Jeremiah 20:7-18 “God Won’t Deceive Us or Leave Us”

1:22And we often feel sad or angry about those things. But we're uncomfortable with our own sadness and anger. And so we try to push it down or drown it out. A lot of times, because we feel guilty for feeling what we feel. And we're uncomfortable with the sadness and the anger of others. And so we try to pull them out of it as quickly as possible. Sometimes offering clichés, sometimes offering Bible verses. We want to help them move on, maybe more for our sake than theirs.

2:10Church leaders even pray sometimes, using language that sounds like, Lord, we pray that we would just leave all of our problems outside these doors and come in and worship you as though the last thing that God wants us to do is to bring our sadness and hurt and anger in here to Him. Thankfully, we find something very different in the Bible, something that we rarely talk about or hear about or experience for ourselves, and that is lament.

2:57I want you to look at this quote from Mark Vrogep. He says, lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust. It is not only how Christians grieve, it's the way Christians praise God through their sorrows. Lament is a pathway to praise when life gets hard. Let me read that one more time. Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust. It is not only how Christians grieve, it's the way Christians praise God through their sorrows. Lament is a pathway to praise when life gets hard.

3:44This morning, we're going to enter into a really hard space. A space that is going to be more uncomfortable for some of you than the graphic descriptions of sin and judgment that we've already read about and heard preached about for months at this point. The space that we're heading into is filled with grief and anger and brutal honesty and unanswered questions. It's a space that is uncomfortable, both for those who are experiencing those things and for those of us who are called by God to minister to the people who are experiencing it. Those things.

4:33But, friends, in this space, we're going to learn to lament, or we're going to continue to learn to lament so that we can go to Jesus or lead others to Jesus in the times of our greatest pain and sorrow and anger. Because Jesus is where we go. He is the one that we go to to receive mercy and to find grace in our times of need. We're going to learn this morning in Jeremiah 20: the biblical lament reminds us that God will never deceive us or leave us.

5:26Last week at the front end of chapter 20, we saw Jeremiah standing in the temple courts and proclaiming disaster against the people because they refused to listen to God. Pashur the priest heard Jeremiah prophesying and he took offense at his words, so he arrested him, he beat him, he put him in the stocks. And the next day he released Jeremiah, and Jeremiah gave Pashur a new name, terror on every side, because he was going to become a terror to himself and to everybody around him.

6:00He was going to personally witness the destruction of Jerusalem that Babylon was going to bring, and he and his family would go into captivity and die there because Pashur was a false prophet. So we all see that. Jeremiah confronting unrepentant sinners and unrepentant sin, and we might think to ourselves, wow, I wish I had faith and courage and conviction like that. And it is right to think that because Jeremiah was faithful and he was courageous and he lived with conviction.

6:50But remember what we saw two weeks ago in Jeremiah chapter 17 about the human heart? The human heart. Who can understand it? There's always more going on in our hearts than anybody around us will ever know. And in fact, there's more going on in our hearts than we ourselves will ever fully know or understand. And we see that here in verse 7. I want you to look at how Jeremiah prays right after prophesying boldly in the Temple courts and confronting Pashur.

7:34O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. What in the world is going on here? I want you to remember Jeremiah's circumstances. For years, he has been prophesying that violence and destruction are coming from the north, that Jerusalem is going to be laid bare and captured, and all of the people are going to be taken into captivity. But day after day, year after year, nothing changes. Everything goes on as it always had.

8:20And I'm sure that at first, Jeremiah's words garnered some attention because his prophecies are alarming. They're frightening. But after a decade or two, not only did the people quit listening to him, they started mocking him. He had become a laughing stock all day, every day. So he walks through the streets, and people are standing at the sides, whispering, terror on every side. But the terror never comes. So the people, including his former friends, are watching him, actively hoping. For his fall, so they could take revenge on him. What they're saying is they are actively hoping that his prophecies will not come true so that they could put him to death in accordance with the commands about false prophets in Deuteronomy chapter 18.

9:18Under such circumstances, anybody would be tempted to quit. And Jeremiah was tempted to quit. Look at verse 9. If I say, I will not mention him or speak anymore in his name, there is in my heart, as it were, a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. Understandably, Jeremiah got to the point where he did not want to prophesy anymore. He didn't even want to mention God's name anymore.

