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WEEKLY
Volume 1 Number 32
7 January 2007
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
(Message delivered by Pr
Hien Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, Dec 31, 06)
Text:
Lam 3:21-26
What do you and I usually do when our children do not
hear our instructions in the Lord nor behave themselves according the
Word of God? We always pray for them, but after a few times of
admonishments and warnings, if they intentionally live in sin, despite
our patience and our warnings, we are to chastise them so that they
might become good boys and girls.
The Bible tells us that our Heavenly Father does love
us His children and due to His holiness, justice, love and faithfulness,
He has to chastise us so that we may be partakers of His holiness,
“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
whom he receiveth…that we might be partakers of his holiness”
(Heb 12:6, 10).
Do we still see and hope in God’s mercies and
faithfulness when we are chastised by Him? May God help us learn some
lessons from Jeremiah and his experience.
Background of Jeremiah’s Writings
The Lord loved His covenant
people Israel whom He chose and gave them His Word and His
law to observe so that they might be blessed. In
Deuteronomy chapter 28, God tells His people about His blessings upon
them if they hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD, to observe
and to do all His commandments. God will set them on high and bless them
in whatever they do and give them victory over their enemies. However,
if they do not hearken nor observe to do all God’s commandments and
statutes, they will be cursed in whatever they do and be defeated by
their enemies, even taken away into captivity.
The book of Jeremiah and
Lamentation were written by the prophet Jeremiah “the weeping prophet,”
whom God chose to be His spokesman during the last days of the Southern
Kingdom of Judah. The Lord put His Words in Jeremiah’s mouth (Jer 1:9),
so the words of the prophet were the very words of God, warning His
people of the coming judgement due to their sins, transgressions and
idolatry (Jer 7:9; 23:13-14; Lam 1:5, 8; 4:13,22; 5:7). Despite
witnessing God’s judgement upon the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722
BC, they still broke their covenant with their living and true God,
committing evils when they forsook Him (Jer 1:16; 2:13), rejected His
law (Jer 9:13), and ignored God’s warnings from His true servants and
prophets (Jer 25:4). Jeremiah suffered a lot of opposition and
persecution from the wicked kings, the corrupt
priests and false prophets (Jer 14:15; 20:1-2;
26:8-9, 20-23; 28:10; 29:24-28; 32:1-5; 37:13-16; 38:1-6, et al).
Even the scroll of God’s words spoken to Jeremiah and written by Baruch
was cut up and thrown into the fire (Jer 36:1-26). However, God did
preserve all His words, and no word was lost, “Then took Jeremiah
another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who
wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the
book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there
were added besides unto them many like words” (Jer 36:32). Truly,
God has kept His words and preserved them as He promised (Ps 12:7) as
our Lord Jesus says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away” (Matt 24:35; Luke 21:33).
In the end, God’s judgement fell on Jerusalem and
Judah exactly according to His Word. Jerusalem was destroyed and the
people were taken in captivity to Babylon in 586 BC. God is always
faithful in what He has said!
The LORD’S Mercies
Jeremiah, an eyewitness of God’s judgment upon Judah,
wept a lot while writing the book of Lamentation (1:16; 2:11; 3:48). In
the darkness of affliction, misery, bitterness and hopelessness,
Jeremiah remembered the Lord, His mercies and faithfulness and then he
had hope (3:1, 2, 15, 18-21). This is a good lesson for each of us. No
matter what situations we are in, just remember the Lord and His mercies
and His faithfulness, and then we shall have hope in Him!
“It is of the
LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his
compassions fail not. They are new every morning:”
(v 23, 24). Due to our sins, unrighteousness and iniquities, we only
deserve condemnation to Hell. However, it is the multitude or abundance
(v 32) of God’s mercies and compassions that we are not consumed,
finished or destroyed! We have been saved by God’s grace and mercy alone
(Eph 2:8; Titus 3:5). When we get up and realise that we are still alive
and having a blessed fellowship with the Lord, we should acknowledge
God’s boundless mercies and compassions, which never fail, cease, nor
end, but are new and fresh every morning,
always sufficient for us each new day. Praise the Lord and give thanks
to Him for “His mercy is everlasting” (Ps 100:5) and “endureth
for ever” (Ps 136). Our God is “the Father of mercies, the
God of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3). He is the Source of all mercies and
grace, so we are to humbly come to Himself: “Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). The tax
collector realised his sins, did not dare to lift up his eyes unto
heaven, smote upon his breast, humbly saying, “God be merciful to
me a sinner.” And our Lord Jesus said that he was justified
rather than the Pharisee (Luke 18:13-14).
As God has mercy upon us and has forgiven all our
sins, we are to show His mercy to others and forgive them as well so
that we may continue in His mercy: “Be ye therefore merciful, as
your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36; cf. Matt 18:33-35).
The LORD’S Faithfulness
“Great is thy
Faithfulness”
(v 23). It is God’s faithfulness that His people are chastised, “I
know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in
faithfulness has afflicted me” (Ps 119:75), but it is also God’s
faithfulness that He fulfils what He has promised to His people. Not
only did God make a covenant with Abraham (Gen 12, 15), but also with
David (2 Sam 7:12-16), and with the nation Israel (Exod 19:5-8, Jer
31:31-34). Even when Israel broke the covenant with God by their sins
and unfaithfulness, God is always faithful to keep and fulfil His
covenants which are dependent on Himself alone and not on sinful and
frail men. Truly, “If we believe not (are unfaithful), yet
he (God) abideth (remains) faithful: he
cannot deny himself” (2 Tim 2:13). God is unchangeable, “Jesus
Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb 13:8),
and His Word is the same as He is. He is all-knowing, all-wise and
all-mighty to keep and fulfil His Word, His promise and His Covenant.
