Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, let's pray right now as God would speak into our hearts. So, Father, I just want to thank you this morning as we look into your Word, Father, I just pray that you would open the eyes of our understanding, that you would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you that we might get to know you better.
[00:00:18] We recognize that your ways are not our ways and your thoughts are not our thoughts. So as we examine your Word, Father, I pray that we would get a glimpse of into how you work in and through our lives, Father, how youw change us, how youw correct us, how youw transform us, how youw restore and renew us. Father, you are a loving Father, and every good and perfect gift does come from above, and we thank youk for that. Now I pray, Lord, that yout Word would just come alive in each and every heart. May it be like fire in our spirit, Lord. May it be like a hammer breaking down the hardened places of our souls. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name we pray. And God's people said, Amen. Amen. So we're going to look at the book of Jeremiah again. I know some of you are going, wow, you know, it's amazing to me. Chapter 24. Wow. We're moving along. Here's the good news. I'll give you a break next week. It's Thanksgiving Sunday. I'll go somewhere else. How's that? So you won't just be camped in Jeremiah forever.
[00:01:19] So we actually live in a world of continuous struggle and tragedy. How many realize that? And I was. I was just looking up what are some of the greatest challenges that are presenting themselves in 2022. We're not talking about two years ago, last year. We're talking about presently. And I was really surprised to see some of these, you know, statistics. What's happening in our world? 43. 45 million. Sorry, people in 43 nations around the world are living in a state of severe famine. Many of them are starving.
[00:01:51] And, you know, that's a lot of people. That's greater than even the nation of Canada right now, you know, just trying to figure out where they're going to get their next meal. It's a very challenging time in their lives. And then we find out that 82 million people are living in displacement camps. There's so much conflict in our world today. As a matter of fact, there is more active conflict in our world today since right now, the Second World War. This is a time of tremendous conflict, and many people have fled their homes, moved out of their Countries.
[00:02:25] I know some people, maybe, you know, not most of us, probably have never experienced it. But there have been people that I've known in our congregation who know what it's like to live in a war torn situation. Can you imagine not knowing if you're going to survive? Not knowing if a stray bullet will hit you or you know, a rocket shell or a bomb or something, you know, or just an attack? And can you imagine how unstable and how insecure and how fearful it would be to live in an environment like that? And yet we realize that there are some nations right now that are living in that perpetual state of conflict. And some have actually gone on now for decades. Places like Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, these are just to name a few. But there's many others that are involved in major conflict.
[00:03:11] And I think we often live unaware of the suffering that is around us. And when suffering touches our lives, how many know it has a profound impact upon us?
[00:03:22] Illness, divorce, death, financial losses, restrictions that are imposed upon us, maybe due to our age or sickness or a loss of revenue or. Our response is obviously going to be shaped by our perspective. And how many know that when things happen to people, different people respond differently. And it's because you and I are looking at these things through a certain lens.
[00:03:46] How do we see our current reality? How are we moved from despair to hope? I think we need to see how God can take our losses and bring about some very amazing gains. And that's why in title of the sermon, when what we consider a loss becomes a gain. Because a lot of times our perception of life and what we think is bad for us, God may be actually using that in our lives to. To produce good in our lives. That God can transform the ashes of our lives and create beauty out of it. God has an ability to take some of the greatest tragedies and turn them around and bring about renewal and restoration and major transformation in our lives.
[00:04:30] You know, many times God speaks to us in what I would consider the ordinary and the mundane. We're going to see that today in our text.
[00:04:38] Jeremiah now is in deep reflection.
[00:04:40] Probably the nation is as well. They've just had a major thing happen. In this chapter. We're going to hear what's going on in their lives. It was a time of national despair, brokenness, especially for those who had been taken into exile. Now you have to understand, as I shared a number of weeks ago, there was more than one stage to the Babylonian exile.
[00:05:03] And during the middle of it they were taken into exile.
[00:05:09] And we find that those who went into exile, you know, they were in despair. You could see that. But the people that were the remnant who remained in the city of Jerusalem and in the area around there, they continued on to live as if nothing changed in their lives. Isn't that amazing? You know, it's amazing that some people right next door could be in a crisis, and maybe you and I are totally unaffected by it. And that happens all the time. I've always wondered, you know, have you ever done this? You go into a mall, Maybe you don't think like I do, but I go into a mall around Christmas time, and sometimes I'll just be walking along and I'll be seeing these mob of people, and I'll just pause in my mind and I'll say to myself, I wonder how many people today in this mall, right now walking by me are experiencing a major tragedy in their life. I wonder how many have just lost a loved one.
[00:05:56] Or maybe someone has just found out that they have a terminal illness, or maybe someone else has just discovered that their spouse has been unfaithful to them, or maybe their children has done something to disappoint them. And you just don't know the emotional state of people as you're walking by people. Isn't that an amazing thing that you and I can be maybe doing well in our life, but somebody right next to us can be in deep sorrow and deep pain and deep difficulty and. And we might not even be aware of what's happening around us.
