Hope for the New Year

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So, in saying that, please turn with me to Lamentations 3, let's look at 3. And I want to read, we're not going to cover all this, but I want to read the whole chapter to you.
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Please stand as we honor God's Word. You know, let's keep this in mind.
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First of all, we should be very, very grateful, and very thankful that we have the
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Word of the Living God. Let's not take that for granted. God has given you His revealed
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Word in our language. May it not be set aside this year to collect dust, but may we pick it up and know when we open this book, this is
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God Almighty speaking to us. So, as I'm reading this, I want you to think, this is like the
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Almighty God speaking from Heaven right to you. So, hear the
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Word of the Living God. The prophet's speaking, the prophet's anguish and hope.
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There's anguish and hope here. The Word of God says this, I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
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He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely He has turned
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His hand against me time and time again throughout the day. He has aged my flesh and my skin and my broken bones.
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He's besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
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He has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago. Notice He keeps saying
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He, He. God is in control of this. He has hedged me so that I cannot get out.
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He has made my chain heavy. Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.
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He has blocked my ways with hewn stone. He has made my paths crooked. He has been to me a bear lying in wait, like a lion in ambush.
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He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces. He has made me desolate. He has bent
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His bow and set me as a target for the arrow. He has caused the arrows of His quiver to pierce my loins.
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I have become the ridicule of all my people. Their taunting song all the day.
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He has filled me with bitterness. He has made me drink the wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel and covered me with ashes.
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You have moved my soul far from peace and have forgotten prosperity. And He said, my strength and my hope have perished from the
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Lord. Remember my affliction in roaming the wormwood and the gall.
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My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to mind, therefore
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I have hope. Though the Lord's mercies, through the
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Lord's mercies, we are not consumed. Because His compassions fail not.
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They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul.
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Therefore I hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him. To the soul who seeks
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Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the
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Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke of his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silent.
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Because God has laid it on him, let him put his mouth in the dust. There may yet be hope.
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Let him give his cheeks to the one who strikes him. And be full of reproach. For the
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Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion.
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According to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
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To crush under one's feet all the prisoners of the earth. To turn aside the justice due a man.
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Before the face of the Most High. Or subvert a man in his cause. The Lord does not approve.
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Notice the question He gives. Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass when the Lord has not commanded it?
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Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well -being proceed? Why should a living man complain?
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A man for the punishment of his sins. Let us search out and examine our ways.
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And turn back to the Lord. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven.
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We have transgressed and rebelled. You have not pardoned. You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us and have slain and not pitied.
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You have covered yourself with a cloud and that prayer should not pass through. You have made us an offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
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All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and snare have come upon us.
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Desolation and destruction. My eyes overflow with rivers of water. For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
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My eyes flow and do not cease without interruption. This man was broken.
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Till the Lord from heaven looks down and sees my eyes bring suffering to my soul because all of the daughters of my city.
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My enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird. They silenced my life in the pit. They threw stones at me.
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The waters flowed over my head and I said, I am cut off. I called on your name,
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O Lord, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice. Do not hide your ear from my sighing, from my cry for help.
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You drew near on the day I called on you and said, do not fear. O Lord, you have pleaded the case of my soul.
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You have redeemed my life. O Lord, you have seen how I am wronged. Judge my case.
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And you have seen all their vengeance. All their schemes against me. You have heard the reproach,
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O Lord. All the schemes against me. The lips of my enemies and the whispering against me all the day.
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Look at the sitting down and their rising up. I am their taunting song. Repay them,
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O Lord, according to the work of their hands. Give them their veiled heart. Your curse be upon them.
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And your anger, pursue and destroy them from under the heavens of the
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Lord. May God bless the reading of His word to our hearts. You may be seated.
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Thank you. Let me, as you sit down, let me pray. O God, our
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Father, our heart cry this morning, O Lord, that we would see
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Jesus and only Jesus. O God, break our hearts like this prophet of old.
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Lord, our hearts are too hard. We need to be broken in a contrite heart and spirit.
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Father, touch us from heaven today and may Your word go forth as You have promised it to do and never return void.
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God, change us and amaze us with Your power and Your grace through Your word. We would ask this in Your holy name for Your glory.
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In Jesus' name, amen and amen. I know that was an extensive reading.
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I think it was important for us to read that one chapter so we can understand somewhat of what is going on as I present this message to you for this new year.
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Pastor John MacArthur said, The end of the year and the dawn of a new year is always a time of reflection and renewed hope.
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Reflection and new hope. And then he asked two questions that I really like.
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What have you gleaned from walking with Jesus through these past months and seasons? What are your priorities for the coming year?
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May the Lord bless you as you follow Him there. It's well said and that's something we need to take note that it is a time of reflection, it is a time of renewed hope.
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But we need to really seek the Lord more than ever before, beloved. We're living in dark times and as I just read to you,
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Jeremiah was in a dark time as well. I want you to think for a minute. Could you imagine waking up and if God would allow you to wake up another day after a devastating, horrible situation?
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This literally happened with the atomic bomb when it detonated and leveled the complete two cities in the mid -forties that helped us win the war.
