Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Jul 01, 2009: Jeremiah 16
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2009. All right, James chapter 6, I'm not sorry, not James, Jeremiah chapter 16. James on Sunday mornings, Jeremiah on Wednesday. We seem to be having some difficulties today. We have a difficulty with our CD burner, our CD recorder. We're not recording it on CD. We're trying to use a little handheld recorder. Hopefully that works. We obviously couldn't play the video from the harvest Tuesday. So, you know, it's just one of those evenings. The enemy is about to attack, but he is attacking. And so we know that God wants to do great work, didn't he? So let's get into the word of God. Jeremiah chapter 16, look with me at verses 1 and 2. It says, As we start off in Jeremiah chapter 16, God is now giving some instruction to Jeremiah. Here he is, he's a prophet to the nation of Judah. He's been given a very difficult ministry before. a very difficult task of bringing the message of repentance to a nation that does not want to hear it, but it's also a message of judgment that if they don't repent, the judgment of God will come, Babylon will come and conquer the nation and carry them away captive. It was also especially difficult for Jeremiah because the things that he was prophesying about would be fulfilled in his lifetime. He would see them take place. He would see the horror. He would see the tragedy, the atrocity of the things that are going to take place when that one comes So they feast to Jerusalem, to conquer Jerusalem, and to carry all of the inhabitants away captive. And so Jeremiah, he loves the people, he's set by God with a message, and now God is giving him some specific instruction. Because he wants Jeremiah, he's appointed Jeremiah to be a sign for the nation. He's to be a warning, the system. the very presence of Jeremiah and the lifestyle that he lived and the way that he acts and operates is a message from God to the people. It's not just the words that Jeremiah would share, but God here instructs Jeremiah, you shall not take a wife. He's telling Jeremiah, Jeremiah, I want you to live a certain way. I want you to fill a certain capacity, and I want you to be a sign to the people, and as a sign to the nation of Judah, you are not to take a wife, and nor are you to have sons or daughters in this place. You are not to have a family, Jeremiah. Now talk about adding difficulty to difficulty here. He's called to this difficult task. He's called to this difficult ministry. And now God says, I don't want you to get married and I don't want you to have children. You're going to continue on your ministry alone. It's just me and you, Jeremiah, because you are going to be assigned to the nation of Judah. Now you remember back in Jeremiah chapter 1, God had called Jeremiah at a young age, and so he was probably, you know, about ready now, maybe had it in his mind, had it in his heart, maybe had someone pick it out, we don't know. But God gives him this instruction, Jeremiah, you're not to take a wife. You're not to do as is normal for the people around you. You're to be different. Because you're going to be a sign to my people. And Jeremiah here, as he receives this instruction, this command from the Lord, he fully submits to God. And it's an opportunity for us to examine our own hearts and ask ourselves, does God have full authority in my life? For those who are single, if God were to give you this command, would you be obedient? Is obeying God more important to you than your own thoughts, than your own dreams, than your own desires? Does God have full authority in your life? When it comes to marriage, when it comes to children, when it comes to occupation, when it comes to whatever. the harvest impact classes you say well no I'm just not really comfortable does God have full authority in your life will you be obedient regardless of if it's your favorite thing to do in the world or not will you be obedient to God as Jeremiah went God gives Jeremiah this command you're not to have a And it may sound cruel and it may sound difficult for us, for God to require this, but look at what God says in verses 3 and 4. This is why Jeremiah is not to have a family. To be a sign, but also to spare him some heartache. In verse 3, it says, For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and their fathers who begot them in this land. Verse 4, They shall die gruesome deaths. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. But they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by salmon, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth. God says to Jeremiah, here's why I want you to remain single, Jeremiah. You're to be assigned because what is coming upon this nation is gruesome. It's not time to be starting a family, God's health share of mine. It's not the time. Because what's about to come is going to hit everybody. And it's going to affect moms and fathers. It's going to affect children. It's going to be gruesome. There's going to be gruesome death. And they're not even going to be lamented. There's not going to be, you know, big burial ceremonies. The bodies are just going to be shrewd over the land and laid across the city they're going to be like refuse because on the face of the earth they're just going to be there laying around because there's no one to bury them because of the extent