(soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) - Good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. It truly is a privilege to come and worship together as a corporate body. And we are beneficiaries of his love. So we're going to sing this first song about his love and celebrate that. (clears throat) (soft music) ♪ Your love, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Reaches to the heaven ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Stretches to the sky ♪ ♪ Your righteousness ♪ ♪ Is like the mighty mountain ♪ ♪ Your justice flows ♪ ♪ Like the ocean's tide ♪ ♪ Your love, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Reaches to the heaven ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Stretches to the sky ♪ ♪ Your righteousness ♪ ♪ Your righteousness ♪ ♪ Is like the mighty mountain ♪ ♪ Your justice flows ♪ ♪ Like the ocean's tide ♪ I will lift.

♪ I will lift my high voice ♪ ♪ To worship you, my King ♪ ♪ I will find my strength ♪ ♪ In the shadow of your wings ♪ One more time, your love, oh Lord. ♪ Your love, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Reaches to the heaven ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Stretches to the sky ♪ Your righteousness.

♪ Your righteousness ♪ ♪ Is like the mighty mountain ♪ ♪ Your justice flows ♪ ♪ Like the ocean's tide ♪ I will lift my voice. ♪ I will lift my high voice ♪ ♪ To worship you, my God ♪ ♪ I will find my strength ♪ ♪ In the shadow of your wings ♪ ♪ I will lift my high voice ♪ ♪ To worship you, my King ♪ ♪ I will find my strength ♪ ♪ In the shadow of your wings ♪ Your love, oh Lord.

♪ Your love, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Reaches to the heaven ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Stretches to the sky ♪ - Well, good morning. Welcome to Berean Community Church. If you guys are here for the first time, we do invite you to go out to the welcome table, which is in the back of the courtyard after we're done.

You can find out more information about the church We do have a lunch in two weeks, June 26th, for all newcomers. So if this applies to you, by all means, please do sign up and join us for just a good time of fellowship. As you guys know, our Bible study just finished for this term, for this week, but we do have summer prairies and prayer nights, both in June and July.

So the next one that's coming up is Friday, the 24th, so please do plan around that. Consider that just as important as a time of Bible study. So please do prepare for that. For you guys who may have forgotten, Father's Day is next Sunday. And so this is a reminder for you guys to just write cards and things for the fathers that are in your life.

And we will have a special photo booth set up outside for you guys to just take a look at. A photo booth set up outside next Sunday. Just a couple other things that are a little bit more timely and urgent. For you guys who are doing the safety training, if you're working with our children, that's gonna be here in the sanctuary today at 1 p.m.

Okay? Last couple announcements. Our family ministry retreat this summer, the theme has been set for just strengthening the Christian marriage. And today is the last day for you to register at the discounted price. It's gonna go up by a lot, okay, after today. So please do sign up for that.

Actually, I'm just kidding. It's 50 bucks. But hey, gas prices have gone up. Okay, so August 12th to the 14th. VBS signups are still going on, and we're gonna close them soon. Your kid may squeak in, but we're ordering the t-shirts very soon. So if you don't have your child registered, and I feel moved with compassion, I might give your tiny child my shirt, and you don't want that.

Okay, so please do get going on those registrations. Okay, so after we have a time of offering, before the sermon, we're gonna have just five of our newborns to the church introduced to the church family. And so right after the praise time, if I can ask the parents of the new children just to come up toward the front, that would be great.

All right, so if you have an offering physically prepared, there's a box in the back. If not, you can give your tithes and your gifts to the Lord electronically. So let me pray, and we'll give you a minute, and we'll get started. Father, we are very thankful, and what a privilege it is for us to gather together this Sunday morning to give you the praise that you do.

And I pray that you would cause us this morning just to reflect deeply on the great gift of salvation, and that we would leave here just an empowered and joy-filled people. And we know, Lord God, that it's your fruit, it's your word that bears fruit in our lives, and so would you honor this time.

And as we give our tithes and offerings to you, Lord, help us just to be faithful stewards with all that you've provided for us, and we acknowledge at this time that every good and perfect gift is from you. So we thank you, Lord, and would you be honored this morning.

