As we discussed this morning, we studied Five Reasons Why Judah Would Fall, as outlined in Jeremiah chapter 8. Tonight, we will turn the coin over and examine five ways to avoid falling. Christians, whether we realize it or not, are the Israel of the New Testament. God’s people are no longer determined by ethnicity or race but by those willing to do what God has instructed.
We will explore five ways to keep ourselves from meeting the same spiritual fate as the children of Israel and the tribes of Judah.
Review of 5 Reasons Judah would Fall
- My People Know Not the Judgement of the Lord
- They Have Rejected the Word of the Lord
- They Are All Given to Covetousness
- They Say “Peace, Peace, When There is no Peace”
- They Were Not Ashamed
By way of review, we noted that Judah fell because they no longer recognized the judgment of the Lord, which was the primary reason for their downfall. Secondly, they rejected the word of the Lord, which had come to them repeatedly, encouraging repentance to avoid Babylonian captivity. The opening chapters of Jeremiah warned of those coming from the north—Babylon—if they did not repent. Thirdly, they were all given to covetousness, from priests to peasants, dealing falsely. Fourthly, they proclaimed, “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace, as corrupt priests denied the impending fall. Finally, they were no longer ashamed of their sins, unbothered by God’s knowledge of their actions, unable to blush.
Application from 5 Reasons Judah would Fall
We will take these five areas and turn them on their head to identify five ways to keep from falling.
1) Know the Judgement of the Lord!
- 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9
There are a couple of categories of people here that Paul brings out who are going to be in danger when Jesus returns a second time. Those who know not God, those who have never become obedient to the will of God, those who are outside the church that Jesus said he was going to establish. Those people are going to be in danger when Jesus returns because they do not believe in Jesus.
Then, another category, separate from those, are those who have not obeyed the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The indication is that there are those who call themselves Christians, who may even be attending the proper church as you find in the New Testament, but still really aren’t living the way they’re supposed to be living. They’re not obeying the gospel as we have taught from the New Testament, as the apostles taught from the New Testament.
Those two categories of individuals need to know the judgment of the Lord. We need to recognize that there’s going to come a time when everything we do is going to be brought out and laid out, and if we’re found wanting, we’re going to be in trouble. But if we’re found righteous, then we don’t have anything to worry about.
- Romans 11:22
To keep this verse in its context, Romans chapter 11 is Paul answering a question from the Jews: “Well, now that the gospel has gone to the Gentiles, has God forgotten about the Jew? What is the Jew supposed to do?” Paul has to remind them that God has not forgotten the Jew. God has never forgotten the Jew. What happened was, the Jew didn’t want to follow after the old law anymore. The Jew didn’t want to follow after the new law when it came around. They wanted to continue following after the old law.
So, because they rejected God’s word, the apostles went to the Gentiles. The gospel was going to be offered to the Gentiles regardless of whether the Jews accepted or rejected the word. They just hastened its arrival to the Gentiles. It’s always been God’s plan that the New Testament would be offered to both Jew and Gentile.
But there is what’s called the goodness and severity of God. We need to recognize that, and as long as we’re doing good in the sight of God as children of His, then we will be in His goodness, in His moral excellence, if you will. But if not, then we will be in His severity, where He will punish us and remove us, just like He did the Jews for a time.
- Matthew 25:30, 46
Part of the judgment of God is when we’re resurrected in those new bodies that are fit for eternity, there’s only one of two places where we will end up. If we’re faithful to God, we will have a body that is raised, prepared, ready to live with Him in eternity. But if we’re not faithful to God on this earth while we’re here, when we should be preparing to be a part of His kingdom, then the body we receive when Jesus comes back, when the resurrection takes place, is a body that’s going to be fit for spending an eternity in hell.
The same word in verse 46 that’s translated “eternal” is also translated “everlasting.”
So, when it speaks of life everlasting, that’s going to go on just as long as eternal punishment is. It’s the same word in the Greek. You can’t have one without the other.
There’s a large percentage—close to 70 percent of the Christian population, using that term very loosely—that says they believe in a place called heaven. There’s also a large percentage that doesn’t believe there is a place called hell. Of those who believe there is a place called hell, there’s a smaller percentage that believes hell is eternal. But if you have one, you have to have the other. The words used to describe them in the original are the same.
2) Heed The Word of the Lord!
Secondly, we need to heed the word of the Lord. We can’t be like those we read about this morning and reject the word of the Lord.
- John 12:48
It won’t do us any good to reject the word of God, to say that I’m not amenable to the word of God simply because I don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God. There are those in the world who say that. Since they don’t believe Jesus is the Son of God, they’re not going to be held accountable to what’s in the Bible.
