'Blessings in their proper time (Jeremiah 30-33)

One time, when I was a pastor in Richhill, a woman rang to ask if her brother could speak in our church.  It was short notice and I knew nothing about him.  I should have known about him, because she had given me a video of him preaching, but I had not watched it.

I said that he could give his testimony, rather than preach, and when I meet him I told him to keep it to about seven minutes.

He started off well, telling us how God had rescued him from alcoholism.  That was good.  But as he continued my suspicions about him grew.  He ended his testimony by saying that since he had become a Christian he had not even had a cold since he had come to faith.  That sounded a little too ‘health and wealth’ for me.  I was glad that I had not given him longer to talk.

The next morning I decided to watch the video I had of this man preaching.  There he was in a little church in Uganda.  He happened to be wearing the same suit that he wore in Richhill.  He looked at the small congregation of people and declared, ‘I have an anointing, and because of this anointing what I say will come to be.  I don’t care whether you have Aids or TB, tomorrow you will be well.’

I was appalled by the false hope that he gave those dear people.  The next morning there would be people who would wake up assuming that they were well, while they were still sick.  Perhaps some of them would foolishly stop taking their medication.  Some would later wonder what they had done wrong that resulted in not receiving the healing he promised them.

The primary problem in that speaker is that he did not know what time we are in.  Let me explain.

As we read Jeremiah we should keep three periods of time in mind.  Firstly, there is the time between Jeremiah speaking and the first coming of Jesus (horizon one).  Then, there is the time between Jesus’ first coming and his return (horizon two).  Finally, there is the eternal reality that starts with Jesus’ return (horizon three).  What we will see is that the prophecies in these chapters point to blessings that are experienced, in different ways, in each of these periods of time.

These four chapters of Jerimiah (30-34) are referred to as ‘The Book of Consolation’.  They look forward to future blessing.  We are going to look at three of these blessings, in the light of our three horizons.

1. 'I will heal your wounds' (30:17)

When the Babylonians came and conquered Judah and Jerusalem there was much death and injury. There would have been many wounded and grieving people.  But God promises a future time when 'I will restore to you your health and heal your wounds' (30:17).  See, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth.  Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labour; a great throng will return’ (31:8). '... I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security' (33:6).  How does this prophecy find its fulfilment in our three horizons?

Firstly, during horizon one, a future generation returned to Judah and Jerusalem from exile in Babylon.  We see that in books like Ezra and Nehemiah.

This talk of the healing of wounds surely brings our thoughts to the coming of Jesus and the ministry he has entrusted to the church.  Jesus was a healer.  Jesus commissioned the church to pray for people’s healing.  The apostle Paul talks of gifts of healings (1 Corinthians 12:9).  James instructed the elders to pray over those who were sick that they may be healed (James 5:14-15).

But we know that faithful people still get sick and die.  Sometimes God answers our prayers by saying ‘no’.  The healings that we see now are really just the first-fruits of the time to come.  When Jesus returns (horizon three), 'there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away’ (Rev. 21:4).  The preacher in Richhill was teaching as if all the blessings of the age to come were to be experienced now.

2. 'David their king' (30:9)

In these chapters there is repeated mention of a descendent of David who will be established as their king.  ‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land' (33:15).

However, this promise was not fulfilled in horizon one.  When the exiles returned from Babylon, they were not given a king in the line of David—they were ruled by a series of governors.  The returned exiles are left waiting for future events that will bring this prophecy to fulfilment.

Then, Jesus comes (horizon two), born in Bethlehem (because he was a descendant of David), and called ‘Son of David.’  But while his rule has been inaugurated it has yet fully consummated.  Even though we live in a world that ignores Jesus, his teaching and his offer of salvation, we await that time when every knee will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Isaiah 45:23 and Philippians 2:10).  The fullness of the promise is found with horizon three.

3. 'A new covenant' (31:31)

There are lovely pictures of God in these chapters.  God is a husband who woos his faithless bride, a father who goes searching for his rebellious son, a shepherd who gathers his flock and a mother who weeps for her children.

We are told that God is motivated by compassion, 'I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them' (33:26), '... I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more' (31:34), 'I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me' (33:8).  Not only does God promise to forgive his people, he promises to transform them: even though they had prostituted themselves with foreign gods, he will call them 'Virgin Israel' (31:4).

