God's Justice and Mercy

How are you guys doing? Good morning. OK. How's it going, everybody?

It's good to see you guys. Sorry, we're starting a little, man, we're 5 minutes late. So can you guys give me an extra 5 minutes? OK, all right.

Well, I hope you guys had a good week in the Lord. This is gonna be I'd like to say this is gonna be fun, but reading through Jeremiah's, I wouldn't necessarily describe it as fun, right? It's, Jeremiah is a tough book. but there's some really good stuff here that the Lord has for us.

Let's go ahead and pray and we'll, we'll jump into things. Lord, we thank you so much for your kindness each day. thank you for your kindness to us this day. We pray that your name would be hallowed in our hearts.

And in this church. we know that you are the God of the universe, you're the God of history. Your name will be exalted. It is being exalted even though there are people all around the world that deny you and reject you.

But we know that every, every person will bow, every time we confess, Lord Jesus, that you are Lord. And so we pray, Father, that we would be those that would be on the right side of history, as it were, not by our own knowledge and works and pride, but by your grace. Lord, may you look upon us like you looked upon Zacchaeus. May you command us to follow you and come to our house.

Lord, we ask that you would just open up our eyes to your word. we pray that you'd, that the things that we study today would be fodder for the Holy Spirit. not just for this day, but as we move throughout the week that you bring these things back to mind for the good of our souls. In Christ's name we pray.

Amen. All righty. So part of what we're gonna do, let me grab my glasses here. I think I left him.

struggling with this prescription. It's, these are like transition lenses where there's supposed to be a certain prescription down below and another prescription when you look up. It just doesn't seem like it's working that well. I think I'm gonna go back to the bifocals.

It's like some of you guys are blurry and some of you guys are in, in, we'll figure it out. All right, so the big thing that we're gonna be talking about this morning is where do idols come from? Where do idols come from? There's a lot about idols in the book of Jeremiah, but let's do a little bit of review.

Before we start taking a look at Jeremiah. You guys know that we're in a particular quarter of our Answers Bible curriculum. Today, we're talking about God warns Judah. Next week, we'll actually be talking, looking at the actual judgment of Judah with Nebuchadnezzar coming down and whatnot.

And so, let's, let's just talk about what we covered the last few weeks with the various prophets. So, last several lessons, we've looked at the prophecies delivered about the coming Messiah. We looked at Micah a couple of weeks ago. We looked at Isaiah last week, both delivering messages to Israel and Judah.

And, and, and they're offering hope, but they're offering hope in the midst of fear, and there is something to be afraid of is because these prophets are prophesying of doom to come. And. And so, we've also, we've already talked about the fall of Samaria, 721 BC. After Syria conquers Israel, Assyria themselves are conquered by the Babylonians 626 BC.

And so today, we're gonna be moving forward. And looking, folks on Judah after the fall of Israel and the power of the Assyrian Empire. and let's go ahead and open up to Jeremiah chapter one and just get a feel for the opening of his book. He's actually starting his prophecies during the time of Josiah.

Is Josiah considered a good king or a bad king? Yeah, so he's considered a good king. He actually accomplishes some pretty amazing reforms. And so there is.

There are people who definitely come back to Yahweh and are following Yahweh. but as we're going to see this morning, while the nation conformed, we see evidence that much of that conformity was outward conformity, it was pretense. So, It's always good to have a good king, and it's wonderful to see God's judgment delayed. but it's also possible for people to live underneath a good king in pretense only.

i.e. Jesus Christ when he reigns on the earth for 1000 years. When Jesus Christ reigns on the earth for 1000 years in the future, People are living under perfect conditions with the best, most benevolent dictator anybody could ever ask for. And what happens at the end of 1000 years?

There's a rebellion against Jesus Christ himself. And so, so what that demonstrates to us that even when everything looks good on the outside, there can still be idolatry in the heart, even in the millennium, where people are willing to join themselves with the devil. They're not questioning whether God exists. There he is sitting on the throne in Jerusalem.

And yet there's still this depravity in the heart of man where they rise up and rebel against Christ. But let's look, let's look at Jeremiah chapter one. And. And then we'll ask a couple questions here.

Chapter one, starting in verse 1, the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anithoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah. king of Judah until the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the 5th month. So we start with Josiah and his prophecies end when?

Yeah, so Jeremiah is prophecy all the way up until the time that Nebuchadnezzar comes down and basically takes them captive and carries them away. So with Jeremiah, we see a guy who's up to this point, we've seen several prophets who have prophesized. But this is a prophet that actually prophesized, and then he is alive when the doom comes, and he is actually carried off into captivity with the rest. Of Judah, and I'll notice his response in verse 4.

This passage had a tremendous impact on me when I was younger. then the word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born, I sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. So I knew you before you were even born, and this is, I even gave you your job description before you were born.

Jeremiah's response, oh Lord God, behold, I cannot speak. I am a youth. I'm, I'm too young. How can I go and do, and do the work that you're calling me to do?

But the Lord said to me, do not say I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and he said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations, over the kingdoms to do.

Several different things to root out, pull down, destroy, throw down. How'd you like to have that job description? Jeremiah, you're gonna go and you're gonna be, your nickname is gonna be the Big Bummer. Right?

As soon as you walk into a room, everybody's like, oh no, Jeremiah is here. And he's, so he's prophesying stuff of destruction and throwing down, but not just that, to build into the plant. And we see that, don't we, in Jeremiah. And then he sees a couple of different images.

He sees an olive branch, and then he sees in verse 13, a boiling pot that is facing away from the north. And the Lord begins to prophesy through Jeremiah of this boiling pot, this hot destruction that is coming down. From the north, we know, historically that that's Babylon. And so let's ask a couple of questions of this guy.

