A Picture Worth 1,000 Words | Jeremiah 16 | Pastor William Hixson

Title of this message is

a picture is worth a thousand words.

It's an old saying, isn't it?

Picture

is worth

thousand words.

God often

used his prophets, especially Jeremiah

and Ezekiel

and even Isaiah,

to picture with their lives

something from the message they were

bringing.

And

I believe it was Ezekiel I called the

panime prophet because he would always

to be doing something a little bit

bizarre to get the people's attention

and then there was a message

connected with it.

And God knows the impact of

illustration. God knows the impact of

visualization.

And so I believe when we read the

scriptures, it's good to try to get a

picture in our head in our mind about

what's going on.

And the picture may not be totally

accurate, but believe it's helpful

to do that.

I think in this chapter,

this was one of the hardest things God

ever asked

Jeremiah to do.

And God did not ask him this hard thing

uh to try to be mean to him or hurtful

to him.

God was reaching out to the nation that

wasn't listening

and to give them a picture that they

couldn't forget

and to stir up conversations

they didn't want to hear.

Jeremiah chapter 16.

Jeremiah 16 · chapter mention

The word of the Lord came to me saying,

"Thou shalt not take a wife,

neither shall you have sons or daughters

in this place." Now, some commentators

group this together,

but his family life. I prefer to take

them separate,

no wife,

no children.

For thus, and God told him, no wife for

you, no wife and no children, sons or

daughters.

For thus the Lord, says the Lord,

concerning the sons, and concerning the

daughters who are born in this place,

and concerning their mothers who bore

them, and concerning their fathers who

begott them in this land, they shall die

of grievous death.

They shall not be lamented, neither

shall they be buried,

but they shall be as refuge on the face

of the earth. They'll be consumed by the

sword and by famine and by carcasses

shall be food for the fowls of heaven

and for the beasts

of the earth.

For thus says the Lord,

enter not into the house of mourning,

neither go to lament nor bemoan them,

for I've taken away my peace from this

people, says the Lord, evening 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, nor

cut themselves for them, nor make

themselves bald for them. Neither shall

men tear themselves for them in mourning

to comfort them for the dead. Neither

shall men give them a cup of consolation

to drink for their father

or for their mother.

In other words, Jeremiah,

not only are you not to marry and have

children,

you're not to go to any weddings,

you're not to go to any funeral.

You're not to go to any parties.

Thou shalt not go to the house of

feasting, verse eight, to sit with them

to eat and drink.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God

of Israel, behold, I will cause to cease

out of this place in your eyes and in

your days, the voice of mirth, the voice

of gladness, the voice of the

bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

It'll come to pass when you'll show this

people these words and they say to

you,"Wh

has the Lord pronounced all this great

evil against us? Or what is our

iniquity? Or what is our sin that we've

committed against him, the Lord our

God?" Then you'll say, "Because your

fathers and your fathers have forsaken

me, says the Lord, and have walked after

other gods and have served them and have

worshiped them and have forsaken me and

have not kept my law. And you have done

worse than your fathers.

For behold, you walk every man after the

imagination of his evil heart, and they

may not hearken to me. Therefore, I will

cast you out of this land,

that you know not into a land you know

not, neither ye or your fathers, and

there you will serve other gods day and

night, where I will not show you favor.

Therefore, behold, the days come, says

the Lord, that it'll no more be said,

the No, I'm going to stop right there.

I'm going to pick up verse 14. That's

where the news starts to get good.

Father, we thank you for the time we can

spend here today. Challenge and change

us by your word. Amen. We are going to

preach the whole section, but I want to

get the bad news before we get to the

good news.

What's going on here? What what in the

world is God asking Jeremiah to do? Now,

the whole going around wearing your

underwear on the outside of your robe is

one thing.

Going 500 miles and burying that

underwear in a rock in the Euphrates

River is another thing. and then

bringing it back defiled. That seemed

crazy. But this is really over the top,

isn't it?

How would you like to be Jeremiah and

hear that?

And God is saying what he's saying for a

reason.

Kylin Dich, the German commentaries on

the Old Testament said, "The ruin of

Jerusalem and of Judea will inevitably

come. Thus, the prophet must

must proclaim by word and deed."

Not just word,

word and deed.

Douglas Jones says, "Jere Jeremiah's

celibacy is a sign of judgment."

