Through the Bible - Jeremiah

Lord, we do ask that You would come and that You would meet us here now and that You would speak to us, that You would teach us. Jesus, You promised that You would send the Spirit of Truth that would guide us in all truth and would teach us all things. And Lord, there is no doubt that we need Your help when it comes to understanding Your Word. So we pray that You would give us understanding, that You would teach us as we look at our nation, which seems to be in a similar position as the nation of Israel, specifically the nation of Judah during the time of the prophet Isaiah. I ask that You would give us insight and understanding, Lord, and that You would help us to see spiritual applications from this book. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

The prophet Jeremiah, like the prophet Isaiah, had a long career. He had a long career speaking to a group of people who wouldn't listen to him, a group of people who largely wouldn't heed what he had to say. In fact, they wouldn't heed it at all. We looked at the book of Isaiah a couple of weeks ago and considered that the prophet Isaiah, after he received his call and commission from the Lord in Isaiah chapter 6, received from the Lord that there would be a remnant that would return. He had that hope that a group of people, after his preaching, would return to the truth of the Word of God and would follow the Lord.

The prophet Jeremiah didn't have that hope. In fact, throughout Jeremiah's ministry, nobody would listen to him. As he would plead with the people and cry out to them, many of them would mock him. He would be persecuted, and ultimately, he would watch as his countrymen were led away into captivity in Babylon. All this work that Jeremiah would do, he had to do it alone, completely alone. We read in Jeremiah chapter 16, verse 2, that the Lord spoke to him there and said, "You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters in this place." As you go on to read the 16th chapter of Jeremiah,

The reason why God tells him this is a pretty sad one. He wasn't to have a wife, and he wasn't to have sons or daughters because all of the sons and daughters of that nation were going to be either killed or taken into captivity. All the husbands and wives as well would either die from pestilence or famine, or they would be taken into captivity. The Lord says to him, "You’re not to take a wife." Throughout his entire ministry, which lasted some 40 years, he never had anybody by his side helping him. He never had that helpmate, and it was a pretty discouraging ministry for this prophet who spoke boldly before the people but cried out humbly before God.

You really do see the passion of this one we call the weeping prophet as he comes before God. Several times in the book, you see him crying out to the Lord, pleading that in some way the Lord would allow him to give up. In fact, there came a point in Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 9, where we read him actually give up. It says there, "Then I said, I will not make mention of him," speaking of the Lord, "nor will I speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." He wanted to give up. He was about to give up. He tried to, but the word of the Lord that God had placed in him burned like a fire. There was no way that he could keep back what God had spoken to him, and so he had to speak once again.

The people to whom Jeremiah prophesied were a wicked, stiff-necked, hard-hearted people. We have seen that constantly. We have been studying for the last several months through the Bible, and we have watched as the children of Israel, in the book of Judges, did what was right in their own eyes, but it was evil in the sight of the Lord. You see that in this book as well. These people, because they cast off God, did what was right in their own eyes and completely turned away from Him, completely rejecting Him. They turned their backs and not their faces to Him.

During the time of Jeremiah, it was almost as if they worked at sin, as if it were something they practiced. We see that in Jeremiah 9, verse 5. There we read in the last half of the verse that they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and they weary themselves to commit iniquity. These people taught their tongue to speak lies. They worked at sin.

They wearied themselves to commit iniquity. Considering that, we know from the book of Romans that Paul says the wages of sin is death. This sin that the people, even in our day, commit under the new covenant has wages associated with it. It is the compensation for their hard work, I guess you could say, at sinning. These people literally worked to sin.

Now, it wasn't just the people of Judah, the normal commoners in the nation; it was everybody, including the leaders. We find in Jeremiah 5:30 a very powerful passage in the book. There, God speaks and says, "A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land." This horrible and wonderful thing is what God sees going on in His nation, the people of Judah. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their own means. All the leadership of the religious circles of the nation were acting under their own strength. The prophets spoke false prophecies, and Jeremiah addresses the false prophets extensively in this book.

Additionally, the priests bear rule by their own means. Notice the reaction of the people: there was nobody in the nation standing up for righteousness because the people loved to have it so. Isn't that similar to what we see in our nation today? People seem to say, "Just give me my 401(k) and make sure that interest rates are good and that I'm making a lot of money." As long as that is the case, the people love to have it so. Righteousness is not something that is exalted, yet the Bible tells us that it is righteousness that exalts a nation.

