THE PERSUASION OF GOD
Jeremiah 2:1-2 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
I enjoy hearing a testimony of two people who have enjoyed a long and wonderful marriage.
I have met a number of couples that have been married for 65 years and more that have told me how happy in love they still are.
I've met widows that had such a wonderful love relationship that they do not desire to ever marry again.
I have met people married twenty, thirty and forty years that are very much in love.
On the other hand, I've met those that you don't have to be around very long before you could see the love was gone. They didn't enjoy being together.
He went one way and she went another way and they had just accepted this as married life. This is what had happened to Judah. So God tells Jeremiah, I want you to go and reason again with my people.
Isaiah tried to reason with them 100 years ago and they would not listen. God seemed to say, "Jeremiah, go and try one more time."
I - GOD REMINDS JUDAH OF THEIR COURTING DAYS: 2-3
2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
3 Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.
a. God says in verse 2, "Do you remember our wedding day?"
b. God says in verse 3, "Do you remember our worshipping days?"
a. Wedding Day -
God begins by saying, "I remember you." Those words had to strike a deep cord in Judah's heart. For when God called them, they were nothing. They were poor and naked and undone.
But, God loved them. He chose them and privileged them to be his wife. He gave to them what the world did not have. He gave them priest, prophets, promises and prophecies that no other nation had.
Through this nation came the Messiah, the Savior of the world, who would one day be King of kings and Lord of lords.
God then said, "I remembered the kindness of thy youth." When Israel was young, they made a lot of mistakes. They ended up in Egypt, the world, far from God. God revealed to them his might, arm of salvation and delivered Israel from Egypt and led them to Mount Sinai.
At Mount Sinai God revealed to Israel his majesty. They said to Moses, "Whatever the Lord says, we will do." We will submit our lives completely to the Lord. God says, I remember your youth, when you loved me and revered me.
God says, I remember ...the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
God not only revealed His might and majesty but His miracles to Israel. God says, when I loved you and led you throughout the wilderness, you trusted me, you leaned on me. You followed my way. You obeyed me. "Hey, Judah, do you remember those days. When you came to the promise land, it was not sown. That means it was in war and turmoil, but you were willing to sacrifice your all for me. I loved you and you loved me.
I thank God for a fun marriage. I am having more fun today being married than I did 36 years ago. Marriage can be fun and a couple can be in loved in their elderly years more than in their younger years, if they know what love is all about. If they can learn to live for the other and serve the other and die to self.
Jeremiah is attempting to get Judah to remember how good God was to them in their courting days. It made them worship Him.
b. Worshipping Day -
3 Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.
There was a time when Judah worshipped God with all their heart. There was a time when God was first place in their lives. Their worship of God was like a couple strolling hand in hand in love. It mattered not if they were in a park or walking in their neighborhood, but they were in love.
In those days, Jeremiah hints to Judah, Don't you remember how God fought for you. God protected you from anyone who spoke evil against you. God devour them or destroyed them. He was your husband, He was your Lord.
Sometimes God's people forget that it is God who provides for them and it is God who protects them. And that is because God fights for us because He favors us.
II - GOD'S REBUKE OF JUDAH FOR THEIR CONCEITED WAYS: 4-7
4 Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
5 Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
God says, a. Consider my shortcomings (4-5)
Jeremiah, probably with a tear in his eye says God wants to know, "What iniquities have your fathers found in me?" How have I mistreated you? How did I fail you?
God knew if Judah would take the time to think on God, they would have to conclude, "God you have never treated us wrong. You have given us everything we have. You gave us freedom. You gave us salvation. You gave us our family. You gave us the wealth we have. They knew God was holy. They knew God was just. They knew God never made a mistake. They knew God was sovereign.
They would have to say, "You and you alone are the supplier of all good things."
God tells them the reason that judgment had fallen on Israel and would soon fall on Judah was because ( 5) ... they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
In a marriage relationship, often both people are at fault. But, when one has a beautiful relationship with the Lord and one day that person wakes up and realizes something is missing, it isn't God who had moved. His love is as wonderful today as it was the first day He saved you.
God says, I haven't changed. I haven't moved. I still love you as I have always loved you. But, you walked away from the marriage.
When God saves a person. He calls us to repent. He calls us to come out of the world. He calls us to himself for He is a jealous God. He doesn't want to share us with anybody.
You want to know something. I feel the same way about my wife. I don't want to share her with another. I want her to give her love only to me. And that is what God wants from us as well.
What took Judah away from God? They began a life of vanity.
I love synonyms. Most of you know that synonym means that which is similar or the same.
Words that are synonymous with vanity are narcissism, self-importance, conceit, pride, emptiness, worthless and many more.
Judah had begun to live for self. When we begin to live to please self rather than living to please our Lord, soon we forget Him and soon we lose our first love.
Therefore let me conclude. God has no shortcomings. There is no logical reason for us not to love Him with all our hearts and give to Him our best. The only reason we don't is because we have become narcissistic.
In God's rebuke of Judah, he says, Consider my shortcomings? Next he says, Consider my Salvation.
b. Consider my salvation (6-7)
6 Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
1. God's salvation is a place of special providence:
Egypt was a place of bondage. They felt like they were in prison. The leaders of Israel begged the leaders of Egypt to let them go but to no avail. When Moses arrived, he put on display nine mighty miracles from God, but still Pharaoh refused to let them God.
It took the Passover Lamb, which pictures the Salvation of our Lord, to set Israel free.
Even in Salvation, life is a wilderness. Life is filled with lustful pits, financial pits and marriage pits. Life is filled with desert places. At times a person feels empty, lonely and thirsty for something and they know not what? Well that something is God's touch, God's love.
In the wilderness of this world, there is no joy, no love and no peace. Only in God's glorious salvation can we find a purpose in living.
Before God's salvation to Israel in Egypt, the desert was a place which no man could dwell and live without special providence.
Salvation in Christ gives to us a great freedom. But, that freedom should be appreciated and God should be honored for what He has done for us.
2. God's salvation is a place of special privileges.
7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.
God lead Israel to a land that flowed with milk and honey. The cities had already been built. The vineyards has already been planted. They had to use their physical abilities to war and take the land that God promised they could have.
When they first took the land, all was great. David finally conquered Jerusalem and all the surrounding nations, and Israel became the greatest nation on earth.
But, David, the man after God's heart died and slowly other religions and gods were brought into the Holy Land and God's land was defiled.
Israel who were a people that was to represent the love and light of God became an abomination.
Judah became not a light for God, nor did they show God's love. They had become a disgrace. They had become repulsive to the world.
The world looked at them and said, you worship the same gods we worship. You live the same way we live. You are no different than us. Why would we want your God?
From a Christian standpoint, God has given us a promise land. It is called the kingdom of heaven. The day we got saved, the Holy Spirit moved inside of us to give to us a land flowing with milk and honey from within.
That land from within a believer is water from God's word and fed with God's manna. If we have a spiritual draught, we can become abominable.
But, it would take a war and it takes work to obtain the lifestyle. It would take sacrifice. It would take a battle with Satan and the world. It can be ours if we will give time to tilling our heart's soil and planting seed from God's word and watering it with preaching and teaching and His love.
God reminds Judah of their courting days
God rebukes Judah for their conceited ways.
III - GOD REASONS WITH JUDAH for their contemptible GAZE 8-11
8 The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
Let me stop here for just a minute. God is disappointed in His people for He had not been worshipped for a long time and their spiritual leaders did not even know it, much less the people of Judah.
Their gaze was on the things of the world and not on God.
The last days of Judah pictures the last days of the Church age in Revelation 2-3. There will be some good churches, but there will also be many churches, just like it was in the days of Judah.
Their gaze is the world. They have fixed their eyes on temporal and self seeking things, rather than god.
Jeremiah describes in v 8, lost pastors, sin loving pastors, pastors that speak from spirits, not of God but from demons, as Baal worship. He speaks of pastors that preach to profit themselves and not to profit God. ignore
9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.
10 For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.
God says go to Chittim (Cyprus). During this time the Phoenicians controlled Cyprus, They worshipped Poseidon, the god of the Sea and Baal, the storm god.
Then God said, Go to Kedar, there is where Ishamel's people live who forsook me many years ago. They worship the sky goddess know as Allat. Later Allat, was referred to in the masculine form. She became Allah. He says, these people have worshipped these false gods and have remained true to them all these years.
Then God says to His people, Judah, in Jeremiah 2:11, Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
The astonishing thought is this, "How could a man who lived in a mansion, succumb to enjoy living in a mud hut? How could a man whose was married to the most beautiful woman, succumb to living with a harlot?
I will take the last few minutes of this message and end by drawing an analogy. It was a story told by Tennessee Williams years ago, but relates to Judah and I am afraid relates to many others today.
Jacob Brodzky was a shy Russian Jew whose father owned a bookstore. Mr. Brodzky wanted his son to go to college. The boy, on the other hand, desired nothing but to marry Lila, his childhood sweetheart.
She was a French girl as loving, vital, and ambitious as he was contemplative and reserve. A couple of months after young Brodzky went to college, his father fell ill and died. The son returned home, buried his father, and married the love of his life.
Then the couple moved into the apartment above the bookstore, and Brodzky took over its management.
Brodzky's love for his wife and his life for books fit him perfectly. Life was wonderful for both for a while, but she wanted more adventure and she found it, she thought, when she met an agent who praised her beautiful singing voice and enticed her to tour Europe with a cabaret company.
Brodzky was devastated. At their parting, he reached into his pocket and handed her the key to the front door of the bookstore.
"You had better keep this," he told her, "because you will want it someday. Your love is not so much less than mine that you can get away from it. You will come back sometime, and I will be waiting."
She kissed him and left. To escape the pain he felt, Jacob withdrew deep into his bookstore and took to reading as someone else might have taken to drink.
He spoke little, did little, and could most times be found at the large desk near the rear of the shop, immersed in his books while he waited for his love to return.
Nearly 15 years after they parted, at Christmastime, she did return. When Jacob rose from the reading desk that had been his place of escape for all that time, he did not take the love of his life for more than an ordinary customer. "Do you want a book?" he asked.
The fact that he didn't recognize her startled Lila. But she gained possession of herself and replied, "I want a book, but I've forgotten the name of it." Then she told him it was a story of childhood sweethearts who were married. They moved into an apartment above a bookstore. With passion she said, It was a story of a young, ambitious wife who left to seek a career, who enjoyed great success but could never relinquish the key her husband gave her when they parted." She told him the story she thought would bring him to himself.
But his face showed no recognition, as he shook his head as if he did not grasp what she was saying.
Gradually she realized that he had lost the love for her that he once had. He had forgotten what he was waiting for. He no longer knew the purpose of his waiting and grieving, that now all he remembered was the waiting and grieving itself.
Lila spoke up one more time, "You remember it; you must remember it she cried, It was the story of Lila and Jacob?"
After a long, bewildered pause, he said, "There is something familiar about the story, I think I have read it somewhere. It comes to me that it is something by Tolstoi." Dropping the key, she held in her hand, she fled the shop. And Brodzky returned to his desk, to his reading, unaware that the love he waited for had come and gone.
Jesus knocked at the heart door of the Church of Laodicea and sadly, they could not hear his knock.
He sent His spirit to convict their hearts and awaken them, but their hearts were far too hard.
Pass me not, O gentle Savior, Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by.
Refrain: Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.
Let me at Thy throne of mercy Find a sweet relief,
Kneeling there in deep contrition; Help my unbelief. Refrain
Trusting only in Thy merit, Would I seek Thy face;
Heal my wounded, broken spirit, Save me by Thy grace.
