Sunday Morning, July 7, 2019 AM Part 2

Let's go to Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you this morning and we confess that we are in great need of What only you can provide

Even as you are the one who breathed the breath of life into Adam To make what you had forged from dust truly live in your image

Father, you know our frame that we are but dust and yet you give us You give us your son

Jesus Christ you give us your Holy Spirit That we may live and you give us your word that we may live in communion and fellowship and understanding and in worship of you what

I pray that you would give us understanding of your word and the kind of understanding that It leaves us on our knees in all of you

Worshipping you Eager to know more and yet satisfied full and rejoicing we ask for these mercies looking only to Our Savior Jesus Christ the one with whom you are well pleased

Amen, I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Jeremiah 30

Jeremiah chapter 30 last

Last week we read through verses 1 through 15 In a moment, we'll read through verses 8 through 24 today

And our second look at this passage last last time we observed from the first four verses that God told

Jeremiah to write these words in a book a Suffer as it were in the

Hebrew which reminds us of the word cipher and the Bible is not a code book to resolve every mystery but it is a book that brings clarity to things that are very difficult for us to understand without the

Word of God we would have no way to untangle all of the Sorrow and suffering that we both observe and endure unless we had the scriptures

It would be like trying to put together a puzzle a 5 ,000 piece puzzle without the box top to guide us through and In this way, the

Bible is gifted to us given to us because God knows that we need

The big picture we need the truth that it's outside of us to make sense of our own lives

And so the scripture is our life cipher God's book decodes pain by hope

That's a good way to sum up Jeremiah 30 God's book decodes pain by hope last time we

Looked at several verses in this chapter and thought about the character of suffering.

It may be incredible But it must be intentional It may be incredible.

It may be very Extreme but at all times we must understand the purpose the point the truth

About suffering that we would follow Christ rightly And now we're going to consider

The charter of salvation that is part of this passage and will complete the big picture that we need to understand

What in the world suffering is about if you would please stand with me, I'm going to read

Jeremiah chapter 30 beginning in verse 8 to the end of the chapter This is the word of the

Lord It shall come about on that day declares the Lord of hosts

But I will break his yoke from off their neck and will tear off their bonds and strangers will no longer make them their slaves but they shall serve the

Lord their God and David their King whom I will raise up for them

Fear not Oh Jacob my servant declares the Lord not do not be dismayed Oh Israel for behold

I will save you from afar and your offspring from the land of their captivity and Jacob will return and will be quiet and at ease and no one will make him afraid

For I am with you Declares the Lord to save you for I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you only

I will not destroy you Completely, but I will chasten you justly and will by no means leave you unpunished

For that says the Lord your wound is incurable and your injury is serious

There is no one to plead your cause no healing for your sore. No recovery for you

All your lovers have forgotten you do not seek you For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy with the punishment of a cruel one because your iniquity is great

And your sins are numerous Why do you cry out over your injury your pain isn't curable

Because your iniquity is great and your sins are numerous. I have done these things to you

Therefore all who devour you will be devoured and all your adversaries Every one of them will go into captivity and those who plunder you will be for plunder and all who prey upon you

I will give for prey For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds declares the

Lord Because they have called you an outcast saying it is Zion. No one cares for her

That says the Lord Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwelling places

And the city will be rebuilt on its ruin and the palace will stand on its rightful place From them will proceed

Thanksgiving and the voice of those who celebrate and I will multiply them and they will not be diminished

I will also honor them and they will not be insignificant Their children will also be as formerly and their congregation shall be established before me and I will punish all their oppressors

Their leader shall be one of them and their ruler shall come forth from their midst

And I will bring him near and he shall approach me For who would dare to risk his life to approach me declares the

Lord you shall be my people and I will be your God Behold the tempest of the

Lord wrath has gone forth a sweeping tempest it will burst upon the head of the wicked the fierce anger of the

Lord will not turn back until he has performed and until he Has accomplished the intent of his heart in the latter days.

You will understand this This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. It is helpful for us to To note the pattern of salvation that occurs again and again in the scriptures

One way of talking about it is Is a series of phrases or series of sentences crafted by one of my favorite authors

Graham Goldsworthy and it's found its way into my favorite children's book to read to my boys and You could say that the pattern of salvation is like this.

