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Jeremiah 2: 9-19.

Here is the central spiritual issue addressed in ‘Jeremiah’:

‘’My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.’’ (13, 18; see John 4:10, 14).

How many Christian testimonies reflect this sentiment? Someone says, ‘I tried everything this world has to offer but nothing satisfied me; I was still thirsty for something else.’ Eventually they found the something is a Someone: Jesus. King Solomon wrote a whole book that has this theme. It’s in the Bible and it’s called ‘Ecclesiastes.’ Solomon was in a position to be able to try every experience. The conclusion he came to was, ‘It’s all ‘’meaningless…a chasing after the wind.’’ He realised that you won’t find the meaning to life if your research is restricted to life ‘’under the sun’’. You have to ultimately look above it. You have to look to God.

There is an old hymn that reflects this passage: ‘’I tried the broken cisterns, Lord, but Ah the waters failed…’’

The people of Jeremiah’s day were looking for meaning in a worthless and broken religious system (11; see Romans 1:23). They had swapped the true god for dead, man-made idols. God said that even pagan nations like ‘’Kittim’’ and ‘’Kedar’’ had remained loyal to their gods. The forsaking of the Lord by God’s people was an appalling and horrific sin that should make a man shudder (12). They were so obviously turning from the only One who could satisfy them.

When you choose the route of sin you go the way of slavery. You may be looking for freedom but you find its opposite (14; see John 8:34). The point to note is that we bring terrible, unwanted and unintended consequences upon ourselves when we turn away from the living God (15-19). This remains the case today.

‘’Now none but Christ can satisfy; no other Name for me…’’

Prayer: ‘’For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.’’ (Psalm 36:9).

Philippians 1:9-11
When you love people with the love of Jesus (8) you will pray for them. It’s a practical way to express love. It’s not the only way. It shouldn’t be a substitute for other things we obviously ought to do. But it is right to pray for those we love, as Christ Himself did (John 17).
When you are convinced that the good things you see in people (3-5) are the result of a ‘’good work’’ of God in them (6), you will be encouraged to pray for more.
We all need to love more (9); love God more and love people more. When you boil it all down, this life of Christian discipleship is about loving God and loving people, and where love is concerned we have ‘growing room’ in our souls. But love must not be ‘wishy-washy’ or gullible. ‘’So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush.’’ The Message.
• There are people who are lovely but they are easily taken in ‘’by every wind of doctrine’’ (Eph.4:14). They are like weather vanes. They easily move in the breeze of the latest fads, fancies, trends and opinions. They lack deep roots. They are short on settled convictions based upon solid Biblical truth. They have a ‘water bed’ beneath them rather than a firm foundation.
• Others claim to be Christians, but they are flexible regarding the truth. Their beliefs have soft edges and they get blurred as they attempt to blend in rather than stand out. They have an ‘anything goes’ attitude.
Loving more doesn’t mean going along with everything others say. Love must have backbone. There is such a thing as tough love. I can love you without agreeing with you or pretending I do. I can be tolerant towards you without having to incorporate your beliefs and practices into mine. Loving discernment is required in this world in which we are surrounded by a toxic atmosphere of error (10). We need to be able to:
• ‘’discern what is best’’ to believe, and
• ‘’discern what is best’’ to do.
We need to be able to think clearly and choose wisely in order to live lives that please God as we look forward to meeting Jesus. I think it was John Wesley who said, ‘’There are only two days on my calendar: today and that day.’’ The Christian life is one of constant movement towards ‘’that day’’ when we see Jesus. We look forward. We anticipate. We live ‘in the future tense.’ We let ‘then’ affect ‘now’. Someone pointed out that whenever the second coming of Jesus is mentioned in the New Testament it is done so without date, to keep us on our toes.
As we grow in love for others, let it be a discriminating affection so that we do not permit another’s bad attitudes, ideas, behaviours become our own. May we so grow in love for God and others that we hate sin and grow in Christlikeness (11; see Gal.5:22, 23; John 15:5). Such growth comes ‘’through Jesus Christ’’ and so is ‘’to the glory and praise of God.’’ (‘’…making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.’’ The Message.)
Prayer: Lord make me like you.