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Sad as it was, many civilians perished because the government, the Japanese government, would not surrender.
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We did everything we could as Americans to send out letters that unless you surrender, there's going to be many deaths.
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Unfortunately, sad to say, but in that time period, if we lived in that time period, it was hard and millions of people, literally millions, lost their lives in WWII.
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The atomic bomb was as bad as destruction was, was the answer of prayer to end the war.
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It took a lot of guts to make that decision to drop two of them. One did not, they did still not surrender.
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But my point is this, I don't want to go into the history of WWII and what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the bomb was dropped, but could you imagine the ruins of a leveled city and just a few people that survived of seeing something if we woke up one morning and saw
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America flattened and leveled like this? Your home's gone, food is rare.
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Well, this was the case of Jeremiah in some sense. This is great devastation, folks.
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Now, you might have seen pictures of what happened to those cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after the bomb was...
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And it makes me think about what Jeremiah must have seen. Let me give you a little bit more vivid picture here.
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This is very similar to what the prophet Jeremiah witnessed in Jerusalem. And this is the destruction of Jerusalem.
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These are God's people and God allowed this because He's disciplined His children.
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A lot of people have a hard time understanding why would God do such a thing? Folks, sin is a terrible thing in God's sight because God is a just and a holy
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God. And He would discipline His children when they go into sin. So He allowed this to happen.
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He actually caused it to happen, just not allowed it. Jeremiah's heart's broken.
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He expresses grief over the national tragedy at that time. It's unfolded before his very eyes.
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The setting is this. He's sitting in a cave. He's overlooking Jerusalem. His heart is broken.
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He's in extreme pain. He's in extreme anguish. And he weeps as he sees the rubble of the once glorious city that the people once called the perfection of beauty.
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This is the center of God's people. This is the heart of God's people,
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Jerusalem. He sees poor, starving people looking through the rubble for food.
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They once were proud and arrogant, but now they're humbled and they're broken.
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The tragedy is that all this could have been avoided. It could have been averted.
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God even sent the prophet to warn them, give the truth, and thus saith the Lord, turn from your wicked ways, come back to the
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Lord, depart from your sin, return and repent.
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But they refused. They were stiff -necked. They hardened their hearts against God.
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Isn't this the picture of today? That you tell people the truth, and they yet harden their hearts, they have a stiff neck, and they said,
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I'm going to do what I want to do. Stop preaching to me. Jeremiah the prophet warned them time and time again to repent, to turn back to God, and He will pardon you.
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He will give you a new beginning. He will restore you.
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Seek His face. But yet they mocked this man. They imprisoned him.
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They continued to rebel against God until it was too late. He cries out.
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No wonder this is a lamentation. These five chapters, He laments over Jerusalem.
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He wails in misery and contempt. And then you see a turnabout in verses 22 and 23.
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We see God is faithful in His grace and His gifts.
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Then in verse 24 and 26, we see God is faithful in His goodness. Those two points
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I want us to focus on. But you got to appreciate all that God does in giving hope and mercy, in which we don't deserve.
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We must understand the devastation that sin causes.
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And all of this is caused because of their sin. See, I don't believe that, not until we get serious about who
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God is and His holiness and serious about our sin, are we going to see real revival break through in this nation.
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Or in the church. I'm telling you, not until we get serious about it, folks, it's not going to happen.
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Then we will look at some applications very quickly. But I do want to focus on those two attributes of God just briefly.
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But again, this prophet is a faithful prophet. He's faithful. He's bewailed, contempt, and misery.
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You know, it costs a great deal to be a prophet of God and an apostle.
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These people did not have a life of comfort, folks. They went anguish, heartbreak.
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They suffered right along with the people of God, with the sins that they committed. And the prophet was right down there in the mire, in the hurt, and in the rubble.
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But yet God's mercies, steadfast love, never ceases. It's because of God's mercies, folks, that we're not consumed.
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Think of that. We're not burned up. We don't deserve anything that God gives us.
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And not until we understand this will we understand the gospel. But His mercies are new and each morning.
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And then the prophet cries out with praise, Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness.
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The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore I will hope in Him. No doubt, this is one of the most promising and encouraging verses that we find in the
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Word of God. But why is it so great? Why is it so good? I'll tell you why it's so good. But look at His surrounding circumstances.
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Look at what's happened. The devastation, the ruins, the hurt. All because of sin.
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I'm sure this prophet, through his tear -stained eyes, as he looked at the devastation and the ruin, he could not help but think, this is all because of your sin.
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There was no cast and blame to God. And if you notice throughout the chapter as I was reading it, he kept saying,
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He has aged my flesh. He has besieged me. He has set me in the dark places. He has hedged me so that I cannot get out.
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He has made a chain heavy. He shuts out my prayer. It's not like he's blaming
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God in bitterness. He knows that God is doing this injustice. But yet, when things go wrong in our lives, we blame people who have a tendency to shake the fist to God and say,
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God, how dare you do this to me? And you know when people say things like that, it's almost like they're deserving.
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They do not see their lost condition. They do not see that the very breath that they're breathing is because of an act of God's mercy.
