Video Transcript: The Gloomy Patriot

Announcer - The man had something bad to say about almost everybody almost everybody  had something bad to say about him, but his message is one we can't afford to ignore this is  the Back to God Hour a program that looks at life in light of the Bible, exploring God's answers to our questions. Our host is David Feddes and the topic we'll begin with today is the Gloomy  Patriot. Unknown Speaker 0:42 Dr. Feddes - He was the man people love to hate. It seemed he was always saying something nasty. He compared his country to a donkey in heat. He said the people were a bunch of shameless prostitutes. He said there wasn't a decent person to be  found anywhere. And he compared his countrymen to overfed oversexed, stallions named for  somebody else's wife. He said the religious leaders were nothing but liars and thieves and  charlatans. He said government leaders were crooks who just wanted to get rich. No matter  who they hurt in the process. He warned that disaster was coming. He said his nation would  be conquered and ruined by invaders. Jeremiah had something bad to say about just about  everybody. And just about everybody had something bad to say about Jeremiah. He was as  popular as an alligator at a pool party. When people heard Jeremiah they heard gloom and  doom. Why couldn't he say something positive. When people heard Jeremiah say the nation  would fall they heard a man who hated his country didn't this traitor know the meaning of  patriotism. When they saw Jeremiah, they saw a man with a heart of brass. He tore into them  without any concern for their feelings. They saw a man with the height of a rhinoceros with  skin so thick, that no amount of criticism would bother him or make him back off. But this man who seemed so tough, was actually very shy and sensitive. This man who seemed to enjoy  criticizing people and making them miserable, was really heartbroken about what was going  to happen to them. This man who seemed like a traitor, was the greatest of patriots. And  ultimately, the message of this man which sounded so full of gloom and doom, turned out to  be the thing that kept people's hope alive in their darkest hour. You see, Jeremiah was a  prophet of God. He didn't speak of judgment because he liked his talk that way. But because  he had to. When God first told Jeremiah that he was appointed to be a prophet, Jeremiah said, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak. I'm only a child. But God told him not to think of  himself as just a shy kid. God said, You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I  command you. So despite his youth, despite his shy and sensitive nature, Jeremiah spoke a  word from God that had a power all its own. It hurt Jeremiah terribly when people hated him,  but he couldn't shut up even if he tried. Jeremiah didn't enjoy telling the people of the coming judgment. He didn't like telling his fellow citizens in Judah that God was sending a vicious  army from Babylon to punish them. In fact, Jeremiah was so heartbroken that he sometimes  called the weeping prophet. He wrote, since my people are crushed, I am crushed. I mourn  and horror grips me. Oh, that my head was spring of water in my eyes, a fountain of tears. I  would weep day and night for the slain of my people. Nobody loved his people or his nation  more than Jeremiah did. He wept, just thinking about the coming judgment, and he prayed  fervently on their behalf. He was no traitor. Jeremiah was a patriot who told the nation the  truth about itself, even when nobody wanted to listen. Eventually, the Babylonians stormed  into Jerusalem killing men, raping women, enslaving children burning homes, destroying their  splendid temple, did Jeremiah gloat and say I told you so. No, he felt his people's pain and he  composed the heart rending poem included in the Bible as the book of limitations. The great  Prophet gave his people the words to express their horror and grief. At the same time he  showed them that no matter how grim their situation, they still had reason to hope. Jeremiah  cried with them and at the same time, he helps them to see light through their tears. He  wrote, I remember my affliction in my wandering the bitterness and the gall I well remember  them and my soul is downcast within me. But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.  Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail. They  are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness before I say more, here's Steve Green. I'm  David Feddes and we're talking about Jeremiah, the gloomy Patriot Jeremiah spoke of God's  great faithfulness even in the midst of judgment. This prophet of God, this courageous  reformer with an unpopular message is someone we desperately need to hear today. Let's  take a closer look at his message. Early in the book of Jeremiah God's states the basic  problem this way My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me the spring of  living water and have done their own cisterns broken cisterns that cannot hold water. That 

