BE ON GUARD AGAINST DECEPTION
Jeremiah 28:5-9 - July 11, 2004 – PENTECOST 6
JEREMIAH 28:5-9
5Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD. 6He said, "Amen! May the LORD do so! May the LORD fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the LORD’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. 7Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: 8From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disas-ter and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. 9But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true."
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
We know how important it is to be prepared, to be ready for the unexpected. We do that quite of-ten in our earthly life, don’t we? We take precautions against what the future might bring. In our day and age and in our society there are all kinds of insurance a person can buy--health insurance, life insurance, car insurance, crop insurance and more. There even is insurance to protect pets. This insurance protec-tion is an endless list. This insurance list reminds us of our obsession with being prepared, being ready for what might happen, being on guard against the unexpected.
This morning our text teaches us the same thing with a different focus. Believers are to be on guard not for the unexpected but for the expected. This expected to be on guard against is deception, de-ception because the Lord tells us deception abounds. It was present during the time of Jesus, during the time of Jeremiah, and will be until the end of the age. This morning we are reminded of the words of Je-sus as he walked on the earth. Jesus said: "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect--if that were possible. So be on your guard; I have told you every-thing ahead of time" (MARK 13:22,23). We are going to use these words of Jesus as our theme for to-day: Be on your guard! BE ON GUARD AGAINST DECEPTION
I. Being reminded that false prophets distort the truth.
II. Knowing that God’s prophets report God’s truth.
I. False prophets distort the truth
As our text began, we recognize the name of Jeremiah. We heard last week how Jeremiah was a prophet during the reign of six kings of Israel. Today in chapter 28 he is prophesying during the reign of King Zedekiah. Zedekiah had led the people to disobey God by worshiping false gods. So it was that the Lord God as part of judgment rose up a great king of Babylon--Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar came and conquered Israel and bit-by-bit he took them as slaves to Babylon. Now the children of Israel are slaves in Babylon, slaves to King Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah has to prophesy during this bleak, dark time in the history of Israel. Of course, you can imagine the words were not words of encouragement, but words reminding them how they disobeyed and were facing God’s judgment. So what happens? False prophets come.
We also heard the name of Hananiah, a false prophet. He came and prophesied as if he were God’s prophet, as if he were telling the truth. Hananiah said to the children of Israel, "Guess what? In two years you will be going back to Jerusalem and in two years all the Lord’s belongings are going back to Jerusalem. Everything is going to be back to normal." Good news, wasn’t it? Even Jeremiah said, 6He said, "Amen! May the LORD do so! May the LORD fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the LORD’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. Jeremiah had to agree. He says, "Wow! That would be good news that we would no longer be slaves that king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would be defeated; and Zedekiah, the king of Israel, and all of Israel and all of the belongings of the Lord would be back where they belong, at the temple and at Jerusalem. But this prophecy was-n’t true. Even though Hananiah had come before God’s people and proclaimed this word, he had distorted the truth. He had done it in a public way, so Jeremiah answers him in a very public way. Our text began by saying: 5Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD. Hananiah had gotten the people to come to the house of the Lord and tells his message, "Here’s a message I am going to proclaim, a message that your ears want to hear, a message that your hearts want to believe, and a message that sounds almost too good to be true." And it was. But Jeremiah was going to tell them the truth.
It is easy for us to see in a sense why the children of Israel wanted to listen to Hananiah. They wanted to hear that their captivity was going to be over. They wanted to hear that the Lord was going to bring them home again. They wanted to hear that the temple possessions were going to be put back into the temple of God, because Nebuchadnezzar had taken all of those out of the temple. That was the great-est heartbreak of the children of Israel. They wanted to hear that, but it was not the truth.
False prophets distort the truth. It happens very easily. We sometimes do the same thing. We spend a lot more time with our friends and relatives than with those people we don’t like. We do that be-cause we like each other first of all. We do it also because we like hearing the compliments and kind words of our friends and family. They tell us good things, and we enjoy them. Sadly, that kind of attitude has invaded some churches today. The Lord had predicted it. He said people are going to hear what they want to hear. Paul wrote to Timothy: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doc-trine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear" (2 TIMOTHY 4:3). So it is today. In our nation we have a great variety of churches, a great variety of churches where you can find a great variety of teachings. People can go to the church that they like because of the teachings that they have or don’t have. There are churches that meet together and know nothing at all about the Christian creeds--the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed. They feel such creeds are too restrictive. They teach false doctrine concerning creation. It doesn’t matter anyway they think. People gather around in great numbers to hear what their itching ears want to hear. What about sin? The less we hear about sin, the better we feel about ourselves. So let’s go to a church like that.
