back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 6/12/2022
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It truly is a privilege to come and worship together 00:05:51.580 |
So we're going to sing this first song about his love 00:09:55.280 |
we do invite you to go out to the welcome table, 00:09:58.280 |
which is in the back of the courtyard after we're done. 00:10:01.280 |
You can find out more information about the church 00:10:17.280 |
As you guys know, our Bible study just finished 00:10:23.280 |
but we do have summer prairies and prayer nights, 00:10:32.280 |
Consider that just as important as a time of Bible study. 00:10:51.280 |
And we will have a special photo booth set up outside 00:11:01.280 |
Just a couple other things that are a little bit more 00:11:05.280 |
For you guys who are doing the safety training, 00:11:10.280 |
that's gonna be here in the sanctuary today at 1 p.m. 00:11:18.280 |
the theme has been set for just strengthening 00:11:22.280 |
And today is the last day for you to register 00:11:26.280 |
It's gonna go up by a lot, okay, after today. 00:11:56.280 |
Okay, so please do get going on those registrations. 00:12:21.280 |
All right, so if you have an offering physically prepared, 00:12:45.280 |
And I pray that you would cause us this morning 00:12:49.280 |
just to reflect deeply on the great gift of salvation, 00:13:00.280 |
it's your word that bears fruit in our lives, 00:13:06.280 |
And as we give our tithes and offerings to you, 00:13:15.280 |
that every good and perfect gift is from you. 00:14:04.280 |
but we're gonna go ahead and sing to the Lord. 00:15:38.280 |
Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me 00:16:59.280 |
Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me 00:18:15.280 |
Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me 00:19:23.280 |
What love could remember, no wrongs we have done 00:19:30.280 |
Omniscient, all-knowing, He counts not their sum 00:20:23.280 |
What patience would wait as we constantly roam 00:20:35.280 |
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor 00:21:28.280 |
His blood was the payment, His life was the cost 00:21:33.280 |
We stood 'neath the death we could never afford 00:22:07.280 |
Our sins they are many, and one more time praise the Lord 00:27:41.280 |
>> We are very blessed this morning just to meet these five 00:27:48.280 |
Our prayer collectively this morning is that they would grow to know you, to love you. 00:27:55.280 |
As this world gets darker, these children will be raised up to shine brightly. 00:28:01.280 |
Lord, that they would know how to fight, when to fight, and why to fight when it comes to 00:28:07.280 |
really building your church. Help them to love you, love your church, and love your people, 00:28:13.280 |
and love the lost. And we know that that is only possible if they know you, and know you intimately. 00:28:18.280 |
And so we pray for wisdom over these parents, that they would steward their children well. 00:28:23.280 |
But we pray that salvation is from you alone, that you would save them and use them for the mighty, 00:28:34.280 |
So in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen. 00:28:45.280 |
>> This morning's passage is going to be out of Jeremiah 17, 5 through 11. 00:28:51.280 |
So let me start there. Jeremiah 17, 5 through 11. 00:28:56.280 |
And it reads, "Thus says the Lord, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, 00:29:04.280 |
and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 00:29:08.280 |
For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when prosperity comes, 00:29:15.280 |
but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt, without inhabitant. 00:29:20.280 |
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust is the Lord. 00:29:26.280 |
For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream, 00:29:30.280 |
and will not fear when the heat comes. But its leaves will be green, 00:29:34.280 |
and it will not be anxious in a year of drought, nor cease to yield fruit. 00:29:38.280 |
The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick. 00:29:43.280 |
Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, 00:29:48.280 |
even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. 00:29:53.280 |
And as a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid, so is he who makes a fortune. 00:29:58.280 |
But unjustly, in the midst of his days it will forsake him, and in the end he will be a fool." 00:30:05.280 |
About eight years or so ago, I was counseling a young lady who was dating a seminary student. 00:30:14.280 |
The lady's boyfriend was preparing to be a pastor, or perhaps a missionary overseas. 00:30:20.280 |
And so the lady asked me what challenges they should expect to face as a ministry family. 00:30:26.280 |
So I started to share about some of the common challenges, the standard normal ones. 00:30:32.280 |
