(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

As this chapter was being read, obviously very clear, it's a very negative chapter, as I said, the book of Lamentations. It's a very negative book. I feel sorry for Jeremiah. He's got so much to preach, so much to cover, and it's from such a negative angle. But if we look at Lamentations chapter 2 in verse number 5, we'll take the title for the sermon this morning from here. Verse number 5, it says, Lamentations 2.5, the Lord was as an enemy. The title for the sermon this morning is, the Lord was as an enemy. I thought it was a good title to start with. Now the reason they're thinking of the Lord as an enemy here, of course, he's allowing, his judgment is being passed down on the people of God, on Jerusalem, on Judea, and the Babylonians are coming. It's not popular. People aren't happy that you've got this foreign power taking over the land. It almost seems like, has God turned against us? Is God the enemy? And so that's what I want to look at today, is God the enemy? But if you notice how it's phrased there, the Lord was as an enemy. It doesn't say the Lord was an enemy. It says the Lord was as an enemy. And so we'll be looking at this topic as we go through this chapter. But before we commence there in Lamentations 2, keep your finger there. What I want you to do is go back to Psalm 119, where we've been reading from, Psalm 119. And you may recall that last week I had mentioned that the Book of Lamentations is written in a very unique way. It's almost like a work of poetry, not just prophecy and not just history, but a work of poetry as well. And when we looked at chapter 1 of Lamentations, you may recall, it had 22 verses. We looked at chapter 2 of Lamentations, another 22 verses. We looked at chapter 3, had 66 verses, 22 times 3. Chapter 4, 22 verses. Chapter 5, 22 verses. Why is there 22 verses or in chapter 3, 3 times the 22 in this book? Well, if we look at again, we've been looking at Psalm 119, I think it's the best way to explain this. Now, as I said, Psalm 119 is broken up by the Hebrew alphabet. Okay. So when you look at Psalm 119 verse number 1, the very first word there as a title will be aleph. Okay. That's the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Now, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has eight verses allocated to it. So when you get to verse number 8, the beginning of verse number 9 says beth. Yeah. And you'll notice that it continues that aleph, beth, gimel, daleth, you know, verse number 33, heh, verse 41, vav, verse number 49, zain, and as we read this morning, verse number 57, cheth. Okay. So we're going through the Hebrew alphabet. Now, you may also notice if you go back to verse number 1 there, Psalm 119 verse number 1, you know, the first one was aleph, right? And the next letter was beth. What does that sound like? Aleph, beth, alphabet. That's where you get the word alphabet in our language. Okay. And so, you know, Hebrew is one of the very first languages. And so this is where, you know, even modern language basically is built upon the languages of the past. And because the Hebrew had an alphabet, so we kind of follow that same, not tradition, but that same structure in our language today. Now, as I said, each alphabet gets given eight verses. So how many verses are there in Psalm 119? If you go to the end there, can someone let me know? 176. Now, most of you guys have a smartphone. So just pull out your smartphone for a moment and pull out your calculator. Pull out your calculator, please, and type in. We've got 176 verses, 176 verses. And we know that each letter of the alphabet has eight verses. So what we're going to do is 176 divided by eight verses. And then we had to work out how many letters there are in the Hebrew alphabet. Has anyone worked it out? 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. So now go back to Lamentations. Why are there 22 verses in pretty much all the chapters in Lamentations? Because the book of Lamentation is basically written out as an acristic. You guys remember that term, an acristic? So it's like taking the name, my name's Kevin. It's taking each letter of my name and creating a poem out of it. So K might be a cool dude. Now that's a C, isn't it? I don't know. And then it's like E. E would be, what's a good one? Help me out here, guys. We'll post some poetry. Entertain. The entertaining pastor. That's it. The V would be very intelligent. Amen. The I would be interesting. And the N would be never mind. This is a hopeless work of poetry. Okay. But that's an acristic. And so the book of Lamentations, you know, as Jeremiah is pouring out his heart and weeping over Jerusalem, what he's done is he's taken the Hebrew alphabet as an acristic and each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So, you know, we won't notice this in English, obviously, but in verse number one, where it says how, the first letter there in Lamentations two, verse one, for example, how, you know, if you go back to the Hebrew word, the word would have started with aleph. Okay. And then we get to verse number two, you know, the Lord or the, okay. That would have started in the Hebrew word with bet. Okay. So it would have, that's basically how the book of Lamentations is put together. A work of poetry, Jeremiah looking at the Hebrew alphabet, breaking it down the 22 letters and creating the chapters like this. So it's like this pretty much throughout the whole book. When it comes to Jeremiah, sorry, Lamentations chapter three, we've got 66 books. So what happens is the first three verses, basically the first three letters, sorry, the first letter of the alphabet, the next three verses is the second letter of the alphabet. They all start that way. The next three verses, the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, et cetera. All these chapters follow the same principle. When we get to chapter number five, it's the only one that doesn't have that acristic. Okay. But still it's got the 22 verses. Okay. So anyway, I wanted to explain that to you why it's written in such a way. Again, Jeremiah is pouring out his heart. We can only guess why he decided to do it this way. Maybe sometimes to express your sadness and your burdens. It's hard to put it into words. And maybe Jeremiah just felt it was easier to just break down the alphabet and start from that point, potentially. We don't really know. The Bible doesn't really tell us. But it's interesting, isn't it, how God has used the works of man, the heart of man, different poetic, different styles of writing to put his Bible together. All right. So let's start there in Lamentations chapter two, please, and verse number one. Lamentations chapter two