There’s an entire false doctrine built around that idea that the things in the Bible only apply to those who are in the church, meaning, once again, the old cliché, “ignorance is bliss.” That’s nowhere taught in the New Testament. Ignorance, when it comes to the judgment and the word of God, is not bliss. If you’re ignorant of it, you’re in danger of what it says. Regardless, you are accountable because Jesus is forever and always going to be prophet, priest, and king over this world. The word of God is never going to pass away.
- 2 Timothy 2:15
We need to make sure that when we use the word of God, we’re using it in the right way. We need to keep things in their context, allow the Bible to say what it’s trying to say, and not read into the Bible what we want it to say. We need to approach the Bible each and every day as a blank slate, if you will, as an open slate.
When I go to see my dad, I won’t tell you how old he is, but I’ll tell you that when he was growing up in Michigan, he attended a one-room schoolhouse, grades one through eight. All went to the same school. They had chalkboard slates, and each one of them had one. They’d come in every day, all the slates were blank, and they filled them up with the information from that day. That’s how we ought to be when we approach the word of God.
We cannot afford to approach the word of God with preconceived ideas that we’ve gotten from the world, maybe our friends, maybe our preachers, maybe our elders, and say, “Well, this is obviously what the Bible says because these people wouldn’t intentionally lead me astray.” I don’t believe they would. However, we need to let the Bible speak for itself and prove every man to be a liar.
If something we believe does not match up with what’s in the word of God, then immediately we need to abandon our belief and hold on to the word of God. But what happens 95 percent of the time is, if what I believe does not match up with the word of God, I try to figure out how to make the word of God match up with what I believe and what I’ve been told. That can cause a major problem for us when the words of Jesus are going to be what He holds us accountable to when this life is over.
- Romans 1:16, 17
Paul sets out in the very first chapter to begin his thesis of the book of Romans, which goes through about chapter 8, and says that salvation is only found in one place: in the word of God. Righteousness, justification, salvation can only be found in one place, and that is through the gospel system. We can’t go anywhere else.
3) We Must Not be Given to Covetousness!
Thirdly, we must not be given to covetousness.
- Romans 13:8-9
- Matthew 5:28 (“Lust” = “Covet”)
Notice 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 10, and maybe Romans chapter 13, verse 8. We should look at both of them.
“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” — Romans 13:8
I want you to notice something I found interesting. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked at these particular verses and not made this connection. Take the word “covet,” look it up in the Greek, then go to Matthew chapter 5, verse 28. It’s the same word.
Jesus said, “But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” — Matthew 5:28
That’s the same word for “covet” and for “lust.” Same word in the Greek. I’d never looked at that before, probably should have, but I hadn’t made that connection until I was preparing for this evening.
We ought not to covet. We ought not to lust over things that are not ours. We need to not be given over to covetousness.
- 1 Corinthians 6:10
This was the problem that those we talked about this morning had. They were mistreating one another, coveting after the things of one another, and they were not going to be able to participate in righteousness to God. They were treating one another poorly, as if they despised them, as if they were enemies. Yet, back then, it would have been the Sabbath day, and they went to offer their sacrifices of goodness to God. God said, “Don’t you offer that here. I’m not accepting your sacrifices.” Why? Because their heart was not right before Him.
We can’t be given over to covetousness. We need to mind the things that are ours and protect the things that are somebody else’s, sometimes even from ourselves.
4) We Must be Honest with Ourselves!
Fourthly, we must be honest with ourselves. We can’t be like those we talked about this morning who said, “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace.
- Philippians 4:8
How do we determine what actions we’re going to take in this life? It’s based on what we think, right? So, if we think the right things, we’re going to act in the right ways. You can’t think the right things and do the wrong things and be acceptable to God. You can’t do the wrong things and think the right things and be acceptable to God. We have to make those match up. Whatever things are honest are the things we need to be focusing on, allowing to take up our attention in this life.
- Matthew 7:15
We’ve got to be careful who we listen to. I say that, and I honestly mean that. At the same time, I’m very open to listening to a lot of different arguments on passages of scripture. It’s interesting to hear what people think and the way they teach on certain doctrines that we read about. We should be willing to hear, but we also need to be able to measure that against the truth and come out with the right answer. We should not trust false teachers who sugarcoat the truth. We need the truth spelled out plainly.
- 2 Timothy 4:3
Paul has just told Timothy, given him his desire for Timothy to continue to preach as he has been doing. He’s to preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. The reason is spelled out in verse 3 because there’s going to come a time when the people you’re speaking to are not going to endure sound doctrine. They want the truth sugarcoated. Why? Because it makes what they’re doing feel better in their own minds. That’s all it’s about. If I can get you to feel better about what you’re doing in your minds, then maybe you won’t get upset and leave and go somewhere else, and you’ll be happy here. We can’t sugarcoat the truth. We need to deliver the truth as it is intended.
