Sunday Morning, August 2, 2020, AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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August 3, 2020

Michael Dirrim Pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church OKC Sunday Morning, August 2, 2020, AM "Vengeance Is Mine..”

00:05: Good morning,
00:52: Sunnyside. Hope everybody's doing well. We're glad that you can be here to worship with us this morning.
00:59: Few announcements as we get started this morning. Some opportunities this week. Come back for evening service tonight.
01:06: That starts at 530. There is no nursery, just kind of a note there.
01:11: Michael will be continuing in this series, Sons of Issachar out of Deuteronomy chapter 16 tonight.
01:17: Also Wednesday, 630, Bible study and prayer time, no nursery, but that does start back up in September.
01:25: Our fighter verse for this week comes from the Psalms. Psalm 34, verses 15 and 16.
01:33: The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the
01:39: Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
01:46: So it's a good verse to memorize this week. Offering plate is still on the back table.
01:51: Also, the nursery is available this morning. Operation Christmas Child is still coming up. Christmas is still on the way.
01:58: It's 2020, which is crazy, but Christmas has still not been canceled, okay? So with that being said, a lot of times,
02:07: Operation Christmas Child, school supplies and things are good to put in those Christmas shoe boxes for kids.
02:13: Sales are going on now, so this would be a perfect opportunity for that. The sewing ministry is also mentioned, needing like scrap pieces of flannel and some medium to large size buttons.
02:24: So if you have those rattling around in drawers, let Loretta, Patty or Barbara know about that.
02:31: Few recognitions wanna make this morning. First, just wanna thank Norm for his continued service to the church and keeping our grounds and yards looking nice.
02:43: If you see him, thank him, give him a fist bump. And then also
02:48: Andrew Hudson just made Master Sergeant. So we want to congratulate him for that as well.
02:58: We are so blessed to have so many people and brothers and sisters who are gifted in so many areas, and we're so thankful for their service.
03:06: Any other announcements that I'm missing this morning? All right. Well, we are going to prepare our hearts for worship now, and then afterwards,
03:16: Brian will lead us in prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, we come to you this day desiring to worship you, desiring to have you teach us through the preaching and through the music and through the word.
05:23: May our lives glorify you this day and the next and the next.
05:33: Our hearts have gratitude for the grace and the mercy, the provision, the protection, the joy, the peace that we have in your son,
05:48: Christ. What a blessing. And we ask this in his name, amen.
05:59: Good morning, Sunnyside. Ask you to stand as we read our call to worship.
06:10: And this comes from Psalm 45 verses three through five. Gird your sword on your thigh, oh mighty one, in your splendor and majesty.
06:25: In your majesty, ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness.
06:35: Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemy.
06:44: The people's fall under you. Our first song together will be,
06:51: Oh, How Good It Is. Hopefully you have that song sheet that's a
06:57: Getty's piece. And after that, James will come to read to us from Deuteronomy.
07:05: ♪ Oh, how good it is, oh, how good it is ♪ ♪
07:15: Oh, how good it is, oh, how good it is ♪ ♪ Oh, how good it is when the family of God ♪ ♪
07:23: Calls together in spirit and faith and unity ♪ ♪
07:29: The gods of peace, of acceptance and love ♪ ♪
07:36: And the truth of his presence near among us ♪
07:41: So with one voice we'll sing to the
07:48: Lord, and with one heart we'll live out
07:54: His word. The whole world sees the Redeemer has come, for He dwells in the presence of His people.
08:11: How good it is, on this journey we share, to rejoice with the happy.
08:21: And we were those who mourned, for the weak find strength.
08:28: The afflicted find grace, when we offer the blessing of belonging.
08:37: So with one voice we'll sing to the
08:42: Lord, and with one heart we'll live out
08:48: His word. The whole world sees the Redeemer has come, for He dwells in the presence of His people.
09:06: Oh, how good it is to embrace
09:11: His command, to refer one another, forgive as He forgives.
09:20: When we live as one, we share in the love of the
09:27: Son with the Father and the Spirit.
09:33: So with one voice we'll sing to the
09:39: Lord, and with one heart we'll live out
09:46: His word. The whole world sees the
09:51: Redeemer has come, for He dwells in the presence of His people.
10:34: Let's turn to God's word, Deuteronomy 13, and we'll read the whole chapter.
10:54: If a prophet or a dreamer dreams among you, arises among you, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true concerning which he spoke to you, saying,
11:05: Let us go after other gods whom you have not known, and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the
11:14: Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11:20: You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him, and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve
11:25: Him, and cling to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the
11:33: Lord your God, who has brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the
11:40: Lord your God commanded you to walk, so you shall purge the evil from among you. If your brother, your mother's son, or your son's daughter, or the wife you cherish, or the friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying,
11:57: Let us go and serve other gods whom neither you nor your fathers have known, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end.
12:09: You shall not yield to him or listen to him, and your eyes shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him, but you shall surely kill him.
12:17: Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
12:22: So you shall stone him to death, because he has sought to seduce you from the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
12:31: Then all Israel will hear, and will be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.
12:38: If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your
12:43: God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that some worthless men have gone out from among you, and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying,
12:53: Let us go and serve other gods, whom you have not known. Then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly.
13:01: If it is true, and the matter is established that this abomination has been done among you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it, its cattle with the edge of the sword.
