Jeremiah

The Ambassador Group

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.

Wes Peppers

Lansing SDA Church

Thanks-L-iving

If you're breathing today, that means that God has a plan for you.

Sometimes when He is revealing that plan, it seems like all chaos is breaking loose.

But the Lord knows what He's doing, doesn't he?

And sometimes the very thing that we think is breaking us in half is the very thing that is shaping us and molding us and preparing us for the next step.

What do you think about that this morning?

We're going to talk this morning about Thanksgiving.

I was thinking, you know, if I preached a sermon next Sabbath about Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving would be over, right?

So you need to have a sermon about Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving so that you go into Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving.

And besides that, Pastor Walter is preaching next Sabbath, so then I wouldn't have a chance to preach on Thanksgiving.

How many of you are thankful this morning?

All right, so let's have a word of prayer and we will invite you to bow your heads.

I'm gonna kneel as we ask the Lord's blessing.

Father, this morning, We are thankful today for your goodness to us.

We are thankful that despite our trials, despite our problems, despite the winter that has just sprung upon us, we can be thankful.

Lord, we're thankful that as we look outside, we see the pure white of the snow that reminds us of the pure righteousness of Jesus that will cover our sins when we exercise faith in you.

We pray this morning that as we open your word for the next few minutes that you would guide and direct our hearts and that you would help us to understand, Lord, the importance of giving thanks, the importance of being thankful for all things, both good and bad.

So we ask you to guard our hearts today, and we ask this in Jesus' name.

How many of you knew, and I put this in my devotional this week, through the email, how many of you knew that Thanksgiving is actually a prophetic holiday?

Did you know that Thanksgiving was predicted in prophecy?

Some of you are saying, wait a minute, what's this new theology?

Well, actually, in the book of Revelation, you find it to be true.

If you go with me to the book of Revelation, I'm just going to give you a nugget here to introduce us into Thanksgiving.

In Revelation chapter 12, you find a picture of prophecy and also the history of God's church.

From the time of Jesus all the way down to the very final moments of earth's history, God's last day church, you can trace through Revelation 12 the history of the church.

And so I'm not going to read the whole chapter, but most of you have studied this.

If you haven't studied this, come and see me and I'll get you some Bible studies and we'll let you study it.

So in Revelation chapter 12, I'm going to jump to verse 13.

Revelation 12 verse 13, the Bible says, now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the man child.

This is talking actually, I'm going to make a lot of assumptions here, not total assumptions, but I'm assuming that most of you are familiar with this chapter.

Again, if you're not, I'll try to break it down a little bit so that you understand that.

But in chapter 12, verse 13, when you study all the chronology of the prophecy and you line it up with history, you find that chapter 12, verse 13 is actually talking about the early history of the church.

In the first several centuries of the church, there was great persecution.

There was some of the Roman emperors were persecuting Nero and many others, and Christians were under a gun.

They were thrown to the lions, they were crucified in the streets by day, and then lit on fire to light the streets by night.

And so this is describing the first several hundred years of early Christianity.

Then in verse 14 it says, but the woman, who's the woman in prophecy?

It's the church, was given 2 great wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time from the presence of the serpent." And so that's describing, many of us understand, that the time, times, and half a time is describing a period of prophetic history where God's church was in the wilderness.

This is actually talking about the dark ages.

I could show that to you more detailedly, but for the sake of time this morning, I'm just making the points, okay?

So that's during that time of 538 to 17 what?

538 to 1798, a period of 1260 years in which God's church was in the wilderness and it was being persecuted by another system on the earth.

Alright, if you haven't studied that, if that's confusing to you, talk to me afterwards, we'll get you some Bible studies.

And then it says, So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.

So if he's spewing a flood of people out of his mouth, those are probably not righteous people, right?

So there were people that were coming to persecute and attack God's people, the church, during that time of wilderness, yes?

Now as we look into history during the Dark Ages, from the 500s on down to the 16 and 1700s, was there persecution throughout history, yes or no?

God's people were in darkness, they were in the wilderness, and they were being persecuted by this other power.

But notice what happens here in verse 16.

So in verse 15 it's telling us about that persecution.

It says, we don't know, it says in the earth opened its what?

"...the flood which the dragon spewed out of his mouth." So what time period here are we talking about?

Now, if you look at the word earth there, it says the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood.

Where else in Revelation do we find the word earth?

And it talks about in verse 11 of chapter 13, I saw another beast coming up out of the what?

The water symbolizes a very populated area.

Now, if you go through all the descriptive points of Revelation chapter 13 and that second power that rises up from the earth, you find very clearly, very specifically, very detailedly that it represents none other than who?

