is God's word, Jeremiah 37. Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of Quniah, the son of Jehoiakim, but neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet. King Zedekiah sent Jehuchal, son of Shalamiah, and Zephaniah the priest, son of Messiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, please pray for us to the Lord our God. Now, Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison. The army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans, who were besieging Jerusalem, heard news about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, thus says the Lord God of Israel, thus shall you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me, behold, Pharaoh's army that came to help you is about to return to Egypt to its own land and the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city. They shall capture it and burn it with fire. Thus says the Lord, do not deceive yourselves saying the Chaldeans will surely go away from us for they will not go away. Four, even if you should defeat the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men, every man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire. Now when the Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh's army, Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to receive his portion there among the people. When he was at the Benjamin gate, a sentry there named Uriah, the son of Shalamiah, son of Hananiah, seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, you are deserting to the Chaldeans. And Jeremiah said, it is a lie. I am not deserting to the Chaldeans. But Erijah would not listen to him and seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials and the officials were enraged at Jerusalem and they beat him and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the secretary for it had been made a prison. When Jeremiah had come to the dungeon cells and remained there many days, King Zedekiah sent for him and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house and said, is there any word from the Lord? Jeremiah said, there is. Then he said, you shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, what wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people that you've put me in prison? Where are your prophets who prophesied to you saying the King of Babylon will not come against you and against this land? Now here, please, oh my Lord the King, let my humble plea come before you and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary lest I die there. So King Zedekiah gave orders and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard and a loaf of bread was given him daily from the baker's square, baker's street, funny, excuse me, baker's street, excuse me, until all the bread of the city was gone, so Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard. Thus far we read from God's word. Please excuse my slip, you know, the Bible tells us that we plan the words of our mouth, but God ordains them, so. Little commercial there for the closed Baker Square. All right, so the issue in chapter 37 continues from chapters 35 and 36 into chapter 37. Listening to God's truth. So chapter 35 was the comparison of God's people not listening to the, remember the clan of perpetually camping people who were listening to their original leader? Chapter 36 was King Jehoiakim not listening when he chose to burn the scroll of God's word, remember? Now here in chapter 37, we have a different king also not listening. So we've jumped in time, but stayed on topic. You see how Jeremiah's organized by topic, not chronologically? Neither King Jehoiachin of chapter 36, nor King Zedekiah of chapter 37, are listening to the word of God. So it brings us to our main point, not listening to God's word results in a downward spiral of falsehoods. King Zedekiah's refusal to listen was a big decision. It had big consequences. To not listen to God is to attempt to be king without God. King over God's people without God. This leads to a cascade of wrong ideas. By not listening, the king set aside his identity as God's king overseeing God's city with God's temple and God's nation and God's people. The result of that series of falsehoods was the downfall of this king, this city, this nation, that temple, This chapter asks us then to examine ourselves. Self, am I listening to God? Not listening to God results in a downward spiral of falsehood. So we'll see three things. First, false hopes. Second, false accusations. Third, false anger. And our conclusion will be, what's the value of truth? Heeding God's word results in an upward spiral or an up-building of truth. The opposite is true. So first, false hopes. Verse one, the reminder, the first reminder about King Zedekiah is that he was a son of a good king, son of King Josiah. He's not following in the footsteps of his father, King Josiah. The second reminder about King Zedekiah is that he was placed on the throne by none other than Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is the one who put Zedekiah in power. He's what we call a puppet king. Zedekiah can still be king as long as he's loyal to Nebuchadnezzar. Listening to Nebuchadnezzar, not listening to God. He was the king as long as he's loyal to Nebuchadnezzar. And the third reminder about this king in verse two is that he would not listen to the word of God. He misunderstood his role as king fundamentally. It's okay to listen to Nebuchadnezzar, and not listen to God, the King of heaven and the King of Israel. So it's very clear. Now, getting to verse three, that's all a setup for what we see in verse three. It's very odd to find in verse three that this very same king now asks for prayer. He would not listen to God. We got that clear, okay? But he wanted God to listen to him and his prayers. That's why in verse four, the king had not yet put Jeremiah in prison, we're told. Remember, we're out of sequence, so we had