The God Who Strikes in Judgement

Introduction

PRAYER

In the 17th Century, shortly after the end of the French Renaissance period that was characterized by a flourishing of the arts, literature, architecture, and philosophy, France entered a period that was marked by scepticism and Libertinism.

Scepticism is a worldview and a set of beliefs that challenge and often reject established moral, religious, and social conventions while Libertinism was a direct application of scepticism to the realms of religion and morality.

Libertines rejected traditional social, moral and religious norms, often embracing free thought, scepticism, and sensual pleasure. They were sceptical of the claims made by the Church, the divine right of kings, and traditional moral codes.

They felt justified in living according to their own reason and natural inclinations. Theirs was a scepticism aimed at social and personal liberation.

Blaise Pascal, a famous French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Christian writer, frustrated by the prevailing philosophical views and increasing rejection of Christianity at the time, came up with what is called the 'Blaise' wager or otherwise known as the 'Pascal' wager, as a means to convince people to believe in God.

Blaise’s aim was to use probability and rational thought to prove the existence of God. The Blaise (or Pascal) wager went like this.

If you believe in God and God exists: You gain infinite happiness and eternal life in heaven. This is an infinite gain. You only lose some of your passions.

If you believe in God and God does not exist: You lose very little—perhaps some earthly pleasures you may have forgone. This is a finite loss.

If you do not believe in God and God exists: You face infinite damnation and the loss of eternal happiness. This is an infinite loss. Your earthly pleasures cannot compare.

If you do not believe in God and God does not exist: You gain some earthly pleasures. This is a finite gain.

Blaise concluded that there was only one choice that any rational man would make, and that’s to believe in God. It has infinite reward If true and very little to lose for the one who follows it.

Problems with his and Christian analogies in general notwithstanding, Pascal's wager managed to show one thing.

People's rejection of God is not an intellectual problem. It is a heart problem.

The reason they don't believe in God is not because they don't know Him or they haven't heard about Him, but rather it's because of their passions. When it comes to God, we are not driven by being clever. Otherwise the clever person would always choose the option with the highest return and least loss.

Man is, therefore, responsible for his rejection of God. He is driven by his passions to reject the sovereign God. People would rather not believe in God and pursue their passions.

Last week we saw that God is sovereign in the salvation of people and the hardening of sinners. At least 10 times the Bible explicitly states that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Yet, at the same time, Pharaoh is responsible for rejecting God because he was led by his passions to reject God.

When Moses and Aaron went to him to tell him to let the Israelites go, he refused and responded by asking, “Who is the Lord that I should obey Him.” He did not obey but chose to pursue his own course. God,therefore, strikes him and Egypt in judgement.

So today , we see The God who strikes in judgement.

The God Who strikes in Judgement. And there are two things we will see about Him.

GOD CALLS ALL PEOPLE TO OBEDIENCE

God is not arbitrary in striking sinners. He does not wake up one morning and decide that, “today I feel like destroying people,” and then acting. He is a just God whose judgement is always right. He judges people because they have willfully rejected Him. He calls all people to obedience, including those who are hardened against Him.

This passage starts with God calling Moses and Aaron to go back to Pharaoh with the same message as before. But this time, there is a twist to that message. Pharaoh will know that the LORD is God by what will follow.

Moses was sent with the same message in Exodus 3, Exodus 5, and again in Exodus 7. The results were the same. Pharaoh did not let the Israelites go.

On one of those occasions, even the children of Israel were not happy with Moses and Aaron for going to Pharaoh. They cursed them because of Pharaoh’s reaction, and Moses went complaining to God.

Yet, in Exodus 7:14, God’s response was to command Moses to go back and do the same thing he has done three times previously. We re not told of Moses’s reaction. Frankly, it doesn’t matter. All we know is that Moses obeyed.

The God who is sovereign called Him to a task. Whatever he may have felt, Moses had learnt from his experience in Exodus 3 & 4 that it does not matter when God calls you to a task.

When the I AM, who created heaven and earth and all things in them calls, your excuses don’t matter. You must obey.

In verse 2, God told Moses that He must speak whatever the Lord commanded him. It is not his mission but God’s. He is again commanded on what to do and say and Moses does exactly as He is told.

