Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Lord will remove blessings.

Jeremiah 5:1-4 “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. (2.) And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely. (3.) O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. (4.) Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.”

Beloved, we as Christians search the scriptures to find ways to reproof our lives for errors and heresies, we also use it for correction in our lives to better serve the Lord, we also find it profitable for doctrine because it is the supreme source of everything we believe, and last for instruction in righteousness in our everyday life in walking close to the Lord. Because if we do not use the bible in this fashion then let us not expect to please the Lord our God and let us also not expect to receive blessings from Him.

I preached on this passage of scripture a couple of weeks back at our church and fully expect to speak on it again in a few weeks at a bible conference in Oakdale, La. I am a firm believer that there are some subjects so important that they are universally needed in every church and this is one of those subjects. I will never be able to say in this one article what truly needs to be said about this article however I do intend to cover the highlights of it. Here we find the Lord disgusted with His beloved Nation of Israel because they have over and over again refused to follow the Lord and His laws. We will find in verse 3 that the Lord has done so much to this Nation He loves “thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.” So we find even though they were a blessed Nation (because God elected to love them) they still over and over again refused to follow the law of God. This reminds us of a time before the flood that the people of God (Seth’s descendants) started to marry the descendants of Cain and evil took over and God was repented that He had created them and destroyed every person in the flood except the eight on the Ark. Genesis 6:6-7 “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (7.) And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” Here we find God is disgusted with Israel His chosen Nation because they have refused God’s laws. We also know these are not the same people that God brought out of Egypt but rather their decedents as Jeremiah reminds us in chapter seven, Jeremiah 7:25 “Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:” God had became so disgusted that He has removed of their “God Called” teachers Amos 8:11 “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:” and today they are wondering in the world without being used of God or receiving God’s blessings. It will be in the Tribulation period before God will once again use and bless Israel as a Nation.

So many today need to grasp and understand the lesson learned from the people of the flood and from Israel, that God blesses those who walk with Him in worship and in truth. Please understand the blessings of God are for our loyalty to Him and His word not for disobedience. If you are being blessed and being disobedient there is a great chance Satan is rewarding you for your disobedience.