God Sends a Letter to The Leaders of His People | Jeremiah 29 | Pastor William Hixson

Okay. Um,

we are continuing our study of the book

of Jeremiah. And it's a long journey.

Uh, we've been going chapter by chapter.

And as we move through this book, we are

now in chapter 29.

Chapter 29.

And this is a long chapter.

It's a long chapter.

It's a It's a interesting, fascinating

chapter, but it is a long chapter.

And so, let's get started. We'll read

some of it and then we'll stop and read

the rest later.

Chapter 29. Now, these are the words of

the letter

that Jeremiah the prophet sent from

Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders

who were carried away captives and to

the priests and to the prophets and to

all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had

carried away captive from Jerusalem to

Babylon. Everybody with me? Jeremiah

Jeremiah 29:1

29:1.

So Jeremiah is not only

content to have a ministry in Jerusalem.

He realizes a lot of people from

Jerusalem and Judea have been taken

captive into Babylon and he feels a

responsibility for them as well.

There's the old saying, God bless us for

and no more. Some people don't have a

vision beyond themselves or their family

or maybe their local church. That's

their vision. It doesn't get bigger. It

doesn't have a greater uh the circles

don't get wider than that. That wasn't

that wasn't Jeremiah and it wasn't God.

This was a prophecy given through

Jeremiah

the prophet and he spent most of his

life in Jerusalem ministering to people

in Jerusalem. That was his place of

ministry. But if you remember in

Jeremiah 1, he's also a prophet to the

nations.

So God told him from the very beginning

six, chapter 1 verse 6-10 that he would

have an international ministry.

It's an interesting thing. Let's see it

in verse two. after Jeconiah the king

and the queen and the unix and the

priests of Judah and Jerusalem and the

craftsmen and the smiths were departed

from Jerusalem. What happened in the

exile? The people who were talented, the

people who had artistic or uh any kind

of ability to build something or make

something

to contribute to the beautifying of

Babylon, they took captive. The people

were lowkilled or had almost no ability.

they left.

So Jeremiah lost a lot of his more

valuable people in the sense of ability

and talent and uh and he kind of was

left with the leftovers there. Now, not

everybody has these exceptional skills,

but it doesn't mean these people that

were left were couldn't do anything. But

it does mean that they had the

Babylonians handpicked the people they

wanted to bring back to Babylon. And

they did it on the basis of ability, IQ.

They didn't have IQ tests in those days,

but our people who have high high

intelligence or or serious ability to

help beautify the city of Babylon will

take them. and the rest can stay here

and rot.

So that was what was going on.

So Jeremiah is writing to these folks,

do we care about people that are no

longer with us?

Churches have turnover. Churches in

Athens have a lot of turnover.

Uh

how about people that leave the area? Is

it out of sight, out of mind?

[clears throat]

For many of us, it can be.

And it doesn't mean we should cling to

them as if we want to be over them the

rest of their lives, but it does mean we

should care for them and minister to

them. I'm on the phone with people all

the time that have left this church.

They're they're living somewhere else,

another city, another state, another

country.

>> [clears throat]

>> And so, uh, Jeremiah had a vision beyond

the local people that were still in

front of him.

And that's a good thing. That's not a

bad thing. It's it's it's I' I've

noticed something about the missionaries

in Gospel Mission of South America. Some

people are really good at just putting

their head down and working for years in

one place and they're they seem very

happy doing that and they're really good

at doing that and they're just focused

there. Other people can focus where they

are and also think ahead and think about

people in other places. They get a they

just have a wider field of vision. It's

a God-given ability,

I believe.

And and so Jeremiah was one of those

folks, I believe, with a Godgiven

ability. And God told him he's going to

be a prophet to the nations. And so if

you're going to do that, you better have

a a linguistic ability and a dilated

heart for people very different than

yourself.

And Jeremiah had that. And God gave it

to him. I want you to hold your place

and go back to Jeremiah 1 and see this

in Jeremiah 1.

In verse five,

right out of the shoot,

God tells him, "Before I formed thee in

the womb, I knew thee. And before thou

camest forth out of the womb, I sanctify

thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto

what?

The nations.

So God told him at the very beginning,

you're going to have an international

ministry.

[clears throat] That's what he basically

said. And then said, I Lord, behold, I

can't speak. I'm a I'm an R. I'm a

youth. I I I'm too immature. I'm not

ready for some assignment like that. But

God said to me, "Say not, I'm a child,

for you shall go to all that I'll send

thee, and whatever I command thee,

you'll you shall speak. Be not afraid of

their faces, for I'm with thee to

deliver thee, says the Lord." And the

Lord put forth his hand, touched my

mouth, and the Lord said, "Behold, I put

my words in your mouth. See, I've set

thee over nations and over kingdoms to

root out, to pull down, to destroy, to

throw down, to build, and to plant.

How's Jeremiah going to do that? With

armies? No, he's a prophet.

He's going to do it with words.

[clears throat] Very interesting.

So God tells Jeremiah, "You're going to

stir stuff up.

I am here to use you not only locally

but internationally.

