The boiling pot

¹⁴ … “Out of the north calamity shall break forth
On all the inhabitants of the land.
¹⁵ For behold, I am calling
All the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says the Lord;
“They shall come and each one set his throne
At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem,

Jeremiah 1.14-15

We better move on because time’s going on. Let’s have a look at The Boiling Pot which is facing away from the north now he tells you what this is in verse 14, Jeremiah says,

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to me:

“Out of the north calamity shall break forth
On all the inhabitants of the land.
¹⁵ For behold, I am calling
All the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says the Lord;
“They shall come and each one set his throne
At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem,
Against all its walls all around,
And against all the cities of Judah. Jeremiah 1:14-19

Who are the forces of invasion coming from the north? If you go to the North of Israel, you come to Lebanon, and you come to Syria, but this invasion is not coming either from Lebanon or from Syria, it’s coming from Babylon. Babylon is to the east of Israel. How then is it coming out of the north?

Well, you don’t go directly across the Arabian Desert because you can’t survive the desert journey. If you have a big army, you go up the Euphrates Valley, then you come down through the Fertile Crescent, through Syria, through Lebanon and into Israel.

That’s why Abraham went that way, why everyone goes that wat. If they come from Babylon to Israel, they travel north, then they go south. So, this is the army going up to the north, the Babylonian army going to the north through Assyria, through Syria, down through what is now Syria and Lebanon into Israel and invading from the north.

The invasion coming against them, it’s coming against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah. At this time, God’s going to utter his judgments against Judah and Jerusalem because of their wickedness,

¹⁶ I will utter My judgments
Against them concerning all their wickedness,
Because they have forsaken Me,
Burned incense to other gods,
And worshiped the works of their own hands. Jeremiah 1:14-19

So, this judgement is not just an arbitrary thing, it’s not just God saying, ‘Well, I think I’ll give those Jews a bit of trouble now in Jerusalem.‘ There’s a reason why that trouble’s coming. It’s because they’ve turned away from the God of Israel.

God gave them a Covenant through Abraham, a Covenant through Moses. He told them to walk in His ways, to keep His laws. He said ‘I’ll bless you if you do these things but, if you break my laws and you go against me, then these judgments are going to come upon you.‘

“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: …

¹⁵ “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: … Deuteronomy 28

There’s always a cause and effect in scripture and, of course, the Babylonians came, The Boiling Pot came down to the land and Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and took the Jewish people into captivity in Babylon for a period of 70 years.

Again, because God watches over His Word to fulfil it, He also gave the positive message to Jeremiah saying that, after 70 years, ‘you’re going to come back to this land and rebuild this Temple and dwell in the land.‘

That is exactly what happened. 70 years later, Babylon itself was overthrown by the Persians. The Persian King Cyrus made an edict and told the Jewish people to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple, which they did with difficulty but they did it.

We see that God works in history, works through things which happen on the ground, but He’s also watching over His word to fulfil it. When God says something is going to happen, it’s going to happen.

So, how does this apply to us? Well, I would say that we have a lot of boiling pots which are about to overthrow us. We’ve got all these things happening in the world and you could say we are living ‘as in the days of Noah’, in days of great wickedness, days when we have gay marriage, we have sexual immorality, we have violence, we have indoctrination of the youth with evil things, we have the abuse of peoples, we have wars, we have people who have no thought of God, and we have, basically, the Christian view being written out of the agenda.

Also, in many countries, we have persecution and suppression of the Gospel and, because of all these things, judgment is coming upon us, upon this part of the world, and upon the whole of the world. Sadly, we have to recognize this.

We much rather God blesses us. Many of the churches want to say God wants to bless us, God is loving, He is kind, He is going to bless us however we live.

But it’s not that way. God says, ‘If you don’t repent then judgment is coming upon you‘.

The Word of the Lord goes out telling people to repent, and most people say, ‘Stop, I can’t be bothered’. As with Lot’s sons-in-law, they thought Lot was joking,

¹² Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! ¹³ For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking. Genesis 19:12-14

Lot goes and tells is sons-in-law to get out of Sodom and it says in the text, But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking. And that’s what people are like today when you tell them, when you warn them to get out of this Sodom, out of this country which is heading for disaster and to believe in Jesus and find Salvation.

The Prophet is the messenger who has to come and speaks into that situation. It’s not an easy job. So, God says to Jeremiah, coming back to the text,

¹⁷ “Therefore prepare yourself and arise,
And speak to them all that I command you.
Do not be dismayed before their faces,
Lest I dismay you before them.
¹⁸ For behold, I have made you this day
A fortified city and an iron pillar,
And bronze walls against the whole land—
Against the kings of Judah,
Against its princes,
Against its priests,
And against the people of the land. Jeremiah 1:14-19

Okay, so He goes to tell him, ‘You have got to give a message to them Jeremiah. You have got to tell them tell them what’s going to happen. Tell them that they’ve got to repent because there’s a judgment coming upon them. Tell them that they’re living in sin, that they’re doing wicked things and that God is displeased with them‘. Do you think they’re going to be pleased to hear that message?