It's about God's people in God's place blessed under God's rule and And that God's King always brings his people into his place under his rule and whether we're thinking about Adam and Eve in the

Garden of Eden and in them being exiled but then

God bringing Noah and his family back into a refreshed earth or Thinking about how it is that God takes

Abraham to bring him into a place and those descendants are enslaved He brings them to the place with his descendants and then they get cast out again into exile but he brings them back again so that God's people are in God's place blessed under his rule and Ultimately the way that Jesus talks about things

He as God's chosen leader He says that he's the place

It's about being in Christ now and That God is gathering all his people into his place blessed under his rule

And we find the locus of all that gospel story through the scriptures is found in the person in the work of Jesus Christ We see these patterns again and again in the scriptures the way that God deals with his people and There are three things about salvation that happen again and again in the scriptures and one is that God recompenses his enemies and that he also restores the fortunes of his people and Then thirdly he always raises up his chosen leader those three things happen again and again throughout the scriptures

You might even think about the cycle in the days of the judges How it is that his people are in turmoil because of their own sin

But what does God do but intervene and recompense their enemies restore their fortunes through his chosen leader?

Again, and again, we see this pattern throughout the scriptures and this particular passage

Echoes that pattern it's the charter of salvation God recompenses enemies he restores fortunes he raises up his leader and of course the the judgment that he brings and the

Blessings that he brings both come through his chosen Leader these themes are what we find in our

Passage and this is part of that big picture that we need the jumble of the puzzle pieces of our lives

How do we sort it all out? How do we understand that the current sorrow and the suffering that we are in?

Unless we have the big picture right next to us and we can see what God is up to and what he will be up To until he brings it all to a righteous and glorious end

When we think about these three themes of God Recompensing his enemies and him restoring our fortunes and raising up a leader for us

It's an interesting quandary that many times as these themes are being Displayed through scripture revealed in the

Word of God and then and then if they're if they're really held in earnest If they're if they are taken to their full value

It's an interesting thing that sometimes it seems to be too much That God's judgment upon the wicked is too severe too thorough

Too violent or that God's restoring of his people goes.

Oh, that's too much It goes too far. It's too earthy. It's or it's or it's too heavenly or it's it's too something

It just can't be that And that and if the leader that God raises up always gets too much credit and the focus always seems to be about the leader and What about all these other important themes and there seems to be a bit of the attitude of critical

Christy Critical Christy was driving her little car home one day in a storm on an old pothole filled road

And as she was peering through the driving sheets of rain, she grumbled too much wind

As she bounced along the road she grumbled too many holes and she came up to some orange traffic cones and yellow barriers with flashing lights and a sign on a on a digital marquee saying turn around don't

Drown she weaved through it all and said too much color She went down the hill towards some fast flowing water and sure enough off.

She floated in her little car grumbling too much water She climbs up out of her car and swims for the nearest

Brambley tree and climbs up into the into the tree grumbling all the while too many branches and then a rescue helicopter comes overhead fighting against the wind and and rescuers in a boat come come motoring along fighting against fighting against The current and then paramedics arrive on the shore and they're out there ready to help her

But they're fighting against the rain and she looks at it all and she sighs and she grumbles too much help

Sometimes we're like that with God's salvation. It's too much. How could it be that much?

Surely, it's not that much Surely it can't be to that degree to that extreme

And yet it is Notice how God recompenses the enemies and See this theme in verses 8 11 16 and the last two verses of the chapter as well

God promises in in the day of deliverance. He will break break the yoke of Babylon verse 8 says it shall come about on that day declares the

Lord of hosts and I will break his yoke from off their neck and Will tear off their bonds and strangers will no longer make them their slaves

And Jeremiah has just prophesied about the time of Jacob's distress That although this was a great day of distress, although that Jerusalem would be laid waste

There would be great destruction as we talked about last week incredible suffering despite all of this

There's the promise that God will save Jacob from it And indeed he has already

Gone to the lengths that he needed to to save a remnant from destruction. The remnant is an exile they are in Babylon, but He will be saved from it.

Jacob will be saved from this this bondage this tyranny this enslavement God promises to break the yoke of Babylon from off the neck of Jacob he will recompense the enemies in order for God to restore

Judas fortunes The enemies must be destroyed first God said when 70 years are accomplished for Babylon When the 70 years are accomplished for Babylon Then I will restore your fortunes.

Then I will bring you back to your land. Then I will ensure the rebuilding of the temple and So it is that Babylon must be destroyed

Babylon must be recompensed if Judah is to be saved as part of the

Charter of Salvation. That is the precision with which God judges He judges in verse 11

I says I am with you declares the Lord to save you for I will destroy Completely all the nations where I have scattered you only

I will not destroy you completely But I will chasten you justly will by no means leave you unpunished.

