Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You may be seated.
[00:00:04] So, Father, we thank you this morning as we go to your word. I thank you that you can open the eyes of our understanding and that you can speak into our lives and, Father, where you want to encourage us and strengthen us and invigorate us. I pray that will occur today. I pray in those area in our lives where maybe we've grown indifferent or complacent or apathetic. I pray that you would convict us and you would challenge us, and something would be imparted today that would forever affect the way we see and live our lives. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name and God's people said, amen. Amen. So you have the joy of walking with me through the book of Jeremiah, and we're on chapter 37. That's a lot of sermons, right? We've done it chapter by chapter. We've already gone through 36 sermons. How many can hardly believe that? And you know what's really striking me about this series is how relevant this book is to the moment in which we're currently living.
[00:01:09] I've discovered a new author. She's a historian. Her name is Barbara Tukman, and she's won a Pulitzer prize. I finished reading a book called the distant Mirrors. The climate is 14th century, but I discovered a new book called the March of Folly. And in this preface, the editor kind of summarizes what she's writing about. And he says, a phenomenon noticeable throughout history, regardless of place or period, is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than almost any other human activity.
[00:01:52] What are they saying? They're not doing a good job, right?
[00:01:56] In this fear. Wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information is less operative and more frustrated than it should be. In other words, lack of common sense.
[00:02:11] Anybody notice that? Lots of decisions you go, where is that coming from? Makes no sense, right?
[00:02:18] Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason would point and enlightened self interest would suggest? Why does intelligent mental process seem so often not the function?
[00:02:33] Does anybody understand? Those are fancy words of saying, why do they make so many stupid decisions? Giving you the paraphrase version, right? What's the problem here?
[00:02:43] It may be asked, why, since folly or perversity is inherent in individuals, should we expect anything else of government? What are they saying? They're saying, hey, they're human beings. And listen, we live with a fallen nature, and so we shouldn't be shocked that leaders will make bad decisions. The reason for concern, though, is that folly and government has more impact on more people than individual follies, and therefore governments have a greater duty to act according to reason. Well, that's pretty powerful. And we know that sin will distort our thinking. Does anybody know that? That's what happens? We don't realize that. And a lot of us, we probably think that we've got our act together far better than we really do. It's really interesting, but the reality is everyone in this room could probably look back in hindsight and say, you know, looking back now, I made a few stupid choices in life. Anybody relate to that? Pastor's got his hand up. I've made a few mistakes. That's the inherent nature of folly. I mean, we can make bad decisions. So decisions when we're in leadership, however, have a deep impact not only on ourselves, but on all the people that we're affecting in our leadership. In Jeremiah 37, what's going on in the picture? I'll give you a little background and then we'll get into its text. It says, there's a relief force of Egyptians marching because the Babylonians now are besieging the city of know. They're trying to capture the capital city. They've basically taken over the land. And the king has brokered an arrangement with the pharaoh of Egypt, the king of Egypt, to come and rescue him. And so the Babylonians leave the city in their besiege, their siege works and move towards the incoming egyptian army. So they're going out to fight those guys. And so there's a little reprieve.
[00:04:37] It's an interesting moment.
[00:04:40] So when this is happening, it's a moment of arrest or respite. Right. We find two fascinating incidences that reveal, one, the folly of the nation and the faithfulness of God's prophet. And so we can talk about that. It's historical. It's already happened. So what? What difference does it make in my life? Well, I'm going to raise a bunch of questions, and the first one is, how do you and I respond in cris.
[00:05:06] Now, we've all had those moments. And do we act with integrity and courage like we're going to see Jeremiah does, or are we overwhelmed, vacillating and ultimately disobedient to what God is revealing to us in his words, like, we're going to see the king of Judah do? So we're going to take a look at two people and we're going to see how they respond to this moment of crisis.
[00:05:27] And what may be more telling about our lives is how we respond to life after the crisis. Because how many know we can get real spiritual in a crisis? Our prayer life goes up. Church attendance goes up. We negotiate with God for help, but then the crisis is over. And what do we do afterwards? That's a good question. Do we simply go back to what our lives were like before the crisis, or do we make significant adjustments and grow as a result of the cris in our lives? Because I really believe that what God is trying to do is help us grow up. How many know growing up is a painful endeavor? Or let me say it to you this way, changing is not easy. Anybody discover that? It's so easy when we get in a comfortable state, we don't want to move from comfort. And to really develop in our lives requires a little pain, a little development, a little growth. And so God's going to help us along because God's committed to our development. God's committed to our spiritual maturity. God's committed for us to grow up and become more like him.