Refrain
Thou the Spring of all my comfort, More than life to me,
Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in Heav’n but Thee?
Refrain
Saturday, January 16, 2010
"Live Up To Your Calling"
JEREMIAH, THE MESSAGE
Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
God is about to reveal to Jeremiah what his calling involves. In doing so, God wants Jeremiah to know that He chose him long before he was ever conceived.
We will look at five points of enlightenment and encouragement and education that God gives to Jeremiah, for the task before him will not be an easy one.
Jeremiah is not going to preach to a people and tell them how to divert the judgment to come.
He is going to preach to a people so they might know what to except and how to live under their authorities, that, will soon control their land.
I – GOD’S CALLING
In verse five we see God's special calling to Jeremiah.
God calls men to salvation and service. Don't get them mixed up and don’t get confused over man-made doctrine.
1 – SERVICE: Let's talk about God's calling to service first.
Understand, God cannot be put in a box. He doesn’t call everyone the same way.
He can call people from their mother's womb and even before they are conceived as he did with Jeremiah and John the Baptist.
Or He may call a man when he is eight years old as he did with Moses by appearing to him in a burning bush.
God called Paul to salvation and service when he appeared to Paul with a brightness that darkened the sun.
Has God called us to salvation and service? Yes! When?
Paul wrote in Ephesians believers and said, According as He (God) hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love (Ephesians 1:4).
God called you to Him before the foundation of the world. He called you to be part of His family. He called you to salvation.
But, He also called you to be, among other things, holy, separate from the world and completely and fully in love with Him.
That was God's calling for Jeremiah and that is God's calling for you and me.
God calls people different ways but for the same purpose. He wants us holy, separate and crazy in love with Him.
Just for your records, God called two great entities to be a light of His love. He called Israel. Through this nation God gave the prophets whom would write and preach God’s holy inspired word.
He gave to them the promises of salvation, truth and eternal life.
He gave the prophecies of what would happen in the future. Israel was to God's witness and God's light. They failed.
For the past 2,000 years God as called and ordained His Church, yea His bride to so love him and to so live for him that the world might stand amazed at the great love we have for God. I'm afraid most churches are failing.
Right before Jesus died, He said to His disciples, I have a new commandment for you. That commandment is that you love one another. The way the world will know you are of me is the love you show for your brother. Selah!
Yea God's call to service is one of love and righteousness.
2 – SALVATION:
Let's talk about Salvation. If you were Muslim, you would be taught that Allah is the true god and Mohammed is his prophet. You would learn that if you died by killing an infidel you would gain heaven with 72 virgins. You would have to pray 5 times a day facing Mecca and of course live by the Koran.
Now, if you were Catholic you would be taught that you would have to merit your way to heaven through many good works. You would have to belong to the Catholic Church. You would have to confess your sins to the priest. When you died you would, if you were a good Catholic, you would have to go to purgatory. Your wife and children would have to pray for Masses and engage in other means of works to help atone for your sins.
But, you aren’t Catholic; you are what the world calls a Protestant. In Protestant theology, wars were fought over to main views on the doctrine of Salvation: Calvinism and Arminianism.
CALVINISM: John Calvin was a Roman Catholic, humanist lawyer that came to the Lord. His background greatly influenced his teaching.
Simply put, Calvinism says that man is so dead in his sins and so blind that he has absolutely no choice in the matter of his salvation.
In other words, man has no free will to choose to be saved or lost.
It teaches that God elected whom He would elect and will save whom he would save and his grace is absolutely irresistible to the elect.
Sadly, however God would chose whom He would chose and if you were not on God’s list to go to heaven, you simply will not get to go.
And then it teaches, if you were on God’s list, then you will persevere to the end and if you don't persevere to the end, then you were never on God’s list in the first place.
ARMINIANISM: The other doctrinal view is Armianianism. The Armenian doctrine teaches that though God is sovereign and knows all things, man has a free will.
Man’s election is based on his faith in Jesus Christ. Though Jesus Christ died for the whole world, man has the free will to resist God’s salvation. Man is free to chose or reject Christ when he decides to. Then, lastly it says, man can fall from grace and lose his salvation.
BIBLICIST:
Now, I am a Biblicist. I don’t agree completely with Calvinism and I don’t agree completely with Arminianism.
I would be a 11/2 pt. Calvinist and a 3 1/2 point Arminianist.
I must based my belief of Salvation strongly on John 3:16 and Second Peter 3:9, along with the rest of the Bible.
Jesus said “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life.” I believe that Jesus Christ died for the whole world.
Peter said, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
I believe any person that hears the gospel has an opportunity to be saved. That separates me from Dr. Author Pink and John MacAuthor completely.
For the record, here is my brief belief of Salvation.
1 - God has made a way through His Son that every person born may be saved. The gospel is this: Jesus died was buried and rose again on the third day. This is what everyone must believe but is not enough to be saved.
2 – Man is a sinner. He is separate from God. As Biblical seeds are sown in the heart of man, he sees and senses the wonder of Salvation. He realizes that he must make a choice.
3 – However, according to John 1:11-13 man cannot get saved when he wills to get saved. (11He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.)
"But of God" means man must be convicted by God’s Holy Spirit (John 3:8; John 16:8). ( 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.)
And great old Baptist Preacher, Dr. R.G. Lee, 85 years old stood for the fundamentals of the faith. He preached at Highland Park Baptist Church in 1973. He said something I will never forget. He said, "I fear the day will come in America when we will preach a salvation apart from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. That day has been here for a long time.
4 – At this time, when God’s Spirit convicts, man must then surrender his life to the Lord. He must humbly ask the Lord to forgive him of his sins. Then as he prays with all earnestness and calls upon the Lord, he may be saved. (Romans 10:8-10).
Salvation is supernatural. Many of you have heard of the Prince of preachers, Dr. Charles Spurgeon. He packed out the Metropolitan Tabernacle every service. One week he preached that man was the elect of God and the next week he would preach you must exercise your free will and receive Christ as your Savior. Dr. Spurgeon knew that the key was the Holy Spirit. He must convict. He must convert.
5 – The true Christian will have a beautiful love for the Lord and the things of God. But, he is in a war. Satan will do everything he can to steal that love.
Some Christians will lose their love. Some will go AWOL, some will back slide, but most will remain faithful and all who have truly been saved will go to heaven.
You can’t lose that which God gives you. That is Salvation.
You are called to salvation and to service. But, you must chose Christ to be your Savior just as you must chose how much service you will give to Him.
It is a greater decision then getting married or having a child. Your decision if it is real will change your life for time and eternity.
II – GOD’S CONSULTATION
In verse 6-9, Isaiah has a talk with God about his calling.
6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
How old was Jeremiah? Well, it is evident that he was chosen before he was conceived.
It may be that he and God had some discussions when he was a youth, for that is what the word “child” means. Jeremiah may have been only a teenager or twenty when God called him to begin preaching.
He thus felt very uncomfortable preaching God’s word. I asked, "So, why did God call such a young man? It may be that he learned from his father the priest, Hilkiah, what truth was. And God wanted someone to preach truth. And it may be that God knew that Jeremiah would make a better prophet than he would make a priest.
What good is a priest to make sacrifices for a people when their hearts are not prepared to receive those sacrifices.
Jeremiah 1:7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
I have noticed that those who are truly called of God feel unworthy.
To preach God’s Holy Book is a divine calling and it is at times a lonely calling.
We would all like to preach like Peter and see 3,000 saved, but in the last days of Israel and Judah few walked with God. And in the last days we are living in today, we may see people like Jeremiah saw.
Their faces were like flint and their backbones were like rock.
A preacher or any of Gods’ children who wants to witness for Christ must do so because they know God has called them to do so, not because of the response they may receive.
Let me say, I thank God for the good people we have at our Church. If I preached to many churches what I preach to you I would be met with so very hard looks and probably would never receive an invitation to return.
God tells Jeremiah in verse 8, “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.”
Someone said to me, "Did you see such a person's countenance this morning?" I said, "No." They said, "It was evident they didn't enjoy the message. Her face was truly hard."
Listen, you laughed a lot at some humor in the message this morning. I did not put one funny thing in the message. God added every humorous saying because He knew it need a little humor.
I don't look at people's faces when I preach. If I look at you it is just coincidental.
Some folks say, ‘How can I be a better witness?” Ask God to do for you what He did for Jeremiah in verse 9. “Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.”
God touches us differently today. He touches us with His spirit and with His Scriptures. That is the way He puts His words in our mouths.
III – GOD’S COMMAND
10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
When God called a prophet, He gave that prophet great power. God’s prophets had the power to turn water to blood and call down fire from heaven. They had the power to send plagues upon a people and the power to wither people physical well-beings. They had the power to bless and they had the power to curse.
God gave this power to Jeremiah. But because his mind and heart was filled with God’s holy Word, God knew Jeremiah would use his power righteously.
We have an important application here: God gives us authority to be parents, husbands and pastors. Are we using our authority righteously?
IV GOD’S CORRELATION
God gives two parallel illustrations to Jeremiah.
In verse 11-12 God ask Jeremiah what he sees. And Jeremiah says, I see a rod of an almond tree.
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
12 Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
What is the significance of the rod of an Almond tree? The rod is the shoot which has just been transplanted. It would take only about three years before the fruit would produce.
The almond tree is the first to blossom in mid-winter and the last to bear fruit. God is saying, when the judgment begins, it will not end until everything I have said has come to pass.
The key word is “almond.” It is the Hebrew word “shaked” and means to watch diligently or wait.
Jeremiah would wait and watch for forty years and everything God tells him to preach will happen.
Secondly, Jeremiah sees a seething pot.
13 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.
The seething pot referred to a boiling pot of judgment. It spoke of a war that would soon come upon Jerusalem and Judah.
Why must this war come? Why won’t God stop it? We know that the king, Josiah, will do everything righteously possible, yet the judgment from the north would come anyway.
Most Bible expositor preachers believe that the days will get worse and worse. The terrible conditions to come may bring revivals to many churches where truth has been sown for years. I pray that will take place.
Will that stop the judgment to come? Will that stop the tribulation? Sadly, it will not for America or this world. But, neither did the revival in Josiah's last days stay God's hand.
But, one thing it will do. Many will come to know the Lord.
So, you see why Jeremiah was not loved very much by the Hebrew people in Judah. He was a prophet of truth but his truth was doom.
God had offered forgiveness and mercy for years, but the people ignored God. Now it was too late.
He tells them who would invade their land and why?.
Who would invade Judah? 14 Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
A map of the Middle East in the days of Josiah will reveal that Babylon was to their North and east. They controlled all of the Middle East. But, when they came to conquer Judah and Jerusalem, they would come down from the mountains north of Jerusalem. We know literary that the walls and gates of Jerusalem were destroyed, but always remember this, before a physical transactions takes place in a nation, the spiritual transactions has already transpired.
The gates of the city refer to the government. Thus who made the laws had allowed to much evil to reign in the land for too long.
The walls referred to the truths of God’s word which people were to build their lives upon, but sadly, God’s word was unimportant in most people’s lives.
Why would they invade Judah?
16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
That is pretty clear. Judah had lived wickedly. They had forsaken God's ways. O, they would declare that they loved God and was living for Him but, they had give of themselves to other gods.
This past week I talked to a wife that told me her husband didn't sin anymore.
A god was an entity to which a people gave themselves whole heartedly. They gave their thoughts, their emotions and their time to their god. They talked about their god and it was their god that gave them joy.
In America we don’t want to admit it but many folks have many different gods. Jesus Christ is to be our God. He should be the One who gives us joy and love. He is the one who should stir us emotionally.
