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Jeremiah Msg 25 40 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: I would like to blow the dust off an ancient
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Speaker 1: proverb that you have probably read but haven't thought about lately.
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Speaker 1: It's found in the twentieth verse of the thirteenth chapter
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Speaker 1: in the Book of Proverbs. I'm thinking of the first
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Speaker 1: line of Proverbs thirteen twenty. If you'd like to turn,
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Speaker 1: you can. He who walks with wise men will be wise.
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Speaker 1: We usually think of that only in terms of living persons.
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Speaker 1: If you want to be wise like an individual that
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Speaker 1: you admire, then you need to rub shoulders with that person,
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Speaker 1: whether he's a man or she's a woman. You want
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Speaker 1: to be wise like that individual that you admire, then
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Speaker 1: you need to spend time with that person. You that
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Speaker 1: walk with wise people will be wise. But there's another
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Speaker 1: way that we can walk with the wise, and that
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Speaker 1: comes through reading biographies. Carl Sandberg wrote of Lincoln after
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Speaker 1: his death in a four volume set and title Lincoln
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Speaker 1: in the War Years. He said, a tree is best
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Speaker 1: measured when it's down. Sometime a biographer can capture the
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Speaker 1: secret of a life and measure it best when that
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Speaker 1: life is gone. I think that happened in the life
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Speaker 1: of Jim Eliot. It was through the reading of that
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Speaker 1: biography entitled Through Gates of Splendor and later Shadow of
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Speaker 1: the Almighty, that God really did get a hold of
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Speaker 1: my life. Biography has a way of capturing a life
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Speaker 1: and feeding you the truth about that life, so that
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Speaker 1: wisdom comes. Phillips Brooks wrote way back eighteen eighty six,
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Speaker 1: a biography is indeed a book, but far more than
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Speaker 1: a book, It is a man. Never lay a biography
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Speaker 1: down until the man is a living, breathing, acting person
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Speaker 1: to you. It is this concept that makes the study
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Speaker 1: of the prophets so profitable, so beneficial, because these were
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Speaker 1: not ancient weirdos that declared doom only to their times.
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Speaker 1: They were men of wisdom. And I want these men
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Speaker 1: to come out of the pages of the Bible and
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Speaker 1: become for you, living, breathing, acting persons that will give
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Speaker 1: you wisdom. But not the kind of response from you
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Speaker 1: that is an imitation of that life. That is a
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Speaker 1: wrong response to a biography. Warren Weersby, in an excellent
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Speaker 1: book entitled Walking with the Giants, writes this, we must never,
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Speaker 1: after reading a biography of a great man, merely imitate him.
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Speaker 1: Our day is cluttered with men who are carbon copies
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Speaker 1: of greater men. I do not think God is interested
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Speaker 1: in cookie cutter types. But each of us can learn
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Speaker 1: from the lives of those whom God has singularly gifted
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Speaker 1: and used. The object of reading biography is not imitation,
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Speaker 1: but inspiration. Good word from doctor Weersby the object of
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Speaker 1: reading a life like Jeremiah, I assure you is not imitation,
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Speaker 1: for there is only one Jeremiah, there will never be another.
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Speaker 1: But it is definitely in inspiration. As you and I
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Speaker 1: discover as we undertake this study of his life and
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Speaker 1: really of his autobiography, there is in Jeremiah a strange
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Speaker 1: mixture of toughness and tenderness. There is a warmth of
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Speaker 1: spirit that is very sensitive to people's needs and to God,
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Speaker 1: and yet at the same time there is a hard, steel,
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Speaker 1: bronze like determination to stand firm against the tide of
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Speaker 1: his times. That's why j Oswell Sanders, in his book
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Speaker 1: Robust in Faith, defines Jeremiah as a figure of bronze
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Speaker 1: dissolving into tears. We need to understand the man, I think,
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Speaker 1: before we can better understand his book. So let's look
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Speaker 1: at the first chapter to begin with a little more
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Speaker 1: closely than we will The balance of the book I
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Speaker 1: want you to see the man as he was, and
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Speaker 1: from his life become wiser. That can happen, and I
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Speaker 1: pray that it will. There is a brief and seemingly
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Speaker 1: uninteresting preface that comes in the first three verses of
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Speaker 1: the book sort of sets the stage for his life.
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Speaker 1: It may seem uninteresting, but it is certainly not the
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Speaker 1: words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah. Hilkiah was a priest,
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Speaker 1: and he's the son of a priest. He's a p K,
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Speaker 1: an ancient p K of the priest who were in Anathoth,
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Speaker 1: in the land of Benjamin. Anathoth a little quiet village
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Speaker 1: north of Jerusalem, a place where a man would love
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Speaker 1: to spend all of his years if he's the quiet type.
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Speaker 1: I take it that Jeremiah might well have been, but
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Speaker 1: that was not God's plan for him him to spend
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Speaker 1: his days in the village of Anathol, to whom the
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Speaker 1: word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah,
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Speaker 1: King of Judah. It also came in the days of Jehoiakim,
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Speaker 1: King of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year
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Speaker 1: of Zedekiah, King of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem.
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Speaker 1: And there were two other kings besides Josiah and Jehoiakim
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Speaker 1: and Zedekiah, but their reigns were so brief God doesn't
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Speaker 1: bother to tell us even their names. Here. What is
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Speaker 1: significant is that Jeremiah lived and ministered during the lives
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Speaker 1: and reigns of five kings during parts are all of
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Speaker 1: their reigns. That's quite a segment of time, almost five decades.
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Speaker 1: There's some question as to whether he ministered forty two
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Speaker 1: years or forty seven years, but most are in agreement
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Speaker 1: it was less than fifty years, during which time there
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Speaker 1: was not any sense of positive response to his ministry.