[00:06:37] So do we respond by renewed obedience towards God and his word? What's the outcome of living an indifferent or apathetic life before Almighty God? And I think our actions reveal the true conditions of our soul. So we can say anything we want to, but our behavior is kind of letting people know where we're really at, right? So in Jeremiah 37, we have a contrast between this beleaguered prophet and this indecisive king who allows political expediency to determine his course of action, which is a detriment both to himself and to the nation. And it's true in our own lives. A lot of times we don't see ourselves as I'm making the politically expedient decision, but let's face it, there's a lot of pressure in society today to conform to a value system that's not truly godly.
[00:07:29] And we're going to talk about even. I've seen pastors change the message. I've seen churches shift gears. All kinds of stuff starts happening. But let's take a look at a text of scripture in a moment of crisis so we can learn something. And I think we're going to find two things we can learn from an hour of cris. And the first one is the danger of indifference towards God's word in our life. And that's why I would say to people, you need to start cultivating a daily devotional life, a daily bible reading. They've done studies on people. They know that the people who are daily Bible readers, actually, they live a totally different life than everybody else, because you're inputting the word of God and you're inputting the way God sees life. And as you and I are acting on what we're reading, we become a changed person. We're kind of out of step with where the culture is at. We're moving in a different direction. And that's a very beautiful thing, because I think where the culture is at right now is pretty broken, and I think we're recognizing how broken it's getting.
[00:08:31] It's interesting that one of the challenges in living a society like we have is all of the affluence we have now. Some of us go, well, hey, pastor, it's getting a lot tougher to make a living. Yeah, I understand that. But compared to the majority of people in the world, we're some of the most wealthy people on the planet. And if you don't believe that, I'll take you on a little journey and we'll introduce you to some people who are just barely eating. And that's the majority of people in our world. There's people starving in our world, lots of them. So it's interesting, the scottish philosopher Alexander Tyler describes eight stages of the rise and fall of the world's great civilizations. And Tuesday night, I actually drugged this thing out. We actually had a great discussion on it, and we prayed about it. But I'm going to give you just the highlights. I'll just give you what the eight are, and I'll make a sentence or so. Okay, let me give you what they are. First of all, usually starts out bondage to spiritual growth. And great civilizations are always formed in the crucible of great difficulties, injustices, and sufferings. Okay, now, Charles Pope says, suffering brings wisdom and demands spiritual discipline that seeks justice and solutions. And that's true. So when you're in this stage of bondage to spiritual growth, think of the Israelites. They came out of slavery, right? Now you think of the american experience. They felt great injustice and they revolted. And so that was a tremendous struggle. Lots of struggle. Lots of people paid a tremendous price for that kind of thing to happen. Then you go from spiritual growth. Well, sorry, I guess they're not all going one after another here. Spiritual growth to great courage.
[00:10:23] God always raises up anointed leaders that summon courage and sacrifice. It's true that people have little or nothing to lose, are willing to give everything, and we see that in these situations. And then you go from courage to liberty. This is the idea that the ideals of a civilization emerged during this period, and heroism and virtues that brought about that freedom are esteemed by the people.
[00:10:49] And then you go from liberty to abundance. So there's always a benefit. This is a civilization on the rise. And freedom ushers in great prosperity because a civilization is functioning with the virtues of sacrifice and hard work.
[00:11:06] People are being blessed. But how many know there's a danger with, you know, Jesus warned against it. You can't serve God and materialism, right? He says that. And Moses warned the Israelites, when they go into the promised land, when God blesses you, don't forget God. Isn't that what they did? And I'm going to say this right now. If we would go back in time, if we go a little time capsule and go back to our grandfathers or our great grandfathers in Alberta, you would have found out how hard it was here for people.
