Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover: The Superiority of Christ

When God Has Had Enough

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Old Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2015-05-12

Synopsis: John Weaver examines Jeremiah 15:1-8 to show that God's patience, goodness, and longsuffering have limits. He argues that just as individuals reach breaking points, so does God—with individuals, nations, and even His covenant people. Using historical examples (the Flood, Sodom, the Canaanites, and Judah), he demonstrates that when God says 'I've had enough,' no intercessor, not even Moses or Samuel, can change His mind. The sermon warns that America, like Judah, faces judgment if it persists in rebellion, and calls believers to personal holiness and faithfulness.

[John Weaver] I want you to open your Bibles, now, if you would, please, to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 15. Jeremiah, chapter 15. And we're going to read the first eight verses. Jeremiah, chapter 15. Jeremiah 15. And I tell you what, let's have prayer, shall we? Our Father, we are thankful tonight for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His grace and mercy to us. We do pray that You'll teach us tonight and help us and open our eyes and grant us understanding We pray for liberty and freedom in preaching. We pray that the Word of God would have free course, and that our Lord Jesus Christ would be honored and glorified. In His name we ask and pray. Amen. Jeremiah 15, beginning there with verse 1.

[John Weaver] Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? Then thou shalt tell them, thus saith the Lord, such as for death to death, such as for the sword to the sword, and such as for the famine to the famine, and such as for the captivity to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord, the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

[John Weaver] And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord. Thou art gone backward. Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee.

[John Weaver] I am weary with repenting. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children. I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas. I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday. I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city."

[John Weaver] The title of the message is, When God Has Had Enough. Each one of us at some time in our lives have said something like this, that's it, I'm just not going to take it any longer. We have reached a breaking point at some time in our life. And that breaking point was when we were absolutely, thoroughly fed up with the circumstance or situation or the way that we were being treated. And what we did, we just simply put our foot down and said, no more. And simply because we did that, we then turned around and viewed ourselves as justified in doing that because we had suffered for so long and been patient for so long until it just brought us finally to our breaking point. I don't suppose there's a person in here who has not said something similar to that at one time or other in their lives. But do you understand that we often allow and take to ourselves that which we do not want God to possess? In other words, it's alright if you and I get upset and become fed up and literally become ready to fight.

[John Weaver] But in our humanistic theology, God is not allowed to act that way. I never will forget years ago when my oldest grandson, who will be 27 this month by the way, but my oldest grandson was probably about four years of age and he was really taken with karate. Back then all of that was very new to him and he liked it and so we visited him and I was lying on the floor.

[John Weaver] And he would stand there beside me and jump straight up in the air. And he would land both feet right in the middle of my stomach. Well, you know, he only weighed 30, 40 pounds. It wasn't that much. And I'd always tighten my stomach muscles, you know. I let him do it three or four times. But the next time he jumped up in the air to jump on my stomach, I rolled to the side. And when his feet came down on the floor, I rolled over on his feet and held him there and took the back of my fist and came like that right up to his face. Didn't hit him. I was just playing with him and I did a back fist like that. All of a sudden he snatched his feet out from under me and he said, uh-uh, Papa, we don't play like that. So it was quite all right then for him to jump in my stomach, but it was not all right then for me to pretend like I was going to hit him with a back fist.

[John Weaver] Well, we want certain things for ourselves. And we don't want God to have those things either. You see, God is not allowed to act the way that we think that He should not act. In our humanistic theology, we just simply deny certain things to God. We all understand that God is loving, that God is merciful. We understand that God is absolutely patient and long-suffering. And we talk about those things regularly. But the truth of the matter is we fail oftentimes to talk about God's righteous anger, His wrath, and His indignation. We tend to think in unbiblical terms when it comes to God. Now let me just kind of put it to you like this. We want God to be as we think He should be, not as He has revealed Himself in the Word of God. The only God that exists is the God of Holy Scripture. Most people serve a God of their imagination, and not the God of Holy Scripture. The only God that exists, I said again, is the God that has revealed Himself in the Holy Scripture.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to hold Jeremiah chapter 15, but turn in your Bibles, if you would please, to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Romans 2, verse 1. You see, that's what happens when you're late. All the back seats are taken up. Romans chapter 2. Notice if you would, beginning there in verse 1. We're talking now about God's long-suffering and God's graciousness. Look in Romans 2 and verse 1.

[John Weaver] The Apostle Paul writes, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the same things.

[John Weaver] Now, notice what he says in verse 2, But we are sure that the judgment of God is, according to truth, against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgeth them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Now, here is the clencher in verse 4, For despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." And then in verse 5 he says,"...but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Now, I want to call your attention to verse 4, because he says,"...or despises thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." Do you understand that men despise the goodness of God every day? Every day we take for granted the breath that God gives us. We take for granted the food that He provides for us.

[John Weaver] We take for granted our health. We take for granted everything. We just simply assume that God is going to provide all of these things for us, and that somehow He even owes us these things. As you read through the book of Psalms, the Bible says, Oh, that the sons of men would praise the Lord for His goodness to the children of men. And you just think of how many people, and especially Christian people, who can go day after day after day and never thank the Lord for all of His goodness. Well, have you ever stopped to think what happens when an individual despises the goodness of God? You would think that our God is so holy and so righteous that God would just simply smite down such an evil, wicked individual who was so ungrateful and so unthankful. But God does not do that. The Bible tells us in verse 4, when individuals despise God's goodness, Instead of smiting them instantly, then He forbears with them. That is, He forbears their sin and rebellion. Now, the forbearance of God is that aspect of God's patience which manifests His self-control.

[John Weaver] God cannot be provoked to act contrary to His will. And so God says, instead of me smiting you when you despise my goodness, I will just forbear with you in your sin and your rebellion. Well, let me ask you a question. What happens when God's forbearance has reached its limit? Well, according to verse 4, that is then when God's longsuffering comes into play. And the longsuffering literally means that he continues to suffer long with the rebellion and the wickedness of these individuals who hate him and despise him. I ran across a good illustration years ago about the term, long-suffering, because one of the words for God there actually means to be long-nostril. You say, what in the world has that got to do with patience and being long-suffering? Well, have you ever noticed that when you begin to really get angry and upset, and when anyone else does, you start doing this, and you start breathing hard and your nostrils flare, and you're very easily discerned as being one that is angry and upset.

[John Weaver] But the longer the nose, the more difficult it is to tell when someone is angry and upset. And so God then, when His goodness is despised, that forbearance comes into play. And when that forbearance is despised, then the longsuffering of God comes into play. And the longsuffering of God is that virtue of God that enables Him to endure longer the insolence and the haughtiness of the ungodly who hate Him and despise Him.

[John Weaver] Have you ever meditated upon Romans 9 and verse 22? Let me just quote it. There the Apostle Paul asks, what if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction? So God suffers long with those vessels of wrath that are fitted to destruction.

[John Weaver] Now, the interesting thing is this. According to Romans 2 and verse 4, fallen man always misinterprets God's goodness God's forbearance and God's longsuffering. Fallen man always interprets God's patience, he interprets God's goodness and forbearance and longsuffering as meaning that either God counts him innocent, or that somehow God is not going to judge him or smite him for his wickedness and his sins. But according to Romans 2 and verse 4, God's end in His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering was not to testify to their innocence as they imagined, but rather to lead them to repentance for which they were totally ignorant.

[John Weaver] Now, do you understand that if God instantly and immediately broke the reprobate vessels into pieces, His power of self-control would not so eminently appear? But the very fact that God bears long with their wickedness and forbears to punish them, the power of His patience is greatly demonstrated.

[John Weaver] Now, I'm going to give you a quote from Stephen Charnock. If you do not have his book, The Existence and Attributes of God, I would encourage you to get it. It's a book about this thick. Stephen Charnock was an old Puritan. And he is defining God's patience, and this is just a partial definition. He says this,"...it is that part of the divine goodness and mercy, yet differs from both. God, being the greatest goodness, hath the greatest mildness. Mildness is always the companion of true goodness, and the greater the goodness, the greater the mildness.

[John Weaver] Who is so holy as Christ, and so meek as Christ? God's slowness to anger is a branch of his mercy. And then he quotes, the Lord is full of compassion and slow to anger. Then he says this, it differs from mercy in the formal consideration of the subject. Mercy respects the creature as miserable. Patience respects the creature as criminal. Mercy pities him in his misery. Patience bears with the sin which engendereth the misery, giving birth to more."

[John Weaver] So, the Bible teaches us very clearly that God is good, that God is gracious, that God is forbearing, that God is long-suffering, that God is kind. But have you ever stopped to think about this? Even in light of God's goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering and patience, there comes a time when God says, I've had enough. That's it. I'm not going to take it anymore. It's over. Now, before we look in Jeremiah 15, I want you to pause and think with me about some historical instances in the Bible where God has basically said, I've had enough. The very first instance that we could quote, of course, would be Genesis chapter 6 and verse 13, where God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

[John Weaver] So that whole anti-Diluvian civilization was destroyed with the flood. In 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5, The Bible says,"...and God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." So, there was a time there in Genesis chapter 6 where God said, that's it, I've had enough of this violence, I've had enough of this wickedness, it's over, it's done with, I want to destroy them with the world, and that's exactly what God did. God simply wiped them out. Do you realize He did basically the same thing in Genesis chapter 18? In that passage, God said to Abraham, I've come down to see if the cries of Sodom and Gomorrah are everything that I'm hearing. Of course, God knew it was. But He was saying this to Abraham because luck was in Sodom and Gomorrah. And of course, the two angels went on down to Sodom and Gomorrah.

[John Weaver] And you know the outcome of that investigation. For in Genesis chapter 19, verses 23-25, the Bible tells us,"...the sun was risen upon the earth, when Lot entered into Zohar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of those cities, which grew up from the ground." And when you get to 2 Peter 2 and verse 6, the Bible says, that which God did, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them in an overthrow, making them an example to all them which thereafter should live ungodly." So, what did God do? He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah, Zerubbabel, and Adam, all those cities of the plain. He said, that's it. I've had enough. You're dust. You're ashes. And that's exactly what God did. God destroyed them.

[John Weaver] Let me give you a third illustration. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. But do you realize that God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt after 400 years of captivity? And when He brought them out, what did He do? He put a sword in their hand and sent them into the land of Canaan and told them to kill every individual. Let me just read it to you.

[John Weaver] Deuteronomy 7 and verse 2. Listen. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. And when you get to Deuteronomy 20 and verse 17, again God says to Israel,"...but thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee."

[John Weaver] Now let me show you something that's very important about this. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. I told you that God put a sword in the children of Israel's hand and told them to kill all of these Canaanites. Let me show you something that is absolutely astounding and amazing. Have you ever asked yourself this question? Why did Israel have to go into Egypt for 400 years? Why? Well, look in Genesis chapter 15, and let's begin reading there verse 13. God tells us the answer. Genesis 15 verse 13, And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.

[John Weaver] And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards they shall come out with great substance. Now he tells Abram, and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in the good old age.

[John Weaver] Now why did Israel have to go into Egypt for 400 years? Watch verse 16. God says, but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again. Why? For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. It's wicked as the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, all those canons, as wicked as they were, and they were vile, God still waited 400 years before He said, I've had enough. Here are biblical instances when God says, that's it, it's over. Now, it's equally true that oftentimes God has had enough of our personal and individual sin and rebellion. For in Proverbs 29 in verse 1, He says this, He that being often reproved and hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. He that being often reproved and hardened at his neck.

[John Weaver] In other words, here's someone who will not listen. They will not receive correction. They will not receive chastisement. God said, that individual shall be suddenly destroyed and that without remedy. All you have to do is read through the Bible. You can read about Korah and Dathan and Abiram. You can also read about Ananias and Savirah and a multitude of others whom God just simply wiped out. God said, that's it. I've had enough.

[John Weaver] I'm not going to put up with this anymore. And God just took them out. Every one of us Each one of us knows of some family member or some friend's family in which someone died instantly, tragically, catastrophically. I could give you illustration after illustration of individuals who died like that. One young man, that I know was raised in a church, went to a Christian school. Yet he turned out to be a drunkard and a dopehead.

[John Weaver] His own parents had to sleep with a loaded pistol by their bed because he had threatened to murder his own parents so many times. His own parents had to call the law, have him arrested so many times because he was drunken and rowdy or high on drugs and destroying everything. He wouldn't listen. Finally, in a drunken stupor, he went to sleep in his car on a railroad track. When they finally picked up the pieces, the only way they could identify him was with the teeth.

[John Weaver] Instantly, suddenly, each one of us know of individuals like that. But today, what I want to do is this. I want to call your attention to the fact that not only does God have breaking points with individuals, He has breaking points with nations, even those who profess to be His people. May I remind you that Judah was the southern kingdom. Judah was in covenant with God, just like originally all of Israel was, until Jeroboam the son of Nebat came along and instituted the golden calf worship.

[John Weaver] You see, the problem that we have as Christians in this land, we tend to think that somehow, someway, that God will never judge us because we're a Christian nation. Well, we were at one time. I don't think we are now. Our foundations certainly were Christian. But may I remind you that Judah also at one time was in covenantal relationship with God. And one time, God said Judah ruled with God and was faithful with the saints. But here, in Jeremiah 15, God is about to destroy Judah at Jerusalem. I want you to go back to Jeremiah chapter 15, and before I ever begin looking at verse 1, I want us to look in Jeremiah 14 at verses 19 through 22, because you have to understand When you get to Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 1, that is God's response to Jeremiah's prayer, which he uttered in Jeremiah 14. So, look if you would, in Jeremiah chapter 14, and let's begin reading there with verse 19. Jeremiah is talking with the Lord and he says, And there is no healing for us.

