Jeremiah 6:1-30 “Don’t Turn Off Notifications”

1:22But the danger in turning off those notifications is that we might miss a warning that could save our lives. Because after all, that's the point of those warnings. The people sending them want us to heed them so that we can stay safe and rest easy. It would be accurate to say that Jeremiah's ministry was one of warning, warning God's people that if they did not repent, God would have to discipline them. And today, warning features very prominently in chapter 6, as Jeremiah does his best to warn God's people, especially those of his own tribe of Benjamin, about what was coming if they did not repent.

2:16Sadly, the people quit paying attention to Jeremiah's warnings. They had turned off notifications, so to speak. And if they continued ignoring his warnings, they were going to face serious consequences. You and I can end up doing the exact same thing. If you've grown up in church your entire life, if you're familiar with the Bible, the temptation is for us to turn off notifications, to just kind of tune out the many warnings that God has for us in His Word.

2:56But God goes out of His way to warn us. Because he loves us. He doesn't want us to experience the consequences of sin. He wants us to enjoy the rest and the abundant life that he promises to all who listen and obey. And so today in chapter 6, we're going to learn that when we heed God's warnings and walk by faith, we find rest for our souls. In the first eight verses here in chapter 6, the theme of warning emerges, with Jeremiah bookending the section in verse 1 and verse 8 with the language of warning. I want you to look again at verse 1.

3:45He says, Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem. Blow the trumpet in Takoa and raise a signal on Beth-Hakarem, for disaster looms out of the north and great destruction. In the ancient world, cities had watchmen that stood on the walls 24 hours a day because from that high vantage point, they could see a long way off if attackers were coming. And when they spotted those attackers coming toward the city, they would blow the trumpet, which would warn everyone within earshot that an attack was imminent.

4:28But sound only travels so far. Far. And so at the same time, those watchmen would have runners who would go to the high places around the city and they would send up signal fires. And the smoke from those signal fires could be seen from miles away, warning not just those in the immediate vicinity of the city, but all the surrounding towns as well that danger is coming. And so here in Jeremiah 6, he's calling out to his brethren, the people of his own tribe of Benjamin, not to go into Jerusalem, but to flee for safety. And he actually solicits their help. Blow the trumpet, set up the signal.

5:12He's saying, take this message that I'm speaking and say it to others so that everyone is warned that disaster is coming. And it's coming from the north in the form of this army. This army is going to come against Jerusalem in numbers so great that as it says in verse 3, it's going to seem like shepherds leading enormous flocks into the city. And when they come, they're going to attack the city when everyone would least expect it.

5:46At noon, the hottest point of the day. At nighttime, after the soldiers have gone to sleep and are unprepared for an attack. Most shocking is what we find in verse 6. You see in verse 6 that it is God Himself who is directing this attack against Jerusalem, against His own people. He's ordering them to cut down the trees of Jerusalem to build up a siege mound that would allow the attackers to scale the walls into the city. He says, This is the city that must be punished.

6:26And so he concludes in verse 8: Take a look there again: Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land. So, from the imagery of trumpets and signal fires to the very words that Jeremiah is speaking, God is warning his people about what is to come, about the army coming from the north to bring disaster upon them. And the reason that this disaster is coming, as we understand by this point in Jeremiah, is because of their sin. Look again at verse 6.

7:15This is the city that must be punished. There is nothing but oppression within her. As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her evil. Violence and destruction are her. Heard within her, sickness and wounds are ever before me. Think about how wicked a city would have to be for someone to say of it truly, there is nothing but oppression within her. I mean, there is oppression in every city, people taking advantage of other people.

7:54But to say that's all that exists in the city, there is nothing but oppression, that is a significant condemnation. Jerusalem is so bad that God says that she keeps fresh her evil. Evil never goes bad, it never gets stale. There are new atrocities committed every single day against God and man in the city of Jerusalem. Go down to verse 13. For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain. And from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

8:46Imagine a city so corrupt that it could be said that everyone, from the poorest to the wealthiest, from the least powerful to the most powerful. Powerful. From the least religious to the most religious, everyone deals falsely. That there is not a single person in the city that you could trust to tell you the truth or to give you a fair deal. It's like what the wise sage Megan Traynor said. If your lips are moving, then you're lying, lying, lying.

9:28Verse 15. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. They did not know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall. At the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord. How do you get to the point where you are not ashamed of sin? It's not something that happens to you overnight. It's a very slow progression to get to the point where you are no longer ashamed of sin.