and verse number one. It says, So starting in verse number two, we start to look at Jerusalem and the sins of Jerusalem from God's perspective. When we looked at chapter one, it was primarily from Jerusalem's perspective. When we look at chapter three, it's going to be primarily from Jeremiah's perspective. Okay, so each chapter comes from a slightly different angle. And notice once again that God is angry, right, angry at the sins of the city and his cast out from heaven unto the earth to be of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger. The Lord God is calling Jerusalem or Judah his footstool. Now, when we think of a footstool, we know what it kind of is. It's a place where you rest your feet, isn't it? Okay. It's something that is beneath you, something that is under you. And this idea of the of Jerusalem or the earth being God's footstool is actually something you'll notice quite often in the Bible. Just for example, I'll read to you from Isaiah 66 verse one. Isaiah 66 verse one reads, Alright, so the idea of the earth being God's footstool, again, these are poetic words, okay, these are illustrations. It's not that God literally, because I've heard some, I know it sounds ridiculous, but I heard someone say this to me. It's not that God literally has his feet on the earth. It's not like he can go to a certain place on the earth, like the Holy Land, and there God's the rest of his feet right there. Okay, the idea of it being his footstool is that he has power and authority over the earth. The earth is submissive to the Lord God, okay. His power, his glory is in heaven, but the submission upon the earth is basically him having his feet upon the earth. That's what he's pointing to. And the fact that Jerusalem is considered here his footstool is that, you know, this is a city that should have been following the Lord. This is a city that should have been listening to the preacher, to Jeremiah, but they had refused to listen to the Lord. And so the Lord says, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger. So God's prononated his wrath and anger and he's forgotten, he's put aside the idea that this was once his footstool. He says, no, now it's time to pass judgment on this wicked place. Let's keep going, verse number two. The Lord has swallowed up all the inhabitants of Jacob and have not pitied. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah and have brought them down to the ground. He have polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. So the Lord here is destroying all of Israel, okay. We know that, of course, when it comes to Israel, right, yeah, of course, in Jeremiah's day, God is judging the southern kingdom of Judah, which was taken into captivity by the Babylonians. But about 120 years before that, the northern kingdom of Israel again was taken into captivity, this time by the hands of the Assyrians. And I just want to remind all of you, and I hope this is a lesson, as we've gone through 52 chapters in Jeremiah and we're going through Lamentations, this should just bring to remembrance when one power is taking over another power on this earth, God is allowing it, okay. Look, when we read here, verse number two, it says the Lord has swallowed up all the inhabitants of Jacob. It's the Lord's doing, but he's using Babylon, he's using the Assyrians. Why is he using these nations? Are they such godly, righteous nations that just love the Lord and the Lord is just rewarding them for their love? No, these are wicked nations as well. And I want you to remember this, please remember this, because we have wicked governments, we have wicked politicians, but listen, if this is God's judgment, God is allowing it. And I want you to please remember this, okay, because in all honesty, COVID world has shown me how carnal we are. You know, honestly, even myself, this whole experience of COVID has shown me just how carnal, just how earthly we are, and we tend to forget when things get challenging, when things get a little bit difficult, we forget eternity, we forget that God is on his throne, we forget that God is all powerful, we forget that God is allowing these governments to do wicked things, and we start thinking our fight is on this earth. And we lose our focus when that happens, brethren, okay? If there's anything that you learn from Jeremiah and Lamentations is that when governments take over other governments, powers take over other powers, God is allowing it, all right? And you know what, you just rest in knowing that God is doing it. God's going to look after his people, okay? Let's keep going there in verse number three. He has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel. He has drawn back, see notice it's God that does all these things. He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. So God is not the enemy, remember the title for the sermon today is the Lord was as an enemy, but it says here there is an enemy, or I'll talk about that in a moment, it says he has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire which devoureth roundabout. So that flaming fire that's devoured the city of course is when they burnt down the city, you say well the Babylonians shouldn't have done that, yeah but God allowed them to do it. And so the Bible's recording that it's like the Lord's blaming, bringing this flaming fire upon Jacob. Now the other thing that's interesting about verse number three it says he has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel. Well the Bible speaks about a horn, now think about a rhinoceros with its horn, okay? The idea of the horn is basically it's high standing, it's a picture of strength. So we have a city, a nation that was strong, that was high and lifted up, but God in his fierce anger has broken down or cut down that horn. Let's keep going to verse number four. He have bent his bow, notice the next words, he have bent his bow like an enemy, okay? You'll notice that the wording in the Bible is very specific about the view of God here. He have bent his bow like an enemy, he stood with his right hand as an adversary. So is God our enemy? Is he our adversary? No, but sometimes his actions may look like an enemy, sometimes his actions may look as an adversary, adversary is just another way of saying an enemy, right? It says, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion, he poured out his fury like fire. Look at verse number five, where we get started from. The Lord was as an enemy, he have swallowed up Israel, he have swallowed up all her palaces, he have destroyed his strongholds and have increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentations. So verses number four and five describes God in these different ways, right? Like