We turn this evening in God's inspired and authoritative word to Jeremiah chapter 33. The prophecy of Jeremiah chapter 33. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it to establish it. The Lord is his name. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. For thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts and by the sword, they come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury. And for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city. Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me, and it shall be to me a name of joy, praise, and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them. And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it. Thus saith the Lord. Again, there shall be heard in this place which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate without man and without beast, without inhabitant and without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. The voice of them that shall say, praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord, for I will cause to return the captivity of the land as at the first, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, again, in this place, which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be inhabitation of shepherds, causing their flocks to lie down, in the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them, saith the Lord. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute the judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel, Neither shall the priests, the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings and to kindle meat offerings and to sacrifice continually. And the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah saying, thus saith the Lord, if ye can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season, Then may also my covenant be broken with David, my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David, my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? Thus have they despised my people, that they should no more be a nation before them. Thus saith the Lord, If my covenant be not with day and night, And if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David, my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captivity to return and have mercy on them. Call your attention this evening to Jeremiah 33 verse three. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the text that we consider this evening sets forth an amazing calling. The word of God comes to Jeremiah as he is shut up in the castle prison of the king, Zedekiah. The prophet had faithfully spoken the word of the Lord to Zedekiah, but that word of the Lord provoked the impenitent king to anger because Jeremiah had proclaimed that Babylon was God's instrument. to bring chastisement upon his people. Nebuchadnezzar, who had already laid siege to Jerusalem and had killed one of Judah's kings and taken the next into captivity, was going to lay Jerusalem waste and destroy Judah for all her iniquities. Furthermore, the word of the Lord to Zedekiah was that Judah was to offer no resistance to the Babylonians, but King Zedekiah and the children of Judah were to humble themselves before the heavy hand of God's wrath. But in the attempt to silence that word of God, in an attempt to cast off God's truth, Zedekiah showed his rebellion against God by casting Jeremiah into prison. It was while in prison that Jeremiah received revelation from God two times. The first time, which is recorded in the previous chapter, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah as a word of encouragement, telling him to purchase a field in Benjamin. He was to buy that field, to buy that real estate at this time when the Babylonians were going to take over that whole area. It was a real estate transaction that would appear to be fruitless, would appear to be a transaction that he would entirely lose. but he was to buy that field from his relatives, redeeming that land as a sure testimony of God's promise to restore his people to their land, the promised land, after 70 years. And their deliverance would not merely be an earthly deliverance, but the realization of God's covenant promise. And so we read in Jeremiah 32, verses 38 through 40, and they shall be my people and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. And now in verse one of Chapter 33, we read that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time. And this time, he speaks personally to Jeremiah, a personal word of encouragement. The Lord Jehovah emphasizes who he is, and then tenderly draws Jeremiah to himself. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Now remember Jeremiah's situation. He's in prison. His personal future uncertain. But the enemies of Judah were at this time gathering around about Jerusalem to make their final assault upon the city of God. So at such a time, the Lord says, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. And such is always the call to us his people. When he leads us to the pit, and don't forget, God also led Jeremiah there He also calls us to himself. In times of sorrow and trial, he draws us to himself. Even in the whole course of our life, which is a march through the valley of the shadow of death, there is the word of Jehovah calling us to prayer. Why is that? Because prayer is the chief part of thankfulness, for a Christian and expresses our absolute dependence upon the God of our salvation. So I call your attention for a little while to this blessed call to prayer. We find in the text, first of all, an urgent command, secondly, a promised answer, and finally, a blessed encouragement. The prayer