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Jeremiah 2, Jeremiah Series
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Amen. Thank you so much, Marcia and congregation. And by the way, we had someone come by our house, brought some beautiful flowers to give to Patty. And I'm sure that happened to Karen and all the other women on our staff, as well as their wives. And then we each got a little gift card. And so we just want to thank you for your kindness and appreciation. You know, it makes it a joy for us to serve our congregation, because we do feel your love, and it's mutual. And I'm going to even talk about it today so we can keep growing in this aspect, because I believe that that's what attracts people is the love of Christ. Isn't that true? That's what attracted me to Christ. I think that's what attracts people to each other. So I'm going to pray. You don't need to stand again, but I'm going to pray right now that God would open our hearts as we look into his word this morning. So, Father, thank you for your divine love, and we're going to talk a bit about that today. I pray that you'd open our hearts, that we would receive more and more of that love, that you would reveal yourself more to us. I pray that we'd hear your voice today and areas in our lives that may need correcting, that you would correct areas that we lack understanding, that you would give us that understanding. Areas, Lord, where we are growing, I pray that you would affirm us and encourage us. And I just pray today that we would encounter you and we'd leave here knowing your divine grace and your divine love. And we thank you for that. Now I pray, open our hearts and the minds of our understanding. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Okay, we're going to turn in our bibles to the book of Jeremiah. We're in chapter two. If you're here, part of our congregation, that's inside our sanctuary here, there's bibles there for you. But if you're watching live stream, I'm sure you have a Bible. We're in the book of Jeremiah. It's an old prophet wrote approximately 600 years before the time of Christ. Well, I suppose he was young when he started, but he got older as time went along, like some of us. Okay, I raise a question. How did we get into this mess?
[00:02:15] And you've ever had moments in your life where you've asked yourself that question, how do we get into this mess? Maybe you're asking yourself right now, as we're in a national and a global crisis, how did we get into this mess. Now, that's a great question, but I think probably even a more important question, or even a greater question, is how can we get out of this mess?
[00:02:39] How many would like to hear that? We're not going to just talk today about how people get into trouble, but how do you get out of it? And that's the part we're going to look at here in Jeremiah, chapter two. I believe if we don't understand the root issues of what brings us to a certain point, all we deal with is symptoms. We never get down to the root causes. We never can address it at its very heart. Fundamentally, I believe what we're experiencing, what Jeremiah was talking about, what the nation of Israel was experiencing, what we're currently experiencing, is an issue of what or who we're putting our confidence, faith and trust in. It always comes down to that. Who are we trusting? And I believe that we're struggling with this today, and we're going to see that, that they had the same problems, literally. For generations, we've been looking to science and technology, which has been a blessing. But I can also say there's a downside to it as well. For every upside, there's a downside. And often, when we look strictly to science and technology, what we're really drawing from is human ingenuity. And I believe God's given us that ingenuity. But when we put our trust in it rather than in God, eventually it can lead us into a place where we have some trials and some troubles. Matter of fact, I see people reacting to science and technology now we're going back to things like nature and natural. That's the new movement. Right? And I'm going to even argue that ultimately, even that isn't the ultimate solution. The ultimate solution is that we need to look to God, who is the one who has our future and our destiny in his hands. That's the one we need to ultimately look to. And in Jeremiah, we can summarize God's indictment against his people as they had for generations been unfaithful to God. And so this is my text today, and it's simply this. In Jeremiah chapter two and verse 13, my people have committed two sins. One, they have forsaken me. The spring of living water. So if you reject something, you've got to fill the void, right? And two, they have dug their own cisterns, which are open wells, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. They just keep leaking. And so there's a problem there. So Jeremiah is kind of summarizing. I believe in chapter two, what he's going to talk about for the entire book. And we can all distill it down to this one verse. I mean, it's very powerful. So one of the very insightful concepts, and I believe if we get this concept from scripture, we understand it, we'll get a deeper understanding of where Jeremiah is coming from. The concept is the word covenant. Covenant.
[00:05:25] We never grasp the Bible apart from our understanding of that meaning of that idea. Covenant is actually connected to the idea of kingship and authority. And it's a relational metaphor. God enters into a covenant with Israel. God enters a covenant with you and me. We're part of the new Covenant. They were part of the old covenant. But God is a covenant God. And so what does it mean for that to happen? Well, God deals with both of us, his people, Israel and us. Now the church in that context of covenant. And we find that covenants were drafted in ancient societies. And these covenantal agreements, I mean, we have another word for it. We can call them treaties, were often forged between nations. First of all, there were nations that were kind of on an equal basis. We'd call that a parity covenant or a treaty. And basically it's like nations going into an agreement. This is what we're going to do for each other and they're kind of equal status. But many times when we read the Old Testament, we find that some nations were stronger, some nations were weaker. They conquered those nations. These nations became what we call vassal states. They were under the control of the stronger, and they entered into a covenant relationship which had obligations for both parties. And they also had witnesses, and they also had inside the Treaties a time when they would renew their treaty, they would have a certain time to do that.
