our Bibles today to the book
of Jeremiah. And today, let's look in chapter
35. As you're turning here, let me
remind us that Jeremiah was one of the last prophets to the nation
of Judah before and during its seize and capture by Babylon,
by Nebuchadnezzar. He lived about 600 plus and 600
less years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born. Jeremiah, chapter
35. The word which came unto Jeremiah
from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah,
king of Judah, go unto the house of the Rachibites and speak unto
them and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of
the chambers, and give them wine to drink." For many years, I
have made it a practice to read through the Bible every year. Now, I will say this is probably
not the best way to read the Bible, but I think it's good
that every child of God, at least once in your life, should read
through the scriptures. And also, it's good to have a
system of reading the word of God, because if we don't, we
tend to read the same part over and over. And all scripture is
given by inspiration of God and is profitable. We should always, no matter where
we look, where we read, we should always look for the Lord Jesus
Christ because as he said concerning the scriptures, they are they
that testify of me. Well every year it seems to me
that when I come to Jeremiah and even into the prophecy of
Ezekiel which follows, I'm struck with the number of what I call
object lessons. The number of object lessons. You know, when the Lord Jesus
Christ was here ministering in the flesh, he used object lessons. Remember, he used the lilies
of the field to teach us not to be anxious about our clothing. He said, consider the lilies
how they grow. They toil not, they spend not,
and yet I say unto you that Solomon, think of this, King Solomon,
wealthy, wealthy king, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. And I wonder how often you and
I, or if we've ever taken the time to consider the flowers,
the beautiful flowers in God's creation that he has made for
our enjoyment. And when we look at the flowers
and they're beautiful and the smell they give, the fragrance,
I'm always reminded of how the Garden of Eden must have been.
Because the world in which we live is a world that's under
the curse. Our Lord said, cursed be the
ground for thy sake, to Adam. But yet we still see such beauty
here. And the Lord used object lessons. What about the sparrows? Not
one of them shall fall on the ground. without your father. I like to hear that hymn, his
eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watcheth over me. Object lessons are especially
good in teaching children. And that's what all of us are
when it comes to spiritual things. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, except you be converted, verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except you be converted and become as little children, you shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Well, there are just
a number of these object lessons in the prophecy of Jeremiah.
And before we look at this one here in chapter 35, I want to
call our attention to two that were before this. If you turn
back to chapter 13, In chapter 13, we have an object
lesson with a girdle, a girdle, a girdle, a sash that men at
that time were used or men used at that time to gird up their
long flowing robes when they had work to do so their robes
would not hinder them, a girdle. Well, in chapter 13, beginning
in verse 1, we read, Thus saith the Lord unto me, that is to
Jeremiah, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins,
and put it not in water. So I got a girdle according to
the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. And the word
of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, Take the
girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise
go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole of the rock. So I went and hid it by Euphrates
as the Lord commanded me. And it came to pass after many
days that the Lord said unto me, arise, go to Euphrates and
take the girdle from thence which I commanded thee to hide there.
Then I went to Euphrates and digged and took the girdle from
the place where I'd hid it And behold, the girdle was marred.
It was profitable for nothing. Now what's the lesson here? The
object lesson here in buying a new girdle and not putting
it in water, but putting it upon you. And now take that girdle
and hide it on the river bank of the river Euphrates. Hide
it there. And after so many days, he's
commanded to go and take it back. And when he finds the girdle,
It's marred. It's good for nothing. Now what's
the lesson here? The lesson is that God, if you
look in verse 9, that God was going to mar the pride of Judah. Thus saith the Lord, after this
manner will I mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of
Jerusalem. Now concerning the Lord marring,
ruining the pride. They were so full of pride. Our
city is so strong. Our city is so great. We can
never be conquered. We can never be taken. God said,
I'm going to mar the pride of this nation. And you know, Jeremiah,
he's referred to many times as the weeping prophet because of
the book of lamentations where we have the chapters there of
him lamenting over Jerusalem, Judah, what had happened. God
said, I'm going to mar the pride of Jerusalem. And the book of
Lamentations begins like this. How doth the city set solitary
that was full of people? How is she become as a widow?