If it is true our god or God is the entity that gives us joy and stirs our emotions and if it is he, whom we think upon most of the time, just who would your god be? I have downloaded the new Testament to my IPOD. It is wonderful. I listen to it when I go to the gym, do physical work, or ride down the road. It is wonderful to be able to listen to God's word all day long.
The burning of incense to other gods was literal in Jerusalem, but it refers to a person’s prayers life. Question: Are your prayers for the will of God to be done in your life. Or is your prayer for God to do your will? Sad but true, many folks worship to much of self! This was Israel's great sin.
V – GOD’S CONSOLATION.
God now gives consolation to Jeremiah, for He knows when Jeremiah tells the people of Judah, the visions God has given him, they will not be happy.
17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
A man of God must speak truth.
He preaches truth because of time he has spent alone with God.
If someone were to ask me, “Preacher, what seest thou? What do you see for America?” Would you want to know what is in your pastor’s heart?
I try to preach God’s word to you as it is written. I try to be kind and gentle. I sense that most people in our church want to hear the whole council of God and that is good.
I know some have made changes in their personal life and family life and that is good.
Please don't ever stop changing for the Lord. Don't ever stop drawing closer to Him.
I know according to God's word, if we will draw closer to God, He will draw closer to us. We can have his love and joy and peace.
Our righteous living will touch God's heart that can prevent judgment and bring peace in our hearts and in our families, though it may not divert the judgment our nation must face one day.
We can see souls saved and lives changed.
Our homes can be places of envy to the unsaved world and our churches can places of great joy and wonder.
But, Judgment is coming to America.
Let me rephrase that, judgment has already begun on America.
Twenty years ago, in the 1980's when everything was doing so well, I preached a message from the words of President Ronald Reagan. He said, "America is back." I asked that question and I told you this. Financially and economically things were going well but morally things were worse than ever. There was more drunkenness, adultery, co-habitation, drugs then ever in America. Sin was running rampant. Men were lovers of self, children were disobedient to their parents, the laws of sodomy and abortion was being paraded down main street.
God had been kicked out of our schools and every public arena and it is worse today than then. I told you two ways we could recognize God's judgment. First, we would sense disunity in our family and second judgment would fall upon our finances.
We could keep our family problems behind closed doors and with charge cards we could keep our financial problems behind closed doors. But, now it has affect our nation.
We want to fix the environment. We want to fix the economy. We want to fix the education problem. We want to fix out health care problems.
But, nobody is trying to fix the hearts of men.
Friend, our problem in America is our hearts are evil.
We can blame others, but we must see as Isaiah did when he came before God's throne. He said, "Woe is me for I am undone, I am a man with unclean lips."
So we come to this final thought. Can we fix America? Let me say, don't worry about fixing America, just fix yourself.
Worship Christ in your heart and in your home. That is your hope!
God told Jeremiah in verse 17 to tell them the truth. He ends this chapter by saying these words:
18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for
I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.
Jeremiah, nobody is going to like what you say. With truth come tribulation. But, wait! I will protect you, for I am with thee, saith the Lord."
Christian, thirty-five years ago I heard that in Russia, if you were a Christian, your education and positions in the public sector was altered and limited. It is happening all over America today, especially in public education and politics. Are you willing to take a stand for God in these last days? It may cost you a lot, I pray you will stand.
Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
God is about to reveal to Jeremiah what his calling involves. In doing so, God wants Jeremiah to know that He chose him long before he was ever conceived.
We will look at five points of enlightenment and encouragement and education that God gives to Jeremiah, for the task before him will not be an easy one.
Jeremiah is not going to preach to a people and tell them how to divert the judgment to come.
He is going to preach to a people so they might know what to except and how to live under their authorities, that, will soon control their land.
I – GOD’S CALLING
In verse five we see God's special calling to Jeremiah.
God calls men to salvation and service. Don't get them mixed up and don’t get confused over man-made doctrine.
1 – SERVICE: Let's talk about God's calling to service first.
Understand, God cannot be put in a box. He doesn’t call everyone the same way.
He can call people from their mother's womb and even before they are conceived as he did with Jeremiah and John the Baptist.
Or He may call a man when he is eight years old as he did with Moses by appearing to him in a burning bush.
God called Paul to salvation and service when he appeared to Paul with a brightness that darkened the sun.
Has God called us to salvation and service? Yes! When?
Paul wrote in Ephesians believers and said, According as He (God) hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love (Ephesians 1:4).
God called you to Him before the foundation of the world. He called you to be part of His family. He called you to salvation.
But, He also called you to be, among other things, holy, separate from the world and completely and fully in love with Him.
That was God's calling for Jeremiah and that is God's calling for you and me.
God calls people different ways but for the same purpose. He wants us holy, separate and crazy in love with Him.
Just for your records, God called two great entities to be a light of His love. He called Israel. Through this nation God gave the prophets whom would write and preach God’s holy inspired word.
He gave to them the promises of salvation, truth and eternal life.
He gave the prophecies of what would happen in the future. Israel was to God's witness and God's light. They failed.
For the past 2,000 years God as called and ordained His Church, yea His bride to so love him and to so live for him that the world might stand amazed at the great love we have for God. I'm afraid most churches are failing.
Right before Jesus died, He said to His disciples, I have a new commandment for you. That commandment is that you love one another. The way the world will know you are of me is the love you show for your brother. Selah!
Yea God's call to service is one of love and righteousness.
2 – SALVATION:
Let's talk about Salvation. If you were Muslim, you would be taught that Allah is the true god and Mohammed is his prophet. You would learn that if you died by killing an infidel you would gain heaven with 72 virgins. You would have to pray 5 times a day facing Mecca and of course live by the Koran.
Now, if you were Catholic you would be taught that you would have to merit your way to heaven through many good works. You would have to belong to the Catholic Church. You would have to confess your sins to the priest. When you died you would, if you were a good Catholic, you would have to go to purgatory. Your wife and children would have to pray for Masses and engage in other means of works to help atone for your sins.
But, you aren’t Catholic; you are what the world calls a Protestant. In Protestant theology, wars were fought over to main views on the doctrine of Salvation: Calvinism and Arminianism.
CALVINISM: John Calvin was a Roman Catholic, humanist lawyer that came to the Lord. His background greatly influenced his teaching.
Simply put, Calvinism says that man is so dead in his sins and so blind that he has absolutely no choice in the matter of his salvation.
In other words, man has no free will to choose to be saved or lost.
It teaches that God elected whom He would elect and will save whom he would save and his grace is absolutely irresistible to the elect.
Sadly, however God would chose whom He would chose and if you were not on God’s list to go to heaven, you simply will not get to go.
And then it teaches, if you were on God’s list, then you will persevere to the end and if you don't persevere to the end, then you were never on God’s list in the first place.
ARMINIANISM: The other doctrinal view is Armianianism. The Armenian doctrine teaches that though God is sovereign and knows all things, man has a free will.
Man’s election is based on his faith in Jesus Christ. Though Jesus Christ died for the whole world, man has the free will to resist God’s salvation. Man is free to chose or reject Christ when he decides to. Then, lastly it says, man can fall from grace and lose his salvation.
BIBLICIST:
Now, I am a Biblicist. I don’t agree completely with Calvinism and I don’t agree completely with Arminianism.
I would be a 11/2 pt. Calvinist and a 3 1/2 point Arminianist.
I must based my belief of Salvation strongly on John 3:16 and Second Peter 3:9, along with the rest of the Bible.
Jesus said “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life.” I believe that Jesus Christ died for the whole world.
Peter said, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
I believe any person that hears the gospel has an opportunity to be saved. That separates me from Dr. Author Pink and John MacAuthor completely.
For the record, here is my brief belief of Salvation.
1 - God has made a way through His Son that every person born may be saved. The gospel is this: Jesus died was buried and rose again on the third day. This is what everyone must believe but is not enough to be saved.
2 – Man is a sinner. He is separate from God. As Biblical seeds are sown in the heart of man, he sees and senses the wonder of Salvation. He realizes that he must make a choice.
3 – However, according to John 1:11-13 man cannot get saved when he wills to get saved. (11He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.)
"But of God" means man must be convicted by God’s Holy Spirit (John 3:8; John 16:8). ( 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.)
And great old Baptist Preacher, Dr. R.G. Lee, 85 years old stood for the fundamentals of the faith. He preached at Highland Park Baptist Church in 1973. He said something I will never forget. He said, "I fear the day will come in America when we will preach a salvation apart from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. That day has been here for a long time.
4 – At this time, when God’s Spirit convicts, man must then surrender his life to the Lord. He must humbly ask the Lord to forgive him of his sins. Then as he prays with all earnestness and calls upon the Lord, he may be saved. (Romans 10:8-10).
Salvation is supernatural. Many of you have heard of the Prince of preachers, Dr. Charles Spurgeon. He packed out the Metropolitan Tabernacle every service. One week he preached that man was the elect of God and the next week he would preach you must exercise your free will and receive Christ as your Savior. Dr. Spurgeon knew that the key was the Holy Spirit. He must convict. He must convert.
5 – The true Christian will have a beautiful love for the Lord and the things of God. But, he is in a war. Satan will do everything he can to steal that love.
Some Christians will lose their love. Some will go AWOL, some will back slide, but most will remain faithful and all who have truly been saved will go to heaven.
You can’t lose that which God gives you. That is Salvation.
You are called to salvation and to service. But, you must chose Christ to be your Savior just as you must chose how much service you will give to Him.
It is a greater decision then getting married or having a child. Your decision if it is real will change your life for time and eternity.
II – GOD’S CONSULTATION
In verse 6-9, Isaiah has a talk with God about his calling.
6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
How old was Jeremiah? Well, it is evident that he was chosen before he was conceived.
It may be that he and God had some discussions when he was a youth, for that is what the word “child” means. Jeremiah may have been only a teenager or twenty when God called him to begin preaching.
He thus felt very uncomfortable preaching God’s word. I asked, "So, why did God call such a young man? It may be that he learned from his father the priest, Hilkiah, what truth was. And God wanted someone to preach truth. And it may be that God knew that Jeremiah would make a better prophet than he would make a priest.
What good is a priest to make sacrifices for a people when their hearts are not prepared to receive those sacrifices.
Jeremiah 1:7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
I have noticed that those who are truly called of God feel unworthy.
To preach God’s Holy Book is a divine calling and it is at times a lonely calling.
We would all like to preach like Peter and see 3,000 saved, but in the last days of Israel and Judah few walked with God. And in the last days we are living in today, we may see people like Jeremiah saw.
Their faces were like flint and their backbones were like rock.
A preacher or any of Gods’ children who wants to witness for Christ must do so because they know God has called them to do so, not because of the response they may receive.
Let me say, I thank God for the good people we have at our Church. If I preached to many churches what I preach to you I would be met with so very hard looks and probably would never receive an invitation to return.
God tells Jeremiah in verse 8, “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.”
Someone said to me, "Did you see such a person's countenance this morning?" I said, "No." They said, "It was evident they didn't enjoy the message. Her face was truly hard."
Listen, you laughed a lot at some humor in the message this morning. I did not put one funny thing in the message. God added every humorous saying because He knew it need a little humor.
I don't look at people's faces when I preach. If I look at you it is just coincidental.
Some folks say, ‘How can I be a better witness?” Ask God to do for you what He did for Jeremiah in verse 9. “Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.”
God touches us differently today. He touches us with His spirit and with His Scriptures. That is the way He puts His words in our mouths.
III – GOD’S COMMAND
10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
When God called a prophet, He gave that prophet great power. God’s prophets had the power to turn water to blood and call down fire from heaven. They had the power to send plagues upon a people and the power to wither people physical well-beings. They had the power to bless and they had the power to curse.