13:17: Then you shall gather all its booty in the middle of its open square, and burn the city and all its booty with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the
13:27: Lord your God. And it shall be a ruin forever, it shall never be rebuilt. Nothing from that which is put under the ban shall cling to your hand, in order that the
13:36: Lord may turn from his burning anger, and show mercy to you, and have compassion on you, and make you increase, just as he has sworn to your fathers.
13:46: If you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments which I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the
13:54: Lord your God. Let's pray.
14:04: Heavenly Father, I'm so grateful to again be in the presence of your people. Thank you that we're able to meet like this.
14:13: I just pray that you'll be with us as we learn from the things you've told to Michael this week.
14:20: I pray that you will give him the strength and the determination that he needs to deliver what you laid on his heart.
14:28: I just pray that you'll be with us today. In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated.
14:39: We're going to sing three songs today. Be Exalted, O God.
14:48: And then I'll worship the King. And then we'll do the chorus of He is
14:56: Lord. I will give thanks to thee,
15:17: O Lord, among the people.
15:22: I will sing praises to thee among the nations.
15:34: For thy steadfast love is great, and thy faith to the heavens.
15:45: And thy faithfulness to the clouds.
15:55: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
16:10: Be exalted,
16:21: O God, above the heavens.
16:27: Let thy glory be over all the earth.
16:48: King of glory, sing his wonderful love.
17:02: Our shield and defender, the ancient of days.
17:11: Pavilioned in splendor, and adorned with praise.
17:20: O tell of his might, O sing of his grace.
17:26: Whose robe is the light, whose canopy's grace.
17:34: His chariot's self -wrapped, the deep thunder -clothed form.
17:41: And dark is his path on the wings of the storm.
17:50: By bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
17:58: It breathes in the air, it shines in the light.
18:06: It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain.
18:13: And sweetly distills through the dew and the rain.
18:23: Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail.
18:31: In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail.
18:38: Thy mercies, thou tender, thou firm to the end.
18:47: Our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend.
18:58: Then we'll sing the chorus twice through of He is Lord. He is
19:28: Lord. Every knee shall bow.
19:40: Every tongue confess.
19:45: That Jesus Christ is
19:53: Lord. He is
19:59: Lord. He is
20:06: Lord. He is risen from the dead.
20:15: And He is Lord. Every knee shall bow.
20:29: Every tongue confess.
20:34: That Jesus Christ is
20:43: Lord. He is alive forevermore.
21:46: That our life is in Him. I thank you that He reigns from your right hand. And He will reign until all of His enemies are made a footstool for His feet.
21:57: I thank you, Father, that all of your promises are yes in Christ.
22:04: And I pray that you would put our attention upon Him today. Father, we have many burdens and many concerns.
22:12: And they're filling up our hearts. And we need wisdom. We need faith. We need to know what is right and holy in your sight.
22:22: And, Lord, as your children, we know that you know best.
22:29: Help us to submit to your authority, to submit to your word. Help us to obey with joy in a way that would honor you.
22:37: Help us to worship you today, fearing you rather than men. We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen.
22:44: I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 51. Jeremiah 51.
22:49: We'll be reading verses 53 through 58 in a moment.
22:55: Jeremiah chapter 51. I'll be reading verses 53 through 58.
23:01: But we're going to look at verses 11 through 64. Now, from the first chapter of Jeremiah, from the very beginning of this book, we have been told about the kingdom from the north, the army that is coming that would destroy the nations.
23:21: And, in fact, all the nations, including Babylon, that would be judged.
23:27: We were told this from the very beginning, from chapter 1. And the many oracles of God's judgment against his own people are all set in the context of his international fire and sovereign brimstone.
23:44: God brought judgment upon all of these different nations, including Judah, and he used Babylon to do it.
23:50: He used Babylon as the cup of the wine of his wrath to cause the nations to drink it so that they would go drunk, staggering mad.
24:01: And now here in chapters 51, we are given an oracle of judgment against Babylon, a scroll in which we read of God's intention to glorify himself in the destruction of Babylon.
24:20: When the dust settles, God's glories in Christ are revealed through the successful resolution of God's vengeful purposes.
24:33: And that's what verses 11 through 64 in Jeremiah 51 are all about.
24:38: They're about the vengeance of God and how that is a message of hope for God's people.
24:47: So let me read for us. If you'll stand with me, I'm going to read Jeremiah 51 verses 53 through 58.
24:54: This is the word of the Lord. Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens, and though she should fortify her lofty stronghold, from me destroyers will come to her, declares the
25:08: Lord. The sound of an outcry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the
25:14: 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.
25:24: The tumult of their voices sounds forth, for the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men will be captured, their bows are shattered.
25:35: For the 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
25:51: King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. Thus says the
25:57: Lord of hosts, the broad wall of Babylon will be completely razed, and her high gates will be set on fire, so the peoples will toil for nothing, and the nations become exhausted only for fire.
26:13: These are the words of the Lord. You may be seated. Well, last week has been interesting.
26:37: We have insurgents assaulting federal property and agents, lawlessness increasing in many cities, the harbinger of COVID haunting every decision made, apparently racism is a health crisis, major criminal investigations crowd each other for attention on the news, truth -telling is hate speech, and lying is the new bottled water.
26:57: It's cheap everywhere and transparent. The solution for all of these problems, everyone's offering their own one -size -fits -all solution.
27:08: What is the solution? Well, I guess we could print more money and hand it around, you know, like coloring sheets to rambunctious kids in the pews.
27:16: I like kids in the pews, but coloring sheets don't fix everything, and neither does printing more money.