Now all prophets had something to say to

the Gentiles pretty much. You can go to

the different prophets Amos and Isaiah

and uh and you know different prophets.

They had a ministry beyond their own

borders. But Jeremiah especially so

especially so.

and uh he had a a vision. It was a

God-given vision. Now, not every

Christian, not every local church in the

2,000 years of church history have had

the privilege of directly or personally

ministering to people beyond their local

borders. A lot of churches are out in

the middle of nowhere. Uh they have been

a pastor in Illinois. He said, "Uh, some

of my people got to drive three miles to

get to their mailbox. They're

out there in Iowa, Illinois. They got a

big ranch. They got growing corn.

They're or or whatever they're growing

and they're driving miles to get to

their mailbox, let alone try and see

somebody else.

And that that was an interesting

ministry. It was an interesting comment.

I remembered that. He told me that 20

years ago. I still retained it.

So there are [clears throat] good

churches in places that basically their

ministry is going to be a local

ministry,

but you know there have been a lot of

farmers kids that gone to the mission

field.

So you never know.

Sometimes you have an international

ministry not because you're going

yourself because your local assembly is

become a factory for [clears throat]

missionaries.

I think Athens Bible Church has been

that

because of our particular place in Ohio.

A lot of interaction with international

students and a lot of abil a lot of

people leave here and go do bigger

things somewhere else after they leave.

That's not a bad thing. That's a good

thing. And so Jeremiah embraced this and

here he's embracing it.

Um,

and uh, he his ministry isn't going to

be limited to Jewish people. He will

have people that are geographically

distant and linguistically different and

no doubt somewhat racially different.

He's going to be a prophet to the

nations.

And God told him that at the beginning.

This is what I've got you to do.

So the prophet Jere Jeremiah for a had a

very at the very beginning of his

ministry had an explicit commission from

God to be a prophet not just to his own

nation but to people from other nations.

Guess what? The whole church of Jesus

Christ, the whole church of Jesus Christ

has got that same commission.

We are to have an outlook beyond

ourselves,

beyond God bless us for and no more.

And so that's the picture. Now, if we

would turn, and I'm not going to do it

right now, but if you would go,

[clears throat] if you read through the

book of Jeremiah and you get to chapter

46 to 52, the last chapters of the book,

it's all gentile nations.

It's all messages to gentile nations.

You want to hear some of them? He gave

direct messages. They get a chapter or

two or three or four. Egypt, Philistia,

Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Khedar,

Hezor, Elam, and then finally Babylon.

So, it's all 42 uh chapter 42 and

following. It's all that.

And when Jeremiah was about 70 years

old, he and Baroo were carried to Egypt.

So here's an interesting fellow. He's

not there's nothing parochial about

Jeremiah even though he grew up in a

little town. His old his own hometown

rejected him like Jesus's little

hometown rejected him. But he spent his

adult life in Jerus city of Jerusalem at

a very hard time in history.

[clears throat]

Uh but he had a ministry to people

outside his own nation. And you can

either do that directly or indirectly.

You can do it directly by going to those

places or you can do it indirectly by

discipling people who will go.

I wanted to go to Asia. Everybody in our

church knows that I wanted to go to

Asia. That was my dream. God put me here

and then brought Asia to me and we

okay that's different.

We weren't here but a couple of months.

We started praying for Chinese students

to come to a Ohio University and in two

months they started applying and came.

The university owes us.

>> We're the ones that prayed him to get in

here. And so uh now of course that

that's drying up but but you know

there's a time for every purpose under

heaven.

And so maybe it'll be Muslim ministry

next for the next people that are here.

Who knows?

But God, Athens is unique. It's a little

town where people from all over the

world come to go to school and then they

scatter to the wind.

So that's the picture here. Now Jeremiah

uh is one of my favorite prophets

because of I relate to him because my

own life in somehow relates to his

because he had a a ministry that in a

special sense was focused on Jews in

other places and Gentiles in other

places. Now let's get our Bible history.

In 605

BC,

[clears throat] there was the first

deportation of Jews. Daniel went with

them.

Daniel went with them. And the book of

Daniel records Daniel in Babylon as a

young man. He went with them 605 BC. And

so did the vessels from the temple. In

597, there was a second

deportation. And Ezekiel went

So God was doing something interesting

there. And of course the third and final

one was 586. That's when Jerusalem was

destroyed. The temple was destroyed and

every he either went to Egypt, he went

to Babylon. And just the uh more very

very common people they allowed to stay

there. So 586 was the third deportation.

586.

So chapter

chapter uh chapter 29 of Jeremiah

who is written probably about 597

during the second. And so the strange

thing the really strange thing false

prophets got deported

but they kept their message. This is

bizarre.

When they get deported, it's kind of

obvious who was right and who was wrong.

But they stick with it in Babylon. And

then they start prophesying, "We're

going to be back. It won't be too long."

And remember that that false prophet

said two years they'll all be back. And

he died for that. Two months he was

dead.

And so Jeremiah said, "Forget the two

years. You're not even going to live out

the two years yourself, let alone see

the people come back in two months he

died. We saw that earlier.

