Sermon Title: AN OFFER WE CAN’T REFUSE
Sermon Text: Jeremiah 3:12-24
Sunday Evening, JULY 30, 2000
Scripture Introduction:
Can you imagine what it would be like to be a teenager and be called to a ministry such as the one that Jeremiah was called to? When I think back to my teen years, or as Jenny would call them, the dark ages, I can remember the difficulty that we all had fitting in, being part of the crowd. Now even though I wasn’t a Christian, I also wasn’t someone who lived in a constant state of trouble, at least not then, I saved that for later on in life, so I had many opportunities to practice saying NO! The after effects of going against what the majority was doing or supporting was chastisement and being ostracized from the group that you associated with whether they be popular kids or not. Now let’s take that scenario and complicate things by proclaiming a message that goes directly against what the group finds appealing. If this doesn’t cause the popularity to sink through the basement, then nothing will.
But this isn’t Jeremiah’s only problem. He’s not allowed to mourn at funerals, he is not allowed to have children, he is not allowed to marry, and he is not allowed to participate in any kind of merry-making celebration. All proclaiming and no play make Jeremiah a dull boy, at least in the eyes of those he was proclaiming the Lord’s Word to. They didn’t want to hear what Jeremiah was being told to proclaim to them.
What kind of things are we proclaiming to the world today? How does our present society accept the things that we are proclaiming? Adultery, theft, murder in the sense of abortion and mercy killings, and sexual orientation are all things that are directly against what the Word of God proclaims, and we proclaim it because this is what God has laid upon our hearts to proclaim and the world considers us Holy rolling goody two-shoe Bible thumping Jesus freaks, and to that I say AMEN! How about you?
Please Join me in the reading of God’s Holy Word!
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 3:12-25
12 "Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ’Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD; ’I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD; ’I will not be angry forever. 13 ’Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD. 14 ’Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD; ’For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.’ 15 "Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding. 16 "It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land," declares the LORD, "they will no longer say, ’The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. 17 "At that time they will call Jerusalem ’The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 "In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance. 19 "Then I said, ’How I would set you among My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ And I said, ’You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from following Me.’
20 "Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover, So you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel," declares the LORD. 21 A voice is heard on the bare heights, The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel; Because they have perverted their way, They have forgotten the LORD their God. 22 "Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness." "Behold, we come to You; For You are the LORD our God. 23 "Surely, the hills are a deception, A tumult on the mountains. Surely in the LORD our God Is the salvation of Israel. 24 "But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 "Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God."
Introduction:
We look at this section of Scripture and each and every one of us can see some form of their own spiritual journey. Where and what we see is as individual as the unique creations of God that we are. What are some of the common excuses that we hear for not making a commitment to Christ?
I know there is a God so I will go to heaven.
I’ve been so bad and evil that there is simply no hope for me.
I’ve been like this for so long that it’s to late for me now.
Even if we have done wrong, there is the possibility of starting anew. Being buried in so much guilt over the sins we have committed and the sinful lives that we live or have lived is a tool of the devil. Satan wants us to fail. Satan wants us to be discouraged. Satan wants us to think that we are hopelessly defeated because that is the only way he will ever win. Satan knows that once we get the hope that is only possible through our Lord Jesus Christ he has gone down to defeat himself. There is no way for that situation to be reversed. There is no one to deep in sin to be pulled out of that miry clay. There is no one who has gone so far that the hand of God can’t bring them back. There is no one who has been involved in sin for so long that God can’t forgive them. There is no one in any of these situations as long as they are still drawing a breath.
What do we need to do in order to wipe the slate clean? The first step toward beginning our journey to righteous and holy living is to accept that what we are doing is wrong. How do we know it is wrong? The Scriptures make it pretty clear. The Holy Spirit also drives the point home. So what is it that we have to do from our end?
We need to accept the fact that we have done wrong!
There is a problem that goes along with the opportunity to turn things around, there are those that just wait to long. Just like some earthly special offers, there is a time limit to accept God’s great salvation. We look at certain special offers and sales and we see a good illustration of a time limit. Let us consider a department store that is conducting a 24-hour sale. Can we show up at that store 4 hours after the sale has ended and still honestly expect to receive the same discount as those that that arrived during the boundaries of time that were established for that sale by the stores proprietors. If a grocery product is marked on the label with a certain freshness date, if we fail to use it until the freshness date has expired lets say for a month, can we still reasonably expect the product to be fresh? We need to realize that even our Almighty God has set certain time limitations on our decision to choose Him.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer!
