JEREMIAH PROCLAIMS THE LORD’S MESSAGE
Jeremiah 26:8-15 March 16, 2003
JEREMIAH 26:8-15
8But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had com-manded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, "You must die! 9Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?" And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
10When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal pal-ace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s house. 11Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, "This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!"
12Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. 13Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. 14As for me, I am in your hands; do with me what-ever you think is good and right. 15Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing."
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
We realize that we live in a world that is constantly changing. For some of us, we might think that it changes too quickly or too much. Yet when we look back at our lives, we realize that many of the changes that have taken place in our lifetime have always been for the good. (If not for the good, at least for our benefit.) Today in our text, we’re reminded that in the midst of change, God’s Word does not change. It still teaches men what it wants men to learn. It teaches us about the law that shows us our sin. It teaches us about the gospel that reveals to us our Savior.
You and I might grumble and complain, but we can rejoice in the fact that God’s Word does not change because it is simply God’s Word. As believers, we are given the privilege to have understanding that the Bible is God’s Word and whatever God’s Word says is true. We are thankful for that. Paul tells us, "And we also thank God continually because, when you re-ceived the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe"(1 THESSALONIANS 2:13). We are thankful that God’s word remains the same. We are thankful that God’s word is at work in each one of us. We are thankful that it is not the word of men but the word of God. That leads us to our text where
JEREMIAH PROCLAIMS THE LORD’S MESSAGE
I. God’s law irritates
II. God’s gospel heals
I. God’s law irritates (it stings, it hurts)
Jeremiah was a major prophet in the Old Testament. He was sent to wake up the people of God. The children of Israel were falling away from the Lord God. They began to worship false gods, so the Lord sent Jeremiah to preach a message of repentance and to preach a mes-sage of the law. It was so bad, in fact, that he had only one word from the message he had to proclaim. He came and proclaimed that they were certainly going to face destruction. We have the reaction that takes place in our text. 8But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, "You must die! While they knew they couldn’t change the message of God by putting Jeremiah to death, they were trying to make themselves feel better. They thought, ‘Well, let’s put Jeremiah to death anyway. He must die for saying such bad things against us.’ They asked him, 9Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?" (Shiloh had been destroyed. No one lived there anymore. It had once been the center of worship.) They came to Jeremiah and said, ‘Why do you say such things against us? We are the children of Israel. We are God’s chosen people.’ And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. They were going to in-timidate him because they felt intimidated by his message that really was not his message but the message of God. It was the truth.
There became such an uproar, that not only were the religious leaders in the house of the Lord affected, but then we’re told the princes of Judah came! They came down from the king’s palace and they came to the temple of the Lord; they sat in the house of the Lord. They would listen. The people would not be dissuaded. 11Then the priests and the prophets said to the offi-cials and all the people, "This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!" They had heard the message of the prophet Jeremiah because he went to the places where there were the most people—into the temple of God, the city streets. He said there was destruction and disaster coming because of their sinfulness. Because of their rejection of God, He would reject them.
What was Jeremiah’s defense? 12Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the peo-ple: "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. He could not change God’s message. He could not change the fact that the law did in-deed sting and hurt. The law told them they would be destroyed.
God’s message of the law has not changed. We don’t like to hear the law either. It does sting and hurt. It reminds us as we come before God, we have nothing to offer Him at all but our sins. As we look at the holiness of God, we see our imperfectness, our ungodliness. Our evil thoughts, our wicked words and our sinful actions, the law tell us that time and time and time again. "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin"(ROMANS 3:20). By the law we become con-scious of sin. The law reminds us we are sinners. It makes us aware that we sin daily and we sin much. The law cannot save us because the law condemns. That is the message that comes from God’s word. There are those who would try to avoid the message of the law by closing their ears and running away from it. Yet the law finds them out and the law says doing the law can’t save us.
From GALATIANS 3:10 we read: "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ’Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’. It says the law condemns us and if we try to keep the law, we’re under a curse be-cause if we don’t keep all of the law, we fall short and we sin. The law reminds us we sin be-cause we fall short every day. Yet how often haven’t we heard (and maybe we’ve even felt our-selves), ‘Well, we’ve led a pretty good life and the Lord will let us into heaven because of that. We’ve tried our very best.’ The world says that. It has the whole philosophy of work righteous-ness that if we work hard enough and long enough and believe long enough, the Lord will have mercy…BUT…God says ‘NO. That is trying to keep the law.’ The law reminds us that we fall short and it’s not true.