9:57After all, he felt deceived. He had only done exactly what God told him to do. He had only said exactly what God told him to say, but God had not fulfilled any of his prophecies yet. So everybody made fun of him and plotted to kill him. It's no wonder that he wanted to quit. But when he tried to quit, the word of God was like a burning fire in his heart, and he couldn't hold it in. That's why he said, You are stronger than I, and you have prevailed.

10:30He couldn't quit prophesying if he wanted to. So, either way, he is burning. If he doesn't prophesy and say the things that God has commanded him to say, he's burning on the inside. And if he does say the things that God has commanded him to say, then he's burning on the outside with embarrassment and shame. He feels deceived and strong-armed by God. And he vocalizes those feelings in his prayer. You have deceived me. You have prevailed.

11:12Friends, this is exactly what Jeremiah should have done. He should have gone directly to God with his complaints, his burdens, his cares, and his anxieties. And that is just what we find all over Scripture. In Psalm 55, the psalmist says, Evening and morning and at noon, I utter my complaints and I moan, and he hears my voice. Later in the same psalm, he says, Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

11:49In 1 Peter 5, Peter says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the right time he may exalt you, casting all of your anxieties on him. Him because he cares for you. Friends, that is the consistent teaching of Scripture. That we are to go directly to God when we are burdened, when we are loaded down with cares and anxieties, with fears, when we feel that God has not dealt fairly with us.

12:29Because what are the options? As far as I can tell, we have three choices: we can try to deal with it ourselves, we can take it to other people, or we can go to God. Many people try to deal with it themselves, and usually what that means is that we shove it down and we hope that as long as we don't think about it or talk about it, that it will just go away, that the pain will just stop.

13:09But that's rarely, ever the case. Like a deep cut that you just cover up with a bandage, not only does it not heal, it usually gets infected. And when a cut gets infected, Affected, it's very, very painful. And so you have to have something to numb that pain. For a lot of people, that's drugs or alcohol, it's pornography, serial relationships, binge-watching shows. Dealing with your pain on your own is not a good or biblical solution. So, what other people do is they take it to other people.

14:11And I want to be very careful here because you might say, now, Pastor Allen, doesn't the Bible say bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ? Yes, yes, it does. Doesn't it say mourn with those who mourn? Yes, it does. But here's the thing: if you go to other people as a substitute for going to God, you will never fully heal. And that's because going to other people is helpful when we see them for what they really are.

15:01Which is an extension of the ministry and mercy of God to us. When we see people in the body of Christ for what they really are, the arms of Christ embracing us, the eyes of Christ shedding tears for us, the compassion of Christ extended to us, then people are very helpful and God works through them. But if we go to people alone with our pain and our cares and our anxieties, we will come away disappointed because Christ alone has the power to completely heal and to perfectly comfort.

15:55I have seen this so many times as a pastor where hurting people go to others and only others, and instead of coming away blessed, they come away with more complaints and more hurt about the words that were said and the things that were done or the words that were not said and the things that were not done. And that is because they weren't looking at the body of Christ as the hands and feet of Jesus, but as the solution to their hurts and anxieties and fears and sorrow.

16:46Going to people alone is not a good or biblical solution. So the third choice is to take it to God. And that is what the psalmists do. More than one-third of the psalms, almost half of the psalms, are psalms of lament. Did you know that? Almost half the psalms are psalms of lament. Look at just a few examples here. Psalm 3. O Lord, how many are my foes? Many are rising against me. Psalm 13. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

17:42Psalm 42. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before you? God. Psalm 86. Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. Friends, Jeremiah feels deceived and strong-armed by God. He wants to quit his job as a prophet, but he can't.

18:34He can't take his pain and burdens to others because there is no one else. He has no wife. He has no kids. He has no friends. And even if he did have friends, the book of Job tells us that friends aren't always the best gift. His wife suggested suicide. His friends tried to mansplain his problems to him. So Jeremiah took his problems to God. And he poured out his perspectives on his dire circumstances and all of his unfiltered feelings about his life.

