Sunday Morning, July 12, 2020, AM

All right.

Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. All right.

We're all awake, right? Want to welcome you to Sunnyside Baptist Church for worship this morning.

We're glad you're here with us. Announcements to get started this morning. A few opportunities this week.

Come back tonight for the evening service tonight. I want to make a special note. Michael is going to be starting a new series tonight entitled

The Men of Issachar. We all need understanding of the times.

So this comes from specifically First Chronicles chapter 12 verse 32.

This is in a section talking about David and his mighty men taking over from Saul the kingdom of Israel.

In verse 32, it says of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times to know what

Israel ought to do to under chiefs and all their kinsmen under their command.

So there's lots going on in the world. It's Michael's hope and our hope that this study that he's going to start tonight will give us understanding of the times.

Also, later this week on Wednesday, Bible study and prayer. That's at 6 .30 p .m.

And then looking ahead, truth group for the young adults. That's July 26th, 2020.

And then Wednesday, July 29th, flock meetings. Those will be going on there at the end of the month.

No flock meetings. Okay. No flock meetings. So we will do those another time. Fighter verse for this week comes from the

Psalms, Psalm 34, 6 through 8. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his trouble.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the

Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. So good verses to meditate on and memorize this week.

The offering plate is still at the back of the table. So remember to give your tithes and offerings back there. Any other announcements before we get started this morning?

All right. It's good to be together to worship. We're going to prepare our hearts for worship. And then after,

Dwight will pray for us. Stand with me for our call to worship together.

Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 44. We'll be reading verses 6 through 8.

Read with me together. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.

But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us.

In God we have boasted continually and we will give thanks to your name forever.

Our first song this morning is crown him with many crowns. Page 234 in your hymnal.

Scripture reading this morning comes from the book of Deuteronomy in the

Old Testament. Deuteronomy chapter 11. We'll be starting in verse 18 and reading through the end of the chapter.

So Deuteronomy chapter 11, starting in verse 18. This is the word of the

Lord. You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the

Lord swore to your fathers to give as long as the heavens are above the earth.

For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the

Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the

Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the

Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. No one shall be able to stand against you.

The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread as he promised you.

See, I'm setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you obey the commandments of the

Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the

Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today to go after other gods that you have not known.

And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, going toward the going down of the sun in the land of the

Canaanites who live in the Ereba opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Mora?

For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

And when you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.

May God bless the reading of his word. Would you pray with me this morning? Lord, we thank you for this word from you through Moses to your people.

Lord, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ who fulfilled and kept every command to the praise of your glory, to reveal righteousness, to be the one who has fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law.

Lord, we know that we by nature are not command keepers, but we are law breakers.

And so we look to Jesus. He is our righteousness.

He is our hope. Lord, we pray that as redeemed people by faith in Christ, the

Lord, you would quicken our hearts to love you, to walk in your ways, not for our glory, but for your sake, for the glory of your kingdom and to exalt

Jesus Christ as savior and Lord. Lord, may we during the days that you give us here on this earth, may we dwell faithfully in the land that you have given to us.

May we exalt Christ above all things. Thank you for your goodness and mercy.

Thank you for your loving kindness and faithfulness. We give you praise and glory and honor in Jesus name.

Amen. You may be seated. Brother Ken was praying.

We are here to exalt the name of the Lord Jesus. And he is our hope in life and death.

And our worth is in him. He has fallen creatures in sin.

He has, as a Christian, he has saved us. He's renewed us, regenerated us, made us alive in him.

And we can rejoice in that. Our next two songs together, was there's a paper that was out on the road, the auditorium there.

If you pick that up, is our two songs, our Christ, our hope in life and death. And my worth is not in what

I own. Oh, sing hallelujah.

Our hope's praise eternal. Oh, sing hallelujah.

We confess Christ. Unto the grave what shall we sing?

Christ he lives. Christ he lives. Christ he lives.

Then sin and death will be destroyed. And we will praise him still.

Our hope's praise eternal. Oh, sing hallelujah.

Now and ever we confess Christ, our hope in life and death.

Oh, sing hallelujah. Our hope's praise eternal.

Oh, sing hallelujah. Now and ever we confess

Christ, our hope in life and death. Now and ever we confess

Christ, our hope in life and death.

But in the blood of Christ and Lord, and the cross,

I sing my soul is satisfied in him alone.

As summer flowers we fade and die.

Fame, youth, and beauty we buy. But life eternal falls to us at the cross.

I will not boast in wealth or might, or human wisdom's meeting light.

But I will boast in knowing Christ in Christ.

I rejoice in my Redeemer, the greatest treasure, the wellspring of my soul.

