Bible Text: Jeremiah 2:14-28 | Preacher: Pastor Gene Eberhardy | The LORD spoke to us from Jeremiah 2:14-28. The first point that He made was, “Who you are with and who you trust is the evidence that you have taken My name in vain and fallen away from me.” My dad would say to me, “Tell me who you hang around with and I will tell you who you are.” The LORD said your life style will be the evidence of who you really are. The LORD said, “I remember the time of our first love, the time of our entering into covenant. You were not a slave or a house servant, you were my child. Now I am grieved that you do not find your life in me anymore but you run after those that do not have life, from one lifeless hope to another.”
Israel ran after the culture and gods of Assyria, the culture and gods of Babylonia and then Egypt and their gods and culture. The LORD spoke to us that many that call themselves Christian are running after the culture and idols of the lost world while continuing to claim the name of Christ Jesus as savior. Like my father said to me, “What will I see when I look at who you are with? What is the evidence of your life before the Father? Is it of Jesus? Can He see the witness in you of Acts 1:8, 1 John 5:10? Is our witness of His Word the Holy Scripture? Can He see the evidence of it?”
The LORD said to Israel and to us in verse 18, “What are you doing drinking from the Nile and the Euphrates?” The waters of the river represent life. Cities are located near bodies of water. In this prophetic picture, the LORD was saying, “What life are you drinking from?” He reminded us of John 4 where Jesus said to the women at the well, “When you drink from the water of this well you will thirst again but the water that I will give you will cause you to never thirst again. It shall be a well of water springing up in them into eternal life.” He asked us, “Are we drinking the water of the life of the world or are we drinking the waters of the life of Christ Jesus?” This is a question we need to seriously ask ourselves and take inventory of the culture we drink from and emulate.
Next, the LORD wanted us to hear from verse 21. “I planted you a noble vine and you degenerated into a strange mutated vine (meaning strange to God).” To mutate means to change from what it was created for. The question the LORD brought to us was, “I created you to produce the fruit of Christ Jesus. Why is the fruit of your life that of the world and not of Christ Jesus?” Once again this is another thing we need to honestly evaluate. What is the fruit of your life? We need to ponder these seriously and get our life in line with Christ Jesus and turn away from the life of the flesh. Are you a doer of the Word or a hearer only?