And the title of our message
this morning is Four Essentials in a Pilgrim's Progress. Four
Essentials in a Pilgrim's Progress. The book of Hebrews, chapter
11, verse 13, gives us the testimony that God's children are strangers
and pilgrims in the earth. strangers and pilgrims. A stranger
is someone away from home. A pilgrim is someone on the way
home. And God's people are both. This
sin-cursed world is not our home, but we are on the way home. It's
a pilgrim journey. And it's marked by many things.
And I'm convinced that we don't really know which of those things are truly
the progressive ones. There are things that we consider
to be very important and very profitable and very helpful,
and you think, boy, I really make progress with this. And
it, nothing. Other things that cross our path
and experience that's come in our lives. We think, well, I
didn't need this. There sure would be nothing good
come out of this. And that'd be the very thing
the Lord has sent to cause us to make a little progress in
the Pilgrim journey. So we're talking about the Pilgrim's
progress. And I've just selected four things
that are essential, which every true believer has experienced
and shall experience, ere we step into the presence of our
Redeemer. And to illustrate these four
things, four essentials, we're looking at the prophet Jeremiah. He is called of God, verse 10
says, to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, to
build, and to plant. In verse 18, he's called a defensed
city, an iron pillar, brazen walls. He's called in chapter 6 a watchman
and a tower. and a fortress. He is called
of God for all this, but he is also called by man in chapter
15 a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth,
a troublemaker. And that is the testimony in
this world, the testimony of this world, Concerning any person
called of God to confront the evil of his or her generation,
they say he or she is contentious. They're uncooperative. They won't
go along with what the majority thinks and wants to do. Many of you sitting here have
face this on the job, no doubt, when you were the only one or
one of the only ones that had it in your heart to do right.
And you would be called contentious, uncooperative. So I want to consider
these four things, essential things, in a pilgrim's progress. And number one would be the big subject of sovereignty.
And I'll not dwell on this too long. We speak of it often, but
notice if you would here in Jeremiah one in verse five, the word of
the Lord, verse four, the word of the Lord came into me saying,
and then verse five is a big verse. The Lord says, before
I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest
forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. Notice in verse five, there is
no mention of Jeremiah making a decision. It's all God's doing. I formed
thee. I knew thee before I formed thee. I sanctified thee, not after
you were born and grew up and proved to be a good boy, but
before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. Which means I set thee apart.
And I ordained thee a prophet. Not to be a prophet if everything
works out. No, I ordained thee a prophet
before you were born. So those four things, I formed,
I knew, I sanctified, I ordained. Before you were ever conceived
in your mother's womb, you were my prophet. Your existence is not the work
of your parents. It's my work. The Lord says,
I formed thee. I knew thee. Not because I had ESP and looked
down through the pages of time and saw what kind of fellow you'd
turn out to be. Uh-uh. No. But I knew thee Because I decreed
you to be just like you are. I sanctified thee. I set you
apart. Not when you showed an interest
in me, but before you were born. I sanctified thee and I ordained
thee. I held an ordination service
in eternity. There was no ministerial association
or hierarchy present. You weren't even there, Jeremiah,
bodily. It was eternity. And you were
present only in my mind and in my purpose. So we find Jeremiah now surviving
in his generation. We find that he, to even exist
in the godless society that he lives in and to continue on this
knowledge and this conviction of the absolute sovereignty of
God was an essential thing in his heart and life for him to
be able to even go on. I want to say this morning, it's
essential in my life. I've seen so many through the
years turn their nose up at who God really is. But oh, this sovereign
God who knows all, controls all, is the only God for me. Jeremiah
was not so different from us as a man in flesh. He was a child
of Adam, a fallen child of Adam, a sinner like the rest of us.
He had his weaknesses. He had his feelings. He was a
quitter like the rest of us. But I'm saying the secret of
his survival was this. The sovereignty of God was not
some cold and distant doctrine that smart men today avoid. Oh
no. It was the very strength of his
existence. It's what held him together.
It's what kept him from losing it. To know that in spite of what
any man does or says or thinks, my God has been running things
from eternity. He's running right on schedule.
