Northside Church - Sydney
About Jeremiah in About 20 Minutes
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. You know those moments in life when you say, well, I told you so, you know, and it's very tempting to say that if you're in the right, it often comes with parenting or grandparenting. You see the kids doing something crazy out in the backyard, they've got a ramp set up and they're, you know, roaring off in their bikes or their skateboards, you say, hang on guys, somebody's going to get hurt. If you keep that up, somebody's going to get hurt. And you know, just keep doing it. And then all of a sudden the fall comes and, you know, it's exactly what you predicted. Well, Jeremiah's, I told you so moment, probably came when he wrote the book of Lamentations because he's the author of that book, which is the next one along from Jeremiah. Because look at the opening verses of Lamentations. This is Lamentations chapter one. Let's know what Jeremiah says. He's wandering around the streets of Jerusalem and he's personifying the city as a person. Let's know what he says. Very, very, very cleverly written, very evocative. How lonely lies Jerusalem, once so full of people, once honored by the world, she is now like a widow. The noblest of cities has fallen to slavery. All night long, she cries. This is the city. Tears run down her cheeks of all her former friends. Not one is left to comfort her. Her allies have betrayed her and now all are against her. Judas people are helpless, slaves forced away from home. They live in other lands with no place to call their own surrounded by enemies with no way of escape. No one comes to the temple now to worship on the holy days. The young women who sang their suffer and the priests can only groan. The city gates stand empty. Zion is in agony. He personifies the city like a widow in grief. That could have been his moment when he said, "Look, I told you so. This was the whole basis of my ministry. I told you this day would come if you didn't turn back to God. You'd be vulnerable and you'd be let off into captivity." That's exactly what had happened. Well, let's put this into the context. When was Jeremiah written? Jeremiah was written between 630 and 580 BC. That's going back quite a long time. It contains warnings about the impending danger if the people of Israel don't return to the worship of the one true God. That's the main thrust of Jeremiah. The overwhelming feature of this book, and there are many, but the overwhelming feature is the single-mindedness of the author, Jeremiah. His sole purpose in spreading the word of God is to get the people to return to the religion of their forefathers, to worship the one true God. Jeremiah's passion and his sense of purpose, and that's what comes through the book, it can be attributed in no small way to the fact that his call to ministry was strikingly predestined. I can only use that phrase, "strikeingly predestined." Listen to what he says in the first chapter. This is Jeremiah speaking. "The Lord said to me, 'I chose you before I gave you life, before you were born. I selected you to be a prophet to the nations.' I answered, 'So from the Lord, I don't know how to speak. I'm too young, but the Lord said to me, 'Do not say you are too young, but go to the people that I'll send you to and tell them everything I command you to say. Do not be afraid of them. I'll be with you to protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken.' So, here's Jeremiah, and his sense of calling goes way back to pre-birth, and it comes through time and time again through our Jeremiah's prophecy. There's an urgency about what he says. It requires a response which, sadly, to the most part, is lacking. The people aren't very responsive, but this fiery prophet is not the third, and he doesn't worry about unresponsiveness. Unlike a lot of leaders today, he's not into opinion polls, he's not into popularity surveys, he just presses on with his message, believing that that's what he's meant to do. And what was the basis of Jeremiah's message? Well, let's put it this way in a nutshell. Jeremiah is the bearer of good news and bad news, but mainly bad news. That's the best way to describe this guy. Throughout the pages of his prophecy, there are graphic warnings of what will happen to the people if they don't turn from their evil ways. In that sense, it's a harsh book. It comes through very, very strongly. Listen to what he says in chapter four, chapter four, verses 18. I'm going to read quite a few parts of this prophecy just to put it all in context. Chapter four, verses 18 to 23. Listen to the word of Jeremiah here. Judah, this is God, speaking through the prophet. You've brought this on yourself by the way you've lived. The things you've done, your sin has caused this suffering. It is staging through the heart. Wow. The pain, I can't bear the pain. My heart is beating wildly. I can't keep quiet. I hear the trumpets. The shouts of battle. This is the coming Babylonian army. One disaster follows another. The whole country is left in ruins. Suddenly, it tends to destroy. Their curtains are torn to pieces. How long must I see the battle raging and hear the blasts of the trumpets? My people are experts in doing what is evil, but they're failures in doing what is good. You know, anybody like that expert in doing what is evil, but failure in doing what is good? Well, there are also words of hope though. It's many bad news, but there are some words of hope. And old Jerry does point to a day when the nation will reform and it'll regather. This is after the destruction. So there's a note of hope in this great prophecy. Look at chapter 23 and verses 3 to 5, "I will gather the rest of my people," says God, "from the countries where I've scattered them and I'll bring them back to their homeland. They will have many children and increase in numbers. I will appoint rulers to take care of them. My people will no longer be afraid or terrified. I will not punish them again. I the Lord have spoken." And then chapter 31 and verses 16 and 17, "Stop your crying. Wipe away your tears. All that you've done for your children will not go unreward. They will return from the enemy's land. There is hope for your future. Your children will come back. I the Lord have spoken." Well, a note of hope about the future return once they've been carted off into captivity. Well, what's happening in the nation? I