[00:06:26] But what may be even worse is that these people that had remained in Jerusalem felt to be blessed of God, while others, they were thinking, maybe what's happened to them, maybe they've warranted it. And I've actually heard that communicated that maybe they deserve that, when in reality that could be all of our fate. We don't realize that. But let's take a look a little bit of the background of our text, and we'll get to our text in a moment. Only 10 verses instead of the 40 we had last week Here. Robert Davidson says, in the year 597 B.C. so the city was destroyed in 586, which literally means it was destroyed 11 years later. But this is in the middle of the Babylonian rise as an empire, there was a brief siege. King Jehoiachin surrendered the city of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. And I'm just going to remind us that he was 18 years old and he had been serving for three months. His dad was a very challenging personality, had reigned for 11 years. He finally rebelled against the Babylonians the Babylonians now came, but the people were so scared of them that they deposed him and raised up his son to reign in his stead. And he had only been in power for three months.
[00:07:40] It says the royal family now the cream of the Jerusalemite society. And many of the skilled and able bodied citizens were deported to Babylon.
[00:07:48] A Babylonian puppet regime now was established in Jerusalem headed by Jehoiachin's uncle Zedekiah.
[00:07:57] Those who remained in Jerusalem seemed to have regarded the deportees with mingled pity and scorn. Well, they felt bad for them and then they just didn't think twice about it. Maybe they thought, hey, you guys are the leadership structure, you should have known better.
[00:08:11] I don't know what they were thinking, but it wasn't good.
[00:08:15] And after all, to still be in Jerusalem was to be in the city of God, to have access to the means of grace in the temple, and to be assured of God's continuing protection and favor. This was kind of their mindset. And I agree with Robertson on this, you know, or Davidson, Robert Davidson on this. They just felt like, hey, we're in the promised land, we still have our temple, we're blessed by God. I don't know what these other guys did wrong, but we're okay, you know, and sometimes we interpret our condition before God based on our outward circumstances. So if we're having difficult circumstances, we start questioning maybe, did I do something wrong? Or is God even absent from the situation? Or maybe when we're experiencing life and it's good, we're thinking, hey, everything's good with me and God, but we're going to find out that God doesn't just define us based on our external condition. God is looking beyond that. He's seeing the heart of every one of us.
[00:09:07] It says they had lost nothing essential to their faith, while the exiles had lost everything.
[00:09:13] This passage, however, presents us with a very different verdict. We're going to find some very interesting things, matter of fact, how many recognize that God does not think like you and me and that I'm going to try to. I think this passage is designed to shock us and designed to encourage us in some ways and designed to challenge us in our thinking. And I think that's why it's so powerful.
[00:09:36] So let's take a look at what's happening here. Jeremiah is at the temple, he's a priest and he's kind of, I don't know, maybe he's daydreaming like some of you are right now. You're looking at the flowers on the Platform. He was kind of looking at these fig baskets. I don't know.
[00:09:50] And so we pick it up in verse 1. After Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord. Now, some people argue, well, maybe he just. This was a vision and he saw this. But, you know, I actually think he was at the temple and he saw these fig baskets. I think that's what was happening here.
[00:10:18] And so God now is giving us a sense of what's happening. And God is using a nation called Babylon.
[00:10:28] Now, it wasn't because Babylon was good guys. They were just God's instrument in disciplining his people. They were kind of his rod. He was going to discipline them through Nebuchadnezzar. And so Nebuchadnezzar comes along, and because they've rebelled against him, he's going to reduce their ability to further rebel against him. So what does he do? He actually takes out 1,000 artisans out of the city and their elite 7,000 fighting force, and he removes them so that they will not defy him again. He's weakening their military capacity. And we picked this up in 2nd Kings, chapter 24, and verse 16, it said the king of Babylon, also deported to Babylon, the entire force of 7,000 fighting men, strong and fit for war, and a thousand skilled workers and artisans. Now, these were the people that were able to reinforce the fortifications. So what does he do? He gets rid of them, brings them to Babylon. And these are thousand people help him build a glorious city which eventually become one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the city of Babylon. But you know what? Here's a thousand Jewish workers helping him do it. Artisans, people that were skilled. He, you know, he got a bunch of skilled labor for free. That's what he was doing there.
[00:11:44] And so in that hour here, Jeremiah's reflecting. He's probably thinking about all that's gone on now. There's been a change in leadership.
[00:11:52] Is it going to get any better? Actually, it gets worse. For Jeremiah, Zedekiah is a very difficult person to deal with. And then we pick up here in verse 24. I'm going to give you the second part just to get the context. The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord.
[00:12:08] Now, if this is literally their offerings, there's One basket that really honors God. It's got good figs. It's the first fruits. It's truly someone who's giving their best to God. But on the other side, there's a basket there. We're going to find out terrible figs. Kind of I'm just giving God whatever is left over in my life kind of attitude. And sometimes we can do that with God, right? Then the Lord said, He said to them, what do you see? He said, one basket had very good figs, like those that ripened early, like the first fruits. The other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten. In other words, they had no value. They were worthless.
[00:12:45] It says here. Then the Lord asked me, what do you see, Jeremiah?
[00:12:50] Figs. I answered, that's interesting. That's very mundane, ordinary. You know, we have to be careful in life. God many times uses the mundane and the ordinary. You know, Moses saw a bush, you know, Jeremiah seeing a basket full of figs. It's amazing. You know, sometimes God wants to speak to us in the very mundane and ordinary moments of our lives, and he has a message for us. He says, figs. And the good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten. Then the word of the Lord came to me. And so now we're going to get an interpretation of what Jeremiah is seeing here.
