It's so good to be up here. Driving up here we love. We just get to drive through. How you doing? Good. Is it Clayton? Finally getting it. Driving up here is just, the last time we were here was August. And summer was in full bore. Trees were green. Crops were still coming up. But this was a very different experience today. Everything looked older, browner, more tired. A lot of the fields were already plowed for next year's crop. All that really was standing was the dried corn. I suspect that some of it is for grain. I don't know, but not that much for a farmer. But it just struck me that it was so close to this morning's text, that wonderful verse that says, the harvest is past and the summer is over, and we are not saved. And let me turn to that. In fact, turn to that because that is our text today. Chapter 8 of Jeremiah will be in the Old Testament today. Prophet Jeremiah, sometimes called the weeping prophet, just so brokenhearted over what he saw of the sin of his nation and how it was taking them down the tubes. Chapter 8, verse 20. We'll read 20, 21, and 22. I've got the English standard version, so if it's a little different than yours, it's hopefully close. Verse 20. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded. I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we know that there is a balm in Gilead. We know that you are the physician. But Jeremiah mourned for the state of his people, Father. And we have this finished story. We know that it does not end well for them at this point. until you return them to the land of Israel that you promised their forefathers. But a time of destruction is coming upon Jerusalem and the entire nation, a nation that Jeremiah referred to as the daughter of his people. He saw her in its youth, its loveliness, its fairness, innocence and beauty, and he mourned for the state that she was in now. Father, give us that same spirit of mourning where we see your name brought down in the land in which we live. But we pray with hope, Father, because we too have an end to this book. We know that in the end you win, and all those who are with you win. And yet we know, Father, that just as the Jewish nation was facing an irreversible slide towards destruction and pain, exile, and the flames of war that would later engulf them, Father, there is an end to this story, that all who trust in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Give us insight this morning, Father, we pray into this plea of Jeremiah, that there would be a balm in Gilead, that there would be a physician that could heal them. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I've always loved this passage. Not just for the emotions that it evokes, but there's almost a poetic beauty about it. I had a friend call me this past week. I have to tell you, he's my best friend up in New England, and we did a lot of ministry together. He took the hospital track, so he could relate to, I'm sure, the metaphor here between medicine and doctors, bombs and physicians. This man, before God called him into hospital ministry, had a quadruple bypass for his heart. Not only that, this same man was diagnosed with fourth stage Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is pretty much a death sentence, and God brought him through that. and healed him, so much so that he related to people who have spent many, many a day in that scary environment of the hospitals and the utensils and the nurses and the lights, and he could relate to that. And so he got involved with a ministry that enabled him to train churches to how to minister to people in the hospital. and how to do it in a gentle way and a way that doesn't violate the rules and yet brings the balm of Gilead, so to speak, to them. So here's a guy who knows medicine and knows the medical field. And he told me they went camping up in Acadia National Park, if you're familiar with Maine, that's a very beautiful park. And they go camping and they went for a long walk. He came back and took a nap. When he woke up the next morning, his wife noticed that his left leg was blue. And they did not know what to make of it. He didn't have that on the right side, just had it on his left. And he's been through so much that he thought, oh no, what is happening now? Because he's still under treatment for the Hodgkins. And so he didn't know if this was a new manifestation. And so he went to the emergency, those emergency clinics that they have, where you can kind of just walk in. I forget what you call them. But he went to one in the nearby town of Ellsworth. And the doctor came in and looked at it. First, the nurse came in. And she didn't have any idea, so she told the doctor the situation. He came in, he took a good look at it, and left the room for a moment and came back with an alcohol swab. And he just wiped it down his leg, and lo and behold, there was a shining line of healthy flesh. And he looks at, kind of cocks his eye at my friend, and he says, you're healed. Turns out that the walk he had taken the day before had made his legs sweaty, and when he came to the tent, he laid down on his sleeping bag on the outside of it, which was blue in color. He says he was so humiliated. But I could just picture the doctor smiling at him saying, you're cured. Wouldn't you love it if all our diagnoses were so curable? The prophet Jeremiah uses a medical metaphor here, and I appreciated what Shad prayed for Vanessa, that it's not a drug problem, it's a sin problem. He cries out, he says, is there no balm in Gilead? Balm was anointment made from the resin of certain trees, and was fragrant, and when diluted, had healing properties and was well known. But why Gilead? Why does he say is there no bomb in Gilead? It's not the whole nation of Israel in trouble. Gilead was that section of Israel that when they first conquered the land was on the other side of the Jordan, the eastern side of the Jordan, where the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh were given land. And it was actually Moses that conquered that land. And so they asked for that side of it. And it was the eastern side of the Jordan. The other nine and a half tribes settled on the western side of Israel. So why does he say, is there no bomb in Gilead? Is not the whole nation of Israel in need of healing? Well, it turns out that Gilead was noted