Sunday Morning, April 7, 2019 AM Part 2

God's Unstoppable Word and Jeremiah's Trial

Father, I'm so grateful to you, a heavenly father, master and creator who knows what we need. And you know that we need this, worshiping you and hearing from your word that we need this more than our most necessary food.

You have made us in your image to fill us with your word. We may live to your glory. I pray that you would do that for us today, that you would, by your Holy Spirit and the power of your grace, that you would grant us a banquet of your truth, that you would revive us to live as you would call us to live.

Father, as we look at the truth in your word, I pray that you would do your work in our hearts, that we would be favorable to what you have to say, that there would be a real genuine amen in our hearts when your word comes in through our ears, that we would not simply quote the model prayer, say your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, but we would mean that and that we would desire to see your will done in us.

Thank you for those that you have brought here today. Thank you for bringing me here today. Thank you for the work that you have been doing and you will do. And I pray above all else that you would turn our attention to your son, Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well-pleased.

It's in his name that we pray, amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn towards the middle and find Jeremiah. Jeremiah 26 is the chapter we're in verses 12 through 24. Jeremiah chapter 26 verses 12 through 24.

It's in between Isaiah and Ezekiel. It's a big book. We've been looking at Jeremiah for a while now, coming up on two and a half years. Give or take full of the riches of God's truth. Jeremiah is in a heap of trouble.

Jeremiah was a young man when God called him to preach. God informed him that this was not something he really had a choice in the matter that God had before Jeremiah was born, before he was even conceived, God had already picked him out as his preacher to Judah.

And Jeremiah objected to that as we probably would and gave some excuses about, well, I'm too young or I don't even know what to say, who's gonna listen to me? And God assured him, I will give you the words that you are to say.

And no matter who I tell you to say it to, you're gonna say it. You need to be faithful in what I tell you to say and I will make you like a fortified city with metal walls that nobody can get through.

But Jeremiah, he's been promised that he's in a fortress, but the fortress is on fire. He doesn't feel like this is going very well. He's on trial at the moment here in Jeremiah 26. He has preached the message God gave him to preach, which was to call to account the government, the religion and the culture of his people, to call it all to repentance.

And so this was regarded by his fellow Jews as hate speech, that he would point to their nation, that he would point to their religion, that he would point at the way that they lived and say, God says, stop, you must stop.

If you don't stop, disaster is what is next. Judgment is what is next. Please stop, turn away from your wicked ways. And the people called that hate speech and they put them on trial and they have threatened to kill him.

They want him dead for what he has said. So he starts to give an answer and we looked at this last time we were in this passage in Jeremiah 26 and verses 12 through 15, we find him give his answer and we find that what they called hate speech, he makes his stump speech and he just says it again and make sure that they know that this is what God said.

This is not his idea, he didn't come up with it, but these are the words of God. Please pay attention. He cares about his fellow Jews. He does not want to see them judged. He wants to see them repent and be right with God.

They threatened him with death and he just makes that one more point in the sermon. He says, you threatened me with death, but let's consider the morality of that claim. Am I worthy to die because I have preached what God has said?

Who's your problem, with me or with God? And that's where we left off last time. So Jeremiah is in a heap of trouble. He's on trial and yet he still has courage. Why would he have courage? The courage of God's people depends on the constancy of God's word.

Because God's word never changes, because God's word is always true, we may always have courage. We may always stand firm. We do not have to be moved away from saying what God says. With that in mind, I invite you to stand with me as I read this passage of scripture.

We stand in the presence of our King, Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit. These are the words of God, our Sovereign. Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people saying, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

Now, therefore, amend your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the Lord, your God, and the Lord will change his mind about the misfortune which he has pronounced against you. But as for me, behold, I am in your hands.

Do with me as is good and right in your sight. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and on this city, on its inhabitants, for truly the Lord has sent me to speak to you all these words in your hearing.

Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, no death sentence for this man, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord, our God. Then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people saying, Micah of Moresheph prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and he spoke to all the people of Judah saying, thus says the Lord of hosts has said, Zion will be plowed as a field and Jerusalem will become ruins and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

Did Hezekiah, king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and then treat the favor of the Lord and the Lord changed his mind about the misfortune which he had pronounced against them?

But we are committing a great evil against ourselves. Indeed, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah, the son of Shammai from Kiriath Gerium, and he prophesied against this city and against this land, word similar to all those of Jeremiah when King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and all the officials heard his words then the king sought to put him to death, but Uriah heard it, he was afraid and fled and went to Egypt and then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt, Elnathan, the son of Achor and certain men with him went into Egypt and they brought Uriah from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim who slew him with a sword and cast his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

But the hand of Jehoiakim, the son of Shaphon was with Jeremiah so that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death. These are the words of the Lord, you may be seated. The title of the sermon is God's Unstoppable Word.

The Courage of God's People Depends on the Constancy of God's Word

God's Unstoppable Word. We're told in Isaiah that we would as soon stop the water cycle as stop God's word. God's word cannot be stopped. That should give us courage if we believe God's word. Should give us clarity to know where we stand.

You see there's a need for courage today. There's a need for courage and courage is a vocational virtue. Courage is a vocational virtue. It means that you only cultivate it by using it. You never get courageous thinking about being courageous.

You never grow in courage by studying the concept of courage. You only grow in courage by being courageous. By taking the stand, by speaking up, by being so bold as to say, well, the Bible actually says, why can we be courageous?

Because God's word is constant. Much to the anger of our enemy. Our enemy desires to silence God's word and if he can't silence it, he'll try to spoil it. And the ways that he does that is through lies and violence.

In one more, one of the more stress-filled interactions that Jesus had with the Pharisees in John 8, he says this in verse 43. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word.

You are of your father, the devil, and want to do the desires of your father. What are the desires of the devil anyway? What is he up to? He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

How did he murder? He lied, he lied.

Every lie is a declaration of war upon the person you lie to. Satan declares war on humanity by lying to them. He wants to see them dead. He says, Jesus Christ says, whenever the devil speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies.

But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. So what is the enemy up to? He wants to stop God's word by lies, by violence, by deceit, by destruction. We see that with Jeremiah. Jeremiah preached the word of God.

He is for his national leaders. He wants to see their good in their repentance. He is for the priests and the prophets who are saying the wrong thing about the word of God and leading people astray. He wants to see them repent and preach the truth.

He is for his fellow Jews because he knows that the culture in which they live is so twisted up and full of sin and immorality and idolatry and injustice that they are headed to certain disaster. He is for them.

But the lies come and say, and they say, you have spoken against us. You hate us because of what you have said. That's the lie. And here comes the violence. Therefore you ought to die. Lies and violence.

We talked about last week, we asked a couple of questions. Will accusations silence us? They shouldn't. Will threats silence us? They shouldn't. Accusations did not silence Christ and threats did not silence Christ nor his followers, though there were many.

The third question that we need to ask, especially in looking at verses 20 through 23, is this, will murders silence? Will murders silence? Again, the threat is that Jeremiah should die for what he has said.

And just so we know that that is a distinct possibility under the reign of the current King Jehoiakim, either Jeremiah or his scribe Baruch puts this little note here in verses 20 through 23. We should not think that it is impossible that Jeremiah would die in this situation because it's already happened.

There is precedent. There was a man named Uriah and he preached the same thing Jeremiah did and he died for it. But you know what? The words that Uriah preached did not stop with Uriah because they were the words of God and God's word cannot be stopped.

And Jeremiah preached those very same words. So right away, we can tell that murders may silence a prophet here or there. Murders may silence a follower of Christ here or there. But again, the murder of one of the people of God cannot stop the word of God.

The word of God continues on. And even if all the people of God were suddenly to go quiet, Jesus assures us the very rocks would cry forth the word of God. So you cannot stop God's word. There are three prophets listed in our text, Micah, Jeremiah, Uriah.

