AFFLICTION – a great aid to remembering!
“Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths,” Lamentations 1:7.
That which Jerusalem stout-heartedly refused to believe when warned by Jeremiah, she has forced upon her by the afflictions that followed her rebellion and defiance of God and His Word!
Jeremiah had repeatedly warned in vain.
“My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge,” Jeremiah 4:19-22.
“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Jeremiah 5:21-31.
However, what was refused from the lips of Jeremiah by the vast majority, is now ‘force-fed’ to the stubbornly stupid people of Jerusalem by the cruel hand of accumulated afflictions.
I. THAT WHICH HAD BEEN PRESSED UPON THE PEOPLE IS VIVIDLY RECALLED IN THEIR AFFLICTION
The word ‘remembered’ means ‘to recall to mind’. The warnings of Jeremiah had been heard but rejected but nevertheless, his words remained in their minds, unobserved and unheeded, until ‘affliction’ caused them to be ‘recalled’ and pondered.
This is something faithful preachers ought to ever bear in mind. The setting forth of God’s truth may seem to be in vain and nothing of it is getting through to the minds and hearts of the listeners.
This verse shows that such is not the case.
It is never a vain exercise to preach God’s Word, no matter what the reaction of the hearers may be. Ezekiel, who served the Lord in the same era of rebellion as Jeremiah, was instructed by the Lord: “Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them,” Ezekiel 2:3-5.
Faithful preachers should ever bear in mind, irrespective of the reaction of the people to whom they preach, that “whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.”
There will come a day of ‘vindication’ for the faithful preacher. It will be in that day of reaping of the affliction that will most certainly follow the defiant folly of his recalcitrant hearers!
II. MANY ARE THE DREADFUL CONSEQUENCES OF REJECTION OF GOD’S WORD
Christians are well aware of the warning given in the gospel regarding the sinner’s defiant heedlessness of the Word of God. Paul states the matter most succinctly in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.
“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.”
Oh, that men and women would heed that warning and “flee from the wrath to come”!
Christians too are warned!
But Christian, it is all too common for true believers to ignore and reject the warnings God gives through those who seek to faithfully declare His message in a day of apostasy, worldliness and backsliding.
That is what happened in the days of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, to highlight but one such period of disregarding of God’s Words of warning by believers.
The Word of God emphasises that the end times would see a most dreadful defiance of God amongst His professing people.
In the chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, in the epistles of Christ to the seven churches in Asia, the phrase: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”, appears in each epistle. Is there not a clear suggestion that a question mark is being placed by the Saviour over whether or not all of the members of the seven churches will give ‘an ear’ to His words and ‘hear’ what He says? I believe that there is and consequently we can say that such waywardness and defiance is ever to be found amongst God’s people.
It is certainly so today!
The way to gain a reputation as being ‘disingenuous’, a person who seeks to ‘tear down the church’ and ‘God’s people’, as has been stated of me by Danny Roberts of ‘Logos International Ministries’ on his Facebook page and which some of his supporters have endorsed, is simply to preach the truth of the Bible.
Now, while the name-calling may abound, the answers to the Biblical principles I set forth are utterly absent. Since 2006 in particular, I have been contending against the inroads of unbiblical notions into the Free Presbyterian Church. Such notions may be found in the statements, actions and attitudes of some Christians, all of which I have documented time and time again BUT NEVER ONCE HAS THERE BEEN ANY ATTEMPT TO ANSWER WHAT I HAVE SAID AND WRITTEN FROM THE WORD OF GOD!
I know that in cowardly ‘behind the back’ conversations amongst those anxious to promote unbiblical philosophies within the ranks of the Free Presbyterian Church and in comments mounted upon websites, to which I and many others have no access, (that being reserved to a select band of devotees of those promoting error) I have been subject to criticism. But nowhere have I been answered from God’s Word in a truly Christian manner.
Such a response to ‘unwelcome’ truths presented by God’s servants has ever been the norm since the murder of Abel by Cain for merely setting forth God’s truth!
Even the Lord Jesus, the embodiment of God’s truth, for He is ‘The Truth’ (John 14:6), was viciously slandered by those opposed to God’s message. “The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil, . . . Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. . . . And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?” John 7:20; 8:52; 10:20. You cannot get a greater defamation of character than that!
Counsel
The Lord Jesus counselled His servants: “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known,” Matthew 10:25-26.
The time for the ‘revealing’ of which the Saviour spoke, is particularly that day when “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad,” 2 Corinthians 5:10.
However, there will be a ‘revealing’ in the day of ‘affliction’ like that referred to by Jeremiah. That day is spoken of proverbially amongst us as the day when ‘the chickens come home to roost’! That will be a day of ‘miseries’, as our text says. The word carries the meaning of ‘being a cast away’.
Sinners should heed this truth. For there is a ‘casting out’ into hell for those who heard the gospel of Christ but refused it. “But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” Matthew 8:12.
But there is a ‘casting away’ that professing Christians should fear! Paul referred to it. “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway,” 1 Corinthians 9:25-27.
As the noted commentator, Matthew Poole, says of this portion: ‘From whence we may observe, that Paul thought such a thing possible, that one who all his life had been preaching to others, to bring them to heaven, might himself be thrown into hell at last; and if it had not, our Saviour would never have told us, that he would at the last day say to some: Depart from me, I know you not, you workers of iniquity; who for their admittance had pleaded: We have prophesied in thy name, Matthew 7:22,23.’
There is a less severe ‘casting away’ that will be experienced by some Christians. It is that of discovering that they have pursued a life of base and vain activities which results in ‘loss’ in that day when believers appear before Christ. Paul tells us of it.
“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire,” 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.
Wood, Hay, Stubble
I unhesitating state that the modern notions and innovations promoted by Logos Ministries International and welcomed by some Free Presbyterian Church ministers and members, is but building upon ‘wood, hay, stubble’ and not building upon “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone,” Ephesians 2:20.
I am most willing to provide space upon my ‘Burning Bush’ website for any minister who wishes to take issue with what I have said, with the understanding that I will duly reply to anything they say!
III. MOCKERY OF GOD’S INSTITUTIONS IS ONE OF THE SAD ASPECTS OF AFFLICTION REFERRED TO IN OUR TEXT
“The adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths”.
Those who close their ears to God’s Word in a day of departure will reap what they have sown and part of that will be a realisation that their disobedience and defiance has brought shame upon the cause, the honour, the institutions of God.
Our singular objective ought to be: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God,” 1 Corinthians 10:31. If the minor matters of eating and drinking are to be so conducted as to bring glory to God, how much more important it is to make sure that the spiritual, eternal affairs of our life promote God’s glory.
Seeking to lead Christians astray and inducing them to embrace that which is contrary to God’s Word, cannot be considered as bringing glory to God!
Yet, one Free Presbyterian minister was foolish enough to encourage Danny Roberts of ‘LMI’ in the dissemination of false teaching and say: ‘Keep labouring and working for the Lord, Danny. The Lord will bless your work for the Master.’
I strongly suspect that such words were uttered in ignorance of just what Roberts and the ‘LMI’ are up to. That being so – and I know for a fact that one such ‘encourager’ of Roberts did so without really understanding what it was he was siding with – how undiscerning are some who occupy Free Presbyterian pulpits!
A watchman who can’t tell a wolf from a sheep is not of any great value in the midst of the dangers threatening God’s people today. Such a one can only superintend the decimation of the flock of God and the pulling down of the old standards and come nigh to falling under the curse, referred to in the Law of God. “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen,” Deuteronomy 27:17.
Everywhere today we see the things of God dismissed and disparaged: God Himself, His Bible, His Sabbath and the basic tenets of holy living! That which has been directly responsible for that has been the stupidly foolish notion, pursued by many, that the means of ‘reviving’ the cause of Christ is to set aside everything that the world finds ‘offensive’ in the Word of God. That path can only result in Christians being left with the covers of the Bible, the words ‘Holy Bible’ also being blanked out! Man is offended in truth at everything that is in the Bible! Just remember that evil men crucified the One who is the ‘Living Word of God’!
No, we cannot ‘revive’ God’s work by taking a pickaxe to the foundations and fabric of the inspired revelation of Holy Scripture.
A realisation of that, by those deceived into believing the devil’s lie, will be one of the miseries endured by such fools in the day of affliction and they will then place a higher value on the “pleasant things” which, in their blindness, they helped to destroy !
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
21st November 2024