was a problem back then. And it's a problem now. We forsake the one who gives eternal life as a free gift. And we sweat away digging holes in the ground that offer nothing but dirt to drink.  We dirt drinkers prefer manmade religion to God given salvation. Jesus said if anyone is  thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said  streams of living water will flow from within him by trust in Christ we can drink cool fresh  water from the bubbling spring of His Holy Spirit. But for some reason, we'd rather dig our  own dry hole in the ground and try to live on dirt. Why is that? Well, according to Jeremiah, we prefer trendiness to truth. We're in love with progress. Jeremiah was addressing people  enjoyed listening to up to date preachers, men who knew how to preach the kind of stuff  people like to hear, as God described it, they treat the wound of my people as though it were  not serious. Peace, peace, they say, when there is no peace. This kind of preaching is part of  consumer religion. In consumer religion, the customer is king. People pay the preacher to  perform baptisms, weddings and funerals, so he better not refuse any request to perform  these rituals. Even if the people are far from God. People pay the preacher to uplift them, so  he'd better not upset them. In Jeremiah's time, the new trends in preaching helped people to  feel good about themselves. They never gave a second thought to their sins. Are they  ashamed of their loathsome conduct asks God, no, they have no shame at all. They do not  even know how to blush. Of course not why should they blush? Sure. They weren't living  according to God's word. But that didn't mean they were wrong. Scripture was wrong. The  books of Moses and David and the other scriptures they had those were out of date, ancient  history. So the religious experts worked hard to reform the old fashioned teachings and bring  them up to date. But God's revelation through Jeremiah was different. This is what the Lord  says, stand at the crossroads ask look for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and  walk in it. And you will find rest for your souls. But you said we will not walk in it. We're so in  love with progress. So eager to keep up with the times so determined not to be left behind  that we fall for every fad. We need to stop chasing what is new and hold fast to what is true.  Ask for the ancient paths, says God, ask where the good way is and walk in it. trendiness is no substitute for truth. Jeremiah made that very clear. Jeremiah also made it clear that an  institution is no substitute for integrity. He was speaking to people who were very proud of  their splendid temple. When Jeremiah spoke of God's judgment, the people didn't believe him. They had God's temple. That was there, good luck charm. God wouldn't let anything happen  to his temple would he? Jeremiah stood at the gate of the temple and said, This is what the  Lord Almighty the God of Israel says, reform your ways and your actions. And I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, This is the temple of the Lord, the  temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. If you really change your ways, and your actions  and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow,  and do not shed innocent blood in this place. And if you do not follow other gods to your own  harm, then I will let you live in this place in the land I gave to your forefathers forever and  ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. Will you steal and  murder commit adultery in perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not  known and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my name and say, we  are safe, safe to do all these detestable things. Has this house which bears my name become  a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching declares the Lord. When you turn a house  of prayer into a robbers roost, you can't expect God to keep you safe. The Lord destroyed that magnificent temple just as Jeremiah said he would. So do you really think God will spare a  congregation or a denominational headquarters that no longer follows his word? You can't  have a church saying that all religions lead to God that any old idol is as good as Christ and  then think that God will bless you. You can't have a denomination that approves shedding the  blood of helpless unborn children through abortion and claimed to have God's favor. You can't  have a congregation full of people who hate other races and trample the poor and think that  God has some special preference for your group. You can't appoint study committees that  make excuses for every sexual perversion under the sun and say that your church speaks for  God. You can't play games with every Bible passage that doesn't seem to fit with the modern  world. And then label this the new and improved church that God has no choice but to bless.  No institution is exempt from God's judgment. An institution is no substitute for integrity. 

When someone stands up to challenge a church's evils, it's easy to label that person, a  troublemaker who wants to destroy the church. But remember Jeremiah, he didn't hate the  temple. He loved it. Jeremiah didn't look down on priesthood, he was a priest himself. He  didn't despise religious institutions as such, he wanted to reform them. He couldn't just let  them be corrupted. So don't say my church right or wrong or my country right or wrong. Only  God deserves unconditional loyalty. the legitimacy of everything else depends on faithfulness  to the Lord and to His Word. If you really love your church, or you really love your country, like Jeremiah did, you won't ignore its failings, you will repent of sin and you'll call others to  repent. There's nothing more foolish than rejecting God's Word and God's way. According to  Jeremiah, if you called such people bird brains, you'd be insulting the birds. Jeremiah says  even the Stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove the swift and the thrush observed the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the  Lord. The birds have the sense to follow the instincts God gave them. But these people don't  seem to have a clue what God wants. Sometimes when we want to follow a new trend, we  take comfort in the fact that it has the approval of experts in Biblical Studies, as long as the  experts say it's okay, we can stray from the historic faith. But as Jeremiah asked, How can you say we are wise we have the law of the Lord, when actually the lying pen of the scribes has  handled it falsely, the wise will be put to shame, they will be dismayed and trapped, since  they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have? When special  committees of experts study the Bible and then suggest brand new ideas that contradict the  ideas and practices of the prophets and Jesus, and the apostles and the church. Throughout  the centuries, we've got a problem. Scholars who revere God's word and respect the church's  historic understanding of his truth, can help to strengthen our faith. But when the scribes  treat the Bible as just another document, instead of as God's inspired word, they are handling  it falsely. These scribes and experts often talked about reforming our understanding of  Scripture, but what they're really doing is deforming it. In the Christian faith. reform doesn't  mean evolving and progressing beyond God's revelation in Christ. And in Scripture. reform  means going back again and again to the historic faith. It means returning again and again to  the unchanging God, and to Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Now,  this doesn't mean that we're locked in the past. We need to apply the old truth to new  situations. But we can't invent new truth to improve on what God has already revealed. When  scholars start doing that, they become scribes who handle God's word falsely. At that point,  we need to ask with Jeremiah, since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of  wisdom do they have? These are the kinds of criticisms that made everyone so angry at  Jeremiah, his fellow priests had him beaten and locked up with his arms and legs fastened in  stocks, another time they dumped him down the shaft of an empty sister. They were tired of  hearing that their religion was like an empty hole. So they dumped Jeremiah down a hole,  they would have let him die there. If a brave slave hadn't intervened. The rescuer of black  Africans stepped forward and got Jeremiah out of that awful hole. People could hate Jeremiah  and do cruel things to him. But one thing they couldn't do, they couldn't change the truth.  Ultimately, God's judgment came on all of Jerusalem and Judah. When the judgment struck,  nobody got any comfort from the preachers of platitudes. They needed someone who could  speak honestly of their guilt and wickedness, who could share their grief and despair and  defeat and exile who could face the situation in all its horror And yet declare hope. The man  who had made them so angry who seemed far too gloomy, was now the one they looked to  for their only ray of hope. A pastor friend of mine told me how a man and the woman asked  him to perform their marriage ceremony. The pastor knew that the couple didn't share a  commitment to Christ. So they really had no business seeking a church wedding. On top of  that, the pastor knew that the relationship had serious problems so serious that he didn't  think the marriage would last. The honest pastor urged them to put their wedding on hold,  and he refused to lead the ceremony unless they work through those issues. First, a couple  stormed out of his office in a rage. They went out and found another minister to marry them.  Several months later, the pastor's doorbell rang. When he opened the door, he was surprised  to see the newlywed couple who had been so furious with him. Were having problems, and  we're wondering if you would help us. The pastor said, why come to me? Why not go to the 

