O Jerusalem!

 

"³⁷ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. ³⁸ Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! ³⁹ For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’"

Matthew 23:37-39

Good Morning my beloved,
 
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my honor and great privilege to come together with you for the study of God's Word. I humbly ask you to continue to share the ministry website and social media platforms as you feel led. God has been tremendously blessing your efforts in reaching the lost and the deceived. Praise God. May He continue to bless our growth together with the knowledge of His Word with all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

I have recently been asked why I speak so much about sin and salvation. It's because I feel a heavy burden on my heart, a great sense of pain for those who have trusted false teachers, who believe down deep in their heart they are saved, but have unknowingly been led astray by the doctrine of demons. You have to know what is right, before you can deal with what is wrong. God's Word is the only authority of right and wrong! I have been told stories of pastors telling people, "When you feel convicted reading the Bible, just close it. God is love, He doesn't want you to feel bad!" I nearly fell out of my chair. As I stated in our last message, the purpose of preaching is not just for salvation, it's also for judgment, it depends on your response as to whether it's a message unto salvation or a message unto judgement. 

One of the things that is clear when you look through the pages of Scripture, is how many many prophets and messengers God has sent to the nation of Israel. From Moses to Malachi in the Old Testament. And John the Baptist to His own Son, Jesus and of course, the Apostles in the New Testament. They are so busy trying to establish their own righteousness, rather than to heed God’s warnings to trust in Him.

 

No other people or nation in history, has suffered like the Jewish people and Israel, which really began with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. There has been a continual persecution and chastening ever since, yet they’ve never been wiped out. The Jewish people still suffer from anti-Semitism even today, except for Hitler, most of it has been for religious reasons. For over 2,000 years they had lived without God's protection from all of the attacks the world could bring, because they refused their Messiah. In spite  of Israel's unwillingness to turn to Jesus, God has preserved them, though they have suffered immeasurably because God removed His protection from Israel to expose them to the worst that Satan could bring upon a nation. This grieves God's heart terribly, as should ours be. Satan has always wanted to exterminate the Jewish people and the nation of Israel to thwart the plan of God, so they can never inherit the full blessing God promised them.

 

There is a special place in my own heart for the Jewish people, because they’re God’s special people. Jesus and most of the apostle's who brought us the Word of God were Jews. If God had saved Israel, the Kingdom would have come and perhaps we as Gentiles would have had no chance for salvation.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Your Word for us today. Thank You for helping us to put in perspective how much we owe the Jewish people, and love them, as You have loved us, that we might not bring upon ourselves the same abandonment. Lord, gather us into the safety and protection of Your love, that we would put tears in Your eyes and grieve Your heart. Father, we pray that even more hearts would turn to Christ and receive the blessed gift of salvation that He offers. If there's anyone among us who does know Him as Lord and Savior, we ask that You would open their hearts to Him. Draw us to Yourself.

We ask and pray this in Jesus' name

Amen

Today's Message: O Jerusalem!

Israel's story is a sad one, not unlike ours today. God's people being led astray by false teachers preaching another Gospel, keeping His people from the essential understanding of the character of God and Christ, preventing them from inheriting the blessing wants to give them. Satan is still doing all he can to thwart God's plan of salvation. We live in a day where more people are coming to Christ, but superficially, they continue to hold onto their sin, living as they once did before coming to Christ. Few are willing to really follow Jesus. I believe the problem lies in theology; they really don't know God and they failed to understand we are all absolutely worthy of damnation! Tragically, unless there is a change, they will forfeit the kingdom God has prepared for them. That's why the Bible condemns false teachers in the strongest terms. 

In Galatians 1:8, Paul writes, "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!"

 

1 John 1 says "God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."

 

As we return to Matthew chapter 23, we come to the final verses. Throughout this chapter, we have heard the warning, we have heard the curses, we have heard the judgement, now we're going to hear Jesus' words of grief. These verses carry a very somber tone. God never rejoices in the condemnation, judgement and punishment of people  He is sorrowed, He is grieved and He weeps with great emotion and compassion. In the passage, we get a glimpse at the heart of God. 

Open your Bibles to the twenty-third chapter of the gospel of Matthew. Matthew 23:37-39. I invite you to follow along with me, as I read these three verses to you. There are a lot of verses in this portion of Scripture. So let's get started with the Spirit's leading and see how far we get. Let's open our hearts and minds, and hear what the Spirit of God has to say to each of us today. 

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’"

 

Let's look at verse 37, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling."

 

Notice He repeats "Jerusalem, Jerusalem," there is suffering and sorrow expressed in the repetition, or pathos, which appeals to the audience's emotion. Repetition is found very often in Scripture, it is an indication of great emotion. Then, He characterize the city not as the holy city, but in her present state, "who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!" The Jews prided themselves on being the holy city, the city of God. Here, Jesus characterizes them as a murderous city, Jerusalem the murderer, "who are killing the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!" Their fathers had wanted Jeremiah dead because he spoke the truth and they hated him for it. They sawed Isaiah in half with a wooden sword.

They murdered Zechariah, the prophet, between the temple and the altar. They were definitely the sons of their fathers, they would rather kill than hear the message, in fact, they were about to kill Jesus, and they would soon stone Stephen to death. 

 

Look what He says next, "How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling."

