Reformation or Revival

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RETURN TO SYLLABUS

JEREMIAH 4
Lesson #05
REFORMATION OR REVIVAL?

• Memory verse: Jer 4:27
• Review:
  • Read Jer 3:22
  • Jeremiah was speaking to a backsliding nation. In that dark period God gave them a very young king that had a soft heart for God. King Josiah began to make major changes in Israel even though he was only a teenager.
    • Sometimes a person with insight and wisdom can see what the problems are in society and in government knowing that change is needed so as not to continue making the same devastating mistakes.
    • This was the situation with King Josiah. He knew it was necessary to make changes, but what changes?
      • King Josiah was listening to the prophet Jeremiah, but the people were not listening.
      • King Josiah was moving toward God but the result was a reformation and not a revival.
        • What is the difference between a reformation and a revival?

Reformation means = to correct anything in its form or structure; to eliminate corruption or defective aspects of society.

A reformation is a superficial change instituted by man or government.

It may or may not last. It may or may not affect all levels of society.

Revival means = to recover from a state of neglect or obscurity; to bring back to life from a condition of death, near death, or apparent death.

A revival has a spiritual content that begins in the inner man and is initiated and empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.

It moves outward guided by the Holy Spirit to touch all levels of society.

• • • • • Reformation does not necessarily result in revival, but revival does bring reformation.
      • Therefore, we could say that with King Josiah, he saw the need for reformation in Israel, and began to make those changes. But it was not a revival.
      • Read Jer 3:10
• Read Jer 4:1-5 God is not satisfied with just reformation
  • Jeremiah tells the people what they must do: (1)
    • They must return spiritually to God, not just make some exterior changes to their government and their religion.
    • They must, in obedience, do away with the idolatry that was an abomination to God.
  • Notice the implied warning in verse 1 if they do not spiritually correct their relationship with God. God will remove them from the Promised Land.
    • In other words, God is not satisfied with just a reformation of government, of society, or of religion.
    • The proverb in Jer 4:3
      • Jeremiah has already given us two parables:
        • The Parable of the Almond Rod (Jer 1:11-19)

Israel was to wake up and watch what God would do.

• • • • • The Parable of the Seething Pot (Jer 1:11-19)

Israel was thrown in the way of the boiling pot with the rise of the Babylonian Empire to their north. The Pot would overflow and sweep Israel out of their land.

• • • • “Break up the fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.” (3)
        • The Parable of the Fallow Ground
        • To remedy the lack that only reformation brings, the Israelites must prepare the soil of their hardened hearts for the revival that God desires.
        • If they do not permit God to touch the heart, they will only build a reformation on unprepared ground that is loaded with weeds.

Reformation on unprepared ground does not last.

Weeds have a way of becoming stronger in the root that eventually comes to the surface.

• • • • • Jesus said much the same thing in the Parable of the Sower and the Seed in Mat 13. In Mat 13:5 Jesus said that…”Some (seed) fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth; and forthwith they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth; and when the sun was up they were scorched; and because they had no root they withered away.”
        • How does one prepare the heart for revival? The necessary ingredients:

Circumcision of the heart: (4) (Rom 2:29)

The Jews had physical circumcision to indicate a relationship with God.

The problem is you can be physically circumcised but that does not guarantee a spiritual relationship with God.

Circumcision of the heart is cutting away the sins of the flesh nature of the heart to follow the Holy Spirit.

Humility: To see our sinfulness from God’s perspective.

Repentance: To turn totally in the opposite direction body, soul, and spirit.

Obedience: Commitment to obedience in every area of life.

Wait upon the Lord: Then wait for God to open the doors and windows of heaven.