[00:06:58] Now, if they broke the treaty, if they didn't fulfill their obligations, then there were certain consequences. Now, when you read the Old Testament, you can see that in the mosaic covenant, found especially in the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is that second reading, you see this covenant being described and you can see that God is the sovereign, Israel is the vassal or the ones that are trusting in the sovereign. And God says, hey, if you do these things, if you come into relationship with me and you do these obligations, I'm going to bless you. And if you forsake these obligations, there's GoinG to be negative consequences. Actually, LeviTicuS says, when you're reading through LEviTicuS, it says blessings and curses. How many have noticed that? That's all part of this covenantal idea? Sometimes you didn't realize that. And yet, that's the nature of it. R. K. Harrison says, in DEutErOnOMY and in SecUlar near eastern international treaties, the phrase to go after means to serve as a vasSal. And many times, Israel would go after a nation. Basically, they were coming under their authority. And we'll see that that becomes problematic. So the book of Deuteronomy is actually this covenant between Yahweh and Israel. And Moses tells them that they have to review and affirm this covenant with God every seven years, because now they're living in an oral culture. And what I mean by that is they don't have a lot of written records. We have the law stamped on the stone and stuff like that. But really, they have limited written records. It's very small. And so it was an oral culture, and they met every seven years. And as we're going to read here in the book of deuteronomy, there was a reason for, it says here, Moses wrote down the law, and he gave it to the levitical priest who carried the Ark of the covenant of the Lord and to all the elders of Israel. So now the people responsible for doing this are the secular. It's hard to use the word secular with Israel. But the elders, the leaders and the priests, the religious segment or the ceremonial segment of their leadership, the leaders were responsible to make sure this got done. And then it says, then Moses commanded him at the end of every seven years, in the year of canceling debts, during the feast of the tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God, at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women and children and the foreigners residing in your towns so that you can listen and learn what to fear the Lord your God. And also follow carefully all the words of this law. So, in other words, it's a reminder. Here's your obligations, and this is what you need to know. And to know who God is. Then he goes on and says, their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. So once we have this background of covenant, now I can go on to explain what in the world the prophets are all about. So the prophets come on the scene later on, and what they all do is remind Israel they're the God spokesperson. You have broken the covenantal agreement. And so therefore, instead of God blessing you, now you're going to experience these negative consequences. And so there's a challenge by the prophets to repent, turn back to God, fulfill their obligations, because if they don't, the consequences are coming down. They're kind of like a prosecuting attorney. They're laying this charge before the people. They're calling them to respond to their covenant obligations. Now, when we read over the entirety of the Bible, we notice that God instituted a number of covenant with us as human beings. We have the adamic covenant under Adam. Go out, multiply, be fruitful. That's a covenant with God. And then you have Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. And finally we come to the new covenant of which you and I are a part of. And we need to understand that each covenant was building upon the former not so much as a total replacement of the past, but rather a fulfillment of them until we finally come to the end. And its ultimate fulfillment is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The new covenant.
[00:11:47] But what happens when we violate our part of the covenant agreement? It's to this that Jeremiah speaks with such relevance not only in his own time, but also ours as well, because you and I are covenant people, and I don't think we think that way. We have not got this and grasped this concept. As a matter of fact, when you think about our relationship to God and we see it with Israel, Israel is seen as the bride of Christ. The church is, I'm sorry, the bride of God. And then in the New Testament, we have the church as a bride of Christ or the bride of God. And so we have this covenant relationship. And marriage is the metaphor that describes the uniqueness and the exclusivity of that relationship. This is a special relationship. But what happens when we violate this? And that's what we're going to look at today in chapter two. So there are two aspects that I want us to look at. Jeremiah's message, and this is kind of a summary of his book, actually. In chapter two, he starts out with God's charge against his people. In other words, God is making a complaint. God is saying, look, you've messed up and I want you to smarten up. He's telling us what the issue is. And the first charge is one of idolatry, which is described as infidelity. So they were worshipping other gods in Jeremiah, chapter two, verse two, it says, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. Now he's not just focusing in on the city. The city of Jerusalem represents the whole nation, just like we would know we need to talk to Ottawa. But we know that that means not just Ottawa. It's talking to the leaders of an entire nation. And that's exactly what Jeremiah is being told to do. And then it says, this is what the Lord says. I remember the devotion of your youth how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness.