an enemy, as an adversary, as an enemy. Again, this is reminding us that through Jerusalem, to the people living on that land, it seems like, well, God must be the enemy then, right? Because remember, Jeremiah's preaching that God's going to judge them, God's allowing the Babylonians to take power, God's doing this, and they say, no, there's no way God will do this to his people. And you have false prophets preaching otherwise. And so if you were to listen to Jeremiah, and actually believe what Jeremiah is saying, and you know, okay, let's believe Jeremiah for a moment. Jeremiah is saying that God is allowing Babylon to destroy Jerusalem, to destroy Judah. Well, if that's true, then God must be an enemy. That's what people think. And you know, you know, sometimes when I go and talk to people door to door, they reject the gospel, they reject God. They say, well, I don't want to believe in the God of the Bible. Let's say, why does God allow so many people to suffer? You know, why does God allow people in Africa to die from hunger? Why does God allow children to die from cancer? And they'll use all these excuses. And they don't want to think about it, because then by saying, well, God is allowing these things, they think of him as an enemy. But they don't understand, they don't appreciate that the reason man suffers is because of man's sin, you know? And there's judgment, there's consequences to sin. You know, there were consequences to Judah, rebellion and sin against God, and that was the judgment of the Babylonians. It was by the hand, and we saw this in chapter one. Jerusalem finally woke up to themselves and said, yeah, we messed up. We can't blame God, we can only blame ourselves. But that's what mankind is like. We like to blame God. All the problems in my life, if God was real, if God was true, then why did he allow me to suffer through these problems and his trials? You know why? Because we live in a sin-cursed world, and because you're a sinner as well. You've made mistakes, there are consequences to this, okay? But that then, when we understand that we live in a sin-cursed world, we understand that we're sinners, this is what's supposed to drive us to God and say, God, I cannot save myself. God, I need your help, I need your mercy, I need your forgiveness, and we're driven to the forgiveness through Jesus Christ. But I've been preaching basically the same thing that Jeremiah has been preaching for us today. You know, I'm telling you that what's going on in this world, this new normal, whatever we want to call it, what do they call it in the media, okay? I mean, I don't know what the new, I don't know what the world's going to look like once this COVID is over. I hope it feels like the same, but there could be changes. Maybe there are changes behind the scenes that we're just not aware of, brethren. You know, but you need to remember that whatever happens, whatever power the enemy receives, God's allowed it. And we can't lump God in with all of this and say, well, God is the enemy. No, He may appear as an enemy, He may appear as an adversary, but God is doing it for His purposes, okay? And I know that part of the purposes of COVID world is because of me, and because of you. You know, I can't just turn around and say, well, it's just the wicked Australians out there. It's all the godless Australians that reject Jesus Christ. You know, sometimes as Christians, we're too attached to this world, and God has to allow us to go through something like this so we can be less attached, so we can glory more in the world to come, you know, to be, to have our eyes upon eternal things rather than carnal things. And so I look at all this, brethren, as the work and the hand, the handiwork of God. And I think it's beautiful. I think when we see God's work, maybe it's hard to see it now, but we can look back sometime in the future, we'll definitely see how God has guided us through these days. Let me just also remind you, Ephesians 6 12, it says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. So we're not here to fight mankind, okay? We're not here to fight these wicked politicians and these wicked governments. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Yes, I do believe, even though God is allowing what's taking place in this world, God's allowing it, but yeah, there are spiritual wickedness in high places that are trying to take advantage for themselves. They're trying to further their agenda, but don't forget, God is allowing these wicked forces to further their agenda, okay? The Bible says in 1 Peter 5 8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Who is the adversary? It's not the Lord God, brethren, it's the devil. But you know what? Even the devil is limited by how much God allows him to do. Even the devil is ultimately fulfilling the purposes of God. Believe it or not, okay? You know, God, this is something that is universally understood if you took the whole Bible, you know, for what it is. It's not like the devil does something and God's like, oh man, did he really do that? You know, like God had a plan and devil just messed it up, okay? No, God knew from the very beginning, from the foundation of the earth, that Christ would have to come and sacrifice himself for mankind, okay? God was not surprised when Adam and Eve fell, okay? Now, let's go to verse number six. It says here, and he have violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden. Now, again, we look at the tabernacle or the temple, this is a house of God in the Old Testament, so we can look at this again and apply it to our church, how we've not been able to meet for church or we've been restricted in how we want to worship. It says, as if it were a garden, he have destroyed his places of the assembly. The Lord have caused the solemn feasts and the sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. He have despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. The Lord have cast off his altar and have abhorred his sanctuary. He have given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast. And once again, notice the Lord is allowing the enemy, the hand of the enemy. The Lord is not the enemy, but God is allowing the enemy to have authority and control over the house of God in these days. It's amazing. So who is the enemy actually? It's not the Lord God. Babylon is the enemy. Yeah, the Bible makes it very clear. Babylon is the enemy. God is not the enemy. Just because God allows Babylon to amass power, just because God allows Babylon to be his instrument of wrath and anger doesn't mean that God has become the enemy, okay? But it may seem like that to us sometimes. You know, as I'm preaching to you guys about COVID, I'm saying, look, God