Does anyone know the nickname that is often given to Jeremiah? The weeping prophet, the weeping prophet. So you, as you read through the book of Jeremiah and you read through Lamentations, which is also written by him, you just see, he's got a job that nobody would really sign up for this job, right? When you send your kids to college, you don't send them to college hoping that they will become the weeping prophet.

and that Jeremiah, that's his job is to just basically tell Judah, it is too late. Judgment is coming whether you like it or not. And yet, there is a hope way down in the future, God is still merciful, but you need to just get ready for the judgment, repent, it's still gonna come even though you repent, but God is looking for your heart. And so he has to deliver all this stuff.

So, yeah, he's the weeping prophet. this moniker is appropriate. He's, was constantly harassed for his proclamations. It's caused repentance, including being thrown into a well in prison.

And I don't know if you guys remember later in Jeremiah, even like one of the manuscripts of his prophecies is thrown into the fire. And then the Lord just gives all the prophecy back to him again, and it's rewritten. And so, that's, that's the job of, of Jeremiah. And interestingly, King Josiah had brought about many reforms and restored proper worship and teaching to Judah and Jerusalem.

And so we see Josiah's work upheld. And, but when we look at Jeremiah, we see that the whole country had not repented. There had been some outward conformity, definitely some revival in certain hearts, but not enough to turn back the wrath of Almighty God. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at Several different passages of scripture in Jeremiah.

We're gonna compare them to some other passages in the New Testament. And the big question that we're gonna be asking is, is, we already, we've already let the cat out of the bag that God is judging them for idolatry. So we're gonna be asking how, where does idolatry come from? Is idolatry just something that people struggled with in the past, or is idolatry something that hits us today?

So, let's open up, let's turn the page to chapter 2. We're gonna look at 2. verses 4 and following. We're gonna read several different scripture passages in succession, make some comments.

And And some observations. So it's a, a survey of some of the early prophecies of Jeremiah. So, chapter 2, let's start in verse 4. I'm reading from a New King James.

Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord What injustice have your fathers found in me? That they have gone far from me, have followed idols and have become idolaters. Neither did they say, where is the Lord?

Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, to a land of drought and the shadow of death, to a land that no one crossed and where no one dwelt. Who is, what have I done to bring about this type of reaction from you? You can feel just the, the, the heart of a frustrated father. This is a father, Yahweh, who brought Israel out of Egypt, provided for their every need in a barren wasteland in the desert.

And brings them into the land, kicks people out of the land that were desecrating the land, and then they begin to go follow. The perversity of the people that were in the land. And if, if you've been with us for a while, that idol worship comes with all kinds, this isn't just people innocently bowing down to idols or pulling out little, little idols from their pocket to look at like their, a picture of their family. This brings with it sexual perversion that would be rated X.

I couldn't really talk about everything that went on at these various Worship services, but you already know that it involved fornication, adultery, many child prostitutes were requested of these gods of bail and so on. And so, just imagine yourself as a father. You've done everything that you can for your children. And, and not only do they not appreciate it, but they go out and they hang out with the exact opposite of the type of people that you've trained them to hang out with, and they begin to participate in all of the depravity that you've warned them of since they were like in the womb.

And you've tried to encourage them to follow the Lord, you've tried to encourage them in their, in the way of their life, and they've just gone off and just done the exact opposite. That's God speaking to. To Judah Then verse 7, I brought you into a bountiful country to eat its fruits, its goodness, and when you entered, you defiled my land, you made my heritage an abomination. The priest did not say, where is the Lord?

So the priests, they're the ones that are doing what? What are the priests, priest's job? In the worship of Yahweh. Right.

So these guys are up there doing the sacrifices. They don't even know that God, the Spirit is gone. They're not saying, man, where's the Lord? What happened?

They don't even recognize or miss the Spirit of God. And those who handled the law did not know me. So you got people who used to teach the law, they don't even know the Lord anymore. The rulers also transgressed against me.

So the kings, they're not, no, they're not walking with the Lord. Obviously, we're talking about periods other than Josiah. The prophets, they're prophesying, but they're prophesying by bail and walking after things that do not profit. And so these guys are standing up and saying, thus says bail.

so, we've moved into dark times. It's, it's a false religion. Nobody's asking, nobody's even worried that the Lord has departed. Israel or Judah has given themselves headlong over into idolatry and immorality.

let's ask a couple of other questions here of this text. So Let's see here. Well, you guys tell me what, what is the basic charge that God is making against Judah? OK, they've forgotten him as evidenced by what?

The idolatry. When we talk about idolatry, does, if you've grown up in the church, that just becomes like Charlie Brown's teacher, idolatry. What is that? What is idolatry in, in the, in the immediate context here?

What are people doing who are worshiping idols? infection. Yeah, so they're no longer turning to Yahweh. They've gone to other gods, and what are they doing in these worship idolatrous ceremonies?

Yep. Yeah, they're having sex outside of their marriage in order to worship this God. It's they they call it temple prostitution. Many times it involve children.

they're actually, burning their own kids. Bail would ask for child, child sacrifice. So they're burning their kids at times. do you guys remember, why did we say bale worship would be so appealing?

And we said, we're probably about 4 or 5 lessons ago, we talked about the appeal of bal worship. Anybody remember any of that? Yeah, yeah. this type of religion didn't demand sexual purity.

A lot of the eastern religions today that are filtering and flooding into the US, they don't demand any sexual purity. You can pretty much do whatever you want. And so there's a lot of appeal to these Eastern religions. also, Baal worship was like the old-time religion, remember?

