Jeremiah 28:5-9 July 02, 2017 A+D
+ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +
Truth. We’re bombarded with information from every corner today. We’ve been told on good authority that there is a great deal of “fake news” out there. We’re told to be discerning in what we digest. We’re supposed to “seek the truth” and disregard the lies. This is not always so easy to do. We live in what is called the postmodern age, which is just a term that means there is no absolute truth because the truth is whatever you want it to be. Unless you are a Christian, that is. Society tells us we’re foolish for that. Last Thursday the Southern Poverty Law Center called the Christian organization The Alliance Defending Freedom a “hate group.” The ADF’s mission is to defend religious freedom. Apparently, if you defend the first amendment, you are now guilty of hate speech! We can see right through that “fake news.”
We live in a nation founded on God-given principles of His Truth – not only in general morality but salvation in Jesus Christ. As we seek the truth in our walk together as a society, we can’t help but notice this shift from eternal truths to whatever it is you want to hear that makes you feel good at any given moment in time. There really is nothing new under the sun, and folks standing on their soap box selling their own brand of truth is as old as time. This is true not only in society at large but within our churches as well.
For example, do any of you watch the Home Shopping Network or a channel like that? Those salespeople are pretty slick! I like the knife guys. I couldn’t care less about jewelry – yet I found myself watching the jewelry sales team for over an hour one time because “I might see a great deal I just have to have!” Why am I listening to them? How did they make it seem so compelling and attractive? How many of you have listened to TV preachers? They’re pretty slick, too! Yes, some are better than others – but you have to admit the majority are just like the HSN sales team. They are trying to sell you something. More often than not, the quality is not very good. Both are trained to tell you exactly what you want to hear in order that you will buy what they are selling. It doesn’t matter if it’s a dirt cheap Bowie knife or a plan to get your life right with God. Rick Warren actually said in a TV interview that “if you try Jesus for 60 days, I guarantee your life will improve!” We see this in the exchange between Hananiah the false prophet and God’s prophet Jeremiah in our text this morning.
Does it matter to whom we listen? And just exactly how are we to know to whom we should listen? Who do you trust?
God points us to whom we are to listen for the truth because, in His Word, He has given us a standard by which we can discern truth from falsehood. Hananiah declared in the Name of the LORD that God would come to the aid of His people. The items that were stolen from the temple would be returned, along with the thousands of Judeans that had been captured and taken away - including the son of the king - within two years’ time. On the surface, this sounds great! God has come to the aid of His people in the past, so this seems very reasonable. After all, the LORD brought his people out of Egypt.
We love to hear good news, too! Who likes hearing bad news? However, just because something agrees with what we want to be true does not make it true. Jeremiah agreed! Yes, Hananiah – this sounds wonderful! I agree, and I wish the LORD does so. But. Listen to what I say. Your prophecy, Hananiah, contradicts what the prophets before you, like Isaiah and myself have proclaimed before. You, Hananiah - you say something else! The previous prophets promise God’s judgment for your wickedness, and it is going to get much worse before it gets better. Jeremiah’s prophecy doesn’t sound very good at all! – Hananiah’s is the one I want to be true! – but Jeremiah’s agrees with the prophets that came before him. What are the people to do? Who are they to listen to?
On May 13th, 1940 Winston Churchill gave his first speech to the House of Commons, just after becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the first year of World War II. What he had to say is not really the sort of inspirational and motivational language one would expect of a new leader. We’re so used to the fashionable tactic of being told what we want to hear, what he had to say sounds rather shocking to our modern ears. Instead of “I promise our boys will come home and our nation will be at peace within 18 months” or some similar deception, Winston Churchill chose to speak, plainly and bluntly, the truth: “We are in the preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history.... That we are in action at many points—in Norway and in Holland—, that we have to be prepared in the Mediterranean. That the air battle is continuous, and that many preparations have to be made here at home. I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.”1 Churchill didn’t sugarcoat reality. The people of England didn’t want to hear such news, but they grew to trust Winston Churchill as a great leader for his honesty and integrity. As we know from history, what he said that day turned out to be all too true.
We listen to the one whose message comes true. Hananiah’s prophecy was proven false. It contradicted what was prophesied before he showed up. Instead of the people returning from exile two years later, an invasion force of unparalleled destruction arrived instead. The temple was destroyed, as was all Jerusalem. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered Judah and scattered and enslaved the people. All of this happened just as Isaiah and Jeremiah had foretold. God’s punishment for the people’s unbelief and idolatry was immense.
Jeremiah called out Hananiah on his false predictions. “You are not sent by the Lord and you have made the people believe lies! Therefore the LORD will take you from the face of the earth this year!” That same year, Hananiah died.
Many today preach “in the name of the Lord” things that are simply not true. How many end of the world predictions have you heard? They even have the audacity to change the dates with mumbled excuses when their predictions don’t come true! Much more dangerously, and much more subtly, many so-called preachers today say things that are simply false. They tell us what our itching ears want to hear2, to make us feel good about ourselves. No one wants to hear that you’re not good, that you are wretched before God. Who wants to face the fact that they bring nothing to the table? We really do not enjoy hearing about our sin. We are terrified that it carries a sentence of death.
How do we know we are receiving pure teaching, and not another false prophet in our own times? We must always measure what we hear with what God’s Word says, to discern if what we are being told is true. God’s Word is truth – all of it, from “In the beginning” to “Amen!” Even the parts we wish weren’t true: Because of our fallen world, this life will be full of suffering. Because of our sinful condition, we fall short of what God expects of us if we want to receive eternal life and forgiveness.
One of most outspoken atheists of our time, Richard Dawkins, actually makes the case for believing the Bible - the case for faith - without realizing it. He said “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence... Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.”3 He is right. We do need to think and evaluate the evidence. The evidence is overwhelming! The case for faith is undeniable if you are intellectually honest. History, archeology, all the documentary evidence year by year supports Scripture more and more. If the evidence points to the truth, then putting your trust in what you find to be truth is correct and wise. Dawkins only got one part wrong. What he said is actually the definition of faith: “complete trust or confidence in something or someone. Conviction.”
ALL OF GOD’S WORD IS TRUTH! The preachers and teachers of our time shouldn’t be telling you anything new! They should be pointing back to all the prophecies that are fulfilled FOR YOU! Jesus.
Jesus was the greatest of the prophets because He is the Son of God, sent to redeem all mankind! The Bible proves this unequivocally. Jesus was the greatest prophet because He proclaimed the entirety of Scripture – both the wrath of God for sin, but also that by believing in Him your slate is wiped clean from that sin. That is Good News!
You trust your Lord Jesus because He fulfilled every prophecy – every single one. You can trust Jesus because all He said about Himself came true. Secure in the assurance the Jesus’ death and resurrection is for your forgiveness, you can be confident that God’s Word is truth. You can use it to test what you hear about God and about your salvation – if it doesn’t add up if it contradicts what the Bible says, you can take it to the bank that it is not true.
Furthermore, confident that what the Bible says about Jesus is true, you can look to where it points to find Jesus here for you in your life today. If you’re not hearing Jesus here for you in the means of grace, you are not hearing the truth. There’s no need to try before you buy4, because Jesus is a free gift, paid for on Calvary.
+ Amen +
And now may the peace which surpasses all human understanding keep your hearts and your minds focused on Christ Jesus.
+ Amen +
κήρυξον τὸν λόγον
1http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1940/may/13/his-majestys-government-1
2II Timothy 4:3.
3Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion.
4Rick Warren actually said to an interviewer “I guarantee that if you try Jesus for 60 days, you will see an immediate improvement in your life.”