Jeremiah 3:1-25 "The Sin of Adultery"

[Music] let's turn together in God's Word to Jeremiah 3 Jeremiah 3 verses 1 through 25 Jeremiah 3 verse 1 through 25 where God's Word reads as follows if a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife will he return to her would that would not that land be greatly polluted you have played the with many lovers and would you return to me declares the Lord lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see where have you not been ravished by the way sides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness you have polluted the land with your vile whoredom therefore the showers have been withheld and the spring rain has not come yet you have the forehead of a you refuse to be ashamed have you not just now called to me my father you are the friend of my youth will he be angry forever will he be indignant to the end behold you have spoken but you have done all the evil that you could the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah have you seen what she did the faithless not faithless one Israel how she went up on every high hill and under every Green Tree and there played the and I thought after she has done all this she will return to me but she did not return and her treacherous sister Judah saw it she saw that for all the adulterers adulteries of that faithless one Israel I had sent her away with a decree of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear but she too it went and played the because she took her whoredom lightly she polluted the land committing adultery with stone and tree yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart but in pretence declares the Lord and the Lord said to me faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah go and proclaim these towards it toward the north and say return faithless Israel declares the Lord I will not look on you in anger for I am merciful declares the Lord I will not be angry forever only acknowledge your guilt that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favours among foreigners under every green tree and that you have not obeyed my voice declares the Lord return o faithless children declares the Lord for I am your master I will take you one from a city and two from a family and I will bring you to Zion and I will give you Shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding and when you have multiplied and increased in the land in those days declares the Lord they shall be no more that they shall no more say the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord it shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed it shall not be made again at that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord and all nations shall gather to it to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart in those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel and together they shall come to the land of the north to the land that I gave your father's for a heritage I said how I would set you up how I would set you among my sons and give you a pleasant land a heritage most beautiful of all nations and I thought you would call me my father and would not turn from following me surely as a treacherous wife leaves her husband so you have been treacherous to me o house of Israel declares the Lord a voice on the bare Heights is heard the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons because they have perverted their way they have forgotten the Lord their God return o faithless sons I will heal your faithlessness behold we come to you for you are the Lord our God truly the hills are a delusion the orgies on the mountains truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel but from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored their flocks and their herds there and their daughters let us lie down in our shame and let us discuss honor cover us for we have sinned against the Lord our God we and our fathers from our youth even to this day and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God so far the reading from God's Word this evening may he add its blessing to our hearts well one of our cars has a tachometer a tachometer is something that measures how many times the crank shaft of the motor of an engine rotates in in one minute and you know what they look like typically they range from 0 to 9000 and then the last 3,000 I've kind of liked the red numbers and the and the red lines to show you that if you spend too much time in the red range is not good for your car well I had a friend in high school who told the story of his family not a wealthy family by any stretch of the imagination and they bought a brand-new minivan when many vans were first coming out they bought a brand new minivan it was an automatic and as it happened the mom was out driving the new van around and accidentally bumped the gear shifter to the one position and she took that brand-new minivan on the interstate and rode that thing in the red range for too long until finally the motor just went it just seized up and the brand new engine was completely ruined she didn't pay attention to the gauge beyond all the other things that we might ask about how she didn't notice that she was driving it in that gear at at that speed she didn't pay attention to the gauge on her on her dashboard the gauge that was warning her damaged would happen to the motor because of what she was doing well here this passage is asking us to look at the gauge on our spiritual dashboard to see whether or not we recognize sin for what it is sometimes when we think of we don't think of it is in the redzone right we think of other people sin