[00:11:34] They were pioneers, they were struggling, they worked hard, they sacrificed, they gave of themselves. Our whole story of our own country is a story of sacrifice and difficulty and hardship. And people really gave a lot. And some of the older people in the congregation understand what I'm talking about. That was part of the value system. But once you start living and growing up in affluence and plenty, a lot of people decided, I don't want my kids to go without like I had to. And we think we're doing them a great favor by giving them everything. And what we're actually doing is ruining them. Because, you see, struggle and sacrifice are virtues that need to be incalculated inside of a human person to really develop as a person. Then he goes on to talk about abundance moves to complacency, which means we're self satisfied. And we become increasingly unaware of trends that seem to undermine the health and the ability to thrive in a society. Necessary virtues crumble, discipline declines, ideals become remote. People who raise awareness that there's a problem are perceived as extreme, harsh and judgmental. Interesting. From complacency to apathy.
[00:12:42] That word apathy comes from the Greek, and it refers to a lack of interest or passion.
[00:12:49] Pathos is passion. The a before it means a negation of it. There's no passion. The growing lack of attention to disturbing trends. And many seldom think or care about the sacrifices that were made previously. And they lose a sense that they have to work for the common good. I was just recently in Normandy. I was overwhelmed.
[00:13:11] It was sobering, it was moving. I looked at what our young people in Canada did when they landed on the beaches of Normandy. To free Europe. I mean, the sacrifices that were made and the people there are still remembering those sacrifices. But when you talk to most Canadians, we have no idea how many know that the Canadians proportionately were the greatest casualties on the Normandy landings. There's five landings. Canadians had the highest casualty rate proportionately, Americans had more. But we had 14,000 soldiers. We lost the most. We went the furthest in. We paid a price. There's a price to be paid for these things, but we forget that stuff. Then he talks about apathy to dependence. Increasing numbers of people lack the virtues and zeal necessary to work and contribute. So you have a whole society now. They move away from suffering and sacrifice. Discipline and discipline and work seem increasingly too hard. Dependency grows. The collective culture now tips in the direction of dependency, and virtue is not seen as a solution. And so this ushers in a demand for greater government and collective solutions. And then you move from dependency to bondage, because dependent people become increasingly dysfunctional and desperate. It's true they seek stronger, self centralized leadership, but the more leaders have power, the more corrupt they become, and they seize even more. Injustices intrude. Family and personal virtues, which are essential to any civilization, are eroded, increasingly replaced by dark and despotic centralized control. Hunger for more and more power. And in this way, civilization is gradually eroded because people in bondage no longer have the virtues necessary to fight. And so you move back to a totalitarian regime. That's exactly what happens. And by the way, this has happened over and over and over and over and over again. You study all the great civilizations. This is an observation. I'm just summarizing it really quickly. This is exactly what was happening in Judah. At the moment that we're reading our text, we're going to see the spiritual condition of the leadership and people of the nation and the ensuing cris that they were experiencing. We pick it up in chapter 37. Zedekiah, the last king, son of Josiah, who was a godly king, was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, who is now.
[00:15:40] He was a puppet king. He was being controlled by the Babylonians. He reigned in the place of Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim.
[00:15:48] Neither he nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words of the Lord had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah. That's kind of a summary of the entire chapter. Nobody's listening. Nobody's paying attention anymore. What it means is no one's doing what God's telling them to do. People are doing their own thing. It's going to lead to a tremendous challenge here. Verse three. King Zedekiah, however, sent Jehukal, son of Shelamiah, with the priest Zephaniah, son of Messiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, with this message, please pray to the Lord our God, for us.
[00:16:20] I don't know how many people, when they get into crisis, they say, please pray for me. Right? But I have no intention of doing what God's telling me to do.
[00:16:30] I just want God to deliver me from all of the mess that my sins have gotten me into.
[00:16:37] Come on now. That's true.
[00:16:41] You know what God had already told Jeremiah, stop praying. I'm not listening to your prayers for these people because they're just continuously, you know, once the crisis seems to be over, which when the Babylonians leave, it seems to be over, Jeremiah warns them, this is only temporary, guys. The Babylonians are going to come back and defeat you. You're not done yet. You've been rebelling against God. God is using them to discipline you. How many know if we don't address the fundamental problems in our lives or in our families or in our nation, which is really doing our own thing and disregarding what God has to say about life, trouble will come and bite us big time. It's true. John Thompson says Zedekiah's first approach to Jeremiah in his time of anxiety seemed indirect. He seemed to have lacked the courage for a more open approach. Perhaps Zeddkiah hoped almost beyond hope that Yahweh, his name of Hebrew God, would repeat the miracle of 701 BC when he removed the assyrian armies from Jerusalem in the days of King Hezekiah. That happened earlier, remember, 185,000 that were besieging the city died. You may be hoping for another miracle like that. Pray for us.