I will trust in him no other. My soul is satisfied in him alone.

Two wonders here that I confess, my worth and my unworthiness.

My value fixed, my ransom paid at the cross.

I rejoice in my Redeemer, the greatest treasure, the wellspring of my soul.

I will trust in him no other. My soul is satisfied in him alone.

I rejoice in my Redeemer, the greatest treasure, the wellspring of my soul.

I will trust in him no other. My soul is satisfied in him alone.

I invite you to open your

Bibles and turn with me to Jeremiah 48. Jeremiah 48, we'll be reading verses 26 through 35 in a moment.

Jeremiah 48, and we're reading verses 26 through 35.

Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for gathering us together on this day. I thank you for the way that you love us, the way that you keep your promises, that all of your promises are yes in Christ.

I pray that you would put our attention upon him today, that we would rejoice in him as our king, as our savior, as the ruler of the kings of the earth.

We know that in his hands, in his hands we may safely leave our questions, our concerns, our protests, and our hope.

I pray this morning that as we look at this oracle of judgment upon the nation of Moab, that you will remind us of our great need for a savior, that you will help us to see afresh the world in which we live through your eyes, that we would think your thoughts after you, that we would live as the amen on earth of your will, which is in heaven.

We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Jeremiah 48 is an oracle of judgment against Moab.

And I hope that through our time here this morning, you may become a little bit more familiar with Moab. But it is part of that section here at the end of Jeremiah, which is simply international fire and sovereign brimstone, into which the judgment of Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem, is placed into its proper context of God bringing a sweeping judgment across all of the nations in that time.

And ultimately, bringing judgment upon the very nation he used as his instrument of judgment,

Babylon itself. Jeremiah 25 is a seminal chapter in the book in which we are reminded the word of the

Lord came to Jeremiah and said, Go and speak to the people, to the nations, and say,

Thus saith the Lord, Nebuchadnezzar is in charge. He has the power over all these lands, over your cities, over these nations.

And all who will submit to him and refuse to rebel against him, they will be spared. But everybody who rebels against Nebuchadnezzar, God says,

I personally will end you through sword, through the famine, through the pestilence.

I will end you if you rebel against my servant Nebuchadnezzar. It was

Baruch's responsibility to write that out, Jeremiah's scribe. We talked about his feeling sorry for himself in chapter 45 of Jeremiah.

And now, verses 46 through 51, we have an extended, more detailed look at God's judgment upon the nations, briefly mentioned in chapter 25.

So I invite you to stand with me. I'm going to read a portion of our text this morning, verses 26 through 35.

This is the word of the Lord. Make him drunk, for he has become arrogant toward the

Lord. So Moab will wallow in his vomit, and he also will become a laughingstock.

Now, was not Israel a laughingstock to you, or was he caught among thieves?

For each time you speak about him, you shake your head in scorn. Leave the cities and dwell among the crags,

O inhabitants of Moab, and be like a dove that nests beyond the mouth of the chasm. We have heard of the pride of Moab.

He is very proud of his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance, and his self -exaltation.

I know his fury, declares the Lord, but it is futile. His idle boasts have accomplished nothing.

Therefore, I will wail for Moab, even for all Moab. I will cry out, I will moan for the men of Kir Heretz, more than the weeping for Jaser.

I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah. Your tendrils stretched across the sea, they reach to the sea of Jaser.

Upon your summer fruits and your grape harvest, the destroyer has fallen. So gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field, even from the land of Moab.

And I have made the wine to cease. From the wine presses, no one will tread them with shouting.

The shouting will not be shouts of joy. From the outcry at Heshbon, even to Elieleh, even to Jehaz, they have raised their voice.

From Zoar, even to Horonayim, and to Elgath -Sheleshiah, even for the waters of Nimrim will become desolate.

I will make an end of Moab, declares the Lord, the one who offers sacrifice.

On the high place, and the one who burns incense to his gods.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Once upon a time, there was a man named

Lot. Lot was the nephew of Abraham. Lot chose to live in Sodom, a city so infamous for their sexual abominations that their legacy remains today in modern language.

Sodomy, Sodomite. And on the eve of God's fire and brimstone, two angels came to town to see if there were even ten righteous folk worth sparing the city.

Lot took them in for the night. And because angels look like men, the Sodomites came like an

Antipha riot and demanded their equal opportunity to rape Lot's guests. When Lot protested against their demands, they immediately condemned his hate speech.

When Lot nobly offered his two daughters as an alternative fresh meat to these dogs, they rushed him.