[John Weaver] We look for peace, but there is no good. And for the time of healing, and behold, trouble. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against Thee. And then he pleads with God, he says, Do not abhor us. For Thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory. Remember, break not Thy covenant with us. Of course, Israel and Judah had already broken their covenant with Him.

[John Weaver] He asked, Are there any among the vanities or the idols of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art not Thou He, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait upon Thee, for Thou hast made all things."

[John Weaver] Now, I want to call your attention to verse 19. He asks, Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Hast Thy soul loathed Zion? Those were the questions. And look at God's answer to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 15 in verse 1, Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth." Wow! You see, Jeremiah was not only the weeping prophet, as I mentioned last night. Jeremiah was also a patriot. He not only loved his people, he loved his nation. And He wanted to do everything He could, not only save His people, but to save His nation. He prayed for His people. He interceded for His people. In fact, let me show you, beginning with Jeremiah chapter 7, and let's begin reading there with verse 14. You see, God had already said, I'm going to destroy Judah and Jerusalem, because of their rebellion, because of their sin. So, in Jeremiah chapter 7, beginning there with verse 14, here's what God says.

[John Weaver] Watch carefully, Jeremiah 7 verse 14,"...therefore will I do unto this house which is called by my name, where ye trust," that is the temple,"...and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh." God says, just like I destroyed the tabernacle at Shiloh, I'm going to destroy the temple here, and I will cast you out of my sight. is I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim."

[John Weaver] The ten northern tribes had already gone into captivity in 722 B.C. into Assyria.

[John Weaver] Now look what God tells Jeremiah. Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up crying or prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee. Wow. God said, now Jeremiah, it's not going to do you one bit of good to pray. for this people. I'm not going to listen to you. I'm not going to hear you. Jeremiah wanted to pray so badly and intercede for those people so badly. I want you to look in Jeremiah chapter 14 beginning there and not 14 but Jeremiah 11. Jeremiah 11 and verse 11. Jeremiah 11 and verse 11. Watch carefully. Again, God says the same thing. Jeremiah 11 and verse 11, Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape.

[John Weaver] And though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods whom they offer incense. But they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of thy streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense and to bail." Ah, verse 14, God says to Jeremiah, Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. Now, I want you to note God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 7, don't pray for these people, because I will not hear you. Now in Jeremiah chapter 11, He says it's not only going to do you no good to pray, it's not going to do the people any good to pray, for I'm not going to hear them.

[John Weaver] And if you look in Jeremiah chapter 14 now, Jeremiah wanted to pray so badly for this people, Remember, he's the weeping prophet. He's the patriot prophet. He wanted to save his nation. God says, finally, okay, Jeremiah, I'm going to let you pray for them. But, I'm going to tell you what to pray. Look at Jeremiah 14, verse 10. Thus saith the Lord unto this people. Thus have they loved to wander.

[John Weaver] They have not refrained their feet. Therefore the Lord doth not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. Let me spell it out. He said, Jeremiah, if you want to pray for this people, here's what you pray. You pray that I'll destroy them, for that's exactly what I'm going to do. You can pray, but pray not for their good. You just pray that I'll take care of them, that I'll wipe them out. That's exactly what I'm going to do. What God is telling Jeremiah is there is a time when his goodness, his long-suffering, his forbearance, and his patience have ended. Now, I want you to understand something. This was no slight upon Jeremiah. Nor was it a slight upon his prayers. Because if you look in Jeremiah 15 in verse 1, here's what God said. Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people."

[John Weaver] What's he saying, Jeremiah? It's not just you that I'm not going to listen to. If Moses and Samuel stood before me, I wouldn't hear them either. Now you have to remember that both Moses and Samuel were great intercessors. In fact, in Exodus chapter 32 and verse 32, Moses was interceding for Israel, and he said, Yet now thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book of life which thou hast written. So Moses said, Lord, if you're going to kill them, just kill me as well.

[John Weaver] I want you to note something. It's really a phenomenal thing to note in the Bible. There were times when God was so aggravated and so provoked with Israel that He told Moses, stand aside, I'm going to kill them all and I'll make of you a greater nation. And Moses would fall on his face and intercede and beg God not to and God would listen. And then there were times when Moses was so upset and so provoked, he would say, God, kill them all! And God would say, if I did that, what would I do to my great namesake? Do you realize if Moses and God ever got together, there wouldn't have been an Israelite left. But Moses was a great intercessor. So was Samuel. In 1 Samuel chapter 7 verse 9 the Bible said, And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. Many times Samuel interceded. In fact, in 1 Samuel 12 and verse 23, Samuel said, moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way.

[John Weaver] So, God says, Jeremiah, I'm not going to hear your prayers. But it's no slight upon you, Jeremiah, because if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn't hear theirs either. Now, I want you to hold Jeremiah 15. But I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 14. Ezekiel, chapter 14. And let's begin reading there with verse 12. Hold Jeremiah 15, but look in Ezekiel 14, verse 12. I want you to watch this carefully now, because there's a lesson that we need to draw. Ezekiel, chapter 14, verse 12.

[John Weaver] The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, that I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. If I cause no unsung beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts, though these three men were in it as I lived, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, they shall only be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon the land, and say, Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off man and beast from it, though these three men were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.

[John Weaver] Or if I send a pestilence unto that land, and pour up my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast, though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter, They shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." Isn't that amazing? So, it's not just Moses and Samuel. God said, if Noah, Daniel and Job were there, everyone knows the patience of Job. Daniel is one of the few men in the Bible you never read anything negative about. Joseph and Daniel are about the only two. And, of course, Noah, you know, walked with God, and you know how God used Noah. And he said, look, if Noah, Job, and Daniel were here, they wouldn't deliver their family, they wouldn't deliver anyone but themselves. What is he saying? He's saying there's a time when I've had enough.

[John Weaver] I want you to listen. I want you to take note of this fact. that God is saying, literally, not only in Jeremiah 15, but in Ezekiel chapter 14, that God is saying that if the godliest men that have ever lived would stand before Him and pray for that land at that time, their prayers would not be heard. Their righteousness might deliver themselves, but it would not deliver their family, would not deliver anyone else. It should be a very sobering thought that when we consider there comes a time, listen, when prayer for a nation is useless. What did God tell Jeremiah? If you pray, I'm not going to listen to you. If they pray, I'm not going to listen to them.

[John Weaver] If Moses and Samuel was before me, I wouldn't hear them. If Noah, Daniel, and Job were here, I wouldn't listen to them either. Everywhere you travel in this nation, you see signs, I see signs, that read like this, Pray for America. Pray 2 Chronicles 7.14. Or prayer, our only hope. Has it ever dawned upon you that prayer is not our only hope? In fact, prayer is not our hope at all. Jesus Christ is our only hope. Prayer is just a means to reach Him. And when you read, pray for America, and pray 2 Chronicles 7.14, Most people never think about what 2 Chronicles 7.14 says. God said, if My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek My face, listen, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7.14 is not just about praying for a nation. 2 Chronicles 7.14 is about prayer and humility and repentance and seeking God and turning to Him.

[John Weaver] It's not just prayer that's going to save us. Has it ever dawned upon you that even there comes a time when neither prayer, humility, or repentance will save a nation? Wow! How can I say that? I want you to look, since you're in Ezekiel, look at Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30. And then I want us to go back to Jeremiah 15. Look at Ezekiel 22 and verse 30.

[John Weaver] I'm not trying to give you no hope. I'm going to give you some hope by the end of the week, Lord willing. But I want you to see this. This is imperative. In Exodus, in Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30, here's what God said. And He's talking about the condition of the land. He said,"...and I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none."

[John Weaver] Therefore I poured out mine indignation upon them. I consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own ways have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God." Now look what God said. I sought for a man among them that would make up the hedge and stand in the gap. I sought for an intercessor, but I couldn't find any. So I destroyed them. But when you go back to Jeremiah 15 and verse 1, where God says, then said the Lord to me, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people." What is he saying? There comes a time even when there are intercessors for a people and for a land and for a nation that God will not hear them because it is too late. It's over. When God says in verse 1 of Jeremiah 15, my mind, could not be toward this people.

[John Weaver] Let me spell it out for you. God is saying, I am implacably enraged, I am unchangeably resolved against them, and no one and nothing can change my mind. Not Moses, not Samuel, not Daniel, not Job, not Noah. No one can change my mind. My mind could not be toward this people. The only resolution, look in verse 1, this is the only resolution. God says, cast them out of my sight and let them go forth.

[John Weaver] Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever reached a decision in your life concerning someone or some group that you positively no longer wanted to be around or to be associated with. You did not want to see them. You did not want to hear them. You did not want to think about them. You did not want to be around them. The only thing you wanted is for them to be gone and out of your life forever. Well, it's the same thing here.

[John Weaver] God says, My mind can never be toward this people. Therefore, He says, cast them out of my sight, let them go forth." God said, I'm not going to change my mind. I want them gone. He abandons them because they abhor Him. He says, my mind cannot be toward them. How can it be thought that the holy God should have any remaining complacency or goodness or longsuffering or forbearance toward a people that hated Him and despised Him so that they worshipped Baal, an in and ever false god that ever existed, or which they made up out of their own mind. God said, I'm not going to acknowledge them. My mind cannot be toward them. Cast them out of my sight. As they are highly odious and offensive, let them go forth.

[John Weaver] I'll not be troubled with them anymore. Wow.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to look at verse 1 because I want to answer a question. Then said the Lord unto me, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. So there comes a time when God has had enough. And so God says, here's the remedy. Cast them out of my sight and let them go forth. Wow. Well, let me ask you a question. If God then casts people out of His sight, and we know that God is omnipresent, He's everywhere at one time in the fullness of His being, and in one sense of the word, that is an impossibility, but it's a practical thing here when God says, cast them out of My sight, let them go forth. If God says, cast this group out of My sight, let them go forth, what are the implications of that?

[John Weaver] Where are they going to go? What are they going to do? Well, God answers that. Look in verse 2. God says, And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? Then shalt thou tell them, Thus saith the Lord, such as for death to death, such as for the sword to the sword, such as for the famine to the famine, such as for the captivity to the captivity, And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord, the sword of Slay, and

[John Weaver] the dogs of Terror, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will cause them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem." God says, here's what He's saying, I don't really care where you go. Some of you are going to the sword.

[John Weaver] Some of you go into famine. Some of you go into pestilence. Some of you go into captivity. It's all one with me. This is what you wanted. This is what I'm giving you. I want you to look in the book of Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse 21. Because God says exactly the same thing to Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse 21. And He's still talking about Judah and Jerusalem here. the same group of people that Jeremiah is talking about. In Ezekiel chapter 14, verse 21, God says, For thus saith the LORD God, How much more when I send my four sword judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the anointing beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast. So here's what God is saying, Jeremiah, if they ask you, Where will we go?

[John Weaver] What will become of us? What will happen to us? Here's what you tell them. Some of you go into the sword, some to the famine, some to disease and pestilence, some to captivity. That's how I'm going to get you out of my sight. One of the reasons that God was so intent on destroying them was because of Manasseh, their king. Look at verse 4, Jeremiah 15. I have a whole message just on verse 4. But this is an astounding truth, where God says,"...and I will cause them," that is the people,"...I will cause them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem." Did you know that Manasseh was one of the most wicked, vile kings in Judah? I want you to turn, hold Jeremiah 15, but turn to 2 Kings 21. Let me just show you about Manasseh. 2 Kings chapter 21. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. I wish I had time to read the entire chapter.

[John Weaver] The second Kings chapter 21 and verse 1. The Bible tells us about Manasseh. Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 15 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed."

[John Weaver] Now watch, and he reared up altars for Baal, and he made a grove. And by the way, any time you see the word grove in the Bible, with the exception in the book of Genesis when Abraham planted a grove, that was a grove of trees. But any time you see the word grove after that, the word is actually in the Hebrew asherah. which was a sex goddess, a goddess of sex and promiscuity. So, he made not only an altar for Baal, but also for this sexual goddess, Asherah, as did Ahab, king of Israel, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them, sun, moon, stars, whatever. Verse 4, And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

[John Weaver] And he made his son pastor of the fire, and observed times and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And he set agrave an image of the grove which he had made in the house, that is, in the temple, of which the Lord had said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house in Jerusalem have I chosen, out of all the tribes of Israel will I put my name forever. Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they hearken not. Now watch, and Manasseh seduced them, to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spake by a service of prophets, saying, Because when Nasa, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with idols, therefore thus said the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing

[John Weaver] such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth thereof his ears shall tingle." Do you realize it was Manasseh who also had a house of sodomites right by the temple. There was also a house of prostitution right by the temple where the women wove hangings for the grove. But I want you to note the Bible said it was Manasseh who seduced them into idolatry.

[John Weaver] Now you have to ask yourself this question. How can a king seduce a people into idolatry? Well, just like the American people are being seduced today. Everything evil and wicked is being promoted, and everything good and holy is being downplayed and ridiculed. Moreover, there are laws that are being passed and made, not only promulgating idolatry and wickedness, but subsidizing idolatry and wickedness. And persecution and prosecution is going against that which is biblical and holy and godly and Christian and right. So that people say, ooh, man, I want to serve the Lord, but I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to lose everything I've got. I don't want to be killed. And so they just go along with the powers that be. That's exactly how you seduce them. into idolatry and fornication and sodomy.

[John Weaver] Look in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 24. God sent warning after warning, but notice beginning there in verse 2, The Bible says,"...And the Lord sent against them bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Assyrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by a service of prophets." Now watch."...Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood which he shed, offering babies to Baal and to Molech, For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon." Wow. Wow. There comes a time nationally when God said, I've had enough. I've often wondered, How many million abortions must there be in this country before God says, I've had enough? How much fraud, how much adultery and fornication and sodomy before God says, I've had enough?

