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welcome back to the Daily Bible Podcast!

2

We're so glad you've joined us.

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And now your hosts, Pastor PJ

and Pastor Rooooooddddd.....

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Hey and welcome back.

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Indeed.

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In fact, we have a brand new book today.

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Same author.

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We believe at least new book.

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We are starting the book of Lamentations.

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My mom's in town and so we've

been enjoying some time with her.

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Hi Dorothy.

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She she does listen faithfully and

she was just telling me, she said,

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I'm ready to get to the New Testament.

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And I said I've got some bad news, mom.

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We're going from Jeremiah

to limitations first.

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And then we've got Ezekiel.

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Ouch.

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And then we've got, then we've

got Daniel's a bright spot,

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I think by and large, but man

limitations as the name would imply.

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It's it's not a bunch of roses

and daffodils, but it's got

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some great theology, some deeply

rich theology in it that I think

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you're gonna find encouraging.

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In fact, you probably know some of it,

its most famous verse is one of the

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hymns that we sing about the faithfulness

of God, the great faithfulness of God.

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But, limitations is not the book that

you're thinking about, man, this is gonna

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gimme all the warm fuzzies necessarily.

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No, but let me give you just some

warm fuzzies before you get there.

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Yeah.

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If Louis Zuma, he turns 18

a day, I think 18 or 19.

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Yeah, maybe 17.

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Yeah.

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Just kidding.

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He's not that young.

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Yeah he's now soundly, I think he's

considered the mid twenties now.

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I'm not sure exactly.

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So 24 to 26.

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24.

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He's 24.

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Yeah.

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So he's, I think he's, is

that considered mid twenties?

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24, 26.

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Can you say that?

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So if you know him, he

has his phone number.

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Do encourage him and let him know.

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Happy birthday and send him some spam.

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Some, someone one year sent

me something I realized.

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Is one of the best things ever.

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He sent me a video that has my name

in it, that sings Happy Birthday.

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So there, I guess

there's stuff on YouTube.

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People upload these funny videos

and they insert someone's name

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and it says, happy Birthday.

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It's really great.

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So send him a video, send

him an audio message.

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Send him some love.

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It is his birthday today.

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And if you happen to know Shea.

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Let her know that you're thankful for

her husband for this or that reason.

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That'd be great.

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Encourage him.

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Yeah, for sure.

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Yeah, we talked about that.

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We celebrated him on Friday as a staff.

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'cause our offices closed on

Monday and he was saying, I

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think one of my mid twenties.

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And I was like mid twenties.

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Yeah, I guess so.

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But I always thought, man, 25, like

you're cresting the mid, the middle point

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there and then you're on the downside.

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On the backside.

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Ali did not like that very much.

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She didn't like hearing that there's

not a mid range there, but Sure.

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Mid range.

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There it is.

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Yeah.

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You're not just wish happy birthday.

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You're not just on the down slope.

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Happy Birthday Lewis.

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We're thankful for you.

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Okay, let's talk about limitations.

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Yeah, so we do believe that this is

Jeremiah still that this is the not

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continuation of his prophecy from the

book of Jeremiah, but we do believe

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that this is Jeremiah the prophet,

the same author writing limitations

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who wrote the book of Jeremiah.

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And what's happening in

limitations is really the prophet.

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Bemoaning and witnessing and

watching the downfall of Jerusalem.

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And so he is, as someone have said

this, is, this is similar to a dirge

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at a funeral, that this is a, a.

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Watching the judgment that he

had just prophesied about now

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unfold, be before his eyes.

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The belief is that this was

written sometime shortly after

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the fall of Jerusalem, 5 86 BC

sometime in that timeframe there.

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But Jeremiah, the prophet, being

the author here, he opens and

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chapter one and chapter two really.

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Chapter one Jerusalem

is gonna be destroyed.

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That's what we're talking about there.

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Chapter two is really focused in on

God's wrath, God's anger as the source,

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as the one behind the destruction there.

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As we get into it tomorrow we'll

look more at chapter three, being

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the grief of Jeremiah and also his

hope and how he copes with that.

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Chapter four is gonna focus back on, on

God's wrath again, and then chapter five

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is gonna deal with the remnant and their

prayers towards the end of the book here.

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So limitations.

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It fits in the canon in the way

to give us a glimpse into how the

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people responded to the judgment of

God and the destruction of the city.

