I think it's safe to say that none of us enjoy having other people be angry with us. And in fact, we go to great lengths to avoid anger. And especially when we know something will cause someone else to be angry, we go to great lengths not to duplicate or double the thing that we did to make somebody angry. Instead, we try to avoid that. You know, if you were a day late on a work project and that made your boss very angry, you don't say, well, I've learned my lesson. Next time I'm going to make it two days late so that he'll be even more angry. Or if you know that that's the sort of thing that we try. We don't want to be around escalating anger. And yet, Jeremiah 25 gives us warning that if we want to avoid escalating anger, that we need to make peace with God. And God here shows forth and declares His anger against Jerusalem, against the people of Judah, and also against other Old Testament nations as well. And it's a reminder to us, and it's a call to us, that if God was angry with those nations of the world, how much more will He judge and punish those who have rejected the fuller instructions that He's given through His Son, Jesus Christ? Right? In the Old Testament era, God had given some light, but it was like a candle in a dark room. And now through Jesus Christ, the lights have come on much more brightly. And if we continue in ignorance and continue to reject God and continue to not be willing to heed His voice, how much more will He destroy those who will not heed the brighter light that has been sent through Jesus Christ? Jeremiah 25 begins with the structure, really, of a court case. And we see God laying out His case against His people. And this is important because God doesn't just presume guiltiness. God doesn't just say, well, you know, I don't like you, so therefore I'm going to wipe you out. God takes great pains to demonstrate that, look, I called you to repentance. I sent prophets among you and you wouldn't listen and you continue to do the things that I told you not to do. Back to the illustration of someone with escalating anger, right? Sometimes we face it. You know, sometimes somebody gets angry with us and we can honestly say, I didn't know. You never told me that this was against the rules. So you never told me that this was something that would bother you so much. But God here is making clear. Look, I posted the notice very clearly on the wall. If you do this, you will be in trouble. If you violate these rules, you will have difficulties. And so God's laying out his case against the people of Jerusalem and then also later on in the chapter against the other nations of the world. Now, our tendency when we read something like this would be to say, well, let's pull out our passports. Last time I checked, I'm not a citizen of Judah. I don't live in the land of the Philistines. I am not under Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I'm not of the Babylonians. So therefore, this passage has no relevance, no instruction to me whatsoever. It's speaking of a different era in history. And so therefore, I don't have to listen to this warning at all. But what we're going to see is that this warning And the judgment that God brings here is actually a challenge and also an example to us. And that the New Testament, instead of dismissing this type of judgment, actually increases the ante. It increases the warning about judgment for those who would who would reject Jesus Christ. Well, to begin with, the warning of God here in the first seven verses comes on Jerusalem. God's anger is coming on Jerusalem because they have rejected His prophets. And so what we derive from this, what we'll see is, if they were receiving God's fierce anger because of not listening to men like Jeremiah and Isaiah, How much more does God's fierce anger come on those who will not listen to his son, his eternal son, when he sends his son as our prophet? And we see this in verses three through five. Jeremiah reminds them, I have spoken to you. I've brought the words of God to you. I have not been negligent in my duty. That's what he's saying. He says, I have risen early. He's not reminding them of His bedtime and rising time as much as He's using that to illustrate the fact that I haven't slept in until noon and said, this message from God can wait to be delivered until nighttime. He's saying, I made it a priority in my life to bring God's Word to you. And I made sure you all heard it. And I'm not the first to do this. Verse three, sorry, verse four. God sent you all His servants. They've risen early and they've come to you, but you've not listened or inclined your ear to them either. You've had no desire to hear from the Word of God. And so therefore, you, verse seven, have provoked me to anger. You have refused to listen when I've told you not to go after other gods. You've refused to listen to Me. God is sane." Well, once again, we might dismiss this and say, well, that's for a different people, a different nation, at a different point in time than us. But if we turn in our Bibles to a passage like Hebrews 2, verse 1 and following, were instructed, therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proves steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him? God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. And so the argument there is, if God enforced the words of the Old Covenant, which were brought through angels to Moses that were ministered through human prophets, how much more when God sends His own Son into the world to proclaim His Word and attest to the power of His Word and attest to His Son with signs, with miracles, by allowing His Son to cleanse the lepers, to raise the dead, to heal the sick, to give sight to the blind. How much more are we accountable to hear the words of Jesus Christ and those who have followed after Him, who heard Him like the apostles." Hebrews goes on in 12.25 to say, "...see that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, how much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven?" And so the argument that's being made there is, if Jerusalem, if Egypt, if Babylon did not escape, When they wouldn't listen to Jeremiah, when they wouldn't listen to Isaiah, how much more will we not escape if we ignore the words of God Himself spoken to us through the mouth of Jesus Christ? And so, one of the lessons of Jeremiah 25 is the importance of hearing. of hearing the Word of God and of taking it at face value and of dealing with it, even if we don't like what it has to say. It's a serious thing to choose to ignore God's Word, the Bible. So the importance of hearing how serious it is, those who will not listen to the words of Christ. Well, in addition to that, it doesn't stop there. It goes on to remind us that God's fierce anger came on his own covenant people. The people