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Speaker 1: I want you to think about that, for almost five
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Speaker 1: decades there was not any sense or measurable change in
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Speaker 1: the lives of the nation of people in Judah. But
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Speaker 1: God's hand was on him. He watched the death of
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Speaker 1: a nation. He watched the people to whom he ministered
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Speaker 1: harden their heart and walk away from his prophecies and
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Speaker 1: his warnings. And he kept prophesying, and he kept warning
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Speaker 1: right up to the exile of Jerusalem in the days
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Speaker 1: of Zedekiah. Ray Stedman, in his book Death of a
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Speaker 1: Nation on Jeremiah, writes the book of Jeremiah is set
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Speaker 1: in a time of crisis and moral decline of a nation.
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Speaker 1: It reveals what is behind the death of a nation.
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Speaker 1: In many ways, we are facing the parallel of Judah's
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Speaker 1: experience in our day. In many ways we are seeing
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Speaker 1: in the Book of Jeremiah sort of a preview of
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Speaker 1: coming attractions in our own land of America, making the
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Speaker 1: book all the more relevant and real. Now, after this
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Speaker 1: brief preface, God gets right into the subject of Jeremiah
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Speaker 1: in his life and begins with Jeremiah as a very
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Speaker 1: young man, probably not yet twenty years old. And God
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Speaker 1: tells us some things that we might read about the
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Speaker 1: man himself verse four. Now, the word of the Lord
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Speaker 1: came to me. Notice it's an autobiography he's writing. It
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Speaker 1: came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb,
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Speaker 1: I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you,
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Speaker 1: and I have appointed you a prophet to the nation.
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Speaker 1: The Hebrew parallelism might suggest more than just the use
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Speaker 1: of synonyms. I knew you, I consecrated you, I appointed you.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Ken Barker in the theological journal Bibliotheca Sacra writes
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Speaker 1: a fine piece back in nineteen seventy entitled Jeremiah's Ministry
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Speaker 1: in Ours. In it is some helpful sites into this
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Speaker 1: parallelism from the Semitic scholar doctor Barker. Behold, I cannot speak,
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Speaker 1: for I am a child. Jeremiah does what other servants
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Speaker 1: of God have done. In the face of such an
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Speaker 1: awesome responsibility and task, he hesitates. He recognizes his weaknesses
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Speaker 1: and lack of qualification, so he shrinks back and he says,
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Speaker 1: I cannot speak. Actually, the Hebrew word for no is
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Speaker 1: also present in this expression. It is obscured in the
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Speaker 1: translation see verse six A Last, Lord, God, I do
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Speaker 1: not know how to speak. The idea here in this
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Speaker 1: word no is to be skilled or experienced in doing something.
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Speaker 1: I'm not skilled. I'm not experienced in speaking as a prophet.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Barker suggests that perhaps Jeremiah was nineteen or years
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Speaker 1: of age he was. He's pleading immaturity the fact that
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Speaker 1: he's a novice. By the way, if you're only nineteen
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Speaker 1: or twenty years old, don't think you have to wait
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Speaker 1: a number of years before God's voice can be heard.
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Speaker 1: God spoke to Jeremiah before he was what we would
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Speaker 1: consider a man of twenty one. In the young years
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Speaker 1: of life, God captures the soul and often says to
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Speaker 1: that person, this is the calling I have for you.
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Speaker 1: Now get at it. Do it. For others, it happens
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Speaker 1: in midlife years and for others even later life. Jeremiah
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Speaker 1: is told early on, you're to be a prophet for
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Speaker 1: me to the nations. By the way, this is a
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Speaker 1: case against abortion. Verse five. Before I formed you in
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Speaker 1: the womb, I knew you before you were born. I
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Speaker 1: consecrated you, and I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
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Speaker 1: I received a heartbreaking call from a minister friend of
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Speaker 1: mine whose wife is now expecting their fourth child. They
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Speaker 1: thought their third child would be Omega, and it is
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Speaker 1: not all of a sudden she has conceived to their surprise,
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Speaker 1: and they are expecting their fourth. And it's almost more
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Speaker 1: than she can bear to think about. And he and
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Speaker 1: she especially she is going through. She's going through a
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Speaker 1: terrible time of acceptance. It's not uncommon. I thought for
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Speaker 1: the longest time that we would be a one child family.
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Speaker 1: Stupid thought for me to have that. And I thought
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Speaker 1: when we had two, one boy, one girl, perfect balance,
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Speaker 1: that's great. Another silly idea, and then we had a third.
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Speaker 1: I thought, great, two little girls, easy to love, delightful
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Speaker 1: to raise. One boy first born. Great, And then God said, no,
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Speaker 1: it's one more boy. Was there ever one more? And
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Speaker 1: along he came. But I'll tell you I have lived
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Speaker 1: to see the significance of that fourth in my life,
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Speaker 1: and all our lives altogether unique a particular series of
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Speaker 1: inputs no one else on earth could give as input
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Speaker 1: in our family. Often it is the it is, if
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Speaker 1: I may use the word lightly, it is the one
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Speaker 1: you would call a mistake, that is the most blessed.
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Speaker 1: I was a mistake. My mother told me early as
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Speaker 1: I can, long back as I can remember, that I
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Speaker 1: was not planned. I didn't know what that meant, that
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Speaker 1: I was a mistake. I didn't understand that. A little
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Speaker 1: later on I understood that, but when I heard it,
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Speaker 1: I didn't. And yet she told me before her death
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Speaker 1: that she could realize why God brought me to the family,
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Speaker 1: the Swindle family. How many children who are not the
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Speaker 1: planned children are in some way the most unique of
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Speaker 1: the family. I may speak to someone tonight who has
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Speaker 1: discovered that you are carrying a child that was not planned.
