The World is On Fire | 2 Chronicles 15:3-7 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

The. World is on fire.

The world is on fire. Those are the words that flashed

on one of my devices from a report issued from one of the

leading news organizations in our country.

And I'm sure you as well are being bombarded by barrage of

breaking news and incoming stories on almost an hourly

basis. But this particular statement

gripped me. It caught my attention because I

find it to be a very compelling, compelling and powerful

description of how the world today perceives what's happening

in the. World, The world is on fire.

And as I thought about this, I thought.

That's probably how some people here feel as well, that no

matter what direction you look into, no matter what sphere in

society, something is up in flames.

Something is up in flames, whether that's metaphorical or

literal, and these fires are projected to only spread and to

generate and cause untold damage and destruction.

And if there isn't a fire, in an obvious sense, if there isn't

clear turbulence, then there is smoke, There's smoke signaling a

fire to come. And that's producing in this

generation an overwhelming and eerie sense that there is no

longer a safe place to go to in this world.

We feel surrounded. It's not just a little spark

here, a little spark there, the whole building.

Is up. In flames.

And this is the day that you and I are living in, and it is

escalated quickly and the emotions range from total

outrage to people living on edge, wondering how the events

that we are seeing will unfold and how they will determine the

trajectory, if not our own lives, then the lives of the

children and grandchildren that we love so deeply.

Where is this all going? What is this all going to lead

to? International wars, famines,

earthquakes, Mass shootings that almost seem to be numbing now

because they just are expected disease and pestilences and

immoral education system on all levels.

The invasion of Marxism? A blatant and outright corrupt

and dysfunctional political. System The looming threats of

terrorism. More and more, we're hearing

about how terrorists are flooding into our borders and

through our borders. Natural disasters that are just

becoming more intense and more common.

And the cherry on top is just the overall moral decay.

And all of these things seem to just be coming closer and

closer, surrounding us as a generation, and it's almost

suffocating. But while the world is

helplessly and, dare I say, frantically looking for a

solution or solutions, you and I, the Church of Jesus Christ,

are not hopeless. We are very hopeful because we

have many reasons to be hopeful. And one of those reasons why we

can be at rest is because the modern tragedies and the modern

trends that are disturbing are not without explanation for the

Christian. Because in the possession of the

Christian is a eternal, unchanging, timeless word, the

word that belongs to God and comes from God.

And in that word, we have answers.

We have answers, and with those answers we have the only

solution for the problems that we're seeing and facing today.

Now the overall consensus, the general opinion of the believer

today is that we are racing towards the.

End that. That.

That's undeniable. But I don't want that to be the

only answer we have for ourselves or for others.

Because yes, the world may be confused.

We are confident the the world may be in hysteria.

You and I know rest. The world might be in darkness.

We surely have the light, but we want to also feed into our

confidence with greater truth. I I want us to dig deeper into

the mind of God, to find even more precise commentary of what

is actually happening here. Why is it happening?

How is this being caused? Why is it only getting worse and

worse? There are answers here.

We don't just have to brush it off by saying, well, this is

just the last days. No, there's even more to that.

There's more to what we're seeing today.

Let me say this way, There is a message from God to the people

that are living in this time of history.

There is a message from God himself, and I don't stand

before you as a prophet who has subjective words from God.

I stand to you as. A simple mailman with God's word

that's already been given and that relates to and connects to

what we are experiencing. And so I invite you to pursue

that with me by coming to the book of Second Chronicles in

Chapter 15. If you haven't caught on yet,

we're taking a pause on Mark Second Chronicles Chapter 15 and

2 Chronicles 15 · chapter mention

come with me to verse 5. Here's the context of this

passage. You have a prophet named Azariah

and he with the Spirit of God coming upon him approaches a

king. King of Judah at this time was

ASA. ASA up to this point was a man

of God. He had a tender heart for God.

He was dependent upon God and he displayed that through his

prayer life. But the prophet Azariah by the

Spirit wants to encourage him to not make the same self defeating

mistakes that the nation of Israel has made in former times.

And so he's going to exhort the king and he's going to exhort

the king by giving a brief history lesson.

And this history lesson is from a unspecified time period in

Israel's resume. But interestingly, as you're

going to hear this, it's not just pertaining to Israel's

unstable past. It actually speaks of an era

when the world was on fire, when the world when the neighboring

nations, when the inhabitants of not just one land but multiple

lands were also troubled and disturbed.

And here's what it says in verse in verse 3.

For a long time, Israel was without the true God and without

a teaching priests and without law.

But when in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of

Israel, and sought him, He was found by them.

And here's the main text in verse 5.

In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to

him who came in, For great disturbances afflicted all the

inhabitants of the lands. They were broken in pieces.

Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled

them with every sort of distress.

Father, we ask that you help us understand your word, your voice

for today give us ears to hear what the Spirit says to the

churches in Jesus name. Amen.

Again, you and I here see that these circumstances that Azariah

is alluding to is not just focused on the nation of Israel.

And people wonder where and when these things, these

circumstances occurred, right? He's very general in verse five.

He just says in those times, well, what times based on the

characteristics, many believe that he's speaking about the

times of the judges, which is a very good case to make.

But it's ambiguous. And it's it's ambiguous because

Israel has known a cycle of apostasy throughout its history.

But I want you, more importantly, to look at the

descriptions of those times. Look at how the Bible is so

specific. And as you discover this, you

will see how unparalleled, how rather paralleled it is to our

own time. The first thing that he says

here in verse 5 is that there was no peace to him who went out

or to him who came in. There was no peace for him who

came out or to him who would come in.

In other words, there was a general fear in the atmosphere

and the main reason for that fear is because there was

criminal activity rampant causing citizens to be fearful

of being in the public of traveling.

They were hesitant to even leave their own homes.

And in Judges Chapter 5 verse six, you don't have to turn

Judges 5 · chapter mention

there. But in Judges 5-6, as a

reference for you, there's even more light shed on this where we

were told there that the highways in Israel were

abandoned and people went about through the byways.

In other words, there was so much evil that people avoided

public places, high traffic areas.

They would take the longer route home because criminals at this

point took advantage of these strategic places, robbers and

thieves and murderers, to satisfy their evil pursuits.

And so it caught on. These are these are the places

to avoid and to watch out for. And there was no officials to

regulate this, to supervise this, to deal with this.

Is that not the reality that you and I are in today?

Especially for us in Illinois, especially for us near Chicago,

You have people today that want to avoid parades, that think

twice about going to concerts. You have many people who are

willing to rely on online shopping than to risk being a

victim of another random act of murder, mass murder at a mall.

So let me just click, click and get it.

Come to my front door. There's fear.

There's no peace. That's why you don't drive in

certain neighborhoods at certain times of the day, and in our

city it's at any time of the day.

In some places, this is what is being told to us.

There is an. Environment and atmosphere of

evil that's causing innocent civilians and citizens to pay a

price to their regular day-to-day experience.

But from there, we read something else.

We read about nation crushing another nation, so international

distress and turmoil, but not just international notices, he

says. City against city, we're talking

about demographic, we're talking about internal conflict and

combat. So this is civil war.

This is death and division and tension among people who

represent a group or a nation or a people.

And so you have now streets. You have territorial and tribal

antagonism, and Israel is not unfamiliar with skirmishes among

their own tribes. And neither are we, because you

and I are being programmed every single day in our universities,

in our media, from books and celebrities and everything in

between, that you belong to a social class.

You are a part of a subgroup, and here let's help us identify

you to a subgroup. And on top of that, let's show

you the other subgroups in your context that are opposite of

you, that are obstacles not just to you, but obstacles to the

thriving of this culture. These other groups are

hindrances to the urban utopia that we want to reach as a

people. And so we're worried about

gangs. We're creating gangs out of our

own civilians, and we can't have discourse anymore.

We now resort to violence. And you can't express yourself

without being threatened, either being punched in the mouth or

have a gun pulled out on you having your house vandalized.

If you post the wrong thing, you have to get up and move and

leave the whole place altogether.

And I can give you more and more examples from these texts, but

let me just summarize it the way Azariah does here.

He says in verse 5. In those times there was no

peace to him who went out or to him who came in.

For great disturbances, plural afflicted all the inhabitants of

the lands. Meaning here that there were

many factors that contributed to the global anarchy of that day

and it affected absolutely everyone in some way, shape or

form. No one was out of reach from

feeling the effects. Of this disorder and growing

mayhem, and that's true of you and I as well.

We all are feeling something, and I'm persuaded that it's only

going to get more intense unless a miracle happens.

And if you thought that these uncanny similarities from this

text are shocking, prepare to be shocked further by the final

statement that Azariah gives here and verse.

Six. Look at the last part of verse

6, for God troubled them with every sort of distress.

Who's in charge of all of this? Who's in charge of the lack of

peace? Who's in charge of nations and

nations coming against each other, city against city?

Who's in charge? It's not Satan.

It's not politicians. It's not Hollywood God.

God was the one that troubled them with every sort of

distress. Is that ruffle with your

theology? God's not apologizing for it.

The Spirit of God comes upon Ezra to say that unequivocally,

God is behind this. Should we think any differently

today? I'm convinced, No, not that we

have to be careful. God is the author of evil.

