Sunday Morning, August 2, 2020, AM

In Sunnyside doing well we're glad that you can be here to worship with us this morning. A few announcements as we get started this morning some opportunities this week come back for evening service tonight that starts at 530.

There is no nursery just kind of a note there Michael will be continuing in this series Sons of Issachar out of Deuteronomy chapter 16 tonight. Also Wednesday 630 Bible study and prayer time no nursery but that does start back up in September.

Our fighter verse for this week comes from the psalm psalm 34 verses 15 and 16. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

So it's a good verse to memorize this week. Offering plate is still on the back table. Also the nursery is available this morning. Operation Christmas Child is still coming up. Christmas is still on the way.

It's 2020 which is crazy but Christmas is still not been cancelled. Okay so with that being said a lot of times Operation Christmas Child school supplies and things are good to put in those Christmas shoeboxes for kids.

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 so if you have those rattling around in drawers let a Loretta Patty or Barbara know about that.

A few recognitions want to make this morning. First just want to thank Norm for his continued service to the church and keeping our grounds and yards looking nice. If you see him thank him give him a fist bump.

And then also Andrew Hudson just made master sergeant so we want to congratulate him for that as well. 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.

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 Brian will lead us in prayer. 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. May our lives glorify you this day and the next and the next. Our hearts have gratitude for the grace and the mercy, the provision, the protection, the joy, the peace that we have in your son Christ.

What a blessing and we ask this in his name. Amen. Good morning Sunnyside. Ask you to stand as we read our call to worship. This comes from Psalm 45 verses 3 through 5. Bear your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty.

In your majesty ride out victoriously. For the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness let your right hand teach you awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemy. The people's fall under you.

Our first song together will be Oh how good it is. Hopefully you have that song sheet that's a Getty's piece and after that.

James will come to read to us. Concerning which he spoke to you saying,.

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 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.

You shall follow the Lord your God and fear him and you shall keep his commandments, listen to his voice, serve 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 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 Lord your God commanded you to walk.

So you shall purge the evil from among you. If your brother 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 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.

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. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people.

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. Then all Israel will hear and will be afraid and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

If you hear in one of your cities which the Lord your God is giving you to live in anyone saying that some worthless man men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city saying let us go and serve other gods whom you have not known.

Then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly if it is true and the matter established 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.

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 Lord your God and it should 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 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.

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 Lord your God. 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. I just pray that you'll be with us as we learn from the things you've told to Michael this week. I pray that you will give him the strength and the determination that he needs to deliver what you laid on his heart.

I just pray that you'll be.

With us today. In Christ's name, Amen. You may be seated. We're gonna sing three songs today. Be Exalted O God. That's. And then I'll worship the King and then.

We'll do the chorus of He is Lord. This day I thank you that we are here this.

Morning to hold fast to the confession of our faith that Jesus Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. He is alive forevermore 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.

I thank you father that we that all of your promises are yes in Christ and I pray that you would put our attention upon him today. Father we have many burdens and many concerns and are filling up our hearts and we need wisdom.

We need faith. We need to know what is right and holy in your sight and Lord as your children we know that you know best 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.

Help us to worship you today fearing you rather than man. We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. I'll invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 51. Jeremiah 51. We'll be reading verses 53 through 58 in a moment.

Jeremiah chapter 51. I'll be reading verses 53 through 58 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 and in fact then all the nations including Babylon that would be judged.

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. God brought judgment upon all of these different nations including Judah and he used Babylon to do it.

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 and now here in chapters 50 and 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.

When the dust settles God's glories in Christ are revealed through the successful resolution of God's vengeful purposes and that's what verses 11 through 64 in Jeremiah 51 are all about. They're about the vengeance of God and how that is a message of hope for God's people.

So let me read for us if you'll stand with me I'm going to read Jeremiah 51 verses 53 through 58 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 Lord.

The sound of an outcry from Babylon and of great destruction from the land of the 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 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 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 king whose name is the Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord of hosts the broad wall of Babylon will be completely raised and her high gates will be set on fire so the people's will toil for nothing and the nation's become exhausted only for fire.

These are the words of the Lord. You may be seated. Well last week has been interesting. 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. It's cheap everywhere and transparent.

The solution for all of these problems. Everyone's offering their own one-size-fits-all solution. 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.

I like kids in the pews. But coloring sheets don't fix everything and neither does printing more money. Well I know a presidential election that'll solve everything. It'll settle everybody down. No. Okay.

We can start sports and school back up because further indoctrination will improve our spirits. No. Well surely the Pentagon's findings on alien spacecraft will unite everybody. And brotherly I mean sisterly I mean non-gender-specific solidarity.

I don't think any of the solutions are really solutions. What is the solution for man's chaos. What is the solution for man's chaos. Jesus says the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent and believe the gospel. The choices have always been Christ or chaos. You've always been those two choices. This 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.

That's the answer and 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. 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.

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 for 50 years. This Oracle of judgment against Babylon is actually one we are in need of hearing of accepting and believing.

What do idolaters and insurgents need. What do times of instability and insanity need. 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.

All of the fallout and the failures the chaos of the times the tumult and the transitions. These all of this unsettledness was not to be understood as the mere accident of politics or the unhappy amalgamation of chemical brain fizz.

It was a supernatural disaster. Supernatural disaster. It was the judgment of God. God rode herd on every raging bull and not one steer went astray. The Lord reveals his purpose of vengeance. This was all his doing.

And in so doing he reveals his glory. 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. 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. And that's what we need to know. We need to know the glories of God. We need the glories of Christ.

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. And these glories of Christ so desperately needed to heal and nourish and guide and sustain and deliver. On 4k display in the Lord's purposes of vengeance. The Lord's vengeful purpose reveals the glories of Christ.

First of all the Lord's power as creator. We see this especially in verses 12 through 16. Verse 11 really sets the theme of the whole rest of the scroll. Look with me at verse 11. Sharpen the arrows fill the quivers.

The Lord has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes because his purpose is against Babylon to destroy it. For it is the vengeance of the Lord vengeance for his temple. And everything else that follows is understood by that heading.

God is raising up the Medes who were known for their skill in bow making and archery and warfare. He's raising them up to be his new instrument of judgment. And his target is Babylon. He says 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. 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.

This was God's purpose. This was God's arrangement. This was God's vengeance. 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 Babylonians.

Now as we track through the rest of the scroll we're going to see how God's purposes of vengeance reveals his glories as creator and Savior and judge and King. And all those glories of God are the glories of Christ.

And that's who we need to pay attention to in our time. First of all we see the 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.

Now it's important for us to note God is the one who's commandeering the men and he's the one who is commanding the means to destroy Babylon. He said he would. He's following through with God. There's no empty threats.

There's no bluster 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 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 he's going to do.

He said he would do so. Jeremiah 51 beginning in verse 12. Lift up a signal against the walls of Babylon. Post a strong guard station. Sentries place men in ambush. For the Lord has both purposed and performed what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

Oh you who dwell by many waters abundant and treasures your end has come the measure of your end. 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.

It is he who has made the earth by his power who established the world by his wisdom and by his understanding 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.

He makes lightning for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. Why should it matter to mankind. Why should it matter to mankind. God's purposes what he speaks how he swears by himself.

And when he utters his voice why should that matter. Because what 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 a full weight of his glory.

When he utters his voice he takes up the world that he has made and he plays it like a fiddle. 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 master do you not care that we perish. And what does Jesus do as creator of the universe. But speak his word still the storm and make the sea calm as glass. And then the disciples feared him more than they feared the storm.

There's a storm. Isn't there. It's a storm for believers. There's a storm for all mankind. Isn't there. There's all sorts of uncertainty and unrest. But don't you think that the creator of everything is still the creator of everything.

Shouldn't we fear him more than we fear the storm. Judah needed to hear that. We need to hear that Babylon you see loomed as the dominating reality of their times. But by the word of the Lord Babylon will be conquered the whole world system of economics the the military realities the whole network of political treaties everything that dominated the way that the world was was Babylonian.

And then when that fell. What then. Well it wasn't the end of the world though some felt like it was. Why should you to fear Babylon's rise or fall. When the creator who speaks thunderstorms into motion can end Babylon's power like the change of Oklahoma weather.

Why should Babylon be feared. And why should Judah worshiper bail the storm God of Canaan. Or worship and fear Marduk the storm God of Babylon. You see it's when God speaks. Jeremiah says that that's when the thunder rolls.

That's not bail. That's not Marduk. That's the Creator the Lord of hosts. So what a contrast we have in the Lord to these idols that men invent to it to express their anxiety. You see idolatry is not simplistic.

It's not a matter of I would like something to be true. So I'll invent some mechanism to give it to me wish fulfillment. It's not that simple. The idols of the ancient Near East were more often horrific.

They were a horror show they were frightening. They were invented and they were expressed as the culmination of the anxieties and the fears of man. 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. 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. Men in invent idols out of their fears and anxieties. Probably more so than just wish fulfillment thinking. And that's the kind of idols that the people of Judah had.

That's kind of idols that Babylon had because they feared and served. Therefore the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. 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 he speaks.

And storms are created and and rage. And in contrast to that we have the idolatry of of man's mind in verses 17 and following. But you know what do we really need. What's the what's the solution for the chaos and the tumult and the divisiveness of our time where people just can't get together.

What do we really need. It's so so difficult for people to get along. And the wisdom of of Nancy Pelosi giraffes and flamingos can't breed so wise. What do we need. We need civil conversation. Don't we.

That's what'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. We need streams other streams of tradition to merge with our own.

If our river of holistic discourse would bear the traffic of tolerance. All mankind is stupid devoid of knowledge. Well that doesn't work. Does it. All mankind is. Verse 17. All mankind is stupid devoid of knowledge.

Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols for his molten images are deceitful and there is no breath in them. They are worthless a work of mockery in the time of their punishment they will perish to create.

To create idols as the expression of your anxieties and fears. And then to bow down before those idols and worship them. And if only I am dedicated to this expression of my anxiety long enough then the fear that I have will be removed.

No. Verse 19 shows the contrast between God and idols. The portion of Jacob is not like these. For the maker of all his he see who is the portion of Jacob. 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 Lord of hosts he always Sabbath oath is his name. Judah had been and continued to be overrun by idolatry. 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. The scroll was read to exiles in Babylon who four years prior have been dispossessed of their land.

They had no land. They had no towns they had no temple. They were exiled. But what is said to them. Your portion your inheritance your good has not disappeared. The Lord of hosts is he the maker of all.

That's who your portion is. This scroll says. This is what Jeremiah says to the exiles. The Lord of hosts has remained their portion. And in what way. Well because his word never failed his promises always came to pass.

Did Judah still have the promises of God. The believers in exile did they still have the promises of God. 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.

In what way. He was the maker of their minds. He was the maker of their hands. All things that have come into being have come into being through Christ. Who is the word who was with God and who was God from the very beginning all things have been made through Christ.

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.

What do you think black lives matter is what do you think it is but an expression of the fear and the anxiety and the distress about all things that they believe is evil and wrong. 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.

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. This is nothing new. This is simply idolatry. This is paganism in 2020. This is just sinners sinning.

It's nothing new. Judah needed to know that her creator was different than all the things that man can make. That man can craft whatever that is. Judah needed to be reminded that her hope was not in a bail or a Marduk or a moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron that any six-year-old can dream up.

John Calvin commented that the human mind is so to speak a perpetual forge of idols. Think of the assembly line. You know stuff coming out of it all time. Here's the next idol. He goes on to say. The human mind stuffed as it is with presumptuous rashness dares to imagine a God suited to its own capacity 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. To these evils another is added. The God whom man has thus conceived inwardly he attempts to embody outwardly. Here comes the the images in the shrines.

The mind in this way conceives the idol and the hand gives it birth. The mind conceives the idol then the hand gives it birth. Well who will clear away these evils. 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. 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. That's the way it was in the garden. And any variant on that has led us into disaster. 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.

When the idols are the idols are proven worthless no matter 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 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 God Jesus Christ is truth himself. Jesus Christ is the worker of the works of God. He's the creator of all things.

And he destroys the works of the devil and every size shape and form. So I want you to consider this morning what is the more meaningful to you. What matters more to you. The Word of Man or the Word of God.

The Word of Man or the Word of God. 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. What holds sway over our thinking. What holds sway over our thinking. The Word of God or the Word of Man. Our creator the word of our creator or the word of the creature.

And remember that we what we fear we worship. This is very important for us. 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. What is it that might cause you to lose sleep. What is it that makes you lose your appetite. What is it that holds your fear and your concern and your anxiety. 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. Name the boogeyman that hold keep a hold on you. Those are the idols on your mantle. What we fear we worship. If we can fear men.

And more than one way we can fear man by saying well 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. 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. Like how awful man is. Look at all the things that man is doing.

Oh woe is man. 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. What is man. What is man. What can man do. Can man say to God thus far and no further.

Can man say to God we will do whatever we want. You can't stop us. Can man do that. No it is it is God. It is God who has all authority. It is God who is our creator. He has made the world. He spoke it into existence.

He holds it all together. Why would we fear. And in other words why would we worship anyone or anything else. Secondly let's think about the glory of God as our righteous judge in verses 20 through 33.

Now Judah wasn't definitely in a mess. If you as you read through the prophets minor or major and you're learning about the history of Israel and Judah there are many problems. There's immorality and there's idolatry.

And there is lots of different forms of injustice 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. Why they feared other gods. So they did things according to these other gods. And so they had immorality and justice and idolatry. And those things were always tied together in the rebukes of the prophets.

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 the mess she was going to was simply the typical morass of depravity that humanity cobbles together and calls society.

But Judah was not supposed to be typical. Judah was supposed to be a light to the nations. 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 him.

That's what Judah was supposed to be to be a light. But one crooked King took the place of the next one wicked injustice proceeded from the next. And it didn't matter if it was Ammon or Egypt or Babylon or whoever it was that exerted power or authority over the life of Judah.

Justice in Judah remained as elusive as a happy feminist. Where where would you to go. Where would you to find righteousness. How would you to bring about justice. I was just seen if you're awake talk about justice so long it just begins to fall on weary ears.

But the Lord's vengeful purpose reveals his righteousness as judge of all. Look how God brings justice. Look how God brings righteousness. First of all we see God's freedom as judge. In verses 20 through 23 he says to Babylon.

You are my war club my weapon of war. And with you I shatter nations. And with you I destroy kingdoms. With you I shatter the horse and it's in his rider. With you I shatter the chariot and its rider.

With you I shatter man and woman. With you I shatter old man and youth. With you I shatter young man and virgin. With you I shatter the shepherd in his flock. And with you I shatter the farmer and his team.

And with you I shatter governors and prefects. God is not constrained by man's conventions. God is not constrained by God by man's. God is not constrained by man's sense of fairness. God doesn't have to jump through hoops to judge.

God doesn't have to wade through paperwork to bring about justice. God doesn't have to navigate through red tape to accomplish righteousness. He is free. And when he judges when he enacts justice he does it with absolute freedom.

It is important for Judah to know that. Important is for Judah to know that God used Babylon as his instrument. Babylon was under God's control and Babylon was accountable to him. And God always made a thorough accounting.

So we have this strange convening of different themes for Judah. Judah is told Babylon is God's instrument. For for for justice and revenge upon the idolatrous nations. Babylon is going to get so much time in their prime on the earth.

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 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. Isn't that interesting. Babylon was their oppressor. Babylon had killed countless of them.

Babylon had desecrated their temple. Babylon had destroyed their culture. Babylon was their great enemy. Babylon was their great dominating oppressor. But God said oh but you're going back to your land.

You'll still be around. But Babylon won't you see. You don't have to fear Babylon. So you don't have to bow down before Babylon. Babylon doesn't have to be your God. I am still your God. And so while you're here in Babylon pray for its prosperity.

Because I've determined it will prosper until such time that I determined that it won't. This is called living in the safest place in the world. Right smack dab in the will of God. Right smack dab in the sovereign will of God.

God is free to judge in this way he is free to use Babylon. And then he's 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.

I'll be concerned about that. Don't we hear things that happen and we think it's never gonna be made right. Oh we hear things that happen is like that's awful and we wonder will it ever be made right.

Well God is a thorough judge and he brings a thorough justice. Judah would need no parades no protests no reparations and no riots. They had the Lord. They had the Lord. He was far more thorough than they ever could be anyway.

And we need to recognize that if it's by the efforts of man we will never accomplish justice. If we're in obedience to Christ then we will know righteousness. Jeremiah 51 verses 24 through 26 God says.

But I will repay Babylon in all the inhabitants of Chaldea for their all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes declares the Lord. Behold I am against you. Oh destroying mountain who destroys the whole earth declares the Lord.