Sermon for Lord's Day June 18, 2023 Final words of judgment before the Cross

Luke 23:27-31 and Jesus’ Final Word of Judgment

Stand with us if you would. Luke chapter 23 verse 27 through verse 31. These are the words of the living God. And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

But turning to them, Jesus said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.

Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? As far as the reading of God's holy word, this passage, this particular small section of scripture might be, as in my mind I pictured, it might be one of the passages that demonstrate the truth of the old saying that it's always darkest before the dawn.

For it is in this passage of scripture where we see, and if you want to put a header on your notes today, where we see Jesus' final word of judgment to the people of Israel, to the Sanhedrin, to those around him, Jesus' final word of judgment.

And I say that because, as we'll see in the coming weeks ahead, from verse 32 on, we see and we read and we can testify so much to how the dawn begins to break, the daylight begins to shine, the love, the mercy, and the grace of God begin to be shown forth in the words that Christ speaks, not only to those that are being crucified with him, but unto us today as we look back on this horrific time in history.

But this is Jesus' final words of judgment. The timeline, again, it's very important so that we don't lose track of where we are, what's taking place, really, from since we started in chapter 22 to where we are now.

There's probably been 12 to 15 hours that have passed, technically speaking, 12 to 15 hours that have passed since the time that they came and they took Jesus in the garden to where we are now. So walking through the streets of Jerusalem, the Son of God falls underneath the weight of his cross as we looked at last week.

Simon of Cyrene is called upon to carry the cross of Jesus the remainder of the way up to Golgotha. And it is in this fleeting moment, it is in this short passage here that we hear Jesus speak his final words of judgment to the people.

The Mourning Crowd and the Roman Procession

Verse 27, and there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and who were lamenting for him. What do we see here? The crowd is inordinately large. The crowd is huge.

The crowd is massive. Why? Because it was the feast of the Passover. Jewish people had come from other countries far and wide to observe the feast. Remember, Simon and his family had likely come 1 ,300 miles.

Both the temple itself and the streets of the city were packed with folks, elbow to elbow. Now, I know if some of you are like me, being in a crowd is OK as long as you don't have to be too close to other people, right?

But the crowd was there elbow to elbow. There were people everywhere. You look everywhere the people were. And then, keep in mind what's taking place here, then likely followed by a procession both in front of and behind them of Roman soldiers.

And who were the Roman soldiers? The Roman soldiers were men who were skilled in the art of flogging and crucifixion. These were men who were mean and heartless, as you can imagine a person being. And as they are cutting a path through the crowd, here we see our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, having been falsely tried, having been beaten without mercy and having been beaten with a weapon called a cat of nine tails, which in essence was this.

It was a handle with leather cords attached to it that had knots. And in those knots were tied in glass, pottery, bones, so on and so forth. And as the criminals, the malefactors were beaten, as Jesus was tortured in this manner, literally the flesh was torn off of his bones, out of his body.

And it is here in verse 27 that we read these words, there followed him a great multitude of the people and of the women who were mourning and lamenting for him. Again, again, I know you probably get tired of me saying this, but there is so much for us to understand in the text of scripture.

We give this a cursory glance, we read right through it and we just assume something that's not technically there. But what we're going to see two things, particularly in this one verse, two points that are worthy for us to make note of here.

Number one, it's important for us to understand contextually that mourning for convicted criminals was prohibited. The Roman government prohibited you from mourning for someone who was found guilty and being sent to the cross.

So prohibiting for convicted criminals or mourning for convicted criminals was prohibited. And number two, number two, it was normal for professional mourning women to be hired for the funeral possessions that took place.

Now this, this is not talking about the funeral processions, mourning women were hired to mourn, to lament, to wail with outward actions of lament and verbal and vocal, very vocal mourning, right? Moaning and groaning and acting out the part.

These people were hired for this. John Gill said this, the Jews had their mourning women who were hired to assist in mourning by using mournful gestures, mournful tones, and singing dirges, yet public mourning was not allowed for persons that were executed as malfactors.

