Matthew C. Mitchell's Blog, page 18

“Insult and Reproach All Day Long” [Matt's Messages]

“Insult and Reproach All Day Long”Uprooted - The Words of JeremiahLanse Evangelical Free ChurchSeptember 25, 2022 :: Jeremiah 20:1-18 
Rock bottom.
In Jeremiah chapter 20, the Prophet Jeremiah hits what I think was for him “rock bottom.”
For the last several months, we have seen how hard it was for Jeremiah to faithfully live out his calling as a faithful prophet of the LORD.
We have heard his anguish over the trials and sins of his people.
We have heard of conspiracies that had been mounted against him by his neighbors.
We have heard him preach the same hard message over and over again to people who do not want to listen to it.
We have seen him live as the odd the man out, forbidden to go to weddings and funerals or to even have a family himself.
We have seen him have to do weird symbolic actions that only emphasize more his strangeness and the painfulness of his message.
Like last week, when he was sent down to the potter’s house, twice. Once to watch soft pottery be reshaped while there was still time–though Judah was not going to take the warning. 
And a second time to buy a new “buqbuq” (a hardened clay jar) and take it to the dump field of pottery shards and smash it into a thousands pieces to say that the nation of Judah was soon to be smashed in judgment as well. 
And then when he got back from the smashing, he stood in the temple courts and repeated it all again.
And that got him into trouble. That got Jeremiah into hot water with the temple authorities, which we’ll see in just a second.
And after that trouble, Jeremiah prays the last of the deep personal prayers of this book, and it’s the deepest. It’s the saddest. It’s the lowest. 
It’s the rock bottom.
Because Jeremiah is super-depressed at what his life has become. By being faithful to the LORD, Jeremiah’s life has become intensely bitter. It’s painful. It’s depressing. It’s gloomy. It’s agonizing. It’s absolutely no fun.
Jeremiah says in verse 8, “So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.”
That’s our cheery title for today, “Insult and Reproach All Day Long.” Are you ready for that? Doesn’t sound like fun, does it? Not a pretty picture! But, often, an accurate one. Being faithful to the LORD will often mean pain.
That was true in the 7th century BC, and it is true today in the 21st century AD. Being faithful is often painful. In this age, we while wait for the Kingdom to come, being faithful is often painful. And Jeremiah 20 can help us to prepare for that. And help us to endure that. And help us pray when it’s like that, when we hit rock bottom.
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
So, first, let’s see what kind of trouble Jeremiah got himself into. Chapter 20, verse 1.
“When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD's temple.” 
Do you get the picture?
Jeremiah smashed that jar in chapter 19 and said, “This is what the LORD Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter's jar is smashed and cannot be repaired” (Jer. 19:11 NIVO).
And Pashhur said, “Oh, no you don’t. That’s enough! That’s treason, and that’s speaking out against the Temple of the LORD. That’s blasphemy!” Pashhur was apparently in charge of temple security, and when he heard what Jeremiah said, in the temple courts, he had to take action. So he had Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks.
We’re not sure what Israelite stocks were like. They might have been like the wooden things where you stick your head and your hands and they throw moldy food at you and shame you. Or it might have been a little prison confinement of some kind. All we know was that his freedom was taken away from him and that he was beaten. Probably 39 lashes.
We don’t know when this was. Probably late in his ministry. Jeremiah had probably been preaching like this for decades now. Maybe three decades. Maybe going on four by this time.
The clay was hardened. And here Jeremiah is enduring a beating and an imprisonment.
This is not just threats or conspiracies. This is actual violence. This is actual persecution. These are real wounds on his back. And the shame they were trying to put on him was enormous.
“Insult and reproach all day long.” All night long! Why? Just because he was being faithful!
Jeremiah was saying things they didn’t want to hear.
Being faithful is often painful.
Do you believe that? Are you ready for that? What do you do when this becomes your life as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ? What do you do when it’s insults and reproach all day long?
I’ve got three points of application of this morning from chapter 20, and here’s the first one:
#1. PREACH THE TRUTH.
When it’s insults and reproach all day long because you are preaching the truth of the LORD, keep preaching the truth of the LORD!I don’t know about you, but I would be tempted to shut my mouth the next day if got released from the stocks. But that’s not what Jeremiah did. Verse 3.
“The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, ‘The LORD's name for you is not Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib. For this is what the LORD says: 'I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. I will hand over to their enemies all the wealth of this city–all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.'”
Jeremiah does not trim the truth. He is not intimidated by Pashhur and shut down by his persecution. Instead he preaches the truth. He changes Pashhur’s name to “Magor-Missabib” which means “Terror on Every Side.” And he explains that that’s exactly what Pashhur should expect to happen to him and his friends. Terror on every side.
And for the first time in this book, he names who the terrible invader from the north will be–it will be Babylon. And Pashhur will be exiled to Babylon and die there. Because he has been saying, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace. “It’ll be fine,” when it will not be fine. “Everything will turn out okay,” when everything was not going to turn out okay. They were going to be uprooted. And that is the truth.
Preach the truth.
I don’t mean that you have to be a preacher. Only some of us are supposed to be preachers. But we all should be truth-tellers, and not back off on telling the truth, just because it hurts when we do. Passhur wanted to shut Jeremiah up, and Jeremiah refused to shut up.
Now, of course, we need to speak the truth in love. That’s a non-negotiable for followers of Jesus, too. Always with love. But also, always with truth.
In what areas of life are you tempted to trim the truth or even to tell a lie just to get the pain to go away?
If I were Jeremiah, I would be so tempted to slink away nursing my wounds or even to change my tune, and say, “Peace peace” where there was no peace. But that would be a lie. It would be unfaithful to the LORD. But it would get them off of our backs. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much any more. Because this being faithful sure is painful!
In verses 7 through 10, we get a picture of just how painful it was for Jeremiah. He felt, in fact, tricked and trapped. Verse 7. Here’s that last and saddest prayer:
“O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.”
Those are strong words, aren’t they?
I think that Jeremiah is, again, going too far. He’s saying more than he should say. He seems to be accusing God of doing something wrong. That word for “deceived” could be translated “enticed” or “seduced” or “lured.” And that’s over-speaking which can be dangerous.
But the point is that that’s how he feels! He feels pushed into this painful place. Inveigled. He didn’t choose it. He wouldn’t have chosen it if he knew what it would actually feel like a few decades in. He’s not just beaten and imprisoned, he’s mocked and ridiculed. He’s a laughingstock.
Have you ever had anyone laugh at you? Have you ever been the butt of the joke? It’s like that all of the time for Jeremiah. Especially because he has been saying that judgment is coming for decades. Sometimes with props! Like linen belts and broken pottery, and that doesn’t win you any friends, and the judgment hasn’t yet materialized.
So, Jeremiah feels like quitting. But he can’t. Quitting is not an option for this prophet. Verse 9.
“But if I say, ‘I will not mention him 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.”
When you look at that picture on the front of the bulletin, it looks like a wonderful thing that “His word is in my heart like a fire.” How nice! But it was actually a terrible feeling! If Jeremiah tried to keep silent, then the fire would just build up inside of him. Scorched on the inside. If he spoke, the fire would come out, and the beatings would begin. They would shoot the messenger!
But if he tried to hold it in, it would burn inside of him. He couldn’t quit. He shouldn’t quit. It was the truth! He should preach the truth. But he couldn’t quit. So he felt tricked and trapped. And persecuted. Look at verse 10.
“I hear many whispering, ‘Terror on every side! Report him! Let's report him!’ All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, ‘Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.’”
You see how they threw those words back into his face. “Terror on every side.”
“You keep saying that, Jeremiah, ‘Magor-Missabib.’ Oooh, I’m so scared.” They are laughing at him. They are calling him “Chicken Little.” And they are just looking for him to slip up, and then they can take him down for good.
Do you see how much this hurts? What do you do when it’s insults and reproach all the day?
Well, yes, you keep preaching the truth no matter what. Stay faithful. But, it’s also clear here that you pray your heart out, too. That’s point number two.
#2. PRAY YOUR HEART OUT.
Take it to the Lord in prayer. Yes, Jeremiah goes too far, but He goes to the LORD with it. Yes, he’ll need to repent of saying the LORD deceived him, but not of saying that he felt tricked and trapped. The LORD wants to hear that. See, it’s right here in your Bible to show us that we can pray like this and not be turned into toast.
Don’t be afraid to pray your pain. Don’t be afraid to get real and raw in your prayers to the LORD. He can take it. Don’t think that you have get all calm and peaceful before you go and pray. Take your whole hot-messy self into your prayers. Especially when you hurting.
The fact that there are all of these painful psalms of lament in the Bible should give us a clue that God wants us to pray our hearts out, pray out guts out to Him.
When was the last time that you told the Lord how you actually feel? Don’t be afraid to pray your pain. Especially when the world comes after you for being faithful to your Lord.
Today, there are Christians being persecuted for their faith all over the globe, and we need to pray for them. We need to pray that they stay faithful to the gospel message when their government or their neighbors put pressure on them. And we need to pray that they will pray and pour out their hearts to the Lord Who hears every single one.
And pray that they will pray with faith and even joy. That’s what Jeremiah does in verses 11 through 13. These verses come almost as a shock after the last few! Look at verse 11.
“But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten.  O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.”
When it’s insult and reproach all day long, pray your heart out. And not just pray your pain, but pray your praise! I don’t know if Jeremiah actually felt any joy at this point. It sure doesn’t seem like it. We’ll see that especially in verse 14. But Jeremiah did have faith. He knew what was true. Even at rock bottom, he knew that the LORD was present, powerful, and prevailing. Do you see that? Verse 11.
“But the LORD is with me...” Jeremiah knew, even if he couldn’t feel it, that the LORD was present. He had promised that to Jeremiah from the very beginning and even before (1:5-8). 
In the very first chapter, the LORD had said to Jeremiah, “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land–against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD. (Jer. 1:17-19 NIVO).
All of these decades in, and Jeremiah knows that it’s still true. The LORD is with him. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. It sure does! But it does mean that all is not lost no matter how it feels.
Do you need to hear that this morning? I’ll bet you do. Say that in your heart right now, “But the LORD is with me.” He is present, and He is powerful. Jeremiah says that He is with him, “like a mighty warrior.” He is so strong. He is almighty.  He has the power to bring about change. Like we saw last week, the LORD is the potter. He is able to bring justice and make things right again in the world. And one day He will. Jeremiah knows it! Look at verse 11 again.
“LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten.”
The LORD will most assuredly bring justice. Jeremiah knows that the LORD will prevail. It hasn’t happened yet. Jeremiah still has to ask for it to happen. That’s verse 12.
“O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.” Bring that justice You promised!
Jeremiah knows that it’s coming, but it’s so hard to wait. Do you see how he’s praying his heart out? Snd how he encourages his heart to sing even when he doesn’t feel like it? Sometimes the most important thing to do when you hit rock bottom is to sing up to the skies. Verse 13.
“Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.” Jeremiah knows in his heart that the LORD is present, powerful, and will prevail. 
When Jeremiah hit rock bottom, he found the Rock at the bottom. And he prayed his heart out to Him. This is how you pray when it’s insults and reproach all day long. You pray your pain, and you pray your praise.
And then you pray your pain some more. I wish we could stop at verse 13. I’d love to end on a high note. But that’s not what like is often like, is it? Especially when you’re at rock bottom.
All of verses 11 through 13 is true, but it doesn’t actually change how Jeremiah feels. The pain doesn’t just slip away, so now he lives on a higher plane that the pain can’t touch. That’s not how it works.
Jeremiah is still depressed. His situation has not changed. He still has just endured a beating and a shameful night in the pillory. He is still preaching that judgment is coming, and it still has not come. They are still making fun of him. He is still alone. He is still faithful, and it is still painful. He is still depressed. And so he continues to pray his heart out to the LORD. V.14
“Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! [I hate my birthday.] Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, ‘A child is born to you–a son!’ [No cigar for that guy.] May that man be like the towns the LORD overthrew without pity [Sodom and Gommorah]. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?”
It still hurts. He’s still at rock bottom. He’s coming close again to going too far. If you cursed your parents or the LORD, that was a capital offense in Israel at this time. So he curses his birthday and the guy who brought the news. 
But he’s really just praying his pain out! He’s really just expressing how bad it feels to be him right now. And the LORD wants us to pray like this when we feel like this. 
There will be times when you feel like this. In fact, if there are no times when you feel like this, then you might be doing it wrong. Often being faithful is painful, so if you are never in pain, are you living in faith?
When I read verse 18, you know who I think of? “Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?”
Why? This sounds like Job (see chp 3). And it sounds like King David (Ps 22, 31). And it sounds like something that King Jesus said on the Cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46 NIVO)
Jeremiah is not the only man of sorrows in the Bible, is he? Jesus came out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow to the end of his days hanging on a cross bearing our shame. And He knew why. Intellectually, He knew why. But He was feeling the question with all of depth of his human soul. And it meant all of the difference to you and me. His sorrow led to our salvation.
As the prophet Isaiah predicted, Jesus was “...despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:3-6 NIVO). 
His sorrow led to our salvation. For all who put their trust in Him. 
And you know what Jesus did when He felt this way? When he received insult and reproach all the day long? When Jesus hit rock bottom? He kept going. He persevered in faithfulness. That’s our last point.
#3. PERSEVERE NO MATTER WHAT.
Here’s what I want to point out about the end of Jeremiah chapter 20. Jeremiah keeps on going. He feels this way, and it’s unresolved. It continues to feel hopeless. He hits rock bottom, but he doesn’t quit. He never quits. 
There’s a Jeremiah 21 and 22 and 23 and 24 and 52! He just keeps on going. He just keeps on preaching the truth even though Judah never repents. He just keeps on praying his heart out to the LORD even though Jerusalem will be smashed and uprooted, and he himself will die in obscurity, probably a refugee in Egypt. 
Jeremiah keeps on persevering in faithfulness for forty years. The word of the LORD keep burning as a fire in his bones, and he keeps letting it out. And he keeps on trusting in what he knows but cannot yet see. The LORD is present, powerful, and will prevail. He is the Rock at rock bottom.
So Jeremiah can still stay faithful. Even though it still stays painful.
And so can you and I. 
Persevere no matter what.

***
Previous Messages in This Series:

01. "The Word of the LORD Came to Me" - Jeremiah 1:1-19
02. "I Bring Charges Against You" - Jeremiah 2:1-3:5
03. "Return to Me" - Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
04. “Oh My Anguish, My Anguish!” - Jeremiah 4:6-5:31
05. "Ask for the Ancient Paths" - Jeremiah 6:1-30
06. “This Is the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD!” - Jeremiah 7:1-8:3
07. "Is There No Balm in Gilead?" - Jeremiah 8:4-9:22
08. "Boast About This" - Jeremiah 9:23-24
09. "Like a Scarecrow in a Melon Patch" - Jeremiah 9:25-10:25
10. "Conspiracy" - Jeremiah 11:1-12:17
11. “My People For My Renown” - Jeremiah 13:1-27
12. "I Can No Longer Show Compassion" - Jeremiah 14:1-15:21
13. "I Have Withdrawn My Blessing, My Love and My Pity" - Jeremiah 16:1-21
14. "I the LORD Search the Heart" - Jeremiah 17:1-27
15. "Go Down to the Potter's House" - Jeremiah 18:1-19:15

“Go Down to the Potter’s House” [Matt's Messages]

