Justified Judgment
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Introduction
Introduction
I have one thing to warn you of this morning: Don’t be complacent!
It’s pretty simple.
This message from Jeremiah is a warning to us. A reminder. A moment to stop and think about what you’re doing,
think about the life you live,
think about the things you love,
think about the people you ignore.
Don’t be complacent!
The thing about being complacent is that it is easy. You slide into complacency without thinking about it too much. Usually it’s not a conscious decision to be complacent, you just take stuff for granted,
you are pretty satisfied with the way things are,
you think “she’ll be right.”
“it’ll be sorted out in the wash.”
you’re not
Don’t be complacent!
What kind of complacency am I talking about? - Complacency about Christian living.
It’s so easy in life to fall into a rutt, even with excising our faith. The fresh and exciting realization about Jesus’ atoning death and offer of salvation turns our life around when we come to faith! We have a new way of seeing the world, fresh insight! A better way of living!
We are so thankful for God’s gifts to us, especially New Life by the Holy Spirit!
We want to please God in our thoughts and words and attitudes and actions!
We want toplease God in our thoughts and words and attitudes and actions
But as day give way to day, and month to month, and year to year, we find ourselves battling the same sins. We’re a bit numbed by the Gospel story. Christianity loses the shine a little.
We hear the preacher proclaim another sermon on the Good News of Jesus Christ and our eyes glaze over,
our thoughts wander,
we think “yeah, yeah, I know this stuff already”
we find excuses for our failures,
we suppress the conviction over sin by getting angry at how long the service is taking, or how bad the theology is.
Our drive to evangelise drops off,
Our passion for prayer wanes,
Our thirst for God’s word peters off,
Our sprint for holiness becomes a toddle.
Don’t be complacent!
The Israelites became complacent! They were pulled out of slavery in Egypt, delivered to the Promised Land, lavished with gifts and blessings!
The Israelites were given more than they could ever ask for! And it was built upon a covenant with God. God would give them the good stuff if they would only remain faithful. If they were faithful he would bless, if they rebelled he promised to curse.
An man did they get blessing! God drove out the inhabitants of the land. Pretty much all they had to do was show up!
They got houses and farms and vineyards and cities. A land flowing with milk and honey.
But soon, the life of blessing became the new normal. They grew complacent. The blessings were blah. It was all par for the course.
Like the kids who got tuck-shop money every week in primary school, they didn’t realize how good they had it! (i’m not holding a grudge, I swear!)
They forgot where the blessing came from.
They forgot the covenant they made.
They forgot what was at stake.
The Israelites messed up their government.
They messed up their religion.
They messed up their society.
Eventually God got rid of most of them in 722 BC. They were taken captive into Assyria never to return, or they lost their distinct identity mixing with other groups.
Jerusalem in Judah to the south remained for a time. But then Jeremiah turned up to let the remaining Israelites know: “You won’t escape the next time, you’ll get what’s coming to you.”
God had made grand promises to Israel, that he would keep, but he needed to deal with the covenant breakers.
He needed to deal with the rebellious, stubborn and abusive people of Judah, who were carrying on as if their actions didn’t matter.
Divided kingdom, North has already fallen.
As if they owned the place.
A saved people under covenant.
As if they were not bound by God’s instructions to them.
As if God would keep his promises to bless, but forget the threat to curse.
Umbrella Promises vs blessings & curses
In three sections, we will see how God plans to deal with them, and why his plan is justified.
It is a stark reminder to us: Don’t be complacent!
Impending Invasion (v15-19)
Impending Invasion (v15-19)
In the first section v15-19, Judah is warned of an Impending Invasion. A justified invasion for utter destruction.
Destruction v15-17
Look to v15:
Behold, I am bringing against you
a nation from afar, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.
It is an enduring nation;
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.
God is responsible for their destruction. He says “I am bringing them against you.” This is a hard word, especially if we have in our minds a picture of God that doesn’t include destruction and decimation.
God is bringing a foreign nation, who we later find out is Babylon. They are the successors to the Assyrian empire, and their capital is Babylon, way over the desert to the east.
Show map
They are foreign. They are not God’s chosen people, but God will use them as an instrument to bring judgment against the faithless people of Judah.
They will come with death and destruction. Like hungry monsters they will swallow up everything of worth. Everything that they took for granted.
