Jeremiah 36:1-6
One More Chance
To me the Bible gets more interesting the more you know. My Bible
puts probable dates for events within a chapter at the beginning of
the chapter. The date on this chapter is 607 BC. Jeremiah will still
be alive and preaching when Judah falls to Babylon in 587 BC, just
twenty years later. Just twenty years before the fall of Jerusalem,
they almost had a revival. If you are fifteen, 20 years seems like
an eternity; but if you are over 40, it seems like just yesterday.
I wonder how far we are from the destruction of America. I
wonder what will be our last chance to have a revival.
What did God offer the children of Israel one more chance to do?
I. God offered Israel one more chance to learn of the goodness of His
mercy.
A. God wanted Israel to repent and experience His mercy.
Jer 36:3 It may be that the house of Judah will
hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto
them; that they may return every man from his
evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and
their sin.
B. To my knowledge, God only has two means to bring people to
His mercy.
1. God tells them the truth, most often through the medium
of preaching.
1Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to
save them that believe.
a. The people had heard the words of Jeremiah little by
little.
b. Now God wanted Jeremiah to dumb the whole load at one
time!
c. I guess we can call that bombarding preaching.
(1) That’s what America used to do in revivals,
Camp Meetings, Brush Harbors, and Bible
Conferences.
(2) Those meetings were designed to be a lot of
preaching from different kinds of preachers
dumped on you at one time.
(3) But the church got too busy to attend those.
2. God’s uses judgment to bring us to mercy.
a. Judgment can be defined as any kind of unpleasantness
God puts on a person to get them to turn to Him.
b. It could be sickness, accidents, losing your job,
pandemics.
c. In truth, the only time repentance is not the
objective is the last TWO judgments.
(1) The next to the last judgment that is not
intended to bring repentance is death and the
last one is damnation.
(2) All other judgments are purposed in at least
some measure to bring us closer to God.
II. God offered Israel one more chance to learn of the futility of
man’s religion.
Jer 36:6 Therefore go thou, and read in the
roll, which thou hast written from my mouth,
the words of the LORD in the ears of the people
in the LORD’S house upon the fasting day: and
also thou shalt read them in the ears of all
Judah that come out of their cities.
A. The people God wanted to stir to repentance were in the Lord’s
house on the day of fasting. That’s like saying they were in
church on Sunday.
B. That tells us two things right away:
1. Whoever was doing the preaching in temple was not
preaching God’s message.
a. God would not have had to send Jeremiah if someone
was!
b. Too many church are still preaching, they just aren’t
preaching the Word.
c. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but that is true even
inside Bible believing churches.
(1) There is a lot of good politicking, temper rising,
opinionated preaching going on inside of
churches.
(2) It just isn’t the Word of God.
2. Whoever was attending the preaching/teaching must not have
missed the message of God.
C. There are some lessons God wants everyone to know.
1. Fig leaves do not cover sin.
a. Fig leaves go back to what Adam and Eve.
b. Do you know what those two did the first afternoon
after the fall, in-between the time they sinned and
the time they met God? They sewed together fig
leaves to cover themselves.
c. Fig leaves did not cover Adam and religion won’t
cover you.
d. Sins must be removed not covered.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason
together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
2. One size does fit all. We are wear the same suit of sin
and we all need the same blood of Jesus to cleanse us.
3. You can’t hide the truth from your Tailor.
a. Some take great pride in fooling preachers.
(1) If you fool every preacher in the world, you
haven’t done anything.
(2) Preachers are trained to be that way.
b. God is not so fooled.
Hebrews 4:13 Neither is there any creature that
is not manifest in his sight: but all things are
naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom
we have to do.
1John 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is
greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
Ecclesiastes 12:14 For God shall bring every
work into judgment, with every secret thing,
whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
(1) God sees everything.
(2) God knows everything.
(3) God remembers everything.
(4) God will reward everything.
III. God offered Israel one more chance to learn of the hardness of
the heart.
A. There is much more to this event as what Jeremiah and Baruch
did started to kindle a revival fire.
B. \\#Jer 36:11-17\\ It started with what we would call in our
government, CONGRESS. In Israel’s government, it was the
"princes."
1. Mi-cha-iah was the first to have his heart touched.
2. He brought Baruch and Jeremiah’s scroll to the others
members, and they were all fearful of what they had done
against God.
3. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our Congress could experience
a revival?
a. I know many think we need to have another 911 so that
Congress will remember God again.
b. I’m sorry, but they did not remember God at 911.
c. It does not mean a thing to stand on the Capitol steps
and sing Amazing Grace.
d. Most of them would have to get saved.
e. Many of them would have to return a lot of money they
had taken.
C. But then the king poured cold water on the fire.
1. The princes were very wise in presenting the book to the
king.
a. They did not just take it in and start reading it to
him.
(1) First, because they could have been executed for
doing that.
(2) Second, they did not want the king to destroy the
scroll.
b. So they put the scroll away and went to feel out the
king on the matter.
2. \\#Jer 36:21-24\\ The king seemed interested so they went
and got the scroll.
a. Three or four pages, that was a far as the king could
listen.
b. He cut up the copy and threw it into the fire.
c. And just like that, Israel’s last good chance to have
a revival ended.
D. Have you ever wondered what makes some people so hard-hearted
to the things of God? Let me give you a few reasons.
1. Some are too selfish to be spiritual.
a. An article at LiveScience.com, by Robin Nixon, dated
December 24, 2008) indicated that people with a
diminished "ME" area of the brain were more spiritual.
The "ME" area of the brain keeps up with us, it
constantly updates our self-knowledge. The idea is
that people with a larger area of the brain which
is fixed on themselves are less likely to be
spiritual.
https://www.livescience.com/5237-spirituality-spot-brain.html
b. Like with all things on the internet, it is hard to
know if it is true or not, but that does agree with
the Bible.
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction,
and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 29:23 A man’s pride shall bring him
low: but honour shall uphold the humble in
spirit.
2. Some are too foolish to be spiritual.
a. When someone spurns the grace that has blessed him, he
is a fool.
b. King Jehoiakim was only king because of:
a. The previous judgments of God
b. The mercy of God
c. He was foolish - having received all he had because of
what God had done (grace) and then refusing to do
what God was telling him.
d. I think our country is one of the most foolish that
has ever been.
(1) We were one of the…
(a) …richest countries
(b) …strongest countries
(c) …smartest countries
(d) …godly countries
(e) …healthiest countries
(f) …freeest countries.
(2) Now we are morally and financially bankrupt, so
weak it is a wonder Canada and Mexico have not
come in to conquer and take our land, and so
dumb we don’t know how many genders there are
or what marriage is.
3. Some are too ignorant to be spiritual.
a. Ignorant means that just don’t know, no one has told
them.
(1) The cure for ignorance is to be taught and to be
taught as early as possible (before hard-
heartedness can set in).
(2) That is why having a godly home with two godly
parents is so every important.
4. Some are too bitter to be spiritual.
a. I spoke with a former atheist years ago who shared
that most atheists are atheists because of
disappointment in God or in what God allowed.
b. I suppose those who have been coddled their whole
life, never having been taught about work or
disappointment, never having been held to a higher
standard, are the ones who get disappointed the
quickest and the most.
5. Some are sinful to be spiritual.
a. Let’s not rationalize too much.
b. Some people are just enjoying their sins too much to
be spiritual.
One More Chance - That is what God was giving to Israel. They
refused it. If I finish this sermon and you are alive to hear it
completed, God will be giving you more change. What will you do with
it?
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