“God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment” March 4th, 2018 AM

God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment in Jeremiah 16

If anything else, reading through your Bible in a year will remind you that God is a God of judgment, that he is a holy God, that he is a God who cannot abide the continuation of sin in the lives of his creatures.

He will certainly not abide it in the lives of his people. He will bring judgment against those who rebel against him. He will truly sanctify those who belong to him. How do we glory, how do we manifest the glory of God through judgment in our lives?

God's glory and salvation through judgment must manifest in his image. We think of judgment first here in verses 1 -13. Verses 1 -9 give us a picture of Jeremiah that is already familiar. We've already talked about Jeremiah's need to endure.

And one of the things that Jeremiah must endure, one of the things that you and I must endure if we follow Christ, is a kind of isolation. Not a hermitage, not a monkery, not a nunnery, not that kind of isolation, but the kind of isolation where we're in the world and yet pretty clearly we're not of the world.

We don't think in the way that the majority of folks think. We don't have the same story arcing across our lives. We have a different way of interpreting world events and personal events. We have a different definition for truth, a different definition for love, and there's just this isolation that occurs as we follow Jesus in the middle of the world, which is why he says, I send you out as sheep among wolves, but be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.

There's this kind of isolation that is just common to those who follow Christ, to those who truly believe in God. And for Jeremiah, there were some specific instructions in these first nine verses that would isolate him very clearly and purposefully.

There are three instructions. God told Jeremiah, you do not get to have a family. He told Jeremiah, you are not allowed to attend funerals, and he said to Jeremiah, you are not allowed to attend weddings.

You find those strange instructions? I find them kind of strange. Jeremiah, don't get married, don't have a wife, don't go to weddings and have feasts, don't go to funerals, don't go to a wake. Why? Because Jeremiah is not the only one left, but he is very isolated in his faithfulness to the Lord.

He's very visible as God's chosen servant to preach the truth of God, to mediate God's truth to the people, unpleasant as that truth may sometimes sound. And so God wants Jeremiah, whom he is renewing in his image, he wants Jeremiah by his very lifestyle to communicate to the people around him the authenticity of the message.

And the message that Jeremiah has been preaching is judgment's coming, it's going to be absolute disaster, and so Jeremiah is instructed by the Lord to live in such a way that will reinforce that truth.

Jeremiah, in other words, he is to be mediating the glory of God's judgment. He's to be manifesting the glory of God's judgment in his own personal life. Why can't he get married? Why can't he have a family?

God gives an instruction in verse two and then explains it. You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons and daughters in this place. Why? Verse three, because all the families you see around you are going to perish.

Judgment is certain, judgment is coming. The reasons why have long been explored and explained thus far in Jeremiah. God is righteous in his judgment. He has been long-suffering and patient beyond all expectation, and yet now it is time for judgment.

The reality is that judgment is just about to fall, and Jeremiah, you can't have a family because the families around you are all going to die. Husbands, wives, parents, children, they're all going to perish in judgment.

And so, Jeremiah, you are not allowed to have a family because that is going to communicate to those around you that judgment is nigh. You also may not attend funerals. There will be many funerals leading up to the great day of judgment when everybody would die.

But Jeremiah is not allowed to go to the funerals that are in process. Why not? Why wouldn't he be as the prophet of God, as one who believes in God, why couldn't he go and be a comfort to those who are at these funerals?

Again, Jeremiah is to be manifesting the glory of God and his judgment, and God has been so patient with his people, but now it's come to the point where his love and kindness and compassion have ended, and so his mediator, his prophet, is not allowed to go display comfort and love and kindness and compassion to those who are having funerals just prior to this great day of destruction.

He's not allowed to go and participate in what they do. And what they do is surprisingly idolatrous. The gashing of oneself, the gashing of oneself was a pagan practice of mourning, and it was strictly forbidden in the law, and it had to do with idolatry.

This practice of bringing food, now we understand that, we bring food, we serve food, we give food to people who are in mourning, and it's a very compassionate thing to do. But in this context where it says, a cup of consolation to drink, in verse 7, where it says that you may not be a part of the funeral, in verse 7, men will not break bread and mourning for them.

Well, this is coming, right? The day of judgment, the day of destruction is coming where there will be no mourning and no funerals, and Jeremiah is to model that, but he can't be participating with what they're doing because it's idolatrous.

In verse, let's go back to verse 5, let's just read the whole thing. For thus says the Lord, do not enter a house of mourning or go to lament or console them, for I have withdrawn my peace from this people, declares the Lord, my love and kindness and compassion.

Both great men and small will die in this land. They will not be buried, nor will they be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them. Men will not break bread in mourning for them, or comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone's father or mother.

Behind this practice of the bread and the cup is not so much a meal that they would have, but a bringing of wine and bread to the grave to give to the dead. This is an idolatrous, ancestral kind of worship that Jeremiah is not allowed to participate in, and God is explaining that Jeremiah can't show some sort of comfort and solidarity with those who are under his judgment.

He must manifest rather the glory of God's judgment upon this people, so he can't participate in the funerals, and he can't go to weddings either. Can't go to the weddings. Why not? Well, these celebrations anticipate a good future, but there is no good future for Judah.

Judgment is about to fall. And additionally, what do marriages mean anymore in Judah when God's own bride is likened in chapter 12 in verse 8 to have been one who has run from him and abandoned her husband, and now lives like a wild beast in the forest who roars at him anytime he gets near her.

That's the condition of God's relationship with Judah, and with that marriage, the way that it is, Jeremiah must manifest the glory of God and judgment by not attending the weddings. By not attending the weddings.

He's going to eliminate all of this in judgment. So, Jeremiah is to live in such a way that is consistent with the message that he's preaching that manifests the glory of God through judgment. That's what he's supposed to do as one who is being renewed in the image of God.

And this kind of exclusion from his own countrymen, not doing what they do, being different from them, is going to grab their attention, and the attention is going to go straight to his message, and his message is a promise of exile for them in verses 10 through 13.

And so, verse 10 says, now when you tell these people all these words, they will say to you, for what reason is God doing all this, right? Why is God promising all this judgment? They're going to be forced to pay attention due to the oddities of Jeremiah, and they're going to hear his message and say, why would the Lord say this?

They're outraged that Jeremiah would say anything negative about his own country. They were outraged that he would say that the Lord is not pleased with his own neighbors. So, they're outraged, and they're saying, well, name us the sin.

Tell us exactly what iniquity it was that we did that would cause such a great judgment to fall on us. Come on, Jeremiah. And in this way, I think we also often seem to justify ourselves. We have an incredibly difficult time understanding and agreeing with God's view of sin.

We just do. We have a really difficult time finding ourselves in agreement with the way that God looks at sin with such an intensity, with such an unrelenting offense because of sin. We are all at once nearsighted and farsighted.

We're all at once nearsighted and farsighted. We're nearsighted because we don't see things the way we are unwilling and unable to see things from God's point of view from heaven, from his holy throne, to see what he sees when he looks at sin.

We are very nearsighted, but we're also very farsighted because we're also unwilling and unable to truly plumb the depths of our own soul and see the depths of sin there. And if we're both nearsighted and farsighted and can't see either way, the Bible would call us blind.

The Bible would call us blind, which is why salvation, salvation always involves the healing of the blind. We are given eyes to see, oh, we see Christ. We see our own sin. We see sin from God's point of view in such a way that we are set running to Christ, who is also revealed to us as our glorious Savior.

Jeremiah must live in such a way that God's glory through judgment is manifested in his life. And the idolatrous around him do not share in this glorying in God. They do not share in this same value system as Jeremiah.

The idolatrous glory not in God's salvation through judgment. And so the Lord anticipates the objections that Judah will give to Jeremiah, and so God tells Jeremiah, throw the book at them. It's not for one infraction.

It's not for one iniquity. It's not for one sin. No, Jeremiah, throw the whole book at them. He says, it's because of your forefathers, as we saw in chapter 15, because of Manasseh, because of the way in which you have for generations been abandoning God, worshiping idols, disobeying God's law.

For generations, you have been given life to live in the image of God. You've been given instructions to live as the community of God. And every generation, you find a way to absolutely betray your uniform without remorse.

Time is up. Not only because of your forefathers, but also because of you, he says. He says, you too, verse 12, have done evil, even more than your forefathers. For behold, now listen to this, you are each walking, you are each one, you are each one, individually walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart without listening to me.

Each one listening to your own heart, doing things your own way, without some outside influence telling you who to be or how to live, is the chief virtue of our society. The chief virtue of American society is follow your own heart, do your own thing, live your own way, and don't let anyone tell you who you're supposed to be or how you're supposed to live.

That is the chief virtue of our land. And God finds it in Judah and says, for that reason, great judgment shall fall on you. Why? They're not listening to God, they're just listening to themselves. Put it a different way, they are not enthralled with God, they are enthralled with themselves.

Each one is their number one fan. They love themselves, they're enthralled with themselves, they're all about themselves. And for that, great judgment will fall, great disaster will fall. We can only be enthralled with one matter at a time.

We can only be enthralled with one matter at a time. Will we be enthralled with God? Will we be enthralled with our Creator? Will we be enthralled with our Savior, Jesus Christ? God's glory through judgment must manifest in his image, and it has manifested fully and completely in his image, Christ.

Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God. When we look upon Christ, who dies upon the cross, what do we see there but the manifestation of the glory of God in judgment? As God pours out his judgment upon his only begotten Son, for all those who will put their faith and trust in Christ, so that they will find, so that we will find as we put our faith in Christ, that there is therefore now no condemnation for us, for the wrath of God has been satisfied, the justice of God has been propitiated in Christ, who died upon the cross.

God made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. The glory of God through judgment has been manifested in Christ, and it will yet be manifested in Christ.

Do you realize, do you think about this? Has it penetrated you yet, as we have been reading through Jeremiah, that even as they were anticipating a great day of judgment, so are we, that we live under the shadow of a great day of judgment, even as Jeremiah and the Jews did, and we live in such an interesting tension.

We live as those, if we are Christians, if we have turned to Christ by faith to find forgiveness of our sins, we live in Christ as those who are no longer under the condemnation of God, no longer under the judgment of God, and yet we still live in anticipation of a great day of judgment to come.

Don't you think that should have an impact on the way that we live? Don't you think that we being renewed in the image of God, that we ought to also manifest the glory of God through judgment in our lives?

It had a great impact on the way that Jeremiah lived. It had an impact on the way that he viewed family and funerals and weddings. Talk about the nuts and bolts of real life. The beginning of a new family, the loss of a loved one from a family, the ins and outs of living as a family.

It totally changed the way that Jeremiah was supposed to live, living in anticipation of the great day of the Lord's judgment, manifesting the glory of God through judgment in his life, and it ought to have a radical impact on the way that we live as well.

We're not called to live in just the exact same way as Jeremiah. There's no prohibitions upon us in Christ to avoid marriage. In fact, there were false teachers in Paul's day whom he condemned for teaching such things.

We're not under a ban attending funerals or attending weddings. But we should notice the similarity that the way in which that Jeremiah connected with those changed because of the glory of God through judgment manifesting in his life.

And so the way that we think about these things should also change. I'm going to take them in reverse order. Let's think about weddings. I'm taking this one first because it might be the one that I'll get most in trouble with, and hopefully you'll forget about it by the time we get to the end.

If we truly are those who are saved in Christ, we no longer fear the judgment of God because true love has cast out the fear of torment, John says, and we are in Christ. And yet there is a great day of judgment coming.

How does that impact the way that we understand weddings? I think for, not always, but I think for the most part, weddings today are designed as an echo chamber of one or two or a few people's greatest passions and desires for what an American wedding should look like.

A lot of attention, a lot of attention is given to the externals. A lot of attention in weddings are given to colors and style and format and music and invitations and food. A lot of attention is on that.

And there are whole TV shows and series about weddings and how to do it in the most flamboyant and luxurious of style. How are we to think of weddings? As those who manifest the glory of God through judgment in our lives, we live as those who are no longer under the condemnation of God.

Why? Because we have been purchased by Christ. He is our groom and we are his bride. And so every wedding that we should look at and interpret and be involved with should be primarily about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Herman Bavinck noted that the history began with a wedding and it will end with one as well. Began with Adam and Eve and it ends with Christ and his bride, the church. We ought to have a view of weddings that is radically different from the way that the world naturally approaches it.

The other day, something popped up on the news about the economic reasons why you should get married. It'll get you more money. You should get married because you'll be richer, because you'll be happier, so on and so forth.

It's for the world is merely utilitarian. Get married in the way you want to. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise if it works for you. How do we think of weddings? Christ, the church, gospel, doctrine, eternity.

These should not be footnotes in the novel of the American wedding. They should be the chapter headings. They should be the chapter headings of the way that we view weddings. Think about funerals. Funerals ought to be exponentially more meaningful to us than those who live without hope in Christ.

The sorrowful burden which crashes into us when someone we know and love dies without Christ is far greater than any kind of sorrow that anyone else suffers who do not know Christ when someone they love dies.

The grieving joy which lifts us when someone we know loves and dies, but they die in Christ, that kind of grieving joy, it's incomparable to the chaotic despair and shallow euphemisms of those who know not God.

Funerals are unavoidable in life. It has been said, and I agree, the older you get, the more funerals you go to. How do we view them? We ought not fall in lockstep with the way in which the world tends to view them, to view funerals.

These are moments, precious moments to put our attention upon Christ, the one who was dead, but now who is alive, who has unlocked death and Hades, who is the resurrected one. This is time for us to put our attention most intensely upon the gospel.

And even when we suffer in deep grief for those who have died without Christ under eternal judgment, we still come back to the gospel and remember in the darkest hour on the face of the planet, in all of our history, and the greatest evil that has ever been committed in the murder of God, the son, God brings forth good.

Somehow, someway, he brings forth good for his glory to those who love him, to those who are called according to his purpose. It changed the way God's glory through judgment manifested in Jeremiah's life, utterly changed the way that he was to deal with weddings in his culture, the way that he dealt with funerals and death in his culture.

And it was to radically change the way he was to understand family. He wasn't allowed to have one. And that is not the way that we are instructed in the new covenant and in our particular situation. But we ought to be giving some thought to marriage and to parenting, for they are filled with eternal significance.

We're not mere biologicals sharing a living space, trying to make it work. As families, as those who have been put together in the grace of God, given these relationships to nurture amongst us, that families are not mere social units, but we are to be embassies of the kingdom of heaven.

That when someone encounters our family, they step into a microcosm of the kingdom of God. They come into a place where the parents are trying to train their children and the husband and wife are striving in such a way that the righteousness of God, the authority of God, the holiness of God, the truth of God and the wisdom of God are all being mediated towards one another.

To say, if you have never heard of the image of God before, if you never knew the way that humanity is supposed to live, when you come into our home and spend time with us, you get a glimpse of it because of the grace of Christ at work in our lives.

I was reading, about a couple of years ago, I was reading a book by Herman Bavink, The Christian Family. And he says many things, a hundred years ago in Dutch society of the family being under attack and fracturing and dissolving.

A hundred years ago, among the Dutch. He writes here of the family. If I'm a Christian perspective, the family is the school of life. Because it is the fountain and hearth of life. Such nurture encompasses the whole person.

In school, life is cut up into segments. In school, we find the nurture of the intellect, of the memory, the will, the character, of emotions, of imagination and still other forms of nurture. Alternately, to the degree that a segment is either favored or neglected, one is forced either to abandon or restrict on the one hand or to supplement or expand a particular subject of instruction.

Meaning that in school, as things are segmented, sometimes you get a lot of this and not enough of that. And you have to find a way to cope. But a family does not operate with such apportioned attention.

Everything is integrated in a family and unified. Like the blossom within the bud. The child does indeed learn within the family and receive instruction. The child gradually becomes more oriented within the surroundings and gets to know his small world.

Expressing a multitude of observations, emotions, imaginations, words and thoughts in terms of proportion, the child learns more in these early years than in the latter years. Here's what he says. A person's becoming human occurs within the home.

Here the foundation is laid for the forming of the future man and woman, of the future father and mother, of the future member of society, of the future citizen, of the future subject of the kingdom of God.

Family is just not how we get by in a day. Family is to be strategic for the kingdom of God. Like as I deal with my children and discipline, it's tempting to be all about myself, listening to only what's going on in the stubbornness of my own heart.

But if I'm listening to Christ, if I'm listening to God, if I'm thinking about the gospel, then I have to be for my children in such a way that will lead them to Christ and it will show them how to live in such a way that they will manifest the glory of God in their lives.

Every disciplined moment with your children is an opportunity to move them towards Christ. As husbands and wives, as we engage with one another, it's not about doing whatever it takes just to get along.

It's about loving one another and caring for one another in such a way that we help one another onto Christ. Whatever degree we've been given the privilege of being a part of a family, we have to think of it in a different way.

Why? Because we live as those in Christ who are freed from judgment, but as those who anticipate Christ's soon return. But judgment still lies ahead of us and so what we do in our families matters to a great degree.

When you prepare our families, prepare one another, prepare the world around us for the coming of the King. So just like Jeremiah, just like Jeremiah who lived in this constant awareness of the coming judgment of God, it changed the way that he lived.

It should change the way that we live that there's a coming judgment, that God's glory will be manifested in that day and it should be manifested in our lives that changes the way that we live, the way that we think about just the basic building blocks of our society.

For God's glory, for God's glory must be manifested in his image in salvation or through judgment in salvation. Well, let's close with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us.

I pray that you would help us to think carefully about who you are and how you operate. Let us not, let us not cast aside, let us not cast aside the themes of your glory that we find difficult to embrace.

But we ask that you would teach us and show us how it is that we are to display your glory in our lives, how it should change us, how it should alter us and direct us. And we pray all these things for the sake of Christ with whom you are well pleased.

Amen.