How many of you have studied that before?

If you've not, I'll be glad to study that with you, or 1 of our Bible workers or our assistant pastor.

And so this represents the United States, the second beast coming up out of the what?

Some of you look a little sleepy, a little dull.

You've been off from me for a couple of weeks here.

So now it's time to get you back on track.

Now, jumping back to chapter 12, verse 16, it says, what helped the woman?

Ivor Myers

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Sabbath - A Day of Mercy

How many of you have been blessed this Sabbath day?

I want to talk to you today about true worship.

By the way, how many of you enjoyed that testimony on the screen just now?

And I think that God wants the world to know who his people are.

I know that as I was here today and just looking at the expression on people's faces as they were being served, I saw joy in so many different ways.

I saw joy on the faces of people serving.

And I think that today was truly a special day.

I believe the Lord wants us to be joyful.

So Let's just have a word of prayer and we're gonna get into the message for this evening.

Heavenly Father, please bless this message.

How many of you would like to have joy in your life at all times no matter what the circumstance?

Yeah, that sounds pretty difficult, right?

I'm not going to share with you the whole story.

I'm just going to share with you a piece of the story And then I will conclude the story at the very end of the message.

Okay Talking about joy It was Saturday morning.

I Just concluded the worship service And I had gotten in my car and not to go home.

I was going someplace else, but I wasn't quite sure where I was going so I know you're now going like well why would you be driving if you didn't know where you were going I didn't know where I was going and I was talking to the Lord as I did not know where I was going because I was asking the Lord show me where to go and As I was talking to the Lord I came up to a stop sign and as I came up to the stop sign and stop the car and I'm talking to the Lord, suddenly, out of nowhere, I get hit from behind.

And as my head was going forward, in my mind I said, thank you, Jesus.

And now you're looking at me like I'm crazy I understand pause the story And we'll pick up with that towards the end of this message.

There is a verse in the Bible and it tells us that the joy of the Lord is your what?

So if we want to be strong in the Lord, what do we have to have?

It's found in the book of Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 10.

So let me read it to you Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 10 the Bible says then he said unto them go your way eat the fat and drink the sweets and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy unto the Lord.

Neither be ye sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

I believe that the greatest way to have joy is by knowing the character of Jesus.

When you know the character of Jesus, you not only receive joy, but you can also give joy.

Listen, I want to share with you the context of Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10.

So bear with me as I read from verse 8 The context is that the children of Israel have just come out of Babylonian captivity and their old ways are being restored They find the book of the law and Nehemiah is now reading the book of the law to them in their hearing and when they hear the words they are overwhelmed because of their own wickedness, their own sinfulness.

In verse 8 it says, So they read in the book, in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense of it to understand the reading and Nehemiah which is the church of God and Ezra the priest the scribe and the Levites that talk of people set out all the people listen carefully this day is holy unto the Lord your God.

Mourn not nor weep for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.

So Nehemiah is saying, hey guys listen, this day is a what kind of a day?

Holy, therefore do not mourn, do not weep.

Then he said unto them, go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet.

In other words, he was saying eat the good.

And send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.

In other words, and for those who have nothing, send unto them so that they can be joyful too.

Reading on, it says, for this day is holy unto the Lord neither be sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength so the Levites still all the people saying hold your peace for the day is holy neither be ye grieved and all the people went there with the eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great mirth because they had understood the words that were declared unto them This idea of celebrating and sharing your blessings with others because of the holiness of the Lord goes back to the book of Deuteronomy.

And it says here, And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant.

Does this verse sound familiar to anyone?

It says that the Levite that is within thy gates and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are among you in the place which the Lord thy God has chosen to place his name there and thou shalt remember that thou was a bondman and agent and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

So the Lord commanded that his people should rejoice because of these holy days.

I want to read to you another example very quickly.

The Bible says, But the Jews that were at Shishan assembled together on the 13th day thereof, and on the 14th day thereof, and on the 15th of the same, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

Therefore the Jews of the villages that dwelt in the upper old towns made the 14th day of the month Hedar a day of gladness and feasting and a good day and of sending portions 1 to another.

It says, As the days were in the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, And from morning into a good day that they should make them days of feasting and joy and send portions 1 to another and gifts to the poor.

Part of God's Description of the people of God being joyful was to share that joy with others Yeah, that was how they were to be joyful by themselves.

They were to spread the joy Now why do I share this because there is a there is a Commandments found within the 10 Commandments that has, as it were, this built-in mechanism of joy and it is, guess what commandment?

Let me read it to you it's found in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 14 and 15 I'm reading that version for a particular reason.

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