Nothing is out of His control. He's never been surprised about
anything. He's still on the throne. This
has been the anchor in my life. I promise you, I am not like
so many preachers that some of you may know. I am not strong
enough in myself to overcome my failures and my inabilities. I am not strong enough to overcome
Satan's attacks. I am not strong enough to overcome
the opposition and the accusations of men. Why don't I quit? It's because I know, I know,
I know, I know, as Daniel knew, there is a God in heaven. And nothing has slipped past
Him. Nothing has surprised Him. Nothing
has disappointed Him. Nothing has moved Him from His
throne. He's never had a crisis. He creates
crises. It's my God I'm talking about. While today's religious world
all around us has fabricated a false God that's at our mercy,
who spends all his time pleading with men to cooperate. I want
to say the strength of my life is not in any such false God
as that. Feeble God as that. My God is Jeremiah's God. He came to my heart and said
to me what he said to Jeremiah. We're not here to vote on this.
We're not here for you to vote. We're not here for you to make
a career choice. We're not here for you to tell
me how much better off I'd be if I could convince you to follow
me. No, that's not Jeremiah's God. That's not my God. Jeremiah's
God said to me, I'm here to inform you that I'm the one who formed
you, I knew you, I sanctified you, I ordained
you. Before I ever created you, before
I ever formed you in your mother's womb, And I've come to tell you, here
is my purpose for your life. Now get at it. That's who God is. Psalm 115,
three, our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever. He had
pleased. He doesn't need anybody's permission.
Anybody's approval. He's God. Verse 7, the Lord says,
Jeremiah, here's what you're going to do. It's not, would
you please. Here's what you're going to do,
mister. You'll go to all I send you, and you'll say whatsoever
I command you. None of this is left up to you. And He goes on to tell him, verse
8, be not afraid of their faces. For I am with thee to deliver
thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand
and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I
have put my words in thy mouth." The Lord is not giving Jeremiah
an invitation. He is not informing him of a
wonderful opportunity. He is declaring to him his unalterable
purpose. for this man's life, the absolute sovereignty of God
in all things. Let religion despise it, and
they do, but God's children love it because God's children and only
God's children will testify, I'm not the one who changed my
heart. He did. There's none of this garbage
among the Lord's people that I'm glad I decided to let him
take over. I'm glad I decided to let Jesus
come into my heart. No, the Lord's people and all
of the Lord's people will testify. It wasn't me that changed my
heart. It was him. It was him. So this is the first essential
in the pilgrim's progress, a firm conviction of God's absolute
sovereignty. He's in all, above all, and over
all. The world is the pilgrim's enemy.
The world is our enemy. And religious folks, whose God
is not bigger than the world, They're not making any progress.
They're not pilgrims. Only God's children are moving.
Only God's children are making progress. Pilgrims' progress. Oh, this blessed truth and blessed
essential in the journey she sung about is the absolute strong
conviction of God's sovereignty. Second thing would be Suffering. Suffering. And essential in the pilgrim's progress. Suffering. You know, some of
the false prophets of our day say that all God's children should
be healthy and wealthy and well spoken of by all. But Christ our Lord never said
that. He told us another story. He said, in the world you shall
have tribulation. That word means trouble, by the
way. Well, we've had it whether He
said it or not. But He said it! He didn't say you might, but
in the world you shall have tribulation. And Paul said, all that live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Everybody's not
going to like you. And Christ our Lord said, if
you were of the world, the world would love you. But he said,
they hated me and they'll hate you because you're mine. The Apostle Peter talked about
us being in heaviness through manifold temptations. The Epistle of James said, count
it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. How can we
count it all joy? Because it is not without purpose. He went on to say, knowing that
the trying of your faith worketh patience. The Apostle John, Revelation
1-9, I am your companion and brother in tribulation. He didn't write to him and say,
it's not so bad out here on this Isle of Patmos. No, he wrote
to him and said, it's hell out here. I am your brother. I'm your companion. We're together
in this trouble. this tribulation. He hadn't robbed
a bank. He hadn't shot anybody. He said,
I'm here for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I'm here for preaching
about who God is and who his son is. So suffering is an essential
part in the pilgrim's progress. Jeremiah, the man we're looking
at here, chapter one, He was born in the days of a very wicked
king named Manasseh. And there was little hope that
Jeremiah or anyone else in that society would choose to believe
and obey God. But as we've talked about already,
it was not to Jeremiah to choose God. God had chosen him. This is the society that Jeremiah
was born in. And when that wicked king Manasseh
died, his son Ammon ascended the throne, just 22 years old, just as wicked as his father.
