Or the words in that song: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.” How that is within our hearts in a very natural way. We are just prone to go our own way.
But Lord, we are thankful for Your great love, that You came and sought us out—not just one time, but daily You seek us. Daily You woo us back to Yourself.
Lord, as we return unto You now with hearts of thanksgiving and praise, we are thankful that You win us over through Your love. You win us over by speaking to us in Your Word. We are thankful You have given us Your Word. We are thankful You have given us the Holy Spirit.
We come and humble ourselves before You today, that, Lord, You would be able to touch each one of our hearts in a very fresh way. Lord, that we would be truly fixed upon You, fixed upon that mount of Thy redeeming love.
And Lord, the issue of wandering could be settled once and for all within all of our hearts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
I would like for us to turn this morning to the prophet Jeremiah. Let us turn to Jeremiah 1.
We will look at the first three verses. This really sets the scene and defines the scope of this prophecy.
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah,
in the thirteenth year of his reign.
It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah,
unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah,
unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.—Jeremiah 1:1-3
These verses show us the time frame for Jeremiah’s prophecies. Roughly, Jeremiah prophesied for a little over forty years. The key thing we can remember about Jeremiah was that he was the Word of the Lord to Judah before they went into captivity.
The Lord, in His great love, kept crying out to the people to return unto Him. He used Jeremiah in a great way to deliver many of His messages.
Now let us turn over to Jeremiah 7. We are not going to look at the whole book of Jeremiah. We want to consider one specific message, and I think, as we read it and see these verses, it will apply to us today.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say,
Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.—Jeremiah 7:1-2
Jeremiah was called to deliver the Word of the Lord, but to whom was he called to deliver it? To those who came and entered to worship the Lord.
I think that brings it home to each and every one of us. Yes, it was a message for those during Jeremiah’s time who were gathering to worship, but it is a message for us in these days as we have a heart to worship the Lord.
Now we want to take a few moments and set the background and setting for the book of Jeremiah. Last week, we know that Kenny shared on Malachi. It was God’s last word in the Old Testament, and it was God’s cry of love to His people.
He cried out because, in Malachi, we saw how the people were deceived. They did not really know their own condition. But that did not stop God from loving them. It did not stop God from speaking to them. In His great love, He cried out to them to wake up and return, to bring back the reality of His life within their midst.
Thankfully, we know there were a few who responded, who gathered together in fellowship. But most did not respond.
We know that the book of Malachi was written to those who had returned from Babylonian captivity. But was this call in Malachi—to wake up and return to His great love—the first time the Lord had spoken to them in such a way? Actually, it was not.
As we look at Jeremiah, we see many of the same and similar messages, the cries of the Lord’s heart to His people. Jeremiah prophesied about two hundred years before Malachi. He prophesied, as we said, right before the nation of Judah, the kingdom of Judah, was taken into Babylonian captivity.
In Jeremiah, we see the cry of the Lord’s heart to wake the people of God up. Tragically, though, not many responded, and they were led away into captivity.
It is very sad how they did not respond because, if those during the time of Jeremiah would have reflected back about one hundred years before, they would have remembered the word of the Lord to the northern kingdom, the nation of Israel.
The Lord had warned that, if the people did not respond, they would be taken captive. The northern kingdom did not respond, and they were taken away into Assyrian captivity. Here was the nation of Judah in that same condition, with the Word of the Lord crying out to them in the same way. Tragically, they did not respond either.
The people of God did not recognize their true condition. They thought they were okay. They thought they were walking in the reality of all that God had shown them. But in fact, they were only in a shadow, only in a façade.
How that speaks to our hearts today. We have to ask ourselves: What is our condition? What is our condition today? Are we really satisfied with our personal life? Are we really satisfied with our family life, our corporate life?
But really, even more than that, the real question is: Is God satisfied? We can become satisfied because we have such a low standard, but is God’s heart satisfied?
