Jeremiah

Chapter Seventeen

Introduction

Americans are becoming more and more aware of the causes and cures of heart disease.

There is a type of heart disease, however, that Americans largely ignore. It is their spiritual heart disease. While our nation might be growing healthier physically, it is certainly growing weaker spiritually .

What is spiritual heart disease? Jesus diagnosed it this way, in Mark 7:21-23, saying,

Mark 7:22 "thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.

Mark 7:23 "All these evil things come from within and defile a man."

So there is spiritual heart disease. What are its causes and cure? You read about its causes and cure in Jeremiah Seventeen.

Four times in this chapter the spiritual heart is mentioned, in verses one, five, nine, and ten. In three of those occurrences the heart is said to be spiritually diseased in some way:

Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD."

Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And [incurably sick]; Who can know it?"

If your cardiologist told you that your heart was diseased, you'd probably do whatever was necessary to reverse the effects and recover.

Jesus described Himself as a great physician in the Gospels. One of His specialties is in spiritual cardiology - in diagnosing the causes and dispensing the cure for spiritual heart disease.

Let Jesus examine you for the causes and cure of this terrible disease as we work through Jeremiah Seventeen.

#1 The Causes Of Your

Spiritual Heart Disease

In the physical realm, we have identified many causes for heart disease. Hardening of the arteries leads to heart disease; certain diets, such as those high in salt, can lead to heart disease; hereditary factors can lead to heart disease.

God lists three causes of spiritual heart disease in these opening verses. In one case, the heart is hardened, like stone. In the next, the heart is affected by a kind of salt. In the final case, the heart is affected by inherited sickness.

The Stone Heart:

A diamond tip is used on only the hardest surfaces. The hearts of the people of Judah were hard. Having sin "engraved on the tablet of their heart" is a way of saying that all the motives of their heart were evil and sinful - like the diseased heart Jesus diagnosed in the Gospel of Mark. The "horns of [the] altars" are the protrusions at each corner of an altar to which the animal was tied for sacrifice. Their sacrifices meant nothing because they were carried out with no heart towards God.

Theses "altars" and "wooden images" on the "high hills" are their idols they worshipped. They even led their children into idolatry.

What will your children "remember" of your spiritual life?

Jeremiah 17:4 And you, even yourself, Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you; And I will cause you to serve your enemies In the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever."

The people of Judah were about to be taken captive by Babylon as God disciplined them for their idolatry.

Idolatry is the cause of much spiritual heart disease. When your heart desires other things more than God, it grows stony and hard.

The Salt Heart:

Jeremiah 17:6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited.

God tells you that the man who walks in the "strength" of his own "flesh" has heart trouble. Then God gives you a comparison.

A "salt land" was ground with excessive salt, rendering it barren and sterile. Only occasional desert shrubs could grow in such soil. When you walk in the flesh, you are like that desert shrub growing in the barren, sterile salt land.

Too much salt causes spiritual heart disease. You are repeatedly urged in the New Testament to walk by faith, rather than according to your flesh. The best way of describing what is meant is to read from Galatians 5:16-25, where the Apostle Paul wrote,

Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Galatians 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,

Galatians 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,

Galatians 5:21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Galatians 5:23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Galatians 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

When you walk according to your flesh, you cannot bear spiritual fruit. But when you walk by faith in the Spirit, you will be fruitful. In Jeremiah 17:7-8 you read something similar:

Jeremiah 17:8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Reduce the "salt" in your diet! Quit walking according to your flesh and instead walk by faith, drawing upon the limitless resources of the Spirit of God Who dwells within you - like a tree with deep roots drawing upon the resources of a deep underground fountain.

The Sick Heart:

"Desperately wicked" translates to "beyond cure," or "incurably sick." The particular sickness being described is your heart's "deceitful[ness]." You frequently lie to yourself about the truth of your behavior.

Jeremiah 17:10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

God's prescribes "test[s]" for deceitfulness. He sees into your heart, then puts you through a test so your mind can become aware of the deceitfulness of your heart. Once you see what God sees, God can deal with you "according to [your] ways...[and] doings," chastening and correcting you.

What causes this kind of heart sickness? It is cause by covetousness:

Let me give you this verse in the NIV:

This "partridge" covets and acquires eggs from some other bird. She broods over them, but when they hatch the hatchlings leave her. This is a good description of covetousness. The sick heart covets, then is deceitful about coveting, excusing it in some way.

Covetousness is the cause of much spiritual heart sickness. Contentment is the antidote for covetousness. If you're covetous, your not content; if you're content, you won't be covetous.

Those are among the causes of spiritual heart disease. There is a cure for spiritual heart disease, and you are told about it in verses twelve through twenty-seven.

#2 The Cure For Your

Spiritual Heart Disease

The cure is a heart transplant! God told the prophet Ezekiel,

Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Salvation gets you a heart transplant! In verses twelve through fourteen, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of your salvation.

God's "glorious high throne" is above all creation. Jeremiah is describing the first awakenings in the heart of the majesty and mightiness of God. God becomes the focus of the heart.

And what is His throne to those who seek Him? It is a "sanctuary." You normally think of a "sanctuary" as the main building of a church. But why is the church called a sanctuary? A sanctuary is a place of safety, protection, refuge, immunity, and help. God is all of these and more to the poorest sinner who seeks Him with all of his heart.

Your name is written in God's Book of Life. How tragic to have your name blotted out of that book and written instead only in the dust of this earth!

