I don't really have a passage for you to turn to, but you can go to Second Peter chapter two. I will be mentioning that at the end of the sermon. This is a message that some of you may not want to hear this morning. But God's word is true, and because it's true, I think we each have to hear this word this morning. When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? I didn't write those words. The prophet Amos did. Paul said we must understand the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber. I've been reflecting upon the events that have taken place this past week down in the South. And as everybody in here knows, Hurricane Katrina has killed hundreds, probably thousands, and maybe even more than that, Americans. It's disrupted the lives of millions of people, literally kicking them out of their houses so that they have no more jobs, no more place to live, no food, no water. And it's even throwing a wrench into the entire prosperity of our civilization. That's unprecedented. First, let me say this. None of this is new, even in the United States of America. Last year, four hurricanes hit Florida in six weeks time, killing many, many people and disrupting many more lives. Hurricanes have obviously done this for centuries off the shores of the United States and the rest of the world. I think about the Dust Bowl of the Great Awakening, and that Dust Bowl even came all the way up to Denver, Colorado. I don't know how many of you knew that. Pictures of it you can see. How that natural disaster helped contribute to the greatest depression that this society has ever seen. I think about recent terrorism. It's been brought about by Islamic ideology. Beliefs that hate the God that you and I worship here today. How this has affected our country in many ways, morally, economically. I think about even in the distant past, how there was a civil war. that destroyed entire cities in the South. You see, there's nothing that hasn't taken place before. Closer to home, though not on the same scale as those obviously, I think about how there's been a drought in Colorado for the past 10 years. I think about people and how they die every day from natural causes or from accidents or from things that people do on purpose. Even in our own church, this very summer, we've had loss that we've had to deal with. A very specific family in our church. Lives are disrupted. The accustomed way of living is tested. Then things return to normal. Which, of course, really means nothing more than that man has triumphed once again over nature and that he's free to go on living any old way that he pleases. And then everything goes on as it did before. And we forget the past. And we don't care. And people are totally unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. See, our day is like Noah's day, where people were eating and drinking and marrying and getting in marriage right up to the very day, it says, when Noah entered the ark. And Jesus says they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them away. Now, I recognize that what's happened in Biloxi and New Orleans and so many other cities is nothing different than what's happened before. Only ignorance of history could cause a person to come to a different conclusion. Solomon was wise. There is nothing new under the sun. And so this is not going to be some apocalyptic sermon about the end of all things. Antichrist rising up out of the swamp and somehow within the next two months, the end of the whole world is going to happen. But with that said, I want you to know that I'm troubled. It's been a weird sort of a feeling that's been growing on my heart this week. I can't even really describe it. It's strange. I'm really pretty deeply troubled, I have to say. And I think that what troubles me is my fear that our nation has reached a point where it cannot turn back. It's as if God is quite literally roaring out thunderous messages. And we have become inoculated against hearing his voice. More troubling to me even than this is the deafness of God's church. Honestly, I don't expect that unbelievers would admit that God is speaking in any sort of a way. And yet they're not off the hook because the scripture declares loudly that all people know the true and living God. The psalm says even the heavens declare the glory of God. The problem is not that people have too little evidence to believe, but that they suppress the belief that they already have in wickedness and unrighteousness. They create a fantasy world for themselves to live in, so that they don't have to live near the God who knows exactly what they're doing. But you see, my friends, what about the church? For them, it's different. And God is going to judge his church with an even higher level of judgment than he puts upon the unbelievers, because we say that we know and believe in the living God. This is why I'm so concerned. I'm sure that many pulpits around this nation will be preaching on the same topic that you're hearing this morning. Pretty sure that's true. But what's going to be the message? Based upon all signs, most messages will center upon one of two things. The first will be social gospel messages. The social gospel says that Jesus came to be a good example for you and I. That's what his purpose was. The social gospel is what would Jesus do? The message is that Jesus was selfless and sacrificial as an example. And therefore, we ought to rise up and meet his example by praying for victims and sending them support and aid. Here's the thing. That's not wrong. Do you understand? I would suggest, in fact, that we Christians really owe a double portion of help to these people, because not only are they our fellow Americans with whom we are bound to nationally as brothers and sisters, but many are fellow Christians with whom we share an even deeper bond of brother and sister in Christ. Jesus was clear about this. Reading from Matthew 25 verses 24 through 40, then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat and I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me." Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see a stranger and invite you in or need clothing and clothe you? When did we see you sick in prison and go and visit you? The king will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. Everybody in here needs to find a way to help these dying, starving homeless people. I'm just convicted of that. Here's something about the scope of this thing that staggers. There's something about the scope of this thing that staggers the imagination. The problem is not with the social gospel, what is said, you see, the problem is that the message is woefully incomplete. It's a half gospel. Now, there's another type of message that I fear is going to be preached today, which is what I call a have faith message. The worst of these will be have faith in your own potential to rise above your circumstances, sort of a message. The best of these will be have faith that God will work this out message. That's quite the opposite of a social gospel, it's more of a spiritual gospel. The last of these two messages is a good message. God does work all things out for good. But I want you to understand something. He doesn't work all things out for good for everybody. Romans 828 is clear about this. It says, We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Friends, this is the difficult message of the love of God that so many are unwilling to hear in our day. God's saving goodness does not extend to everyone without exception. It extends to those who love him through his son, Jesus Christ. The messages of faith are no good to a person who still hates God and is not being told that they have to repent of their sin and turn to Christ. Many of these faith messages lack the necessary ingredient to make it a gospel. There's something that can actually be edible rather than something that's putrid, contaminated. The good news is only good news to somebody who's sick and dying. Jesus said this. It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. What gets me so upset is that this message will be heard in very few churches this morning. And I want you to believe me on that experience reading national polls and reports from many people in our own congregation, including even one this morning who came up to me about the state of our churches, including the state of churches in our very own community, leave little doubt in my mind about this. God's word is not going forth from the pulpits of this land. By God's grace, I pray that there will still be some that he will use. What's the missing ingredient in these sermons? It's to somehow make the hearer aware that they are sick. It's certainly not to dress the wound of God's people as though it were not serious, like Jeremiah says. It's to tell them that God is angry at sin. That God controls all of the events of this world. That if God will not get our attention through his church, then he's going to get it through nature. That if they possibly hope to see ultimate relief, then they need to repent of their sin and trust Christ. Only then does faith make a difference. Only then will the necessary relief that you and I send be a sacrifice that God will look upon with pleasure. This message is more fully missing in the 21st century Church of America. Are you going to harden your heart this morning like so many others around? May God bless the hearing of his word. Do you know what God says about sin? The prophet Zechariah reports, Do not plot evil against your neighbor and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this. declares the Lord. The Prophet Malachi reports, I hate divorce, says the Lord God of Israel, and I hate a man's covering self with violence as well as with his garments, says the Lord Almighty. In Isaiah, God says, I hate robbery and iniquity. In Proverbs, we read, I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. In each of these texts, the Hebrew word for hate is placed at the front of the sentence. We can't do that in English, but it does this to show that this is the emphasis of the of the passage. God hates these things. And yes, hate means hate. But that's not all. To the surprise of some people here, possibly today, God even hates expression of religion that ignores his commands and his words of warning. Religion isn't necessarily a good thing, even religion that is done in God's name. The Jews were fond of worshiping God and patting each other on the back with words of encouragement in the midst of God's anger upon them. So Amos says, I hate, I despise your religious feasts. I cannot stand your assemblies. It's the word of God. In a world where God is love, do we have room for his self-declared hatred anymore? I fear that most do not. Do you know what God says about the sinner who remains in his