The angels rescued Lot, blinded the eyes of the rioters, and tried to get Lot and his family to leave town the next morning.

Lot hesitated, not wishing to leave behind his beloved city so full of artistic culture and rich diversity.

The angels dragged Lot, his wife, and his two daughters out of the city for the text tells us the mercy of God was upon him.

As the fire and brimstone fell upon Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, Lot's wife looked behind her, pining for the pagan beauty being laid waste, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

Lot and his two daughters ended up hiding in a cave in the mountains. And these women had never married.

They'd almost been murdered by gang rapists with their father's blessing. And now it looked like they would die without ever having children.

Thankfully, living in paganism had taught them sexual problem -solving, so each in turn they got their father drunk and committed incest so as to impregnate themselves.

They both bore sons, and the eldest daughter named her son Moab. His name literally means from her father, meaning

Moab means incest, Moab means sexual perversion. Thus is the beginning of Moab.

We catch up to these Moabites, and from Genesis 19 we go to Numbers 22 through 25.

Balak, the king of Moab, wants to curse Israel, and so he hires a mercenary prophet by the name of Balaam.

Things just don't work out, so he begins to move Balaam from mountaintop to mountaintop, thinking that if he could just have a varied perspective on the situation, looking from different angles and different points of view, finally some kind of curse would take place.

It doesn't pan out, and so Balaam and Balak conspire together to ensnare the Israelites with cult prostitutes of Baal of Peor.

See, if God would not curse the Israel through Balaam, then the demons would do just as well.

The Moabite women seduced many Israelite men by inviting them to worship Baal through adulterous acts, and only the severe judgment of God, expressed through his zealous worshippers, was able to put a stop to the whole matter by killing everyone involved.

Moab plays a villain's role throughout the history of Israel and Judah. They are often subdued and pay tribute to God's people, but they have long been free from such influences by the time we come to Jeremiah 48.

They, in fact, have been helping Babylon as mercenaries to raid Judea and Jerusalem and were instrumental in bringing down King Jehoiakim.

They are idolatrists, of course, and their idolatry has morphed over the years, and they now worship a god named

Chemosh, an idol named Chemosh, sometimes named Ashtor Chemosh.

The second designation proves consistent with their sexually perverse history. Ashtoreth is a

Canaanite goddess who is highly sexualized, but when linguistic analysis is done of the extant

Moabite writings, it appears that Ashtoreth is either masculinized or simply compounded with the name

Chemosh. Perhaps it is unsurprising that a nation born out of sexual perversion ends up worshiping a transgender gender -fluid idol.

Oh, and what did this abomination demand on his, her, its altar? Child sacrifice.

As we see from Jeremiah 48 and other passages, and especially as we were reading through, I think you heard verse 29, we have heard of the pride of Moab.

He is very proud of his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance, and his self -exaltation.

How many times do you have to say that there's pride? It's interesting that this is not the only passage.

There are other passages, such as in Isaiah, that say that the operative word that described this sexually perverse nation was pride.

If there was a way to sum up the sexual perversity of Moab, it was pride.

Solomon told us there's nothing new under the sun. Pride month is weak tea compared to the wine of Moab.

But all such pride engenders the holy wrath of God. So now as we come to our passage, we must understand that this oracle of judgment is against Moab.

The oracle is composed in seven uneven strophes, seven uneven portions that are indicated by grammatical notes in the text that are kind of lost on us

English reading folks. But I've organized the seven sub -points accordingly to keep with the structure of the text.

And there's three main themes in this oracle of judgment. As Jeremiah takes upon the position of a lamenter surveying the judgment of God against the pride of Moab, we see that this pride manifests in three themes, which will be our main points this morning.

There is the destruction of Moab's cities. There is the dissipation of Moab's prosperity. And there is the debasing of Moab's idolatry.

And as we read through, you'll be able to tell that all seven strophes of this lament deal with those three themes.

But they are emphasized here and there, and so we'll do our best to walk through it.

The message I think that we are meant to receive from this chapter is simply this, that God judges the pride of man to manifest the glory of Christ.

God judges the pride of man to manifest the glory of Christ. We begin with the destruction of cities.

We see this in the first and third strophes, verses 1 through 8 and verses 16 through 25.

We have been talking a great deal about the destruction of cities in the book of Jeremiah.

It's hard to move from one chapter to the next without hearing about some city that is going to be destroyed.

A few years ago, it was popular to tweet something to this effect, the scriptures clearly teach that God has a heart for cities.