As you look throughout the history of Israel, the early church, and church history, the people of God have a tendency to become satisfied, settle down, and enter into ritualism and formalism. We miss the very life the Lord has called us to enter into, yet we think we are okay.
But praise God, in His great love and mercy, He speaks again and tries to wake us up.
We remember recently, too, how Brother Stephen shared on the new covenant, both its life and its ministry. The key within that was how intensely intimate that personal relationship with the Lord is.
The Lord is calling us back to enter into this daily, personal, intimate relationship with Him—not settling for just the traditions, rituals, and formalism that we can so easily fall into.
This matter of new covenant life and ministry is a heart issue. It is an intimate, inward issue within our hearts. It is not a mental apprehension or comprehension of the new covenant and its teachings. The Lord is after our hearts. He has always been after our hearts, and He is after our hearts today.
When we remember what our brother shared on the new covenant, that is found in Hebrews 8. But where was it shared before then? It was shared through the prophet Jeremiah.
It was shared by the prophet Jeremiah because, as we have said, that has always been the Lord’s heart: that we enter into this, and that we could have that relationship with the Lord in a very personal way.
There are many prophecies throughout Jeremiah that are really hard. Kenny talked about how difficult Malachi is. Jeremiah is in the same boat.
Jeremiah’s call from the Lord was, “Jeremiah, you are to pluck up. You are to break down. You are to destroy. But you are also to build up.”
Our God, even though He comes in and takes away all that is not of Him, is in the end a God of hope and restoration, desiring to restore everything. Yes, He points out to us what is not of Him, but He does not stop at just the negative side.
He brings in what is upon His heart, that we would be built up together, planted, rooted, and grounded in the Lord, that we can grow together in Him. This is the hope we have within Jeremiah, and this is what the Lord has always had.
If we look throughout the Scripture, we started this morning in Genesis, how the Lord was, even after Adam had sinned, there seeking. The Lord was seeking. Today, brothers and sisters, the Lord is still seeking.
What is He seeking? He is seeking that relationship with us—an intimate, personal relationship with each and every one of us.
Throughout time, God has been singing to us a marvelous love song: a love song to come unto Him; a love song of returning unto Him; a love song of repenting, amending our ways, and following Him into a full and glorious experience of all that He has.
As we look at Jeremiah, particularly this seventh chapter, we see how it applies to us. We have been reminded recently, too, how 1 Corinthians 10 speaks of how these things in the Old Testament were written for our instruction, or for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
That word admonition has a double meaning. It is there to encourage us, but it is also there to warn us, to wake up. Praise God for the encouragement we have in the Lord, but He is also there to warn us—to beware, to look back, and to learn from history.
We have such a natural tendency to wander. But if our eyes are fixed upon the King, if our eyes are fixed upon the Lord, He keeps us steadfast, steady, and sure.
We are so thankful for Jeremiah’s prophecies because, in Jeremiah, we see one who was faithful. Even though people did not respond much to his ministry, he continued faithful.
As we said, Jeremiah prophesied for about forty years before the captivity. This was really one generation. He continued to be the voice of the Lord to a generation.
Yes, there was pending judgment, but there was always, throughout the prophecy, a way of escape: if we would simply return unto Him.
When we think of God’s love, we are so thankful that we remembered God’s love at His table. But in the heart of God, in that heart of love, we see also that love produces sorrow. He loves us so much that there is sorrow at times.
Because of His love, He is a jealous God. Because of His love, sometimes He brings in judgment. But the judgment of God is not to the end. The judgment of God is that we would forsake our ways, return unto Him, and be restored into the fullness of what He is after.
Because we are those who are here at the end of this age, when we speak about judgment, we are not speaking of the great white throne. As believers, we know that we have been delivered from that. It is not a judgment unto eternal death.
What we are speaking of is what 2 Corinthians 5 speaks of: how all believers must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to give account of the actions we have done in relation to our rewards in that coming kingdom.
The Lord is so jealous for us that we would be made ready, that He could be working within our hearts and lives, that we would be that testimony He desires us to be. So may we wake up and really hear what the Spirit is saying in this day and this time.
