Sunday Morning, February 23, 2020 AM

The Supremacy of Jesus Christ and Prayer for Illumination

Praise and thanks. What a beautiful sound it is to hear our brothers and sisters in Christ singing this old hymn together. Full of faith, full of love for you. We rejoice in the supremacy of Jesus Christ and His sufficiency.

We rejoice that there is one mediator between you and us and that it is the man, the God-man, Christ Jesus. In Him is our hope. We ask this morning that you would give us the grace to hear your word by the power of your spirit, to be conformed to your truth.

Pray that you would feed us from your word and nourish us in our communion with you today here at your table. We ask that you would truly unify us in our love for Christ and that for all who come among us and know us, they will know us to be your disciples by our love for one another.

We give you the praise and the glory today. We ask for these mercies, all for the sake of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased. Amen. Well, as you can tell, my voice has taken a beating this week.

So I have in my notes, preach till you have no more voice. So depending on how amply God answers my prayers, we may be here a while. So some of you have been praying for a miracle and some of you are praying for intervention.

I'd invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Jeremiah 39. Jeremiah 39, and we'll be looking at verses one through 18 this morning. It is important when we come to this pivotal moment in the story, we finally come to the moment that has long been anticipated, the actual destruction of Jerusalem.

For 38 chapters, we've been hearing about it, anticipating it. Jeremiah has been preaching in light of it. The people have been warned about it. They've been doing everything they can to avoid it or to ignore it.

And we finally come to the moment when the Babylonian armies, when the Chaldeans break through the city walls, capture the city, and the things that God said would come about do indeed come about. It's important to remember as we come to this passage, the decline of Judah.

Their decline may be evident in their political standing that they're little more than a client state of the empire of Babylon. They do not have autonomy as they once did. Even the king on the throne isn't the actual king who's supposed to be on the throne.

He was placed there by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Their wealth has greatly diminished. The temple has already been plundered. Many of the golden artifacts have already been taken away. Their nobles have been taken away to exile.

They've been impoverished in terms of their leadership ability, in terms of their intelligence, their education, their armaments. Every measure that you could use for this society, they have been in grave decline.

But all of this is but the externals. All of this is directly related to their spiritual decline. The fact that they had opted for the form of religion rather than the substance of religion. They had begun to use religion as a covering to make themselves look good, rather than as for communion to be with their God.

And so they were in grave decline because they had misused the temple. They worshiped the temple, not at the temple. They worshiped the temple. They took their confidence in many different gods. They were fine with polytheism.

They would worship several different gods instead of the one true God and him alone. They were immoral. Their lives were full of sexual immorality. They were unjust. Their city gates no longer were the places where justice was dealt, but rather injustice was dealt.

Judah's decline is incredibly marked. And all the while, the acceptable spiritual leaders have one message. Shalom, shalom. All is well, all is well. Peace, peace. But there was no peace. And Jeremiah has watched this over his four decades of preaching.

He preached beginning in the days of Josiah, and those were good days. And then he preached in the wake of Josiah's death, and those were difficult days. He's preached for 40 years, and he has seen firsthand the decline that has taken place.

He stands as a witness to the recalcitrance of Judah, their stubbornness, their hard-heartedness, their stiff-necked nature. And God has determined a judgment upon his people. He has said how it's going to go, that Nebuchadnezzar, to Nebuchadnezzar, he gave all the lands in that region, all the city-states.

He had given them all to Nebuchadnezzar, and he was to rule over them all. His word to all those nations around Judah, including Judah, was to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, because he was the one that God had put in charge.

If they resisted, then God would punish that nation with pestilence, with the sword, with famine, and that he would destroy their city. If they resisted, and that the Babylonian armies themselves would be his instrument of judgment.

This is what God has said. They knew this message 20 years ago by this point, but they have not been listening. So with all these things in mind, Judah's decline, Jeremiah's decades, and judgment determined, let's turn our attention to Jeremiah 39.

And if you will stand with me, I want to read the word for you. These are the words of our Lord. I will read verses one through 10 for us this morning. Verses one through 10. Now, when Jerusalem was captured in the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the 10th month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it.