I mentioned that sometimes she might feel like she's sharing her husband with the church, 00:30:38.280 |
that there would be perhaps seasons where financially things might be tight. 00:30:43.280 |
Perhaps they would not be able to comfortably root down and build a life like most of her peers. 00:30:50.280 |
I started with those, but then I went into some of the more weighty and painful challenges that would really test them. 00:30:57.280 |
More than finance and time and busyness, I told them that God will make an example of your life. 00:31:05.280 |
And no matter what the circumstance, no matter how he makes an example of your life, 00:31:15.280 |
You are to make sure that when you are saying, "Thus saith the Lord," 00:31:20.280 |
it's not just accurate in theology and doctrine only, but also in your life response to those sanctifying circumstances. 00:31:29.280 |
And these circumstances are usually excruciating and very painful. 00:31:36.280 |
And that even if you were to be faithful in presenting God as holy in both your life and doctrine, 00:31:43.280 |
the response of those you're preaching to, of those you're shepherding, may still be rejection, scorn, and even hatred. 00:31:53.280 |
And you may see people you love walk away from the faith. 00:31:58.280 |
So I shared this with this young couple, not only because I saw these real-life sermons lived out in the lives of pastors around me, 00:32:08.280 |
but because I also saw this pattern in the scriptures. 00:32:12.280 |
If you read, especially through the Old Testament, you'll often see God using lives of his chosen prophets as like a living object lesson. 00:32:22.280 |
Sermons and prophecies would not just be preached, but would also be lived out in the prophet's life. 00:32:33.280 |
Ezekiel had to lay on his left side for 390 days to symbolize the burden of carrying the northern kingdom's sins. 00:32:45.280 |
And then after those 390 days, God told him to flip, and he had to lie on his right side for 40 days for the sins of Judah. 00:32:54.280 |
In Isaiah chapter 20, you'll read that Isaiah preached naked and barefoot for three years as a sign of the shame that was to come on Egypt and Cush. 00:33:07.280 |
The New Testament refers to Noah as a preacher of righteousness. 00:33:13.280 |
He undertook the task of building an ark over the course of a hundred years. 00:33:19.280 |
But there's not much evidence that his message of doom and gloom was heeded by anybody outside of his family. 00:33:32.280 |
Our text today comes from Jeremiah's prophecy. 00:33:37.280 |
Now, Jeremiah had a ministry that none of us would ever want. 00:33:41.280 |
God made a visual of Jeremiah's life on numerous occasions that spanned several decades. 00:33:47.280 |
And I'm going to spend a moment talking about an event in Jeremiah 13, because it's important for the understanding of today's context of the passage today. 00:33:57.280 |
So in Jeremiah 13, the prophet Jeremiah is told to buy a linen waistband. 00:34:06.280 |
We're not familiar with either, really, so you can think of it as like a fancy belt or sash. 00:34:12.280 |
And this linen waistband was a decorative belt associated with a priest's garment. 00:34:18.280 |
And such a linen belt was a sign of dignity and nobility, and it symbolized a priest being set apart. 00:34:25.280 |
And so God tells Jeremiah to buy one, and so he does. 00:34:30.280 |
But then he commands Jeremiah to do a very strange thing. 00:34:33.280 |
Jeremiah is commanded to go to the Euphrates River and to bury the linen belt, this waistband, in the crevice of a rock. 00:34:47.280 |
"So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord had commanded me. 00:34:51.280 |
And after many days the Lord said to me, 'Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the waistband which I commanded you to hide there.' 00:34:59.280 |
Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it, and lo, the waistband was ruined. 00:35:08.280 |
So this rotten waistband symbolized God's people, the people of Judah. 00:35:17.280 |
They were supposed to be a people dignified and holy. 00:35:20.280 |
They were a people created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. 00:35:28.280 |
And as such, they were to be a holy people, a royal priesthood, a people for God's own possession. 00:35:34.280 |
And they were supposed to be beautiful inside and out. 00:35:38.280 |
But like this rotten waistband covered in muck and mire and river scum, they were totally ruined and worthless. 00:35:47.280 |
They were corrupt, they were polluted, and they polluted everything that they touched. 00:35:52.280 |
They soiled every good and perfect gift that had been handed down to them. 00:35:57.280 |
So in almost all of his living sermon illustrations, including this one we see in Jeremiah 13, 00:36:04.280 |
God uses the lives of his servants to communicate a consistent and almost timeless truth. 00:36:12.280 |
Man was and is totally depraved and rotten to the core. 00:36:24.280 |
