May it please Almighty God to
bless us together as we meditate in His Holy Word this morning.
Let's turn to the prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter 29, and we'll
read verses 12 and 13. Prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter
29, reading verses 12 and 13. Then shall you call upon me and
you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and
you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me
with all your heart. these were really dark days in
the history of Israel. They'd been taken from Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem,
down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem, down to Of course the majority
of the people who went down into Babylon never returned because
they died. But there were a few that came
back to Jerusalem when the Israelites were brought back. And what a
wonderful time that was. But thankfully God in his mercy
sent Jeremiah to write such words as this encourage the people,
encourage the people to pray. They ignored what God had spoken
through them. They thought these judgments
would never come upon them. And yet, you see, the Lord did
bring judgment, and it was a severe judgment. It wasn't just for
a short time. It was for 70 years. And as I already mentioned, it
wasn't round the corner. It was a long way from Jerusalem
to Babylon. And there were carts, of course,
to take perhaps the older and the very young. But generally,
it was a long walk. And yet, you see, God took them
there. God allowed them to go there. And in those 70 years, sure they
were allowed and found time to consider how they reacted against
the gracious words of warning from the prophets. And no doubt,
blessed with this wonderful statement, how precious it must have been
to understand what God had said to them. He knew about them. He knew their thoughts. And he
said he had thoughts of peace and not of evil. They may have
thought this was an evil reaction from God, but God brought this
judgment upon them. We might say to bring them to
their senses so they may realize how they had turned against God. Now, we have such examples for
us today. We shouldn't think well that's
just history, that's just something which has occurred and it's past. Well it is past but it's there
for an example, it's there for a testimony for us in our life
today. And in our lives today we're
surrounded, surrounded with so much evil, so much sinful scenes
exist and how we need to turn away from them, to be kept by
the power of God, and to earnestly seek His blessing and His will. And so we should not assume that
we can just carry on and perhaps say, well, this is what's going
to happen and we can't do anything about it. We are to pray to God. We are to seek for His mercy. we are to pray for his blessing
and what a blessing it would be if God does hear our prayers
and does return our captivity there was captivity wasn't there?
these people were captive in Babylon and they weren't able
to escape until God granted that wonderful movement in the kings
of Babylon to encourage them to return to Jerusalem once more
and you see by nature we find these things very amazing and
they are but God is able to do great things today and really
we are in captivity aren't we we have freedom here today we're
able to worship but things are rapidly changing and we should
recognize that is so our government Our previous governments have
been bent on bringing in laws contrary to the law of God. And if you think of the desires
to bring in a bill for conversion therapy that has far-reaching
implications, not only to stop us preaching the Word of God,
the far-reaching situation may well be to cause us to stop reading
the Word of God. You may have read of that little
account in Cheering Words I think it was in the August edition
of that young man who was 19 who was reading the Bible in
a church and that was forbidden for the lay people to read the
Bible and he was asked what he was doing Why he was reading
the Bible? And he said it was for his comfort,
which I'm sure it was. Well, he was arrested and put
in prison, and eventually he was burnt at the stake. What
was his sin? Reading the Bible. You might think, well, that was
extreme. Well, it was extreme, but it occurred. and we should
not therefore think that because we live in a far more lenient
age that these things will not occur they may very well occur
and therefore let us make the most of the privileges which
we have and enjoy today the freedom that we have it's wonderful isn't
it that we can display the Word of God outside the chapel on
those posters and give the Bibles away and have a market stall. But my friends, all these favours
may be eroded. And then we may regret, perhaps,
opportunities which we had, which we didn't appreciate, and we
turned away from. Well, that's why God in his great
mercy has given us examples like this in the Word of God. to make
us alert to the possibility of these things. Well, what a mercy
