A Lesson From Jeremiah

“Be cautious when listening to those who speak for God, who declare for God”

Today I want to speak directly to the Christians, those who are eagerly following the Lord right now. It is not that I do not care for the unsaved, but this message is for those who already have recognized the need for Christ being first and His Word being the ultimate authority in our lives. If you claim to be a Christian but do not follow the Lord or believe His Word is not perfect and impractical for us today, please take some time and review who Christ claimed to be and what His Word has proven to be. This is for those who understand our foundation can only come from God’s Word and nothing else.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can discuss a growing concern that has been placed on my heart for the saved. Many are seriously struggling with the craziness and differences of opinions that they are being slammed with in the Church, some of these culprits are pastors, missionaries, clergy, evangelists, teachers, worship leaders, and so many more. The tornado of events of this world has only caused an avalanche furthering these issues. The matter of opinions and argumentative talking points has caused us to be dazed and confused.

Fear has become the ever-growing child of such confusion, causing us to slack in our spiritual growth and want to tighten down our personal forts and hunker in. Yet we know that by “hunkering in” due to worsening events, we might be keeping our attention from where it should be. We do not want to have fear pull our attention from Christ Jesus, “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” 2 Corinthians 11:3. Fear has been used by Satan many times before, this is not a new play book he is using but rather a time proven concept getting Christians so worked up in their earthly dwelling that they fail to see the Heavenly outlook of what is going on, “So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” 2 Corinthians 2:11 We should ask Christ for His help when we are afraid, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears” Psalm 34:4. Satan, loves to make us confused and focused on the “crazy” that we are going through. Recently I have seen pastors “prophesying” that a heat wave was coming and God was going to kill the Covid-19 Wuhan Virus. Others have joined with popular anti-Semitic groups to help them fund raise and change public policy, others proclaim the need for a social gospel, Social Justice and the uplifting of the earth to a worship level. Some proclaim that the tribulation has started, and it is our job to fight the Antichrist, some have even gone on and said we are living in Christ’s Kingdom right now. With all of this I could not more strongly say how wrong they are. The Word of God is true, and it will not change or be altered by those who believe they speak or represent God’s purposes on earth. “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever" Isaiah 40:8.

As saved people we should be going to His Word for us to understand what is happening, for us to better know what is coming, and for us to realize what we can be doing right now. Our God has not left us. For those living in the U.S, the scenario that we have been living in has radically changed and it will continue to get worse. For those in other nations it has continued and will still continue to get worse. We are at an end of an age, Christendom is being prepared for our Blessed Hope and the time of Jacob’s trouble is close to ignition. I do not use “ignition” lightly, as someone who has seen explosives go off I can assure you it is going to happen quickly and vigorously, the end of one and the reinstate of the other is coming. Nevertheless, we who are saved need to take everything spiritual leaders say back to the word of God.

I want to draw our attention to a story in which the Israelites were informed of coming events and yet spiritual leaders falsely proclaimed otherwise. Jeremiah was able to help testify and proclaim to the Israelite nation that Babylon was going to be taking over and it was God ordained, “In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying— 2 thus says the Lord to me—“Make for yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your neck, 3 and send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 Command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters, 5 “I have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight. 6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him. 7 All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant.8 “It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence,” declares the Lord, “until I have destroyed it by his hand” Jeremiah 27:1-8. Israel knew what God had ordained and many were still looking for ways to get around what was proclaimed.

In today’s world we know that God has ordained certain things to happen, and yet, it is apparent that many saved individuals are refusing to acknowledge these statements in God’s Word. There are Christians who are currently preparing for the tribulation, they believe we are to go through the seven years of which God has ordained for bringing about the salvation of Israel, we who are saved right now due not need to worry about this, “Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” Revelation 3:10. This is fore shown just a few verses later in Revelation 4, “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.’2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne” Revelation 4:1-2. We are not going to go through what is coming but that does not mean it is not going to get worse. We have spiritual leaders who are so wrong in their outlook of God’s Word that I believe it would be accurate to say they fit the bill for what the apostle Peter stated, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned” 2 Peter 2:1-2.

In Jeremiah’s day God also warned that false teachers and individuals ignorant of the scripture would proclaim answers, yet they were to ignore them, “But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers or your sorcerers who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10 For they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from your land; and I will drive you out and you will perish. 11 But the nation which will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let remain on its land,” declares the Lord, “and they will till it and dwell in it” Jeremiah 27:9-11. We must be willing to take everything back to what the scripture tells us if we are to keep a rock solid base in these troubled times, and remember that God has not abandoned us, He has given us the ability to see exactly what is happening and what we are to do about it. Jeremiah had to deal with the false prophet Hananiah who proclaimed, “Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I am going to bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 I am also going to bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon” Jeremiah 28:1-4.

We can clearly see that God had already stated that Nebuchadnezzar was going to rule and his son would and his son after him, so when this prophet shows up claiming in two years Babylon would rule them no longer, we have a serious issue. The Word of God is different than what the spiritual leader was saying. Today it is the same way with the spiritual leaders making accusations that are no where in the Bible. As saved individuals we have the reliance of Jesus Christ, we have the Spiritual assets and the Word of God to test everything that the spiritual leaders might say to us. For if we are in the Lord, if we are following Him, the craziness of this world will have no bearing on us, Christ is our rock! We can be unified in Him, if you want to know more about such unity in Christ, just click here.

Now what do we do when spiritual leaders state something that God’s Word does not? Jeremiah was able to give us a great example of what to do. God had already spoken that Babylon was going to be the ruling Kingdom for the next three generations. Hananiah had declared that in two years Babylon would be broke. So, what did Jeremiah do? “then the prophet Jeremiah went his way” Jeremiah 28:11. He went his way, he continued to do what he was doing, He followed God’s Word. How do we know that? Verse 12 shows us that He went and obeyed God’s direction, “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah.” Jeremiah was listening to the Lord. He follows what the Lord wants for him to do, “Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, ‘thus says the Lord, ‘ You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made instead of them yokes of iron.’ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon; and they will serve him. And I have also given him the beasts of the field” Jeremiah 28:13-14. Jeremiah was listening to the Lord, he followed and obeyed the Lord.

So if spiritual leaders in our day attempt to tell us something that is not correct in God’s Word, we are to tell and show them, as Jeremiah did, and if they continue to disagree, we continue on our own way and follow God. He will deal with them in His own way and in His own timing, “Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, ‘Listen now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to die, because you have counseled rebellion against the Lord.’ 17 So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the seventh month” Jeremiah 28:15-17.

So why is this discussion needed? We are bombarded by false information and what we should be believing that is directly against God’s Word. We are being pushed and shoved into believing that our Jesus was something He was not. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He is a Jew, and He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He died on the cross and resurrected triumphantly, His Word is everlasting and should be taken as the ultimate authority. It should be our first reference, and our last reference in any topic of discussion and information in our decision-making process. We should remember Proverbs 30:5 “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” We should also remember how we are to act with other believers in regard to God’s Word, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” Colossians 3:16. So as the world grows darker and the chaos continues, let us lean on Christ and His Word. When spiritual leaders or other individuals in the Churches, Bible Studies, and/or other areas we study God’s Word, state things that do not match up with what He says, let us study the Word and follow Jeremiah’s approach. Keep following the Lord and allow Him to do what He does best, LEAD!

Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming

JL