The Love You Had at the First
Jeremiah 2:1-13
October 11-12, 2025
If you would to the book of Jeremiah. We are launching into a new book, Jeremiah. I'd like you to open Jeremiah 2:1. As many of you know, we cover the verses around this at the Wednesday verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter study. We've already launched in Chapter 1 in Wednesday, so we'll be in Chapter 2 here today. The title of our message, The Love You Had at the First.
Let's pray and receive from God's word together. Lord, we are so thankful. We know that you send your word to show us your heart after us, your desire to bless, and to have us draw near to you. We just say, God, pour out your spirit of life. Meet us here by your Holy Spirit and show us the greatness of your love toward us through your
All right, book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet who lived in Jerusalem. He was a prophet there in, I would say, the most troublesome, most difficult, troubled years of the history of Israel. He was there when the Babylonians defeated Jerusalem, which we've talked about often. What a tragedy that was. He was there when they came, poured into the city, destroyed the temple of God, took all the gold out of it, took the people into exile, where they were in Babylon for those 70 years. He was there, one king after the other, leading up to that disaster, hardened their heart and led Israel away from God.
Now, what does God do when people wander away from him? What does he do? He sends prophets to go call them back, to call them home, to try to save them from the disaster that is going to be upon them if they don't come back. He sends his prophets to call them to revival. That becomes really the great theme of Jeremiah: revival, come back, return. It's the great theme of all the major prophets that God is calling his people back to revival. Interestingly, God called Jeremiah to be a prophet when he was young, perhaps as young as 20, maybe even late teens.
He said in Chapter 1, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. I set you apart for the purpose of being a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah says, "But, alas, Lord, I'm just a youth." God's response to him was amazing: "Don't say that. Don't say, 'I'm just a youth,' because everywhere you go, I will send you. Whenever you speak, I will put the words in your mouth." He's speaking that he's going to go by the authority of God. That is a great word.
In fact, later on in Chapter 1, listen to this, he says, "Behold, I made you today. You're going to be like a fortified city. You're going to be like a pillar of iron, like a wall of bronze against the whole land. This is power to kings, to princess, to priests, to all the people of the land. They will all fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I will be with you. I will deliver you." See, in other words, Jeremiah is going to have to stand alone against the whole nation. Oh, man, what a calling. He's only a youth, but there it is, he's under the authority of God. I tell you, that is a life lesson itself.
I mentioned this at the Wednesday service that it reminds us of the story in Matthew 8, where Jesus, when he came into the town of Capernaum, which is at the north end of Galilee. A Roman centurion came to the Lord and said, "Sir, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented." Jesus said, "I will come, and I will heal him." The centurion answered and said, and this is amazing.
He said this, "Sir, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof. All you need to do is to speak the word, and my servant will be healed." Then he explains his understanding, "Because I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes. I say to that one, 'Come,' and he comes. Sir, all you need to do is to say the word."
Jesus marveled when he heard this, and he said to those that were around him, "Truly, I say to you, I have not found faith like this with anyone in Israel." He understood something that is critical for us to understand. Authority is a very important aspect of life, authority. He says authority in one's life comes from being under the authority of the master. If God is captain and commander, if his word has weight and authority, then when he says move, you move, and when he says no, it means no. Then, in that one who is under the authority of God as captain and commander, that one has authority in his life. It's a very important principle of life.
Now, here in Chapter 2, he's speaking of revival. The theme is revival. He's calling them back to the love that they had at the first, speaking words of revival today because God is still searching for those who have a heart after him. How you live matters to God. God loves you. He's very concerned about your soul. He's very concerned about the condition of your soul.
He loves you, and he wants your soul to be full and overflowing with a faith that is genuine and sincere. Now, what's interesting, and this is a very important factor in the story, is that Jeremiah was born during the days of Israel's perhaps greatest revival. He was born during Josiah's revival. This is interesting, one of the greatest revivals in the history of Israel. Jeremiah was born during the years of that revival, and he began his ministry just as that revival was ending.
This is a very important factor. When Josiah passed from the scene, the kings led Israel down, down, down, farther sliding toward disaster. Then Jeremiah arises just at the end of that revival, just as these kings are leading them down the wrong path, but they all remembered. They were all there. They saw this amazing revival, and that revival becomes the backstory and the foundation through Jeremiah, the life and the story and the book.
It's the high point in the history of their nation, true revival. He says to them, "Remember from where you have fallen. Come back to your first love. Do the deeds you did at the first." Revival. Come back. We begin the story of Jeremiah with understanding that revival in the days in which Jeremiah was born, the days of Josiah's revival, it overshadows the entire book.