in the redzone to be sure but when we think of our sin we think of it in the in the in the 1000 or the 2000s it's okay it's not it's not great but it's okay we're doing all right when the reality that this passage says before us is that any sin any sin is in the redzone any sin is in that that danger area that that area that brings damage and destruction to the life of the one sinning and so what this passage shows us tonight is that Judas sinned against the Lord far from being innocent and far from being minimal Judas sin against the Lord will cause her to be sent away in exile unless she repents and God through Jeremiah makes this point by saying three things first he shows and speaks of the sin of Judah in verses 1 through 10 then he calls to repentance in verse 11 through 14 and then he gives a promise of inheritance in verses 15 through 25 so Judas sin against the Lord will cause her to be sent away in exile unless she repents we're going to see the sin of Judah the call to repentance and the promise of inheritance so let's first look at the sin of Judah I've had a little bit of time off from the Book of Jeremiah this particular narrative or this dialogue that Jeremiah is recording is really a continuation from chapter 2 in chapter 2 Jeremiah began as prosecutor proving the guilt of the people of Israel of Judah specifically and and cataloguing their sin Jeremiah is in the process of showing Judah as a covenant breaker God exists in a covenant with the people of Judah and Judah has transgressed against the requirements of that covenant and in doing so Jeremiah has traced out the progression or maybe a better way to say that the regression of Judah when it comes to their relationship with the Lord a regression where they began in a state of great trust at the time of the exodus in Egypt to the forsaking of the Lord which is rampant in Jeremiah's day and is threatening them with exile Jeremiah is presenting his proof in order to show that God is justified when he judges the people of Judah and so he has done that in Chapter two in Chapter three what he does is he he turns the screws on the people of Judah so to speak Jeremiah is is forcing the people of Judah to consider their sin all the more he's not letting them off the hook but he's he's making it plain that their sin is severe and that their sin is Grievous in the sight of the Lord now when Jeremiah does that he does it by comparing it to one of the most grievous sins that can be committed between two people in Jeremiah 2 starting in verse 25 that images first laid out for us when it says that instead of turning to the Lord even though they knew the calling of the Lord that you did turn to the Lord and said it's hopeless to call me back for I have loves foreigners and after them I will go it introduced the image of the relationship between God and Judah as a marriage relationship it introduced the image of Judah existing in a relationship of unfaithfulness when it comes to her husband god almighty marriage like God's covenant with his people marriage is a legal covenant it's a legal agreements a legal arrangement with obligations and and blessings that come along with this relationship and so God has introduced this picture into his relationship with the people of God a marriage picture between God and His people even at the beginning of chapter 2 it says that at the beginning of of Judah's relationship with God he loved her as bride he had the love as a bride and that was given to the Lord as an act of worship this of course is a is a great to delight to the Lord who is depicted in Scripture as as the husband in Isaiah 54 for example in the fifth verse it speaks of the maker as your husband the Lord of Hosts is his name God is a husband to his people that's one example in Isaiah 54 there are many other examples in other places of Scripture the relationship with God and his people is described in terms of the most intimate of human relationships in the intimate relationship of marriage marriage is a beautiful gift from God but sin of course corrupts that beautiful gift severe sin will shatter and break in pieces the marriages that seemed so promising and so blessed at the beginning severe sin will will break the people in that relationship and and often caused much collateral damage besides and it is the severe sin that breaks up a marriage that Jeremiah uses to describe what Judah has done in the Lord's sight he uses right at the beginning of our chapter this picture of divorce something has caused the man to be divorced from the woman Judah is the one who has caused this relationship to fall apart just as a man who has divorced his wife cannot act as if he is still married when she is with another so Judah cannot come to God again that's the implication of this passage that Judah her unfaithfulness being so severe that our reconciliation is is not possible well we might ask ourselves what sin is this that has caused this divorce in verse 9 we have hint of it it says that Judah committed adultery with stone and tree that means that Judah abandoned the marriage relationship with God by pursuing other gods gods made of stone gods made of wood in other words Judas great sin was her idolatry her idolatry is equivalent to adultery and throughout this chapter Judah is compared with a prostitute one who would join herself two men who are not her husband not as a momentary weakness not as one who who stumbles and falls in a in a moment but one who has a pattern a pattern that is repeated many many times it says in verse 2 that you can't look anywhere where Judah hasn't played the harlots where have you not been ravished it says in