"Sorrow in the Heart, Fire in the Bones" August 5, 2018 AM

Prayer, Peace, and the Need to Cast Every Care on God

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father we thank you. We thank you that you call us into prayer that knowing you care for us that we are to cast every care upon you being anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving that we are to make our requests be made known to you and that your peace which passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus who is our good shepherd who says we are in his hand we're in the father's hand and that no one will ever snatch us out of his hand.

So it's to you we look our heavenly father who has saved us at the cost of your only begotten son. I ask that as we look at this passage today that you that you would give us of your holy spirit we would know the truth of your word.

That we would receive a clear view of our savior christ from this word. That you would renew us into the image of your son and that you would help us to bear the sorrow in our hearts by the fire that you put in our bones.

And we pray all these things in the name for the sake of Jesus Christ the one with whom you are well pleased. Amen. Well we're going to be in jeremiah chapter 20 this morning. I invite you to turn. We're going to be looking at verses 7 through 18 how the rest of of the chapter we need to remember that jeremiah is the weeping prophet of a grieving god.

Jeremiah's Lament and the Fire in His Bones

The word of the lord repeatedly comes to jeremiah to put god's words in jeremiah's mouth. And that jeremiah time and again must go to his neighbors to his family members he must preach to them a message of judgment that he is a man of judah that he grew up in anathoth and that he lives in jerusalem.

That he had been he grew up in a priestly family and now he's a prophet of god. And that he is he is a man of judah and he's also a man of god. And judah is in rebellion and god is angry. And in jeremiah these two realities not just collide they they're tearing him apart.

And so we have a lament. Jeremiah pens this lament in jeremiah 20 verses 7 through 18. And as we read this i want you to remember christ a man who knew grief and zeal sorrow in the heart and fire in the bones.

Will you please stand with me in reverence to christ who was revealed here in jeremiah 20 verses 7 through 18. Oh lord you have deceived me and i was deceived. You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long.

Everyone mocks me. For each time i speak i cry aloud. I proclaim violence and destruction because for me the word of the lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long. But if i say i will not remember him or speak anymore in his name then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones and i'm weary of holding it in.

I cannot endure it. I've heard the whispering of many terror on every side. Denounce him. Yes let us denounce him. All my trusted friends watching for my fall say perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our revenge on him.

But the lord is with me like a dread champion. Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be utterly ashamed because they have failed with an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten yet.

Oh lord of hosts you who test the righteous who see the mind and the heart. Let me see your vengeance on them. For to you i have set forth my cause. Sing to the lord praise the lord for he has delivered the soul of the needy one from the hand of evildoers.

Cursed be the day that i was born. Let not the day be blessed when my mother bore me. Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father saying a baby boy has been born to you and made him very happy.

But let that man be like the cities which the lord overthrew without relenting and let them hear. Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a shout of alarm at noon because he did not kill me before birth so that my mother wouldn't have been my grave in her womb.

Ever pregnant. Why did i ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow so that my days have been spent in shame. And this is the word of the lord you may be seated. I first thought about committing suicide when i was 11 years old i was absolutely convinced it was i would make the world a better place if i wasn't in it.

Obviously at 11 i knew nothing but i rode my bike to the highest side of the nearest creek gauged the distance and tried to figure out if i pedaled fast enough and hard enough would i make it and would i be able to kill myself.

I looked at the slope and figured it was a bad idea it wouldn't work. And then i thought about my mother. I weighed her feelings in the matter. And then i put my plan on hold. That was not the last time i stood at the precipice of suicide.

Anybody who has known that or been close to it knows what it means to have your head in a vice all of your thoughts crushed and concentrated together. What it means to just do nothing but sit and think of overwhelming problems that cause the pit of your stomach to twist with an all too familiar pain.

You know the pain. It's the knife of sorrow that cuts the hole in your guts and poison pours in the poison of despair. And if you personally have never felt that i'm very very happy for you. And don't think that people that feel that are sinless victims either.

There's no nobility to that. But i think it's important for us to understand that if we know someone who suffers with great sorrow and depression and has perhaps even been at the edge of suicide and if we ourselves struggle with those kinds of things you're not alone.

