Repent and Avoid God’s Wrath | Jeremiah 26 | Pastor William Hixson

Lord in prayer as we come to this

portion of his word. Father, we thank

you for the those that have stayed with

us for a long journey

through a long book of the Bible.

And we ask your blessing on this class

and blessing on our efforts to hear you

uh not just for what happened long ago

but for what needs to happen now in the

lives of those around us and in our own

lives.

Jesus name. Amen.

Jeremiah 26.

This particular chapter of Jeremiah

is very significant

for a few reasons.

Number one,

when we come when we will have finished

chapter 26, we will be at the halfway

point to a very large book of the Bible.

I have taught through this book before

all the way through. And I really didn't

intend to do it this this time, but it

just worked out that way. We just kept

going, kept going. And we are halfway

through the 52 chapters

of Jeremiah.

And if you've been with us, that's quite

an accomplishment to

see a book of the Bible this large and

see it in its context

and to just think about after tonight,

we'll be halfway through. Now I know the

chapter divisions are man-made

but approximately we will be halfway

through

whenever I'm privileged to be on an

airplane overnight or those those kind

of flights are especially challenging.

Uh they've got movies to watch on the

little screen. They've got uh games to

play,

but it and I've tried to wa once in a

while I'll watch an old movie or play a

game.

But basically, I don't really care for

that. I just like to watch where the

plane is and where it's going. That's

what I do all night. Okay. And uh it

always goes slower than I think it

should go, but I I I tend to watch it.

It's always a significant moment in the

middle of the night when you know I'm

halfway where I'm going a halfway.

It's all you know we've crossed that

halfway point and that's what we've done

with this book

and I'm thankful for those that made the

journey with us and I trust that this

particular chapter will be a great

blessing.

Now a second reason this is significant

is

that chapter 26

refers back to chapter 7

and a message that was preached then

the famous temple sermon.

And this is not just a recopying of

everything of that sermon. You'd have to

go back to chapter 7 and see all of that

to get to get through this.

But here the emphasis is not on the

sermon itself, but on the reaction

to the sermon.

Uh, and we're going backwards in

chronology. We're slipping back uh a

little bit to pick up this. And so the

book is flashing back and referring to

that temple court sermon and referring

to the problems that result from

Jeremiah's preaching.

They didn't they didn't like it then.

They don't like it. They didn't haven't

like it since.

And we're going back to 609 BC.

We're going back to three months before

King Josiah

to be killed and his successor deported

and Jehoachin on the on the throne.

Now what's going to happen here? A third

thing

is that Jeremiah is almost going to lose

his life.

He comes very close to losing his life.

People are calling for his death.

Now, I preached some sermons people

didn't like, and I'm not sure anyone's

ever said, "Let's drag him out and

execute him." But, uh, there is this is

basically what's going on here.

And the emphasis here in chapter 26, it

gives a a very brief synopsis of the

sermon, but it spends its time on the

reaction

to the sermon.

You know, the sermon's not done when the

preacher stops.

What do you do with it? What do the

hearers do with it?

We don't want to be like the people in

Isaiah. You got ears but you don't hear.

And so uh here is a interesting section

of scripture.

The react it emphasizes the reaction to

the sermon.

Now sometimes I thought I did a good

job. That was a good sermon and people

are very mad. Sometimes somebody very

upset. Other times I thought I messed up

on that and God used it. So the preacher

is not really a good judge of his own

messages.

Uh and but we certainly don't want to we

don't want to be the kind of people that

always want to have a pleasing message

that's acceptable to fallen men. Men

love darkness rather than light because

their deeds are evil.

They won't come to the light that their

deeds be reproved. Right? And a good

sermon is going to shine the light in

the darkness.

And uh like roaches, they they prefer

the dark.

And uh so this is the picture here. And

it's an important picture

and there's so many good lessons from

it. I I it's it's hard to know where to

spend your time. But anyway, let's get

started. You will probably remember some

of the

you sections from the pre his previous

the previous section of

in chapter 7 of the temple sermon.

In the beginning of the reign of

Jehookim, the son of Josiah, king of

Judah, came this word from the Lord,

saying, "Thus says the Lord, stand in

the court of the Lord's house, and speak

unto all the cities of Judah, which come

to worship in the Lord's house, all the

words that I command thee, to speak to

them, diminish not a word."