Matthew Henry, the great Puritan

commentator, said, "The greatness of the

calamity that was coming upon the Jewish

nation is illustrated by the

prohibitions given to the prophet."

Now, we're starting to get into the

understanding of it. Old Testament

scholar J. Thompson said Jeremiah's life

was a mirror of his message of judgment.

Jeremiah was forbidden to marry and to

participate in the normal joys and

sorrows of his people. These

deprivations made his life a picture of

the terrible fate that awaited the

nation.

Now

let's put oursel in Jeremiah's

position. This was a hard thing to

this is a hard thing to demand.

Life has great privileges.

But life also has great

responsibilities.

And it's fascinating to me how God weds

privilege with responsibility

and what God has joined together. Let no

man put us under. And sometimes God asks

ask of his leaders

some very serious

challenging things

above and beyond what we would think he

would normally do.

One of life's greatest privileges is our

family relationships.

It's therefore one of life's greatest

responsibilities.

Most of us, myself included, probably

take our privileges for granted

and take our responsibilities too

lightly.

The second most important decision in

life is who you'll marry.

Far more important

than that is it to that far more

important is who you marry than to

financial success or any other kind of

success.

Um

movie stars focus on

career versus family with great tragedy

in their lives. and the way things are

set up, it's almost Karen set up for

that kind of thing.

And it's devastating to them over and

over again.

Um,

so Christians want to

not do that. So they say, "Focus on the

family." There's even a radio program on

that. Not a bad program. I'm just saying

focus on the family. I prefer to say

focus on Christ, but I'm just saying

focus on the family is better. Focus on

everything but the family. And the

unsaved do focus on career or on

themselves.

And family values often suffer.

And family is one of the strongest

influencers for social good or evil.

that families can be a a a force for

evil as well as good. One of the things

we've seen earlier in Jeremiah is the

whole family was involved in their in

idol making. Saw it back in chapter 7.

Mom had her job. Kids had their job.

Everybody was it was a every home was an

idol factory and the family kids were

involved in it. Everybody was involved

in it.

And so they were locked in.

Now what is it was a cycle of sin that

became generational. And that's what

happens when uh people they people get

into things their family does and they

don't even think about why they do them.

They just do them because we've always

done them. And in the Jeremiah's day,

one of those cycles was idol making

and idol worshiping.

Now there's three great

uh prophecies in this section.

The first one is the immediate future.

The immediate future. And that's why

Jeremiah was asked by God, actually

commanded by God, not to marry, not to

go to funerals, not to go to weddings

and so forth.

The second message in this chapter is

the good news. There'll be a return from

the exile.

First, exile is coming.

More idolatry is coming and exiles

coming. And then the third is Gentile.

Not only will the Jews return from exile

in the future, but even Gentiles will

get saved.

The Jews return is verses 14 and 15. and

the gentile salvation is latter part of

the section.

Now, it's this first one though that

kind of no doubt got Jeremiah's

attention.

There's three great purposes

and three great

uh prophecies that will explain them and

expose them.

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

If we do the math

on where we are in Old Testament

history,

we might understand what God was saying

and why he was saying it.

Charles Fineberg, Old Testament

Christian scholar, Jewish Christian

scholar,

uh says this happened in the fourth year

of Jehoakim. That makes it 604 BC.

The exile will happen at 586 BC.

And you got to kind of count backwards.

But what that means is,

Babylonian invasion,

destruction of the city, and the exile

of the whole population

is only 18 years away

at this point.

Uh they are 18 years there's 18 years

left of the mediatorial kingdom in Old

Testament history

and life as they knew it for nine

centuries

will be interrupted

by the exile.

And we've had four centuries in the USA.

It's difficult to think beyond that

four,

but they were only eight. They weren't

just

they were 18

years

from life being over as they'd known it

from nine centuries.

Kind of amazing really.

So the time it's kind of like the Wizard

of Oz when the wicked witch turns the

hourglass over

and Dorothy's got to watch the sand

running out. It's the time you got left.

So this is what God is demanding of

Jeremiah. He didn't demand this of every

prophet.

He demanded it of Jeremiah.

You must be celibate. You're not to

marry and you're not to have children

and you don't go to funerals and you

don't go to weddings.

Other people can do that. You're not.

Now, I don't know about you, but I would

find that a very hard assignment if I

was Jeremiah young man.

And it was especially hard in that

culture

because in that culture the Jewish

people were expected to marry

and they went off of Genesis the book of

Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve

and how God told them be fruitful and

multiply and fill the earth. They took

that seriously.

