1205. Proclamation Amid Persecution

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville South Carolina were finishing a series from seminary travel title proclaiming the invincible word in the Council culture today speaker is Pastor been better off here. Catch yourself dreaming about something that you're looking forward to what you are and seminary, presumably because you want to be involved in in some kind of pastoral ministry or other ministry in the future, and so let me ask you this question. What are your ministry dreams preach to hundreds or thousands of people to have pioneering mission success to write books speak at conferences baptize dozens or hundreds of people to serve faithfully for 40 or 50 years of the church experience the joy of longevity gospel powered joy filled mission focused, ambitious ministry is is good, and God glorifying someone a Savior from the start of my my goal this morning is not to stamp out that kind of vision or ambition but my text for this morning is Jeremiah 37 and 38 and my topic is proclamation amid persecution.

So I hope that we learned another good and God glorifying truth about ministry this morning because the reality is that will ministry can often be incredibly joy filled it can also be really hard. God willing, this text is gonna lead us to count the cost before stepping into ministry because while you'll experience incredible joy filled moments of ministry.

There also be moments of extreme heartache and discouragement.

Days of accusations, Lord willing, false accusations and days of backstabbing and the question that this text is gonna lead us the answer is this what are you going to do when those days come, how or how will you persevere in the midst of the difficult days of ministry or will you give up as many others have done.

That's what our topic is about this morning from Jeremiah 37 and 38 now these chapters are a low point for Jeremiah whose life was generally filled with low points. These chapters lead us up to what we might call Jerusalem's darkest day we read this at the very end of the text.

Jeremiah 38 verse 28. Listen, this is the very end and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

These are the days in which Jeremiah was proclaiming God's word to God's people now the very beginning of our text gives us what I would call the other dark book and to this couple of chapters were to be looking at this morning so let me read the other dark book and to this text, which comes in chapter 37 verses one into the Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah rained instead of can I the son of joy come, but neither king Zedekiah nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

Imagine stepping into this ministry setting. Volunteers.

This is not generally what are ministry dreams are made of. But let's step into this ministry setting and learn what ministry looks like in the darkest of days. Right here from the start of this text we have an interaction between Zedekiah and Jeremiah. It's the first three interactions in these two chapters and really you could structure these two chapters around these three interactions between Zedekiah and Jeremiah will see them as we go throughout the passage. It's almost like there's this intentional comparison being made between the two and how they respond to the word of Lord let's look at the first one that starts in verse three it says king Zedekiah he sends to men the Jeremiah with this message, please pray for us, to the Lord our God, and then we have this contextual note. Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison. The army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt. And when the Chaldeans were proceeding. Jerusalem heard the news about the Egyptians. They withdrew from Jerusalem.

So we got these three nations. The first is the Chaldeans were proceeding Jerusalem that's the Babylonians we got Jerusalem and then we got Egypt is come up out of Egypt and caused the Babylonians to kind of remove from their remove themselves from their attacking stance against Jerusalem and its in this context that king Zedekiah sends this word to Jeremiah.

Please pray for us, to the Lord our God. Now don't be fooled by this seemingly pious message from Jeremiah we would get back and I could see myself in us thinking well that that's good. Jeremiah is seeking the Lord in this moment that's not what's happening here. We don't we know that's not what's happening because given a really helpful context in verse two, right before were told this message that Zedekiah sends Otis the stance of king Zedekiah is request he sends messengers to God's prophets now who were prophets they were those who would hear from God and speak that word that they had heard from God to God's people will what is Zedekiah come with. He comes with a word for God. Why did he come heat he wanted Jeremiah to appeal to God to get what Zedekiah wanted in the first place. Jeremiah you go to God for us so that we can get rid of these Babylonians, Zedekiah saw Jeremiah Leica like a little magic wand in his hands to get what he wanted. Not only we should pass this point without asking this question. What's your view of God you view God in a small way like Zedekiah who is powerful, but exists to do your good pleasure or do you say with Paul, who has known the mind of the Lord and who has been his counselor.