for its healing properties. They had this particular tree that grew in abundance there It was, some think it was called the mastic tree. I'm not sure. Some think it was the balsam tree. But they've said that there was this one particular tree that only grew about 12 feet high, bushy evergreen. And from that, they used a sap for this ointment that they would dilute. They would also grind up the bark and the leaves. and create this ointment. And there was so much healing properties in this balm that doctors went there and set up their practices. So they had an abundance of doctors and balm. And that's why he says, is there no balm in Gilead? It's like saying, are there no oranges in Florida? Are there no grapes in California? Are there no cheesesteaks in Philadelphia? It's kind of that question. The answer is yes. And that's why he says, why then? Since there's an abundance of physicians and an abundance of Baam in Gilead, why is there no healing for the daughter of my people? We have what we need. He doesn't look elsewhere. He doesn't look beyond the boundaries of Israel. Notice verse 19. Behold the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land. Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her king not in her? Why have they provoked me to anger, and here's the Lord speaking, with their carved images and with their foreign idols? Jesus used a similar metaphor when he said, the healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent. So he explains his metaphor in one verse in Luke chapter two. He says, it did not come to heal the healthy. I've come to heal sinners. So what is the diagnosis? What is the disease? In verse 14, and many other places, he says, verse 14, chapter eight. Why do we sit still? Gather together, let us go into the fortified cities and perish there. For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish and has given us poison water to drink. Why? And I trust that all your texts give the answer. Because we have sinned against the Lord. Sin is the disease and we call sinners those who have it. So who's excluded from this disease? Who has missed this infection from the very gate this sin was passed on from Adam to his first child, Cain. Turn quickly to Genesis chapter four. I want us to see something about sin. Our world and our culture makes so light of sin, they don't even use the word sin much anymore. Only, they point at you guys for using that word. But sin is a greater force than I think oftentimes even we as Christians recognize. Sin is an entity. Look at, this is where the, Chapter four, Adam and Eve have a child. They name him Cain. Imagine the woman giving birth to the first child. With the help of the Lord, I've given birth to a man. Imagine holding the first baby. But Cain, as we see, gets rejected by the Lord because he doesn't bring the same offering as Abel. He brings veggies. He doesn't bring an animal sacrifice. And the Lord rejected him for that. But look at the kindness of the Lord in verse five. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So rejection often breeds anger. We certainly see that in prison ministry. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. But I love the kindness of the Lord. You can almost picture the Lord taking him by the shoulder and putting him out, going out to the front step of the house and sitting down with him. That's almost how I picture it. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why is your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it, or you must master it, some translations say. He almost personifies sin. Look at the words he used. Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, it wants to have you, to possess you, but you must rule over it. This is not just some vague electric force in the air. This is an entity that crouches at your door and desires to have you. It is said of Satan that he roars around like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. is worse than we think. We flatter ourselves, the Bible says, Psalm 36, we flatter ourselves too much to detect or hate our own sin. Sin is deceptive by nature, and that's the disease. And now in Jeremiah's nation, sin is rampant. Let's take a few snapshots just to get the context of where we are. Turn back to Jeremiah chapter one. We're gonna take a few snapshots along the way. We're not gonna be able to read Jeremiah one to eight, But let's take a few stills. Chapter one, verse 16. God has raised up Jeremiah, a very young man at this point. He tests him to see what he sees. He sees a boiling pot of water pouring down from the north upon Jerusalem. And verse 16, the Lord says, and I will declare my judgments against them. for all their evil and forsaking man in chapter 1 verse 16. They have made offerings to other gods and worship the works of their own hands. What do we call that? What is it? Idol worship, idolatry. What is idolatry, if we were to define it? We don't picture ourselves bowing down to clay images or wood images, even images of gold and silver. But is there idolatry? Can there be idolatry in our land? How would you define idolatry? Anything? Bingo. Couldn't have said it better. Anything that substitutes the true God, anything that we get a sense of well-being from other than God, Gary focused today on Hannah's prayer, that there is no rock like our God. The Lord himself in Isaiah in the 40s refers to himself as a rock. He says, there is no other rock. I know not one. So God himself refers to himself as a rock. Why the rock? And you had wonderful examples for it. Something you rely on. Something that you build upon. I would say it's anything that we run to for a sense of well-being. When you're in trouble, when life is getting hectic, when you're feeling pressure, what are you tempted to do? What or who are you tempted to run to? And you've probably come close to identifying idols in your life. I know what mine are, you know what yours are. We can see it in prison ministry. We've got two young men here who are involved in prison ministry, both named Irvin, and we appreciate you both. You know, I am, I just want to say on the side here, as an older man getting ready to leave the stage, and I don't know when God is planning that, that's His business, but I'm definitely not young anymore. But I was when I started in prison ministry, and to see two young men starting out in prison ministry, you make the older generation feel better about leaving because the torch is being passed. So thank you. But a rock is what we run to when we feel pressure or when we're unhappy. In prisons, it's often drugs and alcohol. On the streets, it can be any number of things. It can be alcohol and drugs. It can be, you name it. Any form of something that makes us feel better. Eating, shopping, materialism. Yes, it's something that we just need this for now. But like, look what he says in chapter two. in verse 13. He gives us a little more definition about idolatry. He says, my people have committed two evils. And he names two aspects of the same sin. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and replaced it. Shad was right. There's a substitute here. This is idolatry. What did they replace it with? Cisterns that they've hewn out for themselves. These are like wells that they They dug out for themselves, but cisterns that cannot hold water. I was looking at that picture up there today of that living water. Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Chapter seven, a spring of water that flows from within him, meaning the Holy Spirit. We have a well that we drink from and will drink from for all eternity. There is nobody that satisfies like Jesus Christ. There is no other water to drink from. Everything else will give us an entertainment, a little feeling of well-being for a time. Notice the words, the summer has ended, the harvest has passed. Those are time words. Things come to an end down here. And all the idols that we try to substitute God for, that give us a sense of well-being, are always having one thing in common. They are temporary. The collector needs more of his collection. The drug addict needs another fix. The alcoholic needs another drink, and so on and so on. Nothing, there are wells that hold no water, no life-sustaining drink. Chapter 3, verse 25, the end of the chapter. Let us lie down in our shame. and let our dishonor cover us. And here's the diagnosis again. For we have sinned against the Lord our God. We and our fathers from our youth, even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. Chapter five, beginning in verse one. Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem. Look and take note. Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her. The NIV puts it as, if you can find one man who does what is right, I will forgive this city. How big was Jerusalem at this time? How many people were in the city? The Lord says, if you can find one person who does what is right, I will forgive this city. And there was not one to be found. How bad was their situation? It's horrifying, and that's the kind of language that Jeremiah uses. He says things like, I was astonished, I was horrified at what I saw. In verse two, chapter five. And though they say, as the Lord lives, yet they swear falsely. O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish. You have consumed them, but they refuse to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock. They refuse to repent. And then I said, this is Jeremiah speaking to himself, these are only the poor people, they have no sense, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God. So I will go to the great, and I will speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God. This is supposed to be a theocracy. Their leaders should know the word of God, their priests have the oracles of God, and their judges ought to know the way. But they all alike, at the end of verse five, had broken the yoke. Which yoke is this, do you think? What is a yoke? I know you know. Yes, and I've been told, I'm definitely not a farmer, but I'm told they usually put the ox that knows how to do it along with the young one so that the young one is yoked with the one who knows how to do this and gets trained in that way. The yoke here is the commandments of God. This is the yoke that he's put on, but Jesus said, my burden is easy and my what? My yoke is easy and my burden is light. But they didn't want the yoke. Isn't that the problem? We want his fetters off us. We want his chains off us, like taking the handcuffs off us. They see God's commands as burdensome. And so they want to do their own thing, essentially. And they had burst the bonds. Verse 6, chapter 5. Therefore, there's going to be consequences for this. Therefore, a lion from the forest shall strike them down. A wolf from the desert shall devastate them. A leopard is watching their cities. Everyone who goes out of them shall be torn to pieces. Because what? And there's a diagnosis again. because their transgressions are many and their apostasies are great. How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, this is the Lord now speaking through Jeremiah, and have sworn by those who are not gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores. Verse eight. I'll let you read verse eight to yourself for parental discretion. Verse nine. Shall I not punish them for these things, declares the Lord, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? What is God saying? This is what they're doing. What do you want me to do with a nation like this? That's essentially what he's saying. Shall I not? Their judges are out to lunch. Our judge is always just. And like he says in the prophet who preceded him, Isaiah, chapter 65, verse two, all day long I have held out my hands to a stubborn and obstinate people who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations. Oh, the love of God in the Old Testament. Some people who don't know their Bibles well, about the unbelievers, the whole idea is that the Old Testament was a God of wrath. They like the idea of a God of love. But the God of love existed in the Old Testament all day long. How long did he put up with the sins of his people? How many metaphors are there for God's caring for his loved ones? He calls them a wife, he calls them a daughter, he calls them a son. I took you when you were kicking around in your blood, when you were a mess, and I dressed you and washed you. And he put up with them for years upon years, and finally the Lord warned them again and again and again, sent them love letters through his prophets. Turn around, if you will return, oh Israel, return to me. The living water, the rock, the