We're in Jeremiah chapter 16, and we're going to get to chapter 20, I hope, by the end of the sermon.
Next week, your homework is 21 to 25. I'm hoping there's five more sermons in Jeremiah, but we will see.
Jeremiah chapter 16. If you need a Bible, you will need a Bible tonight. They're just by the door, or one of the stewards will bring them to you.
The Lord of the Rings. I've read the books. I've only read them once.
But I've seen the movies multiple times. We try to watch them once a year.
But I was told this week of a family who watched the extended versions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit back-to-back, and no stops at all.
20 hours and 14 minutes. 1,214 minutes. It's too much, isn't it? Just too much, even if you like Lord of the Rings.
If you don't, it's certainly far too much.
It's too much. And I think that's got similarities with Jeremiah 1 to 20.
I don't think there's any sustained stretch of the Bible quite like these chapters, which has been occupying us the last five weeks.
The highly charged emotions, the relentless intensity, the looming reality of terrible judgment, the raw angst of the prophet.
I don't know how you found it. I found it just a little bit too much.
God assaults our emotions and our assumptions through Jeremiah.
Through this prophet, God speaks into the messy world of Judah as they stare down the barrel of a Babylonian exile.
And he tells his spokesman that it's his job to announce to the people who will not listen that it's over.
It's over.
And they're to come back to him, and enough is enough.
And we've watched Jeremiah pouring himself into trying to convince God's people that their religion was killing them.
And he calls them back to the God who can give them life.
He confronts their spiritual hypocrisy and their deafness.
And as he does all this, Jeremiah exposes to us the heart of God.
And he reveals to us what does it mean to serve God, authentic ministry.
And we've seen in Jeremiah something of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The wounded prophet speaks God's word, suffers the pain, does whatever it takes to get the words across,
who sticks to the task, even when it means being broken, and it's almost too much.
These words are an overdose of confronting urgent reality.
And now in chapters 16 to 20, this great wave of intensity reaches its climax.
And we're confronted with not just the shape of what gospel, ministry, church life looks like,
but with the cost of it.
The cost of it.
And I want to walk you through these towering chapters in four steps,
which highlight the cost of serving God our King.
I won't cover every detail, but I want you to get the basic texture of these chapters.
To feel the weight of them.
As again, Jeremiah invites us to listen in as God speaks to him,
and urges and demands that he speak the truth,
and that he embody the truth to his people, and how that will cost him.
And I'm not sure there is anywhere else in the Bible that matches the intensity,
intensity, and the cost of ministry that comes into sharp focus.
We need to feel, and to see, and to grasp.
Now, you know that you are not Jeremiah, and the cost is not identical.
I think we can safely say that none of us will have quite so an important role in salvation history
as the prophet Jeremiah.
But don't forget that there is this basic continuity from the prophets to Jesus.
It is Jesus who pays the ultimate cost.
But that cost is anticipated and sketched out for us ahead of time
by those like Jeremiah who served God faithfully before him.
And then Jesus calls you and I as his people to face up to the real but restricted cost that we have to pay.
There is a connection between the cost that Jeremiah paid before Jesus comes
and the cost that Jesus expects you and I to bear as we follow him on this side of the cross.
So the ministry of Jeremiah in the 8th century BC shows us something of what we can expect.
So first in chapter 16, verse 1 to 21, can you see the cost of being committed?
Flashbacks, flick back to chapter 16, verse 1.
The cost of being committed.
The word of the Lord came to me,
You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.
We don't know if Jeremiah was ever married,
but one thing is clear, there wasn't to be a wife or children for the prophet this side of the exile.
Being committed for Jeremiah meant a real relational cost.
Knowing and speaking the truth meant for Jeremiah that he couldn't just pretend life was going to continue as normal.
He knew that in the words of verses 3 to 5,
that the children of Judah would die of deadly diseases.
And they wouldn't be lamented or buried.
They would lie as dung on the surface of the ground, perishing by the sword or famine.
There'll be food for the birds of the air.
And the sign for that dreadful reality God told Jeremiah was,
Don't get married.
Then in chapter 16, verse 5,
Not only was it a case of no marriage, no sex for the prophet,
but also no sympathy to be shown to the people.
In particular, he wasn't to go to any funerals.
For thus says the Lord God,
Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them,
for I have taken away my peace from this people.
My steadfast love and mercy declares the Lord.