Zephaniah 3:9-13 (click here for todays passage)

God intends to have (9):

• A people with purified speech (Isaiah 6:5; Psalm 141:3. This surely points to purified hearts also: ‘’For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.’’ Matthew 12:34);
• A people of prayer (see 2b);
• A people of unity.

But sometimes God has to take His people through fiery trials in order to purge them (8) and get them to where He wants them to be. So many people have spoken about the transformative power of difficult and chastening experiences. It’s not the case that all trying times are about God’s disciplinary processes. But many may be (Hebrews 12:4-13). Some character growth will only come about painfully.

In the church that Jesus is building, and shaping into His own image, there will be both Gentiles and Jews (9, 10). There is a worldwide vision here, and see how this international worshipping community belongs to God (‘’…my…my…’’ 10).

There are times when church growth can entail church shrinkage! (11, 12). I remember a Pentecostal preacher talking about a certain pastor. Apparently this man had gone to lead a church and he said something like this: ‘’When I went there we had 50 people. Then we grew to around 25! Then we grew to…beyond 50.’’ Now I know that this sort of thing can happen because of pastoral insensitivity; because a leader walks into a church wearing great big heavy boots, and he tramples unnecessarily on people’s corns and bunions. That is not commendable. But there most definitely are occasions, I believe, when God reduces the army (Judges 7). Think about Acts 5: 1-10 and the story of Ananias and Sapphira . There are divine subtractions as well as blessed additions. We live in a day in which many people seem to think that big equals good and successful, and small equals bad and unsuccessful. But ‘it aint necessarily so.’ In a local church there can be seasons of pruning. There can even be times of radical cutting back, but always with a view to greater fruitfulness. Just as God removes sin from people’s lives in a work of purging, so He may also remove people from the church who threaten its purity.

Verse 13 shows the result of God’s cleansing work, with a group of holy, honest and fearless people left. ‘’I’ll leave a core of people among you who are poor in spirit – What’s left of Israel that’s really Israel. They’ll make their home in GOD. This core holy people will not do wrong. They won’t lie, won’t use words to flatter or seduce. Content with who they are and where they are, unanxious, they’ll live at peace.’’ The Message.

When God cleanses your heart and makes you fully His, you find you are at peace and without fear. You’ve stopped fighting the Lord, and all is well.

The words in this passage may well refer to something that will happen at the close of the age; but we also see the principles being worked out again and again in church history.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the times of trial you have brought me through. Although I wouldn’t have chosen to face them, you have taught and changed me so much in them. I am grateful

Zephaniah 3:6-8 (click here for passage)

In an episode of ‘Christianity Explored’, Rico Tice tells a story about being on a beach in Australia. He removed his shirt and was about to dive into the water, when someone came running up to him and frantically proceeded to point out warning signs that clearly said, ‘No swimming’. There were sharks in the water. When Rico demurred, the man walked away saying, ‘It’s up to you mate. You’ve seen the signs. You’re big enough and old enough to look after yourself. You decide what to do!’

God’s judgment on the nations (2:4-15) should have been a warning sign to Judah. And here’s the question for us: ‘Will we learn from God’s many judgments in history?’ (6) He has erected numerous warning notices for our protection. This sixth verse tells us that the (apparently) strong things people put their trust in will not support them ultimately. All we put pride and confidence in, apart from God, will prove unreliable. If we don’t build on the rock that is Christ’s Word we are actually trying to construct something on sand (Matthew 7:24-27).

Like Rico’s friend, the Lord pointed to the warning sign and underlined the message. But ‘’the city’’ still opted to swim in ‘shark infested waters’. The inhabitants of Jerusalem preferred the ‘pleasures of sin for a season’ to repentance and holiness (7b). You would imagine that no-one would choose to go and swim with the sharks!