[John Weaver] That's exactly what he did to Judah. He said, I have had enough and I'll destroy you. You know, nations think that they are an exception and that they will never, ever suffer the judgments of God. God sent all of these bands of people, the Moabites, the Ammonites, all against Judah and Jerusalem, warning them. Did they listen? No! Until finally the Babylonians came and literally wiped them out. Even America, we think that we are the exception to the rule, that we will never be judged by God because we are a Christian nation.

[John Weaver] I tell you what you do, you just type on the internet, American exceptionalism. Listen to our politicians. We are an exceptional nation. Yes, we are. One that excels in idolatry and wickedness and ungodliness. And I've got news for you. You can jot this down, I'm not a prophet and I'm not a prophet's son, but I will tell you this, when God has had enough of our snotty rebellion and our haughty, arrogant indifference and rejection of His Son and trampling His Word under our feet, He'll wipe us out just like He did Judah. Because there comes a time when God says, I've had enough. You reach stages like that in your life, and you say, well, I'm justified because I've patiently endured all this suffering. Look what God is patiently enduring.

[John Weaver] I want you to go back to Jeremiah 15. I want to make some applications. I want to tie this together for you. I want you to see exactly what happens. So, Jeremiah prays. And he asks God, Hast thou utter rejected you? Dost thy soul loathe Zion? And God says, Jeremiah, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, I wouldn't hear them. My mind cannot be changed for this people.

[John Weaver] Cast them out of my presence. Let them go forth. Then if they just say, where are we going? Some to the sword, some to disease. Some to the wild beast, some to captivity. It really doesn't matter to me. But look in verse 6. Because when God is weary with our sins, He will do to us exactly what He did to Judah. Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord.

[John Weaver] He's talking to the nation. He's talking to the people. Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord. Thou art going backwards. Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee. I am weary with repenting." Did you hear that? I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will destroy you. We bring God's judgments upon ourselves because of our sin and our rebellion and our wickedness.

[John Weaver] I want you to look in verse 5. Pay close attention to this verse. God asked Judah in Jerusalem, For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall go aside to ask, How thou doest? God says, Let me tell you something. When I judge you, no one is going to have pity upon you. No one will bemoan the fact, oh, America was such a great nation, Judah was such a great nation and such a great kingdom. Nobody's going to bemoan. Nobody's even going to ask, how are you doing? They don't care.

[John Weaver] My hand will be stretched out against you so. And here's what God is saying in verse 5. Listen carefully. Neither your friends nor your enemies will have any compassion upon you. How about that? For who shall have pity upon thee? No one will care. Who will even ask about you? No one will care. You know, the Apostle Paul said it like this in Romans 8 in verse 31. Listen. He said, if God be for us, who can be against us? Let's turn that around. If God be against us, who can be for us? In fact, the truth of the matter is, it wouldn't matter if people were for us or not if God was against us. What can man do? Absolutely nothing. And what God is saying in verse 5, the people and the nation that He judges will be left to bear the judgment alone. No one will come to their aid. No one will care. Here's the last application. God said, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind could not be toward this people.

[John Weaver] Then He said, Ezekiel 18, Though Daniel, Noah, and Job were here, they wouldn't deliver but just themselves. I want to tell you something, folks. If you believe the Bible, and you understand that God is infinitely holy, you've got to understand somehow, some way, God's not going to be putting up forever. with our wickedness and our rebellion. He is not. And I will tell you this, when it comes to God's judgment, by His grace and mercy, I want to be as Noah, Daniel, and Job, or Moses and Samuel. I want to be someone who will at least deliver myself.

[John Weaver] In order to do that, I must be obedient to Him and submissive to Him and trust in Him and lean upon Him. In other words, godliness, holiness, righteousness is the only thing that will deliver an individual or a society or a nation. I'm still shaken. when I read Jeremiah 15 verse 1, when then said the Lord unto me, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind could not be toward this people.

[John Weaver] Cast them out of my sight. Let them go forth. So you better be asking yourself, what am I going to do? Where will I be? What will I experience when God has had enough? Because sooner or later, His goodness, His forbearance, His long-suffering, His patience will come to an end. And He'll bring upon us that which we deserve, for we've turned our backs upon Him. That is why Peter quotes in 1 Peter chapter 1, where God says, Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask You for Your grace, for Your mercy, for Your goodness and kindness. And Lord, we do confess and acknowledge we're in a desperate situation in this country, in this nation. And Lord, we do want to be intercessors. We do want to pray. But Lord, we do understand there's a time when intercession will not avail and prayer will be useless when you've reached the limit of your patience. So Lord, we ask that You make us godly and holy And until that end comes, that You'd make us faithful and help us to proclaim Thy truth and Thy Word and bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.

When God Has Had Enough

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	512152134492
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover: The Superiority of Christ
Genre	Sermon
Date	2015-05-12
Dictation Name
Book	Book 078: Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover - Volume 1 — Chapter 10
Source Timed Segments	76

Formatted Transcript

Opening

I want you to open your Bibles, now, if you would, please, to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 15. Jeremiah, chapter 15. And we're going to read the first eight verses. Jeremiah, chapter 15. Jeremiah 15. And I tell you what, let's have prayer, shall we? Our Father, we are thankful tonight for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His grace and mercy to us. We do pray that You'll teach us tonight and help us and open our eyes and grant us understanding. We pray for liberty and freedom in preaching. We pray that the Word of God would have free course, and that our Lord Jesus Christ would be honored and glorified. In His name we ask and pray. Amen. Jeremiah 15, beginning there with verse 1.

Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? Then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the Lord, Such as are for death to death; and such as are for the sword to the sword; and such as are for the famine to the famine; and such as are for the captivity to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord. Thou art gone backward. Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee.

I am weary with repenting. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children. I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas. I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday. I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.

Introduction: Human Breaking Points and God's Character

Weaver opens by noting that everyone reaches a breaking point and says 'no more,' but we often deny God the same right. We want God to fit our imagination rather than His biblical revelation.

The title of the message is, When God Has Had Enough. Each one of us at some time in our lives have said something like this, "That's it, I'm just not going to take it any longer." We have reached a breaking point at some time in our life. And that breaking point was when we were absolutely, thoroughly fed up with the circumstance or situation or the way that we were being treated. And what we did, we just simply put our foot down and said, "No more." And simply because we did that, we then turned around and viewed ourselves as justified in doing that because we had suffered for so long and been patient for so long until it just brought us finally to our breaking point. I don't suppose there's a person in here who has not said something similar to that at one time or other in their lives. But do you understand that we often allow and take to ourselves that which we do not want God to possess? In other words, it's alright if you and I get upset and become fed up and literally become ready to fight.

But in our humanistic theology, God is not allowed to act that way. I never will forget years ago when my oldest grandson, who will be 27 this month by the way, but my oldest grandson was probably about four years of age and he was really taken with karate. Back then all of that was very new to him and he liked it and so we visited him and I was lying on the floor. And he would stand there beside me and jump straight up in the air. And he would land both feet right in the middle of my stomach. Well, you know, he only weighed 30, 40 pounds. It wasn't that much. And I'd always tighten my stomach muscles, you know. I let him do it three or four times. But the next time he jumped up in the air to jump on my stomach, I rolled to the side. And when his feet came down on the floor, I rolled over on his feet and held him there and took the back of my fist and came like that right up to his face. Didn't hit him. I was just playing with him and I did a back fist like that. All of a sudden he snatched his feet out from under me and he said, "Uh-uh, Papa, we don't play like that." So it was quite all right then for him to jump in my stomach, but it was not all right then for me to pretend like I was going to hit him with a back fist.

Well, we want certain things for ourselves. And we don't want God to have those things either. You see, God is not allowed to act the way that we think that He should not act. In our humanistic theology, we just simply deny certain things to God. We all understand that God is loving, that God is merciful. We understand that God is absolutely patient and long-suffering. And we talk about those things regularly. But the truth of the matter is we fail oftentimes to talk about God's righteous anger, His wrath, and His indignation. We tend to think in unbiblical terms when it comes to God. Now let me just kind of put it to you like this. We want God to be as we think He should be, not as He has revealed Himself in the Word of God. The only God that exists is the God of Holy Scripture. Most people serve a God of their imagination, and not the God of Holy Scripture. The only God that exists, I said again, is the God that has revealed Himself in the Holy Scripture.

God's Goodness, Forbearance, and Longsuffering (Romans 2:1-5)

Explains that when men despise God's goodness, He forbears; when forbearance is exhausted, He suffers long. Fallen man misinterprets this patience as immunity from judgment, but it is meant to lead to repentance.

Now, I want you to hold Jeremiah chapter 15, but turn in your Bibles, if you would please, to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Romans 2, verse 1. You see, that's what happens when you're late. All the back seats are taken up. Romans chapter 2. Notice if you would, beginning there in verse 1. We're talking now about God's long-suffering and God's graciousness. Look in Romans 2 and verse 1.

The Apostle Paul writes, "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the same things." Now, notice what he says in verse 2, "But we are sure that the judgment of God is, according to truth, against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" Now, here is the clincher in verse 4, "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." And then in verse 5 he says, "...but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Now, I want to call your attention to verse 4, because he says, "...or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." Do you understand that men despise the goodness of God every day? Every day we take for granted the breath that God gives us. We take for granted the food that He provides for us.

We take for granted our health. We take for granted everything. We just simply assume that God is going to provide all of these things for us, and that somehow He even owes us these things. As you read through the book of Psalms, the Bible says, "Oh, that the sons of men would praise the Lord for His goodness to the children of men." And you just think of how many people, and especially Christian people, who can go day after day after day and never thank the Lord for all of His goodness. Well, have you ever stopped to think what happens when an individual despises the goodness of God? You would think that our God is so holy and so righteous that God would just simply smite down such an evil, wicked individual who was so ungrateful and so unthankful. But God does not do that. The Bible tells us in verse 4, when individuals despise God's goodness, instead of smiting them instantly, then He forbears with them. That is, He forbears their sin and rebellion. Now, the forbearance of God is that aspect of God's patience which manifests His self-control.

God cannot be provoked to act contrary to His will. And so God says, instead of me smiting you when you despise my goodness, I will just forbear with you in your sin and your rebellion. Well, let me ask you a question. What happens when God's forbearance has reached its limit? Well, according to verse 4, that is then when God's longsuffering comes into play. And the longsuffering literally means that he continues to suffer long with the rebellion and the wickedness of these individuals who hate him and despise him. I ran across a good illustration years ago about the term, long-suffering, because one of the words for God there actually means to be long-nostril. You say, what in the world has that got to do with patience and being long-suffering? Well, have you ever noticed that when you begin to really get angry and upset, and when anyone else does, you start doing this, and you start breathing hard and your nostrils flare, and you're very easily discerned as being one that is angry and upset.

But the longer the nose, the more difficult it is to tell when someone is angry and upset. And so God then, when His goodness is despised, that forbearance comes into play. And when that forbearance is despised, then the longsuffering of God comes into play. And the longsuffering of God is that virtue of God that enables Him to endure longer the insolence and the haughtiness of the ungodly who hate Him and despise Him. Have you ever meditated upon Romans 9 and verse 22? Let me just quote it. There the Apostle Paul asks,

Scripture Reading — Romans 9:22

"What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction?"

So God suffers long with those vessels of wrath that are fitted to destruction.

Now, the interesting thing is this. According to Romans 2 and verse 4, fallen man always misinterprets God's goodness, God's forbearance, and God's longsuffering. Fallen man always interprets God's patience, he interprets God's goodness and forbearance and longsuffering as meaning that either God counts him innocent, or that somehow God is not going to judge him or smite him for his wickedness and his sins. But according to Romans 2 and verse 4, God's end in His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering was not to testify to their innocence as they imagined, but rather to lead them to repentance for which they were totally ignorant.

Now, do you understand that if God instantly and immediately broke the reprobate vessels into pieces, His power of self-control would not so eminently appear? But the very fact that God bears long with their wickedness and forbears to punish them, the power of His patience is greatly demonstrated.

Biblical Instances When God Said 'Enough'

Cites the Flood (Genesis 6), Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19), and the conquest of Canaan (Deuteronomy 7, 20) as times when God's patience ended and He executed judgment.

So that whole antediluvian civilization was destroyed with the flood. In 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5, the Bible says, "...and God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." So, there was a time there in Genesis chapter 6 where God said,

Scripture Reading — Genesis 6:13

"That's it, I've had enough of this violence, I've had enough of this wickedness, it's over, it's done with, I want to destroy them with the world,"

and that's exactly what God did. God simply wiped them out. Do you realize He did basically the same thing in Genesis chapter 18? In that passage, God said to Abraham, "I've come down to see if the cries of Sodom and Gomorrah are everything that I'm hearing." Of course, God knew it was. But He was saying this to Abraham because Lot was in Sodom and Gomorrah. And of course, the two angels went on down to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Scripture Reading — Genesis 18-19

And you know the outcome of that investigation. For in Genesis chapter 19, verses 23-25, the Bible tells us, "...the sun was risen upon the earth, when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of those cities, which grew up from the ground." And when you get to 2 Peter 2 and verse 6, the Bible says, "...that which God did, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them in an overthrow, making them an example to all them which thereafter should live ungodly." So, what did God do? He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah, Zeboim, and Admah, all those cities of the plain. He said, "That's it. I've had enough. You're dust. You're ashes." And that's exactly what God did. God destroyed them.

Let me give you a third illustration. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. But do you realize that God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt after 400 years of captivity? And when He brought them out, what did He do? He put a sword in their hand and sent them into the land of Canaan and told them to kill every individual. Let me just read it to you. Deuteronomy 7 and verse 2. Listen.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 7:2

"And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them."

And when you get to Deuteronomy 20 and verse 17, again God says to Israel,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 7:2

"...but thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee."