10:14At first, sin is shocking. Like, I can't believe I just did that. But then sin becomes exciting as you push the bounds of what was previously acceptable. In your own heart and mind. And then sin becomes pleasurable, something that you actively seek out in your life. And then sin becomes necessary because you've become enslaved to it, or as we would say today, addicted to it. And then sin becomes shameless because you can't feel shame about anything in your life that you believe is absolutely necessary.

11:09So sin goes from being shocking to being exciting to being pleasurable to being necessary to being shameless. That's a slow progression over time. That is what happened to Israel. And friends, that is what happens to all of us until God rescues us from the grip of sin by his grace. So God begins and ends with the declaration that Jerusalem must be punished for her sins, which are many. So what will that punishment look like? Join me in verse 9.

11:59Thus, Thus says the Lord of hosts, they shall glean thoroughly as a vine the remnant of Israel. Like a grape gatherer, pass your hand again over its branches. The Babylonian army was going to invade Jerusalem in 605 BC, and then again in 597 B.C. And then again in 586 BC until only the poorest, least powerful people were left in the land. Just like a grape gatherer that goes through the vineyard, a first time and a second time and then a third time to make sure that there are no grapes left on the vine.

12:47Only those that are damaged or weak or useless for any purpose. Take a look at verse 11. Therefore, I am full of the wrath of the Lord. I am weary of holding it in. Pour it out upon the children in the street and upon the gatherings of young men also. Both husband and wife shall be taken, the elderly and the very aged. Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together. For I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, declares the Lord. Look at verse 21.

13:37Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will lay before this people stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble. Fathers and sons together, neighbor and friend shall perish. What a dire situation this is. When the young and the old, men and women, fathers and sons, friends and neighbors, every single member of society is going to feel the wrath of God because of their wickedness. Every person would have his land, his house, his family members taken away. The longest description of this punishment starts in verse 22. Look there.

14:26Thus says the Lord: Behold, a people is coming from the north country. A great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth. They lay hold on bow and javelin. They are cruel and have no mercy. The sound of them is like the roaring sea. They ride on horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion. We have heard the report of it. Our hands fall helpless. Anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in labor.

15:00Go not out into the field, nor walk on the road, for the enemy has a sword. Terror is on every side. O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. Jeremiah's warnings about what is to come upon the people of Judah for their sin are simply terrifying. It is hard to imagine anybody tuning him out when he is saying these things, predicting such destruction and heartache. You would think that the people would listen and they would say, What do we need to do to avert this disaster? What do we need to do to make sure these things don't come to pass on our lives and our families and our land? What must we do? You would think that they would have listened, that they wouldn't have tuned him out. But that is just what the people did. Look at verse 10.

16:10To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn. They take no pleasure in it. If you think back to chapter 4, one of the things that God was saying about his people was that they had uncircumcised hearts. That is, they were going through the religious emotions. They were still saying the right things. They were still doing the right things in the temple. They were going through all the religious motions, but their hearts were not in it. He said their hearts were uncircumcised, even though physically they were circumcised.

17:04And here in verse 10, Jeremiah is lamenting the fact that nobody is listening to him. And he says it's not just their hearts, but their ears that are uncircumcised. Why won't they listen to God's word? Well, he tells us here in verse 10. It's because the word of the Lord has become an object of scorn to them. An object of scorn. They take no pleasure in it. Friends, how many people today, even professing Christians, could have that said about them? That God's Word has become an object of scorn that they take no pleasure in.

17:54Many professing Christians are embarrassed by the Bible, they feel the need to apologize. For it. They feel the need to apologize for God Himself. So a co-worker or a neighbor comes up to them and says, I don't think I could believe in a God who does these things or allows these things. And many of us feel that we have no response to that. The reality is, if you're familiar with the Bible, it's not just one or two passages that cause difficulty. There are dozens upon dozens of passages that cause difficulty for the casual reader.

18:36And so we can often conclude that God is the problem. What he has said and what he has done is the problem. But, friends, if we know ourselves and if we're self-reflective enough to know our own hearts, our own motivations, our own attitudes, if we're willing to allow the word, the entire word of God, to speak for itself, it becomes so clear that it is not God and His words that are the problem. It is us and our assumptions that are the problem.

19:15We believe that we are more righteous than God, that our judgments are always pure and true. That God has no right to hold His own creation accountable. For its never-ending rebellion against him. That if God exists at all, he owes us mercy and grace. God and His Word are not the problem. The problem is us and our assumptions. You cannot take pleasure in God's Word if it becomes an object of scorn. And it becomes an object of scorn when it condemns and confronts a lifestyle that you are unwilling to question or to give up.

