Sunday, November 2, 2014
Hope In A Time Of Judgement
Lamentations 3.19-26
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him.
We need to call to mind things about the LORD when difficulties come. We so often are focused on the problems. God wants us to pray before anything we might do.
Jeremiah's reason for hope was not in things improving. He would not live to see that day. It was not in listening to motivational speakers or reading books about being the best you can be, your best life now or becoming a better you. He was very depressed and understandably so.
He had just watched the nation cave in and the capital, Jerusalem, be destroyed. He saw the remains of the city which as rubble and smoke and ruins. The temple was gone. With it the worship center that Jerusalem had been. The feasts could no longer be celebrated, nor the Day of Atonement. He watched the treasures of the temple dating back to Solomon carried off to Babylon. They has entered the sanctuary of the LORD and defiled it and destroyed it. He is depressed and down.
He watched the city of Jerusalem go from being the Splendor of the Whole Earth to rubble and ruin, a place where people now passed by and laughed and mocked. The gates were covered in dust on the ground and the wall had been breached. The city once teeming with people is quiet and what is left of it is a terrifying site. He had held the hand of the nation as it spiritually died.
Yet He has hope!
The reason for his hope from start to finish is the LORD. His hope was in the LORD and what he knew about Him. So should it be with us! Jesus never fails!
Hoping in the LORD, not for things to get better. Hoping in the LORD because of Who He is. Reveling in His Attributes. Lost in wonder and love for Christ. Letting the character of God overwhelm us.
Jeremiah was an example of a faithful man, a man who did what God wanted him to do and did not see results of repentance, the salvation of people or the nation being spared judgment.
And yet he has Hope.
He recalls several things about the LORD that lifts his heart out of depressions and despair over Jerusalem and Judah:
1. The LORD's Great Love
His goodness.
With all the wickedness in the world we need to remember:
The LORD is good.
Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him. Jeremiah felt that, he experienced it. He had survived the invasion of the Babylonians. He knew it was because of God's Great Love.
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.
His grace is greater than all the sin in the world.
Psalm 25:8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He instructs sinners in His ways. The whole lament is because of His Grace! He is speaking to Jeremiah and through Jeremiah after the nation had rejected his message from God.
Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Jeremiah found that was true in times of national judgment.
Psalm 85:12 The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.
Psalm 145:9 The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.
The goodness of the LORD shining through His Love.
His kindness
Romans 2:4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
NKJV
Titus 3:4-6 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
God's kindness to people before they turn to Him and as they turn and after they are following Him they find out that His lovingkindness is wonderful.
Psalm 26:3 For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth.
Psalm 42:8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,And in the night His song shall be with me—A prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 63:3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.
2. The LORD's Stedfast Compassion
To love deeply, have tender affection, mercy
Psalm 86:15 But You, LORD, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Psalm 103:8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
Psalm 145:9 The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.
Jesus has compassion.
Mark 6:34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Mark 8:2 “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.
Luke 15:20 So he got up and went to his father.“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
He cares about you. He feels your pain and sorrow. He knows the deep needs of your heart. He knows the inexpressible things you feel.
The genius of our Blessed Hope Grief Group is Him showing up and speaking through others.
3. The LORD's Great Faithfulness
Psalm 26:2-3 Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for I have always been mindful of Your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on Your faithfulness.
Psalm 36:5 Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies.
Psalm 71:22 I will praise You with the harp for Your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to You with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.
Psalm 89:8 Who is like You, LORD God Almighty? You, LORD, are mighty, and Your faithfulness surrounds you.
Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 117:2 For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.
Psalm 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all His ways and faithful in all He does.
Psalm 145.13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made.
firmness, fidelity, steadfastness, steadiness
Dependable
As I think about the faithfulness of God in my life I can certainly relate to the prophet Jeremiah. Things have not always gone the way I had wanted them to (people I prayed for coming to Him, reaching new people, seeing things happen, praying for people to be healed) but He has been a constant, my Rock. As I look back I can see His Hand of Faithfulness and goodness working in my life. In times of devastation He has come to me in ways to wonderful to explain. He has kept His Word. There is goodness in this.
