May I please the Lord to bless
us together as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter 48, and we'll read verse 11. The prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter
48, and reading verse 11. Moab hath been at ease from his
youth, and he has settled on his leaves. and hath not been
emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity.
Therefore his taste remaineth in him and his scent is not changed." Moab were a people who worshipped
idols. They were a heathen people. and
we therefore have this statement from Almighty God against the
people of Moab. And as we think of the history
of Moab, they would have been very aware of who the true God
was, because they were very close to Israel, and looking back we
know that they came from Lot, although in of course a wrong
way, But yet they would have been, they must have been familiar
with those things which God had done for Israel over a number
of years, especially when they came out of Egypt and then through
the wilderness and when they came into Canaan. But we see
that in actual fact, they were aliens to the truth of God and
they were following their own way. We might think, well, surely
this is not a very gospel chapter, not a very gospel situation.
We've really come here this morning to hear the gospel. Well, it's
right, and we hope we will hear the gospel, but all the same,
we must recollect and realize that the whole word of God is
the word of God, and chapters like this in Jeremiah are not
to be skipped over and not to be avoided. And not to be said,
well, I don't think there's any relevance in reading the Word
of God like that. Because even in a chapter like
this, which speaks so clearly against the wrongdoings of the
Moabites, it's good instruction for us to be able to test our
religion against that which is spoken against in this chapter
we have before us. Well, we read it together, And
you may have noted, or you may not have noted, that there were
a number of occasions speaking clearly as to some of the sins,
some of the evils of which existed in the land of Moab. And we can read in the seventh
verse, the prophet told them, for because thou hast trusted
in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken. Kymos shall go forth into captivity
with his priests and his princes altogether. Well how very easy
it is for us even today to trust in our works and in our treasures. By that we may think that we
are relying upon perhaps our upbringing, perhaps our religious
knowledge, and the things that we perhaps think that we may
be doing for God, what it's always right to be occupied in the work
of the Lord. But we always need to have a
right motive, and how vital that is, and how we always need to
examine ourselves very carefully before God. Again, the Word of
God encourages us to examine ourselves. And we shouldn't think,
well, I'm a Christian, and I don't need to therefore examine ourselves.
We do need to constantly examine ourselves and the Word of God
tells us to see whether we are in the faith or not and whether
we are walking in accordance with the example set before us
in the Word of God, and whether our life and our desire is to
bring honour and glory to God, or whether we are concerned about
what people think of us, and that's more important really
than the glory of God. Well, it doesn't really matter
what people think of us anyway. We want to know what God thinks
of us, and how important it is that we are not left to a situation
when we are trusting in our works. There's only one place of trust
and that is to trust in the Lord. And that is to trust in the Lord
with all our heart and to not lean to our own understanding. We're not to trust in our own
abilities, in our own works, in our own treasures. And so
how important it is that we observe such a statement as this. And
I think, well, this was written to an evil nation. So it was. But my friends, it
has an application to, indeed, everybody. Because we should
not think that just because we live today in a so-called Christian
land, whether we are able to not consider such truths as this. Because without any doubt, In
the history of our nation, there have been those who trusted in
their works, and especially in the Church of God. Many people
have been relying on what they've done. And they think because
of what they've done, they will merit eternal life. They will merit a place in heaven. Well, we shall never be able
to merit a place in heaven. But we should be thankful that
God gives us place in heaven and he has reserved a place for
us in heaven not because of what we've done but because of what
he has done and therefore let us never be reliant upon our
works but let us always be reliant upon his works the works of the
gracious God the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that great
work of salvation is that then today what we what you and I
are trusting in his work, his finished work, or are we trusting
in our work like these Merbites were? For because thou hast trusted
in thy works." You know those people who were trusting in their
works, they were told to flee. Flee, save your lives, and be
like the heath in the wilderness. They were to flee away from such
considerations. And so we are to also flee away
from such considerations. And so we come down and the Word
tells us, Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully. Now that can be a very poignant
and very important consideration, that whether we are doing the
work of the Lord deceitfully. Perhaps we might explain that
as pretending to do the work of the Lord. But in actual fact,
we're not doing the work of the Lord. We're doing that work which
we think is of the Lord, and that work which will bring glory
to ourselves, rather than bringing glory to God. So is our motive
a deceitful motive? Or are we only concerned about
God's honour and glory? Cursed, says the Word, be he
that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, The heart is so
deceitful and God looks at our heart. God knows exactly what
we're thinking. He knows the reason for the many
things that we do. Sometimes it is important that
we do stop and we do sit down and we do desire that the Lord
might help us to examine our hearts to see whether we are
doing things in accordance with the will of God in his way or
whether we're operating in our way and concerned to do our will
to satisfy ourselves rather than to bring honour and glory to
God. Well, the Word tells us, here, cursed be he that doeth
the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth
back his sword from the blood. That means if we keep back the
true Word of God, the true doctrines of the Word of God, and whether
we try and keep them back because we think they may be offensive,
well, the Word of God, the Word of God is offensive to the unbeliever. We need to realise the importance
of not being amongst those who are called cursed. And so then
we come down to this 11th verse where Merv as a whole are classified
like this. They've been at ease from their
youth. And they've been settled down.