So what a fascinating business all of

this is.

And he probably put this letter in

what's many Bible scholars believe it in

the in their equivalent of a diplomatic

pouch to ensure its arrival. But let's

go down and read some more of it. Uh, I

don't remember where I stopped off, but

in verse four, I'll I'll start there.

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,

to all who are carried away captives,

whom I have caused to be carried away

from Jerusalem to Babylon. This is a

surprise.

This is a surprise.

Remember that comic in the on the

television in the 1960s? Surprise,

surprise, surprise. Well, this is the

surprise. They didn't expect God to tell

them this.

Build yourself houses.

He's talking to the Jews in Babylon.

This isn't going to be temporary.

Now, if you're going to be in in Athens

for two more years and then gone, you're

not likely to build a new house before

you go.

When you're building a house, it's

because I'm going to be here for a

while.

Build your house. Build yourselves

houses. Dwell in them. plant gardens and

eat the fruit of them. Settle down.

You're not going to get back in two

years.

Take to yourselves wives and begget sons

and daughters. Take wives for your sons

and give your daughters to husbands that

they may bear sons and daughters that

you may be increased there and not

diminished. Get married, have children,

have grandchildren cuz you're not coming

back in two years.

you're going to be there.

So, reset your mind

about your life

and seek the peace of the city to which

I've called you to be carried away

captives and pray to the Lord for it,

not against it. For it, for in its peace

shall you have peace. That' be very easy

to pray against it. You know, destroy

these people. They destroyed our city.

They destroyed our country. They

destroyed us. Took us in captivity. Uh

he said, "Pray for them."

You know, if God sends you someplace,

you should look at that place as a place

of ministry.

If God sends me to the hospital, I'm

going to say, "I guess I got a new

hospital ministry."

If God sends me to a cancer work, okay,

I got a new cancer work ministry.

There's people here that God wants me to

minister to. When I go to the hospital,

I have a standard practice, and some

people don't do this. I carry the big

Bible.

I carry a big Bible. I got a little

Bible in my car. But if I'm in the

nursing home or the hospital, I carry a

big Bible. You say, "Pastor, what do you

do trying to show off?"

Who do you think you are carrying a big

Bible around? [clears throat] I carry a

big Bible around so when I walk down the

hall, people know who I am. There goes a

preacher and they might call to me and

say, "Hey, come over here. Read me

something." And they've done that.

So, I carry a big Bible for a reason. I

want a telegraph. I'm there to minister

and I'm available. And not all the time,

but every once in a while, I get

somebody ask me to come in.

If I had a little Bible hide hidden

under my coat or something, they

wouldn't know that. They wouldn't know

who I was. So, I don't have a priest

collar.

I'm not a nun. I'm not a I'm not a

priest. I can't advertise my who I am

that way. Uh but I can by carrying the

Bible. Why do I do that? Because I'm not

just interested in the people I'm going

to visit that I know that are there. I'm

interested in the people that are there

that I don't know.

And that's how we should look at our uh

the different things in life.

And

we don't know where God's going to take

us in life.

And wherever that is, that's a place for

ministry.

It's a place for ministry.

And uh I think that we should look at

life that way. And that's what Jeremiah

is saying. Settle down. Have your kids.

Have your grandkids. This is going to be

longer than you think.

They're telling you two years. Not going

to be two years. 70 is more like it.

Seven. There's a difference between two

years and 70 years. If the doctor tells

you you've got two years to live, well,

that's not very long. You just, you

know, that would circumscribe your life

and you say, "Okay, I got two years, so

I I I I better make not make any long

range plans of getting a doctorate or,

you know, it cuts cuts down the

possibilities."

But what if he says you got 70 years to

live? Well,

you know, that's a little different.

So that's exactly what that was going on

here in this particular situation.

And uh and I love that verse 7. Seek the

peace of the city to which I've caused

you to be carried away captives and pray

to the Lord for it. Not that God would

destroy it, but God would uh give you a

blessing and a ministry there. For in

its peace shall you have peace.

For thus says the Lord of hosts of

Israel, let not your prophets and your

divers who are in the midst of you

deceive you,

neither hearken to their dreams which

you you cause to be dreamed. They

prophesy falsely to you in my name. I

have not sent them, says the Lord. I

have not sent them. They say they're

from me, but they're not.

I have not sent them.

For thus says the Lord, after 70 years

are accomplished, verse 10, at Babylon,

I will visit you and perform my good

word toward you in causing you to return

even to this place. You are coming back.

You are coming back either personally or

in your children or grandchildren.

You're not going to stay there. You are

coming back. For I know the thoughts

that I have toward you, says the Lord,

thoughts of peace and not evil, to give

you an expected end. Then shall you call

on me, and you'll walk, and you shall go

and pray to me, and I'll hearken to you,

and you shall seek me and find me when

you search me with all your heart, and

I'll be found by you, says the Lord, and

I'll turn away your captivity, and I'll

gather you from all the nations, not

just Babylon, all the Gentile nations,

and from all the places to which I've

driven you, says the Lord, and I will

bring you again into the place from

which I've caused you to be carried away

captive.

because you've said the Lord has raised

us up prophets in Babylon. Know that

thus says the Lord, the king that sits

on the throne of David and of all the

people that dwell in this city uh and of

your brethren that are not going forth

with you into captivity. Thus says the

Lord of hosts, "Behold, I will send upon

them the sword, famine, pestilence, and

will make them like vile figs that can't

be eaten. They're so bad. You know what

he just said? You're in exile. You think

you got it bad.

