The Prophet Jeremiah Part 36

All right, we're gonna pray and we're gonna get started. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask through your Holy Spirit and the word to help us to rightly believe so that we may walk according to your word, may trust greatly in your promises for the forgiveness of sins and your steadfast love, and so that we may learn from the example of those who've gone before us so that we would turn away from sin and turn to a freedom that we have in you.

We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, last week, we were working our way through a book of the Bible that Joel Osteen has yet to touch. It's called Lamentations. And we'll note, this is a tough road to hoe.

I don't know why it disconnected. Hang on a second here, let's try this again. There we go, it's connected, right?

Yep.

All right, so just so you know, here at Kongsvinger, that's not happened twice. My computer has disconnected from the Wi-Fi connection that I have for the big television here. All right, so when we last left off working our way through the book of Lamentations, we stopped at the midpoint where we hear this refrain, the steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him. This is a great text, and spoken in the context of God acting in wrath and judgment.

And so, you'll note that the experience of being a Christian is not exactly the funnest. And what I mean by that is that each and every one of us, we know quite well, very well, that we do not, we're not holy, we're not good, we do not follow God's commandments on the best of days, even our best good works are still soiled with sin.

And if you've ever had that moment in your life, or maybe you've had it a couple of times, where you figure, God has got to be just finished with me, right, how on earth is God gonna continue to put up with somebody as legitimately messed up as I am, right?

And I remember reading this, and kind of taking it almost literally. And what I mean by that is that yesterday was a bad day, or the day before was a bad day, or maybe last week was a bad week. And all of that being said, we have these words, the steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning.

It reminds me of the manna. If you remember the manna, the children of Israel, there they are, they've crossed the Red Sea, and they start to grumble against God because they got no food. These people, I mean, seriously, what is going on here?

I mean, why is it that they are constantly making God out to be some big, mean person who really has their worst in mind? He's saved them through 10 mighty acts of judgment, you know, the plagues of Egypt.

And then the army of Pharaoh is sitting at the bottom of the Red Sea, and food supplies start to get a little scarce, and it says in the text that God is testing them, right? And they fail the test miserably because rather than humbly asking God, Lord, we know that you mean us good, you've saved us so far, you know, the food is running short, and so you are our God, and so we come to you humbly asking that you would give us the food that we need for this day.

Rather than do that,.

Why don't you bring us out of here into the middle of nowhere and give us something to eat?

Right?

Were there no graves in Egypt that we would browse around the wilderness to die of hunger? Are we there yet?

Right?

Okay. But all that being said, God, he heard their grumbling, and he then graciously provided a miracle for them, and that is literal daily bread, manna. And so when they woke up the next morning, there was some kind of dew on the ground, and when the dew evaporated, there was a frost-like thing on the ground, the scripture says, and that was called manna.

Manna, right?

That's how you say it in Hebrew, by the way. Manna means what is it, all right? And God provided for them for 40 years, every morning except the Sabbath. They woke up, and God had fed them. And scripture says that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And so here, God's mercies are almost likened to manna, a daily bread, if you would. So yesterday was a bad day. You kick the cat, you threw dishes, you broke something, you just, name whatever happened, right?

You yelled at your mother,.

You should never do that, by the way.

You know, that's not a good thing, breaking of the fourth commandment, don't wanna do that. You hear me, Steve and Ella? You guys just wanna check on that, okay?

Only when she deserves it.

Yeah, oh, whoa, yeah. So Nancy, he says he only yells at you when you deserve it, so okay.

I'm glad there are other people here who fought it for your sake or something.

Right, right.

Fresh meat, fresh meat. Dwayne said he's glad that there's new people here for my sermon illustrations, you know, fresh meat. But all that being said, you know you've had those days, and you've said to yourself, good grief, is how long is God gonna put up with this?

Well, keep believing, man, because God's mercy's never come to an end. They're new every morning, and great is your faithfulness. There's a text in scripture, I'm gonna just hunt this down. I know it's in Romans, but separe it, all right?

And let's see here, Romans, listen to this text, okay? Listen to this text and consider the implications here, okay? Because oftentimes we think, man, this has gotta be too much. This is a bridge too far.

Not even Jesus' death on the cross can cover this, right? I'm pretty sure God's not gonna be able to save me. But Paul writes in Romans 8, who is to condemn us? Who can condemn us? Christ Jesus is the one who died, and more than that, who was raised, who is seated at the right hand of God, who indeed, he is interceding for us.

