Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I want us to stand this morning as we're going to go to the Lord in prayer. And I just mentioned my nephew's accident there. I want to pray for my sister and her husband, Pauline and Pat, and then Derek and his wife Rachel, and just other needs in the church. There's so much going on in our church family. It just seems like every week I just keep coming and involved in many people's crisis.
[00:00:25] We have a large congregation, there's lots of challenges in people's lives. And I know that some of you, maybe you haven't even expressed your need, didn't feel comfortable coming forward, whatever the reason. But I think we can lift up our hands and say, lord, I have these concerns on my heart. I just want to cast all my cares on you. I want to leave them at your feet, let you to begin to untangle some of the challenges that we're faced with right now. You know, I think we should leave church differently than how we got here. I think we should leave full of hope and anticipation and joy. And if we've come heavy hearted and broken, why don't we just lift that to God and say, lord, I'm going to just leave that with you this morning. So Father, we just come before you today. We lift up these challenges. I think of my sister and her husband and my nephew and his wife and the thing that he's going through. Lord, I pray for speedy recovery. I pray for great grace in their lives. I pray for the challenges that I'm so aware of in our own church family, people that are addressing challenging diseases in their bodies. But Lord, we thank you that many of them are testifying to your grace, your sustaining power. And Lord, I just pray that that would continue. I pray for those that are walking through grief right now that you would encourage them, sustain them, that you're ever present with them, Lord, that you'll never leave us nor forsake us. And Lord, I just pray for maybe the heaviness that we're experiencing this morning. We want to leave that at your feet. Your word says, if we can, that we cast all our cares on you because we know that you care for us. And we thank you, Lord, even as we're going to hear this message today. You are the most compassionate, long suffering, patient, loving, caring individual. And Lord, we have confidence that you can do what humanity cannot do. You can do that which we deem humanly impossible. You're able to do it. And so we can cast all of these concerns to you. And I pray right now that we would sense an unusual sense of your presence today in our hearts and in our lives. In Jesus name. And God's people said amen. Amen. You may be seated. I don't know about you, but I really enjoyed the last two weeks in our church family. We looked at Psalm 23. I hope you were encouraged because we're moving right back to Jeremiah. This is a little more of an intense topic because we're looking at the last number of chapters in the book where Jeremiah, who is not only a messenger of God to his own nation, but he is a man who God has called him to speak to the nations of the world. Because God is not just the God of Israel, God is also the God of the nations, and God is the God of Canada, and he's the God of the United States, and he's the God of Israel, and he's the God of the Ukraine. He's the God of Russia. He's the God of every nation on this planet today. We need to understand something. God is watching over humanity. He understands our plight. He's been around for a long time from eternity, and he'll continue to exist because he's eternal in nature. And I think probably this understanding between love and justice, between love and judgment, how does this all fit into the equation? How can God be a loving God and still address, I think, sin in people's lives? And I think probably one of the most difficult aspects for some people to accept is within God's eternal character, is that he will address sin, he will judge it, and judgment is a part of justice, which is also an expression of love. Wait, what are you telling me, Pastor? Judgment is an expression of love? And I would say absolutely think about it. How can a loving God leave wickedness and injustice to continue without retribution and punishment to ultimately occur? I mean, how could you, you know, take a look at somebody abusing somebody and getting away with it and never having to answer for that behavior? That would be an unloving thing to do. So God is going to address that. How can God continue to allow people to be exploited? And the answer is he won't do that. He's going to address it. How can people. How can God, you know, allow those things? Well, how can God allow people to continually, as I said, be exploited? And then for other people, on the other side of the equation is they're amazed that God is patient and long suffering and he's not quickly judging those who. Who commit terrible atrocities. In other words, why doesn't God deal with this evil over here? Why Doesn't God address that, like right now?
[00:04:52] And so I think for others, what amazes us is God's patience, is God's long suffering. And not quickly judging those who commit terrible atrocities. We discover this is all part of God's characteristic. God is patience. In the end, as Stephen Shernock says, the end. Why God is patient.
[00:05:15] Excuse me, sorry, guys.
[00:05:19] Is to show his power.
[00:05:22] And you say, what kind of power?
[00:05:25] Well, sorry.
[00:05:29] I now discovered allergy season has just started, so I'm going to have to take antihistamines now. Well, what can I say?
[00:05:38] So in what way? He's the Lord over himself.
[00:05:42] God is literally able to restrain himself. He has an amazing ability to have self restraint. I don't know about you, but self restraint is pretty challenging sometimes. How many say that's probably true? Anybody ever struggle with self restraint? Well, God is able to do is this amazing self restraint that God reveals his goodness to our lives. And so Stephen Charnock, who wrote in the 17th century, believe it or not, a long time ago, he said he waits that he may be gracious. Goodness sets God upon the existence of patience. And patience sets many a sinner on running into the arms of mercy. What he's saying is because God is long suffering, God is waiting patiently for us to finally come to the realization that what we're doing isn't the right thing and that we would change our mind and that we would run to God for help. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Aren't you glad that God doesn't just start zapping people, you know, and they do the wrong thing? I'm glad God didn't zap me. I'd have been in a lot of trouble. I was doing a lot of wrong things and God got ahold of my life and turned me around. It's just. It's really great.
