Take your Bibles with me and open to Jeremiah chapter 2. We'll look at the first 19 verses this week and then we'll be praying for Brother James as he is hopefully feeling better next week. He will be preaching his next message on the union of Christ for us. And then we will finish chapter 2 the week after that, Lord willing. had originally slated all 37 verses into one sermon and it became very clear very quickly that that was more than enough material for one sermon. So we'll just do the first 19 verses this week. Looking at here, Jeremiah, as he began his ministry in the 13th year of Josiah's reign, that was five years before the scroll of the law was discovered in the temple and read to Josiah sparking a major reformation in Judah. We talked about that Sunday school this morning. Josiah, however, had already begun to work at reformation. At the age of 16, he was actively seeking the Lord and working to remove idols and false worship. We read about that in 2 Chronicles 34. Josiah was 8 years old when he became king and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem and he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. Now in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father, David. And in the twelfth year, he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the ashram, the graven images, and the molten images. And they tore down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars that were high above them he cut in pieces. Also the ashram, the graven images, and the molten images he broke in pieces and ground to powder and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, even as far as Naphtali and the surrounding ruins, he also tore down the altars and beat the ashram and the graven images into powder and cut in pieces all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem. Throughout the course of this reformation, Jeremiah began his preaching. And his preaching confirmed that what Josiah was doing was right and was godly. There were several prophets and even a prophetess that we read from 2 Kings this morning that confirmed to Josiah what the Lord would have him do in response to the law that had been read to him. Again, more than likely that scroll of the law read to Josiah was a scroll of the book of Deuteronomy. We find it quoted so much in Jeremiah throughout the work that God is calling his people back to renewed covenant but also warning them of the covenant curses. What's going to happen if they continue to disobey God, the judgment that's going to come upon them. So Jeremiah's preaching confirmed the judgments of God upon the people of Judah for their continued idolatry. He likens it here to spiritual adultery because the people had been unfaithful to God. That was the bottom line in the accusations that were made. Here in Jeremiah chapter 2, I've titled the message for this week and the next message, it'll be part 1 and part 2, hear the word of Yahweh, because this is where the text begins. That God tells Josiah to hear his word. He's going to speak to Jeremiah and he's going to give him a contrast here of what happened with his people. And basically what we learn in the first three verses is that the so-called honeymoon between God and his covenant people was over. Philip Riken actually titled the chapter in his commentary on this, God Files for Divorce. God is going to turn his people over. They have been unfaithful, they've committed spiritual adultery, and actually the language that we'll find throughout chapter two is the language of what we refer to in the Old Testament as a prophetic lawsuit. This was a court case, charges and a case that was being made against the people And the plaintiff in the case, the wounded party, is God. Because of all that He provided for the people and gave to the people, and then their straying from Him in unfaithfulness, there were going to be repercussions of that across the land and for many years to come. So in the first three verses we read, Now the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Go and call out in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I remember concerning you the loving kindness of your youth. the love of your betrothals. You're walking after me in the wilderness through a land not sown. Israel was holy to Yahweh, the first of his produce. All who ate of it became guilty. Evil came upon them, declares Yahweh. So as we begin, we hear a message here about the people's former devotion. And again, Philip, why can I appreciate this? He said, you have to understand when God is talking in these terms of devotion and loving kindness and love, and you're walking after me, you're following me. He said, if you can imagine, God brought his people out of Egypt. He called them to himself. He was going to be their God. They were going to be his people. In answer to their cries under bondage, he set them free. to serve himself and only himself. And then he led them through the wilderness. Now, that journey ended up taking a generation. But if you can imagine, Ryken says, this was the honeymoon. What a honeymoon. But the people were following God. They were completely dependent upon God. They were protected by God. As we look at what happened in the wilderness, their clothes and their shoes didn't wear out. They had food to eat, manna and quail and water that came out of a rock. Everything that they needed was provided for the whole journey. And what did they do the whole time? Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur. Take us back to Egypt. We want to go back. We would rather be slaves. Is it really that onerous to serve a God who provides everything that you need? And yet how often do we complain when God has provided everything that we need and we act as if we don't have everything that we need? Well, here this devotion in the wilderness, this love and the word for loving kindness there, it does mean devotion or it refers to the covenant faithfulness between God and his people. They believed him, they followed Moses, they followed the pillar of fire by night and cloud by day. They followed God and they loved him and they feared him. Deuteronomy 8 verses 2 through 4 read, You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. Nothing like trying times in a time in the wilderness to prove what you really believe, right? And that's what happened. He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh." Does that sound familiar? The verses that Jesus quoted while he was being tempted by Satan. This was one of the purposes that God had for his people in the wilderness, to prove that you don't live on bread alone, on human food alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell for these 40 years. Can you imagine your feet not swelling just for a week, but for 40 years, walking in the wilderness, no swelling, the shoes didn't wear out, the clothes didn't wear out. God loved them and they loved Him. And he went and they followed him. This following that he describes, that Jeremiah describes, is not just obedience. It's not just God says do this, so I do this. You know, there is a danger in falling into legalism that if we just do what we're supposed to do, we'll be okay. But we've learned from the book of Matthew, that's not at all why the law was given. The law was not given just to give us a list of things to do and to not to do. This is not just about obedience. This is about adoration. This is about God's people loving Him, wanting to please Him, doing what He's commanded, not just out of a duty of God said, do it, so I must do it, but doing it because we love God. Do we not seek to serve and to please the people that we love? To do what we know they want? Well, this is what God is asking from His people. And at first, this is what He's getting from His people. And then in fact, if we boil all of those do's and do nots, if we take all of the law and boil it down, what do we come up with? All of the law condenses into love, doesn't it? Because Jesus says this is the commandment. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Here it's given to them in Deuteronomy 6, 5. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. The purpose of the law is to teach you how to love God with everything you are. By bringing your whole being into subjection to God's standards. For thought, for motives, for actions, for emotions, for behavior. To bring all of our life into compliance with what God expects of us. And this is what God is delighting in. The love of His people. The fact that they followed Him. It says Israel was holy to Yahweh in verse 3. The first of His produce. They were special. They were set apart. The word holy there is not a reference to their righteousness. This is a reference to their placement. God held them in a special place. He tells them, you're the apple of my eye. You are the first fruits. Now, what were the first fruits? The first fruits were the earliest things that grew. And you took the first part of that harvest and gave that to the Lord. The first was his. It belonged to him. So God is saying you're mine. You are set apart to be mine. You are holy to me. You belong to me and you are my first fruits. Leviticus 25 verse 23 says the land moreover shall not be sold permanently for the land is mine. for you are sojourners and foreign residents with me." He told the people not only the produce, but the land itself. He said, I've given you a promised land to live in, but I haven't given you the land. It's not yours. It's mine. Well, the whole earth is his, but this was his special provision for his people. They were holy and special to him. Exodus 19 verse 6, he tells them, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. And in Deuteronomy 7, 6, for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. God chose them for this purpose. I appreciate at times that there are those who argue against the doctrine of election. And what I really find comical about it, and I try not to laugh when I'm having a serious theological debate, is that people will confess that God created Adam and Eve, and that he chose Moses to send Moses to do what he was going to do, and he chose Samuel, and he chose Jeremiah before he was born. He chose the whole people of Israel to be his own people. But when it comes to me, he let me choose him. The doctrine of election runs throughout the scriptures and it's a glorious doctrine because it means it's all up to God and God only does what is right and what is good. It's all for the praise of his name. He set apart this holy people to be the first fruits. And he says there, as the first of his produce, all who ate of it became guilty. Evil came upon them. Anybody who reached out and touched them, who harmed them because they were God's special people, there would be retribution upon them. You know, we see this throughout the history, and we'll see this even throughout the history as we read Jeremiah, that God did bring the Assyrians against Israel. But then he judged the Assyrians with the Babylonians. And then he brought the Babylonians against Judah. And he judged the Babylonians with the Medes and the Persians. Because he said, I'm sending you to judge my people for their sin, but they're my people, so you're going to have to pay