The Prophet Discouraged by His Own People | Jeremiah 20 | Pastor William Hixson

in Jeremiah.

Call your attention to Jeremiah chapter

Jeremiah 20 · chapter mention

20.

Jeremiah chapter 20.

Jeremiah 20 · chapter mention

Jeremiah is going to be faced with a bit

of persecution here

and it's going to get kind of rough for

him.

But God has good purposes even in times

of persecution when his people are

persecuted. The early church had it. Uh

the uh

reformers had it. Uh there's always been

times of persecution and often God does

some of his greatest work there. And

this was a persecution started by the

leader in the temple.

And

it all came from the message that

Jeremiah preached. If you remember

chapter chapter 8 18 and 19 and the

broken vessel, broken pottery and God is

talking about the judgment coming on the

nation.

Well,

because of all the idolatry in the city

of Jerusalem and in the temple in

Jerusalem.

Now, a fellow by the name of Pasure,

he didn't like that.

And if you get a Bible dictionary,

there's several pastors in the Bible. It

must have been a very common name. I'm

guessing five or six. I can't remember.

But this man had a position

in the temple. He was kind of like the

temple police. He was in charge of of

keeping things in order.

And as far as he was concerned, Jeremiah

was out of order and deserved to be put

in his place.

So let's pick it up in chapter 20.

Now Pasher, the son of Amir, the priest,

who was also chief governor in the house

of the Lord. There's different ways

that's translated in different Bibles,

but this man was in a position of

authority

uh to maintain order and make sure

things were not being done in the temple

that shouldn't be done.

But strangely enough, he had no interest

in stopping the idolatry or uh siding

with Jeremiah in being against the

idolatry that was in Jerusalem and in

the temple. And so in his mind, Jeremiah

needed to be eliminated

and everything would be better if he was

gone.

So it says, "Now Pashia, the son of

Amir, the priest, who was also chief

governor in the house of the Lord,

heard that Jeremiah prophesied these

things." And that goes back to chapter

18 and 19. Remember we said 18:1, 19,

and 20 are a unit. They're to be studied

together. So he didn't like the the

prophesied of Jeremiah and all the

negativity against the city and the

people and exposure of the uh idolatry

and so forth and the coming of judgment.

Then Pashure smoked

Jeremiah.

Now whether he hit him himself or

whether he had some temple guards hit

him, Jeremiah now for the first time

for the first time

that we know of experiences violence on

his person

if he experienced he he experienced a

threat of violence in his hometown.

But as far as we know, this is the first

time he actually got a black eye or a

busted lip or a stomach ache from a

punch to the belly or whatever they did

to him.

So it says,

pardon me, then Pastor smoked Jeremiah

the prophet and put him in the stocks

that were in the high gate of Benjamin,

which was by the house of the Lord.

Now, what do you think of when you think

of the stocks? You think of somebody on

their knees and their heads through the

wood and their hands are out here or

something. Uh something like that. But

these stocks were a little bit

different. They were meant to torture

you. They were meant to put your body in

a contortion, your arms and your legs

and your back, and you'd have to be

there in that same position without

being able to move.

So, it was actually the rack, and put it

that way.

So, not only has Jeremiah

got the bruises from being smitten,

pardon me, my taking cough drops of

water, but my allergies are not

cooperating.

Not only has Jeremiah

been smitten,

but he spent the whole day chained up at

night. kind of like Paul in Acts 16,

chained to the wall.

And so,

and it came to pass on the next day that

Passure brought forth Jeremiah out of

the stocks. He might have started having

a guilty conscience. Maybe I

overreacted.

We don't know. Remember the people in

the jail beat up Paul and Silas, put

them in the jail. They were thinking

better of it in the morning. And

apparently Pastor was thinking a little

better of it than why. We don't know.

But the next day Passure brought forth

Jeremiah out of the stalks. Then said

Jeremiah to him,

"You didn't like my sermon, did you?

You're not going to like this one

either.

You didn't like what I said about the

city and the temple.

You're not going to like what I say

about you and your family.

And Jeremiah opened up on it. Now, this

wasn't just Jeremiah, of course. This

was God.

