A Prophetic Message to an Ungodly Nation (Jeremiah)

Now I told you a couple of weeks ago that we had finished the New Testament. That doesn't mean I'll never go back there again. I will do that. I have some plans to do it. But the natural assumption is that we are going to take a look at the Old Testament. And I have some plans for that. I'm working on putting together some kind of long series that could last the rest of our lives together, which you could... you could call "The Road to Emmaus." Remember that in Luke 24, Jesus on the road to Emmaus told the disciples, it says he said to them: "Beginning with Moses and the prophets, and all the Holy Scriptures, he spoke to them about himself." Well Moses, that is the Law; the prophets, the prophets; the sacred scriptures, all other books; those are the three categories of the Old Testament.

So Jesus went to the Old Testament and taught them the things in the Old Testament that were about Him. So I can't cover the whole Old Testament, but I think we'll go on a road to Emmaus and we'll go through the Old Testament and find all the things that were They refer to Christ there. And there are many of them, and you will be surprised to know that Christ first appears in the Old Testament in Genesis 1:1. And finally, in the last chapter of the Old Testament, in Malachi. So He is the beginning and the end of the Old Testament and many places in between.

That's one of the things I want to do, among many others. And I'm working on that as I try to reinvent myself this summer. Now I want to show you that I really know that there is an Old Testament and that I am really willing to teach you the Old Testament. So let's take a sample, shall we? Open your Bible to Jeremiah... open your Bible to Jeremiah. The remarkable prophecy of the man known as the Weeping Prophet, he wrote this great 52 chapter prophecy and on top of that, of course, he is responsible for the wonderful, profound and revealing book of Lamentations.

Jeremiah. And I want to talk about Jeremiah because I believe that Jeremiah is a man for a time like ours. The prophets of the Old Testament were historical figures, real figures who lived real events that are presented to us in their prophecies and in their stories. But they are not unique in the sense that the times, seasons, and problems they faced were somehow never repeated. They are, in fact, the same cycles that repeat throughout the entire history of humanity. Jeremiah lived in a time, a

nation

that is very instructive for us, living in the time and

nation

we live in today.

I think you are quite aware, if you are in tune with the character of our culture, that naturalism dominates our society. You could say that there was a time in America when supernaturalism dominated our thinking. In other words, we were one nation under God. And you know, they're removing it from the Pledge of Allegiance, as I understand it, even in a golf tournament, trying to figure out how to get it off our coins. But there was a time when we were happy to say that we are one nation under God, we are super naturalists. We believe in a Creator.

We believe in God as the sovereign ruler of the universe. But we have abandoned it and are essentially now rapidly becoming a nation of naturalists. America's most influential intellectuals, philosophers, scientists, educators, politicians, and judges are mostly naturalists. Naturalists assume that God exists only in the imagination of religious people. That the idea of ​​God is frankly a superstition, an irrational superstition that is created from a pre-scientific era to satisfy certain anxieties of the human heart. The truth, however, is that there is no God and everything is simply a consequence of natural effects. Naturalism is the idea that nature is all that exists, that virtually everything that exists is simply the product of unplanned and uncontrolled accidents.

Life is based on this assumption that we have simply randomly evolved into what we are today. Creation then is the result, as we know it, life as we know it is the result of unconscious forces that mutate randomly. The man says that evolutionary science is the purposeless end of a purposeless process that had no purpose in mind. Wow, it just showed up. This is what is taught in universities and then this is what students learn. Those students then become the next generation of educators, the next generation of politicians, the next generation of social architects, the next generation of judges who make their legal decisions.

They become the next generation of journalists who interpret things happening in the world from a naturalistic perspective. It is a form of atheism. And although not everyone would deny the existence of any God, almost everyone is very eager to deny the existence of the biblical God. Those who believe in God are seen as irrational. Those who believe in the biblical God are seen as dangerous and should be kept out of public discourse. And in the name of the separation of Church and State, we cannot allow people who believe that the Bible and the biblical God are the true God to have anything to say about public policy, public life, education, government, the social order, the laws, the courts. or morality.

All this rejection of God is supposed to be based on science. Intellectualism demands it. Freedom, tolerance and mutual respect demand it. There is no place for anyone to be an authority, for anyone to say that there is a God who is the absolute ruler who has written a book in which is contained all His will and all the truth relating to Him and life in His world which is necessary. That is absolutely objectionable. There is this total rejection of God. However, it is not intellectual, it is the product of the love of iniquity. That's all. It is not a love of freedom, it is not a love of intellectualism, it is not a love of science, it is a love of sin that drives this.

