A Time To Understand

Intro

1. What is your favorite book of the Bible? Psalms? Prov.? Romans?

Revelation?

2. I have enjoyed myself this year, preaching from our LEAP 2000

readings.

3. I love the Word of God; some books fascinate me more than others.

Jeremiah is not one of my favorites, but there are a few portions that I

think are key, such as the verses we went over last week.

4. Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet; his times, his message,

how he was viewed...

MAIN IDEA Jeremiah addresses some major themes; this themes are

key, they help us relate to God, the evening news, and our personal lives.

Life is RICHER if you understand God, His faithfulness, and His direction

for us as individuals.

TS-------> Let’s look at three themes that we all need to

understand.

I. God’s Attributes: A Reminder of What He is Like

1. Omniscience: 23:23-24 omni plus science

2. A God Whose Word is powerful: 23:29

3. Foreknowledge: 25-11-13

4. Just, Angry, ready to punish: 30:15

5. Compassion: 29:10-13

6. Sovereign LORD: 32:17 (not man upstairs): The Quality of Being

Supreme

(1) He can deal with His creation as He desires (limited by Who He

is)

(2) He has a special authority over those Who are saved

Political conventions: people make choices; God offers no choice,

He is God; we either submit or resist, but we don’t vote on

Him!

Most errors about what God is like are caused when people refuse

to contemplate all of what God is like; God is all these things, and

our view of God must be kept in balance or we distort Who God is

and imagine a God different from the real God of Scripture... Life is

RICHER if you understand God, His faithfulness, and His direction

for us as individuals.

II. God’s Plan for Israel

1. Many Christians are anti-Semitic; they do not accept God’s unique

love for His people Israel...

(1). Although most Jews have not believe in the Lord Jesus (neither have

most gentiles), and although one cannot be saved apart from faith in

Jesus, in the end times God will again focus on His special nation,

Israel...

(2). Note 30:11, 18

(3). How about 31:10

(4). And, most clear of all, 31:35-37

(5) Romans 11:28-29

2. The Tribulation: 30:7

3. Millennium: 23:5-6; 31:31-34; 32:37-40; 33:15-18

-----church age believers partake in a preview of the Millennium in that

we relate to God under this New Covenant....the Law of God written on

our hearts, the New Nature...

Application: The existence of the Nation of Israel after all these years

is a

testimony to the faithfulness of God....not a coincidence... Life is

RICHER

if you understand God, His faithfulness, and His direction for us as

individuals.

III. God’s Will for Individual Believers

1. Sometimes persecution: 26:7-9 and 26:20-24

--sometimes God’s will for us to be delivered (Jeremiah), sometimes not

(Uriah); Uriah may have been as godly as Jeremiah...

2. Being in the world but not of it...."Being Comfortably Uncomfortable":

29:5-7

----in a sense, we are like the Jews living in Babylon

---different, out of places

----some are attempted to "marry in" to society, lose identity

---have responsibility to be good citizens, though our heart is elsewhere

3. Finding strength for today because we know God is working and has a

future planned (29:10-14)

Application: God wants us to bear light in our society, but not to run

from it. He doesn’t want us to conform, nor does he want us to

withdraw. Are you weak in one way, the other way, or both? It’s a

tough tightrope to walk, but let’s try to do it.

Life is RICHER if you understand God, His faithfulness, and His

direction for us as individuals.

Conclusion

1. I hope this survey of Jeremiah’s mid section has helped you better

understand God, His plan for Israel, and our walk as Christians.

2. But information without faith is not enough. We need to come to

know God personally through His Son, Jesus Christ....