him in prison at this point. It's earlier, he's not in prison yet. The king had false hope in prayer. The king wanted the support of the prophet to pray for him without the commands of the prophet. To be more direct, the king wanted the support of God without the commands of God. It's like saying God bless America without saying America needs to obey God. Notice that this king did not say, let's all meet in the temple, gather everyone, let's meet in the temple. Let's have Jeremiah lead us in prayer and we'll all pray together as a nation. Oh, no, no, no, no, that's not what he said. The king sent messengers to Jeremiah to ask Jeremiah to pray alone wherever he was. The king wanted the favor of God without being humble before God, his word and his prophet, without even being inconvenienced as to go to travel to see the prophet. Send a messenger, tell him to pray. It's like people who say to me, hey reverend, put up a prayer for me, would ya? I get that a lot actually. What did the king put his hope in? By the way, I don't mean that for you. I do pray for you. I'm glad to pray for you. It's the stranger who finds out I'm a pastor and doesn't want to listen to God's word and yet wants God's favor. That's what I meant. So what did the king put his hope in? We're told in verse 5, the king put his hope in the fact that the enemy army withdrew temporarily. The Chaldeans, which you know were the Babylonians. Chaldeans, Babylonians is interchangeable. It's like saying green and gold or the Packers. Chaldeans, Babylonians. They pulled away from attacking Jerusalem because they had to deal with something else. The army of Egypt awoke and they were attacking. So Babylon had to go take care of that. They pulled away from Jerusalem. So this is an interesting moment. What happens when Babylon withdraws from Jerusalem? The attack is off for a moment. Now what? All kinds of things start to happen. The king falsely hoped that the attack of Babylon being over, that God's now long-standing, long-time message through Jeremiah that Jerusalem would be destroyed is actually incorrect. Update, update, let's call for Jeremiah, see if we can get an update. So here, verse six, here comes God's message to the king. Verse seven, the army from Egypt will go home. So that in verse eight, the Babylonian army will return to again attack the city of Jerusalem and burn it. Questions? Still isn't that clear to the king. So in verse nine, God said to the king and the officials, do not deceive yourselves. The army, and I quote, will not go away, end quote. The king still misunderstands the whole scene and who can be more clear than God? God clears it up in verse 10. Listen to this again. with fire. Maybe a little statement about what happened in the previous chapter about another king who burned God's word with fire. He's gonna burn the city with fire. But anyway, the verb for defeat here is a very strong word. If you've ever read your King James Bible, come across the word smite or smote or smitten. That's the word here. Utterly destroy. Even if you smite the enemy army, and then the verb for wounded is the word pierced. which is always a cause of death. You know, Isaiah 53, the Messiah was pierced for our transgressions, which means he died. So we have two references here to an utter death of the entire army of Babylon. What God is saying in verse 10 is, if you killed all of the Babylonians, they would rise up and burn the city with fire. And I know you're going to think I'm borrowing from tomorrow, but what he's talking about here is zombies. What else would it be if twice we're told you kill the entire Babylonian army and they're still going to attack you? What God is doing is he's removing this king's false hope and misunderstanding and he's replacing it with truth. Your true danger is the Lord God himself. I could use the army of Egypt, I could use the army of Babylon, I could use the nearly dead or the full out dead, therefore a zombie army of the Babylon, or I could use locusts to borrow from the book of Joel, or I could use the very sound of thunder to borrow from the book of 1 Samuel to destroy. What's the truth that the king is missing? That God willed the destruction of his city and his people because of their sin. What does it take, O king, to get that through your thick skull? That's what he's saying. False hopes, misunderstanding, deceiving ourselves and others was point one. We move to point two, false accusations. Now beginning in verse 11, we're given the scene of a false accusation against Jeremiah that got him arrested, beaten, and almost killed. And during this reprieve from any enemy attack on the city, Jeremiah started in verse 12, a short traveling trip to leave Jerusalem and come right back. Why? Jeremiah needed to take care of some family business back in his hometown of Anathoth, something to do with a field, a piece of property. Because you and I have already studied this out of sequential order back in chapter 32, we know what's happening. Jeremiah is going to be arrested, never allowed to go back to his hometown to deal with this, so eventually his cousin Hananiah will visit him in prison to sort this out. And then he will buy a field for his extended family, which will become a symbol of God saying, I will bring you back from exile. You understand all that background. That's part of why this is not sequential. So we got that prior to here in chapter 37. So in verse 13, when Jeremiah tries to pass through the city gate, the guard stops him and makes a false accusation. The guard accused Jeremiah of deserting. You know he's not deserting. He's going to take care of family business, come right back. He's on duty as a prophet. But the guard thinks... that he's a traitor. He stops him at the gate. You're gonna give away secrets to Babylon. If Babylon does come back, you're gonna give him the map, or where we are, or things, it's not right. It's a prophet of truth