27:23: Well, I know, a presidential election, that'll solve everything. That'll settle everybody down. No? Okay, we can start sports and school back up, because further indoctrination will improve our spirits.
27:35: No? Well, surely the Pentagon's findings on alien spacecraft will unite everybody in brotherly,
27:43: I mean sisterly, I mean non -gender -specific solidarity. I don't think any of the solutions are really solutions.
27:50: What is the solution for man's chaos? What is the solution for man's chaos?
28:01: Jesus says, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel.
28:09: The choices have always been Christ or chaos. They have always been those two choices.
28:16: It's either Christ or it's chaos. And man, including us, man must come to grips with the glory of God in the face of Christ.
28:28: That's the answer. And the current message we're reading in Jeremiah chapters 50 and 51, this one scroll that was composed all at once, and sent off to Babylon to be read to the exiles there, and deposited there as a matter of faith, this message we're reading was written in difficult times, and was written for even more difficult times.
28:49: It was written during the last decade before the destruction of Jerusalem. It was read to the exiles who had already, some of them had already been taken to Babylon.
28:57: But the information here, the information here was to stabilize and direct the hearers in Jeremiah's day, and those who would come after him for 50 years.
29:12: For 50 years. This oracle of judgment against Babylon is actually one we are in need of hearing, of accepting, and believing.
29:24: What do idolaters and insurgents need? What do times of instability and insanity need?
29:32: God gives his word. And this word not only explains the chaos of the times, but actually draws attention of the people to himself, to his glories, to his powerful, just, saving authority.
29:49: All of the fallout and the failures, the chaos of the times, the tumult and the transitions, all of this unsettledness was not to be understood as the mere accident of politics, or the unhappy amalgamation of chemical brain fizz.
30:10: It was a supernatural disaster. Supernatural disaster. It was the judgment of God.
30:18: God rode herd on every raging bull, and not one steer went astray.
30:24: The Lord reveals his purpose of vengeance, this was all his doing, and in so doing he reveals his glory.
30:33: The revealed glory of God is what was needful to the Jews still living in Jerusalem, with Jeremiah, and those who were abroad in exile in Babylon.
30:43: What did they need to know? They needed to know that vengeance was the Lord's and he would repay. That's what they needed to know.
30:51: And that's what we need to know. We need to know the glories of God. We need the glories of Christ.
30:57: It is the glories of Christ that spells out deliverance from idolatry, deliverance from the fear of man, deliverance from bitterness, deliverance from enslavement to sin, deliverance from trusting in ourselves, deliverance from a thousand ailments.
31:17: And these glories of Christ so desperately needed to heal and nourish and guide and sustain and deliver on 4K display in the
31:26: Lord's purposes of vengeance. The Lord's vengeful purpose reveals the glories of Christ.
31:33: First of all, the Lord's power as creator. We see this especially in verses 12 through 16.
31:39: Verse 11 really sets the theme of the whole rest of the scroll. Look with me at verse 11.
31:47: Sharpen the arrows. Fill the quivers. The Lord has aroused the spirit of the kings of the
31:56: Medes because His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it, for it is the vengeance of the
32:04: Lord, vengeance for His temple. And everything else that follows is understood by that heading.
32:14: God is raising up the Medes, who were known for their skill in bow making and archery and warfare.
32:22: He's raising them up to be His new instrument of judgment and His target is Babylon. He says,
32:28: I am taking vengeance upon Babylon, vengeance for my temple. And so throughout the rest of the chapter, we read about how that's going to transpire.
32:39: The assault on Babylon by the Medes is not to be assessed by God's people from a socio -political standpoint, but from a theological standpoint.
32:50: This was God's purpose. This was God's arrangement. This was God's vengeance.
32:55: And particularly, He is taking vengeance upon Babylon for His temple, for the sake of His temple, which was desecrated, robbed, and destroyed by the
33:07: Babylonians. Now as we track through the rest of the scroll, we're going to see how
33:12: God's purposes of vengeance reveals His glories as Creator and Savior and Judge and King.
33:20: And all those glories of God are the glories of Christ.
33:27: And that's who we need to pay attention to in our time. First of all, we see the
33:33: Lord's power as Creator. His vengeful purpose revealed in His power as Creator in verses 12 through 16, the veracity of God's word.
33:44: Now, it's important for us to note, God is the one who's commandeering the men and He's the one who's commanding the means to destroy
33:53: Babylon. He said He would. He's following through. With God, there's no empty threats. There's no bluster.
33:58: There's no posturing. He said He would do it, and He would do it, even if it takes Him 50 years. If God says
34:04: He's going to do something, He'll do it, even if it takes Him 500 years, even if it takes Him 5 ,000 years.
34:09: He's going to do what He said He would do. So Jeremiah 51, beginning in verse 12,
34:15: Lift up a signal against the walls of Babylon. Post a strong guard. Station sentries.
34:21: Place men in ambush. For the Lord has both purposed and performed what
34:28: He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. O you who dwell by many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your end.
34:38: The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself. Surely I will fill you with a population like locusts, and they will cry out with shouts of victory over you.
34:49: It is He who has made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding
34:57: He stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth.
35:07: He makes lightning for the rain, and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
35:16: Why should it matter to mankind? Why should it matter to mankind God's purposes, what
35:23: He speaks, how He swears by Himself, and when He utters His voice? Why should that matter? Because what
35:29: He purposes, He performs. And what He speaks comes to pass. And when He swears by Himself, every syllable of His pronouncement is infused with the full weight of His glory.
