Aren’t you glad that God is the God of second chances? This week I have been sick with a nasty bug, which has left me at times with a migraine that keeps me from being able to read. This is one way God slows me down and forces me to meditate. I spent more time than usual laying around thinking about mistakes I have made in my past. No, I wasn’t feeling guilty or beating myself up – these are sins that God has delivered me from, and he has forgiven me fully and thoroughly. But sins always have consequences, even when God forgives you of those sins. And I spent a lot of time thinking about the consequences of some of my sins, and how they could have been so much worse than they were, if it weren’t for God’s intervention. Our text this morning is about a time when God gave ONE MORE CHANCE to his people.
The northern kingdoms, those ten tribes of Israel, had all been carried away and pretty much destroyed by Assyria. Now Babylon was the big kid on the block, the only real superpower, and little Judah was facing the same fate. It was December, 604 BC, and it was cold outside. The harvest had already come in, and no one really planned on their being a siege of the city, so there was a fair amount of anxiety in the air. Godly King Josiah had been killed in battle only four or five years earlier, and his son Jehoiakim was King. The Bible summarizes his whole life with the words, “he did what was evil in the site of the Lord…” (II Kings 23:37)
Now Babylon might have been the big kid on the block, but Judah belonged to Egypt. King Jehoiakim was a puppet king, the younger son of Josiah, and he placed on the throne by the King of Egypt, the same man who killed his daddy. Now things haven’t changed a whole lot through the years. When Judah became the vassal, or servant, of Egypt, they had to submit to Egypt in a lot of ways. They had to pay taxes, they had to send soldiers to help Egypt fight, but most of all they had to honor Egypt’s gods. So when we read that verse that says King Jehoiakim did evil in the site of the LORD, we need to remember that he was responding to the same pressures you face in school, or in work, or among unbelieving friends. That is, he had to honor and worship their gods, live like they lived, or he would get in a lot of trouble. This is what Jesus means when he says, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) You WILL have tribulation! The only question is, do you have the faith to believe that Jesus has overcome the world, and therefore it is safe to trust in him when no one else around you does? Jehoiakim did not. That means when others around you are drinking, or doing drugs, or having sex outside of marriage, and you feel that pressure to conform – Jesus says don’t worry, I have overcome the world. You can trust me. It will cost you, but you can trust me. Jehoiakim failed here, he succumbed to the pressure from an unbelieving nation – Egypt, and the whole summary of his life fits just eleven words, “he did what was evil in the site of the Lord…”
Enough about him! God is the God of the second chance, so he sends his word again to his children, and to this wicked king. Let’s look at what happens! God tells Jeremiah to write a scroll. There are three aspects of that scroll that I want to take apart this morning: the CONTENTS of the scroll; the PURPOSE of the scroll; and the TIMING of the scroll.
For the CONTENTS we need to look into verse two:
2“Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day.”
There are three pieces to this verse, the words, the people and the days. The entire Bible, and especially the book of Jeremiah, places immense weight on the word of God. IT IS THE GREATEST HONOR OF MAN TO RECEIVE IT, AND THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY OF MAN TO GUARD IT AND PROCLAIM IT. When the Word of God is lightly esteemed, destruction quickly follows. I know too many people who honor the Word physically, placing it on the highest shelf, or in a place of prominence in the home, and yet never open it. This generation more than any other will bear the heaviest judgment before God for our neglect of the Word, because it so available to us! We all have copies of it in our homes, you can study the greatest Christian teachers in history for free on the internet; if you are illiterate you can buy CD’s and tapes of the Bible; if you are blind you can hear it on the radio and television, or buy a Braille Bible. God has given us electricity so we can read His word when it would otherwise be dark. He has given us every convenience from dishwashers to microwaves to washing machines and so on, so that we would have more free time to study his word, pray, and know him. But what do we do with our free time? We squander it on things that do not profit. Yes, this generation more than any other will stand before the judgment seat of Christ with works of hay instead of works of gold. God is the God of the second chance, and it is not too late to repent of our slothfulness!