You're not the only one. In fact we just sang a hymn by william cooper today a man who was often in the depths of despair suicidal. Sometimes the light surprises the christian while he sings. And of course we're looking at jeremiah and in a sense picking up his journal his tear-stained journal and reading what he wrote down.

I think it's important to recognize that if any of us struggle with this kind of spiritual depression and despondency that when we come through it on the other side it's evidence of god's grace that there wasn't necessarily any kind of internal fortitude or cleverness that got us through.

It was god. I'm a long way from the edge of the cliff today i'm just evidence that god is gracious and merciful and long-suffering and kind. Anybody who has been where i've been or even worse and i've come out of it we're just evidence that jesus christ is a savior who does not put out a smoldering wick and who does not break a bruised reed.

As i was reading this passage again and again and it's a hard one to look at it scalds the eyes. But as you look at it again and again i had this little poem come to mind if you know jeremiah's perspective.

And it goes like this thrown under the bus hanging by a thread he's like one of us wishing he was dead. That's what i thought. I read this in jeremiah. Some of you say well speak for yourself. I've never wished that i was dead.

Well someone next to you has someone next to you has. And we need to recognize that following christ is often very very difficult. And i think we see in our passage how to respond. And the three ways that we respond is through prayer and promise and praise.

These come from the fire in our bones the fire of our faith in christ. And that we are to answer the sorrow in our hearts by the fire in our bones. Now i want us to begin by looking at the sorrow of jeremiah.

It's formidable but it's not insurmountable the sorrow in the heart. I think one of the reasons why jeremiah needed baruch to transcribe all his materials is because jeremiah's stuff was throwing apart too many tears on papyrus.

But this weeping prophet would go on to write the masterpiece of sorrow the book of lamentations which he composes five poems four of them alphabetical acrostics in which he captures the gritty depths of human sorrow in the face of divine judgment.

And if you read lamentations hang on through the first part the first half because in the middle of the largest poem the middle poem at the very center there's this nucleus of hope from which we get the phrases like these.

Great is thy faithfulness. Thy mercies are new every morning. Thy compassions they fail not. And those are the embers of hope in the middle of the thick ashes of sorrow on either side. In a sense what we see here in jeremiah chapter 20 verses 7 through 7 through 18 is the same.

You have this this diamond of hope in the middle with the jeweler's black velvet on either side. Well as we look at this we see that verses 7 through 10 jeremiah feels like uh and what we would say today.

He's got. He's been thrown under the bus. He's been duped by god denounced by others. Listen to this verses 7 through 10. No lord you have deceived me. And i was deceived. You have overcome me and prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all day long. Everyone mocks me. For each time i speak i cry out loud. I proclaim violence and destruction. Because for me the word of the lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long.

But if i say i will not remember him or speak anymore in his name then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I'm weary of holding it in and i cannot endure it. I have heard the whispering of many terror on every side.

Denounce him. Yes let us denounce him. All my trusted friends watching for my fall say perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our revenge on him. It's helpful to understand the point of view that jeremiah comes from.

He grew up in anathoth. He was a member of a priestly family and fully anticipating that he would follow in his father's footsteps in that kind of service to god. And yet when god reveals himself to jeremiah he says jeremiah i chose you before you were born before you were even conceived.

And i anointed you before you were even born to be my prophet. You're gonna speak my truth to judah and to the to all the nations. Jeremiah. His one objection was well i'm i'm a youth. How. I'm too young.

How's that gonna work. God says i'm gonna put my words in your mouth. And you're gonna say what i want you to say. And don't worry about those who will oppose you. I will make you like a fortified city a bronze wall against anybody who would come against you.

And i think for the first few years jeremiah really enjoyed it. Um he was preaching on the streets while josiah was on the throne. Josiah was a good king. He was. He was even more zealous for god than his ancestor david if you can believe it he was.

He was so faithful to to try to root out every last aspect of immorality and injustice to eradicate idolatry from the land. So it must have been really really a good time to be able to preach god's word and have the backing of the government.