Now, you might not be a fan of funerals,
but think of this for a second.
It's not just a prohibition on going to church services.
God is telling the prophet that he cannot have normal human relationships.
Both great and small shall die in the land.
They shall not be buried.
No one shall lament them, or cut himself, or make himself bald for them.
No one shall break bread for the mourner to comfort him for the dead.
Nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation.
And God is not finished yet.
The ban extends to parties and wedding receptions.
You shall not go, verse 8, into the house of feasting,
to sit with them, to eat and drink.
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Behold, I will silence in this place,
before your eyes and in your days.
The voice of mirth, the voice of gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, silence.
And when the prophet says, why all of this?
What is our iniquity?
What is the sin we've committed?
Jeremiah the party pooper has to pronounce,
because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord.
And they've gone after other gods.
They've saved and worshipped them.
And have forsaken me, and have not kept my law.
Verse 12, and because you've done worse than your fathers,
for behold, every one of you follows your stubborn, evil will,
refusing to listen to me.
Therefore, I will hurl you out of this land.
These are the harsh words that Jeremiah has to announce
to his next-door neighbour, to his community,
his schoolmates, his extended family.
And his life is to match the dark message.
For this is the cost of being committed.
And it's always been like this.
The relationship, the intimacy that the prophet has with God
does come at a cost.
The grace that God pours out in drawing us into his family,
and joining us to Christ, and then sending us out into the world,
always comes with a cost.
For Jeremiah, his ministry specifically affected his marriage,
his future, his social life, even his happiness.
There was a real cost.
And you might be sitting there tonight and thinking,
well, the cost actually is relatively low.
And we live and breathe in an environment
which is pretty unusual in the history of the church.
It has been for the last 200 years, really.
But the cost of being committed to Christ
will at some point go through the roof.
None of us has any idea
what the Lord has in store for us in the years ahead.
But if you are committed to the Lord Jesus,
there will be a cost.
And don't take that from me.
Take it from Jesus himself.
Luke 14, if anyone comes to me
and doesn't hate his own father and mother,
wife and children, brother and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not bear his own cross
and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you desiring to build a temple
does not first sit down and count the cost,
whether he's enough to complete it.
Otherwise, when he's laid a foundation
and he's not able to finish it,
all who see it will mock
and say this man began to build
and he wasn't able to finish.
Or what king going out to encounter another king
in a war will not sit down first
and count the cost of war?
So therefore, any of you
who does not renounce all that he has
cannot be my disciple, Jesus Christ.
Being committed to the Lord Jesus
complicates your relationships.
It introduces tensions with parents, siblings.
It can make life with your spouse more painful.
In some cases, it can narrow down
your marriage options to virtually nil.
Following Jesus complicates family life,
upping the demands on us as fathers
and husbands and wives and mothers
and brothers and sisters.
Being committed to Christ
will drastically affect your finances,
your career path, and your ego.
Being committed to Jesus
may well cost you your life.
So why put up with this?
Why is this a cost worth paying?
And it's a slightly surprising answer
that God gives to Jeremiah,
a compelling answer to that question
in the middle of all his own tension.
Why should he put up with this?
We'll look at chapter 16, verses 14 and 15.
And therefore, behold,
the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when it shall no longer be said,
as the Lord lives,
who brought up the people of Israel
out of the land of Egypt,
but as the Lord lives,
who brought up the people of Israel
out of the north country
and out of the countries
where you've driven them,
for I will bring them back
to their own land,
and I will give to them,
give to their fathers,
that I give to their fathers.
God says to Jeremiah,
remember the pain now
is the precursor to the joy
that will eventually follow.
Yes, there is judgment now,
but there will be dramatic salvation to come,
which leads Jeremiah to cry out,
verse 19,
O Lord, my strength, my stronghold,
my refuge in the day of trouble.
To you shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth
and say,
our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
worthless things in which there is no profit.
Can man make for himself gods?
Such are not gods.
Therefore, behold,
I will make them know this once.
I will make them know my power on my mouth,
and they shall know,
the nation shall know,
that my name is the Lord.
A day is coming
when the Lord will be recognized
and acknowledged and worshipped
by people from all nations.
And that is why Jeremiah
can put up with the sacrifices,
the abuse,
the pain,
the angst.
It's all worth it
because of what God will do.
Or to sharpen it slightly,
for us,
it's actually worth it
because of Jesus.
