Sunday Morning, August 9, 2020, AM

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Sunday Morning, August 9, 2020, AM "Vengeance Is Mine..​” (Part 2) Jeremiah 51:11-64

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Well, good morning to you all.
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It is good to see you on a beautiful Sunday morning. And welcome to Sunnyside Baptist Church.
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We are glad to have you here and grateful for the Lord bringing us together here this morning.
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So hopefully you got a bulletin and I encourage you to look through that. There are a number of announcements in there about tag, a change of address for Jonathan and Rachel Wilcock.
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So some things to be mindful of in terms of announcements. So make sure you take a look at that.
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Also, our fighter verse for the week. Psalm 34 verses 17 and 18 says, when the righteous cry for help, when the righteous cry for help, the
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Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near.
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To whom? To the broken hearted. The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
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So I encourage you to, to read those verses, meditate on those verses, commit them to memory.
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Let the Lord use his word to bear fruit in your life.
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So Psalm 34 verses 17 and 18. Would remind you too of our evening service tonight at 5 .30
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and encourage you to be back for that. As Michael continues to share with us about just some, some current events, some, some things that are going on in our world that we might be able to deal with those from a biblical worldview, a biblical perspective and respond rightly according to what
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God teaches us in his word. So I encourage you to be here tonight at 5 .30 as, as Michael continues in that series.
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All right. As we gather together this morning, God has brought us together for his glory and we benefit from that.
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We are blessed by being able to be here today, but in the end, it's not about us.
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It's about God. It's about his glory and the praise of his name in Christ Jesus for his goodness and mercy to us.
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So as we, as we prepare our hearts this morning, I encourage you to, as we sing sometimes that old hymn, turn your eyes upon Jesus.
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I encourage you to do that this morning, to prepare your heart and mind for worship.
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And so take some time just now to, to draw near to the Lord, to just ask
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God to draw near to you. To pray and to ask the
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Lord to bless our time of worship this morning. And then after a few moments, then a brother
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Michael will lead us in prayer and Brian will come then and lead us in worship.
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All right. So let's go to the Lord. It is good to give thanks to you, our
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Lord. It is good to sing praises to your name. For you are the most high.
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It is good for us to declare your grace, your covenant faithfulness, your loving kindness here this morning.
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And may our praise for your faithfulness be on our lips, even to the evening, even till tonight.
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Oh Lord, you have made us glad by what you have done. And here today, we sing for joy as we consider
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Christ, the Lamb of God, slain for us, the
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Lion of Judah, raised and reigning for us. You have made us glad.
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You have brought us joy. And so we praise you. How great are your works, oh
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Lord. Help us to praise you today. For in Christ's name we pray.
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Amen. Good morning,
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Sunnyside. Would you stand with me as we prepare to read our call to worship?
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And then our first hymn will be the Church's One Foundation, 277.
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Your throne, oh God, is for ever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of unrighteousness.
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You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your
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God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
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Church's One Foundation, 277. 277. She weighs the conservation of peace forevermore.
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And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.
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If you would take your
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Bible in hand and turn to the book of Deuteronomy, the last book of the
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Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy chapter 14.
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And this morning our reading is verses 1 through 20. So, Deuteronomy chapter 14, verses 1 through 20.
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And I'll be reading from the English Standard Version. You are the sons of the
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Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead.
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For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. And the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
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You shall not eat any abomination. These are the animals you may eat.
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The ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.
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Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud among the animals you may eat.
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Yet those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven, you shall not eat these, the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof.
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They are unclean for you. And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you.
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Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. Of all that are in the waters you may eat these.
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Whatever has fins and scales you may eat, and whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat.
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It is unclean for you. You may eat all clean birds, but these are the ones you shall not eat.
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The eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the kite, the falcon of any kind, every raven of any kind, the ostrich, the night hawk, the seagull, the hawk of any kind, the little owl, and the short -eared owl, the barn owl, and the tawny owl, the carrion vulture, and the cormorant, the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.
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And all winged insects are unclean for you. They shall not be eaten. All clean winged things you may eat.
