"Prophet Margins " Part One October 21, 2018 AM

We certainly deserve death now and death forever.

That you have not given us sin-abounded time.

That you would bring clarity to our minds. That you would warm our hearts to the truth of the Scriptures. That you would use it in our lives to renew us into the image of your Son. That we would truly value what you value.

And that your work would be done in our hearts. We pray these things for the sake of Christ. Amen. I encourage you to please stand with me as I'm going to read Jeremiah 23 verses 9 -15. And here we will do the work of Christ who is revealed in Jeremiah 23 verses 9 -15.

As for the prophets, my heart is broken within me. All my bones tremble. Even like a man overcome with wine because of the Lord and because of His holy words.

For the land is full because of the curse.

The pastors of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also is evil and their might is not right. For both prophet and priest are polluted. Even in my house I have found their wickedness declares the Lord.

Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them. They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down into it. For I will bring calamity upon them the year of their punishment declares the Lord.

Moreover among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing. They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing. The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood.

And they strengthened the hands of evildoers so that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom and her inhabitants like Gomorrah. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets.

Behold I am going to feed them wormwood and make them drink poisonous water. For from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the land. And this is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

Profit Margins and Prophet Margins

So I wonder if you are here this morning and you are concerned about profit margins. You may not be a business owner. You may not be a CEO. You may not be a shareholder in a corporation. But you ought to be concerned about profit margins.

Not profit margins but prophet margins. This passage is not about economic projections but it is about doctrinal directions. There are many prophets, many scribes, many priests, many so called wise men, many kings.

All the different types of shepherds, all the different types of leaders in Judah who were operating on the margin as they say.

On the edge.

They loved riding the fence and taking joy rides into the out of bounds. And Jeremiah, the Lord has a word about these prophets. They proved disastrous for Judah and concerning for Jeremiah. Are we concerned about profit margins?

So look at the copy of God's word in your hand if you have one. If you don't have one there is a table out there in the foyer. We've got free copies of God's word for anyone who needs one. You'll notice in your copy of God's word the wonton waist of a half to a quarter inch of space on the edge.

They did not make full use of the page.

Did they? Or did they?

We expect our copies of God's word to be typeset in such a way that all the words of scripture are within the margins on the pages in the Bible. What use is your Bible if the words on the page do not conform to the margin?

What if these God-breathed, Christ-revealing, spirit-born words started somewhere on the left of your page, somewhere out past on the left side of your page and then suddenly came upon your page and then went off and ended somewhere in the ethereal right side of your page and then at some point came back on?

How confident would you be that you knew God's word? How confident would you be that you really understood the part that would happen to be on the page? How often would you wonder about what words were out there beyond the margins?

I'm thankful for the margins. I'm thankful for the quarter-inch of white space or the half-inch of white space that says, herein are the words contained. We take it for granted that that's the way that the Bible ought to be printed or any book for that matter.

We must not take it for granted that those who use Holy Scripture in their preaching, are doing so within the margins of appropriate interpretation and application. And if we would find a copy of God's word printed outside the margins to be useless, should we not also find an interpretation of God's word preaching outside the margins to also be worthless?

How helpful is a book, a sermon, a five-minute video, a single sentence that lives on the margin, that flows in and out of bounds, that sits on the fence and rejoices in both the truth and speculation?

Like a disemboweled Twinkie refilled with broccoli puree, it fails to be either profitable or palatable. We must be concerned about profit margins. They matter to you personally, they matter to your neighbors, and they matter most of all to God.

The Non-Profit Prophetic Organization

We begin by considering the non-profit prophetic organization. There are some people who never worry about money. They have other people to take care of that for them. Potiphar was one of those. He had Joseph to take care of all of that.

Potiphar's only worry was what he ate that day. Joseph took care of the money business. He was really good at it. Pharaoh used him too. He became highly recommended. Potiphar had a worry-free life as emperor when Joseph was taking care of all of that stuff.

He didn't worry about profit margins because he had Joseph. He had someone to do that for him. Most of us, however, have concern for our accounts, don't we? Checking, saving, retirement. Anyone who owns a business knows the pressure of ending in the black rather than in the red.

While we all generally watch monetary profits, mindful of the consequences, it may be that a great many of us feel little need to hold profits accountable. Maybe we just let others take care of that for us.

But without concern about profit margins, you will end up spiritually bankrupt like Judah. What are the margins? What are the concerns here in our passage? It's important that we have the full context in mind.

Jeremiah has a problem with the prophets around him. We have seen this throughout the book of Jeremiah. The prophets have organized themselves in opposition to Jeremiah. His is one of the very few, if not the only voice, that is speaking out against them.

But they can't let it lie. You can have 400 prophets saying generally the same thing in agreement. But if one disagrees, boy, do they pile on. They've actually plotted to kill him already in the book.

They are so opposed to the message of Jeremiah. They're not content with having more volume in their speech. They want to actually just silence Jeremiah altogether. His preaching contradicts theirs. They say, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

They heal the wound of God's people superficially. And he keeps on bringing up the stuff they don't want to talk about. Even in our chapter we see in verse 9 his problem with the prophets. They break his heart, verse 9.

Verse 11, they are polluted. A word that also means godless, alienated from God, profane. They preach idolatry, verse 13. They leave the people in sin. And not just leave them in sin, they dignify their sin.

Strengthening their hand in sin. Verse 16, they lead folks to futility. They speak their own imaginings, not God's word. Verse 17, they speak peace to those who are at war with God. They do not speak in agreement with God, verse 22.

They preach falsehood, the deception of their own heart, verse 26. Verse 28, they think more of their own dreams than God's word. Verse 30, they steal God's words from each other for their own uses. And a good summary verse to wrap it all up.

Verse 32, God says this. Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams, declares the Lord. And related them and led my people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting. Yet I did not sin them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit, declares the Lord.

Did you catch that?

Not even the slightest benefit. You'd think there'd be at least a little bit of benefit. After all, they are quoting the scriptures. After all, they do have the office of prophet. After all, they do talk about God.

Surely there'd be some benefit at all. And God says, no, there's not even the slightest benefit in what they do. And so God declares them to be a 501c3. They are a non-profit. They are a non-profit, prophet organization.

They use the scriptures, yes, and they preach peace, acceptance, non-judgment, and a little bail always makes Yahweh more palatable. Their hermeneutic is therapeutic. And all their private interpretations rely on public validations.

They claim their role as God-ordained, their message heaven-sent, their ministry above scrutiny, above suspicion, and naysayers of any stripe received denouncement. And God says, these out-of-bounds prophets do not furnish the slightest benefit to His people.

Man, Jeremiah's a bad, doesn't he? Look at what he has to deal with. I feel sorry for Jeremiah. Nobody knows the trouble he's seen. Nobody knows his sorrow. But we today live in a higher and blessed state.

The out-of-bounds prophets, the non-profit leaders of our day, they wear badges we can easily read. They're all highlighted on the Theologically Bad Network. And as far as those identifying themselves as Protestant evangelicals, none of them are polluted.

All of them preach the truth. And the good news is that there are a whole lot of charismatics and mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox and even others with whom we find great agreement.

And very few folks labeling themselves as Christians today believe or promote anything false. And if they do, it's only an accident. And their good outweighs their bad. And as far as spiritual warfare goes, we've got the forces of false teaching surrounded in their last-ditch formation.

And the war, folks, is elsewhere, not on the home front. And every once in a while, there's some weird creaking noises in the house at night.

But it's just settling.

Don't you wish it was true? But don't we live like it's true sometimes? The truth is, from Genesis 3 -1 to Revelation 22 -19, almost the whole Bible, the tone of Scripture leads us to watchfulness, into a wartime alertness.

Very few of us here today lived in a time when you had to keep your lights off at night just in case the bombers were flying overhead. We don't know wartime alertness, do we? Wartime alertness, a Berean mentality.

Thanks for the message. I'll go check it out for myself. How often do we do that? You better be checking me every week. Don't go home and say, that was a great sermon, and never check for yourself whether or not that's biblical.

We are accountable for our beliefs. When we live in a seat-filled world, we need to be concerned about profit margins. It concerns you personally. Notice how the profitless prophets impacted Jeremiah personally.

Notice verse 9. As for the prophets, my heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunken man, even like a man overcome with wine, because of the Lord and because of His holy words.

Jeremiah feels it in his bones. He feels it in his heart. It makes his head swim. Jeremiah, you're taking this too seriously.

Live and let live.

They want to run their ministries that way?

Just let them.

You're not responsible for them or people who follow them. Humble yourself. Be content with your own ministry where God has you, Jeremiah. You don't know who those guys really are. You don't know what they're going through.

You don't know all the people they're helping. Jeremiah persists in being burdened by these profitless prophets, though, and two reasons. First of all, Jeremiah's diet has been the words of God. He said it more than once that he found God's words and he ate them, and they were a joy to him.

He has feasted upon the word of God. He has so much Bible in him that he can't shut it up. It burns like fire in his bones. He can't stop talking about what God has put deep within him. And so, here are these other prophets riding the fence and taking joy rides into the beyond, personally offends him.