The scriptures clearly teach that God has a heart for cities, which

I think meant that the urbanized church full of urbanites who knew urbanese and loved the urbanity of the urban really got

God's heart. Suburbanites and ruralarians just did not love Jesus as much, if at all, and I think

I'm making up words at this point. But I thought I would bring it up because as we're going through Jeremiah, I just noticed how many cities just get wiped out, how many cities are destroyed.

And some of us might be suffering from evangelical cognitive dissonance, saying, well,

God has a heart for cities, why is he doing this? We do see God's heart for cities here in Jeremiah 48, but it is the same heart that he has for suburban

Tel Aviv and the rural Gobi Desert and for small towns in the Horn of Africa and for villages in Honduras.

It is the exact same heart in every social context.

And why is that? Romans 2 .11 says, for there is no partiality with God.

There is no partiality with God. And when you compare that with the unchangeableness of God, we understand that God will always judge in accordance with his holiness impartially.

So let's consider how Moab suffers loss. Moab suffers loss of praise and loss of power in the destruction of his cities.

A lament rises up for all that is lost in their overthrow, but these cities were the pillars of Moab's pride, and so they must come down.

Notice the loss of praise in the first eight verses. Concerning Moab, thus says the

Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Woe to Nebo, for it has been destroyed. Kiriathayim has been put to shame.

It has been captured. The lofty stronghold has been put to shame and shattered. There is praise for Moab no longer.

In Heshbon they have devised calamity against her. Come, let us cut her off from being a nation.

You too, madmen, will be silenced. The sword will follow after you. The sound of an outcry from Horanaim, devastation and great destruction.

Moab is broken. Her little ones have sounded a cry of distress. For by the ascent of Luhith, they will ascend with continual weeping.

For at the descent of Horanaim, they have heard the anguished cry of destruction. Flee, save your lives, that you may be like a juniper in the wilderness.

For because of your trust in your own achievements and treasures, even you yourself will be captured.

And Chemosh will go off into exile together with his priests and his princes. A destroyer will come to every city so that no city will escape.

The valley also will be ruined and the plateau will be destroyed as the Lord has said.

The cities of Moab are slated for destruction. Nebo, Kiriathayim, Madmen, Horanaim, Luhith.

No city will escape. In fact, it says the Lord appoints a special destroyer for each city.

Not one will be overlooked. They may be in the valley, they may be on the plateau, they may be nestled into the corner of a mountain, but they will all be destroyed.

Moab's boasting their international fame, the praise once offered up for Moab's glory.

All of this is silenced and replaced with the wailing outcry of her perishing cities.

And we hear the mourning of the exiles, the survivors. And then there's this word coming from the

Lord through his prophet, saying, flee, save your lives, that you may be like a juniper in the wilderness.

But what kind of hope is that? The same kind of expression is used in chapter 17 of Jeremiah. And it envisions a barren tree that cannot grow to any significant size because it is in a dry wilderness, not very cherished by rain, very little moisture around, just a weed in the rocks.

That is the debasement we see for Moab. From a great nation with their cities where they have lush vineyards to just a scraggly old tree in the wilderness.

You see that image of humbling, how much they have lost. They're not praiseworthy anymore after destruction.

You notice in verse 7 that the other two themes of this chapter are mentioned, prosperity and idolatry.

But it is important to remember that these Moabite glories rested upon the pillars of the

Moabite cities. Their prosperity depended on their cities. And the worship of their idols depended upon their cities.

And once the cities are done away with, the wealth, the religion, the whole culture will fail.

There's nothing left, therefore, for the Moabites to be proud of. Nothing left to praise about Moab.

She boasted in her cities, now they're gone. She's lost her praise. The third strophe also speaks about the cities.

And we see her loss of power. Not just that she loses her praise, but she also loses her power as a nation as the cities are destroyed.

Beginning in verse 16. This is the third strophe of the oracle. The disaster of Moab will soon come, and his calamity has swiftly hastened.

Mourn for him, all you who live around him, even all of you who know his name.

Say, how has the mighty scepter been broken? A staff of splendor.

Come down from your glory and sit on the parched ground, O daughter dwelling in Dibon. For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you.

He has ruined your strongholds. Stand by the road and keep watch, O inhabitant of Orer.

Ask him who flees and her who escapes and say, what has happened? Moab has been put to shame, for it has been shattered.

Wail and cry out. Declare by the Arnon that Moab has been destroyed. Judgment has also come upon the plain, upon Holon, Jaxa, and against Methphoth.

Against Dibon, Nebo, and Beth Deblathim. Against Cariathim, Beth Gumal, and Beth Mion.

Against Carioth, Bozrah, and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near.