There is talk of a new covenant.  Before he sent the people into exile, he ignored their cries because he knew that they were insincere.  Now we read the people saying, literally, ‘cause me to turn and I will turn, for you are the Lord my God’ (31:18).  God does cause people to truly repent, and he always responds to genuine repentance.

This talk of a new covenant brings our minds to the ministry of Jesus (horizon two).  During the first Lord’s Supper, Jesus took the cup and declared, ‘this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many’ (Mark 14:24).  This covenant involves the power to change, ‘I will put my law in their mind and write it on their hearts … they will know me, from the least to the greatest … For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more’ (31:33-34).           

In our church’s statement of faith we declare that those who are truly born again are kept by the power of God.  The true Christian may fall, fail and backslide at times, but God ensures that they ultimately remain in the faith.  One of the strongest arguments for this doctrine, called ‘the perseverance of the saints’, is found here in Jeremiah: 'I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me' (32:40).

Of course we still await horizon three.  For in this live we do battle with the world, the flesh and the devil.  We are tempted every hour.  It is as if we have an enemy within us, in the form of our sinful nature.  We know the pain of defeat and the sorrow of letting god down.  But when Jesus returns the battle will be over.  Our hearts will be made perfectly pure.  We will never have to listen to the lies of the devil again.  We will no longer be tempted.  We will no longer be able to sin.  We will enjoy a life of perfect moral purity.  Come, Lord Jesus!

Conclusion

'Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see' (Hebrews 11:1).  Faith looks forward, in joyful anticipation, of what is to come.

Jeremiah has been put in prison because the king, Zedekiah, does not like what he is saying.  Hanamel, Jeremiah’s cousin, comes to visit him in prison.

Hanamel wants Jeremiah’s help.  He has run into financial problems and wants Jeremiah to buy a field off him.  As a near relative Jeremiah has an obligation to do this.  But this is not a good deal for Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is in prison, and may never get to enjoy the field.  At the time of asking the Babylonians are at the edge of Jerusalem, and have probably trampled all over that field.  This field is a worthless asset.     

But God tells Jeremiah to go ahead and buy the field.  Jeremiah was then to place the deeds of that field in a clay jar.  These deeds were to be a symbol of hope.  They were about to go into exile, but these deeds were not useless, for a future generation would return and the landed would be traded again.  These deeds are a promise that there will be a brighter future.

As we live in horizon two (between the first and second coming of Jesus) we know that the best has yet to come.  We are a people of the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’.  We live in the beautiful light that shines from the ministry of Jesus.  We enjoy the gift of his indwelling-presence.  Yet even those who have passed on in the faith, who are in paradise with Jesus, eagerly await his return, when they will see the arrival of the new creation, and find themselves clothed in their resurrection bodies.

As we look forward let us never forget that the greatest blessing of the coming age will be the uninhibited fellowship with God.  Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part, then I shall be fully known (1 Corinthian 13:12).  Then we will live in a city that does not need a sun—for the glory of God gives it light (21:23).  Now, as we live in joyful anticipation, we are to get ready for that future by learning to love and enjoy God more and more!    

Jeremiah 21-30 'Be careful who you listen to'

I once posted a blog on the topic 'Will all people be saved?'  I concluded that the Bible is very clear that all people will not be saved.  A minister friend of mine took issue with me over this.  His reply to my post included the fact that Jesus mentions hell directly only eleven times whereas he mentions money and poverty twenty-four times each, and love fifty-one times.

I am not sure I get his point.  If he is saying that the church does not speak enough about issues like social justice I am in total agreement.  But if he thinks that we spend too much time on God's final judgement I think he is wrong.  And if he thinks that we have to choose between preaching that emphasises social compassion over preaching that addresses God's moral outrage against personal sin then I think he is missing the mark.

You see Jeremiah is a book filled with calls to help the most vulnerable people in society.  It is also a book that warns of a judgement without mercy that will befall the finally unrepentant.  If Jeremiah was preaching the gospel today, he would not choose between speaking about hell or issues of poverty.  He would speak about both.

1.  God is compassionate towards the needy (21:1-23:8)

'The word came to Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the priest son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah ... (21:1).

Where are we in the story of Judah?  At this stage ten thousand of the leading citizens of Judah have been taken into exile by the Babylonians.  The Babylonians are now encroaching upon the nation again.  Zedekiah was the last king of Judah, and this is the last year of his reign.