Three different results. Micah preached the very same thing Jeremiah did. Micah preached to the king and the king repented. And the people heard Micah's message that he preached in the name of the Lord.

He preached the word of God. The people heard, they repented and good things happened. Jeremiah is preaching the word of God. The people are listening, but they're angry and they want to kill him. I'll have to give you a spoiler.

He doesn't die yet. But they're not going to repent. Another spoiler. So his message was not received well, but he's gonna keep on preaching it. Unlike Micah's message, which was received. And then there's Uriah who preached his message and died for it.

Three different results. Nonetheless, the word of God remains constant. I want us to think a little bit about this question. Will murders silence? Now if accusations about hate speech will not silence us, and if threats against our businesses and our freedoms and our persons and our families and our lives, if threats will not silence us, maybe murders will.

Will murders silence us? And the answer of course is ultimately no. But this requires us to approach the matter from a position of faith. From a position of faith. Faith is required here. No matter how many times the enemy, through his many servants, no matter how many times the enemy tries to murder a Christian, all he ever ends up doing is making that believer a martyr.

Every attempt to murder ends up in martyrdom. A martyr is a witness. A martyr is one who has given testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ. A martyr is a witness who has given testimony to the truths of who Jesus Christ is and what he came to do, the realities of God and the gospel, and has done so at the cost of his or her own life.

And this kind of message, scrawled in blood, never stops speaking. I want us to think about a few things together. And I think this is a good exercise. Let's turn over to Hebrews 11, Hebrews chapter 11.

And we'll begin by looking at verse four. Is it worth it, Jeremiah? Is it worth it to say what God says is it worth it to preach the word of God, to be accused and threatened? Would it be worth it, Jeremiah, to die for what God says?

Well, faith is required. Notice verse four of Hebrews 11. Faith is required. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. God testifying about his gifts and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

He still speaks. The testimony of his life, the testimony of his faith in the promise of the seed, his testimony of faith in the promise of the one who would die in this place, Abel died for his faith and his testimony is still with us.

So murders really do not silence the word of God. Murders are actually committed, when committed against Christians, it just ends up them being martyred and their testimony still speaks. Abel still speaks and he is a part of a cloud of witnesses that all speak.

For that, we look at the end of Hebrews 11 and I want you to listen. I want you to listen to this passage and I want you to be asking yourself, if I was faced with these things, what would I do? What would I say?

Preacher to the Hebrews says, and what more shall I say? For time will fail me, if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins being destitute, afflicted, ill treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground and all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect.

So here, the preacher of the Hebrew says, think about all of those men and women in the Old Testament, think about those before Christ came, who stood fast in their faith in the one to come and suffered such great torment, suffered such great atrocities and even died for their faith and Christ had not even come yet.

And so here's the argument. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him, who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, that you will not grow weary and lose heart. I don't want us to grow weary and lose heart. I don't want us to think that when the accusations start flying and the threats start coming and the suffering begins because we say what the Bible says, because we hold fast to Jesus Christ, I don't want us to grow weary and lose heart.

And the only way that we're going to maintain our courage is by remembering the constancy of God's word that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And so his word is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And so we have a solid ground upon which to stand. This is a helpful thing for us to do, to think about what's the end game. What for what am I willing to lose my freedoms? Where's the line? For what am I willing to lose my job?

For what am I willing to lose a relationship with someone? For what am I willing to lose my financial stability? For what am I willing to lose my life? It's a helpful exercise. One that I think that we need to engage in more often.

There was once a very principled man who said there was only one thing for which he would always take a stand. And it was this, everything's negotiable. May that not be true of us. May that not be true of us.

Persecution of the truth does not stop God's word. What are we willing to die for? Let's remember that Jesus Christ said the gates of Hades will not prevail. Let us remember that the word himself was accused and threatened and murdered and he rose again and speaks forever from the right hand of God.

So let's take courage. So persecution of the truth does not stop God's word and neither does the passage of time. The passage of time does not stop God's word. This is an important thing for us to think about because if the enemy cannot silence the word, then he will twist it, he will change it.

