Wearing The Yoke of God | Jeremiah 27 | Pastor William Hixson

Jeremiah.

Let's open your Bibles to Jeremiah

Jeremiah 27 · chapter mention

chapter 27.

Jeremiah 27

>> as we u come to this section in Jeremiah

uh this next section is three chapters

long.

is 27 28

29.

So, uh that's a it really we get the

bird's eye view and then we're going to

try to go by it chapter by chapter.

But it is an important section

of holy scripture.

And the Jewish nation's not looking very

good here.

Um,

the Lord's confronting them

with their sin

and threatening them with

exile.

You know, a lot of people when they

today

they they think if they can criticize

the church, they think they've refuted

Christianity.

And I heard an apologeticist

uh was asked this, Frank Turk, and he

said, 'When somebody plays Beethoven

poorly, you don't blame Beethoven.

Thought that was a good answer. Uh

people blame God for the misbehavior of

some of God's people, but the Bible

itself exposes that misbehavior

and

deals with it. that God disciplines

uh that bad behavior as it's said he dis

in Hebrews he disciplines every son he

receives and so none of us are sinless

or perfect

uh and certainly the Jewish nation was

not and the big problem in in the book

of Jeremiah was idolatry and that was a

constant recurring habitual sin of the

nation and now the Lord's are going to

announce to them that the hammer is

going to fall and they're going to go

into exile. Nobody wanted to hear that.

Uh but that that was the commission of

Jeremiah to give them that announcement.

And Jeremiah is going to do it uh in

this chapter. Uh there's a textual issue

in verse one. It says it reads Jehoakim

in our Bibles. That is uh that's a

textual problem there. Uh uh it really

should read Zedekiah.

But I'm not going to get into the

reasons for that. It's too boring. But

let's have a word of prayer and we'll

get started. Father, bless us and guide

us and direct us in your perfect will in

the time we spend together tonight.

Amen.

>> Amen.

>> In the beginning of the reign of

Zedekiah,

son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this

word unto Jeremiah from the Lord,

saying, Thus says the Lord to me, make

thee bonds and yolks, and put them upon

your neck.

Now, Jeremiah's had some pretty strange

uh assignments from the Lord, right? Uh

you you go to the potter's house, you go

to the dry the uh the the river and bury

your underwear that you've been wearing

over your robes and uh then dig it up.

Uh this had to be another very

interesting assignment for him. Uh most

of us don't even like neck ties, let

alone having a yoke on. I'll be glad

when I don't have to wear a neck tie

anymore. I don't think the guy that

invented him is going to make it to

heaven. I think that was

that's an unforgivable sin in my mind.

But uh but anyway, I don't even like

neck ties, let alone having an ox and

yoke on on you. But that was the

assignment.

That was the assignment.

And so Jeremiah took it and uh uh thus

says the Lord, make thee bonds and yolks

and put them upon your neck.

So the next time you're you're tempted

to

complain because you got to wear a neck

tie someplace, think about Jeremiah.

and he and sent this is a visual visual

aid to the message

and God's certainly not against visual

aids or illustrations

and send them to the king of Edom to the

king of Moab to the king of Ammonites

and the king of Ty and the king of Sidon

by the hand of the messengers who come

to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of

Judah. Do you see Zedekiah right there?

Should be Zedekiah in verse one, too.

Okay.

And command them to say to their

masters, what happened

was there's

ambassadors from these five gentile

nations that have come to Jerusalem at

this time for a pow-wow.

And the point of the pow-wow was it

looks like it might be a good time to

rebel against Babylon.

So Babylon has already come and taken

some of the stuff out of the temple uh

and brought it to Babylon. And uh uh so

there there was an attempt here by these

nations that surround

uh the

surround Judah to get together and have

a coalition and attack. They thought

there's some weakness there. Somebody

tried to get at Nebuchadnezzar. So this

is a good time for us to rebel. That's

behind this.

So they had ambassadors from these five

nations. And Jeremiah is supposed to

send the ambassadors back uh to

uh

uh to those nations with this message.

Let's have let's have a word of prayer.

Father, help me to speak and each of us

to hear in Jesus name. Amen.

Um,

doesn't it say in

2 Timothy 3

that in the

in in the end of history,

there'll be perilous times.

The NIV translates it terrible times.

