False Truth | Jeremiah 28 | Pastor William Hixson

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Jeremiah 28 · chapter mention

28.

Jeremiah 28.

You'll notice that chapter 27 has 22

verses. 2817

and 29

32.

So this is the short chapter of a

threechapter unit

that has that is in our Bibles.

And I I'm not going to take time to

review what we looked at in chapter 27.

Uh

but this is a continuation of that

uh situation if you would

and I'm trusting in your memory to

uh to uh connect the dots on that and

then 29 is also a continuation

of that. So it's really hard to get

three chapters even in one of them

shorter to just try to read through it,

think through it and connect it. The

chapter divisions are important so we

can find things. The chapter and verse

divisions are man-made. They help us

find things but sometimes they put up u

walls that shouldn't be there and we're

not really seeing the section as a

whole. But the problem we have is that

this an awful lot of information to

digest.

Uh it's like if you're talking on the

telephone with somebody and they're

giving you a whole bunch of stuff and

you're not taking notes, it's like,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up, hold on

here. I got to I got to uh retain some

of this. It's a lot. Uh it's too much

information for me to to retain. And

yet, nevertheless,

uh we need to try to do that.

And so let's just read chapter 28 1-17.

And you remember Jeremiah and the wooden

ox go ox ox

yolk.

He's still walking around with that. And

so nothing's changed. And he wasn't

starting wasn't trying to start a new

fashion. He had a message uh by dressing

that way. And God actually assigned that

to him as as you know if you were with

us in 27.

And so in chapter 28, it came to pass

the the same year in the beginning of

the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in

the fourth year in the fifth month that

Haniah,

the son of Azour, the prophet, who was

of Gibian, spoke to me in the house of

the Lord, in the presence of the priests

and all the people. This was a public

confrontation in the temple

between Haniah and Jeremiah.

This is what Haniah said.

Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God

of Israel, saying, I broken the yoke of

the king of Babylon. This was Haniah

speaking. Within two full years will I

bring again into this place all the

vessels of the Lord's house that

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took

away from this place and carried them to

Babylon.

Now those vessels and what was going to

happen to them is already covered in the

previous chapter.

And he said, 'I'll bring again to this

place Jeconiah, the son of Jehookim,

king of Judah, with all the captives of

Judah, who went into Babylon, says the

Lord.

Now, notice Haniah uses the

uh the phrase, says the Lord. And so he

was claiming a prophetic

uh a prophetic gift and the ability to

prophesy this and contradict Jeremiah.

And this wasn't just I think it might be

this way. This is what God has showed me

and you're wrong and I'm right kind of

thing.

accusing Jeremiah of getting it wrong,

confronting him publicly.

And

so,

and he says in verse four, I'll break

the last line, the yoke of the king of

Babylon. So, this wearing a yoke,

Jeremiah,

this is out of place. This is going to

be over pretty fast and you're getting

people all worked up more than they

should be. Remember people are all the

first deportation had already taken

place. There were Jews in Babylon now

including Daniel.

So then the prophet Jeremiah said to the

prophet Haniah in the presence of the

priests and in the presence of all the

people who stood in the house of the

Lord even the prophet Jeremiah said

amen.

The Lord do so. The Lord performed the

words which you prophesied to bring

again the vessels of the Lord's house

and all that is carried away captive

from Babylon into this place.

Nevertheless,

I amen the thought.

I amen the desire.

But that's not the way it is.

So Jeremiah was very patriotic. He

wanted the people back. He uh loved his

nation and he knew that they were coming

back, but he knew the math was wrong.

Way off.

Two years is a big difference from 70

years.

God had already said 70. And now Haniah

is saying God saying two.

And Haniah is saying I'm right, you're

wrong. And that kind of thing.

Nevertheless, hear now this word that I

speak in your ears and in the ears of

all the people. The prophets who've been

before me and before thee of old.

Prophets that were before both of us,

both uh prophesied both against many

countries and against great kingdoms of

the world and of evil and of pestilence.

Uh guess what, Haniah? The prophets

before us agree with me, not with you.

The prophet who prophesies of peace.

When the word of the prophet shall come

to pass, then shall the prophet be known

that the Lord has truly sent him.

So normally the other prophets were

prophesying not a peace but of war,

evil, and pestilence. And the only way

you can uh prophesy a peace legitimately

and be listened to is that it comes to

pass pretty fast because that's

different than everybody else. So either

you're right and everybody else and me

are wrong or you're wrong.

Basically what he's saying

the prophet that prophesies a peace when

the word of the prophet shall come to

pass then shall the prophet be known

that the Lord's truly sent him. Remember

that's the rules. If a prophet prophet

in the Bible and Deuteronomy, if a

prophet prophesies something and it

comes to pass, well, he's a prophet. If

it doesn't come to pass, he's a false

prophet. You got to stone him.

Well, that was too much for Haniah. And

so, in verse 10, then Haniah the prophet

took the yoke from off the prophet's

neck and broke it.

Now he's laying hands

on Jeremiah.

I want you to think about what he just

did.

Jeremiah's got the yoke around his neck.

He'd been walking around with it for

months and prophesying. And this man is

bold enough not just to contradict him

verbally, but to confront him physically

and take that take that yoke off his

neck.

publicly.

Uh that's an action that in many places

would start a fight. You understand guys

guys get sharp with each other. You lay

hands on somebody then is fifth city.