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This is the word of the Lord. Would you pray with me? Lord, as we look at this passage of scripture this morning, it is probably easy for me to read all of this and say,
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I don't get it. Why all this talk about clean and unclean food?
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About animals that we can eat and those that we can't. Lord, in the final estimation of things, in the bottom line, we are reminded of what scripture tells us, what
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Jesus himself said, that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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So Lord, while we are grateful for all the food that you give us to eat, all the things that you supply to give strength to our bodies and to enable us to work and to play, to enjoy our families,
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Lord, in the end, all of that is for your glory. And while we give you thanks for the food that we put into our mouths, or may we never neglect to give you thanks for your word in our hearts.
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Lord, we pray that you would help us to remember that you are the
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God who sustains. You are the God who supplies and that you do so according to your great and precious promises.
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So Lord, increase our hunger and our thirst for righteousness and for your word.
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And may we come to Jesus, the bread from heaven, who calls us to himself to be satisfied in him alone.
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Lord, may that be so. Thank you for your goodness and mercy in Jesus name.
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Amen. You may be seated. We're going to sing a group of songs.
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The first one is in HMA hymns, modern ancient 115. We'll sing in the first and second verse and the chorus and the third verse and the chorus and the fourth verse and the fourth course.
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And then when I survey the wondrous cross, and then once again, the bridge, there is power in this cross that you believe in.
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Power that we cannot comprehend. We only see dimly. But even at that, it's wondrous and amazing.
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There in the awesome weight of sin,
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Every bitter thought, every bold deed,
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Christ became sin for us is dead.
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Hurt and torn in two, to see the name written in the wounds,
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On the wall, my pride, save in the death of Christ, my
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God. All the vain things that charm me most,
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I find, Sam, to his blood.
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Leap from his head, his hands, his feet.
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Sorrow and love forming a vow.
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Did such love and sorrow lead?
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Lord, what an awesome, love so amazing, so divine.
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Deep and trite,
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O my life, my all.
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Thank you for the cross.
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Thank you for the cross, my friend.
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Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for bringing us together on this day.
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Thank you for the truth of your word, your faithfulness to your promises.
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We thank you that we live on this side of the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
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You have everything to look forward to, so we give you the praise for that.
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You are not only our creator, not only our provider, not only our king, but your father and savior.
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And what can we say but thank you and glory to you. So as we come to your word this morning, as we come to this passage here in Jeremiah, I ask that you would again provide and direct and deliver by sending us in a special way, filling us with your
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Holy Spirit, that the text that you have breathed out in perfection would be warm to our hearts, that you would grace us with repentance and faith, that by this means you would be glorified, that we would be sanctified.
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We pray all these things in our hopes of Christ. Amen. I invite you to open your
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Bibles and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 51. Jeremiah 51,
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I'll be reading verses 53 through 58 in a moment.
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Jeremiah 51, I'll be reading verses 53 through 58 again today.
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And good morning. Every Sunday is a good morning because Jesus Christ is risen, and he is risen indeed.
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And the fact of the matter is, therefore, that this day when we read from this text, we receive a living word from a living savior, a powerful word from a powerful sovereign, and a sharp word from our
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Lord whose double -edged sword proceeds from his mouth. That Jesus Christ reigns is the bane of his enemies and their dread.
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That he reigns is our joy in the now and our hope in the not yet.
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Now, we've already looked at the glories of Christ. Here in this text, verses 11 through 33, glories revealed in the course of God's divine vengeance declared against Babylon.
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In verses 11 through 19, we talked about the Lord's power as creator, that the
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Lord's vengeful purpose reveals his power as creator of all.
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And then in verses 20 through 33, we talked about the Lord's righteousness as judge, that his vengeful purpose reveals his righteousness as judge over all.
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And now we're coming to the last of Jeremiah's oracles of judgment.
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And we're concluding a long and detailed series of expressions of God's wrath.
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So, if you would please stand with me as I read Jeremiah chapter 51. I'll read verses 53 through 58.
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These are the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, through his prophet
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Jeremiah. Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens, and though she should fortify her lofty stronghold, from me destroyers will come to her, declares the
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Lord. The sound of an outcry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the
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Chaldeans, for the Lord is going to destroy Babylon, and he will make her loud noise vanish from her, and their waves will roar like many waters.