The people that really got it bad are

the people that didn't go to exile.

They're really going to get it.

So, you have a blessing that you didn't

know that you had. To be exiled is to be

in better shape than to be not exiled.

How about that? Everyone's under

judgment. Everyone's under chastisement,

but the ones that are left are going to

be corrupted by the false prophets in

Jerusalem, and I'm going to deal with

them very harshly. You're going to have

it real good compared to the others.

Now, think about if you were living in

that day. These people are exiled. You,

they go to Babylon, you think, "Boy,

glad I missed that. I'm still here." And

then God pulls this on you.

Yeah, you're still here.

But you're following false prophets and

you're going to get it and it's going to

be worse for you than the people already

left.

The future is not with the ones that

stay. The future is with those that go

or have already gone.

This is a shocking prophecy.

Just a shocking prophecy.

And [clears throat] uh so you know what

was Jeremiah trying to accomplish by

this letter? You don't write letters for

no reason.

One, he was ex trying to explode false

hopes of the Jewish exiles away in the

city of Babylon. You got a false hope.

It's better for false hopes to be

exploded so you can have a true hope.

Isn't that true? You hope to get a job

and you're hoping for that job. Oh, I

want that job. I think that that's going

to be where I'm going to be. I want that

job. and then you don't get that job.

Okay, that was a false hope. You were

sincere, but you had a false hope. Well,

now you can look around for where God

wants you to work cuz you're just not

there because you didn't get the job.

So, all people everywhere are good at

embracing false hope. Everybody has

manufactured fantasies of a future

that'll never be. These people did back

then.

Let me give you some manufactured

fantasies.

Cultural Marxism

is a man manufactured fantasy

that's infecting the United States. It's

ruined California. It's ruined Illinois.

It's ruined New York. It's a real real

danger.

And it's seeking to drive the policy of

our whole nation.

Cultural Marxism is a fantasy land you

of utopia strategically invented in the

1930s to take over the west.

Bunch of German philosophers invented it

because they realized classical Marxism

which I learned in the 60s would never

become successful in America.

America's too prosperous.

So they invented cultural Marxism.

They cabbage together a bunch of people

that were going to be these people are

the afflicted ones, the women and the

Indians and the uh you know all and the

blacks and the every everybody but the

American white man. They're the bad guy.

That's all manufactured. That's what's

been taught in our school system for

many, many years.

So, cultural Marxism is doing its best

to overtake the West and they've

certainly done an interesting job of

trying to overtake New York City

and California.

The religion of Islam is the same. A

fantasy god, a fantasy prophet.

uh and they they

they try to connect with the Jews and

the Christians, but they always they

say, "Well, the Jews wrote the Old

Testament, but it's corrupt." And the

Christians wrote the New Testament, but

it's corrupt. And we got the real thing

in the Quran.

I got to point out Allah is not God. And

Muhammad was a false prophet. Just that

fact. It's just that clear. It's a false

false hope.

And so those are some of the current

false hopes that are being promoted in

our world.

And many are killing other people

because they're driven by false hopes.

Many are dying for these false hopes

that they believe they're justified to

live for and die for and even kill for.

In Jeremiah's day, the false prophets in

Babylon and in Jerusalem were

proclaiming false hopes.

I love the word hope,

but false hopes are dangerous.

I don't want the doctor to give me some

false hope.

I don't want my politicians giving me

false hope, whether it's Democrat or

Republican or independent.

There's a lot of that going around,

right? Elect me and this is what's going

to happen.

If you want to know about false hopes,

just listen to the politicians in

America.

But

I certainly don't want religious false

hopes.

That's the most dangerous.

And so the prophet Jeremiah was dealing

with false prophets near and false

prophets afar.

We saw what happened to that one false

prophet who said, "We're going to

they're going to come back in two

years." Well, he only lasted two months

and he died. And now Jeremiah, they got

rid of him. Now he's going to talk care

take care of God judged that.

How embarrassing false prophets are.

They I know Al Gore wasn't a prophet,

but he did embarrass himself. He set

dates. He set dates for climate change

that was going to ruin America. Those

dates have come and gone.

What's he look like now?

Hope he's embarrassed. I don't know if

he has sense enough to be embarrassed,

but I hope he is. But anybody, any

politician or any prophet or any pastor

that gives false hopes to people based

on a false teaching, [clears throat]

I don't know what to say about it. They

deserve honey all the ignaminy that

people can give him.

Haniah's death should have given

everybody pause,

but it didn't. These guys are still

going strong in Babylon.

And it got quiet in Jerusalem for a

while. But these were going strong in

Babylon.

So the letter is sent 597 to the exiles

a thousand miles away. And because

Jeremiah knew who they were, Hananiah

died in 593. The letter was sent in 597,

four years later, uh, and so forth. And,

uh, of course, the letter was sent first

and then Haniah died. By the way, we're

going a little backwards in the

chronology. It's a flashback in Jeremiah

at this point.

And Jeremiah's fighting false pros

abroad and at home. Nothing personal.

It's not a personality conflict. is

spiritual warfare

and the cancer

of false prophecy had metastasized

from Jerusalem

to battle

and Jeremiah knew it did he excuse me

Jeremiah knew it knew it he knew it

so what's going on here in verses 4 to7

Jeremiah is exploding false hopes. In

verses 8 to9, he's exposing false

prophets. In verses 5 and six, he's

exhorting the foreign exiles. Forget

that two-year prophecy lie. It's going

to be 70. Hear me. 70. Their math is off

cuz they're off. They don't know what

they're doing. They have no revelation

of God.

Now, 70 years in the Bible is a normal

lifetime, right? Psalm 90,

three score and seven. And if four

scores, labor and sorrow. You can get

beyond 70, but you get beyond 70, it

gets life gets hard. Some people never

make it to seven.

So settle down, build houses, plant

gardens, have children,

uh, and live your life because you're

not coming back. So get used to it.

Settle down.

Seek peace for the city. Don't try to

overthrow it. Don't try to escape it.

seek peace for the city that you're in.

You know, God's in charge of where we

live.

You ever think about that? Not just when

we were born, but where we live.

And sometimes we dream, "Oh, if I could

always be somewhere else, I'd be happy."

Well,

maybe.

But that's not necessarily true, right?

I know. I believe sometimes people do

need to make a change, and we're allowed

to do that in life. Thank God. But uh

you know, God's in control

of every place you've ever lived.

We would never have known about this

property coming up for sale if I hadn't

lived over on Hartman Road.

I lived there before we got this

property.

And I walked down the street. We were

looking for property for years. I mean

years. We looked for property to build

church. couldn't find it.

One day I took a walk, walked up Hartman

Road there. That driveway comes down to

Post and right in front of our driveway

and I looked over and there's a for sale

sign on a cornfield. A 40 acre cornfield

was for sale. I had never saw any flat

ground in Athens for sale ever in the

years I had been there.

So I contacted the realtor

and he he said and then I contacted my

elderboard and then we talked about it

and we found out that this cornfield was

for sale. Who it was for sale for this?

All this was a cornfield

and uh we also found out it would take

$60,000 which was a lot of money back in

1980.

It's a lot of money now. It would cost

$60,000 for us to extend the sewer down

here. So, that was a wait a minute. We

better think about this.

And to talk to the realtor and found out

the apartments over there, bought that

that corner.

And

we got an easement across to their

property from here so we could run our

sewer line into their sewer line.

And I said, "If they buy, we'll buy."

Well, they bought and we bought.

All of a sudden, the door opened up.

There was nothing. I'm embarrassed at

the properties we looked at. I'm I'm

embarrassed to even tell you some of the

property. We were getting so desperate.

But but God had a purpose in waiting.

And maybe you want something to happen

and it's not happening. God's got a

purpose when it doesn't happen.

And so God's in charge of all the time

frames of our life.

Thank God for that. We're not driving.

My wife loves to drive and I I'm okay

with that. But if she's driving, I have

to submit to her driving. Not only in

the she's a very good driver, but I have

to submit the way she wants to go.

And we don't always agree on that.

So if I'm driving, I go the way I want

to go. She's driving, she goes the way

she wants to go. Whether it's the

airport in Columbus or whether it's

Chilikafi or or whether it's Salem Bible

Church, we go different ways.

Most of the time I find out her way is

best, but I still like my own way.

So what's Jeremiah doing here? He's

encouraging people who are not really

wanting to be there, who are very

vulnerable to the teaching that says

you're not going to be here very long.

Don't waste your time listening to these

wast don't waste two years to find out

if this false prophecy is going to be

true. Get married, have kids, uh get

busy

with your life, settle down. It's going

to be seven.

Carolyn Dalich on this chapter said

although I God says although I appoint a

long term for the fulfillment of the

plan of redemption that's national

redempt political redemption yet fear

not that I've totally rejected you I

know well what my desire is in your

regard

absolutely right we think because we

don't get what we want when we want it

that somehow God doesn't care that's a

big mistake

if it was good for us to have us, we'd

have it.

If God wants us to wait, it's better

that we wait. If God wants us to not

have it, it's better we don't get it.

So Jeremiah is denouncing false hopes

and defining a genuine hope that's true.

Philip Reagan said, "God wanted his

people to go about their business as

usual despite the fact they were living

in a godless city. He wanted them to

lead normal lives. Furthermore, he

wanted them to build for the future.

Got to be there 70 years. Settle down.

Very important stuff.

One one person entitled this chapter

chasened but content.

They were in Babylon for discipline. The

discipline was going to last longer than

they wanted it to last. hastened but

content.

