Jeremiah chapter 45. The title of the message this
morning is this. Seeking great things. Seeking great things. Are you seeking great things? Let's read this verse 5 together. Jeremiah 45, verse 5. And seekest thou great things,
listen, for thyself. Seek them not. For behold, I will bring evil
upon all flesh, saith the Lord. But Thy life will I give unto
thee for a prey. In all places whither thou goest."
These words of our Lord were spoken by Jeremiah to a man named
Baruch. Baruch He was a prophet. He was himself a man of God,
a believer in Christ. And God told him, as well as
Jeremiah, that he was sending Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem. This was inevitable. This was
immovable. This was God's determined will
to do. He was going to send the people
of Israel, the people of Judah, into bondage for 70 years. It was at this time of great
affliction and calamity upon the people of God. The temple
of God was to be destroyed. The worship of God was to cease
for that 70-year period. The sword, pestilence, and famine
were to continue in and among the people of God for that duration. The righteous, God said, would
suffer with the wicked. The sword would smite the believer
along with the blasphemer. The saints of God would starve
to death along with the idol worshipers. And listen, this brought this
man, Baruch, into great anguish to understand. He thought surely the righteous
would escape. Surely the remnant would be saved.
Surely God would have mercy on His people and not cause them
to suffer. And the thought of this, that
God's people would suffer with the wicked, brought this man
into great sorrow. Look what he said. He said in
verse 3, Woe is me now. For the Lord hath added grief
to my sorrow. I fainted in sighing, and I find
no rest." He, as all believers himself, suffered spiritual griefs,
but to this God added physical calamities. Griefs. inward and Greece outward. Now then, the Lord had pushed
him so far. That he goes beyond and he says,
I can't find any rest in this. I can't find any peace, any comfort. The Lord added grief to his sorrows. Now all believers know this too
well. We have this warfare within,
do we not? Does it not cause us great sorrow
when we sin against our God? Yes! It is a warfare, a constant
battle and struggle just to get up in the morning and face yourself.
to fight off against the flesh. It's a constant sorrow that we
face every day. But yet does not God compound
this sorrow by physical calamities? physical sicknesses, physical
troubles, physical griefs, physical sorrows, affections, and outward
hostilities. Family and friends despise us
because of the gospel of Christ. This brings grief to our sorrow. This adds and compounds and waves
after waves of trouble and difficulty overflow our souls. And we understand,
woe is me. We understand this man, Baruch.
We understand what he felt. Woe is me! You've added grief
to my sorrow. I can't find rest. I can't find
rest. This is what's seen on the outside.
This is what is expressed outwardly. But the Lord looks deeper. The
Lord looks deeper into the heart of this believer. And what does
He see there? He exceeds that this man has
some secret ambition. Has some secret thing that's
causing him grief. The reason why that he was grieving
over the destruction of his people, the destruction of this nation,
was because he had some ambition in it. He had some desire to
live and to have something in that land. Something. Not told exactly what
it is, because it's good for us not to know, because it does
encompass now all of us. He asked this question. I'm going
to tell you why you're grieving so deeply. Here it is. Seekest
thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. Behold, I will,
without a doubt, bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord. But thy life will I give thee
for a prey in all the places whither thou goest. It seems
that this man, this prophet of God, had cherished up something
in his heart, some secret ambition to seek some greater good for
his flesh, some greater good for himself. And his grief and sorrow was
rooted not so much in his love for God or the glory of God,
but rather because he would lose something in this world. His grief and sorrow was rooted
not in his love or care for God's people, but because the Lord's
providence would destroy his secret ambition. Now then, let
me ask you this. Who here is not guilty? I'm speaking to believers in
Christ. Who here is not guilty of harboring some secret ambition
in our own heart? And when God says, I will not
give it, what do we do? Woe is me! You have added grief
to my sorrow. Why? For the glory of God? No,
because God wouldn't give us what we wanted. Who's not guilty? This morning, by the grace of
God, I wish to show us the foolishness and vanity of the believers seeking
great things for ourselves. The vanity and foolishness and
self-inflicted wound of self-seeking pleasures. I've told you this before, because
I said it recently, probably. I keep forgetting my illustrations
when I use them, but it's okay, they're good. And it wasn't mine
anyway, I stole it, so it's okay. Caesar Augustus had a big feast.
planned a big spread. And it rained so hard that it
flooded his whole feast. And he commanded his archers
to draw back and shoot at Jupiter. And they shot into the air. And
of course the arrows fell on their own heads. How many times do we shoot at
God? Only to have the arrows of our
accusations fall on our head. Self-inflicted wounds. Self-seeking,
self-serving covetousness is nothing more than a self-inflicted
wound. God told this man he wasn't going
to relieve Jerusalem from their suffering. He already told them.
