Things That Were Written Aforetime...

"Whatsoever things were written aforetime" (Rom. 15:4) is the key that opens the door to a "storehouse" of Old Testament lessons for the twentieth-century Christian. In this lesson we go to the book of Jeremiah. It has been said that "no book in the entire Old Testament speaks more directly to today's moral and religious problems than does the book of Jeremiah." Jeremiah, yesterday's prophet with a message for today's people.

The Sin Of Israel

"Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return" (Jer. 8:5). "For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the works of their hands, saith Jehovah" (32:30). The Old Testament is a crucial witness to the fact that God's people (Israel) never remained entirely faithful to God for very long at a time. What a sad commentary on a race of people! Consider their behavior in the wilderness (Exo. 16:1-3; 17:1-3). They murmured against God repeatedly (cf. Phil. 2:14). First, it was hunger. It is said that their concern for bread occurred no more than six weeks after their departure from Egypt (Exo. 16:1). Next, it was thirst. They never really learned to "walk by faith" (2 Cor. 5:7). God's people, especially today, must learn to walk by faith or they will not walk at all. No wonder the Hebrew Christians were admonished to "take heed lest haply there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief , in falling away from the living God" (Heb. 3:12).

God ruled His people through Judges for about the first three hundred years in Canaan. His government was "theocratic" (God rule). But in the course of time His people again complained and subsequently asked for a king (monarchy) to rule them; they wanted to be like their heathen neighbors (1 Sam. 8:4-7). Isn't it a shame that God's people wanted to be like the people surrounding them, rather than having such people be like them (cf. 1 Cor. 15:33)? The request for a king was in essence an apostasy.

It was the "overthrow" of God's arrangement pure and simple (cf. Hos. 13:9-11). This move resulted in a "split" in the so-called United Kingdom, ruled consecutively by Saul, David, and Solomon, each ruling forty years. Any time God's arrangement is overthrown by anyone, anytime, any place, it always results in disaster.

The Problem Of Habitual Sin

To commit a single act of sin is bad enough (1 John 1:10), but habitual sin is worse. To think that habitual sin does not exist among some of God's people today is to deny the facts. Paul argues this point in Romans 6:1-2. ''What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" "God forbid" expresses strong feeling. It literally means "may it not be so!" None of us can afford to habitually sin. If we continue in sin, it will "pay off" in death (Rom. 6:23). Consider 1 John 3:6, "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth, hath not seen him, neither known him." "Whosoever" is an indefinite pronoun, meaning anyone. Whoever abides in Christ does not keep on sinning.

Effects Of Habitual Sin

The first and foremost effects of habitual sin will be the loss of the soul, and from this loss no one will ever recover. Next, habitual sin indicates immaturity; it means the guilty have not grown up (Eph. 4:15). Habitual sin is also a devastating discouragement to others (1 Tim. 4:12), and an absolute grief to leadership (Heb. 13:17). Last, habitual sin retards the practice of personal evangelism. We cannot go to lost people in the world to teach the saving gospel, our attention and our energies have to be turned too much to wayward children of God. We spend too much time pleading and "begging" the weak and habitually sinful to walk uprightly according to truth (Gal. 2: 14).

The preaching and teaching of Jeremiah are appropriate for us. We could use this great man of God in the church today. But if we had him among us in person, would he spend his time "foretelling" of God or "forthtelling" of our sins?