being accused of being a deceiver. Listen, if anyone is a patriot to Jerusalem, it's Jeremiah. The guard had it all wrong. So in verse 14, Jeremiah said that. He said, literally, I quote, it is a lie. I am not deserting to the Chaldeans, or Babylonians, which brings us to our third point. We see the downward spiral, false hopes, false accusations, and now false anger with false verdict. Verse 14, the guard wouldn't listen to Jeremiah. Okay, class, what was that Hebrew word used here? Would not listen, he would not shema, right? He would not shema, it's literally the word here in verse 14. Our theme problem of not listening has spread to this guard. This guard was following the same path as his king, a downward spiral of falsehood in three easy steps. First, the guard accused the prophet falsely. Second, the guard took action and seized him, arrested him. Third, the guard brought Jeremiah to the officials. Oh, don't worry. The officials will straighten it all out, right? Here's how verse 15 should read. The officials interviewed Jeremiah and discovered the truth that he told the guard to stop making false accusations and told the loyal prophet Jeremiah to head on his way with their royal apology. That's how verse 15 should read. That's not how verse 15 reads. Let me read what happened next in verse 15. The officials were enraged at Jeremiah and they beat him and imprisoned him. How did they do that? How do you beat the prophet who's giving the truth of God's word? Because they jumped to a false verdict. Where's the fair trial for Jeremiah? Verse 16, Jeremiah ended up in dungeon cells, literally, remember that for tonight. It was not a temporary holding cell. We are told in verse 16, he remained there many days. Furthermore, There's no mention of food being provided. It is safe for us to assume he's being starved in a dungeon. Verse 17, the king sent for Jeremiah and questioned him secretly. Maybe after starving him for a while, he'd get the answer he wanted out of Jeremiah. So he calls him privately, secretly. No one will know. No one will know, just you and me. Tell me, Jeremiah. Why is he questioning him secretly? Because the country is out of his hands. The king deep down knows that. Why bother with Jeremiah? He can't control this thing. He has investigators who are not bringing him something that Jeremiah could bring him. The king's question to the prophet is actually desperate. Is there any word from the Lord? Do you see the comical nature of this? How many decades has Jeremiah been giving the word of the Lord? And he says, is there a word from the Lord? You see what's really happening? Who's more powerful, the king or the scroll? Verse 17 supports the first point of our sermon, that the king is falsely hoping for a better word than last time. We see it now in our third point, that Jeremiah gives the same answer as ever. Yes, there's a word from the Lord. Babylon will crush you. It gives us just so terse, so brief, I think it's four words in the original Hebrew. Once that's settled, the king has asked, had his answer, there's more now to the interchange between prophet and king. Verse 18, Jeremiah turns it around and makes a request to the king for his own safety. Starts with questions. Had Jeremiah done anything wrong to the king? In other words, were there sufficient grounds for Jeremiah to be in prison or were there not? basically truth or falsehood. Jeremiah is a truth teller and therefore didn't deserve detainment at all and certainly not such a brutal treatment as to be beaten, put in a dungeon and not fed. What's going on in your kingdom, sir? So verse 20, Jeremiah made the clear request, don't send me back to prison. And the truth is that Jeremiah would die there. So Jeremiah is basically saying to the king, if you allow me to reinterpret this, Let me get this straight, O King. Under your watch, I've been falsely accused, falsely arrested, falsely beaten, falsely put in a dungeon, falsely moved to a solitary cell where I don't get anything, and I've been many days without a trial. If this goes on much longer, I will die. Are you sure, O King, last chance, that you want the death of a prophet on your hands? This is the time to decide the death of a true prophet. And the king had no verbal response to Jeremiah. If you look through the chapters, there's three times where he had no verbal response. But he did bring Jeremiah out of the dungeon. And the king made ongoing provision of food for Jeremiah. And Jeremiah's still detained. He's kept in what we call the court of the guard, which is, this is a holding area, but not in the dungeon. But at least it's more humane conditions and that would prevent him from dying because the king knew that Jeremiah always tells the truth. The truth about God's coming judgment for the enemy attacks. The truth about Jeremiah's innocence. The truth about the guard's accusation. The truth about Jeremiah's prison conditions and the mortal danger to his own life. Jeremiah only asks for the truth from God's word to be heeded by king and by country. The king is starting to get that and brought him out of the dungeon at least. But we see the hand of God in it, don't we? And it leads us to this conclusion. If we can say all these things about the downward spiral of falsehood, we can say the same things in opposite form about the upward spiral of truth. If you have a prophet, and the prophet is giving the truth of God's word, and he continues to give that truth, good things will come. The truth will begin to spread. More and more people will better understand the relationship to God. So verse 21 shows instead of a downward spiral of falsehood, God turned it around. Now we have an upward spiral of truth. Jeremiah could keep announcing God's word. So stay tuned as the coming chapters unfold the rest of the story. Jeremiah didn't die in that dungeon. He kept bringing God's word. But notice something here as we close, as