The Lord says today to be on guard against deception. Just because it may sound good or make us feel good, it does not mean it is what God wants us to hear. How do such things happen that a great num-ber of people are led astray? Very simply, our sinful nature wants to hear what we like to hear. If we don’t like it, we leave. The false prophets don’t get up Sunday or whatever day they worship in front of a congregation and say, "I am a false prophet." Instead just the opposite is true. Jesus says in Matthew: "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves" (MATTHEW 7:15). There is rarely ever a prophet that comes and says, "I am going to teach you something that is not according to God’s Word, and I am going to lead you down the path to hell." Hananiah did not say that. Hananiah gathered all the people and said, "I am going to tell you that you will go back to Jerusalem in two years." The people were happy. Jeremiah had to come and say, "Guess what? It is going to take a lot longer. Guess what? The Lord is still not pleased with you worshiping false gods.
The Lord says to be on your guard against deception, to listen carefully and to listen closely. There are many false prophets today, prophets who claim to proclaim God’s Word but distort the truth, because some of God’s truth is harsh reality--that sin is still sin, that the law condemns us. These men or maybe even women distort the truth because of their own best interests. Paul writes in Romans: "For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they de-ceive the minds of naive people" (ROMANS 16:18). Yes, there are those big mega-churches today, and they put out a message that sounds great to itching ears. The message is that we need to be concerned about this world; we need to be concerned about one another. But all too often they forget that we also need to be concerned about eternity. God’s truth is distorted so that some or very sadly even sometimes very many will not be on their guard and will be lost for time and eternity. So it is all the more important for believers today to be on guard, on guard against deception. Satan is alive and well. He will try to de-ceive the elect if that were possible with signs and miracles and wonders.
Be on your guard against deception, against false prophets who distort the truth. Be on your guard to recognize those who are true prophets, true prophets of God who come to report God’s truth.
II. God’s prophets report God’s truth.
That is how Jeremiah did. He came to report God’s truth and God’s truth said, "Children of Israel, you disobeyed. You are going to face the wrath of God here on earth." If you remember from last week, chapter 20, verse 8, even Jeremiah almost got tired of that message. Jeremiah wrote, "Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and re-proach all day long." Jeremiah had to proclaim judgment because that was the truth. He had to tell the children of Israel and warn them that if they would turn away from God so much and so far that they could lose their eternal salvation.
When Hananiah came and gathered all the people Jeremiah came right after in front of all the peo-ple, he says: 7Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the peo-ple. Jeremiah was not going to make up a message. Jeremiah was not going to hide God’s message. He was not going to forget anyone. He was going to tell everybody everything the Lord had to say. Even though at times he grew weary and tired of proclaiming God’s judgment, yet what does he go on to say? 8From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. We picture Jeremiah standing in front of all the people and saying, "Guess what? My message of judgment is no different than the prophets before." It started al-ready with Moses. Moses predicted disaster and plagues against Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and the Lord carried it out. Isaiah did also. Elijah the prophet did too. Now Jeremiah says, "Guess what? The Lord is carrying out this message of disaster against you." Jeremiah felt alone at times. His friends and his coun-trymen despised Jeremiah. Even the kings did not like the words of the prophet Jeremiah, but Jeremiah came to report God’s truth.
So our text concludes by saying: 9But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true." Jeremiah reminds the people, "You can listen to me and God’s truth, or you can listen to Hananiah and wait two years and see if he is God’s prophet." In two years Hananiah was not God’s prophet. Israel did not return in peace. They were still slaves. It would be more than five years before the children of Israel would return. Then it would not be all of them, because many had died. It is interesting to read the rest of this chapter. We read at this time Jeremiah walked about as a prophet carrying a yoke on his shoulders. This was to show the children of Israel how the Lord was going to put his nation under a yoke. This would be the yoke of king Nebuchad-nezzar. In these verses following our text we find that Hananiah, the false prophet, is so bold that he comes and breaks the yoke off of Jeremiah’s neck. Hananiah says, "See, I am God’s prophet. You will be free—do not listen to Jeremiah." How sad God must have been! Once again Jeremiah simply reported God’s truth, a message the people didn’t want to hear but which was the truth.