verse 2 hosea is used in a similar way but a hundred years earlier hosea is a prophet to the kingdom of israel a nation that has been carried into exile over a hundred years before before jeremiah is prophesying and you remember at the beginning of that book of hosea Hosea's ministry in part is to act as an example to act as an example to the people of israel god instructs him to take a wife on of unfaithfulness for himself to typify for the people around him the unfaithfulness of Israel to the Lord Hosea is to marry a harlot in our passage the shocking words that Jeremiah uses they they confront our sensibilities it speaks of Judah playing the and it talks about her to light in her whoredom these are words that are they're crass they they make us feel uncomfortable even to read them sometimes and they're used here in this chapter to show the nature of Judah's sin it juda isn't forsaking the covenant of the lord as some innocent mistake is not some some trip up that judah had at some point know God through his prophet uses these words to show the depth of the sin of Judah he he uses the foul list Crassus sinned in the context of marriage and even beyond that so that so that even the unbeliever would recoil at what's described here in Scripture that even the unbeliever would say well this is no good this is this is not right even the unbeliever would see the depravity of Judah's sin and the severity of the sin is established to manifest that the consequence of Judah is appropriate that the consequence that God is reserved for Judah exile is properly understood Judah has warrant has been warned by God about this consequent that that is coming her way there God has has warned them of their sin and in verse 3 you see this beginning of consequence the showers have been withheld what's that mean that means that God to warn the people of Judah has sent drought their way God has withheld the rain from heaven to draw them to draw their attention to their need of the Lord to make them to say and say to themselves well the gods were serving are powerless to help us who is the one who can help us to drive them back to the Lord and the warnings have come in the shape of of escalating consequences God begins with small consequences and he's going to end with exile he's going to end with great consequences and we recognize that kind of pattern in our own homes as well I hope if we are parenting in our homes and our children disobey us I hope we consider the context I I hope we consider whether or not this is a habit or a first time so if you send your child and you give them a chore to do and they and you check up later and you recognize they haven't completed the tour I hope that as parents you call them in and you say well what happened you know first you think okay is this the first thing first time they've done this or do they do this every Saturday then you think did somebody distract you away from your task or did you lead others away from their task and depending on what the circumstances are you assign an appropriate consequence now if that same child comes the next week and does the same thing then the consequences get ratcheted up a little bit don't they that's wise parenting and God is doing that same kind of thing here among his people he doesn't go straight from idolatry to exile but in their idolatry he begins to bring to bear consequences that will increase first he sends drought in verse 3 and then he gives a sterner warning by sending the northern tribes of Israel into captivity before the very eyes of Judah you see that in in verse 8 but what has Judah done it says that treacherous Judah and verse 8 did not fear but she too went and played the she continued in her adultery despite the gracious warnings of God Almighty Judah saw these consequences that the Lord brought to bear and she did not fear the Lord instead she continued in her unfaithfulness it says in verse 10 that she did not return to me with her whole heart but in pretence what does that mean that means he just played the game right she jumped through the hoops she did what she thought on the outside would satisfy the God of heaven not remembering that God looks at the heart and so the sin of Judah is great compared to adultery in the marriage relationship but after establishing the sin of Judah God in His great mercy calls to repentance there is the severity of the sin there's Judas persistence in it which will lead to judgment but it's not a judgment without end God is just but he's also merciful God's anger burns against sin but it says in verse 12 that his anger does not last forever God in the first section lays out Judas in the Exile that's coming but now he calls to repentance and did you notice who he's calling to repentance in this passage it says in verse 11 faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah go and proclaim these words towards the north here God is calling the northern tribes to repentance those who have already been sent off into exile God is merciful even to them the land is waste the cities are empty the inheritance promised that by God to this group of people has been reversed they in fact are under the Covenant curses of God there is a chapter in Deuteronomy that 28th chapter where Moses write writing right before his death lays out for the people who are to enter the promised land without him what will happen and there are two scenarios that Moses lays out the first one is a scenario of great blessing and that comes when the people of God obey the covenant obligations that God sets before them they will they will be blessed in the land they will be protected against their enemies