Who Is the Lord, That I Should Obey Him?

Exodus 5:2
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, March 29, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Gregory Broderick

The title is, “Who Is the Lord, That I Should Obey Him?”  Pastor Mathew asked me to preach an important word for the church and for the world.  God gave the word to Pastor, and he gave it to me so that I could give it to you.

We are living in an unusual time.  We are separated.  We are shut up in our homes.  We are shut down.  We are surrounded by sickness, and we are even surrounded by death due to this pandemic.  There is a plague of locusts in Africa and the Middle East, and other things happening in the world.  These all look bad to us, but we must understand these are not accidents.  This is providence.

There are no accidents with God.  Proverbs 16:33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord.”  Great or small, important or seemingly unimportant, God is in control of everything.  God is speaking to His church through all these difficulties in the present time.  He is speaking to His church and He is speaking to the world.  The message He is speaking is, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”

In Exodus 5, verses 1 and 2, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says:  ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’” And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him and let Israel go?  I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

A few chapters later, we see God answering this question, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?” In Exodus 7:3–5, God tells Moses and Aaron, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.  Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people, the Israelites.  And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”

A few chapters later, in Exodus 12:29–31, the Lord answers again:  “At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.  Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.  During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Up!  Leave my people, you and the Israelites!  Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.’”

We know that Pharaoh later changed his mind and pursued the Israelites through the desert.  Israel crossed over the Red Sea, but when Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them.  But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.  God’s people passed over, but the Red Sea collapsed on Pharaoh and his armies and killed them all.  Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?  God answers that question in our time as He answered it in Pharaoh’s time.

In our time of uncertainty and worldwide plague, this is a good question to ask—not in the defiant and arrogant way of Pharaoh, but it is still a good question to ask.  Is there a God?  Can He do anything about this?  Is He out of control?  Or is it out of His control?  If it is not out of His control, then why is He permitting this plague and pandemic?  What should we do in this time as a nation?  What should we do as His church, His chosen people?

I am here to tell you, friends, that, yes, there is a God, and yes, He controls His universe.  He is absolutely sovereign and nothing is beyond His control.  He is permitting this pandemic at this time for His good purposes.  He is holy, but we are not.  The world is full of sin and defiance of God’s word, and God is angry.  Though God generally has many purposes in every action He takes, it seems clear that the major purpose in this pandemic and its attendant economic destruction is to punish a sinful world.

The world today is like Sodom.  We are like the antediluvian people, the people before the Flood.  Every inclination of our hearts is only evil all the time (Gen. 6:5).  God has had enough, and, therefore, we are paying the price.  Perhaps that sounds kooky or not politically correct to say in this time.  Perhaps you would like me to say nice things about how God will use this for good, and that is true.  But it is not the only thing that is true in this time.  No, we must preach the word.  We must preach the truth.  We must preach God’s word.  And if it sounds kooky or not politically correct, I would remind you that no less than Abraham Lincoln viewed things the same way.  In his second inaugural address, in the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln said that the awful war and bloodshed was the woe due to this country for the offense of slavery.  He said, “Fondly do we hope and fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.  Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said today:  ‘The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”

If you are still offended by the idea that this pandemic is God’s judgment, God’s punishment on the world, I say, “Tough.”  It is God’s word, not my word, not even Pastor’s word.  It is God’s word.  Our world is full of sin and sinners, and each of them, every time they sin, is asking the question, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”  In the same way that Pharaoh did, every sinner asks.  And God answers in the same way that He answered Pharaoh:  in His terrifying power.

So let us start with the question, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”  We must understand that every sinner is asking this question.  As absolute sovereign, God lays down rules by which man is to live.  Like the petulant child, however, sinful man says, “You cannot tell me what to do.”  This shows the sinful mind of sinful man.  He has a total misunderstanding of the fundamental reality of God.

This is the same exchange that happened between Moses and Pharaoh.  Something is lost in the English translation in our Bible, but in the Hebrew, Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh that Yisrael Elohe Yahweh commands Pharaoh to let the people go and worship.  Pharaoh’s response is, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey His voice?  After all, I am the Pharaoh.  I am the most powerful king in the world.”  At that time, Pharaoh was protected by a mighty army, by natural defenses, and by a steady supply of food in his rich Nile delta region.  He was totally untouchable by man and virtually immune to outside threats.  Why should he listen to two shabby Israelites and their God?