He is called to obedience and obey he must. The clay cannot say to the potter why have you made me like this or why are you doing this. Moses obediently went to Pharaoh and repeated the commands that God has gave him, performing the signs he was told to do.

Pharaoh was also called to obedience but he did not obey as verse 16 says. God does not require obedience from only those whom He has called. He requires obedience from all people. Pharaoh, although not one of the children of Israel, was also called to obedience to the sovereign God.

We are all called to obedience to God, yet today many Christians question God’s commands given in scripture. Instead of being like Moses and Aaron who obeyed, they ask, like the serpent from whom God has redeemed us asked, “Did God really say?” Did he really mean it that way?

In a world that is filled with sceptics and Libertines like that in which Blaise Pascal lived, so may people who claim to be Christian are not willing to follow God in obedience. Rather, they seek their own passions.

God’s commands are only obeyed when it is convenient. Where they do not align with people’s passions or desires, they suddenly question them, picking only what they want to hear and leaving out the hard parts that do not fit their passions.

Many others read the Bible selectively, choosing specific books and ignoring others, claiming that they are boring or too hard to read and understand.

I have a friend who once said that when she reads the Bible, specifically Deuteronomy 28, she reads only the first 14 verses which contain the blessings. She claimed the curses don’t apply to her as a child of God and so she should not concern herself with them.

She is not concerned with knowing the God who strikes in judgement as He did to the children of Israel in the verses that follow the blessings in Deuteronomy 28. She is only interested in her passions and only the section concerning the blessings matches her passions.

For some of you, it’s different potions of scripture. Did God really forbid divorce or remarriage after divorce, or did he give an exception clause. It’s also interesting that you find mostly the single people arguing for it. It always makes me want to ask, “What is your intention for marriage?” Are you looking for a way out before you even get here?

For others it’s the requirements to be elders. James 3:1 tells us that “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness,” yet there are so many fighting for the right to be teachers.

And is it only restricted to men? God surely didn’t mean that women cannot be elders. Paul was a male chauvinist, or he was a very cultural Jew, or he was speaking about the condition of his time, but our culture is different.

Does God’s word change with culture? Has God released a revised edition of His word for our time? Psalm 119:89 says that God’s word is settled in heaven. It’s not settled by culture, or by what we want, but by God who art in heaven.

But why do people desire it so much, even after God’s word warns us that not many of us should desire to be teachers? Because our desire is not to serve God but to pursue our passions.

What is the driver for the things you do? Is it to glorify God or a pursuit of your desires? You are responsible for your rejection of God because it is by your passions that you reject Him. His sovereignty does not excuse your disobedience.

Illustration of waking up and coming to church.

The God who strikes in judgement will strike all who disobey.

God’s people are marked by obedient service

We also see that God’s people are called to serve Him in obedience. The command Moses and Aaron are given to give to Pharaoh in verse 16 is, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.”

Verses 14-17 show us that:

God identifies Himself as the God of His people. He calls Himself the God of the Hebrews, another name for the children of Israel. They have no other God except Him.

God also calls the children of Israel his people when he says to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” They are not Pharaoh’s people, as much as he would like to believe so, but God’s people. Pharaoh has no ownership of them.

And then He tells Pharaoh to let them go so that they may serve Him. Pharaoh and Egypt may think he is a god and that the children of Israel serve him, but that’s not the case. He is not their god, and they certainly do not serve him.

They have a God whom they must serve. He is the I AM, God who is sovereign, the God who strikes in judgement. God therefore sends His servants to tell Pharaoh to tell him to let His people go so that they may serve Him.

The story of ‘redemption to serve’ is not unique to the children of Israel. In fact, this story is a foreshadow of God’s redemption of His people from the bondage to sin so that they may serve Him.

We are a people who are called by the name of the Lord, the I AM, the sovereign God. It is the disciples of Jesus who were called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26).

The name, Christian, does not identify those who are born into Christian families or those who go to church on Sunday orthose who were baptised when they were children or those who do Christian or religious things. It identifies those who follow the teachings of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. That’s the meaning of disciple – someone who follows the teachings of someone. Therefore, Jesus’s followers are those who obey His teachings.