Zedekiah hopes that Jeremiah will tell his messengers that God is about to deliver them.  Instead Jeremiah says that God stands against him and is using the Babylonians as his instrument to punish them.  God declares, 'I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in furious anger and in great wrath' (21:5).

But notice the offer of mercy!  'Furthermore, tell the people, “This is what the Lord says: see, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.  Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; they will escape with their lives' (21:8-9).  The advice may have seemed odd to them, but he is offering them a way of life rather than death.  Similarly Jesus offers us a way of life rather than the way that leads to eternal death.

Jeremiah speaks of coming judgement and calls them to accept God's way of salvation.  He also intertwines this gospel with God's heart of compassion towards the poor.  'Do what is just and right.  Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed.  Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place' (22:3).  God is passionate about social justice.  Compassion is a part of the fruit in-keeping with repentance.  The great king Josiah had 'defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well.  Is that not what it means to know me?’ (22:16). If we are not compassionate towards the most vulnerable in our society then it shows that we simply don't know God.

Judah had been badly served by its leaders.  But the days are coming, declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.  In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour' (23:5-6).  Who is this?  This is Jesus!  He is our compassionate king who cares for the needy and inspires his people to be concerned for the vulnerable.

2.  God provides the remedy for our guilt (23:9-40)

One theologian despaired of the theology being taught in his day saying that it taught a god without wrath who brings people without sin into a kingdom without judgement through the ministry of a Christ without a cross.  That’s a bit like the false-prophets of Jeremiah's day. 

'They keep saying to those who despise me, “The Lord says: you will have peace.”  And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, “No harm will come to you"' (23:17).  They wouldn't address the depravity of the human heart, the dire need to be forgiven our sin, and the dreadful fate that awaits those who reject God's means of salvation.  But God does provide a remedy for human guilt.

I was watching the program ‘Spirit Level’, on RTE.  They were taking about ‘sin’.  Joe Duffy asked a lovely man, called Philip Jacob, if the concept of sin exists in Quakerism.  The old man replied, 'Well, vaguely.  We don't specialise in trying to deal with sin, because it can often lead to guilt, and we don't think much of guilt.'  He admitted that this is not true of all Quakers.  We warn people about sin and judgement because we don’t want people to stay on a path that leads to hell.

3.  God chooses to save an undeserving people (24-25)

Jeremiah is given a picture showing how God will save many undeserving people.  This picture centres on two baskets of figs.  One basket represented those who had been taken into exile and the other those left behind in Judah.  “Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians'.  My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land.  I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them' (24:4-6).

This is absolutely amazing!  Why does God consider those sent into exile as good?  Was it because they were actually good?  Was it because they were better than those left behind in Jerusalem?  Not at all!  These people were among the wicked leadership of a wicked nation.  God, in his unfashionable wisdom, simply chooses to show undeserved mercy to these people. 

He does so as he changes their wicked hearts and causes them to repent.  'I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord.  They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart' (24:7).

In the book of Jeremiah God genuinely desires the salvation of all people.  He repeatedly has called them to repentance.  He is the God who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but he would rather they repent and live.  But in our wicked, sinful stubborn hearts all people break God's heart by refusing his offer of grace.  Yet God does not stop there.  He chooses to change the hearts of many sinful people so that they willingly come to love and obey him.  In other words if you are born again it is because God has chosen to transform your heart but if you die in your sin it is because persistently refused his offer of mercy.  Salvation is all of God and final condemnation is all of man.

Before we move on to our final point notice that Jeremiah warns all the nations of God's cup of God's wrath.  'Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make the nations to whom I send you drink it.  When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them' (25:15-16).  As Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before he endured the cross he spoke to his Father about the cup he was about to drink.  He experienced the full weight of God's righteous anger so that people like us, gathered from all nations, would not have to experience God's anger for ourselves.

4. God has an unfolding plan that is for his people's good (26-29)

In chapter twenty-six Jeremiah is speaking in the temple.  The people of Judah thought God would rescue their city because the temple was there.  In doing so they were exposing a superstitious religion that was disconnected from God's call to repent and act justly.  One of my greatest fears it that some of you think that you can have Christianity without repentance.  The apostle Paul warned those who would not take the demands of the gospel seriously that they would not inherit the gospel.  Jesus said that there will be those who say ‘Lord, Lord,’ but don’t actually know him because they refused to do the will of the Father in heaven.

