Jeremiah 1:1-19 “Called, Sent, and Comforted By God’s Word”

1:07She hits the messenger and then threatens to pull his eyes out and kick them around the room. The messenger's response is legendary: Gracious madam, I that do bring the news made not the match. In other words, don't shoot the messenger. As we heard in the scripture reading, Jeremiah was called to be God's messenger. He never applied for that job because he didn't want it. And to understand why, we actually have to back up several hundred years in Israel's history. Under King Saul and then David and Solomon, the kingdom enjoyed unity and ever-expanding peace and prosperity.

1:58But after Solomon died, his son became king, and the ten northern tribes broke off from the two southern tribes. The northern tribes were known collectively as Israel, the southern tribes as Judah. In Israel, the northern tribes fell into idolatry, and God warned them that they needed to repent and return to him for 200 years. They wouldn't repent, and so in 722 BC, God brought judgment on them through the nation of Assyria, who conquered them and then intermarried with them. And those people who came from mixed ethnicity, because the land in the north was known as Samaria, became known forever after as Samaritans.

2:42Well, the southern kingdom briefly turned back to the Lord around that time under Hezekiah's reign, but God warned them that if they emulated the northern kingdom's idolatry, then another nation, the nation of Babylon, which was a small country, little influence at the time, would come and conquer them. Them. Around 640 BC, an eight-year-old boy named Josiah became king. When he turned 16, he started following the Lord. And at 21, he started leading sweeping reforms all throughout the nation.

3:15And it was around that time that God called Jeremiah to be his prophet. Jeremiah spoke God's word during the reigns of the last five kings of Judah, the southern kingdom. And three of those kings, the most prominent, are listed here in verses 2 and 3: Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. And during those reigns, the nation slid increasingly back into idolatry and sin. The last four kings were evil. And to varying degrees, they treated Jeremiah and the word of God with contempt.

3:51Those kings ignored him, mocked him, beat him, imprisoned him, and threatened to kill him on multiple occasions. So then in 586 BC, the Babylonian army came and broke through Jerusalem's walls. They burned the temple to the ground and carried off God's remaining people into captivity, as we see here in verse 3. Shortly after, Jeremiah himself was taken into captivity in Egypt, where he died. So the book of Jeremiah does not read like a book written by a man sitting on a Beach with an umbrella drink in his hand.

4:34It reads like the journal of a wanted man who was in and out of hiding, in and out of prison, who did not know from one day to the next if he was going to live to see tomorrow. Christians refer to Jeremiah as the weeping prophet, and I get that. He does weep for his nation on multiple occasions during the book. And after all, come on, he wrote a whole book called Lamentations. But the truth is that Jeremiah was one of the toughest, most courageous, most faithful men in all of the Bible.

5:12He preached repentance to kings and to religious leaders who constantly opposed and threatened him. And we should pray to have his kind of faith and courage. We've called this sermon series justice for all. And that's because justice is a major theme in the book of Jeremiah. The nations around Judah live unjustly, and yet they seem to prosper. God's own people live unjustly, and there seem to be no consequences for their sin. Jeremiah does everything that God commands him to do, and yet he is persecuted.

5:57Will justice ever be done? Maybe you felt that way. Will justice ever be done? Listen to these words from Mark Dever. He writes: Whenever we are tempted to feel cynical or jaded about the world we live in, Jeremiah might be good for what ails us. Its message about coming judgment is important for those who long for justice, and it may be even more important for those who have not longed for justice, because Jeremiah tells us that justice is coming.

6:34So, for the next year, we're going to walk through the book of Jeremiah, chapter by chapter, where we learn that indeed justice is coming. Jeremiah points us to the return of Christ, who will administer perfect, permanent justice, but who also has mercy on all who call on him, the one who was unjustly crucified in our place and for our sins. This morning, we're going to get to consider Jeremiah's calling into the ministry to be a messenger of God.

