Read Jeremiah 4:3-31
As we have seen already this week, our God is a God of love and compassion. He is a God who longs for people to return to Himself and lavishes them with love when they do return. Yet there are many churches today that simply preach the love of God. “God loves you” is the staple diet of many churches today. Some even go the next step and encourage people to continue in their current ways because they are loved by God.
The call from God to repent is always joined with the coming judgement. Jeremiah 4:4 pictures it perfectly.
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done— burn with no one to quench it.
Chapter 4 ultimately is a chapter about the coming judgement. Verse 4, as we saw, announces the coming judgment. Verse 5 announces the coming judgment from the north, probably picturing Babylon the great super power north of Jerusalem. Verse 7 pictures that judgement as a devouring lion. In verse 11 it’s pictured as a destroying wind and in verses 23 -26 judgement is pictured as a reversal of creation.
Those churches that speak only of the love of God are only painting half the picture. The New Testament speaks about judgement as does the Old Testament. In fact, the New Testament has a far greater urgency about judgment than the Old Testament. Our job is to proclaim and cry out the need for repentance so that as many people as possible will hear and, God willing, turn away from their sins so that they too can avoid the coming judgment. It’s much like a child sitting and playing in the gutter of a major road. Surely our job is to warn that child and remove it from the certain danger careering towards it. So our job is to warn the world of the certain danger careering towards it as the judgement of God draws nearer.
Our job is to draw people back to the God who yearns to lavish them with His love and compassion. But we must not think that God will pour out His saving love and mercy on all peoples. While God’s love is shared among all in a generic sense (see Matthew 5) His saving love is reserved for those who repent and turn back to Him.
But repentance and judgement like rebellion is not a popular topic and isn’t something a lot of people want to hear.
Prayer Points:
Using today’s Bible passage and reading notes spend time in adoration, confession, thanks and supplication.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
· Pray that your church would understand the balance between the love of God, repentance and judgement and that it would faithfully proclaim the gospel at every opportunity.
· Pray that those who teach in your congregation would be faithful to the Scriptures and that they would willingly, even joyously, teach the whole counsel of God.
1. What false teachings can arise if all we teach is ‘God loves you?
2. Why is it necessary to teach repentance and judgement at church?
3. What role does the fear of the Lord play in judgment, repentance and our calling to preach to the nations?
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