And therefore, Gill said, it is the more remarkable that here and in verse 48 of this same chapter, that any public tokens of sorrow should be expressed. This, what we're reading contextually was a very violent culture.

People were used to this kind of thing. People weren't broken by these things. As today in our world, we have become numb to many of the things that we should be very sensitive to. Some may say men don't need to be sensitive.

Men need to be sensitive. Because if we are not sensitive men and women, it means that we are desensitized. And if we have been desensitized, there is a problem. We are called to be acutely aware of what God calls sin.

We are called to be acutely aware, very aware of what is sin in the eyes of almighty God, and certainly violent death to innocent people is an ungodly act. But going on here with this understanding that so when the scripture speaks here of the women who were mourning and lamenting for him, it doesn't mean that certainly there were no women who were not seriously mourning the death or this march to death of Jesus Christ.

But in general, it's important for us to understand that it's likely these were hired mourners for what we read in the next two verses will demonstrate this to us. Verse 28 through 31, the word of God says, but turning to them.

Who did Jesus turn to? These mourning women, right? To turning to them, Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, daughters of Jerusalem. What does he say? Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves. Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves.

So for behold, the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore and the breast that never nursed. What happens here? Verses 28 through 31, judgment is pronounced.

This is Jesus' final judgment to the people of Israel before he goes to the cross, becoming the propitiation for our sins. He addresses the professional mourners. Now, I will say this, people in general, men and women alike spend a great deal of time feeling sorry for our Lord's suffering in the flesh because we think within ourselves, it was so sad that Jesus was tortured and so sad that he was treated so shamefully, which is a natural and a realistic and a loving response, by the way, for us to have toward the suffering of another human being.

However, in the case of these professional mourners, our Lord takes the opportunity to remind them as well as us, because we're reading this, as well as us as the readers and the hearers of the gospel today to do this, to consider our standing before a holy God.

So when they of that generation that we're reading in the text, when they of that generation, which is the generation Jesus had told previously, right, when they of that generation, as well as we today, as when we take thought, and I mean when we take serious thought of the nature and of the consequence of God's judgment on mankind, it should cause us to shake with fear.

Hebrews 10 and the Fearful Expectation of Judgment

The book of Hebrews states this in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19, beginning in 19. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, the word of God states this, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new in the living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we had a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. That's good news. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and to good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who is trampled underfoot, the son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace?

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But I'm going to say Paul may be under the hand of Luke, but Paul, I'm going to say Paul states this, but recall the former days.

When after you were enlightened, you endured a struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised for yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay.

But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

We are not of those, the King James says, who fall back unto perdition, for we are kept in and by the power of Almighty God, which ought to cause us to have great assurance and ought to cause us to have great confidence.

If there is anyone who should not have confidence and not have assurance, it is those who are outside the grace of God. It is those who willfully and pridefully shun the counsel of the Lord God Almighty.

Luke 21, the Destruction of Jerusalem, and the Call to Repentance

It is in the text here in Luke that Jesus reasserts the importance of considering what he had previously said. So remember what we're reading in the text. Jesus has turned to the mourning women, which says, do not weep for me.

Right. But you need to weep for yourselves. For behold, the days are coming when the barren will say, blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore and the breast that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us.

It's important for us to understand what's being said here, because what Jesus is saying here again is his final word of judgment to the people before he goes to the cross. For in Luke chapter 21, previously likely just a week, two weeks, maybe less beforehand.

Jesus said this. The scripture says in Luke 21, beginning in verse five, while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, as for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

And they asked him, teacher, when will these things be and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? And Jesus said, see that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name saying, I am he and the time is at hand.

Do not go after them. And when you hear wars and tumults, do not be terrified for these things must first take place. But the end will not be at once. Then he said to them, nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

There will be great earthquakes and in various places, famines and pestilences, and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and they will persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and the prisons.

And you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Therefore, settle it in your minds not to meditate. This is his words to his disciples.

Settle it, therefore, in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends.

And some of you, they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance, you will gain your lives. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains and let those who are inside the city depart and let not those who are out of the country enter into it. For these are the days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written.