In chapter twenty-seven Jeremiah gate-crashes an gathering of international leaders who were meeting in Jerusalem.  They were deciding what to do about the threat from the Babylonians.  He tells them what they don't want to hear.  He puts a yoke around his neck and tells them to submit to the yoke of the Babylonians.  Again, God is being merciful, he is offering them life rather than death.  Serve the king of Babylon and you will live (27:17).

But there were popular preachers than Jeremiah.  In chapter twenty-eight the prophet Hananiah claimed broke the yoke around Jeremiah's neck claiming that the power of the Babylonians would soon end and the people would quickly return from exile.  That was a blatant contradiction of what God had told Jeremiah.  The exile would last around seventy-years before they would return.  God took Hananiah's life for preaching a gospel of false hope.

Chapter twenty-nine contains a letter to the exiles in Babylon.  They are to settle down in that place and seek to be a blessing to the wicked city in which they live. 

This is so important for us.  We are to live lives that bless the communities where we are stationed.  The exile community is told, 'for I know the plans I have for you ... Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future' (29:11).  This is a favourite promise that you will find in posters.  But these words aren’t primarily about us as individuals.  These are words to God's chosen people that speak of God's great unfolding plan.  A community would return from exile.  From that community would come the promised king of David, the Lord our righteous Saviour.  He will bring his people home, not to an earthly Jerusalem, but to a heavenly Jerusalem.

Conclusion

All these chapters involve Jeremiah confronting different groups of people about their false-beliefs and wicked lifestyles.  People have to choose who they are going to listen to.  There are many false-gospels out there.  There are those who will avoid any talk of final judgement, lulling people into a false-sense of security.  There are those who affirm the permissive values of our culture and so call no one to genuine repentance.  There are narrow groups who only speak of the need to become Christians but never call people to acts of compassion.
Choose wisely who you listen to.  For there will come a day when God will be revealed to all the peoples of the earth as both a consuming fire and one of immeasurable love.  On that day we will each be held accountable for how we responded to his invitation the mercy made available in the cross of Christ and whether we produced the fruit of compassion in-keeping with repentance.

Jeremiah 11-20 'Faithfulness is painful'

Over the summer I read a brilliant little book, entitled ‘The Call to Joy and Pain.’  This book encourages Christians to embrace the suffering that is essential to being a faithful follower of Christ.  The writer claims that, ‘the happiest people in the world are not those who don’t have problems—they are those who are not afraid of their problems.

Amazingly, there are popular preachers today who claim that it is never God’s will for the Christian to suffer.  Yet Jesus warned his disciples that in this world we will have many troubles.  James, the half-brother of Jesus, tells us to consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds.  The life of the apostle Paul was marked by constant hardship.  Jesus was called a man of sorrows who was familiar with grief.  Jeremiah is testimony to how hard it is to faithfully share the word of Lord.

So, are we willing to suffer the consequences of faithfully following God?

1.  Faithful people speak the truth (11-12)

Jeremiah was a prophet who was called to tell people things that they did not want to hear.  He reminded them of the Covenant made at Mount Sinai; which warned them that they would be kicked out of the Promised Land if they stubbornly rebelled against God.  The people preferred to listen to prophets who told them that God would never judge them.  They refused to repent and demonstrate true faith.  Indeed, it was as if they had conspired together to forsake God and worship the so-called gods of the surrounding nations.  Jeremiah tells them that, because of their unbelief and sin, judgement was on its way.

What is in store for this faithful prophet as he tells people what they don’t want to hear?  What will it cost him to stand firm in an age of unbelief?  It will be as if he is a gentle lamb being led to the slaughter (11:19). 

Does that remind you of anyone?  Isaiah pictures the suffering of Jesus as being that of a lamb being led to the slaughter (53:7).  When being faithful to God causes us to suffer, we have the joy of knowing that in that suffering we are identifying with our loving Saviour!

Jeremiah complains.  How come those who ignore God prosper?  How come it is so easy for faithless people?  (See 12:1b).  If our lives reflect the values of an unbelieving world, if we never mention that the God of love is also the one who will judge the unrepentant and if we keep what we believe to ourselves then no-one will ever have a problem with us.  But if we live by a different set of values people will assume that we are judging them and if tell them of their need for God’s mercy they will ask us to keep our religion to ourselves.    