You and I know God’s truth. God’s truth isn’t always pleasant to hear. God’s truth reminds us that we are like the children of Israel. Time and time again we disobey. Time and time again we turn away from God. We put our trust in ourselves or someone else or maybe even forget the Lord’s goodness. We are born that way. We are born in this world as sinners, as people who are enemies of God. That is what Scripture reminds us. Listen to the Prophet Isaiah: "All of us (not just a few, not just the bad among us but all includes believers and unbelievers in this world) have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away" (ISAIAH 64:6). That is sin. That is not a message we want to hear, but it is God’s truth, and God’s prophets report God’s truth. It reminds, yes, as we stand before God, we have a life on earth that is filled with sin, so much so that it sweeps us away like the wind, as the wind sweeps away a leaf. No matter what we say or do or think, even all of our righteous acts, which we think are great, are unclean. They are tainted by sin. Everything in this life is tainted by sin. That is God’s truth. (Just read ISAIAH 64:6 again.) We can’t escape it. Oh, we can try to deny it. We can go to a church that might never mention sin or hell, but that is not God’s truth.
What is the importance of knowing that we are sinners? The importance of knowing that we are sinners is coming to realize that we cannot save ourselves. So we turn to the only One who can help. We are reminded to not look to ourselves for salvation, but to someone or something else. That someone or something else you and I know very well: it is our heavenly Father. The prophet Micah says: "Who is a God like you who delights to show compassion?" That’s our God, not vengeful, not judging, but the One who delights to show mercy. This is the absolute opposite of every false god ever invented or imagined. Then he says in 7:19 of Micah: "You (God) will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins un-derfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (MICAH 7:19). Just as we are reminded of the bad news that we are sinners and have sins that sweep us away, so we are told the even better good news that all those sins that the Lord has cast into the depths of the sea and they are covered up. The Lord makes all of our unrighteous acts appear to be righteous acts in God’s Son. This too is God’s great, com-forting truth.
The only way we appreciate God’s Gospel is to begin to understand God’s Law, that we are sin-ners--God’s Law, but we are sinners who are saved--God’s Gospel. The important question is how do we distinguish, how do we begin to understand who is a false prophet or what is not the truth compared to who is God’s prophet and what is God’s truth? That understanding and divine knowledge we discover in God’s Word. In times in our society it might appear as if the preaching and teaching of the purity of the Gospel is not as prevalent as it used to be. We have church leaders who have been put into positions of authority and are bold, so bold that they say Scripture is silent on the teaching of homosexuality. Worse people believe this distortion of truth and the church body believes it and the man is made an official and is himself, a homosexual. Is that God’s truth? When we have thousands of people following such teach-ings, is God’s truth under attack? Certainly. Is this attack something new? Is it something different? No.
Today’s first lesson was 1 KINGS 19:14-21. Read the chapters before and after and you will find an interesting story where Elijah said, "I feel all alone." King Ahab, the king of Israel, had led God’s peo-ple in the worship of Baal, a false god. What did our lesson say? The Lord had to remind Elijah there are still 7,000 people who believe in Israel. Sounds like a lot, but not many compared to the numbers that were there. But you may remember how Elijah stood on the Word of God, and in the end the prophets of Baal were destroyed. God’s truth won out. We get back to how you and I know the difference between God’s truth and not His truth. We have to be familiar with God’s Word.
The Lord Jesus states this fact as he spoke to the scribes and Pharisees, leaders of the church who did not know God’s salvation. They did not recognize the Messiah, Jesus. Jesus told them and reminds us today: "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me" (JOHN 5:39). Only in God’s Word are we going to learn about Christ. Only in God’s Word are we going to be able to rightly, as God puts it in Timothy, handle the word of truth, dividing the Law and the Gospel. We begin by worshiping on Sunday together where we are able to hear God’s word of truth. Then we continue by studying it together in our Bible studies. We con-tinue by reading it in our homes. Jesus says to study thoroughly.
Bit by bit, we begin to perceive and understand how important how God and his message is. God’s message might oppose the attitudes of this world. The truth of God’s word will even oppose church bodies and church leaders in this world. Faithful prophets will report God’s Word, the truth.
Our responsibility is to be on our guard against deception. Believers are to carefully examine those who claim to speak God’s truth but distort the truth as opposed to those who truly speak God’s truth and report God’s truth in its truth and purity. Peter wrote the following when the church was under great persecution and for us: "Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 PETER 1:13). Peter says to look ahead to the time when the Lord Jesus returns. He says from now until that time, "Be self-controlled, be alert, and be on your guard. Be on your guard against false prophets who distort God’s truth and be on your guard to fol-low God’s prophets who report God’s truth. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