Now, before we read the last couple of verses there, keeping in mind what Christ is talking about here, they didn't know what was taking place, but they had the certain word of Christ that judgment was coming in that generation.

Right. And we know looking back on that, that was the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 8070. But notice what Jesus goes on to say here. Alas, for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.

They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Jesus was clear. Jesus was precise.

Jesus was concise in his warning in this Luke 21 passage, as well as he is specific and concise in the passage in which we are reading today. And what the issue is here, as he one last time, as he's going to the cross, he gives yet another, another gracious and another merciful call to the unrepentant.

Some people think that we should not preach judgment, that we should only preach love. But my friend, I want you to know, preaching and proclaiming the judgment of God, as we're doing today, is just as important as preaching the love of God.

It is just as loving for us to say, wake up, pay attention, look straight ahead. Listen to the word of God for judgment certain. Going on concerning judgment, what was this judgment? It was the refusal to acknowledge the Messiah and the judgment was the unteachable mindset that the Sanhedrin itself was being faced with.

Refusing to heed the word of God is an example of the judgment of God for the scripture. Actually, I'll tell you something I quote by Matthew Meade, one of the old Puritans, Matthew Meade said this, an unteachable heart is a great judgment.

This was Pharaoh's judgment. He had an unteachable heart. No counsel, no message, no reproof, no warning would soften Pharaoh's heart. And when the Lord, Matthew Meade said, when the Lord designs to bring judgment upon a soul, then he gives it up to an unteachable frame.

Romans 1 and the Unteachable Heart

The scriptures themselves testify to this. If you go over to the book of Acts, or I'm sorry, the book of Romans chapter one. If you go to Romans chapter one and beginning in verse 18, this is what we read.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them. General revelation for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things they've been seen in the things that have been made so that they are without excuse for, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise.

They became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, animals, and creeping things. And notice this to what I just stated about being and having an unteachable frame of mind, being a judgment of God itself.

This is what we see here in verse 24. Therefore, God gave them up in the loss of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and they served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. That is what the word of God says. So moving on again, verse 29, behold, the days are coming. Christ states to them, behold, the days are coming. He's talking about the days of judgment, the days that as we look back on it, we see that this was the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, destruction of the city itself.

It was leveled to the ground. Now, verse 29 may seem like a ridiculous statement. Keep in mind, it may sound strange, may have seemed ridiculous, for behold, the days are coming when they will say, blessed are the womb or the barren and the wounds that never bore and the breast that never nursed.

Why was this a outlandish statement? Because the understanding of the day was, the understanding of our day still is, that it's a blessing to have children. It is a blessing to give birth. It is a blessing to bring children into the world.

But what Jesus was stating here was a truth that the people needed to listen to, because he was letting them know in no uncertain terms that things were going to get horrible. Absolutely horrible, so much so, as he goes on to state, that he said the people will say to the mountains, the people will look at the mountains and they will say, fall on, crush us to endure any more of what is taking place and any more of what is going on.

The conditions at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 will be so horrific that the people at that time would literally plead for an earthquake so strong to cause the mountains to fall on them, to shake the foundations of the world.

And a lot of times, again, we don't consider the serious nature of the judgment of God. I know this is a heavy message. I know this is not the type of message that makes us want to shout and be happy, but it ought to cause us to think, it ought to cause us to be sober minded, because God has demonstrated by him and through his providence, by time and by history, that he is faithful, not only to save, but to judge, to destroy.

Josephus and the Horror of Jerusalem’s Siege

Josephus, in his War Book, Chapter 6, Paragraph 3, or I'm sorry, in Book 6, Chapter 3 and Paragraph 4, I want to read just a snippet from this, because Josephus recounts the literal history at the time of destruction of Jerusalem.

And this is a snippet of what he writes. This, as well, history testifies to the truth of God's word. It can't help but testify to the truth of God's word, amen? Because history don't change God's word.

It only confirms God's word. Josephus said this, concerning a woman, what she had treasured up besides also what food she had contrived to save had also been carried off by the rapacious guards who came every day running into her house for that purpose during the siege, is what this is talking about.