If you get rid of the God of the Bible, you get rid of the Bible. If you get rid of the Bible, you get rid of biblical morality. If you get rid of biblical morality, you can live however you want with the assumption that there will be no consequences. So all these so-called naturalistic intellectuals are nothing more than hedonists who want to express their lust in an unbridled manner. Anyone with half a brain knows that all this didn't come from anyone. Spurgeon said, "I can hardly conceive of a heart so callous as to feel no fear, or a human mind so dull and lacking in understanding as to rightly see the signs of God's omnipotent power and then turn away without some sense of wonder and obedience." How can you look at what exists and not be amazed by its origin?

How can we sin against such a great reality by denying it and then sin against the will of the same God that we deny against the greatness of the Almighty? Well, our instruction today will come from the prophet Jeremiah on how we respond to a society like ours, which looks a lot like yours. Let's turn to Jeremiah chapter 5, Jeremiah chapter 5. In a 52-chapter book, there's obviously a lot more than we would try to cover, but I think I can give you a sense of the man and his time that will relate to how we approach time and the place where we are today.

Chapter 5 and verse 20 is one of Jeremiah's sermons that comes from the Lord and gives us a good idea of ​​how things were. The Lord tells Jeremiah to say these things. "Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah saying... here is the

message

that God gives... 'Hear this now, you foolish and senseless people who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do.'" You don't hear. Don't you fear me?' declares the Lord: 'Do you not tremble before me? For I have set the sand as a limit for the sea, an eternal decree so that although the waters are agitated, they cannot prevail. , but they can't cross it.

But this town has a stubborn and rebellious heart. They have strayed and turned aside. They do not say in their hearts: Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain in his time. autumn rain and spring rain, which preserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest, your iniquities have turned them aside and your sins have denied you good.'" Now, what does this say? It is really a very very statement. , very clear. He is saying that the people of God, the men of Judah, the people of Jacob, the Jews have looked at creation, they have seen the ocean and the land that limits it, they have understood the rain in the appropriate season and the the seasons and the rain that together produced the food that sustains life.

They have seen the lasting coherence of all this. They have seen the power of these arrangements and how wonderful they are. That is, the majesty of God is shown in creation. God's providence is manifest and should stir your hearts in worship. That is why he says in verse 22: "Do you not fear me or worship me? Do you not tremble in my presence?" Otherwise. They say in their hearts, "Let us not fear," verse 24, "let us not really fear the Lord." It should say, "Let us fear the Lord now." But it is not so. Their wills They do not submit to Him.

They do not even honor Him as Creator and Provider. Jehovah's almighty power is manifest, it is visible in the works of His creation, which should bind His covenant people, Israel and any people in any age of time. history, to fear His name, to fear Him as Creator. Reverence Him as the source of provision, the one who controls the sea, provides the land, the seasons and the food. How can we contemplate this God and not worship Him and give Him honor. and not turn to Him and not obey Him? That is the question that God tells Jeremiah to ask Judah, the southern kingdom, the remaining people in the land of Israel, the northern Kingdom, had already been taken captive by their own apostasy.

But there is more than a fact here. There is an analogy here and I want you to see the analogy. The analogy appears in verse 22, it is a fact that God sets sand as a limit for the sea. It is a fact that the waves stir and yet cannot prevail, they roar but cannot cross. It is a fact that God controls the oceans from the shore. The sea then…says Jeremiah…never crosses its limit. He obeys me in all his movements. It may go around and around, there may be an occasional tidal wave, there may be an occasional tsunami, but the sea will return to its orderly place.

However, to the contrary, verse 23: "This people has a stubborn and rebellious heart. They have gone astray and gone astray. They will not be bound. They will not remain within the confines of God's will and purpose. They are a rebellious people and rebellious people. They go astray. They break all the limits. This pure, insignificant and sinful man, this little creature that God could crush like a moth under his shoe, this man will resist God's restrictions and surpass all his limits. fall cannot be restrained, either individually or collectively. The sea tosses and turns, but it obeys by a small belt of sand.

But men, says God, who have restraints stronger than the sand, are rebellious and trespass. the borders that God has established. That is what the people of the nation of Israel had made. The borders, the limits, His promises, His threats, His judgments, His commandments, His Covenants, and they invaded them all. He is determined to rebel. So are the things. This is how, God says, Jeremiah should see his people. Now, in this situation in the southern kingdom of Judah, God drops this prophet and he is an extraordinary man. His

message

is judgment that comes and comes quickly. In fact, the trial occurred during his lifetime.