This command to Pharaoh through Moses was an affront to Pharaoh.  It was not a request or supplication; it was a command—a command from a superior authority.  Not from Moses but from God.  This was a great offense, however, to King Pharaoh, who believed himself to be the greatest authority on earth at the time.

This is the same thing that modern man thinks as well.  “I am the measure of all things,” declares modern man.  “I am sovereign.  Who is God or anyone else to tell me what to do?  I will do what I want to do when I want to do it where I want to do it, and who are you to tell me what to do?  You cannot stop me.  There is no God, and certainly no God with authority to tell me what to do.”  In other words, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”  The only problem is, God answers.  He answers dramatically.  He answers terrifyingly.  He answers sovereignly.

Who Is the Lord?

Let us now look at who is the Lord.  He is Creator, Redeemer, and Destroyer.  Who is the Lord?  He is the Great King.  He is the greatest and most powerful.  He is the Creator of the whole universe, the triune God who existed before all time, before anything else.  When there was nothing, there was God.  He is completely self-existent and self-sufficient before anything or anyone, in need of nothing and in need of no one.  Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God.”  God is the ultimate reality.

“Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”  That is like asking, “What is reality, that I should obey it?”  You have no choice.  You can do what you like, but reality will win in the end.  The ultimate reality, God, created everything in His world.  He created it by His powerful word.  He said, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light”  (Gen. 1:3).  In fact, Genesis 1 is replete with God declaring something, followed by, “And it was so.”  “Let the land produce vegetation,” He said, “And it was so” (v. 11).   “‘Let the waters be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.’ And it was so” (v. 9).  God speaks, and it happens.  His word is powerful.

Hebrews 1:3 says the triune God sustains all things by His powerful word.  He is actively upholding the world even now.  You arrogantly ask, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?” You are asking it with the same breath and with the same mouth and with the same body that He created and that He upholds even now.

Who is the Lord?  He is the Redeemer.  The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and, “The wages of sin is [eternal] death,” (Rom. 6:23).  We have all sinned, and we all deserve judgment and eternal punishment in eternal hell for our sin against eternal God.  Yet He redeems His people, the people He chooses.

God did this dramatically for His people Israel in the book of Exodus.  We know the story.  He raised up Moses and set His people free, causing Pharaoh to drive them out of Egypt.  He protected them as a pillar of fire, causing the Red Sea to part.  He defeated their enemies, causing the waters to rush back over and destroy mighty Pharaoh and his Egyptian army.  He led His people by a pillar of cloud through the desert and brought His people to the Promised Land.  He has always redeemed His people.

This was not a one-time act.  Isaiah 47:4 says, “Our Redeemer—the Lord of hosts is His name.”  He is a Redeemer.  He rescued and redeemed His people through Gideon, Samuel, and David.  He redeemed them from Assyria in the time of Hezekiah and from Haman in the time of Queen Esther, and He brought them out of captivity and back to the Promised Land in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.

His greatest redemption is our salvation through the shed blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Although we deserve infinite punishment, we can be redeemed by grace through faith in Him.  All prior redemption, including the redemption I spoke about of the people of Israel, is merely a foreshadowing of our great redemption in Christ.

Our God is a Redeemer.  John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”—in other words, that we may be redeemed.  Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”  He sent His Son Jesus Christ, eternal God, to become a man to live a perfect and sinless life and to die on the cross, suffering the full wrath of God that was due to us.  This is sometimes called propitiation; it is the turning away of God’s wrath by Christ.  It is the turning away of God’s wrath from us.  That is redemption.

Christ not only redeems us by turning away God’s wrath, but He also clothes us with His perfect righteousness so that we can enter into the very presence of God.  We can enter in for eternity forever and be blessed.  This is not because of our goodness.  It is not because of anything in us or anything we did.  It is all by grace.  Psalm 44:26 says, “Rise up and help us; redeem us because of Your unfailing love.”