Everything man touches becomes corrupted, polluted, and rotten. 00:36:33.280 |
He is deserving of wrath, and he is in desperate need of saving. 00:36:40.280 |
The people on whom the flood came were described like this in Genesis 6-5. 00:36:46.280 |
Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 00:36:53.280 |
You and I who are sitting here today, we too have inherited this evil that plagued our forefathers. 00:37:01.280 |
So all mankind, every single person you and I know, is totally depraved and falls short of the glory of God. 00:37:09.280 |
And there is nothing good in you or me outside of Christ. 00:37:15.280 |
You and I, along with the rest of humanity, we've been created by God and for God, to love God and to serve God. 00:37:23.280 |
But we not only fail at fulfilling our God-given purpose, we are so corrupted that in our arrogant minds, 00:37:31.280 |
we dare to believe that God exists to love and to serve us. 00:37:39.280 |
And when God, the creator of the universe, doesn't do our bidding, we believe ourselves to be justified in rejecting him. 00:37:49.280 |
And we turn to other created things that are not God's to see if they will do our bidding, to see if they will make us happy. 00:37:59.280 |
The late R.C. Sproul, perhaps borrowing from the book of Jeremiah, called this posture, this arrogance, an act of cosmic treason. 00:38:11.280 |
Scripture says that the heavens are shocked and appalled at this arrogance and this rebellion. 00:38:19.280 |
In the beginning of Jeremiah's prophecy, we see that this was the core problem of the rotten and worthless people of Judah. 00:38:27.280 |
So let me read for you the Lord's own description of this problem that's found in Jeremiah 2, 12 to 13. 00:38:35.280 |
"Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder and be very desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. 00:38:45.280 |
They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." 00:38:53.280 |
So here's the context. The problem was twofold. 00:38:57.280 |
One, the people of Judah rejected their purpose by rejecting the God for whom they had been created. 00:39:05.280 |
And two, they determined in their wicked minds to find fulfillment, sustenance, and satisfaction elsewhere outside of God. 00:39:15.280 |
They had dug for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water, that leak all over the place, and in the end are totally useless. 00:39:27.280 |
So usage of a broken cistern to collect rainwater in the middle of the wilderness where rain was precious? 00:39:40.280 |
So in Jeremiah 17, 5 to 11, our main text for today, we find that all of mankind is categorized into two groups. 00:39:51.280 |
Those who are cursed and those who are blessed. 00:39:55.280 |
This passage doesn't tell us what to do to be cursed, nor does it tell us what to do to become blessed. 00:40:04.280 |
Jeremiah 17, 5 through 11, is 100% descriptive. 00:40:11.280 |
There is nothing commanded. There is nothing prescribed. 00:40:16.280 |
There are zero suggestions in these seven verses. 00:40:21.280 |
So this is a descriptive passage of Scripture and not a prescriptive one. 00:40:29.280 |
So for the remainder of our time together, I'd like for us to explore the given descriptions of cursed people and the outcome that awaits them. 00:40:39.280 |
And then I'd like for us to briefly explore what blessed people are like and quickly look at the outcome that awaits them. 00:40:47.280 |
And we'll see that God tests and searches the heart, and we will see that people are deemed either cursed or blessed depending on what God finds in their hearts. 00:40:58.280 |
And after we look at these things, we'll try and deduce an appropriate application for this descriptive passage of the Bible. 00:41:05.280 |
So first, let's look at what God says about the cursed man. 00:41:10.280 |
"Thus says the Lord, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 00:41:19.280 |
For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony waste in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.'" 00:41:29.280 |
Think with me for a moment. What does "cursed" mean? 00:41:33.280 |
What does "cursed" mean? The word in Hebrew is "arur." 00:41:39.280 |
If you guys are trying to write that down, A-R-U-R, arur. 00:41:42.280 |
Arur means "cursed," okay? Basically, it means "banishment from the favor of God." 00:41:53.280 |
It means being an object to bear, designed to bear the full brunt of the wrath of God. 00:42:01.280 |
An object specifically created for the purpose of incurring wrath. 00:42:07.280 |
So I looked on Amazon yesterday for a punching bag. Not that I'm going to work out or punch. 00:42:12.280 |
I just wanted it as like a, just to see how much they cost. 00:42:16.280 |
And for a good one that's about a hundred pounds, I was shocked to see that it cost like 300 bucks. 00:42:22.280 |
You can find a $30 cheaper one, but it's about $300. 00:42:34.280 |
