Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the 8th chapter of the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 8. I'd like to read verses 1 through
7, and then I'm going to preach out of Basically, verses 6 and
7. Jeremiah 8, verse 1. At that
time, saith the Lord, and let me, before I finish reading this,
these first few verses, 3, 4, is the Lord allowing the enemies
of Israel to come in and desecrate the land. And their graves have
been desecrated. And actually, it's the judgment
of God on Israel so that you'll understand basically what's going
on. Alright. At that time, saith
the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah,
the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones
of the prophets, the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
out of their graves. And they shall spread them before
the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they
have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have
walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped. They shall not be gathered, nor
be buried. They shall be fordone upon the
face of the earth. And death shall be chosen rather
than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil
family. which remain in all the places,
whether I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts. And moreover,
thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Shall they fall,
and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to they refused
to return. I hearkened and heard, but they
spake not a right. No man repented him of his wickedness,
saying, What have I done? Every one turned to his course
as the horse rusheth into the battle. Yea, the stork in the
heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle in the
crane, and the Swallow, observe the time of their coming, but
my people know not the judgment of the Lord." Let's pray together. Our Father, this evening we call
upon You in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and O God of heaven
and earth, have mercy upon us. Lord, would you reveal yourself
to us afresh this evening through the gospel. Lord, would you teach
us by your Holy Spirit of Christ. Lord, speak to our heart through
your Word. Ignite our heart. Revive our
heart. Cause us to see. Cause us to
know. Lord, we pray for Mary and Donnie,
those that are suffering. Lord, I pray. Have mercy upon
us. Teach us. Order our steps aright
for Christ's sake. Amen. When man fell in the garden, something happened. The scripture says he died spiritually. I wonder how many times we've
heard that statement made. How many times have you, since
the Lord called you out of darkness, how many times do you think? We just wouldn't be able to count
them, would we? Man died spiritually in the garden. But now let me ask you this. Do you believe it? Do you truly
believe that man is spiritually dead? I can tell you that in
part, with some understanding, the apostle says we know in part. We prophesy in part. There are
things that I just don't know. The Lord has not revealed to
me. I don't know. There are some things that God
reveals and some things He doesn't reveal. We know in part, prophesy
in part, we know though. We know though, seeing through
a glass darkly, we know something. We don't know the depth of our
depravity, but we know something of it. No person, this side of
glory, could ever say, I understand the fullness of my depravity.
No, no you don't. No you don't. But a believer
does know. But when the Holy Spirit gives
a man, a woman, a new heart, they know this to some degree,
that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.
But for every person unregenerated by God's power and grace, There
is absolutely no knowledge of his spiritual impotency. He's got a conscience that knows
right from wrong. He knows something about the
law is written on his heart. He knows right from wrong, but
that he is actually spiritually impotent. No power whatsoever. Man by nature does not know that
he is dead in trespasses and sins. There is an old man in
him that thinks, that justifies himself. He thinks somehow. You talk to an unbeliever. And
I'm telling you, they've got some kind of hope. They'll give you some reason. But the Scripture reveals that
man is dead. Born dead. And I'll tell you
the evidence of that death. Now you write this down. Here's
the evidence of death. He doesn't care. He does not
care. Now, every animal, and Scripture
proves this. I can make good on this statement
with verse 7 right here. Every animal that is born into
this world is born with an instinct that prompts self-preservation. Exposed to danger. The Scripture
says, yea, the stork In the heaven knoweth her appointed times. The turtle, or turtles of, and
the crane, and the swallow, they observe the time of their coming,
but my people know not the judgment of the Lord." You can start watching
about this time of year. You can start watching birds
flying south. Man, I remember about years ago
in Louisiana, man, I'd see birds that came from up north. We never
saw them except in the, you know, starting toward wintertime and
things like that, heading south. You get around cattle. You get
a big storm coming up. Something's coming up. My dad was raised out of northeast
Mississippi. He'd watch the ant hills, wouldn't
he, Mama? He'd watch the anthills, and
when ants started building a taller anthill, he said, it's going
to get cold. Winter's coming. There's an instinct
in an animal that knows how to be sensitive to the approaching
danger. The seasons of winter, storms,
they react, they flee to a safe haven. They flee to that when
they see danger. But the Scripture reveals that
man is oblivious to his true danger. He'll react to natural
peril. They say a hurricane is coming
and he'll put a piece of plywood on his window. I'm not saying he doesn't. He'll
do something temporary. But to his eternal peril, he
doesn't care. The last part of verse 8, he
said, but my people know not. That is, they recognize
not. They acknowledge not the judgment,
the verdict of the Lord. What verdict is that? verbalized it. The judge of all
the earth is going to do right. God Almighty said, I'm a just
God. Soul that sinneth is going to
die. And man left to himself, he doesn't
care. He's just blindly, he's oblivious
You hear it, he hears it. I told you this, I'm sure. Brother
Henry, I heard Brother Henry say one time, tell a man, a woman,
that they have a terminal disease. You let a doctor tell a man or
a woman, you're going to die. And I'm telling you, that hits
you. I mean, you hear that. for yourself
or for one of your loved ones, and you're thinking, oh my. I
mean, you just go to pieces. But you let Almighty God tell
an unbeliever that without Christ, he's going to die eternally.