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With Isaiah, with Jeremiah, with some of

the others, you've had all this prophecy

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saying, this is what's gonna happen.

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This is what's gonna happen.

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It's inevitable.

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It's going to happen,

prepare, it's going to happen.

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Now, Lamentations is really our

first glimpse into life afterwards.

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Jeremiah is not a, is not an

exilic prophet, although I guess.

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In some sense he is, I would still say

he's pre exilic because the majority of

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his writing has to do before the exile,

but he ventures into the time of exile.

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And so you're gonna have

Jeremiah, you're gonna have

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Ezekiel during the time of exile.

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You're also gonna have Daniel

during the time of exile.

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And this is during the time

of the 70 years of captivity.

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So that has kicked off.

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That has begun, and Jeremiah is writing

of the destruction here in this book.

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Lamentations is a really good

place for us to camp if we want

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to feel the effects of our sin.

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Sometimes, and maybe most of the time

when we sin, we don't normally feel

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immediate aftermath to those things.

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It takes time for this, the seeds

of sin to grow and to blossom and

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produce the rotten fruit that they do.

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Lamentations fast forwards the.

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Timeframe for us to see the way that sin

manifests itself in the life of a people

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who were in fact, God's chosen people.

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You and I are God's chosen

people in a different way.

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I think in several respects,

in a much greater way.

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But lamentation shows us sin

has devastating consequences.

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And so many times we forget that because

we don't see the immediate effects of it.

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The consequences are often delayed.

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But here.

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As you think about Lamentations, I

just want you to pay attention to

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all the ways that they suffered.

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None of this was a surprise to them.

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This is what God told them would happen,

but you should be able to see here

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some parallels between the sins that

they suffer and the sins that, or the

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consequences of the sins that they suffer

and the consequences of our suffering.

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When we sin again, it's not always

right away, but just take a look here.

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This is a part of it.

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There's gonna be hope delivered for sure.

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And there's always confession.

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There's always repentance

and that's a part of it.

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But it's not all of it.

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Here.

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I need you to see, I want you to

feel with Jeremiah, and I think

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it, I think Jeremiah, by the way,

Jeremiah is not listed in the book.

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That's why there's questions here.

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Jeremiah's name is not mentioned.

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There are some similar themes.

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Obviously whoever is in this

book who's writing it is crying.

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They're weeping over Jerusalem.

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That's consistent with Jeremiah.

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It has similar.

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Similar vocabulary, although there's some

pretty sharp divergence in this as well.

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So historically I think you have in

the Greek step two agent, you have

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this book attributed to Jeremiah.

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So there's a long history

of attributing it to him.

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But again, the book is

technically anonymous.

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Jeremiah we're gonna say is traditionally

who wrote it, it seems to make sense.

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It fits with his ministry and he would be.

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Someone who saw the

destruction of Jerusalem.

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So we're gonna stick with that, even

though technically it is anonymous.

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So with that said this does

fit Jeremiah's ministry.

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It is something that you

should feel the weight of it.

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And also I think it's appropriate

too, if you see, let's just say

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for instance, if you saw some major

catastrophe take place to for.

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The church or you hear a church shooting

or something awful like that, or something

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big happening, it's appropriate to care.

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I don't wanna sound too obvious

here, but because we're so used to

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seeing things on the news and we're

so used to the clickbait kind of

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titles that we get, it's easy for us

to see things and to scroll past it

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quickly because, it doesn't bother me.

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That's a different state.

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It's a different people group

and a different country.

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And I understand that I understand that.

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But I think it's appropriate for us

to feel the weight of saying, man, I,

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I care enough about people to let it

move me in some way, shape or form.

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You can't do this for everybody.

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I understand that, but you should care.

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Yeah.

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Is there something too about

when we sin and feel God's.

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Punishment against us.

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There is no condemnation

for those in Christ Jesus.

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But is there an appropriate response

to say, I don't want to too quickly

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move through my feelings of conviction,

move past my feelings of guilt

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for the sins that I've committed?

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Does that make sense

what I'm asking there?

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Say more meaning?

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If I sin, yeah, it's we can go to the

cross and find forgiveness at the cross.

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A hundred percent.

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Okay.

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But I don't think it's right for us to

immediately brush it off okay, I sinned,

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Lord, please forgive me for that sin.

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Now let me move on and distract

myself from the weight of the sin.

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Does that make sense?

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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Superficial handling of the sin right to.

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In some of the consequences of

our sin, the hand of God upon us.