It was almost unheard of

for a Jewish man to be unmarried.

Almost unheard of.

And people would think you're sherking

your responsibility

to be fruitful and multiply.

The standard, I know you've heard me say

this before, the standard marriage age

of for girls was 15.

They went from their father's house to

their husband's house.

The average age was 15. That's probably

the age of Mary when she

as a virgin conceived in her womb. the

Lord Jesus. The average age for marriage

was 15 for girls and 20 to 22 for men.

The reason the men married later was if

you couldn't provide for a wife, you

weren't allowed access to her.

The father wouldn't let you even see

her.

gals stayed in their father's home and

the men made their interests known that

you had to have a job and had to be good

at your job if you couldn't provide

a living for yourself

by the time you're 20 or 22 and prove it

with the dowy.

No dates for you.

Now, obviously heads got turned.

Why aren't you married, Jeremiah? What's

the matter with you?

Who's your wife? You don't have a wife?

You don't have any kids? Your wife died?

No, I never had a wife. You have any

kids? No. No. God told me every

conversation like that. And some of us

if we were single for any amount of

time. I remember I was single till I was

31. And I remember my late 20s people

started really jumping my case.

Got a girlfriend?

You know that kind of thing. Even my

brother thought I was too picky. He

said, "Bill, if you can't get what you

want, want what you can get."

They're getting frustrated with me.

But you know, God has different times

for different people. And for me, it was

kind of a long haul.

And so for in that culture, you can

imagine what Jeremiah went through.

But every time they asked him,

"Why aren't you getting married?" He

would say, "Cuz God told me I can't get

in this place." Well, why would God tell

you that? because we only got 18 years

left. It's not time to raise kids.

Judgment's coming. Well, why don't you

come to the uh funerals then? Because

there's not going to be anybody buried

when Nebuchadnezzar comes. They're just

going to kill everybody and the bodies

are going to rot on the ground. How do

you I'm trying to show you what's

coming.

every conversation where they talked to

him about what are you wearing your

underwear on the outside of your robe

for? What are you what what's going on

with this? What's going on with that?

Why aren't you married? It was an

opportunity for Jeremiah to tell him.

And they were used to prophets doing

kind of bizarre stuff to get people's

attention.

Andreas, you might remember this, but

what did Bill Strong Senior do? He put

something in his hat. Was it a frog or

something? Or No, it was a Bible. He put

a Bible in his fedora hat and would put

it on the sidewalk.

And his fedora is on his fedora hats on

the sidewalk at the train station and

Bill Bill uh Bill Bill Strong Senior,

the founder of GMSA, would say, "It's

alive. It's alive.

It's alive."

And people start gathering around.

What? What? What's in your What's in

there? It's alive. It's alive. And after

he got a crowd gathered, he picked the

hat up, picked the Bible out, and

preached the gospel to them.

Past tracks. Now, that's a little off

the beam.

But Jeremiah was in a similar situation.

There was a serious message to deliver

and the people were not listening. He'd

been delivering it and delivering it and

delivering it and they're not listening.

So, he's going to an extreme length to

get their attention.

Do we do that?

I'm not saying wear your underwear on

top of your clothes. I'm not saying uh

uh uh everybody's got to be single now

or everybody can't go to weddings or

funerals now because we're not talking

about a exile total destruction of the

nation in 18 years.

But we do know, don't we,

that we need to make opportunities and

take opportunities to share the good

news about Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah had bad news and he was

supposed to take opportunities to share

the bad news. We've got good news and so

we should try to take opportunities to

share the good news.

And so that's what's going on here.

And no doubt he had hundreds of

opportunities

to preach individually when people ask

him, "Where's your wife?" for why aren't

you married? Where's your kids?

And you're not being a good Jew. God

told us to be fruitful and multiply. And

he went all the way through to the

funeral where people aren't even going

to get buried.

In the book of Revelation chapter 14,

Revelation 14 · chapter mention

144,000

Jewish single men will be ministering

the gospel during the tribulation.

It will not be a time for them to marry

and raise kids.

I personally believe that if the two

witnesses minister the first three and a

half years and the 144,000 come to

Christ in the second half of the

tribulation, which means there's only

three and a half years max left before

the return of Christ and setting up of

the kingdom.

So the 144,000

will be busy with evangelism because

that's well that's the only thing that's

going to count at that point. No point

in raising families at that point.

