Through the Bible (Jeremiah 2)

um we started the book of jeremiah last week and so now we're in jeremiah chapter 2. so if you would turn in your bible to jeremiah chapter 2. while you're turning there just a quick maybe you know argument for a real bible with real paper um and i'm not saying that you know this is a like you know you're going to lose your salvation if you use an ipad or iphone for your bible or any of that stuff but there's something about um a real bible and there's there's it's not just a mystic mystical or mysterious thing it's it's a practical thing you know um these iphones and ipads they all have messaging and they all have things that are distraction there's a whole world in your hands it's like you've got the bible in your hand with an ipad but you also have google and uh you know you've got the world wide web uh and all its things you got you got your calendar and your schedule and your reminders and all that and sometimes there's something to say for just a good old-fashioned bible leave your phone in another room and open your bible without distraction there's another thing that i love about having a real bible and that is you know knowing where scriptures are you know there's a lot of times i couldn't really tell you chapter and verse the numbers but i know i can flip to it in my bible it's just a muscle memory kind of thing and i know where it is in the bible i know where it is on the page of my bible and i can find things really quickly and i can't do that as well with my iphone maybe there's an argument people say well you memorize the scripture address better when you don't have a paper bible but but there's something about carrying a bible keeping it with you reading it uh and you know that that um it's easier on the eyes than looking at a digital screen even as science tells us that you know all the screen time that we have is not so great um so i would argue if you don't have a great bible get a great bible keep it make it your own start like i like to mark my notes in my bible um and it reminds me of things that i've gone through and i know you can do all that with your phones and uh different software but i'm just making a last-ditch plug for the final for the few for the brave who will stick to a real bible with real paper uh i think there might be advantages that people are missing out on just because of out of convenience um but that's just something for you to wrestle with and to decide as we approach jeremiah chapter 2. i'm reminded of of the genghis khan and the mongol mongolian you know battles of the early 1200s you know um a lot of people don't really realize that genghis khan really conquered a massive amount of the world um and as you kind of know the history of genghis khan he you know conquered the chinese and then all the way over the step uh all the way over you know that step is kind of a vast wasteland that some people say it's like the ocean without water uh the step is that kind of expanse between china all the way over to the ukraine and um and you know jenga's khan conquered everywhere uh all that and into europe and um but one of the things i wanted to share with you about was genghis khan was kind of a guy who was not as religious um it doesn't seem like religion motivated him at all but he he used to have kind of a world view that was interesting and that is if he was wiping your you out your gods wanted that to happen so so they were known to be brutal you know the the uh you've heard the wrath of the khans and genghis khan and the mongols and it is it's really a quite a bloody horrible story and there was you know times where the the mongols would just just wipe out entire people groups uh you know people that are now extinct because the mongols uh that were people groups before and millions and millions and millions and millions of people killed and it's an amazing thing that history a lot of us we think of genghis khan as some guy that must have been an amazing leader and he almost goes down as like a great person but he killed millions and millions and millions of people but he used to send his emissaries and what have you to these nations and basically you will submit to me and the reason why is because you have been unfaithful to your god and um and god is using me as a tool to wipe you out if uh because of your sin and your evil that you're doing what's amazing is he i think he really believed that if i can beat you god must be your god must be mad at you he he was very much of a liberal religiously he kind of let everybody even when he'd conquer a people group he'd let them worship whoever they want but he would just say the reason i beat you is because you must have done something really bad to deserve me and that's what genghis khan that was his world view and so he went on and conquered the reason they were able to conquer is because they it it'd be like the you know the dallas cowboys going against the eighth creek cougars across the street you know uh you know the the the mongols were uh like circus horsemen rider level like they could ride horses like nobody's business and while they're riding they could shoot arrows they could shoot a bird out of the sky with an arrow while they were in a gallop um like these these mongols were amazingly skilled and you say bret that does raise kind of a question you know does does god punish nations and and the answer is yes there's many scriptures if you've been going through the bible with us there's there's many many times where god says i'm going to judge this nation i'm going to judge that nation we went through whole sections where the lord divvied out judgments for you know if you remember everybody from you know uh jordan to which is you know ancient uh you know uh places like elam and moab and the and all those people they say you know judgments upon edom judgments about moab judgment upon egypt judgment upon you know syria and assyria and the lord says i'm going to judge those nations but the funny thing is god would also use those nations to judge his people and as it turns out you know the the lord would do that even with the jews in a sense jingus khan was correct in his worldview you must be doing something wrong uh to have me come and wipe your people out that's what he said and in the same way the assyrians had already done this to the northern 12 uh i should say 10 tribes of israel you know hundreds a couple hundred years earlier the the assyrians they would be the tool that god would use to judge the jews in the north a northern ten tribes and the southern two tribes are still alive and kicking and they're actually prospering during the time of jeremiah but you see jeremiah part of his job is to say remember the guys in the north how the assyrians came and wiped them out you're next that was what he was saying to the the the remaining two tribes but the two tribes are going hey we're living prosperously we're in safety we're doing good but meanwhile the lord was growing a little group of people called the babylonians and ultimately those babylonians would come and start to you know wave after wave come and oppress the people of the southern two tribes the men of judah and uh you know if you remember by the way all the northern ten tribes they always had evil kings all their kings were evil but in the southern two tribes about half their kings were good about half their kings were bad during this time of jeremiah chapter 2 josiah is the king and he's a good king and the problem is during these good times with a good king that's when israel starts doing stuff that is it's when they're under peace and safety and where everything's rosy that's when they start going off the rails theologically and start worshiping other gods and doing other things that are evil and so jeremiah part of his objective is to say the lord is going to use another nation to judge you the jews for your rebellion against the true and living god um and so does god judge other nations