We pray all this as you say. Church family, let's all rise together. It seems a little bit more cozy today. Maybe people are parking, but we're gonna go ahead and sing to the Lord. Who breaks the power? Who breaks the power of sin and darkness Whose love is mighty and so much stronger The King of glory, the King above all kings Who shakes?

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder Who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder The King of glory, the King above all kings This is, this is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place That you would bear my cross You would lay down your life That I would be set free Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me Sing it out, who brings our chaos?

Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? The King of glory, the King above all kings This Lord who rules the nations Who rules the nations with truth and justice Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance The King of glory, the King above all kings This is amazing grace This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place That you would bear my cross You would lay down your life That I would be set free Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy, worthy, worthy This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place That you would bear my cross You would lay down your life That I would be set free Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me Amen Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more What love could remember What love could remember, no wrongs we have done Omniscient, all-knowing, He counts not their sum Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more What patience would wait as we constantly roam What Father so tender is calling us home He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more What riches of kindness What riches of kindness He lavished on us His blood was the payment, His life was the cost We stood 'neath the death we could never afford Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, and one more time praise the Lord Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Amen.

You may be seated. >> We are very blessed this morning just to meet these five wonderful, beautiful little children. Our prayer collectively this morning is that they would grow to know you, to love you. As this world gets darker, these children will be raised up to shine brightly. Lord, that they would know how to fight, when to fight, and why to fight when it comes to really building your church.

Help them to love you, love your church, and love your people, and love the lost. And we know that that is only possible if they know you, and know you intimately. And so we pray for wisdom over these parents, that they would steward their children well. But we pray that salvation is from you alone, that you would save them and use them for the mighty, for the glory of your son.

So in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen. >> This morning's passage is going to be out of Jeremiah 17, 5 through 11. So let me start there. Jeremiah 17, 5 through 11. And it reads, "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.

For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt, without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream, and will not fear when the heat comes.

But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought, nor cease to yield fruit. The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.

And as a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid, so is he who makes a fortune. But unjustly, in the midst of his days it will forsake him, and in the end he will be a fool." About eight years or so ago, I was counseling a young lady who was dating a seminary student.

The lady's boyfriend was preparing to be a pastor, or perhaps a missionary overseas. And so the lady asked me what challenges they should expect to face as a ministry family. So I started to share about some of the common challenges, the standard normal ones. I mentioned that sometimes she might feel like she's sharing her husband with the church, that there would be perhaps seasons where financially things might be tight.

Perhaps they would not be able to comfortably root down and build a life like most of her peers. I started with those, but then I went into some of the more weighty and painful challenges that would really test them. More than finance and time and busyness, I told them that God will make an example of your life.

And no matter what the circumstance, no matter how he makes an example of your life, that you are called to present God as holy. You are to make sure that when you are saying, "Thus saith the Lord," it's not just accurate in theology and doctrine only, but also in your life response to those sanctifying circumstances.

And these circumstances are usually excruciating and very painful. And that even if you were to be faithful in presenting God as holy in both your life and doctrine, the response of those you're preaching to, of those you're shepherding, may still be rejection, scorn, and even hatred. And you may see people you love walk away from the faith.

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, but because I also saw this pattern in the scriptures. 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.

Sermons and prophecies would not just be preached, but would also be lived out in the prophet's life. Hosea was called to marry a harlot. Ezekiel had to lay on his left side for 390 days to symbolize the burden of carrying the northern kingdom's sins. 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.

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. The New Testament refers to Noah as a preacher of righteousness. He undertook the task of building an ark over the course of a hundred years.

But there's not much evidence that his message of doom and gloom was heeded by anybody outside of his family. People probably just assumed he was crazy. Our text today comes from Jeremiah's prophecy. Now, Jeremiah had a ministry that none of us would ever want. God made a visual of Jeremiah's life on numerous occasions that spanned several decades.

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. So in Jeremiah 13, the prophet Jeremiah is told to buy a linen waistband. The ESV calls it a loincloth. We're not familiar with either, really, so you can think of it as like a fancy belt or sash.