No, they’re not going to be pleased. People are going to oppose him and, of course, as he goes out you read through Jeremiah he has massive opposition, opposition from all kinds of people.

And notice it says here he’s going to be have opposition from the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests and against the peoples of the land. You have three categories there:

• there the political rulers: the Kings and princes
• the religious leaders: the priests
• and the people of the land

I would say that, in our time today, you’re going to have opposition from those three groups of people if you go up with a Gospel message, from the kings, from the rulers, especially if you go and speak about the things I’m talking about today. If you tell them to repent, you’re going to have opposition from them because they don’t want to hear it, they don’t want to you to say this.

They’re going to say it’s ‘a negative message’, they are going to say you’re undermining people’s confidence in our ability to sort out our problems which we are. They’re going to tell you that ‘you mustn’t do this, you mustn’t discriminate, you’re being discriminatory against people if you say that certain practices including all sexual sins, all violence, all occultism, and all that kind of stuff is all wrong in the sight of God.

If you tell people they’ve got to repent, tell them that Islam, Hinduism, yoga do not lead them to God but only Jesus leads them to God, you’re discriminating against other faiths. They’ll tell you not to do it.

You have opposition from the kings, you can have opposition, particularly, from the priests, from the religious system increasingly, a system that is basically undermining the ability to preach the Gospel with the Pope telling us that ‘Everybody’s good and you mustn’t evangelize, you mustn’t preach’. You’ve got the Church of England censoring those ministers in the in it who say that it’s wrong to have same-sex marriages and blessings. So, on you’ve got an increasingly apostate Church which is against the preaching of the word of God.

That’s what Jeremiah was up against. That’s what we’re up against.

And the people of the land really don’t want to hear this message.

I have to tell you we go out and hand out leaflets and we try and talk to people. Most people really don’t want to know, do they? You know, sometimes I get really disappointed and frustrated. We give out a thousand leaflets inviting people to come to the meeting and one person comes or nobody comes.

Is it a waste of time? No, it’s not. Because we’re giving people the opportunity and if they reject it, then it’s on their head. But God wants us to give the opportunity so that people can hear the message and repent and believe.

And God says to Jeremiah,

¹⁹ They will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you.
For I am with you,” says the Lord, “to deliver you.” Jeremiah 1:14-19

Let’s close with that. That’s the positive thing. God is with us if the world fights against us. That’s its job.

Basically, we can’t sort of complain about the Devil really. He’s got his job to do. We don’t like him, we don’t support him but, basically, that’s what he wants to do to oppose God and to blind the eyes of unbelievers, and to oppose those who preach the Gospel.

The world would do that as well but they won’t prevail against you, they may lock you up, they may even try to kill you, but God is with you. God says, in the end,

“I am with you,” says the Lord, “to deliver you.”

Jesus’ the last words to the disciples were:

We Believe In the Lord. He is with us no matter what comes out there, no matter how bad it is. It it’s bad and it’s going to get worse. I’m not trying to be pessimistic or talk about ‘gloom and doom’ but that’s how I see it, that’s how the Bible sees it.

Logically, we’re carrying on with the world going in the wrong direction, and unless we have mass repentance (which we don’t see happening) then, it’s going to continue in that direction and it’s going to head for God’s judgment.

But individuals can be saved out of it. And praise God! If you believe in Jesus, you’re on the right side and you have a future, you have a hope because Jesus loves you. He died for you, He paid the price for our sins, He rose from the dead, and He ever lives to make intercession for us.

He is sat at the right hand of the Father, sending us the Holy Spirit to give us new life and soon He is going to come back in person to judge the world in righteousness.

If you believe all this, you’ve got a future and a hope. I hope you are hopeful. Jesus said, ‘When you see these things happening begin to happen, don’t panic and despair, look up, lift up your heads because your redemption draws near’.

²⁸ Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” Luke 21:28

All the things happening in the world today are pointing us to the fact that Jesus is coming. And, if Jesus is coming, then it’s okay, He’s got the answer. He is going to sort it out. Meantime, we have to do our little job which is ‘a big job’, to live our lives to His praise and glory, to get His word out and to look up because our redemption is drawing near.

Jesus is coming! Praise the Lord! Amen.

Lord, we do thank you that you are coming again. Thank you that you’re going to come and deliver us. Thank you that you promised that you will never leave us or forsake us. That you’re with us always even to the end of this age.

And so, Lord, we pray that you help us to be faithful to you, to do your will. We pray for the lost world around us, we pray that so many people who are scoffing and rejecting your Word will be convicted of their sin and of the Judgment that’s coming upon them, and that many people in these last days will repent and believe the Gospel and turn to you.

We pray help us as a fellowship here. We know that we’re not large in number but we have you on our side and, a minority with God is already a majority, because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

So help us Lord to do your will. Help us to live our lives to your praise and glory.

We thank you for Jesus, we thank you for the hope of your coming.

Help us Lord to redeem the time because the days are evil, and to get out the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We ask this in Jesus’ Name, amen. Amen, praise the Lord!