We're going to go back to that one.

diminish.

Not a word. I'm reading from the King

James.

In other words, don't trim the sermon.

Don't chickenen out.

Deliver it as it's given to you.

And when he says diminish not a word,

he's not talking about cutting the sh

sermon shorter

uh just because of time's sake.

He's talking about the temptation

for every prophet or every preacher

to soften the message or dilute the

message or simply chicken out and not

give all the message

that God has wanted you to give.

responding to the hostility

in the crowd and the faces on the people

you're preaching to and wanting to trim

the sermon.

And we're going to get to that. This

diminish not a word is the same word of

cutting a beard. You're trimming your

beard.

So he says, "Don't trim the sermon down.

Don't shave the sermon.

whatever I tell you, that's what you

that's but you got to pass that on all

of it.

And so God said that

because God knew

that what he was telling him to say was

going to be hard for him to say.

Christians sometimes have to do this.

Pastors sometimes have to do this.

Fathers have to sometimes do this.

Mothers have to do this. You've got to

speak to people you love

in a way

that doesn't avoid

a hard truth that they don't want to

hear.

And so that's what this is all about.

And Jeremiah has his instructions.

Diminish not over.

If so be they will hearken and turn

every man from his evil way, that I may

repent of the evil which I purposed to

do to them because of the evil of their

doings.

This verse talks about God repenting.

That's a shock.

And so it it doesn't mean God's doing a

bad thing here. The word evil means a

calamity, a judgment that's coming on

that God's basically saying, "If they

listen to this sermon and they repent

and they hear what I've say,

I'm going to hold off

on what I'm planning to do."

So, this was a serious moment.

It was a very serious moment.

And thou shalt say to them, thus says

the Lord,

if ye will not hearken to me to walk in

my law, which I've set before you, to

hearken to the words of my servants, the

prophets whom I sent to you, both rising

up early and sending them, but you've

not hearkened.

The word hearken means to listen or to

hear.

I've sent him, but you're not hearing

it.

Everybody Everybody hearing my voice has

maybe been in this situation many times

with someone. It's not necessarily a

spiritual situation. It's whatever kind

of situation. Somebody's mind is made up

to do something or to look at something

a certain way. It may be political. It

may be financial. It may be uh

relational. They've got a plan and

they're they're married to their plan

and you come in and try to warn them.

You try to encourage them. You try to

slow them up. You try to uh deal with

them about this, but they're not hearing

it.

You've already made their minds up.

So, they're not really listening to

listen.

They're hearing your words.

They know what you're saying,

but they're past the point of wanting to

have you talk to them about anything.

Don't confuse me with the facts. My

mind's made up.

That that kind of thing.

And so

uh what what God is saying in verse

four, thou shalt say to them, thus says

the Lord, if you will not hearken to me

to walk in the law which I've set before

you to hearken or to listen to the words

of my servants, the prophets whom I sent

to you, both rising up early, sending

them but you have not hearkened. So

God's referring back to a long line of

prophets

of which Jeremiah is just the latest uh

one.

So you listen or you don't. If you don't

learn the easy way by listening, you'll

learn the hard way.

And God says in verse six, "Then will I

make this house, that's the temple, like

Shiloh."

Shiloh is where the tabernacle was

that was no longer in service

because God's referring back to the fact

that, you know, when the Jews came out

of Egypt, the first center of worship

was Shiloh.

And God put judgment on that because

they weren't listening.

Then I'll make this house like Shiloh.

On this house I'll make this temple like

Shiloh. And I'll make this city a curse

all the nations of the earth. A city

that's supposed to be a blessing to all

the nations of the earth. I will make a

curse to all the nations of the earth.

That's a sermon.

Now, one of the problems with theocracy,

and the Old Testament did have a

theocracy, Old Testament theocracy

is that patriotism

gets mixed in with spiritual things.

Right?

So, in America, we have a separation of

church and state for a reason. because

in a fallen world

uh government and spiritual things uh

get very complicated.

And so God made it very clear what he's

going to do.

And uh he made it very clear why he's

going to do it.

And so in verse seven, so the priests,

where were they centered at? Jerusalem

primarily. And the prophets, where were

they? Jerusalem

and all the people heard Jeremiah

speaking these words in the house of the

Lord.

