Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 6. If I had a title this morning for
the message, it would be the depravity of man the religion of depravity, and
the gospel. Those are the three things I
want to bring out this morning that I want you to see from this
passage of Scripture. The depravity of man, the religion
of depraved men, and then the gospel of Jesus Christ. Okay,
first of all, look at this. In verses 1 through 8 in Jeremiah
6, the Lord, by the mouth of the prophet, gives the word of
warning. A word of warning. He says, you
children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the
midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet of Tekoa, and set
up a sign of fire in Beth-hasserim. For evil approaches out of the
north, and great destruction. Here, Benjamin, remember, was
one of the two tribes of the south. There were twelve tribes
in total. Ten were divided into the northern
tribes, which is called Israel, and they had been destroyed. The Assyrians had already come
in and conquered those ten tribes. There only remained two now,
Judah and Benjamin. And you remember Benjamin, instead
of going with the ten tribes, decided to go with Judah. Because
Judah had the Word of God. They had the worship of God.
And so Benjamin knew this. And Benjamin followed Judah,
which was worthy of praise. They followed Judah. They followed
the worship of God. But now, something's happened. Judah has become a cesspool of
iniquity. Jerusalem, where the temple and
the worship of God was, now false gods had been introduced into
the temple. It was a place of false gods. The temple and worship of God
had been corrupted, and God, who tells Benjamin, who once
clung to Judah, now to flee from Judah. Benjamin, flee from Jerusalem,
which is now corrupt and full of false gods, because there's
danger coming from the north, which he means Nebuchadnezzar.
God was going to send judgment on Judah and Benjamin. He was
going to send judgment for their rebellion and their despising
of the worship of God, their corruption. He's going to send
it from the north. And this is a message, my friend,
of urgency. This is a message of an urgent
condition. God says, gather yourselves together
and flee. I'm going to bring destruction
from the north. You need to gather yourselves
and you need to get out of here. You need to flee. Message of urgency. He says of
these two cities, Tekoa And Beth-hasarim, he said, blow the trumpet from
Tekoa and set up a fire on the top of Beth-hasarim. See, they didn't have cell phones.
They didn't have ways of communicating that an invasion was coming by
the way we do. So how did they communicate this?
They had cities on top of hills. And this one city, Tekoa, it
had the trumpet. trumpet was to sound. It was
a trumpet of warning. It had a distinct sound. It wasn't
joyful. It wasn't happy. It was a sound,
a very low-sounding trumpet to warn the people of an invasion.
And on the other hill, they had this fire set up, this wood that
set this fire up. And when the enemy was coming,
they'd light the fire so everyone could see. So you got both deaf
and blind people covered, right? If they were blind, they sure
could hear the trumpet. If they were deaf, they sure
could see the fire. So the Lord was setting up a
warning that he was sending judgment. They lit these signal fires and
blew the trumpets for the approaching enemy. Listen to me. I am here
today on the top of Tekoa and Beth Hasseri, this morning I'm
going to sound a very low sound, and I'm going to set on fire
the Word of God this morning to warn you. I am set for a warning. A warning. I am here on the wall
and I am sin of God to sound the trumpet of warning and to
light the signal fire before your eyes. Listen to me. This
is not a happy thing. This is a very sad condition. God is coming. God is coming
in judgment upon sinners. This is a fact. This is not a
speculation. This is not with disputation.
I'm here not to debate this with you. I'm not here... I'm here
to warn you. To warn you. As Judas sinned
against God, even so have we sinned against God. And God will come in judgment
upon all sin. I'll ask you a question that
is asked in the Scriptures. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Will he who is holy and just
blind his eyes to the punishment of sin? Do you suppose that God,
who is holy, holy, holy, shall somehow overlook your sin? Do you suppose that God will
be unjust like you? See, you and I are unjust. That
is just so. We overlook a lot of things. And we consider ourselves to
be very tolerant people, don't we? We overlook someone else's
sin, and we say, look how tolerant I am. Oh, God should be like
me. That's what the sinner thinks,
that God should be somehow like them, that he should overlook
my sin like I overlook somebody else's. I tell you, God's nothing
like you. God is nothing like you. God
is not unjust. Consider how stern God is. Consider
how holy God is. That when God descended upon
Mount Sinai, He set the whole mountain on fire. And then He
told Moses, He said, you set up borders around this mountain.