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Beloved, I'm telling you, this is a great chapter, and we don't appreciate the good news until we understand what the prophet understood, the wormwood and the gall.
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My affliction. His affliction. His roaming. He says,
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I remember it. He attempted to change his mood by recalling the past experiences.
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However, he remembered only the worst of things. It just made him feel worse.
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But you know, this is a word we need to hear, folks. I know people don't like to hear these kind of messages and stuff, but we need to hear how bad we are and how good
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God is. I'm telling you, if you preach the gospel to yourself,
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I'm talking about the real gospel, not another gospel, not the American gospel, but the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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If you bring this and preach this to yourself, it's always to that. Lord, I'm undeserving.
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Lord, I do not deserve your mercies. But, oh God, you have reached down by your mercies in your hand and you brought me out of the miry clay.
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You set me on a rock. And I'm undeserving and I praise you. You even saw fit to do that.
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And showed favor. You see, that's the way
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God's people sees it. Not that we're deserving. If you think you're deserving this morning, you might need to check your heart.
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Folks, if you read this, the whole chapters, I encourage you to read all five chapters.
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This is the heart of it. But if you read all five chapters, and again, if you only pluck out the good verses out of the context, it's like watching a movie without a sound.
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It's like a silent picture. You ever seen a silent picture? I mean, that could be interesting. You see the motions, but you wonder.
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But without the words being put on the screen, you wonder, what are they saying? Well, that's the way this would be if you just plucked out the good verses out of this whole context of everything that's being said.
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Folks, can I tell you this? There's a word that's lost. I heard David Wilkerson say this.
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There's a word that's been lost in the church, and he's so right about this. His anguish, it means pain.
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Not just being concerned, but a heart pain. But there's another word
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I'd like to add to that. It's the word lament. You don't hear a lot about lamenting.
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What does it mean to lament? Lamentations? Lamentations?
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Lament? It's a word that's almost lost among the evangelicals. By the way, it means to mourn, to be well, to express deep sorrow.
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It means to grieve and to weep. The wise
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Solomon says it's better actually to go to the house of mourning than the house of laughter.
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Even though we know the Scripture says that in laughter there's medicine, but he says it's better to go to the house of mourning.
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Because why? Because there's something sobering about death.
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Doesn't it sober you up to think, my time here is so short, it's like a vapor, and what am
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I going to do with my life? What am I going to do with it? Why do I exist? Where did I come from?
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Why am I here? Where am I going? You've got to answer those. You know,
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James the Apostle, we went through the book of James here last year. We finished it up.
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It took us a couple of years, didn't it? That was a wonderful study. When I reflect and gaze back,
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I learned so much. It helped me grow leaps and bounds. James chapter 4 verse 9 says this, you don't have to turn there, it says, he said this to the people of God, lament and mourn and weep.
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Let your laughter be turned to mourning and let your joy to gloom. Is he trying to be a prophet of gloom or something?
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No, he's trying to say, be sober. Wake up. You're going to give an account on the day of judgment one day.
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And you've got your actions. I told a guy the other day, he brags to me all the time on the meal crowd.
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He used to say he worked as a supervisor of the milk. He's a real haughty guy and he's always talking how much he makes.
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And he comes up bragging how many thousands of dollars he makes there. I told him, I said, look, I don't care about how much you make, friend.
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I said, by the way, I said, really, you need to check your heart. He's always talking, always, he never hardly gives me a chance to talk.
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And I finally, lovingly went to him and I said, you know, I said this very nice,
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I got a word from God for you. I said, it's not from me. I said, but did you know the
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Bible says, let your words be few on this earth? He looked at me like, really?
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And I said, yeah. And then, of course, he came back at me and tried to tell me the bad things
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I do and stuff and I don't listen too well. And I said, well, you might be right there. I'm always open to admonition.
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And I said, you know, I'm going to give you a stronger word. I'm going to tell you something Jesus said. Every careless word, every idle word that you speak of, friend, you're going to give an account on the day of judgment.
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Boy, he looked at me strange then. But you know, there's something sobering about that.
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In the light of eternity, and that's the problem. People do not live in the light of eternity. They chase the gold on the other side of the rainbow.
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They think that all there is is gold here. Folks, the way heaven's made,
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God has made that whole city pure gold. Matter of fact,
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God's got at the gate, one gate, a pearl, 1 ,500 miles high, folks.
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People get carried away about a pearl not even that size. And if there's ever a pearl the big as a baseball, it'd be worth billions, right?
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We're talking about God made a pearl, a gate of pearl, 1 ,500 miles high. 1 ,500 miles.
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At a gate. God can...
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It's all God's, right? Matter of fact, if there's any gold on this earth, it's loaned to us.
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Jesus gave us warning not to love those things. And set your heart on them. If you are, you're in trouble.
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You need to set your priorities to the things of God. You know, James is basically saying, be afflicted, be wretched, be miserable, but more, this is the state of those who truly are broken in their sin.
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That's why Jesus said, blessed are those that come in brokenness.
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Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Jesus said that in Matthew 5, 4.
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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Again, this speaks of mourning over sin. See, what does people mourn over?