20:19Look at verse 19. Here, O earth, behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words, and as for my law, they have rejected it. What is going to happen to the people of Jerusalem? God says they're going to eat the fruit of their own devices. Let that sink in. God is willing to allow. His people to eat the fruit of their own devices. That's been the case since the Garden of Eden. God commanded Adam and Eve, you may eat from any tree that you want to, any tree in this entire garden, but if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die.

21:27But they didn't pay attention to God's words. In fact, when Eve was talking to the serpent, she actually misquoted God's words. Ultimately, they rejected God's word for Satan's word. The temptation to become like God, to assume the ability and the right to determine right and wrong for themselves, it was too much for them. Friends, that temptation was too much for Israel, and it is too much for every one of us. All of us, ever since Adam and Eve, have not paid attention to God's word. We've rejected his law, and we've believed the lie that Satan told Adam and Eve. The lie is that God is holding out on us.

22:23His lie is that the good life, identity, and purpose, and freedom, and Enjoy the good life can only be found by throwing off the oppressive yoke of God and His commands. His lie is that once we unshackle ourselves from God and His burdensome commands, His oppressive rule over our lives, we will truly and finally be free. But, friends, that is not true. None of that is true. It is not true that God and His commands are oppressive.

23:15It is not true that God intends to keep us under a yoke of slavery. It is not true that sin leads to discovering identity and purpose and freedom and joy. None of that is true. Not only does the Bible say that clearly, but we all know that intuitively: that sin does not deliver on its promises. Most all of us have learned that through hard, difficult, heartbreaking experience. So, what I want to do is, I want to draw your attention this morning.

24:00To the heart of God for us. I want you to hear and I want you to feel the heart of God for you and me, which is not to burden us, not to oppress us, not to take away freedom and joy, but to release us from slavery, to release us from our burdens, to give us unending, eternal freedom and joy. I want you to hear God the Father's invitation that is extended to you and to me and to every person on this earth. Look at verse 16.

24:56Thus says the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls. I want to read that again so it can really sink in. Feel free to close your eyes and listen or to follow along in your Bible. Verse 16. Thus Says the Lord. Stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls.

25:57The book of Jeremiah is filled with so many passages where God is warning the people about the consequences of their sin and idolatry that many people conclude that God is only angry about their sin and disobedience. That that is all that God feels towards us is anger because of sin and disobedience. But then you read a verse like verse 16, and God's heart for us is on full display. As a loving father, he is grieved when his children make choices that lead to slavery rather than to freedom, to despair rather than to joy. He does not want that for us.

26:52What does he want for us? What is God's heart for us? He wants us to walk. Walk in the good way, so that we will find rest for our souls. And the good way is the way of faith and obedience, trusting in God and obeying His word, following His lead, living in the way that He has called us to live. Friends, that is the consistent message of the entire Bible. Listen to how Moses says it in Deuteronomy chapter 5. Look on the screen: You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

27:54Listen to how David says it in Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Look at how Jesus says it in Matthew chapter 11. Come to me. All who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

28:55Brothers and sisters, this is God's heart for you and for me. This is what he wants. He wants us to stop thinking that he is not for us. He wants us to stop thinking that his commandments are burdensome. He wants us to stop thinking that he intends to keep us under a yoke of slavery. What God wants is to bless us, to restore us, to give us the rest for our souls that we are trying to find apart from him and apart from his good commands. The ancient paths that, if we walk in them, lead to blessing and peace and abundant life that never ends.

29:44All God's people had to do was to stop long enough to look and to ask. That's all they had to do. Stop long enough to look and to ask for the ancient paths that are outlined in. God's Word. All they had to do was to walk in those paths and they would have found rest for their souls. Friends, that's all any of us have to do is stop and look and ask. Look what Jesus says in Matthew 7.

30:22Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Through Jesus, God invites us to come to Him and find rest. Jesus knew the ancient paths, and unlike us, He walked in them perfectly. He knew peace and rest because He knew no sin. Through faith in His life and death and resurrection, He offers His peace and rest to you and me. He promises to give to any who ask, that He'll open to anyone who knocks. He says, Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

31:32So do that. Come to Jesus seeking and asking and knocking because he will not turn you away. Come to Jesus, the one who walked the ancient paths perfectly for you and me. The one who was tempted in every way just as we are and yet was without sin. The one who willingly laid down his life in our place on the cross and who rose from the grave. Turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus, and you will find rest for your soul.

