Our text will be found beginning
in verse 11 of Jeremiah chapter 3. The title of the message tonight
is, A Message for Backsliding Israel and Treacherous Judah. A message for backsliding Israel
and treacherous Judah. Look at this and see this in
our text in verse 11. And the Lord said unto me, the
backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous
Judah. First of all, let's see what
this means by treacherous Judah. Who is this treacherous Judah
that is being spoken of? I know this, I want you to see
that this is a picture, that God is using a picture of this
treacherous Judah as a picture of all false, self-righteous,
smug, religious people. Self-righteous, smug, religious
people. This is what Judah was. Judah
was a nation of self-righteous, religious people at this time. You remember how that the nation
of Israel was divided. It divided into the ten tribes
of the north and the two tribes of the south. The ten tribes
of the north were called Israel, and the two tribes of the south
were called Judah. Now Israel had sinned against
God by refusing to worship God in Jerusalem. You remember how
that God set up the temple in Jerusalem. And that was the only
place in all the world that God presented Himself. The only place
where God's presence was, was in that temple. And the only
way to worship God, the only way to be accepted of God was
through the blood sacrifice. And we know this, that that was
a picture. A picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. who is the only place where God
will meet with sinners in peace, seeing that His blood offering
is the only atonement for sin. So then, Israel, Israel's rejection
of the temple worship was truly a rejection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was a rejection of the Messiah. The rejection, their rejection
of worship in Jerusalem was a rejection of God. And they made for themselves
false gods in Israel. Therefore in justice God came,
and destroyed them by the Assyrians. You remember this is the history.
They turned from God. They worshiped God. They said,
we don't need to go to Jerusalem. We can set up our own altars
here and we can make our own sacrifices here. And eventually,
they just made themselves gods. Rejected the Messiah, rejected
the blood. And God sent the Assyrians to
conquer Israel. Now you suppose that Judah would
see this. You suppose that when Judah saw
this, those who had the temple, those who had the ark and the
priesthood, those who had the Word of God, the presence of
God, the blood of the atonement, you suppose that when they saw
that Israel had turned their backs on God and God sent judgment,
do you think that they should have learned something from that? They should have, but they didn't. They didn't. You think that they
would have learned not to fall into the same sin. You think
that they would have been more careful, but they weren't. Just the opposite happened. Judah,
seeing what God did to Israel because of their forsaking Him,
knowing how God destroyed them and scattered them, yet they
sinned even more. That's why God says in our text,
He said, "...backsliding Israel hath justified herself more."
than treacherous Judah." In other words, Israel, though they had
rebelled, though they had served other gods, yet Judah, seeing
their sin, did the very same thing as Israel. That's why he calls them treacherous
Judah. Now, this word treacherous, what
it means is to cover up. They were covert. in their worship
of false gods. Israel was overt. They plainly rejected it. But
what Judah did was even worse, is that they went through the
ceremony, they went through all the rituals of worshiping in
the temple of God, and yet their hearts were far from God. This is a prime example. Judah, treacherous Judah is a
prime example of our fallen nature to which we are prone. Man by
nature, listen to me, is prone to false religion. Prone to religion. No matter how many warnings we
give men, no matter how many examples we have of how sin and
rejection of God lead to death and destruction, yet men will
not, this will not and cannot prevent men from sin. This did not prevent Judah from
sin and it will not prevent any man from sin. Consider, Judah
was not more immoral than Israel, but far more religious. They
were very sincere in their religious practices, but it was false religion. See, this is a greater wickedness
in the eyes of God than immoral wickedness. Friends, false religion
is smoke in the nostrils of God. False religion is worse than
any drunkard. You pick the vilest of men, and
in comparison, the most moral of false religionists, and God
says the religionist is more wicked and more vile than the
vilest of sinners. You remember what Jesus said.
He said to those Jews, He said, You compass land and sea to make
one proselyte. And what happens when they make
the proselyte? What happens when false religion
spends their time and their energy and their efforts to make a convert?
What does they do? They make him two-fold more a
child of hell. Two-fold more. So no matter the
evidence of Scripture, no matter the proclamation of destruction
that will come to those who turn from God, man cannot and will not change. The natural man, Paul said, listen,
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them. For he is spiritually discerned. Do you see not both things, the
will and the ability? Man is not willing to receive
the things of the Spirit of God, and man is not capable. of receiving the things of God.