19:21And you know what? God didn't answer him. Unlike other times in Jeremiah's life, God does not answer him vocally. And that is a really good thing because many of the times when we pray, I think I can say with confidence that most of the times when we pray, God is not going to answer us vocally either. So, what does Jeremiah do? He does the thing that all of us have got to learn to do, and that is to preach the truth to himself and sing the truth to his sadness.

20:15Look at verse 11. But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble. They will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. O Lord of hosts, who test the righteous, who seize the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause. Sing to the Lord. Praise the Lord, for he has delivered the life of the needy. From the hand of evildoers.

21:06Between verse 10 and verse 11, exactly nothing changed in Jeremiah's life. Nothing. Not his circumstances. And I'm guessing that his feelings didn't change either. But between verse 10 and verse 11, Jeremiah makes a choice. It's a choice that we can make and we should make when our circumstances are bad and we feel all of the feelings. And that choice is to preach the truth to himself and to sing in his sadness. He begins by reminding himself that God is on his side as a dread warrior. Whatever that means, that sounds intense.

22:04So he's not going to be overcome. He reminds himself that in the end, he is not going to be ashamed because he is speaking the truth, God's very word, and God cannot lie. He reminds himself that God is the one who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind. God knows everything, and he is the same. Will reward and punish accordingly. And after he preaches, he sings, almost certainly not because he feels like it, but because that is the proper response to the truth that he's just reminded himself of. He says, Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

23:00In every psalm of lament, the psalmist goes to the Lord and pours out his heart about his circumstances and his feelings. And then there's this moment, this moment that always, almost always, at least, begins with the word, but where he makes this choice to preach the truth to himself and sing to his sadness. Look at those four psalms again. Psalm 3. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

23:48Psalm 13. But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to To the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me. Psalm 42. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. Psalm 86. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

24:38See, these psalmists are all upset about their circumstances, just like Jeremiah. Nothing had changed for them in between laying out their circumstances, laying out their complaints before the Lord, and pivoting to preaching the truth and singing the truth to themselves. The church, they made the choice to preach the truth to their pain and to sing in their sorrow. Now you might say, that's easy enough for them. They're not going through what I'm going through. Well, that's right. They're not.

25:31In Psalm 3, David's own son led a revolt against him and rounded up thousands of people who were trying to kill him. In Psalm 42, the sons of Korah say that they're so depressed that they've had nothing to eat for days except their own tears. In Psalm 86, wicked men were plotting to assassinate David. I am not minimizing your pain, but I want to help you put it into perspective. One of the challenging things about the human heart, who can understand it, is the way that pain turns us inward on ourselves.

26:39When we are in pain, it reduces our ability to put things into perspective. It limits our capacity to see and believe the truth. And so, brothers and sisters, that's exactly why knowing the truth of God's Word and making the choice to preach. It and sing it to ourselves is so very important. It is exactly why we need to meet together every single Sunday. Because you might be in a place where you don't need to be reminded of the truth of God's Word through song or through preaching, but the person sitting next to you or in front of you might need to hear that desperately.

27:37They are in too much pain to try to find the words to pray or to sing. But they had enough faith and courage to get up and to come. And they need to hear you sing the truth. They need to hear me preach the truth. They need to see us take the Lord's Supper together. They need to hear us pray the Lord's prayer together. They need you to offer to pray with them, not just later in the week during your quiet time, but right then and there.

28:25Before worship, after worship, maybe even. Enduring worship. Brothers and sisters, you may not feel the need to go to church on any given Sunday. But I promise you, dozens of people in this room need you to go. In these 13 verses, Jeremiah gives us a perfect demonstration of lamentation. He turns to God in prayer. He honestly lays out his circumstances and his feelings. He asks God for help, and he ends by preaching and singing the truth to himself.

29:19And if you didn't already know what was coming next, and I asked you, what do you think Jeremiah did after that? You might say, well, I guess he probably went back to his prophetic ministry with renewed faith and courage and conviction. That would make sense, right? He's prayed. He's preached the truth to himself. He's worshiped. But the human heart. Who can understand it? That is not at all what happens. Look at verse 14. Cursed be the day on which I was born, the day when my mother bore me. Let it not be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father. A son is born to you, making him very glad.