Christians are marked by service to the Lord and towards one another. Jesus said in John 14:15 that if we love Him, we shall obey His commands. Obeying his commands is not how we come to love Him but how our love for our Lord is displayed, to ourselves, to each other, and to the world.

Christians are those marked by a love for one another as Christ loved us (John 15:11), and that is displayed in service of one another. We are told to

1 Peter 4:10-11: Use whatever gift we have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace

Galatians 5:3: For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

In Matthew 20:26-28, Jesus says that those who wish to be great among the people must be their servants.

It is why we have laboured to go through the membership classes, clearly showing from Scripture that we are called to serve one another, not to be served. It is why today we shall install members.

We are not people who just attend church together, but members of the same local church and members of the body of Christ worldwide, and universally. We are accountable to one another and serve one another, in love for our Lord and for each other.

Yet our churches are marked by people who claim to be Christian but don’t want to serve their brethren. They wish to be served only. They are happy to come to church and sit, get up immediately the sermon is over and leave. The Church is not a restaurant where we come to be served. It’s the household of God where His people, who are called by His name, come to serve Him by worshipping Him and serving one another using the gifts He has given them.

Like the Egyptians, Christians have been set free from the bondage of sin to serve the Lord. Paul says in Romans 6:18 that, “having been set free from sin, we have become slaves to righteousness.” Yet, again, so many people who claim to be Christian, think they have been set free to live the way they want. They think of their freedom like that from slave traders who came to our continent and took people and forced them to work in cotton fields.

So now they think that they have been set free to roam the lands and do whatever they want, not forced to do that which they don’t want, but free to pursue their desires, passions, and dreams. The children of Israel were not free to worship the Lord because they were serving Pharaoh. They were set free from Pharaoh to serve the Lord. You have been set free from your bondage to sin so that you may serve the Lord in righteousness.

You could not serve the Lord before. You were bound, in your will, in your desires, and in your efforts to serve sin as your master. But now God has set you free from your bondage to sin, from your bondage to pornography, from your bondage to pleasing the world, from your bondage to materialism (latest iPhone or Samsung), from your bondage to social media, from your bondage to seeking pleasure, from your bondage to greed and desire for wealth, from your bondage from wanting to be served instead of serving others.

You have been set free to serve God, not your pleasures.

The God who strikes in judgement calls people to serve Him in obedience. Will you heed the call?

GOD JUDGES THE HARDENED HEART

Because God calls all people to obedience, God judges the hardened heart.

While Moses and Aaron were marked by obedience to God, and while God calls His people out of bondage to serve Him obediently, the hardened heart is marked by disobedience to Him. Verse 16 marks out Pharaoh’s response to God’s commands; “But so far, you have not obeyed.”

Pharoah is hardened in his desire to keep the children of Israel as his servants. His heart has been hardened, emboldened by his magicians being able to replicate the sign Moses and Aaron did previously. What they did was not special, therefore he chose not to let the children of Israel go.

He is still rebelliously responding to Moses with these words, “Who is the LORD that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” Now Pharaoh must learn the hard way that He is not God. The LORD is God.

God instructs Moses and Aaron to strike the Nile so that it will turn into blood. Note what verse 17 says, it is the Lord who shall strike the Nile.” Even though Aaron raises His hand, it is at the LORD’s instruction, and the striking is by the LORD. He is the one who strikes in judgement of the hardened heart, not Moses or Aaron. Moses and Aaron simply did what they were commanded to do, as verse 20 says. Here, we have in one act, three distinct things happening.

The first plague strikes the very heart of Egyptian life, the Nile River. The Nile river was the source of life for Egypt which lies in a desert. It was the lifeblood of the nation from which they got food, drinking water, and water for their crops. It still is even today.

Sriking the Nile was a judgement of the Egyptian God called Hapi whom the Egyptians believed to be the source of life and fertility. God, sovereignly and majestically shows that it’s not Hapi who is the source of life and fertility but Yahweh. He is the one who sustains all life, including that in the Nile river. By turning the Nile into blood and destroying all the fish in it, God demonstrates His supremacy over this Egyptian god, and the natural world.

Secondly, God manifests His judgement against Pharaoh’s obstinance and refusal to acknowledge the God of Israel. Pharaoh was called to obedience but refused. Now he must be judged.