[00:13:24] Now, how do you and I see tragedy?
[00:13:27] You'll see why I'm talking about this.
[00:13:30] How do we move forward when our world comes crashing down around us as we're about to discover God has a plan for good even in the worst of times in our lives, God is for us. We say that. And yet sometimes we're going through a difficult time. So then we start questioning, well, if God is good and God loves me and God is for me, why is he letting all these bad things happen to me? Isn't that a good thought? We're going to get back to that thought because that goes on in our mind sometimes. We're looking at our outward circumstances and we're saying there's a disconnect. Because if God is supposedly so good, why is this happening in my life? And we're going to answer that question. Hopefully today we're going to look at that. Why?
[00:14:07] What may be a reason why God would allow that to happen? I think there's more than one reason, but we'll look at maybe one.
[00:14:16] Robert Davison relates this powerful insight about the things we may consider sacred.
[00:14:22] But now they've lost their true meaning of what Faith is all about because sometimes as Christians, we just start going through the motion. You know what I mean?
[00:14:30] We're just doing the Christian thing to do.
[00:14:34] And we tend to take for granted some of these things and some of the things that we have, what we call props, when God removes them, then we have to get down to the core. What do we really believe?
[00:14:45] Robert David says, sometimes the things we regard as essential to our faith and we fight desperately to retain patterns of worship in congregational life may and indeed sometimes must be taken from us if we are to rediscover the meaning of discipleship.
[00:15:00] What's he saying? Sometimes we just get into a rut.
[00:15:04] Sometimes we just think that these are the things that we need in order to sustain life. But the reality is we need God.
[00:15:10] Ultimately, we need God. And sometimes we begin to substitute what God provides for us as God, and that just becomes idolatry rather than trusting in God Himself implicitly.
[00:15:24] Do we realize that unless we're challenged in our faith, we're going to grow weak? We become indifferent. We become susceptible to life's difficulties. But challenges have a way to cause us to reconsider our lives. How many say that's true? When the pressure comes on, I got to do some thinking about it. I got to reevaluate my walk with God, my relationship, my life. I have to reevaluate things in light of a new reality.
[00:15:50] So sometimes when God wants to bring about change in our lives, He.
[00:15:53] He actually puts pressure on us. Pressure is going to create change.
[00:15:58] You can't stay in the same place. God is moving us outside of where we were. You know, maybe an illness comes upon us or, you know, we have a relationship breakdown. We could just go down the list of all the bad things that can happen to us, and all of a sudden it causes us to rethink about who we are, what we are, where we're at, and what God is doing. And what does God want to teach me in this experience?
[00:16:22] And so in Jeremiah 24, we have two distinctly different groups of people God seems to be looking at because he's going to use this fig basket business to teach us a powerful lesson. We're going to get an interpretation from God's vantage point what's going on. The one group is going through great loss and difficulty, while the other remains totally, relatively untouched.
[00:16:47] And how do we interpret our lives in light of what we're going through? And I think this text may shock us regarding God's evaluation. So let's take the first group of people trying to make sense of life.
[00:16:59] That first group is a person who's struggling and trying to make sense of what's going on.
[00:17:05] How many have ever gone through a time of great struggle? And you begin to question, what in the world's going on? It's a time of redefining and asking God, what are you doing?
[00:17:14] What's happening here? You know, questions like why me?
[00:17:20] Or why now? Or why this? You know, it's all the why questions.
[00:17:26] And I'm going to start answering the what questions.
[00:17:30] I'm going to, you know, because a lot of times God isn't going to answer the why question, but he's going to. He has a different approach to what he's doing, and we're going to see that.
[00:17:39] I think generally we consider those whose lives are not marred by pain and difficulties as the fortunate person. Isn't that true? That's how we evaluate life. We say, the people that are blessed, the people that are happy, the people that are fortunate are the people who are living a good life. And there's no problems. Right? Isn't that how we interpret it?
[00:17:59] Yet in our text, we're surprised that it's the people that have been exiled that God is now going to consider good, and the people that remained and left all untouched are actually considered the bad figs. That's very fascinating, the evaluation here.
[00:18:16] What does that all mean?
[00:18:18] Well, I think Jesus now is going to reinforce this idea when he speaks to us. Because, you know, a lot of times we don't realize how radical Jesus messages really is.
[00:18:29] Now, we've all read the Sermon on the Mount. I think that's a very famous text of Scripture found in Matthew, chapter five through seven.
[00:18:37] And we love reading the Beatitudes. But let me take you to a sermon called the Sermon on the Plain, which is found in Luke's Gospel, Pardon me, and it's stated a little differently.
[00:18:49] And it goes like this.
[00:18:51] Chapter 20. Looking at his disciples, he said, blessed are you who are poor. It doesn't say poor in spirit. He says, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. So Jesus is now identifying with the people who are poor in this world, people who are struggling with poverty.
[00:19:09] He says, you're the happy people.
[00:19:11] Oh, wait a minute, Jesus, you're a little confused here. You know, most people would think the people have the money, should be the happy guys and the people who are struggling to make a living, that would not be a happy occurrence.