Who's interceding for you? Jesus himself, your prophet, your priest, your king, Christ in his priestly role in the order of Melchizedek, he is interceding between you and the Father. I bet you anything Jesus' prayers for you are way better than your prayers for yourself, right?

So then we got this question. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Who?

Come on, name the person who can pull this off. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation separate us from the love of Christ? The answer's no, because Christ said in our gospel text, blessed are you when people persecute you, right?

So tribulation's not gonna separate us. So, and this can also kind of go into the next category, distress, all right? I know a thing or two about distress. Have you ever lost a job, right? Have you ever got a bad review, or I know, has the economy's inflation ever gotten so far out of control that you've effectively taken a 20 pay decrease in a year, right?

Distress, how am I going to be able to pay my heating bill this winter when natural gas is costing so much? We know about distress, right? Is that gonna separate you from the love of Christ? Does distress or tribulation, is that the measure of Jesus' love for you?

That's the other thing that people do. They take their difficulties in life and they somehow equate that, well, God loves me this much because I'm going through so much tribulation and distress. I remember, you know, years ago, before I was a pastor, I was teaching a Sunday school class as a confessional Lutheran at a Baptist church.

Don't ask how that happened, it was weird. But I was teaching a group called, what were they, the seniors?

Seekers.

Seekers, they called themselves the Seekers class and they asked me to come be their teacher. It was weird. But I came and I was their teacher and there was a fellow who was deathly ill and you can tell that he had a steady diet of like works righteousness and things like this.

And he was in the hospital and he couldn't even get a visit from the pastors, so I went to visit him in the hospital. And walked in, as soon as he saw me, he started crying. And he says, I really must have upset God, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting in this hospital bed.

And he was in pain. And I looked him dead in the eyes, I said, no, Jesus loves you way more than you can possibly imagine. And just the fact that you're laid out is no evidence of Christ's love for you.

In fact, scripture says, God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, enemies of God, Christ died for our sins. So I brought him back to the gospel and by the time I left, he was confident that God loved him and that he was merciful toward him.

And he passed two days later.

Right?

So who's gonna condemn us? Who's gonna separate us from the love of Christ? Shell tribulation?

No.

Distress? Hardly. How about persecution or famine?

No.

Will nakedness separate us from the love of Christ? I guess it all depends on what kind of naked it is, but the answer's no. Nakedness isn't gonna separate you from the love of Christ.

Okay?

So you get the idea here. He continues on. How about danger?

No. Sword? No.

As it is written, for your sake, we're being killed all the day long. That's a good text here. For the sake of Christ, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

So if you're being slaughtered, congratulations, you are one of Christ's sheep. It's not, you're not suffering this because you're bad. It's because you are one of his sheep.

Wow. Wow.

All right.

See, you guys are giving me the exact response I was hoping. Pastor jokes are the worst. Have you heard what kind of store the animals go to if they lose their tails? They have to go to a retail store.

Sorry.

Don't apologize if you don't mean it.

That was feigned penance.

It was all a ruse. I don't really repent at all.

Did you get lots of sleep last night?

Yes, it's like I got this extra hour of sleep. I am like the Energizer bunny right now. All right, so he continues. For your sake, we're being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

And then Paul says these really important words. I am sure, I'm certain that neither death nor life. Now people sit there and go, death cannot separate us from God. But hang on a second here. I know a thing or two about that life thing.

Life can't even separate you from the love of Christ. God's mercies are new every morning. Greatest is faithfulness. Life cannot separate you. So I'm sure that neither death nor life, angels or rulers or things present or things to come, nothing, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Dear saints, nothing can separate you, not even your own life. So God's mercies are new every morning, every morning. So yesterday can't even separate you from the love of Christ. You woke up this morning and the mercies of God were utterly renewed.

You're not even close to the bottom of the barrel. There's grace for you, right? And this is the words we need to hear when we see God acting in judgment because we recognize that's exactly what we deserve.

But life cannot separate you from the love of God. And now we continue. So the Lord, Yahweh, he's good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. And here's where we have to make a distinction.

You see a text like this and you sit there and go, well, you see, that means that unbelievers have to seek God. Wrong, no, that's not how this works. Cross-references are important. So when we take a look at Romans chapter three, in Romans chapter three, we get words that are spoken not once, not twice, but three times in Scripture.

Three times. Almost like once for the Father, once for the Son, once for the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are in unison here. Listen to this. So what then, are we Jews any better off, Paul asked the question to the Jews in Rome.

Not at all. We've all already charged that all, that's everyone, all means all, both Jews and Greeks. They're under sin. As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God.