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Speaker 1: Was you what you would call a mistake. Don't you
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Speaker 1: believe it. Jeremiah, before you were ever in the womb,
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Speaker 1: I knew you. I had plans for you. I set
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Speaker 1: you apart, I marked you out with prophetic gifts, and
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Speaker 1: you would be my man for the nation of Judah.
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Speaker 1: Now Jeremiah's response is, Lord, I don't I'm not experienced.
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Speaker 1: I don't have that whatever it takes, that pizzazz, that experience,
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Speaker 1: that skill to be your spokesman. Frequent response, I don't
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Speaker 1: know how to speak. I'm a youth, and the Lord
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Speaker 1: said to me, do not say I am a youth.
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Speaker 1: Interesting when you read the Bible, how you get counsel
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Speaker 1: from God? The professionals of our days say no counselor
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Speaker 1: should say to a council, E don't do this, and
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Speaker 1: don't say that you're reading the Bible. God says, don't
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Speaker 1: say I am a youth, because everywhere I send you
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Speaker 1: you shall go. What weird communication comes to us from
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Speaker 1: the world about us, not from God. Some of the
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Speaker 1: best counsel I ever God came from men who loved
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Speaker 1: me enough to say, stop doing that. Don't say that
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Speaker 1: that's out of line. Stop thinking like that. It's remarkable
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Speaker 1: what it does to a young man formative years. Get
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Speaker 1: your act together. Stop acting like that. Here's the way
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Speaker 1: to work. Respond. And then it's spelled out, and it's
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Speaker 1: amazing how Jeremiah's emerged on occasion with that kind of directive. Now,
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Speaker 1: it can be overused and it can be misused, but
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Speaker 1: God gets at Jeremiah's attention. Jeremiah's afraid of the people.
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Speaker 1: He's young, he's intimidated, and so the Lord says to
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Speaker 1: this young nineteen year old verse eight, don't be afraid
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Speaker 1: of them. I am with you to deliver you. Hey,
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Speaker 1: you with me, we're a majority. We can handle them.
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Speaker 1: I'll give you the words to say. I'll be your voice, Jeremiah.
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Speaker 1: It's not your prophecy, it's mine. You just be my mouth. Peace.
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Speaker 1: Don't be intimidated. Verse ten. Now look at his strange assignment.
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Speaker 1: I have appointed you to this. I've appointed you this
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Speaker 1: day to the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up,
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Speaker 1: to break down, to destroy, to overthrow, to build into plant.
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Speaker 1: If I count the verbs correctly, there are six of them.
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Speaker 1: And for a negative, if that means anything, it means
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Speaker 1: that Jeremiah would have more of a negative than a
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Speaker 1: positive ministry he would be. He would be doing more
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Speaker 1: plucking up and breaking down and destroying and overthrowing than
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Speaker 1: he would be building and planting. It's not a happy
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Speaker 1: kind of ministry. Everybody wants to have a positive ministry.
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Speaker 1: Everybody wants to make people happy and smile and like
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Speaker 1: them and say good things. But that's not the calling
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Speaker 1: of a prophet. Jeremiah. You're not going to be liked.
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Speaker 1: You're going to stand alone in a nation that is
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Speaker 1: going south, and you're going to be saying North, they're
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Speaker 1: on their way to Hell, and you're going to be
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Speaker 1: saying Heaven. They're going to say, but everybody says, and
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Speaker 1: you're going to say, but God says. Are going to
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Speaker 1: be laughing and having a great time. But Jeremiah, I'm
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Speaker 1: taking away your mirth and your joy, and you're gonna
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Speaker 1: cry your way through forty plus years of ministry. It's
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Speaker 1: gonna be hard, Jeremiah, verse seven, I'm sorry. Verse seventeen.
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Speaker 1: Gird up your loins. That's another way of saying, get
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Speaker 1: your act together, tighten up, get ready to gut it out. Jeremiah,
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Speaker 1: speak to them all that I command you. Don't be intimidated,
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Speaker 1: don't be dismayed, lest I dismay you before them, Behold,
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Speaker 1: I've given you. I've made you today a fortified city,
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Speaker 1: as a pillar of iron, as a wall, as walls
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Speaker 1: of bronze. Look at those analogies against the whole land,
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Speaker 1: to the kings of Judah, to its princes. It's priest
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Speaker 1: and the people of the land is your contemporaries. You're
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Speaker 1: gonna be saying things about fellow priests and about fellow
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Speaker 1: citizens of Judah. They're not gonna like to hear, but
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Speaker 1: you keep saying them. They'll fight against you, but they
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Speaker 1: will not overcome you. I am with you to deliver
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Speaker 1: you well. With that as a catapult called before he
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Speaker 1: was born, set aside, before he was even conceived, God
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Speaker 1: takes this young man and thrusts him like a spear
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Speaker 1: out into the faces of the people of Judah, and
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Speaker 1: war starts. Let me show you some of the style
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Speaker 1: and character of this man. Look for example, at chapter nine,
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Speaker 1: we'll pick and choose for the sake of time, Chapter nine,
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Speaker 1: verse one, in case you wonder what his makeup was,
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Speaker 1: and could you qualify as an unlikely subject? Though you
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Speaker 1: may see yourself to be that, are you qualified? I
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Speaker 1: think you might very well be Verse one, chapter nine,
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Speaker 1: Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a
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Speaker 1: fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night
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Speaker 1: for the slain of the daughter of my people. He's
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Speaker 1: a weeping prophet. If I had a head of tears,
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Speaker 1: I would weep all of those tears right now. Oh
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Speaker 1: that I had in the desert a wayfarer's lodging place,
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Speaker 1: a hide away, that I might leave my people and
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Speaker 1: go from them. The thought is they make me sick.
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Speaker 1: I look around, and there are adulterers, and there are
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Speaker 1: treacherous men. I would love to get away from them.