And this linen waistband was a decorative belt associated with a priest's garment. And such a linen belt was a sign of dignity and nobility, and it symbolized a priest being set apart. And so God tells Jeremiah to buy one, and so he does. But then he commands Jeremiah to do a very strange thing.

Jeremiah is commanded to go to the Euphrates River and to bury the linen belt, this waistband, in the crevice of a rock. And so let me read this account for you. Jeremiah 13, 5-7. "So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord had commanded me. 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.' 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.

It was totally worthless." So this rotten waistband symbolized God's people, the people of Judah. They were supposed to be a people set apart. They were supposed to be a people dignified and holy. They were a people created by God and for God to love God and to serve God.

And as such, they were to be a holy people, a royal priesthood, a people for God's own possession. And they were supposed to be beautiful inside and out. But like this rotten waistband covered in muck and mire and river scum, they were totally ruined and worthless. They were corrupt, they were polluted, and they polluted everything that they touched.

They soiled every good and perfect gift that had been handed down to them. So in almost all of his living sermon illustrations, including this one we see in Jeremiah 13, God uses the lives of his servants to communicate a consistent and almost timeless truth. Man was and is totally depraved and rotten to the core.

There is no hope in man. There is nothing good in man. Everything man touches becomes corrupted, polluted, and rotten. Man cannot save or redeem himself. He is deserving of wrath, and he is in desperate need of saving. The people on whom the flood came were described like this in Genesis 6-5.

Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. You and I who are sitting here today, we too have inherited this evil that plagued our forefathers. So all mankind, every single person you and I know, is totally depraved and falls short of the glory of God.

And there is nothing good in you or me outside of Christ. 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. But we not only fail at fulfilling our God-given purpose, we are so corrupted that in our arrogant minds, we dare to believe that God exists to love and to serve us.

And when God, the creator of the universe, doesn't do our bidding, we believe ourselves to be justified in rejecting him. 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. The late R.C.

Sproul, perhaps borrowing from the book of Jeremiah, called this posture, this arrogance, an act of cosmic treason. Scripture says that the heavens are shocked and appalled at this arrogance and this rebellion. In the beginning of Jeremiah's prophecy, we see that this was the core problem of the rotten and worthless people of Judah.

So let me read for you the Lord's own description of this problem that's found in Jeremiah 2, 12 to 13. "Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder and be very desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." So here's the context.

The problem was twofold. One, the people of Judah rejected their purpose by rejecting the God for whom they had been created. And two, they determined in their wicked minds to find fulfillment, sustenance, and satisfaction elsewhere outside of God. They had dug for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water, that leak all over the place, and in the end are totally useless.

So usage of a broken cistern to collect rainwater in the middle of the wilderness where rain was precious? Vanity. Vanity. It was all vanity. So in Jeremiah 17, 5 to 11, our main text for today, we find that all of mankind is categorized into two groups. Those who are cursed and those who are blessed.

This passage doesn't tell us what to do to be cursed, nor does it tell us what to do to become blessed. Jeremiah 17, 5 through 11, is 100% descriptive. There is nothing commanded. There is nothing prescribed. There are zero suggestions in these seven verses. So this is a descriptive passage of Scripture and not a prescriptive one.

So this will be our outline. 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. And then I'd like for us to briefly explore what blessed people are like and quickly look at the outcome that awaits them.

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. And after we look at these things, we'll try and deduce an appropriate application for this descriptive passage of the Bible.

So first, let's look at what God says about the cursed man. "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. 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.'" Think with me for a moment.

What does "cursed" mean? What does "cursed" mean? The word in Hebrew is "arur." If you guys are trying to write that down, A-R-U-R, arur. Arur means "cursed," okay? Basically, it means "banishment from the favor of God." It means "exile from the goodness of God." It means being an object to bear, designed to bear the full brunt of the wrath of God.

An object specifically created for the purpose of incurring wrath. So I looked on Amazon yesterday for a punching bag. Not that I'm going to work out or punch. I just wanted it as like a, just to see how much they cost. And for a good one that's about a hundred pounds, I was shocked to see that it cost like 300 bucks.

You can find a $30 cheaper one, but it's about $300. What's the purpose of a punching bag? To be punched, right? The $300 punching bag and the $30 punching bag have the exact same purpose. The purpose is one and the same, to be punched. That's its sole purpose, to be punched again and again and again.