32:18That is God's heart for us. That was God's heart for his people in Jeremiah's day, and that is his heart for us today. But just look at how the people in Jeremiah's day responded to this invitation. Look at the end of verse 16. But they said, We will not walk in it. That is, they would not walk in the ancient paths. They would not walk in the good way. And that's probably because, as we see back in verse 14, the religious leaders were. Saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

33:06They believed that as long as they continued going through the religious motions, showing up at the temple and offering sacrifices, that God would just overlook their sinful lifestyles. Many people today believe that very same thing: that God is really only concerned with religious practice. That as long as we attend church occasionally, as long as we read our Bibles and pray occasionally, as long as we give to good causes once in a while, then we can live however we want.

33:47Many people think that today. But that is not true. And that has never been true. Look at verse 20. God asks, What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me. That message is not new. God has never been pleased with hypocritical religious practice. We learn that. Immediately in the Bible, in Genesis 4, with Cain and Abel. He has never been okay with hypocritical religious practice. I think that Micah, who prophesied about a hundred years before Jeremiah, sums it up best. Take a look at Micah chapter 6: With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

35:00Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? God is clear. He does not want more sacrifices and more religious obedience in place of obeying his word and trusting in him.

35:49He does not want more religious sacrifice, more religious works in place of obedience and trusting in him. That is such an important thing. Message for us to understand that if we do not obey God, our religious sacrifices are actually offensive to God. But that's what the people of Jeremiah's day were doing. They were offering sacrifices without obedience, they were refusing to walk in the ancient paths that would lead to rest for their souls. So, look what God says to Jeremiah, verse 27.

36:31I have made you a tester of metals among my people, that you may know and test their ways. They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders. They are bronze and iron, all of them acting corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire. In vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed. Rejected silver, they are called, for the Lord has rejected them. God knew the people's hearts and the full extent of their evil, wicked practices.

37:16But Jeremiah did not, and neither did the people themselves. And so God says that Jeremiah's ministry was going to be like the work of a refiner, using his tools to test and To burn away the impurities in a precious metal. That word picture reminds us once again that God's people are precious to Him. But sadly, Jeremiah's work would only reveal their stubborn rebellion and wickedness. It would only reveal that they are silver rejected by God for their refusal to heed His warnings and walk by faith.

38:01In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul writes this: Take a look at the screen: Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test. In Jeremiah's day, his words in his ministry would test the people of Judah and Jerusalem, allowing them to see for themselves what God already knew, and that is the state of their hearts. That same testing was necessary in the first-century church when Paul ministered. And friends, that same testing is necessary today.

38:52We must examine ourselves and test ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. The people of Jesus. Jerusalem made assumptions, deadly assumptions, about their standing with God. We must understand that to tell yourself that God is not going to do anything, that is not going to hold us accountable for our sin against him and against others, to drown out our consciences that are saying peace, peace, when there is no peace, that is deadly. And so we need to heed this warning, to test ourselves and examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. On the night when Jesus was betrayed, he spoke to his disciples one last time. And at the end of the teaching, the disciples said that they believe that he came from God.

39:49And so Jesus concludes in this way: take a look at the screen. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. If you want peace, real, lasting peace with God and with others and with yourself, then there is only one way, and that is coming to Jesus. He offers what the people of Jerusalem refused: rest for your soul. And he secured that rest by walking obediently those ancient paths that you and I have been called to walk, but we have refused to walk our entire lives. He fulfilled every word of God's law. He died the death that we deserve to die, and then rose from the grave, overcoming the very world by which you and I have been overcome.

41:05My friends, God's heart is to give you that rest. But if you want to enter that rest, you cannot turn off notifications. You cannot stop listening to God's warnings to you. If you want that rest, you must heed God's warnings and walk by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you. Let's pray. Father, we confess that in many ways and at many times in our lives, we have turned off notifications.

42:16We have not heeded the warnings that are all over your word about sin and its consequences. We have all eaten the fruit, and we deserve the judgment that comes to those who rebel against you and your word. But, Father, we gather each week to celebrate the fact that you have not treated us as our sins deserve, but instead you sent your only begotten, perfectly obedient Son to walk those ancient paths for us, to not just set an example for us to follow because we couldn't follow the example, but to die in our place and to rise from the grave.

43:14We pray that the Word of God would not become or be an object of scorn for anyone in this room today, but that we would all respond to it through repentance and faith. We pray that some this morning would come. Come to faith in Christ for the first time and be baptized, start following Jesus as a disciple. We pray for all of us who are already Christians that we would believe in our hearts that the ancient paths, the good way that you set before us, is the most beautiful, wonderful, satisfying, loving way that we could possibly walk in this world.

44:00We don't want to obey or worship or serve or give or do anything out of duty. We want to do it out of delight. Delight in you and what you have done. And so give us that delight, God. Thank you for giving us rest for our souls. 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.