Calvary
Chapel Bible College
September
9, 2020
Homework Review
If you haven’t noticed, I’m going to add a new way of tracking your
homework assignments. If all goes well
this week, I’ll be reformatting our homework assignments to follow this format.
They will look like a quiz or test.
I will ask how much you’ve read of your reading assignment.
I will ask you to type out your memory verse
I will ask you to share a prayer request.
Would anyone like to try reciting our memory verse for the week?
(Jeremiah
6:16 NKJV) Thus says the Lord: “Stand in
the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you
will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
Introduction
His name means “Yahweh appoints”
Jeremiah was the chief prophet during the days of the destruction of the
nation of Judah. There were other
prophets around at the time as well:
Daniel, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, but Jeremiah was the main
prophet. His ministry began about 60 years after the death of the prophet
Isaiah.
Jeremiah was born into a family of priests, but he would function more as a
prophet.
His ministry was destined from the beginning to be a ministry of
“failure”. The people were not going to
pay attention to him. The people were on
the way downhill and destined for judgment.
One of Jeremiah’s nicknames is the “weeping prophet”.
It’s possible this nickname comes from the book of Lamentations,
also written by Jeremiah.
Lamentations is Jeremiah’s weeping over the destruction of
Jerusalem.
It’s not a bad thing to keep in mind though as you read this book. We don’t often hear the “emotion” of the
writer as we read.
The prophecies are not in chronological order.
We know this because he dates many of his prophecies.
The order seems to be more topical than chronological.
Jeremiah 9
We are still in the middle of Jeremiah’s “Temple Address” (Jer. 7-10)
9:1-8 Sin and deceit
:1 Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain
of tears, That I might weep day and night For the
slain of the daughter of my people!
Jeremiah weeps for those who have or will die.
Sometimes we have this notion of the Old Testament prophets being harsh and
cruel. But Jeremiah is pained at what has happened to
his nation.
:2 Oh, that I had in the
wilderness— A lodging place for travelers; That I might leave my people, And go from them! For they are all
adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men.
Jeremiah wants to get away from the wickedness that is among the living. He
wishes he could go to a cabin out in the wilderness somewhere.
:3 “And like their
bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the
truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, And
they do not know Me,” says the Lord.
:3 they have bent their tongues for lies
An archer bends his bow to shoot his arrows. They bend their tongues to
shoot their lies at people.
:3 not valiant for the truth
valiant – gabar – to prevail, have strength, be strong,
be powerful, be mighty, be great
They didn’t take a stand for the truth.
Modern politics today
I hate to sound cynical, but it seems that it really doesn’t matter what is
good or best for our country, but what does your political party want you to
think?
If one political party takes a stand on an issue, the
other political party must take the opposite stand and come up with reasons to
oppose it, not because the idea is wrong, but because it’s what the other party
is standing for.
Addictions
Those familiar with twelve step programs will recognize this phrase: Rigorous Honesty.
The idea is this – until you make it your goal to be
completely honest about everything in your life, even the things you might be
ashamed about, you are going to be stuck in your addiction.
We need to be honest about our own failings.
We also need to be honest about God’s grace and
forgiveness.
The people of Jeremiah’s day had a problem.
They weren’t “valiant for the truth”.
:4 “Everyone take heed to
his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; For every
brother will utterly supplant, And every neighbor will
walk with slanderers.
People are afraid to trust one another.
:5 Everyone will deceive
his neighbor, And will not speak the truth; They have
taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves to commit iniquity.
They wear themselves out sinning.
:6 Your dwelling place is
in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to
know Me,” says the Lord.
:6 Through deceit they refuse to know Me
Lesson
Truth or lies
Truth is the key to knowing God and growing in Him.
(Ephesians 6:13–14
NKJV) —13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand
therefore, having girded your waist with truth…
The first part of our spiritual “armor” is the belt of truth.
Paul had in mind the Roman soldier’s armor.
The belt was what held everything together.
It’s what the other pieces of armor hung on.
It’s what was used to “gird up your loins”, to tie up your
tunic to help you run faster, to keep you from tripping on your own robes.
Jesus said that a key to knowing and worshipping God is truth.
(John 4:24 NKJV) God is
Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
We don’t worship a “make-believe” God. We worship a real
God.
We don’t worship a god who is made up of our own ideas. We
worship God as He has revealed Himself. We worship the God who is revealed in
the Scripture.
Truth is also the key to growing up. You’ll never grow up if you don’t
learn to live in reality.
(Ephesians 4:15
NKJV) but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things
into Him who is the head—Christ—
If you try and live your life in a fantasy world, you’re only hurting
yourself.
God wants us to face reality and live in reality.
:7 Therefore thus says
the Lord of hosts: “Behold, I
will refine them and try them; For how shall I deal with the daughter of My
people?
The idea is melting and refining them, of
purifying them.
:8 Their tongue is
an arrow shot out; It speaks deceit; One speaks peaceably to his
neighbor with his mouth, But in his heart
he lies in wait.
9:9-11 God will visit
:9 Shall I not punish
them for these things?” says the Lord.
“Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”
God would “visit” or punish the nation through the judgment of the coming
Babylonian war.
