“People-Pleasin' Prophets” – FBC Morning Light (10/2/2023)

Well a good Monday morning to you. Here we are at the first full week ahead of us in the month of October, the last quarter of 2023, and beautiful time of year, the autumn in northwest Illinois. I do like autumn.

I don't like what comes after it so much, but hey, you know, all in the seasons. Well, I hope you're having an opportunity today to get into the Word, and today in our Bible reading we're in Jeremiah chapters 5 and 6, 1st Timothy 6, wrapping up the letter to Timothy today, first letter to Timothy, and then Proverbs 25.

Pleasing People vs. Speaking God’s Word

You know, several years ago there was a man who came, called, said he wanted to see me, came in and his wife had come to see me earlier, and she shared with me some of the things she was struggling with, and she was struggling pretty badly, and just really felt beat down and discouraged, and a lot because of decisions that her husband had unilaterally made without considering her, and so forth.

So the husband came in to see me and rehearsed some of the things, but put her in a negative light. She's not supportive, made this decision for the best thing is the best thing for our family, etc., etc., etc., and really just downplaying her struggles with it all.

So I listened to him, and finally having heard both sides of this situation, I suggested to the individual, the man, based on Ephesians 5 and verse 25, you know, we're exhorted as husbands to love our wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for the Church, that we as husbands need to sacrifice the things, you know, might be our preferences, might be what we would really like to do, for the sake of our wives' well-being.

If what I want to do is not in her best interest, then I sacrifice what I want to do for the sake of her and her welfare, and so forth. So I shared that with him and suggested that maybe the decision that he made, the choices and so forth, weren't the best, especially for her, and that if I were him, I would do what I could to get out of that situation.

Well, I could tell he was disappointed in what I had to say, but he, you know, accepted it and left, we prayed and he left, and so forth. Next day, he called me and said, I just want you to know we're not gonna be back to your church anymore, and then he explained why.

He said, if I don't have a pastor who can affirm my decisions, then I don't feel like he's gonna be supportive of me, and therefore I can't stay in a church like that. Well, okay, and off they left. But here's what I want us to understand, that that kind of a conclusion, a kind of a attitude, is a really dangerous one.

Jeremiah’s Warning Against False Prophets

It's the attitude that you see in Jeremiah chapter 5, at the end of the chapter, the last couple verses of the chapter, where the Lord says this, an astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power, and my people love to have it so. In other words, do you get what's going on there? The people want their priests and prophets to say what they want them to say, to tickle their ears, if you will, and to please them.

And because the prophets and the priests are going along with that, and they're perfectly fine with that, tickling the ears of the people, the Lord says they are prophesying falsely, and the priests are ruling not by the Lord's authority or power, but by their own.

And they're doing so to please the people. Well, if our attitude is that we want those who are over us in the Lord, who proclaim and teach and preach and counsel us from God's Word, only to say things that we like, and to affirm us in all the decisions that we make, we're in a very dangerous, precarious situation.

Because the last statement in verse 31 is, what will you do in the end? What will you do in the end? If you go on to chapter 6 and verse 10, the prophet says, To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear?

Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them, they have no delight in it. And what is the end? When people don't delight in what God has to say, and the counsel of God's Word gives to them, what is their end?

Well, their end is near, and they'll have no escape. That attitude of refusing to listen to God's Word is going to lead to some kind of disaster. And I hate to say it, but the individual that walked away, and it was a matter of a couple years when the decision that he had made, and took his wife and family in against his wife's better judgment, and her well-being, and so forth, it ended up coming back to bite him in a very serious way.

And I don't say that with any sense of delight, I say that with sadness, because it didn't have to be that way. So listen, when you go to the Lord's house, when you went yesterday, let me ask you this, when you went to church yesterday, and you heard God's Word, was there something that the pastor, the preacher said from God's Word that rubbed you the wrong way, because you're not living accordingly?

How did you respond to that? Did you respond in humility and self-examination, or did you respond with the attitude that says, I don't like listening to this guy, I don't want to listen to this guy anymore?

Humility Under Correction

Yeah. What's the attitude? Let's not be like these people in Jeremiah chapter 5, who loved their prophets only to say nice things, good things that would tickle their ears. So our Father and our God, I pray that you would deliver us from that kind of mentality.

We know that sometimes the Word hurts, we need to be rebuked sometimes, we need to be chastened and corrected, and that's not always pleasant, but it's so needful, it's so helpful. I pray that we would accept that kind of help, and we pray it in Jesus' name and for His sake.

Amen. All right, well listen, I hope your week gets off to a great start, your month of October gets off to a good start, and may the Lord bless you in it. Have a good day.