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Book: Jeremiah
 Print ( PC Only )
Jeremiah 2:17-19 The Call to Mothers
Intro. Midway between the Damascus gate and Herod's gate in Jerusalem,
standing on the wall, you can look across the little valley and
see on the face of the cliff, two caves that look like the eye
sockets of a scull. Hence the name Calvary. Just to the left of
is a larger cave that traditionally is called Jeremiah's grotto,
where it is believed that Jeremiah sat as he wept and wrote this
book of Lamentations, as he looked over the charred rubble of the
city that had once been known as the perfection of beauty.
I. "The Lord has done that which He has devised."
A. For forty years Jeremiah had been warning the people that if
they did not repent and turn to the Lord with their whole
hearts that He was going to desert them that they might fall
to their enemies.
1. For forty years the liberal press and media along with
the governmental body mocked and ridiculed the prophet.
2. The people finally tried to stop the prophet, they
sought to by intimidation to silence his voice.
3. He was ultimately placed in the dungeon from which he
was subsequently placed in prison and put on a diet of
bread and water until he was released by the Babylonian
troops when they took the city of Jerusalem.
B. The city of Jerusalem now lies in ashes. The walls are torn
down, there is an eerie silence that hovers over the once
active city, for their are now no inhabitants left.
1. God's warnings unheeded, have now been carried out.
2. "The Lord has done that which He has devised, He has
fulfilled His word, that He had commanded the prophet
to speak."
3. The city underwent a horrible siege during which time
the food supplies were exhausted to the extent that the
people began to cannibalize their own babies.
4. Once the Babylonians entered the city the slaughter of
the people was without mercy, from the little children
to the aged.
5. They had tried to eliminate God from the national life,
thinking that they had become so sophisticated that He
was no longer necessary.
6. God has said, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked,
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." They
had sowed the wind and now, they were reaping the
whirlwind.
C. In 1963 our Supreme Court deemed it unlawful to pray or read
the Bible in our public schools. They said it was
unconstitutional. In the explanation of the reason for not
allowing the New Testament to be read, they said that it could
be psychologically damaging to a child. This decision flew in
the face of all preceding precedents that had been established
by the Supreme Court up till that time.
1. The prayer that was ruled unconstitutional was a simple
little prayer that asked God to bless our school, our
family, and our nation.
2. Since the abolishment of that prayer, what has happened
to our schools?
a. There was an immediate and dramatic drop in the
S.A.T. test scoring that continued till 1983
when it began a gradual rise.
b. What also happened in 1983? Thousands of
Christian schools began to be opened in
churches all over the U.S.
c. The records show that the testing of the
children in the Christian schools is at the
level of the 1963 average, where the public
school level continues to decline.
d. Congress blithely passes off the reason as
money, those that can afford private schools
are people of affluence.
e. The facts show, but facts seem to mean nothing
to the majority of the congressmen, that the
average cost of educating a child in the
private school was $1100 dollars a year,
whereas in the same year the average cost for
a child was $3600. and they were always
complaining of not having enough and needing
more.
d. Violence has become so prevalent in the public
schools that it has become necessary to hire
armed guards in many of the schools to protect
the teachers from being assaulted by the
students.
2. What has happened to our nation?
a. For one thing, the National debt has gone out
of control.
b. Drug abuse has risen until it has become a
National epidemic, it is so bad that one judge
has come up with the insane idea to just
legalize drug use to destroy the profit
margins. The net effect of that would be that
all of the non-Christian children would become
drug addicts.
c. What people do not realize that in our present
system there is no basis for moral restraints.
They were found in the Bible which is
unconstitutional for public consumption
according to the edicts of our Supreme court.
It is not constitutional to teach absolute
morality to the children, it has been replaced
with value clarification where the child
himself determines what is right or wrong.
This with the breakdown in family life, where
we have many latch key children, whose only
moral values at home are being molded by what
they see on T.V. we have even greater problems
facing us in the future.
d. In our nation crime has increased 500 percent
since 1963. We are building prisons as fast as
we can, but it is not fast enough, thus the
overcrowded conditions.
e. We see the lawlessness in our streets, the
random drive by gang shootings and now the
latest riots as unprincipled, unmoral people
take to the streets to do as they feel is
right to do in their perceived values
clarification.
f. I believe that we have only seen the beginning.
3. What has happened to the family?
a. Look at the divorce rate percentages since
1963. They are up well over 100%.
b. Sexual abuse of little girls by dads and
stepdads has become common place.
c. Children are rebelling against their parents
and are becoming uncontrollable.
II. Is there any solution or answer? Can this nation be saved the same
fate of Judah?
A. Ex governor Brown nor Bush nor Clinton have offered any real
solution to the problems. They have only suggested to give
them more money. This is a typical political solution to any
problem, throw money at it. This is why we have such a fiscal
crisis in government.
B. The only true answer is a return to the Godly principles upon
which nation was established.
1. Teach the children what God has said is right and
wrong.
2. Encourage them to pray and ask God to bless our nation,
our families, and our schools.
3. Get rid of the idiocy from our court system, judges
that have even now required the Boy Scouts not to make
belief in God a requirement for scouting.
C. Jeremiah called upon the mothers to pray.
1. He said, "Let tears run down your cheeks day and
night."
2. "Give thyself no rest, continue night and day in
supplications."
3. "Cry out at night, at the beginning of the evening,
pour out your heart like water before the face of
the Lord."
4. Lift up your hands before Him in prayer for the
children and their desperate plight.
D. I would like to suggest that you take this week your normal
T.V. viewing time and spend it in the Word and in prayer. Is
that asking too much?
1. For the most part T.V. is a degrading influence on your
mind, it is breaking down your moral standards.
2. It is sowing to the flesh, and it is sure to reap the
corruption of the flesh.
3. Sow to the Spirit. Isn't your family worth saving?
Isn't our nation worth saving?
4. You men, get involved in the all night prayer vigils
here at the church, join with us in the Wed. morning
prayer breakfasts or in the Saturday night prayer
meetings.
5. Let us not rest until we have turned things around.
6. Don't look to the government to solve our problems,
they are a large part of the problem, let us look to
God, He only can save.
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