And he reigned only two years until he was 24 years old. And his servants, right in the
palace, assassinated him, killed him. You say, well, I'm sure
God never meant for that to happen. You didn't read that in this
book. 24 years old, he's history. Well, Ammon had fathered a child
when he was 16. Now he's dead at 24. And his
eight-year-old son, named Josiah became king of Judah. An eight-year-old
boy is king. I'm sure we don't understand
all about how that worked, no doubt had advisors and help and
stuff, but an eight-year-old is a king. Well, in time, as
only God could bring this to pass, The scripture says that
Josiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and
walked in all the ways of David, his father or forefather. And it's under Josiah, this tremendous
king who did right, it's under Josiah that Jeremiah was called
into the ministry. And Jeremiah, in his early ministry,
he saw the great revival under Josiah. You can read about it
in 2 Kings 22, 23 and along in there. It was a glorious start
for this young prophet. Let me read you this one verse.
about King Josiah, 2 Kings 23-25. And like unto him was there no
king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart,
and with all his soul, and with all his might. According to all
the law of Moses, neither after him arose there any like him. What a glorious time for Jeremiah
to start out a young preacher, prophet, in the days of this
glorious reign of Josiah, who led the people toward God. Well, Jeremiah lived, that was
the beginning of his journey. We can all look back to the beginning
of our journey. But Jeremiah lived long enough
and he preached through the reign of five kings. plumb up till after Judah falls
at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. And these five kings went from
good to bad. They went from best to worst
in Jeremiah's time. Josiah, the first, was the best. He reigned 31 years. Glorious
times for the kingdom of Judah. and good times for the prophet
Jeremiah. But after Josiah's 31 years,
his son Jehoahaz ascended the throne. He did evil in the sight
of the Lord and lasted just three months. Not years, but three
months. Reminds you of some of the quacks
these Baptist preachers call to be their pastor. Three months. He's out. Then his son, Jehoiachin,
he did evil in the sight of the Lord and he lasted 11 years.
And then his son, Jehoiachin, he just lasted three months. And after that, the king of Babylon
stepped in and made his uncle Zedekiah king over Judah. A foreigner is king. Sound familiar? A foreigner is king. And he reigned
11 years. And through all these kings,
Jeremiah preached approximately 40 years, confronting Judah with
their sins and warning of judgment and pleading for repentance.
And that's what the prophets of God, the preachers of God
are supposed to be doing today. It is so simple. There's nobody
sitting here this morning that's blind, at least physically we're
not. I think mentally we are. This is so simple that a preacher
shouldn't have to blast at this all the time for you to know
what an awful mess Our country is in. Our communities are in. Our churches are in. Our homes
are in. Our individual lives are in. He preached judgments coming,
pleading with the people to repent. Well, in Jeremiah's time, it
seemed in vain. Not only did they not repent,
Not only did they ignore Jeremiah's message, but they hated him for
what he preached. He suffered. The book of Jeremiah
is very lengthy, 52 chapters. So I'll just give us some specific
verses concerning his suffering. These are probably not even the
most prominent ones, chapter 26 verse 11, then spake the priest
and the prophets. You see, religion led the attack
against God's man. It didn't say the politicians and
the mafia attacked Jeremiah. It didn't say that tax collectors
and the harlots attacked Jeremiah. Didn't say the dopeheads and
the drunks attacked Jeremiah, but religion led the charge,
the priests and the prophets. Spoken to the princes and to
all the people saying, this man is worthy to die. For he hath
prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears."