And we can easily lose sight
that we belong to Jesus Christ.
And we've been rescued by Jesus Christ.
And we are united by faith
to Jesus Christ.
And we will worship Jesus Christ
around his throne forever.
And sometimes I think
you wouldn't actually know
that we love Jesus Christ.
It is Jesus himself
who makes it worthwhile
following him.
It is Jesus who calls us
to take on his yoke.
It's ultimately about Jesus.
And I wonder if it could be tonight
that you've lost sight of that
and lost sight of him.
And if we've lost sight of him,
then we'll think
the cost is not worth paying.
Unless our gaze
is fixed on Jesus'
beginning and end,
then sooner or later
it will all just seem too much.
It is Jesus
who makes the cost
of being committed
more than worth it.
Secondly,
as is the cost
of embracing the message.
In the next section
of chapter 17,
1 to 18,
the focus is on this
fused words
of God and Jeremiah.
Because remember in Jeremiah
you flip back
and fall
between Jeremiah's words
and God's word
almost without distinction.
It's hard to work out
which is which sometimes.
The focus shifts
from what Jeremiah
must give up
and put up with
to what Jeremiah
actually needs to embrace
at the deepest level
of his personality.
And it all revolves
around the nature
of the human heart.
The chapter begins
with an expose
of the sins of Judah.
The sin of Judah
is written
with a pen of iron,
with a point of a diamond.
It's engraved
on the tablet
of their heart.
And their sin
spills out
from there
in a whole manner of ways.
But it starts
with a heart problem.
And in that,
Judah is typical
of all of us.
That's made clear
in verses 5 to 7,
isn't it?
What do 5 and 7
remind you?
It's Psalm 1 language.
Cursed is the man
who trusts in man
who makes flesh his strength
whose heart turns away
from the Lord.
Verse 7,
Blessed is the man
who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is in the Lord.
He's like a tree
planted by water
that sends out its root
by the stream
and so on.
So the covenant-keeping
man is blessed.
The covenant-breaking
man is cursed.
The problem is,
of course,
and this is the lesson
Judah should have learned
from Israel
and we should have learned
from Judah
is that we are all
the covenant-breaking man.
And it's because
of our hardness
of heart.
In the Bible,
the heart
is the control center
of our personality.
The heart is where we think.
The heart is where we decide.
And it makes
chapter 17,
verse 9,
all the more confronting
and damning.
Can you read it with me?
Look at this.
The heart is deceitful
above all things
and desperately sick.
Who can understand it?
And that is the message
that Jeremiah
and we are called to embrace.
Because God searches
our hearts,
verse 10 to 13,
and he will judge us.
Yet there is hope
for those who don't
forsake God.
But like Israel,
like Judah,
we surely,
even though we know
he's the fountain
of living water,
we turn away.
Why?
Because the heart
is deceitful
above all things
and desperately sick.
And who can understand it?
There is no more difficult,
no more painful,
no more costly truth
to embrace from this.
But embrace it,
we must.
You may have not
thought about it
in this way.
But embracing
Jeremiah 17,
verse 9,
may well be
the hardest thing
that you ever have to do.
We are hardwired,
aren't we,
to think well of ourselves.
And we instinctively
excuse ourselves.
Without a moment's hesitation,
we are all able
to explain how
circumstances have conspired
to make us behave badly.
How our actions
look so much worse
than they actually are.
If only you knew
what was going on
in my heart,
you wouldn't see
that it's that bad.
You would see
that I'm much nicer
than you currently think.
But for the sake
of our long-term
spiritual health,
there's nothing
more vital or urgent,
no more painful,
no more ultimately
more freeing
than this truth.
What does it look like
if we embrace this truth?
Well, perhaps,
speaking about
what it looks like
if we haven't
embraced this truth
is easier.
We wander through life
in this kind of haze
of self-congratulation
and self-justification.
We give ourselves
license to act
as if we're nicer
than we really are.
Do you talk too much
about yourself?
Or do you ask questions?
Do you constantly
talk yourself up
and others down?
Do you assume
that you know best?
Instinctively,
do you know,
do you seek
the wisdom of others?
They're hard questions,
aren't they?
Do you resist facing
and owning
your own sins
and instead point out
the sins of others?
Or will you
deliberately
and courageously
face and own
your sin
and seek
to encourage others
to find great
as they do the same?