“Go Down to the Potter’s House”Uprooted - The Words of JeremiahLanse Evangelical Free ChurchSeptember 18, 2022 :: Jeremiah 18:1-19:15 
It’s time for another prophetic field trip.
Actually, in chapters 18 and 19, the LORD sends Jeremiah on two different prophetic field trips.
We’ve seen in the last few months how weird it was to be a prophet like Jeremiah in the Old Testament. How weird and often painful it was because of how different he was called to be and how painful his message was to deliver and receive.
Like the time Jeremiah was sent to buy a linen belt and then travel 700 miles roundtrip to bury the belt and then travel 700 miles roundtrip back to unbury the belt and then parade it around town just to make a prophetic point about how the nation of Judah was ruined.
Well, this time, Jeremiah is not sent to the clothing store, but to the pottery barn, to the workshop of the craftsman there. 
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
Chapter 18 verse 1. “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message.’”
“Go Down to the Potter’s House.” I wonder what we’re going to learn there. In this first field trip, in chapter 18, Jeremiah is not called to do anything except watch the work of this potter and learn a lesson from it about Who God is.
Now, a potter, a craftsman who makes pottery out of clay, was not an unusual thing in those days. It was common and normal.
You and I often have to go to a special event like an arts festival to see someone make pottery with their hands. But back in Jeremiah’s day, this was the main way you could get items to hold things like a jar or a cup or a bowl. You didn’t buy them at Target. You went to the home of a craftsman who made them by hand out of clay.
It took special skill, but everybody had seen someone do it. And Yahweh now sends Jeremiah (we’re not exactly sure what year, probably early in his ministry) to visit a potter’s house, watch him do his work, and wait for the LORD’s message. And that’s exactly what he does. V.3
“So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”
Now, from what I understand, this wheel is actually two round stones with a vertical post up the middle of both of them. And the potter used his feet to move the bottom stone around in a circle which moved the top stone where he put his wet clay and shaped it and formed it, as the top-stone, “the potter’s wheel,” turned on it. Can you see it in your mind?
The clay is wet. It is moldable, shapable, pliant. And the potter has something nice that he intends to make out of it. But, something goes wrong in the process. Verse 4 says, “the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands...”
The word for “marred” is the same word as he used in chapter in 13 to describe how the linen belt was “ruined.” It was defective, malformed, spoiled. It had gone bad. It was not right.
And how did that affect the potter?
Did it stop him? Did it foil him? Was that the end of his day? Was that the end of his career? Was he forced to just finish the pot with that glaring problem sticking out there unfixed?
No. Verse 4 says rather nonchalantly, “...so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”
Well, right then and there, Jeremiah saw what he was supposed to prophesy. V.5 “Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?’ declares the LORD. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
All of a sudden the picture becomes focused. There is a deep symbolism going on. The clay stands for the people of Israel. And potter is the LORD Himself.
Wow! That could go in a lot of different directions! In fact, it does in different parts of the Bible. This is not the only time when the LORD is likened to a potter and people are likened to pottery.
In the second chapter of the Bible, in Genesis 2, it says that the LORD God “formed” a man from the dust of the ground. And that word “formed” is the same word as in verse 4. God was acting like a potter when He made the first man. And it just goes from there. Throughout the Bible the LORD is likened to a potter and people are likened to pottery.
And different parts of the Bible emphasize different parts of that analogy. But all of them put us in our place and place Him in His. He is the potter. We are the clay.
We are not equals. We are not rivals.We are in His hands.
If it makes you feel kind of small to think of yourself as clay and Him as the potter, then you’re reading it right. V.6 again. “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?’ declares the LORD. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
This emphasizes the power of God.It emphasizes the position of God.It emphasizes the sovereignty of God.It emphasizes the freedom of God.
The power and freedom of God to bring about justice.
Because you know what justice is? 
Justice is fixing what is broken in the world.Justice is making things right again.Justice is doing what is right and fixing what is un-right in our broken world.
Like when that potter saw how the pot was going wrong while it was still wet in his hands, and he pushed it down and bunched it all up and started again.
“...shaping it as seemed best to him.”
I have three points this morning, and they are all about the LORD and His relationship to justice, doing what is right and fixing what is wrong. Here’s the first one:
#1. THE LORD IS ABLE TO BRING JUSTICE.
Because He is the potter.
In verses 7 through 10, the LORD presents a couple of case studies to show us what He means by saying that He’s like a potter. He emphasizes that He’s free to change direction based on the situation. Look at verse 7.
“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.”
See what He’s saying there? Does that language sound familiar?
“Uprooted?” That’s the title of our whole sermon series on Jeremiah.
In the very first chapter, the LORD put these words in Jeremiah’s mouth, “See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:10 NIVO).
And the LORD says that if he announced that a nation or a kingdom (that’s Israel, Judah, or even a foreign pagan nation in these days!) were to repent of its evil, then He would be free as the potter to pull back His judgment.
And we know that He did that in the Old Testament. Remember the Prophecy of Jonah? “Forty days and Nineveh will be overturned!” And then Nineveh repented, and the LORD relented. He didn’t change. They did! And that meant everything was fixed, so the potter could take the clay in a different direction.
But the opposite is also true. Verse 9. “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.”
Like if the clay has a mind of its own, so to speak, and starts to become an evilly defective pot, then the potter is free and able to smash it down and start all over again.
And the clay cannot object. “Hey, wait! Hey, wait! Wait! You said that you were going to plant us and build us up! You gave us the covenant! You made us promises! You gave us the ten commandments. You gave us the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD. You said you were going to make a certain kind of pot out of us. You can’t change your plan now. We are the clay, and we demand our rights!”
That’s not how it works. If they go wrong, the LORD is able to bring justice. He is able to fix things, as He sees best. And He certainly sees best.
So this is a warning. Judah should not presume on anything. Instead, they should repent while they still can. Verse 11.
“Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.'”
That word translated “devising” in verse 11 is the same word as “shaping” or “forming” from verse 4.
The potter is forming up a disaster to strike the people of Judah as a judgment on their wicked ways. He is able to bring to justice. And He’s warning them to repent while they still have time. While the clay is still wet.
And that’s true for you and me today, as well. We should repent while we still can. Have you turned from your sins and put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? If you have not, I challenge you to do so right here and right now. Because the LORD is able to bring justice, and you and I, on our own, will not survive His justice.
And do not think He won’t. Do not presume upon His mercy. Do not think that you have some kind of an inside track that goes around repentance. And do not think you that you will argue your way out of this. You and I are just clay. We are not the potter. We do not have a say. V.11 again.
“So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.”
While the clay is still wet. 
I love how it says, “each one of you.” The nation may go one direction, but the individual person can still go the LORD’s way. And even if we have repented of our sins and trusted in Jesus as our Savior, He is still calling us to keep repenting and keep reforming our ways and our actions. By faith, we are called to cooperate with His re-shaping work in our lives. In what ways are you repenting these days?
Sadly, the people of Judah were committed to their evil ways and refused to repent Look at what they said after the LORD called them to Himself. Verse 12.
“But they will reply, 'It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.' [The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?(Jer. 17:9)] Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘Inquire among the nations: Who has ever heard anything like this? A most horrible thing has been done by Virgin Israel. Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky slopes? [No.] Do its cool waters from distant sources ever cease to flow? [No. That would be weird and unnatural.] Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways and in the ancient paths. They made them walk in bypaths and on roads not built up.”
He’s pointing out how illogical and ridiculous Judah’s sin is. The clay has gone bad. But the Potter is able to fix it. He is able to bring justice. Verse 16.
“Their land will be laid waste, an object of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads. Like a wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their disaster’” (vv.16-17).
How scary is that?
Remember what the LORD told them He was going to do in Numbers 6?
"The LORD bless you and keep you;the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace” (Num. 6:24-26 NIVO).
That was the plan! That was what was on the potter’s wheel from the beginning. But now, He says, “I will show them my back and not my face...” Repent while you still can.
I’ve been talking recently about my wrestling with gluttony. But my wife has put her finger on a different (v.15) “worthless idol” which has been causing me to stumble in recent days, and that’s the idol of productivity.
I love to get things done. I love to produce things. To be productive. And that’s a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with getting things done or wanting to get things one or enjoying getting things done. And yet it still can become an idol, can’t it? Productivity can become a false god that you begin to bow down to and worship. 
When getting things done is everything.When not getting things done ruins everything.When you take it out on others when you aren’t productive.
These are signs that productivity has become an idol.
It’s been hard for me during this season of our church’s life when we don’t have that many programs any more. We used to have something for everyone, and three programs for some people! 
But that’s not what the Lord has called us to right now as a church. And I’m having to learn to rest and wait and watch Him do His work in His way and His timing.
What idols are you wrestling with right now? What changes are you allowing the Potter to make in your life right now as He desires to re-shape you?
In verse 18, the people of Judah decide they are tired of hearing Jeremiah’s message and conspire to harm him. V.18
“They said, ‘Come, let's make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not be lost, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.’”
Again, the defective clay presumes that they can get away with whatever they want.
“Obviously, the LORD is not going to take away all of the priests or the sages or the prophets just because we get rid of Jeremiah. Of course not! Let’s get him in trouble with the law. Let’s attack him with our mouths and disregard him with our ears.”
And, man, does that hurt Jeremiah. All of this is just compounding his pain. He’s not just doing weird things or being the odd man out. He is being attacked left and right. By the very people he’s trying to help! So, Jeremiah takes it to the LORD in prayer. And what he prays, once again, sounds a lot like a psalm.
It’s a song about justice. Verse 19.
“Listen to me, O LORD; hear what my accusers are saying! Should good be repaid with evil? [No!] Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember that I stood before you and spoke in their behalf to turn your wrath away from them. [So go ahead.] So give their children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring invaders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet. But you know, O LORD, all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.”
Ok. Let me ask you. Is that a good prayer? We’ve seen that Jeremiah can go too far.
How about this one? Is this a good prayer? Should we pray like it ourselves?
Well, there’s a lot that’s good about this prayer. For one, Jeremiah does not hold his heart back. He tells the LORD exactly what he’s feeling and thinking. He acknowledges the pain and the injustice that he feels. “You know, O LORD!”
And it’s also good that he doesn’t say, “Watch this, LORD. I’m going to get those guys. Hold my beer. Here goes my vengeance.” Jeremiah does not go in for vigilante justice. He doesn’t take things into his own hands. He takes this request for justice to the One Who can do something about it and will do the right thing about it. He goes to the potter who is able to bring justice. To fix what is broken.
And that’s what’s especially good about this prayer. This is a prayer for justice. Let’s make it point number two.
Point number one was: The LORD is able to bring to justice.
Point number two is:
#2. THE LORD HAS BEEN ASKED TO BRING JUSTICE.
If justice is fixing what is broken in this world, then Jeremiah is saying, “These actions of my accusers are what is broken in this world, Lord. Please fix it!”
This is a cry for justice, and that is good and right. Jeremiah has been pouring out his life for his neighbors, and what he has gotten is just evil in return. So, here he is deciding to go ahead and change what he’s asking for. “Go ahead, Lord, bring the disasters that you said were on the way. Bring them down on their heads.”
It’s not wrong to pray for justice to be done. In fact, it’s good and right. There are many psalms that sound like this, and they give us a example of how to pray for justice (see Psalm 140 for example).
And there are New Testament prayers kind of like this, too. For example in the Book of Revelation, the souls of the martyrs that are under the altar pray, “‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed” (Rev. 6:10-11 NIVO). It is good and right to pray for justice.
But there is also something better.
And Jesus showed us the way to that. When He was attacked, He prayed, “Father, forgive them...” (Luke 23:34).
And He taught us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. So this is a good prayer, but there is an even better way to pray, perhaps on top of it. Ask the Lord, if they will not repent, to bring justice on your enemies, but keep praying that they will repent. Keep praying that they will find what you have found–mercy.
And whatever you do, do not repay evil for evil. Remember what we learned in 1 Peter. Return beatings with blessings.
Remember what Paul said in Romans 12. “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord...Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:19-13:1 NIVO). That’s the way of the Christian.
But, yes, also cry out to the LORD for justice. Because we know that He is able to bring justice, and that He will certainly do so!
And that’s our last point, point number three.
#3. THE LORD WILL ASSUREDLY BRING JUSTICE.
The LORD is able.The LORD has been asked.And the LORD will most assuredly bring justice. That’s Who He is.
He is the potter.
And that brings us to Jeremiah chapter 19, and his second prophetic field trip down to the potter’s house. Look at verse 1.
“This is what the LORD says: ‘Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, and say...” 
Stop there for a second.
This is another occasion. Might have been soon after the first, but my guess is that it was much later. The first one was when the clay was wet and was probably earlier in his ministry. From the sounds of what happens in chapter 19, this is later. This closer to the end of Jeremiah’s forty years of being a broken record about a broken covenant.
Jeremiah is sent to a potter’s house again. This time to buy a finished jar. This one is hard, it’s been fired, and maybe has a nice glaze over it. It’s set to go.  It’s ready to be used.
The Hebrew for “clay jar” is “baqbuq.” And it’s probably named for what it sounds like. When the liquid is poured out, it goes, “baqbuq, baqbuq, baqbuq, baqbuq.”
And Jeremiah is not to go alone this time. He’s to bring a bunch of leaders with him. I’m sure they did not want to go. I don’t know how he talked them into it. But the LORD wants witnesses for what he’s about to say with this baqbuq.
So Jeremiah drags them out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom. Later called “Gehenna.” Modern day Wadi ar-Rababi on the western and southern end of Jerusalem. To the gate called the Potsherd Gate. In other words, the town dump. This is where they put the shards of pots that are ruined and unusable. A great big pile of broken pottery. 
And Jeremiah brings them out to that spot with his baqbuq. And, in my mind, it’s full of liquid. Maybe wine. Maybe water. And he begins to preach. And you know by now what he’s going to say. Verse 3.
“Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods [They’ve Canaanized the land of Judah! (CJH Wright)]; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal–something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. [It’s unthinkable!] So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth [place of fire] or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter [Not only did you slaughter the innocents in this place, but you will be slaughtered there, too]. In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem” (vv.3-7). Stop there for second.
The word for “ruin” in Hebrew here is “baqaq.” And it means to empty or spoil or run out. It sounds a lot like the word for clay jar, “baqbuq.”
Some scholars think and I would not be surprised to find out that at this moment in his message, Jeremiah poured out the liquid from this jar, dramatically symbolizing the judgment that was going to be poured out on Judah.
“I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. I will devastate this city and make it an object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives.' (vv.7-9).
And that all happened. Read the Book of Lamentations. All of that was going to happen.
Babylon was coming.The siege was coming.Exile was coming.They were going to be uprooted.
And then the LORD said (v.10):
“Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching [just imagine!], and say to them, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter's jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. [The whole place will become the Dump.] The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth–all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.' 
Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the LORD's temple and said to all the people, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'Listen! I am going to bring on this city and the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.'”
Those words are going to get Jeremiah into big trouble. We’ll read about it, Lord-willing, next week in chapter 20. There will be fallout and Jeremiah may hit a new bottom with how it makes him feel. But everything he says as he smashes that clay jar from the potter’s house is absolutely true.
The LORD will most assuredly bring justice.
Judah has done all of those things and refused to repent of them. They have become set in their ways like hardened clay. And the potter here will throw them out on the potsherd pile of history. And that will be right. That is justice.
And so, yes, that’s scary. But it’s also wonderful. Isn’t it? Isn’t it wonderful to know that God will always do what is right? Isn’t it wonderful to know that God will bring justice and fix everything?
I don’t know about you, but I think there is a lot of injustice in this world right now. Am I right? Things are not as they should be. Think about everything that is wrong right now in the world, and not just physical evil like earthquakes and famines and things like that.
Think about unjust wars.Think about racism.Think about child abuse.Think about fraud, about robbery.Think about domestic violence.Think about abortion on demand.Think about human trafficking.
Think about how you have been wronged by others. And right now the best of justice is just approximation at best. There is so much injustice in the world.
But the the LORD is a perfect potter. He is able to bring justice. He is free and sovereign and wise and in a position to make things right. And He has been asked to bring justice. And we continue to ask Him to bring justice. It’s right to do so. And He has promised that He will bring perfect justice.
He will right every wrong.He will balance every scale.He will fix every thing that is broken.
Which includes bringing the smash on the things that need smashed. Read the Book of Revelation!
So, yes, this is a call to repent because justice is surely coming. But it’s also a call to rest because justice is surely coming. That’s how we can love our enemies. Because we know that vengeance is the Lord’s and He will repay! Nobody gets away with anything. 
If it seems like your enemy is getting away with it, don’t worry. They won’t. You can rest. Leave it in the Lord’s hands. Pray for justice. Work towards justice. But don’t take justice into your own hands. Love your enemies!
Because the LORD will most assuredly bring the smash to things that need smashed. Just wait. And also rejoice. This truth is worth rejoicing in because we know that God will bring ultimate justice to our broken world. And we know that because we saw what Jesus did for us on the Cross.
In case you’re worried because you know how many injustices you have caused your own self. The Lord Jesus was smashed in your place. The Lord Jesus was shattered in my place. At the Cross, Jesus took on Himself the just wrath of God that you and I deserved.
The potter became clay. And He allowed Himself to be “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5 NIVO).
Rejoice!