God gave this power to Jeremiah. But because his mind and heart was filled with God’s holy Word, God knew Jeremiah would use his power righteously.
We have an important application here: God gives us authority to be parents, husbands and pastors. Are we using our authority righteously?
IV GOD’S CORRELATION
God gives two parallel illustrations to Jeremiah.
In verse 11-12 God ask Jeremiah what he sees. And Jeremiah says, I see a rod of an almond tree.
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
12 Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
What is the significance of the rod of an Almond tree? The rod is the shoot which has just been transplanted. It would take only about three years before the fruit would produce.
The almond tree is the first to blossom in mid-winter and the last to bear fruit. God is saying, when the judgment begins, it will not end until everything I have said has come to pass.
The key word is “almond.” It is the Hebrew word “shaked” and means to watch diligently or wait.
Jeremiah would wait and watch for forty years and everything God tells him to preach will happen.
Secondly, Jeremiah sees a seething pot.
13 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.
The seething pot referred to a boiling pot of judgment. It spoke of a war that would soon come upon Jerusalem and Judah.
Why must this war come? Why won’t God stop it? We know that the king, Josiah, will do everything righteously possible, yet the judgment from the north would come anyway.
Most Bible expositor preachers believe that the days will get worse and worse. The terrible conditions to come may bring revivals to many churches where truth has been sown for years. I pray that will take place.
Will that stop the judgment to come? Will that stop the tribulation? Sadly, it will not for America or this world. But, neither did the revival in Josiah's last days stay God's hand.
But, one thing it will do. Many will come to know the Lord.
So, you see why Jeremiah was not loved very much by the Hebrew people in Judah. He was a prophet of truth but his truth was doom.
God had offered forgiveness and mercy for years, but the people ignored God. Now it was too late.
He tells them who would invade their land and why?.
Who would invade Judah? 14 Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
A map of the Middle East in the days of Josiah will reveal that Babylon was to their North and east. They controlled all of the Middle East. But, when they came to conquer Judah and Jerusalem, they would come down from the mountains north of Jerusalem. We know literary that the walls and gates of Jerusalem were destroyed, but always remember this, before a physical transactions takes place in a nation, the spiritual transactions has already transpired.
The gates of the city refer to the government. Thus who made the laws had allowed to much evil to reign in the land for too long.
The walls referred to the truths of God’s word which people were to build their lives upon, but sadly, God’s word was unimportant in most people’s lives.
Why would they invade Judah?
16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
That is pretty clear. Judah had lived wickedly. They had forsaken God's ways. O, they would declare that they loved God and was living for Him but, they had give of themselves to other gods.
This past week I talked to a wife that told me her husband didn't sin anymore.
A god was an entity to which a people gave themselves whole heartedly. They gave their thoughts, their emotions and their time to their god. They talked about their god and it was their god that gave them joy.
In America we don’t want to admit it but many folks have many different gods. Jesus Christ is to be our God. He should be the One who gives us joy and love. He is the one who should stir us emotionally.
If it is true our god or God is the entity that gives us joy and stirs our emotions and if it is he, whom we think upon most of the time, just who would your god be? I have downloaded the new Testament to my IPOD. It is wonderful. I listen to it when I go to the gym, do physical work, or ride down the road. It is wonderful to be able to listen to God's word all day long.
The burning of incense to other gods was literal in Jerusalem, but it refers to a person’s prayers life. Question: Are your prayers for the will of God to be done in your life. Or is your prayer for God to do your will? Sad but true, many folks worship to much of self! This was Israel's great sin.
V – GOD’S CONSOLATION.
God now gives consolation to Jeremiah, for He knows when Jeremiah tells the people of Judah, the visions God has given him, they will not be happy.
17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
A man of God must speak truth.
He preaches truth because of time he has spent alone with God.
If someone were to ask me, “Preacher, what seest thou? What do you see for America?” Would you want to know what is in your pastor’s heart?
I try to preach God’s word to you as it is written. I try to be kind and gentle. I sense that most people in our church want to hear the whole council of God and that is good.
I know some have made changes in their personal life and family life and that is good.
Please don't ever stop changing for the Lord. Don't ever stop drawing closer to Him.
I know according to God's word, if we will draw closer to God, He will draw closer to us. We can have his love and joy and peace.
Our righteous living will touch God's heart that can prevent judgment and bring peace in our hearts and in our families, though it may not divert the judgment our nation must face one day.
We can see souls saved and lives changed.
Our homes can be places of envy to the unsaved world and our churches can places of great joy and wonder.
But, Judgment is coming to America.
Let me rephrase that, judgment has already begun on America.
Twenty years ago, in the 1980's when everything was doing so well, I preached a message from the words of President Ronald Reagan. He said, "America is back." I asked that question and I told you this. Financially and economically things were going well but morally things were worse than ever. There was more drunkenness, adultery, co-habitation, drugs then ever in America. Sin was running rampant. Men were lovers of self, children were disobedient to their parents, the laws of sodomy and abortion was being paraded down main street.
God had been kicked out of our schools and every public arena and it is worse today than then. I told you two ways we could recognize God's judgment. First, we would sense disunity in our family and second judgment would fall upon our finances.
We could keep our family problems behind closed doors and with charge cards we could keep our financial problems behind closed doors. But, now it has affect our nation.
We want to fix the environment. We want to fix the economy. We want to fix the education problem. We want to fix out health care problems.
But, nobody is trying to fix the hearts of men.
Friend, our problem in America is our hearts are evil.
We can blame others, but we must see as Isaiah did when he came before God's throne. He said, "Woe is me for I am undone, I am a man with unclean lips."
So we come to this final thought. Can we fix America? Let me say, don't worry about fixing America, just fix yourself.
Worship Christ in your heart and in your home. That is your hope!
God told Jeremiah in verse 17 to tell them the truth. He ends this chapter by saying these words:
18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for
I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.
Jeremiah, nobody is going to like what you say. With truth come tribulation. But, wait! I will protect you, for I am with thee, saith the Lord."
Christian, thirty-five years ago I heard that in Russia, if you were a Christian, your education and positions in the public sector was altered and limited. It is happening all over America today, especially in public education and politics. Are you willing to take a stand for God in these last days? It may cost you a lot, I pray you will stand.
The Time, Temperature, Trouble
JEREMIAH, GOD’S PROPHET
Jeremiah 1:1-3
1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Jeremiah was the weeping prophet.
He was chosen by God before he was ever born (1:5). That was unique, but not impressive enough to cause Judah to give him their ear.
He was called to be a prophet to Israel when he was only a child (1:6).
He was forbidden to marry because of the evil days in which he lived (16:1-4).
He never made a convert.
He was rejected by his people, Judah (11:18-21; 12:6; 18:18).
He was hated, beaten and put in stocks (20:1-3).
He was imprisoned and charged with being a traitor (37:11-16).
He wanted to quit but God wouldn’t let him (37:11-16).
He lived to see Babylon’s three invasions and the fall of Judah.
In this message we will look at three simple thoughts taken from Jeremiah 1:1-3.
1) THE TIME 2) THE TEMPERATURE 3) THE TROUBLE
THE TIME
In the Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickenson wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the era of belief, it was the era of skepticism, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
In the time when Dickenson wrote his book, in France, it was the best of times for those who were in control of the nation, the political aristocrats, and it was the worst of times for those who had no voice, the people.
Today, those that will dare crawl out from under their narcissistic tents and take a truthful look at America must declare the same as Charles Dickenson.
-We have everything before us or we have nothing before us.
-We hold in our spiritual hands, our freedom or slavery.
-It was a rebellion that turned France around. And it was a revolution that gave America its freedom in 1776.
--Spiritually we must have a rebellion and then we may have a revolution. We must rebel against sin and Satan, and return to Christ. We must rebel against carnality and fleshly worship and walk in the spirit and true worship.
--We must take our mighty weapons of spiritual warfare and put them into practice.
--If we will, we shall see a revolution of right. If we do not, we will continue the course that we are on.
If God’s people would take a hold of God, they could turn the world around. But, our life must be Festive And Fruitul.
--They could experience the best of times, the era of belief, the season of light, the spring of home, heaven on earth.
However, if in America we continue to live as we have the past many years, then we can expect the worst of times, the age of foolishness, the winter of despair.
I believe the road this generation of Christians decides to take may very well dictate the future of our freedom and liberty as we know it today.
Jeremiah 1:1-3 reveal to us that Jeremiah reigned as a prophet and wrote during the time period between 627 B.C. until the complete collapse and fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
THE TEMPERATURE
Jeremiah 1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
By reading Second Kings we sense the spiritual temperature during the time that Jeremiah wrote.
You must realize that politics and religion go hand and hand in setting the spiritual temperature of a nation. It did for Israel, Judah and it does for America.
Jeremiah would be criticized and hated by his own people because of his political preaching as much as his spiritual preaching.
Those who say, “State and Church shouldn’t mix, are ignorant of the Bible.” Neither our constitution, nor the Bible teaches such.
A BRIEF HISTORY LESSON:
At this time in history, Israel had fallen to the mighty Assyrians. This mighty invincible power now threatened Judah.
From 715 to 686 a king ruled Judah by the name of Hezekiah. The Bible declares he was a good king who did right in God’s eyes.
Sennacherib, the king of Assyria besieged the city of Jerusalem. 185,000 troops camped around the city with chariots and swords and shields.
Hezekiah heard of the hideous and fearful words of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. Sennacherib declared he would ravish the women and kill every male child.
Hezekiah dressed in sackcloth and ashes and fell upon his face in prayer, begging God for deliverance.
God saw the tender heart of Hezekiah and spared Judah from the destruction of the powerful Assyrians.
A matter of fact, due to Hezekiah’s prayer as well as others who repented and sought the Lord, God sent one angel to fight against the Assyrians. During that night the angel of the Lord slew all 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. A Great Victory was won!
Hezekiah had a son named Manasseh. He reigned for 55 years and did evil in the sight of God. Everything his father did to turn the people to God, Manasseh did to turn the people away from God.
For 55 years, he threw out everything that was Godly in Judah and brought in everything that was evil.
Evidently at this time, it seems, he burned or destroyed every scroll and Scripture he could get his hands on.
After Manasseh died, his son Ammon, reigned but two years and died. Then his son, Josiah began to reign.
Second Kings 22:2 reveals that “Josiah did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord.” He walked with the Lord.
UN-NAMED PROPHET
But, back up with me three hundred years. Turn from 2 kings 2 back to 1 kings 13. In First Kings 13, at an altar in Bethel, a prophet of God with no name stood before king Jeroboam, who was about to make a false offering to God upon a false altar.
The prophet rebuked king Jeroboam and declared that one day a king would be born who would burn the bones of the priest upon this altar and bring revival to Judah.
That unnamed prophet gave the king’s name. His name would be Josiah (1 Kings 13:2). Josiah began to reign as king of Judah at the age of eight.
When he began his reign, he desired to do what was right but the temperature in Israel was evil, cold and indifferent.
The Scriptures were never read, they had been burned or lost.
HILKIAH
In verse one of Jeremiah one we read, “The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:”
Names always tell a story. If I were to say George Washington, you would think of the great general that led the Continental armies to victory over England. And who later became the first president of the United States.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
If I said, Ronald Reagan, you would think of a Josiah who helped raise the spiritual temperature in America by standing against evil and striving to do right.
Well, Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah. Hilkiah was the priest that served under Josiah. Hilkiah was the priest that found the Word of God in the temple when Josiah was 21 years old.
It is very clear that Hilkiah spend days reading over the Scriptures, after finding them, for he saw in the Scriptures some frightening news. I personally believe he was reading the book of Isaiah.
