Ice Cream Music with Sermon Sprinkles

The reward of the obedient is given to the obedient

Is God fair?

If you have been around a child - or if you can remember being one - you might remember hearing this plaintive cry:

That’s not fair.

That’s not fair - he got something I didn’t get.

Why did she get that one - that’s not fair?

Why do they always get more than everybody else - that’s not fair!?

On a macro scale, as you look around at our world, with all of it’s heartache and ills, is life fair?

Now this is a bit deep, but I think we are up to it.

Do you think what’s going on in our country and really, around the world is really a generation of people and leaders that are all crying out:

God’s not fair.

He’s privileged one group over another - and that shouldn’t be.

A new word I’ve had to learn is equity.

It’s no longer the ideal for everyone to have equal opportunity.

Now we must have equal outcome - no one can have more than anybody else.

And equity of outcome is a fancy way of saying, “God’s not fair.”

And I understand that 30% of Americans don’t believe in God anymore but if you dig deep into the why of that, what would you find?

“How could a good God...” you finish the sentence.

If God can do that, He’s neither good nor God.

I’ve heard that.

It’s just a wordy way of saying, “God’s not fair.”

Is God fair?

Before we read, let’s remember the setting of the story.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has swooped down from the north and his warriors have overrun everything.

Babylon was a serious powerhouse in that era - they crushed most everything in their path.

The time was 587 B.C.

If you were here for the end of days study, you might remember this.

God warned Israel through the prophets - if you are not obedient - this is going to happen.

But the people didn’t listen.

They knew from the Word itself, as far back as the Exodus, Exodus 34:6 ...“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”

God is slow to anger - merciful - gracious.

We are his people - and those bad things will never happen to us.

They presumed upon the Lord’s goodness - they cried, “God is love.”

Yet they ignore one of God’s basic precepts: “The reward of the obedient, goes to the obedient.”

Take your Bibles out and open them to Lamentations 2.

It’s kind of hard to find - its in the Old Testament about half way through - you’ll see Isaiah, Jeremiah and then Lamentations.

Lamentations was written after Nebuchadnezzar's army had wiped Jerusalem off the map.

Many Israelites were taken in captivity to Babylon - including a very young Daniel of Daniel and the Lion’s Den fame.

Jeremiah was left behind.

His heart was broken.

He wrote down what he saw.

Hear the Word of the Lord.

Lamentations 2:1–22 ESV

How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud! He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers. He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy; he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around. He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire. The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has laid in ruins its strongholds, and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. He has laid waste his booth like a garden, laid in ruins his meeting place; the Lord has made Zion forget festival and Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest. The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord as on the day of festival. The Lord determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out the measuring line; he did not restrain his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to lament; they languished together. Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes are among the nations; the law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the Lord. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom. What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is vast as the sea; who can heal you? Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading. All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?” All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: “We have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have it; we see it!” The Lord has done what he purposed; he has carried out his word, which he commanded long ago; he has thrown down without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes. Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! “Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.” Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without pity. You summoned as if to a festival day my terrors on every side, and on the day of the anger of the Lord no one escaped or survived; those whom I held and raised my enemy destroyed.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

There are four lessons for us from this passage.

Number 1.

There is a standard of obedience that God expects

When you get a free 10 minutes and you remember, read Deuteronomy 28 again.

And before you argue with me that is Old Testament and Jesus fulfilled the law - let me lay this on you.

There is a big difference between being made right in God’s eyes and obedience.

Jesus died and resurrected so we could be forgiven of our sins and be made right with God.

If we are truly Jesus followers, we are right with God.

But being made right with God does not absolve us from obedience to God.

Just because my kid is my kid doesn’t mean my kid doesn’t have to behave.

In fact, because my kid is my kid means he or she had better behave better than other kids.

The Lord expects us, once we follow Jesus, to - well, follow Jesus.

Jesus said pretty plainly, John 14:15

John 14:15 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And while we might want to argue that only means to love our neighbors as ourselves, we saw from our James study that the Bible spends a great deal of time defining what it looks like to love one’s neighbor.

The Lord expects us to be obedient.

Obedience to the Lord is an acknowledgement by us that we understand that all things come from God.

I heard someone say on a podcast, “Do you realize that everything that keeps us living like we live is either grown in the soil or mined from the earth?”

And who created those things?

Because the Lord created all things, there is a standard of obedience that the Lord expects.

Number 2.

We have a responsibility to tell the truth

The title of this message is Ice Cream Music with Sermon Sprinkles because of verse 14.

Lamentations 2:14 “Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.”

As Pastors, teachers and followers of Christ, we have a responsibility to tell the truth of God regardless if the world wants to hear it or not.

There is no such thing as equity of outcome with the Lord.

Those who refuse His mercy and compassion will receive judgment and hell.

Those who surrender their lives to Him will receive mercy and compassion and eternal life.

No amount of crying, “That’s not fair,” will change that.

Churches that teach and live anything contrary are not telling the truth.

And look at how that turns out for a people.

Go back and read Deuteronomy 28.