[00:18:00] Here we see him sending two emissaries to Jeremiah for that request, but he ignores it. Alan Dearborn says, disciples of Jesus cannot blatantly disregard his word and then assume that a prayer for deliverance is efficacious, which means it'll work. That prayer will work. Circumstances where prayer is okay, there's a part there, not there, but that's okay.
[00:18:38] Zedekiah cannot assume that his rejection of God's word will somehow induce God to send a different word of instruction. In other words, he wants a word from God, and Jeremiah is going to give him the same word God gave him before. How many know? God doesn't keep changing his mind. We gotta understand that about God. I think there are circumstances where prayer is not what God desires. This is a shocking statement for most of us. Although this sounds like a radical statement, it is worth some moments of reflection.
[00:19:06] Prayer is a staple of the christian life, but it cannot be used as a reason from shirking one's responsibility or as an excuse for not being obedient to divine instruction. In other words, if God's telling you to do something, I'm going to pray about it. Prayer then becomes a sin. How's that? We could sound real spiritual, but if God's asking us to do something and we're not doing it, we can hide behind the cloak of prayer, but that's not going to work. And I remember reading that one time Joshua was praying after the defeat of AI, and God says, what are you doing down there? Praying there'sin in the camp deal with sin. How's that? That was pretty straightforward. So he got up from his prayer and started dealing with the problem. I'm not saying it's wrong to pray. I believe in prayer with all my heart. But there are moments when we need to deal with what we know is wrong and just deal with it. And then we see this unchanging message. Though situations in life change, though culture changes, though the morality of cultures change, the mors of cultures change, how many know God's message stays the same?
[00:20:09] Yes, unfortunately, though we change our mind as human beings, we do that usually based on present earthly realities. God doesn't change. He's got an eternal perspective. He's ever the same. We celebrate that one of the characteristics of God is God is unchanging. He's true to his character. It's beautiful. That's why we can have faith in God and say, you know what? I can depend on God's word, because God's going to back it up. If God says something, he's got to do it. I can hold him to his word. And God says, yep, I'll do it.
[00:20:48] Jeremiah's actions are misrepresented. So now the armies have left, and Jeremiah decides, well, I'm going to go check because he lives just a few miles out of Jerusalem. He's heading over to visit some family members. It says, verse four. Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among people, for he had not yet been put in prison and Pharaoh's army had marched out of Egypt. When the Babylonians, who were beseeching Jerusalem, heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, the prophet. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Tell the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of me. Pharaoh's army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt. In other words, they're not going to help you. Then the Babylonians will return and attack the city, and they will capture it and burn it down. Bad news. How many? I don't want to hear that. Right. That's not good news. This is what the Lord says. Do not deceive yourselves thinking the Babylonians will surely leave us. They will not, because you have to understand something. They had already defeated them once. They had already set up a puppet king. Now he's rebelling against the Babylonians.
[00:21:53] Even if you were to defeat the entire babylonian army that is attacking you, and only wounded men were left in their tents, they're going to come out and burn the city down. Wow. What's he saying? He says, even if they don't look like they're much to fight against you, these guys are going to come out and beat you, because it's not them. It's God that's doing it. That's what he's telling them.
[00:22:14] John Thompson says the answer to Zedekiah was to the effect that the egyptian army, which had come to bring help, would return to Egypt, and the Chaldeans would return and destroy the city. Even if Nebuchadnezzar had only wounded soldiers fighting for him, he would win. Such rhetorical exaggeration served to portray in stark contrast the inevitability of Jerusalem's fall and destruction. Wow. It's pretty strong, isn't it? Such words, coming at a time when the rail of the people have been boosted by the babylonian withdrawal, could only arouse bitter and violent antagonism against Jeremiah. See, Jeremiah is saying, hey, you guys are going to get beat. They're not seeing that the circumstances have changed. So they're saying you're out of touch with reality, Jeremiah. As a matter of fact, what are you doing leaving the city?
[00:23:00] I was deeply moved reading a text of scripture found in two kings, 24, three to four. God finally decided to deal with his people. How many centuries had God given them grace? Lots.