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The tumult of their voices sounds forth, for the destroyer is coming against Babylon, and her mighty men will be captured, their bows are shattered, for the
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Lord is a God of recompense, he will fully repay. I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, her governors, her prefects, and her mighty men, that they may sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up, declares the
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King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the broad wall of Babylon will be completely raised, and her high gates will be set on fire, so the peoples will toil for nothing, and the nations become exhausted only for fire.
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This is the word of the Lord, you may be seated. Men who would love the holy scriptures, for God who is revealed there, those who would love
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God, and therefore love his word, must be intimately acquainted with the judgments, the wrath, and the anger of God.
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About a hundred years ago, J. Gresham Machen observed, the doctrine of the wrath of God is not a popular doctrine.
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It's kind of understated in that way. He goes on, he says, but there is no doctrine that is more utterly pervasive in the
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Bible. You would as soon remove dust from carpentry, and heat from baking, water from fishing, needles from sewing, and remove the wrathful judgment of God from the holy scriptures.
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There's certainly more to carpentry than dust. More to baking than heat. More to fishing than water.
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More to sewing than needles. But why even try to remove these essential elements?
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To reject the essential part is to reject the comprehensive whole.
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And yet we have been conditioned and discipled to downplay what depraved men might find objectionable.
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J. Packer observed, the fact is that the subject of divine wrath has become taboo in modern society, and Christians by and large have accepted the taboo and conditioned themselves never to even raise the matter.
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Best not talk about it. The difficulty is that when we push the mute button so that God's hellfire and damnation do not fall upon sensitive ears, we actually rob ourselves and others of glorious truth that God has revealed for the good of mankind.
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We live in the midst of an Absalom generation, raging for justice, casting off all restraint.
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We live in a struggle where men are lost and confused, perishing as those did in the forest of Ephraim.
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And we need a clear note sounded about the power and the righteousness of our wrathful and sovereign
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God. Men will never be right with one another unless they are right with God.
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We have to have our priorities straight. God's sovereign anger against man's unrighteousness is far, far more of an urgent issue than any half -witted, limp -wristed, juvenile group fit staged for the cameras.
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No matter how many kazoos sound off in frenzied buzzing, the tornado siren of God's promised judgment is the overwhelming priority of sinners without a shelter, and also of those who would preach the good news to them.
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The sovereign anger of God and his wrathful judgment is not only a theme meant for those who remain outside of Christ, a warning to flee to Christ, but it's also meant for us.
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God promises to exact holy vengeance upon the wicked, and this reveals his glories to his own people, those of us who have already taken refuge in Christ.
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We are blessed, dearly beloved, to have a righteous God who gets angry and lays waste.
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That's a good thing. That is not the comprehensive view of our Creator, but to reject the essential character quality is to reject the whole of who
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God is, and all of his holiness, and all of his love. When you skip scenes of God's anger...
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Oh, this is too much. Skip ahead. If you do that when you're reading the scriptures, if you do that when you're hearing a word about the vengeance of God, when you skip scenes of God's anger, you are fast -forwarding through large portions of essential plot development.
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The story makes no sense that God is telling us if we skip those scenes of God's judgment.
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To bypass the sovereign anger of God revealed in his word is to lose out on all manner of doctrines, and reproofs, and corrections, and training in justice.
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God has especially breathed out these scenes of his anger, especially breathed out these realities about his judgment through holy men for our good.
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So, if you would know Jesus Christ, if you would know Jesus Christ, if you would see him, and abide in him, and commune with him, and really enjoy the eternal life that he brings, which is knowing
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God, and knowing Jesus Christ whom he has sent, you do not need to resort to extra spicy egg rolls before bedtime, and sort out the various visions the next morning.
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You can read the Bible. And even in the parts where we find that God gets angry, and acts in judgment, we see the glories of Jesus Christ.
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The Lord's vengeful purpose reveals the glories of Christ. And we come to the third point of this part of the sermon, the second half, the third point, the
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Lord's anger as Savior in verses 34 through 52. The Lord's anger as Savior.
