"Because of Manasseh" February 4, 2018 AM

Let's go ahead and start with a word of prayer. Father, we come before you this morning and I ask for your help. Lord, I need your help and we all do to hear your word today. Your ways are not our ways.

Your thoughts are not our thoughts. So often, oh God, you call us to think your thoughts after you and to follow your ways. But so often, Father, as we look at your word and as we submit to its truth, we find that your ways and thoughts are altogether higher than ours.

We catch a glimpse of the seraphs in eternal adoration, crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of your glory. What you have revealed to us, Father, we thank you. You have faithfully mediated the full and sufficient truth of your character and your will for your son, Jesus Christ, who is the word.

You have illuminated our hearts and regenerated them by the Holy Spirit, those who are in Christ. Lord, there is so much we give you thanks for. These are not privileges, Father, that ought to churn up pride and a sense of achievement in our hearts.

For Father, we are always, as always, dependent on you. Lord, I pray that you would help us to make good use of the time. Help us to submit our hearts to the truth of the text. We ask that you would have your way in our hearts in accordance with his word.

And we ask for these graces, confident that you will answer because of your son, Jesus Christ, with whom you are well-pleased. It's in his name we pray, amen. We're gonna be in Jeremiah chapter 15. We're gonna be looking at verses one through nine, and specifically, doing our best to understand these nine verses through one phrase in verse four.

And the phrase is, because of Manasseh. We have been, we spent a little extra time in Jeremiah chapter 14, considering the dangers of false teaching and our appropriate response to false teaching. And now we come to Jeremiah chapter 15, verses one through nine.

And would you please stand with me as I read these nine verses, a message of the Lord, truth mediated to us through Christ. Let's receive the text, the teaching of this text, the words of this text in reverence.

Then the Lord said to me, even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not be with this people. Send them away from my presence and let them go. And it shall be when they say to you, where should we go?

Then you are to tell them, thus says the Lord, those destined for death to death and those destined for the sword to the sword and those destined for famine to famine and those destined for captivity to captivity.

I will appoint over them four kinds of doom declares the Lord, the sword to slay the dogs to drag off and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah for what he did in Jerusalem.

Indeed, who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem or who will mourn for you or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare? You who have forsaken me, declares the Lord, you keep going backward. So I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you.

I am tired of relenting. I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children. I will destroy my people. They did not repent of their ways. Their widows will be more numerous before me than the sands of the seas.

I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man, a destroyer at noonday. I will suddenly bring down on her anguish and dismay. She who bore seven sons pines away, her breathing is labored.

Her son is set while it was yet day. She has been shamed and humiliated. So I will give over their survivors to the sword before their enemies, declares the Lord. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

You may be seated. Only you can prevent forest fires that are caused by foolish actions that humans do. We can't do anything about the lightning bolts. Can't do anything about the drought. But only you and me can prevent forest fires caused by foolish things that humans do, such as dragging your propane tank behind your truck by a chain.

I've seen it happen. The year of my ordination was 2007, and I remember very clearly that there was some forest fires, there was wildfires in California that they traced back to a young man playing with matches and other kinds of paraphernalia in his back, put a pine tree on fire, and it went from there.

Wildfires raged a hundred miles away, but they traced it all back to this one young man who did not have any affinity for Smokey Bear, didn't have any concern about what consequences might occur because of his foolish actions.

I remember it was 2007 because in my ordination council, they asked me, who's responsible for all the fires in California, for the loss of property and lives in California? Is it God, or is it this young man?

Those are the kinds of questions you get in ordination council. They don't give you easy ones. So we talked about that for a little bit. And in a sense, God, of course, is responsible, though not guilty.

He's responsible in terms of he's the one who made sure that the matches worked right and maintained the laws of physics and did not intervene with rain and so on and so forth. And of course, all of this happened and he could have stopped it, but he allowed it to happen and not only allowed, but ensured that the course of the fire would continue.