cistern that provides living water, return. The God of the Old Testament is a God of love and a God of justice. And he did what he eventually said he was going to do with them if they kept turning their face. But now Israel is in such a state that he can't even find a single person who does what is right in the entire capital of the city. And you know, this is early in Jeremiah's ministry. You know, I kind of look at the books of the Bible as all someone sitting down and hearing from the Lord and writing them. There's a period of like 60 years for Jeremiah to be written. There's a passage of time here. And through that, the warnings are coming. The warnings are coming year after year, and he takes Jeremiah as a young man, and as a young man, I don't know if he was even Clayton's age, when he begins his ministry. And his ministry is repent, oh Israel. Turn back to the one who bought you. purchased you, built you, fed you, gave you the rains and the seasons in their time, blessed you as a nation. This is God's chosen people. And brothers and sisters, if God dealt this way with his chosen nation, what will he do with the branches that have been grafted in? I know of no nation that has turned its back on God and has not reached even his own nation of the judgment of God. How can I pardon you, verse seven. Verse 24 of chapter five, talking about the people of Israel. They do not say in their hearts, let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest. Again, the diagnosis in verse 25. Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you. Isaiah said the same thing. Your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have turned his face from you so that he cannot hear. Chapter six, verse 13. Again, describing the people. For from the least of them to the greatest, everyone is greedy for unjust gain. And from prophet to priest, he's talking about the people who should know the best, who should be teaching the people. Everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly. What does that mean? Put a Band-Aid on it, essentially is how I would say it. Just put a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. And they say peace, peace, when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abominations? No, they were not at all ashamed. In fact, they don't even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall. At the time, the season, the designated appointed time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown. Verse 16, thus saith the Lord. Stand by the roads and look, and ask for the ancient paths. What is he asking them? He's saying, go back to your foundation. Go back to the way this thing was started. Ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is. And then what? Walk in it. And you will find what? Rest for your souls. Isn't that ring of another verse? My yoke is easy. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. and you will find rest for your souls. Isn't that what that nation needed? Isn't that what they're crying out for? That's what Jeremiah is weeping about. He sees the daughter of his people in such a state that they're not even listening, because look what he says here. He tells them to walk in it in verse 16, and what do they say at the end? We will not walk in it. Verse 17, I set watchmen over you. Why would God do that? prophets, judges, kings, to tell you the right way. And they say, pay attention to the sound of the trumpet. And what do they say? We will not pay attention. Therefore, hear, O nations. Now he's appealing to the rest of the nations to watch what he's about to do with his own nation. And know, O congregation, what shall happen to them. Here, O earth, behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their own devices, because they have not paid attention to my words, and as for my law, they have rejected it. Takes us back to our own text. Some of the same words are used in eight as were used in five. They dress the wound of my people as though it is not serious. Peace, peace, they say, when there is no peace. Let me ask you all a question. As we were taking this snapshot, as we were reading through these passages, were any of you drawing a parallel with any other nation? Can you raise your hand if you were thinking about another one? Yes. Who else? Anybody thinking of another nation? Anna, which nation? This one. Would I get an amen from the rest of you? Were we not thinking the same thing? Was that not a description of our own nation? They don't want to hear this stuff. We will not listen. We will marginalize you. We don't want to have a ruler over us. Let me read you a description of America today, a short one. I wrote it and it was too long so I couldn't memorize it. It's not thorough, it's just very short. I wrote, America today, full of idolatry, greed, division, discord, violence, hatred, pervasive sexual immorality, and the open promotion of sexual perversion, we have mandated the exclusion of God from the public square and have declared that we shall do what is right in our own eyes. We have made a worldwide pronouncement that we shall legalize the murder of children, and we will penalize anyone who prays in public buildings or schools. As for the Christian values that dominated our country at the time of its founding, our public schools have largely erased it, our historians have rewritten it, and our citizens are increasingly ignorant of it. Would you say that's fair? Would you say that's a fair description? It's a parallel. This nation was founded on Christian principles. I'm not saying they were all Christians. But this was a nation where Christianity was rampant. Some of you are familiar with Democracy in America. Alexis de Tocqueville came over, and he'd probably teach it, perhaps. I hope so. And this is a guy who was Roman Catholic. But a brilliant young, he's a young man. He comes over in 1831. He wanted to examine our prison and jail system, but he wound up doing a whole lot more. For nine months, he examined and went around the country, the country that was then in the 1830s, to examine every strata, every layer of our life. And here's what he said. He's the one that's credited with saying, falsely, by the way. You often hear Christian leaders say, de Tocqueville said, America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great. Lovely