Ralph Martin - Shocking Warnings Part 2

[Music] hello brothers and sisters last week we talked about my shock at reading the prophet jeremiah and the very severe punishments the lord inflicted on his people when they're unfaithful to him in very serious and gross ways we also talked about how the new testament tells us that these these accounts of severe punishment were preserved by the holy spirit as a warning for us so that we wouldn't head in the same direction and we also read that even though there were severe punishments for violating the old covenant the the original covenant there's even worse punishment for violating the new covenant because the new covenant is much more precious to the old covenant and uh we read some of the passages about that too now i want to talk a little bit now about that passage from matthew 22 that we quickly mentioned the story about the king who has the wedding feast and sins for people but they made light of his invitation went on with life as usual business as usual life as usual it says the king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city we're going to see in just a few minutes that jerusalem was burned the temple was burned because jesus's own people for the most part rejected him we're going to see this parable actually unfold in history we're going to see the secular jewish historian uh i guess you wouldn't call him secular jewish historian josephus giving a blow-by-blow account of how jerusalem was destroyed in the temple burnt by the roman soldiers then he said to his servants the wedding is ready but those invited were not worthy go therefore to the streets and invite to the marriage fees as many as you find and those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found both bad and good so the wedding hall was full of guests the lord is inviting everybody to the marriage feast the lord wants everybody to have his goodness to share his goodness and know as good as to be part of the family but when the king came in to look at the guests he saw there was a man who had no wedding garment he said to him friend how did you get in here without a wedding garment of course we might think of the baptismal robes the white robes and he was speechless then the king said to the attendants bind him hand and foot and cast them into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called but few are chosen now there is a warning here there's a warning here that those who make light of the lord's invitation things aren't going to go well for them but there's also a warning here that those who god show special mercy to calling the good and the bad and calling them into the wedding feast if they don't avail themselves of the wedding garment that the king gives them they won't be able to stay in the wedding feasts but they'll be cast out into the outer darkness will it be weeping and gnashing of teeth at a jewish wedding as people tell it the host provides a wedding garment for those who don't have it so here the king is providing a wedding garment but the person doesn't doesn't avail himself of it the wedding garment the cleansing the purifying is comes through faith and repentance and it's fully unfolded in a person's life in holy baptism and we mainly see children getting baptized infants getting baptized on the white garment this used to happen in the early church when adults got baptized they were given a white garment too so the good news here is that the king wants to give us a wedding garment the warning here the very serious warning is that if you don't avail yourself of wedding garment the king wants to give you you'll be excluded from the wedding feast now let's go to luke chapter 19 where this parable is shockingly enacted in real time in history luke chapter 19 verses 36 to 46. let's start at 41. when he drew near and soar the city he wept over it one of the very few times in scripture where it says that jesus wept the other time of course was when he found out his friend lazarus had died he wept over it saying wood that even today you knew the things that make for peace but now they are hidden from your eyes not because god hid them from their eyes but people perversely refused to see what was obvious to see and to hear what was obvious to hear nobody ever spoke like jesus with such authority nobody ever did such signs and wonders nobody ever had such quality of character such anointing on him the anointing of the holy spirit nobody had the father open the heavens open the father speak this is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased the people who couldn't see and couldn't hear couldn't see and couldn't hear because of the condition of their heart they didn't want to see they didn't want it here because they didn't want to turn from their dark deeds they didn't turn they didn't want to turn from their prideful autonomy they didn't want to repent and believe and fall at the feet of jesus and receive the forgiveness of their sins and the invitation to enter the family of god so for the day shall come upon you when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you and hem you in on every side and dash you to the ground you and your children within you and they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation josephus the jewish historian writes and tell us that the walls of the temple were paved with gold and as the fire was consuming the temple the gold melted into the cracks between the stones and the roman soldiers so greedy for gain pulled down stoned by stone to get the gold pretty amazing josephus wrote a history called the war history of the war of the jews and book five and book six he describes in horrifying detail the sack of jerusalem and the burning of the temple starting in the rooms that circulated around the temple itself and then getting to the wood that was the under under structure of the temple and melting even the gold into the stones here's the shocking news 1 million 100 000 people were slaughtered in the destruction of jerusalem warned that this would happen in another text he says when you see these things start to happen get out of the city don't delay and we know that four years earlier in 66 a.d there was an initial siege of jerusalem and most of the christians left for petra in jordan and escape the