If you've got a Bible, turn to Jeremiah.
If you haven't got a Bible, you're really going to need one.
And so our stewards are there.
Stick up a paw, stick up a hand, and they can hand you a Bible.
If you look at it on your phone, you'll probably struggle to follow it.
So if you need a paper Bible, don't be embarrassed.
Okay.
It's Paige.
What page is it?
Jeremiah 2.
Six to eight.
Every marriage goes through difficult times.
Every marriage goes through periods where you seem to be arguing all the time,
or periods where you seem to be arguing more.
And arguments reoccur.
Maybe you're in your marriage going through that right now.
In 23 years, I've only ever met one couple that told me that they never argued,
and they never had argued.
They were lying.
And if they weren't lying, there was something really, very seriously wrong.
Every marriage goes through difficult times.
Jeremiah 2 to six is a conversation between a married couple.
It's like a conversation between a married couple that have been arguing, fighting for years.
And the conversation is not complicated.
There's three, really, points to the argument.
One is, it's over.
Two, come back to me.
And three, enough is enough.
It's over.
Come back to me.
Enough is enough.
Chapter 2, verse 1 to chapter 3, verse 5.
It's over.
I should imagine a husband coming into his wife and saying,
there's something I need to say, and there's something I need to tell you.
Her heart sinks.
That's chapter 2, verses 1 to 13.
The word of the Lord came to me.
Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem.
Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not so.
But even we know that in the story of God's marriage to Israel,
when it began, all was not sweetness and light.
But compared to what comes next, it was pure joy.
The metaphor switches, and the people of God are described as a toxic harvest.
And in a throwback to the Garden of Eden,
all who ate of it incurred guilt.
Disaster came upon them.
God's word becomes even more plain as he addresses them in verse 5.
What wrong did your fathers find in me?
That they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless.
Jeremiah uses the Ecclesiastes word.
Vanity of vanities.
This relationship is only going one way,
and he highlights their ingratitude, and their amnesia, and their stupidity.
Verse 6, they did not say,
where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness?
Verse 7, and I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruit and its good things,
but when you came in, you defiled my land,
and made my heritage an abomination.
The priests, they don't seek God.
The Bible preachers don't know God.
The kings defy God.
The prophets don't speak for God.
And according to verse 9,
God has a significant problem with this.
Even on a basic level,
this is self-evidently wrong.
Verse 10,
he says,
And God's conclusion is cutting.
Verse 12,
I think there is no more helpful or damning analysis of sin in the whole of the Bible than that verse.
Sin is defying and abandoning God,
and it is choosing to be our own God in his place.
And the image highlights the utter foolishness of this.
So imagine,
and you're really thirsty,
and there is a gushing spring of fresh water that is beside you.
But you embark on the ultimately futile,
back-breaking project of digging out your own rainwater tank.
It's a rainwater tank which will never hold water,
and yet you keep digging it.
Can you see the utter stupidity of sin?
Many of us slip into an entirely kind of unreformed,
unbiblical, works-based way of living.
Each day, we don't have a problem.
Maybe you don't have a problem with thinking,
I'm not perfect.
I know that much.
And we may even reflect,
we give ourselves a score out of 100.
That was a 90% day.
Today was a shocker.
I only reached 63%.
The Bible does describe sin as falling short,
a shortfall.
And that is right,
but it can actually flatter you.
I would rather think of myself as doing well but falling short than an idiot.
An idiot who's broken faith with God
and set myself up at the heart of the universe.
At the heart of sin,
according to God through Jeremiah,
it is cosmically stupid.
And sometimes we flatter ourselves,
don't we?
I just fall short.
But actually, no, Jeremiah says,
sin is cosmically stupid.
And if we live with this moment to moment,
we will take our sin incredibly seriously.
And when confronted with our sin,
we won't minimize it.
When we become aware of our sins,
we won't take refuge that,
well, we did well,
just not well enough.
We won't say,
well, yeah,
I fall into sin,
but look at all the good I do.
Because when we do that,
we are not addressing the heart of the issue.
We won't face the fact
that we have been
distinctly,
catastrophically stupid.
Jeremiah
causes you and I
to embrace the fact
that we reject God
and we deify ourselves.
We are guilty of unbelief
on the one hand
and idolatry on the other hand.
And we do it again
and again
and again.
The painful conversation
goes on in verse 14.
Instead of seeking security
in God,
Israel have made alliances
with all kinds of nations.
They've pressed
the diplomatic
self-destruct button.
And it's got consequences.
Look at verse 15.
The lions,
they're metaphorical lions,
the lions have roared
against them.
They've roared
loudly.
