The Plowman

 

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An exposition of Jeremiah 31:7-26. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, September 28, 2008.

Introduction:
The apostle Paul told the Corinthian church we are to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). What does that mean? It means we live according to what God has said rather than by what we can see or how we feel. Let’s be honest – that is a tough assignment. That is very demanding. Especially during times of great distress or difficulty. When times are dark and hope is gone faith flounders. When your loved one dies or your job is taken away or you’re not sure how you are going to provided for your family or the diagnosis is not good - faith can be in short supply. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen but in times of crisis that sounds like, “wishful thinking and blatant denial” and that usually doesn’t put food on the table. I’m not trying to be flippant I’m trying to be honest about the struggle of faith. You may find courage to face that momentary sit back but what happens when the sit back becomes a crippling disability? What happens when that detour turns out to be a total rerouting of your journey? Jerusalem was in ruins. The temple burned. Israel’s best and brightest are captives in a foreign land. And God has made it clear this is not short-term thing. This is not summer camp this is for the long haul. Some of those now in Babylon will never see their home again. Dreams have died. Hopes have been crushed. Joy and laughter have departed and sorrow and mourning have become constant companions. How do you go on? What are you to do?

Rachel was the wife of Jacob. While traveling from Bethel to Bethlehem she stopped near Ramah. There Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty (Genesis 35:16). She delivered a son in anguish and named him with her dying breath – “Ben-Oni” – “son of my trouble” later his father Jacob renamed him Benjamin. She was also the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh. She represents in Jeremiah 31 all those mothers who have lost their children as well as the nation of Judah weeping over the loss of her sons. Ramah was a transit camp for refugees (40:1). The Babylonians dragged their prisoners 5 miles from Jerusalem to a staging area in Ramah were they were chained together in preparation for the long march to Babylon. It must have been a place of great distress and grief. Mother’s wailed over the loss of their children. Some had starved during the siege, others died by the sword during the sacking of the city still others were ripped from their mother’s breasts never to be seen again. This was a place of national mourning. Of course Rachel wept. In her misery she cried out to God and God answered. Thus says the LORD:

Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the LORD,
and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
There is hope for your future,
declares the LORD,
and your children shall come back to their own country.
I have heard Ephraim grieving… Jeremiah 31:16-18a; ESV

When God came to comfort Rachel He did not come and say, “There now. Everything is okay. Don’t cry.” He came with a promise of doing something about her pain and her circumstance. He came promising to make things right. He promised their sufferings would not last forever. He promised to turn their mourning into gladness and to give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow. And His promises had to be received by faith because there were years of heartache and struggle between the promise made and the
promise fulfilled. Our text is found in Jeremiah 31.

Text: Jeremiah 31:7-26
How do we suffer in faith? That is what this text is about. How is it we exhibit our faith in Christ and God’s grace in the face of great difficulty? Jeremiah reminds us…

Thesis: When faced with overwhelming circumstances and great hardship believers cling tenaciously to the Sovereign God who promises grace, provision, peace and ultimately deliverance.

1. God promises to restore the heart through worship. (31:7, 12, 13, 23)
2.  God promises to answer their prayer. (31:7-8)
3. Closely associated with this is the promise of preservation. (31:8)
4. God promises to return and restore the captives. (31:9, 18-19)
5. God promises forgiveness. (31:9, 20)
6. God promises guidance. (31:9, 21)
7. God promises to shepherd His people. (31:10)
8. God promises to ransom and redeem His people. (31:11)
9. God promises to provide for His people. (31:12, 14, 24)

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” As the people of God we have no assurance of a life free from heartache and struggle – quite the contrary. But we have assurance of the presence, the grace and the promise of our God. How do we respond to life’s struggles? We don’t give in. We walk by faith. And joy will come in mourning.

 

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An exposition of Jeremiah 30:18-31:6. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, September 21, 2008.

Intro:
Have you noticed certain people just have a way of putting you at ease? Have you found that when things are really bad there are one or two folks that if you talk to them you are going to feel a whole lot better about things? They know you and you trust their judgment and you welcome their input. I have some friends like that. When I find myself struggling or frustrated I call them up and when I hang up the phone I feel better about things. When they assure me that life is going to go on and the sun will come up tomorrow – I tend to believe them. When they tell me I need to make some changes or adjust a few things I heed their advice. It comes down to trust. In the same way there are folks who make promises and I’m willing to go to the bank on their promise. There are other folks who can assure me until they are blue in the face and I’m never going to act upon it because I don’t trust them and they’ve proven their word is no good. You know as well as I do a promise is only as good as the person who makes it. The people of Judah had turned a deaf ear to Jeremiah the prophet. He told them for years that God was coming in judgment. They didn’t listen. As far as they could tell nothing had changed and besides “respected” religious leaders assured them all was well. But after decades of repeated warnings and mocking responses God did come in judgment. Babylon sacked Jerusalem and carried away Judah’s best and brightest. The temple was destroyed and God told the people to “settle in” down in Babylon because they would not see home for some time. In fact they were to build houses, plant vineyards, marry, have children, find spouses for their children because it would be 7 decades before they would be allowed to return to the Land of Promise. They began to look at Jeremiah in a new light. When he came declaring that God had spoken they were a little more inclined to listen. After years of “plucking up and breaking down; of destroying and overthrowing; it was finally time to do a little planting and building” (Jeremiah 1:10). In chapters 30-33 Jeremiah gets to bring the exiles some hope. He brought to them what one scholar called, “the grand hymn of Israel’s deliverance.” He brought them the Gospel, the good news that God delivers His people. Our text this evening is found in Jeremiah chapter 30, beginning at verse 18.

