Jeremiah 52:1-34 "Our Failures Are Not Final"

1:01Those videos of horrific car crashes and their aftermath. Why does the state of Texas require drivers to watch those videos? Why are you required to sit there and watch hours of footage of twisted metal and mangled bodies, of serious injury and death? Because it's meant to show you the awful consequences of wreckage. Reckless driving, of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs or other substances, of not wearing a seatbelt. It's meant to paint in vivid colors the awful consequences that come from making those choices that can get you or other people killed.

1:50Well, friends, this morning we are covering Jeremiah 52, the last chapter of the book, which will conclude our nine-month series through the second-longest book of the Bible. And Jeremiah 52 repeats a lot of what we saw back in chapter 39. In fact, if you look at Jeremiah 52, the publishers of your Bible have probably titled this section something like the fall of Jerusalem Recounted. So you might be thinking, why is this here? Why does Jeremiah end with a second look at the fall of Jerusalem, especially as we just heard when Brianna read it, this is recounted in 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings as well as Jeremiah 39?

2:39Well, that's a very good question. And it's a question that we should always ask any time that we read the Bible. We should seek to understand the author's intent. Because anytime anyone writes something, they have a reason for writing what they write and saying what they say and leaving out what they leave out. Understanding the author's intent requires us to understand as well the author's intended audience. And in this case, Jeremiah's intended audience is the exiles who survived, who survived the siege of Jerusalem and who survived the long march into captivity in Babylon.

3:21But Jeremiah is also writing to future generations, to those men and women who would be born in exile, to those who would return from exile, and to people like you and me, who would only learn about the exile from others, from places like this book. So, back to the question: why is this here? Well, friends, I believe the book of Jeremiah ends the way that it does with a recounting of the fall of Jerusalem so that future generations are left with a powerful, lingering image of the consequences of sin and idolatry.

4:07You want to look away, just like you want to look away from those gory videos that you have to watch in Driver's Ed, the gory pictures of car wrecks. But Jeremiah says, no, you need to look at this. You need to stare at this. You need to face the consequences of sin and idolatry so that you will not repeat the thing. The choices that cause you to end up there. But as we'll see, Jeremiah doesn't just leave the exiles and future generations with a gory picture of the consequences of sin and idolatry.

4:44He also leaves them with this glimmer of hope, this ray of light, a reminder of God's amazing grace, so that they won't despair during their 70 years of exile or in the centuries after that. So, this morning, we're going to see that our failures lead to fallout, but by God's grace, our failures are not final. Join me now in Jeremiah 52. That can be found on page 683 of the Black Bibles provided for you. We're going to begin by considering our failure, that sin is rebellion against God. Look at Jeremiah 52, verse 1.

5:32Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For because of the anger of the Lord, things came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled. Against the king of Babylon. It's time for our daily history lesson. In 605 BC, King Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in defiance of God's command to surrender the city and the whole country to Babylon.

6:19Eight years later, in 597 B.C., King Jehoiakim died, and his 18-year-old son, Jehoiachin, ascended to the throne. He reigned for just three months before Nebuchadnezzar carted him off to prison in Babylon for his family's rebellion against Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar placed Jehoiachin's uncle, Mataniah, on the throne, and he changed his name to Zedekiah. And he told Zedekiah in no uncertain terms, I expect full submission from you. You're not to rebel as the rest of your extended family did against me.

6:58But as we know from the text that we just read and from the rest of Jeremiah, Zedekiah did rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. And in doing that, he wasn't just rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar. He was rebelling against God. Back in Jeremiah 27, God commands Jeremiah to go to Zedekiah wearing straps and yoke bars that he had made at home and to command him to surrender and to serve Nebuchadnezzar as discipline for their sin and idolatry. I want you to look at the. Text behind me.

7:31This is what God says to Zedekiah through Jeremiah. But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, declares the Lord, until I have consumed it by his hand. So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, You shall not serve the king of Babylon.

8:04Well, in chapter 37, Jeremiah is sent back to Zedekiah to speak God's word again and to command him once again to surrender to the king of Babylon. But he and his officials refuse to listen. So in chapter 38, Jeremiah goes back a third and final time. Take a look at what he says. Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, if you will surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and the city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.