Do you see how precise God is? He can judge Nations and one and nations that live in the same area at the same time and one will be destroyed completely

But the other one not completely one as a matter of wrath and judgment But the other as a matter of chastening and discipline and punishment

Notice also verse 16 the precision of God's judgment. He says therefore all who devour you will be devoured

All your adversaries every one of them will go into captivity After all it was their adversaries who took them into captivity

Those who plunder you will be for plunder all who pray upon you. I will give for prey eye for eye tooth for tooth

God's judgment you see is precise he recompenses the his enemies precisely and Powerfully verses 23 and 24 behold the tempest of the

Lord wrath has gone forth a sweeping tempest it will burst upon the head of the wicked the fierce anger of the

Lord will not turn back until he has performed and Until he has accomplished the intent of his heart in the latter days.

You will understand this The language is that of a whirlwind it's an

EF5 tornado that comes dropping on to the heads of God's enemies

Does he really have to send that much wrath? Does he really have to go to those lengths of judgment and punishment?

Does God have to be so severe? too much help but in fact

It is most essential First of all because God is holy And only holy he's holy holy holy and God is just and unchanging and Every every crime is ultimately a sin against God and that he will bring justice

Otherwise he is not God and he will bring the appropriate amount of justice

Otherwise he is not God and it's vital that God's people

Have this theme Throughout the scriptures a very robust theme in the scriptures about the judgment of God Seems you can't make it through a book of the

Bible without coming across some aspect of God's judgment upon a people and how severe

It can be Why would that be essential for us as God's people? How is that part of the box top?

I mean, I have enough suffering of my own Why would God say again and again throughout the scriptures about how others will suffer?

Under the judgment if I'm clinging to Christ, I know there is therefore now no condemnation for me

I know there's no more. There's no wrath left for me. Christ has taken it all in my place

None the less here I am trying to follow Christ has all this pain and suffering in my life But why in the world would

God then drew draw my attention to all these themes in the scripture about others? Suffering under his judgment.

How does that help me? Well, there's no salvation for God's people unless there's destruction of God's enemies

And there's no salvation for God's people Unless the justice is fully rendered fully rendered

Suffering is bad It's hard. God can use it for good suffering is difficult enough

Bitterness makes it unbearable Suffering is difficult enough bitterness makes it unbearable.

I speak from experience You probably are a meaning from experience Suffering is difficult bitterness makes it unbearable

Proverbs says a broken spirit dries the bones So how does the theme of God's justice and judgment help us with bitterness?

Well, it's simply this Paul says in Romans Leave room for wrath

Vengeance is mine. I Will repay says the Lord leave room for wrath.

What does that mean? See it's not your anger At the suffering you endure from the hands of others

It is not your anger that you have at the suffering you endure that will bring about a righteous end to your suffering

It is not your anger. That'll make things, right? It's only God's anger.

That'll make things, right? The wrath of man the anger of man does not achieve

The righteousness of God So we have to leave room for wrath

We have to leave room for God's anger in the situation in our life And when someone wrongs us and causes us to suffer terribly

And if we are if we are suffering because of someone who doesn't even know who we are But because of their decisions somewhere down along the line we suffer greatly because of somebody else

If we if we determine that we are going to hold on to that anger Then that just turns into bitterness

And makes our suffering unbearable But the theme of God's judgment the theme of his wrath the theme of his justice tells us and to such extreme detail

We can leave that in God's hands and he's going to do a better job of it than we could ever dream of And we could ever dream of there is a fourfold hallelujah

Revelation 19 a fourfold hallelujah and What are the

Saints giving a fourfold hallelujah for? Was it an especially bright double rainbow?

Was it an excellent new? course to sing together

That'd be nice hallelujah Was it? Shrimp day at the buffet

What are the Saints giving a fourfold hallelujah? concerning God's wrath poured out on Babylon as Babylon the harlot is sent to Everlasting damnation and and torment in hell the

Saints say we

Have to leave it to God Proverbs says Do not fret because of the evildoer do not envy

The wicked the days are numbered. They're not gonna prosper It's all gonna fail

God is gonna bring about his righteous end to all the evil wickedness and sin and when it's all said and done

We're gonna say You did it. You resolved it. You fixed it.