And he doesn't care. You tell a man that you're going
to spend eternity separated from God where the worm dieth not,
and he doesn't care. There's nothing within him to
care. There's nothing there to cause
him to spiritually care. Now, humanly speaking, like Satan
told the Lord, skin for skin, you know, I'm kind of partial
to this body. You know, I want to take care
of it. If I'm sick, I want some medicine. You know, I'll go see
a doctor. But to my eternal soul, that
shows you the evidence of deadness. There's nothing there. I've got
a human soul, a human intellect, and it's aware. It's aware of
some kind of danger, and I react spiritually though. There is
no fear of God. No fear of judgment. The Holy
Spirit, though, moved upon the prophet Jeremiah to speak concerning
Israel's rebellion. Look at verse 5, Jeremiah 8,
5. Why then? The Lord had allowed this enemy
to come in and had desecrated the graves of Israel's kings
and princes and priests and opened up those graves, grave robbers,
whatever they were doing. They desecrated the graves, looking
for treasure. They took them and just threw
the bones out and left them out there, desecrated them. God was
saying that it was judgment that God would send to them. And then
he says, why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by
perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit They refuse
to return. Men by nature are resolved to
hold to their rebellion. They think somehow, somehow,
they think that God is deceived. They think somehow that this
is just like an ostrich, just stick your head in the sand And
if you're not able to see the danger around you, then it's
not really there. But they're on exposing their
own deception. They hold fast, the Scripture
says, to deceit. They hold fast to deceitful preachers. They have itching ears. The Lord
said, My people love to have it so. But God knows. Look at verse 6, "...I hearkened
and heard, but they spake not aright. No man repented it, no
man changed his mind, no man thought differently of his wickedness,
saying, What have I done? Everyone turned to his course
as the horse rusheth into the battle, headlong, bullets flying,
Cannons roaring, bombs bursting, men dying, and that horse just
kept going, kept going. None spoke a riot. No man repented. No man said,
what have I done? That question that the Lord laid
to the people, I read that and it intrigued me. No man said,
what have I done? No man called himself into account
before God. They just rested in their rebellion,
their sin, and had no pity upon themselves. Nobody said, what am I doing? No one was astonished at his
iniquity. No one questioned himself as
to why. There was no fear of God before
my eyes. No unbeliever ever asked, ever
with impending danger in eternity and watching other people die. We're going to die. This is not
the end of it here. The end of this life is not the
end of it. I mean, you die. Brother Scott
said dying in this life is the easy part. Then the judgment. But just think of this. The Lord
is saying concerning the rebellious, those that were bent, on backsliding
and holding fast to deceit that refuse to return. You've never
heard an unbeliever say, why have I hated the Lord like I
have? No believer has ever asked that.
Why? What have I done resisting the
Holy Spirit? What have I done? ignoring His
providential warnings. These storms and diseases. No unbeliever has ever said,
what have I done in not seeking after God in these Scriptures?