This put the poor woman into a very great passion and by the frequent reproaches and imprecations she cast at these rapacious villains, she had provoked them to anger against her. But none of them, either out of the indignation she had raised against herself or out of the commiseration of her case, would take away her life.

They would rather let her live and suffer than to kill her and to end her misery. And if she found any food, she perceived her labors were for others and not for herself. And it was now become possible for her anyway to find any more food, not possible for her to find any more food.

While the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself, nor did she consult with anything but with her passion. She leaned solely upon her passions, her desires, is what Josephus is saying here.

And this is what he said. She then attempted a most unnatural thing in snatching up her son, which was a child sucking in her breast, she said, Oh, thou miserable infant, for whom shall I preserve thee?

In this war, this famine, in this sedition, as to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other.

Come on, she said to the infant, be thou my food and be thou a fury to these seditious violets and a byword to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews. As soon as she had said this, she slew her son and then roasted him and eat the one half of him and kept the other half by her concealed.

And upon this seditious, upon this, the seditious came in presently. The Romans came in and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready because they just wanted something to eat.

To which she replied, she had saved a very fine portion of it for them and with all uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon, they were seized with a horror and an amazement of mind and stood astonished at this sight when she said to them, this is my own son and what has been done was my own doing.

Come, eat of this food, for I have eaten of it myself. Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman or more compassionate than a mother, but if you be so scrupulous and do abominate this my sacrifice as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also.

After which those men went out trembling, being never so much affrighted as at anything as they were at this. And with some difficulty, they left the rest of that meat to the mother, upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately.

And while everybody laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves. This is what Christ was pointing to. This was what Christ was talking about it, where women would say it would be better for us never to have had a child than to have to go through what they would endure.

And then Christ says in the final statement there, for if they do these things, verse 31, for if they do these things, when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? I would say everybody in here is fully aware of the fact, whether you're old or whether you're young, that green wood don't burn good.

You need to have dry wood for it to burn, for it to catch up. So what Jesus is saying, and understand this, who is the green wood? Jesus is the green wood. For if they themselves, the people of Israel, were pouring out judgment on a good tree, a tree that produced nothing but good fruit, if they are going to get by with that, they must be aware that dry wood is going to go up like that, that they themselves would one day be consumed by the judgment of Almighty God.

And so when Christ said, weep not for me, you've been paid to weep for me. But you need to consider yourselves, you need to think about your own condition, you need to think about your own state of being before a holy God.

You need to be aware that just as certain as the sun comes up every morning, so is the certainty of God's faithfulness. So is the faith, so is the certainty of God's judgment. But I can't leave you without hope because so is the certainty of God's mercy.

To whosoever will call, you shall be saved, is the word of God. Let's close with reading from Jeremiah this morning, Jeremiah chapter eight, Jeremiah chapter eight. And why would we go to Jeremiah chapter eight?

In Jeremiah, the context is this, God's rebuking unfaithful Israel for her harlotry, for her giving of herself to the nations and the worlds around her. He's letting them know in his mercy and yet in his judgment that they would be given over into Babylonian captivity for which they would remain for 70 years.

You see this throughout the prophets. This is the this is the accounting of the prophets throughout the Old Testament. Isaiah, Jeremiah, you'll see it going on. You'll see him out of the captivity in books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

But Isaiah and Jeremiah particularly focus, we see the focus of God calling his people to repentance, of warning them of the certainty of judgment, of judgment coming, but of his faithfulness through it all.

And in Jeremiah chapter eight, no doubt the people who were around this day, particularly this this time when Jesus was coming to the cross and Jesus makes this statement to these women, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves.

The Sanhedrin would likely have recognized the imagery that Jesus is using. And part of this imagery comes from the book of Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter eight, verse 18. The prophet Jeremiah declares, as the word of God, my joy is gone.

Grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me, behold, the cry of the daughter of my people. Daughters of Jerusalem, from the length and from the breadth of the land is the Lord not in Zion? Is her king not in her?

Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their false idols? The harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved, they say, for the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded.

