Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Today we find ourselves in society full of false prophets and teachers.

In such a society preaching through a book like Jeremiah can be difficult and if I am honest seem a bit tedious.

But Jeremiah stands against the test of time as a demonstration of the relevance and truthfulness of God’s Word even after the inspired prophet wrote nearly 2,600 years ago.

As you may remember.

The prophet Jeremiah was called to a ministry of reconciliation by Yahweh to the nation of Judah.

Jeremiah is often referred to as the “weeping prophet” because of the number of laments found in his prophecies.

Jeremiah’s ministry by today’s standards would have been considered a complete failure because he did not attract the large following like successful ministries today.

Nevertheless, by God’s standards Jeremiah was accomplishing the mission.

After a lamenting the very day of his birth Jeremiah is rebuked and told to repent.

God instructs Jeremiah to give another prophecy to the people calling them to repentance.

The reason for their suffering is because they have abandoned God’s Word.

Yet even amid God’s promise of judgment he offers hope.

Yahweh promises that he will in fact lead the people of Israel out of Babylon in a second exodus and return them to the Promised Land.

This morning we pick up in the section following that promised return.

Perhaps God is anticipating an internal response by the people and through the Prophet Jeremiah is going to give some insight from above.

It appears some have the idea that they will simply run from and hide from God’s plan and purpose.

Let us see how God responds through the prophet Jeremiah by offering three inescapable divine promises.

Turn with me to Jeremiah 16:16-21 opening our hearts to receive from Gods’ inspired, inerrant, and Holy Word.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and preaching of His Word.

I. God will research and find! (Vs.

16-17)

I make no secret that I did not grow up in a Christian home.

In fact, outside of my Uncle John and my Grandmother (through my mom’s side) very few members if any of my family have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Growing up you were more likely to have a vast knowledge of Elvis Presley or Walker Texas Ranger.

Perhaps there are some here this morning that have a working understanding of one or the other.

Ever single week the quality bonding time with my mother would be watching the weekly episode of Walker.

I can still hear the song in my mind.

“In the eyes of a ranger, the unsuspecting stranger, had better know the truth from wrong and right.

Cause the eyes of the ranger are upon you, any wrong you do, he’s gonna see, when you’re down in Texas, look behind you.

Cause that’s where the ranger’s gonna be.”

That is sort of the idea that Jeremiah is pushing to get across.

You cannot hide from God.

He knows exactly what you are doing, when you are doing it, and where you are doing it.

Some try to play the ignorance card.

I did not know that was wrong!

Interestingly half of the Mosaic sacrificial code dealt with unintentional sins.

So, the concept of “ignorance of the law is no excuse” IS NOT A NEW CONCEPT!

The whole point was the people were going point out the fault in their brothers and sisters so that person could repent from their sin whether intentional or not.

Just as in Jeremiah’s day the people lack the true and proper humility to “repent.”

Instead, when God passes his holy judgment people try to run and hide.

Some within the church wish to continue to enjoy the momentary pleasure of sin but hide it in the privacy of their homes.

Other’s try and void the calling of God to share the Gospel to those lost in sin because they fear opposition, they fear persecution, or perhaps even worst yet they fear that God might bring someone to earnest repentance exposing their own hypocrisy.

I reminded of the story of another prophet named Jonah.

Jonah was commissioned by God to go to the town of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.

This would be the nation that later took the northern ten tribes of Israel into captivity.

Jonah fled in the opposite direction because he did not want to go the people of Nineveh because he knew that God was a compassionate God.

So, he books passage on a cargo ship headed toward modern day Spain.

However, the ship encounters a server storm and is on the verge of destruction.

Jonah is determined to be the source of the peril and is promptly thrown overboard.

Perhaps you know the rest of the story.

Three days in the belly of a giant fish in which Jonah repents and agrees to go to Nineveh.

He preaches and the people do in fact repent in hearing the Word of God.

Meanwhile Jonah waits outside the city on a hill with shade provided by God waiting for the fireworks.

Yet they do not come.

God removes the shade and in the dialogue that follows brings Jonah to repentance.

The moral of the story being that we cannot run from or hide anything from God.

Yet so many today attempt to do that exact same thing!

We try to run from God’s calling or worse, yet we try to hide things from God.

II.

God will have retribution!

(Vs.

18)

Our iniquity cannot be hidden from God’s sight.

No manner of incognito browsing or internet history clearing will atone for our sin.

Apart from Christ every careless word we utter will be brought to judgment.

In Christ we will still be judged based upon the sincerity of our relationship with Christ.

While it is true that we can never be good enough to earn salvation there is nevertheless the command to be holy as our Father in Heaven is Holy.

We have been called by God out of darkness into marvelous light.

Nevertheless, our lives should demonstrate the fruit of repentance being produced.

Yes, we will falter and stumble in many ways but that is the beauty of the grace we receive in Christ.

Yet, if we continue to live secretly in sin, we are not fooling God.

Though we are covered by grace we cannot habitually live a lie.

In this verse there is some interesting language in the Hebrew regarding “I will first repay them double for their iniquity and sin.”

A lot of attempts have been made to explain what exactly God meant through the prophet Jeremiah.

It is a firm belief of mine that proper Biblical exegesis should follow the principle of simplest internal explanation is best.

I.e., let the context explain with Scripture explain.

Remember that Yahweh has already said the prophet that he will redeem Israel from the Babylonians.

So, the “first” is an indication that this retribution must take place before they can be redeemed.

The Babylonian captivity was not only to serve as punishment for Judah’s sin but also as an atonement of sorts.

Before there can be restoration there must be atonement.

The second aspect of this verse seems more difficult in English as God says he will “repay them double for their iniquity.”

The wording in most English Bible’s seems to suggest that God is going to punish Judah so severely that it will amount to double the cost of their sin.

If we were to put it a financial structure it would be like Judah being guilty of stealing $50,000 and God punishing them till $100,000 is repaid.

However, here is an area where to be literal, ironically done by most English translations, including the NIV and CSB, loses something in translation.

The Hebrew is very literal in the “double” terminology; however, it is poetic language to imply full measure.

The idea communicated here is that before Judah can be redeemed it must be punished to the full measure equated to its sin.

It is showing God’s judgment and punishment are righteous and just to the crime committed.

Now it should be noted that is by God’s standard, not mans!

Notice that specifically the sin being punished is idolatry.

This sheds a lot of insight into the nature of sin.

All the sins that plagued Judah were a result of one chief sin and that was idolatry.

In fact, if you were to look through most of the Scripture you would see two sins that go hand in hand are often the cause of most of the sin within our fallen world.

Idolatry, elevating someone or something to the position of God or pride, elevating ourselves to the position of God.

Both sins involve placing someone or something else in Gods’ place as the center of our worship and obedience.

We have established that you cannot run or hide.

We have seen that God will have his retribution for sin.

Yet the greatest promise is to come.

III.

God will reclaim!

(Vs.

19-21)

The next part of our passage is perhaps the most beautiful thing we will see this morning.