Anyway, today we're going to begin the study of a new book. And it's the longest book in the Bible according to Logos Bible Software. And when I say the longest, It's Jeremiah, it's Jeremiah. I don't know if I've ever heard even a single sermon on passage of Jeremiah in my life. And certainly I've never heard someone preach through the book of Jeremiah. And you might ask, why Jeremiah? Why a book from 2,600 years ago? How can a book like that speak to us in the 21st century? Well, the circumstances during Jeremiah's life as a prophet were very, very similar to us today in the USA. The people that Jeremiah spoke to in Judah and Jerusalem were idolaters. They actually offered up human sacrifices to their idols. They resisted God and the word of God. And when Jeremiah spoke God's word to them, people of Judah were full of apathy and mockery and hostility. We're gonna see that Jeremiah himself was despised. He was imprisoned, he was forced to leave his country. Jeremiah was God's prophet for over 40 years, and there was no happy ending to the book that he wrote. The people of Judah never hated him, and in fact, at the end of the book of Jeremiah, the people of Judah were carried off as captives by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. You know, we in the United States and the West are not God's chosen people the way Old Testament was. But the principle of God's judgment upon sins still remains. You know, we saw this in the book of Romans quite a bit. Why is this world so full of chaos and confusion? man has exchanged the worship of God for the response that he has devised for himself, and God's response to that exchange has been to allow the consequences of man's sinful choices to come about. God says to man, you must live your life without me and without regard for me, well, will experience the effects and the consequences of your choices, both in your personal life and in society as a whole. Jeremiah shows us the disaster that takes place when a nation forsakes the teachings of God's word and has no fear of God before its eyes. Jeremiah shows us the importance of standing on God's truth in a day when truth is despised and mocked and called out of date. Jeremiah calls believers to be faithful to God in times of hardship and persecution. So today I want to look at Jeremiah chapter one, and I'm going to break down chapter one like this. First, we're going to look at Jeremiah's call and commission, that's verses one to 10. Then secondly, God gave Jeremiah two visions. That's verses 11 to 16. And then thirdly, we have God's charge. God's charge to Jeremiah, which is verses 17 to 19. So we've got Jeremiah's call and commission. Secondly, Jeremiah's two visions. And then thirdly, God's charge to Jeremiah. So let's begin with the first 10 verses of Jeremiah 1. The words of Jeremiah, the son of Zedekiah, of the priests who were in the land of Jerusalem, to whom the word of the Lord came, the name of Zedekiah, the son of Zedekiah, became Judah in the thirteenth year of his reign. It also became the name of Jeroboam, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, King of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month. And 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, and I have appointed you a prophet of the nations. Then I, that's Jeremiah, said, Alas, Lord God, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth. But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am a youth, because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. and to plan. So in these first three verses, we see Jeremiah's background. Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, who was a priest, and Jeremiah was from the town of Anathoth. Anathoth was two miles north of Jerusalem, two miles north of Jerusalem, in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. And if you remember your Old Testament, history, after King Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel that David and Solomon had ruled over was split in two. Ten tribes out of the twelve formed the kingdom called Israel under a man named King Jeroboam, and then there was two other tribes, Judah and Benjamin, that formed the kingdom of Judah under King Rehoboam. And by the time of Jeremiah, the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel had already been taken captive by the Assyrians in 722 BC. It no longer existed. Verses 2 and 3 say that Jeremiah served as a prophet 586 B.C. Josiah was a godly king, and it says here that the first 18 years of Jeremiah's service as a prophet were under King Josiah. Then he served 11 years under King Jehoiakim, and then 11 more years under Zedekiah. That adds up to 40. And here God begins his commissioning of Jeremiah as a prophet in verses four and five by reminding Jeremiah that God knew him before he was formed in. And he consecrated Jeremiah before he was born to be God's prophet. You know, you and I are not just a bag together at random. We have, each one of us has been formed by a creator God. Each one of us is created in God's image, created male and female. The book of Genesis tells us, you know, man has a certain dignity, unlike animals, because man has been created in God's image. Think about that. You know, today, people are so concerned with self-esteem and personal worth and value. But when you do away with the creator God and attribute your existence to random chance or evolution, instead of knowing and rejoicing that the God of the universe formed you and knew you, Of course, you're going to feel more disoriented about who you are and question your value and worth and so forth. I remember hearing more than once from my niece, Hannah, and her husband, Andrew, sitting down with one of their sons and saying to them, that God has created them and God has made them a precious boy or a precious girl. Now after Jeremiah has heard how God has formed him and commissioned him, Jeremiah responds in verse six by saying, I don't know how to speak. I'm only a youth. You know, we don't have Jeremiah's exact age here. Most Bible commentators say that Jeremiah is most likely either in his late teens or his early 20s. And we see here, Jeremiah has some resistance to God's calling him to be a prophet. He says, Lord, I'm too young. I don't know how to speak. And God responds here by rebuking Jeremiah in verse seven. The Lord says, don't say I am a youth. You know, God does not allow me or you to use youth as an excuse for not serving God. You know, Timothy was a young man in the New Testament who was a little bit afraid to speak for God. And what did God tell Timothy? 