Many people say that their families and close friends are the hardest people to share their faith with.  Understandably they fear that those they love the most will not respond well to what they believe.  So we can see how difficult God’s words to Jeremiah are, at the beginning of chapter twelve, when he says the prophet’s family and friends are going to desert him.  Again, his experiences will later be mirrored in a more dramatic way by Jesus.  ‘When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, O abide with me.’  Take comfort, he will never leave you nor forsake you!

 

2.  Faithful people remember their mission in the world (13-15)

In chapter thirteen, we have the first of several dramatic acts that Jeremiah is called to perform.  ‘This is what the Lord said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it round your waist, but do not let it touch water"' (13:1).  He is then to go to the Euphrates are leave the belt in the cleft of a rock.  When he returns, many days later, he will find the belt spoiled and useless.

This is what God thinks of the kingdom of Judah.  They were meant to display the glory of God.  Yet when they went into a foreign land they chased after foreign gods.  Now they resemble a dirty garment that is not fit to be worn.  Bible commentator Chris Wright applies this picture, writing, 'if there is fundamentally nothing in the least admirable about the lives of Christians individually, or the collective witness of the church, then there is small hope of the world finding anything to admire in the God we represent.'  What do our live, individually and together, say about the God we claim to represent?

This gesture is followed by a message of impending doom.  Jeremiah complains again.  'Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends!  I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me ' (15:10).  It is hard to speak the truth, when it results in people despising you.

How does God respond to the prophet’s complaint?  With a gentle rebuke!  '... If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me' (15:19a).

The many Psalms of lament show us that we can be honest to God about our feelings and that God is big enough to take our questions.  But God will not allow us wallow in self-pity.  A negative spirit can disqualify us from effective service.  Remember the privilege it is that God has prepared works in advance for each of us to do.  No one’s ministry was more difficult than that of Jesus, but look at the satisfaction he derived from serving his Father: “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34).  Again, our comfort and joy is reinforced by the fact that God goes with us.  God assures Jeremiah '... they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you ... I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel' (15:20-21).

3. Faithful people are sorrowful yet rejoicing (16-17)

The life of Jeremiah contradicts the false promises of the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’.  The so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ says faithfulness leads to wealth and happiness.  Jeremiah's faithfulness resulted in suffering and sorrow.  In chapter sixteen, we see that Jeremiah is called to experience the loneliness that can accompany singleness and social isolation.  Yet despite such pain he speaks of God being, 'my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress ...' (16:19).  The apostle Paul wrote of being 'sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything' (2 Corinthians 6:10).

This book has a lot to say about the heart.  'The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?’ (See 17:9).  Yet Jeremiah trusts God to heal his heart (17:14).  As we listen to the challenge of embracing suffering for the cause of Christ, we ask God to give us a heart for the task.  Listen to the beautiful words in the Anglican Service of Holy Communion.  'Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord.  Amen.'

4.  Faithful people are prepared to be persecuted (18-20)

In chapter eighteen Jeremiah is directed by God to go to a potter's house.  He watches the potter work with a piece of clay.  The potter shapes the clay but he also responds to imperfections within the clay.  ‘Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?’ declares the Lord. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.  If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.  And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it' (18:6-10).

Again, at the beginning of chapter nineteen, Jeremiah is told to go to a potter's house.  He is to purchase a clay jar and to get some of the civic and religious leaders of the community to accompany him to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom.  The Valley of Hinnom was used a dumping place.  There Jeremiah pronounced a terrible message of doom.  Jeremiah will smash the jar as a picture of the fact that the Lord will smash Judah.  The people will not repent.  Their hearts are resistant to God and now judgement is inevitable.

What is the response to Jeremiah’s faithful words?  Pashur, the priest, has him beaten and put in the stocks (20:2).  Self-righteous, religious people hate those who speak of the reality of human sin.

Again, Jeremiah complains.  But, despite the pain of his ministry, there is an inner compulsion.  'But if I say, "I will not mention his word or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot' (20:9).  There is something within every true believer that knows that we are being compelled to serve and speak.

Conclusion - Jesus is the faithful one

As I prepared this sermon, I was struck by some words in the ESV Study Bible:  'Jeremiah's ministry causes him hard work, sorrow, and shame.  He accepts his role, but has no illusions of fame, approval, or appreciation.'

Are we willing to suffer the consequences of faithfully following God?  Are we willing to live lives that reflect the beauty of godliness?  Are we willing to speak the truth in love, even when the truth is an unwelcome message in a godless society?  Will we keep going when no-one encourages us?  Will we stand firm when the world is against us?  Despite the pain, will we rejoice to be God’s servants?

