In Jason Dohm's sermon 'Learning The Lessons Of The Judgments,' he reflects on a recent conference in Asheville, North Carolina, themed 'Build, Dwell, Plant,' which draws from Jeremiah 29. The sermon discusses how the people of Jerusalem, taken into Babylonian captivity, were instructed to settle in Babylon without assimilating into its culture. Dohm emphasizes learning from the judgments of God, highlighting the reasons for Israel's captivity, such as their stubborn disobedience and failure to heed warnings from prophets over centuries. He distinguishes between judgment and discipline, explaining that while both stem from God's righteousness, they serve different purposes. Dohm outlines eight lessons from these judgments, underscoring God's hatred of sin, the importance of listening to God's word, the reality of His promises, and the misunderstanding of His patience. Further, he focuses on Israel's thanklessness and idolatry as key reasons for their judgment. The sermon concludes with reminders of God's eagerness to show mercy, as illustrated in the Babylonian captivity and the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, urging believers to seek repentance and embrace God's grace.

So, I, some of us, are fresh off a conference in Asheville, North Carolina. Ridgecrest, a historic Southern Baptist conference center. I don't know how many years in a row we've done that, but it's many, many years in a row. This year the theme of the conference, the title of the conference was Build, Dwell, Plant. It comes out of Jeremiah 29.

Jeremiah 29 is the chapter where the prophet Jeremiah is in Jerusalem because he hasn't been taken into captivity, but so many in Jerusalem had been taken by the Babylonians in the fall of Jerusalem at 586 BC, had been taken into captivity and are now in Babylon, but God hasn't forsaken them. So God has His prophet in Jerusalem, Jeremiah, write a letter of counsel and instruction to the captives in Babylon and he instructs them to settle in to Babylon. I heard a great message from Paul White yesterday where he said they were supposed to settle in to Babylon, but they weren't supposed to settle for Babylon. In other words, Babylon was not the endgame for these people. They were still to be a separate people, a holy people, and They better not be settling for Babylon.

I thought that was a good way to think of it. My message was a little different. The title of my message was Learning the Lessons of the judgments. Most of the conference was geared toward the people who were in a land of judgment, in a time of judgment, under the judgment of God, and how God's people can and should function in that environment. So almost all the other speakers, their task was to relate to us in a way.

We are in a pagan land, in a way. And so we're a lot like them. So take these things from Jeremiah 29, the instructions to the captives, and use that as a way to instruct us in our context in a pagan land in some ways. How can and should we function in that environment. So that's right and good.

There's so much to learn from that, but my time for my message was for asking and answering the questions, why were they under judgment? What are they doing in Babylon? How did they get there? What took them there? What lessons can and should we learn from those judgments?

Now before we get started, I want to sort of make a disclaimer. There are a couple of distinctions that I'm not going to touch on at all, but I want you to know that I know that there are those distinctions so you don't think as I preach, well because of these distinctions maybe that doesn't matter to us. So, first distinction. There are some distinctions between judgment and discipline. There are some things that are the same between the judgments of God for sin and the discipline of His sons.

I know there are some things that are the same, but there are some things that are very different too, so that's one distinction. Here's another. There are some nuances surrounding God's dealing with a corporate body. The Israelites in Judah at the time of the Babylonian captivity, they are a corporate body and God's dealings with the individual. That's not all exactly the same.

There are some distinctions that exist there. So I want you to know that I get it that there really are those distinctions, and I'm not going to deal with any of those distinctions at all. This is the last time I mentioned them. If I was writing a book, I would untangle those distinctions. If I had one sermon to preach, I wouldn't touch them at all.

So you're getting the one sermon I'm preaching and I'm not touching them. I think the points that I'm making are still sound and they actually don't need me to untangle those things. They're perfectly applicable to us even without touching those distinctions. Let's add God to help us. God, like we do every week, we pray for help.

