Church Order: Discipline, Enemies, and Institutional Faithfulness

Causes for National Judgment Part 1 of 2

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Church Government

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2012-02-01

Synopsis: Pastor John Weaver examines Jeremiah 5:1-13 to identify causes for national judgment, emphasizing that God's standards are unchanging. He outlines three causes: being implacable in comprehension (refusing to hear God's truth), incorrigible in chastisement (refusing correction), and infidels in covenantal relations (unfaithfulness to God and man). Applications stress the worthlessness of ignored truth, the insufficiency of mere profession, and the societal consequences of rejecting God's law.

[John Weaver] Jeremiah chapter 5, and we're going to read the first 13 verses. The title of the message today is Causes for National Judgment. I will begin the message today and finish it, Lord willing, next week. Jeremiah chapter 5. Years ago, I preached this message. However, due to current events, I went back and looked at the message again. I not only added to the first three points it already had, after studying the context, I added an additional two points. So, it's going to take two messages to cover this. So, notice if you would, Jeremiah 5 verse 1, God tells Jeremiah, Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it.

[John Weaver] And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them that they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them that they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return. Therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish. For they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God.

[John Weaver] I will get me to the great men and will speak unto them. For they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. But these have all together broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Wherefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone that goeth out then shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backslidings are increased.

[John Weaver] How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, everyone made after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things, said the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

[John Weaver] Go you up upon her walls and destroy. Make not a fool in, take away her battlements, for they are not the Lord's. For the house of Israel in the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, set the Lord. They have belied the Lord. That is, they've lied against the Lord and said, it is not he neither shall evil come upon us. Neither shall we see sword or famine and the prophet shall become wind and the word is not in them.

[John Weaver] Thus shall it be done unto them. Let me repeat in light of current events, the circumstances in which we are now living and the depravity. and the immorality of Americans in general, I thought it wise to not only repeat, but also to reinforce certain truths from the Word of God. After the message today and after looking at our text, I think you're going to come to one conclusion.

[John Weaver] That is, people have not changed at all. We're still sinners. We're still wicked. We're still rebellious. We must remember that although God oftentimes speaks of nations or countries, that a country or a nation is made up of individuals. Therefore, in order for a nation to repent, the individuals in that nation must repent as well.

[John Weaver] Now, in Jeremiah chapter 5, God gives us a number of very pointed causes for national judgment. In the context, These causes are addressed to Judah and Jerusalem particularly. He also mentions in verse 11 the house of Israel. So you can say the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, usually Judah and Jerusalem is here involved. But although he is speaking particularly to Judah and Jerusalem, that does not mean that there are no applications to the other nations that exist. God is immutable. God does not change.

[John Weaver] Sin is still sin, whether it is in the 6th century or the 21st century. God hates sin just as much today as He hated it in the days of Jeremiah. So you can mark this down. Here's a principle that we can enunciate. That is, the reason or the causes for which God judged Judah and Jerusalem and Samaria 2,500 years ago will be the same causes for which He judges nations today. Because God is immutable, He does not change.

[John Weaver] Now let me say one other thing before I get started today. When you and I read Jeremiah chapter 5, and we look at these sins, these causes for national judgment, while they are not minor by any stretch of the imagination, due to our perverseness, due to our depravity, most people would not count them as major sins. When we think about major sins, we try to think about brazen idolatry and fraudulent economics and high-handed treason. Well, yeah, those things deserve national judgment, but some of these other things, we tend to think they're minor. But let me point out, What you and I tend to think as minor often has, in those minor sins, seed form of all the major sins.

[John Weaver] I've told you in time past and I'll tell you again, when God forbids any sin at the same time, He forbids anything that leads up to that sin. And while these so-called minor sins appear minor to most people, They're simply the sins that lead up to the major sins.

[John Weaver] Now let me just point out, we know dogmatically, we know certainly, we know absolutely that God will judge nations for these causes. Why? Look in verse 9, Jeremiah 5 verse 9, God asks, Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Look at verse 29. He repeats it. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? So we know then that God will send national judgment for certain sins. What are some of those sins?

[John Weaver] I want to give you five. Hopefully we will cover three of them today. The first cause of national judgment is found in verses 1 and 2 and four and five. That is, they were implacable in their comprehension. Now let me explain the word implacable. It just simply means unyielding. When I say that they were implacable in their comprehension, it means simply this. They were not willing to listen to God. They were not willing to listen to Jeremiah.

[John Weaver] They thought they had truth. They thought they had everything they needed. And therefore, they had no time for God. They had no time for Jeremiah. May I remind you that Jeremiah was God's man. He was God's prophet. He was God's mouthpiece. He was God's representative.

[John Weaver] Now let me tell you what Scripture teaches very clearly. Scripture teaches very clearly This simple principle, that when an individual, when a family, when a church, when a nation, when a people refuse to hear God's truly appointed representative, at the same time, they're refusing to hear God. Let me put it another way. When a nation or a people forsakes God's man, at the same time, they forsake God. Now the man is not God. The man just merely represents Him. Listen to this. Let me just quote it to you.

[John Weaver] 1 Samuel chapter 8 verses 7 through 8. This is when Israel wanted a king that they might be as other nations. And here's what God said to Samuel. Listen carefully. And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Now listen. according to all the works which they have done, since the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, wherewith they have forsaken Me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee." Ah, Samuel, they forsook Me, they're going to forsake you. They won't listen to Me, they won't listen to you.

[John Weaver] Now let me show you. Look in Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse 13. Jeremiah 7 verse 13. Jeremiah 7 verse 13, And now, says God, because you have done all these works at the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not, and I called you, but you answered not. Now skip down, if you would, to verse 23 of Jeremiah 7. Watch what God says. We're going to read through verse 28. Jeremiah 7 verse 23. God says, But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people, and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

[John Weaver] But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them, Yet they hearkened not unto me. Now watch, God sent the prophets, but He said, Yet they hearkened not unto me. So when you don't hear the prophets, you don't hear God. Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck, and did worse than their fathers.

[John Weaver] Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken unto thee. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction, Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth. Ah, isn't that interesting? They would not listen. Do you know what our Lord said as He sent His disciples out in Matthew 10 in verse 40? Our Lord told His disciples, He that receiveth you, receiveth me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth him also that sent me. Now notice if you would, our Lord said, He that receiveth you, receiveth me. He that receiveth me, receiveth also him that sent me. Now the opposite is also true.

[John Weaver] If you refuse the representative of Christ, you refuse Christ. If you refuse Christ, you refuse the Father who sent Christ. In fact, our Lord said that specifically in Luke 10 and verse 16. Listen to what He said. He said, He that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. So when anyone then refuses to hear the true representative of God, at the same time, he's refusing to hear God. When one refuses to hear the representative of Jesus Christ, he's refusing to hear Christ. When he refuses to hear Christ, he refuses to hear the Father who had sent him.

[John Weaver] Now let me show you How perverse, how rebellious the people of Judah and Jerusalem had become. They were so implacable. Look what God says in verse 1. He says, Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof If you can find a man, that is a single man, if there be any that executed judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it. Now, God said, Jeremiah, here's what I want you to do. You run up and down through the streets of Jerusalem. If you can find one man, one man, who really, genuinely wants the truth and understands the truth and is willing to execute judgment, if you can find just one, I'll pardon the whole nation. Wow. Now, let me show you something else. Before I get off verse 1, this is important. Look at verse 1 again. Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof. If you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment or justice, that seeketh truth, and I will pardon it.

[John Weaver] Now listen carefully. Here's the verse that teaches us that truth and justice stand or fall together. If you have truth, you're going to have justice. If you have justice, you're going to have truth. If you have no truth, you will have no justice. If you have no justice, you will have no truth. You see, the Bible says in Psalm 89 and verse 14 that justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. So, justice or judgment and mercy and truth stand or fall together. It is a sure sign of destruction when anyone is unwilling to hear the truth or to be concerned with judgment. or justice. Now listen to me. If I tried to teach you, and you refused to hear me, why would you do that? Either because you already think you know it all, or you don't want it, or you're so perverse you don't have time to listen to it. Follow me?

[John Weaver] These people said, hey, we have it. We know it. We don't care what you say, and we don't care what God says.

[John Weaver] Now, look what he said in verse 2. Now remember, these people were professing people of God. They were supposedly covenantal people. So in verse 2, God says, and though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. There were many in Jerusalem and in Judah that could talk the talk, but they would never walk the walk. Likewise, we have many today who are willing to ride the horse of Christianity, but they're not willing to get off the horse and walk the truth of Christianity.

[John Weaver] They have a profession, but they have no possession. They have no real genuine interest in Jesus Christ. That is, they say one thing and do another. They're absolutely, totally ignorant and perverse. Though they say, surely the Lord liveth, says God, yet they swear falsely. I don't really mean it. religious lingo to them.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to note, God has said, Jeremiah, you run to and fro through the streets of Judah and Jerusalem. If you can find one man, one man that really wants the truth and one man that really executes justice and judgment, I will pardon the whole nation. Now, God says, let me remind you of something. You might find one that's going to say, the Lord liveth.

[John Weaver] But let me tell you, He's swearing falsely. He has no, no desire for me or my law. Now Jeremiah did that. Jeremiah didn't find a man. Look at the conclusion that he came to in verse 4. Therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish. They know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. Oh, Jeremiah says, what's this now? The reason I can't find any man among all these people is because they're uneducated. They're ignorant. They're the poor class. They're in the lower economic portion of the city. We don't expect people like that to know anything. That's what Jeremiah was saying. Now Jeremiah said, I figured out what my problem is.

[John Weaver] I need to get me to the intelligentsia. to the educated, to the elite, to the rulers. I need to get to the great ones, the men of the city, because surely these are going to know. Well, look in verse 5. After he said he couldn't find any amongst the poor people, he said, I will get me to the great men and will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord.

[John Weaver] and the judgment of their God. Yes, sir. These are the educated, the intelligentsia. They're the college professors. They're the journalists. They're the news media. They're the lawyers. They're the judges. They're the princes. They're the congressmen. Yes, sir. These have known the way of the Lord. What does he say? But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bond. What does he mean by that? they'd rebelled worse than the common people. Now watch this, he says in verse 5, but these, let's see, he says in verse 5, for they have known the way of the Lord. That's past tense.

[John Weaver] They might have known it at one time, Do you remember what the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 1 talking about those perverse, wicked, ungodly reprobates? He said it like this. They did not like to retain the knowledge of God. So they cast God off and went into idolatry and sodomy and every other perversion under the sun. They didn't like to retain the knowledge of God. These had known, but they didn't like to retain the knowledge of God, and so they burst the bonds, they broke the bounds. What did they mean? They didn't like the limits and the boundaries that God had placed upon them by His divine authority, so they forsook those limits, they forsook those boundaries, and they stole, they usurped authority that had never ever been given unto them. That's why the psalmist in Psalm 2 said, The kings of the earth and the rulers of the earth have set themselves together and they said, let us burst his bonds asunder and cast his chains away from us. We don't like the limitation that God has placed upon us.

[John Weaver] So when Jeremiah got to the great men of the city, he found they were worse than the poor, ignorant, uneducated folks. I want you to hold, Jeremiah 5, but look in your Bible. to the book of Ezekiel chapter 22. I just want to point out the problem in Ezekiel's day was the problem in Jeremiah's day. The problem that we have in America today is the same problem that Jeremiah and Ezekiel had in their days. Look in Ezekiel chapter 22 beginning there verse 25. I'll deal with some of this next week, but look at it.

[John Weaver] There's a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made her many widows in the midst thereof. So God condemns the prophets.

[John Weaver] Now look at verse 26. Her priests have violated my law. They have profaned mine holy things. They put no difference between the holy and the profane. Neither they show difference between the unclean and the clean. They have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. So now God tackles the priests. Now look in verse 27. Her prince is in the midst there of her like wolves, ravening the prey to shed blood and destroy souls and get dishonest gain. He then hits the prophets again in verse 28. Now look in verse 29.

[John Weaver] The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery to vex the poor and needy. Yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully." Notice God hits the prophets, the priests, the princes, and the people. The whole gamut from top to bottom was absolutely and totally corrupt.

[John Weaver] Now go back to Jeremiah chapter 5. Look at verses 22 and 23. Here's the summation. Here's why. This is why it was exactly like it was in Jeremiah's day, Ezekiel's day, our day. Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 22, here's what God says, Fear ye not me, saith the Lord? Would you not tremble at my presence? Would you have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? And though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail. Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. Ah, says God.

[John Weaver] but this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart, they're revolted and gone. What did he say? Fear ye not me. What did the Apostle Paul say was the problem with men in general in Romans chapter 3 and verse 18? Here's what he said. There's no fear of God before their eyes. Don't you fear me? No. Let me tell you, mark this down according to Jeremiah chapter 5, when a person, When a family, when a church, when a people, when a nation are unwilling to yield to truth. When they're unwilling to listen to the word of God, when they're unwilling to listen to righteousness and judgment, they are impeccable. That is, they're obstinate, they're stubborn, they're hard-hearted. They merit and bring upon themselves the righteous judgment of God. Look what he said in verse 9.

[John Weaver] Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? You've got to remember now, nations are made up of individuals. When you refuse to hear the truth, abide by the truth, and obey the truth, you condemn yourself to be judged by God. The very first calls that God gives in Jeremiah chapter 5, the very first calls for national judgment is implacable in comprehension. That is, unyielding, will not listen, will not heed, will not be warned, and will not receive the truth of God.

[John Weaver] Secondly, if you will look, there is a second reason. That is, these people were incorrigible in chastisement. Now, you know what an incorrigible delinquent is? He's a kid who won't listen. It doesn't do him any good to be chastised. Well, same thing here. Look in verse 3, Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah says, O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon the truth? Now look what he says concerning the people of Judah and Jerusalem and of Israel. He says, Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction.

[John Weaver] They have made their faces harder than a rock, they refuse to return. Isn't that amazing? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. I've told you in times past, and I'm not going to repeat the illustration, but I've seen one child in my entire life. Well, I take that back too. two children in my entire life, that no matter how much you whip them or how hard you whip them, they would not cry. Here's what he says, Thou hast stricken them, they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they refuse to hear correction.

[John Weaver] Let me show you something. When people are implacable in their comprehension, when they refuse to hear the truth, the very next step, the very next stage, is they become incorrigible in chastisement. That is, no amount of chastisement will do them any good. They become desensitized. They become hard-hearted. They become solidified in their sin and in their rebellion. I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly.

[John Weaver] Hold Jeremiah 5, but turn back to Isaiah chapter 1. I want you to notice verse 5 and what God says concerning the people in Isaiah's day. You see, this is a common thing. We don't think it's very common, but yet it is. Look at Isaiah 1 and verse 5. Look what God said concerning His people. Notice Isaiah 1 verse 5. God asked, why should you be stricken anymore?

[John Weaver] You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that have not been closed, neither bound up nor neither mollified with ointment. Look at verse 7. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land strangers devoured in your presence and is desolate as overthrown by strangers. Look what he said.

[John Weaver] Why would you be stricken with me? What good is it doing me to chastise you anymore? All it does is make you harder and more solidified in your rebellion against me. Let me tell you something, folks. When a child will not receive correction and chastisement, he's gone. When a people will not receive correction and chastisement, they're gone. Go back to Jeremiah 8. Look in verse 6. God is giving us a very clear representation, a very clear picture of what I'm trying to show you. Jeremiah 8 in verse 6. God says, I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright.