It is a constant reality that the enemy will pervert the word in the name of proclaiming it. The enemy will pervert the word in the name of preserving it. In the name of keeping it going, he'll change it so that it doesn't sound so out of date and old fashioned.

Notice in verses 17 through 19, what the response is of the people to Jeremiah's defense on trial. Then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people saying, Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and he spoke to all the people of Judah saying, thus the Lord of hosts has said, Zion will be plowed as a field and Jerusalem will become ruins and the mountain of the house of the high places is a forest.

Did Hezekiah, king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord and the Lord changed his mind about the misfortune which he had pronounced against them?

But we are committing a great evil against ourselves. Essentially what happens is after Jeremiah preaches his message, the people said, you know what? Didn't, some of the elders said, didn't Micah, that prophet 120 years ago, say the same thing Jeremiah's saying now?

And what did the old king Hezekiah do? Did he kill Micah? No, but they repented and things went well when they allied themselves with God instead of with sin. Which reminds us that any new regime needs the old message.

Jehoiakim's regime 120 years later still needs the same preaching that Hezekiah did under Micah. Jeremiah's message is the old message but it's still good for the new regime. Jeremiah does not preach differently than Micah if anything, he's more insistent.

120 years ago was 1899, 1899. How much has changed since 1899? Oh, just a little bit. What has changed in terms of technology, terms of culture, terms of government? You may know who was the president 120 years ago?

No, don't look it up on your phone, stop. William McKinley. William McKinley was president 120 years ago. Now, has God changed in 120 years? Has his word changed in these last 120 years? No. Has God's authority changed in the last 120 years?

Whatever was good for preaching in William McKinley's day is good for preaching in Donald Trump's day. Whatever was good for preaching 200 years ago is good for preaching today because God's word does not change.

The new rulers still must submit to the old measure. So, and why is this still applicable today? Because Christ is king. He's on the throne, the right hand of God. He is king of kings and he is Lord of lords and his word is constant.

So, when it comes to any new regime, we know whether or not they're praiseworthy when we compare them to the one who is worthy of praise, who is Christ. Every ruler should be scrutinized by scripture, every single one of them, because the scripture remains the same, the scepter of Christ's lordship.

And we should take courage no matter what regime is in power because Christ is still on his throne. The passage of time does not stop God's word just because we have new government doesn't mean that the word of God has changed.

Secondly, all new problems need the old message. All new rulers, any new regime needs the old message and all new problems need the old message. What they were facing back in Hezekiah's day were the mercenaries of Assyria.

And the sins of the people were somewhat different than the sins of the people in Jehoiakim's day. And they weren't facing the hordes of the Assyrians, they were facing the legions of the Babylonians.

Different problems, different political situation. But all the new problems still needed the same old message. What Micah preached was what Jeremiah preached. The old message was what all the new problems needed.

The problems that we have today are not exactly the problems that we had 120 years ago. We have new threats. We have new problems that are plenteous. We have an antagonistic academy. We have secular statism.

We have a militant matriarchy with their programmatic perversion. We have intoxicating entertainment, so much addiction and anarchy. Well, I guess it's not that different from William McKinley's day. Ecclesiastes 1 .19 says there's nothing new under the sun.

And we may think that our problems are so new and so unique the Bible just can't touch them anymore, but you know what? All our perceived new problems still need the old message. Let me remind you of one of Satan's favorite, favorite plays.

And remember that Diabolos, the Greek is the devil, means the through thrower. Remember that the devil is a pitcher. The devil is a pitcher. He's a through thrower. He's gonna throw something through.

And his favorite pitch to throw these days is this when it comes to the Bible. That was then, this is now. That was then, this is now. His favorite pitch. And you wouldn't believe the caliber of evangelical batsmen whiffing on that pitch all game long.