Pray that your Spirit would be acting so freely among us to press home truths that we need that will help us. Rebuke us if you need to. Bring conviction on us if you need to, if it will help us do it, God. We want to hear from you today through your word. We pray in Jesus name.

Amen. So I'm going to actually start in Isaiah chapter 1. You can turn there or not. I'll be reading a few verses from there. Isaiah chapter 1.

Isaiah chapter 1. This is how this great prophetic book begins. Isaiah chapter 1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." So he prophesied throughout the reigns of four different kings and Uzziah had just a tremendously long reign. So this is a long period of prophesying during the reigns of these four kings.

Verse 2, hear O heavens and give ear O earth for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, But Israel does not know, my people do not consider. Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.

They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward. So, Israel, God is reflecting on His fatherhood of this people. He says, I brought up children. Now, we all know we're not perfect parents, but here the perfect parent is saying, I brought up children and they rebelled against me.

Often when we have children who rebel against us, we reflect on our shortcomings. We just know this, the perfect father brought up children and they rebelled against him. Verses 13 and 14. Bring no more feudal sacrifices, worthless sacrifices, pointless sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me.

The new moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They are a trouble to me. I am weary of bearing them." Now God had told them to observe the new moons and He had appointed the feasts.

They were appointed feasts. Who appointed them? God appointed them. God says, regardless of whether I appointed them or not, if you won't turn from your iniquities, stop meeting as if you're worshiping me. Stop the hypocritical worship.

This was more than 100 years before the Babylonian captivity. So I just want you to know, God's assessment of the people of Israel was this, more than a century before Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed Jerusalem and carried the people off into captivity. When God brought those judgments, it was following centuries of sending prophets to warn the people. Prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet, warning after warning after warning after warning. Isaiah wasn't the first and he wasn't in the last.

He's about in the middle of the chain. If every prophet is a link in the chain, Isaiah is about in the middle. There's a bunch before him, there's a bunch after him. Which means that those judgments, the destruction of Israel and the carrying of the people into captivity, also followed centuries of stubborn disobedience in the face of the Word of God coming through prophets. Centuries of stubborn disobedience.

So there is a lot to learn about God in considering the judgments, a lot to learn about ourselves, a lot to learn about times of judgments. I actually want to bring to you eight lessons from the judgments. For each, I'll give you the lesson and a key passage of Scripture and a brief explanation of that passage of Scripture, and I'll conclude each with a summary. So here we go. Lesson number one.

God is, by the way, all these are written out on the handouts. If you've been singing on one side, all these are on the other. Lesson number one, God is perfectly good, and that means that He hates sin. Those two truths have to exist together. They must both be true at the same time.

If he's perfectly good, then he has to hate sin. You can't be perfectly good and not hate sin. The key text is Jeremiah 9, Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23 and 24. Just listen. Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24.

Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight, " says the Lord. I fear the modern church has put a period after loving kindness. I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, period! As if loving kindness is the only expression of who God is. Now of course loving kindness is a treasured expression of who God is, a true expression of who God is, and we love it and treasure it.

Amen to all that. But no, He is the Lord and as God acting out of His perfect goodness, He exercises loving-kindness, comma, judgment, comma, and righteousness, period. He exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, all three of these things, because He delights in them. That's why He exercises them, because He loves them. He loves loving-kindness, He loves judgment, he loves righteousness.

He delights in these things. That's what he says. No one can expect this God who has revealed Himself in Scripture to do nothing in the face of stubborn disobedience. How can you expect the God who has revealed Himself in Scripture, meaning forget God as maybe you've commonly thought of Him, God as He describes Himself in Scripture, how can you expect this God to do nothing as if it didn't matter in the face of centuries of stubborn disobedience? You would say, that's not the God described in this book.

