HOME-GROUP BOOK FOR 2015

Our book for 2015 will be 'FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD' by Sinclair B Ferguson published by Banner of Truth. You can find more details and read an extract from it by following the link:
http://www.wtsbooks.com/from-the-mouth-of-god-trusting-reading-and-applying-the-bible-sinclair-b-ferguson-9781848712423

If you wish us to purchase a copy then please sign up for it on the sheet on the Church Notice Board. We will seek to obtain the best price for a bulk purchase. 

HEAVEN AND HELL QUESTIONS FOR NOVEMBER HOMEGROUPS

HEAVEN AND HELL QUESTIONS 8

1. Please come prepared to say one thing that has made an impression upon you from these months of reading, meditating, and discussing heaven. It may be something that was new to you or something you have known for a long time but it has come to you afresh.

2. How can knowing that we shall never sin again remove some, even all, of the fears that we may have, or have had, about heaven?

3. How can the teaching on the resurrection of the body help us face suffering?

4. How will heaven be heaven when some whom we love are in hell? How do we live with that thought now?

5. It is said that, 'Marriages are made in heaven', but they do not continue in heaven, or do they? Will we know one another in heaven?

6. What would you say to someone who says that they do not wish to go to heaven because their husband/wife was not a believer and they want to be with them?

HEAVEN AND HELL QUESTIONS CHAPTER SEVEN

HEAVEN AND HELL QUESTIONS 7

1. How would you describe heaven to someone who has never read the Bible?

2. Discuss the thought of Jesus as, 'bringing you to heaven'?

3. Read Mr Steadfast's words on page 86. You are going to see Jesus. What do you think this will be like? At the moment you die many other believers also die. Will you stand in line for your turn? How long will you have to talk with him personally? How long do you think you would like in a one to one time with the Lord?

4. In heaven Christ will mean even more to us than he does now - page 89. Do you find this thought helpful? If so how?

5. "To die will be an awfully big adventure." page 92. Discuss.

6. It is said of the puritan preacher Richard Sibbes that, "heaven was in him before he was in heaven". With this in mind consider the last question:

True or false: A person may be "Too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use."? Please give some reasons for your answer.

JEREMIAH 5 - WHERE HAVE ALL THE RIGHTEOUS GONE?

JEREMIAH 4:5-31 

WHERE HAVE ALL THE RIGHTEOUS GONE? 

v1-5: Truth, Justice and the Jerusalem way!

Have you heard the expression: "Truth, justice and the American way"? Erik Lundegaard of the New York Times tells the story of this expression:

'In the first screen incarnation of Superman, the Max Fleischer cartoons that ran from 1941 to 1943, each episode's preamble informs us not only of the origin and powers of this relatively new creation (Krypton, speeding bullet, etc.), but also the kinds of things he fights for. It's a shorter list than you think. Before World War II, Superman fought "a never-ending battle for truth and justice." Back then, that was enough.

By the time the first live-action Superman hit the screen - Kirk Alyn, in a 1948 serial - the lessons of World War II, particularly in the gas chambers of Europe, were obvious. That's why Pa Kent tells young Clark he must always use his powers "in the interests of truth, tolerance and justice."

It wasn't until Superman came to television in the 1950s that the phrase became codified in the form most of us remember it: "a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way."'

Jeremiah was no superman, but he got there first! This chapter is all about truth, justice and the Jerusalem way.

Jeremiah is sent to look for a righteous man so that Jerusalem may be spared. Sound familiar? Remember the story of Abraham, Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah? Genesis 18:22-33.

What does he find? The people say all the right things. They can talk in pious language, but they tell lies.

God has brought a measure of judgement against them - but all to no avail. They have become hardened. They have refused to repent.

Jeremiah thought that maybe things would be different among the better educated, wealthier citizens. They would know the 'way of the Lord' and 'the justice of God'. They were no better.

Social justice is an often heard topic among the 'Christian leaders' of our country (Archbishops, political commentators, etc). Why do you think we here less about issues of justice from evangelical non-conformist?

v6 The lion, the wolf and the leopard. (Sounds a little like CS Lewis. Like him, Jeremiah uses his imagination.)