[John Weaver] Now look, no man repented him of his wickedness saying, what have I done? Everyone turned to his course as the horse rushes into battle. You know how a horse rushes into battle? He runs headlong. He's totally, completely unaware of the danger and the destruction. He just rushes headlong straight into the enemy. God said, no man repented of his wickedness saying, what have I done? I haven't done anything. Why should God judge me? And then he just rushes headlong, right straight into judgment. It is because of their unfaithfulness, their wickedness, their rebellion that God has smitten them, yet they refuse to acknowledge it. They refuse to repent. They refuse to be grieved for their wickedness and their rebellion.

[John Weaver] Their attitude was much like the wicked woman in Proverbs 30 in verse 20. Let me just quote it. God says, such is the way of the adulterous woman. She eateth and wiped with her mouth and said, what have I done? Doesn't bother her. What has she done wrong? I want to show you, and I want you to turn very quickly with me. Let's begin at the book of Proverbs chapter 3. I want to show you just very quickly what God says concerning those who will not receive correction and chastisement. Let me just show you. Because God is talking about individuals who are incorrigible in their chastisement. Proverbs chapter 3. And let's begin reading there verse 11. Proverbs 3. Notice verse 11. Look what God says.

[John Weaver] My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. That is don't despise him now. My son, despise not the chasing of the Lord, neither be weary of correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth. Now God says don't despise chastisement.

[John Weaver] Now, look if you would at chapter 5 and verse 2. Proverbs 5 verse 2. He tells the son to attend, well let's read verse 1. My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding. that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge now watch if you would please skip down to verse 5 let's see verse 7 is what I want hear me now therefore you children and depart not from the wisdom of my mouth skip down to verse 21 for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all of his goings now look if you would please in chapter 19 and verse 13 Chapter 19, verse 13.

[John Weaver] Now God has cautioned us to hear His chastening, to hear His words. Now He says this, Proverbs 19, verse 13, A foolish son is the calamity of his father. A foolish son is the calamity of his father. Let me tell you, and you're going to see this, often times in the Bible, God refers to children and to adults as Fools. A fool in the Bible is not some mentally deficient person. A fool in the Bible is someone who will not listen. So he says a foolish son then is the calamity of his father. Look if you would please in verse 19. He says a man of great wrath shall suffer punishment.

[John Weaver] For if you deliver him yet thou must do it again. Why? He won't listen. Look in Proverbs 28. Proverbs 28 verse 7. He says, Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son, but he that is companion of righteous men shameth his father. So God said if you keep the law, if you obey me, you're a wise son. But if you're a companion of wicked and righteous men, then you're shaming your father.

[John Weaver] Now let me ask you a question. What in the world is going to happen to someone who just will not listen? Someone who will not receive instruction. Someone who will not receive correction and chastisement. Look in Proverbs 29 verse 1. Here's what's going to happen. He that being often reproved, that's often warned. He that being often reproved, hardened at his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." God says, I will warn you, and when you're reproved often, and it doesn't do any good, I will destroy you suddenly, and that without remedy.

[John Weaver] In other words, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't stop it. It'll happen so quickly you won't have time to blink an eye and it's over. Let me show you from the Bible what I am going to call a classic illustration of being incorrigible in chastisement. I want you to turn, if you would, to Jeremiah 42. This is a very important passage and I want you to see what happens.

[John Weaver] Nebuchadnezzar has come into the land and basically destroyed it. He's taken away many people captive. He's left just a few people in the land alive, the poorest of the people. And so in Jeremiah 42, beginning there in verse 1, Then all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Korea, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshea, And all the people, from the least even the greatest, came near and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let we beseech thee our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant. For we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us, that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you. Behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God, according to your words and it shall come to pass that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you.

[John Weaver] I will keep nothing back from you. Then they said to Jeremiah, the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us if we do not even according to all things for which the Lord thy God shall send thee unto us.

[John Weaver] Now let's stop right there just for a moment. The people have come to Jeremiah and said we're in trouble, we're in great straits, God has judged us, I mean Nebuchadnezzar has come, he's torn down the city, he's destroyed, burned the temple, he's destroyed everything. Taken all these, we're just a few people left. Now Jeremiah, please, please pray and ask God for wisdom and for his will. And Jeremiah, will you do that?

[John Weaver] Yes, he said, I'll do that and I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll withhold nothing, I will give you everything that God tells me. And the people say, Jeremiah, we will give you our word, The Lord be a true and faithful witness amongst us and between us. Whatever God tells you, that's what we're going to do. Boy, that ought to make any pastor's heart rejoice. Well, Jeremiah did pray.

[John Weaver] Now look in chapter 43, verse 1. And it came to pass that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people, all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them, even all these words, Jeremiah told them, here's what God says, go not down into Egypt. Don't go down there. You stay here in the land.

[John Weaver] I'll bless you, and I'll protect you. Then spake Azariah, the son of Hosheh, and Johanna, the son of Kuri, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely. The Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt, sojourn there. But Baruch the son of Neriah sent it thee on against us, for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death, and carry us away, captives of Babylon. So Johanan the son of Korea and all the people obeyed not the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land of Judah." They had just got through saying, Look, we're going to do whatever you, whatever the Lord tells you. And now when they get the message that they don't want, they say, God didn't tell you that. Now look what happens. Look in chapter 44, beginning with verse 10. So God now sends Jeremiah back, and he says, you've got to tell them something. Yeah, they're going down into Egypt. That's what they want to do.

[John Weaver] They're not going to listen to me. They're not going to listen to you. He said, in the saying of them, thus saith the Lord. 44 is what I want. Chapter 44, verse 10. Watch now. God says, They are not humbled even in this day, neither have they feared nor walked in my law nor in my statutes, that I may set before you and before your fathers. That I set before you and before your fathers. Therefore, thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will set my face against you for evil and to cut off all Judah. That is, you're going down in Egypt. I'm going to set my face against you. I'm going to cut you off. And I will take the remnant of Judah that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt, but sojourn there and they shall be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. And they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They shall die from the least, even to the greatest by the sword and by the famine, and they shall be an excrement, excretion.

[John Weaver] and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem by the sword, by the famine, by the pestilence. So that none of the remnant of Judah that are gone in the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall escape or remain, they that should return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there. For none shall return, but such as shall escape." Now watch.

[John Weaver] Then all the men which knew... This is amazing. Then all the men... Let me just stop there. What did God just say? God said, you're going down to Egypt. I've told you not to. Fine. Go on. I'll kill you all down there. That's what he told them. You're afraid of Nebuchadnezzar? Guess what? You don't know, but I'm going to send him against Egypt just shortly and you're going to be there. Why did God judge Judah and Jerusalem to begin with? Because of their idolatry.

[John Weaver] Because they refused to receive chastisement and correction. Now watch this. Watch verse 15. Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the men that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Phaethros, Answered Jeremiah saying as for the word that thou has spoken in us in the name of the Lord We will not hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth To burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her as we've done We and our fathers our kings our princes in the cities of judah in the streets of jerusalem For then had we plenty of vittles and were well and saw no evil But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out our drink offerings unto her.

[John Weaver] We have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burn incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings unto her, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we do that without our men? Of course, the men knew what was going on. Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, to the women, to all the people who had given him that answer, saying, The incense that you burn in the city of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, Did

[John Weaver] not the Lord remember them and came it not in his mind? In other words, this is why in Judges you begin with. So that the Lord could no longer bear because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you've committed. Therefore is your land a desolation and an astonishment and a curse without an inhabitant as it is this day. Because you have burned incense and because you've sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies, Therefore, this evil has happened unto you as at this day. Moreover, Jeremiah said unto all the people and all the women, Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt.

[John Weaver] Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out our drink offerings unto her. You will surely accomplish your vows and surely perform your vows. Therefore, here you are, the Lord, all Judah, that dwell in the land of Egypt. 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. Behold, I will watch over them for evil and not for good. And for all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine until there be an end to them." What did God say?

[John Weaver] You wouldn't listen to me. Why did I chastise you to begin with? Because of your sin and your wickedness?

[John Weaver] Now you're down in Egypt, you've disobeyed me again. Now you're telling me you're going to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven. You're going to pour out drink offerings unto her. Don't you ever learn? God said, alright, fine. Don't receive chastisement. Don't receive correction. I'll just judge you and destroy you. If you go back in your Bibles, Jeremiah chapter 5, look at verse 9. Listen carefully. God's chastisements are designed to turn us from our evil and our wicked ways. When we refuse to be chastened by God, when we refuse to receive correction by Him, we merit and bring upon ourselves certain and sure destruction. Jeremiah 5 verse 9, what does God ask?

[John Weaver] Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Two reasons so far God said, I will send national judgment. When you're implacable in your comprehension, when you just won't listen, and when you're incorrigible in chastisement, you will not receive chastisement. and correction. You won't learn. Here's the third reason, verses 7 and 8. They were infidels in covenantal relations. Look in verse 7. God asked, how shall I pardon thee for this?

[John Weaver] Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were fed horses in the morning, everyone made after his neighbor's wife. They were infidels in covenantal relations. Now infidelity equals unfaithfulness. So we could say it like this, they were just unfaithful in covenantal relations. Now it's important to comprehend that infidelity in covenantal relations is a cause for national Judgment. Covenantal faithfulness is required by God in every area of life.

[John Weaver] Let me break it down in two points for you. Here you go. First of all, their infidelity was first and foremost Godward. We talk about the Old Testament and the New Testament. Did you know that the word Testament just simply means covenant? The Old Covenant and the New Covenant. I don't care if you lived in the Old Testament or if you're alive in the New Testament. The truth of the matter is God's people are always a covenantal people. And these people violated their covenant, first of all, toward God. What is the first commandment? Listen.

[John Weaver] Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Do you realize you cannot violate any of the remaining nine commandments without violating number one first? When you reject the one true and the living God, as God, you set yourself up as God or something or someone else and then you begin to violate those commandments. Now I want you to look what God says. He says in verse 7, How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. Now you have to ask the question, why did the children forsake God?

[John Weaver] Well the answer comes back they forsook God either because they were following the example of their parents or because they were never taught the precepts of the law of God. Well both answers are correct but the answer that is emphasized over and over in the Bible is simply this they were following the examples of their fathers And if their fathers are idolatrous, do you think they're going to teach the law of God to their children? And the answer is obviously no.

[John Weaver] So look in Jeremiah 2 and verse 13. I want you to see what God says. Jeremiah 2 verse 13. Remember now, God is accusing them, charging them with infidelity in their covenantal relations. Jeremiah 2 verse 13. God says, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Whenever you forsake the one true and the living God, you're going to hew you out a broken cistern. That is, you're going to have a false God. Now look in Jeremiah chapter 3. Begin there with verse 1.

[John Weaver] They say if a man put away his wife, and she go from him and become another man's, Shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again unto me, saith the Lord.

[John Weaver] Now look what God says to Judah and Jerusalem. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lain with. In other words, where you have not committed spiritual adultery. In the ways thou hast set for them as the Arabian in the wilderness, and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness, Therefore the showers have been withholden, there have been no latter rain, and thou hast a whore's forehead and refuses to be ashamed. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the God of My youth?

[John Weaver] Will He reserve His anger forever? Will He keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst."

[John Weaver] Now skip down to verse 20. Now look what he says. He's telling the people they have a whore's forehead. They're spiritual adulterers. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 20. Here's what God says to the people. Surely as a wife treacherously departed from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, said the Lord. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping in supplications of the children of Israel.

[John Weaver] They have perverted their way. They have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God, truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of the mountains. In other words, no idolatries. Truly the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel, for shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even in this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." Now, what did God say? God says, your children have forsaken me. Why did the children forsake? Because the fathers had forsaken him.

[John Weaver] You see, idolatry is rightly referred to in the Bible as spiritual adultery and spiritual whoredoms. Why? Because in idolatry, you take God's blessings God's providential provision, and then you give thanks and praise and honor and worship to an idol or to a false god. While on the one hand, they were claiming to be God's people, on the other hand, they were violating their covenantal oath. Let me put this in very plain language.

[John Weaver] They were practical Christians, or no, no, no, no, let me rephrase it. They were professing Christians but practical pagans. That almost sounds like our land today. Here were a people that received everything from the hand of God, and then gave God's honor and glory to idols. You see, people have not changed. We're still the same today. We ascribe oftentimes God's providential blessings and provisions to luck, chance, fate, and fortune. Boy, was I lucky. No, you weren't lucky. It was the blessing of God. And what we do, we take God's praise and give it to idols.

[John Weaver] We worship at the altar of convenience and comfort. and compromise instead of the altar of Jesus Christ. We have forgotten our oath. We have forgotten our covenant. Let me show you something. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1st Timothy chapter 6. 1st Timothy chapter 6 and look at verse 12. 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 12. Look what the Apostle Paul tells Timothy. He says,"...fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good confession before many witnesses."

[John Weaver] Let me read it again, the latter part like this. "...and has confessed a good confession before many witnesses." Now, Paul said, Timothy, you better remember that good confession that you confess before many witnesses. What is he talking about? I don't care which commentator you get. I don't care if you choose an Arminian or Calvinistic commentator. It doesn't matter. Every commentator that you read on 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12 will tell you that the good confession that Timothy made before many witnesses was at His baptism. Do you know what you confess in your baptism? Here's what you confess. Jesus Christ is Lord.

[John Weaver] Everyone that I've ever baptized, that's the first question I ask them. Do you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? You remember the word Lord means boss, owner, master, sovereign. And when you're baptized, here's the picture of you dying to yourself and your sins as you're buried with Him in baptism, and then being raised to newness of life in Him as you emerge a new creature in Christ to obey Him.

[John Weaver] But you have given a covenantal oath. You have said that Jesus Christ is Lord. Are you listening? When we violate that covenantal oath, when we say with our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord, and then we live practically as pagans denying His Word, His authority, His law, like Judah and Jerusalem in Jeremiah 5, we're professing Christians but practical pagans. Now, go back to Jeremiah chapter 5, because I want you to see first and foremost, their covenantal infidelity was God-ward. He says, they have forsaken me, sworn by them that are not God. But secondly, I want you to note, their infidelity was man-ward. He says in verse 7, how shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken Me, and sworn by them that are no gods.

[John Weaver] When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one nayed after his neighbor's wife."

[John Weaver] Now I want you to listen to me very carefully. Listen carefully. When a people commit spiritual adultery, they will not hesitate to commit physical adultery. If you violate your covenantal relationship in that which is the greatest between you and God, you will not hesitate to violate your covenantal relationship in that which is the least between you and your mate. You've got to remember what the unjust judge said in Luke 18 verses 1 and 2.

[John Weaver] What did our Lord say? Now listen carefully. There was an unjust judge who said, Do I fear not God, nor regard man? What? If I have no fear of God, If I have no respect to my covenantal relationship with Him, am I going to have any regard for man? Or my covenantal relationship with man? No. The answer is absolutely not. Now listen, when one does not fear God, he has no regard for man.

[John Weaver] One of the reasons that there is so much adultery, fornication, dishonesty and fraud corruption in our land today is due to this very simple fact. We have forsaken our covenantal relationship with God. We have no fear of God. Therefore, we have no regard for man. We don't care.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to look. Look in your Bibles. Jeremiah 5 verse 8. Look what he said. This is God's Word, not mine. He said in verse 7, let me read the latter part of that. He said, When I fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one made after his neighbor's wife. Well, let me give you three thoughts very quickly about verse 8. First of all, spiritual adultery always precedes and leads to physical adultery.

[John Weaver] Secondly, When one who has forsaken God is fed, like a fed horse, he uses his strength and energy not for God, but for sin and in rebellion. And thirdly, listen to what he said, though they were fed as horses in the morning, they were fed as horses in the morning, everyone ate after his neighbor's wife. Thirdly, as men cannot be satisfied with God who is sufficient for all things, likewise then they cannot be satisfied with their mates. Isn't that interesting? God says they neigh after their neighbor's wife as a horse.