And because he would not bow to it, he had a self-seeking
motive. Now then, first let's see the
evil of our hearts. The heart of Baruch, evil had
lurked in his heart, and it may have been even unknown by him. But the Lord would expose it.
The Lord would show him, as I pray would show us. It lurked in his
heart to seek himself ambitions for himself. Seeing we both are
sons of Adam, is not this the confession and guilt of our own
heart and flesh to store up things under the pretense of religion? Well, if I just win the lottery,
I'm just going to give that money to the church. You covetous liar. You want it for yourself. Someone said Maurice Montgomery
tried to do that. He bought a ticket, lottery ticket,
and the Lord took his sleep that night thinking he might win.
All night long he was turning, oh what if I win? Oh no, what
am I going to do? How am I going to explain this? But how often have we done this
under the pretense of pleasing God, only hiding our own covetousness? The first great thing that we
normally seek for ourselves is temporal things. Temporal things. Riches, comforts in this world,
human fame, acceptance with men. This is done openly by the world. They obviously seek these things,
but this is even for believers. We know that this is our secret
desire to have the comforts of this world. Who among us does
not desire the comforts of this world? When we receive comforts,
what do we say? Bless God, praise God, that must
be of God. And when we receive evil, what
do we say? Oh, woe is me. Why'd you do this? God is good
if He gives us stuff, and what do we say? He's evil if He doesn't? These ambitions, these passions,
they passionately affect all men of all stations. It doesn't
matter who you are, a pauper or a king. We all desire these
riches and things and covetousness is in our hearts. But God has
purposed for the believer, for his children, that we shall not
have the great things of this world. That's what God has purposed. For the things of the believer,
if we have these things, what do they do for us? What do riches
do for the believer? You put it down. They draw you
away from God. Therefore your God has determined
not to give them to you. Not to give them to you. so that you should not be elevated
in pride or go from your God." God has purposed to pour contempt
on your pride. That's what God will do for you,
believer. He will pour contempt on your
pride. and therefore he crushes all
the prospects and dreams of worldly ambition for the believer for
the most part for all believers are poor and needy and despised
in this world for the most part listen with this for you know
you're calling brethren and not many wise after the flesh not
many mighty not many noble are called but god chose in the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise and got a chosen the
week things of the world to compound the things that are mighty i
know that god does have some noble some that are mighty but
for the most part god's people are poor and destitute and suffer
great affliction in this world. They live and die unknown, unloved,
and uncared for by this world. Our Lord said, you shall be hated. You shall be hated. Now, do you
desire to seek the love of the world? to be embraced by those outside
of Christ? What must you do in order to
be embraced by them? You must consent to their religion
and their lust in order to be part of their group. Can't do it, not for the believer.
The more we draw near to Christ, the more we preach the gospel
of Christ, the more we declare the gospel of Christ, this false freewill works religion
of this world, the men of this world, we will be hated, despised, by this ungodly and self-righteous
world. You that live, yea, all that
will live godly in Christ Jesus, you listen, shall suffer persecution. So believer, lay it to heart.
Whatever your schemes are, God will crush them. And if you hang
on to them, it's only self-inflicted. God said, I will not give you
the things of the world. and tell you the truth when he's
when he has has it ever led to anything happiness as it promises only more sorrow only more grief
so it is a blessing if god withhold these things jesus said winner
where a man's treasuries there will his heart b also when i
may preacher well you just defied the words of christ so on track
Not true. You'll find sorrow and suffering
there. The second thing is not only outward ambitions of the
flesh, but ambitions of religion. Now these are more prominent. More prominent among the people
of God. There's a vast difference between
religious things and spiritual things. Spiritual things are
real. The fruits of the Spirit are
real. Faith, joy, love, hope, meek
temperance, faith. These are fruits of the Spirit
and these are to be desired by the believer. We are to desire
these things, but there's a difference between that and religious things. Especially gifts. Gifts. Now a man may have great gifts
in religious experience, but have no true life in himself. Isn't that right? A man can have
gifts of religion. Judas had all the gifts, didn't
he? He could preach, he had miracles, he did all the things that real
disciples did, but he himself was devoid of life. So what are
gifts? Are they anything? No, the evidence
are the grace, the spiritual gifts are the evidence of our
salvation. But gifts, God may give them
and God may not give them. Now these religious gifts often
draw the ambition of men and are pleasing to the flesh.