And they've come in,
they've trashed your country.
And they've made
his land a waste,
his cities in ruins
without inhabitants.
Moreover,
the men of Memphis
and Tehaphanes
have shaved the crown
of your head,
they've humiliated you.
And you've brought this
upon yourself
by forsaking the Lord
your God
when he led you in the way.
And now,
what do you gain
by going to Egypt
to drink the waters
of the Nile?
Or what do you gain
by going to Assyria
to drink the waters
of the Euphrates?
Your evil will chastise you.
And your apostasy
will reprove you.
Know and see
that it is evil
and bitter
for you to forsake
the Lord your God.
The fear of me
is not in you.
And there are
very few of us
that enjoy
hard conversations.
There are fewer
still of us
that enjoy
our hearts
being ripped open
and torn
into tiny pieces.
But that is the kind
of thing
that's going on here.
God lays out
the reality
of Israel's
past and present
in a way that can be
neither denied
or ignored.
In chapter 2
in verse 20
to 37
there's a long section
and it's actually
quite easy
to pick your way
through it.
Jeremiah
builds this case
on seven statements
that Israel makes.
Verse 20
For long ago
I broke your yoke
and burst your bonds
but you said
I will not serve.
Yes,
on every hill
and under every green tree
you bowed down
like a whore.
And God's assertion
in verse 22
is despite all this
scrubbing
the stain of your guilt
is still before me.
Israel speaks again
and they say
I'm not unclean.
I haven't gone
after the bales
but God says
in verse 24
you're like a randy donkey.
And their third statement
in verse 25
confirms
that assessment.
It is hopeless
for I've loved foreigners
and after them
I will go.
It's just the way I am.
And the people of God
continue to give themselves
away by their ideology.
Verse 26
they're kings
they're officials
they're priests
they're prophets
who say to a tree
you are my father
who say to a stone
you gave me birth.
And in the light of that
their plea to arise
and save
sounds well ridiculous
and presumptuous.
And they've repeatedly
asserted their independence.
The sixth statement
in verse 31
says
we are free
we will come
no more to you
the relationship
is well
and truly over.
There's no repentance
no self-awareness
no recognition
of reality
and finally
verse 34
in spite of all these things
you say
I'm innocent.
Surely his anger
has turned
from me.
God says
it is
over.
Chapter 3
verse 1 to 5
sums it up
not only is the honeymoon
over
the whole marriage
is over.
If a man divorces
his wife
she goes from him
and becomes
another man's wife
will he return to her?
Would not that land
be greatly polluted?
Again
for us
that's Deuteronomy 24
language.
God has prohibited
this kind of behavior.
This language
was there
to protect women
from becoming
like a kind of
marital football
getting kicked around
from one man
to the next
and Jeremiah
uses this text
to say
it's over.
You've played the
whore with many lovers
and would you
return to me
to declare to the Lord
lift up your eyes
to the bare heights
and see
where have you
not been ravished
by the wayside
you've sat
awaiting lovers
like an Arab
in the wilderness
you've polluted
the land
with your vile
whoredom
therefore the showers
have been withheld
and the spring rain
has not come
it's the curse
of the covenant.
You have the
forehead of a whore
you refuse
to be ashamed
have you
not just now
called to me
my father
you are the friend
of my youth
will he be angry
forever
will he be indignant
to the end
behold you've spoken
but you've done
all the evil
that you could.
And at this point
it's really
tempting
to rush
to the New Testament
and ease
the relentless
discomfort
of these chapters
but stop.
stop and let
the relentless
pain of these
words sink in.
God's marriage
has been difficult
for a very long time
God's marriage
to Israel
has been difficult
for a long
long time
they've been fighting
night after night
after night
there's no question
who is at fault
and the disbelief
how can it be over?
You've always
forgiven me
what's different
about this time?
Why can't we have
one more chance?
Another go
but God says
it's over
and what I think
is interesting
and quite disconcerting
is that there are
places in the New Testament
that pick up
on this kind
of language.
The idea
that our relationship
as a church
with God
is a fragile marriage
and so the Apostle John
in Revelation
applies it to the church
and Jesus speaks
to the church
in Ephesus
to the angel
of the church
in Ephesus
and he says
the words of him
who holds
the seven stars
in his right hand
who walks
among the seven
golden lampstands
I know your works
your toil
your patient endurance
and how you cannot
bear with those
who are evil
I know you are
endearingly patient
and bearing up
for my name's sake
and you've not
grown weary
but I've got this
against you
that you've abandoned
the love you had
at first.