it is that there were encouraging words in this letter that were
written to the captives. And what a mercy it is to realize
the Lord says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts
of peace and not of evil. because they were to bring Israel
to realize that he was a God who was to be obeyed and not
a God to be ignored. It's a great temptation today,
especially a few young people to realize, well, we needn't
do this and we needn't follow that pattern. We can just please
ourselves Really it's okay. When it's not okay, we need to
be very careful to follow the Word of God. God's given us,
in amazing love, His Word to read. And not only to read, but
to follow. It's not something that we should
ignore. We should read it carefully and
read it prayerfully and pray for grace to walk out the many
commands, the many precepts that we have here. And these words
that I've read this morning for a text should be very encouraging. because it's the words that Jeremiah
wrote to the captives and he tells them these words spoken
by God. Then shall ye call upon me and
ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you. That's God's promise. What a blessing for us today
to realize that as we come to God and call upon Him and pray
unto Him to be given faith to believe that He will hear, He
will hear and He will have mercy. And he will send the blessing
because the Lord then promises and he says, and ye shall seek
me and find me. Let's be encouraged by that. We can seek unto God and we can
plead his promises. You young people, especially,
as you pray to God, you can come to God. And you can plead a promise
like this. And you can come and say, Lord,
thou hast said, seek me, and I'm doing that. And I shall find. You may be seeking God, I don't
know. But if you are, what a blessing. Just because you don't receive
instant answers, press on. You know, Israel here had to
really pray for 70 years for their prayers to be eventually
answered. And they were brought again back
to Jerusalem. It was a long time. It was a
great time of testing. And it is often, in our lives,
the Word of God tells us these words, your time always we want
God to immediately answer our prayers your time is always but
my time is not yet and you may say why is that it's because
God has a perfect time and God's perfect time involves many things
it doesn't just involve our little lives It involves other lives
of people around us. And that can spread further and
further. So we should not think, therefore,
that we're the only pebble on the beach. We are one of many. And what a mercy, therefore,
to be able to come and to pray to God and to pray believing
in faith. You know, we mustn't come to
God. and in just a casual way. How much casual prayer there
is today. We're all tired with that brush.
Familiar phrases, we just get used to. A familiar form, we
just get used to. And yet we're told the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And what that means is this.
You and I are not righteous in and of ourselves. We're only
righteous if we possess the great and glorious righteousness of
God who gives it to us. What a blessing it is. And may
we therefore seek to know that we do possess the righteousness
of God And then we can come in living faith, believing that
we have a God who will hearken and hear our prayers and that
we shall find him. God hasn't changed. God is faithful. And let's not forget to remember
to bring the Word of God in our prayers to God, to come, as it
were, to remind him. God knows, of course, what he's
written, but it's good to come and to bring before God his promises,
plead his promises. in your life and my life. God hasn't changed. God is a
prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. He is a gracious God. He
is a merciful God. We don't deserve it, do we? If
we look into our hearts and we find that all manner of sin,
all manner of evil, wrong thoughts, the devil is very cunning, The
devil brings thoughts into our minds that we never wanted. It's
amazing sometimes how evil wrong thoughts flash into our minds. You may think, why is that? It's
because we're fallen creatures, we're sinners of the earth. And
when those things occur, which they will, and they do, is to
plead to God for mercy and plead to God the devil may be kept
at bay and free us from all these evil thoughts which so easily
flood in to our mind. Well says Jeremiah and remember
he was directed by the Spirit of God to write these words He
didn't just dream them up and think, well, that's a good thing
to write. He was directed by the Spirit of God. And what a
great truth and blessing that is. And so he tells us then,
having said, he has thoughts of peace and not of evil. And if you and I are a believer,
and if the Lord has a purpose for us of love to our souls,
We can believe that he will enable us to come and to call upon his
name and to pray unto him. Well, as we stand before God,
