Jeremiah 14:1-15:9 “No Repentance, No Rescue”

1:08Rescue workers knew it was going to take many more weeks to rescue them, and so NASA scientists were brought in to advise them on medical care, nutrition, and the psychological effects of being buried for that long. The miners listened to their instructions and all 30% of the menu. 33 of them were safely rescued on the 69th day after the accident. But imagine if they hadn't listened. Imagine if they cried out for rescue but didn't do the things that would have kept them alive.

1:50In Jeremiah 14, God has brought a severe drought on the land, which is an existential threat in a place like Judah. It's very hot. There are very few rivers in the land, and that region is almost entirely dependent upon rainfall. You might be able to defeat an enemy, or to ward off pestilence, or to find other food sources if your animals or crops are threatened. But if you don't have water, you're in big trouble. It's the kind of thing that is guaranteed to bring people to their knees. And that's exactly what happens.

2:34God has been calling this people, the people of Judah, to repent and turn back to Him decade after decade through prophets, through the word of the Lord, and they have not listened. He used Assyria to carry off the northern tribes into exile, and still they didn't listen. But now, through this drought, he seems to have gotten their attention. But as we see, they want to be rescued, but they're still not repentant for their sin. And what we're going to see today in Jeremiah chapter 14 and the beginning of chapter 15 is that God rejects those who want rescue without repentance.

3:20Join me now in verse 7. So we pick up in Jeremiah's prayer for the people, where he confesses their sins and pleads for deliverance. Verse 7. Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name's sake, for our backslidings are many. We have sinned against you. O you hope of Israel, its Savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?

3:53Why should you be like a man confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot save? Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name. Do not leave us. Just listen to that language that Jeremiah uses in his prayer. Our iniquities testify against us, our backslidings are many. We have sinned. He doesn't minimize how sinful the people have been. There is complete ownership. And as godly as Jeremiah is, You notice that he includes himself in this group of people.

4:34He uses the language of we and us and our. And then he acknowledges that God is the hope of Israel, its Savior in time of trouble. He says, Don't be like a traveler that's passing through that doesn't really care about the problems of the country or the long-term well-being of the country because he's not going to be there that long. Don't be like a man confused that doesn't know how to solve the problems of this area. Don't be like a warrior who is unable to save us. He begs God, we are called by your name. Do not leave us.

5:10Now, that is a great prayer. It is honest and transparent. It calls to mind God's nature and character and promises. It's specific in its request. Do not leave us. In nearly every way, it's a model prayer of confession and repentance. But, friends, here's the thing: nobody can repent for you. Not your parents, not your godly grandmother, not your spouse, not a priest or a pastor, not the friend that you came with today. Nobody can repent for you.

6:00Jeremiah was very sincere. He confessed their sins. He was earnest. He meant it. But Jeremiah couldn't repent for the nation's sins. In verses 10 through 12, God makes that very clear. Look at verse 10. Thus says the Lord concerning this people. They have loved to wander thus. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore, the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. The Lord said to me, Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Though they fast, I will not hear their cry. And though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

6:53A few moments ago, we sang the great hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. And in that hymn, we sing the lyrics, Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Those lyrics have resonated with Christians for almost 300 years at this point. Because of our sinful flesh, we are indeed prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love. And so we sing that, and then we sing, Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts. Above.

7:33Why do we sing that? It's because as Christians, we know that we are still prone to wander. Even after coming to faith in Christ, our sinful flesh wars against the Spirit inside of us, and we are still prone to leave the God that we love. So, through that song, we're praying and asking God to change the desires of our hearts so that we won't wander from Him. We're praying for Him to keep us in His grace so that we won't wander from Him.

8:04Every true believer knows that He or she is prone to wander, and no true believer wants to wander away from God. But what does God say about the people of Judah? Look again at verse 10, second line. They have loved to wander thus. They have not restrained their feet. Like us, the people of Judah are prone to wander, but hopefully, unlike us, they are not praying to the Lord saying, God, I know I'm prone to wander, and I want you to prevent that. I want you to keep me from wandering. I want you to take and seal my heart so that it is yours alone.