Our God is Creator, our God is Redeemer, and our God is also a Destroyer.  The modern church has watered down the God of the Bible into a cartoonish caricature who is all love and acceptance, who makes no demands and issues no judgment.  That may be the popular preaching of the modern church, but it is false.  It is a false preaching about a false God that they made up.    Our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29).  Exodus 15:3 says the Lord is a warrior.  Isaiah 42:13 says, “Like a warrior, He will stir up His zeal; with a shout, He will raise the battle cry and will triumph over His enemies.”  Amos 9:5 says, “He . . . touches the earth and it melts.”  Genesis 6 says He was grieved that He had made man due to man’s wickedness and sin, and Genesis 7 says that He flooded the entire earth and destroyed all but eight people in the entire world.  Our God is a destroyer.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism question 26 reminds us that our Lord Jesus Christ executes His office as king “in subduing us to Himself [in saving His people], in ruling and defending His people, and in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies.”  He is a mighty King.  In Malachi 1:14 God says, “I am a great King, and My name is to be feared among the nations.”  He is the Lord God Almighty (Ps. 80:19).  He is greatness, and.  His greatness no one can fathom (Ps. 145:3).  Nothing is too difficult for Him.  He can do anything He desires (Jer. 32:27).

If you oppose this great God, if you oppose this Warrior, if you oppose this sovereign King, you will lose.  The devil rebelled against Him and was cast out of heaven and cursed forever.  Adam and Eve rebelled against Him, and they were cast out of the garden.  Pharaoh opposed Him and was destroyed.  You cannot defeat God.  Psalm 2 says all the kings will gather together and take their stand against God.  And His response?  He laughs.  They are no threat to Him whatsoever.  He scoffs at their sorry efforts to oppose Him.  “He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath.”  He says He will dash them to pieces like pottery.  Our God is a Destroyer.

First Corinthians 15:25 says that He will put all His enemies under His feet.  He will defeat them all.  Revelation 20 tells us that at the end, all of God’s enemies will gather together, but fire will come down and consume them (v. 9).  This is written in the past tense, as though it has already happened.  In other words, the end is already determined.  We already know God wins and destroys all His enemies.  It says the blood of God’s enemies will flow as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1600 stadia.  That is almost two hundred miles.  We do not know if this is literal or figurative, but it makes the point that our God is a great Destroyer.

If you ask, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him, that I should obey His voice?” He will answer the question.  He is mighty God.  Isaiah 9:6–7 says that He is Everlasting Father.  It says, “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time and forever.”

“Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”  He answers, “I am King of kings and Lord of lords” (see Rev. 19:16).  He answers, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. . . . My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isa. 46:9–10).  He answers, “I change the times and seasons; I set up kings and depose them.  I give wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning” (see Dan. 2:21).  He controls all world affairs.  Psalm 75 says He brings down one and He exalts another.  He sets up Pharaoh as king, and He destroys Pharaoh and his hard heart.  He sets up Nebuchadnezzar as king and casts him down until he lifts his head and acknowledges God and His sovereignty (Dan. 4).

“Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”  He is almighty.  No one can hold back His hand.  “His kingdom endures, . . . and all the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing” (Dan. 4:35).  We are mere grass.  We are falling blossoms.  The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.  (GTB)  He is the almighty King.

“Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”  He has all authority.  Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18).  Indeed, God is the source of all authority.  Parents, pastors, the state—whatever authority there is, it is under God’s control, it is from God (Rom. 13:1).

“Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”  He is exalted to the highest place (Phil. 2:9).  He is the name above every name.  Philippians 2:10 says, “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

We notice in our text that God does not speak directly to Pharaoh.  God does not appear to Pharaoh and stand before Him and make His demand.  He speaks to Pharaoh through His delegated authorities and ambassadors, Moses and Aaron.  This is God’s normal way.  He spoke to Nebuchadnezzar and Belteshazzar through His delegate Daniel.  He spoke to Saul through Samuel.  He spoke to the church through Peter and Paul.  He still does this now.  He speaks to the world and to His church by His delegated authorities, especially His pastors who preach His word.  If you reject His delegates, if you reject His ambassadors as Pharaoh did, then you are rejecting Him (John 13:20).

This does not mean that we as delegated authorities are somehow above God’s word or that we can go and do our own thing.  No, we are even more accountable, we are even more under God’s word.  Even Moses trembled with fear.  This is Moses, who met face to face with God, who received the revelation directly from God and brought it to the people.  Moses did not become proud through that; he became more and more humble.  He trembled with fear, it says in Hebrews 12:21 and Deuteronomy 9:19.  Or look at the priests Nadab and Abihu.  They thought they were above God’s word.  They thought they were their own independent authority.  God destroyed them when they arrogantly offered unauthorized fire before the Lord (Lev. 10).  So we as God’s delegated authorities must fear and tremble more, and not less.  We must have a correct view of this God.  He saves, but He also destroys.