Did Jerusalem learn?

No! They were guiltier than the Gentile nations because they were the recipients of a greater revelation and more blessing. As someone said, they were sinning against ‘’a flood of light’’. They forgot that covenant privileges also brought covenant responsibilities.

Will the world learn?

There is a clear line of teaching in the Bible that there is going to be a judgment poured out on the whole earth. If (8) refers to God using the Babylonian Empire to judge His people, it also looks beyond it to the greater judgment yet to come. We may not grasp the full picture; we may not possess all the details, but it is going to happen. Will we learn from what God has done previously? We have watched cities and nations ignore the warning signs and get eaten by sharks. Do we think we can dive into the ocean and come out unscathed?

‘’Well, if that’s what you want, stick around.’’ GOD’s Decree. ‘’Your day in court is coming, but remember I’ll be there to bring evidence. I’ll bring all the nations to the courtroom, round up all the kingdoms, And let them feel the brunt of my anger, my raging wrath. My zeal is a fire that will purge and purify the earth.’’ The Message.

There must be a purging with fire before a brand new sin-free universe can be born (2 Peter 3:10-13).

Prayer: Lord God, please help me to see and hear all your warnings and never ignore them. Thank you that you warn us out of love to save us from terrible danger.

Theses verses supply the doctrinal heart of an intensely practical section of ‘Ephesians’. The entire range of individual, yet inter-connected, exhortations to follow find their basis in this radical change that is conversion. I read on one occasion that in the early church, when someone was going to be baptized, they took off an outer garment before going into the water. When they came up out of it, they put on a clean white robe. This was emblematic of taking off the old life and putting on the new. Note three things about the new life in Christ:

The new life is all about Jesus (20, 21).It starts with hearing about Him (21) and coming to know Him as a real Person (20). Part of this involves hearing the truth about Jesus, and the truth Jesus Himself taught. It also entails following the truth that Jesus is (21; see John 14:6). You may remember from yesterday that Paul’s insistence that we should live a new life was ‘’in the Lord’’ (17), and it is because we are ‘’in him’’ (21) that we can do so. Just as a bird is at home in the air, and a fish in the sea, so we believers are at home in Christ. He is our supernatural habitat; the very atmosphere that surrounds us. We can follow the truth of Christ’s life and obey the truth of His teaching because of this vital union with Him (John 15).

The new life begins with repentance – a change of mind leading to a change of behaviour (22, 23). I believe Paul, in today’s passage, has in mind something that not only happened at conversion, but which must continually happen as we live the Christian life. It’s a day by day, and even moment by moment, thing. But he is in particular looking back to that decisive beginning of the life of discipleship in which someone makes a clean break with sin. One preacher said to the congregation at the end of his sermon, ‘I want to invite you to make a step of commitment and come down to the front of the church building to give your life to Christ. But don’t come out here unless you’re prepared to leave your favourite sins behind you in the seat where you’re sitting!’ In our pre-Christian existence we all had a problem in the area of our ‘’thinking’’ (17) so something radical has got to happen in our ‘’minds’’(23). (By the way, our minds will still come under assault even after we have turned to Jesus and will require constant protection. Think about chapter 6 verse 17a in this connection. It is important to always remember that these temptations are ‘’deceitful’’ (22). They tell you lies. They are expert liars, and they find us only too willing to swallow them.)

The new life is about the restoration of God’s image (24; see also Colossians 3:5ff.). God doesn’t just want to forgive our sins, as marvellous as that is, but to restore in us the image of Himself that was marred and defaced at ‘the fall’. His purpose in sanctification is to glorify us (Romans 8: 30). It is to make us exactly like Him. As we are in this process of being made like God, we are exhorted to copy Him even now (See 5:1). C.S. Lewis observed that if you could see your ‘brother’ now appearing as he one day will, you would be tempted to fall down and worship him! God is going to make him so like Himself and cover him with glory.