sin? I beg you, I beg you to take seriously these words. Psalm 11 5, the Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence, his soul hates. Psalm five, five and six, the arrogant cannot stand in your present. You hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies, bloodthirsty and deceitful men. The Lord abhors quote from the Bible. Now, I want you to understand this. God does not tell us to hate our enemies. Quite the opposite tells us to love them. Its command comes from the love of God. Yet it is equally clear that God hates not just the sin, but the sinner. We're not allowed such feelings, because God knows that our hatred of such things will be done in sin. But because God hates these things, is it any wonder why he commands repentance? Unless a person repents, the wrath of God abides on you. There are none without excuse. No one can say, I'm not like that. Wrath of God doesn't abide on me. Scripture in both Testaments says this. There is no one righteous. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They together have become worthless. There is no one who does good. No, not one. You see, people are not basically good. The best of human nature, have you heard that term thrown around about a billion times this week? is nothing but filthy rags in God's sight. It's shocking to see just how much the safety nets of society, things like just laws and a healthy church and not even a nominally God-fearing civilization has been removed from us in our day. Do you remember the Titanic? The ship was going down and women and children were let off first. The orchestra even played as the ship sank. Men died like men, at least until the last couple of fateful seconds. What a different age we live in today. In New Orleans this past week, men were shooting at rescue workers simply because they weren't taking them first. They said, they thought things like this. If they won't help me, then they're either going to die or they're not going to help anybody. Not even that woman giving birth over in the bathroom that's overflowing with raw sewage. Our bankrupt morality is with each new disaster showing itself for what it really is and people are frustrated. It's remarkable to see how the newscasters, their frustration is palpable. I've never seen anything like it. We are T.S. Eliot's hollow men. We are the hollow men, we are stuffed men, leaning together, headpiece filled with straw. Alas, our dried voices, when we whisper together, are quiet and meaningless as wind in dry grass or rat's feet over broken glass in our dry cellar. In this last of meeting places, we grope together and avoid speech gathered on this beach of the Tumid River, sightless, Unless the eyes reappear as the perpetual star, multifoliate rose of death's twilight kingdom, the hope only of empty man. That's what we are. We're hollow man. The extent of our depravity is complete. But no one, not you and not me, is off the hook. And we must each take a fresh look that the continuing sin that remains in our own lives so that we might understand anew this morning exactly what it is that Jesus Christ did for us on that cross. There's something about the way nature's been acting recently that is at the very least curious. Jesus says that these sorts of things take place like birth pangs. They come, they go, and then they return with greater intensity and frequency until the very end. Now, whether this is the end or just a birth pang, I have no idea. I have no idea, and I'm not going to tell you or pretend to know that I do. I do know that the scope of Katrina is unprecedented in American history. An entire city, a million people is gone. That should be at least a little bit frightening. What's God trying to say? Strangely, most people think He's not saying anything. We hear it was an inevitable storm that had to come. Nature's like that. Let's pick up the pieces and move on. The former mayor of New Orleans said on Thursday morning, we rebuild. We must rebuild. This is the city that gave the world jazz and multiculturalism. When you study the early history of the earth prior to the flood and then after the flood and the story of Nimrod, you can't help but be reminded of the story of Babel. Interestingly, the Titanic story that I just lauded some minutes ago was the ship that not even God could sink. The arrogance of Babel is nothing new. God remains firmly in control of all things. Some of you doubt this. Surely not all things, Pastor. All things? Yes, all things. Let me start with a parallel from Scripture. People have been saying that this flood is of biblical proportions. Talk about that. No, not even close. Sorry. In that event, all of humanity was wiped away like you were to take an Etch-a-Sketch and shake it and wipe away the little fillings that are in there. Like that shaking, the flood is recalled by every civilization on the earth. And it was a violent thing. Water from the deep sprang up while rain from the heavens fell down. For 40 days and 40 nights, God plunged the earth into a baptism of death, and nothing has ever been the same on planet Earth since that time. Was the flood an accident? The scripture couldn't be any clearer on this one. So God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. Two things to be aware of here. God predicted this event because he was giving man time to repent of their sins. Yes, even in God's wrath and hate, his love manifests