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David said, your hand was

heavy upon me when I sinned.

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And I think that's a grace of God

that keeps us from wanting to go back

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to that sin or keeps us from growing

hardhearted or callous towards our sin.

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Yeah, you're right about that.

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I could see someone struggling on either

side of that, someone who goes too

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quickly to the cross and ignores the

pain signals that God is trying to send.

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To make you awake and to

realize, how did I get here?

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Why did I do this?

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What about my heart craves

this particular sin?

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So I could see someone saying,

oh, I'm just gonna skip all that

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'cause that's uncomfortable.

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I'm gonna go right to the cross

and receive the grace that is mine.

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Praise be to Lord.

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However, there's also another person

who will stay there far too long.

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Yeah.

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And say I'm miserable.

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Am I even a Christian?

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I can't believe I did this again.

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You can fall in the ditch on either

side and our encouragement would

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be know yourself well enough to

identify your potential pitfalls.

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And it.

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Encounter those.

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So if you're a very tender conscience and

you condemn yourself over the slightest

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picadillo in your soul, it's a funny word.

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Or if you're the kind of person who just

doesn't, you love grace and you're all

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about it, but maybe you don't give enough

time and attention to what's happening

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in your heart such that you sin in these.

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Particular ways you probably

need to spend more time.

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And the other person with the pick

delo heart, they need to spend

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less time and they to go right to

the cross and preach themselves.

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Romans eight, one.

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So yeah I agree with

you a hundred percent.

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Depends on the person.

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Yeah.

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And I think all of us have a different

tendency toward one or the other.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Note in verse 18, so this is a section

where Jerusalem is being personified

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here again as Jeremiah had done, so

the author of Limitations, if it's

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still Jeremiah, he does here as well.

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And one of the things that

Jerusalem, the city says is, the

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Lord is in the right for I have.

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Belled against his words.

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So this is in the aftermath of

the destruction, just the people

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of Israel being called upon to

recognize this is not unfair.

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What God has done is not unjust.

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This is what God said he was going to do.

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If we go back to the Mosaic

Covenant, Deuteronomy 28, the

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blessings and the cursings.

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This is in keeping what God has told us.

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People really from the outset of his

relationship with them, if you don't

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abide by my law, if you don't obey my

commandments, this is what's coming.

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And if we really.

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Back up to.

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To when that all took place.

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God had been immensely

patient with his people.

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When you go back to Deuteronomy 28 and

when the Mosaic Covenant was first struck

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up with his people, he didn't immediately

bring that judgment against them.

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He was patient with them.

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He even raised up David for them.

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He rai before that he raised

up good judges for them.

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He gave them David, he gave them Solomon.

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He was merciful to send them

prophets during the divided monarchy.

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And yet finally the time ran out.

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But Jerusalem personified

says, we did this.

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This is right.

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God is right in this.

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He's not wrong.

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We can't charge him with wrongdoing

for we have rebelled against his word.

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One more quick observation

here in verse nine.

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This is going back a few verses,

but notice when whoever it is,

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who's lamenting here, Jeremiah he

says her uncles was in her skirts.

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And that's not the part I was looking

at, although that is interesting.

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He depicts it pretty graphically.

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It is exactly what you

think it is just saying.

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If you're thinking about what it is,

it's probably what you think it is.

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But the interest that I

have is in the second line.

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She took no thought of

her future sin will.

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Make obscure what the

end of that sin will be.

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So I'm, again, going back to

the consequences of our sins.

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Sin will dull your senses such that you're

not thinking about how obvious it is.

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This sin is gonna result

in bad things for you.

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And that bad thing is

usually not immediate.

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And this is the problem for us because

if it, if every time we send God

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sent a hundred volts of electricity

through our body, we'd send a lot less.

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I think that's my guess.

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Maybe that's not the case for you, but if.

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Because God is gracious and he

delays the consequences of our sins.

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It actually is more dangerous for us most

of the time because then we say I got away

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with it and I repented, and I confessed.

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Don't let that happen to you.

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She took no thought of her future.

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This is what led her to continue

to reinforce her sin, and

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this is a danger for us today.

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Be on the lookout against that.

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So why doesn't God do that?

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When our kids are little.

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And they're grown up and

they're, they do something wrong.

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We flick their hand, we flick their

mouth, whatever it is, and then

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ultimately they end up getting the

corporal discipline on the rear end.