Hilkiah then gave the book to the scribe, Shaphan, to read to the king.
When Shaphan read the Scriptures to the king, the king rent his clothes and wept before God (II Kings 22:11, 19). That means his heart was broken. His spirit was in mourning. His will was yielded to Almighty God.
Josiah did not see the promises of Isaiah for the millennial kingdom, but he saw the judgment of God that would soon fall on Judah. When you read the Scriptures, what do you see?
He told Shaphan to enquire to what the Scriptures meant. Shaphan, the scribe, Hilkiah the priest and others went to Huldah, the prophetess, for she was a woman of great discernment and knowledge of the Scripture.
Together, they sought God and studied the Scripture, then Huldah revealed to Hilkiah and Shaphan that the Scriptures declared evil upon the nation of Judah, because they had forsaken God. 76 times the word forsaken is used in the bible. 32 times it is used in the book of Isaiah and Jeremiah.
She said that God’s wrath would fall, but… (II Kings 22:19), because King Josiah’s heart was tender to God’s Word, his life would be spared the wrath to come.
Josiah heart was tender. That means it was sensitive and obedient to the Scriptures. As long as Josiah was alive, Nebuchadnezzar would not invade or destroy Jerusalem.
The application here is multifold, but here are two thoughts:
1) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and many more spoke of God, His son, the Bible, our dependence on God and the need of prayer.
In President Obama’s first year in office he ignored America’s National Day of Prayer, but he sent out a five minute video across the world to Muslims on Ramadan offering to them his prayers and blessings.
Asma Gull Hasan, a Muslim journalist wrote in Forbes.com on February 25, 2009 these words. “My Muslim President Obama”
“Why members of the Islamic faith see him as one of the flock.”
I know President Obama is not Muslim, but I am tempted nevertheless to think that he is, as are most Muslims I know. In a very unscientific oral poll, ranging from family members to Muslim acquaintances, many of us feel, just as African-Americans did for the non-black but culturally leaning African-American President Bill Clinton, that we have our first American Muslim president in Barack Hussein Obama.
…Since Election Day, I have been part of more and more conversations with Muslims in which it was either offhandedly agreed that Obama is Muslim or enthusiastically blurted out. In commenting on our new president, "I have to support my fellow Muslim brother," would slip out of my mouth before I had a chance to think twice.
Of the few Muslims I polled who said that Obama is not Muslim, even they conceded that he had ties to Islam. These realists said that, although not an avowed and practicing Muslim, Obama's exposure to Islam at a young age (both through his father and his stint in Indonesia) has given him a Muslim sensibility. In my book, that makes you a Muslim--maybe not a card-carrying one, but part of the flock for sure.”
America has forsaken God in our public schools, in our government, in most of our homes and in many of our churches. I say to America, “repent of judgment is coming.”
2 - How many Josiah’s do we have in America whose hearts are tender?
Who read the Scriptures today and weeps and cries over personal and public sin? Very few people do because so many have forsaken God.”
The Spiritual temperature in America is dangerously low.
Jeremiah will preach to Judah with no true converts during his lifetime.
Though God would spare Josiah, judgment would fall because Judah had already crossed the line of no return.
The phrase, “The line of no return” is never mentioned in the Bible, but it is seen.
-In the Garden, Adam and Eve went too far and were cast out.
-In the first 1800 years of time, God plead with men to repent and they would not. They crossed the line of no return and God gave his last warning through a preacher name Noah. Noah preached for 120 years and then God sent the flood.
-During the days of Nimrod and Babel, the people crossed the line of no return and God confused the languages and scattered the people across the face of the globe.
-Israel went to far and crossed the line of no return and God raised up the Assyrians to conquer them.
Now, Judah faced the wrath of God. They too, had already gone too far. There was no turning back.
Judgment was as sure as the sunrise. But, God tells Judah, through the prophet Jeremiah what they must do and how they must live if they are to survive the holocaust that was coming.
Now, I will present to you this thought. Is their hope for America? If we as Christians would repent, would God spare America or have we crossed the line of no return?
Stop! Think! That question must also become personal.
If there is there hope for your family what changes will you make? Will you be a Josiah? Will your heart be tender to God’s Word?
Or will January 1st of 2011 find you in the same spiritual status as you were in January 1st of 2010?
Every Christian needs to take their spiritual temperature?
THE TROUBLE
Jeremiah 1:3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Ultimately, Judgment would fall on Judah. God makes that clear in the third verse of Jeremiah’s writing.
Prophets and Preachers of truth have declared again and again, that if God does not judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Judgment is coming, What are you going to do about that?
Let me give you a few things to do. May I?
1 – Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.
2 – Take daily time for personal Bible reading and meditation. Why? The Bible reveals to man the mind and heart of God.
3 – Clean the skeletons out of your closet.
In Second Kings God records the many evils that Manasseh brought to Judah in his 55 year reign. I want you to see theses evils and compare them to America.
As we read Second Kings 22 we see that Josiah is cleaning the skeletons out of the closet.
Second Kings 22:3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
1 - All false gods were removed out of the land. Today that would include all religions that did not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the only true God and as Lord and Savior (v 4).
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. I shall say this, though you may hate me as Jeremiah did, but if you do not take time with the Lord daily but watch hours of TV or other activities you engage in, you have other gods you are worshipping.
2 – All priests that did not stand on God’s Word and God’s word alone were removed as priest. Those who believed that the teaching and traditions of others were inspired would be removed as preachers of truth (5).
5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. Any religion that claims anything outside of God’s word is inspired is an idolatrous religion.
3 – All relics and images were destroyed (6).
6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
The grove was a mystic tree placed in the temple by Manasseh. It was like using holy water, or placing a statue of a saint or of Mary on your dash to protect you, or a prayer cloth offered to people for money.
The grove was crushed to powder and spread of the graves of the people, it sent to hell.
4 – The houses of the sodomites were destroyed (7).
7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
5 – The High places were beautiful building built in the mountains and other places. The idea of going here was it would bring a person closer to God (8-9).
8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
Many today think that because they belong to a church, they are assured of heaven or are closer to God. That is simply not true (8).
6 – Tophet was the place where the innocent children were offered as sacrifices. It would be compared to abortion clinics today in America (10).
10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
7 – In v 11-12, the idea was an object or place would make a person more spiritual. It was destroyed. People think by going to Rome or to some religious gathering, it will make them more spiritual. God told Josiah to do away with such and get back to living for God.
11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
8 – Verse 13 reveals that Solomon had made high places and altars for his wives to worship their gods in Jerusalem. Josiah said it is time to make things right. Solomon was wrong.
We need to quit doing things certain ways because mama or daddy or some preacher did it that way. We need to make our hearts tender to God.
13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
9 – The prophesy of the unnamed prophet came to pass in verses 14-16.
The false altar in Bethel was destroyed. The priest who worshipped there had their sepulchers opened, their bones taken out and burned and crushed and spread over these altars, to fulfill God’s word (14-18).
14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.
16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.
18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
10 – The places of entertainment and convenient where people said they worshipped God were destroyed.
19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
11 – Palm readers, fortune tellers, horoscopes, satanic churches, Wicca churches, were all destroy and their leaders put to death (24).
24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
Here we will stop and ask this question: How many of these sinful activities exist, are legal and allowed in America? Everyone is allowed. (Notice verse 25-17)
Judah experienced a great revival. The Bible declared that no king had turned from evil to the Lord as Josiah did, yet it was too little too late. God’s wrath would still fall. Judgment would still come.
If this is the spiritual climate of America, what do we do?
1) I suggest we develop a tender heart by fasting, scripture reading and prayer.
2) I suggest we live for the eternal and not the temporal.
3) I suggest we do everything possible to get our love ones to the Lord.
25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
26 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.
27 And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
Jeremiah 1:1-3
1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Jeremiah was the weeping prophet.
He was chosen by God before he was ever born (1:5). That was unique, but not impressive enough to cause Judah to give him their ear.
He was called to be a prophet to Israel when he was only a child (1:6).
He was forbidden to marry because of the evil days in which he lived (16:1-4).
He never made a convert.
He was rejected by his people, Judah (11:18-21; 12:6; 18:18).
He was hated, beaten and put in stocks (20:1-3).
He was imprisoned and charged with being a traitor (37:11-16).
He wanted to quit but God wouldn’t let him (37:11-16).
He lived to see Babylon’s three invasions and the fall of Judah.
In this message we will look at three simple thoughts taken from Jeremiah 1:1-3.
1) THE TIME 2) THE TEMPERATURE 3) THE TROUBLE
THE TIME
In the Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickenson wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the era of belief, it was the era of skepticism, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
In the time when Dickenson wrote his book, in France, it was the best of times for those who were in control of the nation, the political aristocrats, and it was the worst of times for those who had no voice, the people.
Today, those that will dare crawl out from under their narcissistic tents and take a truthful look at America must declare the same as Charles Dickenson.
-We have everything before us or we have nothing before us.
-We hold in our spiritual hands, our freedom or slavery.
-It was a rebellion that turned France around. And it was a revolution that gave America its freedom in 1776.
--Spiritually we must have a rebellion and then we may have a revolution. We must rebel against sin and Satan, and return to Christ. We must rebel against carnality and fleshly worship and walk in the spirit and true worship.
--We must take our mighty weapons of spiritual warfare and put them into practice.
--If we will, we shall see a revolution of right. If we do not, we will continue the course that we are on.
If God’s people would take a hold of God, they could turn the world around. But, our life must be Festive And Fruitul.
--They could experience the best of times, the era of belief, the season of light, the spring of home, heaven on earth.
However, if in America we continue to live as we have the past many years, then we can expect the worst of times, the age of foolishness, the winter of despair.
I believe the road this generation of Christians decides to take may very well dictate the future of our freedom and liberty as we know it today.
Jeremiah 1:1-3 reveal to us that Jeremiah reigned as a prophet and wrote during the time period between 627 B.C. until the complete collapse and fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
THE TEMPERATURE
Jeremiah 1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
By reading Second Kings we sense the spiritual temperature during the time that Jeremiah wrote.
You must realize that politics and religion go hand and hand in setting the spiritual temperature of a nation. It did for Israel, Judah and it does for America.
Jeremiah would be criticized and hated by his own people because of his political preaching as much as his spiritual preaching.
Those who say, “State and Church shouldn’t mix, are ignorant of the Bible.” Neither our constitution, nor the Bible teaches such.
A BRIEF HISTORY LESSON:
At this time in history, Israel had fallen to the mighty Assyrians. This mighty invincible power now threatened Judah.
From 715 to 686 a king ruled Judah by the name of Hezekiah. The Bible declares he was a good king who did right in God’s eyes.
Sennacherib, the king of Assyria besieged the city of Jerusalem. 185,000 troops camped around the city with chariots and swords and shields.
Hezekiah heard of the hideous and fearful words of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. Sennacherib declared he would ravish the women and kill every male child.
Hezekiah dressed in sackcloth and ashes and fell upon his face in prayer, begging God for deliverance.
God saw the tender heart of Hezekiah and spared Judah from the destruction of the powerful Assyrians.
A matter of fact, due to Hezekiah’s prayer as well as others who repented and sought the Lord, God sent one angel to fight against the Assyrians. During that night the angel of the Lord slew all 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. A Great Victory was won!
Hezekiah had a son named Manasseh. He reigned for 55 years and did evil in the sight of God. Everything his father did to turn the people to God, Manasseh did to turn the people away from God.
For 55 years, he threw out everything that was Godly in Judah and brought in everything that was evil.
Evidently at this time, it seems, he burned or destroyed every scroll and Scripture he could get his hands on.
