Do Not Trust In Your Flesh

"Do Not Trust In Your Flesh" – Jeremiah 49:31 Living on this earth is a daily commitment. Jeremiah describes a nation that lived confidently, relaxed and without defenses: no gates, no bars. That is the picture of a fleshly security that lulls a people to sleep, that believes itself untouchable, and that makes lies its refuge. The message moves through Isaiah, Obadiah and Luke to show that pride prepares the fall, that sin always seeks to quiet the conscience, and that the only firm ground is to live watchfully, depending on God and being rich toward Him.

I. A nation living confidently, relaxed and without defenses (Jeremiah 49:31).

A. Jeremiah writes near the end of his book, already in captivity.

1. Nebuchadnezzar offered him a house outside Babylon and he refused it.

2. He kept trying to make everyone understand that there should be repentance.

3. It is not easy for those God chooses: the prophet is later killed in Egypt.

B. The confident nation felt secure in its own eyes, relaxed, and worst of all, undefended.

1. A people without defense will be plundered: no army, no way to guard what was left.

2. “Neither gates nor bars” is the poetic figure of a house left open and vulnerable.

3. God promised to be with them, and they said: perhaps I do not need the help.

C. The problem with self-sufficiency is carelessness.

1. Today I could not pray, tomorrow I could not pray, and a month later you have no voice from God.

2. Confidence without God lulls you to sleep, and human security is fragile.

3. The call is to live watchfully, not trusting in walls or in what is material.

II. A fleshly security (Isaiah 28:15).

A. Fleshly security smells of arrogance: I have it all under control, I need nothing.

1. Things go well today; no one knows what happens tomorrow.

2. The spiritual life means fighting the good fight like a soldier.

B. “We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement.”

1. It is a strong way to describe the false security of a careless believer.

2. As if they had settled danger and judgment, believing nothing would touch them.

3. But neither danger nor judgment can be settled, and we do not know tomorrow.

III. The overflowing scourge: the sweeping storm.

A. The scourge is the blow; they said it would not reach them.

1. They had joined the idols of their neighbors: on every corner stood an idol.

2. Grace is precise: everything has been given freely, and so it is neither harmed nor confused.

B. It is a sudden, violent crisis that sweeps away whatever is poorly grounded.

1. When the evil days come, what we must do is pray and repent.

2. A conviction that was true yesterday, if it is not true today, has ceased to be.

3. God looks at the heart, because the heart holds what enters the mind and rules the whole day.

IV. A false refuge.

A. God denounces their protection as deceitful.

1. Alliances, pacts, excuses, corruption and empty religiosity.

2. Trust in the human instead of in God.

B. The problem in life is not a lack of intelligence, but placing confidence in a false refuge.

1. Our confidence is God; the church of Christ is not contaminated and does not walk as this earth walks.

2. We must be filled with the Holy Spirit, the One who does not deceive.

V. “I am, and none else beside me”: pride prepares the fall (Isaiah 47:8).

A. God confronts a false security: when a people believes itself untouchable, pride prepares its fall.

1. The figure is of one who lives for herself, seated confidently, as if no one could touch her.

2. “I shall not sit as a widow”: self-sufficiency, when no one knows whom death visits.

3. “Neither shall I know the loss of children”: she thinks she will never lose power, protection or stability.

B. But the evil day comes, and the Lord transforms it.

1. In Babylon the furnace could not touch those who refused the idolatry: God delivered them.

2. That must be our song: the Lord arose and delivered me, not once, but many times.

VI. Sin seeks to quiet the conscience (Jeremiah 5:12).

A. The conscience fills with lies: nothing is happening, no one will know.

1. The one deceived is oneself; Scripture does not contradict itself backward or forward.

2. Denying God brings blindness and false security, and blindness is very hard to admit.

B. “They have belied the LORD” is a practical denial: God is not there, God does not see, God does not act.

1. They lived as though God did not exist, though God is the One who always is.

2. “Neither shall we see sword nor famine” is self-deception: sword is war and invasion; famine is scarcity.

VII. “Who shall come down against us?” (Jeremiah 21:13).

A. God speaks to Jerusalem and to its leaders at a moment of military threat.

1. “Inhabitant of the valley” and “rock of the plain” express their sense of strength.

2. The question reveals pride and false security: they thought their geography made them untouchable.

B. When God departs, no geography defends us.

1. What is needed are knees that cry out and a meek spirit that humbles itself.

2. Not one day and not one cry, but constantly, for whoever does not pray has no contact with God.

VIII. Pride deceives (Obadiah 3).

A. “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.”

1. Pride makes one believe he is safe when without God he is not.

2. God casts down whatever lifts itself against Him.

B. Edom dwelt in the clefts of the rock and felt invincible.

1. It was Esau's land, south of Israel, mountainous and rocky.

2. “Who shall bring me down to the ground?” is the posture of one who will not be defeated.

IX. Being rich toward God (Luke 12:20-21).

A. Man places his security in what he has stored and promises himself peace for many years.

1. God calls him a fool, because he planned without counting on God.

2. Life can end suddenly, and riches cannot hold the soul.

B. The problem is not having goods, but hoarding only for oneself.

1. Be a people of faith and of obedience: one stands by obedience, not by greatness.

2. Be merciful, be generous, and be lovers of eternity.

3. In your hands is what you will carry to gain or what you will carry to lose.

X. The Lord's Supper (Luke 22:7-20).

A. We celebrate because Jesus commands it: that we always keep the memory of His death.

1. We do not deserve it; it is by grace, freely, because no one can pay for his own life.

2. The Supper is the memory that the blood of Christ is upon you.

B. The Lord's Supper is the memory of the great miracle of the cross.

1. Today we are not slaves: today we are free.

2. We have His Word in revelation, never to be deceived by anything or by anyone.