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Now, remember in the previous passages, we considered the glories of Christ revealed as creator, and as judge.
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But we should not be thinking about the power of God, and the judgment of God in dispassionate analytical terms.
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God judges because he is holy, and so he is wrathful against sinners and sin.
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God judges because he is love, and so he hates the wicked and their wickedness.
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That's not the whole picture of who God is, but that is essential. And it's not hopeless, because God actually brings about salvation through his anger.
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And that reveals the glories of Christ. The Lord's vengeful purpose reveals his anger as Savior of his people.
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And in verses 34 through 40, we hear about blood. Blood. Shed blood rarely flows without some involuntary emotion.
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Even an accidental cut on your finger will evoke some level of concern from those who care about you.
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God has designed our bodies to react to the sight of blood. There are people who get queasy and lightheaded and faint at the sight of blood.
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You don't have to raise your hand. We know from the scriptures that life is in the blood.
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Now, to see a loved one lose vital amounts of blood, shocks your system and sears your eyes.
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And nobody in their right mind would ever want to have innocent blood on their hands. So when we read about someone calling out for their blood to be recompensed, this is strong emotion.
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This is strong emotion. The blood of the Jews, the blood of their families stained the
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Judean countryside and Jerusalem's streets. And we have in this text, you will hear
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Jerusalem personified as calling out in her death throes. She is cursing the
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Babylonian monster who is devouring her. And she is calling for her blood to be recompensed on all of the
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Chaldeans. And we will see God respond to this with vigor. Verses 34 through 40.
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Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has devoured me and crushed me. He has set me down like an empty vessel.
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He has swallowed me like a monster. He has filled his stomach with my delicacies.
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He has washed me away. May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, the inhabitant of Zion will say.
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And may my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, Jerusalem will say.
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Therefore, thus says the Lord. Behold, I am going to plead your case and exact full vengeance for you.
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I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry. Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and hissing without inhabitants.
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They will roar together like young lions. They will growl like lion's cubs.
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When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet and will make them drunk that they become jubilant and may sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up, declares the
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Lord. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams together with male goats.
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So we are to consider the strength of God's response. He acts intensely for the sake of his people.
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We have this expression where God says, I'm going to plead your case and exact a full vengeance for you.
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Well, that's how we translate it in the English. But in the Hebrew, it's two different terms repeated twice. God says,
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I'm going to prosecute your prosecution. I'm going to vengefully avenge you. And the whole idea of repeating the same
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Hebrew twice in a row is to make it bold and underlined, show the intensity of what
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God declares here. God responds by taking arrogant
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Babylon as Babylon is roaring and growling like lions. He takes them as they're inflamed with wine and he puts them in such a stupor that when their enemies attack, it'll be just like slaughtering sheep.
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And it's exactly how it happened in Daniel 5. You can go read it for yourself, Daniel 5. It's exactly how it happened that Babylon went down.
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They went down drunk, asleep, slaughtered like sheep.
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God avenges his people's blood with great intensity. His anger, in fact, rescues his people.
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And we see that in verses 41 through 47. And as we read this passage, we're going to hear about shishek.
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Shishek. This is not an economy version of a she -shed. Some of you thought it was, but it's not.
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For the young men in the crowd, you'll like this. It's a code word. It's a code word. If you take the basic three
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Hebrew consonants in the term for Babel, Babylon, B, B, and L, Beth, Beth, Lamed, and in the
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Hebrew alphabet order of letters, there's no vowels in Hebrew, it's all consonants, you flip the reverse, you flip the reverse, and Beth, Beth, Lamed becomes
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Shin, Shin, Kof. So you just take Babel, and you flip it upside down in the
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Hebrew alphabet, and it comes out shishek. From Babel to shishek. So it's a code.
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Someone said, well, that's not much of a code. You put the word shishek and the word Babylon right next to each other right there in the text, it's obvious what you're referring to.
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But it's important to remember that this scroll was going to be tied to a rock and sunk in the river.
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Secret information in there. The code was given, Babylon is called shishek.
