Tuesday, November 3,
2015, 10:44 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the songs “I Do Not Seal My Lips” and “Listen! Listen!” Speak, Lord, your
words to my heart. I read Jeremiah
13:15-27 (NASB).
Listen and Give Heed
(vv. 15-17)
Listen
and give heed, do not be haughty,
For
the Lord has spoken.
Give
glory to the Lord your God,
Before
He brings darkness
And
before your feet stumble
On
the dusky mountains,
And
while you are hoping for light
He
makes it into deep darkness,
And
turns it into gloom.
But
if you will not listen to it,
My
soul will sob in secret for such pride;
And
my eyes will bitterly weep
And
flow down with tears,
Because
the flock of the Lord has been taken captive.
When our hearts are filled with pride and arrogance, we may resist
instruction and godly counsel. We may even resent it, and may despise correction
from the Lord. We may scorn and/or manipulate his word, thinking we have it
handled, or we may convince ourselves that we are really “good” and are thus
above the need to be told by God and his Word, and even (or most especially) by
his servants and messengers, that there is something in our character, attitudes
and/or behavior that needs to change. Pride, as well, may lead us into all
sorts of sins of rebellion against God, and against those whom God has placed
in our care, because we may think to ourselves that no one, not even God, is
going to tell us what to do, because we may believe that we are the king or queen
of our own lives and destiny. Or, we may imagine our own god who just pats us
on the back and who tells us everything is ok, and who never gets on us about
our sins, but who is ok with us continuing in sin.
The counsel (urging) here is for us to give glory (praise
and honor) to God by repenting of our sins in all humility before him, by
believing what he says, by listening to him speak his truths to our hearts, and
by obeying what his word teaches us we must do. Then, we must walk humbly
before him in the fear (awe, honor and respect) of the Lord, submitting to his
will and purposes for our lives, and by surrendering our wills to his will.
If this is where you are presently, i.e. living in pride and
resisting God, the counsel here for you is to repent of this before judgment
comes from Almighty God. Repent of your sins while there is still time, before
it is too late. You may be living a lie, convincing yourself that you are in
relationship with God when you are not; hoping for heaven while headed to hell;
living a fantasy created in your own imagination in order that you might
continue in willful sin against God. Although you spend time reading the Bible
and praying, and singing hymns of praise to God, and attending church
fellowships, you show enormous contempt and disrespect to God by your willful
and continued sins against him and against others. Your expressed religious
sentiments toward God may be nothing more than disgusting and pathetic garbage.
You are an actor, playing a role, i.e. someone who is living a double life,
keeping your sins a secret, while giving off an image of living righteously for
others to see.
Humble Yourselves
(vv. 18-22)
Say
to the king and the queen mother,
“Take
a lowly seat,
For
your beautiful crown
Has
come down from your head.”
The
cities of the Negev have been locked up,
And
there is no one to open them;
All
Judah has been carried into exile,
Wholly
carried into exile.
“Lift
up your eyes and see
Those
coming from the north.
Where
is the flock that was given you,
Your
beautiful sheep?
“What
will you say when He appoints over you—
And
you yourself had taught them—
Former
companions to be head over you?
Will
not pangs take hold of you
Like
a woman in childbirth?
“If
you say in your heart,
‘Why
have these things happened to me?’
Because
of the magnitude of your iniquity
Your
skirts have been removed
And
your heels have been exposed.
God is judging, and he is going to judge his idolatrous and
adulterous people. He is judging, and he is going to judge the people of this
earth and the false shepherds of the people who are leading his people astray.
And, he continually disciplines (corrects, punishes, scourges) his children,
whom he loves, so that we may share in his holiness. “All discipline for the
moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been
trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (See:
Heb. 12:3-11).
In judgment he will humble us and will bring our pride low. All
the things of this life in which we have taken pride will be gone. They will
vanish like smoke. All that we have worked for in this life, for this earthly
kingdom, will pass away, and will bring us no comfort or help. We will be
destitute, and forsaken and abandoned by those we trusted, and stripped of all
our treasures and worldly possessions and trophies. Many of us will lose homes,
properties, friends, fortunes, 401Ks, retirement pensions, and the like, and we
will all be in the same boat, i.e. not one of us will be above the other. And,
this will come because of the sins of our nation, the unrepentant sins of God’s
adulterous church, and so God can revive his church, purify our hearts, make us
holy, and conform us to the image of Christ.