Uh, mark this. There will be terrible

times in the last days. And then it

gives a long life list of terrible

behavior of those who have a form of

godliness but deny the power of it.

Those who

uh at the time of Paul and Timothy were

living loose and lentious and rebellious

and apostate lives and calling

themselves Christians.

Those are the times that Paul and

Timothy had to live in. Here is the time

that Jeremiah is in. And now here we are

two and a half millennium after

Jeremiah. And we're living in times very

similar.

We're living in times very, very

similar.

What was Paul's antidote to the arrival

of terrible times? uh get good Christian

examples like me and the others that

you've learned the gospel from your

mother and so forth and uh get into

scriptures

from a child you've known the holy

scriptures that are able to make you

wise for salvation. So continue in the

things you've learned knowing who you've

learned them. Uh don't be diverted from

that and know your Bible.

Now when he says know your Bible,

when he says all scripture is given by

inspiration of God, what scripture is he

talking about?

He's talking about the scripture that he

learned on his mother's knee from a

child. You've known the holy scriptures.

So he's not talking about the New

Testament scriptures here necessarily,

right? New Testament is in process of

being written.

Some of it have been written by second

Timothy. It is in process. But he

certainly didn't learn the New Testament

on his mother's knee.

His grandmother and mother were teaching

him the Old Testament.

And so the Apostle Paul is talking to

writing to Timothy and and telling a New

Testament Christian to be occupied with

the Old Testament.

Not excluding the New Testament

scriptures, of course, but basically

that if it says when you're from a

child, you've known the holy scriptures

are able to make you wise to salvation.

He's talking about the Old Testament

primarily.

So, we need to be Old Testament people,

not just New Testament people. We need

to be excited about Christ and all the

scriptures.

And we need to know our Old Testament.

This is pretty basic stuff what I'm

saying. Now, I'm saying it because

chapters 27 to 29

is really one unit. It's a threechapter

unit of 71 verses. I wish I had time to

teach it in one sitting.

Uh it it's just impossible to do that

and do justice to it. You can do it, but

it' just be a flyover.

But chapters, I want to say something

about these three chapters. And if we if

I if I say this about these three

chapters, it will help you get excited

about it.

Chapters 27 to 29.

These three chapters that we're going to

look at tonight, next Wednesday, and the

Wednesday after.

These three chapters, these 71 verses

are an escalator to move us up to the

most important chapters in the whole

book of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 30 · chapter mention

Chapters 30 and 31, the introduction to

the new covenant

where God says, "You had the old

covenant, but you're getting nowhere

with that because you keep breaking it.

I'm going to start the new covenant."

This is an incredible section in the

book of Jeremiah. It's where everything

else points. The whole book is pointing

to chapters 30 and 31 basically.

And um

what these chapters are,

especially in chapter 27 and 29, it's

like an escalator to move us up to the

most important chapter in the whole

book.

Now, my first escalator was in uh

Columbus at Lazarus Department Store.

That's the first escalator I remember

being in the 50s.

And if you go in an airport, it's pretty

hard to miss escalators.

You either got the kind that are flat

and they keep that you're just like on a

treadmill and you're that saves you time

from walking or you can if you if you if

you stand on the right side, you can

stand and let it do your walking for

you. If you get on the left side, you're

supposed to be walking while you're on

it,

but you supposed to get there a little

faster.

Escalators are meant to help you

navigate

to another level

or faster to a place on your level or

another level.

When Andrea and I were in an I'd never

been to Paris before, but uh still

haven't except for the airport. We were

going to Smyrna, Turkey, and we had a

layover in Paris

and I had an experience there I'd never

had before.

The escalators I'd ever been on in

different airports are like stairs.

These were not stairs. This was just

flat when it went up.

That was an experience.

And uh it was interesting to deal with

suitcases in that uh in that thing. But

it's moving but it's moving you up.

It was moving us up to another level.

Now, from the old covenant, we're on one

level. The new covenant is a new level.

We're on another level when we get to

the new covenant. Israel will be on a

new level when God introduces the new

covenant. And the end of history,

they're going to experience the new

covenant. And why are they going to

experience that? Because they couldn't

keep the old covenant.

God gave them hundreds of years to keep

the old covenant. They couldn't do that.

So God said, "We're going to introduce

the new covenant." The new covenant is

what we enjoy now because of our

relationship with Jesus Christ who made

it. The new covenant is what we call the

new testament. The new covenant is uh

what we do at the Lord's supper when we

celebrate it.