Cursed! Specifically appointed to be outside the favor of God, and to be hit with the unbridled wrath of God again and again and again and again. In Deuteronomy 27 and 28, there are almost 66 straight verses, detailing curse after curse after curse. Arur! Arur! Arur! If they're disobedient, Israel and her descendants would be on the outside of the grace and the favor of God.

And these curses would not only be physical and geographical and social political, it would also be spiritual. So what kinds of people deserve to be cursed by God? When we think of rapists, murderers, maybe for some of you, scammers and identity thieves, because they're more like in our life, right?

There's a part of us almost hoping that they are cursed. If someone scams you out of some big dollars, don't tell me you haven't tried to console yourself with, "Ooooh, may the Lord judge between you and me. Vengeance is mine!" says the Lord. "I want you to receive His vengeance." That's what's in our heart.

When evil folks in our society receive their due punishment, people celebrate. And people lament when they think that justice is not served. In the aftermath of the shootings in Texas, people were angry and rightfully so. I read a few comments on some news articles detailing the event, and some people were lamenting the fact that the shooter died too quickly.

People, religious and even non-religious people, posted very angry things like, "May he rot in hell!" People who don't even believe in the existence of heaven and hell so desperately want hell to exist, so that people like this active shooter or this serial killer or that rapist or that Adolf Hitler, so those people can be sent there, where they are incessantly and eternally judged, punished and condemned, where they are forever cursed and tormented by the wrath of God.

When we look at Jeremiah 17, 5-6 though, this is pointing to the unbridled wrath of God. It's not only for the most hardened criminals, it's just as much reserved for those who trust in mankind. Those who make flesh their strength. Those whose hearts turn away from the Lord. So the baseline, the starting point of being a recipient of the wrath of God, this curse, "Arur", it's trusting in man.

In context, the people in Jeremiah's day were facing very real threats to their society and to their safety. They were in a time of war. There were real threats to their way of life and to their children's futures. Assyria had wiped out the northern kingdom of Israel, and Babylon, a more wicked and terrifying empire, came and wiped out Assyria, and now they were turning their attention toward the people of Judah.

And the people of Judah were terrified of them. Some in Judah advised, "Hey, let's turn to Egypt for military assistance." Some entertained reaching out to Babylon to see if they could curry some kind of favor or to work out some kind of agreement and be slaves. Bottom line, they wanted to survive.

They needed to ensure a brighter future for their children, and they reasoned that compromises needed to be made. And some believed, because they didn't like King Zedekiah, some believed that having the right king on the throne was the answer, so they trusted in man. The very reason Israel had a human king to begin with was because they didn't believe that having God as king wasn't anywhere near enough.

You guys remember that? They had always walked by side and not by faith. So let's review together briefly how Saul, Israel's first king, came to power, 1 Samuel 8, 19 to 20. Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, "No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the other nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." So what we can deduce and learn from what we see here in Jeremiah 17, 5 to 6, cursed men trust in men.

Cursed men put their hope in sin-tainted flesh. Cursed men do not believe God, the creator of the universe, to be enough. Cursed men put their hope in national and global leaders. Now to be sure, in Scripture, all men are called to submit to the God-ordained human institutions and to pray for the salvation of their leaders and to pray for wisdom, but man is never instructed to ever put hope in sin-tainted man.

Cursed men put their hope in religious institutions. Cursed men trust wholly in the findings of science. Many cursed men pride themselves on being self-sufficient. Cursed men trust in degrees and status. Cursed men trust in their own efforts, their intellect, their skills, and their abilities. Cursed men trust their determination and will.

Cursed men often work hard in their religious practices. Cursed men trust their gut, their heart, their instincts. Cursed men trust in the wealth that they've stored up for themselves. Cursed men believe that a change of circumstance will make me happier. Cursed men believe that if they only had had the right parents, if only they find the right spouse, land the right job, meet the right friends, they will be happy.

Cursed men believe that happiness can be found outside of God. And cursed men mistakenly believe that God is against them being happy. So let me read Jeremiah 17, 5-6 for you again. 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, for he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant." So what is this cursed man's lot in life?