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You know, sometimes I look around this world, they mourn over the most ridiculous things. Yeah, material things, things that don't matter.
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But what about things that really matter? What about mourning over our sin?
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The godly sorrow that produces repentance, folks. That's what Scripture says, leading to salvation without regret.
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Jesus, even though He was without sin, did not have to mourn over sin, did
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He? He had no sin. He was the perfect man, but yet, He mourned. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with our grief.
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He wept over the sins of Jerusalem. Matter of fact, Matthew 23, 37 says this,
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He was lamenting. And you think Jeremiah was a lamenting prophet. The Lord Jesus Christ, He was
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God in flesh, mourning over Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.
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Then He says to her, How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.
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But you were not willing. That's what happened. Jerusalem is in total ruins because they were not willing to come to God to repent and to admit their sin because they were too proud.
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Again, we see our Lord Master Jesus weeping at the tomb of Lazarus. Two words, the shortest verse in all of Scripture.
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Two words. John 11, 35. Jesus wept. Jesus wept.
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Greek word has the connotation, by the way, that Jesus silently was bursting into tears in contrast to a loud lament in a group.
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Yet here in this verse, the tears of Jesus, the sorrow of Jesus were not just generated out of mourning since He was to raise
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Lazarus from the dead. He knew He was going to come out of that grave as soon as He called Him out. But His tears were out of deep grief for a fallen world that's entangled in sin.
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It's like God is weeping because of man's sin. You think
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God still weeps? I think God weeps. Sin has caused such devastating destruction and death.
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Truly Jesus was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. What about the weeping prophet Jeremiah here in this book?
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What about him? Again, he just saw his home city fall in total ruins and an evading army.
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He watched the gates burned. You know, I think about Nehemiah. When he saw the walls and the ruins, he was so pained about God's people not being repentant over their sins that they were so stiff -necked.
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And yet, here you see Jeremiah see the whole city destroyed. Jeremiah's entire world fell apart, folks.
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Could you imagine this? Seeing this? But oh, there's hope, beloved.
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I'm not going to tell you today and paint a picture of doom and gloom. There is hope.
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But can I tell you this? Our hope isn't in just how great man's going to do something or if the president's going to change and if Congress gets cleaned up.
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That would be great. But can I tell you, our hope is in the Lord. And by the way, if we deviate our hopes from anything on this earth, it's going to be rubble and sinking sand.
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But if you want to rock an establishment forever and ever, I'm here to tell you, it's
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God. Actually, He speaks about these things, these awful things that would constantly, like I said, non -stop, verses 1 -19.
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Then we read the repentance and His affliction. Actually, isn't it amazing? Here's a holy, godly man that gives a word from God.
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He's a godly man. But yet, He's in repentance with them. Daniel did the same thing.
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Nehemiah does the same thing. They confess the sins. Oh God, we have sinned.
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He just didn't say, your people sinned, even though you see that at times. But the confession is like the prophet is with them.
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He's bearing under the burden of their sin. And He said, God, we have sinned against you.
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You know, folks, we need to wail out and seek God's face about this. Seems like this is an hour that we have more knowledge than ever before, but yet we don't know
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God. Because we don't know how terrible our sins are. We strut and we think we've got the truth and we can even call ourselves reformed in the faith.
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And boy, we've got it all figured out. But how much time do we really spend on our faces before God? And getting to know
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Him. You know, I think about Mary. She wasn't a great theologian, but boy, she desired to be at the feet of Jesus, didn't she?
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Oh, she wanted to know her Master. Folks, that would go a long way. Matter of fact, that would go a very long way.
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That would take you all the way home. Amen. I mean, to know
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God and Jesus Christ whom Thou sent. You know, that's the whole purpose of the Bible.
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Just not to fill my head with knowledge. Even though the knowledge of God is extremely important because my people perished because of a lack of knowledge and a lack of that.
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But you know something? That knowledge of the truth leads us to knowing God. That's the purpose of it.
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Jeremiah was able to find hope in a hopeless situation because his faith was anchored in God's character, folks.
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Why? Because he brings up, notice, he brings up the Lord's mercies because of the
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Lord's mercies we're not consumed. Because of His compassion. It says, the original
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Hebrew, it's His compassions. They are new every morning. Every single morning. I think about it as the sun rises.
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God's mercies are new. I think about that as I'm driving my milk truck into Cartersville.
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I see the sun coming up and actually when it comes up in full it's right in my eyes and I have to pull the visor.
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And I just think about God there and I think, Lord, Your mercies are new every single day. It's a new beginning.
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God never changes. But I know I need to change for the better.
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Notice in verse 22 and 23, that's the heart of the message. God is faithful. He's faithful.
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We come to this part where Jeremiah is essentially saying I can't get these images out of my mind.
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They crush my heart. This is what he's basically saying. And even in my despair, my memory sparks like a flare at the night sky.
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Now that's paraphrased. But Jeremiah is literally saying in verse 20, let's go back to verse 20, my soul still remembers.
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Remember. That's the key word, folks. It's a covenant word. In other words, that word remember, it sinks in.
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As it's translated, bowed down. The old authorized version, the
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KJV, says it well, humbled in me. I'm humbled in me. My soul still remembers, and sinks within me.