[John Weaver] Let me give you an illustration. Many years ago, We had a stud horse whose name was Little Bit. And if you probably guessed from the name, he was anything but little. Names are very often contrary to reality, like Honest Abe. Honest Abe was not honest, and Little Bit was certainly not little. He was a huge, huge horse. And Little Bit had three or four mares. in the stall with him. But they were insufficient. And oftentimes I would get a call, sometimes during the night, preacher, your stud horse is over here at my farm trying to get in with my mares five miles down the road. And we would have to get up and go get the horse and bring him back. The horse just was unsatisfied with his mares.

[John Weaver] He wanted all of them. Now look at what God said, verse 8, They were as fed horses in the morning, every one made after his neighbor's wife. You ought to watch horses in the morning after they've been fed, good, cool, crisp morning, love to run, love to show themselves. God says that's exactly the way men are when they reject My covenant. They reject their covenant with each other. And they rush after other men's wives.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn in your Bible. Hold Jeremiah 5. I want you to turn to Psalm 49. I want to show you a verse or two. I want to make a statement. And I want you to see this statement is based upon the Word of God. Psalm 49. Just get ready. Here is my statement. When men violate their covenant with God, and therefore have no regard for covenants with each other, they reduce themselves to the level of animals. Psalm 49 verse 12.

[John Weaver] Nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not, he is like the beasts that perish. Skip down to verse 20. Man that is in honor and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish. God says very plainly, those who forsake Me and violate My covenant will also violate their covenants with each other. Now look back at Jeremiah 5 verse 9 again. All this is in the context. Look at what he says.

[John Weaver] Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? I've given you three reasons this morning why God will send national judgment. When a people are implacable in their comprehension. When they are incorrigible in chastisement. When they are invidels in their covenantal relations. God said, I'll judge them.

[John Weaver] Now, let me just show you a couple of applications. I want you to look at verse 1. God says, Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof. If you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it. I want you to learn this simple truth. Remember, if you would, Judah had the law of God. Israel had the law of God. The tabernacle was in Judah, in Jerusalem. The temple was in Judah, in Jerusalem. But here's the truth. Here's the principle. Truth ignored, truth denied, unvalued, unregarded, overlooked, is worthless. What good did it do Judah and Jerusalem to have the temple? To have the tabernacle? To have the law? They didn't read it. They didn't obey it. They didn't practice it. What good does it do you to have a Bible if you never read it? If you never obey it? Truly the man who can read but will not read is no better off than the man who cannot read.

[John Weaver] What good is your Bible if it just lays on the table? And you never pick it up. You know what God said in Hosea 8 and verse 12? He's talking to Israel now. Listen to what He said. I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. I've written him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. Truly, we could say, and unhappily, God's Word, God's Law is counted as a strange thing in this land today. It does us no good to have the truth if we will not study it and apply it. Look in verse 2, Jeremiah 5, here's the second application.

[John Weaver] And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. We've got to understand that talk is not only cheap, it is insufficient. We have to obey the Word of God in our lives. Profession without possession is useless. And our actions often belie our profession. Let me quote this verse, don't turn there, Titus 1.16. You know what God says? They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him being abominable and disobedient to every good work, reprobate. They profess they know God, but in works they deny Him.

[John Weaver] Then if you look at verses 4 and 5, here's a third application for today. Jeremiah said, Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish, they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgments of their God. Give me to the great men, and I will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God, but these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.

[John Weaver] I want you to see how these things are connected. In verse 1, we saw that truth overlooked, ignored, unregarded, unvalued, is worthless. Verse 2, we saw that profession without actions, without work, is worthless.

[John Weaver] Now when you get to verses 4 and 5, you understand this. You have to realize that truth and knowledge rejected, despised and forgotten, leads to either anarchy or tyranny. When one rejects the law of God, he's either going to end up in anarchy where every man does that which is right in his own eyes, he respects no authority, he regards no man, or else he's going to end up in tyranny and despotism where someone has to come up with an iron

[John Weaver] fist and bring order out of chaos. Let me put it to you like this. The truth is, We must be ruled either by the Bible or by the bayonet. That statement is not original with me. Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the House in 1849, said this before the United States House of Representatives. Listen. all societies of men must be governed in some way or the other. The less they have of stringent state government, the more they must rely on individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men and the Word must necessarily be controlled either by power within them or by power without them. Either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man. Either by the Bible or the bayonet. It may do for other countries and other governments to talk about the state supporting religion here under our own free institutions. It is religion which must support the state. And when he said religion must support the state, he did not mean by taxation.

[John Weaver] What did he mean? He meant we support government by not needing it, by having self-control, self-government, self-restraint. And the more we have of self-government, the less we need of stringent state government. And you're going to find, folks, as our country progresses on the road to destruction, when people reject the truth and refuse to be chastised, they're going to be destroyed. And we'll end up either in absolute anarchy and chaos, or despotism and tyranny.

[John Weaver] Now the question you have to ask is this. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? That's it. That was emphasis. You can cut that out. That was right at the end, Roy. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? How do you be part of the problem? By disobeying the Word of God. How are you part of the solution? By obeying the Word of God. Doing what is obedient and what is right. Let's pray. Father in the name of Jesus Christ we do ask for your grace and your mercy in our lives. We pray Lord that you would teach us and show us the absolute importance of personal obedience in every area of our lives.

[John Weaver] And may we see, Lord, where we're headed so that we can make the necessary preparations. Thou didst say, the prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself. Give us grace, Lord, that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Causes for National Judgment Part 1 of 2

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	tmnBBowumKA
Subject	Church Government
Course	Church Order: Discipline, Enemies, and Institutional Faithfulness
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-02-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 186: Causes For National Judgment — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	104

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and Context

Weaver introduces Jeremiah 5:1-13, noting the message's relevance to current events and the unchanging nature of sin and God's judgment.

Jeremiah chapter 5, and we're going to read the first 13 verses. The title of the message today is Causes for National Judgment. I will begin the message today and finish it, Lord willing, next week. Jeremiah chapter 5. Years ago, I preached this message. However, due to current events, I went back and looked at the message again. I not only added to the first three points it already had, after studying the context, I added an additional two points. So, it's going to take two messages to cover this. So, notice if you would, Jeremiah 5 verse 1, God tells Jeremiah,

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 5:1-13

"Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it." "And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them that they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them that they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return. Therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish. For they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." "I will get me to the great men and will speak unto them. For they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Wherefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone that goeth out then shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backslidings are increased." "How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, everyone made after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things, said the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" "Go you up upon her walls and destroy. Make not a full end, take away her battlements, for they are not the Lord's. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord. They have belied the Lord."

That is, they've lied against the Lord and said,

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 5:1-13

"It is not he, neither shall evil come upon us. Neither shall we see sword or famine and the prophet shall become wind and the word is not in them." "Thus shall it be done unto them."

Let me repeat in light of current events, the circumstances in which we are now living and the depravity and the immorality of Americans in general, I thought it wise to not only repeat, but also to reinforce certain truths from the Word of God. After the message today and after looking at our text, I think you're going to come to one conclusion.

That is, people have not changed at all. We're still sinners. We're still wicked. We're still rebellious. We must remember that although God oftentimes speaks of nations or countries, that a country or a nation is made up of individuals. Therefore, in order for a nation to repent, the individuals in that nation must repent as well.

Now, in Jeremiah chapter 5, God gives us a number of very pointed causes for national judgment. In the context, these causes are addressed to Judah and Jerusalem particularly. He also mentions in verse 11 the house of Israel. So you can say the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, usually Judah and Jerusalem is here involved. But although he is speaking particularly to Judah and Jerusalem, that does not mean that there are no applications to the other nations that exist. God is immutable. God does not change.

Sin is still sin, whether it is in the 6th century or the 21st century. God hates sin just as much today as He hated it in the days of Jeremiah. So you can mark this down. Here's a principle that we can enunciate. That is, the reason or the causes for which God judged Judah and Jerusalem and Samaria 2,500 years ago will be the same causes for which He judges nations today. Because God is immutable, He does not change.

Now let me say one other thing before I get started today. When you and I read Jeremiah chapter 5, and we look at these sins, these causes for national judgment, while they are not minor by any stretch of the imagination, due to our perverseness, due to our depravity, most people would not count them as major sins. When we think about major sins, we try to think about brazen idolatry and fraudulent economics and high-handed treason. Well, yeah, those things deserve national judgment, but some of these other things, we tend to think they're minor. But let me point out, what you and I tend to think as minor often has, in those minor sins, seed form of all the major sins.

First Cause: Implacable in Comprehension

The people refused to listen to God's truth through His prophet, demonstrating an unyielding rejection of divine authority.

I want to give you five. Hopefully we will cover three of them today. The first cause of national judgment is found in verses 1 and 2 and 4 and 5. That is, they were implacable in their comprehension. Now let me explain the word implacable. It just simply means unyielding. When I say that they were implacable in their comprehension, it means simply this. They were not willing to listen to God. They were not willing to listen to Jeremiah.

They thought they had truth. They thought they had everything they needed. And therefore, they had no time for God. They had no time for Jeremiah. May I remind you that Jeremiah was God's man. He was God's prophet. He was God's mouthpiece. He was God's representative.

Now let me tell you what Scripture teaches very clearly. Scripture teaches very clearly this simple principle, that when an individual, when a family, when a church, when a nation, when a people refuse to hear God's truly appointed representative, at the same time, they're refusing to hear God. Let me put it another way. When a nation or a people forsakes God's man, at the same time, they forsake God. Now the man is not God. The man just merely represents Him. Listen to this. Let me just quote it to you.

1 Samuel chapter 8 verses 7 through 8. This is when Israel wanted a king that they might be as other nations. And here's what God said to Samuel. Listen carefully. "And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Now listen. According to all the works which they have done, since the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, wherewith they have forsaken Me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee." Ah, Samuel, they forsook Me, they're going to forsake you. They won't listen to Me, they won't listen to you.

Now let me show you. Look in Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse 13. Jeremiah 7 verse 13,

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 7:13, 23-28

"And now, says God, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not, and I called you, but you answered not."

Now skip down, if you would, to verse 23 of Jeremiah 7. Watch what God says. We're going to read through verse 28. Jeremiah 7 verse 23. God says, "But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people, and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."

"But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them, yet they hearkened not unto me." Now watch, God sent the prophets, but He said, "Yet they hearkened not unto me." So when you don't hear the prophets, you don't hear God. "Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck, and did worse than their fathers." "Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken unto thee. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction, truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth." Ah, isn't that interesting? They would not listen. Do you know what our Lord said as He sent His disciples out in Matthew 10 in verse 40? Our Lord told His disciples, "He that receiveth you, receiveth me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth him also that sent me." Now notice if you would, our Lord said, "He that receiveth you, receiveth me. He that receiveth me, receiveth also him that sent me." Now the opposite is also true.

If you refuse the representative of Christ, you refuse Christ. If you refuse Christ, you refuse the Father who sent Christ. In fact, our Lord said that specifically in Luke 10 and verse 16. Listen to what He said. He said,

Scripture Reading — Luke 10:16

"He that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me."

So when anyone then refuses to hear the true representative of God, at the same time, he's refusing to hear God. When one refuses to hear the representative of Jesus Christ, he's refusing to hear Christ. When he refuses to hear Christ, he refuses to hear the Father who had sent him.

Now let me show you how perverse, how rebellious the people of Judah and Jerusalem had become. They were so implacable. Look what God says in verse 1. He says, "Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof if you can find a man," that is a single man, "if there be any that executed judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it." Now, God said, Jeremiah, here's what I want you to do. You run up and down through the streets of Jerusalem. If you can find one man, one man, who really, genuinely wants the truth and understands the truth and is willing to execute judgment, if you can find just one, I'll pardon the whole nation. Wow. Now, let me show you something else. Before I get off verse 1, this is important. Look at verse 1 again. "Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof. If you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment or justice, that seeketh truth, and I will pardon it."

Now listen carefully. Here's the verse that teaches us that truth and justice stand or fall together. If you have truth, you're going to have justice. If you have justice, you're going to have truth. If you have no truth, you will have no justice. If you have no justice, you will have no truth. You see, the Bible says in Psalm 89 and verse 14 that justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. So, justice or judgment and mercy and truth stand or fall together. It is a sure sign of destruction when anyone is unwilling to hear the truth or to be concerned with judgment or justice. Now listen to me. If I tried to teach you, and you refused to hear me, why would you do that? Either because you already think you know it all, or you don't want it, or you're so perverse you don't have time to listen to it. Follow me?

These people said, hey, we have it. We know it. We don't care what you say, and we don't care what God says. Now, look what he said in verse 2. Now remember, these people were professing people of God. They were supposedly covenantal people. So in verse 2, God says, "And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely." There were many in Jerusalem and in Judah that could talk the talk, but they would never walk the walk. Likewise, we have many today who are willing to ride the horse of Christianity, but they're not willing to get off the horse and walk the truth of Christianity.

They have a profession, but they have no possession. They have no real genuine interest in Jesus Christ. That is, they say one thing and do another. They're absolutely, totally ignorant and perverse. Though they say, "Surely the Lord liveth," says God, yet they swear falsely. I don't really mean it. Religious lingo to them.

Now, I want you to note, God has said, Jeremiah, you run to and fro through the streets of Judah and Jerusalem. If you can find one man, one man that really wants the truth and one man that really executes justice and judgment, I will pardon the whole nation. Now, God says, let me remind you of something. You might find one that's going to say, "The Lord liveth."

But let me tell you, he's swearing falsely. He has no desire for me or my law. Now Jeremiah did that. Jeremiah didn't find a man. Look at the conclusion that he came to in verse 4. "Therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish. They know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." Oh, Jeremiah says, what's this now? The reason I can't find any man among all these people is because they're uneducated. They're ignorant. They're the poor class. They're in the lower economic portion of the city. We don't expect people like that to know anything. That's what Jeremiah was saying. Now Jeremiah said, I figured out what my problem is.

I need to get me to the intelligentsia, to the educated, to the elite, to the rulers. I need to get to the great ones, the men of the city, because surely these are going to know. Well, look in verse 5. After he said he couldn't find any amongst the poor people, he said, "I will get me to the great men and will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord." "and the judgment of their God." Yes, sir. These are the educated, the intelligentsia. They're the college professors. They're the journalists. They're the news media. They're the lawyers. They're the judges. They're the princes. They're the congressmen. Yes, sir. These have known the way of the Lord. What does he say? "But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bond." What does he mean by that? They'd rebelled worse than the common people. Now watch this, he says in verse 5, "but these," let's see, he says in verse 5, "for they have known the way of the Lord." That's past tense.

They might have known it at one time, do you remember what the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 1 talking about those perverse, wicked, ungodly reprobates? He said it like this. They did not like to retain the knowledge of God. So they cast God off and went into idolatry and sodomy and every other perversion under the sun. They didn't like to retain the knowledge of God. These had known, but they didn't like to retain the knowledge of God, and so they burst the bonds, they broke the bounds. What did they mean? They didn't like the limits and the boundaries that God had placed upon them by His divine authority, so they forsook those limits, they forsook those boundaries, and they stole, they usurped authority that had never ever been given unto them. That's why the psalmist in Psalm 2 said, "The kings of the earth and the rulers of the earth have set themselves together and they said, let us burst his bonds asunder and cast his chains away from us." We don't like the limitation that God has placed upon us.