The horn of Moab has been cut off, and his arm broken, declares the

Lord. In this text, we hear a lament in which exiles from cities are asking refugees on the road about the latest news on which city has lately been destroyed, which stronghold has just fallen.

None of the news is good. And as Moab's cities fall one by one, so their power disappears.

And so Moab as a nation is shamed, shattered, and destroyed. Moab's power is lost.

There's two images in this strophe, one early, one late, which speaks about the loss of power.

You see there in verse 17, about a mighty scepter and a staff of splendor. And you see there in verse 25, the horn of Moab and his arm.

And we're told that this scepter and this staff has been broken.

And we're told that this horn or this arm has been cut off, has been broken.

The idea is that the power of Moab is over. The scepter or the staff speaks to Moab's ability to self -rule, to exercise authority and governance within their own lands, the scepter and the staff.

And then the horn or the arm speaks to their ability to defend themselves and maintain the integrity of their borders.

Now notice that both forms of power are broken. Both forms of power are broken as their cities fall, and thus

God is judging her pride. Her pride fell when she lost her praise and lost her power as her cities are destroyed.

God judges the pride of man to manifest the glory of Christ. It is interesting that throughout the course of redemptive history, as you read your

Bibles, every city of significance to the biblical story has been judged by God.

Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, Memphis, Jericho, Damascus, Nineveh, Babylon, Rome, many others we might name, but of course

Jerusalem, which gets destroyed twice. And why does God do this?

God judges the pride of man in his cities to manifest the glory of Christ in his city.

You see, if we remain prideful in our social engineering, if we remain prideful in our civil governance, our cooperative application of resources, we might just get the idea that the solution to all of our problems is building, organizing, and flourishing in a city, a monument to man's achievements.

God is saying, chuck your pride. Chuck your pride. Let us rather look for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is

God. Let us desire a better country, a heavenly one, as God is not ashamed to be called our

God, for he has prepared a city for us. Great is the

Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, his holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is

Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king. God in her palaces has made himself known as a stronghold.

And if indeed you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, our free mother, the heavenly

Jerusalem, it is because you have come to Christ, who is the mediator of a new covenant.

It is his city which is glorious and praiseworthy and powerful.

Rather than be proud of the man -shaped glories in our cities, lest we fear them in worship, lest we trust them as saviors, lest we bow to them as masters, how should we operate?

Hebrews 13 tells us that we should avoid false teachings, shun pointless holiness codes, rejoice in the sacrifice of our

Savior Jesus Christ, remembering that he shed his blood for us. And in following Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we are bound to attract the unwelcome ire of city worshipers.

But what does the text say? Hebrews 13, 13. But let us go out to Christ, outside the camp, bearing his reproach.

Why? For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips which give thanks to his name.

And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

So we're instructed not to trust in cities, but to trust in Christ. Not to praise cities, but to praise

Christ. Not even to rely on cities, but to do good and share for the glory of God.

And as the pride of man is thus removed, the glory of Christ is then revealed.

Second theme is the dissipation of prosperity. Another reason for Moab's pride was how wealthy

Moab was. And in this text we see the dissipation of their prosperity. And this is found in Strophes 2 and 4.

So we'll read verses 9 through 15 in a moment. But as we think about this, as we read through these texts, we'll see more about her cities and be reminded of her worship of the false god

Chemosh. And the reason why is that these three strands are not easily broken.

The cities, the prosperity, and the idolatry were all tied together in the pride of Moab.

We saw back in verse 7 that Moab trusted in his treasures and in his achievements.

Where else would those achievements and treasures be deposited other than the cities?

So as the cities fall, so also does the prosperity. And as the dissipation of prosperity commences, there is further loss to Moab.

Moab loses independence and influence. We begin with the loss of independence in verses 9 through 15.

Give wings to Moab, for she will flee away, and her cities will become a desolation without inhabitants in them.

Cursed be the one who does the Lord's work negligently, and cursed be the one who restrains his sword from blood.

Moab has been at ease since his youth. He has also been undisturbed like wine on its dregs, and he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile.

Therefore he retains his flavor, and his aroma has not changed. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the

Lord, when I will send to him those who tip vessels, and they will tip him over, and they will empty his vessels and shatter his jars.

And Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence.

How can you say, we are mighty warriors and men valiant for battle?

Moab has been destroyed, and men have gone up to his cities. His choicest young men have also gone down to the slaughter, declares the king, whose name is the

Lord of hosts. In these verses, we hear of the loss of Moab's independence, as their prosperity, as their economy, is utterly destroyed.

God says that Moab is like an undisturbed, unfinished wine.

Moab has been from time to time the vassal of Israel and or Assyria, but they had never been wiped out.