Now let me show you something that's very important about this. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. I told you that God put a sword in the children of Israel's hand and told them to kill all of these Canaanites. Let me show you something that is absolutely astounding and amazing. Have you ever asked yourself this question? Why did Israel have to go into Egypt for 400 years? Why? Well, look in Genesis chapter 15, and let's begin reading there verse 13. God tells us the answer. Genesis 15 verse 13, "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.

The Iniquity of the Amorites and National Judgment

Uses Genesis 15:13-16 to show God waited 400 years for the Amorites' sin to become full before judging them through Israel, illustrating that God delays but does not overlook national sin.

And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards they shall come out with great substance." Now he tells Abram, "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in the good old age." Now why did Israel have to go into Egypt for 400 years? Watch verse 16. God says, "But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again." Why? "For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." It's wicked as the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, all those Canaanites, as wicked as they were, and they were vile, God still waited 400 years before He said, "I've had enough." Here are biblical instances when God says, "That's it, it's over." Now, it's equally true that oftentimes God has had enough of our personal and individual sin and rebellion. For in Proverbs 29 in verse 1, He says this, "He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy." He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck.

In other words, here's someone who will not listen. They will not receive correction. They will not receive chastisement. God said, that individual shall be suddenly destroyed and that without remedy. All you have to do is read through the Bible. You can read about Korah and Dathan and Abiram. You can also read about Ananias and Sapphira and a multitude of others whom God just simply wiped out. God said, "That's it. I've had enough."

God's Response to Jeremiah's Intercession (Jeremiah 14-15)

God repeatedly told Jeremiah not to pray for Judah because He would not hear. Even if Moses and Samuel interceded, God's mind was set against the people due to their persistent rebellion.

We look for peace, but there is no good. And for the time of healing, and behold, trouble. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against Thee." And then he pleads with God, he says, "Do not abhor us. For Thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory. Remember, break not Thy covenant with us." Of course, Israel and Judah had already broken their covenant with Him. He asked, "Are there any among the vanities or the idols of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art not Thou He, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait upon Thee, for Thou hast made all things."

Now, I want to call your attention to verse 19. He asks, "Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Hast Thy soul loathed Zion?" Those were the questions. And look at God's answer to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 15 in verse 1, "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth." Wow! You see, Jeremiah was not only the weeping prophet, as I mentioned last night. Jeremiah was also a patriot. He not only loved his people, he loved his nation. And He wanted to do everything He could, not only save His people, but to save His nation. He prayed for His people. He interceded for His people. In fact, let me show you, beginning with Jeremiah chapter 7, and let's begin reading there with verse 14. You see, God had already said, "I'm going to destroy Judah and Jerusalem, because of their rebellion, because of their sin." So, in Jeremiah chapter 7, beginning there with verse 14, here's what God says.

Watch carefully, Jeremiah 7 verse 14, "...therefore will I do unto this house which is called by my name, where ye trust," that is the temple, "...and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh." God says, just like I destroyed the tabernacle at Shiloh, I'm going to destroy the temple here, "and I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim." The ten northern tribes had already gone into captivity in 722 B.C. into Assyria. Now look what God tells Jeremiah. "Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up crying or prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee." Wow. God said, "Now Jeremiah, it's not going to do you one bit of good to pray for this people. I'm not going to listen to you. I'm not going to hear you." Jeremiah wanted to pray so badly and intercede for those people so badly. I want you to look in Jeremiah chapter 11. Jeremiah 11 and verse 11. Jeremiah 11 and verse 11. Watch carefully. Again, God says the same thing. Jeremiah 11 and verse 11, "Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 11:11-14

And though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods whom they offer incense. But they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of thy streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense and to Baal." Ah, verse 14, God says to Jeremiah, "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble."

Now, I want you to note God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 7, "Don't pray for these people, because I will not hear you." Now in Jeremiah chapter 11, He says it's not only going to do you no good to pray, it's not going to do the people any good to pray, for I'm not going to hear them.

And if you look in Jeremiah chapter 14 now, Jeremiah wanted to pray so badly for this people. Remember, he's the weeping prophet. He's the patriot prophet. He wanted to save his nation. God says, finally, "Okay, Jeremiah, I'm going to let you pray for them. But, I'm going to tell you what to pray." Look at Jeremiah 14, verse 10. "Thus saith the Lord unto this people. Thus have they loved to wander.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 14:10-11

They have not refrained their feet. Therefore the Lord doth not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good."

Let me spell it out. He said, "Jeremiah, if you want to pray for this people, here's what you pray. You pray that I'll destroy them, for that's exactly what I'm going to do. You can pray, but pray not for their good. You just pray that I'll take care of them, that I'll wipe them out. That's exactly what I'm going to do." What God is telling Jeremiah is there is a time when his goodness, his long-suffering, his forbearance, and his patience have ended. Now, I want you to understand something. This was no slight upon Jeremiah. Nor was it a slight upon his prayers. Because if you look in Jeremiah 15 in verse 1, here's what God said. "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people."

What's he saying, Jeremiah? It's not just you that I'm not going to listen to. If Moses and Samuel stood before me, I wouldn't hear them either. Now you have to remember that both Moses and Samuel were great intercessors. In fact, in Exodus chapter 32 and verse 32, Moses was interceding for Israel, and he said,

Scripture Reading — Exodus 32:32

"Yet now thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book of life which thou hast written."

So Moses said, "Lord, if you're going to kill them, just kill me as well." I want you to note something. It's really a phenomenal thing to note in the Bible. There were times when God was so aggravated and so provoked with Israel that He told Moses, "Stand aside, I'm going to kill them all and I'll make of you a greater nation." And Moses would fall on his face and intercede and beg God not to and God would listen. And then there were times when Moses was so upset and so provoked, he would say, "God, kill them all!" And God would say, "If I did that, what would I do to my great namesake?" Do you realize if Moses and God ever got together, there wouldn't have been an Israelite left. But Moses was a great intercessor. So was Samuel. In 1 Samuel chapter 7 verse 9 the Bible said, "And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him." Many times Samuel interceded. In fact, in 1 Samuel 12 and verse 23, Samuel said, "Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way."

So, God says, "Jeremiah, I'm not going to hear your prayers. But it's no slight upon you, Jeremiah, because if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn't hear theirs either." Now, I want you to hold Jeremiah 15. But I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 14. Ezekiel, chapter 14. And let's begin reading there with verse 12. Hold Jeremiah 15, but look in Ezekiel 14, verse 12. I want you to watch this carefully now, because there's a lesson that we need to draw. Ezekiel, chapter 14, verse 12.

The Limits of Intercession (Ezekiel 14:12-20)

God declares that even Noah, Daniel, and Job could only deliver themselves by their righteousness; they could not save the land or their families when judgment was determined.

The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, that I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts, though these three men were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, they shall only be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon the land, and say, Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off man and beast from it, though these three men were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.

Or if I send a pestilence unto that land, and pour up my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast, though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter, they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." Isn't that amazing? So, it's not just Moses and Samuel. God said, if Noah, Daniel and Job were there, everyone knows the patience of Job. Daniel is one of the few men in the Bible you never read anything negative about. Joseph and Daniel are about the only two. And, of course, Noah, you know, walked with God, and you know how God used Noah. And he said, "Look, if Noah, Job, and Daniel were here, they wouldn't deliver their family, they wouldn't deliver anyone but themselves." What is he saying? He's saying there's a time when I've had enough.

The Futility of Prayer Without Repentance

Weaver challenges the popular call to 'pray for America' by noting 2 Chronicles 7:14 requires humility, repentance, and turning from wickedness—not just prayer. There comes a time when even prayer, humility, and repentance cannot save a nation.

If Moses and Samuel was before me, I wouldn't hear them. If Noah, Daniel, and Job were here, I wouldn't listen to them either." Everywhere you travel in this nation, you see signs, I see signs, that read like this, "Pray for America. Pray 2 Chronicles 7:14." Or "Prayer, our only hope." Has it ever dawned upon you that prayer is not our only hope? In fact, prayer is not our hope at all. Jesus Christ is our only hope. Prayer is just a means to reach Him. And when you read, "Pray for America," and "Pray 2 Chronicles 7:14," most people never think about what 2 Chronicles 7:14 says. God said, "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek My face, listen, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not just about praying for a nation. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is about prayer and humility and repentance and seeking God and turning to Him.

It's not just prayer that's going to save us. Has it ever dawned upon you that even there comes a time when neither prayer, humility, or repentance will save a nation? Wow! How can I say that? I want you to look, since you're in Ezekiel, look at Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30. And then I want us to go back to Jeremiah 15. Look at Ezekiel 22 and verse 30.

I'm not trying to give you no hope. I'm going to give you some hope by the end of the week, Lord willing. But I want you to see this. This is imperative. In Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30, here's what God said. And He's talking about the condition of the land. He said, "...and I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none."

The Judgment on Judah Because of Manasseh

Details the wickedness of King Manasseh (2 Kings 21) and how his seduction of Judah into idolatry and bloodshed brought irrevocable judgment, showing that leaders can lead a nation to destruction.

Some of you go into famine. Some of you go into pestilence. Some of you go into captivity. It's all one with me. This is what you wanted. This is what I'm giving you." I want you to look in the book of Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse 21. Because God says exactly the same thing to Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse 21. And He's still talking about Judah and Jerusalem here, the same group of people that Jeremiah is talking about. In Ezekiel chapter 14, verse 21, God says, "For thus saith the LORD God, How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast." So here's what God is saying, "Jeremiah, if they ask you, 'Where will we go?

What will become of us? What will happen to us?' Here's what you tell them. Some of you go into the sword, some to the famine, some to disease and pestilence, some to captivity. That's how I'm going to get you out of my sight." One of the reasons that God was so intent on destroying them was because of Manasseh, their king. Look at verse 4, Jeremiah 15. I have a whole message just on verse 4. But this is an astounding truth, where God says, "...and I will cause them," that is the people, "...I will cause them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem." Did you know that Manasseh was one of the most wicked, vile kings in Judah? I want you to turn, hold Jeremiah 15, but turn to 2 Kings 21. Let me just show you about Manasseh. 2 Kings chapter 21. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. I wish I had time to read the entire chapter.

The second Kings chapter 21 and verse 1. The Bible tells us about Manasseh. "Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 15 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed."

Now watch, "and he reared up altars for Baal, and he made a grove." And by the way, any time you see the word grove in the Bible, with the exception in the book of Genesis when Abraham planted a grove, that was a grove of trees. But any time you see the word grove after that, the word is actually in the Hebrew Asherah, which was a sex goddess, a goddess of sex and promiscuity. So, he made not only an altar for Baal, but also for this sexual goddess, Asherah, as did Ahab, king of Israel, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them, sun, moon, stars, whatever. Verse 4, "And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord."

"And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And he set a graven image of the grove which he had made in the house," that is, in the temple, "of which the Lord had said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house in Jerusalem have I chosen, out of all the tribes of Israel will I put my name forever. Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they hearken not." Now watch, "and Manasseh seduced them, to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with idols, therefore thus said the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing

such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth thereof his ears shall tingle." Do you realize it was Manasseh who also had a house of sodomites right by the temple. There was also a house of prostitution right by the temple where the women wove hangings for the grove. But I want you to note the Bible said it was Manasseh who seduced them into idolatry. Now you have to ask yourself this question. How can a king seduce a people into idolatry? Well, just like the American people are being seduced today. Everything evil and wicked is being promoted, and everything good and holy is being downplayed and ridiculed. Moreover, there are laws that are being passed and made, not only promulgating idolatry and wickedness, but subsidizing idolatry and wickedness. And persecution and prosecution is going against that which is biblical and holy and godly and Christian and right. So that people say, "Ooh, man, I want to serve the Lord, but I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to lose everything I've got. I don't want to be killed." And so they just go along with the powers that be. That's exactly how you seduce them into idolatry and fornication and sodomy.

Look in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 24. God sent warning after warning, but notice beginning there in verse 2, the Bible says, "...And the Lord sent against them bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Assyrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets." Now watch. "...Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood which he shed," offering babies to Baal and to Molech, "For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon." Wow. Wow. There comes a time nationally when God said, "I've had enough." I've often wondered, how many million abortions must there be in this country before God says, "I've had enough"? How much fraud, how much adultery and fornication and sodomy before God says, "I've had enough"?

God's Weariness and the Finality of Judgment (Jeremiah 15:5-6)

God declares He will stretch out His hand to destroy; no one will pity or bemoan the judged nation. When God is against a people, no one can be for them.

He's talking to the nation. He's talking to the people. "Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord. Thou art going backwards. Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee. I am weary with repenting." Did you hear that? "I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will destroy you." We bring God's judgments upon ourselves because of our sin and our rebellion and our wickedness.

I want you to look in verse 5. Pay close attention to this verse. God asked Judah in Jerusalem, "For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall go aside to ask, How thou doest?" God says, "Let me tell you something. When I judge you, no one is going to have pity upon you. No one will bemoan the fact, 'Oh, America was such a great nation, Judah was such a great nation and such a great kingdom.' Nobody's going to bemoan. Nobody's even going to ask, 'How are you doing?' They don't care."

My hand will be stretched out against you so. And here's what God is saying in verse 5. Listen carefully. Neither your friends nor your enemies will have any compassion upon you. How about that? "For who shall have pity upon thee?" No one will care. "Who will even ask about you?" No one will care. You know, the Apostle Paul said it like this in Romans 8 in verse 31. Listen. He said, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Let's turn that around. If God be against us, who can be for us? In fact, the truth of the matter is, it wouldn't matter if people were for us or not if God was against us. What can man do? Absolutely nothing. And what God is saying in verse 5, the people and the nation that He judges will be left to bear the judgment alone. No one will come to their aid. No one will care. Here's the last application. God said, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind could not be toward this people."