The $300 punching bag and the $30 punching bag have the exact same purpose. 00:42:39.280 |
The purpose is one and the same, to be punched. 00:42:42.280 |
That's its sole purpose, to be punched again and again and again. 00:42:51.280 |
Specifically appointed to be outside the favor of God, 00:42:55.280 |
and to be hit with the unbridled wrath of God again and again and again and again. 00:43:03.280 |
In Deuteronomy 27 and 28, there are almost 66 straight verses, 00:43:19.280 |
If they're disobedient, Israel and her descendants would be on the outside of the grace and the favor of God. 00:43:26.280 |
And these curses would not only be physical and geographical and social political, 00:43:38.280 |
So what kinds of people deserve to be cursed by God? 00:43:46.280 |
When we think of rapists, murderers, maybe for some of you, 00:43:53.280 |
scammers and identity thieves, because they're more like in our life, right? 00:43:58.280 |
There's a part of us almost hoping that they are cursed. 00:44:03.280 |
If someone scams you out of some big dollars, 00:44:07.280 |
don't tell me you haven't tried to console yourself with, 00:44:10.280 |
"Ooooh, may the Lord judge between you and me. Vengeance is mine!" 00:44:16.280 |
says the Lord. "I want you to receive His vengeance." 00:44:22.280 |
When evil folks in our society receive their due punishment, people celebrate. 00:44:29.280 |
And people lament when they think that justice is not served. 00:44:35.280 |
In the aftermath of the shootings in Texas, people were angry and rightfully so. 00:44:42.280 |
I read a few comments on some news articles detailing the event, 00:44:47.280 |
and some people were lamenting the fact that the shooter died too quickly. 00:44:54.280 |
People, religious and even non-religious people, posted very angry things like, 00:45:02.280 |
People who don't even believe in the existence of heaven and hell 00:45:09.280 |
so that people like this active shooter or this serial killer or that rapist or that Adolf Hitler, 00:45:18.280 |
where they are incessantly and eternally judged, punished and condemned, 00:45:23.280 |
where they are forever cursed and tormented by the wrath of God. 00:45:33.280 |
this is pointing to the unbridled wrath of God. 00:45:35.280 |
It's not only for the most hardened criminals, 00:45:38.280 |
it's just as much reserved for those who trust in mankind. 00:45:51.280 |
So the baseline, the starting point of being a recipient of the wrath of God, 00:46:04.280 |
In context, the people in Jeremiah's day were facing very real threats to their society and to their safety. 00:46:14.280 |
There were real threats to their way of life and to their children's futures. 00:46:19.280 |
Assyria had wiped out the northern kingdom of Israel, 00:46:22.280 |
and Babylon, a more wicked and terrifying empire, came and wiped out Assyria, 00:46:27.280 |
and now they were turning their attention toward the people of Judah. 00:46:32.280 |
And the people of Judah were terrified of them. 00:46:37.280 |
Some in Judah advised, "Hey, let's turn to Egypt for military assistance." 00:46:44.280 |
Some entertained reaching out to Babylon to see if they could curry some kind of favor 00:46:50.280 |
or to work out some kind of agreement and be slaves. 00:46:58.280 |
They needed to ensure a brighter future for their children, 00:47:02.280 |
and they reasoned that compromises needed to be made. 00:47:06.280 |
And some believed, because they didn't like King Zedekiah, 00:47:09.280 |
some believed that having the right king on the throne was the answer, 00:47:18.280 |
The very reason Israel had a human king to begin with 00:47:22.280 |
was because they didn't believe that having God as king wasn't anywhere near enough. 00:47:29.280 |
They had always walked by side and not by faith. 00:47:33.280 |
So let's review together briefly how Saul, Israel's first king, came to power, 00:47:40.280 |
Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, 00:47:50.280 |
that we also may be like all the other nations, 00:47:53.280 |
that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." 00:47:59.280 |
So what we can deduce and learn from what we see here in Jeremiah 17, 5 to 6, 00:48:14.280 |
Cursed men put their hope in sin-tainted flesh. 00:48:21.280 |
Cursed men do not believe God, the creator of the universe, to be enough. 00:48:27.280 |
Cursed men put their hope in national and global leaders. 00:48:32.280 |
Now to be sure, in Scripture, all men are called to submit to the God-ordained human institutions 00:48:38.280 |
and to pray for the salvation of their leaders and to pray for wisdom, 00:48:43.280 |
but man is never instructed to ever put hope in sin-tainted man. 00:48:50.280 |
Cursed men put their hope in religious institutions. 00:48:57.280 |
Cursed men trust wholly in the findings of science. 00:49:03.280 |
Many cursed men pride themselves on being self-sufficient. 00:49:11.280 |