The people shall be struck down, devastated, and torn in pieces because of their many transgressions and great apostasies.

v7-13 The answer my friend is not blowin in the wind!

v13 The false prophets are just full of wind, not the word.

v7 How can God, in justice, pardon his people? They have forsaken God, who had fed them to the full, and sworn allegiance to idols and committed adultery - spiritual and actual, with idols and their neighbour's wives. The two often go together.

v8 Another animal metaphor - 'well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbour's wife'!

v10 He illustrates Israel and Judah as a vine - Isaiah 5; Jeremiah 2:21

These words can be taken literally as directions to the invaders. Do not miss the note of mercy in the midst of wrath - 'but make not a full end.'

The prophets have spoken falsely assuring the people that the good times are here to stay, no disaster is coming. (Would our leaders tell us if we were heading for another financial crash, especially as we head towards an election, and what has been happening at Tesco?)

How do we do as a nation when it comes to truth and lies? It seems to me that lying is more widespread today than 30 years ago, and more accepted as the norm. Remember Allan Sugar choosing as winner of the Apprentice a contestant who had lied on his CV.

v14-17 Jeremiah a prophet with a mouth filled with fire.

v14 Many people like a fiery preacher, unless they are the wood!

v15 The Barbarians are coming.

Waiting for the Barbarians BY C. P. CAVAFY

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are due here today.

Why isn’t anything going on in the senate?

Why are the senators sitting there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today.

What’s the point of senators making laws now?

Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.

Why did our emperor get up so early,

and why is he sitting enthroned at the city’s main gate,

in state, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are coming today

and the emperor’s waiting to receive their leader.

He’s even got a scroll to give him,

loaded with titles, with imposing names.

Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today

wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?

Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,

rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?

Why are they carrying elegant canes

beautifully worked in silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are coming today

and things like that dazzle the barbarians.

Why don’t our distinguished orators turn up as usual

to make their speeches, say what they have to say?

Because the barbarians are coming today

and they’re bored by rhetoric and public speaking.

Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?

(How serious people’s faces have become.)

Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,

everyone going home lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come.

And some of our men just in from the border say

there are no barbarians any longer.

Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?

Those people were a kind of solution.

C. P. Cavafy, "Waiting for the Barbarians" from C.P. Cavafy: Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Translation Copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.

v16-17 Unlike the Barbarians of the poem, the ones Jeremiah is speaking about are real, and they are coming to eat them up! See Deuteronomy 28v49-52.

v18 Once again the note of mercy remembered in the midst of wrath: "But even in those days...I will not make a full end of you."

v19 Another of those searching questions - WHY?

Answer: Because they have forsaken the Lord and served foreign gods. The punishment will fit the crime. You reap what you sow. They shall go to serve foreigners in the land of those gods.

v20-25 They have no fear of God. The God who made the sea and established it's boundaries. How impressive is the storm tossed sea crashing against the rocky shore.

They have no fear of the Lord of the Harvest, who sends the rain. So he will not send the rain or give the harvest.

v26 Wicked men catch men as a fowler catches birds.

v27b-28 They have no regard for social justice, but get rich at the expense of the very people they should be protecting and caring for.

v29 Again two devastating questions.

v30-31a Appalling and horrible is the ministry of false prophets. (Now coming to our screens on Freeview TV!). The priests follow the directions of the false prophets and that is the way the people want it!

v31b Final question: "but what will you do when the end comes?"

They did not listen to the word of the Lord. Are we listening?

JEREMIAH 4:5-31 - BEHOLD HE COMES

JEREMIAH 4:5-31

Jeremiah 3:6-4:4 'Return Faithless Israel'

Jeremiah begun his ministry in 627 BC. This message comes from the earlier part of his ministry. A surprise, speaking to the scattered people of Israel. Doing so to catch the ear of Judah for although unlike her sister she has not moved geographically she has gone far away spiritually.