In our time, the church overemphasizes God’s saving grace, but it ignores His holiness and justice for the most part.  But we cannot absolutize or distort any of God’s attributes or we will be presenting a false God.  A God who is all wrath and no mercy is a false God.  His compassion and mercy are integral to His character and integral to His nature, and they are glorious to behold (Exod. 34:6–7).  He is rich in mercy, it says in Ephesians 2:4.  He is loving and merciful to His people (Ps. 25:10).  He forgives (Micah 7:18–19).  It says, “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance?” So He forgives His people.  He loves (1 John 4:8).  He is great love (1 John 3:1).  He is unfailing love (Ps. 36:7).  He is perfect sacrificial love (John 3:16).  In fact, this is how we know what love is, through God’s example by sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins (1 John 3:16).  In fact, God is the source of all true love in the world (1 John 4:7–8).

God is compassionate, God is forgiving, and God is love.  But He is not only love.  As He is perfect in love and mercy, He is also perfect in holiness and justice.  He is holy, holy, holy God (Rev. 4:8).  He is perfectly just (Isa. 61:8; Deut. 32:4; Acts 10:34).  God’s justice, God’s holiness are essential character attributes of God.  God is so holy and so just that Jesus Christ, eternal God, had to come and die for our sins (Rom. 3:26).  Yet God is also so loving that He did so.  He is so holy and just that it required Jesus to come and die to pay for our sins, and He is so loving that He sent Jesus to actually do so.

God is both justice and mercy.  He both saves and destroys.  Psalm 89:14 puts it this way:  “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.”  Those things must go together:  righteousness and justice, love and faithfulness.

Just look at our text here.  God destroys Pharaoh and all of Egypt.  He destroys by plagues—plagues of locusts, plagues of blood, plagues of frogs, plagues of hail, plagues of killing the firstborn of all Egypt.  He destroys Egypt but He spares the people of God in Goshen, His remnant.  He saves by letting the Israelites pass through the Red Sea on dry land, but He destroys by the same Red Sea crashing over the Egyptian army and wiping out Pharaoh, his soldiers, his chariots and his horses—wiping out his whole army.

God is unchangeable, and He has not changed in our time.  He saves and He destroys in our time as well.  God saves some in mercy.  He chooses zeroes—that is us.  We are like the Israelites—not many rich, not many famous, not many powerful.  We are zeroes, and yet God chooses us in His love, calls us by His irresistible grace, and makes us alive.  He gives us a new heart and a new mind.  We are born again and able to understand God’s word, able to love it, able to repent and receive His free offer of grace.  God is glorified by His glorious mercy in saving unworthy sinners and enabling them to live a new life of holy obedience to God and to His word (1 Tim. 1:9).  

God is glorified in His saving, but He is also glorified in His destructive justice.  Psalm 76:10 says, “Surely your wrath against men brings you praise.”  God’s wrath brings Him praise.  His glorious justice and holiness are made manifest in His judgment of the wicked, just as His mercy and love are made manifest in His saving of His chosen people.  As Pharaoh hardened His heart and was destroyed (Exod. 8:32), so every sinner who refuses God’s saving grace is destroyed.  Just as God glorified Himself through His judgment and defeat of Pharaoh, He glorifies Himself now through His judgment of the wicked.  In fact, the Bible tells us this is the very purpose for which the wicked exist:  to glorify God by His justice.  Proverbs 16:4 says that God works out everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of disaster.  So that is their purpose.

Just as God gained glory by demonstrating His great power and might over Pharaoh (Exod. 13:4), He also gains glory by defeating the devil, by defeating his demons, and by defeating all the wicked people and casting them into eternal hell.

Yet God’s chosen people are not exempt from His destruction.  We who have confessed Christ as Lord should be careful not to think that we are exempt, that we are somehow above God’s destructive justice.

First, let us remember that we were all sinners, beyond hope and beyond cure, until God redeemed us, and we did not do anything to earn or deserve salvation.  We were simply chosen because of God’s great love and rich mercy, and all glory belongs to God for that.  So let us not grow arrogant and think that we are special.  We are only special because God chose us.

Second, let us remember that we depend on God every day.  Sin is still with us.  Sin is still in us.  And God upholds us and keeps us faithful by His faithfulness.