Remember therefore
from where you've
fallen repent
and do the works
you did at first
if not
I will come to you
and I will remove
your lampstand
from its place
unless you repent.
And we mustn't
soften those words
by kind of doing
a theological
sleight of hand
about whether
or not
Jesus actually
really means
what he says
and we must
hear those words
as a real warning
against spiritual
adultery
but we must
also recognize
we are not
in the same place
because of
the Lord Jesus
Christ
things have
changed
and we are
his bride
and ultimately
he will not
let his people
go.
John goes on
to say in
Revelation 19
doesn't he
says
hallelujah
for the Lord
our God
the almighty
reigns
and let us
rejoice
and exalt
and give him
the glory
for the marriage
of the lamb
has come
and his bride
has made
herself ready
it was granted
to her
to clothe herself
with fine linen
bright and pure
for the fine linen
is the righteous
deeds of the saints
and the angel
said to me
write this
blessed are those
who are invited
to the marriage
supper of the lamb
and God
will never
say to us
because we are
in Christ
it is over
but the power
and the strange
dark beauty
of Jeremiah
is that it
encourages us
not to run
there too
quickly
it's not exactly
what we might
expect at this
point
in the narrative
but in the wake
of all these
passionate
outbursts
aimed at
convincing
the really
complacent
Judahites
that the writing
is on the wall
and so in chapter
3 and verse
6
God's prophet
calls the people
to repent
come back to me
3 verse 6
to 4 verse 4
the word occurs
14 times
15 times
actually
in different forms
return
this drumbeat
of the call
to repentance
is silenced
only by the fact
that those reading
the final version
of Jeremiah's
work in exile
would know
only too well
that those 15
calls to repentance
were ignored
along with many
others
I don't know
whether you've
had this experience
you are given
a list
to go to the shop
you go to Lidl
and the list
isn't as clear
as you would like it
and so
there are a number
of options
you could
so you
ring your
wife
but she doesn't
answer
and so you ring
again
and she doesn't
answer
and you ring
a third time
and she doesn't
answer
so you ring
your son
and he doesn't
answer
and then you
ring your daughter
and she doesn't
answer
and finally
you ring your
wife again
and she does
pick up the phone
what do you say
oh it's lovely
to speak to you
don't you
the experience
of being ignored
drives me mad
drives you mad
time after time
you ring
and they don't
pick up the phone
well God
presents himself
as a God
who time
after time
is calling
his people
he calls his people
again and again
and again
and they don't
answer
during
Josiah's reign
God
gives
Jeremiah
an insight
into this
what it was
like for him
from his
perspective
and he goes
back to the
days of the
northern kingdom
to Israel
and he says
do you remember
what happened
to the northern
kingdom
Israel
chapter 3
verse 6
have you seen
what she did
the faithless
one
as she went
up on every
hill
and every
under green
tree
she played
the horn
and I thought
after that
she'll come
back
but she didn't
and all the
while her
treacherous
sister
you
in
Judah
you saw
it
you saw
the adulteries
of the
faithless
one
Israel
you saw
that I
sent her
away
with a
decree
of divorce
yet her
treacherous
Judah
you
did not
fear
but she
too went
and played
the whore
because she
took her
whoredom
lightly
she polluted
the land
committing adultery
with stone
and tree
yet for
all this
her
treacherous
sister
Judah
did not
return
to me
with her
whole
heart
but in
pretense
declares
the Lord
do you
hear that
it's
Josiah's
day
great
king
Josiah
Judah
it seems
had learned
nothing
from
the destruction
of Israel
chapter 3
verse 11
faithless
Israel
has shown
herself
more
righteous
than
treacherous
Judah
you do
wonder
don't you
what it
would have
been like
to have
Jeremiah
come
as a
visiting
preacher
he doesn't
pull his
punches
does he
and this
is
Josiah's
day
not
evil
king
Manasseh's
day
it's
not the
reign of
any of
the
hopelessly
idolatrous
kings
these words
are spoken
in the
middle
of
good
king
Josiah's
reform
of the
nation
and God
says
you're
worse
than
Israel
he compares
his
people
with
Israel
I don't
know how
you fight
how that
works
in your
marriage
but I
think
comparing
people
unfavorably
seldom
gets a
positive
response
you are
just like
your
mother
do you
know who
you're
behaving
like
you're
behaving
like
your
dad
I
have
found
that
doesn't
diffuse
the
situation
it
doesn't
tend
to
think
of
course
that's
exactly
what I'm
like
thanks
for
pointing
that
out
I
really
appreciate
that
that's
not
how
I
respond
and so
comparing
Israel
to
Judah
must have
been
deeply
irritating
but it
leads to
an
outpouring
of God's
compassion
go and
proclaim
these
words
towards
the
north
and
say
I
will
not
look
on you
in
anger
for I
am
merciful
declares
the
Lord
I
will
not
be
angry
forever
only
acknowledge
your
guilt
that you
rebelled
against the
Lord
your
God
and you
scattered
your
favours
among foreigners
under every
green tree
that you've
not obeyed
my voice
declares
the Lord
return
oh
faithless
children
declares
the Lord
for I
am your
master
I will
take you
one from
a city
two from
a family
and I
will bring
you into
Zion
god
This is new covenant country.
