In this post you will find our 2 downloads or streaming audio files available to you:

“A Famine in the City of God”
This a liturgical calendar message directed by the remembrance which LORD has placed in His Word (2Kings25:3-4, Jer 39:1-2, Jer: 52:5-7).
In this message we will consider how such a famine as is told to us in the Scriptures of the history of Israel can warn the church of the dire consequences of neglecting the nutrition which is appointed by God to come from His Pure Word as well as how God has the power to withhold the blessing of His Word as he does bread in a time of famine.

You will also find our Scriptural Call to Worship and Confession which correspond to the message above.

“Worship 4-15-2023”

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Message

A Famine in the City of God

OR

Page for Streaming Message – You can follow along with study notes below!

 Call to Worship (audio)
tuesday 8-1 / agri-lunar 4-15

2023

Our Call to Worship, congregational prayers and readings are primarily from the
KJV.
and
Our Praise and Worship
is from
The 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter (SMP)
What does our church’s Reformed Worship look like?

• A Call to Worship the LORD YHWH together
• Prayer guided by the direct words of Scripture
• The Singing of the Psalms and Hymns contained in God’s Words (and none other)
• Responsive and joint Scripture readings
• A convocated Reading of the Law / Torah / Pentateuch (Old Testament Lesson)
• The Hearing of the Gospel (New Testament Lesson).
• A Message from the Elder (Bible study teaching sermon)
• Confessions and creeds from the scripture directly,
• Frequent use in recital of the 10 Commandments and Lord’s Prayer
• An affirmation of the fellowship and instruction which we have through the acknowledgment and forgiveness of sin from scriptures such as 1 John and Psalm 103 which teach forgiveness of sin and fellowship with Father Son and Spirit through repentance.
• The use of the Historical Apostles Creed to confirm our commitment to the historically United Christian Gospel every mid-month service
• The use of the Historic Athanasian Creed to confirm our functional trinitarian faith and knowledge at the beginning of every month at our evening New Moon Service.
• Liturgical biblical calendar remembrances in time as recorded in scripture

In the Ohio River valley?

Contact us and join us for worship.

Delivered on grego: 8-1-2023

Agri- Lunar: 4-15-2023

These Study notes below are Interactive with E-Sword! – FREE DOWN LOAD HERE

THEN: Just cut and paste into you E-Sword topic notes

Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com  

(See also: 2Ki_25:3-4,  Jer_39:1-2 )

Jer_52:5  So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
Jer 52:6  And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
Jer 52:7  Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.

Amo_8:11  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
Amo 8:12  And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
Amo 8:13  In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
Amo 8:14  They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

In this text we are undoubtedly being told of a true famine one where the lack the Word or Logos of God is like that of a of food, and specifically bread was upon a people, here the city of Jerusalem.
This is a fearful thing, and a thing that the poorest person in the USA has not experienced in probably any city. That no food was available for eating.

But what our liturgical calendar text is telling us of is the fulfilment of Prophecy which Jeramiah saw and was promised to Israel by God in His Law:

Deu_28:51  And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
Deu 28:52  And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
Deu 28:53  And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
Deu 28:54  So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
Deu 28:55  So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
Deu 28:56  The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
Deu 28:57  And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
Deu 28:58  If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, YHWH THY GOD;

Jeramiah’s testimony
Lam 4:4  The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
Lam 4:5  They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
Lam 4:6  For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
Lam 4:7  Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
Lam 4:8  Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

Lam 5:9  We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
Lam 5:10  Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

This is taken from an article on eating disorders and starvation.

“Malnutrition and starvation wreak havoc on a person’s skin and fingernails. As the human body channels its limited nutritional resources towards more essential parts of the body, such as the organs, less nutrients are deployed to other parts and it results in undernourishment and changes. When there are changes in the hair and fingernails, it could be due to lack of fluids, vitamins and/or other nutrients and it means something is very wrong.

Effects of Starvation on the Skin
When a person is in starvation mode, the skin is deprived of fats, proteins and other vital nutrients. As a result of these deficiencies, the skin will become dry, crinkled and scaly, and it could even develop a yellowish tint. It’s not unheard of for the earlobes and fingertips of an anorexic to turn a bluish color due to lack of nutrients and decreased circulation. “

Lam 4:9  They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
Lam 4:10  The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Lam 4:11  The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

Now out liturgical reading in telling us of this famine we hear and know affected the earthly Jerusalem and the earthly Zion:

Jer 52:4  And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about.
Jer 52:5  So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
Jer 52:6  And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

But let me begin to bring my message for you today into perspective, as I am not dealing with the Jerusalem and Zion of old where the Kings and armies of Jerusalem would resort in battle and in the siege as we see here, no let me rather ask you to consider this picture of the Temple of God in all of it’s glory with a band of wicked rebellious Israelite children of the covenant circumcised not in heart but perhaps in flesh, and these wicked men seeing the strength of the walls of this city which was to symbolize such scriptures as:

Psa 144:1  Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:
Psa 144:2  My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.