35:40: When He utters His voice, He takes up the world that He has made, and He plays it like a fiddle.
35:49: And that's why everyone should pay attention. Exhibit A, Jesus Christ being awakened by His disciples in the bottom of the boat, in the middle of the storm, and they say,
36:03: Master, do you not care that we perish? And what does Jesus do as Creator of the universe but speak
36:13: His word, still the storm, and make the sea calm as glass?
36:23: And then the disciples feared Him more than they feared the storm.
36:31: There's a storm, isn't there? There's a storm for believers. There's a storm for all mankind, isn't there?
36:38: There's all sorts of uncertainty and unrest. But don't you think that the Creator of everything is still the
36:44: Creator of everything? Shouldn't we fear Him more than we fear the storm?
36:51: Judah needed to hear that. We need to hear that. Babylon, you see, loomed as the dominating reality of their times.
36:58: But by the word of the Lord, Babylon will be conquered. The whole world system of economics, the military realities, the whole network of political treaties, everything that dominated the way that the world was, was
37:10: Babylonian. And then when that fell, what then? Well, it wasn't the end of the world, though some felt like it was.
37:18: Why should Judah fear Babylon's rise or fall when the Creator who speaks thunderstorms into motion can end
37:26: Babylon's power like the change of Oklahoma weather? Why should
37:33: Babylon be feared? And why should Judah worship or fear Baal, the storm god of Canaan, or worship and fear
37:42: Marduk, the storm god of Babylon? You see, it's when
37:48: God speaks, Jeremiah says, that that's when the thunder rolls. That's not Baal, that's not
37:54: Marduk, that's the Creator, the Lord of hosts. So what a contrast we have in the
38:00: Lord to these idols that men invent to express their anxiety.
38:08: You see, idolatry is not simplistic. It's not a matter of,
38:15: I would like something to be true, so I'll invent some mechanism to give it to me.
38:22: Wish fulfillment. It's not that simple. The idols of the ancient
38:27: Near East were more often horrific. They were a horror show.
38:37: They were frightening. They were invented, they were expressed as the culmination of the anxieties and the fears of man.
38:49: If you don't have a well -built structure that can withstand horrendous storms, and you're barely surviving storms that come through every year, and you barely come through on the other side, year after year, it makes sense that you invent a god to worship called the storm god.
39:11: And you offer sacrifices and do whatever you can to, I just want to be able to survive, please don't be so angry with me.
39:20: Men invent idols out of their fears and anxieties probably more so than just wish fulfillment thinking.
39:35: And that's the kind of idols that the people of Judah had, and that's the kind of idols that Babylon had, because they feared and served, therefore, the creature rather than the creator, who was blessed forever.
39:47: Amen. It's a matter of where we put our fear. So in contrast to the veracity of God's word, who just speaks and things are made,
39:57: He speaks and storms are created and rage.
40:03: In contrast to that, we have the idolatry of man's mind in verses 17 and following.
40:11: But you know, what do we really need? What's the solution for the chaos and the tumult and the divisiveness of our time, where people just can't get together?
40:22: What do we really need? It's so difficult for people to get along. And the wisdom of Nancy Pelosi, giraffes and flamingos can't breed.
40:35: So wise. What do we need? We need civil conversation, don't we?
40:42: That's what it's being called for. Civil conversation, respectful dialogue, careful listening, gleaning from one another's diverse tapestry of beliefs will bring us to a fuller understanding.
40:55: We need streams, other streams of tradition to merge with our own if our river of holistic discourse would bear the traffic of tolerance.
41:09: All mankind is stupid, devoid of knowledge. Well, that doesn't work, does it? Verse 17, all mankind is stupid, devoid of knowledge.
41:22: Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his molten images are deceitful.
41:30: And there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of mockery.
41:35: In the time of their punishment, they will perish. To create idols as the expression of your anxieties and fears and then to bow down before those idols and worship them.
41:49: And if only I am dedicated to this expression of my anxiety long enough, then the fear that I have will be removed.
41:58: No. Verse 19 shows the contrast between God and idols.
42:03: The portion of Jacob is not like these, for the maker of all is he. Who is the portion of Jacob?
42:10: The maker of all, the creator of all things. He's the portion of Jacob. He's the portion of the tribe of his inheritance, the
42:16: Lord of hosts. Yahweh's Sabaoth is his name. Judah had been and continued to be overrun by idolatry.
42:25: She was about to be exiled in full to a land chock full of idols. The first Jewish audience already in Babylon who heard this scroll, they were surrounded by idols, and they had already been dispossessed of their land.
42:44: The scroll was read to exiles in Babylon, who four years prior had been dispossessed of their land.
42:50: They had no land. They had no towns. They had no temple. They were exiled. But what is said to them?
42:59: Your portion. Your inheritance. Your good has not disappeared.
43:08: The Lord of hosts is he. The maker of all. That's who your portion is, this scroll says.
43:16: This is what Jeremiah says to the exiles. The Lord of hosts has remained their portion.
43:23: In what way? Well, because his word never failed. His promises always came to pass.
43:31: Did Judah still have the promises of God? Did the believers in exile, did they still have the promises of God?
43:37: Well, then they still had the Lord as their portion. The Lord of hosts was utterly unlike the gods that were invented by man's minds and fashioned by man's hands.
43:48: In what way? He was the maker of their minds. He was the maker of their hands.