[00:19:24] I mean, I've just read of people trying to make ends meet. How difficult that is.
[00:19:28] But he says, happy are you who are poor. Yours is the kingdom of God. There's a benefit to this. It's kind of disguised, but it's a benefit. Jesus is saying. He goes on to say, blessed are you who hunger now for you will be satisfied. That's future. You will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. In other words, even though at this moment you're hungry and you're poor and you're weeping. But listen, there's a day coming when all of that will end.
[00:20:00] It's coming.
[00:20:02] Something good is going to come out of all of this. That's what he's telling us. He says, blessed are you and people hate you. How many go, I always feel blessed when people hate me.
[00:20:12] Anybody else feel that way?
[00:20:14] No, we don't usually feel that way. It just seems to be, you know, like Jesus. What are you talking about? Nobody wants to be hated when they exclude you. How many like being excluded? You know, you're just. Everybody moves away, you know, or insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of man. The very fact that I'm a follower of Jesus, everybody moves away from me. They don't like me.
[00:20:35] Does that ever happen? Of course it happens. Happens all the time, he says. Rejoice in that day, he says, and leap for joy. I can just see it now, you know, people are speaking badly of us. Everyone's moving away from us. Everyone's putting us down and we're walking around, woo hoo. This is so wonderful.
[00:20:52] I mean, we don't even act like that. We don't even think like that. We're going, jesus, what are you talking about? I'm not relating to what you're saying. Right.
[00:21:00] Let's be realistic.
[00:21:02] I mean, do you feel blessed when you go through those experiences? How many here say, I just feel so blessed, I just give a little jig, I'm happy? You know, we see we're having a problem with what Jesus is saying. How many are saying? It is hard to embrace what Jesus is saying. Anybody besides me say this is hard to embrace what Jesus is saying? Of course it's hard.
[00:21:23] Wow.
[00:21:24] What is Jesus saying? We're living in an upside down world where what seems to be good can ultimately be bad.
[00:21:30] That's what he's telling us. And what seems to be difficult and challenging can ultimately turn out to be for our good.
[00:21:38] That's what he's telling us. As a matter of fact, you know, when he's talking about Rich, he's not Necessarily, it's not about the money, folks. That's what we think this whole issue is. It's not about that. People who God blesses, when they understand that they have a responsibility and that they're rich towards God and they use what God provides for them to bless other people, that's a good thing. But when people, you know, I mean, you can only get what you got, it's reality.
[00:22:06] But here's the problem with most people that have money, they become indifferent.
[00:22:11] They don't see what's around them anymore. Actually, they, they're actually what happens is you start trusting in what you have. The greatest problem in Canada right now is and reaching Canadians with the gospel of Jesus Christ is because Canadians have too much.
[00:22:26] And we've become so self reliant, we don't even see our need for God.
[00:22:30] And we see that we can live life apart from God and we choose to do that and it's to our peril.
[00:22:36] That's the bad thing about it. Because ultimately you and I are only here for a short time and then we're going to stand in eternity and all the riches of this world will not do us an ounce of good. In that moment, in that hour, we will be weeping if we have trusted in our earthly riches.
[00:22:56] But if you and I, who maybe have struggled, had difficulty and went through life and it was hardship and all the rest of it, but had forced you and I to have confidence and trust in Almighty God and we look to him, Let me tell you something. When we stand before him, it will be a day of rejoicing.
[00:23:13] Isn't that beautiful?
[00:23:15] So we need to see things from God's perspective. So now we get to this text in Jeremiah and when we go through hard times, it's not so much God's abandoned us. Maybe God is trying to teach us a very profound lesson.
[00:23:30] This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. Like these good figs I regard as good. I regard as blessed.
[00:23:37] The word there in the Hebrew is tob. It means good.
[00:23:41] The exiles from Judah whom I sent away from the place, this place, to the land of the Babylonians. This is a good thing.
[00:23:48] It's a good thing. I'm sending them there because I'm going to discipline them.
[00:23:53] It's a discipline.
[00:23:55] How many here say, I just, I feel so blessed when God's disciplining me.
[00:24:01] But we don't think of it that way.
[00:24:04] You know what I like about this text? We're moving now in Jeremiah's calling. I'm going to skip quote Here, just move on.
[00:24:11] See, today I point over you. This is Jeremiah's calling. I point you over nations and kingdoms. To do what?
[00:24:19] You're in the remodeling business, Jeremiah, how many know when you remodel something, you got to tear it down, you got to uproot it, you got to destroy it, you got to overthrow it before you can build it and plant it. Isn't that true? You God says, I'm in the restoration business with human beings.
[00:24:38] There's things in our lives that got to go.
[00:24:40] There's things in our lives that got to go. And God says, I'm going to do it.
[00:24:43] And so he allows suffering and difficulty and challenge and all these things to come into our lives. And we think it's bad. And God goes, no, it's good.
[00:24:51] I'm going to change you. I'm going to transform you.
[00:24:56] That's my goal. That's God's goal. He's going to make that his goal for our lives.
[00:25:01] It was to the exile that God was going to restore and call back to the land. He says, my eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land and I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them. That's why. Can you see the connection between Jeremiah's calling in chapter one, verse 10, and what is now happening here in chapter 24? He's saying, this is what I'm going to do with you guys, and I'm going that I've sent off to be disciplined in Babylon.