We don't get to choose how long the

discipline lasts.

I didn't get to choose that. How many

wax my mom would give me or my dad. I

didn't I didn't I didn't get to choose

uh if my dad said if you mess up this

week, I'm going to take the car keys

away from you and you can't you can't go

to that car race. You can't go on that

date because you don't have a car.

That worked better than spankings. I

want to tell you any

but I lost the car about every Friday

before the week was out. Not all the

time. Had to cancel plans.

So,

uh the the he's reminding him it's not

truth or consequences. It's truth and

consequences. You're you're eating at

the table of consequences. As John St.

Swain says, you don't like the meal and

this is the truth.

So

take the correction.

Now ultimately they started to return in

538 under Zerubbable there was a first

return in 558 under Ezra there was

another return and then there was the

other last return in the Bible 432 under

Nehemiah there were stages in coming

back and some went some stayed and then

some more went and some more stayed and

then some more went.

So, but God had a purpose in all of

that.

And God wanted them to be good witnesses

where they were until they left.

God helped me to be a good witness in

the dentist's office.

God helped me to be a good witness in

the doctor's office. Don't really like

to be in any of those places.

God help me to be a good witness if I'm

have to be someplace I don't want to be.

My job is to be a witness wherever I am

at. Lord, don't let me forget this. I

need to be a testimony here. So, how

should I conduct myself to be a good

testimony?

And that's a good thing to remember,

isn't it?

Warren Wearsby said, "Jeremiah wanted

them to be good witnesses to the

Babylonians. He also wanted them to be

good Jews even though they were

separated from the temple in its

service.

Now,

well, I'll tell you a real test is when

you're out of the home, you're away from

your Christian parents, you're away from

your local church, you're out there by

yourself. Now, what are you going to do?

Satan's whispering in your ear. Now,

what are you going to do?

And so may God help us to accept hard

situations courageously, put ourselves

in the hands of God who makes no

mistakes.

Our Christian responsibilities are to be

embraced even when we're away from home.

Even when we're on vacation,

I try to worship when we're on vacation.

And we don't always find a church.

Sometimes we just have to have a little

time by oursel as a family. But Sunday

is still the Lord's day.

And I'm not going to go to apostate

church or some kind of wrong church just

to say I've been to church. But if I can

find a good church, I want to find it.

And we're never to leave our

Christianity behind.

We're always have the uniform on.

And uh even if we're under correction or

even if our country's under correction,

America may be in for some big

correction,

our local churches sometimes are under

correction. Our families are under

correction. We're under correction. And

we say, [clears throat] "I didn't sign

up for this. This is hard. I want to be

out of here." They don't last as long as

God wants it to last.

Now, not all the exiles were idoltors.

Some of them were faithful servants of

the Lord.

Daniel,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneo,

but they were in trouble because of

somebody else's sin, not necessarily

their own. But that's part of God's

providence, too, isn't it?

How many people have been in a marriage

that went south and they didn't want

that to happen,

but their mate did? How many people

business went broke? They didn't want

that to happen but their partner did

[clears throat] and they live with it.

Somehow we live with these things. No

chastening for the moment is seems seems

beneficial but it is. Hebrews 12 is a

very big thing. He chastens every all

the sons he receives. And we dare not

say I didn't sign up for this. Did

Daniel sign up for what he got?

I want to be away from my family. I want

to be away from everybody Jerusalem. I

want to have to go to school in Babylon

and have him trying to shove Babylonian

religion and philosophy down my throat.

Did Ezekiel sign up for what he wanted?

Did Jeremiah? They all they all had

their own particular situation. So this

chapter verses 4 to7 exploding false

hopes verses 8-9 exposing false prophets

verse uh the next verses exhorting

foreign exiles how to live in foreign

lands

and then verses 10 to 14 explaining

future plans

and then expounding on further

prophecies if if it wasn't enough he's

got more people to name and more things

to today

long busy chapter

long busy chapter because just because

he got rid of some of the false prophets

doesn't mean there weren't others to

deal with in Jerusalem

and in Babylon. It seems like those they

multiply fast.

One, a few years ago, we had these. What

were those things in our cabinet, Linda?

That got little fly around. Little

things that were flying around in our

cabinet. We couldn't get rid of

>> pantry malls.

We tried to get rid of them things. We

tried to get rid of them. We did it.

Cleaned the whole thing out, sprayed it

all. We did everything we could do. We

finally got rid of them. And then I saw

one, this was a couple years ago. We've

been done. Then was one's flying around

our house right now. I saw it yesterday.

So false false prophets are like pantry

malls. They tend to come back

and you think you're done with it. And

at the end of this chapter, Jeremiah

starts naming names.

Now, there's times when it's better not

to name names,

to just speak in general

things without naming names. So, it's

not personal. But there are some times

where Paul would name names. There were

times when Jesus would name names. There

was times when the prophets would name

names. And in the last part of this

chapter, he's naming names.

And he's showing what's going to happen.