He's far from the author of evil, but in his wisdom and in

his power and in his justice, he is often the permitter of it.

God, who is the great restrainer from time to time, will remove

his restraining grace and allow a generation to devour one

another. God.

God troubled them with every sort of distress, And if God is

the one that they were dealing with, then we're that much

closer to finding reprieve. We're that much closer to

hopefully finding a true solution here, because what

we're seeing right now is interview and podcasts of people

trying to figure out how do we find an answer and here's the

word of God. Well, if you know the 'cause,

then you come that much closer to a solution.

God is the one troubling, You know, the nations today can save

themselves a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of resources,

and they can even save a lot of lives if they just but realize

and accept now, except today, not as a history lesson now.

That who they're dealing with is God.

Accept that there is a transcendent, holy being that is

orchestrating these events. That's undeniable.

But is there an explanation? Yes, In the very same text there

is an explanation. You and I received clarification

to the Why. Why would a good and holy God, a

God of peace, God of forgiveness, God of mercy?

Why would such a God allow the world to be set on fire?

Why wouldn't he stop it at a spark?

Why is it only destroying and wreaking more havoc?

And in the same text, you actually get three reasons why.

There are three reasons why for why God troubled them, and why

God today, I believe, is allowing what's happening across

the globe. Maybe you saw it, but if you

didn't go back to verse three with me.

Here's what Azariah says. For a long time, Israel he's

focusing on Israel now was without the true God number 1/2,

and without a teaching priest and three and without law.

Those are the three reasons. The reason why God troubled them

with every distress was because Israel was without the true God.

Let's deal with that one first. What do you mean without the

true God? Did they become atheist?

No. Azariah is specific.

He didn't say that they weren't without God.

Without what? The true God.

And so we're not being told here that Israel stopped believing in

God. We're not talking about a

postmodern age. We're not talking about a post

truth age. We're not even talking about a

people who stop performing sacrifices and observing

rituals. It's that the object of their

submission, the object of their worship, was not toward the one

and true God. So the primary reason for why

God troubled this generation was with distress was because of

idolatry. Idolatry.

Which means what? Well, there's many ways that you

and I can create an idol in our lives.

We can, like the Israelites early in the wilderness journey,

create a golden calf and give it the name Yahweh.

So it has the right name, but it's a totally different being.

Or we can abandoned the idea of Yahweh altogether and just raise

up different false gods. And a false God can be anything.

Anything that you find your source of guidance and

satisfaction from ultimately is an idol.

And what you're seeing here is as this generation has turned

their back on the true God. Not the idea of God, not even

the participation in spiritual activity or the willingness to

even claim to be religious. That is not true.

If you just read Judges and First Samuel and Kings, you'd

realize that from the surface they were very religious.

They participated in much, but it was illegitimate worship.

They did not honor God the way he revealed himself to be.

Instead they found liberty to define God the way they wanted

him to be defined. And when you abandon the true

God, it's inevitable that chaos will ensue.

And one of the reasons why the true God the main reason here

according to the Holy Spirit in this verse.

Why the true God was not acknowledged and revered and

pursued was because of point #2. They weren't just without the

true God. They were what?

Without a teaching priest. And again, the Holy Spirit is

specific. He didn't say that they were

without priests. There was plenty of priests

throughout Israel's history, but one of the forgotten roles of

the priest was that a priest was not just called the Levitical

priest was not just called to supervise sacrifices and help

screen what was coming in the the temple or Tabernacle.

The priest, according to the law, also had a responsibility

to verbally instruct the people about the law of God.

And if you need a reference for that, there are many.

There's one in Leviticus, there's one in Malachi, and

here's one from Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 3310, the Levites

were called to instruct people with the written word of God,

but in those times there was no teaching priests.

So what does that mean? Well, there were priests who are

present. Additionally, there were even

priests who are performing. But there was virtually no

priest proclaiming the word of God, and God says that is a

reason why I am going to trouble the world with distress, namely

my people. Well, how does this work?

I mean, who would have thought? Think about this.

This is what? Blew my mind late last night.

Who would have thought that the havoc and the mayhem in cities

was due to a vacancy in the pulpit?

That's what God does. Stop me.

God is pointing to the pulpits and he's saying, where is my

word? Where is the word of God being

taught? Here's how it works.

The pulpit proclaims the Word of God.

The church is enlightened and empowered by that proclaimed

Word. Then the empowered church goes

out into the world and operates as a purifying and preventative

agent in the culture. That's how that works.

Do you see how it trickles down word receiving the word?