In the 11th year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city wall was breached. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the middle gate. Nergal, Sarazar, Samgar-Nebu, Sarsakim, the Rapsares, Nergal, Sarazar, the Rabmag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

When Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and all the men of war saw them, they fled and went out of the city by night, by way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls, and they went out towards the Arava.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and they seized him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah. The king of Babylon also slew all the nobles of Judah. He then blinded Zedekiah's eyes and bound him in fetters of bronze to bring him to Babylon.

The Chaldeans also burned with fire the king's palace and the houses of the people, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem. As for the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had gone over to him and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the bodyguard, carried them into exile in Babylon.

But some of the poorest people who had nothing, Nebuchadnezzar Adam, the captain of the bodyguard, left behind in the land of Judah and gave them vineyards and fields at that time. This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. If you have been reading through your Bibles this year, you will have undoubtedly already encountered several acts of God's judgment. It doesn't take long to find in the Scriptures some act of judgment by God.

And of course, we're listening to one here. We're watching one happen here in Jeremiah 39. And at the end of Jeremiah, there is a collection of oracles of judgment against various nations. So one of the questions that we have to ask ourselves is, what are we supposed to do with these passages of judgment?

They seem remote in one sense as Christians, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And they seem remote in another way as they are always very specifically targeted at this city state or this people group of this particular time.

And we have to ask ourselves, what do we do with these passages of Scripture? All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

So how do we take up these passages and begin to understand them and use them? And how do they nourish our souls as we follow Christ? Certainly, it's not just a matter of only saying, well, here's another passage of judgment, I better check for sin and repent, which is not a bad thing at all.

Christians should be known as repenters. In fact, that's the name of born-again Christians that they have taken in the Ukraine to distinguish themselves from Eastern Orthodoxy. They are known as repenters, those who are turning away from their sin and turning to Christ.

That's a good thing. But it's not just that we would know the seriousness of sin and repent from sin, yes, of course, but there's even more here for us. I believe that we are impoverished and hampered as believers if we do not understand God's judgment, or if we avoid it, or if we fail to give him praise for it.

I believe we will be impoverished if we did not understand God's judgment, even as we come together for our communion meal. How seriously do we take Philippians 4 .4? Rejoice always. How seriously do we take Psalm 119 .68?

You are good and do good. And do we apply that to all these passages in Scripture where we see God at work judging, pouring out his wrath? There are passages in Scripture that may befuddle us, and they may not always end up on our memorization lists.

Psalm 149, beginning in verse five, let the godly ones exult in glory. Let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written.

This is an honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord. What do we do with that? Deuteronomy 32 .43, rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and will render vengeance on his adversaries and will atone for his land and his people.

What about the song that Moses sang after God delivered Moses and the people of Israel from the land of Egypt, having brought them through the Red Sea? Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord and said, "'I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.

"'The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea. "'The Lord is my strength and song, "'and he has become my salvation. "'This is my God, and I will praise him, "'my Father's God, and I will extol him.

"'The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is his name.'". I noticed, I noted last week that we are not to locate ourselves in opposition to the just and holy God. We are not to say, we are not to pretend like we are more merciful or more righteous or more holy than God.

In fact, we are to leave room for wrath, but even more than that, are we not also to pay the closer attention to the revelation of God's character in the acts of judgment? If we will do that, I believe we will see his glories and give him praise.

Remember, God's goodness is the ground and the substance and the outcome of God's judgment. The reason why he judges, how he judges, and the results of his judgment are all good. This is the kind of God revealed to us in the scriptures, the God who made us, the God who sent his son, Jesus Christ, for our salvation.

We must not make protest, but rather praise at the sight of God's judgment. The saints make praise in the Bible at God's judgment, so should we, in the right way. So let us praise our God of righteous judgment.

Let us praise our God of righteous judgment. And we can do that because God's judgment reveals his praiseworthiness. His judgment reveals how praiseworthy he really is, and we ought to praise him. The first reason we have to praise God when we view his judgment is this.

We see it in verses one and two. The long suffering of God is incalculable. The long suffering of God is incalculable. Whenever God's judgment occurs, and if you're reading in the scriptures, you're gonna come across example after example, historical moment after historical moment of God's judgment upon this people group or this individual or that city.