[00:13:40] Israel was holy to the Lord the firstfruits of his harvest and all who devoured her were held guilty and disaster overtook them, declares the Lord. So Jeremiah is reminding them that while they were in the process of possessing the promised land, you notice what happened. I mean, they basically took it over. I mean, God was with them. And every time there was resistance, God made sure that his people were on the winning side. God was really fighting for them, and we see that in the scriptures, and he protected them.
[00:14:13] We also see that metaphor of marriage there as it stated, and Israel really belonged to God. She was the first fruits. It was a nation that belonged to God, and there was a reason for all of that. She had this unique relationship described as the bride. And literally, she was kind of like in the wilderness. It's kind of like the honeymoon stage. Now, it's interesting that as he's describing this, it's kind of an idealized relationship. Okay.
[00:14:44] Because we know when we read our bibles carefully, the wilderness wasn't just a piece of cake there, right? There was a lot of whining and complaining and carrying on a little bit of idolatry, the golden calf. But the point that Jeremiah and God are trying to bring out is that basically he's overlooking those infractions, and it's kind of created this idealizer, this idyllic relationship. Like, this is the honeymoon stage. Things are good, but once they get into the promised land, and that generation that helped conquer the promised land is now died off, something begins to happen. The people forget. Interesting term. They forget.
[00:15:26] And we pick this story up here in Jeremiah, chapter two, because he says, this is what the Lord said. Now, what fault did your ancestors find in me that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. So they went into the promised land, and instead of destroying the idolatry of the land, that what was polluting the land and how it literally turned the hearts of the people living in the land into people that lived in depravity and in brokenness. And God was trying to address that. Israel fell into the same trap. She started to worship all the gods of the CanaAnites. Isn't that crazy? And the very thing that God was displeased with, they began to embrace and the problem with idols is that you become what you worship, and an idol is a nothing, and so you become a nothing. Basically, that's what Jeremiah is saying here. When you and I don't worship something that is beyond us, something that is above us, when we don't worship the God who fashioned us and we don't become like God, what do we become like? We become like that which we are putting our trust in and that which we're worshipping. And it has a tendency to diminish us. And we can see in people's lives, are they being developed and transformed and becoming more righteous, more godly, more loving, more caring, more generous? Or are we depreciated because we're living for our own interest, and ourselves and our world start shrinking down to us? And it's a very small world. When you're living just for yourself, it's a very tiny world. But when you're living for God and you're living for God's values, your soul is expanding and you're living beyond yourself. And there's something dynamic and exciting about that. And so we move from a very minimalistic way of life and thinking and very self oriented to this person who begins to expand and has a concern for many other people. And we actually start living at a higher level, a far more fruitful, more exciting, more significant, more meaningful type of life. He goes on to say here they did not ask, where's the Lord who brought us out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness? I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. So in time, they just succumbed to the temptation and became corrupted, just like the people before them. And ultimately they rejected Yahweh and forgot what God had done for them. Now, that word forget is very powerful. See, when I read the word forget, what do you think of when I say forget? It's something that we can't remember, but that's not the biblical meaning. And Alan Dearborn, who's a scholar, he says this forgetting is associated with not honoring God or being obedient. So even though they were in the land, eventually they built the temple. They were worshiping Yahweh the whole time. Okay, so it wasn't that they stopped worshiping God, but what they weren't doing was honoring God, and they weren't fulfilling their covenant obligations, because what they were doing was they were also worshiping all these canaan ideaties, okay? And what happens is it's Impossible to worship God and canaan ideaties. Jesus said, it's impossible to worship God and mammon. It's impossible to have two masters. And so when you and I think we're doing it, sometimes we're saying, I'm trusting God, but I'm also trusting them. What we're doing is diminishing God. God says, you're forgetting me. You're actually dishonouring me. You're actually disobeying me. You're actually violating our covenant agreement. Because remember now, this is an exclusive relationship. This is a marriage. And so what we're really doing is instead of being faithful to God, we're literally chasing after other lovers. And throughout the Old Testament, when you're reading Hosea, he brings that out very powerfully. Gomer Hosea's wife was doing what, she was chasing after other lovers. She was unfaithful to her husband. And God says, that's what Israel's been like to me. They're not faithful to me. They're chasing after all these other gods, and they're violating our covenant, our relationship.
[00:19:55] So remembering is associated with doing what is expected. And we read here that they had neglected that. In Jeremiah, chapter two and verse 32 says, does a young woman forget her jewelry, a bride, her wedding adornments? Yet my people have forgotten me. Days without number.
[00:20:16] Now I just want to go back and just say this, that in this initial relationship, in the honeymoon stage, there's a thing that we call the first love. And in the book of Revelation, we see something very powerful. Remember that Jesus appears to John on the isle of Patmos and gives him messages for the churches. And one of them is to the church at Ephesus. And this is what Jesus says to the church at Ephesus. He speaks through the pastor there. He says, I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. How many say those are pretty positive things? I know that you've endured a lot. I know that you've worked hard. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people. In other words, you don't like what's evil. You haven't let people that are evil take over. You've tested those who claim to be apostles, but they're not and have found them false. You've persevered and have endured hardship for my name. Maybe some of you feel that right now you're kind of persevering and enduring a lot of hardship. Those are all positive things, right?