It is utterly inconsistent with who he is to think that he would do nothing in the face of stubborn disobedience. So we shouldn't be amazed to see catastrophic judgment. We should be amazed at the long suffering of God, how long it took to get there. You should be amazed at the grace of God, His unearned, unmerited, undeserved favor and goodness on a people that were described like we heard described in Isaiah chapter 1 centuries before the armies came and destroyed Jerusalem. That should amaze us, knowing how much he delights in righteousness.

In summary, it is God's perfect goodness which initiates the judgments. So where did the judgments come from? Where did the flood come from? Where did the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity come from? Where did Sodom and Gomorrah came from?

It came from the perfect goodness of God that initiated those judgments. Because God delights in righteousness, He hates unrighteousness and responds against it. Lesson number two. The judgments are a history of people who will not hear. The key text is 2 Chronicles 36 verses 15 through 21.

Listen to 2 Chronicles 36 verses 15 through 21. And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place." So why did he keep sending the messengers? Because he had compassion on his people. Verse 16, but they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore, he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin on the aged or the weak.

He gave them all into his hand. All the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions. Those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbath. As long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill seventy years." So we see here, God did His part, kept sending those prophets, kept warning them.

If you don't turn, if you won't turn, judgment is coming, destruction is coming. If you won't turn, destruction is coming over and over. God did His part times a million. He sent prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet. What did the people do?

We know what God was doing. He was sending warnings through prophets. What were the people doing? They mocked and despised the messengers. They scoffed.

Listen to what Jeremiah himself says in Jeremiah 25 verse 3. Jeremiah 25 verse 3, this is Jeremiah's personal testimony. This is the 23rd year in which the Word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. Jeremiah's personal testimony is, I've been trying to tell you for 23 years. Two-thirds of the room won't be 23 years old for a decade.

That's how long. Jeremiah, for 23 years, year after year after year, God says stop, God says turn or He's going to bring destruction. Jeremiah says it's been 23 years, you have not listened. Then a few verses later, this is still in Jeremiah 25, a few verses later after he says, it's been 23 years, Jeremiah says, on behalf of God, because you haven't listened, I'm sending Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and He'll take you to Babylon for 70 years. So he names the kingdom, the kingdom of Babylon.

He names the king by name. It's Nebuchadnezzar. He says He names the term of the captivity. It would be 70 years. And they still didn't listen and they still didn't repent.

Sometimes, a vague warning, you don't believe, it doesn't have teeth. He gave them all the details. The kingdom, the name of the king, the time of the captivity, and they still didn't listen and they still didn't repent. The judgments of God are not out of the blue. They're not.

They sometimes seem out of the blue to people who have refused to listen. What? Judgment is here? He's been telling them for 23 years. In summary, God is a God who speaks.

We must be a people who listen. You got this book. If you're like, I bet I have 20 Bibles in my house. Having them doesn't mean they're read. I mean, you can own a hundred Bibles and not read a single one of them.

And you can read them and not internalize it. You can internalize it and not obey it. God speaks, we should listen. Listen meaning in a way that we're moved by what He says when He speaks. It moves us to respond to what He has said.

Lesson number three. I am going to try to go fast, but yesterday I was looking across at a timer that was six feet by eight feet. It was like a slave master cracking a whip, you know, every, I'm watching every second thing. I'm thinking, faster, go faster. So, Jim, don't you dare.

See you back there. Lesson number three. God keeps every promise and sometimes that is a fearful thing. The key text for this is Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses 15 through 18. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses 15 through 18.

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. If you will not love the Lord and walk in His ways, if you choose death and evil, you shall surely perish." That too is a promise. Deuteronomy 28 is a full chapter dedicated to blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.

And it's as if the second part of the chapter didn't exist. Oh, blessings for obedience. Repeat them to me. As if the promise keeping of God only extends to the exceedingly great and precious promises. That's what Peter calls them in 2 Peter 1 verse 4.

Peter looks at the precious promises of God and he calls them exceedingly great and precious promises. We all say amen to those and we all pray those promises and there's nothing wrong with that. But it's as if there were not exceedingly terrifying promises in the Word of God. So amen to all the exceedingly great and precious promises. But Don't forget, there are exceedingly terrifying promises in the Word of God too.