But of course, he wasn't the one who struck the match and he didn't force the young man to strike the match either. These are the kinds of questions that you get. But it gives me pause to think about fires raging 100 miles away, consequences 100 miles away for what one man did, one young man did in his backyard.

And we have a situation in our text where because of the wickedness of a particular king, when he really hit his stride in his wickedness, 100 years later comes the great judgment. God says, I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh.

Do we fear God? Do we fear God? If we fear God, then we must expect devastating judgment for heinous sins. If you know anything about the God revealed in scripture, if you believe in the God revealed in scripture, if you fear him, if you really believe he is who he is and he does what he does, then we ought to expect devastating judgment for heinous sins.

This morning, we're gonna look at God's punishment, God's patience and God's point about verse four. God's punishment indeed is because of Manasseh and his punishment can be described with three basic terms, exile, execution and example.

Exile as the Consequence of Sin

Exile is a very strong theme in verses one and two. We have God talking about those who might stand before me. He speaks of his presence. Now God is omnipresent, he's everywhere. We in God, we live and move and have our being, Paul said to those in Athens.

So how is it that anybody could ever be away from the presence of God? God is omnipresent, but he is not omnifavorable. He does not welcome everybody on the same level. He is not favorable to everyone.

Imagine a king who reigns over a vast span of territory. Everywhere you go in that territory, there are reminders about that king's authority. There are laws posted from this king. There are banners attesting the loyalty to the king.

There are couriers and heralds giving messages of this king, but only those he is favorable to are allowed to appear in his throne room before his presence. And this is what God is saying. God is saying, I am no longer going to favorably fellowship and exist with this people.

We're going to send them away from my presence. He says, we're going to let them go. And when they ask, well, where are we supposed to go? He says, well, you're going to go to death and to famine and to sword and to captivity.

You're going to be exiled away from him into his punishment, into his judgment. Exile is an excellent term to describe the wages of sin. Adam and Eve sinned. Genesis 2 .17, in the day that you eat of this fruit that is forbidden, in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.

And in the day that they ate of it, they did die spiritually. And God also exiled them away from his presence out of the Garden of Eden, away from the tree of life. Exile is the most obvious and initial consequence of sin.

When you sin, you are cut off from God. When you sin, you are exiled from God because God is too holy to look upon sin with approval. His eyes are too pure to look upon sin. God is opposed to the proud.

God hates the workers of iniquity. God is exiling all those. He exiles all of those who sin, exile. So we see here, isn't that what Jesus means when he talks about hell? His parables envision those who are in the wedding banquet versus those who are cast out into the outer darkness that is filled with nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The picture of are you in or are you out is well-established in the long history of Israel in the wilderness. Those who are in the camp versus those who were exiled outside of the camp due to their unholiness and uncleanness.

Again and again, the consequences of sin is exile, being cut off, cast out. Are you cut off from God now? If you sin, if you persist in your sin, if you do not know Christ, you are cut off from God. You are in exile.

Perhaps you sense the immediate disfellowship, even as a Christian, you sense that there is something between you and God when you sin. Sin is always something that separates. Sin will separate you from God.

Sin will separate you from other people. Sin will exile you away from the gifts that God has given you to steward. Exile is a consequence, a punishment of sin. Fearing God, we must expect devastating judgment for heinous sins.

Our only hope is in Jesus Christ, who suffered exile on our behalf on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf and Christ bearing our transgressions and bearing our iniquities is exiled from God and the father casts his son away.

He bears our exile for us so that we may turn to Christ in faith, who has been raised from the dead, who's at the right hand of the father and find our acceptance with God, not on the periphery, but at the very right hand.

Since the punishment of sin is exile and forgiveness of sin and trust in Christ, we have welcome, but God is exiling this people for their sin. Secondly, and throughout the whole text, really is the theme of execution.

In verse two, we hear of death and sword and famine, three different ways to die, perhaps some combination of two or three of them will affect all of the people who live in Jerusalem. God says, I will appoint four kinds of doom.