[00:21:17] And you've not grown weary. Some of you say, I can't say this about me right now, I feel like I'm growing a little weary. Pastor, this Covid thing has continued on now for a long time. I feel like I'm enduring, but I am growing weary. But these guys weren't even doing that. But then we read this in the next verse. Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken the love you had at first. So there was something wrong. God was evaluating something, saying, this is really missing. And now the next verse tells me how serious this is because he says, consider how far you have fallen and repent and do the things you did at first. So something has happened that really could remove the candlestick, God's presence, from the church. This is very serious stuff. So the question is, what does it mean to have forsaken our first love? And Jeremiah would say that we're guilty of forsaking the spring of living water. In other words, we have moved away from what God has for us, and we're trusting in some other things, and we've stopped trusting God, and we're looking elsewhere for our solutions. And don't you think as we look at our culture today that a lot of people are looking elsewhere for solutions? We're not really looking to God. We're looking to other things for solutions. And how do I know that I'm not loving God as I once did? That's a great question, and I want to just say this. Here's the answer to knowing how my love life is with God. Here's the test. You ever ask yourself, how much do I really love God? I'm going to give you the answer. When I genuinely experience God's love, my actions become loving toward others.
[00:22:59] The true measure of my love from God and then toward God is measured on how I'm treating the people around me and even those who don't agree with me and even those who are persecuting me. See, John reminds me in his epistle and he reminding you and I that whoever claims to love God yet hates his brother or sister is what is a liar. You're fooling yourself. You're in a state of deception. So if I'm walking around right now and I'm mad at people, I'm unhappy at people and people who are disagreeing with me, and I'm writing them off, I'm withdrawing them. A lot of times we're going, well, I respect you, I disagree with you. But then they're gone. They just throw you under the bus. They move on.
[00:23:48] Let me ask you a question. Is that real love?
[00:23:52] I don't think so.
[00:23:54] See, our culture today, when we don't like something, we throw it away. And when we don't like people, we just move on. And isn't that a form of throwing them away?
[00:24:07] See, I think we've really misunderstood the nature of love because when you're in a covenant relationship, and I think our culture does not understand covenant, because the way we treat each other, even in marriage relationship, we're in a covenant with this person, and we're really demonstrating this idea of being committed to someone, for better, for worse. It's very powerful. It's life changing. It creates security in a relationship. Whoever does not love their brothers sisters, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen, and we all have a diminished capacity for love. Isn't that true? Can I just say this? How many here can honestly admit that when people bug you, your capacity to continue to love them at a high level begins to diminish? Anybody have that experience? Does anybody ever get irritated? Anybody in the room ever get irritated? Okay, so that tells me you have a diminished capacity for love.
[00:25:07] And I'm going to argue we all have that problem. Okay, if you tell me I have no diminished capacity for love, I'm going to say, I don't believe you.
[00:25:17] And I could probably find people in your life that would tell me, pastor, you're right on. They think they have an undiminished capacity, but we know that that's not true because none of us love people unconditionally. We'd like to think we can, but we really don't. We get frustrated, we get impatient, we get know, but we can love as God loves. How does God love unconditionally? As a matter of fact, I see the greatest demonstration of love with Jesus dying on the cross. Here are the people who have crucified him, and what does he say? Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.
[00:25:52] So here we are now in the middle of a cris situation. We have different viewpoints on what's going on. And what happens so often is we're critical of one another and we say nasty things or we write people off. Folks, that ought not to be. Think about what I'm saying here. If I am really walking with God, regardless of where my brother or sister's head is at, my love for them should be the same. I should keep loving them and support them and encourage them and be understanding and just say, I may not see it that way, but I still value you. I still love you. I care about you.
[00:26:34] I'm not going to give up on you. It doesn't mean I'm arguing with them. I'm not trying to win them to my side. I am just walking with them in community. Because in our culture today, the way we're going to win this culture to God is if we demonstrate this issue of God's divine love. As a matter of fact, Jesus said, you will know that they're my disciples, how they have what love for one another. And in this time, where there's so much conflict and difficulty and disagreement and fragmentation and brokenness and disunity and heartache, shouldn't we rise up at that hour as believers and have an amazing capacity to love people, even though we may not even agree with them?
[00:27:19] And that's my prayer for our church, that we will get there and that people will want to be a part of a community where they feel understood. How many here want to be understood? How many here want to be accepted? How many here want to be loved just for who you are? And I would argue that every single person wants the same thing. We all want that.
