When the child of God sins, that child knows that God does not ignore that sin. Because He loves us, the LORD disciplines His people, and His discipline will not be pleasant. God’s discipline was never intended to be pleasant. Divine discipline is intended to impose … well, discipline! Indeed, we who follow the Christ do well to recall what is written concerning God’s discipline in the Letter to Hebrew Christians. That writer instructs the one who would serve the Risen Lord of Glory, “Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.’
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” [HEBREWS 12:5-11]. [1]
And the truth is that we who are called by the Name of the Lord do forget the exhortation that addresses us as sons. We do forget that discipline is unpleasant at the time, and we become so focused on the discipline that we cease looking to what discipline accomplishes in us. We quit anticipating what results following training through the arduous process of divine discipline.
For all who have been trained in God’s School, we receive a degree that shows that we excel in the peaceful fruit of righteousness. We don’t receive a framed sheepskin that we can hang on the wall, but those who know us recognise that we have earned standing in their estimate and in the eyes of God because we completed the training. One who wears the uniform of a US Marine demonstrates to everyone who sees him that he earned the right to wear that uniform. The Marine who wears a Medal of Honor ribbon around his neck is recognised as one who performed heroically and meritoriously under fire against a determined enemy. Those who know the significance of this ribbon recognise that the one wearing the ribbon has earned the right to the honour.
In a comparable manner, the child of God who has endured God’s discipline will be recognised as one who earned the right to be respected by fellow saints. That one will never demand respect, and because he has completed the divine course of discipline, that one will never be overbearing or oppressive. Others will recognise that the one who has endured discipline is indeed worthy of respect.
NATIONAL TRAGEDIES FALLING —
“Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;
look, and see our disgrace!
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.”
[LAMENTATIONS 5:1-2]
Jeremiah provides a detailed recounting of the tragedy that befell Israel because the LORD had delivered the nation into the hands of the Chaldeans. These poems do this through a series of vignettes looking at the suffering of the people, always keeping the reason for their suffering in the forefront of the reader’s mind. The nation had brought this suffering down upon their own heads through refusing to honour the Lord God while pursuing wickedness. It is not pleasant to think about an enemy conquering the nation, to think of our culture being overthrown, to imagine our world turned upside down. Whether the culture is defeated by a foreign military, or whether economic ruin is visited on our culture, or whether the nation loses stature in the eyes of other nations, the inevitable loss of freedom is never a desirable prospect. And if merely thinking about being bested by a foreign power is distressing, how much worse must it be to suffer defeat!
In this concluding chapter, God’s prophet is not ignoring the reason these multiplied tragedies have been visited on the people, he is simply recounting the tragedies the nation has had to endure following the Babylonian conquest and the subsequent occupation of the land. It is not as though God was unaware of all that had happened—God had caused these tragedies to fall upon Israel because of national sin. And the people knew that what had happened was their own fault. When God judges a people, they do not need to guess at the reason they are suffering. And in this instance, the people were suffering because divine judgement had been visited on the nation, as they well knew.
It is tragically true that our own wilful sin leads us into disaster. I’m not suggesting that every reversal in life is the result of our own sin, but it is true that our sin does bring tragic consequences down on us. The Wise Man is surely correct when he observes, “The way of the treacherous is hard” [PROVERBS 13:15b NASB95]. And we who follow the Risen Lord must confess that when we pursue our own wilful desires, we are acting treacherously. In our pursuit of our own desires, we are ignoring what we know to be the will of the Lord while our own will is superimposed above that of the Father. And we who are His people know that all such choices inevitably lead to disaster.
Reading the account of the invasion and the aftermath, the perceptive reader feels as if he or she has just read a novel, something so unbelievable that it could never be experienced in real life. For centuries, prophets warned of the consequences of sin. Israel ceased being righteous and became godlessness. Hosea would warn the nation,
“There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
and no knowledge of God in the land;
there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.”
[HOSEA 4:1b-2a]
Jeremiah had hammered at the theme of national evil, only to be ignored. He wrote these disturbing words,
“My people are foolish;
they know me not;
they are stupid children;
they have no understanding.
They are ‘wise’—in doing evil!
But how to do good they know not.”
[JEREMIAH 4:22]
Micah exposed the way the nation had maintain a façade of religious devotion even as they descended into godlessness when he wrote,
“Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the LORD and say,
‘Is not the LORD in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.’”
[MICAH 3:9-11]
God stood athwart the path on which the nation was moving, making constant efforts to halt the nation, knowing that the people were heading toward destruction and ruin. After the fact, even the casual reader is compelled to say that the devastation toward which the people were moving was so obvious as to be undeniable even to the wicked about Israel. And yet they attempted to maintain a pretence of religion, speaking of the wickedness that was embraced as good and noble. Isaiah saw this and warned,
“Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!”