[00:06:51] Then he goes on to say that mercy, which makes God ready to embrace returning sinners, makes him willing to bear with them in their sins. In other words, he's. He's tolerating it and he waits their return. The object of patience is primarily man, or that's the 17th century. He's basically saying one of the expressions of God's patience. He's doing it for the sake of us as human beings. God is extremely patient with us. How many go, thank God he's patient with me? And that's what Charnock is telling us here for. Patience is properly a temporary sparing a person with a waiting of his relenting and a change of his injurious demeanor. That's a fancy way of saying God is tolerating us until we smarten up. That's my paraphrase of that 17th century theologian. God is finally saying, when you guys finally wake up, you'll smarten up, right? When you finally awaken to what you're doing, you'll finally realize, I got to stop doing this. This is actually not good.
[00:07:52] So what he, he's saying that God doesn't act rashly or harshly with us. He's allowing us time to realize that we're wrong and we need his forgiveness, we need his mercy, we need his grace. How many are thankful that God was patient with you? Anybody thankful for God's patience in your life? I got my hand. I'll put both hands up. I'm extremely happy God's patient with me.
[00:08:17] Okay? So having expressed this concept of God's kindness to us, we need also to understand that God will not acquit the wicked. In other words, he's not going to just, you know, acquitting somebody doesn't mean they're innocent. It just means they're letting him off the hook. God's not going to let people off the hook. He will not acquit obstinate sinners. As he has patience for the wicked, so he has mercy for the penitent. In other words, the only people that will experience God's mercy are the people who repent.
[00:08:47] We need to understand that, okay, the wicked are the subject of his long suffering, but not of his acquitting grace. He does not presently punish their sins because he is slow to anger, but without their repentance, he will not blot out their sins because he is righteous in judgment.
[00:09:10] If God should acquit them without repentance for their crimes, he must himself repent of his own law and righteous sanction of it. In other words, what Shonrak is saying is if God, you know, forgave everybody, no matter if they repented or not, God would be actually be going against himself because he's created these laws to protect humanity, so he has to uphold that which is good and righteous in this world. How many would like to live on a planet that everybody could do anything they wanted to and there was no punishment?
[00:09:44] How many think that might be a terrible place to be living?
[00:09:47] That would be scary, wouldn't it? And a lot of people have no self restraint. You can imagine how terrible this would be. And you know, there are places right now in our world where anarchy is reigning and it's a place where people are, you know, doing terrible things to each other and it's indiscriminate and I'm not even going to go into those details, but on Tuesday nights we've been made aware of a lot of things that are happening. And one particular country in our western hemisphere, that's the nation of Haiti, who are living in a state of complete anarchy. And what's happening there is absolutely painful here. Charnock is arguing that God, after, you know, God after showing great patience, will address all evil in a just manner. How many know that you and I, if we were to be the ones in charge of handing out justice, we probably wouldn't handle it probably right. We'd probably be too hard on some and not hard enough on others. How many say that's probably true, we just wouldn't know how to do it? Well, this is so because of his nature, he will not allow unrepentant sin to go unpunished.
[00:10:54] Here in these final chapters of Jeremiah, we have the prophecies that God gave to his prophet regarding the nations and their effect upon the nation of Israel and the outcomes of their lifestyles. Now, how many know that a lot of our problems in society is a result of the outcomes of our lifestyle?
[00:11:13] We see it all the time. You know, we could. And I'm not saying every bad thing that happens to a person is the outcome of their lifestyle. I'm going to make that caveat clear. But it is true that some people's lifestyle is so self destructive that, that the outcome of that lifestyle is terrible. And we see that all the time. So Jeremiah 48 is actually dealing with Israel's eastern neighbor, the Moabites, who've had a long history with Israel. And so let me just say this. Who were the Moabites? Well, let me just recap momentarily a little bit of their history. Their origins was, well, a little shady because the Moabites is actually the beginning. It came out of Lot's incestuous relationship with his oldest daughter. Remember, they fled Sodom and Gomorrah. They went and hid in the cave. The two girls decided, we're never going to have children. So they got their father drunk and they both became impregnated. The oldest daughter, she bore a son and she named him Moab. That's the beginning of the Moabites.
[00:12:19] Very challenging beginning. Later on, later on, they, you know, when Israel was about to come out of slavery and enter into the promised land, they ran into the Moabites again. And this time the king was called Balak. And if you know the story from Numbers. Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel. And when every time he tried to do it instead, he spoke blessing, Mr. Balaam decided he wanted to make a few shekels. So he said, I got a better way of doing this. This is not working. Tell you what you do, you're going to have to cause them to sin. And if you cause the Israelites to sin, God will punish them and do damage to them. And so the women of Moab seduced the men of Israel to indulge in sexual immorality and participate them with the worship of their gods. And how many know God wasn't happy with that, immediately judged them, and 24,000 people died in a plague.