So no matter how much we warn of God's holy justice, saying,
The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. No matter how much
we preach of the complete depravity of man, that he's dead and trespasses
in sin, that there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understand it. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all together become unprofitable. We can preach this
and continue to preach this to natural man, But by nature, he
cannot see it. He cannot know it. Just like
Jerusalem. Just like Judah. They had this
in front of them. They had Israel as a prime example
of what happens to when you turn your back on God. And that did
absolutely nothing. Matter of fact, they were worse. They were worse. because they wrap themselves
in self-righteousness. They wrap themselves in their
own works. No matter how many examples we
give from Scripture, the Word of God to those who seem religious
like treacherous Judah, those who mix works and grace, those
who mix the works of man with the works of Christ, And we tell them that they are
now cast into hell, yet they will not repent of their religion. Consider this. Isn't this what
Abraham said to the man in hell? When that man asked him, he said,
Send Lazarus back. And what did he say? Though one
were risen from the dead, they will not hear him. Is that not
something to show the complete depravity of man? That even though
one rose from the dead, it would not change him? Abraham said they have Moses
and the prophets. Well, they have the word of God. Let them hear the word of God. If one were to rise from the
dead, they would be like Judah. They would secure themselves
in their false religion with no desire to repent or believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 3 of chapter 3. Look at verse 3. It says, Therefore
the showers have been withholden, and there have been no latter
rain, and thou hast a whore's forehead, thou refusest to be
ashamed. Tonight, if I expose your sin
and all you are by nature, all you have is what you were born
with, man by nature, if I expose their sin, if I make you feel
guilty of sin, it will not be long till you fulfill the proverb,
It says the dog returns to his vomit. How many times have I
seen that? I've preached and preached and someone feels guilty,
they start feeling, and then it's if I've done it, it's not
long till they're turned back and they've gone back to where
they started. They're no different. The only hope then, friends,
is if the Holy Spirit teach you. That's the only hope. The only
hope is if the Holy Spirit of God convince you of your sin. Then you'll be convinced. If
the Holy Spirit teaches you, if the Holy Spirit convinces
you of sin, then you'll be convinced. But not until then. Not until
then. Judah surely was worse than Israel,
but both were guilty of spiritual idolatry. Look in your text at
verse 6. It said, "...the Lord said unto
me in the days of Josiah the king..." Now, you remember, Josiah's
day was a religious day. It seemed as though it was a
revival. So this was a time of what people
would call spiritual awakening. He said, "...in the days of Josiah
king, hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done.
She is gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green
tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said, after she
had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned
not. And her treacherous sister Judas
saw it. And I saw when for all the causes
whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away
and given her a bill of divorcement. Yet her treacherous sister feared
not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass
through the likeness of her whoredom that she defiled the land and
committed adultery with stones and with stalks. And yet for
all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me
with her whole heart. But, listen, fainly. Fainly. Judah saw all that happened
to Israel and what happened? They just turned fainly. In other words, they were pretending.
They were pretending. They were putting on a show.
A show. And I'll tell you this. If you're
lost tonight, you may put on a show. You may put on an act. But when
the Holy Spirit speaks to you, you won't play anymore. You won't
play anymore. I remember when I played church.
I don't play church anymore. Why? Because I know what I am.
I know what I need. And yet man by nature, being
dead in sins, are ignorant of God and His righteousness. All
men know that there is a God of creation. They have the law
of God in their hearts. They know God will judge all
men. But what man cannot know and they cannot see is who God really is. They can
pretend to know God. So man by nature is like treacherous
Judah. They can serve God only to a
certain point. They can come only to a certain
place and they can't go no further. They can only faintly serve Him. And so what do they do? They
thank God to be much like themselves. Treacherous Judah sees God to
be much like themselves. Psalm 50 and verse 21, God said,
Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such in one as thou art. Friends,
God is nothing like us. God is absolutely holy. God is
absolutely just. He is absolutely righteous. And
therefore, if any one of us is to abide in the presence of God,
listen, we must be as holy as God is. God said, Be ye holy,
even as I am holy. This is not a suggestion. This
is a demand. A demand. But natural men reject this.