Cursed men trust in their own efforts, their intellect, their skills, and their abilities. 00:49:18.280 |
Cursed men trust their determination and will. 00:49:24.280 |
Cursed men often work hard in their religious practices. 00:49:29.280 |
Cursed men trust their gut, their heart, their instincts. 00:49:39.280 |
Cursed men trust in the wealth that they've stored up for themselves. 00:49:44.280 |
Cursed men believe that a change of circumstance will make me happier. 00:49:53.280 |
Cursed men believe that if they only had had the right parents, 00:49:59.280 |
if only they find the right spouse, land the right job, meet the right friends, they will be happy. 00:50:09.280 |
Cursed men believe that happiness can be found outside of God. 00:50:14.280 |
And cursed men mistakenly believe that God is against them being happy. 00:50:22.280 |
So let me read Jeremiah 17, 5-6 for you again. 00:50:25.280 |
Thus says the Lord, "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind 00:50:30.280 |
and makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord, 00:50:34.280 |
for he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, 00:50:38.280 |
but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant." 00:50:47.280 |
His life is desolate. His life is meaningless. 00:50:53.280 |
His life will amount to nothing for all eternity. 00:51:01.280 |
There are a number of texts from ancient Mesopotamia 00:51:04.280 |
that describe a progressive salinity in southern part of Iraq. 00:51:11.280 |
And the land was unable to be used for agriculture 00:51:14.280 |
and was at one point abandoned for 240 years. Desolate. 00:51:24.280 |
Dried bushes and branches, the Legacy Standard Bible calls it the juniper. 00:51:28.280 |
I didn't even know what it looked like, so I actually had to Google it. 00:51:37.280 |
They are all functionally useless things in the desert. 00:51:49.280 |
They are indeed like chaff that the wind blows away, 00:51:52.280 |
and they are by nature objects of wrath, cursed. 00:51:57.280 |
So in verses 5 and 6, we see the description of the cursed man's choices 00:52:03.280 |
and a description of the cursed man's end, what he will be like. 00:52:10.280 |
But let's now turn our attention to the Lord's description of the blessed man. 00:52:17.280 |
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust is the Lord. 00:52:23.280 |
For he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream 00:52:31.280 |
But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought, 00:52:38.280 |
I'm sure some of you are thinking this reads kind of like Psalm 1. 00:52:42.280 |
This blessed man, unlike the cursed man, he trusts in the Lord. 00:52:51.280 |
He not only chooses the Lord as his refuge, he sees the Lord as his very source of life. 00:52:59.280 |
The Lord is the purpose of his very existence. 00:53:04.280 |
He submits to the truth that he has been created by God and for God, 00:53:17.280 |
When the heat and the fiery trials of life come, 00:53:22.280 |
he doesn't wilt, he doesn't cower, he doesn't fear. 00:53:29.280 |
He doesn't dry up when circumstances grow bleak. 00:53:34.280 |
No, he remains joy-filled, healthy, and full of Zoel life. 00:53:41.280 |
And even in extended seasons of hardship, he is not anxious. 00:53:46.280 |
He is always bearing fruit, and he is rewarded because of this fruit, the blessed man. 00:53:57.280 |
Now, how does God determine who is cursed and who is blessed? 00:54:03.280 |
We know that God does not look at the same thing man looks at. 00:54:07.280 |
Verses 9 and 10 tell us the criterion by which God deems somebody cursed or somebody blessed. 00:54:17.280 |
The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. 00:54:27.280 |
I test the mind, even to give each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. 00:54:32.280 |
This is a verse that might be familiar with many of you. 00:54:35.280 |
These two verses inform us that the Lord searches the heart. 00:54:47.280 |
So this is not like an academic exercise to try to figure out what you know. 00:54:59.280 |
But because it would be contextually difficult for us to understand, 00:55:02.280 |
I, the Lord, test the kidneys, modern translations have rendered it as mind. 00:55:17.280 |
God isn't looking at the outward performance of man, 00:55:21.280 |
but he's looking at the heart of the man, his very core, his inmost being, right now. 00:55:31.280 |
He's not looking at whether you're seated here on a chair in the church or in the courtyard. 00:55:44.280 |
He did not judge you by whether you've worshipped with your hands raised and with your praise face on. 00:55:52.280 |
He's looking at whether you're worshipping in spirit and in truth from the very depth of your inmost being. 00:56:13.280 |
The Lord Jesus teaches his disciples through a parable that man is not defiled by eating unclean things 00:56:22.280 |
The sin-tainted and sin-defiled heart brings forth every form of wickedness that you and I see. 00:56:30.280 |