7:10And we're going to have the opportunity to reflect on our own calling into ministry as messengers of reconciliation. What we're going to learn in Jeremiah 1 today is that God calls, sends, and comforts his messengers with his word. So let's pick up. Now, in verse 4. Now, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

7:48In these verses, we are told that God had a plan for Jeremiah before he was born, before he was formed in the womb. Indeed, even before the world was created. And, friends, that is because God Himself is the eternal, uncreated creator of all things. He knows all things and has always known all things. God does not learn new information. He never needs to go to a backup plan because his initial plans failed. Nothing surprises God. Take a look at Psalm 33, verse 11.

8:29It says, The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. When our lives are not going the way that we planned or hoped, we can take great comfort in the fact that God's plan for our life is never disrupted, and that God's plans are best. God had big plans for Jeremiah, plans that would come to pass exactly as God intended. Jeremiah did not always love God's plan for his life. In fact, there were a lot of times where he hated God's plan for his life.

9:08And as we're going to see through the book, he is very honest with God about the fact that he did not like God's plans for his life. But Jeremiah couldn't always see the big picture. He couldn't always see the eternal picture. And neither can we. I want you to think of it this way. If we knew what God knows, we would choose what God chose. If we knew what God knows, we would choose what God chose.

9:40God knows all things. And God knew Jeremiah before he was born. And that word know implies much more than just knowing facts about. That word implies knowing in an intimate and relational sense. Long before Jeremiah was created, God chose to relate to him in a very special way, which is true of every one of God's people. In Ephesians 1, we learn that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world and that he predestined us for adoption as his children. Just think about that for a second. God chose us in him before the foundation of the world and predestined us for adoption. That is a beautiful reality. God has chosen to relate to every one of his children, you and me. In a special way, in an intimate and relational sense. And that is what he's saying about Jeremiah here.

10:38But see, God didn't just know Jeremiah. We learned here that he consecrated him. That word means he set him apart for special service. And that special service is explained at the end of verse 5. Look there. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Well, that's very interesting because almost all of Jeremiah's messages were directed toward the disobedient kings and religious leaders in his own land of Judah, along with the disobedient people that they led astray. But friends, what is clear in the book of Jeremiah and really throughout the entire Bible is that God has plans for every tribe, tongue, and nation in this world. Those are his plans. The call to repent and believe in him, to worship and serve him alone, isn't only a call to Israel or to Judah or to you and me. It is a call to everyone, to every tribe, tongue, and nation.

11:39And in the same way, every Christian has been consecrated or set apart for special service. And that special service is particularly calling others to follow Jesus. Look on the screen at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Paul says, all the This is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ. Be reconciled to God.

12:36What a privilege that is. To be given the ministry of reconciliation as God's ambassadors, as his representatives here on this earth, to be called and consecrated to share the good news of Jesus. We have been set apart just like Jeremiah for that work. But maybe you hear that, and that sounds very daunting. That sounds intimidating to you. Well, you should know that it certainly sounded intimidating to Jeremiah. Remember, he did not apply for this job. Look at verse 6.

13:13Then I said, Ah, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth. But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am only a youth, for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. Like Moses hundreds of years before him, Jeremiah protested that God had the wrong guy. He had the wrong guy because he couldn't speak. He wasn't an eloquent man. And on top of that, Jeremiah says, I'm too young for this. Like Moses before him, Jeremiah wanted God to choose and to send someone else.

14:03But friends, this is what we have to understand. God says, this is not about you and about what you can't do. This is about me and what I'm going to do through you. You'll go where I send you and you'll say what I command you. You don't have to be afraid because I'm going to be with you to deliver you. And if you're familiar with Jesus' great commission in Matthew 28, there are a lot of parallels. Take a look at the great commission on the screen.

14:39Jesus says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. See, brothers. And sisters, Jesus has chosen us and consecrated us for special service, just like Jeremiah. We've been called to go to our neighbors and to the nations with the good news of the gospel. The good news that Jesus has reconciled us to Himself through His life, death, and resurrection.

15:22Take a look at Ephesians chapter 2. This connects our salvation with the work that we are called to do. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. You see, we've been saved by God's grace through faith and set apart for good works, especially the good work of sharing the gospel. We can make excuses as Moses and Jeremiah both tried to do.