43:55: All things that have come into being have come into being through Christ, who is the word, who was with God, and who was
44:04: God from the very beginning. All things have been made through Christ.
44:10: He is not like the idols that are invented, are not like the things that people invent and create so they may bow down to and worship and say, enough adherence and enough worship and enough dedication to these things that we have made will undo the things that we fear.
44:30: What do you think black lives matter is? What do you think it is?
44:36: But an expression of the fear and the anxiety and the distress about all things that they believe is evil and wrong.
44:44: So they create this thing and they put it in front of everyone and say, if you will be as dedicated as we are, if we have massive dedication to this thing, we will get rid of the thing we fear.
44:56: We'll get rid of racism if we're just dedicated to this thing we've created. And so everybody should kneel and bow down.
45:05: This is nothing new. This is simply idolatry.
45:11: This is paganism in 2020. This is just sinner sinning. It's nothing new.
45:26: Judah needed to know that her creator was different than all the things that man can make, that man can craft, whatever that is.
45:36: Judah needed to be reminded that her hope was not in a Baal or a Marduk or a moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron that any six -year -old can dream up.
45:49: John Calvin commented that the human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.
45:57: Think of the assembly line, you know, stuff coming out of it all the time. Here's the next idol. He goes on to say,
46:03: The human mind, stuffed as it is with presumptuous rashness, dares to imagine a god suited to its own capacity.
46:12: As it labors under dullness, sunk into the grossest ignorance, it substitutes vanity and an empty phantom, an empty phantom in the place of God.
46:22: To these evils another is added. The God whom man has thus conceived inwardly, he attempts to embody outwardly.
46:30: Here comes the images in the shrines. The mind, in this way, conceives the idol, and the hand gives it birth.
46:39: The mind conceives the idol, then the hand gives it birth. Well, who will clear away these evils?
46:46: These very evils that are plaguing us in our day. Well, the false words and the broken promises of a pantheon of cultural idols present for us a plethora of absurd solutions for all of our ills.
47:02: But fundamentally, our need is still the same as it always has been. Those created in the image of God are given the word of God so that they will live in the fear of God.
47:14: That's the way it was in the garden, and any variant on that has led us into disaster.
47:24: The Lord's vengeful purpose here, as he destroys idols, as he destroys the idolaters, is precisely meant to glorify himself and show himself as the true creator.
47:36: When the idols are proven worthless, no matter how dedicated the idolaters are to their idols, though they cut themselves and dance and do whatever they need to, it will still fail them.
47:53: When it fails them, this is just God's judgment proving that he is creator. The images of man are false, but the image of the invisible
48:04: God, Jesus Christ, is truth himself. Jesus Christ is the worker of the works of God.
48:13: He's the creator of all things, and he destroys the works of the devil in every size, shape, and form.
48:23: So I want you to consider this morning. What is the more meaningful to you? What matters more to you?
48:33: The word of man or the word of God? The word of man or the word of God?
48:41: And I mean this in terms of predictions that are being made, predictions we make ourselves, or prescriptions that are offered, the prescriptions that we often take, the perspectives that people hold, the perspectives that we ourselves hold.
48:57: What holds sway over our thinking? What holds sway over our thinking?
49:02: The word of God or the word of man? The word of our creator or the word of the creature?
49:11: And remember that what we fear, we worship. This is very important for us.
49:17: What we fear, we worship. In other words, dearly beloved, if you could write down on a three -by -five index card and describe the boogeymen that keep a hold on you, you should write it down.
49:42: What is it that might cause you to lose sleep? What is it that makes you lose your appetite?
49:49: What is it that holds your fear and your concern and your anxiety?
49:56: The thing that gets you riled up because you fear it, because you're upset about it, because you're afraid of what might happen because of it.
50:05: Name the boogeymen that keep a hold on you. Those are the idols on your mantle. What we fear, we worship.
50:15: If we can fear men in more than one way, we can fear man by saying, well,
50:22: I understand that you would be upset if I said such and such or did such and such, so I will just, whatever to avoid conflict,
50:30: I'll just kind of go along and be peaceable, and I just fear what... That's one way to fear man. The other way to fear man is to allow the fear of man to become the thing through which you see everything.
50:44: Look how awful man is. Look at all the things that man is doing. Oh, woe is man.
50:51: And it's all we think about. But that's not fearing God. And any idols on our mantle deserve the baseball bat of ridicule and scorn.
51:04: What is man? What is man? What can man do?
51:11: Can man say to God, thus far and no further? Can man say to God, we will do whatever we want and you can't stop us?
51:21: Can man do that? No, it is God. It is God who has all authority.
51:27: It is God who is our creator. He has made the world. He spoke it into existence.
51:33: He holds it all together. Why would we fear, in other words, why would we worship anyone or anything else?
51:42: Secondly, let's think about the glory of God as our righteous judge in verses 20 through 33.
51:47: Now, Judah was definitely in a mess. As you read through the prophets, minor or major, and you're learning about the history of Israel and Judah, there are many problems.
51:59: There's immorality, and there's idolatry, and there is lots of different forms of injustice.
52:05: In terms of, here's what God gave to His people how to live according to His covenant, all the different ways in which they were to look after one another and handle things internally in Israel, and they were not following God's laws.
52:21: Why? They feared other gods. So they did things according to these other gods.
52:27: And so they had immorality, injustice, and idolatry, and those things were always tied together in the rebukes of the prophets.
