00:00:00.000 - 00:00:22.180

[ Silence ] [ Music ] ♪ Our flag of foundation ♪ ♪ We sing of the Lord ♪

00:00:22.180 - 00:00:38.520

♪ His name we obey ♪ ♪ In his excellent word ♪ ♪ What more can we say ♪ ♪ Than to you we all sing ♪

00:00:38.520 - 00:00:56.460

♪ To you ♪ ♪ For the peace to Jesus have done ♪ ♪ Fear not, I am with thee ♪ ♪ O King of this day ♪

00:00:56.460 - 00:01:12.860

♪ For I am thy God ♪ ♪ I will stand in thee ♪ ♪ I am strength and the help ♪ ♪ He endures thee to stand ♪

00:01:12.860 - 00:01:30.360

♪ While hell and the grave ♪ ♪ Shed strong impotent blood ♪ ♪ We do not import ♪ ♪ As I call thee to bow ♪

00:01:30.360 - 00:01:51.740

♪ The rivers of love ♪ ♪ Shall not be overflown ♪ ♪ For I will be with the troubles to bless ♪ ♪ And stand in the year when the deep horses stride ♪

00:01:51.740 - 00:02:18.900

- Let's sing the last stanza, number five. ♪ The stone that our Jesus can't be torn with force ♪ ♪ I will not, I will not, not deserve to dispose ♪ ♪ That soul that I will, should endeavor to shake ♪

00:02:18.900 - 00:02:45.840

♪ I'll never, no never, no never forsake ♪ - Amen. [ Background noise ] >> I invite your paraphernal attention to the Book

00:02:45.840 - 00:03:15.320

of the Prophet Jeremiah Chapter 23, verses 16 through 20. Chapter 23, the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, verses 16 through 20. This is what the Lord Almighty says.

00:03:15.320 - 00:03:47.320

Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you. They fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, "The Lord says you will have peace."

00:03:47.320 - 00:04:22.840

And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts, they say, "No harm will come to you." But which of them has stood in the counsel of the Lord, to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? See, the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath, whirlwinds swirling down on the heads of the wicked.

00:04:22.840 - 00:04:54.240

The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart in days to come. You will understand it clearly. May the Lord bless to us the reading of his holy word. The subject of the message,

00:04:54.240 - 00:05:14.040

when God's word is bad news, God's word is bad news. We like to think of God's word as good news.

00:05:17.120 - 00:05:41.080

And God's word is good news. When we are open to him and have the willingness to obey, God's word comes to us as good news. It's good news when our lives are

00:05:41.080 - 00:06:02.800

lived according to his will and his way. God communicates with us through speech. How do we discern what God is saying and what God is doing?

00:06:06.180 - 00:06:28.300

God speaks to us through the events of our times. He speaks to us through international events. In this particular text, we notice that Israel is to be carried

00:06:28.300 - 00:06:46.940

into Babylonian captivity. That's bad news. That is God's word for his people. The soul that sinneth shall die.

00:06:46.940 - 00:07:06.620

That's bad news. But the gift of God is eternal life. That's good news. So God has a word to say to us.

00:07:06.620 - 00:07:38.240

The rich farmer whose fields brought forth plentifully, rejoice, that was good news. But he heard a voice from heaven saying, tonight your soul is required of God. That was bad news. So God's Word comes to us first as bad news.

00:07:38.240 - 00:08:06.480

It comes to us as bad news before it is good news. "The soul that sinneth shall die, but the gift of God is eternal life." Now the news that we listen to, we see, the light comes over the airwaves, is always a

00:08:06.480 - 00:08:32.560

mixture of the good and the bad. Most of the time it seems that the news of our day is bad news. We have many things happening. 17-year-old boy shoots teacher, kills the teacher,

00:08:32.560 - 00:08:49.360

and is tried as an adult. That's bad news. Social Security stands in danger of going broke. That's bad news.

00:08:49.360 - 00:09:09.040

The prophet, in the case of Israel, is the spokesperson of the eternal. Now there are two groups of prophets. One is a group that we call false prophets.

00:09:09.040 - 00:09:29.620

And the other is a group that would be known as the true prophets. Jeremiah is the leading prophet known as the true prophet. He's the authentic spokesperson of the eternal. He's not a counterfeit.

00:09:29.620 - 00:09:50.180

What he says comes true. False prophets convey bad news and call it good news. God says to Israel, do not listen to the words of these false prophets.

00:09:50.180 - 00:10:04.800

They fill you with nothingness. Listen to that language again. They fill you with nothingness. So after hearing all they have to say,

00:10:04.800 - 00:10:20.160

after considering all they put on your plate, after eating it, you're still left hungry. So the prophets make a lot of noise, but they have nothing to say.

00:10:20.160 - 00:10:38.100

They're like some of the choirs of our day. They're loud, but you can't understand a word they're saying. [audience laughter] This is the way it was with the false prophets. These prophets deceive the people

00:10:38.100 - 00:10:54.520

by making false claims. This bad news sounds like good news. They tell the people that their captivity will not be long.