1 JOHN 4:6 tells us: "We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but who-ever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.” Sure, we could say, ‘We don’t want to listen to the law’ but then we’re just lying to ourselves. We’re just making ourselves seem better than we ought to be when the law says we are just contemptible sinners. We deserve nothing but eternal death and eternal pun-ishment. That is the message that Jeremiah proclaimed. It is the message that God’s true prophets proclaim today. We also know that as the law stings and hurts it is
II. God’s gospel that heals
Jeremiah realized that. There’s lots of law in Jeremiah, but there’s also many promises for God’s people. When the people crowded around him and hoped he would change his mes-sage, when they hoped he might soften what God had said, he says, ‘God gave me all these words to speak…everything in your hearing.’ He did give them hope didn’t he? He didn’t say that God would immediately destroy them. He says: 13Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. That’s the law there. It’s also understood with the gospel. They weren’t going to change unless the gospel had worked in their hearts. They weren’t going to listen to God unless the gospel took root and their faith grew. He said if they would reform, if they would change, if they would truly listen to what God had to say, then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. That is the gospel. The Lord was willing to forgive. He was willing to forget the fact that they worshipped false gods. Once again they had turned against Him and would not even listen to Jeremiah, the prophet. If they would listen, He would relent. The gospel could heal them. It had the power to do that. It had the power to change their lives so that they would change their lives.
Jeremiah realized the situation. The people in the church were against him. They were willing to put him to death. This uproar brought down the princes from the government who could pronounce that final judgment. (It reminds us of Jesus—not guilty, but the church thought He was, so they took Him to the Roman government. They tried to put Him to death and they did!) In the midst of this uncertainty of his life and death, Jeremiah is still certain. 14As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. He knew that whatever God wanted would get done…even if they wanted to put him to death. Then he reminded them of the law again didn’t he? 15Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it… And thus, the judgement that he had pronounced against them would be brought to pass because they would put to death someone who was innocent. Then he says, “…For in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing." The words of the law condemned and stung them, but the words of the gospel said they would be saved and they could be saved. The Lord could change their hearts so that they might change their lives.
Yes, it is not pleasant to hear the law, but until we hear the law and until we understand that we can’t stand on our own before God—until we understand that, we cannot appreciate the gospel. We need to see that we cannot help ourselves that we cannot save ourselves. We can’t do enough good works, we can’t buy our way into heaven, and we can’t even pray our way into heaven. The Lord saves us by His grace. He saves us by the comfort of His gospel. We appreciate that when we understand just how low we’ve gone because of our sinfulness. God raises us up with the healing of His gospel. "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full ac-ceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst"(1 TIMO-THY 1:15). When we see ourselves as the worst of sinners, we realize the depth of the love that God has for each one of us. He saves us from our own destruction by His grace out of love.
That’s what we examine at Lent and what we celebrate during this somber season…that we’re saved by Christ the Lord. From 2 TIMOTHY 1:10: "God’s grace has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel". He has destroyed death. He has given us immor-tality. We who are mortal shall put on immortality. This is God’s gospel that heals us, which lifts us up, that moves us then to change our lives, to change our hearts. No longer do we find it so appealing to live in the sinfulness of this world and satisfy just our own desires. No longer do we want to fulfill lusts that lurk in our sinful hearts. Instead, because of God’s gospel, we’re mo-tivated to live lives of love that lead to salvation. We look out for one another. We are con-cerned about our fellow man and we realize that no matter how much we sin, the Lord invites us to come and find forgiveness.
We are told, "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord"(ACTS 3:19). Burdened by sin because of the op-pression of the law, turn to the Lord and He forgives your sin. Times of refreshing certainly do come from God. That eternal message from God does not change. Mankind cannot change it. Even though the people threatened Jeremiah with death, and even though many of the prophets of God were put to death, still God’s Word is God’s Word. It points out our sinfulness. It points out our forgiveness. When we see our sinfulness, we realize the joy of God’s forgiveness.
Jeremiah preached that message. If we look around, we don’t see any Jeremiahs today but his message is still proclaimed isn’t it? Faithful pastors, faithful teachers and faithful people proclaim it. You and I are the Jeremiahs of today. You and I are the voices calling out in the wilderness where people don’t want to hear that message. They don’t want to hear about sin-fulness because they can’t understand nor can they appreciate forgiveness. If you don’t have sins to be forgiven, what joy is there in forgiveness? You and I need to remind people of that message.
The Lord calls it a message of reconciliation where we are brought back to God. We are reconciled to Him. "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. (That defines reconciliation. As you are reading scriptures and you get those long words—look in the same verse and you will very often find the definition.) And he has committed to us (to believers) the message of reconciliation"(2 CORINTHIANS 5:19). You and I are Jeremiah—we proclaim the Lord’s message. Yes, the law stings, it hurts, it condemns us, BUT then the gospel lifts us up, it heals us, it saves us by God’s grace. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