[00:13:10] Wow, that's pretty intense. Oh, and during the period of the Judges, Elon of Moab oppressed Israel for 18 years. And then during King David's reign, he fought against them, eventually subjugated them. But when Israel became a divided monarchy, years later, they rebelled against Israel. They became their own kingdom. So an independent kingdom. So there are a number of things that I think we can learn from Jeremiah's prophecy of God's judgment on Moab, and we're going to see. You know, first of all, I know a lot of you are thinking, well, that's just ancient history, Pastor. How does that have any bearing on us? My point is going to be simply this. As we listen to what causes God's anger and judgment toward the Moabites, you better take in a deep breath, because everything they're guilty of doing, we are currently doing in Canada.
[00:13:58] And I think that's why this message is so relevant. You know, I said to Patty, I said, I was thinking about this, as, you know, we pray at night. And I was saying, I'm dealing with a very difficult chapter of the scripture. I'm going to talk about God's judgment on Moab. And I said, you know what strikes me? This book is so profound in so many ways. This is actually God's message to humanity. There's a lot of things God didn't say, but there's some things God says and we just ignore. How many think that may not be smart on our part to ignore what God is saying to us? You know, most of us probably wouldn't read this chapter, or if we did, we'd just ignore this chapter. But I want to take a look at this chapter because I think there's lessons to be learned. I would take notes because I think we need to understand some things. There are things that could be applied to us right Here and now in our lives. So what are the lessons? First one, what's the reasons that God brings judgment on a nation? Isn't that a great question? When will God judge a nation? Why will God judge a nation? We're going to look at the why. What causes God to address a nation's sins? There's the what? Okay. How does God warn us?
[00:15:08] And when we continue to ignore the warning, we begin to experience the judgment of God. So if God judged these ancient nations for their sins, why do we think he will not judge our nation for our sins?
[00:15:23] Question mark.
[00:15:25] I think he will. I think one of the things we see from our text is the inevitability of judgment. It will happen even though it hasn't happened.
[00:15:36] Remember, I just pointed out how long suffering and patient and good God is. He's really patient with people. But, you know, we've actually had 80 years. I'm going to call it unmitigated prosperity and affluence in North America. How many know that's true? Since World War II, we've had it good. That's 1945. This is 1925. 2025. We've had 80 years.
[00:15:57] Amazing. But you know what's happened in these 80 years? We're forgetting God. We are forgetting God.
[00:16:05] First of all, we need to know the certainty of judgment for sin concerning Moab. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, woe to Moab. Or to Nebo. Sorry, woe to Nebo, for it will be ruined. Kirithium will be disgraced and captured. The stronghold will be disgraced and shattered. The first word that God communicates to his messenger, Jeremiah, is woe. How many know woe is not a good word in the Bible? Woe is usually followed by a whole bunch of judgments. I mean, I've read Revelation. Woe, woe, woe.
[00:16:37] Prophet Isaiah, standing before God, has a revelation of the holiness of God and the first thing out of his mouth is, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. How many know when you stand in the presence of a total holy person, it's going to make you come unglued.
[00:16:55] Because standing in the presence of God, you're going to see yourself as you really are. You know, I was reading Psalm 36:2. It really struck me with impact this past week. I've read it many, many times. But you know what it says? One of the reasons we flatter ourselves so much that we're unable to detect our own sin.
[00:17:14] In other words, we have such a high opinion of ourselves. Many times we think we're a lot better than we really are. That's what it's really telling us. I would argue today that we probably have things in our lives that we're totally unaware of. When God looks at, he goes, that's terrible.
[00:17:28] And unless we pray the prayer, the psalmist prays, search me, O God, and see if there be any wicked way in me. And then, you know, basically cleanse me and lead me to the way everlasting. We're going to be tripped up by some of the stuff inside of us. So we need to be a little bit more humble and say, you know, there's probably things that need to change in my life that I may not be aware of.
[00:17:52] Well, Nebo was actually a Moabite community, but if you remember in scripture, it was actually the mountain that Moses went up, and that's where he ended up eventually. His last, last mountain he climbed. Because later on we find out Moses never descended from that mountain.
[00:18:08] Verse 2. Moab will be praised no more. In Hisbon, another city, people will plot her downfall. Come, let us put an end to that nation. You, the people of Mad men, will also be silenced. The sword will pursue you.
[00:18:23] Sorry.
[00:18:25] Hishbon and mad Men were both communities that were Moabite communities. But now they had been taken and fallen to an enemy. Most scholars believe that Babylon had already conquered these two communities, and they were plotting the demise of that city.
[00:18:44] Pardon me. Wow. Yeah, I know. This is bad.