minister who did your wedding? He married you? Why not ask him to counsel you? The couple said, Oh, we can't trust him. He just did what we asked. You're honest. You told us the truth.  You are realistic about our problems. You cared about us enough to challenge us and to say  no, that's the kind of person we need. So the pastor sat down with them. His tough love had  infuriated them. But when things fell apart, the only person they trusted was the one who had seen how serious their problems were, and had loved them enough to say so. Something  similar happened with Jeremiah, he had been considered public enemy number one. But when disaster struck during the worst time of Judah's history, Jeremiah's message kept the people's  hope alive. platitudes wouldn't cut it anymore. The people needed the Word of God. Jeremiah  brought them a message that took account of their true condition in all its bleakness, and yet  offered a future. God's Word through Jeremiah crushed any reason they might have for hoping in themselves. But in doing so, it taught them to put their hope in God. Through Jeremiah God showed the people that He is in control. He's like a potter with clay. If the lump God is working on doesn't turn out, God can crush it back into a lump. But God can also take that crushed  lump and start afresh and form something new from it. God could reduce them to nothing, but he could also make something of them again, even in the time of judgment, they were in the  hands of a sovereign God. That was their only hope. But it was enough. Through Jeremiah,  God said, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you declares the LORD plans to prosper you and not to harm you,  plans to give you a hope and a future, then you will call upon me and come and pray to Me.  And I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. In  their despair, many of these broken people remember Jeremiah's words, and they learned to  trust in God alone. They knew that the threats of judgment hadn't been a bluff. So they also  knew that the promises of joy wouldn't be empty either. They knew that they could believe  God when he said I will turn their mourning into gladness. I will give them comfort and joy  instead of sorrow. When the Prophet of gloom spoke about joy, they had to listen. Earlier  Jeremiah told them the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can  understand it? Jeremiah's diagnosis of their condition couldn't have been grimmer. And his  predictions of the nation's destruction couldn't have been more frightening. But that made  Jeremiah all the more believable when he spoke of God's grace. He knew exactly who they  were and how bad they had been. He knew how awful their troubles were. And he still  declared a message of hope. Beyond all human hope, Jeremiah taught the people to hope in  God. Jeremiah was pessimistic about human potential. But he had an unwavering faith in  divine power. He taught the people to give up on their own righteousness, and to trust in a  leader yet to come, whose title would be the Lord our Righteousness? The person who fulfills  that prophecy is Jesus. Jesus makes people right with God. Jeremiah taught that despite evil  hearts, people could be saved because the Lord would give them new hearts. This is the  covenant I will make with the house of Israel. After that time declares the Lord. I will put my  law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.  No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother saying, know the Lord, because  they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will  forgive their wickedness, and will remember their sins no more. This is the only message that  brings realistic hope and salvation to sinful people like you and me. Not the latest trend, but  the Word of God, not our own efforts, not our own potential, not our own righteousness, but  someone whose title is the Lord our Righteousness. According to the Bible, this righteousness  from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ, all who believe. This is the historic faith of God's people. We submit to God's judgment and trust His mercy, we give up on our own cisterns  cracked and dry, and we drink from the spring of living water. Let's pray together Father in  heaven, when we listen to a great prophet like Jeremiah, we'd like to think that we're like him.  But so often, we're just like the stubborn people who refused your way and your words, help  all of us, and especially those of us who are religious leaders, to recognize our spiritual  poverty, help us to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to ask for the ancient paths and to  walk in and to trust your promise of hope and a future for Jesus Christ. Unknown Speaker  26:55 Announcer - You've been listening to the Back to God Hour with David Feddes. Our  messages can be read or heard anytime on the internet at backtogod.net. And if you'd like a 

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