[00:27:43] And so sometimes we have to lay down our feeling of I'm right or I have to lay down my rights so that I can be more concerned about the person next to me and where they're coming from and try to be more understanding and more careful about what's going on in their know. It's interesting, when I was writing, because I wrote on revelation, some of you know that, and I quoted Judson Cornwall, and I'm going to take that quote again from the book I wrote. He says here that God's love is totally undeserved, unmerited, unearned. It's self evident that this love is necessary for spiritual life is far less evident. What he's saying is we all know that God loves us unconditionally, but many of us don't realize is we need that love in our lives so that you and I can actually serve other people. You and I are incapable of serving people apart from God's love flowing through us. And so when we have a blockage of love here from God, we're not receiving his love. And, you know, when we stop receiving his love is when we're criticizing people here, that means that flow has stopped. And what I'm going to pray today and what we're going to believe for is there's going to be a channel of flow flowing through us to other people. He says most of what God's love does for us is behind the scenes God's love is the strength of our being. It's the wisdom of our minds. It gives direction to action, strength to function, support to being. And when we embrace his love, our lives are complete. But when we exclude it, we flounder in life. In other words, we feel empty and broken when God's love isn't being poured inside of us. And he says we can only love in proportion to the revelation we have of God's love. What we need is not more religious activity, but more divine revelation of who Jesus is and his love. I believe that, as a matter of fact, listen to Paul's prayer. This is my prayer for our church right now. This is where I'm at. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being. How many want to be strengthened in your inner being by the spirit of God? I got my hand up. Of course I want that. Then he goes on and says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide, long, high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now, let me just unpack that for a moment. What is he saying? He's saying, I am praying that God's love would so fill you that you would be full of God.
[00:30:30] Now, how many here would love to have God just start opening your soul up and just start pouring his love inside of until you are like so full you want to burst anybody open for that kind of outpouring. And here's what I say. Once that starts happening, this is amazing to me. You can't contain it. As a matter of fact, when God starts to do that, you can love the person you five minutes earlier couldn't stand to be next.
[00:31:00] You can hug them, you can cry over them, you can pray for them, you have forgiveness flowing in you. It is amazing because all of a sudden it's no longer about you and me and our petty little whines and grinds and all the rest of it. It's the love of God flowing through us like a channel. And God loves that person and he's just throwing his arms around them and loving on them. And guess what? You're in the middle of the hug.
[00:31:28] Is that amazing?
[00:31:30] And that's what needs to happen in this moment. I believe that with all of my heart. We need that work of grace in our lives. But when we look at Israel from a distance, we can easily see the problems in that time. Okay.
[00:31:43] Do you know, we have no problem believing that Jeremiah is God's prophet. We have no problem believing that what Jeremiah said was God speaking through him, because we know from history that what Jeremiah said actually just. And, you know, it's amazing. The people in Jeremiah's time hated him, persecuted him, called him all kinds of names, made his life miserable and didn't believe in him. Did you know that? But afterwards, when it all happened and Jeremiah is now off the scene and years have gone by, he's revered. Everybody thinks Jeremiah is one of the greatest prophets that ever lived. As a matter of fact, when Jesus shows up on the scene, he says, who do people say that I am? Some say, you're Jeremiah. Boy, that's high honor in their minds.
[00:32:29] How many think that's interesting? And actually, in Jeremiah's day, there were a whole bunch of people walking around saying that they were speaking on God's behalf. So there were conflicting voices declaring that who they were speaking for was they were speaking on God's behalf. Now, notice what Jeremiah says. The priest did not ask, where's the Lord? Those who deal with the law did not know me. Their leaders had rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal. You know who Baal is? He's an idol following Their worthless idols. He said, you know all these guys that said they were speaking in my name, that's not WhAT they Were doing. They were speaking from another source of inspiration. Scary, isn't it? Now if you don't think that doesn't happen today, let me point out something. What was the actual condition of the people they were in terrible state. They were about ready to go into exile. God was ready to punish them. Jeremiah was warning them and TeLLing them, hey, you got to get your life right here or you're going into exile. Do you know what the false teachers prophets were saying? They're saying, hey, listen, it's all going to work out. God's never going to destroy this tempLe. It's all going to be.
[00:33:38] They were telling the people what they wanted to hear.
[00:33:43] Do we have that today? People tell people what they want to hear. And why do they do that? Because they want to exploit them. Listen to what Jeremiah says in chapter six. He says, from the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain. Prophets and priests alike, they all practice deceit. He says, this is why they're telling you that everything's going to work out. Okay. They're just telling you what you want to hear, but really, they have a hidden motivation. They want to exploit you. That's what he's telling them. He says, they dress the wound of my people as though it's not serious. And peace. Peace, they say, and there's no peace. So they're telling people it's no problem, when in reality, big problem.