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I'm humbled within me. Therefore, and then he says verse 21, this
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I recall to mind. Now think about what he says there. This I call to mind.
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Jeremiah's remembrance of God's faithfulness brought about a change in his whole behavior.
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Starts in the mind. And as long as we contemplate and focus on our troubles and the devastation, folks, that will depress you and bring you down into a place of hopelessness.
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That's why a lot of people commit suicide. They focus inwardly so badly on their circumstances and their depression and their problems and their eyes that's not set on the
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God of heaven. But this is where he leads to. I want you to think of this.
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When we focus on the Lord, things change. We're able to finally rise above rather than to suffer under it, our troubles.
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We rise above it. If you focus on your present troubles, when we focus,
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I mean, if you think of it, if you focus on your trouble, that's all you're going to get. It's trouble. You can wallow, and actually it's self -pity.
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It's actually sin, folks. But when we focus on our God and how great
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He is and who He is and His greatness and His mercy and His faithfulness, and look to Him in faith, we're able to look by grace to rise above our circumstances and our problems and the devastation, as real as it is, it doesn't mean we're going to have a cliché and say, okay,
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I'm going to set it aside. It's not reality. No, it is reality. But we don't stay there, folks.
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You rise above it and you look to God. That's the difference. Can I say the difference of fear that leads to torment, the
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Scripture says, and hopelessness? Faith leads to victory. Because faith is looking...
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You see this in Scriptures. Look at Joshua and Caleb. Everybody else was looking at the giants.
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All those giants. We can't take them. They're too big. They're powerful. Not Joshua and Caleb.
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You know why? Because they were looking at how great and big God was. They didn't see giants. They saw God. They were in a minority.
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But by the way, but if God's on your side, you're really in the majority. Let's keep that in mind.
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Faith versus unbelief. That's basically what the whole book of Hebrews is about. But they were in a majority.
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You know, think of David. David cried out in Psalm 51.
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He said, Lord, have mercy on me. He cries out for mercy. He presses in by faith.
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Faith would not quit. He would not quit. Faith moved forward. Faith was active.
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Faith is never passive. It goes forward and it goes into God. It's never blind either.
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Because I used to read books and say, I remember reading a book years ago. It was within the Christian circles too.
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Blind faith. And I said, what? There's no such thing as blind faith. Faith is believing who
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God is. That He is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
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Him. The just shall live by faith. Faith is the victory, folks.
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What about Jeremiah? His faith was resting in the very faithfulness of God. That's what, when we come to this passage, that's why he says in verse 23, they are new every morning.
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His mercies are new every morning. Then he says, great is your faithfulness. Isn't it great that God never changes in this?
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We change. The world changes. I think about the changes that's happened in this nation within my little 55 years of life.
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And I'm sure Sister Lillian has seen a lot more than any of us in this room. I think she's got us all beat.
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And God has kept her up so wonderfully. But you think of the changes that's taken place.
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But I know Sister Lillian would say amen to this. God has never changed. Yesterday, today, and forever,
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He remains the same. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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But you know, think of it, even in the worst of circumstances here, it's like truth steps in, grace intervenes,
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God is sovereign. Isn't it great to know that God is in control? As bad as things are, and get this, things look pretty bad right now in this nation.
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We're divided. We're wrecked. I've never seen such immorality and sins like it is today.
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The guy I meet on the road, he's just a small example of that. Arrogant, prideful, bragging about how much money he makes.
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Not even giving a thought of God and the gifts that God has allowed him to have. Because God gives him health.
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I even told him one day, I said, look friend, I said, the very breath that you're breathing in your body is a gift from God.
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He turns a deaf ear. And I'm thinking, you know, really, that's not surprising to me because people in a lost state they're in, they're not going to mute.
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They're not going to hear the words of truth anyway. But does that mean that we stop telling them the truth?
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No. God even told the prophets, He says, even if they are stiff necked and stubborn of heart, you still tell people.
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Because the word of God has power. Well, I've got to hurry up here. Verse 22 is, no doubt, the
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Lord's mercies that were not consumed because of His compassions, fail not. Let's look at the
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Lord's mercies. God's mercies. Let's look at it. It's a Hebrew word. 250 times in the
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Old Testament refers to God's gracious love. Think about how much the
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Bible speaks of God's mercy. It's an important word. I've already mentioned it, but it means in the
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Hebrew, chesed. It's translating loving kindness. That's why some translations don't have the word mercy.
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It has loving kindness. It means the same thing. Mercy, compassion, loving kindness.
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By the way, if you want to read about that, you read the chapter of Luke 15, of the prodigal.
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You talking about the love of God? You talking about God's compassion? You have the worst of sinners there in that chapter, but yet you have a
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Father that is so loving, this
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Son that defied Him and wanted His inheritance, and the
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Father gave it to Him. And He went and He spent all His inheritance on wasteful, wasteful, that's what prodigal means, living with the prostitutes.
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He went to the lowest of low. He was the filthiest sinner of all, and yet Jesus has got a point to make in that chapter, by the way.
