Jeremiah 4:1
How Does Your Book End?
Outline:
I. \\#Jer 1:1-19\\ Jeremiah’s Calling
A. \\#1:1-3\\ Jeremiah’s Background
B. \\#1:4:10\\ Jeremiah’s Commission
1. \\#1:4-5\\ What God FORMED Jeremiah to do.
2. \\#1:6-9\\ What God ENABLED Jeremiah to do.
3. \\#1:10\\ What God COMMISSIONED Jeremiah to do.
C. \\#1:11-19\\ Jeremiah’s Conditioning
1. \\#1:11-12\\ Something Is About to Happen
2. \\#1:13-16\\ Something Is About to Boil Over
3. \\#1:16-19\\ Someone Needs to be Ready
II. \\#2:1-37\\ God’s Case Against Judah
A. \\#2:1-8\\ Judah Blessed but Not Satisfied
B. \\#2:11-13\\Judah Abandoned God.
C. \\#2:30\\ Judah Refused Correction
D. \\#2:9\\ Judah Called to Repentance.
E. \\#2:36-37\\ Judah Facing Judgment
III. \\#3:1-25\\ Israel’s Three Time Zones
A. \\#3:1-5\\ Their Past State
B. \\#3:6-19\\ Their Possible State
C. \\#3:20-25\\ Their Continuous State
IV. \\#4:1-6:30\\ Sins and Judgments
A. The Sins
B. The Judgments
C. The Mercy
Up to this point, we have been reading of the sins and coming
judgments against Judah in a summarized form. Beginning in chapter
4, God gives more details of the judgment. Because so much of what
Jeremiah says is repetitive, we will look at chapters 4-6 together.
Let’s divide the section into three parts.
1. The Sins
2. The Judgments (prophecies)
3. The Mercy
I. The Sins
A. Even as yet, God does not give a long list of Judah’s sins.
B. But He does mention some.
1. \\#5:8\\ Adultery - The Common Sin
Jer 5:8 They were as fed horses in the morning:
every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
a. I do not know what the most committed or common sin
is, but adultery is and always has been right up
there at the top.
b. It was adultery when Abraham took his handmaids for
wives.
c. It was adultery when David and Solomon married
multiple women at one time, establishing a precedent
which many followed after them.
d. It was adultery when Bill Clinton had relations with
Monica Lewinsky and no telling how many others.
e. It is adultery when a preacher, an evangelist, a
missionary, or any other Christian has physical
relations outside of the bonds of holy marriage.
f. The truth of the matter is that nothing has weakened
the moral character of the United States of America
like adultery has.
(1) It has caused individuals to harden their hearts,
turn from the Holy Ghost, and cast the Bible
behind them.
(2) Not to mention it has crippled the home, creating
a fatherless society which has lead us to gangs,
drug abuse, and violence.
2. \\#5:26-28\\
Jer 5:25 Your iniquities have turned away these
things, and your sins have withholden good things
from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men:
they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they
set a trap, they catch men.
27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their
houses full of deceit: therefore they are become
great, and waxen rich.
28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they
overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not
the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they
prosper; and the right of the needy do they not
judge.
a. \\#26-27\\ An Ominous Sin
(1) There are wicked men that set snares, lay traps,
and catch men. In \\#27\\, he adds they "cage"
them.
(2) I don’t think this refers to a "typical" sin.
(a) Something was happening in Judah that was
changing the very nature of country. I
never understood it until I saw it happening
in our country.
(b) Men’s souls were being stolen.
(c) A nation that once had some respect for God
and His Word, was being transformed to a
nation with none.
(3) \\#Eze 13:17-23\\ is a similar passage.
(a) \\#22\\ Lies were being told.
(b) I believe this might be a case when lies
about God and sin are told so often that
the heart of the nation gradually accepts
them, changing the whole nation.
(c) Judah either was being changed or had been
changed from spiritual to secular, from
worshipping the true God to worshipping
false gods, from having some kind of
relationship to God to being anti-God.
(4) Don’t misunderstand.
(a) Judah had been partaking in sin for years.
(b) But they had at least kept a knowledge of God.
(c) Now, they were purging not only the obedience
to God but even an awareness of Him.
(5) Paul addressed the issue.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ.
b. \\#28\\ A Crippling Sin
(1) It is the sin of injustice.
(2) When there is no justice, violence increases on
both sides of the law.
(a) When there is no justice, law breakers do
more wickedness.
