Returning this evening to the book of the prophet Jeremiah chapter 8 and a phrase in verse 20. Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse 20 the final phrase. We are not saved. We are not saved. But Jeremiah has preached a sermon in this chapter and at the end of this sermon Here he is speaking rhetorically. He's not speaking about himself. He's not speaking about the people directly in front of him. He's warning them that this will be their cry. It will be a cry of regret, of anguish, of complaint at some future day when they have been carried into captivity. and they will reflect upon the folly of their life, their waywardness, and the chastening hand of the Lord that they are now experiencing, and they will have to exclaim, we are not saved. Well, I'm going to look at some of this chapter, but I want to borrow this phrase this evening, because this may be the language that some of us hear if we are honest, must employ. You have to say of yourself, for one reason or another, I am not saved. Of course, we mean by salvation here, saved from sin, saved from the guilt of our sin. It's powerful dominion over our lives, dictating our attitudes, setting our agenda, framing our thoughts, ordering our lifestyle. But sin will bring us to eternal ruin. The guilt that sin incurs because we leave God out of the picture and decide to live our own way comes with consequences and we need to be saved from those consequences. That's what we mean by salvation here. Well Jeremiah was speaking to the people of Jerusalem and Jerusalem in the day in which Jeremiah lived has a lot in common with our own society. They were a tremendously privileged people. Privileged because unlike the surrounding pagan nations, they had the influence and light of God's revelation, the scriptures of the Old Testament. They knew the true God. They knew something of his laws, his ordinances. They had his promises. They had experienced his blessing and protection over the years. Someone's given me a book for Christmas. I haven't read it yet, but in this book, the title of this book is a demonstration, really, of the priceless Christian heritage that we have as a nation. Now, this book is not saying that we are a Christian nation, but it's pointing out that so many of the institutions and so much of the culture and the thinking, politically, educationally, morally, is shaped by our Christian past. Well, Jerusalem was like that. They were tremendously privileged, but they had abandoned God. They'd looked around at the surrounding nations, their lifestyle, their idolatry, and they had begun to copy them. They had thrown away their fear of God. Religion, what true religion they had and what reverence for God they had was a mere formality. They went through the motions of it. Is that you this evening? You have some kind of fear of God, some conviction about you, but really when it comes to worship, you go through the motions, not much more. Well, that was Jerusalem. Many today in our society, they have a complete mistrust and distaste for the Lord. That was Jerusalem. We live for our own way of life. And what God thinks of us doesn't really come into the thinking of many people. Well, in the first few verses of this chapter, Jeremiah really brings them up with a jolt, a start. He describes something almost unpalatable. He says that when God's judgment falls upon Jerusalem, and the enemy invades, they will dig up the graves of their kings, their priests, their princes, their forefathers, and those bones will be laid out before the sun and left as dung for the field. I imagine the reason they wanted to dig up the graves would be because in those days there was often treasure, particularly in the royal tombs, associated with that particular monarch. We know that from archaeology today. This was designed to shock the people. In fact, in verse 3 he says, of those who are still alive, when this solemn judgment falls upon the land, death will be preferred to life. Such will be the misery, the loss, the heartache, the difficulty that is caused that people will feel they would rather just give up and die. Now God's Old Testament judgments they were a prototype of that great day of judgment that God will bring and his word tells us of this upon the whole world that final day when the world as we know it will be done away. These ancient judgments were like mini judgments. They were forerunners of that final day of judgment. And so these things have something to say to each one of us here this evening. We are just as accountable to God as the people of Jerusalem. We are just in need of God's mercy as they were. And if we turn our back to the Lord and pursue the way and the lifestyle of this world, that leaves God out of the thinking, then we must ultimately be warned by this particular sermon. But I want to focus this evening not upon everything that Jeremiah writes here, but upon some of the things that he says which indicate why many people are not saved. So as he gets to the end of his sermon, he says, this is what your cry will be. We are not saved. But really, he's sown the seeds of the reasons throughout his sermon. So I want to look at some of those reasons. And the first is found in verse 4. And we could call it determined obstinacy. And I don't want to be offensive to anyone here this evening, but it's quite possible. Some of you young people particularly. You may have fallen into this disposition. You're shaped by ungodly friends around you. And you have now a determined obstinacy when it comes to considering the things of God and that call of God to you, to your soul, to turn to him and repent of your sin and seek his forgiving love. You say, I'm not interested. It's a reason why many people are not saved. Well, look at the language here in verse four. The prophet says, thus saith the Lord, shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return? He's speaking here initially. He's giving a picture of what normally happens. What happens when someone falls over? Well, if they don't break their bones, they get up. They dust themselves down. They don't just stay there wallowing in the mire. I know little toddlers do. Perhaps when they're four or five or six, they fall over into some filthy puddle and they groan and sigh and they stay there, almost in self-pity with a desire that a parent will come and fish them out of that mess that they're in. That's not what's being spoken about here. The Prophet just says, look, it's instinctive. If you fall over, you fall into a puddle or whatever, you get up. And then he says, if you turn away, you take a wrong turn, you're on a journey. As soon as you realize you've taken a wrong turn, you return, you retrace your steps, you go back and find the right course. But he's saying in the next verse, why then is this people of Jerusalem sledden back by a perpetual backsliding. It's as if they've fallen into a miry, filthy, sinful way of life, but they don't do anything about it. They don't pick themselves up. They don't think this is no good. I'm defiled. I'm just incurring greater and greater guilt before god i'm making myself before the god who has blessed us as a nation more and more despicable i must do a u-turn i must turn around they're determined in their obstinacy is that perhaps the spirit that is beginning to invade the mind of some of us here this evening we've had the pleadings of god's word to turn to him to take his word seriously, the warnings, the invitations to seek Christ and his forgiveness. But we are increasingly obstinate and say, no, I'm determined to have my own way. And if that means that I wallow in sin, well, so be it. Look at what he says here at the end of verse five. They hold fast deceit. They hold on to it. They cling to it. What's this deceit? Well, it's sin. That's what he's referring to. They're clinging to a way of life that is sinful even though it deceives them. And that's what sin does. Sin is a deceitful thing. It promises far more gratification and satisfaction than it ever actually gives. You think of someone who is an alcoholic or a drug abuser. Now I know that eventually So sad is the situation that people can become so held so powerfully by those things. They almost can't help themselves and I'm not in any way meaning to be disparaging toward someone who gets themselves into such a condition. But at least part of the element of those things is it's deceitful. In fact in the book of Proverbs we're told that Alcohol can be so deceitful. It promises that it will deliver us from all our woes. We can drown all our sorrows. It will lift us out of all our misery. Just take me and indulge. But of course, those that do know that it's such a temporary fix and afterwards they feel worse. And sin is like that generally. The sinful life Leave God out of the picture. Jump in with both feet. Follow that course of self-seeking. Do what you want. Live as you want. Live for the here and now. That's the temptation of sin, but it's a deceit because ultimately it will ruin us. And even in this life, it will bring so much sorrow and misery. If we turn our backs upon the Lord, we will have to reap the wages of sin. the fruit of our doings, but we must move on. There's a second reason that Jeremiah suggests here, why we may not be saved, and that is what I'm going to call vain deceit. Look at verse six. I hearkened and heard, this is the Lord speaking through the prophet, but they spoke not aright. No man repented of his wickedness, saying, what have I done? Everyone turned to his own course as the horse rushes into battle. So here's a picture at the end of this verse, a horse rushing into battle. What is the picture? Well, it's a picture of someone completely oblivious to danger, giving no attention to it. Sometimes we have to feel sorry for the horses, don't we? Because when they're going onto a battlefield, they're blinkered. If they can see at all, they can only see immediately ahead. The blinkers which the rider has placed upon them is to prevent them becoming alarmed and seeing the gruesome reality of that battlefield. But the picture here then is of someone who has no sense of the danger that they are in. And that's the reason why there are some individuals, they're never saved from their sin, never saved from a lost and ruined condition, because they go all through their life plowing headlong into whatever they want to indulge in with no sense of the danger, at least part of that danger is our guilt before a holy God. Do you have a blinkered view of a sinful life? I do not need God. I'm going to pursue my own dreams, live my own way, set my own morals, live by my own standards. If God says one day in seven is for him, well, I don't want that day. I want it for myself. There won't be any consequences. I have to tell you, that's a blinkered view because the word of God makes it very clear that there is an eternity ahead in which we must ultimately bear our own guilt if we have not come and found forgiveness through the Saviour. Swift to sin, like a horse in vain conceit. Who are you? People say, concerning God and his word, who are you to tell me how to live? That's what Pharaoh was like when Moses went to confront him with the slavery with which he was holding the people of Israel. He said, who is God that I should listen to you? Who is God that I should obey his voice? And there are many, they're not saved because there's a bit of that spirit of Pharaoh about them. They're full of themselves. I know best. I don't need to be alarmed and concerned that life is short, eternity is long. Sin brings genuine guilt. No, they push these things away. I'm just going to get on with my life, they say. And that's the spirit here, look, at the end of verse six and verse seven. sorry, the middle here of verse 6, everyone turned to his own course. Many of us, or many in our society, that's the description of their life. They've turned to their own course. They've set the charts. They've made the course, the destination, clear. I'm just going to get on with my life, they say, and give no thought to those eternal implications. The third reason why some are not saved is, says the prophet here, a lack of perception. No instinct. We could say no conscience. At the beginning of verse seven, he speaks of the stork, the turtle dove, the crane, the swallow. What do all these birds have in common? Well, they're migratory birds. The birds know when that time comes, when they must abandon their nests and fly off to warmer climes. No one needs to tell them. They sense a change in the length of days, is it? The colder nights? The leaves beginning to change colour? I don't know what it is, but they know. And the Prophet here is saying, look, these birds, they know. They can see the signals. And they know it's time to act. But my people know not the judgment of the Lord. Do we read the signs of the times? Or perhaps even the warning signs in our own life? The prophet is saying many are not saved because they are far less perceptive than these migratory birds. COVID is a warning, isn't it? God sends these things upon society and they are to awaken us to stop and think. Are we right with God? Are our lives pleasing to him? And of course they are not. It may be our personal circumstances. You know, Daniel Defoe, who wrote Robinson Crusoe, he was a willful person as a young man. But the Lord was going to be merciful to him. But he had to learn the hard way. So he married into money, I think, and he borrowed his wife's money to start a business. But his business soon went bankrupt. He'd not sought the Lord's help. In fact, he'd turned away from the Lord during those days. And the Lord allowed these things to go wrong. And then he became a pamphleteer. And that was a dangerous thing to do in those days. You took sides. You followed one political party or another. It was fine while your party was in power. You could say what you liked and get away with it. And he was a very skilled propaganda writer. But then the authorities changed and he was regarded as an enemy and imprisoned. He hit rock bottom. But did he seek the Lord? He didn't. He had a few thoughts about his situation. The Lord's hand was upon him. But it wasn't until later, when he was on a sickbed, languishing with serious illness, that he turned to the Lord. He realised that he was a sinner in need of God's grace and mercy and forgiving love. But he should have seen the warning signs so much earlier. So let me gently say this evening, have things gone wrong this year? It may be, not always, but it may be the Lord has laid his hand upon you to alert you. He's working in love. It's an expression of love. So often when the Lord interferes in our lives, he allows the wheels to come off our chariots so that we begin to think about him. and turn back to him in repentance. But here the prophet says, the people lacked perception. Things were already beginning to get difficult in Jerusalem, but they didn't sense the judgment of the Lord. And is that perhaps the reason some amongst us here, or listening online this evening, you're not saved? because you've not really stopped and thought and reflected upon what the Lord is saying to you through circumstance or in your conscience or even through his word. The fourth reason the prophet gives for the fact that people are unsaved is this, religious complacency. not going to look at everything he says. This is such an action-packed sermon. But look at verse 8. He says, how do you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? How can you fall into sin and not pick yourselves up? How can you turn into a foolish path and do nothing about it? How can you be more stupid than the stork and the turtle dove and yet in your heart you say we are wise we've got the law of the lord we're good people we know the truth well these were people who were complacent when it came to religious things the fact that they possessed the scriptures and the fact that they'd got a christian influence if you like or a spiritual godly influence around them, that was sufficient. But of course it's not sufficient to save us. It's as if the prophet is saying here, are you wise when you are more stupid than these birds? You're not perceptive. It's in vain that the scribes tell you what the Bible says. That's what verse nine is saying here, verse eight, sorry. The pen of the scribes is in vain. If they write down, they copy out, they tell you what the Word of God says, but you don't actually deal with it. You don't address those great needs of your soul. What is necessary then? Well, let's come to verse 12 briefly. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination No, they were not at all ashamed. The path of salvation involves shame. That's part of repentance. It's realising that our behaviour before a holy God is something of which we should be ashamed. There ought to be inner feeling, not a shrugging of the shoulders, well I'm not perfect. but we sense the shame of our sinfulness. That's what the Lord looked for amongst the people of Jerusalem. That's why he sent Jeremiah to preach to them. But there was no shame, no remorse. What about you and I? Have we been cut to the heart as we've reflected upon our coldness toward the Lord, our obstinacy, our stupidity? our determination to have our own way. The Lord looks for a degree of shame when we have defied him, determined in that way. There's one final thing here before we move towards the end of the chapter. Look at verse 11. The prophets here, Jeremiah, he speaks of the false prophets and the professional priests of Jerusalem. And he says they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, where there is no peace. It was a sham peace. Why had they spoken about peace, but it wasn't a genuine peace? Well, the previous verse tells us they were covetous. They simply wanted to flatter the people, to please the people. They said what the people wanted to hear. They didn't speak the truth because they wanted a following. They wanted approval. They wanted to be paid for their professional services as prophets and priests. Have you been flattered? Is that the reason you're not saved this evening? Because you've heard the flatteries of the media and the lobbyists of our country, the false prophets that say everything's going to be fine. We're going to have a vaccine. We can get back to normality. Life will go on. You will prosper. You don't need to worry about your soul. You didn't need to consider the warnings of God's word. You've been told there is peace, but there's no peace between the guilty sinner and a holy God unless we come in repentance before him. I want to come to the end of the chapter. In verse 22, there's a final reason why some amongst us here may not be saved. The prophet says, is there no balm in Gilead? Balm was an ointment. And Gilead was famous for its healing balm. And so he's speaking a question in which there is only one answer, and the answer is yes. Is there no balm in Gilead? Yes, there is. Is there no physician there? The answer had to be yes, there is. Gilead was famous for its healers and those who would dispense these well-known ointments. But it's a picture, of course, of something far more serious than local healing and homeopathic remedies. That's not what's being spoken about. The prophet is using this rhetorically. And he's saying, is there no way for our guilt to be removed? Is there no physician who can heal our souls and deliver us from a lost condition, is there no possibility of the sinner being saved? And of course the answer is yes. Jesus Christ is near at hand. His work at Calvary's Cross is sufficient to heal sin, to cleanse sin of the deepest eye, to restore the most foolish and determined sinner to sanity. and obedience. The Lord is able to save sinners. And the prophet, that's the language here, turn to God, he says. Seek his mercy, plead with him, and he can not only clear you of your guilt, but he can change your life and give you a new life and deliver you from the vanities that you have followed. Is this the reason that you're not saved? Well, there's a question here at the end. Why then is the health of the daughter of my people recovered? It's an exclamation. The Savior is there. The remedy is near at hand. But the people have never turned to the Lord. They've never called upon him. And is that the reason? You and I are not saved this evening. We've never consciously, personally, bowed the knee to Jesus Christ and said, Oh Lord, I know I am a sinner, that I'm guilty and undone, that I have a dead and ruined heart. I need thy grace to change me, to renew me, to forgive me, to save me. Have you called upon the Lord? That's the implication of Jeremiah's message here. The Saviour is near at hand, but he must be applied to for salvation. We must call upon him in prayer, confessing our sin with shame, saying, Lord, make me that new person. Give me a new heart. Begin a new life within. Deliver me from the flatteries of this world and from my own hardened and obstinate heart. make me a true Christian. Well may that be the prayer of each and every one of us here as we come to the end of this year. If we are not saved then may we reflect upon the reason and may the Lord through his word so work within our hearts that we are moved to seek him in repentance and call upon his name. Let's pray together. O Lord we Think of these solemn words of Jeremiah. We know that he spoke them in love. He sorrowed himself when he reflected upon the anguish and the misery that he knew many of his townsfolk would experience in the coming decades. Lord, we ask that we may reflect ourselves this evening. Am I saved? What is the reason if I am not? Lord, stir our hearts and draw us each to thyself and grant that we may know thy saving power and grace and love in our souls in the days ahead. We ask these things for Jesus' sake. Amen.