00:10:54.520 - 00:11:20.840

They will soon be out of Babylon. They encourage the nation to look to Egypt for deliverance. They misrepresent God. They say things that sound good, but they are not true.

00:11:20.840 - 00:11:48.840

It is bad news. And the task of every prophet, the task of every one of us, is to represent God. Let's put it this way, to represent God. In other words, God is presented time and time again, but, and we are called upon to represent Him,

00:11:48.840 - 00:12:14.340

to represent him, to re-present him to others over and over again. And so here we are in this situation. We are messengers, so were they. And the question is not what kind of, it's rather what kind of message are we carrying. Is it bad news or good news?

00:12:14.340 - 00:12:42.220

And does the news we carry come from God? Jeremiah delivers God's word to King Zedekiah. The word is true, but it is not good. Some food is good to us, but it is not good for us.

00:12:42.220 - 00:13:05.460

It is sweet in the mouth and bitter in the stomach. Zedekiah calls Jeremiah on one occasion during a crisis and one day they're alone at the king's chambers. Jeremiah is asked a question by the king,

00:13:05.460 - 00:13:21.880

Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah answers, yes, there is, but it's not good news. It's bad news. It's bad news that is coming from God to the nation.

00:13:21.880 - 00:13:42.740

God is going to turn your own weapons, the prophet says, against you. Those who stay in the city will die by the sword. Those who stay in the city will die from pestilence.

00:13:42.740 - 00:13:59.740

Those who stay in the city will die from famine. Sword, pestilence, and famine. The way the people who remain in the city will die. That's bad news.

00:13:59.740 - 00:14:21.060

destruction by the sword, pestilence, and famine. Bad, bad news. What happens when God's word comes to us as bad news? We always sort of like to sweeten it up.

00:14:21.060 - 00:14:51.340

There was a death in the neighborhood and the group assembled and they were wondering how they were going to convey it to the widow that her husband was dead. And they finally got one person who was to do the particular task and he went to the home and rang the doorbell and the lady came to the doorbell and said,

00:14:51.340 - 00:15:03.740

"Are you Widow Jones?" (audience laughing) That was the way he was conveying the bad news. For Jeremiah is God's prophet,

00:15:03.740 - 00:15:28.140

commissioned to do a task that is not popular, but it is a task that God has ordained and sent him to do. So God's word comes to us as bad news as bad news when we are disobedient to his will and his way.

00:15:28.140 - 00:15:58.140

You remember the prophet Jonah? God speaks to him saying, "Jonah, arise and go to Nineveh and cry out against that wicked city." Jonah goes to Joppa, a seaport town, and takes a ship to Tarshish. He goes in the very opposite direction to which God has directed him.

00:15:58.140 - 00:16:31.140

He is on a ship when he should be walking or traveling through the desert. But God's word has a way of finding us when we are disobedient. And so God's word, the wind of God's word, let us say, starts swirling and swirling and beating around his ship until Jonah confesses that he's wrong.

00:16:31.140 - 00:16:56.020

And in the end, he decides to obey God and goes to Nineveh and cries out against it. What do we do when God's word for us is bad news? I remember hearing my grandmother say,

00:16:56.020 - 00:17:10.380

I'm going to get you for that. It would be early in the day. And so when I heard something like that, I'd go to bed early. She'd be sitting on the front porch, and I'd go in.

00:17:10.380 - 00:17:18.860

She said, "You going to bed, sir?" "Yes, ma'am." And I'd go to bed early and be asleep. I thought I had escaped.

00:17:18.860 - 00:17:31.520

And then I was roused from my slumber. You thought I had forgotten it, didn't you? You thought I had. Oh, no, I hadn't.

00:17:31.520 - 00:17:51.260

So God's word finds us. Wherever we are, whatever we do, there is no escape from God's word. So what do we do when his word is bad news?

00:17:51.260 - 00:18:15.100

Well, God's word comes to us as bad news, I said, when we are disobedient, when we prefer the promises of false prophets to the proclamations of the true prophet,

00:18:15.960 - 00:18:33.520

then God's word comes to us as bad news. God's word is bad news when we prefer the rigors of the wilderness stay

00:18:33.520 - 00:18:53.720

to that of the comforts of Canaan. God's word comes to us as bad news When the gale of His wrath interrupts our journey with disaster,

00:18:53.720 - 00:19:09.520

it comes to us as bad news. Wherever we are, the wind of God's word blows. It blows. In our spiritual history, the gospel comes to us

00:19:09.520 - 00:19:21.240

as bad news. We're sinners. And we need to repent the fact that we are sinners and that the sentence of death is passed upon us.

00:19:21.240 - 00:19:33.880

That's bad news. That's the way in our spiritual journey we come from death and death is bad news. We come from death to life.

00:19:33.880 - 00:19:42.800

That's the story. You read Pilgrim's Progress and Pilgrim starts on the journey. The first thing Pilgrim hears is, "Woe is me!

