“God’s Fiery Judgment”

(Psalm 21:9)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
1. This week, the fires in Southern California have dominated the news.
a. Mainly because of their danger and the destruction they caused:
(i) As of Friday, 490,000 acres were burned, which is an area about half the
size of Rhode Island.
(ii) 1,800 homes were lost, 80% of them in San Diego County.
(iii) Property damage in San Diego County alone is more than 1 Billion
dollars.
(iv) Over 1,000,000 people were evacuated during the course of the fires,
though many have returned home.
(v) 1 person was killed by the fire, many were injured.
(vi) An arsonist who was caught in the act was killed while fleeing from the
police.

b. I hope that during this time, you have been praying, for:
(i) The protection of any family or friends you have in Southern California.
(ii) Our brothers and sisters in Christ who live there.
(iii) The firemen fighting those fires.
(iv) Those without Christ that they might be saved.
(v) And that the Lord would use this for His glory.

2. But to pray as effectively as possible, we need to know what is behind these

fires:
a. Not the necessarily what the fire investigators are looking for: A downed
power pole, a spark from the broken wire, the flare that fell in the dry brush,
the cigarette carelessly thrown from the car window, or even the arsonist
responsible.
b. But the reason the Lord brought these fires:
(i) Remember, God is absolutely sovereign: He is the One who planned
everything that comes to pass – even sin – so that He might overrule it for
His glory and the good of His church.
(a) We saw this over the last few weeks with Paul and Silas in Philippi:
(1) The Lord brought them there sovereignly.
(2) He allowed the demon-possessed servant girl to follow them.
(3) He allowed them to be beaten and thrown into prison without trial.
(4) But He did this to convert the Philippian jailer, his family, and
perhaps other inmates; and to give legal protection to Paul and Silas
and the church at Philippi for a while from any further persecution.

(b) God works even the sins (moral evil) of men to His glory.
 2

(ii) What we need to understand this morning is that the same is true
regarding natural evil.
(a) Was 9/11 and the war on terrorism that began in 2001 a part of His
plan?
(b) What about the Cedar Fires in 2003?
(c) Hurricane Katrina in 2005?
(d) And these fires in Southern California?
(e) God planned these as well; they didn’t take Him by surprise:
(1) He knows everything that will ever happen.
(2) He knows what His creatures will do.
(3) He knows how, when and where He will intervene.
(4) The fact that these things are happening means He has willed them.
(5) He didn’t start the fires: they were started by men, either on
purpose or not.
(6) But they were a part of His plan.

(iii) The question we should ask is: Why did God bring them? What is His
purpose behind them?
(a) Certainly to glorify His name and to work them together for His
church.
(b) But He also brought them as an act of judgment and as a picture of
coming judgment.

B. Preview.
1. Our passage this morning was written by David – by the inspiration of the Spirit
– to express:
a. His thankfulness for God’s blessing to him as king,
b. His trust in Him as Lord.
c. His testimony of how the Lord answered his prayer and exalted him as king.
d. How the Lord had spared his life.
e. How He blessed Him in so many ways.
f. But especially how the Lord would bless him by finding and destroy all His
own (the Lord’s) enemies, which were also the king’s enemies, making his
kingdom secure.
g. Understanding that the office of king in Israel was pointing to Christ in His
office as King, and understanding what we do from the NT as to what Christ
will do to His enemies on the day of His judgment, we can’t escape the fact
that what the Spirit of God had in mind in verse 9 is the fiery judgment God
has prepared for all the wicked on that day.

2. There is a Day of Judgment coming – a day in which the Lord will judge all
men according to what they have done, a day when the Lord will cast all the
wicked into hell, as well as gather His own into heaven.
 3

a. Because this day is coming, and because of the wickedness that exists in the
world today, God breaks out from time to time in judgment – such as through
these fires – giving us warnings of the final judgment.
b. The fact that so few were killed is an act of God’s mercy; that so few
buildings out of the number that could possible have been destroyed is
mercy; the fact that God’s people have reason to praise Him now means that
He has showed us mercy.
c. God is mercifully warning us to turn away from our sins, because further
judgment is coming.

3. This morning, let’s consider three things:

a. First, there is a day of judgment coming.
b. Second, the Lord often gives us glimpses of that judgment in this world.
c. Finally, how we can best use what we have seen of this judgment.

II. Sermon.
A. First, the Lord tells us in His Word that there is a day of judgment coming.
1. The first voice that broke the 400 year silence after the closing of the Old
Testament canon, was that of John the Baptist, calling for repentance.
a. Matthew writes, “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the
wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, ‘The voice
of one crying in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of the Lord, make His
paths straight!”’” (3:1-3).
b. And why were they to repent? Because of the wrath of God which was
coming: “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for
baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from
the wrath to come?’” (v. 7).
c. John was undoubtedly referring to AD 70, which was then about 40 years in
the future.
d. But he meant what that event pointed to as well: the final judgment.
e. Judgment was coming, and so they needed to get ready for it: they needed to
run from their sins to the only One who could save them: the Lord Jesus
Christ.