Your greatest joy in ministry or as a student prepared ministry will come when you can wake up every day and say with joy. You are God and I am not your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in the oven. Now I want you to think about the pressure that Jeremiah would've felt in this he knew it. Zedekiah wanted to hear was he softened the blow a little bit ease ease end of the word of the Lord to Zedekiah knowing what could be the consequences.

Since he knew that Zedekiah in his advisors would not like his word.

Let's see what he says in verse 6 to 10 then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet thus says the Lord God of Israel, thus shall you say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me, behold, Pharaoh's army that came to help. He was about to return to Egypt to its own land in the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against the city, they shall capture it and burn it with fire. Thus says the Lord. Do not deceive yourself saying the Chaldeans will surely go away from us, for they will not go away for even if you should defeat the whole army of the Chaldeans were fighting against you and the remainder of them only wounded men, every man in his tent. They would rise up and burn this city with fire while we have our answer in the midst of this pressure packed moment Jeremiah with clarity and authority speaks the very words of God to Zedekiah and it's here at the start of this text that we learn that the center of our proclamation as ministers of God must be the very word of God to be faithful in the darkest days of ministry than than the center of our proclamation must be the very word of God. The contract between Zedekiah and Jeremiah. At this point couldn't be more clear. Zedekiah came wanting an affirmation of his own words. Jeremiah on the hamper claim to the word of the Lord even though he knew it was not going to be well received by the king and his advisors. God's word must be the center of our proclamation. So me ask you to whose words are you most committed. We minister and in a much different setting from Jeremiah but the the cultural pressures and the temptations to care more about the words of those around us than we do about the words of God that those pressures and temptations are no different. So when your close friend turns agnostic and through personal interactions or through his social media post makes you feel like an idiot for continuing to believe what you believe whose words are going to be most important to you in that moment when you're in a church helping lead a church to a more biblical position in a given area of church life and the wealthiest member of your church comes to you and explains his concerns and conspicuously includes know if I can even continue into church like this that would change in this way whose words are to be most important to you in that moment the work of ministry is filled with these kinds of pressures and there's only one word that does not change, and it's the word of God, so God's word is invincible and in alterable word must be the center of our proclamation.

So if you want to be a faithful pastor a faithful ministers missed minister of God, and preach God's word alone, not your preferences not your pet peeves, not your preferred political policies, not your personal conscience on secondary issues that Scripture does not directly address preach God's word let that let his word.

Fill your preaching and teaching God's word must be the center of our proclamation as pastors and ministers now as you might imagine, if you preach God's word alone.

It can come with a cost and we learn this in the life of Jeremiah Maria see this now as we turn to look at the substance of our persecution.

Note, for the sake of time. Our text is fairly large this morning.

Emma summarized some of what happens next versus 11 to 15 of chapter 37 Jeremiah tries to leave Jerusalem to go receive a plot of land.

This is during the time in the Babylonians of Ghana remove themselves from their attacking stance is going to receive this and when he gets to the gate someone stops them and falsely accuses him of deserting the Babylonians they had heard his message that that the Babylonians were to defeat Jerusalem and so there he he falsely accuses Jeremiah of deserting to them since he knows that in the wind.

Or, since that's his message. Jeremiah says that's not true that's not what I'm doing but here's the result of this in verse 15 and the officials were enraged at Jeremiah and they beat him and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan, the secretary freighted and made a prison so here we learn proclamation of God's word is not always good to be met with joyful acceptance. Sometimes it's gonna be met with stubborn resistance or told in verse 16 that Jeremiah stayed locked up for many days and then in 16 to 21 King Zedekiah sends for Jeremiah again so this is now the second interaction between Zedekiah and Jeremiah and it says that he calls to talk to Jeremiah and private not come back to that point in a minute but look at what he says to Jeremiah in verse 17 can almost see them leaning in to ask Jeremiah. This is there any word from the Lord.