Third, let us remember that we have a greater responsibility as God’s redeemed people.  You see, the sinner, the unbeliever, can only sin.  He is a slave to sin, as we read in Romans 6:6 and 2 Peter 2:19.  As our Pastor has taught us, the unbeliever is non posse non peccare  (not possible not to sin).  As God’s people, however, we are posse non peccare (possible not to sin).  In other words, we can say “No” to sin (Titus 2:12).  God gives us the grace to do so.  If, then, we sin, we do so with great moral culpability because we have the choice to say “No.”  We are voluntarily submitting ourselves to the yoke of sin when we sin (Gal. 5:1).  If we do that, God will not be pleased with us.

Fourth, let us remember that judgment begins in the household of God (1 Pet. 4:17).  Much has been given to us as God’s chosen people.  We have God’s word and a mind to understand it.  We have the mind of Christ.  We have the indwelling government and rule of the Holy Spirit to warn us, guide us, and tell us which way to go.  We have pastors and other shepherds to watch over us.  Yes, much has been given to us as the people of God, and so much is demanded by God (Luke 12:48).  If we sin despite all the knowledge, despite all the help, despite all the grace He gives us—if we sin despite all of that, we will be beaten with many blows.  Jesus said so in Luke 12:47.

Now we are often reminded in this Church of 1 Corinthians 11:30.  The people, especially the rich, sinned against the poor believers and showed no love.  They failed to examine themselves before coming to the Lord’s table and taking communion, and they ate the bread and drank the cup in an unworthy manner (1 Cor. 11:27–28).  Verse 30 says, “That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep,” meaning, “a number of you have died.”  These people took God’s sacrament in an unworthy manner, and God brought judgment on His people, His church.

Likewise, the Lord Jesus walks among the lampstands of His church and brings judgment on us, His people, when we sin (Rev. 1:13).  The first several chapters in the book of Revelation are warnings from God to the seven churches that He will snuff them out if they do not repent.  Those churches are no longer there today.  They received the warning, but they did not heed the warning, and they are no longer there.  Ephesus lies in ruins, as does Smyrna, where Polycarp was the bishop.  There are no churches in Pergamum today and no believers in Thyatira and Sardis.  The Muslim call to prayer rings out in Philadelphia, but church bells do not chime there.  It is also true in Laodicea and much of the ancient church world.

The churches founded by Paul and Barnabas and Timothy failed to heed Christ’s warnings.  If they were wiped out when they did not repent, will we, the ingrafted branches, fare any better?  If it can happen in Asia Minor, or later in Europe, the cradle of the Reformation, then it can also happen in America.

God judged His church then and God will do so now.  Perhaps there is no better example that judgment begins in the household of God than this:  Of all the Israelites who walked out of Egypt, only two adults made it to the Promised Land.  At least 603,548 men twenty years and older fell in the desert.  God redeemed them and led them out, but they rebelled.  They disobeyed.  Hebrews 3:16–18 tells us, “Who were they who heard and rebelled?  Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?” They were the same people.  “And with whom was He angry for forty years?  Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert?  And to whom did God swear that they would never enter His rest if not to those who disobeyed?  So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”  This is describing the people whom God miraculously delivered from Egypt, whom God protected from the plagues, whom God led across the Red Sea on dry ground, who saw the Red Sea crash back over Pharaoh and His armies and throw the horse and the rider into the sea.  Yet they did not make it into the Promised Land except for two.  This is a serious word of warning for us.

Application

What, then, is the application today?  What does this mean to us at the time of the coronavirus?  First, God is one hundred percent sovereign.  He makes no mistakes.  There are no circumstances beyond His control.  Proverbs 19:21 says that His purposes prevail always.  If it was His purpose to prevent this virus from attacking us, to prevent this virus from shutting down our economy, to prevent this virus from making people sick and killing them, that purpose would have prevailed.  It was not His purpose.

Psalm 115:3 says that he does all he pleases.  In Isaiah 45:7 God says, “I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.”  Job 12:10 says, “In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”  He decides who lives, how long they live, and the exact moment they should die.  Even the roll of the dice, as I said earlier from Proverbs 16:33, is under his control.  All details, great and small—God is sovereign over every one.

The inescapable conclusion is that God, being 100% sovereign and in control of everything, allowed this coronavirus.  God allowed this pandemic.  God allowed people to die.  God allowed the economic destruction.  God allowed the 1918 Spanish flu, that killed fifty million people or more throughout the world, a hundred years ago.