So basically in their minds Jeremiah is

an intruder. Who are you to come in here

and say what you're saying?

That's exactly the u situation Jesus was

in when he went in and cleaned up the

temple.

Who do you think you are?

This is our place.

Who are you to say we're doing wrong?

And so that's what's going on.

So basically, we have in these verses a

a a repetition of the sermon of chapter

7.

And but then the big emphasis in this

chapter is not the sermon itself. we see

back in chapter seven, but in the

reaction to the truth of the sermon,

which was not a good reaction.

I get allergy shots. I had three of them

this morning. And I have to sit there

for a half hour to see if there's a

reaction.

And there's a little one. I got a little

itching here in this arm. I got some

itching in this arm. But that's pretty

mild. But there's not enough for them to

give the shot. They want to monitor

whatever reaction is to that shot. And

fortunately, the shots are working. I'm

I am feeling much better.

Not perfect, but much much better.

So Jeremiah Jeremiah has the sermon,

but the sermon is one thing. Uh the

reaction to the sermon is a another

thing.

And it's that reaction that we're going

to emphasize in the rest of the chapter.

So we have the sermon, a reference to

the sermon. We know more what that is if

you go back and read chapter 7

and then we have this reaction to the

sermon.

Now again, we're halfway through the

book.

And my original purpose in going through

the book was at least to just touch on

some things until we got to chapter 31

because that's the great new covenant

chapter

and that has that has effects at the end

of history for the Jewish people. The

old covenant didn't work. You're too

sinful. You can't cut it. So we have a

new covenant.

And so in that new covenant as a basis,

we share in the new covenant because of

our relationship to Jesus Christ who

inaugurated it. We share in it ahead of

time even though we're Gentiles mostly.

And we call it the new testament.

This is the blood of the New Testament

in my blood.

And so what is what is going on here is

very very important

uh to us in the church age. It will be

going on in chapter 31 which we'll be

getting to fairly soon if the Lord

carries. It's also important to Israel

because basically they couldn't keep the

old covenant. They needed God to do a

heart work,

put the law in their heart.

And so all of that is involved here.

So let's get started and let's start

gleaning some lessons from this chapter

and hopefully we'll take some things

home with us besides the the big

picture.

Number one,

the importance of teaching

the whole wh

word of God.

Many churches are clipping the beard.

They avoid things that are

controversial.

They avoid things that are going to

upset people.

And basically here it says don't trim

the message. Don't do it.

Warren Wesby said false prophets

preached what the people wanted to hear.

Jeremiah preached what they needed to

hear.

It's good, isn't it?

And we need the whole council of God.

The Apostle Paul will say in Acts 20,

"I'm free from the blood of all men, for

I've not shunned, declare to you the

whole council of God."

So the Apostle Paul in his time with the

Ephesians did not

he didn't trim the beard of the message.

He didn't cut it short. not going to

teach on that. They might get mad. They

might get upset. He taught it all.

He taught it all in the time he was

there.

And so,

uh, doesn't Jesus say, "Teaching them to

observe all things, whatever I've

commanded you." Well, you can't teach

others all things if you don't know the

all things.

Nobody's got to teach you the all things

for you to teach the all things. We're

responsible to disciple people and give

them the whole council of God. But if we

don't know the whole council of God, we

can't pass on what we don't have.

Pastor Oball's famous statement, and

I've passed it on before, he uh was

going off for the Brill Cream commercial

in the 50s where they'd sing the song

Brill Cream, a little dab will do you.

And that's exactly what some preachers

uh a little dab will do you. We're not

going to really get too serious about

teaching the whole council of God,

especially the harder things where

Christians disagree on and maybe get

their feathers ruffled.

We won't do that.

We won't teach on the more difficult

things like predestination

or security of the believer or

different views of prophecy or

all there's all kinds of ores in there.

There's a lot of stuff. There's a long

list that you can get a crowd of people

that might disagree on this that and the

other thing. So you tiptoe around

anything that's going to make somebody

upset and you just teach where things

everybody's going to agree on. That's

not biblical. That's not a good thing.

It's not a good church. Sorry. It's not.

If you got to grow a church that way,

you are not growing it a biblical way.

You gota you got to be willing as a

pastor and may it be true for whoever

follows me of Jesus terries. You got to

be willing to lose people as well as get

people.