You made it right again No amount of justice that a human a judge or a nation's army could ever

Attempt to unleash could ever even get close to the to the righteousness and the justice that God will accomplish

We have to leave room for wrath We have to leave room for wrath Leave it for to God And that delivers us because it's part of the

Charter of Salvation. God recompenses enemies in order to save his people And secondly

God restores fortunes God restores fortunes Verse 10 verse 10 of our text

God is speaking to Through this book that Jeremiah is writing. It's the tenth year of Zedekiah.

He's writing this in a book It's going to be sent to the exiles in Babylon, here's what

God says to those in exile those who have Received word that Jerusalem is destroyed.

It is thoroughly destroyed all of their All their childhood homes are gone

Their culture has been eradicated from their homeland and that they're out there on their own with no place to go home to And this is what

God says to them in verse 10 Fear not Isn't that wonderful?

Fear not. Oh Jacob my servant declares the Lord. Do not be dismayed Oh Israel for behold,

I will save you from afar And your offspring from the land of their captivity and Jacob will return and will be quiet and at ease and no one will make him

Afraid isn't that precisely the comfort? That they needed to hear

Now the false prophet said that would happen in two years or there wouldn't be any problems at all

God's true word through his true prophet was this the appropriate time. Oh Fear not do not be dismayed at the appropriate time.

I will restore you. I will restore you Verses 17 through 20 speak about this restoration

He says for I will restore you to health I will heal you of your wounds declares the

Lord because they have called you an outcast saying it is I and no one cares for her Thus says the

Lord behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwelling places and the city will be rebuilt on its ruin and The palace will stand on its rightful place

From them will proceed Thanksgiving in the voice of those who celebrate and I will multiply them and they will not be diminished

I will also honor them and they will not be insignificant Their children also will be as formerly

And their congregation will be shall be established before me. I will punish all their oppressors as I read that restoration and Then I read at the end about the great tempest or the or the whirlwind.

I'm all I'm thinking about is Job But Job didn't get this promise the children of Israel did

Look, God says I'm going to restore your fortunes I'm gonna heal you of your wounds

Your children will be back as they were before the city will be rebuilt on its ruin the palace or in other words

The temple is going to be reestablished Good news Good news.

God is restoring their fortune He says in verse 19.

He says I will multiply them and they will not be diminished You see he commanded the exiles in chapter

I think 29 in verse 6. He commanded the exiles

Multiply and do not decrease You get to the end When they actually get back to their land and they're in their city

It turns out it was God who multiplied them and they did not diminish All right,

God gets the glory God is the one who did it It's like the the phrase in our hymn this morning

I Don't have the strength to follow God's commands. It is God who gives me that strength.

And so the glory The glory goes to God. It's God who restores and he multiplies them and so they are not diminished

He promises restored glory The the fortunes he says he's going to restore think about the history of this people

Abraham Isaac and Jacob God says I'm gonna restore the fortunes restore the glory of the tents of Jacob Abraham Isaac and Jacob were all wealthy wealthy nomads

Israel wandered the wilderness carting around the wealth of Egypt with them

They took possession of the land of the flowing with milk and honey

But now now what is their condition? Now they're in exile The most precious artifacts of the temple have been raided by Babylon The city is about to fall and when that does all the rest of the artifacts are gonna be chopped up and taken away and melted down and so here's

Jacob and his Jacob's children in their one of the most poor moments and God says

I'm gonna restore your fortunes some translations say captivity, but it's the Hebrew word for plunder

It's the Hebrew word for plunder. He says I'm gonna prom he promises to honor them And that's the word that's the

Hebrew word for glory kabod, which means weight Weightiness I'm gonna restore the weightiness to you.

So what I mean what's gonna happen? What's the story? Well, you can read about it in Ezra 7 and 8

Ezra chapter 7 and 8 What happens is that the emperors of the

Medes and Persians? Sinned Israel after they conquer Babylon after God recompenses his enemies through the emperors of Persia and the

Medes these emperors Send the Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city on top of its ruin to rebuild the temple and then these pagan emperors fund it out of the royal coffers and They send gold silver and precious stones to adorn the temple and to rebuild

Jerusalem and Haggai 2 7 through 9 God says I will shake all the nations and They will come with the wealth of all nations and I will fill this house with glory

Says the Lord of hosts the silver is mine and the gold is mine declares the Lord of hosts

The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts in this place I will give peace declares the

Lord of hosts and so God did he shook the nations all the different nations that were a part of the

Empire of the Medes and the Persians all of the taxes that the emperors collected God shook the nations

He turned them upside down and shook him and out come all the gold and the silver and he gives it to Israel to rebuild God restores their fortunes

And for those suffering loss God and his charter of salvation Gives this wonderful promise and it's not about monetary gains.