Let us look again at Jeremiah 7 and see the conditions of the people. We will consider Jeremiah 7:1-11.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say,
Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings;
if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
if ye oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow,
and shed not innocent blood in this place,
neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:
then will I cause you to dwell in this place,
in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore.Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely,
and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that ye have not known,
and come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name,
and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations?
Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith the Lord.—Jeremiah 7:1-11
It does not take much insight to recognize that the people here were in pretty bad condition. This is a really tough word. The Lord even uses the word abominations as He describes the condition of the people of God.
But what was going on in the kingdom of Judah at this time? Let us look back, just for a moment, to the historical book of 2 Chronicles—2 Chronicles 34 and 35.
We see that Josiah was king. The Lord comments concerning Josiah that he did right in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of his father David. Josiah was one of those good kings, and praise the Lord.
Josiah had such a heart, and he started repairing the temple. As we continue in 2 Chronicles 34, we see that they discovered the Book of the Law. They brought the Book of the Law to Josiah and began reading it to him.
What was his response? Look at 2 Chronicles 34:19:
And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.
—2 Chronicles 34:19
He was immediately brought to a place of repentance, immediately brought back to what was upon God’s heart, to get in that right place.
Praise God, he continued on, and they started clearing out the land of idols and all the things that had been built to serve other gods. There was a cleansing and a purging that Josiah did.
Finally, in 2 Chronicles 35, it speaks of how the Passover was restored. It was such a grand Passover that it had not been celebrated in such a way since the days of Samuel.
So, if you look at the historical books of 2 Chronicles 34 and 35, everything looks great. There were great religious ceremonies going on. There were great celebrations going on. But if you look at Jeremiah 7, everything is in a terrible condition.
There is a great contrast here. What was going on? Brothers and sisters, there was a great contrast between the outward and the inward reality.
There was a great outward show, with a great many religious ceremonies going on. But what was God looking at? God was looking at the heart.
We praise the Lord for Josiah. Josiah the king had a heart for the Lord in his house, and we are thankful for that. But because of his kingly position, many of the things the people went through were simply in obedience to Josiah. The Lord had not captured their hearts.
They were just going through many outward motions. They were putting up an outward show. There was not a reality that had come within them.
So God, in His great love, spoke into the hearts of the people of Judah and Jerusalem: “You need to wake up. I am not looking for all this outward show. What I am looking for is a heart that will be after Me, a heart that will be after My interests.”
Oh, how we can be so impressed and so led astray at times by what goes on outwardly. We say, “Wow, that must be great. God must really be in it.” But when we see the Word of the Lord through Jeremiah, what is He looking at from His perspective?
Would the Lord adjust our perspective, to see things from His way and not from the outward way of man?
As we go back to Jeremiah 7, we see this cry of the Lord to the people in Judah and Jerusalem. Remember, it is a cry of love. He is wanting to win them back to Himself.
In Jeremiah 7:3-4, He says, “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.” There is a need of repentance. There is something that is not right there.
He says, “Do not trust in these deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’” He is repeating the words they were using.
They were saying all the right words. The words they were saying were right. Praise God for the temple of the Lord that is being built. But it was not within their hearts, and it was a deceptive word.
Now, with this deception, who was being deceived? God was not being deceived. They were being deceived. They were in a delusion. They did not know their condition.
They thought that, by going through all this outward ritual, all this outward ceremony, and saying certain words, everything was okay. But God was looking at the heart.
Brothers and sisters, how about ourselves? As the Lord comes and searches us, are we just using the right words, or is there an inward reality?
Do we go around just talking about God’s eternal purpose, God’s eternal purpose; the testimony of Jesus, the testimony of Jesus; the headship of Christ, the headship of Christ? Praise God for the reality of each of those.
But is it simply something on our lips? Or are the words coming from our hearts and impacting our lives?
The words that these ones in Jeremiah uttered had absolutely no impact upon their lives. When we speak about God’s eternal purpose, is it impacting our lives? Does it affect the choices we are making?
