The following sermon is by John MacArthur, pastor, author, and Bible teacher with Grace

to You.

If you've never contacted Grace to You, we want to send you a free booklet by John that

unpacks fifteen Greek words in Scripture that explain a stunning paradox, how a God

of perfect justice can show mercy to sinners who deserve only punishment.

Request your free booklet titled 15 Words of Hope by writing to Hope at gty.org.

This offer is good in North America and Europe through June 2023.

And now unleashing God's truth one verse at a time.

Here's Grace to You Bible Teacher John MacArthur.

Well, John, you have stirred a lot of discussion both online and around a lot of water coolers,

discussion and a little bit of debate with an open letter that you sent to the governor

of California.

And then you followed that up with a sermon to your flock and you were going to be a

to your flock at Grace Community Church later that same week.

And that message is so important that we're going to preempt our normal Grace to You broadcasts

tomorrow and the next day.

But I wanted to spend today talking with you about this letter, why you wrote it and what happened.

You made some comments at Grace Church a week before the letter went out that sort of

let people know it was coming.

We're going to play those and let our listeners hear that.

Now, before you go, I have something that I want to talk to you about.

Change the subject for a moment that is on my heart and it's very, very important to me

...