statement and true, but de Tocqueville never said it. At least I never found it. But I will tell you what I did find in Democracy in America. And he had much to say about religion. He said, upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck him. First thing that struck my attention. There is no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America. And there can be no greater proof of its utility, that means its usefulness, its impact, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth. Think of that. He calls America the most enlightened and free nation on the face of the earth and it is less than 60 years old. He's writing this towards the end of the second great awakening from 1790 to 1840. Christianity was pervasive in our culture. Not that all its citizens were Christians, by no means, but if there was a prevailing influence of religious thought, it was by far and away the Christian religion. And what made America different than, say, France, largely Roman Catholic, or England, Anglican, and a Europe that had been transformed by the Reformation, they were not considered as influenced by Christianity as America was because America's Christianity was vibrant, it was evangelical, and it was biblical. And God planted a country here. I'm not saying we're the nation of Israel, but I'm saying God has blessed us from sea to shining sea. Can we not say that? Israel lasted, what, 400 years? Longer, perhaps? Wait, we haven't made, have we made 300 years yet? And look at the state that we're in. We are a nation that does not want to hear these things. And look what he, we didn't read it, but he said in one of these passages, chapter six, verse 10. To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? In other words, Who's gonna listen to me? I'm in my nation, I'm with the daughter of my people. Who's gonna listen to me? And he says, behold, their ears are uncircumcised and they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord is to them, what? An object of scorn. Is that not us? They take no pleasure in it. Well, it's one thing to rant about the state of America today. But what about you and I as individuals? Do you know some people, many people I think, especially among the Christian community believe that we are at the tipping point. Some believe we're past the tipping point. Some believe we are going down. I actually met with a man like that a week before last. I had heard him make some remarks in a public group and he was so discouraged. that he verbalized in that group, I just want the Lord to take me home. He's an older man, I think even older than I am. Quite ancient. But he's just discouraged. And so I took him out for breakfast two days later. And he was operating on a level of, his problem was he couldn't reconcile the sovereignty of God with what he saw going on in the country. It was hard for him. He couldn't piece together. He even went as far as quoting a religious leader he had heard of that made this statement, that if God is not in control of everything, then he's not sovereign. And if he is, then he doesn't care. That's blasphemous to me. But he was sympathetic with that saying. And I said, you know, I said, I don't care who made that statement. That is categorically false. and totally unbiblical. He's operating, what's his problem? He's operating on a level that belongs only to God. He does not see the beginning from the end. He has a brain that forms its imaginations that's what, six inches in width? And God fills the universe. And so he's trying to do God's form, and because He cannot understand these things. He winds up where? Where we all should, in despair. If you're gonna try to operate on God's level and do his job for him, you're gonna despair very quickly. But God knows the beginning from the end. Amen. And you know what I said to him? I had great compassion for him, by the way. He's a good-hearted guy. But he's thinking unbiblically, and I couldn't let him continue that way. I said, you know what? You gotta stay on your side of the fence. What did I mean by that? Till your own garden. Let God do God's stuff. You're operating on God's side of the fence, and you are not equipped for that, and it's driving you to discouragement and despair. There's only two remedies I know for that kind of thinking, and the first one is repent of your unbelief and trust God. Trust the nature of God. Psalm 119 verse 68 says, thou art good, O God, and what thou doest is good. Teach me thy decrees. In other words, God's character is goodness. And whenever we find ourselves talking to anybody, be they Christian or not, who lays at the doorstep of God any suspicion of doing it wrong or evil, we have crashed the gate too far. Our thinking is already false. God is not evil, he cannot do evil, he is good and what he does is good, but he knows the beginning from the end. And he holds out his hands all day long to a stubborn and obstinate people. He is holding his hands out to the people of America. And there is more than one faithful servant in this room. If God could have found one in Jerusalem at the time, he would have forgiven that city. How rich yet is America in terms of faith? Two young men going into prison. Do you know that if your child winds up in prison, he's probably going to run into a Christian? Praise God. When a mother calls me up and says, oh, my son's getting arrested, I don't say it to her because I know she's hurting. But you know what I'm saying inside? Praise God. He's saving that little rascal before things get a whole lot worse for him. He's pulling him out of the madness of whatever he's into and putting him in a safe place where someone like me, a smiley-faced Christian with Bibles in his hands, is gonna show up at his door. Praise God. That's how we need to see it. Children go off to college. I've been told that many a young Christian's faith has been shipwrecked in college, and I don't doubt that. But you know, I've heard the testimonies of many who define their faith in college. who said, do I believe this because I believe it or because my parents taught me? And their faith is put to the test in college. And you know who God has on most college campuses? You college students can tell me better. Christian ministries. InterVarsity. Campus Crusade. The Navigators. And I'm sure there's many, many