Absolutely amazing to me that one of the miracles of the Old Testament is found in the book of Genesis. You have those two angels that they go to Sodom and Gomorrah for the purpose of determining whether or not the wickedness of the city is as bad as the report is that has gotten to them, right?

And we know from the earlier context that the three angels that showed up at Abraham's house, at his home, his ranch that he was living on, that's the three persons of the Trinity. You can see it very clear in the Hebrew.

So two of the angels, I don't know if we're dealing with the Holy Spirit and the Father, I just really don't know. It doesn't really give us that detail. One stays back and talks with Abraham. The other two head to Sodom and Gomorrah.

And when they get there, their intent was to spend the night in the town square. Now, this takes a little bit of work. Now, here's where an extra-biblical source is a little bit helpful, but you always have to be careful when you're dealing with extra-biblical sources.

Okay, so we have books like the book of Enoch, and then there's another book, what is it? J, I'm gonna have to remember this. It starts with a J. Jasher, the book of Jasher, that's the one. All right, if you have not read the book of Jasher, it's an interesting read.

And what the book of Jasher is, it is the written-down account of the oral history of the ancient Jews. It's not biblical, it's not inerrant, but it is super helpful when it comes to putting some context behind some of the Old Testament accounts.

So, for instance, in the book of Jasher, you have details regarding the life of Noah that are not given in Scripture. Now, whether or not they're true or not, I can't say with certainty, but it kinda has the ring of truthiness to it, okay?

And in the book of Jasher, we learn that it was Methuselah and Noah who were almost like the pre-flood version of street preachers. They were out there preaching repentance. They were out there preaching against the murder and just the violence that was taking place in their time.

And Noah, according to the book of Jasher, he had despaired and decided he didn't even wanna bring kids into the world. And so Noah, that was his determination. I'm not gonna get married. I'm not bringing any kids into this.

There's no way, the world's too wicked. And God prevailed on Noah, according to the book of Jasher, and told him that he needed to get married. And so he ended up marrying one of the daughters of Enoch, and she was 100 and something years older than him.

Talk about an age gap relationship, okay? So, you know, when you live to like eight or 900 years old, you know, when do you hit midlife at 400? I don't know how this all works, okay? At 400, you want a new wife and a Porsche.

I just, you know, it doesn't make any sense. But that's the account of the book of Jasher. And so Enoch's wife was like 100 something years older than he was, which was rather fascinating. And that's how the story goes.

When it comes to Sodom and Gomorrah, the book of Jasher also gives a little bit more detail. And this is actually kind of backed up from a text from the prophets that talks about the fact that Sodom and Gomorrah had a hospitality issue.

Now, of course, that was not the only thing that they had an issue with. So they were, according to the book of Jasher, there were several feasts that would take place throughout the year, where the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and this is going to include children, were engaged in like sexual orgies and things like this.

That was part of what was going on. Homosexuality was running rampant in Sodom and Gomorrah, and they treated sojourners shamefully. And I mean really shamefully. So that if somebody were to actually try to spend the night in the town square, which was a normal practice back then, it was kind of like the KOAs of the past.

You would spend the night in the town square. They would oftentimes be brutalized, murdered, and have things taken from them, or they would have things stolen from them, and then when they filed charges in the local court against the people who stole from them, the judges were in cahoots, and they would not only not give them back their property, they would take everything they had.

It's really the wickedness that's described in the book of Jasher regarding Sodom and Gomorrah is really off the chain. And so God's gonna act in judgment there, and one of the most interesting things is that when the angels show up to spend the night in the town square, Lot says, no, my lord's come to my house.

It's not safe here. That's kind of the implication. And when the men of the town heard that Lot had taken these fellows in, they said, bring them out so that we might know them. They wanted to homosexually gang rape these angels.

That's the wickedness that we're talking about. So what did the angels do? They struck the men of the city with blindness, and even though the door to Lot's house was 10 feet in front of them, they were not able to find it.

It's an interesting miracle, one of the most notable miracles of the book of Genesis, because there's, you know that Abraham didn't perform miracles. This was one performed by God. And in this particular case then, I liken then to the fact that none is righteous, no one seeks for God.

The idea here is that when it describes human beings as dead in trespasses and sins, it legitimately means that. And not only does no one seek for God, if we were to set out to try to find him, we wouldn't find him.

He has to come to us. He has to be the one that raises us. We were dead, but God, being rich in mercy, has raised us with Christ. He's seated us with Christ, and seated us in the heavenly places. You get the idea here.