[00:34:25] Can you see what they're doing?
[00:34:28] Jeremiah is reminding the nation they had forsaken God they had violated the covenant. Listen to what it says in deuteronomy. But if your hearts turn away and you're not obedient, and if you're drawn away to bow to other gods and worship them, this is the covenant agreement, right? He goes, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. That's strong LanguaGe. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses. How many? I told you, there has a covenant witness. And I've set before you life and death, blessing and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you love the Lord your God and listen to his voice and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers AbrahaM, Isaac and JaCob. But you know what happened. They were sinning. God's I'm going to take you out of here. I'm going to move you to exile.
[00:35:24] And so he's bringing these charges. Look at verse nine. Therefore, I bring charges against you again, declares the Lord, and I will bring charges against your children's children. And what were the charges? Well, the first charge that they had was that they had abandoned God and put trust in that which was false. Cross over to the coast of Cyprus and look. Send to QADaR and observe closely. See if there's anything that ever been anything like this. Has a nation ever changed its gods? And of course, the answer is no. Nobody's done this yet. They're not gods at all. Jeremiah says, but my people have exchanged the glorious God for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you heavens. I put a little note. Notice he's appealing. To whom? The witnesses from JEReMIAH, I mean, from deuteronomy, and shudder with great horror, declares the Lord, my people have committed two sins. They've forsaken me. ThE spring of Living Water. And they've dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold Water. Secondly, they've made alliances with other nations to save them. They were looking for AssYriA and EGypt. Now, how many think there's a little bit of an irony here? Because BAByLON was on the rise and God was going to use Babylon to discipline them. Do you know the past StoRy of EGypt with Israel? They enslaved them. Do you know the past StoRy with ASSYRIA? They tried to do the same thing. These were oppressors of IsraEl. And now they're looking to their oppressors to deliver them. Listen to what Jeremiah says now. Why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the know? He's metaphorically speaking, he says, why are you going there to be refreshed? Why are you going there to receive life. You're not going to receive life there. You're going to get in trouble. That's what he's saying.
[00:37:13] He says, here's the real problem. Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the Lord your God when he led you in the way? See, Robert Davison explains how they sought unwise alliances to address their plight rather than turn to God. He said, in difficult times, there were those who saw the answer to Judah's problems in terms of political expediency. Hence pro assyrian and pro egyptian lobbies in Jerusalem. Now, how many know we have a tendency, when we have problems, to politicize the problem. Come on now.
[00:37:44] Same thing. Then he goes on to say to Jeremiah, however, Judah was not merely another nations whose future could be guaranteed by skillfully playing the game of power politics. Judah was the people of God. Her problems and her destiny were religious. In other words, they were wrapped up in God's covenant. That's what he's telling us there. So I think we do the same thing. We politicize our problems.
[00:38:11] We look for solutions apart from God.
[00:38:15] Rather, we should be turning to God in this hour and saying, lord, save us. Lord, forgive us. We have turned our back on you. Can I just say, think about the time before COVID hit. How were we really living in great prosperity?
[00:38:32] And I know there's exceptions. There always is exceptions. But I would argue that the vast majority of north american christians were living a good life. And really God was an addendum. God was in the life, but he wasn't the focus of the life.
[00:38:48] And you know what? God goes. I don't play second fiddle to a bunch of people running around living for themselves. I will get your attention because you're in violation of my covenant.
[00:39:01] You are to put me above everything else. And God's getting our attention, and this is a call to come back to him and say, lord, forgive us. We did not put you first in our lives and made you the very heart of what life was about. And I know some of you have done that. I get that. I'm talking in a general sweep of North America. Don't tell me all the christians were where they should have been. I don't believe it. Let me move on to the second aspect here that Jeremiah is talking about. It's the consequences of their failure to fulfill their obligations. In Jeremiah 219, he says, your wickedness will punish you. Your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no of me, declares the Lord the Lord Almighty. Let me just go back to my momentary argument. Can I ask a question? Do you think that the majority of north american christians fear God?
[00:40:02] I don't think so. I don't think we're an of God. I don't think we fear and tremble to disobey his word. I think people brush it off. If you don't like what I'm saying, you just go to the church next door.
[00:40:14] That's true. We don't want to hear this stuff.