we reach the end of our study. Verse 21, that a loaf of bread was given to Jeremiah daily. Now do not think lightly of the loaf of bread each day. in a time of not listening, in a time of falsehood, in a time of dungeons and war, in a time when the city had been and is going to again be under attack from an enemy, and you want to talk about supply line problems, to have a loaf of bread and to have one reliably every day is life. and the city was running out of bread. But God provided a loaf each day while he's detained by the king. It reminds us of the work of God. Think back, my brothers and sisters. It reminds us of how in Exodus 16, God provided for his people manna just straight out of heaven. It reminds us of how God in 1 Kings 17 used ravens to bring bread to his prophet Elijah. It points to how God provided Jesus himself, ultimately the bread from heaven, provided for his people where Jesus said, I am the living bread, John 6, 51. And then it was Jesus who taught us to pray daily the Lord's Prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. Don't think lightly of this loaf of bread. It's telling us a lot. Jeremiah is called by God to heed God's word even if you must suffer the false accusation, the arrest, the beating, the near death in dungeon cell, all foreshadows Christ who is the word of God and must endure suffering for us on that cross. And it's because we are in Christ that all this points to our own call to suffer as those who also stand for the truth. God sustains others who later suffered imprisonment for being faithful to God. The Apostle Paul, Barnabas, others arrested because of faith in Christ. Consider this one quote, how Paul summarized his sufferings for the truth of Christ. 2 Corinthians 11, 23 and following. Countless beatings, often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one. three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, and so on. 2 Corinthians 11, 23 to 25. In the same way, Christians since then, down through church history, have also suffered for the truth, being arrested, being beaten, being imprisoned for Christ and put to death. God calls us to obey him at any cost. Mark 8, 35, whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. That may become a tall order in our day. God have mercy. It was said of Jesus while on the cross, Matthew 27, 42, he saved others, he cannot save himself. Interestingly, it was said by the chief priests and the scribes and the elders who were mocking him. He saved others, he can't save himself. It's a false accusation. Jesus could save himself. Instead chose to die for us, to save us. He died to save us. It's that simple. False accusations abounded against Jesus. Just one example. In Luke 22, 37, Jesus said the scripture was fulfilled that Jesus was numbered with the transgressors. That is, Jesus was considered one of the number of those who are transgressors. He was considered a criminal. a wrongdoer, a traitor, falsehoods, and Jesus was innocent. Died for our sins, our sins alone. So after his death, he rose again and he said in John 10, 17, I lay down my life that I may take it up again. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. Same God the Father who gave the charge to Jesus is the same God the Father who gave the charge to Jeremiah. How Jeremiah was to live, what he was called to do. It was not just Jeremiah who's at risk, not just Jeremiah who's in jeopardy. The whole city of Jerusalem's in jeopardy. The temple itself, the land, all of the people. Jeremiah represented God's people, God's land, his temple, even his covenant. Jeremiah as a prophet represented God's word, God's powerful word that matters. No king, no leader can position themselves in such a way as to ignore God's word and play with ethics. Every leader takes a moral position. The question is whether that position lines up with God or not. This has been true since Adam. Since Adam represented us, Adam was told not to eat the fruit from one tree. It's a command. Did Adam listen? No. Every one of us fell into moral sin at the moment when Adam ate that fruit. And since then, we've all added instances of our own sin. Because it's true that sinners sin. You're sinners, you sin. The covenant of God made with Adam was broken. The covenant God made with Jerusalem was broken, and their king, in our story, we need a new Adam, that's Christ the second Adam. We need a new king, that's Christ. The word Christ literally means anointed one. Anointed to what? Anointed to be God's king. Established royal power must yield to the governance of God, and the governing of God happens through listening to his word of truth. Hebrews 11.3, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God. Hebrews 1.3, He is the radiance, Christ is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature and He, Christ, upholds the universe by the word of His power. Word of God, Word of God. Two application points. As we close, two application points. One a bit longer and the second one shorter. Two application points. Number one, in times of crisis, listen to God's word. We're living in a time of spiritual crisis. We need to listen to God's word. When in verse 17, the king asked Jeremiah secretly, is there any word from the Lord? It anticipates the later story of the life of Jesus, an established religious figure who ought to know. came by night with the outsider, Jesus the rabbi. And in the Gospel of John, chapter two, verse three, we read that one of the Pharisees named Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. It was a secret meeting, just like the secret meeting in our chapter. The action of the king talking to Jeremiah was risky for the king. The action of Pharisee Nicodemus talking to Jesus was risky for the Pharisee Nicodemus. Both were secret meetings. The king should have been listening to the word of God. It had been said and said and said. And then he's asking, is there a word