Jeremiah 36:1-6 – One More Chance – Bible study

Jeremiah 36:1-6 One More Chance To me the Bible gets more interesting the more you know. My Bible puts probable dates for events within a chapter at the beginning of the chapter. The date on this chapter is 607 BC. Jeremiah will still be alive and preaching when Judah falls to Babylon in 587 BC, just twenty years later. Just twenty years before the fall of Jerusalem, they almost had a revival. If you are fifteen, 20 years seems like an eternity; but if you are over 40, it seems like just yesterday. I wonder how far we are from the destruction of America. I wonder what will be our last chance to have a revival. What did God offer the children of Israel one more chance to do? I. God offered Israel one more chance to learn of the goodness of His mercy. A. God wanted Israel to repent and experience His mercy. Jer 36:3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. B. To my knowledge, God only has two means to bring people to His mercy. 1. God tells them the truth, most often through the medium of preaching. 1Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. a. The people had heard the words of Jeremiah little by little. b. Now God wanted Jeremiah to dumb the whole load at one time! c. I guess we can call that bombarding preaching. (1) Thats what America used to do in revivals, Camp Meetings, Brush Harbors, and Bible Conferences. (2) Those meetings were designed to be a lot of preaching from different kinds of preachers dumped on you at one time. (3) But the church got too busy to attend those. 2. Gods uses judgment to bring us to mercy. a. Judgment can be defined as any kind of unpleasantness God puts on a person to get them to turn to Him. b. It could be sickness, accidents, losing your job, pandemics. c. In truth, the only time repentance is not the objective is the last TWO judgments. (1) The next to the last judgment that is not intended to bring repentance is death and the last one is damnation. (2) All other judgments are purposed in at least some measure to bring us closer to God. II. God offered Israel one more chance to learn of the futility of mans religion. Jer 36:6 Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORDS house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. A. The people God wanted to stir to repentance were in the Lords house on the day of fasting. Thats like saying they were in church on Sunday. B. That tells us two things right away: 1. Whoever was doing the preaching in temple was not preaching Gods message. a. God would not have had to send Jeremiah if someone was! b. Too many church are still preaching, they just arent preaching the Word. c. I dont mean to sound arrogant, but that is true even inside Bible believing churches. (1) There is a lot of good politicking, temper rising, opinionated preaching going on inside of churches. (2) It just isnt the Word of God. 2. Whoever was attending the preaching/teaching must not have missed the message of God. C. There are some lessons God wants everyone to know. 1. Fig leaves do not cover sin. a. Fig leaves go back to what Adam and Eve. b. Do you know what those two did the first afternoon after the fall, in-between the time they sinned and the time they met God? They sewed together fig leaves to cover themselves. c. Fig leaves did not cover Adam and religion wont cover you. d. Sins must be removed not covered. Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 2. One size does fit all. We are wear the same suit of sin and we all need the same blood of Jesus to cleanse us. 3. You cant hide the truth from your Tailor. a. Some take great pride in fooling preachers. (1) If you fool every preacher in the world, you havent done anything. (2) Preachers are trained to be that way. b. God is not so fooled. Hebrews 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 1John 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Ecclesiastes 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. (1) God sees everything. (2) God knows everything. (3) God remembers everything. (4) God will reward everything. III. God offered Israel one more chance to learn of the hardness of the heart. A. There is much more to this event as what Jeremiah and Baruch did started to kindle a revival fire. B. \#Jer 36:11-17\ It started with what we would call in our government, CONGRESS. In Israels government, it was the "princes." 1. Mi-cha-iah was the first to have his heart touched. 2. He brought Baruch and Jeremiahs scroll to the others members, and they were all fearful of what they had done against God. 3. Wouldnt it be wonderful if our Congress could experience a revival? a. I know many think we need to have another 911 so that Congress will remember God again. b. Im sorry, but they did not remember God at 911. c. It does not mean a thing to stand on the Capitol steps and sing Amazing Grace. d. Most of them would have to get saved. e. Many of them would have to return a lot of money they had taken. C. But then the king poured cold water on the fire. 1. The princes were very wise in presenting the book to the king. a. They did not just take it in and start reading it to him. (1) First, because they could have been executed for doing that. (2) Second, they did not want the king to destroy the scroll. b. So they put the scroll away and went to feel out the king on the matter. 2. \#Jer 36:21-24\ The king seemed interested so they went and got the scroll. a. Three or four pages, that was a far as the king could listen. b. He cut up the copy and threw it into the fire. c. And just like that, Israels last good chance to have a revival ended. D. Have you ever wondered what makes some people so hard-hearted to the things of God? Let me give you a few reasons. 1. Some are too selfish to be spiritual. a. An article at LiveScience.com, by Robin Nixon, dated December 24, 2008) indicated that people with a diminished "ME" area of the brain were more spiritual. The "ME" area of the brain keeps up with us, it constantly updates our self-knowledge. The idea is that people with a larger area of the brain which is fixed on themselves are less likely to be spiritual. https://www.livescience.com/5237-spirituality-spot-brain.html b. Like with all things on the internet, it is hard to know if it is true or not, but that does agree with the Bible. Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 29:23 A mans pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. 2. Some are too foolish to be spiritual. a. When someone spurns the grace that has blessed him, he is a fool. b. King Jehoiakim was only king because of: a. The previous judgments of God b. The mercy of God c. He was foolish – having received all he had because of what God had done (grace) and then refusing to do what God was telling him. d. I think our country is one of the most foolish that has ever been. (1) We were one of the (a) richest countries (b) strongest countries (c) smartest countries (d) godly countries (e) healthiest countries (f) freeest countries. (2) Now we are morally and financially bankrupt, so weak it is a wonder Canada and Mexico have not come in to conquer and take our land, and so dumb we dont know how many genders there are or what marriage is. 3. Some are too ignorant to be spiritual. a. Ignorant means that just dont know, no one has told them. (1) The cure for ignorance is to be taught and to be taught as early as possible (before hard- heartedness can set in). (2) That is why having a godly home with two godly parents is so every important. 4. Some are too bitter to be spiritual. a. I spoke with a former atheist years ago who shared that most atheists are atheists because of disappointment in God or in what God allowed. b. I suppose those who have been coddled their whole life, never having been taught about work or disappointment, never having been held to a higher standard, are the ones who get disappointed the quickest and the most. 5. Some are sinful to be spiritual. a. Lets not rationalize too much. b. Some people are just enjoying their sins too much to be spiritual. One More Chance – That is what God was giving to Israel. They refused it. If I finish this sermon and you are alive to hear it completed, God will be giving you more change. What will you do with it?