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Speaker 1: He's weeping, wanting to leave. Chapter fourteen, Verse seventeen, same idea,
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Speaker 1: different words. Let my eyes flow down with tears night
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Speaker 1: and day. Let them not sease, for the virgin daughter
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Speaker 1: of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow,
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Speaker 1: with a sorely infected wound. And when I think about
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Speaker 1: getting away, I can't get away if I go to
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Speaker 1: the country the slain, or there if I enter the city,
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Speaker 1: there is the disease of famine. Both prophet and priest
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Speaker 1: have gone roving about in the land that they do
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Speaker 1: not know. It's a man of courage he's a man
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Speaker 1: of tenderness, he's a man of integrity, and I might
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Speaker 1: add he's a man of loneliness. Look at sixteen verse two. Well,
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Speaker 1: verse one says, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
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Speaker 1: you shall not take a wife. It was God's will
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Speaker 1: for Jeremiah that he lived as a single person. You
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Speaker 1: shall not take a wife for yourself, nor have sons
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Speaker 1: or daughters in this place. You have a wife, you
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Speaker 1: won't have a family. You won't have a nice, warm
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Speaker 1: home to which you might return or retreat. It's not
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Speaker 1: yours for comfort. Verse nine, Thus says the Lord of Hosts,
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Speaker 1: the God of Israel, I'm going to eliminate from this
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Speaker 1: place before your eyes and in your time, the voice
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Speaker 1: of rejoicing, the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom,
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Speaker 1: and the voice of the bride. You're going to watch
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Speaker 1: the disintegration of a nation, And Jeremiah, you're going to
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Speaker 1: live to see the day when you will not hear
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Speaker 1: wedding bells, and there won't be the fun and delight
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Speaker 1: of new homes springing up, and the romantic love and
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Speaker 1: joy of brides and grooms starting their own families. It
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Speaker 1: won't be yours to enjoy. It's gonna fade, Jeremiah, and
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Speaker 1: you won't have a lot to laugh about. Well, in
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Speaker 1: case you wonder if God's choice vessels suffer and hurt
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Speaker 1: and get depressed, look at chapter twenty, verse fourteen. It
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Speaker 1: may give you some comfort to know you're not the
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Speaker 1: only one that has depressing experiences, Jeremiahead him to the
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Speaker 1: maximum twenty fourteen. Cursed be the day when I was born?
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Speaker 1: Who said that some reprobate Jeremiah, the Prophet said it.
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Speaker 1: Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me.
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Speaker 1: Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
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Speaker 1: saying a baby boy has been born to you, and
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Speaker 1: made him very happy. And let that man be like
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Speaker 1: the cities which the Lord overthrew without relenting. Let him
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Speaker 1: hear an outcry in the morning, in a shout of
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Speaker 1: alarm at noon, because he did not kill me before birth,
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Speaker 1: so that my mother would have been my girl. He's
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Speaker 1: really low, isn't he Verse eighteen. Why did I ever
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Speaker 1: come forth from the womb to look on trouble and
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Speaker 1: sorrow so that my days have been spent in shame.
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Speaker 1: It's a good place to say something about idiosyncrasies regarding
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Speaker 1: God's choice instruments. All of them have them. Every great
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Speaker 1: person that you will study about, or meet, or know,
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Speaker 1: or even become, has unique kind of idiosyncrasies. Jeremiah was
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Speaker 1: an apparently rather depressed person. He lived his life in
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Speaker 1: the minor key. No matter how great, the individually has
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Speaker 1: strange things about him that if you just focus on them,
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Speaker 1: they'll turn you off. Let me give you some illustrations.
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Speaker 1: Charles haddensp For example, it is well known that Spurgeon smoked,
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Speaker 1: although it must be admitted that many famous British preachers smoked.
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Speaker 1: Where'sby writes, I have been told by one who ought
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Speaker 1: to know that Campbell Morgan smoked as many as eight
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Speaker 1: cigars a day, and R. W. Dale said that he
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Speaker 1: couldn't get along without food easier than without tobacco. Once,
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Speaker 1: Spurgeon was gently reprimanded for his smoking by a Methodist
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Speaker 1: preacher rather proper. If I ever find myself smoking to excess,
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Speaker 1: I promise I shall quit entirely. Spurgeon equipped, what would
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Speaker 1: you call smoking to excess? Asked the man? Why smoking
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Speaker 1: two cigars at the same time, Since Spurgeon, eh, you
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Speaker 1: don't think about that. Spurgeon's immortalized. There's a bust of
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Speaker 1: him in most Everest, every large Baptist setting, in fact,
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Speaker 1: the Baptist Union which he left, and they had real
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Speaker 1: battles with him. After his death built a monument in
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Speaker 1: his honor and put it right in the front hall,
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Speaker 1: an honor of Spurgeon. Well G. Campbell Morgan, how was he?
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Speaker 1: He was an interesting guy. During his ministry, Morgan was
26:14
Speaker 1: criticized in two areas, money and theology. You are an
26:19
Speaker 1: extravagant man, someone criticized Morgan. He replied, I am not
26:25
Speaker 1: an extravagant man, but I am expensive. I like that.
26:30
Speaker 1: When other British preachers were trying to balance their budget,
26:33
Speaker 1: Morgan was enjoying a motor car and being criticized for it.
26:38
Speaker 1: He received large honoraria for his ministry and without question
26:43
Speaker 1: earned every bit of it. He said, we have set
26:47
Speaker 1: these men apart, and said, wow, these are flawless persons.
26:51
Speaker 1: But we didn't know that. May surprise you to know
26:57
Speaker 1: that some of God's best men have been deeply depressing
27:00
Speaker 1: kind of men. John Henry Jowett, a fine expositor, wrote
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Speaker 1: a friend in nineteen twenty you seem to imagine that
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Speaker 1: I have no ups and downs, but just a level
27:09
Speaker 1: and lofty stretch of spiritual attainment with unbroken joy and equanimity.
27:15
Speaker 1: By no means I am often perfectly wretched, and everything
27:21
Speaker 1: appears murky saintly. Andrew Bonar, in his journal fourth of
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Speaker 1: July eighteen fifty seven, wrote this, I was very melancholy,
27:31
Speaker 1: I may say, on Saturday evening. The old scenes reminded
27:35
Speaker 1: me of my ministry, and this accompanied with such regret
27:38
Speaker 1: for past failures. Eighteen eighty eight, he closed a letter
27:42
Speaker 1: to a friend, Your frail, affectionate, aged, poor, unworthy, feeble,
27:46
Speaker 1: stupid brother, Andrew, and do you realize that the tenth
27:52
Speaker 1: anniversary of the Great Westminster Chapel in London, where G.
27:55
Speaker 1: Campbell Morgan had become the focus of expository preaching, he
27:59
Speaker 1: stood before the congregation and said he considered himself a failure.
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Speaker 1: I quote, during these ten years I have known more
28:07
Speaker 1: of visions, fading in mirages of purpose, is failing of
28:10
Speaker 1: fulfillment of things of strength, crumbling away in weakness, than
28:15
Speaker 1: ever in my life before. Even though his church had
28:20
Speaker 1: become the focal point of English speaking Bible teaching, he
28:28
Speaker 1: himself was deeply depressed. Some field typhoid fever was beginning
28:33
Speaker 1: to take its toll on him mentally. For whatever reason,
28:36
Speaker 1: he said those kind of things, And I want to
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Speaker 1: say to you tonight, Jeremiah was in the minor key.
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Speaker 1: Not all of God's great people grin and say a
28:49
Speaker 1: lot of flighty charisma kind of things so that they
28:55
Speaker 1: walk around spreading cheer blossoms all over. Hey, come on,
29:04
Speaker 1: let's give the people of God a break to be
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Speaker 1: who they are, how God made them, and sometime they
29:10
Speaker 1: are in the depths. I personally believe one of the
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Speaker 1: most depressed of all was David. That's why he wrote
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Speaker 1: songs that just touch us deeply when we are so low.
29:24
Speaker 1: Jeremiah lamented his birth. We extol him today as one
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Speaker 1: of the best of the prophets. Oh that I might
29:33
Speaker 1: have died before I was born. Listen, you don't minister
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Speaker 1: to a dying nation without feeling the death pangs within yourself.
29:43
Speaker 1: You don't have a prophetic ministry grinning all the way
29:47
Speaker 1: through it. You hurt an ache, and at times you
29:51
Speaker 1: would run and hide. I think it's a shame how
29:58
Speaker 1: we categorize God's people. There's the full spectrum of types
30:03
Speaker 1: and styles. Well, Jeremiah carried on a very interesting ministry
30:09
Speaker 1: in a rotten political and religious climate. Let me show
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Speaker 1: you Chapter five, verses one to three. You may not
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Speaker 1: believe this, but it's true. God told him Jerome to
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Speaker 1: and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now,
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Speaker 1: and take note, and seek in her open squares if
30:25
Speaker 1: you can find amen one man, what kind of man?
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Speaker 1: If there is one who does justice, who seeks truth,
30:34
Speaker 1: then I will pardon the city. Take off Jeremiah, and
30:38
Speaker 1: look for that individual that walks with me. Although they
30:41
Speaker 1: say as the Lord lives, surely they swear falsely. Interesting
30:45
Speaker 1: how you can use the right cliches but be a
30:48
Speaker 1: liar Verse three, Oh Lord, do not thine eyes look
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Speaker 1: for truth. Thou hast smitten them, but they do not weaken.
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Speaker 1: Thou hast consumed them, but they refuse to take correction.
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Speaker 1: They have made their faces harder than rock. They have
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Speaker 1: refused to repent. By the way, that's a Jeremiah's favorite word.
31:08
Speaker 1: It's found forty seven times in the book. Return, return, repent, repent,
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Speaker 1: and nobody did Verse seven. Why should I pardon you?
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Speaker 1: Your sons have forsaken me and sworn by those who
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Speaker 1: were not gods. When I had fed them to the
31:22
Speaker 1: full good question from God, they committed adultery. They trooped
31:28
Speaker 1: to the whorehouse. Literally, they were well fed, lusty horses,
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Speaker 1: each one nighing after his neighbour's wife. Jeremiah, you stand
31:41
Speaker 1: and you tell them the truth. Don't back down. Chapter six,
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Speaker 1: verse thirteen. From the least of them, even to the
31:53
Speaker 1: greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain. Well, not
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Speaker 1: the prophet. It's not those pre pie Even the prophets
32:01
Speaker 1: and the priests deal falsely. What's a false prophet? Well,
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Speaker 1: a false prophet is someone who tells something to an individual,
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Speaker 1: making him think it's the truth when it's really not.
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Speaker 1: Years ago, we lived in Houston and our phone number
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Speaker 1: in Houston Keystone three five eight seven O. Still remember.
32:20
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but I still remember. It was
32:23
Speaker 1: one digit removed from the Alabama Theater about a mile
32:27
Speaker 1: and a half away from us, Keystone three five eight
32:30
Speaker 1: seven nine. And we kept getting calls regarding what time
32:34
Speaker 1: does the movie start. My sister, being the person she was,
32:39
Speaker 1: would tell them eight thirty, ten point fifteen and eleven
32:43
Speaker 1: forty five. My sister was a false prophet in that's it.
32:51
Speaker 1: She was more than that, but I won't go into it.
32:56
Speaker 1: And she would tell them things, and they would tell thanks,
32:58
Speaker 1: and then wait and eight fife'd going. The thing of'd
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Speaker 1: be halfway over. I did think I was mad because
33:04
Speaker 1: I didn't think of it. I thought it was a
33:05
Speaker 1: terrific IDEA false prophet is one who comes across with
33:09
Speaker 1: real assuring remarks, but it's not true. And these prophets
33:13
Speaker 1: and priests were out for gain. They made bucks out
33:16
Speaker 1: of it. You can turn the ministry in a profit
33:20
Speaker 1: making business, and if you're good enough, you can call
33:23
Speaker 1: your hand and they'll pay it seems especially so if
33:29
Speaker 1: you're a false prophet, they'll pay more. And verse thirteen
33:35
Speaker 1: says from the least of them to the greatest, they're
33:38
Speaker 1: just greedy for gain. Verse fourteen, they say peace, peace, shalom.
33:44
Speaker 1: When there is no shalom, this place is dying. And
33:51
Speaker 1: so Jeremiah came along and he said, Shalom is a lie.
33:55
Speaker 1: And people said he's not a patriot, he's not a
33:58
Speaker 1: real Israelite, is against Judah. And they began to think
34:02
Speaker 1: about stringing him up. Why when our nation is hurting.
34:06
Speaker 1: We need the men of God to stand like zealots
34:09
Speaker 1: and say, stand for the country. Jeremiah says, it's going downhill,
34:13
Speaker 1: repent change. But they didn't. So what did they do well?
34:20
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three, Verse twenty five. Look for yourself. They
34:34
Speaker 1: would say things like I had a dream. I had
34:39
Speaker 1: a dream Verse twenty six. How long is there anything
34:44
Speaker 1: in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood? Even
34:47
Speaker 1: these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who
34:49
Speaker 1: intend to make my people forget my name by their
34:52
Speaker 1: dreams which they relate to one another. Where are the
34:57
Speaker 1: prophets that preach my word? Verse The prophet who has
35:01
Speaker 1: a dream may relate his dream, But let him who
35:04
Speaker 1: has my words speak my word. I'll tell you we
35:09
Speaker 1: hear a lot of dreams in our day, an experience
35:12
Speaker 1: here and an ecstatic thing there, And let me tell
35:15
Speaker 1: you about it. I write a book on it. Now
35:18
Speaker 1: hold the whole series of meetings about a series of dreams.
35:22
Speaker 1: And God says, we don't need dreams, we need the
35:27
Speaker 1: word of God Verse twenty nine. It is like a fire,
35:31
Speaker 1: It is like a hammer that shatters a rock. Therefore
35:37
Speaker 1: I am against the prophets that push their dreams. Well,
35:42
Speaker 1: how did the prophets feel about it? I'm glad you
35:44
Speaker 1: ask Chapter twenty six. You'll read it for yourself. Twenty
35:50
Speaker 1: six talk about pressure. Verse seven. The priests and the
35:56
Speaker 1: prophets and all the people know. These are the people
35:58
Speaker 1: he's been talking about. They heard Jeremiah speaking these words
36:02
Speaker 1: in the house of the Lord. When Jeremiah finished speaking,
36:05
Speaker 1: all the Lord had commanded him to speak. Notice that
36:08
Speaker 1: all that the Lord commanded him to speak. Then the
36:10
Speaker 1: people and the priests and the prophets seized him and said,
36:13
Speaker 1: you must die. Why have you prophesied in the name
36:19
Speaker 1: of the Lord, saying this house will be like Shiloh,
36:21
Speaker 1: and this city will be desolate without inhabitant Verse ten.
36:26
Speaker 1: When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came
36:28
Speaker 1: up to the king's house and the entrance of the
36:30
Speaker 1: new gate. Verse eleven. The priests and prophets spoke the
36:32
Speaker 1: officials and said, a death sentence for this man. He
36:38
Speaker 1: has prophesied against the city, and you've heard him in
36:41
Speaker 1: your own hearing. Interesting what people do when they're faced
36:45
Speaker 1: with the truth. I read some time ago about a
36:47
Speaker 1: tribe of natives that suffered severely from the disease that
36:53
Speaker 1: they were catching from the river. And a medical missionary
36:58
Speaker 1: came on the scene with microscope and all the necessary
37:02
Speaker 1: equipment and instruments, and he discovered through the use of
37:05
Speaker 1: his microscope that particular germ. And then he called in
37:09
Speaker 1: the chiefs of the tribe and they looked with him
37:14
Speaker 1: into the microscope to see this germ, and he was
37:16
Speaker 1: explaining to them the problem, and he said, that's the problem.
37:22
Speaker 1: And he thought he had them convinced that they need
37:26
Speaker 1: to do something about that river out there. He woke
37:30
Speaker 1: up the next morning and found all of his microscope smashed.
37:36
Speaker 1: How strange linking the problem to the one that reveals it.
37:44
Speaker 1: How unusual that the nation would say to the one
37:46
Speaker 1: ray of hope, kill him when he's the microscope saying
37:53
Speaker 1: here's the disease, and they say, put him to death.
38:01
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you, if you stand for the truth,
38:03
Speaker 1: you're going to be the object of mistreatment. You're going
38:09
Speaker 1: to be viewed as as the weirdo on the team,
38:14
Speaker 1: as the negative prophet of doom, as the one that
38:24
Speaker 1: won't get in step, and even as the one who
38:26
Speaker 1: lacks zeal for his country. Depending on what group you
38:31
Speaker 1: run with, you're in good company. Jeremiah says, hey, I
38:36
Speaker 1: understand Chapter thirty nine. The fall happens. The city falls
38:48
Speaker 1: thirty nine. It came about when Jerusalem was captured in
38:51
Speaker 1: the ninth year of Zedekiah. By the way, it's almost
38:53
Speaker 1: printed as history, it's going to happen, and it does happen.