itself. Have you ever thought about this? I never had before this week. For 120 years, God did not send the rains, though he knew and planned for only Noah to repent. That's God's love. that allowed him to have Noah be the preacher of righteousness for 120 years. Only his love could compel him to do something like that. God says in Ezekiel, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and repent. In the end, no one repented, and that was God's will. And he flooded the earth and only Noah survived. But there's a second thing, which is to understand that God sent the flood. God did it. When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? Amos says, Isaiah says, I am the Lord. There is no other. I formed the light and I create the darkness. I bring prosperity and I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Jeremiah laments who has commanded and it came to pass unless the Lord has ordained it. Is it not from the mouth of the most high that good and evil come? When sickness and death came upon Job, he righteously admitted, should we accept good from God and not evil? And he did not sin in anything that he said when Jonah was thrown into the mouth of a whale, who caused it? God caused it. When Assyria invaded Israel, who did it? Read Isaiah 10 if you don't know that it was God. When the Tower of Siloam fell and killed 18 people on Jesus Day, who did it? When earthquakes come upon a city, what causes them? God causes them. When a storm came upon the sailors in Jonah's ship, who brought it about? When Paul got caught up in a terrible storm in the Mediterranean, what was its origin? God. God does it all. He's the creator. He is sovereign. He is God. That's what it means to be God. He did not wind the earth, but watch and sit back from a distance to see what would happen. Every book in the Bible makes this clear, if you just open it up and read it. Early on in the book of Isaiah, we read about how God raised a child named Israel, but that child soon grew up and forgot the God who raised her. Now she doesn't even understand when he speaks to her. Isaiah says to him, his word is Babel. I think it's pretty ironic when you consider the story of Babel. The voices of the prophets were prophesying lies in God's name. The priests had lost God's word in the vast recesses of the temple basement. The church was full. Worship was taking place everywhere and nobody knew God. So he promises to send them natural disasters. He sends them sores. He sends them famine. He sends them war. He's the first 10 verses of Isaiah, chapter one. And all this is to tell them to return. But it was never too late until that day when the nation was finally overrun by the enemy to turn to God. And even then, God's mercy brought them back to the land, didn't it? It's remarkable to read about the worldview of the first modern-day European settlers of America, the American Puritans. You've all heard of Thanksgiving. Of all the holidays that you and I celebrate each year, the Puritans had only one kind of a holy day, Thanksgiving. But did you know that the Puritans set aside another kind of day that took place quite frequently? You see, the world that the Puritans began to settle was harsh and mean and cold and barren. It was terribly difficult to gain even the smallest foothold of life in that rough land. Let me tell you about August of 1633. The Massachusetts settlers watched in despair as their meager crops withered under a blazing summer sun. No rain had fallen in weeks. Believing God's wrath had fallen upon them and desiring to encourage him to send rain, the colonists met together in a solemn assembly. And on that feast day, they lamented their sad state and wept openly. As they cried, the heavens poured forth an answering watering. The colonists met again a few weeks later to acknowledge their gratitude and thank God for his many mercies. These sorts of things took place regularly in our nation's infancy, and so I wonder not even at all why God would decide to bless us the way that he has to this very day. See, my friends, the worldview of the Puritans said that everything comes from God. It doesn't. If it doesn't rain even for a few days, we'd better repent of our sins, they said. They were acutely in tune with nature, not as some sort of an abstract, impersonal mother nature force. But as the very common grace voice of a very loving heavenly father. I have no doubt as to how they would view Hurricane Katrina were they still alive today. But I do have doubts as to how most Americans see it. And I'm not saying that this event happened because of some particular sin in some particular city. I can't say the thought hasn't crossed my mind considering it's New Orleans. Most of the problem is the way it is, because some person foolishly thought that they'd build a city 10 feet below sea level, surrounded by water with a lake here and a biggest river in America here and ocean here. If you look in the dictionary and their definition of insanity, I think that has to be the definition. That's craziness. But I am saying that God caused this event, and I'm saying that when he brings disasters of any kind, that people need to wake up. And behold, that God is not slumbering off far away. It's always imperative that people repent of their sins because we all sin continually, and it's imperative that we heed God's warning of future destruction to come. And this is going to be the