from the Lord? Nicodemus should have been listening. He was taught and it was said and it was said and it's in the word of God. And in John 3.10, Jesus said to Nicodemus, are you the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things. John 3.10. So later in Matthew 17, verse three, we get the voice from God the Father out loud. You know how rare this is? God the Father speaks, not with a book, not through a prophet, but himself making words audible to us from the sky. God the Father said, on the day of Jesus' baptism, this, I quote, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased, listen to him. It's one of the few things God said out loud from heaven, listen to Jesus, listen to Christ, listen to his word. We need God to open our ears. Psalm 40, verse six. Here the Hebrew says, ears you have dug for me. It's like I have a blockhead, literally, and God's drilling into my side of my head to give me ears to hear. We pray for God to unclog our ears, to hear him. The bigger the crisis, the more we pray. You know the story. A man caught in his house during heavy rain and flooding. A neighbor comes by to take him to higher ground. He declines. The water pours into his first floor, so he goes to the second floor. A police officer comes by in a boat in his street saying, man, come into my boat. He declines. He's gonna wait out the storm. The water rises further. He goes to his roof. A helicopter comes. The helicopter's motioning. He says, go on, go on. Helicopter is frustratingly hovering for a few minutes and finally leaves. The water keeps rising. The man's on the roof. It's up to his neck. He begins to pray, Lord, help me. And the Lord reminded him that he had sent the neighbor, a police officer, a helicopter to help. Why didn't you listen then? And when God sends his word repeatedly, and it's rejected. What recourse is left? Our country has had the word of God for two centuries. Now we have a violence problem. How can we stop it? How can we stop it? Mass murder defined as four people shot in one incident. We've had 25 in one state just this year. A mass problem. Everybody wants to know, how do we stop it? How do we stop it? The Lord sent his word 200 years ago to tell us that every life is precious because it's made in God's image. Why didn't we listen? And because of my illustration, don't go into self-righteousness mode, merely condemning those of our fellow citizens who have certain wrong views. Are you listening to God's word to you? In what ways are we deceiving ourselves and holding false hopes of a different answer from Christ? Is there a word from the Lord? Is there a word from the Lord? When God's word says in Hebrews 13.10, Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Yes, there's a word from the Lord. Listen, repent, believe, receive, serve, love. Jesus said in Mark 4.23, if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. The risen Christ said repeatedly in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, to the churches, He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. In times of crisis, listen to God's word. Our country is in a time of spiritual crisis. The word of God is the light. In the darkness, Peter heard God the Father speak out loud from heaven at the baptism of Jesus and then he wrote this in 2 Peter 1. This is my beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased. He quotes what he heard and then he says this. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you do well to pay attention. as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns when the morning star rises in your hearts. The main application of Jeremiah 37 is for us to listen to the word. And a second subsidiary application is don't abuse the messenger. I don't mean myself. When someone gives truth to us, like Jeremiah gave truth to the king and to the city, how did he end up beaten and in the dungeon, not being fed? Their beef is with God. Not Jeremiah. Do we do that? We take out our objection against God, against the messenger. Who gave us the truth? It's God. It's God's word that we have a beef with. We live in a day in which it's very common to abuse the messenger. Whoever speaks up, that person will get attacked personally. We've utterly lost Christian decorum and the ability to converse constructively in our culture. It begins with us treating each other with kindness enough and civility that we protect one another's lives. We accept all people with all beliefs. Transgender people are welcome in this service and we will tell them what God's word says and ask them to obey it. They're confused about who they are. They're confused about God. They're confused about us. Our message to them has to get through. We can't use handcuffs and fists. We speak against their views using only the word of God. We always treat people with respect because that's Christian. That's what Jesus taught us. We use our words and only our words. Words of gentleness, words that accompany clarity. We need to be very clear, very clear with our message. What does God say? But we cannot abuse the messengers of falsehood and we expect them not to abuse the messengers of truth. We need to not abuse the messengers of falsehood. Not abuse the messengers. We talk about their message and we love the messengers of falsehood personally. We don't attack the persons who are bringing down a spiral of falsehoods. We expose falsehood all day long. We protect the liars from personal harm. There is no room for abuse in the Christian church. This is part of the answer for our country's recovery. It's the way out of the morass and the mess, respect and love and civility and decorum. Otherwise, how are we different than how the king treated Jeremiah? We must never forget this, no matter what important ethical issue is at stake. 2 Peter 4, verse 5, you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances. Is that not also the word of God? Let's pray.