And guess what? God's going to keep all of them. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." That's not in the Old Testament, that's in Galatians. That's Galatians 6 verses 7 and 8. Which is it? Can we mock God or not? Can we persistently sow to the flesh and yet still expect to continue to reap God's blessing?

The answer is obvious, no of course we can't persistently sow to the flesh and yet still expect to continue to reap God's blessing. Of course not. In summary, some of the promises God will keep are the consequences for stubborn disobedience. Some of the promises God will keep are the judgments for stubborn disobedience. If you find yourself in stubborn disobedience, you just simply will not obey.

You just simply will not allow that pattern to be broken in your life. You should fear. We should study these things and fear. Lesson number four. The long suffering of God is easily misinterpreted.

The patience of God is so easily misunderstood. God's patience is misinterpreted. You draw the wrong conclusion. The key text is Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11. Listen to Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11.

Because the sentence against an evil work, so we're in a courtroom now, We've got the sentence pronounced against an evil work, the consequences for doing evil. Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Because the verdict, and because the sentence from the verdict, the verdict is guilt and the sentence isn't carried out for a long while, because of that, men in their hearts determine to give themselves over to evil. Devastatingly wrong conclusion to draw from the data. What's the data?

I sin, nothing happens. Oh, got away with that. I sin again, nothing happens again. I got away with it again. I sin more, the sin goes deeper, nothing happens.

I draw a conclusion. Either God doesn't know, or God doesn't care, or both. He doesn't know and doesn't care. Devastatingly wrong conclusion. Actually, God is long-suffering.

That's the other conclusion that you can draw from the data, should draw from the data. It's not that he doesn't know, he does know. It's not that he doesn't care, he does care. It's that he's long suffering. He's patient and your abuse of His patience actually aggravates the eventual outcome.

It adds sin to sin. So you sin and are increasing in sin and He's patient and you're abusing the patience and so you're piling on. You're actually aggravating the eventual outcome. It makes it worse. The abuse of his patience makes it worse.

2 Peter 3, Peter speaks of scoffers who say, where is the promise of Jesus coming? You guys have blathered on and on about the return of Jesus, the second coming. So, where is He? I guess we'll wait. I guess we'll wait.

All things continue as they've always been. Today is like yesterday, tomorrow will be like today, and on and on and on. Peter says, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The lessons of the judgments teach us that any delay without repentance, so the sentence isn't carried out yet, the consequences aren't undertaken yet, I still haven't repented, is nothing more than a temporary reprieve to allow time for repentance. A temporary reprieve.

Temporary, not going to last forever, to allow time for repentance. It is the mercy of God, not the inattentiveness of God or the apathy of God, inattentive. He's not paying attention. He doesn't know. He's not seeing these things that I'm doing that dishonor him, or the apathy of God.

Oh God just doesn't care. It's not any of those things. It's mercy! Is this how you'll treat His mercy? In summary, it is an abuse of the grace of God to presume that His patience will continue forever.

And also that's false. It's an abuse of the grace of God to presume that His patience will continue forever. His patience will never end. He's going to continue to be patient so I can continue to sin and it's no problem. Oh, it's a problem.

It's not going to continue forever. It is sinful presumption. Lesson number five. Two key areas of stubborn disobedience were thanklessness and trading God for unworthy things. So you can make a list of things that were true of the people and all reasons why they were sent into captivity in Babylon, but I want to home in on two key areas of stubborn disobedience, not the only ones, but really key ones, and they are thanklessness and trading God for unworthy things.

The key text for this is Jeremiah chapter 2. So the publisher's uninspired heading over Jeremiah 2 in my Bible, I mean the publisher just sticks it over chapter 2 to describe the chapter, is God's case against Israel. So this is early in Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 2, and God is laying out His case for the judgments and sending His people into captivity, and the whole chapter is the case against Israel. We could really spend all our time in Jeremiah 2, but for the sake of time we won't. I'm going to isolate two verses out of this because I think these two verses are the crux of God's case against Israel.