They've been at ease. They've been coasting along. If you look around, well, look
at ourselves first. Look around at the Church of
God. Are there those people who are just coasting along? They're
just at ease. Nothing really seems to move
them. They come and they go from the services. They're just at
ease and they're satisfied with it. It may have been like it.
They've been like it from their youth and they're continuing
in that situation. They've been at ease from their
youth. Well, I wonder whether you and
I have been at ease from our youth, whether we've just been
coasting along. The life of the true Christian
is not an easy life. Let us be very clear about that.
It's not an easy life. And if you're just coasting along
in your religion, you need to question whether the religion
is real. Because the Word of God gives us every encouragement
to believe and to understand that the life of a true Christian
is not one of being at ease, is not one of being just settled
down. It's one of opposition. It's
one of hardship. And it's a constant battle. And why is it a constant battle?
Because the devil wants us to settle down. The devil wants
us to just be at ease. He doesn't want us to consider
that we have any difficulties, any trials. He wants to dispense
with those and give us a very calm, easy life in this world,
so that we don't want to leave this world, so that we want to
settle down in this world, so that this world becomes our rest
and our home. But to the Church of God, The
people of God, the Lord doesn't allow that to happen. They're
not allowed to settle down. They are stirred up. Their spirit
is moved, it's stirred up to examine themselves and to have
their faith tested and their hope set before them in reality
as to whether it's a good hope or a false hope. Well, are we
today amongst those who are at ease from our youth, and have
been settled on our lees, and not been emptied from vessel
to vessel? Many people today, as I say,
are coasting along in their, inverted commas, religious life. And they think they're all right.
And they think they're doing a good job. And they think people
are thinking well of them. But you see, the Word of God
tells us, those that have no changes, they're not amongst
those that know the Lord. And therefore, you and I will
have changes. That means we'll have ups and
downs in our religious life. We'll have times of temptation. We'll have times of testing. And sometimes those temptations
may be very strong. And the devil knows what you
and I like to do in this world. He knows what attracts us, and
therefore he brings those temptations before us to test us and to try
and bring us onto his ground. Yes, and he'll tell us, well,
my ground's an easy ground. There's no difficulty, there's
no hardship, there's no obstacles, it's all smooth. It's an easy
path. But you see, the Lord brings
us then into those situations which test our religion. Whether
it's real and whether we are depending upon our works, whether
we're depending on what we've done, or whether we are depending
upon what God has done. That's the great difference,
the great reality. These Merbites, you see, they
had no room for God in their lives. They only had room for
themselves. My friends, have we got room
for God in our lives? Put it this way, if we've got
room for God in our lives, does God occupy our lives? Is he the needful one, the great
one? Or do we carry on like this,
being at ease from his youth? See, it's not a satisfactory
situation, is it? The Prophet goes on, he says,
Therefore, behold, the day has come, saith the Lord, that I
will send unto him wanderers. That means the enemy was wandering,
and indeed the enemy did come upon Moab. That shall cause him
to wander, to go away, to leave. And if the Lord leaves us, you
see how easy it is for us to wander away. Wander away, although
we may feel strong. You see, Moabites felt they were
strong. How say ye, we are mighty and
strong men for the war. They were relying upon their
own strength. Put it in a spiritual way, sometimes
people rely on their own spiritual knowledge. They rely on their
natural understanding of the Word of God. Now I'm not speaking
against that. It's good to have a right and
proper understanding of the Word of God. But the great fact is
that you and I need to know the great blessing that our strength
is not in ourselves, but our strength is in the Lord God. And we cannot say that we are