So no one seeks for God, all have turned aside together, they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throne is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

But God raises us from the dead. The only one now who can seek God is the one whom God has given the ability for them to seek him. And that requires regeneration. And so you'll note, we do seek God, but we seek God because he has made us new in Christ.

We do not seek God in order to be saved. When people seek God in order to be saved, they end up in stupid things like the Zohar, the Kabbalah, or in Gnosticism, or in some kind of works-righteous religion.

And the God that they believe in isn't even remotely the true God at all. Not at all. I was recently reminded of a conversation that I had with a fellow who ended up marrying an Afghani refugee. And she had come to the States to flee the Taliban and things like this.

And she never believed that Allah was God. And the reason why is, she said, because of what I had seen done in the name of Allah and what I had heard about what he demands in the Quran, I knew that Allah was a demon.

And she's not wrong. What kind of God would reward people for blowing themselves up and murdering a group of people in the process? And call that a holy war, right? But the God that is is loving and he's kind, he's gracious.

And he does call us to seek him. And the thing that he demands us to do to seek him, he gives us then the ability to do by raising us from the dead, by uniting us with Christ in his death and his resurrection.

So coming back then, the soul who seeks him, the Lord is good to those who wait for him and the soul who seeks him. And each and every one of us in Christ can say that is us because we have been given faith.

We have been raised from the dead. And now I patiently wait for Christ in his return. I patiently wait and endure suffering and persecution as I wait for him. And I do seek God. And the best part is, is that Christ is exactly where he's promised to be.

You don't have to look far for Jesus because he was here today. The divine service began in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And Christ says, where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there and I am present.

I'm assuming that you came to church because you were seeking God. And he was here today. He bound up your wounds. He forgave your sins. He fed you with the body and blood of Christ. He assured you of forgiveness of all of your sins and the world to come through the text that we heard today.

God was here. Christ is here. To the outside observer, they'd say, I don't know what I just saw. It looks like a Roman Catholic church service to me over there. What's with those Lutherans, right? I didn't see anything special.

I didn't see Jesus there. You weren't looking right. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of Yahweh. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Huh, right?

This would not go good on a fortune cookie. And this, Joel Osteen would not preach this. I think he would spontaneously combust.

Okay.

Teeth would fall out.

Yeah, right. Yeah, I mean, seriously, could you imagine Joel Osteen putting this on a sticky note on his mirror? It is good for man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Boom.

He'd spontaneously combust and die.

Okay.

These words could not leave his mouth. But this is true. Look at Ecclesiastes, all right? Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanity. All is vanity. Other translations say meaningless. Meaningless, meaningless, says the preacher.

All is meaningless. What is the purpose of life? There isn't one. The whole thing is meaningless. The whole creation has been subjected to futility because of sin. Go ahead, build an empire to yourself.

People will be taking your statue down in the next few decades, talking about what a horrible person you are, and they're gonna cancel you. Post-mortem, right? It's all meaningless. It's all vanity. The description I've used before, and it's not a glorious one, it's an inglorious one, but it's true.

The whole creation is a turd in the toilet, and somebody flushed it already. We're just waiting for it to go down the pipe. Suffering is good in the middle of all of this. It's good. Teaches you to stop thinking about yourself.

Makes you realize you ain't that strong. Suffering does a really good job of knocking the self-righteous wind right out of you. It's like a sucker punch to your chest. When you suffer, you're left on the ground going, uh, uh, uh, I can't breathe, good.

Yeah, what did I have for breakfast this morning?

What on earth, right?

What was that?

It's that extra hour.

It's that extra hour, yeah. We should do this once a year or something, right?

No.

I'm kinda hoping I get rid of the whole thing. So it's good for a man that he'd bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust. There may yet be hope.

Let him give his cheeks to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. This does not, I mean, oh my goodness, I just spoke a word curse on myself, gasp, right?

Is that a birthstone?

Yeah.

For the Lord, here's the reason why. The Lord will not cast off forever. He will not. Though he cause grief.

Hey, what?

Who caused grief? The Lord. Though the Lord cause grief, he will have compassion. According to the abundance of his steadfast love, he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. And here's where we gotta understand something.

You wanna know what God is really like? We always picture God like sitting up there in heaven, like we've upset our father, right? There's God. He's got his arms crossed, and he's looking over his glasses at us, and we've done something stupid, and laser beams are coming right out of his eyeballs and hitting us right in the face, and we're going, oh no, we're in trouble now.

You guys remember the cartoon, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, right? I'm really dating myself now, right? This is how we think about God. That's what God's really like. He's constantly upset, he's grumpy, and he's just, you know, he's gonna really give it to us this time.