• • • The trumpet of warning (5)
      • The Israelites blew the trumpet as a warning in the wilderness:
        • To gather the people together.
        • To warn of an imminent attack.
• Read Jer 4:6-21
  • The power out of the North: The Babylonian Empire
    • The Babylonian Empire had already conquered the Assyrian Empire and taken the captives from the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
    • Now Babylon was threatening the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
    • God tells us who is in charge: (6)
      • Jeremiah tells us that God will bring this destructive power from the North.
        • There is no move among the nations of which God is not aware.
        • There is no move among the nations that God does not orchestrate.
        • God’s hand is the hand on the chess board moving pieces into place to work God’s plan
        • God either directly moves nations and leaders or indirectly permits them to take certain paths.
      • God uses nations at war to punish other nations.
        • He will use Babylon to punish the Israelites for their idolatry.
        • He will use Babylon to remove Israel from the land to make up for the years the Israelites were supposed to let the land lie fallow but did not.
    • Now we can see why it is important that New Testament believers in Jesus Christ pray for their leaders so as to live in peace and righteousness. (Rom 13)
      • God did not spare His people, the Jews, in Jeremiah’s day for their rejection of God.
      • God did not spare His people, the Jews, for the rejection of Jesus Christ.
        • Read Mat 23:31-39
        • A nation and a people who turn away from God in rejection will discover that God will turn from them and reject them.
      • From what you know of the history of that time, who is the “lion” in verse 7?
        • The lion is Babylon.
        • God will bring the lion of Babylon against the Southern Kingdom to destroy it.
    • Generally speaking what big event in Israel’s history is prophesied in this chapter?
      • The fall of the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC that destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon’s glorious temple.
      • The fall of Judah was the beginning of the 70 years of desolations which was the Babylonian Captivity. (Dan 9:2)
  • The astonishment at God’s judgment against His people:
    • Jeremiah tells us in verses 8-13 how everyone will be astonished at God’s dealing with Israel.
      • Some will say, “God promised peace.”
      • “How could He permit this destruction?” (10)
    • Even the Jews from the Northern Kingdom already in captivity will marvel. (15)
      • Jeremiah mentions those from the tribe of Dan. That tribe was part of the Northern Kingdom.
      • The tribe of Dan was the first to fall into idolatry and the worship of foreign gods.
      • Jeremiah mentions those from the tribe of Ephraim.
      • The tribe of Ephraim was instrumental in the civil war division of the nation into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom after King Solomon. They were part of the Northern Kingdom.
    • If God did not punish His people in the Southern Kingdom in this way, He would have to apologize to the people of the Northern Kingdom for not having protected them against Assyria. (16-18)
    • Jeremiah’s extreme pain: (19-21)
      • Jeremiah could see prophetically what was coming upon his people. It distressed him greatly. He became physically ill.
      • Jeremiah wondered how much time they had before the Babylonian army would come.
• Read Jer 4:22-31
  • God’s wisdom compared to man’s wisdom: (22- 26)
    • “…They are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge.” (22)
    • Secular governments today gather together the intellectuals to make policy and determine the strategy of foreign policy. The same was true of Israel in the days of Jeremiah.
      • Since the days of President Franklin Roosevelt, this gathering of intellectuals to make foreign policy was called the “brain trust”.
      • The same process is followed today to get those with high IQ’s to set a wise foreign policy.
        • But here is the problem….man’s wisdom is far inferior to God’s wisdom.
        • Man’s wisdom pushes a nation into expedient evil.

Any wisdom that does not acknowledge God is not wisdom at all but promotes Satan’s evil.

As we continue in the book of Jeremiah, we are going to see that the wisdom of man in Jeremiah’s time only hastened the impending destruction.

• • • • To get a nation back on the right track, a nation needs to bend the knee and acknowledge God and His wisdom.
    • God contrasts man’s wisdom with His wisdom as the great Creator. (23-25)
      • God created everything out of nothing by His great wisdom.
      • Man’s great wisdom will only bring destruction to nothing for all that God has created.
  • Even in the process of man’s wisdom, God is in control. (27-31)
    • Even though the Babylonian attack would totally destroy the nation of Israel, God would not permit that to annihilate the Jews. (27)
    • “…not a man dwell therein.” (29)
      • All the people of Israel were transported across the desert to the city of Babylon.
      • This process of displacing conquered people was begun by the Assyrian Kingdom that moved thousands of conquered people to other locations in the empire. The purpose was to break their spirit and national identity.
      • The Babylonian Empire continued this practice when they conquered the Assyrian Empire and inherited all of these displaced people.
  • God’s pertinent question: (30-31)
    • When the destruction by Babylon comes upon you, what will you do? Will you continue in your idolatry and spiritual adultery? Will you go back to your pagan gods?
      • It is interesting that one of the purposes of the Babylonian captivity was to break the power of pagan idolatry and pagan religion in Israel.
      • Was the Babylonian captivity successful to rid Israel of idolatry?
        • Yes, The Bible indicates that when the people returned to the Promised Land after 70 years, they did not rebuild the pagan temples and groves in high places.
        • The spirit of idolatry was purged from Israel by the Babylonian captivity.
    • However, all was not perfect. While they did not return to idolatry and pagan gods, they did not follow God whole heartedly.
      • Instead they became a secular nation with religious form but no heart and no Spirit of God.
      • Read Mal 1:6-8

Homework
Jeremiah 5

• Application of Jer 4
  • What do you think is your part in a possible revival?
  • Read 2Chr 7:14
  • Now answer the question according to what 2Chr 7:14 says is your part.
• Preparation for Jer 5
  • Read Jer 5:1-31
    • What sins does Jeremiah mention that existed in Judah?
    • What do you think are the primary categories of sin in our culture today?
    • What is the wonderful and horrible thing? (30)
• Memory Verse: 2Chr 7:14