mighty. We have to say, in actual fact,
the very opposite. We are weak. And we are very
sinful. And we're not strong. And we're
not mighty. Indeed, the Word of God very
clearly tells us about those whom the Lord will indeed bless
and whom the Lord will favour. And it's not those who are mighty
and strong in their own estimation. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to the Corinthians, he tells us the situation when he said,
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to naught things that are, and he tells
us the reason for that. that no flesh should glory in
his presence. So may we be encouraged perhaps
in our spiritual life when we feel that we are not amongst
those who are strong and mighty in ourselves, but that we're
weak and we're foolish and we're ignorant and we need the strength
of God and we need the help of God and we're dependent upon
what the Lord does. And so to be able to come and
recognise that such a statement is so true of Moab and it may
have been true of us and it may be true of us today. You see,
the Lord looks in our heart. The Lord knows exactly what you
and I are thinking and what we're relying upon. Well, these Moabites,
they were reliant on their own might and their own strength. But you see, that was not adequate. Moab is spoiled and gone up out
of her cities and his chosen young men have gone down to the
slaughter Seth, the king whose name is the Lord of hosts. Here was Jeremiah speaking the
words of the Lord. What a wonderful blessing it
was that God should speak in this way. Jeremiah was able to
record it in this way as the great words of God and to be
able to speak Yes, whose name is the Lord of hosts Well, the
truth was that God was speaking through Jeremiah You know God
speaks to us tonight this morning rather through his prophets through
Jeremiah There are many words of great instruction in this
prophecy of Jeremiah, and we just need patience to just read
it carefully. The tendency is to pass over
Jeremiah and think, well, it's not a very helpful book. Well, it is a very helpful book,
and there's a great deal of instruction from it. But just remember that
when you read Jeremiah, the chapters are not always consecutive. They're
not in a consecutive sequence. Jeremiah does jump around. So
don't try and follow it through like that, but take sections
at a time and read it and recognize how the words were so appropriate
when they were written and they have been through the ages and
they still are today. To realize the truth of God's
word to us. Well, we come down in this chapter,
you know, Jeremiah speaks and he says, he says, the horn of
Moab, that means the strength of Moab is cut off. and his arm
is broken, saith the Lord. If our arm is broken, we can't
do very much, can we? We're pretty helpless then. And
so Maha was brought to this situation. And it may be that we need to
come down to a situation like this where our arm is broken,
our natural arm, our spiritual arm, rather, is broken. So we're
not relying on our own strength. See, God may come and do that.
Break your arm in a spiritual way. You've been relying on your
own knowledge and your own influence. influence, and God comes and
breaks that. So you can't rely on yourself,
you've got to rely on God. And so he goes on, making him
drunken, for he magnified himself against the Lord. So naturally
people magnify themselves against the Lord. They are really saying
from their heart that they will not have God to reign over them. They won't have God to reign
in their lives. They won't submit themselves
to the will of God. They won't submit themselves
to the will of God. Well that's appropriate, isn't
it? It was in Jeremiah's day, it's appropriate for us today,
isn't it? Just think of the great truth of that. to submit ourselves. What it means is we're magnifying
ourselves against the Lord. It means then that we're not
submitting ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may
exalt us in due time. What a blessing it is if God
gives us grace, and it is grace, and it's wonderful grace to come
and to submit to the will of God, that will of God for you
and me. It may be, of course, that in
our hearts we know what the will of God is, and yet we're just
coasting along, hoping that, well, we can somehow escape such
a route as that. Well, here is his statement.