Wrong.

God does not afflict from his heart. God only afflicts when he's provoked. You wanna know what God is like? You look at Jesus hanging dead on the cross. That's what God is like. His great love and compassion for you meant that he didn't even spare his own son, but gave his own son so that you, a worthless maggot of a sinner, can live rather than perish.

So he could pluck you as a brand out of the fire. See, God does not afflict from his heart. In the truest sense, if you've ever heard your father say, this is really gonna hurt me more than it hurts you, I never believed my dad when he would say that, never.

But with God, I do. With God, I actually believe that. God does not afflict from his heart, nor does he grieve the children of man. To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man and his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.

And look at that list. Look at that list. Crush underfoot the prisoners of the earth. What country in the world doesn't do this? Deny a man justice. Justice is a tough thing to find nowadays, especially now since we have social media tribunals.

Right?

That's not justice, by the way. The whole cancel culture thing, that ain't justice. That is mob rule. And holding court on social media to determine somebody's guilt or not, not what we're called to do.

Subvert a man and his lawsuit, the Lord doesn't approve. Recently got to sit in a court hearing, saw a fellow swear in, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and as soon as the first question was asked of him, he was off to the races, lying out of his teeth.

Couldn't believe it. Man had no fear of God. And his desire was to subvert, make, twist things to his advantage. But we all do this. Who has spoken, and it came to pass unless the Lord has commanded it.

That's the thing. I can make plans for tomorrow, you can make plans for tomorrow. I can say, my plans for Christmas are thus. My plans for Thanksgiving are these. My plans for traveling next summer are gonna be these plans, right?

And if they come to pass, no one's gonna sit there and go,.

Ooh, you're a prophet, okay?

No one's gonna believe that. Because I haven't actually spoken anything about the future, and it comes, who saw the Ukraine war coming? Okay, I went to today's modern prophets, right? My friend Justin Peters, he put out a video challenging today's modern prophets.

Tell us the date that the war will end. What will be the circumstances of the new peace? Who will declare the peace, or will it be a victory, and who will win? Give us the details now. You claim to be hearing from God, right?

But you'll note that when God prophesies something's gonna happen, it happens. Isaiah said that a virgin would give birth, and good night, wouldn't you know it, a virgin gave birth. God said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, and good golly, Miss Molly, that's exactly what happened.

It was said in prophecy that Christ, the Messiah, would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and that's exactly how it went down. It also said that he would rise from the dead, and that his body would not see corruption, and that's exactly what happened.

None of us have this power. We can make plans, but we cannot speak a thing and make it come to pass. Only the things that come to pass are the things that the Lord has commanded. Maybe he's in charge of the universe.

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Ken Copeland, have you read this verse yet? Makes me wonder if Ken Copeland's Bible, which has highlights all over it, I mean, he loves flashing that thing to show what a great Bible scholar he is.

Has he even read Lamentations? Is this verse highlighted, or did he take some white out and just blot the whole thing out? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Why then should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Because it hurts? So let us test, and then examine our ways. We're the problem. I'm the problem. You're the problem. Let us examine our ways, and let us return to Yahweh. You've drifted far from him. In your complacency, in your mediocre, tepid prayers, in your, oops, I forgot to do that today, God, I guess I'll just have to do it tomorrow.

Let us examine our ways, and return to Yahweh. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven. We have transgressed, and we've rebelled, and you've not forgiven. You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing us without pity.

You have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. All our enemies open their mouths against us. Panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction.

My eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until Yahweh from heaven looks down and sees. My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.

I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause. They flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me. Water closed over my head. I said, I am lost. We read about this when they threw him into the cistern.

He was in way over his head, lucky to be alive. He almost died of exposure. I called on your name, oh, Yahweh, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea. Do not close your ear to my cry for help. You came near when I called on you.

You said, do not fear. You have taken up my cause, oh, Lord. You have redeemed my life. You have seen the wrong done to me, oh, Lord. Judge my cause. You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.

You have heard their taunts, oh, Yahweh, all their plots against me. And here's where these words start to steer into a parallel with Christ. They plotted against Jesus, wanted him dead. Even after he raised Lazarus from the dead, you know what the response, the official response to raising Lazarus from the dead was?

Jesus, we kill you, and we're gonna kill Lazarus, too. How dare you be raised from the dead by Jesus, okay? And when Jesus is on the cross, if you're the Messiah, save yourself. You who would tear down the temple in three days and build it again in three days, save yourself if you're the Messiah.