WWUTT 2299 Keep Your Throat from Thirst (Jeremiah 2:14-25)

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Israel has forsaken God. They have gone after the false gods of the pagans that are around them.

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They've even tried to satisfy their thirst with the waters of pagan nations, but our thirst is only satisfied in Christ when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

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Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we've been in chapter 2.

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Just covered the first 13 verses last week. Doubtful that I'm gonna get all the way through the chapter today, but before getting to our reading, let's do a brief recap.

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What kind of outline are we looking at here? Chapter 1 was all introduction, if you recall. Then in chapter 2,

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God addresses Israel in the hearing of Jerusalem. That's what's at the very start of the chapter. Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, thus says the

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Lord. So God indicts Israel for its sin. It has whored itself out with the false gods of the pagans around them, and of course that's in a very spiritual sense, but not just spiritually.

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They've also committed actual sexual immorality. That's often what comes with paganism and worshipping these false gods.

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And so God points out their sin here in this chapter that we're going through now in chapter 2.

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When we get to chapter 3, he's going to say to them, you can repent, but in chapter 4 it will be seen that they won't.

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And so here's the consequences that they're going to face because they don't repent of their sin. Then in chapters 5 and 6,

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God is going to make the same address to Judah. That's why all of this in chapter 2 is being said in the hearing of Jerusalem.

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Jerusalem was the capital city, of course, but it's technically located in the southern kingdom.

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It's in Judah. Though Israel would go there to Jerusalem to worship the 10 northern tribes that made up the northern kingdom, which was

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Israel, they had their own places of worship. This was part of their sin is that they set up golden calves.

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They set up places of worship that were not Jerusalem where God had placed his name. So Israel is being addressed, but it's almost as if they're being addressed right there on the border.

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The northern kingdom is being indicted for the evils that they have done so that Jerusalem can hear it and it would be reported to the southern kingdom.

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Here's what's happening to your sister Israel and what will also happen to you if you do not repent.

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Let's pick up where we left off last week. So I'm going to start reading here in verse 14. Again, this is still that indictment of Israel.

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Hear the word of the Lord. Is Israel a slave? Is he a home -born servant?

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Why then has he become a prey? The lions have roared against him.

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They have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste. His cities are in ruins without inhabitant.

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Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tapanese have shaved the crown of your head.

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Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God when he led you in the way?

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And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink of the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink of the waters of the

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Euphrates? Your evil will chastise you and your apostasy will reprove you.

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Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the

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Lord your God. The fear of me is not in you, declares the

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Lord God of hosts. Now that's just verses 14 through 19. We'll get at least that far and see if we can't get a little bit further today.

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So notice here there was that reference to drinking of the Nile, drinking of the Euphrates. Remember how we ended last week if you were with me for that part of the study.

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It was said in verse 13, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

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So there's the two evils. They've forsaken the God of living waters and they've hewed out their own cisterns for themselves, believing

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God is not enough for me, so I'm gonna make my own wells from which I can draw water and that water will satisfy me.

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It's kind of two heads of the same coin, but God is addressing them as different sins, two evils.

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You've forsaken God who gives you living water and you have gone after your own water, which will not satisfy, and that was the way that we ended last week.

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So here it is said you're gonna go drink of the waters of these pagan nations, these nations that have never done good for you.

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You might think Egypt is on your side because indeed Israel thought that Egypt was going to save them, but Israel, or Egypt rather, was just taking advantage of them.

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So it is said in verse 14, is Israel a slave? Is he a home -born servant?

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Why then has he become a prey? So remember, God set

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Israel free. So why are they going back to the nation that they had been enslaved by but were no longer enslaved to?

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Is Israel a slave? It's a rhetorical question that the answer of which is supposed to be no, because Israel is

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God's bride. Would God make his own bride a slave? Has he become a home -born servant?

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That's the parallelism there, so the question is asked twice. Is Israel a slave? Is he a home -born servant?

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The answer being no. So why has he become a prey? The lions have roared against him.

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They have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste. His cities are in ruins without inhabitants.

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The lions here would be Egypt, Assyria, the Babylonians. They've roared and they've turned this land into a waste, a place that is inhabited by nothing but lions.

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Now this is spoken about figuratively, right? Because the nations that devour

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Israel are the ones that are being spoken about as lions, but it would so happen that God would send actual lions there.

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This is in 2 Kings 17, after Israel has been driven from the land. So starting in verse 24, the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kutha, Ava, Hamath, and Sefer Vayim and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel.

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And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the

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Lord. Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

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So the king of Assyria was told, the nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the

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God of the land. Therefore, he has sent lions among them and behold, they are killing them because they do not know the law of the

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God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded, send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the

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God of the land. So one of the priests whom they carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the

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Lord. So the very thing that they were described as being is the very way that God would end up judging them eventually, sending lions in among them to devour some of them there.

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And the people recognize the reason why this is happening to us is because the God of this land, who of course is the

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God of the Hebrews, is angry with us. So how is it that we appease him that he won't send these lions in to devour us like this?

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And they sent a priest of the Hebrews back in to teach them the law of God, which would have been the book of Deuteronomy.

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And it's there in Deuteronomy that God says, I lay before you blessings and curses. If you keep my statutes, then you will be blessed.

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But if you disobey me and you rebel, then you will be cursed and you will be devoured right out of the land. And that was happening literally with God sending lions in among them.

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So in that sense, this thing that's being spoken about figuratively about these nations ends up becoming prophetically fulfilled in a certain sense when lions are sent in among them to devour them.

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These nations devoured Israel and so God devours them with actual lions. Verse 16,

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Moreover the men of Memphis and Toppenese have shaved the crown of your head.

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So these were people that Israel thought were going to help them. Memphis, that's a reference to Egypt.

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So Israel thought we were friends. But no, Egypt has actually made you slaves again.

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They've made fools out of you. The concept of they've shaved the crown of your head. Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the

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Lord your God when he led you in the way? He was leading you the right way to go.

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So God didn't bring you to this. You did this to yourself by forsaking God.

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And now what do you gain, verse 18, by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the

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Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? The answer, again these are rhetorical questions, nothing.

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You gain nothing. In fact, you are now more thirsty than you were before you started drinking of the waters of these nations.

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Your evil will chastise you, the Lord says. And your apostasy will reprove you.

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Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God. The fear of me is not in you.

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You will recognize we used to be a people that followed God. You will see now that you don't. And your apostasy will reprove you.

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They will recognize the evil that they have done. They will see that they had forsaken the Lord. But that doesn't mean that they repent.

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Just even though they acknowledge it, just because they see it, it doesn't mean that their heart actually turns from their wickedness back to God.

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Remember what's said about Esau in Hebrews chapter 12. Let me start reading here in verse 15.

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Seed to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.

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And by it many become defiled. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

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For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected.

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For he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

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Like Esau wanted to repent, but that desire to repent is not the same as actual repentance.

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His heart did not turn back. He continued in an evil way. His heart was still oriented toward those things that were in rebellion against God.

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Oriented toward the curse rather than the blessing. And though he would have sought repentance with tears, still it evaded him.

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It was not in his heart to turn back to the Lord. And so the same thing could be said here of Israel.

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Your evil will chastise you. Your apostasy will reprove you. They will recognize that we have forsaken

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God. But it doesn't mean that they repent. Doesn't mean that they go back.

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This is a scary truth. And it's something that that frightens me, frankly, and has been part of my prayers as I ask

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God, don't take my conviction away from me. The same sort of thing that David prays in Psalm 51.

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Take not your Holy Spirit from me. When I sin, I want to feel convicted over that.

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I want to know that I have sinned and I have forsaken God. So that I would repent.

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Like that holy conviction. That godly grief that Paul talks about in 2nd

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Corinthians that leads to repentance. Not the worldly grief that just simply leads to death.

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It leads to one's own destruction. The easy comparison there is that Judas, Judas Iscariot, he experienced a worldly grief, ended up killing himself.

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Peter denied Christ and he was also grieved over it, but it was a godly grief because it led to repentance.

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There's kind of the contrast between the two. So I want to be convicted over my sin and I want that conviction to be

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Holy Spirit driven. So that I would turn from my sin back to Jesus Christ.

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The moment that I become comfortable with my sin, well, that's really the time that God has turned me over to my own depravity.

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To be consumed by my own passions and let that not happen. Lord forbid it.

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Take not your Holy Spirit from me. May I not become like Esau seeking after repentance with tears but not really actually having a heart.

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That would turn from my sin back to the Lord. Even though Israel recognized its evil and its apostasy, yet the fear of God was still not in them or they would have turned back to the

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Lord. Take that warning that's in Hebrews 12 there. Do not dabble in sin thinking that you'll be okay.

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I can just satisfy this urge for a little while and you know, eventually

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I'll turn back to God and say, hey God, I'm sorry for that and he'll forgive me and take me back because he's a God of grace, right?

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How do you know that God won't harden your heart? Because you keep going back to your sin.

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You are demonstrating you don't really want God. You want your sin. You just want God to be your get out of hell free card and God would harden your heart and turn you over to your own depravity.

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This is a warning that really this is the point of the book of Hebrews. That you would not fall into apostasy.

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That you remember the gospel that was first spoken to you. The gospel of Jesus Christ and you would hold fast to that knowing that Christ is our

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Savior. Or else if you turn from that back to your sin, to the world, enslaving yourself once again to the schemes of Satan, then you go to your own destruction.

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Let that not be of you as it happened to Israel. Don't let it happen to you. Continue to seek the

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Lord and hold fast to him. Declares the Lord God of hosts. So going on verse 20, for long ago

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I broke your yoke and burst your bonds but you said I will not serve.

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Yes on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore.

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And that has all the colorful connotation to it that is intended.

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Now this is pretty graphic the way that God describes Israel as being like this. It's not as graphic as say

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Ezekiel 16. But it is nonetheless a very colorful passage.

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Painting this really descriptive picture. This horrifying picture of the adultery that Israel has committed against God.

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Verse 21, yet I planted you a choice vine. Holy of pure seed. Holy there is w -h -o -l -l -y.

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Holy of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine.

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If I planted you like a choice vine you became degenerate and like a wild vine.

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So what they have become is simply on them. They can't point the finger at God and say you made me like this.

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I planted you like a choice vine. How did I make you like this? You've gone after this yourself.

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Verse 22, though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap the stain of your guilt is still before me declares the

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Lord God. Now one of the things that that suggests is that Israel had probably tried to do some sort of ritual washing.

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Like if we wash if we do all this together maybe it will wash away our sin and we will be genuine before God again.

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They were trying to do something on the outside hoping it would affect a change on the inside.

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Maybe they thought us doing this the action itself will actually change the condition of our hearts.

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But remember that Jesus addressed the Pharisees saying you wash the outside of the cup not realize you need to watch the inside and then the outside will be clean too.

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And they're not looking at the inside they're trying to by their own works wash the outside and then

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I will be cleansed. A lot of religion there. A lot of religious practices today doing this very thing.

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Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy are full of it. Do all this stuff on the outside and that will make you clean on the inside.

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But it is not by our works that we are cleansed. It is God's work. It is his Holy Spirit working within us.

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This is verse 23. How can you say I am NOT unclean? I have not gone after the bales. Oh yeah?

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Well look at your way in the valley. Know what you have done. A restless young camel running here and there.

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This is God telling them look at your works. How is it that you can say that I'm not unclean and I've not gone after the bales.

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Look at the way that you've gone. A wild camel. Restless young camel running here and there. A wild donkey used to the wilderness in her heat sniffing the wind.

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Now that's a pretty colorful picture too. Talking about a donkey being in heat and comparing

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Israel to that. Again not quite as colorful as what we have in Ezekiel 16 but nonetheless it's pretty graphic imagery.

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Who can restrain her lust? God says. None who seek her need weary themselves.

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In her month they will find her. In other words a donkey in heat is gonna get what a donkey in heat wants and no one can restrain her.

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And if you want to find her you'll find her braying and carrying on like a wild animal that she is.

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Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst.

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But you said it is hopeless for I have loved foreigners and after them

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I will go. Now that is a truly tragic story. Again the

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Lord says to them keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. How do they keep their throat from thirst?

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By coming to the God of living water. Remember Jesus described himself exactly this way to the woman at the well in John 4 that he is the living water.

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And then to the people in John 6 saying the same thing. Whoever comes to me will not hunger.

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Whoever believes in me will never thirst. Because he is the source of living water.

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So keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst by coming to God. But you said this is the second part of that verse 25.

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But you said it is hopeless for I have loved foreigners and after them

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I will go. I'm already unclean. I've already done this wicked thing.

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How could I ever be cleansed again? I'll just continue going in this way. That's a common story.

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I've heard that one many times. I sat in a diner one time with a guy across from me asking him why he hadn't been in church in a while.

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I think it had been a year at that point that I was sitting in the diner with him and asking him this question. And he said to me you know

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I got some things in my life I just need to take care of first. Once I get those things taken care of I'll be back.

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I know I'll be back. I love God too much. I love his church too much to not be back. And I did not let him get away with saying that.

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I said you can't fix yourself and you won't. If that's what you think you have to do in order to get back into church

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I'm never gonna see you again. You can't fix yourself. You come and let

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Christ fix you. Now I'm not saying come to church and let Christ fix you. Although he did need to do that.

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He needed to come to the Lord and he wouldn't come to the Lord. And his actions demonstrated that he wouldn't come to the

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Lord. Just like he wouldn't come to church he wasn't gonna come to the Lord. And so I said if you're gonna rely on your own power and your own ability to do this you're never gonna get there.

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And you don't actually love God too much. You don't love him at all. And you will find in yourself this thing that hey

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I've already sinned there's nothing that I can do about that. You will even convince yourself blaspheming

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God as you convince yourself this. That I've sinned so great God couldn't possibly want me.

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Or God couldn't possibly forgive me. And you think too little of the grace of God and too much of your sin.

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Brethren beware beware of this. Beware of getting so deep in your sin that it ensnares you like that.

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That you become that much of a slave to this world and to your fleshly desires.

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Don't let it happen. Draw near to Christ. Cling to God. Flee from the devil.

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Resist the devil. As said in James chapter 4. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Don't think so highly of yourself that you can dabble in sin and it'll all be okay.

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Because you may come to a day where you find it's too far gone. And though you seek repentance with tears you won't find it.

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Heavenly Father I pray that you would be merciful to us. Lord let us not get so deep into our sin that we have taken our eyes off of you entirely.

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And have loved the passion of our flesh more than we love Christ. Cleanse us from unrighteousness.

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Convict our hearts of our evil and our wickedness. That we may turn back to the

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Lord and be cleansed. It is to you we must come in order to have our sins washed away.

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And in order to have our thirst satisfied. When we're in a sinful state we are languishing in the wilderness.

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Hungry and thirsty. Trying to satisfy that thirst by drinking sand.

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But it is only when we come to Christ that we will drink and be satisfied with the living waters of your

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Holy Spirit. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation.

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It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. This has been When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.