point here. This was the teaching of Christ at the Tower of Siloam. People were wondering, they asked Jesus if those people who had died had a tower fall on them, did something to make God really mad at them. Jesus response ought to make any of us in here think twice about passing judgment upon New Orleans. For while it's true that God does punish certain cities because of certain sins, think of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's also true that there were a lot of other places not guilty of those sins. and the sins of that city that were hit just as hard, completely destroyed, including many places in Florida that have still been massively damaged from last year's storms. We could go on and on. So what did Jesus say? He says, I tell you, no, they were not more guilty than anybody else. But now listen to this. But unless you repent, you will also perish. That was his lesson. Let me put it to you this way. The clear biblical teaching on disasters, catastrophes and calamities is that God sends each of them as warnings of future judgment. That's what they mean. This is the this is the heart of the matter. Whatever he may be doing in a given geographical place at the moment in time, I don't think any of us can know a certainty. But this we do know God's anger at sin must be punished by death. The wrath of God that now abides pestilence, disease, storms, floods, fires, droughts, earthquakes. They're all but a foretaste of the wrath to come. And that's why they're here now. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. See, the day of the Lord is coming, it's a cruel day with wrath and fierce anger to make the land desolate and to destroy the sinners within it. Revelation reports what's going to take place on that last day. It's frightening. Says the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty and every slave and every free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks and said, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day of the wrath of God has come and who can stand? That's why God sends natural disasters. It's because he's giving people a taste of the wrath to come. And he uses this message as an instrument to cause them to consider how they might escape such wrath. The terrible thing about today is that so few Christians, let alone people in our nation, are able to hear and understand this message. We need the word of God to pierce through the darkness and shine light upon our hearts again. And it's only the definitive map of the word of God that's going to get us out of that darkness. Here's some important passages that I want us to consider right now. These passages each make it clear why disaster occurs. Notice in each the call to repentance and to good works. The call to trust in Christ alone is your hope of escaping God's wrath and the purpose of God in bringing about the destruction. As this particular hurricane is causing its devastation through flooding, let me start in 1 Peter 3. It says there, In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord, and this begins in verse 15. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better if it is God's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all. the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive by the spirit through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it, only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water. And this water is the antitype of baptism that now saves you also, not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God. It saves you by the resurrection of Christ Jesus, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities and powers and submission to him." Now notice, God sent the flood, but he also sent the ark. The ark saved very few people, but in it, they were saved. Peter says that the flood is the anti-type. It's the forerunner of baptism. Why do Christians baptize? There's a twofold picture here, if the Ark has anything to say about it. One is that baptism shows us the wrath of God. Baptism is an ordeal that some people have to face. And so they drown in the floodwaters of God's wrath. But for the believer, you see, baptism saves. Now, hear me correctly, not the removal of dirt from the body. That is the sign. But the pledge of a good conscience towards God, it saves you by the resurrection of Christ Jesus and the baptism that comes by the Holy Spirit. It's salvation. Christian baptism signifies to the believer in the form of a physical sign, the salvation that comes from Christ's resurrection. Christ is the Christian ark that saves us from the death waters of God's wrath to come. And like Peter says here, it is much better to suffer as a believer for a moment. That might include dying in a flood in New Orleans. It might include losing all that you have, every possession, your house, your job, somebody in your family. Paul says it's better to suffer like that as a believer. Or Peter says it, than to suffer for eternity. God's wrath is pictured in that. Peter has another commentary on the flood in his second letter, 2 Peter 2, 4-9. If God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment. If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought a flood on the ungodly people, but protected Noah, preacher of righteousness, and seven others. If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and burned them to ashes and made them an example of