And as you guys are scattered, as all of us are scattered into

our unique context, your presence, your salt, your light

puts a level of restraint on our culture from going headlong,

diving headlong into depravity. But what happens when the priest

is not teaching? Well then the the priest is not

proclaiming the word of God. And in those times a lot of it

was just personal dreams or experiences or or gross

misinterpretations and interpretations of the scripture

to fit the needs of the people, what they think are their needs.

So the word is not proclaimed. And when the word is not

proclaimed, overtime what happens?

The people are no longer nourished.

And when they're not nourished, what happens?

Well, they become weak. And when they become weak, what

happens? More?

Susceptible to deception without the true God.

More vulnerable to temptation, Not representing the true God's

character. And in the long term, this

entity that was called to be the moral conscience of a culture

fails to operate as such, and this culture now accelerates

into collapse. That's how that works, you know.

Jeremiah was told by God in chapter 23 and you don't have to

turn there. He criticizes the false prophets

and he says where are those who stood in my counsel and proclaim

my words that the people may turn from their evil?

That's a fascinating insight because the the possibility of

people repenting and changing and being renewed is absolutely

inseparable from the transaction of the word of God.

People are convinced that if I can, if I can just get the

emotions, if I can just relate, if I can just help you with this

one problem in your life, then I can help you and God can help

you. That's not the case.

Just give the word of God and let.

The word do its work. It's not enough to have a Bible

and a pulpit. It's not enough to even give

footnotes to certain statements you make from the pulpit.

People need to be taught what the word of God is, what it's

saying, what it means, how it applies.

That needs to happen regularly, and God says there was no

teaching. Priest I'll let you interpret

that for today, if you need help seeing how that.

Today, just look for the most popular sermons on the Internet

and you'll get what I mean. Thank God there are voices today

that are giving the truth. I praise God and you know those

ministries as well. But it's unfortunate that not

every pulpit has a teaching priest.

America is a big country. There are 1,000,000 upon

hundreds of millions of people. We need more than just six

reputable ministries. We need every state, every city

to have teaching priests. And what event eventually

happens, Well, the deterioration will intensify also because of

the final thing mentioned here by Azariah, that they were

without law, that they were without law.

And so now, over time, when you don't have the true God, when

you don't have teaching priests, we don't have the Church

speaking to the powers, the politics, the policies, the evil

agendas and agents of evil, where people lose track of

what's right and wrong. And just like the days of

judges, everybody begins to do what is right in their own eyes.

And what did Jesus say would be the mark?

One of the marks of the last days in Matthew 24 that

lawlessness will increase, lawlessness will increase, so

there will be. Less and less of a fear and

recognition of objective right and wrong.

And now we are making rules and making laws based on what you

feel is right. And I don't want to keep going

there, You hear that all the time.

But I find amazing here is that it starts as a minority of

lawless people. Then over time, that minority

becomes the majority and that majority.

Then vehemently begins to snuff out any remnant who holds to the

truth, whether or not there are teaching priests or not.

That's how it tends to go. Now I just want to give you one

example of what happens when a society or culture no longer has

the true God, no longer has teaching priests, no longer has

law. God gets their attention by

troubling them with all kinds of distress, and He's very specific

in how He does it with his tragedies.

Let me give you one example. This is one that you probably

never heard in Sunday school, but turn with me to 2nd Kings

Chapter 2. And look here with me in verse

23, just to give you an idea, this is speaking about Elijah,

not Elijah. Elijah was transported into

heaven. In a miraculous way, this is now

Elijah who has received his mantle, a double portion of his

anointing, and he is now walking in that power as the prophet for

the nation of Israel. And this is an interesting

occurrence that takes place while he's on route as a prophet

in Second Kings 2/23. He, being Elijah, went up from

there to Bethel and while he was going up on the way, some small

boys. That's not the best translation.

Some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying

go up you bald head, go up you bald head.

And he turned around and when he saw them he cursed them in the

name of the Lord. And two she bears came out of

the woods and. Tore 42 of the boys.

I told you, you didn't hear this in Sunday school.

That's in the Bible. And here's how most This is why

most believers who know the story are disturbed by because

they they just see a bunch of kids probably playing around

with with sticks, and they're there on on the side street

outside of the borders of the city of Bethel.

And the prophet had a very long ministry journey and he dealt

with many miracles and problems and he just wants to get home

quietly and peaceably. And now you have these little

kids calling him out for his receding hairline.

Hey bald head. Hey, And they're just joking.

They're a little rude and insensitive.

And here's an irritated prophet who turns around and calls a

curse upon them and two bears come out of nowhere mall. 42 of

them. Is that what's going on here?

This is why you have to read slowly and not just read slowly,

but read the whole Bible or us. Things like this, if you read

them in isolation, don't make sense.

And then atheists make blog posts talking about how vicious

our God is. Let's read this together slowly.

Yeah, Verse 23. He went up from there to where?

Bethel. Good.

So now we know the location of this place.

Does Bethel have a rich spiritual heritage?

Yes, it does have a rich spiritual heritage.

Bethel is where Jacob encountered God while he was on

the run from his brother Esau. And he encountered God in such a

personal and special way that he called that place the House of

God, which means Bethel. But unfortunately, Bethel did

not continue to hold up to that rich spiritual heritage, because

when the Kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, you

have a northern Kingdom and a southern Kingdom.

The king of the northern Kingdom, Jeroboam, was nervous

about the southern Kingdom. He was nervous because the place

of worship was Jerusalem, and he didn't want his people to go

down there and to lose his allegiance with them.

And so he comes up with a devilish but clever idea.

I'm going to create two other places of worship so that my

people don't have to travel down to the Southern Kingdom.

And so I'm going to raise up a place of worship in the city

called Dan. I'm going to put a golden calf

there. Have you seen that before?

And I'm going to raise up another golden calf in a place

called Where? Bethel And from that time Bethel

became not the House of God, but the House of idolatry, and years

and decades go by. And this place, unfortunately

now we become a den. Of apostates.

And that hasn't changed here. In Second Kings chapter 223.

You're talking about a people. You're talking about young boys

whose parents very likely worship false gods and whose

parents probably had a great disdain for the true God and the

true messengers of God, one of them being Elisha.

Secondly, we're told here that as Elisha travels by this

idolatrous place, small boys came out of the city.

Now, I told you earlier that small boys isn't the best

translation because the Hebrew word can describe a wide range

of different kind of boys. So one strong example of that is

in Genesis 37 two, where we're told that Joseph was a lad, he

was a young man. It's the same Hebrew word and

we're told in that same verse that he was how old, 17 years

old. So based on that, that truth

concerning the Hebrew word, the wide range of it and its

meaning, and the activity of these children, they're very

likely preteen or teenagers. We're not talking about

kindergarten kids that are just a little bit disrespectful here.

We're talking about a band of young men that can pose a

threat, and they're obviously intuitive enough to make these

remarks go up, you bald head. Are they just criticizing his

headpiece? No, they're not.

What are they referring to? They're referring to what

happened with Elijah. Just a few verses earlier,

Elijah was taken up into heaven by Chariots of fire, And there

were people who heard about this, and the reports clearly

spread about it, and it came even to Bethel.

But instead of it being a testimony that encouraged

greater faithfulness and love to the true God, it became a reason

to scorn God more. And maybe this is a remark of

disbelief, but here's what they're saying.

Hey Elijah, the same way your mentor was removed from us, why

don't you join him and get out of our face?

We want nothing to do with you or your ministry.

We don't care what kind of miracles you perform.

Go up, you bald head. Get out of here.

So this is not this is more than just personal insult.

This is rejection of the true God and the messenger of God.

This is just solidifying the truth that these children as

well are apostates. And what does Elijah do?

Elijah do? Even the language here in verse

20, he turned around, so he's just walking and he's going

about his way. But they came up behind him

because usually problems start with words and they tend to lead

to physical altercation with troublemakers at least.

And Elisha stops. He turns around and he curses

them. And if it's stopped there, you

might have more problems. But he curses them in the name

of the Lord and two she bears come out.

Here's the thing you have to understand.

Elisha is not just speaking out of frustration.

Elisha doesn't just have this personal ability to cause nature

to work in his favor. Elisha pronounces a curse in the

name of the Lord and guess who heard and accepted it?

God. God answers that, and he moves

in to defend his servant. And we think, OK, so, so we we

have to look at God's character then.

No, you have to. Understand that there's

something deeper going on here. This is clearly the most

disturbing part. So God is behind this.

But it wasn't spontaneous even. No, this is God fulfilling an

ancient warning that he gave long ago concerning his people

if they remained in an unrepentant state of apostasy.

Let me put it this way. What happened to those children

was warned about many, many, many years ago before they even

existed. Let me show you that.

Go to Leviticus, the thrilling Book of Leviticus.

I say that because people don't think it's thrilling, and I

think it's absolutely fascinating.

In Leviticus chapter 26. Here, the Lord gives promises

Leviticus 26 · chapter mention

and rewards for obedience and staggering warnings for

persistent disobedience. And let's qualify the kind of

disobedience that God is speaking about here.

He's not speaking about you and I stumbling.

He's not speaking about you and I.

In a brief period of coldness of heart in verse 14 of chapter 26,

here's what he is speaking about.

But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these

commandments, if you spurn my statutes and if your soul abhors

my rules, do you hear the language here?

If you spurn my statutes, if you you're so abhorred, like you

have discussed towards the word of God, you have absolute

disdain for the truths of God, so that you will not do all my

commandments, but break my covenant.

So that is the level of disobedience we're speaking

about, being steeped in stubborn rebellion.

And for the rest of this chapter, you know what God does?

He gives cycles of warning. In other words, he says, if you

stay in this kind of condition, let me put it this way, if you

turn your back on the true God and refuse to hear the truth and

refuse to live without my law long enough, I'm going to give

you a series of distress. Different degrees of distress.

And one of those categories is later on in verse 21.

Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I

will continue striking you. So pause there.

Remember, he's talking about I'm going to turn up the heat more

and more because you're not listening to me.

I'm trying to get your attention here, and here's one way he'll

do it. I will continue striking you

sevenfold for your sins, and I will let loose the wild beast

against you which shall bereave you of your children and destroy

your livestock and make you few in numbers, so that your Rd.

shall be deserted. Do you see this?

Back before the people even entered into the promised land,

God gave a warning that if you walk away from me long enough,

I'm going to try to get your attention, and I will allow it

to get to the point where the wild beast will come out and

bereave you of your own children.

And that happened in Second Kings 223 to 25 S Again, this

isn't random. This isn't spontaneous.

This was predicted. This was God fulfilling his

part. Of the warning when the people,

like the people of Bethel, walk contrary to his law.

Do you know what I take from this though, in terms of

principle? When a nation rejects God, when

a nation rejects the true God, children pay a heavy price.

Children will pay a heavy price. And again, this is just one

example of many of how God will trouble a land.

But with what goal in mind does he have?

Does he have a goal? Is there an aim for all of this?

Absolutely. Go back to Second Chronicles 15

and let's look at verse three and four again.

For a long time Israel was without the true God, and

without a teaching priest, and without law now verse 4 But when

in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and

sought him, he was found by them.

For God troubled them. He troubled them with great

disturbances, afflicting all the inhabitants of land.

Why does he trouble them with every sort of distress so that

in? Their distress?

They would turn to God. Unfortunately, so many people

only understand the language of distress before they bend their

knee. Before they even consider God.

Is there distress in your life? If you're walking with the Lord

and there is trials and tribulations, then you could

take comfort to know that he is only purifying you further and

that he's going to sanctify you through that.

But if you have turned your back on God, and you are not walking

for the true God without his law, perhaps the distress in

your life. Is God trying to get your

attention? Are you listening to that?

In His love, He will let your world crumble so that you can

come back to him and stay close to Him.

In their distress, they turn to the Lord.

That's why he allows it, because we're very, very stubborn

people. Here's the thing I'm worried

about, though. Personally, it's true for the

testimony of Israel, and unfortunately, I think it's very

true of our generation, especially here in America.

Many people and many nations have a very high tolerance for

pain, and that's not a good thing.

That's not a good thing. I've said this before.

I don't mean to repeat myself, but I know some strong people,

and that's not a good thing. What I mean by strong is.

It takes a lot for them to surrender.

They find a lot of inner strength and fortitude, not to

be faithful but to remain in a place of faithlessness.

And it concerns me because I wonder, what else does God need

to do in your life for you to wake up, America?

What else does God need to do for you to wake up?

And to call upon him in your distress, because look here

verse 3 again, for a long time Israel that's so important.

Lord doesn't resort to disasters immediately.

He waits, He waits, and there you are, walking further and

further away from the true God He waits.

And more and more we're seeing less teaching priests occupying

pulpits and churches. He waits.

As we become more and more and more lawless, he waits.

He waits. But there comes a time.

We're in his brimming love, he says.

I have to get their attention. And so he.

Troubles them with every sort of distress, shaking our world so

that we can look up. But here's the problem.

You see, just because these are the divine designs of these

disturbances, it does not mean that they always produce what

they were intended to produce. And that's not God's fault.

I believe with all of my heart that God is speaking to this

generation with what we're seeing.

Will they listen? Let me show you something in our

final text in Jeremiah chapter 18.

Jeremiah 18 · chapter mention

Let's go to verse seven of Jeremiah 18.

Some might accuse a message like this of being oversimplistic or

misapplication because God had a special covenant with Israel, so

it makes sense for him to deal with them in this way.

It was a theocracy. They were elected with a special

privilege, but with that privilege came great

responsibility. So how can you take these things

that relate to Israel and apply them to us?

Well, here's your answer from Jeremiah 18.

Seven If at any time, what do you think any time means?

It means anytime. Nothing special about the Hebrew

either. If at any time lean into this

now. My brother, my sister, I declare

concerning a nation. Did he say my nation, a nation

or a Kingdom? So he's talking about any

nation, any Kingdom, at any time that I will pluck up and break

down and destroy it. And if that nation did he say my

nation? No.

If that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its

evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to.

Do to it. And if at any time can you be

any more clear? And if at any time I declare

concerning a nation, not my nation, a nation or a Kingdom,

that I will build and plant it, and if it does, evil in my

sight, not listening to my. Voice.

Well, I thought you just spoke to Israel.

No, a nation, a Kingdom. If they don't listen to my

voice. Well, how does God speak?

He troubles them with many distress.

Then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.

It's clear even in this covenantal age where God had a

special relationship with one nation, though, they had unique

features and unique rewards. Because of that relationship,

there are certain things. That apply not just to them but

to the whole world. And here's one of those things.

Any nation that knows of my word, that knows of my law, that

knows of who the true God is, turns their back on it and does

not relent from doing it's evil, I will deal with that nation.

So second Chronicles 15 verses three to six is just as

relevant. To America in 2023 than it was

King ASA few 100 years before Christ.

Just as relevant. And what did this generation and

Jeremias do in response to this? Look at verse 11 and 12.

Now therefore say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of

Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord.

Behold, I am, I am, I am. Shaping disaster against you and

devising a plan against you. I'm, I'm, I'm shaping something

catastrophic against you. I don't want to go there.

And so here's the rest of it. Return everyone from his evil

way and amend your ways and your deeds.

Now look at this verse 12. But they say that is in vain.

We will follow our own plans and will everyone act according to

the stubbornness of his evil heart.

So if somehow, miraculously, a message like this gets to the

Oval Office. And our president and our

officials hear the clear word of God, but they answer in the same

way. Vain.

We're staying on the path that we're in.

This is what God is saying to this world today.

Return everyone from his evil way and amend your ways and your

deeds. I know that a lot of people

today, as we're looking out into this world that is burning,

they're also. Priests of our day who are

speaking, and I'm from time to time listening to what is being

said, maybe you are too, and praise God that there are

faithful messengers of God out there.

But here's here's what's going out there in terms of majority.

So far. There's a lot of talk of

prophecy. Is this prophetic fulfillment

what we're seeing in the Middle East?

Is this is this fit in the timeline of the Last Days

somewhere? Which is fine, it's important to

clarify that. But my concern is there is

little exhortation for people to posture their hearts toward God.

A lot of explanation, very little exhortation, posturing

their hearts toward God in this time of great.

Distress. What can we do?

We're just this tiny faithful church in Norridge, IL.

Well, we worship the true God, and we by God's grace make this

a place of teaching. And we live according to the law

of God, and we honor the righteous laws of our land.

And we do our part in God's Providence to be a purifying and

preventative agent in this distressing time in world

history. And maybe for you today, in this

place, your life is in shambles, but you don't know God.

Or you once walk with God, and it has been months and years

since you have pursued him, loved him, obeyed him, sought to

understand him. Could it be that in his great

love he is troubling you to bring you closer to him again?

Will you listen to him? Will you?

In Luke 13, I made mention of this last Friday.

Two days ago and Luke 13, a few Jews came up to Jesus and they

brought up a terrorist attack. Some Galileans were were slain,

and their blood was mixed with the blood of the sacrifices.

This was the doing of Pilate and Jesus simply looks at them and

says do you think that there were worse sinners than you?

Because the Jews of that they had a concept that if tragedy

happened it means that you did something very bad to deserve

it. And if you walk in righteousness

and if you do good, then you escape such things.

And Jesus clarifies that very briefly, and then he goes.

Into something else, he goes into a message of repentance.

And this is what somebody said, and I love to borrow it, just to

share it with you when we hear of tragedies, when we hear of.

Terrorist attacks when we hear of natural disasters, right?

Because it wasn't just the guy leans.

The Tower of Siloam fell and killed 18 people.

Jesus brought that up too. People have a lot of questions

and sometimes part of those questions is how can I protect?

Myself from this How can I avoid this?

How can I escape this? And you know what Jesus saying

in that you want to know the safest place in a world like

this. Where there can be tragedies and

there can be evil men who have power and take advantage of that

power, you know you want to know the safest place.

Repent. That's the safest place.

You want to know how you can assure the greatest security for

your future? Repent.

That's what you do. Not about accumulating this.

Not about hiding there. Not about moving there.

Making sure that your heart is right with God.

This is my heart this afternoon. Because we have to read the

writing on the wall. I get it.

Every generation says Jesus is coming back.

I understand. Well, one of these times

somebody's going to get it right.

I understand, but there is still though.