See v16-17
Their quiver is like an open tomb;
they are all mighty warriors.
They shall eat up your harvest and your food;
they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your fortified cities in which you trust
they shall beat down with the sword.”
This is rough stuff. It will be bad. Babylon will devour their food, their livelihood, their families and their defenses!
Imagine is a foreign army came and did the same here! They would decimate our economy, take away our jobs, destroy our farms kill our families and steamroll our defense force. There would be nothing left of our nation except the scarred landscape.
God means business. Jeremiah warns the people that God will decimate them,
He will crush them,
He will destroy them.
Hope v18
But God leaves a glimmer of hope in v 18
“But even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make a full end of you.
He will not make a full end. There will be something left over. There will be something left for Him to complete his earlier epic promises with. Even in the hardest times, God is fulfilling his promises.
Like a rose bush, God will prune back Israel to a leafless, almost lifeless stem so that they can burst forth with dense foliage and bear the beautiful flower of salvation: our Lord Jesus Christ.
Why? v19
It seems harsh. It’s pretty nasty idea to have to comprehend: the destruction of everything you know. But when they inevitably come to their senses, and the people of Judah ask why they have suffered God’s wrath there will be a clear answer,
See v19
And when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’ ”
Why does God want to destroy Judah?
It is clear. They have served foreign gods,
gods that are not the True God,
gods who are impotent and useless.
They have forsaken God, the LORD!
He was the one who rescued them out of slavery in Egypt!
He was the one who delivered them into the promised land!
He was their protector and rescuer on countless occasions!
And as we shall soon see, he was the one who gave them their rain and season on which they relied for food.
So God handed them over. “You want foreign gods? Then serve foreign masters in those foreign lands.”
Impending judgment for us
Brothers and Sisters, Don’t be complacent!
There is an impending judgment for this world too. We live far removed from Israel and their covenant but we face a future Judgment; the Last Judgment. God is bringing his wrath against this whole world, to destroy everything that stands in opposition.
Paul says to the Thessalonians:
“the Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” .
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .
And Peter also says:
“the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” .
English Standard Version Chapter 3
the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .
But, we don’t need to be afraid, because God...
There is an impending judgment for this world
“...is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” .
Don’t be complacent!
Live lives of holiness and godliness.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .
Be ready for the Judgment.
Serve the one true God in faithfulness.
Wait to see the fulfillment of his promises to us!
Failure to Fear (v20-24)
Failure to Fear (v20-24)
In the next section, the people of Judah are shown the stupidity of the Failure to Fear God.
First God notes how dim-witted they are: a “foolish and senseless people” (v21). They have eyes, but the don’t use them. Ears, but the don’t use them either!
They are fools. Idiots who won’t bend to God’s will. They won’t fear God, the same one who controls the chaos of the ocean!
Read v22-23
Do you not fear me? declares the Lord. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.
Have you ever watched a raging sea? It’s terrifying!
You can see the water thrash and twist. The dark waves foam and hiss. Anything that is in the water is tumbled and smashed against the shore.
As much as humans have achieved, we still have no hope of controlling the raging sea. But God does.
God sets it’s boundary. God hold back the raging waters.
We know that God uses the weather, and the moon and the tide and currents etc. But these are the order of the universe, in the constancy of physics, that God uses to set the boundary of the sea. It can be relied upon to come and go in their regularity, so much so that tides can be predicted years in advance.
Don’t think scientifically, think poetically. We know that God uses the weather, and the moon and the tide and currents etc. But these are the order of the universe, in the constancy of physics, that God uses to set the boundary of the sea. It can be relied upon to come and go in their regularity, so much so that tides can be predicted years in advance.
I can tell you now, that failing some cataclysmic event, the low tide in Port Macquarie on December 31st 2019 will be at 6:09am at a height of 380mm. The constancy of the world, where the ocean stops, how high it goes, is all in God’s hand. His order prevails.
Now, if God holds even the oceans in check, with their chaotic movement and power, who do the people of Judah think they are to turn aside from God’s way?
You who cannot do a thing against the power of the ocean thinks you can achieve something by going up against the God who controls them?
What arrogance!
What pride!
What insolence!
Even the oceans obey God v20-23
These people have turned against the one who gives them the regular rain and seasons.
They have taken these for granted.
