"Let God Be True" Part 2 Jan 28, 2018 AM

The Call to Pray for the Nation and Love Our Neighbors

Verses 13 through 22 in a moment. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father I thank you so much for gathering us together and what I pray that truly we would we would pray for our nation as that hymn has led us to do.

That we would pray and intercede for our fellow citizens, for our neighbors, for those you have called us to love. That we would intercede like Jeremiah intercedes for his people. That we would pray as Christ prays for us.

Lord I ask that you would fill our hearts with a holy passion that is an agreement with your character that echoes your word. I pray these things for Christ's sake, amen. Jeremiah chapter 14 we're looking at verses 13 to 22 and last week recognizing the fact that we live in a time, we live in a culture that has a rather ho-hum attitude about falsehood.

A rather casual nonchalant approach to truth versus lie. Most people today it seems to me it may seem this way to you have pilots cynical attitude what is truth? When truth stands right in front of us in the person of Jesus Christ.

As we look at the casualties of deception, as we look at the carnage that occurs in a society because of false teaching in the book of Jeremiah, we ought to take warning and we ought not have a ho-hum nonchalant attitude about truth versus lie.

We ought to care very very much about whether something is a true teaching from the scriptures that glorifies Christ and shows him as supreme and sufficient or if it is a false teaching and detracts from Christ who is the way the truth and the life.

Last week to try to stir us up about false teaching we just looked at the character of false teaching in verses 13 and 14 that it denies God's will, that it dissimulates God's word, that it defiles God's worship and that it divorces God's wisdom.

False teaching is not something that we can be casual about. When someone stands up and says thus says the Lord and the Lord never said it that should burn in our hearts and we ought to be concerned enough about our fellow citizens and our co-workers and our neighbors and our family members to warn them when they are attracted to and enslaved by false teaching.

If you would please stand with me as I read Jeremiah chapter 14 verses 13 through 22. We stand recognizing that we receive a word from our Savior our King Jesus Christ. But all Lord God I said look the prophets are telling them you will not see the sword nor will you have famine but I will give you lasting peace in this place.

Then the Lord said to me the prophets are prophesying falsehood in my name I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them they are prophesying to you a false vision divination futility and the deception of their own minds.

Therefore that says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name although it was not I who sent them yet they keep saying there will be no sword or famine in this land by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end.

The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword and there will be no one to bury them neither them nor their wives nor their sons nor their daughters for I will pour out their own wickedness on them.

You will say this word to them let my eyes flow down with tears night and day and let them not cease for the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow with a sorely infected wound.

If I go out to the country behold those slain with the sword or if I enter the city behold diseases of famine for both prophet and priest have gone roving about in the land that they do not know. Have you completely rejected Judah or have you loathed Zion?

Why have you stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We waited for peace but nothing good came and for a time of healing but behold terror. We know our wickedness O Lord the iniquity of our fathers we have sinned against you.

Do not despise us for your own namesake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember and do not annul your covenant with us. Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain or can the heavens grant showers?

Is it not you O Lord our God? Therefore we hope in you for you are the one who has done all these things. Those who have ears to hear let them hear. You may be seated. I've been building a greenhouse and I've never really built anything before so please don't look too closely.

Am I doing something? Before I got busy on the project I bought a speed square and a carpenter square and I've been using them to try to make sure that everything fits together the way it's supposed to.

I never questioned the speed square. I never questioned the carpenter square. I use the squares to question all of my work. Am I keeping things straight? And in like manner although we live in a day that would question a speed square we live in a day that would question the carpenter square and whether if it's truly accurate and I'm speaking of the scriptures, rightly interpreted, this should be what questions our lives.

We may have questions about the Word of God but we are not to question the Word of God. It's as foolish as me questioning the speed square. I don't think that's really a 90 degree angle. I think my eyeball knows a 90 degree angle better than those who manufactured this piece of steel.

I worked with two deacons in Tennessee on construction projects. One of them was a banker, one of them was a cowboy. When the banker did construction work he measured everything three times and cut once and we built very very slowly and very very carefully.

Working with a cowboy we got a lot done really fast. Nails, a hammer, and a chainsaw. Nail boards up, too long, saw it off. But he was building fence for cows and the banker was building a house for children and animals.

Don't we care? Shouldn't we be careful with the way that we build our understanding of God? Shouldn't we be careful in the way that we understand salvation and the scriptures? Shouldn't we be careful when it comes to truth, the truth of salvation?