When we speak about the testimony of Jesus and are thankful for that, is it impacting the choices we make as we go through the week? Or is it just something we utter?
We can learn phrases that make us appear very religious and very spiritual, but it is the reality in our hearts every day that matters.
This is the Word of the Lord in these last days. Oh, the Lord is trying to wake us up. On Wednesday nights, we have been using this phrase over and over again: “Wake us up.”
We do not want to fall into the temptation of just using that as a phrase: “Wake me up, Lord. Wake me up.” We can learn to say that and think everything is okay.
No, we want it to be a genuine cry of our hearts—that, in the days in which we are living, God would really be able to work the inward reality within us.
May the Holy Spirit search us in a fresh way. Would we have an honest heart that would grant the Holy Spirit the right to work within us, to separate that which is of Him from that which is not of Him?
Then we could be the people of God for whom He is jealous. This is the heart of His jealousy: for His own life to be expressed among the people in Jerusalem and Judah. The Lord is jealous for His life to be expressed today.
Not just the outward form and outward words. May He really capture us in this.
He continues with the second cry in Jeremiah 7:8-10. He says again, “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.” They are not doing you any good. They are not profiting you anything.
“Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery?” At first, we can say, “Oh, we do not do that.” But let us reflect back on our study of the Sermon on the Mount. Look at those words from the perspective of what we have studied there. It comes back to our hearts. It is a heart issue.
Then they would come and stand before the Lord in the house called by His name and say, “We are delivered,” that they might do all these abominations.
Again, they were going through all these actions. They were doing their own thing. Then, when it was time, they would just go into the house of God and say, “Praise God, we are forgiven. Everything is okay.”
Do we fall into that same trap? Remember, brothers and sisters, as we come to the Lord’s table on Sunday, for example, are we in that right place before Him?
Remember how Kenny shared last week from Malachi that one of the things with which the Lord challenged them was how they had defiled His table with things of no value, with leftovers, with whatever else. It was a defiling of the table, but they thought it was okay. They were in such deception.
Would the Lord wake us up? We are so thankful for the Lord, that His blood does forgive us of all our sins.
We can have our sins forgiven, but are our lives bringing glory to Him? Thank the Lord that, as we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive them. But as we come into His presence, are our lives bringing glory and honor to Him?
Do we just rush in? Can we do whatever we want to do and then suddenly pray some quick prayer for forgiveness and say, “I am okay. I am delivered”?
What are we trusting in, brothers and sisters? Has the reality of this table that we take every Lord’s Day—the price that the Lord paid, the cost of it, the necessity of it—captured our hearts? Or has it become only a ritual and formalism through which we go?
Would there be that freshness? I have to confess, in my own self, that at times we can grow dull. We need that reviving. But praise God, as we come and see that table, and the Holy Spirit touches our heart, even in the midst of our condition, the Lord can bring forth that spirit of worship and adoration, of truly remembering Him.
What words are we trusting in? What deceptive words? Do we just say, “Oh, I am baptized. I am okay. I go to all the meetings. I am okay. I go to church every Sunday. I am okay. I am going to the conference. I am okay”?
Let us allow the Holy Spirit to search us. Let us be honest, allowing Him to search our hearts in a way that we would not trust in deceptive words. Again, we are only deceiving ourselves.
When we talk about the Lord searching us, if we saw how much He loved us, we would want Him to search us. If we saw His great love, we would present ourselves unto Him as a living sacrifice every day, captured by that love.
He has such a love. He desires to search us out because He desires to bring many sons to glory. He desires that the Bride would be made ready.
Brothers and sisters, the greatest work that the Holy Spirit does is transforming us into the image of His beloved Son. But He will not do it without our permission and our cooperation.
Are we cooperating with Him, or are we hindering Him? As the Lord cries out to us, would we be those found cooperating with the Lord and with the Holy Spirit within us, that we would say, “Not I, but Christ”?