Jeremiah looked beyond the present judgement of God upon his people and
foresaw the day God would judge the heathen
nations (Jer 47, 49, 50), bring His people back to their land, uniting
both kingdoms, and restore the nation Israel (Jer 30, 31; 50:4-5). With
this vision, Jeremiah had hope in the Lord and encouraged the remnants
to hope in Him, seek Him and quietly wait for Him and His salvation (vv
25-26).
My dear friends, you and I may now suffer a lot of
opposition, trials, afflictions and persecutions, let us put our hope in
the Lord, His Word and His faithfulness and look forward to the second
coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
to subdue His enemies, bless His people, and establish His millennial
Kingdom of peace on earth. Great is His faithfulness!
Our Response
Then what is our response to our Lord’s mercies and
faithfulness?
Choose the LORD, Our
Portion (v
24): The
more we know our Lord and His Word, His mercies and faithfulness, the
more we love Him and choose Him and His Word as our Portion and
Inheritance without any compromise. We would rather lose or forsake
everything else so that we might have the Lord and His presence and
blessings. David confessed, “The LORD is the portion of mine
inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot” (Ps 16:5),
so did other Psalmists, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is
none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth:
but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever”
(Ps 73:25-26), and “Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said
that I would keep thy words” (Ps 119:57), and “Thy testimonies
(God’s Word) have I taken as an heritage for ever: for
they are the rejoicing of my heart” (Ps 119:111). Paul had the same
response, “Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I
may win Christ, and be found in him” (Phil 3:8-9). Our Lord
Jesus says, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me
shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst” (John 6:35). Sadly, many
“Christians” do not really choose the Lord and His Word as their
Portion, as a result, they are still hungry and thirsty for the things
of this world, willing to compromise God’s Word for the things they
desire, and easily upset with complaints and murmurings when they lose
what they value. My dear friends, have you and I chosen the Lord and His
Word as our portion, our most precious treasure, our life and
everything? If then, we are to “rejoice in the Lord alway”
(Phil 4:4).
Hope in Him
(v 24): Jeremiah
remembered God’s mercies and faithfulness, chose the LORD as his
portion, as a result he said, “therefore will I hope in him.”
How about Abraham? The Bible says, “who against hope believed in
hope” (Rom 4:18). Do you and I still put our hope in the Lord when
we are hopeless? “For in thee, O LORD, do I hope” (Ps
38:15). We hope not only in the Lord Himself but also in His Word, “I
hope in thy word” (Ps 119:81, 114), in His promise (Acts
26:6-7), and in His mercy (Ps 33:8). When David was given three options
of punishment to choose due to his pride, either three years’ famine, or
three months to be destroyed before the enemies, or three days the sword
of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD
destroying, David chose to “fall now into the hand of the LORD; for
very great are his mercies” (1 Chron 21:12-13). Thank God
that “Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope” (1 Tim
1:1).
My dear friends, no matter how hopeless our
circumstances are, let us not give up as we can always put our hope in
the Lord, in His Word, His promise and His mercy, “Why art thou cast
down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God:
for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of his countenance, and my
God” (Ps 42:11; 43:5), and surely we shall be blessed (Ps 146:5).
Wait for Him and Seek Him
(v 25-26): When we are
helpless and hopeless about ourselves and having our hope in the Lord,
we shall humbly wait for Him and seek Him. “The LORD is good unto
them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It
is good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD”
(vv 25-26). It is a
great testing to seek and wait for the Lord in time of great need,
danger, and emergency. King Saul failed this test when he could not wait
for Samuel to come to offer the burnt offering, but foolishly offered it
himself. He did so in panic seeing his enemies gathering themselves
together and his people scattering from him and hiding themselves here
and there. Due to Saul’s failure, God “sought him a man after his own
heart (David)” (1 Sam 13:3-14). May God help you and me “wait
upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us” (Ps
123:2) because “Blessed is the man that heareth me,
watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my
doors.”
Our Lord Jesus teaches us,
“But seek ye first the
kingdom of God, and his
righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you”
(Matt 6:33). The Bible tells about King Rehoboam, “And he did evil,
because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD” (2 Chron 12:14)
but King Uzziah, “And he sought God in the days of Zechariah,
who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought
the LORD, God made him to prosper” (2 Chron 26:5). My friends,
what do you and I seek first each day? Surely, we shall be blessed when
we put our Lord first and above all while seeking Him, His will and
Word, His kingdom and righteousness, His grace and strength, His
guidance, provision, and protection and then wait for His help and
salvation at His good timing.
Conclusion
My dear friends, it is easy to
praise the Lord and thank Him for great is His faithfulness when we have
peace, joy, wealth, good health and all the blessings from the Lord.
However, will you and I still praise and thank God for His mercies and
faithfulness, choose Him and His Word as our Portion, hope in Him, seek
Him and quietly wait for Him when we are chastised or facing a lot of
opposition, persecutions, afflictions and trials? It is good to remember
the Lord, His mercies and faithfulness and humbly realise that because
of God’s grace and mercies that we sinners are saved and not consumed
nor condemned to Hell. May God help us look beyond our present troubles
and trials and look forward to the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ to
bless His people and establish His kingdom of peace on earth due to His
great faithfulness! Amen.
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