30:39Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity. Let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, because he did not kill me in the womb. So my mother would have been my grave and her womb forever great. Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow and spend my days in shame? Friends, those are not just words in the Bible. Those are words that were said, maybe screamed.

31:30By one of the most faithful men who has ever lived, Jeremiah is saying, I wish somebody had killed me before I was born. I wish I had never been born. I hate my life. It's nothing but toil and sorrow and shame. And I thank God that Jeremiah's words have been preserved for us in Scripture so that believers in every generation can pick up the Bible and see how greatly he struggled. This faithful, obedient, courageous warrior of a man.

32:22Because what if all we had was verses 1 through 13? Then maybe when we're going through pain and we feel angry and sad, and then we pick up the Bible and we say, well, I guess I'm supposed to be honest about my feelings, but those will go away if I preach the truth to myself and sing. If we only had verses 1 through 13, when other people in our lives are struggling, we might read those 13 verses to them and say, see?

33:00If you just preach the truth to yourself and sing to the Lord, those feelings will go away. So just do that. But my friends, God's word is not a magic spell. And worship is not a magic wand that magically makes our circumstances change or our feelings disappear. God does not promise to change our circumstances or our feelings if we preach the truth to ourselves or if we sing. That is painfully obvious in these verses. Jeremiah's lamentation was textbook.

33:56He didn't bottle up his feelings or search in vain for a person to solve his problems. He went to the Lord. He opened up about his circumstances and his feelings. He asked God for help. He preached the truth to himself. He did absolutely nothing wrong. And yet, seemingly in the next instant, Jeremiah is ambushed with self-loathing and regret and anger that overwhelm him so fully. And completely that he wishes he had never been born. And I think from the way that verse 18 ends that he is contemplating suicide.

34:43If you don't think that you should have ever been born, then you certainly can't justify your existence today. So I want us to learn from Jeremiah, not just from everything that he did right, but also from his struggle and where he went wrong. What did Jeremiah do wrong here? When he was overwhelmed with these feelings, what did he do wrong? Well, first, he doesn't turn to the Lord. The only mention of God's name in verses 14 through 18 is when he is calling down curses on that poor messenger who brought the good news to his dad that he was going to have a son.

35:45It is as if Jeremiah has entered into a world where God does not exist at all. Brothers and sisters, when we are in a bad place, that is the world that we enter into. To as well. It is a pretend world where God does not exist at all. Have you been in that world before? I have been in that world. Jeremiah's first mistake is that he doesn't turn to the Lord. His second mistake is that he doesn't preach the truth to himself.

36:26Instead, what does he do? He listens to himself. The great 20th century preacher, Martin Lloyd-Jones, wrote this in his book, Spiritual Depression. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Lloyd-Jones points to Psalm 42 and he notes how the psalmist stopped listening to himself and started talking to himself. Soul, why are you so downcast? Hope in God. You will again praise Him.

37:16Jeremiah makes this second mistake, and he was listening to himself instead of preaching the truth to himself. In modern language, we say that we're caught up in our own heads. In those moments, We cannot listen to ourselves when we are hearing things like, I should have never been born. It would be better if I were dead. Everybody in my life would be better off if I were not here. Friends, in those moments, we cannot listen to ourselves. We must preach to ourselves.

37:54Third, Jeremiah does not ask God for anything unless we count the curse that he's calling down on the poor messenger. And that is because he never went to God in the first place. What does James say? You do not have because you do not ask God. Friends, God is an ever-present help in times of trouble. But we have to go to Him if we want to receive that help. And then finally, Jeremiah does not make the choice this time to preach to Himself and to sing.

38:40At the end of the day, when we are overwhelmed by our circumstances or by our emotions, preaching the truth to ourselves or hearing it from others is a choice. It is a choice that we have to make when the last thing that we feel like doing is preaching or hearing the truth. Truth is singing the truth or hearing it sung. Worshiping God in the midst of pain and sorrow is a choice that we must make. And friends, some among us do not have it in themselves to preach the truth to themselves or to sing the truth to themselves and to God.

39:23And that is where we have to come in as the body of Christ. We must remind them of what is true carefully, slowly, with care and patience and spirit-led sensitivity. But we have to come in and remind them of what is true. We have to sing for them and sing to them when they cannot sing to themselves or to God. Friends, I think many of us can relate to Jeremiah. Not in the sense that we stand alone in our faith like he did, or in the sense that we are mocked and persecuted like he was.

