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Jeremiah Chapter 29
Even though they did not listen to God and this calamity came upon them, God did not desert them. He sent them a word of comfort. He instructed them to go ahead, build houses, plant gardens. In other words, plan to stay a while. Make the best of your situation. If God had not have sent judgment to them, then they might have fought against it but they couldn't fight against the will of God. It was and is still futile to resist the will of God. We see that what was prophesied came to pass and still today God's word will be fulfilled no matter what we say or do to stop it. All God asks us to do is believe in Him and listen. Listen does not just mean physically hear but receive and live His words. This is a good message to us today. Even though we mess up and are in bad situations, God will not forsake us if we still turn to Him and believe in Him. God's people were taken captive to Babylon but God went with them. They did not deserve this but God sent word to them anyway. He cares for us even though we mess up. When we fail and get into trouble, God will be there with us if we seek Him with a whole heart willing to repent. He gives us many chances and sends His faithful servants to preach and teach. Yet God will not force us to believe in Him. He will not force us to serve Him. If we do not desire His presence then He will remove His presence. But beware! If His presence is removed from us all hell will break loose. Look at the decay in the public school system since 1963 when prayer and bible reading were taken out. Today some go through school and still can't read. They spend more and more tax money and build bigger and better schools and yet the results are not producing good students. They are throwing money down the drain for the bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Without God there is no knowledge. We will continue to spend money on better schools but the kids won't be learning. We are always learning and never able to come to the truth. Bible believing preachers are mocked and ridiculed in the secular movies. They are made to look foolish and as charlatans. I've been ridiculed for believing in Creation by those who insist on believing Evolution. Well, folks I still believe in Creation, let them mock. Even some in the church mock and ridicule the old time preachers who believed in holiness. They are accused of being legalistic because they dared to believe what the bible says. They were only preaching what they thought the bible stood for and now they are ridiculed because they stood up for what they believed. Now we have a watered down gospel that does not condemn sin. Some have torn apart the bible and are explaining away what God says. What was once a sin is not sin to them anymore and they go so far as to condemn the ones who still hold onto the teachings of godliness as legalistic. I even heard of one who said that Jesus was just giving good advice and that His words are not to be taken as a law we have to obey. Well, if we can't believe Jesus we are all in trouble. I should throw in here a warning about real legalism. We are no longer under the law that was given to Moses but under the law of Christ. Our salvation now depends upon Christ alone but the words of Christ are vital and necessary. We can get obsessed with outward religious traditions that have nothing to do with the inner soul. We sometimes judge too much by outward appearances and church traditions that are different according to their background and upbringing. There are many things that we have to leave up to the individual and His walk with the Lord and not put our own pet doctrines and opinions on people when God has not led them in the direction we think they should be going. So there does exist real legalism that is just as deadly and dangerous to the gospel of Jesus as a lack of holiness and no forsaking sin. There are extremes in either direction. Still my point here is to say that those who continue to believe in another explanation for the existence of mankind other than God's creation, those who continue to leave out God in their lives and demand that He not be allowed in the schools or public sector, will one day wish that they had listened to those old bible believing preachers. The minute there are no true believing people left in the United States there will be no United States of America. The minute we all forsake God, this mighty nation will cease to exist. All chaos, all hell will break loose. The minute God removes His hand of protection, 9-11 will seem as a nothing. We have it good here in the U.S. because of Jesus Christ and the influence of Christianity. Some went through a period of legalistic cruelty when they got away from their first love for the Lord as can happen to anyone who starts to depend on tradition rather than Christ for salvation but the influence of people who lived by faith in Christ also exists and does make a difference. It doesn't matter whether, as some say that the founding fathers were deists. That doesn't matter. The people who first came and settled here especially at Plymouth were people who feared God. They were not perfect but they feared God. It was the influence of people who believed in the bible that made this country great. It took a while but we finally overcame the awful sin of slavery. That was in the southern plantations among rich landowners, not in the north and also not among those what were poor in the south. Look at the countries of the world today. Where do you see the most suffering, the most poverty and the most sin? It is where there has been very little gospel except a few missionaries. It is where there has been either false religions or atheism. Look at the nations where there is oppression of the poor and the weak. It is where there is false religion or atheism. Where there is no or very little Christian influence there is all kinds of poverty, misery, sin, disease and filth. Because of Jesus Christ and the gospel, the United States fairs better than most. Yet it is here that some are trying to remove His presence from the public sector. Some want, "In God we trust" to be removed from the coins. Without God, we are nothing. I say to Christians, stay true to God and seek Him daily. Do not be part of mocking those who still believe in the bible as the very word of God. To those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, do not hesitate a day longer without that living water in your soul. He is the only way of salvation. He is the only way to have God in your life. There is no other way. God made that way for you and there is no other.
To those that may not believe, God has good things for those that receive the way He made for their salvation. You can't find anything on this earth right now to beat the promise of eternal life with no more death, pain and sorrow.