As a result of their actions, the Lord speaks to them in Jeremiah 7:11 and tells them what the house has become:
Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith the Lord.—Jeremiah 7:11
This house, which is called by My name, has become a robber’s den. Now, what does this mean? Does it simply mean that within the house of God there were only thieves and robbers, that it was a place of refuge for them? No.
To me, what this speaks of is that the people of God had robbed God of His glory within His house. They had robbed Him of His rightful place within His house by doing their own things.
Remember when our Lord was upon this earth? At the beginning of the Gospels, He referred to it as “My temple.” At the end of the Gospels, how did He refer to it? He said, “Your temple.” It is known by your name. It is not known by My name.
Whose name are we known by? Are we robbing God of His glory within His house? Are we really allowing the Lord to manifest the fullness of all that He desires within our house?
If we ask honestly whether we have robbed God of His glory, we have to answer, yes. In our weakened condition, He is not getting all that He desires.
But praise God, He still speaks to us. He does not throw us out. He sends a Word of God so that we can return unto Him and amend our ways, that His glory would be restored.
How thankful we are that He never gives up. May we continue to amend our ways. May we continue in a spirit of repentance before Him, that He could really be drawing us back to all that is upon His heart.
May there be a fuller expression of His life amongst us in the days in which we are living. How jealous He is for that.
Would the jealousy of God capture our hearts, that we in a similar way would follow Him and put aside all the vain things, all the things we think are of value but which are vanity of vanities?
How we want to be those pursuing Him in this hour, counting for Him as His return draws near.
How did the people of God get into this condition? How did they ever get in this condition? If you look later in Jeremiah 7, down in Jeremiah 7:23-26, we find the answer.
But this thing commanded I them, saying,
Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people;
and walk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear,
but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart,
and went backward, and not forward.Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day,
I have sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
yet they hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear,
but made their neck stiff, and did worse than their fathers.—Jeremiah 7:23-26
They ended up in this condition because they were not responding to and obeying the Word of God. God, in His great faithfulness, was sending His Word. He was sending His prophets. He was sending out the very Word that would lead them into the fullness of all that He desired for that nation to be.
Yet they did not listen. They continued to do their own thing, pursuing their own interests every day.
It is interesting throughout the book of Jeremiah that this phrase about the prophet rising early and being sent out occurs nine or ten times, depending on the translation. The Lord consistently sends forth His Word.
We see the Lord every day sending His Word to us. But are we receiving His Word? Tragically, these ones continued, and they did not receive it.
Even more tragically, when our Lord came upon this earth, it was a similar condition. We know throughout the Jewish synagogues that the Scripture and the prophets were read every Sabbath. Year after year, the Scriptures were read.
We can remember when our Lord went into one of the synagogues and read from Isaiah how He had come to set the captives free. He was reading the prophets. People were hearing it, but they were not getting it. They were hearing the words, but they were not allowing them to come into their hearts.
Paul testified in Acts 13:27:
For they that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not,
nor the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath,
fulfilled them by condemning Him.—Acts 13:27
They did not recognize Him. The Word of the Lord was read every Sabbath. The word of the prophets went out every Sabbath, but they were not recognizing it. How tragic it was.
They heard the Word, but the voice of the Lord was not penetrating their heart. How easy it is, brothers and sisters, for us to hear words. But is the voice of the Lord coming and capturing our hearts?
Today, are we simply those who hear words and learn to repeat certain words? Or are we allowing the voice of the Lord to speak with liberty and freedom within our hearts and in our lives?
Are we deluded into thinking that, just because we hear something, we have got it? There is a transaction that needs to take place.
Praise God, in this day there is freedom. We hear many words, but are they really coming and capturing our hearts? Is the voice of the Lord coming into us and really penetrating us?
When was the last time that we heard the voice of the Lord speak to us? When was the last time that we really had that personal touch and encounter with the Lord in a very living way through His Word, the Holy Spirit expanding that Word?
Would we take the time, brothers and sisters, to hear that still, small voice that is crying out to us in these last days?