And therefore, what do they do? They make for themselves gods
of their own imagination. They make a God much like themselves. Consider the weak effeminate
God of this generation. This generation is truly treacherous
Judah. They have made a God much like
themselves, a God nothing like the God of Scripture. but more
as resembles sinful and wicked man. The God of this age loves
all men and desires to save all men, but has no power. The God of this generation has
sent His Son into the world to die for all the sins of all men. And as He suffered on the cross
and rose again from the dead, He only made salvation possible. but actually accomplish salvation
for no one. This is the false god of this
generation. These are a god. These are a
people who desire to have the false prophets that steal the
Word of God. False prophets today, they don't
have a book of Zeus or a book of Athena. They don't have the
book of Mars. They don't have those false god
books. What do they do? They take this Bible and they
steal the words of God. They say that Christ only made
salvation possible And after all his work, he still cannot
save them unless man exercises his free will or does some good
works or merits salvation by his continual obedience to the
law. These treacherous men turn to
God faintly, only acknowledging his existence and work, but denying
the power Isn't that what he said? Paul said in 2 Timothy
3 and verse 5, he said, These men have a form of godliness,
but deny the power thereof. These men have a form of religion,
but they deny that salvation is completely and absolutely
the work of God alone. Friends, that's not our God.
Who is our God? Our God is in the heavens, and
he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. That's our God. That's
the God of this book. The God of heaven is absolutely
sovereign over all things. And I tell you, surely if God
had set His love upon all men and willed that all men would
be saved, I tell you, no angel in heaven, no demon in hell,
no man on earth could stay his hand or say unto him, What doest
thou? If God had purposed to save all
men, I tell you, He would save all men. He would. We know God does love a people
We know that God has not set His love upon all men. We know
that God has set His love on a people, because God's love
is eternal. It's not temporal. Over in Jeremiah 31, 3, it says,
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. And notice this, therefore
with loving kindness have I drawn thee. You see, God's love is
not without power. Our God's love is eternal and
it's powerful, it's effectual, it's immutable, it's unchangeable. So we know that God has loved
the people. And we know that our God is purposed
to save and elect people, those that Paul calls spiritual Israel
in Romans 9. Those who Isaiah calls a remnant
according to the election of grace. And I tell you, He will
save them. He will save them. He will save
them according to His own will. His own sovereign will. He will save them, not according
to anything in them, but He will save them by His sovereign grace. Go over to Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36. You get over here,
you'll see that this is a familiar passage. This is talking about
the covenant of God's grace. The covenant of mercy. And God
begins this covenant in verse 22. He says this, Therefore say
unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord, I do not this
for your sakes. That's how he begins. God says,
I'm going to do something, but I want you to know this. It's
not because of you. That's how he begins. And then
he tells them, he said, I will sanctify my great name. I'll call you out among the heathen.
I'll give you a heart of, take away that heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh. I will, I will, I will, and you
shall, you shall, you shall. That's all the covenant is. You
want to know the gospel? Here it is. God says, I will
and you shall. It's the gospel. That's a message. And just to make sure you know
that it's by sovereign grace he does this, he ends this by
saying the very same thing he began it with. In verse 32 of
Ezekiel 36. He says, not for your sakes do
I this. You see, he ends the same way
he begins. I just want to make you know
this. You're a sinner. And I'm going to save you, not
because you earned it. I'm going to save you because
I will. I will. There is nothing in the elect
to merit God's love and salvation, nothing that we have done or
could do. Matter of fact, all we have done
we should be ashamed of. We like Israel and Judah have
committed two great evils. You wanna know what you've done?
You've done the same thing I've done. We've forsaken God and
we've hewn out for ourselves broken cisterns. That's what
we've done. That's what we've done. Behold,
God says, I'm the fountain of living water. Man is born in
the wilderness and barrenness of sin. We have sinned against
God and we should come to God for mercy. Isn't that just reasonable?
A man in the desert, should he not turn to the fountain Instead, we turned and we began
to work in the hot sun and try to create for ourselves a God. Instead of turning to the fountain
of never-ceasing grace, we turn to the desert to make our own
sister. We have sinned against God and
should have come to Him for mercy. of which he is the fountain of
never-ceasing grace, God is the only source of mercy. You know
that? You know there's no other source of mercy in all the universe
but God? And what does man do? He turns
from mercy to create his own God. God says in Jeremiah 5 and verse
30, He said, A horror and a horrible thing is committed, false prophets
and priests ruled by law and by force. And you know what the
sad thing is? He said, My people love it. That's
a sad thing, isn't it? Men work and labor in the desert
sun to hew out a God supposing that he will somehow save them. But their God cannot hold them.