Jeremiah sets us an example of the pain involved in ministry.  His is an example that anticipates the more perfect example of Christ.  But there can be joy in the pain.  We have a heavenly friend who is greater than all opposition.  Even the complaining Jeremiah bursts into song in the face of the goodness of God whom he serves.  'Sing to the Lord!  Give praise to the Lord!  He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked' (20:13).

Jeremiah 7-10 'Am I beautiful?'

Joel Osteen is pastor of America's largest Protestant church.  On one occasion he was speaking on the Oprah show about his 'I am' sermon.  This sermon encouraged listeners to chant positive statements about themselves.  So Oprah invited him to lead her audience in a series of positive declarations.  Osteen gets them to stand and repeat after him: 'I am strong', 'I am secure', 'I am victorious', 'I am disciplined', 'I am beautiful' and 'I am looking forward to my future.’

You can see why Osteen is so popular.  No one is going to object to being told that they are beautiful.  But, are we beautiful?  Does Osteen’s gospel of self-esteem square with the message of the Bible?  Let’s compare Osteen’s message with Jeremiah’s message!

1.  A message that does not call people to repentance is not the gospel (7)

The people of Judah had separated worshipping God from obedience to God.  Their religion was superstition and their assurance was false.  They chanted 'this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord' (7:4).  They believe that because the temple is in their city, God will never let disaster come to that place.  Such assurance is false-assurance.

What's your assurance based on?  Is it based on the fact that you prayed a prayer of commitment many years ago at a religious meeting?  Is it based on the fact that you attend church?  These are not reliable guides as to whether you are a Christian or not.  It is possible to be convinced that you are a Christian when you are not!  Being born again involves a life of ongoing repentance.  I didn’t hear Osteen warning people that they need to repent and believe.  Similarly, a message that tells people they are good without God is a false-gospel—that’s our second point.

2.   A message that tells people that are good without God is a false-gospel (8)

These people, who had separated worship from obedience, were not willing to face up to their guilt.  'None of them repent of their wickedness, saying, "What have I done?"' (8:6b). Instead, they listened to false-prophets who declared, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace (8:11).  Judgement was on its way but these false-prophets told them all was well.

We have the job of telling people something that they do not want to hear.  Jeremiah warns the people of Judah of a coming judgement.  Jesus spoke about hell more than anyone else in the Bible.  Our message is not ‘peace, peace, when there is no peace.’  We have to tell people that they are not good without God.  We have to tell people that a life-transforming relationship with Jesus is the only way to know peace with God.

3. A message that doesn’t transform people is not the gospel (9)

Jeremiah is deeply upset by the spiritual state of his people.  However he doesn't simply sit in smug judgement over them.  He weeps for them:  'Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears!  I would weep day and night for the slain of my people' (9:1).  Jesus wept over the people of Jerusalem.  Paul wept for unbelieving Jews.  We grieve that our family and friends refuse to love Jesus and experience life in his name.

It is not that the people Jeremiah was speaking to were not religious.  He is preaching to them as the go in and out of the temple.  They were church-goers.  But Jeremiah knew that they were not right with God.  How did he know this?  He knew it because their claim to belong to God made no impact of how they lived.  Last week we saw that Tozer claimed that a person cannot be a true believer in Christ if they are no better than they were before they encountered Christ.  ‘Salvation … includes an actual change in the life of the believer … more than a surface change … a transformation as deep as the roots of his human life.’

One of the evidences that they had not been born again was their dishonesty.  'They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies' (9:3a).  'For every one of them is a deceiver; and every friend a slanderer' (9:4b).  'They have taught their tongues to lie' (9:5) '... in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,’ declares the Lord (9:6).  Remember that the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth and the devil is called the father of lies.  Who do we please when we act with integrity?  Who do we please when we act deceitfully?  Christianity is incompatible with living a lie!

4. A message that doesn’t challenge our idols is not the gospel (10)

Finally, in chapter ten, Jeremiah points out that the ultimate problem with these deluded, disobedient and deceitful people was idolatry.  An idol is anything that stops us from turning to God in repentance and faith, and enjoying a full-hearted relationship with him. 

Wealth can be an idol, as it was for the rich young ruler.  Bitterness can be an idol, for Jesus warns that we will not be forgiven if we are unwilling to forgive.  Image can be an idol—many young people think they are too cool to be a Jesus-freak.  Fear can be an idol—for many people don’t want to go against the flow.  Family can be an idol—remember that Jesus taught that we are to put him above every other relationship.

