Jeremiah 23: 23-24,29 "Am I only a God nearby," declares the Lord, "and
not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot
see him?" declares the Lord. "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" declares
the Lord...Is not my word like fire," declares the Lord," and like a
hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?"

God can't see if the lights are out! If the doors are closed God
doesn't have a clue as to what's going on! It's not like I've actually
acted on the thoughts that I have so what's the big deal?
I'm sure that you've heard or thought such things yourself. Perhaps not
really thinking these things as much as ACTING like these things are
true. I say that because I too am a sinner. I know how sinners think
but even more pointedly I am a Pastor and I know how sinners act. All
too often we tend to act like God doesn't know or like God would never
find out. And even though I teach the simple truth "If you wouldn't do
what your thinking if Jesus were with you, then don't do it" it amazes me
how many so quickly can forget that lesson.
One of the interesting things that I recently read, even before I
started to work on this sermon, was an article in Christian News
reporting on a new book just published. The book is titled Forbidden
Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teens. One paragraph
caught my eye. It said, "Some 80 percent of teenagers who say they have
been 'born again' agree that sex outside of marriage is morally wrong.
Still, as many as two-thirds of them violate their own beliefs in their
actual behavior." Our Christian teenagers are sexually active at 16 and
by the age of 18 are likely to have had at least three partners. But get
this, the book also reports that non-Christians are actually more moral
and less sexually active than our children! It just makes the mind reel.
It makes you wonder where we pastors and parents are failing!
Perhaps we are failing because we don't exhibit the right attitude of
respect and honor for God and His Word. Perhaps it is because we live
our lives like God can't see what's going on? Then this text is just for
us. Our theme will be: THE TRUTH OF GOD. 1st. His Being. 2nd. His
Knowledge. 3rd. His Word!
I want you to know that this section of Jeremiah is actually addressing
the people of God. There were numerous false teachers who were around
preaching that God had limitations, that God was a weak and spineless
god, that God would not and could not act against the sins the people
wanted to indulge in. I think of what Jeremiah wrote in his time and I
realize that his words still ring true in our lifetime. For that matter,
the book I spoke of before laid much of the blame for the lack of
morality in our youth upon the church that has abandoned the truth of
God. In other words, there are plenty of teachers out there, yes, even
in the Christian church, that are telling our teenagers and youth,
telling our parents and others that it doesn't matter what they do
because God will love them anyway. But is that true?
Look at what our text says. Understand that our text is God himself
giving answer to those who say he is weak, unable to act or just doesn't'
know what's going on. God says, "Am I only a God nearby and not a God
far away? What awesome and important words to consider.
Do we actually think that God is only nearby, that he's in the church
but isn't in our homes or our schools or at our workplace? That is what
many people think (or should I say "act out) but God wants us to know the
truth. God wants us to understand that He is God. He wants us to grasp
that he is "omnipresent." God is everywhere! That's his nature. God
is a spirit who transcends and permeates all that is.
What this means is that God's being fills everything. He is here and
there and it doesn't matter how far apart here and there is. God is in
the deepest depths and the highest heights. The very nature of God is
that he is everywhere. The Apostle Paul emphasized this truth in his
sermon to the people of Athens. He said, "The God who made the world and
everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in
temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he
needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and
everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they
should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them
and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men
would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is
not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our
being." The very being of God fills all things for such is his nature.
Then look at what else our text says, "Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?" These words
remind us that God is all-knowing. I always marvel at this truth of God.
That's because I have come to understand that God not only knows
everything that is, everything that was, everything that will be but God
also knows all the possibilities in between. There is nothing God
doesn't know.
He knows what you are doing. He knows what you are thinking. He knows
what you're planning and considering. He knows where you've been and
what you've already done. There is nothing, I emphasize, NOTHING that
God does not know about you, your life, thinking, yes, even down to the
very state of your eternal soul.
I want to tell you that it is this aspect of God that stills my heart
most and causes me to tremble with fear. To know that God knows it all.
He knows the dark recesses of my mind. He knows the secrets, sees the
skeletons of my past, weighs and measures the hates and loves of my
heart. God knows it all and I am always amazed that he even cares for us
at all.
