Can You Find a Man?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Trip to Millegeville
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Conner
Flannery believed in what she called a “Christ-haunted South” where religion was strong, but the land was full of hypocrites.
The title of the book is provocative, but it is not the first time the question has been asked?
1 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.
2 Though they say, “As the Lord lives,” yet they swear falsely.
3 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 refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent.
4 Then I said, “These are only the poor; they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God.
5 I will go to the great and will speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God.” But they all alike had broken the yoke; they had burst the bonds.
Pray
1. The Question Posed By the Lord (vv.1-3)
1. The Question Posed By the Lord (vv.1-3)
God calls for Jeremiah to search the city for a man who is righteous
A man who does justice
A man who seeks truth
Similarities with Genesis 18
20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,
21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”
22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.
23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
We know that as the story goes on, Abraham pleads with God to get the number down to 10 righteous people and in the end God destroys the cities because they are not found.
The truth is that Abraham could have pled down for 1 and there would not be a righteous person found.
Jeremiah is going to search among the rich and the poor and won’t find anyone
Paul says the same in Romans
20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,
21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”
22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.
23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
2. The Judgment Promised By the Lord (vv.6-17)
2. The Judgment Promised By the Lord (vv.6-17)
God Brings a Nation Against Them
6 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 in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are great.
The lion, the wolf, and the leopard all are predatory animals that kill their prey by stalking them and tearing them in pieces.
Their sins are too great to overlook.
23 And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me,
24 Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah.
25 Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.
26 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard,
27 because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord.
28 Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.’ ” And they brought back word to the king.
God promises that even though there have been reforms by Josiah, there will still come judgement because they have crossed a line.
They Will Serve Others in a Foreign Land
The people have rejected God for the gods of the nations, and now God will let them go and serve other nations
19 And when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’ ”
20 Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah:
21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.
22 Do you not fear me? declares the Lord. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
Tongues as a sign for unbelieving Israel
Application
What lines have you crossed in your sins?
There is mercy if you will repent, but will you repent?
We must recognize that God still disciplines those whom He loves. God loved Israel and Judah, and this is why He warned them and called them to repent.
God Removes His Word
One of the judgments of God was to remove His word from the people
12 They have spoken falsely of the Lord and have said, ‘He will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.
13 The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them!’ ”
Later the condemnation is repeated in vv. 30-31
30 An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land:
31 the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?
3. God Will Have Mercy (vv.18-25)
3. God Will Have Mercy (vv.18-25)
18 “But even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make a full end of you.
19 And when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’ ”
20 Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah:
21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.
22 Do you not fear me? declares the Lord. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.
24 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.’
25 Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you.
God promises that even though punishment will come, He will preserve a remnant
Elijah after the prophets of Baal
The Remnant After the Exile
The Remnant of Jewish Believers in the NT
Conclusion
Jeremiah would ultimately watch His people go into captivity
Paul would watch the Jews reject Jesus as the gospel went out to the Gentiles
What will happen here tonight?
Will we humble ourselves and turn to Christ, or will be continue in disbelief and be taken away?