[ISAIAH 5:20-21]
Reading these warnings from multiple writers, one is left with a sense of grief and loss, not just for Israel of old, but for our own nation. What is happening in the United States and in Canada is not a Greek tragicomedy, we are witnessing destruction such as we have never witnessed in the years that have gone before. A national leader is obvious mentally and physically incapable of leading a nation, and his condition is covered up and denied despite that condition being evident to everyone, even foreign leaders. When at last the deterioration of that leader can be hidden no longer, party bosses engineer a political coup before the eyes of the nation, and those who could speak up are silent.
Again, a national leader proves himself to be incompetent and destructive to national interest, and the national press is acquiescent in hiding the fact. The press and opinion influencers have done all they can to prop up the leader and distract from the repeated acts that violate freedoms of numerous individuals who have defied or irritated the government leaders.
Overarching these facts are the repeated efforts to redefine morality by promoting wickedness. The nations of North American—we’re talking about Canada and the United States—are becoming increasingly committed to immorality, to wickedness, advocating genital surgery on children, promoting immorality at younger and younger ages through encouraging men dressed as women to dance provocatively in the presence of toddlers and babies and read these little ones stories at public libraries, and eagerly encouraging sexual promiscuity both nationally and internationally. The embassies of the United States promote homosexuality even in countries in which such acts are unlawful through flying flags promoting and celebrating this deviance, as well as prominently displaying “Black Lives Matter” banners. What next!
The brief series of messages that I am presenting as a survey of the Lamentations arose out of my concern for the nations of North America, particularly my concern for Canada and the United States. One of these nations is dear to me because it is my natal home; the other is precious because it received me as an immigrant, giving me opportunity to serve God there. These two nations are distinct, though they are moving inexorably and asymptotically toward a common culture that is set in opposition to the Lord Jesus. Both the government of the United States and the Canadian government, are determined to redefine morality, ridiculing biblical morality, and promoting actions and attitudes that are defiant of the righteousness of God.
I live in fear of what my grandchildren, and even my children, shall face in the near future. I lay no claim to being a prophet, but one need not have the ability to see the future to know that dreadful times lie ahead. I have lived long enough to know that the words of Scripture will be fulfilled. And the Psalmist has warned,
“The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion.
Selah
“The wicked shall return to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.”
[PSALM 9:15-17]
Surely, these baleful words serve to warn our own nation. We have forgotten God; we have begun to pursue our own imaginations. How do we differ from Israel in the dark days that necessitated God intervention to raise up the Judges? At that time, we are told, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” [JUDGES 17:6b]. Could that not be said of Canada in this day? And could that not be said today of the United States of America? Everyone does what is right in his own eyes! The philosophy didn’t work then, and it cannot work now. And yet, as naturally as breathing the air in which we live, we turn automatically to this philosophy except when restrained by the Spirit of Christ.
Canada and the United States seem able to move effortlessly into situations that imperil national security, and we do so without concern. Oh, our armies are populated with people that know their pronouns, but I can’t imagine that this will project strength against a vicious enemy. All our men and women in uniform are vaccinated, but we no longer encourage independent thinking or personal initiative. We boast that there are officers who moonlight as furries, but it is uncertain how these critters can function under duress. The DEI hires in government haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory to date, but we are witnessing the purging government rolls and registers to ensure that males of pallor are replaced by ever greater numbers of people with elevated levels of melanin. It is no longer essential that people are advanced into oversight positions through merit since that would be symptomatic of white supremacy. What matters is race and sexual preference and almost anything other than ability.
In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we witness Babylon, the mighty power that shall at last be cast down, boasting in her position. John witnesses her boasting,
“As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
so give her a like measure of torment and mourning,
since in her heart she says,
‘I sit as a queen,
I am no widow,
and mourning I shall never see.’”
[REVELATION 18:7]
Her boasting sounds hollow after the Lord destroys her, just as the boasting of all the nations that exalt themselves rings hollow after they are overthrown. And the tragic truth is that if history is any guide all nations are ultimately cast down from the lofty perch they created for themselves. Great powers exhaust themselves as their wealth drives them to wild excesses, and these once powerful entities are at last set aside by other nations who are hungry for dominance in the world. And what has happened throughout the entirety of history will at last happen to the United States and to Canada.
REASONS WHY WE SUFFER —
“The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!”
