The Life of an Exile

0:52It was a wild ride. I love weddings so much. I love marriage. I love what it represents. I love dancing and just getting weird. I love it all. But you can only whip a nene so much. I mean, just by the end of it, I was just like, make it stop, please. It was tiring. But I loved it so much. And again, I love what marriage represents. I love the moment of a bride walking down the aisle, seeing her husband, and the excitement in both of their eyes. And I actually prefer staring at the husband and looking at him crying. Everybody looks at the bride. Yeah, she's going to look great. But I like looking at the husband because, like, he's recognizing. Everything that's happening around that moment. And I just love that picture. But it's not like that bride that's walking up has just been sitting around doing nothing. No, she's been playing this thing out for years, even before the engagement. She's got a Pinterest board with all the things and artwork that she's putting up on there. She's selecting what plates are going to go under her plates. Those are called chargers, apparently, which is ridiculous because you can't eat off of those, or at least you're not supposed to. Now, when I see a plate on the table, I want to eat off of it. But no, it's all decorative and stuff. It's insane.

2:03But, anyways, the point of saying that is to show that the bride hasn't been sitting around doing nothing. She has been actively waiting for this glorious wedding day where she gets to be united with the person that she loves the most, in the place with the person that she loves the most. And it is a beautiful picture of the gospel. All of us long to be home. We all long to be in a place with the people we love. In the text this morning, we'll see that in Jeremiah's time, the exiles are called to actively wait in Babylon and seek the Lord's redemption. As they work to seek the welfare of Babylon, their hope was in the Lord of hosts. And today, we are going to learn that we must actively wait for the coming full redemption of Jesus.

2:46So we're going to first look at verses 1 through 12. But before we do that, we need to understand the context of the book of Jeremiah because we haven't been going through that this semester. You see, Jeremiah was a prophet that was called by the Lord to speak on his behalf to the kingdom of Judah. During the reign of King Josiah, all the way to the final siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. He was called to deliver a message that few would listen to. This was a message that Judah would be taken into exile by the wicked nation of Babylon because of their consistent disobedience to God's law. The people are likened to a faithless bride in the book. This was a message that was not only ignored by many people, but they hated Jeremiah for his strong words. And because of this, Jeremiah would face many forms of persecution and hardships. He was mocked, called a traitor, imprisoned, and beaten multiple times. He did this all while being called to a life of singleness, which was actually a grace for him because he didn't have to watch a family suffer.

3:46But through it all, Jeremiah was reminded of the Lord's promise to save and deliver Jeremiah safely during the exile. And the book is preserved to us today by Jeremiah's really only friend and faithful scribe, Baruch. The book is more like an anthology and not really a chronology. And the book is written to show God's high view of justice that is displayed mainly on Judah, but as well as to the other neighboring evil nations. In our sermon text, we are going to look at Jeremiah's letter that is written to the exiles of the first siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. You can see that in these first four verses. King Jeconiah was a king that did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as many of the kings in Israel did. And Jeconiah is actually a hero. Variant of Jehoiakim, and you can read about his story at the end of 2 Kings.

4:34The letter is written to give hope to the exiles. It is written to a people who have been driven away from their home into a foreign and evil land because of their own evil that they committed to one another and to the Lord their God, the creator of the universe, the God whose covenant or relationship they broke trust with. These exiles are in a state of great shame and fear because of their sins and the strange land that they are now wandering in.

5:04They will be told to flourish in the land of Babylon until the Lord brings them out of the exile to return home to Jerusalem. And this story of the Exodus from Babylon and elsewhere is what we have been studying this year in our sermon series in Ezra and Nehemiah. And the theme of living as an exile is actually a major theme that runs through the whole storyline of the Bible. You see, our first father and mother, Adam and Eve, too, dwelt in a place made for them by God. But Adam and Eve broke God's law and they were exiled out of the garden, away from the relational presence of God, to wander in a land corrupted by sin, and again, away from God's presence.