POINT 1: The message from God that Jeremiah is proclaiming is that even if we have done wrong, there is the possibility of starting anew. We read: ’Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD; ’I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD; ’I will not be angry forever. This was written to the country of Israel, to whom He sent Moses to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, whom He maintained in the dessert for 40 years despite their treachery, all this they forget and go every direction but into His loving arms. And still He wants them back. Just what are they guilty of? That you have transgressed against the LORD your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD. Our society is no different. God has set the boundaries for all time, and this most certainly includes us, and we are constantly stepping over the line testing the limits He has prescribed for us. We freely worship everything and everyone except Him. And although He has arranged that everything that we need to know has been written down in black and white, and red in some translations, we will not comply. We simply do not obey the things He has commanded us to do.
[So here we are, God knows that we have done wrong and the Holy Spirit has made it quite clear to us that something is seriously spiritually amiss. Now we are being made aware that God wants us to make things right and in order to atone for our sins, He sends His Son to die the most cruel of deaths possible a crucifixion on a Roman cross. We realize that it is possible through Jesus Christ to make things right, but what is our first step?]
POINT 2: What is it that we need to do to begin anew? We need to accept the fact that we have done wrong. ’Only acknowledge your iniquity. This is a point where many of us hit a brick wall. There is something in the nature of human beings that makes it difficult to admit that we are wrong. We can even trace this to our early childhood. We stand in the back yard staring at the broken glass in the big picture window of our house, we see our father come outside and he asks us if we know how the baseball ended up on the living room sofa after going through that gigantic piece of glass and we shrug our shoulders and say I DON’T KNOW, all the while we have the baseball bat in our hands. Mom comes out of the kitchen and asks if we took one of the cookies that we were supposed to leave for company later and we shout a quick NO! and as the word leaves our mouth we shower mom with million illegally acquired cookie crumbs.
Did we really help ourselves out by either placing the blame on someone else or denying our guilt? For the most we did more damage then good. I found that for the most part mom and dad usually knew quite well that I was guilty before they even pressed charges against me. In these situations we would be better off admitting our guilt then to attempt to fool mom or dad. If we can’t fool mom or dad then how can we ever expect to pull one over on God? We need to acknowledge our iniquity! There are several scriptural examples:
We read in Isaiah chapter 6 –
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."
Here we have Isaiah’s call and he knows very well that he is not how he needs to be. He needs to be cleansed. And He admits his shortcomings.
And again in Luke chapter 5 –
4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets. 6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"
In this particular section of Scripture, Jesus takes a weary bunch of fishermen out after an unsuccessful night of fishing and their rewards in fish are tremendous. Simon Peter admits that he is unworthy of the Lord. He admits his sinfulness.
We can look back and I know that most of us can recall a situation where we have either not told the truth and we paid a price for the deceit. Perhaps a much greater price than if we had been truthful from the onset. Does that mean that we should be truthful as a means to avoid facing any consequences? I think there may be situations where this is a possibility, however each misdeed has consequences that will be faced. We are guaranteed a clear conscience however.
[We know that we did wrong and there is a chance for us to make things right. When should we begin the process of making things right. After all we are young and we have so much life left to live. We know that there are things that we are doing that go against God’s will but they are fun. Everyone is doing these things and we’ll have so much time to be good when we are older and not in need of that much stimulation and excitement. What guarantee do we have that we will ever get old?]
POINT 3: Just like some earthly special offers, there is a time limit to accept. And we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God. For everything that we do wrong there is a consequence. What type of consequences face Judah that Jeremiah is trying to persuade them to change their ways over?
In Jeremiah chapter 7 –
32 "Therefore, behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place. 33 "The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. 34 "Then I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a ruin.
And continuing in chapter 8 –
1 "At that time," declares the LORD, "they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. 2 "They will spread them out to the sun, the moon and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served, and which they have gone after and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the face of the ground. 3 "And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the places to which I have driven them," declares the LORD of hosts.
Conclusion:
So here we sit this evening, thinking about our relationship with Jesus, or at least I hope our thoughts are leaning in that direction. What is the Holy Spirit trying to impress on you this evening? Are there areas that we need to work on?
Even if we have done wrong, there is the possibility of starting anew.
No matter where we have been, what we have done or how long we have run from God, Jesus’ death upon that cross was so effective that all can be forgiven and everyone has the opportunity to begin anew in Christ. In order to begin down the path that leads to that new life, all we need to do is have the will to begin. The first thing we need to do is that:
We need to accept the fact that we have done wrong.
Once we have come to the point where we are able to admit that we are wrong or have lived in a manner that is contrary to the will of God then we can begin to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and point out the things that we need to change. This isn’t a one time fixes all adjustment people. We need to realize that there may be things now and later that need to be changed. Have we accepted all the latest changes that need to be made? Are there things that we are holding on to that are getting in our way?
WE need to realize that although God is timeless, His offer to us is not. There is a time limit to accept. Is there something that the Holy Spirit is pointing out? As we close in prayer let us seek God’s will for us.