mean, the obvious question is what's happening to cause Jeremiah to embark on this incredibly focused, this intensive lifelong quest to try to bring about change. Why was he prepared to suffer so much? And he did suffer. He suffered a lot. One time, there were attempts on his life, but one time he was lowered down into a pit and there was all mud at the bottom of the pit and he started sinking into the pit and people laughing. It's pretty graphic stuff. There was constant criticism of his message. Even he had moments of doubt and he struggled with his own faith in God like most of the great men and women of the Bible had his moments of struggle. Look at chapter 20 and verses 8 and 9. This gives you an indication of his struggle. He says, "Whenever I speak, Lord, I have to cry out and shout violence, destruction. Lord, I'm ridiculed and scorned all the time because I proclaim your message. But when I say I'll forget the Lord and no longer speak in his name, then your message is like a fire. Burning deep within me. I try my best to hold it in, but can no longer keep it back. Your message is like a fire burning within me. Why was Jeremiah so driven? Why was he so passionate? Why did he just give it away? It was such a tough gig. Preaching all this doom and gloom to the people. Well, in summary, the nation of Israel had forgotten one vitally important component or statement, rather, in their law. They'd forgotten all about one crucial statement. It was a statement that was meant to define the nation. It was meant to set them apart. It was a statement, a command to give the one true God, the honor and the allegiance due to his name. From that Bible reference, some of you know exactly which one I'm going to read. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verses 4 to 7. Here's God speaking. Israel, remember this? The Lord and the Lord alone, your God, is the one God. Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Never forget these commands that I'm giving you today. Teach them to your children. Repeat them when you are at home and when you are away, when you are resting and when you are working. That's the one thing they'd forgotten. There was one God and they were meant to worship him with all their heart, all their soul, with all their strength. The nation's departure from the ways of God. It had been a gradual process. Many kings over a number of centuries had led them astray, introducing aspects of pagan worship. This was the people of God. It was just amazing. And they'd really gone off the rails. Can I share with you a chapter 19, chapter 19 and verses 4 and 5. Listen to this, chapter 19 verses 4 and 5. God says, I'm going to do this because the people have abandoned me and they defile this place, the temple, by offering sacrifices here to other gods in the temple. They nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known anything about. They fill this place with the blood of innocent people that built altars for Baal in order to burn their children and the fire as sacrifices. I never commanded them to do this. It never even entered my mind. Of course, it didn't enter his mind. They'd really gone off the rails. There's even a reference here to a possible infant sacrifice. Well, the people had forgotten that God alone was the one true God, but they'd also lost sight of the fact that worship is not a matter of ritual and ceremony. It's something that must flow from the heart, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Jesus identified this passage when he was asked, what's the number one commandment? Jesus said, this is the one. Do you know what I mean? Chapter 6, that's the one. Love the Lord your God. Sadly, the people of God at the time of Jeremiah had developed an approach to worship in which they combined some of the traditional elements of the Israelite worship, but they'd also thrown in a few of the pagan observances that they had embraced. Listen to this. Here's Jeremiah, and he's at the actual entrance. He's at the entrance of the temple on this particular day, and God has given him this message for the people who were coming in to church, coming into the temple. The Lord sent me to the gate of the temple, where the people of Judah went into worship. He told me to stand there and announce what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, had to say to them, change the way you are living and the things you are doing. And I will let you go on living here. Stop believing those deceitful words. We are safe. This is the Lord's temple. Change the way you are living. Stop doing the things you're doing. Be fair in your treatment of one another. Stop taking advantage of foreigners, orphans, and widows. Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop worshiping other gods for that will destroy you. If you change, I will let you go on living here in the land, which I gave your ancestors as a permanent possession. He's at the temple entrance. The people are going in, and this is the kind of message he's got. They had clearly gone way off the beaten track. Though I'm meeting in the temple, that was still happening. That was a traditional setting, but they were just going through the motions. It wasn't affecting how they were living. Some pretty awful stuff taking place within the community, and it certainly wasn't stopping them from worshiping other gods. So here's Jeremiah, and he's the one with the heavy responsibility of speaking God's message into this very unsatisfactory situation. And his message was not well received because people don't like change. You don't like change. I don't like change. We're resistant to anything that's going to unsettle us. These people were very resistant because they become comfortable. They become self-sufficient in their approach to life and religion. They were blending in with the surrounding nations. Not too much distinction, no fuss, just all cool. It all seemed pretty cozy and pretty breezy, but these people were lacking in spiritual integrity, lacking in moral credibility. Well, it takes a long time for Jeremiah to tell his story and to get his message across. 