Which one was first in Canaan, Baal worship or Yahweh worship? Beal worship. So there's this idea of kinda like, we've talked about in the past, hey, let's get back to the Aztec gods. That's what a lot of our Hispanic people down in Mexico, it's like, there's this big movement to get back to the Aztec gods, reject Roman Catholicism and get back to the Aztec gods.

And that's one of the appeals is let's get back to good old-time religion. As well as sometimes the, the king that was in charge would sometimes be the one that was promoting that religion, so it's good to have it be in the favor of the king. During part of Jeremiah's prophecies, you have Josiah who's not promoting that. And so you've actually got people going behind the scenes, doing their bal worship in secret or it's in their heart.

And so on. Let's turn to chapter 3 now. Again, we're trying to get a flyby of what's going on. Chapter 3, starting at verse 6.

I think that's where we want to begin. Yeah, let's look at verse 6 and following. The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen the backsliding of Israel? Has, what she's done?

She has gone up on every high place and under every gre green tree and there played the harlot. And I say, after she had done all these things, returned to me, but she did not return, and her treacherous sister, Judah saw it. So here's a father who had been trying to deal with Israel. Now is Israel in the north or in the south?

North, we're talking about the northern tribes. So, in this prophecy, is Jeremiah prophesying before or after Israel had already been carried away by a Syrian into captivity? After, right. So this has already happened.

So there's a flashback. The Lord through Jeremiah saying, hey, remember backsliding Israel? She was a harlot under all, every green tree. Just wherever she could go worship false gods and practice her harlot tree, she did it.

And I said, return to me and she didn't. But now, her sister, Judah is looked at that and has not learned the lesson. Look what happened. They got carried up into captivity.

Now you're following suit. Can you feel the frustration of the father? It's like you've got this older kid who's gone off headlong into sin. And now the, the next kid that you're hoping they're gonna learn their lesson.

They saw what happened to the older kid. The older kid went off into sin and, and they got their comeuppance, right? Just bad things, consequences, As Syria takes them away. Now, the younger kid is looking at the older kid and saying, oh cool.

I'd like to, I'd like to be free of, of mom and dad's rules too. Have you ever heard of that story before? Yeah. And so Judah.

is following suit. So look at verse 8 and following, then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass through her casual harlotry.

that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. So committing adultery with stones and trees, there's lots of images that are being thrown around here. what is that? Adultery with stones and trees.

Idolatry because you can make idols out of stones, you can make idols out of trees, you come and worship them, you do all the perverse things that they're asking of you to do. Verse 10, and yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the Lord. That's very important Because this is being prophesized during the reforms of Josiah, right? Josiah did a really good job.

He's eliminating the possibilities for people to go out and do the harlot trees and the adult and the idolatry. And yet people are just, they're, they've conformed, but what God sees that nobody else can see is this is in pretense. They're just waiting for Josiah to die, so they can go back and do what their hearts want. And God sees this.

And so he says about Israel up there in verse 8, Judah is not learning anything. I, and he's mixing metaphors here which your English teachers tell you not to do, but prophets do it all the time. Prophets love to mix metaphors. There's the sister metaphor and then there's, the marriage metaphor.

So Yahweh is married to Israel, gives Israel a certificate of divorce. What, how is that evidenced in actual history? What is the certificate of divorce equivalent to? Yes.

So, God allows Assyria to come in, take them out. That's the divorce or the certificate of divorce, as it were. But then notice the way that the Lord continues on in verse 11. Then the Lord said to me, backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

So, I gave a certificate of divorce to Israel. They got carried away up into captivity. Judah's been worse now as we're leading towards the end of their, of their history. So he says in verse 12, go and proclaim these words toward the north, saying, Return backsliding Israel, says the Lord.

I will not cause my anger to fall on you, for I am merciful, says the Lord. I will not remain angry forever, only acknowledge your iniquity. That you have transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice. Verse 14, return, oh backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you.

I will take you 1 from a city and 2 from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. What in the world does that mean? How can he say I gave him a certificate of divorce, but then in verse 14, he says, I am married to you. Is, are, are we, is this the schizophrenic prophet again or what, what's happening?

Say it again. God We, yeah, definitely. God hates divorce. That is no doubt.

Why is he saying, cause he's, in both cases, he's talking about Israel, right? I gave Israel a certificate of divorce. A few verses later, he says, I am married to you. Yeah, there's a covenant here.

And, commentators wrestle with this. In God giving a certificate of divorce to Israel, does that mean that the, the divorce was finalized forever? No, there's no indication of that, but just a few verses later, God still considers Himself married to Israel, even though He had given her a certificate of divorce. Part of what's being communicated here is the permanence of marriage., he's using this analogy to communicate something to Israel, but even after a certificate of divorce had been given, God recognizes we are still married.

We're still married and he is still pursuing Israel and calling upon Israel to return and repent. It's just like, remember we looked a few weeks ago at Jose and Gomer. What, Hosea was commanded to marry Gomer. Was Gomer this really, really upstanding individual?

No, she was a harlot. And so God commands Hosea to marry Gomer and does he tell her, tell him to be faithful or unfaithful to Gomer? Faithful. Stay married to her even though she's faithless to demonstrate my faithfulness to Israel.

And you have something similar going on here, I think, is, and I remember this is, this is a metaphor, so God's using metaphors, but he says, as it were, I gave you a certificate of divorce and brought Assyria down to carry you off into captivity, but that's not the end of the story. Yeah, we've got this little piece of paper over here, but we're still married. And in God's eyes, the marriage is still there, and he's just calling upon her to repent and to come back. And so God is using this whole older sister thing to try to shame the younger sister, Judah.