[00:23:15] This isn't a one or two year thing. This is like we're talking hundreds of years. But then we come to the reign of king Manassa, which was just prior to Josiah, a good king. He reigned for, what, 55 years? And he did so many wicked things was unbelievable. And then I was reading these verses and it said, surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord's command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood, for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive. I think that's probably the most chilling words you can read in the Bible. And God was not willing to forgive.
[00:23:59] Say, why is that? Well, God is always willing to forgive if we repent. But God knew they weren't going to repent, so he wasn't willing to forgive. So he was going to deal with them because of what they had done. So what was the meaning of that text, the shedding of innocent blood. Dj y says, to shed innocent blood implies oppression against the young, the innocent and the godly.
[00:24:23] Barnes expands upon this idea. The phrase to shed innocent blood signifies in the late monarchical period, that's the monarchy, the oppression of the poor and the underprivileged. More literally, however, some commentators, in line with Josephus and the Talmud, suggest that Manasseh actually sought to put to death many of the righteous, including Isaiah and other yahwehistic prophets, in an attempt to eliminate all opposition to his policies. And so I just put a little note to myself. When leaders and nations try to eliminate God's message and God's messengers, they end up bringing destruction upon themselves and the people who follow them. Just write that down. You know, as christians, let's be courageous.
[00:25:13] I'm going to tell you why we should just go out and just be preaching the gospel. Well, I'm afraid what's going to happen to me. Don't be.
[00:25:20] I'm afraid for the people who are going to come opposed to us. I'm afraid for them.
[00:25:25] Why? Because they're dealing with God.
[00:25:28] And if God before you and me, who can be against us, you don't want to mess with God's servants, because God will show up. How many know God's bigger than people?
[00:25:41] Let's look at the second thing we learn in this hour. Crisis is the wisdom and courage it takes to obey God.
[00:25:47] The hope that will sustain us in every crisis is to turn to God despite the cost and difficulties involved. Jeremiah is faithful to convey God's message, despite the antagonism he's experiencing around him. God's message at this point was not popular in that culture.
[00:26:06] Is there any faint ideas that maybe God's message is not quite as popular in our culture as it once was?
[00:26:15] I think a lot of people say, please don't say anything. I don't want to hear it. But the reality is they still need to hear it. And there are hungry hearts out there that need to hear it. And how many know it's the truth that sets people free? So people need to hear the truth, even if they don't want to hear the truth.
[00:26:33] There were a lot of people in Jeremiah's days claiming to speak on God's behalf, but were simply telling people what they wanted to hear. That's called know we're living in a similar time. There is a temptation.
[00:26:49] Even christians go, I don't want to hear bad news. I don't want to hear that. I have to repent. I don't want to hear that. I have to change my ways. That's true. And this preacher over here says wonderful things. I'm going to go sit over there. Just be careful. Just be careful that they're not changing the message. That's what we need to understand. Read the book for yourself. You'll see it.
[00:27:10] We might be more concerned about what people think than what God says. The apostle Paul explained that we need to armor our minds with the idea that persecution is a part of the christian life. Listen to what Timothy writes to us.
[00:27:24] In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
[00:27:31] It doesn't say everyone who is living a godly life may be persecuted. Doesn't use that. It says will be persecuted. As a matter of fact, Jesus in the sermon on the mount says, blessed are you. When people persecute you for my sake, blessed are you.
[00:27:48] You say, why is that? You know what? A lot of us, we don't want any hassles. We want to fly under the radar. We don't want anybody cause any grief, have no situation. But can I just say this?
[00:28:00] I'm under a little conviction. I have to be careful because I need to say what needs to be said, even if it creates difficulty in a relationship. I need to say that not in a mean way. We're not trying to be militant, aggressive. I'm right. No, we're speaking the truth in love. We're concerned about the well being of people. Do you and I really believe that people that do not receive Jesus Christ as their savior will perish for all of eternity? Is that the gospel?
[00:28:34] It is the gospel that all of us are under a know. I'm reading this week in my devotional time. You know what I'm reading? I'm reading in the psalms, I'm reading in Romans. And this is what's hitting me with impact. Jesus says, I'm coming back to know, read the apostles'creed. He's coming back to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is coming back to judge human beings. And think about it. He's a loving God. Yes, he is, because he came to die for our sins. But think about the judgment side, all of the injustices in the world, all the criminal activity, all of the oppression, all of the violations of people, all of the wars, all of the destruction. God is a God of justice. He's going to judge every human being for the deeds done in their body. That's going to happen. And the only hope we have is that you and I come to Christ and that we receive Christ's forgiveness. That's the answer to our human dilemma, and it changes the equation for us.
[00:29:30] The persecution comes from a wayward culture. And I just wrote this down. We realize that conflict is not with flesh and blood. We're not fighting with people. We're not even fighting with political entities. We're fighting with spiritual powers and authorities who are opposed to the kingdom of God. We have to always remember that. And then there's the persecution that comes from this wayward culture. Verse eleven. After the babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's army, Jeremiah started to leave the city to go to the territory of Benjamin. That's where he was from, to get his share of the property among the people there. But when he reached the Benjamin Gate, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijas, son of Shalomaya, the son of Hananiah, arrested him and said, you're deserting to the Babylonians. He probably had justification because remember, he keeps telling them, you got to surrender to the babylonians. That's not true. Jeremiah says, I'm not deserting to the babylonians. But he wouldn't listen to him. Instead, he arrested jeremiah, brought him to the officials. They were angry with jeremiah and had him beaten, imprisoned in the house of JONatHAN, the secretary, which they had made into a prison. These guys were probably part of the faction that were pro Egyptian, and they did not like what Jeremiah was saying. And so when they got their hands on just, they got nasty. It says jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon, where he remained a long brugerman, you know. Well, I just wrote this DowN. Jeremiah had been preaching SUrreNder to the babylonians as a part of God's messaging. Now, as he's leaving, it appears that he's going to join the babylonians. This action is perceived as a collaborator at best, a spy at worst. And so he's seen as a traitor. Can you see why he's seen as a traitor?
[00:31:09] Jeremiah? He's not pro Babylonian. Or pro egyptian. He's pro God, but he's telling them the message God's given him. Walter Brugaman says JEREMiaH's public word from God has already been rejected. Now, his personal defense is also not heeded. He's arrested, arraigned, beaten and imprisoned. The royal establishment despises his message and therefore abuses the messenger. They find his words unbearable. So what is God's provision for his servant? Verse 17. Then King ZEDEkiaH sent for him and had him brought to the palace, where he asked him privately. So here's what's going on. The king himselF, he's trying to ride the fence, okay, he's got pro babylonian faction. He's got pro Egyptian faction, but it seems like he's been put into power by the Babylonians and he's rebelling against them now because he's bought into the pro Egyptian situation. So this is a politically challenging moment. And he says to Jeremiah, well, what does God have to say? Well, JeReMiah's been telling him all know, but he goes, I'm nervous. If I do what you're telling me to do, I'm afraid that what people are going to do to me or say or all the rest of it. And a lot of times we don't do the right thing because we're afraid. Isn't that true? Of course. Fear is a very powerful entity in our lives. We have to overcome that. And the Bible says, perfect love casts out fear. We need the love of God in our hearts so strongly. Well, he goes on to say here, yes. Jeremiah says, yeah, there is a word from God. You're going to be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon. Notice he has not changed the message, even though he's in prison by being held by some people are not very nice, and they're leaving him for dead. Basically, it says, Jeremiah said to the king, what crime have I committed against you or your attendants or this people that you've put me in prison? Where are your prophets who prophesied to you? The king of Babylon will not attack you or this land? You see, JeRemiah had been prophesying way back in the days of Josiah. And back then, prophets were saying, that'll never happen. You'll never have a problem with the Babylonians. Guess what? They weren't true. Hey, you can tell a good, true person by their words. And these guys were telling people what they wanted to hear. But Jeremiah says, no, that's not true. You guys are going to be. God's going to use the Babylonians to discipline you because of your sin. But now, my lord the king, please listen. Let me bring my petition before you. Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan, the secretary, or I will die there. You got a feeling this is not a Nice. This place. King Zedekai then gave orders for JeReMiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread from the streets of the bakers each day until all the bread in the city was gone. So JEReMIaH remained in the courtyard of the guard. So this was a lot better place to go.
[00:34:01] Now we immediately see that JeReMiah is reiterating that God has not changed his mind.
[00:34:09] The message has not changed. Zedekiah needs to do what God is requiring. Even so, we need to realize in this hour we have an unchanging message from God. God is unchanging. We need to surrender our lives to him and serve his kingdom. It's not about making God's message socially acceptable. That's not our job. How many are catching on now? I think we can say God's message in a gracious way. I think that's important.