and use other nations to judge other nations he does and there's even future uh descriptions of those things that haven't even yet happened in history we could talk about the burden of the lord on damascus how in syria god is gonna according to the bible is gonna allow damascus the oldest city in the world the longest inhabited city of all time in the world is damascus in syria and it's going to be uninhabitable someday it could implicate a nuclear weapon of some kind just flattening the whole city and killing everyone in it that's just read isaiah 17 that's a prophecy that has yet to happen um russia and gog and magog and and uh turkey and iran these are nations that are going to be judged by the lord and probably in the nearer future um what about the united states this is where we kind of have to start praying and thinking as american christians is god going to someday judge the united um in front of us st election you know this you know everybody's already sending in their ballots and millions of ballots are being turned in but you know the thing that's interesting about our nation is a lot of countries throughout the ages didn't make decisions um it was the kings that made all the decisions and if you got wiped out by a another kingdom it often times was the king's fault for handling everything wrongly but here as we live in somewhat of a democracy and that even is in question you know now about voting and is it really legit and all this stuff but you know uh there there's kind of that old saying that you know the people uh especially in the democracy we get the leaders we deserve and it's interesting to me to watch our nation as we have spiraled away from god and into our own evil practices and watching how really these um these days that we live are so perilous they're perilous times like the bible says they would be and so this evening you know as we read jeremiah we're not that disconnected really i almost feel like jeremiah's words to the men of judah before their nation was about to be destroyed i wonder if these words will echo so accurately in the days that you and i live you know that was the lord raising up some people group or kingdom or thing to make our nation be humbled and even be judged um it could be not gonna say that emphatically but i do feel like we've had somewhat of a blessed you know a couple of hundred years in our nation largely because we were a nation that sought after god we used to be able to say with some intel you know with some you know integrity uh in god we trust but can we even say that anymore as a nation we can say that as christians of course but can our nation say in god we trust um that's a good question but it wouldn't shock me if the wrath of the lord would be put upon this nation as we've really continued to spiral further and further away from his word so you know these words of jeremiah that we need to listen and pray through this and say lord is this something you would say to us today the same things that jeremiah the prophet is saying to them in that day and it would be uh in jeremiah's lifetime that he would see the fall and the destruction of judah um he he dies the year nebuchadnezzar takes the jews into captivity in 586 bc jeremiah tried to warn everyone no one listens is it possible for america to repent and to be turned around i think it is we don't know the day or the hour of the lord's return we don't know what's going to happen for sure and any bible prophecy person or somebody who says for sure this is what's happening or we are at the end for sure um i'd be a little leery of that whole kind of way of teaching because so many people have been wrong about that they thought they were in by the way did you know that genghis khan the christians of that era uh believed that that was the gog magog invasion of ezekiel 38 uh and 39. they called it the gog magog invasion these these people they knew nothing about the mongols and they called it they thought it was that the time it wasn't but they thought because of the you know apocalyptic level of destruction so just because we see the possibility of it being the end we don't know for sure so i do pray that maybe we'll have one more season of enlightenment here in america where we repent of our sins and go back to the word of god and you know see some of the evil that we're doing like abortion which is uh one of the most uh horrible things humanity's ever done is allowed abortion to take place um and and you know if god doesn't judge us for that alone uh i'd be surprised but if we were to repent and humble ourselves and pray could it be that god could heal this land i think it's possible so we need to be praying about that but uh the lord's will be done so lord give us ears to hear what jeremiah the prophet is saying because i think he could have said a lot of these things to us today and we need to take them to heart so jeremiah chapter two uh just uh a lot of people try to find patterns in the book of jeremiah and um it's hard to find them people have tried to find structure in this book and the reason they struggle with this by the way is because jeremiah doesn't really write things chronologically or in a chronological order of a timeline so you never know what era or time he's talking about and that's a little tricky or what king is in place at any given time but i mentioned on last week's study that he was alive during seven kings his ministry was uh up and running during five kings one of those kings was josiah remember the eight-year-old king that was a guy that followed after the lord and tore down idols this is the era of chapter 2 where we start talking about this time of josiah and really if there is a order you know you can't make it chronological but some people say that chapters two through six it makes a nice unit because jeremiah sort of continues to talk on a theme and we'll see what that theme is here in jeremiah chapter two but um but he's speaking to judah israel's already destroyed the northern ten tribes they've been gone for a couple hundred years and now judah is the only one left for the southern two tribes and he's pleading with them so here he begins in chapter two verse 1. moreover the word of the lord came to me saying go and cry in the ears of jerusalem saying thus saith the lord i remember thee the kindness of thy youth the love of thy espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown israel was holiness unto the lord and the firstfruits of his increase all that devour him shall offend evil shall come upon them saith the lord hear ye the word of the lord o house of jacob and all the families of the house of israel he said okay everybody listen up to what i'm about to tell you and he says sort of in this longing remembrance the lord says i remember thee the kindness of your youth the love of thine spousals that's a way we would say it's not the exact same thing but we would say the love between a newly engaged couple now a spousal was a little different than being engaged but but that's the general idea the lord is saying remember the young love that we used to have israel and the jehovah we we had a love and he says i remember that kindness of the youth and the love of thy spousals um you know this this reminds me a little bit and really the theme here is leaving your first love you know that's the problem and and remember the church at ephesus there in the book of revelation you know in chapter two it says you know uh that ephesus they had a bunch of good things going on they were doctrinally sound um uh which is is good i'm like that's commendable in fact they used to give tests to these so-called apostles and prophets that came into town and they would give them tests and if they didn't pass the doctrine test they would shun them and point them out say that guy's a false teacher you know they were heavy on doctrine um and and i i love that and and i have to be careful not to be like ephesus where you are really good in doctrine but