4:4 "Circumcise....your hearts."

Jeremiah warns of the consequences of failing to heed this message and repent:

v4b "lest my wrath go forth like fire..."

Jeremiah follows this with a graphic picture of what it will be like when God's wrath comes:

BEHOLD HE COMES! (v13)

Augustine was astounded. He saw Bishop Ambrose reading but he heard nothing. Ambrose appeared to be reading silently! Augustine had never seen anyone do this before. Augustine was not five years old, but a grown man. One who himself was an avid reader. He, like everyone else he had known until that day, read out loud.

For the first thousand years after it was written anyone reading the book of Jeremiah would have read it out loud. I want to encourage you to read the bible out loud (perhaps quietly if you live with others) to yourself. I believe that we feel the impact of the words more when we do so. Often it helps our understanding.

Jeremiah is often very dramatic. This better than Shakespeare's Henry V:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Life is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”―Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa

To the people of Jeremiah's day when he preached this it seemed no challenger was in the ring! Assyria had been the undefeated champion for 100 years now seemed seemed like an old man with a zimmer frame who was unable to even climb into the ring. No new challenger had arisen.

Jeremiah's prophecy of invasion, siege and destruction seemed to be without any foundation or reality.

However, it came true forty years later. God is patient. Very patient. But his patience does run out.

1. THE EYE OF THE LION - v5-8

'A lion has gone up form his thicket.' -v7a

v5 Action stations, sound the alarm, soldiers to their battle stations, civilians to the shelters.

v6a Unfurl the standard. Remind ourselves who we are and what we are fighting for. Remind the enemy we are ready, come if they dare.

v6b-7 A lion comes from the North. A destroyer of nations. The Babylonians are coming - although no one knew it would be them. Other nations will also hear the lions roar and feel the bite.

v8 Through this lion the wrath of God will go forth like fire (v4), his fierce anger.

2. A LAND WITHOUT HEROES -v9-10

'..courage shall fail.' -v9

"Whatever happened to the heroes?
                       No more heroes any more." The stranglers!!!

v9 The four groups who lead the people - see 1:18 & 2:26.

v10 Is young Jeremiah being critical of the Lord God? If so for what? How had God deceived the people? Others had prophesied peace, but they were false prophets who had not been sent by the Lord, so how could Jeremiah think the Lord was to blame? The answer may be that Jeremiah is blaming God for allowing false prophets to mislead the people.

Have you never wondered why God allows false religions, and especially 'false Christianity' to thrive and grow (especially if you have friends or loved ones caught up in them)?

3. WE'RE ALL DOOMED - v11-18

'This is your doom..it has reached your very heart.' v18

Dad's army - Corporal Jones - "Don't Panic, don't panic."

Private Frazer - "We're All Doomed" (buy the T shirt!)

v11-12 The wind of judgement will blow.

v13 Wind - more like a whirlwind!

v14 How can a person wash their heart from evil or cleanse their thoughts?

v15-17 Trouble is coming. Dan is the most northern place in what was Israel, and Mount Ephraim is just north of Jerusalem. The enemy are everywhere.

v18 They are going to reap what they have sown.

4. HOW LONG - v19-21

'How long must I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?' v21

'How long O Lord' - the cry of the Psalmist: 6:3; 13:1-2; 35:17; 62:3; 74:10; 79:5; 80:4; 89:45; 90:13; 94:3; 119:84

Jeremiah feels a physical pain brought on by his mental anguish and agony of heart by what he is having to prophesy. These are his people.

5. CREATION UNDONE - v22-28

'The earth.... was without form or void' - v23

Here is God's response to Jeremiah's cry. God always answers his people's prayers. He does not always give the answer we want!

v22 Man has become a reverse of what he should be, wise in things he should be innocent in and foolish in that which he should be wise.

v23-28 So God will reverse creation. Creation will be undone.

This sounds like a poem. Four times he says: 'I looked...'

Is judgement inevitable? Remember Jonah. But how can they comply with v4 & v14? How can they cleanse themselves of their sin?