[00:34:46] But I still think we got to tell people this is the message. You can't change the messaging.
[00:34:54] We're called to be faithful and allow the power of that message to bring about change in people's lives. Do you know you and I are not in the changing people business.
[00:35:05] Can I help you right now? You're not in that business. You can relax. Your job is to convey a message. It's God's job to change human hearts. I can't change a single person.
[00:35:16] I have discovered one thing in my life. I'm having a hard time changing myself.
[00:35:21] How many could say, pastor, I'm with you. I am the biggest culprit. I have the hardest time just changing me. I don't even try to change Patty. Forget that.
[00:35:31] And I've been married to her for almost 45 years, and I'm not going to change her. I'm not even trying for that. I am just working by the grace of God to let God speak into my life and make the changes necessary in my life. And if I do that, it'll affect the people around me. Right? How many know? If you get nicer, you're going to have different response. Right? But if you're getting grumpier all the time, you're going to have a totally different response. I can just guarantee you.
[00:35:59] But we're not in the business of changing people. We're in the business of giving people God's message, staying true to God and his message. The other prophets basically had falsely said what the people wanted to hear and they had avoided any persecution. Jeremiah's suffering because he's telling the truth. The other guys are not suffering at all. They never suffer.
[00:36:28] You can always tell a false prophet, everybody speaks good of them, always get worried. If everyone's saying nice things about you, you better start sweating it a little bit.
[00:36:39] You're probably not telling a lot of stuff you should be saying, because if you tell people what they really need to hear, they may not always treat you as that nice guy.
[00:36:50] Just such a nice know. We all want to be nice people, but we're prepared to let people perish in the process. That's the know. However, as the situation had unfolded, they were leading the king astray. And Jeremiah, however, stayed true to his calling. And this is the lesson we need to learn. We need to stay true to God. We need to stay true to God's message in this hour. We need to stay true to God in this hour. So Jeremiah, now he's pleading for deliverance, he's asking not to be sent back. And the fact that the king complies with his request tells me something. The king, by making that concession, for Jeremiah to be removed from the hostile and unhealthy environment to the courtyard of the guard and a provision for food, means that the king acknowledges that Jeremiah is a servant of God, even though his message is chilling. Right. You can see that. However, the king is more afraid of those who are opposed to the messenger of God than to God himself.
[00:37:52] You know what I'd say? A lot of us are more concerned and more afraid of what the culture says and thinks than we are about what God says and thinks.
[00:38:00] But can I just bring us up short for a minute? If this moment, right now, we were all to come and stand before God at that moment, you would have cared less about what people thought about you. You'd care less about what society thinks. I want you to think about that for a minute. I'm going to stand before God.
[00:38:19] That's how I think. I'm trying to make decisions in the light that I'm going to stand before God for what I'm saying and for what I'm doing. And when you have that in your mind, it helps you make interesting decisions, and not everybody's happy with you.
[00:38:35] And it's really true when you're a leader. I learned a long time ago, you cannot please everybody. Forget that idea. And I'm going to say that to all of us. When we're younger, we try to please a lot of people. Some of you are people pleasers, and you know, you can't serve God and please people.
[00:38:52] Paul says that in the book of Romans. I just read it again this week. You can't serve God and please people. That's not your ambition. You have one goal in life, to please God. And when you do that, two things will happen. One, you'll feel better about who you are. And number two, you're going to please some people.
[00:39:11] Number three, you're going to tick off some other people, and you got to live with it.
[00:39:17] And that takes courage. Amen.
[00:39:20] Yeah.
[00:39:21] So in the midst of the urgent public crisis, there's a truth to be told. Walter Brigeman writes, the overriding will of the Yahweh cannot be circumvented, certainly not by abusing the messenger. In other words, they're not going to change the outcome by abusing Jeremiah. While we're concerned with Jeremiah in this episode, the larger stakes concerning the city of Jerusalem. The city is in awesome jeopardy. The city is not autonomous. It's not doing its own thing, though it thinks it is. And I'm going to tell you something right now, this society where that's trying to live autonomously from God, it doesn't work, because every one of us are created by God, and intrinsically, every person knows that God exists, and they'll have to stand before him. God's powerful word matters, and no posturing by king or princess can void that sovereign word. By the end of the chapter, the word of the prophet is not heeded. So how are you and I going to respond to God's word?