This was the same sort of call that God was making to His people during the time of Jeremiah. He urged them to walk in the right way. In fact, He even goes on to say in Jeremiah 6:16, "Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths where the good way is, and walk therein." God calls out to His people, saying to stand in the path, see, and ask for the good path, the old path.

But notice the reaction of the people once again. God says, "If you walk therein, you shall find rest for your souls." But they replied, "We will not walk therein." In Jeremiah 10:21, God speaks again to the leaders of the nation religiously, saying, "For the pastors are become foolish. The shepherds have become foolish, and they have not sought the Lord. Therefore, they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered." This is not just speaking about...

Literal shepherds lead their sheep. Later on in the book, God says that He is going to bring a new covenant, and ultimately, He will place good shepherds over His people who will feed them and lead them. However, during this time, the pastors became foolish and brutish. The King James Version states that they did not fully follow after the Lord. Because of that, they were not going to prosper, and the people, the flocks, were going to be scattered.

How were they going to be scattered? Jeremiah speaks about the coming desolation and destruction that would come upon the people by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. All the while he speaks this, the false prophets of the nation are saying, "Oh, don't listen to Jeremiah. Everything's going to be fine. Peace, peace." But God's word was, "There is no peace."

It is amazing, because when you consider our world today, that is still what people are looking for, isn't it? They are calling for peace. We have peace treaties and envoys that go all over the world, especially to the Middle East today. What the world wants is simply to be brought peace. Especially as we have been steeped in and going through a long war over these last several years in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have seen the casualties of that war. People are at a point, especially in this election year, hoping that somehow, someone can bring a resolution to all this and bring peace.

The peace that we will find here in this life, in this world—the peace that maybe envoys from Washington will bring about or United Nations peace treaties—is never really a true peace, is it? We constantly have wars and rumors of wars. That has been the way things have been since our Lord ascended into heaven, and that is the way it will be until the Prince of Peace rules and reigns on this earth. We look forward to that and ask, "Come, Lord Jesus, come." This is what the scripture speaks about at the end of Revelation.

In the nation of Israel, especially the southern tribes, the northern tribes had already been exiled under King Sennacherib of the Assyrians and had disappeared. You would think that the people of the southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, might learn the lesson and see what happened to their brothers in the north, but they did not. They did not heed what God was saying. Instead, they turned their backs against Him. As a result, they too would go into the same sort of exile that their brothers experienced. Because of the complete and utter turning away from God and the backsliding of the nation of Judah, God's word—and therefore Jeremiah's message to the people—was clear.

The message was one of destruction and woe. It is a similar message that Isaiah brought. When you look at the first five chapters of the Book of Isaiah, he repeats this word of woe, indicating that certain destruction is coming because of sin. In chapter 6, when Isaiah sees the Lord, he cries out, "Woe is me, for I am undone." When we stand in the presence of the Lord and there is sin in our lives, we will be undone; we will be destroyed. That was the message that God was going to bring upon His people: destruction.

God says in Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 1, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight and let them go forth." God states that even if Moses, that great lawgiver and wonderful follower of God from the early books of the Bible, were to stand before Him and plead on behalf of the people, He would not heed. He would not stay His hand for the destruction that He was going to bring upon them. Not only Moses, but Samuel was another who stood on behalf of the people before the Lord. He was an intercessor.

It is interesting that in the Book of Isaiah, God says, "I sought for an intercessor, but I didn't find one." He looked for someone to stand in the gap, someone to pray for His people, but He found no one. However, in the Book of Jeremiah, several times God says, "Do not pray for this people. I will not hear your prayer." Even if there were an intercessor, like Samuel or Moses, to stand in the gap, God declares, "I will not change my mind toward this people. I am going to cast them out of my sight and let them go forth."

Why would God do such a thing to His people and His chosen land, the people who occupied that great city of Jerusalem, the city of peace, the city of the Most High God, the city where the temple was and where God's presence dwelled? I want to show you one of the key answers in Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 3. He says, "And I will appoint over them four kinds." God is going to speak about the four kinds of destruction, the four kinds of desolation He will bring.

"I will appoint for them four kinds," says the Lord: "the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy." God is saying, "This is what is going to happen to you. You are going to be slain, torn to pieces, devoured, and destroyed." Because, as verse 4 states, "I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah."