God has given me a Bible. People will say, I believe this
Bible cover to cover. And they don't even know what
it says. No man ever says, what have I
done? No man in unbelief has ever said,
what have I done wasting God's gifts to me? Why have I been
so unthankful in hearing the gospel? What have I done not
seeking the Lord before anything else, before my days started? What have I done? Why do I not
call upon Him? Why do I not speak of His mercy
to others? No man repented Him of His wickedness,
saying, What have I done? You don't know why? Because He
doesn't want to. He's dead. He's dead. Here is the miracle of God's
grace. When God is pleased to move upon
an object of His mercy, when He, that is, the Holy Spirit,
the Comforter, is come and reproves or convinces the world of God's
elect, not all the world, that world that the Lord Jesus Christ
said, I don't pray for the world, I pray for those that you've
given me out of the world. But when the Spirit of God, the
Comforter, and in mercy and grace and compassion, He comes and
He imparts life and He reproves God's people of sin and righteousness
and judgment. When the Lord's people, now they
possess a new heart and a new spirit that's put within them.
And when the Spirit of God blesses through the preaching of the
gospel of God's free grace, and gives them that understanding
of who they are as being born in Adam, and they're made willing
in the day of God's power, when that sinner then is made to see
something of his rebellion before God and his need of a Savior,
when he beholds the Lord Jesus Christ Come into this world,
God Himself, made in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
for the payment of it, for the answering to it, of its debt
before God, for God's people, laying down His life, establishing
righteousness in which the Lord robes His people when they are
made to see that. They see what they are. Then
they cry, what have I done? What in the world have I done? Seeing the justice of Almighty
God poured out upon His precious Savior in that substitutionary
death, seeing what He has done, I ask myself, what have I done?
My friend, I ask myself that every day. What have I done? How can I be so insensitive to
Him? How can I think the way that
I... How can I act and react? Not before the world, but before
God's people. What have I done? When Almighty God gives a new
heart, the believer, like David, cries against thee and thee only,
have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight? Here is as good
a Scripture and example as I can think of. That prodigal son,
you already know what I am going to say now, but I will go ahead
and say it. That prodigal son give me what is coming to me.
Far country, wasted it all in riotous living. Reduced to nothing. And the scripture says, and when
he came to himself. Now there's regeneration right
there. He came to himself. Almighty
God gave him an understanding. This is what you are. You're
a rebel. You're a rebel. You're a rebel
against God. And what happened? You know what
he said? What have I done? I will arise and go to my Father,
and I will say unto Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before Thee. I am not worthy to be called
Your Son anymore. Make me as a hired servant. What
have I done? Oh, but to that one that Almighty
God gives a heart to cry out for mercy. Have I done that same
Scripture of that prodigal son? That father saw him coming afar
off and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Can you imagine
that, boy? Oh, I don't deserve your kisses. After what I thought and what
I said and how I acted before you, and took what you had so
graciously provided for me and treated it as it was nothing. What have I done?" Oh, but in
mercy, that still small voice, the voice of the Master Himself. I was reading that Scripture
today. It said, My sheep hear My voice. I know them. and they follow me. And I think,
Lord, as You do speak to Your people, as You do in mercy speak,
You said You do, and You said we hear, and we do hear. You
hear the voice of mercy. It's by the mercy and grace of
God that any man would say, what have I done? But listen to me. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners, to save those that He brings to save in their
heart to Him in repentance. What have I done? Now, by the
grace of God, what can a believer say he has done now? I've come
to Him. I've cast all of my care, all
of my hope for life and eternity upon Him. And according, Lord,
to Your Word, having given me a heart made willing in the day
of Your power, that Word that cannot fail, that Word that shall
not fail, that Word that endures forever, You said, Lord, Him
that cometh to me. I will in no wise cast out. What have I done in myself? I have sinned against God. I
have taken the preciousness of His mercy before He gave me a
new heart, and I treated it as if it were nothing. And you said,
Lord, You are a merciful God. Oh, but by Your grace, You have
given me a heart to cast myself upon You. What have I done? I trust Him. I have no confidence
in myself. Lord save me or I'm going to
perish, for Christ's sake. Amen.