5:44This cycle of exile is all throughout the scripture. This cycle of being driven out of home, away from the Lord in exile, and then in the land of man and Exodus back home to be with the Lord. The idea of living as an exile is actually. A paradigm for the biblical authors. The Apostle Peter, writing to Jewish and Gentile Christians, actually refers to them as exiles. Look on the screen with me at 1 Peter 1:1 through 2. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadonia, Asia, Bithynia, according to the knowledge of God in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. This language of living as an exile is also found in chapter 1, verse 17, chapter 2, verse 11, and referred to in chapter 5, verse 13. And so, really, the whole letter of 1 Peter is actually another letter that is written to exiles.

6:44What Peter is getting as for those of us who have been cleansed by our sins by the blood of Jesus are now brought into the family of God, and we are wandering as exiles and strangers here on this earth, actively waiting here by the power of the Holy Spirit for the coming of our Lord, our bridegroom Jesus Christ. And with this in mind, we can see that there is much wisdom for us to glean in this Old Testament passage written to these Babylonian exiles as we too live in exile here on this world.

7:13So now I'm actually going to read again verses 4 through 9, and we're going to see what commands the Lord has for his people. So verse 4 says, Thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live. In them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. And pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dream to the dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name.

8:02So, really, in verses 4 through 7, particularly, we're going to see that the exiles are called to do three main things: they are to be established in Babylon, they are to multiply in Babylon, and they are to pray for and seek the welfare of Babylon. Let's look at this first point of being established in Babylon. Judah is to realize that Babylon is now their home away from home. And this is a radical idea. They were called to live in the very place amongst the very people that conquered them and took them away from their homes. Christians, we understand that this world is not our final destination. However, we must understand that God has called us where we are for a reason. We are not to live as isolationists away from the world. Jesus, our King, calls us to be salt in life, a new life. For us, that means that we are called to preserve and proclaim the gospel right here in Bryan College Station.

8:57In an age where we are bombarded on Online of pictures of a better life, a better place for us to be. This is a good reminder of us all. We obviously live in a transitional community, but however long God calls us here, we need to be engaged here, not always tempted by greener grass elsewhere. If the grass is not green here, guess what? You can water it. You too can plant gardens and contribute to the needs of our church and our community at large. Your normal, everyday, non-ministry vocation is vital to the building of God's kingdom.

9:34And this leads to our next point: the exiles are called to multiplication. And this language of multiplication is actually found all throughout the Bible, mainly through the biblical covenants. Adam and Eve were called in Genesis 1:28 to exercise dominion over the earth, to be fruitful, and to multiply, to have children and spread the kingdom of Eden to the whole world. And this call was given to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Israel, and David, even after the fall. God would accomplish his mission of spreading his kingdom to the whole world. Judah was called to increase their family by marrying in Babylon and having children. And this same call that was given to them when they weren't in the exile is given to them now in the exile. So, what does this mean for us? Well, certainly it means that we can build our own families. It's a wonderful thing to have kids and to be able to share with the coming generations the hope of Jesus. That was. My story. I grew up in a Christian home from a very young age, heard Bible studies, and came to faith at a young age. So, yes, we can build families in that way and spread the kingdom that way. But what about for those of us who can't have children, or like myself, who have been single their whole life? Are we some failed subclass of Christians? No, all of us can be a part of this multiplication. You see, on this side of the cross, God's family grows through Christ ruling over the hearts and lives of men. It was never about a physical ethnic group of people, it's always been about spiritual descendants of Abraham. Look at the Great Commission in Matthew 20, 18, verses 18 through 20 on the screen. A very familiar passage, but notice the language in here. And Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the very end of the age. We see here that Jesus tells us that all dominion, all authority has been given to him as the true Adam, the true Son of God. And he calls all who have been purchased by his blood and brought into the family of God to go out into the world where they are called, to the Babylon of their age, and tell people about the forgiveness of sins that is only found in Jesus. And call them to turn from their sins and trust in Jesus Christ. His work on the cross, and by the power of his resurrection, be given new life and a new heaven-bound family. Church, it is a wonderful thing to have a family. It is a wonderful thing to be married. It's a biblical norm, and it is a gift. But let us not idolize this or create this as the goal of every believer. We are all called to holiness. We are all called to multiplication regardless of our family or marital status. Church, I worry that in our statements about marriage and family that we are often misleading singles and the unmarried. This overemphasis of marriage can lead many to doubt God and believe that he is not faithful when he doesn't provide a spouse and when he doesn't provide children. God is faithful regardless of our marital status. The reason why I am called to holiness, especially in the realm of sexual ethics, is not because I don't want to deal with the consequences later on in my Lord-willing future marriage. No, it's because I want to be satisfied and please the God who saved me, nothing else. Christian, all of us are called to multiplication where we are. New life for us, that means that we want to see people in our lives here in Bryan College Station be saved from their sins and to new life in Jesus.