She that was great among the nations, and princes among the
provinces. How is she become a tributary? Here's this great city, Jerusalem,
which was the joy of all the earth. And you can just imagine
in the days of David, if you will, when Jerusalem would be
filled on those three annual feasts with people from all the
nation would come. And it was a time of jubilation.
It was a time of rejoicing. You see, knowing God and serving
God is not a drudgery. It's a joy to know the Lord,
to think that we have a relationship with the Lord God Almighty through
His Son, Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said, Rejoice
in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. Serving
God, a believer, a child of God, is a joyful thing. And Jerusalem,
this great city, had been known for its joy and for its beauty,
for its grandeur, especially the temple that Solomon had built. It had been the glory of the
whole world at that time. And yet now, God had marred the
pride of Judah and Jerusalem, and she said, solitary. And why
was it? You might say, well, why would
God do that? Why would He do that? Well, if
you still have your Bible there in chapter 13, look in verse
10. Here's the reason. This evil
people which refuse to hear my words. That's the problem. And that's what brought this
suffering upon Judah and Jerusalem, because they refused to hear
the word of the Lord. I tell you, it's a serious thing
when men and women refuse to hear God's word. When men get
so smart and so educated that they outgrow the word of God. That's a sad day. That's a serious
thing. This nation, Judah, they refused
to hear God's word. And God said, I'm going to mar
their pride. And he did. But it was given
in an object lesson of the girdle. And then another object lesson,
if you look in chapter 24, and there's just many of them. I
just chose these two before we come to our text. But in chapter 24, he's given
an object lesson of two baskets of figs. And listen, this is kind of extra. As we think of these object lessons,
remember this, that God would speak to you and he would speak
to me. He uses these things, speaks
in very simple terms, simple lessons, analogies, and symbols
so that no one will be able to say, well, I couldn't understand
that. I couldn't understand that. What's
hard about understanding that about the girdle being marred?
Nothing, right? It's easy to understand. We're
all familiar with that. If you take a piece of cloth
and put it in the mud and come back after a few days, it's good
for nothing. And why? Because they refuse
to hear God's Word. And here in this chapter, chapter
24, in verses 1 and 2, The Lord showed me, and behold,
two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord.
After that, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away
captive Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and
the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths from Jerusalem,
and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs. even like the figs that are first
ripe, and the other basket had very naughty figs, extra ripe,
overripe figs, naughty figs, which could not be eaten. They
were so bad. One basket of good figs represented
those people that God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to carry into
Babylon. They were going to be there,
and they were going to be there 70 years, and they should pray
for the peace of Babylon. They should build houses and
be content there. They were going to stay there
for 70 years. Those good things, that's what
they represented. But the bad figs, they represented
those people that Nebuchadnezzar left in the land of Judah, and
after a few years, they rebelled, and so he comes back and destroys
them. And these bad figs represented
those who rebelled against God. They rebelled against God's will,
their punishment for their sin. and they would suffer pestilence,
famine, and the sword. Notice that in the next verse,
I believe it is. Then said the Lord unto me, What
seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs, good figs,
very good, and evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are
so evil. Again, if you dug down to verse
10, of that chapter. And I will send
the sword and famine and the pestilence among them till they
be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to
their fathers. These were the bad figs. They
rebelled after a few years and Nebuchadnezzar came back the
second time and that's when he burned the city. He destroyed
the city of Jerusalem. Now, if you will, go back to
chapter 35, our text. Who were the Rechabites? Who were these people that Jeremiah
was told to go into the house of the Rechabites and speak unto
them and bring them into the house of the Lord? Now, who were
they? Well, they were people who were
descended from Moses' father-in-law. In time, they had become associated
with the tribe of Judah only because they had lived in that
area, but they were not really of Judah. They were not really
Israelites. And God now is going to teach
Judah by the conduct of these people who were not Israelites,
who were not of the tribe of Judah. Their conduct, God would
use to teach them. Do you remember the girdle? That
girdle that was put upon the man? That's what God had done
unto the nation of Israel. Just like a man puts a girdle
around him, so the Lord You can read about this in Deuteronomy
chapter 7. So God chose the nation of Israel
and He made it cleave unto Him. He chose them because He loved
them and not because they were the greatest or the most numerous
people on the face of the earth, but because God would. He chose
them. He brought them to Himself. He
caused them to cleave unto Him. But these people, the Rechabites,
they were not Israelites. God, they were not part of the
chosen nation at all. They were part of a family that
Moses had told his father-in-law. He simply said, come along with
us and we will do you good. That's one thing for Moses to
tell someone, we will do you good. And it's something else
for God to say, I will do you good. But the point is, these
Reshavites, they were not part of God's chosen people. They
were people that God had allowed to live among the nation of Israel. Well, what was the object lesson?