:10 I will take up a
weeping and wailing for the mountains, And for the
dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation, Because
they are burned up, So that no one can pass through;
Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens
and the beasts have fled; They are gone.
:11 “I will make
Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah
desolate, without an inhabitant.”
:11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins
jackals – tanniyn – dragon, serpent, sea monster
(Jeremiah
9:11 NLT) …“It will be a
place haunted by jackals.
This is what happened when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem. It would be
wiped out.
When we get to chapter 26, this prediction of Jerusalem’s doom will get
Jeremiah into trouble.
This phrase was first spoken by Micah:
(Micah 3:12 NKJV) Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem
shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest.
When Jeremiah was put on trial for stirring up trouble, some of the elders
remembered Micah’s prophecy:
(Jeremiah 26:17–18
NKJV) —17 Then certain of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the
assembly of the people, saying: 18 “Micah of Moresheth
prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people
of Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord
of hosts: “Zion shall
be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the
mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest.” ’
9:12-16 Why is destruction coming?
:12 Who is the
wise man who may understand this? And who is he
to whom the mouth of the Lord has
spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up
like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?
What’s the reason this is going to happen?
:13 And the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken
My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked
according to it,
:14 but they have walked
according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their
fathers taught them,”
:14 according to the dictates of their own hearts
Lesson
It is God’s game
(Key Word)
People like to make up their own ideas of what God is like and what it
takes to get to heaven.
It’s not what you think that counts, it’s what God thinks that counts.
We are a nation that likes to take polls. And it seems that we have this
notion that whatever the poll says must be the truth.
When an infamous criminal is about to be tried, a poll is taken to see
whether people think he is guilty.
But in reality, his actual guilt
doesn’t depend on what the poll says, it depends on whether
or not he committed the crime.
Who God is and what He’s going to require of you is not
determined by a poll. It’s determined by
God.
We seem to think that when it comes to understanding God, that we puny
little humans have the ability to tell God what He
ought to be like.
People will say, “Well how can a God of love send people to hell? Therefore I can’t believe that there is such a place like
hell, and God doesn’t send people there.”
God isn’t going to judge the earth by taking a poll first.
He is the Creator. He made us. He makes up the rules, not us.
So what’s the rules?
How does a person get into heaven?
You must be perfect, without sin.
And yet there’s a problem, none of us are perfect. We are all sinners.
This is why Jesus came, to be the perfect sacrifice and
pay for our sins.
God’s new rule is – Let the Son pay for your sins. Believe in Jesus.
:15 therefore thus says
the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel: “Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them
water of gall to drink.
wormwood … gall – bitter things. They would go through bitter times
with the Babylonian captivity
:16 I will scatter them
also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I
will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”
9:17-22 Get ready to wail
:17 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider and call for
the mourning women, That they may come; And send for
skillful wailing women, That they may come.
:18 Let them make haste And take up a wailing for us, That
our eyes may run with tears, And our eyelids gush with water.
:17 the mourning women
It was a custom to hire people who were good at making a lot of noise at a
funeral. The more noise the more the person was loved.
You see this in the New Testament.
These are “professional” mourners.
I imagine they must have sung some of those “country” tunes, those sad ones
…
:19 For a voice of
wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are plundered! We
are greatly ashamed, Because we have forsaken the
land, Because we have been cast out of our dwellings.’ ”
:20 Yet hear the word of
the Lord, O women, And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; Teach your
daughters wailing, And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.
These professional “mourners” were to teach a new song to their daughters …
:21 For death has come
through our windows, Has entered our palaces, To kill off the children—no longer to be outside! And
the young men—no longer on the streets!
They were to mourn over the death that would cover the city when the
Babylonians would invade.
:22 Speak, “Thus says the
Lord: ‘Even the carcasses of men
shall fall as refuse on the open field, Like cuttings
after the harvester, And no one shall gather them.’ ”
:22 cuttings after the harvester
There would be dead bodies everywhere
9:23-24 Glory in knowing God
:23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man
glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory
in his riches;
:23 Let not the wise man glory in …
To glory is to boast in something.
Illustration
A group of chess enthusiasts had checked into a hotel and were standing in
the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour,
the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why?” they
asked, as they moved off. “Because,” he said, “I can’t
stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”
The things you “boast” about are the things you count on.
Things not to boast about:
Wisdom, strength, wealth
These are the kinds of things we have come to count on.
True of False Quiz
If I could just be a little smarter, I would be able to
solve all my problems (False)
If I could be just a little stronger, I could handle my
problems better (False)
If I had just a little more money, everything would be
okay (False)
:24 But let him who
glories glory in this, That he understands and knows
Me, That I am the Lord,
exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in
these I delight,” says the Lord.
:24 That he understands and knows Me
Lesson
Bottom Line
There’s only one thing that’s going to count – do you know God?
Jeremiah will insert this concept into the “New Covenant” (coming in
chapter 31)
When we know God, we find ourselves “in Christ”.
Paul wrote,
(2 Corinthians
5:16–17 NKJV) —16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no
one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the
flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new.
The real issue is … do you know Christ? Does He know you?
Your wealth, race, intelligence, strength, don’t matter.
