Well, good morning everyone. Hope that you have your Bibles open and that they're open to Ephesians two. If not, let me encourage you to be turning there, please, because we're going to look at that. I'm going to make a couple of comments before we get into the thrust of our lesson this morning, but I do want to say it's good to see you. We have a number of guests with us this morning, and we want to thank you for being here. I know we have a lot who are not with us today because they're sick. Several have have texted me and let me know that, and others of you as well. Randy England texted me this morning. Randy's home sick. He's not, he's tested positive for COVID, and there may be some other things going on, but he wanted me to let us know that so we could be praying for him. And I'm confident others are feeling poorly, and we certainly should be praying for them as well. So let's make sure we are doing that.
I have put a 2025, Bible reading chart on the back table. And if that's something that you do, or that's something that you'd like to do, make sure you pick up that and be ready to do that beginning on January 1. I think it's a five day Bible reading. If that's something that you could do that kind of helps you stay focused on God's word, then certainly pick one of those up and be ready to do that. Tonight, being the last Sunday night of the month, we're all going to assemble in here, and I'm going to do what I used to do. I'm going to preach on Sunday night. It may take me a while to get adjusted to that, but I want to do that tonight, and I want to present some things to you tonight that are kind of a reflection of what I want to talk to you about this morning that had this subject, that when God gives more grace. So I want to do that tonight. So I look forward to being with you, and I hope that that you will come back and be with us tonight, at 5pm.
The prophets of God in the Old Testament were asked to do some very odd things. When Ezekiel prophesied, well, before I get to that, you were reading from Ephesians two I failed to say what I want to say about that. Let me say this. First, I think that grace is something that all of us think about, and we think about our own lives, and we're grateful that God does not save us because of what we do. The text very clearly says that we are saved by grace. And we think about that, we we talk about that. And I will tell you that there's some people think we talk way too little about that. There's some people who think we talk way too much about that. I'll tell you what I want to do. I want to talk about it the way God wants me to talk about it. I want to talk about grace the way the Bible teaches that we ought to think about grace. And so what I want to do this morning and even some tonight, is talk to you about how that is given to us, and how the Bible even says that God gives more grace, and I think that's an important concept for us to think about. So when we think about what Trent read for us from Ephesians two, I don't think it's a difficult thing to understand if we look at what the Bible says about that and if we put those things together, and that's what I'm hoping to do both with the lesson this morning and tonight.
Now, what I was saying about the prophets of God is that they were asked to do some odd things. Ephesians, or Ezekiel four rather, talks about God's telling that the Prophet, Ezekiel, I want you to to take a clay tablet, a clay brick, and I want you to inscribe on that a picture of what Jerusalem would look like, and I want you to put it on the ground, and I'd like for you to put some things around it that have something to do with the siege that's going to take place on the city of Jerusalem. And he said, I want you to lie on your left side. Lie down next to it on your left side. That's odd. He said, I want you to do that for 390 days. 390 days, I want you to lie down by this brick, and I want the people to see that. He He probably did not mean I want you to lie down on next to the brick for 390 days 24/7. What he probably indicates is I want this to be in a public place, and I want you to put that brick in a public place, and I want you to lie down to it, and I want the people to say what in the world is going on. And when those 390 days are done, I want you to turn around and I want you to lie on your right side 40 days. That's to make an impression. And it did make an impression on those people, because pictures and images and and behavior that's odd would make an impression, and they would cause the people to ask questions about that.
You get to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, in one place is told, I want you to take the sash that you, that you're wearing. I want you to take that off of yourself, and I want you to go put it in the ground. Just put it in the ground. And then the text says, After many days, I want you to go uncover the sash, and I want you to pick the sash up. And when that happened, the sash was rotted. It may have even been as much as an undergarment. And the sash was rotted. It was good for nothing. And that was a lesson that God wanted Jeremiah to teach to the people in his day. And further in Jeremiah 16, I want you to turn there, if you would. We're going to look at some passages in there, specifically this morning. That's really where the thrust of my lesson is going to be taken, because I think it teaches us a lesson about how God acts and how God thinks about approving us, and why God thinks like he does. And it, I think, it will help us as we think about what God is saying to Jeremiah, through Jeremiah, to the people of his day. You talking about some interesting behavior, now. We're going to, I'm going to talk to you about three sacrifices. They're social sacrifices. When Jeremiah was called to prophesy. God's gonna tell there's three things Jeremiah, I want you to do that are gonna affect how people look at you, because you're not gonna do what most people do. The first one is found in chapter 16, verse one, "the word of the Lord also came to me, Jeremiah, saying, You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place, for thus the Lord-- for thus says the Lord, concerning the sons and daughters who were born in this place and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land, they shall die a gruesome death. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth." God said, Jeremiah, don't marry and don't have any children. He said, Because if that were to happen, he said, What would happen to your wife and what would happen to your children is exactly what's going to happen to all the other wives and children. This place is going to be devastated. So part of what I want you to do in order to do what I want you to do, I don't want you to marry. And that was odd for a man at that particular time. It's not today, but at that particular time that was strange, and he said, I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to have children. I don't want you to become a parent so that you'll be killed as well. Don't do that, Jeremiah, because judgments coming and it'll be devastating.
When you get to verse five of the same chapter, "Thus says the Lord, do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, loving kindness and mercies, both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves nor make themselves bawl for them. There shall be, they shall men shall break bread, and there'll be no breaking of bread in mourning for them to comfort them for the dead, Nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother." In other words, there's going to be no mourning. And if there is, you're not to go to it. Don't go to a house of mourning. Well, that that seems a bit uncommon, right? But what do you do? What you do is, when people pass, you go to comfort them. The house of mourning is typically a place of peace. It's a place of comfort. Because you're going and you're saying, Let peace. And we want you to know how comforting we want to be and how comforting God is. And what Jeremiah has told us, don't do that. When people die, don't respond like you'd normally respond, like most people will respond. Don't do that. Jeremiah. And if that's not bad enough, when you get to verse eight, he says, "also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I will cause to cease from this place before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride." If there is a wedding, or if there's if there's a call for feasting, if there's call for for gladness and for joy, and there would be, there always is. People are looking for those opportunities. He said, Jeremiah, don't go.
Can you imagine? Don't marry, don't have kids, don't go to a funeral, don't go to a house of feasting. What do you want me to do? I want you to sacrifice socially. And when you sacrifice, Jeremiah, I want the people to look at that because you live such a really distressed life, they may think, and when that happens to you, I want people to look at you. And I want them to go, what in the world is going on with you, Jeremiah? He says that, God said to Jeremiah, that's exactly why I'm asking you to do what I'm asking you to do. And once the people see Jeremiah's behavior, they're going to do what all of us would do. We're going to ask why are you doing that? So when you get to verse 10, the text says, "And it shall be when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us?" They're going to know that you're not just doing it for yourself. They're going to know that this is about them. What's our iniquity, they're going to say. Or, what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord, our God? The question is going to be, what the question ought to be, they're going to ask, why are you doing this, Jeremiah? and God says, beginning in verse 11, Jeremiah, here's your answer. Here's your answer. "Then you shall say to them, because your fathers have forsaken me, says the Lord, they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them and have forsaken me and not kept my law." There you go. Let me start, Jeremiah, He said, Jeremiah, you tell them to start with, it's your it's your parents, it's your grandparents, it's your ancestors, it's a people before you. They were unwilling to keep my law, and they served other gods, and they worshiped them, and they've forsaken me, and they've not kept my law. And furthermore, verse 12 says, "and you've done worse than your fathers," as if that wasn't bad enough, you've just continued the process, and it's worse than what they did. "For behold, each one follows that dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to me." He said, "Therefore, I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers, and there you shall serve other gods, day and night where I will not show you favor."
What's he telling them? He said your ancestors left. You've done worse because why? Here's why you've done worse. You follow your heart, you do what you want to do. So it's not just what your fathers did helped you, but now you're the problem. Now you're the one who's following what you want. The dictates of your own evil heart and no one listens to me, that's what he's telling them. And so when you get to verse 13, what he says is, you made your choice. I want you to think carefully about verse 13, if you will, this morning. "Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers. There shall, There you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor." You remember when captivity took place? You remember when God allowed Babylon and before that Assyria, but when he allowed all these people, all these four nations, to come in? God was using them, and God was using them to teach his own people a lesson. And what Jeremiah is told that God wants him to say is I'm going to cast you out of this land. The land, the promised land, that I've given you. I'm going to cast you out of that particular land. And I'm going to do that because I'm not going to show you any favor. He had shown him favor, but he says, Now I'm not going to show you favor, and I'm not going to show you favor because your heart's not what it ought to be. God will show no favor to his people. That's what he's telling them.
Or in a New Testament vernacular, God's not going to extend any grace to you anymore. I'm done with you. And I love the language in terms of teaching us something, he says, I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know. He's not saying you can't do what you're doing anymore. He said, I'll let you do it, but you're not going to do it in my land. I want you to listen carefully to that. I'm not, I'm not demanding; God's never demanding. He said, He's not saying you have to do this or I'm going to kill you on the spot. It's not what he's saying. He's saying, if your heart would tell you, if your evil heart would tell you, you're going to serve other gods, then go serve other gods. But you're not going to do it on my property. I love to think about it that way. You can do what you want to do, but you're not going to do it in my house. You're not going to do it on my property. You're not going to do it in the land in which I have given you this promised land. You're not going to do it on that. And what Paul would say, in a passage that's probably as well known to this group of people as any New Testament passage there is, Paul would say, "What shall we say then." As God's people, is this what we're saying? "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Can we just continue in sin so that God will show favor to us? Is that? Is that what he's saying here? And you know the answer? Paul says, no, no, absolutely, certainly, no, you cannot do that. "How shall we who died to sin, live any longer in it?" And the next several verses, really, the rest of that chapter goes into talking about why that's the case. No, we don't dwell; we don't become slaves to righteousness or slaves to sin. We become slaves to righteousness. And so what God is saying, even to us through Paul, is, listen, as a Christian, you can do what you want, but you're not going to do it on my property. If you want to continue in this sin that you want to want to live in, and that you want to dwell in, and that you want to habitually stay. If you want to do that, do that, but you're not going to do it and find favor with me. I'm not going to extend favor to you if that's how you're going to live.
So let me before I move on to looking at the rest of what's in Jeremiah 16 , I just want to say this. Let me reiterate something. Because you're in Christ, listen carefully to this. Because you're a Christian does not mean that you live just like you want to live. I don't know where; I don't know where in the world anybody reads the New Testament and gets that idea. You know, well, I'm a Christian. We live under grace. I can do what I want to do. No, you can't, not on God's property. Not doing what God wants you to do, not if you want to receive His favor, you can't do that. That may be a hard statement to make, but that just clears the nose on my face as I read Scripture. That's exactly what I think Romans six is saying, You can't do that. Are you going to just continue that God, so God, continues to give you grace. He's not going to do that. You can't do that. And if you dismiss your sin this morning based upon what you think God will do, you need to think again. If you just say to yourself, you know what, man, I love the fact that I'm a Christian, and I love that because I'm under grace, and I love that what I want to do, and I'm so glad that God will let me do what I want to do because I'm under grace. If that's what you're thinking, you need to think again. God's heart is not the issue. God's not doing you an injustice. You're doing yourself an injustice. God's heart is not the issue. Your heart is the issue. And I think he makes that abundantly clear as we read on into this same text.
So when you get to verse 14 of this same text, he says, "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that it shall be that shall no more be said. The Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt? But the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from Israel, from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them, for I will bring them back into their land, which I gave to their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says the Lord, they shall fish them. And afterward I will send from many hunters. And they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill and out of the holes of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face, nor is there iniquity hidden from my eyes." He says, I see it, and I'm going to send people in metaphorically to fish. I'm going to send people in metaphorically to hunt, and when they fish and when they hunt, they're going to get everybody. And you need to understand that. He says in verse 14-15 is, I am coming back, Imma, bring people back into land. Here's where, here's where this thing starts, kind of moving in a good place, but he's going to move to good place, go back to a bad place, and then move into a great place. That's what, that's really what this text is saying. The days are coming, verse 14. I will bring back them, back into the land, verse 15. Verse 16, but, but the magnitude of the captivity will be such that God sees what he sees and he hates what he sees, and your iniquity will separate you. And God's going; God's going to take you out of his graciousness. God's going to, God's not going to, he's going to take you out of his favor.
If you're in Christ this morning, and you think for a minute that that can never change you need to think again. Not because I said, because that's what God said. The Bible is clear, it seems to me, that a day of grace is coming. I think that's what this all this captivity speaks to. I think he's saying, Yeah, my people are going to go into captivity. And when the Messiah comes, when the Lord comes, there is going to be this grace, and there is going to be this truth. As Titus would say, when the Lord comes, there will be this period of grace and truth. It's brought through Jesus Christ. That's true. That's very true, because God is not finished being gracious. But it's going to require something. It's got, it's got to require something. So when you get to verse 19, the text says, Oh Lord, here are people who fall into that category where there's no favor given. And now they're looking at they're looking at the Lord in a different way. "Oh Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of afflictions, the Gentiles shall come to you from the ends of the earth and say, Surely our fathers have inherited lives." We get it now, "worthlessness and unprofitable things" We get it now. "Will a man make gods for himself which are not gods?" When that happened is that really what a man ought to do? They're going to be asking the questions, will a man make God's for himself, which are not God's? We see it. Can they see it? "Therefore behold, I will then once cause them to know. I will cause them to know my hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord." There will come a time when people will claim that the Lord will be their stronghold and their peace and their strength. And it will come from people, listen to this, it will come from people who are willing to be taught his power and might.
It is about humility. See that? All this is about humility. I want to say this, and I probably need to do some explaining of this, and I may do a little bit more tonight. This is not about rule keeping. And I think we often times make that mistake. That doesn't mean that there are no rules to keep. It doesn't mean that there's not something that I do. But this, this, in essence, is not about rule keeping. This is about a heart that's humble, that says, Lord, I always want to do what you want me to do. I always want to do what you want me to do. The key to grace, my friend, is humility. The key to grace is not looking at God and doing this, the key to grace is looking at God and doing this. You do this, you're going to do it somewhere else. You're not going to be doing on his property. But you welcome him. You welcome him to change your life. He's all about it. He's all about it.
God confirms this very idea in another passage that's in the New Testament. Testament in James four, "adulterers and adulteresses." If this, if this were Jeremiah, he'd be saying, Jeremiah, you go tell these people you're an adulterer, you're an adulteress. "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God." If this was Jeremiah story, he'd be saying the very same thing. Do you not know what you're doing? You can't be-- you can't be both in this. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? If you're a friend of the world, you're against God. You're an enemy of God. "Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." If you want to do that, do that. But if you do that, just understand that you're not a friend of God. You live like you want to live. It's fine, but just know this, if you're going to live like you want to live, you're not a friend of God. You're an enemy of God. You've done it. He didn't do it. You did it.
Verse five, I love this, "Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously." What is verse five saying? Verse five is saying that the spirit, and I think he's talking about His Spirit, the Spirit of God. I think he's saying, Do you not understand that the spirit yearns for you to be who you ought to be. He wants you to be who you-- who you ought to be, and he's jealous when you're not. He has these feelings. He has these emotions that says, I've done all this for you, and yet you still disregard me. He doesn't want that. And don't think there's some disconnect between how you live your life and how God feels about you and what God thinks about you, there is not a disconnect. There is a strong connection. Now there may ultimately be a disconnect because of how you live your life, but that's not what God wants, because he earnestly yearns. He yearns for you to be what you ought to be, and when you do that, verse six says "he gives more grace." There's your answer. This is not hard. This is not hard stuff. If you yearn for God, if you live for God, I'm not talking about perfection. Who does that? But if you yearn for God, if you're humble before God, if your heart is not rebellious, but it's humble, it wants him, and even when it doesn't, even when it's not everything it ought to be, it ultimately is because you know what you've done and you acknowledge that. You just make him aware. Lord, that's not who I am. What happens? He gives more grace. And that's how we're saved, right? We're saved by grace. And so when I hear, when I hear James say, He gives more grace, I'm all about that. That's what I want. I want more grace. How do I get it? "Therefore," he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." He resists the proud, but gives more grace to the humble.
So here's the biblical answer to grace. It's up to you. Don't put it on God. Don't put it on God. It's up to you. If you're willing to humble yourself, he's going to give you more grace and maybe to put it away that may state it: he's going to give you all you need. If you'll Humble yourself before Him, He's going to give you all you need. It's not about perfection. It's about a heart for God. That's all over. That's all over scripture. And I know this. I know there are a lot of passages, and we look at some of them tonight, there are a lot of passages that talk about grace. That's natural. There ought to be. We're saved by grace. We ought to know a lot more about it, and I think we do in scripture. But I'm going to tell you this, if we're saved by grace, I don't think it's hard to figure out what the Lord wants us to know about it. Not at all. I think what he wants us to know is you just make sure you stay humble, you make sure you don't rebel against me, you make sure that your heart's not proud. And if you'll do that, I will give grace to you. I think it's a strong statement. I think it's a strong statement, and I think it's a statement that we we need to carry with us. And I hope that the lesson this morning, maybe, maybe it helps you think about grace in a little different way, and I hope that it maybe allows you to remind yourself of the humility that you need to have in order to live your life such that God would continue to give you more grace.
One final thought. You remember in Luke 15. Remember the story of the prodigal son? You remember what the son had to do in order to gain favor with his father? You remember what had to happen? He had to get back on the father's property. Right? Now, I think that's metaphoric, but he was off. He was off in a distant land, wasting his life, doing what he wanted to do. And he knew the way to solve that was to come back and ask for his father's favor. What did his father do? Come on. What did the son have to do? He had to bow. He had to bow his pride. He had to bow what he wanted to do. He had to simply say, Father, please let me back in. And there his father was waiting for him to come back. That's exactly what's going on with you and me. Saved by grace, through faith? Absolutely. But it's our choice. So this morning, everybody in here, myself included, needs to do a quick evaluation, right? Where's my heart? What's what's my heart? Telling me, am I have I bent myself to His will, or am I prideful? And am I saying, God, I know you're there. I know what you tell me, but I'm not interested in doing that right now. You can do that, you can do that, but he's not going to extend any grace to you when you do that. Or you can say, I'm coming home, and God will extend more grace to you. That isn't that a great-- isn't that a great thing think about? Because I tell you who I'm looking at this morning, and I'll tell you who you're looking at. You're looking at sinners. You're looking at sinners who have been saved by the grace of God, because we have humbled ourselves. And if we'll remain that way, God will help us. If you're in this audience this morning, I say it a lot, but if you're in this audience morning, and if you're willing to humble yourself and say, God, I'm not doing it my way anymore. I'm going to do it your way. I'm going to let you lead my life. I'm gonna let you direct my life. If you'll do that this morning, he will extend grace to you to save you from your sin and be with Him forever. What a great opportunity you have this morning. Don't miss out. We can help you. Come as we stand and as we sing.