About a century earlier there was another very familiar prophet, Isaiah, who said the same thing: "Judgment is coming, judgment is coming, judgment is coming," and he was referring to the Babylonian captivity, the holocaust of the coming of the Babylonians. /Chaldean army to desecrate the temple, destroy the temple, conquer Jerusalem, massacre thousands of people and take the rest captive to a pagan culture. Isaiah said that that particular holocaust, among many in the life of Israel, would happen. About a century later, Jeremiah arrives and it is during his lifetime that he really arrives. Jeremiah was a preacher for about as long as I've been here, 42 years... 42 years.

He preached during the reign of five kings. The first king was a man named Josiah...Josiah. The end of Josiah's reign was a time of reform and a time of revival. The Law was recovered and Josiah sought to bring the Law to the people and brought about a revival. However, a prophetess named Hulda appeared and said, "This is superficial. This is man-centered. This is not going to last. This will have no permanent reform." That was true. The superficial revival under Josiah did not last. What Josiah did was right, he did all the right things, but the response of the people was satiated and superficial.

Josiah's reign was followed by the second king during Jeremiah's ministry, a man named Jehoahaz. It only lasted three months. He was followed by Jehoiakim and returned the people to corruption. He led them back into idolatry and the worship of false gods. He was followed by Joaquín, who also lasted three months. And Jehoiachin was followed by the last king during the time of Jeremiah and the last king of the southern kingdom before the captivity, a man named Zedekiah who was a vacillating weakling, saw the nation fall more quickly into the deep slide of depravity that led to absolute ruin and deportation.

He had difficulties. The first king, a superficial rebirth, the fourHe also faced corrupt spiritual leadership. God to chapter 5, where we were, and we're just looking at this briefly, but chapter 5, verse 30, something frightening and horrible has happened on the earth. What is it? "The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule on their own" he confronted the false prophets. He confronted the deceivers and liars who had infiltrated Judaism. So, on the one hand, he attacked the idolatry of false religion. And then he attacked the corrupt infiltrators of the true religion. You cannot be the Prophet of God, you cannot be the spokesman of God, you cannot be the representative of God unless you have a direct message that points to false religion as it exists against the truth and as it exists within the categories of truth. 23 says the same.

Jeremiah 25 says the same thing. These were false teachers who said what they wanted to say, what satisfied them and sure, they filled those places where the false teachers told them what they said. you want to hear, how good they are, how wise they are, how powerful their thoughts and words are, and how they can create their own euphoria in this world. All those liars find people who love to hear that, but what do you want? do at the end? What will happen in the end when you face trial? This is a direct message. He referred to evil in general in chapter 3.

Chapter 3 verses 24 and 25 will be a sufficient illustration. "A shameful thing has consumed the work of our fathers from our youth, their flocks, their cows, their sons and their daughters." It's just... the whole society is immoral. Shame describes all behavior. Verse 25 talks about lying down in our shame. We have sinned against the Lord our God, and our parents, from our youth until this day, have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. There are shades of sexual deviance, sexual perversion, sexual immorality, all in the book of Jeremiah. Perversion of marriage in chapter 3, sexual perversion there and also elsewhere, sexual perversion comes physically as part of the spiritual perversion of worshiping idols.

They were a wicked, wicked people. They were also dishonest, chapter 5. This is truly an accusation we can relate to. Aren't you tired of people in power lying to you? Listen to what Jeremiah says in chapter 5 verse 1: “Wander in the streets of Jerusalem, walk everywhere in Jerusalem. Look now and take notes, search their squares, if you find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks the truth and I will forgive her." Ha! I will stop the trial if you can find a guy who tells the truth, a person Liars, deceivers, “O Lord,” verse 3… eh, verse 2, although they say as the Lord lives, as the Lord lives… that is a way of swearing, I tell you the truth, God is my witness, As the Lord lives, I tell you the truth...they still lie, they still swear falsely. "O Lord, Your eyes do not seek the truth." Corrupt religion abounds everywhere. been leaking Christianity everywhere.