We don't call for dates, and though we don't ask people to do

ridiculous things under the pretense of get ready for the

apocalypse, if there's anything that needs to be done is to call

people to get right with God. OK, teach.

Teach about prophecy in the Bible.

Teach about how current events may be explained in the

scriptures. Do it, but exhort the people.

Get ready. Get ready.

The Lord is coming. The Lord is speaking on a

megaphone. So when I get caught up with

little things, trinkets, and trivial ideas, hear what God is

saying. Oh, I pray that America would

hear what God is saying because He's speaking.

And this God, who does perform many distressing things, is a

God who's willing to bring rest to that land that calls back to

him. I closed my Bible, but I have to

show you that here it is in Second Chronicles 15, verse 15,

2 Chronicles 15:15

When ASA encouraged the people to pursue reform and to pursue

obedience, they got rid of idols.

I mean, this man even got rid of his mother.

The Queen Mother, because she had made a detestable image for

Ashra. And notice what we're told here

in Second Chronicles 1515 and all Judah rejoiced over the

oath. For they had sworn with all

their heart and it sought him with their whole desire, and he

was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around again.

I believe the God of this Bible is alive today.

I do. I really believe that what a

tragedy would be for any preacher to come up here to just

give some inspirational lesson, not believe that it applies

today, It applies today. And here's how much I believe in

that if this nation would have enough sense to respond to

distressing times that we're in and call out to God this God in

heaven, the same God in Second Chronicles 15 will bring rest to

this nation. He can.

And until then, hold on tight. Hold on tight.

Not gritting your teeth, not bracing for impact, but a heart

full of joy because you are a repentant people.

We are a repented people, are we not?

We stand righteous before God in Christ Jesus.

We have hope. Don't worry about your

possessions. Don't worry about your mortgage.

Don't worry about your children. Just put your hand in the hand

of him who has control over all things, and you will be more

than OK. It shall indeed be good for the

righteous. And so we have hope, even as the

world is burning. We are like Goshen, where there

is light and life, though everything around us is death

and dark. We are in Goshen who points to

Jesus Christ, positionally safe and practically experientially

safe because he is a real living God who walks with us.

He walks with us not just when it is bright and dandy.

He walks with us even where through the fire and in the

water. Nothing will overtake us,

Saints, nothing will overtake us.

Cast all your fears, anxieties on him.

Let every news headline and breaking story just cause you to

break forth and praise. Why?

Because we serve the One who is not surprised by these things.

We were surprised on October 7th, 2023.

King Jesus wasn't. And I have a hunch that there

will be many surprises on the way.

But I take comfort to know that I am shielded by the One who

knows tomorrow, and He leads you and I what a blessed Savior we

serve. I'm done.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that we have

the truth. We thank you that your word is

truth. We thank you that you have

called us for such a time as this.

Help us stay close to you. That is, the ground rumbles

beneath our feet, and as the walls shake around us, that we

would take refuge in you, for you are an ever present help in

trouble. We do pray for all the distress,

and though you may be behind it, Lord, we ask that the purpose of

it would find fruition in our generation.

Give the grace for people to see and hear you.

And to not let one more disaster go by before they call out to

you. We pray for our governing

officials. We pray for our President.

We pray for our vice President. We pray for our mayors.

We pray for our governors. May they see the writing on the

wall, and Lord, may they see it in a way where it's not too

late. But as an invitation to make

things right, we pray for our new House Speaker.

That he would stand for truth and righteousness.

That he would be unashamed of the gospel, unashamed of the

decrees and the testimonies of the Word of God.

We ask Lord for what's happening around the world, that your

wisdom would be deposited in our hearts and how to interpret it,

and that you would, Lord, redeem those in the midst of it.

But we know that these things will happen, and they will

increase until you return and bring peace on the earth.

So we say one more time with all of our hearts.

On the Sunday afternoon come Lord Jesus, and make everything

right. And with all this mess and all

this burning and all the fire, may you find in our bosoms a

passion that would bless you. So we sing to you now, asking

that you would be pleased with what you see in here, in this

place and other places on the Sunday afternoon that are

honoring you. Because they have teaching

priests and they have the true God.

Empower our brothers and sisters across the lands.

Empower those pastors to be prophets, to speak forth the

word of the Lord so that people would get right with the God.

We thank you and we rejoice in you with all the personal

problems we have. All the issues, all the worries.

Help us see them in the light of eternity.

You will wipe away every tear you'll remove, every disease.

You will crown us with a crown imperishable.

You will clothe us with a white raiment that will never be

stained, and you will bring us into your arms for all of

eternity. Thank you for reminding us of

our inheritance in Christ. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Let's stand and worship the King

of Kings and the Lord of Lords who reigns forevermore.