8:55So when Zedekiah chose to listen to his officials, instead of listening to God, Word through Jeremiah the prophet, he wasn't just rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar, he was rebelling against God. Friends, that is what sin is. It is rebellion against God, the king of the universe, the one who created us, the one who sustains us, the one who reigns over us. Sin is rebellion. But when you think about it for just a moment, about how people talk about sin, about how maybe you yourself have talked about sin in the past, we don't hear the word sin very often.

9:37We certainly don't hear the word rebellion used very often in connection with our sin. What kind of words do we hear? You hear words like slipped up, like my girlfriend and I slipped up last weekend. You hear words like struggling, as in, I'm struggling with my anger. But in my experience, you don't hear the words sin and rebellion in connection with our works of disobedience to the Lord. You don't hear people say very often, my girlfriend and I sinned against God last weekend. You don't hear very often, I rebelled against God when I gave full vent to my anger. You don't hear that. Now, listen, I'm not going to be able to do that. I am not here to condemn anyone over the precise words that they use when they're confessing sin to God or to other people. Only Pharisees are concerned with external appearances, with the precise language that is used in certain situations, rather than with the heart. And so, if you have ever experienced godly sorrow for your sin, and when confessing your sin to God and other people, you have used words like slipped up or struggling. I'm not here to beat you up about that or make you feel guilty about that. God is much more concerned with your heart than he is with the words that you use to confess your sin.

11:08At the same time, words have meaning, and they both reflect how we think and they shape how we think. So, I want you to consider for a moment why we use words like slipped up and struggling in certain situations. So, take the word slipped up. What are we saying when we say that we've slipped up? That conveys something very different than sin or rebellion, doesn't it? It conveys an accident, like you were walking along, and then all of a sudden you lost your footing. You didn't mean to fall, but you did.

11:50My question is: is that how sin works? Are we merely passive participants in our sin? Are we people that sin merely? Happens to, or are we active in our sin? Take the word struggling. That has a different connotation. It's not passive, it's active. It conveys that we are in the arena fighting against our sin, covered with blood and sweat. It conveys that battle that is going on. But friends, is that always the way that we're handling our sin? Are we actually struggling against our anger, or are we merely giving into it?

12:38Are we actually struggling with pornography? Or are we merely addicted to it? Words have meaning. They both reflect and shape how we think. And in the scripture, you see this in places like 1 Samuel 15. Through Samuel the prophet, God goes to King Saul and he tells him, you need to put all of the Amalekites to death, all of the people, all of the animals. And when Samuel comes to King Saul, Saul says to Samuel, I have performed the commandment of the Lord, even though he spared King Agag and the best of the sheep and the animals. He says, I've performed the commandment of the Lord. Samuel says to him, No, you didn't. I can hear the animals right now.

13:35And Saul says, well, yeah, I mean, we kept the good ones to sacrifice to the Lord your God. Look at how Samuel responds. And Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. Look at this. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.

14:23You see, in this situation, Saul tries to use his own version of slipped up and struggling. But Samuel the prophet won't have it. He says, No, Saul, you've rebelled against God. You have rejected the word of the Lord. And back here in Jeremiah 52, this is what Zedekiah did the entire time that he was in power. He continually rebelled against God. He continually rejected the word of the Lord. And by doing that, he was rebelling against God himself. You see, God is. The king of the universe. He is our creator and our sustainer. And in Jesus Christ, he is our Lord and our Savior. So when we sin against Him, we're doing much more than just slipping up or struggling. We are rebelling against God. That's what sin is. Sin is rebellion against the Lord.

15:23And as we'll see in just a moment, sinners must expect to face the consequences, the fallout of their sin. So we've looked at our failure. Now let's look at the fallout from sin. Join me in verse 12 of Jeremiah 52. In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, that was the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the bodyguard, who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. Go down now to verse 24 of chapter 52.