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The term is a gift to the Jewish exiles who will speak in a truthful but discretionary manner while living as exiles in Babylon because they will be speaking for decades about how
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Babylon is going to go down, how Babylon is going to be destroyed. And when the oppressed talk about their oppressors in that way, the people in charge don't like it.
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And so, instead of saying Babylon, they're going to say shishek. And this, of course, has a pleasing semantic effect of taking
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Babel and flipping it upside down into a different term, and it has the visual impact of something getting flipped upside down in anger, which is exactly what
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God will do. And for decades, as they talk about shishek, they will recall the judgments coming against this city.
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And long before Jesus flipped tables in the temple, he flipped Babel into shishek down by the
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Euphrates. Verses 41 through 47. How shishek has been captured and the praise of the whole earth been seized.
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How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations. The sea has come up over Babylon.
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She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves. Her cities have become an object of horror, a parched land and a desert, a land in which no man lives and through which no son of man passes.
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I will punish Bel and Babylon and I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth.
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And the nations will no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down. Come forth from her midst, my people, each of you save yourselves from the fierce anger of the
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Lord. Now, so that your heart does not grow faint and you are not afraid at the report that will be heard in the land.
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For the report will come one year and after that another report in another year and violence will be in the land with ruler against ruler.
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Therefore, behold, days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon and her whole land will be put to shame and all her slain will fall in her midst.
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The beauty and the power and the grandeur of Babylon looked to be a city of salvation. They had it all.
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But her gardens were full of sin and they hung in defiance before God. Lest Judah's children and grandchildren think that Shishak was worth their trust and devotion,
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God declares his fierce anger against this city and compels his people to flee her destruction.
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His anger against Babylon has been roused and only a punishing violence would express it.
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And so he says, get out. He saves his people from destruction.
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He tells them the timing of Babylon's day, 70 years, Jeremiah 25. It's 70 years from this day to when
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Babylon will be going down. He says, I don't want you despairing about Babylon as it decays and falls, but he wants his people to remember him.
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You see, they have no reason to be afraid if they remember that God is the one in charge of this whole matter. He was punishing one ruler with another.
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He was shaming Babylon's idols. He was bringing down her mighty men. That's what was happening. God was doing what
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God was doing. So why should his people be afraid? All this was done as a revelation of God's anger and it restores the worship of his people.
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You see this in verses 48 through 52. We see that the golden idol
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Babylon, which had caused such fear among the people, is now toppled. This is the promise that Babylon will be brought down.
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And as heaven and earth shout for joy at the destruction of Babylon, God would have his people redirect their attention back to him to think on the place where he would reveal his name.
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Verses 48 through 52. Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers will come to her from the north, declares the
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Lord. Indeed, Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel as also for Babylon the slain of all the earth have fallen.
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You who have escaped the sword depart, do not stay. Remember the Lord from afar and let
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Jerusalem come to your mind. We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
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Disgrace has covered our faces for aliens have entered the holy places of the Lord's house.
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Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish your idols and the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.
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Now verse 50 is crucial for us to hear. Crucial for the Jews to hear. God has warned his people to get out of Babylon before his fierce anger falls.
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What have they been doing all these decades? Between the time that they were exiled and the time that Babylon falls, what have they been doing these somewhat 50 plus years?
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They have been building houses and living in them, planting gardens and eating their produce.
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They have been praying, in fact, for the prosperity of Babylon herself for in her prospering, they would prosper all according to the instructions that God gave them in Jeremiah 29.
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But now they must shift their attention. Now Babylon is going to fall. Now everything attached to Babylon is going to fall.
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What will become of their homes and their lands and so on? They're going to have to leave them.
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They're going to have to turn their attention elsewhere. They're going to have to put their focus back on Jerusalem.
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You know, riches are useful, but they're temporary. There are means for obedience to God.
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There are means for glorifying God. But, you know, they're not the goal of humanity. They're one set of tools among many for the achievement of God's will.
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So notice that this current audience, they're supposed to go back to Jerusalem. But when they think about Jerusalem, verse 51 says they're full of shame.