***
Previous Messages in This Series:

01. "The Word of the LORD Came to Me" - Jeremiah 1:1-19
02. "I Bring Charges Against You" - Jeremiah 2:1-3:5
03. "Return to Me" - Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
04. “Oh My Anguish, My Anguish!” - Jeremiah 4:6-5:31
05. "Ask for the Ancient Paths" - Jeremiah 6:1-30
06. “This Is the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD!” - Jeremiah 7:1-8:3
07. "Is There No Balm in Gilead?" - Jeremiah 8:4-9:22
08. "Boast About This" - Jeremiah 9:23-24
09. "Like a Scarecrow in a Melon Patch" - Jeremiah 9:25-10:25
10. "Conspiracy" - Jeremiah 11:1-12:17
11. “My People For My Renown” - Jeremiah 13:1-27
12. "I Can No Longer Show Compassion" - Jeremiah 14:1-15:21
13. "I Have Withdrawn My Blessing, My Love and My Pity" - Jeremiah 16:1-2114. "I the LORD Search the Heart" - Jeremiah 17:1-27

[Matt's Messages] “I the LORD Search the Heart”

“I the LORD Search the Heart”Uprooted - The Words of JeremiahLanse Evangelical Free ChurchSeptember 11, 2022 :: Jeremiah 17:1-27 
I don’t understand me.
I often don’t understand the workings of my own human heart.
How about you? Do you understand you?
I lie to myself, frequently. And then believe the lies!I cheat myself.I trick myself.I deceive myself.
The last two weeks, we’ve asked the question, “What lies do you want to believe?” Because our own hearts often feed those lies to ourselves!
Sometimes, I find myself doing something bad, and I know I’m doing it. And I know that I chose to do it, but I don’t really understand how I got there. 
I’m not blaming anyone else. I’m blaming me. But I don’t understand just how I did it. And I don’t really understand why I did it either.
This is true of lots of areas in my life, but I’ve been recently sharing about my struggles with gluttony.  Sometimes I find that I have eaten that extra plateful after all. I woke up that morning intent on being disciplined with my eating and resisting the temptation towards gluttonous overeating. And then sometime after supper, I find myself uncomfortable and extra sleepy and wondering what happened. What came over me? What hit me? Well, it was ME that hit me. How did I do that? Why did I do that?
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
Jeremiah 17:9 is one of the most famous verses in the Bible and for good reason. In that verse, Jeremiah scratches his head over the mystery of the human heart. Look at it with me. Jeremiah 17:9.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
I don’t know about you, but I resonate with that verse. The heart (the core of the human being) is deceitful above all things–there are fewer things that are more tortuous, more mysterious, more crooked in the world than the human the heart.
And it’s “beyond cure.” That is to say that you and I cannot fix it.
I can’t fix your heart. I can’t even fix my own heart. I can’t even understand my own heart, much less fix it! “Who,” Jeremiah says, “can understand [the human heart]?”
I feel you, Jeremiah! I feel you.  And I think the Apostle Paul did, too! Even though he was a Christian and a leader in God’s church, remember what Paul said in Romans chapter 7?
“I [Paul] do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Rom. 7:15 NIVO)
So we’re in good company if we can’t understand our own hearts, even as Christians who have experienced the new birth. Paul and Jeremiah, and you and I say, “Who can understand our hearts?”
But! That’s not just a rhetorical question. Because Jeremiah didn’t stop there. He went on to answer his own question in verse 10.
“I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”
The LORD searches the heart. 
And the LORD understands what He sees there. He is not mystified. The LORD is not baffled by the “search results” when he accessed our hearts. The LORD is not bewildered by what He sees when He looks intently into our minds.
Remember the story of David? “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”  And He’s not confused by what He sees there.
“I the LORD (Yahweh) search the heart and examine the mind.”
The word translated “mind” there is literally “kidneys.” He’s saying that the LORD has x-Ray vision. He sees into the deepest recesses of the human’s insides where we do all of our thinking and feeling and choosing. What is hidden to others is plain to the LORD.
And He uses that perfect knowledge to administer perfect justice.  "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."
Uh oh. That’s probably bad news! Because there is no fooling this God!
I might fool everyone else.I might fool myself.But the LORD will not be fooled.
And that’s why verses 9 and 10 are in Jeremiah 17.
Because the LORD directed Jeremiah to write a chapter here that’s a little more like something Solomon might write. This chapter is more like what we often called “Wisdom Literature” like you find in Proverbs or in some of the Psalms.
The LORD inspired the prophet Jeremiah to paint a vivid word picture of two different pathways. Two options for living. And to paint a vivid prophetic word picture of the two different outcomes that come from living out the two different options. The two ways to live. The two ways (and only two ways) for our hearts to be directed.
And, therefore, He doesn’t want us to think we can get away with anything. Because the LORD Himself searches our hearts. He knows what’s going on.
Sadly, the direction of Judah’s heart has already been irrevocably decided. Let’s turn now to verse 1. Jeremiah 17:1
“Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills. My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”
We are now one third of the way through the Prophecy of Jeremiah, so these words are probably no surprise to us. Jeremiah was a broken record about a broken covenant.
Judah’s heart was hard, and the direction of the nation was set in stone. Engraved. Inscribed. Like the ten commandments! And ingrained. Even the children knew the drill. 
And judgment was coming. Inevitably. It was engraved, as well. As we saw the last two weeks, the LORD could no longer show compassion and was withdrawing His blessing, His love and His pity from this people. They were going to be uprooted and hurled into exile. 
At some moment, they had crossed the point of no return. But I believe that this book was compiled, in large part, for the people who came after this. It wasn’t just written for the people of Judah that Jeremiah was preaching to. It was also written down for the Jews who were in exile trying to understand what had happened to them to get them there and to make choices while they were there and then down the road. And it’s written for you and me to make our choices today, as well.
So, in verses 5 through 8, Jeremiah makes the two ultimate choices as crystal clear as he possibly can.
And what he writes sounds a lot like a psalm!
In fact, it sounds a lot like the first psalm in the Psalter! Psalm 1.
I’m pretty sure that Jeremiah knew Psalm 1 and was riffing on it in his chapter 17.
I’m going to read the whole thing to you because I want to load the whole thing into your mind, but I want to ask you to read with me verses 7 and 8. They are our “Hide the Word” memory verses for this Fall. Misty has them on the back of your bulletin if you don’t have the old NIV in front of you.
Follow along as I read verses 5 and 6, and then read 7 and 8 with me.
“This is what the LORD says: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.’”
I have three very simple points of application this morning from this text, and they actually feel too simple for such a beautiful passage as this one.
But we don’t focus on my words here anyway. We focus on God’s Words.
But here the outline:
Trust. Pray.Obey.
Here’s the first point broadened out a little bit:
#1. TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART.
Sounds like a proverb, doesn’t it?
Jeremiah paints a vivid word picture of the two different kinds of people–the cursed and the blessed.
Now, let me ask you a trick question as we begin to look at this more closely.
Which of these two kinds of people have faith?
Which of them put their faith in someone?Which of them exercise trust?
It’s a trick question because the answer is BOTH. Everybody has faith. Everybody is trusting somebody. The question is WHO are we trusting.
Solomon (I mean Jeremiah) starts with the those who are cursed in verse 5.
“This is what the LORD says: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.”
So this kind of person is a trusting person (as we all are), but they have turned away from the LORD and are trusting in themselves and in what they can do. Or, perhaps, in other humans and what they can do. Regardless, they are trusting in man and turning from the LORD in their hearts.
And, remember, the LORD searches the heart.
They might look good on the outside. They might come to church. They might be fine upstanding citizens in the eyes of their neighbors. They might talk a good game. They might talk about the LORD all the time. They might have even fooled themselves.
But the LORD searches their hearts. And, inside, the people are trusting themselves and turning from Him. And here’s what their lives will end up looking like:
The desert. “He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.” 
That’s a picture of being cursed. Your life is shriveled, desiccated, and dying. You’re all alone and dried up. You’re weak and sad and thirsty. And even when good things are on offer, you don’t get them. “He will not see prosperity when it comes.” Deprived, lacking, empty.
Now, like all good wisdom literature, it’s not saying that the person who chooses to trust themselves never experiences any prosperity of any kind.
The Bible tells us that for a time the wicked do “prosper.”  Read Psalm 73. But it’s short-lived and not spiritual and not ultimate. That road leads to desert-like death.
But the other road leads to life. And what beautiful life! V.7 again. “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD [Yahweh], whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
I know which one I want to be! And I know which one I want our church to be! I want us to be blessed.
Now, notice that this blessing does not mean that we escape all hardship. Oh, I wish! See in verse 8 that the heat still comes. Maybe a desert wind. A sirocco blows in. And verse 8 says that there may be a drought. Jeremiah and the other faithful remnant of Judah (there were believers then!) all had to go through the droughts and deprivations leading up to the Fall of Jerusalem. Many of the faithful had to be carted off to Babylon–like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Or as we know them: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
But! Those who trust in the LORD whose confidence is Him, ultimately have nothing to fear!
Drought? Okay. I’ll send my roots down deep into this stream right here. I’m not scared of anything, and I’ll bear fruit under any circumstance.  
Oh, man, I want to live like that! Don’t you? Blessed!
And we can. Because Jeremiah says that this blessing comes to those who trust in the LORD and put their confidence in Him. Their reliance. It’s that simple. Trust in the LORD with all your heart.
I don’t want to be some dried up bush in the wasteland. I want to be a tree planted by the water popping off fruit left and right. And the way to get there is to transfer my trust from myself and any other mere human being and put it all on the LORD.
But I’ve got to really do it and not try to fake it. Because the LORD knows the truth, even when I don’t. Verse 9 again:
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ‘I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.’”
He knows which of these paths we are really on. We might try to fool ourselves. I think that’s the point of verse 11.
“Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay is the man who gains riches by unjust means. When his life is half gone, they will desert him, and in the end he will prove to be a fool.”
That’s someone who thinks that they can get ahead by trusting in themselves and doing things their way. Stealing others eggs, so to speak, and passing them off as your own. But the wealth that comes from that is not real and will not last.
The LORD searches the heart. He sees where you got those eggs. And He will bring justice.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart.
Now, is that easy or is that hard?
It’s simple. But it’s not always easy. So that leads us to point number two:
#2. PRAY TO THE LORD WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART.
In verses 12 through 18, Jeremiah gives us another one of his heartfelt prayers.
We often call them his confessions or even his protests because he gets so real and raw with the LORD. They are a lot like the psalms, especially the psalms of lament. This one begins with praise. Verse 12.
“A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.”
He begins by praising God for Who He is. He’s the God on the Throne symbolized by the ark of the covenant in the temple in Jerusalem, the footstool of His throne.
The LORD is the only hope of Israel. He’s the spring of living water.
We should trust in Him!
Because, and here’s that other option once again, those who turn away from the LORD will be written in the dust. They will be a bush in the wasteland.
The LORD is where the life is!
And so Jeremiah turns to Him asks Him for help. Verse 14.
“Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. They keep saying to me, ‘Where is the word of the LORD? Let it now be fulfilled!’”
Jeremiah is (as he often was) under attack. His detractors hate his message and mock him for it. Taunting. “You keep saying that judgment is coming. But where is it? I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. 40 years you’ve been a broken record about a broken covenant. Where is the judgment? I don’t see.”
So Jeremiah says, “I need help here, LORD. Help me to stay faithful. I feel so sick. Please heal me.”
It must have been so painful to be a prophet like Jeremiah.
But he knew that the LORD knew his heart. V.16
“I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you. [The LORD searches the heart.] Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster. Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction” (vv.16-18).
He’s asking for justice.
Jeremiah knew that LORD searches his heart, and he knew that the LORD would find faithfulness there. Not perfection. Sometimes he got way off course. Remember chapter 15? Jeremiah’s own heart would sometimes lead him astray.
But the LORD searches the heart, and he would find that Jeremiah had not shrunk from his prophetic task. He had not desired for the nation to go into exile, but he had faithfully preached the word to them for forty years.
I want to be like that! I want to get to the end of a forty year stretch of shepherding ministry and be able to pray to the LORD and say, “What passes my lips is before you.”
Jeremiah chose the right path. The one that leads the blessing.
And yet it was a painful path. The heat came. The droughts came.
But so did the fruit.
And so the Jeremiah PRAYS with his whole heart that LORD would keep him on the right path, that he would keep trusting in the LORD (v.17), “You are my refuge in the day of disaster. Help me!”
This is a model for our prayer life. You and I should run to the LORD when we are under attack and take refuge in Him. When was the last time you prayed like this? These are the words I’m going to take with me and pray on Tuesday on my prayer retreat. I love how real and how raw they are.
Pray to the LORD with all of your heart.
And number three and last: 
#3. OBEY THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart.Pray to the LORD with all your heart.Obey the LORD with all your heart.
That’s the point of this last section of Jeremiah 17.
It feels, at first, a little out of place. And that’s especially because we don’t realize how important the Sabbath was supposed to be for the Old Testament believers. Look at verse 19.
“This is what the LORD said to me: ‘Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem. Say to them, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates. 
This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers.
Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline. But if you are careful to obey me [there’s our word “obey”], declares the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, then kings who sit on David's throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.
People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings, incense and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’”
Do you get the picture?
Jeremiah was to stand at the gate of the people and tell them to obey the fourth commandment...or else.
It’s another way of saying the same thing as the two poetic pictures of verses 5 through 8.
Because when they would break the fourth commandment, they would be putting their trust in man and depending on flesh for its strength, and their hearts would be turning away from the LORD.
Think about the fourth commandment. We get all caught up the dos and don’ts of it. Especially because it doesn’t directly apply to us today in the same way. It’s very foreign to us. (Study Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.) 
But the Sabbath command was a command to rest and trust in the LORD. To not trust in what you can do through your work. Or what you can get your workers, even your animals, to do for you. But to take a full day off of work to indicate your complete reliance on the LORD. To say that you know where all of your goodness comes from. It is not, ultimately, from the strength of your arm, but from His.
So that when Judah would break the fourth commandment and stream into Jerusalem to do business on the Sabbath[!], they would be saying that they didn’t really trust the LORD.
They might say they were. Because our hearts are deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
But the LORD searches the heart, and He knows. He knows that as they obeyed the Sabbath command, they would be demonstrating their trust in Him and putting their confidence in Him. And they would be blessed.
Do you see how this works? If you want to know if you trust the Lord, there is a simple test that can tell you a lot. Obey Him.
If you trust, you will obey. If you trust the LORD, you will be obey Him. And if you consistently choose to NOT obey Him, you have to ask the question whether or not you trust Him in the first place.
Are you obeying Him? Is there a clear command of Scripture that you know that you are disobeying?
Judah put their fingers in their ears and would not listen to Yahweh. V.23 says, “They did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.” And therefore they would be a bush in the wastelands. Uprooted into exile. Which will give the land a chance to rest again like it should have all along.  
But you and I don’t have to follow Judah’s path. We can choose the path of faith and obedience. And that path leads to blessing.
And here’s why we can do that: Because of the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood. Because Jesus died and came back to life again, those who put their faith and trust in Him have something else inscribed on the tablets of their hearts.
It’s jumping ahead, but listen to the promise of Jeremiah 31:
“‘The time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD. ‘This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’” (Jer. 31:31-34 NIVO)
When Jeremiah said in verse 9 that “the heart is deceitful above all things...who can understand it” he immediately answered the question, “The LORD does.” “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind.” 
So when he also says, the heart is “beyond cure,” he doesn’t mean that absolutely nobody can cure it. There is One who can. You and I can’t fix our hearts, but the Lord Jesus Christ most certainly can and does through the power of His blood applied by His Spirit giving us new hearts and a new ability to trust and obey Him.
Have you come to put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, I invite you to do so right now. Because, at the Cross, Jesus took on the judgment that you and I deserved. He absorbed the reward for our misdeeds. And He gives us the reward that He deserves for His perfect obedience.
The Father searched His Son’s heart and found no deceit. Not one little bit. So that our hearts can be made new.
I’ve been listening recently to a Christian band that’s new to me called “We The Kingdom.” The worship team is working on introducing one of their songs this fall for us to all sing. And they have a song called “SOS” which I think gets at this idea of not understanding ourselves because of our own deceitful hearts. But that, regardless, no matter what, the LORD can save us from our own sinful hearts.
The lyrics say:
“Why do I do the thingsI don't wanna doI don't wanna doOh, when all they do is hurt me?
I'm reaching out, one last pleaIs hope all gone? Somebody save meI'm reaching out, one last pleaIs hope all gone? Somebody please save me
SOS, I'm lost at seaIs hope all gone? Somebody save me"

And Jesus Christ said, “Yes. Trust in me.”
I don’t understand me.
But I’m glad that the LORD does.
And I’m even more glad that He saves me.

***
Previous Messages in This Series:

01. "The Word of the LORD Came to Me" - Jeremiah 1:1-19
02. "I Bring Charges Against You" - Jeremiah 2:1-3:5
03. "Return to Me" - Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
04. “Oh My Anguish, My Anguish!” - Jeremiah 4:6-5:31
05. "Ask for the Ancient Paths" - Jeremiah 6:1-30
06. “This Is the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD!” - Jeremiah 7:1-8:3
07. "Is There No Balm in Gilead?" - Jeremiah 8:4-9:22
08. "Boast About This" - Jeremiah 9:23-24
09. "Like a Scarecrow in a Melon Patch" - Jeremiah 9:25-10:25
10. "Conspiracy" - Jeremiah 11:1-12:17
11. “My People For My Renown” - Jeremiah 13:1-27
12. "I Can No Longer Show Compassion" - Jeremiah 14:1-15:2113. "I Have Withdrawn My Blessing, My Love and My Pity" - Jeremiah 16:1-21

[Matt's Messages] “I Have Withdrawn My Blessing, My Love and My Pity”