You set up landmarks. You set up barricades around
this mountain. And He said, if one person were
to step their foot over onto this mountain, you kill them. You pierce them through that
they die. Does that sound like God's playing? You think God's playing. You
think somehow God's gonna just overlook this, that this is just
gonna go by. Everything's gonna work out all
right for you. No, friend, it won't. Consider
how that when David, with all his sincerity of heart, brought
that ark of the covenant down on the new cart. He brought that
ark of the covenant down the way that he thought was most
religious, most ceremonial, most sincere. And he went with all
this praise and music. You know what stopped the music?
When the ox stumbled and the ark fell. A man named Uzzah put
his hand out to steady the ark, and God struck him dead. Now
you worship God with all the sincerity of heart you want to. You can worship with all the
musical instruments and all your good works and all your good
deeds, but I tell you, if you put your hand to the work of
salvation in any part, God will strike you dead. and you will
go to hell. O sinful man, consider thy God
is the thrice holy God with whom you and I have to do. A lot of times my children come
to me and they've got problems. And they say, Daddy, take care
of this for me. Would you take care of this for me? And I do,
I try to take care of my children, try to help them out in any way
I can. Listen to me, nobody's gonna
take care of you before God. You ain't gonna be able to say,
well, my mama did. No, you. And I individually will
deal with God. God will deal with you. And He
will deal with us in strict, holy justice. How then shall you and I stand
before such a God? The psalmist asked the question,
who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand
in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. Go ahead, ask yourself if you've
got that. Go ahead, ask yourself and be honest. Do you have a
clean hands? Are you without sin? How then
will you stand before God? Now notice in your text, I want
you to see something. This is sarcasm. God is using
sarcasm here. In verse 1 he says, O children
of Benjamin, gather your armies. That's what he's saying. Gather
your armies and run. Gather your armies And run. Why? Look what he says in verse
2. He said, I have likened the daughter
of Zion to a comely and delicate woman. He said, your armies are
nothing more than pretty and soft women. That's all you are. Your army is about as strong
as a pretty, delicate woman. A woman who's been taken care
of, who's never seen the outside of the home. A woman who has
never put her hands to any work. You are a soft, dainty woman.
And notice what God says. He says, I'm going to send shepherds. The shepherds with their flock
shall come unto her, and they shall pitch their tents against
her round about. They shall feed everyone in his
place. See? Judah, Benjamin is looked
upon as a delicate woman, but the nation of Babylon is looked
upon as hard men. Shepherds were not these kindly
old men you see, but these were hard men. These men that lived
out into the wilderness all their life, they'd never seen the inside
of a house. That's where they lived. These
were hard men. And He said, your army is a soft
woman. These men are hardened warriors and they're coming to
get you. I'm sending them and they're
going to destroy you. These generals and kings, were
warriors, veteran warriors, and their sheep, their army was like
sheep in multitudes and loyal. These men were loyal to the king
of Babylon. And they would come upon Jerusalem.
Look at this. This is what they determined. They said, prepare your war against
her. Arise, let us go at noon. In other words, they want to
go in the middle of the day. They're ready to go now. Do you not see
that God says, My judgment is ready now? Just as He had prepared Babylon
to destroy Judah, even so God's judgment is ready to fall on
you. The justice of God is ready to
cut down the sinner as soon as he is conceived, but That didn't happen. Notice this
in your text. It didn't happen as they wanted
it to. It says, Woe unto us, for the
day goeth away, and the shadows of the evening are stretched
out. Arise, let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
What is this speaking to us of? The justice of God is ready to
fall on you, but the longsuffering of God is evident now. Listen to me, you still have
life. Solomon said, better is a live
dog than a dead lion. In life there is hope. And listen to me, while you're
alive now and hearing the warning of God, God is being long-suffering
to you. God is being long-suffering to
you. May God show you your end. May God open your eyes and your
ears to hear the warning. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, the judgment. You who have sinned against God, God says, you gather all your
excuses together. You gather all your good works
together. You gather all your self-righteous
deeds together. And what does he say? You try
to defend your souls with it, you'll die. You're fools. The Lord declares that Babylon
will come and destroy Judah. As easily as a man would pluck
grapes, look at that in verse 9, the Lord of hosts says this,
they shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine. How easily did Babylon come in
and destroy Judah? He says it was as easy as a man
putting his hand down and plucking grapes. How much easier is it
for God to destroy you? All God has to do is withhold
your breath, and you will face God. You will. This morning, I am giving you
a warning. The trumpet is sounded, the fire is lit, and I tell you,
flee from the wrath to come. Flee! I am the watchman. I am sent of God to warn you. It is not a pleasant sound, is
it? But I warn you, God is coming. I remember hearing a message
a long time ago by Brother Ralph Barnard. He talked of the rich man in
hell. He said the rich man, his body
was buried. His eyes were rotten. They were already turned to dust.