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And who wouldn't be? After all, Jerusalem was a wreck. The walls had been taken down and the temple was destroyed and all sorts of foreigners were all over the place and they had desecrated
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Jerusalem. But God says he's going to solve this by severely punishing
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Babylon. He's going to remove the disgrace of the Jews, defeating their enemy who had exiled them and releasing the
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Jews from the Babylonians' hold that they may return and rebuild the city and the temple as they anticipate the
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Messiah's arrival with the new covenant. And they do return. The Jews do return under the authority and with the ample funding of Babylon's conquerors, the
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Medes and the Persians. The emperors of the Medes and the Persians sent the Jews back to Jerusalem fully funded to rebuild the city and rebuild the temple and beautify it to the glory of God.
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So you see that God removed the idol of Babylon in his anger. So he would restore the worship of his people, putting their attention upon him, the one who would bring them back to their land and restore worship to himself.
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What a grace that is. And would it be salvation? Would it be salvation if they were not brought to worship
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God? Would it be salvation for us if we were not brought to worship
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God? If we were not brought to worship Jesus Christ? It is not salvation merely to be relieved of the guilt of your sin.
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Not salvation merely that God's wrath no longer abides upon you. Not merely salvation that there's everlasting life.
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All of these things would not really be salvation if we were not brought to worship our Creator and worship our
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Savior Jesus Christ. The ashes of tyrants and the shards of idols are the parade ground of Christ.
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Now it may seem strange that the anger of the Lord is for the salvation of his people, but it is a glory of God that we should praise.
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Habakkuk 3, verses 12 through 13. In indignation, in indignation, you marched through the earth.
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In anger, you trampled the nations. You went forth for the salvation of your people.
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For the salvation of your anointed, you struck the head of the house of evil to lay him open from thigh to neck.
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Selah. It's the Selah that surprises. Stop. Ponder.
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Consider. Ruminate on the carcass of the Lord's enemy with the mortal head wound gashed from thigh to neck.
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Behold the salvation of God's people in the gore of God's enemy made a carcass by God's anger.
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Rejoice and be glad. Sing a fourfold hallelujah with the saints of Revelation 19.
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Behold your Savior and your Sovereign rioting in angry judgment to save. And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse.
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And he who sat on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness he judges and wages war.
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His eyes are a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself.
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He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood. And his name is called the
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Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses.
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From his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may strike down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron.
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And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the
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Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
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This is the Christ we worship. We are the people he saves. And he will recompense the sufferings of his saints.
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His anger means our deliverance. His anger means our salvation. His anger means our deliverance and salvation from bitterness, from anxiety, from escapism, from hopelessness and a host of woes.
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Our sins sanctified in the praise of his glory. Those who cringe and complain about an angry
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God, they may truly understand and clearly resent
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God for being angry ever at all. But they might be misplacing their focus as well.
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Angry, bitter, malcontent pulpiteers and bitter Christians are not at all representative of God.
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I mean, there's a legitimate issue with bombastic preachers and bitter Christians. But to reject out of hand the notion of God being angry with sinners and being angry with sin is to reject and oppose the scripture which so clearly states it time and again.
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Now, I have to ask you a question. If we will not have the anger of God, what is left in the face of injustice, wickedness, lies and sin?
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These are all things worth getting angry about. If we will not have the anger of God, what is left in the face of injustice, wickedness, lies and sin?
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Do we really prefer the anger of men to the anger of God?
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Do we really prefer that? James 1 .20 says, the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
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The anger of man does not achieve the justice of God. Same word in the
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Greek. The anger of God, however, does achieve justice.
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The anger of God, however, does achieve righteousness. Why is the word of God thrown down in the streets and burned by Black Lives Matter?
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Why? Because there can be no sustained bitterness and sustained anger by man as long as the harbinger of God's anger hangs over the wickedness and injustice of man.
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Why is it okay that these people can get angry? Because we have denied that God ever does get angry.
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Why is there such a profound feeling that there's no justice in our society and no justice in our world?
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Because, because the pulpits have gone silent on the anger and the justice of God.
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Denying the wrath of God is crucial to consecrate the wrath of man. But denying
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God's wrath, however, does not make it go away. You must have a mediator. We must have a mediator.