all these good graces of God will rest on them and then there's the other scenario in which they will be cursed for their disobedience and as has been described in Jeremiah's prophecy these curses for disobedience come in an in an escalating manner there will be drought there will be hunger then there will be military defeat and when that doesn't bring Israel to its knees then there will be exile and Israel has has gone all the way up the ramp Israel is at the at the top where the Exile has come the Covenant curses of God rest on them because of their their disobedience but even though these these Covenant curses have rested on them God is merciful he gives them these consequences as part of his mercy to bring them back to himself so you see in verse 12 return faithless Israel in verse 14 return o faithless children God wants them to come back to himself what is this returning what does he want from the children of Israel well it says in verse 13 he wants them to acknowledge their guilt he wants them to confess their sins before him he wants to acknowledge that they have been adulterous and he wants them to return to faithfulness God would have Israel confess acknowledge and repent he would have them it says in in verse 14 have them return to your master what sounds kind of strong in the ESV if you look at the NIV or the King James Version this same word master is translated as husband where adultery has been committed God is saying return return a wife of my of unfaithfulness and return to your husband the husband welcomes the bride back he he wants to forgive he wants her to return now if a wife as one described in Jeremiah three would would come to somebody for for marital counseling the assessment of the bride would be no wonder you're in turmoil no wonder you're in agony of soul because the things that you are doing you're rejecting the very one who can give you peace no wonder Judah can't find peace at home she is wracked with guilt she's living in the consequence of her disobedience to her husband and the way of peace is simple the way of peace is for her to return to her husband you know in her faithfulness to repent of her adultery but beyond this call to repentance God gives a beautiful picture of what will happen when repentance happens God promises inheritance to the people of Israel he begins to do that in in verse 15 when he starts talking about what will happen when this returning begins when repentance comes then comes the mercy of God God is merciful to those who turn away from their sins yes for the people of Israel and for the people of Judah there will be a period of of being cast away but there will also be a moment of return the inheritance that that God has promised to Israel although it's removed for a season it's not a permanent removal it's not a removal that that is meant to simply leave a sting it's a removal that through the sting is intended to lead to repentance and God anticipates Israel's return God anticipates the return of his people to himself and when she does faithful Shepherds will lead them in a right understanding of the Lord in verses 15 through 18 you see that description of the Ark of the Covenant and how how it won't be seen anymore the Ark of the Covenant it was a as a box with a mercy seat on top of it where the very presence of God was signified it rested in the Holy of Holies and never were the people of God to be able to see it except for one year when the high priest would sprinkle blood on it to purify the people well God's people they will see a change they will see a change in the ceremonies and it's anticipated in the the return of the Exile but especially anticipates the time of Christ at the time of Jeremiah's prophecy the people are in adultery but the groom will come himself and will live among them and and therefore the Ark won't be necessary anymore because the person whom the Ark represents will be there all nations not just the Jews all nations will come and worship the Lord in Jerusalem the promise of inheritance is combined with this call to repentance the faithfulness of the bride is is healed by the groom and in adultery there is no peace but in the faithfulness of the Lord and the return to proper marriage relationship between God and His people peace can be found and God calls Judah to confess it not just for the sins of the past but for the sins of Jeremiah's day as well it's not a weakness of previous generations it's not a sin to be confessed on behalf of other people but it's a sin to be confessed to be repented of for Jeremiah and his generation it says in in this passage that all that they have striven for to date has been devoured because of their unfaithfulness they've been on on a treadmill they never make any progress they stay in the same place and they exert all sorts of energy why because they're not living in the strength of the Lord they're living in the strength of their own arm the life apart from God life apart from Christ it's a devouring locust it's an eye that's never satisfied it's a hunger that is never filled and so this passage calls on Jeremiah and his people but on us as well today here at cliffwood Presbyterian to consider the severity of sin now the world doesn't deal with sin as severe as far as I can tell most people look at their sin and they will acknowledge that they've sinned but as long as the good things that they've done in their own minds anyways outweigh the bad things that they're they've done they're going to be alright they don't take their sin seriously everything will be okay so long as you're 51% good and in the church we would recognize that as as false teaching