The Coming Government

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” (Jer 23:5 AV)

As I age, I am taken aback by the lack of quality in human leadership.  This is not typical of one nation only.  Rather, it seems to be pandemic.  It doesn’t matter if the government is that of a banana republic, or one of an advanced and civilized culture.  It seems the closer we get to the end of days, the less maturity, humility, and genuine servitude is missing from our leadership.  We stand back and watch two and a half parties destroy one another for no other reason to gain control.  They use the people whom they govern for their own selfish ends.  These problems even infiltrate the body of Christ.  It is becoming an ever-increasing problem of zeal and ego over servitude.  The sheep are seen as chattel to meet the ambitions of a zealous opportunist whose goal is to gain a name.  Few are the servants whose heart is with the condition of the individual sheep and more on attaining some goal by the means which the sheep supply.   The promise above puts and end to all of this nonsense.

There is coming a day when the LORD will return.  He will set up His kingdom here on Earth and there will be no more need for human government.  IT reminds me of a classroom when the teacher steps out for a bit.  Or the playground without adult supervision.  A great number of injustices happen in these instances.  I know.  I received my lion’s share worth of it.  It is interesting to take note of the nature of human beings.  A school is a laboratory of it.  I remember my grade school and the way the administration broke up the population into different groups so that all of us were not in the playground all at the same time.  I remember distinctly sitting in a classroom while another group was out during recess.  I also remember those of us in the classroom gazed out the windows at those playing.  But in our heart of hearts, we were looking to see if a fight was going to break out.  Some secretly wished one would.  Watch other play was boring.  Watch two ruffians go at it was not.  That is our nature when no one of authority is watching over us.

Like the book Lord Of The Flies, it is our nature to do evil.  Only with the presence of the LORD Jesus Christ will this world be any better for it.  The promise of His return is a promise of justice.  The promise of His return is a promise of lasting peace.  The promise of His coming is a promise of paradise on earth which no wickedness can corrupt.  This promise above is one that gets us through this life.  It is a promise that tells us that as bad as the present is, the future is eternally brighter!  Done deal!

For The Goodness Of God, Turn

“If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” (Jer 18:8-10 AV)

Under our current government, our nation is experiencing a revival of sorts.  If we were to look strictly at economic growth and religious liberty, it would appear that God is once again smiling on our nation.  However, we need to remember we have a long way to go.  What is terrifying is to think of what might happen to this great nation of ours if the financial rug is pulled right out from under us.  True: the stock market has made historic gains.  True:  the unemployment situation is at an all time low.  True:  we now have more constitutional judges on federal benches and never before.  True: Christians feel they are beginning to have some protection at a time when they feel an ever-increasing attack from those who hate God.  All these events and more point to good news on the immediate horizon.  However, at the same time our great nation has made it legal to kill the unborn and the newly born at any and all stages of gestation and life.  We have legalized same-sex marriage.  We have opened the most private areas of our public lives to the intrusion of the sodomite.  We are on the verge of legalizing more and more substance abuse.  On the one hand, there are great strides back to what made the United States different from all other nations and brought upon her God’s blessings.  On the other, we have not learned the lessons of history and are careening towards the edge of a cliff.  The promise above was for Israel and can be for the United States as well.

At our core, we are still a Judao-Christian nation.  The MSM would have us believe it is the minority.  But we are not.  For all his faults, Jerry Falwell was right.  We are the silent majority.  At heart, we are still a nation that believes that God is real and worthy of worship.  Sure, the majority are still carnal.  But they, or we, have a foundation that other nations do not.  We are not secular.  No matter what the MSM wants us to believe, we are spiritual.  We have some values whose foundations are found in the word of God.  That is why poll after poll still reflects a majority belief that abortion, in some form, is still morally wrong.  That is why a recent poll has found that young people ages 18-34 have decreased their support for the LGBTQ lifestyle by 38%.  These things may have peaked.  Perhaps we are seeing a turn back towards those principles upon which the great nation was founded.