[00:25:29] I'm going to redo this. I'm going to do this great work. But first there has to come discipline.
[00:25:36] You know what's very fascinating, looking at this text, you know, both groups had been in rebellion against God, but, you know, but they were both going to experience discipline.
[00:25:51] But we need to understand that discipline can lead to blessings and restoration. You know, Tremper Longman, he says this regarding this text in Jeremiah. He says the contrast between Jehoiachin and those who were exiled with him, and then Zedekiah, who 11 years later was exiled and those that went with him afterwards.
[00:26:11] It's not easy to understand the difference. You know, why is God saying one is good and one is bad? Well, after all, the first group was in exile because they were better than those who remained and were nowhere near the mass of repentance of those who first went to Babylon. What is he saying? This is going to shock you. Neither group was good.
[00:26:30] That's a shocking Statement. Neither group was good. They had to all be disciplined.
[00:26:35] But why did God consider some good and some bad? Because this is the question he's trying to answer. He says it this way. The logic of the oracle may be that the first exiles are the good figs, because they're already in the process of the refining fires of exile. That's why they're good.
[00:26:52] And on the other hand, the survivors who are still in the land, they're not being disciplined. What's happening is they're just continuing on their merry old way and nothing is changing in their lives. And Jeremiah continues on preaching and trying to get them to repent. They just harden their heart. They're living the good life. They think they're blessed. They think they're God's kids. They think God's favor is upon them because they're still in the land. Isn't that interesting? They have a wrong assessment of their true condition, and that's why they're bad figs. A wrong assessment of their true condition. Can you and I have a wrong assessment of our true condition? Yeah, we can see. God's discipline is designed to refine us.
[00:27:35] By sending some of the people into exile to suffer, they ultimately learn obedience and come to know God.
[00:27:42] That is the most important lesson. To come to know God.
[00:27:46] I'm going to share a shocking text of scripture. I think this is so shocking because we need to see that this was modeled for us by Jesus. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says. During the days of Jesus life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverent submission.
[00:28:09] Jesus was a man of prayer.
[00:28:12] He cried out to God, son though he was, he learned obedience from what He.
[00:28:21] What does it say?
[00:28:23] He learned obedience from what he suffered.
[00:28:26] Now, I don't know about you, but if Jesus had to learn obedience from what he suffered, I think I'm going to have to learn some lessons on obedience. I'm not totally like Jesus, so how am I going to learn lessons of obedience?
[00:28:39] I'm going to have to suffer.
[00:28:41] See, we have somehow put suffering right out of the Christian theology. But it's a very important concept because when I read the Bible, I see suffering everywhere.
[00:28:53] I could probably teach a whole course on suffering and show you from the beginning to the end. Suffering is a part of the human equation and. And there's a purpose in it. And that's to teach you and I some lessons about obedience. How Many know that you discipline your children so that they'll learn obedience. How many know discipline isn't fun?
[00:29:10] Everybody goes, yeah, woo hoo. Discipline, right? No, I don't think so. You know, and once made perfect, once Jesus had achieved. See the word perfect, there's a. In the Greek, it's teleos, which means once he'd achieved his ends. It wasn't mean that he, you know, Jesus was sinless. So it wasn't that he was trying to not be sinful. No, it's once he was made perfect, once he had achieved his goal, once he had achieved his ends, once he had died on the cross, once he had fulfilled the purpose of God.
[00:29:39] So we learn obedience in order for you and I to achieve what God's called us to do. And folks, I want to say something. One of our biggest problems sometimes as Christians is we think that we're calling the shots and we're deciding what we're going to do with our life. You and I were created by God for his pleasure. And he has a purpose and an end in mind when he created you. And you and I need to learn to live fulfilling his purpose and doing his will. How is that?
[00:30:07] That would require submission on my part. And that's very important that you and I discover that and learn about that and say, God, I have to yield my life in order to fulfill the call that you designed and created for me. It's not about me me, it's about you. And it's about me doing what you're asking me to do.
[00:30:27] And I believe in that process we will become happier too. By the way, I think that's the byproduct. Everyone thinks happiness is the goal. I think happiness is a byproduct to doing the will of God.
[00:30:39] Very powerful.
[00:30:42] Then I noticed this text of scripture about discipline. You know, we're all told that God's children will receive discipline. It's an expression of his love. Listen, and have you forgotten this word of encouragement? I love this, this word of encouragement. We're going to hear a word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses a son. It says, this is the word of encouragement. My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline.
[00:31:06] Don't make light of it. Embrace it. Do not lose heart when he rebukes you. How many here say, you know, I always lose heart when God's chastising me.
[00:31:15] Come on now, let's be honest. Do we ever lose heart? Yeah, but let's not do that. He said, let's be encouraged this is an encouragement. Discipline should encourage you because the Lord disciplines the one he loves and he chastens everyone he accepts as a son. Wow.
[00:31:29] Endure hardship as discipline. How many are walking through a time of hardship?
[00:31:34] That's discipline. And why is God doing it? Because he loves you. It's a word of encouragement. You go, boy. It's a funny way to encourage a person. You're thinking to yourself, right?