[LAMENTATIONS 5:16]
The movie, “Judgment at Nuremberg,” released over sixty years ago, is a classic film. An all-star cast and a reasonably accurate portrayal of the Nuremberg trials ensure that this movie is recognised for the powerful presentation of events following the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. The opening scenes of the movie show the Nuremberg stadium filled with people adulating the Chancellor of the German Reich, Adolph Hitler. The scene transforms to a view of the stadium, the wind blowing across the empty field just before the destruction of the Swastika symbol above the stadium. It was the very thing that many Germans would have said was their glory that became their misery. They could remember their glory even as they were living their devastation. It has always been thus with the downfall of powerful nations. And powerful nations never last indefinitely.
What is fascinating is that Israel did not need to ask why they had been conquered—the people knew. The writer gives voice to what everyone knew, and what few wished to admit—we have sinned. From the very foundation of Israel as a nation, the LORD Who had given the people their identity as a nation warned of the consequences of sin. Throughout the days of the existence of the nation, the Lord had disciplined Israel and warned them against continued sin. At last, the judgement they had dismissed as unrealistic had been imposed on the people.
Even before Israel entered the land which God had promised, they were warned, “If you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you” [DEUTERONOMY 11:13-17].
Here is the tragedy! When Israel did experience times that God shut up the heavens, they refused to accept that what they were experiencing was because of their sin! Listen to Amos as he writes of such times.
“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
“I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
“I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
“I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and carried away your horses,
and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
“I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
[AMOS 4:6-12]
Think about that! The people experienced inflation at such a rate that common commodities were in short supply. The people didn’t connect the dots to understand that this was because God had withdrawn His blessings. Rain fell at the wrong times and inconsistently with what was necessary. People didn’t realise that rain at the proper time was a mark of divine blessing. Crops were blighted and granaries were infested with mildew so that the stored grains were ruined. Again, those responsible for providing foodstuffs were unaware of the reason they were experiencing this loss. The land suffered under novel illnesses that had been unknown before. Still, few if any within society were able to say that this was because God had withdrawn His blessing. There were wars on the fringes of the nation, and young men were buried and the people grieved. Yet, the people were unable to recognise that this was the result of dishonouring the LORD. Therefore, the Living God at last said through His prophet, “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
Of course, no events such as this has ever happened in Canada. Well, there are the wildfires of the past couple of years, but that is because of global warming, isn’t it? We did bury too many young Canadian soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan, but that is the cost of us being part of NATO. We did have the Covid 19 crisis that our various governments bungled. But no one knows where these weird viruses come from, they just spring up out of nowhere! There was a low snowpack for the past couple of years, but that is just one of those cyclic weather patterns. These things just happen, after all.
Did not God, speaking through Jeremiah, speak to the nation earlier, warning,
“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
or who will grieve for you?
Who will turn aside
to ask about your welfare?
You have rejected me, declares the LORD;
you keep going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
I am weary of relenting.
I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork
in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;
they did not turn from their ways.
I have made their widows more in number
than the sand of the seas;
I have brought against the mothers of young men
a destroyer at noonday;
I have made anguish and terror
fall upon them suddenly.
She who bore seven has grown feeble;
she has fainted away;
her sun went down while it was yet day;
she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword
before their enemies,
declares the LORD.”
[JEREMIAH 15:5-9]
As I have noted in previous messages as we’ve moved through this collection of poetic laments, when a people are determined to do evil, rejecting God, and pursuing their own demented interests, the Lord will give them up to do what they want. And doing what they want to do will lead inevitably to ever greater determination to do what they want. The blindness that drops down upon a society becomes ever more dark, ever more pronounced, until the people are no longer able to see the danger in which they are standing. Christ is the only hope that such a society can be rescued from the consequences of the choices that society has made, and they have shut their eyes to Him.
On Wednesday of this week that just passed, I listened with considerable interest as the Prime Minister of Israel addressed a joint session of the Congress of the United States of America. He delivered a stirring, powerful speech that exposed the rot that is infiltrating the nation. He described the battle Israel and the United States now have with Iran and the Iranian proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the growing hoards of anti-Israel protestors, and American college presidents—not as a clash of civilisations, but as a warn between civilisation and barbarity. He was assuredly correct. For Canada and the United States, the barbarians are no longer at the gates, they are inside the Capitals and often holding the levers of power.