of the destruction and the repercussions of their sin and rebellion against God this is the extent of what is coming and so God says it's not time right now to get married and to have children and so Jeremiah you're assigned that this is coming You're a sign. When they ask you, hey, why aren't you, you know, making arrangements to have a bride? Then you'll be able to give them this instruction and let them know what is coming. He was a sign that it was not the time to continue as normal. It wasn't the time to just continue on as was the custom of the nation and the people. That there was to be something different because of what was ahead. Now, God often used his prophets as signs. He used their lives as messages to the people. The prophet Hosea was also a sign to the people. He was a sign to the nation. He was a couple hundred years before Jeremiah, and his command by God was a little bit different. God commanded Hosea, Not to not start a family, but he commanded Hosea to go get a wife. But you might not be so excited if you understand what command God gave him, because it wasn't just to get a wife, but God commanded him, go and get yourself as a wife a prostitute. Go find a prostitute and marry her. What a crazy command. But it's because God is using him as a message to the people. What's the message to the people? Well, it was about 200 years earlier, and the message that God was seeking to deliver to the nation was, you've been unfaithful, you've been adulterous spiritually, you've been unfaithful to God, you haven't been righteous, you haven't been right on. But the message to you is, I still want to marry you, and I still love you, and there's still time. for you to be restored the message of Hosea the sign of Hosea was for the nation to come back to God and even later on in their marriage as Hosea was married to this prostitute she then became unfaithful again she left him she left the marriage she went out and she practiced harlotry again And God gave Hosea another command, "Go buy her back." Now she's kind of sold herself into slavery with this prostitution. God tells him, "Go get her, buy her back, and restore her unto yourself again as your wife." And as crazy as that sounds for us, The prophets are there. God has full authority in his life. He was submitted to him. He goes and he gets there. And the message to the nation is, look, even though you've run away again, even though you've been in rebellion, you can still come back. It is God's invitation for the nation to come back. Well, now, 200 years later, the nation has continued to rebel against God. The message is not the same. The message now is Jeremiah broke it. Because this people needs to know the time is coming short. The time is coming short. It's not time to just continue on and do business as usual. There's going to be severe judgment because of their severe rebellion. So he commands Jeremiah not to have a family. Well, he gives him another command in verses 5 through 7. It says... For thus says the Lord, do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or be moaned then, for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, loving kindness and mercies. Verse 2. So this next command that God gives to Jeremiah is that he's not to go and to enter into the house of mourning. Now, as their custom was, whenever there was a death in the family, there would be a time of mourning and there'd be great mourning and they'd shave their heads and they'd tear their clothes and they'd have all of these traditions and they'd have the wailing and it was this big to-do. And God is telling Jeremiah, look, when that is happening now in the nation, you are not to participate. I don't want you to go into the house. I don't want you to go to the funeral parlor, essentially. I don't want you to go to the memorial service or the funeral service, God tells Jeremiah. You are not to participate in those things. Why? Well again, God goes on to explain, because when this tragedy happens, when they receive the consequences for their sins, when the judgment of God is poured out, there's not going to be funerals. There's not going to be people are going to be dead. They're going to experience the wrath of God because of their sin against God. But they're not going to be memorial service. There's not going to be funeral services. There's not going to be the way they're not going to do their usual customs because the survivors are going to be carried off captive to Babylon. And so God is using again Jeremiah as a sign that he's not to get married, that he's not to attend the funeral services, as a sign to the nation, as a sign to the people that they would know the judgment of God is very near, that he is very serious about the messages he's been proclaiming, and it's time for them to get right with him. Well, he gives them a third command in verse 8. It says, So the third command, you are not to go into the house of feasting. Number one, Jeremiah, you're not to get married, you're not to have a family. Number two, you're not to go into a house where mourning is taking place, you're not to attend a funeral service. And now, Jeremiah, you're not to go and participate in their feast. You're not to go rejoice with them and hang out with them and have dinner with them and just have a wonderful time and be a part of their. fiestas. You're not to participate in those things, Jeremiah. You