[00:31:45] See how our thoughts are different than God's thoughts? How many are catching on?
[00:31:50] God is not like us.
[00:31:52] He's not even the same wavelength. We don't think this way. You know, for what? Children are not disciplined by their father. And if you're not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline, then you're not legitimate and not true sons and daughters at all. In other words, if you're not getting any discipline from God, that's a bad state to be in because maybe you're not part of God's family, but the moment you come into God's family, he's going to discipline you. That's a word of encouragement. So every time I go through difficulty, I go, thank you, Lord.
[00:32:20] This is revealing to me, I'm your son and you're not letting me get away with anything. How many know what I'm saying? God does not let you get away with anything. Anybody else feel that way? Try getting away with something with God when you're his kid. He's right there going, uh, that's not going. That's not going down.
[00:32:36] You know what I'm talking about. Holy Spirit's right inside me. He's grieved. He's telling, what are you doing?
[00:32:42] He's calling you out on it. That's a good thing. That is a good thing. You know, no, discipline seems pleasant at the time. We all agree with that. But painful. We all agree with that. But later on, however, produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
[00:33:00] We got to be trained by God. God's training us. He's using discipline as a training element. And so God works in transforming our hearts. God uses disciplines to train us and bring about this transformation in our lives and ultimately to make us into what we were created to be, which is like him.
[00:33:18] Then he says this. I love this verse. And I will give them a heart to know me. How many say, that's the heart I want. I want a heart to know God. God said, I'm going to give you that heart.
[00:33:29] I'm going to give you a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. And they will be my people and I will be their God, and they will return to me with all their heart. God says, we're going to enter into covenant. We're coming back. We're coming back to God. What an amazing thing. I'm going to change your heart. I'm going to give you a new heart.
[00:33:48] The problem with our hearts is, you know, it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. You know, it does its own thing. We're a little bit on the rebellious side, right?
[00:33:57] Walter Brueggemann relates the gift of grace that God gives to us though we're in a rebellious state. He says this. The text thus bears witness to the conviction that this God can and will create a new community from among those that were rejected.
[00:34:11] He says these exiles now are presented as the object and recipient of God's gracious intervention.
[00:34:19] The poet had hoped for a change in Israel's heart. Now, however, the solution is more radical. He. He'd been telling them, repent, change your heart. They wouldn't listen. He said, well, I'll fix that. I'm going to give you a new heart. How does he do that? He allows you to go into captivity.
[00:34:33] He allows you to go into exile. He allows you to go through pain. He allows you to go through suffering. He allows you to go through sorrow. It says here, yahweh will give Israel a new heart. Newness out of exile is wrought by God's powerful graciousness. The purpose of the new heart for Israel is for the sake of a restored covenant with Yahweh.
[00:34:52] So let me ask you a question. What's different between these two groups of people? Nothing. God's showing grace by putting some in pain while leaving the others alone. He left the ones in Jerusalem. They're interpreting that experience as, hey, we're doing good.
[00:35:07] See?
[00:35:11] Interesting. Bruegerman goes on to say here the exiles devalued by the world are here identified as the bearers of God's future.
[00:35:21] This re evaluation of the world's rejects is the surprise of the gospel echoed in so many places. What does he mean here? He's basically saying this, that God is picking the nobodies of this world, the rejects.
[00:35:36] It's not very flattering, is it? You know, Let me keep reading. This revolution is evident in God's decision to choose rabble to form Israel in Jesus decision to be the friend with sinners.
[00:35:48] In Luke's description of the choice of the lowly and not the wise and the powerful, as we find in First Corinthians and we're in the choice of the stone that the builders rejected. This God seems indeed to make the future with those whom the world judges to be without a future.
[00:36:05] What's he talking about? He's talking about all the people that the people in the world who think they got their acts together think are the nobodies, are the people God picks.
[00:36:16] Let me give you this illustration. I remember as a little kid, I was living in a little town. And when you're one of the littlest kids and all the kids are going out to play baseball, how many know being little and not having played baseball, you were a liability.
[00:36:28] So when they broke up into choosing teams, you know, and I. And I know, I remember this experience. There was, you know, at the end, it's like, oh, okay, you can play on my team. Because, you know, it's just like you're one of the last people chosen because they know if you come up to bat, you're an out, you're going to cost the team. And if the ball is hit to you, they're going to drop it. Right? You're the liability.
[00:36:52] And so what does God do? When God comes up and he's the team captain, what is he doing? He's looking at all the nobodies and the liabilities. He says, I pick you and you and you and all these other people going, oh, my goodness. He has. He's clueless as to who he is picking.
[00:37:10] This is going to be the worst team that's ever been fielded in the baseball game. But you see, God says, I'm going to take these nobodies and make them somebodies. And that team that I'm going to captain is going to actually win because we're on the right team.
[00:37:27] So I'm so happy. I'm a nobody. And God makes us a somebody. Isn't that beautiful? And why does he do it? Because of his grace. Because of. Because it's out of the goodness of his heart. And that's what God was basically saying. These exiles, they weren't better than the other guys that just God took them over here and said, I'm going to discipline you first. I'm going to do something with you. I'm going to change you.
[00:37:49] I love that. Let me move on to the second group. Those are the people that appear to have everything going for them.