And so this is what he did. He laid

hands on him

and took that off.

That was ex obviously he was fairly

proud of himself and fairly confident of

himself that Jeremiah was wrong and he

was right.

So then verse 10, Haniah the prophet

took the yoke from off the prophet

Jeremiah's neck and broke it.

He broke it.

So there's another move. This is

Jeremiah's prop property. This isn't his

property. He takes it off his neck. He

had no business doing that. It's a a lot

of guys that get slugged for that. And

then he takes it and stomps on it and

breaks it

or smashes it against something and

breaks it.

And uh

Jeremiah and the pro well, let me go

this way. In verse 11, Hananiah spoke in

the presence of the people, saying,

"Thus says the Lord, even so will I

break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, the

king of Babylon, from the neck of all

the nations within the space of two

years."

And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

There was no fist fight.

There was no more confrontation.

Jeremiah said nothing

and turned around, walked away.

And when you see something like that,

you wonder,

did Jeremiah just chicken out?

Did he did he lose some courage here of

confronting this man? Why did he just

quietly turn around and walk away?

Easy to be critical of somebody in that

situation. Now, many times that's the

best thing to do when someone starts a

fight, right? Just walk away.

Be man enough to walk away instead of

engage in what they want to do.

But anyway, Jeremiah went his way

and we'll see why he did that and why it

was necessary for him to do.

Then, this is after he went his way.

Verse 12, the word of the Lord came to

Jeremiah the prophet. After that, Haniah

the prophet had broken the yoke off from

off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah,

saying, "Go and tell Haniah, saying,

thus says the Lord, you thou hast broken

the piece yoke of wood, but you shall

make for them yolks of iron."

Things are escalating now. This not just

Haniah and Jeremiah. Now, God's

involved.

We're going to exchange wardrobes here.

Jeremiah is not going to be wearing any

uh uh yolks of iron, but you people are.

All of you.

You won't be able to break those.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God

of Israel, I put a yoke of iron on the

neck of all these nations. Remember the

previous chapter,

God says, I put

a yoke of iron. This is my providential

working against the gentile nations

surrounding Israel.

They're all going to come under Babylon.

All of them. Not just Israel. And I've

done it.

This is my decree.

They serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of

Babylon, and shall serve him. And I've

given him the beast of the field also.

He gets everything.

I'm over him. He's over everything.

Now, that brings us back to Daniel

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, head of gold, doesn't it? And

it brings us back to other things in the

book of Daniel in chapter 7.

God had already revealed to Daniel about

this stuff. Then said the prophet

Jeremiah to Haniah the prophet. Now

Jeremiah is going to speak.

Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Haniah

the prophet, this is a public rebuke.

Hear now, Haniah, the Lord has not sent

thee, but thou makest this people to

trust in a lie.

Therefore, thus says the Lord.

Behold, I'll cast thee from off the face

of the earth.

This year thou shalt die

because you've taught rebellion

against the Lord.

So Haniah the prophet died the same year

in the seventh month.

Now if you go back to Jeremiah 27

um

we find out

that it was earlier it was two months

before this. I can't find it right now,

but it basically you're going to die

within this year and he died in

uh the seventh month of the same year he

did this. So everything started in the

fifth month and it ended in the seventh

month. So Haniah the prophet died in two

months

from this moment. He was dead.

So that's what we're looking at this

particular confrontation

and uh uh I think it's a fascinating

interesting one public this is a public

event everybody saw this

and don't think Jeremiah chickened out.

Don't think Jeremiah was intimidated.

He turned around and walked away

initially but there was a really really

really good reason why he did that.

and we'll get to that before the message

is over.

Now, when I think about this particular

chapter, it's shorter than the others.

It's very much interconnected with the

others. But as I was pondering what was

going on, there are more practical

applications in this chapter in the book

of Jeremiah than I can even mention, let

alone apply in one sermon.

It's very worthy

of all the deep meditation, reflection,

consideration, and exertion we can give

it. There's an awful lot in this little

confrontation that happened so long ago.

Now, an initial orientation would be

helpful. The events that take place here

were from in 594 to 593 BC.

594 593 BC. Remember the exile took

place in 586 ultimately. That's just a

few years down the road.

This is over 600 years before the public

ministry of Jesus will begin. And it hap

from us it's two and a half millennia.

This is a long time ago. We're studying

a confrontation and a a conflict in the

Jewish temple. two and a half mil two

and a half thousand years ago in the

city of Jerusalem. Well, what makes

these events,

these priorities, these people,

this situation so important. It's in the

Bible.

This is just a one-on-one.

Why is it in the Bible? Why did God take

ink and paper and put this in the Bible?

And some might say, "Doesn't the oxen

yolk date this whole thing?

We don't have oxen on yolks anymore.

The people, this dates the whole thing.

It's kind of like the pottery shop and

all that. This is all This is all so far

back and so different than our life that

it's measurably irrelevant

to us other than

curiosity about ancient history.

couldn't possibly be anything in this

that's relevant to us.

Well,

2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is

2 Timothy 3:16

given by inspiration of God and is

profitable

for instruction and all the rest of it."

And even it it even uses the word uh

you think of the word 2 Timothy 3:16 it

2 Timothy 3:16

correction in righteousness. It talks

about correction doesn't it? It talks

about in 3:16

uh is profitable for doctrine for

reproof for correction and for

instruction and righteousness.