what was the thing jesus had against the church in ephesus he said i have this thing against you that you left your first love a lot of people use the word lost you lost your first love nope losing something what did i do with that you know no they left their first love of the lord and the admonition there of jesus to the church at ephesus in revelation 2 is remember from winstower fallen repent and redo the works you used to do when you you know when you were were in love with the lord um and that's a good word for maybe some of us maybe you have been a christian for years and um maybe you've left your first love i love that the bible gives us the prescription of how to fix it you remember where you lost it left it uh and then go back to that place and do the same works you were doing and repent change your mind change your heart um that's what the jews need to do here they they've you know left their love their love for god and they they uh you know sort of you know adulterated themselves to other gods and fell in love with them and and the things that were associated with those lust prosperity materialism greed and all that stuff that was associated with those gods and goddesses of that region and the lord says i remember when you used to love me like a an espoused you know bride but now you've you've left that love and the lord says hear ye o nation of israel because of that that's the next stuff's gonna follow be careful you know i feel like we've lost that to a degree in america that we've left our first love of the lord you know when you look at the founders and the writers and it's so tragic because not only um not only have we left it but we're trying to rewrite the history and we have and maybe even successfully you know a lot of the academia has rewritten oh they were not really christians they didn't believe in jesus they were just deist who believed in some kind of god and they tried to make this deist argument and it's not an honest review of history i do have to say i like david barton um where he has collected important books and writings and journals and all of these early founding fathers of our nation and uh nobody's he's bottom up like they're what is the name of his uh i forget uh heritage foundation i think or something like that where um look up david barton but he's literally got a library where he put he's collected and purchased and uh you know made basically a museum of our founding fathers writers or writings that include passionate relationships with jesus christ they were not just deists um you know people need to know this and but the the college professors of the day try to you know secular at least they try to erase our godly heritage and it's really unfortunate all that to say um we once had that first love as a nation uh but we've left it and um and i think we need to repent go back and do the things we were doing before the good things we've always been sinners so you have to sort that out um take the good things that we're doing and seeking after god and and do those things again that's how we're going to if we're going to see this late this nation you know revive or have a another enlightenment period it's going to have to require repentance and a turning back to the word of god and turning back to the lord and forsaking our sinful ways is that going to happen doesn't sound very likely does it but it's happened in other times and just in in history you know past so that's something to think about well that's what jeremiah starts his whole thing out saying man i remember when you loved me the lord's basically saying so hear the word of the lord verse 5 thus saith the lord what iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain can you imagine a perfect god who had never has never sinned doesn't know what sin feels like or does because he's perfect god doesn't sin saying what iniquity or sin have you found in me have i sinned against you in any way shape or form isn't it interesting that that's the um the mo of humanity well if god is love then why do bad things happen in the world and they try to put god in this light of being sort of a sinful being how he's just allowing catastrophe on humanity and it's god's fault and he's sinning because he doesn't care that you know hurricane zeta right now is coming up on the coasts of our south uh he god doesn't care it's god's fault god's a sinner like that's the that's the sort of view that the world wants to portray the light that god is in but god has never sinned and he's completely righteous there's no darkness in him and all the bible says um but it's funny how humanity we can shake our puny little fists at god thinking that he's done something wrong um i've even had people say you know i don't think i can forgive god for this or forgive god for that it's like what uh you better hope that your sins are forgiven by god um we're the sinner and if we think that god has sinned uh that's heretical god has never sinned you know you don't do that you don't believe that because that's uh contrary to what the bible teaches so here's the lord rhetorically saying what what is the iniquity i've done to make you turn on me and turn against me the lord says and you've walked after vanity and have become vain so the interesting you know sarcastic statement statement really um but you can also see the passion of the lord here that he's sort of passionately saying you used to love me and have i sinned against you like there's this passion you almost sense from god toward his people well verse 6 goes on neither say they where is the lord that brought us up out of the land of egypt that led us through the wilderness through a land of deserts and of pits through a land of drought and the shadow of death through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt and i brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof but when you entered you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination the priest said not where is the lord and they that handled the law knew me not the pastors also transgressed against me and the prophets prophesied by the all and walked after the things that do not profit now here the lord is saying you're this is this is the sad sad part of this the priests the prophets the pastors they were out to lunch during this time you see the thing we have to recognize here is it seems that during the reign of josiah he was having a spiritual enlightenment um but the nation was just going yeah josiah the king's really a you know passionate guy about god you know and good for him but it seems that they sort of followed king josiah in his tearing down of idols and did what he said as he read the scriptures in their ears but there was sort of a pseudo salvation there was sort of a fake it's almost like if you could say josiah was having in his heart this passionate love for god but the rest of the kingdom is like yeah whatever good for you josiah and we'll be religious and we'll worship god we'll have our priests and we'll have all this stuff but they really were not into following the lord at all um and so that's the problem one of the things that we have to remember and this this is an interesting thing to remember uh during a time in election and stuff like that can you legislate godliness can you legislate morality even um and i've found that that really doesn't happen you know he here's the problem um you know let's just say we were able to uh you know reverse roe versus wade and abortion suddenly becomes illegal uh again um you know the the other side of the argument would say see now there's gonna be women in dark alleys you know getting abortions um that are unsafe and will even kill them and you say yeah that's horrible and stuff like that but see when you legislate morality um people still aren't gonna be moral that's not gonna make them do the right thing they're gonna find ways around it and do stuff that's dangerous and evil just as evil as before there needs to be