Dial 333 — E.A. Johnston

Knowing God Through Adversity

When I read my Bible, I come across men and women who knew their God and they got to know their God through the school of adversity and trial. When the people of God are placed in difficult straits, where all human resources are gone and all worldly wisdom has expired, it is then that God can often work his wonders to perform.

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast into the fiery furnace, they set their countenances on their God as they walked into that fire and emerged without a hair on their heads singed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them, so my Bible reads.

When Jacob trembled with the fear of Esau approaching with four hundred men, he began to pray as he wrestled with the angel at the brook Jabbok and emerged the victor, though he limped for the rest of his days.

Jeremiah’s Call to Proclaim Hard Messages

Our passage today, friends, can be found in the book of Jeremiah in chapter thirty-three. You may turn in your Bibles there now. This man, Jeremiah, was always in a jam. He was either being cast into a pit or thrown into prison for preaching the word of God.

In fact, his entire call to ministry was to breathe out hard messages, hot from the heart of God to the wayward people of God. When God gave Jeremiah his call to preach, he told him what to expect as a preacher.

For thou shalt go to all that I send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. In other words, friends, the hard messages that Jeremiah was to proclaim would be the very ones that got him in trouble time and time again.

But God promised him, for I am with thee to deliver thee, meaning he would be needing deliverance time and time again. But Jeremiah was a prophet who knew his God and he knew how to pray, for he had learned the hotline number to the ear of God.

The Four Promises of Jeremiah 33:3

He knew how to dial 333. And that's the title of my message today, friends, Dial 333. And our text is Jeremiah chapter thirty-three and verse three. Let me read us this powerful verse from the word of God, for it contains spiritual dynamite, especially when you fully realize what it states.

Here now is God's holy word. Call ye unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. I like what John Calvin has to say about Jeremiah 33. Calvin says that while Yahweh's words are to Jeremiah, they are for all people to hear.

So they too will pray. And that's true, friends. And there are four major statements in this power pack verse of scripture. Notice God declares the following about himself. First, notice God invites communication with him through the exercise of prayer.

He states, call ye unto me. Secondly, notice answer is promised and I will answer thee. So this is an encouragement to prayer. Thirdly, notice that God declares a twofold answer to prayer. Great and mighty things go through your Bible and study how God speaks to his people.

And you'll find the same principle repeated throughout scripture. God promised Noah a twofold promise. In Genesis, we find that Noah walked with God. They had a close fellowship, one of intimate communication.

Noah’s Faith, Obedience, and the Twofold Promise

And I might add, friends, that you can have what Noah had, a close walk with God, if you were willing to pay the price for it, make the sacrifice to have it. It cost Noah his reputation. With his fellow antediluvians, he became an object of ridicule in his day for his walk with God.

And if you start walking with God, friend, some of your so-called bosom buddies will stop walking with you. We see in Genesis 6, 13, the following statement. And God said unto Noah, this is the and I will answer thee promise of Jeremiah 33, 3.

And listen, friends, how God relates a twofold promise and answer to Noah's prayer life with God. God informs Noah of two major events, which he was quite unaware of, which are the which thou knowest not aspect of Jeremiah 33, 3.

But here God has a twofold promise to Noah. First, he reveals to him in Genesis 6, 17, and behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh. Then in verse 18, God declares the second aspect of the twofold promise, but with thee will I establish my covenant.

So it's a twofold declaration. Just peer into the life of Abraham and you'll find another twofold promise from God as well, friends, to his servant. There was the promise of the Abrahamic covenant and the promise of a son.

So when God states to the prophet Jeremiah in answer to prayer, he gives him a twofold promise of great and mighty things. I remember a time in my own life when God appeared to me, not physically, not audibly, but nonetheless it was an appearance to me through his word and by his spirit.

God gave me years ago a twofold promise on his word regarding my own life, and he is faithfully fulfilling that twofold promise, friends. God's word is sure. I can promise you that. If you are having a doubting Thomas moment, friend, and need some reassurance, I can assure you that what God declares, he will bring forth and make it a reality.

Drawing Near to God in Prayer

God's words never fail. You can count on that, and you can count on him. Though friends may fail, disappoint, and desert you, God will never let you down, nor will he ever let you go. He is a divine keeper.

And God states to Jeremiah, these promises will be of a nature that thou knowest not. They are not revealed yet. Ask and you shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you, our Lord Jesus said.

We must earnestly seek God in desperate prayer to be recipients of the aspect of the which thou knowest not, the secret things of God. I heard a story about Leonard Ravenhill one time. Leonard Ravenhill was sitting in his house with a visiting evangelist, and the evangelist was asking Leonard Ravenhill questions on the prayer life.

