The Heart
Notes
Transcript
Prophecy in Josiah’s day, Jeremiah 1-4:4.
What was happening in Josiah’s day? Reform!
Restoring the temple, finding the Book of the Law, Josiah’s repentance. Josiah tearing down idols, and removing high places, calling the elders of Israel together to renew the covenant, and had the people celebrate the Passover to remember the Lord.
There was a return to the Lord, and the people were worshipping the Lord again. They were not able to use the high places to worship other gods as they had before because Josiah removed them.
However, the main message of Josiah was still what?
Go, proclaim this message toward the north: “ ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will not be angry forever.
Lemma: 1190 in Old Testament
Jeremiah: 137 verbs (to turn, turn away, turn back, return, repent); 16 more as nouns (backsliding, wayward, turned, faithless, unfaithful)
Genesis: 81
Psalms: 76
Ezekiel: 72
1 Kings, 2 Chronicles: 71
2 Samuel: 61
2 Kings: 56
Isaiah: 54
Top ten verbs, following: speak, say, command, go, come, enter, listen, make, give
Why is this the message in Josiah’s day?
In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord.
This is evidenced by the fact that as soon as Josiah died, they went right back to restoring the Baals and Ashtoreths. They went right back to the high places as they had before.
They only worshipped the Lord because they had to.
They changed during Josiah’s day, why? Because they had to change.
Returning or repenting is not a change of behavior. Repentance will lead to a change of behavior.
Returning or repenting is not a sorrow. Repentance will come from a godly sorrow, but it is not sorrow.
Let’s look at Josiah to see what real repentance is.
Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard:
Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord.
Now I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.’ ” So they took her answer back to the king.
Repentance is a returning to the Lord with all the heart. A humbling of oneself before the Lord.
This is what was lacking in the people. They had the outward appearance of repentance, change and sorrow, but that was only a pretense. They did not humble themselves, in Josiah’s day, nor afterward.
We see in Jeremiah 44 one of the last messages of Jeremiah to the people of Judah while they were in Egypt, after having fled Judah as recorded in Jeremiah 52.
To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your ancestors.
What was missing was the heart.
The heart is also a key message in Jeremiah.
In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord.
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts, you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire because of the evil you have done— burn with no one to quench it.
Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?
But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away.
But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”
But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.’ ”
These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless!
But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me.
“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.
Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”
This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Heat
Pressures at work
Pressures at home
cars, possessions break, costs money
financial pressures
relational pressures
health
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Frustration
Decay
Groaning
Pain, suffering
This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
Trust in Man
heart turns away from the LORD
trust my desires
trust my abilities
technology
finances
medicine
government
my achievements
self-reliance
escapism
seeking pleasure
blame God, blame others, blame the brain, blame the genes
envy
Will not see prosperity when it comes… shallow roots
misses the blessings of the Lord (manna), the mercy, the patience, the discipline, doesn’t get it.
Fail to see ourselves, our choices, our actions, our desires, our attitudes, our anger, our bitterness
Dwells in parched places, never satisfied
Alone… complain, blame, anger, bitterness, escape
Ultimately, this is pride, and is the root, the heart of all sin.
Reap consequences
Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools.
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Trust in God
does not wither
green full of life
not worried in the drought
bears fruit
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Heart is deceitful
God and...
but my desires are good...
“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
The Lord Knows the heart
A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.
Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
What about me?
What about me?
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