16:11We can say that we're too young, that we're not good with words, that we're introverted, that we're in Enneagram 17, whatever it would be, we can make excuses, but none of that matters because it's not about us and our limitations. It is about God and his limitless power to do anything that he desires through us. And in fact, his power is on display in our weaknesses. When God uses people like Jeremiah and people like you and me, then it ensures that he gets the glory and not us.

16:53Because it's very clear that we could not do or say the things that God has called us to do and say apart from his power through the Holy Spirit. So God calls his messengers with his word. He called Jeremiah to be a prophet through his word, and he calls us to be his messengers and ambassadors through his word as well. So let's pick up now in verse 9, where we're going to see that God sends his messengers with his word.

17:23Verse 9. Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. Now, while the exact circumstances are unique, Jeremiah's experience is the same as every other prophet. God put his words in their mouths to speak.

18:00Take a look at 2 Peter chapter 1. Peter writes this: Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And you see, friends, testing that claim is pretty straightforward. If someone claims to be speaking the word of God and their words do not come to pass, they were not speaking for God. This is what the Lord says in Deuteronomy chapter 18. Look on the screen.

18:40And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. Now, in Jeremiah's case, God is putting his words in Jeremiah's mouth. And most of what he prophesies comes to pass before the end of his life and ministry. God set him over nations and kingdoms. And according to his word, God's word through him, nations would be plucked up and broken down, destroyed and overthrown, including his own nation and kingdom, the southern kingdom of Judah.

19:31But as we're going to see at the end of verse 10, God's word through Jeremiah would also build and plant. And the most important thing that God plants through Jeremiah are the seeds of the new covenant that we learn about later in the book, where God is going to write his law on our hearts, forgive our sins and remember them no more. Now, those words are going to come to pass, but it's going to be 600 more years before they do, when Jesus comes to inaugurate the new covenant through his life and death and resurrection.

20:13So in the meantime, what is going to pass? Look at verse 11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see an almond branch. Then the Lord said to me, You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it. The first word that comes to Jeremiah is a vision of an almond branch. And in Hebrew, that word is shoked. It sounds almost like the Hebrew word for watching, which is shoked. And so after winter ended in the land of Israel, the almond tree was the first to bud.

20:57So historians tell us that Jews would say that the almond Tree watched for spring. Through the vision, God is saying to Jeremiah, I am watching over my word to perform it. So what God is doing here is he's promising that everything that he says, specifically everything that he says through Jeremiah, is going to come to pass. What is going to come to pass? Verse 13. The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot facing away from the north. Then the Lord said to me, Out of the north, disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord. And they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah.

21:57Jeremiah's second vision is of this boiling pot that's facing away from the north. It's dumping the boiling contents out on the land of Judah. And the meaning of that vision is that disaster is going to be coming from the north. So you need to understand that much like today, the nation of Israel and the southern kingdom in this particular instance is surrounded by hostile enemies. You've got Egypt to the west and to the south. You've got Assyria to the north and you've got Babylon to the north and to the east. They are completely surrounded on all sides. Sides. And after Babylon defeated Assyria at the Battle of Nineveh in 612 BC, and then they defeated Egypt at Carchemish in 605 BC, Babylon then showed up at the gates of Jerusalem to defeat them. It became very clear that they are the ones who were going to fulfill this prophecy. And so God revealed through the vision of the almond branch that he was going to be watching over his word to perform it. And the word that he was going to perform is that if the people didn't repent and turn back to him, then he was going to pour out that disaster and judgment upon them from the north. Verse 16 explains why. Look at verse 16.

23:18And I will declare my judgments against them for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worship the works of their own hands. Why is God bringing disaster against his own people? Well, we're told here that the sad truth is that his people have forsaken him. They have made offerings to other gods and worship the works of their own hands. And this wasn't new. It's not like a handful of people in Judah started doing these things last weekend. This has been Going on since the mid-900s. Remember, it's around 627 BC. This is 300 years later. Look at what God records in 1 Kings at the end of Solomon's reign.