God is plain - obey and be blessed.

Disobey and you will reap the whirlwind.

In the last 50 years, we’ve worked hard to make our churches unoffensive.

“The unsaved won’t come if we preach hellfire and damnation.”

But if they come for Ice Cream Music with Sermon Sprinkles, will they not still end up suffering the wrath of God?

Did not Jesus say, Jesus said, Matthew 10:34

Matthew 10:34 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

John 7:7 ESV

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

Yes, Antifa, the LGBTQ+ alliance, many in our government hate Jesus for the very reason He said they would hate him.

Jesus tells the truth.

Brother Pastors, brother and sister teachers, brother and sister Christ follower, we must tell the truth of the gospel all of the time.

We do not want to sing a song of lament like Jeremiah is singing.

We do not want the wrath of God to be poured out like rain on this country and on those we love.

And we are starting to see it.

Number 3.

We have an expectation of just discipline

Verse 20 is reprehensible Lamentations 2:20 “Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?”

As Babylon advanced on Jerusalem, the people had a chance to escape the carnage.

Had the priests and prophets told the truth - had they testified that the people had been disobedient.

And that the Lord was about to pour out His anger on their sin.

He has laid out a perfect way for His people to live that will bless them for generations to come if they will follow Him.

Deuteronomy 28:1 ESV

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

But instead of following Him, they came to church and did all of the rituals that were laid out for them to do.

But on Saturday night, they are at the Baal temples, eating and drinking and consorting with the temple prostitutes.

They “worshipped” the Lord - if you want to call it that - coldly and without emotion.

But on Saturday night when they were out chasing other gods, they were full of passion and energy and joy.

They gave their money and their time and they told all of their friends.

And their sin made God sick to His stomach.

His face turned red - His nostrils flared.

And what he said He would do, He did.

Deuteronomy 28:15 ESV

“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

Why are we surprised by what we are seeing all around us - cities burning, people dying, perversion everywhere we look?

Does this come as a shock to us that the Lord would do what He said He would do?

Isaiah 13:11 ESV

I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

Now quickly, Jeremiah is the most heart broken at seeing the children suffer.

He reports - he was an eyewitness - he reports seeing children crawling on the ground through the rubble, looking for their mothers.

Looking for food.

He tells of mothers holding starving babies in their arms, “as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom.”

What kind of monster God does such a thing?

What kind of monster God brings such a thing on a people?

Let me ask a clarifying question here: What kind of monster parent allows that to happen to their child?

Let’s put the blame where the blame is due.

The Lord painted a very clear picture of how parents could live and raise their children to live so they would be at the pinnacle of societies in the world.

Food, possessions, contentment - it is all theirs to have.

The only price to pay is to surrender their life to the Lord and follow His precepts.

Who failed the children?

God - for doing what He said He would do?

Having warned them for generations that He hates sin?

Or did the parents fail the children - for ignoring God’s precepts?

And did the priests and prophets fail the children - for serving Ice Cream Music and Sermon Sprinkles.

The Lord is not a monster God.

He is indeed loving, kind and compassionate.

Yet, He is also holy.

“God’s wrath is the response of His holiness to the sin of a rebellious creation. Without sin, there would be no wrath, but there has always been God’s love.” John L. MacKay

We know this.

We know this.

If we love our children, should we not act accordingly?

In verses 20-22, Jeremiah turns to the Lord and says, “Really, Lord?”

“Is this really the way you want to treat your people?

“Do you see what is happening to them?

“Men, women and children dying.”

“Parents eating the bodies of their dead children.”

“Is this really what you wanted to see?”

But his questions are rhetorical.

He knows the answer.

“No the Lord didn’t want to see this - but His people did.”

Their continued disobedience brought this wound upon themselves.

The reward of the obedient is given only to the obedient.

What is the solution?

We can expect restoration if we repent

The Lord is true to His word.

What He promises, the Lord delivers.

The Lord promised a deliverer - someone who would show us the way like Moses showed the Israelites the way.

This deliverer will show us a new promised land.

A new land flowing with milk and honey.

Where the lion will lie down with the lamb.

Where children will stick their hands into a snake pit and not be harmed.

2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

For all of the promises of God find their Yes in Jesus.

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we repent - confess to the Lord that we are wrong and that we have failed him.

Not that we are broken, but that we are sinful and deserve His wrath.

We are humbled by His holiness and crushed by our sinfulness.

So we plead for His forgiveness and we commit to the best of our ability to follow Him.

That we will surrender our everything to Him.

If we do, His promise will be fulfilled by Jesus.

John 3:36 ESV

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Notice something here - something that has carried through from verse to verse, book to book, testament to testament.

The reward of the obedient only goes to the obedient.

It is as simple as simple can be.

Follow Jesus and reap the blessings of a loving, compassionate, merciful God who is slow to anger and abounding in stedfast, unshakeable, unbreakable love and faithfulness.

Or reject Jesus and go your own way.

But if you do that, know this, Hebrews 10:31

Hebrews 10:31 ESV

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The reward of the obedient only goes to the obedient.