and each one of us has to stand before God, you who are young,
you who are old, and everyone in between, we all have to stand
before Almighty God. We all have to pray. before Almighty
God. And as we pray to God, do we
come? Do we come believing? We come to the great God. Do
we possess living faith? Faith again is the blessed gift
of God, isn't it wonderful? That God does come and gives
us faith to believe. And when God gives that, I believe
what it produces in our hearts, this wonderful blessing of access
to the throne of grace. That means that the Holy Spirit
comes and blesses us with the knowledge, that amazing favour
of coming to God in prayer and believing and knowing that our
prayers are effectual. They're not just a form of words,
which they are so often. How we need God to influence
us in the day and age in which we live. We live in difficult
times and we need God to give us that real prayer. that real prevailing prayer. What a mercy, therefore, to have
faith to come like this and to come and to plead with our God
that as we call upon his name and as we pray unto him to believe,
as he said, I will hearken unto you. You know, if you and I come,
we just a prayer of mere formality, just getting through an act of
prayer. It's very easy to do that, isn't
it? When we get up, perhaps in the morning, or perhaps when
we have family prayers, and we can just pray, you know, very,
almost casually, just to fulfil an obligation. And we can pat
ourselves on the back at the end and think, I've done that
little duty and that's good and I can now carry on but it's a
blessing if God blesses us then with prevailing prayer never
take these things for granted because we're told very solemnly
that which is not of faith is sin that's a very striking statement
isn't it So if you and I pray falsely, what we're doing is
we're mocking God. And we're praying without faith. How important it is that when
we come to God in prayer, we come with that real desire to
come to the throne of grace. And we have wonderful invitations,
don't we? We read in the Hebrews that we can come boldly unto
the throne of grace, that we may find help in time of need. We always need help in our prayers. It's always a time of need. And don't think that we can just
come, therefore, in a casual way. No, it's a very blessed
thing to be able to come and to approach unto the throne of
grace. But let us realise that we are
coming. to the King of Kings, the Lord
of Lords, the one who holds our breath in his hand. We should therefore come carefully
and reverently, we can pray to God in any place, in any situation,
but whatever that may be, we are still to come in a right
way, realising that we approach the majesty on high, with our
great and glorious Savior as our intercessor. And so, let
us realize that we have this wonderful invitation that Jeremiah,
by the Spirit of God, was given to write to all these captives. And there it was in a written
document. It wasn't just words which they
could have forgotten. It was a letter which was no
doubt kept and no doubt referred to. And may we today realize
such a promise is still true today for you and me. That we may call upon God and
pray unto him, believing that he will hearken unto us. It's an amazing promise, isn't
it? to think that you and me, as utterly unworthy sinners,
evil sinners, can still nonetheless approach unto the great God through
our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's be clear about this. We
must always come through Jesus as our High Priest. We cannot
approach unto our Father directly. We must always come through the
Lord Jesus Christ because God the Father is holy and he cannot
look upon sin and you and I are sinners of the earth and what
a mercy it is therefore that Jesus Christ has made that new
and living way that we can come and approach unto our Father
in heaven through his merits, the merits of our Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as I've often said,
as you know, how relevant and important it is to conclude our
prayers with those simple words, for Jesus Christ's sake, so that
we are then accepted in the Beloved. Yes, what a humbling position
that is. as you and I, sinful people,
evil sinners, can come to our God. Well, let us be encouraged
by such words as this. And then to understand, as he
goes on to say, and ye shall seek me and find me. And then he makes a very relevant
and an important qualification. And it sums up really what I've
been saying, and it's this. When, when, ye shall search for
me with all your heart, with all your heart. And that really
means our heart needs to be single-minded, single-minded. What a blessing
when we come and can concentrate To our God, you know, the devil's
very active when we pray. And he's very active to come
and try and distract us. And it's distressing, isn't it?
When we pray to God and we have wrong thoughts come into our
mind, even when we're praying. Oh, the devil doesn't give up.
