| |
Book: Jeremiah
 Print ( PC Only )
Jeremiah 48:11 God's Refining Instruments
I. The double curse.
A. Cursed be he that does the work of the Lord deceitfully.
1. There is another suggestion for the word deceitfully
and that is slackly.
2. Paul said that they that run in a race run all but only
one receives the prize, so run that you might obtain.
3. Concerning himself he said, "I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus."
4. We can see many today who are doing the work of the
Lord deceitfully. They are being exposed by the worldly
media.
5. We see many today who are doing the work of the Lord
slackly.
a. Many of you sitting here today are guilty of
that.
b. Your commitment to Christ is half-hearted, on a
scale of one to ten, if would fall somewhere
under five.
c. Christ has a place in your heart, but certainly
not the first place.
d. Your rating would perhaps be lukewarm, neither
hot or cold.
e. It should be noted that God is not satisfied
with that kind of commitment, He said that the
day that you seek Him with all of your heart,
in that day you will find Him.
f. For this cause God often brings tragedy into our
lives to pressure us to seek Him.
B. The second curse was upon those who kept back their sword from
blood.
1. Those who will not stand up for a cause.
2. It is sort of the peace at any cost mentality, even
that of compromise. Evil is tolerated for the sake of
peace, its a "Lets not rock the boat attitude.
3. Evil often prevails in a society because evil men are
active while good men are often passive. All that is
necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do
nothing.
II. The conditions of Moab.
A. Moab has been at ease from his youth.
1. Moab occupied the high plains East of Jordan, it was
blessed with rain even when there was a drought in the
land of Israel.
a. In the story of Ruth we remember how that
Elimelech and Naomi decided to leave Bethlehem
for Moab because of a drought.
2. Moab was known as wine growing country, they had the
famed vineyards of Sibmah.
3. It didn't take much effort to farm this agriculturally
rich land, thus it was an easy life.
4. Moab also was away from the coastal plains divided by
the great Jordan valley, thus it was not subject to
attack by foreign forces. Egypt and Syria were ancient
competing powers and Israel lay in between, thus often
had foreign forces crossing their land. Moab was rather
secure from such invasions.
5. Moab was living an easy untroubled life.
B. Moab had never gone into captivity.
1. Being isolated by the great desert on the East side,
and the Jordan valley on the West she dwelt quite
securely.
2. The Moabites had never been taken from the land into
captivity.
III. The consequences of this life of ease is declared in wine making
terms.
A. Settled in his lees.
1. When the grapes had been pressed, the juice was placed
in jugs and set there until if fermented. During the
process the lees settled to the bottom. The lees were
the sediment.
2. As the lees settled to the bottom, they would then pour
off the top pure wine into another vessel, and it would
again be allowed to settle. Thus you had a process of
disturbances that of being poured from vessel to
vessel.
3. The purpose of this process was to purify or refine.
4. If this procedure was not followed, the lees would soon
begin to sour, and the wine would take on the smell and
flavor of the rotten lees. This is what the prophet is
referring to as he speaks of his taste remaining in
him, and his scent is not changed.
B. Moab had become rotten.
1. With no conflict or disturbance, they had become
spoiled.
2. They are now to be spoiled, and the vessels are to be
broken.
C. Moab shall cease to be a people.
1. How many of you have met a Moabite lately?
2. A once numerous and prosperous people have disappeared
from the face of the earth.
D. A life of ease, with no conflict can destroy you, it tends
toward rottenness.
IV. Gods refining process in our lives, He often pours us from vessel to
vessel.
A. How we seek for the life of ease. So much of our research and
development is for products that will make life easier.
1. We hear phrases, "Take it easy." or "Easy does it."
2. Let the average housewife compare her life with the
average housewife of a hundred years ago.
3. Just in keeping her family in clean clothes.
a. Many of the clothes were home made using the
treadle sewing machine.
b. They were washed in tubs of water drawn from
the hand pump out in the yard, and heated on
the wooden stove.
c. They had what they called the scrub board.
d. They were then hung out on the clothes line to
dry.
e. The clothes had to be ironed with the iron that
was heated on this same wooden stove, for they
knew nothing of wash and wear fabrics.
4. Feeding the family was another time consuming task.
a. No box cereals, you cooked the old fashioned
oats, they did not even have the one minute
variety.
b. If you needed something, you could not jump in
your car and run to the nearest super market.
c. You went out to the barn to milk the cow.
5. There was no time to think of how bad your marriage
was, and to fantasize of how exciting it might be if
you were only married to Tom Selleck, as you read the
latest magazine of the lives of the Hollywood stars.
6. You wouldn't have the time to pollute your mind with
the soaps, and then sit down in the afternoon to watch
corrupted America on the Donahue and Horaldo shows.
B. An easy life can corrupt, so God sees fit to often pour us from
vessel to vessel.
1. When we begin to settle in our lees, God often brings
his disturbances into our lives for the purpose of
purifying.
a. These disturbances can take many forms.
1. Illness.
2. Loss of job.
3. Accident.
4. Notice from the I.R.S.
2. The effect of these disturbances is to turn us back to
reliance upon God.
3. To cause us to once again seek Him.
4. Our lives were in great danger because we had begun to
trust in our own selves. In our idle time we were
polluting ourselves. God will take away the idle time.
I find I must go to work to help the family budget.
C. We do not like the process of being poured from vessel to
vessel. I don't think that God does either, yet it is often
necessary to keep us from settling in our lees and our whole
lives beginning to take the taste of the world.
|