This is a sinner's prayer. Healing and salvation are yours by faith when you come to the Lord.

"For You are my praise." Ephesians 1:12 says that " we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory."

From your point of view, you come to God with your whole heart. From God's point of view, He gives you a new heart.

Physicians prescribe certain activities, restrictions, and exercises for their heart transplant patients. God does the same, and we see some of these things in verses fifteen through twenty-seven.

God prescribes serving:

Jeremiah 17:16 As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You, Nor have I desired the woeful day; You know what came out of my lips; It was right there before You.

The people of Judah ridiculed Jeremiah, since the judgment he prophesied had not yet come upon them. Jeremiah tells God that he nevertheless was faithful to share the message, and that he did so with the tenderness and concern that a shepherd had for endangered sheep.

Jeremiah served God. In his case he was like a shepherd; but the important thing is that he served. When you have been given a spiritual heart transplant, you will strengthen your new heart by serving with your own particular gifts, talents, and abilities.

Think of a person who has been hindered by heart disease who receives a new, strong heart. They can't wait to become active again.

The same should be true of you and I as we realize we have been given a new heart. We should look for ways to become more and more spiritually active.

God prescribes separation:

Jeremiah 17:18 Let them be ashamed who persecute me, But do not let me be put to shame; Let them be dismayed, But do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom, And destroy them with double destruction!

There is a clear difference between the prophet Jeremiah, who sought the Lord, and the people of Judah, who forsook the Lord. Judgment was inevitable; but Jeremiah was to be treated differently from them when it came.

Jeremiah could expect to be treated differently because he had lived a separated life. The "separated life" used to be a common expression in the Church; we don't hear it much anymore. A biblical phrase that explains the separated life would be Jesus' prayer to our Father for you in John 17:15-17,

John 17:16 "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

John 17:17 "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."

Today we say that you should be in the world, but not of the world; or we say, you are in the world, but don't let the world be in you.

When you receive a heart transplant, your doctor will prescribe certain restrictions - mostly lifestyle and dietary changes that give your transplanted heart the best chance of continued health.

It's the same with your spiritual heart transplant. The Holy Spirit, Who lives inside you, will prompt certain lifestyle changes that are consistent with your new heart. He will change your appetites, directing you toward those things that will be most beneficial to your continued spiritual health.

God prescribes the Sabbath:

The key thought in verses nineteen through twenty-seven is that you "bear no burden on the Sabbath." The idea of bearing no burden on the Sabbath is repeated four times, in verses twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-four, and twenty-seven.

Let's talk about the Sabbath for just a moment. You are under no obligation, as a New Testament believer, to keep the Sabbath. The Apostle Paul told you as clearly as possible, in Colossians 2:16-17,

Colossians 2:17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

That should put your mind at ease once and for all. When your sabbatarian friends seek to put you under their Sabbath rules and regulations, don't succumb to them! "Let no one judge you...regarding...sabbaths."

God told the people of Judah to "bear no burden on the Sabbath" because the Jews were under Sabbath laws. In fact, in Jeremiah Twenty-five you learn that the exact length of the Babylonian captivity would be seventy years. That was the exact number of years that the Jews had failed to observe God's law of a "Sabbath rest" for the land - leaving the land to lie fallow for a year every seven years. The people were not to sow their fields or prune their vineyards every seventh year. Failure to observe this Sabbath rest would result in God removing them from the land while He allowed it to rest. The Babylonian captivity lasted seventy years because this was the number of Sabbath rest years that the Jews had failed to observe.

You are not under obligation to keep the Sabbath the way the Jews did. But there is still an application you can make to your own life.

A patient with a heart transplant should be careful about straining and stressing under heavy burdens. It's no different for you with your spiritual heart transplant! You should "bear no burdens." Jesus said to all those who would ever come to Him, in Matthew 11:29-30,

Matthew 11:30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

The religious leaders of Jesus' day were described in the Gospels as loading you up with heavy burdens you could not possibly carry. They demanded that you live up to God's standards by keeping the law, but offered no spiritual power by which you could do so.

A poem my pastor in San Bernardino frequently quoted from describes the burden of the law:

But gives me neither feet nor hands.

A better way, the Spirit brings;

He bids me fly and gives me wings.

When God gives you a new heart, you enter into His rest. Your whole life is a spiritual Sabbath! You should, therefore, bear no burden during your Sabbath! Don't fall into legalism, but follow after love instead.

There are plenty of seminars and programs out there that seek to put you under the burden of keeping rules and regulations in order for you to be truly spiritual. Many of you are terribly burdened by them, seeing your own failure day after day. You have no joy.

That is not why God gave you a new heart! He wants to set you free to love Him, because He knows that if you love Him you will find yourself obeying Him without effort.

Beloved, don't become burdened! Bear no burden and your new heart will beat with God's.

Conclusion

Physical heart disease leaves you debilitated. One insurance agent I recently spoke with described some of his clients as "cardiac cripples"; they are alive, but their heart disease renders them almost totally inactive.

If you go after idols, if you walk according to your flesh, if you covet, you will be a spiritual cripple. You're alive, but your spiritual heart disease renders you almost totally inactive for the kingdom of God.

If you are a believer, then you have received a new spiritual heart. Take care of it by following God's prescription. Serve God with all your heart; be separated so that your heart doesn't become drawn away; bear no burden.