Let the detail wash over you.
Hear God saying, come back to me and I will fix everything.
Verse 19, how would I set you among my sons and give you a pleasant land?
A heritage, most beautiful of all nations.
And I thought you would call me my father.
And would not turn from following me.
That's not what happened.
So he cries out again, verse 22, which is literally, turn, you turning away sons and I will heal your turnings.
Come back, a day is envisaged.
Behold, we come to you for you are the Lord our God, truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
But there's no softening.
Chapter 4, verse 1, he cries out again, if you return to me, if you just repent, the promise to Abraham will be fulfilled.
Nations will bless themselves in him and in him they shall glory.
God says in verse 3, break up your fallow ground.
And he's drawing on Deuteronomy 10.
Think about this.
Why does God give us all this to go through?
Couldn't Jeremiah have got to the point a bit more quickly?
Couldn't Jeremiah have just said, listen, it's over.
God loves you.
There's plenty of evidence of that.
But this is it.
You're toast.
You're done.
Well, he could accept the extent of his material.
The heightened emotional level.
The chapter after chapter after chapter of this is part of the point.
All of this is here to convey to you this is what God is really like.
And we need to be careful, don't we, reading these prophets.
Because we can never quite grasp what God is like.
John Calvin speaks about when God communicates with us, he lisps.
God lisps to us.
That means he condescends to us.
God lowers himself.
He accommodates himself.
Where God actually gives us the categories to understand something of what he's like.
God is God.
And though we are made in his image, we must never repay the compliment and remake God in our image.
God is not exactly like us.
Westminster Confession of Faith makes this clear.
It says this.
There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his will, his own immutable and most righteous will.
And so on.
God is like us.
But he's not like us.
God cannot be made to suffer or to change from the outside.
God cannot be overcome with passions.
God does not have strong desires that cause him to sort of lose it and behave in an ungodly way.
If you want the technical term, he is impassable.
But God is not dispassionate.
He cares deeply.
God may not have emotions in the way that we do, but God feels things in a higher, purer way.
But he feels things nonetheless.
To lose that is to rip the heart out of the revelation of God in the Bible.
Paul Helm, he's a theologian, he's just died.
He coined the term, themotions.
I think that's quite helpful.
Themotions.
God has themotions.
Like human emotions, but God's vision is higher and purer.
And that's what we see on full display here.
God longs for us in a way that is packed with themotion for his people.
He longs for his people to return to him, to come home to him.
To repent, to realign their lives to his agenda.
So that his great mission to the nations might move forward.
And I do wonder whether this evening we need to be confronted again with what we call the heart of God.
For his people.
Our God is the God who in the human nature of Jesus Christ, freely, willingly, sovereignly,
endued suffering.
Actively taking it to himself.
That ours might be put to an end.
And there is nothing other than the beautifully gratuitous outpouring of his invincible, unsurpassable,
endearing love for his creatures like you and I.
It's the foundation of grace itself.
This is how God is.
Our God is the God who says to people like us in Christ,
come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
My yoke is easy, my burden is light.
And yet our God is also the God who says enough is enough.
And so from chapter 4, verse 5, to chapter 6, verse 30, he brings this section to a close.
And God tells his people in no uncertain terms that even though life seems to be fine and rosy,
judgment is coming.
Chapter 4, blow the trumpet through the land.
Cry aloud and say assemble and let us go into the fortified cities.
Let's run and hide, raise a standard towards Zion.
Flee for safety, stay not, for I bring disaster from the north and great destruction.
And remember, Jeremiah is saying this when things are going well,
and they are prosperous, stable, and safe.
But then there's Jeremiah, the harbinger of doom.
The end is near.
And he does it over and over and over again.
Disaster is coming.
He keeps saying the Babylonians are not only knocking on the door today,
well, they will be, they'll be through the door tomorrow.
If you just glance with me, let me show you this.
Chapter 4, verse 11, God is coming with swift chariots and horses in the form of a Babylonian army.
Chapter 4, verse 23, and following, the earth is about to be uncreated,
and the nation as a whole is going to be trashed.