Verses 3 through 8. What's the object lesson? Jeremiah
takes Jeazniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Hebezaniah, and his
brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites,
and brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber
of the sons of Hanan, the sons of Igdalaia, a man of God, which
was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of
the son of Shalom, the keeper of the door. And I set before
the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine
and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine. But they said,
We will drink no wine. For Jonadab, the son of Rechab,
our father commanded us, saying, You shall drink no wine, neither
you nor your sons forever. Neither shall you build a house,
nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any. But all your days
you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the
land where you are strangers. Thus have we obeyed the voice
of Jonadab, the son of Rachab, our father, and all that he hath
charged us to drink no wine all our days. We are wives, our sons,
and our daughters. They obeyed the command of their
father, Jonadab. These that Jeremiah was commanded
to bring into the temple, part of the temple there, and set
wine before them, bowls of wine and cups to drink that wine,
but they refused. They would drink no wine. Now,
let me remind us of this before I go any further. God cannot
be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. When Jeremiah
sets this wine before these people and tells them to drink, he does
so by God's command. This was not a temptation to
sin. It's one thing to drink wine,
and it's something else to be drunk with wine. That's the point
I want to make. In Ephesians, Paul said, be not
drunk with wine wherein is excess. And then in 1 Corinthians 6,
he names drunkards along with idolaters, fornicators, thieves,
and et cetera, who shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Wine
is a mocker. You read this in Proverbs chapter
20 in verse 1. Verse 1, wine is a mocker, strong
drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. So I want to establish that first
of all, that when Jeremiah set this wine before these people,
it was not a temptation to sin. It's one thing to drink wine,
it's something else to be drunk with wine. Every one of us should
understand that. You know, I knew a woman one
time and the doctor recommended, she was having trouble sleeping at night
and the doctor recommended her to drink a glass of wine. before
she went to bed at night. And, oh, she just thought that
was the worst thing he could have recommended. You know, there's
a drugstore full of narcotics, but for some reason, why? It's
the way she had been raised. And really, her religion, if
I can use that term, her hope of eternal life was based on
Touch not, taste not, and that kind of thinking. It was all
what she did not do. You see, salvation is not in
what we do not do. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And many people I know, and if
a person doesn't choose to drink wine, That's good. That's what this man chose to
do. And he commanded his descendants
not to drink any wine. But when Jeremiah sets wine before
these men, it's not a temptation to sin. And I just felt like
I needed to say that, need to make that as clear as I can.