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Yeah.

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Like.

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Why doesn't God do that more for us?

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Why is there the delay?

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I think I, I actually think he

doesn't send electric shocks through

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our body, but I think he does.

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I think that's called conviction.

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Yeah.

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God convicts us.

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And it's not an electric shock, but

it's actually more painful in some ways

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because you feel, yeah, I've grieved

the Lord and that hurts me to hurt

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him, and I don't wanna do that anymore.

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Because we're under the new covenants.

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We have the heart of flesh, not of stone.

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God has given us the gift of being able

to feel with him, so that we're saying,

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you know what I want to please him.

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I don't wanna do this anymore.

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The electric shock maybe.

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Maybe we could, I could

set that up for you.

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If you want, I can get you a shock collar.

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And anytime I think you're

sinning, I just, in fact, let's

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just try it for a couple months,

years and just see what happens.

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Have you, this is totally off

topic, but that reminded me.

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Have you seen the reel of the guys that

go through the drive through and they're,

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they've got a shot collar on it and

their buddy has the controller and he's

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trying to order at the drive through.

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It's funny.

330

I haven't seen that.

331

It's pretty classic.

332

It's pretty classic.

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Let's let's do it.

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Do it.

335

Yeah.

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Okay.

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We should do it with Lewis.

338

Happy birthday Lewis.

339

We've got a dog collar for you.

340

Five hours if we see.

341

In, we're gonna shock you.

342

Yeah, I like that.

343

Chapter two, like I said, this focuses

on the wrath of God, the anger of God.

344

And verse three, he has withdrawn

from them his right hand.

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And the reason why the, which

hand it was matters is because the

346

right hand was the hand of favor.

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And so God has withdrawn

his favor from them.

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Look at verse nine.

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The law is no more in her prophets,

find no vision from the Lord.

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In other words, God has

withdrawn his revelation.

351

He's no longer.

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Pursuing them with the revelation,

the way that he did with the law, the

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way that he did with the prophets.

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And so this has led in verse 11 to

the prophet Jeremiah or whoever it is

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weeping over the current situation and

the anger of the Lord being poured out.

356

And he says, my eyes

are spent with weeping.

357

My stomach churns.

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He's sick to his stomach over

what his eyes are witnessing here.

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And he's calling on God to even later

on in, in verse 20, look, oh Lord, and

360

see, look at what's happening here.

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And there's horrific things that he.

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Sights here to say the starvation

has led people to do awful things.

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And there's refuse in the streets

and people are falling by the sword.

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And this is just, this,

the scene is horrific.

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And again, we know who is behind this

because of verse 17, the Lord has

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done what he purposed, carried out

his word, which he commanded long ago.

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So the prophet here in chapter two

is depicting God's anger, God's wrath

368

being poured out on, on the city.

369

And to, to the point

that you made earlier.

370

He cares about this to the point that

it's, he's weeping, he's distraught

371

over what has happened and what's

taken place with the city of Jerusalem.

372

In verse nine, you mentioned this, but

I want you to see something about the

373

way that God interacts with us that I

think could be helpful to your walk.

374

And notice here that he says

the laws, no more prophets

375

find no vision from the Lord.

376

And I think one of the lessons that

we could helpfully draw from this

377

is that when we fail to listen, it's

possible that God stop speaking.

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That God in his judgment will remove.

379

Some of the effect that his word

should have on the tender heart.

380

So here's what I mean by that.

381

You have a Bible, so it's not like

you can ever stop God's speaking.

382

You could just open your

Bible and start reading.

383

But I wonder if there's a sense in

which God withdraws his nearness

384

to us when we sin against him

by just refusing to listen.

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And I know some of us have felt

that in our own lives where it feels

386

like, oh man I'm in a dry season.

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I'm distant from God.

388

It may be the results, it's sin.

389

It may not be though.

390

There's multiple reasons

why God may allow that.

391

But just notice God stopped

speaking when we stopped listening.

392

And I think that's devastatingly clear

that in today's world, especially, Paul

393

was, Paul warned Timothy about this,

the itching ears are gonna accumulate

394

for themselves these kinds of teachers

who only say what they want to hear.

395

It's really good that you're in a

church that takes God at his word and

396

says, we're gonna say what God says.

397

Because God wants us to hear what

he says, not just a part of it

398

that we like, but every part of it.

399

So good for us and I'm glad that

you're listening to the podcast

400

'cause clearly you care about that.

