Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20041110.htm

JEREMIAH: STAYING UPRIGHT AMIDST EVIL PRESSURES
Part IV: Prophecies Concerning Judah
C. Heeding God's Word Over Competing Views Due To His Infinitely Sovereign Authority
(Jeremiah 4:5-31)
  1. Introduction
    1. Some religious leaders preach that physical intimacy between any two people who love each other even if they are not married as sanctioned by Bible is upright; some assert God wants people of different religious faiths to unite and form a single spiritual fellowship, that God wills that "all His children" come together.
    2. The Bible actually states otherwise: it claims physical intimacy is only for one man and one woman in a permanent marital union (Lev. 18 et al.), and that man is to forsake all other false gods but God, Ex. 20:3.
    3. Lest we wonder which authority to heed, all we need to do is study Jeremiah 4:5-31 as follows:
  2. Heeding God's Word Over Competing Views Due To His Infinitely Sovereign Authority, Jer. 4:5-31.
    1. As we learned in our last lesson, God announced He would punish Judah for her very sexually immoral idolatry (Jer. 3:3-10) by way of a frightening, devastating invasion by Babylonian hordes, Jeremiah 4:5-8.
    2. This event would be so traumatic that Judah's leaders would be terrified, appalled and astounded at the contrast between what they had thought God had planned for them and the arrival of the invasion itself:
      1. Jeremiah predicted the invasion would create fear, shock and astonishment for Judah's leaders, Jer. 4:9.
      2. The reason for this particular response of Judah's leaders is voiced in Jeremiah 4:10 as follows:
        1. Jeremiah 4:10 on the surface appears to attribute to Jeremiah's God the sin of deception in having left the people of Judah thinking they were going to experience God's peace and not His judgment.
        2. Yet, in the rest of the book, we note this message was not what God had given for Jeremiah to proclaim (Jeremiah 1:13-15); rather, such a message came from false prophets, 14:13-14; 28:1-4.
        3. Indeed, God promised to punish these false prophets for thus misleading His people, Jer. 14:15.
        4. Also, Jeremiah 4:10 follows immediately upon the Jeremiah 4:9 prediction that the sinful king, priests and false prophets would experience disillusionment when the Babylonian invasion arrived.
        5. Thus, in Jeremiah 4:10, Jeremiah voiced a soliloquy expressing the disillusionment the priests and false prophets would know when the Babylonian invasion actually happened: their previously having adopted the false view that peace would be theirs would leave them thinking God had been deceptive toward them by allowing the invasion to occur when, in reality, the invasion would only prove how wrong they had been to have adopted the wrong view, Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 1135f.
    3. Regardless of the errant view adopted by the king, priests and false prophets, God's judgment as predicted by His true prophet Jeremiah would so truly, dramatically arrive, it would be clear that God's will all along had been to judge Judah's sin regardless what the nation's leaders had otherwise believed or said, 4:11-13!
    4. Thus, God called Jerusalem through Jeremiah to repent from her errant deeds and views, Jer. 4:14 15-18.
    5. Jeremiah returned to predict the anguish his countrymen would experience in the invasion because of their refusal to repent and come to discern and heed God's truths and righteous ways, Jeremiah 4:19-21, 22.
    6. Finally, Jeremiah gave insight into the effects of God's future judgment: its resulting havoc would remind men of the formless and void state of the earth in Genesis 1 before God began to create, Jer. 4:23, 24-29.
    7. At that time, some Hebrews in Judah would try to impress the Babylonians by donning decorative clothes as their only line of defense, an effort that would pitifully fail before the Babylonian hordes, Jer. 4:30-31.
Lesson: Though Judah's leaders had PERSUADED others and even THEMSELVES that God would give them peace as they FAKED repentance from immoral idolatry (Jer. 3:6-10), and though the false prophets had even often proclaimed this same errant belief (Jer. 14:13; 28:1-4), the true God Who said OTHERWISE was INFINITELY SOVEREIGN, so only GREAT judgment would come upon Judah!

Application: (1) Thus, regardless how much similar beliefs are promoted in OUR era, the physical union of parties who are not wed as SCRIPTURE permits it and the union of false religious beliefs and practices with God's truth and true fellowship are both just as SINFUL TODAY as they were in JEREMIAH'S day, and they will be as surely PUNISHED by God since HE in His INFINITE SOVEREIGNTY has SAID so! (2) Since GOD is the SOLE, INFINITELY SOVEREIGN Lord, there is no escaping our need TODAY to trust and heed HIS Word above all OTHER views to the CONTRARY!