8:48And so, God rejects them. He says, Therefore, the Lord will not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. Listen to that language. That is. The opposite of what we find in the new covenant, where God says that through faith, through turning from our sin and putting our faith in the Lord, God will remember our sins no more. But because this people will not repent, God says, I will not accept them. I will remember their sins.

9:23That's the problem here. The people are not repentant, they love to wander. So God tells Jeremiah in verse 11, Do not pray for the welfare of this people. He says they can fast, they can offer sacrifices, and still he will not accept them because they aren't repentant. And nobody else can repent for them. But God's message to us is that we must repent. Friends, many people believe that repentance is unnecessary, that you can go on living however you want, wandering farther and farther from the Lord, as long as you believe that he exists, as long as you pray to prayer at some point in your life, as long as you got baptized, as long as you're a decent human being.

10:15But God's message to us is that repentance and faith go hand in hand. That is the message that Jesus preached. Repent and believe in the good news. Repent and be good in the news. Believe. That is what Jesus preached. We don't just turn from our sin once, but we turn every day away from our sin. We don't just turn to Jesus in faith once, we put our faith in Christ daily. We trust and we follow Him. You see, God promises to save all who repent and believe.

10:53But God never promises to save anyone who does not repent. But maybe we could say, that's not fair. Most preachers don't say anything about repentance. How could God hold people responsible for that? Well, that's essentially the argument that Jeremiah makes, starting in verse 13. Look there. Then I said, Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say to them, You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.

11:32And the Lord said to me, The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. Therefore, thus says the Lord, concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, although I did not send them, and who say, Sword and famine shall not come upon this land. By sword and Famine, these prophets shall be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them. Them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their evil upon them.

12:23Jeremiah's love for the people is so evident. Like an expert defense attorney, he comes to their aid and he says, God, I know that the people have sinned greatly, but it's not their fault. The prophets have led them to think that there's not going to be any consequence for their sin. But God objects. He says those prophets were prophesying lies. He didn't send them. He didn't speak a single word through them. And as a result, the false prophets are going to be consumed by the very sword and famine that they assured the people were never going to come. And the people who believed them would suffer the very same fate.

13:11Now that sounds unfair to some, and that may sound unfair to you. How can you be held responsible when someone who should be trustworthy is giving you wrong information? Many of you know that for the past two and a half Years I've been teaching our teenagers to drive. It's been the longest two and a half years of my life. It has been fun. It has been terrifying. It has been very helpful when we need someone to go to HEB.

13:47Sometimes one of them will be driving and they'll say, Dad, what's the speed limit on this road? Now, suppose I say 55, and the speed limit is actually 35, and we get pulled over. And the officer says to one of my kids, Do you know how fast you were going? And they say, Yes, 55. And he says, Well, the speed limit is 35. And they say, But my dad told me that the speed limit was 55.

14:22Who do you think is getting a ticket? Not this guy. I wasn't driving. Speeding tickets are issued to drivers, not to passengers. And for all of you teens and pre-teens out there, this is very important to know that you, the driver, are responsible to know the law of the land. Ignorance is no excuse, so know it well. Study those paper maps that you haven't seen in your whole life. The same principle is true when it comes to God's law. There were false prophets in. Judah. There are false teachers in many pulpits today, even in our own community.

15:06But friends, understand, every one of us is responsible to know and to obey God's law. We will not be able to say on the day of judgment, but I was led astray by false teaching. Jesus Himself says this. Take a look at Mark 13. And Jesus began to say to them, See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, I am He, and they will lead many astray. Look what He says at the end of that chapter: For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be on your guard. I have told you all things beforehand.

