Let's pray as we come to God's Word once again. Father, we bless your name. We thank you because you are faithful, a faithful God beyond all imagining or understanding. And we would ask you this morning, Lord, to amaze us once again from your Word that it might transform our hearts and our thoughts about you. For your glory, we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Last week, we completed Jeremiah's first oracle, continuing God's indictment of his chosen people, where God points out the contradictory nature of the people's words and uses incredibly vivid imagery to describe their sins against him. God's people had said, I will not serve you, So God describes them first as rogue foreign animals. They broke off their yoke and tore off their bonds, and instead they lay down with other gods as prostitutes, God says. And the Lord further compared them to a vineyard that produces rotten, stinking fruit. Though God's people denied it, in His eyes they were contaminated by their turning to other gods. God calls it the stain of their guilt remaining before Him. And He declared that the people's lusty pursuit of false gods contradict their claims of innocence. In fact, they had participated in child sacrifice in the Valley of Hinnom, just as our nation has callously sacrificed our children on the altars of sexual freedom and women's rights. And he went on to describe their lust for false gods as being like animals in heat. Yet God's people feel no shame for crafting idols to worship, yet when trouble came, they would cry out to Him. We pointed out that like our nation today, sexual confusion was part of their idolatrous behavior. saying to wood that represented the pagan female deity, Ashtara, you are my father. And the stone that represented the male, Baal or Molech, you are my mother. So God says to them in verse 27, they've turned their backs to me and not their faces. And yet when they are in trouble, they say, come and save us. Well, where then, God asks, are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come and save you if they can when you are in trouble. For you, Judah, he says, have as many gods as you have towns. And his charges continued. God's people perversely complain against him for their problems. Yet they persecuted and killed the prophets that he had sent to call them back to him. God's people declared their independence from him even though he had chosen them to be in a covenant relationship. And though they deny their guilt, they had sinned religiously, socially, and politically. Thus God compares his people to a bride who is literally unfaithful for a living. And so he sums up his charges against them. You defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. Therefore, the showers have been withheld and no spring rains have fallen. And yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute. You refuse to blush with shame because God's people presume upon his grace. Verse four of chapter three, have you not just called to me? My father, my friend from youth, will you always be angry? Will your wrath continue forever? He says this is how you talk, but you do all the evil that you can. Our message title today is The Danger of Lessons Not Learned. The danger of lessons not learned. And we will be back in Jeremiah chapter three once again. So if you have your Bible, turn with me. Jeremiah chapter three. The fact that the previous oracle bled over from chapter two to chapter three in today's passage again bleeds over into chapter four. Once again reminds us that our numbering system that we use in our Bibles was not part of the original inspired text. It didn't come along until almost 12 centuries after the time of Jesus, which is 600 years earlier than when these chapters were being written. So those who invented our numbering system of chapter and verse gave us a very helpful tool to find things in our Bible and identify them. However, they didn't always make their divisions particularly wisely. as is in the case of these two particular oracles. Nevertheless, as we look at Jeremiah's next oracle, we find first God speaking to the prophet, and in essence, in this section, the Lloyd will point out that there are two ways to learn. Hope you know this. There are two ways to learn. One is through painful personal experience. The other is by observing and learning from the painful personal experiences of others. Guess which way is wiser and easier? Guess which way most people choose. I'm afraid this certainly turned out to be the case for Judah, as we will see here in verses six to 11. God warns, there is tragedy in store for those who do not learn from the past. There's tragedy in store for those who do not learn from the past. Verse six of Jeremiah chapter three. During the reign of King Josiah, the Lord said to me, have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there, echoing what we saw last time. I thought that after she had done all this, she would return to me, but she did not. And her unfaithful sister, Judah, saw it. As we said in our introduction to the book of Jeremiah, the northern ten tribes were known as Israel. And they had no kings whatsoever who followed Yahweh and did what was right in His eyes. So the people didn't do it either. They were led into continual idolatry with foreign gods. And the Lord here repeats this ugly charge from the previous section. As we said, God stirred up the Assyrians in 722 BC to conquer and take captive the people of Israel. And God describes this in verse 8. I have given faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of her adulteries." Even with the prophetic warnings of the prophets Amos, Micah, and most vividly Hosea, Israel did not ever repent of her idolatry. So as God had promised, He punished her. And he goes on, yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear. She also went out and committed adultery because Israel's immorality mattered so little To Judah, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. Again, as we said in our introduction, Judah received an additional 102 years of national existence for the sake of the six good kings who were interspersed throughout the three and a half centuries of the divided kingdom. Josiah, mentioned here in verse six, was the last of these few good kings who attempted to reform the idolatrous religious practices of Judah, those that had been promoted by the previous kings, the wicked kings of Judah, particularly Josiah's immediate predecessors, Manasseh and his son, Amon, who ruled together over 57 years of evil and idolatrous behavior. And 2 Kings chapter 22 to 23 tells of Josiah's reign and his attempts to return and reform Judah's religious harlotry. In fact, 2 Kings 23, 25 commends him in this way. Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength in accordance with all the law of Moses. Unfortunately, Josiah's efforts didn't have their intended effect. The people of Judah had lived under wicked kings for so long, they were too far gone in their commitment to their idols and their false gods. And God says of them in verse 10, in spite of all this, in spite of everything that happened to Israel, Her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense. See, the people in Josiah's time did not actually turn from their idolatry and genuine repentance. It was apparently just done as a show of conformity to the king's reforming efforts, but God knew the people's true hearts. See, he's not fooled. He's not fooled when people pretend to be religious or pretend to follow him. Scripture says, in deception she pretended to return, or the New Living Translation puts it, faithful sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me. And she has only pretended to be sorry, says the Lord. He continues stating in verse 11, the Lord said to me, faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. And this can and probably should be taken in two ways. First, Israel's faithlessness was at least open and direct. It was consistent. But Judah was hypocritically claiming allegiance to Yahweh while all the way still along secretly lusting after false gods. And second, Judah having heard the warnings of the prophets to Israel and then seeing the punishment inflicted by God in what he calls giving her a certificate of divorce and sending her away into Assyrian captivity, Judah didn't heed the warnings. And they did not heed the example shown by God's dealing with their faithless sister. And so God finds Judah's behavior even more repugnant than Israel's because of her hypocrisy and her failure to learn from Israel's example. And scripture has multiple passages that describe past events as examples that people should learn from. God gives them so that we can learn from the painful personal examples of others rather than having those experiences ourselves. For instance, 2 Peter 2 beginning in verse 4. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment, and if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless, for that righteous man living among them day after day was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard, If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of flesh and despise authority. Or in Jude, though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but he later destroyed those who did not believe. and the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling, these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day. In a similar way, then, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion, and they serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Paul was inspired to write to the Romans, everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. Everything that was written in the scriptures was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. Next we see that admission of sin is essential to forgiveness with God. Admission of sin is essential to forgiveness Verse 12, God says to Jeremiah, Go, proclaim this message toward the north. Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord, and I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful, declares the Lord. I will not be angry forever. Now, this isn't directed at the northern kingdom as a whole, because they're off in captivity in Assyria. We have a remnant of the people of Israel left in the area that would be considered Samaria. But it's still an incredible statement for God to make, having described His people's harlotry not just as with one, but with many, many lovers. Having said that he had given Israel a certificate of divorce and sent her away, and having then pointed them to his laws that say a husband should not remarry his ex-wife after she has wed another man, he amazingly instructs Jeremiah to go and proclaim this message to the people in the north. Return, faithful Israel, declares the Lord, and I will frown on you no longer. Literally in the Hebrew, there's a bit of a word play here, suba mesuba. Turning one, turn. In other words, you've turned away from me, now turn back. The faithfulness of our God is frankly beyond all comprehension, considering the faithfulness. Faithlessness, boy, I'm having a hard time getting these out. The faithfulness of our God, considering the faithlessness of his people is beyond human comprehension. Israel had absolutely no claim to restoration nor reason to hope for it based on God's legitimate charges against them. His invitation is purely by his faithfulness and by his grace. Look at this section from the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 32. He exalts God and shames the people of Israel. I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God. He is the rock. His ways are perfect and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just as he. But they are corrupt and not