1 Timothy 4, verse 12, Paul tells Timothy, do not let anyone look down on your youthfulness, rather be an example of a believer in Christ by your speech, by your conduct, love, faith, and purity. And if you as a young person or older person are honoring God in these five areas, speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, God can use you. You don't need a Ph.D. in theology. You don't need to be eloquent in speech. A person can have his Ph.D. in theology and still have nothing to say for God because his life and his character don't add up. In verse 8, God tells Jeremiah, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Jeremiah was going to be speaking God's word in a very difficult environment. Not only were people going to be apathetic to what Jeremiah would have to say, they would be resistant and even hostile towards him. And eventually, as I mentioned, Jeremiah would go to prison for what he said. In Ephesians chapter six, verse 20, Paul says, For the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I am an ambassador in chains. So we mustn't be surprised if our country at some point becomes similar to the conditions that Jeremiah faced in his country. So we need to hear what verse eight says. It says, don't be afraid. You know, one of my favorite verses of late is 1 Corinthians 2, verse 3, where Paul tells Corinthians, I was with you in fear and in weakness and in much trembling, but he still continued to preach Jesus Christ and his death. To stand up, opposition like Paul and Jeremiah faced. We need courage that we don't actually possess a spirit. Again, Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, God has not given the believer a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline, so therefore don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. So may you and I, who are believers, pray continually for a daily outpouring of the Holy Spirit's power from God. Verses nine to 11, God gives Jeremiah further encouragement. God tells Jeremiah, I'm putting my words in your mouth. I'm putting my words in your mouth. A couple of scriptures on this in Colossians chapter four, verses four through six, Paul asks the Colossians to pray for him as he preaches that he might make the message clear in the way that he ought and that he might know how to speak to each person that he would come in contact with. So you and I who are believers are to pray for God's wisdom in how we are to present the gospel message to each person. On the other hand, God has given me his word to preach. God put his word his word to preach. 2 Timothy 4, verse 1 says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction because the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. So Paul tells Timothy, preach the word. God's word brings light to this darkness. that leads to salvation. God's word is the truth. The truth about our sins. The truth that we need a savior. The truth that Jesus Christ is the one and only savior. God's word is living and active and God's word is always, always relevant for the day in which we live in. You know, the great preacher, Charles Darwin, Let the lion out, because a lion can defend itself. So may you and I stand on and preach the word of God and let it go to work. In verse 10, God tells Jeremiah six things that he is to do, to pluck up, to break down, to destroy, to overthrow, to build, and to plant. Notice here that four of these six things are negative. Pluck up, break down, destroy, overthrow. God was telling Jeremiah right from the beginning of his ministry that the majority of his service as a prophet is going to be negative. Preaching what people would not want to hear and would reject. Jeremiah was not going to be a popular, well-liked person because of the message that God gave him to preach. Let's go to our second heading, the two visions that God gave Jeremiah. The first one is in verses 11 and 12, the second in verse 13 through 16. Let's read verse 11. The word of the Lord came to me saying, what do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, I see the rod of an almond tree. And then the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it. I am watching over my word to perform it. So here God gives Jeremiah assurance that God will carry out the words that he will give Jeremiah to speak. As long as Jeremiah spoke the words that God put into his mouth, God was going to bring it to pass. And here God tells Jeremiah, remember the almond tree. I understand that the almond tree is the first tree that blooms every spring in the land of Israel. So it's the first one to bloom, the last one to have fruit that is ripened. So God was telling Jeremiah, I am giving you my word to preach, but you will need to be patient. You know, I think our natural tendency when we hear promises from God's word is that we want instant gratification, but it doesn't always work that way in the things of God. God told Jeremiah, I am watching over my word to perform it. God will always fulfill the things that he says. In Joshua chapter 23, verse 14, in Joshua's final message to the people of Israel, Joshua reminded the Israelites, not one word of all the good words that the Lord has spoken concerning you has failed. You know, the world we live in today basically mocks the Word of God. It mocks the truth of God's coming judgment. It mocks the physical return of Jesus Christ. It mocks the idea that there is a heaven So may you and I, who are believers, stand on the truth of God's word, and may our lives be of such character that others might ask us, what is the reason for the hope that you have within you? Second vision that Jeremiah has, verse 13 through 16, let's read that. The word of the Lord came to me a second time saying, what do you see? Jeremiah said, I see a boiling pot facing away from the north. And the Lord said to me, out of the north, the evil will break forth on all the inhabitants of the land. Behold, I am calling all the families of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord. They will come and they will set each one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem and against all its walls, round about and against all the cities of Judah. And I will pronounce my judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken me and offered sacrifices to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands. So here we have the basic theme of Jeremiah's 40-year prophetic career, and it's not a popular message. It's a message of God's judgment. So Jeremiah knew right from the start as a young prophet that he would be speaking words from God that people would not want to hear. Verse 13 tells us that Jeremiah saw a boiling pot, and this boiling pot represented God's judgment against Judah and Jerusalem. Verse 14 tells us that this judgment that God was gonna bring upon Judah is going to come from the direction of the north. And specifically here, Jeremiah is referring to the Babylonians. Now, the Babylonians geographically lived to the east of Judah, but due to the topography of the land, the Babylonians would not go straight west and approach Jerusalem that way, because they would have to cross the huge Arabian desert. Rather, they would go in a northwesterly direction, following the Euphrates River to Ligot, directly north of Judah and then descend down from the north against Judah and Jerusalem. Verse 16 gives us the reason for this boiling pot of God's judgment. God says, I will pronounce my judgment on the wickedness of Judah. there, they have forsaken me. They have forsaken me. They have offered sacrifices to other gods and worshipped gods of their own hands." So here in Jeremiah chapter 1, God pronounces His judgment on Judah because of this exchange of worship that Judah has made. exchange the worship of the true God for the worship of idols and works of their own hands. And as I mentioned before, the end of the book, we see God's judgment carried out when Judah was carried off into exile to Babylon. God is telling men that living in idolatry both individually and for the nation as a whole. So Jeremiah knows right from the start it's not going to be easy for him to proclaim this message of judgment that God gave him to preach. The temptation for Jeremiah and the temptation for believers today is to give in. It's a popular opinion to compromise on what God's word has to say about sin. You know, today people, you know, look at man's sin. and say, is all the immorality is all the definition of what makes up a marriage is a definition of what gender is are these things really that big of a deal. And the answer, of course, is yes, it's a big deal, because God calls it sin, and there is a God who judges sin. A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the coffee shop I usually go to, and a fellow came I used to see him quite a bit before he got married, and then some years ago he got married, so I don't see him nearly as much as I used to. I really like this fellow. His name is Mitch, a godly younger fellow, although he's about 40 now. We talked and he said, yeah, I've got a wife and I've got five little kids now. And then he told me this. He said, I work for a large company just south of the border in Illinois. And he said, back in March or April, my department came to me with a piece of paper and said, we want all our employees in this department to sign this piece of paper that says, I will call transgendered people by their preferred pronouns. I said, so what did you do? And he said, I didn't sign it. I didn't sign it. And I thought, I really respect you for doing what you did. You've got a wife, you've got five little kids, your wife stays home in homeschools. That's a big deal, what you're doing here. And he made a decision to stand on the on the truth of the word of God. Like I said, this is just going on just over the border in Illinois. This is what's going on. You know, I was looking at something the other day. Many, many churches today, in fact, the majority of people in churches today have already given in, you know, to these things about the definition of what the Bible says about marriage and gender and family. And so much of the, I'll even throw out some names here, much not all of the Methodist churches, the Lutheran churches, the Episcopal churches, much of the Presbyterian churches have already given in and said, we support what the popular thinking of the day is, to stand for the biblical truth in these matters is a hugely unpopular thing, just like the message that God gave to Jeremiah was not a popular message. Let's go on to our third heading. God's charge to Jeremiah, let's read verse 17. God tells Jeremiah there, now, gird up your loins and arise and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them or I will dismay you before them. Behold, I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests. and to the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. So right among the middle of this God-forsaking people of Judah, Jeremiah is told to gird up his loins, to gird up his loins, and to speak to the people all that God has commanded him. I just wanna look briefly at this phrase, gird up your loins and arise. You know, this phrase gird up your loins is used a number of times in the Bible. And when we look at how it's used in some of the other places of the Bible, we can see what is all involved in girding up one's loins You know, people back in the days of the Bible would often wear a long robe-like garment that was secured around the waist by a belt. So when you were sitting down, you would loosen the belt in order to be relaxed, but if you had to get up and move around, you would tighten your belt. You would gird up your loins in order to move about without your garment interfering with your walking. You'll notice the sequence there in verse 17. Gird up your loins is first, then arise, and then speak. One place we read this expression, in Luke chapter 12, verse 35, Jesus says, let your loins be girded. Keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast that they might immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. So