Our world is sliding backwards into barbarity at an alarming pace. Some nations are motivated in the barbarism that characteries them by openly espousing atheism. Having excluded God from any consideration for how they conduct their affairs of state, these nations exhibit functional paganism in a maddened pursuit of raw power for the leaders. Numbers of nations have become barbarian through embracing a false god that drives them to struggle to conquer the remainder of the world, compelling those they would conquer to worship their violent, savage demon that they imagine to be a god. Yet other nations have only a thin veneer of dying Christianity remaining; and that thin veneer barely restrains them from embracing rank barbarism. These nations, still holding to what they speak of as democracy, have become functional atheist; they are barely kept from full barbarism by the thin veneer of a recent past that is quickly dying and by the presence of a dwindling minority of those who worship the True and Living God.
During graduate studies in Dallas, it was common that you would see a screed written on the chalk board before each test, stating, “We have a thousand reasons for failure, and not one excuse.” It was a corruption of a Rudyard Kipling statement affirming, “We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.” While the thought is often applied to encourage people to refuse to give in to discouragement, it is certainly applicable to any consideration of why we can anticipate divine judgement when we refuse to address our own sin. Israel sinned, and anyone would have been able to give multiple reasons for why the Chaldeans prevailed over Israel. However, those who were honest would be compelled to admit, “We have sinned!”
Perhaps individuals could argue that they hadn’t done anything deserving the pain they were then experiencing, but the nation was guilty of sinning against the Lord GOD. And the overwhelming majority of those then living in Israel had silently acquiesced as the national leaders had acted corruptly, and as the religious leaders had permitted idolatry to grow, and as the moral climate descended into the chaotic condition that brought divine judgement in the form of invasion and occupation of the land.
I am not a prophet; I make no claim of having insight into the mind of the Lord concerning the future of the nations of North America. I am a simple country preacher with no reach beyond the hearing of this immediate congregation. However, I do read the Word which the Lord has given, and I do have the Spirit of Christ, just as all who are twice born have that same Spirit. Therefore, I can say with confidence that the Lord, the True and Living God, must judge all wickedness. He would not be holy if He were to ignore deliberate provocation to His holiness. And Canada and the United States are quite clearly guilty of provoking the holiness of Christ the Lord.
Our modern culture not only approves of the murder of the unborn in the womb, but we argue for using the tissues of these innocent ones for “scientific” studies. We see governments that punish anyone who exposes what goes on in such instances. We eagerly send our children to school anticipating that they will be educated in order to live in a modern society. However, an ever-greater number of those who present themselves as educators are more likely to indoctrinate our youngsters in moral and ethical standards that are antithetical to those we hold as dear and as necessary. Our college age youth are incapable of distinguishing between terrorism and self-defence. Increasingly, we witness our institutions of higher education becoming hotbeds of resistance to biblical morality and destruction of civilisation. Looking upon the modern university, one could imagine that the words Micah wrote were written for us in this day.
“The godly has perished from the earth,
and there is no one upright among mankind;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and each hunts the other with a net.
Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together.”
[MICAH 7:2-3]
Looking out upon Jewish society before the Chaldean invasion, Isaiah wrote,
“Their feet run to evil,
and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways.
The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
no one who treads on them knows peace.”
[ISAIAH 59:7-8]
Perceptive readers will note the similarities between these passages and the summation of fallen society which Paul provides as he gathers multiple statements from the Old Testament texts. Paul writes,
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
[ROMANS 3:10-18]
What was true of those ancient societies that brought down upon them the terrible judgements of God are equally true of contemporary western society. Can we actually imagine that we will escape the judgements of God that we so richly deserve?
THE ONE TO WHOM WE MUST TURN —
“Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old.”
[LAMENTATIONS 5:21]
At last, the writer pens the words to the prayer that each of us need to offer up to the Lord GOD. We who are known as followers of the Risen Son of God have wandered about as though we were divinely protected and without need to be concerned whether or not we walk with the Lord of Glory. We had every reason to be disgusted with the attitudes displayed throughout society, and our disgust enticed us to cease pleading for God’s mercy to be shown to our neighbours. We ceased pleading for God to raise up godly leaders to govern our nation. We allowed our culture to move inexorably toward damnation, toward judgement delivered by the righteous Judge of all the earth.
Too often, we Christians have convinced ourselves that society is so far gone that our nation is beyond the hope of being turned around, and therefore we should be looking for the return of the Saviour. Please don’t misunderstand—we are responsible to live in anticipation of the return of our Master! However, the return of our Master was never meant to be an escape mechanism excusing His followers from doing what they are responsible to do until He returns for His people.
In the parable our Master told in which the master gave ten minas to his servants, Jesus has the master charging the servants, saying, “Engage in business until I come” [LUKE 19:13b]. We must not miss that one major point of that parable was to emphasise the responsibility that was delivered to the servants when they had received the wealth which the master left. And our Saviour has entrusted His wealth to us, delivering His charge that we are to do His work until He returns.