Only knowing Jesus.
Jesus said,
(Matthew 7:21–23
NKJV) —21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in
Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I
never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
The key to getting to heaven is whether or not you
know God and He knows you.
We come to know God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
(John 14:6 NKJV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me.
We come to know God by turning from our sin and opening our heart to Jesus.
(John 1:12 NKJV) But as many as received Him, to them
He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
If you really know God, you will start to care about the things that God
cares about: Lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness
9:25-26 Circumcised and uncircumcised punished
:25 “Behold, the days are
coming,” says the Lord, “that I
will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised—
:26 Egypt, Judah, Edom,
the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who
dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised,
and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”
The Jews had no problem understanding that God would one day punish the
uncircumcised. But God is now saying
that the day would come when He would punish the circumcised as well, if their
hearts were not circumcised.
Egypt, Edom, Ammon, etc. were nations that practices circumcision
outwardly. But their hearts were not
right.
God isn’t impressed by our outward rituals.
He’s looking for hearts that are right.
Jeremiah 10
10:1-16 True God vs. Dumb idols
:1 Hear the word which
the Lord speaks to you, O house
of Israel.
:2 Thus says the Lord: “Do not learn the way of the
Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are
dismayed at them.
:2 the signs of heaven
Lesson
Signs
Some signs are helpful to read:
Illustration
Vets office: “All unattended children given free
kitten.”
Plumber: “We repair what your husband fixed.”
At a tire shop in Milwaukee: “Invite us to your next blowout.”
Door of a plastic surgeon’s office: “Hello, can we pick your nose?”
At a Towing Company: “We don’t charge an arm and a leg. We want tows.”
On Maternity Room Door: “Push, Push, Push.”
The signs Jeremiah is talking about are signs we shouldn’t look for.
We’re not talking about the “signs of the times” as Jesus
spoke of in Matthew 24. These are things
He told us to look for.
Jeremiah is talking about are other kinds of “signs”.
(Jeremiah
10:2 NLT) This is what the Lord says: “Do not act like the other nations, who try to read
their future in the stars. Do not be afraid of their predictions, even
though other nations are terrified by them.
There’s a danger of looking for “signs” around you. Yes, God can speak to you through signs, but
the dangerous thing is that signs can be interpreted many
different ways.
I’m talking about the kinds of “signs” the world looks to
Many people still follow astrology (which this passage hints at)
Years ago I had a fellow tell me that God had been
speaking to him in “signs”. He saw an
advertising sign for “Bugle Boy” clothes and interpreted as “Be-Ugly”, and that
God didn’t want him to take care of himself.
God speaks much clearer through His Word.
:3 For the customs of the
peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the
workman, with the ax.
He’s talking about how people make their little “idols”.
:4 They decorate it with
silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not
topple.
:5 They are
upright, like a palm tree, And they cannot speak; They
must be carried, Because they cannot go by
themselves. Do not be afraid of them, For they
cannot do evil, Nor can they do any good.”
There’s nothing to these little “gods”.
:6 Inasmuch as there
is none like You, O Lord (You
are great, and Your name is great in might),
:7 Who would not fear
You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due. For among all the
wise men of the nations, And in all their
kingdoms, There is none like You.
There is no other God like ours.
:8 But they are
altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless
doctrine.
dull-hearted – ba‘ar – to be stupid,
brutish, barbarous; dull-hearted, unreceptive
:9 Silver is beaten into
plates; It is brought from Tarshish, And gold from
Uphaz, The work of the craftsman And
of the hands of the metalsmith; Blue and purple are their clothing; They
are all the work of skillful men.
:10 But the Lord is the true God; He is
the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble,
And the nations will not be able to endure His indignation.
:11 Thus you shall say to
them: “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from
the earth and from under these heavens.”
Note: This is the only verse in Jeremiah written in Aramaic.
Aramaic was a language similar to Hebrew.
Quite a bit of the book of Daniel is in Aramaic.
Aramaic was the language of the merchants, the “trade” language. It was the language of many people who
worshipped these idols.
God wants Jeremiah to speak this warning to them in their own language.
:12 He has made the earth
by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And
has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.
:13 When He utters His
voice, There is a multitude of waters in
the heavens: “And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He
makes lightning for the rain, He brings the wind out
of His treasuries.”
Interesting word pictures here.
Our God is powerful.
:14 Everyone is
dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image;
For his molded image is falsehood, And there
is no breath in them.
:15 They are
futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment
they shall perish.
:16 The Portion of Jacob is
not like them, For He is the Maker of all things, And Israel is
the tribe of His inheritance; The Lord
of hosts is His name.
10:17-22 Get ready to move
:17 Gather up your wares
from the land, O inhabitant of the fortress!
The people were to pack their bags and get ready to move out of Jerusalem.
:18 For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will throw out at this
time The inhabitants of the land, And will distress
them, That they may find it so.”
:19 Woe is me for my
hurt! My wound is severe. But I say, “Truly this is an infirmity, And I
must bear it.”
It’s possible that Jeremiah is speaking of the anguish the people will be
feeling when the Babylonians come.