“I Have Withdrawn My Blessing, My Love and My Pity”Uprooted - The Words of JeremiahLanse Evangelical Free ChurchSeptember 4, 2022 :: Jeremiah 16:1-21 
So often Jeremiah had to be the odd man out.
The last two times we have been in Jeremiah together, we have focused on how weird and how painful it must have been to live the life of the faithful Old Testament prophet in Jeremiah’s day.
Last time, we focused especially on the painfulness of it. Jeremiah felt alone and attacked because he often was alone and attacked. Even though he didn’t owe anybody any money, and nobody owed him any money, everybody treated him like he did! And his neighbors conspired to kill him.
And he had to deliver the same sad message for 40 years! A broken record about a broken covenant and the judgment that was, therefore, on the way. So that Jeremiah was always weeping and, sometimes, he actually wished that he had never been born.
In fact, last time, he went too far in what he said in his pain because he just about accused the LORD of being unfaithful and unreliable. So the LORD had to rebuke Jeremiah and call him to repent and be restored.
Two times ago, we focused on how weird it was to be a prophet. All these strange things Jeremiah had to do. Like the time he had to travel 700 miles round-trip to bury a beautiful linen belt next to the River and then travel 700 miles round-trip back to dig up the ruined linen belt to wear around town just to make a point about how ruined the people of Judah were. Weird!
Well, chapter 16 puts together the weird and the painful in a new and fresh way. We’re going to see how his call to be weird must have been extremely painful for him. All to get across the painful point of the title of this message which is drawn right from the painful words of verse 5 where Yahweh says through Jeremiah, “I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people, declares the LORD.”
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
Those are scary words.
They go right together with the scary words of last week’s title in chapter 15, verse 6, “I can no longer show compassion.” “I’m worn out with relenting. Time is up. It’s time for judgment. I have withdrawn my blessing.”
Do you feel how scary those words are? Those words are the message that Jeremiah was called to live out by being the odd man out. 
Let me show you what I mean. Let’s start in verse 1 and see what the LORD asked Jeremiah to do, probably from a very young age. Chapter 16, verse 1.
“Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.’” 
That would have been very hard for Jeremiah to hear. He was going to be the odd man out. It was incredibly unusual for a Jewish man in Old Testament times to not be married. In fact, there was no one Hebrew word for “bachelor.”  There were ways of saying it, of course, but there isn’t a word for it because all of the young men got married. 
“Be fruitful and multiply.” It was part of what it meant to be God’s people during that time. So being told by the LORD to not marry was a deprivation. It was out of step with the culture. It was unusual. It was weird. It was a hardship. It was odd. 
No marriage, which means no sex. And no children. And the Hebrews loved their children, didn’t they? Think about what the Psalms say about the blessing of having children. But Jeremiah? None. Celibacy and childlessness.
Now, there are many worse things than that in the world. Not everyone gets to marry and not everyone gets to have children. Our Lord Jesus Christ was unmarried, never had sex, and never had physical children, and Jesus was the most blessed person there ever was. It’s not the end of the world.
But in Jeremiah’s day, this was very odd, and it was probably very painful. And it was supposed to be because he was supposed to live that way to make a point. “Jeremiah, I want you to be the odd man out and watch all of your friends marry and have kids, but you don’t go on any dates and never buy a car seat or a stroller.”
“‘You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place...’ (V.3).
“For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: ‘They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like refuse lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.’”
So when his family gets together, and his Jewish aunts say, “Why didn’t Jerry ever get married?”
The answer is, “Because so many of our kids are going to die in the exile.”
Because Jeremiah’s life is a walking parable. Judgment is on the way. And every day that he walks alone, his very life says it to the people around him. I suppose it was a mercy to Jeremiah that he didn’t have those loved ones to lose when the exile actually came, but it was a deprivation all the same.
And it wasn’t just celibacy and childlessness. Jeremiah also wasn’t allowed to attend funerals. Look at verse 5, from where we get our title:
“For this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,’ declares the LORD.”
Fred and Susie would have never seen Jeremiah at Strange and Weaver or Johnsons. He would have not have been allowed to sit down and eat ham and scalloped potatoes in the Fellowship Hall after a funeral. 
He was the odd man out. He missed those social opportunities to band together with your neighbors and family members to help each other to grieve and to just be together as you mourn. Because he had to live a point. Verse 5 again, “...because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,’ declares the LORD.”
I’m sure it gave offense if Jeremiah didn’t come to the funeral. But that was the point. The LORD was saying that he is not offering his blessing (literally His peace, His “shalom”) which consists of His love (His hesed, His steadfast, loyal, unfailing love) and his pity (His compassion). They are being rolled back.
All of the blessings of the covenant are being withdrawn, taken away from these people. Like a man who is not allowed to attend a funeral and express peace and commitment and comfort. Because the exile is coming, and it will mean no blessing, no love, and no pity for Judah. Verse 6.
“‘Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned [no funerals!], and no one will cut himself or shave his head for them. No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead–not even for a father or a mother–nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.”
Jeremiah lived his life in such a way as to say, “Soon there will be so much death there won’t be any funerals. There won’t be any Hospitality Team to put on a funeral meal.”
Jeremiah lived his life as a preview of coming detractions. 
And it wasn’t just the funerals. It was also the celebrations, like weddings. Verse 8.
“‘And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.”
Jeremiah wasn’t allowed to go to Labor Day family picnics. And he sure wasn’t allowed to attend wedding receptions. Because soon and very soon, there would be no more feasting and no more dancing and no more joyful voice of the bride and bridegroom in Judah. Because the LORD was withdrawing His blessing, Jeremiah had to be the odd man out.
Now, how could we apply that to our lives today if we want to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ in 2022?
Thankfully, these commands were for Jeremiah and Jeremiah alone. These strange ways of living are not the pattern that the LORD has called you and me to follow today. We are allowed to marry. In fact, it’s encouraged for Christians to marry other Christians though singleness is also valued in the New Testament. But marriage is on the table as a holy option, and having children is a blessing for married couples to pursue.
And we’re allowed to go to funerals and often should to show love and express grief with the people we love. And we’re allowed to go to parties, too!
Because you and I are not called to be prophetic symbols of a broken covenant.
However, I do think there’s a lesson in here somewhere about being okay with being out of step with our culture, even our Christian culture. I think there’s something in here about being okay with being the odd man out, the odd woman out, being something of an odd duck.
Could I put it this way?
#1. LIVE WEIRD FOR THE LORD.
Live weird for Jesus!
What I mean is, our lives may not be living parables about a broken covenant, but our lives do send a message by how we live them. So we need to be okay with living differently than the people around us to send a message with our lives. Not that we are better than anybody else, but we belong to Jesus, the Savior Who enacted a better covenant–the New Covenant with His blood.
So there’s bound to some ways that we will live our lives differently than the people around us, even than other professing Christians. You can probably think of the ways.
And some of them will be painful. They will be things we can’t do, that we don’t feel allowed to do because we belong to Jesus. The people around us may feel free to do them, but you and I do not.
You know what I mean? I don’t think it would be hard for us to come up with a short list. And we will seem weird.
And of course, it’s not just what we’re not free to do, but also what we are free to do that will make us stand out. Live your life with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, and you will be seen as an odd duck!
Live weird for Jesus!
Live like a walking sermon. Not exactly like Jeremiah, of course, but following his example and being willing to be uncomfortable, to be different because we belong to Jesus.
Like Peter said, “...as foreigners and exiles [as weirdos an outsiders] ... abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul and live such good weird lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good weird deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:11-12).
Live weird for Jesus.
One key way to live weird for the Lord is to clearly see our own sin. Because Judah sure couldn’t. Look at verse 10.
“‘When you tell these people all this and they ask you, 'Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?'’ Stop there for a second.
Are you, like me, wondering where these people have been?
They see Jeremiah living like the odd man out. He doesn’t have a family. He doesn’t go to funerals. He doesn’t go to weddings. He doesn’t go to parties. And when they ask him why not, he says, “Because judgment is coming.”  Because the the LORD has withdrawn His blessings, His love and His pity from this people.
And they say, “How come?! What did we do wrong?”
How did they not know what they had done wrong?!
We all know what they have done wrong. We’re in chapter 16 wondering how we’re going to get through to chapter 52 listening to Jeremiah say what they had done wrong! 52 ways that they had left their divine lover! Jeremiah was a broken record about a broken covenant.
How many prophets has Yahweh sent? And they are unaware of their sin?!
We can be weird and different for the LORD just by being cognizant of our own sinfulness and temptations.
Last week, I asked you to answer the question, “What lies do you want to believe?”
What did you come up with?
Are you aware of your own weaknesses?Are you aware of your own shortcomings?Are you aware of your own temptations?Are you aware of your own sins?
Or are you like Judah saying, “I don’t know. What have we done?” Look at verse 11.
“...then say to them, 'It is because your fathers forsook me,' declares the LORD, 'and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. [But not just them. You learned from them and then did them one better. V.12] But you have behaved more wickedly than your fathers. See how each of you is following the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying me. So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'”
They are going to be uprooted. They are going to be shown no grace. The LORD has withdrawn His blessing, His love, and His pity from this people.
And we call that justice. Because the LORD is holy, holy, holy.And Judah had been wicked, wicked, wicked.
Now, one of the things I love about this chapter is that the LORD sprinkles in some hints of hope among all of the hopelessness of the rest of the chapter.
It’s a pretty depressing chapter with Jeremiah’s odd lifestyle and Judah’s wicked sin and the LORD’s guaranteed withdrawl of His covenant blessings. But there are also little pinpricks of light that burst out of the darkness.
Yes, the exile is coming for sure, but the LORD has some plans for His people for AFTER the exile. Look at verse 14.
“‘However, the days are coming,’ [I love it we He starts to talk like that! The days are coming!] declares the LORD, ‘when men will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers” (Vv.14-15).
Do you see what’s going on there? What was the biggest rescue that the LORD had ever done for His people? What did they always come back to?
The Exodus, right?
“Let my people, go!”The Red Sea Rescue.Pharaoh and his army have been hurled into the sea!
So when they wanted to swear by the living God, they would say, “As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of Egypt...” I will do such so so forth!
But soon, Jeremiah says, they will have something bigger to celebrate and to swear by! “As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites...” back from the exile!
And not because they deserve it. This is going to be all of grace! A greater Exodus is on the calendar.  The LORD plans to restore His people to the land. Though, first, He must root them out and send them away. Verse 16.
“‘But now I will send for many fishermen,’ declares the LORD, ‘and they will catch them [the Judahites]. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols’” (vv.16-18).
“They may not know what they have done, but I certainly know what they have done. And they will not escape the judgment that is on the way.” “I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,’ declares the LORD.”
But in God’s amazing grace, this chapter ends on a high note of hopefulness.
Because the LORD plans to restore His blessings to His people. What He had withdrew and rolled back, He is now going to roll back towards. And not just to His own Jewish people, but to Gentiles, too. To the nations! Look and see what Jeremiah says in verse 19.
“O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, ‘Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good. Do men make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!’ ‘Therefore I will teach them–this time I will teach them my power and might. Then they will know that my name is the LORD.”
#2. TAKE REFUGE IN THE LORD.
Doesn’t verse 19 sound like something out of the Psalms? Just a year ago we finished up our long series on the Psalms. Doesn’t verse 19 sound like one of them? 
I love how Jeremiah piles up these strong names for the LORD.
“O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress...”
The LORD is the one bringing the distress, and yet, the Jeremiah knows that the LORD is still the place to run to when it comes.
My strength.My fortress.My refuge.My safe place.
The weeping prophet knows where he really should turn when times are tough. Because He knows just how gracious the LORD is. Even though He has withdrawn His blessing from His people, it won’t be forever. He has also promised a time when those blessing, His peace, His love, His compassion will be poured out again on His people.
And not just the Jews, but also the nations.
You know who that means? It means the Gentiles of central Pennsylvania. The gospel is going to reach the end of the earth. All the way to Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.
I joke to people that Lanse is the center of the known universe. But it’s really not. This is the ends of the earth compared to Jerusalem! And the gospel has reached all the way here, and Gentiles like you and me have woken up and said (v.19), “Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good. Do men make their own gods? Yes, we do! But they are like scarecrows in a melon patch. They are not real gods. They are empty.
But the LORD is full. He is now our strength. He is now our fortress. He is not our refuge.
We have come to know and trust in Him!”
Amazingly, you and I have a relationship with God! Like Paul said to the Thessalonians, “[Y]ou turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead–Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thess. 1:9-10 NIVO).
Jeremiah could only see this hazily in part. It was really far off for him. But we are living in verses 19-21 right now. The LORD is teaching us His power and might, and we know Him.
So that you and I can take refuge in Him.

***

Previous Messages in This Series:

01. "The Word of the LORD Came to Me" - Jeremiah 1:1-19
02. "I Bring Charges Against You" - Jeremiah 2:1-3:5
03. "Return to Me" - Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
04. “Oh My Anguish, My Anguish!” - Jeremiah 4:6-5:31
05. "Ask for the Ancient Paths" - Jeremiah 6:1-30
06. “This Is the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD!” - Jeremiah 7:1-8:3
07. "Is There No Balm in Gilead?" - Jeremiah 8:4-9:22
08. "Boast About This" - Jeremiah 9:23-24
09. "Like a Scarecrow in a Melon Patch" - Jeremiah 9:25-10:25
10. "Conspiracy" - Jeremiah 11:1-12:17
11. “My People For My Renown” - Jeremiah 13:1-2712. "I Can No Longer Show Compassion" - Jeremiah 14:1-15:21

“I Can No Longer Show Compassion” [Matt's Messages]