401

Notice though, if we stop listening,

it looks like there's a times at

402

least where God will stop speaking.

403

Let's pray and and wrap up this

episode unless you have anything

404

else there on chapter two.

405

No, I can be content with that.

406

Okay.

407

Yeah, I agree with what you're saying

there everything I said, I, with what

408

you're saying there even the full

extent of that, that the terrifying

409

extent of that is Romans one when he

turns us over to our sin when he says,

410

okay, then have what you want and I'll.

411

Pull my voice back, I'll

pull my influence back.

412

Yeah that's a terrifying

aspect of God's judgment.

413

Okay.

414

One more note.

415

Yeah.

416

Lots of people have come to a

church like Compass, not just

417

ours, but churches like Compass.

418

Yeah.

419

And they don't like, they.

420

When they feel like their toes are

being stepped on, when someone's jumping

421

into their kitchen and saying things

that offends them, and sometimes the

422

offensive language is because of the

delivery, or maybe it is something

423

that is as naturally offensive,

but just notice what verse 14 says.

424

Your prophets have seen for you

false and deceptive visions.

425

They have not exposed your

iniquity to restore your fortunes.

426

Their exposure of Israel's

iniquity could have prevented this.

427

And now in the grand scheme of things

and God's plan, this was going to happen.

428

But notice here, Jeremiah.

429

Is saying the exposure of iniquity,

we would call that conviction or

430

maybe offense, that would hurt, that

could have saved them, that could have

431

prevented all of this catastrophe.

432

When you go to church and you hear Pastor

pj, or even just any of your pastor

433

who's faithful in the word preach and

they say things that offend you or hurt

434

your feelings, man, a mature Christian's

gonna say, yes, thank you for that.

435

'cause I want to know if

there's darkness in my heart.

436

I want it eradicated.

437

You should.

438

Thank God.

439

If you have a pastor like that, you should

be grateful because this is the very tool

440

that God uses to shape us, sharpen us,

and grow us into the image of Christ.

441

Yeah.

442

So good.

443

Yeah and a lot of times I'll find when I,

my initial response is to be offended and

444

my own flesh gets in the way and I'm like,

man, I can't believe this person said that

445

or went about that or delivered this way.

446

I think it's such a good practice

for us to step back and say,

447

okay, but is there truth there?

448

Maybe I didn't like the tone.

449

Maybe I didn't like the way

it was delivered, made it

450

but is there truth here?

451

Is there something God is trying

to communicate to me here that I

452

do need to take away from that?

453

That's a good place to start.

454

I need that so often because

I struggle with that myself.

455

So you can still do that

shot collar for you, man.

456

You let me know.

457

You just let me know.

458

I'll order My fingers on the button.

459

I can order it right now.

460

Have it by tomorrow.

461

It's alright.

462

If you hear us or me, spazzing

during the next episode.

463

That's why.

464

Let's pray.

465

Yeah.

466

Give us soft hearts.

467

We to sin soft hearts to the

conviction of your spirit.

468

We are grateful for the

conviction of your spirit.

469

We're thankful that you didn't

abandon us to, to our own plight, our

470

own ways, our own sinful pursuits.

471

Lord, I pray that anybody listening

to this that might be in danger

472

of that, in danger of you turning

them over that, that you would grab

473

hold of them, Lord, that you would.

474

Not let them drift into their own

self-centeredness and their own

475

fleshly pursuits, but that you

would use the church, that you'd

476

other, use other believers to call

them back to you to speak the words

477

even as we were just talking about

words of conviction into their life.

478

Because they love them, because

they care about them and that you

479

would hold onto them through that.

480

And God we are so thankful that you

are a God who is merciful enough to.

481

Reveal our sin gracious, kind

enough to reveal our sin to us,

482

and yet to allow us to come to

you in confession and repentance

483

and find forgiveness at the cross.

484

So help us to do just that,

we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

485

Keep your Bibles.

486

Tune in again tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

487

See you.

488

Bye.

489

Bernard: Well, thank you for

listening to another episode of

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the Daily Bible Podcast, folks!

491

We're honored to have you join us.

492

This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

493

You can find out more information

about our Church at compassntx.org.

494

We would love for you to leave a

review, to rate, or to share this

495

podcast on whatever platform you're

listening on, and we hope to see

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you again tomorrow for another

episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

497

Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

498

PJ: Yeah.

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I would agree with

everything that you said