After Manasseh died, his son Ammon, reigned but two years and died. Then his son, Josiah began to reign.
Second Kings 22:2 reveals that “Josiah did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord.” He walked with the Lord.
UN-NAMED PROPHET
But, back up with me three hundred years. Turn from 2 kings 2 back to 1 kings 13. In First Kings 13, at an altar in Bethel, a prophet of God with no name stood before king Jeroboam, who was about to make a false offering to God upon a false altar.
The prophet rebuked king Jeroboam and declared that one day a king would be born who would burn the bones of the priest upon this altar and bring revival to Judah.
That unnamed prophet gave the king’s name. His name would be Josiah (1 Kings 13:2). Josiah began to reign as king of Judah at the age of eight.
When he began his reign, he desired to do what was right but the temperature in Israel was evil, cold and indifferent.
The Scriptures were never read, they had been burned or lost.
HILKIAH
In verse one of Jeremiah one we read, “The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:”
Names always tell a story. If I were to say George Washington, you would think of the great general that led the Continental armies to victory over England. And who later became the first president of the United States.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
If I said, Ronald Reagan, you would think of a Josiah who helped raise the spiritual temperature in America by standing against evil and striving to do right.
Well, Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah. Hilkiah was the priest that served under Josiah. Hilkiah was the priest that found the Word of God in the temple when Josiah was 21 years old.
It is very clear that Hilkiah spend days reading over the Scriptures, after finding them, for he saw in the Scriptures some frightening news. I personally believe he was reading the book of Isaiah.
Hilkiah then gave the book to the scribe, Shaphan, to read to the king.
When Shaphan read the Scriptures to the king, the king rent his clothes and wept before God (II Kings 22:11, 19). That means his heart was broken. His spirit was in mourning. His will was yielded to Almighty God.
Josiah did not see the promises of Isaiah for the millennial kingdom, but he saw the judgment of God that would soon fall on Judah. When you read the Scriptures, what do you see?
He told Shaphan to enquire to what the Scriptures meant. Shaphan, the scribe, Hilkiah the priest and others went to Huldah, the prophetess, for she was a woman of great discernment and knowledge of the Scripture.
Together, they sought God and studied the Scripture, then Huldah revealed to Hilkiah and Shaphan that the Scriptures declared evil upon the nation of Judah, because they had forsaken God. 76 times the word forsaken is used in the bible. 32 times it is used in the book of Isaiah and Jeremiah.
She said that God’s wrath would fall, but… (II Kings 22:19), because King Josiah’s heart was tender to God’s Word, his life would be spared the wrath to come.
Josiah heart was tender. That means it was sensitive and obedient to the Scriptures. As long as Josiah was alive, Nebuchadnezzar would not invade or destroy Jerusalem.
The application here is multifold, but here are two thoughts:
1) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and many more spoke of God, His son, the Bible, our dependence on God and the need of prayer.
In President Obama’s first year in office he ignored America’s National Day of Prayer, but he sent out a five minute video across the world to Muslims on Ramadan offering to them his prayers and blessings.
Asma Gull Hasan, a Muslim journalist wrote in Forbes.com on February 25, 2009 these words. “My Muslim President Obama”
“Why members of the Islamic faith see him as one of the flock.”
I know President Obama is not Muslim, but I am tempted nevertheless to think that he is, as are most Muslims I know. In a very unscientific oral poll, ranging from family members to Muslim acquaintances, many of us feel, just as African-Americans did for the non-black but culturally leaning African-American President Bill Clinton, that we have our first American Muslim president in Barack Hussein Obama.
…Since Election Day, I have been part of more and more conversations with Muslims in which it was either offhandedly agreed that Obama is Muslim or enthusiastically blurted out. In commenting on our new president, "I have to support my fellow Muslim brother," would slip out of my mouth before I had a chance to think twice.
Of the few Muslims I polled who said that Obama is not Muslim, even they conceded that he had ties to Islam. These realists said that, although not an avowed and practicing Muslim, Obama's exposure to Islam at a young age (both through his father and his stint in Indonesia) has given him a Muslim sensibility. In my book, that makes you a Muslim--maybe not a card-carrying one, but part of the flock for sure.”
America has forsaken God in our public schools, in our government, in most of our homes and in many of our churches. I say to America, “repent of judgment is coming.”
2 - How many Josiah’s do we have in America whose hearts are tender?
Who read the Scriptures today and weeps and cries over personal and public sin? Very few people do because so many have forsaken God.”
The Spiritual temperature in America is dangerously low.
Jeremiah will preach to Judah with no true converts during his lifetime.
Though God would spare Josiah, judgment would fall because Judah had already crossed the line of no return.
The phrase, “The line of no return” is never mentioned in the Bible, but it is seen.
-In the Garden, Adam and Eve went too far and were cast out.
-In the first 1800 years of time, God plead with men to repent and they would not. They crossed the line of no return and God gave his last warning through a preacher name Noah. Noah preached for 120 years and then God sent the flood.
-During the days of Nimrod and Babel, the people crossed the line of no return and God confused the languages and scattered the people across the face of the globe.
-Israel went to far and crossed the line of no return and God raised up the Assyrians to conquer them.
Now, Judah faced the wrath of God. They too, had already gone too far. There was no turning back.
Judgment was as sure as the sunrise. But, God tells Judah, through the prophet Jeremiah what they must do and how they must live if they are to survive the holocaust that was coming.
Now, I will present to you this thought. Is their hope for America? If we as Christians would repent, would God spare America or have we crossed the line of no return?
Stop! Think! That question must also become personal.
If there is there hope for your family what changes will you make? Will you be a Josiah? Will your heart be tender to God’s Word?
Or will January 1st of 2011 find you in the same spiritual status as you were in January 1st of 2010?
Every Christian needs to take their spiritual temperature?
THE TROUBLE
Jeremiah 1:3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Ultimately, Judgment would fall on Judah. God makes that clear in the third verse of Jeremiah’s writing.
Prophets and Preachers of truth have declared again and again, that if God does not judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Judgment is coming, What are you going to do about that?
Let me give you a few things to do. May I?
1 – Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.
2 – Take daily time for personal Bible reading and meditation. Why? The Bible reveals to man the mind and heart of God.
3 – Clean the skeletons out of your closet.
In Second Kings God records the many evils that Manasseh brought to Judah in his 55 year reign. I want you to see theses evils and compare them to America.
As we read Second Kings 22 we see that Josiah is cleaning the skeletons out of the closet.
Second Kings 22:3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
1 - All false gods were removed out of the land. Today that would include all religions that did not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the only true God and as Lord and Savior (v 4).
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. I shall say this, though you may hate me as Jeremiah did, but if you do not take time with the Lord daily but watch hours of TV or other activities you engage in, you have other gods you are worshipping.
2 – All priests that did not stand on God’s Word and God’s word alone were removed as priest. Those who believed that the teaching and traditions of others were inspired would be removed as preachers of truth (5).
5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. Any religion that claims anything outside of God’s word is inspired is an idolatrous religion.
3 – All relics and images were destroyed (6).
6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
The grove was a mystic tree placed in the temple by Manasseh. It was like using holy water, or placing a statue of a saint or of Mary on your dash to protect you, or a prayer cloth offered to people for money.
The grove was crushed to powder and spread of the graves of the people, it sent to hell.
4 – The houses of the sodomites were destroyed (7).
7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
5 – The High places were beautiful building built in the mountains and other places. The idea of going here was it would bring a person closer to God (8-9).
8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
Many today think that because they belong to a church, they are assured of heaven or are closer to God. That is simply not true (8).
6 – Tophet was the place where the innocent children were offered as sacrifices. It would be compared to abortion clinics today in America (10).
10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
7 – In v 11-12, the idea was an object or place would make a person more spiritual. It was destroyed. People think by going to Rome or to some religious gathering, it will make them more spiritual. God told Josiah to do away with such and get back to living for God.
11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
8 – Verse 13 reveals that Solomon had made high places and altars for his wives to worship their gods in Jerusalem. Josiah said it is time to make things right. Solomon was wrong.
We need to quit doing things certain ways because mama or daddy or some preacher did it that way. We need to make our hearts tender to God.
13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
9 – The prophesy of the unnamed prophet came to pass in verses 14-16.
The false altar in Bethel was destroyed. The priest who worshipped there had their sepulchers opened, their bones taken out and burned and crushed and spread over these altars, to fulfill God’s word (14-18).
14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.
16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.
18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
10 – The places of entertainment and convenient where people said they worshipped God were destroyed.
19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
11 – Palm readers, fortune tellers, horoscopes, satanic churches, Wicca churches, were all destroy and their leaders put to death (24).
24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
Here we will stop and ask this question: How many of these sinful activities exist, are legal and allowed in America? Everyone is allowed. (Notice verse 25-17)
Judah experienced a great revival. The Bible declared that no king had turned from evil to the Lord as Josiah did, yet it was too little too late. God’s wrath would still fall. Judgment would still come.
If this is the spiritual climate of America, what do we do?
1) I suggest we develop a tender heart by fasting, scripture reading and prayer.
2) I suggest we live for the eternal and not the temporal.
3) I suggest we do everything possible to get our love ones to the Lord.
25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
26 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.
27 And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
Pharisees in the Church
THE LORD OF THE SABBATH
Mark 2:23-28 --23 And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.
24 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
25 And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?
26 How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?
27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
It is a beautiful sunny Sabbath day in Capernaum. Jesus and His disciples are out walking. They come upon a field of corn. Being hungry, the disciples pick the ears of corn and begin to eat.
Jesus allows them to do so, though He knew the Pharisees were watching them.
As soon as Jesus had come within speaking range, the Pharisees said, “What are you doing? Don’t you know it is the Sabbath day? Don’t you know it is against the law to pick corn on the Sabbath?
Jesus response to them was, “Don’t’ you know the Scriptures? Don’t you remember when David was hungry and he went to the Temple and demanded the twelve loaves of showbread from the priest Abiathar.
That bread was only cooked once a week and it was to be eaten only by the priest and his family only. Yet Abiathar gave it to David and David and his men ate the bread.
Jesus told another story here to these Pharisees which Mark does not record but Matthew does. He says, the priest in the temple profane the Sabbath every Sabbath. In other words, they work and labor every Sabbath by killing the sacrifices and making the offerings.
The Lord ends with a teaching we need to understand: 27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: 28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
The truth Jesus was conveying to the religious Pharisees was that, "He was greater than David, whom the Jews thought was the greatest king of Israel and He was greater than the priest that served in the Temple."
The great truth Jesus was teaching was,: "He is Lord of everything."
Here you must understand that Jesus greatest enemy, outside of Satan was not the sinners but the religious crowd. Friend, learn that your greatest conflicts will come from people that have religion.
Most of them have just enough to bug them, then to bless them.
They know the law, but they lack God's love.
So, here is a good point to look at the Christians' greatest enemy, the religious man or woman.
Three points we will discuss if we get to them.
I - JESUS IS LORD OVER TRADITION 23-24:
23 And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.
24 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
THE LAW OF THE PHARISEES
Remember, Jesus was the "friend of sinners." He was compassionate. He was enjoyable to be around. He was love. The religious Pharisees were critical. The Pharisee may agree with 95% of what another person does, but it was just his nature to criticize another for the 5%.
It would be good to spend a little time examining this group of people called Pharisees. They seemed to always fight against Jesus Christ.
There were a few million Jews when Jesus walked on the earth.
In the second century BC, the group known as the Pharisees began.
The very word "Pharisee" means separate.
They prided themselves in strict adherence to the law of Moses.
But, they made one very bad mistake. They also believed in the "Oral Law." They believed laws that had been handed down from generation to generation. Not biblical stores, but man-made laws.