what's going to happen to the ungodly. See, there's the key. And if he rescued law to righteous man who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men for that righteous man living among them day after day was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds that he saw and heard. If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment. while continuing their punishment. Notice, God didn't spare angels when they sinned, but he judges them. He did not spare the ancient world, but he judged them. But he saved Noah. He condemned Sodom and Gomorrah and judged them and burnt them to ashes. He does all this to make them an example of what's going to happen to the ungodly. And antithetically, he saves Lot. He saves Noah. The Lord knows how to rescue you, too. Wasn't quite sure how to say this is a weird thought, and I wonder if maybe part of my own sin. Sean asked me earlier, Are you going to make this personal to people? I said, What do you mean? He goes, Tell him that this could happen to them, too. And I thought, I thought, you know, Sean, I picked Colorado to live in so that it wouldn't happen to me. Was that true? Is that true? I think Sodom and Gomorrah might have said what I said to Sean earlier. I'm living here because there's nothing going to happen to me here. Do you understand? This could happen to any of you. Every one of us in this room could be somebody that's down there. How does that hit us? How does that make us think? Do we realize that God knows how to rescue us too? Disaster and salvation are in these stories to tell us of the disaster to come for those who don't trust Christ and the salvation to come for those who do. Think about this. These disaster stories always have a thread of redemption in them. This thread ought to send your thoughts towards the wrath of God that was placed upon Christ at the cross so that you might, through faith, not suffer the same wrath. For this is the only other way that God's wrath is ultimately satisfied for everyone who believes that's called salvation. Though there was a flood, Noah was saved through the ark. Though Sodom was destroyed, Lot was led to safety. Though Jonah was swallowed, God would not let him be digested in the belly of the whale. When Paul almost died in that storm, many people were saved eternally because of it. And though there's much destruction in the American South, people survive and places can still be rebuilt. And this speaks towards God's mercy. that exists in the day of salvation. He's talking right now. Are you listening to him? That's what Katrina is saying to you. Are you going to hear her voice? I beg you to listen and trust in Christ today. There's a parallel message in the book of Jude from second Peter, and this is what it says, Though you already know this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who do not keep their positions of authority, but abandon their own home. These he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves to sexual immorality and perversion. And then Jude 7 says they serve as an example of those who suffer punishment of the eternal fire. Friends, this is the sure meaning of Katrina. Whatever else it may mean, also, I don't know. But I do know this. God hates sin and he's angry at sinners. And all of us die, including Christians, because death is the only punishment that there is for sin. Some people die once. They escape the second death, which awaits the ungodly in hell. They escape it because they're trusting in the death of Christ to pay the punishment that their sins deserve. They're trusting that God's justice is served in this way. They're trusting in God's mercy and grace. They're trusting that God will pardon them. Vast is the reservoir of God's love. Even this day, God's love is being made manifest to the whole world because he has not destroyed it all yet. Even New Orleans this week is telling us of God's love. God's love compels him to offer Christ to everyone that hears. And his mercy allows some that hear to understand. And the scripture says, Wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. And then it says, For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, that is, eternal wrath, but to receive salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the sure and faithful promises of a God who has not spared anything to bring us this message. Jesus died to have a message to bring, and the Holy Spirit has been sent to make sure that it is preserved throughout the age until Christ returns in glory. Believe it. Let's pray. Lord, may these events of this past week. Cause our minds to reflect upon the coming wrath. For this is what the Holy Bible tells us these things are here for. Will you please give everyone in this room an understanding ear and a seeing eye to know what they have heard this morning from your word. And will you grant your Holy Spirit to come upon them, bring them repentance and faith in Christ today. Cause them to trust in you. May those who have trusted in you for many years be stirred by your word and reminded again of the wrath to come. May we not leave this place not thinking about these things. May they cause a difference in our lives. May you bring about in our lives good works through the hearing of your word. And I would pray for these things, Lord, so that you might gain all the glory in this world. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.