And we're celebrating it now because we

enjoy privileges that Israel does not

yet enjoy. But we enjoy them because of

our relationship to Jesus Christ ahead

of time.

And this new covenant is absolutely

wonderfully

important for understanding any part of

the Bible.

And so we're we're going to take our

time. We're going to be on this

escalator for a while. So just uh this

tonight we're going to be in chapter 27.

I want to take our time. I want us to

inch our way up uh to that. And so

that's what we're doing tonight. So

tonight we're not going to get any

farther than chapter 27.

And we'll be fortunate if we even get

through that.

Um,

what is the God of the Bible doing

when he has

Jeremiah put on an ox

this ox necklace.

You got a yoke.

You've got a yoke on over your neck.

Now, I doubt if any of us have ever seen

anybody walk around like that.

I've seen yoke on oxen's necks.

My first trip to Chile in 1988, right

down the middle of the street in Lecon

Ray, which is a small city,

um there's couple oxen

and they're hauling a big load of wood

behind them and there I even got a

picture of that

uh because you don't normally see that.

Everybody else was in cars or walking,

but somebody was pulling up with a with

an oxen and uh uh and so that was a very

interesting experience.

Well, oxen were very prevalent in

Jeremiah's day and oxen yoke yolks were

very prominent in Jeremiah's day, but

they weren't prominent for being worn by

people.

So, why is Jeremiah starting a new

fashion? What's going on here?

Well, God's got a This is a pantomime.

This is a a visual aid for the message

that God wants to give. It's a visual

illustration to enable uh the people to

hear the message, a message he knows

they don't want to hear.

I I can't imagine being yolked up with

in a an oxen yolk even around your neck

would be very pleasant experience.

Uh but what's what's he trying to say?

Let's look at it.

Let's look at it. Verse two, thus says

the Lord to me. So God speaks to

Jeremiah first before and then through

Jeremiah to the nation. make thee bonds

and yolks and put them on your neck. And

Jeremiah said, "Here we go again."

So he's wearing this thing

and once he's wearing it,

he gives a message and this message is

going out in in concentric circles to

different people. The first ones to hear

it are the ambassadors that were sent by

the nations contiguous with Judah. All

these gentile nations are contiguous

with Judah and they were plotting

a a rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar

and his authority over them.

Now a wooden oxen yoke denotes

submission.

It denotes domination.

The ox are controlled by that yoke and

they're yolked to another ox and they're

supposed to be going in the same

direction. That's why we're not to be

unequally yolked with unbelievers.

How can you be yolked with an

unbeliever? They're going in one

direction. You're going in another

direction. You can't do that and and

make any kind of progress.

Now there absolutely nobody was walking

around in Jeremiah's day in Jerusalem

with a wooden oxoke around their neck.

He was the only one.

And nobody that saw Jeremiah said

I remember that used to be in fashion

years ago.

Nobody was ever seen anybody ever do

this.

So it definitely got attention but the

yoke meant submission, domination,

direction, compulsion,

and uh in in a double yoke teamwork

except Jeremiah didn't have anybody on

the other side of it.

So this illustration is given and then

the message is given. Once the

illustration is given,

the message isn't given until the

illustration is given. That's there's a

value of illustrations in sermons.

Illustrations are not just

uh shouldn't just be in there to

entertain. Illustrations are meant to uh

in somehow teach. Uh when you see

something visually,

you can help it helps you to see it

mentally.

And so this illustration is going to go

out first of all to the ambassadors of

the gentile nations that had a plot were

planning a plot to rebel against uh uh

Nebuchadnezzar.

And so this is what's going. So command

them, verse four, to say to their

masters, thus says the Lord of hosts,

the God of Israel, thus shall you say to

your masters, all five of you scatter,

go back to your countries, go back to

your kings that sent you. And this is

the message. I have made the earth,

the man and the beasts that are upon the

ground. By my great power and by my

outstretched arm have I given it to whom

it seemed right to me.

It's the creator who's sovereign.

And we got to look to him in everything

that happens to us.

We look at second causes or third

causes, but we don't go back to the

first cause

and we look at the second cause. If I

could just get that person out of my

life or if I could just get this

situation out of my life, I' I'd be

great. Well, maybe God put that person

in your life or that situation in your

life or you're good.