13:17Third, the exiles are called to pray for and seek the welfare of Babylon. The Judean exiles must have really been shocked at this statement. Are they really supposed to serve the nation that took them from their home? A nation. That has a culture and practices that the Lord their God hates? Are they really supposed to serve an evil king, a king that would actually go out to gouge the eyes of one of their own, gouge out the eyes of one of their own kings? The answer is yes. All throughout the book of Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as a minister of the Lord and his justice. They are called to serve him. But how are they supposed to serve Babylon and the Lord their God? One of the greatest examples of this is found in the book of Daniel. Daniel and his friends would go after the exile and would be called to work and serve Nebuchadnezzar the king in his court. But they would only do so to a point. They would not let this loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar trump their loyalty to God. They would not adopt all the customs of the day, but instead they followed the law. One story in Daniel shows his three friends refusing to bow down to an idol made in the likeness of Nebuchadnezzar. And this act leads them to being thrown into a blazing furnace, but the Lord actually preserves them through the fire. Tim Maki of the Bible Project calls this a life of loyalty and subversion. Our greatest example of this is Jesus, who was in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Jesus commanded his followers to pay taxes to Caesar, but also spoke out against the corrupt leaders of his day. And this led him to being unjustly executed by those rulers to whom he willingly gave himself up to.

15:00So, Christian, what does this mean for us today? How are we to relate to our political leaders and those in and among the culture around us? Well, let's look back at our letter to the exiles in 1 Peter 2, verses 11 through 17. It says, Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, there's that language again, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against you. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be the emperor as supreme or to the governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are freed, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Now, there's a lot there in those verses that we don't have time to fully exposit and go through, but here are a few points for us. We are to live God-honoring lives in order to win the people of the culture around us to Christ. Government authorities are called by God to serve to promote order and execute justice this side of heaven. We are to fear God and honor our government officials and authority structures of the day. We do all these things and pray for these things. Pray for these leaders so that we can safely share the gospel to a people who are not threatened by their own governments. Of course, these institutions often fail and do fail because they are led by sinners like us. But still, we must pray for them and be subject to them. If you would like to learn more about the role of the local church and government and their authority structures that God has given them, I would encourage you to check out a relatively new book from Nine Marks called How the Nations Rage by Jonathan Lehman. It was one of my favorite books that I read last year and it's a good analysis of this. So, again, the exiles are called to do three main things. They are to be established in Babylon, they are to multiply in Babylon, and they are to pray for and seek the welfare of Babylon. But while we live in Babylon, we must be on guard. In verses 8 through 9, we see that the exiles are to be on guard against false prophets. Jeremiah was a faithful prophet who told the people of Jerusalem the coming exile while false prophets said it wouldn't happen. The rulers of the day, or shepherds as they're referred to in the book, led the Judean people astray. God's people must be on guard always against false prophets and know the true voice of God, His Word. Alan hit on this a lot last week, so I won't belabor the point too much. However, New Life, we must be a people who are deeply soaked in God's word so that we can. First of all, know who God is, and so we can actively discern the world around us and even the church at large. Let us not be a people who believe everything a so-called Christian leader says. If someone tells us that our lives are going to be easy because we're Christians and that we won't face any hardships, we biblically reject that. If someone tells us that by taking the Lord's Supper that we will somehow have all of our physical ailments are relieved of this side of heaven, we biblically reject that. Ladies, if somebody tells you to wash your face, fix yourself up, be focused on you, climb to the top, get that first-class seat on the airlines, and be all about yourself and not forgive anyone else, neglect your family, we biblically reject that. If someone says that we must be performing miracles and speaking in tongues to be a true Christian, we biblically reject it.