others. There's a guy in Gwen and I's community group. His wife and he are full-time missionaries to Widener University. So your kids go off to college, and we bite our nails and fret, but they're gonna run into some smiley-faced Christians. I say, praise God. God is still at work. We need to see how he's at work. And do you know how he does it? One at a time. Leave the God stuff to us. I would say the first thing was to repent of our unbelief and put our trust in a good God. And the second thing is, stay on your side of the fence. Because I'll tell you what, trying to figure out what God is doing on the macro level, we're not equipped for that. But we know how the book ends. Have compassion. That's one thing that strikes me about Jeremiah. Look at the middle verse, verse 21 of chapter eight. Jeremiah loves his people. He says, for the wound, that word can be translated hurt, for the hurting of my people. The word can also be translated brokenness. For the brokenness of my people, for the wound of my people, the daughter of my people is my heart wounded. I mourn, I hurt, I'm brokenhearted, I dismay over what has taken hold of him. I am horrified, I am astonished at the state that we're in. Look at verse nine, chapter nine, verse one. Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep and day for the slain of the daughter of my people. Does that not bear open the heart of Jeremiah for his people? This is not an uncaring prophet. This is not someone who just wants to put notches on his belt. This man is brokenhearted. He sees the situation, he saw, he still refers to them as the daughter of his people. Once in a while, people get upset at me when I call prisoners dear people. We all have a sphere of influence, brothers and sisters. God has put people in your life, Candice, that I'll never see. Faith, same. Clayton, you'll meet guys that I've never met. Gary, the same. Sarah, the same. Mark, Amy. Isn't that true? There are people in your lives that the rest of us will not touch. Let's quit operating on the macro level. Let's warn them. Let's blow the trumpet. But what you did with Vanessa really encouraged me sitting here. She came here and apparently it was not the most easy situation, but she winds up in a rehab and you took the time to go see her. That's Jeremiah's heart. There's more to this woman than her addiction. There's a disease. There is a bomb in Gilead. There is a fountain filled with blood that sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. Remember that song? How's that go? There is a fountain filled with blood. drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. Sing with me. Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. There is a bomb in Gilead. The doctor is in the house. Emmanuel is here. And sinners, and who is outside of that scope? Who has not received that diagnosis? Everyone. and sinners plunge beneath the only balm that cures us, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be healed. What a message, what a message. We can weep for people. That young girl that you touched, that woman, I don't know how old she is. 25, 25 in a rehab. I don't know if she's going to change. That's the macro level. But I can love her with the love of Christ, and I can tell her that there's a bomb in Gilead. And I can show it by taking extra time to go and see her. I can listen to her. There are broken people all around us. Our challenge is, are we brokenhearted over them? Do we care enough to apply the bomb of Gilead Compassion. He weeps because he cares. And because he cares, he warns them. Rescue those, Proverbs says, being led away to death. Hold back those staggering towards slaughter. And if you say we didn't know about this, does not he who weighs our heart perceive it? The Lord knows. Hold back those staggering. Do we not see people that way? Do we not see people that way? God releases his molecules wherever he wants them. You know, not many of us are gonna be Billy Grahams. Very few of us will be Charles Spurgeons. But I don't know the people you know. Bible says that we're a fragrance. I'm sure I wrote that down. Second Corinthians 2.15, hopefully I wrote that down. I'm sure you're familiar with it. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death, to the other an aroma that brings life. Did you know that balm was aromatic? Balm was fragrant. You are the balm's fragrance. We are not the balm, the balm is the gospel. and God has assigned us. Acts 17, when Paul was arguing before Athens, in the Acropolis, he said, there is a God in heaven, the God you worship is unknown, I'm gonna proclaim to you. This God is not a God of wood and stone, as though he needed such things. This God has started the whole earth with one man, and has put everybody where he wants them. Do you know that you were born at a certain time? for the sake of the gospel? He said he did this so that men might reach out to him and be saved. You were born at the optimum time for you to know the Lord. America, 2017. Rather than biting our nails and saying we're going down the tubes, praise God he has put molecules in this place. Praise God that you're in a country that still has all the trappings and conveniences that the rest of the world still wishes it could have. Praise God for where he has placed you. He designed that you should be here now. For you, the harvest is not over, and the summer is not past. It's ever fresh. We have a spring of living water. Open our eyes and look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest. You say four more months and then the harvest. I say open your eyes and look now, they are ripe for harvest. Brothers and sisters, the harvest is plentiful. There are broken-hearted sinners everywhere you look. It's the workers that are few. Let me only encourage you, keep on, keeping on. Some of us say, well, I wish I could be like so-and-so. They're so bold in their faith. They can talk so easily. I'm not built like that. Praise God you're not built like that. Some people are turned off by people like that. I was one. When I was doing my hippie thing, I was hitchhiking all over the country. I think I told you. I only had one sign. One side said east, the other side said west. When I ran out of land, I just turned a sign around and headed back to the west coast or the east coast. And I can remember being