So scripture reproves people. Sometimes

it teaches but it reproves

and it reproves sometimes in a direct

reproof but sometimes in a story about a

reproof

for people who are like this

for reproof for correction for

instruction and righteousness that the

man of God may be perfect thoroughly

furnished all good works. So thank God

for a Bible. This is uh very important

and it's not out ofd and chapter 27 28

and 29 should be read together, studied

together. It's way too much material. We

have to break it up and you guess what

God expects us to do that. He expects us

to do that to break it up and then put

it all together and then you divide it

up and then put it back together and

then focus on what it's saying.

And uh 2 Timothy 2:15 talks about

2 Timothy 2:15

correctly handling the word of truth or

or do your best or keep these things in

remembrance as some you you study to

show yourself approved. It means do your

best to give it zeal. And certainly it

takes that to study a section like this

takes time. It takes effort. You have to

get the gray cells going.

And the pro prophet Jeremiah

uh starts this old business out in

chapter 27:2. He's walking around public

with wearing this ox yolk, oxen yoke

everywhere he goes.

He never takes it off.

And his prophecy is illustrated visibly

by what he's wearing physically. And

let's go back to that in 272.

Now, if God tells you to wear a oxen

joke, you better put it on,

right? God was directing the wardrobe

here.

And so, in chapter 20, um 27:2,

thus said the Lord to me, make thee

bonds and yolks, and put them on your

neck.

This is the illustration I want you to

use. And I want you to give this

prophecy, but I want you to be wearing

this while you've given.

And his prophecy is illustrated by

wearing this thing. And we go to verse

8. It says, "And it'll come to pass that

the nation and kingdoms on 27:8 that

will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar,

the king of Babylon, and will not put

their neck under the yoke of the king of

Babylon. That nation will I punish, says

the Lord, with the sword, with famine,

and with pestilence until I've consumed

them by his hand." Nebuchadnezzar is the

man. He's got control of all these

countries now. And if you fight him,

you're fighting me, and I'm going to

punish you for fighting him.

Therefore, hearken not to your prophets,

nor to your divers,

nor to your dreamers, nor to your

enchanters, nor to your sorcerers who

speak to you, saying, "You'll not serve

the King of Babylon. Don't listen to

these people." And so, God is saying

this to the Jewish nation. He's saying

it to all the nations.

Apparently, the false prophets of the

Gentiles were giving the same message as

Haniah, the false Jewish prophet.

How do you know

that a person's a false teacher? They're

singing on the same page with people who

aren't Christians.

They're all on the same page. They're

singing the same thing.

And what we have in the 21st century is

people want to pastors want to get their

church, they want to compromise their

church to say what other people are

saying who are not Christians and

somehow sweet talk them into becoming

Christians. We're not we're so loving.

We we we will we we believe like you do

and all that. That's exactly what this

is teaching against. Exactly.

And so God has basically said, "They're

going to serve Babylon and you're going

to serve Babylon. Even if a Jewish false

prophet says it, it doesn't make it

true."

And so he goes on and on and of course

he gets down to the 70-year part and it

is specified time. There's this is going

to be a 70-year thing. And Haniah says,

"Nope, not 72 years."

I know there are people there, but in

two years the people are coming back and

all the stuff Nebuchadnezzar are put in

his temple in Babylon, it's coming back

too. Two years

now. Two years

and 70 years

are big difference.

How if you got a sentence to prison

and it was two years,

that's a long time to be in prison.

But what if you got a sentence 70?

What would 70-year sentence tell you?

I'm not getting out of this place alive.

So a 70y year

u

70ear time in Babylon,

that's a lifetime

according to the Bible

in Psalm 90. That's a lifetime.

And if you're living and you're taken

into captivity for 70 years, you're not

coming back probably with maybe a few

exceptions.

Two years. Okay, we can we can handle

that. We'll be back. And boy, did two

years sound good in contrast to 70. God

said 70 under Jeremiah. And Haniah says,

"No, no, no, no, no. It's going to be

two years. Everybody will be back. The

temple stuff will be back. This will be

over. Just hunker down and things will

be fine.

Now, let's compare these two men,

Jeremiah and Haniah.

What's the first thing that comes into

your mind when you hear the word

Jeremiah and Haniah? Well, the first

thing is their names rhyme.

They got that I ah ending on it.

both have the same ending. The ayah

ending is a name for Jehovah the Lord.

And Jeremiah's name, I'm going from the

NIV Bible here just for time sake. They

believe that Jeremiah the I ending and

the rest of it means the Lord throws.

The Lord throws.

And so this throw, the the prophet named

the Lord throws is going to show how

God's going to throw the hostile world

into captivity and the Jewish nation

into a far country. All these nations

are going to be judged. He had a fit

name for what he does.

Haniah.

Haniah means the Lord is gracious.

That's a good name. Nothing wrong with

the name Haniah. There are 15 men in the

Bible with the name Haniah. They're

different people. That was pretty

popular. That was as popular as Muhammad

is in the Arab world. Haniah. Everybody

named him Haniah. The Lord is gracious.

Everybody liked that name. The Lord is

gracious. The Lord is gracious. Yeah.