And when that happens, and when we discern that God's judgment has fallen in our world, and we see an expression of God's judgment on the news or feel it personally as someone suffers because of God's judgment, what are we to think to ourselves?

Here's the first thing we ought to think to ourselves. The long suffering of God is incalculable. Oh, he's such a long-suffering God. God, when he revealed himself to Moses, said he was slow to anger.

Whenever we see the judgment of God, the first thing we ought to think of is how patient he is, how long-suffering he has been, his merciful delay. Consider God's merciful delay in our text. Now, verses one and two.

Now, when Jerusalem was captured in the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the 10th month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. In the 11th year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city wall was breached.

Here at the end of the siege, when God's judgment comes upon Jerusalem, the promised judgment is finally here. We are given a short summary of when the assault began and how it concluded. And the math comes out to 18 months, 18 months.

For 18 months, the armies of Babylon had surrounded Jerusalem. They had conquered all the other cities in the area. The last holdouts had fallen, and now they were actually engaged in battle with Jerusalem for 18 months.

For 18 months, Jeremiah preached this message over and over. This is what he was saying, for 18 months. "'Thus says the Lord, he who stays in this city "'will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence, "'but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live "'and will have his own life as booty and stay alive.

"'Thus says the Lord, this city will certainly be given "'into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, "'and he will capture it.'". 18 months, Jeremiah was preaching that message. God was long-suffering, was he not?

A year and a half, 18 months, God was long-suffering, delaying the final blow. The armies of Babylon were there. The people deserved the judgment. It could have been resolved in a night, but he gave them 18 months.

He did not give the final blow of his ax until the appropriate time. Now, we don't only calculate 18 months here, but notice how many years Zedekiah had been reigning. By the end of the siege, it had been 11 years since he first sat on the throne.

Now, why is Zedekiah up on the throne? Because 11 years prior to this moment, the king of Babylon had come and entered Jerusalem, plundered the city, taken away the other king, Jeconiah, into exile, and picked Jeconiah's uncle, Mattaniah, said, you're going to be king in Jerusalem now.

I'm changing your name to Zedekiah. Puts him on the throne and says, thank you for all the gold and thank you for all the treasures from your temple. I'll be going now, and I expect regular payments and updates.

That was 11 years ago. At that time, 11 years ago, the final judgment could have fallen. Everybody could have been wiped out or taken into exile. The moment was there. They were defeated. It was clear.

But God had given them 11 more years, 11 more years of Jeremiah's faithful preaching. Of course, you could look at it another way. You could look at it another way. In those 11 years of wicked king Zedekiah not listening to the word of God, how many more infants were slaughtered to Molech in those 11 years?

How many more horrid acts of wickedness were done in those 11 years? You see, it's in our struggle. You need to recognize this about the long suffering of God. It is truly in our struggle to understand God's delay in punishing evil.

And don't we struggle with that? We struggle with God's delay in punishing evil, but at the same time, we gain opportunity to praise him for his merciful long suffering, his merciful long suffering. The judgment of God reveals his praiseworthiness.

Every time he comes in an act of judgment, we are to remind ourselves of how long suffering and patient and merciful he has been. How long did he suffer with Noah's generation? 120 years. How long did he suffer with Israel?

40 years in the wilderness. He gave 18 months to Jeremiah's generation. He gave 40 days to Nineveh. He gave a single night to Sodom and Gomorrah. But in all of those delays, God's message of repentance and faith and hope of deliverance was given faithfully by his prophets.

And in that, God's long suffering is incalculable. God's long suffering is incalculable. Now, we're doing all the numbers. We're saying 18 months here, 40 days there. We can calculate these things. Well, not really.

Not really. The reason why God's long suffering is incalculable is because of God's offended holiness. It's not just his merciful delay, but considering his merciful delay together with his offended holiness.

You see, God's long suffering cannot be calculated by the calendar or by the clock. He told those that he had made in his image, in the day that you eat this forbidden fruit and the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.

Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. And yes, we can see that they died spiritually. Yes, we can see that they were now dead in transgressions and sins. Yes, we can see that the relationship between them and God was in a sense dead.

And even their relationship with each other was full of death. And we can see that, and that their bodies did begin to die, but God did not kill them on that day. The nanosecond God stayed his full hand of judgment upon Adam and Eve for their rebellion, the nanosecond he stayed his hand, God's long suffering rocketed into incalculable regions no number map can track.