But then josiah died before his prime. And the kings that followed josiah were wicked kings interested in seducing the people into further and further sin into more and more rank idolatry. And they opposed jeremiah.

And they opposed the preaching of god's word. And so now for jeremiah nothing has come easy. It has all been one trial after another. And he says to god you tricked me you deceived me. Why did he say that.

Why do we say that it had gone so well jeremiah's expectations of what it would be like to be the prophet of god preaching amongst his his countrymen his expectations for living a good and restful life in the land of judah that he loved.

All of that has been lost. There will be no peaceful end for jeremiah in his beloved land. And there will be no welcome and approval of his preaching for the rest of his days. And he's looking at it. And he is saying you tricked me god.

But of course god didn't trick him. He didn't fool him. He didn't lie to jeremiah. But we often feel that way when our expectations and what we thought god was all about turned out he's not really about that.

And we feel like we're tricked. And perhaps we were tricked but we were only deceiving ourselves. Or the enemy was deceiving us. But god doesn't lie. God doesn't tempt. God doesn't lead us into sin. Jeremiah is having trouble with this.

The only reason why jeremiah is angry with god. Now please hear this. The only reason why jeremiah is angry with god is because jeremiah believes that god is sovereign. And it's true he is. Jeremiah would have no reason to be angry with god if god was the kind of god where he's like.

Well i just i can't help it. I did my best i tried to you know in a in a fair way persuade the people to do the right thing. But you know they're just gonna do what they're gonna do. And there's nothing i can do about it.

If that was the kind of god that jeremiah preached for he's got no reason to be angry with him. But in fact jeremiah preaches for a different kind of god a god who was sovereign. And you may imagine i mean if you were chosen before you were born you think god is sovereign too.

That happened to jeremiah. And he says you tricked me you got me into this. You prevailed over me. And even when i want to shut my mouth and stop preaching you won't let me. And that's why he's mad at god.

He's been duped by god he thinks. And he's been denounced by others. His so-called friends are conspiring to bring him down. Uh you may remember from the previous passage you can read it for yourself that jeremiah preached the message of god in the temple courts and pasture.

The second in command of the temple had him beaten and thrown in the stocks. And pastor's name means freedom. That's a great name for two jewish parents to give to their son freedom. And jeremiah says to pasture.

Your name is no longer pasture. God has given you a new name meg or miss abeave. Terror on every side. And so this has got around. And now jeremiah's so-called friends are using it to mock him. Oh yeah terror on every side.

They believe that jeremiah has gone too far. And their their plan is to keep track of what he says. You know give him enough rope so he'll hang himself. And then we'll finally take care of business. That's their plan.

Isn't that the way that truth gets opposed. What happened to christ as he preached luke 20. Verse 20. The chief priests and the scribes watch him. They sent spies even who pretended to be righteous in order to they might catch him in some statement so they would deliver him to the rule and authority of the governor.

Christ too was a man of sorrows despised and rejected jeremiah and his ministry of mediating the truth of god. He foreshadows the pathos of his savior. It's something we ought to remember though in all of this uh is that even as jeremiah is angry with a sovereign god i don't think he's quite let go of the truth.

And neither should we that it really is in the sovereignty of god that we have our confidence and our hope that this is going to turn out right. And there's no better expression of that than the crucifixion and the cross of jesus christ.

When peter and john and the rest of the church were being persecuted threatened being thrown in prison by the jewish authorities. They prayed together. And this is what they confessed together. In acts 4.

They confessed that herod and piled and the gentiles and the jews had all gathered and conspired against jesus christ to crucify him. But they did. Listen acts 428. They did whatever god's hand and god's purpose predestined to occur.

I don't think jeremiah is totally lost that i think he's still hanging on. I think he's hanging by a thread. But he's hanging on. Look at verse 11. He says. But the lord is with me like a dread champion like a warrior who cannot be defeated.

Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be utterly ashamed because they have failed with an everlasting disgrace. That will not be forgotten because i believe this will be the case.