His life is desolate. His life is meaningless. His life will amount to nothing for all eternity. He will be like a land of salt. There are a number of texts from ancient Mesopotamia that describe a progressive salinity in southern part of Iraq. And the land was unable to be used for agriculture and was at one point abandoned for 240 years.

Desolate. He will be like a bush in the desert. Dried bushes and branches, the Legacy Standard Bible calls it the juniper. I didn't even know what it looked like, so I actually had to Google it. The bush, the branch, the juniper. They are all functionally useless things in the desert.

The only thing that finds them useful? Wildfires. They are indeed like chaff that the wind blows away, and they are by nature objects of wrath, cursed. So in verses 5 and 6, we see the description of the cursed man's choices and a description of the cursed man's end, what he will be like.

But let's now turn our attention to the Lord's description of the blessed man. The blessed man, verses 7 and 8. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes.

But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought, nor cease to yield fruit. I'm sure some of you are thinking this reads kind of like Psalm 1. This blessed man, unlike the cursed man, he trusts in the Lord. His trust is the Lord.

He not only chooses the Lord as his refuge, he sees the Lord as his very source of life. The Lord is the purpose of his very existence. He submits to the truth that he has been created by God and for God, to love God and to serve God. So what does this man's life look like?

When the heat and the fiery trials of life come, he doesn't wilt, he doesn't cower, he doesn't fear. He doesn't dry up when circumstances grow bleak. No, he remains joy-filled, healthy, and full of Zoel life. And even in extended seasons of hardship, he is not anxious. He is always bearing fruit, and he is rewarded because of this fruit, the blessed man.

Now, how does God determine who is cursed and who is blessed? We know that God does not look at the same thing man looks at. Verses 9 and 10 tell us the criterion by which God deems somebody cursed or somebody blessed. Jeremiah 17, 9. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.

Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. This is a verse that might be familiar with many of you. These two verses inform us that the Lord searches the heart.

He tests the mind. The mind here is not referring to intellect. So this is not like an academic exercise to try to figure out what you know. It's referring to a person's core volitions. It's literally in Hebrew, the kidneys. But because it would be contextually difficult for us to understand, I, the Lord, test the kidneys, modern translations have rendered it as mind.

Okay? The LSB calls it the inmost being. God isn't looking at the outward performance of man, but he's looking at the heart of the man, his very core, his inmost being, right now. He's not looking at whether you're seated here on a chair in the church or in the courtyard.

He did not judge you by whether you've worshipped with your hands raised and with your praise face on. He's looking at whether you're worshipping in spirit and in truth from the very depth of your inmost being. The Lord looks at your heart. There is nothing hidden. Scary thought. Jesus in Matthew 15 talks about the heart.

The Lord Jesus teaches his disciples through a parable that man is not defiled by eating unclean things or by eating with unwashed hands. The sin-tainted and sin-defiled heart brings forth every form of wickedness that you and I see. So he basically teaches that a man is not a sinner because he sins, but man sins because he is a sinner because he's rotten to the very core.

So Matthew 15, 18 to 20. But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, slanders. These are the things which defile the man. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.

So man's problems are not in his behavior, but in his heart. That is why modifying your behavior and trying a little harder to make changes in your life cannot save you. Not getting all the religious rituals right isn't what defiles you. Murder, theft, fornications, lies. These are all symptoms.

The virus, the root problem, is in your heart. Jeremiah 17, 9 describes the heart as more deceitful than anything else. It is desperately sick. The NIV calls it beyond cure. It's beyond help. NyQuil does not cure the cold or the flu. Not just if you knew that already. Okay, if you didn't, well, you learned something new today.

NyQuil only masks your symptoms to give you some relief and some comfort so you can go about your day. NyQuil is a symptomatic medicine. It masks. It doesn't heal. In the same way, no matter how good your religious activity, no matter how moral or upright your act, no matter how good you may feel about your Bible reading plan or how much money you've given to the poor, your disease runs super deep.