But the fortress and high tower and rock of Jerusalem & Zion when speaking of the earthly has proven to be penetrable and is as destroyable.
But let me remind you of what Jerusalem and Zion we have come to as the Church and as Christians, and take heed to the warnings similar to those of that given to the old Jerusalem:

Heb_12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Heb 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Heb 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
Heb 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.

Now Amo_8:11  is easily seen to correspond to a few well-known scriptures supported by Jesus Christ and seen to have been reveled since the days of Moses:

Deu_8:3  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
Deu 8:4  Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
Deu 8:5  Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.
Deu 8:6  Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

which Jesus quoted in carious gospels, such as:
Luk 4:2  Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
Luk 4:3  And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
Luk 4:4  And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

And of course we can make sense of this in a two fold way by application of this Word by John 1:

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
…
Joh 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Joh 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Joh 1:13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Joh 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Our 2 fold application is that as Moses and Jesus Christ both said, the Word of God meaning His preserved written Word which encases God’s Logic or expressed meaning for corrupt sinful man is bread for us, nourishment for us if we be the Children of God and able to digest be nourished by the fullness of God’s Word, which is the Law and the Gospel, that is grace and grace:

Joh 1:16  And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Joh 1:18  No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (Psa_119:29) 

As Children nourished by God’s grace we find that we are starving without proper nourishment from the Word of God written and learned, reasoned and obeyed and that grace applied to the Gospel Grace covenanted to us and found in Jesus Christ.

Joh_6:26  Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
Joh 6:27  Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
Joh 6:28  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Joh 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Joh 6:30  They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
Joh 6:31  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Joh 6:32  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
Joh 6:33  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
Joh 6:34  Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

beyond this we even see another nourishment that even Jesus received, of not reading just with the eyes or hearing with the ears of the Father’s will, no, but look at how Christ speaks of DOING the Word of God and his will as food:

Joh 4:31  In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.
Joh_4:32  But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
Joh 4:33  Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
Joh 4:34  Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

and so we have 3 forms of food, nourishment that we are to have if we desire to not spiritually starve:

1. The Word of God
2. The Person of Jesus Christ and the Truth of who he is and why He came down from heaven
3. our doing of the father’s will by these 2 truths which all the works of God are related too.

so simply:
1. the word of God
2. the person of Christ
3. our duty in response to those 2 truths of God’s will

These 3 things are the nourishment package for the Child of God whereby he is to continue to be empowered to do as God would have him do in growing up in Christ and in keeping the faith as a soldier of Christ.

Now look at verse of Revelations 2

we see here that there is even a promise of punishment similar to what we find in this week’s liturgical remembrance of a siege that God Himself sends upon unrepentant and sinful men who despise His Word His Gospel and their duty in response to those paramount truths.

Rev_2:12  And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
Rev 2:13  I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
Rev 2:14  But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Rev 2:15  So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Rev 2:16  Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Rev 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

And here is what I am saying  today that the 2 paramount truths of our nourishment being withholden by God and neglected is the punishment of God and deserves the punishment of God justly.

Amo_8:11  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
Amo 8:12  And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

Jer 52:5  So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
Jer 52:6  And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
Jer 52:7  Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.

By and large the church, which is the City of God has been smitten with  a famine like old Jerusalem and by and large that famine is laid at the feet of the people who prefer another Word from another God, any word but God’s Word, His Law and His Gospel, they prefer to “wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and … not find it.

The prefer to “swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.”, that is they prefer the idols and vain worship of the land they live in as opposed to the Word of YHWH God, His Logic and His Reason.

And this famine is also to be laid at the feet of pastors and over-seers of congregations the feed the people and tickle the dogs ears but will never Preach the Word that can nourish and save, because that Word that causes repentance might cause sinners who’d rather wander to starve and leave the church. It might keep the no Christians out of the Churches- Praise God.

But God lays this charge upon the ministry, the Oversight the pastors who truly desire to see the sheep fed with the food God has made for them to eat, to live to move and have being in, and have that life more abundantly.

Therefore, Paul says to the Overseer Timothy

2Ti_4:2  Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

2Ti 4:3  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 

2Ti 4:4  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
2Ti 4:5  But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
2Ti 4:6  For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
2Ti 4:7  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
2Ti 4:8  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.