Applying spiritually. Verse 51, if you keep my word, that is if you see your utter dependence upon me and me as your only rescue from ruin, then you will never taste death. The message of Jesus is not be a productive contributor in my kingdom and I will let you in. The message of Jesus is that you and I are spiritual welfare recipients. We are bankrupt, we are diseased, we are addicted, we are unclean degenerates. If that offends you, go back to verse 44. Verse 44, Jesus said something way worse about you. You're children of the devil. The message of the gospel is that you are on spiritual welfare. Jesus is not saying, clean up your sin and come to me. Jesus is saying, come to me and I will clean up your sin. And that's your only hope. If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. If anyone comes to me, abandoning all hope in any other rescue, I will rescue you. If you depend upon me, you'll never go to hell. Jesus is not a capitalistic redeemer. He is a welfare state redeemer. And he's not making this invitation to good people. He's making it to children of the devil like you and me. So let's apply this to our lives. First of all, let's return to our doctrine. Sinners are angry at God because he claims all the glory for himself. Our passage ends today with the Jews picking up rocks to throw at Jesus. What does Jesus do? Verse 59 says, he hid himself and he went out of the temple. Now we shouldn't think that Jesus was, A, afraid of them, or B, ashamed of what he said. The reason why Jesus left was because this was not the death that was needed for sinners. And that his hour had not come. And so he left. But nonetheless, chapter eight ends with God in the hands of angry sinners. So we need to ask, why do Jesus's claims make us angry? Why do Jesus's claims make us angry? Because all of us still believe the lie that Satan told our first parents. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. And I would argue that's hard for, that would be hard for you to accept that truth. Because none of us would say, oh yeah, I'm gonna be like God. I mean, shamefully, we make fun of Mormons who say that, right? Oh, you guys believe that you're gonna become gods. And so we would never say, oh yeah, we can become gods. Fine, but what is the essence of that lie? What is the essence of being God? Independent, self-sufficient, complete, and good in yourself. That's why that lie is attractive. Beloved, that lie is what brought down the human race, that we can be good without God's help. That is the essence of Satan's temptation that we can be good in ourselves apart from God. Why is that attractive to belief? Because then we get the credit. We get the glory. We get to be the hero. We don't have to give the credit to someone else for our virtues. We've done it all ourselves. You know why trusting in Christ is so hard? Trusting in Christ is hard precisely because it's not hard enough for people who want to be righteous in themselves. Do you get that? Trusting in Christ is hard precisely because it's not hard enough for people who want to be righteous in themselves. Unbelief is mainly an issue of self-worship. We naturally disbelieve the gospel because we want to be good without anyone's help so that we can receive the praise. And so when Jesus comes on the scene and says, apart from me you can do nothing, sinners like you and me get mad. And if you, And if you say that's false, you're lying. I'm sorry. You sin every day. Your sinning every day is proof of this statement. We sin because we don't believe the truth of the gospel, that we're not good in ourselves. That's why these Jews were angry. Because Jesus stripped them of their fig leaves of righteousness and exposed them for what they are. So what is our duty? What is our duty? Scratch this out on your notes because I changed it last night. It previously said lay down our stones and receive the grace of Christ, but this is the duty that I think that this text is saying. Our duty is to repent of our righteousness. This text, I believe, is calling us to repent of our righteousness. And I think we need to think carefully on this for a moment. Ask yourself, how do you think about yourself? Do you ever look back on your week and say to yourself, man, I had a pretty good week this week. I read my Bible. I prayed. I shared the gospel with someone. And on that ground, you say to yourself, I had a pretty good week. Or conversely, you say, you look back on your week and you feel horrible. Why? Because you didn't open your Bible. And instead of praying, you indulged in sin. And instead of sharing the gospel, you cursed those that were closest to you. And so you resolve within yourself to some sort of moral reform so that you can feel good about yourself again. And I know that we do this. I know that we do this because I do this. And many of you have come into my office or called me on the phone and confessed your sins to me in tears and repentance, but all too often in our tears and repentance, we say something like this. I can do better than this. I am better than this. You're better than that? Our sins can be sometimes