40:16But I think many of us can relate to Jeremiah in how quickly he can move from preaching the truth and singing the truth into the deepest throat. Of discouragement and depression. Many times I have preached the truth to you on Sunday and cried in my office on Monday. And I know I'm not alone in that. The human heart. Who can understand it? So it's very good for me, and I know for many of you, that we have Jeremiah's example preserved for us in Scripture. What an encouragement that we are not alone in our struggles or in our struggle with our struggles.

41:28But thanks be to God, we have an even greater encouragement than Jeremiah in the person of Jesus Christ. I want you to look at what Isaiah wrote about him in chapter 53. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteem him. him not. Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He knew what it was like to walk around all day, every day, filled to the brim with painful emotions.

42:24In the garden, just before it was time for him to be crucified, he asked God to let the cup of suffering pass from him because he knew what it meant, not just in terms of the physical suffering and death, but separation from his father. But he ended that prayer, yet not my will, but yours be done. Look what Christopher Wright said. Whereas Jeremiah wished he'd never been born to live the life he did, Jesus knew that he had been born to give the life he had as a sacrifice for us.

43:11For, in the greatest contrast of all, Jesus did not dream of losing his life in order to avoid his mission, like Jeremiah, but chose rather to lay down his life in order to fulfill God's mission. Friends, Jesus' life and death and resurrection ensure that all who trust in him will be saved. Jesus' life, death, and resurrection mean that we can learn to lament because his life, death, and resurrection prove that God will never deceive us or leave us.

44:00In light of our text today, I want to end this morning a little bit differently. I want us to take some time in the service to pray for those who are discouraged, for those who are depressed, for those who are going through times of crushing pain, anxiety, sadness, and loss. I want us to pray for those who need to lament. And I want us to lament with them. So, in just a moment here, I'm going to ask you to do something that we do not ordinarily do here at New Life. Something that will require courage and humility.

44:56If you're in a place where you need to lament, Where you need to cry out to God in the midst of your pain and sadness, loneliness, loss, hurt, fear, discouragement, depression. If you're in that place or any place like that, I just want to ask you to raise your hand. Just raise your hand and lift that up so the people around you can see. I'm in that place, I've been in that place. Just keep that up for a minute, if you would. I want those of you around them to take note, and I want you to put your arm around them. I'd like you to put your hand on them. You can move, it's okay. If you need to scoot closer to somebody, because I would like this moment to be a time where we can lament together as a church body.

45:52I'm going to read Psalm 42 and then pray, and I'd like you to pray with me. Hear the words of Psalm 42. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been. My food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, Where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul.

46:43How I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude-keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you, from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mitzar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, My rock, why have you forgotten me?

47:43Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, Where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. Father, we pray for these brothers and sisters among us who are hurting so deeply, who have experienced tremendous loss, the loss of babies in the womb, the loss of family members, parents, grandparents, children, uncles, cousins, the loss of jobs, the loss of health, the loss of mental health.

49:16Father, we lament the effects of living in this broken world where nothing works like it's supposed to. Our minds don't work like they're supposed to be. Supposed to, our hearts don't work like they're supposed to, our bodies, government structures, it is all broken. And Father, it is so sad. And so, this morning we pray that this small act of ministry that we would be the hands of Jesus, the eyes of Jesus, as we remind those here today who cannot preach the truth to themselves and cannot sing to themselves or to anybody else because they're too sad.

50:13I pray that you would minister to those people through us. I pray that you would minister through us to them. I pray that there would begin to be healing as we cry and grieve and acknowledge that things are not okay. And as we look to you and as we remind each other to look to you, because you are our God and our salvation, you will not deceive us. You will not leave us. Jesus, you are here present with us in the person of the Holy Spirit. You said that you would be with us always to the end of the age. And when you return, it is not for judgment for us, it is for salvation.

51:02Where we will get bodies that are not broken and relationships that are not broken, and there will be no more hurt or pain or crying or tears because you, Jesus, are going to wipe all of those away. We long for that day, and we pray, come, Lord Jesus. Thank you for hearing our prayer. 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.