That's the basic
choice we face.
Whether or not
to face the reality
of our sinfulness
and the truth
of Jeremiah 17,
verse 9.
No decision,
no doctrine,
no admission
matters more
in real time
than the real world
for the future
of your life
with Christ
than this.
Killing off
self-love
will allow
the Holy Spirit
to take this truth
and plant it deep
in us
so that it explodes
at the nerve center
of our spiritual self.
The death
of our pride,
that's no small thing.
And this,
I suggest,
is the reason
why Jeremiah cries out
in chapter 17,
verse 14.
Look what he says.
He says,
Heal me, O Lord,
and I shall be healed.
Save me,
and I shall be saved.
For you, my praise.
It's hard to embrace
this message.
The cost of embracing
and speaking
the truth about sin,
verse 15.
Behold,
they say to me,
where is the word
of the Lord?
Bring it on,
let it come.
I've not run away
from being a shepherd,
nor have I desired
the day of sickness.
You know what came
out of my lips.
It was before your face.
I spoke about all this,
and they attacked me.
It's so hard,
Jeremiah says.
Be not a tarry to me.
You are my refuge
in the day of disaster.
Let those be put to shame
who persecute me.
Let me not be put to shame.
Let them be dismayed,
but let me not be dismayed.
Bring upon them
the day of disaster.
Destroy them
with double destruction.
For Jeremiah,
the only relief
and the only vindication
in the face of his enemies
is the coming judgment.
For you and I,
it is a bit different.
For us,
the cost of embracing
this message
is instantly met
with the tender
forgiveness of Jesus,
running to Christ
in repentance
and faith
in the light
of this brings.
James sums it up,
doesn't he?
James says,
and God opposes the proud.
He wants nothing to do with them,
but he gives grace
to the humble.
He can't keep away from them.
Submit yourselves,
therefore,
to God.
Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God,
and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hearts,
you sinners.
Purify your hearts,
you double-minded.
Be wretched.
Mourn,
weep.
Take Jeremiah 17,
verse 9,
to heart.
Let your laughter
be turned to mourning,
and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves
before the Lord,
and he will exalt you.
It's the sweet,
sweet cost
of embracing
the message
of the gospel,
and finding relief
in Jesus Christ himself.
The third aspect
of the cost
is in verses 19 and 27,
and you see the cost
of calling for a response.
Jeremiah switches
back to prose
and records
how he urges
God's people
to respond specifically
to his teaching,
and he calls
for a very particular response.
You pick up the thread
in 17,
verse 19.
Thus said the Lord to me,
go and stand
in the people's gate
by which the kings of Judah
enter,
and by which they go out,
and in all the gates
of Jerusalem,
and say,
hear the word of the Lord,
you kings of Judah,
and all Judah,
and all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem
who enter by these gates.
Thus says the Lord,
take care for the sake
of your lives,
and do not bear a burden
on the Sabbath day,
or bring it in
by the gates of Jerusalem.
Keep the Sabbath day holy,
as I commanded your fathers.
Yet they did not listen
or incline their ear,
but stiffened their neck
that they might not hear
and receive instruction.
It's classic Deuteronomy.
He says,
you'll be blessed
if you obey,
you'll be cursed
if you disobey.
If you obey,
there will be
Davidic kings
ruling in Jerusalem,
and everyone will be happy.
If you disobey,
you'll go into exile.
In all likelihood,
this is one of his
earliest sermons,
where there's still
some hope
that people might listen.
And what happens,
what's the response
to this sermon
by this great preacher?
We'll look at the end
of chapter 17,
and you'll see nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
And Jeremiah
preaches his heart out.
He preaches his heart out,
knowing something
that we never will,
knowing that every syllable
that comes out of his mouth
has come from God himself.
It's truly an inspired sermon,
and the result is nothing.
God's people don't
pay any attention at all.
They keep careering
to the curse of exile.
And how hard
that must have been.
I don't know
if you realize
this,
but there is,
isn't there,
an emotional cost
to calling people
to respond.
Every time you urge
people to repent
and believe,
every time you lay
before them
the stunning beauty
of our God and King,
and you invite them
to gasp in amazement,
every time you seek
to persuade people
to bring every part
of their lives
under the lordship of Jesus,
whether it's parenting,
whether it's
talking about
your children's
social media activity,
whether it's
talking about giving,
whether it's
talking about our priorities
in life,
every time you proclaim
God's word
in whatever context,
and you call for response,
you're laying yourself
wide open.