Ravenhill began to speak in a low voice to where the visiting evangelist could not hear him, so the evangelist had to move his chair closer to Ravenhill to better hear him. Then when the man drew closer to Ravenhill, he ceased to speak in low tones and began rather to only whisper.

This made the visiting evangelist draw so close to hear what Ravenhill was saying that their faces almost touched. And this is what Ravenhill related to him. He said, God has some secrets he wants to reveal to you, but you must draw closer to him to hear what he has to say.

I cannot find a better story than that, friends, to illustrate this dynamic in prayer. Draw closer to your God, friend, and you will better hear what he has to say to you. Listen, dear friend, God has some very intimate plans he wants to reveal to you in your life.

They are the great and mighty things for your life and service to him, but they are yet revealed. You know them not. How can you ever learn of them unless you spend more time in an intimate walk with your God?

DOW 333, DOW 333, it's the hotline to God. Picture in your mind, friend, that you are in a bank vault, and you are given the combination that opens the vault, and as that huge steel door slowly swings open, there lies the treasure before you, and God has spiritual treasures awaiting you, friend, behind your very own private bank vault in heaven.

God hungers to relate to you the great and mighty things in your own life to bring him glory, his plans and purposes, which he desires to flesh out through your unobstructed life whereby rivers of water can flow as a blessing to you and others.

Walking in God’s Prepared Purpose

Wouldn't you like to realize in this life what God has for you, friend? Ephesians 2 .10 speaks of the providence of God in one's life. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Let me ask you a question, friend. How can you walk in the path God desires for your life if you aren't maintaining a close walk with him? That's how you end up in a ditch. I really believe that when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ for believers, he's going to show us all the blessings we missed from spending time off the path of his purpose in our life, and also believe that if we maintain a vital love relationship with our master and enter into a close daily walk with him, that when we stand before him at the behemoth seat, he will unroll a blueprint for our life, lay it there before us, and say with a smile, just according to plan, oh, friends, how desperately we need to draw closer to our God and hear what he has for us while we have breath in our bodies.

We only have a brief time to live for God. Draw closer to him, friend, and live on the full stretch for him to enter into the great and mighty things of your life by dialing 333. I believe to better understand Jeremiah 33 .3, we must have a good grasp on the preceding chapter, which is chapter 32.

Jeremiah’s Prison Prayer and Obedient Faith

We must see the circumstances leading up to the prophet's desperate life of prayer. In chapter 32, Jeremiah is cast into prison for preaching the word of God, for Zedekiah, king of Judah, had shut him up, saying, wherefore dost thou prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord?

Listen, brother preacher, if you're willing to stand boldly before a king today and cry out, thus saith the Lord, be prepared for the consequences. You might be thrown in prison as well. In chapter 32, we find the fiery prophet in prison, and while he's in prison, he's commanded by God to buy some land, a land that is besieged by the Chaldeans, and although Jeremiah doesn't understand why he should buy such a seemingly worthless piece of property, since he cannot make use of it, because the invading army has it in its possession, yet he acts by faith and purchases that land in obedience to the command of God.

So here's Jeremiah in the court of the prison. He's asked to do something which makes no sense to him, buy a parcel of land that's under siege, and in verse 16 of chapter 32, Jeremiah goes to God in prayer, and in his prayer he lays out a pattern for us to follow today.

First, the prophet elevates God in all his attributes. He refers to him as the great and mighty God. The Lord of hosts is his name. Then Jeremiah reminds God of all the wonders God has performed for his people and in the world, both in creation and in delivering his people from trouble and exile.

Then Jeremiah takes up his gripe with God, so to speak, his complaint regarding having to purchase the field, the plot of land when the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, and that's how we should approach God in times of our difficulty, friends, in times of straits, when we are in prison, so to speak, as well, and when we approach our God in that way, in which Jeremiah did, then we too gain his ear and will hear what he has to say to us as it pertains to our own lives.

Trusting God’s Purpose in All Things

Does that make sense, friends? Do you see the great spiritual dynamic found here in Dylan 333? I hope that we do. Romans 828 speaks of the purpose of God in a believer's life, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Oh, friends, if you could only realize that the great God has a specific purpose for your life, your task is to draw closer to him, to learn more of the nature of that divine purpose and plan for you, to pray to your God, to open your own treasure vault wherein lay the deep things of God, the secret things of God, the things which thou knowest not, the great and mighty things God has in store and in reserve for your own life.

Draw your chair up closer to God, friend, so you can hear him whisper. He wants to whisper great and mighty things into your ear. Pick up the prayer phone and dial 333, and do you know what, dear friend?

Do you know who will answer? The king of kings, the creator of the universe. Let us now go to our own time of prayer, and let us draw closer to God in a fresh way. Let us pray.