So when Jeremiah got to the great men of the city, he found they were worse than the poor, ignorant, uneducated folks. I want you to hold, Jeremiah 5, but look in your Bible to the book of Ezekiel chapter 22. I just want to point out the problem in Ezekiel's day was the problem in Jeremiah's day. The problem that we have in America today is the same problem that Jeremiah and Ezekiel had in their days. Look in Ezekiel chapter 22 beginning there verse 25. I'll deal with some of this next week, but look at it. "There's a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made her many widows in the midst thereof." So God condemns the prophets.

Now look at verse 26. "Her priests have violated my law. They have profaned mine holy things. They put no difference between the holy and the profane. Neither they show difference between the unclean and the clean. They have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." So now God tackles the priests. Now look in verse 27. "Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves, ravening the prey to shed blood and destroy souls and get dishonest gain." He then hits the prophets again in verse 28. Now look in verse 29.

Scripture Reading — Ezekiel 22:25-29

"The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery to vex the poor and needy. Yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully."

Notice God hits the prophets, the priests, the princes, and the people. The whole gamut from top to bottom was absolutely and totally corrupt. Now go back to Jeremiah chapter 5. Look at verses 22 and 23. Here's the summation. Here's why. This is why it was exactly like it was in Jeremiah's day, Ezekiel's day, our day. Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 22, here's what God says, "Fear ye not me, saith the Lord? Would you not tremble at my presence? Would you have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? And though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail. Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it." Ah, says God.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 5:22-23

"But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart, they're revolted and gone."

What did he say? "Fear ye not me." What did the Apostle Paul say was the problem with men in general in Romans chapter 3 and verse 18? Here's what he said. "There's no fear of God before their eyes." Don't you fear me? No. Let me tell you, mark this down according to Jeremiah chapter 5, when a person, when a family, when a church, when a people, when a nation are unwilling to yield to truth, when they're unwilling to listen to the word of God, when they're unwilling to listen to righteousness and judgment, they are implacable. That is, they're obstinate, they're stubborn, they're hard-hearted. They merit and bring upon themselves the righteous judgment of God. Look what he said in verse 9.

"Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" You've got to remember now, nations are made up of individuals. When you refuse to hear the truth, abide by the truth, and obey the truth, you condemn yourself to be judged by God. The very first cause that God gives in Jeremiah chapter 5, the very first cause for national judgment is implacable in comprehension. That is, unyielding, will not listen, will not heed, will not be warned, and will not receive the truth of God.

Second Cause: Incorrigible in Chastisement

Despite God's corrective judgments, the people hardened their hearts and refused to repent, becoming desensitized to discipline.

Secondly, if you will look, there is a second reason. That is, these people were incorrigible in chastisement. Now, you know what an incorrigible delinquent is? He's a kid who won't listen. It doesn't do him any good to be chastised. Well, same thing here. Look in verse 3, Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah says, "O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon the truth?" Now look what he says concerning the people of Judah and Jerusalem and of Israel. He says, "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction."

"They have made their faces harder than a rock, they refuse to return." Isn't that amazing? "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved." I've told you in times past, and I'm not going to repeat the illustration, but I've seen one child in my entire life. Well, I take that back too. Two children in my entire life, that no matter how much you whip them or how hard you whip them, they would not cry. Here's what he says, "Thou hast stricken them, they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they refuse to hear correction." Let me show you something. When people are implacable in their comprehension, when they refuse to hear the truth, the very next step, the very next stage, is they become incorrigible in chastisement. That is, no amount of chastisement will do them any good. They become desensitized. They become hard-hearted. They become solidified in their sin and in their rebellion. I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly.

Hold Jeremiah 5, but turn back to Isaiah chapter 1. I want you to notice verse 5 and what God says concerning the people in Isaiah's day. You see, this is a common thing. We don't think it's very common, but yet it is. Look at Isaiah 1 and verse 5. Look what God said concerning His people. Notice Isaiah 1 verse 5. God asked, "Why should you be stricken anymore?"

"You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that have not been closed, neither bound up nor neither mollified with ointment." Look at verse 7. "Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land strangers devoured in your presence and is desolate as overthrown by strangers." Look what he said. "Why would you be stricken with me? What good is it doing me to chastise you anymore? All it does is make you harder and more solidified in your rebellion against me." Let me tell you something, folks. When a child will not receive correction and chastisement, he's gone. When a people will not receive correction and chastisement, they're gone. Go back to Jeremiah 8. Look in verse 6. God is giving us a very clear representation, a very clear picture of what I'm trying to show you. Jeremiah 8 in verse 6. God says, "I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright."

Now look, "No man repented him of his wickedness saying, what have I done? Everyone turned to his course as the horse rushes into battle." You know how a horse rushes into battle? He runs headlong. He's totally, completely unaware of the danger and the destruction. He just rushes headlong straight into the enemy. God said, no man repented of his wickedness saying, what have I done? I haven't done anything. Why should God judge me? And then he just rushes headlong, right straight into judgment. It is because of their unfaithfulness, their wickedness, their rebellion that God has smitten them, yet they refuse to acknowledge it. They refuse to repent. They refuse to be grieved for their wickedness and their rebellion.

Their attitude was much like the wicked woman in Proverbs 30 in verse 20. Let me just quote it. God says,

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 30:20

"Such is the way of the adulterous woman. She eateth and wipeth her mouth and said, what have I done?"

Doesn't bother her. What has she done wrong? I want to show you, and I want you to turn very quickly with me. Let's begin at the book of Proverbs chapter 3. I want to show you just very quickly what God says concerning those who will not receive correction and chastisement. Let me just show you. Because God is talking about individuals who are incorrigible in their chastisement. Proverbs chapter 3. And let's begin reading there verse 11. Proverbs 3. Notice verse 11. Look what God says.

"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord." That is don't despise him now. "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth." Now God says don't despise chastisement. Now, look if you would at chapter 5 and verse 2. Proverbs 5 verse 2. He tells the son to attend, well let's read verse 1. "My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding. That thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge." Now watch if you would please skip down to verse 5, let's see verse 7 is what I want. "Hear me now therefore, you children, and depart not from the wisdom of my mouth." Skip down to verse 21. "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all of his goings." Now look if you would please in chapter 19 and verse 13. Chapter 19, verse 13.

Now God has cautioned us to hear His chastening, to hear His words. Now He says this, Proverbs 19, verse 13, "A foolish son is the calamity of his father." A foolish son is the calamity of his father. Let me tell you, and you're going to see this, often times in the Bible, God refers to children and to adults as fools. A fool in the Bible is not some mentally deficient person. A fool in the Bible is someone who will not listen. So he says a foolish son then is the calamity of his father. Look if you would please in verse 19. He says, "A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment."

"For if you deliver him yet thou must do it again." Why? He won't listen. Look in Proverbs 28. Proverbs 28 verse 7. He says, "Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son, but he that is companion of riotous men shameth his father." So God said if you keep the law, if you obey me, you're a wise son. But if you're a companion of wicked and riotous men, then you're shaming your father.

Now let me ask you a question. What in the world is going to happen to someone who just will not listen? Someone who will not receive instruction. Someone who will not receive correction and chastisement. Look in Proverbs 29 verse 1. Here's what's going to happen.

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 29:1

"He that being often reproved,"

that's often warned.

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 29:1

"He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."

God says, I will warn you, and when you're reproved often, and it doesn't do any good, I will destroy you suddenly, and that without remedy.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 42-44

In other words, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't stop it. It'll happen so quickly you won't have time to blink an eye and it's over. Let me show you from the Bible what I am going to call a classic illustration of being incorrigible in chastisement. I want you to turn, if you would, to Jeremiah 42. This is a very important passage and I want you to see what happens. Nebuchadnezzar has come into the land and basically destroyed it. He's taken away many people captive. He's left just a few people in the land alive, the poorest of the people. And so in Jeremiah 42, beginning there in verse 1, "Then all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least even the greatest, came near and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let we beseech thee our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant. For we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us, that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you. Behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God, according to your words and it shall come to pass that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you."

"I will keep nothing back from you. Then they said to Jeremiah, the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us if we do not even according to all things for which the Lord thy God shall send thee unto us." Now let's stop right there just for a moment. The people have come to Jeremiah and said we're in trouble, we're in great straits, God has judged us, I mean Nebuchadnezzar has come, he's torn down the city, he's destroyed, burned the temple, he's destroyed everything. Taken all these, we're just a few people left. Now Jeremiah, please, please pray and ask God for wisdom and for his will. And Jeremiah, will you do that?

Yes, he said, I'll do that and I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll withhold nothing, I will give you everything that God tells me. And the people say, Jeremiah, we will give you our word, the Lord be a true and faithful witness amongst us and between us. Whatever God tells you, that's what we're going to do. Boy, that ought to make any pastor's heart rejoice. Well, Jeremiah did pray.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 42-44

Now look in chapter 43, verse 1. "And it came to pass that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people, all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them, even all these words," Jeremiah told them, here's what God says, go not down into Egypt. Don't go down there. You stay here in the land. I'll bless you, and I'll protect you. "Then spake Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely. The Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt, sojourn there. But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death, and carry us away captives of Babylon. So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the people obeyed not the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land of Judah." They had just got through saying, Look, we're going to do whatever you, whatever the Lord tells you. And now when they get the message that they don't want, they say, God didn't tell you that. Now look what happens. Look in chapter 44, beginning with verse 10. So God now sends Jeremiah back, and he says, you've got to tell them something. Yeah, they're going down into Egypt. That's what they want to do.

They're not going to listen to me. They're not going to listen to you. He said, in the saying of them, thus saith the Lord. 44 is what I want. Chapter 44, verse 10. Watch now. God says, "They are not humbled even in this day, neither have they feared nor walked in my law nor in my statutes, that I may set before you and before your fathers. Therefore, thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will set my face against you for evil and to cut off all Judah. That is, you're going down in Egypt. I'm going to set my face against you. I'm going to cut you off. And I will take the remnant of Judah that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt, but sojourn there and they shall be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. And they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They shall die from the least, even to the greatest by the sword and by the famine, and they shall be an execration."

"and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem by the sword, by the famine, by the pestilence. So that none of the remnant of Judah that are gone in the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall escape or remain, they that should return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there. For none shall return, but such as shall escape." Now watch.

Then all the men which knew... This is amazing. Then all the men... Let me just stop there. What did God just say? God said, you're going down to Egypt. I've told you not to. Fine. Go on. I'll kill you all down there. That's what he told them. You're afraid of Nebuchadnezzar? Guess what? You don't know, but I'm going to send him against Egypt just shortly and you're going to be there. Why did God judge Judah and Jerusalem to begin with? Because of their idolatry.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 42-44

Because they refused to receive chastisement and correction. Now watch this. Watch verse 15. "Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the men that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we've done, we and our fathers, our kings, our princes, in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem. For then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out our drink offerings unto her."

"We have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burn incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we do that without our men?" Of course, the men knew what was going on. Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, to the women, to all the people who had given him that answer, saying, "The incense that you burn in the city of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them and came it not in his mind?" In other words, this is why in Judges you begin with. "So that the Lord could no longer bear because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you've committed. Therefore is your land a desolation and an astonishment and a curse without an inhabitant as it is this day. Because you have burned incense and because you've sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies, therefore, this evil has happened unto you as at this day. Moreover, Jeremiah said unto all the people and all the women, Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt."

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out our drink offerings unto her. You will surely accomplish your vows and surely perform your vows. Therefore, here you are, the Lord, all Judah, that dwell in the land of Egypt. 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. Behold, I will watch over them for evil and not for good. And for all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine until there be an end to them." What did God say?

You wouldn't listen to me. Why did I chastise you to begin with? Because of your sin and your wickedness? Now you're down in Egypt, you've disobeyed me again. Now you're telling me you're going to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven. You're going to pour out drink offerings unto her. Don't you ever learn? God said, alright, fine. Don't receive chastisement. Don't receive correction. I'll just judge you and destroy you. If you go back in your Bibles, Jeremiah chapter 5, look at verse 9. Listen carefully. God's chastisements are designed to turn us from our evil and our wicked ways. When we refuse to be chastened by God, when we refuse to receive correction by Him, we merit and bring upon ourselves certain and sure destruction. Jeremiah 5 verse 9, what does God ask?

"Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" Two reasons so far God said, I will send national judgment. When you're implacable in your comprehension, when you just won't listen, and when you're incorrigible in chastisement, you will not receive chastisement and correction. You won't learn. Here's the third reason, verses 7 and 8. They were infidels in covenantal relations. Look in verse 7. God asked, "How shall I pardon thee for this?"

Third Cause: Infidels in Covenantal Relations

The people were unfaithful to their covenant with God, leading to spiritual adultery and physical immorality, and violating covenants with one another.

"Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were fed horses in the morning, everyone made after his neighbor's wife." They were infidels in covenantal relations. Now infidelity equals unfaithfulness. So we could say it like this, they were just unfaithful in covenantal relations. Now it's important to comprehend that infidelity in covenantal relations is a cause for national judgment. Covenantal faithfulness is required by God in every area of life.

Let me break it down in two points for you. Here you go. First of all, their infidelity was first and foremost Godward. We talk about the Old Testament and the New Testament. Did you know that the word Testament just simply means covenant? The Old Covenant and the New Covenant. I don't care if you lived in the Old Testament or if you're alive in the New Testament. The truth of the matter is God's people are always a covenantal people. And these people violated their covenant, first of all, toward God. What is the first commandment? Listen.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Do you realize you cannot violate any of the remaining nine commandments without violating number one first? When you reject the one true and the living God, as God, you set yourself up as God or something or someone else and then you begin to violate those commandments. Now I want you to look what God says. He says in verse 7, "How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods." Now you have to ask the question, why did the children forsake God? Well the answer comes back they forsook God either because they were following the example of their parents or because they were never taught the precepts of the law of God. Well both answers are correct but the answer that is emphasized over and over in the Bible is simply this they were following the examples of their fathers. And if their fathers are idolatrous, do you think they're going to teach the law of God to their children? And the answer is obviously no.

So look in Jeremiah 2 and verse 13. I want you to see what God says. Jeremiah 2 verse 13. Remember now, God is accusing them, charging them with infidelity in their covenantal relations. Jeremiah 2 verse 13. God says,

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 2:13

"For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

Whenever you forsake the one true and the living God, you're going to hew you out a broken cistern. That is, you're going to have a false God. Now look in Jeremiah chapter 3. Begin there with verse 1.

"They say if a man put away his wife, and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again unto me, saith the Lord." Now look what God says to Judah and Jerusalem. "Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lain with." In other words, where you have not committed spiritual adultery. "In the ways thou hast set for them as the Arabian in the wilderness, and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness, therefore the showers have been withholden, there have been no latter rain, and thou hast a whore's forehead and refuses to be ashamed. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the God of My youth?"

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 3:1-3, 20-25

"Will He reserve His anger forever? Will He keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst." Now skip down to verse 20. Now look what he says. He's telling the people they have a whore's forehead. They're spiritual adulterers. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 20. Here's what God says to the people. "Surely as a wife treacherously departed from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, said the Lord. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping in supplications of the children of Israel."

"They have perverted their way. They have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God, truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of the mountains." In other words, no idolatries. "Truly the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel, for shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even in this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." Now, what did God say? God says, your children have forsaken me. Why did the children forsake? Because the fathers had forsaken him.

You see, idolatry is rightly referred to in the Bible as spiritual adultery and spiritual whoredoms. Why? Because in idolatry, you take God's blessings, God's providential provision, and then you give thanks and praise and honor and worship to an idol or to a false god. While on the one hand, they were claiming to be God's people, on the other hand, they were violating their covenantal oath. Let me put this in very plain language. They were professing Christians but practical pagans. That almost sounds like our land today. Here were a people that received everything from the hand of God, and then gave God's honor and glory to idols. You see, people have not changed. We're still the same today. We ascribe oftentimes God's providential blessings and provisions to luck, chance, fate, and fortune. Boy, was I lucky. No, you weren't lucky. It was the blessing of God. And what we do, we take God's praise and give it to idols.

We worship at the altar of convenience and comfort and compromise instead of the altar of Jesus Christ. We have forgotten our oath. We have forgotten our covenant. Let me show you something. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1st Timothy chapter 6. 1st Timothy chapter 6 and look at verse 12. 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 12. Look what the Apostle Paul tells Timothy. He says, "...fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good confession before many witnesses."

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 6:12

Let me read it again, the latter part like this. "...and has confessed a good confession before many witnesses." Now, Paul said, Timothy, you better remember that good confession that you confess before many witnesses. What is he talking about? I don't care which commentator you get. I don't care if you choose an Arminian or Calvinistic commentator. It doesn't matter. Every commentator that you read on 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12 will tell you that the good confession that Timothy made before many witnesses was at his baptism. Do you know what you confess in your baptism? Here's what you confess. Jesus Christ is Lord.

Everyone that I've ever baptized, that's the first question I ask them. Do you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? You remember the word Lord means boss, owner, master, sovereign. And when you're baptized, here's the picture of you dying to yourself and your sins as you're buried with Him in baptism, and then being raised to newness of life in Him as you emerge a new creature in Christ to obey Him.

But you have given a covenantal oath. You have said that Jesus Christ is Lord. Are you listening? When we violate that covenantal oath, when we say with our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord, and then we live practically as pagans denying His Word, His authority, His law, like Judah and Jerusalem in Jeremiah 5, we're professing Christians but practical pagans. Now, go back to Jeremiah chapter 5, because I want you to see first and foremost, their covenantal infidelity was God-ward. He says, they have forsaken me, sworn by them that are not God. But secondly, I want you to note, their infidelity was man-ward. He says in verse 7, "How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken Me, and sworn by them that are no gods."

"When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one nayed after his neighbor's wife." Now I want you to listen to me very carefully. Listen carefully. When a people commit spiritual adultery, they will not hesitate to commit physical adultery. If you violate your covenantal relationship in that which is the greatest between you and God, you will not hesitate to violate your covenantal relationship in that which is the least between you and your mate. You've got to remember what the unjust judge said in Luke 18 verses 1 and 2.

What did our Lord say? Now listen carefully. There was an unjust judge who said, "Do I fear not God, nor regard man?" What? If I have no fear of God, if I have no respect to my covenantal relationship with Him, am I going to have any regard for man? Or my covenantal relationship with man? No. The answer is absolutely not. Now listen, when one does not fear God, he has no regard for man.

One of the reasons that there is so much adultery, fornication, dishonesty and fraud corruption in our land today is due to this very simple fact. We have forsaken our covenantal relationship with God. We have no fear of God. Therefore, we have no regard for man. We don't care.

Now, I want you to look. Look in your Bibles. Jeremiah 5 verse 8. Look what he said. This is God's Word, not mine. He said in verse 7, let me read the latter part of that. He said, "When I fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one made after his neighbor's wife." Well, let me give you three thoughts very quickly about verse 8. First of all, spiritual adultery always precedes and leads to physical adultery.

Secondly, when one who has forsaken God is fed, like a fed horse, he uses his strength and energy not for God, but for sin and in rebellion. And thirdly, listen to what he said, though they were fed as horses in the morning, they were fed as horses in the morning, everyone ate after his neighbor's wife. Thirdly, as men cannot be satisfied with God who is sufficient for all things, likewise then they cannot be satisfied with their mates. Isn't that interesting? God says they neigh after their neighbor's wife as a horse. Let me give you an illustration. Many years ago, we had a stud horse whose name was Little Bit. And if you probably guessed from the name, he was anything but little. Names are very often contrary to reality, like Honest Abe. Honest Abe was not honest, and Little Bit was certainly not little. He was a huge, huge horse. And Little Bit had three or four mares in the stall with him. But they were insufficient. And oftentimes I would get a call, sometimes during the night, preacher, your stud horse is over here at my farm trying to get in with my mares five miles down the road. And we would have to get up and go get the horse and bring him back. The horse just was unsatisfied with his mares.

He wanted all of them. Now look at what God said, verse 8, "They were as fed horses in the morning, every one made after his neighbor's wife." You ought to watch horses in the morning after they've been fed, good, cool, crisp morning, love to run, love to show themselves. God says that's exactly the way men are when they reject My covenant. They reject their covenant with each other. And they rush after other men's wives.

Now, I want you to turn in your Bible. Hold Jeremiah 5. I want you to turn to Psalm 49. I want to show you a verse or two. I want to make a statement. And I want you to see this statement is based upon the Word of God. Psalm 49. Just get ready. Here is my statement. When men violate their covenant with God, and therefore have no regard for covenants with each other, they reduce themselves to the level of animals. Psalm 49 verse 12.

"Nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not, he is like the beasts that perish." Skip down to verse 20. "Man that is in honor and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish." God says very plainly, those who forsake Me and violate My covenant will also violate their covenants with each other. Now look back at Jeremiah 5 verse 9 again. All this is in the context. Look at what he says. "Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" I've given you three reasons this morning why God will send national judgment. When a people are implacable in their comprehension. When they are incorrigible in chastisement. When they are infidels in their covenantal relations. God said, I'll judge them.

Applications from the Text

Weaver draws three applications: truth ignored is worthless, profession without obedience is insufficient, and rejecting God's law leads to anarchy or tyranny.

Now, let me just show you a couple of applications. I want you to look at verse 1. God says, "Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof. If you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it." I want you to learn this simple truth. Remember, if you would, Judah had the law of God. Israel had the law of God. The tabernacle was in Judah, in Jerusalem. The temple was in Judah, in Jerusalem. But here's the truth. Here's the principle. Truth ignored, truth denied, unvalued, unregarded, overlooked, is worthless. What good did it do Judah and Jerusalem to have the temple? To have the tabernacle? To have the law? They didn't read it. They didn't obey it. They didn't practice it. What good does it do you to have a Bible if you never read it? If you never obey it? Truly the man who can read but will not read is no better off than the man who cannot read.

What good is your Bible if it just lays on the table? And you never pick it up. You know what God said in Hosea 8 and verse 12? He's talking to Israel now. Listen to what He said. "I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing." I've written him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. Truly, we could say, and unhappily, God's Word, God's Law is counted as a strange thing in this land today. It does us no good to have the truth if we will not study it and apply it. Look in verse 2, Jeremiah 5, here's the second application.

"And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely." We've got to understand that talk is not only cheap, it is insufficient. We have to obey the Word of God in our lives. Profession without possession is useless. And our actions often belie our profession. Let me quote this verse, don't turn there, Titus 1.16. You know what God says? "They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him being abominable and disobedient to every good work, reprobate." They profess they know God, but in works they deny Him.

Then if you look at verses 4 and 5, here's a third application for today. Jeremiah said, "Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish, they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgments of their God. Give me to the great men, and I will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God, but these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds." I want you to see how these things are connected. In verse 1, we saw that truth overlooked, ignored, unregarded, unvalued, is worthless. Verse 2, we saw that profession without actions, without work, is worthless.

Now when you get to verses 4 and 5, you understand this. You have to realize that truth and knowledge rejected, despised and forgotten, leads to either anarchy or tyranny. When one rejects the law of God, he's either going to end up in anarchy where every man does that which is right in his own eyes, he respects no authority, he regards no man, or else he's going to end up in tyranny and despotism where someone has to come up with an iron fist and bring order out of chaos. Let me put it to you like this. The truth is, we must be ruled either by the Bible or by the bayonet. That statement is not original with me. Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the House in 1849, said this before the United States House of Representatives. Listen. "All societies of men must be governed in some way or the other. The less they have of stringent state government, the more they must rely on individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men and the Word must necessarily be controlled either by power within them or by power without them. Either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man. Either by the Bible or the bayonet. It may do for other countries and other governments to talk about the state supporting religion here under our own free institutions. It is religion which must support the state." And when he said religion must support the state, he did not mean by taxation.

What did he mean? He meant we support government by not needing it, by having self-control, self-government, self-restraint. And the more we have of self-government, the less we need of stringent state government. And you're going to find, folks, as our country progresses on the road to destruction, when people reject the truth and refuse to be chastised, they're going to be destroyed. And we'll end up either in absolute anarchy and chaos, or despotism and tyranny.

Conclusion and Call to Obedience

The message concludes with a challenge to be part of the solution by obeying God's Word, followed by a closing prayer.

Now the question you have to ask is this. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? That's it. That was emphasis. You can cut that out. That was right at the end, Roy. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? How do you be part of the problem? By disobeying the Word of God. How are you part of the solution? By obeying the Word of God. Doing what is obedient and what is right. Let's pray. Father in the name of Jesus Christ we do ask for your grace and your mercy in our lives. We pray Lord that you would teach us and show us the absolute importance of personal obedience in every area of our lives.

And may we see, Lord, where we're headed so that we can make the necessary preparations. Thou didst say, the prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself. Give us grace, Lord, that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Unchanging Nature of God and Sin

Summary: God's character and His hatred of sin are immutable; the sins that brought judgment in Jeremiah's day are the same today.

Evidence: God is immutable. God does not change. Sin is still sin, whether it is in the 6th century or the 21st century.

Rejection of God's Messenger Equals Rejection of God

Summary: Refusing to hear God's appointed representative is tantamount to refusing God Himself.

Evidence: When an individual, when a family, when a church, when a nation, when a people refuse to hear God's truly appointed representative, at the same time, they're refusing to hear God.

The Interconnection of Truth and Justice

Summary: Truth and justice stand or fall together; a lack of truth leads to a lack of justice.

Evidence: If you have truth, you're going to have justice. If you have justice, you're going to have truth. If you have no truth, you will have no justice.

Hardness of Heart Despite Chastisement

Summary: When people refuse correction, they become hardened and desensitized, leading to sudden destruction.

Evidence: Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock.

Covenantal Unfaithfulness Leads to Societal Decay

Summary: Violating the covenant with God inevitably leads to violating covenants with others, resulting in moral chaos.

Evidence: When a people commit spiritual adultery, they will not hesitate to commit physical adultery.

Key Arguments

National judgment is caused by specific sins

Summary: God explicitly states He will judge nations for the sins listed in Jeremiah 5, as seen in verses 9 and 29.

Evidence: Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Refusing to hear truth is a cause for judgment

Summary: The people's unwillingness to listen to God's word through Jeremiah demonstrated an implacable heart that merits judgment.

Evidence: They were not willing to listen to God. They were not willing to listen to Jeremiah.

Rejecting correction leads to destruction

Summary: When individuals or nations refuse to be chastened by God, they become incorrigible and face sudden, irremediable judgment.

Evidence: He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Spiritual adultery precedes physical adultery

Summary: Forsaking God in covenantal unfaithfulness leads to moral breakdown, including sexual immorality.

Evidence: When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses.

Ignored truth is worthless

Summary: Possessing God's law without obeying it renders it useless, as seen in Judah's failure despite having the temple and law.

Evidence: Truth ignored, truth denied, unvalued, unregarded, overlooked, is worthless.

Scripture References

Jeremiah 5:1-13

Context: The primary text for the sermon, detailing causes for national judgment.

Jeremiah 5:9

Context: God's rhetorical question affirming He will judge nations for these sins.

1 Samuel 8:7-8

Context: Illustrates that rejecting God's representative is rejecting God Himself.

Jeremiah 7:13, 23-28

Context: Shows that refusing to hear the prophets is refusing to hear God.

Matthew 10:40

Context: Jesus teaches that receiving His disciples is receiving Him and the Father.

Luke 10:16

Context: Jesus states that despising His messengers is despising Him and the Father.

Psalm 89:14

Context: Justice and judgment are the foundation of God's throne; mercy and truth go before Him.

Ezekiel 22:25-29

Context: Condemnation of prophets, priests, princes, and people for corruption.

Jeremiah 5:22-23

Context: God questions why the people do not fear Him, highlighting their rebellious hearts.

Romans 3:18

Context: There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Isaiah 1:5-7

Context: God asks why He should continue to strike a people who only revolt more.

Jeremiah 8:6

Context: No one repents; everyone rushes into sin like a horse into battle.

Proverbs 30:20

Context: The adulterous woman wipes her mouth and says she has done nothing wrong.

Proverbs 3:11-12

Context: Do not despise the Lord's chastening; He corrects those He loves.

Proverbs 29:1

Context: One often reproved who hardens his neck will be suddenly destroyed without remedy.

Jeremiah 42-44

Context: The remnant's refusal to obey God's command not to go to Egypt, leading to judgment.

Jeremiah 2:13

Context: God's people have forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters, for broken cisterns.

Jeremiah 3:1-3, 20-25

Context: Israel's spiritual adultery and call to return.

1 Timothy 6:12

Context: Timothy's good confession before many witnesses, likely at baptism.

Psalm 49:12, 20

Context: Man in honor without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Historical References

Judah and Jerusalem in Jeremiah's time

Context: The primary audience of Jeremiah's prophecies, facing Babylonian invasion due to their sins.

Northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)

Context: Mentioned alongside Judah as having dealt treacherously against God.

Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem

Context: The historical judgment that befell Judah for their sins, referenced in Jeremiah 42-44.

Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the House (1849)

Context: Quoted for his statement that societies must be governed by the Bible or the bayonet.

Important Quotes

When an individual, when a family, when a church, when a nation, when a people refuse to hear God's truly appointed representative, at the same time, they're refusing to hear God.

Significance: Key principle linking rejection of God's messengers to rejection of God Himself.

If you have truth, you're going to have justice. If you have justice, you're going to have truth. If you have no truth, you will have no justice.

Significance: Highlights the inseparable connection between truth and justice in society.

He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Significance: Solemn warning about the consequences of refusing correction.

When a people commit spiritual adultery, they will not hesitate to commit physical adultery.

Significance: Connects covenantal unfaithfulness to God with moral breakdown in human relationships.

Truth ignored, truth denied, unvalued, unregarded, overlooked, is worthless.

Significance: Application emphasizing that possessing truth without obedience is futile.

Discussion Questions

In what ways might we be 'implacable in our comprehension' today, refusing to hear God's truth?

Context: Based on the first cause of national judgment from verses 1-2, 4-5.

How can we recognize when we are becoming 'incorrigible in chastisement' and what steps can we take to remain teachable?

Context: Based on the second cause from verse 3 and related passages.

What does it mean to be 'infidels in covenantal relations' in our personal, family, and national life?

Context: Based on the third cause from verses 7-8.

Why does spiritual adultery (idolatry) inevitably lead to physical adultery and other covenant violations?

Context: From the explanation of verse 7-8 and the connection between Godward and manward infidelity.

How does the principle 'truth ignored is worthless' challenge our personal Bible study and obedience?

Context: From the first application drawn from verse 1.

What are the dangers of a profession of faith without corresponding actions, and how can we avoid this?

Context: From the second application drawn from verse 2.

In what ways does rejecting God's law lead to either anarchy or tyranny in society?

Context: From the third application drawn from verses 4-5 and the Winthrop quote.

Applications

Value and obey God's truth

Summary: Truth that is ignored or unapplied is worthless; we must actively study and obey Scripture.

Evidence: Truth ignored, truth denied, unvalued, unregarded, overlooked, is worthless.

Ensure profession matches practice

Summary: Mere verbal profession of faith is insufficient; our actions must align with our confession.

Evidence: And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely.

Embrace correction and chastisement

Summary: We must not harden our hearts when God disciplines us, but repent and return to Him.

Evidence: Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction.

Maintain covenant faithfulness

Summary: We must be faithful to our covenant with God and with others, avoiding spiritual and physical adultery.

Evidence: Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods... they committed adultery.

Be part of the solution through obedience

Summary: We contribute to national judgment by disobedience or to national blessing by obeying God's Word.

Evidence: Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? How do you be part of the problem? By disobeying the Word of God.

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T04:15:34Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T16:41:42Z

Clean Transcript

Causes for National Judgment Part 1 of 2

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Jeremiah chapter 5, and we're going to read the first 13 verses. The title of the message today is Causes for National Judgment. I will begin the message today and finish it, Lord willing, next week. Jeremiah chapter 5. Years ago, I preached this message. However, due to current events, I went back and looked at the message again. I not only added to the first three points it already had, after studying the context, I added an additional two points. So, it's going to take two messages to cover this. So, notice if you would, Jeremiah 5 verse 1, God tells Jeremiah, "Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it."
#1 | 0:16 to 1:20 | cleaned
"And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them that they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them that they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return. Therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish. For they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God."
#2 | 1:21 to 1:43 | cleaned
"I will get me to the great men and will speak unto them. For they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Wherefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone that goeth out then shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backslidings are increased."
#3 | 1:44 to 2:08 | cleaned
"How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, everyone made after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things, said the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"
#4 | 2:09 to 2:30 | cleaned
"Go you up upon her walls and destroy. Make not a full end, take away her battlements, for they are not the Lord's. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord. They have belied the Lord." That is, they've lied against the Lord and said, "It is not he, neither shall evil come upon us. Neither shall we see sword or famine and the prophet shall become wind and the word is not in them."
#5 | 2:32 to 2:55 | cleaned
"Thus shall it be done unto them." Let me repeat in light of current events, the circumstances in which we are now living and the depravity and the immorality of Americans in general, I thought it wise to not only repeat, but also to reinforce certain truths from the Word of God. After the message today and after looking at our text, I think you're going to come to one conclusion.
#6 | 2:55 to 3:21 | cleaned
That is, people have not changed at all. We're still sinners. We're still wicked. We're still rebellious. We must remember that although God oftentimes speaks of nations or countries, that a country or a nation is made up of individuals. Therefore, in order for a nation to repent, the individuals in that nation must repent as well.
#7 | 3:21 to 3:48 | cleaned
Now, in Jeremiah chapter 5, God gives us a number of very pointed causes for national judgment. In the context, these causes are addressed to Judah and Jerusalem particularly. He also mentions in verse 11 the house of Israel. So you can say the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, usually Judah and Jerusalem is here involved. But although he is speaking particularly to Judah and Jerusalem, that does not mean that there are no applications to the other nations that exist. God is immutable. God does not change.
#8 | 3:49 to 4:29 | cleaned
Sin is still sin, whether it is in the 6th century or the 21st century. God hates sin just as much today as He hated it in the days of Jeremiah. So you can mark this down. Here's a principle that we can enunciate. That is, the reason or the causes for which God judged Judah and Jerusalem and Samaria 2,500 years ago will be the same causes for which He judges nations today. Because God is immutable, He does not change.
#9 | 4:29 to 5:05 | cleaned
Now let me say one other thing before I get started today. When you and I read Jeremiah chapter 5, and we look at these sins, these causes for national judgment, while they are not minor by any stretch of the imagination, due to our perverseness, due to our depravity, most people would not count them as major sins. When we think about major sins, we try to think about brazen idolatry and fraudulent economics and high-handed treason. Well, yeah, those things deserve national judgment, but some of these other things, we tend to think they're minor. But let me point out, what you and I tend to think as minor often has, in those minor sins, seed form of all the major sins.
#10 | 5:05 to 6:04 | cleaned
I've told you in time past and I'll tell you again, when God forbids any sin at the same time, He forbids anything that leads up to that sin. And while these so-called minor sins appear minor to most people, they're simply the sins that lead up to the major sins.
#11 | 6:05 to 6:24 | cleaned
Now let me just point out, we know dogmatically, we know certainly, we know absolutely that God will judge nations for these causes. Why? Look in verse 9, Jeremiah 5 verse 9, God asks, "Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" Look at verse 29. He repeats it. "Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" So we know then that God will send national judgment for certain sins. What are some of those sins?
#12 | 6:25 to 7:07 | cleaned
I want to give you five. Hopefully we will cover three of them today. The first cause of national judgment is found in verses 1 and 2 and 4 and 5. That is, they were implacable in their comprehension. Now let me explain the word implacable. It just simply means unyielding. When I say that they were implacable in their comprehension, it means simply this. They were not willing to listen to God. They were not willing to listen to Jeremiah.
#13 | 7:08 to 7:42 | cleaned
They thought they had truth. They thought they had everything they needed. And therefore, they had no time for God. They had no time for Jeremiah. May I remind you that Jeremiah was God's man. He was God's prophet. He was God's mouthpiece. He was God's representative.
#14 | 7:42 to 8:02 | cleaned
Now let me tell you what Scripture teaches very clearly. Scripture teaches very clearly this simple principle, that when an individual, when a family, when a church, when a nation, when a people refuse to hear God's truly appointed representative, at the same time, they're refusing to hear God. Let me put it another way. When a nation or a people forsakes God's man, at the same time, they forsake God. Now the man is not God. The man just merely represents Him. Listen to this. Let me just quote it to you.
#15 | 8:02 to 8:39 | cleaned
1 Samuel chapter 8 verses 7 through 8. This is when Israel wanted a king that they might be as other nations. And here's what God said to Samuel. Listen carefully. "And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Now listen. According to all the works which they have done, since the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, wherewith they have forsaken Me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee." Ah, Samuel, they forsook Me, they're going to forsake you. They won't listen to Me, they won't listen to you.
#16 | 8:40 to 9:23 | cleaned
Now let me show you. Look in Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse 13. Jeremiah 7 verse 13, "And now, says God, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not, and I called you, but you answered not." Now skip down, if you would, to verse 23 of Jeremiah 7. Watch what God says. We're going to read through verse 28. Jeremiah 7 verse 23. God says, "But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people, and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."
#17 | 9:24 to 10:12 | cleaned
"But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them, yet they hearkened not unto me." Now watch, God sent the prophets, but He said, "Yet they hearkened not unto me." So when you don't hear the prophets, you don't hear God. "Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck, and did worse than their fathers."
#18 | 10:13 to 10:45 | cleaned
"Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken unto thee. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction, truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth." Ah, isn't that interesting? They would not listen. Do you know what our Lord said as He sent His disciples out in Matthew 10 in verse 40? Our Lord told His disciples, "He that receiveth you, receiveth me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth him also that sent me." Now notice if you would, our Lord said, "He that receiveth you, receiveth me. He that receiveth me, receiveth also him that sent me." Now the opposite is also true.
#19 | 10:46 to 11:34 | cleaned
If you refuse the representative of Christ, you refuse Christ. If you refuse Christ, you refuse the Father who sent Christ. In fact, our Lord said that specifically in Luke 10 and verse 16. Listen to what He said. He said, "He that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me." So when anyone then refuses to hear the true representative of God, at the same time, he's refusing to hear God. When one refuses to hear the representative of Jesus Christ, he's refusing to hear Christ. When he refuses to hear Christ, he refuses to hear the Father who had sent him.
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Now let me show you how perverse, how rebellious the people of Judah and Jerusalem had become. They were so implacable. Look what God says in verse 1. He says, "Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof if you can find a man," that is a single man, "if there be any that executed judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it." Now, God said, Jeremiah, here's what I want you to do. You run up and down through the streets of Jerusalem. If you can find one man, one man, who really, genuinely wants the truth and understands the truth and is willing to execute judgment, if you can find just one, I'll pardon the whole nation. Wow. Now, let me show you something else. Before I get off verse 1, this is important. Look at verse 1 again. "Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof. If you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment or justice, that seeketh truth, and I will pardon it."
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Now listen carefully. Here's the verse that teaches us that truth and justice stand or fall together. If you have truth, you're going to have justice. If you have justice, you're going to have truth. If you have no truth, you will have no justice. If you have no justice, you will have no truth. You see, the Bible says in Psalm 89 and verse 14 that justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. So, justice or judgment and mercy and truth stand or fall together. It is a sure sign of destruction when anyone is unwilling to hear the truth or to be concerned with judgment or justice. Now listen to me. If I tried to teach you, and you refused to hear me, why would you do that? Either because you already think you know it all, or you don't want it, or you're so perverse you don't have time to listen to it. Follow me?
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These people said, hey, we have it. We know it. We don't care what you say, and we don't care what God says.
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Now, look what he said in verse 2. Now remember, these people were professing people of God. They were supposedly covenantal people. So in verse 2, God says, "And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely." There were many in Jerusalem and in Judah that could talk the talk, but they would never walk the walk. Likewise, we have many today who are willing to ride the horse of Christianity, but they're not willing to get off the horse and walk the truth of Christianity.
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They have a profession, but they have no possession. They have no real genuine interest in Jesus Christ. That is, they say one thing and do another. They're absolutely, totally ignorant and perverse. Though they say, "Surely the Lord liveth," says God, yet they swear falsely. I don't really mean it. Religious lingo to them.
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Now, I want you to note, God has said, Jeremiah, you run to and fro through the streets of Judah and Jerusalem. If you can find one man, one man that really wants the truth and one man that really executes justice and judgment, I will pardon the whole nation. Now, God says, let me remind you of something. You might find one that's going to say, "The Lord liveth."
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But let me tell you, he's swearing falsely. He has no desire for me or my law. Now Jeremiah did that. Jeremiah didn't find a man. Look at the conclusion that he came to in verse 4. "Therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish. They know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." Oh, Jeremiah says, what's this now? The reason I can't find any man among all these people is because they're uneducated. They're ignorant. They're the poor class. They're in the lower economic portion of the city. We don't expect people like that to know anything. That's what Jeremiah was saying. Now Jeremiah said, I figured out what my problem is.
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I need to get me to the intelligentsia, to the educated, to the elite, to the rulers. I need to get to the great ones, the men of the city, because surely these are going to know. Well, look in verse 5. After he said he couldn't find any amongst the poor people, he said, "I will get me to the great men and will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord."
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"and the judgment of their God." Yes, sir. These are the educated, the intelligentsia. They're the college professors. They're the journalists. They're the news media. They're the lawyers. They're the judges. They're the princes. They're the congressmen. Yes, sir. These have known the way of the Lord. What does he say? "But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bond." What does he mean by that? They'd rebelled worse than the common people. Now watch this, he says in verse 5, "but these," let's see, he says in verse 5, "for they have known the way of the Lord." That's past tense.
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They might have known it at one time, do you remember what the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 1 talking about those perverse, wicked, ungodly reprobates? He said it like this. They did not like to retain the knowledge of God. So they cast God off and went into idolatry and sodomy and every other perversion under the sun. They didn't like to retain the knowledge of God. These had known, but they didn't like to retain the knowledge of God, and so they burst the bonds, they broke the bounds. What did they mean? They didn't like the limits and the boundaries that God had placed upon them by His divine authority, so they forsook those limits, they forsook those boundaries, and they stole, they usurped authority that had never ever been given unto them. That's why the psalmist in Psalm 2 said, "The kings of the earth and the rulers of the earth have set themselves together and they said, let us burst his bonds asunder and cast his chains away from us." We don't like the limitation that God has placed upon us.
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So when Jeremiah got to the great men of the city, he found they were worse than the poor, ignorant, uneducated folks. I want you to hold, Jeremiah 5, but look in your Bible to the book of Ezekiel chapter 22. I just want to point out the problem in Ezekiel's day was the problem in Jeremiah's day. The problem that we have in America today is the same problem that Jeremiah and Ezekiel had in their days. Look in Ezekiel chapter 22 beginning there verse 25. I'll deal with some of this next week, but look at it.
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"There's a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made her many widows in the midst thereof." So God condemns the prophets.
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Now look at verse 26. "Her priests have violated my law. They have profaned mine holy things. They put no difference between the holy and the profane. Neither they show difference between the unclean and the clean. They have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." So now God tackles the priests. Now look in verse 27. "Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves, ravening the prey to shed blood and destroy souls and get dishonest gain." He then hits the prophets again in verse 28. Now look in verse 29.
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"The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery to vex the poor and needy. Yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully." Notice God hits the prophets, the priests, the princes, and the people. The whole gamut from top to bottom was absolutely and totally corrupt.
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Now go back to Jeremiah chapter 5. Look at verses 22 and 23. Here's the summation. Here's why. This is why it was exactly like it was in Jeremiah's day, Ezekiel's day, our day. Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 22, here's what God says, "Fear ye not me, saith the Lord? Would you not tremble at my presence? Would you have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? And though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail. Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it." Ah, says God.
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"But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart, they're revolted and gone." What did he say? "Fear ye not me." What did the Apostle Paul say was the problem with men in general in Romans chapter 3 and verse 18? Here's what he said. "There's no fear of God before their eyes." Don't you fear me? No. Let me tell you, mark this down according to Jeremiah chapter 5, when a person, when a family, when a church, when a people, when a nation are unwilling to yield to truth, when they're unwilling to listen to the word of God, when they're unwilling to listen to righteousness and judgment, they are implacable. That is, they're obstinate, they're stubborn, they're hard-hearted. They merit and bring upon themselves the righteous judgment of God. Look what he said in verse 9.
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"Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" You've got to remember now, nations are made up of individuals. When you refuse to hear the truth, abide by the truth, and obey the truth, you condemn yourself to be judged by God. The very first cause that God gives in Jeremiah chapter 5, the very first cause for national judgment is implacable in comprehension. That is, unyielding, will not listen, will not heed, will not be warned, and will not receive the truth of God.
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Secondly, if you will look, there is a second reason. That is, these people were incorrigible in chastisement. Now, you know what an incorrigible delinquent is? He's a kid who won't listen. It doesn't do him any good to be chastised. Well, same thing here. Look in verse 3, Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah says, "O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon the truth?" Now look what he says concerning the people of Judah and Jerusalem and of Israel. He says, "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction."
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"They have made their faces harder than a rock, they refuse to return." Isn't that amazing? "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved." I've told you in times past, and I'm not going to repeat the illustration, but I've seen one child in my entire life. Well, I take that back too. Two children in my entire life, that no matter how much you whip them or how hard you whip them, they would not cry. Here's what he says, "Thou hast stricken them, they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they refuse to hear correction."
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Let me show you something. When people are implacable in their comprehension, when they refuse to hear the truth, the very next step, the very next stage, is they become incorrigible in chastisement. That is, no amount of chastisement will do them any good. They become desensitized. They become hard-hearted. They become solidified in their sin and in their rebellion. I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly.
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Hold Jeremiah 5, but turn back to Isaiah chapter 1. I want you to notice verse 5 and what God says concerning the people in Isaiah's day. You see, this is a common thing. We don't think it's very common, but yet it is. Look at Isaiah 1 and verse 5. Look what God said concerning His people. Notice Isaiah 1 verse 5. God asked, "Why should you be stricken anymore?"
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"You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that have not been closed, neither bound up nor neither mollified with ointment." Look at verse 7. "Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land strangers devoured in your presence and is desolate as overthrown by strangers." Look what he said.
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"Why would you be stricken with me? What good is it doing me to chastise you anymore? All it does is make you harder and more solidified in your rebellion against me." Let me tell you something, folks. When a child will not receive correction and chastisement, he's gone. When a people will not receive correction and chastisement, they're gone. Go back to Jeremiah 8. Look in verse 6. God is giving us a very clear representation, a very clear picture of what I'm trying to show you. Jeremiah 8 in verse 6. God says, "I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright."
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Now look, "No man repented him of his wickedness saying, what have I done? Everyone turned to his course as the horse rushes into battle." You know how a horse rushes into battle? He runs headlong. He's totally, completely unaware of the danger and the destruction. He just rushes headlong straight into the enemy. God said, no man repented of his wickedness saying, what have I done? I haven't done anything. Why should God judge me? And then he just rushes headlong, right straight into judgment. It is because of their unfaithfulness, their wickedness, their rebellion that God has smitten them, yet they refuse to acknowledge it. They refuse to repent. They refuse to be grieved for their wickedness and their rebellion.
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Their attitude was much like the wicked woman in Proverbs 30 in verse 20. Let me just quote it. God says, "Such is the way of the adulterous woman. She eateth and wipeth her mouth and said, what have I done?" Doesn't bother her. What has she done wrong? I want to show you, and I want you to turn very quickly with me. Let's begin at the book of Proverbs chapter 3. I want to show you just very quickly what God says concerning those who will not receive correction and chastisement. Let me just show you. Because God is talking about individuals who are incorrigible in their chastisement. Proverbs chapter 3. And let's begin reading there verse 11. Proverbs 3. Notice verse 11. Look what God says.
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"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord." That is don't despise him now. "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth." Now God says don't despise chastisement.
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Now, look if you would at chapter 5 and verse 2. Proverbs 5 verse 2. He tells the son to attend, well let's read verse 1. "My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding. That thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge." Now watch if you would please skip down to verse 5, let's see verse 7 is what I want. "Hear me now therefore, you children, and depart not from the wisdom of my mouth." Skip down to verse 21. "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all of his goings." Now look if you would please in chapter 19 and verse 13. Chapter 19, verse 13.
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Now God has cautioned us to hear His chastening, to hear His words. Now He says this, Proverbs 19, verse 13, "A foolish son is the calamity of his father." A foolish son is the calamity of his father. Let me tell you, and you're going to see this, often times in the Bible, God refers to children and to adults as fools. A fool in the Bible is not some mentally deficient person. A fool in the Bible is someone who will not listen. So he says a foolish son then is the calamity of his father. Look if you would please in verse 19. He says, "A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment."
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"For if you deliver him yet thou must do it again." Why? He won't listen. Look in Proverbs 28. Proverbs 28 verse 7. He says, "Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son, but he that is companion of riotous men shameth his father." So God said if you keep the law, if you obey me, you're a wise son. But if you're a companion of wicked and riotous men, then you're shaming your father.
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Now let me ask you a question. What in the world is going to happen to someone who just will not listen? Someone who will not receive instruction. Someone who will not receive correction and chastisement. Look in Proverbs 29 verse 1. Here's what's going to happen. "He that being often reproved," that's often warned. "He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." God says, I will warn you, and when you're reproved often, and it doesn't do any good, I will destroy you suddenly, and that without remedy.
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In other words, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't stop it. It'll happen so quickly you won't have time to blink an eye and it's over. Let me show you from the Bible what I am going to call a classic illustration of being incorrigible in chastisement. I want you to turn, if you would, to Jeremiah 42. This is a very important passage and I want you to see what happens.
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Nebuchadnezzar has come into the land and basically destroyed it. He's taken away many people captive. He's left just a few people in the land alive, the poorest of the people. And so in Jeremiah 42, beginning there in verse 1, "Then all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least even the greatest, came near and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let we beseech thee our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant. For we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us, that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you. Behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God, according to your words and it shall come to pass that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you."
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"I will keep nothing back from you. Then they said to Jeremiah, the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us if we do not even according to all things for which the Lord thy God shall send thee unto us."
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Now let's stop right there just for a moment. The people have come to Jeremiah and said we're in trouble, we're in great straits, God has judged us, I mean Nebuchadnezzar has come, he's torn down the city, he's destroyed, burned the temple, he's destroyed everything. Taken all these, we're just a few people left. Now Jeremiah, please, please pray and ask God for wisdom and for his will. And Jeremiah, will you do that?
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Yes, he said, I'll do that and I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll withhold nothing, I will give you everything that God tells me. And the people say, Jeremiah, we will give you our word, the Lord be a true and faithful witness amongst us and between us. Whatever God tells you, that's what we're going to do. Boy, that ought to make any pastor's heart rejoice. Well, Jeremiah did pray.
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Now look in chapter 43, verse 1. "And it came to pass that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people, all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them, even all these words," Jeremiah told them, here's what God says, go not down into Egypt. Don't go down there. You stay here in the land.
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I'll bless you, and I'll protect you. "Then spake Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely. The Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt, sojourn there. But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death, and carry us away captives of Babylon. So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the people obeyed not the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land of Judah." They had just got through saying, Look, we're going to do whatever you, whatever the Lord tells you. And now when they get the message that they don't want, they say, God didn't tell you that. Now look what happens. Look in chapter 44, beginning with verse 10. So God now sends Jeremiah back, and he says, you've got to tell them something. Yeah, they're going down into Egypt. That's what they want to do.
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They're not going to listen to me. They're not going to listen to you. He said, in the saying of them, thus saith the Lord. 44 is what I want. Chapter 44, verse 10. Watch now. God says, "They are not humbled even in this day, neither have they feared nor walked in my law nor in my statutes, that I may set before you and before your fathers. Therefore, thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will set my face against you for evil and to cut off all Judah. That is, you're going down in Egypt. I'm going to set my face against you. I'm going to cut you off. And I will take the remnant of Judah that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt, but sojourn there and they shall be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. And they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They shall die from the least, even to the greatest by the sword and by the famine, and they shall be an execration."
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"and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem by the sword, by the famine, by the pestilence. So that none of the remnant of Judah that are gone in the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall escape or remain, they that should return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there. For none shall return, but such as shall escape." Now watch.
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Then all the men which knew... This is amazing. Then all the men... Let me just stop there. What did God just say? God said, you're going down to Egypt. I've told you not to. Fine. Go on. I'll kill you all down there. That's what he told them. You're afraid of Nebuchadnezzar? Guess what? You don't know, but I'm going to send him against Egypt just shortly and you're going to be there. Why did God judge Judah and Jerusalem to begin with? Because of their idolatry.
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Because they refused to receive chastisement and correction. Now watch this. Watch verse 15. "Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the men that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we've done, we and our fathers, our kings, our princes, in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem. For then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out our drink offerings unto her."
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"We have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burn incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we do that without our men?" Of course, the men knew what was going on. Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, to the women, to all the people who had given him that answer, saying, "The incense that you burn in the city of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did
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not the Lord remember them and came it not in his mind?" In other words, this is why in Judges you begin with. "So that the Lord could no longer bear because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you've committed. Therefore is your land a desolation and an astonishment and a curse without an inhabitant as it is this day. Because you have burned incense and because you've sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies, therefore, this evil has happened unto you as at this day. Moreover, Jeremiah said unto all the people and all the women, Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt."
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"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out our drink offerings unto her. You will surely accomplish your vows and surely perform your vows. Therefore, here you are, the Lord, all Judah, that dwell in the land of Egypt. 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. Behold, I will watch over them for evil and not for good. And for all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine until there be an end to them." What did God say?
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You wouldn't listen to me. Why did I chastise you to begin with? Because of your sin and your wickedness?
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Now you're down in Egypt, you've disobeyed me again. Now you're telling me you're going to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven. You're going to pour out drink offerings unto her. Don't you ever learn? God said, alright, fine. Don't receive chastisement. Don't receive correction. I'll just judge you and destroy you. If you go back in your Bibles, Jeremiah chapter 5, look at verse 9. Listen carefully. God's chastisements are designed to turn us from our evil and our wicked ways. When we refuse to be chastened by God, when we refuse to receive correction by Him, we merit and bring upon ourselves certain and sure destruction. Jeremiah 5 verse 9, what does God ask?
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"Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" Two reasons so far God said, I will send national judgment. When you're implacable in your comprehension, when you just won't listen, and when you're incorrigible in chastisement, you will not receive chastisement and correction. You won't learn. Here's the third reason, verses 7 and 8. They were infidels in covenantal relations. Look in verse 7. God asked, "How shall I pardon thee for this?"
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"Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were fed horses in the morning, everyone made after his neighbor's wife." They were infidels in covenantal relations. Now infidelity equals unfaithfulness. So we could say it like this, they were just unfaithful in covenantal relations. Now it's important to comprehend that infidelity in covenantal relations is a cause for national judgment. Covenantal faithfulness is required by God in every area of life.
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Let me break it down in two points for you. Here you go. First of all, their infidelity was first and foremost Godward. We talk about the Old Testament and the New Testament. Did you know that the word Testament just simply means covenant? The Old Covenant and the New Covenant. I don't care if you lived in the Old Testament or if you're alive in the New Testament. The truth of the matter is God's people are always a covenantal people. And these people violated their covenant, first of all, toward God. What is the first commandment? Listen.
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"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Do you realize you cannot violate any of the remaining nine commandments without violating number one first? When you reject the one true and the living God, as God, you set yourself up as God or something or someone else and then you begin to violate those commandments. Now I want you to look what God says. He says in verse 7, "How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods." Now you have to ask the question, why did the children forsake God?
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Well the answer comes back they forsook God either because they were following the example of their parents or because they were never taught the precepts of the law of God. Well both answers are correct but the answer that is emphasized over and over in the Bible is simply this they were following the examples of their fathers. And if their fathers are idolatrous, do you think they're going to teach the law of God to their children? And the answer is obviously no.
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So look in Jeremiah 2 and verse 13. I want you to see what God says. Jeremiah 2 verse 13. Remember now, God is accusing them, charging them with infidelity in their covenantal relations. Jeremiah 2 verse 13. God says, "For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Whenever you forsake the one true and the living God, you're going to hew you out a broken cistern. That is, you're going to have a false God. Now look in Jeremiah chapter 3. Begin there with verse 1.
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"They say if a man put away his wife, and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again unto me, saith the Lord."
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Now look what God says to Judah and Jerusalem. "Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lain with." In other words, where you have not committed spiritual adultery. "In the ways thou hast set for them as the Arabian in the wilderness, and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness, therefore the showers have been withholden, there have been no latter rain, and thou hast a whore's forehead and refuses to be ashamed. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the God of My youth?"
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"Will He reserve His anger forever? Will He keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst."
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Now skip down to verse 20. Now look what he says. He's telling the people they have a whore's forehead. They're spiritual adulterers. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 20. Here's what God says to the people. "Surely as a wife treacherously departed from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, said the Lord. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping in supplications of the children of Israel."
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"They have perverted their way. They have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God, truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of the mountains." In other words, no idolatries. "Truly the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel, for shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even in this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." Now, what did God say? God says, your children have forsaken me. Why did the children forsake? Because the fathers had forsaken him.
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You see, idolatry is rightly referred to in the Bible as spiritual adultery and spiritual whoredoms. Why? Because in idolatry, you take God's blessings, God's providential provision, and then you give thanks and praise and honor and worship to an idol or to a false god. While on the one hand, they were claiming to be God's people, on the other hand, they were violating their covenantal oath. Let me put this in very plain language.
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They were professing Christians but practical pagans. That almost sounds like our land today. Here were a people that received everything from the hand of God, and then gave God's honor and glory to idols. You see, people have not changed. We're still the same today. We ascribe oftentimes God's providential blessings and provisions to luck, chance, fate, and fortune. Boy, was I lucky. No, you weren't lucky. It was the blessing of God. And what we do, we take God's praise and give it to idols.
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We worship at the altar of convenience and comfort and compromise instead of the altar of Jesus Christ. We have forgotten our oath. We have forgotten our covenant. Let me show you something. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1st Timothy chapter 6. 1st Timothy chapter 6 and look at verse 12. 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 12. Look what the Apostle Paul tells Timothy. He says, "...fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good confession before many witnesses."
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Let me read it again, the latter part like this. "...and has confessed a good confession before many witnesses." Now, Paul said, Timothy, you better remember that good confession that you confess before many witnesses. What is he talking about? I don't care which commentator you get. I don't care if you choose an Arminian or Calvinistic commentator. It doesn't matter. Every commentator that you read on 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12 will tell you that the good confession that Timothy made before many witnesses was at his baptism. Do you know what you confess in your baptism? Here's what you confess. Jesus Christ is Lord.
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Everyone that I've ever baptized, that's the first question I ask them. Do you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? You remember the word Lord means boss, owner, master, sovereign. And when you're baptized, here's the picture of you dying to yourself and your sins as you're buried with Him in baptism, and then being raised to newness of life in Him as you emerge a new creature in Christ to obey Him.
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But you have given a covenantal oath. You have said that Jesus Christ is Lord. Are you listening? When we violate that covenantal oath, when we say with our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord, and then we live practically as pagans denying His Word, His authority, His law, like Judah and Jerusalem in Jeremiah 5, we're professing Christians but practical pagans. Now, go back to Jeremiah chapter 5, because I want you to see first and foremost, their covenantal infidelity was God-ward. He says, they have forsaken me, sworn by them that are not God. But secondly, I want you to note, their infidelity was man-ward. He says in verse 7, "How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken Me, and sworn by them that are no gods."
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"When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one nayed after his neighbor's wife."
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Now I want you to listen to me very carefully. Listen carefully. When a people commit spiritual adultery, they will not hesitate to commit physical adultery. If you violate your covenantal relationship in that which is the greatest between you and God, you will not hesitate to violate your covenantal relationship in that which is the least between you and your mate. You've got to remember what the unjust judge said in Luke 18 verses 1 and 2.
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What did our Lord say? Now listen carefully. There was an unjust judge who said, "Do I fear not God, nor regard man?" What? If I have no fear of God, if I have no respect to my covenantal relationship with Him, am I going to have any regard for man? Or my covenantal relationship with man? No. The answer is absolutely not. Now listen, when one does not fear God, he has no regard for man.
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One of the reasons that there is so much adultery, fornication, dishonesty and fraud corruption in our land today is due to this very simple fact. We have forsaken our covenantal relationship with God. We have no fear of God. Therefore, we have no regard for man. We don't care.
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Now, I want you to look. Look in your Bibles. Jeremiah 5 verse 8. Look what he said. This is God's Word, not mine. He said in verse 7, let me read the latter part of that. He said, "When I fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one made after his neighbor's wife." Well, let me give you three thoughts very quickly about verse 8. First of all, spiritual adultery always precedes and leads to physical adultery.
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Secondly, when one who has forsaken God is fed, like a fed horse, he uses his strength and energy not for God, but for sin and in rebellion. And thirdly, listen to what he said, though they were fed as horses in the morning, they were fed as horses in the morning, everyone ate after his neighbor's wife. Thirdly, as men cannot be satisfied with God who is sufficient for all things, likewise then they cannot be satisfied with their mates. Isn't that interesting? God says they neigh after their neighbor's wife as a horse.
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Let me give you an illustration. Many years ago, we had a stud horse whose name was Little Bit. And if you probably guessed from the name, he was anything but little. Names are very often contrary to reality, like Honest Abe. Honest Abe was not honest, and Little Bit was certainly not little. He was a huge, huge horse. And Little Bit had three or four mares in the stall with him. But they were insufficient. And oftentimes I would get a call, sometimes during the night, preacher, your stud horse is over here at my farm trying to get in with my mares five miles down the road. And we would have to get up and go get the horse and bring him back. The horse just was unsatisfied with his mares.
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He wanted all of them. Now look at what God said, verse 8, "They were as fed horses in the morning, every one made after his neighbor's wife." You ought to watch horses in the morning after they've been fed, good, cool, crisp morning, love to run, love to show themselves. God says that's exactly the way men are when they reject My covenant. They reject their covenant with each other. And they rush after other men's wives.
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Now, I want you to turn in your Bible. Hold Jeremiah 5. I want you to turn to Psalm 49. I want to show you a verse or two. I want to make a statement. And I want you to see this statement is based upon the Word of God. Psalm 49. Just get ready. Here is my statement. When men violate their covenant with God, and therefore have no regard for covenants with each other, they reduce themselves to the level of animals. Psalm 49 verse 12.
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"Nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not, he is like the beasts that perish." Skip down to verse 20. "Man that is in honor and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish." God says very plainly, those who forsake Me and violate My covenant will also violate their covenants with each other. Now look back at Jeremiah 5 verse 9 again. All this is in the context. Look at what he says.
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"Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" I've given you three reasons this morning why God will send national judgment. When a people are implacable in their comprehension. When they are incorrigible in chastisement. When they are infidels in their covenantal relations. God said, I'll judge them.
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Now, let me just show you a couple of applications. I want you to look at verse 1. God says, "Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof. If you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it." I want you to learn this simple truth. Remember, if you would, Judah had the law of God. Israel had the law of God. The tabernacle was in Judah, in Jerusalem. The temple was in Judah, in Jerusalem. But here's the truth. Here's the principle. Truth ignored, truth denied, unvalued, unregarded, overlooked, is worthless. What good did it do Judah and Jerusalem to have the temple? To have the tabernacle? To have the law? They didn't read it. They didn't obey it. They didn't practice it. What good does it do you to have a Bible if you never read it? If you never obey it? Truly the man who can read but will not read is no better off than the man who cannot read.
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What good is your Bible if it just lays on the table? And you never pick it up. You know what God said in Hosea 8 and verse 12? He's talking to Israel now. Listen to what He said. "I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing." I've written him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. Truly, we could say, and unhappily, God's Word, God's Law is counted as a strange thing in this land today. It does us no good to have the truth if we will not study it and apply it. Look in verse 2, Jeremiah 5, here's the second application.
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"And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely." We've got to understand that talk is not only cheap, it is insufficient. We have to obey the Word of God in our lives. Profession without possession is useless. And our actions often belie our profession. Let me quote this verse, don't turn there, Titus 1.16. You know what God says? "They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him being abominable and disobedient to every good work, reprobate." They profess they know God, but in works they deny Him.
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Then if you look at verses 4 and 5, here's a third application for today. Jeremiah said, "Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish, they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgments of their God. Give me to the great men, and I will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God, but these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds."
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I want you to see how these things are connected. In verse 1, we saw that truth overlooked, ignored, unregarded, unvalued, is worthless. Verse 2, we saw that profession without actions, without work, is worthless.
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Now when you get to verses 4 and 5, you understand this. You have to realize that truth and knowledge rejected, despised and forgotten, leads to either anarchy or tyranny. When one rejects the law of God, he's either going to end up in anarchy where every man does that which is right in his own eyes, he respects no authority, he regards no man, or else he's going to end up in tyranny and despotism where someone has to come up with an iron
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fist and bring order out of chaos. Let me put it to you like this. The truth is, we must be ruled either by the Bible or by the bayonet. That statement is not original with me. Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the House in 1849, said this before the United States House of Representatives. Listen. "All societies of men must be governed in some way or the other. The less they have of stringent state government, the more they must rely on individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men and the Word must necessarily be controlled either by power within them or by power without them. Either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man. Either by the Bible or the bayonet. It may do for other countries and other governments to talk about the state supporting religion here under our own free institutions. It is religion which must support the state." And when he said religion must support the state, he did not mean by taxation.
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What did he mean? He meant we support government by not needing it, by having self-control, self-government, self-restraint. And the more we have of self-government, the less we need of stringent state government. And you're going to find, folks, as our country progresses on the road to destruction, when people reject the truth and refuse to be chastised, they're going to be destroyed. And we'll end up either in absolute anarchy and chaos, or despotism and tyranny.
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Now the question you have to ask is this. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? That's it. That was emphasis. You can cut that out. That was right at the end, Roy. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? How do you be part of the problem? By disobeying the Word of God. How are you part of the solution? By obeying the Word of God. Doing what is obedient and what is right. Let's pray. Father in the name of Jesus Christ we do ask for your grace and your mercy in our lives. We pray Lord that you would teach us and show us the absolute importance of personal obedience in every area of our lives.
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And may we see, Lord, where we're headed so that we can make the necessary preparations. Thou didst say, the prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself. Give us grace, Lord, that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray. Amen. Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T04:15:34Z

Causes for National Judgment Part 1 of 2

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

Pastor John Weaver examines Jeremiah 5:1-13 to identify causes for national judgment, emphasizing that God's standards are unchanging. He outlines three causes: being implacable in comprehension (refusing to hear God's truth), incorrigible in chastisement (refusing correction), and infidels in covenantal relations (unfaithfulness to God and man). Applications stress the worthlessness of ignored truth, the insufficiency of mere profession, and the societal consequences of rejecting God's law.

Introduction and Context

Weaver introduces Jeremiah 5:1-13, noting the message's relevance to current events and the unchanging nature of sin and God's judgment.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 5:1-13

"Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it." "And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them that they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them that they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return. Therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish. For they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." "I will get me to the great men and will speak unto them. For they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Wherefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone that goeth out then shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backslidings are increased." "How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, everyone made after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things, said the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" "Go you up upon her walls and destroy. Make not a full end, take away her battlements, for they are not the Lord's. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord. They have belied the Lord."

That is, they've lied against the Lord and said,

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 5:1-13

"It is not he, neither shall evil come upon us. Neither shall we see sword or famine and the prophet shall become wind and the word is not in them." "Thus shall it be done unto them."

First Cause: Implacable in Comprehension

The people refused to listen to God's truth through His prophet, demonstrating an unyielding rejection of divine authority.

Now let me show you. Look in Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse 13. Jeremiah 7 verse 13,

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 7:13, 23-28

"And now, says God, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not, and I called you, but you answered not."

Scripture Reading — Luke 10:16

"He that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me."

Scripture Reading — Ezekiel 22:25-29

"The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery to vex the poor and needy. Yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully."

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 5:22-23

"But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart, they're revolted and gone."

Second Cause: Incorrigible in Chastisement

Despite God's corrective judgments, the people hardened their hearts and refused to repent, becoming desensitized to discipline.

Their attitude was much like the wicked woman in Proverbs 30 in verse 20. Let me just quote it. God says,

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 30:20

"Such is the way of the adulterous woman. She eateth and wipeth her mouth and said, what have I done?"

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 29:1

"He that being often reproved,"

that's often warned.

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 29:1

"He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."

God says, I will warn you, and when you're reproved often, and it doesn't do any good, I will destroy you suddenly, and that without remedy.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 42-44

In other words, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't stop it. It'll happen so quickly you won't have time to blink an eye and it's over. Let me show you from the Bible what I am going to call a classic illustration of being incorrigible in chastisement. I want you to turn, if you would, to Jeremiah 42. This is a very important passage and I want you to see what happens. Nebuchadnezzar has come into the land and basically destroyed it. He's taken away many people captive. He's left just a few people in the land alive, the poorest of the people. And so in Jeremiah 42, beginning there in verse 1, "Then all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least even the greatest, came near and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let we beseech thee our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant. For we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us, that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you. Behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God, according to your words and it shall come to pass that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you."

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 42-44

Now look in chapter 43, verse 1. "And it came to pass that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people, all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them, even all these words," Jeremiah told them, here's what God says, go not down into Egypt. Don't go down there. You stay here in the land. I'll bless you, and I'll protect you. "Then spake Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely. The Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt, sojourn there. But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death, and carry us away captives of Babylon. So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the people obeyed not the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land of Judah." They had just got through saying, Look, we're going to do whatever you, whatever the Lord tells you. And now when they get the message that they don't want, they say, God didn't tell you that. Now look what happens. Look in chapter 44, beginning with verse 10. So God now sends Jeremiah back, and he says, you've got to tell them something. Yeah, they're going down into Egypt. That's what they want to do.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 42-44

Because they refused to receive chastisement and correction. Now watch this. Watch verse 15. "Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the men that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we've done, we and our fathers, our kings, our princes, in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem. For then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out our drink offerings unto her."

Third Cause: Infidels in Covenantal Relations

The people were unfaithful to their covenant with God, leading to spiritual adultery and physical immorality, and violating covenants with one another.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 2:13

"For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 3:1-3, 20-25

"Will He reserve His anger forever? Will He keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst." Now skip down to verse 20. Now look what he says. He's telling the people they have a whore's forehead. They're spiritual adulterers. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 20. Here's what God says to the people. "Surely as a wife treacherously departed from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, said the Lord. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping in supplications of the children of Israel."

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 6:12

Let me read it again, the latter part like this. "...and has confessed a good confession before many witnesses." Now, Paul said, Timothy, you better remember that good confession that you confess before many witnesses. What is he talking about? I don't care which commentator you get. I don't care if you choose an Arminian or Calvinistic commentator. It doesn't matter. Every commentator that you read on 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12 will tell you that the good confession that Timothy made before many witnesses was at his baptism. Do you know what you confess in your baptism? Here's what you confess. Jesus Christ is Lord.

Applications from the Text

Weaver draws three applications: truth ignored is worthless, profession without obedience is insufficient, and rejecting God's law leads to anarchy or tyranny.

Conclusion and Call to Obedience

The message concludes with a challenge to be part of the solution by obeying God's Word, followed by a closing prayer.

Causes for National Judgment Part 1 of 2

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	tmnBBowumKA
Subject	Church Government
Course	Church Order: Discipline, Enemies, and Institutional Faithfulness
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-02-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 186: Causes For National Judgment — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	104

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and Context: Weaver introduces Jeremiah 5:1-13, noting the message's relevance to current events and the unchanging nature of sin and God's judgment.
First Cause: Implacable in Comprehension: The people refused to listen to God's truth through His prophet, demonstrating an unyielding rejection of divine authority.
Second Cause: Incorrigible in Chastisement: Despite God's corrective judgments, the people hardened their hearts and refused to repent, becoming desensitized to discipline.
Third Cause: Infidels in Covenantal Relations: The people were unfaithful to their covenant with God, leading to spiritual adultery and physical immorality, and violating covenants with one another.
Applications from the Text: Weaver draws three applications: truth ignored is worthless, profession without obedience is insufficient, and rejecting God's law leads to anarchy or tyranny.
Conclusion and Call to Obedience: The message concludes with a challenge to be part of the solution by obeying God's Word, followed by a closing prayer.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

National judgment is caused by specific sins

God explicitly states He will judge nations for the sins listed in Jeremiah 5, as seen in verses 9 and 29.

Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Refusing to hear truth is a cause for judgment

The people's unwillingness to listen to God's word through Jeremiah demonstrated an implacable heart that merits judgment.

They were not willing to listen to God. They were not willing to listen to Jeremiah.

Rejecting correction leads to destruction

When individuals or nations refuse to be chastened by God, they become incorrigible and face sudden, irremediable judgment.

He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Spiritual adultery precedes physical adultery

Forsaking God in covenantal unfaithfulness leads to moral breakdown, including sexual immorality.

When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses.

Ignored truth is worthless

Possessing God's law without obeying it renders it useless, as seen in Judah's failure despite having the temple and law.

Truth ignored, truth denied, unvalued, unregarded, overlooked, is worthless.

Scripture References

Jeremiah 5:1-13: The primary text for the sermon, detailing causes for national judgment.
Jeremiah 5:9: God's rhetorical question affirming He will judge nations for these sins.
1 Samuel 8:7-8: Illustrates that rejecting God's representative is rejecting God Himself.
Jeremiah 7:13, 23-28: Shows that refusing to hear the prophets is refusing to hear God.
Matthew 10:40: Jesus teaches that receiving His disciples is receiving Him and the Father.
Luke 10:16: Jesus states that despising His messengers is despising Him and the Father.
Psalm 89:14: Justice and judgment are the foundation of God's throne; mercy and truth go before Him.
Ezekiel 22:25-29: Condemnation of prophets, priests, princes, and people for corruption.
Jeremiah 5:22-23: God questions why the people do not fear Him, highlighting their rebellious hearts.
Romans 3:18: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Isaiah 1:5-7: God asks why He should continue to strike a people who only revolt more.
Jeremiah 8:6: No one repents; everyone rushes into sin like a horse into battle.
Proverbs 30:20: The adulterous woman wipes her mouth and says she has done nothing wrong.
Proverbs 3:11-12: Do not despise the Lord's chastening; He corrects those He loves.
Proverbs 29:1: One often reproved who hardens his neck will be suddenly destroyed without remedy.
Jeremiah 42-44: The remnant's refusal to obey God's command not to go to Egypt, leading to judgment.
Jeremiah 2:13: God's people have forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters, for broken cisterns.
Jeremiah 3:1-3, 20-25: Israel's spiritual adultery and call to return.
1 Timothy 6:12: Timothy's good confession before many witnesses, likely at baptism.
Psalm 49:12, 20: Man in honor without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Historical References

Judah and Jerusalem in Jeremiah's time: The primary audience of Jeremiah's prophecies, facing Babylonian invasion due to their sins.
Northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria): Mentioned alongside Judah as having dealt treacherously against God.
Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem: The historical judgment that befell Judah for their sins, referenced in Jeremiah 42-44.
Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the House (1849): Quoted for his statement that societies must be governed by the Bible or the bayonet.

Important Quotes

When an individual, when a family, when a church, when a nation, when a people refuse to hear God's truly appointed representative, at the same time, they're refusing to hear God.

Key principle linking rejection of God's messengers to rejection of God Himself.

If you have truth, you're going to have justice. If you have justice, you're going to have truth. If you have no truth, you will have no justice.

Highlights the inseparable connection between truth and justice in society.

He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Solemn warning about the consequences of refusing correction.

When a people commit spiritual adultery, they will not hesitate to commit physical adultery.

Connects covenantal unfaithfulness to God with moral breakdown in human relationships.

Truth ignored, truth denied, unvalued, unregarded, overlooked, is worthless.

Application emphasizing that possessing truth without obedience is futile.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

In what ways might we be 'implacable in our comprehension' today, refusing to hear God's truth?

[Context]

Based on the first cause of national judgment from verses 1-2, 4-5.

[Question]

How can we recognize when we are becoming 'incorrigible in chastisement' and what steps can we take to remain teachable?

[Context]

Based on the second cause from verse 3 and related passages.

[Question]

What does it mean to be 'infidels in covenantal relations' in our personal, family, and national life?

[Context]

Based on the third cause from verses 7-8.

[Question]

Why does spiritual adultery (idolatry) inevitably lead to physical adultery and other covenant violations?

[Context]

From the explanation of verse 7-8 and the connection between Godward and manward infidelity.

[Question]

How does the principle 'truth ignored is worthless' challenge our personal Bible study and obedience?

[Context]

From the first application drawn from verse 1.

[Question]

What are the dangers of a profession of faith without corresponding actions, and how can we avoid this?

[Context]

From the second application drawn from verse 2.

[Question]

In what ways does rejecting God's law lead to either anarchy or tyranny in society?

[Context]

From the third application drawn from verses 4-5 and the Winthrop quote.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T16:41:42Z