15:54So we see that God is going to hold every person accountable. He says, be on your guard. See that no one leads you astray. The responsibility is on us. But that's not to say that God won't hold false teachers and false prophets accountable. We know that from this section of Scripture, and we know it from the New Testament. Take a look at James chapter 3. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

16:31Or, what about Jude, verses 12 and 13? These are hidden reefs at your love feasts. He's talking about the false teachers. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts as they feast with you without fear. Shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds, swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

17:12Friends, this is a great reminder to all of us, to our pastors, that we are going to be judged more strictly for what we preach and teach here at New Life. And so it's a reminder to us to teach and to preach nothing less and nothing else than the Word of God. But for all of you, you need to be like the Bereans in Acts 17. Those people, when Paul came and preached to them, they didn't just listen to Paul and shrug their shoulders and say, yeah, I guess he's right.

17:45No, Luke records that they searched the scriptures with all eagerness, day after day, to see if the things that Paul was preaching were true. They took that responsibility upon themselves. And so, if you're unsure about something that you hear preached or taught here in New Life, then come and talk to one of the pastors. It may be that we just didn't do a good job explaining what we meant. That's entirely possible. Or it could be that we're wrong and we need someone to gently and lovingly correct us and to bring us into a right understanding of the truth. This even happens in the book of Acts, where Apollos has to be corrected.

18:30But in Jeremiah's day, the people accepted what the false prophets said without question. They didn't take the time to look into God's word and to see whether what he said and what he taught those false prophets lined up with God's word and warnings. They just took it at face value. And that grieved both God and Jeremiah. Let's pick up in verse 17. You shall say to them, This word: Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease. For the virgin daughter of my people is shattered with a great wound, with a very grievous blow. If I go out into the field, behold, those pierced by the sword. And if I enter the city, behold, the diseases of famine. For both prophet and priest ply their trade through the land and have no knowledge. Have you utterly rejected Judah? Does your soul loathe Zion? Why have you struck us down, so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came. For a time of healing, but behold, terror. We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. Do not spurn us for your name's sake. Do not dishonor your glorious throne. Remember and do not break your covenant with us. Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not He, O Lord, our God?

20:11We set our hope on you, for you do all these things. As we saw last week, both God and Jeremiah are grieved to the heart because the people were going to be shattered with a great wound because of their sin. The dead are going to be piled up in the streets from sword and from famine. And Jeremiah cannot hold back. He cries out in verse 19: Have you utterly rejected Judah? Does your soul loathe Zion? Like we've mentioned several times before, this is how children feel and sometimes what children say when they are disciplined. They say, if you loved me, you wouldn't discipline me.

21:00But of course, that's not true. Discipline is not an act of hatred, but an act of love. Parents discipline their children precisely because they love them. So Jeremiah, like he did before, acknowledges their sin. He acknowledges their wickedness. He begs God, do not spurn us for your name's sake. He intercedes for the people. And he begs God not to do this for the sake of his name and his reputation among the nations. And if that sounds familiar, it's because that's exactly what Moses did many years before.

21:39In Exodus 32, Moses had been up on the mountain with God for some time, and the people panicked. And they went to his brother Aaron and they said, We don't know where Moses is at. Make us gods who will go before us. So everybody took off their jewelry, they melted it down, and Aaron made golden calves for them to worship. God wanted to strike them down. He said, Let me alone to Moses, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them. But look how Moses intercedes. Exodus 32.

22:16But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say? Say, with evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth. Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised, I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

23:06Moses begged the Lord not to bring this disaster on the people. But you notice he didn't say, Don't destroy them, that wouldn't be fair. It absolutely would have been fair. Now, what does he say? He says, For the sake of your reputation, for the sake of your name among the nations, please do not destroy this people. And God listened. Would he also listen to Jeremiah? Chapter 15, verse 1. Then the Lord said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight and let them go.