sets before us an urgent command to prayer. The text calls us to prayer. We mustn't overlook that element in the text. We are not merely urged to pray. Prayer is not merely a recommendation, such as a doctor might say to me, you really should lose a few pounds. You and I are commanded to pray. Call unto me, says God. That's an urgently necessary word to us. And it shows Jehovah's perfect knowledge of our need. It reveals His compassion to us because He knows that we do not pray as we ought. And He knows, too, that we need more than just a simple reminder every once in a while. And therefore, he doesn't come to us merely to remind us or to advise us, but to command us to pray. And let's not forget, by the word of the Lord's command, he also speaks powerfully and effectively. He instills the word in our hearts so that we call unto him. And so David confessed in Psalm 27 verse eight, when thou said unto me, seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. In condescending mercy, he works. What a blessing. That's consistently the case in the Bible. Time and time again, you find God commanding us to pray. Scripture speaks of prayer as a sacred calling and duty. And that's true in the prophets. Besides the text before us tonight, think, for example, of that familiar word in Isaiah 55, verse 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Or Amos chapter five, verse four, seek ye the Lord and ye shall live lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Same command is found in the Psalms. Psalm 105 commands, seek ye the Lord and his strength, seek his face forevermore. Psalm 62, the call goes forth, pour out your heart before him, God is a refuge for us. The same calling to prayer is found in the New Testament. You remember the call of Jesus, for example, in Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 and 8. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Frequently the command to prayer is set forth by the apostles. Pray without ceasing. Pray evermore. Draw an eye to God and he will draw an eye to you. Come boldly to the throne of grace. And so with many other passages, God commands us to pray. In the text, the word used is call. Call unto me. And here the word that's used pictures a small child confronted by sudden danger who cries out for father's help. The word therefore captures the fervency and the urgency of true prayer. Prayer is not merely an intellectual discourse, a mouthing of words. Prayer comes from the conscious knowledge of our own smallness, of our dependence upon God, our Heavenly Father, who alone is able to protect us and care for us and provide for our needs. God will not have us come to Him abstractly, with our minds absent from Him. He calls us to cry unto him. That's what he will hear. He wants you to call upon him with all your heart, to cry out unto him in your need and in your distress. And if we need reminder, we have only to look at our own circumstances. It's God who sent to Jeremiah the trials that he faced. It's God who sends us our trials and afflictions. It's God who constantly sets before us our dependence upon him. We are dependent upon him in everything. Our health, our jobs, our income, everything comes from his fatherly hand. And God says, call unto me. That's the command of Jehovah. That's his command to us. It's an urgent command. Why are we commanded to pray? The reason for this command in the first place is because God knows that we are prone to forget and to neglect prayer. We're prone to worldliness. We're prone to think too highly of ourselves, of our own abilities. We don't forget to eat. We don't forget to go to work because we know there's a paycheck waiting at the end of the work week or the end of the job. We don't forget to entertain ourselves, but we forget to pray. We neglect to spend time with our Savior in fervent prayer. We give our energy to things earthly. We can devote ourselves to a sport or to exercise or to excel in things that we enjoy, but for diligent increase in prayer, for giving ourselves to the chief expression of thankfulness to God, we have so little time, so busy, By the parable of Luke 18, Jesus told us we ought always to pray. But what do we do? How hard is it to spend even five minutes in prayer? Why is that? Because prayer is an intensely spiritual activity. and we are so little spiritual. Prayer is an act that requires me to take the sword of God's word and plunge it into my own sinful pride, my own thoughts of self-sufficiency, and humble myself before him who alone can deliver and save me. This is why God comes to us with this urgent command. Call unto me. And so prayer is not for some of God's children, nor is it to be an occasional activity used only in times of desperation. But prayer is a holy duty, whether we are older or still children. married or single, no matter what our circumstances of life, in trials and sorrows, but also in times of joy and happiness, the Lord says, call unto me. Because prayer is the blessed privilege by which God grants us his blessing. and by which he also gives us understanding and contentment in his works and ways. In the second place, God commands us to pray because we are often inclined to cease from praying. There are times in our lives when things are especially difficult, Or when our souls are especially weak, and we are tempted to give up praying. That's my own experience. And that undoubtedly was Jeremiah's as well. Because we learn from this history that Jeremiah had prayed before for this deliverance, and God had not yet given him deliverance. And so it can often be in our own lives. In the weakness of our faith, we can come