They had never been taken into exile. They had enjoyed being kind of out of the way, not too closely supervised.

Their wealth had let them be independent. They had lived long in their land, and enjoyed a prosperous thriving trade in making wine, which is why we have this image applied to them.

Their process for making wine, of course, began with the cultivation, harvesting, and trodding of grapes.

The resulting foot -flavored sludge was then plopped into large storage jars, almost 10 gallons.

They would be sealed with some clay with a little hole left to bleed off the fermentation gases as the sugars in the grapes turned into alcohol.

These jars were left alone for about 40 days, and the wine was said to be laying with its dregs.

The next step was to strain the fermenting wine into smaller jars and store it in cellars until it was complete, and then poured carefully again into even smaller jars, and then it would be ready for market.

Now, God depicts Moab as the sludge in the first big jar. It has never been moved.

Moab has been laying with its dregs for the full amount of time, and now Babylon is coming for the next stage.

They're coming to tip the vessels. The idea is to pour the wine into the next set of containers.

Although when they get there, the Babylonian enologists take more of a prohibitionist approach and just smash everything in sight.

There would be no careful pouring, storage, or packaging. Moab would not be able to buy off the

Babylonian hordes with their wealth. They would not remain independent.

The one who commissions this thorough wasting of Moab's prosperity is not Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

It is the king whose name is the lord of hosts. He's the one who arranges for this destruction of Moab's economy.

And he says that allowing a drop of Moab wine to go to good use will incur God's wrath.

Verse 10 states, Meaning, God says to Babylon, I hired you for a thorough job.

The thorough dissipation of Moab's prosperity means the loss of her independence. She will not be able to control her wine production, her lands, or anything else.

She will be destroyed. This also involves the loss of her influence, which is the passage we read earlier, verses 26 through 35.

It begins this way. Make him drunk, for he has become arrogant toward the

Lord. So Moab will wallow in his vomit, and he will also become a laughingstock.

Now was not Israel a laughingstock to you? Or was he caught among thieves? For each time you speak about him, you shake your head in scorn.

Leave the cities and dwell among the crags, O inhabitants of Moab, and be like a dove that nests beyond the mouth of the chasm.

We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud of his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance, and his self -exaltation.

I know his fury, declares the Lord, but it is futile. His idle boasts have accomplished nothing.

Therefore I will wail for Moab. Even for all Moab I will cry out. I will moan for the men of Kir Heretz more than the weeping for Jaser.

I will weep for you, O vine of Sidma. Your tendrils stretched across the sea.

They reach to the sea of Jaser. Upon your summer fruits and your grape harvest, the destroyer has fallen.

So gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field, even from the land of Moab. And I have made the wine to cease from the wine presses.

No one will tread them with shouting. The shouting will not be shouts of joy. From the outcry at Heshbon, even to Elielah, even to Jahaz, they have raised their voice from Zoar, even to Horonaim, and to Eglath -Sheleshiah.

For even the waters of Nimrim will become desolate. I will make an end of Moab, declares the

Lord, the one who offers sacrifice on the high place, and the one who burns incense to his gods.

So the first portion of this fourth strophe, the middle strophe, envisions the humbling of the pride of Moab in vivid ways.

They are very proud. They even mock Israel as they see Israel overrun by their enemies.

They just shake their head and say, what fools, look at them go down. They mock Israel and they are very proud.

And they themselves, God says, will end up like doves hiding in the crags of the cliff face for safety.

All these who have trusted in their wine trade, which has made them rich, they have trusted in it so much that they are drunk with pride.

The humiliation will commence as they wallow in their drunken vomit. And the Hebrew word for wallow also means to clap the thigh, and it can envision grabbing the abdomen.

When you think about it, vomiting, the most violent of all of our involuntary bodily functions, makes a really great metaphor for describing judgment.

Because there's nothing arrogant, prideful, or glorious about vomiting. And this is the reason why

God uses this metaphor. And it goes with the fact that Moab makes wine and gets drunk on it.

The second portion of the strophe is all these different places, these rivers, these trade routes.

This is just following the money, following the money trail of the Moabite wineries.

Their vine stretches all the way to the coast through the King's Highway. Each trade center along the way will feel the financial loss as Moab's prosperity is dissipated.

No longer will Moab have influence in far off places. Their economy, which once demanded attention, will be utterly dismantled.

They were proud of their wealth. In their wealth, they had their independence.

In their wealth, they had their influence. But God judges the pride of men.

He judges them for their pride in wealth, dissipates the wealth, and humbles them.

Why does God judge the pride of man? To manifest the glory of Christ.