“I Can No Longer Show Compassion”Uprooted - The Words of JeremiahLanse Evangelical Free ChurchAugust 28, 2022 :: Jeremiah 14:1-15:21 
It must have been really painful to be a faithful prophet like Jeremiah was in the Old Testament.
Last time we studied Jeremiah, a whole month ago, back in July, we said that it must have been really weird to be a prophet like Jeremiah was. To get strange prophetic assignments–like being told buy a flashy bit of clothing and then travel 700 miles roundtrip to bury it and then travel 700 miles roundtrip back again to dig it up and wear it about town–just to make a point about how ruined the people of Judah had become. That must have been weird.
But even worse than weird, it must have been painful to be a faithful prophet in those days. 
We have seen already that Jeremiah was, at times, utterly miserable. Remember, “My anguish! My anguish!”? How he wept over his people’s pain and his people’s sin?
And not just weeping for them, but weeping for himself. Because it was painful to be a faithful prophet, especially at times of national spiritual decline, at those times when the people of God were not acting like the people of God. We also read back in July about how Jeremiah’s own neighbors conspired against him. He often felt attacked and alone. Because he was. 
And in today’s passage, Jeremiah pretty much actually says that he wished he had never been born (15:10)! Did you ever feel like that? Because you were being faithful to your Lord?
I love that we are told that. I hate that Jeremiah had to feel that way, but I love it that the Bible honestly tells it to us. The Bible does not sugarcoat anything. Including how hard it can be to faithfully follow the LORD. Jeremiah gets real and raw with God in this portion of holy Scripture, and we need to hear it.
But he also goes too far.
In this portion of holy Scripture, the prophet Jeremiah goes too far with his words, and the LORD also tells us that He (the LORD) has gone as far as He (the LORD) will go.
Judah has gone too far, Jeremiah goes too far, and the LORD will go no further. The LORD is drawing a line.
It’s quite a provocative piece of holy writing!
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I found my title for this message in verse 6 of chapter 15 where the LORD says, quite provocatively, “I can no longer show compassion.”
What a thing for Him to say! The LORD is saying that, in this situation, there is something He cannot do. 
Now, of course, we know that He can do the impossible. No miracle is too difficult for Him. So this must be a self-limitation that arises from His own perfect nature. It would be wrong for Him to show compassion at this point. “I can no longer show compassion.”
But the Hebrew is even more provocative. Because it portrays the LORD as having been worn out and too tired to show this compassion!
Some of your English translations bring that out really well. The Christian Standard Bible says, “I am tired of showing compassion.” The English Standard Version says, “I am weary of relenting.” The old King James said, “I am weary with repenting.” 
The 2011 updated NIV says, “I am tired of holding back.”
Now, of course, we also know that the LORD does not get tired like we do. This is obviously figurative language, but it’s still amazing that LORD would use this volatile language to describe Himself. That He would allow Himself to be portrayed as like a parent Who has reached their limit or like a judge who had reached the end of their patience and had to act in judgment.
There would be no more chances. No more leniency. No more pulling back from delivering the judgment that Judah deserved.
For hundreds of years, the LORD had been patient and longsuffering, giving His people opportunity after opportunity to repent, but they had now reached the point of no return. It would have been wrong for LORD to pull up now. He says in chapter 15, verse 6, “You have rejected me,’ declares the LORD. ‘You keep on backsliding. So I will lay hands on you and destroy you; I can no longer show compassion.’”
That’s really scary to read. It shows how serious sin is, and how serious the LORD is about sin. Doesn’t it?
It’s also really scary in these two chapters because it comes as a response to some prayers that sound really good. Jeremiah prays some really great sounding prayers in chapter 14, and the LORD basically just answers back, “No.”
“No. I’m not going to do that. I’m done. And so is Judah. They are going to be uprooted in the most terrible way.”
Let’s jump back to the beginning of chapter 14, and I’ll show you when I mean. Chapter 14, verse 1.
“This is the word of the LORD to Jeremiah concerning the drought: ‘Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem. The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water. They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads. The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads. Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass. Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals; their eyesight fails for lack of pasture.’” 
Do you get the picture?
There’s a drought. Or perhaps a series of droughts. No water anywhere, and it the situation is serious. If Palestine does not get any rain, they are in big trouble, from the least to the greatest. And Jeremiah knows that this is a judgment upon Judah for their sin. The Book of Deuteronomy promised droughts like this if they would persist in their rejection of the LORD. They have broken the covenant, and the LORD is withholding the rain–which is a preview of coming detractions.
Everybody is suffering. And so Jeremiah prays. Jeremiah prays for help, for compassion, for mercy, and this prayer is a model of repentance and supplication. Look at verse 7.
“Although our sins testify against us, O LORD, do something for the sake of your name. For our backsliding is great; we have sinned against you. O Hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only a night? Why are you like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save? You are among us, O LORD, and we bear your name; do not forsake us!”  Is that a good prayer?
Yeah, that’s a pretty good prayer. It sounds like one of the Psalms.
He gets a little provocative in there saying the LORD is kind of acting like a visitor to the Promised Land or a hapless helpless warrior, but He’s basically saying the opposite. He’s saying, “Don’t be like that. Do something big for us instead.”
“Not that we deserve it.” He recognizes their sin and their backsliding. But he asks God to do something big for the sake of His own name. For His renown.
And the LORD then basically answers this great prayer with a very simple, “No.”
No. Look at verse 10. “This is what the LORD says about this people: ‘They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.’”
“That was a great prayer there, Jeremiah. And I’m sure you really meant it. 
But the people of Judah are not praying it with you, and they don’t actually mean it if they do mouth the words. I know their hearts. And I know their ways. ‘They greatly love to wander.’
So the drought will stay. And the exile will come.The problem here is not me.It is them.”
I have three points of application for us all that I want to suggest this morning from these two chapters of God’s Holy Word, and here’s the first one.
#1. REPENT FOR REAL WHILE YOU CAN.
Obviously, there comes a time when there is no more time. We don’t know always when that is. We can say that “as long as there is life, there is hope.” We know that the LORD is amazing gracious and astonishingly patient. More than you and I would ever be!
But the Bible also says, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isa. 55:6 NIVO). That implies that there will be a time when He won’t be taking your calls.
The Apostle Peter says in chapter 3 of his second letter, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Pet. 3:9-10 NIVO).
Don’t put off your repentance until some day down the line. Because that some day might never come. It might be too late. Repent and repent now. And repent for real. Because the LORD not only has a line, but He truly sees what is truly in our hearts. You can’t fool Him with words or rituals. 
You can fool most of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool Mom, right?
Well, you also can’t fool God.
So don’t play at repentance. That’s what Judah had basically been doing.
And the LORD basically tells Jeremiah to even stop praying for them. V.11
“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Do not pray for the well-being of this people. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.’”
They have not really repented, and time is up. It’s just a show. And so Jeremiah was told to stop praying for compassion on his people. That was hard for him to do. In fact, he doesn’t do it. He keeps on advocating for them. He points out that maybe they could be excused because they have had some bad leadership?? Verse 13.
“But I said, ‘Ah, Sovereign LORD, the prophets keep telling them, 'You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.'” Is it possible that they could be forgiven or shown leniency because they have been given some bad information? “The other prophets have been much more optimistic(?) than I have....”
And what’s the answer to that? It’s a also a big fat “No.” V.14
“Then the LORD said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds.”
Yeah, that’s a no.
And it gives us our second point of application:
#2. REJECT THE LIES YOU WANT TO BELIEVE.
Repent for real while you still can, and reject the lies that you WANT to believe. It’s pretty easy to reject the lies that you don’t want to believe, right? When you know something is a lie, and it just doesn’t work for your life, it doesn’t fit into your worldview, then it’s relatively easy to throw it out.
The lies that are hard to jettison are those that fit our preconceived notions. They are the lies that tell us what we want to hear. They are the lies that soothe us and don’t confront us. They are the lies that make us feel good about ourselves and all of our choices and fit in with the people we want to like us.
What are some of the lies that you want to believe?
Over the last three years I have had some new success in my battle with the sin of gluttony, and it was almost all through rejecting lies that I wanted to believe.
“I need this next bite.”“I will feel better if I get another plateful.”“If I don’t eat this, it will go to waste. Better me than the trash-can.”“I deserve some more.”
It wasn’t walking everywhere that led me to so much success. I was walking before. It was rejecting those lies and others like them. I believed all of those lies, and I wanted to believe all of those lies. For decades! And I’m still having to remind myself three years later.
What are the lies you want to believe?
Not, what lies are other people, “those people,” believing? What lies are you tempted to believe? 
The people of Judah should have known better. They should have recognized false prophecy for what it was. The false prophets will be even more accountable for what they taught, but the people are not off the hook just because they believed something they already wanted to. V.15
“Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, 'No sword or famine will touch this land.' Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. And the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve.”
Reject those lies. They LORD does not send lies for you to believe!
And lies are deadly. Reject them.
Now, don’t get the wrong idea. Just because the LORD has obviously reached His righteous limit, it does not mean that He takes any delight in saying, “No” to His people and their cries for mercy.
What He is about to do is grievous to Him. V.17
“‘Speak this word to them: ‘'Let my eyes overflow with tears night and day without ceasing; for my virgin daughter–my people–has suffered a grievous wound, a crushing blow. If I go into the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I go into the city, I see the ravages of famine. Both prophet and priest have gone to a land they know not.'”
They are uprooted. This is no fun for Jeremiah, and no fun for the LORD. He cares, but He has no other option. This is what is right.
And still, Jeremiah intercedes for them. Even though he was told not to, he tries again. He prays on behalf of Judah once more. V.19
“Have you rejected Judah completely? Do you despise Zion? Why have you afflicted us so that we cannot be healed? We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror. O LORD, we acknowledge our wickedness and the guilt of our fathers; we have indeed sinned against you. For the sake of your name do not despise us; do not dishonor your glorious throne. Remember your covenant with us and do not break it. Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O LORD our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this.”
Oh, man, that’s a good prayer, isn’t it?!
He hits all of the right notes. Repentance. Covenant. God’s glory. The emptiness of idols, like scarecrows in a melon patch. “They don’t bring the rain! Baal, the storm-god, is no god. You, Yahweh are our only hope!” Please?
Here’s the LORD’s answer. Chapter 15, verse 1.
“Then the LORD said to me: ‘Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go!  And if they ask you, 'Where shall we go?' tell them, 'This is what the LORD says: ‘ 'Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.' ‘I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,’ declares the LORD, ‘the sword to kill and the dogs to drag away and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. I will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.”
I think that’s a “No.”
Judah has gone too far, and the LORD has said He will go no further. Judah is going to go into exile.
The LORD lists four kinds of destroyers that He is sending. And these four show up a few more times in Jeremiah and in Ezekiel, and then (interestingly) in the Book of Revelation at the end of your Bible (see chp 6).
Death, sword, starvation, captivity.Death, sword, starvation, captivity.
Because Judah has gone too far.
It’s interesting how he juxtaposes the various notable leaders of Israel here, isn’t it?
He says that even if Moses or Samuel were asking for this leniency, He wouldn’t grant it. Those two were famous for their intercession! Read Exodus 32 for Moses or 1 Samuel 7 for Samuel. 
So it’s not Jeremiah’s fault. It’s not that Jeremiah has down it all wrong. Even if Israel’s greatest intercessors were arguing the case, Judah would still be going down.
And it’s because they followed bad, thumbs-down kings, like Manasseh.
Josiah’s grandpa. He led Judah down to the bottom. Idolatry. Fortune-tellers. Mediums. He set up an Asherah pole in the temple. He sacrificed his own son in the fire. 2 Kings 21 says that he led Judah to sin worse than the Canaanites that had the land before them!
If Yahweh did not bring judgment now, He would be unjust Himself. So there will be no pity. Verse 5.
“‘Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Who will mourn for you? Who will stop to ask how you are? [No one.] You have rejected me,’ declares the LORD. ‘You keep on backsliding. So I will lay hands on you and destroy you; I can no longer show compassion. I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the city gates of the land. I will bring bereavement and destruction on my people, for they have not changed their ways. I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At midday I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men; suddenly I will bring down on them anguish and terror. The mother of seven will grow faint and breathe her last. Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be disgraced and humiliated. I will put the survivors to the sword before their enemies,’ declares the LORD.”
Now, we know that the LORD will continue to show compassion to the people of Israel even in the exile. And that He has good plans for His people even in captivity (see chapter 29!). And that He’s doing things with the remnant, the spiritual Israel within Israel, all of the time. There’s more to this story than we read in these verses.
But we also see that the LORD’s justice is perfect.And His timing is perfect.And His patience does have an end.
And that makes me think about the Cross.
Because, obviously, there comes a time when the LORD must pour out His wrath on the guilty. Sin is serious. There comes a time when the dam breaks, and rightly so.
Judah must go into exile.Jerusalem must be destroyed.
And history will repeat itself. Remember what the LORD Jesus said in Matthew 23?
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate” (Matt. 23:37-38 NIVO).
Even though the LORD exercises the greatest of patience and longing for their repentance, if there is no repentance, there will be judgment.  There comes a time when the LORD must pour out His wrath on the guilty.
But! What if the Lord Himself steps in front of His own wrath? What if He absorbs in the Person of His Son, the condemnation that you and I deserve? What if someone greater than Moses or Samuel stood before the LORD and not only pleaded our case, but pleaded it with the precious blood of the Lamb? Like we talked about last week!
What if when the LORD says, “I can no longer show compassion,” He still showed  compassion by pouring out His justice on His One and Only Son?
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16 NIVO).
Have you repented of your sins and put your faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for you on the Cross?  If not, I invite you to do so right here and right now. Don’t just pretend. Don’t just mouth the words or do it for show. The Lord knows your heart. But come to Him. Rejecting the devil’s lies, and put your trust in Him and Him alone. 
And you will be saved.
Now, we’re just about done, but we’re not done yet. I told you at the beginning of this message, that Jeremiah goes too far.
Judah went too far, and they are going to exile. The LORD says that He won’t go any further. He is tired of showing compassion.
What is this about Jeremiah going too far?
Look with me at verse 10 of chapter 15.
“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.”
These are Jeremiah’s words. And he’s basically saying that it’s really painful to be a faithful prophet in Judah right now.
He just about wishes that he had never been born. He doesn’t owe anybody money, and nobody owes him money, and yet everybody seems to hate him.
The LORD tells Him that He loves him. V.11 “The LORD said, ‘Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will make your enemies plead with you in times of disaster and times of distress. Can a man break iron–  iron from the north–or bronze? [“Remember, Jeremiah, I told you that I was going to make you like a fortified city.” (See chapter 1 again!) And then (this is a little hard to follow), He switches gears in verses 13 and 14 to remind Judah once again of what is coming for them.] Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder, without charge, because of all your sins throughout your country. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for my anger will kindle a fire that will burn against you.’”
And then Jeremiah speaks again. About how hard it all is. Verse 15.
“You understand, O LORD; remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. You are long-suffering–do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty.
I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation.
Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?”
Do you feel his pain?
He’s tired of feeling alone.He’s tired of feeling attacked.He’s tired of feeling like he’s done all the right things, but it just keeps on hurting.
Can you relate to that?
This is where Jeremiah goes too far.
He doesn’t go too far by being real with the LORD.
It’s not that the LORD doesn’t want to hear Jeremiah’s heart.It’s not the fact that he laments.It’s not the fact that he is raw in prayer.It’s not even the fact that he asks for justice and vengeance instead of mercy and forgiveness for his enemies–though Jesus would say that that would be even better.
It’s not that. It’s that Jeremiah basically says that the LORD is disappointing him. That the LORD is letting Jeremiah down. Jeremiah is throwing a pity party for himself, and basically accuse the LORD of  being undependable. Listen to V. 18 again.
“Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?”
You say you’re going to do this, but then you don’t come through. You say that you’re the living water, but then you come up dry! That’s going too far.
Now, if that’s how you feel, tell the LORD.  Be real with Him. He knows how you feel anyway, but repent of those feelings.
And resist the urge to quit.
That’s the third and last point this morning:
#3. RESIST THE URGE TO QUIT WHEN THE GOING GETS ROUGH.
Listen to what the LORD says back to Jeremiah. He basically rebukes him. Jeremiah has been real with the LORD, now the LORD is real with him. V.19
“Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘If you repent [he’s talking to Jeremiah], I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.”
Isn’t that interesting?
The LORD has told Judah that he can no longer show them compassion. He is tired of relenting because they have not repented.
But He also tells Jeremiah that he will show compassion to him if he repents. It’s not too late for Jeremiah. He has not reached that point of no return. He’s just having a bad day.
He still needs to repent of these unfaithful words, and to not give up or give in.
“Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.”
“Don’t budge. I know it’s hard. I know you feel attacked and alone. I know it feels like you’ve got unending pain and a wound that is grievous and incurable. But don’t let that deter you from your mission. Don’t stop being a broken record about the broken covenant.
Don’t let yourself turn into one of those false prophets that just tells everybody what they want to hear! 
Don’t start peddling lies. Or simply shut up.
Keep on speaking the truth even when it hurts.
Do you need to hear that this morning? I’m guessing that everybody heading back to school probably needs to be encouraged on some level to resist the urge to quit on our mission of speaking the truth in love and not capitulating to the spirit of the age. And conforming to the many lies that surround us even among those who call themselves Christians.
To not throw pity parties for ourselves about how hard it is. As faithful Christians we need to swim upstream. Being in the world but not of it. And that’s going to be, at times, very painful.
But the Lord is not a deceptive brook. He is a stream of living water that will refresh us.
He forgives us when we fail.He restores us.He rescues us.And He re-commissions us to go back out there and stay faithful.
Listen to the last two verses. They will probably sound familiar. Verses 20 and 21.
“I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,’ declares the LORD.  ‘I will save you from the hands of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the cruel.’”
It’s pretty much exactly what the LORD said to Jeremiah in chapter 1 when He sent Jeremiah to be His prophet to Judah in the first place.
Do not budge. Resist the urge to quit. You will be a wall, a fortified wall of bronze. And I will see to it that this wall, you, do not fall. So don’t give up or give in.

***
Previous Messages in This Series:

01. "The Word of the LORD Came to Me" - Jeremiah 1:1-19
02. "I Bring Charges Against You" - Jeremiah 2:1-3:5
03. "Return to Me" - Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
04. “Oh My Anguish, My Anguish!” - Jeremiah 4:6-5:31
05. "Ask for the Ancient Paths" - Jeremiah 6:1-30
06. “This Is the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD!” - Jeremiah 7:1-8:3
07. "Is There No Balm in Gilead?" - Jeremiah 8:4-9:22
08. "Boast About This" - Jeremiah 9:23-24
09. "Like a Scarecrow in a Melon Patch" - Jeremiah 9:25-10:25
10. "Conspiracy" - Jeremiah 11:1-12:17
11. "“My People For My Renown” - Jeremiah 13:1-27

Evangelical Convictions - Second Edition

It's here! After several years and many edits, we now have an updated version of our exposition of the Evangelical Free Church of America Statement of Faith!

I loved reading the first edition when it came out. I thought it was dense...like a pound cake. So it was a great privilege as a member of the Spiritual Heritage Committee to contribute to the process of updating it in light of the change the conference made to our statement on the return of Christ in 2019.

There are are also a number of improvements sprinkled through out and few new additional appendices that I think people will find helpful. 

People have asked if it will be issued in hardback, and I think the answer is maybe down the road. Hardcover books take a long time to produce (the infamous "supply chain issues"), and nobody wanted to wait any longer for this to see the light of day. So it's paperback for now which is nice because it keeps it affordable for the widest distribution.

May the Lord use Evangelical Convictions (Second Edition) for the up-building of the churches of our association to His glory.

“Let Us...” [Matt's Messages]