38:57
Speaker 1: When it happens, Zedekiah the king for his life. Nebukad Nezar,
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Speaker 1: the King of Babylon. The enemy forces found him, captured him,
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Speaker 1: and brought him in verse a. Verse four came about
39:08
Speaker 1: when Zedekiah, the King of Judah, and all the men
39:10
Speaker 1: of war saw them that they fled and went out
39:13
Speaker 1: of the city at night by way of the king's gardens,
39:15
Speaker 1: through the gates between the two walls. And he went
39:19
Speaker 1: out toward the Araba. But the army of the Chaldeans
39:21
Speaker 1: pursued after them and overtook Zedekiah. Now look at what happens.
39:25
Speaker 1: They seized him, brought him up to nebukad Nezar, King
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Speaker 1: of Babylon, at Riblah, passed sentence on him, and the
39:31
Speaker 1: King of Babylon slew the sons of the king before
39:34
Speaker 1: his eyes and bound him with fetters after they blinded
39:41
Speaker 1: Zedekiah's eyes and brought him to Babylon. That's something. I
39:49
Speaker 1: wonder what Zedekiah thought when he watched the death of
39:51
Speaker 1: his sons. Cruel thought as it may sound. I wonder
39:56
Speaker 1: if the prophecy of Jeremiah didn't ring in his mind.
40:00
Speaker 1: I warn you, I warn you, I warn you. Funny,
40:10
Speaker 1: not funny, haha, but funny. Strange that you can warn
40:14
Speaker 1: a friend who is dipping deeper into carnality, and you
40:18
Speaker 1: can say to that individual, watch out, watch out, watch out.
40:24
Speaker 1: There are terrible consequences, Awful things are going to happen,
40:28
Speaker 1: and he goes right on. And then when the consequences happen,
40:34
Speaker 1: it's too late. The only thing that's left is the
40:38
Speaker 1: haunting memory of your watch out, watch out, don't do that.
40:49
Speaker 1: And so the city fell. The Prophecy of Jeremiah closes
40:55
Speaker 1: with a series of prophecies against oh Egypt and Olistia
41:00
Speaker 1: and Moab and Ammon and Amnon and finally Babylon. Ultimately,
41:06
Speaker 1: chapter fifty two, the city is in total ruins. Dreadful scene.
41:13
Speaker 1: Only those who lived through Berlin are Tokyo of the
41:17
Speaker 1: last generation could appreciate it. I was in Tokyo in
41:20
Speaker 1: fifty seven, and it had begun to be rebuilt quite well.
41:23
Speaker 1: But I talked to natives there who had seen it
41:27
Speaker 1: all happen and had seen it leveled, and they said,
41:29
Speaker 1: you would never believe the feeling connected with seeing your
41:32
Speaker 1: city in ruins, smoldering ruins, buildings burning like empty smoking skeletons,
41:42
Speaker 1: and your family gone, and your friend's gone, and you're
41:46
Speaker 1: all alone in a street, without a meal and without
41:49
Speaker 1: anyone about, no home, and you watch as your city
41:53
Speaker 1: has been leveled. That's the way it was in Jerusalem
42:00
Speaker 1: Wheremiah saw it. He saw it all passing review and
42:03
Speaker 1: was just like he had said. He had told him that,
42:08
Speaker 1: and they didn't repent, and he saw it all. I
42:11
Speaker 1: can't imagine how broken his heart must have been. Verse
42:16
Speaker 1: fourteen of chapter fifty two. The army of the Chaldeans,
42:21
Speaker 1: who were with the Captain of the Guard, broke down
42:24
Speaker 1: all the walls around Jerusalem, and then the rest of
42:28
Speaker 1: the people who were left in the city, the deserters
42:30
Speaker 1: who had deserted to the King of Babylon, the rest
42:33
Speaker 1: of the artisans. They took him away, left a few
42:36
Speaker 1: poor folks in the city to watch it burn, and
42:39
Speaker 1: they carried them all away to Babylon, verse one of lamentations.
42:47
Speaker 1: That's a sequel. We'll look at that next time. How
42:51
Speaker 1: lonely sits the city? I can't imagine what Jeremiah must
42:59
Speaker 1: have belt. He stumbles through the ruins, and he feels
43:05
Speaker 1: the heat, the smoke from the fire, and he says,
43:09
Speaker 1: how lonely is the city that was full of people.
43:14
Speaker 1: She has become like a widow who was once great
43:17
Speaker 1: among the nations. She who was a princess among the provinces,
43:21
Speaker 1: has become a forced laborer. I look into the hollow
43:28
Speaker 1: eyes of those who choose willfully to walk away from God,
43:32
Speaker 1: and I say, in my mind, how lonely is that life?
43:38
Speaker 1: How horrible is that memory? How wasted are those years
43:46
Speaker 1: that could have been captured for God. It's almost more
43:51
Speaker 1: than you can bear at times as a counselor. Here's
43:54
Speaker 1: a friend. Four lessons linger, and I hasten to give
44:05
Speaker 1: them for the sake of time. First of all, God
44:09
Speaker 1: chooses and uses unlikely people for unbelievable tasks. Who would
44:16
Speaker 1: have ever thought a Jeremiah would have qualified for a
44:19
Speaker 1: Jeremiah task? But he did. God chooses and uses unlikely
44:26
Speaker 1: people for unbelievable tasks, and it may very well be
44:31
Speaker 1: that you're one of them. May very well be that you,
44:34
Speaker 1: that unlikely person feels totally inept, are the very one
44:38
Speaker 1: God is saying that's your task. Get headed. Here's a second.