we would recognize that there is judgment for sin but in the church we are far more likely to consider the sins of the world than to look at our own sins then there's good reason for that right there are lots of sins in the world that are that are easy to see we see the the sexual promiscuity in in our world we see perversion glorified we see babies murdered in our cities we see stories of great a great travesty and and and defilement splashed across across the front pages of newspapers on and on our favorite news websites and we can read them and we can shake our heads and and wonder how these people could do such wicked things but God is not satisfied with that kind of comparison with with that kind of purity to think of the severity of our own sin and the adultery that we commit in the presence of God we have to think of how God views sin himself even as we considered this morning from James 2 and verse 10 that even if you sin against God's law and one small part it is as if you had sinned against the totality of it and so Jesus trying to make sin as as small as we can right Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says if you insult your brother if you say to him you're a fool you fool you are liable to the hell of fire when's the last time you said you fool to your brother or thought it about your brother what does the sin of the church look like in and is it severe is it significant in God's sight you see the sin of the culture but what is your response what is the response to the church to the evils that we see around us even when we see these evils all around us and and we're silent about it isn't that the same thing as giving some kind of tacit approval isn't that the same thing as saying well it's not really a big problem this sin the voice of the churches is prophetic the voice of the church is to call the world to repentance and just to fail in that task is a sin against the Lord so the sins of the church may not look as bad in our eyes as the sins of the world but they establish our guilt as well why am I making this point why is this so important why is it important for us to recognize our sin here in the church in our own lives it's because looking at the sin of your neighbor thinking about the sin of the world will never drive you to your knees for your sin never will you flee to Christ when you think about others people's sins but when you know the sin of your heart when you know the things that you have done to dishonor the Lord when you think of yourself as an adulterer in God's sight then the words of Jeremiah's prophecy apply to you return return o faithless children return o faithless children the claire's the Lord we must know what our sin looks like we must understand that we need Christ we must see it in ourselves first we must say of ourselves God is well within his rights to divorce himself from me God is well within his rights to to cast me out and in seeing the severity of your sin you also see the greatness of the mercy of God in Christ and that's a second thing that we see from this passage that we can consider God's mercy in Christ Jesus in our chapter it says on several occasions that God is merciful that God will not remain angry forever is that true Christian do you believe that or are you walking around with this heavy load of sin on your back still God does not remain angry forever he doesn't cast you out forever it's because his wrath against his people his justice for their sin has already been satisfied it has been satisfied in Christ Christ has satisfied that debt but Christ does more than just satisfy the debt he makes a faithless bride beautiful in the sight of the groom again not only does God see somebody whose sin has been removed Jesus has done that for you and so the anger of God can be abated but the love of God rests on you again because the righteousness of Christ has been given to you this is the mercy of Christ that that that is applied to us this is why God's anger doesn't remain forever now he opens wide his arms for his people he loves his church and to secure this return he has paid a great price that is how precious you are in the sight of God he has shown great love and and patience to an unfaithful people we have committed adultery against him and yet he has restored us he has given us a white pure robe again Judas sin against the Lord it is like the sin of adultery in its severity as an adulterous wife sent away by her husband as a husband who sent away by his wife so Judah will be cast away from God but what is it say in this chapter where is the good news in this chapter it's not a sending away it's not a casting away unto perdition but it's a casting away unto repentance it's a casting away unto life the sins these are these are destructive and and they they are harmed a Christian and they're replaced with the presence of God they're replaced with our Good Shepherd so this chapter cries out to you Christian know your sin it cries out to you Christian flee to Christ and live in his presence and enjoy his peace not just for a day not just for a month not just for a year not just for a decade but you can enjoy his presence and his peace forever let's pray together

Channel: Cliffwood Presbyterian Church

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Keywords: Cliffwood Presbyterian Church, bible, sermon, reformed theology, family integrated worship, preaching, augusta, presbyterian, Theology (Field Of Study), Religion (TV Genre), Pastor, repentance, Old Testament (Religious Text), jeremiah, reformation

Id: WuKw7pUQ7Jw

Length: 37min 4sec (2224 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 16 2018