You got to be willing to upset people as

well as bless people.

The word of God cuts. It's a double.

It's a two-edged sword. Ephesians chap

Ephesians Hebrews 4:12.

Hebrews 4:12

And so we have to let that process

go. And Jeremiah is attacked

in the temple

because of his refusal

to trim the message.

God told him not to trim it. He didn't

trim it.

And uh

Jeremiah's message was an offensive

attack on the temple crowd

who'd been listening to false teachers.

It's awfully hard when you've been

indoctrinated by false teaching to hear

the truth.

false teaching uh false teaching

vaccinates you

to keep you from hearing the truth.

It doesn't the truth doesn't sound like

the truth anymore. You're listening to

this cultist, that cultist, or this

crazy liberal person or that other kind

of false teacher and

you you you've got the other things in

your head and it's hard to cut that out.

It's a self delusion.

Now, the false theology that preceded

Jeremiah, and you got to know what that

is, the false teachers were saying,

"This city's never going to get

destroyed. This is God's city. This

temple's never going to get destroyed.

This is God's temple."

Who do you That's this. And so in their

minds, the false teachers minds, they

were giving people a false security.

And the false prophets

proclaimed and encouraged a false

security. It's a false theology that

produced a false confidence.

Now, anybody that studied history

knows about the the Mageno line in

France. Anybody

remember what that was all about?

>> Yeah, I'm probably mispronouncing the

word because my friend I've had one year

high school friends and I really blew

that.

>> Yeah, whatever it is. But it was a line

of fortifications, stone fortifications

of pill boxes and machine guns and all

kinds of stuff that were meant to keep

the German people out from invading

France. And they spent years on that.

They spent years on that from 1929,

right after the first world war, France

says, "We don't want any more Germans

attacking us." to the to 1936.

And they thought it's impregnable.

Nobody can get past this. The Germans

over there, we're down here. We got the

We got the Majino line.

We're secure.

You know what Hitler did in his armies?

went through.

>> They just bypassed it. Went through

Belgium. Just bypassed the whole thing

and came in and conquered France. What?

A couple of weeks. It wasn't long.

>> 14 days.

Good historian.

So yeah, the Germans, they went through

Belgium and they they just that that

that line of defense extended from uh

from Switzerland to Luxembourg and they

thought they had an impregnable

uh defense, but they got flanked. They

just they just went around it. Conquered

Belgium first and then came into France.

So their security,

the French security was a false

security.

It's like having your front door locked

and your side door locked and you think

you're secure from a burglar coming in,

but you left your back door wide open.

You don't know that. You had thought

about that. You think about checking

So what was going on here is the false

teachers

had embraced this idea

that

was counter not only to Jeremiah but

previous prophecies about the

destruction of Jerusalem from other

prophets.

And they pedled that to the people and

the people had heard it so long

they believed it.

And so the false teaching was embedded

to the point that true true teaching

when it was heard was despised

and counted wrong and dangerous.

You remember Paul said to the

Corinthians, "Am I become your enemy

because I told you the truth?

They were listening to the lies so long

the truth that Paul was speaking sounded

foreign to them

and they become suspicious of Paul.

So there's a couple of things here right

away. the importance of the whole

council of God which includes the

warning passages

and and separation from false religion

and false teaching as well as other

things

and uh not just a teaching that's

partial or peace meal or uh so forth and

the importance of learning the lessons

of history.

You got to know something of history,

Bible history.

The northern kingdom had already been

taken into exile.

They ignored what God said. So the 10

northern tribes are gone.

And the people in the south aren't they

think they're going to be we got the

temple. We're in Jerusalem. We're not

like them.

So the importance of learning the

lessons of history. Henry Ford said

history is just one blank thing after

another. Remember that famous quote. I

won't give you the blank.

He didn't have much use for it.

But if you if you don't know history,

you'll repeat the mistakes that were

made before. Right? There's famous

quotes on that too.

the importance of having a sense of

history. But for many people, history is

a very irrelevant subject. Uh they're

locked into

what they consider the most important

time. So the South became isolated,

gullible, naive, and manipulated

by false teachers. Just like the West in

America has been manipulated by false

philosophies. They don't see the bigger

picture

and they're making some false

connections.