Their religion and self-righteousness can hold no water refreshment
for their souls because work's religion, listen, is never enough. Isn't that right? Somebody goes
and says, do this, do this. That's not enough. So you've
got to do this, and do this, and do this. What is that but
a broken cistern leaking water, constantly leaking and never
being full? And yet over here is God, the
fountain of mercy that never stops flowing. Oh sinner, forsake
your broken cistern, forsake your gods, forsake your works
and labor, Forsake your merit of God's favor. Forsake it. Forsake it and come now and hear
the message to backsliding Israel. That's the second part, backsliding
Israel. Look at this in verse 12. Look
at what he proclaims. Go and proclaim these words toward
the north. And say, Return thou backsliding
Israel, saith the Lord. Now, I want you to notice this.
Who is this message to? I just told you about treacherous
Judah. But who is this message to? This
message is not for treacherous Judah. This message is for the
north, Israel, who were already destroyed. See, Judah was flourishing. They
weren't destroyed yet. They had something to hang on
to. They still had the temple. They
still had the oracles. They still had some self-righteousness
to hold on to. But this message of the gospel
is not for treacherous Judah. It is for those who are already
ruined. He said, you go to the north
and you preach to those who are already perished. The gospel, my friends, is for
sinners. Isn't that what Jesus said? He
said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Sinners. God loved His elect people. He
decreed their salvation by His sovereign grace. He purposed
to save them. And how to save them? You see,
God did not leave His people, His people of salvation to chance
or fate. Nor did He leave it to them,
but God decreed the objects of salvation and the means of salvation. Behold, God the Father gave the
objects of His love to the care of His Son. Therefore, in the
eternal covenant of grace, the Son agreed to be responsible. He agreed to be responsible for
the elect. Therefore, he said in John 6,
verse 39, all that the Father has given me, I should lose nothing. Jesus said, I become responsible
for them, and I will save them. Therefore, the Son of God was
made flesh to represent His people. For it was by the representation
of man that sin came, even so, by the representation of Christ,
righteousness should come. And so Jesus came into the world,
and by His obedience to God, He obtained perfect righteousness. He obtained it by His merit,
by His own work. He obtained righteousness. Paul
tells us in Romans 3.22, he said, this righteousness of God doesn't
come by law, by our obedience or our works, but by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. But not only this, Jesus must
also have saved us by satisfying justice. He must satisfy the justice of
God for our sins. Notice this, that justice not
only requires perfect righteousness, but where there's sin, justice
requires death. Death. How many today are deceived to
think that obedience can satisfy God's justice? Isn't that what
false free will works religion believe? That Jesus died for
all sins except unbelief. And so then they say, well if
I believe, well then that's going to pay for my unbelief. No. Faith never pays for sin. Only blood. Only the righteous
blood of Christ. And listen, the spotless Son
of God was lifted up for our sins. The spotless, sinless offering
was lifted up and God made Him to be sin. He who had no sin
did no sin. Who deserved no punishment. Yet God imputed our sins to Him. I tell you, that's a great mystery.
It's a great mystery that I can't fathom. You know, when he had
our sins imputed to him, there were no evil thoughts going through
his head. There were no evil thoughts going
through his heart when he was made sin. Yet he was made sin. And God's justice rained down
on him until it was exhausted. Your sin deserves God justice. And Jesus Christ endured it for
us. And by his one offering, listen,
he has forever removed our sin. Yet, none of us knew this, did
we? When we were born in this world,
we were just like everyone else, running after our own false gods,
turning from God. We were like, we didn't know
any of this. We didn't know that Christ redeemed us. Until when? Until the Spirit quickened us. Until the Spirit exposed us to
be what? Sinners. Sinners. Therefore, this message is for
who? Sinners. God says, return, thou
backsliding Israel. You know this word, backsliding,
it doesn't mean slip. You know, when I hear this, sometimes
I just think of a little slip or a mistake. This word, listen,
the root of this word means apostate. That's what this word means.
You apostate. You who have forsaken God, return. Come back. Come to me. God opens his arms and he says,
return. You apostate, return to me. Why? For I am merciful and I
will not He said, return for I am merciful
and I will not keep my anger forever. And I'll tell you, if
you didn't have any of that promise, you should run from God. If God didn't give you that word,
you should run from God. But listen, listen to that precious
word. You sinner, you ruined sinner,
return to me and I... For, this is the reason you should
come, because I am merciful and I won't, I will not pour out
my anger on you. Why? Because my anger has already
been poured out. That's why you can return to
God. Because His anger is already poured out. In Hosea 14, verse
4, He says, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them
freely. For mine anger is turned away
from Him. Do you get that? I will heal
their backsliding. I will love them freely. Why? For my anger is turned from
Him. From Jesus. Sinner, return now to God by
faith in Christ, and behold, God will heal you. Heal you of
all your sin. Of all your iniquity. Because
Christ hath bore it for you, and the wrath of God, when it
could require no more of him, he said, It is finished. Redemption's accomplished. Yes, those of us who are convinced
of sin by the Holy Spirit, we for a season truly are convinced
of the condemnation of God. We feel the sword of God's justice
hang over our head. The sharp blade is only a breath
away. But as soon as grace enters,
the sword is gone. There's no more condemnation.