 

Here, you can really see the heart of God. He's saying, "So many times I tried to gather you, to call you to Myself, I didn’t want to take My hand off you and leave you unprotected. This is very personal, there’s a beautiful tenderness here. Let me say something here, every soul that is outside of God's protection, is unprotected because they wouldn't. Perhaps someone shared the Gospel with you, but you wouldn’t come to Christ. God’s choice is that all would choose salvation, that none would perish. Anyone who spends eternity in hell is there because they refused to come to Him, they made a decision to reject salvation through Christ. Every person is responsible for their own choice. Don’t ever forget that God is willing to gather anyone in His arms who is willing to believe.

 

When people reject God for so long, hardening their hearts against, He reaches the point where He hardens their heart a little more. Remember Pharaoh? Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he refused to let the sons of Israel go, and so the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

 

My great grandparents used to have a big dairy farm when I was much younger, they had cows, pigs and  chickens. It was interesting to watch how a mother hen will protect her chicks, and how the chicks will run to her for nourishment to sustain them and protection to keep them safe. Unlike those baby chicks, people often run from Jesus, even though He wants to show them love and care for them, protect and provide for them. How many of you have continued to willingly sin, thinking, "I'll have my fun now, and I’ll just ask for forgiveness later." Have you ever stopped to realize, that it is His gracious love that blesses you even though you don't deserve it and gives you another breath, and you have the audacity to use it to break His heart. Tears streaming down His face, saying "How often I would have saved you. But you just wouldn’t have Me." That won’t last forever, and when it ends, believe me, there will be Hell to pay. You are either reconciled to God or you are a stranger to Him, there is no in between. All sin separates us from Christ.

 

I imagine that’s a picture on a much smaller scale of what Jesus was feeling as He looked out over Jerusalem. When they were nobody, He chose them, He multiplied them and made them a nation. And they walked away from Him, turning to the doctrine of men. Killing those He sent to warn them, and they're still doing it, as He patiently waits for them to come to Him, even as He dies hanging on the cross, He gathers a thief who is willing to believe. How many times He has tried to gather them, and they would have nothing to do with Him. And they wonder why they are still suffering. Like the parable of the Wedding Feast, the ones that were invited and supposed to come, made excuses and they wouldn't come. So He sent His servants into the streets to invite anybody that will. And so we see the heart of Christ, His compassion toward people. 

 

Verse 38, "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!"  

 

Here we see the result of their rejection, "Behold," that's a phrase of exclamation, of surprise and shock. Notice He calls it "your house," He previously called it My Father's house, He’s making it clear, because you have desecrated it, God has left. In other words, enough is enough! That’s important, because that's where He was, in the temple. Now, God has is deserted it. It's not the House of God, the glory of God has departed, you’re on your own, it's your house! The Church is now the House of God, the pillar of Truth. Obviously, they will see Jesus again at His crucifixion. But they will not see Him as the Messiah, they will look at Him as a condemned criminal on the cross. The gospel and salvation is still available to individual Jews, many are still being saved today. God will always have remnant. But as for the nation of Israel as a whole, they're preserved but unprotected, God has removed His hand of blessing on them. After Christ was crucified and the Apostles began to preach, nothing had changed, they wanted them dead too. They are on their own, because they refused the grace of salvation when it was offered to them. It's heartbreaking. Thankfully, their story doesn’t end there, however, we won’t see this in the book of Matthew. We not would have known it out unless the Bible tells us. Jesus prophesies a time that they will ultimately receive Him as their Savior, our great God is so full of love and mercy and compassion!

 

That brings us to verse 39, "For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’"

 

He's referring back to Matthew chapter 21, when He rode into the city in His triumphal entry and they were hailing Him as the Messiah. "The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!" Until that happens, thing’s are going to get worse for them. Zechariah 12  promises, all the nations that come against Jerusalem. "And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo."

 

When we think of low points in the history of Israel, we normally think about the exile, we think about when Jerusalem got destroyed, and the temple was reduced to a smoldering pile of rubble, the Holocaust, the deliberate, organized mass murder of some six million Jewish men, women, and children, at the hands Hitler, Nazi Germany and its collaborators. But Scripture tells us their lowest point is still yet to come. They will face the consequences of their rejection of Jesus Christ, as will all those guilty unbelief, treating Him indifferently, thinking they can live as they please and those who reject Him. 

 

God's going to pour out the spirit of grace and supplication on Jerusalem, and the tables will be turned, He's going to cleanse the whole nation of Israel and He will destroy the nations that come against her. When they recognize Him as the Messiah, and say "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord," He's going to return to the Mount of Olives!

 

Paul writes in Romans 11, "I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!" 

 

There is no question about it, Christ is going to return, it's only a matter of when He will return! If God has chastened, punished and cursed His own beloved, chose people, what makes you think you’ll fair any better if you reject Jesus Christ? The principle of this lesson is the same for every individual as it is for the nation of Israel. Today, Christ offers you the same salvation, if you continually reject Him, you will subject yourself to the same abandonment. If you will call upon His name, confess your sin and cry out for forgiveness, He will hear you. The choice is now yours.

In Closing..

 

God does not take sin and rebellion lightly, while He may be longsuffering to save His people, so that none should perish, but He will not tolerate it indefinitely. Every person will reap what he has sown.

Those who heed the heavenly call, will allow God's Word changing you and the way you live. Those who profess Christ but live in the worldliness of today, fancying their own coming holiness, are labeled "just another Christian hypocrite!" Godliness is not piety that can be strapped on at the beginning of each day. It must be the practical, reflecting one’s walk with Christ. As a follower of Jesus Christ, there is no place for name-calling, sarcasm, profanity, ridicule, gossip, blaming, destructive criticism, angry words of threat and revenge, griping, complaining, or lying. If we are to be hated by the world, let it be as our Lord Himself was, hated without a cause.

 

May it be so..
 

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

 
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