“Doom the Doomsayer!” – FBC Morning Light (8/8/2024)

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading, we're skipping around a little bit again.

We're in 2 Kings chapters 23 and 24, 2 Chronicles 36, and then

Jeremiah chapters 26 and 35. And I trust you'll have the opportunity to read all of those chapters, but I want to zero in on just a few verses in chapter 26.

And here we see an example of something that's very contemporary, if you will. And again, before we discuss this, let me just reiterate that I do not for a moment believe that the

United States of America is a modern equivalent of Old Testament Israel.

The United States is not God's covenant nation, and so on and so forth.

And I don't want to communicate that at all. But I do see some parallel attitudes that are destructive, and let me explain.

So in Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah is told by the Lord to go and stand in the court of the

Lord's house. He says, speak to all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the Lord's house. All the words that I command you to speak to them.

Don't diminish a word. And the words that Jeremiah is going to preach to the people are words of impending judgment for their sin, and they're turning away from the

Lord. And the Lord says, perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way that I may relent concerning the calamity which

I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings. So you see what's going on. The people are committing great iniquity.

They've turned away from the Lord. They're involved in idolatry as well as immoral behavior and all the rest of this kind of stuff, this evil that they're doing.

And the Lord sends Jeremiah to warn the people of, they're going to get punished for this.

There's going to be judgment to come. And in verse 4, the

Lord says to Jeremiah, you shall say to them, thus says the Lord, if you will not listen to me to walk in my law, which

I've set before you, to heed the words of my servants, the prophets whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them, but you have not heeded, then

I will make this house like Shiloh and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

All right. That's pretty serious stuff. That's pretty heavy stuff. And that's pretty confrontational to be sure.

And it wouldn't be easy to hear. And nobody likes to hear this, do they?

When was the last time that you actually, you know, directly confronted somebody with clear, clear wrongdoing?

I'm not talking about, you know, a difference of opinion, you know, you think this, they think that. I'm talking about a clear violation of God's Word.

You confronted them with it and warned them that, look, you've got to turn from this or it isn't going to go well for you.

And they responded by hanging their head and saying, you know, you're right,

I'm wrong. I've been wrong. I'm going to turn from this.

I'm going to forsake this. And thank you. Thank you so much for telling me that.

When was the last time that happened to you? I'm trying to remember. It doesn't happen very often.

What usually happens is exactly what happened to Jeremiah. It says in verse 7, the priests and the prophets and all the people heard

Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it happened when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the

Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people. That the priests and the prophets of all things and all the people seized him saying, you will surely die.

This is the more typical response, isn't it? Rather than take personal responsibility for collapse, calamity, for the judgment or punishment that is to come, rather than take personal responsibility for that and listen to God's word and repent of my sin and turn from it, the majority would rather get rid of the preacher, get rid of the one who's confronted them, would rather get rid of such doomsayers, if you will, and go on their merry way.

That's how most would respond. The challenge for us is a couple fold.

Number one, it is to be sure we're not like that. To be sensitive to the ministry of the

Holy Spirit to our hearts, even as he uses others, a preacher in the pulpit or a friend with an arm around the shoulder saying, hey, you know, this is wrong.

This is wrong. Deal with this. Let's not be like the priests and the prophets and all the people in Jeremiah's day who respond saying we want you out of here.

We want you dead. Let's be humble enough to accept that maybe absolutely right and I may be absolutely wrong.

Our Father in heaven, it's not easy to admit our error. It's not easy to say I'm wrong,

I've sinned, I repent, I turn to you, but it's so vital that we do.

Help us to be sensitive to the Spirit's conviction and help us not to bristle and rebel against that pointed confrontation from your

Spirit, even as he uses other people, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right.