Look, yes, I had them carried off into captivity and you're gonna be carried off in captivity, and yet we are still married. Again, we're talking about metaphorically. And, and so Judah, learn your lesson from what's happened to Assyria, but also learn the hope that is still here. Even with all of the adulteries of Assyria, I still love them.

And part of the clue to understanding this is right there in the middle of verse 14. Let's read it again. Oh, backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you. I will take you one from a city and two from a family, I will bring you to Zion.

What does that mean? One from a city, two from a family, I will bring you to Zion. Anybody have any idea what that might indicate? The remnant concept, yes.

So remember, we, we see this both from an Old and New Testament perspective, not all Israel is Israel. There's political national Israel that all remain in covenant relationship with God via the Day of Atonement. Everybody gets benefits of the Day of Atonement, whether they believe in Yahweh or not by faith. But within national Israel, there is true Israel.

There is the remnant. There are people who really know Yahweh and have a relationship with Him by faith. And that remnant, God will never turn his back on that remnant. National Israel maybe get punished, and the remnant will be within national Israel and we'll feel the effects of that.

And yet God will never break his covenant with the one from the city, the two from the family. And that's part of what we need to keep in mind. It can be challenging for us to keep all this straight in our heads. But in some ways, it's not all that different from just a local church, right?

We know that you have any given local church, there's gonna be genuine believers. And then there's gonna be people that are just here for the ride. And some people are, are sitting here hearing the word of God taught, and their hearts are darkened. It's just they've got sermon-proof vests on and they just have no idea what's happening.

I'm, sometimes I'm sitting back here, listening to a message and, and I'm just like, oh, the Holy Spirit's, I can see the Spirit moving and and so many of the people's lives and, and just God's spirit moving around us. And then you look over and you'll see some teenagers like, chewing their gum, just on their phones, stuff like that. It's like, hello, Nobody's home. And you just, you don't know how the spirit's moving, right?

11 thing for sure is it doesn't matter how healthy the church is, right here at Cornerstone, there's some true believers here and there are people that just don't know the Lord yet. And we're waiting for the spirit to fall. We're waiting for people just to open people's eyes, right? And so, That's where even like our New Testament sometimes can be somewhat confusing, is some of the writers of the New Testament, they're writing to the church at large, but like the Book of Hebrews, for instance, The writer of Hebrews knows that he's writing to some people who really know Christ and other people who are just along for the ride.

And so there's some of these warnings in there that are pretty severe that seem to be given to the people that are along for the ride. And then there's other promises that are in there that could only apply to people that really know Christ by faith, right? And so we always have to keep that, keep that in mind. So let's, but let's keep on our trajectory of Of, of talking about idolatry.

Let's go to 41. So, here, Jeremiah, as the Lord through Jeremiah, if you will return to Israel, says the Lord, return to me and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then you shall not be moved. And you shall swear the Lord lives in truth and judgment and righteousness. The nation shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him they shall glory.

So, there's still this overall promise and in Jeremiah, by the way, this is another thing that can be confusing about the book of Jeremiah. Sometimes, Israel's referring to the northern tribes. Sometimes Israel is looking fast forward way out into the future when there's a unified Israel who has come to worship Yahweh, and that seems to be the case here in chapter 4. We're now talking about Israel and Judah together, and it's not always easy to discern which way it goes.

But you guys in your homework this week, you guys had a little page called Idols of the Heart. So, Israel and Judah, they're being punished for this thing called idolatry. And so the question that we want to ask with this Exercise is. What are the idols that, that we have today?

I don't know how many of you guys have some hidden saint in your closet. any of you, anybody praying to Saint Francis of Assisi or anybody have, Magdalena or No, OK. I love, some of those, when you go to the nice taco shops and they've got the little guy up there who's the, who's the saint of good business. Anybody remember his name?

But all the good taco shops have the saint of good business up in the corner somewhere, as well as, the, the Mexican version of the Virgin Mary, which is Guadalupe, right? So, Guadalupe revealed herself down to Mexico at some point, and so everybody loves Guadalupe down to Mexico. we normally, I don't know too many people that, that pray to those, but, the donut shop right around my corner, they put out donuts and food every day, before their little Buddha idol, and I've asked them about, hey, what do you do that?

Oh, it's for good luck.

Oh, OK. And, and it's not, it's more and more common to see people to put little things out on their lawn that are, certain eastern idols or things like that. if you guys, go to, some yoga place where they really believe what yoga is all about, you look around and they'll have like little Little idols here and there, to kinda, go along with the, the, the yogi and so on. But what exactly, for us is an idol, Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3:5, associate covetousness with idolatry.

Paul in both those places speaks of Christians watching out for covetousness, and then he puts this little tag on it, which is idolatry. So covetousness equals idolatry. What is covetousness? Yeah, so wanting something that somebody else has, or yeah.

Not being content, justice. Yeah, that's a great definition too, desiring something that's not available to you. So, yeah, it's this, this pining for stuff or things or situations even that God hadn't sovereignty hasn't given to you. Now, a desire can be, are all desires that we have bad and of necessity idols.

No, not necessarily, right? So you could have a really good desire, like I could have a really good desire. Let's say I wake up in the morning. And my desire is I wanna take the family out to breakfast at one of my favorite breakfast places in Marina Valley, Burger Town.

They actually make really good breakfasts. And that's my desire. That's a good desire, right? Let's say I get up and I try to get the family motivated.

Nobody wants to get out of bed, and then when they wake up, they don't wanna go to Burger Town, they wanna stay home and have cereal. Really? Cereal? I'm offering you bacon, eggs, hash browns.