not a legislation of morality but a regeneration of the heart there needs to be salvation and repentance in a nation you know when jonah went into nineveh and said repent and the whole place repented they all had a heart change it was a regeneration they they turned to the lord and they followed after the lord and did the right things um we can't just legislate morality nobody will want to do those things because they're not convicted in their soul spiritually to follow after god um so that's something we have to remember when we're talking about legislating especially morality that's never worked throughout all of history um you know during the prohibition we tried to you know outlaw uh alcohol but those of you that watched the waltons remember the baldwin sisters they had the recipe you know where they would drink their you know whatever it was their moonshine but they called it the recipe grandma's mother's recipe you know that it was laughable because um the prohibition was was laughable um debbie's grandfather uh was a kind of a sparky uh kind of rascally kind of guy uh quite amazing guy but but during the prohibition he he flew uh alcohol over the border in his plane uh to bring it here to the united states like like uh that's the that's the thing as soon as you outlaw something well there's money to be made uh in the black market and uh you can't legislate morality it's gotta it's gotta be a change from the inside out and that's what's going to happen in america if we're going to see a new season of enlightenment it can't just be us christians saying okay you all better be good and stop having abortions and start worshiping god like we can't just make people do that it's got to be a real regeneration of the heart and that doesn't happen through politics that's the truth of the matter it just doesn't happen through politics so we have to we have to be praying for a real revival josiah's time was not a real revival i would make that argument even though josiah i think had a real heart toward the lord as the king jeremiah was giving words from god with a real true heart for the lord but the nation was sort of following along going well okay yeah whatever but they really didn't have a change of heart it's that kind of a problem um something to really think about in what you do i i notice a lot of people a lot of christians are spending a lot of time uh talking about politics um and if you know me i'm interested in politics i i know as much as the next guy about what's going on in the world politically and stuff like that but i do wonder what do we think we're really gonna accomplish with politics and uh you know the amount of time we're spending talking about it or you know trying to get people to think a certain way politically and i just don't think we're really gonna you can't do better now here's what what's what's going to be the important part you can't do better than to lead someone to jesus christ to to have them believe in jesus and have a heart change and be not just you know an attitude change but a heart change a regeneration where they're truly repentant of their sins saved by the blood of jesus christ and then the lord will work on them you can't just go let's just say to a pro-abortion young lady in portland say abortion is evil you better stop it right now. and she go oh okay i'm going to stop that doesn't happen but if you go to that young lady and say man you know that abortion you once had and the next one you're about to have did you know the lord still loves you and will forgive you for that because the bible calls that sin and and that burden of guilt that you fill in your life you need jesus christ who loves you and wants to save you and forgive you for all your sins and then that girl needs to be saved and if she softens her heart and accepts christ then her sins are forgiven and and the lord will regenerate her heart and her mind and transform her to know that abortion is evil and wrong that god views the life inside the womb as a baby a real life person that he's forming in the mother's womb you can't do better than to lead someone to christ if you're trying to make them a trump supporter lose lose right there if you're trying to make them vote uh you know conservative or liberal or whatever you're trying to do if you're trying to get pro-biden lose lose uh politics will not change a nation um it's been proven for centuries that the politics only leads us to more and more trouble um i hope we're seeing that i hope you're sensing that um you know over the years these are interesting times over the years i've had people why aren't you why don't you have more you know things politically in your church we need you to put up posters and we need you to sign you know petitions and we need you to talk about this and this and this and i've always said you know what i'm i'm handling the politics in my own way and one of the ways i do that is saying i'm going to preach the gospel and i'm going to keep preaching the gospel and i'm going to teach the bible verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book through the through the scriptures because that's the way people are really changed and i know it's a slow process but when i first came to portland back in 1996 portland was the least church city in america and you know what's neat i feel like we've made a little dent here i didn't even imagine that we'd make as big of a dent as we have by the grace of god you know here we got this church that you know in in the least church city in america you know in 25 years we've just watched it boom and grow and people saved and the hearts transformed and and uh and then our online presence has been so wonderful to see how many people are listening in and uh lives are being changed um last week we had several you know remember when i had the uh invitation to accept christ we had a bunch of people text in and and say new new believer you know it's just so cool to see the fruit of that and that's going to change the the nation we live in more than you marching with a sign about this or that or the other be careful christians let's keep our let's keep our the main thing the main thing and the main thing is not joseph biden and the main thing is not donald trump the main thing is jesus christ who died on the cross for the sins of the whole world and if we want to see this nation changed we need jesus through thicker thin for better for worse we need jesus no matter what happens after the election in a couple weeks which could go any number of ways we need jesus in this nation and that should be our message i hope after this election stuff is over i hope all of your social media accounts i hope all of your um that you just kind of give politics a breather and then say you know what i'm going to i'm going to focus on somehow pointing people back to christ because that's where it's really at well i'm way off course we're going to get back to this jeremiah story so um basically the people the prophets the the pastors they were misleading the people is that happening today where pastors and preachers and teachers and prophets and all this the so-called are are misleading i think so it's it's um it's it's hard to find these days and they're they're out there and they're great great churches that are still teaching i think sometimes the smaller churches i think there must be still a lot of really small churches out there that are just solid still just teaching the bible still sticking i hope there's that because i don't see a lot of the bigger churches going the right direction on so many things but just being focused on the word of god man that's so important these people were way off and and so off were they that they moved from believing the true and living god to worshiping baal and these other gods and goddesses verse 9 wherefore i will yet plead with you saith the lord and with your children's children will i plead the lord is going to plead with his people i love that