(b) When there is no justice, law keepers take
justice into their own hands.
i. The issue of Florida’s "Stand Your
Ground" law would be mute if there was
justice.
ii. Killers should be executed, including
anyone who sells illegal drugs that
kill someone.
iii. Everyone else should have to stay in
jail until they have financially paid
for their crime.
iv. Every prisoner should have to earn his
keep.
v. Help should be given to those who could
make it with a helping hand.
3. \\#5:22\\ No Fear of God - The Cause of Sin
Jer 5:22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye
not tremble at my presence, which have placed the
sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual
decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the
waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not
prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass
over it?
a. There can be no society but tyranny without the fear
of God.
b. Mankind always gravitates downward without a
relationship with God.
c. When a nation puts God-doubters, atheists, and
worshippers of false gods into places of leadership,
education, and entertainment, they give the keys of
the asylum to the inmates.
II. The Judgments - This is where God starts to give more details.
A. The judgment is Babylon.
1. We just finished studying Daniel and meeting
Nebuchadnezzar.
a. God called Neb the head of gold.
b. \\#Jer 51:7\\ God calls him a golden cup in the Lord’s
hand.
c. God gave this king power like He had never given to
any man before him or will give to any man after him
except for the anti-Christ himself.
2. God a very vivid description of Neb’s army.
Jer 4:13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds,
and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his
horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for
we are spoiled.
a. Babylon will cover the land like clouds.
b. Babylon will come with the strength of a whirlwind
(tornado).
c. Babylon will come with the speed of eagles.
Jer 5:6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest
shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall
spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their
cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be
torn in pieces: because their transgressions are
many, and their backslidings are increased.
d. Babylon will come with the strength of a lion.
e. Babylon will come with the cunning of a wolf.
f. Babylon will come with the speed of a leopard.
B. However, God also gives some plain descriptions of Neb’s work.
Jer 5:15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from
far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a
mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation
whose language thou knowest not, neither
understandest what they say.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they
are all mighty men.
17 And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy
bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should
eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine
herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig
trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities,
wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.
1. \\#16\\ Babylon brings death.
2. \\#17\\ Babylon brings poverty.
3. And Babylon brings death and destruction.
Jer 4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was
without form, and void; and the heavens, and
they had no light.
24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they
trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all
the birds of the heavens were fled.
26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a
wilderness, and all the cities thereof were
broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by
his fierce anger.
C. What else can I add to that? God was serious.
1. God was telling Judah what Babylon was about to do to
them IF they did not repent.
2. They didn’t.
3. History has recorded that Jerusalem has been…
a. Destroyed 2x
b. Besieged 23x.
c. Attacked 52x
d. Captured and recaptured 44 times.
4. I believe that we would have to deduce that Jerusalem in
particular and Israel in general has been one of the most
volatile spots on the whole earth!
5. And it will be until Israel gets right with God.
a. The land was a gift from God to His people.
b. No God, no land—at least no land with peace.
III. The Mercy
A. God continues to offer mercy.
1. Part of the significance is that at the same time we are
studying Jeremiah on Wednesday night, our Sunday school
class is studying minor prophets.
2. God was not offering mercy to the northern kingdom at
that time—at least not this kind of mercy.
3. That leads me to believe that God’s offer of mercy is a
diminishing quality.
a. The earlier you accept it, the more there is.
b. The longer you wait, the less.
c. It might be that you can even tell how far away
judgment is by how much mercy is being offered.
B. God promises not to permanently destroy Judah.
Jer 4:27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole
land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a
full end. \\#Jer 5:10, 5:18\\.
1. That is mercy.
2. Why is God repeating this? Because God permanently
destroyed the northern kingdom.
3. Somebody should have been wondering if He was going to
do that to Judah!
4. So whether anyone is asking or not, God answer them.
a. No. God will not totally destroy Judah.
b. But He will take them out of the land for 70 years.
5. Of course, the next time God brought judgment upon them
He took them out of the land for almost 1900 years!
6. I have a feeling that the next judgment will be none
other than the tribulation.
C. However, God even offered to let them STAY in the land
if they would repent.
Jer 4:1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the
LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away
thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt
thou not remove.
1. I do not know if Judah could have stopped Babylon from
coming and reigning havoc down on the nation; but they
2. When you are about to get a whipping, take whatever
mercy is shown to you!
3. But alas, they did not.
Nobody likes to read a story with an unhappy ending. Yet, that is
they way ever prophecy book in the Old Testament ends. The only one
which could have ended happily was Jonah and then Jonah had to go
and ruin the ending himself.
The question becomes, "How will your book end?"
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