[00:40:17] We don't want to be challenged like this. And I'm saying, that's fine, but just remember, you can walk away from what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is the word of God, and we better take this a little more seriously. We need to have a deeper awe of God. We need to really revere God. We need to really respect what he's saying. And when he says something, we just don't walk away and go, oh, that's your opinion. No, this is the word of God, folks. We need to listen to what Jeremiah is saying. It applies to us today. He goes on to say, long ago, you broke off your yoke and tore off your bounds and said, I will not serve you. Indeed, on every high heel and under every spreading tree, you lay down as a prostitute. What is he telling them? He said, you guys are being unfaithful to me. You guys are worshiping under the trees. Spreading trees. These are places where they would worship idols. Do you know when we go to India, that's where they have idols everywhere. Every time there's a tree, they plant a flag, they build an idol. That's boom. It's right there. Isn't that amazing? When I go to India, I'm overwhelmed by how religious the country is. There is idols every which way you can turn. I get in a cab, there's an idol sitting in the mirror. They're just everywhere. It's unbelievable how much idolatry is there. But can I say something? In North America, we have just as many idols. They just don't come at you that way. They're more subtle. It's the things we're putting our trust in, rather than God. Those are all idols, and some of them are not necessarily bad things. It's just that we've made them an know. I don't think science is bad, but we can make it an idol. I don't think technology is bad, but we can make it an idol. I don't think the natural world we're living in is bad, but we can make it an idol, right? We can make anything an idol. It's what we're putting our trust in. He says, where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you're in trouble. For you, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns. They had a lot of little towns. He's saying, hey, if these gods can save you, go turn to them. But they weren't going to be saved by those gods, because they're not gods. Jeremiah keeps mocking these idols. He says, hey, they're not going to save. They're nothing and they'll make you nothing. That's what he's telling them. He goes on to say, why do you bring charges against me? You have all rebelled against me, declares the know. What is he saying here? Do you know what the people now doing? They're blaming God.
[00:42:38] They're blaming God for the bad situation they're in. But who's at fault? God? No, of course not. It's the people. And you know, sometimes in our lives, what do we do when we get into trouble? When we got there ourselves, what do we do? We blame God. God, why aren't you doing something here?
[00:42:52] God says, I didn't. Don't blame me. Take a hard look at yourself in the Mirror. You're the ones that are doing this in vain. I punished your people. They did not respond to correction. That isn't that interesting. You know, God sometimes corrects us with the hope that we'll be corrected, but sometimes we resist that. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravenous lion. In other words, I send prophets to you. I speak to you and you kill them.
[00:43:22] Isn't that interesting? And one of Jeremiah's contemporary, in chapter 26, he talks about a prophet named Uriah. They killed him because he was telling them exactly what Jeremiah was saying. And nobody wanted to hear that message.
[00:43:35] And Jeremiah, if you read the whole story, his Life was on the line. There was a time he did not even go to the temple because he knew they would kill him. So he wrote a scroll and sent to secretary to read the words of the Lord to. So it was pretty bad when they finally arrested him. They threw him in a pit full of know. One guy finally said, we can't leave God's servant down there like that. He's talking to a king and says, we got to pull him out of there. But he was intimidated by the nobles who were against Jeremiah. Really a crazy situation.
[00:44:07] Then he goes on to say, you of this generation, consider the word of the Lord. Have I been a desert to Israel or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, we are free to roam? We will come to you no more. In other words, God says, like, what did I do to have you guys desert me? That's what he's saying.
[00:44:26] He goes on here. Possibly the greatest challenge was that they were in denial of even sinning. Listen, what it says in verse 34, well, on your clothes is found the Lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them in breaking in. That's an allusion to the idea that in the middle of the night, if somebody broke in and you protected yourself, that was a justifiable Homicide. But he says, that's not what's happening. You're just taking advantage of people. You're oppressing people. You're out now killing people, and then you'll say this, I'm innocent.
[00:45:00] God says, listen, I'm watching your behavior towards other people, and he's not angry with me. That's what they were thinking, hey, I've done this, and God's not mad at me. How many times have this happened in our lives where we've sinned and God didn't do something right away? And we thought, well, God's not mad at me. Can I tell you why isn't God sending a thunderbolt out of heaven? The reason being he's patient, he's long suffering. He's giving us an opportunity to repent. Thank God for that. But he said, but I will pass judgment on you because you say, I have not sinned. God says, I'm not letting you off the hook. You guys have done this. You're going to suffer for it. Now, let me summarize Robert Davis'charges and consequences that were coming against Israel. In her rejection, he names three of them. He said a rampant religious enthusiasm for false religions that promised much but delivered ultimate know. Can I just say, if we don't trust God and we trust other things, we'll be deeply disappointed. It's not going to work. Number two, a social anarchy which was symbolized by the murder of the poor and the oppressed and justified by those who took advantage of them. And what I see happening today is the breakdown of authority, and we're moving towards anarchy. And let me tell you something, when that happens, the strong prevail and then they just exploit the weak. And I can name countries in the world right now. You don't want to live in Lebanon, Somalia. You want to go take a trip over there. Strongmen, gangs, warlords, they control those countries. It's scary. Number three, political expediency is seen in the alliances being made with former oppressors. It's crazy.