For that which he did in Jerusalem, it makes us recall what had happened under King Manasseh. You remember in the book of Isaiah, we saw just a couple of weeks ago that in Isaiah chapters 36 and 37, Hezekiah was the king of the nation. The Assyrian army had come into the land of Judah and destroyed many of the defense cities of Judah. They came all the way up to the walls of Jerusalem.

Hezekiah sent a few of his ambassadors out to speak with the commander of the Assyrian army. The commander, the Rabshakeh, said, "We're going to destroy you. You might as well give up." He gave a letter from King Sennacherib to King Hezekiah. Hezekiah took that letter, laid it out before the Lord, and cried out to Him, saying, "Lord, behold their threats. Have you not heard their blasphemy this day?" God told him through the prophet Isaiah, "I've heard the blasphemy, and I'm going to turn them back from the walls. I'm going to save you."

Well, it wasn't long after that that Hezekiah became sick. We saw that in, I believe, chapter 38 of Isaiah. Isaiah came to him and told him, "This sickness is going to lead to your death." Hezekiah turned to the Lord and cried out to Him, saying, "Lord, remember I've been a good king. I've followed You. Please give me more time." And God did. He gave him 15 years.

During that 15-year period, the last years of Hezekiah's life graciously given to him by God, he brought forth a son named Manasseh. When Hezekiah died, Manasseh became king at age 12, and he turned everything that his father had done for good away from the Lord. He set up worship to Molech and caused his children to pass through fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He promoted the worship of Baal in the city of Jerusalem, Asherah, and all these other different gods that the people began to bow down to.

As a result of the work of Manasseh, the most wicked king that the tribes of the south, Judah and Benjamin, had ever had during their time of following the Lord, we read in Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 4, "I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem."

So God is going to destroy His people. He will cause them to be slain within the city, whether by famine, pestilence, or by the sword. If they retreat, they will be taken into captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar because of their wickedness.

Because of their sin, because they had hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks, and turned their backs to the Lord, the word of destruction and woe continues in chapter 21. There we read, "The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent him to Pasher the son of Melkiah and Zephaniah the son of Masaiah the priest, saying, 'Inquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us. For Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, makes war against us. If so be that the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.'"

The hope of King Zedekiah at that point in time was that Nebuchadnezzar was coming against him, and perhaps the Lord would do unto Nebuchadnezzar what He did to Sennacherib. When Sennacherib surrounded the city of Jerusalem during the time of King Hezekiah, the Lord struck down 185,000 of his soldiers in one night by an angel. King Zedekiah hoped that a similar outcome would occur. He asked Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord and tell them what the Lord was going to do. Would He deal with them according to His wondrous works so that Nebuchadnezzar would leave, just like King Sennacherib?

Then Jeremiah said to them, "Thus shall you say to Zedekiah the king, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war.'" Perhaps when they heard that, they were excited because they thought the Lord might save them and turn Nebuchadnezzar away. However, Jeremiah continued, "Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith you fight against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. I myself will fight against you."

What a powerful word God was saying to these people! He declared, "I'm not going to help you; I'm going to destroy you. I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm," the same kind of words used when God brought the people out of the land of Egypt. Now He said He would bring that outstretched arm and strong arm against them, even in anger, fury, and great wrath.

"I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast, and they shall die of a great pestilence. Afterwards," saith the Lord, "I will deliver Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his servants and the people, and such as are left in the city from the pestilence, the sword, and the famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon." God stated that anyone who survived the pestilence and famine, anyone who made it through the difficulties that came upon the city, would be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar.

The king of Babylon will hand them over to their enemies and to those who seek their lives. He shall smite them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, neither have pity nor mercy. To this people, thou shalt say, thus saith the Lord: "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death." This is very similar to what God spoke through Moses to the children of Israel back in Deuteronomy chapter 30. There, Moses says, "I set before you this day life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life that you might live."

Notice how God speaks to His people through Jeremiah: "Behold, I have set before you the way of life and the way of death." He that abides in this city shall die by the sword. If you stay in the city of Jerusalem, you are going to die. If he doesn't die by the sword, he will die by famine or by pestilence. However, he that goes out and falls to the Chaldeans that besiege you shall live, and his life shall be a prey for him.

The only way for these people to maintain their lives was to become the slaves of Babylon, to go into captivity. If they stayed in the city, as some of the false prophets were telling them, they would die. They were saying, "Peace, peace. You're going to have peace if you just stick around." But that was not going to be the case. If they stayed in the city, they would die by the sword, by pestilence, or by famine. Yet, if they went out to King Nebuchadnezzar and surrendered to him, they would be able to live.