too. Really, God just uses the sinfulness of man to accomplish his purposes. That's his sovereign power, that he can let men run amuck, and his purposes are still going to be accomplished. He's still going to do what he wants to do. Not making him in any way the author of sin or evil, but as he allows those things to come to pass, he turns and uses them for his purposes, and all who harmed his people, evil came upon them, because they interfered with the apple of his eye. He really was to them a heavenly husband. And he gives us actually three things that husbands need to do. Here's a picture for us as husbands. As a heavenly husband, God had a passion for his people. They are holy to the Lord. He held those people in a special place. Husbands, you hold your wife in a special place that no one else in earth occupies, period. Your wife is the beauty, the standard of beauty and of godliness in your home. Hold her in a special place. As a heavenly husband, he protected his people. Somebody came against them, disaster came upon them. Husbands, you're protectors. And I know people don't like to talk about masculinity and they talk about toxic masculinity. Listen, what is toxic is the absence of true masculinity. Because then, femininity can't be what it's supposed to be. Because we complement one another. If you don't have true masculinity, you can't have true femininity, and you wonder why all of our sons and daughters are messed up in this society. You want to trace down the problems? The problems are not mental health issues, and it's even beyond being spiritual issues. The problems are households without mothers and fathers who are serving God together. That's the problem in our society. Husbands, you protect your family. Also as a heavenly husband, God made provision. He gave them manna and quail and water and a fruitful land. Husbands, provide for your families. In fact, the scripture tells us in the New Testament, a man who will not provide for his own is worse than a lost person, worse than a heathen, worse than the worst of the lost if he can't provide and won't provide for his own. This is what God did for his people. But now, verse 4, the tone changes. Hear the word. of Yahweh, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel. This is an introduction now to the filing of a prophetic lawsuit. God said, here's what we had at the beginning. We had devotion, loving kindness, love. You followed after me where I led. You were holy to me, special to me. You were the first fruits. I had passion for you as my people and you loved me. I protected you and you served me. I provided for you and you were grateful to me. But now in the intervening years, something has changed. And these people have begun to go astray, to wander away from God, to forget God, to reject God. And so he opens his charges against them. We're going to look at the main two in the first 19 verses and then one more next time in the remaining verses. But the first here is what injustice did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and walked after vanity and became vain? It's a rhetorical question. The answer to the question is there's the answer is no. Did they find injustice? Did they find unfairness with God? No. Why did you stray? What reason did you have to stray and follow after worthless idols? Was there injustice? Here's what that sounds like in our lives. When we think something happens in our life that should not have happened and we blame God. Now, oftentimes when things happen that we think shouldn't happen, that's because we made a stupid decision. It's because we sinned and there are consequences. Yes, we're forgiven the eternal consequences, but there are consequences to our actions, good or bad. And often the mess that we find ourselves in is the mess we got ourselves into. Now, what happens if God puts us in a mess? He's ordained it. That's his will. That means it's for his glory and for our good. And the joy of suffering with Christ and for Christ is that not that it's going to end soon. It's that he's in the midst of it with us. that in the suffering we learn patience, we bear the fruit of the spirit, we learn to walk with him. Here's the reality. Too often we don't run to God unless we need something from God. And the reality is when he allows an ordained suffering in our life and hard times and difficulty in our life, he's doing that and he's there with us in that and he's using that to conform us to the image of his son, to make us more like him. There is no injustice with God. Why did they stray? He says you followed worthless idols and you became worthless. The word there is vanity. You walked after vanity. Literally, the phrase is you followed nothing. There's no purpose. There's no reason. Idols are nothing. It's a piece of wood. It's a piece of stone. It's nothing. You followed nothing. You had everything and you chose to follow Nothing. As the result, you have become vain. You have become nothing. You understand? You become what you worship. That's a principle whether we're worshiping God or worshiping idols. You become like what you worship. They followed worthless idols and became worthless as a people. He says they did not say, where is Yahweh? They didn't look for God. They didn't seek after God. They didn't say, where is he? Who? He who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that no one crossed and where no man inhabited. I brought you into the fruitful lands to eat its fruit and its good things. But you came and defiled my land and my inheritance. You made an abomination. You didn't ask, where is Yahweh? You defiled the land that I gave