But we cannot quit.  Now is the time when the church needs to rise up!  Not for political gain.  Not for a single issue that happens to stir our passions.  Rather, we need to rise up and loudly proclaim the liberty that is in Christ!  All these issues will be solved if the hearts and minds our God founded nation turn back towards God.  Gone will be the sexual revolution that had produced an increase in numbers of murdering the unborn.  Gone will be the gender confusion as more and more souls find their acceptance in Christ rather than touting some gender identification that gains them affirmation and attention.  The gospel has always, and will always, be the answer for the trouble that ails mankind.  We need to turn back!  Turn back so that God can bless us again.

Spot Remover Needed

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” (Jer 13:23 AV)

The word ‘…accustomed…’ here means taught and disciplined.  Without getting into a debate about total depravity, this word does not mean a fatal condition which one cannot escape.  This condition of evil is something attained.  Not something which one is forced to live with.  This is important to realize.  The context is unrepentant Judah.  They started out completely surrendered to the LORD.  Back in Joshua’s time, they vowed to follow the LORD and His law.  They faltered in their immaturity of Judges.  But God gave them kings that led them in the ways of the LORD.  They also refused to deal with kings that did not.  Judah learned to worship idols as well as lust after the flesh from their ungodly neighbors.  This is where this word comes in.  Their neighbors taught them to backslide.  Their neighbors, through treaties and trade, gave the tools of discipline that resulted in Judah being perpetually backslidden.  What we want to consider this morning is the condition of perpetual and habitual sin that becomes so ingrained that nothing can change it.  Like the color of one’s skin or the spots of a leopard, bad habits can become a permanent lifestyle.

Working at a restaurant is not the best place to work if one wants to eat healthy.  I worked in a pizzeria for about seven years.  You would think being around pizza for twelve hours a day would make one disgusted with it after a while.  Not so.  There was a bad habit we pizza makers had upon which management frowned.  Working as hard, fast, and long as we did, we often went without eating.  So, we would help ourselves to a pepperoni sandwich. A very simple snack and one which the cook could sneak without much notice.  Take a single slice of pepperoni, put come mozzarella cheese in the center, fold it over, and throw it in one’s mouth.  It wasn’t so much about eating the profits as it was customers seeing us throw something in our mouths while over the ingredient counter.  It got to be such a habit it was almost automatic.  The temptation of being around food while not having the down time to eat was too overwhelming.  We could not help ourselves.  But it was still wrong.

We can get into habits of evil, that if not rejected and fought, will become a permanent habit of life.  Think on that one.  A permanent state of defeat.  Like being overweight; which I am.  My phone as notified my that I am officially obese.  If I do not change my habits, I will die that way.  It is not so much the condition as it is the stigma of permanent defeat.  Having to admit that we have permanently lost is something that should bother us.  Perhaps the consequences of our choices will never change us.  But the fact that we lost should.  If we are to change the spots, we need a new discipline.  If we are to change what we are, then what we do cannot continue.  It is that simple.

Someone Needs To Care

“They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.” (Jer 12:11 AV)

Paul said something similar in Philippians 2:20. “For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.” (Php 2:20 AV) In Philippians, the concern was a bit different.  Paul could not think of someone who would naturally care.  In other words, he could not think of someone who would have a burden because of mutual background, need, or culture.  Paul’s statement was not a statement against callousness.  Rather, the LORD would need to raise someone up who’s nature it would be to care for this need.  In Jeremiah’s passage, the land lay spiritually desolate because no one cared.  Naturally or otherwise.  In short, for the work of God to flourish, it starts with caring.