All of these have to do with death, the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. Why? Because the wages of sin is death. In verse five, we have a scene of the criminal's death.

Who's going to have pity on you, oh Jerusalem? Who's gonna stop by and ask how you're doing? See, when a criminal dies in public, they understood this, that when a criminal would die in public in the ancient Near East, nobody is going to stop by the dying figure of a criminal and say, well, how are you doing today?

Can I get you anything? Nobody cares. They're being executed. And that's what's happening to Jerusalem. Nobody's gonna stop in and see how the criminal's doing as they're being executed. Verses six through eight, each one of them has the word destroy.

He says, you have forsaken me, declares the Lord. You keep going backward. Imagine Israel, Judah, forsaking the Lord and he's reaching out, but they keep on moving backward till finally he just pushes his hand against them.

And he says, I will destroy you. Verse seven, I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children. I will destroy, look at time, destroy my people. They did not repent of their ways.

Their widows will be more numerous before me than the sand of the sea. I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man, a destroyer at noonday. Destroy, destroy, destroy. Why? Because the wages of sin is death.

Again, we have the theme of execution. At the city gates, God winnows his people. At the city gates were where justice was rendered. The elders of the city would sit at the city gate. If there was any issue of injustice, those involved would come to the city gates and seek some sort of judgment to be made.

And so at the seats of justice where injustice has been, God will make them again places of justice and he will winnow his people. It's the idea of separating the chaff from the grain. That when you grew barley, you beat it until the stalk and the husk of the grain would be separated from the kernels themselves.

And then you would cast it up into the air and all of the chaff, which was very light, would be blown away and the heavy grain would come back down and everything would be separated appropriately. God says, I'm going to make division.

I will separate appropriately. I'm going to execute justice. And the sentence is execution. Why? The wages of sin is death. In verse eight, the image of Abraham's descendants is now ironically reversed.

Rather than Abraham having as many descendants as the stars of the sky and as the dust of the earth and the sand of the seashore, now the widows will be as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Why? Because the wages of sin is death and the men will be slaughtered in the judgment, in the battle with the Babylonians.

In verse seven and in verse nine, as we look at the bereavement of the mothers of their children, as we see the one who bore seven sons, as she is laboring now more than she ever labored with all seven of her sons together in her grief and in her wages of sin.

Over and over through this passage, God says, because of Manasseh, because of the sin of Manasseh and the sin of this people with Manasseh, the sentence is execution. The wages of sin is death, which is exactly why our only hope is in Christ.

Because without the shedding of blood, without the shedding of Christ's blood unto death, there is no forgiveness of sins. If we will begin there, if we will begin with what it costs to save us, if we will begin with the horrendous death of Jesus Christ, if we will look carefully at the cross of Jesus Christ and his suffering, we begin to understand that the wages of sin is death.

Perhaps it may be difficult for us to envision our own selves suffering and dying for our own sins, but at least look at Christ, look what he suffered. We only get a glimpse of it in the Bible, but look at him suffering.

Look at how much he suffered for us in dying for us. And we see there the penalty, the punishment of sin, that we deserve execution. And for all who trust in Christ, we find that our penalty is paid in full in Christ.

We are satisfied with justice of God. But have we truly reckoned without sin brings death into our lives in the now and in the not yet. Well, God's punishment is an exile, it's an execution, but it's also an example.

A Horrendous Example to the Nations

Look at verse four. Again, he says, I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah for what he did in Jerusalem. God says, I'm gonna make them an example, a horrendous example, one that is so awful that not a single kingdom on the face of the planet will fail to hear about it.

Israel was God's mouth to the world. God had covenanted with Israel so that they together corporately as a nation would live as the image of God and show the glory of God to everyone. If they had lived the way they were supposed to live, they would have said on a constant basis, behold the one true God.

He is true. And you see who he really is as you watch us. But they didn't live in the image of God. They rejected God. They fled from his law. They betrayed the covenant. And so God will still have his glory.