you, all that I provided for you. You turned and decided to use it for yourself, for your own sinful purposes. And Jeremiah here blames a group of people for this, ultimately. The priests did not say, where is Yahweh? And those who handle the law did not know me. The shepherds also transgressed against me and the prophets prophesied by veil and walked after things that did not profit. They didn't ask where is Yahweh. They didn't seek after God. This is common throughout the prophets. In Jeremiah 18, 18, then they said, come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not going to perish from the priest nor counsel to the wise men, nor the divine word to the prophet. Come on and let us strike at him with our tongue and let us give no heed to any of his words. If they're not listening to Jeremiah and Jeremiah speaking the word of Yahweh, then who are they really not listening to? They're refusing to listen to God. Hosea said it this way in Hosea 4.6, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. See, it's not that they were ignorant. It's that they willingly rejected the truth. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you for ministering as my priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I myself also will forget your children. In Haggai chapter 2 verse 11, thus says Yahweh of hosts, ask now the priest about the law. Go and ask him and they should be able to tell you from the law about me. But they weren't even asking where is Yahweh. They didn't seek God. They didn't know him. Can you imagine being a priest to the Lord and not knowing him? Happens all the time, turn on TBN. It happens all the time. Well, no, turn off TBN. Don't follow that advice. It's a bad example. The blasphemy network, TBN. Malachi chapter two, verses six through nine, we read it this way. Instruction of truth was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness and he turned many back from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge and men should seek instruction from his mouth for he is the messenger of Yahweh of hosts. But as for you, you have turned aside from the way you have caused many to stumble by the instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Yahweh of Host. So I have also made you despised and low before all the people, just as you are not keeping my ways, but are showing partiality in the instruction. Here are the four groups of people, the priests. And he says, priest, you don't know God and you're not seeking after him. You should have the knowledge of God to impart to others. And people come to you seeking the truth and you can't give them an answer. You can't show them God because you don't know God. Those who keep the law, the scribes, also it says, you don't know God. Your duty is to be in the Word, writing the Word, copying the Word, commenting on the Word, so that the Word can be taught and you don't know God. This is similar to what Jesus said to the Pharisees. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that bear witness about me and you're unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. Jesus says you're going to the law. You're going to the books. You're reading the scripture and thinking you're going to find eternal life there. And you don't even realize they just testify of me. You want to find life. You need to find Jesus. But you don't and you won't because you don't want to have anything to do with me. The shepherds. The rulers of the day, these are the rulers of the people. It says they transgressed God's law and the prophets prophesied by Baal. So nobody seeks God, nobody knows God, nobody talks about God. Everybody transgresses his law and the prophets are false prophets prophesying by Baal and by other false gods. There's a complete absence of the knowledge of Yahweh. You see how far the people have strayed? These are people betrothed to him. These are this is his bride. These are these are those people who are holy, who he's had this covenant faithfulness and love with and for. And now they don't even know who he is. The road to spiritual adultery, Philip Riken writes, the road to spiritual adultery begins when you stop reveling in the love of God. when you stop reveling in the love of God. And we preach this and at times I think we overreact. We hear the world say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. We hear that in witnessing. Well, be careful because there are people that God says he hates and things that God says he hates and we need to warn people about that. But that doesn't mean we need to go so far that we forget the love of God and just how much God loves us. Are we even aware of how much he loves us? Look at what he's provided for us beyond manna and quail and water. He's provided himself who is the living bread himself, who is the living water. He's given us his son who is his all and should be our all. Why? Because he loved us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. His son is the expression of his love. And we're told he demonstrated his love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The road to spiritual adultery then begins when we stop reveling in that love. Three solutions for that. First, we need to remember God's mercy and goodness. We need to remember his mercy and his goodness and understand that his saving us and forgiving us is not a small thing. It took the life of his son offered as our substitute. We also need to recount his provision and his blessings. We are quick to take out a list of complaints about all the things that happen that we think shouldn't happen. We should recount his provision and his