We're talking about our relatives and our friends and our neighbors who are going to live forever somewhere. Shouldn't we care? Shouldn't we be concerned? Well, as I said last week, it seems to me that reading Jeremiah 14 13 is the following.

I'm doing something here I don't know what I'm doing. That we must meet the forces of deception as soldiers of confession. Of course we won't meet those forces if we don't care about lies. We won't meet those forces if we don't have a nonchalant, ho-hum attitude about false teaching.

But I don't think Jesus Christ our Lord exhibited a ho-hum, no-big-deal attitude towards false teaching. Exhibits A, B, and C would be his woes against those he called the sons of hell, the Pharisees and the scribes, his warning to his disciples to avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and the scribes, and his cleansing of the temple which was filled with the practices brought about by false teaching.

Why would he do that? Because he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through him. And the false teaching that was being disseminated throughout all of the land was a teaching that obscured his sufficiency and his supremacy.

As if Christ as the Messiah was not enough. That he wasn't the only Savior for humankind. That somehow we have to add something to who Christ is. That he is not enough. That his righteousness that he lived was not enough.

That his death upon the cross wasn't enough. That his resurrection from the dead is not enough. That somehow he is not sufficient and he is not supreme. And Jesus said no. This is teaching as we saw last week.

He said to the Pharisees that you are hindering those from entering the kingdom of heaven who would enter and you yourselves aren't entering in. You're keeping people out of heaven. You are denying them salvation because you teach a false gospel.

I think we should be concerned. Our fighter verse this week is a particularly helpful verse that we are saved by being found in Christ. That we are covered by a righteousness that is pleasing to God but it's not our own.

It's the righteousness of Christ given to us because we're in Christ by faith. That we're not saved by what we do but we're saved by what Christ has done. We cannot take enough pains to be clear about what it means to be saved.

We cannot speak enough about the glories of Christ and the righteousness of Christ and the work of Christ for our behalf. We can't speak enough about it. We can't be clear enough about it. We must, we must meet the forces of deception as soldiers of confession as those who agree with what God has said.

The Deception and Destruction of False Teaching

There are many consequences of false teaching and we see those in verses 15 and 16. Verse 15 says, therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name, although it was not I who sent them.

They're saying God says when God never said. There are many people saying that today. I was listening to the radio just the other day. Someone came on and said, there are many ideas about who God is and what he's all about in today's society and most of them are wrong.

He said, God can't get over you. He's all about you. Well, there's one idea. Yeah, that's scriptural. That's a fire to six. God loves you the most, and he can't get enough of you. He's all about you. Actually, the Bible says God is all about God.

God is all about his own glory, and that is for our good that he's all about his own glory. There are many people saying God says, but he never said one of the consequences of false teaching is deception.

The false prophets believe their own lies. You can see that in verse 14. They're saying there's not going to be any judgment. Calm down, everybody. The people are believing what the prophets are saying.

Verse 13. So, the prophets are deceived. They're saying, thus God said, but God never said. They believe what they're teaching, and the people that they're teaching believe them. So, there's the deceived deceiving, and there's more deceived.

I know this is kind of obvious, but one of the consequences of false teaching. It's really obvious, but Jesus put it this way about the Pharisees and the scribes. He said that there are blind guides of the blind, and if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.

There's consequences of being deceived. The prophets aren't just saying, they're not just saying, don't worry. There's not going to be any bad consequences. They're not just saying that. They are saying that, but what they're saying is something about God.

They're saying, oh, God wouldn't do that. God wouldn't bring famine and sword to make our end. Just wait a little bit. You'll find out that God wouldn't do that. Not to his land, not to his people. He's not like that.

Psalm 50 verse 21 says, These things you have done, and I kept silence. You thought that I was just like you, but God said to his people, you thought that I was just like you. Do you hear the deception?

I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces and there will be none to deliver. The more we forget God, the more we remake God in our own image, and the more we think God is just like us, the more we forget the God who is revealed in the scriptures.

We're made in his image, but he is not like us. His ways are above our ways, and his thoughts are above our thoughts. And many of the things that he's about, we're not about. And many of the things that he values, we don't value.

And many of the things that he declares makes us just downright uncomfortable. We forget God and pretend that he's just like us. A .W. Tozer said, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. So also, he says of the church, always the most revealing thing about the church is her idea about God. If we do not rise up to meet false teaching, then deception is the consequence, and we're going to forget God and think he's just like us.

We should not be ho-hum about that, because that brings destruction. As I said, the blind leading the blind end up in a pit. That's the way Jesus put it. And the end of false teaching is destruction.

