Grosey's Messages

1 Roam through the streets of Jerusalem. Look and take note; search in her squares. If you find a single person, anyone who acts justly, who seeks to be faithful, then I will forgive her.
2 When they say, “As the Lord lives,”they are swearing falsely.
3 Lord, don’t Your eyes [look for] faithfulness? You have struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to return.
4 Then I thought: They are just the poor; they have played the fool. For they don’t understand the way of the Lord, the justice of their God.
5 I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God. However, these also had broken the yoke and torn off the fetters.
6 Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down. A wolf from an arid plain will ravage them. A leopard keeps watch over their cities. Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces because their rebellious acts are many, their unfaithful deeds numerous.
7 Why should I forgive you? Your children have abandoned Me and sworn by those who are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery; they gashed themselves at the prostitute’s house.
8 They are well-fed, eager stallions,each neighing after someone else’s wife.
9 Should I not punish them for these things? [This is] the Lord’s declaration. Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

The Titanic hit an iceberg.

"What was that?" "It's nothing, don't worry everything is under control." Yet, 1500 people DIED!

Jeremiah 6:14--"Peace Peace," when there is no peace!

What are they doing? They are dull about Judgement

They are unheeding. Feel its unnecessary.

Feel they will escape. Blasé

The Lord tells jemeiah go look out for 1 good guy. Its reminiscent of the old testament story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 and 19

18:20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. 21 I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to Me. If not, I will find out.” 22 The men turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? Will You really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people who are in it? 32 Then he said, “Let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak one more time. Suppose 10 are found there?” He answered, “I will not destroy [it]on account of 10.” 33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, He departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

But for Jeremiah he only has to find 1, just 1 man who was godly. And he couldn’t.

The previous passage Jeremiah 3:-4 dealt with God’s gracious pleadings with His People.

He urged them to return to Himself and repent because He is a gracious Father, a merciful Lord, a loving husband and physician to cure their backslidings.

Tonight, Jeremiah’s message is a little more blunt.

He speaks of the reality of approaching Judgement.

The coming Judgement, something not readily on our hearts and minds when religion is largely consumer driven.

The coming judgement, well we hope it wont hiyt in our lifetime.

The Coming Judgement, maybe it won’t be so bad after all.

Maybe it’ll be ok, because well I’m not really so bad.

There are so many excuses that we make not to search out our own hearts diligently and really make sure of our own relationship with God.

Patrick Naylor went to dentist. For 6 days he had had a mild toothache.. After 6 days he went to his dentist who did an x ray of the side of his mouth.

He found a 4 inch nail. Patrick had been using a nail gun on a building job, 6 days before he had misfired the nail gun and narrowly missed being hit. The nail had gone into a wooden architrave behind him. What Patrick didn’t know was that second nail had fired and pierced up through the roof of his mouth and penetrated to his brain. It took 4 hours of surgery at the hospital to remove the nail. The surgeon said, “If you are going to have a nail in your brain that’s the way you want it to be.” His problem was a lot more serious than he thought. So is yours.

Life pain. There a re things in our lives we would like to fix or change.

We don’t understand the true cause of our problem and instead of getting to the root cause we don’t fix the problem we just treat the symptoms.

Their corruption is Widespread.

“You Are Busted!”

The searcher of hearts Rev 2:18  “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: “The Son of God, the One whose eyes are like a fiery flame, and whose feet are like fine bronze says: 19 I know your works—your love, faithfulness, service, and endurance. Your last works are greater than the first. 20 But I have this against you: you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives My slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Look! I will throw her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her practices. 23 I will kill her children with the plague. Then all the churches will know that I am the One who examines minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

1. Stoical hardness. We may be stricken, but not grieve.

2. Thoughtlessness. We may feel inward grief, but not reflect on our condition and need.

3. Pride, which suffers pangs of grief but no contrition for sin.

4. Impenitence. We may “refuse to receive correction,” harden our wills against submission, and rebel in impatience and complaining against God, instead of returning to him.

1. You Are Banding With A Company That You Cannot Combat

3 Lord, don’t Your eyes [look for] faithfulness? You have struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to return. 4 Then I thought: They are just the poor; they have played the fool. For they don’t understand the way of the Lord, the justice of their God. 5 I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God. However, these also had broken the yoke and torn off the fetters.

Its interesting that their spiritual adultery has led them into physical adultery. Our spiritual life does effect our whole life.

7 Why should I forgive you? Your children have abandoned Me and sworn by those who are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery; they gashed themselves at the prostitute’s house.
8 They are well-fed, eager stallions, each neighing after someone else’s wife.

Untruthful habits. Israel had dealt treacherously with God (ver. 11). We must be true to discern truth. If the eye is evil, the whole body is full of darkness. There is a close connection between those two evil things which go under the name of infidelity — treachery and unbelief, lack of faithfulness and lack of faith.

11 They, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, have dealt very treacherously with Me. This is the Lord’s declaration.

1 Corinthians 15: 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

The people you run with will affect your morals. They will affect your conscience. Your conscience could well become dulled by the people you run with.