[00:18:48] Cries of anguish arise for Horonam. Cries of great havoc and destruction. Moab will be broken. Her little ones will cry out. They will go up to the hill of Luhith, weeping bitterly as they go on. On the road down to Horenom, anguish cries over the destruction are heard. Flee. Run for your lives. Become like a bush in the desert. See, these cities listed are those of military pride and economic power. But human achievements fade in light of what God is about to accomplish in judging this nation. How many know, A lot of these nations think they're stronger than they really are, and all of a sudden, they just collapse. I'm going to tell you what the problem with countries are. They think they're strong externally, but they're rotting on the inside.
[00:19:33] And so they have no strength when the real crisis comes in life, because they have nothing inside to fortify them from what's going to happen without.
[00:19:42] Even though they might have all of the armaments and they might have all of the weaponry and have all of the military there. When the pressure comes, they just collapse because there's no internal fortitude. They've been decaying for so long morally that they just collapse from within.
[00:20:00] You know, most of us read a text like this and think to ourselves, ancient history, what does this have to do with us? But I think what we need to glean is a warning of what happens when we ignore God and live self sufficient and indifferent lives pursuing that which God warns against. And what should our response be? We should need to humble ourselves. You need to walk in humility before God. You know what they did. This is what God indicted them for. It says they trusted in themselves and their wealth.
[00:20:31] Since you trust in your deeds and riches, you too will be taken. And Shemos will go into exile together with his priests and officials. Here we have one of the reasons or indictment for judgment. They trusted in themselves and what they had accomplished. Doesn't that kind of sound like North America?
[00:20:49] Doesn't that sound like many countries that are very affluent today? They're trusting in themselves and their riches. They also worship Shemos, the name of their central God and the one in which they were sacrificing their children to.
[00:21:03] I think we can easily see parallels here in our own times where we see self reliance and financial security seems to be the purpose of far too many people's lives, even at the expense of our future and of our children.
[00:21:18] Now I could say so much more about that, but I'll leave it there. Walter Brueggemann says the assault is upon the power structure, its leaders and its religious ideology which has fostered and legitimated a false perception of reality.
[00:21:34] I'm going to get back to that idea. This is so profound. I think we are actually living in a false, false sense of reality right now. And we don't even realize it. How's that? We've been drinking the Kool Aid so long we have no idea what's going on. Some people are awakening and saying, I don't know what to believe anymore. You know what I would say? You need to believe this. You need to believe what God has to say. Because I agree there's a lot of deception out there.
[00:22:02] The destruction is going to be total. This is total destruction. Look at verse 8. The destroyer will come against every town and not a town will escape. The valley will be ruined and the plateau destroyed because the Lord has spoken. It says, put salt on Moab, for she will be laid waste. Her towns will be desolate with no one to live in them. Put salt on Moab, for she will be laid waste. Her Towns will become desolate. Oh, I've already read that. Okay.
[00:22:34] Such a devastating destruction. It's totally all inclusive. Every community is going to be affected. There's going to be an absence of survivors. The pictures of a lack of future fertility. Tremper Longman says the destruction of Moab will be extensive. Even total mention is made of every town. Valley, plateau will be ruined. Not only that, but. But the call goes out to put salt on it. This was a symbolic act of complete devastation as well as a method of keeping the ground from producing crops.
[00:23:06] The sense of the urgency in dealing with the sin of Moab is stated in a very unusual manner. God pronounces a curse on anyone who is lax in doing the work of judgment upon Moab. Very interesting text. He says, a curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord's work. If we just left it there, we'd go, well, he's talking about serving God. No, listen. Yeah, but unusually serving God. A curse on anyone who keeps their sword from bloodshed. In other words, I'm assigning Babylon to destroy Moab.
[00:23:40] And don't be lax about it. You're actually my agent is what God is saying. Here's another indictment against Moab. Is there complacency and indifference because of her past security? Philip Rykin explains the nature of this attitude. Perhaps the best word to describe the pride of the Moabites is complacency, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines a smug self satisfaction. Jeremiah uses the analogy of wine to describe her current and ultimately her future condition because Moab was noted for its vineyards.
[00:24:14] So it's a very fitting description. Verse 11. Moab has been at rest from youth, like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another. She has not gone into exile, so she has tasted as she did, and her aroma is unchanged. What does that all mean? It just means simply that like wine that's been left alone, it's aging well.
[00:24:36] But it's about to change. Moab has been speared in the past from other terrible, devastating things that have happened to other countries. She's been left alone and so she's become very complacent. How many know that when you don't have threats and challenges and crisis, you can fall into a state of complacency.
[00:24:59] And how many people you know that their lives are going really smooth and well and they become very complacent?
[00:25:06] Isn't that true? You know, James actually says, consider pure joy when you have these trials. You know, trial sometimes keeps you sharp it keeps you praying. It keeps you making adjustments in your life. It keeps you growing. It keeps you looking to God for wisdom and help in that time. These are not all bad things, you know. When everything is going good for you, that's usually when we kind of drift.
[00:25:29] There's a lot of people drifting.
[00:25:32] North Americans have been drifting for a long time. Notice I'm including two countries, because I think it's true of both.