16:23And the captain of the guard took Sariah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold. And from the city, he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and seven men of the king's council who were found in the city, and the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. And Nebuzeradon, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Ribla. And the king of Babylon struck them down, and he put them to death at Ribla in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

17:05The majority of this final chapter is spent describing the fall of Jerusalem in graphic detail. King Zedekiah and the political leaders and the religious leaders and all of the people had rebelled against God. And these verses highlight some of the worst consequences of their rebellion. The temple was defiled and ransacked. We didn't read verses 17 through 23, but they describe how the Babylonian soldiers went into the temple and took all of the furnishings and the tools. Whatever was made out of gold, they took and they melted it down for the gold. Whatever was made out of silver, they took and they melted it down for the silver. The meaning of these tools and these furnishings was nothing to them. They just took it as loot. It didn't matter. And then they burned the temple to the ground.

18:04The wall of Jerusalem was broken down by the soldiers. We learn later in Nehemiah that not only was the whole wall broken down, but all of the gates to the city were burned with fire. And the people, nearly everybody who survived the siege, was marched off to exile in Babylon. All the leaders who weren't killed, the artisans and the skilled laborers, most of the poor people, were all marched hundreds of miles away to spend the next 70 years in captivity.

18:36Jeremiah highlights what happens to the temple and the wall and the people because of what these things symbolize. The temple symbolized the presence of God with his people. The wall symbolized God's protection of his people. And the land, the land of Israel, symbolized all of the promises that God had made to his people and specifically to Abraham to raise him up and make him into a mighty nation and through him bless all of the nations of the earth in that promised land that he would bring him to.

19:17But because of their sinful rebellion, they lost all of it. They lost the temple and the wall and the land. Those were the painful consequences of their rebellion. And here in the last chapter of the book, Jeremiah is forcing us to take another long, hard look at the consequences of their sin and idolatry. He's not content to leave this back in chapter 39 in forgotten memories. He is saying to everyone: look at this 18-car pileup. Look at the twisted metal and the mangled bodies. Look at the death. Look long and hard at this so you do not repeat the same sins and failures that got your forefathers to this place.

20:12Friends, there are always consequences for our rebellion against God. Some of them appear right away. Some of them take much longer to appear, as Paul tells Timothy. But there are always consequences for our rebellion against the Lord. So I want to think for a few moments about some of the consequences of our rebellion. First, broken fellowship with God. We see this right away in the Garden of Eden. Our first parents were created for fellowship with God, to know him and to enjoy him forever. But after Adam and Eve sin, what's the first thing they do? They cover themselves up and they run and hide from God.

20:59We've been Doing that ever since, running and hiding from God. They went from walking and talking with the Lord, enjoying fellowship with Him every single day, to hiding from God. And since that day, we've all been born with sinful hearts, rebellious hearts, and broken fellowship with God, unable and unwilling to mend that relationship with Him. Broken fellowship with God is one of the consequences of our sin. Second, broken fellowship with others. Again, you go back to the Garden of Eden and you think about the first things that happen after sin. What do they do? Adam and Eve cover themselves up.

21:46They were created naked and they were unashamed, but after they sinned, they were naked and ashamed. They did not want to be exposed to one another any longer. They were no longer comfortable with being real and transparent with each other. In the curse, God pronounced that they would no longer live together in harmony. And their firstborn son proved this by murdering his younger brother in cold blood. Broken fellowship with others is a consequence of our sin. Third, loss of blessings.

22:25Throughout the Bible, it's clear that God desires to bless his people. Do Deuteronomy 28 is one of the greatest chapters talking about all of the blessings that God desires to pour out on men, women, and children who obey his word. In the Sermon on the Mount, which we're going to start covering the Beatitudes in just a few weeks, Jesus explains to us how to live a blessed life. That's how he begins the most famous sermon that he ever preached. But, friends, God also made clear that if we disobeyed his word, we would forfeit those blessings. And instead, we would reap curses. We lose many of the blessings of God through our sin and rebellion.

23:11Fourth, slavery to sin. In John chapter 8, Jesus says that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Think about that imagery. A slave has no choice but to obey his or her master. And today we use the language of addiction to convey the same idea. Sin is addictive. And anybody that's ever been addicted to alcohol or drugs or pornography will tell you that. Anyone who's ever been addicted to shopping or work or anything else will tell you that. You get to the point where eventually you cannot leave your master even if you want to.

