Friday, November 8, 2024

Time to Rebuild and Restore 

Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Isaiah 35:8-10
"A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there.  And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

Review:
It seems that the Church in America has been in a Babylonian captivity for many years.  Our captivity came because we succumbed to the customs of the world system rather than the commandments of our King.  We have given both tacit and tangible approval of practices that the Bible has warned us are not God’s best for us, i.e. sinful practices.  We have allowed the chains of political correctness to bind us.  We have diluted the Word of God.
The world system, like the Babylonian conquerors of Israel, is crying for the awakening of God’s people. We have become like the ancient Israelites, unable to bring joy into the world.

Consider Psalms 137:1-4: “By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion. We hung our harps Upon the willows in the midst of it. For there those who carried us away captive required of us a song, And those who plundered us required of us mirth, Saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!' How shall we sing the Lord's song In a foreign land?”

The Lord is calling us out of our captivity in the Babylon of worldliness that has surrounded us in the past years.  It is time for us to take our harps from the willow trees and return to Zion. 

When Cyrus allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem, they did not return to a resplendent nation.  Judea was broken physically and spiritually.  The walls were in ruins; the Temple destroyed.  The returning remnant met opposition at every turn.  The return was difficult.  Yet God blessed them and brought them through to victory. 

It is now our time to rebuild and restore.

The rebuilding and restoration must begin with the Church, the spiritual Israel.
Isaiah preached that charity and compassion are the foundation stones to rebuilding and restoring.

Isaiah 58:10-12: “If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.”

The government in Babylon allowed and encouraged the rebuilding of Jerusalem.  However, it was God’s people who had to do the rebuilding.  And so, it is up to God’s people to rebuild this nation.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of the rebuilding and restoration.  The first edifice to be built was the Temple.

Ezra 1:5-7:  "Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all those whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. And all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.  King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods.”

What had been taken from them was returned.  We must cry out to God for those freedoms which have been challenged and/or actually taken from us to be restored.

In chapters 9-10, Ezra called for confession of sin and repentance. The Jewish people confessed and repented for their sins.  We believers must confess and repent for our sins and then for the sins of our nation.

Before the Babylonian captivity, Israel had adopted many pagan practices including the worship of Baal. The fundamentals of Baal worship remain alive and well today. The principal pillars of Baalism were child sacrifice, sexual immorality (both heterosexual and homosexual) and pantheism (reverence of creation over the Creator).

As we seek to rebuild the spiritual temple of God, our personal temples must be cleansed.
Daniel spoke of an Abomination of Desolation (Dan. 11:31; 12:11) that desecrated the Temple of God.  It happened during the years between the Old and New Testaments.  It will happen again in the Third Temple as prophesied in the Book of Revelation.

Sadly, it is occurring today in the Church.    Some areas about which we should be concerned include:
•Denial of Creation
•Fascination with violence
•Horoscopes and other occult activities
•Substance abuse
•Unbiblical sexual activity

If we want to be repairers of the breach, we must first confess and repent of sinful beliefs and practices in our own lives. 

Remember: “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others.

Each of us must examine our own heart and decide whether we want to walk on the Highway of Holiness or remain in Babylon.

Ctrl/click the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsrpSM2Fz-s
Holy Highway

Ginger Hendricks | Jim Hendricks

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