His brain had already been eaten by worms. And yet Abraham said
to that rich man in hell, Son, remember. Listen to me, if you
die in your sins, you'll always remember my voice. Because I'm the one that warned
you. And my hands are free of your
blood. I've warned you. Flee. Flee. But you that will not hear, look
at you here in verse 10. God shows you what depravity
really is. I've just warned you. God shows
you who will not hear. He says this, To whom shall I
speak and give warning? that they may hear. Behold, their
ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken. Behold, the word
of the Lord is unto them a reproach. They have no delight in God's
Word." Listen to me, sin or flee? And you say, where? Where shall
I flee? Flee to Jesus Christ. Flee to Christ. He is the only
refuge for sinners. He is the only refuge for sinners.
Don't wait. Flee now. Come now to Christ. Come alone. Come with only your sins. Come
and bow down, confessing your sins, confessing who you are,
and believe on Christ. Rest in His blood and His righteousness. He is the refuge for sinners.
His flesh, He says, is meat indeed, and His blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood shall never thirst,
never hunger and thirst, for what righteousness What you need
is what you cannot provide. You cannot provide righteousness.
You need righteousness, but you can't provide it. I'm pointing
you to one who can. Jesus Christ alone. He alone
can provide righteousness. I tell you to flee to Him right
now. Eat His flesh. Drink His blood. What does that
mean? That's spiritual language. It's not fleshly. It's not talking
about eating the cracker or drinking the wine. What it's talking about
is faith. Believing and trusting in Christ
alone. That's salvation. In that there's
a refuge for sinners. Yet you hear this word and you
say, You hear this word and you have
no delight in it. Why? Even because you cannot
hear it. You cannot hear it. The reason man will not flee
from the wrath of God is because they do not believe in the wrath
of God. The reason a man will not come
to Christ for mercy is because he doesn't need mercy. This, my friend, is the depravity
of man that he is born dead, and no matter how clear the warning,
he cannot hear it. Sinner, God says in verse 11,
He says, I'm full of fury. Does that sound like the God
of this world? Does that sound anything like the God of this
world? The God everybody runs around saying, smile, God loves
you. Oh, everything's gonna be okay. Don't worry about this. Jesus died for everybody and
it's all right. God says, I'm full of fury and
I'm weary of holding it back. I'm weary of holding it back.
I will pour it out. And God says in verse 13, He'll
pour it out on the young and the old. He'll pour it on regardless
of who you are. God says, I will pour out my
vengeance on every sin. Hear the Word of God, the justice
of God will be poured out, and it will not stop until it's satisfied. You know why people are in hell
today and will be in hell forever? Because justice is never satisfied
with their death. That's why hell's forever. Because
God's never satisfied with your death. And so I tell you to flee. And
where do these who who hear this on the surface. Some of you are going to hear
this on the surface and you're going to be a little afraid. You may
have some twinge of guilt. You may feel something inside
saying, oh man, I'm in trouble. I don't know what to do. But
instead of fleeing to Christ like I told you, you'll do this.
You'll flee to another religion. Look at this in verse 14. This
is the false religion of the depraved. Verse 14 it says, They,
meaning the priests and the prophets, the false priests and prophets,
they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people
slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. When a depraved man hears the
warning of God's coming judgment and he starts to feel in his
conscience some guilt, what does he do? He's afraid of hell. He doesn't want to go to hell.
This morning as I preach to you the justice of God, none of you
desire to go to hell. I know that. I know that. you begin to feel some guilt
and you're afraid of hell and these people you know they really
don't want to go to heaven but they sure don't want to go to
hell i've heard that before i've heard someone say you know uh...
heaven man you know it kind of sounds boring all you do is sing
and you know but i sure don't want to go to hell so i guess
i'll take that as an alternative so what do you do They go about
and they try to find someone to make them feel better and
soothe their conscience. That's what false religion does.