18:55Now, some of you are happy that I just called out a bunch of false teachings that are of our day. Because you love being right and proving people wrong. But to my fellow Reformed Calvinists, we are not right in our theology to beat people down. No, we are right in our theology to help others see the true God who they are called to serve. That is why we are right in our theology. And so while we live as exiles, we must be on guard against false prophets. Church, we must know God's word. So, what is our hope in all of this? Look with me at verses 10 through 14. It says, For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are complete for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. And I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to this place from which I sent you into exile. The Lord tells the Judean exiles that their exile will not last forever. They will be brought out of their exile into Jerusalem. And this Exodus home is what we have been studying in Ezra-Nehemiah this semester. But when we get to the end of Nehemiah, as well as other points in Ezra-Nehemiah, we see that, yes, their home in a rebuilt Jerusalem, but it's definitely not perfect. The new temple cannot compare to the one in Solomon's Day, and even that temple cannot be compared to living in the garden, walking face to face with God. And we know that the Jews would ultimately come under another authority, another Babylon, in the form of Rome. So what does this mean? Has Jeremiah 29, 11 somehow failed? Did God fail Judah? Certainly not. God provided for them and brought them back home, and he would provide for Israel and Judah, their promised king and Jesus, who died for their sins and ours. He provided for us and them new hearts to seek him, just like he promised in these verses and in the coming chapters, as he talks about writing the law on their hearts in the new covenant instead of stone tablets in the old. So here's what this means. Here's what this verse that is often taken out of context and written in every faithful Christian's home.

21:33These promises here are not yet fully fulfilled. You see, we as believers, as exiles in the Babylon of our age, are actively waiting for a new and better Jerusalem. We all long for that glorious day told to us at the end of Revelation, at the end of the Bible, when the Babylon of our age will be destroyed and tossed into the lake of fire. Our bridegroom and King Jesus will meet us on that glorious wedding day to be fully united to him and his presence under his rule as his fully cleansed and redeemed bride, the church, the new and new Jerusalem. We will be brought out of our exile.

22:12But until that day, we actively wait here. Our lives will be marked by suffering as we labor to build God's kingdom by seeing the gospel go out first here in Bryan College Station and into the whole world through our faithful missionaries. But amidst this Hope, we must be reminded that God is a God of justice who will punish sinners. Let's look at the end of this letter in verses 15 through 23. God's word says, Because you have said, the Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon, thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in the city, your kinsmen who did not go out with you into the exile. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I am sending on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with sword and famine and pestilence, and will make them a whore to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all nations where I have driven them. Because they did not pay attention to my words, declares the Lord, that I persistently sent to you by my servants, the prophets. But you would not listen, declares the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles, whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Goliah, Zedekiah the son of Messiah, who are prophesying a lie to you in my name. Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall strike them down before your eyes. Because of them, this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah and Babylon. The Lord, make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire. Because they have done an outrageous thing in Israel. They have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and they have spoken in my name lying words that I did not care. Command them. I am the one who knows, and I am a witness, declares the Lord.