to the conclusion, I have prayed so many times, yet nothing changes. What's the use? And our hearts become cold. And we begin to drown in the sea of indifference and feel that to pray is useless. And in such a time, there's always a devil nearby to whisper in our ears, how dare you to pray? How can such a cold, worthless sinner as you approach the throne of God and expect him to hear? The devil would have us give up. But God says, regardless of the accusations of Satan and of your own conscience, regardless of your judgment that your past prayers have not been answered, regardless of your dreadful spiritual weakness in this time of great trial, call unto me and I will answer thee. Pray earnestly. Pray that God drive away the indifference out of your heart. Pray that he restore your soul. Pray earnestly. Oh yes, make sure you humble yourself before him. Bring the content of your prayer into subjection to his will and word. Realize the greatness of him before whom and unto whom we pray. but wrestle with God. That's the urgent command set before you also in this text. This urgent command reminds us that we are accountable for our prayer life. Prayer is indeed a precious gift. The access that we have to the throne of grace is an amazing gift, beloved, something that we must never take for granted. What a privilege God has given us. But don't forget, it's also an awesome calling, the exercise of which and for which we are accountable before God. As with other spiritual gifts, prayer also requires exercise. Growth is necessary in our prayer life. We must not be content with a stagnant prayer life. It ought to grieve us deeply if we see that in ourselves. But then God in love comes to us With the urgent command, call unto me. Call unto me from prison. Call unto me from the depths of your despair. Call unto me when you struggle and don't understand my ways with you. Call unto me in your sorrows. but also call unto me in every situation that you might walk the right way guided by my Spirit." That requires, you understand, careful self-discipline. We have to give ourselves to prayer. Scripture speaks of calling upon God at specific times. of setting aside particular times of the day when we exercise ourselves in that calling. So the psalmist says in Psalm 55, verses 16 and 17, as for me, I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon, will I pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice." Now that doesn't mean that we are limited in our praying to certain times of the day. God would have us cry unto him at any time. But what it points out to us is that we ought to have a disciplined personal devotion with God each day. And to be disciplined requires that at set times we are accustomed to calling upon the Lord in fervent prayer. Call unto me. We are dependent upon him, don't you see? We are dependent upon him always. And therefore, we are to live a life of prayer. That's the word of Jehovah to us, and the Lord gives emphasis to that blessed name by which he has revealed himself to us, Jehovah. Listen again to verse two. Thus saith Jehovah, Lord in all capital letters, the maker thereof, that is the maker of his holy city, his church, Jehovah that formed it to establish it, Jehovah is his name, call unto me. That name is the name that reveals God as the I Am. the unchangeable God faithful to his covenant. We are to call upon him knowing that he shall surely fulfill his promises. He will surely keep his word. And thus the text also calls our attention to a promised answer. Call unto me and I will answer thee. the Lord promises an answer to our prayers. What blessed assurance this provided Jeremiah. Certainly in the depths of the prison, persecuted for Christ's sake and faithfully preaching the word of the Lord, Jeremiah was tempted to think all things are against me. Tempted to think the Lord wasn't hearing him, and that God had forsaken him. Some of our greatest spiritual battles, after all, come when Satan finds us most vulnerable and in a weakened position. Satan's ruthless in his attacks. So then he would focus his temptations upon us most severely. But the Lord makes us know there's no place on earth that we cannot call upon him. There's no darkness nor depths into which God cannot see. Even in the hour of death, the Lord Jehovah will hear and answer our prayers. That's a certainty, that's a promise. and all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. As the Lord lives, our prayers will not go unanswered. His ears are open unto all who call upon Him, who call upon Him in truth. That's the promise of Psalm 145, verses 18 and 19. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him, He also will hear their cry and will save them. Now, notice, we don't say He will answer all prayer, nor does He hear anyone. He hears and answers those who call upon Him in truth. He fulfills the desire of all those who fear Him. and they are those who are in Christ Jesus. They are those who walk the way of His Word, who love Him because He first loved them. To His servants He promises an answer, to those who seek His will and ways, but then His promise is sure. So certain is His answer to prayer that The Lord puts it this way in His promise through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 65, verse 24. And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Call unto me, and I will answer thee. the certainty of that promised answer is found in Jehovah Himself. In the first place, that God promises to answer our cries unto Him follows from His own goodness and mercy as He looks upon us in Christ Jesus. He's a merciful God filled with kind compassion toward