Makes him queasy. It gets him riled up, and it tears him down all at the same time. He feels like a drunk man. You see his reasoning. He says, my heart is broken within me. My bones tremble. I've become like a drunken man, even like a man overcome with wine because, notice the because, because of the Lord and because of his holy words.

It doesn't match up.

Something's wrong.

False teaching bothers God's people when they are full of God's word. It's disturbing on a personal level. I remember a dear brother of mine disapproving of my approach because, well, young, dumb, and prideful.

Disapproving of my approach toward a false teacher who had infiltrated the flock under the cover of several lies. So, you know, shepherds aren't, you know, combatants, and they look pretty clumsy when they go after the wolf, and all hysterics, right?

And so, I know I didn't handle it right, but here's a wolf, and he's lying, and he's spreading a false gospel, and he's stealing a family out of the flock. And so, my dear brother was concerned about the way I was handling all that.

I was tempted, tempted to think he was not as concerned about the gospel as I was because he wasn't all riled up like me until he discovered for himself face to face, from the mouth of this false teacher exactly what kind of a false gospel he believed in.

Grace ended at the cross, the rest is up to us. Get busy, or you're going to go to hell. That kind of a false gospel. He heard it straight from the guy's mouth, and his ghost pepper response made mine taste like cilantro.

I was calming him down. You know, when you come to the point of clarity, which is a tall task in our day, and we've got to be patient and define our terms, but when you come to the point of clarity on a false teaching, you're going to feel concern because of the scriptures you have fed on.

You are what you eat. Second, you're going to feel concern for yourself because of what God promises about a society, adhering to false teaching, embracing profitless preaching. You can't help but feel concern about living in a place that smells like Sodom and Gomorrah to God.

Verse 14. You see, the profitless prophets had left the people in their sin. Not only left them in their sin, but dignified their sin, strengthened their hand in the sin, said that they were doing right.

They preached peace to those who were at war with God, and the whole place started smelling like Sodom and Gomorrah to God, and Jeremiah's getting nervous. God, where are my angels? Drag me out of here.

He's nervous. He's concerned. His heart is broken. His bones are aching. His head's swimming. Oh, God, what's going to happen? But let me encourage you. When you feel concern about yourself, when you feel personally threatened by false teaching, what should we do about that?

We should immediately turn that threat matrix outward in love toward friend and foe. Be more concerned about others than yourself. That's what Jeremiah does. And his concern foreshadows the concern Christ himself showed those who were afflicted in the same way.

We must concern ourselves with profit margins, not for the sake of ourselves alone, but for others. Are we concerned about others? Do we love our neighbors? Are we concerned about those around us? Notice how the profitless prophets impacted Jeremiah's neighbors.

Verse 10. For the land is full of adulterers. For the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also is evil and their might is not right. And a land full of prophets and priests.

Why are there so many adulterers? And a land full of churches. Why is there so much sexual immorality?

Profitless preaching.

Profitless prophets have left the people in their sin. The land continually suffers under the covenant curse. There's no repentance. There's a perverted, twisted course that these prophets have charted.

They speak in mass. They have the backing of all the people. My people love to have it so. But might does not make right. The loudest voice is not the truest voice. Remember the days of the prophet Micaiah, who was called to testify before the kings of Judah and Israel.

And 400 prophets had been gathered. One voice, say the thing that the kings wanted to hear. And Micaiah was the lone voice saying the truth. Might does not make right. There is no morality in the majority.

Jeremiah's neighbors are not being warned. They're not being warned. They're not being helped. And they're not being saved.

And that's why he's concerned.

So is the Lord. Verses 13 and 14. Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria, I saw an offensive thing. They prophesied by bail and led my people astray. Also among the prophets of Jerusalem, I have seen a horrible thing.

The committing of adultery and the walking in falsehood. And they strengthened the hands of the evildoers so that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

Jeremiah is concerned about his neighbors. They won't listen to me. They won't listen to the word of God. They're being led astray. The profitless prophets play with a fixed deck. They've shuffled in bail with Yahweh.

They've covered a donkey with a dead lion's skin and called it Aslan. They twitch with demons and call it the Holy Spirit. Equivocation is their indoctrination. The profitless prophets engage in secret sin and they go soft on public sin.

They're squishy on what's wrong and sloppy on what's right. And those who do evil are not called to repentance. But rather their condition is defined, accepted, preserved, ratified and at last dignified.

So there is no healing and no change and no repentance for Jeremiah's sinful neighbors. And Jeremiah is concerned. Because that's what profitless preaching does. He's concerned about his neighbors. Look at my neighbors.