:20 My tent is plundered,
And all my cords are broken; My children have gone
from me, And they are no more. There is
no one to pitch my tent anymore, Or set up my
curtains.
:21 For the shepherds
have become dull-hearted, And have not sought the Lord; Therefore
they shall not prosper, And all their flocks shall be
scattered.
shepherds – the leaders of the nation.
The nation’s leaders aren’t seeking God.
brutish – ba‘ar – to be stupid, brutish, barbarous;
dull-hearted, unreceptive
Lesson
Great leaders seek God
These leaders wouldn’t prosper because they weren’t asking God for
directions.
God says,
(Jeremiah
33:3 NKJV) ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you
great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
God is the one who gives “vision”
(Proverbs
29:18 NKJV) Where there is no revelation, the people
cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.
(Prov 29:18 ICB) Where there is no word from God,
people are uncontrolled. But those who obey what they have been taught are
happy.
Those of us who find ourselves in positions of leadership – we aren’t
supposed to have all the answers – God has all the answers.
:22 Behold, the noise of
the report has come, And a great commotion out of the
north country, To make the cities of Judah desolate, a
den of jackals.
The report of Babylon coming.
10:23-25 Jeremiah’s prayer for correction
:23 O Lord, I know the way of man is
not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
:24 O Lord, correct me, but with justice; Not
in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.
:25 Pour out Your fury on
the Gentiles, who do not know You, And on the families
who do not call on Your name; For they have eaten up Jacob, Devoured
him and consumed him, And made his dwelling place
desolate.
:24 correct me, but with justice
I find it humorous how much we are like Jeremiah.
We want God to be gracious with us and not be angry with us.
But we want Him to be harsh on those around us.
Jeremiah 11
We now start is Jeremiah’s fourth message.
Some of Jeremiah’s prophecies can be dated from him actually
giving the year it was given.
Others are dated by the contents of what they talk about.
It has been suggested that this message dates back to
621 BC, six years after Jeremiah began his ministry.
It was then that the Temple renovations began under Josiah.
You can read the full account in 2Chronicles 34:14-33
The Temple had fallen into disrepair.
In a sense the Temple was “closed for business”.
Josiah was still young, but he decided he wanted to restore the Temple and
all that was done there.
The project started by cleaning out the Temple, and while doing that, they
discovered something –
(2 Chronicles 34:14 NKJV) …Hilkiah the priest found the Book
of the Law of the Lord given
by Moses.
When Josiah read the book, he tore his clothes in grief. He realized that the nation was in great
peril because of their disobedience to the laws of God.
Josiah wondered if the nation was to be wiped out, and a
prophetess named Huldah said that the judgment would come, but it would come
after Josiah was gone.
What resulted was a sort of “forced” revival.
(2 Chronicles 34:33 NKJV) Thus Josiah removed all the
abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel
diligently serve the Lord their
God. All his days they did not depart from following the Lord God of their fathers.
This is the danger that happens when the leaders see a
need to reform, but the people don’t.
This seems to be the context of our passage.
11:1-17 Violating the Covenant
:1 The word that came to
Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
:2 “Hear the words of
this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Jeremiah was to pay attention to the covenant that Josiah had read (The
Torah), and he was to remind the people of their obligation to keep it.
:3 and say to them, ‘Thus
says the Lord God of Israel:
“Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant
:4 which I commanded your
fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron
furnace, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,’
The ideas come right out of the Law, from Deuteronomy 4:20
(Deuteronomy 4:20
NKJV) —20 But the Lord has
taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His
people, an inheritance, as you are this day.
:5 that I may establish
the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them ‘a land flowing with
milk and honey,’ as it is this day.” ’ ”
And I answered and said, “So be it, Lord.”
:6 Then the Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these
words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: ‘Hear the
words of this covenant and do them.
:7 For I earnestly
exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt,
until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, “Obey My voice.”
:8 Yet they did not obey
or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this
covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not
done.’ ”
God would keep His part of the agreement.
Israel has disobeyed and God would punish.
:9 And the Lord said to me, “A conspiracy has been
found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The conspiracy is about disobeying what God has told them to do.
:10 They have turned back
to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear My words, and they
have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of
Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.”
Even though the reign of Josiah was a time of reform, it was an outward
reform. Inside the people’s hearts was a
continual rebellion against God.
:11 Therefore thus says
the Lord: “Behold, I will surely
bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they
cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.
:11 I will surely bring calamity on them
Lesson
Inescapable Judgment
This was exactly what the prophetess had told Josiah.
The nation was not going to be able to escape what was coming.
There’s a famous poem published in 1893 about being chased by the judgment
of God.
The picture is of being chased by a huge hound that you
can’t escape from. But it’s not a hound chasing you, it’s God.
Listen to Richard Burton read the first few lines…
Play audio.
Illustration
“The Hound of Heaven” by Francis
Thompson
I
fled down the nights and down the days,
I
fled him down the arches of the years.
I
fled him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind.
And
in the midst of tears I hid
from him,
And
under running laughter.
Up
the visited hopes I sped and shot
Precipitated
down titanic glooms of chasm fears
From
those strong feet that followed
Followed after.
But
with hurrying chase and unperturbed pace
Deliberate
speed
Majestic
instancy
They
beat.