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He's talking to self -righteous Pharisees that snubbed the sinners, and they basically said, look at Jesus.
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He eats and drinks with sinners. He's a friend of sinners. And Jesus just gives,
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He doesn't argue with Him, He just gives Him the parable. He gives Him the story. And actually,
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I heard John MacArthur talk about this, Jesus actually creates the worst of sinners, but yet within that chapter you see the greatness of God's love.
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And after the wasteful prodigal comes home, what happens? The Father runs toward Him, and He covers
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Him, and He kisses Him, and kisses Him, and kisses Him. He lavishes Him. I don't know about you, but the prodigal already rehearsed in his mind that he was going to come back to the
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Father and repent, and come home. And Jesus is basically saying, this is how great
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God's love is toward a repentant sinner.
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Oh, if we can understand how great God's love is. God's love, grace, mercy, faithfulness,
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His goodness all in one. It's a comprehensive term. Chesed. His compassion,
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His forgiveness, His truth. Where would we be today unless God was a forgiving
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God, slow to anger, willing to forgive. You know, that's why
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God had to teach Jonah, the prophet. He was a prophet, he knew that God was gracious, and that He would forgive these rotten sinners in Nineveh.
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God taught him a lesson, didn't He? This prophet, he didn't want to go, he was rebellious, he went the opposite direction.
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God knew how to get him. Can't hide from God. He tried to hide from God.
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Went into a boat, went in the opposite direction to Tarshish. Nineveh's over here, Tarshish's over here.
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He gets in the boat to hide from God, God sees him. God causes a storm.
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Even the scriptures in the book of Jonah says these heathens, they were basically heathens, they drew lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
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God caused that to happen. They knew. And then when he said,
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I'm a Hebrew, Jonah says, I'm a Hebrew, I fear the Lord, who made heaven and earth, and they knew, well look, we've got to get rid of this guy.
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This is all caused, God caused this, and they, think of it, they were pagan. God knew how to reach out to them in that situation.
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Isn't it amazing, look at how God orchestrates those things. Even working, he's working the storm and all that, and Jonah's rebelling, and then, but the reason
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I'm bringing this up is, Jonah had a heart problem, folks. He knew that God would forgive them.
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You know, in 2021, may we reach out to people and say, look, God's a forgiving God, even though they're in their sin, but our message should be, be you reconciled to God.
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God's willing to forgive you, no matter what you've done. How horrible, and terrible things, that people has done in God's sight, and secret, and now people can hide, and hardly no one see them, they get on a phone, an iPhone, a computer, right in them, and just look up anything they want to, the worst of things.
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But God sees. Nothing's hidden from the eye of God.
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So we need to come clean with God, right? Jeremiah seems to be remembering now, that God's mercies are great,
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His faithfulness is great, God's grace is great, His tender mercies are, that brought out
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Israel out of slavery, is great, His arm, with a loving, if you read in Exodus, God brought
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His people out with a, a stretched out right arm, because of His mercies.
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Jonah had a problem. Go back to the prophet Jonah, he was a rebellious prophet. He was a prejudiced prophet too.
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He knew God would forgive. God has no respecter of persons, aren't you glad?
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God doesn't look at skin color, He created all the colors, He created the variety.
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I look at the animal kingdom, I look at the colors, I look at all the variety, I look at people, all the nationalities, and you look in the revelation, that all these nationalities, every tongue and tribe, will be before the throne of God, and their language is, just singing,
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Hallelujah, worthy is the land, that was slain. Isn't that great, to know that heaven isn't going to have, any barriers, prejudice, it's going to be all one people, praising the
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Lamb of God. God help us. God's a gracious God, and He's gracious, and He's willing to forgive.
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That's the hope that we have folks. What about grace?
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What a word that is, grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin.
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A .W. Pink said this, from his book, Gleanings in the Godhead, quote, this is a perfection of God's, of the divine character, exercised only toward the elect.
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God gives grace, and when He gives grace, it's to those He has appointed. Even though there is a common grace, to all, but there's a special grace, given to God's people.
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And he goes on to say this, it's distinguished from mercy, because for mercy of God, is over all
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His works, in Psalm 145, 9. Grace, listen to this, grace is the lone source, from which flows the good will, and love, and salvation of God, unto
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His chosen people. This attribute of the divine character, was defined by Abraham, both in his helpful book,
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The Grain of Grace, thus it is the, eternal and absolute free favor of God, manifested in a safe bed, of spiritual and eternal blessings, to the guilty and the unworthy.
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We're guilty? Of sin? Yes. Unworthy? Yes. But God still gives favor to His people.
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He goes on to say, divine grace is the sovereign and saving favor, of God exercised, and bestowing blessings, upon those who have no merit in them, and for which no compensation is demanded.
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Grace cannot be bought, listen to this, it cannot be bought, it cannot be earned, nor won by the creature.
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If it could be, it would cease to be grace. That's grace.
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God gives us, unmerited favor. You cannot earn it, receive it, by the way if you don't receive it, it's like a slap in the face to God.
