Series:
Questions
Title:
Wherefore Commit Ye This Great Evil?
Text:
Jeremiah 44: 1-30
Date:
December 29, 2019
Place:
SGBC, NJ
Every
sinner has a responsibility to obey God’s word.
Natural, unregenerate sinners cannot do so. Still, every sinner is responsible to God to
obey. Inability does not negate
responsibility.
Regenerated
sinners are given a new heart and made willing to obey God’s word by Christ’s
power through the Holy Spirit. We are
given faith by God and made willing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to
love our brethren. But God saints do not
obey perfectly, without sin. It must be
perfect to be accepted of God (Lev 22: 21).
Therefore,
we do not look to our obedience for righteousness or holiness or acceptance
with God. We look to Christ alone. His is the only perfect obedience to
God. He represented his people. So we believe on Christ alone, trusting his
obedience alone. And when we need it, God
chastens us to keep us partaking of Christ’s holiness. When we turn from Christ to our brethren and
play the Pharisee. God chastens his
child to turn us back to Christ so that Christ alone is the only one who is our
Righteousness and Holiness. The Holy
Spirit makes our heart to be that of Mary.
When speaking of the Lord Jesus she said, “Whatsoever he saith to
you, do it!”
In this passage, we are beholding a people
that disobeyed God's word. We see what
God does to the disobedient who are not his.
And we see how Christ delivers his elect and makes us obedient to trust
him. I pray the Spirit of God would
make every believer diligent to obey Christ our Master through this word.
Jeremiah
44: 1: The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in
the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in
the country of Pathros,…
This
was Jeremiah’s last message, preached to Jews who had fled from
Jerusalem back to Egypt. Egypt
typifies that from which Christ ransomed his people: idolatry, sin, the bondage
of the law, this ungodly world. God
had delivered these Jews from Egypt.
Then God sent a trial. He sent
the king of Babylon to besiege Jerusalem.
Instead of fleeing to God to save, they tried to save themselves by
fleeing back into Egypt. These
Jews typify those who profess faith in Christ but who eventually go back into
the world, back into their former idolatry, back into sin and bondage from
which they professed Christ had redeemed them.
Our
title is God’s question to them, “Wherefore Commit Ye This Great Evil?”
Proposition:
If there be any who would disobey God’s clearly revealed word then let us ask
ourselves, “wherefore commit I this great evil?”
WHEN
I HAVE SEEN GOD’S JUDGMENT UPON DISOBEDIENCE
Jeremiah 44: 2: Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen
all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of
Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth
therein, 3: Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me
to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods,
whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.
Wherefore commit I this great evil when I have seen God’s judgment upon the disobedient?
Here,
God calls disobedience wickedness which provokes God to anger. Their disobedience was idolatry. But anything contrary to God’s word is sin
and disobedience. All sin is wickedness
to God. All sin provokes God to anger.
You
and I have seen God’s judgment upon the disobedient in history: from Adam to
our day, in God’s word and in our own experience. God poured out judgment on Jerusalem and
all the cities of Judah until they were a desolation, and no man
dwelleth therein.
Believer,
here is our constraint to obey and continue believing on Christ. Christ saw and knew God’s judgment upon the
disobedient. He is God. He saw the desolation and destruction God
brings upon the disobedient. Christ knew
it was God his Father’s holy judgment.
Yet our Surety still entered covenant to bear God his Father’s judgment
as the Substitute of his people. The
sinless One agreed to bear all the sin and disobedience of his people. He knew the Father would number him with the
transgressors and pour out on him the awesome fury of his wrath. Still, in love to God and his people, on the
cross we see the judgment that God brought upon our Substitute which he bore in
his own body on the tree.
So when I would disobey Christ’s word to
me: to rest entirely in Christ, to receive my brethren, to be longsuffering and
merciful, to restore my brethren in the spirit of meekness. Let me ask myself, “Wherefore commit I
this great evil when I have seen God’s judgment upon sinners by beholding what
Christ, my Substitute, had to bear for me?”