23:57This shows you just how bad the situation is. I mean, right after God had delivered his people from slavery in Egypt, they started worshiping false gods, and God listened to Moses' prayer. That is a great offense and a true wonder that God did not strike his people down after all they had seen and experienced. But here in chapter 15, Jeremiah, a very godly man, begs God to have mercy on his people and to relent from his anger. And God says, If Moses and Samuel, two of the greatest intercessors that have ever lived on this earth, if they stood before me, I wouldn't relent. Get these people out of my sight.

24:46Verse 2. And when they ask you, Where shall we go? You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: those who are for pestilence to pestilence, and those who are for the sword, to the sword, those who are for famine, to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity. I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord. The sword to kill, the dogs, to tear, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, King of Judah did in Jerusalem.

25:35Now remember, the whole problem here is that the people want rescue without repentance. They're mourning, lamenting, and crying because of the drought. They want God to rescue them, but they want rescue without repentance because they love to wander. So God tells Jeremiah, no, I'm not going to do that. These wicked people are going to be killed off. The dead bodies are going to be strewn out in the open, left for the wild animals to desecrate and devour.

26:06And all of this because of what Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem. Manasseh was the most evil king that Judah ever had. And that is really saying something. Judah mostly had wicked kings. The people were not being held responsible for Manasseh's sins per se, but they were being held responsible because they continued to do the things that Manasseh taught them to do. They were led astray by Manasseh, but they allowed themselves to be led astray.

26:46The problem isn't that they didn't feel sad about the consequences. They certainly did. They are lamenting and mourning and crying out. But, friends, this is a critical point. There is a difference. Between remorse and repentance, which is what Paul calls godly grief. Take a look on the screen at 2 Corinthians 7. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. According to Paul, godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

27:31So when you experience godly grief, you do feel sad about your sin, but it doesn't stop there. You change your thinking and your behavior as a result of it. You don't think the same way. You don't live the same way. You don't have any regrets about that because you have come to hate your sin. But worldly grief is different. It does not lead you to repentance. You feel sad about your sin, but you feel the same kind of sadness that every person on earth feels.

28:12You feel sad because you got caught. You feel sad because of the consequences. After you go on and get over your initial sadness, you just go right back to living and thinking the same way. There's no repentance. There's no lasting change. And friends, I think many of us have experienced worldly grief firsthand, if not all of us. I experienced it many times during my teenage years. I would sin in some way, and then the potential consequences would be hanging over my head. And so I would beg God that if he would spare me, I would never do it again.

28:56But I would always go back to doing the exact same things. Even after I was arrested for shoplifting and convicted in court, I continued to steal until God brought dramatic and radical change to my heart through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I experienced worldly grief my entire life until God brought change to me. And I think some of you are there today. You've experienced worldly sorrow over and over again. You felt sad about your sin, not because you've sinned against God and sinned against other people, but because you got caught or because of the consequences.

29:39Friends, this is why God will not relent of the disaster that he's going to bring upon Judah in spite of Jeremiah's earnest intercession for them. It's why God wouldn't relent even if Moses or Samuel asked, because the people wanted rescue without repentance. Is that true for you today? Do you want rescue without repentance? That kind of worldly sorrow leads to death. God only promises to save the repentant, and no one can repent for you. Do you want rescue without repentance?

30:27You must turn from your sin. You must turn to Christ in faith. Nobody can do those things for you. That's the message that God is driving home and that He continues to drive home in these final five verses. Let's pick up in verse five. Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will grieve for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare? You have rejected me, declares the Lord. You keep going backward. So I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am weary of relenting. I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land. I have bereaved them. I have destroyed my people. They did not turn from their ways. I have made their widows more in number than the sand of the seas. I have brought against the mothers of young men a destroyer at noonday. I have made anguish. And terror falls upon them suddenly. She who bore seven has grown feeble. She has fainted away. Her son went down while it was yet day. She has been shamed and disgraced. And the rest of them I will give to the sword before their enemies, declares the Lord.