We can deceive our neighbor to make him think more highly of us than he ought. We can deceive ourselves so that we look at others as beneath us, less mature, less sanctified than us, less knowledgeable than us, as less deserving of grace than us. But unfortunately for you and me, holy, holy, holy God looks at your heart, sees the sin there which he cannot tolerate, and is absolutely justified in condemning and cursing you.

Arur. Again and again and again. A weeping Jeremiah proclaimed this for decades, and he was hated. He will proclaim, "There is no peace. There is no peace. Don't listen to them. Turn. Repent. Don't trust Pharaoh for help. Pharaoh cannot help you. Don't turn a Nebuchadnezzar. God's using Babylon to discipline us, to warn us.

What are you doing? Did he not say that if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, turn from their wicked ways and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and then heal their land. We need to turn." We read the response of King Zedekiah and his officials in Jeremiah 37.

Then the officials were angry at Jeremiah, and they beat him. They put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they had made into the prison. For Jeremiah had come into the dungeon, that is, the vaulted cells, and Jeremiah stayed there many days. If it were not for the grace of God, there is not a single one of us who would not respond in anger like this to this message.

Our hearts are so filled with arrogance that we cannot but be offended. This message is foolishness to those who are perishing. But the offensive truth is this, not a single one of us, when our hearts have been thoroughly searched, would ever qualify for the blessing of God. There would not be a single person in the blessed category.

Every person who has ever lived would rightfully qualify for cursed. Does that make sense to you? Unfortunately, you and I serve a kind God, and it is His kindness that leads us to repentance, Romans 2.4. Jeremiah is shown a vision of kindness in his dream. He is told in a dream that a cure would be made available for this incurable, desperate heart of man.

He says, "At this I awoke, and I looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me." And you see a very exalted Jeremiah. Both the prophet Ezekiel and Jeremiah had a great vision of hope. God will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. His new covenant will not be like the first one, which He commanded the people to keep, which He wrote down on two tablets of stone, Deuteronomy 4.13.

He will write this new covenant on their very hearts. In fact, He will do the impossible and unthinkable. He will do a complete transplant of the heart itself, and not just with the people of Israel, but to all who would trust in the Lord. And He will make those who fit the cursed category to a T, declare them blessed.

Ezekiel 36, 24-28, "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. And I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you.

And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. And you will be careful to observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers, and you will be my people, and I will be your God." The Lord searches the heart.

He tests the kidneys, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. And now, because He will make available a spiritual heart transplant, through the cross of Christ, those who once were cursed can now be called blessed. The old has gone, the new has come.

The righteousness of Christ is imputed to all believers through faith. And on the basis of Christ's righteousness, the Lord who searches the heart, who tests the inmost being, now rewards the believer according to Christ's ways, according to the results of Christ's deeds. And if you believe this, you who once were cursed are now blessed of God.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen? That's the gospel. Galatians 3, 13-14. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree," in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

So like I mentioned toward the beginning of the sermon, Jeremiah 17, 5-11 is 100% descriptive. The entire passage is detailing both the characteristics and the fate of the cursed people and blessed people. There is nothing commanded or suggested in Jeremiah 17. But allow me to draw out some conclusions and appropriate prescriptions for this descriptive passage.

I expect that there are people sitting in this room and in the courtyard and at home who still remain cursed of God, still destined to bear the unbridled wrath of God. And this group of those cursed of God, there are two groups of you, I believe, listening to this sermon.

There are those who totally will acknowledge, "I am not a believer. I don't have faith in Christ." So perhaps you can't believe God exists, and even if He did, you're not quite willing or ready to trust Him. That's the first group. My charge to you is this. There is no other way.

You cannot save you. You don't have to clean up your act before you come to Him. You just need to acknowledge your desperate condition, confess your sins, repent of your ways, and surrender. And I assure you with all my heart, with all my heart, one sin's tainted, now redeemed, okay?

Not trustworthy. But I assure you, with all my heart, there is no other way. For there is no other name under heaven given to man by which we must be saved, Acts 4:12. None. Acts 17:11, some of you guys are thinking, "Hey, he's going to skip the partridge passage." No, I'm not.

