When God is determined to act, nothing can stop him. He has held back in his patience for a very long time, and that delay was only take advantage of by sinners to sin even more. What is the point of further delay? It will achieve no change of mind on the part of intransigent sinners. Do men call out for mercy? That call is utterly unconvincing, because God knows it is only a ruse to escape his wrath. Real calls for mercy have repentance attached to them. They recognize that judgment is just, and they have enormously provoked the Lord to his face. But when the wicked cry for mercy, God knows that they have no intention of changing. It is just further attempts to manipulate him. We shall not be able to be delivered in the final judgment unless we have deeply humbled ourselves before God, acknowledged our sin to him. Only then can we be forgiven by Jesus Christ and know him and walk with him.
When can we possibly give to God to buy off his wrath? There will be nothing that the mighty and the rich, the brilliant, the intellectuals can do, or can think of, to avert the final judgment of God if they are unsaved. All that we have comes from him. Can we profit him by giving back what was his in the first place? Every good gift he has given us is only, as it were, on loan to us; we do not really own anything. But neither are the things we have really capable of pleasing him: ‘Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?’ (Psalm 50:13). What are our riches worth to him, even if we were willing to part with them? What he requires is our love, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, but even that does not profit him; ‘we have [only] done that which was our duty to do’ (Luke 17:10).