Well, well, emphasize that. Well, it's

true. He is gracious. Nothing wrong with

the name.

And then there's six men are called

Haniah, gracious gift of the Lord. And

there's nine that are ma named Hanoon

merciful.

And so all those comes from some kind of

the same idea.

Now the problem is there are people that

turn the grace of God into

lasciviousness.

Is that true? The Bible teach that?

And the false prophets were

uh emphasizing God's grace to the point

they forgot his justice and his

righteousness and his holiness. Bible

doesn't do that. The true books of the

Bible don't do that, but these guys were

doing it.

Now, here's some applications. This is

kind of an important. It's a little bit

of a side. You can have a good name and

still be bad.

Right? Whether you're an individual

or you're a church

or you're a Christian group or a nation,

John Wesley Harding is an example. John

Wesley Harding had a good name.

John Wesley. That's a good name. John

Wesley was a good man. His parents named

him John Wesley.

His last name was Harding. And anybody

know about John Wesley Harding? He was a

one of the gunfighters in the ancient

west that was known for shooting people.

And it said that he once shot a man for

snoring.

So apparently he liked theology. He read

biology books, but he had a quick draw

and he would uh use it.

Now, I'm sure John Wesley didn't like

John Wesley Harding going around be

doing what he did. So, having a name and

living up to that name are two different

things or understanding that name. A

good name does not guarantee a good

person.

You can have a good name and be a bad

person.

By the way, same thing is true of a n of

a church.

I hope we understand that

a church can have a good name and be a

bad church. A nation can have a good

name, be a bad nation. A city can have a

good name and be a bad city. A

restaurant can have a good name and be a

bad restaurant.

A can of beans can have a good name,

but it can be a bad can of beans. A good

name is only a good name that that is is

to be followed if there's a something

good behind it.

Thank God for the the the churches that

call themselves Baptist. I was raised in

that. But is every Baptist church good?

I hope you know that's the answer to

that.

Thank God for the Presbyterians. Linda

and I watched a a little show on

Jonathan Edwards last night. We had a

great time with that. Uh it's an AI

thing.

And but thank God for the Presbyterians.

Thank God for that's a good name. Uh the

Bible Church I think is a good ma name.

It comes from a good uh history.

But I read in the book of Revelation of

Churches, you can have a name that you

live and be dead.

So when you go on vacation, you can't

always go by the name, right? You don't

know what you're getting till you're

inside.

Now, hopefully if they got a doctrinal

statement, which most of them don't have

on their website now anymore, by the

way, if they don't have a doctrinal

statement on their website, I'm not even

interested in gold.

That's me.

But it's it's kind of important.

But you could have a high office in the

church or in religion and be a a false

teacher. If there's anything church

history has taught us, it's that

uh to the law and the prophets. If they

speak not according to them, it's

because there's no truth in them that

you judge you present prophecy or future

prophecy by past teaching. The Bible

agrees. If you're disagreeing with the

Bible, you're disagreeing with God. And

when people are disagreeing with clear

truth in the Bible, you know they got a

problem.

Now, obviously, there's different inter-

legitimate different interpretations on

some of the difficult things in the

Bible that true Christians hold. But,

uh, I'm just saying a church can have a

good name and still be bad. Just like

Hannah and I had a very good name. Good

name.

But he wasn't good. He was a false

prophet.

Here's point three, my next point.

Oh, excuse me. Point two. You can have a

high office in religious circles and be

wrong.

Ananiah was an official prophet. He had

a high office in Jerusalem.

He had the office.

You can have an office. Some people say,

"Oh, well, if you're a preacher, you got

to be right." No, no, no, no. You're a

pastor. You got to be No, no, no.

There's false teachers.

And Paul confronted the Corinthians and

the Galatians with who they were

listening to. Those people weren't on

the radio. They didn't have a radio.

They weren't on the television. They

were people coming in their church and

teaching in their churches.

And Paul said, "You allowed if someone

smacks you on the face. You're so

tolerant over there in court.

He was talking about the false teacher.

So you can have a high office, a church

office, and still be unsaved.

Three, you can be outwardly moral and a

good family man and still be false

when it comes to God in his truth.

Now, what is important, and I'm not

going to

get into the weeds on this too much,

but there's no indication that Haniah

was immoral as far as being sexual

deviant. There were other false prophets

at that time who were adulterers.

They were cheating on their wives.

And that's very clear at the end of the

chapter, chapter 29, if you'll go to

chapter 29 20,

there were other false prophets besides

Haniah. And uh

I want chapter 29 verse 20.

Hear therefore the word of the Lord, all

ye of the captivity, whom I've sent from

Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says the Lord

of hosts, the king of Israel, of Ahab,

the son of Kolias, and Zedekiah, the son

of Messiah, who prophesy a lie unto you

in my name.

Behold, I will deliver them into the

hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of

Babylon. He'll slay them before your

eyes. 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,"

because

they've committed villain

in Israel,

and they've committed adultery with

their neighbors wives, and have spoken

lying words in my name, which I've not

commanded them even I know and am a

witness says the Lord.

So this group were immoral as well. They

were false prophets. They were teaching

false things but they were also living

false.

Apparently Haniah was a false prophet

but he was not involved in immorality.

There's nothing said of him as being

cheating on his wife or something like

that.