Application: Personal Holiness in Light of Coming Judgment

Weaver urges believers to pursue godliness and holiness so that they may deliver themselves, as Noah, Daniel, and Job did, when God's patience with a nation ends.

Then He said, Ezekiel 18, "Though Daniel, Noah, and Job were here, they wouldn't deliver but just themselves." I want to tell you something, folks. If you believe the Bible, and you understand that God is infinitely holy, you've got to understand somehow, some way, God's not going to be putting up forever with our wickedness and our rebellion. He is not. And I will tell you this, when it comes to God's judgment, by His grace and mercy, I want to be as Noah, Daniel, and Job, or Moses and Samuel. I want to be someone who will at least deliver myself. In order to do that, I must be obedient to Him and submissive to Him and trust in Him and lean upon Him. In other words, godliness, holiness, righteousness is the only thing that will deliver an individual or a society or a nation. I'm still shaken when I read Jeremiah 15 verse 1, when "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind could not be toward this people.

Cast them out of my sight. Let them go forth." So you better be asking yourself, "What am I going to do? Where will I be? What will I experience when God has had enough?" Because sooner or later, His goodness, His forbearance, His long-suffering, His patience will come to an end. And He'll bring upon us that which we deserve, for we've turned our backs upon Him. That is why Peter quotes in 1 Peter chapter 1, where God says, "Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord." Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask You for Your grace, for Your mercy, for Your goodness and kindness. And Lord, we do confess and acknowledge we're in a desperate situation in this country, in this nation. And Lord, we do want to be intercessors. We do want to pray. But Lord, we do understand there's a time when intercession will not avail and prayer will be useless when you've reached the limit of your patience. So Lord, we ask that You make us godly and holy. And until that end comes, that You'd make us faithful and help us to proclaim Thy truth and Thy Word and bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

The Limits of God's Patience

Summary: God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering are real but finite; there comes a point when He says 'I've had enough' and executes judgment.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'there comes a time when God says, "I've had enough. That's it. I'm not going to take it anymore. It's over."' (15:07.9-15:07.9) and cites multiple biblical examples.

The Inefficacy of Intercession When Judgment Is Determined

Summary: When God's mind is set against a people, even the greatest intercessors (Moses, Samuel, Noah, Daniel, Job) cannot change His decree.

Evidence: God says, 'Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people' (Jeremiah 15:1) and Ezekiel 14 shows even righteous men can only save themselves.

National Judgment for Covenant Unfaithfulness

Summary: Judah, though in covenant with God, was destroyed for its idolatry and rebellion, demonstrating that even 'Christian' nations are not immune to divine judgment.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'May I remind you that Judah also at one time was in covenantal relationship with God... But here, in Jeremiah 15, God is about to destroy Judah at Jerusalem.' (23:12.3-24:40.3)

The Deception of Misinterpreting God's Patience

Summary: Fallen man interprets God's delay in judgment as approval or immunity, but it is actually an opportunity for repentance.

Evidence: Romans 2:4 is expounded: 'Fallen man always interprets God's patience... as meaning that either God counts him innocent, or that somehow God is not going to judge him.' (11:31.7-12:24.2)

The Necessity of Personal Holiness Amidst National Decay

Summary: In times of impending judgment, individual righteousness may deliver one's own soul, as seen in Noah, Daniel, and Job.

Evidence: Weaver concludes, 'I want to be as Noah, Daniel, and Job, or Moses and Samuel. I want to be someone who will at least deliver myself.' (58:51.1-59:48.7)

The Role of Leaders in National Sin

Summary: King Manasseh's wickedness and seduction of Judah into idolatry brought irrevocable judgment, illustrating how leaders can corrupt a nation.

Evidence: Weaver details Manasseh's sins from 2 Kings 21 and states, 'it was Manasseh who seduced them into idolatry.' (47:04.5-50:11.1)

Key Arguments

God's patience is not infinite; He has a breaking point.

Summary: Just as humans reach a limit and say 'no more,' God also reaches a point where His forbearance ends and He acts in judgment.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'there comes a time when God says, "I've had enough."' and cites the Flood, Sodom, and the Canaanites as proof.

Intercessory prayer becomes futile when God's decree of judgment is final.

Summary: God told Jeremiah not to pray for Judah because He would not hear; even Moses and Samuel could not change His mind.

Evidence: Jeremiah 15:1 and God's repeated commands in Jeremiah 7, 11, and 14 not to pray for the people.

National judgment is certain for persistent, unrepented sin.

Summary: Judah's destruction, despite its covenant status, serves as a warning that God judges nations that turn from Him, including modern ones like America.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'when God has had enough of our haughty rebellion... He'll wipe us out just like He did Judah.' (53:35.9-54:34.1)

God's patience is often misinterpreted as tolerance of sin.

Summary: Romans 2:4 shows that people despise God's goodness by assuming His delay means He will not judge, but His patience is meant to lead to repentance.

Evidence: Weaver explains, 'Fallen man always misinterprets God's goodness... as meaning that either God counts him innocent, or that somehow God is not going to judge him.'

Personal righteousness may deliver an individual even when a nation is judged.

Summary: Ezekiel 14 teaches that Noah, Daniel, and Job could only save themselves; thus, believers should pursue holiness to secure their own deliverance.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'godliness, holiness, righteousness is the only thing that will deliver an individual or a society or a nation.' (59:51.9-1:00:36.3)

Scripture References

Jeremiah 15:1-8

Context: The primary text of the sermon; God declares His mind cannot be toward the people, and He will cast them out with various judgments.

Romans 2:1-5

Context: Used to explain God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, and how men despise them, treasuring up wrath.

Romans 9:22

Context: Quoted to show God endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.

Genesis 6:13

Context: Cited as the first instance of God saying 'enough' and destroying the world with the flood.

2 Peter 2:5

Context: Referenced to confirm God spared not the old world but saved Noah.

Genesis 18-19

Context: The account of Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction as an example of God's judgment when He has had enough.

2 Peter 2:6

Context: Cited to show Sodom and Gomorrah were made an example to those who live ungodly.

Deuteronomy 7:2

Context: God's command to Israel to utterly destroy the Canaanites and show no mercy.

Deuteronomy 20:17

Context: Reiterates the command to utterly destroy the Canaanite nations.

Genesis 15:13-16

Context: Explains why Israel went to Egypt for 400 years: the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.

Proverbs 29:1

Context: Warns that one often reproved who hardens his neck will be suddenly destroyed without remedy.

Jeremiah 14:19-22

Context: Jeremiah's prayer asking if God has utterly rejected Judah, to which Jeremiah 15:1 is the response.

Jeremiah 7:14-16

Context: God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people because He will not hear.

Jeremiah 11:11-14

Context: God again forbids Jeremiah to pray for the people and says He will not hear them when they cry.

Jeremiah 14:10-11

Context: God permits Jeremiah to pray but only for their destruction, not for their good.

Exodus 32:32

Context: Moses' intercession for Israel, offering to be blotted out of God's book.

1 Samuel 7:9

Context: Samuel's intercession for Israel, and the Lord heard him.

1 Samuel 12:23

Context: Samuel's commitment to pray for Israel and teach them the good and right way.

Ezekiel 14:12-20

Context: God declares that even Noah, Daniel, and Job could only deliver themselves by their righteousness.

2 Chronicles 7:14

Context: Discussed as a verse often misapplied; it requires humility, prayer, seeking God's face, and turning from wickedness.

Historical References

The Flood (Genesis 6-8)

Context: God destroyed the antediluvian world because of its violence and wickedness.

Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19)

Context: God rained brimstone and fire on the cities of the plain for their sin.

Conquest of Canaan

Context: God commanded Israel to utterly destroy the Canaanite nations because their iniquity was full.

The 400-year sojourn in Egypt

Context: Israel's time in Egypt was partly to allow the Amorites' iniquity to become full before judgment.

The fall of the northern kingdom (722 B.C.)

Context: The ten northern tribes had already gone into Assyrian captivity as a warning to Judah.

King Manasseh of Judah

Context: His extreme wickedness, including idolatry, child sacrifice, and seduction of Judah, brought irrevocable judgment.

Stephen Charnock (Puritan author)

Context: Quoted from 'The Existence and Attributes of God' on God's patience.

American exceptionalism

Context: Referenced as a modern parallel to Judah's false sense of immunity from judgment.

Important Quotes

Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

Significance: The key verse of the sermon, showing the finality of God's judgment when His patience ends.

I am weary with repenting.

Significance: Highlights God's exhaustion with repeatedly relenting from judgment, indicating His patience has a limit.

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.

Significance: Central to the argument that God's patience is meant to lead to repentance, not to be presumed upon.

He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.

Significance: Warns of the sudden, irreversible judgment that comes upon those who repeatedly reject correction.

Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

Significance: Demonstrates that there is a point when intercessory prayer is forbidden because judgment is determined.

Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God.

Significance: Shows that even the most righteous cannot save others when God's judgment falls on a land.

For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?

Significance: Emphasizes the utter abandonment and lack of compassion that accompanies divine judgment.

If God be for us, who can be against us? Let's turn that around. If God be against us, who can be for us?

Significance: A rhetorical inversion of Romans 8:31 to stress the hopelessness of being opposed by God.

Discussion Questions

In what ways do we, like Judah, misinterpret God's patience as approval or immunity from judgment?

Context: Based on the exposition of Romans 2:4 and the warning that fallen man always misinterprets God's goodness.

How should the examples of the Flood, Sodom, and the Canaanites shape our understanding of God's character and His dealings with nations today?

Context: Weaver used these historical judgments to show that God does reach a breaking point with collective sin.

What does it mean that God told Jeremiah not to pray for the people, and how does that challenge our assumptions about intercessory prayer?

Context: God repeatedly forbade Jeremiah to pray for Judah because judgment was irrevocable.

Why does God say that even Moses, Samuel, Noah, Daniel, and Job could not deliver the nation, and what does that teach about the limits of human righteousness?

Context: Jeremiah 15:1 and Ezekiel 14 show that the righteousness of a few cannot avert national judgment.

How does the reign of Manasseh illustrate the influence of leaders on a nation's spiritual condition, and what parallels do you see today?

Context: Manasseh seduced Judah into idolatry and bloodshed, leading to irreversible judgment.

What is the proper relationship between prayer, repentance, and national healing according to 2 Chronicles 7:14, and how is it often misapplied?

Context: Weaver argued that the verse is not just about prayer but requires humility, seeking God, and turning from wickedness.

In light of the sermon, what does it mean to 'deliver your own soul by righteousness,' and how should that affect our daily walk?

Context: The conclusion urged believers to pursue personal holiness so that they might be delivered like Noah, Daniel, and Job.

Applications

Do not presume upon God's patience.

Summary: Recognize that God's delay in judgment is an opportunity for repentance, not a sign of His approval or indifference.

Evidence: Weaver warns, 'Fallen man always misinterprets God's patience... as meaning that either God counts him innocent, or that somehow God is not going to judge him.'

Pursue personal holiness to deliver your own soul.

Summary: In a time of national decay and impending judgment, individual righteousness may secure your own deliverance, as with Noah, Daniel, and Job.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'godliness, holiness, righteousness is the only thing that will deliver an individual or a society or a nation.'

Understand the limits of intercessory prayer.

Summary: There comes a point when prayer for a nation or people is useless because God's decree of judgment is final; we must discern the times.

Evidence: God told Jeremiah, 'Pray not for this people for their good' (Jeremiah 14:11), and said even Moses and Samuel could not change His mind.

Do not be seduced by ungodly leaders or culture.

Summary: Just as Manasseh seduced Judah into idolatry, modern laws and cultural pressures can lead believers away from God; resist compromise.

Evidence: Weaver explains, 'There are laws that are being passed and made, not only promulgating idolatry and wickedness, but subsidizing idolatry and wickedness.'

Repentance, not just prayer, is required for national healing.

Summary: 2 Chronicles 7:14 calls for humility, prayer, seeking God's face, and turning from wicked ways; without repentance, prayer alone will not save.