[00:25:40] So this is what God says. But days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will send men who pour from pitchers, and they will pour her out, and they will empty her pitchers, and they will smash her jars. Then Moab ashamed of Shemos, as Israel was ashamed when they trusted in Bethel. Now these. I know this is poetry, but it's saying something. It says, rather than being winemakers, Moab is about to be the end product of a wine that would be poured from pitcher to pitcher and then smashed. In other words, she would be totally destroyed, her confidence in her false God like Israel's confidence in her idols at a place called Bethel, which was the house of God, but which is where Israel was actually practicing idolatry. How many think that's ironic? Remember, they had idols in Bethel. This is called the House of God. They even practiced idolatry there. This false confidence would be taken into exile, just like the northern kingdom, Israel was taken into Assyria and captivity. Now Babylon would take Moab into captivity, just like they're going to take the southern neighbors, Judah, into captivity. How can you say we're warriors, men valiant in battle.
[00:26:46] Moab will be destroyed and her towns invaded. Her finest young men will go down in the slaughter, declares the king, whose name is the Lord Almighty. This is God's making, this pronouncement. The fall of Moab is at hand. Her calamity will come quickly. Mourn for her, all you who live around her. All who know her fame, say, how broken is the mighty scepter. The scepter speaks of the rod of leadership. How broken the glorious staff.
[00:27:13] Come down from your glory. Sit on the parched ground, you inhabitants of the daughter Debon. For the one who destroys Moab will come up against you and ruin your fortified cities. Debon actually at this time was the capital of Moab.
[00:27:27] How powerful is this poetic picture of the demise of Moab? By almighty God. He's the God of all the nations. We need to understand this. And all nations will give an account to our God. Here we see fugitives are fleeing for safety. Verse 19. Stand by the road and watch you who live in area. Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping asks them what has happened. Like, in other words, how many have ever seen pictures of war? And then you see all these fugitives fleeing, you know, while armies are racing about, you see a whole group of people fleeing for their lives. Fugitives. This is what's happening to Moab. They're fleeing the capital.
[00:28:10] And so the answer is simply, the nation is being devastated. Verse 20. Moab is disgraced, for she is shattered. Wail and cry out, Announce by the Arnon that Moab is destroyed. Judgment has come to the plateau. To Halon, Jaza and Mithoth, To Deba, Nebo, Beth, Debothan. I love all of their names in their town. Just a mouthful, isn't it?
[00:28:36] Okay, so we're going to skip over. It just says, Moab's horn is cut off, her arm is broken, declares the Lord. In other words, she's unable to defend herself. So once again, another charge now is going to be brought against Moab. She's defied God. How did she do that?
[00:28:51] He says, make her drunk, for she has defiled the Lord. Let Moab wallow in her vomit. Let her be an object of ridicule. Was not Israel the object of your ridicule? Basically charging Moab with this? Was she caught among thieves, that you shake your head in scorn wherever you speak of her? Abandon your towns and dwell among the rocks you who live in Moab. Be like a dove that makes its nest at the mouth of a cave. So actually, how did Moab defy God? Well, it was seen in her attitude towards our neighbor Israel.
[00:29:22] Walter Brueggemann says Moab has treated Israel with contempt. This is the way in which Moab has violated Yahweh, this sin against the brother, because they're actually connected. Abraham's nephew was Lot. So there's a connection. It is indeed a sin against God. Moab does not love the brother whom it has seen, surely does not love God whom it has not seen. In other words, what he's saying is the way we treat the people around us is really the measure to which God evaluates if we truly love him. So the way I'm treating people. The way you're treating people is seen really indicative of how we truly think of God, because every person is made in the image of God. Do we treat those unlike ourselves as if they are less than ourselves? Do we have a superiority attitude? Do we despise those who are less fortunate? As I've said, the way we treat people is a reflection of. Of how we see God. Another sin that brought down the nation of Moab was her arrogance and her pride. We have heard of Moab's pride. How great is her arrogance, of her insolence, her pride, her conceit and the haughtiness of her heart. In poetry these are all words that are very similar. They're actually an alliterated word. But we don't get that in English. I know her insolence, but it's futile, declares the Lord. And her boasting accomplishes nothing. Now you can say all you want to, but you're not going to accomplish what you think you will. God's the one that determines things.
[00:30:47] I know her insolence is, but futile.
[00:30:51] So as Bruegerman says, Moab had thought it was outside the arena of Yahweh's sovereignty or God's sovereignty and could do what it wanted.
[00:31:02] In other words, she didn't really know who Yahweh was. She didn't really submit to him. She didn't even understand the reality of who he is.
[00:31:11] For the indictment of haughtiness and insolence has substance only in a world where he God is the decisive point of reference.
[00:31:19] In other words, let's just apply it right now. People who don't believe in God, do you think they're concerned about what God thinks? They don't even think God exists. This is the point Brueggemann is making. Goes on to say what Moab does has no substance because there is a quality of unreality about its life, an unreality rooted in a lack of reality about its relation to God.