24:06We see here that all those who did not heed the prophecy spoken by Jeremiah were brought into judgment by God through Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. But don't think that Babylon gets off the hook. At the end of Jeremiah, he prophesies against Babylon and their great evil. They ultimately fell and were judged by another nation. So, what does this mean for us? Are we supposed to be talking about this? Are we supposed to be talking about judgment? Yes, notice in verse 20 that God tells the exiles to take heed of this reality. What this means for us is every corrupt ruler will answer for the ways they have treated people who are made in the image of God. Every false prophet will answer for the lies about their God and their abuse of God's people. Every person who breaks God's law through their hatred towards their neighbor, their sexual immorality, their pride, their jealousy, and all the ways they disobey God will answer for their sin. Some will answer to the authorities of our day, but all will answer to the Lord of hosts, who is over all and who is their Creator. If you are here today and you're not a Christian, first off, thank you for coming. We're glad that you're here to join us and view this family gathering and see this meal that we're about to take. If you have not turned away from your sins and trusted in the family, Forgiveness of sins that is only found in Jesus, then what awaits you is eternal judgment in a place called hell, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, as Jesus said. I'm sorry that if you were told that God is a God of love without having that unpacked, he is a God of love, but he is also a just God who will not let sinners go unpunished. But this hope that we have as believers is offered to you. In this time of exile, God is actually reserving his wrath so that all can have the opportunity to turn from their sins and trust in Jesus. This is a sobering reality. We are either ultimately citizens of Babylon, the city of man, or we are citizens of Jerusalem, the city of God.

26:19We are either building a kingdom that will last, or we are building a kingdom that will be destroyed. Some of you know that, well, everyone should know, last year that Hurricane Harvey, a little over a year now, devastated the greater Houston area as well as many areas along the Texas Gulf Coast. And one of my families was one of the families affected. And I remember one morning getting the call from my mom who was telling me that the water was about to come in through our house. By that time, I had graduated, but still. Had some possessions back home. So she asked me, Is there anything that you want to save? And I just quickly thought through my head, I was like, I don't know, grab my letter jacket and put it on my loft bed or something, save it and do that.

27:13And it was crazy as the days went by and the water receded, getting images and FaceTimes from my parents walking around in our duck hunting waders, going through our house and just seeing everything destroyed and just corrupted by this water. And then days later, coming and helping them move all the stuff out, we graciously had many people from our church back home help us out, as well as some friends that came into town. And it was a crazy process going through and seeing my Legos, Transformers, and everything that I had there just destroyed. My room that was my sacred place, a place where I learned God's Word, where I listened to sermons and dug into the world, and a place where many times the world made sense only in there. And I remember at the end of the last day as we were moving things out, we were moving our possessions into a neighbor who graciously opened up a place for them. And I just remember just after that happened, everyone left just weeping, just realizing that everything that had happened, all the memories, all the... Possessions and childhood memories that I have, all that being literally taken by the waters. And as I was in that moment, I remember my mom turning to me and telling me that this is a good reminder of what truly lasts. This is a reminder of what's truly important.

28:50That none of our possessions that we have on this life, none of the hardships that we face, nothing will compare to being in God's place under His rule, in His presence. Because being with Jesus is the best thing about the New Jerusalem. It's not just about not facing the hardships that we face here on earth. It's about what we get there. Church, this world is not our ultimate home. Let us build God's kingdom and not our own, because this is what will last through every storm.

29:27As believers, we are called to actively wait for the coming full redemption of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray right now for anyone in this room who is going through hardships, who feels like you are not near, Lord. I pray that you would remind them that through the blood of Jesus that you are in relationship to them. And no matter what hardship that they are, Face on this life, no matter what persecution they face for living out their faith on this world, from the community and from our governing authorities, that serving you and building your kingdom is worth it.

30:15And help all of us long for that glorious wedding day when your Son will return, when we will be fully made new and fully be made righteous before your eyes, and we will dwell with you together forever. Jesus, we ask you to come soon. We ask all these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Thank 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.