We're going to talk about that, all right? Acts 17:11, allow me to briefly explain to you the final verse in this passage. "As a partridge that hatches eggs which is not laid, so is he who makes a fortune but unjustly. In the midst of his days it will forsake him, and in the end he will be a fool." The LSB adds the word "wicked," "wicked fool." So the partridge here takes credit for being the parent of these non-partridge random birds.

You guys with me? This partridge had no real role in the creation of or the hatching of the eggs. But it seems that this partridge is deceived into thinking that it deserves the credit. It sees the life and successful growth and attributes that growth to itself. The partridge represents a wicked fool, according to verse 11, who has prospered.

In life on this side of heaven, we often see the wicked prosper. Evil men may become rich and live without any real care or hardship in the world. And they won't ever see any real need for God. They don't believe in God. The purpose of their lives is to enjoy their lives.

They deserve it. They've worked hard. So this fool, as he is called in Jeremiah 17, 11, because of his comfort, he takes credit for the fruit and for the success. That leads him to arrogance. But in the midst of priding himself over these accomplishments, he will suddenly perish. The fool says in his heart, Psalm 14, what?

There is no God. There is no curse. Arur, what nonsense is that? He dies and realizes too late and for all eternity that he was wrong. So for you in the first group, literally believe it or not, there is no other way. None. The second category of you that may still remain cursed here today is a bit more troubling and dangerous.

You will say all the right things. You will profess all the right things. You will sign up for and be involved in all the right things. But in your hearts, you are deceiving and being deceived. You are perhaps an evil man or an imposter going from bad to worse, as it says in 2 Timothy 3, 13.

Your trust is not in Yahweh but in man, perhaps in yourself, perhaps in the nice people around you, perhaps in the cool church that you go to, perhaps in changes of laws and policies, perhaps in change of circumstance. You may even be an active member here at the church and be cursed.

As Christian leaders, as pastors and elders at the church, we do not have the ability to perfectly judge your heart, nor do we have the authority to do that. It can only go by your confession, your profession, and to varying degrees, your outward conformity. We cannot see your heart.

Sometimes because, as it says in Luke 6, 45, out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, we get little insights and glimpses into your heart, but we cannot see your heart. So I'm pretty sure we've let those cursed into our membership, not because we're not trying to be careful and discerning, but because we have no insight into the heart of man.

We cannot determine for you accurately, fully, if your heart still remains one of stone. But God sees it, and He judges it. So the invitation for you who look blessed, yet still remain cursed, would be the same. Receive this free gift of God and submit fully to the Lordship of Christ while you still can.

Seek the Lord while He may be found. Now, for those of you who are blessed of God, there are three exhortations I'll leave you with loosely from Ephesians 2, 8-10. That's a challenge when the Scripture doesn't have a prescription. Okay, so I will leave one loosely for you. Ephesians 2, 8-10, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." It's a very familiar passage. "For by grace you have been saved." So for the first application, it's remember that you have been saved but are still being saved.

You who have been saved must continue to work out this salvation with fear and trembling. Regularly examine your hearts. Regularly consider who it is you are trusting. The residual effects of the cursed man remains a part of all of us. It will continue to be a part of us, on this side of glory.

So continue not to trust in yourself. Continue not to trust in man. Continue to grow in not putting any confidence in flesh. We need to be sanctified of this. We need to proactively grow in this. If you feel your heart drifting away from the Lord, be proactive. If you feel your heart drifting away from the Lord, be proactive in trying to right the ship as soon as you can.

And as blessed people, let us long together for the return of Christ. For when that happens, even all the residual effects of this old cursed man will be gone forever. Hallelujah. Second, Ephesians 2 says, "So that no one can boast." So lest you think, "Oh, man cannot be trusted.

I can do whatever I want. I can't trust any hierarchy, any structure." Be careful. That's not the appropriate application. So be humble. Be subject to your leaders and to be subject to one another. We aren't called to trust man or put our hope in man. But we are called to subject ourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ.

We are called to be subject to our spiritual leaders, all of whom are not perfect. Even the spiritual giants of our day. I was actually thinking through, if I could spend a month with somebody, like some spiritual giant, who would it be? And I had a list of a few.

But I am pretty sure that if I spend a month with that person, I'm going to start seeing them less godly than I do now. From a distance, everyone looks holy. From a distance, everyone looks clean. But even the spiritual giants of our day, if you get to know them, you'll see their sins, their spots, and their blemishes.

And you will for sure think less of every single person the closer you get to them. Remember, the best of men, even the best of men, are men at best. So in trusting the Lord, subject yourself to the human leaders and the human members of the body of Christ.

Even with the best of men in our lives, if you see Christ in them, be subject to them, honor them, and pray. Your hope is not in these men. No man is worthy of your trust or allegiance. So don't be shocked. Don't be super disappointed or crushed when they fail you.

Also, be humble before one another. Be humble before those more spiritually mature than you. Be humble before those less spiritually mature than you. Be humble toward those who are very different from you. And remember that salvation is not a result of your works. It's a gift of God. Do not trust man, but humbly love and serve man in the ways Christ loved you and served you.

Amen? Third and lastly, it says, "We are his workmanship." So because you and I, if we're blessed, we're his bride, and because he is a faithful bridegroom, he will purify you, he will sanctify you. Ephesians 5, 26-27, "So that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but she would be holy and blameless." So Jesus purifies his bride through the washing with the word.

So do not resist this washing. Pursue the proper knowledge of the word of God, because it says in Hebrews 4, 12, "It's the word of God that's living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword." That's going to test the thoughts and the attitudes of your heart and squeeze you and sanctify you.

So sit before the word of God, no matter how uncomfortable it may feel. Get a steady intake of his word. And by his word, I don't mean Christian books or Christian commentaries. People love Christian books and Christian commentaries, and there's nothing wrong with them. But they're written by sin-tainted, corrupted men as well.

So your final authority has to be the Scriptures, not in what some man says about the Scriptures. If you catch yourself quoting men more than you are quoting Scripture, you're not growing in biblical literacy. You're possibly growing in arrogance. As you get to know the Lord through his word, you will grow in humility, terror, and love.

If you focus all your mind on just books about the Bible, you will only get poofed in the head. So get to know the word of God. Grow in your understanding of the Bible, not just in your understanding about the Bible. Grow in biblical literacy so you can know him better and make him known.

Obsess over his word. Meditate on his word. Memorize his word. Why? If you don't memorize, how are you going to meditate day and night like the blessed man? And grow in applying his word to every aspect of your life. And after all, remember that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

You were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. So be blessed so you can move others to be blessed and you can be used by the Lord to bring others from cursed to blessed. I'm going to close with Psalm 1, which reads a lot like our Jeremiah passage.

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

And in whatever he does, he prospers. So let's pray. Lord, would you have your way in us? Would your word bear fruit in us? And simply grow us to be more and more like your Son? We're going to walk out of here, possibly forget a lot of what we heard.

But by your Spirit, would you etch indelibly into the fabric of our hearts your word of truth. We entrust this day and our hearts into your care. For in you alone is our hope. In Jesus' name we pray. Let's all stand together as we sing this closing praise. Oh Lord.

Oh Lord. Could save themselves. Their own soul could heal. Our shame was deeper than the sea. Your grace is deeper still. One more time. Oh Lord. Could save themselves. Their own soul could heal. Our shame was deeper than the sea. Your grace is deeper still. You alone. You alone can rescue.

You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us. Let us out of death. To you alone belongs the highest praise. You, oh Lord, have made a way. The great divide you've revealed. For when our hearts were far away, your love went further.

Yes, your love, Lord. Yes, your love goes further still. You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us. Let us out of death. To you alone belongs the highest praise. We lift up. We lift up our eyes.

Lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life. We lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life. We lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life. We lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life.

You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us. Let us out of death. To you alone belongs the highest praise. You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us.

Let us out of death. To you alone belongs the highest praise. To you alone belongs the highest praise. You alone belongs the highest praise. Join with me in the closing prayer and benediction. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, empower, strengthen, and rejuvenate every soul in here that has been moved from cursed to blessed, now and forever.

Amen. God sent his son. They called him Jesus. He came to love, heal, and forgive. He lived and died. To buy my pardon, an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. Because he lives, I confess tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future.

And life is worth the living just because he lives. (upbeat music)