Even God's people are prone to seek these great gifts. And when
God doesn't give us gifts that we desire, we become disappointed. What about the gift of preaching? It is a gift, isn't it? The gift
of preaching. The gift of prayer. Some men
are given to prayer. Some men could, when you have
a man stand up and pray, you enjoy, his prayers are rich,
aren't they? Some men are gifted when they
pray. Some men are gifted in remembering
scriptures, reciting them, being able to have them. These are
great gifts. Even those who are gifted to
preach harbor secret ambitions of greater gifts in preaching. I know this for my own self.
I see a man preaching the gospel and I say, man, I wish I could
preach like that. What am I doing? Am I doing that
for the glory of God or for myself? Seekest thou great things for
thyself? Seek them not. But whatever gift
God has given us, we should be content with that gift, should
we not? I've known of men who wanted to preach. I've known
men who are very capable, it seems. They have all the outward
gifts of preaching. They're good in study. They're
capable in expressing the Word of God publicly. They seem to
have all of that, but yet God shuts them up and shuts them
out from preaching. God says, I didn't call you to
preach. And then they get bitter and they get angry. Why? Seekest thou great things for
thyself? Seek them not. You desire to be like some other
believer? You see somebody else have better things in the gospel
than you? And you covet those things? Are
you doing it for the glory of God or for yourself? Seek thou
great things for thyself? Seek them not. Be content with
what things God has given you. Be content with what gifts God
has given you. Because I'll tell you this, with
gifts come great suffering. Gifts are not given without suffering. As a preacher of the gospel, I often feel this, that when I stand up to preach,
I know nothing of what happens in your hearts. I'm made only to see the barrenness
of my abilities to do this work. The more I do it, the more I
see it. Sometimes I wish I could just hang my head in shame over
the messages that I preach. And then people come and say,
that was a message blessed me. That message... You're talking
to the wrong person. I don't know. God blinds us to
these things Because otherwise, what would we be doing it for?
We'd be doing it for self. And so gifts, they're given.
You think a man that is prayed, that can pray, do you think that
that comes without great suffering, and great sorrow, and great moaning,
and great self-loathing, and humility? That's what comes with
these gifts, is great sorrow, great troubles. If one is gifted to pray, he
is shut up to know that the words cannot come from himself but
from God. He is made to feel the pains of his flesh, the great
temptations of his heart. He brings his soul to despair.
He sends Satan and afflictions on his soul. And so the gifts
then become great trials. Seekest thou great things for
thyself, be careful. With these gifts come great sorrows,
great troubles. Third thing is knowledge. Seekest
thou knowledge for thyself? Knowledge for knowledge's sake?
How many desire the gift of knowledge to know the mysteries of the
gospel? Men aspire to be great theologians, to write great truths,
to write many books, for the purpose of heaping up
knowledge instead of hungering and thirsting for the Lord Jesus
Christ, instead of seeking to know Him of whom the Scriptures
speak. And when a believer stores up
knowledge for the sake of knowledge, what is that? It's like the manna,
the extra manna stored up. It breeds worms and stinks. You ever been around a know-it-all? An unteachable man. They just
stink. You don't want to be around them.
That's what it is. A man storing up knowledge for
knowledge's sake. Believers, don't do this. When
you go to the Word of God to seek understanding, go to the
Word of God to find Christ, to feel His presence, to know His
grace, to know His love, to see His crucifixion, His blood, His
righteousness, to embrace Him. That's what we gather knowledge
for, to understand more of Him, not just more of knowledge. Seekest
thou great things for thyself? Some of us desire things like
great faith without the in a way that God
is not prescribed to give us these graces. We all want to
grow in grace. Anybody want to grow in grace?