The first is verse 7, Jeremiah 2 verse 7. Listen, God says, I brought you into a bountiful country to eat its fruit and its goodness, But when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination." God brought an enslaved people out of slavery, And then a homeless people into a home of plenty. It's described over and over and over again in the Old Testament as the land of milk and honey, Meaning a land of abundance and good things, just like dripping with good things. And then, so this people, these slaves brought out of slavery, and homeless people given a home of abundance defiled this land with their stubborn disobedience. They defiled it.

God gave them houses they didn't build, Wells they didn't dig, vineyards they didn't plant, cities they didn't establish, and they acted like, that was nothing! God, you didn't do a thing for us! Such ingratitude. When you think of it in those terms, you think, you just look at this and you say, such thanklessness. Now, leave God out of it for a minute.

We don't need God to be furious at that. That kind of treatment makes all people furious. Anyone in this room getting treated like that would be furious. You give something that's precious, really precious, and it just gets cast aside. Crumpled up, tossed in the trash.

This kind of treatment makes anyone furious. Now imagine God being treated that way. Maybe you would treat me that way and I'd be mad and who cares? Because honestly, who am I? Treat God that way?

Makes me say, How did God wait for one second? God waited for centuries, generation after generation after generation of stubborn disobedience, sending prophets, don't, don't, turn, turn, destruction is coming. How did God wait for a single second? You wouldn't have waited not one lifetime. You wouldn't have waited generations.

You wouldn't have waited decades. You wouldn't have waited years. I wouldn't have either. Such in gratitude, Verse 13, still in Jeremiah 2, verse 13. For my people have committed two evils.

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. A cistern is a receptacle for water. Its whole purpose in life is to hold water. But These are man-made cisterns that are now broken, so they don't even hold water. You would put this out on the curb on trash day.

What do you need a broken cistern for? It doesn't even hold water. Its purpose is to hold water. It's broken. It doesn't hold water.

This man-made thing you put out by the curb so that the trash guys would take it away. So a trade gets made in this verse. God, the fountain of living waters, endless source of waters, living waters. He was forsaken. We care anything about that.

And in His place were the man-made replacements, which in the final analysis are worthless. We want to trade. God, we want to trade you for stuff that we make that in the end are worthless. These were the two great evils. Setting aside the infinitely valuable God, We want to put something on the scale with God that will make it, no, there's not enough in all the universe.

If we had a universe of universes, it wouldn't be enough. We could never balance the scale. He's infinitely valuable. You'll never accumulate enough to say, well that's how much God's worth. We set aside the infinitely valuable God who had put His own name on them, and we take up worthless things in his place.

We'd rather have the things that in the end will prove to be worthless. Now, what kind of an idiot would do that? Be careful, I baited the hook. Don't eat that worm. Don't eat that worm.

I got baited on the hook, and you're thinking about what kind of an idiot would do that. You're the idiot. I'm the idiot. There is a sense in which every sin fits that description. I know what God said, but actually I'm not doing that today.

I'm chasing what I want today. That is forsaking the fountain of living waters to take up something that in the end is like something in the in the final analysis is something you would drag out to the curb on trash day. Every compromise fits that description. So many of our schedule choices, our money choices, our time choices fit that description. Trading the God of living waters for broken sisters.

In summary, thankfulness to God and treasuring God above all other things keeps us under the shadow of His wing. If thanklessness in gratitude and trading God for worthless things puts us on a track to judgment, the fast track to judgment, then thankfulness to God and treasuring God above all things just keeps us under the shadow of His wing, keeps us close to God, under His protection, enjoying His fellowship. His judgment is not for the thankful and those who treasure him. Lesson number six. God doesn't hold people guiltless who bring reproach on His name.