[00:37:56] That's a scary place to be. They're the people who are not reflecting on what's happening around them because they're too busy enjoying life. It's all about them.
[00:38:05] Second group of people are those who remain in the land and their lives seem to be untouched by calamity. They interpret this as a sign of God's favor upon them. Did they not remain in the land? Did they not continue to worship at the temple? It's interesting. Did they, you know, it says their outward circumstances is not what was being evaluated by God. What was being evaluated was the condition of their lives.
[00:38:29] They were considered bad fruit, rotten to the core.
[00:38:34] Wow. Why? Because you know what? Nothing was changing in their lives.
[00:38:40] That was the problem.
[00:38:41] I think one of the greatest concerns is to interpret our relationship with God based on how well we are doing outwardly.
[00:38:50] Everything's going great. I'm prospering. Awesome.
[00:38:53] And if we basically judge our life solely on that condition, we could be living in self deception. I want you to remember this parable. Jesus tells it powerful parable. Rich man and a poor man. Poor man's name is Lazarus. It's found in Luke 16. You can read the story, it's very fascinating. Rich man, here's what he thinks. I'm a Jew.
[00:39:16] I'm part of Abraham.
[00:39:18] Racially, I'm tied to this covenant by race. And not only that, when I look at the wisdom literature, like Proverbs that says, you know, when you do the right things, God blesses you. He blesses you with prosperity and health and all this good stuff. So this man is living the good life.
[00:39:36] But see, he doesn't hear the voice of the prophets who are saying, oh man, this is required of you to love justice, show mercy and walk humbly before your God. He forgets that stuff. And there's a poor man that comes by begging. His name's Lazarus. But you know, we don't know the rich man's name. I think it's interesting. We know the poor man's name, Lazarus. He's got swords all over him. And this man, he's just ignoring him, doesn't even know he exists. Because you see, when you have so much going for you, sometimes you can't see the people around you in pain. You're just too caught up with your good life.
[00:40:08] Plus, I'm in with God. And so we interpret our external condition as if that's the internal reality. But notice what happens. Remember when Jesus, the Bible throws us for a loop, shows us a reversed value system. So all of a sudden we get to the place for the departed righteous. It's called Abraham's bosom. All of a sudden, the rich man's in torment.
[00:40:31] And Lazarus, who has been in Torment all his life. He's now blessed.
[00:40:36] And this rich man's going, what in the world am I doing here? You know, like, I misunderstood everything.
[00:40:43] And the poor man is up there enjoying the blessings of God. And he says, hey, listen, I'm in torment.
[00:40:51] And he said, well, we can't do anything for you. He said, well, I'll tell you what, send Lazarus back and have them tell my family they've got that all wrong. Their theology is wrong. It's going to get them to the wrong place.
[00:41:06] Isn't that sad? You know, there's Christians.
[00:41:09] There are quote, unquote Christians who think they're going to heaven.
[00:41:14] Lord, Lord, did we not do this? Did we not do that? I never knew you.
[00:41:20] I'm telling you, we have to be a little bit wiser than that. I'm not trying to scare us. I'm trying to explain to us how you and I treat people, how you and I relate to other people, how you and I live with integrity, our character. That's the measure God's looking at.
[00:41:39] He really is, you know, so he says, here's the response. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, what's he talking about here? He's talking about the law and the prophetic writings. They will not be convinced if even someone rises from the dead. See, people are so locked into their paradigm, it's hard to get them out of it.
[00:41:59] But notice what happens here.
[00:42:01] You know, it's a terrible thing to know the truth and the light, but choose to walk in falsehood and darkness. How many know that's true? We now read God's assessment of what's about to transpire and how God saw their condition. In verse eight, he said, but like the bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten, says the Lord, so will I deal with Zedekiah, King of Judah, his officials. They're survivors from Jerusalem. Whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt, later on you'll find out they fled to Egypt. He says, I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth. A reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule wherever I banish them. In other words, this is how people are going to treat these people that are called by my name, but in reality have rebelled against me. They've lived for themselves. He said, I will send the sword, famine, plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave them to their ancestors. What's he describing here? He's describing the Curses that come from not obeying the covenant. How many see that? Does everybody get that now?
[00:42:58] You know, this past few weeks, I've been listening to lectures by a Jewish professor.
[00:43:03] He teaches modern Jewish history and he's dealing with a series of lectures called Jewish Intellectual history from the 16th to the 20th century. Doesn't that sound fascinating?
[00:43:14] Okay, so your pastor likes learning, right?
[00:43:18] But you know, how many know that one of the great challenges when you're a Jewish person is how do you deal with the Holocaust?
[00:43:24] How does that fit into your frame, a reference? How many think that's fascinating?
[00:43:29] That's a very interesting thing to think of. How Jewish people now are trying to understand what happened to them in the Nazi Holocaust.
[00:43:38] I thought that's very fascinating. So David Rudderman, who's the university president, he teaches at University of Pennsylvania, he's addressing the theological responses of the Nazi Holocaust. And he says this. It's raised painful questions for the Jewish people.
[00:43:56] I'd imagine it would. He says, first question is the Holocaust raises questions about God's presence or absence. Where was God in this? In a time of mass Jewish slaughter, can one still believe in an omnipotent and beneficent God after Auschwitz? In other words, an all powerful, all good God after all that happened?