52 chapters. It's one of the longest books of the Bible, definitely not suitable for a one-night reading. Not surprisingly, Jeremiah contains some well-known passages of Scripture. Now, these are passages you may be familiar with, although you may not have realized that they are from the book of Jeremiah. We've got time for three of them this morning in the closing stages. Firstly, Jeremiah 17. Jeremiah 17 verse 9, and there's what it says, "Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful. It is too sick to be healed." Now, that's the good news version. Some of the older versions say, "The human heart is deceitful of all things and desperately wicked." You've heard that verse I'm sure from different preachers over the years. It seems a harsh statement. The human heart is desperately wicked. It seems a harsh statement when you think that most people that we know and we consider ourselves to be people of essentially good nature. But you know, this verse has always helped me to understand the really dark side of humanity, and there is a dark side. And humans are capable of the most horrific things, the most heinous crimes. And when I see a record of a heinous crime, well, you see the escapades of people like Adolf Hitler, and Paul Parton, Eddie Armin, and many other despots alive in the world today, this verse gives an indication of just what the human heart is capable of. And so that helps to set those sort of awful situations in the context. And then in chapter 29, there are two well-known verses, and they're both in the context of Jeremiah telling the people about the day that they will return after the Babylonian exile. Their exile, terrible result would be, it will only last for a season, seven years, in fact. And then liberation will come. Look at 29, verse 11, read to us earlier by Anne, "I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for." Now the first application of this verse obviously is to the Israelites in captivity. But what a great source of comfort this verse has been to countless millions of Christians down through the centuries. Because it's an expression of God's faithfulness. It's an expression of his trust worthiness. It ties into what I said a few weeks ago. You know, when you can't trace the hand of God, trust the heart of God. He does have our best interests at heart, even though it may take a while for some aspects of his plan to be totally fulfilled. What a great verse. "I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, to bring about a future you hope for." And then the second verse follows on, and this is a very well-known verse you might not have realized. It was in Jeremiah, "Then you will call to me, you will come and pray to me, and I will answer you. You will seek me, and you will find me, because you will seek me with all your heart." Now knowing what we know now about the spiritual condition of the Israelites at the time of Jeremiah, that verse really makes sense, doesn't it? They've just came through the motions of worship, just going through the forms. And God through his prophet is calling the people to activate their search for intimacy. He's calling them to activate their search for intimacy with God. Forget mere adherence to the forms and the rituals. "Seek me earnestly," says God. "Seek me passionately, seek me longingly, seek me with all your heart." Now friends, that's the timeless word. That's the word of God to the Israelites at the time of Jeremiah. That's the word of God to me and to you. You know, a form of Christianity that just involves going through the rituals and coming to church and doesn't really mean much and doesn't apply to a daily life. That's a pretty shallow way to exist spiritually. God wants so much more for us. He wants it to be a matter of the heart, a personal relationship. What more can we glean from Jeremiah in this brief overview, just a couple of things, two enduring themes of Jeremiah, two enduring themes. The first one, the foreshadowing of a new covenant. They were steeped in the Old Covenant. They were doing a pretty poor job of trying to stick with it, blending in other gods as well. But Jeremiah, well God's speaking is with Jeremiah, foreshadows a new covenant. Look at verse 31 of the 31st chapter. The Lord says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the Old Covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep the covenant. The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this. I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people." It's a clear reference to the coming of Jesus. It's a clear reference to the fact that he will die as the Lamb of God. He'll take the place of all the sacrifices they were currently involved in lambs and all that sort of thing. By his death and resurrection, he would establish the new covenant, all the things we celebrated last weekend. Not based on laws and observances, but based on a personal relationship with our God through the Holy Spirit. That's what Paul's going to get in Romans 5, 1 and 2. Now that we've been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace in which we now live. The second enduring theme is this, God's insistence on heart devotion, not just outward conformity. This is why the book of Jeremiah is so relevant to today's theme because you think about it. The distinguishing feature of Christianity among all the world's faiths, the distinguishing feature of Christianity, is that it's not about religion. It's about a relationship. A personal relationship with the Almighty through Jesus Christ. How great is our God. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, Jerry got it. Sadly, at the time the bulk of his heroes didn't get it. And the nation in a moment of spiritual and moral vulnerability were swept away by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. They had swept in and they just destroyed the city and carried these people off for a 70, 70 year exile, a moment of spiritual and moral vulnerability. And you can see the buildup. They had plenty of warnings, but they were morally and spiritually bankrupt at the time of that invasion. But Jeremiah is not all doom and gloom. It's a book about hope and healing. It's a book about restoration and repentance. It's a book about return and about new beginnings. When you think about it, it's very much like your life and my life, a series of undulations that God remains faithful. And his message keeps coming. You'll seek me and you'll find me if you seek me with all your heart. It's very much like my life and your life. Jeremiah, a good read, guaranteed, but not only in one night. It's a great book. Get into it. And God will speak to you powerfully as he has done to me. Let us pray.