the lord doesn't force his people to follow him but the lord simply um you know pleads with the people he it's almost like he wants to woo them back to rightness and he wants to you know and he wants to to lovingly say hey follow after me um i've got this for you you know i want to i want to take care of you and i want to provide for you and take care of all your needs and it's like he's pleading oh it's like there in deuteronomy says oh that they would have a heart to follow after me the lord would say so he's going to plead with the jews and their children's children and that's a promise by the way that he's made to the jews specifically um he hasn't said that to america that the lord is going to plead with us and with our children's children we don't know that that's true but we do know that he's pleading with the jews for all time to come it says that right here verse 10 for pass over the isles of shatim and see and send unto kedar and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing um uh chittim or shatim is uh is known as um cyprus and um and kedar is sort of the edge of the arabian desert um and basically he's saying you know uh if you look over that see if if uh if there's such a thing as as what's happened where the jews have forsaken the true and living god and the answer is no there hasn't look all over the world it's not there that's kind of the idea and then it says verse 11 hath a nation changed their gods which are yet no gods but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit be astonished o heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith lord for my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water so we looked at this a few weeks ago this uh verses 12 and 13 but verse 11 is saying they've changed their you know true god for a bunch of false fake gods and they're happy about it um you know there's there's so many examples of this in the bible remember when the philistines there in um in uh you know ii samuel uh it says that they um they were gonna attack the children of israel and the jews were getting beat by the philistines uh in battle and the jews just didn't know what to do when they finally said you know hey let's uh let's um bring the ark of covenant it was actually first samuel chapter five um where where uh the story kind of comes to fruition where they they bring the ark of the covenant hey it will save us it will beat the philistines they were making a fundamental error thinking that the ark of the covenant represented the power of god but it didn't the ark of the covenant represented the presence of god big goof on the jews part they thought it was some good luck charm so they bring the ark of the covenant in and the philistines wipe out the jews and steal the ark of the covenant but that's where the story gets kind of interesting the philistines take the ark of the covenant as sort of battle spoil thinking man we got this huge box of gold a solid gold lead gold you know and poles and everything this is awesome and they think this must be their god so they took the jews god said hey we can add that to our gods they took the ark of the covenant into the temple of their god and their god was half man half fish called dagon so they put the ark of the covenant there and next to dagon well the next morning they came in and dagon had fallen off his pedestal their their their stone you know representation of the half-man half-fish god and so they propped him back up what a coincidence we put this you know israeli god in here and he falls down before the that's that's a bummer so they prop their gut up listen if you're propping your god back up in the morning that's probably a a not a good idea well the next morning it happened again only this time his head and his hands fell off uh broke off before and the phyllis is like something's up not only that the philistines well the story gets really embarrassing the philistines are then plagued with a horrible situation where everyone man woman and child had massive hemorrhoids that's what god does god have a sense of humor i think so well you know i'm sure some philistine dagon priest said daggone we got to do something about this so they they uh they got they got the dumb ideas that we got to get rid of this ark so they put it on a cart and they made little golden mice because we don't know why the mice they some people think it was they thought that mice were the ones who brought the plague of hemorrhoids so they made little golden mice and little golden hemorrhoids and put it on this ark this uh wagon and put the ark on there and just let two cows walk off with it well these cows now that's interesting because they exchanged the true representation god's presence they exchanged that and said we don't want that we like a god we can control we don't want real power so they go back to their dagon god and then they send the jews god back well the men of are just out you know hanging out when suddenly they see their ark coming back to them the jews are like there's a couple cows dragging a cart with the ark of the covenant and there's these mice golden mice and these we don't know what these other things are but the ark of the covenant comes back and um remember when the jews uh didn't have the ark this woman gave birth and named her son ichabod um and that means no presence of god so there's a there's an example where you know the philistines chose to have their own false god over the true and living god and that happens throughout all of humanity the jews did it on mount sinai god brought them out of the land of egypt to safety and when moses went up to the mountain the people said you know we need a real god that we can see so they made a golden calf and they said behold the gods of egypt that brought us out of the land of egypt stupid replacing you know false gods for the true and living god now you you and i as modern-day people say well we would never do such a stupid thing but we do it may not be an image or an idol that we swap out with the true living god but the same notion that's behind those images and idols and what have you they're behind them they're still alive and well greed materialism trusting in our own financial portfolio looking to ourselves and our power you know looking for other things for pleasure you know worshiping the goddess of astra through sexuality and pornography and all that stuff like we do the same things we exchange the truth for a lie and that's that's the nature of humanity and this is what jeremiah by the way this is going to be a major theme in his book and his word to the people of israel that you guys are swapping out a lie in place of something that's actually true and powerful and living and you've exchanged it the fountain of living water for me if you missed that study a couple weeks ago uh you can get it online um you know broken cisterns is what we called that i believe well he goes on in verse 14. is israel a servant is he a homeborn slave why is he spoiled now it doesn't mean like he's a spoiled brat it means um become a spoil he's he's he's actually they've been spoiled by other nations you know is israel going to be enslaved the answer is yes verse 15 the young lions roared upon him and yelled and they made his land waste his cities are burned without inhabitant also the children of naf and the tahoenes have broken the crown of thy head hast thou not procured this unto thyself in that thou has forsaken the lord thy god when he led thee by the way didn't you do this to yourselves when you forsook the lord did what well there's a there's a language thing here that jeremiah uses that um that is a literary technique that might be confusing to a modern day reader but it's uh do you guys remember what a synecdoche is it's like using something to sort of speak of something else like if you say hey did you see my new wheels uh you know i'm showing you my new car but i just said wheels because everybody knows that when you say they look