[00:40:19] I think we have to respond to God's word with courage and obedience. That's how we have to respond. You know, it's interesting. I was reading the new living translation. It describes the nature of a person who is in relationship with God in this chapter. In Romans, he calls them a Jew. It says in verse 229, know a true Jew, which means a true person in right relationship with God, is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not a cutting of the body, but a change of heart produced by the spirit. Whoever has that kind of change seeks praise from God and not from people. And so let's stand as we close the service this morning.
[00:41:03] I believe that we're living in an hour that you and I have to make choices.
[00:41:10] We have to make choices.
[00:41:12] Who am I going to try to please?
[00:41:15] Let's solidify this in our heart this morning.
[00:41:19] Let's just put a stake in the ground.
[00:41:22] Remember, Joshua, as for me and my house, we're going to serve God, okay?
[00:41:27] And you and I need to make a statement in our own soul. I'm going to live to please an audience of one.
[00:41:34] I'm going to live to please God.
[00:41:37] That's a challenging statement, isn't it? Because when you do that, you're not going to always please other people.
[00:41:44] It's a risk you're running.
[00:41:46] And I can guarantee if you please God in every point, you're going to tick somebody off.
[00:41:51] I don't want that, pastor. I'm a peacekeeper.
[00:41:55] I want peace at all costs. Yeah, well, some things are, Jesus was crucified because he told the truth.
[00:42:05] Prophets were persecuted because they told the truth. They had courage.
[00:42:10] They said, this is God's message I'm receiving it. It's not an know. Poor Jeremiah, he was told, you can't get married. You can't go to weddings, can't go to funerals. Remember I preached all those sermons? I mean, he wasn't living to please himself. Let me tell you something. No wonder he's esteemed today in history. JeWish people, they'll say one of the greatest prophets that ever lived was the prophet JeReMiah. As a matter of fact, when JeSUs came on this scene, some of them thought he was JeReMiah. That's a high compliment to JeRemiah. Why? Because he was a person that totally devoted himself to doing the will of God.
[00:42:45] So I'm going to challenge US today. Are you willing to purpose in your heart and say, okay, I'm going to live to please one person, and that's God himself? I'm going to serve him wholeheartedly. I'm going to recognize that God has a message that's unchanging and our culture is going to constantly change. It's going to get even more crazy.
[00:43:04] The folly of what's going on today is just crazy to me. Most of what's going on, I go, oh, this is folly. This is folly. This is folly. Right. We're going to see more of it. What are you going to do? Follow down that road?
[00:43:18] It's a road of destruction. It's a broad road that's leading to destruction. There's many on that broad road. Jesus said, there's a narrow gate, a narrow way. He's challenging us. He says, follow me. My way has been consistent. Isn't that beautiful, Jesus? He's unchanging. God's way is unchanging. It's beautiful. It's a simple path, but it's narrow. Stay on the path.
[00:43:44] I've been a Christian a long time. I've seen people get off the path. It is heartrending to see the outcomes over the years of people who stepped off the path. It's not a good sight.
[00:43:57] My prayer for you is you'll serve God wholeheartedly.
[00:44:01] Amen. I want you to. Let's pray today. Let's ask God for courage. I think that's a great need in our society today. I'm going to pray that you will not grow weary and doing the right thing, that you will be courageous.
[00:44:17] Listen to the word of the Lord. Be strong and very courageous.
[00:44:22] And so, Father, that's my prayer for the people of God, people that are listening to my voice, the people that are saying, I want to do the will of God. I want to please God. I pray that you will give us the courage, give us the strength, give us the wisdom, help us to realize that you're the unchanging God, that you will never leave us nor forsake you. And greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. We don't have to be afraid.
[00:44:52] Maybe by our human nature, we're a little more fearful or timid. But I pray, Lord, that you would raise up within this group of people, men and women of integrity, men and women of God, that are strong and they're understanding.
[00:45:09] Their delight is you, and that they will be courageous in this hour, Lord. And we will do the right thing and say the right thing, because I know deep down inside, this culture is so broken.
[00:45:24] They need us to be strong. They need us to be light. They need us to be salt, and they need us to be there for them.
[00:45:34] Courageous, standing out and saying, you know, there's a better way. There's another way of doing this that's far healthier, far better. Help us to be those people, father, in Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave today.