The magnitude of God’s judgement is seen in how comprehensive it is. It didn’t affect only the Nile but all sources of water in Egypt, including the water that was in their vessels of wood and vessels of stone. The Egyptians collected water from the Nile and stored it in cisterns made of wood and stone. These were not spared from the first plague.

And in this act, God demonstrates He is the Sovereign God. He is also the God who strikes in judgement against those who rebel against Him.

Some theologians have attempted to explain this strike or plague by claiming the Nile turned red due to silt that flows into the Nile during its flood season. But this does not explain how the water in their vessels of wood and stone also turned into blood. Also, the Bible clearly states in verse 20 that the water turned into blood. It does not say that water was like blood but that it turned into blood.

Blood therefore becomes the means of death. The Nile that was supposed to sustain life can no longer do so and becomes a symbol of death.

This historical account also shows us that the judgement of God against those who are hardened towards Him continues even today. In our NT passage in Romans 1:18-32, Paul lists three judgements towards people who have rejected the Lord. But God’s judgements are not arbitrary. He strikes in judgement because people have rejected Him. They have turned to pursue their lusts and so He strikes.

Romans 1:18 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Most people think that unbelievers or those who are unrepentant live the way they live because they do not know God. That if they could only hear about God, they will repent of their sins. The conclusion from Blaise Pascal’s wager is not a standalone view but one that is backed up by the Bible. They know the truth but suppress it. They are responsible for thin sin because they know What they ought to do.

Romans 1:19–20 ESV

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

It’s not like Pharaoh didn’t know God. He knew about God. It’s not like unbelievers don’t know about God. The Bible is clear that what can be known about God has been made plain to people through creation. So they are without excuse. No one through the ages of time has an excuse of not knowing God because what can be known about Him has been made plain to all mankind since the sixth day of creation.

Yes, God is Sovereign in the salvation and in the hardening of unbelievers. Yet those unbelievers are responsible for their sin because they willfully reject God to pursere their lusts and passions.

So what is their problem?

Romans 1:21–23 ESV

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

An outright rejection of God. People choose not to worship God. Idolatry is not a result of not knowing God. It’s a result of rejecting God. Like the lesson from Blaise Pascal, it’s not that men are not clever or do not know God. it’s that they have rejected God to pursue their passions.

Adam and Eve knew God, had seen God, had heard God walking in the garden, and had been given a command by God not to eat the forbidden fruit. They were not ignorant of who God was. They knew Him because He dwelt with them in the garden of Eden.

Why did they eat the fruit? “The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise…” She chose her passions, lusts, and desires over obedience to God. So did Pharaoh. And ever since then, that has been the plight of all the descendants of Adam. We are a stiff-necked people who reject God for our passions and desires.

Jesus, the King of glory, who was killed by sinful men in pursuit of their passions, said in John 3:19 about those who reject Him,

John 3:19–20 ESV

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Unbelievers have rejected God because of the love for their sins and dark deeds. Pharaoh followed his ancestors and so do all who reject the God who strikes in Judgement.

God judges them first by giving them over to follow their lusts and passions. Pharaoh was not a man who longed to obey God. He didn’t desire to do what God commanded. Rather, he longed to fulfil his dreams and desires which were in opposition to God.

While some may be uncomfortable by the statement that God hardened his heart, God simply allowed Pharaoh to live out his desires and judged him for it.

Romans 1:24 ESV

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

In his hardening, God does not create fresh evil in the hearts of men who long or desire to worship Him. He gives them up to the lusts in their hearts. The dishonouring of bodies in sexual immorality is not because of a sexual revolution or the advancement by our culture over all those before us. It is a judgement from God towards people who have rejected Him for the passions in their hearts.

The dishonourable passions of same sex unions are not a result of God’s love being expressed to each other in a multifaceted way. It is a judgement from God towards people who have rejected Him to follow their passions.  The malice, covetousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slandering, and all evil that we see play out today is nothing else except the judgement of God towards people who have rejected Him to pursue their passions.

Disobedience to parents, gossip, slander, atheism, heartlessness that we see people display, especially during these election times; the heartless behaviour of people in pursuit of their desires is a judgement of God towards those who rejected Him.

The heartless and ruthless leaders who have gone before, e.g. Hitler, and Amin and all the cruel things they did, and the heartless and ruthless leaders we have today, who torture their opponents, who mistreat those who disagree with them or are not aligned with them, who turn a blind eye to injustice or participate in it, who rig elections, who bribe opponents and unfairly reward those who support them are under the wrath of God.

Those things they do are God’s wrath and judgement towards them and ultimately will be eternally judged and punished.

What is shocking to see, though, is many Christians crying over and pursuing the very things that display His wrath towards rebellious people. Covetousness, greed, materialism are all marks of God’s judgement. Where people are becoming rich at the expense of others, where people are land grabbing, where people are rigging elections, where people are giving bad judgements in favour of the rich, these are all judgements from God.

But you find Christian praying that God may bless them like some of the rich godless people we see. Do you also want to partake in God’s judgement against the rebellious? Many people’s minds are so consumed by their desires that they see wealth and good things only as God’s blessings. They have no capacity to see them as God’s wrath poured out on those who have rejected Him.

Our churches are full of people who have not come to seek God but their passions. They spend overnights breaking, binding and loosing their desires with no interest in serving God and his people. The only reason they come to church is to pray the barriers to their dream lives away. They want their best life now and will spend sleepless nights and days without food to get them.

They are asking for the very things that God has given to the unrepentant and rebellious people as judgements.

The Psalmist says in Psalm 73 that he was envious of the arrogant when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. Many in the church see this prosperity and become envious of people, crying to God that, “how can you bless that unrighteous man and leave us who have come to you to suffer.”

The Psalmist even gets to the point of contemplating that “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.” And we have many in church who have uttered those very words because they have not received what they hoped for.

But this is the conclusion he comes to

Psalm 73:16–18 ESV

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.

He came to that understanding after he went into the sanctuary of God. That’s when he realised that their prosperity was not a blessing from God. Rather, God had set them in slippery places and makes them fall in ruin. They think they are enjoying life to the fullest yet they are walking to ruin and utter destruction.

By the way, disobedience to parents is marked as one of the judgements of God towards people who have rejected him (verse 30).

Have you come to God to seek your passions or to serve Him? There are others who claim the name of Christ yet live lives marked by deception, greed, and rebellion towards authority and their parents. There are many whose jobs are the result of deception. You lied on your CV to get to where you are. You will be shocked at how many people have jobs through these means, even in our highest institutions.

For others, their relationships are built on the bedrock that is deception. When they open their mouths, lies overwhelm any truth in them. They tell their wives they love them while sleeping with other women. What kind of love is that?

Others have borne children outside of wedlock and made their husbands believe they are the fathers. The government lab recently released statistics that said there is an increased number of applications for DNA testing on children. The worst part of the statistic was that over 90% of those tested were found to not be related to the fathers.

Another thing they found interesting was that women were also doing DNA testing on their children. They wondered why. It’s simple. The women were cheating on their husbands and did not know the father of their children. Relationships based on lies.

Telling the truth is as rare as a solar eclipse in Uganda. You have no children yet you have password, not only your phone, but on your messaging apps and camera app. What are you hiding that you don’t want your partner to see? Mbu security reasons, just in case my phone is stolen. Why then is your WhatsApp locked and your photos locked away in a secret folder? What kind of photos will the thief find that are so scandalous that they must be locked away?

If It’s only pictures, why hide them? What will the thief gain by seeing your mum and dad, your brothers and sisters, your colleagues, or your boyfriend/girlfriend?

Then for some of you, it’s demanding that your boyfriends or girlfriends, your husbands or your wives behave like those who are in judgement. “Her boyfriend buys her this, her husband bought her a car for push gift, his girlfriend does this for him, his wife etc., therefore, you should also do this for me.”

You have fallen headlong into the materialism of those under God’s judgement. That’s not to say that spouses should not do nice things for each other once in a while, but many of us have gone beyond the norm and now we demand what those in judgement are doing. You can hardly tell between a Christian and a worldy person when it comes to materialism.

For others, it’s the way the world works. “It’s impossible to do business honestly in Uganda,” as some say to justify their wicked ways. Brown envelops must exchange hands. Has it ever occurred to you that this is a judgement of God towards the corrupt? And yet here you are trying to justify your passions and rebellion to God.

The God who strikes in judgement is judging sinners. Do not partake in their judgement otherwise you will also be judged.