The false teachers are using what

happened to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem

100 years before this as a reason why

Jerusalem and the city can't fall. But

Hezekiah was a good king and they don't

and they're running out of good kings.

Josiah is the last good king. The next

five are going to be bad kings.

And uh this is a uh the God has already

destroyed a place of worship before

Shiloh. That should tell the people that

this interpretation

is biblically

uh confused.

So the sins of the people are a fact of

history.

And if they'd known their own history or

the history of the north and the history

of their own, they would have seen

through it.

And so the importance knowing the Bible

and knowing Bible history and knowing

the importance there

it says in Matthew 16 the gates of hell

will not prevail against the church.

That's truth. That is true.

But that's that's talking about the

universal church. It's not talking about

any one local church. Local churches

come and go. Right?

Local churches come and go. Good

churches come and go.

You look in church history,

you know, it's it's a rare church that

it it keeps going and going and going

and going and going going for hundreds

of years.

And if you look in Revelation 2 and 3,

God would Jesus said, "I'm going to

remove your land lampstand if you don't

watch out." No local local church is uh

should expect uh some exemption from

going out of business.

uh and and and that that going out of

business is not always a bad thing.

Sometimes God's done the work he wants

to do at that place and that uh and

God's moving on so for whatever reason.

But the point is this

you you nobody should have a false

you want a true security. I believe in

the security of the believer. I don't

believe in the security of the

professor.

that lives a wicked life.

So these are these are important lessons

and good lessons that transcend where we

are. So the third thing is a knowledge

of the Bible and history that's broadly

based. People need to know their Bible.

They need to know their history.

Let's not let other people do our study

for us.

Let's be sure we check it out ourselves.

The Roman Catholics of many times let

the priest do their study for them. I

don't need to know the Bible. The priest

will tell me whatever I need to go. I'm

not saying all of them do that. I'm

saying some of them do that. But when

the religious leader goes off, then

what's what you're depending on who?

Somebody else to do all that for you.

And when religious leaders go off, how

you going to know they go off if you

don't know your Bible?

you won't

you have a false confidence

and and so in verse 8 and N there's

people had a vested interest they they

believe what they wanted to believe

because that was their security blanket

were in Jerusalem or better than those

other people and uh so it says in verse

8 now it came to pass when Jeremiah had

ceased speaking all the men all that the

Lord The Lord commanded him to speak to

all the people that the priests and the

prophets and all the people took him,

saying, "You shall surely die.

You're a false prophet, Jeremy Jeremiah.

We're going to execute you."

That's what they did in the Old

Testament, the false prophets.

So, they're calling a true prophet

a false prophet.

And notice who's behind it.

The people are behind it. The priests

are behind it. And the prophets are

behind it. The people that lived in

Jerusalem, the prophets that were

prophesying in Jerusalem, and the

priests that were working in Jerusalem.

Why have you prophesied in the name of

the Lord, saying, "This house shall be

like Shiloh, and this city shall be

desolate without an inhabitant." And all

the people were gathered against

Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. So

this really got heated pretty fast.

Now remember the false prophets had a

vested interest in this. They wanted to

keep telling people everything's good.

Everything's good. Keep people in the

city to keep the money coming in to

them. And the priest did as well.

And so um

uh and by the way the prophets and the

priests were considered the what? The

experts

the experts.

These people know what we don't know.

You remember the few elections past

there was a candidate for president that

talked about climate change and how

everything's going to be so bad in so

many years and we have to do it now.

Uh Al Gore was no prophet. Let me just

put it that way.

It hasn't happened. He said it's going

to happen. And there's a generation of

young people that don't want to get

married, don't want to have kids because

they believe what he said.

But Alar is no prophet. And neither is

any other politician, Republican or

Democrat, by the way.

But that's just a dramatic

thing about it that illustration.

So as we think about this um people in

high places can be sincerely wrong,

misinform themsel, deceive themsel.

um

professional pride

and looking at people who differ from

them and differ from their colleagues as

outsiders who are endangering our place

rather than maybe there's something new

to that.

So let's watch what happens. Verse 10.