I am reminded of David’s words to the armies of Israel when confronted by Goliath.  “Is there not a cause?”  Apathy is the death knell of the church.  We have gotten used to the lack of response from the world and allowed apathy or down right antagonistic attitudes to steal away our passion for the truth.  We have allowed push back from the world to drain us of our passion for the souls of others.  We have given up because we see no immediate results.  We are reminded of the good Samaritan.  What made him different was he was willing to look at a need and lay it to heart.  Caring is not something for which we are absolved if we do not feel it.  Caring is something that we choose to feel or not feel.  Like any emotion, it can be exercised or ignored.  Just like lust, envy, compassion, or joy.  These are emotions that sometimes come naturally, but at other times, can be exercised at will.

Churches are declining all across the board.  It is not a United States problem.  It is not a European problem.  It is a world-wide problem.  We are dying because we are not laying it to heart.  Our lives are filled with the temporary blessings of this life.  Our families, recreation, the pursuit of happiness; as those goals are the highest to attain.  But these things will not last.  They are temporary.  Only the spiritual will last.  And no man layeth to heart.  It is not the attacks of the devil.  There were far more in the first century of the church, yet they grew.  It is not our busy lives.  We have more inventions to make our lives easier and more convenient.  It is not even the rejection of the gospel.  Mankind has been doing that since Abels’ time.  It is simply that no man layeth it to heart.  If we are to see revival, we have to care.  Period.

Mourning Is Natural and Necessary

“For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” (Jer 8:21-22 AV)

These words are the prophet’s words.  The idea of blackness of face is one of mourning.  Either absent of the light of life, or, application of the ashes of mourning.  He asks a question that gives understanding to the cause of his mourning.  Not so much the condition of the sinfulness of his people, but rather, the cure is rejected.  There is a balm.  There is a physician.  Yet, the people will not be healed of their backsliding.

As a man of God, it is important to feel the troubles and trials of those to whom God as called us to minister.  Reading Jeremiah is good for the man of God.  In chapter five, the LORD tells Jeremiah that he will preach with no results.  The people will not harken.  They will not listen.  They will not repent of their sin and their lives will be irreversibly changed.  They will go off to captivity and the glory that once was Judah will be lost.  Trouble awaits them because they will not turn back to God.  The man of God can do two things.  He can preach, knowing there will be no results, and shield himself from emotional damage.  Or, he can allow the condition of the people to bother him.  Initially, Jeremiah did the later.  He mourned over the obstinate nature of his people.  He could see the result of the choices they made before these results came to be.  He knew the end from the beginning.  And, it bothered him.  However, this caused burnout.  Just a few chapters later, Jeremiah couldn’t do it anymore.  This didn’t last long as the fire of truth burned deep within his soul.  Effective ministry must allow for the sins of the people to bother the man of God.  He must allow his emotions to be stirred by the condition of which he finds the sheep.  He cannot allow himself to become calloused to the point he simply doesn’t care anymore.

This temptation is all too easy.  Every man of God goes through this cycle.  The Jeremiah cycle.  It’s not that the cease to care.  It is because they did care a lot and it got them nowhere.  The spent emotional energy in weeping and praying over their people, only to have things remain as they always were.  As a final word to those who are not called of God to preach and pastor:  If you want your preacher to last the duration, then respond to his ministry.  Know that he loves you and cares for you.  He is troubled at your condition.  But if you do not change, he will inoculate himself against further emotional damage and begin the process of calcification.  Keep him tender towards you be keeping yourself tender to the truth of the word of God.  Let him know his ministry is making a difference in your life and share those specifics.  Let him know of a particular choice you made because of a truth he shared.  It goes a long way in encouraging him to throw of the face of mourning and the astonishment of heart.

Repentance is More Than Skin Deep

“For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.” (Jer 4:3 AV)

How deep is our repentance?  Is it only skin deep?  Does it go all the way down to that part of the heart and soul which results in the destruction of hurtful actions, thoughts, or disposition?  Is our repentance temporary?  Or, is it final?  Once we have forsaken our sin, do we quickly allow it right back into our hearts?  This is the command given to Judah.  They had a variety of kings whose character varied from doing right to doing evil.  Unlike Israel whose kings only did evil in the sight of the LORD, Judah had some good kings among the bad.  There were times when they did right before the eyes of the LORD excluding the high places.  Perhaps this is to what the LORD is referring.  Partial repentance is no repentance at all.  The thorns still remain.