Or you could say, God holds you guilty if you bring reproach on His name. The key text is Exodus 20 verse 7. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." With this, the third commandment, cussing is the least of our problems. Adding God's name to a cuss word to make it a cuss phrase certainly is a problem. Let's not make cuss phrases by adding God's name, joining them with cuss words.

But the crux of the Third Commandment isn't that. It is taking the name of God upon yourself, the God of Scripture is my God, I belong to Him, I am a Christian, Christ is the core of that name. Taking Christ's name on yourself, I am a Christian, and then not showing evidence of transformation. You got the label, but there's no evidence of transformation. And you took the label on yourself.

I'm a Christian. I'm a part of these people. Now, is the transformation incomplete? I think I've been at this for 45 years. I think I've been in the faith for something like 45 years.

I, of all people, know that the transformation is incomplete. Sadly it is incomplete. Is the transformation slow? Yes. Sometimes it's agonizingly slow.

Is there a gospel that doesn't transform? Not in the Bible. You've got to look up another book to find a gospel that doesn't transform. You won't find that in this book. The Gospel in this book must transform, or that's not really the Gospel that's at work.

It's something else at work. When the God of Scripture is your God on the basis of faith in His Son Jesus and you belong to Him, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, indwells you and makes you holy too by degrees. So I'm happy to concede it's by degrees. It's incomplete and sometimes it's agonizingly slow. Amen to that.

I know that. But if the Holy Spirit indwells you, meaning He doesn't come and go, He lives in you for the rest of your life. He makes you holy too. You'll never stop that work because He is the Almighty God. He makes you holy too by degrees.

If that's not happening, keep God's name out of it. If that's not happening, Keep God's name out of it. Leave God out of it. Listen to 2 Chronicles 7 verses 19 through 22. 2 Chronicles 7, 19 through 22.

But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you and go to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot them from my land which I have given them. And this house which I have sanctified for my name I will cast out of my sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And as for this house which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, why has the Lord done this to this land and this house? Then they will answer, because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers and brought them out of the land of Egypt and embraced other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore He has brought all this calamity on them. Therefore because they embraced other gods and served other gods and worshiped other gods, therefore I will bring all this calamity on them.

I'll turn my own house that bears my own name into rubble." That's what they did. They embraced and served and worshiped other God and that's what God did. He brought all these calamities on them. He turned his own house into rubble because He wanted His name out of it. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

In summary, if you don't intend to obey the Lord, If you don't intend to follow the Lord, keep God's name off of your life. When you say, I'm a Christian, I belong to Him, I'm a part of His people, there is a sense in which you put a crosshairs on your back. If you don't intend to follow Him, keep God's name off of your life. Lesson number seven. Of course, that's not the real lesson.

It is take the name of God onto your life by faith in Jesus and then follow Him. That's the real...let's just reverse it. Yes, take His name on you. Call yourself a Christian. Be a Christian.

Trust in His Son and follow Him. These things must go together, taking the name and following Him. Lesson number seven, God doesn't hold people guiltless who cheat His day. Key text, Nehemiah 13 verses 17 and 18. So Nehemiah is actually written after the captivity is over, the 70 years in Babylon is over, and there's a new king now at Cyrus, and God has raised up Cyrus to send the captives home.

Right at 70 years, God said it would be 70 years, right at 70 years, new king, you can go home. So Israelites either be ones who help them go home to Jerusalem or go? Either go or help. And so Nehemiah is now governing the people who have returned from Babylon. He's governing in Jerusalem and here's what we read in Nehemiah 13, 17 through 18.

Then I, Nehemiah, contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, What evil thing is this that you do by which you profane the Sabbath day. Did not your fathers do thus and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath." So Nehemiah is governing in Jerusalem and on the Sabbath day, he sees all this buying and selling happening. Like the foreigners are coming in the gates, setting up the markets on the Sabbath day just like it's any other day of the week, and Nehemiah says, this is why we went to Babylon. Like you're doing this again?