False religion only soothes the conscience, but it cannot heal
the soul. I remember when I was first made
aware of hell. I remember it vividly. I was
at a church camp. And the preacher was preaching
and I heard him say, there was this message, he was preaching
from Mark. He said that he that believeth not shall be damned. And I mean, that scared the life
out of me. I did not want to go to hell.
So what did I do? I went out and called my mom.
I knew that if anybody would give me some consolation, it
would be mama. So I called Mama. And I said,
Mama, I'm afraid of going to hell. And what did she do? She
said, Oh, it's okay, son. Everything's gonna be alright.
She did what any mama would do. She tried to console her child.
She tried to comfort me. She said, Don't worry. Everything's
gonna work out fine. You're not going to hell. It's
gonna be okay. Just like a mama normally does. Praise God that I was not allowed
to be comforted with that. Parents and grandparents, friends,
listen to me. Let's not be so quick to give
comfort to anyone who does not profess faith in Christ. Do not
be quick to give anyone comfort. No matter how our hearts want
them to believe, no matter how it pierces our hearts, lest we
should become one of these false prophets who cry, peace, peace,
when there is no peace. You will only heal their hurt
slightly. For a season they may go away
thinking they have peace, but soon they'll wake up in hell.
And what good was your word to them then? Religion of depraved men is one
that says, smile, God loves you, everything's all right. God has
a plan for your life and it's all good. It's all good. Everything's gonna be fine. Jesus
died for you, smile, it's okay. Jesus forgives you all your sins. I tell you, this is not true
for all men. Did you hear me? That's not true
for all men. God does love some men. And His
love is an eternal love. It's an unchangeable love. It's
an immutable love. He has set His affection on them,
and nothing will move God's love from them. But I tell you, God
has not set His love on all men. The love of God is as immutable
as God is. Therefore, if God has loved you,
He will never cease to love you. God's love does not extend to
those souls who are in hell, for God is angry with the wicked
every day. I tell you, God does have a plan
for your life, but that doesn't give, unless you're in Christ,
that don't give you any comfort. I tell you this, listen, he had
a plan for Judas' life too, didn't he? He had a plan for King Saul's
life, didn't he? He had a plan for the prophet
Balaam's life. But all of these men were vessels
of wrath fitted for destruction. There is no peace in the message
of this religious age. That it's all going to work out
for good. No, the Scripture gives no promise to all men that it's
going to work out for good. It only gives for the elect.
The Scripture says all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Those who are His elect, all
things are going to work out good. Nor does God promise forgiveness
of sins of all men. Universal atonement, listen,
universal atonement and universal love of God and the goodwill
of God to all men without exception is a lie that only heals slightly. The false gospel of today only
heals the wounds of sin slightly. It says peace, peace, when there
is no peace. I'll illustrate it like this. My dad, you know, had a wound
in his foot. And they went to the wound doctor,
they cut out all the flesh, the bad dead flesh. And they did
this. And they bandage it up. They
come back and they cut around the wounded flesh, the bad flesh,
cut it out and then bandage it up. They did this for 11 weeks. And all of a sudden the flesh
became callous over his wound on his foot. The flesh calloused
over. It looked real smooth. It looked
real like, hey look, this is healing. This is healing. Everything
looks good. The problem was it wasn't the
outside. He had an infection on the inside. And all that covered over flesh
just covered over the infection. You know what ended up happening
is they amputated part of his foot because the infection was
down to the bone. In order to save his life, he
had to cut off. They had to cut off the foot.
Sin or the wound of sin is deeper than an outward transformation
or reformation. False religion tells you, you
just need to change, you just need to get better. No! You'll never get better on your
own. You cannot make yourself better. Jesus said, you are nothing more
than painted tombs, on the outside beautiful, But on the inside,
you're dead. Sinner, you don't need reformation. You need regeneration. You don't need to turn over a
new leaf. You need a whole new tree. and only God can give it to you. There is no amount of religious
works or decisions that you can make to make you righteous before
God. Now, you can cover it up, you
can dress it up, you can change your habits, be a better person,
be a better citizen, but this will not give you peace with
God. For in your flesh dwelleth no good thing. I've often wondered how much
those people make that put makeup on corpses. They must make a
pretty penny of that. They take that dead body and
they put a nice dress on it and they put lipstick on it and they
put eyeliner on it and they try to make it look as life, full
of life as they can. That is exactly what false religion
does. It paints the corpse, but it
cannot give life. So then where then is there hope?