And
a voice beat more instant
than the feet.
“All
things betray thee,
Who
betrayest me.”
It’s a terrifying thing to think about facing God’s judgment.
(Hebrews 10:31
NKJV) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
And we will all face God’s judgment:
(Hebrews
9:27 NKJV) And as it is appointed for men to die once, but
after this the judgment,
But you don’t have to be condemned:
(John 3:17–18 NKJV)
—17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not
condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
:12 Then the cities of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom
they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their
trouble.
:13 For according to
the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the
number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up
altars to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.
:14 “So do not pray for
this people, or lift up a cry
or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry
out to Me because of their trouble.
:14 do not pray for this people
This is now the second time out of three that God has told Jeremiah not to
pray for the people. The other two times are:
(Jeremiah
7:16 NKJV) “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to
Me; for I will not hear you.
(Jeremiah
14:11 NKJV) Then the Lord
said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good.
Lesson
Sometimes God doesn’t say “yes”
We have this notion that if we pray for anything enough, that God is going
to do it. Not so.
There are some things that God is simply not going to do in response to our
prayers.
Why? Because He is God. He can do what He wants.
Paul quotes a conversation between God and Moses and writes,
(Romans 9:15 NKJV) For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
Our prayers do affect what God does.
But ultimately it is God who decides what to do and when.
Here – Jeremiah is told not to even pray for the people and for God’s
mercy, because they have simply gone too far.
:15 “What has My beloved
to do in My house, Having done lewd deeds with many?
And the holy flesh has passed from you. When you do evil, then you rejoice.
(Jeremiah
11:15 NLT) “What right do my beloved people have to come to
my Temple, when they have done so many immoral things? Can their vows and
sacrifices prevent their destruction? They actually rejoice
in doing evil!
:16 The Lord called your name, Green Olive
Tree, Lovely and of Good Fruit. With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it, And
its branches are broken.
:17 “For the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has
pronounced doom against you for the evil of the house of Israel and of the
house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke Me to anger
in offering incense to Baal.”
:16 Green Olive Tree, Lovely and of Good Fruit
Even though God had great love for His people, their continual rebellion
was leading them down a path towards destruction.
When you work with folks struggling with addictions, you have
to be aware of the line called “enabling”.
Yes, we need compassion and patience, but we need to love them enough to
step back and stop rescuing them.
Some people need to experience the consequence of their sin before they
turn around.
11:18-23 Plot against Jeremiah
:18 Now the Lord gave me knowledge of it,
and I know it; for You showed me their doings.
:19 But I was like
a docile lamb brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had
devised schemes against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its
fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be
remembered no more.”
The people responded to the things Jeremiah had said by plotting to kill
him.
:20 But, O Lord of hosts, You
who judge righteously, Testing the mind and the heart, Let
me see Your vengeance on them, For to You I have revealed my cause.
Jeremiah asks God to take care of those plotting against him.
:21 “Therefore thus says
the Lord concerning the men of
Anathoth who seek your life, saying, ‘Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, lest you die by our hand’—
Anathoth was Jeremiah’s own hometown.
His own town was behind the plot on his life.
:22 therefore thus says
the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I
will punish them. The young men shall die by the
sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine;
:23 and there shall be no
remnant of them, for I will bring catastrophe on the men of Anathoth, even
the year of their punishment.’ ”
:19 let us cut him off
God promises that Anathoth would be destroyed because of their opposition
to Jeremiah.
Lesson
Opposition
When you are young in ministry, you can fool yourself into thinking that
everyone is as excited about you serving the Lord as you are.
Yet opposition will come.
And like Jeremiah, it may come from the people closest to you.
Jesus said,
(Matthew
5:11–12 NKJV) —11 “Blessed are you when they revile
and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against
you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for
great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who
were before you.
Jeremiah is one of those prophets.
Jeremiah 12
12:1-4 Questioning God’s justice
:1 Righteous are
You, O Lord, when I plead with
You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of
the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?
:1 Why does the way of
the wicked prosper?
Lesson
Life is not fair
As Jeremiah is talking with God about these people that are plotting
against him, he gets to wondering why God allows wicked people to prosper.
When you go through tough times, it’s easy to complain
how unfair life seems.
Sometimes we get to thinking my life’s worse than
everyone else’s
Illustration
“The Cross Room”
A young man was at the end of his rope. Seeing no way out he dropped to his
knees in prayer. “Lord, I can’t go on,” he said. “I have too heavy a cross to
bear.” The Lord replied, “My son, if you can’t bear its weight, just place your
cross inside this room. Then open that other door and pick out any cross you wish.” The young man was filled with relief. “Thank you Lord,” he sighed, and he did what he was told. Upon
entering the other door, he saw many other crosses, some so large the tops
weren’t even visible. Then he spotted a tiny cross leaning against the far
wall. “I’d like that one Lord,” he whispered. And the Lord replied, “My son,
that is the cross you just brought in.”
:2 You have planted them,
yes, they have taken root; They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near
in their mouth But far from their mind.
They talk about God, but God has very little influence on their hearts.
:3 But You, O Lord, know me; You have seen me, And
You have tested my heart toward You. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, And prepare them for the day of slaughter.
