Greetings,
"Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched." Jeremiah 7:20
"And I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath." Jeremiah 21:5
"For this city hath been to Me as a provocation of Mine anger & of My fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before My face." Jeremiah 32:31
The book of Jeremiah speaks of God's anger more than any other book in the bible. Almost all of the 35 times 'anger' is used it is in reference to God. But this phrase, of God's anger and fury I have only found 3 times; but its fierceness captured my attention. For all those in the church today it is lop-sided on the nature and attributes descriptions of God. It is pre-dominatedly God's love, grace and mercy. Most have never heard of God's anger, wrath and fury. 'God is love' has been all they have heard. But they never hear, 'God is angry at the wicked every day." It is an awful imbalance in the church today that we do not know God. and even worse, that we are thus ineffective in presenting the whole Gospel.
It is necessary to understand Who God is and what God has said about Himself in order to understand where we are in relationship to in our nation, churches, families and our own hearts. These things reveal what is going on and why they are going on. IT is a two fold message to learn in these verses:
1. God's anger and fury - what is it? what does it look like?
Jonah 3:9, "Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?"
There is a pattern laid out of 4 sore judgements in the Old Testament against Israel. God declared that because they had 'provoked Him to anger', He would judge them. In Hebrews we are told, 'it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God.' Woe to those that do not understand such a plight for any nation or people, or individual. God is angry with the wicked. God's fury stretches out upon a people and is so powerful that it can remove them from the earth. These 4 sore judgements are revealed in the sword, the famine, pestilence and wild beasts. In these 4 judgements God's anger and fury is revealed and allowed upon His people and the wicked.
2. Ways & doings - why is God angry and furious?
Jeremiah 7:3, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place."
Jeremiah 7:5, "For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings"
Jeremiah 17:10, "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."
Jeremiah 18:11, ". . . return ye now every one from his evil way, and amke your ways and your doings good."\
Jeremiah 26:3, "If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent Me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings."
Jeremiah 26:13, "Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent Him of the evil that He hath pronounced against you."
Jeremiah 32:19, "
Ezekiel 36:17, "they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before Me as the uncleanness of a removed woman."
v. 19, "according to their way and according to their doings I judged them."
v. 31, "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good"
v. 32, "be ashamed and confounded for your own ways"
Hosea 4:9, "And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings."
Hosea 9:8, "but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God."
9:15, "All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of Min house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters."
Jonah 3:10, "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them, and He did it not."
Zechariah 1:4, "Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto Me, saith the Lord."
Zechariah 1:6, "but My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us."
God is complete and all comprehensive entirely of the happenings of life. God is blessings, and He is cursings; God is light and He is darkness; God is above and beneath; within and without. God is everything. Now the presentation of God is largely in the majority of blessings and prosperity for the church today. It is not about God imparting blessings and prosperity because our ways and doings are right in His sight. But blessings and prosperity are given, because of humanism, "what's in it for me." We focus too much on self, rather than sin and holiness.
Our ways and doings are before the Lord. HE sees and knows not only what we are doing but He knows why we do them. God knows the deeds done, and the intent of why the deed is done, or though of. 'Out of the heart proceeds these thing. . ." And when the heart, mind and life is void of knowing and understanding Who God is and what God has said, their ways and doings will be more like hell than like God's. But when they know God, and His Word, they will seek to have their ways and doings like Him. The prayer of the saint becomes, 'Lord, let my ways and doings be pleasing unto Thee. Make me like You.' A Christian means to be 'Christ-like'; let our ways and doings be such.
but when ways and doings are self and sin, then you reap what you sow. 'Sow to yourselves in righteousness; reap in mercy.' "Those that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; those that sow to the Spirit shall life everlasting.'
INDIVIDUAL
FAMILY
CHURCH
NATION
Started: January 3, 2019
Continued: 1/5;1/12;1/14;
Finished:
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