If you will, turn with me in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 45.
Jeremiah chapter 45.
As you look at this passage, we are getting near to the end of the book of Jeremiah,
hitting the highlights as we've gone along.
We have one sermon left, and then of course we are into Easter.
You are going to be looking today at a character we have not heard about in Jeremiah Baruch.
And Baruch was the secretary to Jeremiah.
He is the one who wrote down the messages that Jeremiah had.
Now the material here actually occurred earlier in the story, and the reason it is here,
it's like an appendix in a book.
It gives us some final thoughts before the close of the book of Jeremiah.
So let's turn our attention now to what God is going to say to Baruch.
When Baruch, son of Narayah, wrote on a scroll the words,
Jeremiah the prophet dictated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,
son of Josiah, king of Judah.
Jeremiah said this to Baruch,
this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says to you Baruch.
You said, woe to me, the Lord has added sorrow to my pain,
I am worn out with groaning and find no rest.
But the Lord has told me to say to you, this is what the Lord says,
I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted throughout the earth.
Should you then seek great things for yourself, do not seek them.
For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the Lord,
but wherever you go, I will let you escape with your life.
Let's pray and ask God to bless what we have just read.
Our heavenly Father may we be a people who seek life, eternal life with you.
And this morning through your Holy Spirit illuminate our hearts
so that we are receptive to what you are saying to us.
Help us to listen to the word and then put it into practice
so that we are doers, not just listeners.
Being with your people now, I make this prayer in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Run for your life. Flee. Get out of dying.
Have you ever had a time in your life where you literally had to run for your life?
I can think of two instances that that has happened to me.
One happened, I think, when I was in junior high school in Virginia.
And I was with one of my cousins and we had walked up to the 7-Eleven, gotten our treats,
and we were walking back to his house.
Now there was a shortcut, and the shortcut took us through the back of a gas station.
And as we went into the back of that gas station, guess what we ran into?
A huge German shepherd on a chain.
And my first thought was run and we ran.
And I remember, because it was quite painful as I was running and my arm went back,
that German shepherd latched on to my elbow.
And I had to go to the doctor and get tetanus shots and all that stuff.
Fleeing for my life.
Now here's another story that is true, even though it may not sound like it.
When I was at Covenant College, I had the keys to the library because I worked in the library
and I had a friend.
We decided that on a Friday night we wanted to watch the miniseries showgun,
which had been recorded.
So we went up there into the library, we watched it, we had finished,
and we were about to go out and I was going to walk up, and I had walked the building.
But I didn't know that one of my friends was erasing his library finds.
That was back in the days when they were on cards.
And at that moment, a flashlight shone through the doors of the library.
It was the campus police.
And all I heard was, as I was waiting by the back, shoes run.
Because they used to call me shoes back then.
Run. And so went through the elevator doors to the other side of the building,
threw open the back doors, the alarm goes off, I'm running one way,
my friend is running the other way, and then I hear,
stop or I'll shoot.
And so I ran, caught up with my friends, and we hid out in the woods for a while.
And I was thinking to myself, I'm going to get shot,
and what's worse is my mom is going to find out and I will be dismissed from college.
I was running for my life.
Ever been to a situation like that where you had to flee?
You don't think about your possessions at that point,
you don't think about your reputation,
you just want to run to save yourself.
I want you to think when they tell you,
you got to get out of town because there's a hurricane coming, a tsunami.
Now there are some people who are foolish and they will stay.
There are some people who will try to take all their possessions with them
and it doesn't work.
If the plane crashes and they tell you to get off,
leave, don't get your luggage.
That's how harsh life can be.
And do you realize that type of advice is in the Bible?
Back then, who knows when an invading empire would come along
and ransack your town, it happened,
and it was happening to God's people.
The Babylonians, the superpower of the day was coming along
and Jeremiah says, give up.
And to Baruch, he also has a message.
Just give up.
If you can flee, flee.
You want to preserve your life.
And we think about that, we may think, well, that's awfully a long time ago,
those events don't happen.
I think there's a principle here.
And the principle is this.
You are to avoid the wrath to come by finding your life in Christ.
That is essentially the all-time message from this particular chapter.
The Babylonians, an instrument of God's judgment.
But one day, Jesus is coming again.
And we know from the Bible this world is under the judgment of God.
So you better flee for your life.
That's the message.
And let's see exactly what God is saying to his servant, Baruch.
And here's the first thing you need to get across.
And it's what Baruch needed to get across.
In this world, don't pursue greatness because there are other things
that are more important than greatness and glory.
And to understand this, you've got to understand who Baruch is.