Then there is that last phrase of this whole section that I think is so
important for us to grasp. The text says, "Is not my word like fire and
like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" Again what awesome and
important words to consider.
If there is one thing revealed here it is that God is emphasizing the
importance of his Holy Word. We find other passages in Scripture that do
the same thing. For instance in John 12:47ff Jesus also emphasizes the
importance of his Word. He said, "As for the person who hears my words
but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge
the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me
and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn
him at the last day." Here is Jesus telling us about the fire and hammer
that the word is.
What does it mean that God's Word is like a fire? There are two things
emphasized here. First, there is the destructive side of God's Word.
Just as fire destroys and makes things worthless so God's Word will do to
the soul that rejects Jesus and his truth. But there is also the
beneficial side of fire. When fire is used properly it can be a
cleansing agent, a purifying agent. Think of how metals are purified in
the furnace or steels are tempered. God's Word can do the same for us.
It can cleanse and strengthen when applied in the right way.
Our text says that God's Word is like a hammer. What is spoken of is
the forge hammer. This hammer is heavy and strong and can crush whatever
it strikes. In our text the cliff or mountain side is spoke of as being
broken to pieces. Such is what God's Word can do. You think you're a
mountain of a Christian, a rock in Christ, a person who has no spiritual
concerns? God's says his word can crush, his word can break apart this
haughty attitude of your heart. Sometimes our attitudes and actions do
say that we think we are bigger, tougher, greater than God. Be careful
because God can chisel you down to size, God can break you and you will
be nothing.
Yet the forge hammer can be useful too. Think again of how metals are
shaped and formed with the pounding of the forge hammer. Useful and
beautiful things can be fashioned as we are worked in God's forge. He
shapes us and causes us to serve his purpose.
Now did you notice something here? Though our text is one that
emphasizes the "don't mess with God idea," "the you'd better get your act
together idea" that is not all that I emphasized. Why? Because of our
Savior Jesus.
That brings to mind two important things. First, don't ever think that
what you are doing or have done is none of God's business. Maybe you
have put your sin out of your mind, you think, but God tells us that sin
needs to be dealt with. When you persist in your sin, as did the false
prophets of Jeremiah's day, you can expect only the wrath and anger of
God. That's because to love sin, to revel in it is nothing more than
rejecting the truth of Jesus found in his Word. The Word that will judge
you! In that case, I say, "Beware! Beware lest God's hammer crushes you
and you find yourself condemned of God."
Second, don't ever forget about Jesus. If sin were of no account to
God, that is, if God were simply going to overlook and forgive all sins
just because of his love, no matter what your faith then what was the
point of Jesus? If the God you believe in doesn't have to be Jesus as
his Word reveals him and your God can be whatever you want then again
what is the point of God's giving us his Word and his Son? All of this
is said to simply remind you that sin is accountable. Either you will
account on your own which means you will go to hell or you will be
accounted through faith in Jesus.
Here is the point of Jesus. Jesus came and gave his life to be our
Savior. You cannot reject Jesus and his Word and be saved. You cannot
decide to throw out portions of God's Word, to reject the issues of sin
that God lays forth and expect that salvation will be yours. Since Jesus
did hang on the cross and suffer for all of our sins, then the issue of
sin is important and the horror of sin does need to be dealt with. It
can be dealt with only by faith in Jesus.
If you want to be refined and purified by the fire of God's Word then
that can only be done in Jesus. If you want to be shaped and formed into
a beautiful work for the service of God, that can be done only in Jesus.
Because we believe that Jesus died for us and paid for our sin, because
we believe that Jesus rose from the dead and IS THE SON OF GOD that is
our measure in everything. Either we believe in Jesus and have eternal
life or we do not. There is no middle ground. Either your life is
motivated by Jesus or something else! Your heart is working for Jesus or
something else! Don't think God isn't looking or doesn't know. Be aware
of the majesty, the power, the presence, the knowledge and the grace of
God that is found in Jesus or you have a problem. A faith problem. A
Jesus problem.
Go, dear people with the knowledge of God's awesomeness, but also with a
knowledge of God's grace as found in Jesus. That's the truth of God and
the heart of our faith. Amen.