They cannot do so, but God can. Grace can triumph, but at this point there is no mention of grace, or is there? Where is there grace in this chapter?

6. THE ANGUISH OF THE ADULTEROUS WIFE

'Woe is me...' v31

v29-31 The picture we saw earlier in chapter 2, the unfaithful wife is brought back.

She does not repent. She tries to seduce the invaders to no effect. She ends up in despair and anguish.

QUESTIONS FOR HOME GROUPS HEAVEN AND HELL CHAPTER SIX

HEAVEN AND HELL QUESTIONS 6

1. 'Heaven is created for God's glory' What do you understand by 'the glory of God'? Doesn't this make God selfish, self-centred and egotistical? If not, why not?

2. 'Heaven is God's home.'  How does the Psalmist in Psalm 73 use this to help him when his faith almost gave way.

3. Alistair Begg in his forward to John Blanchard's book, 'A Hitch-Hikers Guide To Heaven' writes: "Shortly before his death from cancer on 4th April 2013, Roger Ebert, the celebrated Chicago Sun-Times film critic, expressed the increasingly widespread notion that death ends everything:."Many readers have informed me that it is a tragic and dreary business to go into death without faith. I don't feel that way. I have no desire to live forever. The concept frightens me."

What would you say to someone who says something similar to you?

4. Ted on page 78 talks of seeing heaven, 'on a hospital bed, in the face of a dying believer...in a faithful Christian struggling against difficulties.' Relate one experience where you have seen heaven in someone.

5. 'Here on earth we may all experience heaven daily' - page 79. What does this really mean in practical terms. What is it like to experience heaven?

JEREMIAH 3:6-4:4 'RETURN FAITHLESS ISRAEL AND TREACHEROUS JUDAH'

JEREMIAH 3v6 - 4v4

JEREMIAH A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS

Jeremiah 2:1-3:5 FROM MARRIAGE TO DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE

The message moves from v1 'Just Married' to 3v1 'Divorce', and Remarriage 3v4-5?

Jeremiah, a young man, has to preach this in Jerusalem. What a daunting prospect it must have been!

At the end of the previous message we saw that under the law a husband and wife who divorce they may not remarry - Deuteronomy 24:1-4. Is this the final word? The next message picks up the theme as the Lord speaks as a husband to his people.

Some 15 times in the next message Jeremiah uses the word 'turn/return'. He uses this word in a variety of ways. (Although the same word may be used in Hebrew or Greek it can have different meanings. You have to consider the context and how it is used by that writer.) Jeremiah uses it to mean turn towards someone, turn away from them, turn back (repentance) or return (physically to a place). He uses it in all these ways in this message.

Jeremiah 3:6-4:4 'RETURN FAITHLESS ISRAEL AND TREACHEROUS JUDAH'

1. Some comments by way of introduction:

[1] When you are reading the bible do not settle for not knowing something the writer wants you to know. Here Jeremiah tells us the time in which he delivered this message:

3v6 The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah:

Josiah reigned from 640 - 609 BC. He was the last faithful King in Judah's history. In his lifetime the world changed. Assyria, the world superpower had been challenged by Egypt, Babylon and other nations and prevailed until 612 BC when the Babylonians conquered Nineveh.

Around 628/627 BC the 12th year of his reign Josiah begun to reform the Temple. Appearances can be deceptive. Outwardly the people went along with the reforms. Jeremiah is called, as all prophets and preachers, to minister to the heart.

Jeremiah begun his ministry in 627 BC. This message comes form the earlier part of his ministry.

[2] Knowing the History is vital to understanding what you are reading.

931/930 BC Israel split into two: Israel in the North, Judah in the South.

Israel never has a faithful King! Idols fill the land. Centres of false worship were established. The prophets Elijah, Elisha, Amos and Hosea ministered to Israel without seeing reform or revival.

722 BC Israel falls to the Assyrians. Survivors are scattered far and wide.

Judah had a mixture of good and bad kings.