And not all the things God does in our

life are pleasant

or enjoyable.

Exile is not a pleasant thing.

Being carried off to Babylon is not a

pleasant thing. Having your country

dominated by another country is not a

pleasant thing.

And so in verse six, now I've given,

this is the sovereign God who's in

charge of all yolks.

I've given all these lands into the hand

of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon,

my servant. He is my servant.

And I don't believe Nebuchadnezzar was

ever ever saved really. Some people

think he got saved after the time in the

mental hospital there on when he's ate

grass those years. I I doubt it myself

that that's real salvation. I've got my

reasons for that. But uh I definitely

think he recognized the power and

sovereignty of the God of heaven.

He definitely got that far. I kind of

hope he got saved, but I don't think so

because you don't burn the temple down

of a god that's

he burned the temple down after that. So

I don't think he was saved. But he God

definitely got his attention. And in the

providence of God, Nebuchadnezzar was

God's servant just like the prime

minister of Britain or the president of

the United States or every other any

other leader.

The world is in chaos and people do what

they do. But above all the fray is God.

The powers that be are what? Ordained of

God.

Isn't that that means neero?

You mean Roman emperor?

Oh, we got to have an election like in

America and get the right person in

office. Then the church will grow. The

church grew under the most wicked Roman

emperors you could ever have.

And the Sanhedrin was totally corrupt.

Don't look for a political solution.

Look for a a spiritual solution. And

even in the political solutions that

come and go, we trust God, don't we? If

America falls apart, I hope you'll trust

God. Our faith isn't in America. It's in

the Lord.

And so, but this is what the message

was. Verse seven, to these five

ambassadors to give to their five kings

that sent them. All nations shall serve

him, that's Nebuchadnezzar,

and his son and his son's son.

And that's not a genealogical

progression. That is a progression of

the leaders in uh Babylon until

Belshazzer

uh was taken over.

And it was exactly three

until the very time of his land come and

many nations and great kings shall

enslave him. And in other words, their

time's coming, but I put them in office

and I'm using it.

It'll come to pass that the nation and

kingdom that will not serve the same

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and

that will not put their neck under the

yoke of the king of Babylon.

That nation will I what?

Punish.

You mean even if Judah doesn't,

I will punish

that. and and all these nations. He

says, "I'm going to punish.

I'm running it, not you. You don't

decide who's in charge."

Nebuchadnezzar is going to be in charge.

He's the head of gold. Remember that.

And I've got a even though he's a wicked

man and a foolish man, I've got a

purpose for him. And 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. You don't like

Nebuchadnezzar? Why do you have to deal

with me?

Those three things

until I've consumed them by his hand.

So the Lord is very very clear about the

responsibility of the nation. Now the

false prophets of the Jewish false

prophets were saying the exact opposite.

They were saying

Babylon

is not going to defeat us. Babylon is

not going to control us.

This city, this temple safe from the

king of Babylon. We remember the days of

King Hezekiah when the ar foreign armies

came around and God defeated them and

it's going to be the same

except it's not the same. They've got

wicked king instead of a godly king. And

that one nation rep that nation then

repented and there's no repentance here.

And the idolatry has been going on and

on and on.

But the false prophets were saying

everything's okay. We're okay. You're

okay.

Uh God's on our side. This city and this

temple are inviable.

Nobody's ever going to conquer it.

And so God says in verse 9, "Therefore,

hearken not to your prophets." He's not

talking about good prophets, legitimate

prophets, but the false prophets, nor to

your divers, nor to your dreamers, nor

to your enchanters, nor to your sorcer

sorcerers who speak to you, saying, "You

shall not serve the king of Babylon."

Now, excuse me. By the way, in these

verses, he's not talking to the Jews.

He's talking to the Gentile nations.

these he's the these um representatives

from the Gentile nations. Got ahead of

myself. And so uh in other words, he's

saying there were other nations around

Israel that were saying we're we don't

have to serve Babylon. Other false

prophets in the Gentile countries are

saying the same thing that the false

prophets in Jerusalem were saying.

For they prophesy a lie to you to remove

you far from your land that I should

drive out drive you out and you should

perish.

But the nations that bring their neck

under the yoke of the king of Babylon

and serve him. Those will I let remain

in their land, their own land. That's

the five nations as well as Israel.

