God Centered Podcast - Episode 7 - God Centered Bible Study - Sin Affects Far More Than You...

God Centered Theology

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:07

Welcome back to the preaching ministry of God -Centered Theology as we are looking through the book of Lamentations together.

00:16

Last time we went through verses 1 through 3 and we noticed the great reversal of fortune that Jerusalem went through when

00:25

Babylon came in and took them over and killed many of them, took the rest off to slavery, destroyed the city, destroyed the temple and now as we look at verses 4 through 6 the day of chapter 1 we're going to see a development and an increase in detail as to just how devastating this

00:47

Jerusalem is left and we're gonna see as this book moves along that just like many would today in today's world you know they always point to a natural disaster or some sort of bad thing that's happened and say well you know how could

01:03

God let this happen it's all God's fault and you know this shouldn't have happened we didn't deserve this and we're gonna see through this book the turn that occurs and the recognition that judgment only comes due to one's sin and this judgment of Babylon coming and destroying the city destroying the temple and taking out the people and this judgment on them from where we looked at last time how they were great among the nations and are now forced laborers all this change has only come about because the people sin they have no one to blame but themselves you have no one to blame for your sin but yourself they were warned all throughout the book of Jeremiah and in other cases they were warned repeatedly that this was going to happen they needed to turn and repent in the same fashion

01:57

God today through the preaching of his word preaches the gospel to the nations and that they need to repent they need to repeat their believe in the

02:05

Lord Jesus Christ they need to be discipled they need to turn to him and so any judgment that comes is only because of a person's sin verse 4 the roads of Zion or the roads to Zion are in mourning because no one comes to the appointed times everything shut down what was a booming town what was a booming place of business and interest and people moving about and living in their daily lives now it's just simply shut down there's nothing it's a ghost town there's no activity and there were many roads that led to the city so where things would go to and from the city travelers goods and services people coming to the temple here for appointed times of worship and different things that went on with that and the

03:05

Old Covenant and now these streets are personified to say that they would be in mourning and and the reason the

03:14

Word of God uses imagery and different things like this just like we would for any piece of literature that we would write is we want to use language that we can understand to demonstrate the severity of something so if you just said well you know the roads are not as good as they used to be well okay maybe it's just a downturn no the roads are in mourning their death has occurred this grief and the person that is truly repentant of their sin will in like fashion be in mourning like these streets were why are they mourning no one's coming to the appointed times no one's coming to the city no one is engaging in what's going on anymore now if you remember

04:11

I told you there's a lot of times here in this book where Jerusalem is you the word she and her and things like that are used to describe

04:19

Jerusalem use the female pronoun her and so this is what's being referred to here you're gonna see a lot of repetition here to make this to make the point so it's all her gates are desolate her priests are sighing or groaning her virgins are grieving they're suffering she herself is bitter now this is why we talk about biblical interpretation we say we don't literally take the

04:52

Bible literally in every single spot because obviously the Bible just like all other human beings and every other generation uses metaphors and imagery and different things to explain and bring out a point about something so it'll take something like a literal land and city and these things the gates she herself

05:18

Jerusalem is bitter how could a city how could a temple be bitter only people could be bitter that's why this personification here it's it's wanting to relate it to us we can understand it's such tragedy such a devastation that it can be said that the literal city itself is almost in mourning and it's bitter because of what's happened we'll say this a lot you know cities that we know of near us that aren't doing well or maybe were shut down or not what they used to be you know we'll talk about how they you know been left to die you know a piece of wood can't literally well

06:00

I guess wood can't be the stones and you know we don't the city we don't mean that literally obvious is what point I'm making but she herself is bitter her adversaries have become her masters the same repetition here from before what talks about shit in verse 1 she who was a princess among the provinces has become a forced laborer or is put into forced service we get the repetition of that here think about this the one that were the adversaries the the people groups and the different you know the

06:33

Philistines and all these different people that all throughout the book of Joshua when you read about these conquests and God giving victories to them they would be victorious over all their adversaries

06:44

God would give them victory well now the reversal to where they're not only have not gotten victory but they've been wiped out the adversaries have become her masters so the people of Jerusalem has gone from a place of prominence and being you know quote -unquote in charge to now they're under and in slavery to those that hate them

07:10

Babylon was raised up by God and used by God to come into the city take them over and force

07:16

Jerusalem into slavery her enemies are complacent this word complacent here means at ease quiet so think about the difference think about what's changed here

07:34

Jerusalem God's people who should be at peace who should be at ease who should be living quietly going about their day are now their whole world is completely disrupted completely overturned completely upended and their adversaries the ones who should be fearful and upset and not living at ease are now living at ease they're living very complacently very quietly they're enjoying rest that's meant for the people of God because the people of God have sinned and God has removed that grace and mercy brought judgment so that they are no longer experiencing the things that they should and notice here the enemies are complacent at ease and explains why in the next phrase here for Yahweh for the

08:37

Lord has caused her grief God is the call so all these that would say well you know

08:48

God really can't do nothing about anything he may know what's gonna happen but you know he really can't meddle he doesn't meddle in free will of man all this stuff and God certainly wouldn't cause anything bad to happen to his people people get so hung up on this and want to reconcile it in their finite minds the idea that God could cause something to happen and still not be the author of that sin

09:18

God raised up Babylon to come in and do exactly what they did he caused this grief on Jerusalem because of the greatness of her transgressions

09:33

God isn't sinning when God causes judgment to fall upon a nation or fall upon a people he's perfectly righteous and just in doing so there is no sin in God there is no transgression in God he brought this grief caused this grief caused