52:35: Those were always together when the prophets were rebuking Israel and Judah. So Judah was living in a mess, and the mess that she had come out of, and the mess that she was in, and the mess she was going to, was simply the typical morass of depravity that humanity cobbles together and calls society.
52:55: But Judah was not supposed to be typical. Judah was supposed to be a light to the nations.
53:04: Judah was to be a beacon of hope, pointing idolaters away from the misery of their injustice and wickedness, to the justice and goodness of God and among those who honored
53:17: Him. That's what Judah was supposed to be. She was to be a light. But one crooked king took the place of the next.
53:27: One wicked injustice preceded from the next, and it didn't matter if it was
53:32: Ammon or Egypt or Babylon or whoever it was that exerted power or authority over the life of Judah.
53:38: Justice in Judah remained as elusive as a happy feminist. Where would
53:47: Judah go? Where would Judah find righteousness? How would Judah bring about justice?
53:55: I was just seeing if you were awake. Talk about justice so long, it just begins to fall on weary ears.
54:07: But the Lord's vengeful purpose reveals His righteousness as judge of all. Look how God brings justice.
54:13: Look how God brings righteousness. First of all, we see God's freedom as judge in verses 20 through 23.
54:22: He says to Babylon, You are my war club, my weapon of war.
54:29: And with you I shatter nations, and with you I destroy kingdoms. With you I shatter the horse and its rider.
54:36: With you I shatter the chariot and its rider. With you I shatter man and woman. With you
54:41: I shatter old man and youth. With you I shatter young man and virgin. With you
54:46: I shatter the shepherd and his flock. And with you I shatter the farmer and his team. And with you
54:52: I shatter governors and prefects. God is not constrained by man's conventions.
55:00: God is not constrained by man's sense of fairness.
55:07: God doesn't have to jump through hoops to judge. God doesn't have to wade through paperwork to bring about justice.
55:16: God doesn't have to navigate through red tape to accomplish righteousness.
55:22: He is free. And when He judges, when He enacts justice, He does it with absolute freedom.
55:30: It is important for Judah to know that. Important for Judah to know that God used Babylon as His instrument.
55:38: Babylon was under God's control, and Babylon was accountable to Him. And God always made a thorough accounting.
55:47: So we have this strange convening of different themes for Judah.
55:53: Judah is told Babylon is God's instrument for justice and revenge upon the idolatrous nations.
56:03: Babylon is going to get so much time in their prime on the earth.
56:08: And then God says, I will destroy them. I will bring vengeance against them. And meanwhile, in Jeremiah 19 or 29, it's been a while, the
56:22: Israelites are instructed specifically, as they are building houses and living in them, as they are getting married and having children, making sure they get married and have children, as they are planting crops and harvesting them, they are also instructed to pray for the prosperity of Babylon.
56:46: Isn't that interesting? Babylon was their oppressor. Babylon had killed countless of them.
56:54: Babylon had desecrated their temple. Babylon had destroyed their culture. Babylon was their great enemy.
57:01: Babylon was their great dominating oppressor. But God said, oh, but you're going back to your land.
57:12: You'll still be around, but Babylon won't. You see, you don't have to fear Babylon.
57:18: You don't have to bow down before Babylon. Babylon doesn't have to be your God. I am still your
57:23: God. And so while you're here in Babylon, pray for its prosperity, because I've determined that it will prosper until such time that I've determined that it won't.
57:31: This is called living in the safest place in the world. Right smack dab in the will of God.
57:39: Right smack dab in the sovereign will of God. God is free to judge in this way.
57:47: He is free to use Babylon, and then He is free to judge Babylon. And He's thorough. Judah needs to know that not a single crime, not a droplet of evil committed by Babylon, would be overlooked or dismissed by God.
58:02: Aren't we concerned about that? Don't we hear things that happen, and we think, it's never going to be made right.
58:10: Or we hear things that happen, and it's like, that's awful. And we wonder, will it ever be made right?
58:20: Well, God is a thorough judge, and He brings a thorough justice. Judah would need no parades, no protests, no reparations, and no riots.
58:31: They had the Lord. They had the Lord. He was far more thorough than they ever could be anyway.
58:39: And we need to recognize that. If it's by the efforts of man, we will never accomplish justice.
58:46: If we're in obedience to Christ, then we will know righteousness. Jeremiah 51 verses 24 through 26.
58:56: God says, But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes, declares the
59:07: Lord. Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys the whole earth, declares the Lord. And I will stretch out
59:13: My hand against you, and roll you down from the crags, and I will make you a burnt -out mountain.
59:20: They will not take from you even a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but you will be desolate forever.
59:29: So, God thoroughly judges. Nobody can stop Him. Nobody can stay His hand and say,
59:35: What are you doing? When He judges, notice, not even a rock, not even a stone for a corner, not even stone for building new foundations will be left of Babylon.
59:47: That's how thorough God's justice is. So, God is free,
59:54: God is thorough, and God is holy when He judges. We see this in verses 27 through 29.
01:00:01: It's easy to project upon God our fears of some unrestrained human judge inflicting merciless punishment on the unsuspecting.
01:00:11: Nothing so quickly brings an indictment upon God as trying to make Him in our own image. And the tragic thing is, when people begin to think
01:00:18: God in these lesser ways, according to our own image, then quickly following, people then begin to say,
01:00:25: Well, that's not the God I believe in. And they move on to yet another idol. God, when
01:00:33: He judges, does so as creator. He does so in His freedom. He does so thoroughly, and He does so in a holy way.