are to stay away. Why? Well, God explains in verse 9, because when the judgment of God comes, when they experience the consequences for their sin, there's not going to be feast. There's not going to be those times of rejoicing. All of those of those days are going to be gone. The voice of gladness, the voice of joy, that won't be heard in the nation. The voice of the bridegroom, that's not going to happen. The voice of the bride, there's not going to be marriages taking place. The land is going to be desolate as it experiences the judgment of God. And so God gives Jeremiah this command to be assigned to the people, I'm not feasting with you now, Jeremiah, to say, because the land is not going to feast and rejoice in the very near future. There's a judgment coming. The message that he's been proclaiming. Now God is calling Jeremiah to show that that message, that he believes that message, to demonstrate that message to them by the way that he is living. And as I was looking at these things and reviewing these things and praying for them, the Lord began to minister to my heart what I now share with you. And that is that we need to live right now as a sign of what is to come. Right now we need to live. Our lives need to testify of what is going to come. The reality that is going to happen. What is going to happen? What is for real? For us as Christians, we are going to be praising God for the rest of eternity. And so if we believe that, live right now as a sign of that which is to come. Praise God. Worship God. Spend time with Him. Because that's what we're going to be doing for the rest of eternity. But I think it goes even beyond that. Turn with me, please. We'll come back to Jeremiah 16, but turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6 for a moment. 2 Corinthians 6, the Apostle Paul is giving some really great instructions to the Corinthian church. And of course there's lots of passages that we could use to illustrate this. But in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul is calling them to holiness. He's calling them to be set apart, to be separate, to not be like the rest of the world. And so 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14, Paul says to the Corinthians, "...do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers." "For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' Here, the Apostle Paul gives a strong exhortation to the Corinthians to not be unequally yoked. He's saying, don't tie yourself up with, don't wrap yourself in, don't involve yourself in the things of the And the things of those who do not believe in God. You see, we're called to come apart from them and be separate. We're called, because we know what's coming from the past, we know what is happening in the near future, we know that Jesus Christ is coming again, and the rapture of the church will take place, and we're going to be gone, we need to be a sign and a testimony to the world around us. And it's not just with the Word of God, the words that come out of our mouth but it needs to be in the life that we live that our life demonstrates that we understand what is going to happen in the near future is that we are going to be with Jesus and we're going to be with him for eternity and that's the most important thing And so we're to live our lives set apart. Not being yoked together unequally with those who do not believe. Both in relationships, in romantic relationships, or any other type of relationships, business relationships, and so on and so forth. We're not to be yoked together in that. We're to come apart. We're to be separate. We're not to be like the rest of the world because we know what is coming. Just as in Jeremiah's day there was a judgment that was coming upon the nation. There is judgment that's coming upon our nation and the entire world in the tribulation period. And we know we're living in the last day. We need to be a sign of what is to come. We need to live right now at this time of what is to come. To demonstrate with our lives as well as our words that Jesus Christ is coming soon. That it's near, that it's at the door. We need to be prepared and to let the world around us know by the way that we act, by the way that we operate, by the way that we behave, that Jesus Christ is coming against us. Now it doesn't mean that we don't get married. This was the message that God had given to Jeremiah. It doesn't mean that we don't go to memorial services. It doesn't mean that we don't participate when people are celebrating and having a good time. But in James chapter 4 verse 17, we studied it this last Sunday, James says, to the one who knows to be good and does not good, to him it is sin. God gives us specific instructions of how we're to live and what we're to do. And if we are disobedient to that, marriage is not bad. But if God tells you you're not to get married, then be fully submitted to God. and live right now in submission to Him as a sign of that which is to come. As God puts things upon your heart, maybe certain types of activities that you shouldn't be involved in or participating in, different directions in your life that you're not to go down, live right now as a sign. Be fully submitted to God as a sign, as a testimony to the world around you of what is to come. And so God gives these commands to Jeremiah. And he gives them for a specific reason, so that the people would