Faith. Don't you want more faith? Do
you not want more love for Christ? Do you not want more joy in the
Holy Spirit? Who doesn't want these things
as believers in Christ? But yet we desire them in a way
that God is not purposed to give them. We want them without suffering. We want them without suffering. I ask the Lord that I might grow
in grace and faith in every gift. And he said, I thought it would
come. In an instant, I thought it would come. I thought it would
rain, open up heaven, and just shower Him with me. But instead,
He made the powers of hell assault my soul on every part. He brought
me down, crushed my dreams and my schemes, and brought me low. And I said, Lord, why? He said,
well, this is how I answer prayer for grace and faith. See, we
want it for ourselves in our way instead of wanting it the
way God has determined to give it. And what does this do? It
brings grief on our sorrow. It's self-inflicted. God said,
that's not the way I'm going to give it. Stop asking for it
that way. It won't happen. This is the
way it's going to be. God must. And so, these gifts. Are we desiring these gifts for
self? Now, it is true that we are to
desire gifts, right? Isn't that what Paul said? He
said, desire the best gifts. Well, he's not talking about
gifts as preaching and prayer and knowledge. What are the best
gifts? Faith, hope, and love. These are the best gifts, aren't
they? That's the gifts we as believers are to desire. By that,
you can desire that in your heart all you want to. Know this, they
come with great suffering. They come by way of suffering.
If you want them, pray for them. God will give you them, but He
gives it in His own way. He won't give it in your way. So seek these things. Seek these
things that are above. And we who believe on Christ,
we seek these things. How do we obtain these spiritual
blessings and gifts? Only by the preaching of the
Gospel. Through the preaching of the
Gospel of Christ are these things had. God gives these to us. He blesses these things through
these spiritual blessings, such as election. To hear of our election
is a blessing. To hear of God's sovereign grace
in Christ and how He cleanses us from all sin That's a blessing
to our hearts. We're to hear of His righteousness
in which we are robed and how He loves us and gives us life
and keeps us. These things are the desire of
the believer's heart. They're not the desire of the
world. False religion, they don't want these things. They loathe
these things. The religionists, they just want
the gifts without the true life. But all who God touches with
His hand of grace, He will, you will know, you'll know the vileness
of your own heart. And when you hear Him say, seekest
thou great things for thyself, you know this, you'll be convicted. May God search our hearts. Try
us. May He expose what's in us, because
obviously a lot of times we don't even know it's there. We don't
even know it's there. Does this speak to you? Seekest
thou great things for thyself. Our Lord told us that in Matthew.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and
rust doth corrupt, where thieves break through and steal. But
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Listen,
baby, you can't serve two masters. You either love the one, despise
the other, cleave to the one, and reject the other. You cannot
serve God and mammon. So what then is the believer
to seek? Not great things for himself. What is he to seek?
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All these
things shall be added unto you. Don't worry about these things.
Seek me. That's what he's telling you.
Seek me and my righteousness. With thy blood and thy righteousness,
Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress. Amidst flaming worlds and these
arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. So what then is a
believer to seek? Seek Christ. Seek Christ. Now then, God gives the reason
why we should not seek the things of the world nor the gifts of
religion, but rather Christ Himself. Why? Look at your text. Behold,
I will bring evil upon all flesh. This word evil means calamities,
troubles, griefs, sorrows. God brings them on the just as
well as the unjust. Do you suppose you should escape
any calamity in this world? Believer, do you suppose you
should escape anything? You get sick, and you say, well,
I'm a believer, I shouldn't be sick. No. No, that's not true. God says, I'm going to do it
to all flesh. He's talking about in this text, Jerusalem, but
in truth it reveals to all things that God is sovereign in our
providence, is He not? Why do you have what you have
and don't have what you don't have? The providence and sovereignty
of God. That's why Shall the trumpet be blown in
the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil
in the city, and hath the Lord not done it? Now believer, have
you any plans? Do you have any dreams? Anything
that you are desiring for yourself? God will not let it grow. He will crush our dreams. He
will crush our schemes. But not to destroy you, but to
keep you. Because if you had what you want,
you would run from him. And God will not allow this to
happen. And when it happens, you be sure
of this, God did it. God did it. It was the Lord that brought
Nebuchadnezzar and crushed Jerusalem. He brought the sword, He brought
the pestilence, He brought the famine. But He did it not to destroy
Baruch, but rather to establish him. to rather show his great
power and love toward him. Even so it is with believers
in Christ. We are prone, prone to wonder,
Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. We're prone to, like Jonah, to
sit under our gourds and do what? Complain. Now what
he did, he sat under the gourd God gave him, he loved the gourd,
and he despised God's people. Now that was something. God,
what'd God do with his gourd? He destroyed it. You listen,
whatever you're holding on to, believer, whatever you're holding
on to, whatever's in competition with your God, he will breed
worms and he will destroy it. And when it comes to pass, you
know who did it. God did. God did. Why? He destroys our
gourds and our prospects so that he might bring us to himself. Who made Job poor and sick? God did. Who caused the loss of David's
child? God did. God did. Whatever's happening to you,
who's doing it? God's doing it. What is He doing it for? He is
rooting out your pride. He is stripping you of all your
vain hopes. He is breaking down all the rotten
props that you think hold you up. He is putting you to the
refiner's fire that He might burn the dross and refine the
gold. What is the effects of His strokes?