God doesn't like people hurting his

people.

And if Asher had done that and had

humiliated

Jeremiah and uh trying to make him look

less than he was and trying to somehow

make the message he preached not as

powerful.

So then Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord

has not called thy name Pasher,

but More Misabib

or thus says the Lord." Marsabib.

I haven't looked up the Hebrew on this,

but I think I'm pronouncing it right. Uh

means terror on every side.

That's your new name, Pastor.

Terror

on every side.

Well, thus says the Lord, behold, I'll

make you a terror to yourself

and to all your friends.

Everybody that's been linked to you,

everybody that's been friends with you,

everybody that's on your side is going

to want to stay away from you.

They're going to want to break their

associations with you so that you you so

that uh because they're so afraid of

what's going to happen

and they shall fall by the sword of

their enemies and thy eyes will be open.

The exile is coming and you're going to

see it.

We're probably just a couple of years

from the exile now.

and I'll give all Judah into the hand of

the king of Babylon.

This is the first mention

of the king of Babylon in Jeremiah.

This is the first mention of Babylon in

the book of Jeremiah. And there's he he

refers to Babylon, I think, 200 times.

But he's been talking about Babylon

without using the name.

But now the name comes out. Now Passure

knows who it is that's going to take

over the city and the temple and cause

all the destruction.

And God says, "I'll give all Judah into

the hand of the king of Babylon. shall

carry them captive into Babylon and

shall slay them with the sword.

Now, that's not a very positive message,

is it?

But that was the message God gave

Passure to Jeremiah.

Moreover, I'll deliver all the strength

of this city, and all its labors, and

all its precious things, and all the

treasures of the kings of Judah, will I

give into the hand of their enemies, who

will spoil them, and take them and carry

them to Babylon.

So, you're gone,

other people are gone, and all the

treasures gone.

and thou pasture, and all who dwell in

your house shall go into captivity.

And thou shalt come to Babylon,

and there you'll die.

You'll go, but you won't come back.

You'll be exiled, and you'll die in

exile.

And you won't be buried in the family

graveyard.

You'll be buried in Babylon.

You'll be buried there. Thou and all thy

friends to whom you prophesied

lies.

Now we find out something about Passion.

He's not only a priest and he's not only

the chief governor of the house of the

Lord,

but he's a false prophet himself.

He was seeking earlier to counter

Jeremiah's prophecies with his own

prophecies. And uh now we're going to

see who the real prophet is

and who the false prophet is.

That's the picture.

Um

and so uh

God's going to destroy his city and his

house.

But actually, it's already been

destroyed by the people who embraced and

promoted all that God hates and judges.

They're the ones that brought idolatry

and immorality in and promoted it.

So here you got a standoff between a

true prophet

Jeremiah

and a false prophet

who happens to be a priest and a chief

officer in the temple but also a false

prophet. So apostasy has gone a long way

that someone in that office

is where they are.

Now normally the office of prophet of

God and priest of God would complement

each other and promote each other

but in this case

it was not to be

and

outwardly no doubt they both

profess to believe in the God of the

Bible in some sense. What's good of

being a false prophet if you if you're

being a pro a false prophet to people

who are worshippers of the Lord if you

don't say you represent the Lord. But

that's as that's as subtle as it is.

But the temple leaders were

anti-Jeremiah

and anti-God.

And the problem here is a big one.

And you see a lot of it back in chapter

18. I'm not going to review that. But

the problem was idolatry. Idolatry.

Idolatry. Like we saw last time in

chapter 19. It's the same old problem.

And there it is. Now, if we come into

modern days, have things changed any

America. We've got Bible believing

Christians and then we've got Bible

rejecting Christians that think that

they've arrived and they they promote

all the utist immorality and stupidity

as much as they can and idolatry.

They're not Christians, but they've got

a name that they are.

And so apostate Christianity manifests

itself an antagonism to true

Christianity.

And that's always been since Cain and

Abel.

It was true in Cain and Abel's day. It

was true in Jeremiah and Pastor's day.

It was true in the Apostle Paul's day in

Jesus's day when the it was Jewish

leaders that crucified Jesus.