For he magnified himself against the Lord. Mayab also shall wallow
in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. For was not Israel
a derision unto thee? Was he found among thieves? For since thou spakest of him,
thou skippest for joy. O ye that dwell in Moab, leave
the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that
maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth. We are to
leave a wrong city. We are to leave an idolatrous
place. And that doesn't just mean in
a physical way, that means in our heart. We are to leave idolatry
to one side. Moab, we're an idolatrous nation. And we by nature are an idolatrous
people. You know, we have idols in our
lives. Sometimes things we wouldn't
like other people to know, that we were in effect bowing down
to worship. But Mayab was like that, and
they had to leave that situation. And then the Lord comes and says,
we have heard the pride of Mayab. He is exceeding proud. Well, what a curse pride is. And we all suffer from it in
one way or another. What a curse is pride. The Lord
heard of the pride of Moab. The Lord knows the pride of your
heart and my heart. And that pride really is, again,
that we won't bow down, we won't submit ourselves to our God. It's because of pride. It'll mean that we might have
to change our lifestyle. It may mean that we have to do
things that we hadn't done before. It may mean that we have to stop
doing things that we've been doing. It means submitting to
our God. Well, here was my, which we're
told is exceeding proud. Now, what a blessing if the Spirit
of God convinces us of being exceeding proud. That's a painful
thing, isn't it? It's a painful thing to come
to that knowledge and think, Is that really speaking about
me? Is that arrow of conviction really piercing my heart? Is it really describing my situation? Am I really as bad as these people
of Mayap? We have heard the pride of Mayap. He is exceeding proud. Well again, wonderful blessing
if the Spirit of God, the grace of God, shows us something of
our pride. We've all got pride. Let us not
think we haven't. And if you think you haven't
got any pride, you better look carefully. You better have a good dig and
find out where it is. Because without any doubt, there
is pride. And it's not something to be
proud of. Pride you should not be proud
of. And then the Prophet says, his loftiness and his arrogancy
and his pride. Well, people can be very lofty
about what they think is the right knowledge of the things
of God. They despise people who perhaps don't have that same
knowledge. Well, we were all dead in trespasses and in sins. We all at one stage had no knowledge. I believe if God has given us
that true knowledge of himself, true knowledge of ourselves in
some small measure, that will break down our loftiness and
our arrogancy. We won't allow ourselves to be
confident in our own ability, in our own knowledge, because
we'll realise that all that we have and possess, God has given
to us. It's all of his light. It's all
of his favour. It's all of his blessing. And
we won't be able to go about with our head held up high. Remember
the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. What an extreme
difference. And here it is here, set before
us really. The publican. What was he? Lofty and arrogant, wasn't he?
Not like other men, as he said. No, he prayed so that everybody
would see him praying. See what a wonderful Christian
or Pharisee he was? Yes, he was so pleased with his
wonderful religion. Yes, he was lofty and arrogant
about it. And he was looking up. What was
the publican like? The tax collector? The despised
man like? What was he like? He didn't lift
up his head, did he? He hung his head down. He smote
upon his breast. And he cried out, God, be merciful
to a mere sinner. You see, he'd been a proud man.
A tax collector was a very proud and lofty man. But you see, God
had brought him down, brought him down to that low place where
he despised himself. He looked down and he cried out,
God be merciful to me a sinner. Now all of us today, we're either
Pharisees or we're Republicans in a spiritual sense. We're either
proud of our wonderful religion or we're ashamed of ourselves
and we cry out before God, God be merciful to me a sinner. I say we're all in one of those
two categories, you and I, and it'd be a great blessing if the
Spirit of God shows to us which category we're in because The
right category was those publicans, like the publican. And the Lord
said, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other. What a blessing that is to be
justified of our God, because of his grace, because of his
favour toward us, not because of what we have done, but because
of what he has done. And so how important it is that
we are able to analyse our own lives in accordance with the
word of God. You see we have such statements
as this, in a book like Jeremiah, which probably we don't, if we
have read, I hope we have all read it, but we may have read
it many times, but we may not have actually taken the things
to heart. We may have passed over them.
We may have thought, well, that was of course directed to the
Mabites and I'm not a Mabite and therefore it doesn't apply
to me. But the truth is, the whole Word of God is written
for God's people to be instructed, to analyse themselves, to see
whether they stand under the judgement of God, or whether
they are walking in a right way or a wrong way. And so here we
have this statement. We have heard the pride of Moab.