at one stop, and two other hippie guys came up to me, and when they were about the distance from Fanny, is that your name? About where Fanny is, they yelled out to me. Here I am standing at a street corner with my thumb out. They yelled out, hey, what do you think about Jesus? I moved over to them in the most threatening, angry manner, because that was my nature. And I said, what I think about God is my business. I'm so grateful to this day that I don't run into many people like I was. Most people aren't that unfriendly. But they were overt with their faith, probably bold with their faith. Hey, what do you think about Jesus? Boom, that's what I think. They said, okay, okay, and they walked away. What did I need? I need someone like the Lord sent to save Gwen and I. A man and wife who were Christians who shared their home with us, let us see how they were raising their children, and we beheld that there was a way to raise a family that was totally foreign to the family I had been raised in. That's what prisoners appreciate volunteers for. Remember I told you last time about my friend Dana, the one who gave his testimony? What can I tell them? I was raised in a Christian home. I got a Christian sister who became a missionary. He became a pastor. What can I tell them? And he gave his testimony to a room full of convicts doing state prison time. And they flocked around him at the end. And remember what I told you? Why were they so impressed with him? Because he was living proof that a life like you are living can be done. That he could marry a Christian girl and they could raise Christian children. Or that he could go home and teach them a new way of life and they could avoid the way of life that they had. You were living proof. Some people need a gentle soul. Some people need to see it in action. Some people need to come alongside. Some people need timid people in their lives. Did you know that? There was a woman in our church up in New England who was so shy that she couldn't even, very seldom said anything. But her antenna were always up for hurting people. And she was the kind of person she'd come up to the elders and go, did you know that Mrs. Jones' son is in the hospital? And of course now you're an elder and now you know Mrs. Jones' son's in the hospital and you have to go. Brothers and sisters, God designed you. You're his molecules. Let that fragrance flow wherever you are and don't compare yourself to other people. That's a losing game. You were made the way you were made because you are gonna touch people that respond to your kind of molecule. Am I right or am I wrong? Please have the freedom to operate the way God has made you. We're not all Charles Spurgeons. Preachers wish they were. There's a little ditty you've probably heard. There once was a young man named Spurgey who detested high church liturgy, but his sermons were fine. I owned them as mine, and so did the rest of the clergy. That's trying to be something you're not. There was one Charles Spurgeon. Let him preach, and boy, I still read his sermons. Some of you read a daily devotional morning and evening by him. Gwen does. Still touched by his genius. But there are people that Gwen touches that are being encouraged in their Christian walk because of her life, her quiet, behind-the-scenes life. She married Tigger, but she's not Tigger. She's more like Rabbit. I was going to say Eeyore, but that's not true. This past Wednesday night, one of the prisons I go to is Delaware County Jail. There's a man there that came in really broken. Name's Ralph. Became a Christian. He's a quiet man, a humble man. He doesn't like to be put forward. But he caught the good infection, as C.S. Lewis calls Christianity. And he has done a lot to encourage other inmates towards Christianity. Last Wednesday night, four new people showed up. I think largely because he just encouraged them to come down. So we had about 15 guys. There's only 60 on that tier, so I would say that we had one out of every four people in that society on that particular block come down. Now, there's many blocks and many units. So 15 came down. He whispered on my ear, he says, you know, a couple of these guys are very close to seeking salvation, and if you'd give a gospel message, it might bear fruit. They're ready, he thinks. He whispered that on my ear. Did I design any of that? No, he was a molecule in that tier where I can't be. And so I gave a very clear gospel message using the text we were in. It was John 15, I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing. And I shared the gospel, and then I asked, did anybody here, now there's just 15 men there, did anybody here pray that prayer for the first time in your life and mean it? And two of those hands went up, a man named Ron and another man named Brent. If you have a prayer list, if you can remember those two names, pray that they will continue in the word of God and walk faithfully with him. Now look at the chain of events there. Did Ralph do it? Did Lenny do it? One was sensitive, he was quiet, behind-the-scenes personality, told another person who shared the gospel, but it was God who had prepared their hearts. It was God who orchestrated their prison sentence. It was God who determined what cell they should be in. It was God who brought them down to that meeting. It was God, the Holy Spirit, who opened their hearts. And all we got to do is open our mouths and have a heart that breaks for them. You know what Ralph told me? They have prayer meetings up. He said they have a prayer meeting up in his cell. Do you know how many people were in his cell? This is a cell that sleeps two people. For prayer meeting, 15 inmates were in his cell, crammed into a little area, praying in the name of Jesus. And you know who joined him? A correctional officer. God is at work, but he puts his little molecules wherever he wants. Gwen and I, since we've seen you, went up to see our son in Massachusetts. We have two sons, one knows the Lord, one doesn't. The one in Massachusetts doesn't and his family, we just see him. Our heart breaks. And usually the oldest daughter, she's 11, comes with us. 11? Huh? She just turned 12. Thanks. She didn't want to come this time. So I went online because a friend had called me last year. His name is Emmy. He was in prison in Massachusetts during state time, and I knew him for several years. And he was one of the inmates who would come regularly to our services. I did not lead him to the Lord, but he was into the word. He was enthusiastic about God. Well, he called me when he got out. That's 2002, so he's been out 15 years. He started leading a Bible study. He's a good Bible teacher. And out of that, over the last few years, people encouraged him to start a church. He never asked to be a pastor. This kid was in the gangs in the South Bronx of New York. That's his background. From Puerto Rico originally. He talks the language. He talks on a street level. But he loves God. He's a molecule flourishing in his environment. Well, he called me last year to say, Lenny, the oddest thing has happened. I'm the pastor of a church. And it's not just me. There's other pastors. And I said, well, how old's the church? He says, last year, it was only two years old. This year, it's three years old. I went online to find out where he was. They're meeting in a high school up in Massachusetts. And it was only 10 minutes from where our son lives. So we went and surprised him. He gave one of the most dynamic messages. Wouldn't you say, hon? One of the most dynamic preachers. And we waited to see him. Gwen made sure I met him before I left. As soon as he saw me, big hug, kiss, he started telling the people around him, this man was with me in my embryonic stage as a Christian. He was just so excited that I was there. He said, how did you find me? And I said, well, I went online. And he says, you're too much, because he's looking at an old guy online. How can that happen? But that was so exciting. And you know what his message was that day? He was talking about the Good Samaritan, who is my neighbor. And that's kind of fitting with where we are. Who is our fellow molecules? And he gives the Good Samaritan. As he was going, it's whoever is in our sphere of influence, isn't it? We just have to let the molecules pop in their presence. And he said the priest and the Levite, this is what he's preaching to his group. And the name of his message was, do I love Donald Trump? Because he was asking, who is my neighbor? It was kind of catchy. And he talks on their level. And he said, the priest and the Levite who crossed over on the other side asked the wrong question. The beaten up man was beaten up on the road to Jericho. And Jericho was a notorious road for bandits and being beaten up. and they had beaten him up, left him half naked, stole everything he had, and the priest and the Levite, who should have known what the scripture said, passed by on the other side, because they were saying, this is the Jericho Road, how do I know if I'm not being set up? What could happen to me if I go help him? That's what the Pharisees were saying. Religious leaders were saying. A Samaritan, whose theology is wrong, came along, and saw him and had compassion on him and went over and healed him, went out of his way, brought him to an end, take care of him, and if he costs you anymore, I'll come back. He says the good Samaritan asked the better question of himself. Instead of asking the question, what will happen to me if I help him, the Samaritan asked, what will happen to him if I don't? That's what we're talking about here. You went to see Vanessa in the rehab. It's not, what am I going to run into while I'm there? Who am I going to meet while I'm there? Sometimes we're asked to go into scary situations. But really, our heart ought to be Jeremiah's. I am brokenhearted because my people are broken. And all I want to do is reach in with the bomb of Gilead. We know how Jeremiah ends. Jeremiah, halfway through, chapter 31, verse 31, says what? But I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. It won't be like the old covenant, which your fathers disobeyed. I will write this covenant on their hearts and on their minds and they will be my people. And no longer will it be necessary to teach the people because they'll all know me from the least of them to the greatest. That's in Jeremiah. That's what we know. There is a bomb in Gilead. There is a physician there. We have the balm, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. All we gotta do is make a referral to the specialist. Lord Jesus, thank you for this word. Thank you for having a heart for us. Thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, who looked out on the crowds and had compassion on them. Thank you, Father, that You dwell in a situation that is totally holy and perfect and love flows between you and the Son and the Spirit and you surrendered that part of you that is the Son of God and let him come into this world and we crucified him in our ignorance. We caused him to suffer for our sins and you have laid on him the iniquity of us all. Father, thank you. Thank you that he is risen from the dead, that you did not allow your Holy One to see decay, that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of this nation, the Jews, that he is the Savior of the world. Father, thank you for saving these dear people in this room. Thank you for this church, Lord. Thank you for the love, for the unique experience that this is. I pray, Father, that they will not compare themselves. to others, but that they will recognize that this is a unique collection of molecules, that this is a perfume bottle that just needs to be opened in this area. I thank you that they're doing it. I thank you that the molecules, the fragrance, are flowing. And to some it will be the stench of death, but to others it will be the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Lord, not us. That's your side of the fence. Just let us be faithful, Father, in letting our light shine, and letting our fragrance be smelt, and letting our good deeds cause men and women to say, here is something different, and praise our Father in heaven. Lord, bless this congregation. You have filled them with your Holy Spirit. You have put good people, people who were once sinners, whom you have bought with your own blood and made righteous. What a room full of life there is here, Father. Bless them, from the youngest to the oldest, Lord Jesus. May their presence, your presence, be felt in this community and the places where they live. I ask all this in Jesus' name, for his sake, for his glory, and for our joy. Amen.