So he basically teaches that a man is not a sinner because he sins, 00:56:35.280 |
but man sins because he is a sinner because he's rotten to the very core. 00:56:43.280 |
But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 00:56:49.280 |
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, slanders. 00:56:59.280 |
But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. 00:57:05.280 |
So man's problems are not in his behavior, but in his heart. 00:57:11.280 |
That is why modifying your behavior and trying a little harder to make changes in your life cannot save you. 00:57:22.280 |
Not getting all the religious rituals right isn't what defiles you. 00:57:35.280 |
The virus, the root problem, is in your heart. 00:57:41.280 |
Jeremiah 17, 9 describes the heart as more deceitful than anything else. 00:58:03.280 |
Okay, if you didn't, well, you learned something new today. 00:58:07.280 |
NyQuil only masks your symptoms to give you some relief and some comfort so you can go about your day. 00:58:24.280 |
In the same way, no matter how good your religious activity, no matter how moral or upright your act, 00:58:35.280 |
no matter how good you may feel about your Bible reading plan or how much money you've given to the poor, 00:58:49.280 |
We can deceive our neighbor to make him think more highly of us than he ought. 00:58:55.280 |
We can deceive ourselves so that we look at others as beneath us, less mature, less sanctified than us, 00:59:05.280 |
less knowledgeable than us, as less deserving of grace than us. 00:59:13.280 |
But unfortunately for you and me, holy, holy, holy God looks at your heart, 00:59:23.280 |
sees the sin there which he cannot tolerate, and is absolutely justified in condemning and cursing you. 00:59:42.280 |
A weeping Jeremiah proclaimed this for decades, and he was hated. 00:59:50.280 |
He will proclaim, "There is no peace. There is no peace. Don't listen to them. 01:00:02.280 |
Pharaoh cannot help you. Don't turn a Nebuchadnezzar. 01:00:06.280 |
God's using Babylon to discipline us, to warn us. What are you doing? 01:00:13.280 |
Did he not say that if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, 01:00:19.280 |
turn from their wicked ways and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven, 01:00:23.280 |
will forgive their sin, and then heal their land. We need to turn." 01:00:32.280 |
We read the response of King Zedekiah and his officials in Jeremiah 37. 01:00:37.280 |
Then the officials were angry at Jeremiah, and they beat him. 01:00:43.280 |
They put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they had made into the prison. 01:00:52.280 |
For Jeremiah had come into the dungeon, that is, the vaulted cells, and Jeremiah stayed there many days. 01:01:00.280 |
If it were not for the grace of God, there is not a single one of us 01:01:05.280 |
who would not respond in anger like this to this message. 01:01:12.280 |
Our hearts are so filled with arrogance that we cannot but be offended. 01:01:20.280 |
This message is foolishness to those who are perishing. 01:01:25.280 |
But the offensive truth is this, not a single one of us, 01:01:31.280 |
when our hearts have been thoroughly searched, would ever qualify for the blessing of God. 01:01:38.280 |
There would not be a single person in the blessed category. 01:01:41.280 |
Every person who has ever lived would rightfully qualify for cursed. 01:01:58.280 |
and it is His kindness that leads us to repentance, Romans 2.4. 01:02:05.280 |
Jeremiah is shown a vision of kindness in his dream. 01:02:11.280 |
He is told in a dream that a cure would be made available for this incurable, desperate heart of man. 01:02:17.280 |
He says, "At this I awoke, and I looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me." 01:02:26.280 |
Both the prophet Ezekiel and Jeremiah had a great vision of hope. 01:02:31.280 |
God will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. 01:02:35.280 |
His new covenant will not be like the first one, which He commanded the people to keep, 01:02:40.280 |
which He wrote down on two tablets of stone, Deuteronomy 4.13. 01:02:44.280 |
He will write this new covenant on their very hearts. 01:02:50.280 |
In fact, He will do the impossible and unthinkable. 01:02:55.280 |
He will do a complete transplant of the heart itself, 01:03:00.280 |
and not just with the people of Israel, but to all who would trust in the Lord. 01:03:07.280 |
And He will make those who fit the cursed category to a T, 01:03:17.280 |
Ezekiel 36, 24-28, "For I will take you from the nations, 01:03:22.280 |
gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. 01:03:27.280 |
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. 01:03:30.280 |
And I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, from all your idols. 01:03:34.280 |
Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you. 01:03:40.280 |
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. 01:03:46.280 |