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We must have the mediator, Jesus Christ, who has suffered under God's wrath on the cross and propitiated our guilt.
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And by his resurrection and continued ministry forgives our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
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Cleanses us from all injustice. Same word.
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And 1 John chapter 1. If we say, verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, faithful and just, to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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To cleanse us from all injustice. If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar and His truth is not in us.
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My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the
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Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Jesus Christ the just. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.
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And not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Oh, that's good news.
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That's good news. Some people don't think that injustice could ever be cleansed. But Jesus Christ has already died upon the cross.
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And His offer of the gospel is still being proclaimed in the world today. Lastly, we see
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God's sovereignty as King. Beginning in verse 53, all the way through the end of the chapter.
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Now, there's nothing like power -packed, righteous, anger -filled divine judgment to convince a proud sinner that he or she is not in charge.
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But God is in control. Now, Judah's history is one in which he spiraled into a fog of arrogance in which one king after another and one prophet after another and one generation after another just did whatever they thought was best.
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They just said whatever they thought was good. Life went on and on and they figured they would just continue to do so until they crashed headlong into the brick wall of God's sovereign word.
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And the experience was much the same for Babylon. So as the Jews in exile in Babylon are under the judgment of God, they are removed from their land and they're living there in Babylon and they're looking around and saying, you know what,
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Babylon looks a whole lot like we used to. You know, defiant, arrogant, proud, doing whatever they think is best.
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And so, as Jerusalem, so also Babylon. As Jerusalem had wheedled and plotted and tried to thwart the judgment of God, so also
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Babylon. But it would all be for nothing. And God's vengeful purpose reveals his sovereignty as king over all.
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And we are introduced to the futility of men in verses 53 through 58.
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We read here that man cannot build a city high enough or strong enough to replace
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God. That's how Babel began, if you recall, back in Genesis chapter 11, to build a city big enough and high enough to replace
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God, strong enough to replace God. That's how she began and that's why she was ended.
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God confused the language of men at Babel. And as we read in this text, make note that Babylon is filled with loud noise, a roar, a tumult of voices.
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But her cacophony will all cease. The Lord declares that the destroyers he brings, the
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Medes and the Persians, they are from him. He sends them to Babylon for the express purpose of silencing her noise.
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He shows himself as the God of recompense who fully repays. He is the sovereign one.
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And as any king was ultimately responsible for the justice meted out in his lands,
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God, who has sovereignty over all the lands, dispenses judgment to all the wicked, including the great city of Babylon.
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Verses 53 through 58. Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens and though she should fortify her lofty stronghold, from me destroyers will come to her, declares the
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Lord. The sound of an outcry from Babylon and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans. For the
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Lord is going to destroy Babylon and he will make her loud noise vanish from her. And their waves will roar like many waters.
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The tumult of their voices sounds forth. For the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon.
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And her mighty men will be captured. Their bows will be shattered. For the Lord is a God of recompense.
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He will fully repay. I will make her princes and her wise men drunk.
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Her governors, her prefects, and her mighty men. That they may sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up, declares the king, whose name is the
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Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord of hosts. The broad wall of Babylon will be completely razed and her high gates will be set on fire.
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So the peoples will toil for nothing and the nations become exhausted only for fire. The peoples and the nations had toiled to exhaustion in the building of Babylon.
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In the building of Babylon's mighty walls. Consider all that tribute paid.
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Consider all that forced labor. All of the effort that had produced walls that were 32 feet broad.
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Two chariots might meet each other and pass easily, it was written, on the tops of those walls.
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They encompassed Babylon, though she was vast, 45 miles around. But these broad walls and these high gates were all constructed for a big fire.
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A big fire. And thus the nations labored for nothing. They did all that work just to have a big fire.
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No wall was thick enough to keep God out. Now Solomon did not have to live to the days of Babylon to know that of man's efforts, vanity, vanity, all is vanity and chasing after the wind.
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But he also wrote in Ecclesiastes 3, 16 through 17. He also wrote of the futility of man and the inevitability of God.
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Ecclesiastes 3, 16 through 17. Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice, there is wickedness.
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And in the place of righteousness, there is wickedness. I said to myself,
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God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man. For a time for every matter and for every deed is there.
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Solomon says there's nothing new under the sun. Every time man tries to carve out a space and say this is a space for justice, what fills it?
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Wickedness. He says, oh, that's full of wickedness. Let's go over here. Let's create a space for righteousness over here.
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What fills it? Wickedness. Over and over, Solomon says, look at the futility of men.
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But I know, I know God's going to judge everyone. He will bring all everything to righteousness.
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God will judge. This is inevitability of God, and this is part of the message here at the end of the scroll.
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I mean, we can avoid a lot of things, but we can't avoid God. We can avoid a lot of things that annoy us, that wear on us, that frustrate us.
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I, for one, avoid Western Avenue. I don't like trying to drive from here to I -240.
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I think the 10 mile an hour under the speed limit molasses crawl annoying. 59th and Western is havoc.
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People walking back and forth across the road like crosswalks don't exist. And the traffic light at 51st is demon possessed.
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So I just use Douglas or Walker at all possible times.
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And I can live, I can live avoiding Western. And we can live avoiding all kinds of things.
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That annoy us and bother us. But none of us can live in a way that avoids God. God is inevitable.
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Now, Jeremiah gives special instructions to Baruch's brother. Baruch is Jeremiah's scribe. Baruch's brother is headed off with the royal entourage heading to Babylon with King Zedekiah.
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And Baruch's brother is to carry the scroll all the way there. And he is to read it out loud.
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And then he has special instructions to emphasize the inevitability of God. Verses 59 through 64.
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The message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Sariah, the son of Nariah, the grandson of Messiah, when he went with Zedekiah, the king of Judah, to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign.
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Now, Sariah was quartermaster. So Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon.
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That is all these words which have been written concerning Babylon. Then Jeremiah said to Sariah, as soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud and say, you,
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O Lord, have promised concerning this place to cut it off so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.
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And as soon as you finish reading the scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the
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Euphrates and say, just so shall
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Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her, and they will become exhausted.
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Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. So why sink the scroll?
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Why tie a rock to it and throw it into the Euphrates? For as the words of the
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Lord, so also are his works. What he said he will do.
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Did God actually say this would happen? Yes. And it was read and it was sunk in the river.
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Babylon will surely sink as well. Babylon would not have the last word. God would have the last word.
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And long before the pubescent snark of the mic drop, here is the gut -quivering terror of the scroll drop and the ripples of faith that are built into God's people from this one splash would reach forward 50 years to the banks of fulfillment.
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Babylon was big. God was bigger. And there was no escaping
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God, and there is no escaping God, and there will be no escaping God. Among the many attributes and characteristics of God, which are praiseworthy and glorious, that he is omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent, that he is immeasurable, immense, and free, that he is good and holy and perfect and true, there is this as well.
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He is inevitable. Everyone must deal with God and his word. There is never any successful avoidance of God.
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There is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
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The Lord's vengeful purposes reveals the glory of Christ. You know, this whole matter of good over evil is resolved, and it is resolved as all of God's enemies are made a footstool for Christ's feet.
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And why is this the case? Because he is the King of kings, and he is the Lord of lords, and he will bring
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God's vengeance upon all of his enemies. And so it is that the entire stock of our worry, and boy are we stocked well today, we may have more worry in our pantries than food.
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The entire stock of our worry must be replaced with an arsenal of worship.
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And here's a beginning replacement. And we'll close with this. Psalm 2.
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Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the
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Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.
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He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them, and then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury, saying, but as for me,
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I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the
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Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will surely give you the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession.
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You shall break them with a rod of iron. You will shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore,
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O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the
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Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the son that he not become angry and you perish in the way.
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For his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in these verses from Jeremiah to remind us of your sovereignty and your anger, but also your goodness, your holiness, your truth.
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Help us to replace our worry with worship as we consider how great you are.
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We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen and amen.
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Would you stand as we say our benediction? Oh, how good is the word of God.
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Oh, may the love of the father and the grace of the son and the fellowship of the