He is the secretary of Jeremiah.
He is the man who wrote down all the sayings of Jeremiah.
And he was a court official.
He came from a priestly family.
He had a grandfather who was a governor of Jerusalem.
He had another relative, a brother who was an official at the court of King Zedekiah.
So this man comes from a household of power brokers.
He is well-trained.
He has all the pedigree he needs to be a success in Israel.
But all is not well, is it?
He may be connected.
He may be a power broker, but all is not well.
And you see that in verse 3 where it says,
You said to me, Whoa, the Lord has added sorrow to my pain.
I'm worn out with groaning and find no rest.
Something's going on in his life where he has no rest.
He can't sleep at night.
He's one of those people who tosses and turns because he can't get things off of his mind at night.
He's worried.
And why is he so worried?
It is because of the negative reaction to Jeremiah's message.
Jeremiah had told people, basically surrender.
Surrender to the Babylonians.
Don't fight. And the message that he had to record from Jeremiah was not always pleasant.
I mean, think about it.
It tells about the destruction of your people and your town.
And so he becomes quite unpopular.
And he's thinking to himself, What about all those promises, God, you made of,
that were your people, that you're going to protect us?
What about all of that, Lord?
Get an idea of what he was going through in chapter 43 and listen to what it says about how the people thought of Baruch.
When Jeremiah had finished telling the people all the words of the Lord, their God, everything the Lord had sent him to tell them,
Azaria, son of Hushaiah, and Johanna, son of Kera, and all the arrogant men said to Jerusalem, to Jeremiah,
you are lying. The Lord, our God, has not sent you to say you must go to Egypt to settle there.
But Baruch, son of Narai, is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians so they may kill us.
Do you see what they're saying?
They're saying Baruch has given you this message.
Baruch is the problem player.
They are saying, Baruch, you're a danger to us.
So it is no wonder he's losing sleep at night.
No wonder he's groaning and moaning because he knows what is going to happen to God's people and he is being rejected.
But what does God tell him to do?
He tells him, you, Baruch, are to avoid dreams of glory.
Avoid them. Put them behind you.
It says in verse 5, you should you not seek great things for yourself, do not seek them.
For I'm bringing judgment on this place.
Don't seek glory, not when the wrath of God is coming.
And maybe Baruch had dreams of glory associated with prosperity.
Oh, he works for a prophet, doesn't he?
Or maybe he had dreams of positions, of moving up the corporate ladder in Israel.
Maybe he had dreams that one day he would be a prophet himself.
Those type of dreams are not far from any one of us because I have a feeling in one form or another we are all looking for some glory.
You may have daydreams of how people are celebrating your greatness.
You may have fantasies about how people will one day think you're the greatest.
I think we all have that type of mindset that we want to have some glory ourselves.
But why? Why do we want this glory?
Because we think it's going to give us some value. That's why we seek it.
We think it is going to make us into people that we are not.
That's why we want it.
And the truth of the matter is that those who have glory aren't exactly happy with it.
Because it never really fulfills.
And a lot of times it is more trouble than what it's worth.
With all the baggage that comes with it.
People want to move up to that executive position and then what happens?
They are working 80 hours a week. They have no time for their family or friends. They are miserable.
Or we've got the high school crowd who wants to go to the IB program and then go to the Ivy League school of their choice and then work on Wall Street and what do we find out?
They are miserable.
Glory is not what it's cracked up to be.
I think what we've got to remember is what used to happen when a Roman general returned triumphant from the field.
They would throw a parade.
And as the general was on his chariot, there was a Greek slave behind him with a crown holding it over his head whispering these words.
Remember, you are but a man.
That all glory is free.
And it is not going to save you.
And the real problem in life that really gets to us is not glory.
Because you're not going to be thinking about glory when you are suffering.
When you are injured, glory doesn't mean a thing.
Greatness doesn't mean a thing.
When you are in a hospital bed dying, does it really matter if you have glory?
No.
Glory is almost a man-made construct.
And in the final analysis, when it comes down to the quality of our life, it means very, very little.
Because it doesn't last.
It's here today. It's gone tomorrow.
They think you are great one day just like they did with Jesus Christ the next day they're out to crucify you.
So then what do you pursue?
Life.
That's what you pursue.
And look at what God is doing here in this passage and what he tells them.
Jerusalem is in the midst of judgment.
And in verse 4 we find a passage that has been repeated in the book of Jeremiah.
But the Lord has told me to say to you, this is what the Lord said,
I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted throughout the earth.
That is a way of saying God is bringing judgment.