This man is prophesying, this man is preaching judgment. That
it's not always going to be like it is now. And we don't want
to hear it. God won't judge us. We're good
people. We're good people. Chapter 11,
verse 21. They said prophesy not in the
name of the Lord that they'll die not by our hand. We're going to kill you if you
don't stop this. Jeremiah had preached chapter
6 verse 16, stand ye in the ways, the streets, the highways and
seas. and ask for the old paths, where's
the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your
souls." Now listen to how they answered. But they said, we will
not walk therein. You're not going to tell us how
to live. You're not going to tell us that
it's wrong to murder unborn babies by the thousands. You're not going to tell us that
it's wrong for a man to marry a man and a woman to marry a
woman. And all of this is in these 52
chapters. You're not going to tell us that anything is wrong
with us. My private life is my business,
not if you belong to the Lord. If I choose to make an idol out
of something and worship it, that's my business. If my car
is my idol, if my job is my idol, if my home is my idol, It's my business. Not if you
belong to the Lord. What I do is my business. Nobody
else's. Not if you belong to the Lord. Whether I go to church once a
week or once a month is my business. Not if you belong to the Lord.
Hello? My bank account is my business. Nobody else's. Not if you belong
to the Lord. Let me tell you a secret some
of you don't know. The Lord's children, talking about who the
Lord's children are now, who the pilgrims are, the Lord's
children don't spend all their energy contending for their individuality. but rather committing as members of a body,
the body of Christ. Submitting. Our fellowship here at this church,
it does not consist of exalting one person's superiority or individuality. Oh no. But our fellowship consists
rather in submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of
God. That's Ephesians 5.21. If you walk through those doors
and you see somebody in here I'm glad I'm better than that.
You might as well walk back out. If you don't feel in your heart
that you're the biggest sinner in this place, there's a problem
with you. Well, I deserve to be here, but
he don't. What's the likes of her doing here? Well, what's
the likes of you doing here? This is God's business. Oh yes,
we just celebrated our nation's independence, July 4th. And it seems to me, maybe this
is just me, but I don't think it is, seems to me that every
year there's more picnics, more parades, more parties, more hail
raising, and less gratitude to Almighty God. which is what it's
supposed to be about. Are we messed up or what? We're like Nebuchadnezzar in
this country. I've got me this great kingdom. I built this. It's mine. But oh, as we look around us
at all the corruption and all the shame on the outside, what
is it? What is it? It's but the revealing
of the awful corruption of our own hearts in this country. And so it is in the church. All
the dryness, all the disinterest, the feeling that God's a million
miles away. It's but the revealing of our
hearts. It's the opening up of a self-sufficient,
I'll-do-as-I-please attitude toward God and His house and
His people. Our thinking is backwards. We
think we're blessed. We've got plenty of everything
and money to buy more. And we tell God to get lost,
leave us alone. No, I want to tell you when we're
blessed. We'll be blessed when some of
us get shot for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We'll
be blessed when some of us are left to rot in prison. We'll be blessed when some of
us are so overtaxed that we lose our homes and so persecuted that
we lose our jobs. And the rest of us are on our
faces before God in repentance, crying to Him for mercy. That's
when we'll be blessed. Too many of us have a religion
that's not worth dying for, not worth suffering for, But that
wasn't Jeremiah. Chapter 8, verse 18. When I would
comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. Chapter 9, verse 2. Oh, that
I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men. Somewhere I could just get away
from it. If I could just get away from
the reality of where we're at as a people. Oh, the sorrow,
the grief, the suffering of Jeremiah. In chapter 20, he was so pressed
until he says this, Cursed be the day wherein I was born. Wherefore, came I forth out of
the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed
with shame. You say, a man of God ought not
talk like that. Well, you hadn't been where he's
been. Chapter 15, verse 17, I sat not
in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced. I couldn't bring
myself to go to church and sit in the assembly of religious
folks that hate God. I sat alone. Those three words are in Jeremiah
15, 17. I sat alone. And can I say to
you this morning, for God's child, in some situation, some way,
sometime, somewhere, you'll have to experience that. I sat alone. One translation said, I did not
sit in the company of the merrymakers, nor did I rejoice with them saying,
we've got a good thing going. But I sat alone. Some of you may have heard the
story of Jim Elliott. He and his wife Elizabeth were
missionaries to Ecuador. And in 1956, Jim and four other
men were killed by native Indians. Jim and Elizabeth were laboring
missionaries to one tribe, but he was killed by another tribe.