Nehemiah attributes the Babylonian captivity at least in part to cheating God's day. God had laid claim to a day, rested on that day Himself in creation week, declared it to belong to Himself, and commanded His people to keep it and observe it in the Ten Commandments. It was to be part of their weekly rhythm of life, rest for their minds and bodies, and a time to feed their souls as they honored God. But they knew better. We don't really have to go to all that trouble.

They cheated the day, and that was a key reason for them being taken into captivity, at least according to Nehemiah. Let me say this to you New Testament saints. Thank God for New Testament saints. It's the best time to be a saint. Everyone has to do something with the phrase, the Lord's Day.

You just can't pretend that phrase isn't in the Bible. Everybody got to do something with it. In Revelation 1 verse 10, the Apostle John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. So, decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus, deep into the apostolic age, meaning the Apostles are teaching their doctrine, given to them by Jesus, In the final deposit of written revelation, that's what revelation is. It's the last book written in Scripture, and there's not going to be another one.

The Lord Jesus has a day. No one can convince me that this isn't to be a part of our weekly rhythm of life. Rest for our minds and bodies and a time to feed our souls as we honor the Lord. In summary, to cheat the Lord today is to cheat the Lord. To cheat yourself.

The Sabbath was made for man, to cheat yourself and to invite the discipline of the Lord into your life. I believe if you're cheating the Lord's day, you're inviting the Lord's discipline into your life. Yes, I really believe that. Well, most people don't believe that today. I can't help that.

Almost everybody believed that 200 years ago. It's flipped now. Few didn't believe that 200 years ago, and almost everybody did. Now, few believe it, and almost everybody doesn't. And you know what?

None of that matters. Because Whether that's true or not is not a nose-counting activity. Well, the majority think that must not be so, so that's what's right now. It's what does the Word of God say? You better satisfy yourself on what the Word of God says on this.

Lesson number eight. The judgment of God is rarely the final word. Key text for this is 2 Chronicles 7 verses 12 through 16. In 2 Chronicles 7 verses 12 through 16, God is coming to Solomon for the second time and It's just after the temple was completed and Solomon had just dedicated the temple, actually in the same chapter. Here's 2 Chronicles 7 verses 12 through 16.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open to my ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be here forever and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually." My eyes and my heart will be there perpetually. God never intended the Babylonian captivity to be the final word.

He actually set a timeline on it when it would start, when it would end, even to the point that God gave instructions long beforehand. Solomon dedicating the temple is centuries before the captivity, but there would be other judgments, and he names them here, pestilence coming upon the land, locusts devouring, refusing to send rain. So he talks about different kinds of judgments. Long beforehand, God told them what to do when such a judgment came upon them. What should they do?

Humble themselves. That was a good start when God is dealing with you. Step one, humble yourself. What should they do? Pray and seek God's face.

What should they do? Turn from their wicked ways in true repentance. Then God expresses His willingness to hear and forgive and heal. God is telling you, I want to hear and forgive and heal. God is telling you, I want to hear and forgive and heal.

I'm eager to hear and forgive and heal. We don't have a God who's reluctant to hear us. He's eager to hear us. We don't have a God who's reluctant to forgive us. He's eager to forgive us.

We don't have a God who's reluctant to heal us. He's eager to heal us. We should humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. He's eager. We find an eager God.

In the book of Habakkuk, God reveals his plans for judgment to the prophet Habakkuk. He tells Habakkuk, I'm getting ready to do this. He's talking about this, bringing the Babylonians and taking the people into captivity. In Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 2, the prophet Habakkuk cries out, in wrath remember mercy. God, as you're pouring out your fury on what you have a right to be furious about, oh God, remember mercy.

Don't forget to be merciful. God does. Even when He's pouring out wrath against stubborn disobedience, He does remember mercy. Judgment is so rarely the final word. The final word.