Evidence: Weaver says, '2 Chronicles 7:14 is not just about praying for a nation. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is about prayer and humility and repentance and seeking God and turning to Him.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T01:16:45Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T15:20:48Z

Clean Transcript

When God Has Had Enough

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

I want you to open your Bibles, now, if you would, please, to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 15. Jeremiah, chapter 15. And we're going to read the first eight verses. Jeremiah, chapter 15. Jeremiah 15. And I tell you what, let's have prayer, shall we? Our Father, we are thankful tonight for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His grace and mercy to us. We do pray that You'll teach us tonight and help us and open our eyes and grant us understanding. We pray for liberty and freedom in preaching. We pray that the Word of God would have free course, and that our Lord Jesus Christ would be honored and glorified. In His name we ask and pray. Amen. Jeremiah 15, beginning there with verse 1.
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Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? Then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the Lord, Such as are for death to death; and such as are for the sword to the sword; and such as are for the famine to the famine; and such as are for the captivity to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
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And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord. Thou art gone backward. Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee.
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I am weary with repenting. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children. I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas. I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday. I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.
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The title of the message is, When God Has Had Enough. Each one of us at some time in our lives have said something like this, "That's it, I'm just not going to take it any longer." We have reached a breaking point at some time in our life. And that breaking point was when we were absolutely, thoroughly fed up with the circumstance or situation or the way that we were being treated. And what we did, we just simply put our foot down and said, "No more." And simply because we did that, we then turned around and viewed ourselves as justified in doing that because we had suffered for so long and been patient for so long until it just brought us finally to our breaking point. I don't suppose there's a person in here who has not said something similar to that at one time or other in their lives. But do you understand that we often allow and take to ourselves that which we do not want God to possess? In other words, it's alright if you and I get upset and become fed up and literally become ready to fight.
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But in our humanistic theology, God is not allowed to act that way. I never will forget years ago when my oldest grandson, who will be 27 this month by the way, but my oldest grandson was probably about four years of age and he was really taken with karate. Back then all of that was very new to him and he liked it and so we visited him and I was lying on the floor.
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And he would stand there beside me and jump straight up in the air. And he would land both feet right in the middle of my stomach. Well, you know, he only weighed 30, 40 pounds. It wasn't that much. And I'd always tighten my stomach muscles, you know. I let him do it three or four times. But the next time he jumped up in the air to jump on my stomach, I rolled to the side. And when his feet came down on the floor, I rolled over on his feet and held him there and took the back of my fist and came like that right up to his face. Didn't hit him. I was just playing with him and I did a back fist like that. All of a sudden he snatched his feet out from under me and he said, "Uh-uh, Papa, we don't play like that." So it was quite all right then for him to jump in my stomach, but it was not all right then for me to pretend like I was going to hit him with a back fist.
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Well, we want certain things for ourselves. And we don't want God to have those things either. You see, God is not allowed to act the way that we think that He should not act. In our humanistic theology, we just simply deny certain things to God. We all understand that God is loving, that God is merciful. We understand that God is absolutely patient and long-suffering. And we talk about those things regularly. But the truth of the matter is we fail oftentimes to talk about God's righteous anger, His wrath, and His indignation. We tend to think in unbiblical terms when it comes to God. Now let me just kind of put it to you like this. We want God to be as we think He should be, not as He has revealed Himself in the Word of God. The only God that exists is the God of Holy Scripture. Most people serve a God of their imagination, and not the God of Holy Scripture. The only God that exists, I said again, is the God that has revealed Himself in the Holy Scripture.
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Now, I want you to hold Jeremiah chapter 15, but turn in your Bibles, if you would please, to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Romans 2, verse 1. You see, that's what happens when you're late. All the back seats are taken up. Romans chapter 2. Notice if you would, beginning there in verse 1. We're talking now about God's long-suffering and God's graciousness. Look in Romans 2 and verse 1.
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The Apostle Paul writes, "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the same things."
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Now, notice what he says in verse 2, "But we are sure that the judgment of God is, according to truth, against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" Now, here is the clincher in verse 4, "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." And then in verse 5 he says, "...but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Now, I want to call your attention to verse 4, because he says, "...or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." Do you understand that men despise the goodness of God every day? Every day we take for granted the breath that God gives us. We take for granted the food that He provides for us.
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We take for granted our health. We take for granted everything. We just simply assume that God is going to provide all of these things for us, and that somehow He even owes us these things. As you read through the book of Psalms, the Bible says, "Oh, that the sons of men would praise the Lord for His goodness to the children of men." And you just think of how many people, and especially Christian people, who can go day after day after day and never thank the Lord for all of His goodness. Well, have you ever stopped to think what happens when an individual despises the goodness of God? You would think that our God is so holy and so righteous that God would just simply smite down such an evil, wicked individual who was so ungrateful and so unthankful. But God does not do that. The Bible tells us in verse 4, when individuals despise God's goodness, instead of smiting them instantly, then He forbears with them. That is, He forbears their sin and rebellion. Now, the forbearance of God is that aspect of God's patience which manifests His self-control.
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God cannot be provoked to act contrary to His will. And so God says, instead of me smiting you when you despise my goodness, I will just forbear with you in your sin and your rebellion. Well, let me ask you a question. What happens when God's forbearance has reached its limit? Well, according to verse 4, that is then when God's longsuffering comes into play. And the longsuffering literally means that he continues to suffer long with the rebellion and the wickedness of these individuals who hate him and despise him. I ran across a good illustration years ago about the term, long-suffering, because one of the words for God there actually means to be long-nostril. You say, what in the world has that got to do with patience and being long-suffering? Well, have you ever noticed that when you begin to really get angry and upset, and when anyone else does, you start doing this, and you start breathing hard and your nostrils flare, and you're very easily discerned as being one that is angry and upset.
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But the longer the nose, the more difficult it is to tell when someone is angry and upset. And so God then, when His goodness is despised, that forbearance comes into play. And when that forbearance is despised, then the longsuffering of God comes into play. And the longsuffering of God is that virtue of God that enables Him to endure longer the insolence and the haughtiness of the ungodly who hate Him and despise Him.
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Have you ever meditated upon Romans 9 and verse 22? Let me just quote it. There the Apostle Paul asks, "What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction?" So God suffers long with those vessels of wrath that are fitted to destruction.
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Now, the interesting thing is this. According to Romans 2 and verse 4, fallen man always misinterprets God's goodness, God's forbearance, and God's longsuffering. Fallen man always interprets God's patience, he interprets God's goodness and forbearance and longsuffering as meaning that either God counts him innocent, or that somehow God is not going to judge him or smite him for his wickedness and his sins. But according to Romans 2 and verse 4, God's end in His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering was not to testify to their innocence as they imagined, but rather to lead them to repentance for which they were totally ignorant.
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Now, do you understand that if God instantly and immediately broke the reprobate vessels into pieces, His power of self-control would not so eminently appear? But the very fact that God bears long with their wickedness and forbears to punish them, the power of His patience is greatly demonstrated.
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Now, I'm going to give you a quote from Stephen Charnock. If you do not have his book, The Existence and Attributes of God, I would encourage you to get it. It's a book about this thick. Stephen Charnock was an old Puritan. And he is defining God's patience, and this is just a partial definition. He says this, "...it is that part of the divine goodness and mercy, yet differs from both. God, being the greatest goodness, hath the greatest mildness. Mildness is always the companion of true goodness, and the greater the goodness, the greater the mildness.
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Who is so holy as Christ, and so meek as Christ? God's slowness to anger is a branch of his mercy." And then he quotes, "The Lord is full of compassion and slow to anger." Then he says this, "It differs from mercy in the formal consideration of the subject. Mercy respects the creature as miserable. Patience respects the creature as criminal. Mercy pities him in his misery. Patience bears with the sin which engendereth the misery, giving birth to more."
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So, the Bible teaches us very clearly that God is good, that God is gracious, that God is forbearing, that God is long-suffering, that God is kind. But have you ever stopped to think about this? Even in light of God's goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering and patience, there comes a time when God says, "I've had enough. That's it. I'm not going to take it anymore. It's over." Now, before we look in Jeremiah 15, I want you to pause and think with me about some historical instances in the Bible where God has basically said, "I've had enough." The very first instance that we could quote, of course, would be Genesis chapter 6 and verse 13, where God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth."
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So that whole antediluvian civilization was destroyed with the flood. In 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5, the Bible says, "...and God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." So, there was a time there in Genesis chapter 6 where God said, "That's it, I've had enough of this violence, I've had enough of this wickedness, it's over, it's done with, I want to destroy them with the world," and that's exactly what God did. God simply wiped them out. Do you realize He did basically the same thing in Genesis chapter 18? In that passage, God said to Abraham, "I've come down to see if the cries of Sodom and Gomorrah are everything that I'm hearing." Of course, God knew it was. But He was saying this to Abraham because Lot was in Sodom and Gomorrah. And of course, the two angels went on down to Sodom and Gomorrah.
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And you know the outcome of that investigation. For in Genesis chapter 19, verses 23-25, the Bible tells us, "...the sun was risen upon the earth, when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of those cities, which grew up from the ground." And when you get to 2 Peter 2 and verse 6, the Bible says, "...that which God did, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them in an overthrow, making them an example to all them which thereafter should live ungodly." So, what did God do? He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah, Zeboim, and Admah, all those cities of the plain. He said, "That's it. I've had enough. You're dust. You're ashes." And that's exactly what God did. God destroyed them.
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Let me give you a third illustration. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. But do you realize that God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt after 400 years of captivity? And when He brought them out, what did He do? He put a sword in their hand and sent them into the land of Canaan and told them to kill every individual. Let me just read it to you.
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Deuteronomy 7 and verse 2. Listen. "And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them." And when you get to Deuteronomy 20 and verse 17, again God says to Israel, "...but thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee."
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Now let me show you something that's very important about this. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. I told you that God put a sword in the children of Israel's hand and told them to kill all of these Canaanites. Let me show you something that is absolutely astounding and amazing. Have you ever asked yourself this question? Why did Israel have to go into Egypt for 400 years? Why? Well, look in Genesis chapter 15, and let's begin reading there verse 13. God tells us the answer. Genesis 15 verse 13, "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.
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And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards they shall come out with great substance." Now he tells Abram, "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in the good old age."
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Now why did Israel have to go into Egypt for 400 years? Watch verse 16. God says, "But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again." Why? "For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." It's wicked as the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, all those Canaanites, as wicked as they were, and they were vile, God still waited 400 years before He said, "I've had enough." Here are biblical instances when God says, "That's it, it's over." Now, it's equally true that oftentimes God has had enough of our personal and individual sin and rebellion. For in Proverbs 29 in verse 1, He says this, "He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy." He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck.
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In other words, here's someone who will not listen. They will not receive correction. They will not receive chastisement. God said, that individual shall be suddenly destroyed and that without remedy. All you have to do is read through the Bible. You can read about Korah and Dathan and Abiram. You can also read about Ananias and Sapphira and a multitude of others whom God just simply wiped out. God said, "That's it. I've had enough."
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I'm not going to put up with this anymore. And God just took them out. Every one of us, each one of us knows of some family member or some friend's family in which someone died instantly, tragically, catastrophically. I could give you illustration after illustration of individuals who died like that. One young man, that I know was raised in a church, went to a Christian school. Yet he turned out to be a drunkard and a dopehead.
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His own parents had to sleep with a loaded pistol by their bed because he had threatened to murder his own parents so many times. His own parents had to call the law, have him arrested so many times because he was drunken and rowdy or high on drugs and destroying everything. He wouldn't listen. Finally, in a drunken stupor, he went to sleep in his car on a railroad track. When they finally picked up the pieces, the only way they could identify him was with the teeth.
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Instantly, suddenly, each one of us know of individuals like that. But today, what I want to do is this. I want to call your attention to the fact that not only does God have breaking points with individuals, He has breaking points with nations, even those who profess to be His people. May I remind you that Judah was the southern kingdom. Judah was in covenant with God, just like originally all of Israel was, until Jeroboam the son of Nebat came along and instituted the golden calf worship.
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You see, the problem that we have as Christians in this land, we tend to think that somehow, someway, that God will never judge us because we're a Christian nation. Well, we were at one time. I don't think we are now. Our foundations certainly were Christian. But may I remind you that Judah also at one time was in covenantal relationship with God. And one time, God said Judah ruled with God and was faithful with the saints. But here, in Jeremiah 15, God is about to destroy Judah at Jerusalem. I want you to go back to Jeremiah chapter 15, and before I ever begin looking at verse 1, I want us to look in Jeremiah 14 at verses 19 through 22, because you have to understand when you get to Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 1, that is God's response to Jeremiah's prayer, which he uttered in Jeremiah 14. So, look if you would, in Jeremiah chapter 14, and let's begin reading there with verse 19. Jeremiah is talking with the Lord and he says, "And there is no healing for us.
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We look for peace, but there is no good. And for the time of healing, and behold, trouble. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against Thee." And then he pleads with God, he says, "Do not abhor us. For Thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory. Remember, break not Thy covenant with us." Of course, Israel and Judah had already broken their covenant with Him.
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He asked, "Are there any among the vanities or the idols of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art not Thou He, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait upon Thee, for Thou hast made all things."
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Now, I want to call your attention to verse 19. He asks, "Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Hast Thy soul loathed Zion?" Those were the questions. And look at God's answer to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 15 in verse 1, "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth." Wow! You see, Jeremiah was not only the weeping prophet, as I mentioned last night. Jeremiah was also a patriot. He not only loved his people, he loved his nation. And He wanted to do everything He could, not only save His people, but to save His nation. He prayed for His people. He interceded for His people. In fact, let me show you, beginning with Jeremiah chapter 7, and let's begin reading there with verse 14. You see, God had already said, "I'm going to destroy Judah and Jerusalem, because of their rebellion, because of their sin." So, in Jeremiah chapter 7, beginning there with verse 14, here's what God says.
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Watch carefully, Jeremiah 7 verse 14, "...therefore will I do unto this house which is called by my name, where ye trust," that is the temple, "...and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh." God says, just like I destroyed the tabernacle at Shiloh, I'm going to destroy the temple here, "and I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim."
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The ten northern tribes had already gone into captivity in 722 B.C. into Assyria.
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Now look what God tells Jeremiah. "Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up crying or prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee." Wow. God said, "Now Jeremiah, it's not going to do you one bit of good to pray for this people. I'm not going to listen to you. I'm not going to hear you." Jeremiah wanted to pray so badly and intercede for those people so badly. I want you to look in Jeremiah chapter 11. Jeremiah 11 and verse 11. Jeremiah 11 and verse 11. Watch carefully. Again, God says the same thing. Jeremiah 11 and verse 11, "Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape.
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And though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods whom they offer incense. But they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of thy streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense and to Baal." Ah, verse 14, God says to Jeremiah, "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble." Now, I want you to note God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 7, "Don't pray for these people, because I will not hear you." Now in Jeremiah chapter 11, He says it's not only going to do you no good to pray, it's not going to do the people any good to pray, for I'm not going to hear them.