Let's read Chapter 2 and get a sense of God's call to them for revival. Chapter 2, we begin reading in verse 1. "Now, the word of the Lord came to me," Jeremiah said, and the word of the Lord was this. "Go forth and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem and say this," thus says the Lord, "I remember concerning you. The devotion of your youth." It's like, remember the days, remember the love? I remember the days concerning you, the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals, the love we had. Your following after being in the wilderness through a land that wasn't even sown.
Israel was holy to the Lord. It means set apart unto me. He says, "Israel was first of God's harvest, and anyone who ate of it was guilty. Evil came upon them," declares the Lord. "Hear the word of the Lord, oh, house of Jacob and all the families of Israel." Thus says the Lord, "What injustice did your fathers find in me? Was there something wrong? Something missing, maybe that they went far away from me. Was there something wrong? Did I do something wrong? Did I offend you that they walked after emptiness, these gods, that they went after our emptiness, and so therefore they became empty."
They did not say, "Oh, where's the Lord?" In other words, let's draw near to the Lord. "Where's the Lord who brought us out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through the land of deserts and pits, through the land of drought and deep darkness, through a land that no one crossed and where no man dwelt? I brought you into a fruitful land. I brought you into a place of great blessing. Oh, don't you remember all that we did? Don't you remember what we had together? I did this, that you would come into that land and eat of its fruits, and every good thing. Oh, I did it all. Don't you remember? My inheritance, you made it an abomination. Why did you bring those things into my land?"
Even the priest didn't say, "Where's the Lord?" or, "Let's draw near the Lord." They didn't say that. Those who handled the law did not even know me. The rulers, they transgressed against me. The prophets, they prophesied by, "Oh, are you kidding me?" They're going to prophesy by, "Oh, what's wrong with God?" They walked after things that did not profit them. They did not bless you. They did not help you. Therefore, I will contend. You want to do this thing? We're going to contend. You want to contend? We're going to contend.
With your son's sons, I will contend. Why? He's going to bring him back. He's going to contend with them to bring him back. Now he says, look at this. "Cross over to the coastlands of Kittim and See this. Send to Kedar and look closely. Has anything like this ever happened anywhere else? Go anywhere else. Has anything like this ever happened, that a nation has changed gods? They weren't even gods that they went after, but my people did. They exchanged their glory for that which does not profit them.
Oh, they had such glory, and they gave it up, for what? Didn't help him. Didn't bless him, for what? He says, "Be opposed, though, heavens." Heaven is a witness. "Be opposed, though, heavens that this shudder be desolate," declares the Lord, "For my people have committed two evils. One, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. Two, they cut out, they human out for themselves cisterns." A cistern is they would dig out of a solid bedrock like a place to hold water.
I. Revival is Personal; Each One Must Decide
They cut out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns by the way, that can hold no water. All right, this is what we want to look at. We'll look at the other chapters as they say at the Wednesday service, but these are words of revival. I want us to begin with this understanding that revival is personal. Each one must decide for himself. Here's what we see: that no one can rest on anyone else's faith. You cannot rest on the faith of your spouse, or the faith of your parents, or the faith of a friend. No, each one has to have his own personal faith, your own revival.
It's between you and God. Now, this is important because Josiah, his father, if you look at the kings of Israel, his father was a very evil man, his father. Many people, when they grow up with a father like that, it messes them up. It just messes up their lives, many people, but not Josiah. He did not follow his father's footsteps; he chose his own course. This is important. You can choose your own course; each one's got to choose your own course, must choose for yourself the path you walk.
Each one must decide. God is saying, "I offer you life, but you got to choose it." Your own course, your own way, you must choose it for yourself. You have to decide what is it that will be life to you. What will be your life like? What will your life be like? You got to choose. Deuteronomy 30:19, God says, "Behold I said before you life and death, blessing and curse," but choose life. I want you to choose life, [chuckles] but you got to choose it. You got to decide the course. Choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants after you.
Joshua 24:15, very famous, "Choose for yourself today whom you will serve." Got to choose. As for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord. Each one must choose. You can choose a course of life. We can choose to walk as a man or a woman after God. Now, it's true, and I know it's true, that we can inherit a father's tendencies, a father's disposition. For example, many of you know my story. My father was an alcoholic, and statistics of children of alcoholics are not so good. It messes up many people's lives.
Many children of alcoholics grow up to be alcoholics. Many are convinced that their disposition it's like somehow wired into their DNA. They'll say, "Look, this is who I am, okay? Look, this is how I was born, okay? That's just who I am." They're trying to explain why they can't change, "No, I can't change. This is just who I am, okay?" Well, now that is true for animals. For example, a cat does cat things because they're a cat. A dog does dog things because he's a dog. What is the saying? A dog climbs up on your bed because they want to be with you. That's who they are. A cat climbs
They're just different. It's how they are. It is wired in their DNA. An alligator does alligator things, a hyena does hyena things. It's wired into who they are. It's true. A cat is a cat, a dog is a dog, a horse is a horse. Well, unless, of course--
Young people are like, "What is that joke?" Look at Mister Ed and you'll know what I'm saying. It may be true of animals, but it's not true of you. See, God made you with the ability to change. You can see what you never saw before. You can understand what you never understood before. You can hear what you never heard before, and you can be changed. You see something, you realize something. See, we got to understand this, revival begins in the heart. Now, in Jeremiah's day when he's speaking to the people, they remembered they had just been in that place of revival. They remembered, and they knew that it was Josiah's heart that impacted the nation.
A. Revival begins in the heart
He understood what few understand, that the heart is the issue. Now, when Josiah first became king, the first thing he did was to remove the idols that were in the house of the Lord. You say, "What?" It's hard to imagine, but Israel had fallen so far that they had even built altars to the gods of the world, Baal, Molek, Asherah, whatever. In the house of the Lord, they were in the courtyard. They were in the house. Josiah, when he had the authority as king, he said, "Get those things out of here." He's going to cleanse the temple, get the things that are idols of the world out of the house of God.
This is a critical moment. You can almost hear Josiah, "This is God's house, and you're fielding it with that which is detestable." As they're cleaning up the temple, at some point, the high priest found a copy of the law, found a copy of the word of God in some dusty corner somewhere. In other words, things had gotten so bad that no one had a copy of the law. This was a novel thing. "Oh, look what we found. Oh, look, we haven't seen one of these in, whatever. Look what we found." Things had gotten so bad no one was attending to the word of God, not even the priest.
A scribe brought the word of God to Josiah and read it to him while Josiah sat and listened intently. As he heard these words, it hit him like, "Now I understand." He began to weep. It broke his heart like he's weeping. He actually took his robe and he tore it. It's a Jewish expression of my torn heart. He tore his robe, and he began to weep bitterly because he understood. I know why our nation has gone through such trivial and tragedy. I know. It's because our fathers turned their back on God.
They followed after the gods of the world after God did all of that for us. He called us out of the nations. He blessed us by giving us this land. He brought us to the desert. He saved us from the oppression of Egypt. He did all of that. He put his glory in the temple. He did all of that, and then we turned our back on him. Now he's weeping, "Oh, I get it." He tears his robe because he understands this great point.
B. Faith impacts life
Faith impacts life. This is a very critical life lesson. Faith impacts life. It does. The condition of your faith, condition of your heart, impacts the matters of life. It has a real-world consequence. For example, consider: isn't it true that faith will affect marriage? If a husband and a wife are being a husband or a wife because of their faith, and they truly want to honor God in their husbanding, in their wifeing, I made that word up, but you get my point. What if they were doing it for God? Wouldn't the faith that they have impact their marriage?
Wouldn't that be true? Wouldn't faith impact parenting, how you parent, and how you raise up a child? Wouldn't it impact that? Wouldn't it impact how you conduct your affairs and your business? Of course, faith impacts life, and so Josiah gets it, "I know now why there's tragedy. I know now why there's been such disaster. I get it," because he knew the connection between faith and real life. It mattered. This matters. It matters. Does it matter to you? Does your faith matter? Does it mean something? When I think about that, I think about a time when I was just getting started in ministry, and I had an opportunity.
Someone gave me an opportunity. I was still a Bible student at the time, but someone gave me an opportunity to speak at this church. I gave what could be considered the worst sermon in the history of the world. It was bad. How bad? It was so bad that while I'm giving this sermon, I'm having a conversation with myself, and the conversation with myself went like this, "This is bad. This is really, really bad." I just couldn't stop this like, "Oh, this is bad." I don't know, about halfway or a little more into it, I finally said, "I give up." I didn't say that, but I said, "You know what I think? I think we ought to just gather as little prayer groups and pray together."
They prayed together, and I'm like, "Okay, that was a disaster." After the thing was over, I went over, grabbed my wife's hand, took her to a back room, and just held her and cried and just cried. It was bad, really, really bad, and I'm just crying. I go home, and a friend of mine that I really, really looked up to, really respected, older gentleman in the church called me, and he said, "How are you doing?" I said, "It was bad." He said, "I was there. I know."
I said, "I took my wife's hand, and I just cried." He said, "You know what? I'm glad you cried. I'm glad because that tells me that it means something to you, that it matters to you, and that's more important because I know that God will do something. Let's start with this. It meant something to you. It mattered to you. It does matter." What God is doing is changing lives; that matters. The word of God is powerful; that matters. Does it matter? See, does your faith matter to you?
It says in 2 Kings 23:25, regarding Josiah, "Before him, there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might." These are big words. If you turn with all your heart, with all your soul, it matters, but isn't that what we're called to do? Deuteronomy 6:4-5, where Moses says in his famous speech, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might."
These words, which I am commanding you today, put them on your heart so that it matters to you; that's what it means. It matters. It means something. Very, very much, it means something. See, religion is when you do something for the form of the thing and the heart; it doesn't mean anything, but when it matters, that's what revival is. That's why the theme, in Chapter 2, particularly, is return to your first love.
II. Return to Your First Love
Verse 2, "Oh, I remember the devotion of your youth." Remember when you were young and it mattered? I remember. Remember the love of your betrothals, or how you loved? I remember. He's trying to stir them. He's trying to get them to remember so that he stirs something. He's pulling them, he's drawing them, trying to spark life and love. Notice verse 7, where he says, "I brought you to a fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things. Don't you remember?" He's trying to stir them up in their memory of all the wonderful things that God did for them.
This is a good thing to do. Do you look back on your life and think about all that God has done for you, the amazing ways that God has blessed your life?
I never forget it. The day you start forgetting it is the day you start taking things for granted, and then it starts to go downhill from there like Jeremiah 31:3, "I love you--" We'll get to that chapter, but we'll see it now, "I loved you with an everlasting love, unrelenting, everlasting, and I have drawn you with that loving-kindness. I have always drawn you with my love, and I will do it again."
Hosea 11:4, he said, "I led them with the cords of human kindness, with the ties of love. To them, I was like one who lifts a child to the cheek." What a great picture. "To them, I was like the one who lifts a child and holds that child to his cheek and I bent down, and I fed them. I cared for them. Don't you remember?" See, in other words, he says to them "Remember from where you have fallen." God reminds them. Many of them, in Jeremiah's day, they would've remembered. It wasn't that long ago. Verse 3, "Israel was holy to the Lord, the first of its harvest."
A. Remember from where you have fallen
The best, the best, that's what he means, the best. Notice he says in verse 5, "Was there some injustice in me? Was there something wrong? Did I do something to offend you? Was there something you didn't have? Is there anything better than what we have in the Lord?" This is a good question to ask. Is there anything better than Jesus? Is there anything better than the gospel? [chuckles] Is there anything better than to understand that a sinner can be forgiven of their sins as a gift out of love? God gives forgiveness as a gift. Is there something better than that?
Revelation 2:4-5, he says to the church, he commended them for many things, but then he says, "But I have this against you." You left your first love. What happened? Become mundane? Became religion? What happened? You left your first love. Remember from where you have fallen and repent or do the deeds you did at the first. In other words, repent means turn around, like you're walking in the wrong direction. [chuckles] Turn this thing around; that's what repent means. Turn this thing around. You're going to the wrong direction. Come back. Walk this way. "Walk this way," God says.
You turn your heart toward heaven, and you keep on walking; that's what you do. He's calling them to remember the love they had at the first. Never forget. In Revelation, he says, "And then do the deeds you did at the first." What were you doing when you first were on fire for the Lord? Do it again. Were you worshiping the Lord and singing with all your might? Do it again. Were you hungry after God's word and reading it with an eager heart? Do it again. God wants you to fall in love with him again afresh and anew. There's a beautiful trend of people renewing their marriage vows.
It's beautiful. It really is. They've been married for many years, and they want to renew their vows. [chuckles] It's a way of saying I would do it all over again; that's beautiful. Isn't that beautiful? There is something beautiful about falling in love with the Lord all over again, afresh and anew. Remember, because he says-- notice in verse 13, "That he is the fountain of living water. My people have committed two evils. First, they have forsaken me when I was the fountain of living water."
A fountain is like it runs. Living water means fresh, flowing. It's sweet fresh water. "I was that fountain of living water. They forsake that so that they could hew out cisterns." Now, a cistern I mentioned is a cut in the rock in which they would often hold rainwater, and it would just sit in there, and it would be a source of water, not very good water. Have you ever drunk water, or have you even seen water that's been sitting in a big pit or a big whatever for a long time?
What happens to it? Well, firstly, it gets stale, and then it gets green, and then it gets stinky, and then it gets putrid. Would you drink this? Sometimes, in some cultures, in some places, that's all they got. He says, "What contrast so you forsake living fountains of water flowing with fresh-- like the bubbling brook, fresh, cool water, you forsake that, and what did you do? You dug a cistern, but it doesn't even hold water. It's stagnant to begin with, and then it just drains at the bottom."
B. He is the fountain of living water
This is one of the great themes, that God is living water that satisfies the deepest longing of the soul. See, thirst is a great image because if you're thirsty, it's a great longing. If you've ever been really, really, really thirsty like, "Oh, water is so good, cold water, oh, it's so good," there's a drive to it. There's a thirst for it, and so it's a great theme. Psalm 107:9, "He has satisfied the thirst of the soul. The hungry soul, he's filled with that which is good, good, wonderful."
This is the theme. It's the theme of God. It's the soul that is satisfied with good things. God wants to do that in your soul, good things, beautiful things, glorious things. Psalm 36, I love this one, "They drink their fill of the abundance of your house, and you give them to drink of the river of your delights." It's a whole river of God's delight. "Come and drink," for with you is the fountain. It's here, again, the fountain of life.
Now, it's interesting, the cisterns that they dug were broken. They couldn't hold water. It leaked right through the cracks. It leaked right through the brokenness. I tell you, there are many things-- Okay, this is very important. This is a very important point. Now, there are many things that people do in their life that drain their spiritual life. It drains their life right out of them. There's something broken, and it drains them of life. They decrease. They become empty like verse 5, notice verse 5, "They walked after emptiness, and they became empty."
You cut broken cisterns. It doesn't profit you because it leaves you empty. The things of the world do not satisfy; they leave you empty. In fact, it drains you. It drains you. God is a fountain in which you can increase life. In him, the soul increases, and it filled more and more and more with abundant life. Come and drink freely of the river of his abundance. Is there something that's draining your spiritual life? Then get it out of your life; that's the lesson of the revival.
You are the temple of the Lord. Just like Josiah in the days of his revival, you got stuff of the idols of the world in the house of God. Get it out of here. Is there anything in your life of the idols of the world? Get them out of there, because they're draining you of life. You cannot have life when that broken thing is draining you. No, God wants to increase. If there's anything standing in the way, get it out so you can increase, drink freely of the fountain of life. On the day that we call the triumphant entry, on the day that Jesus walked into Jerusalem, the crowds were waving the palm branches and shouting the psalm in the Messiah.
Remember the story? He comes in the temple, and what does he see? He sees the tables of money changers and those selling doves. They're taking advantage of worshipers; that's what they're doing with exorbitant money-changing rates, prices for doves that are 10 times what the price ought to be. Jesus comes into the temple, and he sees these people taking advantage of worshipers. He takes the tables, and he throws them over, overturns them, just money flying everywhere, doves flying everywhere. "Get out, get out. This is my Father's house. It is to be called the house of prayer, and you're making it a den of robbers. Get out."
It's a very dramatic scene, but it's a spiritual point. You are the temple of God, and if something needs to be overturned, he's going to overturn it. [chuckles] You let God in your life, he's going to put his hand right on that thing, and he's, "We're going to overturn this thing because I've got better things for you than that. I got way better things for you than that. Oh, you have no idea what I can do, blessed things, wondrous things, glorious things."
Anything standing in the way, could you say to God, "You're right, you're right, God, I see it. These things are draining me of life. They're standing in the way of the fullness of God. I see it, God, you're right. I don't want these things in my life. They stand in the way of revival of the fullness of God, and I want the fullness of God. I want to be filled. I want my soul filled with the fountain of life. Heal the brokenness. I don't want to drain me of life anymore; I want to be filled and filled and filled some more."
Lord, we love you, and thank you for showing us the way of life that each one must choose his own course. Church, what would you like your life to be like? I'm offering you life. I'm offering you the fountain of living water that will fill and fill and fill some more. If there's anything in your life that's broken, and it's draining the spiritual life out of you, get it out, get it out so that you can have the fullness of God, the beautiful, glorious fullness of God.
Church, how many would say to the Lord, "Well, that's what I want, the beautiful fullness of God, that's what I want. I want my soul to be filled and overflowing with the beautiful fullness of God in my life." Church, is that you? Would you say that to the Lord by raising your hand as a prayer, as a way of saying to God, "This is my heart, this is my desire. I want my soul filled, filled and overflowing with the fullness of God." Do that in me, God, we pray. Do that in everyone who has raised their hand today. We honor you and say that in Jesus' powerful name, and everyone said--