I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. 01:03:52.280 |
And you will be careful to observe my ordinances. 01:03:55.280 |
You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers, 01:03:59.280 |
and you will be my people, and I will be your God." 01:04:13.280 |
even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. 01:04:19.280 |
And now, because He will make available a spiritual heart transplant, 01:04:26.280 |
through the cross of Christ, those who once were cursed can now be called blessed. 01:04:37.280 |
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to all believers through faith. 01:04:46.280 |
the Lord who searches the heart, who tests the inmost being, 01:04:51.280 |
now rewards the believer according to Christ's ways, 01:04:58.280 |
And if you believe this, you who once were cursed are now blessed of God. 01:05:17.280 |
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, 01:05:20.280 |
having become a curse for us, for it is written, 01:05:26.280 |
in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, 01:05:31.280 |
so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 01:05:38.280 |
So like I mentioned toward the beginning of the sermon, 01:05:49.280 |
The entire passage is detailing both the characteristics and the fate of the cursed people and blessed people. 01:05:59.280 |
There is nothing commanded or suggested in Jeremiah 17. 01:06:06.280 |
But allow me to draw out some conclusions and appropriate prescriptions for this descriptive passage. 01:06:17.280 |
I expect that there are people sitting in this room and in the courtyard and at home 01:06:28.280 |
still destined to bear the unbridled wrath of God. 01:06:38.280 |
there are two groups of you, I believe, listening to this sermon. 01:06:46.280 |
There are those who totally will acknowledge, "I am not a believer. 01:06:58.280 |
and even if He did, you're not quite willing or ready to trust Him. 01:07:23.280 |
You don't have to clean up your act before you come to Him. 01:07:27.280 |
You just need to acknowledge your desperate condition, 01:07:32.280 |
confess your sins, repent of your ways, and surrender. 01:07:41.280 |
with all my heart, one sin's tainted, now redeemed, okay? 01:07:54.280 |
For there is no other name under heaven given to man 01:08:06.280 |
"Hey, he's going to skip the partridge passage." 01:08:10.280 |
Acts 17:11, allow me to briefly explain to you the final verse in this passage. 01:08:16.280 |
"As a partridge that hatches eggs which is not laid, 01:08:23.280 |
In the midst of his days it will forsake him, 01:08:27.280 |
The LSB adds the word "wicked," "wicked fool." 01:08:31.280 |
So the partridge here takes credit for being the parent 01:08:43.280 |
This partridge had no real role in the creation of 01:08:52.280 |
But it seems that this partridge is deceived into thinking 01:09:09.280 |
The partridge represents a wicked fool, according to verse 11, 01:09:17.280 |
In life on this side of heaven, we often see the wicked prosper. 01:09:22.280 |
Evil men may become rich and live without any real care or hardship in the world. 01:09:28.280 |
And they won't ever see any real need for God. 01:09:36.280 |
The purpose of their lives is to enjoy their lives. 01:09:45.280 |
So this fool, as he is called in Jeremiah 17, 11, 01:09:49.280 |
because of his comfort, he takes credit for the fruit and for the success. 01:10:00.280 |
But in the midst of priding himself over these accomplishments, 01:10:24.280 |
He dies and realizes too late and for all eternity that he was wrong. 01:10:35.280 |
So for you in the first group, literally believe it or not, 01:10:52.280 |
The second category of you that may still remain cursed here today 01:11:10.280 |
You will sign up for and be involved in all the right things. 01:11:15.280 |
But in your hearts, you are deceiving and being deceived. 01:11:21.280 |
You are perhaps an evil man or an imposter going from bad to worse, 01:11:30.280 |
Your trust is not in Yahweh but in man, perhaps in yourself, 01:11:40.280 |
perhaps in the nice people around you, perhaps in the cool church that you go to, 01:11:45.280 |
perhaps in changes of laws and policies, perhaps in change of circumstance. 01:11:54.280 |
You may even be an active member here at the church and be cursed. 01:12:06.280 |
As Christian leaders, as pastors and elders at the church, 01:12:11.280 |
we do not have the ability to perfectly judge your heart, 01:12:21.280 |
It can only go by your confession, your profession, 01:12:26.280 |
and to varying degrees, your outward conformity. 01:12:38.280 |
out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, 01:12:40.280 |
we get little insights and glimpses into your heart, 01:12:45.280 |
So I'm pretty sure we've let those cursed into our membership, 01:12:51.280 |
not because we're not trying to be careful and discerning, 01:12:54.280 |
but because we have no insight into the heart of man. 01:13:01.280 |