The prophets Joel, Micah, Isaiah, Zephaniah and now Jeremiah ministered to Judah. Habakkuk is difficult to date but he may have ministered at the same time as Jeremiah.

Now we are in a position to make sense of what takes place next in Jeremiah.

2. AN UNEXPECTED MESSAGE TO FAITHLESS ISRAEL FROM WHICH JUDAH, AND WE, ARE TOO LEARN FROM

[1] 3:6-11 Two Sisters - Faithless & Treacherous.

Team mates sometimes become rivals, even enemies. The same is true of siblings. Israel and Judah were family, sisters. They had endured a stormy relationship. Even so Judah would be intensely interested in anything that was said to her sister Israel.

Israel had played the whore - v6

She did not return to the Lord so he had divorced her - v7-8. The curses of the covenant fell on them - Deuteronomy 28:58, 64-68.

Although Judah had seen this she too played the whore! - v9.

Now she was pretending to return to the Lord. Josiah's reforms did not reach their hearts. They lied. They had not returned to the Lord- v10.

Judah had thought herself to be better than her sister Israel. Had not God divorced her. Had she not been defeated by Assyria and scattered among the nations? What a shock to hear (and what courage it took on Jeremiah's part to say) Faithless Israel was more righteous than treacherous Judah! v11

[2] 3:12-14 The Law May Say No Going Back, But Grace Says Return.

Jeremiah is now sent to preach to remnants of the Northern tribes an appeal to return to the Lord with an assurance that they will be forgiven - v12-14.

[a] God assures them he is merciful - v12.

Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

[b] The condition for their return is confession of their guilt and rebellion - v13.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[c] Return - v14 an appeal made 3 times v12, 14, & 22. Literally 'turn you turning one'.

The Lord will bring them to Zion - v14d

[3] 3:15-18 A Vision Of What Might Be

If they return then this is what the Lord will do.

[a] He will give them Shepherds after his own heart - v15a.

[b] They will feed the people with knowledge and understanding - v15b

[c] He will multiply their numbers and they will live in the land - v16. This is as God promised Abraham. As Solomon prayed - 1 Kings 8:46-53.

[d] They will no longer look to the ark of the covenant of the LORD in the superstitious way that they had done.

[e] Blessings will not be limited to the Jews, but will overflow to all nations - v17.

[f] Judah and Israel shall be reunited, coming from the North to live once again in the land, their heritage - v18.

[4] 3:19-25 An Emotional Appeal

v19 God gave them everything a father could give his children: to be part of a family, a pleasant land, a heritage - as part of the most beautiful of nations. They should have regarded him as their father and remained faithful to him.

v20 Instead they were like a treacherous wife who left her husband.

v21 Is this a picture of faithless sons realising their folly?

22a is a very moving plea.

v22b-25 Jeremiah gives them words of repentance.

In general I am against the use of 'a sinners prayer'. If people have learned the gospel then it is best to leave them to their own words. However, in this age where many have little knowledge of Christianity setting out the sort of prayer someone might pray can, if used with care, be of help. Jeremiah does this here, and Hosea does in Hosea 14:1-3:

1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

2 Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.

3 Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”

4v1-2. If they return then they must return to Him! They must get rid of their idols.

If they return then it must be in repentance. The law says you cannot come but grace says come in repentance.

If Israel returns then blessing will come to the nations.

Romans 11:12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

v3-4 Two metaphors;

(1) Break up the unploughed ground:

Jeremiah may be quoting Hosea 10:12

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

(2) Circumcise your hearts:

Jeremiah applies the words of Moses -Deut 10:12-16; 30:1-6.

John the Baptist later echoes these words: Matthew 3:7-12.

The gospel is a message of good news that includes a call to repentance. Jeremiah's message shows us the importance of preaching repentance.

Jesus preached repentance: Mt 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus commanded repentance be preached: Luke 24:47 ...and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

The early church looked for repentance as a mark of a genuine work of God - Acts 11:18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Paul preached it Acts 20:21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 26:20 but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

Peter wrote about it 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.