For many, these judgements are God hardening them and will ultimately lead to eternal destruction and punishment in hell.

Pharaoh’s wise men were able to replicate this judgement. The Bible does not tell us where they got the water from, but it tells us that they did what Moses and Aaron did, and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He did not even take it to heart. This was his reaction until he was finally destroyed with his army.

For seven days the nation suffered, digging along the Nile to find water, yet Pharaoh did not even take it to heart. He did not even consider that the LORD was more powerful than the god of the Nile.

Judgement can be mercy

Even us today we have those who have been hardened in their rebellion. They think God is blessing them, as God’s chosen people. They claim their wealth, their power, their influence, etc., are from God, yet they deny Him through their unrighteous deeds. They are under God’s wrath and will ultimately be judged for their rebellion, unless they repent.

The God whom he claimed not to know struck him in judgement. He is the God who strikes in judgement and He will strike all those who live in rebellion to Him, in this life and in the final judgement.

The words of the hymn we sang ring out

Who else commands all the host of heaven?

Who else could make every king bow down?

Who else can Whisper and darkness tremble

Only a holy God

The holy God strikes in judgement.

CONCLUSION

God is sovereign over all, in salvation and in hardening. Because God is sovereign in both, He is the God who strikes in judgement, striking those who are disobedient to Him.

His sovereignty should be a source of great comfort to His people, those who are called by His name. Jesus said in Matthew 10:28-30

Matthew 10:28–30 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Our God and saviour assures us that every aspect of their life is under the control of the Sovereign God. We, believers, have nothing to fear. God knows His people intimately to the point of knowing the number of hair on their heads. He is so intimately involved in their lives that nothing can happen to them outside of His sovereign will and control.

One of the questions I have been asked frequently is, “Can a Christian be bewitched?” With such assurance as that in Matthew 10, why do we worry about such things? Is our God not sovereign?

Yet many have built entire ministries on teachings and doctrines surrounding such questions, because they do not know the LORD who is sovereign. I recently heard a man talking about smoked fish chasing someone in their dreams. Smoked fish? Church, what has become of us? Do you know the Lord that you should obey Him or are you pursuing your passions, blaming demons and smoked fish for our failures?

Dear Christian, it does not matter whether you can be bewitched or not, it does not matter whether evil can befall you. What matters is that God is sovereignly governing all things. Should evil befall you by the hands of sinners, rest assured that He is a God who strikes in judgement. Vengeance is His. He will repay.

Becaus e is soverign in salvation, you can pray to Him for the salvation of your family and friends; because He is sovereign over evil doers, you do not have to worry about evil. Even if evil befalls you, because he is sovereign over it, you can trust that it is working for your good. Because He is sovereign over Satan, you do not have to worry about some demon you heard about from some wayward pastor on radio. Because He is sovereign, you can trust Him in all circumstances.

But if you are living in rebellion to God, because He is sovereign, you are under His judgement. Because He is soverign and because He strikes in judgement, you will ultimately be judged and sent to eternal punishment in hell.

Yet, as long as you’re still alive, there is still hope for you. As we read today in our call to worship,

Psalm 95:7–9 ESV

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

God offers hope to all who will come to Him in repentance and obedience. Repent and believe, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

While the Nile was turned into blood, destroying all the fish in it as a sign of judgement, the blood of Jesus becomes a symbol of redemption and salvation. All who believe in the God who strikes in judgement and live obedient to Him, will be saved. They will live in infinite joy and pleasure in the presence of the sovereign God.

This first sign by Moses, turning water into blood also foreshadows another sign by the one who poured out His blood for our redemption. In John 2:1-11, Jesus turned water into wine. Water, that was the mode of judgement in Egypt is now a life-giving source of pleasure at the wedding in Cana.

Jesus Christ is that God who will strike in judgement His enemies who rejected Him. Yet He is the God who saves His people and will reward those who obey Him.

Like the song we sang, Good and gracious king,

I approach the throne of glory

Nothing in my hands I bring

But the promise of acceptance

From a good and gracious King

I give to you my burden

As you give me your strength

Come and fill me with your Spirit

As I sing to you this praise

This promise of acceptance is available to whoever will call on His name.

Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. You can see one of the elders after the church