By chapter 5, verse 10 and 11, the vineyards are going.
The whole nation is being eaten up in chapter 5, verse 15 to 17.
Chapter 6, verse 1 to 5, a siege is about to be led.
There's the sound of marching boots, can you hear them?
And clashing swords.
Chapter 6, verse 21 can be heard even now.
Jeremiah joins excerpts of his preaching over the years.
I don't think he did this in one hit, but he draws together his greatest hits,
and he draws them together to frightening effect.
Chapter 6, verse 23, terror on every side.
That's his nickname.
And what effect?
Nothing.
God's people are so complacent.
Chapter 5, verse 12, they've spoken falsely of the Lord,
and have said, he will do nothing.
No disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.
The prophet will become wind.
The word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them.
It'll happen.
Chapter 5, verse 30.
An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land.
The prophets prophesy falsely.
The priests rule at their direction.
My people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?
Chapter 6, verse 13.
For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain.
And from prophet to prophet, everyone deals falsely.
They've healed the wound by people lightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace.
But all will be overthrown.
And what does Jeremiah have to do?
Well, he patiently explains why all this has happened.
And he piles up the reasons.
4.18.
Your words and your deeds have brought this upon you.
4.22.
For my people are foolish.
They know me not.
They are stupid children.
They have no understanding.
They are wise in doing evil.
5.3.
They refuse to take correction.
They've made their faces harder than rock.
They've refused to repent.
Verse 5.
They've broken the yoke.
Verse 6.
Their transgressions are many.
Verse 7.
When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores.
Verse 8.
They were well fed.
Lusty stallions.
Neighing for their neighbors' wives.
Verse 11.
The house of Israel.
The house of Judah has been utterly treacherous.
Verse 23.
These people are of a stubborn and rebellious heart.
Verse 28.
They've grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds of evil.
Verse 30.
An appalling and horrible thing has happened.
And so it goes on and on.
Chapter 6.
Verse 6.
Cut down the trees.
Cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished.
There's nothing but oppression within her.
Verse 10.
To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear?
Behold, their ears are uncircumcised.
They cannot listen.
And so I hope you feel the relentlessness of these chapters.
Jeremiah wants you to feel like we were there.
Day after day after day after day.
As he announces, God has said enough is enough.
You see, these chapters do not so much explain sin to us,
but they batter us with a sense of seriousness.
With unceasing, unflinching persistence.
Do you feel assaulted by these chapters?
Drained by listening to them?
Do you want it to stop so that you can go to tea and coffee?
Amen.
If you feel like that, good.
Because you're getting it.
They are overwhelming chapters.
And they are designed to be overwhelming chapters.
And they are designed to bring Judah to its senses.
But amidst the warnings,
the declarations of judgment,
and amidst the pleas and the pain,
there's this scarcely perceptible
but persistent note which beeps away in the background.
I don't know whether you've ever had the experience
of having an alarm clock go off in your suitcase.
Do you know that feeling?
And you can hear the beep,
but it's imperceptible,
and you can't hear it,
and you don't know where it is.
But it's going off, isn't it?
You open your suitcase, and there it is.
You turn it off.
And throughout this little passage,
these passages,
and there's this scarcely perceptible
but persistent note
that keeps beeping away in the background.
Sometimes you hear it, sometimes you don't.
You don't know what you're hearing.
Are you hearing it in chapter 4, verse 27?
Can you see that?
The whole land shall be a desolation.
Yet I will not make a full end.
And if you listen carefully,
you can hear it in chapter 5, verse 10,
go up through her vine roads and destroy,
but make not a full end.
And chapter 5, verse 18,
but even in those days declares the Lord,
I will not make a full end of you.
This is not the end of the story.
A day is coming when God will say,
will not say it is over,
and enough is enough,
but God himself will say,
it is finished.
When Babylon herself is fallen and judged for her sin,
when there is no longer terror on every side,
when saying,
peace, peace,
is not wishful thinking,
but reality.
When because of what God has done for us
in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in his life and death and resurrection,
we face not judgment,
but salvation uninterrupted,
uninterrupted,
and ending life with God himself,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Do you remember how John finishes
the book of Revelation,
chapter 21?
And I saw the holy city,
the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them,
and they will be his people.
And God himself will be with them as their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more.
Neither shall there be mourning,
nor crying,
nor pain anymore,
for the former things have passed away.
And that is the hope that the prophet
and preacher Jeremiah will hold out to his people.
But first, they and we must take seriously
the awesome reality of their God,
who is their rescuer,
but is also their judge.
Let's pray.