FBC Morning Light – August 2, 2022

A good Tuesday morning to you. How did your day go yesterday? The first day of the new work week, the first day of a new month. I hope the week's going well for you thus far. Today we're reminded of a common spiritual malady in any generation.

It seems that no matter at what time in church history you might happen to live, or really the history of salvation history from the Old Testament through the New Testament, there are those so-called prophets who only want to teach and preach positive stuff.

They stay absolutely away from anything that might be perceived as negative or a downer. They've got to be positive. They've got to be upbeat, only a positive message. My purpose is not to name names and all that kind of stuff at this particular venue, but I've heard of very popular TV preachers today interviewed and asked, you never say anything about sin, and you never specifically mention any sins.

Why is that? The response is, I just like to have a positive message. There's too much negative stuff in the world, and I think people just need to hear a positive message. A lot of people like that because it's true, they want to hear a positive message.

False Prophets and a One-Sided Positive Message

But just like a battery, you've got to have positive and negative, and really to get going in the right direction. But this isn't anything new, really. The prophet Jeremiah we read in Jeremiah chapter 28 ran into the same problem.

There was a so-called prophet by the name of Hananiah who directly contradicted Jeremiah's prophecy. Jeremiah had prophesied that the Babylonians were going to come into Judah, they were going to capture the city of Jerusalem, they're going to take people captive, and so forth.

This was going to be God's chastening, his judgment upon Judah for their idolatry, for their sin. This was the message of Jeremiah. Another so-called prophet arose by the name of Hananiah, and he contradicted Jeremiah.

He said this, within two full years, I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place and carried to Babylon. That's something that had already taken place.

There were a couple of different Babylonian attacks and captivities, and so forth. The first attack, they plundered the vessels of the Lord's house, took them all to Babylon, and so forth. Hananiah says, within two years this is going to happen.

He says, I'm going to bring back the king that was taken captive at the time, Jeconiah, the king of Judah, all the captives that were taken at that time, the Lord says he's going to bring these back, and then he says, I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

This was a flat-out contradiction to Jeremiah's prophecy, that the Babylonians were going to return, and they were going to decimate Jerusalem and Judah. They were going to take all kinds of people captive, and that this was going to last for seven decades, not two years, seven decades.

Jeremiah heard this, and his response was, oh, you can hear the sarcasm in his voice. He says, amen, the Lord do so. The Lord perform your words which you prophesied to bring back the vessels of the Lord's house, and all were carried captive in this place.

But time will tell. We'll see if your message of peace actually comes true. Then that little interchange ceases, and Jeremiah gets off alone with the Lord. Well, before that happens, there's this interesting little object lesson that the false prophet Hananiah goes through.

He takes a yoke from the prophet Jeremiah's neck. Jeremiah had put this oxen yoke on his neck as a symbol of the captivity that was coming. Well, Hananiah took that yoke off the neck of Jeremiah, and he broke it, and he said, thus says the Lord, even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from the neck of the nations within the space of two full years.

Okay, Jeremiah left. He said his peace. Well, then the Lord came to Jeremiah and said, go and tell Hananiah, thus says the Lord, you've broken the yokes of wood, but you've made in their place yokes of iron.

For thus says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and they shall serve him.

They shall serve him. What do we make of this? What we need to make of this is, for one thing, beware of the so-called preacher who only has a positive message, never has anything negative to say, can never speak against sin, can never warn of God's chastening or his ultimate judgment, because that preacher is at best telling only part of the story, and those who need to be warned are not being warned.

I would suggest that that's a kind of a preacher you need to turn away from. You need to listen to those who have the balanced approach of Scripture, that teach the whole counsel of God's Word, the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, the beautiful and the ugly, because it's all part of God's revelation, and we need all of it.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable. It is profitable. We need it. Let's keep that in mind as we listen to those who claim to proclaim the Word. Father, we do thank you this morning for for this warning of so-called prophets in our own day, and I pray that we would listen well to the whole counsel of Scripture.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Have a good Tuesday, and may the Lord bless you in it. Good day.