know, that they would understand. Now he goes on to show and explain that the people are not going to understand, and Jeremiah is going to have an opportunity to tell them and explain to them why he's acting that way. Look at verse 10, we're back in Jeremiah chapter 16, and it says this, And it shall be when you show this people all these words and they say to you, "Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us?" Or, "What is our iniquity?" Or, "What is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?" Then you shall say to them, "Because your fathers have forsaken me," says the Lord. They have walked after other gods and have served them and worshipped them and have forsaken me and not kept my law. Verse 12 And you have done worse than your fathers. For behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart so that no one listens to me. Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know. Neither you nor your fathers So Jeremiah now, he's assigned to the people. He begins to be obedient to God. They're hearing his message. They're seeing his life. And they're asking, why are you saying this? Why are you pronouncing this judgment upon us? Why are you saying that there's going to be this great disaster? What if our iniquity, what have we done wrong, they're asking. The people are completely clueless and deceived. They don't even know why God is bringing this judgment upon us. Even though the Prophet Jeremiah has been pronouncing to them and proclaiming to them the reason for judgment, The judgment that will happen if they don't repent, He explains to them and outlines to them what they are doing wrong, how they are rebelling against God. But here they're saying, even though He said it, even though He shared it, they're saying, well, we don't understand. What have we done wrong? What's the problem here? I don't understand why I should be judged this way or this great judgment should be pronounced against us. What is our iniquity of committing? Even though the prophet Isaiah said, spent many years prophesying for the nation, and many other prophets were sent to the nation to proclaim to them what they were doing wrong and to turn back to God. The people were clueless. They weren't receiving the message. They weren't hearing what God was saying through these prophets. And so Jeremiah here again has an opportunity to explain to them and share with them what the problem is. God says, well, you're just like your fathers. You've forsaken me. You've turned away from me. What God really desires and the whole point of what God is doing is that He wants relationships with the nation. They were still going to the temple. They were still... practicing the sacrifices, they were still keeping the feasts that God had commanded, they were still being very religious. But the problem was they had no real relationship with God. They were going through the motions, in addition to that temple worship, they were worshipping these other gods and sacrificing to other gods, they weren't devoted to the Lord, they weren't sold out to Him, they had no real relationship with Him, they were just very religious. And so they deceived themselves. They thought, we're okay. Because look at all of these things that we do that God says, you have forsaken me. Not only have you forsaken me, but you've served other gods. You're out and you're worshipping these other gods. Not only that, but you're following the dictates of your own heart. It's just however you feel, and whatever you feel like doing, and whatever you want to do, that's what you do. As opposed to Jeremiah, who God can tell Jeremiah, I don't want you to get married, and I don't want you to have a family. And Jeremiah is fully submitted to God. I mean, that's a tough call. Unless you're gifted with the gift of celibacy, that's a tough call. But he's obedient to God. He's submitted to God. Now these people, they just follow their own heart. Whatever they want to do, that's what they do. There's so many parallels that we can look at the nation of Judah in their final days and the nation that we find ourselves in today. Having forsaken God, serving other gods, everyone's following their own heart. It's all about what we feel and what we want, how we can satisfy ourselves. And God says there, no one listens to me. No one listens. That's the problem. He says that at the end of verse 12. The problem is now there's no relationship with God. That's the purpose of our existence is to have relationship with God. And they've forsaken Him. They've turned away. They've fallen apart. They don't even pay attention to God. They were in this terrible condition. But still they're going along thinking we're okay. because we're religious, because we have these things, we have the temple in our midst, we are reading the scriptures, we're going to church. They really thought that their religious practices were enough. And they were sincere. They were sincere. They meant it. They're like, what's our problem? What's our sin? How belongs God? What's he pronouncing his judgment upon us for? And so it's an opportunity here for Jeremiah to explain to them This is what she's done. And so God says, "I'm going to cast you out of this land. I'm going to bring judgment because this is the state of your heart. You may not like it, you may not be receiving it, you may not believe it, you may still think you're okay, but