[00:44:15] That's a question they're trying to answer. Powerful question. How about the second question? The Holocaust raises questions about the future human interaction and dialogue. Can humanity be trusted after the Holocaust?
[00:44:27] Now, here's what we need to know. How many recognize that at that time, Germany, you see, because in our culture today, we say education is the answer to our problems. At least that was used to be when I was growing up, that's what we were told.
[00:44:40] Can I tell you that Germany was one of the most educated civilized nations at that time, and yet they brought into an evil ideology and look what they did.
[00:44:48] So education isn't the answer, folks.
[00:44:52] There's more to it than that.
[00:44:54] And so while he's trying to explain these different things, there's a number of various Jewish writers who respond to it. But here's a response by Abraham Herschel.
[00:45:05] He holds a more traditional view of what evil is. And he actually saw that day as a result of it. He said what the Holocaust is is an excessive faith in men over God.
[00:45:18] And when we turn our backs on God, we can anticipate that God will allow the evil we embrace to overwhelm us, regardless of our background and our past.
[00:45:28] That is powerful.
[00:45:30] So what can we learn from tragedy, difficulty and hardship?
[00:45:34] Well, we can dismiss the idea of a God as some do, as the question of how can a good God allow evil? Or as Jeremiah points out, our sorrows and struggles can be a means in which we learn a renewed obedience to God, His Word and His will, and experience a renewal in our soul.
[00:45:54] The danger of thinking that we're spiritually healthy because all is well may be but a form of self deception.
[00:46:01] Obadiah warned the nation of Edom, the pride of your heart has deceived you.
[00:46:06] That was in my devotions this week. I just had to write that line down. The pride of your heart has deceived you. Lord, search my heart. Let there be no self deception, Right?
[00:46:17] But on the other hand, you may be struggling today and you're going, my life is falling apart and there's so much pain. And I've questioned even God's presence. And I was chatting with someone today dealing with this. This week I was dealing with this stuff, which I always think is amazing. When I'm going to preach a sermon and I'm already talking about it to people, I go, I must be on track, right?
[00:46:39] But maybe God is using that pain, that sorrow, that difficulty as a means of drawing us to Himself and reminding us, as Paul said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
[00:46:54] Stand.
[00:46:57] You know, as we close the service right now in prayer, there's one thought that stood out to me in this whole chapter.
[00:47:05] Neither the exiles nor the ones that remained were considered like they were walking with God. They were both in rebellion to God.
[00:47:16] True, But God said one was the good figs, because God said refining them.
[00:47:23] And maybe you're here today and you're going through a refining process. I wanted to say something to you.
[00:47:28] Embrace God's grace.
[00:47:30] It's a word of encouragement today. God is not mad at you or doesn't love you, or he's forgotten about you, or he's abandoned you, or he's absent from this world.
[00:47:41] He's actually doing a work in you.
[00:47:44] This is an opportunity to draw near to God and just say, lord, would you give me the grace? Grace to walk through the season and to discover who you are.
[00:47:54] What a great prayer.
[00:47:56] And maybe for others of us who everything is going good and that can happen in our lives. It doesn't mean that you know you're doing evil things.
[00:48:06] But here's what our prayer should be. If your life is good, you should say, lord, help me to have eyes to see the poor, the needy and the oppressed. You've enriched my life so much. Help me to be a blessing. Help me not to live strictly for myself, but to actually lay down my life and fulfill the end in which you designed me to actually be your hands extended and reach out and embrace and care for and nurture and love and support those that are going through a difficult time.
[00:48:36] Amen. I don't think you and I could sustain struggle all the time. I think we just fall apart. So I think God gives us seasons.
[00:48:44] But I think the issue is, can I walk humbly before our God? Amen. But thou, o man, this is what is required. Thou, o woman, this is what is required of you. Do what's right, love, love, justice, do mercy and walk humbly with your God.
[00:49:01] So every one of us, I believe, could open our hearts today and say, God, I need your redeeming, loving, sustaining, healing grace today. I need a grace that would call me to yourself. I need you to break into my heart wherever the places that are hard, whatever the places that are deceived, break in with your grace.
[00:49:20] Wouldn't that be a good prayer? How many say, I'm going to embrace that prayer with you, Pastor. I'm going to open my heart to God and say, lord, would you allow your grace to invade my life this day?
[00:49:31] Let's pray that prayer together. Let's open our hearts. Let's lift our hands to God, say, lord, I want to receive grace today. Whatever that grace is that I need. It might be healing grace, it might be correcting grace, sustaining grace.
[00:49:45] But Lord, we need your grace.
[00:49:47] We need your help, Lord. We know we can't do life without you. We acknowledge, Lord, that we're reliant upon you. And we need not only you, but we need everything that you bring into our lives. We need our families. We need the family, God. We need encouragement from above, Father. We need your words. We need understanding. We need the right evaluation of where we're at in our lives. Pour out your grace, Father. Revive us in this day, Father. Help us to serve you. Help us to fulfill the purpose in which you designed each and every one of our lives to be fulfilled, Lord, so that we can bring honor and glory to your name. Name. And we thank you for that, Father, in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you as you leave this morning.
