Today on Renewing Your Mind. I'm sure that all of us have experiences in our lives that we regard as unforgettable, special moments that stand out because of the impression they make on us or the impact that they have on our lives. And I can remember vividly going with Vesta to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam when we were going to school there. And when we went into the Rijksmuseum, we saw the magnificent paintings, the masterpieces from all over the world, the Goyes, for example, and Matisse, and so on, the French Impressionists. But they had one huge hall that was devoted just for the paintings, the original paintings, of Rembrandt von Rhein, usually regarded as the greatest of the old masters. But there was a small painting sort of buried back in one corner that when I saw it just grabbed me instantly.
It's like somebody took their hand and grabbed my heart with it and started to squeeze. And the subtitle that was printed underneath the painting said, Jeremiah laments the destruction of Jerusalem. And I have never seen a painting before or since that in my judgment so captures and crystallizes the agony and the poignancy of a man mourning as that painting by Rembrandt. It's not by accident that Jeremiah has been called historically the weeping prophet. So often we think of the image of the prophet as a tough, hard-nosed, flamboyant, outspoken wild man that comes on the scene shaking his fists and denouncing the people for their sin. And of course, Jeremiah was called to participate in that vocation just like the rest of the prophets. But there's a sense that when he brought the word of Judge judgment on his own people, he did it with tears. And we see in the person of Jeremiah not an angry young man, but a man whose heart was filled to overflowing with godly compassion.
And I think that it would help us all to spend some time reading the writings of this prophet. We need to acquire some of the sensitivity of Jeremiah. Jeremiah in my estimation was heroic because he had to deal with rejection like you and I will never have to deal with, and somehow through the grace of God never allowed the personal abuse that he suffered to become an occasion for bitterness.
And that to me is very, very significant. Let's look briefly at the life of Jeremiah, starting at the very first chapter of his book with the circumstances of his call whereby God commissions him for his vocation. We read his account of his call in the first chapter beginning at verse 4 and where Jeremiah writes this, The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I set you apart, and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. God comes to this young man and He says, Jeremiah, before you were ever born, I consecrated you to a special task.
Before your mother even knew what you looked like, I knew you, and I set you apart in my plan, in my sovereign destiny for you. Now notice the first word of the response, I like it in the old version here, of Jeremiah to this announcement that God gives to him. His first word is, oh, I mean it's like if we put this in the vernacular, it would be like, yikes. It's like, he doesn't, there's not even a word, it's an exclamation. He says, ah, sovereign Lord, I don't know how to speak.
I am only a child. It's like before he even starts his ministry, he's groaning already. Even as a young man, he had some idea of the burden that would fall upon him if God would ever select him for the role of the prophet. And so he groans. But even in the groan, he acknowledges God's sovereignty. Ah, sovereign Lord. At least he acknowledges it for a moment, and this is part of the reason I like Jeremiah is that Jeremiah is so consistently inconsistent, just like most of us.
He seems so humble here. Ah, sovereign Lord, I'm a young man. I can't do this.
I'm too young. I can't speak. I'm only a boy, sovereign Lord. Sovereign Lord, are you sure you know what you're doing? Haven't you made a mistake?
But you better check that list again to see if that's really my name. Are you sure you're not confusing me with some other same thing that Moses did? He's arguing with the one whom he's just acknowledged as his sovereign Lord. Now listen to how the sovereign Lord responds. But the Lord said to me, do not say, I am only a child. You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.
That is an order. Then he said, do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord. Isn't it interesting that God no sooner calls Jeremiah to preaching that the next breath he talks about fear and the need for Jeremiah to be rescued? Does that tell you anything about the perils of being a prophet in Israel? Then the Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth, and He said to me, now I have put my words in your mouth.
Wow. When we read the rest of this book, we have to understand that we are not reading the insights of Jeremiah. But the words that come out of his mouth are prefaced by the classical prophetic formula, thus saith the Lord. I touched your mouth so that I'm putting my word in your mouth so that when you speak, Jeremiah, you speak with nothing less than my authority.