You start down that path, all that was then, this is now. You know what? Jesus Christ was called the Lamb of God and he died a bloody death upon a cross. And the Bible says that without the shedding of his blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

That he was atoning for our sins, dying in our place as a substitutionary sacrifice, a blood sacrifice. How do you think that message plays in our modern, enlightened, sophisticated culture? It doesn't.

But if you start saying about anything in the scriptures, this, that was then, but this is now, you can say it about the doctrine of creation. You can say it about the doctrine of scripture itself. You can say it about the doctrine of sin.

You can say it about the marriage relationship and the way that the family's to be organized or what happens in the church. And you can say that about whatever you want in the Bible, but it always ends up in denying the gospel because the gospel itself is a stumbling block.

The gospel itself is foolishness to those who think that they are wise. So don't start whiffing on that pitch. The old message is meant for all the new problems. Do you believe in the sufficiency of scripture?

This is the critical battleground of our day. This is where we have to practice courage. Brothers and sisters, this is where we have to practice courage. This is where so many personality-driven organizations and spiritual experience operations have gone.

They don't do church according to the word of God. All new problems need the old message. Any new regime needs the old message and each new generation needs the old message. I want you to see something in verses 16, 17 and the last verse, verse 24.

Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, no death sentence for this man, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God. Where'd they get that idea? They're ready to kill him just a moment ago.

Why the change of heart? Well, notice in verse 17, some of the elders, then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people saying, here's how things really are. So it was a change of heart.

It was some of the elders who turned all the people into understanding that Jeremiah was preaching the right thing. Well, who stirred up the some of the elders? I mean, how is it that some of the elders all of a sudden got the right idea?

Is it one guy? One man. Verse 24, notice. But the hand of Heicham, the son of Shaphon, one of the elders, was with Jeremiah so that he was not given into the hands of the people who put him to death. Do you see that?

Do you see that? One person stirred up a few people to say, here's the word of God. And then the few people stirred up the whole bunch of people and then they all said, well, this is the word of God, so here's what we're going to do.

Do you see that? One person. We can be that, you can be that person, I can be that person, right? To take up the word of God and stir it, oh, no, no, no, here's what the word of God says. Look, let's pay attention to what it says.

It doesn't change. Take courage. This is what Heicham did. He says, no, guys, look, the word of God hasn't changed since Micah, and Micah said this, so here's how we're going to roll with this. How did Heicham know what the word of God said?

In a moral, idolatrous, twisted up culture, how did he ever know what the word of God said? Because of his father. Because of his father. He's the son of Shaphan. Who is Shaphan? You can read about Shaphan in 2 Kings 22.

Shaphan was the scribe who read the law of God to King Josiah when Josiah repented and turned the entire nation back to God. Shaphan was the man who read the words of God to Josiah, and don't you know he read it to his son as well?

And then his son stood up in the day of Jeremiah and said, no, folks, we're not going to do it that way. Here's the word of God. And do you not want to know who Shaphan's grandson was? A Heicham's son?

His name was Gedaliah, a faithful man of God who was appointed governor at the end when the exile occurred. Do we see what each new generation needs? The old message. Shaphan gave it to Heicham, Heicham gave it to Gedaliah.

Each new generation needs the old message. The old message is for every new generation. Whether you say that you're a millennial, a baby boomer, or you came out of the Great Depression, the word of God is for you.

The word of God is for each new generation. I take this as an encouragement as a father to teach my children, to teach my children. That they would teach their children. The courage of God's people depends upon the constancy of God's word.

Psalm 119 verse 160 says this, the sum of your word is truth. The sum of your word is truth. Take all the different passages of scripture, all the different verses and chapters and books and you put them together, you add them all up and what you get is truth.

Thanks be to God that he's given us his word. It is unstoppable. Let us pray together. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us. Thank you for encouraging us and giving us a sense of the solid ground on which we stand as we follow Christ and listen carefully to what he says in this book, your holy scriptures.

Pray that you would help us, help us to be courageous, to practice courage and even as a Hyacinth did, to be bold and stir people up so that we would indeed be the amen of your, the amen on earth of your will in heaven.

Pray these things in Christ's name.