Hold on a second Zedekiah serious. Have we been through this already. Maybe Zedekiah it seems that some time spent in the dungeon will of softened Jeremiah up a little bit. Either way, Jeremiah is once again clear and authoritative in his answer. I love the way this is written, you can almost see them leaning in back to answer Zedekiah.

There is your to be delivered in the hand of the king of Babylon set as see Dave before I don't think we should breeze past this and lose the impact of this Jeremiah had been falsely accused and they put into the dungeon for what we are told as many days, and yet his message does not change throughout ministry. You may be tempted to think that there is safety for yourself and softening or adjusting a little bit God's word, especially in private conversations. Notice that King Zedekiah calls to talk to him in private. Is it worth it to to soften what God's word says or to adjusted ever so slightly, so that the person that I'm sitting in front of his and gonna take it too hard. Is it worth it to an order in order that make them not be quite as frustrated with me the evil one would try to make you think it is. But it's never safe to sacrifice truth on the altar of pragmatism as Jeremiah's life beautifully displays if you going to read in chapter 39 that encourage you to do that after when I can take the time to look there, but is likely beautifully displays this truth, but this is not the end of the mistreatment. The Jeremiah suffers in verses 1 to 6 of chapter 38. Some of the kings officials they they've had enough they had enough of Jeremiah and his message so they come to the king may say listen. We've got to get rid of Jeremiah he needs to be killed for what he's saying is make he's making everybody fearful by saying that the Babylonians or to the fetus is weakening everybody's knees by his message.

We gotta get rid of them.

In the end Zedekiah displaying more of his character says to them, why can't stop you you you guys do what you need to do on the bike. I can't do anything stop you.

So they take Jeremiah and they throw him into a cistern in order to kill him. It says that he sinks down into the mud when they throw them in. This is probably Jeremiah's lowest point no one appoints point out something here about the persecution the mistreatment that we been saying.

Maybe you notice that I haven't sent it yet but but I think it's there and I think it's important.

An important point to notice as we look at what what is this mistreatment that your mind is experiencing its in these chapters, where is this persecution coming from, from the Babylonians. Note that in this text, the persecution, the mistreatment that Jeremiah is experiencing is coming from God's people. We may be most often think of persecution mistreatment is coming from the world around us, who rejects our message and tries to steal away our religious freedoms, and that is true there is persecution that comes externally, but this text points us to another reality that the substance of our mistreatment and persecution often comes from the visible people of God again while we live in a different culture can be the same for us.

It the form of a previously faithful member of your church returns on you because of something and and ends up spreading lies and gossip about you. Among the other members of the church you could be accused in your history of of not doing enough for people even though even though you know that your sacrificing your time and energy in trying to faithfully minister where God has placed you know, let me pause and make just one qualifying statement here. There are many people in ministry who have been and who will be justly accused of wrongdoing. That's a reality. And when that happens than it should be handled according to what God is clearly revealed in his word in first Timothy 519 and 20.

That happens but this text is addressing false accusations because persecution mistreatment our reality both both externally and sometimes what might even be more difficult internally in the church and so the question is that this passage is leaving us with is what are you gonna do what's gonna keep you persevering in great in the midst of those dark moments, what helps you persevere and so let's look at this. Next, the source of our pure perseverance. First of all let's let's keep working through this text and Britt let me let me summarize again in verses 7 to 13 of chapter 38. Somewhat surprisingly, and yet I think intentionally, God uses the compassion of a foreigner in Ethiopian named Ed Melick to rescue Jeremiah from the cistern risking his life. Vanilla goes to the king, and he calls out the other men for what they did wrong.