Listen to the agenda. I'm going to point you to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant. What are you saying is, Jeremiah, I want you to go to your culture, to all of the authority structures of your culture, to the church, to the priests, to the prophets, and to the palace of the king, and I want you to rip apart the current structures and institutions of Israel because they make me sick. I want a Reformation in this country.
And before you're going to build, you're going to have to tear down. So Jeremiah says, all right. And he goes, and he carries out this mandate. And one of the first things he has to do is to go to the temple, not with his agenda, but with God's words in his mouth. And he gives one of the most famous sermons that's ever found in the Bible called Jeremiah's Temple Speech, in which he comes there to the temple authority, there in the presence of the people assembled at this holy place.
He cries out saying, thus saith the Lord. You people come here to the temple and you say, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, three times. That is the principle of Hebrew repetition to emphasize a point he makes mockery of saying that you people just walk around here saying, this is the temple of the Lord. You don't just say, this is the temple of the Lord. You come around here and say, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.
Then he says, you trust in lying words, words that cannot profit you. And like Jesus, much later, Jesus had the same message. When people were following all over themselves about the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus said, hey, the day is coming when there's not going to be one stone left on top of another because God's going to tear it down. Now keep in mind that the great threat in the minds of the people in this day was the threat of invasion and of captivity.
The northern kingdom suffered the fate of falling before the southern kingdom. And the people in Jeremiah's country were convinced that God would never allow those people to be carried away in captivity. And so Jeremiah said, guess what folks?
The temple is going. The nation is going. Jerusalem will fall, and you are going into captivity. Now you talk about bad news. It's like somebody would get on the national television today and say, all right, America, listen to this.
Here's your future. In two weeks, the Russians are coming. They're going to destroy your cities. They're going to take over the churches.
They're going to take over the government. Would you be happy to hear that? I sure wouldn't want to hear that. Now suppose after this fellow gets on the news and tells you that, as soon as he stops speaking, they would then switch to 15 different news analysts to tell you their ideas and their evaluation of what the messenger has just given.
And they would tear the guy to shreds, and they would give us the full assurance, what? You don't have to worry about it. It's not going to happen. This guy is a doomsday prophet.
Forget it. You know why you call doomsday prophets Jeremiah's? Because Jeremiah was a doomsday prophet.
That's why. But what happened? As soon as he would give the word that God had put in his mouth, which was the truth, he would no sooner stop speaking than all the rest of the professional prophets would run around making fun of him and contradicting his message. And they preached exactly what the people wanted to hear. We read in the 23rd chapter of Jeremiah some of the flavor of how he felt about that. Let's go back down to verse 21. I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message. I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.
But if they had stood in my counsel, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds. Then he says in verse 25, I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, I had a dream.
I had a dream. How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think that the dreams that they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. Now here is a verse that has been branded in my mind since the first time I've ever read it.
Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream. Let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. You men who are pastors, hear this Word of God.
I can remember when I was in seminary, I was shocked to the point of almost total disillusionment at the unbelief that was apparent in the theologians of our day and in the teachers of our day. And I was so hurt and then angry about it until I read this verse, coupled with the Psalm that says, fret not thyself about evildoers. And what God was saying to me was, hey, look, if there are false prophets running around, don't worry about them. That's not your concern.
If they want to tell their dreams, let them tell their dreams. Your job, Sproul, is to preach the Word of God faithfully. And if every time you preach it, fifteen other guys stand up to contradict it, too bad. I'll take care of that.
And I say, fine, guys, if you're going to take care of it, I'm not going to worry about it because I know you'll take care of it. But that's the thing that drives more ministers to compromise than anything else, the fact that when you do speak the Word of God faithfully, you've got fifteen guys screaming. And who do the people want to follow? Those guys, because they're preaching what the people want to hear. Now, so Jeremiah just sails through all of this, right?
I can take it, you know, if they all preach against me. Not only do the prophets preach against him, but the priests and the politicians get together, they enter in a conspiracy to have Jeremiah assassinated. They try to kill him, and then they capture him on another occasion, and they put him in the stocks. You remember the picture of the ancient world where the people would be in the stocks, you know, their hands are through those wooden things and their feet are through there, and everybody comes along and laughs at them and throws tomatoes at them and spits on them and everything. Here is Jeremiah, God's own prophet, reduced to a public spectacle of utter humiliation.