“Let Us...”Lanse Evangelical Free ChurchAugust 21, 2022 :: Hebrews 10:19-25 
Does anybody remember what my key vision word was for this year?
The vision word for 2022 is “good.” I’m simply praying that this year would be marked by God’s goodness and our goodness.
And I had three areas of goodness for us to focus on in my annual report:
Good News.Good Deeds.Good Plans.
And all three of those figure in to this passage in front of us today. I think you’ll quickly hear the strong connection especially between Good Deeds and Good News.
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
You can really feel the logic in this little paragraph. Can’t you?
There’s clearly some strong logic at work. The author has been building an argument for the last 10 chapters. We don’t have time this morning to review all of that. Someday, I’ll get to teach through the Book of Hebrews to you. It’s a masterpiece of theology, showing how Jesus fulfills and surpasses everything in the Old Testament, including what we’ve been working towards in the Prophecy of Jeremiah.
But, today, we’re parachuting in to the end of the argument, where the author is presenting his (or her) conclusions and pressing home the implications of that argument. This is the “so what” section where we get to the bottom line of what we are supposed to do because of the truth of the gospel that he (or she, we don’t know exactly know who the author was, I’ll be using “he” from here on) has been presenting. And you can just feel the logic. 
It’s got words like “therefore,” and “since.” (There’s two “since’s” in there.)
If this is true...because this is true...since this is true...
Then therefore this is how we should live as followers of Jesus Christ today.
You can just feel the logic.
And, as part of that, he keeps saying, “Let us...” In the NIV there are 5 of them. I hope you heard them as I read it to you. “Let us do this.” “Let us not do that.”’ “Let us...”  So that’s our title today, and here’s what it means:
It means like what they say in the movies right before the action sequence, right before the big fight, right before the good part, right before the beat drops. 
“Let’s do this.”
Let’s get’s busy. “Let’s gooo.” Let’s crack our knuckles and get started. Let’s get down to it. This is what we are supposed to do.
And, today, I’m going to summarize them in three exhortations.
#1. LET US DRAW NEAR TO OUR GOD.
Let’s dive in to verse 19 and see the logic at work. V.19.
“Therefore, brothers [and sisters! That’s us. The family of God, Therefore brothers], since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God...” Just stop there for a second.
You feel the logic? You see how it’s building towards a conclusion? 
He’s talking here about the Good News. What we were trying to share yesterday with our guests. He’s talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He’s talking about what Jesus did on the Cross.
Jesus’ blood (v.19) is the reason why we have “confidence to enter the Most Holy Place.” The holy presence of God! For us, that’s in Heaven! 
Before, in the Old Testament, only the High Priest, only once a year, could enter into the Most Holy Place in the temple, symbolizing entrance into the very holy presence of God. And there was this thick curtain that kept everybody out or they would be destroyed by the holiness of God because of the sinfulness of Man. 
But remember what happened on the day Jesus died? The curtain was torn in two! And that symbolized the access that believers now have to the very holy presence of God. Jesus’ death opened up the way, a new and living way. A new and greater covenant! Just like Jeremiah 31 predicted. And Jesus is a new and greater high priest.
Just like we’ve been singing this morning. There is power in the blood of Jesus. “There’s power in the blood of the Lamb.”
“Before the throne of God aboveI have a strong and perfect plea;a great High Priest whose name is Love,who ever lives and pleads for me.My name is graven on his hands,my name is written on his heart.I know that while in heav'n he standsno tongue can bid me thence depart,no tongue can bid me thence depart.” (Before the Throne of God Above, by Charitie Lees Bancroft)
That’s what the author is talking about here in verses 19 through 21.
And he’s saying that SINCE this is true, THEN “let’s do this.” Let us draw near to our God. v.22
“...let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
Doesn’t that just make sense? You feel logic here? Since Jesus died for us, giving us access to God, let’s get close to God!
Draw near.Don’t stand far off.Don’t hang back. Draw close to God.
You have nothing to fear!
If you are outside of Jesus Christ, if you are not trusting in what Jesus did for you on the Cross, then you do have something to fear. You have to fear the holiness of God. But if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then your heart is sprinkled to cleanse you from a guilty conscience. You are forgiven!
If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then your heart is sprinkled to cleanse you from a guilty conscience and you can have  You are forgiven!
You are forgiven!
So live like a forgiven person.
Get up close to the One Who forgave you!
This means prayer.This means worship.This means daily time alone with God.And it means gathering with the people of God like we are doing today.
He says, “having our bodies washed with pure water.” Scholars are divided on this, but that might be a reference to water baptism like Jonathan did just a few weeks ago. And some more of you are getting ready to do, too. Or it could be what baptism points to–the spiritual cleansing that comes from the Holy Spirit. Either way, we are pure because of what Jesus has done. 
So, let’s do this. Put your faith in Jesus, and draw to near to our God. Are you doing that? 
“Oh, the pure delight of a single hourThat before Thy throne I spend,When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God,I commune as friend with friend!
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,To the cross where Thou hast died;Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,To Thy precious, bleeding side.” (“I Am Thine, O Lord” by Fanny Crosby)
#2. LET US HOLD ONTO OUR HOPE.
The logic continues. Verse 23. Since all of this is true... (v.23) “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”  
Let’s do this. Let’s hold on. 
Some of you need to hear that this morning. Life is tough, and it seems to be getting tougher. And you need a reminder of the good news of the gospel, and you need to be reminded about our hope.
Our hope here is not our wishes, what we wish will come true. Our hope is what God has promised to us because of what Jesus has done for us. And it makes all of the difference.
That was our message yesterday at the Good News Cruise. We were telling people what Jesus has done for us on the Cross and because of that, what God has promised for us in the future. That’s our hope.
How strong is our hope? Well, a promise is only as good as the promise-maker is good.
If someone tells you that if you meet them tomorrow at such and such a place at such and such a time, they will give you $5,000. How likely is that to happen?
Well, it all depends on the person, right?
And it all depends on how trustworthy they are. Should you arrange your day so as to be at the location at that time? It all depends on who dealing with. That’s why the author says in verse 23, “he who promised is faithful.”
If Jesus gave His blood...If Jesus opened up the new and living way...If Jesus because our great high priest over the house of God...
Do you think you and I should hold on to all of His promises for our future?  "He who promised is faithful.”
“The Lord has promised good to me,His Word my hope secures;He will my Shield and Portion be,As long as life endures.” (“Amazing Grace” by John Newton)
He has GOOD PLANS for us!  Hold onto that! Verse 23 says, “unswervingly.” Don’t swerve from this hope. Verse 23 also says that we “profess” this hope. We say this with our lips. But do we live it out? We talk the talk, but do we walk the walk? Do we say that we believe all of this about God, but then act like we don’t have any hope in our day to day lives?
Let’s do this, Lanse Free Church! Let’s hold on to our hope.
In few minutes we’re going to talk about some of our plans for the Fall. We don’t have a lot to tell you yet. You’ve heard some of them from Keith this morning. We have a few more ideas to share with you. Mostly foundational ones that lay the groundwork for the future. These are moving forward but slowly. And we need to hold onto our hope while we wait.
And one more. Here’s the logic. Here’s where the good news about the good plans leads to the good deeds.
#3. LET US ENCOURAGE OUR FAMILY.
Let us draw near to our God.Let us hold onto our our hope.And let us encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ. V.24
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”
Here’s the logic. The author says that because the gospel is true, let’s do this:
Let’s look for opportunities to spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let’s watch out for each other and watch for chances to provoke each other towards love.
Isn’t that interesting? The author of this letter knows that we all need poking and prodding to do the right thing. We all need little nudges and little shoves. The Greek word here for “spur” is “paroxusmon,” and it means to “encourage, provoke, stir up, incite.” Poke. It means to lovingly get into each others faces and call each other to do what we know we need to do.
All of a sudden, it’s football season, right?
Did you ever watch the coaches on the sidelines get the players ready to go into the game? I like watch to Todd do this. He pulls on the player’s jersey and gets them to look in his eye, and he says something to them. I don’t know what he says. I’m not down there. But then they nod and they go out and try to do it in the game. That’s “paroxusmon.” That’s stirring them up.
And that’s what the church family is supposed to be for each other. That’s one of the big reasons why we gather. That’s one of the reasons why we are here today. It’s not to watch some religious show. You are not an audience and we up here are performers. We are all here for each other. We are here to get into each other’s lives and spur one another one to love and good deeds. To say to each other once a week, “Okay. Let’s do this.” 
“Jesus is real. Let’s do this.” The week is going to be full of hard things. Draw near to God. Hold onto your hope. And then, get out there and love people in Jesus’ name.
By the way, the Greek words for “good deeds” in verse 24 are the exact same words that Pastor Kerry told us about last week in 1 Peter 2:12. “kalown ergown.” “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your [kalown ergown] good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Pet. 2:12 NIV).
Pastor Kerry was trying to stir us up last week to do good deeds.
And, folks, you have done good deeds this last week. Yesterday was good deed after good deed after good deed. Registration, photography, set-up, take-down, prizes, food, parking, food, music, food, greeting people, food. Did I mention, food? You did the good deeds yesterday. And not just here but out the world all the last week. At your job. In your neighborhood. At the family gathering.
Doing good deeds in love for Jesus and in His name.
Good job! Keep it up! Don’t give up. Keep on loving each other and loving even your enemies because the gospel is true. Because of the good news we do the good deeds. That’s the logic.
Some people think that we are trying to do good deeds to earn God’s favor and get into heaven. It doesn’t work that way. The logic goes the other way. Because of what Jesus has done for us by shedding His wonder-working blood, we are free to now love other people and do good deeds in His name.
You see what I’m trying to do here? I’m trying to stir you up. In fact, that’s what I’m trying to do each and every week when we open God’s Word together. That’s a big part of why we gather.
So need to gather! That’s the next thing he says. Verse 25.
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Apparently, some people who claimed to be Christians had stopped coming to church gatherings.
The word for “gave up” is the same word as “forsake” like what Jesus felt on the Cross, forsaken, the turned back. Some people had turned their back on the church family and gotten into the habit of non-participation.
And that hurt them! It hurt the people who left, and it hurt the people who stayed. Because we all need each other.
I’m so glad you came to church today because we need you. Notice that the point of gathering is to encourage each other. When you show up for church, you are encouraging the people around you.
When you come to church, you come for yourself because you need it, but you also come for each other, because we all need each other.
You know, covid has been really hard because it has made gathering together more difficult and less comfortable. In fact, at times, it has been more loving to not gather because we have been watching out for each other. Thank you for not coming to church when you are sick with covid. I stayed away when I had it.
But it’s become easier in some ways to not obey verse 25. You get out of the habit of gathering because it’s harder. Because it’s different. Because it’s not like it used to be. Because it’s not familiar or normal. Or comfortable. 
But verse 25 is still in our Bibles even in a time of plague.
We need to encourage each other. We need to poke and prod and provoke and spur one another on to love and good deeds. We need to tell each other, “Let’s do this.”
There’s a new book out the foyer. We got a box of them free from the publisher called, “Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential,” and there’s a bunch of them out there. They are free for anybody who wants to read it. Or maybe you might want to give it to somebody who is wondering if church is all that important after all.
It is.
Not coming to some building and listening to a concert and an inspirational TED talk. That’s not what church is. Church is the gathering of the family of God to draw near to our God and worship Him and to spur one another on to love and good deeds and encourage each other to hold onto our hope.
To get close to each other and say, “We can do this.”
Let’s do this.
I’m so proud of how this church family continued to meet all the way through the restrictions phase of covid. Sometimes in really different ways like Zoom or in spread-out seating or under a tent or in the parking lot.
But, by and large, you have done a great job of staying committed to each other.
And encouraging each other.And encouraging each other.And encouraging each other.
I hope that everyone who comes on Sundays is both encouraged and an encourager.
Let me tell you this: Come to church bent on encouraging someone each week, and you will go home encouraged yourself.
Come to church bent on encouraging someone each week, and you will go home encouraged yourself.
Let’s do this!Let’s do this!
Let’s really do this.
You see how the author intensifies it at the end of verse 25?
“...let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
What Day is that? It’s the day of Christ’s return. Jesus didn’t just die and rise again and ascend to heaven like Abe told us about two weeks ago. But Jesus is going to come back soon, like Abe also told us about two weeks ago.
And we need to remind ourselves of that again and again and again. We need to tell each other that again and again and again. One of the reasons why we gather as a church every Sunday is to remind each other that there is a Day coming when all will be made right.
When everything that is bad will come untrue.When all of those promises that God has made will be fulfilled.When the kingdom of Christ will come in all of its fullness.The Day is approaching! We can see it approaching.
It’s sooner now than it has ever been.
Joel was just talking about that at Prayer Meeting this Wednesday in Mark 13.
“Let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Do you see the logic? Do you feel it?
Let’s do this.
Lanse Free Church:
Let us draw near to our God. We have confidence in the blood of Jesus. Good News.Let us hold onto our hope. He who promised is faithful. Good Plans.And let us encourage our family towards love and Good Deeds because the Day is approaching.
And what a Day of rejoicing that will be!

"My People For My Renown" [Matt's Messages]

“My People For My Renown”Uprooted - The Words of JeremiahLanse Evangelical Free ChurchJuly 31, 2022 :: Jeremiah 13:1-27
I praise the Lord that on this day we have someone following the Lord in Christian baptism. I’m super excited for Johnathan and rejoice with him for this important marker and milestone in his Christian life.
But before we dunk him, we need to focus our minds together on God’s Word, specifically the words of Jeremiah chapter 13. It’s been a couple of weeks since we studied Jeremiah together, but I’m hoping that you remember the general gist of it?
Jeremiah has been a bit of broken record about a broken covenant. He was sent to proclaim to the people of Judah and Jerusalem that judgment and exile was coming because of their unfaithfulness. Sadly, un-faithful Judah was going to be up-rooted.
And Jeremiah 13 is more of the same kind of bad news.
If anything, it is more depressing and more disturbing than anything we have read in Jeremiah so far! It ends with some shocking imagery that alludes to sexual assault in a time of war. I’ll warn you ahead of time in case you’ve had bad experiences and this kind of language can set off alarm bells in your nervous system.
It’s not pretty. Jeremiah 13 is not a happy chapter.
And yet, at the very same time, when we read the darkness in Jeremiah 13, it can light up for us the gospel of Jesus Christ. It throws it into stark relief. It’s the opposite.
Whatever we see that Judah did wrong, we know that Jesus undoes. And everything that Judah was supposed to be, Jesus makes true of you and me.
Let me say that again: Everything that Judah was supposed to be, Jesus makes true of you and me.
So this is a perfect passage of Scripture to study on a Baptism Sunday. Because everything it says that went wrong, we know is fixed by what that water up there represents. Including the searching question in the very last verse of Jeremiah 13 which says, “Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you be unclean?” 
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
It must have been really weird to be a prophet.
It must have been really strange to live the life of an Old Testament prophet like Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Not only do you have to be a broken record about a broken covenant, but you never know when the Lord might give you a really weird prophetic assignment.
Like this one. Jeremiah was sent to buy a piece of clothing to represent the people of God.
Look at Jeremiah chapter 13, verse 1. “This is what the LORD said to me: ‘Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.’ So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist.”
Like I said. “Weird.”
One of things that really weird about this story is that we’re not 100% sure exactly what kind of piece of clothing this was. It’s hard to translate from the Hebrew.
It’s really hard to know if this is a garment that goes under your other clothing or over your other clothing. Some of your translations say, “undergarment,” or “underwear” or “loincloth.” Those  are under your other clothing. And obviously the NIV goes for “linen belt,” which would be over your other clothing. And it’s hard to say which kind it actually is. We’re going to see that the passage emphasizes how close and tight it’s supposed to fit around Jeremiah’s waist so that would lend itself to the undergarment theory and emphasize intimacy. Some translations go for “shorts.” 
But the passage also emphasizes the overt display of God’s people to be for God’s renown and praise and honor. And it seems like this linen garment is being shown off in a way. On display.  It’s a prophetic sign, which if it’s hiding under Jeremiah’s clothes, it’s hard to see how that could be a sign?! So I lean towards the outer-garment theory, but I think it’s more than just a little belt. That sounds too thin and not showy enough. It’s more like a sash? Or like a decorative outer garment that fits snugly around the waist and maybe holds tools or even weapons (like a toolbelt or a swordbelt?) or (because linen was the fabric of the priests) it might have held instruments of sacrifice for the temple or marked somebody off as holy. I think it really stood out.
We don’t know. But Jeremiah was told to go buy it, wear it, and not wash it.
And here’s where it really gets weird!
Jeremiah is told to go bury his snazzy new piece of clothing. Look at verse 3.
“Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: ‘Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.’ So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me.”
You think it might have been weird to be a prophet?!
It’s especially weird when you find out where Perath was. Anybody know?  Well, we’re not 100% sure of this either. There was a place called “Parah” which was about 4 miles away from Jeremiah’s hometown of Anathoth. And many scholars think that Perath might have been a nickname for Parah. But whenever this word “Perath” shows up in the Old Testament, and it is coupled with the word “River,” it is always referring to the Euphrates River which was like 350 miles away! And they didn’t have cars.
So the LORD might have just sent Jeremiah on a many month journey just to bury his clothes in some rocks by a river! And then come home on a many month journey to his hometown and no longer be wearing his flashy new belt.
That might be the talk of the town. “What is Jeremiah doing now? First he buys that thing and wears it everywhere. He never washed it. So it started to get dirty and a little brittle. And then he was gone all that time, and now he says Yahweh told him to bury it in Perath. What is going on?”
It might have been a little fun to be a prophet sometimes when things got weird.
And then it got even weirder! What do think is next? Buy another belt? Nope. Go find the old one! V.6
“Many days later the LORD said to me, ‘Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.’ [Walking sounds!] So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was [surprise, surprise!] ruined and completely useless.”
If there was just one key word for Jeremiah chapter 13, I think it would be the word “ruined.”
This piece of garment had rotted. It has spoiled. It has been corrupted. It had, very predictably, decayed. It was “completely useless.” It was good for nothing. It was ruined.
I wonder if Jeremiah was supposed to wear it around town? Maybe he couldn’t. Maybe it would just fall off. It was too full of holes. It wouldn’t cling any longer. It didn’t fit. It shriveled and shrunk. It was ruined!
What do you think it stands for?
We don’t have to wonder. Jeremiah tells us. Look at verse 8.
“Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘This is what the LORD says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. [There go their greatness.] These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt–  completely useless!”
The linen garment stood for the people of Judah.
They had gone to form ungodly alliances with the people who lived in Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River. They had made alliances with Assyria. They were trying to appease the Chaldeans of Babylon.
Instead of trusting Yahweh. And worse, they had worshiped other gods than Yahweh. And they were fast becoming completely useless and ruined and headed for exile.
The ruined linen garment stood for the people of Judah. V.11
“For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'”
It must have been weird to be a prophet like Jeremiah. Here he is being a broken record about a broken covenant yet again, but doing it, this time, by prominently displaying a ruined article of clothing.
Now, let’s come back to verse 11 as the last thing we look at again before we hear Johnathan tell his story. Because, obviously, I picked these words from that verse to be the title of this message, “My People For My Renown.”
But the key word right now is not “renown” but “ruined,” and the rest of the chapter shows just how ruined Judah was to be. Look at verse 12.
“‘Say to them: 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Every wineskin should be filled with wine.' [That was probably a popular saying at least in the bars. Fill ‘em all up!] And if they say to you, 'Don't we know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?' [Yeah, boy! Fill ‘em all up!] then tell them, 'This is what the LORD says: I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets and all those living in Jerusalem. I will smash them one against the other, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them.'”
How ruined? Destroyed. Like a riotous bar fight where everybody is blind-drunk smashed, the Lord is going to smash Judah from the top down and without pity, mercy, or compassion. Ruined.
How ruined? Not just destroyed, but darkened. Verse 15. 
“Hear and pay attention, do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills. You hope for light, but he will turn it to thick darkness and change it to deep gloom.”
Judgment is coming like somebody who spends the night (maybe a shepherd) on a mountainside, but then the morning never comes, just more darkness. And then even more darkness. [The Hebrew there is the same as the 23rd Psalm, the “the shadow of death.”]
And Jeremiah doesn’t like it one bit. He’s not happy about what is coming on his beloved Judah, but if they will not humble themselves and repent, then the ruinous darkness will fall.
And he will cry. V.17
“But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the LORD's flock will be taken captive.”
They don’t call him the “weeping prophet” for nothing.
And in his weeping, Jeremiah reveals the heart of God who would love to show mercy and compassion on Judah, but they just keep on rejecting Him and rejecting Him and rejecting Him, so He must do the just thing and bring them to ruin.
Even the king. V.18
“Say to the king and to the queen mother, ‘Come down from your thrones, for your glorious crowns will fall from your heads.’ The cities in the Negev will be shut up, and there will be no one to open them. All Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away.”
He’s probably talking about King Jehoiachin and his mother Nehushta. We read about them in 2 Kings 24. He was Jehoiakim’s son and only lasted 3 months before Nebuchadnezzar carted him off into exile in 597 BC.
And what happened to them, would happen across the whole nation. They would be uprooted and sent into exile. V.20
“Lift up your eyes and see those who are coming from the north [Babylon]. Where is the flock that was entrusted to you, the sheep of which you boasted? [Gone. Exiled. Uprooted.]  What will you say when the LORD sets over you those you cultivated as your special allies? Will not pain grip you like that of a woman in labor?”
The very people you trusted in instead of the LORD are now your oppressors?! And it hurts like labor pains.
And worse.
Verse 22. “And if you ask yourself, ‘Why has this happened to me?’–[which you shouldn’t because you should know it by now.]–it is because of your many sins that your skirts have been torn off and your body mistreated.”
The women of Judah are being violated as they are carted off to Babylon, yes– because of the sins of the Babylonians (and there is no excuse for them), but also because of the sins of Judah. This brutalization, too, is judgment because Judah would not repent.
It was almost like they could not repent. V.23
“Can the Ethiopian [literally the Cushite] change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”
Now make sure you understand that he’s not saying that the Cushite (probably better updated to the “Sudanese” based on where Cush was located–he’s not saying that the Cushite’s) black skin was bad. Just like like the leopard’s spots are not bad. They are beautiful.
Black skin is beautiful skin!
But it isn’t changeable either. It’s permanent and fixed. And so was Judah’s evil. And therefore so will be Judah’s ruin. It was inevitable. V.24
“I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind. This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods. I will pull up your skirts over your face that your shame may be seen–your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution! I have seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you be unclean?’”
How long will you be ruined? Like a linen garment buried in the rocks next to a river. How long you going to be like that? 
Unrepentant of your idolatry, your spiritual adultery. And therefore unclean, shamefully exposed, humiliated, darkened, and destroyed? How long will you be ruined?
What’s the answer to that?
Well, Jeremiah chapter 13 doesn’t tell us. There isn’t even a hint that there is any hope. Just these disturbing images which we would rather not think about.
But the rest of the Bible does give us hope.
In fact, there is hope still to come in the Words of Jeremiah. Listen, for example, to chapter 33. I can’t hardly wait to preach the whole thing to you. But listen to this sample.
The short answer is, “Later. After the exile.” The exile is inevitable, but so is the return. Jeremiah 33:7.
“I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. Then this city will bring me [listen to these words] renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it'” (33:7-9, NIV84).
Same three words as our verse 11! "Renown, praise, and honor!"
But it gets better. We find out that there is an Ultimate Restoration that is even greater. And it involves a new and righteous Ruler. Listen to chapter 33, verse 14.
“‘The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. 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. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.' For this is what the LORD says: 'David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel...” (Jer. 33:7-17 NIVO).
Anybody want to guess Who that is going to be?
It’s the Person that Johnathan Bobbert has decided to follow with his life.
It’s the Person who lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and came back to life to give us life! What this water represents!
It’s the Person Who restores light where there was deep darkness.
It’s the Person Who restores dignity where there was deep shame.
It’s the Person Who restores health where there was smashing destruction.
It’s the Person Who restores joy where there was nothing but depression.
It’s the Person Who could save us when we could not save ourselves.
He’s the One who could change us when we could not change ourselves.
It’s Jesus Christ!
He is the One has redeemed us from our ruin to His Renown!
Listen to what the book of Revelation says is given to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle John has vision of the return of Christ in chapter 19. He says, “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints)” (Rev. 19:6-8 NIV84).
How long will we be unclean?
Just until we are covered by the amazing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!
So let’s look again at verse 11 and see what Judah was supposed to be that Jesus has made true of you and me. “For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor.”
Three very quick points of application, and Johnathan, these are for you, and they are for all of us who are baptized in Christ Jesus today.
#1. STAY CLOSE TO YOUR LORD.
He says that He “bound” His people to Himself. 
They were supposed to cling to Him, to stay near to Him.
To not wander off.
I know it’s a weird image, but we’re supposed to stay close to the Lord like a belt that He never takes off.
Don’t wander off!
I think the whole point of the weird journey to Perath was the separation between the prophet and his key piece of clothing.
Don’t let any daylight come between you and the Lord.
Stay close to Him.
#2. LIVE FOR THE GLORY OF YOUR LORD.
The whole point of this weird belt was that it was supposed to bring attention to the wearer.
And Who was the wearer? God was! The people were the belt, and God was the belt-wearer. Verse 11, “I bound [them] to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor.”
That’s why we exist. And it’s why Jesus has saved us.
Johnathan, this is why Jesus has saved you, to be His for His fame and praise and honor.
Live your life as a display of His grace.
Like we learned about in Ephesians 2 at Family Bible Week.
“...it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [to show off like artwork in an art gallery!] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–  and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast [BUT GOD!] For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:5-10 NIV84).
So let’s do them! Let’s live our lives for His renown, and praise, and honor!
We want Jesus to get the glory!
#3. PRAISE YOUR LORD FOR HIS AMAZING GRACE.
On our own, we have ruined everything, but Jesus through His amazing grace has saved everything!
He has taken us from our ruin to His renown.
I asked Johnathan what his favorite Scripture verse is.
We have been studying the Gospel of John together, and he told me that it is John chapter 9, verse 25.
It says, “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” (Jn. 9:25 NIV84).
I think that sounds like a certain worship song I know. And I think we should sing it today as Johnathan gets baptized. "Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a [ruined] wretch like me."
Because with His baptism, Johnathan is saying that he is not going to live for his own ruin, but for the LORD’s renown.
Previous Messages in This Series:
01. "The Word of the LORD Came to Me" - Jeremiah 1:1-19
02. "I Bring Charges Against You" - Jeremiah 2:1-3:5
03. "Return to Me" - Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
04. “Oh My Anguish, My Anguish!” - Jeremiah 4:6-5:31
05. "Ask for the Ancient Paths" - Jeremiah 6:1-30
06. “This Is the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD!” - Jeremiah 7:1-8:3
07. "Is There No Balm in Gilead?" - Jeremiah 8:4-9:22
08. "Boast About This" - Jeremiah 9:23-24
09. "Like a Scarecrow in a Melon Patch" - Jeremiah 9:25-10:2510. "Conspiracy" - Jeremiah 11:1-12:17