This is the nature of the holiness of God. What did the apostles say? This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. What did the prophet say?

Your eyes are too pure to approve evil. You cannot look upon wickedness with favor. What happened to Isaiah? He came apart and he fell out when he came into the presence of the holy God. He saw the Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted with a train of his robe filling the temple.

Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out. While the temple was filling with smoke, and then I said, woe is me. I, I am a man of unclean lips.

I live among a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Do we fear God? Do we fear God? We think about his holiness. If we have a right understanding of the holiness of God, when we encounter his judgment by reading it in the scriptures or seeing it for ourselves, we should remember how longsuffering he has been, how mercifully he has delayed his righteous judgment.

Psalm 7, 11, and 12 says, God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day. If a man does not repent, he will sharpen his sword. He has bent his bow. He has made it ready. So as we think about the longsuffering of God, as we think about the longsuffering of God, we're looking here at the actual destruction of Jerusalem and he delayed 18 months, yes, and he delayed 11 years, yes, and he had delayed many generations with this wicked people who had constantly tested him and gone astray, to say nothing of the five decades of Manasseh's wicked rule when he filled Jerusalem with the blood of the innocent from one end to the other.

But what was going on? What was going on in this delay? And Lamentations is a collection of poems written by Jeremiah, the first four are on a cross stick, the first line of each stanza corresponding with a letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

And he gives these five poems of lament concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, the judgment of God. In Lamentations 4, verses 13 through 14, and verse 17, we read this, because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who have shed in her midst the blood of the righteous, they wandered blind in the streets, they were defiled with blood so that no one could touch their garments.

This is the situation, this is the sinfulness, this is the defilement of those who lived in Jerusalem. And what do they say? Verse 17, yet our eyes failed. Our eyes failed. What were they looking for?

Looking for help was useless. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save. Remember Egypt? How it was a broken reed that if they were to lean upon it, it would pierce their hand. So all this time, they are looking.

All this time, they are watching. Here they are waiting. And what are they hoping for? They're hoping for someone to help. They're hoping for someone to save. But they're spending their time, as God is long-suffering and delaying his judgment upon them, those 11 years and those 18 months, as he is delaying his judgment upon them, they are looking and watching and waiting for someone who cannot save.

For someone who cannot save. But dearly beloved, we have a deliverer who does save. We have a deliverer who does save. By his blood, we are cleansed. And he fails none who put their trust in him. What does the Apostle Paul say about our meal together this morning of communion?

He says that as long as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. You see, we're waiting too, aren't we? We're watching as well. We're looking as well. But we're looking for a savior who does save.

We're looking for a resolution of justice and righteousness, which is a just and right resolution. We're looking forward to something. This is the uniting hope of all Christians, is the return of Christ when he settles all things.

And we say together, Maranatha, that as long as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we are reminded of the long suffering of God. But we are waiting, aren't we? The servants say to the master of the tares that have been sown among the wheat, let us go ahead and take out the tares and take them away so that you don't have no more tares in your wheat field.

And he says, no, but let them grow up both together so that we do not uproot the wheat along with the tares. And he waits until the appropriate time. And the long suffering of the master, at the proper time, he will set all things right.

And so as we come together for this meal this morning, we are reminded of the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus Christ for us. His body was broken for us upon the cross. His blood was shed for us upon the cross, that there he was propitiating the wrath of God, the judgment of God in our place and for our sake.

And that we, as the generations of Christians before us and the generations of Christians after us, and we come together for this meal in anticipation, in anticipation of the help to come, anticipation of our Savior to come, who will bring to a satisfying answer these questions we have about the evil around us, about the suffering that we certainly currently endure.

I think I'll leave us there this morning. Let me pray for us, and then we will sing. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in your word, and just reminding us first and foremost that any time, any time that you arise in judgment, it has been after a praiseworthy, glorious, long-suffering delay.

So we give you the praise for that. Help us to keep that in mind as we go through our week this week, and we think about your judgments as we read about it in your word, that we would remember how long-suffering and patient and kind and merciful you are, and that we would rejoice in you and give a hearty amen to your timing and to your justice.

And we pray these things for Christ's sake.