When the princes of Judah heard these

things, then they came up from the

king's house to the house of the Lord

and sat down in the entrance of the new

gate of the Lord's city. Now, the

princes of Judah deals with the royalty,

and they're they're they're not involved

in this the way the prophets and priests

were, but they came and sat down in the

in the gate of the city. That's where

the trials take place. Then spoke the

priests and the prophets to the princes.

says, "Get a bunch of P's here. The the

priests and the prophets and the

princes." And so the priests and the

prophets were the ones that were wrong.

And the princes were those that were

they didn't have a dog in this fight, at

least in their minds. And they're

hearing it for the first time. And they

said, "This man is worthy to die for

he's prophesied against this city. Of

all things, he's prophet against this

city. This is the holy city.

as you've heard with your ears.

And so they're doing their best to

pollute the minds of the princes of the

city to get Jeremiah executed.

Kind of sounds like the Sanhedrin

for Pilate in Jesus's day.

Uh, I love this section.

Jeremiah

responds to this.

It's very interesting how he responds.

Then spoke Jeremiah to all the princes

and all the people, saying, "The Lord

sent me to prophesy against this."

and against this city. All the words

you've heard.

Don't get mad at me. Take it up with

God.

Therefore, now amend your ways and your

doings and obey the voice of the Lord

your God, and the Lord will repent or

change his actions of the evil of the

calamity that he has pronounced against

you. you need to repent. You're the ones

that are wrong. I'm the prophet of the

Lord. And he just he owned it.

And as for me, behold, I'm in your hand.

Do with me as seems good and right to

you. If you want to kill me, kill me.

And he made clear who he was.

Now, he could have done himself a bigger

favor there.

He was acting like a true prophet.

True pastors, true Christians, we we

know what the truth is. We stand for it

whether we live or die. And we're not so

much concerned about ourself as the

truth of God that will continue in other

people's lives.

We're not trying to make a name for

oursel. We're not trying to be popular.

We're not trying to be have everybody

like us. We're simply trying to do one

thing. give out the word of God.

And Jeremiah does that beautifully. And

he really wasn't concerned about whether

they killed him or not. He was concerned

about whether the truth got out or not.

Because now you got a situation where

truth is being confronted with error.

And the truth is being confronted with

error in people in high places.

What are the high places today?

politicians,

college professors,

>> huh,

>> popes, you know, there's all kind

pastors in in churches that are not

teaching the truth.

And some people measure things in the

wrong way and they overestimate the

quality of these other individuals as

they were doing then.

And so Jeremiah says, "But as for me,

I'm in your hand. Do what you seems good

and right to you." Verse 15. But know

for certain that if you put me to death,

you do it, you put me to death, you will

surely bring innocent blood on yourself.

God will hold you accountable for it.

Now, Jeremiah wasn't claiming

sinlessness, but he was claiming what?

I'm doing the right thing. You're doing

the wrong thing.

And you're executing me for being a

false prophet when I'm not.

And on this, you're bringing innocent

blood on yourselves, on this city, and

on its inhabitants. For of the truth,

the Lord has sent me to speak all these

words to you in your ears. What a

beautiful defense.

Not defending himself, willing to die.

They b they say, I I'm not concerned

about my life. I'm concerned about the

truth maintaining itself in this city.

There's something wrong here and I'm

pointing it out.

And you know that worked.

It worked.

Then said the princes, verse 16, and all

the people unto the priest and to the

prophets, "This man's not worthy to die.

He's spoken to us in the name of the

Lord." The people just 180ed

falling for his death and then now now

they're 180 and that boldness was

beautiful.

And Charles Fineberg says of Jeremiah,

nowhere in the book does Jeremiah appear

better.

This was a high moment.

And the princes saw that the prophets

and priests uh uh they saw what the

prophets and priests were missing.

And it gets really interesting here,

kind of exciting here.

So in verse 16, then said the princes

and all the people unto the priests and

to the prophets, this man's not worthy

to die, for he spoken to us in the name

of the Lord our God. Then rose up

certain of the elders of the land and

spoke to all the assembly of the people,

saying,"Now these elders have been

quiet. Now they get into it. Jeremiah's

not doing anything that Micah the

prophet didn't do before him 100 years

ago, and it's in our Bible.

Jeremiah's being biblical. What's the

matter with you?" And they're quoting

Micah

Micah 3:12

3:12,

which is incredible because it shows us

that the book of Micah was in the Bible

at this time. You can't quote something

that's not there. And that Micah was a

legitimate historical person that lived

a hundred years before this.