That's six. And they'll till it and

dwell there.

So the first message is to the uh the u

gentile nations that are at this pack to

try and get Israel to join in a six

nation revolt against Babylon's power.

And then we come in verse 12 to King

Zedekiah. And now the Jews get the same

message.

I also spoke to Zedekiah

king of Judah according to all these

words. In other words, same thing for

you, same thing for the Jews as well as

for the Gentile nations. According to

all these words, saying, "Bring your

necks under the yoke of the king of

Babylon and serve him and his people and

live." So now in verse 12 is the Jews

supposed to do the same thing.

Why will you die?

And that your people by the sword and by

famine and by pestilence as the Lord has

spoken against the nation that will not

serve the king of Babylon. The other

nations are going to have to serve him

and so are you.

Therefore, hearken not to the words of

the prophets that speak to you, saying,

"You'll not serve the king of Babylon.

They prophesy a lie to you." That's very

important. The Jewish false prophets are

put in the same basket as the Gentile

false prophets.

Are you following me there?

The Gentile false prophets were prophets

of idols and false religion. They were

prophesying a a message, a positive

message. It needed to be a negative

message. And the Jewish false prophets

are in the same basket. For I've not

sent them. Verse 15, says the Lord. Yet

they prophesy a lie in my name that I

might drive you out that you and that ye

might perish, ye and the prophets that

prophesy to you.

So that was a shocker, wasn't it?

And then in verse 16, I spoke to the

priests and to all the people, saying,

"Thus says the Lord, hawker not to the

words of your prophets who prophesy to

you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the

Lord of the house uh shall shortly be

brought again from Babylon, for they

prophesy a lie to you." Now, that was

one thing the Jewish prophets were doing

that they were saying, "Not only are we

not going to Babylon, but the vessels

from the temple that Nebuchadnezzar took

the first time he came here are going to

come back to us." And this one prophet,

the next chapter is going to say, "Two

years, they'll all be back." Boy, was he

wrong.

God said, "Within one year, you're going

to be dead."

Within two years, nothing came back. In

fact, more went out and that prophet was

dead.

So that's what we're dealing really

serious stuff here. And God says in

verse 15, "I've not sent them, says the

Lord, yet they prophesy a lie in my name

that I might drive you out and that you

might perish. Yay. And the prophets have

prophesy unto you." And I spoke to the

priest in verse 16 to all the people

saying, "Thus says the Lord, hearken not

to the words of your prophets who

prophesy to you, saying, Behold, the

vessels of the house of the Lord shall

shortly be brought from Babylon. They

prophesy a lie to you. Hearken not to

them. Serve the king of Babylon and

live. Why should this city be laid

waste? Surrender, go to Babylon, and

serve. If but if thy they they be

prophets and if the word of the Lord be

with them, let them now make

intercession to the Lord of hosts that

the vessels which are left in the house

of the Lord and in the house of the king

of Judah and at Jerusalem go not to

Babylon.

Of course, that didn't work out. For

thus says the Lord of hosts concerning

the pillars, these are the things from

the temple, the pillars and concerning

the sea, that's that copper sea. and

concerning the bases and concerning the

residue of the vessels that remain in

this city which Nebuchadnezzar the king

took not. In other words, he didn't take

it all the first time, but he's going to

take it all the next time.

When he carried away captive Jeconiah,

the son of Jehookim, king of Judah, from

Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles

of the Judah and Jerusalem. Yes. Yay,

thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of

Israel, concerning the vessels that

remain in the house of the Lord, in the

house of the king of Judah and of

Jerusalem, they shall be carried to

Babylon, and there there shall they be

until the day I visit them, says the

Lord. Then I'll bring them up and

restore them to this place. So, it's not

that the vessels taken away the first

time are coming back. No, the vessels

that were left are going there and then

in the future they're all coming back

together. You all following me there on

that? So, the false prophets got it

totally wrong. Jeremiah got it totally

right. And it was uh uh the false

prophets were telling everybody what

they wanted to hear. Jeremiah was

telling them what they need to hear.

Isn't that why a lot of people don't

read their Bible?

They're afraid to hear something they

don't want to hear.

So, may God help us to be Bible

students. Um,

there's so many applications to this

wonderful section of scripture

and I want to emphasize application now

in the time we've got left. I know we

know this story

now that everybody's on the same page in

the same himbook. They understand what's

going on providentially by Jeremiah's

teaching.