09:50

Babylon to come because of the transgressions of Jerusalem so he in these in these people of Babylon that came in and killed and murdered and plundered and took people off into slavery we look towards the end of the book of Jeremiah and we see how they will be judged by the same

10:09

God for the they've committed you say well that's not fair no there's a mystery in involved in this thing that could we learn on a much deeper level in eternity how this fits possibly

10:28

I tend to be more of the opinion that it's unlikely because I think there's something about us having a finite created existence with a finite mind that there's just some things about the infinite nature of God that our finite minds just simply are not able to understand and or reconcile and the idea that God could be the cause of something and have his decree and and use means use human beings and nations different means to accomplish his decree and purposes but at the same time not be the author of that is still the people themselves that are willfully choosing and loving and doing this sin how those two things can be true at the same time a lot of people wrestle over and try to figure out and anytime you have a reconciliation between the two or merge them you're giving up some of the truth of one or the other some people will massage one to gain on the other side but you cannot because our finite minds just that doesn't mean that they're not in the mind of God and what he does these things are perfectly compatible perfectly understandable and he has revealed enough to us for us to understand these things but what we have to do is let scripture speak and stop there and it is true that man alone is responsible for his own sin

11:57

God did not author it God did not cause it or force him to sin like some type of pulling strings on a robot or on a you know puppet at the same time it's very true that God has a decree

12:08

God has purpose God has everything he is sovereign over all events and certain things that is said that he directly causes these things

12:18

I imagine in other ways the way we would understand it might we simply allow or not intervene and let these things just sort of play out in other ways it says here specifically the

12:28

Lord caused her grief the Lord is responsible for this grief and this judgment that has come upon them there's no other way to read that but at the same time not only has the

12:47

Lord caused this grief it's only because of the greatness of Jerusalem sin their own transgressions now we have to let scripture speak in both of those lines there in verse 5 both are true you say well

13:06

I can't reconcile how that could be well we're finite creatures we have finite existences finite minds while we can be made in the image of God and certainly demonstrate the attributes of his that we can you know rational thought logic motion all these things there remains certain things about God that we never will be his all -powerful all places at all times he's the creator different things so there's certain things in certain attributes of God that we can't demonstrate there's also a vast universal difference to a degree of knowledge and understanding and there's a perspective

13:59

God has that we can't have and there's a way in which his mind is able to comprehend and think that we can't and so we are relied upon God revealing things to us and we need to be careful that we do not go beyond what scripture says or doesn't say to twist and mold to where it'll fit in our compact finite minds and that's something that sometimes the we deal with this on adventures with Calvinist man you know sometimes the reform folks and myself included we can we can do that on our side sometimes the

14:37

Armenian and anti -reformed or non -reformed will do that on their side in an attempt to reconcile these things and so we all need to do a good better job of not doing that and so it goes on it says her infants have gone away as captives before the adversary so notice not even the children are spared here you say what's mean of God she don't know it's sin sin caused this sin is the reason for this sin affects far more than you realize do you think a foreign enemy like Babylon coming in gives two rips about the children of Israel of Jerusalem no it doesn't mean anything

15:23

I mean people would look at this and say well that's just not right that's why I can't believe in God cuz he would allow their children to be it's no different our day in fact we probably have sacrificed more children on the altar of abortion than was killed in this event and we shake our fist at God anyway don't we the infants gone away and finally verse 6 so all her majesty has gone out from the daughter of Zion every bit of it everything that Jerusalem was everything that Jerusalem represented everything that that she was and is and was meant to be the glory the majesty the prestige

16:11

God completely gone taken away this majesty has gone out her princes have become like deer they have found no pasture there's nothing more sad than a herd of animals that can't find food there would be in such a place where there's no grass there's no food and when you study and look at animals and the the panic that they can go into I mean you study animals and if they really start getting hungry and there's no food they turn on each other pretty quickly they start eating their own fairly quickly and so now they're like that deer they're like that animal there's no pasture so they have fled without strength before the pursuer

17:05

Yahweh the Lord has brought this affliction because of the sins of the people which were in abundance and notice here that sin leaves the sinner helpless alone grieving afflicted without comfort restless bitter and much more if you remember when we covered

17:32

Isaiah 54 4 through 8 we who belong to Christ don't have to be enslaved we are redeemed now

17:41

God is going to redeem his people here he's going to bring them out of Babylon he's gonna bring them back to the city they're gonna rebuild the temple them and in fact in the book of Haggai we read how the older ones you know wept because the glory of this new temple was nothing like this one that got destroyed it just wasn't the same but he would redeem them but even that isn't even close to the full eternal redemption that's found in Jesus Christ spiritually for his people so I my friend if you are in sin if there's sin in your life if you've never been saved by the grace of God I encourage you to repent of your sin put your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ if you're a

18:27

Christian watching this and you have sin in your life I can assure you by the authority of God and his word looking at what happened to these people your sin will have an expiration date you'll have a day when

18:42

God will no longer be graceful and merciful and patient he will send judgment it may not be in this life maybe in the next your sin always has a way of finding you out we need to be accountable to one another we need to have things in place to protect us from those sins that beset us you don't want to end up in a place where someone's looking at your life and saying man do you remember who they used to be do you remember what they used to be do you remember how prominent they were we've had a recent example of this a well -known pastor had a sin that came to light and it's devastating it's sad we all need to be careful with our sin because our sins will find us out we need to protect ourselves from ourself sometimes and we shouldn't pile on we shouldn't shake our fists or say hey all this mockery stuff that we love to do it should make us mourn but the sin of others should not cause you as much grief as the morning you should have over your own sin your own sin which would deserve judgment and the wrath of God should cause you to mourn that you would sin in such a way against your