And so it's the same kind of thing.

Now God is not happy with it at all.

And if you remember a phrase back in

chapter 19 of Jeremiah and verse three,

Jeremiah was instructed to say, "Hear

the word of the Lord, oh kings of Judah,

inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the

Lord the God of Israel, because I'll

bring evil on this place concerning

which whoever hears his tears his ears

his tears his ears will tingle.

Now when we hear that statement, we're

reminded that appears other places in

the Bible.

Eli

and his sons got judgment and the ark of

God was taken and Eli's sons were going

to die in the same day and the

Philistines were going to win and in 1st

Samuel 3:11 the prophecy came of that

before it happened said the ears of

everybody's going to tingle it's going

to be that it's going to happen that

clearly that obviously that God is

fighting on against you and what you

allow the same phrase is used in 2 Kings

2 Kings 21:12

21:12, a Manasseh. That's the guy that

saw the prophet Isaiah in half. He was a

terrible apostate

and he promoted idolatry all over the

city of Jerusalem. And 2 Kings 21:12

2 Kings 21:12

uses the same expression of what's going

to happen when God judges that.

Now, there is no way that Passure

enjoyed any of this.

There was no way that Passure would even

tolerate any of this.

That's why he beat Jeremiah.

Uh that was his first beating. That's

why he put him in the stocks all night.

We need to remember to bring this up to

our own time. False religion always

persecutes true religion. False

Christianity always persecutes true

Christianity.

Always. It'll do it verbally.

It'll do it uh

politically. It will do it in any way to

get the upper hand. self-righteousness,

entitlement,

uh unguarded

arrogance.

False religions got all that because

Satan has all that.

And the true religion

should never be afraid of confrontation.

I don't like confrontation. The older I

get, the less I like confrontation. the

less I want to be engaged in

confrontation.

There's been times in my life was I was

engaged in confrontation.

Pretty serious confrontation

confrontation

but sometimes it's verbal. Sometimes it

could get even physical

but all because the gospel

but genuine religion is not afraid of

loving confrontation.

We we have a job to do

whether they hear or whether they

forbear for their rebellious house. God

told Ezekiel, "I'm not going to grade

you on how many converts you have. I'm

going to grade you, Ezekiel, on how many

times you get out there and preach in a

way that some are going to hate you and

some are going to love you.

For all are going to hate you, all are

going to love you."

So, we are not looking for trouble.

We're looking for opportunity.

And why is it so important? Because

judgment's coming.

Even though judgment was coming and the

city's going to be destroyed and the

temple's going to be destroyed and the

people are going to go into captivity,

God's word still need to be preached

right up to the time of that event.

It'd be very easy for Jeremiah to say,

"You're going to get what you reser

deserved, and I'm done with you. I

already told you you didn't like it. I

told you again you didn't like it. I

come in here and you put me in the

stocks and bust me in the nose." All

right,

that's it.

So, Warren Wearsby has a captures all

this very nicely.

entitles chapter 18 1 and two Jeremiah

the the u

threatened prophet chapter 19 Jeremiah

the persecuted prophet and chapter 20

Jeremiah the discouraged prophet

he it wasn't the beating in the stocks

that got him so much as just the

animosity and arrogance and entrance

of temple leadership.

No matter what he says,

what he what he did,

it's never right. It's never good.

Kylin Dalich wrote on chapter 18,

"Instead of examining themselves and

reforming their lives, a blinded sinners

resolved to put the troubles

troubled one

troublesome preacher of repentance out

of the way by means of of uh

false accusation.

So this is the picture.

Now

as we think through this a little bit,

we begin to work on it. We remember

Jeremiah had a similar problem. Excuse

me, Amos had a similar problem 150 years

before this.

Now Jeremiah is working in in Jerusalem

and the prophet Amos went to Samaria and

the priest of excuse me the priest of

Bethl and they kicked him out him out in

Amos chapter 7 10-17

Amos 7 · chapter mention

Paul had that in 2 Timothy 4 and he same

kind of thing you know the more things

change the more they stay the same

whether you're Jeremy Meia or whether

you're Amos or whether you're Paul or

whether you're Jesus,

it's the same thing. Cain hates Abel.