:4 How long will the land
mourn, And the herbs of every field wither? The beasts and birds are consumed,
For the wickedness of those who dwell there, Because
they said, “He will not see our final end.”
Even the land itself was upset at the spiritual condition of things. There had apparently been a drought.
Yet the wicked people still had this notion that God didn’t mind that they
did evil.
12:5-6 God’s answer to complaint
:5 “If you have run with
the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can
you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In
which you trusted, they wearied you, Then
how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?
:6 For even your
brothers, the house of your father, Even they have
dealt treacherously with you; Yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do
not believe them, Even though they speak smooth words
to you.
:5 how can you contend with horses?
God was telling Jeremiah, “If you think you’ve got it tough now Jeremiah,
you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
To make things worse, even Jeremiah’s own family was against him. His family was part of the conspiracy in
Anathoth.
Lesson
Endurance
(Key Word)
Having been a believer for 50 years, and in ministry for over forty, I look
at things a little differently than I did in those early years.
The things I used to freak out about don’t look so ferocious anymore.
Jeremiah is hearing about the plots against him, but things are going to
get much harder for Jeremiah.
God knows your limits. He promises
not to give you more than you can handle.
(1
Corinthians 10:13 NLT) The temptations in your life are no
different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow
the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will
show you a way out so that you can endure.
If God thinks you can handle it, then you can. God has a race for us to run. We need to run it to the finish.
(Hebrews 12:1–2
NLT) —1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of
witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us
down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with
endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this
by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our
faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its
shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.
Sometimes things get tough, and we simply want to quit.
We need to keep going.
Eric Liddel would one day impact China on the mission field, but before
that he was known as a great runner.
He knew how to get up after a fall.
Video: Chariots of Fire – Get up
lad
Illustration
“In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According
to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter,
photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter’s
magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a
bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and
they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach
its target.
“But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past
the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10
at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion
miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it
hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost
four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was
more than six billion miles from the sun.
“And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio
signals to scientists on Earth. ‘Perhaps most remarkable,’ writes Jaroff, ‘those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter,
which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more
than nine hours to reach Earth.’
“The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did.
Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it
kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio
accomplished more than anyone thought possible.
“So it is when we offer ourselves to serve the
Lord. God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities. God cannot work,
however, through someone who quits.”
-- Leadership, Vol.
19, no. 1.
Illustration
Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is
not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man
stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs
to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat
and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who
knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a
worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring
greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
know neither victory nor defeat.”
12:7-13 Judgment continued …
God now goes on to continue the judgment pronounced on Judah, which had
been interrupted with the discovery of the plot against Jeremiah (11:18 - 12:6)
:7 “I have forsaken My house, I have left My heritage; I have given the dearly
beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies.
:8 My heritage is to Me
like a lion in the forest; It cries out against Me; Therefore
I have hated it.
:9 My heritage is
to Me like a speckled vulture; The vultures all around are
against her. Come, assemble all the beasts of the field, Bring
them to devour!
Pretty bleak picture Jeremiah is painting.
:10 “Many rulers have
destroyed My vineyard, They have trodden My portion
underfoot; They have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
:10 Many rulers have destroyed My vineyard
The word for “rulers” means to “shepherd”.
The picture is of shepherds bringing their flocks of sheep into a vineyard
(big no-no), and the sheep are trampling the vines.
:11 They have made it
desolate; Desolate, it mourns to Me; The whole land is made desolate, Because no one takes it to heart.
:12 The plunderers have
come On all the desolate heights in the wilderness,
For the sword of the Lord shall
devour From one end of the land to the other
end of the land; No flesh shall have peace.
:12 the sword of the Lord
The Babylonians are going to be God’s sword.
Early in the book of Judges, it was Israel that had been the “sword of the
LORD”.
When Gideon fought the Midianites, it was Gideon’s small band of 300
against 150,000 Midianites…
(Judges 7:20 NKJV) Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the
pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their
right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”
And yet now in Jeremiah’s day, it would be the Babylonians who are now the
“sword of the LORD”.
:13 They have sown wheat
but reaped thorns; They have put themselves to pain but do not profit. But be ashamed of your
harvest Because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”
Normally we say, “You reap what you sow”.
But these people, because of their wickedness, are going to reap nothing
but trouble.
12:14-17 Message to the neighbor nations
:14 Thus says the Lord: “Against all My evil neighbors
who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to
inherit—behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house of
Judah from among them.
As Judah would be judged by the coming Babylonian invasion, the nations
that surround Judah would be looking at the land and trying to figure out a way
to get it for their own.
God would be plucking them up just like He’s going to pluck up Judah.
:15 Then it shall be,
after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and
everyone to his land.
Each of these nations would also be restored to their land.
:16 And it shall be, if
they will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ as they taught My people
to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst
of My people.
:17 But if they do not
obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation,” says the Lord.
:16 As the Lord lives
When you see the word “Lord”
with all capital letters, it means that the English translators are telling you
that in the Hebrew, this is literally God’s name, Yahweh.
Our English translators follow the same rule that the Jews adopted after
the Babylonian captivity.