As I was meditating on this, I was reminded of the conference coming up in three weeks. Recently, I have really been convicted as I have been reading through Jeremiah and seeing the condition of the people.
I have been to probably all except a couple of the conferences. I was not there at the very first ones in Roslyn, but I started going in Nashville, then from Richmond to Farmville.
As I was reflecting upon it, I was greatly convicted. I have heard so much of the Word of God.
The Lord, in His mercy, has spoken to me many times over many years, at that particular conference and in other places too. He has spoken through various vessels.
Being the accountant that I am, I put on one side of the ledger all the words that I have heard. Then I look on the other side—the life and reality being expressed.
I just have to fall on my knees for mercy because it is not even close to a balance. When I see the condition of my life in comparison to what the Lord has shared with me over the years, I worship the Lord for His long-suffering and His patience.
I would have given up on me a long time ago. After five or six conferences, He could have said, “Mac, I spoke to you all those things, and yet where is the reality in your life? I spoke to you all these things. Where is the reality in your life?”
I come up short. But I am thankful the Lord does not give up on me. In that love song, He continues to cry out to us, and we have another opportunity.
We have an opportunity every Lord’s Day. I have an opportunity every day to hear that voice and allow it to become reality within us.
Would there be a fervent desire within all of our hearts not merely to go to a conference or to any meeting and gain something, but to go and be captured by His heart and by His Word, that it would bring forth much fruit?
If I look at what the Lord has shared over the years and the fruit it should have brought forth, I am a barren land.
But I thank the Lord: He continues to speak and to love me all the way to the uttermost. May He continue to work in all of our hearts.
If we only hear words but not the voice of the Lord, we end up like those in Jeremiah. We end up like those in Malachi. We end up like those in Laodicea. We do not want to be those. We want to be all that He has for us.
As Jeremiah was sharing these words, what was his response? One of the things you see so emphatically in Jeremiah’s life is that the message and the messenger were one.
Jeremiah was not just a robot who stood up and spoke words from the Lord. The Word of God was within him. This was not easy.
Imagine Jeremiah, a young man at this time, having to go into the temple and say these things to all the people as they were going through this great celebration. Here he was saying, “It is all vanity. All your words are vanity. They are deceptive words.”
Was it easy on him? Oh, no. Look at Jeremiah 8:18:
Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow!
My heart is faint within me.—Jeremiah 8:18
And Jeremiah 9:1:
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!—Jeremiah 9:1
What was Jeremiah’s response? It was a broken heart. Jeremiah did not elevate himself above the people. He did not look down upon the people. He did not judge the people. He did not condemn the people.
He wept for the people of God. He was in mourning for them. He was trembling for them. This is why Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet.
He was not weeping for himself, but he was weeping for God’s interests. We go through things, and we weep for ourselves. But Jeremiah was weeping for God’s vested interest among His people.
May the Lord give us the heart of a Jeremiah in this day. As we look upon ourselves and as we look around at the people of God, when was the last time that we wept over our condition?
When was the last time we wept or trembled over the condition of the house of God? When was the last time we wept or trembled over the general condition of the people of God in this country and throughout the earth?
If we are captured by His heart, we will understand why Jeremiah wept. Jeremiah knew the Lord in that intimate, personal way. He knew the Lord’s heart was broken.
He knew the jealousy and sorrow within the Lord’s heart for a testimony to shine bright. He was weeping for the Lord’s interests, that they could be recovered among the people of God.
Would we be those weeping for God’s interests to be recovered in these last days?
With all these discouraging things, praise God, our God is a God of hope. Remember how we said at the beginning that Jeremiah’s prophecy was to pluck up and break down, to destroy and overthrow. But his ministry did not stop there.
It was also to build and to plant—to build up and to plant, to bring about restoration. As you look throughout many of the prophecies, there is much plucking up and breaking down going on. But God is not interested merely in that. He is interested in restoration.
He is a God of hope. He is a God of promise. He is a God of recovery and restoration, that He could have all that He desires.