They had many laws and customs that simply were not from God.
When Christ walked among men, there were about 6,000 Pharisees in Israel.
They had many regulations restricting behavior that were not found in the Scriptures. A few of them were...
-They did not allow the lighting of candles on the Sabbath.
-They made it unlawful to throw more grain to their poultry than could be eaten lest some of it might sprout and grow and therefore they would be guilty of sowing on the Sabbath.
-They taught that it was unlawful to swat a fly on the Sabbath.
Jesus received more criticism from these religious leaders about his healing and work on the Sabbath then any other matter.
The Pharisees had infiltrated Judaism and had become their leaders. Sadly, they corrupted the truth.
The Pharisees were mere formalists.
Their focus was exclusively of the outward.
You might recognize a Pharisees by three things:
1 – THEIR CLOTHING: They looked and judged others by comparing their dress to others (Matthew 23:5, (...they made broad their phylacteries).
The clothing of the Pharisees was absorbent. They thought the fancier, the prettier, the more costly one's clothing was, revealed one's spiritual blessings from God. That was the prideful heart of a Pharisee.
Now, folks there is nothing wrong with dressing nice and putting on your Sunday best, but that does make a person spiritual. Some folk's Sunday best is a pair of overalls.
Jesus said to them in Matthew 23:28, "Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
Their hearts were rotten with pride, but they didn't think they were proud. They could not see their own pride, but the Lord could.
And their worship was the same. It was all outward show. They had no inward joy and love and no spiritual worship. Their joy in life was found in the things they owned rather in the truths of God.
They went to the synagogue and sat and listened to the reading of the Scriptures and endured it but, they never washed their hearts.
2 - THEIR CLEANLINESS:
A second way you could recognize a Pharisee was by their cleanliness. In Matthew 15:2 the Pharisees again were quick to condemn Jesus. They said, “Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.”
A Pharisee would never eat without washing their hands but they never washed their hands. I'll explain that in a minute.
They would never think to go out of their homes without being clean all over.
They thought they were godly because of their outward washings, and fastings, and peculiarities in dress, and ceremonial-worship.
They thought “cleanliness was next to godliness” but their cleanliness was physical and not spiritual.
They would not dare admit that they needed to change.
The very thought to “repent” or "confess their sins" irked them.
The Pharisees were quick to condemn Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands physically. Thus Jesus used this to teach them a far deeper truth.
Sure, we should wash our hands before we eat, just like we should dress nice before we go to worship God, but it would be far better to wear dirty clothes and eat with dirty hands than to try and worship God with a dirty heart and dirty hands.
How do we have clean hands and a pure heart? In the book of James 4:8, we read, Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
1) The impure heart is explained in Matthew 15:7-9. Jesus said, Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me, But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
The Pharisees were a strange bunch. They were first to say, "I love the Lord. I belong to God. I will give myself to the Lord." But, in their hearts was ugly pride and deceit.
2) The dirty hands are explained in Matthew 5:23-24.
Matthew 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
The Pharisees went to the synagogue every Sabbath and gave their form of worship. They gave their tithe. They even fasted twice a week, yet they were not right with their brothers and sisters. Their pride prevented them from apologizing and making things right with others.
III - THEIR COCKINESS
In Luke 18 Jesus reveals the cocky attitude of a Pharisee:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
This man treated people fairly. He cheated nobody. He was faithful to his mate.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Now, folks there is nothing wrong with tithing. That is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with fasting now and then. That is a good thing.
Now, look at the prayer of the publican.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
The publican came to confess his sins. His heart was humbled. His spirit was broken. He cried out for mercy from God.
Notice what Jesus says about the publican.
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
It is not the outward clothing or the outward show that makes a man right with God; it is what is in a man's heart.
Are our hearts clean and pure? Do we stand with pride and condemn others because they don't have the standards we think they should have?
Do we hold bitterness, pride or anger in our hearts toward others? If we don't make it right, we will become like a Pharisee.
This great sin of the Pharisees was pride, which produced a judgmental spirit.
The reason the Pharisees were constantly critical and condemning was because their hearts were not right with God.
WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY
Do you remember when the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery before the Lord in John 8:3-11? They said, "We caught her in the very act." Moses said we should stone her to death, what do you say?"
The records in John 8:6 that ...Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
The Pharisees kept asking him, what do you say, as Jesus wrote. Then Jesus stood up and said in v 7...He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
I have to admire the Pharisees here. At least they realized their hearts had sin. They dropped the stones they were going to cast at the woman and walked away.
The Pharisees were always looking to find fault with others. It made them feel better about themselves. So before you condemn a young girl that may have had a baby out of wedlock or someone who has fallen, look in your heart and ask yourself this question, "Have you ever fallen?"
Now, you can understand why the Pharisees were so upset with Jesus. It was there prideful nature to just condemn.
The first sin, the greatest sin and the one sin God mentions that He hates most in all the world is the sin of Pride.
THE SABBATH
What did the Pharisees condemn Jesus for? They condemned Him and His disciples for picking corn on the Sabbath day.
Let's talk about the Sabbath for a few moments. The word for Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word for seven and the Greek word for Sabbath comes from the word meaning Saturday.
In Genesis 2:2 the Bible reads, “God… rested on the seventh day from all His work…”
For over 2,000 years before the law was given, God set an example for man to take a day of rest. Those who knew God and loved the Lord thought on God every day but one day a week was very special.
It was the day when man did not work at home, in the fields or at a business. This one day man gave his entire self; mind, body, soul and spirit, to think on and serve the Lord.
Some 2500 years later God gave His law to Moses. One of those laws was to keep the Sabbath holy. Man wasn’t to work but give of himself to the Lord.
I lot could be said about the Sabbath, but we are not preaching on the Sabbath but revealing the dangers of traditions of it.
In Exodus 31:16-17 we read these words: 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
The keeping of the Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel. It was the law. We are not Israel. We are the Church.
But, stop and think. Right before the Lord reveals to us that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, the Holy Spirit led Mark to reveal to us in chapter two that things were changing. A new way was about to replace the old way.
1) Religion was about to be replaced with a relationship.
Religion had become stiff, dead and ritualistic. In Mark 2:19, Jesus revealed that our religion was not a religion like unto the Pharisees, cold and dead, but a relationship, like unto a feast, joyful and exciting. Jesus pictured our relationship to Him as a bride about to be married as she awaits her groom. Salvation is like a marriage. It involves a love relationship and a commitment.
Question: How do we live with this joy? The answer is very simple. The answer is found in John 15. Jesus said, If we abide in Him, yea in His word, we would have both love and joy and we would be fruitful.
So, why would a bride not be excited about her wedding day? Why would she not be joyful? A few reasons given in the Bible are:
1) She would not be joyful if she had lost her first love.
2) She would not be joyful if she had been unfaithful.
If we truly look into the Scriptures, long for the second coming and love our Savior and Lord, joy will fill our lives.
But, if we are looking for the things, trinkets and treasures of this world to make us happy, we will be unjoyful saints.
The song writer was correct when he wrote, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."
2) The Law was about to be replaced with Love. In Mark 2:21 the religion of law was about to die and the relationship of love was about to take over. The old garment was about to replaced with a new one.
The song says, "Well, the best thing in my life I ever did do was take off the old robe and put on the new." "Well, the old robe was spotted all tattered and torn but the new robe was spotless and never been worn." "Well, the best thing in my life I ever did do was take off the old robe and put on the new."
Our new love relationship is kept fresh not by things we hold in our hand but by things we hold in our heart.
Many people put on their mask on Sunday and go to worship and come home and put it in the closet until they go out again.
True Christianity comes from within. It is revealed not by one's clothing or cleanliness, but by one's love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
3) Rituals were about to be replaced with righteousness.
The long faces and the judgmental looks and the constant condemning words of the Pharisees brought sadness and gloom to the hearts of most people in Israel.
Most of the Jewish people despised Phariseeism and most Gentiles rejected it. Who would want a relationship that was built on condemnation. Christianity is built on love and joy and peace?
Remember in Mark 2:22, Jesus reveals that the Christian life was to be one of great joy. The Church would drink new wine. The wine is the Holy Spirit. The new bottle is the Church.
II - JESUS IS THE LORD OF TRUTH
(Mark 2:25-26) When the Pharisees accused Jesus, He simply quoted the book of Truth. He quoted the Bible. He told them of David, a man after God's own heart who entered the Temple and demanded the showbread from Abiathar the high priest.
The Pharisees had nothing to say. The Word of God is a sharp two-edged sword. We must learn it. We must study it. We must know it, less we become like the Pharisees.
27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Learn two very important truths here:
1 - The Sabbath was not made to be worshipped. The Sabbath was made on account of man. What does that mean? It means God knew man needed a day of rest from his labors to revitalize his physical well being. God also knew that man needed a day to revive his spirit. Man needed a day to revitalized his relationship with his creator and his God.
2 - Jesus said, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I created it. I made it. It is a day for you physically, spiritually but also a day to do good in the name of God.
Phariseeism would not allow one to visit the hospital or nursing home or to make a meal for someone sick and bedridden. Thank God Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
But, keep this in mind. Don't misuse the one day a week we give to the Lord. Honor the Lord on what the Church worships as the first day of the week.
III - JESUS IS THE LORD OF THE TEMPLE
(Mark 3:1-6) In Mark 3 1-6 Jesus goes into a synagogue. There is a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees set their judgmental eyes on Jesus again. If Jesus heals this man on the Sabbath, they will again find fault with Him. Jesus in his love and compassion does good on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees immediately run and join up with the Herodians and discuss how they might destroy or kill Him.
The application is twofold:
1) It doesn't matter where you are, at Church or out in the fields picking corn, a Pharisee is going to look for a way to condemn you.
2) Jesus is Lord of the Church. If the constitution of a church contradicts the Bible, you throw the constitution out.
If a tradition in the church is not Biblical, don't make a mole hill out of it.
Jesus Christ is to be the Lord of Charity Baptist Church. He should be the one we sing for. He should be the one we preach about. He should be the reason why we come and worship.
Question: Is He your reason for living? Is He your Savior? Do you remember the day, He knocked on your heart and said, "I want to come in and be your Lord and Savior?' Do you remember? Did you surrender to Him? Did you fall in love with Him?
Christian, Is Jesus still sitting on the throne of your heart? Is He ruling your life? Is He Lord of your heart and your home?
Let Jesus be the Lord of all!
Mark 2:23-28 --23 And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.
24 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
25 And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?
26 How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?
27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
It is a beautiful sunny Sabbath day in Capernaum. Jesus and His disciples are out walking. They come upon a field of corn. Being hungry, the disciples pick the ears of corn and begin to eat.
Jesus allows them to do so, though He knew the Pharisees were watching them.
As soon as Jesus had come within speaking range, the Pharisees said, “What are you doing? Don’t you know it is the Sabbath day? Don’t you know it is against the law to pick corn on the Sabbath?
Jesus response to them was, “Don’t’ you know the Scriptures? Don’t you remember when David was hungry and he went to the Temple and demanded the twelve loaves of showbread from the priest Abiathar.
That bread was only cooked once a week and it was to be eaten only by the priest and his family only. Yet Abiathar gave it to David and David and his men ate the bread.
Jesus told another story here to these Pharisees which Mark does not record but Matthew does. He says, the priest in the temple profane the Sabbath every Sabbath. In other words, they work and labor every Sabbath by killing the sacrifices and making the offerings.
The Lord ends with a teaching we need to understand: 27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: 28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
The truth Jesus was conveying to the religious Pharisees was that, "He was greater than David, whom the Jews thought was the greatest king of Israel and He was greater than the priest that served in the Temple."