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And if you look in Jeremiah chapter 14 now, Jeremiah wanted to pray so badly for this people. Remember, he's the weeping prophet. He's the patriot prophet. He wanted to save his nation. God says, finally, "Okay, Jeremiah, I'm going to let you pray for them. But, I'm going to tell you what to pray." Look at Jeremiah 14, verse 10. "Thus saith the Lord unto this people. Thus have they loved to wander.
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They have not refrained their feet. Therefore the Lord doth not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good." Let me spell it out. He said, "Jeremiah, if you want to pray for this people, here's what you pray. You pray that I'll destroy them, for that's exactly what I'm going to do. You can pray, but pray not for their good. You just pray that I'll take care of them, that I'll wipe them out. That's exactly what I'm going to do." What God is telling Jeremiah is there is a time when his goodness, his long-suffering, his forbearance, and his patience have ended. Now, I want you to understand something. This was no slight upon Jeremiah. Nor was it a slight upon his prayers. Because if you look in Jeremiah 15 in verse 1, here's what God said. "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people."
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What's he saying, Jeremiah? It's not just you that I'm not going to listen to. If Moses and Samuel stood before me, I wouldn't hear them either. Now you have to remember that both Moses and Samuel were great intercessors. In fact, in Exodus chapter 32 and verse 32, Moses was interceding for Israel, and he said, "Yet now thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book of life which thou hast written." So Moses said, "Lord, if you're going to kill them, just kill me as well."
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I want you to note something. It's really a phenomenal thing to note in the Bible. There were times when God was so aggravated and so provoked with Israel that He told Moses, "Stand aside, I'm going to kill them all and I'll make of you a greater nation." And Moses would fall on his face and intercede and beg God not to and God would listen. And then there were times when Moses was so upset and so provoked, he would say, "God, kill them all!" And God would say, "If I did that, what would I do to my great namesake?" Do you realize if Moses and God ever got together, there wouldn't have been an Israelite left. But Moses was a great intercessor. So was Samuel. In 1 Samuel chapter 7 verse 9 the Bible said, "And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him." Many times Samuel interceded. In fact, in 1 Samuel 12 and verse 23, Samuel said, "Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way."
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So, God says, "Jeremiah, I'm not going to hear your prayers. But it's no slight upon you, Jeremiah, because if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn't hear theirs either." Now, I want you to hold Jeremiah 15. But I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 14. Ezekiel, chapter 14. And let's begin reading there with verse 12. Hold Jeremiah 15, but look in Ezekiel 14, verse 12. I want you to watch this carefully now, because there's a lesson that we need to draw. Ezekiel, chapter 14, verse 12.
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The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, that I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts, though these three men were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, they shall only be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon the land, and say, Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off man and beast from it, though these three men were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.
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Or if I send a pestilence unto that land, and pour up my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast, though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter, they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." Isn't that amazing? So, it's not just Moses and Samuel. God said, if Noah, Daniel and Job were there, everyone knows the patience of Job. Daniel is one of the few men in the Bible you never read anything negative about. Joseph and Daniel are about the only two. And, of course, Noah, you know, walked with God, and you know how God used Noah. And he said, "Look, if Noah, Job, and Daniel were here, they wouldn't deliver their family, they wouldn't deliver anyone but themselves." What is he saying? He's saying there's a time when I've had enough.
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I want you to listen. I want you to take note of this fact, that God is saying, literally, not only in Jeremiah 15, but in Ezekiel chapter 14, that God is saying that if the godliest men that have ever lived would stand before Him and pray for that land at that time, their prayers would not be heard. Their righteousness might deliver themselves, but it would not deliver their family, would not deliver anyone else. It should be a very sobering thought that when we consider there comes a time, listen, when prayer for a nation is useless. What did God tell Jeremiah? "If you pray, I'm not going to listen to you. If they pray, I'm not going to listen to them.
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If Moses and Samuel was before me, I wouldn't hear them. If Noah, Daniel, and Job were here, I wouldn't listen to them either." Everywhere you travel in this nation, you see signs, I see signs, that read like this, "Pray for America. Pray 2 Chronicles 7:14." Or "Prayer, our only hope." Has it ever dawned upon you that prayer is not our only hope? In fact, prayer is not our hope at all. Jesus Christ is our only hope. Prayer is just a means to reach Him. And when you read, "Pray for America," and "Pray 2 Chronicles 7:14," most people never think about what 2 Chronicles 7:14 says. God said, "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek My face, listen, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not just about praying for a nation. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is about prayer and humility and repentance and seeking God and turning to Him.
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It's not just prayer that's going to save us. Has it ever dawned upon you that even there comes a time when neither prayer, humility, or repentance will save a nation? Wow! How can I say that? I want you to look, since you're in Ezekiel, look at Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30. And then I want us to go back to Jeremiah 15. Look at Ezekiel 22 and verse 30.
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I'm not trying to give you no hope. I'm going to give you some hope by the end of the week, Lord willing. But I want you to see this. This is imperative. In Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30, here's what God said. And He's talking about the condition of the land. He said, "...and I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none."
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"Therefore I poured out mine indignation upon them. I consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own ways have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God." Now look what God said. "I sought for a man among them that would make up the hedge and stand in the gap." I sought for an intercessor, but I couldn't find any. So I destroyed them. But when you go back to Jeremiah 15 and verse 1, where God says, "Then said the Lord to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people." What is he saying? There comes a time even when there are intercessors for a people and for a land and for a nation that God will not hear them because it is too late. It's over. When God says in verse 1 of Jeremiah 15, "My mind could not be toward this people."
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Let me spell it out for you. God is saying, "I am implacably enraged, I am unchangeably resolved against them, and no one and nothing can change my mind." Not Moses, not Samuel, not Daniel, not Job, not Noah. No one can change my mind. "My mind could not be toward this people." The only resolution, look in verse 1, this is the only resolution. God says, "Cast them out of my sight and let them go forth."
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Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever reached a decision in your life concerning someone or some group that you positively no longer wanted to be around or to be associated with? You did not want to see them. You did not want to hear them. You did not want to think about them. You did not want to be around them. The only thing you wanted is for them to be gone and out of your life forever. Well, it's the same thing here.
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God says, "My mind can never be toward this people. Therefore," He says, "cast them out of my sight, let them go forth." God said, "I'm not going to change my mind. I want them gone." He abandons them because they abhor Him. He says, "My mind cannot be toward them." How can it be thought that the holy God should have any remaining complacency or goodness or longsuffering or forbearance toward a people that hated Him and despised Him so that they worshipped Baal, any and every false god that ever existed, or which they made up out of their own mind. God said, "I'm not going to acknowledge them. My mind cannot be toward them. Cast them out of my sight. As they are highly odious and offensive, let them go forth.
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I'll not be troubled with them anymore." Wow.
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Now, I want you to look at verse 1 because I want to answer a question. "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people." So there comes a time when God has had enough. And so God says, here's the remedy. "Cast them out of my sight and let them go forth." Wow. Well, let me ask you a question. If God then casts people out of His sight, and we know that God is omnipresent, He's everywhere at one time in the fullness of His being, and in one sense of the word, that is an impossibility, but it's a practical thing here when God says, "Cast them out of My sight, let them go forth." If God says, "Cast this group out of My sight, let them go forth," what are the implications of that?
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Where are they going to go? What are they going to do? Well, God answers that. Look in verse 2. God says, "And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? Then shalt thou tell them, Thus saith the Lord, Such as are for death to death; such as are for the sword to the sword; such as are for the famine to the famine; such as are for the captivity to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord, the sword to slay, and
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the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will cause them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem." God says, here's what He's saying, "I don't really care where you go. Some of you are going to the sword.
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Some of you go into famine. Some of you go into pestilence. Some of you go into captivity. It's all one with me. This is what you wanted. This is what I'm giving you." I want you to look in the book of Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse 21. Because God says exactly the same thing to Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse 21. And He's still talking about Judah and Jerusalem here, the same group of people that Jeremiah is talking about. In Ezekiel chapter 14, verse 21, God says, "For thus saith the LORD God, How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast." So here's what God is saying, "Jeremiah, if they ask you, 'Where will we go?
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What will become of us? What will happen to us?' Here's what you tell them. Some of you go into the sword, some to the famine, some to disease and pestilence, some to captivity. That's how I'm going to get you out of my sight." One of the reasons that God was so intent on destroying them was because of Manasseh, their king. Look at verse 4, Jeremiah 15. I have a whole message just on verse 4. But this is an astounding truth, where God says, "...and I will cause them," that is the people, "...I will cause them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem." Did you know that Manasseh was one of the most wicked, vile kings in Judah? I want you to turn, hold Jeremiah 15, but turn to 2 Kings 21. Let me just show you about Manasseh. 2 Kings chapter 21. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. I wish I had time to read the entire chapter.
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The second Kings chapter 21 and verse 1. The Bible tells us about Manasseh. "Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 15 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed."
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Now watch, "and he reared up altars for Baal, and he made a grove." And by the way, any time you see the word grove in the Bible, with the exception in the book of Genesis when Abraham planted a grove, that was a grove of trees. But any time you see the word grove after that, the word is actually in the Hebrew Asherah, which was a sex goddess, a goddess of sex and promiscuity. So, he made not only an altar for Baal, but also for this sexual goddess, Asherah, as did Ahab, king of Israel, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them, sun, moon, stars, whatever. Verse 4, "And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord."
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"And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And he set a graven image of the grove which he had made in the house," that is, in the temple, "of which the Lord had said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house in Jerusalem have I chosen, out of all the tribes of Israel will I put my name forever. Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they hearken not." Now watch, "and Manasseh seduced them, to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with idols, therefore thus said the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing
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such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth thereof his ears shall tingle." Do you realize it was Manasseh who also had a house of sodomites right by the temple. There was also a house of prostitution right by the temple where the women wove hangings for the grove. But I want you to note the Bible said it was Manasseh who seduced them into idolatry.
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Now you have to ask yourself this question. How can a king seduce a people into idolatry? Well, just like the American people are being seduced today. Everything evil and wicked is being promoted, and everything good and holy is being downplayed and ridiculed. Moreover, there are laws that are being passed and made, not only promulgating idolatry and wickedness, but subsidizing idolatry and wickedness. And persecution and prosecution is going against that which is biblical and holy and godly and Christian and right. So that people say, "Ooh, man, I want to serve the Lord, but I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to lose everything I've got. I don't want to be killed." And so they just go along with the powers that be. That's exactly how you seduce them into idolatry and fornication and sodomy.
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Look in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 24. God sent warning after warning, but notice beginning there in verse 2, the Bible says, "...And the Lord sent against them bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Assyrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets." Now watch. "...Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood which he shed," offering babies to Baal and to Molech, "For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon." Wow. Wow. There comes a time nationally when God said, "I've had enough." I've often wondered, how many million abortions must there be in this country before God says, "I've had enough"? How much fraud, how much adultery and fornication and sodomy before God says, "I've had enough"?
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That's exactly what he did to Judah. He said, "I have had enough and I'll destroy you." You know, nations think that they are an exception and that they will never, ever suffer the judgments of God. God sent all of these bands of people, the Moabites, the Ammonites, all against Judah and Jerusalem, warning them. Did they listen? No! Until finally the Babylonians came and literally wiped them out. Even America, we think that we are the exception to the rule, that we will never be judged by God because we are a Christian nation.
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I tell you what you do, you just type on the internet, "American exceptionalism." Listen to our politicians. We are an exceptional nation. Yes, we are. One that excels in idolatry and wickedness and ungodliness. And I've got news for you. You can jot this down, I'm not a prophet and I'm not a prophet's son, but I will tell you this, when God has had enough of our haughty rebellion and our haughty, arrogant indifference and rejection of His Son and trampling His Word under our feet, He'll wipe us out just like He did Judah. Because there comes a time when God says, "I've had enough." You reach stages like that in your life, and you say, "Well, I'm justified because I've patiently endured all this suffering." Look what God is patiently enduring.
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I want you to go back to Jeremiah 15. I want to make some applications. I want to tie this together for you. I want you to see exactly what happens. So, Jeremiah prays. And he asks God, "Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Dost Thy soul loathe Zion?" And God says, "Jeremiah, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, I wouldn't hear them. My mind cannot be changed for this people.
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Cast them out of my presence. Let them go forth." Then if they just say, "Where are we going?" Some to the sword, some to disease. Some to the wild beast, some to captivity. It really doesn't matter to me. But look in verse 6. Because when God is weary with our sins, He will do to us exactly what He did to Judah. "Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord.
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He's talking to the nation. He's talking to the people. "Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord. Thou art going backwards. Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee. I am weary with repenting." Did you hear that? "I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will destroy you." We bring God's judgments upon ourselves because of our sin and our rebellion and our wickedness.
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I want you to look in verse 5. Pay close attention to this verse. God asked Judah in Jerusalem, "For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall go aside to ask, How thou doest?" God says, "Let me tell you something. When I judge you, no one is going to have pity upon you. No one will bemoan the fact, 'Oh, America was such a great nation, Judah was such a great nation and such a great kingdom.' Nobody's going to bemoan. Nobody's even going to ask, 'How are you doing?' They don't care."
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My hand will be stretched out against you so. And here's what God is saying in verse 5. Listen carefully. Neither your friends nor your enemies will have any compassion upon you. How about that? "For who shall have pity upon thee?" No one will care. "Who will even ask about you?" No one will care. You know, the Apostle Paul said it like this in Romans 8 in verse 31. Listen. He said, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Let's turn that around. If God be against us, who can be for us? In fact, the truth of the matter is, it wouldn't matter if people were for us or not if God was against us. What can man do? Absolutely nothing. And what God is saying in verse 5, the people and the nation that He judges will be left to bear the judgment alone. No one will come to their aid. No one will care. Here's the last application. God said, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind could not be toward this people."
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Then He said, Ezekiel 18, "Though Daniel, Noah, and Job were here, they wouldn't deliver but just themselves." I want to tell you something, folks. If you believe the Bible, and you understand that God is infinitely holy, you've got to understand somehow, some way, God's not going to be putting up forever with our wickedness and our rebellion. He is not. And I will tell you this, when it comes to God's judgment, by His grace and mercy, I want to be as Noah, Daniel, and Job, or Moses and Samuel. I want to be someone who will at least deliver myself.
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In order to do that, I must be obedient to Him and submissive to Him and trust in Him and lean upon Him. In other words, godliness, holiness, righteousness is the only thing that will deliver an individual or a society or a nation. I'm still shaken when I read Jeremiah 15 verse 1, when "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind could not be toward this people.
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Cast them out of my sight. Let them go forth." So you better be asking yourself, "What am I going to do? Where will I be? What will I experience when God has had enough?" Because sooner or later, His goodness, His forbearance, His long-suffering, His patience will come to an end. And He'll bring upon us that which we deserve, for we've turned our backs upon Him. That is why Peter quotes in 1 Peter chapter 1, where God says, "Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord." Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask You for Your grace, for Your mercy, for Your goodness and kindness. And Lord, we do confess and acknowledge we're in a desperate situation in this country, in this nation. And Lord, we do want to be intercessors. We do want to pray. But Lord, we do understand there's a time when intercession will not avail and prayer will be useless when you've reached the limit of your patience. So Lord, we ask that You make us godly and holy. And until that end comes, that You'd make us faithful and help us to proclaim Thy truth and Thy Word and bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T01:16:45Z