And his wife, Elizabeth Elliot, some of you have heard the name,
she's written books, great Christian lady, she was left alone there
in the home that Jim had built with his own hands. And I was
reading the story of a friend of theirs who tells that when
this happened, he immediately flew to Ecuador, took a little
plane, went out into the wilderness where they were, and he spent
about two weeks trying to comfort and encourage he and another
friend or two and trying to help. He said he did some repairs around
the house. Elizabeth Elliot, after communicating
with friends and with people she trusted, and she had to make
a decision of what to do. And several had made the comment
to her, Elizabeth, you're the only one that can speak the language of that tribe and continue to
teach them of Jesus Christ. And this man said that after
the two weeks, He said, I remember leaving the ground and the little
plane from the little airstrip there in the field. And he said,
I'll never forget long as I live looking back and there stood Elizabeth in
the middle of that field all alone. Well, years earlier, as a young
woman, in college, Elizabeth had written some poetry and she had written these lines. Perhaps some future day, Lord,
thy strong hand will lead me to the place where I must stand
utterly alone. Alone, O gracious lover, but
for thee, I shall be satisfied if I can see Jesus only. I know not thy plan for years
to come. My spirit finds in thee its perfect
home, sufficiency. Lord, all my desire is before
thee now. Lead on, no matter where, no
matter how. I trust in thee." She experienced. We have the idea nowadays that
religion is a good thing, but it's not worth dying over. It's
a good thing, but it's not worth giving your entire life to. With Jeremiah, the Lord went
a step further. Chapter 16, you're not to take a wife and you'll not have any sons
or any daughters. It's going to be a lonely road,
Jeremiah, but it's very essential that
it be that way. for you to be who I have created
you to be. We think life would be better
with no suffering, no sorrow, no heartaches, no tears, no trials,
no troubles. That would certainly fit us for
this world, but not for the next. God has predestinated us not
to be what we want to be, not to be what we decide to be, but
He has predestined us to be conformed. That is, for our lives to be
so shaken to be conformed to the image of His Son. You might find a trouble-free
religion But you won't be following Christ. You won't be a pilgrim. There was a fellow who came to
Christ in Matthew 8, and he said, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever
thou goest. What was he saying? Whithersoever. He said, unconditionally, I'm
in. I'm on the road with you. And Jesus said, now, wait a minute,
fellow. Let me talk to you about that a minute. The foxes have holes. The birds of the air have nests. But the son of man hath not where
to lay his head." We're not going to be staying at the Hampton.
We're not going to be staying in a resort community. And he's saying to this fellow,
you can't imagine what you'll be getting into to follow me. And you know what? That fella's not heard from anymore. The younger son, Luke 15. You know the story, they call
him the prodigal. Bible don't call him that. I can imagine
the father said, son, let's sit down and have a good meal together
before you go. And the boy says, I'm not hungry
and left. Oh, but guess what? After some
things happened, after God shook things, when
the boy returned, the father said, son, let's sit together
and have a good meal. And the boy says, that would
be nice, dad. Things have changed. God is in
the changing business. That's what pilgrimage is about. You can't live today in that
same holler you was in yesterday. We're moving. We're moving. Well, we've talked about two
essentials in a pilgrim's progress. I'll save the other two for later.
One, the sovereignty of God. It's the stabilizing, the energizing
element in a pilgrim's progress. And number two is the suffering
of saints. It is so essential, it is suffering,
it is hardship, it is trial, it is trouble that strips us
of what we thought we were and could do and makes of us what we never
could become without it. Essential things in a pilgrim's
progress. Thank you for your attention.
Let's stand together.