AMERICA, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO GOD S WORD? JEREMIAH 36:1-8, 19-24 TEXT VERSE: VERSE 23 INTRO: The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its decisions are immutable. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler s guide, the pilgrim s staff, the pilot s compass, the soldier s sword, the Christian s character. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, daily, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. It is given you in life, will be opened at the judgment, and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and condemns all who trifle with its contents (1). But in the society in which we live God s Word is maligned, misapplied, misquoted, and misinterpreted. Today the ideas and opinions of man are being triumphed and the Word of God trampled. It is not thus saith the Lord, but what saith the experts? In our text, we read of a man named Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was the king of Judah. Jehoiakim s private secretary was Jehudi. Judah, under the reign of Jehoiakim, had turned their back on God. The king himself was wicked and as a result, the nation went deep into spiritual decline. God sent a message to the king and his nation by Jeremiah. The message was a message of repentance. God has a message for America today. It is the same message. America needs to repent and turn back to God. The message given to Jeremiah is God s Word, and we are doing just about the same thing with the Word that wicked Jehoiakim did. Today I would like to speak on this subject, America, What have you done to God s Word? (1) THE MESSAGE FROM THE LORD JEREMIAH 36:1-3 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I
spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. A. It was a Message of Importance. It was as if God had spoken in audible words. His Word is just that: The Word of the Lord. 1. It was Divinely given (2 Timothy 3:16). Paul teaches us that all Scripture is inspired by God and thus it is beyond question that we should receive it with reverence and in obedience to its teachings. Charles Spurgeon said, Whatever is in Scripture we accept as infallible truth (2). 2. It was Dynamically given (2 Peter 1:21). Holy men of God wrote what the Spirit instructed them to write. ILLUS: The Bible is not a collection of stories, fables, myths, or merely human ideas about God. It is not a human book. Through the Holy Spirit God revealed His person and plan to godly men, who wrote down God s message for His people. This process is known as inspiration. The writers wrote from their own personal, historical, and cultural contexts. But even though they used their own minds, talents, language, and style, they wrote what God told told them to write. Scripture is completely trustworthy because God was in control of its writing, and it words are entirely authoritative for our faith and lives (3). 3. It was Definitively given (Revelation 22:18-19). The word definitive means conclusive and unalterable. God in His Word has given us a conclusive and unalterable message. No further revelation is needed. If people will not believe THIS BOOK they would not believe any other revelation if God should give them one (Luke 16:31). The warning given in Revelation 22:18-19 is given to those who might willfully distort the message of this BOOK. God s Word is final and complete as given. We must merely accept it, believe it, and live it! B. It was a Message of Warning (v3a). Judah had turned their back upon God. Now God warns them what happen if they continue to ignore Him. America has turned its back upon God and God has been sending us warnings be we seem to be blind to our impending judgment. The only hope America has is that God s people will begin afresh and anew to preach, proclaim, and practice God s Word in their lives! ILLUS: The lack of scriptural knowledge is the source of all evils in the church. -- John Chrysostom. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 2. It is true today just as Hosea said in Hosea 4:6, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.. Because we have forsaken the Word of the Lord we find ourselves in the shape we are in! We are no longer
financially secure and we are spiritually bankrupt as a nation. God help America! C. It was a Message of Repentance (v3b). A message calling a nation to turn back to God. America has lost her moral bearings. She is lying in wickedness and needs to repent. Arnold Toynbee said, Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is now in (4). Billy Graham said, America reminds me of a mental institution where the patients have taken over and locked up all the doctors (5). Judah had forsaken the way of the Lord. America has forsaken the way of the Lord. We need to repent! ILLUS: Repentance is not a popular word these days, but I believe that any of us recognize it when it strikes us in the gut. Repentance is coming to our senses, seeing, suddenly, what we've done that we might not have done, or recognizing... that the problem is not in what we do but in what we become. -- Kathleen Norris in The Cloister Walk. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 12. America needs to repent because God s Word is mocked, rejected, and scorned and we see no need for it in our lives! (2) THE MESSAGE DELIVERED JEREMIAH 36:4-8 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD: Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD'S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people. And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD'S house. A. Jeremiah being in prison could not go himself, but this he knew: the message had to get there, so he sent it by someone else (vs. 4-5). Baruch went with the message of the Lord. He proclaimed it just As God had given. We need more men of God today who will proclaim God s Word, thus saith the Lord just as God has given without compromise and with conviction (2 Timothy 4:2-4). Preaching was never meant to make popular or bring pleasure but to proclaim God s Word and bring conviction to the hearts of the hearers!