[00:46:39] Why are they doing this? Because they don't want to trust God.
[00:46:43] Verse 36, why do you go about so much changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt, as you were by Assyria.
[00:46:52] And then in verse 37, he says, you will leave that place with your hands on your heads. It's an interesting expression. In other words, that's a sign of mourning. Yeah, they'll help you, all right. They'll take advantage of you is what he's basically telling them. And he says, for the Lord has rejected those you trust. You will not be helped by them.
[00:47:19] Just as Israel broke free from serving God by trusting into false gods, they were taken into exile. They were bound by their captors. And how many know sin is a bondage? We'll either serve God in life or we serve sin. We're either in a covenant relationship with God, or we become a slave to our fears and our addictions.
[00:47:43] We are called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbors ourself. How many say, that's the summation of the law, as Jesus put it? If I could summarize the whole Bible, I'd say this is it. Love God, love people. How many say, that's it? If we do that, we're fine. That's the know, the focus of our lives, then must move away from ourselves to God and others. And only as we're filled with God's love can we really love God. By loving other people, we're living in a day of great spiritual poverty. We are grasping for life and love, but they seem elusive to us. We blame others. We cry, we demand but we remain empty. Love is often absent in our relationship towards others because we ourselves are empty in the time of crisis. We are now being exposed who, what, and where are we looking for answers and hope. And the only true freedom comes in fulfilling our commitment to a God who has demonstrated his covenantal love to us. Let's stand.
[00:48:55] Very powerful book. How many can see? You have to understand covenant to really get it. And I think some of us in this room, we've never understood that concept. And we don't even remind ourselves or think about it. We're in a covenant relationship with God. Is that powerful? We have obligations, folks, you say, what's my obligation? To love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and to love my neighbor as myself. That's my covenant obligation.
[00:49:23] I got to ask the question, how are you doing?
[00:49:26] I'll ask myself the question, Paul, how are you doing?
[00:49:29] Are you loving people the way God loves them?
[00:49:34] And that's to ask a test. Because if I'm not loving people the way God loves them, I'm not loving God.
[00:49:44] John said that, not me.
[00:49:47] So that's the test.
[00:49:49] So I don't know about you, but I have a diminished capacity for love. Anybody else have that problem?
[00:49:56] I don't love exactly like God does, but I know if I open my heart to him and I ask God to fill me with his love, what's going to happen?
[00:50:08] He's going to do it, and we can become a channel of that love.
[00:50:13] So I'm going to pray right now. How many here saying, you know, pastor, I need God to do a new work of grace in my heart today. I need God to open up my heart and allow his spirit to fill me with divine love so that I now become a channel of it to other people. And when that starts happening, I can tell you, you know what? You talk about winning the world.
[00:50:37] Love will win and empower and transform. It's what changed me. God's love changed me. Did it change you? And isn't that what's going to change other people, is God's love? So you can give me all the arguments in the world, but if you show me love, you're going to go a lot further. Guarantee you right now it's going to go a lot further than all the arguments. People can easily dismiss arguments, but they have a hard time dismissing things like forgiveness and generosity and kindness.
[00:51:18] Amen.
[00:51:20] So how many here say I'm a candidate for God to fill me with love this morning? Anybody here raise your hand? We're going to pray right now. How many here say, God, I need your love to fill my soul today. I need to lay down my rights.
[00:51:36] I need to lay down my rightness. I got the right arguments. Let's lay that stuff down right now. To say, lord, what I need above everything is divine love flowing through me. I need to be a current, a channel.
[00:51:52] And then when that starts happening, can you imagine if we had a congregation just oozing with God's love? People are going to come. People are going, I want to be a part of a community that loves me and will listen and will understand. Doesn't mean we always have to agree with each other. Let's get that out of our head.
[00:52:10] I don't know if you can have 1000 plus people agree with everything. That's impossible.
[00:52:16] But I believe we can have this many people loving each other because we've let God's love in our hearts. So father, I just thank you today that you want to do a profound work. We want to experience you today. We want to encounter you, Holy Spirit, the author of love. We want you to pour out your spirit of love, the Holy Spirit shedding your love abroad in our hearts. Lord, would you fill us? Would you fill us to overflowing that we can be channels of your grace and love to a broken world, to a world that's trusting everything but you, Lord. But we find ourselves also tempted to do the very same things, trust other things. But you, we ask that you would forgive us. We ask that we would turn our eyes to you and look to you and call out to you and say, lord, we don't know how this is ever going to end. We know how we got into the mess because we were forsaking you. But lord, we're coming to you. We're asking you to forgive us and declare us and to fill us with your life, with your grace, with your love. Help us in the days to come to be channels of that love. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave this morning.