who he had said that I will be your God, you will be my people. If God was angry and punished those people, how much more will his fierce anger come on other nations? Verses 8-14 recount the destruction that God is going to bring on Jerusalem, on Judah, through Nebuchadnezzar. And remember, this is a prophecy. Jeremiah is speaking this in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. None of this has happened yet. Nebuchadnezzar is not even that powerful of a world figure yet. He hasn't ascended to where he'll end up in terms of an international stake. And God says, Jeremiah is coming. I'm going to raise him up. And you are going to become, through His hand, an astonishment, a hissing and perpetual desolations. There's no longer going to be the voice of happiness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom. There's no longer going to be the sound of economic activity, of the grindstone grinding the wheat. This land is going to be desolate and an astonishment. Verse 11, people are going to come by and see what's happened, and they're going to put their hand over their mouth and say, I cannot believe what happened to this people. And so destruction is coming. But the temptation would have been for the nations surrounding Jerusalem, for other nations of the world to gloat over that. And to say, well, look, the Lord really is not God. Or, you know, what did your relationship with God, what did that get for you? You ended up destroyed. And look at us. We're doing OK over here in Egypt. We're doing OK here in Babylon. And what does God say to them? No, My fury will come against you also. Particularly verse 27. Well, actually verse 15, that the cup of the wrath of the Lord is coming. And of course, the concept of wine and the drinking the wine, drinking down to the very dregs. We're going to sing it in a few moments from Psalm 75 about the wicked drinking the dregs of God's wrath. And so, wine symbolizes the anger of God. And God says to them, verse 27, drink, be drunk, and vomit. And so, His anger is coming against them. And they are not to gloat, because verse 29, I begin to bring calamity on the city which is called by My name. And should you be utterly unpunished? So in other words, if you're living in Philistia, if you're living in Edom or Moab, and you see Jerusalem fall, don't say, ha ha, look what happened to them. Say, whoa, if God would do this to His own people who He put His name on, the city that He put His name on, the city of the Lord, how much more does He have a case against us in our great wickedness? And certainly this is a warning for our nation as well. If God would do this, if God would destroy Jerusalem, the city where His temple dwelt, the city where His King who He had installed reigned, the city where sacrifices were offered to Him. If He would do that to that people when they refused to honor Him, how much more Will He destroy our nation when we reject Him and will not listen to His Word? So, if God's fierce anger came on His covenant people, it will certainly come on other nations as well. The New Testament expands on this theme in Romans 11. Romans 11, verse 17 and following. when it reminds us that if some of the branches were broken off and you, the Gentiles, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree. So it's saying, if you, the wild, the Gentiles, The non-domesticated plants, if you will, were allowed to be grafted into Jesus Christ and become a partaker in Him. Do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. Don't don't boast as if this is all about you, because remember that you can fall off and the root can still be healthy and alive. The root is what it's all about. It's supporting you. You will say that branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well said, because of unbelief, they were broken off and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore, consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell severity, but toward you goodness if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And so the New Testament warns and uses passages like Jeremiah 25 to warn you to warn you that if God was willing to cut off Jerusalem, to cut off the Jewish people, that that should not be a comfort and a cause for gloating for us. It should be a cause of warning for us. And so even if you have been baptized, there's a significant warning here for you. Even those who bore the covenant mark of circumcision in the Old Testament were cut off and destroyed by God in His fierce anger. And just because somebody's been baptized doesn't mean that God's patience with them will continue forever. That if they will not continue in the goodness of God, that they too will be cut off. And certainly, if the covenant people of God, those who have been baptized, those who wear his name can be cut off. Certainly, those who are not in covenant with God can be cut off as well. They can be faced the fierce anger and wrath of God. This is an important reminder and it's an important application from Jeremiah 25, For those who would argue, and there are people in evangelical circles today, right, who would argue that for people in the world who have never heard the gospel, that God will, you know, that for people who are sincere in false religions, that God will have mercy on them. But that's not what Jeremiah 25 teaches at all about the surrounding nations who were in rebellion against God. And so there's a severe anger, fierce anger here that comes against the nations of the world as well as against Israel, against Jerusalem when they rebel against God. And so once again, it's a how much more if God is willing to cut off and to expose his own people to his fierce anger, how much more is he willing to expose those who are not part of his covenant people to his fierce anger as well. Goes on from there, beginning in verse 30, to teach us that if God's fierce anger will come against individual nations, individual Old Testament nations, how much more will his fierce anger come against wicked nations when he comes at the last day? Verses 30-38 are a description of the fierce anger of God. And it uses the illustration of a lion roaring and of God roaring against wickedness. Verse 30, the Lord will roar from on high. Verse 38, His left is lair like the lion. And it speaks of the fierceness of him. It goes on. Actually, let's go back to verse 30. He'll roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation. He will roar mightily against his fold. He will give a shout as those who tread the grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise will come to the ends of the earth for the Lord has a controversy with the nations. This idea of God roaring against wickedness is being like the lion that roars loud against its prey. It's a regular imagery that the Old Testament