Finally, the language of ‘putting off’ and ‘putting on’ implies that conversion is not something that is just done to us, but that which we are actively involved in. Everything we do is only done by the grace and power of God. We know this. We couldn’t do it without Him. Nevertheless we have to decide to turn away from sin and embrace Christ’s way. It is a choice we must continue to make every day of our lives.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that I’m a new creation in you, called and enabled to live a new life.

Here are three more sayings of the wise men, from that collection of 30 proverbs that begins at chapter 22:17.

The first is a warning against excessive living, particularly with regard to food and drink (19-21). There are practical reasons for self-restraint. If you go down the route of over-indulgence it will take your money and sap your strength and health. Again, we marvel at the down to earth wisdom of the Bible. If only the world heeded it! This could have saved a lot of people a lot of problems over the Christmas season. ‘’Don’t drink too much wine and get drunk; don’t eat too much food and get fat. Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags.’’ The Message. Live like that for too long and you may well end up featuring in a documentary about obesity or binge-drinking! Perhaps both!!

The second proverb concerns honouring father and mother throughout life, and bringing joy and delight to them (22-24). Live in a way that will make your parents proud, if at all possible. The writer envisages doing this by obeying the ‘’truth’’ (23) taught by parents. For him, this will mean the truth that is in God’s Word, or in agreement with it. This is an important word to us all. Whatever God our Father has shown us we should cling to tightly, and live it. ‘’Buy truth – don’t sell it for love or money.’’ The Message. ‘’Do not sell the truth at any price…It costs something to live by the truth, but it costs even more to abandon the truth.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.429. (See also Proverbs 4:7)

The third is about the danger of falling into sexual immorality and adultery, and the destructiveness of such behaviour (26-28). This is a repeated theme in ‘Proverbs’. The ‘fruit’ may look delicious on the tree, but once eaten it is found to be poisonous.

How many lives and marriages could be saved by this Bible passage alone!

Prayer: Lord, let your Word spread through all the earth, and cause men to hear and heed its wise truth. Thank you Lord that ‘a fence at the top of the cliff is better than ‘an ambulance at the bottom.’ Thank you for your ‘fences’ – lovingly put in place to protect us; not to ruin our fun!

Paul, as we have previously seen, regarded all of his life as being under the sovereign control of Christ, so he could recognise that there was a purpose even in his imprisonment (see 3:1). He was a prisoner ‘’of Christ Jesus’’ (3:1), and ‘’for the Lord’’ (4:1). His entire life, whether in good experiences or bad, was about Jesus.
There is urgency about living godly lives in this world: ‘’I urge you…’’ (1). At this point we move into the practical section of the letter where Paul is encouraging the Christians to apply all of this great doctrine in everyday life. Truth is to be lived-out. Sermons are to walk out of church in many pairs of shoes. Belief has got to get into your feet. The Authorised Version of the Bible talks about walking worthily of our calling. As someone pointed out, there is nothing spectacular about walking. It’s just putting one foot in front of the other and moving in the right direction.
We tend to read these New Testament letters personally, and it is right to consider how we, as individual Christians, can live lives that please and glorify God. As we go through the practical section, we will come across things that we must apply to our personal (and even private) lives. But never forget that the letters were written to groups of Christians. In looking at this section you have to bear in mind all that has gone before in ‘Ephesians.’ Jews and Gentiles have been brought into a new,united community in Christ. The old hostility and divisions have been removed. So in these verses Paul exhorts the church to be the church. The church is ‘’one body’’ (4). There is a ‘’unity’’ (3) in the church that is already given by ‘’the Spirit’’. But we Christians have an urgent responsibility to ‘’Make every effort…’’ to maintain this unity. Like in a marriage, where two become one, everyday there has to be work to express that oneness. Total humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, love – these qualities oil the wheels of a marriage. They also enable Christian brothers and sisters to live out their God-given unity, even though as people they may be so different. One of the main reasons why the Christian community doesn’t always look like the united ‘body’ God has made it to be is down to the level of our ‘effort.’ We have to continually work at being the church God is calling us to be. When we live together humbly, gently, patiently, with forbearance and love, we live lives worthy of our calling.
In verses 4 to 6, Paul makes reference to the triune God: ‘’…one Spirit…one Lord…one God and Father…’’ The unity the church is called to is like the unity in the Trinity. It is a unity in diversity. Yet it is a unity of complete harmony. As we will see in the next study, we are all so different, and that’s a good thing. But although we may bring a variety of gifts to the table, we are one people in Christ. God wants that to be obvious to the world, and it will be an utterly compelling reality (John 17:20-23). A united church is a powerful evangelistic argument in itself.
Prayer: Loving Lord Jesus, I can see that the unity of your church means so much to you. You bled and died for it. May that unity never be damaged or broken at my hands. As far as it lies within me to do so, I want to live at peace with every other person in your church. This is my desire. Please give me your grace to be a unifying member of the body of Christ.