He's um basically showing them

uh this yoke means that the nations

around my neck, everybody's going to go

to Babylon. The nation's going to serve

Babylon. We're going to be under

Babylon. And uh it's a testimony to our

helplessness in trying to break free.

And the false prophets preach what the

people wanted to hear. But Jeremiah

preached what the people needed to hear.

Isn't that what we get in the Bible?

What we need to hear, not always what we

want to hear.

So I like what Philip Reiken said. All

the political analysts were in favor of

an armed resistance. Jeremiah's style of

diplomacy was not very diplomatic. His

policy uh recommended total surrender.

Why? Because he knew what God was going

to do. What's the point of fighting?

You're going to fight God.

Now, there's a phrase that's repeated in

chapter 27 and chapter 28 and chapter 20

and my nine in the NIV Bible. It's the

Lord Almighty. The Lord Almighty. It

uses the word Lord a lot, but he uses

the word Lord Almighty in chapter 27.

It's in verse 14, 17 to 18, 19 and 21.

In chapter 28, it's in two verse 2 and

verse 14 and 29, 48, 17, and 21. I think

King James is a little bit different,

but it's the same picture. But what he's

saying is accept the consequences,

accept the yoke

there. God has worldwide sovereignty.

He's over Nebuchadnezzar. He's put

Nebuchadnezzar in control of of our us.

Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold.

And this took a lot of courage.

Uh Jeremiah wasn't exactly the most

popular person in Jerusalem. And this

didn't help his popularity, did it?

And uh Douglas Jones said this is one of

the most courageous

courageous

uh and outrageous acts of Jeremiah's

ministry. Uh it it in other words people

were deeply offended by it.

Deeply offended.

And God the creator of the universe is

administering the affairs of man. He's

in charge. He knows what's going on.

Now, what are the applications? What are

the applications?

Number one, listen.

Listen.

God says several times. Listen. He says

it in verse 9. He says it in verse 14.

He says in verse 16 and 17.

He's very clear about our responsibility

to hear what God is saying.

And he says, "Therefore, hearken not to

your prophets. Don't listen to them.

Don't listen to them. Don't hearken to

them." But he says in verse 14, "Hearken

not to the words of the prophets. Don't

listen to them." He says it again, "Stop

listening to them. Start listening to

God."

And he says it in 16 as well. Don't

listen to them. Listen to God.

Very important. Who we listen to is a

big deal.

You can almost tell what television news

outlets people watch by the positions

they take on politics. Right

now, sometimes it's because they listen

to those people because that's their

position. But, you know, people like

their own position reinforced.

But God God is saying, "Don't listen to

these people. Listen to God. Accept the

correction.

That's another lesson. Accept the

correction. Take your discipline. That's

Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, isn't it?

Uh and uh uh one of the most important

lessons is to know how to accept

correction and discipline from God.

Hebrews chapter 12. And Paul said, "I've

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

learned how to be abased and how to

abound. I I'm embracing God's

providence."

And Job said, 'The Lord gives and the

Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of

the Lord. And in another section, uh the

prophet says, "It's the Lord. Let him do

what seems to him good." What is that?

That's embracing God's sovereignty. It's

embracing God's will.

God puts limitations on our ambitions.

God blocks us sometimes and shuts doors

in our face,

to our plans, and to our goals,

to our desires. I want to do this. I

think this is best. And God boom. You

know, most of us have had enough shut

doors that our nose ought to be flat.

You know, God just shuts them right in

our face. And that's Thank God for that.

I've learned to thank God for shut

doors. I hope you have.

Uh and so shut doors are God's leading

as much as open doors.

And having hard things come into our

life or just as much as leading as good

things.

All of this is critically important.

These are good applications in this

chapter that go way beyond

uh just the chapter itself.

So I hope that we are not afraid of shut

doors. I hope we thank God for them

because apart from God's mercy, we would

have our own way and it our own way

might get us in an awful lot of trouble

real fast. Alexander McLaren said this.

If you do not take Christ for your

teacher,

you are handed over either to the

uncertainty of your own doubts or the

pinning of your faith to as some man and

enrolling yourself as a disciple who's

prepared to swallow down whole

whatsoever the rabbi may say. And so

giving to him what you will not give to

Jesus or else you'll sink back into

utter indolence and carelessness about

the whole matter. or else you will go

and put your belief and your soul into

the hands of a priest and shut your eyes

and open your mouth and take whatever

tradition may choose to send you. The

one refuge from all of these

I believe McLaren said is to go to him

and learn of him and so take his yoke

upon your shoulder.

Jesus said come to me all ye that are

heavy laden and I'll give you rest. Take

my yoke upon you and learn of me and

I'll give you rest for your souls.

That's an incredible verse. Linda Pow

got saved from that verse. She's not

here, but she did.

And many of us have learned that the

truth of that verse in our experience.

Jeremiah

stood up again. Billy wanted to kill

him. He stands up again and gives this

this message. Don't He's wearing this ox

thing around. Get under the yolk.

And

everybody's going home and telling their

wives and their kids what Jeremiah is

doing. What's he doing wearing that oxen

yolk around?

Starting a new fashion. No, he's got a

message. Another message.

What's he saying? Don't rebel against

Babylon. What? Again? Yep. Again.

In fact, you're going to Babylon and

that's what God's will is. You're going

to be under that yoke. But above Babylon

is God.

You never know what God and his

sovereignty is going to do.

May be against your desires.

What if Iran somehow would beat the

United States in this current war?

That'd be hard to take.

I wouldn't prefer that. I wouldn't

choose that. I pray against that for

many reasons.

But the United States has got a lot of

discipline coming too, right?

So, we don't know what God's going to

do. We presume God's on our side. Well,

the big thing, as Abraham Lincoln said,

the big thing is not is God on our side.

The big thing is, are we on God's side?

And so, that's what Jeremiah is trying

to say here very very very very clearly

and uh very importantly.

So,

another application is the absolute

danger of false prophets, false

teachers.

Um,

we don't just get one message. Every

generation gets two. There's people that

say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and you'll be saved." And then there's

people that doing their best under

satanic domination to pull people away

from the truth.

False prophets, false teachers

must be not only ignored

but stood up against.

Arnold Gabrieline says

every message they uttered contradicted

the word of God.

And it's the same in Christianity

today.

Arnold Babeline lived at the the 20th

century,

but it's true now as it was when he

wrote that.

Now,

what what what are we to do then? The

same thing military people do when their

when their attack is coming. They you

see it in World War II movies, World War

I movies especially. Synchronize your

watches,

right? Synchronize your watches. We

don't want one group going over

attacking and another group starting uh

at another time and all that.

Everybody's got to know what time the

attack starts and what time they're

supposed to go over.

And so we need to synchronize our

watches with God's timetable. That's a

timetable that nations are on. That's a

timetable that local churches are on.

That's a timetable that individuals are

on. That's a timetable that missionaries

are on. We are not in charge.

And sometimes God requires of us

take a stand nobody likes,

nobody wants.

But whose servants are we?

We're to be servants of the Lord.

And that means we bow ourselves to what

God is doing as well as

enabling others to do it.

Um

we get sick,

the automatic thing is Lord help me get

well.

That's normal. I think we can pray for

that.

But what if God wants us to die

at that time?

Are we smart enough to know how long

we're supposed to live?

Do we know whether our lives would be

more effective if they're cut short than

if they're longer?

I remember Lulu Oxley when she you've

heard me say this a hundred times from

this pulpit maybe a thousand

was standing right there in the hospital

when the doctor told her she had cancer

and she said God's will is my will.

Now Jeremiah was doing his best to get

the nation to say what

the deoxy say

God's will is my

and I if God if your health breaks

tomorrow or if my health breaks tomorrow

we can pray oh Lord give me my health

back so I can serve you longer. We can

do that. We should do that.

But what if it goes the other way?

and we realize

the doctors can't do anything. It's

obvious that

I'm not going to be here very long.

Well, I can still pray for God to heal

me if it's his will. But sooner or

later, we're going to have to say,

"Lord, I guess this is my time."

And if it's your time,

then it wouldn't help you or anybody

else for you to live longer.

We don't know what's good for our

family. We don't know what's good for

our church. We don't know

what's, you know, if it's God's will

that America go down. If that causes the

moral gospel to go out,

so be it. If God's will is for Athens

Bible Church to stop existing as a local

body, so be it. We're not in charge.