In summary, God engages in judgment, but He delights in mercy. You hear me? God engages in judgment. He will judge you if you're stubbornly disobedient for long enough. He'll bring judgment because He loves righteousness.

He delights in righteousness, so He engages in judgment, but He delights in mercy. That's the exact phrase from Micah 7-18, he delights in mercy. How do we know he delights in mercy? Well, Jeremiah 29 is a good start. It's a letter to the captives.

He's not done with the captives. He's having prophets write letters to them. Settle in. Build there and dwell there and plant there and marry there and have children there and pray for Babylon because When there's peace in Babylon, you'll enjoy peace. It's going to be 70 years, but the 70 years will be the end of the judgment, then I'll bring you back.

It's a letter of care. It's a letter of care for His people. Judgment isn't the last word. He's still writing them letters. It's a love letter.

What's another way that we know that judgment isn't the final word? The books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The people come back and He's with them in the rebuilding of the city. It's so clear that God is all over them, giving them success against overwhelming odds and overwhelming enemies. They don't count because God is with them.

What's an even more convincing proof? The cross. The cross is the most convincing proof that judgment isn't the final word of all the proofs. There are so many. The cross is the great proof.

If you want to know if God hates sin, look at the cross. Look at His anger being poured out on the man on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, his anger against stubborn disobedience being poured out on Jesus, this man. Simultaneously, if you want to know that God remembers mercy and judgment because He delights in mercy, look at the cross. Does He remember mercy and judgment? Of course He does.

Look at the cross. Does He delight in mercy? Of course He does. Look to the cross. It's not me on that cross.

It's a substitute. Bearing my sins, taking upon Himself the penalty for my sins. He delights in mercy. In Revelation, Jesus appears as a lamb as if it had been slain. I've heard Jeff Pollard say one time, it's a very helpful way to approach Revelation.

Revelation isn't what Jesus looks like. The descriptions there, it's what He is, what He is like. So if you think we're going to see Jesus that way, I'm not confident that's true. He's showing us what He is like, not necessarily what He will look like in heaven. Our eyes will see a lamb as if it had been slain.

No, it's what He is like. His identity of honor is as a lamb as if it had been slain. How does Jesus want to be known? He's the Almighty God. He can be known as the judge, as He can be known as anything He wants to be known as.

What does Jesus want to be known as? The lamb who was slain, 1st and 2nd. A savior of the people. You see, the judgments of the Bible are types. The global flood that we've been studying is a type.

The Babylonian captivity is a type. Sodom and Gomorrah is a type. Lunch is going to be great. I'm smelling that come out from the bag. That is just awesome.

I'm sure that's distracting everyone. I'm almost done. I am two minutes from done. What is a type? A type is something that points forward to and teaches about a greater reality.

So a type is a circumstances that God brings to pass to point forward to something greater that's coming. It's a little version of it and it teaches us about it. What is the Babylonian captivity, the judgments of God, the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, a type of pointing forward to and teaching about? The return of Jesus Christ. He came the first time in humility to save sinners.

He's coming the second time in power, in glory, to make all things right. It is going to be the judgment of all judgments. None of these other judgments will be anything compared to the coming of Jesus Christ. The cross is the only remedy for that judgment. If you want to know how to be on the right side of that judgment, it's the cross.

There's no other place to go. The Babylonian captivity exists to teach us to flee to Christ for mercy. And you know what? When you flee to Christ for mercy, you find Christ as mercy. The Gospel of John, Jesus says, of all who come to me, I will not turn away one, I will not turn away a single one who comes to me in faith.

That is the great lesson of the judgments. Oh God, you have sent your only Son, and it's impossible to believe that you gave your only Son, but you withhold all the other things we need. No, with your Son you will also give us all things. Thank you that the judgments hold no fear for anyone who is trusting in your Son. This is a precious truth and We thank you for it in Jesus' name, Amen.