God's ways are not refuted by man's ways. And so God will still have his glory. He will still tell all the nations who he is in his holiness and in his justice and righteousness by judging Judah, by destroying Jerusalem.

They will be an object of horror among the nations. The nations needed to know. The nations who were also made in God's image needed to know what kind of a God he is. And they needed to know that he is a just God and a holy God.

And that was not being communicated by the people of Israel who were worshiping idols and saying God likes us no matter what we do, no matter how we live. So God's punishment is one of exile. It's one of execution.

It's one of example. But we also see God's patience. We also see God's patience in this passage. Did you notice? The previous mediators in verse one. The previous mediators in verse one. Now fearing God, we must expect devastating judgment for heinous sins.

Why has it not yet fallen? Perhaps because of the previous mediators. And the Lord said to me, even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not be with his people. My soul would not be toward this people, even if Moses and Samuel.

Moses and Samuel were renowned for being mediators. In Psalm 99 verse six, it says Moses and Aaron were among his priests and Samuel was among those who called on his name. And they called upon the Lord and he answered them.

These were the guys who could always get God to answer them. And they were these mediators who stood before the Lord time and time again, and God heard them. But not now. God's patience has been proven over many hundreds of years, but his patience is coming to an end.

We see his patience in the past mercies. In verse six, he says, I am tired of relenting because so many times God will be on the verge of destroying his people. And yet some mediator would be there, like Samuel or like Moses and they would pray and God, and he was being consistent with his character, would show kindness and love.

And he would show patience and long suffering rather than judging because he is long suffering. He is slow to anger, but he's not eternally permissive. He is not everlastingly passive. And at some point, God gets up off his throne.

And pays a visit. In the Hebrew, that's the word for judgment. So often, God visits his people. The idea is, but he has been patient. So many mediators before, past mercies shown. He was even patient pertaining to Manasseh.

Verse four says, because of Manasseh, because of Manasseh, this judgment comes. Manasseh, Manasseh is an interesting character. He reigned for 55 years. The first portion of it, he was co-regent with his father, Hezekiah.

And at a certain point, Hezekiah died and Manasseh finally hit his stride of wickedness. And here we are two generations later. And the judgment will finally fall. Not in the first year of Manasseh's reign when he was so wicked, but a hundred years later.

A hundred years later. Like a wildfire that rages a hundred miles away from where a young man first acts foolishly, judgment falls a hundred years after the heinous sins committed. But God has been patient.

He's been patient. God has been patient with all the sons of Adam and all the daughters of Eve. He's been patient with me. He's been patient with you. God has shown himself to be long-suffering and patient.

And why is he patient? Why is he patient? For his own glory he is, but why is he patient? Many would mock his patience. Many would try his patience and say, God is not on the ball. God is not truly a God who judges.

God loves us just the way we are, no matter who we are or how we live. God is the most tolerant and accepting of all. He loves all beings and we craft God in our own image. Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day.

God is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, the promise of judgment. But he is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God is patient to make room for salvation, to make room for redemption, to make room for mercy, he is patient.

And he has been so very patient. We also see God's point in verse four, because of Manasseh. Who was Manasseh? Dale Ralph Davis, when he preached through Second King, said Manasseh was like a category five hurricane without the evacuation option.

That's what he was to the nation. And he was that for 55 years. The only way we know who Manasseh is, is to look at the word of God. So if you'll turn back in your Bibles to Second Kings chapter 21. I'm gonna flip from Second Kings 21 to Second Chronicles 33 and back to Second Kings 23, because we need to understand the point that God makes when he says through Jeremiah to the people of Judah, it is because of Manasseh.

What does he mean by that? Let's see. Second Kings chapter 21. And I really won't have to explain too much to you about these passages. You'll know what's going on as you listen carefully. Second Kings 21 verses one through nine and verse 16 as well.

Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah as Ahab king of Israel had done and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and serve them.

