Let us pray. And now, Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing and acceptable in your sight. Oh, Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Through Christ our Lord, amen. Would you open your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter two? We will be observing the first three verses of Jeremiah chapter two. The subject for the message this morning is the loss and rediscovery of covenantal intimacy. While Israel had all the trappings of a covenant, their affections for God had grown cold. Their hearts were lured away by other loves. And God is a grieved husband who is not merely after a covenant partner, but he is after his bride's affections. He wants her whole heart. A hundred years had almost passed since the exile of the northern kingdom under the domination of Assyria. And Israel was sent into exile because they had sinned against the Lord, their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt. Second Kings 17, seven. Here is God hemming in his people on every side, and unleashing a foreign nation to be the rod of his anger because his people's affections were given elsewhere. His bride had run away after other loves and would now be called the people of his wrath. As Assyria would fade from prominence, the Babylonian Empire was emerging and gained prominence with the rise of King Nebuchadnezzar. And that happened in roughly 605 B.C. until about 562 B.C. Jeremiah was born under arguably the most wicked of Judahite kings, King Manasseh. Manasseh not only reversed the reforms of his father Hezekiah, but he multiplied the paganism and idolatry of the people of God, and even offered his own son as a burnt sacrifice, 2 Kings 21 6. On the other hand, Jeremiah's ministry begins during the reign of Josiah when the book of the law was rediscovered and arguably it was one of the greatest moments of revival and renewal to take place in the history of Israel. Josiah hears the words of God and he's undone. He sends for Hilkiah the priest and says, you've got to go intercede for us now. The wrath of God that is kindled against us is great. Second Kings 22, 11 through 13. God was already preparing the circumstances for Jeremiah's ministry. God was already at work in the lives of his people before he would send another prophet to declare a word in season on behalf of God. Though God's wrath was kindled against his people, he was not done speaking to his bride. Would she give heed to the voice of her bridegroom? Will we give heed to his tender voice this morning, beloved? Or will we be lured away by another voice? Jeremiah emerges onto the scene, standing on the shoulders of Hosea, Isaiah, Amos, and Micah, prophets whose words were not heeded by the people of God. These were not men with fruitful ministries. By secular standards, Jeremiah was a failure, and his own kinsmen were alienated from him. But before the Lord, he was an iron pillar, a fortified city, and a bronze wall against the whole land. Jeremiah 118. Jeremiah declared the word of the Lord for 40 years before the children of Israel, for 40 years. And he said, you have forsaken the covenant of the Lord and now judgment is upon you. And so now that we've grasped something of the historical context of Jeremiah and the circumstances surrounding Jeremiah's consecration as a prophet of the Lord, let's observe our particular verses for this morning. Chapter two, verses one through three. The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, the love of your bridal days, how you followed me in the wilderness in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest, All who ate of it incurred guilt. Disaster came upon them, declares the Lord. What is it that God calls to remembrance as he is grieved by his people? What does God want his people to know is on his mind before he's gonna unleash the boiling pot of the wrath of God from the north? We know from chapter one of Jeremiah that Jeremiah is commissioned to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow. And what are the first words that will flow from the lips of the prophet of God in the hearing of Jerusalem on behalf of God? Israel, I remember the devotion of your youth. The love of your bridal days. The Lord remembers covenantal intimacy. The Lord could have said, I remember your sacrifices. I remember your tithing. I remember your adherence to my law. But he goes deeper than that. Devotion and the love of a newly betrothed bride is the language of intimacy. It is the language that points to the affections. It is the wellspring that distinguishes obedience that actually moves the heart of God from transactional commandment keeping that sure looks real pious and might even impress other Christians, but it has left the heart somewhere else. Of all the things God could have called to remembrance, he remembers a time when the love of his bride was from the heart. He remembers intimacy. The point is not perfect intimacy, but wholehearted and committed devotion. Resolved that only God will have the fullness of my affections, the fullness of my love and adoration. God's recalling of Israel's covenantal intimacy was a thundering wake up call. And it is for us too, beloved. The Lord says, do you not know who you are to me and who I am to you? I, the Lord, your maker, am your husband. Do you understand that I desire a bride who has given herself to me without reserve? Those of us who are married can recall that glorious day As we're standing at the altar, nervous, ecstatic, your heart is racing as you're beside yourself in anticipation of your bride walking down that aisle like the sunrise at dawn. Then comes the honeymoon, full of affection, sweetness, joy, and strong love. Beloved, the Lord remembers his bride's strong love and vibrant devotion, not because it was supposed to be a short-lived spark. The Lord's remembrance is marked by a longing for that revival of intimacy that once was. That intimacy that his people once had with him And God is grieved because of Israel's drifting, their coasting, and being carried away by other loves. We can become real good at showing up to church every Sunday. Showing up to Bible studies and prayer meetings. And our affections for God be dry and artificial. The Lord is essentially saying, what happened to your sweet devotion, your intense love, our intimate covenantal communion? There's no room in Jeremiah or anywhere else in the Bible for the notion that deep intimacy and affectionate love for the Lord are reserved only for the beginning times of your conversion. And then it's supposed to slowly be snuffed away and maturity supposedly looks like a disconnected, unmoved, and dispassionate bride. Do you remember what the Lord said of Mary when she anointed his feet with that pound of fragrant perfume? We know what the disciples said, don't we? What a waste. We could have sold that and added it to the church budget. What would we say today if we saw a woman sitting at Jesus' feet and wiping his feet with her hair in tears? Some would say, what an emotional mess. Doesn't she know that there's a proper way to worship the Lord? Another charismatic woman that can't control herself. Doesn't she know that there's a time and place for that? What if she sat there at his feet because she began to see that one greater than the temple had arrived? What if she sat there because she began to see that the presence of God that was forfeited by Adam and Eve and was once reserved for the high priest was now being opened up to all who would come? Do you know what Jesus said of what she did? Wherever the gospel is preached, what she did will be remembered. Intimacy will be remembered. The Lord remembers a bride whose affections have been seized by her husband. A bride who understands there is nothing that could be more important than dwelling in the presence of her bridegroom. That will never be forgotten. Beloved, you can be assured that a life in pursuit of strong, heart-filled communion with the bridegroom is never a wasted life. One author writes, the stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to his people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us he waits so long, so very long in vain." Close quote. The Lord has been waiting. longing and remembering the devotions of his bride that once were. He longs to be longed for by his covenant people. And he says, Bethany, my bride, I remember the devotions of your youth, the love of your bridal days when you followed me in the wilderness in a land not yet sown. Do you remember? It's easy to create a theology that makes us more comfortable than less than what God is worthy of in our lives. Is your theology growing and intensifying your affections for God as a bride for her bridegroom? If not, then what good is it for? Verse three, Israel was holy to the Lord. The first of his harvest, all who ate of it became guilty. Evil came upon them, declares the Lord. Now God's expanding upon this relationship of divine love with his bride by declaring that this was to be a holy union. God is jealous for the devotions of his bride. Israel, I set you apart. I consecrated you. I made you the apple of my eye. I made you my treasured possession. No one has the right to lure the love of the bride away from the bridegroom. Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse six, for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Evil came upon all who sought to harm and steal away the affections of God's bride from him. He says, I pursued you as a faithful husband. Time and time again you saw my faithful hand intervene on your behalf, and yet you forsook me as an unfaithful bride. The rest of chapter 2 is essentially the outworking of this loss of covenantal intimacy. Roughly a hundred years before the ministry of Jeremiah, Hosea was declaring a similar message to that of Jeremiah's. And the book of Hosea sets forth for us one of the most detailed interpretive backgrounds for this fundamental intimacy that lies at the heart of God's covenantal relationship with his people. Just as considering covenant through the lens of marriage demonstrates the intensity of love and devotion between God and his people, so also understanding covenant through the lens of marriage highlights the intensity and the gravity of loss of intimacy because of sin, which is spiritual idolatry and covenant infidelity. And this impacts both the individual and collective people of God. Hosea is called upon by God to experience the pain and grief God has experienced because of the unfaithfulness of his bride. Just as God entered into a covenantal union with a wayward people, so also Hosea is commanded to enter into a covenantal union with a woman of harlotry. Why? Why would God command that? Hosea would not be able to convey the intensity of God's grief over his bride's unfaithfulness, over the loss of her affections, unless he experienced it himself. That's how important covenantal intimacy is to the Lord. Hosea 1 verse 2, When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go take for yourself a wife of harlotry, and have children of harlotry. For the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord. So here, Hosea, a prophet of the Lord, is called upon by God to enter into what has grieved the heart of God. Because the people of Israel committed flagrant harlotry by forsaking the Lord. This is really a glorious picture of the gospel, isn't it? The father sends his son, the bridegroom, to lay down his life for a bride that has sought other loves, committed spiritual adultery, and has defiled herself. Her gown is shorn and tattered because of her sin and her pursuit of other loves. And if you have received Christ by faith, then you have been adorned with a beautiful, bright, white gown, because the bridegroom desires a bride. And if you're an unbeliever, Christ wants to make you his bride. What Christ does for the sinner is not some transactional work divorced of a relationship with him. He came to set you free from running after empty loves that are leaving you empty, defiled, and guilty before God, and He wants your whole heart. He desires covenantal devotion. Doctrinal affirmation is not enough. The demons have that down and they tremble. So come to Him. and delay no longer. Come to a faithful husband, unbeliever, who never leaves. He's not an abusive husband. He's as tender as a lamb, and his love is eternal and unbreakable love. Come, let us return to the Lord. For he has torn us, that he may heal us. He has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going out is sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. The Lord is a devoted and jealous husband to his bride. And it is because he is jealous for her devotions and her affections that at times he must shake her world upside down until every idol that has lured her away will begin to be exposed and fall on its face. His tearing up and striking down flow from the love of a bridegroom who desires the whole heart of his bride. He will send his bride into the wilderness, if he must, so that she will turn to him fully devoted. He will send Babylon to win his bride's affections. We learn what we truly thirst for in the wilderness, don't we? Sustained patterns of sin demand the holy displeasure of God and the withdrawal of his intimacy from his bride until she returns to him with her whole heart. Will you return to him today, church? Will you resolve to pour out the costly perfume of your affections for him and none other? Or will you continue going on with emotions? If you feel like your relationship with the Lord has been cold, lifeless, distant, beloved, ask yourself if there are sustained patterns of sin in your life. Ask the Lord to show you where your affections for him have gone. He will make it known to you. He knows your heart better than you do. For their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. Therefore, I will hedge her up with thorns, and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers, but not overtake them. She shall seek them, but she shall not find them." Hosea 2, 5 and 7. Do you know what happens when the Lord begins to hedge up your life? He will begin to hedge up your life with thorns and he builds a wall around your life. Do you know what happens when the Lord begins to press in upon your life? In the context of Hosea, that meant God would frustrate Israel's attempts to secure what she wanted through the foreign nations. That means God will begin to frustrate our plans in order to get our attention and ultimately win our whole heart. He will bring us to the end of ourselves so that we will seek him out and none other. You may have all the resources to undertake something in your life. And if you have left your affections elsewhere, if you have left God off to the sidelines, he will make sure you know. He will shut doors in an instant. And if he hasn't, it's coming. He is jealous for the affections of his bride. He will press on in our lives until from the heart we cry, Lord, only you can satisfy the deepest longings of my soul. I will no longer give my affections to another. When the Lord begins to hedge us in and begins to press in on our lives, we begin to pray like we never have before. Serious self-inventory begins to happen. True repentance is produced. What once tasted sweet to us now tastes bitter. you begin to ask yourself, do I love what he loves? Is Christ most precious to me? Have I made the opinions of men more important than the estimation of God? What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. Therefore, I have hewn them in by the prophets. I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. Because I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6, 4 and 6. The Lord does not desire fleeting love. He doesn't want love that's like a morning cloud or like dew that goes away early. And the reason that God gives for sending the hard words of the prophets and his judgment is amazing. He sends them because he desires steadfast love and not sacrifice. The kind of intimacy that the Lord desires is that of steadfast love. It's not enough to simply do what he commands us to do. It's not enough to be Reformed Baptist, sorry to disappoint you. God desires steadfast love. In our minds we might have the most Bible conforming church. We can be zealous for sound doctrine and oppose false teaching But what does the Lord say to the church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter two, and listen up, because this is gonna blow your mind. Do you remember what he says? Some of you do. But I hope it hits us fresh and intensely this morning. I know your works. Your toil and your patient endurance. And how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and have found them to be false. I know you're enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary. but this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Unless you repent. The church in Ephesus excelled in much didn't it. It was zealous for sound doctrine. And opposing false teaching. And yet by God's estimation. It failed miserably. Miserably failed. It had grown cold in both its love for God and its love for God's people. I take that phrase, you have lost your first love, as both for God and God's love people, and our love for God's people. This is over six centuries later, and intimacy is still on the Lord's mind. I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first, the devotions of your youth, the love of a newly betrothed bride. Are our lives characterized by constantly cutting down non-reformed brothers or viewing them as second-class Christians? If that's you, The Lord says, repent. Do we spend more time watching in prayer than we do watching and waiting for a brother or sister to say something that we may not agree with, just so we have another reason to distance ourselves from them, or worse, begin to gossip? If that's us, beloved, the Lord says he will remove our lampstand. if we do not repent. That means a church no longer is an effective church. Lost its effectiveness, lost its light. We may shine in our own eyes, but not in the eyes of the bridegroom. If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother, 1 John 4, 20 and 21. One commentator writes, quote, the church at Ephesus was persistent and orthodox. but a hardness, a callousness had arisen in its ranks. They needed a renewed fervency, a renewed tenderness for the Lord and for none other. True orthodoxy is always warm, loving, and generous in spirit." Close quote. The Lord is coming for a bride. A bride who is fully devoted to him. A bride whose intimacy is marked by the love of a newly betrothed bride. And a question that is inevitably pressed upon us this morning is, how can we recover that intense, vibrant, and affectionate devotion that the Lord remembers as he considers Israel's present covenant unfaithfulness? I want for us to observe what I've called the streams of intimacy. Because I believe that if we become aware of these streams, we can begin to identify areas in our lives where the streams have dried up, become polluted, or stopped up. And we only have time for two. And both streams have to do mainly with how we view God. The first stream of intimacy is beholding God as all satisfying. What was God's estimation of the Israelites to whom Jeremiah was sent? Was God all satisfying to them, and did they relate to him as such? Well, let's read in Jeremiah chapter two, verses 12 and 13. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, Be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. How do you get from living and drinking from this fountain of living waters, to settling for the vain and laborious work of filling up cisterns with fist-sized holes in them, hoping that they will somehow remain full. How do you get from a posture of receiving of this graciously given, overflowing, life-giving water to slavishly pursuing a mirage of fountains? You get there when God is no longer the one who is the most satisfying reality to you. You get there when you lose your taste for God and begin to go thirsty for other things. Israel had grown indifferent, cold, and stale in her affections for God because she no longer saw God for who he is. And the Lord makes this clear in verses five and six of Jeremiah chapter two. What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worthless? They did not say, where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, and the land of deserts and pits, and the land of drought and deep darkness, and the land that none passes through where no man dwells. The Lord connects the loss of Israel's intimacy with her failure to behold God as the all-satisfying One, the fountain of living waters. Israel went after things of no worth because God was no longer of infinite worth to her. When our passions and affections for God grow cold, or we reduce our relationship to God, to information about God, or we know him as an apologetic tool, the Lord says, what wrong did you find in me that you went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worthless? In other words, there is only one fountain of living waters. Why would you give your affections to anyone else? Any other option is worthless and will make you empty and dry. The Lord says, how could you forget how I demonstrated my covenantal love for you? The love of a faithful bridegroom. Do you know what one of the marks of a newly betrothed bride is? She longs to be with her husband. She delights to be with him. A newly betrothed bride does not have to artificially muster up her affections and deep love when she is with her husband. Those things naturally rise as she's with him. Intimacy with the Lord is the overflow of a bride whose affections have been captured by her husband. Don't you love that the Lord uses that imagery? I'm so grateful for that imagery. Her heart is full, satisfied, and filled with great delight because there is no place that she would rather be than with him. The heart of intimacy cries, how lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts. My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. Psalm 84, verses one and two. Intimacy is marked by longing, a yearning to be with him, to commune with him. Is he altogether lovely to you? Has he seized your affections? The Lord does not want our burnt offerings, he desires our hearts. The bridegroom desires a bride. Do you remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman? It's still kind of fresh in our minds, isn't it? As Pastor Kyle's been going through the Gospel of John. Jesus answered her, this is John 4.10, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. That account is so much more than merely believing certain truths about Jesus. That encounter was essentially about true worship versus vain worship and that the way one orients themselves to the enfleshed word will determine whether they are true worshipers or vain worshipers. And the imagery that Jesus just so happens to echo is that of Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 12. The Samaritan woman had plenty of ideas in her head about God and what she thought was important to him. Jesus comes to this woman and finds her in a dry wilderness of her own. She's aching for intimacy. Five husbands. She's aching for intimacy. She's coming along for some water. But she's not aware of how thirsty she really is. She has no idea that the one whom her soul should be thirsting after will be at the well waiting for her. And guess what? Here comes the bridegroom. Here comes the bridegroom and he's locked eyes with a bride that has been lured away pursuing other loves. Here comes the eternal fountain of love, grace, and truth to this woman who has been from fountain to fountain her entire life. It's important to Jesus that we not merely believe what he reveals of himself, but that we relate to him for who he is. When you commune with the Lord, do you see a fountain? Do you drink from that fountain? Jesus didn't have in mind, take a drink from me and go back to your broken cisterns, the broken cisterns of your adulterous relationships. No, he cries, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water, John 7, 37 to 38. The heart of intimacy cries, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42, verses one and two. The heart of intimacy cries, oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63, one. One author writes, quote, in the end, the heart longs not for any of God's good gifts, but for God himself. Brother Doug mentioned that in his sermon on gratitude, didn't he? In the end, this author says, the heart longs not for any of God's good gifts, but for God himself. To see him and know him and be in his presence is the soul's final feast. Beyond this, there is no quest. Words fail. We call it pleasure, joy, delight, but these are weak pointers to the unspeakable experience. One thing have I asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." Close quote. So the first stream of intimacy is beholding God is all satisfying. The second stream is another dimension of the first, and it is treasuring God as infinitely valuable. Matthew 13, 44, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. That means intimacy naturally follows what we regard as valuable and precious to us. The man finds the treasure and then is filled with such joy that he counts all else as rubbish in comparison to the surpassing value of that treasure in order to have it. Do you know what you do with something that is precious to you? You guard it with your life. We've been going through 1 Kings. and we've just been talking about Solomon not too long ago, Solomon's affections for the Lord were seized by his relationships with women. He failed to guard his intimacy with the Lord like that precious treasure. He failed to guard his affections for the Lord. Compromise after compromise after compromise, and before he knew it, his heart was far from the Lord. This was the man whose wisdom surpassed all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. Listen to what Calvin comments on Matthew 13, 44. The excellence of the heavenly life is not perceived indeed by the sense of the flesh. And yet, we do not esteem it according to its real worth unless we are prepared to deny on account of it all that glitters in our eyes. I want to read that one more time. The excellence of the heavenly life is not perceived, indeed, by the sense of the flesh. And yet, we do not esteem it according to its real worth. What that means is we've failed to esteem it. We do not yet esteem it according to its real worth unless we are prepared to deny on account of it all that glitters in our eyes. Beloved, what glitters in our eyes? What is it that glitters in our eyes? What captures us? What seizes our affections? Are we prepared to deny anything so that we can have more of him? Without Matthew 1344 happening in our hearts, there is no possibility of intimacy with the Lord. And if you are a Christian, Matthew 1344 happened in your life when you were converted. What was at one time of no value or worth to you became an infinitely precious jewel to you when the Holy Spirit blew upon your life. In contrast, when the kingdom of heaven is set before the natural man, there is no rejoicing, there is no pulsating affections of love, but the natural man regards the kingdom of heaven as a secondary to-do list item. And here's the text. Another of the disciples said to him, let me first go bury my father. And Jesus said to him, follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead. Anything less than treasuring the king will set us up for a posture of putting him off for other things that we consider of greater value or important to us. Just like that man did in Matthew 8. One author writes, quote, in conversion we find the hidden treasure of the kingdom of God. We venture all on it and year after year in the struggles of life we prove the value of the treasure again and again and we discover the depths of riches we had never known, close quote. When people look at our lives, is it evident that Christ is more precious to us than anything in this world or not? It should be. It should be. So now that we've touched on the streams of intimacy, so that we can begin to recover the intimacy that the Lord desires from his bride. Let's observe in conclusion what a loss of intimacy leads to according to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 2, verses 5 and 6. Thus says the Lord, what injustice did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and walked after emptiness and became empty? Loss of intimacy with the Lord leads to intimacy sought elsewhere. There is no neutrality here. You're always seeking it somewhere. It's not weather. But which? Or in this case, where? They went far from me and walked after emptiness and became empty. Beloved, if our affections for the Lord have grown cold, or we have come to the point, some of us in here may be thinking like, what's intimacy with the Lord? Then honestly ask yourself, just like I ask myself, What in your life has the depths of your affections? What is it? It's not a mystery because your life will bear witness to it. And people will know it. And I don't know about you, but I wanna be known by that. I wanna be known as a man of God whose affections are given to the Lord. who has no greater desire than knowing him and communing with him. You may have given your head to Jesus, but have buried your affections elsewhere. You may have given yourself to a system of theology, but not have been drinking from the fountain. What is it in our lives that stirs up our hearts and satisfies our deepest longings? Where do we find fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore? Loss of intimacy will lead to endless pursuits of substitutes that will leave us empty, dry, and with a longing that will always be unfulfilled. Psalm 115 verses four through eight. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell. They have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. Loss of intimacy with the Lord leads to intimacy sought elsewhere, and when fulfillment and satisfaction are sought in empty things, then we will become like them. When intimacy with the Lord is absent, you will find that you begin to reduce your relationship with the Lord to trying to keep up with the early Bible plan. Attending every church function and gathering, all these things are good things. But they are not the fountains of intimacy with the Lord. You can do all those things and have a dry, coasting, mechanical relationship with the Lord. The scribes and Pharisees serve as a warning of that, don't they? You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far removed from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Matthew 15, seven and nine. If theological debates and political issues fire you up more than meditating upon the beauty of the Lord and his character and his works, then you will not cultivate the love of a newly betrothed bride for her bridegroom. Truth without intimacy produces vain worship and dead orthodoxy. Truth without intimacy produces vain worship and dead orthodoxy. A husband can be in close proximity with his wife and intimacy be absent. A husband can be in close proximity with his wife and intimacy be absent. You can be a present husband whose affections and devotion to your wife are cold and dormant. Mere presence does not equal intimacy. Merely being present does not equal affectionate love expressed or experienced. Intimacy with the Lord is sitting at his feet and drinking from the fountain. It's hard to leave communing with him because you find that there is no place more refreshing, more edifying, more uplifting and rejoicing to the heart than the presence of God. It feels as if time has stopped when you're communing with the Lord. So let's close this morning with a text from Jeremiah chapter 33, verses 10 and 11. Thus says the Lord, in this place of which you say, It is a waste without man or beast. In the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. So may we leave here this morning as a bride who will recommit herself to loving the bridegroom the way a bride should, because the bridegroom desires a bride. Let us pray. Lord, there is none who is more altogether lovely and beautiful and all satisfying than you. There is no fountain of living waters like the fountain of the Lord. And Lord, we confess we have sought other loves. Our affections have been lured away And you said, Lord, no one has the right to lure away the affections of my bride. You remember intimacy. You remember the strong love and affections of your bride. Make us a people of Psalm 63, Lord. A people who earnestly desire God and thirst for him. Create in us holy achings and longings for you, so that you will have the bride that you deserve. Do whatever it takes, Lord. Hedge us in. Build a wall around us. Begin to press in on our lives. so that we would be resolved to pursue no other love than the love of our husband, our bridegroom, our maker. Awaken in us this morning the affections of a bride for her husband. And for the one Lord who is estranged from you, For that bride whose gown is tattered and sin and shorn and she is running after other love, seeking fulfillment and intimacy and spiritual adultery and covenant infidelity, Lord, would you gather her? Would you seek her out and pursue her as you did the Samaritan woman? Would you shine forth in that person's heart the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? So that they would be a bride adorned and made fit, washed and made clean, dressed in the gracious and free gift of God's righteousness through his Son, prepared and made ready to receive her bridegroom. And we pray these things in Christ's name, amen.