Double Edged Sword
God is so faithful. As Jeremiah was looking at this devastated city, that desolation was a testimony of God's faithfulness. God had said to those people, "If you continue in your wickedness, if you continue in your idolatry, I am going to bring the Babylonian army against you, and they're going to destroy you, and they're going to break down the walls of this city. And those that aren't killed by the famine will be killed by the sword. And those that aren't killed by the sword will be killed by the pestilence. But I'm going to destroy you out of this holy mountain."
If you are facing difficulty today, look at God's faithfulness. If it weren't for His Great Love none of would be here today or anywhere for that matter! We would have been consumed!
Think about His Great Love, Compassion and His Great Faithfulness.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
The Gates of Jerusalem
Lamentation 2.9
Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars He has broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and her prophets no longer find visions from the LORD.
Certainly the second part of this verse is the more severe and serious spiritual issue. The two go together in some ways however. As long as the gates of Jerusalem stood the law was able to be observed, the prophets could speak and the king was on his throne. With the gates being broken down and covered in the dust and rubble, the city was no more. No more prophets, priests of kings, just rubble and ruin.
Psalm 87:1-2 He has founded his city on the holy mountain. The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwellings of Jacob.
Her gates were very special.
1. The Importance of Gates.
Entrance to the cities.
one of the Hebrew meanings of the word gate is "to split open".
They opened the way into the city in the day time.
Protection from the enemy.
They were the most vulnerable part of the wall of a city. The attacking army would often try to get through them.
To posses the gate was to possess the city.
Genesis 22:17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
Lookouts were posted on the gates to see the enemy approaching from afar.
The time of attacks were usually during the watches of the night.
Place of commerce
A further meaning of the word gate in Hebrew is "to calculate"
Rooms were provided for merchants.
Buying and selling took place there. Weights, etc. to measure out grains, etc.
Place of meeting
Another Hebrew meaning of the word gate is "to reason out".
The shade provided by the high walls made it a good place for meetings.
The gate was also a place of public speaking with the listeners sitting on stone benches. It was the place where local justice was dispensed.
Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the assembly at the gate he has nothing to say.
Proverbs 24.7
2. The Meaning of the Gates.
Deep History
Names tell the story
Let's look at four of the gates which were part and still are a part of the Old City of Jerusalem. By Old we mean the walled city.
The Sheep Gate
Nehemiah 3: 1 And Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests. And they built the Sheep Gate. They sanctified it and set up its doors. Even to the Tower of Meah they sanctified it, to the Tower of Hananeel.
It was through the Sheep Gate that the lambs were brought for the temple sacrifices. They were brought here and taken to the Pool of Bethesda where they were washed and examined.
The Golden Gate
Also called the Gate Called Beautiful or the Eastern Gate.
It was though this gate that Jesus rode on Palm Sunday. Bible scholars believe it is the gate through which He will ride through again after He returns to earth.
Acts 3:1-2 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.
This was the only gate that went directly into the Temple left. It has been walled up by the Muslims to still Messianic Hopes. It ill be opened again.
Psalm 24:7 Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in.
The Damascus Gate
This is the gate that if you follow the road you will go to Damascus. It was also the gate through which Jesus carried the cross to Golgotha.
No doubt the Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus went out that gate on his way to Damascus to arrest more Christians and met Jesus on the way!
The Dung Gate
This is the gate out of which the refuse of the city is carried.
Paul, the apostle words are very interesting:
Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
3. The Spiritual Blessing of the Gates
Psalm 122:1-4 I rejoiced with those who said to me,“Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up—the tribes of the LORD—to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel.
Psalm 147:12-14 Extol the LORD, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion. He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
Yet the gates of Jerusalem in 586 were all destroyed, brought down. The horror of what Jeremiah saw and wrote about is really nearly unimaginable.
On September 11, 2001 two very large towers came down in what was the first capital of or nation and the financial capital of the world. It represented the commerce America did with the world. The World Trade Center Twin Towers. Then the building that represents our military was struck and severely damaged. There was great loss of life. The greatest in civilian death in our history. It was symbolic spiritually as well. those who launched the attack were from the same area of Israel's and Judah's enemies in 586 BC.