And he says. But i've not seen it yet. Verse 12. Yet lord of those you who test the righteous you who see the mind and the heart. Let me see your vengeance on them. For to you i have set my cause. I've set forth my cause to you.

He says i i trust that you are all powerful. I know that you you work this way. I haven't seen it but i'm hanging on. Let me see your vengeance. Then he says something. And he's got no one else to talk to but himself.

Verse 13. Look at what jeremiah tells himself. Sing to the lord. Praise the lord. For he has delivered the soul. The needy one from the hand of evildoers. Jeremiah is the needy one right now. He's in the hand of the evildoers right now.

But he knows what god has done in the past. And god's past faithfulness testifies to his future faithfulness. And so he says god i'm hanging on. I'm gonna praise you. I'm gonna sing to you. I haven't seen the answers to my prayers.

I'm hanging on. But you know that he's asking for vengeance. Do you see this. Take vengeance. He asks the lord when we are greatly wronged sometimes. That's the reason why we are in such straits such despair.

Because of the sin that someone else has done. What do we do with that. I think it's very biblical to give it over to god. Jeremiah calls for vengeance. Take vengeance. Oh lord. And are we instructed that way.

Romans 12 verse 19 and verse 18 and 19. We have to give room for the wrath of god. Give space for the wrath of god. Don't get in his way. Give room for the wrath of god. He says. Vengeance is mine. I will repay says the lord.

How does that. How does that even fit with christianity. Well look if you if you believe in the gospel of jesus christ and you believe in a god who takes vengeance. If you believe in the gospel of jesus christ you believe in a god who takes vengeance.

God who pours out his wrath on sin. In fact the bible says that god made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf jesus christ. The bible says that christ bore our transgressions and he was crushed for our iniquities.

Meaning that the vengeance of holy god that i deserved because of my continual defiance against him as my holy creator because of my constant deficiencies as a sinful creature all that wrath that i deserved christ took upon himself.

That christ drank the cups the cup of god's wrath down to the dregs for all who would repent of their sins and trust in him. And if god so treated his son in our place and for our sake what makes you think that he won't pour out his vengeance on those who reject his son and cry havoc against his throne.

God's judgment upon his enemies means salvation for his people. Mark it down israel and egypt. God's judgment on his enemies marks the salvation of his people in the wilderness when opposed by the amalekites.

God's judgment on his people marks the salvation of on his enemies means the salvation of his people when they go into the land of canaan. It's the same thing time and again. What's our hope at the end of all things.

That christ himself comes back victorious and ready for war riding the white horse of victory. And his vengeance upon god's enemies means the forever salvation of his people. So jeremiah sings and praises god looking forward to that day of judgment that day of wonders when god delivers.

And all of this even at the center of his lament does not keep jeremiah from wishing that he was dead. Surprising. But sorrow and depression and grief can be that way. Verse 14. Verses 14 through 18. Cursed be the day when i was born but the day not be blessed when my mother bore me.

Cursed be the man who brought me the news. Brought the news to my father saying a baby boy has been born to you and made him very happy. But let that man be like the cities which the lord overthrew without relenting and let him hear an outcry in the morning and a shout of alarm at noon because he did not kill me before birth so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb ever pregnant.

Why did i ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow so that my days have been spent in shame. Jeremiah is without excuse. He's being horrible. It's being horrible to all those mothers who suffered such a sorrow.

How can he moan on and on like this so self-centered. Get it together man. Yes. Of course. He'll just splash some cold water on his face and it'll all be right. That's not how it works. Do you hear what he's saying.

He's saying my whole life has been a waste. My whole life has has been an absolute waste. It's made the world a a worse place. I've brought no no no warmth i've i've brought no good i've brought no happiness or joy into this world.

God why did you let me live better that i would have died than experience all this trouble and sorrow and shame. Job. And jonah said similar things. This is a serious question. This is a very serious question.

If someone's called to preach the truth and no one believes it is it still worth it can do. Can can it be that doing something right doing something right and and never seeing it be effective or or really work in the real world according to standards of success but suffer all the while experience sorrow and frustration because you're trying to follow christ.

Is it still worth it. Is it still worth it. It's an important question. The murder of unborn infants and the murder of the elderly and infirm are legalized and celebrated along pragmatic lines. This baby would never have a good life.

This person only has suffering to look forward to. Therefore their murder is not only permissible but recommended. And it's in that social context with drug use pornography and secularization on the rise that suicide rates are also on the rise.

And if a prophet of god can wish that he'd never be born it shouldn't shock us. It ought to move us to compassion to realize that such sentiments are carried and deep in the hearts of the people all around us.

Prayer, Promise, and Praise in the Midst of Sorrow

How do you answer this sorrow. Well i think from the text. The answer is this. You answer the sorrow in the heart with the fire in the bones. There's fire in jeremiah's bones that keeps him praying to god.

It keeps him holding on to the promises of god. There's fire in his bones that keeps him praising god. And what is this. But faith in jesus christ. It's the it's the truths of the gospel implanted deeply in his own heart by the holy spirit that these truths are as foundational to jeremiah's person as the bones are to his body.

And he can't get away from it even if he tried. It's the fire in his bones. Do you have fire in your bones as the holy spirit done his work in you. That you would know christ. That you have. You have faith.

You believe in christ no matter how hard it gets no matter how bad it gets. You have fire in your bones. And you just can never let go. You can never let go. That's how we answer the sorrow in our hearts.

Look at the way that jeremiah prays. I mean jeremiah is upset with god. And he's not a very objective person right now. But he's praying. He's praying. He's praying to god. He's not seeing the results of his prayers.

But he's still praying to god. He he can't. He can't forget god. He can't live as if god doesn't exist. He's tried. It doesn't work. So he's praying. And he knows that god tests the righteous. And he knows that god sees his mind and his heart.

And so with his mind and from his heart jeremiah prays. There's a moment in john bunyan's pilgrim's progress where the pilgrim christian has just defeated apollyon in the valley of humiliation. He's weak and he's weary.

But the next valley up is the valley of the shadow of death his worst test yet. And he's approaching the valley. And this is what john bunyan described it as about the midst of this valley. I perceive the mouth of hell to be now.

I thought christian what shall i do. And ever. And anon the flame and smoke would come out with such abundance with sparks and hideous noises and things that cared not for christian's sword as did apollyon before that.

He was forced to put away his sword and take to him another weapon called all prayer. John bunyan was not one who knew what it meant to suffer for christ. He knew what it was like to be imprisoned and cut off from his family.

And his family suffer because he was preaching the gospel. He knew what it was like and and he knew what to do. All prayer. What is all prayer. All prayer is what prayer is when all you can do is pray.

And all prayer means every form of prayer the imprecatory the lament the questioning the desperate kinds of prayers. When you're praying according to the fire in your bones you know the truths of god and you pray accordingly.

I didn't say you prayed prettily. I said you pray accordingly. And then there's the promise. You see that jeremiah i mean he tried to shut his mouth. I'm done. I'm not going to preach this anymore. The fire in his bones kept him from being silent.

And he kept on preaching the promises of god. He kept on. You see in verse 11 jeremiah still confesses that the lord is with him as the lord is for him. I mean the lord is with me as a dread champion.

He knew that to be true. He's still holding on to this to this reality this this promise that the lord does deliver the needy one out of the hands of the enemy. He's holding on to that promise. A little later on in pilgrim's progress christian has a friend named hopeful.

They have left their singular focus upon christ. They have left the path. They've gone into bayan's meadow. They look at it and they say it looks like an easier softer path to travel. But it's a trick.

And they are captured by giant despair. And they are hauled off to doubting castle. They are thrown in prison and giant despair beats them so hard that all they can do is just breathe. There's no hope it looks like.

And yet they pray. John bunyan says well on saturday about midnight they began to pray and continued in prayer to almost the break of day. Now a little before it was day good. Christian is one half amazed broke out in this passionate speech.

What a fool am i then to lie in the stinking dungeon when i may well as walk at liberty. I have a key in my bosom called promise. A key in my bosom called promise. That will i am persuaded open any lock in doubting castle.