See v24-25
They do not say in their hearts,
‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
Your iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have kept good from you.
Their failure to fear the Lord, to be faithful to him, has meant God has every right to punish them by removing the regular rains. He has disrupted the pattern of the weather in order to punish Judah.
I’m sure every parent has had an experience like this. They are dealing with an ungrateful and disobedient child, so they will remove something, like dessert, like toys, like free time, or freedom, in order to jolt them to their senses, to punish them in the discomfort and sadness of their loss, so that they will appreciate and be thankful for what they have. The disciplined child knows they are not entitled to the blessings of life.
God has to come down hard on Judah to wake them from their ungrateful complacency. They are content to wait for the regular rain and seasons without a care for the one who is giving it to them.
Folks, we are just like Judah. We are lulled into a false sense of security. Many, if not most of us have never had to experience a hard life, and we often don’t care until the good stuff is taken away:
We take for granted the weekly paycheck - until that week it doesn’t come because you got let go.
We take for granted that we’ll have a fridge full of groceries - until we can’t afford them.
We take for granted our cars - until its broken and we have to take the bus or walk
We take for granted our plumbing - until the water’s turned off and the loo won’t flush
We take for granted our shelter - until we loose the house and have to rough it on the cold streets.
On top of taking so much for granted, we have the nerve to disobey God. It’s not enough that we’re often thankless, we go and turn our backs on him to pursue our own agendas. We have a stubborn and rebellious heart. One that we were born with, but one that needs to be dealt with.
What kind of agendas do we pursue? Well lets consider a few of the most common, all of which can be good things, but often are our idols;
Wealth creation - whether its a bigger house or a fatter retirement fund, we chase after the luxurious life rather than the holy life,
Personal Fulfillment - where what we feel and experience takes precedence in our life over truth and justice,
Relationships - when we seek to build romance, family, or friendships instead of building our faith,
Power & control - Trying to make things in life go our way, instead of God’s way.
We live in a land of plenty! And the world screams at us constantly about the benefits of wealth, fulfillment, relationships and control, which are good things in their place, but so often we idolize them and feel like we are entitled to them!
We live in a land of plenty!
Rebel against their provider v24-25
we become complacent and take things for granted while we .
We get sucked into the lies and deceptions of the world, and before you know it we look just like the world, except we have a religious club meeting on a Sunday morning.
We are stubborn and rebellious too
Don’t be complacent!
The slide of Judah into false religion and ungratefulness was easy enough in the hard life of the ancient world. How much easier it is for us in our easy lives be distracted and tangled!
We are not entitled to this life. We are not owed the comforts we enjoy. We don’t deserve what we have.
It comes at the pleasure of the LORD. The blessings are by his hand, whatever good we have is from him.
Will you Fear the Lord? Will you follow him Faithfully?
Will you listen to the one who holds Creation in order?
Will you look to our Provider in thankfulness?
Will you tremble before our mighty God?
If you remember the
Systematic Sin (v26-31)
Systematic Sin (v26-31)
The problems in Judah are exposed, with Jeremiah revealing two examples of their Systematic Sin. Their rebellious heart attitudes are evident in the way they live. It is ingrained in their society.
Example #1: Abuse of Wealth & power
Firstly there is abuse of power and wealth, which is most clearly evident in v28-29
Look,
they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord,
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?”
Jer 15:28-29
These people who have sway in the community, people with wealth and positions of power are abusing it. They are abusing the weak, the people who rely on courts and the structures of society to survive.
These people who have sway in the community, people with wealth and positions of power are abusing it. They are abusing the weak, the people who rely on courts and the structures of society to survive.
If you’re well off, you can usually overcome problems that you might experience, like somebody ripping you off on a business deal, or if somebody stole from you. It might be inconvenient, or frustrating, but usually you can recover.
But you if you have next to nothing, or if there is nobody in your family to look out for you, you need the court system and rules of society. You rely on them to get justice and repayment. It could mean life or death for your family!
Instead of giving the orphans, the poor, the needy justice they make things go whatever way they wish, probably whichever way would get them a bribe I guess.
Instead of giving the orphans, the poor, the needy justice they judge with
This is clearly problematic. This injustice flies in the face of God’s character. God is stepping in to vindicate the people who have been wronged, and he asks that rhetorical question “shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?”