WHEN
I HAVE SEEN GOD’S JUDGMENT FOR REJECTING HIS WORD
Jeremiah
44: 4: Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and
sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. 5:
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness,
to burn no incense unto other gods. 6: Wherefore my fury and mine anger was
poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.
Wherefore
commit I this great evil when I have seen God’s judgment upon all who reject
God’s word?
Though
Israel and Judah disobeyed, God continued to send his servants the
prophets. He did so immediately as soon
as they needed correcting, rising early and sending them. God spoke his word clearly and plainly
through the mouth of his prophets, saying “Oh, do not this abominable thing
that I hate!” That gives me four
good reasons not to disobey God’s clearly revealed word.
Let me ask myself, Wherefore commit I this
great evil, when, one, God bestowed riches upon me in great mercy and grace by
sending to me his preacher speaking God’s word, saying, "Oh, do not
this abominable thing that I hate!”
Two, let me ask myself, Wherefore commit I
this great evil when disobedience to God’s word is itself an “abominable
thing?”
Three, Wherefore commit I this great evil
when God’s regard to the sin of
rejecting his word is, “that I hate?”
Four, Wherefore commit I this great evil
when God blessed his word giving me spiritual discernment to believe on
Christ. He made me see and know
Christ. God poured forth his fury and
anger until natural Israel was wasted and desolate. But, I was as guilty as they, yet God poured
forth grace and mercy upon his elect justifying us freely!
WHEN
DISOBEDIENCE HURTS ME AND MY CHILDREN
Jeremiah
44: 7: Therefore now thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel;
Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut off from
you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to
remain; 8: In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands,
burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to
dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse and a
reproach among all the nations of the earth? 9: Have ye forgotten the
wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the
wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your
wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of
Jerusalem? 10: They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have
they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you
and before your fathers.
Wherefore
commit I this great evil when disobedience not only hurts me but also my
children?
When
I disobey God’s gospel precepts, my sin is not only against God, it is against
my own soul. God said to them, “Wherefore
commit yet this great evil against your souls.”
I hurt myself when I disobey God’s word. Sin is the cause of everything sorrowful:
division, disease, destruction, death.
But
not only does my sin hurt me, it hurts my children and their children. God visits “the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me”
(Ex 20:5). That does not mean that
God makes children bear punishment for their father’s sins and the father’s
bear punishment for the children’s sins—"THE soul that sinneth, IT
shall surely die” (Eze 18: 20). This
does not refer to Adam’s sin or Christ’s righteousness because we were actually
in Adam and all God’s elect were actually in Christ. We indeed did what our federal head did. God imputes righteousness to the believer
because in Christ we are Righteous.
When God speaks of visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
it means in our lives when we disobey God, God does not make the children bear
punishment for their father’s sins. God
is righteous and the just Judge. But our
sins have a direct bearing upon our wives and children for generations to
come.
Due
to the idolatry of their fathers, God cut off the fathers by destroying their
city. That was their punishment. Therefore, the children and their wives
were not in Jerusalem but fled to Egypt.
Their children and their wives became idolaters because that is what the
father’s taught them. The father’s
passed to their children the results of their own judgment, as well as taught
the children to disobey by idolatry.
Thus, the children and the wives brought God’s judgment on themselves
for their own sin.
If a father robs a store and goes to
prison that is God’s punishment of the father.
But his children grow up without a father. His children have to go to work to support
the family. They have no time for
education so they drop out of school. It
is very likely they will end up following their father’s steps. Do you see how the iniquity of the fathers is
visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation?
Yet, in our text, after all God’s judgment
upon them, the fathers nor their wives were humbled in heart, neither the
children nor their wives. None feared
God and none obeyed God. This was a
heart problem as it is with all unregenerate sinners.
Believer,
here is how we are made obedient. Our
Father, our Everlasting Father, the last Adam, Christ Jesus lived before God as
our representative with a holy, humble heart fearing God. He committed righteous obedience to God by
bearing our sin, curse, and reproach. The
judgment that God poured out on Judah in verses 11-14, God poured out on Christ
in place of his elect. God set his
face against him instead of us. God
turned his sword of justice on his own Son instead of his elect. Therefore, God says what Christ did we
did! When he was cut off for sin, “every
elect man, woman, child and suckling” was “cut off and none
remained”. Paul said, “I am
crucified with Christ.” God is not
reckoning me dead when I really did not die to sin. In Christ, “I died!” Not only that, Christ came and gave me a
new nature by abiding in me.
When
I am tempted to disobey Christ’s word, let me ask myself, “Wherefore commit
I this great evil when I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live? Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the
life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me!”
WHEN CHRIST HAS SAVED ME
Jeremiah
44: 16: As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the
LORD, we will not hearken unto thee. 17: But we will certainly do whatsoever
thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of
heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto
her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the
cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of
victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. 18: But since we left off to burn
incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we
have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
19: AND [furthermore] when we burned incense to the queen of
heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to
worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?
Wherefore commit I this great evil when
Christ has saved me from the bondage of my sin-nature and continues to do so.
The wives heard Jeremiah indict them in
the charge to their husbands. They stood
all they could stand. As every
unregenerate sinner is, they were proud, arrogant, stiff-necked women. Therefore, they looked God’s prophet
straight in the eye and justified themselves.
These women justified themselves while at the same time they threw their
husbands under the bus for their idolatry.
That is the arrogant, proud heart we had while dead in trespasses and in
sins.
Sadly, as believers, when we disobey
Christ’s clear commands, we are saying the same thing to him! We praise our idols for providing for us: our
cleverness, our business acumen, our professions, our children, our
riches. But like Hosea put bread and
oil, wool and flax at Gomer’s door, it is Christ who has always provided for us
and continues to do so.
Christ
is a faithful husband to his bride and a loving father to his children to whom
his family is in subjection. He raised
us up under the preaching of the gospel and saw to it that we heard in truth. Christ prayed for us that the Father would
send the Holy Spirit and the Father did just that giving us new birth, a new
heart and a new standing before God. He
put fear in our heart and through faith in Christ, clothed us in his
righteousness. Christ feeds us the bread
from heaven and enriches us with his unsearchable riches. He provides us with all our needs temporally,
too. And as we need it, he continues to
correct us through the preaching of the word.
If
he had done that to these women through Jeremiah’s preaching they would have
loved Christ and Jeremiah, too! The man
God used to preach Christ to me could do no wrong in my eyes! Oh, he was a sinner but to me he walked on
water. If he needed help, I was there
for him! God puts his love in our hearts
both for Christ and for those God used to preach the good news to us.
Now,
when he chastens us, we say the same thing as these women. But instead of speaking evil of our Husband,
we praise our Husband when he gives us the ability to worship him as we ought,
“Was not Christ our Husband with us!”
God told those unregenerate sinners, “Did not the LORD remember
[your idolatry] and came it not into his mind?”
But for Christ’s sake, he says to you believer, “I remember your
sins no more.” Since they had
sworn to keep their vows to their idol God, said, in verse 26, “Behold, I have sworn by my
great name, saith the LORD, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of
any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD liveth.”
But in Christ God says to his saints, “because I could swear by no
greater, I sware by himself, saying, “Surely, blessing I will bless thee, and
multiplying I will multiply thee.” Due
to their sins, God promised in verse 27, “Behold, I will watch over them for
evil, and not for good: [till they be consumed].” Due to Christ, God says to us, “I will watch
over them for good and not for evil, till they be with me in glory.”
God gave them a sign to know that
God’s words shall surely stand against them for evil. Down in Egypt where they thought they would
be safe, Pharaoh would be taken captive by the king of Babylon, the same as
Zedekiah king of Judah. But God has
given us a sign too. God has given every
believer “assurance in that he has raised Christ from the dead” and he
has given the Holy Spirit “which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
Believer,
Christ has delivered his people from Egypt.
Believe on him and as Mary said, “Whatsoever he saith to you, do it!”
Amen!