We Are His Artwork - 2022 Family Bible Week Kick-Off

“We Are His Artwork”Family Bible Week Kick-OffLanse Evangelical Free ChurchJuly 17, 2022 :: Ephesians 2:10
What do you like to make? What do you enjoy making?
What do you enjoy creating?
As you can tell, our Family Bible Week this year is a celebration of creativity.
Mary Beth has transformed this place into an artist’s studio, but not just one kind of artwork, but all kinds of artwork.


What do you like to make? 
Painting.Drawing. Like Jacob does.Making music. Like Joe does!Photography. Like Laura does.Carving.Woodworking. Like Josh does.Metalworking.Blacksmithing. Like Andrew does.Composing.Writing.Knitting. Like Heather does.Crocheting.Legos.Minecraft.Cri-cut. Like Natalie does.Choreography.Dance. Like Brandy does.Beads.Pottery.Architecture.Graphic design. Like Jeff does.Weaving.Cinema.Filmmaking. Cooking. Like Linda does.Baking.Origami.Rebuilding a classic car like the Folmars do and the folks who come the Good New Cruise.Hairstyling like Emigh does.Nails like Macy does.
I could go on and on.
I may not have even gotten close to something you like to make.
It doesn’t have to be a recognized art form.
Maybe it’s computer code. Or databases.Or spreadsheets.Or websites.Or powerpoints.
What do you like to make?
My particular craft is the sermon. I make sermons. I’m a wordsmith. I work with and shape words for the ear. Every week, I write a 15 page auditory message to creatively communicate scriptural truth for life change.
What do you like to make?
As human beings we are all makers. We are made in the image of a Maker God. We are created in the image of a Creator God. So we are all sub-creators ourselves. In some way, we are all makers.
I’m not saying that we’re all masters. We can’t all be masters of all the creative arts. But we’re all, in some way, makers. What do you like to make?
I also like to make a mess. My kids were running around the house yesterday cleaning up the place so that it was presentable for Heather Joy this evening.
What do you like to make?
Here’s another question:
What kind of art do you really appreciate?
What kind of artwork you enjoy receiving, taking in, watching, listening to?
Do you like to go to a museum and see a Van Gogh or a Jackson Pollack or a Andy Warhol or a Claude Monet? We did that last summer with Isaac. We went to MOMA in New York City. The Museum of Modern Art.
Do you like to go to Bud Garvey’s and see some classic cars restored?
Do you like to go to a poetry slam or an improv act or a band concert or a play or a a film? Did you go to the Art Festival in State College or at Way Fruit Farm?
What kind of artwork do you really get into?
It doesn’t have to be just one thing. There are all kinds of art in this world to appreciate.
Humans can make some pretty amazing stuff. Because God has put it into us to be creative. Because God Himself is amazingly creative.
And today’s passage of holy Scripture tells us about how His amazing grace has made us into His amazing artwork.
This passage is not about the artwork that we create (as amazing or non-amazing as it might be), but the amazing artwork that God has made out of you and me.
Here is the astonishing claim the Apostle Paul makes in Ephesians 2:10.
“We are God’s workmanship.”
We, you and I who belong to Jesus Christ, are God’s own workmanship.
Today, I have just two simple points of application for us to consider from this passage as we kick off Family Bible Week, and here’s the first one:
#1. WONDER AT BEING HIS WORKMANSHIP!
The main thing I want to do this morning is just soak in this idea that you and I are the workmanship of God. To wonder and marvel at that idea.
The Greek word translated “workmanship” in verse 10 is ποίημα.
Like the English letters p-o-i-a-m-a. ποίημα
And can you guess what English word comes down from that? P-o-e-m. Poem.
That’s beautiful isn’t it? We are God’s “poem?”
But this word means more than just making poems. It means making things in general. It means “handiwork” or “skillful work.” One translation has “creative project.” 
It means a work of art. You and I are God’s artwork. Isn’t that amazing?
Turn to the person next to you and say to them, “You are a masterpiece in the making.”
Is that a little awkward to say? Is it a little awkward to receive?
Try saying this one, “I am a masterpiece in the making.”
Look in the mirror first thing tomorrow morning and say to the person you see, “I am  masterpiece in the making.” I am God’s artwork.
Isn’t that breathtaking?!
Do you believe it?
Is this how you see yourself? Is this how you talk to yourself about yourself?
Is this how you see your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? The other people in this room. The folks outside.
Because this is a corporate thing, too. Paul says, “WE are his workmanship.”
All of us. Each of us. And all of us together. We are God’s artwork.
I know it doesn’t always feel like it. 
My guess is that if unfinished inanimate artwork had feelings, it would often not feel like artwork yet either. But it certainly is.
We are God’s ποίημα.
And that means that we have value.
Last month, in WORLD Magazine, I read a story about a woman who was shopping at a Goodwill thrift store in Autin, Texas and she bought stone statue, a marble bust for $35.00 and took it home.
Now, she was art collector, and she thought that it might be worth something. And in fact, she was able to prove that it was as Roman original from the first century. Made about the time that Paul was writing Ephesians!
Eventually she got it put on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art!
I’m sure it’s worth thousands and thousands of dollars.
But Goodwill had a sticker on it for $35.
It’s easy for you and me to think that we are worth some thrift-store sticker price.
But we are Whose artwork?
What name do you have signed in the corner by the frame–so to speak–of your life?
Yahweh.The LORD.God!
And His Son Jesus Christ.
“We are His workmanship.”
You are worth so much more than $35.00. You are not junk. You are a priceless piece of artwork.
Paul says (v.10), we are “created in Christ Jesus.”
Now, that could be referring to the original creation. Being a creation of God in the first place. Which we all are.
We are creatures. We are made. We didn’t make ourselves. We didn’t create ourselves. And every human on the planet is creatively unique. Every one has their own DNA. Their own beauty. Their own dignity. Even those who are yet unborn.
Every one of us is an original piece of God’s artwork.
And the Bible says that Jesus was involved in all of that initial creation.
The Apostle John tells us that “Through [Jesus] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (Jn. 1:3 NIVO)
Paul tells us elsewhere that “all things were created by [Jesus] and for [Jesus].” (Col. 1:16 NIVO)
But I don’t think that’s what Paul is emphasizing here.
That’s not what he’s been talking about in this part of Ephesians.
There is a different creation being talked about here. It’s a new creation. It’s a re-creation.
It’s God bringing about something new in our lives.
It’s our salvation!
Did you notice that our verse begins with the word “for?” 
Verse 10, “FOR we are his workmanship.”
There is a logic here. Verse 10 is the powerful conclusion of a train of thought that Paul has been chugging along since verse 1.
Let’s go back and see what he says there. He’s actually going to tell you the wonderful story of your life. If you belong to Jesus today, here is your story. Marvel at this. Ephesians 2:1.
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” 
This is a dark story, isn’t it? It starts with a death, and the death is yours and mine. Paul says that we were dead. Not physically, but spiritually.
That’s bad news because that means that you and I cannot fix our problem for ourselves. We were dead, and in our dead-life we were following Satan, and were, by nature, objects of God’s just wrath.
That’s really bad news, and if the story stopped there, we would all be in trouble.
But this story has a hero, and it is not us! Look at verse 4.
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Stop there for a second.
The hero of this story is God. And He has done something that nobody else could. He a has raised us from the dead–spiritually! He’s “made us alive with Christ” (someone Whom He had raised physically from the dead!).  And He’s put us spiritually up in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
You and I are there right now, spiritually! We are in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
How mindblowing this is! How breathtaking!
And why?! To show off!!! 
Look at verse 7 again. Why? “...in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
We are artwork for Him to display in His heavenly art gallery!
You know that whenever you make something, you want to show somebody? Put it on the fridge. Take it to fair. Toss it up on Instagram or Tictok.
The more proud you are of it, the more you want to show it off.
Please bring in your artwork this week to display there in the entrance art gallery.
But you and I are the artwork in display in God’s gallery!
He’s saying, “Look what I have done! Look what I am doing! 
Look at my workmanship. Look at my grace at work. Look at my ποίημα.”
Because make no doubt about it: it was work.
To make artwork takes work, right? All you makers out there. Is being creative easy?
I’m sure it get easier at least in some ways. But I’ve making sermons now for going on 3 decades, and it’s hard work. I don’t wonder now most weeks if I’ll actually have a sermon for you. But every once in a while, it just doesn’t want to come.
Some week, I thought I might have get up here and say, “Sorry. I don’t have a sermon for you today. We had supply chain issues...And I was the missing link!”
But most of the time, to make artwork takes hard work.
And God wants to get all of the credit.
So, we get verses 8 and 9 to explain who really did the work. Look at that. Verse 8.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”
I hope you have those verses memorized.
Do you see how important it is to Him that God gets the glory? 
How are we saved? Are we saved by our good works? No way!
We are not saved by being good people. Which is good, because we are not.We are not saved by going to church. Which is good, because we could never go to church enough to pay for our sins.We are not saved by doing good works at all. Which is good because we could never do enough good works to right the scales.
We are saved by grace alone. We are saved by gift.
Through faith! We do receive this gift. We put our faith in and trust in it. But even that is not from us. Even our faith is a gift of God.
So that we cannot boast. And that God can. Isn’t that amazing?
It’s called amazing grace for a reason!
Just marvel at it.
We are not saved by our works.We are not saved by our works.We are not saved by our works.
But by Jesus’ work on the Cross.
“Not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.”
Do you see now what that “creation” is?
That is the creation of spiritual life where there was only spiritual death.That is the creation of light where there was only darkness.That is the creation of salvation where there was only condemnation.That is the creation of beauty where there was only ashes.
No wonder Paul says that we are a masterpiece!
He looks at us, and He says, {Chef’s Kiss} “ποίημα!”
And He signs His name in the corner of our lives. 
“Created in Christ Jesus.”
Isn’t that amazing?
I want you to feel that. 
I want you to see yourself in that.
He’s not talking about how pretty we all are. He’s talking about the beauty of what He has done and is doing and will do with our salvation and our lives.
We are His artwork.
Find your joy in that, and nothing can knock you down.
See yourself that way, and shame will not have the last word.
Walk through life knowing that you are a part of God’s masterpiece.
And you will hold your head up high.
You won’t get a big head. Because it wasn’t you that did it.
You cannot boast in your salvation.
The only thing that you and I brought to our salvation was our sin. Our sinful need of it.
But no matter. We are God’s workmanship. Wonder at that.
Unless, of course, you are not yet part of His ποίημα. It is by grace gift you have been saved, through faith. Have you received this gift of salvation? Jesus Christ did all of the work. He went to the Cross to pay for our transgressions and sins and came back to life to raise us to life. Have you received His gift? I hope so. If not, don’t wait any longer.
Now, does the fact that we are not saved by works mean that we don’t have to do any works? That there are no works for us to do?
No! I’m so glad that verse 10 follows right on the heals of verses 8 and 9.
Because it’s really clear here that we are not saved BY GOOD WORKS, but we are saved FOR GOOD WORKS.
In fact, it’s part of the whole point! Look at verse 10 again.
“For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Your works will never save you, but because you’re saved, you’re supposed to do good works.
God has got them ready for you to walk in.
And that’s point number two and last.
#2. WALK IN THE WORKS HE PREPARED FOR YOU.
Wonder at simply being His creative workmanship.And walk in the works that He has prepared for you to do.
The Greek here can literally be translated “to walk” in these works. It’s the same word from verse 2 where the NIV has “lived.”  We used to walk in the ways of the dead world. But now we walk in the works of a new life. And God’s got it all planned out for us.
We just have to step out and follow Him.
You know that Mary Beth and Cindy have been working for weeks to get the crafts ready for the kids each night this week? There’s a whole room of the art supplies that are prepped and ready to go.
The kids are going to do the crafts. But Mary Beth and Cindy have prepared them ahead of time for the kids to do.
And, in the same way, God has prepared a bunch of good work for you and me to walk out.
Now those good works could take a lot of forms.
It could be serving at Family Bible Week. And many of you will be doing that.
Or it could be doing your work at your work as worship of Jesus. And many of you are doing that week in and week out.
It might be giving to the Family Bible Week Missions Project. That would be a good work. Wouldn’t it be great if we could send at least 7 sewing machines and at least 7 sewing kits to the refugees in Malawi?
I think God has prepared that good work for us to do. 
There are three words you’re going to hear a lot this week:
CREATED. DESIGNED. EMPOWERED.
That’s what we’re going to talk about in each class all week long.
It’s really just working out our salvation on a daily basis, living as the artwork that we truly are.
Because we are not stale and lifeless artifacts. We are not just statues. We are not confined to paper or even film.
We are living artwork, made in the image of a Maker God saved by His amazing grace to live for the glory of our Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ.