What gates are being broken down in America by the Enemy of Our Souls?
*The family
*Marriage
*Purity
* Economic and Financial Solvency
*Proper Talk We have become a profane nation. God's name is profaned.
*Respect
Why do we worry about Ebola when the very foundations upon which this country were built are being destroyed?
Psalm 11:3 When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
4. The Gates of Hell.
Where decisions were made for the city.
The gates of hell may prevail against America but never against the Church of Jesus Christ!
The places where the Devil lays plans to destroy the church. The places where he meet with his demons, etc. All the calculating will not overcome it.
Proverbs 21.30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
We are in the Ark of Safety. We are in Christ Jesus. As Jesus said:
John 10:27-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand.
5. The gates of the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 21.25
These gates have no doors. They are never shut.
No night there.
No fear of any attack.
No enemy.
No danger.
no sin.
The Gates of Jerusalem were destroyed in Judgement from God. Jesus died outside the city gate to make His people holy through his own blood. He is preparing a place for us, the New Jerusalem which will come out of heaven one day, like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. Our names are written down in heaven. We are citizens of the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 21.12-14
It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Revelation 21.22-27
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
No See I Told You So's
Lamentations 1
Jeremiah had prophesied for years about the sins of Jerusalem. He had a difficult ministry to say the least.
Here are some of his struggles in his own words. He had grown up in Jerusalem. He had watched the people come for its feasts. He had seen the city overflow with people. Now it is desolate, like a widow whose husband left her. He is looking down on the city from a vantage point.
There is on the site of Golgotha a cave that is called Jeremiah's Grotto. This cave known as Jeremiah's Grotto comprises a part of the face of the skull; hence the name Golgotha. Because as you look at the cliff, with these caves that are there in the cliff take the appearance of a skull. One of these caves is called Jeremiah's Grotto. It is interesting that from those caves there on the site of Golgotha, you have a tremendous view of the city of Jerusalem, for Golgotha is actually the top of what was once Mount Moriah. And it looks down over the city of Jerusalem.
Tradition declares that Jeremiah sat in this grotto when he wrote the Book of Lamentations, and there he wept and cried over the desolation of the city of Jerusalem as he saw its ruins, as he saw the walls destroyed, as he saw the buildings leveled. And from this vantage, he wrote this book.
In the Septuagint, which is a translation of the scriptures into Greek that was done by seventy Hebrew scholars about 200 B.C., they prefaced the book of Lamentations with these words, "And it came to pass, that after Israel had been carried away captive, and Jerusalem made desolate, Jeremiah sat weeping and lamented this lament over Jerusalem and said, 'How doth the city sit solitary.'" So, they have that as a prologue to the book of Lamentations, and it was picked up and put in the Vulgate.
There were those who told him and the inhabitants of Jerusalem that the LORD did not say what he was saying.
Jeremiah 14:14-16 Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who are prophesying in My Name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. And the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them, their wives, their sons and their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve.
The spiritual standing of a nation or a city or a church is shown by the intimacy with the LORD. Jerusalem was like a widow because she forsook the LORD. She left Him so He withdrew His Presence, Protection and Blessing.
Jeremiah was persecuted.
Yet, when his predictions vindicated him, he did not throw it in their faces of the few who remained. He couldn't say anything to the inhabitants of the city because the city was desolate. (I told you so)
He didn't comfort his own soul with the vindication (I told them so). There is no, "If you only listened to me! If you had not mistreated me!" There is no rejoicing in himself being right by the weeping prophet. There is no sense that they had what was coming to them, look how they treated me.
The lament shows the real character of the man. He wept. He was broken like Josiah. Jeremiah understood what Samuel struggled with. It was not him they were rejecting but rather the LORD and His Word.
Jeremiah proclaimed judgement but when it happened he offered grace and mercy and proclaimed it while continuing to be known as the weeping prophet.
1. We Must Stand Up For The Truth- Jesus Christ.
Stand up for Him
Stand against sin
Stand for righteousness and purity.
Pastors in Houston, TX today. Pray for them.