We cannot determine for you accurately, fully, 01:13:33.280 |
Receive this free gift of God and submit fully to the Lordship of Christ 01:13:46.280 |
Now, for those of you who are blessed of God, 01:13:49.280 |
there are three exhortations I'll leave you with loosely from Ephesians 2, 8-10. 01:13:56.280 |
That's a challenge when the Scripture doesn't have a prescription. 01:14:04.280 |
Ephesians 2, 8-10, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, 01:14:10.280 |
It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, 01:14:16.280 |
For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, 01:14:19.280 |
which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." 01:14:32.280 |
it's remember that you have been saved but are still being saved. 01:14:37.280 |
You who have been saved must continue to work out this salvation 01:14:46.280 |
Regularly consider who it is you are trusting. 01:14:52.280 |
The residual effects of the cursed man remains a part of all of us. 01:15:13.280 |
Continue to grow in not putting any confidence in flesh. 01:15:27.280 |
If you feel your heart drifting away from the Lord, 01:15:31.280 |
If you feel your heart drifting away from the Lord, 01:15:33.280 |
be proactive in trying to right the ship as soon as you can. 01:15:44.280 |
let us long together for the return of Christ. 01:15:53.280 |
even all the residual effects of this old cursed man 01:16:11.280 |
So lest you think, "Oh, man cannot be trusted. 01:16:19.280 |
Be careful. That's not the appropriate application. 01:16:25.280 |
Be subject to your leaders and to be subject to one another. 01:16:29.280 |
We aren't called to trust man or put our hope in man. 01:16:34.280 |
But we are called to subject ourselves to one another 01:16:41.280 |
We are called to be subject to our spiritual leaders, 01:16:59.280 |
But I am pretty sure that if I spend a month with that person, 01:17:02.280 |
I'm going to start seeing them less godly than I do now. 01:17:17.280 |
if you get to know them, you'll see their sins, 01:17:20.280 |
And you will for sure think less of every single person 01:17:24.280 |
Remember, the best of men, even the best of men, 01:17:30.280 |
So in trusting the Lord, subject yourself to the human leaders 01:17:57.280 |
No man is worthy of your trust or allegiance. 01:18:02.280 |
Don't be super disappointed or crushed when they fail you. 01:18:09.280 |
Be humble before those more spiritually mature than you. 01:18:12.280 |
Be humble before those less spiritually mature than you. 01:18:15.280 |
Be humble toward those who are very different from you. 01:18:18.280 |
And remember that salvation is not a result of your works. 01:18:25.280 |
Do not trust man, but humbly love and serve man 01:18:35.280 |
Third and lastly, it says, "We are his workmanship." 01:18:40.280 |
So because you and I, if we're blessed, we're his bride, 01:18:58.280 |
having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 01:19:01.280 |
so that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, 01:19:10.280 |
So Jesus purifies his bride through the washing with the word. 01:19:17.280 |
Pursue the proper knowledge of the word of God, 01:19:22.280 |
"It's the word of God that's living and active, 01:19:26.280 |
That's going to test the thoughts and the attitudes of your heart 01:19:39.280 |
And by his word, I don't mean Christian books 01:19:44.280 |
People love Christian books and Christian commentaries, 01:19:50.280 |
But they're written by sin-tainted, corrupted men as well. 01:19:56.280 |
So your final authority has to be the Scriptures, 01:20:00.280 |
not in what some man says about the Scriptures. 01:20:19.280 |
As you get to know the Lord through his word, 01:20:31.280 |
If you focus all your mind on just books about the Bible, 01:20:45.280 |
not just in your understanding about the Bible. 01:20:48.280 |
Grow in biblical literacy so you can know him better 01:20:59.280 |
If you don't memorize, how are you going to meditate day and night 01:21:04.280 |
And grow in applying his word to every aspect of your life. 01:21:07.280 |
And after all, remember that we are his workmanship 01:21:14.280 |
You were created by God and for God to love God 01:21:20.280 |
So be blessed so you can move others to be blessed 01:21:37.280 |
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, 01:21:55.280 |
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, 01:22:29.280 |
And simply grow us to be more and more like your Son? 01:22:44.280 |
But by your Spirit, would you etch indelibly into the fabric of our hearts 01:22:53.280 |
We entrust this day and our hearts into your care. 01:23:03.280 |
Let's all stand together as we sing this closing praise. 01:27:16.280 |
Join with me in the closing prayer and benediction. 01:27:33.280 |
every soul in here that has been moved from cursed to blessed, 01:28:08.280 |
To buy my pardon, an empty grave is there to prove 01:28:57.280 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives.