The 1st Sunday in Lent

SERMON

INI

Text: Jeremiah 2:17-19; 3:22-23

“Have you not brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God when He led you in the way? And now why take the road to Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or why take the road to Assyria to drink the waters of the River? Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and the fear of Me is not in you,” says the Lord GOD of hosts…. “Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” Indeed we do come to You, for You are the LORD our God. Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitudes of mountains; truly, in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

In Christ Jesus, who would give us life, dear fellow redeemed:

The apostle Paul wrote the Romans, “Whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (15:4). The Scriptures, in other words, are intended by God to teach us things, and to do so in a way that will bring us blessing. It is, therefore, important for us as we read the Scriptures to pray that the Spirit will open our hearts to His instruction. If our hearts are open to hear and our minds ready to understand and apply God’s truths, then we will indeed be blessed.

This morning we turn our attention to a portion of the Scriptures written by the prophet Jeremiah. It is certainly not a portion of his book of prophecy that is well-known or in any way familiar to most of us. Yet, it speaks to issues, which may well and probably do have direct application to each of our lives, for it addresses the nature of rebellion and the importance of repentance. Let us, therefore, listen carefully and LEARN THESE LIFE LESSONS WELL! Let us learn that the inevitable result of rebellion is God’s judgment, while the inevitable result of repentance is God’s salvation!

I.

Before we go further, let me share with you some background information. Jeremiah was born in a little village just three miles from Jerusalem some time during the seventh century before Christ. He was the son of a priest and so a descendant of Aaron, Moses’ brother. He had a long ministry—well over forty years--both as a priest and a spokesman or prophet of God. He has been called by some Bible scholars the “weeping” prophet, because of the great compassion that he had for God’s people and the emotional turmoil he suffered as he witnessed most of them rushing towards destruction in their unrelenting rebellion against God. Jeremiah lived during a period of apostasy, when Israel worshipped the idol gods of their neighbors rather than the LORD God of their fathers, and when they during times of trial turned not to the LORD their God, but to their powerful political neighbors—Egypt or Assyria. After Babylonia, however, defeated both the Assyrians and the Egyptians, the LORD used the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar to bring judgment upon His people—Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple were destroyed and vast numbers of His people were taken into captivity. Jeremiah, who was permitted to remain in Judea after Jerusalem’s destruction, was ultimately forced by his own countrymen to go to Egypt, where he was finally martyred for his faith and in view of the truths of God he could not but proclaim.

Listen, then, to Jeremiah as he teaches this LIFE LESSON that the inevitable result of rebellion is God’s judgment! Jeremiah told God’s rebellious people, “Have you not brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God when He led you in the way? And now why take the road to Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or why take the road to Assyria to drink the waters of the River? Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and the fear of Me is not in you,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.

Old Testament Israel had enjoyed its last bit of political freedom during the reign of King Josiah, when Jeremiah was still a young man. Josiah had been the last faithful king, but his faithfulness was not shared by his people, who—yes, during his reign had at least to a certain extent reformed themselves outwardly, but who had in reality given their minds and hearts to other gods. Consequently, the LORD had permitted Josiah to be killed in an ill-advised battle against the Egyptians, and Israel became subject to their political control. Instead of repenting of their sins and pleading with God for both temporal and eternal salvation, the people of Israel scattered—some taking “the road to Egypt” in an attempt to gain the favor of their conquerors, and others taking “the road to Assyria,” hoping to gain political and military support from Egypt’s rival. The future became very uncertain as various kings fell in and out of favor with the various occupying powers. People lost their livelihoods and their lives because of their “wickedness” and their spiritual “backsliding,” but no one seemed to understand that the problems they were facing were the result of their own unfaithfulness to the Lord. They were at fault and bringing upon themselves the very problems they were facing. They simply would not and did not correct themselves. They refused to “fear” the LORD. They continued on their rebellious path, which inevitably led to “an evil and bitter thing”—the loss of virtually everything when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed their city and entire way of life. Listen to Jeremiah’s description of what happened to the wicked and rebellious King Zedekiah: “The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death” (52:10-11). Now, that is an evil and bitter judgment!

My dear friends, as we listen to what happened to the people of Jeremiah’s day, we can yawn and simply view this as ancient history—dusty and inapplicable, but to do so would be to fail to learn the life lesson God would teach us. Do we find ourselves at times rebelling against God—His will and His ways? Let us realize that rebellion can take many shapes and forms and does not necessarily or always involve the visible or the violent. Do we find ourselves, for instance as Old Testament Israel, revealing certain outward signs of religiosity—going to church, attending a Bible study upon occasion, even sending our children to parochial school, but in reality giving our hearts to other gods? Are we bowing down before the god of career goals and success, or the god of financial independence, or the god of technological entertainment, or the god of alcoholic or drug abuse, or the god of sexual permissiveness or pornography? We, too, can be running along the road to Egypt or Assyria to satisfy our desires, but we just have other names! God permits problems to arise to chasten us—family troubles arise, because I have been ignoring my responsibilities, credit card bills don’t get paid because I am over-extended and failing in my stewardship of my God-given resources, my grades go down because I have been wasting my time—but I don’t get it! I do not change, because I have given my heart away and am living in ongoing and growing rebellion. My Lord pleads with me, but I refuse to listen…and to what end? The inevitable result of rebellion is God’s judgment! LET US LEARN THIS LIFE LESSON WELL!

II.

Let us learn, as well, a second and most important lesson—the inevitable result of repentance is God’s salvation! Jeremiah, while reminding the people of his day of God’s inevitable judgment upon rebellion, also pleaded with them to return to and rejoice in God’s grace, for therein they would find salvation! He pleaded with them, “‘Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.’ (The believing remnant among those children replied) Indeed we do come to You, for You are the LORD our God. Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitudes of mountains; truly, in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

Even though the vast majority of the people of Israel in Jeremiah’s day had forsaken the LORD and were living in rebellion, there were those whose hearts were touched by God’s Word and responded to the pleadings of His prophet. Some of their names have been recorded for us in the Scriptures. Among the more famous are Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, all of whom were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, but who by God’s grace remained faithful to their Lord and Savior. Others are lesser known and many remain unknown by name. There were princes—Enathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah—who risked their lives to advise in vain the unfaithful King Jehoiakim to listen to God (cf. Jer. 36:25). There was an Ethiopian slave named Ebed-Melech, who believed Jeremiah’s words and was moved to rescue him from an almost certain death in a prison cistern (cf. Jer. 38:7-13).

In each case, these individual believers were led by Spirit of God to repent of their sins and to confess that the LORD and the LORD alone was their God. Salvation, they realized, would not be found in the false gods who were worshiped on the various hills and mountains of Israel. No, the LORD was the God who had promised them salvation through the Christ to come. It was the LORD who had promised Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3b). It was the LORD who had delivered them out of the bondage of Egypt, and who had brought them through the wilderness and given them the Promised Land. It was the LORD who had raised up the judges and given them kings such as David and Solomon. It was the LORD who had promised that the Christ would come both as a suffering Servant to deliver them from their sins (cf. Is. 53) and an everlasting King to bring them eternal glory and blessing (cf. Is. 9:6-7). It was the LORD who invited them to enjoy the blessings of a salvation freely given, which alone could satisfy their thirsting souls (cf. Is. 55:1-2), and which would provide them with robes of righteousness leading to eternal joy (cf. Is. 61:10-11).

My dear friends, this second life lesson remains so very true and important today for each of us. God is at work in our lives, reaching out to our hearts and pleading with us to come—to return to Him with repentant hearts and so to find grace, mercy, and salvation in His hands. Repentance is a change of mind brought about by the work of the Spirit that leads to a new course of action directed by the Word. The solution for our sins and the certain hope of salvation can be found nowhere other than the gospel message of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. It cannot and will not be found in our personal resources or in anything the world may have to offer. That is why Jesus could say so definitively: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6). That is why when we are led by the Spirit to know Jesus and to rejoice in Him, we find true peace, true joy, and true confidence in life and in death.

May we LEARN THESE LIFE LESSONS WELL! On the one hand, the inevitable result of rebellion is God’s judgment—oh, that none of us ever experience that inevitability! On the other hand, the inevitable result of repentance is God’s salvation—may that always be our individual and collective experience! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting
Solely to the Glory of God!