The Bible does not prohibit drinking wine. Paul told Timothy, drink
a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and that often infirmities. The misuse of wine, yes, that's
spoken against, but not just the use of wine. Now, I want us to consider, this
is an object lesson. This is God doing this through
the prophet Jeremiah. Now, I want us to consider this
about these people who refused to drink wine and the nation
of Judah, the difference between them. First of all, the Rachavites
obeyed a man like themselves. You see, Jonadab, I don't care
how good a man he was. He may have been the greatest
man, the best man who ever lived, but he was still a man. And he
commanded his children not to drink any wine. But you know
it was true of Jonadab as it is true of you and me and every
man. As David said in Psalm 146 and
verse 4, his breath goeth forth. Have you ever been in the room
when a person has passed away? You know how their breathing
becomes more shallow and finally there's that last gasp Their
breath goeth away. And that's what death is, right? It's the separation from the
soul and the body. And the breath, it goes away. The soul goes away. He, that
is the body, returns to the earth. Now this is the point. In that
day, the day of that man's death, His thoughts perish. His thoughts perish. See, he's
just a man. No matter how good a thinker
he was, no matter how great a philosopher he was, in the day that he dies,
his thoughts perish. Why would anyone choose the thoughts,
the command of a man over the word of God which lives and abides
forever. That's what these people did.
They obeyed the command of a man while Judah, God's people, refused
His word. They disobeyed the eternal God. And second, the Rachabites obeyed
one who was dead and had no knowledge of their obedience or disobedience.
Jonadab, he's the man who gave them this command. Well, he died
and now years later, generations later, he doesn't know if his
descendants are obeying or not obeying because his thoughts
perished with him. But now Judah, they disobeyed
God who lives forever, and knows all things. Nothing may be hidden
from him. The Rechabites obeyed one from
whom, after he gave this command, they never heard from him again.
They never heard from him again. Once he gave this command and
died, that was it. He never spoke to them again.
But Judah disobeyed God Almighty, who is the truth, and who continued,
who continued, if you look in verse 15, to send message after
message. I have sent also unto you all
my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying,
Return you now, every man, from his evil way, and amend your
doings, and go not after other gods to serve them. And you shall
dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers. You see, Jonadab, he spoke, he
died, they never heard from him again. God gave Judah his word,
his command, and not only that, but he sent prophet after prophet
after prophet speaking unto them. And the Rechovites obeyed a man
who gave them a charge, but that was all he gave them. He just
gave them a charge. He said, drink no wine. Judah disobeyed God who had not
only given them his word, but had given them the land of Canaan. He had given them the land of
Canaan. That's the reason these Rechovites,
they dwelt in tents. They couldn't build a house.
They couldn't own any land. Why? Because they were not given
the land. God gave the land to the nation
of Israel, to Judah. It was their land. These people
were strangers, really, in the land. But yet, they obeyed the
voice of their father. While Judah Israel had been given
the land of Canaan. Remember when they went in, they
were given houses to dwell in that they did not build, to drink
water from wells they had not dug, to eat fruit from orchards
they didn't plant. It was all given unto them. But
now these people, they were not given any land. They had to dwell
in tents. The only reason they were in
Jerusalem at this time is because Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians,
had invaded the land and they had to come into Jerusalem for
safety's sake. But they had no inheritance in
the land. Well, my third point is what
can we take away from this object lesson? I have three things. First of all, the depravity of
man. That's the first lesson we should
take away from this object lesson, the depravity of man. Man fell
in the garden and his fall was not partial, it was total, total
depravity. And the fall, the original sin
affects every part of man. every part. We all inherit a
heart from our father Adam, which includes the mind, which includes
the will, and which includes the affections. What else, what
else, I ask you, what else could explain what is displayed here
other than the complete depravity of man? that man would believe
another man who when he dies his thoughts perish with him
and not believe God Almighty who is the truth. What could
explain that? Why would anyone Take the word
of a man over the word of God. Choose the word of a man. Obey
the word of a man over the word of God. There's only one explanation,