"Jesus answers and says, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.” —Matthew 24:4-5
There were those in the first century who were going to claim to be Jesus but obviously were not Jesus and could not do the things that Jesus did. They could not teach the way that Jesus taught. They were instructed to reject those individuals because of that.
5) Know When to be Ashamed and Repent!
Finally, we need to know when to be ashamed and when to repent.
- Acts 17:30
What’s interesting about this statement—there are several things interesting about this particular verse—but one thing is that at no time has there ever been a season where God has not commanded repentance. Go all the way back to the book of Genesis. Repentance has been a part of God’s plan from the very beginning. So, for Paul to say, “Now is the time to repent,” would seem to indicate that there was a time when repentance was not necessary. That’s never been the case with God. You step outside the boundaries of what God has said you should do, repentance is the key. Repentance is what brings you back.
The reason this verse is so significant is because it calls us back to a time when, before Jesus died on the cross, before the establishment of the kingdom, God literally looked over the top of sin toward the time when Jesus would die on the cross. He said, “I’m not going to hold these people accountable for their sins because they’ve been offering sacrifices for them every year. I’m attributing faithfulness to them because I’m overlooking their sin, and I see the cross way down there. I can forgive them because I know the cross is a reality, and the blood of Jesus would be spilled, and they would have forgiveness.” But now that Jesus has died, the church is here, God is not going to overlook our sin because Christ has already come. Now is the time to be ashamed when it’s appropriate to be ashamed and to repent.
- Acts 8:22
Do you recall when Philip goes down to Samaria in Acts chapter 8? Simon the sorcerer is converted, and then Simon is following Philip around, watching Philip do all these miraculous wonders. Then they send word back to Jerusalem that Samaria had received the gospel. The church in Jerusalem sent Peter down to Samaria, north, so that he could lay his hands on them and give them gifts of the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he wanted to buy that particular ability. They said, “Repent, because your money perishes with you.”
There are two ways for us to repent and be right with God. If we’re outside the body of Christ, we repent of the sins we’ve committed in our past, vowing not to go back and revisit them again, and we live for Jesus from this day forward.
When we stumble in this life after becoming a child of God—and we will, though we don’t have to—then we need to repent and pray. The blood’s been applied, and as long as we’re walking in that straight and narrow, 1 John chapter 1, verse 7: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” We don’t have to receive the blood a second time, but we have to repent that the sins of our heart would be forgiven.
“For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” —Romans 10:11
This word “believeth” is an interesting word because it stands for the gospel system as a whole. It’s not the idea that some in the denominational world would have us believe. It’s not the idea of just believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It’s not the idea of just saying or praying that Jesus is going to forgive us of our sins. It’s not the idea of asking Jesus to come into our hearts.
It’s following the gospel system as laid out in the New Testament. The one who continues to believe shall not be ashamed. Therefore, the one who continues in the gospel system is one who will not be ashamed. There is a way for us to stand before God, not ashamed of the things we’ve done in this body, and that’s if we stand before God as a child of His in the kingdom, willing to repent of sins we committed as children of God.
The ones from our past are done and gone. We don’t have to worry about those ever again. If we turn and walk in them, then we need to repent of going back into the world and doing those. But we’re not going to be held accountable for those again. It’s from the time we enter into the kingdom of God until the time we die, where we have to remember that there is a time for us to blush and a time for us to repent.God with open arms will always accept us if we’re willing to repent and ask His forgiveness.
Maybe you’re one who is a member of the body of Christ, but you’re on that path that Judah was this morning, and destruction is going to be the result. "The harvest has come. The harvest has passed. The summer has come," Jeremiah chapter 8, verse 20, "and my people are not saved." That’s not what God wants for any of us. That’s not what we should want for one another.
We all have the ability to keep ourselves from falling. Where are you? Are you in danger of falling? Are you in danger of having your life go back into the world, leaving Jesus behind, walking away from Him?
Maybe you’re one who’s not a member of the body of Christ. Maybe now is the time, having heard the word, you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You’re ready to repent of the sins you’ve committed in your life that put Jesus on the cross, confessing His deity and submitting to the watery grave of baptism, allowing His blood to wash away your sins, you’ll then have the confidence of knowing that you’re a child of the King and that you are going to win if you stay faithful to Him.
If we can assist you in any way, please contact us. We would be thrilled to study with you and help you come to know the forgiveness of Jesus.
Topics:
Fall of Man, Judah, Sin