uses. Hosea 5.14, I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away. I will take them away and no one shall rescue them." Joel 2.11-13. Joel 3.16, the Lord also will roar from Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem. The heavens and earth will shake, but the Lord will be a shelter for His people and the strength of the children of Israel. And so God's fierce anger here is described as coming from on high against Jerusalem, against these other nations, but also as a foreshadowing of His fierce anger in the great and terrible last day. And of course, verse 33. Verse 33 is describing Yes, in some ways, the ways in which God will judge these various nations that Jeremiah is speaking to. But it's really what we call prophetic foreshortening, and it's ultimately looking forward to the last great day then. And at that day, the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth, even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented or gathered or buried. They shall become refuse on the ground. It's what it's what Revelation six talks about when it talks about how will these people face that day? What will be the reaction of people? in that great and terrible day of the Lord, when He roars forth against sin. Revelation 6.16, the people said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath has come. And who is able to stand? So far from being a comfort to us And far from being a comfort to us in terms of us dismissing Jeremiah 25 and saying that was a prior generation. That sort of thing will never happen again. And far from it being irrelevant to us. Instead, Jeremiah 25 is a warning to us about the very severity of God's anger. If God would do this to Jerusalem, how much more will He do it to other cities, to other nations of the world? And so we must not pat ourselves on the back. There is no room for cockiness on our part. This is a passage that calls us to confront the character of God and the fact that God is righteously angry, righteously angry in a fierce and awful way against wickedness and against sin. And it calls us to recognize that the pouring out of God's wrath in the form of wine is not yet complete. Revelation 14 Verse 9, Then a third angel followed him, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast in his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of their torment. ascends forever and ever. And they have no rest, day or night, who worship the beast in His image, whoever receives the mark of His name." And so these verses and the thrust of the Scripture is that we must not trifle with God. That God's anger against wickedness is severe. That God is not a giant teddy bear in the sky. but that God is justly angry with wickedness. And that we, if left to ourselves, have every reason to fear for our lives. If we're relying on our own strength, we have every reason to say, let the mountains fall on me that I might be covered so that I won't ever have to face this wrath of God. I would do anything to avoid facing this wrath from God. Thankfully, the Scriptures, of course, don't just leave us in the position of only knowing what our destination is if left to our own strength, if left to our own righteousness. But the Scriptures also tell us that Jesus Christ is a shelter from the fierce wrath of God. And the Scriptures talk about how in Christ's experience on the cross, He could say of the Father that Your billows and breakers, Your tidal wave of wrath rolled over Me. And I face Your wrath in order that people like you and like me, might not have to face the anger and wrath of God. And God calls each one of you, instead of relying on yourself, instead of relying on your righteousness and goodness, to recognize that God's anger is fierce And it will be revealed against sin. And it's seeing the wrath to come for you to flee to Jesus Christ and to flee running with open arms to Him and that He is ready and willing to forgive and to protect you from the wrath of God. That He is willing to take that fierce anger of God in your place. on the cross of Jesus Christ, the wrath of God, that roar of God's wrath came forth loudly against Jesus so that he could say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you angry with me? And the answer was that God was angry with him so that God would not have to be angry with you. And so God calls you to flee to Him. Even in so many of these verses we've read, there's the component of these verses that illustrate the wrath of God that talk about continuing His goodness. Hear Him. Rend your hearts in one of the passages in Joel. Rend your hearts, not your garments. Listen to Him. Prepare to meet the Lord. Do business with God today. And so we are called to flee to Jesus Christ in order to find shelter from the wrath of God. We're also called, as we think about the fierce anger of God, to meditate on the character of that anger and then to give abundant thanksgiving to Jesus Christ. To knowingly At the very outset, we said that we don't face escalating anger intentionally. We don't like people to be angry with us. We don't want people to be ticked off at us. And we certainly, when we know the character of somebody's anger, don't try to bait them into even greater heights of anger. That Jesus Christ knew of his father's wrath against sin. He knew down to the last little bit, down to the last little detail, the character of his father's anger. And he willingly said, I will face that anger in order that sinful human beings might be saved. And what love that is. He didn't go blindly to the cross, not knowing what was coming. He went knowingly and said, I will face the wrath of Almighty God in order that people might be saved. And our response must be to flee to Him And then to give thanks to Him for what He has done for us. Let's pray. Lord God, we confess to You that we are sinful people and that we in every way deserve Your wrath. that because of our sin, because of our rebellion against you, that we deserve to be sent to an eternity in hell. Lord, we thank you for this reminder, this important reminder of the fierceness of your anger. And Lord, we also thank you for the reminder that none of us, can pat ourselves on the back and say that based on what we have done, based on who we are, based on the family we were born into, none of us can pat ourselves on the back and say that I am free from the wrath of God. Oh, Lord, we also thank You that You throughout Your Word preach to us Jesus Christ and Him crucified for our sins. And we thank You that in Him that we can be forgiven and receive life. And we once again this evening flee to You, Jesus Christ. And we thank You that in You that we can be sheltered from the wrath of God. Thank You, Jesus, for willingly facing God's wrath for us. And it's in Your name that we pray these things. Amen.