When God Has Had Enough

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver examines Jeremiah 15:1-8 to show that God's patience, goodness, and longsuffering have limits. He argues that just as individuals reach breaking points, so does God—with individuals, nations, and even His covenant people. Using historical examples (the Flood, Sodom, the Canaanites, and Judah), he demonstrates that when God says 'I've had enough,' no intercessor, not even Moses or Samuel, can change His mind. The sermon warns that America, like Judah, faces judgment if it persists in rebellion, and calls believers to personal holiness and faithfulness.

Opening

Introduction: Human Breaking Points and God's Character

Weaver opens by noting that everyone reaches a breaking point and says 'no more,' but we often deny God the same right. We want God to fit our imagination rather than His biblical revelation.

God's Goodness, Forbearance, and Longsuffering (Romans 2:1-5)

Scripture Reading — Romans 9:22

"What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction?"

So God suffers long with those vessels of wrath that are fitted to destruction.

Biblical Instances When God Said 'Enough'

Cites the Flood (Genesis 6), Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19), and the conquest of Canaan (Deuteronomy 7, 20) as times when God's patience ended and He executed judgment.

Scripture Reading — Genesis 6:13

"That's it, I've had enough of this violence, I've had enough of this wickedness, it's over, it's done with, I want to destroy them with the world,"

Scripture Reading — Genesis 18-19

And you know the outcome of that investigation. For in Genesis chapter 19, verses 23-25, the Bible tells us, "...the sun was risen upon the earth, when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of those cities, which grew up from the ground." And when you get to 2 Peter 2 and verse 6, the Bible says, "...that which God did, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them in an overthrow, making them an example to all them which thereafter should live ungodly." So, what did God do? He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah, Zeboim, and Admah, all those cities of the plain. He said, "That's it. I've had enough. You're dust. You're ashes." And that's exactly what God did. God destroyed them.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 7:2

"And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them."

And when you get to Deuteronomy 20 and verse 17, again God says to Israel,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 7:2

"...but thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee."

The Iniquity of the Amorites and National Judgment

Uses Genesis 15:13-16 to show God waited 400 years for the Amorites' sin to become full before judging them through Israel, illustrating that God delays but does not overlook national sin.

God's Response to Jeremiah's Intercession (Jeremiah 14-15)

God repeatedly told Jeremiah not to pray for Judah because He would not hear. Even if Moses and Samuel interceded, God's mind was set against the people due to their persistent rebellion.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 11:11-14

And though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods whom they offer incense. But they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of thy streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense and to Baal." Ah, verse 14, God says to Jeremiah, "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble."

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 14:10-11

They have not refrained their feet. Therefore the Lord doth not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good."

Scripture Reading — Exodus 32:32

"Yet now thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book of life which thou hast written."

The Limits of Intercession (Ezekiel 14:12-20)

God declares that even Noah, Daniel, and Job could only deliver themselves by their righteousness; they could not save the land or their families when judgment was determined.

The Futility of Prayer Without Repentance

The Judgment on Judah Because of Manasseh

Details the wickedness of King Manasseh (2 Kings 21) and how his seduction of Judah into idolatry and bloodshed brought irrevocable judgment, showing that leaders can lead a nation to destruction.

God's Weariness and the Finality of Judgment (Jeremiah 15:5-6)

God declares He will stretch out His hand to destroy; no one will pity or bemoan the judged nation. When God is against a people, no one can be for them.

Application: Personal Holiness in Light of Coming Judgment

Weaver urges believers to pursue godliness and holiness so that they may deliver themselves, as Noah, Daniel, and Job did, when God's patience with a nation ends.

When God Has Had Enough

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	512152134492
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover: The Superiority of Christ
Genre	Sermon
Date	2015-05-12
Dictation Name
Book	Book 078: Exodus: Bondage, Deliverance, and Passover - Volume 1 — Chapter 10
Source Timed Segments	76

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: Human Breaking Points and God's Character: Weaver opens by noting that everyone reaches a breaking point and says 'no more,' but we often deny God the same right. We want God to fit our imagination rather than His biblical revelation.
God's Goodness, Forbearance, and Longsuffering (Romans 2:1-5): Explains that when men despise God's goodness, He forbears; when forbearance is exhausted, He suffers long. Fallen man misinterprets this patience as immunity from judgment, but it is meant to lead to repentance.
Biblical Instances When God Said 'Enough': Cites the Flood (Genesis 6), Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19), and the conquest of Canaan (Deuteronomy 7, 20) as times when God's patience ended and He executed judgment.
The Iniquity of the Amorites and National Judgment: Uses Genesis 15:13-16 to show God waited 400 years for the Amorites' sin to become full before judging them through Israel, illustrating that God delays but does not overlook national sin.
God's Response to Jeremiah's Intercession (Jeremiah 14-15): God repeatedly told Jeremiah not to pray for Judah because He would not hear. Even if Moses and Samuel interceded, God's mind was set against the people due to their persistent rebellion.
The Limits of Intercession (Ezekiel 14:12-20): God declares that even Noah, Daniel, and Job could only deliver themselves by their righteousness; they could not save the land or their families when judgment was determined.
The Futility of Prayer Without Repentance: Weaver challenges the popular call to 'pray for America' by noting 2 Chronicles 7:14 requires humility, repentance, and turning from wickedness—not just prayer. There comes a time when even prayer, humility, and repentance cannot save a nation.
The Judgment on Judah Because of Manasseh: Details the wickedness of King Manasseh (2 Kings 21) and how his seduction of Judah into idolatry and bloodshed brought irrevocable judgment, showing that leaders can lead a nation to destruction.
God's Weariness and the Finality of Judgment (Jeremiah 15:5-6): God declares He will stretch out His hand to destroy; no one will pity or bemoan the judged nation. When God is against a people, no one can be for them.
Application: Personal Holiness in Light of Coming Judgment: Weaver urges believers to pursue godliness and holiness so that they may deliver themselves, as Noah, Daniel, and Job did, when God's patience with a nation ends.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

God's patience is not infinite; He has a breaking point.

Just as humans reach a limit and say 'no more,' God also reaches a point where His forbearance ends and He acts in judgment.

Weaver says, 'there comes a time when God says, "I've had enough."' and cites the Flood, Sodom, and the Canaanites as proof.

Intercessory prayer becomes futile when God's decree of judgment is final.

God told Jeremiah not to pray for Judah because He would not hear; even Moses and Samuel could not change His mind.

Jeremiah 15:1 and God's repeated commands in Jeremiah 7, 11, and 14 not to pray for the people.

National judgment is certain for persistent, unrepented sin.

Judah's destruction, despite its covenant status, serves as a warning that God judges nations that turn from Him, including modern ones like America.

Weaver states, 'when God has had enough of our haughty rebellion... He'll wipe us out just like He did Judah.' (53:35.9-54:34.1)

God's patience is often misinterpreted as tolerance of sin.

Romans 2:4 shows that people despise God's goodness by assuming His delay means He will not judge, but His patience is meant to lead to repentance.

Weaver explains, 'Fallen man always misinterprets God's goodness... as meaning that either God counts him innocent, or that somehow God is not going to judge him.'

Personal righteousness may deliver an individual even when a nation is judged.

Ezekiel 14 teaches that Noah, Daniel, and Job could only save themselves; thus, believers should pursue holiness to secure their own deliverance.

Weaver says, 'godliness, holiness, righteousness is the only thing that will deliver an individual or a society or a nation.' (59:51.9-1:00:36.3)

Scripture References

Jeremiah 15:1-8: The primary text of the sermon; God declares His mind cannot be toward the people, and He will cast them out with various judgments.
Romans 2:1-5: Used to explain God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, and how men despise them, treasuring up wrath.
Romans 9:22: Quoted to show God endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.
Genesis 6:13: Cited as the first instance of God saying 'enough' and destroying the world with the flood.
2 Peter 2:5: Referenced to confirm God spared not the old world but saved Noah.
Genesis 18-19: The account of Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction as an example of God's judgment when He has had enough.
2 Peter 2:6: Cited to show Sodom and Gomorrah were made an example to those who live ungodly.
Deuteronomy 7:2: God's command to Israel to utterly destroy the Canaanites and show no mercy.
Deuteronomy 20:17: Reiterates the command to utterly destroy the Canaanite nations.
Genesis 15:13-16: Explains why Israel went to Egypt for 400 years: the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.
Proverbs 29:1: Warns that one often reproved who hardens his neck will be suddenly destroyed without remedy.
Jeremiah 14:19-22: Jeremiah's prayer asking if God has utterly rejected Judah, to which Jeremiah 15:1 is the response.
Jeremiah 7:14-16: God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people because He will not hear.
Jeremiah 11:11-14: God again forbids Jeremiah to pray for the people and says He will not hear them when they cry.
Jeremiah 14:10-11: God permits Jeremiah to pray but only for their destruction, not for their good.
Exodus 32:32: Moses' intercession for Israel, offering to be blotted out of God's book.
1 Samuel 7:9: Samuel's intercession for Israel, and the Lord heard him.
1 Samuel 12:23: Samuel's commitment to pray for Israel and teach them the good and right way.
Ezekiel 14:12-20: God declares that even Noah, Daniel, and Job could only deliver themselves by their righteousness.
2 Chronicles 7:14: Discussed as a verse often misapplied; it requires humility, prayer, seeking God's face, and turning from wickedness.

Historical References

The Flood (Genesis 6-8): God destroyed the antediluvian world because of its violence and wickedness.
Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19): God rained brimstone and fire on the cities of the plain for their sin.
Conquest of Canaan: God commanded Israel to utterly destroy the Canaanite nations because their iniquity was full.
The 400-year sojourn in Egypt: Israel's time in Egypt was partly to allow the Amorites' iniquity to become full before judgment.
The fall of the northern kingdom (722 B.C.): The ten northern tribes had already gone into Assyrian captivity as a warning to Judah.
King Manasseh of Judah: His extreme wickedness, including idolatry, child sacrifice, and seduction of Judah, brought irrevocable judgment.
Stephen Charnock (Puritan author): Quoted from 'The Existence and Attributes of God' on God's patience.
American exceptionalism: Referenced as a modern parallel to Judah's false sense of immunity from judgment.

Important Quotes

Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

The key verse of the sermon, showing the finality of God's judgment when His patience ends.

I am weary with repenting.

Highlights God's exhaustion with repeatedly relenting from judgment, indicating His patience has a limit.

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.

Central to the argument that God's patience is meant to lead to repentance, not to be presumed upon.

He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.

Warns of the sudden, irreversible judgment that comes upon those who repeatedly reject correction.

Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

Demonstrates that there is a point when intercessory prayer is forbidden because judgment is determined.

Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God.

Shows that even the most righteous cannot save others when God's judgment falls on a land.

For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?

Emphasizes the utter abandonment and lack of compassion that accompanies divine judgment.

If God be for us, who can be against us? Let's turn that around. If God be against us, who can be for us?

A rhetorical inversion of Romans 8:31 to stress the hopelessness of being opposed by God.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

In what ways do we, like Judah, misinterpret God's patience as approval or immunity from judgment?

[Context]

Based on the exposition of Romans 2:4 and the warning that fallen man always misinterprets God's goodness.

[Question]

How should the examples of the Flood, Sodom, and the Canaanites shape our understanding of God's character and His dealings with nations today?

[Context]

Weaver used these historical judgments to show that God does reach a breaking point with collective sin.

[Question]

What does it mean that God told Jeremiah not to pray for the people, and how does that challenge our assumptions about intercessory prayer?

[Context]

God repeatedly forbade Jeremiah to pray for Judah because judgment was irrevocable.

[Question]

Why does God say that even Moses, Samuel, Noah, Daniel, and Job could not deliver the nation, and what does that teach about the limits of human righteousness?

[Context]

Jeremiah 15:1 and Ezekiel 14 show that the righteousness of a few cannot avert national judgment.

[Question]

How does the reign of Manasseh illustrate the influence of leaders on a nation's spiritual condition, and what parallels do you see today?

[Context]

Manasseh seduced Judah into idolatry and bloodshed, leading to irreversible judgment.

[Question]

What is the proper relationship between prayer, repentance, and national healing according to 2 Chronicles 7:14, and how is it often misapplied?

[Context]

Weaver argued that the verse is not just about prayer but requires humility, seeking God, and turning from wickedness.

[Question]

In light of the sermon, what does it mean to 'deliver your own soul by righteousness,' and how should that affect our daily walk?

[Context]

The conclusion urged believers to pursue personal holiness so that they might be delivered like Noah, Daniel, and Job.

Applications

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