24:01Slavery to sin is a consequence of our rebellion. Fifth, death. After they sinned, God told Adam that because of their sin, they would return to the ground from which they were made. Paul would write many years later that the wages of sin is death. And ever since the Garden of Eden, we have all been working overtime at the factory of sin. And payday is coming. The wages of sin is death. That is what we receive for our work. Death is a consequence of sin.

24:45And then finally, eternal punishment. For those who do not repent and believe, there is an awful, never-ending consequence awaiting. In Matthew 25, Jesus taught that in the final judgment, he would separate people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He said that the goats, representing the unrighteous who did not trust and obey him, will go away into eternal punishment. In Revelation 20, those whose names are not written in the book of life are thrown into the lake of fire.

25:28Eternal punishment is a consequence of the Consequence of rebellion. Friends, these consequences I've just listed, broken fellowship with God and with others, loss of blessing and slavery to sin, death and eternal punishment, those are just some of the worst consequences of our rebellion against God. But they are sobering, and that's why I share them with you this morning. The Bible talks about these things often in great detail to deter us from sinning against God and to encourage us to turn from our sin and to receive his grace. And in the very same way, I'm confident that Jeremiah 52 is not an exhaustive list of all of the consequences that the people received for their rebellion against God.

26:23But the burning of the temple and the destruction of the wall and the loss of the promised land are among the worst and the most sobering consequences because they were the symbols of God's presence and God's protection and God's promise. Jeremiah ends his book by focusing on these consequences so that future generations of Israelites and people like you and me would be forced to look at this lingering picture of the consequences of sin and idolatry, of our rebellion against God.

27:00Which is the fallout of our failure. But the question that we're left with is: Are our failures final? We've already looked at our failure, our rebellion against God. We've looked at the fallout of our failure, the consequences of our sin. But are our failures final? Is that it? Jeremiah ends by looking at the grace of God. It's not obvious, it's pretty subtle, but it is definitely there. Take a look with me at verse 31. And in the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in the 12th month, on the 25th day of the month, evil Merodach, king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, graciously freed Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and brought him out of prison. And he spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments, and every day of his life he dined regularly at the king's table. And for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king according to his day. Daily need until the day of his death, as long as he lived.

28:38King Jehoiachin reigned for three lousy months in 597 BC. He is remembered for two things: doing evil in the sight of the Lord and surrendering Jerusalem to Babylon. Not exactly the way you want to go down in the history books. After surrendering the city, Jehoiachin was marched off to Babylon and put in prison, and for the past 36 years, he's been in the slammer. Nebuchadnezzar dies, and his son, Evil Merodach, whose name looks a lot more dastardly in English, I realize he sounds like one of the villains that Mr. Incredible would do battle with.

29:29But it really is not like that in Hebrew. Anyways, Evil Merodach takes the throne in 561 BC. I want you to look at the end of verse 31. This is one of his first executive orders as king. It says, In the year that he became king, evil Merodach graciously freed Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and brought him out of prison. Okay? So what? What does that have to do with anything? Jehoiachin was a wicked king. He was in power for 90 days. What do we care about what happened to this guy?

30:12Well, going back to the beginning of the sermon, we were trying to answer the question: why is this here? Of all the ways to end the book, why does Jeremiah end like this? I mean, if the point of Jeremiah 52 is to warn us about the consequences of sin and idolatry, if that's the main point of Jeremiah 52, what are we supposed to get from this paragraph? Obey God, or you might spend 36 years in the clink.

30:41I don't know. Is that the point? I don't think so. I think the point rests on one word back there in verse 31: the word graciously. Evil Merodach graciously freed Jehoiachin, king of Judah. The Hebrew reads that he lifted up the head of the king of Judah. The reason this matters is that Jehoiachin is the last direct descendant of King David. Remember, Zedekiah was not in David's line. He is Jehoiachin's uncle, a puppet king that was placed there by Nebuchadnezzar. So I want to remind you of God's promise. To David back in 2 Samuel 7. Take a look.