I love their coffee, but you want cereal? Once, if, if all of a sudden now my desire to take my family out to breakfast, if I then begin to pout, and then to begin to punish the family for not doing what I wanted to do, or theoretically, let's say everybody wants to go, but one of my children's not happy about it, but they come and they begin to pout. Now, now, something that was a very good desire can become an idol. And before we look at some other passages, I want to give you two little thoughts about how do we know like a, when, when a desire suddenly becomes idolatry.

I think I heard this from Paul Tripp. When we are willing to sin to get it. It becomes an idol. Or if we're willing, if we sin when we don't get it, it becomes an idol.

There's lots of things that are just neutral, right? I wake up, I have a hard day at work. I wanna come home and watch some baseball. Is that necessarily a bad desire?

baseball is the America, yeah, how can baseball be bad, right? It's America's sport, at least it used to be until football. Yeah, hey, I wanna go watch Angels, right? But all of a sudden, if I come home and all there's things that My family wants me to tend to, before or I just can't get to the baseball game and then I began to have this attitude and I don't wanna punish everybody with my sulky attitude because I didn't get to watch a baseball game.

Now, this desire that wasn't necessarily sinful becomes an idol. I couldn't get it, so I'm gonna make you pay. Right? or I'm gonna send to get it.

we were, I was talking this whole concept through with my son and little Samuel. I can still talk about Samuel because he's not conscious of the fact that his dad is telling all these stories to his Sunday school class like my older two kids. but, so Samuel, when we're out driving around, he sees some restaurant, and this tells you the way we're training our kids, not very well in some ways. He'll see like they'll talk and he'd be like, hey, Dad, let's go get some french fries and rice.

That's his recipe. He mixes french fries and rice. He calls it his recipe. He's like, can we get some french fries and rice?

No, we're on the way home. All of a sudden, Dad. I just want some french fries and rice. So it wasn't a bad request.

It wasn't sinful for him to make the request, right? But then all of a sudden his attitude changes. Samuel. I'll say, Samuel, is it bad for you to want french fries and rice?

No. But right now, you're sinning because I'm not giving you french fries and rice. You're getting mad, right? Yes.

Is that sin for you to get mad because daddy's not gonna get you french fries and rice? Yes. OK. So what do we need to do?

So then we go from there. So that's, that's when, that's how when something's moved into an idol. Let's, let's turn over to Ezekiel 14 real quick. Cause Ezekiel, this whole prophecy here, it's around the same time as Jeremiah.

It, it just does a real good job picturing what we're talking about when we talk about idols of the heart, not just the The physical idols. So in verse 14, we'll read verse 1 to 7. Now some of, am I in the right place? Yeah.

Some of the elders of Israel came to me, says Ezekiel, and sat before me, and the word of the Lord came to me and saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let myself be inquired of at all by them? There's a lot going on in that verse. That is a crazy verse if you really think about it.

These guys come up to Ezekiel, they're wanting to get a word from the Lord. Right? That's what you do. You're like, hey, we, we don't have any copies of scripture, we don't really know what the Lord wants us to do right now.

Hey, let's go see Ezekiel. He's a prophet. Let's see what the Lord wants us to do. Sits before Ezekiel, they probably wanna know who knows what.

But before anything comes, God says, these guys have idols in their hearts. Should I let them even inquire of me? So the Lord is telling them, they don't, they're not going down and bowing down to idols on a tree, they've got it in their hearts. And these, the idols in their hearts are leading them towards iniquity.

So it starts in the heart and it's leading them to, to the, to stumble into sin. And should I let myself be inquired of by them? In other words, am I gonna bless them with my presence? And, am I gonna give them my word, answer?

No. Just think about how that would apply to us today. we've got the full revelation right here in the Bible. And yet, if we are harboring idols in our hearts in an unrepentant sense, that, that no doubt biblically leads us into sin and iniquity, and then we come down or wanting to hear from the Lord, but we're just keeping these idols in our hearts.

Guess what? You can, you can just read the Bible and it's just like ping, just bouncing off ping. have you ever been there where you're reading, where you're reading the Bible and you're trying to have your quiet time, you're being faithful to do your duty, and it's just like nothing. Nothing's happening.

A lot of times what's, what we need to stop and say, Lord, search my heart, oh God, see if there be any wicked way in me. Lead me in the way of everlasting. Open up my eyes, Lord. we can, we can use the Bible unbiblically.

We can actually read the Bible, but reading it unbiblically to try to justify our sin or just as a little check off, oh yeah, I did my duty today. I feel better about myself. When the Lord, he's actually, he doesn't want us just to read the Bible, he wants us to read the Bible so that he can reveal Himself to us and illuminate what his will is for us. Verse 4, therefore, speak to them and say to them, thus says the Lord your God.

Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble in iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I, the Lord will answer him who comes according to the multitude of idols, that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart because they are all estranged from me by their idols, estranged. Does that mean to be estranged? Yeah, separated. Yeah, you guys have seen this, right?

You guys have probably had friends or you've counseled people. Something bad goes on in the marriage, all of a sudden they're just They're living in two different places. All of a sudden the guy goes off and gets an apartment. Or even in their own household, right?

There's times where those of us who have been married long enough, what this is, you guys get into a fight, you get in, all of a sudden it's like Man, we ain't talking right now. Things are not good. there needs to be some repentance happening. We're like roommates right now.

Something needs to happen to bring us back together, right? And so the Lord is estranged because of their idols. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord, what needs to happen, repent. Turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from your abominations.