The end of false teaching is destruction. That's the second consequence. Sword and famine, in this case, in Jeremiah's context. Sword and famine. But of course, the destruction is prior to that as well, as the society begins to be destroyed by false teaching.

And false teaching is not merely talking about somebody who knows the Bible really, really well and uses it to start a cult or is some sort of false teacher using a lot of scripture but masking it. That is the case.

But I'm talking about even just false teaching like, you're a random accident from primates and your whole goal is to survive and dominate others. That's false teaching, right? Your life is a meaningless accident, so your goal is just to survive better than the one next to you.

I saw an example, a consequence of the false teaching of that just the other day. A quarter across from our house, a fight breaks out and there are people on top of a girl just wailing, beating her face in.

Why? Because they got some altercation and here they are fighting and just tearing into this woman because she did something against them. They're doing exactly what they were taught. Your random accident is survival of the fittest and if somebody threatens you, you take them out.

They're just doing what they're taught. Doing what's in their hearts. There are consequences for false teaching and the destruction of relationships, the destruction of lives is inevitable. It matters what we believe.

It matters what people teach. There is an impact, there is an effect. A third consequence that we see in the text is desecration. Did you see this? It's an awful scene in verse 16. The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword and there will be no one to bury them, neither them nor their wives nor their sons nor their daughters, for I will pour out their own wickedness on them.

This is the most horrible way to die for this culture and perhaps any culture truly. There's no one left to bury the bodies. It's such a disastrous destruction when the Babylonians break through the walls of Jerusalem.

They kill everybody and they just leave them strewn about in the streets and nobody buries them. That's a desecration of the city, a desecration of the bodies. Such an end to one's body in this time, in that culture speaks forebodingly of the end of one's soul, of one's eternal desecration.

After all, we see that God is pouring out their own wickedness on them. This is part of his judgment upon them. It leaves us to wonder if that's the end of their body, what's the end of their soul? Consider carefully the consequences.

When you read Revelation, some of it may seem confusing, but here's the truth. The beast and the harlot and the false prophet and all that follow them and the devil that deceived them all end up in the same place.

The lake of fire and brimstone and they will be tormented forever and ever. So I don't think there's any place for no big deal in our vocabulary when it comes to deception, when it comes to false teaching.

Confronting False Teaching with Tears and Truth

We're told very clearly the consequences of false teaching. So what do we do about it? Let's consider the confrontation of false teaching in verses 17 and 18. How does God lead Jeremiah to confront the false teaching of his day?

You will say this word to them, an interesting word on how Jeremiah is to speak with these false prophets and those who are deceived. You will say this word to them, let my eyes flow down with tears, night and day.

And let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow and with a sorely infected wound. If I go out to the country, behold those slain with the sword, or if I enter the city, behold diseases of famine, for both prophet and priest have gone roving about in the land that they do not know.

With such consequences at stake for false teaching, it might be excused if perhaps we get a little overzealous about false teaching. But I do not want us to be like Shimei, cursing and casting stones.

I don't think it's going to help anything. What is the proper response? We need to hate false teaching, as we said last week, in the right way for the right reasons. So how do we oppose false teaching?

We are told here in the text. First, we counter, we confront false teaching, first of all with tears. Do you see Jeremiah weeping? Remember that he's the weeping prophet of a grieving God? Here he is weeping.

He's weeping for the people because he believes the truth. He believes what God says will come to pass. He believes it. He believes it so much and knows that his fellow citizens, that his neighbors, even his relatives are facing such a dire end that he weeps.

He weeps for them.

And as a word, he's to speak to them. He's to tell them how he is mourning for them, how he is lamenting for them. That this truly affects him, their eternal state and the destruction that awaits them.

This plagues him. So he confronts the false teaching with tears. Christ also wept for the same city. Luke 13, 34. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her.

How often I wanted to gather your children together just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you would not have it. Behold, your house is left to you desolate. Jeremiah had an incredibly difficult message to preach to an incredibly difficult audience.

But I don't think that we're in any real different context. And if Jeremiah foreshadowed Christ as the weeping prophet of a grieving God, should we not reflect Christ as a weeping people of a grieving God?

Do we believe that those who trust in other than Christ, that cite their own goodness rather than Christ, that those who are part of a false religion or a cult, that truly, unless they repent and turn to Christ alone, that their utter end is everlasting judgment?

Do we believe that? That's what the Bible says, it's what Christ said again and again. Do we believe it? If we believe it, we ought to confront false teaching first with tears, first with a real concern and compassion and merciful kind of approach to those with whom we deal.