here we have the thought of alertness or readiness, having your lamp lit, being like a servant waiting for his master to return so that he might serve them immediately. Psalm 119 verse 105 says, God's word is like a lamp for our feet. And I have to ask myself the question, am I continually in the Word of God? Are you, as a believer, continually in the Word of God? Are we ready in season and out of season to speak a word for God? You know, the Bible tells us God's commandments enlighten our eyes. They rejoice our hearts. They make wise the simple. So it's very important that as a believer, I do not become dull and lethargic in my quiet time with God, or a lack of readiness and alertness is going to creep in and hinder my readiness to arise and speak for God. Another one we have in Ephesians chapter six, verse 14, where it says there, stand firm therefore, Having girded your loins with truth. Having girded your loins with truth. God's word is truth. That's what John 17, verse 17 says. Am I willing to speak and teach the truth of God's word? You know, oftentimes you hear people today say, tell me the truth, I wanna know the truth. But when you give them the truth, of God's Word, they don't want to hear it. They would rather have their ears tickled. And they will, and many churches will get teachers in there who will tell them what they want to hear so they feel good about themselves rather than confront them with the truth of the Word of God. You know, Chuck Colson was President Nixon's hatchet man back in the 1970s. He became a believer. And after he became a believer, Chuck Colson said this, he said, God's word shows us that we are not right with God. But the bottom line is most people really don't want to change very much at all. Jeremiah was told to proclaim the truth of God's word, to tell the people of Judah about their sin, their idolatry, and their need to repent of their sin. the people's behavior and their lifestyle in Jeremiah's day was not okay in the eyes of God. And Jeremiah was told to confront them with the truth of the word of God. One more scripture on this, 1 Peter 1.13 says, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, gird up the loins of your mind and keep sober in spirit, fixing your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So here the thought of girding up your loins has to do with the condition of your mind. God's speaker must have his mind properly focused on the grace that will be brought to him at the coming of Jesus Christ. You know, to be sober means to keep things in their correct perspective. If my career or my next month's vacation, or if getting my children into the right school is controlling my thoughts and actions more than my being obedient to God's word and prioritizing service for God, my loins are not girded, and ready to speak for God. The second half of verse 17 says, God tells Jeremiah, don't be dismayed before these people, or I will dismay you before them. translation here is, do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them. You know, Jeremiah faced a very tough assignment here in that he was told to speak an unpopular message, and the temptation would be to look at the faces of those he was speaking to and then compromise the truth of the word of God. to water down the message in order that the hearers would not respond with hostility. But if he were to do that, he would be disobedient to the call of God. And God says here, don't be dismayed before them, or I will dismay you for them. When God gives me as a believer a job to do, May we remember that it will be more difficult for us if we face God's displeasure for our disobedience to his command than it will be to face hostility from those who don't want to hear the truth of the Word of God. Then in verse 18 and 19, God tells Jeremiah, you're gonna face opposition from all sides. They will fight against you. you would receive opposition, it says, from the kings, the princes, and the priests, which were the religious faction, as well as all of the people. All would be against him. But God promises Jeremiah that he will be with him. And for the believer today, the writer of Hebrews puts it like this, Hebrews 13, verse five, the Lord has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. So that I can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. I will not be afraid of what man can do to me. You know, I mentioned earlier, much of the professing church in these areas of marriage and sexuality and gender and so forth. God called and commissioned Jeremiah to be his prophet, to speak his truth to people who didn't want to hear it. And when you get to the end of the book of Jeremiah, you'll see that Jeremiah spoke for over 40 years and saw almost no results at all. but he remained faithful and obedient to God. One last verse, Titus chapter one, verse nine, tells believers, hold fast, hold fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching that you will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. So may you and I who are believers hold fast to the faithful word of God so that we might be able by sound teaching to exhort and to convict those who contend with it. Let's pray. Our God and Father, we thank you for another opportunity to be here, to open your word, to hear your voice, We thank you even for this book of Jeremiah, specifically the first chapter of Jeremiah where this young man would be commissioned to speak your word. in a very hostile nation, in a very hostile environment, and yet we also are encouraged that you are watching over your word to perform it. If we trust in you and trust in your word, we will not be disappointed because you are faithful always to your word. I pray for each of us who are believers, may we be faithful in what appears to be a very increasing hostile environment to your things and to your word. Give us courage, like Paul would tell Timothy, you have not given us a spirit of community, but one of power and sound doctrine. May we stand on this sound doctrine that you've given us. We thank you for your goodness in saving us. And I would pray for any here today May they be convicted of their need for him. May they trust him. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.