Turn away from these things that are taking your heart away from me. Change your mind about, you think that this is OK. You think, hey, no big deal. No, this is a big deal.

This is estranging you from God. Verse 7, for anyone in the house of Israel or the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from me and sets up idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble in iniquity, then comes to the prophet to inquire of him concerning me, I, the Lord will answer him by myself. I will set my face against that man and make him a sign in a proverb, I will cut him off from the midst of the people, then you shall know that I am the Lord.

That's pretty heavy.

That's That happens to us, we don't even realize it. Idols start to creep up in our hearts. We begin our, our passions are driven in a certain direction. And, and then it leads us towards iniquity.

And before it, we're not even asking where the Lord is. We've, we, we're not even sensing the fact that God's presence isn't there, that we've grieved the Holy Spirit. part of, part of one of God's designs is, is that we gather together every week, just like you guys are here. We come together every week for the preaching of God's word, so that we can hear the word preached afresh and God can show us the idols in our hearts and we can repent.

So Lord, I don't want to, I don't want to be estranged from you. Help me repent, open my eyes to sin, help me turn away and by His grace, he, he, he loves us so much. He's willing to do that. Right?

That's just part of the Christian walk. That shouldn't be like something we do once every 6 months or a year when some crisis hits. It's, we realize idols are growing in my heart every day like weeds. Forget who it was.

I think it was Martin Luther that said, sin grows in our hearts like a man's beard. It's like every day you're, it's just growing and you have to keep shaving every day and he goes, sin will finally stop being a problem when we are under the cold earth. These idols, just, they just constantly are growing, so we always have to be coming to the Lord. now look over to James chapter one.

So that's the, the whole idol of the heart thing. In Ezekiel. So they, they've got this, this these idols that can grow up. Check out James chapter 1 and we'll, we'll also look at verse 4 real quick.

I'm gonna start in verse 12. And let's see what happens in our own hearts, what happens with our desires. How do we deal with this thing called desires or motivations? These things that actually can start off good and then before it, they can turn into sin.

Verse 12, blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive a crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So when we endure the temptation to gratify our desires, our sinful desires, that's a happy place to be. You guys, you guys feel that recently? Where it's like maybe you previously were struggling with some sin, besetting sin.

All of a sudden, you get up in the morning, and you're saying yes to the Lord, and you're saying no to sin, and you're like, man, I used to, I used to really, that, that was such a huge problem. I used to always be saying yes to this sin and no to the Lord, and now I'm saying no to sin and yes to the Lord. I'm happy. Why am I so happy today?

Guess what? That's part of just the blessing of seeing sanctification happen when the Lord is granting us His grace to say no to sin. But, so then he backtracks verse 13. Let no one say when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone.

Now why, why does James even have to say that? Because sometimes we want to blame God for our, our sin problems. Let no one say when he's tempted. Oh, God, God brought that into my life.

That's why this is happening. No, God, first of all, he can never be tempted to do anything outside of his nature. And he does never, he never tempts anyone to sin. Now, it's confusing because it's the same word for test in the Greek and Hebrew as it is for tempt.

While God may, he may test you, he never tries to tempt you towards sin. Only the devil does that. but we can be tempted sometimes to say, to blame God. I remember talking to, years and years ago, we're talking, our elders were talking to a gal who'd fallen back in with a non-believing, unbelieving boyfriend.

We started trying to exhort her and encourage her, and she's like, well, why did the Lord allow him to walk into my work? Dressed the way he was dressed, wearing that cologne that I love. Why did the Lord allow him to come into my work that day? She's blaming the Lord for falling back in with her, with her boyfriend.

Another time we actually disciplined somebody out of the church who later repented, but while we were dialoguing with them, and trying to restore them, what they eventually were restored back to church or to the Lord through our fellowship. But in the midst of that, we had some little counseling to do. This person was like, I think this was good that this happened to me because if I would not have committed this sin, I wouldn't have learned all these good lessons. So it was good that I did these sins.

We said, hold on, hold on. The Lord, we gave you very specific counsel, and what would have happened if you would have done this instead of that? What would your life be right now? Very different.

And so, yes, it is, God has been very gracious to you and you've been able to learn some lessons. But let's not go saying that God wanted it in His will of his moral will for this to happen the way it turned out. If you'd have done the right thing in the first place, Boy, we'd be in a very different. Does that make sense?

There's, there's a will of God's moral will and his will of decree. We have, we can talk about that later. But verse 14, but each one is tempted. When are they tempted?

When he is drawn away and enticed by what? His own desires. OK, so, this, I want to suggest to you that this is not necessarily sin in the fullest sense yet. A desire rises up, that could be a good desire, it could be a bad desire, but we'll assume right now, let's say it's tending towards a bad desire.

So, so this thing rises up, now you start to feel tempted. But then what happens, verse 15, then when the desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. So now we're using an analogy of conception. I've got a desire.

But nothing's really happened yet. Now, it's conceived. Now there's a little, little sin baby, right? And when it gives birth, there's now this sin baby.

That's the analogy. There's a conception that happens and then it's given birth to. So now you've actually given birth to a sin. When you give birth to a sin, now you've got this little, this little animal that you've given birth to, that's now a problem, right?

It's very difficult to stick that baby back and say, sorry, let's not have you. No, now you've given birth to a sin, and sin when it's full grown, so now the sin, if you allow that sin to continue. That sin grows up, it grows up, it grows up, and then it dies and it brings forth death. It brings forth death to itself and it brings forth death to you.