blessings, recount what God has done for you and given to you and provided for you. And you can go back year after year after year. I counted it up. This was a significant week this week, significant for two anniversaries. One, I asked Renee to marry me and she said yes. And that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, even longer ago. 44 years ago this week, God called me to himself and I was born again. For those decades of service to Christ, you think there's not some good things I can recount over the terms of those years? Starting with his salvation and second, starting with the wife that he's given me, to look at all of the other things. And if that was all, you understand if that was all, I'm totally blessed. But look at all of the other things God provides for us. All of the other things that He gives to us. He gives us fruit and ministry and church family. Opportunities to serve and to give and to encourage. Recount His provision and His blessings. Third, recite the mighty acts of salvation that God has accomplished. And this is important. Not just recounting the fact and reciting the fact that He saved you. How many other times has God saved you throughout your life? Really? We could have hours of testimony, couldn't we? That time you almost went off the road, that time the deer ran across, that time some accident happened, that time something that was dreadful or some dreadful illness and you didn't think you were going to recover and yet you're saved and here you are. Guess what? That's because God saved you. Again. He continues to save us. He saved us eternally and he saves us as long as we're here. In fact, somebody said, as long as God's plan and purpose is for you, he knows your days are numbered. But as long as that time has not come, you are indestructible. Because he saves you, because he's your deliverance, because things that should have killed you, they didn't necessarily make you stronger. They served to sanctify you so that you could grow in grace, so that you could fulfill your purposes that God has for you here. Now, as these charges are being made, look at what I provided you. Look at the love that we've had in the past. Now, look at how far you have strayed. Verse nine is one of those scary verses. Therefore, I will contend with you, declares Yahweh, and I will contend with your sons. God says, I'm about to come fight against you. How bad does it have to be for God to say to his holy chosen covenant people, I'm coming to fight you? This is serious. In fact, as he does this, this is how drastic it is. He says, for cross to the coastlands of Kittim and sea and to send to Kadar and perceive closely and see if there's been such a thing as this. Go as far east as Kadar, go as far west as Kittim. You go all of these distances, as far as you can go, and see if you can find this. Find whether or not a nation has ever changed its gods. Now this is true of pagans, isn't it? Pagan nations, we can recite them and while there may be some conflicts and some things that happen as a result of war, most of those pagan nations, most of those nations of the world have a god and a religious system that's dominant in their territory. And we can name the land and name the religion. They don't change their gods. How shocking is it then that the people of the one true god are changing gods? Putting off the true god for false gods. My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. In verse 12, he says, Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be very devastated, declares Yahweh. He calls upon the cosmos and he says to his creation, Have you seen anything like this? People that would change their gods, be appalled, be horribly afraid, be devastated. How bad is it when God is coming to fight against you? And he says, the things that you have done, it's so serious in the scope of what you've done that you can go throughout the history of the cosmos and the heavens are going to look at you and say, we've never seen anything like that before. This is dreadful. He sums it up, my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. They've gone to follow after the ways of the world. What happens if we as God's people chase after the world? James tells us, James 4.4, you adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God. If you want God to say to you, I'm coming to fight you, go befriend the world. Now immediately people say, well wait a minute, we're supposed to be their friends so we can win them to Christ. You don't win people to Christ by friendship evangelism. If you go out and try to befriend the world for the hope that you can gain their trust so that you can find an opening to share with them the gospel, you are going to be more corrupted like them than they're ever going to be holy like you in the course of that friendship. Does that mean we can't have lost friends? No, but it means to be very careful the level of fellowship to which you go with people who don't know Jesus. Our friends are to be friends in the faith. fellowship in the gospel and then we go with love and compassion and mercy and tenderness and preach the gospel so that that circle of friends might grow. That's friendship evangelism. You want friendship evangelism? Rend people to Jesus and you've got more friends. But don't think that befriending the world will accomplish these purposes. God said it. He meant it. If you make a friendship to that level with the world, you are displaying hostility toward God. You're setting yourself as an enemy of God. No wonder most of our evangelicalism has failed because our means of evangelism makes us enemies of God. We're working counter to his program as ambassadors and ministers of reconciliation. For him to say two evils I sum this up. This is a song title. I used to like this song title. I used to like this singer. But in light of these verses, I don't know if I can sing. I did it my way anymore. Because that's the complaint. You did it your way. Here he says, they forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, forsaken, forgotten, turned away from the reference several verses down, the reference is going to be you have backslidden away from me. the fountain of living waters. And think about how, really, the only theological word for this is how stupid this would be. How stupid do you have to be that you have God who has given himself to you as the fountain of living water And you want to turn that off and dig a cistern to catch rainwater. Now, I know some of you thought cistern were the counterpart to the brethren. The brethren and the cistern. No, the cistern, this is where you would dig a stock tank to catch rainwater. Now, let's be honest. We let cows drink out of stock tanks. Would you drink out of a stock tank? Now what happens if you hewn this, you hewn this out of the rock and you make this big bowl in the ground to catch rainwater. But what happens is here he says, you are so ignorant spiritually that you've dug a cistern to try to catch rainwater and you didn't even dig it right. It's cracked, it's broken and it's going to leak. It's not going to hold any water. So by going your own way, here's what you did. You tried to turn off the fountain of living water and you dug a hole in the ground to catch rainwater and it can't even hold water. Don't you feel bright? But this is what you've done by forsaking the living God to chase after the false gods. To forsake Him and to go your own way. To do your own thing. He asked the question then in verse 14, is Israel a slave or is he a home-born slave? Why has he become plunder? They've been set free from bondage. But now they've put themselves back under bondage, bondage to false gods. This is this for us in the New Testament. This is Roman six. You're no longer a slave of sin. Don't offer your members as instruments of unrighteousness. Quit running back to the things that put you in that bondage. You've been freed from that bondage. Don't you realize? He says, is Israel slave? No, she shouldn't be. She has been set free by God himself. There is no better freedom. But you've done this, he says, to yourself. You've put yourself back in this place of bondage. You've gone your own way. You've done your own thing. You've rejected and forsaken me. Verse 50, he says, the young lions have roared at him. They have given forth their voice. They have made his land a desolation. His cities have been turned into ruin without inhabitants. Also the men of Memphis and Taffanis have shaved the top of your head. Have you not done this to yourself by forsaking Yahweh your God when he led you in the way? But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria to drink the waters of the river? The question that he's asking, and he says, you look at this, your cities are in ruin. You've been shaved. The picture there is somebody's come and shaved the top of your hair off your head. In fact, the description there, there's a question of whether that means the top of your head or your skull. It's the idea that you've gone into bondage to Egypt and Egypt is going to turn around and crack your skull. What kind of ignoramuses are you? Can you imagine this exchange? The living God for false gods. The protection of God for the protection of Egypt and Assyria. The provision of God for trying to do it and make it your own way. You've been shamed. Your cities are in ruins. You're going to drink from the Nile. You're trusting Egypt and Assyria for protection. You're running back under bondage thinking you're safe in that bondage. You've done this to yourself. We know about the warnings that they were given about going back to Egypt and Assyria. They were warned not to go trust them. You remember that Hezekiah trusted Babylon and the result is Isaiah told him the Babylonians are going to take everything you just showed them. They're going to come back and take it all. You shouldn't be trusting them. You shouldn't be going to them for help. Again, here's this picture. God, who's given them a land flowing with milk and honey, who himself is a fountain of living water, and you're going to go drink out of the Nile? You're going to go back and trust Egypt? Those who held you in bondage? When we get to Lamentations, there's a lamentation about this. In Lamentation 119, I called to my lovers, but they deceived me. They went to Egypt. They went to Assyria for help. When Israel went to Assyria for protection, what happened? They were taken into captivity and gone. assumed into the system. When the Assyrians came after Babylon, or came after Judah, Hezekiah prayed and God in one night wiped out the whole army. Sent Assyria home, devastated. Replaced them with Babylon. Babylon come. Now what happened? Hezekiah had trusted Babylon against Assyria instead of trusting God against Assyria. So instead of a one night victory, he sent his people on a path to 70 years in captivity. It was his son Manasseh who heaped up the sin upon the sin upon the sin that led the people to cry out for help from these other countries. And instead, they were deceived. They were attacked. They were killed. Their cities were ruined. Their people were executed. And the best of them were taken off into captivity to serve in Nebuchadnezzar's court. Why would you go back to bondage? This really is where we find the heart of the battle when it comes to temptation to sin. Your flesh is wanting to put you back into bondage. Why is that? Number one, because we're comfortable with routines. We should not be comfortable with routines. We should be daily being renewed in the spirit of our mind. If you fall into a routine, a pastor said that years ago, said if you fall into a routine, realize the routine is just a rut and a rut is just a grave with both ends kicked out. Wherever you go, it's all a dead end. You're never going to get where you're supposed to get if you just follow routines. We don't just do what we've always done. Our flesh wants us in that bondage. Because our flesh wants what it wants. Because our flesh's theme song is, I did it my way. If we do it our way, we're only going to mess it up. Don't do it your way, do it His. That's the heart of the gospel, isn't it? Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. What we really want is our way to be his way. For us to be yielded in submission to his word and to his will. And to fight against this temptation because when we realize when we faulted temptation, we've been unfaithful to God. We've committed spiritual adultery. We followed after an idol, the idol of self-will. And the people of God should not be slaves to anyone but Jesus Christ. He's the one who bought us. He's the one who owns us. He is our Lord and master. Don't surrender yourself to be slaves of unrighteousness. You brought this on yourself. Verse 19 then finishes out this section. Your own evil will chastise you. Listen, there are times that God does, in judgment, just turn us over to our sin. And by doing that, he's letting our sin be our chastisement. And here's what that looks like. You think you want something. Now tell me if this isn't true. You think you want something and you get it and it turns out you didn't really want it. And you shouldn't have wanted it and now you've got to get rid of it. This is God giving you what you want and chastising you with your sin. You really think you want that? I know your body's screaming at you, I want that! Give me, give me, give me, give me! You've seen the seagulls in that movie. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. It's all mine. It's all mine. It's all mine. Mine, mine, mine. Well, God says, fine, here, take it. No, no, I don't want it. Oh, God, take it. Oh, God. And you know how we do that, by the way? We pray for God to take something, and we hand it to him just like this. Go ahead, God, take it. Take it. Go ahead, God, God. Oh, oh, that hurts, God. Quit prying my fingers. No, quit. Ah. Said Corrie Ten Boom, I found when I give something to God, I have to give it with an open hand. Otherwise, him prying my fingers hurts because he's going to take it. whether we want to give it or not. Give it to him. You're chastised by your own evil. Your acts of faithlessness will reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake Yahweh your God. And the dread of me is not in you, declares Lord Yahweh of hosts. This, the acts of faithlessness here, these are phrases that mean wickedness and backsliding. You are forsaking the living water. Jesus said to the woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God and who it was who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you the living water. See, too often we go to God and we think, look at everything I have to offer God. God, I'm so glad you needed me. God doesn't need anything. Do you hear that? That is doctrinally important. God does not need anything. He is complete and self-sustained in and of himself. And yet he's called us into fellowship with him, not because he needs us, but because he wants us. And now here we are. If we had known what he has to give, why would we reject that? Why would we forsake the living water? Why would we try to build cracked cisterns? One of the commentators that I read listed cracked cisterns. He said, you know what a cracked cistern is today? It's thinking that political power will bring about things that are happening in the kingdom of God. It's forming unequal alliances with unbelievers to try to accomplish God's purposes. And let me tell you, there are all sorts of protest movements out there. If you want to join a protest, that's fine. Go right ahead. We are, after all, Protestant. But be careful. The wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. Too many people do too many things because they're mad about the current situation. Well, we're supposed to be angry, but not sin. We don't need to be trusting political power. And this is how it's happened in our country. Look at this, the history of our country. We forsook the word of God as infallible and inerrant. We let liberalism creep in. And in those churches that first fell to liberalism, suddenly the gospel of salvation became the social gospel. And it became all about fixing the problems that men had with other men. Fixing problems of relationships. Fixing and helping the poor and the hungry and the needy. Nothing wrong with ministering to people's needs. Please understand what we're going to learn in the book of Jeremiah. There are times that people are down on their luck because they have sinned against God and he's working to get their attention. Vance Abner said the reality of the social gospel is it came along and it took away all that God was using to motivate people to return to him. And he said, here, we'll help you. You don't need to be hungry. You don't need to worry. You know, if somebody had come along and given that prodigal son food while he was in the pigsty, he never