Some may mock now but the day will come when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. If you reject the Son of God, you reject eternal life. If you reject Jesus Christ, you reject God. For He is the only way to God. All other ways will lead to destruction. Why is that? Because God's Son suffered and died and then rose again so that He could pay the penalty for sin and give those who believe eternal life. He gives that living water (the Holy Spirit) that flows into our souls bringing salvation and eternal life. After God gave us His best, His own Son to suffer and pay the penalty for our sin, how can there possibly be any other way of salvation? There is no other way to be saved. Even doing good deeds and trying to live a good life apart from Jesus cannot save you. If you don't trust in Jesus for your salvation, you can't be saved. Good deeds will not suffice. Good deeds cannot wash away sin or make one born again. Jesus said:
In order to inherit eternal life, one must be born again. To become born again one must acknowledge that he is a sinner and needs salvation. He must believe Jesus is the one God sent to take the sins away and receive Jesus as savior. God then sends His Holy Spirit to that person and he or she is born again.
God gives us power to overcome sin and spread His gospel. He does not leave us without His continuing presence.
Keys words here are repent and receive and Jesus Christ. Repent + Receive Jesus = New Birth, free from sin and eternal life. Repent doesn't just mean to be sorry for sin but turn away from sin and walk in another direction toward God.
Getting back to Jeremiah's day, we see that God wanted them to make the best of the situation and be an influence in the lands they were driven to.
They were to pray for the people who held them captive. This would not be easy. To pray for the ones who held them in bondage surely would not be easy, but that is what we are to do to learn to care for the souls of others besides our own families. Pray for those who hate us, pray for those who mock us and pray for their eternal souls to be saved.
They were not to follow false teachers or prophets who do not speak the truth. Back then the truth was that they had sinned, bondage to Babylon was the punishment for that sin and they were to believe that and not listen to the prophets who spake contrary to that truth. The message of sin and repentance is still true in today's time.
They were to return after 70 years. That was fulfilled 70 years later. What God says will come to pass no matter what any person whether great or small says. It doesn't matter who says what, it is what God says that counts. We must seek to please God, not people or great persons of high esteem.
Notice that this part of Jeremiah is meant for Israel as a nation. God did all these things to bring out good in them. To bring to pass the plan and purpose God has for the nation of Israel. They needed God to be good, they needed God to have peace, they needed God to survive. Although through Jesus, we today can trust that God thinks that of us as well, we need to remember that the book of Jeremiah is mainly for the nation of Israel and sometimes applying it to the church of today, causes some to assume we take Israel's place in the heart of God. Not so. When God says Israel, He means Israel. As Israel was not created to live without God, neither is any of His creation. That is why mankind has always had wars, fighting, sin, oppression and murder. We try to live without God and without the direction of His word and we can't. Every time man tries to do things without God they fail. Communism failed, socialism is a failure, Fascism was a failure. Someone is always oppressed and hurt in that type of society. We can't do it without God.
They still could call and God would hear. That message is the same today. Call on God with a heart of repentance and God will hear. Because of Christ the promise to call upon God is available to all who believe.
This is how to find God and remain near God. First to seek Him with a whole heart. Half-hearted, unconcern does not move the heart of God. God even made it easier by giving us Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit to draw us, deliver us from sin and teach us His way. If you truly want God in your life, you can have Him in your life. It is us who hold back, not God.
This happened 70 years later and they returned to their homeland and rebuilt the temple. In the days of Jesus Christ at about 70 AD after the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus Christ they were scattered again to all parts of the world until 1948.
Those who speak out and prophesy lies will suffer the greatest judgment of God.
Over and over it must be brought out that God does not wink at sin. He commands everyone to repent. He made a way by His own Son and the Holy Spirit to save us from sin and if we reject that way, we stay in our sins. Sin must be done away with. He loves us and has much mercy but if Israel or any other nations continues to reject God and refuse to repent and accept His way of salvation all that is left is destruction and despair. The bible teaches that adultery is sin, idolatry is sin, carnal sex between men and other men, man and woman that are unmarried, mankind with beasts, women and another women is sin. Lying is sin, cheating is sin, deception is sin, stealing is still sin, murder is sin. I believe this includes unborn babies. God commands us to repent. I didn't say this, God's written word in a volume of a book we call a bible, says these things.
Both faith in Christ and repentance is necessary for salvation.
Repent is not an outward show or outward profession. It is inward, within us to cry out to God for forgiveness and the power to change and live for Him.
The words of Jeremiah make the people mad just like before when he warned them of the captivity to Babylon. Now he warns them to accept and dwell at peace with the Babylonians. They refuse to hear and accuse him of being a false prophet.
This is a warning of all who prophesy in the name of the Lord and the Lord does not send them. If we teach that which the is contrary to the word of God, we stand is jeopardy. A prophet or a preacher has a great responsibility. Here are the words of Ezekiel:
A faithful servant of God will not tell you that you can get by with sin and still please God. He will not tell you that you can sin and still be saved. He will not tell you that God does not care if you are living in sin. He will not tell you that you can be saved without repenting of sin. A faithful servant will not just say what the crowd wants to hear to make you feel good about yourself. If we are living in sin, we should not feel good about ourselves. We need to repent and then let the Spirit of God make us feel better because we have the living Christ within us to take the desire to sin out of our lives. Yes, the devil tries to bring it back but we must continually trust in the power of Jesus Christ to keep us abiding in Him until He returns again. DC
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