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Grace is when God gives us, what we don't deserve. Mercy is when
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God doesn't give us, what we do deserve. In other words,
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God's grace, which we don't deserve, He has given to us salvation, full and free through Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance in Jesus, a home in heaven is all the great benefits, adopted us into the kingdom,
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His righteousness, He covers us, it goes on and on and on. How can people turn away from such a good
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God? It beggars description, but it shows you how steeped in sin they are, and how blind they are.
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Folks, we need to be broken over this, we need to see in our, not only among our family members, but the world, and everywhere we turn,
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Oh God, show your grace. How can
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I love these people to the cross? We deserve eternal damnation.
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We deserve wrath, don't we? We deserve justice. And by the way, people that are in hell right now are getting justice.
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It's not that God's unloving, God is loving. God is just as just as He is loving.
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Because that's God. God's not going to change in that. Punishment in hell forever, justice.
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Oh, beloved, we have much to give God to praise for, don't we? I need to close this.
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It's because of God's mercies we're not consumed. A period in John Flavel said this,
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Every man loves the mercies of God, but the saint loves the God of his mercies. This is where the prophet
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Jeremiah goes with the passage, his focus is on God of mercy. He's the God of mercies.
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He speaks of the Lord's mercies. The Lord's mercies we're not consumed.
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Now think about that, Lord. Because of your compassion, we're not burned up.
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Think of it. To those who receive that mercy are not consumed by the wrath of God.
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Wow. This verse seems, you think about it, it's such a great verse.
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A lot of people think this verse contradicts. There's a contradiction, but there's no contradiction.
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If there's a contradiction, it's a lack of light to see the truth in God's word. That's why you have to read the whole chapter.
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The very fact that there's a prophet left to write these words, there's a remnant left to read it, shows that every person in Jerusalem had not been consumed.
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Another word would be swallowed up. The fact that there was a remnant.
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And all that was due of God's mercies and compassion shows you God's a God of mercy.
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It's a bleak picture, isn't it? But God is concerned about restoration.
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Why? Because Romans 11, I believe it's 29
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I think, for the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. Think about that.
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In other words, irrevocable. In other words, God's sovereign election of Israel like that of the individual believers is always unconditional and unchangeable because it's rooted and grounded in His immutable nature that God never changed.
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He's immutable. He never changes. So when God gives His word and He gives His eternal word,
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God's going to keep His word. He will never go back on His word. Aren't you glad?
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We do. Hey, that's why Paul says, even when you're unfaithful,
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God remains faithful. He cannot break His word. He cannot go back on His word because He is truth.
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Folks, for the new year, think about this. We go into the new year, not looking at just the new year, but we need to look at God, how
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God can do something new in us. If you're not made a new creation, a new creature in Jesus Christ, you need to go to the cross and say,
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Lord, have mercy upon me and make me new. And by the way, He gives you new desires, a new heart.
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Talk about a new. He'll make a new man out of you. He'll make a new person out of you. He makes all things new.
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That's what people need. Just not a new year. You notice how people do this?
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Oh, I make their resolutions. They turn a new leaf over. They do this and they might go three, maybe one month.
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Three months. I don't know. They don't even go that long. A week? Yeah, a week.
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And get this, but when God does something, it's permanent. It's steadfast.
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Charles Wesley had a song called The Name of the Depth of Mercy. It's called The Depth of Mercy.
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Listen to this. Stanza one. Depth of mercy. Can there be mercy still reserved for me?
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Can my God His wrath forbear? Me, the chief of sinners, spare?
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I have long withstood His grace, long provoked Him to His face. Would hearken to His calls, grieved
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Him by a thousand falls. Stanza three.
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Lord, incline me to repent. Let me now my fall lament.
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Deeply my revolt deploy. Weep, believe, and sin no more. Stanza four.
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Still for me the Savior stands, shows His wounds and spreads His hands. God is love,
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I know I feel. Jesus weeps and loves me still. That's something to sing.
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You know, folks, I'm telling you, I'm almost, it breaks me. The most important thing is knowing
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God today. The most urgent plea
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I could tell you today is know God. And the only way you can know God is through Jesus Christ. Jesus said it.
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He said it. He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life in John 14. No man comes to me unless the
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Father grants it to him. No one comes to the Father unless they come through Him. That's what He said.
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A .W. Tozer said, God has no degrees. He has no limitations.
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And He cannot be contained by anyone. If He could be contained, He would cease to be God. So great is our
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God's faithfulness and His mercies. There's no limitations, there's no bounds, there's no limits. It's without end, it's infinite.
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Let me close with an application for you. We need to realize when we come to God, you come as you, just not as you are, but yes, you do come, but God is willing to change you.
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How many times in Scripture does He say, Come, come to the waters, come, that you may have eternal life.
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Come unto me, Jesus says. All ye that labor and heavy laden, I give you rest. So you've got to come, that's the first step.
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You've got to seek the Lord while you can be found. But God's willing to forgive, but He's able to forgive, but He's willing to forgive.
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And I want to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ who took the stripes and took the wrath of God and who has made a curse for you and me that we can know
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God. Jesus is that bridge, and there's no other way. You've got to come through Jesus.
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But you've got to first see your sin. That's basically the bedrock of it.