And so when sins go on throughout a lifetime without repentance, it brings forth this thing called death. This is not, I don't think James is talking here about the natural consequences of the sin of Adam, where all of us have sinned and therefore we all die. This is talking about the lifetime consequences of allowing sin to grow in your life without repentance. To where you give your life over to that child that grows, grows, grows and grows and then brings death to you.

I, I had a really good friend I grew up in high school with. I had no idea that he was drinking and, and he had given himself over to drinking even in high school and he died like 3 years ago of hardening of the liver. He just, he gave himself over that sin when he was young. He was hiding it from me.

He would go out with other friends who are OK with drinking, but he knew that I probably wouldn't be cool with it, so he hid it from me and he just gave himself over that sin throughout his lifetime and died. He was ashamed of of what had happened. He hadn't really talked to very many people about it and he died pretty much alone in a hospital because he was trying to hide the sin. Tragic, tragic.

And yet that's what can happen is we give birth to sins and if we don't bring them out into the light and allow the gospel and the community to deal with those sins, they can grow and grow and take over a person's life. We had a guy here at church, a dear brother, and, who had given himself over to, to drug abuse, and it looked like the Lord was doing the work and we saw, it looked like we'd seen repentance, but then he had fallen back into it. We didn't know he's hiding it. He was shooting himself up in the spine, fell over, hit his head in the bathroom and died.

That's how his life ended, trying to shoot himself up in the spine. Tragic, the devil comes to, he, he comes to kill and destroy, and James is warning us, where do these, these desires come up? We conceive, we give birth, and then if we let them grow without any community, if we keep it in the dark, if we don't repent, it can bring forth death. But notice verse 16.

I want, I want, I want to point out the language here. So we've got these idols, these sins that go in our lives, but verse 16, don't be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there's no variation or shadow of turning. All of a sudden he's talking about sin babies that produce death and he moves completely over to talking about the Father of lights who's giving perfect gifts, and he doesn't change.

We go up and down, we struggle with sin, we struggle with idols. He doesn't change. Now notice the terminology in verse 18, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. Our sins come from what?

Our desires. We give ourselves over those desires, we, they conceive, they bring forth death, and then that brings forth death. God comes along with his will, and he gives birth to what? We give birth to sin.

What does God give birth to in verse 18? It can be tough to see. Look at it closely. Of his own will, he brings forth what or brought us.

Us. He brings forth us. It's the same word. He gives birth to people, us.

This is regeneration. If, if, if the natural course of man is to bring forth sin and sin to grow and bring forth death. That's what people are doing all the time without Christ. God comes along and he says, I'm giving birth to you by my own will and by the word of truth.

In other words, the word of the gospel, that we might be a first fruits of his creatures, and I'm bringing you forth, but you're not the only ones. I'm gonna bring forth all kinds of other people who are regenerated. So then, my beloved brethren, here's what I want to end with. Let every man be swift to hear, hear what?

What's the most, the closest pointer to hear what? Hear God, hear the word of truth. Be swift to hear, slow to speak, so we don't have to feel like, oh, OK, I just got this nice little tidbit. I'm gonna teach it right away.

No. Here, slow to wrath, for the wrath, wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Don't be getting mad about God because you think he led you into this circumstance, he brought this into your life, what have you. Listen to his word, humble yourself under his word.

and then, and then verse 21 and following, lay aside all filthiness, overflow of weakness, with meekness, receive the implanted word which is able to do what? Save your souls. What will save our souls? The implanted word.

Who implants the word? God, the Holy Spirit. So there's a lot going on here, but let me just summarize this is all of us by nature have these idol-making factories in our hearts. Every one of us, we get these desires that pop up.

And then those desires conceived, they bring forth. sin, sin babies, and outside of Christ, we just let those things grow and that's why you meet people all over the planet who just, their lives get dominated by these sins and it's the, the tragedies that are out there and the ways, different ways that people die as a result of lifelong sins. But God comes along and he says, but I'm giving birth to you. By my will And, and you're not the only ones I'm giving birth to.

I, you're just the first fruits. There's gonna be lots of people I give birth to. And so what I want you to do is realize that I'm the Father of lights, turn to me and lay aside this wickedness, lay aside, you still have this, even as Christians, you still have this tendency to want to give birth to these desires, but now you've got this power to lay aside and just receive with humility the word that I'm implanting into your hearts. I've been giving you the word.

I've been playing in your hearts, and then we just humble ourselves and say, Lord, I, I need you. Help me to repent. Search my heart, oh God, see if there's any wicked way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting.

Do you think God wants to answer a prayer like that? Search my heart, oh God. There is no chance on planet Earth or in heaven that God does not want to answer a prayer like that. You cry out to God and say, God, I feel like I'm plagued with idolatry.

Please search my heart and lead me in the way everlasting. Guess what? Jesus turned to his father and said, Father, that's right there. We want, we're gonna answer that.

We're gonna open up some eyes here. And then the Lord begins to open up your eyes through His Spirit, right? And you guys have felt this. Many of you have, you go through different ups and downs.

Sometimes the fog covers the mountains, but then the, the fog clears in another day. And then the Lord gives you a deeper sense of your own sin, and you're like, you're waiting for God's wrath to fall on you, and suddenly he's like, I love you. I'm revealing a deeper sense of your sins that you can see how much I love you and all of a sudden you're like, Whoa. He who has forgiven much is what?

Loves much. And so that's, that's, that's sanctification in, in a nutshell. We're gonna look at one more verse and then we're over time. But you guys said I could go 5 minutes over, right?

Because I started 5 minutes late. Look over at Hebrews chapter 3. We're gonna end with this. That's sanctification in a nutshell for the believer, is that even though, let's just assume for the sake of argument that all of us in this room are born again Christians, that we all know the Lord.