I'm oh, yeah, we could be rich This isn't a health and wealth gospel as we'll see in Following texts when

God says I will heal you from your wounds. He's talking about the spiritual wounds He's talking about the cultural wounds

He's talking about the way that the society and cease to function correctly and he's going to heal them from those wounds

He's going to restore the fortunes and the glory of Israel Because he was bringing glory to himself

He was bringing glory to himself He was showing the nations in a very clear way who the one true

God really is and the way that he was dealing with Israel see I can punish them and yet Restore them while I destroy the enemies who afflicted them.

See what's what I do And this and this irrefutable evidence of the one true

God Adorned by the prophecies of his servants goes forth when we think about Think about God restoring as part of the narrative of salvation that God restores fortunes

Adam and Eve owned the world That God entrusted to them all the land all the food all the animals all the spaces the rivers the gold listed in Genesis 2

Adam and Eve owned it all And though they were exiled all was not lost because in the final estimate is all been given to the second

Adam all things have been given to Christ and when

God says all things he means all things and So what does it mean that his bride the church that those who are in Christ are called co -heirs with Jesus?

You see the restoration of everything the consummation the new creation all that is made new is

Given to Christ and those who are with him It is the restoration of all the fortunes that have been lost due to sin rebellion and destruction

It's part of the narrative Jesus says in Mark 10 29 through 30

He said surely I say to you There was no one who's left house or brothers or sisters or for our mother or father or children or farms

For my sake and for the gospel's sake but that he will receive a hundred times as much as as now in the present age houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms along with Persecutions and in the age eternal life in the age to come eternal life

Yeah, you know to have God as father to have Christ as brother to have loving community in the

Holy Spirit to be of the body of Christ Global what more could you want?

What more could you want if you have ever Gone someplace you've never been before To meet

Christians you have never met before when you sit down with them You both are at The same table together and it's both your table, you know that their food is your food

Your time is their time We know what that's like. That's not that's not some crude form of fiscal socialism.

That's That's being one in the body of Christ We still have private property.

We still try to be good stewards But when you when a Christian comes into my home my food is their food

My table is their table We know what that's like and Jesus says look when you have

God as father Christ as Savior the fellowship of the Spirit and you're one as a family of God in Christ.

What more could you want? So whatever you've lost You've really gained a whole lot more And we remember the passage 2nd

Corinthians 417 Momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all

Comparison Now that's part of the box top that we have next to the tangle of our puzzle pieces of suffering every single

Generation and I mean all the way back to Adam. So 150 generations every single generation

Has some point has struggled with a profound sense of loss

We've lost something every single generation is that way we are not unique in that We are not unique in seem sensing that we have lost something that we have lost

Perhaps a golden arrow or we have lost the gains the gospel has made that we have lost as a real sense of who

God is and the importance of the scriptures in our Culture the generation before us had a profound sense of loss as well and the generation before that and the generation before that every single generation even the

Disciples had this profound sense of loss. Christ is no longer with us The next generation said off the

Apostles aren't with us the next generation said Oh those who listen to the Apostles at their feet They're not with us and time and time again

Every generation has had this sense of loss We've lost something every generation manages to express our

Edenic Edenic sorrow In fresh perspective, we've lost

What did we lose? We lost Eden We lost Eden. That's what we lost

We all have every single generation since then has PTSD from Eden. Yes, we've lost it

But that's not what we're supposed to be focusing on That's not what we're supposed to be focusing on What we're supposed to be focusing on is what we are what we gain in Christ and what we are to Accomplish in Christ for Christ.

What is ahead of us? What is ahead of us a glory far beyond all comparison?

That's what we labor for. I Don't see how it's gonna get any better you know, what where's the evidence of that listen faith is the so Evidence things not seen substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen we have to live

We have to live by faith And thirdly is the third Aspect of the charter of salvation is that God raises his leader

Now look at verse 9 with me if you will all of the recompensing of the enemies all the restoration of fortunes all comes through God's selected leader

God's chosen leader verse 9 but they shall serve the

Lord their God and David their King whom I will raise up for them.

Here's the leader Some people are still waiting for God to raise up the decomposed traces of Adam son of Jesse from the grave

Because that's what the text says right many Jews Are looking for David some cults are looking for David But who is this

When God speaks to Jeremiah of David whom he will raise up for them, who is this?