Listen, there is therefore now. When? Now. No condemnation to
them who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. Well, how does
one return? Look at this, verse 13, only
acknowledge thine iniquity. Only acknowledge thine iniquity.
This is how you return. Confession, confession. Acknowledge this, Israel, that
you have spread your ways under every green tree with every stranger. You have been a harlot and you've
done nothing good. I confess I have done nothing
good. That's what he's telling us.
You must confess. Listen, total depravity is not
a doctrine to be learned. It's a doctrine to be experienced. It's one thing to say all men
are totally depraved, it's another to know your own depravity. And only sinners need mercy,
isn't that right? Only absolute sinners need absolute
mercy. And he says, return to me and
confess you are an absolute sinner. And what do we do? We come confessing. And you know what? I've still
not stopped confessing that. Have you? I've still not. Because
I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Therefore, I confess,
thou, O Christ, are all I want. More than all in thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint.
Heal the sick and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. Vile and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. Now then look at verse 14, a
message to those who have returned. Turn, oh backsliding, notice
this, children. For I am married unto you and
I will take you one of a city and two of a family and will
bring you to Zion. This is a message for those who
have turned. Is our turning only once? or is our turning a continual
one? I am still continually turning
from self, from sin, to Christ. I need this admonition every
single day of my life. I need to hear my Savior say,
turn. Come to me. Come to me, my child. Come to me, my wife, my beloved. This is the message that causes
God's elect to keep coming, even the message of love as a father
to his children. Return to thy God, for He is
married to thee. Have you forsaken your God? Have
you left off worshiping Him? Are you busy serving yourself?
Turn to God. for he is married to thee. He
will like Gomer and Hosea, he will allure you through the wilderness. How? He will raise up thorns. Isn't this how he returns his
children? He raises up thorns in our way. Hedges us about so we can't turn
to the right or to the left without being stuck. Lord Byron said this, the thorns
I have reaped are the tree I have planted. They have torn me and
I bleed. I should have known the fruit
would spring from such a seed. Isn't that true? Isn't the thorns
that tear us our own sin? Yet God uses them for good to
lead us Isn't that gracious? God always brings us to the wilderness
and speaks to us of the valley of Achar. He speaks comfortably
to us and shows us again the blood and righteousness of His
Son. Therefore, God says to His bride,
Call me no more Belali. Master, call me Isha, beloved
husband. That's what God says you should
call him. You should call him beloved husband because he is
a beloved husband. And notice this. Notice how many
God calls. He said, I will take you one
from a city and two from a family. Friends, only the elect will
hear his voice and come to Christ. It is true in our day, as it
was in Paul's, not many mighty, not many noble. And the problem
is, everybody in our generation thinks themselves to be mighty
and noble. That's a problem. God doesn't call the mighty and
the noble, not many of them. Jesus said, many are called,
but few are chosen. Oh, how false religion hates
this, that God calls whomsoever he
will, that God will have mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and on whom he will he hardens. Friends, God will take His elect,
however many there are, and He will call them by this same message. He will call them to return. In Acts 13, 48, listen. As many
as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Isn't this amazing? that this
gospel is always a success. Somebody had mentioned tonight
that made a remark that because we are few, we must
be false. I tell you this, it doesn't matter
if one believes, and the rest of the world goes out into hell. Because that one is God's elect.
Whether one or all the earth, I don't know how many. I believe
in this generation it seems few. But that's not for me. I don't
determine that. God has his elect people, and
they will hear this message. Listen, return, O backsliding
Israel. Not treacherous Judah, you self-righteous,
this message is not for you. You that have something to offer
God, this message is not for you. This message is for those
who are already ruined. Backsliding Israel. I confess, that's me. And God said, I'll take you and leave the rest. Is that not
gracious? That's grace. And therefore we
say this, truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and
from the multitude of the mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is
the salvation of Israel. We confess that salvation is
completely and absolutely the work of God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. And in that, we have great hope. Our master said this. Don't be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, and he did go, he
said, I will come again and receive you. unto myself, that where
I am, there you may be also. May God the Holy Spirit give
us such a heart to believe and trust in God, our Savior. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.