Few remember the dust bowl of the 1930’s.  It was the practice of farming to disc the land which would break up the soil, turn in over, and prepare it for planting.  During the 1930’s, there was a drought in Texas and Oklahoma that resulted in a great dust storm, eroding away the top soil of many farms.  Since then, it has become an increasing practice to shock the fields with chemicals to kill weeds and then plant by scraping rather than plowing.  Gone are the days a pedestrian would walk the fields of a tilled farm trying to keep one’s balance among rows after rows of ruts.  This old-fashioned way of plowing severed the roots of the weeds before the weed had a chance to pollinate, turning it over into the soil and turning it into a fertilizer.  Then crop was planted and grew faster than the weeds could recover.  There were still weeds that grew, but they were very few compared to what was there before the tilling.  When this soil was turned over, it killed all the threatening influence to a healthy crop.

The LORD is trying to show us what true repentance looks like.  We cannot sow righteousness when unrighteous still exists.  It has to be rooted out and destroyed.  Repentance kills of sin at its root.  It makes our sin become the waste that it is.  True repentance takes a cutting away.  A severing.  This can be painful.  But it is necessary.  If we are trying to do right while living wrong, it will not work.  If we sow among thorns, the thorns will win out.  The thorns of sin must be overturned.  Otherwise, it will undermine the fruit which God wishes to grow to our account.

That For Which God Looks

 “For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” (Isa 66:2 AV)

The LORD is comparing all that Israel has done from building buildings to sacrifice, and He has concluded he would rather have people who are humble, apologetic, and respect His word.  This has always been the case.  From the garden of Eden, all God wants is a being that will love Him, trust Him, and obey Him.  There were no buildings or temples in Eden.  There was no sacrificial system of worship in Eden.  There was no written law.  Only one rule.  Don't eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil.  Adam and Eve had to trust the LORD as they had never seen death.  They had to love the LORD in that Eve had to love Him more than the fruit and Adam love God more than Eve.  This is all God requires.  This is all God looks for.  But it is that last phrase upon which we wish to meditate. To tremble at the words of the LORD is a lost practice today.  Not too many of God's people approach the word of God with such respect that it affects their very constitution.  We are more apt to critique the word of God than we are to tremble at it.

The word '…trembleth…' here means a reverential fear.  It means a respect that one carries for something that it changes the very constitution of his being.  The closest I can come to is to describe some of the things we of which false religions hold in regard.  As an altar boy, there were certain things that were off limits and we never crossed.  One such thing was the confessional booth.  Although we could peer into the center where the priest would sit, we would never ever enter.  Upon fear of immediate death and curse of hellfire, we would never venture into that which was sacred.  Another was the altar.  We would never stand behind it.  To the side, in front of, or way in the back.  But never would we stand where the priest normally stands when serving mass.  Although as Bible believers, we understand these things are not truly sacred, we understand what they mean to those who assume they are.

When it comes to the Bible, we tend to treat it with less respect than those who mistakenly treat their sacred things  as sacred.  We criticize the word of God at will.  We translate it like it is a newspaper article of no real supernatural origin.  We approach the word of God like a text book.  A source of information rather than the very voice of God.  But were we fail the most is when we read the word of God in our devotions, looking for some emotional experience to the detriment of acknowledging His word as His very voice.  When we read the word of God, we need to approach it in the same manner Moses did upon the mount.  When he heard the voice of God come from the burning bush, he fell upon his knees and would not so much as to raise his eyes upward.  If we were to approach the word of God with all the respect it deserves, it would radically change who and what we are.  The fault lies with our attitude towards God's voice - His Holy Word.