God speaks a very heavy word to this people, telling them that they are going to be destroyed because of their wickedness, because they have turned their backs. He goes on in verse 10, saying, "For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good, saith the Lord. It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire."

Regarding the house of the king of Judah, He says, "Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of David. Thus saith the Lord: Execute judgment in the morning and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doing."

God says to this people, especially to their king, who was sitting on the throne of David, that if they want things to change, they must change. They need to execute judgment, do what is right, and deliver those who are spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest His fury come upon them. The whole reason these things were going to come upon them is because of the evil they have committed.

Of your doings, behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley and rock of the plain, saith the Lord. Who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter into our habitation? The boastful and proud heart and mindset of the people, especially their king during that time under Jeremiah's prophecies, King Zedekiah, was one that said, "Well, who's going to come against us? No one's going to come and take over our habitation."

God responds in verse 14, saying, "But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the Lord, and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour the things round about it." God emphasizes that He will take these actions because they are the result of the wicked things the people have done.

Jeremiah does not just speak these things to Zedekiah's two ambassadors. In chapter 22, verse 1, we read, "Thus saith the Lord, Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou and thy servants and thy people that enter in by these gates."

God instructs, "Thus saith the Lord, Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place. For if you do these things indeed, then shall there enter by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people."

However, God warns, "But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation." He continues, "For thus says the Lord unto the king of the house of Judah, Thou art Gilead unto me and the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make thee a wilderness and cities which are not inhabited. I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons, and they shall cut down the choice cedars and cast them into the fire."

Many nations shall pass by this city and say to one another, "Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city?" God states that if the people turn, He will relent and not pour out His fury upon them. But if they do not, He will destroy them. In the years to come, people will pass by Jerusalem, which once was great, and they will ask why the Lord has done this. They will answer, "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them." He continues in verse 10.

Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that goes away, for he shall not return anymore, nor see his native country. Those who are going to be led away into captivity in Babylon will never see this place again. Thus saith the Lord, touching Shalom, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of his father Josiah. He went forth out of this place; he shall not return thither anymore. He shall die in the place where they have led him captive, and he shall see this land no more.

God says that the son of Josiah, the king, who was a good king, is going to be led away, and he will never come back to this place. He will never see this place once again. When you consider the kings of Israel, we have talked about this before. In Judah, I believe, there were really only four kings who truly followed the Lord and served Him. We already discussed Hezekiah in the book of Isaiah, particularly in chapters 36, 37, 38, and 39, which provide a historical interlude that speaks a lot about him. He was a good king who rearranged things, and he saw that the Lord blessed him because of what he did for the service of the Lord and the house of the Lord.

However, after Manasseh, the people departed from the Lord. It wasn't until King Josiah came on the scene, one of the kings during the time that Jeremiah prophesied, that there was a return to goodness. Josiah was a good king as well, but his goodness only lasted his lifetime. The revival that took place in the nation was primarily because the people loved King Josiah. As soon as he died, wickedness abounded once more. This destruction would come from the Lord because of all the wickedness that had arisen among the people.

In the midst of this coming destruction, the Lord still cries to His people through His prophet. Back in Jeremiah chapter 7, if you want to turn there, we read in verse 3: "Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place." God says that if you will turn and follow Him, changing your ways—which is obviously repentance—then He will cause you to dwell in this place, to continue in this place. Again, we see a similar call to the people in Jeremiah chapter 26.

There in verse 13, we read, "Therefore, now amend your ways and your doings, obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent." The Lord will repent from the evil that He has pronounced against you. Essentially, what the Lord is saying is, "If you will repent, then I will relent." If you amend your ways, then I will relent from what I have planned to do to you.

Again, back to Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 5. He says, "For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment," which is what God was telling His people to do, especially the king during the time of Jeremiah, "if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever."

So, God says, "If you will repent, if you will turn and amend your ways, then I will cause you to dwell in this place." But I want you to notice what He says there at the end of verse 6 of Jeremiah chapter 7: "Neither walk after other gods to your hurt."

Sometimes we wonder why we are going through the difficulties and the horrible things that a nation sees. We have talked about this many times before: righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. As we look at our nation and the things that are going on, we have to associate it with the fact of sin; this is the root cause of the things that are happening. Many times, people do not recognize that walking after these other things and turning away from the Lord is often what brings the hurt and the pain that we experience.

