"Loving and Yearning" 10-3-21
Overview
The Yearning Heart of God
Jeremiah is the longest book in Scripture, and its author is rightly known as the weeping prophet. For 29 chapters, God speaks through Jeremiah to expose the sins of his people; from chapter 34 onward, the focus shifts to the sins of the nations. Jeremiah's grief reflects God's own: "Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears" Jeremiah 9:1. As Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision, once put it, our hearts should be broken by what breaks God's heart.
Set between those long chapters of judgment, Jeremiah 30–33 is often called the Book of Consolation, and its heart can be summed up in a single verse: "Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he the child I delight in? As often as I speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him" Jeremiah 31:20. The word yearns speaks of longing, restlessness, a heart that aches to be in relationship. Despite chapter after chapter of indictment—a defiled land Jeremiah 2:7, wickedness lodged within Jeremiah 4:14, a stubborn and rebellious heart Jeremiah 5:23—God still says, You are dear to me. I delight in you. I remember you. My heart yearns. I will have mercy.
This same yearning love echoes through Hosea, where God recalls teaching Ephraim to walk, taking him up in his arms, and bending down to feed him Hosea 11:1-4. It is the love of the father who runs to the prodigal—not with a wagging finger but with embrace and celebration. It is the shepherd searching for the one wandering sheep. It is Joseph extending grace to brothers who had betrayed him. The world aches for love like this: love not contingent on our loveliness, love that bends down into the mess of life, love that sees the worst and still draws near.
That yearning love took flesh in Jesus Christ. "While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly… God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" Romans 5:6-10. Weak, ungodly, sinners, enemies—and yet loved, sought, and reconciled. Your name is graven on his hands and written on his heart. Whatever sin or shame would tell you otherwise, the unchanging word of God still stands: his heart yearns for you, and he will surely have mercy.
Transcript
What you're open your Bibles, please, with me this morning to Jeremiah the 31st chapter 2s
for our study today. 8s
If you're using a few edition, you're going to find that on page 693 in the Old Testament. 9s
Jeremiah chapter 31. 16s
Let's begin with a little jeopardy this morning. 19s
Category. 21s
A Bible question for 500. 22s
The answer is the longest book in the Bible. 24s
Now is your buzzer ready and are you ready to buzz in with the answer? 29s
What is Jeremiah? 35s
What is Jeremiah? 38s
Jeremiah the longest book in Holy Scripture. 40s
Jeremiah began his ministry around 626 years before the birth of our Savior. 47s
At the Lord Jesus Christ. 53s
And he is known as the weeping prophet. 55s
The weeping prophet. 60s
God speaking through his prophet had placed upon him the burden of proclaiming the sins of 62s
the people, but not only the sins of the people, but also the sins of the nations. 70s
I think for example. 78s
In Jeremiah chapter 9, Jeremiah says this, 79s
Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears so that I might 85s
weep day and night for the slain of my poor people. 93s
Bob Pierce, several decades ago he was the founder of World Vision. 103s
Pierce wrote that our hearts should be broken by what breaks God's heart. 108s
Our hearts should be broken by what breaks God's heart. 119s
For 29 chapters. 127s
The Lord speaks to his prophet Jeremiah and condemns the sin of the people. 133s
Chapter after chapter, chapter chapter. 141s
And then when you move into chapter 34 from chapter 34 to 52, the focus is on the sins of the nations. 144s
The sins of the people and then the sins of the nation. 153s
And the weeping prophet is pouring out from his broken heart that's been broken because God's heart has been broken over sin. 157s
But what happens? 171s
What happens in chapters 30 to 33? 174s
Sometimes that's referred to as the book of consolation. 180s
Is there a myth? 186s
These condemning words on sin. 188s
God reveals his expression of grace, certainly not deserved by the people, but his heart of grace. 191s
And if you had to summarize those three chapters, the book of consolation, if you had to bring it down to one verse, 205s
I think it's the verse that we're going to study today. 218s
Look at it with me. 224s
Would you please? 225s
Jeremiah 31 verse 20. 227s
God says through his prophet, 231s
Is Eph from my dear son? 234s
Who's Eph from? 240s
Eph from one of the names of the 12 tribes, 242s
but also Eph from his used, 247s
God uses that designation to refer in Scripture to Israel. 249s
Here it's referring to Israel. 255s
Is Eph from my dear son? 258s
Is he the child I delight him? 264s
As often as I speak against him, I still remember him. 267s
In spite of all of the sin, 274s
God expresses your dear to me. 281s
You might delight. 288s
I remember you. 291s
It's incredible. 294s
Incredible. 296s
It's really reminiscent of Joseah 11th chapter when God says, 298s
When Israel was a child I loved him. 304s
And out of Egypt I called my son. 307s
It was I who taught Eph from to walk. 310s
I took them up in my arms, 313s
but they did not know that I healed them. 316s
I led them with cords of human kindness, 319s
with bands of love. 322s
I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. 325s
I bent down to them. 330s
And fed them. 333s
And then God says through his prophet. 336s
Therefore I am deeply moved for him. 342s
I will surely have mercy on him. 346s
Says the Lord. 351s
The NRSB of good translation obviously we use it each and every Sunday. 355s
What I like to change what they've done here? 361s
In the ESV in the NR, 365s
in the NIV and the New American Revised Standard Version, 369s
it translates this portion that it's translated here. 374s
Therefore I'm deeply moved for him. 377s
It translates it. 379s
Therefore my heart urns for him. 381s
I think that's the better translation. 385s
Therefore my heart urns for him. 387s
That word urns. 394s
It means longing. 396s
It means a restlessness. 398s
The heart of God is a yearning. 404s
Love. 411s
Longing to be in relationship with us. 413s
Now, ponder that revelation about God's heart here. 421s
You remember what was occurring in those first 29 chapters. 425s
And then when you go in chapter 34 to 52, 431s
it's his proclamation of sin on the people and also the nations. 436s
I think, for example, in Jeremiah, 441s
the second chapter, God says, 444s
I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. 447s
But when you entered you defiled my land and made my heritage in a 452s
combination, chapter 4. 457s
O Jerusalem, wash your heart clean of wickedness so that you may be saved. 461s
How long shall your evil schemes lodge within you? 467s
Chapter 5. 472s
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart. 473s
They've turned aside and gone away. 477s
Verse after verse. 481s
And yet, verse 20, chapter 31, 485s
is that from my dear son, is he the child I delight in? 494s
As often as I speak against him, 503s
I still remember him. 505s
Therefore, my heart yearns for him. 509s
I'll surely have mercy on him. 514s
The heart of God, a yearning love. 521s
We understand here in England, don't we? 535s
We understand that. 538s
You're sitting next to a loved one in a doctor's office, 541s
waiting for the door to open and to find out what the test results are for your loved one. 544s
In your heart yearns, your heart longs for a good word for your loved one. 551s
We understand here in England. 561s
It's yearning for a solution to a perplexing problem. 565s
It's yearning for a resolution to a conflict. 570s
It's yearning for a change that brings about a new day for your loved one. 574s
Where the storms will lift and the clouds will clear and the sky is blue. 582s
When it's just a calm day amidst the storm, 587s
we understand yearning, don't we? 593s
But this yearning, this yearning is something else here, isn't it? 601s
This is the yearning of love of the heart of God, 608s
for this people that continually turned away from him, 618s
and yet there is this yearning yearning love. 623s
God says, 633s
My dear son, I delight him. 638s
I remember him. 643s
My heart yearns. 647s
I'll have mercy. 651s
You see, this is the kind of yearning love. 657s
This is the kind of yearning love like the father in the parable that Jesus talked about. 660s
You know about the son who gets the inheritance and goes and squanders it and loose living. 666s
And then comes up the road with the head down in his father's season. 670s
And the father runs to him. 676s
But the father doesn't raise his index finger and give a wagging lecture of what he had done wrong. 678s
In fact, pile on top of it all the other frustrations over the years he'd had with this boy. 685s
No, instead of the wagging index finger at his son, he throws his arms around his boy, 690s
and he kisses him and he throws him a party. 697s
That's your ring love. 701s
That's your ring love. 703s
It's the yearning love of the shepherd that Jesus talks about. 706s
Where the 99 sheep are fine, but it's the one sheep that's wandered off and the shepherd yearns, 710s
yearns for the sheep to return and searches for the sheep. 721s
It's a kind of yearning love that Joseph displayed in the Old Testament when his brothers throw him into a pit and sell him into slavery. 729s
And then Joseph is in a position where he can help his brothers and the families and the people. 738s
And so what does he do? 744s
There's this yearning love that he has for his brothers, a yearning love for his people. 746s
And instead of the condemnation and rejection, he loves them. 753s
Because there's this longing in the heart for them. 760s
It's that yearning love that is so appealing isn't it? 770s
The world yearns for yearning love. 783s
The world yearns for yearning love. 790s
The type of love that isn't dependent on us being lovely. 796s
The world yearns. 805s
It yearns for learning love. 807s
That yearning love that that bends over when the messiness of life has spilled all over the floor and says, 811s
I'll help clean it up. 821s
The world yearns for yearning love. 826s
That kind of love that looks for the best in the other person. 833s
And at the same time gives the grace realizing that none of us, none of us, 842s
this side of heaven because of our sinfulness will ever be our best. 849s
The world yearns for a yearning love. 857s
It yearns for the type of yearning love that aminst all of the sin, all of the uglyness, all of the darkness. 866s
It's that yearning love that says, 881s
you're dear to me. 890s
I'd delight in you. 894s
I remember you. 898s
My heart yearns for you. 903s
I'll show you mercy. 907s
The world yearns for yearning love. 913s
In Romans of 5th chapter, the Apostle Paul writes, 927s
for while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 933s
He goes on then to say, 942s
but God proves his love for us and that while we still were sinners Christ died for us, 946s
he goes on. 955s
For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, 957s
much more surely, having been reconciled will be saved by his life. 965s
Did you catch how we are described? 973s
We are described as weak, ungodly sinners and enemies. 977s
What else does it say? 990s
Verse 6, Christ died for the ungodly. 994s
Verse 8, Christ died for us. 1000s
Verse 10, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. 1004s
The Lord Jesus Christ bearing our sin on the cross and reconciling us to the triune God, 1014s
Father's Son and Holy Spirit. 1024s
It is the yearning, longing, love of God to be in relationship with us for all of us. 1029s
Jesus Christ is yearning, love in the flesh. 1046s
I think of the Him that we sang before the sermon. 1062s
A little hint each week looks closely at the words to that Him that precedes the sermon. 1068s
Because that is an overture of themes that are going to come in the sermon. 1077s
It is no different this week. 1084s
Before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is love, 1088s
who ever lives and pleads for me. 1098s
My name is Graven on his hands. 1103s
My name is written on his heart. 1107s
I know that while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me then, 1111s
steep part, no tongue can bid me then, steep part. 1118s
My name is Graven on his hands. 1126s
My name is written on his heart. 1132s
Gentle and lowly, merciful and gracious, sympathetic and compassionate, loving and 1142s
caring, the heart of God. 1168s