Next I want you to notice the people he mentions in verse two: against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations. When I first read this I wondered, why does he mention Israel? That is a reference to the ten northern tribes, and they have been gone for over a hundred years by this point. Then it occurred to me, God is not telling Jeremiah to preach to them, but to remind Judah what happened to them. America is failing to teach her students her history, and often what is being taught is some secular whitewash, history stripped bare of God’s working in America. I recommend to every family that you buy a copy of Peter Marshall’s "The Light and the Glory", a Christian perspective from Columbus on. God is reminding them of their HISTORY! He then refers to Judah, the nation in which Jeremiah is ministering, the nation that is about to be destroyed. These are the people who are flocking to the safety of the capital, and he pleads with them to repent before it is to late. Jeremiah here appeals to the PRESENT. And finally he mentions the nations, which is to be their FUTURE. We know from hindsight that they would be carried away into Babylon. At the end of Jeremiah we watch God’s wrath fall on other nations. God’s standard is the same in America as it is in Iraq, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Korea, England, and that little island in the South Pacific. God’s standard does not change! I am always amused at those liberal minds who claim Christians and Muslims worship the same God. There is no truth in that. God does not change, and he does not undergo a character change operation when you get off the airplane in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The WAY we worship God varies from generation to generation and culture to culture, but God never changes.
We more than any generation will be held accountable for the Word of God because it has been made so available to us. Where our ancestors stood in the light of early dawn, we stand in the blazing sun at noon. The measure of light is the measure of responsibility. All the words God had previously uttered to his people are now repeated in written form. So it will be when we stand before him in that day of judgment, all the words that he has uttered through his word, preachers, and others will be repeated before you. In short, you are accountable for every word God in his grace gives you. In Samuel’s day the Word of God was rare because it had been so egregiously neglected. Being rare, it was perhaps more precious than we view it in our day. Samuel is praised with these words from I Samuel 3:19, “So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.” Of the words that I am speaking to you today, how many of them will you remember after lunch? This is why I include a notes section on the back of your bulletin. You will remember 80% more of what you hear if you write it down. I do not want you to write because I think myself important, I want you to take notes because this is the Word of God! I spent tens of thousands of dollars getting a seminary education – and you can have it for free, week after week, if you will only take notes. The point here is that God will hold you accountable for every word he gives you, so never take His word lightly, and stop letting them fall to the ground. Yes, these were the CONTENTS of Jeremiah’s scroll. Now let us continue to the PURPOSE of the scroll
Verse three reads, “3It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
This verse unveils GOD’S DESIRE FOR HIS PEOPLE, and it is the same today. Notice God’s PATIENCE, God’s DEMAND, and God’s DESIRE. The sweetness of this verse is its beginning, “It may be…” If God does not lose hope with his people after 400 years of rebellion, do you think he wants you to lose hope for that one you love, the one who is hooked on drugs, addicted to alcohol, lost in sexual promiscuity? Failure after failure has followed every attempt to help them but God shouts from the heavens, IT MAY BE that they will repent! Don’t give up! We can not give up until God gives up, and if God waited 400 years I bet he will out-wait you! God is PATIENT and we must be as well.
Next notice God’s DEMAND: that everyone may turn from his wicked way. This is where we mess up. It is not love to compromise on the Word of God. God is patient, loving his chosen people and hoping for their repentance, but NEVER do you see in Scripture where God compromises with sin. “But I love him, Pastor, and that’s why I am sleeping with my boyfriend, or girlfriend.” “I had to lie or I would have been caught.” “It would have cost me thousands of dollars if I had not stretched the truth!” God’s standard never changes. He has called you to holiness, which means “set apartness.” If you claim to be his child, you are his fine china. God never compromises on his word. The church is contaminated with people today who are living in wanton sin against God, having no fear of him. “But pastor, I thought we weren’t supposed to judge.” That is a half-truth. I Corinthians five, among other passages, teach us that we do not judge those outside of the church, but we must judge those inside the church. I believe this is because God says HIS judgment will begin in the church! We must be ready, and we must hold one another accountable in love and in the fear of God.