And so in verse 17, then rose up certain

of the elders of the land and spoke to

all the assembly and people, saying,

Micah the Moresite, the Morashite

prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king

of Judah, and spoke to all the people,

saying, Thus shall the Lord of host.

Zion shall be plowed like a field, and

Jeremiah shall and Jerusalem shall

become heaps, and the mountain of the

house like the high places in the

forest.

And that's exactly what Micah 3:12 says.

Micah 3:12

Now, why did these people know? Why were

they able to stand up? They knew their

Bible.

They knew their Bible. The book of

Michael was written and they've been

reading it and they and and and that's

the protection against false movements

and false teachings. Know the word of

God.

And then it goes on, did Hezekiah, king

of Judah, at all Judah, put him at all

to death?

Did he not fear the Lord and besought

the Lord? And the Lord repented of the

evil he pronounced against them, thus

might we procure great evil against our

souls.

In other words, they didn't kill Micah.

Yeah, but Hezekiah was a good king. He's

a godly king.

And so the point is we have a legal

precedent for prophets telling us what

we don't like to hear.

We have a legal precedent for prophets

predicting the destruction of this city

and this temple. Jeremiah is not the

first.

It's already been done. We know Micah

was a prophet. So you have no grounds to

execute Jeremiah for doing the same

thing Micah did 100 years ago.

This is what Jeremiah is doing is not

unprecedented, unbiblical, and to propag

prophesy against this city. It's been

done before. And we've got a biblical

and historical example

in Micah.

What this did, it totally undermined

The accusation by the prophets and

priests against Jeremiah just popped

their balloon, took all the gas out of

it and everybody switched sides

and they were left with egg on their

face.

You know, sometimes we think we have to

defend ourselves and I'm not saying it's

wrong in certain times we do. But God

has other ways of defending us and other

people besides ourselves.

So let's be true to God's word and do

what we're supposed to do and let God

take care of all things. So three points

so far. The importance of the whole

council of God, knowing history

uh and uh not the sanitized uh version

of it or the uh the kind that uh is

distorted. knowing history, true

history, and having a uh a picture of of

the importance of knowing the scriptures

and what's gone before us. Not it's not

safe to be ignorant of the history of

the Bible history. It's not safe because

false teachers can come and detract.

So

um

fourth lesson,

prophets can't do it alone.

Pastors can't do it alone. Preachers

can't do it alone. Missionaries can't do

it alone. It takes other people

to amen what they're doing, to back up

what they're doing.

And that's what we have here. So people

were switching sides. We need something

more than bold preachers.

Preachers need the support of their

local church and other ministry. So the

whole church is behind it. And we're

saying that's got our support. That's

what was going on here. And it was a

tremendous moment.

Tremendous moment. Now it goes on. I've

got to hurry because I'm almost done. I

want to I want to say a couple other

things.

Uh

verse 20, there was also a man who

prophesied in the name of the Lord,

Uriah, the son of Shamayiah of Keroth

Jarim, who prophesied against this city

and against this land according to all

the words of Jeremiah. He's bringing

somebody in besides Micah. In other

words, Micah is not the only one.

There's this other guy. And apparently,

they all knew him. We don't know him,

but he was there. There were prophets

who were writing prophets and some were

just speaking prophets. And when

Jehookim, the king with all his mighty

men and princes heard the his words, the

king sought to put him to death. But

when Uriah heard it, he was afraid and

fled and went into Egypt. So people have

been upset before that prophet had to

run out of town. And Jehoakim the king

sent men to Egypt, namely El Nathan, the

son of Akmar, and certain men with him

into Egypt. They fetched Uriah out of

Egypt, brought him to Johakim, the king,

who slew him with the sword and cast his

dead body into a burial place of a

common people. Nevertheless, the hand of

Ahaikim, the son of Shaan, was with

Jeremiah that they should not give him

into the hand of the people to put him

to death. So, Hikam's a very interesting

individual. That's a family that's Hayam

was official under Josiah. His brother

was Gariah. His son was Gataliah in this

book of fine family. Now let's close

this out a little bit.

Um

Shiloh was not far from Jerusalem.

Shiloh had been destroyed.

People could see the evidence of it

themselves.