They felt they were too unworthy to ever speak God’s name, so whenever they
saw the letters of God’s name, YHWH (Yahweh), they would say the Hebrew word Adonai,
which means “Lord”.
Originally, Hebrew was written with just the consonant letters. Eventually, because scribes worried that
people would forget how to pronounce the words, they added vowel markings above
and below the letters (vowel pointings).
When it came to God’s name, instead of supplying the correct vowels to say
God’s name, the scribes added the vowels from the word Adonai.
Combine the vowels of Adonai (us-ooh-ah) and the
consonants of Yahweh (YHWH), you get something that sounds like yuh-ho-wah.
Every first year Hebrew student gets caught the first time
he’s asked to read in class and he comes across this – pronouncing it “yuh-ho-wah”
The German scholars would spell it Jehovah,
but pronounce it “yuh-ho-wah”.
I’m not sharing this so you can stump your Jehovah Witness friends, or correct the great hymns (“Guide me oh though
great Jehovah”).
I share this to help you understand the correct view of God’s name, and the
use of all capital letters (only in the Old Testament) for LORD.
God promises to bless the nations that will turn to follow
after the LORD.
Some suggest this is a promise for the coming Millennial Kingdom.
Jeremiah 13
13:1-11 Dirty Sash
This is a new section, a new message.
Jeremiah is now going to perform an action to teach a lesson. It was a sort of “visual teaching”.
The prophets were often asked by God to do certain things in order to get a message across.
Isaiah went naked (Is. 20) for three years to show the people that the
northern kingdom would be carried off naked to serve the Assyrians. I’m glad I’m not Isaiah.
Ezekiel did all sorts of strange things.
He lay on his side for a year; he made a pretty gross kind of bread
cooked over manure; he even was not supposed to mourn when his wife died.
All these things were to teach lessons.
:1 Thus the Lord said to me: “Go and get yourself a
linen sash, and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.”
sash – ‘ezowr
– loincloth; waistband; some translations have “belt”
:2 So I got a sash
according to the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist.
:3 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time,
saying,
:4 “Take the sash that
you acquired, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the
Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole in the rock.”
A trip from Jerusalem to the nearest part of the Euphrates River would not
be an overnight journey. It would be
closer to 700 miles round trip.
Euphrates – P@rath – “fruitfulness”; the largest and
longest river of western Asia; rises from two chief sources in the Armenian
mountains and flows into the Persian Gulf, the Euphrates is a 700 mile round
trip; some have translated this as “to Parah”, which is a place on the Jordan
River only three miles from the city of Anathoth. Some have suggested
that Jeremiah went to Parah, but it was to be a symbol of the Euphrates, where
the Babylonians would be coming from.
The Euphrates River is the River that runs through Babylon.
:5 So I went and hid it
by the Euphrates, as the Lord
commanded me.
:6 Now it came to pass
after many days that the Lord
said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the sash which I
commanded you to hide there.”
:7 Then I went to the
Euphrates and dug, and I took the sash from the place where I had hidden it;
and there was the sash, ruined. It was profitable for nothing.
The belt was ruined.
:8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Now comes the lesson.
:9 “Thus says the Lord: ‘In this manner I will ruin the
pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
:10 This evil people, who
refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk
after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash
which is profitable for nothing.
:11 For as the sash
clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and
the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,’ says the Lord, ‘that they may become My people, for renown, for
praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’
:9 I will ruin the pride
God created Israel to be a nation that was “close” (clings to the waist) to
Him, but they refused.
God would be humbling the land of Judah by taking it off to Babylon where
it would be “ruined”.
Lesson
Humble yourself
Sometimes our own pride gets in the way of our relationship with the Lord.
Jesus taught:
(Luke 18:10–14
NKJV) —10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the
other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus
with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice
a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax
collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to
heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who
humbles himself will be exalted.”
We can have a good thing going in our life and we get all caught up in how great we are.
We are faced with a choice, are we going to humble ourselves before the
Lord so He can use us again, or is He going to have to humble us?
What can I do to learn humility?
Learn to be a servant like Jesus.
He emptied Himself for us (Phil. 2), becoming a servant.
At the Last Supper we see a picture where He took off His
outer robes and served the disciples as a slave would, washing their feet.
13:12-14 Bottles
:12 “Therefore you shall
speak to them this word: ‘Thus says the Lord
God of Israel: “Every bottle shall be filled with wine.” ’
“And they will say to you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every bottle will be
filled with wine?’
Jeremiah’s listeners would think, “Of course God is going to bless us with
lots of wine!”
:13 “Then you shall say
to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land—even the kings who sit on
David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem—with drunkenness!
:14 And I will dash them
one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says the Lord. “I will not pity nor spare nor
have mercy, but will destroy them.” ’ ”
God would make them so confused, they would be like drunken people. They would not be able to stand up and keep
the judgment from coming.
13:15-21 Coming judgment
:15 Hear and give ear: Do
not be proud, For the Lord has
spoken.
:16 Give glory to the Lord your God Before He causes
darkness, And before your feet stumble On the dark mountains, And while
you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death And makes it dense darkness.