But again, we see God's grace and His mercy. "If you will repent, then I will relent. I will hold back my fury and my anger." God's grace and His mercy are clearly visible in this book. He lovingly calls His people back. However, the fact is that the hearts of the children of Judah during the time of Jeremiah were hardened; they were turned against the Lord. They did not want to hear it.

Ultimately, right near the end of Jeremiah's life, the people of Judah and Jerusalem were going to be led away into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. It was going to happen; it was not something that could be turned back. Now, if these people had repented, if they had relented, then it would be different. But God prophesied that the coming of Babylon and the coming of Nebuchadnezzar was going to happen because He knew His people's hearts. He knew they were not going to turn. He knew they were not going to return.

And so Judah had witnessed the ruin of the northern ten tribes. They had already seen what God had done to those ten tribes to the north because of their wickedness and their sin. Yet, they didn't learn from it. They didn't take the message; they missed the message in the destruction of the northern ten tribes. Therefore, like their brothers in the north, they would be led away as slaves.

However, as I mentioned, the grace of God is evident. In Jeremiah chapter 29, many of you know the verse Jeremiah 29:11, which states, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end." It is always important to consider the context of what is going on in that passage. He tells His people in verse 10 of Jeremiah 29, "For thus saith the Lord, after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and I will perform my good word toward you, and causing you to return to this place."

He does speak of their destruction at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar and their going into captivity. But He also says, "After seventy years, I'm going to return, and I'm going to cause you to come back into your land." Why? In verse 11, He explains, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

You see, sometimes we think that if we are going through this kind of chastening or discipline, as the children of Israel were experiencing, it is just because God is angry at us. We may feel that God doesn't like us, that He is upset and wants to destroy us. During the time of Isaiah, the children of Israel said, "We have followed the Lord. We have served Him." But He responded, "No, you haven't. You've turned your heart away from Me. You worship Me with your lips, but your hearts are far from Me."

We often have a distorted view of our own actions and also of God's actions. We think that we are doing just fine, and that He is doing these things to us because He must be an angry God. However, what the Lord tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 is that His thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace. They are not thoughts of evil; they are thoughts to give us a future and a hope, an expected end. God knows where He is ultimately going to bring us. He has an expected end.

In verse 12 of Jeremiah 29, He says, "Then shall you call upon Me, and you shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you." At that point in time, when you return, you will come to Me and cry out to Me, and I will listen. He has already told Jeremiah a few times in this passage, "Don't pray for this people. Don't fast for this people. I'm not going to hear your prayers." Their wickedness and sin had caused them to be separated from their God, just as God spoke.

Through Isaiah, God declares, "My arm is not short that I cannot save, but your sin has separated you from your God." The people had been separated from their God during the time of the prophet Jeremiah. However, God promises that there is coming a day when He will return them to their land. They will call upon Him, and He will hear them. They shall seek Him and find Him when they search for Him with all of their heart. God says, "I will be found of you," and He continues, "I will turn away your captivity and gather you from all the nations, from all the places whither I have driven you." He assures them, "I will bring you again to the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive."

God's promise is contingent upon their turning away from wickedness and beginning to follow Him once again. When we consider what happened to the children of Israel during their 70 years in Babylon, their exile and captivity ultimately caused them to turn away from all their idolatry. It is an amazing thing. God judges them, and as we looked at in Isaiah, God's judgment is always for purification. He separates the wheat from the chaff in our lives individually, but also corporately in the body of Christ. He has a way of separating the wheat from the chaff.

A few chapters later, in Jeremiah chapter 31, God speaks once again to the prophet Jeremiah during a very challenging time in his ministry. Chapters 30 through 33 depict Jeremiah being persecuted for his message; he is cast into a pit, a horrible place of despair. Yet, in this moment, the Lord speaks to him. In Jeremiah 31:31, God says, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." This new covenant will not be according to the covenant that He made with their fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant they broke, although He was a husband unto them.

God promises that once the people return to Him, He will establish a new covenant, different from the one made at Mount Sinai under Moses. He declares, "This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days of their exile, after their days of purification in Babylon. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God."

And they shall be my people. So God says this new covenant will involve a whole new way of working. I'm not going to write my law on tablets of stone, but I'm going to write my law upon your hearts, on your inward parts.