would have come home to his dad. We have to be diligent, we have to be discerning, but there are times that we cannot make provision for the lost because God is bringing them to the end of themselves so that they will come to Him. But what happened in the left is we thought that political power and then the power of taxing people so that we could support this class of the poor would solve everything. Listen, do you know who's winning the war on poverty? I'm pretty sure poverty is, because the longer we fight it, the more into poverty we sink. Well, the right got it right, right? Because the right went after morals. And we had the moral majority. And all of those people committing all of the corruption that they did in the name of Christ sinned just like the left. And they made the gospel all about politics and about power and about voting and about reformation in the society instead of the regeneration of the hearts of sinners. Those are cracked systems. That's rejecting what God has given. You understand, you understand what God gave to minister to the poor? It was his church. But now the government takes that over. In fact, most of what's wrong here in our country now, you can trace it back to the government taking on the roles God had given to the church. And so the government not only becomes the church, the government becomes God. And then we all live in service to the God who protects us and provides for us. Cracked cisterns. This is following a dead ritual instead of reveling in a living relationship. Look at all that God has done for us. We need to revel in his love. The final warning there is the dread of me is not in you. They don't fear God. They don't know God. This is a theme through scripture as well. Job chapter 1 verse 1 reminds us there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning from evil. Proverbs 1 7 says the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge. Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline. The first thing you need to know is God. That's the first thing you need to know. And so what's the last thing we teach our children now in school? Well, you can't teach them about God unless it's Allah or something else. No, we don't teach anybody about God anymore. We've forgotten who he is. We don't fear him. Psalm 34 verse 11 says, Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh. Because you see, to know God is to fear God. But when we fear God, even in terror, people and again, people say, Well, I know as Christians, we're supposed to fear God, but that's not terror. Really? You stand in his presence and tell me you're not scared to death. What's the first thing an angel says every time they appear? And they're not even God. Do not be afraid. To stand in the presence of Almighty God will terrify us. But here's the good news about that terror. We have an advocate who mediates for us. And instead of the wrath and the anger and the judgment, we get the goodness and the mercy and the love. Still doesn't mean we shouldn't be terrified because we know who he is. That will terrorize us. But in that fear of the Lord, we then see how much he loved us. That people who he should have wiped out completely as a people long ago, he's loved us and redeemed us. and ransomed us and adopted us. And he sustains us and holds us and sanctifies us and preserves us. He endures for us and in us and through us so that he can present us to the Father faultless in that day of judgment. We will stand before God as if we had never sinned, because Jesus had paid the penalty for every sin we could ever even have imagined of doing. He paid it all. So, yes, we fear God. But let's reject a dead ritual and embrace a living relationship. Let's come to God for who he is, the fountain of living waters. He alone can satisfy us. Don't run back under bondage. If you have to be in bondage, better to be a slave of Jesus Christ. Because what did he say? He said it in his word. Again, often misquoted, misapplied. You shall know the truth. and the truth will set you free. What truth is that? It's not what truth, it's who truth. It's Jesus who is the truth. Know him and you will be free. This week, do this. Remember God's goodness and mercy. Recount his provision and blessings and recite the mighty acts of salvation God has accomplished. I promise you, if we just did those three things, we wouldn't have time to worry or to complain, would we? Just remember who God is. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you for your word this morning, for the prophet Jeremiah and his message. Looking at these times in history under Josiah, as Reformation was beginning, we thank you for sending Jeremiah to say, hear the word of Yahweh. Here is what God says to you. And we thank you that that word is timeless. It's not just meant for Judah as they were under Josiah. but it applies just as much to us today, that we would not run after idols or to seek to be back under the bondage of the flesh, but that we would walk in the truth, that we would walk with Christ and in him. And how we thank you for your glorious provisions, the things that you've given to us that you didn't have to give to us. Grace, mercy, forgiveness, peace, comfort. We thank you that you've sustained us and kept us. that you comfort us in our grief and that you promise us that even while we mourn, we will be comforted. That even when we do suffer, you're going to work it out for our good and for your glory. That drives us all to our knees to thank you for who you are, even beyond what you've done, just to thank you for who you are. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.