Of course one of the problems with idols is that they do not deliver what they promise us.  They can’t satisfy because they have no real power.  'Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk' (5a).  'But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King' (10a).  It is only in him that we can experience life in all its fullness.

Conclusion

Can you see the difference between what Joel Osteen preaches and what Jeremiah preaches?  Osteen wants everyone to believe that they are essentially good, that they are beautiful and that they should look forward to their future.  Jeremiah warned a people without God that they were corrupt, that they needed to turn to God in repentance and tells them of a coming judgement.  Jeremiah’s message points ahead to the ministry of Jesus.  For Jesus spoke of hell, warned people that they needed to repent and believe, and that their faith would be proved false if it did not result in fruit.

A Christian leader was enquiring about a primary school for their child.  They asked one of the staff about the school’s ethos.  The teacher said that the school aimed to boost each child’s self-esteem.  This made the Christian leader question if the school was the right place for their child.  You see, the gospel of self-esteem is very different from the gospel.  The gospel says that we are not good without God.  The gospel tells us that our hearts are deceitful above all things.  The gospel points to our moral corruption and filth.  Am I beautiful?  Not without God!

That’s not to say you have no value.  We are different than all else in creation, for we are made in the image of God.  God so loved this world of wicked image-bearers that he gave his Son so that anyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  His cross dealt with our sin.  His blood can make the foulest clean.  He covers our wickedness and his Spirit gradually transforms us into his actual likeness.  Am I beautiful? In Christ you are a masterpiece!

So let ‘not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me; that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord (9:23-24).  Words that are echoed by Paul, when he was writing to the Corinthians, ‘let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’

 

Jeremiah 1-6 'The wife who turns to adultery'

Tozer asks, ‘Can a man become a believer in Christ and be no better than he was before?’  He then answers, ‘Salvation … includes an actual change in the life of the believer … more than a surface change … a transformation as deep as the roots of his human life.’

Jeremiah speaks to a people who were simply going through the motions.  They thought of themselves as being God’s people, but God made no discernible difference to the way they lived.  Theirs was not saving faith. 

This morning, we are going to see that God warns those who are simply going through the motions that he will judge them, unless they truly repent, and that true repentance is a life-transforming gift from God.

Introduction (chapter 1)

Four miles to the north-east of Jerusalem lay the town of Anathoth.  There lived a man in his late teens called Jeremiah.  The word of the Lord came to him during the thirteenth year of king Josiah of Judah (627 B.C.).

Where are we, at this point, in the unfolding story in the Old Testament?  Well, we are after the creation and fall; the promise has been given to Abraham (which included a people who would possess a land); this people have experienced slavery and deliverance from Egypt; they have wondered in the wilderness and been brought into the Promised Land; in the Promised Land, they continued to rebel against God, so he divided the kingdom in two; they kept on rebelling, so the northern kingdom (Israel) was conquered by the Assyrians, and its people taking into exile.  Jeremiah is from the southern kingdom (Judah).

At the end of chapter one, God gives Jeremiah two pictures: one of an almond tree and the other of a boiling pot.  The almond tree is the first tree to bud.  When they saw the almond tree budding they knew that spring was coming.  In the same way, when Jeremiah delivers God’s word to the people of Judah, they need to realise that God is about to act.  There is the boiling pot facing away from the north; if the people of Judah do not turn back to God its contents will be poured out.  God is warning them that the Babylonians will conquer Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.

The faithless spouse (2:1-3:5)

At the beginning of chapter two, Jeremiah is sent to Jerusalem.  But his message begins with Israel (the northern kingdom).  Israel had been conquered and scattered, because they had gone from being an enamoured bride to an adulteress wife. 

You see, God had rescued his people from Egypt, and this had caused the people of Israel to delight in God.  But their love had not lasted beyond the honeymoon.  Soon they were chasing after the gods of the local fertility cults.  We might be reminded of Jesus' words, in the book of Revelation, to the church at Ephesus: 'but I have this against you, that you abandoned the love you had at first' (Rev. 2:4).

They had committed two evils: 'They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out cisterns for themselves; broken cisterns that hold no water' (2:13).  How foolish!

We are designed to seek meaning in life.  The desire for pleasure is not necessarily wrong, but Jesus said that he is the living water that is to satisfy our spiritual thirst (John 4:10-14).  Only in him can we experience true peace with God. 