Think about what he must've feared doing that what might happen to him when the advisors find out that he's calling them out. He goes to the king, he calls out the other men for what they did wrong. He asks permission to help Jeremiah and and someone amazingly, the king tells him that he can help out Jeremiah that he see the emphasis here, the sin of God's people is highlighted by their persecuting of God's prophet and yet the steadfast love, the glories of God's steadfast love are displayed by rescuing his profit at the hands of a foreigner. Isn't this the way God works. God loves to pour out his love, his steadfast love and his grace at times that we least expect it, and in ways that we least expect it like a foreigner rescuing his profit from a cistern that he was thrown into by his own people or a Savior who was crucified for those that he's coming to save lotteries brought out of the cistern, Zedekiah sends for Jeremiah 3rd time now, as you might imagine, by this point, we know the message that Jeremiah has for King Zedekiah in this in this portion of the tax tease you can you can feel Jeremiah pleading with the king than the words that God has spoken. There's one glaring omission in all of Zedekiah's actions we heard about in verse two. It prepared us for what was to come. He does not listen to God's word of the contrast between King Zedekiah and Jeremiah could not be clear, Jeremiah, amid persecution and mistreatment holds fast to God's word. While King Zedekiah in the comfort of his palace fails to listen to God's word, and so it leaves us with this question that were still waiting to answer what keeps us persevering in the midst of this what Jeremiah persevering in the midst of this, what kept him from giving up. There were many days in these chapters were Jeremiah was in a dungeon or knee-deep in the muck of it cistern what Capt. persevering while I don't think were given a clear answer in this text. I do believe were given a clear answer and another text that Jeremiah wrote around this time. That's the book of Lamentations and limitations. Jeremiah laments over this period of time leading up to and during the destruction of Jerusalem, which is the same time period of our text and Lamentations 3, Jeremiah gets personal. He says some things that that we went when he says that we recall some of the things that we just heard in Jeremiah 3738 listen to jet Lamentations 3 verses one into Jeremiah says listen I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath.

He is driven and brought me into darkness without any light shortly against me, he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.

Verse 14 he says this I have become the laughing stock of all people. The object of their taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness and he stated me with wormwood selling Jeremiah 37 and 38.

But there's a turn a couple of verses later, just six verses later in Lamentations 3 we read this in verse 21 but this I call to mind and therefore I have hope this steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul therefore I will hope in him. Jeremiah persevered, not just because he knew he was speaking the word of the Lord because he knew the Lord of the word that he was speaking, Jeremiah persevered, not just because he knew that he was speaking the word of the Lord, but because he knew the Lord of the word that he was speaking he he persevered and he didn't give up because he had a living relationship with God. You can see him in these verses and Lamentations in the moments of deep darkness, reminding themselves, calling to mind what he knew to be true about his God. Verse 24 he is. His soul is speaking to himself and reminding himself about of what he knows to be true so in the midst of persecution mistreatment the source of our perseverance is our living and active relationship with God.

If you try to minister now or in the future. Apart from a living and active relationship with God you will give up.

So that's my final exhortation to you this morning. Let God's presence and promises and provisions for you in the gospel, revealed in his word to ground you and hope and fill you with joy and perseverance in the midst of your darkest days they might hear what I just said and think they perseverance I get, but Charlie joy in the darkest of days. Reason I'm saying that is because of something. Jesus says in the New Testament in a text that I think is intentionally linked to this one. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 511 and 12.

Listen to this blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and do all manner of evil against you falsely on my account here this rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Jeremiah is now experiencing the joy of his reward in heaven and one day by God's grace, so too will we must pray. Father, we thank you for your invincible and in alterable word may my brothers and sisters here be fully and completely committed to this word in the midst of the darkest days that will come along with days of joy in the midst of their darkest days.

Let them turn to their relationship with you and remind themselves of what they know to be true because of what you have revealed to us in your work. Let it be a rock for them and anchor for their souls.

The darkest of days. In Jesus name them.

You've been listening to a message preached by Pastor Ben Fedorov of Hampton Park Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, and this concludes a seminary series from Jeremiah join us again next time for another sermon from the Bob Jones University travel platform