01:00:41: Notice verses 27 through 29. Lift up a signal in the land. Blow a trumpet among the nations.
01:00:47: Consecrate the nations against her. Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Mani, and Ashkenaz.
01:00:53: Appoint a marshal against her. Bring up the horses like bristly locusts.
01:01:00: Consecrate the nations against her. The kings of the Medes, their governors in all their prefects, and every land of their dominion.
01:01:07: So the land quakes and writhes for the purposes of the Lord against Babylon. Stand to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitants.
01:01:21: Consecrate the nations against her. Twice that is said. Consecrate the nations against her.
01:01:27: That term means to set apart as holy, to make holy. When the children of Israel brought together the treasures that they had plundered from Egypt, and gave them to the
01:01:36: Levites for use in the tabernacle, this gold, this silver was all melted down and used for the tabernacle.
01:01:43: And there were many utensils that were offered for use in the tabernacle. And what did they do with these utensils?
01:01:50: What did they do with this spoon or this cup?
01:01:56: They consecrated them. They consecrated them. Nothing really different between this cup and spoon that would be used in somebody's tent in the tribe of Reuben versus being used in the tent of the
01:02:10: Lord in the tabernacle. Same kind of cup. Same kind of spoon.
01:02:16: But when they were consecrated, they were set aside for the Lord's holy work. And here,
01:02:23: God says He has consecrated the nations to come against Babylon and do
01:02:30: His judgment work. God arranges for Babylon's sentencing with a holy judiciary.
01:02:38: He uses the Medes, the Persians, and all their allies, their governors, their officials, and their lands.
01:02:44: Judah would be freed from Babylon's power by instruments that God had consecrated for that task.
01:02:52: Vessels that He had set aside for His holy task.
01:02:58: God's vengeance for His temple included His repayment to Babylon's profaning
01:03:04: His holy vessels from His temple with their wonton blasphemy. He demonstrates, remember at the end of Babylon, when they were about to fall, they had taken out the vessels from the
01:03:18: Lord's temple and they were drinking and getting drunk using the consecrated vessels of the
01:03:25: Lord's temple. It was their little idolatrous flex saying, Marduk is greater than Yahweh.
01:03:33: And then the Lord shows how ridiculous that is because He can make many more vessels out of Ararat, Menai, Ashkenaz, and the
01:03:40: Medes. And He can make these vessels, and not only could He use these vessels and consecrate new vessels, but He could use these same vessels to burn
01:03:48: Babylon to the ground. And notice that God's judgments are timely. Verses 30 -33.
01:03:55: The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting. They stay in the strongholds. Their strength is exhausted.
01:04:01: They are becoming like women. Their dwelling places are set on fire. The bars of their gates are broken.
01:04:08: One courier runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end.
01:04:15: The fords have also been seized, and they have burned the marshes with fire. And the men of war are terrified.
01:04:22: For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is stamped firm.
01:04:29: Yet in a little while, the time of harvest will come for her. Babylon has conquered every rival for several decades.
01:04:38: The city is splendid in the envy of all the world. They have proven their worth with aggression, strength, foresight, and wealth.
01:04:47: How can they just stop fighting? Why are they all hiding indoors? Where did all their vigorous labor go?
01:04:54: What happened to the watchfulness of their gates? What is up with their sudden collapse?
01:05:02: Seventy years are up. God set the clock. And it was time.
01:05:09: It was time. Judgment has now come. See, Jerusalem and the
01:05:15: Jews hearing this message back in the fourth year of Zedekiah have several decades until this judgment of God transpires.
01:05:21: But what should they understand? About the timing of God's judgment. That His timing is utterly just in the dispensing of His justice.
01:05:32: But the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness. And in His timing, the justice that He has promised will come to pass.
01:05:42: It should remind us that those chanting for justice now, and speedily rendered, may be crying out for mercy when
01:05:51: God in His own time responds to all the innocent blood crying out to Him from our land. The justice of God is revealed.
01:06:03: But now, apart from the law and the prophets, the justice of God is revealed. The righteousness of God is revealed.
01:06:12: Where is the righteousness of God revealed? Where is the justice of God revealed?
01:06:20: In the person and work of Jesus Christ. Is God free in His dispensing of justice?
01:06:29: Yes, He is. Look at the cross. If you think it's a stretch for God to use
01:06:35: Babylon as an instrument of judgment, and then judge Babylon for its own sins, then you haven't seen what happened at the cross.
01:06:45: Where God sent His only begotten Son, Him who knew no sin, and He made Him sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
01:06:53: How? Because God pours out His holy wrath upon His Son, judging
01:06:58: Him in all... And this says in Romans 3, this is to manifest His righteousness. This is to manifest
01:07:04: His justice. That He is judging Christ. That He judges Christ at the cross in our place and for our sake.
01:07:12: And do you think He did it thoroughly? I think He did it thoroughly.
01:07:18: So that those who are in Christ know no condemnation.
01:07:24: That there is complete forgiveness. There is nothing lacking in the work of Christ upon the cross.
01:07:29: There is no particle of sin left unjudged by God in Christ for those who trust in Him.
01:07:38: All of it has been paid for. He is free, He is thorough, and He is holy in His justice.
01:07:46: Behold the holiness of God in His wrath poured out upon His Son, who was the holy
01:07:53: Lamb of God, spotless, without blemish. And remember the timing of it all.