And it did. And unlocked all the doors and they escaped. A key of promise from john bunyan some 400 years ago to now. In every generation of those who follow christ the key of promise is still there. The promises of god.

Because god is faithful. He's never ever broken his word. So take up that key of promise. I highly recommend a book called spiritual depression by martin lloyd jones. And he writes about the promises of god.

He says though you see nothing but darkness at the moment. Read the bible and say blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ according to his abundant mercy that has begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled.

Fate is not a way reserved in heaven for you. Remind yourself of that. He writes and say yes. Yes these things are happening. Yes these childs are falling around me so thick and fast. They're coming from all directions.

But i will not sit down under them and say alas and a lack. I will stand up rather and say i know god is good. I know christ just died for me. I know i belong to god. I know my inheritance is in heaven.

I cannot see it now. But i know it is there. I know god is keeping it and that no one will ever take it out of his mighty hands. The key of promise to unlock the doors in doubting castle and escape giant despair.

Praise the Lord in the Psalms and in Lament

A third way to answer the sorrow in our heart for the fire in our bones is praise. See that verse 13. This is this is jeremiah's own private writing. He's just writing to himself praying to god. This is what he writes.

Verse 13. Sing to the lord. He says. Sing lord praise the lord. This insistence on praising the lord is a courageous example of everyone who knows the kind of depths of sorrow that jeremiah knew would warn you away from the new legalism of our day.

The new legalism of our day is a product of lucifer's alchemy incorporated. And it is a shallow triumphalism. A shallow triumphalism in which christians are guilted into appearing happy at all times and in all places otherwise.

Well then you're saying the bible is not true. And if anyone looks at you as a christian and you don't have the happiest expression on your face possible then they'll say oh i don't want any of that. And then you won't lead them to christ.

You have to be happy at all times in all places. And indeed if we are sorrowful and if we pray desperate things and speak despairingly then somehow we are anti-christian damnable teaching foisting unrighteous burdens on the backs of trembling saints back to the pit with that hypocrisy we're following christ.

He was a man of sorrows. And we will be a people of sorrows. And then it's not all sorrow. We will also be a people of joy. But we must be a people who truly follow christ. And if there be one word that is said of christians let it not be that we are always happy but let it be that we are always repenting turning to christ again and again and again.

So when we read in psalm 146 verses 1 and 2 he says. Praise the lord. Praise the lord. Oh my soul i will praise the lord while i live i sing. I will sing praises to my god while i have my being psalm 147 one praise the lord.

For it is good to sing praises to our god. It is pleasant and praises becoming when you read things like that in the psalms read them in the context of the psalms 73 of the 150 psalms have lament in them.

So these are not the chants of some frenzied crowd high on dopamine activated by pulse fog lights and volume. These are the war cries of those engaged in the most critical moments of spiritual warfare.

These this is this is the fire in our bones and the faith in jesus christ that leads us in prayer by promise to praise god in the worst times in the deepest places like a bacchic. Three chapters of wrestling with god.

Three chapters of god. Why would you do this and not this over here. And i don't get it at the end of all of it. He says this. Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines through the though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food.

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold. And there be no cattle in the stalls. Yet i will exalt in the lord. I will rejoice in the god of my salvation. So i'm thankful for this passage as hard as it is to read.

I'm thankful that it's preserved for us to see just how low jeremiah was. Because by this we are reminded of our lord and savior jesus christ the sorrows that he bore. And yet and yet we find him a man of prayer.

We find him a man always holding to the promises of god and a man who always praised his father. And because of our faith in christ we have fire in our bones to be a people be a people of prayer and of promise and of praise.

Let's pray father. I thank you for this passage. What. What. A scalping look into the heart of your troubled prophet. And yet you know you know us you know our frame. We are but dust. We are so fragile so easily cast to and fro.

Thank you for having a hold on us. And thank you for this word. Thank you for your son jesus christ. I pray for those who are in the worst of places. Right now who are here today. Thank you for bringing them here.

And i pray that you would be a true comfort to them in this time. And that you would lead them lead all of us to enter the sorrow in our heart with the fire in our bones. I pray these things for christ's sake.