31:51Verses five and six are really the key to this whole section. It's not that God has rejected his people, it's that his people have rejected him. And that's how the Hebrew reads in verse 6: the emphasis is like this: you have rejected me. You have rejected me. God says, I did not turn my back on you. You turned your back on me. On so many occasions in Israel's history, God was ready to bring judgment upon his people, but he relented because they repent. They repented of their sins. But now, God says he is weary of relenting. He has been so patient, so long-suffering with his people, but they have reached a point of no return. They want rescue without repentance.

32:52And friends, in human history, that is nothing new. In Mark chapter 10, a man. Comes up to Jesus and he says, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Luke says that this man is a ruler, so he's an important person in his community. He's either a ruler of the synagogue or a member of the Sanhedrin. He's clearly earnest because he runs up to Jesus, he throws himself down at Jesus' feet and he implores him. Highly undignified behavior for a man of his standing in his times.

33:34Jesus responds and he says, You already know what you need to do to inherit eternal life. Keep God's commands. That's it. That's still the truth today. If you want eternal life, all you have to do is obey God's commands, every one of them, perfectly every day of your life. That's it. And the man responds and says, I've done that. Well, Jesus doesn't debate him. Instead, he looks at him in love. Mark is very clear to say that. He looks at him in love and he tells him, you lack one thing.

34:13Go and sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and then come and follow me. I want you to look at his response. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. You see, friends, everything about this man suggested that he was serious. He runs up to Jesus in public, throws himself down in the dirt at his feet, and implores him, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Externally, he seemed completely genuine.

34:53But Jesus knew his heart, and by commanding him to sell everything, he revealed that the man had broken God's first commandment to not have any other gods before him. Money was his God, stuff was his God, and he was unwilling to give it up, even for eternal life. Like all people, he wanted to find the loophole that would allow him to live however he wanted and still go to heaven. In other words, he wanted rescue without repentance.

35:43Friends, Christianity is not an insurance plan to keep you out of hell. It is a complete reorientation of your life, where by God's grace you are transformed into a person centered on sin and self, to a person who genuinely loves God and others from the world. The heart. That is what Christianity is. That is what Jesus is offering. But you have to want that. You see, in this world, there's two types of addicts. One type of addict just wants to be rescued from the consequences of their behavior.

36:22They want to stay out of jail. They want to stay out of the grave. But outside of that, they have no intention of giving up using whatever it is that they use. Drink, drugs, food, sex, entertainment, money, power. They have no desire to give up whatever it is that gives them the high that they're looking for. They want to be rescued. But that's all. But there's another type of addict who doesn't just want to be rescued.

37:03They want to be set free. And that is what Jesus is offering to us. Take a look at John chapter 8. Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The Son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Indeed. My friends, today you have to answer the question: do I just want to be rescued or do I want to be set free?

37:44Jesus offers to set you free through His sinless life, His death, and His resurrection from the grave. All who repent, who turn away from their sin and put their trust in Jesus, will be set free forever, not just from sin's future penalty, but from the power of sin in our life today. God accepts every person who comes to Him in repentant faith, but He rejects all those who want rescue without repentance. Will you repent and come to Him today?

38:24Let's pray, Father, I think that we all know firsthand what it's like to experience worldly grief. Where we feel sad about our sin, not because we've rebelled against you or because we've hurt other people, but because we got caught, because there's consequences. We want to experience godly grief, but we know that that is a gift from you. Repentance is a gift from you. And so we pray this morning that you would grant it to every one of us. That those of us who are already following Christ would be granted repentance in the areas that we need to turn from sin and self to Christ.

39:49Where we need to exercise the faith that we have in Jesus. And God, others, we pray for repentance. That you would grant that to them so that for the first time they could turn from themselves and their sin to Jesus, who is the only one who can set them free. God, we thank you for the clarity of your word. We pray that we would be doers of the word and not hearers only. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

40:34Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.