take a look at my new wheels or uh i remember uh hearing my grandfather say something about my mother she sets a fine table and i thought that uh that meant that she puts nice paper you know you know plates and stuff on them but it's actually she's a good cook it's it's a synecdoche well that's what jeremiah uses here in two things um when he says um naf and tahepanese have broken the crown of thy head nothing to happen he's who is that well naf is a place today we would call memphis memphis tennessee nope not memphis tennessee memphis egypt and to haphanese there is um another uh part of egypt probably um you know the lower section of egypt it's a little bit like a definition of what egypt is from north to south um and uh it's like when israel says from you know down to beersheba it's like a it's a thing saying israel same thing here so he's saying basically as the children of egypt have broken the crown of thine head what's that about well this is speaking of josiah it's at this point in jeremiah's prophecy that josiah was probably killed we know a lot about josiah's death he was over in megiddo remember if you've been to israel with me we've been to megiddo that's where josiah was slain in battle by an arrow of an egyptian and so this synecdoche sort of language is meaning all of egypt has basically wiped out your king josiah killed him by uh pharaoh neko if you remember from second kings 23 verse 29 that whole story is told and this is jeremiah saying this is because you guys forsook the lord you lost your good king josiah because of your forsaking the lord that's what he's saying well verse 18 and now what else thou to do in the way of egypt to drink the waters of sihor that's another name for the nile river they're drinking the waters of what's egypt a type of in the bible yes if you said the world then you're correct uh egypt is the type of the world so so now egypt took out their king because they forsook the god of the true living god and now they're drinking the water of the world that's the idea here drinking the waters of psy or nile or what has thou to do in the way of assyria to drink the waters of the river speaking of the euphrates river um isn't it interesting that you know the the northern gentiles were taken by the assyrians that were near the euphrates but basically these are the rivers that god did not want the jews drinking of they were supposed to be drinking if you would from the living water the fountain of water which which we know is jesus christ now he says something that is a good truth for you and i to know and it's verse 19. thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see it that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou has forsaken the lord thy god and that thought my fear is not in thee saith the lord god of hosts would you mark or take note of verse 19 the first part thine own wickedness shall correct thee thy backsliding shall report it's not that the lord is going to correct you it's your own wickedness it's like you know um where numbers you know 32 23 it says you know be sure of this your sin will find you out it's not that god's going to find you out it's that your sin will find you out and this is uh this is that notion you know we think god's gonna get us no your sin is gonna get you it's your own sin god calls it sin because he knows it's gonna mess you up it's the repercussions of sin it's not god punishing you it's your sin catching up to you is kind of what he's saying and and it's not just the own witness but he says the lord will reprove you for your backslidings um i like jeremiah 2 verse 19 in the new international version it says it this way your wickedness will punish you your backsliding will rebuke you consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the lord your god and have no awe of me declares the lord god almighty you know backsliding means to turn away to turn back to revert to sin or wrongdoing why why do we backslide you know it's interesting because deuteronomy 8 verses 11 through 14 basically says it's often times when we're fat and happy that we tend to backslide when everything's going good and things are rosy we tend to fall away that's one reason we backslide we're just comfortable we don't need the lord so we go back to things we shouldn't uh number two with the grass is greener on the other side mark chapter 4 verses 18 and 19. jesus talked about this we always think well if i could go over there that's where i'll find happiness and we backslide away from god towards sin because the grass is greener and then first timothy 6 10 talks about how when you pursue money over the lord or instead of the lord that leads to backsliding and what makes backsliding a problem is the backsliding the backslider ends up in total misery misery and that's what it says your own wickedness will correct thee the way of the transgressor is hard proverbs 13 15. um you know the classic backslider is luke 15 you know the prodigal son who walked away from his father and ended up in the pig slop and thought man my father's servants have a better off than i do and the good news is he came back and the father opened armed receptive and loved him when he came back if you're a backsliding christian good news you can repent of your sins and you can make it right when you return to the lord hosea 14 4 says i will heal their backsliding when you repent of your sins the lord comes in and heals you of the wounds that you had from your sin and gives you a brand new start that's the god that we serve don't you love that that he's the one who forgives our backslidings well verse 20 goes on it says for of old time i have broken thy yoke and burst thy hand bands pardon me and thou said i will not transgress when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest playing the harlot when did this happen when did the the um the jews cry this out to the lords you said the lord says i will not transgress it was at mount sinai when the law was given um remember we were talking about dispensation uh theology where we kind of talk about how there's different dispensations of time excuse me and i think we we see how that works out so practically one of those dispensations was the period of the law and it's when the jews thought you know uh well give us some rules and we'll we'll we'll not transgress we'll keep the rules the lord says okay here goes and he gave him the law through moses and the law was proven to be something that the jews could never even come close to keeping and you say what's the point of that exercise lord why would you give the jews the law knowing that they couldn't keep it well galatians gives us the answer to that and i hope you're equipped with the answer to this one what was the purpose of the law of the old testament real quick you can jot it down in your notes i'll just read it for speed galatians 5 21 is the law that against the promises of god god forbid for if there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law but the scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise of faith of jesus christ might be given to them that believe but before faith came we were kept under the law shut up into the faith which should afterwards be revealed wherefore the law was our school master to bring us to christ that we might be justified by faith but after that faith has come we are no longer under the schoolmaster no longer under the law the law had a purpose and it was to drive us to jesus the jews said in our text here today we will not transgress the lord said okay here's the rules if you think you can do it here you go boom law was given and the jews failed miserably for centuries and millennia and then we fail and and and we can't keep the law nobody ever was saved by keeping the law and so paul says why we're not under the law but so what was the purpose of the law it was the school master that drives you to jesus christ because if righteousness could have come by the law then people