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You've got to see who you are before a holy God, but we've got to see who God is. Folks, actually, you're not going to see how terrible and how awful our sins really are until we see
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God's holiness and God's purity and God's justice. Folks, even today,
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I've been studying the Scriptures all my life and all that means nothing. I just want to know God more and more.
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I get closer to eternity and going toward God. I think to myself, all that's going to matter is
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I know Him. I could quote all the verses.
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Charles Spurgeon said this. He said you can know all the doctrines of the Scripture. They mean nothing unless you don't know
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God. But you know what the prophet says?
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That God is my portion. You know what that means? He is the satisfier. What about the woman at the well?
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Jesus started that whole conversation off and He says, give me a drink of water. And He's the water of life.
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Jesus said, you drink this water, you will thirst. But you drink of the water that I give, you will never thirst again.
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In Genesis 15, 1, God told Abraham, listen to this, after these things, the word of the
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Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, do not be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield and your exceedingly great reward.
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Who's the great reward? God. God. Ravenhill said, and he says it so clearly, he said if you can't talk to God and pray to God here just for a few minutes, he said, what are you going to do in eternity?
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Because really, it's not just going to... The question is, like Washer says, am
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I going to heaven? Do I want to go to heaven? Do you want God? People don't want
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God. But God's the satisfier. God is the great exceedingly reward.
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He's the sustainer. He's the one that's the merciful one. He is the one that's the loving one.
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He's our portion. He's our rock. He's everything. And Jesus brings us right into God's presence.
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Wait on the Lord. Notice what it says. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore
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I hope in Him. Folks, we need to be crying out for supplications.
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Crying out for the church. The faithfulness of God is like a strong and mighty tower, a refuge in which we can go to.
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So, if you're in the hardest of circumstances today, and no matter how bleak it is, know that there is a
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God that can be your rock. Faithfulness. God is faithful.
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Can I tell you this? The blessed truth of the faithfulness of God will preserve us from worry and all anxiety of the things that don't matter.
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No matter how dark the situation may be and how heavy the burden you carry, God's grace is sufficient, and we can reflect and look to God in faith and gaze our souls upon God and who
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He is and His faithfulness, and He will lift us up as He did all of His saints. He never fails.
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Even in the worst of hardships and afflictions, His grace is sufficient. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
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Also, God's faithfulness is great truth. As we reflect upon it, we'll also check our murmurings.
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You know, to murmur and to complain is a sin against God. We're not resting in God if we're murmuring and complaining.
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We're being unthankful. And it's our nature to be unthankful, isn't it? God greatly is honored under the trial and chastening when we have good thoughts of Him, vindicate
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His wisdom and His justice, and also recognize His love and His rebukes. And that's what He did here to His people.
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He rebuked them. He loved them. 1 Peter 4, 19, Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him and well -doing as a faithful creator.
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Well, my time's up. I do want to close with something from Psalm 90. Turn with me to Psalm 90.
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And let's look at this as we reflect. As we go into a new year, we need to look at our God and how great
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He is. Keep this before you. God bless you, Brother Keith.
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We're praying for you, brother. Okay. Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
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Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever, You have formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting.
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You are God. You turn man to destruction and say, Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past.
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And like a watch in the night, You carry them away like a flood. They are like a sleep. In the morning, they are like grass which grows up.
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In the morning, it flourishes and grows up. In the evening, it is cut down and withers. For we have been consumed.
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Or, for we have been consumed by Your anger and by Your wrath. In fact, we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance for all of our days have passed away in Your wrath.
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We finish our years like a sigh. And then He says this, The days of our lives are 70 years.
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And if by reason or strength there are 80 years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow.
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For it is soon cut away off and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger?
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For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. So teach us. Listen to this.
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This should be our prayer, folks. So teach us the number of days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long?
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And have compassion on Your servants. O, satisfy us early with Your mercy that we may rejoice and be glad of all of our days.
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Make us glad according to the days which You have afflicted us, the years in which You have seen evil.
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Let Your work appear to Your servants and Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the
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Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands for us. And yes, establish the work of our hands.
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Let's pray. Help us, Lord, our Father, to take these words to our heart this morning that Your faithfulness is great and because of Your mercies we're not consumed.
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As Your Word says, it is a good thing to give thanks unto You and to sing praises unto You, O Most High.
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Show forth Your loving kindness in the morning and in Your faithfulness every night.
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Lord, forgive us. Forgive us, Lord, for not doing so.
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And Lord, if there's anyone here that needs You, Lord, I pray that I know that You will meet them at the foot of the cross because that's
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Your plan in history. You have come to reach out. You have come to seek us.
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None of us seeks You as we should. None of us seeks God. But You come after us lovingly.
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Father, thank You for Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, that He bridges that great gap, that great gulf, that Calvary's cross between our sinfulness and Your holiness.
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Lord, You bring us right in. You reconcile us back to Yourself. But Lord, we must repent.
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We must bow down. We must humble ourselves. O God, help us. Have mercy upon this nation,
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O God. Have mercy upon Your church. Return us back to Yourself again, Lord, that our confidence, hopes, and all the years to come may be in You until You come again.
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we ask this because of Your glory. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.