our best indicators of how we view our righteousness. Listen, brothers and sisters, if we think that we were doing really good before we blew it, Like, we blow it, big time, and then we're so down on ourselves. Why? Because we think before we blew it, we were doing really good. If that's how we view our sin, then we need to repent of our righteousness more than we need to repent of our sin. Beloved, you have never had a good week according to God's standards in your whole life. You've never had a good day in your whole life. You've never had a good hour in your whole life. You've committed enough sin in this room since we've been sitting here to go to hell for all eternity. That's what Isaiah 64 6 means. Listen carefully. We have all become like one who is unclean. And all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. It doesn't say our unrighteous deeds are like a polluted garment. It says our righteous ones are a filthy garment. Which means, apply this to myself, I need to be forgiven for preaching this sermon. That's how bad we are. You need to be forgiven for listening to this sermon because that's how bad you are. You're bad. You're bad. And so am I. Which means this, that God would be, let's say God takes all of your sins and just ignores them. He puts them on this side of the ledger and he only looks at your righteous deeds. God would be perfectly just to punish you for your righteous deeds. And mine. Consider that the next time you think you've had a good day. that God would be equally just for punishing you for your best day as for your worst day. Brothers and sisters, this is the gospel. The good news is that God forgives you for your righteousness, for your self-righteousness, for the lie that you think that you have been good for one moment. He forgives you for that. You and I have never done any one good thing that will ever put God in our debt. Romans 11.35 says, who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? God is looking at our good deeds and he's saying, yes, my son shed his blood for those. Even those. So brothers and sisters, I'm calling us to not repent of our sins today, but to repent of our righteousness. We need to repent of ever thinking that God accepts us or is more pleased with us because of what we have done or what we are doing or what we will do. If Christ is your savior, if you are a Christian, he has saved you from the wickedness of your own good deeds. And we need to see this because most often our righteous deeds can become the biggest stones that we throw at Christ. That's what these Pharisees were doing. These stones represented self-righteousness that they were hurling at the Savior, trying to hurl at the Savior. I hope you see that duty is good news. Our delight. The gospel is for murderers just like us. Again, as we look back on the events of this past week, I wonder how we as Christians are interpreting them. I struggled. This application point was the hardest point for me. I struggled with the events of this week, because I'm watching all the things unfold on the news. And I wonder how we as Christians are interpreting them. God forbid that we would fail to pray for justice to be done in human courts. God would want that to happen. We should be applying the truths of 1 Timothy 2 to pray for our leaders and politicians and judges that all that did wrong would be punished accordingly. And at the same time, we need to see these events through the eyes of the gospel. Question, how do we interpret these events? The killing of those two black men by police officers. How do we interpret that? How do we interpret those cops being killed in Dallas, Texas? Were you angry? Were you angry when you saw those videos on TV? And if you were, why were you angry? Were you angry that the image of God was vandalized in the public arena and that the resulting train wreck of human relationships will be forever altered on earth? Is that why you were angry? Or are you angry that you can't believe how stupidly wicked some people are compared to you? The gospel is for murderers. Dear congregation, there's murderers sitting in this congregation right now. Murderers. 1 John 3.15 says this, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And God's law is never subject to exaggeration or hyperbole or error. I had hatred in my heart this week for a brother. I was angry at him. God sees that as murder. I know the same thing is true about you too. It's good news that God saves us from that. Most of the New Testament was written by a murdering racist. His name was the Apostle Paul. He hated Gentiles and he murdered Christians prior to his conversion and God rescued him. That's what the gospel's for, brothers and sisters. Rescuing the vilest of sinners. The good news as Luther once put it is this, that God sent his son into the world and he said to his son, be Peter the denier, be Paul the persecutor and blasphemer and assaulter, be David the adulterer, be the sinner who ate the apple in paradise and be the thief on the cross. That's what the good news is. That's what the good news is. Let's go ahead and go to God in prayer.