ILLUS: O God, let me preach with enthusiasm because of what Christ did, not because of what the crowds think... because of the salvation we have, not the size of the group we have. Use me, O God, not because it s the hour for the message, but because you've given me a message for the hour. -- Ed Towne. Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 1. B. It was to be delivered in the house of the Lord (v6). 1. If there is any place on earth where the Word of God is needed most today it is in the House of God (1 Peter 4:17). Our Churches today are filled with a generation of believers who know very little of even the basics of God s Word. We have many as the writer of Hebrews describes in Hebrews 5:12, For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. How many Christians there are who live on milk-they recognize the ABCs of the Gospel and Christ s mission on earth-but gain no nourishment from the meat They know Christ as Savior, but they do not understand what He can do for them as High Priest (6). Because of this lack of knowledge our Churches suffer from ministries which are stifled because we have little if any who feel qualified to communicate God s Word to others. Not only that but because many remain on the milk they never grow and they act like babes in Christ! It is significant to note that the message was to be delivered in the house of the Lord. Why is that important? Because when and if revival comes to America it must start with God s people in God s Churches (2 Chronicles 7:14). (3) THE MESSAGE REJECTED JEREMIAH 36:21-24 So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. A. The Censorship. Little by little the king had his secretary cut out the part he did not like. This is what is going on in America today. A nation which was once thought of as a Christian Nation has slowly but surely cut out God and God s Word from its midst. 1. The Bible has been removed from the school house. God is not welcome in our schools today. His Word has no place there. We see the
results of that as kids are killing kids. AIDS is on the rise among young boys and girls are losing their virginity at younger and younger ages. 2. The Bible has been removed from the court house. God who is just and the exemplifier of justice is unwelcome in the courthouses of our Land. As a result, Abortion is legal, murderers go free, and homosexuality is glorified. 3. The Bible, sad to say, has been removed from many of our Church houses. Every week the ideas and philosophies of man are proclaimed instead of the Word of God. Sin is no longer condemned nor is judgment for sin announced. God is an unwelcome guest in many Churches today. But Paul told Timothy that there would come a time When they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. (2 Timothy 4:3) 4. The Bible has been removed from many of our domestic houses. Even though Psalm 127:1 tells us, Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it, many are trying to build their lives and families apart from the Word of God. The Bible is no longer the guide for decisions and godly living. B. The Comparison. You will notice that he did not remove all of it just the parts he didn t like. Isn t that what we are doing today? 1. The Ten commandments are being whittled away as never before. The things that all Americans use to abhor is now common practice. Adultery is ok, lying is ok, nothing is sacred any longer. But God s law has not changed and the Ten Commandments should still be a guide for godly living. ILLUS: In Oscoda, Michigan, Rev. John Siler gives the Ten Commandments the Chippewa Indians had in the long ago. They are: ######1. Never steal, except from an enemy. ######2. Respect the aged and hearken to them. ######3. Be kind to the sick and deformed. ######4. Obey your parents. ######5. Be modest. ######6. Be charitable. ######7. Be of good courage, suffer in silence. ######8. Avenge personal and family wrongs.
######9. Be hospitable. #####10. Pray to the Great Spirit. Many people criticize some of these Chippewa commandments and at the same time look upon God's Ten Commandments as ghostly whispers of a dead age. -Robert G. Lee, {Lee Lines }(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1937), 109 ILLUS: Moral erosion continues In America, according to James Patterson and Peter Kim. They report that 74 percent of Americans will steal from those who won't miss it, and 64 percent will lie for convenience as long as no one is hurt. Most Americans (93 percent) say they alone decide moral issues, basing their decisions on their own experience or whims. Eightyfour percent say they would break the rules of their own religion. And 81 percent have violated a law they felt to be inappropriate. Only 30 percent say they would be willing to die for their religious beliefs or for God. 1. The grand old truths of the Virgin Birth, Blood Redemption, The Second Coming, The Blessed Hope, Purity of life, etc are being downplayed by those who do not like them. Whether we like it or not, Truth is absolute and we cannot change it to soothe our consciences or validate our actions. As Romans 3:4 declares, Let God be true, but every man a liar. What matters is Thus Saith the LORD! Whether we believe it or not the Virgin Birth, Blood Redemption, The Second Coming, The Blessed Hope, Purity of Life are God s Word and God s Word is True! Godless people have attacked the Bible for centuries, yet it stands! America has rejected, revised, and attacked God s Word, but as Isaiah 40:8 says, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. (4) THE MISERY WHICH FOLLOWED JEREMIAH 36:29-30 And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. *Any time we forsake God s Word we are headed for misery! Look at the misery Judah faced because of her rejection of God s Word:
A. Destruction by the enemy (v29a). The king of Babylon would come and destroy the land. When we reject and forsake God s Word we can expect destruction from the enemy. 1. This is only one of the ways God has of punishing a nation for its sins. 2. Let us not forget that God could allow enemies of America to take us over any time He might chose. B. Draught in child-bearing (v30a). Because of Jehoiakim s rejection of the Word, God vowed that he would have no descendants to sit upon the throne of David. 1. It is amazing that God hasn t already cursed the wombs of a lot of our women because of our slaughter of babies. God may say at any time, Alright if you don t want babies I will fix it so you can t have any more. ILLUS: What The Odds Are... --The Chances you will eventually die in a car crash: 1 in 125 --Develop a brain tumor: 1 in 25,000 --Die in a fire this year: 1 in 4,000,000 --Win a state lottery jackpot: 1 in 4,000,000 (from Harper Perennial, 1992) --Chances of your being killed by terrorists overseas: 1 in 650,000 --Chances of your being aborted if you are in the womb of an American woman: 1 in 3.3 (From WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? By Bernard Siskin, Crown, 1998) We are literally killing our future. God help America! C. Disgrace and shame (v30b). Bodies lying in the street without so as a decent burial. D. Distress and hopelessness (v31). There would be no remedy. God is merciful and longsuffering, but God will one day judge and punish sin. America must now repent because behold the judge standeth before the door (James 5:9b). CLOSING: What has America done to God s Word? She has rejected it, revised it, disobeyed it and ignored. America is ripe for the judgment of God. Let us, as God s people, love, live, obey, and proclaim the Truth because The Judge standeth before the door! NOTES: 1. Albert M. Wells, Jr. Inspiring Quotations-Contemporary & Classical. Pg. 17. 2. Charles H. Spurgeon. 2200 Quotations from the Writings of Charles H. Spurgeon. Pg.
349. 3. Living Words from the Life Application Bible. Pg. 192. 4. Wells. Pg. 214. 5. Wells. Pg. 212. 6. Warren W. Wiersbe. Wiersbe s Expository Outlines on the New Testament. Pg. 690.