I planted Israel, they sinned, I'm going to uproot them.
I'm going to tear them down.
There is something else that is more important here than glory.
It is saving yourself, Baruch.
It is saving yourself.
It is not a time for glory in the midst of the judgment of God.
There is something else that is much more important and not so trivial.
Life.
Life and to live.
And what does God say here?
Pursue life. Pursue life.
Listen to what he says in the fifth verse.
For I will bring disaster and all people declares the Lord.
But wherever you go, I will let you escape with your life.
May say something different in some of your versions.
The idea is that you are receiving your life in the midst of judgment as a prize of war.
Your life will be your reward.
And over and over again in the Bible, what do we see?
That God is pro-life and to His obedient people, He preserves their life.
Notice what happened to Rahab when God's people went into Jericho and they tore it down.
Rahab was preserved.
Earlier we saw how a Kushite, an African who was in Jerusalem, would be saved, ebbed, mellock.
Why? He was obedient to God.
God will preserve the life of His people even in the midst of judgment.
And isn't life the great value?
Isn't there something about us that wants to survive and go on?
We have that fight or flight syndrome as human beings.
We'll do what it takes to live.
But we've got to be careful that our judgment about that is not clouded with visions of glory.
And what does it say in Ecclesiastes?
It is better to be a living dog than a dead lion.
God is pro-life and He wants you to live.
But how does that speak to us?
I'm not under the wrath of the Babylonians.
No one is breaking into my house.
But mind this, this world is under judgment.
The judgment of God.
And when Jesus Christ comes again, it is not going to be pleasant.
I don't know everything about that judgment, but read the book of Revelation.
You're going to have the wine press of the theory of God.
And the question before us now is how then are we to live in a world that's going down,
in a world that is falling apart, and it is.
It's not to pursue glory as our primary motivation.
It is life.
Listen to what the apostle Paul says in the book of Philippians chapter 3 verse 7 and following.
But whatever we're gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss because it's a passing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whose sake I have lost all things.
I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ.
And down in verse 10, he says, I want to know Christ.
Yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his suffering.
Becoming like him in his death and so somehow attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Think of apostle Paul for a moment.
If there's one person who could have had glory, it was him.
Hebrew of Hebrews.
Pharisee.
Oh, he could have had earthly glory as a religious leader.
But he gave it all up for something that was much more important that is eternal.
Jesus Christ.
His Savior.
And let me tell you how important that is.
Think of the news this week.
Remember the story on the news about the truck that was on the bridge in Ohio and how the cab was falling
and it was hanging over the bridge.
And what did the news say that the first responder did and the person who was dangling in the cab?
They prayed.
They prayed for life.
And I will make you a bet they were praying about eternal life too.
Remember the shooting at Joel Othin's Church in Texas?
There was a small seven year old girl with a gunshot wound.
What did the first responder do?
Pray over that girl for life.
And I'd say to you, the most important thing you can pursue in life is eternal life.
Because all the trauma we go through is part of the judgment of God on this world and it is designed to make you turn to Jesus.
And there may be nonbelievers who come to our church or nonbelievers that you know.
And they're thinking the most important thing in their life is finding some glory in this world and the world will tell you, go for the gusto.
Go for it all.
Move up the corporate ladder.
But realize this, sooner or later you'll have to face God.
And what you need is Jesus Christ because that glory on the day of judgment will be absolutely worthless.
What are you going to do on the day of judgment when you are bowing before God and he says to you, why should I let you into my kingdom?
Are you going to say, well, I was the most valuable player in the NBA.
I was the chief executive officer of my company.
And do you think God is going to say, I'm impressed?
No.
All that glory meant nothing.
And God is going to say, really?
I don't care.
Did you look at Jesus?
Have you looked at my son?
Have you seen him?
And just remember now, you think, well, that's far off now.
One traffic accident, one rogue cell and you will be facing the Lord God.
You better be pursuing life now because once there is death, that's it.
There is no second chance.
I'm telling nonbelievers, you better seek life.
Seek it while you can because that day of judgment is just around the corner.
And for those of you who are believers, you may think to yourself that in all the uncertainties of life,
I don't know what is going to happen to me and I'm fearful, I'm afraid.
But what does the Word of God say?
Anyone who believes in me has eternal life.
And the foolishness of belief is the key that opens the door to eternal life.
Continue in your trust in the Lord because that is what he's looking for.
Do you believe?
Do you continue to believe in me?
If so, you have life and you're going to have life in its fullness.
So what's the message?
Flee for your life.
Flee to Christ.
Flee to eternal life in a world that is under the judgment of God.
Let's pray.