those who cry unto Him. He's the God of grace, For his people, the God whose love is immeasurable, his ears are open unto our cries. If he were to shut us up, shut us out, if he were to reject us, he would deny himself. That cannot be. He's the God of all grace and comfort to his people in Christ. In the second place, the promised answer is the answer of the covenant God who cannot lie. And this promise is written upon the death of his own son. At Calvary, God heard our deepest woe. That was in his mind already in the Old Testament. Always God's eyes were upon the fulfillment of his promise to send forth his son, the Messiah, who would save his people from their sins. That's what is spoken of in this very chapter. In verses 15 and 16, when he says, in those days and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, that's a promise of Christ, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land, that's the promise of the cross, and of the establishing of everlasting righteousness that shall never be removed, In those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name wherewith she shall be called. The Lord, Jehovah, our righteousness. God saw our deepest woe. He heard the cries of our deepest misery. He looked upon us in our sin. in the bondage of which Babylon was only a picture. And he answered us in our affliction by giving his son for us. And now he freely gives us all things in him. In addition, the Lord gives us a blessed encouragement in this call to prayer. And an encouragement also is necessary because the fact is God's promise does not mean that we automatically receive whatever we ask for in prayer. God is the one who answers our prayers. We don't. We often don't know what to pray for as we opt. The Holy Spirit has to pray for us with groanings that we cannot utter, we learn according to Romans 8. But for that very reason, we may be thankful that the Lord does not give us whatever we ask for. He answers our prayers, but sometimes that answer is a simple no. And sometimes he answers by showing us that what we ask for is the wrong thing to ask for. And sometimes the answer is that it's not his will for us to have what we ask at this particular time. But he answers always. And when we think that God has not answered, we had better examine ourselves and our prayers, because either we have asked amiss, or we are looking for something that we ought not be looking for, or we've not listened to his answer because it wasn't what we want. Our sinful nature quite frequently comes to expression by saying, Lord, my will be done. That's in our thoughts. Even when we pray that his will be done, we often fail in the consciousness of first approaching him saying, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. But even when we call upon Him in truth, seeking His glory and His will, we don't necessarily receive what we ask for, at least not in the form that we would seek. Jeremiah was in prison. He sought deliverance. But the Lord didn't give that to him, not right away. That doesn't mean the Lord didn't hear him. The Apostle Paul prayed for the removal of his thorn in the flesh, and God's answer was, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness, It wasn't God's will that Paul's circumstances change. Because he was working his perfect will in perfect wisdom. So it is in our lives. God is perfectly wise. He makes no mistakes. He gives us exactly what we need when we need it. But He calls us to prayer, and He answers us. "'Call unto Me, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.'" There's something very beautiful about that word of promise. What a blessed encouragement this is. God not only promises that he will answer, but he will add and give what we've not asked for and blessings that we've not expected. He will reveal to us things that we did not know, great and mighty things, things which up to now have been unassessable to us. We could not get into the storehouses of those tremendous blessings of God because he was reserving them for his own time. But through prayer, God opens them to us and reveals them, showing his amazing goodness and unspeakable love. He reveals to us the secrets of his own heart, precious things. His covenant. He draws us by His grace to show us His infinite love and to give us that peace that passes all understanding. Have you experienced that? That's set before us by example in Jeremiah 33. To Jeremiah, this promise meant that God would answer his prayer by revealing to him his own purpose in the destruction of Jerusalem not only, but in the restoration of the people of captivity. Jehovah, the faithful one, would reveal to Jeremiah that Babylon was in his hands. being used by him to accomplish his purpose. Babylon was the instrument by which his people would be tried and purified as gold is purified by fire. And the salvation of his people would come in the branch of righteousness, the Messiah who was yet to come. Jeremiah is given to see God's everlasting righteousness, His covenant established and realized in Christ. What great and mighty things wrought by the very hand of Jehovah who hears and answers our prayers. So he works also with us. When we pray to Jehovah, he shows us great and mighty things in Christ Jesus, things which provide perfect peace whose hearts are stayed on him. We are given to know what it means that he is for us and that nothing can be against us. We are given to see our great salvation in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So we call upon him. Pray without ceasing. Jehovah says, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. He says it to you and to me. Amen.