His children. To their shame they are a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the Lord, you foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you? King David declared in the Psalms, your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, and your justice is like the great deep. See, when we get what we deserve, that's justice. When we don't get what we deserve, that's grace. Paul was inspired to write, what if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all. Let God be true in every human being a liar. And he writes in 2 Timothy, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. He cannot deny his promises. But there's a precondition to God's forgiveness as he points out their sin once again, verse 13. Only acknowledge your guilt. Acknowledge your guilt. You've rebelled against the Lord your God. You've scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree and have not obeyed me, declares the Lord. See, we saw last time, the people continued to deny that they'd done anything wrong. But God had warned Israel in the law of Moses of this precondition, this need to acknowledge guilt, saying, if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile towards them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies, Then, when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. For the land will be deserted by them, and will enjoy its Sabbath while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees. Yet in spite of this, when they're in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely. Breaking my covenant with them, I am the Lord their God. but for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am Yahweh the Lord. God's willingness to forgive our sin is amazing. As King David found out and recounted, I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover up my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and what? You forgave the guilt of my sin. The book of the Proverbs tells us, whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Confession and repentance, that is, turning from sin is God's condition for granting forgiveness. As it says in 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and he is just, and he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. God does this, we don't do it, but it begins with recognition and confessing. Indeed, the repentant will find new mercies from the Lord. The repentant will find new mercies from the Lord. Verse 14, return, faithless people, declares the Lord, for I'm your husband. I will choose you, one from a town and two from a clan, and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. And in those days when your numbers have increased greatly in the land, declares the Lord, people will no longer say, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. It will never enter into their minds or be remembered. It will not be missed, nor will another one be made. Now, Bible scholars understand verses 14 to 18 to be looking forward to the time of the Messianic Kingdom. as we will more clearly see in just a moment. Christopher Wright in his commentary describes it this way. It's rather typical of Jeremiah and other prophets that something that starts out in simple expectation in relation to their contemporary political situation and finds some level of fulfillment at that level should suddenly explode like the release of a champagne cork into a vision that points to a New Testament fulfillment in Christ and to an ultimate future that still lies long ahead. And that's what's happening here. Initially, the prophet is speaking from God into the situation that's happening right then, around 600 BC, give or take a little bit, okay? And all of a sudden, here in the midst of this oracle, boom. we move out to the future, a future that's still to come. The return here that the Lord initiates speaks of a remnant of the Jewish people being brought to Zion or being brought to Jerusalem. And God promises them that when he does so, they will no longer have wicked or unfaithful leaders. Instead, God will give to them shepherds after his own heart who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. And as a result, the people of Israel will grow in numbers. Further, What was once the centerpiece of Jewish religious life, the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat where atonement for the sins of the people was made each year, would no longer be necessary, nor would it be missed. Why? Because Jesus, the Messiah, came And according to Hebrews 9, Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven himself now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again the way the high priest entered the most holy place every year with blood that was not his own. Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once. once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. The real mercy seat was at the cross. His blood was shed for the atonement of sins. And so, just as people are destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many. And he will appear a second time, not this time to bear sin, but to bring salvation to all those who are waiting for him. Are you waiting for the Lord to come back? Therefore, the need for an earthly mercy seat has been obliterated. The ark will never enter their minds or be remembered. It won't be missed, nor will another one be made. The original Ark of the Covenant was believed by scholars to have been captured as plunder by the Babylonians in 586 when Judah then finally fell. So God promises to them a reunited Israel with Jerusalem at the center of earthly worship. God promises a reunited Israel with Jerusalem at the center of earthly worship. Look at verse 17. At that time, they will call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. This has got to be the millennium. It's not the tribulation, it's not now. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts and in those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance. And this prophecy confirms Isaiah's very similar prophecy a century before where he was inspired to write. In the last days, okay, The mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains. It will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. So come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. It's so important to understand that one day, hopefully very soon, Israel and Jerusalem will once again become the center of the world, okay? It's the center of conflict in the world right now, is it not? And there's a reason for that. This is God's place. And the rest of the world is in rebellion against God. Therefore, they hate Israel, okay? This is why, friends, wise nations will side with Israel against her enemies. Because God promised to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you and their descendants, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. That's the promise of the Messiah. The next section, God reveals his broken yet merciful heart. This comes in the form of conversation back and forth between he and the people. Verse 19, I myself said, how gladly I would treat you like my children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation. "'I thought you would call me father "'and not turn away from following me, "'but like a woman unfaithful to her husband, "'so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,' "'declares the Lord. "'A cry is heard on the barren heights, "'the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel, "'because they have perverted their ways "'and have forgotten the Lord their God. "'Return, faithless people, "'and I will cure you of your backsliding.' The broken heart of God at his people's infidelities is on full display here. He portrays himself both as a father who has provided a lavish inheritance for his son and then seen that ungrateful child become a prodigal. And he describes himself as a husband with an unfaithful wife. Jesus himself said something equally heartbreaking as he denounced the hypocritical religious rulers of Jerusalem. This was in the week immediately prior to his crucifixion. He said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you were not willing. Prophet Ezekiel was told to declare that long future day when God would cure the nations of backsliding. What that day would look like, a day that's not yet come, but surely must be right on the horizon. The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him. Then take another stick of wood and write on it, belonging to Joseph, that is to Ephraim. and all the Israelites associated with him. Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand. And when your people ask you, won't you tell us what you mean by this? Say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says. I'm going to take the stick of Joseph, which is in Ephraim's hand, and of the Israelite tribes associated with him and join it to Judah's stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood and they will become one in my hand. Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on and say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says. I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land and on the mountain of Israel. There will be one king over all of them, and they will never again be two nations or to be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding and I will cleanse them and they will be my people and I will be their God. Jeremiah responded to God's words with heartfelt contrition. Jeremiah responded to God's words with heartfelt contrition. Look at the second half of verse 22. And by the way, some see in this next section the words of the nation, but in Jeremiah's day, that was certainly not what they did or said, so I think it's better perhaps to see these words as the prophet's own hope for the nations, words that one day the people of Israel will finally embrace. Again, verse 22b. Yes, we will come to you, for you are the Lord our God. Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains is a deception. Surely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. From our youth, shameful gods have consumed the fruits of our ancestors' labors, their flocks and their herds. their sons and their daughters, let us lie down in our shame and let our disgrace cover us. We've sinned against the Lord our God, both we and our ancestors. From our youth till this day, we have not obeyed the Lord our God. Jeremiah's words here are very similar to those prayed by God's prophet Daniel who would in just a few years be taken captive to Babylon when Judah did not repent and God sent the Babylonians to do to Judah just as Assyria had done to Israel. The good news is because God considered him a good king, the Lord spared Josiah from seeing that capture and that captivity take place just as he had promised. Bad news is Josiah had to die in battle in order to miss that. Since the remaining four kings of Judah were also evil, God then carried through on his promise to punish the more evil sister, Judah. There in Babylon, the prophet Daniel recalled and he repented in prayer. This is from Daniel chapter 9. I pray to the Lord my God and confess Lord the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments. We have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and rebelled. We've turned away from your commands and your laws. We have not listened to your servants, the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors and to all the people in the land. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame. the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, and all the countries where you've scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our kings, our princes, and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants, the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. Therefore the curses and the sworn judgments written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us because we've sinned against you. You've fulfilled the word spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything He does, yet we have not obeyed Him. Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all around us. Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear. Open your eyes and see the desolations of the city that bears your name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen. Lord, forgive. Lord, hear and act. For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your name. Daniel, in response to this prayer, would receive the information that they would be in captivity for 70 years, one year for each of the years that they did not perform the Sabbaths on the land as they should have. And eventually, under Ezra and Nehemiah, they would be allowed to return to the land, rebuild the sanctuary, and they would be resettled there. But we know that when Jesus came, 400 years of silence, Jesus came, and the religious leaders did not accept him. The Messiah came to them, presented himself, and they rejected him, they crucified him. And so in 70 AD, Jerusalem was destroyed once again, and Israel was spread out, the diaspora amongst the nations, and for almost 2,000 years, they ceased to exist as a nation with a physical home, and yet they remained with their identity as Jews. In 1948, God brought them back into the promised land once again. All of this, we believe, in preparation for the Lord's return. To reiterate some of the earlier points, forgiveness requires recognition of sin, admission of it, and a genuine desire to turn from it, as we see next. So finally, we come to chapter four, and we find that God's people have a responsibility, actually, to the rest of the world. Chapter four, in verse one, if you, Israel, will return. then return to me, declares the Lord. If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just, and righteous way you swear, as surely as the Lord lives, then the nations will invoke blessings by him, and in him they will boast. So God reissues this invitation to his wayward bride. Return to me. If you will, you may. Yet another example of God's long-suffering mercy, His amazing, His amazing grace. The condition again is confession and genuine repentance, turning away from the sin that had caused God's broken heart and His anger. He says, if you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just, and righteous way you swear as surely as the Lord lives, Wright explains the meaning of that last phrase. As surely as Yahweh lives was a phrase that was used not only in worship but in social situations where truth and trust were paramount, such as the courts and in business deals. The people's return must be marked by a return to Yahweh-like qualities of truth, justice, and righteousness. merely going through the motions, pretending to worship God, was wholly inadequate. King David understood that. He said, you do not delight in sacrifices, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken heart, and contrite heart. You, O God, will not despise this. Amazingly, all of this was predicted in the Mosaic Law. Look at what Moses was inspired to write in the second giving of the law in Deuteronomy chapter 4. After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time, If you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, I call on heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing into the Jordan to possess. Remember, they're about to go in now, okay? And here we are, Moses predicting what's going to happen. Really, it should have been when, not if. You will not live there long, but will certainly be destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him. you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. And when you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him. For the Lord your God is what? A merciful God and he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors which he confirmed to them on oath." This is so important, friends. God has not abandoned Israel. Israel has been set aside for a time in God's plan. This is the church age that we are living in now. Because they rejected the Messiah, this is part of their punishment. But when the church is raptured, when we are taken up to meet the Lord in the air, God is once again then going to return to his plan to bless the nations through Israel. when they return to him, as it says in verse two, second half, the nations will invoke blessings by him and in him, meaning God, they will boast. Again, his promise from Genesis that would lead to the formation of the nation of Israel. Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. As well, we find this promise given through the prophet Isaiah, and we close with this this morning. Isaiah chapter 25. The Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines. And on this mountain, he will destroy the shroud of death that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. and He will remove His people's disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken, and in that day they will say, Surely this is our God, and we trusted in Him, and He saved us." This is the Lord. We trusted in Him. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation. The salvation sent through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, what remarkable and marvelous words these are, an encouragement to us to know that evil will not reign forever, but indeed through Your Servant and Your Son, Jesus Christ. We will be completely one day set free from the sin and death that shrouds the world. You'll wipe every tear from our eyes and how grateful we are for your faithfulness and your amazing grace. Lord, we love you and we thank you for what you have done for us in Jesus.