and he won't give up but my friends we can come and we can tell our
God we can explain everything to him because he knows and he
understands it's wonderful isn't it we come to a God who knows
and he's told us for I know the thoughts that I think towards
you he knows our problems and he knows how to come what a mercy
then to retouch a statement and ye shall seek me and find me
when ye shall search for me with all your heart sometimes it is
like that it's a searching are searching for our God in prayer
I wonder if you know what that is you may start off perhaps
in prayer you may feel you've got no access you have many other
things which are crowding into your minds but you know where
to press on where to search for that access where to search for
that liberty where to search that God will look upon us and
enable us to come and to pour out our heart before our God. With all our heart that brings
with it a wonderful freedom. It's a great blessing when God
brings prevailing prayer. How needful it is, how many prayers
we have to confess our sinful prayers and that's a very solemn
thought isn't it? to think that you and I pretend
to pray but we're not we're just praying to the air really how
needful then to understand that first of all we come before a
holy God a righteous God and yet a merciful God. And so easy
it is, as it were, to rush into the presence of God and yet to
realize He is high and lifted up. I love that statement of
Isaiah. I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And God gives us faith to view
God as such. put things in a right perspective
to come to our God as that great and holy God and you shall seek
me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart
he goes on in the next verse to confirm, really, these statements. And this is what he says. And
I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away
your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and
from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord, and
I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to
be carried away captive. These are wonderful promises,
aren't they? So often we just pass by them and don't realise
how appropriate they are for you and me today. yes they are
and of course the Lord Jesus himself really used very similar
words when he preached that wonderful Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel
of Matthew in the 7th chapter we read very very similar words
in the 7th chapter and the 7th verse ask and it shall be given you The Lord says he will be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do these things for them. Ask,
and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. The words of the Saviour to the
multitude when he preached that glorious sermon. And my friends,
it's so appropriate for us today. Prayer is our spiritual breath. We need breath, don't we, to
live? If we didn't breathe, we wouldn't live. And that's the
same spiritually. If we don't pray, we don't live
spiritually. No, we're barren. Perhaps we're
almost dead. And yet so often, true prayer
is so difficult. We're oppressed by the devil. He doesn't want you to pray.
He doesn't want me to pray. It's the last thing he wants
and therefore he does all he can to stop us praying or if
we pretend to pray to realise it's not true prayer it's just
going through a mere form without any true power. Oh bless God
then that we have such words before us here in this chapter
and indeed and many other places in the Word of God. And this
was written, remember, to the captives. The first hymn we sung
today was really quite appropriate, because it speaks about the situation
which existed really in Babylon, and it starts off, Your heart,
ye trembling saints, down from the willows take, louds to the
praise of Christ our Lord with every string awake though in
a foreign land we are not far from home and nearer to our house
above we every moment come well that's true to us it was also
true really to the Israelites of old and as we know they did
need to take down their harps to sing the songs of Zion it
wasn't easy they were far from home and yet they were blessed
to have letters like this, to be able to refer to and to be
encouraged by them. Well, may we today, you know
it's very easy again, to not read a book like Jeremiah. and we tend to think oh that's
a difficult book I'm not going to read it I can't understand
it well it is difficult but there are parts like this today and
even this chapter that I've read to you we need to read it carefully
and what it says otherwise you can just read it and miss the
whole picture and not understand really what the prophet's saying
and how he's writing this letter and how there were those who
were false prophets. We need to pray over the Word
of God as we read it. Again, how often we don't pray,
do we, when we read the Word of God? How often we pick it
up, just read it, don't receive anything of any benefit. We've
never prayed. And if we have, it may have just
been a formal prayer. See, real religion, real religion
is between the soul and God. And real religion produces that
union and produces that union so that it's a joy and a pleasure
to be able to truly pray to our God. Well, when we all realize
the wonderful blessing, and especially perhaps you young people, Prayer
is a wonderful favour. God's given us this wonderful
ability to pray to God, to bring our requests to God and also
our times of thanksgiving in prayer. Never forget to thank
God. Sometimes we find that our prayers
are almost just a want list when we are told to come to our God
with thanksgiving. And it's good to come to Him
with a thankful heart. You think, perhaps, of the things
that you can thank God for before you start praying. Then pray
to God and thank Him for all those things. And that, you see,
increases our faith to believe that He will hear and He will
answer. And therefore, it's become then
a praying faith, believing And we come to a God who does answer. And we can come and we can plead
these wonderful promises that the Lord directed Jeremiah to
write and also the Lord himself spoke. And so may we bless God
for them. And let's just read these verses
in conclusion. For I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace. It's wonderful,
isn't it? and not of evil, to give you
an expected end, a good end. Then shall he call upon me, and
he shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
And he shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for
me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord,
and I will turn away your captivity.