you'll understand soon enough. I'm going to cast you out of this land." But God also promises to bring them back. In verse 14 it says, Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that it shall no more be said, the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt. But the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where he had driven them. For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. All throughout Israel's history, they would look back at how God brought them out of Egypt and the miraculous things that typically from the Red Sea, the wilderness, and leading them into the land. It was something they always looked back to up to that point. But God says, there's coming a time Because of the judgment that's going to take place, you're going to be cast out, this land is going to be desolate, but I'm going to restore you back. After a period of 70 years, God allows them back into the land. He's going to bring them back. And so they're going to look back later on in history, later on in the future, they're going to look back at history, and they're not going to talk about how God brought them out of Egypt, but the miraculous work God did in bringing them back into the land. It says, setting them free from Babylon, bringing them from all the nations where they had been scattered, and regathering them in the land. And so God is pronouncing this judgment, but He's also at the same time pronouncing His mercy ahead of time, and saying, I'm going to restore. This is not for forever. It's for a season, it's for a time, as I deal with this nation, as I deal with your hearts, for I'm going to bring you back into the land. Verse 16. He says, Verse 18. So God said it again. He gives us these pictures here. I'm going to get all these fishermen. And these fishermen are going to go, boom, they're going to hook them, they're going to reel them in, they're going to take them back to the land. I'm going to send out these hunters and they're going to track them down. And all the holes where they've hidden, all the caves and all the places, God's using some poetic language here to show the extent of how he's going to bring them back. In the same way as the extent of the judgment of God, to be full it was going to be complete no one was going to be excluded it was going to impact fathers and mothers and children and husbands and wives it was going to impact everybody small and great God says in the same way I'm going to bring back everybody I'm going to bring back all of my people and it's going to be amazing what I do and I'm going to send out all these people and to draw them back they're going to be led back into the land there was something that happened after Babylon released The nation of Judah allowed the people to go back, and yet it's something that we still see being today as God's people continue to be brought back. They're drawn back into the land in preparation for what God is going to do next in the return of Jesus Christ, the rapture of the church, and the coming things ahead in the tribulation period. And so God says, "I'm going to draw them back, but first I'm going to repay them double for their iniquity and their sin." Now that's not double like what they deserve, it's just double what they've been receiving because God's been merciful. He's been holding back. And this is the reality with sin, that, you know, we think of sin and judgments of God, and we talk about judgments of God, and we kind of maybe have a picture in our mind of God enacting the judgment, He's applying the discipline, And there's some truth to that. But at the same time, we need to understand that sin is sin because God commands us not to do it because it's harmful to us. And so what's really taking place is that God withholds judgment from us. He withholds the effects of sin from us. We don't receive according to our sins. He doesn't deal with us according to our sins. He withholds the effects. And so we often gain to a low. okay I mean I continue not it's because God is holding back that judgment that is already due that the consequences for those activities God often holds back But as we persist, as we continue, He warns us, but it comes to the point last week in chapters 14 and 15, God says, "I'm tired of relenting. I'm tired of holding it back." And so the judgment of God is not, you know, God chasing after us with a rod, but it's just Him not holding back those consequences anymore. He's allowing us to face and to experience the repercussions and the consequences for our sins. The Bible is very clear. You reap what you sow. And if you sow to the flesh, you reap destruction and corruption. And if you sow to the spirit, you reap everlasting life. And so here the nation is about to experience the consequences for their sins. It's not God angry with them and beating them down, but it's God tired of relenting. He's held back. But they've continued to persist. They've hardened their hearts. They've not listened. They've not turned back to Him. And so He says, "I will repay them double for their iniquity and their sin." They're going to experience the full consequences for what we have done, He is saying. They've defiled My land. They've filled My land with carcasses, with detestable and abominable idols. They've just rebelled against Me completely. It's horrendous what they're doing. And now they're going to experience the