24:15For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtareth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Kimosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

25:02So, friends, it's no surprise then that when the king of the nation, a husband and a father, does these things, that the rest of the people followed in his footsteps. They also married foreign women who worshiped foreign gods, and then they started worshiping those foreign gods as well. You know, some people imagine that God is temperamental, a being who flies into a rage out of nowhere. And just starts striking down everything around him. But that is not even remotely true. God reveals himself in Scripture to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. And for hundreds of years, he demonstrated all of those characteristics to a sinful and disobedient and idolatrous people. He put his words in the mouths of prophet after prophet, pleading with his people to repent of their idolatry and return to him. But they wouldn't do it. Listen to the prophet Isaiah, who was prophesying about a hundred years before Jeremiah. Look at how he describes the foolishness of idolatry.

26:19The carpenter stretches a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also, he makes a god and worships it. He makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half, he eats meat, he roasts it and is satisfied. Also, he warms himself and says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. And the rest, the rest of it, he makes into a God, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, Deliver me, for you are my God.

27:30Now, we can all read that and shake our heads and wonder how anybody could bow down to a block of wood and ask it to save them. But I ask you, is it any more sophisticated to fall down before a politician or a scientist or a celebrity or a doctor and the work of their hands and ask them to save us from our greatest fears? It's not. It's idolatry, one and the same. They cannot do it. No human being, no invention, no product can save us from our greatest fears. Man-made religion cannot save us from our greatest fears. But, friends, most people in the world are looking to someone or something other than God to save them. And if that is true, Of you this morning, then God calls you to turn away from that. Not to turn towards any old religion or any religion in general, but to Jesus Christ.

28:43All religions do not lead to heaven. And that is self-evident because every religion presents a mutually exclusive pathway to heaven. Muhammad said that if you want to get to paradise, you have to be really sorry for the bad things that you've done and then do the five pillars of Islam. Joseph Smith and Mormon cult leaders teach that if you want to go to heaven, you've got to feel really bad about the bad things that you've done, and then you've got to do more good works than bad works.

29:23Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Every other religion says, do these things, and you can save yourself. Jesus says, repent and believe in me, and I will save you. That is an entirely different thing. Please understand that looking to anyone or anything. Anything for salvation outside of the person and work of Jesus Christ is idolatry. Idolatry is trusting anyone or anything to give you what only God can give you. No idol can save us.

30:15And so Jeremiah was called to be God's messenger through his word. God sent Jeremiah, his messenger, with his word, the word that was going to judge the people because of their idolatry. It seems obvious that this message was not going to make Jeremiah a popular guy. Nobody likes to be called out for their sin, and certainly nobody likes to be told that their nation is going to be destroyed because of their sin. So in the last few verses, we'll see that God comforts his people, his messengers, through his word. Join me in verse 17.

30:53But you, dress yourself for work. Arise and say to them, everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. I love this verse. God speaks to Jeremiah like a general speaks to a soldier. And in a very real sense, God is sending Jeremiah into battle. So what does he need to do? First, he needs to dress himself for work. The Hebrew can be rendered something like a gird up your loins, if you've ever heard that phrase before. In the ancient Near East, men wore long robes, and so whenever they went to do manual labor or they went into battle, they had to gird up their loins. They had to roll up those robes and tie them around their waist so that they could run or stoop over to do work or to fight a battle or whatever was necessary. That's what God is telling Jeremiah to do. You need to gird up your loins. You need to dress yourself for work or for battle. And, friends, in the same way, we need to be dressed for the work that God has assigned to us of being His messengers. In Ephesians 6, we're told to put on the whole armor of God, the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness. We need to take the shield of faith and the sword of spirit with the belt of truth and the gospel shoes of peace. We need to dress ourselves for battle because we are being sent as God's messengers into a spiritual battle. We've got to dress ourselves for work. But then, second, Jeremiah needs to arise.