would be saved by the law but no one all are under sin you know that schoolmaster images image has always reminded me of my sixth grade year half halfway through my sixth grade year um we moved just to a different school district just just down the road but different school district and i went from this beaver cleaver rouge elementary school to applegate elementary school and it was actually at elementary and junior high but it was a going from rouge was going like beaver cleaver to suddenly going back a hundred years to this one room type school house it was this little old red school building had a school bell tower built in 1911. and my class was fifth or uh pardon me sixth seventh and eighth graders were in my class so it was like this almost like a one-room schoolhouse kind of thing and this school office person led me to my new classroom halfway through the sixth grade year and i went into this classroom and um the teacher was scary to me mr alexander and i sat down at my desk and i and they were all quietly working and i remember um uh two things first seeing big red it was a two by four with a handle that he had carved out and his name alexander was routered into is a big red paddle and he would use that and then also he would have this retainer with a false tooth on it and um he would he would sit at his desk looking at the glass and he would get his retainer and pop it out of his kind of an and crunch on it with his teeth and he had this thing that he called fondly his nose picker it was one of those teacher pointer things but he would put the nose picker on the floor and he'd mount his right nostril on the tip of the nose of the uh pointer stick and just stick it up his nose and he's kind of rest his head on this this this pointer stick while he's cracking his retainer and we're all sitting there and and if somebody made noise he'd walk up and smash the nose picker on the desk like it was old school and uh and that's what i picture when i picture the school master the school master that drives us that that's old school you know the paddle the the whacking of the paddle and the the racking of the the nose picker on the desk and now as it turned out i got to say mr alexander became probably my favorite school teacher of my all my schooling existence he he was he he ended up being quite a character and and actually a great friend and an amazing dude um uh but that's a whole nother story but at first he put the fear of the lord in you that's for sure that's what the law was to drive you it's scary it's undoable it's it's painful and it's not going to save anyone that's what it does it drives us so the people of israel said we will not transgress and the lord says oh yeah well here's the law see if you can keep it and uh the sad truth is they failed miserably um so that's what he says you know you said we will not transgress but verse end of verse 20 20 when thou went upon every high hill and every undergreen tree you wandered playing the harlot what does high hills and green trees have to do with anything that's where they worship these pagan deities in the groves of the trees and on the high places and that's what's being referred to here well verse 21 yet i have planted thee a noble vine holy a right seed how then are thou turned into a degenerate plant of the strange vine unto me for thou uh thou wash thee with nighter and thou shalt um take thee much soap yet thine iniquity is marked before me saith the lord god um neither is sort of a version of of lye um sort of a soda carbonate soap and soap so the people knew that they were sinners and they're like they tried to wash it with soap and niter but that doesn't want what can wash away my sins if you said nothing but the blood of jesus you are correct um and that's the problem the jews thought that they were they knew they were dirty but they were trying to clean themselves some of their way and the lord said you're not going to be able to do that verse 23 how can thou say i'm not polluted i have i have not gone after balaam that's the plural form of ba'al or baal um see thy way in the valley know what thou hast done thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways as a wild ass used in the wilderness that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure in her occasion who can turn her away all they that seek her will not weary themselves in her month they shall not find her um what is this about the wild donkey and the dromedaries and the camels and all this stuff and going crazy in the wind um this this is uh something that maybe some of you farmers know about or or dog people um but here's in a nutshell he's saying israel you're like the camel that's in heat and the wild donkey that's in heat and when the wind blows the other donkeys and camels mayhem ensues um i've actually talked to people in israel about camels and when they're in heat you might as well just put them away in some really strong pen because they go nuts during this time and that's what the lord's saying you've gone nuts you're like the camel or the wild ass that's gone in heat and the wind is blowing and all the other camels mayhem ensues and that's what he's comparing them to verse 25 withhold thy foot from being unshod and thy throat from thirst but thou says there is no hope no for i have loved strangers and after them will i go as the thief is ashamed when he is found so is the house of israel ashamed they their kings and their princes and their priests and their prophets you know basically they're not ashamed because they are thieves but they're ashamed because they got caught that's what the lord's basically said remember when your mom you said are you sorry just because you got caught or are you really sorry the lord's saying he's calling him out on that one you're not really sorry you're just still doing what you're doing well verse 27 saying to the to a stalk or a tree you know thou art my father and to a stone thou has brought me forth for they have turned their back unto me and not their face but in the time of their trouble they will say arise and save us isn't this interesting like the lord's calling them out saying you guys have followed and worshiped other gods you've gone the way of the heathen and you got caught by me but you don't care that you're caught you're just or you're bummed that you got caught but you want to keep doing your thing and and and the people of israel started believing in reincarnation that's what it's saying here in verse 20 you're saying to a tree you're my father and to a stone that has brought me forth reincarnation does the bible teach reincarnation no um you know that's that's an uh really wrong thing if you're a christian don't be sucked in i've heard christians i wonder if you do come back is something else dumb ridiculous um reincarnation the bible says it's appointed once for a man to die you don't come back it always cracks me up with these people think they were before in another life i think i was a queen or a king or i was somebody famous uh nobody says you know what another life i think i was a slug like you don't hear that one um reincarnation when i talk about reincarnation i can't help but to share this this poem i love by wallace mcrae i mean it's called um reincarnation let me read it to you it's a great poem what does reincarnation mean a cowpoke asked his friend his pal replied it happens when your life has reached its end they wash your hair and comb your neck and clean your fingernails and they lay you in a padded box away from life's travails the box and you goes in a hole that's been dug into the ground and reincarnation starts in when you're planted near the mount them clouds melt down like your box and you who is inside and then you're just beginning on your transformation ride in a while the grass will grow upon your rendered mound until someday on your molded grave a lonely flower is found and say a hoss should wander by and graze on this flower that once was you but