01:08:02: In the fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman born under the law.
01:08:12: It was at God's perfect moment, God's perfect timing, that He set forth Christ as a propitiation by His blood through faith.
01:08:21: It was at the proper time so that all of those who had trusted in the coming
01:08:27: Messiah and those who will look back and trust in Christ as Messiah, as Savior, it was at that time that God revealed
01:08:36: His righteousness in Christ. Justice can only be pursued by those who are submitted to Christ.
01:08:49: Justice can only be pursued by the justified. It's impossible any other way.
01:08:59: And we must do so in light of Christ's return, in which He will sift through all of it and do what is right.
01:09:08: I was reading through Proverbs with my family Wednesday at lunch this week, and this is part of what we read, Proverbs 29, verses 25 and 26.
01:09:16: The fear of man brings a snare. We need to hear that. The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the
01:09:24: Lord will be exalted. Many seek the ruler's favor, but justice for man comes from the
01:09:33: Lord. Many seek the ruler's favor, but justice for man comes from the
01:09:40: Lord. That's very important for us to remember. Even as judgment of God afflicts us, we need to remember that it is because as a nation and as a people we have forgotten
01:09:57: God and that people are interpreting our life and times in terms of their idols.
01:10:06: Listen to how people speak, and you will know who they worship. Listen to how people speak, and you will know who they worship.
01:10:17: For too many, providence, the providence of God, has been replaced with something else as the explanation for all that is going on.
01:10:27: The sovereignty of God has been transplanted by something else for the explanation of all that is going on.
01:10:35: Listen, people who explain everything in terms of whiteness, oppression, privilege, systemic injustice, and racism, that's the reason that everything is the way that it is.
01:10:44: If we were also to say that everything is the way that it is and the problems that we're having is because of the lying and the deceit and the progression of cultural
01:11:00: Marxism. I'm not saying one is true and one is false.
01:11:07: One is true, one is false, I think. But that's not how we're supposed to explain everything or to come to some synthesis in the middle of the two.
01:11:18: We are to understand our life and times and what is happening in the day in which we live in terms of the providence and the sovereignty of God.
01:11:26: What is God up to? What is God up to? We don't talk about God giving us rain enough.
01:11:35: We don't talk about God giving us the produce out of our gardens enough. We don't talk about God getting us safely to point
01:11:44: A to point B enough. We don't talk about God healing us of our sicknesses and our diseases enough.
01:11:51: And that's why we don't talk about God being in charge of everything else. We need to think in terms of our creator, think in terms of our judge.
01:12:05: Now some folks are guilty of partiality and some systems are unjust, but to explain everything around us in light of these is to fear man and to reverence man's power to make everything horrible.
01:12:19: And so many seek the ruler's favor, but justice comes from the Lord. He's the one who judges in absolute righteousness.
01:12:28: We should trust in the Lord rather than petitioning the state. Since man controls everything going on, people say, well then that's why the ruler's favor is the key to fixing everything.
01:12:40: But what does the wise man teach his son? Justice for man comes from the
01:12:46: Lord. Now God uses men as means to bring about his justice.
01:12:53: And may God use us as we submit to Christ and obedience to Christ to do righteousness first and foremost in our families and right here, to be the light of the world, to be the salt of the earth, to be a city set on a hill and to show what justice and righteousness looks like in submission to Christ, which is the only way we can have it.
01:13:18: But we need to trust that the justice that we crave comes from the Lord. And these eventual purposes of God as he judges and as he shows his righteousness and his justice remind me of something from Psalm 110.
01:13:34: So if you want to look over there with me, we'll close with this. Psalm 110, verses 1 and 2, and also
01:13:41: I want to take a look at verse 5. The Lord says to my
01:13:54: Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
01:14:01: The Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion saying, Rule in the midst of your enemies.
01:14:07: Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power and hold your way from the womb of the dawn. Your youth are to you as they do.
01:14:14: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
01:14:19: The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings in the day of his wrath.
01:14:28: In our exaltation of Christ and our faithful adherence to Christ, we are clinging to the just judge of all mankind who will thoroughly, freely, perfectly establish righteousness in his time.
01:14:44: He will do so in his own way. He will do so in his holiness. And he will do so in his faithfulness.
01:14:50: Let's pray. Father, we thank you for our time in the text. Lord, I pray that you will help us to repent of idolatry, to repent of the fear of man, that we would put our focus where we ought in worshiping you, that we would give you the glory that you deserve, that we would give honor to whom honor is due, and you deserve all honor.
01:15:19: Christ deserves all honor. Help us in obedience to Christ, in doing the right things, and believing the right things, and talking about the right things, whatever those things may be.
01:15:34: Father, help us to worship you, and to not live in fear of man, but bow our hearts and our knees in our lives to you, our creator, and you, our righteous judge.
01:15:50: We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. If you will stand, we will sing our benediction from hymn number 74.
01:16:07: And I think this is appropriate. The title of this song is Majesty.
01:16:40: Majesty, worship his majesty. Unto Jesus be all glory, all honor, all esteem.
01:17:04: King of his throne, unto his own, is at the word of Jesus.
01:17:34: Christ Jesus, the king.
01:17:47: Majesty, worship his majesty.
01:17:55: Jesus who died, now glorified.
01:18:01: King of all beings.
01:18:08: Jesus who died, now glorified.
01:18:15: King of all kings. May the love of the
01:18:26: Father, and the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. We are dismissed.