Text: Jeremiah 30:18-31:6
Last time we look at the first 17 verses of chapter 30. We discovered that 6 centuries before Christ Jeremiah revealed the glory of the Gospel to a bunch of stubborn, stiffnecked exiles. We continue along that same line this evening as we learn that…

Thesis: God’s people have always found courage and strength for troublesome times by resting in His promise of deliverance and blessing.

When I say, “resting” I mean trusting in or relying upon. It is an active rest. It means to embrace the promise of God and allow that promise to shape and mold your life. It impacts your daily decisions. It informs your response to the world around you. It becomes part of you. It is not just some information you file away and say, “Well some day that will mean something.” It means something now. It affects things now. It sooths your doubts and calms your fears now.

I want to briefly and quickly point out three things.

1. God promises to bring glory out of the ashes. (30:18-20)
2. God promises a gracious kingly priest. (30:21)
3. God promises a glorious transformation. (30:22-31:6)

This is the hope of the people of God. Regardless of our circumstances – God is faithful to His promise. He promises to bring glory from ashes. He promises a gracious kingly priest. He promises a glorious transformation.

 

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An exposition of Jeremiah 30:1-17. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, September 7, 2008.

Introduction:
We are a “Gospel People.” A people given life and identity by the good news of life through the person of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the glorious good news that God has dealt with our sin and rebellion and offers us life through the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are all less than what we were created to be. But because God is loving, merciful and kind – He chose to save us rather than destroy us. He chose to give us life rather than death. The problem was how could He do that without denying His own character and nature? How does He remain holy and yet forgive? How can righteousness and justice prevail without handing down the just and right sentence? Our problem is huge. We’ve sinned against the king of the universe. Each act of treason is a violation of His imminent person. And it is not a matter we did one thing – we’ve done hundreds if not thousands! If you got by with only three sins a day (not bad) that is over 1000 a year. Multiply your age by 1000 and what do you come up with? Now stand before a judge and say, “Your honor, I’m no criminal. I’m not a bad person. I’ve only got (45,000, 57,000, 70,000) violations.” What do you think a judge would say? And the problem is not just with what we’ve done – it’s with who we are. At the time of the flood man is describe in the following manner: “…every intention of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Jeremiah describes man’s heart as, “…deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…” (Jeremiah 17:9). In the New Testament we read, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When we put the biblical account together we find that man is beyond hope in himself. His condition is incurable. There is nothing he can do. In fact man is described as being “dead in trespass and sin.” Man’s condition is universal and hopeless. Unless of course God does the impossible. And that is the good news. Our text this evening is found in the 30th chapter of Jeremiah.

Text: Jeremiah 30:1-17

Jeremiah has been called to deliver a very difficult message. A message of judgment and wrath. And yet throughout there is a hint of hope. Even in judgment God is merciful. When I said, at the beginning, that we are a “Gospel People” I was not just referring to the Church – but all the people of God starting with Adam and Eve in the Garden. God’s people have always been a Gospel people. Our hope has always rested in the promise of a deliverer. No one has ever been saved or ever will be saved by some other method. It has always been, is and forever will be, by the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the Gospel is not relegated to the pages of the New Testament rather it is a biblical doctrine found throughout the Scriptures. In fact what I want you to see in our text this evening is that…

Thesis: Six centuries before Christ, Jeremiah the prophet revealed the glory of the Gospel too a bunch of stubborn, stiff-necked exiles.

I just want to point out two things in our text.

1. Jeremiah reveals the pain of bondage and the debt of sin. (30:4-7; 10b; 12-15; 17b)
   There is a glorious promise of deliverance and we’ll look at that next but what is made clear in this passage is something the exiles already knew – they were captives. This is the starting point for the Gospel. You cannot appreciate God’s grace until you genuinely understand what it means to be in the grip of sin.
2.  Jeremiah reveals the promise of God’s gracious deliverance. (30:1-3; 8-11; 16-17)
   This is the Gospel – you are a sinner. Your heart is corrupted. Your condition is incurable. There is nothing you can do but God offers you life by doing the impossible.

Do you know Him? If so rejoice. If not come to Christ now!

 

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No. 3 in the Series “What Is a Healthy Church?” from the book by the same name by Mark Dever. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Wednesday evening, September 3, 2008.

It’s easy to talk the faith because it’s not hard to learn the vocabulary. It’s also easy because you know you probably won’t have to back it up. True Christian fraith is displayed when it is lived out. But how is this done? How is the church uniquely the church and not just another social agency? The starting point is with our identity: we do what we do because of who we are, and not the other way around. Because we are the redeemed of God we hear and obey his word; simple, but not easy.

Three essential marks of a healthy church; regardless of size, location, or worship style:

1. Biblical Preaching: A good part of this is accomplished through expositional preaching. With this type of preaching the authority begins and ends with the text.
2. Biblical Theology: We are concerned with not just how, but what we are being taught.
3. A Biblical Understanding of the Gospel: This should overflow into our lives.