now has become your vegetative bower the posie that the haas done ate up with his other feed makes bone and fat and muscle essential to the steed but some is left that he cannot use and it passes through and finally lays up on the ground that thing once was you then say by chance i wanders by and see this upon the ground and i ponder and wonders at this object that i found i think of reincarnation of life and death and such and come away concluding slim you ain't changed all that much oh man that's that's pretty funny stuff um the horse ate a flower that was once you and then it passed through became manure and that's anyway i shouldn't have to explain all that but uh some of you probably missed that but there's no laughter here in the sanctuary uh so it's hard for me to know if you got it or not but i hope that you realize reincarnation is a total joke and it's it's not true and that's what the jews were starting to believe here in verse 27 verse 28 but where are thy gods that thou s that made thee the lord would say let them arise if they can save thee in a time of thy trouble for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods o judah wherefore will ye plead with me ye all have transgressed against me saith the lord in vain have i smitten your children they received no correction your own sword hath devoured your prophets like a destroying lion o generation you see the word of the lord have i been in wilderness unto israel a land of darkness wherefore say my people where are the lords we will come no more unto thee can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride or attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number we looked at verse 32 on sunday about the bride for getting her dress and we talked about how we're supposed to say yes to the dress but in this case they didn't they didn't put on the bridal gown uh and we looked at that on sunday but basically the lord is um through the prophet jeremiah being very sarcastic where are your gods that you've been following call upon them the lord says um isn't that something the lord has a kind of facetious side and he speaks after jim right some people might say well no wonder people didn't like jeremiah's words and rejected because he was being sarcastic but as it turns out god uses sarcasm and that's the tool of god when he says go ahead call your gods that you've been found they're more numerous you know these the number of gods you have are more than the cities in all of israel so go call them um you've forgotten me days without number while verse 33 why tremest thou thy way to seek love therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways also in thy skirts has found the blood of the souls of the poor and innocents i have not found it by secret search but upon all these yet thou saith because i am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me behold i will plead with thee because thou saith i have not sinned why goddest thou about so much to change thy way thou also shall be ashamed of egypt and thou wast ashamed of assyria yea thou shall go forth from him and thy hands upon thy head for the lord hath rejected thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them you've put your confidences and things that are wrong so you're going to go away with your hands on your head that means into captivity he's predicting in verse 37 the babylonian empire taking them off into captivity and why well verse 35 tells us one of the main reasons why they're going to go into captivity is not just that they just sinned but they had rationalized that's the key word rationalized in their minds that they were okay i'm okay you're okay we're all good nobody's really sinned that's what he says here yet you say verse 35 because i am innocent surely his anger were to that's like the person well if god is love he won't send people to hell thinking that we're all innocent no no a person is is rationalizing in their mind i'm okay you're okay we're there's nobody really that bad and lord say no you're bad and the lord knows the truth rationalization is a dangerous thing um what is rationalized rationalizing a situation it's allowing my mind to find reasons to excuse what my spirit knows is already wrong um did you hear what that is rationalization is allowing my mind to find reasons to excuse what my spirit knows is wrong and that's what the children of israel do they know what they're doing is wrong in their spirit but in their mind say hey we can do whatever we want and if god is love then this and that and the other and boy we have far surpassed israel in our rebellion against god as a nation here in america rationalizing our behavior and we think it's all good but it's it's just we've done that we've rationalized a way we're trying to allow in my mind to find reasons to excuse what my spirit knows is wrong and i hope that as christians we don't do that and we need to pray that people's spirit will be stirred and they won't listen to their you know rationalization minds but they'll listen to their hearts where the lord is trying to stir hearts and saying i'm trying to convict you of sin so that you might be saved that's what needs to happen well jeremiah is going to go on in his uh challenging of the jews in israel and it's going to get even more prickly and more powerful as he goes along but i would pray that we see the condition of our nation for what it is and that we as christians we need to be praying we need to humble ourselves go to our knees and pray for forgiveness for this nation we need to pray that we have a revival in this nation and we need to pray that the lord will be gracious because we don't deserve good things what we deserve is wrath it wouldn't shock me and god would be in his total rights to judge this nation but i pray that he'd be merciful and that he'd continue to shed his grace on us as he asked for these so many years that's the hope we have in in the united states of america is god's grace it's not an election that we put our hope in i hope you're not doing that because that's not where hope is found but hope is found in the one who can shake up the nations and wake up people and ultimately you know as christians we have heaven to look forward to and maybe you know as america turns this corner maybe it's part of the plan is for us to not consider this our home you know a lot of us have kind of considered you know america is our home and we're almost more american than we are christian but our citizenship is in heaven i hope that we keep our minds set on things above and not on things of this earth i hope that we're more heavenly minded through these dark days looking forward to the return of christ but until then may the lord let us be lights in this dark world and may we have ears to hear what the lord speaks through jeremiah to the people of israel through his word to the people of portland in jesus name let's pray and father we take this time now just to thank you for your word jeremiah nails it and he calls out israel given these inspired words by your spirit to the people but the people didn't listen i pray tonight that these words would fall on soft good fertile soil ready to receive the seed of your word that it might bring forth good fruit lord bless the folks who've carved out this wednesday night to take time to get into scripture and get into the word lord bless your people for this evening and i pray that that we just continue to walk with you help us to have the right focus that we keep your son at the center the main thing of our lives and this we pray in jesus name amen amen well may the lord bless you may he keep you may he cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you and give you peace in jesus name god bless

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 4,638

Rating: 4.878788 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: IcQu-VrFdNA

Length: 69min 41sec (4181 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 29 2020