History's almost over.

So that's what's going on there.

Now the nation was so dull they couldn't

even see their own sin.

And people would say, "What's the big

deal? Why is God judging us?" And he

would

give his answer.

How many people in our own generation

don't believe in marriage anymore?

They they gave it up believing in it.

Not because God told them to, but just

because, oh, climate change. No point in

having kids because climate change or,

you know, we don't believe in that

anymore.

some philosophical construct.

And the sexual revolution has been

replaced by the situations we're in now

where people don't have even natural

affection is gone.

We're in bad shape.

So anyway,

that's really tells you a lot about

what's going on in the beginning of this

chapter. And uh God asked of him some

very serious stuff.

Now we move on

in this per first section to get

people's attention. People who were deaf

to his sermons got one-on-one personal

work every time. Why aren't you coming

to the wedding? I'm not coming to the

wedding because weddings are going to be

out of date.

Everybody's going to be dead.

But after all of this, there begins a

word of hope.

The exile was the experience

of national death.

The return from the exile was national

resurrection

from that political death.

Notice what God says in verse 14.

Oh, I'm going to pick go back and in

verse 13. Therefore, I'll cast you out

of this land into a land that you know

not, neither ye your fathers, and there

you'll serve your other gods day and

night, where I will not show you favor.

But then this surprise. Therefore,

behold the days come, says the Lord.

It'll no more be said, the Lord lives,

who brought the children of Israel out

of the land of Egypt.

But the Lord lives, who's brought the

children of Israel from the land of the

north.

The return from the exile, the return

from Babylon

will be greater than the return the uh

exodus out of Egypt.

2 million Jews came out of Egypt. I saw

on a YouTube, you know, you can't trust

YouTubes on everything. If you leave

everything on a YouTube, you're in

trouble, aren't you?

But one I saw one person said there were

10 million in Israel right now. I don't

know if that's true,

but there was only two million that came

out of Egypt.

And so God's been bringing people back.

And whether it's 10 million is the right

figure or there's some other figure,

he's bringing them back. And he's going

to keep bringing them back. And so he

said in verse 14, "Therefore, behold,

the days come, says the Lord, that it

shall be no more said, 'The Lord lives,

who brought up the children of Israel

out of the land of Egypt, but the Lord

lives who brought up the children of

Israel from the land of the north,

that's Babylon, and from all the lands

where he's driven them. And I will bring

them again into their land that I gave

to their fathers."

When the people are out of the land,

that's political death. When the people

are back to the land, it's political

resurrection.

When we die, our spirit leaves our body.

That's physical death. When our spirit

comes back into our body, it's physical

resurrection. When the Jews are taken

out of the land, that's physical death.

When they're brought back to the land,

it's uh uh political resurrection.

Behold, I will send for many fishers,

says the Lord.

Says the Lord.

Get my pages turned here.

And shall fish them. And afterward I'll

send for many hunters, and they'll hunt

for them from every mountain and every

hill out of the cliffs of the rocks.

So this is amazing thing.

Now that would get your attention,

wouldn't it? So the bad news is followed

by good news. The exi the the

Nebuchadnezzar is coming. He's going to

destroy everything. He's going to kill

everybody. But those that aren't killed

are going to go into exile. But those

that go into exile

coming back.

And we know the exile lasted 70 years.

But they did start coming back

and there's this what we might call a

second exodus,

an exodus out of out of uh Babylon.

Now,

Jeremiah 31

talks about an ultimate return

at the end of history,

not of some,

but of all.

Turn with me to Jeremiah 31.

Verse

7.

Jeremiah 31:7.

Jeremiah 31:7

Building on the previous prophecies.

For thus says the Lord. 31:7.

Thus says the Lord. Sing with gladness

for Jacob and shout among the chief of

the nations. Publish ye praise ye and

say, Oh Lord, save thy people, the

remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring

them from the north country and gather

them from the farthest parts of the

earth.

This isn't just from Babylon.

This is not from just from Assyria.

This is from the farthest parts of the

earth. And with them the blind and the

lame and the woman with child and her

travails with child together a great

company shall return

here and they'll come with weeping and

with supplications will I lead them.

I'll cause them to walk by the rivers of

waters in a straight way in which

they'll not stumble. For I'm a father to

Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn.

Interesting, isn't it?

Charles Fineberg said the reathering

uh is the final one. He's talking about

Jeremiah 31 in the consummation of

Israel's national history in the last

day.

