5^th Sunday after Pentecost, July 6/9, 2017

Jeremiah 20:7-13  

⁷ O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.  I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me... ¹¹ But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail…

 “Oh, there goes ‘Fear-On-Every-Side’, again.  What kind of doom and gloom you got for us today, Mr. Fear-On-Every-Side?”  That’s the kind of stuff people used to say to me.  “Fear-On-Every-Side” was my nickname, all because my message—a message from God to the kingdom of Judah—was a message of God’s judgment.  My real name is Jeremiah.   

These words you just heard from my book of prophecy are a bit of a confession on my part.  I had just been through a tough time and I knew that even tougher times were still ahead.  It didn’t seem like my message was doing much good.  What I had to say seemed to have no effect on the people I was saying it to, except to make my own life more difficult.  And yet, I had to go on—I had to keep speaking the word of the LORD because I knew that, in spite of everything that was happening, the LORD was going to win.  That’s what He does.  The Lord prevails!

I.     He prevails in the proclamation of His Word.

The Lord prevails in the proclamation of His Word!  I know because He prevailed upon me to proclaim it!  The people of Judah were committing spiritual adultery.  They’d go to the temple to make their offerings and sacrifices to God, but then they’d turn around and go home and burn incense to the starry host of heaven and pour out drink offerings to other gods.  Instead of asking for the Lord’s help with their problems, they trusted their money and their political allies.  And then they took the grace of God for granted, thinking He would still forgive them no matter how much they ran around on Him.

So the LORD persuaded me, Jeremiah, to call the people of Judah to repent.  Only they didn’t want to repent.  They didn’t like to be told that what they’re doing was wrong, so they ignored me.  Finally, I was compelled to bring them a message of God’s judgment, a message of “Violence and plunder” (v. 8).  The Lord had had enough; He would destroy Jerusalem, and hand over all of Judah’s wealth to the kingdom of Babylon (Jer. 19:15, 20:4-5).

And because I simply spoke the word that the Lord had given me, I became an object of derision, mockery and ridicule.  The chief priest at the temple, Pashhur, had me beaten and put in the stocks.  And that’s how I got my nickname, “Fear-On-Every-Side”—because that’s what I actually said.  And if I prophesied again, people threatened to report me to the temple authorities again.  Even those I at one time considered my friends—they were now watching and waiting for me to slip up, so they could trap me and put a stop to my work (v. 10).  I wondered why this was happening.  Doesn’t the word of the Lord prevail?  It certainly didn’t seem that way. 

You have the same problem I did.   Many people in your own country don’t want to hear the Word of God when it comes to their own sin.  Instead of doing what’s right in God’s eyes, Americans only want to do what’s right in their own eyes—what’s right for them, all the while taking God’s blessings for granted—and nobody wants to hear about how what they’re doing is wrong.  When you confront someone about their sin, what happens?  Maybe some tender-hearted soul will listen, but most of the time you get treated like me, mercilessly mocked and ridiculed!  You’re labeled as a self-righteous bigot or a hater, or as simply just being crazily out of touch or old-fashioned.    

And when you’re right in the crosshairs, when everyone’s making fun of you, I know how easy it is to blame God—I did it myself!  Things were so bad that I started lashing out—not at the people refusing to listen, but at God!  I said, “O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.  I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me” (v. 7).  I felt like the Lord had tricked me into speaking His Word!  He never said it would be this bad!  I was so bitter that I decided I wasn’t to going to speak the word of the Lord anymore:  “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name” (v. 9).  If I’m quiet, maybe they’ll leave me alone. 

Maybe there are times when you decided to do the same thing, thinking, “Maybe if I don’t talk about my faith anymore, they’ll leave me alone.”  It works, doesn’t it?  People do leave you alone if you don’t talk about God or speak the truth of His Word. 