What are you laying
yourself wide open to?
Discouragement,
disappointment,
self-doubt,
self-recrimination.
There is a cost
to calling people
to respond.
And nowhere,
I think,
in the Bible
is that clearer
than in the life
and ministry of Jeremiah.
It's not just sharing
what you've learnt.
There's this horrific phrase
in,
oh,
I go to preach places,
and they say,
well,
now Paul will come
and explain the Bible
as if I'm some kind
of English teacher.
That's not what
preaching is at all.
It's much,
much more than that.
It's not just sharing
what you've learnt,
but persuading others
to take hold of the truth.
As God takes hold
of our hearts,
so we long,
don't we,
for others to respond
in the same way too.
And that's what it means
to follow Christ,
to speak the words of Christ,
to weep the tears of Christ,
to suffer the pain of Christ
in the strength
that he supplies.
And then in chapters 18 to 20,
there's the cost
of saying the hard thing.
The final cost.
In a way,
the cost of saying hard things,
but that's what he does.
And it reaches a real climax
in this long section.
Jeremiah has to arise.
He goes to the potter's house
in chapter 18,
verse 2,
where the potter
is having another go
at his first messed up pot.
Oh,
house of Israel,
can I not do with you
as this potter
has done?
God could smash them,
or he could remake them.
It's over to them.
Verse 11.
Now therefore,
say to the men of Judah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
thus says the Lord,
behold,
I'm shaping disaster
against you
and devising a plan
against you.
Return everyone
from his evil way.
Amend your ways
and your deeds.
And unfortunately,
God already knows
what their response
is going to be.
Verse 12.
But they say,
this is in vain.
We'll follow our own
but it's announcing
judgment to God's people.
And he does it again.
Well,
what happens to him?
Shock,
horror.
Verse 18,
they attack him.
Come,
let's make plots
against Jeremiah.
For the Lord
shall not perish
from the priest,
nor counsel
from the wise,
nor the word
from the prophet.
We're not going
to give up
everything that everyone
is saying
to believe,
Jeremiah.
Let's strike him
with the tongue.
Let's not pay attention
to any of his words.
Verse 19,
Jeremiah cries out,
hear me,
O Lord,
and listen to the voice
of my adversaries.
Should good be repaid
with evil,
yet they dug a pit
for my life.
Remember how I stood
before you.
Therefore,
deliver up their children
of famine.
Give them over
to the powers
of the sword.
Let their wives
become childless
and widowed.
May their men
meet death
by pestilence.
Their youths
be struck down
by the sword
in battle.
May a cry
be heard
from their houses
when you bring
the plunderer
suddenly upon them.
For they've dug
a pit
to take means.
So on.
Don't forgive them.
Do not blot
out their sin.
Let them be
overthrown before you.
Deal with them
in the time
of your anger,
Lord.
Now I think
on balance,
it's fair to say
this isn't
Jeremiah's finest hour.
But we need
to hold on
to two things.
The first is
that Jeremiah's
enemies
are really
God's enemies.
That he has
brought a direct
word from God
and they've
attacked him.
And that in itself
heightens it
above any situation
that you are
I'll face.
Secondly,
his words are
recorded in part
of the least
to show you
the real cost
of saying
hard things
when they're
obviously true.
Same patterns
repeated in chapter
19.
God tells
Jeremiah
to go and
take some
pottery
and gather
the elders
and priests
and go to
the interestingly
named pottery
fragment gate.
I wonder
what's going
to happen
there.
Chapter 19
verses 3
to 9
brings another
horrific message.
Chapter 10
says,
well then you
shall break
the flask
in the sight
of the men
who go with you
and you shall
say to them,
thus says the
Lord of hosts,
so will I
break this people
in the city
as one breaks
a potter's
vessel.
And then just
for good measure
verse 15,
thus says the
Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel,
behold I'm
bringing upon the
city and upon
all its town
all the disaster
that I've
pronounced against
it,
because they've
stiffened their
neck refusing
to hear my
words.
Jeremiah,
like no other
man in the
Bible,
sticks relentlessly
to a thankless
task of saying
hard things
that it costs
him.
Jeremiah 20,
Pasho,
the priest,
sticks him in the
stocks.
What does he do,
verse 3,
when he's released
from the stocks?