Cain hates Abel.

Cain is reproduced naturally all the

time. Abel's reproduced supernaturally.

But it's always the same from the

beginning of the fall and it will be

till the end where you got the two

witnesses and the 144,000 and then you

got the antichrist and the false prophet

and all that going.

But nevertheless, when you're in the

midst of it, it's a little bit

discouraging.

And Reichen, Philip Reichen said, "The

man to blame for Jeremiah's despair was

a priest named Pasher. As chief of

security at the temple, Pasher was in

charge of the prophecy police."

The prophecy police. Now, is it

legitimate to have prophecy police?

Yeah, if they're saved people, you can't

have people coming in the temple and

teaching false things. But here, the

truth was called false, and the

falsehood was called truth. That's how

far out they were.

You think we don't have people today

that are that far out?

They don't know up from down.

They don't know scum from camir.

They don't know black from white.

They're just ignorant.

Ignorant. They prefer

they call they call darkness light and

light darkness. I think that's what

Isaiah said.

Uh

so yes, it's proper to have prophecy

police, but if you got a corrupt person,

that's bad because then the true

prophecy can't get out and only false

prophecy gets out. And that's exactly

what happened.

That's why it's very important to be

careful who you have in a public office

of religion. Whether it's the temple,

any any office, or whether it's the

church, deacons,

elders, pastors,

the speakers you bring in.

Satan is so subtle, isn't he? Better

churches than ours have been taken over

by false Christianity.

Bible believers start.

Bible deniers take them over.

John Fberg wrote on this. This is the

first recorded instance of violence done

to Jeremiah

or him

or for Passure. Jeremiah's words were

inlerable.

Intoler.

I want to tell you as we look at

Christianity today and I think of

fundamentalism in America, I got plenty

of problems I see in fundamentalism.

We're not a perfect group by any close

standard, but we get a lot of flock from

modernists and we get a lot of flock

from new evangelicals and so forth. Uh,

I can understand it from the modernist,

but the new evangelicals, I have a hard

time grasping that,

but Jeremiah was getting it and he felt

it.

Um,

Jay Thompson said, "There's one intense

irony in that the overseer in God's

temple is now about to take action about

God's overseer."

Prophets were overseers.

It's a shocking misuse of authority. Not

as bad as the Jewish Sanhedrin in

crucifying Jesus, but certainly similar.

Many of God's best leaders have been

maligned, misrepresented,

mocked, mistreated. Church history is

full of that ism.

John Bunan, Martin Luther, John Hus,

George Woodfield, John Wesley, James

Christ, and many others.

But we know wolves and sheep's clothing

are the most dangerous

and people don't see the ws of Satan,

but God does.

And so Jeremiah's name terror on

Jeremiah renames him. You're terror on

every side. Everybody, all your friends,

all your family when there goes terror

on every side.

You don't want to be around him. And

that term appears in Jeremiah 6:25,

Jeremiah 6:25

Jeremiah 20:10, 465, 49, 209, and 1414.

Jeremiah 20:10

Philip Reichen said, "What Passure did

was very wicked."

Apparently, he felt some remorse because

he freed Jeremiah the next morning, but

the damage had already been done. Asher

had beaten the Lord's anointed and the

post faithful ministry and that always

brings a curse.

Faithful people aren't perfect people,

but you don't want to be making their

job harder for them.

And another writer said, "The

significance of a new name to mark a new

state is clear. His name became

associated with the curse on him. he'd

be caught up in the terror which would

descend on all Judah.

So there we have it. He asked for it. He

got it.

He was a messenger of Satan.

Judas was at the Lord's table.

Uh say God works in the best places.

Now, the same thing's going to happen

again at the end of history with the

harlot church

with the devil persecuting God's people.

And we're just getting a run at it here.

Um,

I love what Douglas Jones wrote.

because of these false teachers because

they reject the Lord's plan and are

therefore hostile to the Lord's men.

That's what was going on. We don't like

your message, so we don't like you.

And so, God help us. Uh,

do you remember

that old song?

I hope you don't. But Frank Frank sang

it, I did it my way.

