September 2, 2001 Jeremiah 23:23-29
23 “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? 24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.
25 “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ 26 How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? 27 They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD. 29 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”
Out of curiosity I recently checked out the Yellow Pages to see how many churches are in our area. To my amazement there were over 400 of them. There were Charismatic, Christian, Catholic, Bible, Christian Science, Church of God of Prophecy, Congregational - the list went on and on and on and on. If you get to thinking about it, you might say that we have a lot of competition. Over 400 pastors are going to preach over 400 sermons this Sunday. In a world that looks for professionalism and entertainment, we have a lot to compete with. So what should we do? Compete, right? But how do we compete? What are the rules of competition?
Jeremiah also was in a competition for souls- Israelite souls. He wasn’t the only preacher in his day. He wouldn’t have minded that competition, except for the fact that the competition was cheating. They were going against the rules. And for that reason, Jeremiah the preacher decided to preach at the preachers.
You may not be a professional preacher. But all of you still have the responsibility of picking what preacher you want to listen to. So the sermon is for you as well, as you hear how
The Preacher Preaches to Preachers
I was watching a video on preaching, and a well seasoned pastor recommended that every preacher in the room listen to this story written by Garrison Keillor. He said that a very important aspect to preaching is learning the art of telling a story. Garrison Keillor is an excellent storyteller, and by listening to him we might become better at it. Why is this all-important? Because, as a professor of mine used to tell me,“we have the attention span of gerbils”. Stories are the only thing that can keep our attention. This is especially true with a generation that has grown up on video games and television. We are people who think through pictures. So pictures need to be drawn.
If you notice next time you read the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit uses plenty of pictures throughout. Even when he had a special message to get his people, he would often times use dreams and visions to do so. Take for instance the story of Jacob. After he had stolen the birthmark from his brother Esau, he had to flee from his home to the land of Padan Aram. While he was sleeping, the Bible says -
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Now, God could have just as easily just said this to Jacob through a stranger walking by. But what did God do? He appeared to Jacob in a dream - and added a lovely stairway that went from earth all the way to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. With this visual aid, God was telling Jacob, “your prayers will be answered! You will receive the birthright!”
This happened in the New Testament as well. When Paul was traveling through Troas, Acts 16 says, During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” God could have just told him to go to Macedonia, but instead, he gave him a vision with a man begging for help - probably waving his arms and saying, “come!” This vision would really involve Paul’s senses in the fullest sense!
Dreams and visions worked well to get the people’s attention. The problem with dreams, is that they can be misleading. For instance, how many times do you wake up in the middle of the night from the most vivid dream? I remember waking up in a cold sweat after dreaming that a lady was chasing me with a shotgun. It was vivid. But the problem was that I didn’t know if it meant anything. Or how often is it that you have a dream and you can’t remember all the details. It’s vague. That happened in the Bible too, where kings had very vivid dreams and visions, but they didn’t know what they meant.
In Jeremiah’s time, the people loved hearing these dreams. They begged for interpretation and guidance from them. But the problem was that in order to gain a following, the preachers started making up dreams to lead the people any way they wanted. Jeremiah said, “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? In the olden days, the false preachers would lead people astray with the name of Baal. But now, they were using dreams to lead people astray. So, you can see how Jeremiah must have been frustrated at the preachers of his day. Here he was, trying to compete with hundreds of colorful and vivid preachers - who were drawing the way to hell. It wasn’t that Jeremiah wasn’t vivid - he also preached with pictures. There was one time that he carried around a wooden yoke of an oxen around his neck, telling the people - “for 40 years you will be in captivity!” But then what happened? Another preacher by the name of Hananiah came by, took the yoke off his neck, broke it, and told the people they’d only be in captivity for two years! These “visions” were hindering God’s work immensely!
We have the same problem today. We are trying to win souls with our preaching, but the false prophets seem to be winning. Two of the larger religions in the world were founded by supposed “visions from God.” Take for instance Islam - the story goes -
Mohammed frequently went to a cave in the desert three miles from Mecca, where he would spend months in prayer and meditation. One morning, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and said: "Rise, for thou art the Prophet of God. Go forth and preach in the name of thy Lord. Your God is merciful." A voice was heard - the voice of the Lord - addressed to the Prophet. It was recorded and became the text of the holy Koran. . . . he went to the Kaaba and proclaimed that there was no God but Allah.
This was a very vivid and exciting story for the people to listen to - something new. Now there are millions of people who believe that God is not Triune and Jesus was just a prophet who never actually went to the cross. Or take for instance the beginning of Mormonism . . Joseph Smith States,
It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. . . . . After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. . . . I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. One of them . . . said, pointing to the other--"This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" . . . I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right . . --and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."
Notice how colorful this picture is. That was the beginning of the worldwide religion of Mormonism. They still claim to have a “living prophet” who has ongoing revelations from God. Now there are thousands to millions of people that believe that Jesus is just one of many gods, themselves included.
This is nowhere near the end of the problem. When I was vicaring in Norfolk, NE, a local priest had to do the funeral of a young boy who had committed suicide. He told the crowd, “I had a dream of Andrew (the boy who committed suicide) in heaven - happy and comfortable.” This bothered me. Why? How did he know it was from God? Did he really have the dream? Was he trying to offer a comfort that he couldn’t find anywhere else? That’s where the problem hits home. Think about it - if there are over 400 churches in our area alone, not everyone can preach the truth. And it often goes that the biggest churches are the ones with the most lively preachers and services. The best entertainers draw the crowds. But the problem is, their dreams and entertainment are not giving them a greater understanding of God’s will in their lives.