Jeremiah said to him,
the Lord does not
call your name
Pasho,
but terror on
every side.
The Lord is
going to judge
you.
He's got guts,
hasn't he?
And when it's
all over,
Jeremiah collapses
in a heap.
And the words
in chapter 20,
verses 7 to 18,
are probably the
most intense
outpouring of
discouragement
in the whole of
the Bible.
He's drained,
defeated,
depressed,
exhausted,
empty.
Oh Lord,
you've deceived
me,
and I shut up
the word and
it burns within
me.
If I speak it,
they just
mock me.
Verses 11 to 13,
his theology
momentarily kicks
in to steady
him before verse
14,
he plunges deeper
into despair
than ever before.
Cursed be the
man who brought
the news to my
dad,
a son is born
to you,
making him
very glad.
Why did I
come out of
the womb?
Verse 18,
why did I
come out of
the womb to
see sorrow,
toil and sorrow
and spend my
days in shame?
Now imagine
for a moment
you are
Baruch the
scribe,
and you're
writing this
down.
He lifts his
pen and he
says to
Jeremiah,
are you sure?
You want me to
write this
down?
You want me to
include you?
This isn't
exactly you at
your best,
Jeremiah.
And Jeremiah
nods and says,
stays in.
It's exactly how
I felt,
it's what I
said,
it's what it
cost.
And you can
imagine the
same conversation
being rerun
after Jehoiachim
has thrown all
of Jeremiah's
work into the
fire,
and Baruch
is having to
write it out
all again,
and he comes
to the same
bit,
we're at
chapter 20,
Jeremiah,
do you really
want this
in?
It's got to
stay in.
Because Jeremiah
knows that
saying hard
things is
costly.
And often
speaking the
truth of the
gospel into
the lives of
our friends
or relatives
is not
something that
we're thankful
for.
In fact,
we are more
than likely to
be misrepresented
and slandered
and sidelined.
And often
things don't
change when we
speak the
truth,
even when we
speak it
lovingly.
Because when
God is at
work through
his word,
he exposes
and he
confronts,
and he
often breaks
down before
he builds
up.
God's word
in our
lives is
often painful.
And just
as often
those who
speak the
truth into
our lives,
they suffer,
don't they,
the collateral
damage.
You think
about it,
they don't
like it.
You probably
didn't like
it when
your parents
or whoever
it was
spoke God's
truth to
you at
first.
Christ.
But we
are prepared
to say
hard things
lovingly for
the sake of
Jesus Christ.
Well, if we
want to be
faithful, we've
got no
option.
Because as
John says,
whoever follows
Christ must
walk as he
did.
And that just
about brings us
to the end of
this fiercely
intense first
half of
Jeremiah.
From here on,
it seems that
Jeremiah has
embraced the fact
judgment is
coming.
And from
this point
on, he
calmly and
courageously
devotes the
rest of his
life to
persuading his
people, his
peers, that
this is what
is happening.
And he
holds out to
them the
hope.
The hope of
a new
covenant on
the other
side of
judgment.
So what
are we to
make of
this?
Well, I
think we
are to
marvel at
the sheer
commitment of
this man who
paid an
immense cost.
For
speaking the
truth.
To marvel at
him embodying
and living and
teaching the
very words of
God himself.
And he did
it all before
the coming of
the Lord
Jesus.
But we
have, of
course, seen
the one whom
Jeremiah only
caught glimpses
of.
The one whom
as God in
the flesh became
the perfect
suffering servant.
The one who
pressed on
even at points
where Jeremiah
wilted.
The one who
loved where
Jeremiah raged.
Even dying on
a cross for
us.
And it
is this
prophet, the
Lord Jesus
Christ, who
holds the
keys for
us.
Because he
is the
one who's
worth following.
And he
is the one
to whom we
commit ourselves.
And he is
the one we
receive when we
embrace the
message of the
gospel.
And he is the
one who we are
calling people to
respond to.
And he is the
one who calls
us to love
one another
with a real
truthful
costly love.
And he is the
one in whom
and for whom
and through
whom we live
and suffer
and rejoice.
And it is
worth it
because he is
worth it.
His love
has no limit.
His grace
has no measure.
His power
has no boundary.
No none to
man.
For out of his
goodness in
Jesus he
gareth and
gareth again.
The cost
is worth
paying
because he
is worth it.
Let's pray.