But after a while something happens, just like it happened to me.  “His Word was in my heart like a burning fire, Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not” (v. 9).  The LORD was stronger than me, and He prevailed (v. 7).  In the proclamation of His Word, the Lord prevails!  As you see the people you love and care about moving further and further away from God and from the truth of His Word, it hurts.  And the longer you hold your tongue, the worse the pain gets, until finally, you have to let it out.  You have to speak the truth—because you know that if there’s any hope at all of saving them, they need to hear it.  People need to hear the Law, they need to know how they’ve failed God and deserve nothing but His wrath.  And then, at hearing God’s condemnation for their unfaithfulness, they need the good news that the grace of God and the gift of God’s grace in Jesus Christ has abounded to many (Ro 5:15), that God has established a new covenant with us in His Son—who paid for all the sins of the world with His perfect life and innocent death, so that all who believe in Him have everlasting life.    

And if we don’t proclaim it, who will?  I was the Lord’s prophet—I was chosen to be His spokesman to the entire Kingdom of Judah!  But hasn’t He also chosen each of you?  Hasn’t God placed you in your life with your family, neighbors, coworkers and classmates to be His witnesses, to bring His Word to the people in your lives?  The Lord prevails in the proclamation of His Word.  His Word will be proclaimed—even if it means we face persecution!        

II.     He prevails in delivering those who proclaim it. 

So I continued to preach the message the Lord had given me.  But it wasn’t just the need that kept me going.  It was also the promise—the promise that the Lord had made to me all the way back at the beginning of my ministry.  The Lord prevails—not only in proclaiming His Word, but also in delivering those who proclaim it!   

Persecution is real—but we will never have to face it alone!  In my own moment of grief, I remembered that “the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One.  Therefore my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.  They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.  Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten” (v. 11).  In the moment before, I was so alone.  It felt like me against the world—but it really isn’t that way, is it?  The LORD is with you to do the fighting for you!  And He is a mighty warrior, all-powerful; nothing can defeat Him!  And nothing can defeat His Word—the “Sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6), against which not even the gates of hell can prevail!  In the end, the persecutors will lose because they refused to listen—and their shame will last forever. 

And you will be delivered!  The Lord prevails in delivering those who proclaim His Word!  No matter what kind of threats you’re facing, God will rescue you!  Either He will provide a way out from under the persecution or He will give you the strength to endure it.  And in the end, He will deliver you out of this vale of tears into a life of peace and joy that will last forever! 

Do you remember how that deliverance came about?  Long after my time came a man who was also the Son of God, the promised Savior, Jesus Christ.  Throughout His life He spoke the truth of God’s Word with perfect boldness, even when He knew it was going to be trouble for Him.  The religious leaders, the chief priests and the Pharisees, they didn’t listen to Him—in fact, they called Him the devil.  But that never stopped Him.  Even as they put Him to death on the cross, He continued to speak God’s truth.  And by His innocent death, by offering up that life of perfect obedience for us, we are saved!  All our sins are paid for!        

So, when it comes to proclaiming God’s truth, “Sing to the LORD!  Praise the LORD!” (v. 13). You can confidently tell the saving truth of God’s Law and Gospel—in the clear light of day you can proclaim it from the rooftops (Mt 10:27)!  You can speak the truth fully confident that, as a follower of Christ, if they called Jesus the devil, people are going to have some choice words for you too.  But you can be just as confident that the Lord will keep you safe and deliver you from every kind of persecution!  That was the trust that I had as the Lord’s prophet, even when I was in chains. 

And best of all, you can sing God’s praises in the full confidence that His Word also applies to you!  In those moments of weakness, when we’re tired of being ridiculed and don’t want to speak God’s truth anymore, God’s forgiving grace is right there with us, to pick us up and make us ache once more with the desire to share His Word with others—no matter how they might take it. 

The thing is:  yeah, people made fun of me and did all kinds of bad things to me, but deep down I knew that not everyone was ignoring me.  I knew that by God’s grace some were listening and repenting—even though I had no idea who they were.  And the same for you.  Out of all the people who seem to ignore the truth of God’s Word at the time, you have no idea who is listening—who the Lord is saving—through your message.  You may not know—but you can know that the Lord reads hearts and minds—and He will prevail.  Amen.