How did he respond? Oh Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived. Those of you who have been here frequently heard me quote that passage a thousand times because here's the clearest example of biblical redundancy that I can point to. Oh Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived.
How unnecessary is that last clause? If God deceived you, you are deceived. There's no doubt about the fact that you're deceived, but Jeremiah has to say it. You overwhelmed me, and I am overwhelmed. It's like Jeremiah saying, God, it's not fair.
You really didn't let me in on what this was going to be like. If I really would have understood this, I would have argued more. I would have said more than, oh, sovereign Lord. I would have said, no, no, no, sovereign Lord. And then here's what he says, I am ridiculed all day long. Everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction, so the word of the Lord has brought me what?
Fame, fortune, respect. The word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. And so I said, I will not mention Him or speak anymore in His name. Have you ever done that?
I've done it. I said, I'm tired of this, and I'm just going to be real subtle about my Christian faith. I'm not coming on like gangbusters. I'm going to try to charm people into the kingdom of God, because who needs to be a prophet? I'll just not mention the name of Jesus. I'll just be a Secret Service Christian. I'll show them by my life. There's no danger in that, folks, okay, because nobody's life in here is so pure that it threatens anybody. It's the Word of God that brings the coals down on your head. That's where the price tag is, that you have to open your mouth, as Paul tells us, those who believe with the heart and proclaim with the mouth.
Those are the children of God. And Jeremiah says, I've had it. I was all excited as a young man. I was filled with visions, idealism.
You know, I was going to go around and bust everybody, and we were going to get this war won in 90 days. But it goes on and on and on, and I am in derision and reproach and humiliation every single day, and I'm sick of it. I'm turning in my prophet's card, God, I quit. I don't know how many ministers there are in this room right now.
I know there's several. If you have never felt that in your ministry, chances are you quit being prophetic years ago. But if you have been faithful to the Word of God, I don't know how much faith you have.
I don't know how much sanctification fills your soul if you never had these feelings and there's something wrong with you. I cling to that every time I say, thank you, God, for letting me see that other men feel like I feel, because there's not a week goes by in my life that I don't seriously consider retiring, quitting, saying, oh, God, let me get on with my life's work and out of this, because there is no glamour in it. Jeremiah says, I quit.
I can relate to that. And then he says, but I can't quit, because the Word of God is shut up in my bones. It's like fire, and I can't quit. When God touched his lips and put His Word in his mouth, stupid Jeremiah swallowed it, and it got down into his bones. And it was like fire in there. You can't quit. And I want to quit for about 15 minutes. And then I say, okay, let's go.
All right. I thank God that Jeremiah was a human being just like us, who was frightened just like we are, who enjoyed humiliation about as much as you enjoyed humiliation, who wanted to be loved and received by his fellow countrymen as much as you want to be loved and received by your fellow countrymen. There was only one thing more important to him, and that was to be faithful to the Word of God. I need an example like that to live by. We all need an example like that to live by.
It is so easy to want to give up. We see the beginnings of persecution in our own times, churches being told not to hold services, churches even being arrested and fined. Fear may cause some to back away from speaking the truth, but may the fire of God's Word burn in our bones just like it did for Jeremiah. We're glad you joined us today for Renewing Your Mind.
Dr. R.C. Sproul has reminded us how the Old Testament connects to the New Testament and how all of Scripture applies to our lives today. That's why I recommend our resource offer to you. When you contact us today with a donation of any amount, we will send you R.C. 's series, Dust to Glory. In 57 messages, he helps us see how every book in the Bible is one cohesive narrative, the story of God bringing a people unto Himself. We'll send you the full series when you give a donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries, plus we'll include a disc containing the study guides for each message. Again, it's titled Dust to Glory, and you can reach us by phone at 800-435-4343 or online at renewingyourmind.org. When we do face trials and hardships, there is one man in the Bible whose faithfulness brings us great encouragement. I hope you'll join us next Saturday as Dr. Sproul examines the amazing faith and courage of Job, here on Renewing Your Mind. .
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