I had a teacher who used to see us eating junk and declare that, 'you are what you eat.'  God declares, 'you become what you worship.'  So, if you worship at the temple of materialism, if you praise the idol of popularity, and if you pay homage to image, then you will become as fickle and shallow as the celebrities who act as the priests for those gods.

The need to turn (3:6-4:4)

While God had judged the northern kingdom of Israel, sending the Assyrians to conquer and scatter them, God still calls them to repent.  'I will not look on you with anger, for I am merciful,' declares the Lord (3:12).

This teaching on repentance centres on the need for a new heart.  Do you find yourself continually being tripped up by the same temptations?  Then, ask God to do a work in your heart; ask him to give you an increased distaste for sin and a renewed passion to honour God through obedience.  We need to acknowledge our guilt (3:13) and have God heal our unfaithfulness (3:22). 

The hymn-writer, Robert Robinson, pleaded, ‘Come thou fount of every blessing ... Bind my wandering heart to Thee.  Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.’

Warning of judgement (4:5-31)

Despite witnessing God's judgement, on the northern kingdom of Israel, the people of Judah had not learned anything.  Indeed, now they were worse than Israel (3:11).  It is interesting that these words were spoken during the reign of King Josiah.  Josiah was a great king.  He had sought to reform the religion of his day, but the people had not followed him.  God now addresses Judah with a warning of judgement: disaster will come from the north!

Jeremiah feels anguish about the fact that his people are going to face judgement (4:19).  It is right that we should agonise over the fact that many of our loved ones stubbornly resist God’s call to repentance and faith.  Moses wanted to be cursed, rather than have his people punished for their idolatry (Exodus 32:30-32).  The apostle Paul experienced unceasing anguish, when he saw his people reject the Saviour (Romans 9:1-2).  Jesus lamented over the lost people of Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37).  Ezekiel tells us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but would rather they repent and live (Ezekiel 33:11).

The quest for a righteous person (5:1-31)

At the beginning of chapter five, God tells Jeremiah to go into Jerusalem to see if he can find one person in who does justice and seeks truth, so that he may pardon the whole city.

This search for one righteous person might remind us of Abraham pleading with God over the wicked city of Sodom.  Abraham was shown that God was willing to spare that whole city for the sake of ten righteous people living there.  God is always slow to anger, and he is patient before he brings judgement.

This scene, in Jeremiah, points forward to Jesus - a whole people being spared judgement if one righteous man can be found.  We have been spared judgement because of one righteous man.  We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we are saved because of Jesus, our righteous Saviour.

The consequences of not repenting (6:1-30)

Finally, in chapter six, we see the consequences of the people's refusal to repent. 

They had no compassion towards those in need (6:7).  They took no pleasure in the word of God (6:10).  They were greedy and corrupt (6:13).  They heard God's warning but refused to change their ways (6:16).  They went through the motions of worship, they went to the temple, but their hearts were not right with God (6:20). 

So, the coming judgement is inevitable.  They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

Conclusion

What do these chapters of the Bible tells us about God?  They tell us that we must take his word seriously, that he takes our human rebellion and sin seriously; that we face a coming judgement if we refuse to turn to him; that he demands to be valued above everything else in his creation; that he is the only one who can give our lives true meaning; that he alone satisfy our spiritual thirst; that he mercifully calls people to repent; that he is willing to forgive and turn back his anger; that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but would rather they repent and live; and, that he has sent a righteous Saviour, that we can experience his salvation.

God calls us to repent, but what does true repentance look like?  According to these chapters, repentance involves taking pleasure in God’s word, and taking its instruction seriously; repentance involves finding your purpose and passion centred on God; repentance involves having compassion towards the needy; repentance turns its back on greed and dishonesty; and, repentance is ultimately a gift of the God who gives us a new heart and inclines us to follow his ways.  You can’t be born again and not repent.  It is not being able to name the hour you prayed ‘the sinner’s prayer’ that proves you are a Christian, what proves you are a Christian is the fruit of God’s Spirit being produced in your life.

So, if you are born again, you have been saved from going through the motions.  You have been changed from within, and you are being changed from within.  So, keep on drinking from the only well that brings eternal satisfaction.  Let the Holy Spirit produce his fruit within you.  Let God’s word dwell richly in you.  Be thankful that he sent his righteous Saviour for you!