We have to be clear on these matters. Possessing wealth and possessing grandeur is not a sin.

Succumbing to the temptation to make wealth and grandeur about the self, trusting in it, boasting in it, rather than stewarding it for God's glory, that's where the sin is.

Two verses in Daniel chapter 4, only seven verses apart.

Very interesting. Here is the first verse, and it's the same person speaking both times.

Daniel 4 verse 30. Is this not Babylon the great, which

I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power for the glory of my majesty?

There's Nebuchadnezzar in verse 30 of Daniel 4. Now let's skip to verse 37 and hear what

Nebuchadnezzar says there. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the king of heaven for all his works which are true and his ways just, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride.

Now what happened between verse 30 and verse 37? Well, God humbled

Nebuchadnezzar and made him eat grass like a cow for seven years. He put him out to pasture.

He humbled him. His hair and his nails grew long and he wallowed about in the fields with the beasts for seven years.

And when it was all done, we see that God had judged Nebuchadnezzar and brought him low to teach him who he should glory in.

The God who owns everything. The fact that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon meant that he had a lot of responsibility stewarding the grandiose wealth that belonged to God, and he was accountable for how he stewarded it for the glory of God.

That's the way that Christ talks about wealth. You think of the parable of the talents.

How the master distributes his wealth unequally to his servants.

How God has distributed his wealth unequally in the world to his creatures.

And some have more than others, but all are called to steward what God has entrusted to them and to maximize it for the glory of the master, to the glory of the creator.

And those who would chafe against that sovereignty and those who would accuse

God of not being fair and equitable and perhaps steward what was entrusted to them in a very poor way will know the judgment of God.

In any case, we are to chuck our pride. The wealth isn't about us, it's about God and what we will do for him.

Thirdly is the debasing of idolatry, the last three strophes that we find in verses 36 through 47.

We've been hearing about Moab's idolatry all along. We hear that Chemosh will go off into exile.

I mean, someone's going to pick him up and carry him the whole way. He'll probably have to draw straws, and whoever gets the short straw will have the extra burden of toting him around, making sure that he can make it wherever they're going.

And we hear that Moab will actually be ashamed of how useless their god

Chemosh will prove in their time of need, verse 13. And we hear that God will judge

Moab for all of their idolatry and offering incense to their idols in verse 35.

Building on these judgments, we have more that is said. Verses 36 through 38, we hear of the devilish futility of idolatry.

Verses 36 through 38. Therefore my heart wails for Moab like flutes.

My heart also wails like flutes for the men of Kir Heretz. Therefore they have lost the abundance it produced.

For every head is bald and every beard cut short. There are gashes on all the hands and sackcloth and all the loins.

On all the housetops of Moab and in its streets there is lamentation everywhere.

For I have broken Moab like an undesirable vessel, declares the

Lord. The lament's volume is turned up as the prosperity that once flowed through the

Moabite cities is taken away. And we are taken from sound to sight as we soar over the people there in the land of Moab.

Look at them there on the housetops. See how they gather in the streets. Look how they act.

Perfect pagans. They shave their heads. They cut their beards. They gash themselves.

All things forbidden to God's people in the Levitical code because that was a form of idolatry.

That's how idolaters lamented. That's how idolaters worshipped.

They'd shave their heads and then they would cut their beards and then they would gash themselves.

And God said that's not how you, my people, will act. But here these Moabites are acting like perfect pagans.

Why do they display their shiny heads and their sad little beards and their bleeding hands on the rooftops and in all the streets?

Why do they do that? Because they are required to signal their virtue to their transgendered

God and their fluid -gendered goddess. If it ain't public, it ain't real in paganism.

Pagans must impress their gods and goddesses like those wailing, dancing, bleeding false prophets on Mount Carmel whom

Elijah gutted in the dry riverbed of Kishon. But this is devilish futility because no matter how many infants are slaughtered on Kimosh's altar, the hopelessness of their cities and the evanescence of their wealth can never be undone.

In our cities today, plenty of folks still sacrifice infants on the altar of sexual perversion and do so in the name of wealth equity while virtue signaling their faithfulness to the trans goddess of intersectionality.

It was devilry in Jeremiah's day, it's devilry in our day, and it brings damnation no matter what day it is.

Secondly, divine fury. Verses 39 through 44. How shattered, how shattered it is.

How they have wailed, how Moab has turned his back, he is ashamed. So Moab will become a laughing stock and an object of terror to all around him.

For thus says the Lord, behold, one will fly swiftly like an eagle and spread out his wings against Moab.