Moral corruption abounds on all fronts. Dishonesty is everywhere. There is a rejection of the Scriptures. Look at chapter 11 and we will conclude this in a minute. Chapter 11, verses 8 to 10. “They did not obey nor incline their ear, but each one walked in the obstinacy of his wicked heart. That is why I brought upon them all the words of this covenant that I commanded them to fulfill, they did not do it. The Lord said to me: 'A conspiracy has been discovered among the men of Judah, among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have turned to the iniquities of their ancestors who would not listen to my words. to serve you.

The house of Israel, the house of Judah, have broken My covenant that I made with their fathers.'” Bring out a statement: “They refused to listen to My words,” characteristically they rejected the Word of God. They rejected the Word of God. They deliberately abandoned the Word of God. You know that is characteristic of our culture. There is no place in our society for the Word of God, the truth of God, the Scriptures, the Bible. It's something amazing. And then in chapter 13, just to summarize this second point. God does something very interesting. It is a visual aid.

You don't need to read it, I'm just going to tell you what happened. He tells Jeremiah, "Go get a pair of shorts," underwear, "and put them on and wear them, but don't wash them." You've heard of wash and wear, this is wear and not wash. "Use it and don't wash it." And then He comes to him and says, after He's done that, "Go, take that pair of shorts and go far away, go... according to chapter 13 verse 4... to the Euphrates River and hide it. Bury it". in the crack of a rock." What? It's two hundred miles. And, by the way, two hundred miles is a long trip when you walk.

It travels 200 miles and buries dirty shorts. What is this? Well, he goes and finds it. He does. Then the Lord tells him later, "Go back and get it." What? "Go back, get those dirty shorts." And when he comes back, when he digs them up, they're horrible, disintegrated. town. I drew them to Me as intimately as I could, and they became filthier, and filthier, and filthier, and I separated from them and they became corrupted and are under judgment." God doesn't change the rules, does He? And we don't have the protection. of the covenant. Jeremiah is a man who had a divine mission and a very direct message...very, very direct.

There is a third thing and I will end with this. He was characterized by deep mourning. He is known as the weeping prophet, chapter. 13 verse 17, “If you do not hear, my soul will weep secretly because of such pride. My eyes will weep bitterly and tears will flow because a flock of the Lord has been taken captive.” This is God weeping and God wept through the eyes. of Jeremiah. God wept through Jeremiah's eyes. Jeremiah says, "Oh that my head were a fountain of waters, that my head were a spring that would simply gush water so that my tears would flow continually for my people." We never want to get to a place where, as we go to a nation on the brink of a holocaust of divine judgment, we become indifferent or callous.

We want to have the heart of Jesus who saw the city of Jerusalem that he was going to judge and wept over the city of Jerusalem. We want to have the heart of Jeremiah. I'll read that to you, chapter 9: "Oh that my head were water and my eyes a source of tears, that I might weep day and night for the dead of the daughter of my people." I just wish my head were a source of endless tears. He even calls, in chapter 9, later in the chapter, for grieving women to come out and lament with Him over the condition of His people.

Thus, for 42 years he followed his divine mission. He preached his direct message and was characterized by deep mourning. Which it was the result? Which it was the result? Chapter 7, quickly. The result, verse 23, I have already told you: "This is what I commanded you, saying: 'Obey my voice and I will be your God and you will be my people and walk in all the ways that I command you. It may be well with you. Without However, they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went back and did not advance.

Wow...disheartening, why do you do this if no one listens to you? I'm going to close with the twenty-fourth chapter... twenty-fourth chapter and the fourth verse. "Then the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Like these good figs that were pictured on the fig tree, like these good figs. , so I will consider the captives of Judah, whom I have sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans, good. I will set my eyes on them forever, I will bring them back to this land and I will not tear them down or uproot them.

I will give them a heart above to know me because I am the Lord and they will be my people and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their hearts.'" What is that saying? There is a remnant. There is a remnant After the destruction and the devastation and the judgment and the purification of the captivity, there is a remnant that God will save. Why do we preach if no one listens? Because among that great number of rejecters, there is a remnant that God will save. will save, that God will forgive, whose hearts will change.

That is why we do what we do. You, dear ones, are that remnant, part of that remnant in the nation on the way to judgment. Father, thank you for Your Word to us. its richness, it gives us life. Thank you for this precious church. I pray for those here who have not come to Christ. Oh Lord, would you give them that new heart? Would you cleanse them, would you seek them, would you draw them to yourself? Would you save them? Thank you for all that you are doing here and will continue to do as long as we are faithful to you, and we will thank you in the name of your Son.

Amen.