So many of the false prophets were

adulterers

and uh they're confronted for that. But

apparently Haniah wasn't. Douglas Jones

in his writings on Jeremiah, he's a

a Hebrew Hebrew scholar. It could not be

said of Haniah that he was uh immoral

like the other prophets.

So he wasn't in that crowd. So, he

wasn't wrong of immorality.

The others were. But the fact that he

wasn't like them in that area didn't

mean he still wasn't guilty of false

prophecy.

So, apparently that was one area where

you couldn't touch him. How many people,

oh, he's a good man. He's a good pastor.

He's good. He's good with his family.

He's good with his wife. And and they

they don't look anywhere past that.

But his teaching is wrong.

Is it possible? Does it happen? Yes.

Now, usually you have the other thing.

People are teaching wrong because

they're living wrong. That's a there's a

correlation there. Not that anybody is

sinless, but if they're justifying sin

in their life, it's pretty hard for them

to preach proper things when they're

living against it.

So, you can have a good name and still

be bad. You can have a high office in

religion and still be wrong. And you can

be outwardly moral and a good family

person and still be false.

That's an interesting connection, isn't

it? Second Timothy 3, Titus 1 says

there's a that's a you got to be a good

family man to be a pastor. Uh you

certainly can't be cheating on your wife

on the side and stuff.

So many of the false prophets were

adulterers, but nothing is said like

that of Haniah.

It's a good thing for us to hear that,

right?

Uh if people are false, they're false.

They don't have to be engaged in

everything false to be false if they're

teaching false things.

Or

you can be sincerely wrong.

Um I I think he meant it. I think he

believed it. I think he really believed

that God told him

two years is going to be over.

And he thought he thought really that

Jeremiah was a bad influence on the

community and he thought that he was uh

Jeremiah was sincerely wrong and needed

to be warned and confronted and that he

was right. He really believed all that.

That's no excuse. If you're wrong,

you're wrong. If you're wrong, you're

wrong.

and teaching wrong things is a very very

serious business.

Five, false prophets need to be

confronted and exposed for what they

are.

That's what Jeremiah did.

And that's what this confrontation was

all about.

And as it was initiated, Jeremiah's

preaching and this um

this Haniah came up to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah didn't come up to Haniah. And

he takes that yoke off of Jeremiah's

neck which he'd been wearing around. And

he uh threw it away and stomped on it,

broke it.

Initially, Jeremiah was stunned by his

arrogance.

I think he was rather stunned by it.

Nobody else tried that.

And it's possible he didn't know what to

say.

Uh have you ever been surprised by

somebody they say something crazy or

they do something crazy and your tongue

is tied for a moment. You're not quite

sure what you ought to say.

That's possibly what it happened here

when Jeremiah turned around and walked

away saying nothing.

Now Jeremiah looks weak when he does

that. Looks like he didn't stand up to

it.

And

he was surprised by the man's boldness

and his irreverence. He was kind of

shocked by it. And go to 28:10.

It says, "Then Haniah the prophet took

the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's

neck and broke it." You break somebody

else's property, that's fighting. That's

you're asking for a fight.

He broke it.

And notice what it says in verse 11.

Hananiah spoke in the presence of all

the people saying, "Thus says the Lord,

even so will I break the yoke of

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the

space of two full years." And the

prophet Jeremiah went his way.

So instead of confronting him, he left.

And when I was reading that, I was

thinking, what happened to Jeremiah? He

just kind of went out there.

And then I thought, no,

Jeremiah has been giving prophecy to the

nation and prophecy to this man that the

nation and this man didn't like and

wanted to contradict.

And I think what happened was Jeremiah

didn't say something because he had

nothing to say. He didn't want to get

there and argue with him on a human

level. He went away to find out what God

wanted him to say.

He walked away so he'd get a message

from the Lord.

He didn't want the conflict just to be

between him and and Haniah. He wanted it

to be between Haniah and the Lord. And

so he left. And I think that took a

little bit of it took a lot of maturity

and it took a lot of courage to turn

around just go away.

He went away and I think that was the

right thing to do. And then God told him

what to say. And when God told him what

to say, he went back and confronted him.

Now somewhere there's a lesson there for

us, right?

And sometimes when we witness people say

something outrageous or something

bizarre and we don't know what to say.

It's like this is so crazy. I'm not sure

how I should answer this.

And sometimes one of the best things is,

you know, I hear what you're saying and

I want to think about it before I give

you an answer.

Just stop the conversation.

And that's what he that's what that's

what Jeremiah is doing. uh uh and he

walks away. He walks away. He leaves

leaves uh knowing this man believed what

he was saying. He was wrong.

And we know that false prophets need to

be confronted and exposed for what

they're doing. But Jeremiah had already

done that. And he but there was after

this outrageous it was this was more

than outrageous.

He want All right, God. What do you want

me to do?

I've got this person. This is a public

situation. I don't want to drop the

ball. Remember when Paul got slapped

in the Sanhedrin

and he said, "God will smite you, you

whited wall." Well, Paul hadn't

apologized for that one. He kind of

blurted out something. It tells me Paul

had a temper.

And uh

so

uh Oh, you you said talking to the high

priest that way. Oh, I didn't know it

was a high priest. Now he's eating

toenails, you know. So, he's he's got

his foot in his mouth and now he doesn't

know what to do and he finally comes out

and he you know what he did later uh to

his credit and the Lord the Lord blessed

him. The Pharisees and Sadducees got in

an argument and Paul got out of there

and the Lord says, "Oh, I I really like

what you did, Paul. That was good. That

was good. as you've testified of me in

Jerusalem, so will you in Rome.