Why did God allow this?  First, God is angry.  I agree with Abraham Lincoln.  God is angry and with good cause.  Every inclination of the thoughts of the hearts of sinful men, of the hearts of most of the world, is only evil all the time.  This world that was created by God, sustained by God, and provided for by God, is rife with idolatry, immorality, mockery of God, and wickedness of every kind.

This country is not exempt from God’s judgment.  And, in fact, far from being exempt, we are the generators of most of the wickedness in this world.  We push sexual immorality, greed, perversion, homosexuality, and evil all over the world.  In less than fifty years, we have aborted more than sixty-one million unborn children.  In 2017, the last year that statistics are available, there were 862,000 abortions.  That is one every 35 seconds.

God is angry with His world.  He is also angry with His church.  Many, even most, churches refuse to preach the truth.  They refuse to speak of a holy God.  They refuse to speak of eternal hell.  They refuse to speak of repentance.  They preach a different Jesus (2 Cor. 11:4).  They preach a false and unholy Jesus who says, “Go ahead.  Keep on sinning.  It is no problem.”  That is not the true Jesus.  Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near” (Mark 1:15; Matt. 4:17; Luke 13:3).  It was Jesus who said, “Be perfect [be holy], as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  It was Jesus who said, “Go and sin no more.”  It was Jesus who said, “Stop sinning, or something worse may happen” (John 5:14; 8:11).

We must repent and turn to God as a nation.  We must repent and turn to God as a church.  We must repent and turn to God personally.  We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12–13).  We must fear God, in other words.  We must fear God, for the fear of God will keep us from sinning.  It is very simple.  We stopped fearing and we started sinning.  We should start fearing and stop sinning.

We know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose, and so God will work this for our good also (Rom. 8:28).  But we must have a right understanding of what it means for God to work those things out for our good.  It means our eternal good.  It does not mean our health and wealth in this world.  It does not even mean that our children will get married and provide us with grandchildren.  Hopefully, they will.  But this is speaking about our eternal good.  Our eternal good is to be with God in heaven forever.

Even this awful virus, this awful pandemic, this awful time of separation—even this is for our good.  It is God’s merciful warning to this country, to His church, and to every Christian.  We must repent.  We must confront mortality and eternity.  The whole world is confronting mortality and eternity right now.  Would they have done it without the coronavirus?  I don’t think so.  We must confront mortality and eternity while we are still alive, while there is still time to do something about it—while there is still time to confess Jesus Christ as Lord, to repent of our sins, and to be saved.

I want to share a quote with you from The Wall Street Journal yesterday.  They ran an article mentioning Cambridge professor, historian Herbert Butterfield, who observed at the close of World War II that trials, like war and pandemics, point us away from ourselves and towards God.  Here is what Professor Butterfield said:  “Men may live to a great age in days of comparative quietness and peaceful progress, without ever having come to grips with the universe, without ever vividly realising the problems and the paradoxes with which human history so often confronts us. . . . Sheer grimness of suffering brings men sometimes into a profounder understanding of human destiny. . . . It is only by a cataclysm that man can make his escape from the net which he has taken so much trouble to weave around himself.”[1] We must escape the net of selfishness, of greed, and of sin, and look to God.

Perhaps this is what God is doing with this virus—drawing us out of ourselves, drawing the world out of its self-focused nature, and forcing people to confront who is God.  Perhaps through that and the preaching of the word, God will save many people.

The coronavirus is a blow, but for God’s people, it is a kind blow.  As Psalm 141:5 says, “Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil on my head.  My head will not refuse it.”  Coronavirus may strike us.  It may shake us.  But it is for our good if it causes us to repent, if it causes some to be saved.  The coronavirus causes fear.  Worldly fear, abject fear, simple fear of death is worthless.  But this fear, this blow, can be good if it causes us to fear God, to have holy fear—fear that keeps us from sinning (Exod. 20:20).  If it causes us to cry out, if it is causes us to be saved, if it causes us to fear God, to obey God, to cast off sin and do righteousness, then it is for our good, our ultimate good.

Let us hear what God is speaking.  Let us do what God is saying.  Let us fear the Lord and repent.  Let us repent and turn to God, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.  Let us examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith, and let us obey the Lord and be saved.

[1] Robert Nicholson, “A Coronavirus Great Awakening,” https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-coronavirus-great-awakening-11585262324.