JEREMIAH 20<\/b><\/p>\n
I hear many whispering, \u201cTerror on every side! Report him! Let\u2019s report him!\u201d All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, \u201cPerhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
(Jeremiah 20:10).<\/i><\/p>\n
Jeremiah was no different from you and me. Made in God\u2019s image, he loved beauty and peace and enjoyed the companionship of others. He did not enjoy bringing God\u2019s message of woe to the people, and he did not like being persecuted by them. His soft heart never hardened under persecution, and he did not become an embittered loner, rejecting human company. Rather, he continued to suffer when he was rejected.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah might have given up. He might have become one of the false prophets preaching only \u201cpeace and love.\u201d These never said anything that would upset anybody. After all, they said, Isaiah told us to comfort God\u2019s people and speak peace to Jerusalem (Isaiah 40). There are plenty of such preachers today who say, \u201cGod loves you just as you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bible\u2019s message is, \u201cGod loves you and demands that you change your ways.\u201d Isaiah was being told to comfort the afflicted; Jeremiah was told to afflict the comfortable. Those who groan over sin and wickedness are those who are to be comforted. Those who are at ease in sin and who perpetrate evil in society need to be afflicted.<\/p>\n
From time to time true prophets experience affliction from angry sinners. Jeremiah experienced it a lot. Yesterday we saw Jeremiah tell the wicked Pashhur that in the future his name would be \u201cMr. Terror on Every Side.\u201d In fact, that was the name Jeremiah was being called (Jeremiah 20:10). The leaders of the city were out to get Jeremiah, and when people saw him on the street, they would say, \u201cHere comes Mr. Bad Luck. Let\u2019s turn him in and get him in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremiah\u2019s associates (the \u201cfriends\u201d of verse 10) also conspired against him. They hoped he would commit some sin so they could discredit him. His fellow priests hated him because his faithfulness exposed their unfaithfulness. They had to condemn him in order to keep looking good in the public eye. So it is today. If you stand up for what is right, whether in the pulpit or on the job, there will be those who attack you. Such is one mark of a true disciple of the holy God.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Ezekiel 24\u201326<\/p>\n
James 3<\/p>\n
The media delights to expose the sins of ministers of God\u2019s Word. Gossip grapevines inside the church run rampant with exaggerated tales and lies about those in authority. As Christians we should not be so prone to uncritically believe scandalous reports. Even when such tales turn out to be true, we should grieve and pray for the person involved, resisting the temptation to gloat and gossip.<\/p>\n
For further study: Matthew 5:3\u201316 \u2022 Galatians 6:1\u20135 \u2022 James 5:16<\/i><\/p>\n
friday<\/p>\n
november<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JEREMIAH 20 I hear many whispering, \u201cTerror on every side! Report him! Let\u2019s report him!\u201d All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, \u201cPerhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him\u201d (Jeremiah 20:10). Jeremiah was no different from you and me. Made in God\u2019s … Continue reading “THE MARK OF A PROPHET”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}