Paul must maybe thought he blew it, but

he he did blew it to a point, but uh uh

obviously at that moment he had to

confess, you don't talk that way to the

high priest, even if he's wrong.

So Jeremiah looks weak. He was

surprised, no doubt, by the boldness and

irreverence of this man.

And sometimes people that you love in

your family or people that you're

witnessing to, you're just shocked that

come out of them. That's what they

think. They talk that way about this

and you're not quite

you don't know what to do at that point.

Well, Jeremiah walked away

and uh

very fascinating business here.

And so that's that's an important

section. Well, let's go down and look in

verse 12.

Then the word of the Lord came to

Jeremiah the prophet. Doesn't say when

it came. Was it 10 minutes after this?

Couple hours after this, couple days

after this, but it came. I tend to think

it came pretty fast.

Jeremiah wanted to get alone and see

what God wanted him to say.

It is true that we should be ready to

give an answer for every man that gives

that every man that gives that we can

give a reason for the hope that's within

us to anybody that asks. But this guy

wasn't asking for information. He was

criticizing and confronting.

So the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah

the prophet after Haniah the prophet had

broken the neck off the prophet Jeremiah

saying go and tell Haniah now he's got

now he he's ready to go back

he's got a message from God this wasn't

personal

he's got something from God to tell him

thus says the Lord thou hast broken the

yolks of wood but thou shalt make for

them yolks of iron

This is going to happen whether you like

it, whether the other nations like it or

not.

It's going to be yolks of iron. You're

not going to break this.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, God of

Israel, I put a yoke of iron on the neck

of all these nations that they may serve

Nebuchadnezzar, remember the five

nations we mentioned before, king of

Babylon, and they'll serve him. And I've

given him the beast of the field also.

So, I'm in charge. The nations are they

can you if you don't like this and the

other nations don't like it, too bad.

This is what's going to happen. Jeremiah

went back and said that

broke my wooden yoke, but you're not

going to break the iron yoke that coming

to you.

Then said the prophet unto Haniah the

prophet, hear now, Haniah. The Lord has

not sent you

and you make this people to trust that

lie. There you go. Excuse somebody a

lion for spreading a lie. Those are

fighting words. Now Jeremiah is in his

face.

This was love that did this.

This was obedience that did this.

Jeremiah got control of himself, his

temper. I don't know if he had a temper

or not. I kind of guess he might have.

Who wouldn't? Would somebody lay hands

on you like that?

This was very calmly said, "You make

this people to trust in a lie.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, I will

cast you from off the face of the earth.

You're not going to Babylon.

You're going to die.

You've just committed a sin and death.

You are a dead man walking

this year you shall die because you've

taught rebellion

against the Lord.

So Haniah the prophet died the same year

in the seventh month. Now all this

started in the fifth month. So it means

two two months after this this got

started this man was dead.

He drops over dead.

Now Jeremiah said that to his face and

he said it in front of everybody else.

So what are the people that are going to

hear this? What are they thinking now?

Whoa.

Jeremiah got it right about him dying.

And so it's obvious that this is a

message God brought through Jeremiah.

And this man was sincerely wrong. But

that didn't make him right by be since

just because he was sincere.

He thought Jeremiah was a bad influence.

Uh and uh it's not Jeremiah, it's him.

Now, all this teaches us something very

important. You can be sincerely wrong. I

think this guy was. And two, false

prophets need to be confronted and

exposed for what they are.

There's a moment to do it.

There's a moment not to do it. We don't

do it because we get into some fist

verbal fisticuffs with people and we

just have to win an argument. We do it

because of what? Wrong needs to be

confronted with truth.

Paul said needs to be exposed no matter

who does it. So, we don't know how long

it took for Jeremiah to go back, but we

know he went back

and uh he didn't have an answer. So, he

he didn't keep going. He waited till he

had an answer. He went away to be alone

and then the Lord showed him what to

say.

You know, may God help us to be like

this, right? We don't have to win

arguments.

We don't have to impress people that we

know all the answers right away. We

don't have to uh

uh fight back and forth with people.

Sometimes we'll have to, but we don't.

There's time to walk away. And so,

that's what what happened here.

So, I love all this. I think it's a very

instructive thing for you and I.

Sometimes we're afraid. I I'm afraid to

witness because somebody might say

something I won't know how to answer it.

Or somebody might take a position. and I

don't know what to do with it.

I'll get back with you on that question.

Sometimes that's a way to answer, right?

And walk away.

I want to continue this discussion.

But when people are out of sorts and out

of control, uh it's really not good to

honor that with

your presence.

So anyway, that's what happened.

And it's certainly right here very

dangerous

to oppose God's spoken word,

God's written word. It's dangerous.

The Bible's clear about something,

people go against it.

that is asking

um

Derek Kidner says of Ananiah and his

false teaching, what we might describe

as wishful thinking and unorthodox

teaching, God calls a lie and rebellion.

Think about that.

There's a movie with it's a 1950s movie.