He built altars in the house of the Lord of which the Lord had said in Jerusalem, I will put my name. For he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. He made his sons pass through the fire, which means he sacrificed his sons as burnt offerings.

He practiced witchcraft. He used divination. He dealt with mediums and spiritists. He was into demon worship. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made in the house of which the Lord said, David and his son Solomon in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

And I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers. If only, if only they will observe to do according to all that I commanded them and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.

But they did not listen. And Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel. Verse 16, moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another besides his sin with which he made you to sin and doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

So God says, because of Manasseh, if we fear the Lord, we should expect devastating judgment for heinous sins. It may matter to us that it comes 100 years later, but to God, what is time? If a day is as 1 ,000 years, then what must 100 years feel like?

God is not desensitized to sin. And when he is sinned against.

Over the course of our human years, does it fade in his soul that he was sinned against? Does the power and the imprint of that sin and the effect of that profanity against his name, does that wane over the years?

Does time heal all wounds?

Does time atone for all sins? He says, because of Manasseh, because of Manasseh. Say, well, you know, if only, and you can go ahead and move to 2 Chronicles 33. If only Manasseh had taken those many years that he reigned, and perhaps at some point he would have repented, then it would all be okay for Judah.

2 Chronicles 33, verses 10 through 16. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore, the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks.

The idea is that they pierced his nose, put a leather thong through it, and led him off to Nineveh. They bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon, ultimately to Babylon. When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord, his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

When he prayed to him, God was moved by his entreaty and heard his implication and brought him again to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God, like Nebuchadnezzar, who was humbled for seven years, eating grass like an ox.

And afterwards, he knew, oh, yeah, Yahweh is El. The Lord is God. Now, after this, he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of Gihon in the valley, even the entrance of the fish gate and encircled the Ophel with it and made it very high.

Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah because he didn't want to be captured again. Verse 15, he also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city.

He set up the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Wow, look at that repentance. It's almost as good as Josiah did, right?

We'll get that in a moment. Look at that repentance from Manasseh. We come to Jeremiah 15, nine, and God says, I'm going to make this people an object of horror among all the nations of the earth because of Manasseh.

What's his point about Manasseh's repentance? Did he repent? Oh boy, howdy, did he repent? Did Manasseh's change of heart, his change of ways, did his reversing of the bad policies, did his repentance erase from God's mind all that he had, did God look at Manasseh's repentance and say, oh, okay, I can just forget all that?

It didn't. Well, if only, additionally to Manasseh, if only there had been another king who came after Manasseh who could really, from the get-go, really turn all the whole nation away from idolatry and wickedness, then God would not judge the nation.

Second Kings 23, verses 25 to 27. Speaking of Josiah, speaking of Josiah, it says, before him, before Josiah, there was no king like him who 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, nor did any like him arise after him.

He was more holy and zealous and godly than David and all the other kings. He turned the whole nation to the Lord. He obliterated idolatry from the face of Judah. He was a zealous and faithful king from start to finish, not like Manasseh, not like his latter year's conversion.

Josiah was through and through a pure good king. Verse 26, however, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath with which his anger burned against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.

The Lord said, I will remove Judah also from my side as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen, and the temple of which I said, my name shall be there. Which I'm saying, if we fear the Lord, we should expect devastating judgment because of heinous sins.

Here's why Jeremiah 15 .4 is so troubling. God was dealing with Israel, intensely made this relationship with them by which they were to display to the nations who he was, but all the nations are made in the image of God.

He holds them all accountable for he has revealed himself to all nations. Here's my concern, because of Manasseh, because of Manasseh, this is my concern. These United States have sanctioned, funded, and ensured the heartless murder of 60 million infants since 1973.

60 million infants since 1973. One out of every 20 infants that God gives life in this nation, Americans murder. One out of every four deaths in our nation is infanticide, cloaked in the legalese of abortion, crime scenes hidden inside the womb.