The great truth Jesus was teaching was,: "He is Lord of everything."
Here you must understand that Jesus greatest enemy, outside of Satan was not the sinners but the religious crowd. Friend, learn that your greatest conflicts will come from people that have religion.
Most of them have just enough to bug them, then to bless them.
They know the law, but they lack God's love.
So, here is a good point to look at the Christians' greatest enemy, the religious man or woman.
Three points we will discuss if we get to them.
I - JESUS IS LORD OVER TRADITION 23-24:
23 And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.
24 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
THE LAW OF THE PHARISEES
Remember, Jesus was the "friend of sinners." He was compassionate. He was enjoyable to be around. He was love. The religious Pharisees were critical. The Pharisee may agree with 95% of what another person does, but it was just his nature to criticize another for the 5%.
It would be good to spend a little time examining this group of people called Pharisees. They seemed to always fight against Jesus Christ.
There were a few million Jews when Jesus walked on the earth.
In the second century BC, the group known as the Pharisees began.
The very word "Pharisee" means separate.
They prided themselves in strict adherence to the law of Moses.
But, they made one very bad mistake. They also believed in the "Oral Law." They believed laws that had been handed down from generation to generation. Not biblical stores, but man-made laws.
They had many laws and customs that simply were not from God.
When Christ walked among men, there were about 6,000 Pharisees in Israel.
They had many regulations restricting behavior that were not found in the Scriptures. A few of them were...
-They did not allow the lighting of candles on the Sabbath.
-They made it unlawful to throw more grain to their poultry than could be eaten lest some of it might sprout and grow and therefore they would be guilty of sowing on the Sabbath.
-They taught that it was unlawful to swat a fly on the Sabbath.
Jesus received more criticism from these religious leaders about his healing and work on the Sabbath then any other matter.
The Pharisees had infiltrated Judaism and had become their leaders. Sadly, they corrupted the truth.
The Pharisees were mere formalists.
Their focus was exclusively of the outward.
You might recognize a Pharisees by three things:
1 – THEIR CLOTHING: They looked and judged others by comparing their dress to others (Matthew 23:5, (...they made broad their phylacteries).
The clothing of the Pharisees was absorbent. They thought the fancier, the prettier, the more costly one's clothing was, revealed one's spiritual blessings from God. That was the prideful heart of a Pharisee.
Now, folks there is nothing wrong with dressing nice and putting on your Sunday best, but that does make a person spiritual. Some folk's Sunday best is a pair of overalls.
Jesus said to them in Matthew 23:28, "Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
Their hearts were rotten with pride, but they didn't think they were proud. They could not see their own pride, but the Lord could.
And their worship was the same. It was all outward show. They had no inward joy and love and no spiritual worship. Their joy in life was found in the things they owned rather in the truths of God.
They went to the synagogue and sat and listened to the reading of the Scriptures and endured it but, they never washed their hearts.
2 - THEIR CLEANLINESS:
A second way you could recognize a Pharisee was by their cleanliness. In Matthew 15:2 the Pharisees again were quick to condemn Jesus. They said, “Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.”
A Pharisee would never eat without washing their hands but they never washed their hands. I'll explain that in a minute.
They would never think to go out of their homes without being clean all over.
They thought they were godly because of their outward washings, and fastings, and peculiarities in dress, and ceremonial-worship.
They thought “cleanliness was next to godliness” but their cleanliness was physical and not spiritual.
They would not dare admit that they needed to change.
The very thought to “repent” or "confess their sins" irked them.
The Pharisees were quick to condemn Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands physically. Thus Jesus used this to teach them a far deeper truth.
Sure, we should wash our hands before we eat, just like we should dress nice before we go to worship God, but it would be far better to wear dirty clothes and eat with dirty hands than to try and worship God with a dirty heart and dirty hands.
How do we have clean hands and a pure heart? In the book of James 4:8, we read, Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
1) The impure heart is explained in Matthew 15:7-9. Jesus said, Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me, But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
The Pharisees were a strange bunch. They were first to say, "I love the Lord. I belong to God. I will give myself to the Lord." But, in their hearts was ugly pride and deceit.
2) The dirty hands are explained in Matthew 5:23-24.
Matthew 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
The Pharisees went to the synagogue every Sabbath and gave their form of worship. They gave their tithe. They even fasted twice a week, yet they were not right with their brothers and sisters. Their pride prevented them from apologizing and making things right with others.
III - THEIR COCKINESS
In Luke 18 Jesus reveals the cocky attitude of a Pharisee:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
This man treated people fairly. He cheated nobody. He was faithful to his mate.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Now, folks there is nothing wrong with tithing. That is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with fasting now and then. That is a good thing.
Now, look at the prayer of the publican.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
The publican came to confess his sins. His heart was humbled. His spirit was broken. He cried out for mercy from God.
Notice what Jesus says about the publican.
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
It is not the outward clothing or the outward show that makes a man right with God; it is what is in a man's heart.
Are our hearts clean and pure? Do we stand with pride and condemn others because they don't have the standards we think they should have?
Do we hold bitterness, pride or anger in our hearts toward others? If we don't make it right, we will become like a Pharisee.
This great sin of the Pharisees was pride, which produced a judgmental spirit.
The reason the Pharisees were constantly critical and condemning was because their hearts were not right with God.
WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY
Do you remember when the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery before the Lord in John 8:3-11? They said, "We caught her in the very act." Moses said we should stone her to death, what do you say?"
The records in John 8:6 that ...Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
The Pharisees kept asking him, what do you say, as Jesus wrote. Then Jesus stood up and said in v 7...He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
I have to admire the Pharisees here. At least they realized their hearts had sin. They dropped the stones they were going to cast at the woman and walked away.
The Pharisees were always looking to find fault with others. It made them feel better about themselves. So before you condemn a young girl that may have had a baby out of wedlock or someone who has fallen, look in your heart and ask yourself this question, "Have you ever fallen?"
Now, you can understand why the Pharisees were so upset with Jesus. It was there prideful nature to just condemn.
The first sin, the greatest sin and the one sin God mentions that He hates most in all the world is the sin of Pride.
THE SABBATH
What did the Pharisees condemn Jesus for? They condemned Him and His disciples for picking corn on the Sabbath day.
Let's talk about the Sabbath for a few moments. The word for Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word for seven and the Greek word for Sabbath comes from the word meaning Saturday.
In Genesis 2:2 the Bible reads, “God… rested on the seventh day from all His work…”
For over 2,000 years before the law was given, God set an example for man to take a day of rest. Those who knew God and loved the Lord thought on God every day but one day a week was very special.
It was the day when man did not work at home, in the fields or at a business. This one day man gave his entire self; mind, body, soul and spirit, to think on and serve the Lord.
Some 2500 years later God gave His law to Moses. One of those laws was to keep the Sabbath holy. Man wasn’t to work but give of himself to the Lord.
I lot could be said about the Sabbath, but we are not preaching on the Sabbath but revealing the dangers of traditions of it.
In Exodus 31:16-17 we read these words: 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
The keeping of the Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel. It was the law. We are not Israel. We are the Church.
But, stop and think. Right before the Lord reveals to us that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, the Holy Spirit led Mark to reveal to us in chapter two that things were changing. A new way was about to replace the old way.
1) Religion was about to be replaced with a relationship.
Religion had become stiff, dead and ritualistic. In Mark 2:19, Jesus revealed that our religion was not a religion like unto the Pharisees, cold and dead, but a relationship, like unto a feast, joyful and exciting. Jesus pictured our relationship to Him as a bride about to be married as she awaits her groom. Salvation is like a marriage. It involves a love relationship and a commitment.
Question: How do we live with this joy? The answer is very simple. The answer is found in John 15. Jesus said, If we abide in Him, yea in His word, we would have both love and joy and we would be fruitful.
So, why would a bride not be excited about her wedding day? Why would she not be joyful? A few reasons given in the Bible are:
1) She would not be joyful if she had lost her first love.
2) She would not be joyful if she had been unfaithful.
If we truly look into the Scriptures, long for the second coming and love our Savior and Lord, joy will fill our lives.
But, if we are looking for the things, trinkets and treasures of this world to make us happy, we will be unjoyful saints.
The song writer was correct when he wrote, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."
2) The Law was about to be replaced with Love. In Mark 2:21 the religion of law was about to die and the relationship of love was about to take over. The old garment was about to replaced with a new one.
The song says, "Well, the best thing in my life I ever did do was take off the old robe and put on the new." "Well, the old robe was spotted all tattered and torn but the new robe was spotless and never been worn." "Well, the best thing in my life I ever did do was take off the old robe and put on the new."
Our new love relationship is kept fresh not by things we hold in our hand but by things we hold in our heart.
Many people put on their mask on Sunday and go to worship and come home and put it in the closet until they go out again.
True Christianity comes from within. It is revealed not by one's clothing or cleanliness, but by one's love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
3) Rituals were about to be replaced with righteousness.
The long faces and the judgmental looks and the constant condemning words of the Pharisees brought sadness and gloom to the hearts of most people in Israel.
Most of the Jewish people despised Phariseeism and most Gentiles rejected it. Who would want a relationship that was built on condemnation. Christianity is built on love and joy and peace?
Remember in Mark 2:22, Jesus reveals that the Christian life was to be one of great joy. The Church would drink new wine. The wine is the Holy Spirit. The new bottle is the Church.
II - JESUS IS THE LORD OF TRUTH
(Mark 2:25-26) When the Pharisees accused Jesus, He simply quoted the book of Truth. He quoted the Bible. He told them of David, a man after God's own heart who entered the Temple and demanded the showbread from Abiathar the high priest.
The Pharisees had nothing to say. The Word of God is a sharp two-edged sword. We must learn it. We must study it. We must know it, less we become like the Pharisees.
27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Learn two very important truths here:
1 - The Sabbath was not made to be worshipped. The Sabbath was made on account of man. What does that mean? It means God knew man needed a day of rest from his labors to revitalize his physical well being. God also knew that man needed a day to revive his spirit. Man needed a day to revitalized his relationship with his creator and his God.
2 - Jesus said, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I created it. I made it. It is a day for you physically, spiritually but also a day to do good in the name of God.
Phariseeism would not allow one to visit the hospital or nursing home or to make a meal for someone sick and bedridden. Thank God Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
But, keep this in mind. Don't misuse the one day a week we give to the Lord. Honor the Lord on what the Church worships as the first day of the week.
III - JESUS IS THE LORD OF THE TEMPLE
(Mark 3:1-6) In Mark 3 1-6 Jesus goes into a synagogue. There is a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees set their judgmental eyes on Jesus again. If Jesus heals this man on the Sabbath, they will again find fault with Him. Jesus in his love and compassion does good on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees immediately run and join up with the Herodians and discuss how they might destroy or kill Him.
The application is twofold:
1) It doesn't matter where you are, at Church or out in the fields picking corn, a Pharisee is going to look for a way to condemn you.
2) Jesus is Lord of the Church. If the constitution of a church contradicts the Bible, you throw the constitution out.
If a tradition in the church is not Biblical, don't make a mole hill out of it.
Jesus Christ is to be the Lord of Charity Baptist Church. He should be the one we sing for. He should be the one we preach about. He should be the reason why we come and worship.
Question: Is He your reason for living? Is He your Savior? Do you remember the day, He knocked on your heart and said, "I want to come in and be your Lord and Savior?' Do you remember? Did you surrender to Him? Did you fall in love with Him?
Christian, Is Jesus still sitting on the throne of your heart? Is He ruling your life? Is He Lord of your heart and your home?
Let Jesus be the Lord of all!
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