This is even a problem within our own circles. We have people within our own congregation who do not come very often because they “don’t get much out of it” or they are “too busy.” I understand that to mean, “it’s boring. It doesn’t entertain me. It doesn’t feed me.” Our Bible studies are not as well attended as they could be. And I would venture to bet a very small percentage of our people are studying the Bible at home. Some may also feel a need to visit other churches and join their Bible studies. Why do these things happen? Is it because studying the Bible here isn’t as entertaining as the evening news or the movie of the week. Is it because other churches have more stories to keep our attention?
In Jeremiah’s time, the people were so enamored with the visions that they were led away from God. What did God do about the situation? First of all, he reminded these “preachers” of something. “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? 24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD. 25 “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. God saw what they were doing and heard what they were saying. A few verses later, God actually declared a ban on oracles, If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is the oracle of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household. He was tired of the people relying on these oracles and being led every which way. Remember the prophet Hananiah who broke the yoke off of Jeremiah’s neck? He was dead by the next year.
What did God want these prophets to do? Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD.
When you compare straw with grain, what is more valuable? Although they come from the same plant, the grain is harvested and the straw is left behind and used at a later date. Wheat is grown mainly for it’s grain, not for the straw. The comparison is plain. Even if a prophet is having a legitimate and colorful dream, it still isn’t as valuable as the plain Word of God. He wanted them to stick with the Word first and foremost!
Why? 29 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” For those of you who have gone camping, you know how important a fire is at night. On a cold night it keeps you warm. In the dark it gives light. The smoke chases off the bugs. You can grill hot dogs and marshmallows with fire. You can purify water with fire. It keeps animals away. And it’s also fun just to sit and look at. It’s a very powerful tool. God said, that’s what my word is like! A fire! It’s powerful - it can penetrate your stony soul! It can warm up your cold heart! It can purify you! It can give you light in this dark world! It can distinguish the truth from error! Luther said, If you take the Word away it is like taking the sun away from the earth. If the Word were removed, what would the world be but a hell and a mere realm of Satan, though people of wealth, lawyers, doctors, etc., dwelt in it? For only the Word keeps a joyful conscience, a gracious God, and all of religion, since out of the Word, as from a spring, flows our entire religion.
Shouldn’t it be enough for you to just know that the Word of God will be spoken here? Luther said: The fact that we have the Gospel and ignore in its presence, stroll about in the market during the sermon, lounge about before the city gate or in taverns and places of amusement - this is the sin which exceeds everything. And God will certainly punish it. Fornication is no doubt a great sin, but in comparison with blasphemy against God it is trifling. For Christ himself says that Sodom and Gomorrah, which certainly had not practiced ordinary immorality, would have a lot more bearable than that of Capernaum, Bethsaida, and all the well-known saints and Pharisees of his time. He says that Publicans and harlots will enter into the kingdom of heaven before the Pharisees and scribes, who were certainly pious, chaste, and respectable people. Why? Because they resisted the Word of God and the gospel; but Publicans and harlots, though sinners, did not resist the gospel. Even if we don’t sing the songs you like or keep your attention as good as we could, the Word of God is still spoken at church.
Think about how valuable of a tool the Word was throughout the Scriptures. The Wise Men were pointed to Bethlehem because the Scriptures predicted he would be there. When the disciples were on the way to Emmaus, Jesus used the Scriptures to open their hearts. Paul used the Scriptures to prove to the Corinthians that Jesus had to rise from the dead. (1 Corinthians 15) It is only in the Word of God that we are told about what Jesus did for us. If we had no Word of God, we would not know that Jesus died for US. We would not know that Jesus rose from the dead and God accepted his sacrifice. We would not know that through his blood we are HOLY in God’s sight - in spite of our neglect of His Word. We would be miserable unbelievers all on the way to hell. But with the Word we have a fire of faith burning in our hearts. We have light to guide our way. We have been purified from our sins. We can detect what is right and what is wrong. We can tell when false prophets are dreaming false dreams when we compare it with God’s Word - the light of the world. So what’s all important? The Word.
When my son goes to kick a football, it’s a rather comical sight. He’ll set up the football, and then he’ll run, and run, and run - way back to kick it. One time he did this, and on the way to the football he saw a plane in the sky, stopped, and said, “look an airplane.” Then he ran a little bit further, and got tired, so he had to stop. By the time he finally got back to where the football was, he was too tired to kick it. His preparations looked very impressive, but he never got around to actually kicking the football.
In Jeremiah’s sermon to the preachers he said, Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. What does this mean? Is it wrong to tell dreams? No, as long as it leads back to the Word. Jeremiah used visions and actions to try and get the people attention. But he always made sure that he preached the Word and illustrated it as vividly as possible. Luther said, If it is a mere notion, a private opinion, and a good idea, but without God’s Word, then spit at it.
With over 400 preachers preaching this morning, we have a lot of competition. I would imagine that you could find some churches that would wow you with a lot of neat stories and big screen tv’s and the like. That’s all fine. I would like to be able to use visual aids and power point presentations to help illustrate Bible classes and sermons eventually. I would like to be able to illustrate the Bible with more colorful sermons. But the final question comes down to this - did you get the Word? Did you understand it better? That’s what good preaching comes down to. That’s the point of the sermon that the preacher preached to the preachers. Preach the Word. Amen.