I'd say we have filled our cities to the brim with innocent blood. 2017 Gallup poll tells us that divorce, sexual immorality, homosexuality, doctor-assisted suicide, pornography, and polygamy are at their all-time highest favorability rates.

So here's my concern. If all of our society's leaders repent, if we do enact political reform, and if we, the people, were to be governing this nation, all to a man, woman, and child, repent, here's my concern, do we think that that shift will appease a holy God and avoid judgment?

That's my concern. We want a national turnabout like what happened with Josiah. We want a good and godly leader at every level in our government, don't we? Because of Manasseh, though. If we end abortion tomorrow, and we should, will that atone for 60 million murders?

We would like to craft an idol. We would like to have a God of our own imagination who would be infinitely forever patient. But slow to anger does not mean forever permissive. And I understand the sentiments.

In God we trust. God bless America. We were founded as a Christian nation. I'm almost afraid that that comes off like what Jeremiah's compatriots were saying. The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord will never be destroyed because we've got the temple.

God's not against us. We like him. It's on our money. I think God's saying, what about Manasseh? What about Manasseh? What about the child's sacrifices? What about the innocent blood? If we fear the Lord, shouldn't we expect devastating judgment for heinous sins?

I am really grateful to be a citizen of the United States. I'm really, really grateful. I'm grateful to be born here. I'm grateful for our history. I am really grateful for the first responders who serve and our military who serve.

And I thank them and I wanna thank them some more for doing what they do. They don't get thanked enough. I want to be patriotic, but if wisdom and knowledge begin with the fear of the Lord, shouldn't our patriotism begin with the fear of the Lord too?

And I don't know, I don't know about this method of praying that nothing bad will ever, ever happen to us. I don't know how to square that with what we've been doing. Should we pray that God ignore injustice and ignore idolatry and ignore immorality?

Certainly not. We should pray for mercy. We should pray for patience because God, what does God, why is God patient? He fills up the interim with opportunities for mercy, with opportunities for salvation.

So if God is pleased to delay the judgment that we so richly deserve just a little while longer, what do we do with God's patience? Jeremiah's fellow citizens presumed upon the patience of God to continue on the status quo,.

Forfeiting opportunities for salvation.

Will the patience of God end in some great catastrophe for our nation? Will the patience of God end when Christ returns? I don't know what's happening next. All I know right now is God is being patient.

God is being long-suffering. And what will we do with that patience? We must not presume upon God's patience. We must not take this interim period and waste it. We only have, I don't know, we only have a little time left because of Manasseh.

Maybe the refrain in our heart should be because of Messiah. Manasseh's crimes are unavoidable. The judgment is unavoidable for Manasseh's crimes. But God is pleased to save. God is pleased to rescue the perishing.

God is pleased to bring lost and wandering sheep into his fold and to catch them up to himself in everlasting safety and glory. I think that it's just with this verse, I have been convicted about the way that I have been thinking about my country and my fellow citizens.

And what do we do with the patience of God that he still yet extends in this moment? If God, in his patience, if we see clearly from the scriptures, and I think we do, if God makes his patience about opportunity for salvation, then what should we make his patience about in our lives?

Opportunity for salvation. Opportunity while there's time left that God would fill, oh, that God would fill our churches with gospel fervency and new converts. Let's make the best use of the patience that we have left.

Let me pray for us. Father, our only hope is in Christ. And I ask now that you would comfort the hearts of true believers in you with the understanding that you will hold us fast. No matter what happens to our nation, no matter what happens in the world, you hold us fast.

And in Christ we overcome. And I pray that you would remove false comfort from our hearts, the false comfort that says, as it has been, so it shall be, and nothing will change. I pray that you will remove that cancerous comfort from our hearts, that we'd fear you.

We would fear you. And that in that fear that we would know a new zeal, a new zeal, a new concern for our fellow citizens of this country, that truly, Father, deserves such great judgment from you, that we thank you for your patience.

Father, may our perspective on the world in which we live truly echo the mind of Christ. We pray these things for his sake.