We should want our country to go on. We

should do our best to make our local

body go on and even flourish, but we're

not in charge of that.

Uh God is.

And there's mysteries in providence, in

there.

So, it's important for what Jeremiah was

doing. He was doing his best to

encourage the nation to accept what they

could not change.

Well, God had already revealed what he

was going to do.

And once God reveals that,

then we are to embrace that whether it's

a providential revelation

or a verbal revelation in God's word.

And it simply means to embrace the

inevitable.

One of the problems is is we don't know

what the inevitable is.

We can think we're going to die. The

doctors can think we're going to die. We

can think our church is going out of

existence. Uh and everybody might think

that. But you don't know with God,

right? You don't know. So, but the whole

point should be God's will is our will.

We want to be on the same page with God.

And

G. Campbell Morgan said, "God is forever

leading a man into some place where the

fact concerning him is forced upon his

own recognition."

What do he mean by that? He's writing on

Jeremiah 27. He means that God wants us

to see him in all the ups and downs of

life.

The most important thing is that we see

him

and we experiencing him

in the ups and in the downs.

I can do all things through Christ who

what strengthens me. I know how to be

abased. I know how to abound. I can do

all things through Christ that

strengthens me. I want you to know Paul

said that things that have happened to

me have fallen out rather to the

furtherance of the gospel.

If my death is a greater benefit to my

family or to my church or to my

community than my life, then I just want

to go.

And someday that'll be true

because there's a time to die.

Ecclesiastes 3.

There's a time to die

and it's appointed unto men once to die

and after that the judgment. There's a

time for nations to die.

There's a time for now the the church is

never going to be defeated. The gates of

hell will never prevail against the

church. But no local church has a

guarantee of being in existence till

Jesus comes. Local churches come and go.

They're a historical geographical

manifestation of the universal church in

a certain time and place.

And I've been I've been part very much a

part of two churches that stopped to

exist.

When both of them went on for 13 years

and for one reason or another that that

happened. I didn't particularly like

that.

But, you know, you embrace that.

You embrace God's will because he's

running it. And just like different

people have different lifespans. And

some people God takes them home at 20 or

30 or 40, others live to 90 or 100.

Local churches have different lifespans.

And ministries have different lifespans.

The missionaries are here for a certain

time and then they're not.

So, uh, and our health is here for a

certain time and then it's not. My

brother's got a saying, you're well

until you're not.

And it's a it's a good saying. You're

you're well until you're not. And so, at

at some point, each of us are going to

be in the not category.

And some people live in that category

for a long time, right?

But that's all God's business.

And I like what the hymnwriter said

because some people got hard assignments

with finances or health or marriages or

family.

But the himwriter said, "It will be

worth it all

when we see Jesus.

It'll be worth it all when we see

Christ.

So Jeremiah had a ministry. It wasn't

appreciated,

but he he was saving them from

themselves. This whole idea that we're

going to fight Babylon and be victorious

was a bad idea. It's the kind of thing

that seemed like a good idea at the

time.

But how many things that you did in your

youth that seemed like a good idea that

turned out not to be a very good idea?

And basically God said, "No, this is not

the program."

It was the program. So we'll pick it up

there. That's chapter 27 as Jeremiah

goes through the different groups, the

the ambassadors from the foreign kings

and then Israel itself. and uh and uh

he's going to go clear up to the king of

Zedekiah.

And in chapter 28, he has to face

false prophet who's going to do his best

to stand up to Jeremiah. And we'll deal

with that one, Lord willing, next week.

And this was a face-to-face knockdown,

dragout confrontation.

And Hananiah

had a better name than he had a better

life. And so we will look at him next

time. Father, we thank you for this

escalator

at the end of the Old Testament

theocratic kingdom

in history

is taking us up from the Old Covenant to

the new covenant.

We're so such slow learners.

We would have never understood the new

covenant and the value of it if we

didn't see the old covenant

and the difficulties of it or fallen

man.

So help us, Lord, to learn these lessons

from the book of Jeremiah.

And when we get to chapters 30 and 31,

to be so appreciative

of the new covenant that we're under

through Jesus Christ,

not to completely fulfill it, Israel

will do that in the future,

but to partake of it ahead of time

because of our relationship with Jesus.

and in his name we pray. Amen.

Thank you,

Lord. 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 well to a sin

darkened world as we go from this place.