Baptist pastors becoming drunken.. who’d have thought it, were they not led to the pub by those they respect.

Spiritual deadness. The Jews deny the inspiration of the prophets. To them weighty words such as those of Jeremiah are mere “wind.” So there were those who derided him who spake with the weightiest authority and “as never man spake.” Sin deadens the soul to the perception of God’s voice in nature, in the Bible, in Christ, in conscience.

2. You Are Belittling Consequences That You Cannot Comprehend

Ecclesiastes 8: 11 Because the sentence against a criminal act is not carried out quickly, therefore the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit crime. 12 Although a sinner commits crime a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before Him. 13 However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.

There was no APPARENT Danger!

2 Peter 3:4--“Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

6 Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down. A wolf from an arid plain will ravage them. A leopard keeps watch over their cities. Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces because their rebellious acts are many, their unfaithful deeds numerous.

3. You Are Betting On A Conclusion That You Cannot Control

12 They have contradicted the Lord and insisted, “It won’t happen. Harm won’t come to us; we won’t see sword or famine.” 13 The prophets become [only] wind, for the [Lord’s]word is not in them. This will in fact happen to them.

29 Should I not punish them for these things? [This is] the Lord’s declaration. Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

4. You are Boasting Of Convictions You Cannot Create

5:21 Hear this, you foolish and senseless people. They have eyes, but  they don’t see. They have ears, but they don’t hear.22 Do you not fear Me? This is the Lord’s declaration. Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary of the sea, an enduring barrier that it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot pass over it. 23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and have gone away.

Its pride that does this.

Resistance to the will of God. The language of the people betrays a spirit of enmity to God. “They have belied the Lord.” Nothing blinds like hatred. Love of ease. The words of Jeremiah were not pleasant; be threatened terrible things. Therefore his hearers refused to accept his message. Their conduct was most illogical, since truth is not affected by our liking for it are there not many unpleasant truths? and most injurious to themselves, since it was for their own interest to give heed to the warning of approaching calamity, that foresight might mitigate the force, if it could not now prevent the falling, of the blow. Yet this conduct was most natural. It is constantly to be observed that people listen to the teachers whom they like rather than to those whom they believe to be speaking the most important truths, and accept the opinions which suit their inclinations rather than those possibly less agreeable ideas which stand on the surest foundation of fact.

These People lost their way and were estranged from God . They didn’t know which way to turn. They had a message from God but kept travelling the wrong way towards destruction.

“This is what the Lord says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths: Which is the way to what is good? Then take it and find rest for yourselves. But they protested: We won’t!”

God’s people had lost direction, they were not following the way of God. Jeremiah 6:6-9

For this is what the Lord of • Hosts says: Cut down the trees; raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished. There is nothing but oppression within her. 7 As a well gushes out its water, so she pours forth her evil. Violence and destruction resound in her. Sickness and wounds keep coming to My attention. 8 Be warned, Jerusalem, or I will be torn away from you; I will make you a desolation, a land devoid of inhabitant. 9 This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Glean as thoroughly as a vine the remnant of Israel. Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer over the branches.

God was about to send a nation to overwhelm them. They were not following the ways of God They were not giving heed to the Word of God.

10 Who can I speak to and give such a warning that they will listen? Look, their ear is uncircumcised, so they cannot pay attention. See, the word of the Lord has become contemptible to them— they find no pleasure in it.

There are 2 great indications that we have lost our ways are

Not following the ways of God. Not heeding the Word of God.

Therefore they were facing imminent judgement. God comes and seeks to give them an invitation and redirection to get back on track., God’s wrath is expressed.

Jer 6:11-15

Leadership healed the matter lightly.. peace peace..

Serious problems require serious solutions. Judgement is on the way.

There is wickedness all around and therefore there needs to be a total turning around. They needed true repentance and true obedience

1. God Calls You To Reflection

16 This is what the Lord says: Stand by the roadways and look.

Take it in stop and see what is going on. Stand See ask

16 This is what the Lord says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths: Which is the way to what is good? Then take it and find rest for yourselves. But they protested: We won’t!

We won’t consider the options until we know we are truly off course.

They weren’t on the paths God wanted them to be on. They needed to recognise they were off the path. Maybe you need to go and ask the Lord, to show you where you have left His way.

2. God Calls You To Investigation

16 This is what the Lord says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths: Which is the way to what is good? Then take it and find rest for yourselves. But they protested: We won’t!

The right destination: Rest for our souls.

Being in the place where God strengthens and guides His people.

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word… What a Glory He sheds on our way

Matt 11:28 “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

3. God Calls You To Submission

16 This is what the Lord says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths: Which is the way to what is good? Then take it and find rest for yourselves. But they protested: We won’t!

The right Direction

The old paths Jer 18:15 Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to false [idols]that make them stumble in their ways— in the ancient roads— to walk on [new]paths, not the highway. 16 They have made their land a horror, a perpetual object of scorn; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and shake his head.

Col. 2:6  Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.

These folk refused to walk in His Ways.

# posted by Groseys messages @ 1:49 PM