In that parable, though the master was away, the servants were to do His work until He returned, and they would conduct his business even though “his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’” What else can this mean except that we who serve the Master do so in the midst of a world that is not enamoured of Him or of the Faith which carries His Name!
Did Jesus actually leave us wealth? Assuredly, this is the case! He gave us His Spirit to empower us. He gave us the right to come before the Father knowing that He will receive us in the Name of His Son. He gave us the promise that He would do what we ask whenever we come in His Name. He assured us that we would have daily bread, we would have brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers throughout the whole of the world, and we would know the love of a great family—the Family of God. We hold the wealth of the Living God to be employed in performing the work that the Saviour left us.
Do we labour and serve in the midst of a hostile world? Jesus Himself warned, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles” [MATTHEW 10:16-18]. Did you think these words were spoken only for those earliest disciples? No! Jesus spoke to all who would follow Him throughout this present dispensation.
However, even when He warned of the hostile environment in which we would serve, He spoke of the very wealth we hold. Jesus encouraged us when He said, “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes” [MATTHEW 10:19-23].
The world imagines it is showing strength when it attacks those who walk with Christ. The world thinks it demonstrates superiority when those of this world mock the Faith of the Risen Lord. However, Jesus spoke of what they would do, revealing the lack of understanding in the world. Remember how Jesus said, “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But they no longer have any excuse for their sin. The one who hates me hates my Father too. If I had not performed among them the miraculous deeds that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen the deeds and have hated both me and my Father. Now this happened to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’ When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me, and you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning” [JOHN 15:18-27 NET BIBLE 2nd].
Even as the Paris Olympics opened, those who planned the festivities could not avoid revealing they were part of this dying world. The festivities included drag queens gyrating and strutting as though this was entertainment that is appreciated by decent people. Then, as if that were somehow insufficient to garner the praise of those of the world, the organisers presented a depiction of Da Vinci’s painting, “The Last Supper,” with a woman wearing a crown portraying Jesus; surrounded by men in drag. Shortly after, a bearded man with long, blonde hair danced suggestively down a catwalk, much like a stripper would do. [2] It is just as Jesus warned, “They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you” [JOHN 16:3-4a]. We know that the world is acting as it does because the lost cannot act otherwise!
I do not advise you to be outraged; in fact, I will be grieved if you express outrage against such foolishness. Rather, I remind you that we should be grieved for those who demonstrate such ignorance. We understand that they cannot act otherwise, for we are taught, “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” [2 CORINTHIANS 4:3-4]. We know that the lost are under sentence of death, and the ultimate judgement the lost face does not give joy to any who follow the Risen Lord.
The message I have delivered this day would lead me to urge that all who are known by the Father to pray for mercy for our nation, and to seek His mercy for the nations of this dying world. I would hope that the message I have just delivered would encourage each of us who know the Saviour to pray for grace to refuse to give even tacit approval of the wickedness that is currently promoted by the opinion makers of this fallen world. I would pray that each Christian, each twice born child of the Living God, would commit herself, would commit himself, to pray for lost family members and to pray for lost friends, asking that God would speak to their hearts, granting them repentance that results in life.
I would ask that each of us who know we have received the gift of life would say “Amen” to our prayer for the lost whom we know, by asking God to give us boldness to speak with those whom we love, telling them of the grace of God revealed through faith in Christ the Lord. I urge any who hear my words, and who has yet to receive the Risen Saviour as Master over life, to do so this day. Jesus is the Saviour, sent by the Father, to deliver you from judgement, to give forgiveness of sin. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] CP Staff, “‘Be not deceived’: Christians react to drag Last Supper, debauchery at Paris Olympics ceremony,” Christian Post, Saturday, July 27, 2024, Christians react to drag Last Supper, debauchery at Paris Olympic | Entertainment (christianpost.com), accessed 27 July 2024; see also, Paulina Dedaj, “Jillian Michaels blasts Olympics opening ceremony for ‘hypocrisy’ following Last Supper ‘mockery,’” MSN, Jillian Michaels blasts Olympics opening ceremony for ‘hypocrisy’ following Last Supper ‘mockery’ (msn.com), accessed 27 July 2024; Associated Press, “Drag Queens Shine at Olympics Opening, but ‘Last Supper’ Tableau Draws Criticism,” July 27, 2024, Drag Queens Shine at Olympics Opening, but 'Last Supper' Tableau Draws Criticism (usnews.com), accessed 27 July 2024