It's something at Red Rock, a murder at

Red Rock. It's Spencer Tracy and Ernest

Borgine and some others. And Ernest

Borg's trying to pick a fight with

Spencer Tracy. He's a one-armed veteran

investigating a murder there. And uh

Ernest Borgine's doing a really kind of

trying to pick a fight with him. He puts

ketchup in his chili in the restaurant

and all that kind of stuff. And then

starts getting loud and Spencer Tracy

says, "You're not only wrong, you're

long you're wrong with a loud voice."

It's a great line. You're not only

wrong, you're wrong with a loud voice.

And then Spencer Tracy, the one-armed

man, beats beats up uh Ernest Borgine in

the fight. It was the bully

working for the bad guys.

And Jeremiah was very interesting here.

This guy was out of line totally. God

calls your teaching lie and rebellion.

You're doing a lie. You're in Satan's

control.

He's a liar from the beginning and the

father of it.

So all of this contradicted the

statements Jeremiah had already made. If

you go back to uh Jeremiah 22,

you'll get a perspective on this.

This was a previous prophecy.

Jeremiah 22:24.

Jeremiah 22:24

As I live, says the Lord, though Kaniah

the son of Jehoakim, king of Judah, were

the signant on my right hand, yet I

would pluck thee from there. And I will

give thee into the hand of those who

seek your life, and into the hand of

those who face you thou fierest even to

the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of

Babylon, into the hand of the

Calaldanss. I'll cast thee out, and thy

mother who bore thee into another

country where you were not born, and

you'll die. So God was very clear

and uh but to the land to which they

desire to return there shall they not

return.

So God was quite clear about all of this

stuff and Haniah was on the wrong side

of truth.

So there was a blatant flagrant

contradiction rebellion against the

Lord. Haniah was a false prophet going

against a true prophet and the Lord

helped Jeremiah confront him properly.

God will help you when you're dealing

with intransitive people.

Sometimes he gives it right away.

Something somebody gets crazy weird in

their claims. Sometimes we have to wait

and say I'm I'm going to think about

what you said and I'll come back to you.

We'll continue this discussion.

Warren Wearsby said, "It's always the

case that when we reject the light yoke

of God's will, we'll end up wearing a

heavier yoke of our own making." You

don't like the wooden yoke, you get an

iron one next.

So much different is Jesus, take my yoke

upon you and learn of me.

That's a good yoke.

So rebellion against God's re revealed

will is rebellion against God.

It's pretty obvious if Haniah's prophecy

was true then Jeremiah's was false.

Um

the problem with Haniah's prediction was

that it was manufactured in his own mind

and used by Satan to contradict God's

truth.

didn't come from God. It came from their

own wishful thinking, living in the

fantasy land of their imagination.

One writer said,

"However sincere false teaching is, it

is always deadly both for the teacher

and for the students."

I hope we understand why false teaching

has to be confronted, not endured.

It hurts people.

Doesn't just hurt the false teachers. It

hurts the followers of the false

teachers. It's not safe to be a false

teacher. It's not safe to be a student

of a false teacher. That's you got

Satan. You're just letting the serpent

talk to you. uh in that

Alan Dalich said, "Hananiah's breaking

of the of the yoke does not alter the

divine decree, but it makes it made it

is made to contribute to its fuller

reflection." There's a purpose in false

teaching and false teachers. It forces

true teachers to get clear

on truth.

There's an old saying that Satan is our

fencing master.

In other words, we learn to use our

saber

by Satan's attacks.

So, we learn to use God's truth. We

learn how to uh uh understand God's

truth and promote God's truth in the

battle with false teachers.

One of the most important lessons for

life is to learn how to accept

correction and chastisement

from the Lord.

Israel needed to learn that.

They didn't want to learn it. They

didn't want a life sentence. 70 years,

that's way too long. Two years sounded

much better.

Um

God puts limitations on our lives. All

of us.

Some of them are lifelong.

Sometimes the limitations are limited. I

get sick. I can't go where I want to go

for a couple of weeks or whatever.

Sometimes they're lifelong

and he's got purposes in that. Those

limitations and we we're not the it

doesn't mean we can't go to the doctor

or get medicine and get help, but it

does mean we accept what God says. We

bow to it. We kneel to it.

And some of God's discipline is

temporary.

Some of it's

lifelong. A 70-year captivity is pretty

much a lifelong sentence.

And uh we don't get to choose what it

is. I don't want a lifelong disability.

I want Paul, you need a thorn in the

flesh. You're going to have this the

rest of your life. You're 40ome years

old. You're going to have it for the

next 30 years or 20.

I don't want that.

I'm not even on the mission field yet.

Yeah, but you'll be better for the

thorn. That wasn't for something bad

Paul had done. It was to keep him

humble. And so God knows all these

things. So what what's something else

that we can take away? Synchronize your

watches. Remember that term?

It was used in World War I when

everybody all the officers would

synchronize their warship watches

because they're going to attack at 6:15

in the morning and they want everybody

going over the top at once

and not some going over this time and

some going over 5 minutes late.

So synchronize your watches was

something that was very important in

World War I and I think even in World

War II.

But we need to synchronize

our desires. We need to synchronize our

will and we need to always say God's

will is my will.

Even if God's will is a hard thing to

take,

sooner or later we're going to get some

kind of limitation that we're not going

to get rid of.

It's going to be lifelong for whatever

rest of your life you got. Probably some

of us have got it already. you know, I

got this, I got this, I got this. Well,

none of them are too bad, but put

together, you know, going to have to

wait for my resurrection body. They're

not really going away. Well, God's got

purposes in that. If you'd have been

better not having it, God wouldn't have

given it to you. You know, we have these

things in our life providentially,

and it's not good to fight against it.

Nobody wants to embrace hard providences

that never end in this life.

But and if we can use medicine or

doctors or some somehow get out of it,

okay. But if we can't, what do you do?

God's will is my will. That's it.

If God wants me to stop preaching next

week, I have to Okay, I'd rather go

farther. But God said, "No, that's it

for you. You're done."

Okay, I lost my voice totally. I can't

speak. I'm God. Obviously, I got can't

preach it.

or I'm bedfast.

You know, some of those things happen.

They're going to happen to you. They

happen to me. We have to learn always to

make God's will our will.

Alexander McLaren has some interesting

comments on this section of scripture.

He just says, "To be self-ruuled is to

be self-destroyed." There is no need

that I should remind you of how it's

better to accept Christ's providences

than to kick against them.

Sorrow to which we submit losses all its

bitterness and much of its sadness.

Sorrow to which we submit losses all of

its bitterness and much of its sadness.

I didn't want this, but God has a

purpose in it. I don't know what it is,

but I see the hand of God, so I submit

to it. I can't change it, so I'm not

going to fight it. I'm not going to live

in a fantasy world. I'm just going to

embrace it.

Sorrow to which we submit losses all its

bitterness and much of its sadness.

Kicking against the affliction makes its

sharp point penetrate our limbs.

Let's take providence and

its difficulties and just embrace them.

We do not get to choose the larger

picture of the times in which we live.

It's chosen for us.

Do you not feel that the world's fallen

apart?

I mean really

do we not feel that this is kind of a

hard time

be alive

and for many many reasons in our country

but not just in our country and other

places there's like nowhere to go

but that's the times in which we live.

It's an honor to live in hard times.

It's an assignment from heaven to serve

him in hard times.

Some all they want to do is get the hard

times over. Others say, "I'm embracing

this. I can't change it, so I'm

embracing it

as from God."

And sometimes through prayer, God lifts

his correction on people or nations or

churches. Other times, it's a life

sentence and that's it. there's no

changing it.

Um,

so what an interesting thing, a true

prophet versus a false prophet and this

whole sin unto death. We're not to pray

that somebody does that, but we are to

accept that it can happen. And Haniah

did it.

You know, I've thought about this

this difference between Jeremiah and the

prophetic truth

uh with Haniah.

Haniah was a moral man, but he was a

false prophet.

He wasn't like a false prophet who was

immoral and false prophet. He was a

moral man with false prophecy.

It tells me something.

This is a side application.

What about people that are all into

setting dates for the rapture?

Isn't that a little bit dangerous?

Even if they're

good pastors in some other ways, I think

it's extremely presumptuous

when Jesus said, "No man knows that the

hour."

So I that kind of thing

uh I I am very suspicious of anybody

that's a date setter. I'll tell you

that. I don't care what their theology

is or anything else. Once they start

doing that, they're off my radar as far

as somebody I want to hear very much

from.

Uh they think they know more than they

know.

To me, it's very dangerous to do what

Jesus said we're not to do.

And I now I don't put the a mill premill

thing in that same category. I think

there's some honest disagreement between

Christians about the millennium and the

church's relation to Israel and all of

that. I put there there's honest

differences of opinion that should be

recognized as not evil in themselves.

But then there's other things that are

such direct opposition to

uh to God's revealed truth that no man

knows the day or the hour and somebody

says, "I got the day and I got the

hour." How arrogant can you be? How

foolish can you be?

So anyway, Jeremiah 28, I hope it's a

challenge and a blessing to you to think

through some of these things. And next

time we'll pick it up with 29 if if

we're still here, if the Lord hasn't

come. And that that rounds out this

particular section of prophecy. And

remember, we talked about the escalator.

We're almost up to the top of the

escalator. Now we're getting into

Jeremiah 30 and 31, the new covenant.

This is the real to me. We have made the

journey

all the way across Jeremiah to get to

the chapters that are coming up.

And we're going to be on a different

level

in our understanding of the new covenant

because we've made this journey.

And I thank you for being with us as

we've done it. It's been a long journey

and we're going to we're going to get

the payback very soon.

in these next few chapters. 29 is the

last part of the escalator and then

we're up to the old covenant's over and

the new covenant's going to be involved

and uh announced. Father, we thank you

for what we looked at tonight. Challenge

us and change us by your most precious

word. We know there are people that uh

stand against us and not just against us

but against your word and the clear

teaching of your word not in sincerity.

There's a falseness about it and uh

they're guilty. Uh and help us to know

how to deal with people. Give us wisdom,

Father, to deal with people that are

imputent and arrogant and um

very proud of who they are and what

they're doing.

And not only wrong, but they're wrong

with a loud voice. We've got a lot of

them today, the United States, and some

of them are in churches. So give us

grace

to be a Jeremiah to wait on you and to

give the response you want us to give

and give a reason for the hope that's in

us in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Let's stand. Turn page 416.46

as we go from this place

loving you more,

trusting you more.

May the power of your love and the light

of your word shine to a sin darkened

world. As we go from this place,