and that is because we all come into this world spiritually depraved. You know, some people, when they
hear that word depravity, they think, well, you're saying we
are all as bad as we could be. No, no. There's no doubt about
that. Every person is a Hitler, not
every person is a mass murderer, no. But let me say this, it's
only by the grace of God. But every man is totally depraved,
every woman is totally depraved. That is, we come into this world,
our mind is darkened, our understanding is darkened. And unless God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in the very beginning,
unless He shines in our heart to give us the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we will go out of this
world in darkness, spiritual darkness. And the same thing
is true about our judgment, our will. It's perverted. If you have your scripture still
open to this chapter, look at the end of verse 15. God told them, but you have not
inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me. These Rachabites, they had hearkened. They had inclined their ear unto
their father, but the nation of Judah, no. You know, the Lord
Jesus, when he was in this world, he said this. He said, I am come
in my Father's name, and you receive me not. If another come
in his own name, him you will receive. Now that's because man
is depraved. We'd rather believe another man
like ourself than to believe God Almighty, to trust God Almighty. We'd rather put our trust, our
confidence in a man like ourselves. It shows the depravity, the foolishness
in which we all come into this world. A second lesson we see
here is the long-suffering and patience of God. The long-suffering
and patience of God. If you notice at the end of verse
14, God said, I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking,
but you hearken not unto me. God demonstrated his patience,
his loving kindness, his long-suffering with the nation, sending prophet
after prophet after prophet unto them, but they would not hear. At the end of verse 17, he said, because I have spoken unto them,
but they have not heard, and I have called unto them, but
they have not answered. You know, we know, you and I,
those of us here, we know that God is absolutely sovereign in
all things. There's no question, there's
no doubt in our mind about that. But at the same time, the Bible
teaches not only his sovereignty, but man's responsibility. Man
is responsible to believe God. And in Proverbs chapter one,
we read of wisdom personified there. It is the Lord Jesus Christ
who had called, who had called, who had called, and men would
not respond. Men would not answer. And they
were responsible. for not hearing and not responding. It all comes down to this, that
God, He reveals Himself as a God, this is found in Nehemiah chapter
9, a God ready to pardon. He's ready. He's ready to pardon. Gracious. He's full of grace. Merciful. Slow to anger. And of great kindness, the scripture
says. And yet men, God speaks, God
speaks through other men, God speaks through His word, and
men close their ears. They will not hear. And you may
be like that here this morning. You will not hear. And you're
responsible. He's not going to believe for
you. God doesn't believe for anyone. He gives us faith to
believe, but you are the one who must believe. He doesn't
repent for you, you must repent. Yes, it's a gift, repentance
is. People say, well, I just can't
believe unless God, don't blame God, my friends. Don't blame
Him, yes. He calls and man should answer. And the last lesson for us is
the awful sin of unbelief. the awful sin of unbelief. You know, men, you and I and
men like us, we catalog sins. And I guarantee you, for the
most part, if you ask the average person, name me 10 sins, 10 sins,
it would be probably unusual the average man, if on that list,
you would find the sin of unbelief. You might find drunkenness, you
might find idolatry, you might find fornication, and yes, all
of these things are sins, but my friend, unbelief is a great
sin. Just stop and think about it,
if you will. Unbelief is what kept that nation
out of Canaan. The nation that God brought out
of Egypt, delivered them out of Egypt, but all of them who
were above 20 years old died in the wilderness except two
men, Caleb and Joshua. And what was it that caused the
death of all those others? Unbelief. Unbelief. Unbelief keeps God's children
from peace and rest. that only he can give us. Remember
he told that man, if thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believe it. And unbelief will keep you from
the forgiveness of your sins. I hope every person here hears
this. Unbelief will keep you from your
sins being forgiven. The Lord Jesus Christ, he said
that to a group of people one day. He said, except you believe
that I am, you will die in your sins. Unbelief. A wicked sin. And that's what
I take away from this lesson here. The depravity of man, believing
a man, rather than to believe God. The long-suffering, the
mercy, the kindness, the goodness of God, sending message after
message. And third, the awful sin of unbelief. I trust that none of us be guilty
of that sin. We want to sing a hymn, hymn
number 125,