The Ambassador Group

Jeremiah

00. Jeremiah: Introduction

01. Jeremiah: The Prophetic Calling of Jeremiah

02. Jeremiah: The Crisis Within and Without

03. Jeremiah: The Last Five Kings of Judah

04. Jeremiah: Rebuke and Retribution

05. Jeremiah: More Woes for the Prophet

06. Jeremiah: Symbolic Acts

07. Jeremiah: The Crisis Continues

08. Jeremiah: Josiah’s Reforms

09. Jeremiah: Jeremiah’s Yoke

10. Jeremiah: The Destruction of Jerusalem

11. Jeremiah: The Covenant

12. Jeremiah: Back to Egypt

13. Jeremiah: Lessons from Jeremiah

Welcome to another in-depth exploration of the book of Jeremiah.

Edited for audio and produced by the Ambassador Group.

Lessons from Jeremiah Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness, a king shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

Jeremiah 23 verse 5, the New King James Version We are now at the end of our study of Jeremiah.

A lot of drama, emotion, and energy has been expended in the saga of our prophet.

Like all the prophets, Jeremiah didn't write in a vacuum.

His was a message from the Lord and for people at a specific time and place and under specific circumstances.

And yet, however radically different his circumstances were from ours, or from those of the many other generations who have read Jeremiah, crucial principles expressed there are the same for God's people in every generation, such as faithfulness to God and obedience to His commandments, such as true religion, a religion of the heart, as opposed to empty and dead rituals that can leave people in a false state of complacency, such as the people's willingness to listen to correction, even when it cuts across what they want to hear, such as true revival and reformation, such as trusting in the Lord and his promises instead of the arm of flesh, such as the list goes on.

In this exploration, let's take a look at some of the many lessons we can learn from this revelation of God's love for His people, even amid many thunderous warnings to them about where their actions will lead.

♪♪ 7th Day Adventists understand that at the center of the great controversy exists a crucial issue.

Is he the arbitrary tyrant that Satan makes him out to be?

Or is he a loving and caring father who wants only the best for us?

These questions really are the most important questions in the entire cosmos.

After all, what would our situation be If God were not kind and loving and self-sacrificial, but mean and arbitrary and sadistic, we'd be better off if no God existed then to have 1 like that.

So, the questions are of huge importance.

Fortunately, we have the answers, and they are best seen at the cross.

Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of God, the Majesty of Heaven, He whom Cherub and Shining Seraph delighted to adore, humbled himself to uplift fallen man, that he bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of his father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke his heart and crushed out his life on Calvary's cross, that the Maker of all worlds, the arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside his glory and humiliate himself from love to man, will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe." The book is entitled, The Great Controversy, page 651.

How is the nature and character of God revealed in the following texts in Jeremiah?

That is, what do these texts tell you about God?

Jeremiah 2, verse 13, For my people have committed 2 evils, they have abandoned, rejected me, the fountain of living water, and they have carved out their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Do you not tremble in awe in my presence?

For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the seas, an eternal decree, and a perpetual barrier beyond which it cannot pass.

Though the waves of the sea toss and break, yet they cannot prevail against the sand ordained to hold them back.

Though the waves and the billows roar, yet they cannot cross the barrier.

Jeremiah 11, verse 22 Therefore Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I am about to punish them.

Their sons and their daughters will die by famine.

Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 3, the New International Version.

Jeremiah 31 3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

I have drawn you with unfailing kindness." Jeremiah 3, 7 I thought, after she has done all these things, She will return to me.

But she did not return, and her treacherous, faithless sister, Judah, saw it.

These are just a few of the many images and expressions used in the book that reveal to us something of the nature and character of our God.

He is the source of life, the powerful Creator, a God of judgment, a God who loves us and calls us over and over to repent of our sins and to turn away from the paths that will lead to our destruction.

What evidence have you seen in your own experience of God's loving character?

Rituals and Sin Remember the name Terry Eagleton?

Here's another quote from his book entitled Reason, Faith, and Revolution.

Reflections on the God Debate, page 8 in the Kindle edition.

There is a document that records God's endless, dispiriting struggle with organized religion, known as the Bible.

And that's because the religion of the Bible, the religion that God has given humanity, has always been an organized religion.

On the other hand, There is no question that in the book of Jeremiah, the Lord was seeking to get people away from the cold, dead, but very organized rituals that came to dominate their faith, Rituals that they believed covered their sin.

As said earlier, yet it is worth repeating, the vast majority of Jeremiah's struggles were with leaders and priests and people who believed that because they were the chosen ones of God, the children of Abraham, the covenant people, they were just fine with the Lord.

Galatians 3, verse 29 connects us to that group.

And if you belong to Christ, if you are in Him, then you are Abraham's descendants and spiritual heirs according to God's promise.

What a sad deception, 1 that we, also of Abraham's seed, need to watch out for.

What is the message of these 2 texts in Jeremiah?

More important, how can we apply the principles in our own walk with the Lord?

Jeremiah 6, 20 For What purpose does frankincense come to me from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a distant land?

Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not sweet and pleasing to me.

Text 2 Jeremiah 7 1-10 New International Version This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message.

Hear the word of the Lord, all ye people of Judah, who come through these gates to worship the Lord.

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says.

Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.

Do not trust in deceptive words and say, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

And if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors forever and ever.

But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.

Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known?

And then come and stand before me in this house which bears my name and say, We are safe?

For another perspective and another translational approach, let's listen to the new living translation of Jeremiah chapter 7, verses 9 and 10.

Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours, and then come here and stand before me in my temple and chant, we are safe, only to go back to all those evils again?

If 1 ever wanted to find a situation that fits what has been called cheap grace, The term certainly applies to these verses.

The people do all these sinful things and then come back to the temple and worship the true God and claim forgiveness for their sins?

Unless these people change their ways, especially how they treat the weak among them, they are going to face harsh judgment.

They believe that they can claim God's forgiveness and go on doing what they want without regard to the conditions of the covenant so that they can continue on in those sins.

What is the difference between what Jeremiah is warning about and Matthew chapter 9 verse 12, when Jesus said, Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but only those who are sick.

Why is it important to know that difference?

♪ ♪ Religion of the Heart So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Romans Chapter 14, Verse 12, The Amplified Bible So much of the book of Jeremiah is directed toward the nation as a whole.

Time and again he talked about Israel and Judah corporately as God's choice vine.

Jeremiah 2.21, the New International Version, or The Beloved of the Lord.

Chapter 11.15 and Chapter 12.7 God's Own Heritage.

15 and 12 and 7), God's own heritage 12 and 7-9, His vineyard Jeremiah 12 and 10, and His flock Jeremiah 13 and 17.

Without doubt, in the book of Jeremiah we get a sense of the corporate nature of the Lord's calling to this nation.

Of course, it's the same in the New Testament, where time and again the Church is understood in a corporate sense.

Here are 3 examples in the book of Ephesians from the Amplified Bible.

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22, And he put all things in every realm in subjection under Christ's feet, and appointed him as supreme and authoritative head over all things in the church.

Ephesians 3 10 So now through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God in all its countless aspects might now be made known, revealing the mystery known, revealing the mystery to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

And Ephesians 5, verse 27, So that in turn he might present the church to himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy, set apart for God, and blameless.

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Jeremiah

13. Jeremiah: Lessons from Jeremiah

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