James tells us even now as Christians:
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James tells
Hames 1:27
This is a
God takes the plight of the poor and needy seriously, and he will be their defender and avenger. We who know the character of God have an obligation to represent God’s mercy to those who are in hard times or who are stuck in a hard place in society.
Example #2: Poor priests & prophets
Next we see in v30-31 anther example of systematic sin;
See
An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?
There are prophets and priests who are going their own way. The very representatives of God are doing what is good in their own eyes!
See how this is described? its appalling and horrible!
Example #3: People love it!
They should be delivering the word of God to the people truthfully, and leading people in the proper worship of God, but instead they are leading the people astray. Doing what they like to keep popular, after all, it says the people like it that way! They would rather hear the easy massages from false prophets about peace and prosperity instead of listening to gloomy Jeremiah who prophesies doom and destruction.
Isn’t that always the way though? When given the choice about receiving two conflicting messages, we always take the one we prefer, the one that we like best.
The people want to have their choices in life reinforced, they support the priests and prophets that sound good to them.
No wonder God is going to destroy the nation of Judah, they are corrupt all through! Ungrateful, unfaithful, serving other Gods, unjust, irreverent. The place is a mess. Its messed up in government, in their religious leaders and amongst the population.
It actually sounds alot like where we live. We’re not Israel in the promised land, lets make that clear, but we do live in a world where those with power don’t provide justice for the weak, just look at the QLD parliament this week authorizing baby-murder. They’re not protecting the helpless. Our government hasn’t been doing a great job of promoting righteousness either!
Our religious leaders are telling people what they want to hear, whether its about our sexuality, or about the exclusivity of the Gospel or about how people can use God to get what they want in life.
And, the people love it! People lap up the government unrighteousness applaud Church false-teaching as “progress.”
The
Its an appalling and horrible thing.
We live in a country worthy of God’s judgment.
Our appalling and horrible nation. Sin within and without the Church.
God is going to set things right. At times it feels like we are incapable of making things right, but God says “vengeance is mine, I will repay.”
Friends, Don’t be complacent!
Don’t fall into the trap of going along with the way of society and culture. In an ideal world our society would seek after God and his Ways, but unfortunately that is not the reality. Instead we are in a nation made up of people who are complacently promoting injustice, unrighteousness, and happily listening to false teachers.
What does it mean for us?
What does it mean for us?
Its all a bit depressing isn’t it?
I want you to feel a little of the despair.
Feel a little of the ominous approach of God’s wrath to Judah. Feel the ominous approach of God’s wrath toward this present world.
The End approaches.
Judgment included. Vindication will come. God’s vengeance will come.
There are consequences to being unfaithful, ungrateful and corrupt.
Brother and Sisters, we know that if we repent and put our faith in Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come () we will be secure and saved.
But, Don’t be complacent!
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .
The Bible is full of warnings that we must not take this lightly. There will be people who appear to be on the path to salvation but end up wandering off. There will be people who are lured away by riches and the cares of the world. And Jesus keeps us secure by showing us the stupidity and danger of that path.
If you are a follower of Jesus, we must take seriously the warnings, lest we be like the folks of Judah and receive a justified punishment. Now for them, they received an earthly temporal judgment, which is a picture of the Final Judgment to come. We don’t stand to loose the land of Israel, we stand to loose eternity.
Friends, if I’ve scared you a little bit, then good. It is good to come before our God in fear and trembling. He is not tame, and it is good to be reminded,
to be shaken out of our complacency,
to be warned of the severity of God,
and to see anew just how beautiful his Grace is to us in Jesus Christ, that he would pluck us retched, unrighteous sinners out of the flames of wrath by the cleansing blood of Jesus. Jesus, Son of God lived our righteous life, and the died in our place, for our sin, so that we could have his righteousness and his life. He cleanses us, purifies us and fills us with God’s spirit so that we can live for him.
But it will not be a smooth road into eternal life:
Jesus said
“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
What will you do when the end comes?
Not talking about the trip-ups and repented sins, rather the ongoing and systemic sins.
The wrath of GOd is being revealed from heaven...
Discipline for Sons!
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James 1:27
“ False prophets are the worst enemies of the nation. Their popularity is the last evidence of natural decay” (G. Campbell Morgan, Searchlights from the Word 1942, p239)
Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.