We have a great promise. If we look around and see our true condition, we have read in Matthew how He says:
I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
—Matthew 16:18
We may ask, “How can that be?” He is the God of restoration. Praise God for that. He is going to recover.
Look over at Jeremiah 31. We are not going to examine the whole chapter, but go back and read it. We see in this chapter a beautiful promise of God.
The key word within this chapter is I will, and it is God speaking. In Jeremiah 31:3, He says, “I have loved you.” In Jeremiah 31:4, “I will build.” In Jeremiah 31:23, “I will restore.” In Jeremiah 31:28, “I will watch over and build and plant.” In Jeremiah 31:31, “I will make a new covenant.” In Jeremiah 31:33, “I will put the law in their heart.”
The Lord is jealous for His love to come into our hearts. He is jealous that His house would be built. He is jealous for us to enter into this new covenant.
He is simply asking us to yield to His Holy Spirit so that He could do the work He desires to do.
As we have been sharing this morning, the burden is that we would not merely go through outward motions. We would not merely use words and end up as in Jeremiah, Malachi, or Laodicea.
But maybe we are already there. Maybe we are in that condition.
Praise God, brothers and sisters, even if we are in the condition of the saints in Jeremiah, even if we are in the condition of those in Malachi, even if we are in the condition of those in Laodicea, God is still speaking and crying out.
He spoke to those in Jeremiah. He spoke to those in Malachi. He spoke to those in Laodicea.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
—Revelation 2:7
That hearing is not merely outward hearing. It is the hearing of the heart, that the Holy Spirit would really be able to do all that He desires.
Brothers and sisters, once the Lord touched all of our hearts, He wanted us to leave the Babylonian captivity of a religious environment and return to the simplicity and purity of our devotion to Him.
There are many testimonies of how, at some point in time, the Lord said, “I want you to leave this religious system. I want you to leave this captivity. I want you to return to a simplicity and purity of your devotion to Me.”
But have we drifted backward? Have we drifted backward?
Praise God, even if we have drifted backward—and I think many of us would agree that we have—the Lord still calls us. He still speaks to us. He says, “There is a way. I am the way. Return unto Me.”
“Amend your ways. Return unto Me, and I will do a great work. I have loved you.”
So often we get into conditions, and the first thing the enemy says is, “God does not love you. He has given up on you.” No. If we really know the Word of God, we know that God does not give up.
He has loved us to the uttermost, and He is loving us to the uttermost. Every day He is seeking us out. Every day He is sending His Word. Daily, He is rising and sending forth the Word of the Lord.
Are we hearing that voice? Are we responding to it and allowing it to really draw us unto Himself?
We have been fellowshipping among the brothers on this matter of spiritual responsibility. Spiritual response is the place of spiritual responsibility.
We are those who spiritually respond to the voice of the Lord. That spiritually responding to the voice of the Lord is not a mental exercise, but it is a heart issue.
I think all of us pray that we would really allow the Lord to search our hearts, that we would have an honest heart before Him, giving Him the freedom to bring us to the place He wants for us.
Because we are not satisfied. I am not satisfied where I am. I know there is much more, and I want to come into that.
May the Lord show us how to come into the fuller expression of His life in these last days, that we might be those who hasten His return.
There is that hymn which says, “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene.”
Lord, when Your spotlight shines upon our condition, we do fall away. But Lord, when You touch us with Your love, You raise us up.
Jeremiah, in the beginning, tried to get out of being that prophet. But You won him over. You gave him a precious promise: “I am with you. I will never leave you or forsake you.”
Lord, we are so thankful that we have that promise made real within our hearts. We are thankful, Lord, that You will never leave us. You will not forsake us.
Lord, would we, in a very fresh way, allow Your Holy Spirit to work within us, that You would find a place where You could dwell?
That You could find a place called by Your name, that it would not be called by our name, but that You would find a home—a habitation fit for You—among the people of God.
In Thy name we pray. Amen.