[00:31:46] So what does that mean? It means simply this. There's a lot of people out here that don't believe in God and they're acting as if, you know, their life is all that matters. But the life without God is a life of not true reality. It's a distorted picture of life. Moab treats Yahweh as unreal. And the outcome, however, is not that Yahweh is made unreal by Moab, but that the life of Moab becomes a self destructive unreality. And isn't this exactly what happens when people go, I don't believe in God, and they just go about and live their own lives and then pretty soon they're living a self destructive lifestyle and you see it all the time. That's what he's arguing about.
[00:32:26] So just because people deny the reality of God does not make God unreal. It just means they don't know God.
[00:32:34] Rather, the great tragedy is they destroy themselves. Let me move on. The second thing we learn from God's judgment is the grief God experiences in judgment. Do you know God takes no pleasure in judging the wicked? God has no pleasure in that. That. Do you realize that?
[00:32:53] Matter of fact, in Genesis, chapter six, it said, and it grieved God that he had created man. He grieves over it. He weeps over it. Because he has a loving heart. He cares about us. We're made in his image. He's compassionate. He's gracious. He's loving. And here we hear the words of Jeremiah. He's the weeping prophet. There's a reason for it, because he's reflecting God. Therefore, I will wail over Moab for all Moab. I cry out. I mourn for the people of Kherosheth. This is the name of Moab, one of their key cities. What is he saying? Jeremiah is weeping over them.
[00:33:32] God is weeping over them. I weep for you as Gezer weeps. You, vines of Shema, your branches spread as far as the sea. They reach as far as Jazer the destroyer has fallen on your ripened fruit and grapes.
[00:33:46] So what's happening? God is weeping over the fact that they're being judged, but yet God is judging them.
[00:33:54] He's not enjoying this. He's weeping as he's doing it, because he just goes, this is so tragic.
[00:34:00] God allows the results of their labors to be taken from them. Isn't that sad? Isn't it tragic that people sometimes are so caught up in living an affluent lifestyle, chasing after the almighty dollar? And then God goes, now I'm going to judge you. And he takes everything away.
[00:34:17] And God does it. He's done it more than once. He's done it many times.
[00:34:23] Joy and gladness are gone from the orchards and field of Moab.
[00:34:31] I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses. No one treads them with shouts of joy. Although there are shouts, they are not shouts of joy. Joy.
[00:34:40] I don't know where this whole section went. Okay, in Moab. Okay, I see it. In Moab. I'll put an end to those who make offerings on the high places and burn incense to their gods, declare the Lord. So my heart laments for Moab like the music of a pipe. It laments like a pipe for the people of Kherosheth. The wealth they have acquired is gone. So what God himself is saying, I'm weeping over you. You. I'm weeping over you. And I just wanted to bring this out so that we see it very closely when we reject God. We reject what God brings into our lives. What we're rejecting is joy and meaning in our lives. You know what I noticed in a lot of people's lives? A lack of joy and a lack of meaning because there's a lack of God. You see, when there's God, there's joy and there's meaning.
[00:35:29] It's interesting that when Jesus came onto the city of Jerusalem in that final week. This is the verses I read to you just a little earlier. He says, as he approached Jerusalem, saw the city, wept over it, and he said, if you even you had only known this day what would bring you peace. But it's now hidden from your eyes. You don't get it. You're not seeing what's happening. I'm trying to bring you this amazing one. The Messiah was there.
[00:35:57] But he says, the day will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. And they'll dash you to the ground. You and the little children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. It's kind of tragic, isn't it? I mean, God had been speaking to them for a long time, just ignored it.
[00:36:20] So how does this waywardness of others affect our lives?
[00:36:24] You know, we could sit down and say, well, yeah, but I'm okay, Pastor. I'm doing what God wants me to do. I'm well, yeah, but I want you to look at our nation. We're a part of that. If our nation suffers, what's going to happen?
[00:36:35] We're going to suffer. Does everybody know that? We can't just divorce ourselves just because we say, I'm not doing what they're doing. God. God goes, yeah, I know you're not doing what they're doing, but we're a part of what's going on here. We kind of rise and fall with this country, do we not?
[00:36:50] You know, Philip Reichen explains what should be happening to us as the mounting rebellion against God is in our nation. And this is what he says.
[00:36:58] Christians who have a heart of Christ share his pity for the lost. We should be weeping over our country. They're deeply affected by the realities of impending judgment. They're mournfully aware of the desperate spiritual condition of unbelievers. They are firmly convinced of the necessity of turning to Jesus Christ, Christ for salvation. For Christians who pattern their lives after the life of Christ, evangelism is an act of the heart. As well as the will. In other words, we have to be concerned about others. You know, are we praying for those that, you know, we know in our community, we'll just pick on our community. Do we pray for other people? Are we concerned? Are we praying for them? Are we trying to let our light shine? Do we do good to them? Would we bless them? Do we. We try to help them see that there's another way to live. See, that's important. We want to communicate Christ to people.