2. We Must Not Lose Our Concern For the Lost
They may be unrepentant.
They may be obnoxious.
We must be true.
3. We Must Not Become Judgmental Even If Someone Is Suffering Due to Sin.
Perhaps the strangest (and most distorted) things are said when someone suffers. If you have any doubts about that just look at Job or Jesus. Very few comforted them as they suffered.
If they have sinned they need our prayers. Jeremiah's Lament is full of pity, not mushy sentimentalism but true compassion and pain for the city of Jerusalem.
He felt the pain they were going through. There is no hint of judgmentalism here. There is no saying, "If you had only listened to me you could have avoided this horror."
There are many ways we can say, "I told you so."
You should have listened to me.
That is what you get.
Good for you!
We should not even think these things!
3. We Must Grieve When The Consequences of Sin Come.
No rejoicing over evil.
No rejoicing over judgement.
No rejoicing over someone getting "paid back" for the sins they have committed.
Never say about anyone, "They got what they deserve." Have mercy. Have pity. They reap what they sow but by the time the harvest comes in they know.
Hosea 6:6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Zechariah 1:16 “Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the LORD Almighty.
Blessed are the merciful for they will obtain mercy.
Mercy- helping the afflicted.
Our response to things people have come into their lives as a consequence of their sin should be that of mercy and compassion and a sense of what they lost due to their foolishness and rebellion.
Pastor Chuck Smith from Why Grace Changes Everything:
Years ago a close friend operated a delivery business to a grocery store. During his rounds he met a wife of a man who owned a small market. They began to kid around with one another and, before long, they were meeting regularly to drink coffee and to talk. They soon fancied themselves in love, left their families , and moved in together. That's when this man's wife, also a dear friend, called us and asked if we would pray for him.
Meanwhile, the minister of the church where our friends had been attending paid a visit to the man. The pastor told him that he had a vision of a black hearse and if this man didn't leave this woman and go back to his wife, they were going to carry him out the room feet-first. This heavy handed approach only made the man more angry and entrenched him in his immoral decision. His wfe then called me and asked if I would go and talk to him.
I agreed to go and found my friend living in a shabby garage apartment on the bad side of town. When I saw this filthy little home, I was struck by how much he had lost. His wife and daughters were beautiful people. His home was in a wonderful area. This man had sold his soul for a crust of bread. As he came to the door, a look of shame covered his face. He was very polite and invited me to come in and sit down. As I looked around at my friend's new life I thought, "Oh God! How could he give up so much for so little?"
My heart was breaking because I loved this man. The sight of what he had fallen into tore me apart. I found myself unable to conceal my feelings, and much to my embarrassment I began to weep. I was overcome with grief, and when his lover emerged from the kitchen all I could do was sob. I finally got so embarrassed I said, "I'm very sorry. I came over to see you, but I can't talk right now." I got up, left, and went home feeling like a fool. Here my good friend's wife wanted me to visit him and make an appeal for reconciliation, and all I could do was sit there and cry.
The next morning I received a phone call with news that left me in shock. My friend had returned to his wife and family just hours after my visit.
What did God use to achieve this miraculous healing of a fractured relationship? Not a holier than thou attitude, to be certain. His Spirit had created in me a spirit of meekness and brokenness that ed to a joyful reconciliation. I thought I had blundered terribly- but I discovered that whenever we choose to walk in the Spirit, God delights to work powerfully in stunning and unexpected ways.
Jeremiah lamented because the people of Jerusalem and Judah did not listen to God's Word. They suffered immense loss needlessly.
God did not give up on His people. Even in Babylon He sent them prophets. One of them was Ezekiel. Ezekiel ministry began much like the story Chuck Smith told.
Ezekiel 3:15 I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Aviv near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days—deeply distressed.
A brokenness in our own heart is needed when ministering to people who have messed up in life. Jeremiah had it, Ezekiel had it and of course our Supreme Example is Jesus. He came down the hardest on the self righteous. He had mercy on those who were lost. Matthew 9:36 When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
No, "See I told you so's". Have mercy. Have compassion. Let your heart break over the things that break the heart of God.
For the audio of this message go to:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