He is exceeding proud, his loftiness and his arrogancy and his pride
and the haughtiness of his heart. It's a very strong description,
isn't it? And we can think of a person like that, can't we?
We think, well, what a horrible person. And perhaps when the
Spirit of God comes to us, it comes to us like it did to David
when Nathan spoke to him, when David was up in arms about what
Nathan was saying. And Nathan said, by the influence
of the Spirit of God, thou art the man. You see, when the Word
of God comes and touches our heart, What it is, it's the arrow
of conviction. And it points to us. And we realise, yes, I'm that
guilty person. What a blessing, isn't it? When
God speaks to us through His Word. We don't just read the
Word of God and it goes over our head, but the Lord applies
the Word to our heart with power from on high. And then you see,
it's done some good. brought about some spiritual
profit in our lives. And so we see here this description,
and may God enable us to look at our own hearts to see whether
we have this description describing ourselves, proud, lofty, arrogant
and haughty. And then to bow down before God
and pray for forgiveness and pray that we may, instead of
being like these Mabites, that we may be made Christ-like. To be humble. Yes. To be diligent in our searching
in the truth of God. To follow that way of that despised
and crucified man. And to not look at ourselves,
but to look at the Saviour. And to realise there's our joy,
that's what we rejoice in, and we're proud of what the great
God has done. And we rejoice in His finished
work. and we see in ourselves failure,
we see in ourselves uselessness, but to realise that we have that
strength in our God. Well then, have we been at ease? Are we at ease today? Are we
settled down? Are we settled down? You know,
it's very easy to be settled down in our religion, but I believe
this, if we are the true Church of God, The Lord does not leave
us to be settled down. He doesn't allow us. We might
like to be, we may want to be, but we will find that if we are
settled down, then we're not very spiritually minded because
there isn't that prayer to God. There's no need to pray. We're
happy with our life. Everything's smooth. Everything's
good. What have I got to pray about? The Lord keeps his people
praying. And when the Lord keeps his people
praying, he keeps them in that situation which is rough very
often, and rugged, and difficult, and hard. You know, the true child of God
desires, however hard the way is, the Lord will lead them on. You see, we can do all things
through Christ that strengthens us. We can walk the rugged way. We can walk the hard way because
our faith stretches out and looks forward and looks to the end
of the road and realizes that the rugged path that we're having
to walk will eventually end in glory. there will be peace, and
there will be happiness, and there will be smoothness, and
there we shall be settled, and settled eternally in glory with
the Saviour. So you can really draw the analogy
that we're going to either have an ease and smooth path in this
life, and an eternity of terror and misery, or a difficult life,
a life with opposition and persecution and ruggedness and eternal glory
of ease and settlement with the Church of God forever and ever. Well, all of us will be in one
way or another, on one side or the other. What a blessing it
will be then if we are not allowed to be at ease, not allowed to
be settled down in our little life on this earth, but to recognise
the Lord is emptying us from vessel to vessel. And we may
have neither have we gone into captivity. You see, the true
Church of God have been in captivity and delivered out of captivity.
See, the unbeliever is in captivity. They don't realise it. They think
they're free. They're captive by the devil.
What a blessing it is to be set free by the grace of God and
look forward to that enjoyment of peace and perfect peace. And so here we have this chapter
and of course we come down to the end. The very last verse
is a verse of wonderful encouragement. The Prophet here says, yet, having
spoken of all those difficulties that were coming on Moab, which
they deserved and would occur, yet will I bring again the captivity
of Moab in the latter days, saith the Lord. The Lord would come
and would grant a blessing and grant a favour. And what a good
thing that is for us, who looks upon us and brings upon a blessing
in our souls. and turns us away from what may
have been, or may be, a life of ease and settlement and the
things of this world, to realise that the Lord God has a favour
toward us, and he's dealing with us, the sons and daughters of
the Most High God, and he's pointing out to us our true situation,
our sad situation, and directing us to seek unto him to cast all
our care upon him and to pray that we may be found in that
right way, that narrow way which leads to eternal life. So we
may be able to praise and bless our God for his love and mercy
toward us in not leaving us to ourselves, not leaving us to
be at ease and settled in an ungodly situation, but brought
to that knowledge of ourself and himself as a great and glorious
saviour, as that God of all grace. Amen.