[00:37:49] Divine opportunities are presented to us, but if we fail to respond to them and turn to God, even when people have those opportunities presented to them, if they fail to turn to God, it breaks God's heart. That's what it does. The end result is judgment. That's true for us as individuals, and it's true for us as nations. Let me go to the final thing we learned.
[00:38:12] There's no escape from it, no escape from God's judgment. Judgment is coming to our world.
[00:38:19] When you read Scripture, how many have ever read that expression in your Bible, the day of the Lord?
[00:38:23] Okay, the day of the Lord is a day of judgment. When Jesus comes back, it's not a day of salvation, it's a day of judgment. It's a salvation to those who know him, but it's judgment to everybody else.
[00:38:35] You know, it's like we're like in Noah. We're kind of the Noahites, if I could say it that way. We're in the ark and we're doing what God wants us to do, and we're telling people, you need to repent. And a lot of people think we're a bunch of idiots until the rain starts falling.
[00:38:53] And the problem is God closed the door on the ark, not Noah. He shut the door when people were banging to get in. There was no. The day had come and gone. The day, day of grace had ended because Noah had preached for 100 years. That's a long time nobody listened. But his family, they were in, thank God, you say, well, I want to see people in the end. Result of rebellion is always judgment. You know, sin always brings death. There's no escaping the result of sin apart from repentance and God's grace in our lives. Every head is shaved, he said. Every beard cut off, every hand is slashed, and every wrist is covered with sackcloth. This is speaking of mourning. On the roofs in Moab and in the public squares, there's nothing but mourning, for I have broken Moab like a jar that no one wants, declares the Lord. You know, it's really interesting the world's going to try to seduce you, talk you into going their way. And then when they've used you, they'll just throw you to the curb. That's what happens. That's the way of the world. That's the way of sin. How shattered she is, how they wail, how Moab turns her back in shame. Moab has become an object of ridicule, an object of horror to all those around her. This is what the Lord says. Look, an eagle is swooping down, spreading its wings over Moab. In other words, it's a picture of a predator coming to capture them and destroy them. Cherith will be captured and the strongholds taken. In that day, the hearts of Moab's warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor. They'll be in great pain.
[00:40:24] Moab will be destroyed as a nation because she defied the Lord.
[00:40:30] Do you know, pardon me, proud nations have been brought down by God before.
[00:40:34] We only have to look at the 20th century to see what's happened. Nations rise, they become aggressive and then they're devastated by other nations.
[00:40:44] Don't you think World War II was a judgment? Of course it was.
[00:40:50] You know, I could easily point out. Look at. Let's take a look at Germany, Japan and Italy. We could see they rose up and then God, they became, you know, haughty and proud and God just crushed them. But then I think of a nation like Britain. A lot of us think, oh, they were on the good side. Pastor, what are you talking about? Wait a minute. Do you know Britain had an Empire for 200 years and they became haughty and proud.
[00:41:16] Were they punished in the second 20th century?
[00:41:20] Let me tell you, you didn't want to be living in London during the Second World War when the blitzkrieg landed. You know, I have read all about this stuff. 800,000 homes were destroyed in London after World War II. It took them five years. These people were still living in rations five years after the war, trying to rebuild their nation. And they never regained their economic ability. They never came back to becoming a world power. God humbled them. He brought them down.
[00:41:49] You know, I think we need to understand something, folks. God's been doing this all along. This isn't just in ancient history. This isn't just in the Bible. This is a continuation that goes on and on and on. And I want you to take a look at our nation. 80 years of unmitigated prosperity. We have become arrogant, proud, self sufficient. We have had very little difficulty and problems, but you know, those Days may come right to an end.
[00:42:18] We need to understand what's going on here.
[00:42:22] If we perpetuate the sins of Moab in our nation or any other nation that's flourishing today, we're only a step away from sin entrapping us and bringing devastation upon us. And God warns us through the book of Jeremiah that though we may avoid one calamity, another will follow. We're just not going to get rid of them. Listen, what it says in verse 43. It's inescapable. You know, there's no escaping this apart from God. Terror and pit and snare await you, you people of Moab, declares the Lord. Whoever flees from the terror will fall into a pit, and he will be caught in a snare. For I will bring Moab the year of her punishment, declares the Lord. In the shadow of Heshbon, the fugitives stand helpless. For a fire has gone out from Heshbon ablaze from the midst of Sihon, and it burns the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of the noisy boasters. Woe to you, Moab. The people of Shemos. That's the God, their main God. The people of Shemos are destroyed. Your sons are taken into exile, and your daughters into captivity.
[00:43:29] What a terrible picture.
[00:43:32] You're going. This is a downer, Pastor.
[00:43:36] But you know what? This is amazing. We've just covered 46 verses. So what's the last verse?
[00:43:43] It's a word of grace.
[00:43:45] Because God always keeps extending grace. It's just his nature. It says here, yet I will restore.
[00:43:56] Restore. I will have them turn back to me.
[00:44:00] I will turn them around. I will restore the fortunes of Moab in days to come, declares the Lord. Here ends the judgment of Moab.