It should not be, man you irritate me because I know what's right and you're saying something different so that makes me look bad. What a selfish, prideful way to approach false teaching. First with tears.

First with tears. Christ humbled himself. Christ humbled himself. Came and suffered for us to bear our griefs, to bear our sorrows. Won't we follow Christ? Humble ourselves and truly reverently have compassion on those who are deceiving and deceived.

We also must confront with truth, not just with tears, not just with compassion, but if we truly are compassionate, if we truly are loving, then we confront with truth. You see verse 18? Now what are the prophets saying in verse 13?

Or verse 12? No, no, no, verse 13, yes. The prophets are telling them you will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this land. That's what the false teachers are saying.

Now God says to Jeremiah, you will give this word to them, first tears, second truth. Verse 18, he says, if I go out to the country, behold, those slain with the sword. Yes, this is going to happen. The Babylonians are going to kill everybody who is not inside the protected city.

What about those who are hiding out in Jerusalem? Before I enter the city, behold, diseases of famine, famine and all the plagues that come with it. So the false teachers say, no. Jeremiah confronts them and says, yes, you have to confront false teaching with truth.

I know that sounds really simplistic, but you have to say the truth. And look what he says about the quality of the prophet and priests who are spreading the lies. For both prophet and priests have gone roving about in the land that they do not know.

What does that mean?

They don't know the land.

They don't know anymore who gave the land to them. They don't know anymore the covenant that God made with Israel. If you will do this and this, then I will let you stay and be blessed. They don't know the land anymore.

They don't know the terrain.

They don't remember it was God who gave it to them conditionally.

They don't know the land.

They don't know the land. They don't know the people that live in the land. They look about and they see sacrifices going up on the hills to the queen of heaven. They go about the land into Topheth and they see sacrifices to Molech.

Children being offered as burnt offerings to Molech. They don't know the land anymore. They don't see the sin anymore. And they're just going about saying, peace, peace. But there is no peace. These false teachers don't even know the land in which they rove.

They don't know what's really going on. And so there's a confrontation, not just with tears, but also with truth. But that doesn't cure it. That's what we're supposed to do. It's our calling to confront false teaching with tears and with truth.

But it's not the cure. The cure can only be found in verses 19 -22. Jeremiah begins now to pray to the Lord. He says, have you completely rejected Judah? Or have you loathed Zion? Why have you stricken us so that we are beyond healing?

We waited for peace, but nothing good came. And the time for healing, but behold terror. We know of our wickedness, O Lord. Iniquity of our fathers. We have sinned against you. Do not despise us for your own namesake.

Do not disgrace the throne of glory. Remember and do not annul your covenant with us. Are there any among the isles of the nations who give rain? Or can the heavens grant showers? Is it not you, O Lord our God?

Therefore we hope in you. For you are the one who has done all these things. And everybody around Jeremiah would have said, boy, you're dead wrong about that, Jeremiah. I don't believe a word you just prayed.

Do you sense that Jeremiah is praying for people that don't agree with him? He's saying, we, we confess our sins. We believe you're the only true God. And yet he lives among a people that would not agree.

They're still offering sacrifices to Baal. Come on, storm god, bring us the rain. Come on, queen of heaven. Let loose those showers. Come on, Molech, I give you my firstborn child. On the burnt offering, give me fertility and my animals.

They don't agree with Jeremiah. Jeremiah's praying in the way that he hopes that they will begin to pray.

You see that?

He acknowledges their need. He acknowledges need and guilt. Verse 19, the need is obviously that God seems to have abandoned Judah. Where's God? Where's the one true God? Have you, have you totally rejected us?

Do you loathe us? Are you just keeping your distance from us? And the true need is that they need God. And he shows, and he says, you know, we waited for peace. That's the key word of the false teachers.

But nothing good came. For a time of healing, but behold terror. All the false teachers, everything that they have said has been proven false. It has not come to pass. All of the rantings and ravings and goings on around the idols, all of it has failed.

And we are more miserable than ever, ever. And Jeremiah is confessing need. He's confessing need. Look, we are, we are mired in our sin. We are cut off from God. But this false teaching is not true.

That's what he's praying.

He is, he's acknowledging need and guilt.

You ever done that?

You ever figured out that the message you've been living your life according to is false? It's not true. What they said would satisfy does not. What they said would help has only ruined. You recognize, if you ever come to the point where you recognize the message you thought was true is false?