00:19:42.800 - 00:19:54.380

"War is me!" And then Pilgrim makes a radical change and begins running, traveling the upward way towards Celeste City.

00:19:54.380 - 00:20:20.540

So, God's word comes to us in many ways, but what do we do when it comes to us as bad news? These people are criticized for having listened to false prophets. Early, early in, in, in the reign of,

00:20:20.540 - 00:20:38.660

of the King Ahab, they had a conference, the King of Israel conferred with the King of Judah. And they said, "Ramoth and Gilead is ours

00:20:38.660 - 00:20:45.980

"and we do not possess it. "Let us go up and possess it." So where before we go? Let's confer with the prophets.

00:20:45.980 - 00:20:59.300

So do you have any prophets? Yes, so they have called the council of the prophets. And they say to them, "Yes, go up "and conquer Ramoth Gilead.

00:20:59.300 - 00:21:12.660

"The Lord will give you the victory. "Go on and conquer the city." All of them said that and Joseph had said to Ahab, said, "Don't you have another prophet?"

00:21:12.660 - 00:21:21.860

He said, "I got another one," but he never says anything good. - Yeah. - Every time I call upon him, he has bad news.

00:21:21.860 - 00:21:41.000

Well, send for him. So they sent for him and the messenger who was going to carry the word that the king was summoning the prophet, told him, said, "Now, these other prophets have gone before you, and they've all said good words,

00:21:41.000 - 00:22:15.180

and they've given the king good news, these kings, so it would be good for you to take advantage of this little hint that I'm giving you." He said, "Well, as the Lord liveth, whatever he tells me to say, that's what I'm going to say." So he came, and the council, "Makia Ben-Embla," which means "Makia the son of Embla" is his name, and he said, "Well, you can go on up to

00:22:15.180 - 00:22:41.460

"Ramoth Gilead and conquer the city." The king said, "I want you to tell me the truth." He said, "Well, if you go forth, "you will be killed in battle." This is the true prophet. Not what the king wants to hear, not what's popular with the people, but that which is spoken by God. And over and over and over again,

00:22:41.460 - 00:23:02.000

the words appear in scripture, thus saith the Lord. The mouth of the Lord has spoken it. It will happen because God has said it. And that's the way, that's the way we see it.

00:23:02.000 - 00:23:16.000

from the very beginning. Things seem to be in a bad condition in the beginning. Look over there in Genesis. There was without form darkness covered the earth,

00:23:16.000 - 00:23:43.000

and gross darkness prevailed. And in this terrible chaotic condition, God steps in. And when God steps in, God says, "Let there be light." Notice God says, "God says," and the condition is changed, "Let there be light."

00:23:43.000 - 00:24:03.840

And there was light. And over and over again in the creative process, God said, and it was. God said, and it was. was and that's the way it is in our lives. God must speak to us. God's Word

00:24:03.840 - 00:24:30.160

addresses us and God wraps himself in human flesh and comes to be with us. He teaches us through his word. He heals us through his word. He strengthens us through his word.

00:24:30.160 - 00:24:44.400

He comforts us through his word. His word is misunderstood. His word is mistreated. And finally his word is arrested,

00:24:44.400 - 00:25:00.960

unjustly condemned, laid outside the city walls and crucified between two thieves. His word is put in a grave

00:25:00.960 - 00:25:20.280

where the word remains all night Friday and all night Saturday. But early, early, early on Easter morning, the Word got up and walked the streets.

00:25:20.280 - 00:25:37.520

And that Word still, the wind of His Word blows upon us. It blows upon us when we do wrong. It blows upon us when we do right. God's Word is always there.

00:25:37.520 - 00:25:53.480

And so it comes to us as bad news, but he sends his son to help us so that the bad news can become the good news of the gospel. Thanks be to God for his word.

00:25:53.480 - 00:26:07.840

And for the good news of God is that he speaks to us. God has spoken unto us. Oh, that's a wonderful passage over there in Hebrews. is that God has spoken unto us through the prophets,

00:26:07.840 - 00:26:25.580

but in the last days, he has spoken unto us through his son. And every child of God knows and experiences the goodness that comes in our lives when we listen to the word of God,

00:26:25.580 - 00:26:41.320

when we listen to what he has to say. And we can rejoice that his word comes to us as bad news to correct us. It comes to us as good news to strengthen us and help us.

00:26:41.320 - 00:26:55.060

It comes to us to change us for the better. Thanks be to God. And we sing, I Come. ♪ I come to the garden alone ♪

00:26:55.060 - 00:27:10.540

where the dew is still on the roses and the voice I hear falling on by ear, the Son of God disclosing. And he walks with me, and he talks with me,

00:27:10.540 - 00:27:29.780

and he tells me that I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. We extend now the invitation to Christian discipleship.

00:27:29.780 - 00:27:41.780

To accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, to become a part of the family of God here at Ebenezer, we invite you to come. It's an open door. We invite you to come.

00:27:41.780 - 00:28:10.460

[Music] [ Silence ] [BLANK_AUDIO]