[00:44:10] Well, even though we have warnings in Scripture and the Bible speaks of judgment to come, the great theme of Scripture is what?
[00:44:18] It's redemption.
[00:44:20] You know, there's major themes in the Bible, but the great theme, the ultimate theme, is salvation.
[00:44:27] God says, yes, you've sinned against me, but I have a plan to restore you. I have a plan to redeem you. I have a plan to save you.
[00:44:37] Let me go. Thank God for the final word being grace.
[00:44:41] Yeah, I've just spent the whole message focusing on judgment, but now it closes with grace. Thank God Walter Brueggemann says this. This is an observation, and I agree with it. God speaks this way. This is a pretty intense message because of the establishment of God's hegemony, which means his leadership and dominance over the nations because it's so crucial to their well being. In other words, if God is our God as a nation, we can be assured of being blessed.
[00:45:15] Blessed are the people whose God is what? The Lord, that we're under His Lordship.
[00:45:24] I agree with this.
[00:45:27] May we begin to cry out to God for mercy on our nation and the nations of our world that we would submit to God's gracious leadership by humbling ourselves before him and treating one another as he would have us do, with loving concern.
[00:45:42] We need to understand that we are accountable to God and the reasons for judgment are clearly stated as pride, self sufficiency, trusting in ourselves and earthly riches while ignoring God and others want to check off all those boxes?
[00:45:56] Are we guilty of that as a nation? How many say pride, self sufficiency, trusting in ourselves and earthly riches, ignoring God and ignoring our others.
[00:46:06] How many say guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
[00:46:11] We need to understand when we're guilty and we won't repent, all that's left is judgment.
[00:46:20] But God is grieving and weeping over our folly. But there's only one escape. There is an escape. We embrace his redemptive provision because he died for our sins so that we can be made anew and restored back into the image through his love and grace. Let's stand a little more sober today, guys. You know you can't always be preaching Jesus Loves yous. Though I did end with that. He does love us, so I did preach it. It's just that I spent a long time talking about maybe we have to take a look at what we're really doing and are we behaving like this?
[00:47:00] Amen.
[00:47:02] You know, so a lot of times we walk around and I know people talk politics till we're blue in the face and we have an election coming and everyone's excited and saying this and that and the other thing can I say, unless this nation humbles itself and repents, I don't care who the leader is, we are in big time trouble.
[00:47:21] Are we hearing the message?
[00:47:23] So what am I needing to do? I need to get on my face before God and I need to say to him, lord, help me not to flatter myself so much that I can't see that there may be things in me that need to change.
[00:47:36] I need to say, lord, if I'm indifferent to the fact that you're weeping over my country and I'm not weeping with you, something's wrong here.
[00:47:47] And if I'm not concerned about my neighbor the way you're concerned about them, I got a problem here because I'm part of the problem. And not part of the solution. I can get so caught up with this life and my little world and my little game plan that I'm totally missing God. What is it you want me to do?
[00:48:07] You know, it's really not about what you want. It's about what he wants. And can I. I've said this so many times. When we get up in the day, first thing I do, I like saying the Lord's Prayer. I'll tell you why not. My will be done, but yours. Amen. Thy kingdom come.
[00:48:24] Your will be done.
[00:48:26] Give me today what I need. Your daily bread. Lord, help me to be a forgiving person today. Forgive those who trespass against us.
[00:48:37] Right.
[00:48:38] Even as you've forgiven me my trespass us. And lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one.
[00:48:46] Because he's out there roaring, seeking whom he may devour.
[00:48:50] I don't want to be devoured by him. And you know what? I don't want you to be devoured by him. I don't want the city of Red Deer to be devoured by the enemy of our souls. I don't want this nation to be devoured by the enemy of our souls. Do you.
[00:49:05] How many say, pastor, I want to start praying.
[00:49:08] You know, I look at our church. We have a beautiful church. I love you people, but we could pray more.
[00:49:16] We could pray more. We could start there. I really think if we're going to change, it starts with connecting with God. How many say, that's probably true.
[00:49:24] Can I invite you to come and pray and say, God, would you help me? Help me to get in step with you? You have a plan that supersedes anything I have.
[00:49:37] Lord, I want our church family to be difference makers. I want you to be the light and the salt in this community. I want you to have an impact in people's lives. I want to see people's lives transformed because your life is transformed.
[00:49:55] So, Lord, help me as a pastor to be transformed starts with me. Change me.
[00:50:01] Change me so that you are changed. Change me so that my family's changed. Change me, Lord, so that my neighborhood has changed. Change me, Lord, so that my community has changed. Change us, Lord, so that our nation is changed. And, Lord, we do pray. Search us today.
[00:50:21] See if there be any wicked way in me, in us.
[00:50:27] And if there is, Lord, forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. Because you are a loving father.
[00:50:36] You are a forgiving father. You are a patient father. You are a caring, compassionate father. You only want what is best for each and every one of us. So help us embrace you, your will and your purposes. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave this morning.