It's a blasphemous song,

but very popular.

Jeremiah could say, "I did it God's

way."

Can you say, "I did it God's way."

Even when

I got rejected because of it. Even when

I suffered because of it.

And Jeremiah does something interesting

here. I want you to go back and after

this confrontation, look in Jeremiah 20.

Now, he writes this not just to be a

crybaby.

Jeremiah was no wimp. God had made his

forehead iron against everybody.

But Jeremiah says, "Oh Lord, you've

deceived me and I's deceived.

You're stronger than I and have

prevailed. I'm a derision daily.

Everyone mocks me. Everyone mocks me."

That was just That was years and years

of that.

It was wearing him down. For since I

spoke, I cried out violence and spoil

because the word of the Lord was made a

reproach to me in a derision daily,

daily.

Every day it was the same.

Rejection, rejection, rejection,

animosity,

scorn.

And so in verse n he said, "Then I said,

I'll not make mentioned of him nor speak

anymore in his name. I'm tired of this.

I just can't take the rejection anymore.

I'm just going to be quiet for a while.

I'm not going to deny the Lord or or

anyway blaspheme the Lord, but I'm just

not going to speak

whatever God shows me. I'm not going to

talk about.

that his word

was in my heart

like a burning fire

shut up in my bones

and was weary with rebar. Could not

refrain. Wanted to quit.

I wanted to be silent. I just want

things to be like they used to be before

you called me as a prophet. And I fit

in, but I can't stop it. This is

Jeremiah's way. And Jones talks about

this, the commentator Jones of saying my

message isn't mine.

I didn't even want to preach this

message.

I didn't come up with this. This is my

pet peeve. This isn't my thing. I was

tired of t doing it and I tried to stop,

but God would not let me.

And so it was like a burning fire shut

up in my bones and I was weary with

forbearing and I couldn't refrain. I

knew what was coming but I couldn't stop

myself.

That's his way of saying I didn't

originate this message. I didn't I don't

enjoy preaching it like to keep it to

myself but I can't.

Why? He's a prophet of God.

Are we keeping the gospel to ourselves?

I hope not.

Are we looking for opportunities to

speak for our blessed Lord? I hope so.

Do we get tired of people saying, "I'm

not interested."

Yeah, obviously.

Do we get tired of the slander and the

uh looking down on us as if we something

less than they are because they knows

better than we do? Yeah, you get tired

of all that stuff.

Jeremiah got tired of it.

God wouldn't let him stop. Pray to God

doesn't let us stop. And if we stop, may

he restart us. Like Jonah,

I'm not going over there. I'm going the

other way.

Verse 10. For I heard the defaming of

many. Fear on every side. Report say

they we will report it. All my friends

watch for my fall of friends. And saying

perhaps he'll be enticed and we'll

prevail against him and we shall take

revenge on him. The Lord is with me as a

mighty terrible one. Therefore my

persecutors shall stumble. They'll not

prevail. They'll be greatly ashamed for

they shall not prosper. Their

everlasting confusion shall never be

forgotten.

I love it as Jeremiah is talking to

himself

and then records it for everybody else.

But oh Lord of hosts, who tests the

righteous and sees the heart and the

mind, let me see your vengeance on them.

For unto thee have I opened my cause.

Take care of it, Lord.

You you picked me. You chose me for the

ministry. You called me to the ministry.

Now protect me and per and use me.

And he said, "Sing to the Lord. Praise

ye the Lord for he's delivered the soul

of the poor from the hand of the

evildoers." That was the end of that.

Jeremiah was singing,

calling others to join him in Saul.

But then we get the surprising ending of

the chapter.

This is between Jeremiah and God.

And this was really how he felt when he

was trying to shut up.

Cursed be the day

on which I was born.

Let not the day on which my mother bore

me be blessed.

Now

you know Job did something similar,

didn't he?

He didn't curse God, but he cursed his

birthday. And Jeremiah and Job both did

that. Jesus did better in Psalm 22:9-11.

Psalms 22:9–11

He remembered, "You're my God for my

mother's belly.