is judging Australia. You might say, well, is God my enemy then? No, it's not your enemy. Maybe some of these wicked politicians are your enemy. Maybe some of these wicked pharmaceutical companies are your enemy. But don't forget, God is allowing them, okay, to pass his anger, his judgment upon not just Australia, but upon this wicked world. And I really want you to absorb this. If you haven't absorbed it through Jeremiah, the series of Jeremiah, please absorb it today, okay? Because I don't want you to be carnal. I don't want you to think I can deliver this world from the hand of the enemy. Yes, it is the enemy, but God is allowing the enemy, okay? I don't want you to become an enemy of God. I don't want you to try to fight yourself against God's judgment. It's not going to end up well for you. We saw from the book of Jeremiah, those that rebelled against God's judgment, it ended bad for them. Those that surrendered, they fed well. You know, their children were able to eventually return after 70 years from captivity. And so you see here that the enemy, even in Jeremiah's day, they've entered into the sanctuary. They've entered into the house of God. You know, it says they have made a noise in the house of Lord, right? All of a sudden they're the ones that have power and authority. And again, this is part of God's judgment. You say, why would God allow this though? Because how many wicked churches are there? Even in Australia right now, how many pastors are behind pulpits in Australia, preaching false gospels? You know, preaching the wisdom or the stupidity of man rather than the wisdom of God. You know, how many pastors are out there sleeping around, committing adultery with their church members? You know, Australia has wicked churches and wicked pastors. Okay, and if God decided to make us put a stop to it, He's had to put a stop to it. Sometimes God's people are caught up in it. What are we going to do, brethren? It's God's judgment. Allow God to pass His judgment. And if He allows the wicked to pass that judgment and His anger, that's how it is. That's how it works. You may recall the story of Job. You know, where Job was faithful to the Lord, he's righteous. There's no one on the earth like Job. He was the best Christian of his day. And then we have the story in heaven where God is speaking to Satan, all right? And Satan basically says to God, if you just take everything away from him, then he'll curse you. Then he won't be, you know, faithful towards you. The only reason he's faithful towards you is because you've blessed him greatly on the earth. And so God, what does He do? He allows Satan. He allows the enemy. He allows the adversary of Job to take away his possessions, to take away his riches, to lose his 10 children. I mean, what a loss. I mean, I don't know if I could be ahead with that if I lost all my kids in one go like that, okay? I mean, that's a major loss. But don't forget, God allowed it. God gave Satan that power over Job for a period of time, okay? And what, does Job get angry at God? What does Job say? I'll quickly read to you Job chapter 2 verse 9. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. I mean, I can understand this wife, this mother, having lost her 10 children, you know, angry at God, right? Just curse God. Let's just die, right? How does Job respond? But he said unto her, Thou speaketh as one of the foolish women speaketh, What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God? And shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Job says, Look, we received good from the hand of God. And you know what? How can we deny God? And you know, if it's time for us to receive evil, evil means harmful, not sinful, okay? If we're here to receive evil, then who are we to decide that? God can give us good and God can give us evil. And God allowed evil harm to fall upon Job and he allowed Satan, the adversary, the enemy, to hurt Job and to hurt his family. Look through this process, Job came out even better than he was before. If you know the story, we won't go into it all now. But I'm trying to show you that, you know, you may say, well, let's just fight this world. You know, let's just bring back our freedoms and liberties before COVID. I don't know if they're going to come back. I hope they do. Okay. But you need to remember that yes, there are enemies, there are enemies to this church. There are enemies against God's people. There are enemies against God's law. And I know this because the government keeps bringing in laws that are contrary to God's word. There are plenty of enemies, okay? But God's allowed it. You know, and it's not your business to go and fight against the government. It's not your business to try to change this world. You're not going to change it Brethren, okay? But you've got access to God all the time. And he's allowed the wicked to do what they need to do on this earth because God is angry. I'm not surprised that God is angry at this world. I'm not surprised that God is passing judgment upon this world and upon Australia. But I really want to absorb this, okay? Absorb it. That God in his wisdom allows our enemies sometimes to make it hard for us. To persecute us, okay? But in the long run, when you look back in time, you're going to notice, you're going to somehow within you, you're going to realize this was good for me. This was profitable for me. I could see the hand of God, you know? It's helped me to detach myself from carnality, from the things of this earth that don't matter and have my focus and my heart set upon eternity. To have my heart and set upon my Lord God. I mean that's what I've learned, Brethren. I'll tell you the honest truth. That's what I've learned through this whole time, you know? And I had my plans. I had my plans of 12 months down here. Then I get back up there. My plans are destroyed, okay? I don't know when I came back. I want to get back to Queensland as soon as possible. But I don't know when that is. You know what? Then I have to learn, okay, it's not my plans. It's God's plans, you know? I don't know everything. God knows it all and I just got to rest upon Him. You know, we all have lessons to learn. But if you're here with a carnal mind saying, well, they're enemies, they're trying to stop us. Let's fight back. And you're never going to learn. Like, you know, if you can't get it from Jeremiah, you can't get it from Lamentations, I don't know what to say to you. I want you to absorb it and get it and set your eyes upon Jesus Christ. Set your eyes upon eternity. Set your eyes upon the thousand you reign with Christ. When you're going to have this earth exactly the way you want it, and you'll be calling the shots. Get excited for that. Forget