That is just miring you in more and more sin. And the relationships are just breaking down and nothing is working. Acknowledging need and guilt. Say, God, you made me in your image to glorify you, but there's no life in me.

Getting killed by sin and false teaching. Acknowledging the need and the guilt. And there's this asking for salvation from God alone. Look, we know our wickedness, O Lord, the iniquity of our fathers.

We have sinned against you. But notice, God, I've sinned against you.

Save me.

Where's the motivation?

God, I come from a long line of people who do things that you hate. I come from a long line of people who continually profane your name and do things that create disaster in your world. So, will you do something for me?

Where's the motivation?

Where's the motivation for God to save?

Where is it?

God, do not despise us for your own names sake. Do you notice? It wasn't, God, I'm a wicked sinner. I'm always going against you, but I know you can't get over me. You just love me so much. No.

What's the motivation?

Do not despise us for your own names sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember and do not annul your covenant with us. It's about his name. It's about his word. It's about his glory.

There's the motivation to save.

Salvation by God alone. He says, Jeremiah says, are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain? Who can the heavens grant showers? They're in the middle of a drought.

They're parched. They're thirsty. The ground is cracked.

They're in the middle of famine. And he says, there is no God in existence except you. You're the one true God and you're the only one who can give us rain. In like manner, there is no other God except the one true God.

There's only one God who can save. And he has revealed himself through his son, Jesus Christ.

He's the only savior.

Only one who can save. It isn't Mary. She's not going to put a good word in for you. It'd be a co-redeemer. No dead person will pray for you. Only a living, resurrected person at the right hand of God will pray for you so that you may be saved.

That is Jesus Christ. There is no path of enlightenment by which we can reach some elevated plane. It is Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life.

There's only one savior.

And he saves for the glory of God alone. He says, therefore we hope in you. You are the one who has done all these things. Is your hope in Christ alone? Just list it off. I am educated, but my hope is in Christ alone.

I pay my taxes and I'm a good neighbor, but my hope is in Jesus Christ alone. I have raised a family and they all turned out well, but my hope is in Jesus Christ alone. I have had many uplifting and high experiences, but my hope is in Jesus Christ alone.

Where is your hope?

Do you hear Jeremiah praying? He's praying for people who don't agree with him. You know people in your life who trust in the wrong things and who believe false teaching. Pray for them the way that you hope they will pray one day.

Pray for them in the way that you hope they will pray one day.

Look at Jeremiah.

He's standing in between God and the people. He finds himself in a position that Abraham was. He stood before Christ interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah. He's in the same place Moses stood when he interceded with God on the mountain for idolatrous Israel.

He's in the same place that Samuel was at Mitzpah when he interceded and God saved the people. Here is Jeremiah interceding with this very righteous, truth-filled prayer for people who would not even begin to agree with his sentiments.

And so he's in the same position that we find Christ on the cross. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Romans 8 .34 says, Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Why am I saved? Why am I born again? Why am I a Christian? I could answer that in a variety of ways that would get at the heart of the matter. But I'm saved today because somebody prayed for me.

Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ prayed for me. Interceded for me at the right hand of the Father.

And that's why I'm saved.

I don't know how to sit across from somebody who believes a false gospel. And even with tears and truth, convince them to believe the right way. I've never been successful at that. I don't know about you.

I've sat across from people who believe in false gospels. I've never been able to convince them. But there is one cure for false teaching and that is God. God will shine light where there is only darkness.

God will bring life where there is only death. So if you want a cure for false teaching, for those who believe in false teaching, pray. Jeremiah prayed. Pray for them. Pray the way that you wish that they would pray.

Ask God to intervene. Do we have hope that God will intervene? We have all the hope in the world that God will intervene because he already has intervened through Christ. Who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Prayer for the Deceived and Confidence in Christ's Intercession

Let's close with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you for the time we've had in your text. Lord, to see, to hear Jeremiah praying. Praying for those who tried to kill him because he preached your truth.

And he prays and he intercedes that they would repent. That they would confess the truth. That they would find salvation in you alone. Father, it rebukes me and challenges me to pray. Help us to confront.

Help us to truly care and so confront with tears and truth. But help us also to pray knowing that it's dependent on you.

It's all on you, Father.

We ask you to intervene and bring those who are deceived into the truth. And those who are in the darkness into the light. So Father, renew our zeal and our passion for those who are in need of Christ.

Help us to stand firm in the model of Christ when it comes to false teaching. We pray these things and seek these graces from you because of our Savior.