Next, look with me at the beautiful DESIRE of God: that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. We need to be careful here, because it is a slippery slope for the tendencies of our flesh. We want people to turn from their wicked ways, but how often do we want to forgive them? How often do we want them restored? Jeremiah’s desire mirrors God’s desire in v. 7. Jeremiah desires repentance for the purpose of redemption. Compare this with Jonah, who was upset when Nineveh, the capital of wicked Assyria, did repent, and God delayed his judgment. WE HAVE A NATURAL TENDENCY TO PRAY FOR SOMEONE TO REPENT, AND THEN, WHEN THEY DO, WE REJECT THEM. We don’t want to get hurt by them again. But here Jesus must be our model, who was willing to expose himself and be hurt so that we would be redeemed. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU HURT JESUS before you repented and came to him?
This morning we have looked at the CONTENTS of the scroll that Yahweh commands Jeremiah to write. We have looked at the PURPOSE for which it was written, expressing God’s Patience, Demand for holiness, and Desire for repentance. Now I will conclude with the TIMING of the scroll.
Did you know that God’s timing is always perfect? He is never early and he is never late. Have you ever gotten impatient with God because he is not working according to your timetable? Perhaps you should adjust to his timetable! The timing for this mornings text is important because the people were doing three things at that kairos moment: they were AFRAID, they were RETURNING, and they were LISTENING. Follow with me in verses 9-10:
9Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem. 10Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s house, in the hearing of all the people.
The year was 604 BC. It was December, and it was cold. The mighty armies of the Babylonian army had SMASHED Egypt, Israel’s only hope of protection, and they had penetrated as far as Ashkelon, a fishing town barely 40 miles away. And Jerusalem is on a mountain, so on a clear day you could look down toward the coast and see the SMOKE RISING FROM THE KILLING FIELDS. The timing of God’s Word in the Scroll was perfect because the people were AFRAID.
Next we see that the people were RETURNING. It was the custom that once a year, if at all possible, each family was to offer sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem, but this had been neglected for generations. It was easier to offer up sacrifices locally to the pagan gods. But now they were returning to the holy city. During a time of invasion, the people of the small, unfortified villages would flock to the safety of Jerusalem, with its mighty walls and armed soldiers. Yes, the timing of God’s Word in the scroll was perfect because the people were RETURNING.
And finally, they were LISTENING. Have you ever been heart-broken because there was something you wanted to share so desperately with someone and they wouldn’t listen? God’s heart is broken every day when we ignore him. But now, in this time of crisis, God’s people are scared and desperate and willing to listen to God! You see, outside of God there is only death. Like children we long to run out into the traffic to play, but God knows there is only death apart from him. In this text, God is letting the people take a bitter bite of the fruit they have reaped from the seeds of apathy that they have sown. Now, as the smoke rises from the Babylonian Invasion, they are listening to God.
There is in this text a word of comfort and a word of warning. There is comfort because God is reaching out to his people again at a dark hour in their history, a dark hour that they have brought upon themselves. God in his immeasurable mercy is extending the hand that continues to bite it. It is good to know that in the hour of greatest need God is reaching out to his children. God reaches out to you as well, when you feel you are alone and hopeless. And there is warning, because we have no guarantee that God will come to us tomorrow if we deny and neglect him today. I refer you to the first Proverb, written by wise King Solomon in the glory days of Israel:
Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD, They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies. (Proverbs 1:23-31)
Motivating Thrust: (For vv. 1-10) The measure of light is the measure of responsibility. God is the God of the second chance. But never presume there will be a third. When you sin, repent and return, but never sin thinking, “Oh, God will give me another chance.”