When that day comes, we read in verse 34, they shall no more teach their neighbor and every man his brother, saying, "Know ye the Lord," for they shall know me. God says that when He establishes this new covenant with them and His word is written upon their hearts and their inward parts, it will not be one of those things anymore where they have to exhort one another constantly, "Come on, let's know the Lord, let's follow the Lord." At that point, God says, they shall know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.

Notice this beautiful passage in verse 34: "For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more." This is the beautiful work that our Lord does when He comes. When Jesus came 2,000 years ago, we have talked about this verse so many times: 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, that He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ. He has taken our sin upon Himself, the sinless Lamb, the Lamb of God, who came into the world to take away the sin of the world.

How did He do that? Well, He lived that perfect life, and there on the cross, 2,000 years ago, He took all of our wicked, vile, wretched, filthy rags—our sin—upon Himself. God poured out judgment upon sin on the cross. He poured out His fury, His wrath; all the righteous requirements of the law were poured out upon Jesus, who became sin for us there on the cross. Our sin was dealt with to the point that Jesus said, "It is finished." To tell us, die. It is finished.

He desires that we would come to Him. Jesus calls out to us in Matthew 11, verse 28, one of my favorite verses. He says, "Come to me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden." Man has been laboring so much throughout the ages since the first sin in the Garden of Eden. Through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all men for all have sinned. Man has worked at sin, as we see with the children of Israel here in this passage. The wages of sin is death, and he has tried to get rid of that death in some way, trying to kill death. There is no way that man can do it; he needs the work.

Of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ, to come and deal with death and sin. That's what Jesus did there on the cross. He dealt with death and sin. He took care of the punishment that would come upon our sin because he took that punishment upon himself.

On top of that, the work that Jesus did is not only enough to deal with our past sin; it's also enough, as we see here in this passage about the New Covenant, to deal with our wicked heart. God, as Ezekiel talks about, as we'll see in a few weeks in Ezekiel 36, removes from us that wicked, stony heart and puts into us a heart of flesh, just like we see here in Jeremiah chapter 31. This new heart is one upon which his law is written, and he desires to transform us from the inside out.

Whereas all the other religions in the world are trying to reform man from the outside, taking care of all of his actions while he still has a wicked heart, Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the heart of man is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Yet the very next verse says that God searches the hearts. He is the one who knows our hearts. We don't even realize just how wicked and vile our hearts truly are, but God does. He doesn't want to just reform that wicked heart; he has to replace it. He has to do heart surgery, so to speak, and remove from us that vile, wicked heart of stone and put in us a heart of flesh upon which is written the word of God, the law of God, so that we can follow him, know him, and that our sin can be forgiven, as we see in verse 34: "I will forgive your iniquity, and I will remember your sin no more."

The blood of bulls and goats could not accomplish that kind of removal of sin. We are told in Hebrews chapter 9 that without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins. There is no removal of sin apart from the work that Jesus did on the cross. The blood of bulls and goats under the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, was not enough. It didn't deal with sin all the way down to the conscience level, but God does through the work that Jesus did on the cross. He calls to us that we would repent, that we would turn to him. The message of Jesus when he came was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Yet these people, during the time of Jeremiah, refused to repent. They would not repent. The Lord would tell them in Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 26, "As a thief is ashamed when he is found out, so is the house of Israel ashamed. For they, their kings, their princes, and their priests..."

And their prophets have said to a stock, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You have brought me forth," or "You gave birth to me." Though they have turned their back unto me and not their faces, in the time of their trouble, they say, "Arise and save us." Is this not the way of man so often? He doesn't want anything to do with God for most of the time when things are going well. He turns away from the Lord and bows down to all kinds of different gods, committing idolatry and adultery against the Lord. Then, when hard times come, when difficult days arrive, they turn and say, "Arise and save us, Lord, help us."

Just like we saw back in Jeremiah 21 and 22, the Babylonians have come and surrounded the city. Nebuchadnezzar is about to take the city, and then Zedekiah the king sends his ambassadors to Jeremiah and asks, "What should we do? Call out to the Lord, and perhaps the Lord will save us." They have been bowing down to all these other false gods, and now they want to seek the Lord for His help. But God says to His people in verse 28 of Jeremiah chapter 2, "Where are thy gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble, for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah."