Jesus Christ he is not only the son of David and Jeremiah could have said that he is the fulfillment of David the glory of David the glory of who

David is whatever candle David held is totally eclipsed in the son of the glory of Christ So he says

I'm gonna raise up David for you and that's the leader that God chose That's the leader that God chose

And it's kind of leader This kind of leader is One who would speak for them verse 13 says there is no one to plead your cause no healing for your sore

No recovery for you. Oh They're in need of a leader, aren't they? They're in need of someone aren't they who is this verses 21 and 22?

Their leader shall be one of them and their ruler shall come forth from their midst And I will bring him near and he shall approach me

For who would dare to risk his life to approach me declares the Lord you shall be my people and I will be your

God What is God saying? The leader will be one of them

Jesus of Nazareth was one of them. He was of the tribe of Judah the descendant of David the descendant of The descendant of from the tribe of Judah all the way through David all the way through the royal line

He was born of Mary. He was one of them. He He comes forth from their midst he grew up among them a

Little in Bethlehem and then in Nazareth. He grew up among them. He was one of them Jesus Christ is

A Jew and he is the leader God appointed

He is the leader God appointed and He's the one

Who would dare? Approach God I will bring him near and he shall approach me

For who would dare to risk his life to approach me declares the Lord, that's a really good question

That's a great question for people living in exile who have no more temple That's a great question for the

Jews living in exile when their high priests have been slaughtered at Ramah by the sword of Nebuchadnezzar What a great question for those who have no apparent

Person who can mediate or place of mediation What a perfect question for them who would dare approach me and God says the leader

I appoint for you will I? Will raise him up I will resurrect him from the dead and he will be drawn near to me and he will approach me and he will be

Between me and you so that I will be your God and you will be my people This is Jesus Christ This is the gospel here in verse 21 and 22 of Jeremiah 30 when

Peter was preaching at Pentecost he knew this would be hard for the people to understand and So he deliberately

Quoted from the Psalms something that David said that couldn't possibly be true of himself, but he said it in the first person and Peter says who did he speak of?

Was it of himself he says I assure you brethren that David is dead and his in his bones lie in the tomb just over there

He's still dead. So what this is speaking of is Jesus Christ The one whom you crucified whom

God raised up from the dead the gospel. And so we see this good news

It's good news In the Charter of Salvation God recompenses his enemies

He restores his people's fortune and he raises up his leader and this was this

Charter of Salvation is is progressively more and more Being played out on the world stage

It's not it's not just happening where? Here's a here's a family who is wandering about in the in in the land of Canaan that they don't own and here and they're offering a

Blood -sacrifice on an altar and then moving on It's not even where there's a national gathering on a regular basis to Jerusalem and many

Sacrifices are offered up on the day of Passover or or the special Sacrifices on the

Day of Atonement where a whole we're a whole nation many tribes gather together to observe this

Charter of Salvation to see the picture of of one who would die in their place a substitute sacrifice

It's not even happening on that level anymore now. It's happening wherein God's people have been scattered throughout the nations and now

God will play out the Charter of Salvation on an empire -wide scale

So that even the nations are going to be paying attention at the wonders that God does

And so God strikes down Israel his unfaithful son and raises him back up from exile

And God destroys the first temple and then rebuilds the second and so it is that God Sacrifices his faithful son on the cross and raises him from the dead and again and again

The pictures of the gospel are put before us and this is the comfort of Scripture This is why we need the box top and the jumble of the puzzle pieces of our life

The comfort of Scripture see we need this book We need this book God said write these things in a book give it to the people

They're gonna need this because of what's going to happen and God has given us a book to make sense of what is happening

The Bible you see is our life cipher God's book decodes pain through hope so don't throw away the box cover

It's there to show you how things are coming together and and really what it says is the best is yet to come

Let's pray father I thank you so much for your word I thank you for the comfort of your word its clarity its hope its power in our lives.

I pray that she would help us to To really lean into the fullness of the salvation that you bring we would not be like critical

Christie saying it all is too much What I pray that we would lean into the the truth of your

Judgment that it is righteous It is it is real it is necessary we would lean into the the manner in which you restore all things for your glory and Especially that we would

Lean into the full glories of Jesus Christ we would make no no motion in our lives or entertain a single thought in our minds and That would detract from his glory and that you would that you would teach us and train us sanctify us in our