“Conspiracy” [Matt's Messages]

“Conspiracy”Uprooted - The Words of JeremiahLanse Evangelical Free ChurchJuly 10, 2022 :: Jeremiah 11:1-12:17 
They were out to get him.
They had come together in secrecy and plotted against him.
Behind closed doors, they had decided to gang on up him and lead him “like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.”
They were out to get him.
There was a conspiracy against him.
Whom I am talking about?
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE]
The key word for these two chapters is “Conspiracy.”
And there are actually two conspiracies that are recounted in these two chapters.
Both of them were real, not just theoretical. And one of them, the smaller one, was embedded within the larger one. And the story of both of these two conspiracies can teach us about how to live as a follower of Jesus Christ today.
The first conspiracy was the bigger one. And it was a conspiracy against the LORD.
Look with me at chapter 11, verse 1. 
In this chapter, the word of LORD is going to come to Jeremiah and tell him to tell the people of Judah once again why the LORD’s judgment was going to come upon them.
And that’s because they had broken their covenant with Yahweh.
Jeremiah was a broken record about a broken covenant.
Here he goes again. Look at verse 1.
“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. Tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Cursed is the man who does not obey the terms of this covenant–the terms I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.' I said, 'Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey'–the land you possess today.’ I answered, ‘Amen, LORD.’”
This story should sound familiar to us,  and certainly should have been familiar to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. It’s probably a short version of what King Josiah had read to them all when the Book of the Law was discovered and recovered from the Temple.
It’s just basic Exodus and Deuteronomy stuff. Deuteronomy 101. Yahweh saved them from Egypt by His grace. He brought them out of slavery. Hardship. “The iron-smelting furnace” of Egypt. And He promised to give them the fair and fruitful Land of Canaan.
They just had one job. Obey Yahweh. Be loyal to Yahweh. Follow His commandments. Fear Him alone. And walk in relationship with Him: “You will be my people, and I will be your God.” Yahweh was to be the “Portion of Jacob.”
And Israel had said, “Amen! Let it be so!” And Jeremiah said it again for them here in verse 5.
But they did not actually obey. They were not actually loyal. They did not follow His commandments. They did not fear Him alone. V.6
“The LORD said to me, ‘Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: 'Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. From the time I brought your forefathers up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey me.’ But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.'”
This why judgment is coming! It’s because of a conspiracy. Verse 9.
“Then the LORD said to me, ‘There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers.”
Jeremiah is broken record about the broken covenant.
Judah knew the terms of “the contract” and had breached them. Repeatedly. 
As you read Jeremiah, you see how many angles that Jeremiah can come from to get his point across. He has so many images and illustrations that he draws from.
A few weeks ago, he came at it from the medical side of things. Remember the “Balm in Gilead?” Is there no good medicine? Yes, there was good medicine, but the patient, Judah, had decided it wasn’t so bad and had refused the right treatment!
And early on it was like divorce proceedings. Remember that from chapters 2 and 3? This is more like that. Judah knew what they had agreed to in Exodus and Deuteronomy, but they were in flagrant violation of it.
And, in fact, they were conspiring together to rebel against it. This was mutiny. This was revolt.
I think that, quite possibly, this was bubbling under the surface the entire time that King Josiah was trying to make his reforms across Judah. Josiah was trying to turn his people to back to the LORD. Cutting down idols. Restoring worship to the Temple and not the high places. Cleaning up Jerusalem. But many Judahites didn’t like it one little bit. "There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem.”
Today, I have four points of practical application that I think we can draw from these two chapters, and here is the first one:
#1. DON’T BE SHOCKED IF PEOPLE CONSPIRE AGAINST YOUR LORD.
Do not be super surprised if people come together to resist the LORD and His good plan for them. on’t be shocked because this has been happening ever since the dawn of humanity. Don’t be floored by this because it’s the story of the whole Old Testament. 
These people were the covenant people of God! These weren’t the foreign nations. This is Judah! This is Jerusalem. On one level, it is shocking because these were to be God’s people, and just look at them! There a definitely shocking sense of outrage.
But on another level, it should not shock us, because that’s how people can be. Ever since Adam and Eve, people have come together to resist the LORD and His good plan for them.
Now, it must be noted that these conspiracies never take the LORD by surprise. And they never actually threaten Him. Remember Psalm 2?
“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’
[And how does the LORD respond? “Oh no, what will I do?” No.]
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.” (Ps. 2:1-4 NIVO)
And He enthrones His Messiah to take care of it all.
But that’s the conspiring of the nations. What about the conspiring of God’s nation?  Of Judah itself. What will the LORD do about them? V.11
They “have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers."
“Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. [They didn’t listen to me. I’m not going not going to listen to them.] The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. [Why not? Because those gods are like a scarecrow in a melon patch! They can’t hurt you, but they can’t help you either. No matter how many you make. Verse 13.] You have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.'
‘Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress. ‘What is my beloved doing in my temple as she works out her evil schemes with many? Can consecrated meat avert your punishment? [No!] When you engage in your wickedness, then you rejoice.”
The LORD called you a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form. But with the roar of a mighty storm he will set it on fire, and its branches will be broken. The LORD Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done evil and provoked me to anger by burning incense to Baal.”
Jeremiah was a broken record about the broken covenant.
Are you starting to get a little tired of the repetition of this message?
How do you think Jeremiah felt? He had to deliver it for forty years! We’ve just been in his book for 10 weeks. 
Don’t be shocked if people conspire against your Lord.
I don’t know about you, but I need that reminder. Because I can easily fall into the error of thinking that people are basically good and deep down they all love God. And so I’m shocked when I encounter opposition, hostility, or even persecution. I should know better though. Remember what we just saw in 1 Peter?
It is true that all people have something good in them. They are all made in the image of God. And they all know something about God.
But aside from the work of the Holy Spirit in someone’s heart, deep down, humans are not good and they do not love God. Instead, they make and choose other gods. And, in fact, they work together to oppose the One true God.
The New Testament has a word for that. It’s the word “kosmos” or “world.” Humans united in conspiracy against the LORD. And the Bible says that we should not fall in with them: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 Jn. 2:15 NIVO).
The Lord is not threatened by these conspiracies. And He wasn’t threatened by Judah’s conspiracy. Though He is clearly pictured as hurt by it. "What is my beloved doing in my temple as she works out her evil schemes with many?”  
Nothing will stop the LORD’s judgment from coming on Judah. That’s why Jeremiah is not allowed to pray for them. It won’t do any good. There will be no leniency. They have passed the point of no return.
They are going to be uprooted. The LORD Almighty had planted them, and now He’s going to undo that planting. They will be exiled. Pulled up by the roots.
Do not be shocked if people conspire against your Lord...and if you get caught up in the crossfire.
In verse 18, we get the story of the second conspiracy. And this one was a conspiracy about Jeremiah. Look at verse 18.
“Because the LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. [The LORD knows about a conspiracy against Jeremiah, and told him about it so that he could escape. Verse 19.] I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, ‘Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.’
[They were out to get Jeremiah. And they would have succeeded if the LORD had not revealed the plot to him. So Jeremiah asks the LORD for justice. V.20]
But, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.”
Now, that sounds kind of harsh to me. But Jeremiah isn’t saying that he is going to take vengeance on his enemies. These men who were conspiring to assassinate him. He’s just asking for the LORD to give them a taste of their own medicine. And the LORD says that He is going to grant Jeremiah’s request. V.21
“Therefore this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who are seeking your life and saying, 'Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD or you will die by our hands'–  therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.'”
Now, before we go any further. I want to point out just how wicked this conspiracy was.
Who are these men who were plotting to kill Jeremiah? The men of Anathoth.
What town was Jeremiah’s hometown? Anathoth. This wasn’t Babylon. These were his Israelite neighbors. These were his family! 
Sometimes when they hate your Lord, the people closest to you will hate you, too.
And they will gang on up on you. Don’t be surprised. If they conspire against Him, they will conspire against you. 
Anathoth was a city full of priests, but for several reasons they could not serve as priests at the temple. And Josiah was going around knocking down all of the other places where a priest could do his thing. And Jeremiah was egging him on. And the men of Anathoth were sick and tired of Jeremiah’s preaching. “Broken covenant. Broken covenant. Broken covenant. Repent, repent, repent.”
They wanted to worship these other gods. So Jeremiah almost died. They put out a hit on him. 
Imagine how Jeremiah must have felt!
Actually, we don’t have to imagine. He tells us. Look at chapter 12. Jeremiah is frustrated that all of this is still going on. And so he does something that might shock us. He brings it up to God. Look at chapter 12, verse 1.
“You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?”
Here’s application point number two:
#2. DON’T BE AFRAID TO TELL YOUR LORD WHAT YOU REALLY THINK.
Jeremiah sure is bold here, isn’t he? “Yet I would speak with you about your justice.” Whoo! Them’s strong words.
Now, notice that he starts with, “You are always righteous, O LORD...”  He knows what we learned a few weeks ago about Who LORD is and what He loves. He knows that LORD “exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth,” for in those He delights (Jer. 9:24 NIVO)! He knows that. He’s banking on that.
But Jeremiah doesn’t understand God’s timing on that.
“When is that going to happen? These men conspired to kill me, and you said you’d deal with them. When? Why not now? I don’t understand. You said there would be all of these curses. You said there would be all of this judgment coming. You keep making me a broken record about the broken covenant. And here we still are! Forty years of this. Where is the justice?”
Can you relate to Jeremiah? He’s asking an age old question. “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” Why do they get away with it? “Why do all of the faithless live at ease?”
Look at your television. Look at the internet.  How many righteous people suffer and how many wicked people have more cars, more money, more popularity, more power? Look at verse 2.
“You have planted them [the wicked!], and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts. [They are hypocrites.] Yet you know me, O LORD; you see me and test my thoughts about you. [Am I a hypocrite? I don’t think so.] Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter! [Fix it! Bring the justice.] How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished. Moreover, the people are saying, ‘He will not see what happens to us.’”
“We’ll get away with it.”
“They are mocking you. Why do you allow that, Yahweh?”
Now, before we look at how the LORD responds to Jeremiah, let’s just note that He lets Jeremiah talk to Him like that.
It’s okay.
It’s okay for Jeremiah to be raw with the LORD and to tell Him exactly what He’s really thinking.
Jeremiah does this several times in the course of this book. Sometimes these interactions with God are called “The Confessions of Jeremiah” because they are so personal. But they’re actually more like “The Protests of Jeremiah!” They are the real and raw personal interactions of Jeremiah with Yahweh.
Don’t be afraid to talk to the LORD about what’s really on your mind.
When’s the last time you did that? 
And what was it about?
It’s okay. Don’t be afraid to talk to God about it.
Be careful how you speak to Him. The Bible says a lot about that, too. But, obviously, He invites us to bring our hot mess real selves to Him and even ask Him the hard questions. Where else can we go but to Him?
Talk to your LORD about your heart and your mind and your doubts and your fears and your questions.
I’m so glad that Jeremiah could talk this way to Yahweh. Because I need to some myself.
Now, what is the answer to Jeremiah’s questions?
How would you answer them if Jeremiah was asking you? “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?”
The Bible gives multiple lines of teaching on this topic. This afternoon you might want to read Psalm 37 or Psalm 73 to see what they have to say about pretty much the same question that Jeremiah had.
But, here in chapter 12, the LORD doesn’t answer Jeremiah in any way like he might have wanted Him to. And if you didn’t know that the LORD often answers a question with another question back, you might be surprised at His response. Look at verse 5.
Jeremiah, “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?”
The answer back is basically, “Jeremiah, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” “Buckle up, Buttercup.”
Here’s application point number three:
#3. DON’T BE STUNNED IF YOUR LORD SAYS THINGS WILL GET EVEN HARDER.
The LORD answers Jeremiah’s question with a question of his own.
“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?” 
It seems to me that he’s likening the conspiracy and the pressure that Jeremiah has felt so far to a demanding foot race between men. And he senses that Jeremiah might be ready to throw in the towel. Jeremiah might feel like quitting.
But instead of just sympathizing with Jeremiah and comforting him, the LORD braces him for more. He says that compared to what Jeremiah has experienced so far, what is coming is like racing a horse.
It’s not going to be Jeremiah versus Usian Bolt or Jesse Owens. It’s going to be Jeremiah versus Rich Strike or Seabiscuit. Now how does that make you feel?
Yahweh says, “If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the [dangerous] thickets by the Jordan?” The conspiracy in your hometown is relatively safe compared to what is coming. 
How does that make you feel?
Well, I personally would like to be coddled and told that things are going to get better. Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay.
And the Bible does promise that things will get better in time. The LORD has promised good to us in the end. But you and I need to hear that things may get much worse before then. Jeremiah needed to be prepared. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather know the truth about what’s coming than to live in a fantasy world and get blind-sided again and again.
Do not be stunned to learn that things may get much harder.
The world hates the LORD. And we belong to the LORD. And so the world will hate us (John 15:18).
The conspiracies against the LORD will continue, and we will continue to be caught up in the crossfire.
Be warned. Be ready. And be faithful.
Remember, Jeremiah is not being told this so that he then fights for his rights. Or votes the right people into office. But that he stands firm in his message from the LORD and doesn’t waver in sharing it faithfully (remember chapter 1). 
Running with the horses means being ready for it to be overwhelming, but not quitting.
Trusting God no matter what.
Like Joel said last week when the storm and waves are overwhelming, trusting in Who Jesus really is and believing that He has got this and He has got you.
Friends, your life may be hard right now.  But it may get harder. I’m just telling you. 
Some of your lives are really difficult, and the Bible does not say that it will just get better right away.
There are pressures in our culture that are anti-Christian. Things might get better if God so chooses.
But they very well might get worse. And we need to be braced and ready for that. We need to be resilient. 
I’m not good at that naturally. I’m a whiner. I’m a worrier.
But I want to run with the horses.
Even if it gets harder and harder for 40 years. I’m sure that Jeremiah wanted to hear that the conspiracy would soon die down and that things would get better around the corner. But the LORD told it to him straight, and I’m sure that in the long run he was glad that he knew what was coming.
It’s not that LORD dismissed what Jeremiah was going through at that point. He wasn’t saying that his suffering then in this Anothoth conspiracy was no big deal. He didn’t discount it at all. Look at verse 6.
“Your brothers, your own family–even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.”
“There is a conspiracy going on. But it’s part of the larger conspiracy against Me!”
He’s saying, basically, “I know how you feel.” V.7
“I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her. [What strong words! The lion of Judah has turned to attack the LORD of Judah! Talk about a conspiracy! What choice does Yahweh have than to bring judgement? V.9] Has not my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack? Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour. Many shepherds [foreign kings] will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland. It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares. Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe. They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. So bear the shame of your harvest because of the LORD's fierce anger.’”
They have chosen to hate me, and therefore I must choose to uproot them.
And yet, even that is not the end of the story.
Here’s point number four and last.
#4. DON’T BE SURPRISED IF YOUR LORD IS AMAZINGLY GRACIOUS.
After all of what you’ve heard today, would you expect the LORD to talk about how He’s going to save the nations? The nations that have conspired against Him? Even Judah who had conspired against Him and against His prophet? Look at verse 14.
“This is what the LORD says: ‘As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel [the surrounding foreign nations], I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country. And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, 'As surely as the LORD lives'–even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal–then they will be established among my people. But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it,’ declares the LORD.”
Isn’t that amazing?! The LORD says that He’s going to uproot all of the wicked nations that attack Judah, just like He’s going to uproot Judah.
But that’s not all. He says that after He’s done that, He’s going to be compassionate on–not just Judah but the nations! If they repent and turn to Him, He will receive them and plant them again!
He is relentless in His amazing grace.
Even to foreigners from faraway lands like Indonesia and Pennsylvania.
This is glimpse of the grace of our Lord who has given us a mission to tell all of the nations about His great compassion and salvation. Remember, Jeremiah was appointed a prophet to the nations (1:5, 1:10). And not just for judgment! But for salvation. Gentiles can go from God-hating conspirators to God-loving members of His covenant family.
And here’s how He made that happen:
By coming in the Person of Jesus Christ and experiencing the worst of the worst of conspiracies.
They were out to get him. They had come together in secrecy and plotted against him.
Behind closed doors, they had decided to gang on up him and lead him “like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.”
They were out to get him.
There was a conspiracy against him.
And I’m not talking just about Jeremiah.
I’m talking about Jesus.

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Previous Messages in This Series:

01. "The Word of the LORD Came to Me" - Jeremiah 1:1-19
02. "I Bring Charges Against You" - Jeremiah 2:1-3:5
03. "Return to Me" - Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
04. “Oh My Anguish, My Anguish!” - Jeremiah 4:6-5:31
05. "Ask for the Ancient Paths" - Jeremiah 6:1-30
06. “This Is the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD!” - Jeremiah 7:1-8:3
07. "Is There No Balm in Gilead?" - Jeremiah 8:4-9:22
08. "Boast About This" - Jeremiah 9:23-24
09. "Like a Scarecrow in a Melon Patch" - Jeremiah 9:25-10:25