44:45
Speaker 1: When God's word is ignored, serious consequences are inevitable. You
44:53
Speaker 1: ignore God's word, and I guarantee you consequences of the
44:57
Speaker 1: most severe nature will fall upon you. I don't care
45:01
Speaker 1: how intelligent, I don't care how clever, I don't care
45:04
Speaker 1: how manipulative. I don't care how old. I don't care
45:08
Speaker 1: how much money. You ignore God's word and you pay
45:12
Speaker 1: a price horrible consequences. Third, no amount of carnal pressure
45:23
Speaker 1: can erase the lonely silence of a disobedient life. No
45:33
Speaker 1: amount of carnal pressure can erase the lonely silence of
45:37
Speaker 1: a disobedient life. At the time it happens, you will think, Oh,
45:42
Speaker 1: this is more fun than any consequence could be. This
45:45
Speaker 1: is worth it. I tell you it is not Christianity
45:51
Speaker 1: today recently, well not recently, but in days past. Gave
45:55
Speaker 1: this editorial speak a picture if you will, some solar
46:01
Speaker 1: rays suddenly, causing all radios, cassette players, stereo sets, and
46:06
Speaker 1: televisions to stop working. Trembling hands impatiently twirl dials and
46:13
Speaker 1: adjust knobs and flip switches. Eyes are dilated with fear.
46:20
Speaker 1: Breathing comes in spasms. Marx was wrong. Religion is not
46:25
Speaker 1: the opiate of the people. Incessant sound is. We'll listen
46:32
Speaker 1: to anything to avoid silence, long, pointless talk shows, boring conversations,
46:39
Speaker 1: round the clock news, and even rock and country music.
46:44
Speaker 1: We like sound because it blocks out the despairing cry
46:48
Speaker 1: of our own soul, as well as the still small
46:51
Speaker 1: voice of God. But we need occasionally to take God's
46:55
Speaker 1: hand and journey into the fearful land of silence. It
47:00
Speaker 1: can be both painful and healing. You will never be
47:07
Speaker 1: more silent than in the backwash of the consequence of disobedience.
47:12
Speaker 1: Nothing can fill the void of a lonely city. Fourth,
47:20
Speaker 1: and finally, sometime, the most deserving is the least rewarded.
47:28
Speaker 1: Jeremiah deserves the plaudits and the credit that fell upon
47:33
Speaker 1: the best of God's people, But you know what, He
47:38
Speaker 1: lived to see the fall of his nation and his
47:42
Speaker 1: people chained like animals to one another trudging off to Babylon,
47:50
Speaker 1: by the rivers of Babylon. There we sat down, we
47:53
Speaker 1: hung our hearts on the willow tree. And then those
47:56
Speaker 1: mockers came and said, sing one of the Lord's songs
48:00
Speaker 1: here in this land. And they said, how can we
48:03
Speaker 1: sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? Come on,
48:09
Speaker 1: break God with amazing grace or blessed assurance Jesus is mine,
48:15
Speaker 1: or the God of Abraham praise. And those broken Jerusalemites
48:21
Speaker 1: hung their heads and said, we have no song the
48:25
Speaker 1: cardinal the cardinal person doesn't sing. Thank God for Jeremiah
48:35
Speaker 1: wise man. May his tribe increase. It's about together, shall we?
48:49
Speaker 1: You may feel tonight like a lonely voice in a wilderness.
48:54
Speaker 1: You may be the only one in your office that
48:56
Speaker 1: stands for the cause of Christ, the only one on
49:00
Speaker 1: the team. I mean, that's really serious about spiritual things. Frankly,
49:08
Speaker 1: some of you are the only ones in your family
49:13
Speaker 1: for sure, the only one in your neighborhood gets tough
49:17
Speaker 1: punching out the Christian life day in and day out
49:21
Speaker 1: with no thanks, with ridicule and even some mockery. Or
49:32
Speaker 1: maybe you're in the backwash of a Jerusalem experience, and
49:35
Speaker 1: you've heard the voice of the prophet and you've not
49:37
Speaker 1: heeded it, and you're suffering under that. Maybe this is
49:44
Speaker 1: the winter of your discontent. Hear the word from God tonight.
49:54
Speaker 1: There's hope if you repent. Turn around, turn around. We
50:12
Speaker 1: heard sung tonight, Lord, bring back the springtime. That really
50:20
Speaker 1: spoke to me and to several of us. We don't
50:26
Speaker 1: need a lot of empty promises and a lot of
50:28
Speaker 1: glad handing and grinning. We need the spring when there's
50:34
Speaker 1: real life and new buds and a fresh blossom. When
50:41
Speaker 1: we know that we're right in the center of your will,
50:45
Speaker 1: even though we're not applauded, when we know that we're
50:47
Speaker 1: like Jeremiah, using your book and walking with you doing
50:53
Speaker 1: what is right. Thank you for hope that comes in
51:00
Speaker 1: study of a lonely life like Jeremiah. Thank you for
51:04
Speaker 1: the realism of the fact that not all great people
51:08
Speaker 1: are rewarded in life, but in fact, some of those
51:14
Speaker 1: most deserving or least rewarded in time, not an eternity.
51:23
Speaker 1: I pray that you would use a word of encouragement
51:25
Speaker 1: in the lives of each person who's heard this message
51:28
Speaker 1: at this moment. Some with strange idiosyncrasies like a Spurgeon
51:32
Speaker 1: or a Campbell Morgan or a Jeremiah, show us Father
51:38
Speaker 1: that sometime your best work is done through most unlikely vessels,
51:47
Speaker 1: but people dedicated to you, not perfect but available. We
51:56
Speaker 1: do love you, and before we walk out into the
51:58
Speaker 1: cold night, we want you to know that we need
52:01
Speaker 1: you and we desire to obey you. You have our lives,
52:08
Speaker 1: and you have this week that stretches before us, and
52:11
Speaker 1: we commit ourselves to you through Christ our Lord. Amen.
52:22
Speaker 1: The preceding message, Jeremiah Weeping, Warning and Waiting, was copyrighted
52:28
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty and the sound recording was copyrighted in
52:31
Speaker 1: twenty eleven by Charles Rswindall, Inc. All rights are reserved
52:35
Speaker 1: worldwide