Later on in the book of Jeremiah, God says, "For as many as your streets are, are your gods, Judah and Jerusalem." In the city of Jerusalem, it was just like Athens during the time of Paul. In Acts chapter 17, when Paul visited Athens, he walked around the city and saw that there were gods all over the place. On every street corner, there was another place to worship a god, even to the unknown god. During the time of Jeremiah, it wasn't in a pagan city; it was in the city of Jerusalem, the city of God, where these people had their little idolatrous temples and worship centers on every corner. They bowed down to these things. You would think it was a pagan city if you had gone there during that time, but really it was supposed to be the city of God, where His temple was, where He dwelt.

So God says to them, "Why don't you turn to these gods that you've made for yourselves if they can save you according to the number of your cities, your gods, O Judah?" In verse 29, He goes on, "Wherefore will you plead with me? You have all transgressed against me, saith the Lord. In vain I have smitten your children; they received no correction. Your own sword hath devoured your prophets like a destroying lion. O generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? Have I not taken care of you?" God asks. "A land of darkness? Wherefore say my people..."

We are lords; we will come no more unto thee. Can a man forget? I'm sorry, can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? Therefore, hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways. Also, in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents. I have not found it by secret, God says. Search but upon all these. God says, I haven't found it by secret search but upon all of these; it's wide open. Your sin isn't hidden from me.

Prior to this, back in chapter 2, verse 13, God says, "For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they've hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." What a sad illustration that is! These people had the one true God. They had the temple, they had the law, and they had these prophets coming and speaking to them. They figured that because they had that stuff, they were okay. They had all the outward trimmings of a true religion, and so they thought, "We got all that stuff."

They departed from the fountain of living waters, who we learn about in John chapter 7, verse 37, when Jesus, on that great day of the feast of Tabernacles, stands up and says, "If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and let him drink, and out of his belly will flow forth rivers of living waters." So, Jesus is the fountain of living waters. But these people departed from the fountain of living waters and cut out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that really couldn't hold any water. They didn't offer any sort of true satisfaction. They didn't offer anything except for some sort of pleasure in digging them, I guess.

These people didn't really get anything out of following after these false gods except for a heart that was distant from the Lord, and the Lord would no longer hear them. It is just a really sad tale as we read through this book, and I think you can see why this man, Jeremiah, was the weeping prophet. Here he cries to this people in this way, and yet none of them would listen to him. It's just powerful. This guy, who from a young age was called by the Lord, had a ministry that lasted some 40 years, constantly hearing from the Lord and speaking the word of the Lord. The people would pretty much completely reject his message and his ministry. They would persecute him and want nothing to do with what he had to say. They wanted to turn to all their other false prophets who would give them some sort of false hope, but it wasn't a hope that really would satisfy, just like these cisterns that could hold no water.

Jeremiah, when he was called, was a young man. The Lord told him in the first chapter, "Before you were born, I knew you. I knew you before you were even formed in your mother's womb, and I've called you to be a prophet to the nations." He was fearful and said, "I'm just a youth. I can't speak these things." God responded, "Do not be afraid of their faces when you go out."

One of the remarkable aspects of the prophecies of Jeremiah is how he stood and spoke to the king, the high priests, and various religious leaders. He delivered heavy words of destruction and woe. We see that he was as bold as a lion when he spoke these things. I believe it is in the Proverbs that we are told the righteous are as bold as a lion, or maybe it's in the Psalms. Regardless, he was righteous before the Lord and bold before the people.

On the flip side, in the book of Jeremiah, we also see his humility before God. He was bold before the people as he proclaimed the word, but he remained humble before God. This serves as a great example for us to learn from. I highly recommend reading through this book, considering it, and meditating on the passages within. Some of the most beautiful verses in the Bible are found in this book. Every book of the Bible is filled with beautiful verses, but God tells His people, "Behold, I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Even as Jeremiah was in the pit in chapters 30 through 33, God says, "Behold, I have loved thee with an everlasting love."

Several years ago, after 9/11, Pastor Eric, Rick Kiersted, Mark Cato, and I went to New York City to minister to people near Ground Zero and up near Times Square. I remember one day we were near Times Square, working with the Billy Graham Prayer Center, passing out flyers that said, "If you need prayer, call this number. There are people standing by who want to pray for you."