And so in verse 17,

uh he's talking about the people left in

Jerusalem and how bad it's going to be.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, "Behold,

I'll send upon them the sword, famine,

pestilence. I'll make them like vile

figs that can't be eaten. They're so

bad. I'll persecute them with a sword,

with famine, with pestilence. I'll

deliver them to be removed to all the

kingdoms of the earth to be a curse and

a and a hissing and a reproach

among all nations to which I've driven

them. They're going in exile, too. They

just didn't make the first bus because

I've they've not hearkened to my word,

says the Lord, which I sent to them by

my servants, the prophets, rising up

early and sending, but they did not

hear, says the Lord. Hear therefore the

word of the Lord, all ye of the

captivity. Listen you people over there

in Babylon, whom I've sent from

Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says the Lord

of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab,

the son of Goliath, and of Zedekiah, the

son of Messiah, who prophesy a lie to

you in my name. Behold, I'll deliver

them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,

king of Babylon. He'll slay them before

your eyes. We've heard that before.

Being a false prophet's a very dangerous

profession.

And of them shall be taken up a curse by

all the captivity of Judah who are in

Babylon, saying, "The Lord make thee

like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the

king of Babylon roasted in the fire."

You know, he was good at roasting people

in the fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and

Abedneo. He tried to do that, but he

roasted these guys in the fire. and uh

they didn't have Shadrach, Meshach, and

Abednego's experience because they've

committed villain in Israel and have

committed adultery with their neighbors

wives. False prophecy and false living

go together, and have spoken lying words

in my name, which I've not commanded

them, even I know and am witness, says

the Lord. Thus shall you speak to

Shemiah the nihelmite,

saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,

the God of Israel, saying, Because

you've sent letters in my name to all

the people who are at Jerusalem, and to

Zephaniah the son of Messiah the priest,

and to all the priests, saying, The Lord

hath made thee priest instead of Jehoeda

the priest, that you should be officers

in the house of the Lord. For every man

that's mad and makes himself a prophet,

thou should put him in prison and in the

stalks. Now therefore, why have you not

reproved Jeremiah the an of Anithth who

makes himself a prophet to you? It it's

talking about why people were jumping

authorities case in Jerusalem that they

weren't arresting Jeremiah. For

therefore he sent to us in Babylon,

saying, "This captivity is long. Build

yourselves houses, dwell in them, plant

gardens, eat fruit of them." And

Zephaniah the priest read this letter in

the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet.

Then came the word of the Lord to

Jeremiah saying, "Send all to all of

them in cap of the captivity. Thus says

the Lord concerning Shmiah the Nihilite,

behold Shmiah hath prophesied to you,

and I've sent him not." He's caused you

to trust in a lie. Therefore, thus says

the Lord, "Behold, I'll punish Shmiah

the Nehemite and his seed. He'll not

have a man to dwell among this people.

Neither shall he behold the good that

I'll do for my people, says the Lord.

Because he's taught rebellion against

the Lord. Shocking. He's naming names.

He's getting very personal.

It's pretty obvious, isn't it, that

false prophets were responsible for

their false prophecy. God saw it. He

knew it. He providentially is judging

it. And the surprise surprise, the

exiles have it better than the ones that

were left. The ones in Jerusalem are

going to get it worse than the ones that

were there.

Um,

now

let's go back and think about this just

real quickly before we close up.

How long has America been a nation?

250 years, right?

How long did Babylon have before they

were going to be gone?

70s.

70s. Not bad for a lifetime of a person,

but it's not bad. It's very bad for a

lifetime of a kingdom, especially if

you're the head of gold

and you think you're something.

Said

Persian Empire only lasted 22 years.

>> [snorts]

>> you know, um, it gets interesting.

And so, according to, uh, the Bible, the

Babylonian Empire and the Persian

Empire, it was almost over as soon as it

got started.

Yeah, you're you're big. You're the top

dog for a while, but not for long.

70 sounds long until you look in the

time of lifetime of nations and it's not

long at all.

And finally, as we he said, pray for

these people.

They need prayer.

Love them enough to pray for.

Have a testimony.

Live your life. Pray for them.

And here's this is a whole other level

of being patient, content, is to pray

for them.

There are people you and I might find

hard to pray for other than God judge

them.

And he says, "Pray for them for their

good." So he's exploding false hopes.

He's exposing false prophets. He's

exhorting the foreign exiles. He's

explaining future plans. He's expounding

and expanding future prophecies. And

he's exhorting the exiles to fervent

prayers for their enemies

who conquered their country, who

destroyed their capital and their

temple, who took them into exile.

Pray for them. Jesus didn't did that,

didn't he? Father, forgive them. They

know not what they do. And Jesus taught,

"Pray for those who despitefully

use you."

And the despitefully use you means to

mistreat you.

So possibly tonight, maybe you feel

like, "I'm not really where I want to

be.

I'm not where I really want to be at

this point in my life. I'm not I'm where

I don't want to be." Maybe you lost a

job. You lost a family member. You lost

your health. You lost your friends. and

you feel alone.

Well,

think about this chapter in in Jeremiah

and how much they must have felt.

I like to travel, but I wouldn't want to

travel in exile, going to Babylon,

chained up and and having to go into a

pagan country.