For Your Adulteries
(vv. 23-27)
“Can
the Ethiopian change his skin
Or
the leopard his spots?
Then
you also can do good
Who
are accustomed to doing evil.
“Therefore
I will scatter them like drifting straw
To
the desert wind.
“This
is your lot, the portion measured to you
From
Me,” declares the Lord,
“Because
you have forgotten Me
And
trusted in falsehood.
“So
I Myself have also stripped your skirts off over your face,
That
your shame may be seen.
“As
for your adulteries and your lustful neighings,
The
lewdness of your prostitution
On
the hills in the field,
I
have seen your abominations.
Woe
to you, O Jerusalem!
How
long will you remain unclean?”
When we are born into this world, we are born with sin
natures, without hope, without God, and destined to spend eternity in the fires
of hell in eternal torment. We, by nature, are sinners. We are incapable of
changing that in our own flesh. We are slaves to sin, captive to do the will of
the devil, and to satisfy our own sinful cravings. This is why Jesus Christ,
God the Son, came to earth, and died on a cross for our sins, so that we could
be set free from slavery to sin, and so we can become slaves (servants) of his
righteousness. When we believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our
lives, we die with Christ to sin, we are transformed in heart and mind of the
Spirit of God, and we are resurrected with Christ to new lives in him, “created
to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). All this is the
working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, as we yield control of our lives over
to God, and we submit to God’s will for our lives. By his grace we are saved,
through faith, and not of ourselves, lest we should boast. It is the gift of God,
by his great mercy (Eph. 2:8-10).
There are those who don’t yet believe in Jesus, some of whom
refuse to believe in Jesus Christ, and who make no claims to faith in Christ/God
whatsoever. There are also those who claim to know Jesus Christ as Lord of
their lives, but their confession of faith is shallow - some out of ignorance,
because they believed a lie, and some out of willful deception. Their faith is
not genuine, because it never really took root. It was surface only. And, so
they just go through the motions and pretense of having a relationship with
Jesus Christ, but no heart transformation ever took place. Then, there are
those who had a heart transformation, were filled with the Spirit of God, and
who walked with him in obedience for a time, but who have since fallen back
into their sinful ways and are living in spiritual adultery and in a
backslidden condition spiritually. Although they know God, they do not honor
him as their Lord, but they are going their own stubborn way. They are living
as though they have not been cleansed of their sins. Only God knows, though,
who is genuine and who is not.
Some of these who are living in slavery to sin are so bound
by sin’s deceitfulness that they sin in secret, so as not to be found out, and
they will use people, and manipulate and take advantage of others in order to
feed their addictions, whatever they may be. They will sell out members of
their own families in order to satisfy their addictive cravings. They show
enormous contempt for God and others, and will betray even their closest
companions if it means feeding their addictions. Our government, I believe,
takes advantage of such people, knowing that they will sell their own souls in
order to have what they want, and thus the government can utilize such people
to turn against family, friends, and neighbors, etc.
The government may pay them for their services or for
information provided, which then is just used to feed their addictions and
their pride. They may make a pretense of being Christians in order to gain
access to Christians so that they can sell them out for a price, like Judas did
to Jesus. Their professed faith in Christ is thus artificial and is used to spy
on believers in order that they might hand them over to their enemies to be
persecuted and killed for their faith and testimonies for Jesus Christ. These
people are despicable, who fool many with the double lives they lead, yet God
can save them, too, for Jesus died for all.
Listen! Listen! / An Original Work /
December 20, 2011
Weep
and wail o’er your sins, children.
God
is calling out to you:
Be
ye honest; tell the truth,
And
it will set you free.
Harken
to Him calling you to
Bow
on bended knee today.
Don’t
delay to let Him in,
And
He’ll cleanse your hearts;
Pure
within.
Sinners,
won’t you listen to Him
Calling
out to you today?
He
died so that you would be free
Of
your sins always.
Turn
from your sin. Turn to Jesus.
Obey
Him in ev’ry way.
He
wants to set you free of
All
your guilt,
For
which He did pay.
Listen!
Listen!
Don’t
close your hearts
To
His voice speaking to you.
He
will give you all of His peace,
If
your hearts be true.
He
longs for you to come to Him
Humbly
now and repentant.
Obey
all of His commandments.
Live
with Him eternally.
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