Rick handed a flyer to a lady who was walking by. She got about 20 feet away, turned around, and came back to Rick with tears in her eyes. She wanted to talk with him. I was standing there as well, and she told us that she was Jewish. She said, "You know, God has forsaken us. He doesn't love us." That was her mindset as a Jewish woman in America, seeing all that her people have gone through. She expressed that God doesn't love us, and all I could think of were the words of Jeremiah, the word of God through Jeremiah: "I have loved thee."

With an everlasting love, God invites us to reach out to Him. When we think that God is distant or that He doesn't hear us, we can remember His words in the Bible: "Call to me and I'll answer you, and I'll show you great and mighty things that you do not know." God says, "Just call to me. Just call out to me, and I will speak to you." He wants to be the one who comforts us, and truly, He is the only one who can provide that comfort. We need Him.

Yet, many people find themselves without comfort, not because God is unwilling to reach out to them, but because they refuse to allow Him to do so. The book of Jeremiah serves as a powerful testimony in this regard. As I reflect on our nation, particularly the United States in 2008, on the first day of March, I think about all the challenges we face. Many people are searching for hope, looking for anything to ease their suffering and pain. They endure difficult circumstances, whether it be sickness, illness, losing everything they have, or the loss of a family member. They cry out to the Lord, but they have hewed out for themselves cisterns that can hold no water.

They keep turning to these empty sources, hoping that maybe this will help or that will bring some comfort. Perhaps they believe the new politicians, who are offering great words on every radio channel and TV commercial, can provide hope. However, true hope will not be found in these things. It is only found in the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. He is the Prince of Peace, the only one who can bring that kind of peace and hope into our lives. That is what He has brought to us. Amen?

As we read this book and conclude tonight, I want you to consider the man who was a righteous figure, standing before the people as bold as a lion, declaring the word of God. His position before God was one of humility, crying out to Him. He understood that he could do nothing in his own strength. May we never reach a point where we think we have the whole Christianity thing figured out. We need the Lord.

The book of Jeremiah illustrates this beautifully. The man who stood before the people, urging them to repent, was also the man who stood before God, crying out, "Oh Lord, would you heal me? Would you take away..."

From me, this burden? As he saw all his men, all the men of his country, just departing from the Lord. Next week, we're going to get into the book of Lamentations. Actually, it will be a few weeks because I'm going to be out of the country. But when we get into Lamentations, we're going to see the tears of this prophet as he watches his people who would not repent. These people, throughout the 40 years of his ministry, would not heed the call that he was giving to them. As a result, they would go into captivity, and Jeremiah would watch it happen.

Could you imagine being in that position? Watching your countrymen completely destroyed? Watching them led away into captivity, naked and ashamed? And yet, it could have been stopped. It could have been stopped if they had heeded the word of the Lord.

Just one last thing about this book before we wrap up tonight. You may have noticed, in reading through this book, that it constantly says, "thus saith the Lord." In fact, it's said in the book of Jeremiah more than in any other book in the entire Bible—312 times, I believe. This truly is the word of God spoken to His people. This is the cry of our Lord, our Savior, crying out to His people who had departed from Him, saying, "Please return to me. Please, I want to restore. I will relent if you will repent." But the people would not do it.

They stood in the ways and saw, asking for the old paths and the good way, but they said, "We will not. We will not." It's a pretty difficult and heavy book, but I think it has a lot of important applications for us.

Let's stand and pray. Lord, we do ask that you would help us to glean from this book application. Help us to see that you have called us to a life of righteousness—not righteousness that we can achieve by the law, because there is nothing we can do to make ourselves righteous, but that righteousness comes by faith. Just as Paul, in Philippians chapter 3, said, "I press on that I may lay hold of that for which you've laid hold of me." Lord, you have separated us, laid hold of us, and set us apart so that we could be holy unto you.

And a people who are truly whole. I pray, Father, that you would make us whole as we walk in faith and walk in the Spirit. May we shine brightly as lights to this world around us, this dark world, so that people would see and know that you are true and real because of what they observe in our lives.

I ask that you would help us to see a transformation in our family members who don't know you, as well as in our coworkers and friends who may have departed from following you, Lord. In our community here in Escondido and throughout California and the United States, we want to see you lifted up. We desire to see people come to know you.

I pray that you would help us to be good examples of your grace, your mercy, and your love. Additionally, may we be ready to speak boldly your truth, willing to say that certain actions are sin and they are wrong, but there is one who can save.

Lord, we thank you that you've saved us. We pray in Jesus' name that you would help us, Lord, to press on. Amen.