consequences. for their sins. God will repay them. They will experience it. It's somewhat like, well, because we need to understand that God's purpose is not to destroy them and wipe them out completely. You know, some nations, they were wiped out completely. But the nation of Judah, the nation of Israel, was going to be restored. God was bringing this, He was allowing this judgment, but it wasn't to wipe them out, to annihilate them. It was so that they could be into a right relationship with Him. It's maybe like when a physician re-breaks a bone so that it can be set properly. The nation of Judah, they're broken. They don't even know that they're broken, but they're broken, they're messed up. And God has to re-break that bone in order to set it properly, to set things right so that they can be healed, so that they can be fully restored. In Job chapter 5, we have some good words to consider. Job 5:17 says, "Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For he bruises, but he binds up; he wounds, but his hand may pull." Happy is the man whom God corrects. Don't despise the chastening of the Lord. Because He allows these things and He works these things in our lives in order to make us whole, in order to bring healing, in order to bind us up, to strengthen us, and to help us be restored to Him and to be prepared for what He wants to do next. Verse 19. Now Jeremiah responds, he says, Will a man make God's friends of which are not God's? Jeremiah responds. He cries out. He says, Lord, you're my strength. You're my fortress. He's beginning now to see what God is planning. He's realizing what you're talking about, God, the work that you're going to do, this is going to cause the rest of the world to come to you and recognize that you're God. It's going to cause the rest of the world to lay down their false gods and to recognize that you alone are the King of kings and Lord of lords. of the Lord they will know they will recognize they'll say look surely our fathers our traditions they taught us wise and we need to be serving the one true and living God and so he concludes in verse 21 therefore behold I will this once cause them to know I will cause them to know my hand and my might and they shall know that my name is the Lord You see, the purpose of God is restoration. He says, look, this one time I'm going to cause them to know my hand and my might. They're going to know my strength. They're going to know what I'm capable of. They're going to know that I've been holding them in the palm of my hand the whole time. They're going to know that this is my doing. And the conclusion, the result is, "They shall know that My name is the Lord." God is allowing these things, these things are coming upon them, so that they can be restored, so that they can know that His name is Jehovah or Yahweh. That they can call upon Him, that they can be saved, that they can be restored in right relationship with Him. Because again, what God really wants with every one of us is relationship. It's why we exist. It's the purpose for why we're here and why we continue on. Because God wants relationship with us. And when our lives have issues, when our behavior is not according to what God has prescribed for us, when we're sowing to the flesh and reaping corruption, God uses even those difficulties, even those sins, even those great tragedies to bind us up, to restore us, that we name is the Lord. We can have relationship with him. worship team is going to come up this evening and lead us in some worship and I want to encourage you as they do kind of two sections to Jeremiah chapter 16 here this last portion that we've been looking at we see God's reason and his purposes for judgment is to bring restoration and if that's you this evening if you feel like man my life has just been experiencing the consequences for the things that I've sown I want to encourage you as we continue to worship the Lord this allow him to comfort you, that he's not trying to destroy you. His goal is not to wipe you out off the face of the earth, but his goal is to restore you. He desires relationship with you. And so we have the opportunity to turn and to call upon his name, to get right with him, and to allow him to minister to our hearts. In the beginning of the chapter, God's instruction to Jeremiah, but that he would be a sign of that which is to come for the nation around him. So I would encourage you all to meditate on that and to come to the Lord in regards to that. Are you a sign? Are you a testimony? Is your life something that people can look on and say, there's something different, what's going on? And we can share, we are the opportunity then to say, Jesus Christ is coming again soon. I live this way, I operate this way, I've chosen to do these things and to abstain from those things, and I'm the will of Jesus, to be with you is the faith. Our lives are to be a testimony. He restores us, He renews us, He forgives us, so that we can be a right relationship with Him and be a witness to the world around us. So let's take this time to hear from God, to get right with God, and to allow Him to work in our hearts and speak to us personally in our individual lives and our certain circumstances that we would know exactly that God is speaking to us. Let's worship for life together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. 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