destruction of jerusalem that happened four years later this is real stuff you can go to the city of rome today and you can see the triumphant arch of titus the roman general who later became emperor who led the roman armies in the destruction of jerusalem and you can see engraved on that triumphal arch the roman soldiers carrying the utensils from the temple the sacred vessels from the temple back to rome very much like nebuchadnezzar did many centuries previous in fact the sack of rome and the sack of the sack of jerusalem and the second jerusalem uh hundreds of years earlier happened on the same day you might say how could a good god how could jesus who loves us so much not only prophesied that this would happen but agreed with the justice of it even though 1 million 100 000 people would be slaughtered would die would be trampled would be suffocated would be burned to death i want to say what i said last week we have no idea how perverse it is we have no idea how gravely sinful it is not to believe in the holy one of god we have no idea how serious our situation is we have no idea how lost we are we have no idea the length to which god is willing to go to bring us back to paradise he established a way back to paradise that in our wildest imagination we could never dream of anything so special so precious so good the word became flesh and dwelt among us and those who believe in him have the power to become sons and daughters of god be brought into god's family well these are very serious warnings but there's also some very strong encouragement let's take a look at some of the encouragement in the same text that we read last week in hebrews and here in matthew uh the most severe of warnings the most severe of judgments and yet the most profound and strong encouragements to hang on for the great glory that will be ours when christ jesus appears just gonna take a little drink of water here so let's take a look at first corinthians 2 4 and 6 again in each of the warnings in hebrews which are very serious warnings which uh actually let's take a look at first corinthians 10 first this is where the author of hebrews warns us that the things we saw in the old testament that really happened the real punishments the real severe punishment for apostasy for idolatry for immorality for child sacrifice for gross exaltation of the creature over god for breaking of the covenant or warnings for us they were preserved in sacred scripture those those shocking passages i'm reading in jeremiah every day now page after page were preserved by the holy spirit as warnings for us lest the same things happen to us now these things happen to them as a warning but they were written down for our instruction upon whom the end of the agents has come therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall so here's the warning here's the exhortation but here's the promise no temptation or trial has overtaken you that is not common to mankind god is faithful he will not let you be tempted or tested beyond your strength but along with the temptation or trial he'll provide you a way of escape or help you be able to endure it don't be afraid don't be afraid yes the flesh is weak yes uh the devil is is is deceitful and tricky yes the pressure of the world to apostasize is great yes many around us are doing it but if we just keep our eyes on jesus if we just remember the promise if we just remember the encouragement if we just remember the important truth that scripture just told us right here the lord will not let us be tempted beyond our strength be confident about that be confident about that trust jesus about that trust the promise about that and like it says at first john but if you do sin hey repent quickly you'll be forgiven nothing can separate the love of christ except if we push ourselves away and persist in pushing ourselves away until the darkness descends into our mind and heart so that we can't see and hear anymore let's take a look now at hebrews chapter 2. we read the warning last week therefore we must pay the closer attention to what we've heard lest we drift away from it if the message declared by angels was valid and every transgression or disobedience received to just punishment how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation well the encouragement is that the word became flesh and death among us he became flesh and blood so he knows what it's like he knows what it's like to live on this earth he saw the evil on this earth he experienced the evil in his earth he knows what it's like since therefore the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise took of the same nature that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to life-long bondage we we talked about this text at length back when the pandemic was just starting and so much fear but for surely it is not with angels that he's concerned but with the descendants of abraham therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest of the service of god to make expiation for the sins of the people for because he himself has suffered and been tempted he's able to help those who are tempted when you're tempted cry out to the lord the lord doesn't want us to fail you know one of the things that's true about like the best universities and grad schools at least what the world considers best is that they have careful admission standards they they have high standards for whom they admit for the most part but once you get in they really want you to succeed they're not looking to you out they really want you to succeed once you get into the family of god uh the lord really wants you to stay in the family and he's gonna do everything possible to make that to make that happen so once you're in the family once you're a christian once you're baptized once you're a believer once you're partaking of the body and blood of jesus once you're assembling together with the brothers and sisters that uh on the lord's day for for mass the lord doesn't want you to fail he wants you to succeed he's going to do everything possible your guardian angel is going to do everything possible to help you to persevere so when you're tempted turn to the lord he'll give you help now let's take a look at hebrews chapter 6 another one of those severe warnings it's impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the holy spirit and have tasted the goodness of the word of god and the powers of the age to come if they then commit apostasy since they crucify the son of god on their own account and hold them up to contempt oh apostasies all around us what a horrible thing to reject the gift what a horrible thing to reject the love and the mercy but here's the encouragement we have a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind behind the curtain where jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf having become a high priest forever according to the order of melchizedek our brother jesus our savior jesus is at the right hand of the father pouring out his holy spirit loving us dwelling in our soul giving us help in the time of temptation rooting for us cheering for us what's he doing he's interceding jesus is interceding for us in in john chapter 17 jesus is looking for you i'm praying for everybody who comes to faith i'm praying for you i'll tell you the prayer of jesus is super powerful and super according to god's will what else is jesus doing right now he says i'm preparing a place for you it's better for you that i go because if i don't go the holy spirit will come to you and the holy spirit will actually help you know me love me be united to me be aware of my presence uh more than when i was actually with you physically the holy spirit's gonna really bring an intimate link between you and me and the father and uh what i'm doing now i'm preparing a place for you i'll go i'm gonna prepare a place for you there's there's many many mansions in my father's house there's many homes and if it wasn't the case i wouldn't have told you it is jesus wants us to know that right now he's got a place for us he's preparing a place for us and he wants us to know that he's interceding for us and so along with every warning comes a tremendous hope a tremendous encouragement what what final lessons can we draw from this we are living in dark times there are temptations to apostasy all around us this temptation is to deny jesus this temptation not to acknowledge that we're a follower of his because we will be punished we are being punished you know some people are losing their jobs because they can't go along with the corruption in our culture you know more and more our culture is not only asking us to tolerate the corruption but to actually agree with it pay incense to it we can't do that we got to know beforehand that we can't do it but we also don't need to be afraid jesus says when you're brought up before these challenging situations don't don't worry in advance what you're going to say but the holy spirit will show you what to say what to do he'll give you wisdom but we need to ask for wisdom and in the first chapter james who says if any of you like wisdom ask god to give it to you and he will we need to ask god to give us wisdom about how to navigate the tricky times that we're in right now another thing the lord tells us is don't be afraid don't be afraid of those who can kill the body don't be afraid of persecution even don't be afraid of losing your job even i'll tell you who to fear fear those who not only can kill the body but can kill the soul and send it down to hell that's who we should fear the only thing we have to fear is sin jesus says if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off if your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out better to go down to hell better to enter heaven missing an eye or missing an arm and they go down to hell with an intact body that's of matthew 5 and matthew 10. catherine santa says we are fighting a spiritual battle uh we're fighting a spiritual battle with a two-edged sword one edge of the sword is love for virtue love for goodness love for the word of god love for the sacrifice of christ love for the holy spirit love for god the father who's bringing us back to paradise through his son jesus but the other side of the sword is hatred for sin we need to hate sin if there's any sin in our life we need to hate it we need to we need to hate it we can't tolerate sin in our life we need to hate it we don't need to hate ourselves we need to love ourselves but we love ourselves by hating sin because sin defaces the image of god in each one of us sin wounds the soul sin wounds other people so let's let's bring these two weeks of reflections on the severe warnings of scripture but also the strong encouragement look at the cross of christ and be encouraged let's end our time this week by praying and let's ask god to give us wisdom dear father one of your inspired psalms says meditate on the shortness of life and gain wisdom of heart father help us to receive seriously the merciful warnings you are giving us we can never say we haven't been told father you are mercifully warning us because you do not want us to be punished you do not want us to be condemned you long for our salvation every single one of us the good and the bad helpless father to pay attention to the warnings help us father to take a hold of the encouragement help us father to to seek you for everything we need father we lack wisdom we do we confess our poverty we're not rich we're poor give us what we need father to persevere give us what we need father to have wisdom and understanding about how to understand what's happening in our lives how to understand the step you want us to take to move closer to you and the actions we need to take so that we persevere to the end we know that your son told us that he who perseveres to the end will be saved but we know you're ready to give us the grace of perseverance every time we pray the hail mary we're praying for the grace of a happy death for praying for perseverance dear father thank you for this holy word thank you for all the help you're giving us in this holy word thank you for the clarity of your revelation the clarity of your revelation about sin and destruction the clarity of your revelation about the overwhelming mercy that you're showing us in your beloved son we ask this in the name of your beloved son and we dare to say the holy name of jesus jesus jesus amen [Music] you

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Length: 25min 0sec (1500 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2020