and lay our poor souls in the dust. It draws us to Him. I can't really quote it. I think
it's in Lamentations. It says that I was laid in the
dust that I might have hope. You've been in the dust? Why? God's taking away all your rotten
props, all the things you love the most, He takes them away
so that you would set your affection on Him. It's by these great distresses
and sicknesses, these great ruins of our great things, that God
draws us to Himself. And listen, here's the promise
of God to you. Has God ruined all your props
and dreams? Has He taken away all your schemes?
Good. Good. Seekest thou great things
for thyself? I'll show you. Don't seek them. When you do, I'm going to take
them away. But. I'm thankful for the word but.
That conjunction in scripture. But God! But God! Look what he
says to Baruch here. He says, But. Thy life will I
give unto thee. Life. Believer, where does your
life come from? As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right to become the sons of God, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of man, but
of God." You have life. You had spiritual life. If I
have given you life and faith in My Son, what more do you need? Someone said this week, he said,
you know the only person who doesn't complain is the man that
has everything. If a man has everything, everything,
everything, he shouldn't complain, right? Believer, you have everything. What are you missing? And if you're longing after something
else, that's for you that's not for god so don't disguise it
it's self-ambition self-pleasing self-worth and god must root
it out and he roots it out by this you were a dead worm and
i gave you life you were a vile rebel and I gave
you my son. You were running from me and
I arrested you and made you my son. I've given you your life. Now
look at this little phrase here, for a prey. What is a prey? We think of an animal, a bird
of prey, a beast of prey. Listen, God has given you a life
that is in Christ, but you are as a prey to all the enemies
of God. That life you possess, everybody
wants to destroy it. Your own flesh is the first enemy
of prey. What does He bombard you with?
What does He attack you with? The talons of unbelief. Doubts
and fears, sin and lust, passion and greed, always overwhelming,
always trying to snuff out the life that God has given you.
The world. the enemies around you, your
family. Isn't that what God says about
family? He says this, I came not to bring peace, but a sword
to set one's father against the mother, against the son. The
whole family's against you, aren't they? They're opposed to you
worshiping God. They desire nothing more than
to drive you away from serving Christ. and believing on him.
Your life is a prey to them. You are as a bird. One person
said, your spiritual life is like a paper lantern set out
upon a roaring sea. Satan constantly accusing you. Oh, how that enemy He says, how
can you be a son of God? This is our hope. I have given
thy life to thee. A little paper lantern in the
midst of the sea, God's And I don't care how tough the
waves, how big the waves of the sea, it will never extinguish
thy life. I will give thee thy life wherever
you go. Isn't that what he said in Psalm
23? He said, thou preparest a table
before me. Where? In the presence of thine
enemies. Why? To show his power. The reason you're still believing
on Christ is only a display of the power of God. The reason
your enemies haven't taken your life is because God keeps it. Why then do we seek things for
ourselves? Seekest thou great things of
the world of religion for thyself? Don't seek those things. Seek
Christ. Paul said, all those things that
were given to me, I count them but done, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which
is of the law, but the righteousness which is of the faith of Christ,
by the faith of Christ. That's what I want, the righteousness
of Christ. Now listen, only God could reveal what's
in our hearts. Only God can expose the corruption of seeking, of
self-seeking lusts and passions. Seekest thou great things for
thyself? Seek them now. I will destroy all flesh. I will
destroy it. So that I can keep you for myself.
I've given my life to thee. And it shall be for a prey wherever
you go. But I'll keep it. You realize that this man Baruch,
he was taken captive. And they sought to kill him at
every instance. And they were not able. That's the way it is with us,
isn't it? Let us then serve God, serve God with a true heart,
true heart looking to Christ always. And God blesses you.