:17 But if you will not hear it, My soul will weep
in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly And
run down with tears, Because the Lord’s
flock has been taken captive.
:17 My soul will weep in secret for your pride
Lesson
Compassion for the lost
Jeremiah’s heart is broken for the people that won’t wake up and turn
around.
They don’t seem to care for others who will be swept up in the coming
judgment.
Illustration
Richard Baxter wrote a book called The
Reformed Pastor. He wrote in 1656
and he said this: I
marvel how I can preach slightly and coldly.
How I can let men alone in their sins and that I do not go to them and
beseech them for the Lord’s sake to repent; however
they take it and whatever pains or troubles it should cost me.
I seldom come out of the pulpit but my conscience
smites me that I have been no more serious and fervent than I have. It accuses me not so much for
want of human ornaments or elegance, not for letting fall an uncomely word, but it asks me:
How could you speak of life and death with such a heart?
Shouldst thou not weep over such a people and should not thy tears interrupt thy words?
Should not thou cry aloud and show them their transgressions and entreat
and beseech them as for life and death.
How do you feel about people who don’t know the Lord?
How do you feel about people who just tick you off?
:18 Say to the king and
to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves; Sit down, For
your rule shall collapse, the crown of your glory.”
:18 the king and to the queen mother
This is probably king Jehoiachin (also known as
Jeconiah).
His mother (“queen mother”) was Nehushta, the widow of Jehoiakim (cf. 29:2; 2 Kings 24:8, 12, 15).
This would place this message around 597 BC.
Jeconiah only reigned for three months before being taken captive along
with his mother to Babylon.
:19 The cities of the
South shall be shut up, And no one shall open them;
Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it; It shall be wholly carried away
captive.
The majority of Judah would be taken to Babylon in 586 BC.
:20 Lift up your eyes and
see Those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was
given to you, Your beautiful sheep?
:21 What will you say
when He punishes you? For you have taught them To
be chieftains, to be head over you. Will not pangs seize you, Like a woman
in labor?
13:22-27 Unrepentant hearts
:22 And if you say in
your heart, “Why have these things come upon me?” For the greatness of your
iniquity Your skirts have been uncovered, Your heels
made bare.
:23 Can the Ethiopian
change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who
are accustomed to do evil.
:23 or the leopard its
spots
Lesson
Habitual sin
The nation had gone so far into sin that they couldn’t change.
Illustration
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
-- John Dryden
I think it’s possible for a person to go so far from God that they can’t
come back.
I think there’s a line that if a person crosses it, they’re not going to
turn around.
How do I know when I’ve gone too far?
If you’re here, I doubt that you’ve crossed it.
It’s when you don’t care anymore. If
you still care, you can change.
And if you still care, then you can change.
It may not come easy, but you can change.
:24 “Therefore I will
scatter them like stubble That passes away by the wind of the wilderness.
:25 This is your lot, The
portion of your measures from Me,” says the Lord,
“Because you have forgotten Me And trusted in falsehood.
:25 trusted in
falsehood
Lesson
False trust
The people of Judah had all sorts of things that they counted on, but just
not God.
They were counting on the wrong things.
What are you counting on?
Some count on things that are obviously a problem: Drugs, alcohol, sex, etc
– things to take their mind off the problem.
Others trust in “good” things, but things that will
sometimes fail you.
Your job? Your bank
account? Your spouse? Your sobriety?
Your good works?
Even those are not worth trusting with your eternity
Illustration
A United Press release in a midwestern city told of a hospital where
officials discovered that the firefighting equipment had never been
connected. For 35 years it had been
relied upon for the safety of the patients in case of emergency. But it had never been attached to the city’s
water main. The pipe that led from the
building extended 4 feet underground—and there it stopped! The medical staff and the patients had felt complete confidence in the system. They thought
that if a blaze broke out, they could depend on a nearby hose to extinguish it.
But theirs was a false security. Although the costly equipment with its
polished valves and well-placed outlets was adequate for the building, it
lacked the most important thing—water!
The one thing that is going to take you securely through life is your faith
in Jesus.
:26 Therefore I will
uncover your skirts over your face, That your shame
may appear.
:27 I have seen your
adulteries And your lustful neighings,
The lewdness of your harlotry, Your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean?”
:27 I have seen your adulteries
Passages like this can leave us down and depressed.
Illustration
Martin Luther once was so depressed over a prolonged period that one day
his wife came downstairs wearing all black.
Martin Luther said, “Who died?”
She said, “God has.”
He said, “God hasn’t died.”
And she said, “Well, live like it and act like it.”
-- Robert Russell, "Releasing
Resentment," Preaching Today, Tape No. 136.
He is alive (“As the Lord lives!”).
We have a reason to look up.
If you’ve been going in the wrong direction in your life, it’s real simple. Turn
around. It may take some work. It may take some help of
friends. But turn around.
Draw near to God.
God cares about you. He wants the
best for you.
Homework
Read Jer. 1-13 in NLT (each week a different version).
Memorize
(Jeremiah
8:11 NKJV) For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of
My people slightly, Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.
Today’s ending quiz
What were the two key words from our lesson? (New Growth, Cheap Grace)
What could you apply to your life from today’s lesson?