Kerioth has been captured and the strongholds have been seized. So the hearts of the mighty men of Moab in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

Moab will be destroyed from being a people because he has become arrogant toward the

Lord. Terror, pit and snare are coming upon you, O inhabitant of Moab, declares the

Lord. The one who flees from the terror will fall into the pit, and the one who climbs up out of the pit will be caught in the snare.

For I shall bring upon her, even upon Moab, the year of their punishment, declares the

Lord. Isn't it interesting that Moab does not need circumcision,

Sinai, the tabernacle, or Zion to be accountable before God? The Lord is

Moab's maker. And that nation is full of individuals who are full of pride.

And as God directs his divine fury against their nation, terror, pit and snare, one way or the other, he says,

Moab will be utterly punished. And so he sends the swift flying eagle of Babylon upon Moab.

Moab was once lofty and arrogant, but he will be made a laughing stock. He will be turned into a horror film.

All their strongest men will wail in helpless agony like a woman in labor. They will be unable to stand, unable to defend themselves.

The fire will burn, but no one will be able to put it out. This is verses 45 through 47.

In the shadow of Heshbon, the fugitives stand without strength. For a fire has gone forth from Heshbon and a flame from the midst of Sihon.

And it has devoured the forehead of Moab and the scalps of the riotous revelers.

Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished. For your sons have been taken away captive and your daughters into captivity.

Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the

Lord. Thus far, the judgment on Moab. So the people of Chemosh are done for, the people of this false god.

A devouring fire devours their land. Covered over with their burnt -over altars to their false god

Chemosh. All of this is undone. And then the Holy Spirit now brings forward two ancient prophecies concerning Moab.

And Jeremiah dutifully writes out Numbers chapter 21 verse 28 and Numbers chapter 24 verse 17.

And it is in the second quote that we come face to face with the conqueror of Moab.

Remember that this is out of the mercenary prophet Balaam's mouth.

But these are the words of the Lord as God sovereignly declares his truth. I see him, but not now.

I behold him, but not near. A star shall come forth from Jacob.

A scepter shall arise from Israel. And shall crush through the forehead of Moab.

And tear down all the sons of Sheth. The true conqueror of Moab is

Shiloh. The one to whom it all belongs. Including Moab. Moab also belongs to Shiloh.

Moab belongs to Christ. All things belong to Christ. All the nations have been given to Christ as an inheritance.

And he rules with a rod of iron. And from chapter 1 of Jeremiah, the whole point of plucking up and tearing down.

Is to plant and to build. There is hope for Moab in the latter days.

Why? Because the pride of Moab has fallen.

The cities have fallen. The prosperity has fallen. The idols have fallen.

Then there's hope. Then there's hope. God judges the pride of man to manifest the glory of Christ.

We see this most clearly at the cross of Jesus Christ. Why did Christ suffer upon the cross?

God made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf. That we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Look at our pride. Being judged by a holy

God at the cross. There our pride is judged.

There God's wrath is poured out against our arrogance. There Christ bears our transgressions.

Bears the stench of our pride. And dies in our place under the wrath of God for our sake.

And God judges the pride of man to manifest the glory of Christ. And raises him from the dead the third day.

That we might know new life in Christ. A life freed from the bondage to pride.

Freed from the enslavement to this kind of arrogance that we've looked at today.

In our chapter and in our world. This is hope filled. Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days declares the

Lord. When devils are damned, their vassals are freed. Let Kimosh be debased so that Christ be proclaimed.

The mockery and the debasing of idols. This is always in hope of salvation for those who are chained to these idols.

The latter days have come. We live in a time when there is abundant hope for Moabites.

Not just Ruth. Not just Ruth. But hope for all kinds of Moabites. There is hope.

Idol worshipping, city trusting, wealth loving, baby killing perverts have a savior.

And his name is Jesus Christ. He is the star of Jacob. He destroys the work of the devil.

He binds the strong man. He plunders his possessions. He raises the dead. He overthrows strongholds.

He forgives. He cleanses. He saves. And all who know him and love him and worship him become like him.

So will you chuck your pride. Chuck your pride. And trust in Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the truth of your word.

It is timeless. Lord, we know how you feel about all sorts of things we see today.

Because you have said how you feel about these very same things that have already been done before.

You are God and you do not change. We thank you that you are

Alpha and Omega. Who is and who was and who is to come. Help us to daily humble ourselves before you.

And rejoice in the wondrous salvation that you have given us in Jesus Christ.

We pray these things for his sake. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?

We are going to sing the first verse of Christ our hope in life and death. What is our hope in life and death?

O praise the Lord. O sing alleluia.