this earth. Isn't there a hymn that says, take the world but give me Jesus? Something like that. I can't remember what it is right now. It's something along those lines. Yeah, praise God. I used to sing that hymn all the time, but I didn't understand it. Now I do. Yeah, take the world. I don't care about this world. Such a wicked world. Just give me Jesus. I'm looking forward to seeing him face to face. And don't forget, Jesus Christ came at a time and he set our example. You know, he walked in accordance to a life that we are to follow. And Christ, when he came to this earth, you know, yes, there was the nation of Judah, or Judea there, the Jews, God's people. But you know, he came at a point when there was a foreign power over that land, the Roman Empire. Okay. Now, who's the king of Judah? Who's the king of the Jews? It's Jesus. All right. And yet, Jesus Christ even allows himself to be under the authority of a wicked Roman Empire. You don't see anywhere in Christ's 30 years where he's trying to fight the Romans. In fact, he's arguing with his fellow Jews, those that won't believe on him, those that won't believe the writings of Moses. That's what he spends time on, on spiritual things, not fighting the carnal battles of this world. You know, God did not raise up an army that's going to take over the world, right? God did not instruct his apostles of how to build an empire on this earth. They went around afterwards building churches, you know, to further the work of God. Amen. That's what we need to be focused on, the things of God. Let's keep going there in verse number eight. It says, The Lord has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line. He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying. Therefore, he made the rampart and the wall to lament. They languish together. So the walls of Jerusalem are lamenting and weeping. So again, the walls are giving kind of, you know, personal illustrations there. Verse number nine. Her gates are sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles. The law is no more. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. So this is horrible, right? The princess, those people in authority, it says they are among the Gentiles, meaning that they've been taken into captivity. The law is no more. So it's become like the wild west, okay? There is no structure, there is no, you know, government structure on this earth anymore. But what I find most interesting is the end of verse number nine. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. Now many of the prophets there were false prophets anyway. They were arguing against Jeremiah, okay? You know, part of God's judgment is to remove the wisdom of God from this world, okay? When prophets can no longer find a vision from the Lord. And you know, I don't believe, like if we're going to take any parallels about where we live in 2021 versus the Bible, I would not say that we are living in the captivity of the Babylonians at this point in time, okay? Because when that took place, the prophets had no vision. You know, once Judah was taken into captivity, you don't have the great writings of the prophets. We have the stories, yeah, some stories from Daniel and his three friends. We have bits and pieces, but really that office of the prophets, it's not really active in that much, okay? We have Jeremiah, we have a lot of great prophets leading up to the captivity, but then the vision left the prophets. And the reason I don't believe we're in that period yet, where you know Babylon has taken full control of everything, is simply because at least this prophet still has a vision. To the truth, right? I still have a heart to preach God's word. I still think there's a lot in the Bible that we need to learn, okay? You know, sometimes I kind of run out of sermons, but then soon after they're there, you know, they all come back. They come flooding back, you know, at least for me anyway, and I know there's a lot of good preachers out there preaching God's word. You know, we've not lost his vision. You know, I still have a vision for this church. You know, I want Blessed Hope Baptist Church to be a powerful church in the city of Sydney, the biggest city that we have in Australia. You know, there's a lot that this church can accomplish, even though there's few of us. You know, I believe this church can double its size. If not for COVID, I believe we would have doubled our size by now, okay? But all these lockdowns, all these mandates have made things difficult. I do believe that God has a purpose for this church. I have a vision for this church, and you know, I hope even when we turn back to Queensland that you guys continue to power on, you know, serving God in Blessed Hope Baptist Church. Verse number 10. Verse number 10. It says, The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence. They have cast dust upon their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. So this is, you know, sackcloth, hanging down their heads. It's just public mourning. The people of the Jews are mourning the loss of their city and of their nation. Verse number 11. Now this is Jeremiah speaking. Mine eyes do fail with tears. My bowels are troubled. My liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. I love Jeremiah because he's such a negative preacher. He's not negative in himself, but he's preaching negative sermons. He's preaching controversial things. He's a powerful preacher of God. He's preaching the judgment of God, but when he falls and he sees the people suffering, he starts to weep for the people, meaning that he has a love for the people. He has a heart for the people. You know, you can be a preacher, you can be a pastor, and preach, you know, hard preachings and hard sayings and be strong, but listen, you need to have a heart for the people. You know, the reason we preach hard, we preach against sin, we preach against unrighteousness is because we want God's people to clean up their lives. We want them to live holy lives. You know, I want this country to have a fear of God. I don't want God to just destroy Australia. You know, if every city was burnt down on fire, I'm not the kind of preacher to be like, yeah, God, just destroy it all. I'll be weeping too. I'll be saying, why did the people of Australia turn their backs against the Lord? You know, why didn't we do more to reach this community? That's what I would be thinking. And so I can see the heart of Jeremiah here, okay? His eyes do fail with tears. He starts using, again, these poetic language, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth. And you know, when you're under great stress, you know, have you ever, you know, has great stress and you're like, feel it