31:35When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. You see, God promised David that he would establish the throne of his kingdom forever. But it seems that the last king in David's line is going to die in Babylonian prison. And it seems that hope, hope of God fulfilling this promise, is going to die with him.

32:20But it doesn't. Because for no apparent reason, after 36 years in jail, evil Merodach graciously frees Jehoiachin king of Judah. God was keeping his promise to David to establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And if God is keeping that promise, would he not keep his promises to his people to free them after 70 years of exile? Jeremiah ends with Jehoiachin's release because his release showed that God, like we saw in Psalm 77, has not forgotten to be gracious to his people.

33:13It showed that while their failures led to fallout, their failure was not final. God was not done with his people. God is not done with you. The book of Jeremiah ends like it does to give us a powerful, lingering image of the consequences of sin and idolatry. It calls us to examine our own lives. Sin is rebellion against God, and sinners must expect consequences for their rebellion. But from what happens to Jehoiachin and from what we know about the people's eventual return from exile, it is clear that God deals graciously with sinners.

34:03He deals graciously with sinners through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, you may not know this, but King Jehoiachin, like many kings, went by multiple names. And one of those names was Jeconiah. I want you to look at Matthew's genealogy of Jesus. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shiltiel, and Shiltiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel, the father of Abiyud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matan, and Matan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

35:10Friends, God is in control of all things. And because God is in control of all things, he moved a pagan king to release the evil king of Judah, Jeconiah, also known as Jehoiachin, who fathered a child in exile, who became the great, great, great, great, great grandfather of Jesus Christ. Jesus came full of grace and truth. He took on flesh, the same flesh as rebellious sinners like you and me. But the difference was for Jesus, he never rebelled against God. Instead, he obeyed God perfectly every day of his life. He deserved no consequences for rebellion because he never rebelled. Rebelled, but he willingly took the consequences of our rebellion on himself and laid down his life in your place and mine. Look at 1 Peter 3.

36:17For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. Now every unrighteous person who turns from sin and puts their faith in Jesus the righteous one will be forgiven by God, counted righteous, and adopted into his family. Friends, God deals graciously with sinners because Jesus took our place, the righteous for the unrighteous. Friends, I hope and pray that God has ministered to you through the book of Jeremiah. I hope and pray that that message will stay with you, that message that we have seen clearly through Jeremiah 52 this morning, that our failures lead to fallout. But by God's grace, our failures are not final.

37:24Let's pray. God, we thank you for placing this chapter at the end of this book. It is no fun to look at the consequences of sin and idolatry. We would rather not do it. Non-Christians would rather not do it. And for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, we have to admit that even we would rather not do it. We want to turn our eyes away from what your word says about the consequences of rebellion.

38:31So we praise you that in your infinite wisdom, you have required us to look long and hard at the consequences of sin and idolatry in the book of Jeremiah and especially in this last chapter. I pray for every Christian that's here this morning, every man and woman, boy and girl who believes in you, that we would not be lulled to sleep. By the empty promises of sin to wake up and find ourselves in broken relationships, broken fellowship with you, a loss of blessings, and so much more.

39:27God, we pray that we would be sobered by what we've seen this morning and that by the power of your Holy Spirit, we would endeavor to become holy people and pursue the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. I also pray for any who are here this morning who have not trusted in the person and work of Jesus Christ. They have been blinded to the reality of their sin and its consequences. And so we pray this morning that you would open their eyes to see the end of the path that they're on.

40:16That you would grant them this morning repentance and faith. That we as a church would see what Jeremiah almost never saw in his life and ministry, and that is people. Coming to believe you and your word and resolving to follow you. We pray that would happen today. We pray that in the months ahead there would be many baptisms because people are saying, I want to follow Jesus. I want to turn away from my sin. I want the abundant life that He promises.

40:56Father, we thank you for the book of Jeremiah. We thank you for all of the elders of our church who have preached this book. We pray that the message would live on in our hearts and minds, that we would not be quick to forget, that our failures are not final. In Christ's name we pray. 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.