Look at verse 16. Here it is. The gospel. The gospel. Stand you in the ways, and see,
and ask for the old path, Where is the good way? And walk
therein, and listen, you shall find rest for your souls. Here is the hope, the hope of the gospel. This is not for all men. But
for those who stand in the ways and ask for the old paths, the
good paths, behold, sinner, the horn and the fire of judgment
has been sounded before you. Judgment is coming. There is
no hope in yourselves. Therefore, count the cost. Are
you able to stand before God with your righteousness? Can you who are full of sin justify
yourselves before a thrice holy God? And why will you turn to religion
of works that can only soothe your conscience but not give
you life? Listen to me. Come now. Come now and stand
in the old paths. This gospel I preach to you is
nothing new. You that have been coming for
a while, you know this, I'm not here to
preach novelties. I'm not a very good storyteller. All I'm here to do is to rehearse
in your ear a very ancient gospel. A message that began with God
from eternity. Come now and stand in the old
paths. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This gospel is not new, but old
as God. The gospel never begins with
man and works to God, but always begins with God and works to
man. How does the Scripture begin?
Very first verse in all Scripture. In the beginning, God. Do you not see that even the
Bible begins with God? And I tell you, it ends with
God. I am the Alpha and Omega, the
first and the last. God is the Gospel. It was God who in sovereign free
mercy chose a people and loved them. It was God the Father who
purposed and decreed His people should be holy and should stand
before Him in love. He predestinated them to be saved
by His sovereign free grace. Therefore, because of His love
and decree, the Father gave all of the elect to His Son. And Jesus Christ became responsible. Therefore, in the order of time,
according to the decree of God, Jesus Christ came in the flesh. He came in the flesh to do what? to satisfy justice. Isn't that what I've been talking
about all morning? The justice of God that's against you? This
is the hope. This is the hope of salvation,
is that Jesus Christ took the sins of His elect in His own
body on the tree, and actually suffered the vengeance of God
in their stead. This is the gospel of God. that
Jesus Christ should come into the world, that He should be
the seed of the woman, that He should be the Passover Lamb to
deliver you from the bondage of sin, that He should be the
King and Priest who obtained righteousness and has perfected
forever them that are sanctified by His one offering. Listen to
me. This is the good way. This is the good way. The old
paths are the good way. Jesus Christ said, I am the way. The truth and the life. Listen
to me, no man comes to God but by me. In Matthew, our Lord Jesus Christ
said this. He tells us, broad is the gate
and wide is the way that leads to destruction. And many there be that go in
there at. But straight is the gate, and
narrow is the way that leads to life. He's not talking about
obedience, strict, narrow way, as though you're walking a tightrope
into glory. That's not what he's saying.
He's saying that it's singular. There is only one way a sinner
can escape the justice of God, and that is the way, Jesus Christ. He's it. There's no other way.
There's no other way. And this way is straight and
narrow in that you can't bring anything in it. You can't bring
anything with you. If you are to come this way,
you must come freely. You must come without works,
without righteousness. You must come as a sinner. You
must come as you are. Stop trying to merit God's favor. It's impossible. And why would
you try when Christ has already done it? Isn't that just stupid? That's just ignorant. Yet that's natural man. I've shown you the way. I've
told you the warning. I've shown you false religion.
And I've shown you the only true religion. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Notice the sad thing at the end
of verse 16. But they said, we will not walk therein. I've shown you the way, and yet
you still will not come. I tell you, if I didn't know
that salvation was of the Lord, I would quit this. But I know
this, and I have great confidence that God's people will walk in
this way. I walk in this way because He
is all my salvation. And I put no confidence in this
flesh. And I tell you, I find rest for
my soul. Come unto me, Jesus said, you
that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you what? I like the old paths. I like
this way. Because in this way, I am justified
before God. And this is no superficial peace.
I have peace with God. That anger I talked about, that
anger is not on me. And if you are in Christ, that
anger is not on you. It's past. I've read it to you
three times in the last three sermons. Hosea 14 and verse 4,
I think it is. I will love them freely. I will heal their backsliding
freely because mine anger is past from Him. I will love them,
I will heal them because my anger is passed from Him. I will love
you because my anger is passed from Christ. That's what God
says. He don't have any anger for you. What a way. I like that
way. That way leads to eternal life.
May God bless this to your hearts. May God open your eyes. to hear
in ears to hear the warning and repent and believe. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.