in your stomach? It's like, oh, you know, it kind of upsets your stomach. You know, even get up to preach, before I get up to preach, I have like these butterflies in my stomach, because I don't want to mess up. I don't want to be, oh, I'm nervous a little bit, right? I've got a fear of God. I want to do the best job that I can. You know, and I had a quick look at this. I just read an article. Let me just read it to you. It says, just as the stomach can impact one's mood and behavior, emotions can also impact the stomach. Something known as the enteric system lines the digestive tract, which consists of millions of neurons that communicate with the brain and let us feel the emotions that our brain is dealing with. That's why your stomach gets clenched up in knots when you're stressed or you feel butterflies when you're too excited. I'm sure we've all had those feelings, right? Maybe for some of the kids, you know, if you've gone to school and you're doing some exam and you're, you know, I've been stressed about an exam and I just feel it in my stomach and I kind of feel sick, right? So I don't want to do it, right? I think we've all kind of felt those feelings in our stomach and that's what Jeremiah's feeling, okay? The stress, the sadness is having an effect on his body. You know, a lot of times when people suffer ailments and illnesses and even digestive issues, a lot of the reason behind that is just the stress of life, the mental anguish and stress that people suffer with. Now why, again, is Jeremiah suffering so much? I just want you to notice what it said there in verse number 11 again, just the second part of verse number 11. It says, because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. You see, you know, sometimes we get this idea of Jerusalem and wicked people, yes, but the children are suffering. You know, the little sucklings, the little babies, they're suffering. As Jerusalem is being under siege and they can't feed each other, there's not enough food going around, the children are suffering. You know, my mom always says, you know, if I never want to see my grandchildren go hungry and they've never gone hungry, I believe, but you know, that's something she doesn't want to see her grandchildren go hungry because there'd just be a great sadness for her, right? That the most basic needs are not being met. Well, Jeremiah is looking at all these children around the city, little babies around the city, and they're starving, and this is causing him great anguish, great sadness. And, you know, you need to remind yourself that your sins, you know, if you don't get right with God and God's judging you, your sins, the consequence of those sins may fall upon your children, okay? And we know that our children, you know, they're largely innocent, okay, they're guilty for their own sins, of course, but it's such a serious business being a parent, such a serious business. You know, God's given you little faces, little hands, little feet to take care of. Now, you turn your heart, you harden your heart against God, I promise you it's going to affect your children, okay? They're going to grow up and have, you know, more problems, more doubts, more stresses in life than children that are growing up in a Christian family that love the Lord, okay? So this is heard in Jeremiah, seeing how the children suffer. Look at verse number 12. The children, they say to their mothers, where is corn and wine, when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mother's bosom. So the children are going to, mom, mom, I'm hungry, mom, where's the food, why can't we eat, you know? And Jeremiah's hearing these cries of the little children and he breaks them down. Verse number 13. What thing shall I take to witness for thee? What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O daughter, virgin of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea, who can heal thee? Jeremiah is saying the reason your children are suffering is because thy breach is great like the sea. Your sins are so great, it's like the seas, you know, you can't even put boundaries, there's too much water, there's too much sins, we can't fix it, we can't heal the situation. But this is why your children are suffering, you know, it cannot be contained, your sins. Look at verse number 14. Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee, and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity, but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. He's saying the reason you're in such a bad place is because of your prophets, you've listened to the wrong people, right? It says they have not discovered thine iniquity, your prophets never told you about your sins. Yes, some churches are like that, they never preach against sin, there are some churches they never preach about hell, okay, they never preach about God's judgment and God's anger, and some people walk away thinking I'm always right with God, but they're in great sin, okay, they're disobedient to God, but God just loves me, you know, we're just in the age of grace, so it doesn't matter anyway, that's what people think, that's what people say, okay? Yeah, if you listen to these prophets, yeah, they make you feel good at the beginning, but then when God's judgment comes, what are you going to do? They preach unto you vain things and foolish things. We need to preach the right way, you know, we need to preach like Jeremiah preaches, to show people their iniquity, because if these prophets had told them, listen, you've sinned against the Lord, you're doing wrong, you're worshipping false gods, and if you don't change this, then you'll go into captivity, then they would have changed their minds, but they had false prophets, they listened to the false prophets, and I also, you know, warn you, please be careful who you listen to, you know, some false prophets even sound right at the beginning, okay, and you follow along, they have good teachings, and they've got good teachings, because they're just parroting a good teacher, eventually they start preaching their heresies, eventually they start preaching that which is wrong and sinful, and they can take you down a bad direction, you know, I hope that you see within me that you're not getting one of these false prophets, I hope that you see within me you've got a Jeremiah, you know, someone that loves the Lord, someone that's going to tell you when you've sinned, someone that's going to tell you that God is judging Australia, you know, it's true, you know, we live in a wicked country, you know, it's wicked. Verse 15 we have seen it, and so as people walk by Jerusalem and see the destruction, just back there in verse 15, what do they say? This is