God had done it before

and therefore the whole argument of

false teachers was false on its face.

And um being a false prophet, which

Jeremiah's enemies were, was punishable

by death according to the law of Moses.

Deuteronomy 18:20. It wasn't Jeremiah

Deuteronomy 18:20

that needed to die. It was the prophets

that were calling for his death.

and making false prophecies that

Jerusalem couldn't be destroyed.

So, history hasn't changed much, has it?

Uh, you think Athens Bible Church is the

most popular church in town?

You think any church that teaches the

Bible in this county is going to be real

popular?

Not.

So we have to learn

to take it

um and

expect it and teach the whole council of

God regardless. Jesus said in John 16 to

the apostles verse two, "The time's

coming when those that kill you will

think they're doing God a service."

So things haven't changed too much, have

they?

Doug Jones says, "Chapter 26 is less

concerned with the content of Jeremiah's

sermon than the way it divided his

audience."

Uh, you can go through the book of Acts

and see how crowds were divided when

Paul preached or Peter preached.

It's very interesting.

Kylin Dich in their writings on Jeremiah

entitled this section the accusation and

acquitt

of Jeremiah.

The accusation and acquitt of Jeremiah.

That's a pretty good synopsis of it.

Jeremiah's only crime was he preached

the word of God. May that be my only

crime and your only crime. May people

find that may they find fault with this.

Those people are too serious about the

Bible. Okay, we'll take that. We'll take

that. We'll wear that. May it be true.

May it be true.

And uh

so God help us.

It's fascinating when God's judgments

come. Sometimes it's on a local church

as we saw in Revelation 2 and three.

Sometimes it's on a false religion. When

I was traveling uh in the Middle East

with Andrea last year, we found a mosque

that had been turned into a church. That

was fun.

Often it's the other way around.

We and I actually went in that church

and actually had interesting time in

there.

Um,

so Jeremiah's defenders came up with a

perfect legal precedent that he was

innocent, shouldn't be executed, and the

false teachers had left with red faces.

One more lesson before we close.

When I was reading this, I was reading

it, studying this week all week in the

NIV study Bible. And I noticed, and

that's according to the NIV Study Bible,

the word listen and heard were used over

and over and over again.

Listen in verse three, four, and five.

Heard in verse 7, 10, 11, 12, and 20,

and 21. and hearing in verse 15.

It's very interesting.

The point is

the point is the pe prophets uh uh the

prophets and the people they heard the

message but they didn't listen to the

they heard the message but they didn't

listen to the meaning of the message.

It wasn't that the acoustics were bad

and Jeremiah couldn't be heard. They

heard what he said. They didn't like

what he said.

They heard what he said. They could even

repeat what he said. They repeated it in

verse 11 and they used it against him.

But they didn't get the point.

They didn't get the lesson.

There was no submission. There was no

repentance.

Why? Because another message had taken

all the room in their heart. Temple

can't be destroyed. Jerusalem can't be

destroyed and we can live however we

want and we can do whatever we want and

we've got a get out of jail free card.

Now what was interesting to me as I all

these exhortations to listen and to hear

we see those repeated in chapter 27

verse 9-11 and 14- 15 and 16-1 17

chapter 29:8

chapter 29 and 20 chapter 32 32 and 33

in other words there seems to be

something going on in these chapters

the people are called to listen,

but they're not listening.

They're not listening. The reason God

calls them to listen and listen and

listen is they're not listening.

May that not be true of us.

May we be pliable. May we be sensitive.

May we uh let God's word change us and

challenge us and sanctify us and convict

us.

and do its work in us. Because if we

don't, the alternative isn't neutrality.

The alternative is satanic lies,

cultural deviation of this world, false

interpretations of reality come pouring

in.

It's either hear what God says. Listen,

it comes down to the first the third

chapter of the Bible. Either you're

listening to the serpent or you're

listening to God.

>> Either you're listening to the serpent

or you're listening to God.

That's the alternative.

Father, thank you for the time we spent

together today. challenge us and change

us with your word as we move through

these very now we're getting into

extremely important sections of

Jeremiah. Bless us as we study it, not

just as something long ago, but

something that's very pertinent to our

very lives today,

especially since we're under the new

covenant.

In Jesus name, amen. Amen.

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 to a sin darkened

world as we go from this place.