So bad news, exile's coming.

coming quick. So quick the normal

activities of life must be postponed

like marriage and family and even

funerals and weddings because that's

going to be over

once Jeremiah comes and destroys

everything. Second,

the people taken to exile will be

brought back. That's a hope.

Third, go back to Jeremiah.

back to our chapter Jeremiah 14. This is

the real shocker.

Jeremiah 14

Jeremiah 14:19

verses 19

Jeremiah I'm sorry 16

verse 19

Oh Lord my strength and my fortress my

refuge in the day of affliction. And the

nation the nations shall come to you

from the ends of the earth and say,

"Surely our fathers as their gentile

nations have inherited lies, vanity, and

things in which there is no profit."

Shall a man make gods to himself? They

are no gods. Therefore, behold, I will

once cause them to know. I will cause

them to know my hand and my might, and

they'll know that my name

is the Lord. We're not talking about

Jews there. Talking about Gentiles.

So

fascinating.

What does Romans 11 talk about?

That the salvation of Gentiles will

provoke the Jews to jealousy. Romans 11.

And what doesn't the Old Testament talk

about? Gentile salvation and God's grace

reaching out beyond the Jewish people in

multitudes of places. Isaiah chapter 2,

Isaiah 2 · chapter mention

Zechariah chapter 8, chapter 14, uh,

Zechariah 8 · chapter mention

Genesis 12:3 even. And so there we go.

Genesis 12:3

The immediate bad news is followed by

the intermediate good news. You're

coming back from the exile. And then the

ultimate good news. Not only will Jews

come back, but Gentiles are going to get

saved and idols worship will be over for

him.

Now, with all of that, let's go back to

the original

prohibitions.

Let's let's backtrack to our first point

and think about what God asked of

Jeremiah.

If you look at Jeremiah and his life

just personally and you don't look at

the events that were immediately in

front of the nation and and ultimately

in front of the nation in the whole

world then these this prohibition seems

extremely severe.

But if you look at the prohibition in

light of the bigger picture

it looks different.

So, let's go back to the prohibition and

just think of what was asked. And I I

went through a series of writers on the

Old Testament as they titled this

section. And I'm going to read what they

said. John Grey Bill of Jeremiah, his

life was to be a warning of the coming

judgment.

Is my life a warning of the coming

judgment?

Jeremiah's life was to be a warning the

coming judgment.

R. K. Harrison, the special conditions

of Jeremiah's life, interprets

Jeremiah's celibacy symbolically in

light of Israel's destiny.

Another writer said his prophetic

messages were not to a faithful

congregation, but to an apostate people.

Sometimes the performance of his

commission was almost more than he could

bear. If only he could have been a

pastor of an obedient flock.

would know the word of God that he must

speak was bitter. John compared

John Calvin problem. The prohibition to

not marry was full of meaning. It was to

show the people were wholly given to

destruction. Marriage is the

preservation of the human race. They

weren't going to be preserved as a

nation. They were going to be destroyed.

Warren Wearsby. In order to get the

attention of the people, God sometimes

told prophets to do unusual things.

Isaiah gave two of his sons odd names,

which he used as a text for a message.

He also dressed like a prisoner of war

to call attention to the coming

conflict. We've already noted many

action sermons of both Jeremiah and

Ezekiel. The Lord forbade Jeremiah from

participating in he says three. I say

four, but we just count it differently.

Three normal and acceptable activities.

Getting married. I would add having kids

because the text says that. Morning for

the dead and attending feast. All Jewish

men were expected to be married by age

20. In fact, rabbis pronounced a curse

on any who refused to marry and begget

children. Certainly, Jeremiah would have

appreciated having a loving wife to

encourage him, but this blessing was not

his to enjoy. When you consider all the

trials he endured and the enemies he

made, Jeremiah was probably better off a

single man. But his refusal to marriage

was a symbolic act for the sons and

daughters of Jewish families would

either die by the sword or starve to

death in the coming de Babylonian

invasion. Whenever anybody asked

Jeremiah why he wasn't married, he had

opportunity to share God's message for

the coming judgment. The Jewish people

in Bible times were experts at mourning

and marrying that Jeremiah was forbidden

to attend funerals or weddings and the

feast connected with them. What did this

unsociable conduct say to the people?

What's their first thought? You're

unsociable. What's the matter with you?

You don't go to funerals.