Has our idol factory. Closed No, no, it hasn't. It's not gonna close until we go to heaven. But the unbeliever has an idol factory.

They don't even know it. They just produce the idols all the time and they just worship him. Our hearts are constantly struggling. We're still producing idols, but God in His grace, has forgiven all of that, right?

So we're not trying to work our way. We're just saying, Lord, thank you that you've already done the cross for me, confessing our sin on a daily basis and using all the resources that God has given us on a daily basis to deal with that heart idle battle. And, and to be calling upon others to help us with that and calling upon others to repent. And so just notice verse 13, Hebrews 3:13.

Actually, we'll start in 12. Beware, brethren. OK, brethren, who's he talking to? Christians or non-Christians?

Christians, beware, brethren, lest if any of you, in any of you, an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. So there can be A heart of unbelief where we begin to depart from the presence of the living God, right? I don't think that necessarily, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're losing our salvation. We're walking away from fellowship with the living God.

And even as Christians, we can get ourselves into a place where we've just suddenly begun blinded by our own sinful choices. We're like a really angry person. Everybody else sees it and you don't see it. We're really bitter person.

Everybody else can see you're bitter, but you can't see it. Or there's all kinds of different ways. We're very selfish. Everybody around can see how selfish you are or how selfish I am, and you walk around, you're just like, whoa, what are you talking about?

I don't know what you're talking about. We're talking about Willis, right? But then verse 13. But exhort, here's the solution, exhort one another once a year.

Is that what it says? Exhort one another every other month. No, exhort one another. Every day, every day, you and I need to exhort.

We need to challenge each other while it is still called today, lest any of you be hardened to deceitfulness of sin. How are we gonna overcome our idolatry problem? Is God calls us to live in community and every day we're exhorting one another and pointing out things that we see, ways in which we're growing in grace, and ways in which we need to grow. lest we become hardened to the deceitfulness of sin.

Part of what this means is, is by myself, I will become hardened to the deceitfulness of sin. I will, it's just, it's a guarantee. if I go out into the lobby and grab a donut and I get jelly all over my chin, but I can't feel it, and I come walking up, I'm ready to lead worship, and I got some big jelly spot right here and I can't see it, guess what? I need somebody who loves me to walk up and say, Mike, you've got jelly all over your chin.

And then I can go wipe, wipe it off, and that's all of us are in that same situation. We need to be willing to speak lovingly and, and also be willing to hear from one another in humility, even when our brothers and sisters might not be completely on target. Some, some brothers or sisters trying to do this for you, they're immature in the way they do it. They walk up and they say, Oh, I don't know if I can talk to this person.

hey, Bill, you're a really angry person. See you later. No, we, but God is calling us to come into each other's lives, develop that relationship, encourage each other, but also exhort each other and help so that we can be overcome by the deceitfulness of sin. Does that make sense to you guys?

I, I, I don't know about you, but like, I've gone through different periods of my life and I feel like, There's times even here recently where I've been. It's like the Lord has just opened my eyes in a fresh way to certain pockets of sin in my life that I just wasn't seeing. And it's it's incredibly humbling and like one of the things the Lord really has hit me with recently is is my, is defensiveness. Like I would call it pride, but I was, I was meeting up with a guy and he said, no, it's more than pride, it's defensiveness.

And he began to describe to me what it was that he felt like I was doing, particularly in my relationship with my wife. And the more he started talking, I was like, Dude, are you a prophet or what? It's like, yeah, that was it. They hit it on the head.

It's defensiveness. My wife would just ask a very simple question with nothing, no ill motives behind it, and I'd be like, Why do you ask? it's just like, already I've got like this little story in the back of my head that I, I think I know what she's thinking cause like I'm Superman or something and, and really, I'm completely wrong. But I, I'm like breaking into this defensiveness by a very simple question.

And so the Lord's like, that that's an idol that the Lord's been revealing in my heart, but it came because our brother was observing it and able to communicate it to me in love. And by God's grace, God granted me the the ability to not get defensive when he told me that. That was God's grace, right? Cause I could have been like, what are you talking about?

I'm not defensive. Right? so anyway, so let's just be praying for each other. this, this whole idolatry thing, it's something that God wants us to deal with on a daily basis to keep us close to the Lord.

And if we keep working on it together, then the Lord's gonna just continue to pour blessing and health out on our church. But if we ignore it, then all of a sudden, we can just, within a very short time, our families, our church can just suddenly get to this unhealthy place where you're just walking around, you're just like, Man, why is everybody so unhappy? That's cause we're suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, even as Christians, we can do that. Well, I'm gonna be up here.

I've gone way over time. I'm gonna be up here if you guys have questions or comments, but let's pray, and then, I'll be up here if you wanna talk. Lord, we just ask that you would search our hearts. Oh God, see if there be any wicked way in us, lead us in the way everlasting.

We thank you, Lord, that as your word is preached, as we read your word, as we hear your word, that that just gives good fodder for the Holy Spirit to do His work. but we just pray, Father, that you grant us humility by your grace, that you would open up our eyes to even new depths of our sin, not so, that we'd be condemned. We see, Lord, that it's your kindness that leads us to repentance. And so often we just see, Lord, that when you show us our sin in a deeper way, you're right there to remind us of your love and your kindness and goodness and Help us, Lord, to forgive others as we have been forgiven.

deliver us from the evil one. We pray that you bless Pastor Milton as he preaches this morning, as we sing the gospel, help us to grow, to exhort one another. Daily to have people in our lives that can. can speak to us, and Lord, that we would earn the right to speak to others in this way.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen.