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[0:00] As Taryn said earlier, my name is Matt, and I'm one of the pastoral interns here at Trinity Cambridge, and I'm excited to bring you the word of the Lord this morning in Sean's absence.

[0:12] He is down in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, South Jersey, at a church that is a fairly new— it's not a new church, but it's new to Sovereign Grace. So they came on board with Sovereign Grace a few years ago, and are just loving the connection with Sovereign Grace and other churches.

[0:28] They were down there kind of alone, so to be connected with other churches, other bodies of Christ. I know that they've ministered to Sean in their prayers, in their conversations, in their reaching out.

[0:41] So Sean's down there and doing that for them, preaching for them, and blessing them in that way. So pray for him as you think about that this morning. And before I preach this morning, I want to commend you guys and your coming and listening to the word on an ongoing basis.

[1:03] God has truly blessed Trinity Cambridge Church, and it isn't something that is about us, but it's his choice to bless us. And we thank him. We thank him first and primarily.

[1:14] But I commend you guys for coming back each week and seeking to follow the word of the Lord. You want to hear what the Lord has to say, and you want to line your life up with what he has to say.

[1:26] And so I just want to encourage you to keep doing that. Keep going after Christ. Keep going after his word and what he says. I love hearing stories about how you guys talk about what has been preached on in your community groups and how you connect with one another.

[1:40] And I'm just encouraged to see it, and I want you guys to keep it up. It's an awesome thing. So this morning, before I start, there's one more thing.

[1:54] I had a message that was almost to completion, close to the end of the week, and God had a different plan. And so he chose to kind of do a makeover on where I was going.

[2:06] So if there's times that I pause, it's because things are a little different than what I started out with a few weeks ago. So don't let that be a discouragement, but an encouragement because the Lord is at work.

[2:20] He had a message that was different than what I originally had. So to me, that says that there's something that he wants to hit on this morning to encourage and to correct us. So take that as a good thing and not necessarily a bad thing as we dig in.

[2:34] So this morning, we're going to be looking at Jeremiah chapter 43. We're going to finish up chapter 43 that we hit last week, and we're going to go up until the end of 45. And our main thought, our main theme, our sentence that we're going to hold on to this morning as we go through this passage is this.

[2:54] That God provides salvation and hope from the separation and judgment that sin produces. We're going to say that a few times as we go through the message. But God provides salvation and hope where separation and judgment comes from sin.

[3:12] So the three areas that we're going to hit this morning as we look through these chapters is sin's futility, sin's persistence, and its balance with God's patience.

[3:23] So we're going to see those side by side as we look through the chapters. And then finally, God's judgment and hope. God's judgment and hope. God's judgment and hope. So last week, I'll leave that up for a little bit.

[3:38] Last week, we stopped halfway through chapter 43. And where we left off was the remaining remnant of Judah had asked Jeremiah for a word of the Lord.

[3:50] And they even went as far as to say whatever the Lord comes back and answers. Whatever he says, we're going to do it. And we know that that wasn't really their heart attitude.

[4:00] They had no desire to truly follow what God said unless God was saying what they wanted to do. That's what they were looking for. God says, stay where you are. And they went to Egypt.

[4:11] He says, I'll protect you and make you something here where you remain. And they didn't believe God. And they went to Egypt. And they took Jeremiah and Baruch with them. So that leads us up to verse 8, chapter 43.

[4:26] Let's read a few verses together this morning. Verse 8. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and Tappanese. Take in your hands large stones and hide them in the mortar in the pavement that is in the entrance to Pharaoh's palace in Tappanese.

[4:42] In the sight of the men of Judah and say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant.

[4:52] And I will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden. And he will spread his royal canopy over them. He shall come and strike the land of Egypt, giving over to pestilence, those who are doomed to pestilence.

[5:04] And to captivity, those who are doomed to captivity. And to the sword, those who are doomed to the sword. So the first thing we're going to look at this morning is the sin's futility.

[5:17] What causes sin to fall short? What causes sin to be futile? And where does it leave us when we follow that? Futility, taken from the Latin word that means leaks.

[5:31] So when something leaks, it's useless. It's of no good. If we have a gallon of something and it leaks, then it's futile. Our efforts to try to use it to hold something, to store something, just isn't, it's useless.

[5:46] It's of no good. So we're going to look at the no goodness of sin this morning. And how the people of Judah wrestled with that. So the people of Judah, they are now taking up residence in Egypt.

[6:00] They've ignored the word of the Lord. And they've sought to save themselves. So God tells Jeremiah to paint this picture for him. He says, I want you to take large stones.

[6:11] I want you to put it in the entrance of Pharaoh's palace. So God is bringing Nebuchadnezzar here. And he's going to come and own this place.

[6:22] This is the place where they came for safety and protection. And God's telling them it's not going to happen. Verses 12 and 13.

[6:32] We see that God is the one that's behind what's going on. He says, I shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods. And he shall burn them and carry them away captive.

[6:45] And he shall clean the land of Egypt. As shepherds clean his cloak of vermin. And he shall go away from there in peace. He shall break the obelichs of Heliopolis.

[6:56] This is in the land of Egypt. And the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn. So notice who is in the lead role here in what's going on. That is God.

[7:08] Verse 10 says, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar. Then later on, I will set up his throne. Then we look down at verse 12. I shall kindle a fire in the temples.

[7:20] So we see that Nebuchadnezzar is doing the action. But it is God who's doing the leading. He's doing the empowering. The orchestrating of all of it. Think of it like a rocket that's set to destroy something.

[7:33] So Nebuchadnezzar is the rocket. But God is the fuel. He's the mission control behind where that rocket is going. And what it is set to destroy. It's God's plan.

[7:45] He's the one in control. In the middle of verse 12, it says, As a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin. And just to define what that is, It is in times where the shepherd is spending days walking through the fields.

[8:02] He has a coat on for warmth and protection. And as he goes through the fields, his coat picks up vermin. So insects, ticks, lice.

[8:12] So here is a picture of a shepherd pulling off these unwanted insects. As he seeks to keep himself clean and void of all these things.

[8:25] And that's the description that God gives of Nebuchadnezzar coming into the land. He will come in. He's going to take what he wants. He's going to destroy what he doesn't. And then he's going to go away satisfied with what he sees.

[8:38] So in this passage, we see the destruction that's going to take place. But there's something more important here. And that is the futility of sin.

[8:50] See, everything that the Judeans are working for and trying to achieve is going to be destroyed. Right? They seek a place to live. They seek to build their family.

[9:04] They seek to build possessions. But they're seeking it in a land that God says, I'm going to destroy. All their worshiping and sacrifices is in vain. And why is that?

[9:15] Because it's not according to God's plan. It's on their own plan. See, they were chosen for a purpose. We know this. But just to recount it again, they were called out by God.

[9:27] They were called for a purpose. But instead of listening and following God, sought after their own desires and their own plans. And as we're thinking about plans this morning, whose plans is it that ultimately matter?

[9:45] It's not our plans. It's God's plans. So we're going to talk about this in a little bit. But when we base things on a plan that is futile or that changes or is not stable, then what does that mean for all that's set upon that?

[10:02] Have you ever spent time doing something? Maybe a project. A paper for school. Cleaning something. Fixing something up for someone.

[10:13] Maybe making a meal. Only to find out that the reason you were doing that, the plans behind it, had changed. Maybe schedules changed.

[10:25] Maybe the person said, oh, I don't need that anymore. I bought my own. Or can't come over. Things happened. What happens is what you planned on changed.

[10:38] And it made the work that you did, it basically renders it useless. Now, there's some situations, obviously, where you could still use what you did.

[10:50] But the idea is when we do things based on plans and assumptions and goals that are empty and void, then those things are going to leave us empty and void.

[11:03] And the same thing can be said about sin. That example wasn't sin related, but the same things happen with sin. Sin is futile. This is based on our plans and our desires.

[11:15] So that's what sin is. Sin is when we are disobeying God's command. Sin is futile.

[11:28] So, we see from this passage that their futility of sin falls short. We see that following sin and running after us leaves us wanting and separated from God.

[11:44] That's exactly what happened to the people of Judah. See, they were looking for protection. They were looking for prosperity. And they were looking for peace. These are the things that God, the provider of all things, promised his people.

[11:58] Protection. A nation that was protected from other nations. Prosperity. God promised them a family, a generation that could not be numbered.

[12:10] Lands. Animals. He blessed them. And we saw that earlier in the Old Testament. And peace. Peace from other nations. From wars. From having the promised land.

[12:22] And being able to settle there and be at peace with what God gave them. That's what God promised. He needed a people who were obedient to him.

[12:32] But the problem is, there can't be a relationship between the God of Israel. The God that called his people out.

[12:45] There can't be a relationship if instead of following after God, they're following after idols. It's a lopsided relationship. It's a relationship. And it dishonors God in his name when his people are running away from him in sin.

[13:01] So we see that the people of Judah turned away from the true God.

[13:13] And they try to find salvation through the gods of Egypt. Those are the very things that God, in this passage, is setting his rocket, his missile of Nebuchadnezzar on.

[13:26] He's looking to destroy the people of Egypt, the land of Egypt, the people of Judah, and the gods that they're all following. That's what happens. They were looking for protection.

[13:38] They were looking for prosperity and peace from the false gods. And in the end, they were left with nothing because what they were setting them on was futile.

[13:49] Well, the next point that we're going to look at this morning is sin's persistence. There's one thing that we can easily pick up from these passages is this ongoing sin.

[14:06] And while we're looking at that, we're also going to be highlighting areas of God's patience. We know from the many chapters that we've gone through so far that God is patient. God is long-suffering.

[14:16] God continues to give the people of Judah a chance over and over again to repent and come and follow him. And they don't. Last week, we saw a chance to repent when God told them to stay in Egypt.

[14:29] They didn't listen. At the beginning of our passage this morning, God tells them of the destruction that's coming. He's bringing Nebuchadnezzar. They have an opportunity to repent to God, but they were made there.

[14:42] They remained where they were in their sin, and they continued on. So let's pick things up at chapter 44 and read this section. Actually, we read the first 10 verses, so let's hold off on that.

[14:58] Does this keep dropping out? Is this okay? Okay. The section that we read in the beginning was God reminding the people of Judah of past sin.

[15:14] And in the beginning, we see that God has continued to show his patience by sending his prophets, by giving them warnings, by telling them, I hate what you're doing, but they continue to do it anyway.

[15:25] Okay. Let's pick it up at verse 11, where we left off.

[15:37] It's chapter 44, verse 11. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will set my face against you for harm to cut off all Judah.

[15:52] I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall be consumed. And in the land of Egypt they shall fall. By the sword and by the famine they shall be consumed.

[16:04] From the least to the greatest they shall die by the sword and by the famine, and they shall become an oath, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence.

[16:20] So that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape, or survive, or return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there.

[16:31] For they shall not return except some fugitives. Amen. Does that sound better?

[17:07] Nice. Thanks, Taylor. Appreciate it. At this point in the passage, God is telling them the depth of their wickedness, and he's pronouncing the judgment. So you would think from that that their hearts would be affected, but they aren't.

[17:21] You think at this point, you could see, you can envision an opportunity of the people to repent. As they're being told of the judgment that's coming, you would think that they would repent and seek God's forgiveness yet again, knowing how often he has forgiven them.

[17:41] But they do not. The persistence of sin is front and center, and the thing that is pushing that out is their stubbornness and their selfish desires.

[17:52] But the thing I don't want to have happen is that we jump and we judge them too soon, because we do the exact same thing.

[18:03] It just might look a little different. See, when we're stuck in sin, are we quick to let it go? I think if we're honest, we're not quick to let it go.

[18:16] See, sin is usually easy and fun. It feels good. Sin allows us to do what we want to do, even when it goes against what God has called us to do.

[18:32] So we often want to make excuses to remain there, make excuses for why we're sinning and why we can't correct that yet. But as Christians, God has called us out and commanded us to be different.

[18:47] We're set apart from the world. So if Christians, if followers of Christ, then we can't remain in our sin. We can't stay there. We need to fight against that.

[18:59] If we can, and we don't feel any guilt about that sin that we're living and remaining in, then we need to check our salvation at the door. See, if we're truly saved in the Holy Spirit that's living inside of us, is at war with that sin that we're allowing to remain.

[19:19] And as God calls that sin out, whether directly through the Spirit inside of us, through a message, or through someone else who comes up and says, Brother, you know what? I see that there's some sin that you're struggling with.

[19:31] How can we pray about it? How can we work on this? Because it's not right. That should be our reaction, but it's not.

[19:44] So what we need to do is to thank the Lord in seeing that sin as it's approaching, seeing as it grows inside, as it tries to take root inside of our hearts, and we need to kill it.

[19:59] The sin of the sound system.

[20:11] The sin of the sound system. So, go ahead and talk.

[20:47] Okay. All right. We'll try it again. I wasn't even jumping around. I threatened to him that I was going to jump around or do something, and he's like, Yeah, whatever.

[21:01] He didn't care. All right. Let's try that again. Satan is always trying to get in. It's okay.

[21:12] Because we have the Word of God. Let's see where we left off. So we need not to be quick to judge the people of Judah because we can easily hang out to our sin and not want to let it go.

[21:33] So in holding on to your sin and in waging that battle with your sin, realize that it's a serious battle.

[21:44] It's not a futile battle. The plans that we put on sin are futile. The things that we try to achieve from our sin is futile, but the battle that we take on when we're waging against sin in our hearts, in our lives, is a serious one.

[22:06] There are often costs. There are often devastating effects that can come from long periods of sin that we dwell in. So I encourage you. God is holy and can have nothing to do with sin that we consistently try to come back to, hold on to, live by, when He wants to be the one that we live and honor.

[22:29] So let's read about Judah's fight with sin and pick it up in verse 15. Then all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods and all the women who'd stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah, As for the word that you've spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you.

[22:55] But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings for her as we did both we and our fathers, our kings and our apostles, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.

[23:09] For then we had plenty of food and prospered and saw no disaster. But since we left off making offerings to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we've lacked everything and we have been consumed by the sword and by famine.

[23:23] And the women said, When we made offerings to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings for her, was it without our husband's approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings for her?

[23:37] See, they are fighting to remain in their sin. You see their stubbornness. You see the blindness that it is causing. The thing with continual disobedience is that there's stubbornness and pride that grows larger and larger the longer that we remain in our sin.

[23:58] A prideful heart with a hardened conscience that is no longer affected by sin has to be questioned whether or not there is true salvation that has taken place in a believer.

[24:15] to be able to continue to sin against God and be unaffected and not care has to question whether or not that person was truly saved and in this case whether they're a part of the children of God continually running after the things of other gods of not what the Lord has called them to.

[24:37] So, in saying that I don't want you to be like oh, Matt's preaching that you can lose your salvation. It's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying if someone is truly a child of God a follower of Jesus then their life will not be characterized by disobedience towards God.

[24:55] It's going to be characterized by a life that is focused on obeying the commandments of the Lord. That should make total sense to us and not scare us.

[25:05] because you can't be His child and He be your Heavenly Father if you continue in a life of disobedience. See, repentance is the key element of salvation.

[25:19] We believe in Jesus and we repent of our sins. We once walked with the world and now we walk with Christ. So, we need to protect ourselves from walking with the world and we want to walk with Christ.

[25:35] Let me ask you a question this morning. As we're talking about our salvation, as we're talking about how you live your life and who you live your life for, has there been a time in your life where you have repented of your sins?

[25:53] are you relying on God's patience and His grace to allow you to continue to live in sin? Are you trying to save yourself?

[26:07] Are you trying to fix yourself your way and not God's way? Let me encourage you today to give up your fight with any of those. Whether you're a Christian and you fight with your own salvation and doing it your way or you're an unbeliever altogether.

[26:26] You've never asked for repentance. You've never believed in Jesus Christ for salvation. I want to encourage you to give up your fight this morning and allow God to be your Savior. you have an opportunity this morning to have a relationship with your Creator, your Heavenly Father.

[26:47] Salvation doesn't come from us, it comes from Him. He is the only way. I want to look a little bit more about how the people of Judah were blinded from the solution to their problems that was right in front of them.

[27:02] The last half of verse 17 says, For then, talking about when they worshipped the Queen of Heaven, they had plenty of food and prospered and saw no disaster.

[27:13] But since we left off making offerings to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we've lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine. Do you see the blindness and what's going on the floor?

[27:28] Right? They said, when we were sinning, worshipping other gods, we had everything we wanted. And now that we've stopped doing those things, we have nothing. So it makes sense that we return to our sin because that worked out better for us.

[27:42] They've presumed on God's loving kindness for so long, they have disobeyed so much that now they can't even see the sin and the damage that's taken place.

[27:55] See, first of all, they never stopped sinning as they led to doing in that verse. They didn't stop worshipping other gods. Their land was destroyed and they moved on.

[28:06] Whether they do, they found other gods to worship. Their hearts never left worshipping other gods. See, it's important to see this flaw because, again, this is a flaw that we can fall into.

[28:20] We need to have eyes that are aware of approaching sin so that it doesn't take root. Right? We need to have hearts that are aligned with Christ so that we guard against those things.

[28:31] See, they weren't this steeped into their sin and blindness right from the beginning. It was a slow process, right? Didn't exactly get what they wanted.

[28:41] Maybe they ate manna too much so they stopped grumbling and complaining. And then it just led to one thing after another. And so they got so involved with other lands, which God told them not to do in the first place, that they began to worship them.

[28:56] They became their gods in place of the one true God. And so this is where they have come to at this point. God is finally fed up with the people that he's called and he's looking to destroy them.

[29:13] So we see that first that they weren't honest where their heart was and secondly, they were blind to the damage that was going on. And it was their disobedience and their sin that was causing all of their problems.

[29:25] And yet they thought that going back to their sin was going to be the solution. One note about verse 19 talking about the women.

[29:41] The women said when we made offerings to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings, was it without our husband's approval that we made cakes for her bearing image and poured out drink offerings for her?

[29:52] The women here seemed to take a special offense to what Jeremiah said most likely because the gods that they were worshipping were of fertility and beauty.

[30:07] And so those would be the gods that appealed the most to women. And so from that you can conjure up thoughts that the women might have been larger worshippers of certain gods that they took offense to with Jeremiah's comments.

[30:23] But in any event it was still prevalent. Men, women, families, everybody was worshipping gods for whatever beauty, for fertility, for money, for whatever it was that wasn't the true God.

[30:42] Let's take a look at verse 20. Then Jeremiah said to all the people, men and women, all the people who had given him this answer, as for the offerings that you have offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials, the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them?

[31:01] Did it not come to his mind? And Jeremiah is saying you want the Lord to remember you, you want the Lord to bless you, to protect you, to always be on his mind. Did you not think that your sins would make it there as well?

[31:17] And that leads us to our next point. of God's judgment. We've seen this a lot in the book of Jeremiah. We see it here in verse 22.

[31:30] The Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and the abominations that you committed. Therefore, your land has become a desolation and a waste and a curse without inhabitant, as it is this day.

[31:42] It is because you made offerings and because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies that this disaster has happened to you as at this day.

[31:59] So we see the judgment of the Lord on his people for this continuing sin following after everything but God. Everything that God was offering to them, they sought it in other ways.

[32:12] And now we come to verse 24. This, just a word of note, this isn't the last chapter in the book of Jeremiah, but it is God's last and final word of judgment to the people.

[32:27] So keep that in mind. This, it puts weight on this word of the Lord because it is the last one that God has given to his people. Jeremiah said to the peoples, verse 24, and all the women, hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt.

[32:48] Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, you and your wives have declared with your mouth and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, we will surely perform our vows that we have made to make offerings to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.

[33:03] Then confirm your vows and perform your vows. Go ahead, do it, you say you're going to. Verse 26, Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. All you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt, behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name shall no longer be invoked by the mouth of any man in Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, as the Lord God lives.

[33:30] So get a picture of this. The people of Judah have done a complete reversal from where they came from over a thousand years ago when they were slaves in Egypt and God called them out.

[33:47] Exodus chapter 6, verses 5 through 7. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

[34:00] Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of kindness.

[34:14] I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord, your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Now we see that with hearts of rebellion and disobedience, they now return back to Egypt from where they were taken out of.

[34:39] Is that why God told them not to go to Egypt in last week's message? It makes sense. Do you also know that they were going to continue to follow after God?

[34:51] I'm sure you knew that as well. But God's name is being removed from their mouths. So what does that mean?

[35:02] The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the I am that I am, is no longer a point of strength or source of salvation that they can rely on.

[35:15] What they've assumed for so long is no longer there. Why? Because God is holy. He's perfect in righteousness, and he stands against everything that sin allows.

[35:29] the very essence of sin is defiance against God and his laws, and it's what they ran after. That total opposition against God is the reason why God must judge sin.

[35:43] He must deal with it. It can't be left and just look over like it doesn't matter. Verse 27, Behold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good.

[35:56] All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine until there is an end of them. And those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number.

[36:09] And all the remnant of Judah who came to the land of Egypt to live shall know whose word will stand, mine or theirs. This shall be the sign to you, declares the Lord, that I will punish you in this place in order that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for harm.

[36:29] Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will give Pharaoh, Hophah, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life as I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.

[36:47] God must judge sin. But that's not the end of the story this morning. Our last point this morning is the hope and salvation that God provides.

[37:01] Let's read chapter 45 together. We're going to read the whole thing. It's okay. It's one of the shortest ones in the book. The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch, the son of Nariah, when he wrote these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah.

[37:23] Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch, you said, Woe is me, for the Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning and I find no rest.

[37:35] Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, Behold, what I have built I am breaking down and what I have planted I am plucking up, that is, the whole land.

[37:47] And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord, but I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.

[38:02] So chronologically, that chapter comes after chapter 36. So, just to rewind a little bit, chapter 36 was when King Jehoiakim slowly cut up the scroll and threw it into the fire.

[38:23] He took, it was a word of the Lord to Jeremiah written down by Baruch. So all of Baruch's work, he's watching as the king could care less about what's being said and just throws it into the fire.

[38:43] So you can imagine that there's some disappointment if this chapter follows right after that happened. This makes sense, right? Baruch would be quite disappointed, depressed.

[38:55] You work towards something in the ministry of God only to see that it's destroyed, it's cast to the side, it means nothing. For years, he served alongside Jeremiah in ministry and we all know that that was not an easy road.

[39:15] The same or similar pain that Jeremiah felt, the punishment, the ridicule, the embarrassment, all that that Jeremiah felt, Baruch was with him the whole time and felt that as well.

[39:31] He gave his life to follow after Jeremiah because that's what God's plan was for him. So we can understand when Baruch says, woe is me, for the Lord has added sorrow to my pain, I am weary in my growing and I find no rest.

[39:47] But we see that God is quick to respond to Baruch and he reminds them that God is losing more in this than Baruch sees. See, he is losing his people that he's been building up.

[40:04] They've continued to run away from him and follow sin and he's got to judge them. He's also losing the land that he's planted. That might not sound like much, but everything that God has built and brought together, he is now destroying.

[40:23] So he's reminding Baruch, you've lost some, I've lost more. He also continues on telling Baruch not to seek great things.

[40:34] He says, as you look around Egypt, as you looked around when you were in Jerusalem, as you spent time with the people of Judah, don't see all of their possessions and things and want those for yourself.

[40:52] Don't see the land and the prosperity that you want because I'm going to destroy them. You want them, don't seek after them. And he says, I will save you.

[41:05] I will protect you wherever you go. Your prize in this is that I will save your life and you will be safe wherever you desire to go. Okay, so that's a great chapter for Baruch.

[41:19] A nice word of hope, but what does that mean for us? It followed chapter 36, but we find it here where Jeremiah places it after chapter 44.

[41:29] Why is that? See, being here after chapter 44 allows it to serve as an encouragement to us as well, not just Baruch. An encouragement after these chapters of seeing the people of Judah follow sin and be judged.

[41:49] An encouragement for us not to go that way and follow after God. That's the purpose for why we have these chapters of seeing how the people of Judah forsook God and followed after idols.

[42:07] Chapter 44 showed us the necessity of God's judgment. So if we follow after the people of Judah, seeking only the things of this world in disobedience to God, then the end result is going to be the same end result that we see from the people of Judah.

[42:23] And that is separation from God. There's judgment. There's death that has to come. There isn't another way. There's only God. So when you're not following that, then you're separated.

[42:43] For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3, 16. We all know it.

[42:55] We all have it memorized. It's basic but it's fundamental. Brothers and sisters, don't lose it. the hope that we have in God is the only hope that matters. So just to pull up our thought again from the beginning that God provides salvation and I pray this morning that if you're a follower of Christ you are participating in that salvation.

[43:24] You've repented. You've believed in Jesus Christ and you've repented. You have that salvation. There's also hope that we have in Christ. Hope that we get from nowhere else except from Christ and following after God.

[43:37] The alternative to that is the separation and judgment that comes from God and that's what follows sin. So I encourage you brothers and sisters this morning to follow after God.

[43:50] When you see sin coming it's going to look good. It's going to feel good. Whatever it is and you have to fight against it because we were called by God to be separate from the world.

[44:03] So live for the hope that God provides and not the separation that sin produces. Let's take a couple minutes just to think about those words.

[44:19] Allow the Spirit to talk to your heart before we move on to the prayers of the people. Let's take a couple minutes.