You don't go to weddings.

For one thing, God had removed his peace

and comfort from the nation. Moreover,

the judgment was coming would be so

terrible that the people would be unable

to express their grief. There would be

so many corpses and so few survivors

that nobody would bury the dead, let

alone comfort whatever family members

remain. And as for wedding feast, how

could people celebrate such a cloud of

destruction hovering over the nation?

The days would come when happy voices of

brides and bridegrooms would cease. In

fact, all joy and gladness would flee

from the land. The exiles would form a

funeral march and go to battle.

Couple more and I'm done. Derek Kidner,

Old Testament teacher. It is one thing

to grow eloquent over a dire prospect

for a wicked nation. Quite another thing

to taste the medicine itself.

To ask this of Jeremiah, denying him the

cherished gift of wife and children, an

almost unthinkable vocation at the time,

and then to isolate him from sharing the

occasions of sorrow and joy around him

was the measure of God's intense concern

to get the message across.

This and worse

was what life would soon be like for

everyone with families wiped out reduced

to carrying existence so bleak without

God peace and mercy and love that it

would lose even the faintest glow of

human warmth the cup of consolation and

bereavement let alone the voice of mirth

and the jo of gladness the voice of the

bridegroom and of the bride.

So very very serious stuff.

And one more. This is uh Philip Reiken.

He says it in a different way. It's

Jeremiah spent his Friday nights at

home.

There were three things he did not do.

Go out on dates and sympathy cards or

sit down at fancy dinners.

Jeremiah did not do these things because

he was following God's orders.

A prophet's job limited his social life.

He could not go to weddings, funerals,

or dinner parties. He was forbidden to

marry, forbidden to mourn, forbidden to

mingle. Now, not every prophet was

forbidden that, but Jeremiah was.

He goes on, he was an odd man out.

Jeremiah was a pariah, a misfit, a

social outcast. When people saw him

coming down the sidewalk in Anithoth,

they held their children close and

crossed to the other side of the street.

"Oh no," they must have said. Here comes

old Jeremiah. Strange chap.

Not a bad man really. Just a little

unusual.

Never got married, you know, never been

one for socializing. Never comes to

whole holiday gatherings. Always been

something of a disappointment to his

family. You can imagine how that stuff

is going around.

And he said in the context of the

ancient neareastern village, Jeremiah's

behavior was disgraceful. Everybody got

married in those days. Celibacy is not

an ideal. It was an abnormality. There

were no singles ministry at Jeremiah

synagogue.

The law of God said it was good for a

man not to be alone. So people married

young. Confirmed old bachelors were

scarce. In fact, the biblical Hebrew

does not even have a word for bachelor.

Every everyone went to funerals in this.

Someone died, the whole village would

gather at the home of the deceased to

mourn. You know, in Africa, they still

do that.

Somebody dies, it's not hundreds. It's

sometimes over a thousand people in the

graveyard. They're afraid not to go to

the spirit of the dead.

And so

anyway, and in those days, people went

to funerals and they went to marriages

and they were they were interacting with

it was a normal that was normal. But the

normal was gone forever.

Jeremiah was a pariah because he was a

prophet. A prophet is a living sermon.

Even his social life reveals something

about his character and purposes of God.

Jeremiah's refusal to participate in

matrimony sympathy and rely real revalry

was a warning of judgment.

Well, most of us say, "Well, thank God

that was Jeremiah, not me."

I'm thankful God didn't ask me to do

that.

But what about us?

We're not asked to do that. In fact, God

wants most of us to get married and and

uh have children. That's a norm. And uh

but in light of the second coming of

Jesus

is business as you as usual.

Uh

okay.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 7. 1

Corinthians 7.

I was thinking about this passage and I

was thinking about what Paul wrote in 1

Corinthians 7.

Now Paul was single

and he was glad for others that could be

single if they had that gift.

But then he wrote this in chapter 7

verse 25

31.

Now concerning virgins,

chapter 7 verse 302. I have no

commandment of the Lord. Yet I give my

judgment as one who's obtained mercy of

the Lord to be faithful. I suppose that

this is good for the present distress. I

say it's good for a man to so to be. In

other words, to be single. Are you bound

to a wife? Seek not to be loosed or

divorced. Are you b Are you loose from a

wife? Seek not a wife. But if you marry,

you've not sinned. And if a virgin Mary,

she's not sin. Nevertheless, such will

have trouble in the flesh, but I spare

you. And he's Doug goes into all this

stuff. But here's what I really want.

But this I say, brethren, the time is

short.

Time is short.

It remains that both they that have

wives be as though they had none.

What does that mean? It doesn't mean you

neglect your wife. Obviously, if you

have a wife, you take care of her and

you love her as a wife and you act as a

husband.

But what he's saying is something

similar to Jeremiah.

And they that weep as though they weep

not,

and they that rejoice as though they

rejoice not, and they that buy as though

they possess not. Now, he doesn't say

you can't weep or you can't rejoice or

you cannot possess or buy or you can't

get married. He just says if you do

and in many cases you should you don't

look at it the way other people look at

it as the ultimate blessing and the

ultimate joy

and they that use this world is as not

abusing it for the fashion of this world

passes away.

Uh,

and he went on and said, "He that's

married cares for his," he said, "I have

you without care." Verse 32, "He that's

unmarried cares for the things that

belong to the Lord, how you might please

the Lord. He that's married cares for

the things that are the world, how he

may please his wife." And that's normal,

and that's actually biblical. If you're

married, you've got, you can't live like

a single person. You got to live like a

married person. But what he was saying

is this, marriage has its advantages.

Sleness has its advantages.

If even if you're married, you should

re-evaluate and not make your family the

ultimate. Your service for the Lord and

getting out the gospel is the ultimate

thing.

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 10 verse

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

um

24.

By faith, Moses when he was come to

years, refused to be called the son of

Pharaoh's daughter. I'm not going to

live that life anymore.

That's not enough for me. What did I

say? Hebrews 11, I'm sorry. Hebrews

Hebrews 11:20

11:20.

By faith, Moses, when he was come to

years, refused to be called the son of

Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to

suffer affliction with the people of God

than to enjoy the pleasures of sin or

season, esteeming the reproach of Christ

greater riches than the treasures of

Egypt, for he had respect to the

recompense of the reward. This is the

same book that says in chapter 10

in verse 24, "Let us consider one

another to provoke to love and good

works, not forsaking the assembling of

ourselves together as the manner of some

is, but exhorting one another as so much

the more as you see the day

approaching."

So Jeremiah was to live as one who saw

the day approaching. I'm glad I don't

have I didn't have his assignment, but

certainly he gave the people pause

and he's bas basically saying the

clock's ticking.

Brethren, the clock is ticking.

We don't know when Jesus is coming, but

we know he's coming.

And we know it gets sooner

every day.

There's a date on the calendar for the

return of Christ. No man knows it.

Bible's real clear about that, but it's

still there.

And so that was what Jeremiah was to do.

Exiles coming. That's bad. That's

judgment. But then there's a return for

the Jews. That's good. And then there's

salvation of the Gentiles. That's good.

But the return of Jesus, that's bad for

the love unbeliever, but it's really

good for the saved. And in light of his

return,

knowing that God who brought him the

first time is bringing him back the

second time.

Um

Job said,

"The Lord gave,

the Lord took away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

He didn't say that easily.

You remember when Paul was complaining

of his thorn in the flesh, the Lord

said, "My strength is made perfect in

weakness."

And Paul said, "Okay, I changed my mind.

Glory in my tribulence."

So there's a perspective here

that comes to our lives in the church

age.

Not that we should all try to imitate

Jeremiah and be single, but we should

all thank God for the pleasures he gives

us to enjoy, but remember the clock is

ticking. Remember, the clock is ticking

and the coming of the Lord draws nigh

and we are to be about our Savior's

business. We may not have the urgency of

the 144,000

because they know what time it is,

but we should have an urgency

in our lives and above just business as

usual down here as if history is going

to keep going on and on and on.

Father, thank you for the book of

Jeremiah. challenge us with challenges

of this book.

There's many things in this book that

are directly to us uh that we enjoy. The

new covenant uh is in this book that we

celebrate the Lord's supper from. Uh

there's there's many things about the

future that we are going to enjoy that

help us to

have to apply things a little

differently to ourselves and the church

age. that the principles

are cross dispensations and programs.

And so God in heaven, help us to honor

you with whatever time we have left

where may we redeem the time knowing the

days are evil in Jesus name.

Thank you for listening. Number 440

in your hymn books.

Lord, as we go from this place,

loving you more,

trusting you more.

May the power of your love and the light

of your word shine to a sin darkened

world. As we go from this place,