32:36And we've already looked at the Great Commission this morning, the call to go and make disciples of all nations, so I don't want to spend a whole lot of time here. But I want you to note that God calls Jeremiah to prepare and to arise, to get ready and to go. Friends, far too many Christians spend all of their time preparing. Preparing to evangelize in the safe confines of the church building in their homes. But they never get to the point of going.

33:12Listen, preparing for spiritual battle is a waste of time if you never actually make it to the battlefield. Finally, God called Jeremiah to fearlessly say all that he commanded. Again, plenty of Christians prepare, and some of us even go to our friends who are not believers with the good news of the gospel. But how many of us speak fearlessly God's word to them? We do need to prepare. We need to get dressed. We need to arise and go, but then we've got to ask God for the courage to say what he's commanded us to say, understanding that the gospel is an offensive message. We shouldn't be offensive, but the gospel is an offensive message because it tells people that they have offended a holy God and that there is no way for them to save themselves through religion or effort or anything else. They can only be saved through faith in Christ. That's an offensive message, so we need courage. So, friends, Jeremiah was a priest in a small town ministering to the smallest tribe of Israel. And out of the blue, he was called to be a prophet whose word would overthrow nations and kingdoms. Who wouldn't be dismayed at such a calling?

34:31And so, again, if you feel dismayed by that calling, that's why you need comfort from God's word. And he gives it to us in verse 18. Look there. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. Just think about that imagery. God is going to make Jeremiah a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls. Jeremiah didn't have to make himself into those things. That would be impossible. God says, I am going to make you into those things.

35:18And that was going to be necessary because, yes, one day other nations would come against him and his people. But his hardest battles, just like our hardest battles in the American South, in the Christianized, nominal American South, is often against our own people. So he needed to be those things. Jeremiah was going to experience the worst suffering at the hands of his own people. Look at God's promise, though, verse 19. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.

36:00God does not promise that he's going to keep Jeremiah from suffering. People were going to fight against him. But God did promise that no one would prevail against him. And that's because God was with him to deliver him. And God would make good on that promise over and over again, as we're going to see in the chapters and in the months ahead. Christians, Jesus promised to be with us, just as God promised to be with Jeremiah. Remember in the Great Commission, Jesus promised us, and truly, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Look at the promise that we receive in Romans 8.

36:45For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Church, comforting words like these are found all over Scripture. God never promised us a life free of trials and persecution. In fact, he promises the exact opposite. That life in this world is hard, and that life for a believer in Jesus is even harder.

37:27What God does promise is that he is Going to be with us every step of the way through the darkest valleys of our lives. We are never alone. No matter how it seems, no matter how it looks, no matter how we feel in those moments, God is always with us to deliver us. And ultimately, God is with us to deliver us from our greatest enemies, the enemies that have opposed us since our first parents sinned in the Garden of Eden, the enemies of sin and death.

38:01And we know that God will deliver us from these enemies because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In his life, Jesus faced every temptation that you and I face, and yet he never sinned. He gave himself up in our place and for our sins on the cross, defeating the consequence of our sin, death, by rising from the dead. And so I want you to take heart this morning. God has sent us into the midst of a cosmic spiritual conflict to speak the message of the gospel to people who don't always want to hear what we have to say. But he is with us to deliver us, so we don't have to be afraid. God calls, sends, and comforts his messengers with his word. Thanks be to God. Let's pray.

39:16Father, there are so many days and seasons in our lives where we feel just like Jeremiah. Oh, Lord, please send someone else. We start thinking about all of our weaknesses and limitations and the ways that we don't feel qualified for what you've called us to do. And in those moments, we need your word and your spirit and your people to remind us of what is true. That it's not about our limitations, but about your limitless power.

39:50And so we pray today that you would give us courage and strength, faith to embrace that calling, to go to our neighbors and to the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ. God, we pray for those who have gathered with us this morning who may not yet know and follow Jesus Christ. Would you speak to them this morning? Draw them to yourself. Grant them repentance and faith that they would know reconciliation, hope, justification, adoption into your family.

40:25Thank you for your word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.