Paul did something better when he said,

"You separated me from my mother's womb

and called me by your grace." There's

only one man that was better for him

that he not be born

in the Bible who's explicitly put out

pointed out, and that's Judas.

Now, this brings us to a subject. God

has a purpose for us before we're born

again.

God has a purpose for us that he's

working before we're ever saved or ever

hear the gospel. Whoever confess our

sins, he's got a purpose of who we're

born to, when we're born, how good or

bad our parents were. He is making a

tool.

Paul was a Pharisee, the son of a

Pharisee. That's part of his

bring it up.

And God called him by his grace. That

was part of God's grace.

And God's got purposes for everything

that happens.

In John chapter 20, um

John 20 · chapter mention

Peter was told to death he was going to

die.

That was quite a few years before he

died. 30 some years before at least.

But Jeremiah is pretty shattered.

Remember, he shattered that pot. But in

chapter 20, we see a shattered prophet

and he tries to quit. He's tired of it.

He confronts everybody and then he talks

about how bad the whole nation is and

he's just sick of the whole thing

and he wants to give up because he think

there's what's the point of it.

So he's a shattered prophet.

Persecution,

physical persecution,

daily verbal persecution.

And uh Jeremiah opens up about his

struggles

and his desire to quit the ministry,

just let life go on and not be in the

ministry.

Unhappy birthday to me.

Now, as we end this out,

let's remember

that God has purposes, and those

purposes are found in Jesus Christ, and

he's going to accomplish those purposes.

And some of those purposes are not

necessarily pleasant to go through. Some

of those purposes are extremely

difficult to go through.

And um

Jeremiah shows us that and the book of

Jeremiah shows us that. I I hope this

has been somewhat of a challenge to you

and uh just as we think through these

things and work through it a little bit

and may God help us to accept the things

that God has planned for us before we

were born and the things we have in our

physical birth and the things we have in

our spiritual birth. There's no point

trying to be somebody else. We need to

serve the Lord with who we are and where

we are and with what situations

we're put in.

This was a prayer of an exhausted man.

Never get tired in God's word.

Jeremiah was. But remember, we're

created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

This is every Christian. This isn't just

prophets or apostles or imaginaries or

pastors. All of us are by grace are you

saved through faith and not of

yourselves. It's the gift of God. It's

not of works lest anyone should boast.

For we are his workmanship created in

Christ Jesus unto good works

which God has before ordained

that we should walk in.

So God told Jeremiah in chapter one what

he wanted of him and he's going to have

an iron forehead because he's going to

need it. And he told Ezekiel, "It's

going to be tough. They're not going to

like you. They're not going to receive

you." Told the same thing to Isaiah.

And Jeremiah experienced the same.

And uh Jesus said, "There's coming a

time those

those that persecute, you think they're

doing God's service."

That's how deceptive it gets.

We have the privilege. We have the

privilege of being in the battle.

And God's put us on the front lines

in this fallen world.

And we're all on the front lines in our

homes. That's the front lines in our in

our job. That's the front lines in our

church is not a church is not a safe

place. There's the battle goes on in the

church.

Look at the epistles that there's no lot

of battling going on in Corenth and

Galatian churches and the seven churches

of Asia and so forth.

But there's a

and Paul Paul was told the first day he

got saved, I'm going to show him the

great things. He's going to suffer for

my sake. Strange things. Why does it

have to be that way? I don't know. But I

know that's the way it is. God wants to

conform us to the image of his son. And

that's part of the work. He doesn't just

want to use us to reach the lost. He

does do that, but he wants to to uh

help us to share in the sufferings of

Christ that we might share in the glory

that follows.

Father, thank you for what we've looked

at tonight. Challenge us by this

particular section of Jeremiah. These

are hard chapters, not pleasant at all.

And unfortunately, Passure was exiled

and his family with him. And everything

Jeremiah said came to pass

and he learned, although too late, who

the real prophet was and who the false

prophet was. What a hard way to to end

your life.

having those that you hated and rejected

and and denied and blinded

that they were the ones right and you

were the ones wrong.

The judgment day is coming and

everybody's going to find out

who was on the Lord's side and who was

not in Jesus name. 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,