I mourn and dismay has taken hold on me. And then this question is asked almost hyperbolically or rhetorically. Is there no bomb in Gilead? Yes, there is a bomb in Gilead. Is there no physician there?

Yes, the great physician is there. Why then, as if to say, if there is no bomb, if there is no physician, why has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? And the prophet goes on in chapter nine, oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

Oh, that I had in the desert a traveler's lodging place. That I might leave my people, that I might go away from them, for they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. They bend their tongue like a bow, falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land, for they proceed from evil to evil and they do not know me, declares the Lord.

The prophet goes on, let everyone beware of his neighbor and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. Everyone deceives his neighbor and no one speaks the truth.

They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves committing iniquity, heaping oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit. They refuse to know me, declares the Lord. Judgment was coming.

Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, I will refine them and test them. For what else can I do because of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceitfully with his mouth. It speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he has plans for an ambush for it.

Shall I not punish them for these things, declares the Lord, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? Shall I not punish them for these things, declares the Lord. Verse 10, I will take up weeping and I will take up wailing for the mountains and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness because they are laid waste so that no one passes through and the lowing of cattle is not heard.

Both the birds of the air and of the beasts, they have fled and they are gone. And notice the word of the Lord, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins. A lair of jackals and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.

Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness so that no one passes through?

And the Lord says, because they have forsaken my law that I set before them and they have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals as their father taught them.

Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food and give them poisonous water to drink. I will scatter them among the nations who neither they nor their fathers had known.

And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them. This is the Lord making this statement. Some people might very well say some some well-intentioned Christians may say that's not my God.

Then you do not have the God of the scriptures for the God of the scriptures. The God of the Bible is a jealous God that is said you shall have no other gods before me. He goes on, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider and again notice the words consider and call for the morning women to come.

Sin for the skillful women to come, let them make haste and raise a wailing over us that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water. What was he speaking about here? Speaking about a brokenness.

He was speaking about a brokenness for their sin. It's speaking about the brokenness that we must have for our sin. It is speaking of a brokenness and a realization and an understanding that we and that he with the blowing of his nostril could take everything away from this world as we know it going on for a sound of wailing is heard from Zion.

How are we ruined? We are utterly ashamed because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings here. Oh, women, the word of the Lord and that your ear receive the word of his mouth.

Teach to your daughters a lament and each to a neighbor a dirge, a dirge is a funeral song. For death has come up into our windows. It is entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares speak.

Thus declares Yahweh, the dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like the sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them. Now, certainly the Sanhedrin knew what the scriptures in the book of Jeremiah stated.

They knew the serious nature of God pouring out his wrath on Israel itself in years gone by. They saw regularly and read or read regularly about the mighty works of God. But where are we in history in this context?

They had just come off a period of about 400 years where there was no open revelation, where there was no vision given, where there was no word. And in the history comes God in the flesh and he speaks to them verbally and they want nothing but to kill him because of this, Christ declared, this great temple will be destroyed.

And not will it just be this temple, but this entire place will be destroyed. The physical Mount Zion, so to speak, will be a certainty. And last of all, the prophet Jeremiah says in verse 23, thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me and that I am the Lord, that I am Yahweh who practices steadfast love, who practices judgment, who practices righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight, declares the Lord.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. Well, I will punish, oh, both presently in the time of Jeremiah, future in the time of Jesus' crucifixion and even present in our day today are these very words that we read next in verse 25.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh, Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab and all who dwell in the desert, who cut the corners of their hair for all these nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel.

This is Old Testament language, are uncircumcised where? In their hearts. They had the circumcision of the flesh. They knew all about trying to be keepers of the law. And sadly, they found their boast in that.

But the Lord said there, if you want to boast, boast in this. There's nothing better that you can boast in, that the Lord knows you. And that as we sung in that song, that you belong to Jesus. Oh, I'm in an awful state, preacher.

My family's in an awful state. That may very well be the truth. But you are in the hands of a great and a mighty God. So I would encourage you to go to Christ today. Stand with us this morning, if you would.

Praise God from whom all blessing.