These people were emotionally,

spiritually exhausted. They weren't

where they want to be. Turn with me to

Psalm 137. We're almost done.

This is a song.

This is a psalm

that was written by an ex-Jewish exile

in Babylon.

And it's fascinating. It's poetry. You

got to remember this poetry.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat

down. Yay, we wept when we remembered

Zion. Talking about their loneliness to

get home.

>> 1371.

Psalm 137:1.

Psalms 137:1

We hung our harps upon the willows in

the midst thereof. For there there they

carried us away captives required of us

a song. And they they that wasted us

require of us mirth, saying, "Sing us

one of the songs of Zion that we were

mocking."

You people sure like to sing over there

in the temple. Sing us one of those

songs over here.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a

foreign land?

If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem, let my

right hand forget her cunning. If I do

not remember thee, let my tongue cleave

to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not

Jerusalem above my chief joy. Certainly

all right to pine for Jerusalem and want

to be back. It's right for us to want

our problems to be over. Whatever they

are or our trials or our particular

correction or chastening.

Lord, I'd really like this to be over.

But there's the other side of it.

We we are to make the best of it and

wait on God.

And notice in verse seven, this is a

shocking. Now remember this is poetry.

This is poetry. If you don't remember

that, you're going to have real trouble

these next verses. Remember, oh Lord,

the children of Edom in the day of

Jerusalem who said, "Raise it. Raise it

even to the foundation. Oh daughter of

Babylon, who art to be destroyed. Happy

shall he be that rewards thee as thou

hast served us. Happy shall he be that

takes and dashing your thy little ones

against the stones.

That last verse is a shocker, isn't it?

Well, how did that get in the Bible?

Um,

but remember it starts, how can we sing

the songs of the Lord in a foreign land?

So, what's going on in this particular

song? The best way for us to think about

it, it's poetry.

It's poetry.

And uh if you want to have a future as a

nation, you got to have babies.

If you lose your babies, you lose your

cultural future.

So this is poetry.

May Babylon have no future.

And that's that's legitimate to pray in

one sense. We don't want evil to have a

future. But at the other side, we want

to pray for the individuals there.

And this is a lament of a of a soul that

was in pain. And uh it's important to

see what it is and what it isn't. Uh to

them, justice is out of balance until

just retribution is visited on the

guilty. You That's what Babylon did to

their babies.

So this is poetry basically saying, "I

want you to be defeated like we were

defeated." And uh the that's

legitimately right on one level,

but it's also illegitimate if we can't

say

I also need to pray for these people for

their good individually, even if I want

Babylon, the kingdom to be destroyed.

Well, who knows what's coming in our

lifetime?

Who knows what upheaval might happen to

us if Jesus tries?

Who knows?

All of us here might be scattered to the

wind. Is it possible? Yeah, possible.

You maybe you're not going to die in

Athens. Maybe you're going to be

scattered to the wind. Who knows why?

And when? We don't know.

But we know even when justice seems out

of balance, there will be just repu

retribution visited on the guilty.

That's people reap what they sow whether

they're Babylonians or Jewish people.

But there's also forgiveness with God.

And this psalm is talking about they

don't want evil to be continually

perpetuated. They want it all to come to

an end. So

uh no doubt uh this is a shocking

prophecy in Jeremiah. He had a ministry

to people who are in a hard place. Easy

to get bitter. Easy to be

even upset at God for allowing it to

happen. He says, "Look, you got it

easier than the ones that have been

left. They're the ones that are really

going to be in trouble. The Daniels are

going to take it." And she said, Mach

and Abedneo are going to have have it a

lot better than the people that were

left.

And so because the greater judgments's

coming, who knows what God has protected

you from

by taking you out of a situation you

were very comfortable in.

Ever think about that?

I'm glad God's driving, aren't you?

I'm glad God's driving. I don't always

like where God takes me, but I'm I'm

very happy that he did. And I look back

and I say, "Yeah, I needed that.

And so may this be a help and a blessing

to you, an encouragement to you. Let's

have a word of prayer. Father, we thank

you for the prophet Jeremiah and his

energy to be about the business of God.

Uh and he remembered his his his uh

uh ordination responsibilities as a

prophet. And he reached out. He reached

out when he saw a problem in Babylon.

And father, we pray for ourselves. We'd

reach out to people, not necessarily

people that can do something for us,

that people that God may be doing

something with

that can also do something for God.

So, help us to have a vision.

Help us to have a ministry beyond

ourselves, beyond our local church.

the people we've known that have moved

away, the people that have been part of

our lives and maybe need some

encouragement from us.

I spend a good amount of time to people

on the phone in other states and I count

that as part of my ministry.

So, Father, we pray for those who have

been here and left

[clears throat]

and we pray for ourselves as

we have our responsibilities too.

in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Let's stand turn 448

[music]

[singing]

as we go from this place.

Loving you [singing] more, [music]

trusting you more.

May the power of your [singing] love

[music]

and the light of your word shine

to a sin darkened [singing and music]

world as we go from this place.

[singing]