2. Jesus, during His earthly ministry, also told us that day was coming and what
would happen then:
a. “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him,
then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered
before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right,
and the goats on the left” (Matt. 25:31-33).
(i) The sheep are those who repented of their sins and who submitted to
Christ by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those sick and in
prison, showing hospitality to strangers (vv. 35-36).
 4

(ii) But the goats are those who didn’t, whose lives were characterized by
sin, selfishness, and an unwillingness to do the Lord’s work.

b. On that day, all our works will be judged, our sins weighed in the balance,
and a righteous judgment will be delivered.
(i) Those who trusted in Christ will have had their sins washed away and will
be clothed in Christ’s righteousness through faith in His name. They will
hear the divine benediction: “Come, you who are blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (v.
34).
(ii) But those who didn’t trust Him will be judged for every wicked thought,
word and deed, and will be sentenced accordingly: “Depart from Me,
accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil
and his angels” (v. 41).
(a) Every sin they committed will only aggravate their punishment.
(b) Those who have sinned more, who have committed more serious sins,
who have sinned against greater light, will receive greater punishment:
(1) “That slave who knew his master' s will and did not get ready or act
in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who
did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will
receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much
will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will
ask all the more” (Luke 12:47-48).
(2) “Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go
out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I
say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and
Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city” Matt. 10:14-15).

(c) But those who sinned less, committed less grievous offenses, who
sinned against less light, will be punished less severely: however even
their judgment will be unbearable.
(d) And it is quite possible that their judgment will continue to increase as
they continue to sin in hell through their blasphemous and evil
thoughts, words and intentions.
(e) God warns us that there is a day of judgment coming.

B. Second, the Lord often warns us that this day is coming through the breaking of
His wrath into history, such as with these fires.
1. He is the One who brings all things into the world:
a. But He tells us as much through Isaiah the prophet, “I am the LORD, and
there is no other; besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you
have not known Me; that men may know from the rising to the setting of the
sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other,
the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating
calamity; I am the LORD who does all these” (45:5-7; italics added).
 5

b. Who brought the calamity on Israel in AD 70? The Lord through the armies
of Rome.
c. This was God’s wrath on Israel, the wrath John said they should flee from,
the wrath that pointed to the final judgment and wrath of God.

2. But this wasn’t an isolated event.

a. Paul tells us, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within
them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been
clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are
without excuse” (Rom. 1:18-20; italics added).
(i) The wrath of God is continually being revealed (present tense, continuing
action) from heaven.
(ii) Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
(iii) It is a warning to men to turn.

b. Is God warning us? What condition is our nation or our state in today? Is it
good or bad in God’s eyes?
(i) It shouldn’t surprise us that the Lord would send these fires.
(ii) If we understand His holiness, the only thing that should surprise us is
that He didn’t destroy us a long time ago.
(iii) He didn’t for the sake of His elect, His people present and yet to be
gathered.
(iv) But let’s not miss the point: God is storing up wrath for the wicked, and
sometimes His cup overflows in the present.

C. Finally, seeing that God does send judgments that are warnings of future judgment,
how can we make the best use of them?
1. First, we need to remember that these are not merely judgments, but warnings
calculated to turn us away from our sins.
a. God brings calamities on us because we have turned from Him as a nation.
b. Samuel told Israel, “But you have today rejected your God, who delivers you
from all your calamities and your distresses” (1 Sam. 10:19).
(i) To embrace God is to embrace the One who turns these things away.
(ii) But to turn away from God is to turn away from the One who brings
calamity to remind us that He is holding us accountable.
(iii) This is His voice calling to us to listen and repent. Thomas Vincent,
addressing God’s purposes in the Great Plague of London (1665) that
killed anywhere from 75,000 to 100,000 people, and the Great Fire of
London (1666) that destroyed the homes of 70,000 of London’s 80,000
inhabitants, writes in the introduction to his book God’s Terrible Voice in
the City, “‘Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be
afraid? Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? The
lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can
 6

but prophesy?’ Amos iii.6.8. . . . Certainly we in London have lately

heard the cry of stones and walls, of timber and beams in their fall and
flames; I mean in the late dreadful fire, which hath laid our Jerusalem in
heaps; or rather, we have heard the voice of God in this and other terrible
things, which have come upon us: let none then rebuke, if one so unfit, do
make an attempt to speak something of the meaning of London’s fire, or
of God’s terrible voice in this and other judgments, when by the mouth of
babes God can declare his will” (pp. 1-2).

2. Because the Lord has called to us again, we need to listen, to examine our lives
and repent of our sins.
a. We need to do this individually: repenting of those sins we’re aware of, as
well as asking God to search us and reveal our hidden faults (Psalm 19:12).
b. We need to do this as churches: turning from false doctrine, man-centered
worship, and everything displeasing to God to that worship that He desires in
Spirit and in truth.
c. And as a nation: turning from all of our wickedness and sin. These fires
were not sent on good and innocent people, but on a people who for the most
part have rejected Him and chosen evil.

3. Finally, we need to pray for our nation:

a. That God would turn us from our sins, that He would raise up godly leaders
in the church and state, and that He would turn the hearts of this people to
Himself.
b. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin brings God’s wrath down on the whole
nation (Prov. 14:34).
c. If we would see God’s hand of judgment turned away and His face of
blessing revealed, we must pray that the Lord would revive this nation and
turn us into His paths.
d. These fires were clearly judgment and a warning of judgment for our sins,
but we can make good use of what the Lord has said, if we will only listen.
Amen.