the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth, now this is a phrase about Jerusalem that's actually taken from Psalm 48, so keep your finger there, and please go to Psalm 48, go to Psalm 48 and verse number one, this is a song written by, I don't know who's written by actually, it could be David, but this is a song at the height of Jerusalem's glory, okay, in the glory days when God had great kings like David and Solomon over this city, and it says in Psalm 48 verse number one, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king, so it's beautiful for situation, and that's what, you know, the joy of the whole earth, and the people will come in past now looking at the same city that they sang about, that God had blessed, and of course there's a greater layout to this city, new Jerusalem to come, amen, we are going to see the glory of Jerusalem, but a Jerusalem that is built by the hands of God, you know, at the end of Christ's millennial reign, God's going to create a new heaven and new earth, the Bible says a new Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem will descend from heaven, and truly we can glory and see the beauty of that city, gates like pearls, you know, builds upon foundations with the names of the apostles in the foundations, the gates of the city named after the 12 tribes of Israel, what a great city to come, you know, it descends from heaven, the Bible says, but as a picture of this future city, Jerusalem on the earth, that's what it was, it was a beautiful city, you know, but now they're walking past and they're seeing the destruction, they're saying this is the place, you know, this is the place where God blessed, where people had a fear of God and they were walking after the commandments of God, look at it now, I want you to think about this as well, brethren, you know, and I'm glad you're in church, you know, the fact that you're in church tells me you love the Lord, you want to hear God's word, right, you want to know more of the Bible, praise God for you, but you know, I tell you this, sometime in the future in your life, you're going to start losing interest, you're going to be like, ah man, church on Sunday, I'd rather go and do whatever, or maybe not now in a rainy day, but a nice hot and sunny day, you know, I'd rather just go out for a swim, I'd rather just do anything else, right, play the sports and do this and that, you know, I want you to always assess your life, where are you with the Lord? Right now, yeah, you might say, oh, it's beautiful with the Lord, I'm having great fellowship with him, but there'll be other times in your life, it's going to happen to all of you, promise this, it happens to this past life, where you just get a little bit cold, you know, you start to lose a little bit of interest, you start setting your eyes once again on this earth and the pleasures that this earth gives, once again, this is why I love COVID, because it's helped me remove my eyes from the earth for a long period of time and just have my eyes upon new Jerusalem to come, rather than some earthly Jerusalem on this earth, you know, but assess your situation, are you living a beautiful life of the Lord or are you backslidden? Verse number 17, the Lord have done that which he have devised, he have fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old, he have thrown down and have not pitied and he have caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he have set up the horn of thine adversary, so he destroyed the horn of Jerusalem and he sets up a horn for thine adversaries, Babylon, he's lifting up Babylon, okay, to pass judgment, now verse number 17 is so interesting, okay, let's read it again, let's read it slowly, the Lord have done that which he had devised, let me say this is what's going on right now in this world, this COVID world, these new normals, okay, I don't know what the end result's going to be, I don't know how much our earth is going to be changed, but you know what, whatever, however this earth changes and however you dislike it, as much as you dislike it, I want you to open up Lamentations chapter 2, verse number 17 and just say these words about whatever this earth looks like, the Lord have done that which he have devised, he have fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old, he have thrown down and have not pitied and he have caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he have set up the horn of thine adversaries, can you say that, it's gonna be tough, it's gonna be tough for some of you, not that, okay, because we don't like thinking that these enemies are getting away with it, they're not going to get away with it, at the end of the days, at the end of everything brethren, they're not going to get away with it, we know that, okay, verse number 18, their heart cried unto the Lord, oh wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night, give thyself no rest, let not the apple of thine eye cease, arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord, lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street, so what's happening here is that, these are the words of Jerusalem, not of Jeremiah, the people of Jerusalem, so you notice that the young children here are being mentioned and just remind yourself, these people had rejected God for many, many generations, they turned their worship toward false gods, okay, they're even sacrificing their children, okay, just like Australians sacrificed their children in abortions, okay, but they had sacrificed their children into the fires and now when they're struggling, now when their city is besieged, in these last days, these final days of the siege, they finally say hey, maybe we need to go to God now, maybe we need to go to God and say Lord, you know, for the sake of our young children, that they faint not for hunger in the top of every street, they finally turn to God and say God, our children are hungry, do something, help us Lord, but it's too late, God's judgment has fallen, now they love their children, they've been sacrificing their children, now they love them, you know what, no, they just love themselves, that's what's going on, they just love themselves and this is like the last result, maybe we turn back to God, God's judgment has fallen, okay, and they're just going to have to deal the consequences to come, and I too feel sorry for these children, okay, but like this is a reality, you know, and again, parents, remind yourself, you know, your sins can have lasting effects on your children, you know, let's live a righteous life, and look, if you've been born in a family where, you know, you've got a broken home and maybe you've been rejected or maybe your mum and dad don't care for you, don't love you, and you know, you just grew up in a bad environment, then make a promise to yourself and to the Lord and say Lord, you know what, when I get married, when I have my own family, you know, we're going to do things differently, you know, Lord, I need your guidance, I need your direction, please help me to have a family that honours you, a family that worships you, a family that walks in accordance to your ways, so I don't have lasting effects on my children, you know, we can, every generation can change what's happened in the past, you know, we can't always blame the past, you know what, when you get a chance to have your own families, you change it, you go before God, humbly ask Him to help you. Verse number 20, Behold, O Lord, and consider, they continue to pray. Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom there has done this. Shall the women eat their fruit and children of a span long? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? So the people are saying, Lord, we're starving, our children are dying, do you expect us to eat our own kids? Actually they did, we'll look at that in chapter four, okay, and they're kind of appealing to the priests and the prophets in the temple, saying, shall the priest and the prophet be slain? Well these are your people, these are the men of God, these are the ones preaching your word, are you going to allow Babylon to come in and destroy us and even kill your own priests and prophets? Yeah, but many of these priests and prophets were corrupt, okay, Jeremiah is one of the very few preaching the truth, you know, and so they're kind of trying to bargain with God, you know, they've sinned greatly, you know, they didn't want anything to do with the word of God, now finally things got too difficult, they're turning to the Lord, but it's too late, they're trying to use their kids as a way for God to open his heart, they're trying to use the priests and the prophets as a way to soften God's heart, it's too late. Verse number 21, the young and the old lie on the ground in the streets, so people are just dying from hunger here, okay, my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword, so those that actually go and fight Babylon, they're dying, they're dying in the wars, thou has slain them in the day of thine anger, thou has killed and not pitied, thou has called as in a solemn day my terrors roundabout, so that in the day of the Lord's, so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escaped nor remained, those that I have swallowed and brought up have mine enemy consumed, and so the destruction of Jerusalem here has been paralleled with the day of the Lord, and we know that there's a coming day of the Lord to come that will be fallen upon the whole earth when God pulls out his wrath. Now that's the end of that chapter, but I want you to remember, you know, why again, why are the children suffering, why are the priests and prophets, why are they going to be slain in streets? Because the people have rejected the preaching of Jeremiah, that's why. They had their minds set on earthly things, they had their minds set on preserving Jerusalem when God says it's too late, they had their minds set on fighting Babylon, a foreign power, a wicked power, when God was actually using them for his purposes, and we take these lessons once again and apply it here brethren. You know what, I'm against the vaccine, yeah, I know a lot of you are, but you know what, I'm not going to let my kids suffer from hunger. You know what, I'll take the stupid thing. If it's God's judgment on this earth, I'm not going to let my kids suffer and die from hunger, you know what, I'm going to say well there's a new Babylon in this world, God's judging this world, all right, and yeah, okay, the vaccine might damage my body to some extent, but this body's going to die anyway. Look, I'm against the vaccine, I don't want you to think that it's all okay, you know, people call me, is it okay, look, I'm in this situation, I've got a job, I've got to provide, what do you think if I take the vaccine, it's your decision, okay, you've got to weigh it up, okay, there is a power, there is a Babylon in this world, there is a spiritual, hidden Babylon, a massive power for itself, taking advantage of the people on the road, but listen, I'm not here to fight these things, my eyes are on eternity, I've left, my eyes are not in this earth right now brethren, you know, let this earth take the world and give me Jesus, okay, take the world and give me Jesus, Babylon you want to take all of Jerusalem, you want to take all of Judea, you know what, I'm going to listen to Jeremiah's preaching and surrender myself, because those people that surrendered to Babylon, they fared much better, yeah, and they were taken away, some of them were made eunuchs, they, they suffered some medical procedure on them, okay, but they still fared better, Daniel and his free friends still fared better even after being made eunuchs, okay, and you think they liked it, do you think they willingly participated of that, no, but they knew the preaching of Jeremiah, they knew that this was the judgment of God, this is why I don't make my battles earthly and carnal, okay, we don't wrestle against these things, brethren, okay, yeah, I'll resist as much as I can to the point where, you know what, if I'm going to suffer for something carnal and earthly, I'm not going to do it, I've got 11 kids to take care of, I don't want my kids to suffer like they did here in the book of Lamentations, and so I just want your perspective to be right, I want you to prioritize in the right way, don't prioritize carnal things over spiritual things, yes there's an enemy, yes there's wickedness in this world, but stop and think about it, is God using this wickedness, is God using Babylon, you know, to judge this world, to judge Australia, I'd say he has, and you know, as we've been going for Jeremiah, we've been going for Lamentations, the parallels to Australia and parallels to this earth, they're too great to ignore, you know, you ignore them, you ignore them to your peril, you know, I just want you to no longer love this earth, I want you to become less loving and attached to this wicked carnal world, you know what, and just start working for eternity, just love the Lord, just rest in him, you know, and that's it, these bodies, they're going to perish anyway, okay, we're not guaranteed to even wake up tomorrow, these bodies are so corrupt and so sickly anyway, but God promises us that new resurrected body to come, to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years, to set our eyes upon new Jerusalem to come when God creates the new heavens and the new earth, okay let's pray.