’God’s promises should become our prayers.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.490.
Isaiah had seen a glorious vision of the restored city of Jerusalem (Chapter 60). As we have seen, this was a multi-layered vision. It had to do with the literal restoration of the city and its re-population after exile and captivity. But Isaiah was also seeing the Messianic age: the coming of Jesus and the growth and witness of His church. In addition, he was catching a glimpse of the ultimate ‘golden era’ when Jesus comes to the earth a second time, and His Kingdom is established in all its fullness.(For example, verses 8 and 9 clearly await a still future fulfilment.)
The question is, ‘What will fill the gap between the vision and the reality?’ ‘What will bring this great picture of the future to pass?’ The answer is: ‘Prayer will; persistent, persevering prayer is what is required.’ (See Luke 18:1-8). Isaiah himself was committed to being a praying man who would put his own shoulder to the wheel of intercession to help to bring this about (1). (Note that preachers must also be people of prayer if their messages are to be effective.) But the prophet could see that God was calling others to join with him in ceaseless, fervent, untiring intercession (6, 7). F.B. Meyer sees in these verses an echo of Christ’s unceasing intercession for us: ‘’…He ever lives to intercede for us, praying when we are silent, watching when we sleep…His prayer rises for his people night and day. Perhaps they would not pray for themselves, if his intercessions did not incite. Certainly his sifted Simons would drift beyond hope, if He did not pray for them…The prayers of Jesus hover over the world like the dove over the weltering chaos of creation.’’
What will cause the church to arise and shine brilliantly as she is intended to? (1). What will bring many people to this light? (2). What will bring about church growth on a large scale? (4, 12). What will cause God’s people to be known in this world as the bride of Christ; forgiven and reconciled to Him? (4, 5). What will ‘’Remove the stones’’ or ‘’Clear the debris’’ as The Message puts it? (10). What will clear the way for progress? Prayer is the answer to all these questions. There is a need for committed and continual prayer. On New Year’s Day 2015 the challenge is, ‘Will you enlist in this army of untiring pray-ers to see the church become all the Lord wants her to be? Will you take your stand where God ‘posts’ you on the ‘’walls’’ (6) ‘’till’ He makes His church everything He wants her to be? The church cannot stand in this world if its members are not kneeling. We cannot shine in public unless we are seeking in private. When will the head knowledge of this truth start to affect our lives? In what year will it begin to fill our prayer meetings and affect our personal lives? How about this new one?!!
‘’I’ve posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. Day and night they keep at it, praying, calling out, reminding GOD to remember. They are to give him no peace until he does what he said…’’ The Message.
Prayer: I am turning up for duty dear Lord. I want to enlist. Please enrol me in your prayer army.