Look at the land around me. Look at the society.

He's concerned.

And if you've ever wondered what all was included in the brew of Sodom and Gomorrah, what the ingredients were in that cauldron of evil that God scorched with the flames of heaven,.

Wonder no longer.

You've got the recipe right in front of you. It was stirred up again. The same recipe is there in Jerusalem. The recipe is being served to our neighbors by profitless prophets operating outside the margins.

Are you concerned about your neighbors? What many people label today as progress and being relevant, God calls offensive and God calls horrible.

Why?

Mark it down. Profitless prophets entrench people in their sin and they leave them without a clear sense of repentance and faith in Christ and Christ alone. We should be concerned about our neighbors.

Matthew 9, 36 -38, seeing the people, he, meaning Jesus Christ, he felt compassion for them. He felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Their lives were a mess.

And do you know what offended Christ? Not the mess of their lives. What offended Christ was the profitless prophets who had led them to that mess. He said, Whoa! Eight times over in Matthew 23,.

Whoa!

To those who had led the people astray. He had compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. And then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. I don't think the size of the gospel is best sharpened through excusing and dignifying sin. Or by giving up on the language of scripture.

Or by using the Bible to deny the truth of the Bible. We ought not amen worthless prophets. We should challenge them. What's the best for our neighbors? How did Christ handle the false teachers of his day?

How did the apostles handle the false teachers of their day? And again and again they expressed concern was for the salvation of their neighbors. And the sanctification of the church. We have to concern ourselves with profit margins.

I mean it matters to us personally, but it matters to our neighbors. And it matters to God above all. Think about the prophets themselves. Think about those themselves who are preaching these false things.

Who are dignifying sin and leading people in sin. And writing huge question marks over the exclamation points of the Bible. Aren't you concerned about these prophets? What about them? See they're not going to stop on their own.

Right?

They're not going to get it all worked out. Notice what happens. They have no ability to contain their pollution. Verse 11. For both prophet and priest are polluted. Even in my house I have found their wickedness declares the Lord.

It's gone all the way up to the top.

It's floated even into the temple. What was in Samaria soon ended up in Jerusalem. Verses 13 and 14. What was in Jerusalem would soon spread to all the land. Verse 15. These prophets were responsible for all this godlessness.

And all these profane ideas that were hurting their society and spreading through the whole land. This speeding freight train ignoring God's warning signs would soon catastrophically derail. Verse 12.

Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them. They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it. Sounds like Proverbs 4. For I will bring calamity upon them the year of their punishment declares the Lord.

And what the prophets brought upon others they themselves would receive. Verse 15. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets. Behold I am going to feed them wormwood and make them drink poisonous water.

You see Jeremiah is also and the Lord is also concerned about these prophets. And the word is being sent and the word is being preached. The warning is being given. Don't you know what you're doing? Don't you know what's coming down the road if you do not repent?

There are many faithful followers of Jesus Christ today. Who were once Mormons.

Jehovah's Witnesses.

So that the Adventists, Hindus, Muslims, Roman Catholics, part of cults and false churches. Part of all kinds of false teaching. Sometimes they were just deceived. Sometimes they were deceiving and deceived.

But somebody had concern for them. Somebody prayed for them.

Someone loved them.

Someone dared to tell them that they were wrong. And in need of repentance. If we are not concerned about profitless prophets. Then we just condemn them to hell. Let us not be heartlessly inclusive. But lovingly exclusive.

Jude verses 22 and 23 says this. Have mercy on some who are doubting. Save others. Snatching them out of the fire. And have mercy with fear. Hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. So we ought to be concerned about profit margins.

We're going to learn a lot more throughout Jeremiah 23. About the lines in which the prophets are to operate. And how we're supposed to respond. But we've got to be concerned. It matters to us personally.

It matters to our neighbors. And are we concerned about the ones preaching false doctrine? Let's go to Lord in prayer. Father, I thank you for the challenge to be aware and concerned. Lord, you have said it best in your word.

That it's not for the righteous that you have come. But for the unrighteous. Not for the well.

But for the sick.

Lord, we're not believers in following Christ. Because we've got it figured out. But because you have revealed yourself to us. Unfailingly in your word. And called us to trust you. Called us to follow you.

Hold fast to your scriptures. To earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints. And Father, I pray that you would help us to do that. That we would have concern. That we would be alert.

That we would make it our business to be engaged in the conflict. That is even now going on. I pray that you would give us the anticipation. And the sense of dependence upon you. As we don't hold our tongues.

But we seek to confess what you have already said. That we would speak in agreement with you. Out of concern for others. We pray these things for Christ's sake.

Amen.